TPI

For everyone's sake I hope the ' grueling tests ' were exactly that and not anything like the educational system's grueling tests which everyone seems to pass with ease.

i'm not suggesting these ladies may not be capable it's just the system here doesn't engender any confidence.

I wonder if its anything like the mental and physical sexual abuse grueling tests they put female recruits through in the Australian Military.

They were all just naughty boys having a good time! I don't know what you'd call the senior officers who forced their way with other female service women? The Australian Officer Corps hasn't had a decent officer either before or after General Sir John Monash!

What exactly is Ya Ba? How is it taken?

Speed, gofast, Uppers....poison for ฿30 a tablet!

His logic is sound, though. It's fine running with the girls, she just can't win. By the by, #525 is kinda hot.

Agreed, is it just a matter of mental adjustment?? Nah, she looks pretty onrdinary to me!! (#525)

Good tucker! Fried with pepper and garlic......yum!

Keep shooting boys. Then there will be an unpopulated country from which we can then feed the rest of the world. The sheer stupidity of allowing these weapons to all and sundry continues to stagger all of us from those other educated countries where gun violence is rare. You dumbarse citizens of the USA keep quoting the 2nd ammendment which was written when you were fighting for your freedom and independance and not meant to apply to a free, independant and civilised??? country.

You sound like an aussie who watches the ABC and votes "green", why do you think 'merica is still free and independant? 20 million armed citizens....that's why!! Don't hold the UK or Oz up as "free and independant", not with the pollies in either country!

I'm an American US veteran expat living in Thailand for over 10 years ... Take away our 2nd amendment to carry a firearm(s) and our sick govt would quickly bury us

now that's outta the way ... Many "Yanks" will wanna kill the messenger (me)

Increase in US mass shootings or single shootings have nothing to do with gun laws or guns themselves. To use what some would call a worn out cliche, "guns don't kill people, people kill people" ... If some crazy or a gang member or any other type of criminal or soon to be criminal wants a gun to commit a crime they can easily get one, law or no law.

THE REAL REASON FOR AMERICA'S MASS KILLINGS

When a countries govt sends storm troopers around the world mass murdering innocent men women and children, destroying countries and a socio-psychopath POTUS using his favorite killer drones to kill a granddmother blown apart and screaming in agony while her now crippled and maimed grandaughter watches her die then you have a society that follows suit. Just as an animal or human child learns watching it's parents so does a society learn from the actions of it's so called leaders. The US govt, it's leaders(politicians) and TPTB "Elite" are all very very greedy, wealth / power hungry sick socio-psychopaths ... that's the reason America has among other things a gun problem ... America has other just as devastating societal problems as a "gun" problem

These single, semi-mass and mass killings have nothing to do with guns but everything to do with the mind-set of our uneducated child like society in general, monkey see monkey do, A child behaves like those who raised it ... You could take every single gun in America and dump'em all in the ocean, then the perverse govt trained society would kill with knives, take away the knives then they'll use rocks, take away the rocks, they'll use fire and so on and so on ... if America wants the mass killings to stop then the US govt should stop it's murder and destruction of our planet, and replace all the puppet politicians with honest moral leaders ... sad part is we are gettin' ready to elect one of the sickest most vicious, immoral war hawk socio-psychos walking the planet ... if you think bumbling, stumbling boy POTUS Dhuuuubya and our current Orea faux nobel peace prize winning POTUS were bad wait'll ya see what Killary Billary Hillary has in store for the world.

By the way these are some of the wonderful traits of socio-psychos (our leaders and puppet masters) These disorders (sociopath and psychopath) share many common behavioral traits which lead to the confusion between them. Key traits that sociopaths and psychopaths (socio-psycho) share include: (list is also IMO a pretty good description of today's US govt)

• A disregard for laws and social mores
• A disregard for the rights of others
• A failure to feel remorse or guilt
• A tendency to display violent behavior
• Will not hesitate kill others to reach goals or quell lust

Fantastic post, I agree. Well said.

