mogoso

Nearly every somewhat modern Asian city I've ever visited or lived in has had a sometimes ridiculous level of noise. With that being said, I must say that Thailand is probably one of the worst offenders I've experienced so far. I have come to ignore it most days, and rarely even notice it much anymore. In my younger days, I spent too much time with a rifle at my shoulder and caused myself some moderate hearing damage. The ringing in my left ear has droned on for years, but it's only really noticeable when it's very quiet. In those rare quiet moments, I still have the loud ringing in my ears and it's much more annoying than any PA truck, dance music, and overall street noise. Even in the dead of night here, I have to leave the TV on to drown out the ringing or it keeps me awake. The one constant noise factor for me is living next door to a Mosque here in the north. Five times a day I get "The Mullah" blasting the "Call to Prayer" through my bedroom window from the Minaret. I'm all for religious freedom, but I wish that guy would take a day off once in a while.

Packing a rifle near my shoulder never bothered me noise wise, only bothersome when taken off of shoulder and firing it.

That axe your wielding in your avatar might have more of an effect as far as hearing loss.

this doesn't sound like it's for real, since when do monks assist in disruptive behavior related to politics? I would think they would be completely detached from that kind of thing.

In Vietnam they burned themselves up in protest of the government, monks are people with opinions. This could also be a way to keep the demo peaceful both by the demonstrators and by the government.

If you want a ridiculous bargain there are still many foreclosure properties for sale. Just heard of one in an urban suburb, 2 bedroom, 2 bath fee simple townhouse, 30,000 dollars. Cheaper than Thailand. Amazing.

Where in the US was this, and what condition was it in? Sometimes when stories like this get passed on little details like asbestos and termite damage tend to slip the speaker's mind.

I know a guy in Rhode Island got a fixer-upper for app. $15k, said it just needed some sheetrock and a good coat of paint.

My niece in Miami has been buying condos recently in the $30,000 range. Her husband and her know the market well, both native to the Miami area. Nothing they are buying is a fixer upper, but they are available for cheap as its a market that has collapsed

Father Joe Maier In Bangkok seems to help a ton of kids with schools an orphanage and other aid to kids with his Human Development Founation-Mercy Center. Seems to spend his money well and for the good of many.

Once i traveled with a Thai overseas and the first think at the Dinner around our hotel was " I don't like, not same Thailand" I just thought what stupid Thai.

of cause its not same Thailand because it is not Thailand. What he expect? The hole world is like Thailand? Crappy Street food and 35 degree all day?

Sometimes there are so stupid and no open mind. Only Thailand Thailand Thailand.

It might take a while to be accustomed to different food different locations. His I don't like was at least momentarily honest. My wife's reaction to mashed potatoes and gravy wasn't a smashing success, " that look bad" and wouldn't taste them .She now loves them and makes them better than I do. Her first reaction to most anything new, here or in Thailand, is not to like it, call it her default position. It takes a while but she will change her mind.

I myself like street food, I have an open mind about it. Most will be decent some bad and a few exceptional

Keep in mind the sources people, a Taxi driver, a chilli farmer from a buri somewhere... They are not the most educated people in Thailand and are quite responsive to the over simplified, classic poor vs. rich propaganda that taxsin is all about.

Is the classic poor vs rich propaganda limited to Thailand? In the US the Democrats win their elections with the same spiel. Our present Pres., talks pretty and well he should with his high fangled Ivy league education, but that doesn't equate to common sense. I've know some pretty sage country folk with no education as well as the expected numb nuts. The same goes for city slickers, some smart some barely above pond scum in intellect. To classify country folk as a whole as easy swayed by shiny things does them a disservice. The contrast would have us believe that city folk with a higher education have a better sense of things. In either case both parties are acting in, what they perceive to be, their self interest.

Proper way to dispose of a flag.

Cut the flag along the colors.

This so all the colors are separated from each other.

Then you can either shred or burn the various colored rags.

Out of respect they should be destroyed and not used as rags for other purposes.

Not kidding.

This is the proper way to do ot.

