TotallyOz

LOS ANGELES — There are more marijuana stores here than public schools. Signs emblazoned with cannabis plants or green crosses sit next to dry cleaners, gas stations and restaurants. The dispensaries range from Hollywood-day-spa fabulous to shoddy-looking storefronts with hand-painted billboards. Absolute Herbal Pain Solutions, Grateful Meds, Farmacopeia Organica. Cannabis advocates claim that more than 800 dispensaries have sprouted here since 2002; some law enforcement officials say it is closer to 1,000. Whatever the real number, everyone agrees it is too high. And so this, too, is taken for granted: Crackdowns on cannabis clubs will soon come in this city, which has more dispensaries than any other. For the first time, law enforcement officials in Los Angeles have vowed to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that turn a profit, with police officials saying they expect to conduct raids. Their efforts are widely seen as a campaign to sway the City Council into adopting strict regulations after two years of debate. It appears to be working. Carmen A. Trutanich, the newly elected city attorney, recently persuaded the Council to put aside a proposed ordinance negotiated with medical marijuana supporters for one drafted by his office. The new proposal calls for dispensaries to have renewable permits, submit to criminal record checks, register the names of members with the police and operate on a nonprofit basis. If enacted, it is likely to result in the closing of hundreds of marijuana dispensaries. Mr. Trutanich argued that state law permits the exchange of marijuana between growers and patients on a nonprofit and noncash basis only. Marijuana advocates say that interpretation would regulate dispensaries out of existence and thwart the will of voters who approved medical cannabis in 1996. Whatever happens here will be closely watched by law enforcement officials and marijuana advocates across the country who are threading their way through federal laws that still treat marijuana as an illegal drug and state laws that are increasingly allowing medicinal use. Thirteen states have laws supporting medical marijuana, and others are considering new legislation. No state has gone further than California, often described by drug enforcement agents as a “source nation” because of the vast quantities of marijuana grown here. And no city in the state has gone further than Los Angeles. This has alarmed local officials, who say that dispensary owners here took unfair advantage of vague state laws intended to create exceptions to marijuana prohibitions for a limited number of ill people. “About 100 percent of dispensaries in Los Angeles County and the city are operating illegally,” said Steve Cooley, the Los Angeles County district attorney, who is up for re-election next year. “The time is right to deal with this problem.” Mr. Cooley, speaking last week at a training luncheon for regional narcotics officers titled “The Eradication of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County,” said that state law did not allow dispensaries to be for-profit enterprises. Mr. Trutanich, the city attorney, went further, saying dispensaries were prohibited from accepting cash even to reimburse growers for labor and supplies. He said that a recent California Supreme Court decision, People v. Mentch, banned all over-the-counter sales of marijuana; other officials and marijuana advocates disagree. So far, prosecutions of marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles have been limited to about a dozen in the last year, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cooley. But Police Department officials said they were expecting to be called on soon to raid collectives. “I don’t think this is a law that we’ll have to enforce 800 times,” said one police official, who declined to speak on the record before the marijuana ordinance was completed. “This is just like anything else. You don’t have to arrest everyone who is speeding to make people slow down.” For the rest of the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/us/18enforce.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Thanks. Looking forward to meeting up again. If we have a get together, where could we have it at with no more Numbers?

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An all-male college in Atlanta, Georgia, has banned the wearing of women's clothes, makeup, high heels and purses as part of a new crackdown on what the institution calls inappropriate attire. William Bynum says he discussed the new dress-wearing ban policy with Morehouse's campus gay organization. No dress-wearing is part of a larger dress code launched this week that Morehouse College is calling its "Appropriate Attire Policy." The policy also bans wearing hats in buildings, pajamas in public, do-rags, sagging pants, sunglasses in class and walking barefoot on campus. However, it is the ban on cross-dressing that has brought national attention to the small historically African-American college. The dress-wearing ban is aimed at a small part of the private college's 2,700-member student body, said Dr. William Bynum, vice president for Student Services. "We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men," he said. Before the school released the policy, Bynum said, he met with Morehouse Safe Space, the campus' gay organization. "We talked about it and then they took a vote," he said. "Of the 27 people in the room, only three were against it." There has been a positive response along with some criticism throughout the campus, he said. Senior Devon Watson said he disagrees with parts of the new policy, especially those that tell students what they should wear in free time outside of the classroom. "I feel that there will be a lot of resentment and backlash," Watson said. "It infringes on the student's freedom of expression. I matriculated successfully for three-and-half years dressing so how is this a problem?" Senior Tyrone McGowan said he has mixed feelings about parts of the policy. "But I have been inspired by the conversation it has created," he said. "We have to find a way to create diverse leaders from this college. I don't want this to place all of us in one box." Those breaking the policy will not be allowed to go to class unless they change. Chronic dress-code offenders could be suspended from the college. Bynum said the policy comes from the vision of the college's president, who wants the institution to create leaders like notable graduates Martin Luther King Jr., actor Samuel Jackson and film director Spike Lee. Senior Cameron Titus applauds the change. "The policy is just saying that you have to show more respect in how you dress and there are things that are just not acceptable at Morehouse," Titus said. "We have a legacy that we are trying to uphold." http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/10/17/college.dress.code/index.html

