RogueLeader

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... if you want to crusade agaist the abuse of the prai, you will do far better to train your sites on the Thais, who squeeze the <deleted>' life from their victims, aka Thai employees ... I love your intentions, but give us a break!

Sure, OK. But the Hilton is ultimately not Thai-owned. Most of the department stores in Siam Paragon are not Thai-owned. And anyway, what do you think will happen to the owners of food stalls and small guest houses, stores and restaurants when foreign tourists are booking their accommodation with travel agents in their own countries in 'preferred supplier' international hotels? Salaried positions as chambermaids, receptionists, travel desk clerks and cooks, if they're lucky.

Thailand is selling its heart. Bangkok wants to be Singapore. It isn't alone. Most countries are now following this path of economic liberalism and extreme social authoritarianism.

to deprive pensioners of their Human rights to an annual increase

LOLwut? Human rights to more money? Where do I sign up?

Please stop giving the HRA a bad name.

if UK immigration is one of toughest in the world, how come 250,000 a year are allow in...legally. forget the illegal ones.

also, uk immigration is manned by immigrants... just go to Heathrow terminal 3

Read a book. Just any book. Start from there.

AND THEN SINGLE GUYS OR OLDER GUYS WOULD COME HERE FOR ???????????

Let's see no gambling no sex = no tourists

Your equation is wrong:

no gambling no sex = no "low class" tourists "and higher percentage of desireable tourists with families and money to spend on taxable items".

Haha. Wait to see how much of the money that those 'high class' tourists spend stays in the country. Breakfast in their international hotel, dinner in their international restaurant, all their tours booked before they leave home through their American/Chinese/Indian tour agency.

Still, a few chambermaids and waitresses might be given 4000-baht-per-month jobs from their new foreign paymasters and end up dependent on tips from those same tourists.

Thailand is making a big mistake selling all of its assets to rich foreigners for the enrichment of a few.

Hmmm...that easy? Just like that? Guy murders her, packs his stuff and goes home? I think there's something more to it

Did you expect him to have a coffee at Starbuck's first?

Nooo. Indian coffee is excellent. No self-respecting Indian would be seen in Starbucks.

If nobody wants to sell sex, it is a crime to force anyone to do so. But when men or women do want to sell their bodies, they should have that full right without encountering punishment or discrimination. If the client behaves decently, the relationship between the sex buyer and the sex seller must be considered a purely private transaction.

No problem with that. Prostitution is worldwide where there are legal brothels visited by the desparate and lonely. In Thailand it is out in the open, move it into brothels and behind closed doors away from public view. The sex tourist can enter the brothel, dump his load and move on. The girls won't be druugging the victim inside a brothel where he will pass out for hours as they need the bed for the next punter. The punter won't be fleeced of all the valuables unless he is stupid enough to take them all to the brothel. A brothel would be more controlled

Absolutely. A good, healthy dose of hypocrisy and sexual repression is exactly what Thailand needs to become a one-meal-a-day country.

How would you feel if your visa for Thailand was revoked just because someone said something to Immigration!

The charges against her need to be proven or dismissed by the BA, the husbands testimony alone is not enough since he has a vested interest in keeping her out of the Scottish courts where he will presumably loose lots more than if the divorce is heard absentia.

The last thing he wants, though, is for the case to get anywhere near the Thai courts. In fact, if I were him I'd probably avoid Thailand in future.

British Immigration laws are among the toughest in the world,.

because tons of money grubbin' people like this one are trying to get in....hence the tough immigration laws.

Hehe. And again we see this delusion that Britain is in any way significant on the world stage.

"However, he pointed out that if the police officers have been negligent or have allowed permanent gambling dens to operate in their areas, the police are errant."

He misspelled "rich"

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violating...pornography laws.

Hahaha. You can buy it on most city streets, but you can't give away pictures or videos of it

Twitter should have told the Thai government: "We're not making any changes. You're obviously free to pull the plug if you want." That would have started a popularity contest between the government and Twitter (and, by extension, all the social networking sites including Facebook). They know exactly who would win such a contest so they mewl and cower and beg Twitter to do their dirty work for them.

, I wonder if you would prefer that governments sue Twitter each time one of its users breaks the law.

The Thai government suing an American corporation in US courts for doing something that's constitutionally protected under US law? No chance. I suppose it's possible that they could have been indicted under Thai law and prevented from entering Thailand under threat of arrest. Perhaps someone high up at Twitter is really into kathoey?

This whole tablet issue is very sad and painful to watch.

If anyone has seen an iphone copy from China, they kind of look the part, but they don't really work. They are slow, poor battery life, clunky, not well translated from Chinese and really not worth having. They are also poorly built and good luck if something goes wrong. They may have lots of books on them, but that's like getting socks for Christmas.

It feels like no one has really thought this through and just rushing to tick the election pledge box.

It has been well documented how they could be better using the money on education, which makes watching this train wreck even more painful. It will be one of the biggest wastes of money ever.

