Yep. This guy is 33 today (or maybe tomorrow in the States). Met him when he was a wee lad of 6. Now look at im. From velcro shoes to a hi-tech, mountain climbing goofball. Keep on keepin on, Matty!
Okay, so i promissed to write more about Thailand and I have done that and will continue to do so. But I have to continue my rants as well, for I have few folks to discuss this kind of thing with here and need an outlet. The following article is a perfect example of the kind of weak, shallow and selective reporting that leads to ill-informed public sentiment. It has been rife throughout history, but perhaps never so rife as in the lead up to the unjust and illegal Iraq war.
By BarbinMD. May 17, 2008 at 07:00:11 PM PDT
Amidst the uproar over George Bush politicizing the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence, the media has been strangely silent about the revelation that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, by George Bush and John McCain's own definition, is guilty of "foolish delusion," and lacks "the knowledge, the experience, the background to make the kind of judgments that are necessary to preserve this nation's security."
Just one day before Bush declared that "some," also known as Barack Obama, is an appeaser to terrorists, the likes of which have not been seen since Hitler invaded Poland, and before John McCain chimed in by saying Obama wanted to enhance "the prestige of a nation that's a sponsor of terrorists and is directly responsible for the deaths of brave young Americans," Robert Gates said:
We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them. If there's going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander with them not feeling that they need anything from us.
And while there has been plenty of coverage of Bush's remarks, McCain's parroting of Bush's remarks and Obama's smackdown of both of them, no one seems to be covering Gates' policy of terrorist-enabling appeasement. Or as Jamison Foser at Media Matters put it:
Naturally, then, a media firestorm erupted, with the Bush administration and its political allies questioned all day about whether Bush has any idea what he is talking about, whether he has lost control over the Pentagon, whether Gates will be fired, what Gates thinks about Bush's comparison of those (like Gates) who advocate dialogue between the United States and Iran to appeasers of Adolf Hitler, and whether the fiasco will remind voters that the Bush administration's foreign policy has been marked by incompetence and dishonesty, thus doing irreparable electoral damage to John McCain and other Republican candidates.
Sorry -- what was I thinking? That didn't happen.
Foser points out that ABC, CBS, the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Time and ABC's The Note, have all extensively covered the "appeasement controversy," but have made no mention of Gates' comments. Given that Dana Perino claimed that Bush's remarks simply reflected "long-established United States policy," why is the fact that Bush's own Secretary of Defense opposes this policy not news?
Well, I have actually lived in 4 locations in 3 months (actually, it is dozens if you include my hotel rooms in Bangkok). Here is a photographic journey viewed through my various windows and balconies.
My house on the pond. Quaint, but no air con, hot, with little critters getting to me all night. Apparently, during last year's flood, all the fish escaped and snakes became a problem. The family living next to me would just walk into my house whenever they pleased. It was only about a kilometer from work, but 12 Km from town. Spent 8 days here and skeedaddled.
My apartment complex with Singburi in the background. It is an ideal locale as it is outside of town about a kilometer but on the way to work. So it is a bit less noisy (however, Singburi goes dead about 9pm most nights). Lived on the first floor for 2 weeks (no pics), which was a larger room with higher ceilings. But it is also more expensive, which I could tolerate. What I could not easily take was the beeping noise that echoed down the hall every time somebody came in using their security card. Why on earth is that noise necessary? Loud enough to wake me up, so I decided to move up to the 4th and top floor. What I didn't realize was that it is much warmer up there. The roof holds the heat and the nights are really quite hot, leafing the aircon running while I am there. While the naturally heated water is nice for showers in the morning, not worth the heat during the hot season. Decided to move down a floor. I am on the other side of the building now, which has good and bad traits. The good one is the view. But I also miss the benefits of the parking lot view, which afforded me the view of who is downstairs shooting the breeze at the table. I often have an evening brewski, some grub from the local market, and a chat with folks down there. Good Thai practice, as very few people in these parts speak English.
This is the view taken looking right. Can see the road I take for about 10 Km to work, plus i get to watch the rice paddy in its various stages. Lots of large birds that resemble storks like to congregate in tall tree in the center. Other birds fly about too. The guy who tends to the rice is an old chap who comes daily to shoot 3 bottle rockets that explode almost even with my window. Sometimes just after dawn. First couple times it happened I thought my room was the target, as I did not see the shooter. Then I realized that this man, with whom I often converse in the evening - as he has an evening beer Singha at the table - was merely shooting fireworks to ward off evil spirits from his crops.
View looking left, as goats graise on the fringe of the roadside.
A suspicious looking goat herder, holding some kind of communication device. An initial suspect in the bottle rocket investigation.
A man driving some kind of machine to even out the soil in the paddy. It pulls him along like a large snowblower would, and he easily goes over the mud barriers separating the paddies. I assume he was hired by the older man who tends to the fields with a garden hoe and firecrackers. I assume he is too old for this kind of work, as the beer drinking man is in his 70s. But then again, it might be him all covered up to protect himself from the sun.
Bird's-eye view. Third floor is much cooler than the fourth and I like this view with the breeze it affords. Unfortunately, under those lilly-type weeds pictured below are the water storage tanks. There is a pump of some kind that is triggered bringing water to the apartments. This happens even more frequently than the beeping on the first floor, so I just cant win. However, the sound is a bit more muffled and not as abrasive as the beeping, so I think I will stay put. I may try to get internet in my apartment, so I guess I need to decide, but I think this is the one for me.
The sights along the way...
I pass a lot of rice paddies on the 13 kilometer trip to work. There are a few fish farms as I get closer to work as well. I run across a lot of interesting things but usually don't have a camera handy. I will try to document a few of them in the future. The office pictured is also the a house. I often sit, type and sweat at the table pictured to the right of the house. The office is on the first floor.
The more interesting occurences on the way home from work usually entail a weekly game played with the police. They stop all motorcyclists for their weekly coffers at some point, usually a Tuesday or Wednesday. I get corralled onto the shoulder with the rest of the cyclists, as there is no way to avoid them, they have all the arteries covered. But I have an advantage over the others. When I flip up my visor to reveal my smiling white face, the officer gets nervous, as he doesn't speak English. He does know how to say "Go!", however, and he says it to me about once a week, and waves me by...
And here's a random photo for good measure. Tried to find one of some flowers that I see, but failing that, this will do.
