Bob

Hmmm...actually, daylight savings time just ended a week or more ago. I rather like it as the extra hour of sunlight allows more outside activities at night. During daylight savings time (sometime around April through October), Thailand is 11 hours later than EST in the US. Now it's back to the standard 12 hours later.

Certainly an important factor. It seems to me that the restaurants in the US for the last 20-years have been engaged in a contest to see how much food they can shove in front of you. They give me far more food that I would have gotten myself from a buffet. And I find myself searching menus to determine what particular item won't be too damn much (and often end up settling on some fish entry or something like a caesar salad with chicken or tuna. What is the most gross thing to me is behemouths waddling down the beach in a speedo or bikini (most of which if often hidden below some fold of fat). You'd think they'd stay away from the beach presuming they had any deathly fear of harpoon scars...

As Illinois essentially has the same law (mental health code) as Michigan, I can assure you that the commitment hearing consisted far more than the proposed patient making the one comment to the Court; if not, a gross violation of the law and violation of the patient's due process rights occurred. Typically, the patient is not afforded the opportunity to testify until after the petitioner (often a family member or a cop) has testified as to the facts they witnessed and a mental health professional who examined the patient has testified (and the patient's appointed attorney has had the opportunity to cross-examine those witnesses). Perhaps the only part of the hearing that lvdkeyes saw was when the patient was asked what he wanted to say. I, too, have heard a proposed patient (my client) say the wierdest damned things but that was only a minor part of the proceedings. Some of the hearings will never leave me. I recall one young lady of about 21 in a wheelchair who simply told the judge she wanted to be a beauty queen. The sad part (I actually hate to repeat this) was she was rather hideous looking and had removed both of her eyeballs with a fork. Incredibly sad, for her and her family.

Lol, a catfight between two beauty queens at a bar. Given the silicone these days, I'm surprised that they could get close enough to each other to actually connect with a fist!

A good judge does whereas a bad judge ignores or adds his/her own requirements. What I love and respect is a judge who will expressly rail against a given rule or law, explain why it's unwise or inadequate, and then follows it anyway as that's his/her job. Thankfully, there are more good judges than bad (imho).

Of course, a lot of them never drove late or after sundown (their day was pretty much finished after they went to dinner at 4PM at what we used to call the "blue hair specials"). Damn, lvdkeyes, sounds like we'll both likely be doing the same in another couple of decades....

Interesting, I wonder where that hearing was held? Certainly not in Michigan or any of the 40+ other states which essentially share the model mental health code. In Michigan, there are two proofs the prosecutor (who represents the person or entity trying to commit somebody involuntarily) must show and prove both by a preponderance of the evidence. First, they must show by competent psychological/psychiatric evidence that the person is mentally ill. Second, they must show one of three other things: (1) that the person by prior acts or threats is a danger to himself or other; (2) that the person by prior acts has demonstrated an inability to care for his basic needs; or (3) that the person, due to his mental illness, has demonstrated by prior acts or threats that he has a total inability to understand his need for treatment. And, of course, the person they are trying to commit has a right to testify and has the absolute right to have an attorney present to advocate what that person wants (and a myriad of other rights including the right to compel witnesses to testify, the right to have an independent psychologist/psychiatrist appointed to examine him and possibly testify on his behalf, etc. And that person cannot be medicated prior to the hearing so he has a chance to be coherent defending his rights. In other words, the person who is the subject of a petition to commit involuntarily is afforded exceptional due process and, ultimately, it's the judge's job to determine if the person meets the criteria of the mental health code and what treatment is reasonably necessary to suit the person's best interests. Your example would not have resulted in commitment in any state I'm aware of. As I noted, you need to prove certain acts or threats beyond just a finding of mental illness (you can think your Jesus Christ but that's not enough to commit you). In the old Soviet Union, they only used the one criteria - whether your mentally ill - and, of course, they essentially found you were mentally ill if you didn't think "right." That, essentially, is how Sakarov and thousands of his countrymen were committed to the gulags.

Hehe. Well, when my folks were alive, they had a winter place in Scottsdale and I used to visit them there.....and I can assure you that lot of those failed drivers (and just old folk) went out west too. All the Mercedes, Roll, Austin Healeys, etc., going 13.5 miles an hour down the street where the top of their head barely makes it to the top of the steering wheel. And if they're going to turn right, you can time it with a sundial....