I am headed to LA for a bit. I know Numbers closed. Anything else out there? Other places close to LA? The beach areas?

We found spots offering good health care, culture and affordability. Forbes cannot promise retirees "paradise on $30 a day." Quite the opposite. We promise seniors wishing to move out of the U.S. that they will not find paradise anywhere. Each country is unique--with assets and liabilities--and the key to successful retirement as an ex-pat is carefully matching your own personal priorities and finances to the country that has caught your eye. To help matters along, Forbes has compiled its own list of the 10 best retirement havens, based on a wide variety of criteria ranging from safety to retiree-friendly visa requirements to decent medical care. The countries on our hit list: Austria, Thailand, Italy, Panama, Ireland, Australia, France, Malaysia, Spain and Canada. No place is perfect. Some countries rank high in one area but lower in others. Australia is by one well-regarded rating, the Country Brand Index, the most livable place in the world. (For the Country Brand and other rankings, see "Retire At Home Or Abroad?")But if you plan to return to the U.S. frequently, Australia makes for a long slog. Canada is No. 2 in the Country Brand ratings and certainly convenient for Americans, but its harsh winters are well-known. Italy scores high on quality of life, medical care, and even cost of living and climate for retirees residing in the Southern parts of the country. But its complicated taxes and bureaucracy require patience. So, the key to any decision: Know yourself and do your homework. For the full article: http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/15/ten-best-retirement-havens-personal-finance-retire-abroad.html

LOL. He must have been a stunner to have captivated you so much!

Heaven baby. Damm. He is hot!

Clarification: Daddyville. It is so far from Hooville that I can't even calculate. Again, we will agree to disagree.

I have great concern for his welfare. I do wish him well and when I get a chance to speak to him, I will offer him assistance in any way I can. I have met Scott and I liked him and yes, I have hired him. And, for those that give a shit, I would hire him again. I do not know what happened in this case and no one does but Scott. It could have been a set up. It could have belonged to someone else. I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt. It is public news at this point and that is NOT what I wanted. It saddens me a great deal that the Village Voice took up the story and ran with it. I do believe that made it a newsworthy event. I fell caught in the middle and as admin it is a hard place to be. You can't just repress things that you want to repress when they are in the public domain. At the same time, I do wish this thread and others would just die. I don't think they are productive and I think that everyone that had something to say has said it. I do not believe in closing threads and locking them or deleting them. If someone has relevant things to say, please speak up. But, for those that have made their point over and over again, lets move on to more positive things. Lastly, it is pretty well known that I once owned an escort agency. I loved the job. I hated to watch boys I cared about go down the same road as Scott. It broke my heart then and it does now. When vast amounts of money are being given and life is a party it is the rare escort that is able to stay away from the scene. Scott is a nice guy. He is a good escort. Some may not hire him because of this mess. Others will. I won't let it stop me from hiring him should he go back to escorting one day. What he does in his personal life is his own business. When it affects me as a client it becomes mine. This situation won't affect my support for him, my genuine concern for him and my desire to see him rise above this situation and become an even better person. For me, allowing this thread and others makes me sick to my stomach. So, I guess I hope that I am able to also take the experience, learn from it and also become a better person. I have said my peace and now I will move on.

I must not have read this thoroughly either Lucky. Can you show me that quote? Please be specific as I am a little blond and may miss it again unless I see it clearly. I know you are not just trying to stir up shit Lucky and can show me where he warned others not to attend the gathering. Thank you in advance for your kindness.

We would certainly allow anyone who wanted to fly under the radar to opt out of the drawing. No problem at all for us and easy to do.

We are thinking of doing another contest in celebration of our new relaunch that relates to reviews. Possibly for each review submitted both the reviewer and the escort reviewed gets their name in a hat for a special prize. Any suggestions? What do you think?

