Lucky

Here it is: Charlie's Link

Headline in today's nydailynews.com: 500,000 city kids in families that can’t afford food, up 37% from 2008 People are jobless for so long their savings and benefits have run out Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/500-000-city-kids-families-t-afford-food-37-2008-article-1.986622#ixzz1fbzpR3vs

This boy has a bright future in front of a camera. Maybe he did his nails himself, you know. I didn't notice them though.

It gets worse. It's not Billions, it is Trillions! Hard investigative work by the Bloomberg Financial News discovered that the Fed lent 7.7 trillion dollars to banks during the financial crisis. This money was lent at an interest rate of .5%. The banks then mostly turned around and bought treasury notes at 3% to them. Thus they made billions from the money the Fed lent them. Essentially, gave them. Yet consumers find no bargains from the banks. Sure, the fee to use debit cards went down, but banks own Congress. The Frank-Dodd bill to reform banking rules is being drafted by the banks, or certainly their lobbyists are influencing it greatly. The average citizen is hard pressed to get a mortgage, but the banks get tons of money from the Fed. It's a disgrace, proving why we need protests, more and more of them. Occupy Wall Street until the whole damn city is taken by protests.

The politics in the New York Police Department must be just absolutely amazing: Detective Who Led Ticket-Fixing Inquiry Faces Internal Charges Investigator Investigated

I agree that it is powerful and tells a common story that is a shame to be so prominent in our society. But am I so cynical as to so wonder if the kid is an actor performing a role? Would the story be so powerful if told by a really nerdy guy who was not at all cute? Well, yes, I guess it would. OKAY! Before I posted this, I decided to do a little more research, and my cynicism was dealt with just today (Watch the other video first!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7HkOaLFzGw

Oz always has a leg up on me!

BiBottomBoy seems to have left the party. Hmmm, now everyone knows I have nothing to so on a Saturday night.

He's Cambodian and Thai, according to a piece on him in Asian Fusion magazine, which is where I found this picture. I have every expectation that he is not straight, despite the photo. And, the magazine article: Inside Timmy's Magazine Article

Such nicely detailed reports. Those guys at Pointe do work hard, don't they?

I don't think he is fully extended.

Sort of the Texas colonial trash style? LOL

Timmy's model page indicates that he will do a lot of things for money, but sex isn't listed- specifically. Inside Timmy's Page

The Bieb is unhappy, too.

"I've actually had MER up all day. The only reason I haven't commented much is that there didn't seem to be many other people online ..." It's just you and me. Merry Christmas.

Dude, I saw the photo of your house. Seriously, you have to mow the lawn and pick up the trash!

BiBottom boy mentions elsewhere troubles with getting clients to pay. I have a friend in a small(er) business that works a lot in China and Dubai. Those people are adept at avoiding paying for work they have ordered. Constant excuses. So legitimate bill collecting is clearly necessary. But it does seem to attract the scum of the earth, most of whom seem unhappy limiting themselves to legitimate bills. Thus buying up old uncollectable debt, hassling the grieving families of the newly deceased,and posting false debts on credit reports. There was a time when, if you had a debt to collect, you would go to court and get a judgment. But that would require you to prove the debt is due. The credit reporting companies care nothing about such niceties, and there is no money for them in clearing up false information.

There is a guy at my gym who's nipples have clearly been well-played in his life. He loves to walk around in this stingy tank that lets the nipples show. It's kind of like having headlights, they are right in your face. I don't like them. I like Mario's aureoles. PS: Is that his dildo collection on the wall?

It's apparent that no one is home today at MER, but, in case my debt collector thread is scaring people away, here's a holiday video endorsed both by Gawker and gay blogger Andy Towle. Two girls* dance to a Mariah Carey holiday song, and boy, the choreography is great! *OK, one of them is male.

