This is kind of like Bill Maher's, "New Rules".
Opinion #1: Suing your city whose official seal has crosses on it (and thus violates the separation of church and state) makes you a moron... fundamentally a correct moron, but a moron nonetheless... Especially if your town is called "Las Cruces". Perhaps these people should sue to have "Los Angeles" renamed to "Los Fairies". Hmm... maybe "St. Louis" could become "Ghost Louis"?
Opinon #2: Target department store is idiotic for hiring pharmacists who won't sell the "Plan B" anti-pregnancy-day-after drug because of their religious convictions. Who is dumber: The owner of a gun shop who hires somebody who refuses to sell guns to people, or the anti-gun nut who agrees to take the job in the first place? I can't see how it's illegal to hire a salesperson who won't sell your stuff, but it's certainly not the smartest thing you could do... especially when moving the whackadoo pharmacist over to the Sporting Goods section is so much easier. Why bother getting half a million pro-choicers riled up against your corporation over one freak who thinks that a microscopic clump of 2 (or possibly even 3) cells is the equivalent of a person?
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Cracking Up
There had been rumors: Little page-20 newspaper stories about temper tantrums, not-so-reliable tabloid blurbs about being back on the bottle, insider and ex-insider stories about inaccessibility and inflexibility.
However, now you have The Washington Times Magazine, which could theoretically be renamed "Inside Republican Washington Magazine", or "The White House Times"... usually the first (and only) published work that gets to go inside the White House to do feature length articles... writing this (link only temporary):
In addition, Matt Drudge, the first person Republicans call when they have news to share expands on it with this (link only temporary):
Note that that list consists only of women? Weird.
History will judge President George W. Bush harshly... but it may also just judge him to be nuts. I don't need to wait for history: I believe that for the next 3 years, a madman will occupy the most powerful station on earth.
Hat tip to Americablog... I copied John's article almost word for word.
However, now you have The Washington Times Magazine, which could theoretically be renamed "Inside Republican Washington Magazine", or "The White House Times"... usually the first (and only) published work that gets to go inside the White House to do feature length articles... writing this (link only temporary):
Bush rarely speaks to father, 'family is split'
President Bush feels betrayed by several of his most senior aides and advisors and has severely restricted access to the Oval Office, administration sources say. The president's reclusiveness in the face of relentless public scrutiny of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and White House leaks regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame has become so extreme that Mr. Bush has also reduced contact with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, administration sources said on the condition of anonymity.
In addition, Matt Drudge, the first person Republicans call when they have news to share expands on it with this (link only temporary):
The sources said Mr. Bush maintains daily contact with only four people: first lady Laura Bush, his mother, Barbara Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. The sources also say that Mr. Bush has stopped talking with his father, except on family occasions.
Note that that list consists only of women? Weird.
History will judge President George W. Bush harshly... but it may also just judge him to be nuts. I don't need to wait for history: I believe that for the next 3 years, a madman will occupy the most powerful station on earth.
Hat tip to Americablog... I copied John's article almost word for word.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Good Article
This Slate article outlines exceptionally well about how Congress and the American people were misinformed and misled about Iraq's WMD program.
Damn
My ATM card is messed up... badly.
It still works: I can go to the ATM and check my balance... see my money... but can't get the ATM to fork over the dough. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with my bank, and they can't find anything wrong with my account. They're sending me a new card in the mail... but who knows if that new card won't have the same problem.
Fingers seriously crossed.
It still works: I can go to the ATM and check my balance... see my money... but can't get the ATM to fork over the dough. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with my bank, and they can't find anything wrong with my account. They're sending me a new card in the mail... but who knows if that new card won't have the same problem.
Fingers seriously crossed.
