McMagus

I read your opening post then your other replies ....larf? I just about pissed myself.

Have you considered a profession such as a stand up comic ?

I think the sad thing is that there would be a lot of people thinking they are doing some real good in offering (and working in) this service and I guess any programme is better than none but the irritating, nay, infuriating thing is when they have all these big profile drug busts, never once have any kingpins been caught let alone named and shamed. Thais have a wonderful 'silent knowledge' of what is going on in their country that we farangs are often not privy to. A case in point are coups and disturbances when Thai friends would say ..'stay at home tomorrow... not good' and lo and behold.,, So I am certain that everybody knows who these kingpins are but their status in Thai society provides immunity or at least allows them to become 'invisible'. In another post I commented on how Thais don't seem to mind by which means a person acquires wealth and 'face'. Shame they can't / won't nail these low life trash.

Personally, all Thai TV could close down and replace existing shows...news, soapies etc etc with a test pattern and it would be more informative and interesting.

It's quite amazing how people love to go off topic here. The topic of this thread is whether or not the Thais want to hear the truth, not who came to power because of, or not because of, or maybe because of a coup, or whether any analogies can be drawn to Australian politics. Thai politics is such a joke I suggest we treat it as such and have a good laugh, personally I don't give a rat's ar*e how many coups they have had or are like to have or if the voting system is democratic or whatever ,the great thing is I can choose to go home when I like.

I'm not sure if we could agree on what counts as an 'elected government'....caretaker or not. Wikipedia has this to say...

'The 2006 Thai coup d'état took place on Tuesday 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a coup d'état against the elected caretaker government of Prime MinisterThaksin Shinawatra'.

I think it is a long bow to draw to say that Abhisit did not come to power directly because of the coup. Had the coup never taken place, and the country had continued on under Thaksin until the next general election, I suspect that Thaksin would have again had a landslide victory. Who knows, it's all conjecture and anyway, I really don't care too much about Thai politics as they are all as corrupt as each other. Not much point in going off topic about coups and their relationship to Australian politics.

Great then. Yingluck owes her premiership to the coup.

Why bother ... Wikipedia again ...

'In May 2011, the Pheu Thai Party, which maintains close ties to Thaksin, nominated Yingluck as their candidate for Prime Minister in the 2011 general election.^[5][6] She campaigned on a platform of national reconciliation, poverty eradication, and corporate income tax reduction, but the ruling Democrat Partyclaimed that she would act in the interests of her exiled brother. The Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory, winning 265 seats in the 500 seat House of Representatives of Thailand,^[7] It was only the second time in Thai political history that a single party won a parliamentary majority, the first party was her brother's party, Thai Rak Tha'i.

Get over it.

We could have a Tv Ashes... could prove interesting.

A popularly elected government was dumped in Aus in 1975. I don't remember there being armed protests in Aus following that.

Sent from my HTC phone.

Yep, that it was, I was there and remember it well, but the difference is.. a) It happened once in our political history and most importantly the mechanism used to get rid of the Whitlam government was constitutional, not a military coup orchestrated by the elite. I take your point but not really comparable.

The coup didn't depose an elected government and no one came to power through the coup.

When the PPP was disbanded by the courts, the PTP were then in government but needed to elect a new PM. They could have called an election, but they chose to go to parliament to elect a new PM, and they lost and Abhisit was elected.

Sent from my HTC phone.

I'm not sure if we could agree on what counts as an 'elected government'....caretaker or not. Wikipedia has this to say...

'The 2006 Thai coup d'état took place on Tuesday 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a coup d'état against the elected caretaker government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra'.

I think it is a long bow to draw to say that Abhisit did not come to power directly because of the coup. Had the coup never taken place, and the country had continued on under Thaksin until the next general election, I suspect that Thaksin would have again had a landslide victory. Who knows, it's all conjecture and anyway, I really don't care too much about Thai politics as they are all as corrupt as each other. Not much point in going off topic about coups and their relationship to Australian politics.

