kamui

Last week I watched "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDY89LYxK0w Wonderful (mostly) comedy. The creme of the Brit actors over 60. Good dialogues, well shot. Of course completely unrealistic, but I guess I would love to retire like this.

Just watched "Largo Winch 2 - The Burma Conspiracy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46yynePgFVI French Production, with international actors like Sharon Stone (she is looking aged). Around 1/3 was filmed in Thailand. I guess it never made it to large screen, but it's ok watch it at home. PS: I seems that they used the a similar (the same?) film sets like the last Rambo movie. A Burmese military camp, which the main actor destroys and than he flees by boat and arrives at Thai luxury resort (without any border crossing/patrols of course). And I think the Karen spoke Thai as well.

The US Railroad Systems in in 1890!

Let us welcome the USA to the 21st Century. Finally the USA introduces a technology, developed since the 1960s, which is standard in Mid-Western Europe and is a backbone of transportation in the leading Asian countries (China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea...) California gives OK to high-speed rail By: Burgess Everett July 6, 2012 07:27 PM EDT The California state Senate passed a budget measure Friday afternoon that sealed the deal: High-speed rail is coming to the Golden State. The bill passed with only Democratic support in the upper chamber, 21-16, and authorizes the state to provide $2.7 billion in funds that the Department of Transportation will match with $3.3 billion, a total of $6 billion that will go to funding the initial, 130-mile high-speed segment in the Central Valley region. The federal money was contingent on the state’s go-ahead; now there is enough money for contracts to go out and ground to be broken. Some of that money came from states like Wisconsin and Florida, whose Republican governors rejected the federal fast train money. The project, decades in the making, could begin construction as soon as this winter. The legislation also contains nearly $2 billion for local projects in the state’s heavily populated Bay Area and Southern California. The General Assembly passed the measure Thursday, 51-27, but the Senate showdown was always the main event. In the days preceding the vote, Capitol Hill Democrats — reportedly including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — aided state supporters in shoring up the necessary 21 votes for the bill, which was the subject of intense media speculation all week as leaders delayed the vote until moments before a month-long recess began. Before the vote, state Senate President Darrell Steinberg (D) took to the floor to offer a last request for support. “How many chances to do we have to inject a colossal stimulus into today’s economy?†Steinberg said, imploring his colleagues to vote yes. “This project has now transformed from high-speed rail only to an $8 billion infrastructure infusion.†And Republicans, who all opposed the measure, tried to use procedural votes and tactics to scrap the vote. Then they criticized the state for deficit spending during difficult financial times. “I think this is a colossal fiscal train wreck for California,†said Sen. Tony Strickland. “This was sold to the people of California at a very low cost compared to where it is today.†..... Politico PS: just imagine how the USA would look like today, if they would have used the money wasted in two wars for infrastructure projects and education... PS: In Europe traveling to major cities in a 500 km range is very pleasant nowadays due to the ever developing high speed rail network. Trips which would take 5-6 hours by car can be done within 3 1/2 hours by train now. PS: I would love to take the new train high speed train recently introduced in Italy. It has been dubbed the "Ferrari of the Railyard"

I love the US news-/blogsphere. Creativity and invention rates much higher than boring research and validating sources (this is soo 20th century journalism). Just look at this quote how they came across the number fo 16.500 IRS workers: CNN saids that Bachmann had it from a GOP committee which had from a "preliminary estimate" from the Budget Office. CNN didn't check the facts and the original source and neither of course did Bachman nor did it Infowars. So we only have the word of mouth from Bachmann who is known to get the facts completely wrong or just making them up. PS: I just looked up the guy behind infowars.com at Wikipedia. He is a rightwing conservative who loves conspiracy theories and who even built a memorial for the psycho sect members who got killed in Wako. He is an advocate of the New World Order conspiracy theory. I guess he watched too many James Bond movies in his youth.

It took me a long time to understand the difference between European and US elections. In Europe people _mainly_ vote with their standard of living in mind. The party which promises the most stable living condtions (job, health care, education, e.g.), or even better, increasing living conditions, gets the majority of the votes. Of course ideology, religion, nationalism play a factor as well, but in a smaller part. In the USA it seems that elections are mostly decided by ideological and religious interests. It seems to be clear that on long term the majority of the US citizens are doing better under a democrat government, nevertheless they frequently vote for the party which promises to cut their standard of living (health care, local and national infrastructure, education, while spending a major part on military and wars). The reason is that the ideology/religion behind the destruction of the individual standard of living has a much stronger pull than the reality of their living condition... And of course, there are is major ideological difference in how Europeans and the US Americans are seing the role of their government. In Europe in most countries the government is partly responsible for the weak (unemployed, ill, old) and all people are paying for it via taxes. While the USA seems to have a more Darwinist approach and for many the government seems to be the enemy of the people... PS: Every European government which supported GWB's wars went down. Surprisingly, the two ongoing wars don't seem to play any role in the current public debate in the USA.

Americans are moving to Canada because of the Health Care ruling. People Who Say They're Moving To Canada Because Of ObamaCare Canada has European style health care system, covering all citizens.

I guess you got it completely wrong. The appointment of supreme court judges can have a lasting effect on the country for decades. Therefore usually presidents chose judges most close to their political interests. Just have a look at judge Scalia. He is a real right wing judge, who could be called an "activist judge" (a term invented by right wingers actually). He was appointed by Reagan. Here most recent comment on Saclia: Justice Scalia must resign It seems everything in the USA becomes more and more politicized and radicalized.

It will definitely heaten up the election campaigns. It's a hard hit for the GOP, but gives them a lot of talking points...

