PeterRS

I wish I had one. I don't. But I truly believe someone has to come up with some alternative that more or less works. I always find it strange that Americans, and no doubt those in other countries as well, speak so glowingly about their Constitution and how wise the framers were. Then there was the Bill of Rights which included the first 10 amendments passed around 1791 with Madison writing the wording of the first amendment. But no one has ever persuaded me that anything other than a few very basic laws - e.g. murder - can be as true centuries after they were written. Madison had not the faintest inclination that 230 years after he penned that amendment there would be the internet and social media. Nor that these inventions would completely revolutionise our way of life. Times change. Society changes. The world changes. Yet some people hang on to beliefs that may have been appropriate centuries ago which frankly have been overtaken by progress and are no longer appropriate - in the same form.

That is precisely what I was implying. Freedom comes with responsibility and that also goes for the freedom of speech. I was not referring only to politics and politicians. I was talking of each individual. If your view is that anything goes and that censorship is a no go area, I reckon that means we face a pretty desperate future. Believing that each individual can decide everything for themselves in our crazy, excessively complicated, intertwined world no longer works, even if it ever did. Just look at the progress of the pandemic in the USA. Vast millions of individuals made decisions not to take the advice of scientists. "Im free to do as I please and I will not wear a mask" was a comment heard ad nauseam from interviewees on tv bulletins. "I have the freedom to infect you if I happen to be infected" was rarely if ever heard. Freedom in any society means there have to be rules and absolute freedoms cannot work. Self censorship of the type you suggest is now a thing of the past.

When the genie is out of the bottle and running loose, I defy anyone to chase after it, catch it and then find a way to stuff it back. We are in a new era - and not just because of covid19.

A perceptive post. At the risk of incurring the ire of other posters, I return to a topic aired before - freedom of speech. It does sometimes seem to me that far too many people assume there are only two options here. You either have freedom of speech or you have the opposite: the restricted freedoms of communist and other totalitarian regimes. I am sure there are people in China, Russia etc who are fearful of what they say in public or sometimes even in private. Equally I know people in both countries who say virtually what they want, although within obvious limits - calling Xi or Putin a total moron would be unwise to say the least! Yet these friends are constantly amazed that the President of the United States, members of Congress and other ordinary Americans routinely lie egregiously and routinely and few seem to care. They see Trump as a total liar. They see McConnell and Graham put hands on heart and swear they would never do something. Yet when RBG died, they did precisely the opposite. They outright lied. As kids most of us will have had it drummed into us that we should not lie. If we do there can be consequences. Yet elected politicians and many ordinary folk get away with outrageous lying. How is this permitted under Freedom of Speech? Where are the responsibilities that all freedoms require? Why were the liars McConnell and Graham reelected? What is the difference between not being able to shout Fire in a crowded theater and yet being able to lie, libel and slander elsewhere virtually at will? I am all for quite severe restrictions being placed on the new media. Yet the freedom of speechers instantly shout "foul". We know that leaders in other countries have latched on to Trumps playbook and are using the new media to consolidate their power and policies. I have no idea how or if it can be done. But the start of restoring faith in democracy is surely the need to increase the responsibilities that come with freedom of what people can say.

If ever there was a case for a total revamp of the US electoral system, especially post election, we are seeing it now. As in the UK, there has to be a way to count all votes far more quickly and for the loser to move out of the White House within less than 24 hours. The present desperate state of affairs in Washington is a horrendous example to the rest of the world.

I have gone off Ron Howard since his extremely poor bio pic of the tenor Luciano Pavarotti. That was nothing but a puff piece with almost all the drama of the mans life, and clearly there was lots, not included. Hes better sticking to feature films.

I also thought at first that this had to be boys outside Saranrom Park waiting for customers to pass by in their cars. The fact they are quite spread out also seems to indicate that. But the photo was taken too early the day. You can see the late afternoon sun and these boys rarely appeared before 8:00pm. Looking at photos of the park, I do not recognise the railings. If the boys were waiting for work, they would surely be closer together. Similarly were they going to a protest at least one would surely have a placard or some other sign. All very curious.

Im not sure if the gay weekly drinks events are still happening. I went twice and frankly would not recommend them. Very few attended. Two or three small groups of Thais all stayed at their own tables with their own friends, and a few farang. Neither group mixed.

Totally agree with GWMinUS. “Present Perfect” is a much better film but the sequel is well worth watching. We saw it soon after cinemas reopened and there were all of 3 others at the showing unfortunately.

