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Interesting. Thanks for enlightening me. I had never heard before that the schools circulated pornography to the school children before, as they do now and even assign homework with pornographic books to children. I guess I hadn't kept up with the reality of the situation in thinking that school districts in the past didn't impose pornographic materials into the curricula making it, in some cases, required reading of the students, as some school districts have been revealed to have been doing lately. But, even if school officials or teachers widely circulated pornographic postcard sized pics to students in the 40's and 50's, I think you'll find that there is a MASSIVE difference between that and the pornography that the teachers and school districts have assigned to schools these days, with very explicitly graphic stories, with pictures. In particular, they prefer to promote homosexual pornography and to even explicitly encourage the students to explore for themselves what they are learning in the assigned homework. The kind of stuff you mention from the 40's and 50's is like kindergarten level compared to post grad university level pornography. Although, I admit that I had not heard of schools widely circulating pornography to their students in the 40's and 50's, I have EXTREME doubts that it bore any resemblance to the kind of pornography being assigned to students in these recent times. Sorry to say that I also doubt your version of events, unless you are meaning to say that kids got their hands on these pictures and passed them among themselves, that it wasn't from the schools. Of course, that sort of thing has likely been going on for millennia. But that isn't the issue and nobody is arguing or doubting that. That's why I took it that you were comparing apples to apples and meant that pornography was being distributed by the schools back then too and not making a vain attempt to compare apples to oranges.

It's not old news. The old news that you are referring to is the news that he was arrested. The news that is given here is that "Welton has pleaded guilty to charges of threatening a federal official in connection with their duties. His sentencing is set for July, where he could face a substantial prison term for his actions."According to the headline, that "substantial prison term" could be 10 years. I'd bet that if he didn't plead guilty that it would potentially and threatened to be MUCH longer. As opposed to calling it "old news", thus making it seem irrelevant, I'd call it a great followup story. Far too often it is only reported that someone was arrested, but it is never reported that they actually were punished or got off for maybe good or maybe stupid reasons.

Anyone remember that China won the bid over Japan for helping Thailand build their high speed rail? 🤔 I'm still is utter disbelief over that insane decision.

I haven't heard much of anything about Chiangmai. I'd expect a lot more damage in Chiangmai that Bangkok... it is less than half the distance from the epicenter. I don't expect the corruption in the construction industry are much different between the two. Anyone here know if Chiangmai is much different in damages? I'm out of town at the moment....

Amazing that dog is still alive... regardless of whether or not it is the owner who is at fault for not training and controlling his dog. I know that dog would not be around anymore after having found a tasty morsel of meat that didn't agree with him, if he were in my neighborhood.

Grok is a MUCH better friend. Makes Google look like an obstructionist.

Here we go again. Cue the meetings with new and amazing ideas to fix it....

Anyone else confused by this? I didn't read anything anywhere about him being deceived by anyone, just confusion and a lack of awareness to where he was going. What deception is this referring to? Did I miss something?

lol Yeah, the east-west thing always cracks me up too, when people rail against "the west" for all of the woes of Asia. The amount of building up that came to Thailand via the US in return for using Thailand as a base of operations during the Vietnam was MASSIVE. Huge infrastructure throughout the country was advanced and it continued for years beyond the war. Thailand advanced light-years ahead of others in the region from that... but oops, can't talk about that. Some other guy sitting on a fancy chair in a glittery building with a glittery robe and headpiece is the one who was so brilliant and magnanimous to improve the country so dramatically, all by his own wisdom, with eastern inborn knowledge, of course. Oops! again... don't tell anyone he was born in the west (while his dad was being educated in the west) and then he was educated in the west and lived in the west until just before his time came. Hmmm his son prefers to live in the west too! Wow... Oh well, just don't talk about it and pretend like the east has it all and the west is the origin of the inability to think, act, and develop.

If they've been tapping into Dutch expertise... that tap seems to not know how to turn off.... must be the wrong kind of tap!

Higher elevation? Politicians already have a difficult enough time with brain function. They need all the oxygen they can get!

And in the U.S., state capitals have moved a fair amount too. California has moved its capital 5 times in only 175 years (or 3 times if you don't consider the 2 moves it made due to floods in Sacramento in the 1860's).

You may benefit from reading my comment again and taking note of the word "most". Not to mention that there is no genocide happening anywhere that has anything to do with Israel. That is, unless you redefine what "genocide" means as well as redefine the goals of what Israel is doing. But then we might get into intellectual challenges that may be difficult to overcome with honesty to factual information. But the meme of the masses is easier to follow than it is to evaluate on its merits.