In theory there is a legitimate role to be played by an individual or company who seeks to collect unpaid debts. After all, you promised to pay, so if you don't, someone has to act on it. So why is it that bill collectors have such a bad reputation? Well, because they have no ethics. It seems they will go any length to collect a debt, bear any burden in harassing an individual they are after. I have a pretty good credit record, but the one mar on it comes from a bill a collector says I owe Sprint, a company I used many years ago. My final payment to them did not get properly credited, so after some fight, I did get it straightened out. Or so I thought. They went ahead and sold the debt to a bill collector, and it remains on my credit report today, even though I don't owe it. Credit reporting companies couldn't care less if you actually owe the bill. Their members can impugn anyone's credit without fear. They are notorious for not having the staff to correct false reports, no matter the evidence they are provided. One very aggressive agency sent my partner a dun for a hospital bill many years after the fact. I pointed out to them that we didn't owe it, and even if we did, the stature of limitations on the debt was expired. Their response was to send an amended bill, with a later date, one within the statute. Problem was, we weren't even living in that town when the new bill was supposedly incurred. One caution folks, if you make any payment on a dead bill, such as the one I mention, it revives it, or so I am told. And, speaking of the dead, today's Wall Street Journal has a lengthy article on debt companies which specialize in collecting debt from dead people. If a person dies with a debt jointly owed, the surviving partner still owes it. But, if the dead person alone owed the bill, chances are there is no way the debt will be paid. But that doesn't stop the debt companies from harassing survivors, playing on a so-called "moral" obligation to pay the debts of their deceased relatives. As if they know morals! The Journal is pretty strict about allowing their articles to be viewed only by subscribers, so I will use editorial license for some choice quotes: "Tony Lloyd, a former manager for debt collector DCM Services LLC of Minneapolis, says the benefits of using death-debt collectors are clear. "The big selling point is that these collectors offer banks a cushion that shields them from actually having to do the gritty work of going after dead people's families," he says." "William Howard, a consumer-rights lawyer with Morgan & Morgan in Tampa, Fla., says he has represented 50 people pursued for debts owed by dead family members so far this year, up from 10 in all of 2010. "Collectors are starting to realize just how much money you can get from someone when they are at their most vulnerable," he says." "FTC officials rejected requests by lawyers representing family members for an outright ban on calling surviving family members. The agency also declined to impose a cooling-off period during which relatives couldn't be contacted by debt collectors." "Collecting the debts of the dead is often easier than other collection work, says Mark Russell, a director at debt-collection advisory firm Kaulkin Ginsberg in Rockville, Md. Most borrowers behind on their bills have little or no money. Successfully collecting death debts takes just one relative who is willing to pay, he says." "Collectors in the death-debt business use carefully calibrated techniques. Employees often begin their calls with a sprinkle of grief counseling. DCM Services uses what it calls "empathetic active recovery." "Some debt collectors send condolence cards that double as collection letters. In September, Maxine Feinberg of Brooklyn, N.Y., got a letter from AscensionPoint Recovery Services LLC, a debt collector in Coon Rapids, Minn. The company offered its "deepest condolences," referring to the death of her husband, David. The company then brought up the $407.96 owed by Mr. Feinberg on a Macy's Inc. credit card. The letter thanked Mrs. Feinberg for "promptly attending to this important matter in the life of David Feinberg." Macy's didn't respond to requests for comment." Well, you get the point. Here's the link, which I encourage you to try:Death & Debt

Not too many Asians make the cover of gay magazines, so congrats to Timmy Thok, who is on the current cover of Next Magazine, a New York gay rag.

Two videos are available at the link to show Mario Lopez telling us, and showing us, his new underwear line. We get to see his hot, chiseled body, and some very quick glances at his basket. But I had never noticed before his sexy and tiny brown nipples. Don't worry, the videos are in color! Lovely Mario Some may prefer this line of Mario lingerie:

Without stating a reason, the court today doubled the bond for the former sheriff to $500,000- this for .7 gram of meth...not even a gram. Perhaps keeping him in jail may save his life, otherwise I can see no reason to double his bond.

In other Glee news: Michael Ausiello at TV Line reports that Glee is in negotiations with Ricky Martin: The bon-bon shaker extraordinaire will play what a Glee insider is calling “the hottest Spanish teacher ever in the history of Ohio.” And a musically inclined one at that. I’m told Martin’s scalding instructor will headline two big musical numbers in the episode, which is slated to air in late January. Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/11/ricky-martin-to-play-hottest-spanish-teacher-in-history-of-ohio-on-glee.html#ixzz1fCfJ1ao3

The Denver Post reports that "Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to trade drugs to a man for sex, as investigators monitored the deal. Drug task-force officers were "visually monitoring" the deal when the 68-year-old former national Sheriff of the Year delivered methamphetamine to an Aurora home and sought sex in return, said current Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson. ...Robinson said Sullivan had an ongoing relationship with the man as well as other men he had a history of bonding out of jails in the metro region. Sullivan is being held on $250,000 bail in the jail that bears his name, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. He was sheriff from 1984 until his retirement in 2002....Sullivan was a nationally expert on cyberterrorism and other law enforcement issues. He participated in a statewide meth task force in 2000... ,,,Former Arapahoe County District Attorney Jim Peters, who worked with Sullivan, said the allegations against the former sheriff are "totally out of character" for the man he knew and are "hard to believe." "He was completely ethical, upright and honest," Peters said. "He just oozed honesty and integrity. He was an outstanding sheriff." Which goes to show that we are all human, for one, and, for two, when you cannot be upfront on who you are, devious turns may develop. Doesn't mean that you have to take them, but life is not always full of easy choices. Especially when the little head starts doing the thinking.