harrycallahan

There is a Charity Run being held here in Pattaya today, with the proceeds going to one of the several worthy causes here. The entry fee is Baht 1000. The farang organizers are a few of the (wannabe Hells Angels) local motorcycle groups (wannabe "outlaws"). They even got some television coverage to publicize the event.

The only problem was that bikes of less than 250cc's were not welcome! So no CBR 150's. no Phantoms or Kawasaki Boss motorcycles.

There is no question the above mentioned bikes are capable of staying up with their "Hogs" on a run. The fact that more money could have been raised for their chosen charity seems not to have been considered. So to bolster their "image" they raise less money to help unfortunates than they could have done if they were more inclusive.

Bad move, boys.

Well you don't have to ride a motorbike around to give money to charity. Find out where the money is going and send your 1000 baht.

That should satisfy you if it is the charty you are concerned about.

(you could even ride your Dream around a bit on your own if it makes you feel better)

I have good new readers,

NO ONE IS GUILTY OF ANYTHING.

Our psychology controls our actions.

Our psychology is a product of both our genes and environment.

We have little control over either of the above influences.

Hence we have little control over our actions.

Hence our culpibility when we perfrom damaging actions is minimal.

Or then there's this,

Sane people do not perform insane actions.

An individual who acts insanely must therefre be insane and hence not culpable for their actions.

(This one might be called the "Klinger" defence, or see Catch 22 where it was originally sourced)

E.g. Is it ever sane to run over a crowd of people over a minor traffic incident? Knowing u will get caught? Of course not, you're insane and must be medicated, not jailed!

Or maybe you're usually sane but just for a tiny moment you did something crazy, like putting a gun at your bank managers head and pulling the trigger, well that's OK too because you must have been....

TEMPORARILY INSANE!! You get off too!

I did visa runs last year from Pattaya to Cambodia. The company was the most popular one operating, forget the name, but every trip the lady outlined the quantities of different things we could bring back through the border check point. Cigarettes, alcohol, and viagra were mentioned. She used to say one box of viagra was OK, using box in the same context as she did with cigarette cartons (she said box of cigarrettes meaning carton). Now box would seem to mean only the 4 pills but then on the other side one of the sellers told me it was 1 carton box which would be 10 x 4 = 40 pills. ??? Anyway the stuff is dirt cheap over the border, 100 baht for the 4 chinese viagra pills which are the real deal, same chemical drug is used and I can atest to the effectiveness. I didnt bring a carton through but a couple of small boxes.

It's probably a lot safer with the Visa run company, they piss in the pockets of the boarder guards and sort everything like that out. I'm pretty sure if you were over they'd get you by without trouble on the basis of a misunderstanding.

The murder makes sense, "someone" wants to keep the house, people like money.

What doesn't make sense (though is very common) is this:

63 year old man marries woman aged in 20s (lets assume the ex is too) and transfers considerable wealth to her, does this within a country where legal protections are whoeful and he by virtue of nationality can be expected to be treated second class.

He didn't see trouble would eventuate? hel_l this guy was a policeman...

Now maybe the guy was cashed up and the house was nothing to him. Seems to be his current lady was sueing the old, so could be she was chasing the money for her own gain and he's become the unfortunate victim.

Maybe those thieves misunderstood the term "Duty Free"?

Yes in Pattaya a lot. Talking on the phone and other. Once a guy had his little kid with him and he was translating pretty much every line to the kid as the movie was running. Maybe says something about the types that Pattaya attracts.

Also once in the film the lights kept coming on repeatedly. They were the dimmer lights that slowly brighten so the eyes can adjust without pain. Slowly slowly the whole cinema would brighten until we're all sitting their in full light, then after a few minutes someone would get up and go out and then the lights would go out. Repeat. It happened about 5 times.

Not a bad read but too much focus on Buddhism.

Example,

In Bangkok, the body collection squads (there are so many road deaths the thinly stretched ambulance service no longer collects the victims), eager to gain spirit power from a fresh kill, have been known to fight over the corpses.

Yeah, they fight for the spirit power, not for the $$$.

From my experience the religious devotion doesn't go far past symbolism for many thais with actions being driven more by economics, but that where's the romanticism in that.

Another cat for the pidgeons,

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2007-03-04-1.html

Starts with a focus on Mann and his hockey stick with broader discussion towards the end. Long but good and in layman's speak.

"Lie to me once and I have a very hard time believing anything else you say" - Judge Judy

I believe Ricoh take the cake when it comes to wide angle compacts

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ricoh/

28mm at the lower end, I don't think you get much lower.

I was in the same position in October, my return flight couldn't be booked before I was due to be out and I had to overstay by 4 days. It was going to be less hassle to pay the fine than do a Visa run so I went to the airport expecting the fine to come, the official looked over the passport, did his paper work, and handed it to me. No fine. You could be lucky too I guess it just depends which side of the bed they got out of that morning.