One of my sisters-in-law worked for the Secretary of State for 35+ years and, for about 10 of those years, was the person who went driving with the proposed licensee during their road tests (the proposed licensee had to provide the vehicle and the Secretary of State person went along and graded their performance). The stories she tells are both hilarious and pathetic. She was in over 40 accidents, 19 of which occurred before they ever left the Secretary of State's parking lot. There were guys and gals who she saw more than once a year for the entire ten years and had to fail them each time because they were totally incapable of operating a motor vehicle. Some couldn't get the car they (or one of their relatives) brought started, some couldn't get it in gear, one broke the turn signal lever off trying to get the car in gear. They cried, pleaded with her, attempted to bribe her, told her they had a fatal illness and just wanted to drive before they died, etc. Overall, a job I'm glad I never had.

I'm sure it's not true in all cases but, generally, only the rich receive higher education. And it's the entrenched people who are rich and powerful that are considered the elite (and would most oppose any societal change where they didn't keep their largest slice of the pie).

My sympathies to the victims and their friends and families. A real tragedy. On a side note, the fact that the shooter was a psychiatrist might surprise some people but it doesn't surprise me. For a decade, I handled hearings in a state psychiatric hospital representing people who were being involuntarily confined. It was a great experience and I especially enjoyed the comraderie between prosecutors, defense staff, various judges, court staff and the hospital staff (nurses, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists). But we all - including the psychiatrists themselves - used to repeatedly make comments that, based on our experiences, psychologists and psychiatrists sure seemed to have a very high percentage of rather psychologically-fragile people. I would have guessed that almost half of them were mentally ill themselves.

I'm no doctor but I've always heard that you simply can't let a kid before he's hit his/her growing spurt (12-14 years old?) to engage in certain strenous and repetitive activities as it can cause harm to the growing (and more sensitive) bones and ligiments. I don't particularly care what this kid is doing but I'm hopeful it doesn't come back to haunt him in later life.

I've always felt sorry for anybody who had to try to learn English. I'm still trying to learn Thai but, in spite of my difficulties (mainly lack of retention ability due to age), I can at least say that the Thai language rules are a hell of lot more consistent than what English offers.

Amazing to me that anybody with half a brain would pay 10k for that piece of trash. But, then again, I suppose I could get a million dollars if I happened to come across some dirty underwear that was worn by Elvis....hehe. Hmmm....wonder how much a Michael Jackson booger would fetch??? The human race again defies the theory that we're evolving....

Yep, sorry I forgot to mention that vile ________________.

You're right but I've started to mention to friends since about 2004 that I can't believe the number of chubby Thai kids I'm beginning to see (it's not a majority but it surely is a hell of a lot more than a decade ago). My guess is that's it's directly related to diet change (and directly proportional to the number of burger shops, donut shops, pizza shops, bakery joints, etc., that have opened up over here).

Or lack of exercise (the two-handed pushaway from the dining room table...). I don't get too bent out of shape by "horizontally-challenged" people unless they're in the airplane seat next to me (and, dammit, half of mine!). I just don't want to spend 3-13 hours feeling the behemouth breathing let alone having his elbow laying on my stomach. I love the Thai Airline website which has a section on overweight people - telling them that, if they're too big, they are expected to either by a business seat or two regulars. That's the way it ought to be.

Only lasts 3 days up here in Chiangmai. And, when I was in Hua Hin earlier this year, the water splashing only occurred on one day (other than some minor back soi fun a little bit the night before April 15th). Yea, I can see I'd get sick of it for 5 or 6 days.

They'd likely run out of wax before finishing Wino's and my avatars, I'd guess.

Sorry, I just can't stomach the likes of Hannity, O'Riley, and some of the other idiots there. And I'd burn my radio before listening to Limbaugh. Yes, they are popular and sadly have a great deal of influence (most likely because the average listener of some of those idiots can't or won't think for themselves). I'd love to see a survey of the educational levels of, let's say, the listeners of Bill O'Riley versus the listeners of somebody like Charlie Rose. I think the results would be rather significant.

40! You're still a puppy! (I didn't start feeling old until I was 47 or 48).

Nah, I have been there a few times. I've got no problem with Walmart (other than lamenting that everything in there is imported....sort of sad reminder of the days when the US used to produce some products).

I have no doubt at all that Fox News is very popular and has substantial influence. So does Rush Limbaugh (the #1 radio show in the United States) and the National Enquirer (the #1 selling "newspaper" in the United States). Call me an elitist if you will but popularity and influence are not any guarantee of intelligent thought. I am actually a bit afraid of all that influence and it also makes me wonder on occasion if Darwin had it backwards. If you ever saw Jay Leno's "man on the street" interviews (where he goes out on the street with a microphone and asks difficult questions - like who is the Vice President of the United States or who's buried in Grants tomb...), you might want to flee the country!

The now-alive (formerly thought-to-be-dead guy) and his girlfriend, Rosalita, are also having their troubles now - since, when Rosalita saw him at the funeral, she blurted: "Shit, does this mean I have to give back the insurance money!"

Thank god it didn't hit the fan!