Agreed, the same applies to Oz pollies of both persuasions!

My state of Virginia allows open carry,issues concealed carry with application/passing authorized training course and doesn't require gun registration,,in fact you can't as there's no system in place for it. God love this part of America.

Okay fire at will,,I promise not to shoot back.

In australia the federal government had to create a mass shooting to get the public to go along with its draconian laws! The "offender" had an IQ of 66 and there was never a coronial inquest or a proper trail, he's been in solitary confinment for 20 years, he's not even allowed to speak to his mother!

That's what you get when you get a anti-firearm government in power at the national level!

Fight for your right of self defence, in Australia,you may not use a firearm for self defence, it's not allowed under the law, no matter how dangerous the situation or to whom!!

People don't know the reason for the raid...the reason given by the RTP is they were told of the situation by a NGO! That's pretty flimsy as the RTP usually don't listen to people that want to upset the apple cart, especially when there is so much money involved! New investors maybe??

Get arrested and defrocked for having a whiskey but if you steal millions you are protected and untouchable.

They should have said they were "sick", a local doctor gives them a certificate (50 baht) and away they go!!! It works for abbots??

What a fowl thing to do! I'm sorry, that was a poultry thing to say, I just don't want to egg them on!!

Therein lies another problem with religion, some group of old men write a treatise on how we should live and its swallowed by the ignorant masses.

Any glimmer of objective thought tells us burning your child for marrying against your will is the act of a sociopath, however religion makes it acceptable.

Christianity went thru all this barbarism, these days it's Islam.

Christianity didn't get stuck in barbarism for 1300 years.

history is not exactly your strength

• Scotland: The witchcraft trials in Scotland took place during the period 1561-1727.
• Kingdom of Great Britain: Witchcraft ceased to be an act punishable by law with the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

an estimated 50-60,000 witches were burned in Europe between 1200 and 1700.

And it would appear that the accused women were, generally, midwives taking away "doctors" businesses!! Such are the pressures in business?? Sweden was one of the worst offenders!

The photo shows some interesting issues. There appears to be a section of the column void of concrete and its not a typical compression failure. There is also very visible evidence of over hydration by the numerous cavities left after curing. The reo has no signs of rust but the concrete has also not bonded to it as you would expect.

The green and pink colour tinge on the surface and beyond which I assume is not the lighting as it is patchy.

Looks to me like a failure caused by a casting void due to over hydration, possibly at the start of a new batch delivery, whereby the load was only supported by the reinforcing until a lateral force, probably thermal movement, resulted in the axial displacement.

In other words, a crap batch of over watered concrete.

I tried to explain to thai workers why one shouldn't use too much water in concrete, they laughed and said "it's too hard to work and we don't want to hire vibrators!" They've never heard of "Slump"!!

Seems maybe some authorities read about the windfall King Power would be getting through Leicester.

Perhaps someone fancied a bit of the action and are giving KP a bit of a squeeze to see if anything drops out of their pockets.

You couldn't be suggesting that there is some sort of hanky panky going on in the continueing operations of "King Power" could you, and that some terrible person/s would take advantage of the situation?? My friend you're talking about the Thai people! Impossible....perish the thought!

Why are Asians (generally) so insensitive to the plight of animals, even now the actions of the tiger temple and this rich chinese raise nothing but a yawn from the local people..."he's rich, he's making good money, they're only animals anyway!" I guess it's an asian thing??

A shoot up here a shoot up there, now let's hear it for the "it happens all over the world" group!

The going rate for a middlin' school was 5 million a year or so ago!

What gets me is that even convicted and sentenced to prison, these crooks are walking around as if nothing happened and free as a bird. This system only allows for them to have the opportunity to flee the country. I know, if I had been sentenced to 13 years in prison and was able to bond out, I would run.

