JingerBen

7 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

Use of live ammo is governed by the assessment of a given situation being life-threatening or not. With the former, the restrictions are lighter and there is no limitations on who may open fire. With regard to the latter, those firing will do so under orders and at specified targets, shooters would ideally be officers or trained snipers. That's the theory, at least, application often falling short of specified rules.

 

I think that with regard to the OP, and similar situations, one consideration of using live ammo and/or hitting main agitators, would be a means to stop things from getting further out of hand. One view I recall hearing was along the lines of better to stop one demonstrator, rather than letting the situation develop in a way that may result in mass casualties. For example, if the crowd tries to storm a fence or a post.

 

I don't know that one can directly import and compare situations in the way suggested. Other than differences in ROE and legalities, there could be other factors, such as relevant units make up (the IDF is for the most conscript based), and the numbers ratios between demonstrators and soldiers.

Go tell that to the family of the Palestinian who was shot to death in his wheelchair.

1 hour ago, BuddyDean said:

The problem with guides is they can't resist the temptation to steer you to things, where they get a commission.  This is especially true in the home rental business.  Saw a guy end up paying 30,000 a month for a four bedroom house in Hang Dong, when I think he would have been a lot happier in a 10,000 per month condo closer in.  People have to make a living, but you would be better off just talking to some local expats, wherever.  Was at a dive bar the other night and there was a sign on the wall advertising a 2 bedroom house near the airport for 5000 per month.  If you know the MOAT, you are already way ahead of first timers.  Some will say you need a car, others say you must rent a scooter, while others do fine with neither.  Acting like you need someone to hold your hand is a good way to get taken for a ride.  Some look at 10 apartments, and still pay too much, and still have complaints.  Others spend an hour finding a place and stay ten years.  Having specific questions is much better than, "I am new, help me."

That's a very perceptive post.

I doubt that the OP will get any better advice than that.

But hey, TITV... no telling what gems of wisdom may follow.

Good luck, Tex.

3 minutes ago, kamahele said:

Good for them. A long and mostly happy life together.

Like the song says: Whatever happened to old-fashioned love?

A sense of duty often keeps people together.

My wife and I have two grown daughters who have both turned out very well. Our pride and happiness in them has done more than anything else to make our marriage last for over thirty years.

8 minutes ago, faraday said:

Didn't realise how old they were - time seems to fly by these days.

Congratulations to both of them.

 

Is Charlie taking over when she's gone?

I really think Wills & Kate are much more preferable; they're from a better age.

 

I think a lot of people would agree with your last statement.

Charlie probably means well, but he's a strange dude and too old now.

1 hour ago, FolkGuitar said:

 

You're not seriously suggesting that more than 50% of the police are corrupt, are you?

50% of the bureaucrats?

50% untrained doctors? 50% of the monks pedophiles or just unfit to wear the saffron robes?

 

In the past 17 years living here, I have seen a couple of bent cops, certainly a doctor or two who didn't know ass from elbow, and a few monks living more like playboys than the Dali Lama.

But  just a few. Perhaps you might consider new lenses through which to view your world.

 

Thanks for that.

An excellent reply to nonsense.

19 hours ago, sanemax said:

As people from all Countries do similar things , I do think that theres no need to bring his nationality into it .

Quite so...

But why let that obvious fact get in the way of a little mindless Thai-bashing?

2 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Zionism /= Judaism. Zionists and Jews are not the same thing.

Good point... you're quite right.

What most definitely played a role in the realization of the Balfour Declaration is Christian Zionism.

This is a literal belief in the biblical prophecy that the Jews must return to their ancestral home in order for the Second Coming of Christ to occur.

Christian Zionism was born in Britain and has been widely influential there. British leaders such as Lord Balfour, Herbert Samuel, Lloyd George and others [including much earlier Lord Shaftsbury] mingled British imperialism with their belief in the need to restore the Jews to their home as a prerequisite to the biblical prophecy.

The Balfour Declaration also marked the arrival of the Zionist lobby in international affairs.  That amorphous coalition that is called the Israel lobby or the Jewish lobby announced its presence with the Balfour promise of 1917.

It is the one element of the Balfour history that will not be anatomized in the press these days because it touches on a delicate issue - Jewish influence - which is widely thought to be an anti-Semitic idea.

But no history of Balfour is complete without understanding Zionist agency in producing this colonial entitlement.

So if we blame the British for the Balfour Declaration, we ought to blame the Zionist lobby as well.

1 hour ago, Rancid said:

If you are Jewish it is a case for celebration, however regardless of who is to blame, Israels formation has been followed by endless wars, millions dead and the world now a terrorist planet, as such hard to find reason to celebrate for non Jews.

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

Nice anti-semitic formulation.

Instead of an ad hominem attack, why don't you refute the charges in his post?

The Balfour Declaration was a statement of support by the British government for  "...the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

Balfour initiated a policy of British support for Israel which continues to this day, to the detriment of the occupied Palestinians of the West Bank and the five million Palestinian refugees living in horrible conditions around the Middle East, including Israel-besieged Gaza.

As Ilan Pappe has said:  "Most Zionists don't believe that God exists but they do believe that he promised them Palestine."

1 hour ago, delphioracle said:

Perhaps the return of Edith Clampton (Mrs) and Khun Hazel might be a move in the right direction.

It would be a move in the direction eventually leading to Count Fosco.

How right that would be is an open question.

Although they were all occasionally amusing in their own ways.

1 hour ago, nausea said:

I smell a third force.

 

Now that was a timely post.

What you smell is elephant dung.

There's a big one in the room.

1 hour ago, phantomfiddler said:

You must be joking ! Abhisit is the only one of them that possesses any degree of integrity, and it would appear that the military already have their own party that is probably going to rule for many years to come :)

1 minute ago, hansnl said:

I do agree with you about Mr Abhisit.

