Coss

Very good....

And both of them could use NZ and OZ as examples of how to treat people nicely...

My point exactly... Why arm them?

NZ and Australia are such places

Another comment about the gun argument I saw on the televisual extravaganza... One guy hides a bomb in his shoes (and fails to kill anyone) and now millions of people around the world have to take off their shoes and belts and suffer harassment at airports everywhere. But if you've got people slaughtering children with guns, the answer is - arm more people...

“Pilots have been armed now for many many years, we’ve not had another hijacking and the issue is, for the bad guy, he doesn’t know which airplane he’s getting on, if the pilot is armed or not.†Faaark! I didn't know that! Another reason not to fly to America. Just my luck I'd be on the plane where some pilot goes Clint Eastwood with some Rapper who thinks he owns the world and there's the big shoot out in the sky.... ""we’ve not had another hijacking"" Didn't have a lot before, I'd suggest that airport security, increased intelligence efforts and passenger profiling has a lot to do with there not being another hijacking.

Still, lock up the remains and use the cell as a 'shock and awe' showcase for young 1st time offenders... 'See what happens when you don't behave?'

Her loony son and anyone with a functioning hand that could turn a door knob... I'd jail her for life for contributory negligence...

As a non-USA person, I have this observation to offer: If you throw a bunch of armed people into an area, someone is going to get shot. My take on this is to imprison for life or longer, or execute anyone who shoots anyone else, except in clear and demonstrable cases of justifiable self defense or the defense of others, i.e. family or children. That's it. If you want a gun, then you use it responsibly, or else it's goodbye. And before anyone says but this latest idiot didn't own the guns etc etc. If they'd been locked up as all guns should be, he couldn't have got them. If the USA society had a clear understanding that the Rambo films are not reality, and that guns are not for shooting people, then maybe he wouldn't have considered it. So I'd lock up/execute the mother and the people who sold her the guns - not responsible people in my book... Same same drink driving, if you cause no problems, you'll have no problems, if you injure or kill anyone whilst drink driving - goodbye! Too many rights are accorded the modern man/woman. The right to have weapons and then go "postal" is not one that anyone intended. I saw a nice comment from some woman on the TV today, why do we need to be armed for war in suburban America? Mind you, good way to improve the gene pool...

I didn't know he was a scientist ...

I like one of the qualifications for becoming a member: { Not having been sentenced by a judgment to imprisonment in any countries except for an offence committed through negligence; } So people can say "Yes, but I didn't do anything, I didn't know it was happening..." about any particular crime - So very Thai...

yes please!

"â€My analogy is that it’s like becoming Bill Gates without liking computers.â€" Whilst I have some respect for what Bill Gates is doing nowadays, it's obvious Bill doesn't like computers, look at Windows!

ladies, wrong time of the month?

Because some of the characters in the film were portrayed as Nigerian drug runners?

Washington Square Demolition Leaves Bangkok’s Elderly Sexpats Lost, Confused MID-SUKHUMVIT – Bangkok’s senior sex tourist population is facing its greatest crisis in decades as the demolition of the nightlife zone known as Washington Square has left them with nowhere to go. Dozens, and sometimes up to a hundred portly Western men with bad skin, aged 55-80, have been reported wandering around the Sukhumvit Soi 22 area since June, when final eviction orders forced the closure of Washington Square bars and restaurants, many of which had been open since the 1980s. Even as wrecking balls and bulldozers take down the six-story shophouses which have stood unchanged since the Vietnam War, many of the faithful patrons of the vanished drinking holes have remained, emerging around dusk to wander aimlessly amidst the wreckage of the only places in Bangkok outside their apartments where they feel comfortable. “Where is Lone Star?†asked Melvin Summerville, a 68-year-old retiree from the United States. “I can’t find Lone Star. It’s supposed to be right here; it was right here,†he said over and over, pointing to pile of concrete rubble. When asked, Summerville said that he had been going to Lone Star for 16 years without ever going to another bar, and as such was unaware of where else he could get a beer. When directed towards The Dubliner, a nearby Irish-themed pub, Summerville waved his hand in protest. “Can’t go in there,†he said. “There’s young people in there. And Thai women who have their own money. Can’t go in there, no way.†He then joined a small group of about seven elderly Caucasian men who were standing silently in the street. Other groups were meandering nearby, perspiring visibly in the humid evening. According to Thammasat University sociologist Nootaree Kampongrat, the refugee crisis was created by a “perfect storm†of variables, beginning with the unique status of the Washington Square real estate. “The market value of the land surpassed the income from these cheap bars as early as 1993, but since the landowners wanted to sell the entire 20-rai plot as a single package rather than subdivide it, they had to wait for a buyer,†she said. According to Nootaree, this created what the real estate calls a “rent bog†where low-value businesses are permitted to continue in what otherwise should a be high-rent area. “Washington Square has been living on borrowed time for 20 years, and so have these men,†she explained. “Meanwhile, they’ve been stuck in a capsule, getting older and even more entrenched in their habits.†With rents unchanged since the 1970s, many of Washington Square’s bars were able to keep their drink prices artificially low, further isolating their patrons from the new and more upscale establishments that were springing up in the area. Additionally, the refusal of the landowners to upgrade any of the decrepit shophouses in Washington Square prevented the influx of any new businesses aimed at younger or more sophisticated customers. Even the physical structure of the square was a factor, according to Nootaree. “Washington Square was literally walled off by darkness,†she noted. “It was similar to a cave ecosystem, where the indigenous species evolve in isolation, adapt to their bare resources, and eventually become a new species altogether.†The possibility that the refugee patrons are suffering from a medical or psychiatric condition has caught the attention of the city government, which has sent in a team of doctors and a medical bus to provide basic services to the estimated 450 bar-less men, who have been reported to be suffering from dehydration, disorientation, and early signs of age-related dementia. “These people need to be treated as patients,†said Dr Janapat Ruenpongrat, a psychologist on the team who has interviewed and treated many of the victims. “Most of them are 60 years or older, and almost all of them have never eaten or drank outside Washington Square or the Emporium since, well, last century. They’ve lost everything and they’re scared.†Dr Janapat insisted that medical treatment was a short-term solution at best, and that these deeply sheltered sex tourists would need months of rehabilitation before being able to navigate a modern city like Bangkok on their own. “They don’t speak Thai. Heck, they barely speak English,†she noted, referring to the truncated pidgin-English used by long-term expats who communicate exclusively with female bar employees and motorcycle taxi drivers. “Also, they’re kind of poor,†she added. “I mean, just look at their shoes.†Responding to the crisis, Bangkok Governor Sukhumband Paribatra has promised to quickly find new places for the refugees to drink, carouse, and feel unthreatened by anything new, with sois 22 and 9 being vetted as prime candidates. “Bangkok is better equipped than any city in the world to serve old white men who are uncomfortable with the wider world,†he said. “We are world leaders in providing economically desperate Asian women and unhealthy Western food. As governor I promise that these men will be taken care of.†“They will live in Bangkok until they die. I promise you that much.†link

Unthinkable http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914863/ Very good - required viewing

Speaking as someone who's always observed, as against, participated in the American experience, I fully expect America to be boots 'n all in the Middle East until the oil runs out. I don't see any difference if it's Obama or Romney or Ventura. I'madinnerjehad has all the wrong ideas in my view, but his point about interfering in another sovereign country's affairs is valid. Until a country (say NZ) actively does something to some one else, let them alone. Conversely there is the wisdom of preventing a nuclear weapon existing in the Middle East, imagine all the Middle East nations clustering around the protective umbrella of a nuclear armed Iran. Mind you it doesn't seem to have worked well for Pakistan.

I'm not following this thread and I post here simply 'cause its to do with 'merica. I watched on CNN some interesting stuff today and as a disinterested Kiwi in Laos I thought I'd share... 1st Piers Morgan interviewing Jesse Ventura. Vertura is an engaging character. And a dullard 2nd Piers Morgan interviewing Ahmadinejad. I give Mr I'madinnerjacket his due credit, whilst I think he's a nutter, he held his ground and gave his point of view, can't ask for much more than that. 3rd Obama's speech at the UN today. Stirring stuff, said all the right things, and then went on to lay the ground for some serious aggression in Syria and Iran amongst other things. I don't favor any political group in the US, but my feeling is that Obama will win the next presidency. YMMV Piers Morgan rules, what happened to Jon Stewart? Coss

Sneer at you every time you glance at a Thai girl...

well done Kong...

The Tree of Life The Tree of Life is a 2011 American drama film with experimental elements written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth. A beautifully shot film that is bound to wow any 17 year olds looking for the meaning of life. Which as we all know is 42.

This is a joke, don't anyone get upset now....

In defence of the S6, it's considerably smaller than the 'normal' SUVs and gets 30MPG or 10.6l/100km