SNGLIFE

To those that think we should "shoot to maim", you know nothing. You stand 7 ft. in front of me, average distance for a gunfight, and go for your weapon while I go for mine and see what you hit while "shooting to maim".

Your incompetent understanding of the facts in this case probably confirms you were indeed a cop. The FACTS of the case were that the cops responded to a call. So, the distance was whatever the cops made it after they arrived. The call stated there was a gun involved. The cops knew and saw the gun as they maneuvered after arriving on the scene.

Hopefully, you are no longer a cop because you are a great example of yet another sorry, ill-equipped cop with piss-poor judgement. (!)

Prisoners would be better put to use clearing the 1,000s of km of clogged canals all over the place.

I concur. My 13 yo Thai daughter has had her own laptop (2) since age 6. Despite my encouragement, she is not the least bit curious to do anything more than what I tell her she must do for online homeschooling. She opts to play World of Warcraft or read online stories and has no idea how to do much else.

Same with my wife: 10 years with her own laptop and PC and still doing what she was doing in her first month of having her first PC. Nothing more.

In sharp contrast, my 4 1/2 yo boy has mastered every iPhone, iPad, tablet, and Android device in the house. He is about par with the laptop (which will be obsolete soon enough, so no worries there). He is curious about every device and even show me how to use each more fluently.

I hate to sound bigoted, but my daughter has had all the advantages and then some. Perhaps it really is or isn't in the DNA....

You won't find it in the history books, but Clinton avoided impeachment and preserved his "blue dress" tattered legacy by signing off on the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. That is what lead to the housing crisis and everything bad that followed.

The question is: Will Obama also cut a deal?

If he does, it will undoubtedly be for something even more devastating so that it forever overshadows the many, many, many successes of his presidency in the same way the blue dress still overshadows Clinton's outstanding accomplishments.

The Democrats went to the Nuclear Option just in time for the Republicans to use it against them.

The Dems used it once to fill appointees who were mostly overwhelmingly acceptable to Republicans, but being blocked from those positions nevertheless. We STILL do not have ambassadors to several countries or a Surgeon General because of Republican obstructionism.

But whereas Reid, the soon-to-be former Senate Majority Leader, refused to change the Senate rules (it can be done only on the first day of a new session) to make it possible to override EVERY filibuster with a simple majority (aka "the nuclear option"), you can be sure Republicans will shamelessly make the nuclear option their first order of business despite having railed against it when they were in the minority.

Republican leadership = wicked, evil, vile, bigoted

Republican voters (except the wealthy) = under-educated, gullible, and stupid

Democrat leadership = dumb

Democrat voters who didn't vote = dumber

I moved to Thailand when Bush was elected. The writing was on the wall. He was an idiot puppet and he governed like an idiot puppet (see Cheney, Karl Rove, Rumsfeld, and others). The writing is also on the wall for what will happen next:

1. Nuclear option to override Democrats in the Senate with a simple majority
2. Impeach Obama
3. Total chaos everywhere because a bunch of old White people with an agenda (to put it mildly) dared impeach the first Black POTUS against a background of seething disgust for White police officers gunning down Black people's children at every opportunity
4. Obamacare effectively undone
5. Iran reconciliation effort torn apart
6. Many, many other things too numerous to write, but none of them good.

Obama has used his veto power twice in 6 years for non-controversial legislation. That "beep, beep, beep" sound you hear is the ink truck backing up to the Oval Office.

80/20 Rule always applies.

80% will be ignorant @@@holes, while 20% will be genuine good folks. Try to surround yourself with 80% of the 20% and flip the bird to the 20% of the 80%.

If staying long-term, there are plenty of nice places to rent near Nong Prajak Park if you prefer NOT to play where you lay. Plenty of short time apartments/rooms near the bar areas. Leave her there and ride your motorbike solo to your quite "home".

Most punters in-the-know prefer to stay at the Aek Udon Hospital apartments. Close to everything. No noise. Decent rooms. Good prices. Medical needs right there. I stayed for a few months while building my house awhile back. I recommend it.

Seeing the unemployment rate in the Philippines, I would not be surprised if a lot a Phillipinos came to work in Thailand, the wages are better here, they have good English language skills as well, I think a lot of businesses would be happy to welcome them here.

I will be hiring a Filipino private teacher for my kids and perhaps another to help me with some IT work ASAP.

A half-dozen professional Thai teachers interviewed and not one could pass a standard 5 question 6th grade math test. Thai IT staff are no better. Sure, they can "learn" the fundamentals, but as soon as something out of the ordinary happens, they are clueless and panic because they can't read English language technical manuals or other resources which might help devise a solution. Initiative is Z-E-R-O.

Any employer would be absolutely mad to hire a Thai over a Filipino provided Thai language ability is not essential.

IMHO I would be thrilled to interact with the Filipino employees at places where I am a customer. Imagine: Receiving a correct response to an inquiry...oh, heavens...

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I believe that in a few days or perhaps weeks - Thailand will ban entry of all people from the West African Ebola stricken countries and issue orders to cease granting entry visas to same.

Plus I expect Thai Immigration to speed up their program of finding reasons to expel all Africans from Thailand ... for other reasons.

I hope no one takes this wrong as I'm certain anyone who knows me would never say I'm prejudiced, but on a recent trip to Bangkok I was amazed at the amount of criminal/hustler types in action I saw from some of the West African countries. Tightening up or restricting visas may serve more than one purpose...

Russians/Eastern Europeans are far more active in criminal/hustler activities. Fact.

