JaiDee

This is so tragic....besides the loss of life [1800+ so far] and more than 5000 injuries, thousands will be displaced and many of the country's beautiful cultural landmarks have been destroyed. I spent a week there in 2011 and a month there in 2012, one of the most beautiful and unique places I've ever been. In Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, which is just 10 miles from the capitol, you can see the dividing line between what was new-ish and what was still there from pre-1934, when the last big earthquake hit. Patan too. Walking around those cities was like being in a living museum and now many of those fantastic places are just destroyed after standing for 300, 400 years or more. Seeing these photos online today breaks my heart, RIP to the loverly and gentle people of Nepal. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/the-photo-blog/nepal-landmarks-before-and-after-the-earthquake/

This quote has never been fully vetted, but it makes for a great story! When someone asked Lennon if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, John said "He's not even the best drummer in this band."

Here's an ad from a Saigon newspaper, circa 1972

Article from the Tampa Bay Times which showed up in my news feed today, ''How riding your bike can land you in trouble with the cops — if you're black'' http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/how-riding-your-bike-can-land-you-in-trouble-with-the-cops---if-youre-black/2225966 ''In the past three years, Tampa police have written 2,504 bike tickets — more than Jacksonville, Miami, St. Petersburg and Orlando combined. But here's something they don't mention about the people they ticket: Eight out of 10 are black. The Times analyzed more than 10,000 bicycle tickets Tampa police issued in the past dozen years. The newspaper found that even though blacks make up about a quarter of the city's population, they received 79 percent of the bike tickets.'' "You almost roll your eyes when you read the reports," said Circuit Judge Tracy Sheehan. it occurred to me the stops were all occurring in certain neighborhoods and with certain children, and not in my neighborhood, and not with the white kids." Just a wild guess here, but I am betting Judge Sheehan is white? I don't know, I was told recently that white, Christian males have a target on their backs and that it's "open season" on those poor, downtrodden whites; is the Tampa Bay Times lying to us?

Keep in mind that may have been an expense account as well; but still outrageous. The restaurant in question is on Madison Ave in NYC, a block from Central Park and across from a Hermes store - which sells handbags and belts for 2500 bucks, I looked it up - but they have a branch in the Hamptons. I doubt that one is expensive as their NYC location but you never know! Some of the Yelp and Trip Advisor reviews are not all that flattering. http://www.yelp.com/biz/nellos-new-york http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60763-d424088-Reviews-Nello_s-New_York_City_New_York.html

Can you believe that shit? I mean, even if you're rich, 47 grand; for one dinner?? Seems crazy......

A person could live very well in Pattaya or Phuket for 2 or 3 years with the money this table spent on one dinner in Manhattan, which lasted 2 or 3 hours.

Sure Sean, this is the thread for rambling! Or start a new thread, it's something we here can all relate to.

Here is Belfast after a blitz by the Luftwaffe, April 1941

Absolutely LOVE this idea, I wish my state would do it! Vermont is only 45 mins away, I am sure I will be visiting soon http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/16/vermont-alcohol-ban-marijuana-_n_7079484.html?utm_hp_ref=politics Vermont Lawmakers Threaten To Reinstate Prohibition If Pot Isn't Legalized "If passed, House Bill 502 would outlaw the consumption of alcohol, with penalties mirroring those currently in place for marijuana possession. Those found with small amounts of alcohol would be subject to fines of up to $500, and anyone involved in the sale and distribution stream could face up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in penalties.''

See, this is a horrible thing and allows for all sorts of corruption at many levels. It's in the best interest of the people who own the jails to keep them FULL, 2 of them are traded on the NY stock exchange! And they have deals with the states and with the feds whereby they get paid for beds whether they are full or not; so the attitude of the police and local governments is "fuck it, may as well keep them filled" and they do that by busting low-level dealers and even worse, people whose only crime is possession. Let's also remember it's NOT in the best interest of Big Pharma for these drugs to be legalized, and they pay lobbyists to bribe our elected officials to keep them illegal. Wouldn't be very good for the profit margins if everyone realized there was no need for them to pay hundreds of dollars for their painkillers from Pfizer when in reality all they may need is a little weed from a dispensary. Not sure if Portugal has legal access to it and stores which sell it, etc....don't think so though. I think they just let you use but don't sell it. I think the Swiss do something similar with their junkies, no?

