dcpo

Visit Guantanamo and then talk to the US again...

You don't think there is a bit of a difference between a suspected terrorist and someone who said they don't like a charter... which most people on here also do not like. I suspect if they began rounding up TV posters for similar attitude adjustments the opinion would be different.

There's a theoretical difference but in practice Guantanamo was and is a travesty. Many innocent people held without trial for years in ugly conditions. I'm ashamed just thinking about it.

I'm sorry the continuing struggle of ordinary Thai people against the military elite who topple elected governments whenever they feel like it has inconvenienced so many of the good folk of the TV forum.

Lots of Democrat party supporters must be feeling pretty silly these days. They should be anyway. On the bright side, future generations will be getting laughs from Thailand's 'reverse revolution' and it's incredibly predictable outcome for years to come. Maybe not in Thailand though.

Singapore 12th and 13th ranked.

Malaysia has 5 Universities ranked higher than Thailand's best including University Malaysia at 149

Decent students from other ASEAN countries [including Thailand] will be heading for 1st world universities where they can get a worthwhile, well regarded education in a climate of free speech and expression. They will NOT be joining courses in Thai Universities where a Thai degree in the outside world is considered likely to have been bought rather than earned, and therefore not worth the paper it is printed on.

By what ranking? Not according to THE, or any other I could find online. Of course Singapore has better universities. SG is an advanced economy with advanced economy prices. Decent students may not have the money or desire to go jetting off to another country aged 18. You can use Thai degrees to get jobs in and out of Thailand, and to get places on graduate courses in 1st world universities. Try doing that without a degree. You don't know what you're talking about. Where did you buy your degree?

If Thailand were to attract students from other countries into the famous and prestigious Thai Universities then this might be deemed as parochial and short sighted.

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2015#sorting=rank+region=+country=131+faculty=+stars=false+search=

[only Chula and Mahidol rank in the top 300 worldwide at no. 253 and 295 respectively]

However as any decent student from the ASEAN region would probably rather take up a lifelong career as a road sweeper than attend a Thai university it is unlikely to have much impact.

Rubbish. Do you even know which countries are in ASEAN? Thai universities are much better than those of most of the other countries.

Most Thai universities already changed to the ASEAN academic calendar a few years ago and are now realizing what a disaster that move was. I know I wouldn't want my children trying to study & sit exams during this heatwave, or being confined to Thailand's north during the worst of the hazardous smoke pollution season. The sooner those universities revert to the traditional academic year the better - it would be refreshing to see sanity prevail in the education system (for once:)

The heat is fine. University classrooms have AC work continues in the hot season, even in Thailand. The main problem is the massive disruption that the numerous public holidays cause in the run up to final exams. It's not an insurmountable problem but it is annoying.

Is Songkran more dangerous than 7 days chosen at random? Looking into the stats I can find no evidence that it is, and some reason to believe that it isn't.

From a purely pragmatic point of view the main problem with torture is that it doesn't work. There's a huge amount of evidence for this and I'm sure the great brains that comment on TV can track it down. Assuming of course they want to enjoy the novelty of knowing something about the thing they're commenting on.

Cruz is worse than Trump. Trump is like a violent bout of explosive diarrhoea, while Cruz is more like a slowly growing malignant brain tumour. What a state for the Republicans. The tail is wagging the dog. While I'm a pretty liberal person I can respect the Republican party of the 80s and 90s (and earlier), even though I disagree with them about some things. But when your main guys are Trump and Cruz something has gone very wrong. I think a lot of reasonable Republicans must be doing some soul searching right now. The mainstream of the party allowed the wingnut fringe to grow, nurtured it even, while it was convenient for them, and now it's got too big for them to control. It's poetic almost.

Here we go again with the "explaining". Guess the rest of the world is just to daft for "understanding" thainess.

Fortunately the US and other western countries have never done anything for which an explanation, if they bothered to make one at all, was lame, self-serving and/or transparently false ... especially when it comes to the use of the military or police.

None of the so-called western democracies are in a position to lecture others on how democracy is supposed to work. The US has certainly propped up (or engineered regime changes) governments that were anything but democratic when it suited their purposes.

Western foreign policy, as with all foreign policy, is extremely self centred, and the US, UK etc. ARE more than happy to prop up terrible regimes when it is convenient to do so. Domestically though the Western democracies are clearly vastly superior in a number of ways. There is really no competition. You can pick a hole but Western democracies function relatively well by any reasonable metric. And on top of that I can go to, say, London, and distribute cartoons of David Cameron having sex with a dead pig and nobody is going to stop me. So yes, other countries do have a lot to learn from the West if they are interested in the well-being of their own people.

Nationalist Coup for Pleb Obedience.

Personally all suicide bombers or anyone connected-including their immediate families-ought to be jailed for life

maybe just maybe it might make them think twice if there are repercussions such as this

That's grotesque. It's exactly this kind of twisted revenge logic that drives people to become suicide bombers. Are we better than them, or do we just fly a different colour flag?

"I am shocked, shocked to find that human trafficking is going on in here!"

Another example of keeping the masses dumb so they dont have the intelligence to understand what the military continue to take from them.

The thing is that in Thailand many of the worst educated people see through the façade of the elites, and many of the better educated buy it completely.

Oh look it's the TV peanut gallery with their incredibly well informed opinions.

Interesting many of you criticize Mexico for its drug violence. This problem is fuelled in no small part by the vast appetite for illegal drugs in the US, and the unwillingness of conservatives to respond to the problem with measures that don't empower the most violent criminals.

Also, yes, Trump uses the language and strategy of classical fascism. If you don't agree you clearly haven't been paying attention.

This law must be specific to model dinosaurs, because in the years I've lived here I've never seen a red flag on any of the numerous other objects the drivers here having protruding from the backs of their trucks.

It's hard to hold an opinion about anything without accidentally agreeing with something Trump said at some point. He just says whatever he feels is most convenient at the time. He has no substance at all. But it doesn't matter because his supporters don't care about facts.

Someone should tell him that work sets you free.

Which is more ridiculous: To believe spirits can possess a doll, or to have a little house in your garden reserved for spirits, to regularly take them little things to eat to earn their good favour, but not believe they can possess a doll?

The solution, as always, is more guns. If some upstanding citizens and returned fire in the general direction of the shopping center I'm sure justice could have been served on the spot. No need for the interfering government to get involved. God bless America. Trump for president.

Al Gore was wrong to stop Bill Clinton campaigning for him, but Bush is even more wrong for asking GW to campaign for him. GW, a lying war criminal that took the US into an illegal war with Iraq and destabilised the middle east, while laying the groundwork for IS also allowed the global financial meltdown which has ruined millions.

If Bush's opponents can't take that guy apart, they shouldn't be running for POTOS.

And yet in comparison to Trump and Cruz, the current front runners in one of the only two significant parties, he gets to play the role of level headed moderate. We live in interesting times.

It is not up to you to report. It would be the responsibility of the owner, house-master or possessor of the property you are visiting.

It's not your responsibility in theory, but in reality if you turn up to immigration for your 90 day report or visa extension and it hasn't been done and the officer wants to make an issue of it then it's your problem.

Who cares if criminals who kill innocent people are tortured.

The first problem with torture is that the 'information' it produces is usually not reliable. The second problem is that if you have the wrong person, which you often will if you're using torture to get your information, then you're torturing an innocent person. The third problem is that if you're torturing people, innocent or not, then you pay significantly in goodwill from their communities.

People guilty of this kind of crime probably deserve death, but how much do you trust the system to identify the guilty correctly?