Free Market News on Don Muang and gem scams

[jpatokal]

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/67/3621/2006-02-01.asp?wid=67&nid=3621:

Indeed, all seems well to the tourist in Thailand, apart from the very Third World-looking airport. We enjoyed buying a few inexpensive aquamarines, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. You can hardly go wrong acquiring some quality loose stones for under $100!
:D :D
What we do not need to do is follow the path of greater interventionism as Thailand is doing, along with the associated perils of corruption and debauchery.
Interventionism!? :confused:

[ncr]

I also wondered what the author has been smoking. Too many howlers to highlight. Not sure what to make of this, but I think all in all he just comes across as the stereotypical ignorant American (no offence to Americans, Ron! ;))

Note the link to the feedback section under the article (http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/67/3621/2006-02-01.asp?nid=3621&wid=67) (There are readers who agree with him, or at least don't find anything funny in his article! Others gently criticise him, especially his narrow-minded views on other religions.)

More (http://www.freemarketnews.com/Writers-Archive.asp?wid=67&ncat=ema) by the same guy. And his bio (http://www.freemarketnews.com/Writers-Bio-Analysis.asp?wid=67).

Dr. John Cobin is an author, columnist, businessman and international lecturer. He holds a Ph.D.degree in Public Policy, M.A. degrees in Economics and in Business Economics, and is a graduate of Reformed Bible College. An outspoken critic of public schools, government regulation, the IRS, paper money, welfare, and abortion, John is an Evangelical Christian and the father of six homeschooled children.(At first I read "homosexual children", not kidding...)

Stay tuned for the second part of his free-market Christian analysis! :D

P.S.

We also saw many establishments with male prostitutes, but were never approached by any of them.Well, lucky you, John! :p

[jpatokal]

Hey, now I remember why this fruitcake seems familiar -- he also wrote a couple of equally loopy articles on Singapore:

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/67/3353/2006-01-04.asp?wid=67&nid=3353
http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/67/3365/2006-01-05.asp?wid=67&nid=3365

I wrote some polite feedback correcting a few of the more egregious errors though:

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/67/3353/2006-01-04.asp?nid=3353&fb=1&wid=67#2844

[ncr]

Hey, now I remember why this fruitcake seems familiar -- he also wrote a couple of equally loopy articles on SingaporeWell, those articles might have contained factual errors; but the piece about Thailand is just plain BS in its entirety. :mad:

Ph.D. or not, with a mindset / views like this, maybe he should better stay home in South Carolina, where everything is like he's used to. And good luck with the separatist movement for the Southern States (a topic that was so ingeniously merged into the totally unrelated Thailand article)....!

By the way, still I'd really like to know what exactly is so third-worldish about Don Muang! :p

[PaulinBkk]

By the way, still I'd really like to know what exactly is so third-worldish about Don Muang! :p


Surely it's obvious - it was full of patently non-Christian foreigners.

:D

Paul

[Wisarut]

When I read the articles by that rednecks (Derachan) from the South Carolina, I feel very OUTRAGE that such thoughts of tyhat rednecks have ONLY CONFIRMED the CONSPIRACY Theory about American Involvement of Southern Insurgencies. :mad: :eek:

This would ONLY force Thai people to sharpen Machetes as well as and Bamboo sticks (with or without Steel Crowbars inside) to KILL such rednecks and put hte severed heads in front of US Embassy at Wireless Road.

Insult the local faiths is bad enough ... but it would be like puring Gasolene into the sea of fire if their insults have reached toward His Majesty -> to the level for askign US Marines to Overthrow HM andinstalla thegreat leader into theFirst President of Thailand.

[ncr]

jai yen-yen, Khun Wisarut, please don't get paranoid...... ;)

"Redneck" is not a bad description for him, though.

Dr. Redneck, actually.

[Wisarut]

In stead of Choppign the head, we better have an alternative treatemtn for that Doc .... :p :D ;) :eek: :rolleyes: :cool:

[madgix]

Most conmen and liars like to emphasize truth in their stories. Noticed lot of bullshits in his website yet he had a heading "Driven By Truth". Must be a conman and a liar.

[ncr]

An accidental find (through a Google image search) that's pretty much in the same vein as John the Jerk's effusions:

24-7 Prayer: Operation World (http://www.24-7prayer.com/ow/)

See this section (http://www.24-7prayer.com/ow/country.php?country_id=152) for a dose of incomprehensible gibberish ("people worship the golden image of the the spirit who they believe has protected them and kept them free.") and dubious "facts" about Thailand and Bangkok.... :eek:

"Goddamn, how dare they be Buddhists? Why don't they recognize the one and only saviour?"

Please give me a break from those missionaries.......

[j.j. havellas]

hi all, this is my first post :D


it's hard not to chuckle at articles like this one. If you wrote an essay like this one that is so factually incorrect at school, I think you'd get a lot of red pen on it from the teacher, if not detention :D

[Baton Rouge]

Got a feeling the site twigged John was getting them a bad rep. I now get this from the original link in this thread.
We have recently upgraded our website and alot of old links to our website will not work.
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try the following:

* If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
* Open the www.Freemarketnews.com home page and look for links to the information you want.
* Use the navigation bar on the left to find the link you are looking for.
* Click the Back button to try another link.
* Enter a term in the search form above to look for this article.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FMNN HOME PAGE

[ncr]

Got a feeling the site twigged John was getting them a bad rep. I now get this from the original link in this thread. [...]No, I experienced the same before. Seems they just seem to change the links on a regular basis or something. However, the article is still there. Try the search function on the main page ("Editorials & Analysis", "Search by Author"), type "Cobin", and it will list all his tragicomic pamphlets. ;)

[christao17]

(At first I read "homosexual children", not kidding...)