Actually, I can't watch O'Reilly or any other FOX show for even 5 minutes; I just get the most outrageous clips from their shows [ and many others] from a site called Mediaite. I get their newsfeed daily and it's good because they crank on ALL the news orgs and they also send up [just] the relevant parts from the previous evening's The Daily Show. IE; Jon's monologue and one interview. Great site if you have never been there before; http://www.mediaite.com/ Regarding that nonsensical comment about white men having a target on their backs, another website where I get a daily newsfeed from was commenting about it today; the NY Times. Here's what Charles Blow had to say; ''this faux oppression makes a mockery of very real oppression. Aside from the hilarity of the incongruous spectacle of two incredibly powerful white men grousing about the lowly plight of white men in general is the utter ridiculousness of the idea itself.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/opinion/charles-blow-woe-of-white-men-again.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

I'll probbaly get excoriated for this in certain circles, but IMO all drugs should be legalized. Any libertarian would agree, same as with prostitution; it's our bodies, who are these governments to regulate them? Portugal tried it 12 years ago and it's working there; money which was once used for jails can now go towards rehabilitation centers, and policing costs go down as well. Early warning ad campaigns aimed at youth as well, trying to nip it in the bud. ''Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal'' http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/ Of course this will never happen, even if we lived another 200 years. But the ''war on drugs" is definitely an abject failure which has gotten us absolutely nowhere - except our status as jailing more people than any other country on earth, by a very wide margin - since it was started in 1972 by Tricky Dick; why not try something else?

Louis CK; "If you're white and you don't admit that it's great, you're an asshole." Couldn't agree more.

Seen that clip before Kahuna, it's a classic......"welcome to the year 2, may I get you a table?" hahaha O'Reilly has clearly gone off his rocker, finally; white Christian males oppressed? In America? Huh?? Something like 80% of Americans identify as Christian {I was born as such, as were all my neighbors and schoolmates, of course} and 92% of the senate is as well. The president and the VP, all of the cabinet, more than 80% of the congress, etc..... I mean, I know this guy likes to scare the geriatrics who tune into his show, but come on; who in their right minds would ever say "It's open season on white Christian males" and really mean it? We have it made!

Just letting you guys know; if you are white, male, and Christian, you better not go outside. It's now open season on that poor group of fellows here in America these days. Blacks - despite getting killed by cops at an alarming rate - and other minorities? Not so much. It's us white male Christians who can never catch a break.

Not sure about this forum, but we tried numerous times to get it going on the old Ladyboy Forums; never really took off. Ladyboys won't do chat rooms, and most guys don't want to sit around chatting with other LB-chasers.

Couldn't get into Game of Thrones but enjoyed Better call Saul; Vince Gilligan does great work.

Shameless and House of Lies [not House of Cards] with Don Cheadle just wrapped up their winter seasons and were excellent as always. I also enjoyed the Breaking Bad spin-off called Better Call Saul which also just ended a ten-show run. Homeland wasn't great this season but still worth watching, and Vikings has 2 episodes left; started out rather slow this year but really picked up steam last week with the invasion of Paris! Great show.

And yet, only 4 states and the District have passed legalization. How stupid do these other states have to be? Don't they WANT new revenue for their states while cutting down on crime and the amounts of people filling their jails? Are they not aware that legalization in Washington and Colorado alone have accounted for a massive loss in revenue for the Mexican cartels in their marijuana-trafficking operations? Someone still has to tell me the downside of legalizing a plant, it's 100 times safer than alcohol and every time I am out I see people acting like assholes and starting fights and being loud with alcohol; with stoners all you see is people watching movies and eating ice cream.

Same-same but different; My mom and Dad bought a beautiful Buick LeSabre, again, off the showroom floor, in 1992. Nothing special, but very reliable and IMO was a sweet car, also had a 6-cylinder so very good on gas and it had an awesome 2-tone paint scheme, so that if you looked at it from one angle it would look green, and if you looked at it from another way it would appear to be blue. Very unique. Anyway, sadly my step-dad passed a few years later and by around 2008 my mom had to stop driving because she had a stroke. That Buick was still perfect, had *maybe* 70K on the motor and in typical old-lady style everything was updated and always maintained well at the dealer for premium prices. My mom put me in charge of selling it, and we all agreed no family member should be able to but it first because of favoritism and all that. The Blue Book price was only 2400; I would have paid twice that for a car I knew was perfect in every way and which I knew had a LOT of life left. So I put the word out, and my buddy called me the same day and said he knew someone who would take it sight unseen for that price LOL. My buddy told him how cherry it was, who owned it, etc, and the guy came over the next day and handed me the 2400 and it was gone. Last I heard that car was well over 150K miles and still doing just fine.

