Callmeishmael

I'm actually ok with this. Deporting the idiots pictured above won't bother me in the slightest. Where we find ourselves on a slippery slope is defining who is a terrorist and who isn't. For example, defining Hamas as a terrorist organization is just common sense. However, they are also the government in the Gaza strip, so by definition anyone who has any dealings with them can be be labeled as supporting a terrorist organization.

One of my sisters struggled with this a few years ago during some election where a ballot measure about Affirmative Action was being voted on. On one hand, she has always been liberal and supportive of minority rights. On the other hand she was the mother of a white, middle-class boy! She eventually voted no, she couldn't vote to put her son at a disadvantage to minorities when he applied for University or for jobs.

My wife's grandfather was quite tall for an older Thai man (actually Malay, but he lived in Thailand for decades). The funeral procession included an older gentleman solemnly carrying a saw. When we reached the part where we pushed the coffin into the crematorium, we paused while he carefully measured and sawed off about 10cm from the bottom of the coffin! As the husband of the oldest grandchild I was one of the men chosen to push him into the crematorium. So I had a close up view of them opening the coffin and pushing his feet up, out of the way, before the sawing took place. For a 97 year old man who had been dead for a week, he didn't look too bad!

Betty Azar has written several good English grammar textbooks that come with clear explanations and lots of exercises for the students. I particularly like the fact that she explains the differences between British and American grammar usage. Most authors simply pretend that the other version of English doesn't exist, but students often see the difference and are puzzled.

I have refrained from commenting on this topic before because I have very mixed feelings about what is going on here. However, while we are pointing out facts, let me throw out a few statistics: About 50% of the population in Gaza is 18 or under, so 50% of the people in Gaza are children. Of the adult population, over 50% are women. So, if the killing there was truly indiscriminate, 75% of the casualties should be women and children.

Regarding the OP: why not? It's not unusual for different countries to have different names for geographical features or even whole countries. For example The English Channel - La Manche or Japan - Nippon, etc.

Neither are Chinese container ports in Panama. The Panamanians control shipping in the canal, the Chinese just run some of the container ports. Another point I didn't mention is that few US ships transit the canal. Most US bound cargo is moved on Liberian or Panamanian or Marshall Island registered vessels. So we are going to war to protect the Liberian merchant marine? This is the same problem we faced in the Red Sea - who exactly are we protecting? The US got out of the shipping business decades ago. They only US merchant marine left are a few tankers and a bunch of barges on the Mississippi, none of which transit the Panama Canal!

My grandparents' home in the hills above LA (Lytle Creek Canyon) was burned during a wildfire back in the 1950s. They were already quite old, so they didn't rebuild it and just moved in with one of my uncles in Santa Barbara. Fires are nothing new, that area has been known to be prone to fires since the Spanish first moved in back in the 1700s. The native Californians were semi-nomadic and would burn their homes every few years and move to a new location. This kept the underbrush from building up too much so the fires were not as serious as they are now. This practice works fine... as long as you are willing to burn down your grass hut and move every few years! Nowadays, few people live in grass huts and even fewer would be willing to burn them down and move!

It's interesting that Trump is complaining about Chinese container ports in Panama, but seems to be perfectly content with Chinese owned and operated container ports in San Diego, Long Beach, etc...

Here is the list of hostages that Hamas is saying they may release (at least 2 of them have already been reported as dead), I don't see any Thai names on this list! Romi Gonen (24); Emily Damari (28); Arbel Yehoud (29); Doron Steinbrecher (31); Ariel Bibas (5); Kfir Bibas (1); Shiri Silberman Bibas (33); Liri Albag (19); Karina Ariev (20); Agam Berger (20); Daniel Gilboa (20); Naama Levy (20); Ohad Ben-Ami (55); Gad Moshe Moses (80); Keith Shmuel Siegel (65); Offer Kaldaron (53); Eliyahu Sharabi (52); Itzhak Elgaret (69); Shlomo Mansur (86); Ohad Yahalomi (50); Yousef Yousef Alziadna (54); Oded Lif<deleted>z (84); Tsachi Idan (50); Hisham al-Sayed (36); Yarden Bibas (35); Sagi Dekel Chen (36); Iair Horn (46); Omer Wenkert (23); Alexandre Troufanov (28); Eliya Cohen (27); Or Levy (34); Avera Mengistu (38); Tal Shoham (39); Omer Shem Tov (21).

Have you ever been to the disco in the basement of the Grace Hotel? An Arabian friend took me there a few years ago and it looked like the happening spot for Talibanis doing R & R!

Why do they call him "Former" PM? They should call him the "Real" PM!

66 is the magic number for most Thai Health Insurance providers. They really don't pay any attention to health history or prior claims, age is the main factor they use when calculating premiums. Most companies will cancel you outright at 75.

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Do I get along well with most Thai people? Yes, absolutely. They are, by and large, polite and friendly and easy to get along with. Do I have any close Thai friends? Well, honestly, no. Partly it's the language barrier - I speak and read Thai well enough to get by, but not well enough for friendly conversation. But partly it's also my own personality. I get along well with people and have lots of friendly acquaintances, but I don't make close friends easily.

I'm not looking forward to another 4 years of this nonsense... People need to stop obsessing over Trumps random announcements. The man suffers from verbal diarrhea, whatever thought happens to be passing through his addled brain is what comes out of his mouth. If another world leader discussed annexing another country, that would mean that his generals have a plan and are seriously considering it. When Trumps says something like this, it just means that he had some random thought and it came out of his mouth. It's not time to start warming up the tanks and aircraft carriers, it's time to lower our expectations of rational discourse from the "leader of the free world".

If you are wondering who the Council of State is, here is the not-very-informative Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_the_Council_of_State So, the real question I have, is who appointed the Council of State members?

An F1 race in Bangkok? This would be the perfect opportunity for the BiB to capture the Red Bull boy! 😉

There is a senior discount that used to be given to all passengers over 60. Several months ago some high ranking Thai person noticed that foreigners were being given this discount and kicked up a fuss, so the MRT changed their rules so that only Thais over the age of 60 got the discount. So, the regular price for the MRT is the same for everyone, it's just the senior discount that is no longer given to foreigners.

If she is number 29, then here is number 30 on that list.

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The outcome will all depend on the respective social status of the two students! If the killer is the son of a police or military officer it will all be brushed under the carpet as a misunderstanding.

AI/Robots are really good at jobs that involve accounting, writing, graphic design, etc. However, cleaning, doing laundry, etc.. are surprisingly complex jobs that are difficult for robots to do. So, in the future, your kids can look forward to careers as maids and janitors in robot factories. No wonder no one wants to have kids!

Note to self: Don't commit any crimes during New Year, the rest of the should be ok though!