Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about Parliament here in Thailand. I initially thought of making this video specifically on the topic of Cannabis but I got to thinking about it and then I got to thinking about a scene from a film which is the sort of inspiration if you will for the thumbnail to this video, is the film called The Distinguished Gentleman with Eddie Murphy, which in my opinion is not only one of the funnier movies about American politics, it's also oddly enough one of the darker ones and one of those films that frankly sort of touches the issue with a needle a little bit insofar as it really gets to some salient points and it's one of the reasons I kind of think that film has been kind of, not censored or anything, but there are certain movies that come out that sort of come and go and they are just so on point with whatever the subject matter is that I think that there are sort of those in the establishment of whatever you want to call it, of Hollywood or generally, where they just sort of say well that was great that that was made, but we are just going to kind of try to forget that that existed. It's sort of a censorship by omission in hindsight if you will; just kind of ignore it because it gets to too many salient points we don't want to talk about, and there are a number of them in the film The Distinguished Gentleman. The reason for the thumbnail, there's a scene in the film - link in the description below - where Eddie Murphy is talking to this guy that quickly becomes his friend after Eddie Murphy gets elected to Congress through kind of a harebrained way of doing it and I am going to save plot details because I am announcing that at the Pancake Palace this coming Tuesday, which that will be Tuesday I believe the 20th of January, we will be actually starting what I'm going to be calling the Midweek Movie and on Tuesday night it's going to be Taco Tuesday over at Pancake Palace. We will be putting this on. Look for us to get this going at 6 pm, again Tuesday the 20th over at Pancake Palace, link in the description below. Again we are not really showing or screening anything or whatever, we're just going to kind of talking about it and we'll have clips and things going of the movie and things of this nature. And in fact we should be able to have sort of a private screening room for folks to actually watch the film and again we are going to have some tacos and things. So that is Pancake Palace, link is in the description below, and yeah that's going to be on Tuesday the 20th; Taco Tuesday we're going to also be showing, well we're going to be discussing and basically looking at clips and things of that nature of this film, The Distinguished Gentleman again with Eddie Murphy. 

Again, going back to the scene though, Eddie Murphy is having lunch with this guy who's a lobbyist. He became his fast friend after he becomes a Congressman and the lobbyist is basically going back and forth about "well if you're for this, I've got campaign finance money from this group. If you're against it, I've got campaign finance money from that group." And again the point of the thumbnail is basically Eddie Murphy asks the lobbyist, he says, "with all this money coming from both sides, how does anything get done?" and the lobbyist turns around and he says something that in my opinion - I remember watching this as a kid and it stuck with me - the lobbyist looks like at him and he says, "that's the genius of the system". And again that's the point of the thumbnail. 

I've always sort of agreed with that. I agreed with the founders’ notion that the Congress should be predisposed to a kind of gridlock because like them, I think that legislatures' functioning can be, to paraphrase, in the movie Itself, again that's the genius of the system. That is the genius of the system in a sense, because legislatures legislating can do a lot of damage to your personal liberties, and when they are basically in a situation involving a kind of legislative gridlock because they are sort of being lobbied from pillar to post, there is some level - and it can get out of hand - there is some level of benefit to the citizenry in that situation. Now it can go kind of overboard and we have definitely seen examples of that. 

The point I'm trying to make with this video, it initially percolated up in my brain pertaining to Cannabis specifically, but just generally speaking, one thing I've noticed about this government that we have had to deal with since the Military Government under the current Constitution, which by the way I'm making it another video contemporaneously with this one discussing possible amendments to that upcoming via the election referendum here in Thailand, but that said, one thing, there has been a predisposition to try to do things through these like Cabinet Executive sort of Memoranda basically, and again depending on the circumstances it may or may not be appropriate but one thing like with the issue of cannabis that came to my mind is like, "don't you want to be lobbied Parliament?" 

Now I understand, Thailand rules and Laws pertaining to Parliament aren't the same as the United States, I’m not claiming that, nor am I claiming should anybody do anything untoward. But look, at the end of the day legislatures are what they are, be they Parliaments, Congresses is whatever and Bills that come up for debate, Bills that come up for possible promulgation into Law, various interests are going to – I am not trying to be redundant - but be interested in that process. Now I'm not necessarily talking about monetary, anything of that nature or anything untoward, but influence is influence, and power is power, and on something as big as Cannabis, I mean to my mind it almost begs the question, "don't you want to be lobbied on this issue Parliament? I mean it's a big enough issue for the country; it's a major new industry for the country. I'm not just purely talking about feathering one's own nest or gaining political points or favours or whatever, I'm also talking about the good of the country. Wouldn't it be better if this goes through Parliament, goes through the proper legislative process as well as other issues, rather than seeing stuff just sort of made up on the fly by a bunch of bureaucrats, who just decide that they know best. I'm not saying it's not always wrong that regulations come about. Sometimes it's needed. Frankly sometimes the expertise within the bureaucracy is useful. But on something as big as Cannabis or other issues similar thereto, wouldn't it be better if the thing just went through Parliament?