If they had been serious, really understood the problems, created a roll out strategy, training, content, wifi and support, I think everyone would be touting this as a great initiative and leading the world.

But alas, it's a bunch of buffoons creating the illusion of doing something meaningful for education, when we all know the only topic of discussion with the Chinese manufacturer is what bank account and how many percent.

I actually had one of those tablets on my hands and I must say that they work pretty well. It is running Android OS with the standard features like wifi, multitouch, etc Not sure about the processor specs but it was running fast just like any new Android phone/tablet.

Yes, they run very well. I've used them for testing and they're smooth and responsive and a joy to use; the iPad and the Android and Open Source alternatives. I held the iPad in my hand, admired its beauty and form but then i realised tht I had no possible use for one: that no-one could possibly need one. Or, to put it another way, if you need a tablet, a laptop would be much more useful.

Tablets are good for games, video and face-chat. Coincidentally, these are things that schoolkids are most likely to use them for.

Give them a laptop each if you want them to learn.

Not really - iPads are now outselling HP computers.

When Windows 8 is fully "out there" expect a lot more devices to be simple touch screen tablets.

When Android supports printing and documents are held in corporate iclouds then expect a lot more.

Have you ever tried to do any serious work on a tablet?

At the moment the only thing holding MS together is the PC/Server combination

What does that mean?

Tablets are consumer devices. Why are they giving them glorified TVs and MP3 players? If you want to learn about computers, use a netbook, which are better value anyway.

This is just idiocy.

I read a report once that said heron addiction was three parts one part the heron one part the needle and one part the life style.

Heron addiction is a dreadful thing. Hard to swallow. So many people try to give up without proper preparation, wing it then chicken out, raven mad with the pain.

. I really don't understand people who, for petty political gain, oppose the war on drug.

You have admitted that you don't understand. That's a good start. Perhaps you should read some books?

A lot of work has to be done in the anti drug war.

Yes. It needs to be stopped.

There's no doubt, anyone stupid and weak enough to dabble in drugs are just climbing aboard the slippery slide to being a full addict !

So does everyone who drinks become an alcoholic?

What would be the next couple of major populated buildings/centers that RogueLeader would like the terrorists to go after next? Which place isn't worth trying to protect from a terrorist attack, no matter what country or citizens are involved?

You almost had a point until this. Almost.

It's funny (and sad) to read these kind of comments from conspiracy theory wingnuts regarding this latest case...

Lazy and contemptuous. And if you don't know how to use an ellipsis correctly, don't use it.

The same people posting these kinds of dubious comments probably don't even know that ME terrorists attacked the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok and seized hostages there in 1972, before ultimately being allowed to leave the country in a negotiated deal on a ThaiAir flight bound for the Middle East.

And then terrorists tried again in the mid 1990s with a truck bomb bound for the Israeli Embassy that failed when the truck got into a traffic accident en route and the driver fled... And Thai police only later after impounding the truck discovered it was packed full of explosives...

Sure, Thailand can stay neutral in the war on terrorism... The terrorists aren't out to attack Thailand... At least, until the big bomb goes off next time.

Wow. That's two attempts in 18 years that you've highlighted there. I for one am quaking. Comparing that to the death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan each month would be illuminating.

Look, you can run around squealing like a frightened animal if you like. The truth is that the likelihood of being killed in a terrorist attack are tiny. Given the fact that terrorist are fairly easy to perpetrate, it would seem that there just aren't that many narcissistic <deleted> who are sufficiently deluded to actually kill for sky fairies in the world.

To quote a great Texan:

You ever watch CNN for longer than, say, 20 hours in one day? I gotta cut that out. Watch CNN. It's the most depressing thing you'll ever see, man. "WAR, FAMINE, DEATH, AIDS, HOMELESS, RECESSION, DEPRESSION, WAR, FAMINE, DEATH, AIDS." Over and over again. Then you look out your window - (crickets chirping) - where's all this shit going on, man? Ted Turner is making this shit up. Jane Fonda won't sleep with him, he runs to a typewriter: "By 1992 we will all die of AIDS. Read that on the air. I don't get laid, nobody gets laid."

when he was gung-ho for UK to join the Euro.

When was that?

http://www.economist.com/node/187778

http://www.revisiong...nomics/emu7.htm

Is that the best you can do?

The government, repeated Mr Blair, is in favour of joining a “successful” euro “in principle”. But whether Britain will join the single currency will still depend on a referendum, most probably after the next election.

http://www.economist.com/node/187778

The second article is an op-ed piece (though not identified as such) and contains no relevant direct quotes.

May I enquire as to your definition of the phrase 'gung-ho'? Or shall we just forget that any of this happened?

There are people who are overly hysterical over the terrorist threat. Most are however are just more cautious then usual when there is a real threat. It doesn't really hurt to be more careful. However, there are always stupid people who dismiss genuine threats all because they hate the US government. Everything to them is a conspiracy by the US government. How sad for these morons.

Was there a point that you wanted to make?