Expat1

Aah, Vietnam. Good to see that the old school corruption is still alive and well there. You guys think this place is bad. Vietnam could teach Thailand a thing or two back before the Commies took over. Under the Commies it subsided but it was inevitable that it would regrow.

Whoa, this seems to be a growth industry worldwide. It is booming in MidEast (especially near Egypt), South America, Latin America, China, and Thailand also Eastern Europe if one believes the female sex slave trade thing. I saw an advert recently that says one can get a wife from Vietnam and if she runs away they will replace her for free. Now that is service. Is Forbes going to do a fiscal analysis on this like they did the drug business which is apparently larger than the auto industry now revenue wise? is there an apprenticeship program for this type of work as I always wonder how the hell does someone think to get into this? What do they say, hey, let's go grab that broke laborer over there and squeeze his family for a scraps? That would seem counterproductive to me. In Latin America they only grab the wealthy for ransom and women for prostitution. That seems a more sensible business model. These boys here just don't seem too bright. <deleted>?

"He thinks he acted appropriately," Swerling said. "He regrets a life was taken."

Do I get this correct , he shot the guy in his driveway. The officer acted appropriately? Ok, fine I was not there but, please explain to me why the city settled at $1.2 million.? "Satterwhite's (the victim of the shooting) family reached a $1.2 million settlement with the city over the shooting. Lawyers in the case were allowed to see the video, but had to sign an agreement not to disclose it to anyone else."

Call me me crazy but I just can't figure why the city would settle for that amount so relatively quickly if this was an "appropriate" shooting as the defense claims.

In any case, the US seems to have more and more Type A personalities running around in blue with guns. It must be an extension of all those money confiscation laws that allow the Police and Feds to take citizen's wealth and never charge them with a crime. Under that mind set shooting any one that won't do what they are told, when they are told to do so, would seem justified to that authority and would appear as an extension of this concept that we can do pretty much what we (Police) want with little fear of legal reprisal. Money means more to American legal system than lives, it always has, look at the sentences handed out in comparison of the 2 crimes. Or so it seems. I truly feel for the poor Amer citizenry now that has to live under such a regime.

Growing up during the boom of immigration from eastern Europe after WW2 I can say categorically there is no bigot like a Jewish East European immigrant when it comes to dark skin peoples. They even made the Ku Klux Klan blush, no joke. Israel (and it's govt and senior officials) is basically dominated by this crowd, or their descendents, so no mystery there. A real noble bunch.

I am going with door Number 2, Bob. This is a recurring theme in Asia. I have seen this with variations on a theme in multiple countries. 'Wah, pay back so much money. Can not. Cheaper I kill him, better , mai?" My favorite variation on this theme was back in the 1980's when a expat friend of mine (a Swede) in Indonesia was half owner of a successful oil pipe line installation company. He gave a loan to one of his contractors of about $250k. Well, next thing you know the expat is arrested by Immigration on some nonsensical charge and deported to Singapore.. and stayed out for 6 years (those old hands who know this guy and this story just jump on in, it is well known). Anyway 6 years later he gets back in. His company suffered for a while but started doing a lot better so he could "arrange" to return. It took him a while and a bunch of "arranging" with various officials to find out that it was the contractor he gave the loan to that had him deported because it was just plain cheaper to deport then to repay. Welcome to Asia.

My money is one this motive for this shooting instance.

This emulates what is done in other parts of the world and it works. I wish them good luck in implementing them.

"When a coward takes a shot at someone with a child in there arms, When caught I hope they hang him by the family jewels and put a round in his gut so he slowly dies. Not siding with the party he may or may not belong to, I'm siding with the child. RIP"

Ok, I got it, you mean like similar to a US military or PMC sniper or do you mean like the drones that hit the wrong family while they are at dinner? Ok, I am with you.

Actually, I have not heard of a rifle sniper at work in Thailand for years on a private basis.(not counting the Red shirt incidents years back which were more than probably military or Police snipers). It could have been worse, usually it is an amateur with a heavy caliber handgun which would have hit him, the child, the wife and several innocent bystanders. Considering the past killings in this country this was fairly professional and clean.

As to why he was hit and was it justified we'll need to wait to see. These people get up to some ignoble things, like Rohinya mass graves, fishing slaves, etc and so forth so we just have to wait til the jury comes in.

I have no problem with death penalty when deemed necessary by society however, I have always had a problem with the various methods they have tried and used. In the last century they have used hanging, injection, electrocution, HCN gas, firing squad, single shot, other. The argument back when was they should not be too easy on such a criminal. Ok, but if death is the object and intended result the criminal is not going to remember if it was painful or not which kinda defeats that purpose. The concept of nitrogen in a closed execution chamber until death occurs is 100% fatal and there is no error possible. Extract the air and pass in nitrogen in quantity and the subject has no idea of the exchange and just falls asleep and dies within minutes. No fuss no muss and always successful. If you have to do it this seems the most effective method.

The great American experiment...country rule by media.

