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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgAjzlwClBw

At first I thought this might be a post about how one lost a BF (who weighed 140). But, then I saw it was a serious thread. JK, I think you are definitely on the right track. It is never easy to lose weight and many of us need to do so, not necessarily for being attractive but for a longer and happier life span. Of course, being thin and cute never hurts. There is no simple solution and no "everyman's" diet. Everyone has to decide for themselves what works and what does not. But, fewer calories is the ultimate answer, as JK says. I have gone on fasts before to lose weight and those are somewhat easy to follow (at least for me), but they are not long term solutions to weight control and I do not recommend those to anyone. Not eating is NOT like not smoking. One can stop smoking today and maintain that posture for their life time but one cannot do this about eating. One needs to eat to live. Therefore a more difficult solution must be found and adopted for oneself. Healthy eating and reduced calories are the answer but how to do it? I offer no magic solutions. Only hope. Keep trying. Best regards, RA1

We had a man down in my state that did not agree with anybody about anything. He found that cabbage didn't agree with him, and thereafter he wouldn't eat anything but cabbage. Sen. Sam Ervin

Hoo Do That Voodoo That Hoo Do So Well. (Come on everyone, join right in.) For Hoo do something to me, That nobody else could Hoo.

Just another example of how our government and pols are out of control. Best regards, RA1

Well, Hoo are you? [Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo?] I really wanna know [Hoo are you? Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo?] Tell me, who are you? [Hoo are you? Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo?] 'Cause I really wanna know [Hoo are you? Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo?]

Revealed: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data • NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches • Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history Glenn Greenwald theguardian.com, Wednesday 31 July 2013 08.56 EDT One presentation claims the XKeyscore program covers 'nearly everything a typical user does on the internet' A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet. The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight. The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10. "I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email". US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do." But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata. Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity. Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized Fisa warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst. One training slide illustrates the digital activity constantly being collected by XKeyscore and the analyst's ability to query the databases at any time. The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the metadata as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as browser history, even when there is no known email account (a "selector" in NSA parlance) associated with the individual being targeted. Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used. One document notes that this is because "strong selection [search by email address] itself gives us only a very limited capability" because "a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous." The NSA documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore. Analysts are warned that searching the full database for content will yield too many results to sift through. Instead they are advised to use the metadata also stored in the databases to narrow down what to review. A slide entitled "plug-ins" in a December 2012 document describes the various fields of information that can be searched. It includes "every email address seen in a session by both username and domain", "every phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature block)" and user activity – "the webmail and chat activity to include username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc". Email monitoringIn a second Guardian interview in June, Snowden elaborated on his statement about being able to read any individual's email if he had their email address. He said the claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA. One top-secret document describes how the program "searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents", including the "To, From, CC, BCC lines" and the 'Contact Us' pages on websites". To search for emails, an analyst using XKS enters the individual's email address into a simple online search form, along with the "justification" for the search and the time period for which the emails are sought. The analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in NSA reading software. The system is similar to the way in which NSA analysts generally can intercept the communications of anyone they select, including, as one NSA document put it, "communications that transit the United States and communications that terminate in the United States". One document, a top secret 2010 guide describing the training received by NSA analysts for general surveillance under the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008, explains that analysts can begin surveillance on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications: Chats, browsing history and other internet activity Beyond emails, the XKeyscore system allows analysts to monitor a virtually unlimited array of other internet activities, including those within social media. An NSA tool called DNI Presenter, used to read the content of stored emails, also enables an analyst using XKeyscore to read the content of Facebook chats or private messages. An analyst can monitor such Facebook chats by entering the Facebook user name and a date range into a simple search screen. Analysts can search for internet browsing activities using a wide range of information, including search terms entered by the user or the websites viewed. As one slide indicates, the ability to search HTTP activity by keyword permits the analyst access to what the NSA calls "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet". The XKeyscore program also allows an analyst to learn the IP addresses of every person who visits any website the analyst specifies. The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large. One NSA report from 2007 estimated that there were 850bn "call events" collected and stored in the NSA databases, and close to 150bn internet records. Each day, the document says, 1-2bn records were added. William Binney, a former NSA mathematician, said last year that the agency had "assembled on the order of 20tn transactions about US citizens with other US citizens", an estimate, he said, that "only was involving phone calls and emails". A 2010 Washington Post article reported that "every day, collection systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7bn emails, phone calls and other type of communications." The XKeyscore system is continuously collecting so much internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time. Content remains on the system for only three to five days, while metadata is stored for 30 days. One document explains: "At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours." To solve this problem, the NSA has created a multi-tiered system that allows analysts to store "interesting" content in other databases, such as one named Pinwale which can store material for up to five years. It is the databases of XKeyscore, one document shows, that now contain the greatest amount of communications data collected by the NSA. In 2012, there were at least 41 billion total records collected and stored in XKeyscore for a single 30-day period. Legal v technical restrictions While the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008 requires an individualized warrant for the targeting of US persons, NSA analysts are permitted to intercept the communications of such individuals without a warrant if they are in contact with one of the NSA's foreign targets. The ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, told the Guardian last month that national security officials expressly said that a primary purpose of the new law was to enable them to collect large amounts of Americans' communications without individualized warrants. "The government doesn't need to 'target' Americans in order to collect huge volumes of their communications," said Jaffer. "The government inevitably sweeps up the communications of many Americans" when targeting foreign nationals for surveillance. An example is provided by one XKeyscore document showing an NSA target in Tehran communicating with people in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York. In recent years, the NSA has attempted to segregate exclusively domestic US communications in separate databases. But even NSA documents acknowledge that such efforts are imperfect, as even purely domestic communications can travel on foreign systems, and NSA tools are sometimes unable to identify the national origins of communications. Moreover, all communications between Americans and someone on foreign soil are included in the same databases as foreign-to-foreign communications, making them readily searchable without warrants. Some searches conducted by NSA analysts are periodically reviewed by their supervisors within the NSA. "It's very rare to be questioned on our searches," Snowden told the Guardian in June, "and even when we are, it's usually along the lines of: 'let's bulk up the justification'." In a letter this week to senator Ron Wyden, director of national intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that NSA analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance. Acknowledging what he called "a number of compliance problems", Clapper attributed them to "human error" or "highly sophisticated technology issues" rather than "bad faith". However, Wyden said on the Senate floor on Tuesday: "These violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling." In a statement to the Guardian, the NSA said: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests. "XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA's lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system. "Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring." "Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law. "These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

