Flyguy330

Question for Thai Air Asia travellers. Their Baggage Guidelines say they will not allow more than 2 spare batteries/power packs in your carry on luggage (and none in the checked bags of course). I've flown Air Asia from many other points in Asia but only the THAI Air Asia rules have this restriction. Have any of you run into this issue? It's pretty limiting for me. I probably won't fly Thai Air Asia because of it.

But your comment makes you sound offended by the criticism of one particular religion. If they're all tripe why do you need to defend any of them?

Well guys, since I was a young man I had always wanted a Rolex, but I could never afford it. I bought a Breitling instead and it was my everyday watch. when I got to 50 I actually realised finally I could afford that Rolex, a GMT (Pepsi). It was the one I had always wanted. I wear it with pride - but not every day. In fact I later bought two other Breitlings, a Navitimer and a B-1, which I enjoy wearing on special occasions. I think it's only right for a man to have at least one 'special watch'. The ladies can dress up with their earings and rings and necklaces, but since I'm not gay I prefer a nice watch.

This is a big issue for me because I find it quite irksome how all (and I mean ALL) of the Asians I meet (Malaysians, Hong Kong'ers, Singaporeans mainly) express shock and disbelief at the stupidity of Europe in allowing their lands to be flooded with millions of foreigners. They seriously cannot get their head around it. The same goes for the online Forums I read, you get the same disbelief, but it's usually expressed in an even more negative and racist way. They laugh at and deride the stupidity of The West. The point being here that these Asian people do not think it is in any way racist or xenophobic to have strict immigration controls. You can see this actually borne out by the extreme limits on immigration in many Asian nations (e.g. China, Japan) where there is effectively zero immigration allowed, and generally, regional leaders do not at all shy away from openly expressing their firm intent to keep undesireable foreigners out, even their brother muslims in the case of the Rohingya refugees and Malaysia/Indonesia. The 'opinion' you generally get to this in the western media is - "Yes, but we're better than them, so we shouldn't sink to that level of discrimination". Isn't that the very essence of racism right there? Then we have the situation in Gaza, where the moral superiority of The West is exposed as one big lie. I find it all seriously embarassing.

Wanna sleep undisturbed? Earplugs.

It is so jarring to read of the punishments applied for Cannabis possession just across the southern border. On one side of that invisible line a Thai or Farang can lounge in public smoking weed which is openly on sale everywhere, while yards away on the other side of that invisible line a man caught in possession of weed will face a lengthy prison sentence, or even death. Humans are really weird. Ex-Customs officer escapes gallows, gets 15 years' jail for possessing cannabis

It's just a theory, sure. But there's a big gay porn industry in the US and I'd be really surprised if none of their producer/directors ever work in straight porn too. If they're any 'good' they'd be in demand. They don't need to be 'in control' of it to have an influence on it. Lets face it, that's where the 'wokeness' in mainstream cinema is coming from. I don't think hundreds of straight film producers/directors just decided one fine day that they all had to start creating more 'woke content'. So where does it all come from? What's driving it? I've no doubt there's a lot of 'confusion' out there these days. But for me, sex and sexual attraction is about far more than just 'getting off'. It is a package of things that starts fundamentally, for me, with a certain aesthetic. I won't insult you by using perjoratives about the aesthetics of male/male sexual behaviour, but I will simply say that the beauty of a lovely womans face, eyes, hair, skin, lips, body, smell, touch, voice and mind can never be matched by the ugly utilitarian form of the human male. I'll admit that ladyboys in Thailand can do a damn good impression. But that's all it is. And when I see one I can spot it right away, and after that all I see is a guy in drag who has spent a fortune on plastic surgery with the aim for fooling the ignorant. But the vast majority of gay men in the West don't look like that. They are the boring ordinary Joe Soaps sitting next to you in the bus. What can possibly be attractive about them? I just don't get it. It seems almost like an intentional rejection of beauty, which runs contrary to every fibre of my being.

I'm not a Yank actually. I don't support their system either. Fake democracy. Sorry for dragging the thread off topic.

EVERY? Not on mine mate. Easily avoided.

If I'm guilty of oversimplifying then you are too. There were street protests in Hong Kong pre 2019, pre the extradition case you refer to. There were years long sit-ins at various protest points in the city even before that. The extradition case was a final straw for the population after the CCP had already illegally abducted numerous book sellers in the city and tortured them in Chinese prisons without any charge or due process, because they printed books critical of the CCP and revealed their leaders corruption. Jimmy Lai is currently on trial in Hong Kong for the crime of publishing such critical news. Even a murderer is entitled to due process if extradited. If not, that leaves you, and everyone else, exposed to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment by tyrants. You hint at 'foreign interference' which is a trope straight out of the CCP playbook. I consider it the greatest insult of all because it proposes that the hundreds of thousands of intelligent Hong Kong'ers who peacefully protested on the streets of the city in July 2019 were all 'dupes' and only there because they'd been fooled by 'foreign influence'. Your lack of understanding of the daily problems those people faced shows your ignorance of life in the city and its realities. The broken CCP promises and undertakings of independence and free elections in Hong Kong were primary motivators for the protests. The master of 'foreign influence' is of course none other than the CCP itself. It never stopped interfering after 1997. I have friends who still work there and I was out for drinks on Friday night with one of them. He described the many shops which are still shuttered in the city centre - in a town where shop rents were always sky high. Now they can't find tenants. Schools which once had lengthy waiting lists are now closing through lack of pupils. The population has fallen. People are voting with their feet - especially the expat banking and finance community, they are all moving to Singapore. The CCP wants to run Hong Kong down, so its fine with them. They prefer Shanghai as their business and finance centre. It's a shame. Tell that to these folks: 3,300 protestors still on remand in Hong Kong, 265 jailed.

