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    1. 45

      Reasons of change

      Your logic is a bit odd, bro. What you are talking about is like feeding stray dogs that expect everyone to give them roast beef sandwiches without doing anything. I downloaded Grab one day after my now wife and I asked 10 taxis to take us home (30 minute trip) and use the meter. Now I only use Grab or Bolt. If a taxi stops and asks me where I am going, I ignore them. If they are persistent, I tell them to F off. It's funny because it's true! I totally agree. How does that work?
      keysersoze276 in Pattaya
    2. 45

      Reasons of change

      Admittedly, I took a regular taxi today. Only because I was standing outside a hopsital on crutches with a broken leg. One of the hospital staff members told the driver where I was going and helped me into the car. Foolishly, I assumed it was legit. two blocks down the road I notices he hadn't turned on the meter. He asked for 500 baht. I refused. He begged and also begged to take the tollway which cost 110 baht and took 12 minutes longer than taking the main roads. They are required by law to use the meter. If most of them are breaking the law and overcharging, why use their service. And why in the h@!! would you tip them? I rarely tip because they rarely use the meter with no questions asked. In those rare circumstances, I let them keep the change or give a small tip. With the driver today the total was 322. NOT 500. As I was transferring the money and he demanded and begged for 400, so I tipped him the exact amount. Regular taxis should be grateful to even have a passenger. Not overcharging and refusing to use the meter or denying people rides. Both actions are illegal and the public has been encouraged to report the drivers.
      keysersoze276 in Pattaya
    3. 93

      Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

      Erm, no!
      JamesPhuket10 in ASEAN NOW Community Pub
    4. 45

      Reasons of change

      This is exactly why taxis and grab drivers have been in so many very violent brawls. The Grab drivers must do their job according to the price. They get to choose to accept and pick you up or not. You can tip them if you like, but they cant overcharge or demand tips like taxi drivers do almost every time.
      keysersoze276 in Pattaya
    5. 93

      Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

      Oh no, not another one please, no it is not standard for Thai women to be the dominant partner, that job is left up to American women as I saw on the two occasions I worked in the USA. My Thai partner cooks both Thai and Farang food at home and she and I decide ourselves what we each want to eat. Have you not noticed a large number of Western restaurants all around Thailand, they are frequented by Thais mostly as they are well outside of the tourist areas.
      JamesPhuket10 in ASEAN NOW Community Pub
    6. 112

      Thai Police Bust Multi-Million Baht Sex Toy Smuggling Ring

      did they smuggle it in the country through varioud bodily orifices?
      digbeth in Thailand News
    7. 45

      Reasons of change

      Your logic is a bit odd, bro. What you are talking about is like feeding stray dogs that expect everyone to give them roast beef sandwiches without doing anything. I downloaded Grab one day after my now wife and I asked 10 taxis to take us home (30 minute trip) and use the meter. Now I only use Grab or Bolt. If a taxi stops and asks me where I am going, I ignore them. If they are persistent, I tell them to F off. It's funny because it's true! I totally agree.
      keysersoze276 in Pattaya
    8. 45

      Reasons of change

      Your logic is a bit odd, bro. What you are talking about is like feeding stray dogs that expect everyone to give them roast beef sandwiches without doing anything. I downloaded Grab one day after my now wife and I asked 10 taxis to take us home (30 minute trip) and use the meter. Now I only use Grab or Bolt. If a taxi stops and asks me where I am going, I ignore them. If they are persistent, I tell them to F off. It's funny because it's true! I totally agree.
      keysersoze276 in Pattaya
    9. 6

      Thai woman sends husband to prison for raping 13 year old niece

      Her actions in reporting the crime will (hopefully) result in him being sent to jail, so not totally inaccurate.
      shy coconut in Isaan News
    10. 45

      Reasons of change

      Your logic is a bit odd, bro. What you are talking about is like feeding stray dogs that expect everyone to give them roast beef sandwiches without doing anything. I downloaded Grab one day after my now wife and I asked 10 taxis to take us home (30 minute trip) and use the meter. Now I only use Grab or Bolt. If a taxi stops and asks me where I am going, I ignore them. If they are persistent, I tell them to F off.
      keysersoze276 in Pattaya
    11. 112

      Thai Police Bust Multi-Million Baht Sex Toy Smuggling Ring

      hmmm
      fondue zoo in Thailand News
    12. 10

      Why Doesnt "Me Too" Apply to Democrats?

