jts-khorat

5 hours ago, save the frogs said:

i went into a bar the other night. just played a game of pool with one of the girls and bought her a drink. and then asked her if she was hungry. thought i'd be a bit charitable and throw in a meal for the possibly struggling single mother. she orders street food, i pick up the tab, then she takes one bite and leaves the rest. i asked her why she didn't finish it. she said "too salty". yeah, like she's never eaten that food before. i just wasted 90 baht thinking i was doing someone in need a small favor. maybe she's not that broke. or maybe all they care about is getting that 2000 baht for the monkey dance.

Even here, (Theravda) Buddhism has something interesting to say.

You do meritious deeds not in the expectations of being thanked, or even of making a difference. You do the good deed because you acted in interpretation of the things you knew (she is a poor girl) -- therefore it was the right action -- and therefore it helps you to cultivate your own good volitions and have a better life through it.

What the other person makes of it in the end is really not your concern. In a perfect world, they would feel thankful, but it is their decision alone; as it is your decision alone how the perceived rejection (or not) of your action makes you feel in turn -- as you know you did the right thing, it should not be a negative emotion, but move towards equanimity.

6 hours ago, Walker88 said:

This topic strikes a chord in me, so this will be long. Feel free to tl:dr.

 

The Universe doesn't hand out things evenly, nor does anyone's deity. We all find our own way to come to terms with that harsh reality. Ideally, we understand the inherent unfairness of existence, and behave accordingly, which means never thinking we are better simply because we have more.

 

I'm the first person to admit what I have been able to acquire is dumb luck. Some who are "Haves" like to think they worked really hard for what they achieved. Even that I attribute to dumb luck, as I believe even intellect and ambition are certainly not handed out equally, nor are physical characteristics like body shape, height, and physical appearance.

You just have described the concept of Kamma in two easy to understand paragraphs.

What you infer from it and how you act after this self-reflection is what makes all the difference.

On 3/21/2025 at 8:25 AM, ronster said:

Dying for likes . Literally !!

Pretty sure going backwards in evolution these days . 🙈

I personally see no problem if adult people get their kick out of risky behaviour. It is their decision, as long as nobody else is harmed.

And I obviously believe, that his family is grieving.

But it was his planned decision to jump -- and by extension to put his loved ones through the consequences of his actions.

It was a high risk jump from a relatively low building into a tree-lined street with unclear visibility, so my assumption is, that in his community of base jumpers, it is a fitting epitaph (along the lines "he died doing what he loved").

His right to document his actions, in my eyes, trumps the right of his family to not be confronted with his decisions (which I am sure they kew about, this was not his first jump looking at the risk level).

Therefore I still see no issue with the video circulating.

9 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Oh well if you're not going to believe credible reports that quote US officials that was reported in US press (my link) as well as Israeli then there's not a lot of point having a discussion with a fact less member.

You do note, my link was from AP, and there are lots of credible resources refuting your position.

In the end, neither you nor me know the true facts, we are both guessing.

I prefer an abundance of caution and persuasion, you obviously want to break a few heads and wish that good reason and sense will come from that.

I guess we will need to agree to disagree what is the right -- or even better -- way. We will see pretty soon, who is right, not that there will be any prizes for that.

9 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Then if you did not miss the strikes you would know how effective they were in pushing back Irans nuclear ambitions

Just because I read about it in the Israel press, how "effective" they have been, does not make it true.

Literally, we heard that there were WMD in Iraq.

I do not want to risk either Jerusalem or Teheran becoming a nuclear wasteland, just because we have a crazy American president who is unable to follow decent morals.

In my opinion, the only way to hold Iran back from becoming a nuclear state is to convince them that they are better served to not follow this path and become a normal nation state accepting the right of existence of all its neighbors.

To note: Israel flying bombing raids into literally all their neighbors makes it difficult to see them having the moral high ground or even any good argument here, and having an American president literally threatening complete obliteration would also not make me think that not having a working deterrent in my own hands would be preferrable to everything else.

What is needed here is really difficult diplomacy. Frankly, I think, this was already blown with trashing the JCPOA (and we will need to be living with Iran as a nuclear state on the same level as Israel already is), but I would rather like to be wrong than right here. Because Trump is simply too incompetent for even simple diplomacy.

1 minute ago, Bkk Brian said:

You missed the strike in Nov:

 

 "significantly damaged Iran's effort over the past year to resume nuclear weapons research, Israeli and U.S. officials said."

 

How do you know bunker buster bombs will not be effective for further strikes?

 

"key installations, such as Iran's uranium enrichment facilities, are fortified, requiring bunker-buster munitions for total destruction"

https://www.csis.org/analysis/why-striking-iranian-nuclear-facilities-bad-idea

I did not miss the strikes.

What I am saying is, that the Iranians obviously are learning out of their expensive past failures and are setting themselves up in a way that surpasses current conventional capacity of Israel.

https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-natanz-uranium-enrichment-underground-project-04dae673fc937af04e62b65dd78db2e0

They are known for a while; it simply takes time to build them.

During their last airstrikes, Israel attacked the air defense radar sites around Natanz, while destruction of actual military facilities was reduced to peripheral installations.

29 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

With bombs, the same way they did last time, nice big bunker buster bombs, the same ones they used in the last bombing strike in Nov.