 

For sure.

Abhisit, in spite of his occasional blundering is head and shoulders above most of the others.

7 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Sounds like a normal day on a busy Thai road to me, woosha.

For sure.

Driving in this country is like participating in a Demolition Derby.

Seven Welsh priests walk into a bar, get mistaken for a stag party.

That sounds like the opening line of a dirty joke instead of a real-life misunderstanding.

But everybody kept their cool.

All's well that ends well.

6 minutes ago, petermik said:

 

 

JingerBen............your comment is nonsense Briggsy is spot on,here in Pattaya the behaviour he describes is 100% accurate,fortunately the police here are wise to them and they get quickly rounded up and moved on..............maybe in YOUR location it is different....here they are just parasites,nothing to do with religion/tradition just another scam

OK, Pattaya is a special case... Sleaze by the Sea.

But almost everywhere else, lion dances are a part of the traditional scene.

6 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

That seem bit misleading. Normally a lion dance troupe will ask the stall owners or dwellings for authorisation and acknowledgement before they perform. The loud banging is customary and the purpose is to drive out any ill omen and spirits. Sometime firecrackers are being use for the same purpose. I am sure the boys not acting on their own as the gears for the lion dance are very expensive. They likely to represent a cultural club (hua kwang). A lot of information is missing from this news and my opinion is that the police over react. After all, this kind of dance is only carried out during special religious dates and not all year round. Give the kids a break.  

Exactly.

Good reply to nonsense.

Things like this are part of life in East Asia.

These clueless misfits try to impose their values wherever they go.

3 hours ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

Thailand is turning into a police state.

It's a worldwide trend and Thailand isn't one of the worst.

Go away Nate...

you're giving Mormons, Americans, and all farangs a bad name here in Thailand.

1 hour ago, denby45 said:

Yeah then all the kids will run out for their iced creams and get knocked over.

 

Den

I guess you're old enough to remember the Good Humor  trucks with their jingly bells back in the good ol' days.

On 28/6/2560 at 9:38 AM, VillageIdiot said:

Nonsense.

Your statement is only true about James Dean.

Bogey died a horrible lingering death at age 57 from throat cancer brought on by too many Chesterfields.

Elvis pegged out at 42 from a cocktail of drugs.

Marilyn died at 36 also from drugs, with the added complication that she had become sexually involved with two very rich and powerful brothers from a low-life family in Massachusetts who wanted her out of the way.

None of the three were at the "peak" of their careers by any stretch of the imagination when they died.

 

Very good summing-up.

Elvis was a wreck in every sense of the word toward the end of his life.  Country boy who made it big and couldn't handle it.  But hey, for a few million dollar paydays, there might go you and I.

Marilyn's ghost may never be laid to rest. She had some very sleazy friends in high office and high places. Aging Rat Pack groupie, and all but married-to-the-mob.  Bert Stern's 1962 photo shoot is her visual obit.

I can't agree with you about Bogart. I don't think he ever "peaked". He changed, of course. Beginning in musical comedy on Broadway in his teens as the obnoxious young socialite... "anyone for tennis?" ,  and going on to the 1930s hit films where he was usually typecast as a gangster.  Then came the 1940s classics like Casablanca, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,  etc. They are his best known, but the 1950s showed him in The African Queen, The Caine Mutiny, and The Barefoot Contessa as over-the-hill and somewhat crazy, but still Bogart. One of the best.

16 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

So we now have to look forward to being knocked down by silent tuk tuks going the wrong way as we can't hear them coming and are looking only at the oncoming traffic.

They should have to make some sort of noise to warn pedestrians.

Good point.

How about outfitting them with jingle bells... or in the vernacular, jinger ben?

I'm available as a consultant, pro bono.

During the 2016 presidential election, neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton raised the matter of the American war in Afghanistan, now in its 16th year.

The US surge in 2010, which brought 100,000 troops into the country, failed to stem the Taliban's drive. By 2014, that strategy was silently dropped. There was little discussion about it then. With the great loss of life on all sides, the waste of resources and the futility of US war aims, one would have thought that the question of Afghanistan would have been raised in the debates or in the speeches. But there was virtual silence on it.

It is unlikely that even a proposed increase of 5,000 US troops will have an impact on the Taliban's gains. The style of US warfare is likely to increase civilian casualties, and the deterioration of the Afghan National Army will not raise the population's confidence. The Taliban which had been delegitimized for its cruelty 20 years ago, has now positioned itself once more as the only viable force to bring stability to the country. The reality of this is clear to many in US intelligence. The return of the Taliban would be a major blow to American prestige, the worst US military defeat since Vietnam. Every contingency will be taken to prevent that outcome, even the destruction of Afghanistan. 

Too easy.

If you dislike or disagree with a post then refute it with a kickass reply.

8 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

This is just one of many ways that Trump is destroying America.  The US already spends way more than any other country on defense and has by far the strongest military in the history of mankind.  And Trump wants to spend even more?  To do what?  Start more wars?  And of course, this money has to come from somewhere.  So senseless.  Another example of the stupidity of Trump.

It's not just the stupidity of Trump - it's the stupidity of those who voted him into office.

Although it could be argued that Hillary Clinton and the interests that she represents was a far worse alternative.

The recent election was a classic no-win situation for the American people and for the world.

10 minutes ago, Morch said:

@JingerBen

 

The situation was not solely created by Israel, nor is it solely maintained by Israel. There's another side, namely the Palestinians - and it is an undeniable fact that they contributed to their current and ongoing predicament. Ignoring such facts, and favoring drivel like the post above is not contributing an iota to the conflict's resolution.

Blaming the Palestinians is a familiar propaganda ploy.

Israel stands condemned by the whole world.

What country supports the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza?