JAG
-
Posts
12,789 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
3
Content Type
Events
Forums
Downloads
Quizzes
Gallery
Blogs
Posts posted by JAG
-
-
- Popular Post
2 hours ago, Grouse said:Yes. All these false posts need to stop. We've been explaining this to Epsilons for three years and STILL they post falsehoods or misleading statements. I will start reporting if it continues.
I must confess that your references to "Epsilons" had left me puzzled, although I was certain that it was some clever way of being rude to people that had the temerity to disagree with you. After all, such expressions are central to your posts, and I rather assumed that you have steadily moved through a catalogue of abuse because, from time to time, the TVF system has tired of each particular derogatory term, and stopped you from using it. As I said, I was sure that it was a term of abuse, and because you are so magnificently clever, (and as you regularly remind us have such a splendid education) you could not for long bear the thought that people here could not appreciate your wit and intellect, so I consoled myself that you would sooner or later have to explain just how jolly clever and erudite you are.
Well, lo! The penny has dropped! The "Epsilons" are the uneducated, brutish peasant class in the society described by Aldous Huxley in his novel "Brave New World"! I really must congratulate you on your cleverness! I am sorry it took this simple soldier ( a mere helot after all) so long to get there.
So, for those of you, who like me, failed to get the smug little bastards reference to "Epsilons", he is suggesting that we are stupid, brutish, uneducated. inferior etc.
What a clever little gamebird he is...
I wonder if using such a word - given its provenance -as an all-embracing term of abuse, is contrary to the rules governing posting on this forum, and specifically to the rules about making consistent derogatory references to other posters. It would seem after all, that he is keen to start reporting others...
-
7
-
2
-
- Popular Post
11 minutes ago, Mavideol said:in this particular case what's the difference
As I said, the problem is intractable, so we leave.
-
3
-
- Popular Post
1 hour ago, Samui Bodoh said:Forgive me, I do know that these matters are extremely complex, but I think that they are also quite simple and straightforward. If the UK isn't happy with the current situation within the EU, fix it, don't run away.
If we simplify things to the extent you suggest, the problems which we have discussed are intractable. We leave.
We're not running away, we're leaving.
As for the people challenging the countries political class/establishment and their cosy consensus: perhaps that is what the 2016 referendum, and the current political mess, is about?
-
3
-
3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:
You agreed. Every step of the way, you agreed. Every treaty, you agreed. Every new rule, you agreed. Every new policy, you agreed. If you hadn't agreed, you could have left, but you didn't. You stayed, and thus you agreed.
One of the main planks of the argument for leaving is that the EU has changed considerably from the trading organisation which we entered, and confirmed membership of with the 1975 referendum.
Those changes have been ratified by Parliament. In the cases of (at least the two main treaties which significantly changed the EU, and laid the foundations for the putative federal state which it now is): Maastricht and Lisbon, they were ratified by a heavily whipped vote in Parliament, with many Parliamentary rebels. In both cases the Government managed to assemble a majority, but it was arguably against the popular will. The Lisbon Treaty was so unpopular that it was signed, with no publicity, in the ante room of a hotel during an EU summit!
The referendum was the result of a long running campaign for a vote on the matter, going back at least as far as Maastricht. The EU had changed from a trading partnership, and was fast becoming a federal state, albeit one not distinguished by the level of democratic representation enjoyed in Canada (or the US). The political establishment had managed to close down the debate on this, particularly at successive general elections, although UKIP snapping at the heels of the Tories in particular led to the referendum being called! The result was a shock to that political establishment. They seem to have reacted by basically trying to arrange "business as usual" whilst claiming by to be arranging for Brexit. They have actually made no real preparations for leaving. They have been rumbled. Hence the "steaming crock of shit" analogy.
3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:Sorry, to ask me to react in the North American context to an EU situation simply doesn't work; Canada chose NOT to enter into an agreement like the EU.
I fully accept that NAFTA is not comparable to the EU, but I stand by asked by how you would regard a Mexican politician telling you what to do.
3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:Second, the argument in favour of leaving for cultural/identity reasons does hold some validity to me, even though I think it is wrong here. Simply put, in my view the British culture has sustained itself for generations and generations and is much more resilient that the EU influence. I think we disagree on that, so lets just leave it there for now.
