KhorTose

As long as it make money it will be open for a long time. Almost all new businesses, hotels, bars, etc. have someone in the military as a partner. These SOBs do not have a moral agenda, anymore then they care about the welfare of the people of Myanmar. All they care about is lining their own pockets.

Since we seem to have changed the subject to American food chains, I am struck by the fact that Pizza Hut is so popular in Thailand. Especially since it is not cheap, and filled with milk products that Thais normally avoid.

Funny, I was going to ask you about cricket. The long answer has to do with male bonding, & homoeroticism. Skip the long answer and stick to the fact that it is a simple game with easily understood rules that anyone can play. Yes, anyone. Only the pros wear all that gear. Man and women play lighter versions all the time (flag football e.g.).

All of these peeves are annoying, but they are what makes Thailand so interesting. Lets face it, when in Thailand; you are not in Kansas anymore. We can list (and probably will) hundreds of annoyances and peeves about Thailand, from their traffic to their unique politics, but the most annoying thing about Thailand, is reading about Thais and Thailand and being stuck in the USA. I freely confess to Thailand envy, and I am counting the days until I arrive permanently (209). In the meantime, I am jealous of all of you, and sure wish I was being annoyed at the moment by something Thai (and young and cute).

Sorry, I found a good one---I hope. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Bus-Services...ort-t87976.html

I don't think the bastards will jump out of any buildings. They are too busy counting their 18 billion dollar bonuses they gave themselves with tax payer money.

I would say Turkey, which is not perfect, but is far more liberal towards gays then say Poland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Turkey However, Turkey is suppose to be a secular nation, not a muslim one. Of interest to gays is the fact that Mustafa Kamal may have been gay. However, you will go to jail, or worse if you said that in Turkey

Out of fairness to Israel the US has pressured her with that threat on more then one occasion, and Israel has done her best to comply. The Oslo accords still stand as the closest anyone has come to achieving peace in the Middle East. It was a fair deal and a good solid platform that could have been used to achieve peace. Instead of leaping to that chance, not enough pressure was put on Ha mas or Arafat, for that matter, by the Arab countries to accept the deal and work within it. It takes two to tango and two to make peace. We can pressure Israel all we want, but without the Arab nations doing the same to elements of the Palestinians we get nowhere. The key right now seems to be Iran's unqualified support of Ha mas, not to mention Hezbollah and Syria. Sadly Israel may have shot herself in the foot over Gaza. To lose an ally like Turkey, makes her cause and her existence all that more perilous. Whats worse is Netanyahu is running for Prime Minister. If he wins even more bloodshed, possibly on a much greater scale, will follow. I'm back for a while, and this is still one of the sanest and sensible discussion I've seen on any board, with the possible exception of the flying spagetti monster comment.

They cost of the Olympics and the upkeep of the site is just going to be one more thing the Party is going to have to explain when China's economy crashes. I truly believe that both the Party and China are going to undergo some radical changes due to the world"s economic decline.

All right. It only took Air Asia one year to find a sensible way to handle the baggage charge. If they weren't such a great cost savings I would not use them. I might suggest you pay the extra fee for priority seating. It sure beats the crowding at the gate. Up-to-you.

To me, the best bus to and from Pattaya is Bell bus service for 150 BHt each way. They will take you right to your hotel and pick you up when you return to BKK. Bell is caught on the bottom floor at gate 7. Look for a lady with a sign. Here is a URl to a very good post on all of the bus services. http://www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum/bus-s...88599&st=15 In case this is out of date here is an email address to check schedule and even buy your ticket in advance. bell@pattayabus.com

I am going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks. If this discussion is going to continue, someone else is going to have to present the facts. By the way, the PBS documentary is very good and does lay a lot of blame on politicans on both sides of the issue.

I have not died just very busy at work. I watched the original PBS series (called the fifty years war) which is over 2 1/2 hrs long. They spend most of the series discussing the politics and very little on the 1948 war. The title Dar Yassim rebuked is not PBS's title, but the man who posted that video. The real video is on utube and can be found at Amazon, however there is no difference just different interpetations. The video does show: The village was not a target of the army. The village was friendly, had declared neutrality, and (in the end) protected by Jewish settlers. People where put up against the wall and shot. They did attack in the middle of the night, and the method was to toss ganades into homes. The village was armed, but so was everyone in Palestine. What they left out: The village had aided the Haganah, and had signed a pact with them. Many eyewitness accounts that say many more then 18 people were slaughtered. The red cross account The Meir Paul statement. A very good Jewish web site that accepts the responsiblity and a post many facts: http://www.middle-east.yu-hu.com/peacewatch/dy/dycg.htm Meir Pail’s account: http://middle-east.yu-hu.com/peacewatch/dy/dypail.htm Please check out the Wiki site I earlier gave the citation for were there are dozens of citations that you can indepently check out. Many of the best evidence comes from statements of Jewish people who were part of, or had first hand knowledge of the massacre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre All I can say is there is no doubt in my mind that these people where assasinated by the Irgun, in order to spread terror, any more then there is no doubt in my mind that holocost happened. History is not an interpetation, but a collection of documents, physical evidence, and first hand accounts. Most of the world, including PBS, have had no problem calling what happened at Dier Yassin an atrocity.

Exactly the same.

