joekicker

.

I missed it, sorry to say. According to the reports: Yes he Khan. .

Sure, and they've always done that. Always. What I was getting at was a pretty new and very cynical offshoot - that the ONLY sole exclusive solitary unique reason to bring the kid along is for a payday. In "the good old days" they were making a contender who would reign as champ - or that was always their goal. A lot of these guys today, you can really sense the handlers don't think he's good enough to be champion and only look to squeeze one title fight out of HBO. Again - I may be more aware of this because of Haye, and I'm hope I'm wrong, that Khan really can fight. So far, I'm way unconvinced. .

I suppose, but I'm still thinking of the last heavyweight "fight" which was clearly a pay-day and not a real fight at all. You still don't see fights QUITE that cynical too often. But my glasses are still a little more rose-coloured than yours. The idea of treating these guys like an investment is nothing new. Cassius Clay was a great example, but he certainly wasn't the first. And carefully shepherding fighters through their rise to contender isn't new either. I agree that it seem much more in-your-face these days, and I think that's because as you also say, the shine is off the sport in general - so you see it more or notice it more - one or both. A lot of times, like the Khan fight coming up, you have to hope that the handlers really effed up and it will be a great fight. I don't have much hope for this one. .

Agree with Johnny. The point of the fight is to move Khan along. I'd put about 100 baht on that happening. I'm not at all confident about Khan having much, in the big picture. But if he's going to get that multi-million payday in a couple of years, he needs to get through about three fights like this where it SEEMS he's doing well to win. I'm going to assume his handlers have somehow figured out he is odds-on to win this one or they wouldn't let climb in the ring. I don't think it's a contest so much as cold, calculated business. Who know though, humans are always screwing up sure-thing business deals and it could turn out to be an actual fight. Hope so. .

I always carry one of these. It's simple, and you never know when one of these lazy drivers will let the pressure drop below the acceptable threshold, eh?

Darren's a good guy, everybody likes him. Good on him. Golf's a funny game. It's always struck me that Darren actually LOOKS like a world champion - a world champion darts player! .

Yes. Almost all pro shops and golf shops of any size have clubs that were returned. They also have cheap (Thailand version) starter sets. .

Paps, that is really a moment of swoosh. Look. The OP asks if the street supplies are going to dry up tomorrow. I said "no". To support my "no" I quoted a very interested party who also says "no". .

Yes but the reason is that a lot of money went out in the two months of the election campaign, and now it is rushing back in. It's a commodity situation - demand for dollars, now there's a demand for baht. That doesn't explain this (to me) weird prediction of 28-to-1 in one year. This is an old story, and Alongkorn is grandstanding, since what he says has absolutely no impression right now. There *is* a DTAC story but this is a diversion. World ends, Murdoch suffers most. I see the government has put BSkyB on the back burner for the poor guy. First MySpace, now this. What a SHAME he never knew what was going on with those underlings eh? .

Yep. My thought was, whoa! Left or right? .

Well, tell them to fly to Thailand then!! Seriously, 1.5 hours doesn't happen. 45 minutes is unusual these days. .

You're looking for an aphrodisiac. There isn't one, or at least there isn't one that does what you seem to want, not in pill form. If you're not sexually excited mentally or at least pretty interested, no pill does anything. What LD said, really, even for men it's in the head. For men, women and others, no pill will put it in the head for you. It's about the opposite of great old MacBeth line: Viagra increases the performance but does nothing about the desire. .

Fabulous pic N3RGT. .

But that's not what he said. And my point is he said nothing that was quoted in the article apart from "if" this and "if" that. He really just said "the baht will be 28" CLICK slammed his briefcase, walked away. Why should we believe him over any other prediction? "Asia's growth engine" is THAILAND? I doubt he even SAID that, that must be a misquote. The last year and a half has been heaven so far as stability goes. Anyone who thinks that instability is behind Thailand isn't worth listening to. We are in a VERY calm period now. That WILL change, and quite likely it will be before this guy's 28-to-1 prediction for July, 2012. A year from now is a long time. This guy was talking about RADICAL adjustment to the baht, of the sort that has to be affected from outside, not just inside Thailand. The baht has never been at 28 per dollar except for a few seconds in 1997 when it was going from 25 to 50. I can't think of any credible reason for such a prediction, and I wish he'd given his. If he actually thinks "political stability" will be the reason for it, he's foolish and not credible - a flat statement. This coming government will NOT be calm, and most business people including bankers think there's a very good chance it could get nasty - and my opinion is they're right. This week we have the opening of the yellow- and red-card cases of election nullification, and "peace" is behind us on the political front. So far as the street fight, we shall see. Getting a little less than 50 per cent of the vote was very impressive. Now, all the next government has to do is beat down the other 55 per cent and after that it will be quite peaceful. Rub a lamp. .