Buy the pirated DVD in BKK... Watching it on large movie screen is a waste of time and money.

I guess he is only permitted to watch Thai movies.

Yep, I faked may age here on the board.

This has nothing to do with climate change of course, neither do the upcoming water wars in the south of the USA...

Yep, a movie for 14 year old boys in puberty.

Before jumping to conclusion, you might read the original article here: http://www.nytimes.c...amas-roots.html

Michelle Obama has white slave owners as ancestors: Henry Wells Shields is the man with the white beard. His wife, Christian Patterson Shields, sits to his right. Charles Marion Shields is the third man standing from the right. The white man who owned Mrs. Obama’s great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, and his son, who most likely fathered Melvinia’s child. The photograph of those two men and their relatives, which is believed to have been taken in Georgia sometime around 1884, is being published here for the first time. The slaveowner was Henry Wells Shields, who inherited Melvinia when his father-in-law died in 1852. DNA testing and research indicate that he and his wife, Christian Patterson Shields, are the first lady’s great-great-great-great grandparents. Their son, Charles Marion Shields, worked as a farmer and a teacher. DNA testing and research point to him as the father of Melvinia’s son, Dolphus Shields. That would make Charles Mrs. Obama’s great-great-great grandfather. NYT

This might not decide this election, but 2016+ will become very interesting due to the ongoing demographic shift in favor of non-whites... Race gap hardens in 2012 contest By: Alexander Burns June 21, 2012 12:46 PM EDT The demographic battle lines of the 2012 campaign are rapidly solidifying as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama gear up for a campaign defined by significant gaps between the candidates in voters’ race, gender and age. A trickle of recent swing-state surveys confirms a racial divide that’s already been on vivid display in national polling: Obama has failed to gain new traction with white voters whileRomney has either stalled out or lost ground with Latinos and other non-white voting groups. That pattern is only likely to intensify after Obama’s decision to allow some children of illegal immigrants to stay in the country. Romney criticized it for being a stop-gap measure but has not said whether he would maintain that policy as president. It’s not only race that divides the two candidates: the generational and gender gaps that have characterized both the Obama and Romney coalitions haven’t budged. The racial gap may be the most striking, given the rapidly growing Hispanic population and the relative decline of the white vote share. A Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters threw the divisions into relief Thursday morning. In the poll, Romney won voters over 55, white voters and men. All other demographic groups broke for the president: women, black and Latino voters, and voters 54 and younger. The survey gave Obama a 4-point lead against Romney overall, 46 to 42 percent. .... http://www.politico....0612/77700.html

The British media (right and left) has the tendency to overreact. In Germany we are used to it. Just today there is an article which says that Chancellor Angela Merkel is much more dangerous than Ahmadinejad (Iran) or Kim Jong-un (Korea). Just have a look at the latest magazine cover: The first paragraph of the article: I guess soon we will need a special visa for the enter the UK and we will have a secret service agent attached to every German visitor.

Couldn't find it, this wasn't one of your last three links...

Sounds like a storm in a (British) teacup. PS: Flash, I really enjoy you frequent presentation of the most obscure anti Obama article/websites on the web.

As I said, Obama has cornered Romney in regard to the immigration problem: Romney dodges immigration questions By REID J. EPSTEIN | 6/17/12 10:28 AM EDT Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he’d repeal the Obama administration’s decision to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants. In an interview with Bob Schieffer aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,†the presumptive Republican presidential nominee five different times declined to answer whether he would conduct the same policy President Barack Obama on Friday announced his Department of Homeland Security will now pursue. Instead of answering the question posed, Romney called for a permanent solution. “With regards to these kids who were brought in by their parents through no fault of their own, there needs to be a long-term solution so they know what their status is,†Romney said. “This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we were about to see some proposals brought forward by Sen. Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the president jumped in and said I'm going to take this action, he called it a stop-gap measure. I don't know why he feels stop-gap measures are the right way to go.†After Schieffer asked, directly, four additional times if Romney would repeal the policy without receiving an answer, Romney called the move political. “I think the timing is pretty clear, if he really wanted to make a solution that dealt with these kids or with illegal immigration in America, than this is something he would have taken up in his first three and a half years, not in his last few months,†he said. Romney has yet to offer an opinion on the merits of Obama’s immigration policy change. On Friday, he told reporters in New Hampshire that he supports Rubio’s proposal, which has yet to be introduced in the Senate. On “Fox News Sunday,†Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Obama’s moved successfully undercut both Rubio and Romney. “This was the anti-Marco Rubio initiative by the administration,†Kristol said. “They were scared. Sen. Rubio was about to introduce his version of the Dream Act, which would have been closer to what President Obama announced than the actual Democratic Dream Act. I wish Rubio had introduced it over the last month or two. He got stalled, not every Republican was on board, the Romney campaign’s been cautious about it.†And Kristol said Romney, who during the GOP primary staked out a more conservative position on immigration than his opponents, in particular Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is now in a tight spot. “This is a big problem for Romney,†Kristol said. “He needs to take the lead on this, and in my view embrace Marco Rubio’s Dream Act if that’s what he wants and say, ‘Let’s pass this in Congress over the next few months, this is what I’m for.†Politico

Good question. I wonder if it does matter to them that they did their bidding. I guess the GOP pols feel worse. Anyway, until the election the Dems will keep their mouth shut.

Yep, the argument against the competition for jobs is a really weak. 800.000 educated, but undocumented, immigrants now can have a career in the USA. To keep them away from the white collar job market was a total waste of "human capital" (and public money). It shows the helplessness of the conservatives in regard to Obama's immigration decision.