<p>During the last decade, I have written several academic and general articles on the monarchy, and have spoken publicly about this issue. I have never used these occasions to propose the so called &ldquo;lom chao&rdquo; or &ldquo;overthrowing the monarchical institution.&rdquo; Each and every one of my public statement and written work is premised on the assumption of the continuation of the monarchy.</p>

<p>The age of the performers was a bit of a surprise, but the rest of the brouhaha surrounding 3 pairs of naked nipples on top of a car on Silom at Songkran was reassuringly predictable.</p>

<p>The way the three girls who &ldquo;shamelessly&rdquo; danced topless on top of a vehicle during the Songkran festival in Bangkok&rsquo;s central business district of Silom were handled by the police and the media begs a question &ndash; Did they deserve their rights to privacy, too?</p>

<p class="rtecenter">&ldquo;Can you see the moon? Can you see it seen...&rdquo;<br /> (Playwright) Gertrude Stein, <em>A Circular Play</em></p> <p>The lack of ethical, balanced and objective reporting by certain Bangkok-based foreign and Thai journalists1 is a continuing dilemma for the pro-democracy movement since post-2006 coup. INGOs are not much better (e.g. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and now the International Crisis Group [ICG]). Indeed ICG Update Briefing Report (No.121, 11 April 2011) entitled &ldquo;<a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/2413"><em>Thailand: The calm before the storm</em></a>&rdquo; makes many errors and false assumptions that it seems to me that researchers are not keeping their ears close to the real ground.</p>

<p>It is recognized that human beings, regardless of origin or status, should have human dignity, liberty, and equality, and show reasonableness and tolerance toward differing opinions, and that in a democratic society, the right to freedom of expression is indispensable and any restriction of this freedom must be in proportion to necessity and not of a form that conflicts with the essence of this freedom.</p>

<p>Tony Cartalucci has <a href="http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/04/exposing-international-arbiters.html">written</a> prolifically on the political turmoil in Thailand. His writing focuses on the International dimension; the foreign interference in Thailand. While there is no doubt that no nation is an island and foreign groups with their own agendas interfere in all nations for their own personal ends, Tony has been very selective in which foreign groups he writes on, what their intentions are and who they work with in Thailand.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&lsquo;Democrat Party Headquarters, good morning.&rsquo;</p> <p>&lsquo;Ah, good morning. I am calling from Second Coming Solutions. We&rsquo;re a strategy and logistics outfit, new kids on the block, so to speak, and I was hoping to talk to someone about helping develop a dynamic and exciting solution to the upcoming election campaign that will lead your party to a well-deserved success in the polls.&rsquo;</p>

<p>The Thai government has been scrambling to explain the use of nuclear weapons by its military on the contested border with Cambodia. Allegations by the Cambodians about some sort of nuclear shell first surfaced last February when they were categorically denied by the Royal Thai Army.</p>

<p>Accepting the <em>status quo</em>, while at the same time claiming to fight against it, comes with some contradictions for UDD/Phue Thai Party. This will not appease all factions of the red shirts. Despite rhetoric of resistance and lots of emotive and expressive language at mass gatherings, there is little indication of a combined longer term vision or even of an ideology on which to achieve democracy. Neither has there been any intellectual discussion about what form that &ldquo;democracy&rdquo; should take, other than an assumption that it must come from the ballot box; that it must be built on the aspirations of the majority electorate. But an election under the current &ldquo;rules of the game&rdquo; established post 19 September 2006 can at best only be a means of redistributing political and economic benefits and in establishing new power sharing arrangements.</p>

<p>&nbsp;Police officers around the country expressed relief and satisfaction at the failure of the appeal of the so-called HARDCORE five against their conviction on charges of coercion and gang robbery.</p>

<p>Despite crippling explosions and fires in the Democrat nuclear government power plant, spokesmen insist that the nation is in safe hands.</p>

<p>The case of Khun &ldquo;Pla&rdquo; (ปลา), a freelance media writer, arrested by police handing out information on 112 at the UDD rally on Saturday needs to be highlighted, not for the case itself (though that is important) but the <em>manner </em>in which she was arrested. Depressingly, she was handed over to the police by seven rude UDD guards (three were actually police hired as UDD guards) who then took her to the police station between 6-7 hours until after the demonstration finished and then released.</p>