impulse

I would bet that most Iranians are also against the way that country's being run. But it's the zealot minority with the power. They may be a tiny minority, but they have the guns and no qualms about using them.

In the past, there have been a lot of stories of people being knocked back for "lack of funds", when there was some other real reason. Whether that was behavior in the queue, being from the wrong country, dressing inappropriately, etc. I'm not defending it... That's not my yob, man. I may fault immigration for not being consistent, but not for keeping the requirements a secret. The 20K baht (or equivalent) has been that way forever, and it's not that tough to comply with. That's $600 USD. And have an onward ticket and evidence of a place to stay.

I rarely carry cash; it's a risk. That works until the day that it doesn't. Like when the ATM eats your card, or the bank back home decides that spending money in Thailand (or any other country you haven't called them to pre-approve) is now a suspicious activity. Both have happened to me over the years, even recently. Or someone hijacks your account online while you're traveling. I always carry a few thousand $USD when I'm overseas. Even if I can get a replacement card in a few days, that's going to be a miserable few days.

Strawberry fields, forever...

I don't recall reading about all the $billions of programs offering free stuff from the gub'ment back then.

I don't know about Tukcom in Pattaya, but at Fortune Town in Bangkok, I had my choice between a genuine OEM or a knockoff for half the price. There's quite a few kiosks that specialize in power adapters and I'd go to one of them with the one I'm replacing before I'd take a chance getting the wrong one online.

I love that tourist train to K-Buri. And Kanchanaburi itself. My favorite weekend getaway from working in Bangkok. (Shameless plug...) I remember the first time I took it, we got a few hundred meters from the terminal station (way past K-Buri) and it was uphill and the track was so wet that the wheels couldn't get traction and we got out and walked the last bit. After that (not because of it) I used to de-train at K-Buri, walk around town and catch the train a few hours later on its way back. Then I started taking the Saturday train up and the Sunday train back to Bangkok. Fell in love with the place and its history related to the Death Railway and the Bridge on the River Kwai. More on this story: A locomotive collides with a train in Thailand: 18 tourists injured https://toutelathailande.fr/

Interesting that RT has picked this up before AN... Clashes erupt along Thai-Cambodian border — RT World News The Royal Thai Army said clashes first erupted on Sunday and accused Cambodian troops of opening fire at Thai soldiers in eastern Ubon Ratchathani province. One Thai soldier was killed and four others were wounded, after which additional Thai soldiers were attacked with artillery and drones at Anupong Base, the army said. Royal Thai Air Force spokesman Air Marshal Jackkrit Thammavichai announced later on Monday that F-16 fighter jets were deployed to “reduce Cambodia’s military capabilities to the minimum level necessary to safeguard national security and protect civilians.”

Never a dull moment with cow herders or goat ropers around. I wonder what's really going on, and for how long.

A lot of them are the same guys constantly clamoring for Thailand to deport foreigners for overstaying their visa or being rude or even spitting on the sidewalk.

And they claim that the great replacement theory isn't true.

If the sex was consensual at the time of delivery, then it was theft of services, not rape.

I'm not even going to try to defend your ISP. But I got so tired of spotty wifi in the hotels where I stay that I bought a portable router (DLink) and a data-only SIM card that allows me to get on the interwebs even if the hotel tech staff falls down on the job. In fairness, I later installed the data only SIM into a Samsung tablet with a SIM slot and use that for a mobile hotspot so I didn't even need the portable DLink wifi router. But the router was 1400 baht and the tablet was 9500 baht, so I didn't waste much, and not everyone has a SIM capable tablet laying around. The data only SIM (True, unlimited data only plan) was about 2000 baht for 12 months. At the time, they had the only unlimited plan that didn't throttle speed after a while. You may want to ask if there are others today. Just a thought... $60 for a year of backup internet (and internet all over Thailand) has been a great spend. The speed isn't broadband fast, but faster than the hotel wifi when it gets jammed up or doesn't work at all. It's very adequate for YouTube videos, etc.

