Fat is a type of crazy

I can confirm. Australia is extremely expensive for fruit and vegetables now. Many more than $10 a kilo. Except for bananas. Bananas is cheap. Wine is cheap. Beer is a bit more but better. The cheapest things I noticed in Thailand last week was hotel accommodation and fruit. Many things used to be super cheap in Thailand are just a bit cheaper now.

That was good. Used to do that too. Jetstar started having cheap direct flights to Bangkok and Phuket and Air Asia, with the one stop, became a distant memory. I am tall but in my cost benefit ratio business class is often not worth it. Rather spend the difference during the holiday. I can pay extra for the leg room but that often puts you outside the toilet which is not so good. Either that or paying for an aisle seat good enough for me.

Are you suggesting I used the term 'shortly thereafter' sex because I am not sure of the timing of when things happen? Correct. I find topics like this can become left versus right, and never the twixt shall meet, so if I can I like to point out that both sides have a point. There are steps at different points that can stop there being a baby. Some will take it to the extreme of wanting to ban contraception. Some will say late abortions are OK as it is still not a baby. I think both arguments can be reasonably dismissed. My point is though that if someone considers that at the time the pregnancy is established, this is a form of life and a potential future baby, then I do not consider it is an inarguable fact that they are wrong or illogical to have an opinion that stopping that is wrong. Religion or souls do not need to be bought into the discussion as to when a life commences. Religion opens a whole new deeper can of worms. This is a difficult area and my point is that, though it is appropriate that people are scientifically informed about what is actually there at different stages, it is hard to be definitive saying when life commences. Therefore it might be best to turn the argument to what right one human has to control the body of a different human. That leaves the issue of when a fetus could be deemed a human.

If you believe that a life happens at the point of sex, or shortly thereafter, then there's nothing more to say and you have the right to that opinion. I actually don't think that argument is necessarily illogical, as a seed has been created that will turn into a human, but I don't want to, or think I have the right to, tell a different human what they do with their body until there is clearly a third human that has to be considered.

In a perfect world. You talk on another post about making decisions at 20 that you now look at in a different way. 15 year old girls get pressured or just make poor decisions. Wives do stuff they don't really want to do. Things happen fast. We all have a sense of where a life starts. Some at conception. Some at birth. Me somewhere in between. What we do know is there is a difference between a seed, a lump of cells, and a human. Until it's a human, however defined, I think it is part of a woman and her decision.

I agree that a woman should be and is responsible for their pregnancy, equally with the man, in most circumstances. I see too that the issue of abortion is emotional and there is not a clear cut moral argument to say that abortion is appropriate or inappropriate. I would argue the moral argument leans towards a mother's right to choose especially in the first few months. For the reason that it is not clear cut I accept it is not my right, or your right, or a judge's right to make that call and usurp the mother's right to make that decision. I do think that might be different once there is a scientific argument to say that there is a human inside, that is likely to feel and think in some form, because then there are human fetus rights.

Not sure about this. I think it's hard to say an 8 month old fetus is not a thing. Leave it up to doctors if the woman's life is at risk. Leave it up to biologists as to at how many months a baby can feel and has brain activity. A woman's choice up to that point when a fetus is a human. Then I am not so sure.

If about the people Thailand Placid Australia Accustomed If about the country Thailand Hot Australia Huge If about society Thailand Unconcerned Australia Legitimate I didn't follow the rules to a T. Oh well.

I had a holiday in Thailand and it was good. Immigration fast. Good weather. Nice hotels. Nice people. I felt fuzzy inside.

I'm a big fan of Mike Judge. Beavis and Butthead. King of the Hill. If there's a sleeper Mike Judge movie it is Office Space. Not successful on release but somewhat iconic since - highly recommend it - especially for office workers past or present. For me Idiocracy was full of really good ideas and it predicted Trumpism in a way but somehow didn't work as a whole. Might have to have a second look. Saw The Eyes of Tammy Faye on the plane on the way home the other day. Not successful on box office but thought it was good in that it held back from simply parodying her and the the religious right but still telling a good story and making the shortcomings fairly clear. Not old I know but similarities in theme to Idiocracy.