As the EU moves towards its "ever closer union" it is to many of us clear that this inevitably means common fiscal, legislative and judicial systems, together with a universal common currecy. We would have to adopt the Euro, and change to a more codified "Napoleonic" judicial and legal systems. Trial by Jury and Common Law would be likely to go. Massive cultural changes for the UK, which even the most resilient nation could not absorb. These are admittedly over the horizon, but nevertheless to be considered. I think that the pressure for them is inevitable.
3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:Sorry, but you would not re-model a bathroom without a plan (this was a point made by another member above...
Perhaps one could ask whether you could accept a remodeling plan for your bathroom, in which your kitchen was removed, to be replaced by your new bathroom, the fittings colour scheme and contractors for said remodeling being decided by a committee nominated by other householders in your neighborhood, and to an arbitrary timescale over which you had little control. Oh, and a couple of households in the next street wanted new bathrooms as well, but couldn't afford them, so you would be required to contribute towards them.
Extending analogies is always imprecise, but perhaps that illustrates where many of us see our place in the EU.
Finally, yes I am angry with my Parliament and government. More angry than I have ever been in 40 odd years of following and thinking about politics and governance in my country. I think that they have managed, through a combination of deceit and woeful incompetence, to make a difficult, challenging process which was however within the ability of our nation to resolve, into a steaming crock of shit.
-
1
-
1
-
-
- Popular Post
1 hour ago, Samui Bodoh said:I imagine that the Brexiteers will condemn the man, but I think he his correct.
1 hour ago, welovesundaysatspace said:But Brexiteers insist the biggest political and economical change in the UK’s history can be facilitated through closing your eyes and dreaming.
The pathetic limpwristed and incompetent government with which the UK is currently saddled has from the very start approached the who;e matter with the intention of not actually leaving the EU. They have made no concrete proposals, rather they started the whole process by essentially agreeing to pay the EU an eye-watering sum of money. Once that was offered and accepted, they then turned their attention to arranging (not negotiating) an arrangement which effectively binds the UK to the EU permanently, with no representation or input. A vassal state, as it has been described. To nobody's surprise, it was rejected by parliament, they (the government) are the ones who have closed their eyes and are dreaming.
As for Tusk, and his coterie of unelected, essentially unaccountable "Presidents", Commissioners" and assorted functionaries, (who have managed to invest themselves with all the trappings and titles of a putative European Federal State), they too are party to it. They must have thought May and her government's intentions to be just the ticket. They "own" the mess to a similar extent. Tusk is perched triumphantly on top of this steaming crock of shit, proclaiming "about special places in hell" for those who don't want it.
The referendum, subsequent acts of parliament, and a general election, all determined that the UK would leave the EU. Parliament decided, absolutely constitutionally, that should happen in March 2019. This charged the government with making adequate arrangements, which parliament could pass into law. The government has failed (deliberately in my opinion), to make any sort of adequate arrangements. Tusk knew that - he must have done - just as he must have known that May's deal would not pass parliament.
Now, I believe that you are a Canadian, Samui Bodoh? Would you, in the context of the North American continent, (were your various trade agreements to have progressed in the way that the EU has), be happy to allow a second rate Mexican politician, for whom you cannot vote, either to put in or remove from office, pass those sort of comments, or head an organisation in which he could essentially tell Canada what it could or could not think or decide, no matter what your House of Commons or Senate decided or wished?
I'm sure you wouldn't, but that is what you are suggesting that the UK should be.
-
2
-
3
-
1 hour ago, Just Weird said:
Which international convention would that be, if you're so sure of it? Would it be the one that the US, for instance, didn't ratify?
I don't know - you see, that's why I said that I was sure I had read it somewhere.
If I knew which one it was, (if it existed), then I would have quoted or "linked" it. I don't, so I didn't.
Is there one the US didn't ratify then?
-
- Popular Post
Whilst I am supportive of Israel right to exist, and generally consider that it's inhabitants, Jewish and Arab, probably have better lifes and more opportunities than the inhabitants of it's neighbours, I sometimes wonder whether they realise that their undue influence upon American politics is probably counterproductive?