Something certainly has to be done if democracy as we know it is to survive. Its not so long ago that universal suffrage was assumed to be the be all and end all of democracy, the right of every citizen to elect the leadership. Access to accurate information at that time was severely limited largely to a print media with opposing viewpoints, radio and TV party political projects. The problem it seems to me is less the very recent explosion of media outlets and the internet offering all manner of wacky truths, it is the over-riding belief that each individual has a God-given right to freedom of speech, albeit one that does not allow you to shout “Fire” in a theatre if there is not in fact any fire. This freedom has empowered individuals far more than any other development in my view. “I believe I am right. I believe you are not only wrong, you are spreading lies.” Get one group together facing an opposing group and you have started your recipe for social and political upheaval. The understanding that freedom of speech must be allied to individual responsibility and accepted societal norms has almost totally disappeared. Until that fact is drummed into people, I reckon it matters little what you do to regulate the public and social media platforms. That surely comes down to education and the need for educators to stress at all times that all freedoms within a society come with very specific responsibilities. But clearly that will take time. Until then, some sort of curbs have to be put on internet and social platform freedoms. Lawmakers are fearful of anything which limits freedoms of speech, but look where the USA is today and the need for a revision of the meaning of freedom of speech becomes perfectly obvious.

I wonder when the Thais disappeared from the gogo bars. Reading older posts it was obvious that audiences at many gogo bars were a decent mix of Thais and farang a couple of decades or so ago. Could it be that rising living standards particularly among young professionals led to the opening of more Thai for Thai venues like the nightclub mentioned in the OP? Did Thaksin’s Social Order campaigns make Thais feel they did not want to be seen any more in gogo bars? This could be an interesting topic for a more lengthy article.

THAI has been trying to sell off its A340s for years and I believe it turned down at least one offer some time ago. It bought many of these planes for its North American routes. But being 4 engine gas guzzlers they had to have a much larger business class than usual and pack in as many passengers to make any profit. They rarely succeeded. Hence the routes were cancelled and THAI has been stuck with aircraft that no one in the industry seems to want. Their value now must be a tiny fraction of what THAI paid.

Surely you realise that the last debate took place 12 days before the election!! Does mail in the USA take 11 days plus the 4 or 5 day extension? There are also drop boxes in I believe many states where votes can be deposited - and thats before the days when early voting is permitted. Personally I can’t see any valid reason for counting votes after the end of voting on Election Day.

Oh really? According to Michael and other posters, who have been filling the bars at weekends? Thais! We also know from other correspondents that when the bars had their heyday 20 or so years ago, there were as many Thais as farang,

Judging from these videos and the photos posted elsewhere, those who took part were as usual just ordinary guys and gals. A few floats from companies like Sony. Good on them. It does seem to me that one reason for Taiwan’s Parade being so hugely successful with increasing numbers year after year (down this year largely because of the understandable absence of overseas visitors but last years attendance was around 170,000) is that it is privately organized by a group of gay individuals. I understand it has been so from the start. I often wonder why Thailand which we all thought was a more accepting gay society until Taiwan took over that role, never had a successful Gay Pride Parade. If even Tokyo and Hong Kong can have one (assuming the latter is allowed to continue under the new repressive political regime) and despite the best efforts of its homophobic government Singapore has its very successful gay Pink Dot celebration, why nothing here? Is it because the few that did materialize about 20 years ago were almost totally organized by the commercial sex establishments and most of the participants those who worked in them? Is it because of the ever present fear of ordinary professional Thais that they will encounter ostracism at work and home. I have heard several tales of professional Thais being denied advancement in their firms when it became known they are gay. The Thai Tourism people have a campaign targeted at gay visitors. No doubt it is aimed at the richer niche market interested in temples, beaches and shopping (sex being anathema to the authorities)!!! But Taipei tourism must make a ton of cash out of the Pride Parade if there are indeed 50,000 plus visiting from around the region (at least 10,000 of these must be from Singapore). Is one in Bangkok organized along the lines of that in Taipei not a possibility?

The problem in countries like Thailand the the UK and probably many others as well (Malaysia?) is that it is often totally impossible to read a postmark! How does the US mail system have such clear postmarks?

The fact that all the votes have not been counted in the USA 8 days after the election shows what a total mess the entire system is. I’m not sure if any country has got it right but I agree with z909 that having all votes counted within hours of polls closing and then the new government being installed just hours later seems vastly better than the long drawn out affair across the pond. There is so much I don’t understand. First the idiocy of the electoral college. Yes, I know it may have seemed a good idea at the time, but only to about half the framers. There was intense debate and many did not like it. Second, why is a system devised centuries ago when the USA was a totally different country remain acceptable today? It is a total anachronism and extremely anti-democratic. I realise that voters are not only voting for a President and each state has therefore adopted different systems. But the Presidential vote is for a national office. The others for a local office - even including senators. So why is it so difficult to have one nationwide system for electing Presidents that is the same nationwide and another for local candidates where each can be as different as chalk and cheese. It is surely not out with the capabilities of the US computer companies to come up with an easy to use system that is fully backed up. The mail-in system seems to work but each state having different systems seems again nuts! Why permit the counting of any vote whatever that is not received by the end of polling day? OK. The armed forces mail may take longer. So give them the ballot papers further in advance. That is surely so obvious. Same with ordinary mail in voters. Why do those who leave it to the last possible minute deserve to have a vote counted 4 or 5 days after the election? Then why do those who voted early have to wait to be counted last? They probably arrived first! Then there is the weirdest part of all - a 10 week or so interregnum between the result of the election when, as we are now seeing, an outgoing President can play havoc with the government. What sort of wacky system is that? Again, centuries ago it was probably necessary. Today it most definitely is not. It can all be done in a matter of days as long as the senior civil servants remain in their positions. it sometimes beats me why the US berates the world for not being more democratic. The USA needs to look at its own form of democracy and reform it first before it tells the rest of us what to do IMHO.