Really not that many countries in the world where they make underwear, etc out of their flag, and at the same time react when other people burn their flag.

By the way,

With so many x-military people on the Forum, Im surprised none came up with an answer.

Let me rephrase that, with so many alleged x-military people.

Proper way to dispose of the US flag is by burning. A proper triangular fold and the placed on a large fire. You can give them to American Legion or VFW and they will do it for you as well as the Boy Scouts. To throw in the trash is ok if you have removed the blue field and burn it.

That's one of the reasons to escape europe, but now they start here so to, YEH indeed screw up the farang!!

Didn't the present leadership announce that the goal was to be a socialist country in a few years. If that's the case shouldn't you expect steadily increasing taxes on both Thai and farang. more on farang) So I can't understand why Europeans would be bitching as it's their preferred economic system to live under.

I wouldn't change a goddamned thing.

Seeing that's unrealistic, I'm however encouraged by the path Chiang Mai seems to be on. The future will be better!

Ok, one thing, I'd like parts of the city to be made more pedestrian-friendly and that includes pedestrians in a wheelchair or with baby pushcarts. With lots of nice, flat, shady walkways.

Also I'd like a beach, and wintersports on a nearby mountain. (As none of the things anyone is saying in this topic has the slightest chance of being heard or acted on, I guess realism is not a factor in this discussion so might as well wish for something good. )

Winter sports, my wife loves the snow. Her first snowman that she built last week after a rare decent snowfall.

tips and tea? Okay:

drink jiaogulan tea, although it's not a real tea, rather a herbal tea. Most good for the health with its antioxidants and it being an adaptogen.

The absolute best place to buy tea is in pai at the good life herbal restaurant. The ukranian chap there sells about 40 different teas, mostly from thailand and china, but also taiwan, japan. His jiaogulan is excellent, while i bought a new oolong he had recently sourced which is just so tasty i choose this tea most times i have a cuppa at the moment. I have about 19 choices at home...! He also sells a chinese (actually, i think it's from taiwan) jasmine green tea which has the most delicate delicious bouquet of any tea leaves i've come across.

I've still to find what i consider to be a decent tea shop in chiang mai though. But no problem since i only need the flimsiest excuse to take a trip to pai...!

I make at least pot of this tea (jiaogulan) daily. My wife drinks a lot of it also. Sweet and tasty. MIL sends us 6 1/2 kilos when we run low, that is a lot of postage, but its health benefits are proven to us. We don't say it'll help everybody, but it does us. MIL buys from a few local growers in Chiang Mai -Chiang Rai corridor. Scientific name gynostemma pentaphyllum.

Ms. Brit gave me mine - actually small because never wear anything big/clunky looking. Anyways for good luck and makes her happy that I wear it.

A few more posts like this and I could begin to like brit....Best reason ther can be.

My wife gave me two. They were her fathers, they have monetary value and will become my grandsons after my passing. They're not large and no one can see them through my shirt. They were the most valuable items her family owned, and I wear them to honor her gift and the spirit in which it was given.

^^

Well, it looks as if people like me may get put out of business, if the Obama administration gets its way.

Cass Sunstein, the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has just released an updated version of his 2008 paper "Conspiracy Theories".

He contends that conspiracy theorists are a threat to government and wants Obama to clamp down on them.

He suggests 5 steps that government can take against theorists, two of which are:

* to ban conspiracy theorizing;

* to impose some kind of tax on those who disseminate such theories.

One of the things that Sunstein regards as a conspiracy theory is "that the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud."

I'm a little surprised that this new entry into the catalogue of thoughtcrime has been made in the U.S. rather than the U.K., but there you are. I guess I'd better change my tune so as to avoid being extraordinarily rendered or chased by the IRS for conspiracy taxes....

Doesn't he also advocate the right of animals to sue humans? As usual in the BHO administration another radical kook passing policy.

Is strange weather due to warming?

Umm, we have been cooling for the last few years, so I would have to say. No

I think you are a bit behind the curve there .... eh !!