They were for millions of people, many of who lost their jobs because they refused them. I got mine because I wasn't allowed into facilities to help my brother after his heart transplant unless I was vaccinated. I'd call that "mandatory". (Edit: And I'd give almost anything to roll back time and undo the damage that my 2nd mandatory Pfizer did to my health.) Or don't you remember the Canadian trucker protests, or all the US military members, health care workers, corporate employees and gub'ment workers who were actually fired for refusing to be genetic guinea pigs? And had the so called "anti-vaxxers" not pushed back as hard, you'd be pulling out your vaccine passport every time you want to get on a plane. That was in the works. So who is spreading disinformation?

Thanks for that. We'll both be happier for it.

According to the CDC schedule, children are expected to receive multiple doses of each of these vaccines, totaling up to over 70 doses by age 18. In 1983, prior to the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986 which removed liability from vaccine manufacturers, children received a total of 24 doses of vaccines. That means the number of vaccines has since tripled, if you include COVID vaccines. Removing liability opened the floodgates for drug companies to create new vaccines without risk of being sued for damages, and without long-term placebo-controlled studies being required for approval, the schedule grew dramatically. https://vaccine.guide/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/07-schedule.pdf 07-schedule.pdf And that's just up to age 18. By the time a kid born today gets to be 78, that's another 60 annual flu shots on top of those 70 childhood doses, plus the rest of the adult vaccinations, and you're well over 80 doses. Here's the titles to the CDC websites: (Sorry the link function doesn't work) Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule by Age (Addendum updated August 7, 2025) | Vaccines & Immunizations | CDC Adult Immunization Schedule by Age (Addendum updated August 7, 2025) | Vaccines & Immunizations | CDC

First, the polio vaccine wasn't a genetic experiment. It was a traditional vaccine. Unlike the mRNA's where the name is the giveaway. Ribonucleic Acid. Look it up, and what it does. 2nd. You've had 14 vaccines at 78 YO. Today's CDC regimen is around 80 vaccinations by that age (even more if you keep up with annual flu shots and mRNA boosters). If you were fine with 14 (so was I), why 80 now? Edit: Do you really think people are healthier today than we've been? Because the numbers say they aren't.

FWIW, here's a handy ampacity chart comparing copper and aluminum wires in metric sizes. Keep in mind the X axis is logarithmic.

Agreed. As I think you pointed out earlier, there was no such thing as organized birthing tours before jet travel. Which is a quite different state of things compared to back in the 1860s when the Amendment was written. The converse of "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" is that, as a US citizen, I'm subject to US law no matter where I go in the world. Just as a Somalian in the US is subject to Somali laws. I'm not going to pretend I'm a legal scholar or that I've studied the thousands and thousands of pages of case law related to that single snippet in the Amendment. I'm just claiming that a layman's simple reading is inadequate to predict the SCOTUS decision. From a pragmatic standpoint, I do believe that the US has to eliminate birthing tourism and anchor babies one way or another. Whether by passing new laws or interpreting the Amendment reasonably relative to the much smaller world we now live in. The situation is much too ripe for abuse and corruption as is.

Talk about being your own worst enemy... They want to be respected and taken seriously, yet they sport a patch Down to F***. That'll earn the respect and acceptance they clamor for.

I was thinking more along the lines of Outer Fish Shack a few hours north of Bangkok and south of Chiang Mai. Pattaya and Laem Chabang are both on the Eastern industrial/tourism corridor.

This has got to be the least self-aware comment I have ever seen on asean now.com. And that's saying a lot. Considering the source, that is high praise, indeed.

I wonder if they do the same outside of the expat/tourist/hiso areas?

If you think we should make a decision about Covid jabs based on some future use of mRNA to treat cancer (that may or may not ever come to fruition), you have lost the plot. Though you may want to ask yourself why so few human trials of the decades old mRNA technology were approved before Covid came along. Better yet, look it up. It has something to do with the risks vs benefits. In that respect, Covid was a bonanza for the mRNA trials.

And don't forget that Jan6'ers were up to 200x as likely to go to prison for the same offenses as the BLM'ers who did orders of magnitude more damage and mayhem over months and months than a single afternoon in The Capitol. The difference: Jan6'ers supported the Bad Orange Man and BLM'ers generally voted Blue.