Loy Krathong
Tomorrow is the holiday called Loy Krathong... my favorite Thai holiday. It is kind of like Valentine's day. Everybody gets dressed up in traditional Thai dress and then goes and Loy (floats) Krathong. Krathong are little flower floats with incense and candles that you and your lover send down the river (or out to sea) with your hopes and wishes. Alternatively, you can use flying krathong, which are little hot air balloons that you set aloft in the night sky.Unfortunately, Most krathongs are a slab of styrofoam, and the balloons are white plastic bags. Needless to say, cleanup on the day following Loy Krathong is always a painful sight, with the beaches of Pattaya and Jomtien literally covered with styrofoam and plastic bags.
Things are changing however: I saw that Carrefour was selling bread krathongs that are obviously much friendlier for the fish.
Took and I went to the local Thai formal dress shop and rented a pretty blue dress for her to wear tomorrow. They didn't have any shirts that fit me, so I'm having a nice blue silk overshirt made. (Overshirt is my invented word for something that isn't quite a blazer, but more substantial than a shirt.)
We'll cut quite a figure on Walking Street tomorrow evening.
I gave Go 200 baht for doing so well over her first couple of days. Bless her heart: She went out and bought things to make her own little krathong, which she politely asked permission if she could float in my pool tomorrow night.
Good Reading
Where can you read political commentary from famous people who don't really write political commentary for a living? Here, at the Huffington Post, where 300 or 400 famous people like Deepak Chopra, Alec Baldwin, Bob Barr, Sen. Barney Frank, Walter Cronkite, Kelly Preston, Rob Reiner, Cindy Sheehan, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Gore Vidal, and John Cusack (who wrote this diatribe recently) all maintain mini-blogs.
Sorry: They are all liberals. If you're looking for conservative-minded celebrity bloggers to read, they don't seem to exist.
Sorry: They are all liberals. If you're looking for conservative-minded celebrity bloggers to read, they don't seem to exist.
Wildlife Update
The little songbirds that I set free — those that survived — seem to have set up house in the trees along the street next to my garden and are twittering happily.
The snail invasion continues apace. If I look, I can always find one or two stuck to a wall or something. One was making its way across my walk the other night and I stepped on it in the dark... sickening sound like stepping on your glasses. Now I know to keep an eye out for them. Surpringly the kitties leave them alone...
...unlike the lovebirds, who still get occasional furry lightning strikes. The pair pretty much stay up inside their penthouse and only come out when they know the coast is clear, and head for safety at the first sign of movement outside.
The chingchoks haven't fared as well. Not one of the tiny green geckos has been seen in over a week as the cats have nabbed them all, it seems. However, there is still a large Tookeh lizard over near my bedroom window who makes a "tookeh" bullfrog sound at night.
There are a whole lot of butterflies around my house. There are boring small white ones, some big black ones, and a husband/wife team that look like Monarch butterflies, but more brown than orange, who dance through the air together all over the place. I never see one without the other. Maybe in keeping with my lovebirds, I shall name them loverflies. There are giant tan and white moths too. The cats do like those and have gotten really good at leaping and snagging them out of the air. There are lots of other color butterflies that I can't see at the moment to describe... but they are out there.
There are also hummingbirds who fellate the flowers on my property. Every once in a while, they take the shortcut through my office window, past my head, and out the patio door, making me dive for cover each time, as a friendly hummingbird and a menacing 3-inch long bumblebee look quite similar to my entomophobic eye.
A large cat — I think it is the neighbor's — comes over the wall from time to time and sets up a howling as he paces my property. If it wasn't a boy, I would be certain the thing was in heat. He stays in the periphery so he is rarely seen... but he hides out, obscured in the bushes and makes a racket. I've got a collection of pebbles next to my desk so that when I hear him, I can chuck some in his direction, and the noise usually scares him back over to his native side of the wall.
A friend — Geoff actually — remarked that he didn't like cats because they really fuck with the wildlife population in the neighborhood. He's right. Unfortunately, I'm attached to my hairy little trio, and besides: Thailand has more wildlife per square meter than another other country on the planet... those species who don't make it in my tiny little slice of Thailand are doing quite fine beyond my property's borders.
The snail invasion continues apace. If I look, I can always find one or two stuck to a wall or something. One was making its way across my walk the other night and I stepped on it in the dark... sickening sound like stepping on your glasses. Now I know to keep an eye out for them. Surpringly the kitties leave them alone...