I often get the feeling from reading posts here that most people believe that Thaksin was the bad guy and the then Abhisit govt. were the good guys. This is manifest in words like .. 'months of constant provocation', 'the illegal occupation of the central business district', etc., etc. Yes, this kind of protest would never have been condoned in the west, but, in the west, generally, governments with a popular mandate are always allowed to run their term. Here, it has been shown over and over again that this is not the case. Had popularly elected governments in France, Britain, Australia etc. been routinely thrown out by an elitist group, then most people would have been a tad pissed off. So firstly, I don't think we can use the same measuring stick to compare western democracies and Thai style democracy; it isn't. For a start, here, not all members are elected in a proportional voting system, a large number are 'appointed'. So for a start there is no true democracy here, calling it such is a lie. Secondly, Thailand is a feudal society where loyalties to the 'boss' far outweighs any loyalty to the nation as a whole or loyalty to a concept such as democracy, rule of law etc. So whilst Thaksin certainly lined his pockets, he also did some good things ... paid off the national debt, opened up the banking system. Years of oppression by Thai elites opened a pandoras box of their own making and inadvertently promoted a system which allowed people like Thaksin to take advantage for his own needs. Interestingly, in my inexperience, Thais do not differentiate as to how a person becomes rich. Even if you have made your fortune by highly immoral means, it makes no difference to Thais, you still have 'face' and can command respect. This in itself is a form of bastardisation of truth, it therefore is a very small step for whomsoever is in power to ignore anything that they don't agree with. The longer I stay here, the more and more cynical I have become that Thailand as a nation and Thais as a people have the capacity to raise themselves above sandpit politics and rule for the betterment of all Thais... it is a bit depressing really. So much talent going to waste, so many lost opportunities. And there endeth the sermon :-)

A popularly elected government was dumped in Aus in 1975. I don't remember there being armed protests in Aus following that.

Sent from my HTC phone.

Yep, that it was, I was there and remember it well, but the difference is.. a) It happened once in our political history and most importantly the mechanism used to get rid of the Whitlam government was constitutional, not a military coup orchestrated by the elite. I take your point but not really comparable.

Again, Srinakarin in Khon Kaen... by all reports a good hospital... had some minor surgery there and it was very very well done... I would go back if I need to.

I have to say I don't think I have seen a more narcissistic race of people. Go through any of the big stores and they sit around, males and females preening themselves, even the motorcycle taxi guys can be seen preening in front of their mirrors. So, sadly, it is inevitable that this kind of tragic event will happen and so called 'doctors' will be out to make a buck. I remember going into a large well to do hospital once and there at the entrance was a bevy of beauties, in their short shorts and thigh high boots advertising some slimming programme. Or at the gym where the farangs just grab any old pair of grotty shorts and T shirt and get into it, but there was this Thai guy with his beautifully whitened shoes and matching top and bottoms, standing in front of a mirror...' hmmm, collar up..no collar down ... no collar up ... oh dam_n I've got a pimple...'

Sad when I quote myself but got to thinking about mirrors ... good job they don't have big ones next to the highways.

If 5 cops were found guilty of murder (3 of whom were sentenced to death), can just walk out of gaol...this isn't really such a newsy story. Now if there was some consistency in sentencing, that would be news.

I have to say I don't think I have seen a more narcissistic race of people. Go through any of the big stores and they sit around, males and females preening themselves, even the motorcycle taxi guys can be seen preening in front of their mirrors. So, sadly, it is inevitable that this kind of tragic event will happen and so called 'doctors' will be out to make a buck. I remember going into a large well to do hospital once and there at the entrance was a bevy of beauties, in their short shorts and thigh high boots advertising some slimming programme. Or at the gym where the farangs just grab any old pair of grotty shorts and T shirt and get into it, but there was this Thai guy with his beautifully whitened shoes and matching top and bottoms, standing in front of a mirror...' hmmm, collar up..no collar down ... no collar up ... oh dam_n I've got a pimple...'

I will quote part of your opening gambit ...

'You’ve got uneducated, mindless morons running'...countries.

'nuff said.

Yep, I know exactly where you are coming from...my last lady was working for NASA and an ex model.

What a load of crap.

Yep I will wait and have a quick look, but I'm not holding my breath. Firstly news reporting in Thailand is an absolute joke as there will never be IMHO in depth analysis and expose of what is happening. But, lets just wait and see.

As I said on an other post, great that they have the freedom to protest but where is it written that Muslims have a passport to go through life without being offended? Shame cos Islam is one of the great religions of the world.... even though in the words of Nick Cave ...'I don't believe in an interventionist god'.

