Fishwrap is not your Mom. Still, it's Thursday, three days to Christmas and you still haven't done your shopping?
And 11 days to New Year's Eve when your sweetie will expect something original and brilliant from you.
Nepal has released the French-Vietnamese serial killer Charles Sobhraj from prison.
Sobhraj lived in Bangkok for about two years, killing and stealing from foreigners as he went.
The Nepalese court said it considered the murderer's 'age and health condition'.
India's NDTV reports
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/why-bikini-killer-charles-sobhraj-is-being-freed-after-19-years-3627113
The gift of the jab
Thailand's Department of Disease Control (DDC) has re-launched a campaign to inoculate every Thai, and keep out the highly contagious polio.
Global reports now show polio infections in Pakistan (30) and Indonesia (4).
The DDC has large stocks of vaccine for infants and toddlers under 5 years old - and for all the rest of the country.
Anti-polio inoculations in some areas of Thailand have fallen below 90%.
Polio is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. It lives in an infected person's spine, throat and intestines.
Doctor Opas Karnkawinpong, DDC chief
PHOTO: From the start in October, 1956, when he was jabbed with the Salk vaccine on national TV, Elvis was the iconic centrepiece of the successful U.S.A. national campaign to inoculate the entire country and eradicate polio. Elvis eventually had three shots and boosters - and no polio.
PRINCESS BHAT PHAT DEATH
This is true. Because there has been no deep-scientific attempt to find the cause.
The cause of the sudden collapse of HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha [photo, with her father the King] is unknown. [Techarp.com]
Top of the Unlikely Chart
• Anti-Covid vaccine reaction. This is actually seen in so-called 'social media' posts.
• Cardiac arrest.
https://www.techarp.com/facts/collapse-princess-bajrakitiyabha/
VIDEO: Chanting ceremony held for HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha.
The set-up for this ceremony sponsored by Prayut and wife is oddly similar to a Buddhist funeral ceremony.
THAILAND INTERNATIONAL
The Guardian (England) rediscovers Thailand and its somewhat England-like royal family.
But it still misreports spectacularly, claiming:
She was hospitalised at Chulalongkorn hospital in Bangkok due to a heart problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/21/who-is-princess-bha-thailands-presumed-royal-heir-is-lying-in-hospital
The Guardian has recently printed fake news about India and Hindus that sparked major demonstrations and violence.
VIDEO:
USA SPORTS GRIDIRON PITTSBURGH
VIDEO: The greatest play in the NFL's 100-year history

Four (out of 50) Bangkok districts had 'dangerous' PM2.5 air polluion on Tuesday.
Thawi Watthana, Nong Khaem, Nong Chok, and Pathum Wan districts had hazardous levels of PM2.5, the administration’s Environment Department reported.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40023303
The GBA on Tuesday:
The Asian Football Federation championship tournament is under way at the largely deserted Kuala Lumpur Stadium.
Thailand won their first match easily, defeating Brumei 5-0.
Thailand next face the Philippines on Monday at 7.30 p.m. the old national stadium, now Thammasat Stadium in Pathum Thani.
https://www.nationthailand.com/lifestyle/sport/40023301
Kavi Chongkittavorn, expert analyst of ASEAN and Southeast Asia, fixes his eye on Myanmar:
Myanmar and two new game-changers
The recently passed bill by the United States Congress, known broadly as the 2022 Burma Act, which allows the US government to provide technical support and non-military assistance to engage with the opposition groups against the military junta in Nay Pyi Taw combined with the incoming Asean chair, Indonesia, could be a game-changer with the crisis in Burma soon to enter its third year.
PHOTO: Karen members of the anti-Tatmadaw dictatorship train in a camp close to the Thai border.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2464294/
Hat Yai city (Songkhla province) in the far South declares a flooding emergency
The municipality has raised the yellow flag [below] for people to move things up to higher levels and prepare for possible evacuation.
This follows heavy rain and flooding yesterday. Eight roads are impassable.4


THAILAND ECONOMY PREDICTION
Bangkokbiznews, a news agency, on Wednesday identified seven product groups which it predicts will be trending next year.
They are
1. Products for the elderly, such as ready-to-cook boiled rice.
2. Convenience products. For instance, sliced fruits.
3. Health and beauty products.
4. Small-size products.
5. Environmentally friendly products that brag they are environmentally friendly.
6. Local products. The ruling junta's Intellectual Property Department will verify that the product is local.
7. Innovation products, like naem (pork sausage) with food irradiation technology.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/economy/40023315
https://www.facebook.com/bangkokbiznews/
Well, how nice, but bear in mind that "the public" means Thai citizens only.