The Maxie Hamilton post got me thinking. Oz was wishing he was in LA so he could partake of Maxie's beauty, despite the fact that he is is in Thailand surrounded by the cutest of the cute Thai boys. Now, I am not picking on Oz, I understand just what he was saying. Not only is Maxie cute, but he seems to have a knack for enticing you to think he can get down and really dirty. I want him too. We see posts all of the time about today's beauties, tomorrow's lustbuttons, and past stars. All of these are predicated on how beautiful we perceive the individual to be. And attraction is certainly what drives sex. But most of us aren't heartthrob material and won't make these lists of beauties to be desired. So why do we continue to define attraction by beauty? Once you fuck, the attraction almost always deteriorates anyway. But if we defined attraction by a person's goodheartedness, that wouldn't happen. And face it: Wouldn't you rather be in a relationship with a person who has a good heart? Too often we find that pretty boys are not worth the time we give them, not to mention the money. They can be vain, immature, narcissistic, and, once you have him, you have to keep worrying whether he will take the better offers that are bound to keep pouring in,. It can be such an insecure existence! Instead, picture yourself with someone who's smart, talented, kind, thoughtful, and can be counted on on a rainy day. He won't take a hike when the going gets tough. He's yours! Okay, so he may not be Maxie Hamilton, but he's a keeper. That's the guy at the top of my attractiveness list. No matter how he looks.