I agree, an f 1.2 EF on a non full frame is a bit of a waste. I have been using an f1.4 EF on my old 5 D and I'm very happy with the results. Sure it is not an 'L' lens but I figure I'm getting about 90%+ of the quality at about 30% of the price. The only thing an f 1.2 MAY do for you is better edge to edge resolution / clarity when wide open....and on an APS c sensor like the 450 you are not using the edges anyway. I would seriously consider the old 5D ( Mark 1) because with a lower pixel density over the newer EOS 450, it will exhibit less noise at higher ISO, it is still IMHO the 'Queen of the Night'. Also the other benefits of a full frame 'proper' depth of field and out of focus highlights which always look great at night.

Just a thought.

What I think is most hilarious here (and irritating) is that these people are NEVER named and shamed. Is it because of the deeply rooted patronage system or not wanting to cause loss of face to these lowlife, or is it something else? Can anyone explain?

To geriatrickid

The link to Israel / Palestine is I think a valid one. I am told but can't confirm that, for hundreds of years prior to the establishment of the Israeli state after WW2, that Jews and Arabs had been living peacefully together and in fact at times, took part in 'Milk Mothering' where a Jewish mother would breastfeed her Arab neighbour's baby and vice versa. It seems to me that much of the destabilisation in the Middle East is partly due to disenfranchisement of the Palestinians and maybe, just maybe had the west dealt with this issue in a different way we may not have the same degree of trouble we have now.

To MikeOboe57

'So what is the excuse of the Muslims? '

You miss my point, there is no excuse. When you have the Taliban blowing up schools and killing teachers because they dare to try and educate women, the chances of the vast majority of the peasant populations in these countries getting access to a balanced education and exposure to more moderate values are practically nil. Whilst I don't think it is justifiable to tar all Muslims with the same brush, it is valid to accuse the moderates of not doing enough to reign in the extremists and I believe we are reaching a watershed where the Muslim world must ask itself what kind of future they want. But I stand by my original position that true Islam is a religion of peace, not the bastardisation we see and hear so much of today. In the same way that much of the extremist views of Christians are a bastardisation of the Christian message.

Looks like were headed right back to the Dark Ages where its illegal to criticize religion. I am getting sick and tired of Islam demanding this shroud of respect it is never willing to afford to others. You DO NOT have a right to not be offended in this life and you DO NOT have the right to inflict violence on others because of pictures or YouTube clips a half a world away. It is time the Governments of the world stood up to these murderous thugs and said no instead of cowtowing to them by granting their command for censorship under threat of violence.

Just scratch the surface a little and all the anti Muslim bigotry comes pouring out. For the record..No,this piece of crap film should not be censored, No particular religion or group should feel they have a passport through life for not being offended. But, if you bothered to find out about TRUE Islam, you would find a tolerant religion. Similarly, I am disgusted by the right wing extremism of some so called Christians... if they knew anything about the TRUE Christian message they would find a tolerant religion. The west has opened a Pandora's Box of their own making. Since the establishment of the Jewish state, we have, perhaps through misguided collective guilt, allowed Israel to literally get away with murder and the illegal occupation of Arab land. The American attitude of 'Israel can do no wrong' only marginalises the moderate elements in Islam and gives air to these extremists. This is why Benjamin Netanyahu is so vigorously lobbying for Romney because Obama isn't so keen to give Israel a free hand for a pre emptive strike against Iran. So, when a dopey film comes along it is a perfect ploy for their agenda. But to go down the road of ...'I am getting sick and tired of Islam' merely perpetuates the idea that all Muslims by definition are thereby ill educated terrorists in the making. Let's see how long Texans would put up with a foreign power taking over their state based on a religious text. When the protests broke out in Sydney overnight, some Muslims went on record as saying how they were disgusted by the violent protest and that in doing so brought shame upon Islam worse than the film.

Yes, I would think so but the bit that tickled my fancy was the BIB are going to research what it is that is causing so many deaths. I would have thought it was bleedin obvious. 2 days ago I witnessed an act of absolute stupidity. Country road and a pick-up toddling along, another pick-up overtakes it at high speed, but right up the backside of the overtaking car is a VW van overtaking the overtaker (if you get my gist) except none of them realised there was an old songteow in front of the first car...4 vehicles trying to get into the space for one.

Closest I can come to it is by way of example .. ex Samuel Taylor Coleridge

' Water water everywhere nor any drop to drink'