I delayed answering this because I wanted to be sure my memory was correct. The massacre did happen, and it did not happen the way you said, but the way it is reported in so many of the books that I read. (Wiki has a short blurb on it with references. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre I could find no reference to a PBS program so I emailed them and asked if they had a 1999 program on Deir Yassin or any other program that disproved the event. I just got the answer back. They had had many specials on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but have never denied the massacre at Dier Yassin. So I must ask you for your citation. I did find two sites that said the same thing you did, but both of these sites did not give out who they where, and I found distortions in everything they said about the Arab Israeli conflict from 1917 on. I have to say come on now again, I mean even the Jewish Authority and the Haganah admitted this happened. In fact, this village was neutral, but aided the Haganah. I did not mention Hebron or any of the things that occurred on both side prior to 1948 as we are talking about Israel, and as I said I was just giving some points to justify my Nazi-like picture of the Israeli Jews. Listing everything on both sides would take twenty pages, and I decided not to go into the British mandate as this is not really the subject. Wiki has a good article on the Liberty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident I cannot give you a citation on the real reason the liberty sank as I only have hearsay from the communications interceptors that were in Addis Ababa who heard the whole thing. However, my pledge to keep the secrets I knew was only for 10 years, and that has long passed, so here is the truth as told to me by the interceptors at that station. Israel deliberately attacked the Liberty, knowing it was American, in order to distract the Egyptians and keep their air force on the ground where Israeli planes could take them out. They knew the American Carrier off of Libya would scramble aircraft and the Egyptians would see this and keep their planes on the ground fearing the Americans would attack them thinking they were hitting the Liberty. Air Commanders who monitored the whole Israeli air force taking off desperately asked to scramble their planes only to be told to stay on the ground by their command. A brilliant ruse at our expense, and I despise Johnson for letting Israel get away with it. To quote CS Lewis, "You can never know the truth, you can only chose to believe or not believe." Since I cannot offer a citation--believe this or not. 5. Seizures of homes and buildings:--Come on now. Building without a permit on your own land and your home is leveled by bulldozers. A wall is built so you cannot get to your field your family has owned for a hundred years or more, Right wing Jewish settlers--often from Russia--are allowed to carry machine guns and terrorize the arabs in the communities they live in. These are the same people responsible for killing Simon Peres because he wanted peace. 6. As far as some dissidents go, they include many of the original Jews who fought for Israel in 1948 and have since left the country do to the increasing militarism and fanaticism of Israeli right-wing. Many of these Jews were the Kibbutzers, of which Israel has only a few left.

Yes, she is tracking to the left, but it is interesting to see that the Democratic party is tracking to her position of gun rights. Gun control, has been one of the single most damaging issues to the Democratic party in years and now you hardly ever hear a Dem mention it.

It does not have to be hair from your head. Of course if you believe this I want you to know that he gave the hair to me and I made a voodoo doll out of it. I can give you this doll--undamaged--for $5000 USD. Please PM me and I will give you an account to send the money to. Do not wait. Just as a demonstration I impacted your eye. Feel the itch--blinking a lot---eye getting red----better hurry before it is too late.

You forgot to tell him not to buy any Buffaloes, and Grandma probably did not die. The main purpose of any scam is to get money out of you. So no matter how much he loves your bald head and love handles, if he is asking for money---beware. I am surprised that having been in Malaysia you have not run into these schemes before. Thais are clever, as well as, fantastically handsome, but there are only so many new things in the world of human relationships. Trust your instincts, and you will be okay.

I hate to bring everyone back to the topic, but I notice one elephant not mentioned. Drummond goes on about the gay community trying to act noble by condemning pedos, but not changing their sex tourist ways. Why does he not mention the fact that pedos are in his straight community. These do not get arrested, and male to female child sex--which is just as damaging to the victim--does not get mentioned or policed like male to male. It is very disingenuous of him not to go after his own community. Is he completely ignorant that this is going on---I doubt it. I also wonder what he would call 1000 sailors when the fleet comes in. Low life sex tourist? Definitely a double standard here.

Pleaseeeeeeee, no more Bush. I am so trying to forget that this SOB ever existed, and wish all mention of this moron would just go away. It is time to wake up from our collective nightmare, and move on to a better and far brighter future.

I too was ripped off by the Copa last time I was in Pattaya, This is a very good idea and it is so simple. Sure beats the heck out of arguing with the waiter. Thanks luvthai, makes me go duhhhhhh, for why didn't I think of doing this myself.

Every time I have spoken out against sex with children below 14, I get a bunch of crap from pedos on SGT and Ting and Tong. The main argument is that it is the business of Thais to do something about this, not us foreigners or NGOs. Seeing a sick wacko like this with 40-50 complaints still running around free leads me to believe that stopping the exploitation of children is a hopeless cause in this country. I have always believed that people are the same the world over. So someone tell me how adult Thais, especially adult police officers can stand by and let this happen. What is the matter with these people. This seems to transend culture differences, and it totally befuddles me. Will some of you that have lived here for a long time tell me what kind of mindset allows this bullshit to occur. It is making me seriously consider retirement elsewhere.

Chacon Son Gout

Okay, thank you. I always wondered what those were called. I've seen many Thais wearing them, but did not know the name. If there is another name for these, please let me know. I ask because Puna does not really sound Thai to me. Is this the correct spelling in Western script?

Well, the right wing of the court would probably be happier if they got to pick the winner, like they did in 2000. If they keep up their conservative decisions maybe OBama could help out their case load by making the court bigger (from 9 to 11) and appoint some decent judges. That worked for Roosevelt.