Funny - that's how I read it at first glance, too. Guess as I figured him to be a right-wing bible-thumping wacko (no offense to bible-thumpers out there, just don't start too early in the morning; I may be asleep), I expected to read him bashing the gays, too.

I left a reply thanking him for perpetuating the ignorant American stereotype, and noticed that after submitting it there is a message saying "your comment has been submitted for approval."

Glad that in the quest for a free exchange of ideas, someone will be able to approve or not approve my comment!

NCR - are you on airliners.net, too?

[sathirakoses]

When you mix a relatively free market and Buddhist principles you evidently get more strip clubs and sex shows in the beach city of Pattaya than Las Vegas, New York, and San Francisco combined.

Manila has more prostitutes per capita than Bangkok...and Manilla is 92% Christian.

[ncr]

NCR - are you on airliners.net, too?No; why do you ask?

[jpatokal]

Manila has more prostitutes per capita than Bangkok...and Manilla is 92% Christian.
Now there's an interesting statistic (the first one), where are you getting that from? I agree with the second part though: lord knows there's a lot of ayam in Jakarta, the capital of the notionally Muslim country of Indonesia...

[Konthai]

This is my response to John Cobin's articles about Thailand. It printed in FMNN website http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/67/3621/2006-02-01.asp?nid=3621&fb=1&wid=67#4101


15. 2/25/2006 - 16:35:30PM
BY: A Thai in Los Angeles

Mr. Cobin

Some of your opinions are valid and accurate. However I would like to point out some of your biases and may be ignorance. Sex industry, I have to admit that there are many prostitutes in Bangkok and Pattaya. But I also beleive that there are many prostitutes in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and many other major cities in US. May be even in the city of your hometown.

Those so called "Thai gals" you saw hanging around with American men in their fifties, are mostly prostitutes. Please don't call them "Thai Women" or "Thai gals" since not all Thai women are prostitutes. They are prostitutes who are happen to be Thai women. Please call them prostitutes. I and certainly you never labeled prostitutes in America "American women" or "American gals". Please show some respect to majority of women in Thailand and other countries in case you are end up visiting those countries later.

About religions, I'd like to response to your comment "it is discouraging to watch so many people lost in their sin and worshipping stone statues and gold-overlaid brass Buddhas twenty five feet tall".
If you think it is not "lost in their sin for Christians to worship wooden crosses with or without Jesus statue crucifixed on them, I think it should not be "lost in their sin" for Buddhists to worship stone statues and gols over-laid brass Buddhas either one or twenty five feet tall. I have one question for you, Mr Cobin. How do you know in certainty that the Lord Jesus is the only true and living god?

[ncr]

Yeah, serves him right. I completely agree with your reply. But actually there was a lot more ignorant nonsense in his grotesque article than just this......


Mr. Cobin, Some of your opinions are valid and accurate.Don't know where you were able to find anything "valid" or "accurate" in Cobin's ridiculous effusion! The guy is a complete jerk. :D

[Wisarut]

Now, Thai cartoonist has drawn satirical joke on FTA whcih I can described as follows:

Tycoon : Ha Ha Ha, FTA Brought Prosperities to My Factories and My Business ..... Gotta have drunk today .... :cool:

Cartoonist: Sir, Who is this lad in the hanging Photo on the wall?

Tycoon : My son .....

Cartoonist: Well, where is your son right now .....

Tycoon: Too bad .... My Son was KIDNAPPED and KILLED by
Desperato who become BANKRUPTED by FTA .....
I have to Hire Mercenaries and a Battalion of Heavy Tanks
to Bury the whole village of those Bankrupt Desperados ALIVE :(
... (Sob sob)

[Dark]

Readers,

that article by that so-called Christian is an embarrassment to any intelligent person. I became a born-again Christian several years ago but my fervor has faded much since then.:cool:

I've found few if any Christians who can discuss topical manners clearly and rationally like the misguided author. They start out lucidly then say "but the Bible says" and all thinking ceases.:rolleyes: The Bible itself does have some useful advice and insights like Ecclesiastes but also books that are so laden with symbolism and imagery as to be almost useless and prone to wide misinterpretation like Revelation.
I've been exploring Buddhism and Deism as alternatives. I'd have mixed feelings about Christianity becoming the dominant religion in any country. Who's version would be dominant? Rev. Jesse Jackson's? Rev. Al Sharpton's? The Fundamentist's or Unitarian's? Is a "better world" awaiting us all or should we roll up our sleeves and work on the present?

I've ask these hard questions to Christians and they just blankout, filling their conversations with praise to the Almighty and never answering the question.

Christians are useful and have done much good in disaster relief and charities.
But in other vital issues it remains silent and impotent.

Issues such as fathers and fatherhood being under attack by radical feminists who see the family unit as out-dated and a prison for women.
Why is the Church so silent? Christians have been active in the past, demonstrating again segregation and injustice, why don't they speak out?

Buddhism is a more rational and useful religion IMHO.

Deism is defined by the view that reason, rather than revelation or tradition, should be the basis of belief in God.
Believe it or not Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Thomas Paine were Deists and not Christians, they considered Christianity to be full of myths and superstition.

Christianity and ignorance seem to be synonymous.

Claw