The Beer Bar

Trump apparently wanted to steal one of the Eisenhower library's swords to give to King Charles III. The librarian who refused to hand it over (it belongs to them and the people of the US, not to Trump, obviously) was unceremoniously canned. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sword-trump-king-charles-eisenhower-library/ "The head of a presidential library resigned this week after a tug-of-war with the Trump administration over gift selection and a sword for King Charles III, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News... Arrington's departure came after he resisted taking an original Eisenhower sword out of the library's collection to give to King Charles…

I was very sad to learn and read of Austin Wolf's child sex crimes and sentencing. https://nypost.com/2025/09/30/us-news/ex-porn-star-austin-wolf-sentenced-to-19-years-for-sickening-child-sex-crimes/ A friend of mine and I had dinner with him some years ago in Chicago. Never would of thought it.

Earlier tonight, my husband and I attended a Survivor Premier watch party hosted by handsome multiple-time Survivor contestant Oscar "Ozzie" Lusth, who's bisexual. It was a bit of a fantasy of mine to finally meet and have my picture taken with him. He's gorgeous and had both men and women swooning over him at the event. Yet he has no ring on his finger and, as far as the internet can determine, no serious relationship. I asked my husband why someone, who could apparently have his pick with anyone of either gender, wouldn't have found someone by the ripe age of 44. He said that bisexuals have trouble with commitment. When we got home, I went online to see if there were s…

As a youngster my golf mad mother did her best to teach my brother and me how to play the game. We did for a while, but neither had much interest. Nowadays my only interest in televised golf is the biennial Ryder Cup which pitches 12 of the best of European golfers against 12 American counterparts. This is a three day event consisting of two days of foursomes and the last when all 12 are singly matched against another. Played every two years, first in one continent and then the other, inevitably it arouses greater fan participation as they cheer on their own teams. Generally it is an exciting and fun event, assuming one team is not losing dramatically, and it is the home …

It is a debate that appears in politics with conderable regularity, particularly if you live in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries which were at one time colonies of Britain and now members of the Commonwealth. Still King Charles is their Head of State, despite numerous attempts to replace the British monarch. By all accounts, Queen Elizabeth was popular despite anti-royal political movements. And Charles seems to be doing a decent job. His son Prince William, it would seem, will carry on that tradition as he remains a popular heir apparent, even with concerns over his wife's long cancer treatment and the public not knowing from which type of cancer she su…

I realise this is one of the most unlikely subjects for this forum, but it is driving me mad! Any suggestions from members which will help solve the problem will be extremely welcome. I have lived for 24 years in a top floor apartment in an 8-storey condo building close to the centre of Bangkok. It is in a quiet residential area and one of its attractions is that peace you get with virtually no traffic. Now a much more annoying noise has appeared. About 6 weeks ago, I was wakened at 6:00 am by a knock on the bedroom window. Shocked that there might be someone on the little balcony, I soon realised what it was - the wing of a crow which had hit it, settled on the balc…

In another string, some members say they avoid doing business with Amazon on moral grounds. We had planned to cancel a visit to Disneyland after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended, although it looks as though he's back on the air, so I guess we'll go to see Mickey and friends after all. I avoid Chick Fil-A since they donate big $$ to anti-gay causes. Basically, I'll avoid businesses I know which spread hate/intolerance. How about you?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxqnkwerj7o "Charlie Kirk was one of the most high-profile conservative activists and media personalities in the US and a trusted ally of President Donald Trump. Kirk, 31, who died Wednesday in a shooting at a Utah college, was known for holding open-air debates on campuses across the country. In 2012, at the age of 18, he co-founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a student organisation that aims to spread conservative ideals at liberal-leaning US colleges. His social media and eponymous daily podcast often shared clips of him debating with students about issues such as transgender identity, climate change, faith and family values...". …

I am considering whether to drop Amazon Prime. Currently the price is $139/year (US). I have some time to decide. I appreciate the convenience but don't necessarily require it. The Prime Video content is not that great, IMO. Has anyone dropped Amazon Prime? Do you miss it? Or, if you plan to keep your subscription, what do you value about Prime?

I've noticed that a lot of cruise lines promote sailings in which they travel during the height of rainy season. This goes across several cruise lines including Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Oceania. For example, I was recently sent a promotion for this cruise: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/cruises/REG251217/?sfmc=EM_822731273 Every single one of the ports included on this voyage is being visited during the height of that port's rainy season. Bora Bora gets 25 cm of rain during the month of December. Port Vila in Vanuatu gets 31.6 cm of rain during the month of January, and Darwin, NT gets a whopping 47.1 cm of rain in January. The cheapest inside cabin on th…

Those in the non-gay world call the LGBTQ community all manner of slurs and homophobic rhetoric, often writing letters of complaint. What do you consider were the worst? In 2023 and 2025 the BBC showed a dating gay show titled I Kissed A Boy featuring exclusively gay men. Although achieving mostly positive reviews, some viewers were mighily pissed off. One, John Chapman, wrote this - "Homosexuality is an unfortunate affliction which years ago was not tolerated & its practitioners persecuted. In this more enlightened era it is tolerated by most of society . . I find their proclivities abhorrent but if consenting adults with to do unspeakable things to …

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/23/protests-as-newborn-removed-from-greenlandic-mother-after-parenting-competence-tests "A Greenlandic mother’s one-hour-old baby was removed from her by Danish authorities after she underwent “parenting competence” tests – despite a new law banning the use of the controversial psychometric assessments on people with Greenlandic backgrounds. Ivana Nikoline Brønlund, who was born in Nuuk to Greenlandic parents and has played for the Greenlandic handball team, gave birth to her daughter, Aviaja-Luuna, on 11 August in a hospital in Hvidovre, near Copenhagen, where she lives with her family. An hour later, the local municipality…