      He doesn't deny it happened https://nypost.com/2024/10/11/us-news/doug-emhoff-brushes-off-reports-he-forcefully-struck-ex-girlfriend-as-a-distraction-in-first-public-response-to-allegations/
      Yagoda in Political Soapbox
    13. 123

      Why Do You Even Drink?

      I'm pretty much done with alcohol and coffee now. Neither of them do much for me anymore.
      shdmn in ASEAN NOW Community Pub
    14. 93

      Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

      You are right to a certain extent, the funny thing is according to the majority of Thais we all come from the same country, which is "farangLand", it does not matter if we are Russian, English, American, etc we are all farangs, we all have the same culture, I find it funny so don't take it as I am complaining. Also, the article is a little bit simplistic, there are lots of overlapping cultures in Thailand, the Thais in the south see themselves as completely different culturally to say the people from Isaan and vice versa, they even have completely different dialects and languages and would not understand each other if they were speaking in their local dialects to each other. I laughed once as I knew an Australian in Phuket for a few years and he went to Thai language school a few times a week, after a year he said he had learned a lot of standard Thai but it was not much use with his wife and her friends as they all spoke Laos (Isaan) to each other. Well-off Educated Thais do not mix with the less educated ones unless they are "conchies" (spelling?) working for them, even then, they eat at different tables as is the case when they are on a car trip with a Thai full time driver and they stop to eat. I have seen that firsthand on many occasions. In the late 1980's I was sitting in a very large house in Bangkok, it was owned by the ex-vice-president of Thailand, we were there to invite him to our upcoming marriage ceremony in Bangkok, a "conchie", came into the room with a tray of refreshments for us but saw we were sitting down so she got on her knees, walked on her knees across the large room and presented us with the drinks, I was shocked but the ex-president took it as being normal. Do Thais become very British for example when they live in the UK for decades, do they fit in and learn how to talk straight, become orderly and logical, do they heck like, they take what suits them just as the rest of us do, I have also seen this first-hand many times. So as long as we accept we will never be seen as or be accepted as a Thai, have to continue to get annual visa extensions, and 90-day reporting then all is fine but I do not intend to sit and look through rose-tinted glasses thinking I have been accepted as a local, that will never happen. But as I said I have accepted this as a fact, nowhere in the world is perfect, 99% of life here is great. Leave your wealth, and money in your home country as it is almost guaranteed we will have to go back there when very old, don't do as many do and burn the bridges to the only country which will look after them to some level when that old age point arrives.
      JamesPhuket10 in ASEAN NOW Community Pub
    15. 0

      How to I get rid of this new left hand sidebar?

      I don't like it and don't want it.
      shdmn in Forum Support Desk

Cardinal Bernard Law, symbol of Church's sexual abuse crisis, dies

webfact

By webfact
in World News

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webfact Grand Master Member

webfact

Posted
Posted

Cardinal Bernard Law, symbol of Church's sexual abuse crisis, dies

By Philip Pullella

 

2017-12-20T053551Z_1_LYNXMPEDBJ098_RTROPTP_3_PEOPLE-BERNARDLAW.JPG

Boston's Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law leads a prayer service for Boston area Catholic youth in Newton, Massachusetts, before joining them on a nine-hour bus ride to Toronto to see Pope John Paul II and attend World Youth Day July 23, 2002. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/Files

 

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who became a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church's worldwide sexual abuse scandals, died on Wednesday, the Vatican said. He was 86.

 

Law, whose resignation from his Boston post in 2002 shocked the Church and brought abuse into the open, had been living in Rome and was in declining health in recent years.

 

The Vatican did not give a cause of death but sources close to Law, who died in a hospital in Rome, said he had been suffering from the complications of diabetes, liver failure and a build up of fluids around the heart, known as pericardial effusion.

