Cory1848

See it all the time! Years ago I rear-ended someone in Bangkok; it was totally my fault, and the rear bumper of the car I hit fell clean off. A farang got out of the driver’s seat and said, “No problem, no problem! Please just drive away, I can just fix this myself”; then a ladyboy got out of the passenger's seat and was (rightfully) angry with me. I took the driver’s advice and left; last I saw in my rear-view mirror, he’d picked up the rear bumper and was trying to pop it back into place, while his friend was yelling at him. I was lucky that I didn’t have to pay to fix their car, but really, people should just be chill! If someone wants to be critical, that’s their problem ...

I’m sorry, you may have read too much into my post -- I was merely saying that SOME foreigners come to Thailand to experiment with their sexuality, and that’s perfectly fine as long as there’s full consent by all parties. I was not at all saying that it’s “always gotta be about sex”; far from it. Reading your other posts here, I couldn’t agree with you more, and I applaud your openness and your human decency.

How do you know? And what's a "straight guy" anyway? It's not quite so black-and-white.

Exactly. For the "bi-curious," or to check an item off one's bucket list.

What on earth are you going on about? I’m not contesting anything you say, simply pointing out the fallacy of citing circumstances from a hundred years ago and longer and applying them to the present day. Southern white racists were Democrats until the Democrats adopted progressive policies under Franklin Roosevelt and his successors. This did not please white southerners, who switched parties because the race-baiting of the Republicans was more to their liking. Both political parties evolved, in opposite directions. If you like history, I can suggest Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War.”

Yeah, and that was like 150 years ago. Various British Tories and radicals alike were also entirely pro-slavery -- note my use of the past tense. Congratulations on knowing your history, but you also should learn to contextualize it.

I would actually prefer the “business as usual” of mainstream Democrats to the dismantling of US democracy that Trump has spelled out in detail, but that’s just me.

Every situation is different, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has no application here. In the late 1940s, about 800,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced by the creation of Israel; at the same time, about the same number of Jews evacuated or were forced from majority Arab cities where they’d lived for centuries. The latter were absorbed and assimilated into the new Jewish state; the former, along with their children and grandchildren, mostly remain refugees to this day, to suit the political purposes of the Arab states that host them. Population transfers, or ethnic cleansing, is horrendous and inhumane, but it’s better than people continuing to murder each other from generation to generation over scraps of land whose original “ownership” has long lost all relevance. European Jews were ethnically cleansed from most of Europe in the aftermath of World War II (those who survived), and you can blame the Germans for that. Millions of Germans were themselves ethnically cleansed from parts of present-day Poland and the Sudetenland; today, just a few generations later, the Germans, Poles, and Czechs are all happy allies. It’s still happening today; most people haven’t even noticed, but a week or two ago 150,000 Armenians were driven from their ancestral homeland in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is brutal and condemnable, but they will be able to start new lives in Armenia proper, and their offspring will hardly feel the pain. Until humanity somehow evolves and develops tolerance for each other, this is sometimes the least unpleasant option. Unfortunately, for the Palestinian Arabs and the Israelis, it’s too late for simple solutions ...

And probably more than 90 percent of them are badly photo-shopped fakes !!!

Thanks for digging up that video of the woman who's really busy trying to make a living cooking; this guy is truly a jerk! It's long past time for him to just go back home.

It’s not that straightforward. My wife was a US federal employee during a shutdown in the 1990s; “essential personnel” still have to go to work, and she was deemed essential. And while pay is deferred only (she and everyone else got all their back pay when the shutdown ended), we had money to cover expenses in the meantime; a lot of federal workers don’t, so it can be hard on them, especially if a shutdown drags on through a couple of missed paychecks.

In the video, the American starts out speaking Thai, so he probably knows his way around. If anything, he was maybe trolling for a dishonest cabbie to get a good video.

I did yelp twice, during a few moments of very brief discomfort, and it was nice having something to grip onto! But I got an initial shot of local anesthesia, which helped, and because of that I hardly felt the cortisone injection at all. I did not see the size of the needle used; I was on my side, facing away from it, and I wasn’t in the least bit interested! I really don’t enjoy getting shots of any kind, but the overall experience here was quite good. Again, not sure how it would differ for something in the lower back. Best of luck --

Total cost of the cortisone injection was about THB 16,000. But you’ll need an MRI before that to pinpoint exactly where the problem is; not sure if you’ve had an MRI yet, but that cost about THB 13,000. If you have international insurance, both procedures can possibly be direct-paid by the insurance company (at Chiang Mai Ram), depending on what insurance company it is and pending pre-approval by the company (I have Blue Cross, which worked, but had to pay a copay of about 15%). My issues are in the upper spine, neck area; if you’re lower back, costs of course may differ, I have no idea. The doctor at Chiang Mai Ram who administered the injection is Dr. Prasong Khunsongkiet; he was great. You’d need to talk with someone on the first floor of the hospital (surgery desk) to arrange an initial consultation, and the injection is administered in the operating theater on the second floor. The nurse held my hand throughout the injection (about a minute), which was a nice touch ...

