joekicker

No. It means that the law forbids it. .

Yes, and I told you then that you were wrong, that Elway didn't have the guts (never mind the power) to do any such thing as go after Andrew Luck in any manner, for any reason, no matter what happened. It has NOTHING to do with the Pittsburgh game or the New England game or making it into the playoffs or a three-game losing streak either. The decision was made in November. Tebow in October and November made Elway look like a chump for starting the loser, Orton. Elway does not have the guts to respond to that. I told you that all along. You insisted that it was all about Luck. Yeah right, Vic. I responded to your post. That's what you never want to happen, apparently. Dusa couldn't have done it better. Oh. And Vic? Tebow is a starting quarterback in the NFL. So far, he is more successful than almost all other starting quarterbacks, as successful as Aaron Rodgers and more successful than Roethlesberger and he can't even see the famously unsuccessful Orton in his rear-view mirror. That is why he will be a starting quarterback next season too. Deal with it. .

Yes True for 3G unlimited, without a doubt. Mr Monkey, rentals is not a big thing in Thailand, I'd be surprised if you found what you want anywhere, let alone have a choice. Go along to Tuk.com and ask at some of the shops, I can't think of any better advice. .

What I said several weeks ago, that the very insecure and tip-toeing vice-president of something or other wouldn't have the guts to do anything else. Remember? I told you he would say that no matter how the season ended, or when it ended, there was never an iota of a scintilla of a chance he would say otherwise. Five wins in a row as a drop-in, backup quarterback, what else do you think Elway could do in his last chance of finding a job in OR out of football? I told you that while you were lecturing me about how the powerful and single-minded Elway was going to manipulate the draft of Andrew Luck. Remember? No matter what Elway thinks, or believes, or wishes or dreams - no matter if he hates or disrespects Tebow - he WILL back him in public because if he doesn't, then Elway's history and he's living in a two-bedroom apartment in a suburb and shaking hands with the patrons at someone else's steak restaurant the rest of his life. What Elway says and does has the authority and staying power of a Denver snowfall. That's been the big problem with the Broncos for seven, eight years now, since after the genius and unbeatable Super Bowl winner Shanahan declared Brian Griese would be the next Elway at quarterback. That's when the Bronco organisation lost it. Bringing Elway into the front office last year was desperation and doomed, because Elway hasn't got a spine, hasn't got the backbone to make the decisions that have to be made, such as dealing Orton last August for prime example. He is a classic waffler, as likely to fail as Shanahan in his latter years, and the Broncos will continue to pay for that. All they have for now is the chance of another lucky streak. What they do NOT have is a strong guy in the front office. Vice president Elway is as focussed and dedicated as Mitt Romney with all the charisma and authority of Mitt Romney. Elway was a quarterback. Elway is NOT a front office person, not unless it's vice president of public relations under someone who knows what he's doing. Elway has a GREAT smile, nice personality. He's even smart. But he has the business ability of a Pattaya kway teow stall operator, but without the survival instincts. It's amazing to watch a legitimate Stanford grad turn into Joe Louis. Read what you want to read, Vic. Don't bother reading the thread. You imagined that someone argued with you over this. No one did, least of all me. At no time did I write it was impossible to fix an NFL game. You imagine that, too. Here is what you did, though. You refused to explain your claim that an NFL game could be *successfully* fixed, how that would be done. You refused to say how the Super Bowl audience could be bigger. That's what you ACTUALLY did not do, requiring no imagination or misreading. I specifically and simply asked you both these questions and you ignored them. Once again answering *you* and not a word about the NFL playoffs. Amazing, worthy of a Double-D-Dusa medal. .

Even if they do, the 49ers will win again. .

Taunting on airport boards is IN. Top, Denver airport bids good-bye (kast week) to Pittsburgh fans who had come to see the Steelers rip the Broncos. Below, on Monday, a Jay-Z quote says farewell to New Orleans fans on their way home to wait for August.

At least three of those are worth stealing. Excellent, best in a long time! .

High level drug arrests are made and publicised in downtown Bangkok and further - by the Customs Department. Imports to Thailand come from one or two places more than the Customs Hall of Suvarnabhumi airport, eh? The Customs people at the airport are a SMALL fraction of Customs people and your suitcase is a minuscule part of their duties. Customs police are national police. Their jurisdiction is the type of case, not geography. Same as, for example, immigration. Immigration police are all over the country of course. So are customs police. Consider this for a minute just for an example. Income taxes are a small part of government revenue in Thailand. Excise tax is a HUGE part of it. That little stamp over the top of your whisky bottle in Foodland - it's not put on by Customs people in the Arrivals Hall of Suvarnabhumi! To answer your question, yes, you can be arrested in Pattaya or Nakhon Nowhere by Customs police. It's rare, but it happens. More often you'll be done by the Excise police, who are their brothers and cousins in crime. They are part of the Thai government, why would they be limited to a tiny geographical area? .