The inner demons that drove Nixon By David Gergen, CNN Senior Political Analyst updated 4:30 PM EDT, Tue July 30, 2013 'A political problem to the president'Video at http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/30/opinion/gergen-nixon-demons/index.html?hpt=hp_c3 Three of President Richard Nixon's top aides documented their experiences at the White House with home movie cameras. Now, that footage seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation is presented in a new documentary along with other rare footage and interviews. CNN Films' "Our Nixon" presents a new look at the Nixon presidency at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, August 1. David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four presidents. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Follow him on Twitter. (CNN) -- CNN's new documentary, "Our Nixon," tugs open the curtain for a moment on one of the most complex, haunted presidents in modern times. I worked on his White House staff for more than three years and can attest that that while this isn't the complete Richard Nixon, viewers get a revealing, first-hand look at parts of the man rarely seen. It is hard for younger generations to grasp just how dominant a figure Nixon was for over four decades in American life. With the exception of Franklin Roosevelt -- the Babe Ruth of 20th century politics -- only Nixon has been nominated by his party for high office in five national elections. From the days he rocketed to power as a young, ambitious congressman until he went to his grave, Nixon made the cover of Time magazine 56 times. No one else in his time was as widely respected or reviled; no one else won a massive re-election only to leave the White House in disgrace. Nixon almost had it all -- and then he lost it. Why? Why do colossally powerful men make a colossal hash of things, even down to today? I was a relative innocent when I left the Navy in the early 1970s and by serendipity, was offered a job in the Nixon White House by Raymond Price, then the head of the speechwriting team and soon a wonderful mentor. Ray asked me to be his administrative assistant and within weeks, I was a note taker in Cabinet meetings, where I had a bird's-eye view of Nixon at his best. The CNN documentary captures some of those heady moments through the home movie cameras of Bob Haldeman (chief of staff), John Ehrlichman (top domestic adviser) and Dwight Chapin (RN's aide-de-camp and television impresario). The films show how much Nixon doted on the pomp and circumstance of the office -- the balloon drops at conventions, waving to mammoth crowds (7 million turned out when we went to Cairo), walking the Great Wall in China, sipping champagne with Zhou Enlai. Nixon lapped it all up. What is missing from the films are the serious, thoughtful conversations of Nixon away from cameras. In truth, he was the best strategist I have seen in the presidency -- someone able to go up on a mountain top, look 30 years into the future and try to bend the arc of history to favor the nation's security interests. He was a student of the past and like one of his heroes, Winston Churchill, thought that a leader who can see farther back can see farther ahead. Americans knew he could be mean and duplicitous, but I sensed they voted for him because they also thought he was smart enough and tough enough to keep the Soviets at bay. They were right. If your home is threatened, you want a German shepherd, not a cocker spaniel. In my early days as a junior lieutenant, I mostly saw the bright side of Nixon -- the one who read books recommended to him by his early counselor, Pat Moynihan, and debated the virtues of World War I generals with Henry Kissinger. Only when I had more experience and he invited me in closer did he begin to reveal the rest of him -- the dark side. That darker side is woven through the CNN documentary, mostly through the secret tapings that he made of himself and those with whom he was talking. Only a select few knew of the taping system; learning of it was a shock to all the rest of us on staff. I had not heard most of the tapes here but found them consistent with the Nixon I eventually came to know: a brooding, deeply insecure man who laments how little support he has from his own Cabinet and how much bias he sees in the press. It has been said that even paranoids have real enemies. Indeed, Nixon had plenty of real enemies, but his insecurities prompted him to create even more in the way he lashed back. He came to believe that politics is a jungle and that to survive, one must observe the law of the jungle: Either eat or be eaten. The late Leonard Garment -- along with Ray Price, one of the white hats in that White House -- thought Watergate could be traced back to the Vietnam War. Nixon came to power not only with insecurities but with a bitterly divisive war on his hands, one that threatened to tear the country apart. As was his wont, Nixon thought he had to control events, not be controlled by them. So, he started bugging the phones of reporters and his own appointees and eventually he set up a "plumbers" unit to stop national security leaks. In view of Garment, who served as a close legal adviser to Nixon, that effort to control anti-war fever turned into a political operation during the 1972 re-election. From there, it was only a tiny step to the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters. That is a persuasive theory, but I concluded there was something more basic also at work in Nixon's downfall -- and we see pieces of it in the CNN documentary. Fundamentally, I believe that as Carl Jung argued, each of us has a bright and dark side, and that the task of becoming a mature, integrated adult is to conquer one's dark side or at least bring it under control. Nixon simply did not have that dark side under control -- he had demons inside him and when they rose up in fury, as they did so often, they could not only destroy others but destroy him, too. There have been moments since his downfall that I have actually felt sorry for him. As a wise counselor of his, Bryce Harlow, once observed, we will never know what happened to Nixon when he was young, but it must have been something terrible. A word about the three men behind the cameras in the documentary: I knew each of them in varying degrees and am sure they never envisioned themselves as Nixon "henchmen." As their films suggest, they thought they had a ringside seat on one of the greatest shows ever -- and loved it. But they were swept into the web of intrigue in that White House and went along with the deceits, the dirty tricks and yes, the criminality. Ehrlichman eventually felt bitter and betrayed by Nixon; Haldeman, as the film represents, felt the critics were terribly wrong and that one day, Nixon would be better understood. Emotionally, I was drawn more to Chapin: he was young and relatively innocent, too, and he was one of the most creative advisers I have seen in the White House -- an impresario in the league of Mike Deaver and Jerry Rafshoon. His "sin," I believe, is that he was so devoted that he would do anything to protect Nixon. He paid with a broken career -- the price reckless leaders often exact from the young. Forty years later, Dwight -- to his credit -- is still trying to protect what he can of Nixon, telling me and others where he thinks the CNN documentary film is wrong (too one-sided, he thinks, and misleading in various ways). To this day, historians as well as those of us who lived through the Nixon period, disagree in our judgments. I will always believe that Nixon had elements of greatness in him, but he was ultimately the architect of his own downfall -- he could not control that dark, inner fury and, for the good of the country, he had to go. http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/30/opinion/gergen-nixon-demons/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

