Bob

While I have nothing good to say about Bush junior, presidents get blamed for much more than they are responsible and often falsely get credit for things beyond their control. Yes, we had a surplus one year but it was projected that it wouldn't last long before it happened - at least without some significant changes to the inflow (taxes) and outflow (mainly entitlement programs and the military budget) of government. Bush and the Republicans and the Democrats squandered the opportunity for a much better economic future for the country but, then again, nobody in Washington ever thinks out far enough to do any long-term good for the country. Everything seems to be dealing with the crisis of the month or year and totally ignoring what needs to be done to ensure that the next 10 or 20 years are stable and prosperous. The current administration is in the same mess although to some degree I can sympathize with Obama as most of the current pile of shit was left at his doorstep to clean up. Everybody has always thought and claimed that the Republicans are thriftier economically whereas the Democrats are the "tax and spend" loonies. In reality - at least for the last 25 years - the Presidents who so far have added the most to the national debt were Reagan and Bush junior (although Obama will get there soon). As concerns the Lousianna poll, I simply don't buy the notion at all that the federal government did better during Katrina than it has done throughout this oil spill crisis. That makes no sense whatsoever to me - and I suspect the poll either was badly worded or is a result of the current terrible economy that has nothing to do with the oil spill crisis.

I think a bunch of posts were moved to new forums and, even though they are older posts, they show up as new posts. That's my guess in any event.

I'm not in your camp but maybe I'm a bit jealous as obviously your buffet is a lot bigger than my buffet!

Yea, I was wondering why there was any difficulty with the topic in the first place. There's tons of things one does every day (take a shower or six, eat, do the laundry, play on the internet, read a book, watch television, listen to music, clean the floors, etc, etc.) and, strangely enough, I do them the same way in Chiangmai as I do them in rural Michigan. And, every now and then, I take in a gogo show, visit a temple, etc., that rural Michigan seems to oddly not offer....

There has been a weekly report and poster TJ has fairly regularly posted notices of updates on all the boards. For myself, I don't usually look at it as it mainly deals with Pattaya (and, a little, Bangkok) and I'm usually in Chiangmai. So, I'd wonder about the need in general.

According to the Kindle's website, Thailand's coverage is provided by "EDGE/GPRS" and the coverage is about 95% of the entire country. I have no clue what "3G" is or isn't (let alone what "EDGE/GPRS" might be) but I can tell you that my Chiangmai friend receives books on his Kindle very quickly (and he doesn't connect to the internet, another Amazon option, to do it).

Presuming the engineering is sound and works (i.e., the floppy wings don't fall off), the 787 will be a huge leap forward for passenger jets. Not only with a much better interior and air filtration system, but more importantly it allegedly will produce a 20-25% fuel savings. If that projected fuel savings comes to fruition, the 787 will likely become the most successful passenger airplane ever built.

You have the option of the big one (I think it has a 9" diagonal screen) or the smaller version. I happen to like the big one but, obviously, on the negative side, it's slightly less handy to carry around and costs about twice as much. In my opinion, while both versions have the same features, the bigger version makes the text enlarger more practical (the screen's big enough to handle the option). Maybe the best idea is for you to go to one of the electronic stores and look at other e-readers for size (unless you can actually find (from people that own them) and compare the two Kindle versions).

Yep, seems to work almost anywhere. A good friend and I took a short trip to Fang (not that far from the Burma border and generally in the middle of nowhere) and he downloaded a book from there in about 20 seconds (or less). I got the bigger version just a month ago and also enjoy the free books. Read Treasure Island a couple of days ago (hadn't read that since I was a teenager) and currently am reading the Adventures of Sherlock Homes. Both free and each downloaded in less than 10 seconds. I return to LOS in a couple of weeks and one of the first things I'm going to do is to pick up a subscription to the New York Times. You get the first 2 weeks free and, after that, it's $19.95 a month (which is a good deal to me given that just the Sunday edition is over $7.00 in my town). Plus what's neat is that you get the latest version of the paper (I understand that the paper is digitally transmitted even prior to the printing presses starting their job in the US!). A very cool toy.

I also really like Hua Hin but it's not likely that there will be a trend of more gay bars there as, it seems, there isn't the gay population there to support them. And there never will be gogo bars there as it's forbidden due to its proximity to one of the King's palaces (I'm not 100% sure there's a law to this effect but I believe it as I've heard it so much there). For those that like the Pattaya scene, Hua Hin no doubt will seem rather dull to you.

