klauskunkel

Religion (ideas, philosopy) in itself is supposed to be beneficial to people and society, but once religion becomes institutionalized into churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, whatever - meaning once one person or a group gets their grubby, little hands on the power over people a church constitutes, then it gets invariably corrupted, just give it some time. They have to spread to amass more power than their rival doctrines, they hide criminals behind a moral facade, they are exempt to some degree from scrutiny, they are dogmatic, intolerant and parasitic.

IMO religion should be a person's private business and not regulated, restricted or prescribed by some manmade institution.

This Thai monk(ey) business is a nice example of how religion is used by an institution to pull wool over the eye of the Thai people, who are inherently not the most critical or questioning kind. I think, considering the assets and moneys and the kind of purchases he made, this monk is laundering money for some high placed people. Therefore, he cannot come back to Thailand, or he will be dead. So, for him it is a good thing to be in the religion business, i.e. so many western countries have "freedom of religion" written in their constitution, which can be easily distorted to protect himself and used to be admitted to those countries.

To be clear, I have nothing against Freedom of Religion, I have everything against freedom of churches.

The office is also working on revoking the monk's passport.

I have read this statement at least since 10 days. It takes one day to make a new passport and hand-deliver to fugitive convicts abroad, but to revoke a passport...I guess we will find out.

A good journalist would be hunting the names of the persons making large donations to this Temple.

My guess.

Army / Police Generals, government workers and members of important families that can't be mentioned.

A good journalist would be dead. There is no investigative journalism in Thailand, that kind of development is being nipped in the bud very early - it does not conform with Thainess!

11 of them got into the photo opp including the one foreign looking guy in the black shirt. One would wonder how the Thai police do their work when so many are always available for photo ops and recreations.

The foreign looking guy could be one of the many police from around the world who work with the BiB. FBI, AFP and many other agencies are here, as far as I know, every embassy and consulate have representatives of thier respective countries federal law enforcement agencies stationed here, as well as in most, if not all countries where they have an embassy or consulate.

Looks like that foreign guy is experiencing Thainess via this strange police parading photo-op.

This Transport Minister is rapidly stealing all the PR thunder from Yingluck, Chalerm and so on. He should be considered a clear and present danger of usurping the people's favor. Watch out for this boy, he is a contender!

BANGKOK: -- Mounting evidence that Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative Ltd embezzled nearly Bt12 billion has led the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the Anti Money Laundering Office (AMLO) to launch an investigation into the company and its executives.

Bangkok: The ever-increasing mountain of evidence that Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative Ltd embezzled nearly Bt12 billion had finally reached such heights that the DSI and AMLO could no longer safely ignore and were finally forced to reluctantly launch an investigation.

Supachai has maintained that he has done nothing wrong and is ready to clear up any doubt. He has accused the cooperative's former executives of taking away some crucial documents and made a plea for them to "return the documents to facilitate the probe".

Supachai has maintained that he is innocent as a little lamb and is ready to grease any palm necessary to prove it. He has accused the cooperative's former execs of taking away some crucial post-its and is down on his knees begging them to return these docs, otherwise the DSI and AMLO can't possibly do a thorough job.

Yup, should have grabbed his crotch while brandishing his gun instead, now Mom and Dad took away his Facebook...

Read the Headline, thought you were talking about sinsood, ooops!

Yingluck: "I believe no one wants to do harm to their own country..."

"...,but, dang it, it's kind of funny how it always ends up that way anyhow!"

Cabinet approves 'no alcohol drinking' campaign during Buddhist Lent

So...lead by example, and I mean you, Chalerm!

Mr Suraphon said that “Thainess” and “balance” will be the key

attract tourists with the Charm of Thainess

To emphasise “Thainess” – Thainess to the World, Thainess Through Celebrities, Thainess Connected

...however, we have been told by Thais repeatedly that Farang will never understand Thai and Thainess, so the new slogan will be: Mysterious Thailand

from what I can see of my wife watching Thai soapies, these actresses have "angry" completely mastered, however subtle emotions...don't exist?

Not hard to find if 'Thaksin's clip' is real: Forensic Cop

If the forensic police verify the tape, will they first ask, what answer does the government want?

...and second, how much you pay for the right results?

"Don't try to be on the same footing as me. I never think highly of you, never consider you important... and don't come and offer me apologies," Mr Chalerm said, referring to Mr Suranand.

"You will never be in my league, I drive a pink Bentley!"

the police officers became suspicious

kudos to the police taking their job seriously

good article

I wonder what it takes to establish a temple and become an abbot in Thailand. I mean is there a governing body within the buddhist community that establishes and oversees standards? Or, can you just build a temple and declare yourself as head monk? If the former applies, then that governing authority may also warrant a closer look...

I like how these Indian blokes like to party together. Very charming!

I believe it's a group discount mentality.

Moreover, it would not hurt national security, as Thais and people in all neighbouring countries knew the military and its work record well, he said.

And to top it all, nothing would hurt Thailand, as Thais and people in all neighbouring countries knew our police force and politicians and their work record well, he did not say.

I am just wondering if the 50,000 baht compensation comes from the teamoney fund, in which case the money extorted from the community finds its way back to the community, or the compensation money will be earmarked as miscellaneous expenses and reimbursed from taxpayer money at a later date (plus interest).

I take issue with two of Abhisit's statements:

.

1.'My wife threatened to divorce me if I do a deal on amnesty bill'

This shows a weak personality and weak political convictions. It can also be interpreted as: attempting to defuse some of the fallout due Abhisit, if Thaksin comes back in the future.

2. However, the deaths of those 99 people during the 2010 political violence have returned to haunt him, and the case threatens to destroy his political future. "It depends on the people. If they find me guilty, I will have to take responsibility," he said.

Abhisit is guilty if he actually gave the order to use live ammo, not if the people find him guilty.

And as I said yesterday, this is no time to be blaming the van driver. The school is ultimately responsible, whether or not the parents hired the van. The school gave it parking rights, and therefore must accept responsibility.

Sunisa.

So - the school is reponsible for the parents hiring a van with a driver without sufficient brains to secure the doors in his van full of 3-year old kids because at one point on the route it was parked on the school's premises? - A poorly thought out judgement, IMHO.

What will be the natural cause of action for the school in the future to avoid a repeat? - They can't control how the parents arrange for bringin their kids back and forth, nor what kind of persons or vehicles are involved. What they can control is who is permitted to park on the premises. - So, the obvious solution for this and other schools is to ban vans or other private vehicles to park on their premises, so that the kids will have to walk to wherever the closest parking lot may be as to be onloaded in the midst of traffic.

Have you ever seen the traffical chaos outside schools when the kids arrive or depart? - Great environment to have a group of 3-year kids moving around in, right?

Ahem, the school provided parking for and supervision of the van as per the Ed Ministry's regulation...What those regulations entail...I don't know, but "supervision" in my mind implies responsibility to some degree.

"Mr. Jatupon is not ready for it at the moment ... but in the future, when dire situation arises, Mr. Jatupon might step in and take the helm," Mr. Thida told the reporters.

In other words: "If you don't behave, Yingluck, and give us what we want, then our Ueber-Bully Jatuporn will take the Red Army and will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger, for (Quote): the Redshirts are "objects" that could easily be controlled."

"Although I am not a Minister, I am willing to stand on the side of the government ,as long as it operates with honesty," Mr. Jatupon said.

"...And if I was a Minister, I would be filling my pockets from the budget laughing all the way to the bank, as long as corruption stays the ruling policy in government!," Mr. Jatuporn added.