Like I said, this thread has been taken over by a religious freak. There are VERY few church services on during Sunday evening Vic. One of the reasons is that churches show sports - including the Super Bowl (again). Welcome to the world, Vic. The world where THOUSANDS of churches have been setting up TVs and watching the Super Bowl for several decades. The NFL has tried to stop them, and now has given up. You couldn't convince another church to do it because so many did it on their own without waiting for your encouragement. Sigh. The thread is phuocked Vic. You phuocked it. I won't be posting football here any more. There's a thread going on where they discuss football. Yes YOU said bribe the defence. I get it. I got it. Then I asked you: How would you prevent knowledge of that from leaking out and hurting pro football so badly it would lose tens of millions of fans overnight, send its executives to prison? Like what happened with previous sports fixes like baseball, college hoops and boxing? How would YOUR plan to increase viewership by dozens and dozens of Tebow fans help football overall but not harm it 50 times worse? Nah, continue with your missionary work. There should always be a religious thread going anyhow. Trust an aetheist to start one under false colours .... .

Well, maybe breakfast next Monday? Two good Monday morning games just over... well, Green Bay is only 10 points behind with a few minutes to go. The two Monday games combined couldn't match that one Sunday early game, which is still "wow"! The Ravens won. Houston seemed to keep it close but Baltimore never looked in serious trouble. They have a so-so offence, though and will have hands full with the Brady Bunch. The defence as always is terrific, although Ed Reed looked pretty pained in his second injury of the game on the final play. Eli beat the crap out of Aaron Rodgers. One-on-one, it was no match. The Giants overall looked very, very good. The whole Giants defence, usually good, looked really great against Green Bay. The Giants-49ers game with San Fran next weekend could be fabulous. Green Bay wasn't bad, but the Giants were way better. Schedule, Monday morning Jan 23, Pattaya time: 0300 Baltimore at New England 0630 Giants at San Francisco

How do they know you are a guy on holiday with no reason to search UNLESS they ask you? By your "I'm a Good Guy" smilie badge? Totally agree about the attitude. Although the TSA rentacops are far, far worse. I seriously believe they are out of hand. .

Good one Bigus. I thought it was going to be something like this: .

Heh. The only prediction I made about Denver was they wouldn't make the playoffs. That was in October. I believe you don't remember, you were were so distraught after that Thanksgiving night game I was a little bit worried. But I predicted San Fran and Baltimore would meet again in Indianapolis on Feb 5. I hoped it would cheer you up, but it was a serious prediction. And Thanks! for the addition to my Obama caricature collection. Some day it could be worth millions. "Can you ear me now?" .

The last two times ... what? The last two times you were there but didn't watch for it and didn't count? C'mon Mr Onto, there's not the slightest way you could know what they stop, survey or otherwise get involved with. The only thing you can confirm (maybe; assuming you notice one or more) by flying to Bangkok twice is that people ARE stopped after they pass through the customs checkpoint. You definitely can't tell how many customs agents there are, or what they do for the other 18 hours a day you were there or the 20 hours a day for the other 363 days you weren't there. And are you serious they cleared 5 flights in roughly 10 minutes (100 people a minute)? At Suvarnabhumi? You count that, also? .

If you mean Thailand, if the kid has a passport of your nationality, the kid needs the same visa you need. Otherwise he needs a visa for the nationality of his passport. To put it another way, the kid needs exactly the same as an adult needs. Exactly. .

Requires girl. (Girl sold separately).

Just remember who told you last Thanksgiving the two teams who would be playing in the Super Bowl. I haven't wavered on that. And yes, within six or seven hours I could look dumb to have reminded you. But I DID predict it. EDIT (six or seven hours later). Nope. Still perfect and patting my own back. Ravens still playing. Not picking up my commendation certificates quite yet, but my two predicted teams are in the Final Four at least. BTW, the previously "real" NFL thread got farkled by some religious dope who did a Dusa on it. I think this is the "official" thread now, or should be. .

Please tell me that was a joke that I didn't get. Please!! So I can laugh with you instead of at you. As the guy says on The Office: Question! What do you think the Super Bowl has been doing the past 40 years... heck, let's say the past 45 years? Fact: The Super Bowl is the biggest US sports story of the year. The Super Bowl draws TENS of millions of non-sports fans to their TVs. Yes, well, there have been rumours on FLB that you are a US sports fan. Your rumours and five bucks..... etc etc. I realise the problem here, that a *successful*conspiracy is never known and never rumoured. So I'll just try once again to get your response to YOUR actual suggestion on how -- as the omnipotent sports executive you are in this fantasy -- how you would bribe or instruct the New England defence to go easy on Tebow and let him win, and no one would ever find out about that, ever. How would a non-pseudo sports fan like yourself handle that, or think that it could be handled in a way that there never would be rumours about it that would, you know, *reduce* the cost of adverts on the Super Bowl broadcast and throw US football into an economic and moral tailspin that wouldn't recover in your lifetime? Name one PERSON who wasn't going to watch the Super Bowl who would change his/her mind and re-schedule Feb 5 because it was Tim Tebow. One. I know a lot of people in Colorado, hundreds, and I can't name one. So you name one for me, or identify one, or give me an example of a fantasy person you have thought up -- one person who would do this. One. You are completely out of it. Daft. You are totally effed up by TDS, so totally you are not thinking straight about everything else and anything else. Take a deep breath, or even consider taking a week's worth of them. Really. You've done a Dusa, Vic. You've taken a perfectly good thread and made it entirely, completely about you. .

