SweeneyAgonistes

Try responding to the entire post and the meaning will become clear.

I guess you mean read, not respond, but I don't share your bizarre interpretation of current events or world history - what can you say but <deleted> are you on to something like 'Perhaps the deaths of many Americans is the price we must pay for stopping the war on terror. We paid a high price to stop the war in Vietnam'- so you're going to have to help me out a bit.

WikiLeaks will cost many lives.

Well by the admission of the American government, it has cost no lives to date so save the ludicrous speculation.

As Tsunami is bad, let just ban Wikileaks Thailand.

I agree, I also think you should spent lots and lots of time telling everyone what awful videos wikileaks have and how they should never ever go and look at them.

Can anybody who have read Wikileaks be charged as an accomplish?

I looked at pictures of Lieutenant <deleted> <deleted> pole-dancing. Is that bad?

Never google "Wikileaks Thailand". It could lead you to site with clips that WILL land you in jail

I think it'd be more effective to replace that with a link saying "DON'T CLICK HERE."

So 'strong indications' are actually 9-year-old speculations from a nursing home cat-tray-filler which interestingly contains a bunch of other speculations which failed to materialise. Good work.

Wax and Wire by Loch Lomond, the first track in this video - easily the best thing I've seen on youtube all year.

At least part of the article just goes to prove that old adage about stopped clocks being right twice a day.

It's interesting how that tosser Rifkind's comment that it was 'irresponsible' and 'bordering on (yes, not actually but bordering on) criminal' mutates into 'you want to kill all us good square-jawed god-fearing freedom-loving americans'. Nothing like a bit of spittle-flecked Fox-style totally mental hyperbole to make your case.

Except there seems to be little evidence of that.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say there is no evidence that Wikileaks has put lives in danger. After the previous round of leaks, Robert Gates admitted that "The review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised." That's none. Not many. Not a few. None. And the obvious truth is that if a single person had died as a result of this, we would have seen his face - I'm guessing it would be a he - on every newspaper and every news channel in america. We would know their name, why they died, how they died, what they had for lunch before they died, whether they dressed to the left or right, everything. The media would ram it down our collective throats. There's also the fact that Wikileaks redact names and details in the cables of those who might be threatened by the revelations. But don't expect Murdoch to let you know about that. Best to get some real journalism to find out things like that.

If it's a political discussion based upon events/facts then why would insults be needed? Then again .... If you don't understand the culture or the history ....

If you think that you can have a political discussion based solely on facts, find and read any recent introductory text in philosophy. One aimed at high school students should suffice. If you have problems with it, feel free to PM me and I'll guide you through it.

So what? People used to call the IRA a 'terrorist group'. The group bit just indicates a particular feature of the terrorist organisation.

Your definition says that a terrorist is 'A person, group, or organization'. Governments are organizations. If you think that governments are by definition excluded from being terrorists - although I can't see any reason to think that they should be - then you should say so.

So who was the savior then?

If it was any one country, it was the Soviets. And as you're so keen on remembering this, I hope you put a statue of Stalin in your front garden.

If it's a political discussion, I don't see anything wrong with voicing strong opinions. I hold opinions which I'm sure are pretty much the polar opposite of some on this board and if they didn't - in so many words - call me a c*nt, I'd be very disappointed. Strong opinions, strongly voiced, are surely much better than indifference.

But if someone is asking whether laab is better than goi or luu, then, yes, ten pages of name-calling is probably a little over the top.

Maybe it's just your reading skills that is the problem

Err, no. I don't think so:

If a terrorist is "A person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals...in an attempt to coerce either a more powerful or ... a weaker opponent", then that includes pretty much any state.

and if a conspiracy is "To try to make things go a certain way", then that includes pretty much any intentional action.

Not particularly useful definitions.

It's not a bad example but it would have been better if they'd all covered their faces with their hands first. I love those ones.

On a side note - what kind of god-awful publication is Pattaya Daily News? Unless there's something strangely wrong with my computer, that page won't render in Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

But what sort of social misfit stays at the Nana Hotel?

The curious kind. I've only been there once but in a watching-live-male-to-female-vaginoplasty kind of way, it was a very memorable experience.

Greetings cards have to the biggest waste of all time. What purpose do they serve ?

Generally make the recipient happy, especially if it's from someone a long way away. I think Christmas is wank and getting away from it was one factor in moving abroad but as I get older, I appreciate that not everyone shares my opinion and it's a pretty easily made concession to the feelings of others - especially those of parents who are going to be popping their clogs pretty soon - to send a card once a year. And I think the baskets of Brand or Peptein (<deleted> kind of present is that?) are probably a bigger waste of money. Have you seen how expensive they are?

Come to Ireland and get 200 euro per week........thats why we are bust now.

Ireland's problems aren't from bailing out the unemployed. They're from bailing out the (formerly) rich banks.

And the criminally low corporation tax and appallingly stupid lending decisions by the banks and a government which encouraged what was plainly a suicidal property boom and a public which was stupid and venal enough to believe them.

Michael Pollan, apart from writing fanatically good books, had rather good advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Thailand had its arse-cheeks levered open and neo-liberal capitalism rammed up its gary so of course it's changed. It's not often that dear Karl is quoted on Thaivisa but 150 years ago he was spot on the money:

"The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind."

But it takes two to tango,...blah...blah...balh

One of the oldest lies in politics - blame the victim. It's not my fault that Cameron is an arse and it's not the fault of the average Thitiporn that a bunch of self-serving crooks run the Thai state.

Every institution has bad individuals

Every? Really? I agree but I'm surprised to see a reactionary rag like The Nation share my opinions.

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet by anyone broadly sympathetic to the Red movement, I think it's worth making the point that the army generally acted very professionally in these sad events.Nothing is ever perfectly achieved in these conflict situations and there no doubt several instances of unprofessional behaviour.I don't know whether Fabio was the victim of one of these lapses or not.I think Nick Nostitz sums up the context rather well.

"Lets not forget here that all the mess was a result of a chain of very wrong calls by both sides over a long period of time. This was a development, not just a series of single and unrelated events. The Red Shirts have made many very bad decisions, but the government has done so as well. There were incidents where the military has made right decisions on the ground, but there were other incidents in which the military has shown tremendous incompetence, and there were incidents were soldiers have clearly not just broken their own rules of engagement, but have committed clear human rights violations. What complicates matters even more is that besides the many peaceful protesters there were armed militants.

This whole thing is not a black and white situation, it is very complex and it needs more time to properly investigate. What makes me angry though, and serves nobody, is when people who were not anywhere near the things are giving blanket statements on what has happened according to their own political convictions."

Some on this forum should think carefully about Nick's last sentence.

So you are a journalist or some other actor with intimate knowledge of the events, are you? Because saying "the army generally acted very professionally" sounds an awful lot like a "blanket statement", which could quite conceivably be motivated by your " own political convictions".

But that said I'd agree that at least in a narrow sense, the army did act professionally. The purpose of the army is to deploy force in the interests of the state. They did this very effectively so in one sense, they sould be commended.

^ Actually. I shut all my accounts yesterday and instead donated all the money which I would have spent with Amazon in the next year to the Wikileaks fund. I would urge anyone who doesn't survive on a diet of Murdoch news, cheap thrillers, and the lonely fantasies of adolescent boys involving unmanned drones, special ops and surprisingly sexy Mossad hitmen to do likewise.

It's amazing how much forensic detail posters on Thaivisa seem to have. Perhaps they could forward their files to the relevant authorities. I believe it's CSI Miami handling this one.