BusyB

Shame it wasn't boiling.

And in another couple of years Boss'll be back home as well ...

I am a Brit and I agree. A veeeery slippery slope ...

It would sink a factory ship.

I gave up smoking 20 odd years ago and that's why I won't even consider doing Chiang Mai to my lungs on a steady permanent basis. Visits are fine.

Makes more sense to me to do it the other way round. Even at the best of times fresh air is a rarity in CM. I remember coming down from 4 days in the mountains. Literally between one breath and the next the air went from fresh to burning/exhaust smell. It really showed me how bad it is there in that depression where the fumes collect even on a good day. That was December by the way. Shame, 'cos it is a really lovely place. Probably the only other place in Thailand I'd want to live apart from the Petch/PKK coastal area.

Quite apart from what happens if the driver has to slam on the anchors. And yes, I think it's unreasonable/impossible for teachers to be expected to carry out the inspections and investigations for which entire government departments have supposedly been set up.

Carrefour was great - whenever I had the choice Carrefour was always first ...

Exactly.

I also think schoolboys who’ve been transgender operated on by their teachers should be allowed to dress as cats and use cat litters in the girls ‚bath’room.

It is essentially rooted in the slavery of the southern states who hang on to the undemocratic advantage it gives them to this day. Interestingly I just read that Joe Biden voted against its abolition a few years ago. History shows it's a clear attempt to prevent the people having their say. I'll grant it may have made some kind of sense back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Especially with the state of communications then. Even pony express hadn't been invented. There's no democratic argument for it today in a national election with today's communications as long as the 'winner takes all' of a state's electoral votes persists. I don't see any other country following the electoral example of the 'shining beacon on the hill'. The dictators don't need it (!) and the democracies where parliaments and presidents are chosen by national votes don't want it. Understandably. Every system has its flaws and is a work in progress. To my 'Marxist, lefty radical' mind that reads leftwing publications like The Economist and Financial Times the electoral college system as practiced is a flaw in and of itself.

We can but hope so.

That's why I call it a demockery - because it blows raspberries at what the people actually say they want. Or in the words of Bones: "It's democracy Jim, but not as we know it."

They didn't Elect him. The 'electoral college' SElected him after he lost. He hasn't won one election so far. That is the great danger this time as well. But as long as they are more frightened of real change in the US, they'll have to put up with their demockery - like the UK.

One that doesn't end in a mayhem of shooting.

Thatcher loved him as well - like she loved Reagan. Hayek was staunchly 'anti-socialism'. Although what passes for 'socialism in the US is a joke. When people call Harris a 'Marxist' and The Economist a 'leftwing' publication, you know the world's gone mad. Personally I think social media is mainly responsible. Not any putative 'socialism'.

Oh dear. One day you and your like might grow enough spine to rail against those who benefit from them. Nah. Thought not.

Projecting again are we ;D

Well he's certainly not the 'One Nation' Conservative (admittedly European) Bubblegum was referring to. He is more the last gasp of an entitled white rule establishment which is becoming a minority and losing its hitherto guaranteed grip on power. He's already talking about the 'enemy within' and using the military to deal with 'Marxists' like Kamala Harris who is a terrifying mixed race candidate and competitor to him and his like. So in a sense, he is a conservative in trying to maintain a status quo. And millions of terrified white Americans facing the same dilemma think he's on their side because they buy his lies. He's not. Actually I have far more confidence in the US military's oath to the constitution than Trump obviously has. He thinks as CiC it's an oath to him. It's not. As not only Milley has demonstrated. I worked for the US military at a variety of levels on pretty wide ranging and large scale tasks for two years, so I have a pretty good feel for them at all levels. But then again you never know how people who've been drilled to take orders unquestionably might react. The problem facing the US is that if the conservative candidate for the Presidency hadn't inherited a fortune from his unsavory forbears he would currently be sitting at the bad end of a trailer park raging degenerately at the traffic going by outside. That is to do with his character, personality and ability, none of which he impresses anyone with. He has failed publicly in all those areas and could never have worked his way up as in the 'American Dream'. In fact he is the glaring opposite of said dream. He represents not preservation of the status quo - he is the apotheosis of the descent into a barbarous, destructive dystopia. If you give him a second chance. Don't go back!

Interesting. You're right - he's anything but traditional conservative. Though he is dangerously anti-progressive (for want of a better contrast word). I've not really tried to pigeonhole him politically. His creed is money and greed. He seems to stand for no other policy than his own aggrandizement. He is also clearly coming off the rails and unfit. However, it's way too late for the Reps to switch the ticket to a younger generation the way the Dems did. So they're gonna try and heave him into office at any cost, then retire him a year or so in to replace him with Vance. Then the US can really look in for some serious faeces.

Thatcher loved him.

Of course he -deleted- well was lol

Excellently put. There is more in depth analysis of that in Erich Fromm's 'The Fear of Freedom', which in my mind is far more important than his 'Art of Loving' - which every goofball claims to have read as if it qualifies them. Isaiah Berlin's 'Two Concepts of Liberty' is a similar parallel political treatment (to my mind) of the same theme. Both works are replete with the deep analysis and critical thinking which the better universities try to cultivate in their students. They are the exact opposite of Trumpian simplistic pseudo-solutions, which consist of nothing more than easily learned slogans, of no real utility in a 21st century, highly complex and top tier technology superpower of over 200 million people. They will all come back to bite their acolytes bigly in more than just the behind once the Project 2025 government control obsessives run out of 'enemies within' to dispose of. Who will they hate when they've deported all the foreigners and jailed all the lefties like me eh?

You mean you went to a university.

Savings would probably also far outweigh the costs of treating long term obesity and its related ailments and diseases.