soalbundy

I'm doing my best.

and it's hand written in Latin, the translation of the text and handwriting is expected to take several years.

A Rorks Drift replay without the guns, a culture show for the Thais.

Yes all Western nations have the classification 'democracies', no argument there, they are however imperfect democracies but function because there is free speech and rule of law (the courts are especially necessary these days). Remember during the Soviet era Eastern countries were referred to as communist societies although they were nothing more than dictatorships, East Germany even called itself democratic while Russia called itself a socialist republic, just names without meaning.

Of course he does......right, that's one box ticked now let's get on to something important that gets votes.

The CPI is dropping everywhere because of a lack of discretionary money causes a lack of demand, it's falling for the wrong reasons.

I'm talking about TRUE democracy here which entails everybody in the community having a say in every major decision, that can only be done in a community of less than 5,000 people. Voting every 4 years for a party to handle all decisions (which could have an impact on their reelection if they decided on necessary but unpopular measures) isn't democracy, it's handing over responsibility for which there are no consequences. Many people who aspire to politics are borderline sociopaths, those who should be in power (responsible, intelligent, empathetic people) have no interest in the filthy business. Listen to your members of congress speaking, they certainly aren't intelligent but rely on their advisers who are but who apparently have no conscience, a bunch of sycophants. As Mark Twain once said, " Imagine you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of congress, but I repeat myself". People vote from a limited choice of power hungry candidates and I dare say that if a suitable well read, intelligent candidate was available he/she wouldn't be chosen, as the saying goes, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public". Certainly, by good luck, this system has proven to be more beneficial to the people than under a dictatorship of one power hungry man but only because free speech has proven to be a deterrent.

Alcohol and prescription medicines are drugs. Drug addicts are more likely to commit crimes to fuel their drug habit than say someone who is silently suffering from depression. My cousin is bi-polar, when he has a depressive phase he retreats from the world, he has therapy treatment only because he is well off and can afford to pay for it himself.

To weep when trying to make a point in parliament raises the question of how 'repaired' is she. Mental health is the step child of all monetary allocations in every health organization world wide, in the UK the police complain that they are having to act as an arm of the mental health service because people don't have adequate access to treatment. It is obvious why priority is given to drug users, they cause the most harm to society. Mental health treatment (if done correctly) is costly and governments don't have unlimited amounts of money, in the UK even getting treatment for 'normal' illnesses is a disaster, even people with cancer can wait a year or more before getting treatment.

I'm referring to life in the present era, not to outliers in the past. Democracy doesn't really exist anyway, for that you would need a community of less than 5,000 people who could vote on every major decision, even the ancient Greeks didn't achieve that. Power belongs to those who control the means of production and the flow of money and they are the powers behind the throne, Liz Truss found that out rather quickly. If any one party or council ever produced results that were satisfactory to the vast majority of the population they would be in power for multiple decades. The day to day running of the country, any country, lies in the hands of the unelected civil service ('yes minister' is apparently a realistic view of government). It was Churchill, who though agreeing that 'democracy' was the best sorry choice of method of government, said (I paraphrase) " One could be led to dismiss democracy when speaking with the average voter" (look at the support that Trump has in the USA). So no, in this era it doesn't matter which party is in power, nothing fundamentally changes for the average person.

Mistake 1. was agreeing to a meeting with the husband, in what world was this going to end peacefully, if you must bonk another man's wife keep it secret.....rarely works though.

Nobody crosses William Tell and gets away with it. She is doing the right thing, some branches of the police only move when threatened with publicity or a lawyer, I imagine action will now be taken.

A first!

weeping is an exaggeration, life isn't a game that promotes fairness especially in politics. Life goes on no matter who is in power, the average Thai isn't going to be affected one way or another just because MFP gets to steer the helm, corruption will continue, mistakes will be made and the reality of give and take in the halls of power will ensure that for Mr. Somchai the status quo will be alive and well. Nobody ever found El Dorado.

He's not even Indian.

I wish I could give a $hit

I've been wrong about more important things before.

An early arrival. It knows something we don't.

She was stuck IN the lift at the 58th floor, it went there without her selecting it.

Blessed are the cheese makers

Might influence the TAT though as well as who is going to pay.

The market, the real economy, will decide the rate cuts, the FED can only respond. The FED has caused credit tightening to such an extent that money is in short supply in a debt based economy which means low demand for goods and debt delinquency, the result will be high unemployment. The FED will cut drastically, possibly to zero again, but due to the lag effect it wont help, too high for too long will cause the FED's reaction to be too little too late, even negative rates won't help, a world synchronized economic crisis is on the horizon which is what the inverted yield curves are prophesying.

Yeah, lower the price of ecstasy.

I think most expats would be of your opinion and yet many would willingly slip 300 Baht under a policeman's clip board (try doing that in the West) and I have seen many a falang jump into his car after 3 or 4 large beers, not obviously drunk but over the limit but they obviously drive better than the Thais and are more responsible, one of my acquaintances managed to kill himself by driving his motorbike in to the wall of his own house while drunk.

Once you accept 'it is as it is' life becomes so much simpler. In the West life is almost antiseptic, take the ULEZ (ultra low emission zones) in the UK, 20 mph maximum and the myriad of fines that can be given out for the most minor of transgressions and yet there are still 346 road accidents daily, in 2022 there were 1,711 fatalities, and 135,480 casualties of all severity. This is low compared to the 20,000 fatalities per year in Thailand but accidents still happen and no matter how hard the police control traffic they will continue to happen, how severe do you want the controls to be? My opinion is that there is too much in the UK and far too little in Thailand, there should be a happy medium somewhere without being too draconian. You can't wrap people up in cotton wool, life entails risk which should and can be somewhat minimized, the Thais don't quite see it that way, perhaps that is why life here is so much more vibrant than in the UK.