I didn't read through all the responses, so sorry if I'm repeating anything. I just had a cortisone (steroid) injection yesterday morning in my neck (upper spine) for a pinched nerve that was causing pain in my right arm; arm feels better today, but it will take a few days for the full effect (if it works) to take place. Did it at Chiang Mai Ram, which has been my regular hospital for years. Since the cortisone injection typically lasts about six months and patients go back for injections (no more than twice a year), I also intend to travel to the spinal surgery center at Bumrungrad in Bangkok to see if they have a noninvasive (laser) technique to take care of the problem once and for all. Chiang Mai Ram does have a surgical solution to my specific problem, but it's invasive (they go in through the neck). The laser procedure sounds more appealing, if available. Hope that helps; good luck. I'd consider traveling to Bumrungrad for a longer-term solution, if you're looking for that; steroid injections are easily done at Chiang Mai Ram.

I know nothing about the film, but Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels," on which the film must be based, was published in 1726. I guess you're not an English lit major!

So some people I guess have forgotten their Jonathan Swift. On the deliberate misspelling: ha ha. But while Netanyahu may be a criminal who stays in power to avoid jail, he’s far from a yahoo. Insults and word games aside, the bottom line is: Israel, Palestine, and especially Gaza all deserve far better leadership than what they have now.

Oh good heavens, I'm not going down that rabbit hole with you. You're doing nothing but deflecting.

Some things are worth fighting for. I guess we have a difference of opinion on that.

I pay taxes in the US; I am happy to pay taxes to arm the Ukrainians and will vote for people who promise to continue arming the Ukrainians using my tax dollars. Tens of millions of Americans feel the same.

Touché. But Marshal Pétain is widely regarded as a traitor and his Vichy government a disgrace. The surname of his Norwegian equivalent, Vidkun Quisling, has entered the English language as a word meaning “a traitorous national who aids the invader of his country.” These are hardly models to emulate.

Well, I think Ukrainian capacity versus Russia is greater than the Finns’ versus the USSR. The Ukrainians HAVE managed to push the Russians out of large chunks of territory (around Kharkiv and Kherson, and away from Kiev), although the current offensive seems to be very slow. Some news sources say they’re making progress; others not so much. On demographics, for sure the Ukrainians have fewer people to fight, but I don’t think their casualty figures are as high as the Russians’. And the Russian will to fight will diminish far more quickly than the Ukrainians'. At this point, I would still bet on continuing to arm the Ukrainians as the best course ...

I think the basic contention here is, you don’t believe the Ukrainians can win the war without NATO boots on the ground, and others here (myself included) think they can, provided they continue to receive military aid from the West (and more of it, and more quickly). The Ukrainians are far more motivated, and Putin is very vulnerable, especially as Russia’s staggering losses continue to mount. He can’t continue to throw hundreds of thousands of troops into battle, with tens of thousands coming home in body bags. Regardless of his grip on power in Russia, it’s not sustainable, any more than it was in Vietnam, or Afghanistan, or the nascent United States (for the British redcoats), or any other colonial war. You think there’s a risk of escalation and “WWIII” if the war continues; I think there’s a bigger risk of “WWIII” by appeasing the aggressor. There are legitimate arguments on both sides, and history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it seems clear to me that giving Putin what he wants would be a huge mistake, and despite your saying that you have little personal interest in the conflict, the conflict would start to become very interested in you.

Technically, Estonia has been independent since 1920 and was occupied by the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1991; the United States and many other countries never recognized that occupation and maintained some form of diplomatic representation with all three Baltic states throughout that period. But of course, in reality, Estonia was under the complete control of Moscow, and 1991 marked a “restoration” of independence. The country’s PM, Kaja Kallas, has been very visible and outspoken at least in Europe and North America, particularly on the subject of Ukraine. I don’t know how one defines “global leader,” but I would rank her as one.

Estonia punches above its weight. Thanks for being so dismissive.