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http...ved=0CAsQ9QEwAg

Any site that concludes that the "fine folk over at media matters" is in my view bogus

I guess they have been studying the global messiah BHO.

The same organization "Acorn" that put Barry in office,( by hook or by crook) has gone international. Look for it in a lot of places with its community organizers.

I have a lot of freinds that live there now and have lived there in the past and they all have come to like her. I will admit that it takes a while until you feel that way - we used to call her the dragon lady - but I have not stayed there for 10 years and she still smiles and is very pleasant when I run into her (as I did about 2 days ago).

She has helped me lots of times with different things over the years - even when I did not live there - and would never accept a tip. She just has one of those faces that make her seem unhappy or unpleasant if you don't know her, but you don't notice anymore after you realize she is actually pretty nice.

I actually have a a photo or two of her smiling. she was always helpful to me. It was really cheap to stay there years back, I think 3000 baht per month plus a charge for either water or electric, or something, wasn't much. My girl friend (now wife) used to wait downstairs for me and talked with her often till I ambled downstairs. My gf would go home at night to her family and it's close to the night bazaar where I'd get drunk with my friend Johnny from Norway and his Thai wife most every night, since it gave me something to do. Not that I need much of an excuse to drink.

For some reason I always had a top floor room so view was good

There was a couple of small restaurants close by. One run by a lady named Noi, they were cheap and the folks were friendly. If you were there 10 years ago I probably passed you once or twice. I wouldn't have said much as I made no friends among those who lived there. There was a married couple from Atlanta who played a lot of golf whom I spoke with, but I didn't associate much with the residents.

Where is the certainty that pesticides are the cause of the demise of the bee population? A quick google and a scan of several sites say that might be the problem or part of it but that's never the first place they go when mentioning possible causes.

Why does life in Thailand have to be as it was in your home countries?

Growing up in Florida the people moving or vacationing there would start sentences with" where I'm from we do it this way" and go on a rant about how backwards we were to their home environs of New York or where ever they came from. we just did it a way we liked at the pace we wanted, not at what some loud mouth yankee thought best.

Its the same with many people here who constantly complain on how that needs to be changed or this needs to be done that way. Accept the differences, enjoy life. Bunch of whining old farts too set in their ways to accept a different way of life. embrace and go with the flow, might be a hassle at times, but lifes full of little problems where ever you be. Don't change paradise into a parking lot.

We have given up on shipping items to Thailand to our family. It's not the local carrier, as he's known very well and related by a marriage to boot. It's somewhere before him.

240 million baht for 11.9 kg

is about 21 million a kilo

or 21,000 baht a gram.

No idea about street price of drugs in Thailand, but that seems an awful lot.

Newspaper report wrong?

As the arrest was made through use of a tip, I'd say this carrier was more than expendable. He probably was deemed unreliable and served up on a silver platter by his employers to give someone from the BIB a bone. As a Thai he knew the consequences of being caught with this amount of drugs. So whether coerced or paid he appears to be a patsy, who knows nothing, but looks good in the paper.

Doesn't matter whether you believe in legalization or strong punishment the law is the law. I can see the legalization of most drugs, including opiates, but meth is the one drug that should be illegal. I've seen its effects on people since the 60's and have yet to see good from it on long term users. Addicts are just walking skeletons waiting for death to come calling on their destroyed mind and bodies.

Where I presently reside, USA, the police occasionally have roadblocks. If your vehicle is in order, your papers (ie license and insurance) you seat belt is fastened, you go on your way in short order. If the criterion isn't correct you'll receive a ticket. Worse case if there is outstanding tickets or warrants or if your illegal alien caught with a traffic problem off to jail you might go. Subsequently the county I live in now has a well behaved traffic wise illegal population, as it one of the few places that will ship them off to ICE (immigration) if found in the commission of a crime and yes a traffic offense does count as it allows the police to check on status.