After spending way too many nights in Little Choices from when it opened in February of this year to the end of April (when I left Hua Hin), I can tell you it's a great place for a drink, a chat, to play some pool, etc. It's a "gay" bar to the extent that the owner and staff are gay but I can't even tell you if it's a host bar to any degree (mainly because I never attempted to de-host anybody there); however, I do believe there may be a couple of guys there each night that are offable, so to speak, if they should strike your fancy and you theirs. Skip's the very amiable owner in residence and his bf is the manager. If you can find the Sofitel on the beach in Hua Hin, just continue walking south along that road (Naresdamri) and you'll find Little Choices about 200 yards on the right. Guy's bar is about another 20 feet south of Little Choices. Definitely a pleasant atmosphere and clean (and that was before they did a little remodeling a couple of months ago). The only photos I have are from outside during Songkran so I'll grab a couple of their online photos:

I certainly don't and, by and large, those families acquired their wealth through raw exercise of power - whether political or through use of physical force. The kings sent out their friends to control certain territories and they kept a chunk of what they collected for the given king. Come to think of it, not much different than what happened in England many hundreds of years ago. While I'm not allowed to begrudge or even criticize how the largest landowner in Thailand obtained that land, I can tell you he and his ancestors didn't get it selling popsicles.

Sure, some of them did, especially in the more advanced nations with a more equal education system. But, as noted by other posters, I would guess that numbers-wise, the majority of the wealthy in the world earned it the old fashioned way - they were born into it. And, of course, that ignores the numbers who got their wealth by unfairly exercising their powers and by blatant corruption. The Thai elite and upper echelons of the military might be very good examples of how that happens.

I was going to add some information here about the price of tea in China but both Rich and Scooby smacked me upside my pointy head.

I've never been a big Madonna fan given some of her earlier behaviors. She's no doubt a pop icon in the world but that alone doesn't make her anybody I admire. The current top icon is probably Lady Gaga and, in my book, she ain't no lady and I'm certainly not going gaga over her; in fact, I wouldn't let her in my home as even I have my standards! (as low as those may be....) Back to the topic, I voted for Obama and DaVinci. I could think of a whole lot of other names (Mandela or Gandhi,for example) that I'd want to have dinner with other than the remainder of the list. [if GB reads this, no offense intended - but my guess is you would acknowledge that Rich wasn't really too serious putting you on the list in the first place].

It's the same one, TJ. The photo is from the one section of Boxer's birthday trip to the Disney theme park in Hong Kong.

Found Boxer's old photo site and most of it is still quite functional. Since we were talking about him, thought I'd show a photo of him from his site:

I wouldn't want to say that all corporal punishment is bad under all circumstances but, generally, in my view, a parent or parent figure resorts to it out of ignorance and often because the adult did such a lousy job of effective discipline in the first place. Unfortunately, physically abusive behavior toward one's kids or towards one's partner is usually behavior the perpetrator learned from sweet old daddy or mommy (and who learned it from their folks). As to the caning done by this particular teacher (as shown by the videos), no damn excuse for it whatsoever. If I was one of the parents of one of the kids who committed the heinous crime of leaving a classroom too messy, I'd probably would like whack the teacher a few times with the same cane so he clearly understood what I thought about it (and I'm fairly certain he'd get the point, very quickly in fact).

As BL noted, I wouldn't think of not traveling with my laptop. It contains a ton of information I want with me when over in Thailand long-term and I use it as my computer there (usually via an ASDL line). Of all the times I've hauled that baby (a 17" Toshiba) through customs/immigration, nobody has ever even asked me a question about it. I don't worry about it at all.

Thanks, Jim, for resurrecting some good memories. Brian was a genuinely nice guy. When I hear his name - and David in Pattya's too - I remember two guys that were positively involved in the gay scene in Pattaya (and elsewhere), two guys that enjoyed going out of their way to help newbes to the scene (including myself), and who enjoyed participating on some prior gay message boards. Great guys.

There's this huge sign (hey, it even lights up at night!) that says Boyztown and I guess I just presumed (not sure why I did that!) that the sign gave some mild clue as to where Boyztown might be. As to whether it's 100 meters wide or 300 meters wide, I'm not sure as I never measured.

As of Sunday noon (US time), you had 290 some posts. Now, slightly 12 hours later, you have 365 posts (and that'll likely rapidly rise in the next few hours). I realize that this is perfectly acceptable under the rules here - in fact, GT by his contest has created this monster - but, in my opinion, the billions of posts by a few have disrupted this board and made it no longer worth my time to even try to sort out what's worth reading. Out of frustration, I'm simply punching the "mark this forum" read button multiple times per day.

This has gotten to be downright hilarious (read: annoying). Hell, I'm thinking of ponying up $500.00 to pay somebody to stop posting!

Good job, BL, six posts in a row on the same thread is likely a new record. It's good you've joined the posting numbers game and, at the rate you're going, you'll likely reach the 300 posts sometime today! Congrats. P.S. You'll be happy to know that Khun KhorTose's issue (the one from March you responded to and resurrected today) was resolved six months ago.

I'm a little puzzled by those comments. First, like GB, I've never seen it and I've spent a whole lot of time in Thailand for the last 10+ years; but, admittedly, I've never gone to public bathrooms looking for it either. Second, and this is just personal opinion, it seems rather disgusting to me (not the sex part but the location). If somebody wants to think that's ridicule, not my problem. As you note - and I'll agree with your comemnt on this point - there's a "very big taboo" about it. Usually that is a fairly good indication what the general population thinks about it.