Super Typhoon Ragasa is getting ever closer to The Philippines. Classified the same as a Category 5 hurricane in North America, much of the northern parts of South East Asia are taking major precautions. In The Philippines, the typhoon is expected to hit near the northern tip but schools and administrative offices have aso been closed today in Manila. Hundreds of families have been evacuated from the expected path of the storm, both in The Philippines and southern Taiwan. In Taiwan, damage is expected to be less unless the typhoon moves on to a more northerly track. Landfall there is presently expected near Pingtung to the south and east of the main southern city of …

Yes, the loser in the last election has published her memoir, not something expected of a recently badly defeated Presidential pick. But it does hold some nuggets. She never wanted Tim Walz as her VP apparently, and was incensed when he "fumbled" a crucial answer in the VP TV debate. She actually wanted Pete Buttigieg! To have an openly gay VP would have been great for the gay community but would it have garnered any more votes? I wish i could be positive about it, but I suspect the MAGA jerks would have had a field day and it would have been a hindrance. As she herself eventually acknowledges - “He would have been an ideal partner – if I were a straight white …

Preparing for an upcoming trip to Rio de Janeiro, I've been reading various news sources to update myself. I came across the following, today: Source: Brazil’s Foreign Tourism Surge Is Real, but Scale Still Trails Rivals - The Rio Times

We'll be going on a New England trip next month, and I've been looking over restaurants at the places where we'll be going. While it's not the norm, I'm still surprised by the number of restaurants which either have no website (!) or have a website, but no menu. Sometimes one can find the menu on other websites, sometimes not. I'd never go to a place without knowing what I was getting into. Would you?

I know that there are quite a few members who live in Thailand, and it looks as though it'll be taking place in Bangkok. I'd sure love to watch and drool if it were being held near where I lived... https://www.instagram.com/officialmisterglobal?fbclid=IwY2xjawM73uBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFXcDdweE5SMWVWSjhBY0hrAR5f8ATPyNzOUZ_758gpksX9AcfNajU-sXj1XbNqTDD2QwtTILvDy4EBpGBGMA_aem_cpIVFIdoFfrCWNeByPpAcA

Now they have turned on the French President. They claim that his wife is a man. Considerably older than her husband, she taught at future President Macron's school. If I were the French, I'd tell that ultra right-wing bag of tricks to check their own First Lady first! But Macron has decided to send scientific evidence to a US court. How ridiculously stupid can people get?

I know we have had pages of information about prostate cancer over the last 3 years, the latest covering Joe Biden's cancer. Now tennis great Bjorn Borg has announced he has an advanced stage of the disease having already had an operation in 2024. And yet again it makes me wonder how is it that men over a certain age succumb to such a common disease For those who do not remember, in the 1970s Borg was then the youngest Grand Slam champion when aged 18 he won the French Open (Michael Chang later won it aged 17). The world of tennis quickly became gripped by the young Swede. With his long flowing fair hair and impossibly good looks, he was a rock star and teen idol ro…

My sister was in town, so we had dinner with her and her daughter and discussed, among other things, our upcoming travels. My husband and I mentioned that we're taking a cruise to Antarctica in a few months, and my sister mentioned that she was dunked in the Southern Ocean, where the freezing temperature of the ocean water is -2C, and she mentioned that she'd also done so in the Arctic Ocean at a similar freezing temperature. We both chimed in that we were quite certain we wouldn't partake in such an adventure. I've always thought that such activities were foolish (in fact, I'm surprised that it seems no one has suffered a medical calamity while doing such activities). I'…

20 years ago when Trump had decided he would build a links golf course north of the Scottish city of Aberdeen, he was going to do it come hell or high water. He promised the authorities US$1 bilion in investment that would include not only the course but a 450 room hotel 850 holiday villa apartments, 36 golf villas and 500 hundred houses for sale. Many hundreds of new jobs would be created. Alhough the local council threw out the appication on the grounds of potential environmental damage, Trump persuaded many politicians to overturn that decision given the economic benefits the course would bring. Apart from the hotel, none of the other investments materialised. In…

Did I miss this somewhere on here? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgeqlw05rzo

This should perhaps be in the Politics forum but I am today so angry I want it posted where more can see it. If there is one American gun event I remember more than the vast thousands of others during my lifetime, it is not Sandy Hook or other hideous massacres. It is the tragic tale of a 16-year old Japanese exchange student, Yoshiro Hattori. At Halloween in 1992, Hattori was invited to a party for Japanese students. His homestay 'brother' drove him to the party. Hattori was dressed in a white tuxedo in deference to the character played by John Travolta in the movie Saturday Night Fever. Finding an address with Halloween decorations outside, Hattori and his friend went …

Let us handle your 90-day reports. One time? ฿900. But wait, if you want to make life easy and pay for 4 times in advance… that’ll be ฿4,000. 🤦‍♂️ Only in Thailand can a ‘bulk package’ mean paying more per service. Brilliant.

Does anyone use Snapchat? It’s a whole other world and I am curious if anyone can help enlighten me. I’ve been asked before if I had Snap,when I asked people for photos and I said no and had no interest in downloading it. But for some reason, after I arrived for a month-long stay in Philadelphia, I downloaded it and created a profile. Not long after that, it came in handy. I was visiting my brother in New Jersey in a small town about 40 minutes from the shore - really in the middle of nowhere. As we were heading back to Philly, I saw I had a message on Sniffies. A guy was saying I should visit a certain Italian grocery store there which I was familiar …