impulse

Not true. If you want a test, put your GF/wife and your dog in the trunk of your car and drive around for an hour. Then see who's happy to see you (and still loves you) when you open the trunk. My dogs' love is the purest I've ever found.

Maybe Thailand has it right, and the collective West is wrong?

In return for? Doesn't that paint a target on every American in any country that has spies and agents in US custody?

I'm still waiting for them to be invited to the NAWJ.

That's a good heads-up about using Google Maps anywhere in Thailand, even in walking mode. It tried to send me walking up the wrong side of the freeway around Lad Phrao in Bangkok. I was trying to get from the BTS to the PTTEP complex.

I have been liking Scott Adams since I first discovered Dilbert around 1990. Now, I think I love the guy. “Oh my God it was perfect. It was good as the Rosie O’Donnell. In my mind this was as good as the Rosie O’Donnell play. Did he look nervous? Nope. Did he look completely comfortable the entire time he was under attack? Yes he did. He looked like a guy who could take a bullet in the f**ing ear and stand up and pump his fist and say ‘Fight fight fight!’. That’s the guy that showed up. If shooting him doesn’t make him stop, I don’t think your list of insults will. How much did I enjoy that? 10/10. Who changed the conversation about all of politics? Trump did. Did you hear the word weird yet today? He managed to change the entire cycle to ‘Why are you being such a bitch’ basically. I'll let you look that up on Twitter. It's blocked here, and if I post a link to to my source, it'll be reported and deleted as an unapproved source. Even though it would only be an attribution as required by fair play, and not a statement of fact.

I paid tax. But I'm still pleased to see a country that's operated first and foremost for the benefit of its own citizens. My passport says I can leave if I don't like the terms and conditions on offer.

I topped up my Elder Card last week, but I didn't look to see if I'm still getting the discount. It's peanuts, so I really don't care. In fact, I felt guilty when I was getting the discounted rate, knowing what a lot of the Thai people make. To whom even small money makes a big difference.

No names Bob. I'm just yelling at a cloud going by, from inside my glass house. Though, if I did operate a buffet, I'd appreciate a heads up from the diners before they just quit coming in.

It's like going to a restaurant where I enjoy the buffet. But I sure wish some of the nimrods would keep their fingers out of the food and use the tongs.

Nope. We're the product, not the customers. 2 day old gas station sushi comes to mind.

On a higher plane, I wonder when the NAWJ is going to invite Trump to speak?

If they're telling us that's thigh meat in that photo, they have lost all credibility. Thigh meat doesn't come in a sack. And it seems like such a petty issue to give up so much credibility on.

My heart goes out to the guys who paid good money for this "community". I remember when it wasn't like this.

How many kickbacks and bribes can you get in most private jobs?

Thailand influencer? 50:50 odds.

I'm not convinced it's a zero sum situation. It's quite possible for Asia to rise without the West swirling down the commode. But it's not possible to avoid the swirlies if the western gub'ments don't quit doing stupid stuff like unvetted immigration and promotion by quota instead of performance. Both of them, Asian countries are smart enough to put the kibosh on.

Picking a few numbers off the OP: 973 deaths in 150 years is 6.5 per year. With about 60,000 students, that's about 1 death each year per 9,200 students. Compare that to my high school of 1500 students in the '70s, when we lost a few students every year to car wrecks, cancer, other accidents, and Darwin contests. Making those Native schools over 5x safer than my high school. And most of that 150 years preceded antibiotics. There's a lot of despicable aspects to those schools, but death rate isn't one of them. At least, not according to the sensationalized "study". Dollars to donuts, the next step is monetary reparations...

No. You're missing the point. Putin invaded Ukraine under Obama, and under Biden. Crickets under Trump. Hamas struck on Biden's watch. Not on Trump's I prefer peace and mean tweets to war and the specter of nuclear annihilation.

Still cheaper than "back home", if I add up all the dinners and foolishness that constituted the chase, then risk weight the odds I'm going to end up in the friend zone forever. I've had free sex that cost me thousands of dollars a throw. And some strikeouts that cost just as much for nothing.

Leaving aside any moralizing, the production had the quality of an impromptu high school skit. Or, at best, something out of SNL.

Read along some more threads. Thai bashing, Indian bashing, and Chinese bashing are predominant themes.

A lot of expats who moved a while ago have fond memories of an American left and a Democratic Party that no longer exist. And all they watch is the MSM, which is intent on normalizing behaviors that were taboo just a few years ago.

Gosh, if doing a deal with Putin was enough to keep him from invading Ukraine, maybe Obama should have sent Big Mike in to do a deal, or Biden could have sent Hunter. Could have saved a million lives and hundreds of billions of $$, largely US taxpayer money debt...

You call that credible? I call it gaslighting. Those are balls. Thigh skin doesn't come in a pouch. They need to deduct credibility points for that one.