The Beer Bar

The media is now reporting that Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the disappearance of US citizen Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba, is now living in Bangkok making a living off 'exporting' Thai prostitutes to Holland. Thailand attracts all kinds of people. Would anyone like to go out for a night of drinking, and then maybe a midnight stroll on the beach with young Joran?

Surgery no longer a requirement for changing gender on passport By the CNN Wire Staff June 10, 2010 Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday a new policy that no longer requires passport applicants seeking a gender change to have undergone sexual reassignment surgery. The policy, which goes into effect Thursday, allows a gender change with a certification from an attending physician. Surgery no longer a requirement for changing gender on passport - CNN.com

Helen Thomas Retires By Anne E. Kornblut Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately, in the wake of a controversy over her comments on Israel, according to a report from her employer, Hearst News Service. Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland. "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians," Thomas said in a statement on her Web site. "They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for…

I think a great choice! I hope this goes smooth. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/10/scotus.kagan/index.html?hpt=T1

'Golden Girls' star Rue McClanahan dies at 76 By Alan Duke, CNN June 3, 2010 New York (CNN) -- Emmy-winning "Golden Girls" actress Rue McClanahan died of a stroke in a New York hospital early Thursday, her manager said. She was 76. McClanahan's family surrounded her bed when she died at New York Presbyterian Hospital, according to manager Barbara Lawrence. The actress' career began on the New York stage in the 1950s, but her long television career was first boosted when producer Norman Lear cast McClanahan in his hit CBS series "All in the Family" in 1971. She appeared in Lear's "Maude" a year later. Her most memorable TV role was as Southern belle Bl…

Obama Orders More Benefits for Same-Sex Partners of Federal Workers Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered executive-branch agencies to extend to employees' same-sex partners the same benefits provided to their opposite-sex partners, to the extent allowed by law. The move followed up on Obama's memorandum last year that extended some benefits to same-sex partners of government workers and ordered federal agencies to review additional benefits that also could be available under existing laws. "That process has now concluded, and I am proud to announce that earlier today, I signed a memorandum that requires executive agencies to take imm…

On April 13, the "rent boy" (whom we'll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by an old man with an atavistic mustache and a desperate blond comb-over, pushing an overburdened baggage cart. That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy's client and, as it happens, one of America's most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera. …

Without looking it up on the Internet can anyone name the film in which the first male-to-male, lips-on-lips kiss happened?

Hollywood’s last ‘Rebel’ dies ‘Easy Rider’ actor/director Dennis Hopper, at 74 By James Verniere Sunday, May 30, 2010 He was born to be wild, the last rebel without a cause and a comeback kid. Dennis Lee Hopper, aptly born in Dodge City, Kan., emerged playing baby-faced outlaws in the 1950s, idolized “Rebel” co-star James Dean, directed and co-starred in the 1969 youthquake phenomenon “Easy Rider” and revived his career sucking on a gas mask as the twisted killer Frank Booth in David Lynch’s psych-out classic “Blue Velvet” (1986). Many people know Hopper, who died yesterday of prostate cancer at 74, as mad bomber Howard Payne with Sandra Bullock and Keanu…

2 Gay Men Spared 14-Year Sentence in Malawi By the CNN Wire Staff May 29, 2010 (CNN) -- The president of Malawi has pardoned two gay men who were sentenced to 14 years in prison this month for gross indecency and unnatural acts, the country's solicitor general, Anthony Kamanga, said Saturday. President Bingu wa Mutharika announced his pardon of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga after meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Kamanga said. Authorities arrested Monjeza and Chimbalanga in December at their home in Blantyre, Malawi after the couple professed their love in a traditional engagement ceremony. Police discovered the couple when local …

For a quarter century, Florenz Ziegfeld auditioned hundreds of thousands of young women vying to become chorus girls, the Ziegfeld Girls, those lace and chiffon visions of glamour who were as much a part of the Jazz Age as Stutz Bearcats, the Charleston and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Doris Eaton Travis may have been the youngest Ziegfeld Girl. In all, from 1907 to 1931, he picked about 3,000, and on Tuesday the last Ziegfeld Girl died. She was Doris Eaton Travis, and she was 106. She died of an aneurysm in Commerce, Mich., a nephew, Joe Eaton, said. Beneath towering, glittering, feathered headdresses, the Ziegfeld Girls floated across …

California teen becomes youngest to climb Everest (Reuters) - A 13-year-old American boy on Saturday became the youngest climber to conquer Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, a climbing website said. Jordan Romero from Big Bear, California, scaled the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) summit from the Tibetan side, on the same day a Nepali man broke his own world record for the most number of successful Everest attempts. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64L0TV20100522 "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" - James Cagney, 'White Heat'

Hyatt has just announced some revamping of its award chart w/e from June 4th. Some hotels have moved up a band requiring more points - a few have been downgraded. In a case of ridiculous timing, the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok is moved up from Category 3 to 4 and will now require 3,000 extra points per night. With the low rates I reckon they will have to be charging for the rest of the year, it'll be a lot cheaper just to pay for a room there than waste points.