Willie Nelson has tossed the satellite dish off the back of his corn-powered tour bus in favor of a little box that fuses wireless data cards from a variety of networks into a single connection. Which is to say Willie is on the net again, seeing things he may never see again. Satellite connections can be made anywhere, but they are expensive and have strict usage caps. Network data cards offer all-you-can eat broadband plans, but any given company’s — AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint — doesn’t work everywhere. The solution? Use an array of network data cards from several companies. What Nelson has done is to tie four wireless USB cards into a Mushroom Networks PortaBella 141, which makes them into a single, fast and robust connection that can power a roving or remote network. That means if Willie wants to see how well he played “Whiskey River” at Farm Aid 2009, the packets from YouTube flow through all of the cards at once. “Because of the diversity of the cards, you don’t get the patchy up and down of wireless cards,” Mushroom Networks CEO Cahit Akin said. “It smooths out the experience.” Run a single ethernet cable from the second-generation Portabella to a wireless router and you’ve got internet for an entire tour bus, construction site or outdoor concert. That means Willie’s friends Pancho and Lefty don’t have to worry about using too much bandwidth as they try to escape the police, and Willie Nelson doesn’t have bandwidth caps always on his mind if he’s listening to new music online. Willie’s a big catch for the upstart, San Diego-based company — and a heavy user. He averages 200 days a year on the road, including the just-finished Farm Aid concert. And that means his team is constantly uploading new media to his website, and keeping in touch with friends and family. And they seem happy, having ditched the satellite connection just like they ditched petroleum for bio-fuel. “We rarely lose connection even in rural areas or if one card goes down,” said David Anderson, Willie Nelson’s tour manager. Mushroom Networks makes a range of gadgets that turn many connections into a single. That’s different from load balancers which distribute users among multiple connections — but assigns each user to a given connection. The PortaBella’s advantage is that users don’t notice as one connection gets weak or slow, since their traffic is then handled by a less congested card. Most data cards now come with a 5Gb per month download cap, so bundling the cards together let’s users not worry as much about blowing through that cap. The unit weighs a bit more than a pound, fits in your palm and has a battery pack option — with about a claimed four-hour life. Mushroom Networks wouldn’t provide a price for the unit, but did say leasing options start at $50 a month. That’s just for the PortaBella, and currently wireless data cards run about $50 a month as well. That means a total cost nearing $300 a month for 20Gb of pretty fast, very mobile internet. Those who need short-term mobile internet can turn to re-sellers such as Internet Anywhere. Who else besides a traveling musician with an entourage would have need of such a thing? A small band could just use the Mifi 2200 which runs off Verizon’s wireless service. Well, companies that can’t get a wired connection, outdoor events, videographers streaming live video, and transportation services including commuter shuttles buses, ferries and passenger trains. And, hell, if it’s good enough for Willie Nelson, it’s gonna be good enough for you. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/willie-nelson-broadban/

We allow and welcome reviews from those who have had bad experiences with escorts and their career is not the same afterward. However, to link to a site that reveals someone's personal name and file case is a totally different matter and not one I am comfortable with. If the mainstream media picked up this, that would be a different story as well. But, as long it is in the gossip rags, I do not see the need to send traffic to any of them. Those that wanted to find them have already done so and those that are interested will. I won't be a part of it and it has nothing to do with protecting an escorts interest over that of a client. It has to do with privacy that we afford to everyone on this site.

Yes, I agree. Stu, please never feel bad about lecturing or debating any issue. We may not be on the same side of the argument on all cases but we always appreciate input and debate on any subject.

No way are we interested in going down that road. LOL. Out of your 5 posts, how many have been on this one subject? I'm just askin'.

I hate to dumb found anyone. If I had seen the post and saw it was one of the posters first posts on the site, I would have questioned the motives of the post. I would have more of a struggle if it had come from a poster with a long history of posting on the site. I would have written to him and explained the situation and still removed the post. But, I can't imagine anyone that has over 100 posts on this site posting a link to something that could potentially damage someone's reputation and career. Most of the posters on this site would not have done that. IMHO

The post would have been down immediately if there was a Report this Post to Moderators OR if we had seen it. As soon as seen, we took action. One poster alerted us to this and we appreciate it. If you ever see a thread that you think should not be here, please report it to us. We will then get that and log in and take a look. TY did this as fast as he could and with a great deal of explanation. If I had seen it first, I would have just removed it and then banned the poster. TY had a more sensible approach.