No kidding. One of those days I'm glad how very, very seldom I actually bet. No doubt in my mind about that. I caught Michael Irwin on the NFL channel saying he wish he'd had a leader like Tebow when he played. Tebow had a heckuva run. He's got the summer to work with his boys, and learn how to throw, and get a system that isn't the triple option. Broncos look best in the West for next year right now, especially since the Chargers are keeping Norv "Hangin' Coach" Turner for another horrible year. Vic, any response to the "fixing games" mini-thread you started and so abruptly abandoned? .

The only team that played in Week 17 is sure playing again today, the Patriots blowing the Broncos out. Brady looks totally unbeatable, and the whole team is "up". There is no contest. .

Well, here's a website that further explains it. The chances of you getting stopped at Suvarnabhumi Airport's customs green channel are very slim, but in accordance with international standards a quota of inbound travellers are stopped and checked. The procedure will take the form of either your suitcase and hand luggage being x-rayed or a manual search by one of the customs officers present. Over the past couple of years Thai customs have stepped up their efforts to stop excess import of cigarettes and alcohol. Staff routinely stop and search travellers prior to entering immigration control and also in the arrivals terminal after passing through customs red and green channels. I have been stopped five times on my last ten trips both before and after customs control but have always been within the law. You would be quite surprised at the number of people entering the Kingdom who are unaware of the maximum personal allowances for tobacco and spirits. This is a press report on a person who wishes she was as lucky as some of you cowboys. Above right, Filipina Icoy Betlehem Mamontong after her arrest at Suvarnabhumi airport with 4.2kg of cocaine brought from Lima, Peru. The Bangkok Guide also has some useful info. If you have nothing to declare use the Green channel. You can expect to be waved through but if you are stopped and importing banned items the consequences are serious. TripAdvisor also says that if you think there are no stops made after you've passed Customs, you should learn more. ... I quickly discovered that the base issue at hand was that the passenger had used the GREEN channel for his customs 'declaration'. For some unknown and undisclosed reason, he was told to place his bags thru the x-ray machine. ... .

H1 of San Francisco-NO in the books. One of those crappy but exciting games, very good fun. UPDATE: All over. One of the really watchable games of the playoffs, worth a look for sure. Brees was every bit as good as he was a year ago. .

Mr Monkey, what you saw in Australia as "fast and stable" is a top wish for most people in Pattaya and Thailand. You will get a DSL line off your landline telephone with a hard connection, with fairly good, often reliable service. You will also get some outages for seconds, even minutes. You'll get varying speeds because it's DSL and shared -- with more speed at 0300 local time. Which service is "best" depends on many things, but most especially the luck of the draw. Note that it also depends on where you live. You may have a choice of three, two or even one company. And it may take a day or three weeks to get it installed. If you're at the far end of a road, it may be hugely expensive, too or it may be simply impossible -- so do not rent or buy a residence until you check this out. If there is a landline phone, you are PROBABLY good to go. But do not accept the word of your landlord/lady, go to the telephone company and get everything from that horse's mouth. I'm assuming here that you're going into an apartment or house by the way. Hotels is way iffier. Yes, yes, no, yes, yes. No on the PM part. It's not a Personal Matter, surely. Everyone can benefit from all discussion on this. .

Yes it is definitely all about me. Well, me and the government of Thailand, that is. This is a warning issued by the government, by every Thai embassy and consulate, and it used to be (probably still is) in many of the airline in-flight magazines and, of course, around the Suvarnabhumi airport and land customs offices. Quote: Visitors enter Thailand through the "Nothing to Declare" customs channel despite carrying tobacco or alcohol far in excess of the amount allowed. As a result, they could afterwards be subjected to inspections and fines by the Thai Excise Department. Unquote There is a reason you were given that warning, which you were. .

You may not have seen it because the agents who do this are in plain clothes and fairly discreet. If you watch for 2-3 Thai men (almost always men) sort of sidling up to people who have just sauntered through the green line, you will see it too. It is done in the "hall" between Customs and the public area, and it is done in public areas all the way out to the sidewalk in front of the airport building. I have no idea if it is one in 10, but it is common. Next time, after you've gone through Customs and you're in that "hall" on the way out to meet your friends or taxi or whatever, look along the sides and you will almost always see people opening their suitcases while Thai men in mufti watch or direct them. .