Seems to me to be a pretty ignorant (and arrogant, not to mention stupid) position to take for any of the above. If 80% of AseanNow members whooped and cheered for any of the above, that would be a pretty sad statement. I think it's usually a very vocal minority. This sort of ignorant, arrogant, & stupid person often tends to be outspoken too, thus there appearing to be many more of them than in reality. I'd be surprised if it were more than 10% who would actually cheer such a dishonorable undignified display of prejudice.

I agree, except in this case, the sign said "No Israel here!". It appears that it was the media that called it antisemitism, not any Thai person that I can tell.... It's difficult to know for sure in this case because there is no author for the article given and also no source for the article given.

I can agree with that, for sure. It was the way that you phrased it in the beginning ("Invite the west in...") that gave me the idea that you were making it as though it's because the "west" is to blame. It doesn't matter where the visitor comes from IMO. Chinese visitors cause just as many, if not more, problems IMO. Then of course you have Indians and Arabs.... It's not an east-west thing.

100%! And I might even go to the trouble of letting them know that I was going to patronize their place until I saw the sign.

Not sure if you ever lived in Japan or not, but this idea that Japan exercises this sort of thing is so minimal, it's hardly worth thinking about IMO. I lived there over for over 10 years and I only experienced such treatment 3 times. Two of those times, it is was by a business owner whose father was killed in World War 2, by the American military and they were still holding a grudge. And once, it was from an old man who fought in the war and still held that grudge. I felt sorry for them and could also empathize with them. Then again, one year, I worked for a guy who fought in Manchuria and he LOVED America! I worked all over the country, working in Japanese film production, shooting on locations from cities to the deep countryside, where I got the idea that a foreigner maybe had ever even set foot! Anti-foreign sentiment exists, as it does anywhere in the world, but the thing about westerners not being allowed in a business is EXTREMELY rare in my experience. And now we are so far beyond the war, it is probably even much less than it was in the 80's and 90's. Other discomforts in dealing with foreigners for Japanese people is far too complex to address here, but it isn't as much about blind racial prejudice as people make it to be - AT ALL. I find it VERY different than in some countries where it seems to be so often borne out from some sort of inferiority complex and a blanket prejudice. In Japan, I believe it has more to do with a variety of cultural issues that affect a person's honor, "face", feelings, proper etiquette, etc., and how stressful it can be to deal with a foreigner, in so many ways. But when you speak Japanese fluently and behave accordingly - once they know that, 99% of the time feelings of discomfort vanish instantaneously. In one of those adventures in a far flung countryside village, I even enjoyed a wonderful time of tea in a family's living room while sitting below a picture memorializing their father and grandfather who was killed on the battleship Yamato! And here I was... a former American Navy guy! Life can be interesting.... Of course, there will always be some prejudice everywhere. It is often not what it appears on the surface to be.

That's hilarious. The false dichotomy of "east-west" always has to rear its head. "Behavioural patterns" of the east are so absolutely flawless that the entire world should emulate every aspect of them, since they are so obviously superior, as every Tibetan, Uygher, Ainu, Dalit, and Rohingya can testify to, there is no doubt all of the west should adopt the ways of the east immediately. That doesn't even begin addressing their clearly superior political and economic practices! If we could only follow their bright shining star, we'd all probably be living at peace and be millionaires! I mean, look at the wonderful living standard of the average native living in the east, particularly ones who never suffered from being educated and brainwashed in the west! The superiority of the education in the east is the ultimate example of why the west should never have been allowed in! Just look at the AMAZING brilliance of the ones who have only been exposed to local/"eastern" education and not sullied by the west! They are the cream of the crop and lead in every industry. (Said nobody ever anywhere, who was not already committed to an insane asylum)

And I'd bet that most Israelis traveling in Thailand have ZERO to do with any sort of genocide, real or imagined.

This forum is so full of toxic social media types, looking for a reason to exist by whining and griping about nearly everything under the sun, you might need to help people realize you meant to be funnily sarcastic by adding a smiley emoji. But even then, some people are either so ultra-sensitive or ultra toxic, they still might not get it.... Good try though! I, for one, enjoy that kind of friendly, non-toxic sarcasm🍻😊

You could widen that to not only Pattaya... it's like this all over the entire country.

🤣Yeah, going by that pic, I'm guessing the chase was VERY brief!

Are you quoting from somewhere? Or reading between the lines? I read "Allegations surfaced that Tikhomirova was previously expelled from Thailand due to legal issues before temporarily relocating to Dubai."