...unlike the lovebirds, who still get occasional furry lightning strikes. The pair pretty much stay up inside their penthouse and only come out when they know the coast is clear, and head for safety at the first sign of movement outside.
The chingchoks haven't fared as well. Not one of the tiny green geckos has been seen in over a week as the cats have nabbed them all, it seems. However, there is still a large Tookeh lizard over near my bedroom window who makes a "tookeh" bullfrog sound at night.
There are a whole lot of butterflies around my house. There are boring small white ones, some big black ones, and a husband/wife team that look like Monarch butterflies, but more brown than orange, who dance through the air together all over the place. I never see one without the other. Maybe in keeping with my lovebirds, I shall name them loverflies. There are giant tan and white moths too. The cats do like those and have gotten really good at leaping and snagging them out of the air. There are lots of other color butterflies that I can't see at the moment to describe... but they are out there.
There are also hummingbirds who fellate the flowers on my property. Every once in a while, they take the shortcut through my office window, past my head, and out the patio door, making me dive for cover each time, as a friendly hummingbird and a menacing 3-inch long bumblebee look quite similar to my entomophobic eye.
A large cat — I think it is the neighbor's — comes over the wall from time to time and sets up a howling as he paces my property. If it wasn't a boy, I would be certain the thing was in heat. He stays in the periphery so he is rarely seen... but he hides out, obscured in the bushes and makes a racket. I've got a collection of pebbles next to my desk so that when I hear him, I can chuck some in his direction, and the noise usually scares him back over to his native side of the wall.
A friend — Geoff actually — remarked that he didn't like cats because they really fuck with the wildlife population in the neighborhood. He's right. Unfortunately, I'm attached to my hairy little trio, and besides: Thailand has more wildlife per square meter than another other country on the planet... those species who don't make it in my tiny little slice of Thailand are doing quite fine beyond my property's borders.
Thai Pragmatism
That famous Thai Smile, known throughout the world, is supposed to broadcast "friendly, relaxed, welcoming" to the rest of mankind. However, that is really just a marketing ploy. The Thai smile actually means "disarming, masking, wiley".
Underneath the thin veneer of civility, Thai people share the same pragmatic brutishness as the Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Burmese of recent history. All they need is the people in charge... the government... to tell them to drop the pretense, and you will have a country of little brown psychopaths on your hands.
And the Thai government tends to do that with lethal guile: First it was the war on drugs, where the government winkwinked and nodnodded the message "the only good drug dealer is a dead drug dealer." Bam: 1,300 drug dealers off the streets... with bullets.
Now the Thai government is turning its focus to the unrest (read: terrorism) in the south of Thailand. Not only is the message, "the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist", but they are arming civilians down south as well.
Well, I never said it wouldn't work: Maybe 20,000 armed villagers with a license to kill is just the kind of enema that Pattani needs.
And yes: Those 20,000 Thai people will have a grin on their face a mile wide as they gun down the terrorists, and pretty much anybody else who they think needs killing. It just won't be the same smile you see in the tourist brochures.
UPDATE:
So as not to scare off the tourists... (1) The Thai people are a communal people. Civility, service, and respect are utmost in their attributes. Violent Thai people, as a rule, are rare and frowned upon by Thai society. They would only practice violence en masse, such as is described above, with permission from community leaders (as is the case with most civilizations on earth). (2) Pattani is a world away from Pattaya and the rest of Thailand, and Muslims who are up to no good would have a very difficult time sneaking their way up the very narrow isthmus of Thailand through Buddhist (i.e. foreign) lands to cause mischief outside of their own provinces... and the terrorists have shown no indication that they ever plan to even make the attempt.
Underneath the thin veneer of civility, Thai people share the same pragmatic brutishness as the Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Burmese of recent history. All they need is the people in charge... the government... to tell them to drop the pretense, and you will have a country of little brown psychopaths on your hands.
