spidermike007

Certainly not all. But, perhaps a disproportionate number, from those two ranks. Think about it. What have the police or the army done to benefit the people lately?

Because he was not capable of rational thought. Because the hate and anger was just too great. Because he has never, ever, not even once looked inside for the source of any problem. Because this horrific creep never took responsibility for anything he did in his entire lifetime. Because his parents failed at raising a decent human being.

Maybe if each room had an armed guard. It likely would have made little difference. Look at Uvalde. Swat teams waiting outside the school for a hour, while the killer roamed around killing people. Sheer cowardice. Having a gun does not solve everything, nor does it make one brave. Despite what the NRA claims! One highly courageous soul could have ended this with a sharp pencil jammed into his neck. All schools have pencils.

Shame can be a big deterrent here, where people are pathological fearful of what strangers think of them. I have used the tactic often. It works. They could have added, you are a cretin, who cares nothing about others, even those who are handicapped and considerably less fortunate than yourself. We are all, asking, who exactly is your Mom, and why did she do such a deficient job of raising you?

A truly horrendous event. Who kills 22 innocent children? What kind of twisted pathology does that require? Notice how the last 2 mass shootings here were a retired cop and a soldier. Two institutions, that do not exactly foster nobility, grace, kindness, goodwill, nor emotional maturity. Truly glad this is a rare occurance here, relative to the insane and out of control nation I come from, America. My heart goes out to the families who are going to be devastated by the actions of this God forsaken, heinous freak of nature. I just read that the death toll is up to 31. Got this from the BBC. Just in. At least 31 people have been killed in a gun and knife attack by a former police officer at a pre-school child daycare centre in Thailand, police say. A manhunt was launched after the attack in Nong Bua Lamphu province, in the north-east of the country. Why? Seems he killed himself and his family too. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63155169

More? Don't know about Europe, but single friends tell me an hour with a tinder gal in LA is $800. That is around 30,000 baht at today's rate. And you would likely end up with a decent looking gal, with a lot of rules and regulations, who was not much fun. Reasonable here? You bet it is. Fun? Oh yeah.

A good point. But, in this day and age you do what you can, if you want the nation to advance. If Thailand cannot afford to build a high speed alternative to the congested and dangerous highways here, it should seek help elsewhere. Japan might be willing to help, with far more advantageous, and less perilous terms.

Would he have been a successful businessman without daddy's help? Most of us doubt that.

Well, one would not expect the prisons to be air conditioned here. But, I was simply making a point about the miserable conditions. Have you even been in a concrete building without AC?in very hot condition, and high humidity, and with hundreds of men, who likely don't shower as often as they should, and don't wear deodorant? Whew.

I have never seen a soi dog here that did not need to be culled, and taken out of its misery. Clean up Thailand.

I really love living here. And I have not come up with any real alternatives, that offer a comparable lifestyle, for the money. So, I would put Thailand at number one. But from a standpoint of tourism, Thailand does not attract alot of rich tourists anymore like back in the day, for a dozen good reasons. So, likely alot of the people surveyed were speaking of trips many years ago. Especially since Thailand and Japan were shut down, or highly restricted for well over 2 years.

Yes. All drugs. Get rid of the useless DEA. Stop over crowding the prisons with minor drug offenses, and usage goes down in the process. Look at the countries that have legalized drugs. Most have been successs stories. Look at the ones who have not. Most have been failures.

There are millions of souls who do horrific and evil things for money. It defies the entire theory of natural selection. Greed is a powerful allure.

The war on drugs has been one of the greatest failures in US history. It is utterly moronic. I agree. Legalize ALL drugs. Their allure would likely diminish. And what about the cartels? They would likely diminish too. And think of all those billions that could be saved by downsizing the nearly useless DEA.

Being in prison anywhere would be a dreadful fate. Being in a Thai prison would likely be a nightmare from hell. Just the lack of AC alone. Yikes.

