Lucky

Did you know that China has more than 1000 manufactures of sex toys? Would you put one in your butt, knowing China's history of bad stuff in their products? Well, consider this: "Many good time gadgets such as anal beads, pliable dildos and other rubberized entertainers are still made of phthalates(*), a material that has been proven to cause kidney, liver and testicular damage in rats." China is not likely to be inspecting dildos for quality, are they? Yet they make $2 billion a year just from stuff we put up our ass. (But most of their dildos are sold to South Africa. The Us only buys 2% of them- so where do we get ours from?) So, next time you buy a dildo or rubber sex toy, check to see if it has that Made in China label, and then cover it with a condom, probably also made up of bad ingredients! (Source: Toy Story by Jim Larkins in this month's LA Frontiers gay magazine.) (*) What are phthalates? How are they used? Phthalates are a class of widely used industrial compounds known technically as dialkyl or alkyl aryl esters of 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid. There are many phthalates with many uses, and just as many toxicological properties. Phthalates crept into widespread use over the last several decades because of their many beneficial chemical properties. Now they are ubiquitous, not just in the products in which they are intentionally used, but also as contaminants in just about anything. About a billion pounds per year are produced worldwide. Intentional uses of phthalates include softeners of plastics, oily substances in perfumes, additives to hairsprays, lubricants and wood finishers. That new car smell, which becomes especially pungent after the car has been sitting in the sun for a few hours, is partly the pungent odor of phthalates volatilizing from a hot plastic dashboard. In the evening's cool they then condense out of the inside air of the car to form an oily coating on the inside of the windshield. (No mention here of dildos, but the site is ourstolenfuture.org) AVOIDING PHTHALATES: http://www.yoni.com/healerf/phthalates.shtml

My first phishing email from the email leak! Online Banking Security Due to multiple attempt error while trying to login in to your Online Account. We believed that someone other than you is trying to access your Account, For security reasons we have temporarily Flagged your Online Access and your access to online banking will be restricted if you fail to Verify and re-confirm your Online Banking details. Verify your Bank of America online banking Access now to enjoy the benefits of online banking and to avoid fraudulent activities on your Account. Resolving FraudResolvingFraudFootnotes (And then there is a button for me to click to verify my account. I didn't click it!)

With the rise in posting by new members, I felt that I should yield some of my space here to allow them to prosper with new opinions, ideas, and trivia. Some real good posts have been made from these newer posters and I want them to thrive. Not to say that each new poster has anything to say, but let's give them the opportunity to show their stuff.

Today a real letter, in the actual US Mail. The local hospital reports a computer stolen, which may have contained my financial information, not medical. They are offering one year free credit monitoring with Trans-Union. If I accept, I imagine that at the end of the year, Trans-Union will make it very hard for me to leave. What would you do?

If I bought lube in the quantities that you do, no doubt I'd get a discount too!

Security certificates for some websites may be worthless: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/technology/07hack.html?hpw

I must be old-fashioned. My desktop pic is the bf and our dogs.

Wrong Phelps, zipperzone.

It's called Two Bottoms in the Ninth, by "Zavo." It tells the saga of baseball, all steamy and sweaty. "From the diamonds to the dugout,from from the stands to the locker room, it's an erotic home run." (Unattributed)

Today I received an email from Chase Bank, allowing that hackers had entered their system and made off with at least the email addresses of all of their customers: "Chase is letting our customers know that we have been informed by Epsilon, a vendor we use to send e-mails, that an unauthorized person outside Epsilon accessed files that included e-mail addresses of some Chase customers. We have a team at Epsilon investigating and we are confident that the information that was retrieved included some Chase customer e-mail addresses, but did not include any customer account or financial information. Based on everything we know, your accounts and confidential information remain secure." Really comforting, eh? Shortly afterward, I received a similar email from Citibank. They use the same vulnerable company. Yet they are much more confident that this breach did not go beyond email addresses: Recently, Citi was notified of a system breach at Epsilon, a third-party vendor that provides marketing services to a number of companies, including Citi. The information obtained was limited to the customer name and email address of some credit card customers. No account information or other information was compromised and therefore there is no reason to re-issue a new card. So why does Chase hedge their bets while Citibank is confident that it is only email addresses?

I don't as of yet have Firefox 4, although it seems that every week they install an upgrade. I think now I have 3.16.something. Anyway, it sure is bad these days. I switch to Chrome and get blazing fast speeds, but Firefox is like an old western wagon that keeps breaking down.