-
2
-
1
-
2 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:
No. Not easy. His crimes of arson and vandalism were committed in Bahrain. That is where he should be returned to. The fact the Australia gave the nod to have him arrested attests to the credibility and seriousness of his despicable crimes. And also gives credence to the legal trial that convicted him. Send him back to Bahrain, let him serve his sentence, then he can go on holiday to Australia or for work whatever(as a free man).
The notion that criminals can run abroad to soft touch countries (Canada and Oz) and seek asylum from their criminal sentences is a disgrace. That this guy flaunted his run and hide game made it even worse.
Umh, apparently the crimes of which he was convicted were committed, whilst he was also playing in a football match, which was being broadcast on TV!
An astonishingly resourceful young man.
-
2
-
-
- Popular Post
1 minute ago, Kasset Tak said:Well, as usual with all these changes much of it comes back to all the people abusing the system! I have friends that complains that they can't get their visa extensions as they don't have the savings, don't have enough income and now they can't get agents to forge/fake bank accounts for them... it's thanks to this kind of people and all these Indians with just "paper" marriages that these new rules have come in place (at least according to my Thai drinking buddy who is immigration office).
It's the same as it was with people on ED extensions, people used to get a year extension but because too many abused the system, even those who were legit students got affected by the changes. And again now we have the blacklisting for overstaying your visa... in the past it wasn't a big deal so some people were abusing that too (we have all read the stories of people leaving with 20 year overstay...) and that made them put the blacklisting in effect.
So, don't blame the government for changing the system, blame all the people who have been abusing the system and by doing that forced the government to change the system!I agree. This is perhaps what they mean by "good people in, bad people out". The trouble is that perhaps they are using a rather blunt instrument to determine who is "good or bad".
Maybe I have a trusting face, (or more likely look like a simpleton!) but in the last couple of years at least three people have asked me how to "game the system" to get a visa. Including one young man, in the queue at Savannakhet, who asked me if I could suggest what to say to get a multi entry non O on the strength of having a Thai girlfriend! He rather hoped that I could speak for him (fat lot of good that would do!) on the grounds that we both came from the same neck of the woods in the UK!
I do feel sorry for some of the older chaps who are living here harmlessly and quietly, enjoying the sun on their backs as it were, and now feel threatened.
-
6
-
- Popular Post
36 minutes ago, Soupdragon said:Has anyone here actually been made to feel they are welcome in Thailand by Immigration Officials ???
19 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:Not very often
In all fairness (heavens, what am I saying) UK immigration are a somewhat charmless collection at times...
-
1
-
2
-
4
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
5 hours ago, colinneil said:Prison warden your full it sh++e, he was shackled for 1 reason only..... To humiliate him, show him we can do what we want, pathetic, why are you and others like you trying to take Thailand back to the dark ages?
I'm sure that I read somewhere that there is some kind of international convention, to which Thailand is a signatory, which prohibits, amongst other things, shackling prisoners in this way.
-
2
-
1
-
- Popular Post
Well, one third country option might be to return him to Australia...
-
7
-
1
-
1 hour ago, robblok said:
I wish the regulations as a whole were a lot less strict, its not as if many people were stealing jobs from Thais. That is in the head of the Thais, most work that foreigners do is teaching English and many do it good.
Well even! ????
Sorry Rob, I couldn't resist that - as an English teacher. I absolutely agree with what you say.
-
1
-
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
11 minutes ago, lamyai3 said:But I nominate you as the grinch of the thread - with your toxic attitude I pity anyone who has to deal with you at close range.
I somehow doubt whether anyone does (have any dealings with him at close range)!
I imagine the vast majority, Thai or Farang, confronted with such a disagreeable character would leave well alone!
-
2
-
2
-
29 minutes ago, lamyai3 said:
Is scum a technical term?
In this context it refers broadly to anyone who has less money than the person who uses the term.
Perhaps more accurately, less money than the person using the term wishes the reader to assume he has (remember this is essentially an anonymous forum)!
Either way, it demonstrates a revealing lack of empathy for anyone who may be forced to contemplate leaving or leave their homes and family or loved ones by these clumsy regulations. A lack of empathy which often distinguishes those sometimes dismissed as "scum"!
-
1
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, roo860 said:
'Smokers will no longer be able to have a puff in the special rooms set aside at Suvanabhumi, Don Muang, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Had Yai and Mae Fa Luang (Chiang Rai) airports.'
