Thailand arrests American for alleged king insult

[melm00se]

Source: AP via Yahoo

BANGKOK – Thai authorities said Friday they arrested an American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king.

The man is also suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of "The King Never Smiles" — an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej — and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family, said Tharit Pengdith, who heads the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110527/ap_on_hi_te/as_thailand_monarchy

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a prime example of why we should count our blessings on our 1st amendment rights

[DirkGently]

1. The fearful & weak-minded everywhere try to punish criticism of their leaders.

[saras]

2. And they never truly succeed

Sometimes I suspect that much of our development of language was driven by the need to say more than one thing at a time, to different audiences. Veiled criticism of authority as the motivation for the creation of metaphor - I think it's worth a grad-level paper or two...

[DirkGently]

5. Think you're on to something there.

[geardaddy]

3. I know someone who was put in jail in Thailand.

for saying that the King's niece was a lesbian. He skipped bail and came to Taiwan.

[jberryhill]

4. That's one of two things you should never do in Thailand /nt

[CreekDog]

6. You didn't read the article --he did it in Colorado

:hi:

[jberryhill]

7. And I wouldn't have guessed they had many bars like that in Colorado

Waitaminnit... which thing?