And then she denied it, saying (correctly) the country doesn't have the resources. As usual with any new regime anywhere, there's some confusion about coming actions, don't bet the car and house on anything just yet. That Bloomberg story was so weird to me. No REASON for the guy's prediction. .

It proves or rather shows very strongly that there is lots of stuff for sale, and that there is every expectation in all quarters that it will still be flowing in a year from now. .

It wasn't all that difficult. The thing is that these abused education visas aren't a drop on the arxe of a monitor lizard. Unless you have one or are contemplating one, no one notices. The catch is that there ARE all kinds of legitimate students, thousands of them, mostly at universities and similar -- and of course the monks come in on these as well from quite a few countries -- so there's only the horrible job of once in a while going after half a dozen Pattaya bums and using them as examples. If you're an actual student, this is a nice visa, quite simple too. The abuse of it is hardly worth mentioning except some of the scum involved are quite remarkable, I guess. I knew a guy, now dead, who ran one of these operations for quite a long while. It's not nice to speak ill of the dead, so I won't detail his scumminess. Well, I suppose in Pattaya, maybe. I hardly see the Pattaya newspapers. I haven't noticed any such thing in Thailand, certainly not in the Thai press, certainly in Bangkok. Thailand just had an election, it was in pretty well all of the newspapers. The media in general haven't had much space for headlines about farang one way or another or another, and probably won't for a while -- generally speaking. Never say "never", there will always be exceptions. .

People who think the "paradise" of counterfeit stuff is about to end. .

Yeah, and those banks... the interest they charge and the loans they turn down, the baxtards deserve to get robbed at gunpoint and shot if they won't hand over the money quickly. And those uneducated cows in the bars, all decked out showing their legs and bazooms, over-charging for short times, bitxches deserve to get raped. You can justify anything. People including Abercrombie shop owners don't DESERVE any such thing as you claim. There are going to have to be a lot more symptoms before the end of paradise. This was a few weeks ago: The US Trade Representative once again has put Thailand on its list of top pirates of intellectual property, known as the Priority Watch List. "Piracy and counterfeiting, including illegal downloading of pirated works from the Internet, and the theft of cable and satellite signals, remain rampant in Thailand," the report claimed. .

It's actually not too common. Even in Pattaya you don't see that much, elsewhere it's close to but not exactly zero of long-term visas and extensions. But what is really common is a need for newspapers (and ThaiVisa, which leapt on this) to have a headline to grab readers and make money. Even the lead-in para here, what's new? According to the Deputy Director, the Thailand Ministry of Education is warning all schools who offer Education Visas to foreigners to be legitimate and make sure students adhere to attendance and testing requirements. Me, I see three questions there: Yes? And? The point is? Debunk 101: The minister of education will set the policy at the Ministry of Education - and there isn't one yet. Officials can certainly "crack down" on law-breaking, but only in petty and temporary ways. If you're smart, you already know this long-term visa is temporary anyhow, you're going to get caught, and you can't use it for anything but long-term tourism of a few years. Seems to me, not much to see here. .

No. .

After "the cheque is in the post" the second and third biggest lies in Thailand are "closed for renovations" and "closed for low season". Don't expect to go to Hua Hin by water except you hire a boat yourself. Don't give anyone your credit card details to book a trip in October. .

You don't like or trust Thai stuff and you'd pay three, four times as much for the fine US government and business quality controls that went into Dora the Explorer and Barbie dolls. Okay. Me, I'll use my own judgement and put it way ahead of the US government's in this kind of case, frankly. ONE of the points I consider is that the Bangkok leather shops I'm talking about export to the US. .

There's a terrific chance the one you buy in the States was made in Thailand. I've seen them everywhere. Almost all name-brand clothing sold in the US, very close to 100 per cent, is from outside the US, and much of it is from Thailand. Pay attention IN Thailand and you'll get it for, oh, a third of the US price. Bazle, believe me, there are lots of things you've never seen. Thailand not only has great leather coats, it exports them by the thousands. There are half a dozen GREAT leather shops on one short block of a Bangkok street alone, where you can buy off the rack or order custom-made. Got to do something with the cow skins, no one eats them, eh? Thailand is one of the world's top winter-wear and winter sports equipment makers. Go have a look at this one in Pattaya, and then you can say you've actually seen it.