Good point. I actually deleted the post when I thought that, though I don’t use the phone with the code things, I do use my card constantly which I guess is the same type of thing.

I take your point that the burkini is no big deal. The first sentence though I am not so sure. If the Muslim community, clearly controlled by men, said women cannot leave the home or be educated there would be an outcry. No doubt that does happen sometimes in different religions but should often not be tolerated. I think the full burqa is close to a human rights issue. These issues are not necessarily about personal choice or something for the community to work out where, for a significant subset of muslims, half the community dominates the second half.

What about full burqa though. I can see a logic to banning them. It’s not ideal to ban something but I am guessing most French Muslim woman would be happy with that ban.

On issues like oil prices that’s fine. But as I see it Biden and his ilk do not actively support the far left stuff that people don’t like. Whereas the Republican leadership do support many of the nasty ideas on the right wing side if only due to Trump’s power as a kingmaker. I feel bad for Biden. I think he has bad luck on the economy but he still has to take responsibility. People just seem to like those who exert power and control. Nice guys like Biden and Carter seem to be deemed as weak on the basis of personality alone in my opinion.

I think it was good to support Ukraine, but I agree that none of the candidates on either side are excellent in terms of shaking things up to make America less controlled by the will of corporations, except maybe Bernie. Though he can go a bit too impractical sometimes in my opinion. Need someone new.

In actual practical terms I think having the Thailand pass, getting rid of the TM6, having the cheap Covid insurance option to add on to say free credit card insurance that has no Covid cover, was good. Not hard and makes it easy when you get here. But I guess some dont like the mucking about before the trip, and think it is more than it is, so better to go back to before.

I am not American but they are both smart and good communicators and appear to have some substance. If you beg to differ that’s no problem. You might frame it though in terms of policies these two have personally espoused that you think make a case for their lack of critical thinking or trustworthiness. I think Hillary had huge potential to be an an excellent president. I think there is an argument that a subset of Trump supporters were at that time somewhat undesirable if only in the way they played up to Trump and his approach to policy and his approach to a range of individuals including her. You may have liked all that and seen it as refreshing. I found it appalling. Didn’t help her no doubt. She made a few errors on the way, possibly played it too safe, and due to a range of factors you got your guy. Not sure who on the Republican side you might see as electable.

When you apply for the Thailand pass they give you insurance options and the FWD one is 650 baht.

I wouldn’t be worried. Thai pass is easy. It’s just the masks that are a bit of a pain but hardly worn in beach areas. Hopefully decision today to get rid of them in some places. Can recommend for Australians Bankwest credit card.. Card is nothing special in terms of applying for it but gets you free travel insurance except Covid without doing a thing and no fees for overseas transactions with no other fees. Then you get the cheap Covid cover for $28 and done.

I think there is a problem with that argument. Let’s say that Trump believed that Biden was part of a paedophile ring in a pizza shop basement and decided that, based on that, Biden’s candidacy was invalid. Everyone who has credibility, and even many who do not, tell him it’s not true, and that the way he’s going about overturning the election is not valid, except for a few individuals. It was easily identifiable that the few were clearly not in the mainstream and we’re not experts in their field. Would you accept your own argument that he has done nothing wrong if he believed it and took the actions he took. You’d say a president has a responsibility to get expert advice, and he has access to the best in the world, and to act based on a at least a reasonable and sustainable argument. He can’t just say I believed it, and that’s good enough to show he acted in good faith, even if wrong. Similarly with saying there was election fraud and the election was stolen. Unless he is arguing some mental illness, or serious mental incompetence, acting in good faith would surely require him to show he had at least a somewhat sound base for his actions. Basing a decision on tales of dodgy voting machines linked to overseas dictators, and various other arguments state by state, is not a tenable argument if courts and real experts are showing they are false. Keep in mind too, he said he may not accept the results more than once before he could even identify the dodgy issues raised after the election, further affecting his argument that he genuinely believed the arguments for election fraud.