Ramblings & Replies

[JaiDee]

Could be, I am waiting on Paccers to wake up and say it looks familiar

 

Sorry Pacman, couldn't resist!

[pacman]

Looks familiar.

 

Couldn't resist also. 

 

(Am I that predictable?)

[JaiDee]

I know you've been around the block for a while Paccers,  but 1920 goes back too far even for you!

 

I wonder if there were any ladyboys walking around back then?

 

 Sukhimvit road area would have been a swamp or at best farmland......

[pacman]

1976 was my first visit to LOS. I had such a good time I was there twice that year, both times for a month.

 

I have read that katoeys have been around for hundreds of years. They hold some special position in society. Or they did but I really don't anything about their history. I will leave it for someone better qualified to comment about how long they have been around & their place in society.

[JaiDee]

I have a friend from Boston, he started going to BKK in the 70's as well and always used to say to me when I was going over there "say hello to the sons of my old ladyboy girlfriends!" 

[pacman]

He could have said say hello to his own children. Condoms were rarely used & the number of girls who fell pregnant was vast. 

 

Bangkok had a VD clinic on every corner back then. 

 

As I wrote in a trip report many years ago when reminiscing about those days  -  "We (a few farangs I met up with) must have fathered entire villages with our exploits."

 

A thought that sends a shiver down the spine.

[Torurot]

Klongs would have been in full gear back then

March of Tyranny

[bumblebee]

1976 was my first visit to LOS. I had such a good time I was there twice that year, both times for a month.

 

I have read that katoeys have been around for hundreds of years. They hold some special position in society. Or they did but I really don't anything about their history. I will leave it for someone better qualified to comment about how long they have been around & their place in society.

I like your modesty Paccers, there are other guys who have been to Los once or twice on an LB holiday and would see themselves as experts in all things about the scene.

[pdogg]

 

As I wrote in a trip report many years ago when reminiscing about those days  -  "We (a few farangs I met up with) must have fathered entire villages with our exploits."

 

A thought that sends a shiver down the spine.

 

Now that you mention it Paccers, in my travels I stumbled across a small amphur somewhere in

Nakhon Pacmon with rather unusual looking kids!

 

[Torurot]

Veterans Day: Honor the Soldier … Scorn the Chickenhawk

Posted on November 11, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/11/veterans-day-honor-soldier-scorn-chickenhawk.html

Honor the Veterans

[Hefe]

 

I have read that katoeys have been around for hundreds of years. They hold some special position in society. Or they did but I really don't anything about their history. I will leave it for someone better qualified to comment about how long they have been around & their place in society.

 

This made me curious too. I googled & here is a copy & paste:

 

In a Northern Thai (Yuan) creation myth, ‘hermaphroditism’ features prominently, which may suggest that transsexuality has been common in the region for centuries. The myth is recorded in an early chronicle written down possibly from a much older oral tradition sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries. ... In it, the first three human beings were a woman, a man, and a ‘hermaphrodite’.

.....  Late 19th-century travel accounts by European visitors to the north of Thailand seem to be the earliest evidence from western sources that transsexuality was common here. When the Norwegian explorer Carl Bock was in Chiang Mai in 1882, he was told that there were several ‘hermaphrodites’. (5) Holt Hallett, a British visitor here a few years later, met a shopkeeper in ordinary female costume. (6) Most likely, the people so described were not in fact hermaphrodites (persons with biologically ambiguous sexual characteristics) but transsexuals, their habits of cross-dressing being their own choosing.

Of particular interest in this context are the comments of W. A. R. Wood, a Briton who lived and worked in the consular service here in the north from the early 1900s, even residing here after his retirement into the 1960s. In his book Consul in Paradise, he writes as follows.

“In England, if a man goes about dressed as a woman he is arrested... In Siam, especially in the north, there are a certain number of men who habitually wear female clothing and grow their hair long. It does not seem to be thought that there is anything morally wrong about this, and so far I have been able to make out, these Pu-Mia (men-women), as they are called, really possess, as a rule no moral eccentricities. Physically also, I am told, there is nothing unusual about them. They prefer to dress as women, and that is all there is to say about it.

 

http://www.sjonhauser.nl/transsexuality-in-northern-thailand-historical-notes.html

 

I'll read it tomorrow, too late now here.

[JaiDee]

Don't believe 'em if anyone says your vote doesn't count.

 

 

 

[pacman]

I like your modesty Paccers, there are other guys who have been to Los once or twice on an LB holiday and would see themselves as experts in all things about the scene.

 

Thanks BB. I didn't want to sound like another of those bar room experts who claim to know everything about Thailand. I know enough to know I barely understand the place, hence my reluctance to make claims I can't substantiate. 