Beware getting too excited about old cars sitting in barns or not used very often......2 quick stories here; When my dear ol' Uncle Jim passed on in the 90's my mom was the executrix of his will. He had a beautiful 69 Buick, forget the model but it was mint in every way, always garaged, and only had something like 50K original miles on it. Since I have lots of siblings it didn't make sense for my mom to pick just one of us to have it, so we had a mini-lottery and we all drew straws. My oldest brother got the Buick and was happy as a clam - until he proceeded to have nothing but headaches and costly expenditures for that car. Turns out 80- something year old Uncle Jim had his own driving habits, of course, and once a new driver got behind the wheel things started going to hell. My brother dumped that car after spending a few grand, he knew it would likely be a money pit and just cut his losses. When I got married in 1990 my wife's grandmother had a BEAUTIFUL old Impala, a white fastback 2-door model, probably a '68 or '69. Same as the Buick, she bought it off the showroom floor and was the only person to ever drive it and miles were minimal. Literally one of those "old lady who only drove it to church on Sundays" deals. I was excited because I knew she wouldn't be driving much longer - she was born in the late 1800's - and since my wife was her favorite we would likely get it. And a couple years later she did stop; but when her son, my father-in-law, had it checked out, it turns out the whole under carriage was rotted and rusted to shit. New England winters will do that to a nice car like that. And having a friendly garage who will throw on an inspection sticker every year without looking over the thing didn't help. It was essentially unusable - it would have needed a whole new frame - and I believe it got towed away to a junk yard at that point, for the price of the tow. Similar Impala below, what a sweet ride

Found a couple pics of my very first car....well, not MY car exactly, but I had the same exact model; a 1965 Chevy Belair. Same light blue color scheme as well. Bought in 1980 in California, where I was living with my sister at the time. Wasn't quite 18 years old yet, paid 300 bucks for it; still my favorite ride to this day [although the 2000 Caddy STS I had for a few years was pretty sweet :-) ] The original didn't have those gaudy rims, but it DID have the same style bench-seating; I remember driving that thing to Vegas across the I-15 like it was yesterday.

By the way, this isn't some little-read, fringe website; it happens to be very high in the most-viewed rankings, ahead of such mainstream websites as Newsweek.com, MSNBC.com, and a very popular newspaper from a large American city. Lots of people get their views and opinions here, tens of thousands a day are reading these stories; and these style of comments.

Well, that all depends on who you ask! Some feel it's perfectly fine, surely the same as every single person who follows this website, and some think it's bad news and something to be afraid of. Or maybe that the Gay agenda is harming young people by turning them gay or into transsexuals; everyone here, once again, knows that is not how the whole thing works. Anyway, it's hard to generalize based on politics or where people stand in overall current events, but I stumbled over an article today about a young kid from America, 14 years old, who is a Ladyboy and wishes to live her life as a female rather than a boy, and The Learning Channel will now have a series about her. Good for her! We see it all the time in Thailand, but much less so in the West; good for them for trying to open people's minds. But some people don't quite see it that way and view her as a threat or as someone to have pity upon, or that she may even be "mentally Ill". You all can read the article and judge for yourselves which side of the social/political construct these people probably side with, I am simply sending up a link to the story and some samples from the comments section below it. http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/03/12/tlc-to-air-transgender-teen-reality-series/ ''Transgenderism is a psychiatric disorder, yet we approach it as though it were something to be celebrated and accommodated.'' ''I hate degenerate trash'' ''What trannies need more than anything is a shrink. There is obviously a screw loose somewhere.'' ''This is most likely a child abuse from his parents who supported him in this'' ''Another freak by choice show is what the nation needs.'' ''They are inherently unstable. It is a disorder.'' ''Mental illness'' ''Side show freaks'' ''This poor, mentally ill kid and his criminally negligent parents will fit right in.'' {On TLC} ''They are suffering from mental delusions on par with 'feeling' that they are George Washington or perhaps a head of lettuce.'' ''I'm always shocked at how these severely mentally ill people are exploited by the entertainment industry, and liberals in general. This poor child should be in an institution - receiving treatment - not being paraded around as a one-child freak show - for fun and profit.'' ''This poor BOY needs help, not enabling / glorification.'' ''Body Dysmorphic Disoder is a very very serious mental illness. Legitimizing peoples' delusions like this is wrong.'' "Homosexuality results in unhealthy,destructive behavior,and it spreads diseases at FAR higher rates than normals,per CDC scientific data. it is not to be encouraged,enabled,or accommodated.'' ''SICKO! YOU'RE SHOW WILL FAIL!'' {Bigots aren't all that bright, this is how they usually spell} ''Sounds like the parents wanted a girl, so they just made one. The parents are seriously messed up. If they had just ignored it and treated him like a boy, chances are he would be one. Now the kid is a star based on a mental disorder.'' ''Maybe a little electroconvulsive therapy to straighten (figuratively and literally) out those neurons.''