 

Law was archbishop of Boston for 18 years when Pope John Paul - who in 1984 had appointed Law to run one of the most prestigious and wealthy American archdioceses - reluctantly accepted his resignation on Dec. 13, 2002, after a tumultuous year in Church history.

 

Law had offered to step down several times that year, as a succession of devastating stories by the Boston Globe's Spotlight team showed how priests who sexually abused children had been moved from parish to parish for years under Law's tenure without informing parishioners or law authorities.

 

When the pope finally accepted the resignation, it sent shock waves through the American Church and began a trickle down effect around the world, as the cover-up techniques used in Boston were discovered to have been used in country after country.

 

The story of how the Globe team doggedly brought the scandal to light in a city were few wanted to cross the politically powerful Church was immortalized in the 2015 film Spotlight, which won the Oscar for Best Picture.

 

The situation in Boston turned out to be the tip of an iceberg of abuse and its cover-up, where Churchmen preferred protecting the reputation of the institution rather than the innocence of children.

 

Thousands of cases came to light around the world as investigations encouraged long-silent victims to go public, shattering the Church’s reputation in places such as Ireland, and forcing it to pay some $2 billion in compensation.

 

Six months after his resignation the Massachusetts attorney general's office announced that Law and others would not face criminal charges.

 

GOLDEN PARACHUTE

 

After a period in a monastery in the United States, Law moved to Rome.

 

In 2004 Pope John Paul appointed Law to be archpriest of the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the four major basilica's of Christendom, whose gold leaf ceiling is said to be made from the first batch of the precious metal Columbus brought back from America.

 

In relative terms it was an immense fall from grace. Such posts are symbolic and ceremonial.

 

But victims of sexual abuse were outraged because it gave Law a second career and a golden parachute that allowed him to stay close to the centre of power in Rome and serve as a member or adviser in several influential Vatican departments.

 

He also maintained the rank of cardinal and participated in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict in 2005.

 

Before he became ill, Law was a regular on the diplomatic circuit, attending receptions, including many in the gardens of the U.S. embassy to the Vatican.

 

While Law was the elephant in the room at American receptions for a few years after his resignation, at Italian events he was treated with the same effusive obsequiousness bestowed on all cardinals - something Law appeared to enjoy.

 

He always declined to talk about events in Boston. "I'm retired from that," he told a reporter at a reception.

 

Bernard Francis Law was born on Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, the son of a U.S. Army official and a musician. He graduated from Harvard University and was ordained a priest in 1961.

 

His first assignment was in Mississippi, where he received death threats for championing civil rights. As bishop of Springfield–Cape Girardeau in Missouri, he opened a home for battered women and a centre to help Vietnamese boat people.

 

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-20
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rudi49jr Platinum Member

rudi49jr

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, bendejo said:

Was he sent to heaven or hell?

 

 

If there is a hell, as most Catholics seem to believe, I think Satan must have reserved a nice spot close to the fire for the good cardinal, where he can roast for all eternity.

Edited by rudi49jr
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SunsetT Gold Member

SunsetT

Posted
Posted

 

 

Why the pope is still granted  the status and publicity he enjoys when he heads the mafia organisation known as the catholic church  based on 90% superstition and mumbo jumbo which is simply a front for international serial paedophile abuse is beyond me.

 

.......Makes me want to puke!!!

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Zyxel Ruby Member

Zyxel

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, SunsetT said:

 

 

Why the pope is still granted  the status and publicity he enjoys when he heads the mafia organisation known as the catholic church  based on 90% superstition and mumbo jumbo which is simply a front for international serial paedophile abuse is beyond me.

 

.......Makes me want to puke!!!

 

8664252-3x2-700x467.jpg

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JAG Gold Member

JAG

Posted
Posted
 
 
Why the pope is still granted  the status and publicity he enjoys when he heads the mafia organisation known as the catholic church  based on 90% superstition and mumbo jumbo which is simply a front for international serial paedophile abuse is beyond me.
 
.......Makes me want to puke!!!

You know, when you hold such strong views, which result in such a virulent hatred of an institution, it really behoves you to offer something more concrete than your personal views to justify your point.