And the Thai government tends to do that with lethal guile: First it was the war on drugs, where the government winkwinked and nodnodded the message "the only good drug dealer is a dead drug dealer." Bam: 1,300 drug dealers off the streets... with bullets.
Now the Thai government is turning its focus to the unrest (read: terrorism) in the south of Thailand. Not only is the message, "the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist", but they are arming civilians down south as well.
About 20,000 residents will be trained and armed in the three southernmost provinces enabling them to defend their villages and spy on the movements of insurgents in the restive region, commander General Ruangroj Mahasaranond said yesterday.
Well, I never said it wouldn't work: Maybe 20,000 armed villagers with a license to kill is just the kind of enema that Pattani needs.
And yes: Those 20,000 Thai people will have a grin on their face a mile wide as they gun down the terrorists, and pretty much anybody else who they think needs killing. It just won't be the same smile you see in the tourist brochures.
UPDATE:
So as not to scare off the tourists... (1) The Thai people are a communal people. Civility, service, and respect are utmost in their attributes. Violent Thai people, as a rule, are rare and frowned upon by Thai society. They would only practice violence en masse, such as is described above, with permission from community leaders (as is the case with most civilizations on earth). (2) Pattani is a world away from Pattaya and the rest of Thailand, and Muslims who are up to no good would have a very difficult time sneaking their way up the very narrow isthmus of Thailand through Buddhist (i.e. foreign) lands to cause mischief outside of their own provinces... and the terrorists have shown no indication that they ever plan to even make the attempt.
I'll Take The Funny Wherever I Can Get It
(And today it comes from Michelle Malkin... the hateful bitch.)
CNN's anchor Carol Lin referred to the two French teenagers of Tunisian descent whose death sparked the Paris riots as "African Americans".
This brought in several more remember whens:
OK... post is over. Please go back to loathing the racist skank now.
CNN's anchor Carol Lin referred to the two French teenagers of Tunisian descent whose death sparked the Paris riots as "African Americans".
This brought in several more remember whens:
During the last Olympics, one of the network airheads referred to black athletes as "African-Americans from all nations..."
Jay Leno's wife was attributed with the following variation on the African-American theme. Trying to articulate the difference between white Africans (those of European descent) and black Africans, the only descriptor she could come up with was African-American Africans.
OK... post is over. Please go back to loathing the racist skank now.
Lying To Save Your Skin
After last week's all-Republicans-out / all-Democrats-in election rout of the Dover, Pennsylvania school board over the introduction of Intelligent Design in science classes, Senator Rick Santorum (who, 12 months before the election, trails his challenger by 35 points; who is one of the right wing's most strident voices; who was named "one of the finest minds of the 13th century" by the Philadelphia Inquirer) came out today against Intelligent Design in the classroom:
Hat tip to Pandagon.
Heheh. Scramble much there Ricky? Pander much there Ricky? Flip-flop much there Ricky?Santorum's comments to The Times are a shift from his position of several years ago, when he wrote in a Washington Times editorial that intelligent design is a "legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in the classroom."
Hat tip to Pandagon.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Hawm or Min?
The trees around my house are blooming with white flowers that fill the air with what I consider an exceptionally honeyed bouquet. Took thinks it's stinky... something along the "sickly sweet" line, I would imagine.
Hawm = mmmm.
Min = ewww.
Hawm = mmmm.
Min = ewww.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Out For The Evening
Being Sunday night, it was out to TQ2 as per usual. All of the regulars were there, which totalled about 10 or 12 guys.
The only problem — if you can call it a problem... per your point of view — is that everybody feels the need to buy a round. I drink draft beer at TQ2. It takes me about 30 minutes to drink one. Unfortunately, every 15 minutes, somebody buys a round for the gang. I managed to drink 3 beers, but left 2 completely untouched.
No... I didn't buy a round. It would have been laughable and a waste: All the tables were covered with full glasses from previous rounds that nobody had gotten around to drinking. Why add to that?