I wonder if this is the same group that came up with the Thai HIV and cancers cure a while back? I have not seen much on those recently. One can only assume as to why that is. In any case, it will probably follow a similar course.

IDF, such noble warriors.

"I hope the case is delayed until this antisemite is under ground. If he is so keen to obtain a platform from which to spout his bile perhaps he should join some of our esteemed members on this very forum."

Really? What has his actions to do with members of this forum? Why do various persons here not agree with your dictates? Sorry I had not noticed. While I do not hold with what this moron halfwit did and believe his punishment should be severe it would appear this vitriolic attitude you espouse, if prevalent at present in the USA, might have had something to do with his motivation. Seldom such acts happen in a vacuum. Just an observation.

Hang Billy high.

Well, look at it this way all bureaunazis in all English speaking nations (and some non-English) are placing more restrictions and burdens upon their citizenry to make their own lives easier. They only asked for proof of residence which is fairly anal since you are on the other side of the planet and may have a new abode however, they haven't gotten around to you passing over your genetic material yet as proof of existence. There is always that.

My apologies "hear" should be "here" above. Afraid I have the flu something awful and make minor errors.

"World Happiness Report 2015, a landmark survey of the state of global happiness,", who does this drivel. Every Swiss and Dane that I know are not very happy. When I go to Switzerland or Singapore they are a miserable lot. Seriously. Who did they poll in these places, tourists?

No problem. The USG has it all worked. We won't deal with you terrorists, understand? However, we will come over and kill the hostages for you. Can you say cluster<deleted>? What bunch of RE<deleted>s.

..."So in the year of 2013 they had one more earthquake, bringing the total to 2,5 earthquakes, than they did in 2008.

2 questions:

How is a near doubling the same as 70 times the amount.

How do you have 1.5 or 2.5 earthquakes. Did they happen at New Years Eve?"

You may want to reread the statement, partner. I concur on the 70 times comment. It appears it's a lot more. It says,

"Earthquake activity in Oklahoma in 2013 was 70 times greater than it was before 2008, state geologists reported. Oklahoma historically recorded an average of 1.5 quakes of magnitude 3 or greater each year. It is now seeing an average of 2.5 such quakes each day, according to geologists."

So 1.5 quakes per year to 2.5 quakes per DAY. 2.5 quakes x 365 days = 912.5 quakes per year. That is a sh#tload. 912.5 / 1.5 = 608.3x / year more in 2013 than was in 2008.

Perhaps they are including other smaller quake data not given to the reader here. In any case, that ain't normal.

I was in the oil & offshore biz for 14 years out here and I know for certain water reinjection caused quakes in Kalimantan as it was the oil coy geologists that brought it up.

I wish them good luck back there with this, oil is king in America and it's political, financial and media cartels will pretty much back whatever they say.

Larger taxis with more room for people and goods should get a higher rate. Fair. Fin.

No they need a submarine. If no other reason to keep up with the Joneses. Hell, they already have the Dept set up for it, buying the damned thing is the easy part. Now they could do what the Indos did and buy old refurbished East German subs and then upon hand over and delivery promptly drive them into the ocean floor off of France. A modern military sub is possibly the most complex machine built and operated today. One needs some serious skills, knowledge and training to operate it though. Of course, we are assuming we a not talking about the Thais getting an Akula or Virginia Class sub but a small littoral type sub of which there a number of good ones around. The new Jap one is possible (the Aussies are looking at it) and Taiwan is building theirs now. These are small, quiet, minimal crewing and made for shallow water and not overly expensive in comparative military equipment terms. It will be interesting to see what they do but it is a great loss of face for them not to have any and little Singapore has multiple. This can not be allowed here. Trust me.

Good. There was no doubt he was going to get a sentence such as this. With what he knew and where the skeletons were in the closet and war crimes and thefts, etc, etc done by politicians, military, contractors in that fiasco that he could hang out to dry, there was little doubt it would end like this. He probably was more concerned about turning up dead as a result of this witch hunt then any serious sentencing. And yes, Dorothy, at his level and knowledge RHIP.

A war of cowards.

It is a start however, in fairness it is not the first time nor very effective. The naivete of most people about the sea in general just makes this issue more difficult to grasp and to handle. Unless one has actually worked out on the blue water one fails to grasp the enormity of the thing. It is a REALLY big ocean out there. Transferring cargo ship to ship, stealing whole ships is normal in Asian waters hell, 200 ships a year go missing of which 10% of these are over 100,000 tonnes in size. One can go a week without seeing another vessel. Archipelagos like Indonesia are virtually impossible to police as even the mighty American Seventh Fleet had admitted that years ago when they were having problems in the Straits and further south in the 80's. The Americans have the largest and finest fleet in the world with satellite assist and they could not do what they wanted how then a local Marine Police. This is a serious and complex problem that can only be handled by seriously throttling the funds and freedom of the vessel owners and fish processors. Do that and one might stand a chance, do not, then...