December 24th, 2006, 09:19
The best story I heard recently is from a go-go boy who told me his mother had come to stay with him for a week or so. I asked what he told her about his nightly nocturnal outings. "I tell her I'm working in a Call Centre". I am pleased to see these boys are keeping up with technology
Two of our members must be due for some new medication. White Desire's hourly orgasms over the past couple of weeks about the rising value of the baht vs. the US dollar (and not much else) climaxed (if I can use that term) this week when the increasingly loopy government made up of the King's army chums and assorted hangers-on implemented currency controls. The stock market plunged until a clarification was issued. Then the property developers swooned because foreign investors would have to come up with more money for real estate purchases. Another clarification. The world's press tittered while business commentators tutted. Once again Thailand's economic credibility is in tatters. Those damn foreigners, speculating on the baht again. Shades of 1997 in reverse. Except that it probably isn't so. Foreigners are an easy scapegoat, especially for a chauvinistic country like Thailand. The more likely culprits, according to the weekend's Financial Times, are Thai businessmen who have previously relied on the government to depress the currency, and when this didn't happen, had to jump in and start using currency hedges
And speaking of 1997, that old fraud Mahathir, who blamed foreign currency speculators for the 1997 debacle, this week kissed and made up with George Soros and admitted that (as every well-informed person already knew, and knew back then) Soros Didn't Do It. He didn't go so far as to blame the real culprits - over-leveraged Asian businessmen - that would be asking far too much
And in more bad news for the knee-jerk reaction crowd, ably led by our very own boygeenyus, this week's Economist discusses free will, and how a re-think will be required as we learn more about the physiology of the brain. They give the example of a man almost tried for pedophilia; he was found to have a brain tumour. After surgery the pedophile tendencies disappeared. As the tumour regrew, so did the tendencies. After a second operation they went again. This falls into the category of "There are more things in heaven and earth ...", but requires a bit of thought and imagination, two characteristics not much in evidence in The Lad and his ilk
Two of our members must be due for some new medication. White Desire's hourly orgasms over the past couple of weeks about the rising value of the baht vs. the US dollar (and not much else) climaxed (if I can use that term) this week when the increasingly loopy government made up of the King's army chums and assorted hangers-on implemented currency controls. The stock market plunged until a clarification was issued. Then the property developers swooned because foreign investors would have to come up with more money for real estate purchases. Another clarification. The world's press tittered while business commentators tutted. Once again Thailand's economic credibility is in tatters. Those damn foreigners, speculating on the baht again. Shades of 1997 in reverse. Except that it probably isn't so. Foreigners are an easy scapegoat, especially for a chauvinistic country like Thailand. The more likely culprits, according to the weekend's Financial Times, are Thai businessmen who have previously relied on the government to depress the currency, and when this didn't happen, had to jump in and start using currency hedges
And speaking of 1997, that old fraud Mahathir, who blamed foreign currency speculators for the 1997 debacle, this week kissed and made up with George Soros and admitted that (as every well-informed person already knew, and knew back then) Soros Didn't Do It. He didn't go so far as to blame the real culprits - over-leveraged Asian businessmen - that would be asking far too much
And in more bad news for the knee-jerk reaction crowd, ably led by our very own boygeenyus, this week's Economist discusses free will, and how a re-think will be required as we learn more about the physiology of the brain. They give the example of a man almost tried for pedophilia; he was found to have a brain tumour. After surgery the pedophile tendencies disappeared. As the tumour regrew, so did the tendencies. After a second operation they went again. This falls into the category of "There are more things in heaven and earth ...", but requires a bit of thought and imagination, two characteristics not much in evidence in The Lad and his ilk