Hard to believe 11 years have passed since this. I remember it almost like it was yesterday and still my eyes welt up when I think of it. http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2009/10/we-held-our-breath.html

— President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced in Oslo that it has awarded the annual prize to the president “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The award cited in particular Mr. Obama’s effort to reduce the world’s nuclear arsenal. “He has created a new international climate,” the committee said. The announcement, coming extraordinarily early in Mr. Obama’s presidency — less than nine months after he took office as the first African American president — shocked people from Norway to Washington. The White House had no idea it was coming. “There has been no discussion, nothing at all,” said Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff, in a brief telephone interview. Mr. Emanuel said he had not yet spoken directly to the president, but that he believed Mr. Obama may have been informed of the award by his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. There was no official comment from the White House. However, a senior administration official said in an e-mail message that Mr. Gibbs called the White House shortly before 6 a.m. and woke the president with the news. “The president was humbled to be selected by the committee,” the official said, without adding anything further. Mr. Obama made repairing the fractured relations between the United States and the rest of the world a major theme of his campaign for the presidency and since taking office as president, he has pursued a range of policies intended to fulfill that goal. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear arms, as he did in a speech in Prague earlier this year, reached out to the Muslim world, delivering a major speech in Cairo in June, and sought to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.” But while Mr. Obama has generated considerable good will overseas — his foreign counterparts are eager to meet with him, and polls show he is hugely popular around the world — many of his policy efforts have yet to bear fruit, or are only just beginning to. North Korea has defied him with missile tests; Iran, however, recently agreed to restart nuclear talks, which Mr. Obama has called “a constructive beginning.” In that sense, Mr. Obama is unlike past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize such as former President Jimmy Carter, who won in 2002 for what presenters cited as decades of “untiring efforts” to seek peaceful end to international conflicts. (Mr. Carter failed to win in 1978, as some had expected, after he brokered a historic peace deal between Israel and Egypt.) Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, said the president had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and international understanding to earn the award. “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future, but for what he has done in the previous year,” Mr. Jagland said. “We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.” The prize comes as Mr. Obama faces considerable challenges at home. On the domestic front, he is trying to press Congress to pass major legislation overhauling the nation’s health care system. On the foreign policy front, he is wrestling with declining support in his own party for the war in Afghanistan. The White House is engaged in an internal debate over whether to send more troops there, as Mr. Obama’s commanding general has requested. Mr. Obama also suffered a rejection on the world stage when he traveled to Copenhagen only last Friday to press the United States’ unsuccessful bid to host the Olympics in Chicago. Mr. Emanuel, who heard the news at 5 a.m. when he was heading out for his morning swim, said he joked to his wife, “Oslo beats Copenhagen.” But rebuffs have been rare for Mr. Obama as he has traveled the world these past nine months — from Africa to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, with a trip to Asia planned for November. In April, just hours after North Korea tested a ballistic missile in defiance of international sanctions, he told a huge crowd in Prague that he is committed to “a world without nuclear weapons.” For the rest of the article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

I have just tested this on Firefox, Safari and IE and did not get any X's and got 11 different reviews. May I suggest you clear your cache and restart your browser to see if this makes a difference. Is anyone else seeing what DicknLA is seeing? This is the image he sent to me and I can't replicate it. What is see is in the above image. Any others see this?

Can you send this via e-mail to maleescortreview@gmail.com and I'll convert to JPG and upload. Also, are others getting this?

I have 120k miles this year. I need 5k more miles to make their highest tier. I have a few trips planned and can easily make that. But, they now offer roll-over miles. If I don't make the next tier, I will roll over 45k miles into next year and only need one long trip to get to Platinum again. I don't see the benefits of Diamond vs. Platinum with their new program. At least not that much difference. Any one see things I am missing?

