spidermike007

Oh, yes. My heart aches. I feel so, so bad.

No question unemployment is way, way up, the economy is in the toilet, and the policies have failed miserably. Whether or not the tourism sabotage was deliberate is questionable, but a question worth asking. A bit of a neocon type agenda? Destroy the industry, reduce it to rubble, get rid of the nightlife and the industry, and rebuilt it from scratch, in the image of great purity of the "noble ones". Quite a diabolical possibility. It is amazing how these guys go on and on and on about what they are intending to do, and never, ever talk about the sacrifices they are willing to make, to attract these new businesses and investors. A true COTU (Thailand is the center of the known universe) mentality, and it is so far from reality, it boggles the mind. Millions of jobs have been lost. What is being proposed to help those families get back on their feet? I truly believe, that 20 or 30 years from now, in tourism industry, business and sociology classes, at the uni level, there will be tours of these hollowed out shells, of huge hotels that were built, and could neither find guests to stay, nor even a market for condo conversions, and ended up abandoned, after buyers could not be found, or owners refused to accept 20% of the land and construction costs, as a sales price. That is where I see the future of Thai tourism. And why is the economy hurting here? The 4 notable truths of Prayuth. 1. He has always been an incapable leader. He does not inspire men. He oppresses his people. 2. He does not have a clue how to run the economy. He has made a total mess of things. While many economies around the world are booming, Thailand is barely selling any new cars, barely selling any real estate, barely getting by. Millions are still out of work, due to the Prayuth Decimation. He is moving the nation backwards. 3. He has destroyed tourism. It will likely never recover to a meaningful extent. So many mistakes have been made, so much timidity was shown, and so much sabotage has laid the industry to waste. 4. He is not liked by many. His popularity rating is likely under 5%. He would never be re-elected in a free and fair election. He is a dinosaur, lacking any creative juice, and selects only bottom of the barrel men for positions of leadership.

Sometimes I have to give thanks, that I enjoy simple, healthy sex, in a totally consensual manner. This world is so full of crazies (not making any judgment on non straight sex, or other choices, just thankful for the simplicity my choice brings) that need to receive or inflict pain and suffering, play bizarre games, or need some form of deviancy, that is demeaning to the other party. My guess is that the accusation against foreigners is bogus. Deviants and miscreants come in all shapes, nationalities, and races. Violence perpetrated upon women is never justified. It is deplorable behavior, conducted by half men.

Spoke to a friend who is a surgical nurse in the Hua Hin area. She said they barely see any covid cases anymore. Time to let it go.

Such desperation. Why can't people just walk away from a relationship that is not working? Such a lack of emotional development. So pathetic. Where is the self esteem?

According to Plume, some areas of the city are near 200 today. That is very dangerous. The hospitals are likely brimming with people who are suffering from respiratory ailments. And what are the same authorities who are asking to be re-elected, doing about this horrendous issue? Absolutely nothing. Are sugar cane farmers who are burning being heavily fined? No. Are diesel vehicles which are badly maintained and spewing out soot being taken off the road? No. These creeps need to be penalized, dogged, scapegoated, humiliated, scorned, and sent out to pasture. They care not one iota about the well being of the masses. And the cane farmers care not one iota about anything other than me, me, me, me.

While it may be hard for a conservative mind to consider, the vast majority of American dems are centrist, and do not relate to the extreme left, nor to the extreme right. I am one of them. As a dem I support the death penalty, when there are eye witnesses, or conclusive evidence, and I do not support abortion after the first trimester. Make up your mind. You want the kid, or not?

While it is uncommon for kids to have part chopped off, the hormone therapy is quite a drastic move. Over the last five years, there were at least 4,780 adolescents who started on puberty blockers and had a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis. This tally and others in the Komodo analysis are likely an undercount because they didn’t include treatment that wasn’t covered by insurance and were limited to pediatric patients with a gender dysphoria diagnosis. Practitioners may not log this diagnosis when prescribing treatment. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-data/

Sorry if I sound narrow minded, or old fashioned. But, any parent who condones and supports a child's desire for sex change procedures at 13 years old should be institutionalized. Who, at the age of 13 has the maturity to make such a monumental decision? If you can't drink until you are 18, you should not be able to change your sex either. What is the big hurry, anyway?

Reminds me of when I told my parents I refused to learn to play guitar, because I did not like the music teacher they found for me. My guitar must have felt really hurt. And who else became an injured party to that deal?

Well, letting a 13 year old decide on anything important, much less a sex change is bizarre, at best. There are a disproportionate number of suicides 5 years later.

If Anutin, Prayuth or Prawit win, it will be an incredibly sad day for Thailand. They are the backwards men. They care not one iota for us plebs, unless it means a vote. Woe is Thailand, if these are the only choices.