Amazing how many TV posters see such things so clearly here and remain blind to similar or worse situations back in the countries from which they fled.

I am not blind about what happens/ed in France which is my country;but we are here writing about Thailand

A link ( in french ) about the last political and financial scandals in France and USA

http://www.leparisien.fr/une/1988-2008-les-dix-plus-grands-scandales-financiers-21-06-2009-554955.php#xtref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.th

When we see the amount of these scandals ( billions euros or US dollars ), I think Thailand don't play in the same yard; they must grow , grow up

except for one but it's forbidden to speak or write about it here . ( Air America and who you know )

As you say, it all goes back a long long way and the truth will never be public! At least Soyrayuth paid back the money!!

She couldn't even motivate her delegates in Nevada to go in and vote and lost the state because of it. Anyway, who needs to vote for Hillary when the Democratic party has already given her the vote for you, via voter lockouts in New York (3 million voters denied votes because they registered as Demcocrats too late), Arizona (people taken off the voting rolls and registered independent without their consent) and perhaps other states as well.

Sanders as a write in if the Dems don't wise up and choose an electable candidate and if Bernie doesn't run as an independent. Also, people need to fight on the local level and get rid rid of the scum in congress by voting in representatives taht do their job, ie representing people, not businesses. That is where the apathy is a real killer, not presidential elections. Even if Sanders did get elected he and the country would still have the corporate court eunuchs obstructing anything and everything that wasn't good for profits.

Agreed! The clinton camp are spruiking...."you've got to know how to play the game!". It will be great when Bernie gets up on the 8th of June with the convention in his pocket! Then it'll be watch out Hillary the FBI are coming!!

I don't really have a dog in this fight, I have never been an anglophile, and, in general, I am not opposed to people leaving their homeland to live and work in another country - I've done it several times. However, what I see here is about one-third of the population of North Africa and the ME trying to cross the Mediterranean and invade Europe. They bring with them an economy-burdening poverty and a hostile culture that dilutes the indigenous culture to the point that, were it not recorded in literature and academia, it would no longer be recognizable. European families, in general, have taken responsible steps to voluntarily limit population increases through reproduction. Third world countries from Africa and Asia continue to produce large families to increase the number of workers in their units and to guarantee security for the elderly. That, coupled with the technology compassionately offered from the west, has increased the survival rate of their citizenry but it has not increased the economic opportunities to enjoy the out-of-reach living standards in Europe as witnessed by them in the media.

Compassion is an admirable trait, especially when exercised by nations with the support of their people. But in the modern world it is rapidly becoming a means of enabling that encourages people to leave their countries instead of struggling to fix them. Unless there is a radical change in the EU policy vis-a-vis immigration, continued membership in that organization will result in the accelerated dismantling of the UK.

The British Empire is long gone. It is time for the British people to expiate itself of the guilt for sins it committed during that era and function again as a cohesive, focused unit the way it did during its heroic days of the early 1940s. That cannot happen if it continues to carry the burdens imposed by continued membership in EU.

Hear hear! Well said that person.

Can I add a rather more personal note than I think most of the previous posters are able. I am 73. My wife is 31. I was divorced in 1998, lived alone and unhappy for 14 years. Met my wife in 2012, we lived together for 3 years, to assure compatibility, married March 2015. Both very happy. I give my wife a better life style than she has ever enjoyed before - two bedroom house, swimming pool, A/C's, hot water in bathroom. When I die, which is almost certain to be well before her, I shall leave her a rich (by Thai standards) woman. To those of you who criticise - I can only say "Mind your own damned business". Good luck to them both.

Exactly so.

Couldn't agree more.

If no laws are broken, then its no-one's business but the newlyweds.

l knew a white couple in PNG, she was 65(looked younger)& he was a long haired git of 20.

They seemed very happy & no-one forced either of them to stay together.

l have had both younger & older girlfriends, much younger & much older.