I hope they don't start arresting people just for the sakes of claiming the 10000Baht reward...........

Not a chance that could happen.

...and so the resolution shall be that the scapegoats did it. The case is closed. A year or so on, the undocumented scapegoats (hopefully) will be released out the back door and sent back home to their families on condition they keep quiet...and THAT will be the end of it.

RIP Lady Justice

The countdown to international humiliation begins now...

Thailand inventing something useful? Puh-leez...

The WHO will get the sample and expose it as fraudulent within a day.

The FBI would be wise to NOT get involved if they cannot satisfactorily establish chain if custody of the semen evidence.

How far fetched would it be for BiB to frame some hapless "undesireable" such as an ethnic minority? Not very far fetched at all.

I've been in-country for well over a decade and never visited Phuket figuring it's more same-same as Pattaya beach area: spoiled with those damned vendors and their chairs all over the sand. The beaches in the AJ report look rather inviting now. Heck, I may go for a visit after all...

If that was the intended outcome, then bravo! It is working.

"scores were higher than average"

That's a hoot! Dig a bit deeper and what that means is rather than score 23/100, they scored 27/100. Thai students' "average" scores have always been utterly abysmal.

In all western societies - when they were agrarian - making enough kids to take care of ones land and property was extremely common. Such behavior is still practiced today in many countries and enshrined in the canon of many religions.

If this guy has the will and the means to support them all, then it is none of society's business how he goes about doing it. The surrogate mothers are all willing adults. I do feel for the children who will barely know their father. No way he can give each child enough attention as they mature.

In Japan, this practice would have been called keeping concubines. I'm pretty sure some of the surrogate mothers would enjoy such an arrangement. Live lavishly in exchange for bedding the guy once in a blue moon and having babies.

Nothing to see here. Just move along...

Some could/should be given work restoring the environment. There is a lot of dead coral. Working towards creating a pristine environment for the coral to thrive again would be a good thing for all concerned both short and long term...

The possible saving graces (in no particular order):

1. Baby-boomers retiring en masse who can't afford to do so in their homeland. Huge numbers of them are flocking and are planning on retiring to LOS. I reckon more are going straight to the provinces rather than the old route via a sin city. Sin cities are way more expensive these days.

2. Chinese males are short ~25,000,000+ brides due to their one child policy. Not a stretch to see some of that demand satiated by Thailand. For many, 25 sqm is just fine.

3. Chinese middle class growth and demand to invest in condos outside China. China has entire cities of condos already built with no residents in anticipation of future Chinese demand. It is not a stretch to think such investors may find their way to Thailand. Access made easier by the planned rail projects linking China to Rayong and this Pattaya.

4. Laos will gain access to Thailand's ports via rail. Not a stretch to foresee a boom in Laotian middle class and wealthy families getting a place along Thailand's coast.

5. The common sense fact that if condo developers were interested in farangs, they would make them larger knowing that is what farangs want. They aren't and so one must surmise that they are catering to and planning for growth coming from Thais and ASEAN countries.

Methinks Udon Thani's condo market will grow more than Pattaya/Jomtien 2015 both in units and uptake. If they allow for and build a vice zone with gambling along the Udon/Nong Khai corridor, then fahgetaboutit. Thai males will keep their white-skinned Laotian mia nois in their 25 sqm condos and party it up at the gambling tables.

Big picture-wise, it makes much more sense. Udon has an international airport with room to grow, the new rail connected to China (#1 tourist population) with their free visas, and many other advantages over Pattaya/Jomtien. Methinks Pattaya/Jomtien will be for farangs and Udon Thani will be for Thais, Chinese, and other ASEAN peoples who have disliked the farang sin cities for decades. Smart move.

Time will tell, but I sure as heck would not consider buying in Pattaya/Jomtien. I lived there for years and recall the post 1997 cityscape of abandoned projects and construction cranes. I was too much of a noob to foresee the boom, but I am glad I left. It's bonkers now. With the benefit of almost 2 decades of Thailand living knowledge, my bet is Udon Thani for the next 10-20 years.

Pattaya has been building for Russians of late with no thought about what will happen when that loonie Putin wrecks the Russian economy chasing his Czarist dreams...

It would be utterly silly for Obama to intervene militarily. Ukraine is not a NATO member state because they chose not to be. These are the consequences. Oh well, oh well...

Militarily, Russia is a peon compared to the USA. Yes, Russia is a regional player, but nowhere even close to being a real conventional weapons threat to NATO. Putin may bully and run amok amongst the independent states in the area, but even he is not stupid enough to cross the wrong border. NATO would wipe out Russia's conventional military SWIFTLY and utterly.

Don't ever get that twisted.

Ok, so it works just like back in the World. The price is for the right to hold the option. Thanks for the clarification!

Let's say there is a new development under construction. The pre-construction (contract) price for a unit is clearly 1,700k. Those who purchased pre-construction are now offering to sell their contract for 200k, 240k, 350k, etc. These are prices for units of the same size within the same building. How to interpret?

Are they saying, for example, a buyer must pay 350k just to transfer the contract (at full 1,700k price) to the buyer?

or

Are they saying, for example, a buyer must pay 350k to transfer the contract (at price of 1,700k less payments made to date) to the buyer?

1. Love

2. Trust (includes "communication")

3. Money

If you have all three in good amounts, you can work through it. If you have two of the three in copious amounts, you can work through it. If you have only 1, the relationship is doomed. Get out. Good luck.