I have never ever been able to work out why so many foreign nationals get so worked up about double pricing. Why on earth the fuss? At least two saunas in Bangkok have much higher prices for older farang compared to the Thai entry price? So what? Pay up or go somewhere else. Pissed off that you have to pay a bit more to get into a national park? Now isnt it just a bit strange that most farang tourists have coughed up 20,000 baht for an air fare and many thousands for a hotel, pop 2,000 to 3,000 a night for entertainment, dont eat at street stalls, dont have a family to bring up - and yet they scream blue murder when a Thai gets into Wat Phra Kaew free whereas the farang has to pay 500 baht. If that sticks in your craw so much, take your complaining and go somewhere where there are no distinctions. But of course they wont. They like Thailand and what it offers too much. So quit complaining and just put up with it!

I wonder why. For about ten years I have had a small Japanese made wristband that measures my blood pressure and pulse. Admittedly it is not a watch but could be attached to one. After I press start, it takes about 20 seconds to come up with the readings. Understandably it does lightly squeeze the wrist for a few moments. I once took it to a hospital so I could check the readings against professional equipment. They were remarkably similar.

A drag brunch? I hope it will be popular but nothing will drag me anywhere near a bunch of drag queens.

Oh come on! I specifically stated "several UK newspapers". So you don't believe me. Here are more - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-cummings-barnard-castle-durham-coronavirus-police-prosecution-nazir-afzal-b1454947.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8899061/Dominic-Cummings-face-prosecution-breaking-lockdown-says-former-prosecutor.html https://breakingnewstv.in/dominic-cummings-225-page-file-alleges-aide-dedicated-six-covid-breaches/ Is there anything there right wing enough for you? I find it hard to square the accusation of possible perversion of the course of justice backed up by a 220 something page report, an accusation made by a former Chief Crown Prosecutor, with your view that the whole business is "very tiresome". The man broke his own regulations. He jmay have lied. An inquiry with testimony from the witnesses who state he lied should surely clear that up. The man should have been fired on the spot.

More doubt on Cummings actions. This has been reported in several UK newspapers of which this is one. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/30/dossier-alleges-cummings-may-have-perverted-course-of-justice-in-account-of-lockdown-trip Even though he broke the law and may have perverted the course of justice? One law for government advisors and one for the rest of the country, obviously.

Such a shame that foreigners will not be able to attend this years Taipei Gay Pride Parade on Saturday.

Sorry vivapu, I think it an absolute disgrace that he turned up. How would your family feel if the person who murdered you and then ran from the crime scene turned up at your funeral? This criminal policeman is a member of the "super elite" and the heir to a family fortune. Remember what happened to the Red Bull heir, Boss whatever his name is? More than 8 years ago around 5 in the morning he murdered a traffic policeman in cold blood by mowing him down on Sukhumvit driving around 100 mph and then dragging the body for a few hundred meters before escaping to his family compound. His family would not release him and the Ferrari to the police for about 8 hours. Even so, he still had alcohol and drugs in his system. He has succeeded in escaping justice for 8 long years, finally fleeing Thailand in his private jet in 2017. Even with an Interpol arrest warrant, he is still at large allegedly enjoying the high life in Dubai. When the elite government announced earlier this year that all charges against him were being dropped, there was such an outcry on social media it was forced to do a U turn and reopen the case. Interpol is again involved. What's the betting that both he and now the murderer policeman get off scot free in the fullness of time. Money talks in Thailand.

Is blatantly breaking the rules once not bad enough? Is the most senior Prime Ministerial adviser who helped write the rules permitted unilaterally to break them by driving about 400 kms from his home during a total lockdown without any resultant sanction? Of course not. He should have been fired. Period. To argue otherwise is pure nonsense. That view has absolutely zilch to do with which party is in government. So what if he is useful? I'll bet tens if not hundreds of thousands of others in the UK felt they were also useful and also had valid reasons for breaking the lockdown. Such hypocrisy and such we are holier than thou attitude is not confined to the UK. If the US Senate does confirm the new homophobic judge today after the Republicans unilaterally changed the rules and then had its most senior representatives with hands on hearts blatantly lie on camera more than once, it illustrates once more the depths to which US democracy has sunk. In politics there is lying and there is lying. These were the depths of disgrace. No, thats not Donald Trump, although he has taken US politics into a very black swamp. That is the conniving bastard Mitch McConnell and his perfectly awful surrogate Lindsay Graham. Hopefully they will themselves be confined to the depths of a miserable swamp by being roundly defeated next week.