To all you, "not righters" & moralisers, Butt Out, lts got jack sh!t to do with you.

Congratulations and I sincerely mean that.

Back to topic using your relationship as an example: There is a lifetime of difference between a 31yo woman and 17yo juvenile child.

Yep, I am going to moralize and call a bs, especially on examples above.

I really and I mean really have nothing against a pimple faced 17 year old girl fancying an old geezer. Same the other way around. I think government should not put their nose into people's lives unless there is abuse going on.

However, this wedding.... I dunno. Money is being exchanged. Was this wedding girl's idea or her parents? Yep, the money part bothers the heck out of me. I call this slavery. Sorry.

C'mon, it's called Sin sod and occurs at every, yes every Thai wedding....seems to be the custom in Lao, Vietnam and Cambodia as well!!

I've actually seen worse. Not that long ago, I witnessed a German 92 year old living with an 18 year old here in Udon. If that wasn't bad enough, they had already been together for 2 years. I heard he died just shortly after, but I'm still baffled and speechless about it, like <deleted> ?

(Yeah, I'm not joking)

Another couple I met in the very same village is a 86 year old (also German) being married to a 24 year old. While it's less controversial legally, biologically and neurologically, I can't help using the exact same words again, <deleted> ?

It's just not right...

Jealous?

Be interesting the know the quantities she sold.....was it a couple of pills or was it much more ?

Talking to the prisoners (about 200) involved with possession and selling yaba they're generally done for having less than 10 pills, they were only partners of their partners (so they say!). While I'm sure there're a few "porkies" in there most of their stories ring true, for Thailand anyway!

Don't try that at Nan immigration! I went there today to get an official residence letter for a new 5 year licence, "Oh no" they said " you have to go to the transport department and get a letter from them requesting immigration to supply a residence letter"! Ok, off to the transport dept. in Nan and I asked for the letter requesting a residence letter from them......after an hour they looked up their computer to verify I had a licence in the first place, verified my I.D. from my passport and produced the letter! Question! Why do I need a letter from Immigration confirming my address when Transport have it already?

Back at Immigration, fill out the form requesting the official letter.....part of the application is where you have to write in your current address that they will use to confirm it??? Submit the form (it's now approaching 4 hours since this started) and was informed.. "The Head of the department, who is the only one who can sign the letter will not be back until next week so you'll have to come up from Phrae next week to pick up your letter". The office staff knew this when I first went in 4 hours ago!!

I asked "What about all of the people applying for letters and visas today, will they have to come back again?" , "Of course" was the reply!

Really skillfull! Oz has banned fireworks in most places!

Is this fair and reasonable

Today I met a young lady who was convicted of selling Yaba. She is 21 years old.

She was sentenced to 5 years 8 months in jail. Although she was just 18 at the time and just out of school the Judge saw fit to pass this sentence. Her boyfriend, of course, had fled and left her to face Thai “Justice”.

Inside the local Prison are 208 women prisoners, nearly all with children at home, every one abandoned by their partners and over 95% of them in jail for dealing with yaba, all doing 3 years or more!

My problem is this; these women were failed by the Education system, they were failed by the community and most of all they were failed by their Government!

I understand, by the “unofficial” rules of Sakdina they’ve got what they deserved, but what a waste! If they were smart enough and dumb enough & desperate enough to sell drugs then how good would they have been if given a chance at life!

One would think it was reasonable that if the government was serious about combating drugs in the community they would have some other plan other than putting poor people in jail?

Imagine the effect of having some of these men and women prisoners telling students in High School the real pitfalls of doing drugs! Telling them that the man selling you the drugs will most probably be a friend of the man who arrests you and while you go to jail for years and years he will get a bonus and his superiors will get a bounty from another country’s DEA.

Is it fair and reasonable that young and old, male and female are sacrificed for years at a time, when other punishments are available and the chance for rehabilitation is high, for the sake of the self-aggrandizement of the countries involved?