We all get tired of my name is Derrick or Sue and I will be your waiter tonight and you are lucky if they mean it. However, some of the South's politeness is real. I have found that most folks, to include those living and working in NY aka Yankees, are just as friendly as I am. In other words, very. They may or may not know that I prefer tomatoes in my garden salad (in season) and they may not know what sweet tea is but I want it unsweetened anyway. OTOH, they know what a real pizza is and how to make Manhattan style clam chowder, among other things. Knosh obtained on the street in NY cannot be matched elsewhere or so it seems. But, then, I have not yet been everywhere. Best regards, RA1

Up to a point you make a good argument but what about self satisfaction? Can you be happy not doing your very best? Personally I trace some of this type of situation back to the Viet Nam conflict. Many colleges and universities were passing any young guy so they would not lose their education deferment and be drafted, regardless of the quality of work performed. Perhaps a reasonable result but not a good plan of action which might be having negative results even today. As you mentioned there are several jobs or careers where it does matter how well you did in school, meaning what you know. The person who graduates last in his medical school class is still called "doctor" but do you want this individual doing brain surgery on you or doing a heart transplant for you? I don't. Pilots like to think that paying attention to details is important, although I agree no one yet has asked me what grade I got on the various written examinations I have taken. They do ask if I got a "Pro" card when I went through re-current training. Best regards, RA1

Lucky, if you are looking for more like minded individuals, may I suggest another great message board that has more of what you may be looking for? http://www.hooboy.com

I had a 4.0 GPA in my Master's program and every employer asked me about it and offered me a job. I think grades are important. Perhaps, not as important as we often make them out to be. But, IMHO, the smart people are the ones with high grades and they are the ones driven to get those grades because they want to be the best. Plus, as someone older than most of my fellow students, I want to be on top of EVERY situation.

I am getting too, too old. And much too far out of the mainstream of civilization. That is Tyler Posey all grown up? The sweet young boy that played JLo's son in the RomCom with leaky-dicked, leisure suite-wearing Rafe Fiennes - Maid in Manhattan? HITO, Take a seat in the back of the bus. I am first in that line, fella!!! Well, after my marriage and divorce from my next husband, the fourth Jonas brother, Thiago, is concluded.

...We say: At night an Arabian in my room, With his damned hoobla-hoobla-hoobla-how, Inscribes a primitive astronomy Across the unscrawled fores the future casts And throws his stars around the floor. By day The wood-dove used to chant his hoobla-hoo And still the grossest iridescence of ocean Howls hoo and rises and howls hoo and falls. Life’s nonsense pierces us with strange relation. Wallace Stevens, 'Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction'

Be careful when you knock. You never know what you may get into.

How can you be so naive, Expat? Surely you know that many handsome, muscled young men have girlfriends and get engaged simply to cover up their sexual confusion. I see my role as helpful in putting them to good hard use and training them to be compliant bottoms. It helps to liberate them from conflict and ease their physical tensions.

OK. I don't know how it got out that we were engaged. I am sorry that I was not the first one to tell you guys here. You will all be invited to our wedding.

I think if I won the lottery, first up would be a trust fund charged with protecting me from myself.