RickBradford

If fusion power ever looks like becoming a reality, it will be fanatically opposed by the activists of the Green/Left, who regard cheap, reliable energy for everyone as the ultimate nightmare.

I rather like Douglas Murray's insight into the useless self-absorption of MPs in parliament. He describes one: "One MP, who shall remain nameless, routinely gets up in the House of Commons, decries the British voting public as morons led astray by racists, and then asks why we can’t be more united." That sums up the whole toxic mess.

I am looking at the manifesto of the Prachaniyom party, whose head is Police General Yongyut Tepjamnong, with their slogan "The people must come first." Among their policies are: * No military big-equipment spending for 10 years; money to be used instead to buy tractors, ploughs, and combine harvesters. * Replace all non air-conditioned buses (10,000 vehicles) * Minimum wage up 20% * Special low-interest loans for police and teachers ... and ... * resurrect Yingluck's rice pledging scheme, guaranteeing 20,000 baht per ton for Malee rice * guarantee price of 80 baht per kg for latex (actual price is around 35 baht). Sounds pretty much out of the Thaksin playbook. Some Thais I have spoken to, see the future role of the Army as the key element in this election -- the Thaksin side want its wings clipped, and if they can achieve that, some of them would then feel free to dismantle the monarchy, a long-standing aim made easier after the passing of the former king.

Just when you think Brexit couldn't get any sillier, it does. By the due date or March 29, it will probably be: * UK pays 39 billion euros for a deal * UK remains as associate member of EU, paying money, obeying the laws, but unable to vote * Northern Ireland given to the Republic. * Gibraltar given to Spain * British citizens to lose right to reside in EU; EU citizens retain right to free movement. residence and free healthcare in UK. The incompetence, arrogance, disdain, and self-interest shown by UK politicians and apparatchiks over the past 3 years is something that I hope won't be easily or quickly forgotten.

Really? NZ has been one of the leaders on the slide to imbecile radical PC idiocy -- it's NZ that allowed a record-setting junior weightlifter called Gavin Hubbard to declare himself, in his mid-30s, to be a woman, call himself "Laurel", and go on to win the Oceania, Commonwealth and World weighlifting titles in the, or 90kg+ division. Not just win, of course, but make anyone else's participation pointless. At the 2017 Australian championships, Hubbard lifted 44kg more than the nearest competitor, Samoa's Iuniarra Sipaia, herself a record holder, and well regarded in the sport for her clean snatch and jerk. I would say that NZ and Canada are leading the descent to full PC immersion, with the UK, Australia and US some way behind. Most of the rest of the world has too much sense.

DaShawna?

No, no, no. Saying "non-binary" infers there is something normative about being "binary". You must now use the term "gender fluid", even if it does sound more like the product of an erotic dream. And you cannot be gender fluid and lesbian. Why not change to being an eco-sexual? That gives you the chance to date a cactus, or a lemur. The whole nonsense about the Crusaders' name is a classic example of the moronic virtue signalling which has become so popular.

So an Israeli soldier is murdered and you make out that it's his own fault. That's really low.

It is utterly absurd to suggest that this attack is being treated in the same way as the routine slaughter carried out by Islamists across the globe. Perhaps it is the extreme rarity of this kind of far-Right atrocity that makes it so shocking; attacks by Islamists are so routine as to have become, as the mayor of London said "part of life in a big city." In February alone there were 150 deadly Islamic terror attacks in 22 different countries, causing over 800 deaths. Not that you'd find that out from reading the legacy media. Now, we have the situation where a Muslim Imam, no less, calls for a "crackdown on far-Right extremism". Had anybody ever suggested a crackdown on Islamic terrorism, they would have been vilified as bigoted Islamophobes. The PC idiots are, as usual, rigidly enforcing their double standards.

The PC crowd has really hit a low with their response to this horrific attack. After Nice (86 dead), Bataclan (90 dead) or Manchester (22), the mantram was "grieve, don't get angry." Put down a flower or two, pray together for peace, don't "look back in anger", as the Manchester song went. And heaven forbid anyone should try to link those atrocities to Islam. With this attack, all that has been jettisoned; it's get angry, unearth the "far-right" influences potentially responsible for the actions and go after them. No problem this time in identifying the philosophy responsible. Nobody does sickening hypocrisy like the politically correct.

You don't prefer windmill country? แดนกังหันลม

And here's how Rory and the band used to relax before, during, and after gigs ....

I came upon this list I had collected of how the Thai press uses slang terms to refer to various countries. Most are self-evident. One country, one line... แดนจิงโจ้, เกาะทวีป แดนมังกร, เจ๊ก เมืองผู้ดี, เกาะหมอก เมืองน้ำหอม เมืองเบียร์ แดนกังหันลม เมืองโรตี แดนอิเหนา แดนมาคาโรนี ดินแดนอาทิตย์อุทัย, แดนซามูไร, ยุ่น แดนซูชิ, แดนปลาดิบ เมืองจังโก้ แดนกีวี แดนโสมแดง ไวกิ้ง, ดินแดนพระอาทิตย์เที่ยงคืน แดนหมีขาว เมืองลอดช่อง แดนโสม, แดนกิมจิ แดนกระทิงดุ เมืองยิ้ม มะกัน แดนญวน

Learning to read Thai is the only way to go - the whole world around you becomes a giant language lesson as you read shop signs, street addresses and so on. One suggestion I have is to buy a newspaper regularly; if you have an interest in sport, say, all the newspapers have sports coverage (I like Khao Sot for this) and it provides motivation to read on and find out what the article is about. Far more interesting than ploughing through consonant tables.

They shouldn't be. They should be aware of the dangers that might come from climate change, and also aware of the dangers that might come from over-reacting to the threat of climate change, providing a cure that is worse than the disease. "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open mind," wrote Malcolm Forbes, a statement that is akin to heresy these days. Much better, it appears, to instruct the youth of today what to think, then parade them on the street with banners and slogans, and pretend they are making some kind of meaningful protest. Its upside, of course, is that it is exactly the kind of infantile virtue signalling that guarantees headlines in the legacy media.