Marpa47

I second that emotion.

Somewhere it was noted that the famous ancient forum in Rome had _many_ exits and could allow for the entire (many thousands of), number of patrons to exit within minutes. Building such a venue would no doubt be prohibitively expensive in the capitalistic setting, notwithstanding the generous funding and tax abatements provided by an overly fond municipality that is usually forthcoming.. it would or at least might save lives however.

Thank you for making a statement in well balanced good taste. And thank you for the beautiful photos of King Rama IX and Queen Elizabeth II over the years.

Yes. Teflon Don Part II

Yes. Still cringe at the recollection of a beautiful young family, (still safe I hope), pulling out from a parking lot onto a busy highway — dad, mom, two kids — all seated in a row, as pretty a picture as you could imagine, on the family scooter, all with no helmets…

You spent a lot of text on the topic of PIF’s and well done. Here is hoping that your message gets through to the powers that be.

Loving the new format with pictures. Seeing Rooster with family was a treat. Also the impact of the bridge collapse story really sunk in when seeing that actual photo of the damaged structure. Thank you very much for adding these photos in. As always enjoying your posts immensely. Please keep ‘em commin’!

Yeah, I’m just sayin. Seeing as to how some laws are not enforced as strictly or are in flux (and not knowing _how_ or _if_ any current law may be even in existence or in what form the law is, or how strictly upper management _wants_ the laws to be enforced), then things could go either way — more restriction or more easing of already tenuous restrictions. And, with the enthusiastic pressure on the part of the many very vocal proponents of said smoking of said joints, then things could get very… smoky, in many many venues. So, this is hypothetical. But it is a hypotheses that may very well happen, given the impetus from various sectors both in public and governmental as well as private that seem to salivate at the prospect.

Say one is on board a train bound from Thailand to Malaysia, or in a restaurant prior to boarding a plane to Singapore and someone near you is smoking weed. Now, I’ve been given to understand that someone smoking a regular cigarette in a room full of people will result in a blood test for nicotine of the same amount for _everone_ in that room as for the smoker. Does this also apply to smoking maryjane? That would be a real bummer for the innocents who may later get caught up in a test while trying to cross the border wouldn’t it? And just one reason for keeping the smoking of this substance restricted to the privacy of one’s digs.

My bad. Meant to say, in trying to back up what you said, that access to cheap drugs would only steer youth away from use of alcohol towards the use of the drugs, just like the alcohol restrictive age-related laws in the USA have done to the vast increase of drug use there along with all of the devastation associated with it.

Just saw a YouTube vlog wherein was discussed, (apropos your observation that cheap drugs for young Thais will cause increased use alcohol), that in the USA there was a statute enacted, (on the federal level?), raising the drinking age to 25 fairly recently which of course steered the under-25 year olds towards the ‘club drugs’’, and how well that played out. ???? Here too it is the issue of the greater evil’? May it also be mentioned that scientific research in the past has shown that using pot at an age when the body is still developing, (and the brain has not fully matured — if at all it ever does — until the age of 21 - 25), can have negative effects on that developing organism. OK, the old adage ‘do your own thing as long as it doesn’t do any harm to anybody else’. That was the chant of the ‘60’s hippie era. That worked out well.

Another great article, dear Rooster, and one where you are announcing the dawn of ‘something else’ as the hippies used to say. The pendulum swings a bit wildly in another direction if you ask me. Kudos on the several pictures. Is that a first? It is surely adding to the story line and hopefully will be something that continues in future. Not being interested in any part of the subject of all-consuming interest to so many, I remain a loyal and devoted reader, knowing that next time around the former humor and insights, peppered with many colloquial and educational items (perhaps more revealing than any picture) will be in evidence as the pendulum swings once again. As Shakespeare wrote, ‘Methinks thou dost protest too much’… you-all _know_ that any drug, taken beyond need, beyond an amount that is needful, is just a bad idea? I suppose however that I will be walking through clouds of the stuff with no recourse other than having to readjust my life to avoiding certain areas or selecting a route that circumvents the idiocies of the ignorant. Just to lead my own life. Really, thank you all for your heroic, brave and really and truely brilliant posts in defense of this miraculously wonderful ‘herb’ that obviously has never done anybody any harm and is only very very good for you. What medical and cultural geniuses populate this forum is so astounding that i stand in humble awe at the perspicaciousness of the many, many consummate .thinkers. As the saying goes, “what possibly could go wrong?”

A co-worker’s Jamaican father, (a Rastafarian which regards ganga as a sacramental substance), smoked a _lot_. After many years of this practice his father developed severe COPD. That’s a breathing condition where the functional lung tissue, after gradually being destroyed, can no longer a). Provide the necessary ‘oxygen in / carbon dioxide out’ function it normally had and b). Has lost the ‘elasticity’ which has usually allowed adequate exhalation of air, resulting in ever higher levels of carbon dioxide in the blood, greater and greater effort to breathe due to having to use accessory muscles to exhale just to get enough air into the lungs and finally c) loss of breath with the smallest physical activity or even at rest. This was, admittedly an exception in every way — exceptional use of ganga over exceptional length of time.. but perhaps not unexpected. Like anything, even something that is regarded as harmless or even good for you, too much of a good thing can all to often be… not so good.

Masks have been in use in Japan, (just for one example and the best one IMO), for the longest time just as a courtesy / precaution — when someone is feeling like they might have something that could be communicable they wear a mask to protect everyone they come into contact with. What a concept. Never forget the time, just walking down the street in NYC and someone walking towards me unleashed the loudest, wettest, most powerful sneeze before I could avoid it, which left me bedridden a few days later with flu symptoms. This was years and years ago but will never be forgotten. The guy in fact, instead of covering his mouth, actually opened both arms as if bestowing a wonderful gift. But, as has been said over and over, (to paraphrase), with all the precautions and preventions and even effective treatments for all the various illnesses mankind and womankind can pass along to each other, there is still no cure for stupidity. And not wearing a mask will remain for many a brave, clever and proud statement of their rugged individuality… to the end.

Greetings Bosun. We have only been in the LOS a little while as of yet. Before our sojourn, I had been following the Rooster Tales studiously and picked up on his reference to a book which I since have been perusing occasionally. It is so densely packed with information that it bears reading in small doses for me. The title is “Thai Ways” and the author is Denis Segaller. It may be just what you want. And it is available on Kindle.