Took went out to TQ2 with me last Sunday, but stayed home tonight. Sundays are all about socializing, which oddly enough, Thai girls really do not enjoy doing. It's probably one of the great misconceptions that farang guys have about Thai girls... but I've learned to understand: You can't take a Thai girl, and throw her in a crowd of other Thai girls and expect her to quote-unquote "make friends".
Thai people are friendly, and get along well, but they have zero ability to chat each other up; to make light conversation. It will happen eventually and possibly, like at this afternoon's house-warming party, but it's best not to expect friendships to develop between two thai girls just because they both were at a party together... and walking up to another girl standing around and saying, "Hi, I'm Took! Nice to meet you." That doesn't happen.
The only problem — if you can call it a problem... per your point of view — is that everybody feels the need to buy a round. I drink draft beer at TQ2. It takes me about 30 minutes to drink one. Unfortunately, every 15 minutes, somebody buys a round for the gang. I managed to drink 3 beers, but left 2 completely untouched.
No... I didn't buy a round. It would have been laughable and a waste: All the tables were covered with full glasses from previous rounds that nobody had gotten around to drinking. Why add to that?
Took went out to TQ2 with me last Sunday, but stayed home tonight. Sundays are all about socializing, which oddly enough, Thai girls really do not enjoy doing. It's probably one of the great misconceptions that farang guys have about Thai girls... but I've learned to understand: You can't take a Thai girl, and throw her in a crowd of other Thai girls and expect her to quote-unquote "make friends".
Thai people are friendly, and get along well, but they have zero ability to chat each other up; to make light conversation. It will happen eventually and possibly, like at this afternoon's house-warming party, but it's best not to expect friendships to develop between two thai girls just because they both were at a party together... and walking up to another girl standing around and saying, "Hi, I'm Took! Nice to meet you." That doesn't happen.
House-Warming Party!
Reeza and Mike moved into a new house on Soi Siam Country Club and invited all their friends over for a house-warming party. The crowd was mostly from Margaritavilla. Gene was there, just having gotten back from driving a cab for 6 months in Cincinnati.
Mike's new house has a nice swimming pool, and the temperature was perfect — unlike my own, which has icebergs floating in it. Reeza, Robin, and Apple worked the bar-be-que, and served up chicken, beef, pork, and lamb.
It was good to see all the folks from Margaritavilla. I had actually stopped going there because I didn't feel like seeing Geoff. Obviously I don't have to worry about that any more.
So, it was a good afternoon with my good friends having a good time.
Mike's new house has a nice swimming pool, and the temperature was perfect — unlike my own, which has icebergs floating in it. Reeza, Robin, and Apple worked the bar-be-que, and served up chicken, beef, pork, and lamb.
It was good to see all the folks from Margaritavilla. I had actually stopped going there because I didn't feel like seeing Geoff. Obviously I don't have to worry about that any more.
So, it was a good afternoon with my good friends having a good time.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Dinner Party!
Took and I had Dr. Dave and Ahm over for dinner. I had the gardners over before hand to till the flower beds, and Mr. Oo made sure the pool was sparkling clean.
Go waitressed for the first time in her life. Helluva first day on the job, and she did splendidly for someone who — other than the brief, rushed explanation I gave her of what to serve, and when — hadn't the slightest clue of what to do.
We had gin and tonics and a vegetable platter hors d'ouvres, a cold salmon appetizer, white wine, lobster bisque, and a grilled sea bass entree, and a blueberry pie. Go plated each one perfectly, managed to remember all the details (put out the bread with the soup, put the dill sauce on the fish, fix the coffee before dessert was served, and a dozen other things).
Seriously: Go remembering every little thing is small miracle from the Thai labor pool. It really doesn't happen that often. Therefore, I exercised my boss's perogative and upped her salary by 1,000 baht every month. I can't figure out why, but Took seemed even happier than Go about that.
Well, everybody here is very happy. Good dinner, good friends, good service. Happiness all around. Life doesn't get any better.