I am not sure what you are saying here, Epigonos. I assume that your friends are shocked at how high your pension is after 36 years? My experience is that most government workers have average pensions. It is the police and firefighters who have managed the most sweetheart deals, getting to retire after only 20 years of service and usually keeping full benefits. Teachers, as far as I know, have never received any sweetheart pension deals. If you did, well, keep it. But I think those railing against public pensions are throwing the baby in with the bathwater.

Yes, this thread notwithstanding, the event came off very well and everyone felt welcomed. Many kudos to Oliver for again hosting a successful pool party with this year the added job of organizing the Saturday night events. I do think some mention should go to the umm, shadow observer, who made sure everyone felt loved as well.

Well, of course, can you imagine if the lesbians were here and responding? I don't think zipper would any longer have a zone to zip!

Liquid crystal? You mean they make a liquid crystal meth? I didn't know that... no wonder you can stay up all night finding nude photos!

Then what about the thread in the Pornification forum called MASTURBATE by Tampa Yankee? TY sure gets around. BTW, hitoallusa, are you sending your condolences to the mother of the deceased model via this site? I am sure she reads it faithfully and no doubt will find comfort in your words. And a P.S. to zipperzone- I don't drink alcohol, after 5 or not.

The words weren't said in the confines of a clubby male locker room, nor were they embodied in a thread on a message board appealing to gay men who hire escorts. Rather, they were said in a very public forum, and involved the head of New Hampshire's Republican legislature and a very important Catholic bishop: A top Republican in New Hampshire on Friday called Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester a “pedophile pimp” on his Facebook page. The Republican, State Representative D. J. Bettencourt, the House majority leader, was responding to criticism from Bishop McCormack that state budget cuts would hurt the most vulnerable members of society. “Would the bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the ‘vulnerable?’ ” Mr. Bettencourt, a practicing Roman Catholic, wrote. “This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a raincoat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone.” More of the story at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/us/02bishop.html?_r=1&ref=politics

Next weekend this pool will be all male...Palm Springs welcomes everybody.

For the first time ever on the internets, I am posting a picture of me COMPLETELY nude and full frontal. Please do NOT pass it on:

Lesbians joke about cutting off mens' penises, but I have never felt the need to hold tightly in their presence. I do think the zipper has a way of stating things in the extreme, but I imagine he would be kind to any woman who was in need of his help or courtesy. That's the bottom line.

There is another movement like this, it's all about not posting for several days as a way of supporting those whose rights have been silenced. Try it!! I'll let you know when the time is up!

Today I saw a group of the women here for the party, and they were so joyful to be together and having fun with their friends in a warm and accepting environment. It's the same spirit that you see at many gay events, where the sense of togetherness prevails. That said, I think jokes are okay too. I don't see the above as being mean-spirited. One thing we know is that lesbians will stand for us when it counts, and the reverse is true too.

You seem to have the right idea on what might work.

After the wildly successful Palm Springs Weekend, drawing hordes of escort-hiring men and their young hip-attachments, lesbians will this weekend attempt to compete with an event of their own. So what is their draw? Golf. Yes, golf. Apparently lesbians like to golf. They don't have little balls of their own to play with, so they use others' little balls. Thousands of ball-less humans will descend upon Palm Springs Regional Airport this weekend, making it a good time to visit New York. Once these women have gone back to Buffalo or wherever they came from, then hordes of drug-loving young gay men will arrive for the Palm Springs White Party the following Weekend. Temperatures are expected to be near 100 today. http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110331/LIFESTYLES0108/103310310/Dinah-Shore-Weekend-Organizers-look-forward-see-party-adapting-changing-scene (Word is that Jesus himself will be arriving on the weekend following the White Party. Stay tuned.)

flguy, thank you for your considered reply to this thread. In addition to your comments, friends have suggested to me privately that I should have just stayed out of this thread, and, upon reflection, I agree with them. At the time of the event, we took the high road. At Saturday's dinner, I was the MC. I welcomed Daddy to the event, and, during the course of the event, folks also made him feel welcomed. It was my intent that everyone have a good time. I recognize that if it were not for the message centers, there would be no posters to invite to the event. The argument between myself and Daddy is just that. I could not understand why he would both want me off of his message center and yet want to come to the event that I founded and co-hosted. But once he was there it was incumbent upon me and others to make him feel welcome. I think we did that. Yet since then other threads and comments have been made. Once the event was over, I feel that they serve no purpose. I let my animosity towards Daddy draw me into this thread and I regret that. I also should let Oliver speak for himself if he chooses to do so. He is the consummate gentleman and I doubt he would want to be drawn into this. So, in retrospect, had it not been late at night I might have taken a different tact. Today I wish I had. Nothing is served by drawing this out. My days at Daddy's site are over and I should let sleeping dogs lie.