Sent from my KENNY using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

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ilostmypassword Rookie Member

ilostmypassword

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, SunsetT said:

 

 

Why the pope is still granted  the status and publicity he enjoys when he heads the mafia organisation known as the catholic church  based on 90% superstition and mumbo jumbo which is simply a front for international serial paedophile abuse is beyond me.

 

.......Makes me want to puke!!!

 

10 minutes ago, JAG said:


You know, when you hold such strong views, which result in such a virulent hatred of an institution, it really behoves you to offer something more concrete than your personal views to justify your point.

Sent from my KENNY using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Well there is the fact that after Law was exiled to Rome, he continued to enjoy the trust and favor of the Popes John-Paul and Benedict.. 

"In exile in Rome, Cardinal Law was permitted to keep the powerful role he had played for years as a kingmaker of American bishops, serving on the Vatican committee charged with advising the pope on bishops’ assignments...
The cardinal also played a part in encouraging the Vatican to open an investigation of American nuns, by fanning suspicions that some communities of nuns had abandoned Catholic doctrine and replaced it with radical feminism...It was ended by Pope Francis."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/obituaries/cardinal-bernard-law-dead.html?_r=0

 

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JAG Gold Member

JAG

Posted
Posted
Well there is the fact that after Law was exiled to Rome, he continued to enjoy the trust and favor of the Popes John-Paul and Benedict.. 
"In exile in Rome, Cardinal Law was permitted to keep the powerful role he had played for years as a kingmaker of American bishops, serving on the Vatican committee charged with advising the pope on bishops’ assignments...
The cardinal also played a part in encouraging the Vatican to open an investigation of American nuns, by fanning suspicions that some communities of nuns had abandoned Catholic doctrine and replaced it with radical feminism...It was ended by Pope Francis."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/obituaries/cardinal-bernard-law-dead.html?_r=0
 

Good points, and ones which, as a Catholic, I would find it hard to refute.
I would however maintain that they are not grounds for such a sweeping dismissal of a faith which has 1.2 billion adherents worldwide and which has been a force for good (if not universally) for two millennia.
Nor were they cited by him.

Sent from my KENNY using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

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ilostmypassword Rookie Member

ilostmypassword

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, JAG said:


Good points, and ones which, as a Catholic, I would find it hard to refute.
I would however maintain that they are not grounds for such a sweeping dismissal of a faith which has 1.2 billion adherents worldwide and which has been a force for good (if not universally) for two millennia.
Nor were they cited by him.

Sent from my KENNY using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

You might just as well say it's been a force for ill (if not universally).

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SunsetT Gold Member

SunsetT

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, JAG said:


You know, when you hold such strong views, which result in such a virulent hatred of an institution, it really behoves you to offer something more concrete than your personal views to justify your point.

Sent from my KENNY using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Who mentioned hatred? I dont hate anybody or any institution. What makes me want to puke is, as I said, that the pope is still granted  the status and reverence, and is given the publicity he enjoys by the Media when the scale of paeodophilia  and child abuse by  catholic priests and institutions Worldwide which the catholic church and the Vatican have colluded in and actively covered up is now common knowledge.

 

Virgin birth..........superstition and mumbo jumbo.

Miracles...................ditto..................

Son of God.............. ditto...................

Rose from the dead......ditto..............

Ascended to heaven.....ditto............

Heaven and Hell...........ditto...................

Belief in  Jesus, hail Marys, etc., all sins forgiven........ditto.......

The Trinity..........100% pure mumbo jumbo..............

.....And how about their decree a few years ago on  God suddenly granting parole from eternal purgatory for all those born illigitimately? How much more proof does anyone need that it is all mumbo jumbo?

 

Evil and destructive teachings such as 'no birth control' on this overpopulated planet which condemns millions to poverty and suffering. Condemning thousands to death, especially  in Africa by going against anti AIDs advice to use condoms by actively teaching that condoms are permeable to the AIDs virus. Not allowing abortion of pregnancies in cases of rape, not even paedophile rape.

 

...And the staggering hypocricy that they do all this on the back of the simple and amazing and good and beautiful teachings of universal love attributed to a man named Jesus whovever he was, makes me want to puke even more!

 

Edited by SunsetT
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