Go waitressed for the first time in her life. Helluva first day on the job, and she did splendidly for someone who — other than the brief, rushed explanation I gave her of what to serve, and when — hadn't the slightest clue of what to do.
We had gin and tonics and a vegetable platter hors d'ouvres, a cold salmon appetizer, white wine, lobster bisque, and a grilled sea bass entree, and a blueberry pie. Go plated each one perfectly, managed to remember all the details (put out the bread with the soup, put the dill sauce on the fish, fix the coffee before dessert was served, and a dozen other things).
Seriously: Go remembering every little thing is small miracle from the Thai labor pool. It really doesn't happen that often. Therefore, I exercised my boss's perogative and upped her salary by 1,000 baht every month. I can't figure out why, but Took seemed even happier than Go about that.
Well, everybody here is very happy. Good dinner, good friends, good service. Happiness all around. Life doesn't get any better.
Ready, Set
Go is the new maid stepping up to the plate.
Actually, a friend of Toom's stopped by not knowing that Toom was no longer working here, and when she found out that there was a maid's position open, offered up her friend.
Odd, these Thai people: "You mean you scared the bejesus out of my friend Toom in a fury that shook the rafters, woke up the neighbors, and made her run for her life? Can my other friend come work for you?"
Actually, a friend of Toom's stopped by not knowing that Toom was no longer working here, and when she found out that there was a maid's position open, offered up her friend.
Odd, these Thai people: "You mean you scared the bejesus out of my friend Toom in a fury that shook the rafters, woke up the neighbors, and made her run for her life? Can my other friend come work for you?"
Suicide
Geoff died of septicemia after being in a coma for 7 days. He apparently regained enough consciousness to squeeze his mother's hand and smile before passing away at the age of 35.
He committed suicide really. He was sick and he chose not to do anything about it. After seeing his girlfriend, Erin, emotionally wrecked, all I could think was "what a jerk he was." Suicide is something that is reserved for the unloved, the unmissed, or the terminally ill. Geoff was a fucker for throwing away a life that included love and caring and support from a strong, pretty, and smart girl no matter how much he messed up or how bad things were. I feel so sorry for Erin to have had to love a person like Geoff.
He committed suicide really. He was sick and he chose not to do anything about it. After seeing his girlfriend, Erin, emotionally wrecked, all I could think was "what a jerk he was." Suicide is something that is reserved for the unloved, the unmissed, or the terminally ill. Geoff was a fucker for throwing away a life that included love and caring and support from a strong, pretty, and smart girl no matter how much he messed up or how bad things were. I feel so sorry for Erin to have had to love a person like Geoff.
One In One Hundred Million
With 10,000 dateable girls here in Pattaya, what are the chances that I would start dating Took at about the same time that my chiropractor, Dr. Pack, started dating Took's best friend?
So Took and I are having (Dr.) David and Ahm over for dinner tonight. I'm going to find a restaurant to cater/deliver. Restocked the bar and bought wine as well. (I always need an excuse to restock the bar as it is too expensive to do just for the hell of it.)
So Took and I are having (Dr.) David and Ahm over for dinner tonight. I'm going to find a restaurant to cater/deliver. Restocked the bar and bought wine as well. (I always need an excuse to restock the bar as it is too expensive to do just for the hell of it.)
Friday, November 11, 2005
The Monthly Visitor
Visa run today... 3½ hours out to Cambodia, 15 minutes in Cambodia, 3½ hours back home. Wash, rinse, and repeat in 30 days. Playing on (in?) the Thai/Cambodian border:
My friend Alan actually bought one of those Thai-government-issued "Thailand Elite" cards for $25,000. It gives him a renewable 5-year visa, super-VIP service at the airport and immigration, the ability to own land in Thailand, and a lifetime of free golf and massages and stuff.
It's a thought.
My friend Alan actually bought one of those Thai-government-issued "Thailand Elite" cards for $25,000. It gives him a renewable 5-year visa, super-VIP service at the airport and immigration, the ability to own land in Thailand, and a lifetime of free golf and massages and stuff.It's a thought.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
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