Leafy greens -- including lettuce and spinach -- top the list of the 10 riskiest foods, according to a study from a nutrition advocacy group released Tuesday. The Center for Science in the Public Interest listed the following foods, in descending order, as the most risky in terms of outbreaks: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries. The scientists rated these foods, all of them regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, by the number of outbreaks associated with them since 1990, and also provided the number of recorded illnesses. The severity of the illnesses ranged from minor stomach aches to death, the center said. With leafy greens such as lettuce, the top cause of illness were pathogens like E. coli, Norovirus and Salmonella in foods that were not properly washed. Over the past 20 years, leafy greens caused 363 outbreaks, resulting in 13,568 reported illnesses, the center said. That's compared to berries, No. 10 on the list, which were associated with 25 outbreaks totaling 3,397 reported illnesses. "Leafy greens are a healthy home run, but unfortunately they're associated with food-borne illness," said Sarah Klein, a staff lawyer with the center who helped prepared the study. In all, the Top 10 resulted in more than 1,500 outbreaks, totaling nearly 50,000 reported illnesses, according to the center, which added that most food-related illnesses don't get treated or reported, so the real total is likely much larger. "Millions of consumers are being made ill, hundreds of thousands hospitalized and thousands are dying each year from preventable foodborne illnesses," the study said. "Unfortunately, the FDA is saddled with outdated laws, and lacks the authority, tools and resources to fight unsafe food." Food producers, including the Western Growers Association, released statements criticizing the report. "Farmers are consumers, too," the association said, in a release from spokesman Paul Simonds. "They eat the fresh produce they grow as do the members of their families, and have invested millions of dollars enhancing food safety practices in the last few years. Scaring people away from eating some of the healthiest foods on the planet, like fresh produce, does not serve consumers." Salmonella was also a chief culprit in egg, cheese and tomato-related illnesses, the study said, in cases when eggs are undercooked and when cheese is not processed properly. Salmonella can be difficult to remove from raw tomatoes without cooking, according to the study. The study also associated Salmonella and E. coli with potatoes. Klein said this generally happens when cold-prepared potato items, such as potato salad, are mixed with other contaminated ingredients. Unrefrigerated fresh tuna deteriorates quickly, the study said, releasing harmful toxins, and canned tuna gets dragged into the picture because of mixed-in ingredients such as mayonnaise. Improperly washed oysters are at risk of Norovirus. Rich Ruais, executive director of the Blue Water Fisherman Association and the American Blue Fin Tuna Association in Salem, N.H., disagreed with the study's "bad rap" on tuna. "Tuna? I beg to differ," he said. "Tuna is one of the healthiest foods on the Earth. It's life sustaining; it's life prolonging." Ruais said the tuna-based diet of Japanese citizens plays a big part in their high average longevity. He also said the FDA strictly mandates that tuna is gutted and stuffed with ice immediately after it's caught by commercial fisherman, and submerged in slush once it gets to shore, to prevent risk of pathogens. More surprisingly, bacteria can also survive in ice cream, primarily from the Salmonella contamination of eggs, an important ingredient that is sometimes undercooked, the study said. Much of the study's blame goes to a 1994 outbreak that sickened thousands of ice cream lovers in 41 states. The National Milk Producers Federation released a statement criticizing the report as "based on outdated information." "Cheese and ice cream products are among the safest, most stringently regulated foods in this country," said the federation, in its release. "The cheese examples in this report mostly concern consumption of raw milk products, which neither [the] FDA nor the dairy industry recommends. The ice cream example is 15 years old and was an isolated incident." http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dangerous-foods-list-includes-cnnm-1143667599.html?x=0

One of my favorite writers/actors just told about his childhood and abuse that he suffered. Here is the CNN article I read. There's nothing funny about Tyler Perry's latest work: a revealing account of the horrific abuse he suffered as a child. Tyler Perry is the executive producer of the well-received new film "Precious." "I always thought I would die before I grew up," the comedian writes in an uncharacteristically somber letter to fans on his Web site. After watching a screening of the lauded movie "Precious," about a 16-year-old girl who is physically and emotionally abused, the New Orleans native, 40, best known for his comic Madea character, reveals a flood of memories came back, and that "a large part of my childhood had just played out before my eyes." Beginning with his mother's failed attempt to leave his abusive father, Perry recounts a horrific list of beatings and hardships he suffered. "My father came home, mad at the world," he writes. "He was drunk, as he was most of the time. He got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat me until the skin was coming off my back." Perry goes on to relate accounts of being seduced by a friend's mother at age 10, to being molested by another friend's father, to finding out that his own father was molesting a friend. And he tells of how his grandmother made a bizarre attempt to rid him of his allergies. Don't Miss "She said she was going to kill these germs on me once and for all," he says. "She gave me a bath in ammonia." But seeing "Precious," he said, helped him realize once again that he had survived it all. "It hit me so hard, I sat there in tears realizing that somehow, by the grace of God, I made it through," writes Perry, who signed on as an executive producer on the film, which was also produced by Oprah Winfrey. "My tears were tears of joy, being thankful that I made it." And the most important lesson of all? Learning to forgive, he says. "I know that there are a lot of people out there with stories far worse than mine but you, too, can make it. To those of you who have, welcome to life. I celebrate you," he said. "We're all PRECIOUS in His sight." http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/06/tyler.perry.abused/index.html