Great reporting, probably only people from the UK will understand the funny side.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
I'm not sure may will get the "double entendre".
B5000 is a bit steep for a quick fag too.!
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
4 minutes ago, possum1931 said:If anybody in any country has lived in it, being married for so many years and kept contributing to the countrys economy, they should be left alone now.
Well said. However, whilst they are undoubtably contributing to Thai society, the contributions may not be reaching the right bits of Thai society...
-
3
-
7 minutes ago, Lumbini said:
Look at this as an evolution as Thailand becomes a more upscale and cutting edge international country in Asia .
Umh, yes, right ho, upscale and cutting edge it is then...
????
-
2
-
-
3 hours ago, Baerboxer said:
Blame Interpol. They issued a notice at the request of Bahrain. So much for their "not to take action when cases are politically motivated" rule; and they ignored his UN refugee status and granting of asylum by Australia.
Thailand, as members of Interpol, have a responsibility to act.
But one would hope the Thai courts would also quickly recognize the UN and Australian position and release him back to Australia.
As for making him wear shackles and bare feet to attend court - that does so much for the image!
I understand that Interpol have rescinded the notice.
Thailand seems to be determined to continue.
I wonder why (how much)?
-
2
-
-
A more appropriate headline might be:
"Retired copper talks <deleted> in order to get his name in the papers. Assorted civil servants and newspaper editors react by flapping like budgies on a high sugar diet"
Should there be any threat there is a reasonably competent (well they are Guardsmen) infantry battalion a couple of hundred metres away.
-
1
-
1
-
-
16 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:
And now would be a very good time, with a strong baht, to build up offshore cash investments in USD and other currencies.
Again, the very small number who might possibly think of or actually do that have no influence whatsoever on those guiding monetary policy. Blame those wicked farang money speculators and forex dealers!
You are surely not suggesting that there may be some "making hay while the sun shines"?
-
21 hours ago, brain150 said:
That's when I stopped reading this piece of propaganda shit !
The "Allies" never were in Auschwitz ! The red army "liberated" Auschwitz and raped every woman they could get their hands on. That's historical fact !!!
If you see any photo with GIs in Auschwitz you know it's fake ... unless the photo was taken AFTER 1989 !!!
There was NEVER an Investigation about the Holocaust unless you want to talk about the Holocaust done to the German people in Dresden in 1945 - women, children and old people - no soldiers were in Dresden at that time !!!
Get your history straight !
BTW:
The swastika is a very ancient symbol - you will find it all over the world in many temples.
The brainwashing sits so deep it's unbelievable - and the teachers are the most brainwashed of all !!!
It is noteworthy that whenever Swastikas, Nazism or The Holocaust is mentioned on this forum there are always posters who attempt to deflect, deny or compare ("whataboutism") it.
That the Holocaust happened is beyond dispute. That it was planned, driven and committed by people from a civilized developed nation is likewise beyond dispute.
That the swastika has existed in many cultures is beyond dispute, it is also totally irrelevant to it's use in Nazi iconography.
Personally I think the ignorance of the whole business within the Thai education system (which sparked this debate) is lamentable, pathetic even, and reveals real weakness within that system. I think that attempts to excuse such ignorance by claiming that it is irrelevant, or in some way justifiable or comparable with other, equally abominable events, or that it didn't really happen in the way history records it, is an indefensible accommodation with evil. It is "a piece of shit".
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
-
Now I freely admit to being a "bear of very little brain" when it comes to money.
Two questions really:
1) is the Thai Baht somehow maintained at an artificially high level?
2) if so is that sustainable?
-
1
-
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
4 minutes ago, YetAnother said:the elite are loving this; they have long ago lost any realization there so many poor farmers, they only realize their shopping trips to hong kong and singapore
If you have children at University or school abroad, have or deal in property abroad, or just, as you suggest, travel and spend money abroad, then the appreciation of the Baht is "very much appreciated".
But I am sure that the very small number of Thais who fall into that group have no influence whatsoever upon those who guide monetary matters in the Kingdom ...
????
-
5
-
7
Despite bipartisan sheen, Trump's speech spoke to his base
in World News
Posted
Pence looks like his batteries need changing...