That's an interesting point, because the increased volume of male/female anal in what I'd call mainstream porn is quite a noticeable trend. It's got to the point now where a porn movie isn't 'legit' unless there's an anal scene in it. The poor porno model girls have had to go along with it I guess, only a few seem to refuse to do it. You never see it in their movies. I'd guess that many of them just don't like it (pain) and many of them are worried about the future incontinence issues they'll probably suffer from. Meanwhile the crazies are out there too, taking 2 or 3 up the ass at the same time. I often think they have to be stoned to do it. I've tried anal with a girlfriend. She didn't enjoy it, and neither did I. The feeling for me was like having a tight elastic band rolled up and down your cock, and none of the full length gripping/massaging of vaginal sex. I think the attraction for many guys watching it is the violent side of it. The anus is not designed to have things shoved up it, quite the opposite. The viewing 'thrill' seems to be all about that 'forced entry' angle. Kinda rapey in a way. I also have my suspicions that a lot of the porno producers/directors are gays, and this plays into their desire for the normalisation of anal sex in the mainstream too. They're probably the types who will happily tell you that there's a 'big market' for it, and if you enjoy watching/doing anal sex you are really a closet bi or gay yourself.

I'm sure you know that many countries are still not open to gayness in their population? Indeed in many it could mean a death sentence. Even in Western nations which are supposedly 'enlightened' there are still plenty of events of gay bashing. And that's just the visible 'headline news' prejudice. I would still love my son, but would fear for him. But so what? I'm just one person - don't draw societal conclusions from my reaction. Try to focus on 'the big picture'.

I'm interested in this issue on a more scientific level, as in, what is the evolutionary benefit of homosexuality? Since male/male sex does not lead to reproduction, how can a 'gene for gayness' be passed on? One of the central arguments gays make is that they didn't choose to be gay, that it is biologically 'forced' on them, ergo it is 'natural'. So it's genetic in nature. There is clear evidence of homosexuality dating back to the dawn of civilisation. But if its genetic, but cannot reproduce itself, how does it get passed on over millenia? Evolution has pretty effective methods of eliminating 'unproductive traits' from the genome, naturally. One postulation is that it is a mutation, a kind of glitch, which is in fact the very essence of the evolutionary process. But why would this 'glitch' keep recurring with such high frequency in the population? Is there a statistical method which can identify how often a mutation would occur in a population? Does it add up with the mutation theory for gayness? If it is not a statistically explicable genetic mutation 'event', what is it? I've read some recent theories which put a more 'social' causation on gayness. The theory says that low status males could raise their status in certain communities by being gay, or at least swinging both ways. But the problem I see with that argument is that it means the inferred conclusion that gayness is in fact a 'lifestyle choice', and not a natural imperative. I once asked this question of a gay acquaintance of mine. What do you think made you gay? He burst into tears and yelled 'I didn't choose this life'. So I believe him. I believe he can't help himself. I don't have a problem with it - in fact, after that encounter, I can feel nothing but pity for gays. That's why I would not be happy with my son being gay - because it results in a lot of prejudice and aggro, and leads to a more difficult and unhappy existence.

When EV's were just starting to appear on the market two decades ago I was very enthusiastic about them. I would have seriously considered buying one, but the charging infrastructure wasn't there yet. A few years later I remember reading a story posted on another forum by a guy who was taking his Tesla on a trip from the UK to southern France. After he crossed the channel and hit the French motorway he got a warning of some kind from the Tesla onboard computer. Then he got a phone call from the Tesla HQ (really!?) telling him to pull into the next rest area and go for a coffee while they uploaded a fix for the reported error to the car. He did that, the error went away, and he drove on happily for the rest of his trip. I though - what amazing technology! To have the ability for 'fix' your car remotely! A few years later I moved to Hong Kong for work. The job took me into China a lot. It was then I began to become aware of the control exercised on the Chinese population. Live TV News was being censored real time (picture & sound blacked out), the Great Firewall of China meant many common websites are blocked - no Google, Gmail, Facebook etc. Chinese citizens live under the 'good behaviour' system - called Social Credit - where, if you misbehave in any way (like making this post I'm writing) the government can remove chosen freedoms and services from you in punishment. Then in 2019 the Hong Kong protests started up - where the Hong Kong people had the balls to object to the creeping Sinofication of their previously free nation, and the gradual loss of the rights and freedoms they valued. This escalated into an almost civil war scenario. The CCP reaction was to impose a draconian new 'security law' which is being used to this day to punish Hong Kong'ers in the most basic and often petty ways. Failure to stand for the Chinese National Anthem at a football match will get you arrested. Now I realise that the same wonderful technology that helped that guy with the Tesla to 'fix' his car at a petrol station in France can be used to punish you if your 'Social Credit' score drops. They can remotely switch off your car and deprive you of free mobility at the click of a mouse. So no, I won't buy a BYD, or any other EV for that matter - until they force me by cutting off petrol supplies.

I bought one when after my car battery was accidentally drained while out shopping (wife left sidelights on in carpark). I used it once after that to start a friends car. Worked great. But I left it in the boot afterward and forgot about it. A neighbour recently asked me to jump start him. I dug out the gizmo, but found it was flat too. So they work great, but you need to remember to check em every few months to be sure you have charge remaining.