More details at
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40023316
Oped, by Kirida Bhaopichitr [Cornell University], research director, Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).
Ya think?
Uncertainty ahead for Thai economy
The Thai economy will face many headwinds but also tailwinds next year, mainly from the global economy and geopolitical tensions. In 2022, the Thai economy slowly recovered from the Covid pandemic as lockdowns ended and the economy was reopened to international travel.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2465380/
CORONAVIRUS CHINA USA FAUCI WUHAN
The value of having a reporter on the ground to wave away the Beijing propaganda and find out for herself what's going on.
Because the Chinese Communist Party lies better than a well-made Persian carpet.
China's Crematoria Are Overflowing but CCP Authorities Say Only Seven Were Covid Deaths.
Facts [AFP, France24]: https://tinyurl.com/yjpwrjx9
Background: https://www.t.ly/SN86
Just askin'
Why is the U.S.A. still funding the Wuhan lab?
After the three years public appearance of the novel SARS Cov-2 coronavirus... do you think it might be hush money? Fauci poured millions of U.S. dollars into the place.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2022/12/21/why-are-we-still-funding-the-wuhan-lab-n519330
And while we are on the subject:


Risk of Covid-19 [infection] increased with time since the most recent prior Covid-19 episode and with the number of vaccine doses previously received.
Full report: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.17.22283625v1
Josef Biden called this 'Restoring Democracy'.
The justice interrupted him and called it illegal.
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules That Biden's Assertion of Power to Order Federal Contractors To Get Vaccinated is Unconstitutional
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/appeals-court-says-us-cannot-mandate-federal-contractor-covid-vaccines/ar-AA15sN1X
VIA REUTERS
WEEKEND READS
https://www.thaienquirer.com/46936/opinion-prayuts-continued-plans-for-holding-on-to-power-could-lead-to-his-eventual-downfall/
Far beyond "scandal" -- useless, cowardly, untrained -- THE WAGES OF AWFUL GOVERNMENT
The heartbreak in Uvalde never seems to end. Nineteen kiddos and two teachers died, and the emergency services story is another complete and total disaster.
The first two ambulances arrived on the scene, but the subsequent influx of law enforcement blocked the streets, as did the vehicles of panicked parents rushing to the school.
A joint report out this morning from the WaPo, Texas Tribune, and ProPublica will cause the bile and tears to well up all over again.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2022/12/20/the-heartbreak-in-uvalde-never-seems-to-end-n519060
The Iranian protesters have a secret weapon
The cult of martyrdom and death fostered by the ayatollahs has backfired, and may well destroy them.
... The Biden administration implements this strategy under the term “regional integration.” According to this vision, in order to “depressurize” the region, US allies need to stabilize and prop up — “integrate”— Iran’s so-called regional equities and cease any measures that might destabilize the Iranian order.
https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-iranian-protesters-have-a-secret-weapon/
Economics in One Lesson Is as Readable Today as It Was in 1946.
Hazlitt crafted flowing arguments which rebut the wider form of falsehood as opposed to specific instances.
Did Hercules defeat the Hydra by attacking each head as it regenerated (specific economic falsehoods), or by attacking their source (generalised falsehoods)?
https://fee.org/articles/why-economics-in-one-lesson-is-as-readable-today-as-it-was-in-1946/
The New York Times, longtime Stalin supporter and total Holodomor denier, plays a new "joke" that isn't really too funny.
Seriously -- who at The New York Times thought this layout for their crossword puzzle on the first day of Hanukkah (or any day for that matter) was a good idea:
You’d expect a "we're sorry for the harm and hurt we have caused" with this image, but the Times is insisting that this is a "standard design."
Right, crossword fans?
NB: Clue 58 Across is "Boxcars". (John 35-11, KJV)
If only there were some way we could have seen this coming.
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban closes universities to women
The Taliban have announced the closure of universities for women in Afghanistan, according to a letter by the higher education minister. The minister says the move is until further notice. It is expected to take effect immediately.
Also, all females are banned from all secondary schools.
And parks. No females are allowed in Kabul parks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64045497
After the last mass shooting and child massacre spree in Thailand, Fishwrap was assured that mass shootings happen only in the United States.
Rare gunfight kills six, including two police officers, in rural Australia
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/two-police-officers-among-six-killed-gunfight-rural-australia-2022-12-12/
5 people killed in a 'horrendous' condo shooting in Canada, police say
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/18/world/condo-shooting-vaughan-canada/index.html
Turn all amplifiers to "11"
https://bit.ly/3G6QLcy
In 1935, a California businessman and friends got the weird idea of opening a drive-in, and the career of Joe Bob Briggs took off like a rocket.
And the back seats provided insemination opportunity for teen-agers galore.
Once again you have put in a lot of work