 

Now that you mention it Paccers, in my travels I stumbled across a small amphur somewhere in

Nakhon Pacmon with rather unusual looking kids!

 

simpsons55.jpg

 

FAAARRRK.

 

Don't do that to me PD. The thought I might have children back in Issan is something that could haunt my dreams.

 

Where do we imagine all the farang/Thai babies come from? They are the inevitable result of holiday romances between holiday makers & local girls. And they are the children most likely to turn out katoey.

 

Think about it....          

[KenW]

Well the khatoey supply has to be kept up somehow...

[Kahuna]

Bui Doi...........The dust of life............

[Torurot]

Cartoon movement Great collections of cartoons of all kinds from around the world

http://www.cartoonmovement.com/

[JaiDee]

If you have 10 minutes....and you want to see how the big banks are STILL screwing over the little people [read; US] 6 years after we all thought the banking crisis was over, check out this clip;  Matt Taibbi really is the best reporter out there.

 

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/11/jpmorgan-paid-9-billion-to-keep-one-witness-from-talking/

 

 

JPMorgan Paid $9 Billion to Keep One Witness From Talking

[xyzzy]

 

If you have 10 minutes....and you want to see how the big banks are STILL screwing over the little people [read; US] 6 years after we all thought the banking crisis was over, check out this clip;  Matt Taibbi really is the best reporter out there.

 

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/11/jpmorgan-paid-9-billion-to-keep-one-witness-from-talking/

 

 

JPMorgan Paid $9 Billion to Keep One Witness From Talking

 

 

  Not a problem any longer. We have the Republicans to keep an eye on them now...

[Guest JustSumGai]

the repubs like to loot and pillage, run everything into crisis level and then laughingly drop the whole mess into some dems lap (Clinton/Obama).  I'd like the Dems to run a total loser the next time that happens. Not play the game. Let the morons that vote in Shrub et al REALLY see what they get from a long right wing rule.

[Hefe]

It could happen, Hillary isn't always the best campaigner, Jeb is "the smart Bush" (which is true actually) & almost half of the country won't vote Dem no matter what & they are the motivated voting bloc.

 

Frankly my assets can't withstand another market crash (40% loss for me last time) due to endless foriegn entanglements combined with tax cuts & supply side economics. But Jeb will be tough to beat unless they find in his bed a dead girl or a live boy.

[JaiDee]

You really think so Hefe?

 

 

Jeeesh, even his Mom said "Enough Bush's have been in the white house" and methinks the electorate will agree.

 

These elections seem to be cyclical, no surprise there, so after the Repubs mess things up as usual during the last 2 years of Obama the country may be ready for some new blood and a Dem.  I think Hillary has the best chance right now, maybe with Bernie Sanders as her running mate after he drops out early?   That would bring in the conservative Dems for Hill and the ultra-liberals for Bernie, the socialist; Liz Warren is still 6 or ten years away from a serious run.

 

   I think we all lost 40% under the last republican, that voodoo economics nonsense just doesn't work. It's all come back under this guy - plus 30% more- yet people seem to wanna tell me he's been bad for my wallet.  Huh?

[Hefe]

I'll bet the Clinton people right now are vetting a lot of moderate conservative southern white male Dems for veep, are there any governors that fit this profile left? Maybe someone from the west also, there was a governor from Montana recently....  Also a fair amount of nominally red but non ideological women may cross over just to put in the first woman pres ever.  My money is on Hill right now...

[JaiDee]

Me too, and I'll be supporting her same as I did in 2008 before some little-known Senator from Illinois threw a curveball into the mix.  As for your southern Governor;  how do you feel about Charlie Crist? Used to be an {R} but now runs as an independent, just lost a close race in Florida so should be available and as you know pulling Florida is super-important.

[Torurot]

Scott Walker: Denying Health Care To Low-Income People Helps Them ‘Live The American Dream’

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/11/14/3592511/scott-walker-medicaid-expansion/

by Tara Culp-Ressler Posted on November 14, 2014

The Wisconsin governor defended his fellow GOP leaders' decision to block Medicaid expansion, saying poor people need to enter the workforce.

[xyzzy]

I was just watching Chris Matthews and seemingly a big part of Hillary's problems in 2008 were caused by those running her campaign fighting each other in the background. I'm surprised Bill would allow that to happen. I guess there are some Emails from that time making the rounds now as she apparently attempts to vet a real team.

 

Bernie Sanders? Really? I don't think so.   I have no idea who will be her running mate but I kind of doubt it will be someone that just lost and election in FL. Anyone available from Ohio? That seems to be were elections are decided these days along with Florida.

 

It truely seems up in the air whether Jeb wants to run (for all we know). If nothing else these days that is an amazing feat.