The Gwinnett police have had fortunate stops over the years or drunks crashing into trees or whatever only to have been carrying substantial amounts of cash and or drugs. Atlanta due to its system of highways that connect it throughout the east, is a major pipeline of drugs. My little town is unfortunately drug suppliers central with many large cash busts taken place over the years within its confines. The intel that comes from these roadblocks has helped the police in their efforts. The 1-2 minutes or less I'm held up by these rare moments doesn't bother me in the least. I'm not out on the roads late at night when they occasionally do stops for sobriety. But they stop all traffic and check all people so not to appear to be singling out individuals or groups.

BTW the gov't get to keep as a monies and assets seized if they involve drugs, but individual officers get naught but a thank you and an attaboy

I wish there was a way to tax the hot air and noise pollution produced every time a politician opened his mouth.

Tony Blair stated even if the science is wrong we still need to pass legislation on climate change

Excluding some loverly outdoor evenings in the military, twas on the southern side of Lake Nicaragua. It was getting dark and we came across an hotel. They were full but the owner offered us his kitchen pantry as he thought it'd be dangerous for us to continue at night. I could sleep about anywhere but the Swedish girl I was traveling with keep me from sleeping with her little screams and comments about rats and insects. Kitchen opened at 5:30. The breakfast was tasty but their blanket covered floor was dang uncomfortable

Global warming is real. The skeptics are irrational denial artists.

Or maybe not.

Listen to this interview and follow the links for an alternative opinion

http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2009/.../RIR-091201.php

or this link http://www.oism.org/pproject/

to read about the 31,000 US scientists who have signed a petition opposing the global warming theory

Edit

One last link

http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?id=3

Facts cannot be used to combat the cult of global warming. Those who believe take it on faith rather than open scientific debate, not a closed door forum where even data used to produce their results will not be provided to others to check it.

Listening to one female commentator, who said that you can't see God either but it like global warming is fact. Al Gore the other day expounding on the use of geothermal heat to make energy, and that fool stated the earth a couple of kilometers down is a million degrees. We'd be or almost be a sun were that so. Yet some people follow his every word like its the gospel. I think the core is estimated to be 10,000 degrees with the temp 1,000 miles deep estimated to be 6,650 as a comparison to Gores babbling

I don't compare where I came from when asked about living abroad vs my home country in negative. I just say where I'm from is like vanilla ice cream a dependable taste vs the difference of consuming Cherry Garcia or Rocky road. Their both ice cream and good in their own way

The U.S. is fighting to safe their economy, trade deficit. Look at the dollar, gold price, oil price. Best, by building wall preventing easy access of imports from emerging countries. Anti dumping coudl help some, but child labour is hard-to-disputed reason of protetionism. Countries with balanced trade (profitable to U.S.) may only be put on watch-list.

Bunch of hypocrites the US, insofar as child labor used in foreign developing countries. Why is there a summer vacation from school? as the US was mainly an agriculture society, children were needed to help the family in the fields to raise the crops, ie the planting growing and after school started the harvest. It was necessary for survival. Ain't nothing easy about farm work.

I don't believe utilizing kids in sweat shops, but their ain't nothing wrong with helping in the family's business.

By nine I was selling the Evening Independent in front of the Sears store daily after school and on weekends, had to give it up as my lawn mowing customers kept me too busy, and I dang sure had to do my home chores and school work. At twelve I added night work as a batboy for the local minor league team $5 per game $7.50 for double header. Not bad money in 1961-62

The point is a little work will motivate ya

Straight Dave - As a fellow American, I would like to point out that average

BTW non American readers: I would just like you to know that there are still a handful of Americans that are NOT addicted to weapons, war and the belief that carrying a weapon is a god given right. I am one of those people and yes I can very easily and proudly be labeled as a far left, liberal, hippie freak who is not fond of death and destruction in the name of patriotism.

AS a far left hippie freak, you should know the result of drug use ie the benjamins are the cause of the majority of gun violence in the US. Since as a far left hippie freak your a contributor to this violence by purchasing products that are illegal. I suggest you read or look at Free Wheeling Frank from the Fabulous Furry Freak brothers and cop his attitute towards the carrying of weapons.