As I said, there is known construction of suspected nuclear research facilities in Iran which are literally located under mountains.

They are not stupid.

So, "bunker-busting" does already not cut it any more.

And, of course, literally any state actor -- and Iran is one of the bigger and technically advanced ones -- would be able to create a dirty bomb poisoning a city like Tel Aviv or Jerusalem with the already existing enriched uranium, in case further enrichment capability was destroyed.

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/iran-could-build-a-dirty-bomb-today/

Trump exiting the JCPOA literally gave Iran the breather needed to make a nuclear capability unavoidable.

On 3/21/2025 at 5:42 AM, riclag said:

During the Nazi era, the Volkswagen company, intended as a "People's Car," and the Porsche company, which designed the Volkswagen Beetle, were founded, with both companies having complex histories intertwined with the Nazi regime and its policies.

Americans do not need to go very far to find their own technology companies directly supporting the Nazis in germany.

Read up on General Motors and Opel, just to get the first whiff of stink (there is much, much more).

If you ever believed, you guys were really the "good ones" in the 1930s, think again.

9 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

  I doubt the USA will invade Iran . 

More likely that Israel will bomb Iran , again 

Just think a step further. Bomb them... how?

The Iranians are building their centrifuges under mountains by now, so you can only reach them with a (large) nuke. To nuke all of Iran -- it is a really big country -- you will need a good number of bombs, the fallout will devastate Israel in a really bad way.

And the Americans nuking another country without prior confrontation will make them worse pariahs than the North Koreans for a 100 years; already they are loosing their friends as it is. The US are reliant on trade, so this will be economic suicide for the US.

Literally, besides a land occupation there is no good tool either Israel or the US have.

Have a look, how Russia is faring right now and how successful the US was in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan and it tells you, that you either make the Iranians come to the table by their own will, or you have nothing at all to prevent them from having their own bomb sooner or later (many think, they already have).

6 hours ago, NorthernRyland said:

Outside the cities I see 12 year olds driving motorbikes and 18 year olds having children so I'd say yes.

Which makes them not necessarily more mature.

But indeed, the infantilization of youngsters in the west has created many weird circumstances, where people are old enough to vote, drive or become a soldier, but have the emotional maturity and social ability of 12 year olds.

I am not sure what is better.

Having a stunted childhood as many Thai youth have who need to look after themselves early (especdially those from poor backgrounds), or the padded extended childhood the west now often offers... the brain matures at 25 and we all live longer, so maybe, in balance, we would have the luxury of not rushing to become adults.

How can you be loyal to a country that is not loyal to your oath?

It is maybe not right to cheer on the Chinese, but the Americans are currently making their bed to sleep in for the next generation.

On 3/20/2025 at 8:27 PM, jts-khorat said:

 

Are those pictures from inside the Capitol in January?

23 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

 what topic are we on? they are at the same place as this mentioned in the OP.

In both places there were masked demonstrators destroying property and injuring people.

In one place, they were pardoned and called heroes, in the other they seem to be dangerous terrorists endangering the existence of the United States.

Find the problem.

On 3/19/2025 at 6:37 AM, camper star said:

So for you folks here that are lucky enough to have the candle that is lighted into the life of go for the zest in life after what has taken place in your life, maybe even in Thailand. What advice would you like to genuine share at a level that connects with the heart of sincerity with the members here.

Don't post stoned or drunk, and neither fall in love when heavily inebriated. The next morning you wish you had done neither.

11 minutes ago, Jeff the Chef said:

 

It's all a bit of urine extraction, there might well be a bit of WW111, but that will, no doubt in my mind, end up with Mutually Assured Destruction.

 

Stand down Germany, we have enough megalomaniacs in the World before you have to go for round 3

One would indeed think so.

If this goes on, we will have soon more (wouldbe-)shepherds than sheep left, to stay with the image of the OP, and that can only end badly.

1 hour ago, Jeff the Chef said:

Both these shepherds need the big bad wolf to come in and send them back to their maker

The US have pushed Europe and the Germans now long enough, so they have awakened something I thought would never happen.

Even here on ThaiVisa, there are so many people clamoring for Germany to re-arm. I personally think this is horrible; there was a reason  -- a very good one! -- why us Germans should rather stick to being merchants instead of soldiers, as we seemingly never know when enough is enough. The history lesson should not have faded, as it was not that long ago.

Well, the German parliament just voted to change the constitution to allow for limitless weapons spending. Interesting times indeed.

2 minutes ago, jts-khorat said:

You mean to say that the engineers at SpaceX were able to do what the (already disgraced) engineers at Boeing were unable to do?

Having said that, still a great achievement, I have been and still am watching the NASA live stream; a great touchdown, no doubt.

Crazy, just this moment a school of dolphins is swimming around the capsule in the water.

3 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

So thanks to Elon the astronauts are back safely home. NASA is a complete failure like most of the government and failed to achieve even the most balsamic aspects of space exploration.  Give him a Nobel prize. 

You mean to say that the engineers at SpaceX were able to do what the (already disgraced) engineers at Boeing were unable to do?

Why this childish person cult with you Americans? You are really dreaming of Marvel heroes coming to rescue you, are you not?

I must disapppint you, in the real world, things are pushed forward by (often fallible) real people, not mystic entities.