I was reading BBC and came across this. It really does make you wonder about the power of a few over an entire nation. Texas schools to get controversial syllabus Education officials in the US state of Texas have adopted new guidelines to the school curriculum which critics say will politicise teaching. The changes include teaching that the United Nations could be a threat to American freedom, and that the Founding Fathers may not have intended a complete separation of church and state. Critics say the changes are ideological and distort history, but proponents argue they are redressing a long-standing liberal bias in education. …

By Sarah Ventre Thursday, May 6 2010 My name is Sarah and I am a cocktail waitress. For two years, I've been slinging drinks at a popular Phoenix music venue/bar that shall remain nameless. Armed with only a cork-topped plastic tray, I encounter the best and worst people on Earth. Every night. I've seen people who are otherwise pleasant, upstanding members of our society let alcohol activate the most wicked parts of their personalities. I've seen people turn loving or hateful at the drop of a hat. Like my sisters in the trade, I'm left to deal with the effects of unrestrained, uninhibited alter ego. In preparation for this article, I carried a piece of paper in my back…

Living in Thailand and a very Buddhist society with lots of zen, I read this article with great attention. I also wanted to share it here. “Most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities.” ~Dalai Lama If there’s one thing we all have in common it’s that we want to feel happy; and on the other side of that coin, we want to avoid hurting. Yet we consistently put ourselves in situations that set us up for pain. We pin our happiness to people, circumstances, and things and hold onto them for dear life. We stress about the possibility of losing them when something seems amiss. Then we melt into g…

Interesting little piece in Britain's Guardian newspaper of towns in North America where people might prefer not to holiday - Boring, Oregon Dull, Ohio Ordinary, Virginia Bummerville, California Mosquitoville, Vermont Roaches, Illinois Or maybe these would be more interesting - Hell, Michigan Crotch Lake, Ontario Tightwad, Missouri Purgatory, Maine Slaughterville, Oklahoma My favourites? - Spunky Puddle, Ohio Intercourse, Pennsylvania Dildo, Newfoundland

Anti-Gay Rights Activist Resigns after Trip with Male Escort By the CNN Wire Staff May 13, 2010 (CNN) -- The anti-gay rights activist who recently toured Europe with a male escort has resigned from a group that promotes counseling for people who "struggle with unwanted homosexuality," though the man insists that he is not gay. George Rekers resigned from the board of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, the group's website said Tuesday. "I am immediately resigning my membership in NARTH to allow myself the time necessary to fight the false media reports that have been made against me," Rekers said in a statement posted on …

Charles Scaglione Sr. recently has published a self-styled memoir chronicling his adventures in operating Rounds, a reputed NYC gay hustler bar that opened in 1979, and he's telling some secrets and naming some names. In Camelot Lost (RoseDog Books 2009) Scaglione offers a rarely-revealed insider's perspective into the business side of a gay nightlife establishment -- or "store" as it's referred to in the industry -- and as a straight man provides unique cultural insight into the gay scene as it leaves the wild seventies for the AIDS-ravaged eighties. Rounds, often euphemistically referred to by Scaglione as a "cruising bar," was located at 303 East 53rd Street in an up…

The Saturday Night Live with Betty White this week was fantastic. It was the best SNL skit in years. Betty really did a great job and the writers kept the show moving fast. Watch it!

President Obama plans to name Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Monday as his nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, two sources close to the process told CNN. Kagan to be Supreme Court nominee, sources say - CNN.com I hope this story is accurate as I know Kagan will be a fantastic justice. Way to go Obama. You have balls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUEGsrG6VD0&feature=player_embedded

Lena Horne, Singer and Actress, Dies at 92 By ALJEAN HARMETZ Published: May 9, 2010 Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan. Lena Horne, Sultry Singer and Actress, Dies at 92 - Biography - NYTimes.com

I am a big NFL football fan and on Sundays in the Fall I am glued to the TV! but this is really my kind of football team... AT 2:00 mins into this video it gets really good! Now if this play was on a NYC stage I would be there next weekend!! :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUEGsrG6VD0&feature=player_embedded