connda

Just goes to prove that the average Thai is Animist first and foremost, and Buddhist second.

Your vote counts!

In the presidential race? No it doesn't. State referendums? Different story. Anyway, I've always voted regardless of how effective I believe it to be or not to be.

FYI, taxes. Many online sellers will collect state sales tax from individuals with a billing address in income tax free states, my own state being one of them. Small price to pay imho.

Just curious but are the people buying heaters for a few days of use are the same people Queing up at Prom at 4:30 instead of using G4T

Nope. Now that they dumped the Online Queue System I have every plan to use a Visa Agent this year, just not G4T who I doubt do Marriage Extensions (not the Promenade). I'm pragmatic to a fault.

wait till the bills start coming in for 2000+watt heaters a fleece works just as well at 10c,

I warmly wait for our rural electric bill, and gladly shell out the extra ฿฿฿. Heck, I never turned off the heating in my home in the US. Why should I here? Temperature yesterday in our neck of the woods was in the mid single digits Celsius. In the US I heated a 2000 sq ft home. Here I heat a single room. Living room right now, bedrooms this evening. This is a short-term event. A few days at most instead of a few months in the US. I've never aspired toward self-inflicted masochism, not when being comfortable is well within my means. There were times in my life when it wasn't.

We bought ours months ago during the rainy season when the heaters first showed up at Global Lamphun. Up until last week, it was a buyer's market. They were still well stocked our last trip to Lamphun a week or so ago. Now? Ha ha ha. I can only surmise as wife and I sit in our warm living room here in the boon-docks of rural Lamphun province.

One should first ask, "Who are the stakeholders in the creation of the NGO, Transparency International, and what 'perceptions', implicit, explicit or otherwise, do they seek to manage and for the benefit of whom?"

An analytical reader should really consider this before excepting the published ranking at 'face value', although I expect most readers will blindly parrot the results. C'est la vie.

Without even looking at the results, I expect:

Western nations - above reproach

Nations aligned to Western nations - good

Non-Western nations who challenge Western hegemony - really bad

Nations aligned to Non-Western nations who challenge Western hegemony - really bad

Resource-rich nations not aligned to Western strategic, geo-polictical policy - really bad

Resource-rich nations aligned to Non-Western nations who challenge Western hegemony - gawd awful

That's just based on knowing who the stakeholders of TI are. Just saying. Do your own research; draw your own conclusions. You're mileage may vary. Honestly, I don't really care what anyone else thinks.

police state.

let's hope they're as effective at this as they are with cctv....

So is my country, but I just prefer this police state over the one I came from. Sorta like voting in the farcical Presidential elections: i.e., voting for the lesser of two evils.

I'm sure the the NSA and GCHQ can hook them up with facial recognition software that is a lot more reliable. Sounds like some Brit police need a vacation in France.

Ok, send them all to the open arms and public coffers of England.

2000 km of new bike paths, I can see why.

Look at the THB/Gold ratio vs the USD/Gold ratio over the last year as the THB has been weakening against the USD. Interesting.

I wonder were all the subsidized rubber is going??? Ahhhh-haaaa!!! No wonder there is a 'rubber scheme' and no 'rice scheme'. Smart!

Ain't it great? Loving it here in Northern Thailand. But then again, we have heaters in the house Lol Getting too old to care much for 'snuggling'. We just have his and hers radiant heaters. But I'd still like to put in a cast-iron Franklin stove. People think I'm crazy until the temperature hits the single digits. Lol

Warm and Toasty In Lamphun

Adinnadana veramani (refrain from stealing). Seems the abbot missed this one out the the 227 precepts a senior monk is suppose to follow, but probably only the forest monks do.

Anyone growing tamarind? Or is that a fruit?

I love the fresh stuff from thailand….put it in salsa and it also drink makes a very refreshing and healthy cold drink when mixed into water and honey, with lots of crushed ice.

We have a few tamarind trees. Thorny buggers though. Love the fruit. The wife uses them in Tom Yum too. We're up to our eyeballs in tamarind right now.

Bring it on. I love it. Heck, let it snow!!!

Biden beats his lips; the Russians beat on ISIS (ISIL, Daesh).

Why should Europe have to house these people when other Arab countries either will not take them or the refugees do not want to go to other Arab countries because they are not compatible i.e. Sunni or Shia, if they are not compatible with other Arabs, how is it they are expected to be compatible with Europeans..??

Is Saudi Arabia, The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar lining up to take a couple of million refugees? Nope. Then why should Europe, UK, US, or any other non-Muslim country be expected to if oil-rich Muslim counties can't even extend Zakat, or Muslim charity that is dictated by Islam and is Sunna, or the emulation of acts of the Prophet Mohammad, to those 'refugees' fleeing 'war-torn' countries.

"More than 4 million Syrian refugees have fled their war-torn country, but the six wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have officially resettled none of them.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have instead allowed the refugee burden to fall mainly on Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan and, to a lesser degree, on Iraq and Egypt."

--Gulf countries face pressure to take in more Syrian refugees,

Not to worry. Only three skyscrapers have collapsed due to fire: WTC1, WTC2, and WTC7 - all on the same day, the only steel framed buildings every to collapse. Doubt that will ever happen again, any time, any where.

I'm sure he melted like the Wicked Witch of the West leaving naught but a shemagh and a dull knife and has now resumed his day job at GCHQ.

There is one positive in this whole mess. It has focused a brilliant spotlight on something that would otherwise prefer to stay hidden in the dark recesses of a floor crevice under an equally dark shadow of a sofa. It's now been pulled out into the light of day, even as it struggles to scurry back to it's hiding place.

You'll have to pull the meaning out the the metaphor. Unfortunately we can't just say want we really want to say here in the LOS.

Viagra lowers blood pressure. One pill should satisfy both you and the wife.

What do you need a wife for? And I thought people get married that they have food on the table and their clothes washed?

They did. Back in the 1950s.

Mom did back in the 50's. Wife does now. Golly, I've come full circle, and my BP is 126/72 and HR at 72.

I must be reading Thai Visa. Resting HR usually is about 60 bpm.

Your teerak was probably giving off massive amounts of electro-magnetic distortion hence altering the reading. That's the story I'd use to maintain marital bliss in the household.

"No sweetie, it's just your magnetic personality effecting the reading of the machine."

Once he pulled a knife all bets are off.

No assets, no guarantees, no deposits equals to...no loans.

Perhaps government and PM could be guarantors for all willing SME's?

No? That's what I thought...

The average Thai household is extended close to 250k THB in personal debt, but it's risky to lend money to small business startups. Small business generate income; heavily indebted households do not.

Sourced from the Thai Chamber of Commerce (avg Thai household debt at 248,004 THB per household)