Thailand desperately needs high speed trains and alternative forms of transport. The highways here are choked with trucks of all sizes, due to decades of neglect, on the part of officials, to come up with alternative ways to move cargo. All major cities should be linked by high speed rail. Hua Hin would be a good place to start. And while they are at it, put that airport to work. It is one of the least utilized airports in the world. Why, has remained a mystery, though we have heard rumors. Laos has a high speed train. Thailand is considered a developed nation. I say no. Bangkok, sure. But the rest of the nation is third world, or developing, depending on how PC you are.

I find Bangkok to be a very pleasant city. Of all the major capitals in the world, the local people in Bangkok are some of the most pleasant and well adjusted, the women might be the most beautiful, the food is good and reasonable and the crime does not seem to be much of an issue. Dubai is the last city I would want to work or live. It is down on the bottom of the list with Delhi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Khartoum, Damascus, Harare, Karachi, Dhaka, Lagos and Moscow.

In addition to going the traditional route, you might want to consider some herbal supplements. I use Bilberry Eyebright complex, along with green tea, pine bark, grape seed complex, and black current extract. They have worked wonders for me, and have prevented my vision from deteriorating at all, for the past 15 years. I wear reading glasses sometimes, and distance glasses when driving at night. That is all. My vision remains excellent well into my 60's. Prior to taking these herbs, my vision was slipping. Things were getting fuzzy. If I skip them for 2 or 3 days, the fuzziness comes back, so I know they are working. They tend to strengthen the optic nerve, as well as having other positive effects. The people I know who have tried this tend to have better success, if they have relatively minor issues like I do.

I kind of hope he runs. Anyone with the least bit of substance would beat him. He has presided over a devastating failure of leadership as health minister, and the people deeply despise this administration, and everyone connected to it. I doubt he could win the job of a local headman or mayor, much less PM. Assuming it is a fair election.

Let us count his talents. 1. He is a pilot. Few know of his abilities as a pilot, though he has a license. A propeller plane license, not a jet license, as he does not own any jets. 2. He is very wealthy. Was that money well earned, or did it happen largely as a result of dad's patronage? 3. He is a very poor health minister. He oredoded over a poor vaccination drive, with the choice of the one with the lowest efficacy rate in the world. His choice? We don't know. He was likely part of the reason why Thailand refused help from the world community on the better vaccines, and this was at least part of the reason they ended up so far behind the curve. 4. The highly selective economic shutdowns he and Prayuth presided over killed the economy here. Nobody knows how many businesses were lost and livelihoods destroyed. The economy will likely struggle for years to come. 5. He was highly instrumental in devastating the tourism industry, through extreme cowardice and draconian restrictions, that lasted far too long. 6. He has been the figurehead for the legalization of cannabis. He does deserve some credit for that. Did I miss anything?

Some people seem to be hypnotized by bling. And many others, with low self esteem, feel a pathological need to impress strangers. I do have some issues. But I am thankful that is not one of them.

Likely nearly true. As I am preaching to the expat community. However, if more Thais took action, it could have spectacular results. Laying blame at the feet of horrible leaders is the least we can all do.

Zero change. The extreme hubris and arrogance on the part of the officials seems to result in a level of blindness that is nearly total. They literally seem incapable of learning. The fact they this administration picked department heads from the absolute bottom of the barrel, never considering merit for even a moment, did not help. I could go on all day. My guess is nothing is being done to address anything, and every issue they currently face is being blamed on Covid. Now, they have a real scapegoat, and looking within for the source of any of the problems is less likely than ever. 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. Covid could have been a great opportunity for a reset. There is nothing to suggest anything like that happened. If anything, Thailand is moving backwards, from being the tiger of SE Asia, to bring a pathetic, sickly, anemic alley cat, begging for scraps.

The recession that is likely coming next year will not help. But, a lot of Thailand's current economic woes are largely self inflicted. This exceedingly reckless administration engaged in multiple, highly selective economic shutdowns, that favored their cronies, and punished the masses. They also kept the nation closed off for far too long, and decimated tourism. Then they partially re-opened, with draconian restrictions. It could take years for a recovery, that will likely never return to what it was before. So, if you want to put the blame in the place it belongs, blame Prayuth and Prawit. They are the architects of the downfall of Thailand, the increased suicides, homelessness, crime, unemployment, desperation, and unhappiness of the people.

Prison would be far more appropriate.