I am generally supportive of people being able to make their own choices in life. But, this constant discussion, this constant barrage in our faces, of trans, pan, amoro, cis, non cis, boi, demiboy, dyadic, femme, gender expansive, genderfluid, maverique, etc. is so old, so over done, so obnoxious, many of us find it repulsive and a real turnoff. Fortunately, it seems to be mostly limited to America, one of the most dysfunctional societies on the planet. And I say that as an American! There is some leakage elsewhere, but it does not appear to be taken too seriously. In the US, it is completely out of control.

American health care is vastly over rated, and if you do not have good insurance, forget about it.

From what I understand none of the boosters available here have been updated to include defense against the new variants. So, is this just an effort to boost Big Pharma, led by the FDA?

There is no burn ban. It exists on paper, but it rarely ever enforced, because the authorities do not care one iota about public health. It means nothing to them. Money trumps everything for these small men, and if they cared, it would be backed up by enforcement of the law. There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease. So here is what I propose- 1. Fine the farmers 5,000 baht for a first offense, and give them a stern warning, that burning is now prohibited, and the second fine will be very harsh. 2. For a second offense, fine the farmer 100,000 baht, and warn them that if the burning continues, their land will be confiscated. 3. On the 3rd offense, confiscate their land. Period. No questions. No legal proceeding or appeals on the part of the farmers. Allow others to come in and purchase the land at a fair price, with the caveat that sugar is prohibited as a crop to be grown on that land. The news would travel faster than the toxic smoke, and farmers would change their ways overnight, and move into the 21st century. Then they can move on to tackle the sale of diesel vehicles, and the government's enthusiastic support of such. It is inane in this day and age. Most nations are moving away from diesel for good reasons. When they are not well maintained, they foul the air, with large, nasty particles. And who properly maintains their vehicle here?

We need to maintain humility here. There are an awful lot of Thai male adults, who look like men, and smell like men and yet have the emotional development of a 13 year old. They cannot handle any perceived slight, or any tiny wound to their incredibly fragile egos. So, you stay out of their face. You do not provoke them. A real man can handle someone being a jerk, without over reacting and causing violence. Adolescent minds cannot.

We simply cannot allow ourselves, regardless of the circumstances, to be intimidated by laws written by and for cowards. The small minded offenders need to be called out. The fact that this forum alone is now citing the name of venues is a huge step forward for Thai society. And both the owner and the bouncer need to be held to account. So what if the water was not free. You just tell someone they need to pay for the water. Basic civility.

Expect an enormous refund. The check is in the mail!

You completely misunderstood what I was conveying. I was talking about people who feel the need to convert others. People who are constantly droning on about their savior. Not a civilized discussion like this. Not at all. I was making a simple point.

It is quite reasonable. I visit the emergency room here to visit a specialist, and with x-rays I am out the door for 2000 baht, at a private hospital. In the US? $300-2000. An anecdote on this subject. A good friend of mine got in a bad motorcycle accident some time ago. He almost lost his leg. He got his first of 11 operations at Bangkok Hospital Samui. It costs him over a million baht. They wanted to do a second procedure. They quoted him 1,400,000 baht. He decided to transfer to Bangkok. He was quoted 460,000 baht for the same procedure, at a top private hospital there. The surgeon told him that he worked at a public hospital too, and could do the same operation there, for alot less money. He told him he would get him a quote. In the interim, my friend called a good friend of his, in San Diego, who is an orthopedic surgeon. Since my friend is a retired chiropractor, he knew all the terminology, and explained what he needed, and asked for the best price. His friend called him back the next day, and quoted him $960,000, with cash discounts! The local surgeon here got back to him, and told him he could do it for 46,000 baht. He transferred, and they did all the rest of his procedures. So, 1,400,000 at Bangkok Hospital, 460,000 at Vejthani Hospital, and 46,000 at the public hospital, with an excellent surgeon. VS. 31,000,000 baht in the US. Again, no complaints from this peanut gallery.

Many of us know that is simply a PC narrative. The vast majority are doing it out of choice. They may not like it, but they are not being forced into it.

Some things are more personal than others. Preaching to others who are not asking for advice strikes me as a high level of insecurity.

Some of us do what we can to increase our chances of survival, well being and bodily health. Some don't seem to care. Being reckless simply increases the odds of disaster. They are already stacked against us on the road here, so it seems a bit cavalier to not take whatever precautions we can.

For me, there seems to be a direct correlation between the actual relationship one has with the creator, and the need to talk about it. The lack of any real spiritual practice, (or relationship with whatever notion one has of a God) seems to compel people to discuss religion endlessly, and attempt to convert others, whereas, those with a real inner life and spiritual practice, seem content to just live their lives, set an example for others, and let their lifestyle do the speaking. In other words, you would not feel comfortable discussing your intimate life with your loved one with others, so why talk about your inner life with others, unless they ask?