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So far no mention of the day we remember all those hunky* young men who gave their lives and their bodies in sacrifice to their country. We may wish that they hadn't.or hadn't needed to, but the result is the same.Thousands of young men who might otherwise be with us are not, and thousands of young children never met their grandfathers or great grandfathers. It's a loss to the entire country. *Since they are lost and gone, and this is a site that appreciates such things, why not let them all be hunks for at least this one day.

Thanks, I'll see what I can do!

LOL, one could also argue that carping against such a common and popularly accepted usage as "based on" evinces a curmudgeonly academic soul determined to squeeze every last drop of life out of the English language. Not that I would ever be so judgemental, AS.

Matthew 7:1-3 KJV 1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Jimmy Carter calls for fresh moratorium on death penaltyCarter says it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and justices should reintroduce ban that stood from 1972 to 1976 Ed Pilkington in New York theguardian.com, Monday 11 November 2013 09.08 EST Jimmy Carter said: 'The only consistency today is that the people who are executed are almost always poor, from a racial minority or mentally deficient.' Photo: Reuters Former US president Jimmy Carter has called for a new nationwide moratorium on the death penalty, arguing that it is applied so unfairly across the 32 states that still have the death sentence that it amounts to a form of cruel and unusual punishment prohibited under the US constitution. In an interview with the Guardian, Carter calls on the US supreme court to reintroduce the ban on capital punishment that it imposed between 1972 and 1976. The death penalty today, he said, was every bit as arbitrary as it was when the nine justices suspended it on grounds of inconsistency in the case of Furman v Georgia 41 years ago. “It’s time for the supreme court to look at the totality of the death penalty once again,” Carter said. “My preference would be for the court to rule that it is cruel and unusual punishment, which would make it prohibitive under the US constitution.” Carter’s appeal for a new moratorium falls at a time of mounting unease about the huge disparities in the use of capital punishment in America. Recent research has shown that most of the 1,352 executions that have taken place since the supreme court allowed them to recommence in 1976 have emanated from just 2% of the counties in the nation. Amid a critical shortage of medical drugs used in lethal injections caused by a European boycott of US corrections departments, death penalty states are also adopting increasingly desperate execution methods. The new techniques range from deploying previously untested sedatives in lethal injections, to concocting improvised batches of the chemicals through compounding pharmacies. Carter’s main concern is what he sees as the injustice in the kinds of individuals who are most likely to be sentenced to death and executed. He will be raising his concerns at a national symposium on the death penalty held by the American Bar Association and hosted by his Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday. “The only consistency today is that the people who are executed are almost always poor, from a racial minority or mentally deficient,” he told the Guardian. “In America today, if you have a good attorney you can avoid the death penalty; if you are white you can avoid it; if your victim was a racial minority you can avoid it. But if you are very poor or mentally deficient, or the victim is white, that’s the way you get sentenced to death.” He added: “It’s almost inconceivable in these modern days to imagine that a rich white man would be executed if he murdered a black person.” Carter’s call for a renewed moratorium is particularly significant given his role, paradoxically, in helping to restore the death penalty in the 1970s. In 1973, as governor of Georgia, he signed into law a new set of guidelines that were designed to meet the objections of the supreme court over the inconsistencies in the death penalty set out in the Furman case. Those new guidelines were reviewed by the supreme court, and on the back of that case – Gregg v Georgia – the nine justices removed their previous injunction and allowed the death penalty to resume. Carter now looks back on the part he played with frank regret. “If I had to do that over again I would certainly be much more forceful in taking actions that would have prohibited the death penalty,” he said, referring to his signing of the 1973 guidelines. “In complete honesty, when I was governor [of Georgia] I was not nearly as concerned about the unfairness of the application of the death penalty as I am now. I know much more now. I was looking at it from a much more parochial point of view – I didn’t see the injustice of it as I do now.” In recent years Carter has striven to make up for what he sees as his past weakness on the issue in his home state, which has carried out some of the most controversial judicial killings in modern times. He campaigned vociferously against the execution of Troy Davis in September 2011 amid serious doubts about the prisoner’s guilt . He continues to campaign in the case of Warren Hill, a Georgia death row inmate who has been declared intellectually disabled (or “mentally retarded” in US jurisprudence) by all the psychiatrists who have examined him, yet still faces execution despite a US supreme court ban on executing intellectually disabled people. “I would hope Georgia would commute Warren Hill’s sentence completely,” Carter said. At Tuesday’s symposium, the ABA will present the findings of its eight-year examination of the fairness and accuracy of several of the leading death penalty jurisdictions in the US. It has carried out a series of assessments of the way capital punishment is applied in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas – states that represent 65% of all executions that have taken place since 1976. The ABA has identified 12 areas in which the practice of capital punishment in the US continues to experience serious problems. They include the use of ill-equipped, poorly trained and under-paid lawyers to defend people facing capital prosecutions; racial disparities in the pursuit of cases – in Georgia, those suspected of killing whites are almost five times more likely to be sentenced to death than those suspected of killing blacks; huge variations in the rules relating to DNA testing; widespread confusion among jurors sitting at death penalty trials; and the fact that all the assessed states continue to allow people with severe mental illness to be sentenced to death and executed. Ed Pilkington will be acting as a moderator at the American Bar Association symposium at the Carter Center on Tuesday http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/jimmy-carter-supreme-court-death-penalty

Francisco. A perfect guy that I met at the beach. He is from Poland and has a very hairy torso that he normally shaves. Hope I will meet him again end of November ...

Edouardo. My regular in Porto Alegre. A great looking guy and very often wilde. Loves to come wanking his big cock close to a Customer while looking for the next Customer. Looking forward to meeting his end of November when I am in Porto Alegre !

Swanny, Enjoy yourself in brazil. And return us a favor. When you are there , write some nice stories from sauna or outside. I hope that you will enhance text with some nice hot pictures...

Try as I may, I can't top the caption already provided.

I never went to NYC for sex.....unless you count making money the same thing. Best regards, RA1

Too bad about the play. I, too, had a thing for Sal Mineo even before I was real clear exactly what it meant that I had a thing for Sal Mineo, lol.

I'm now a big fan of duolingo! It is great and I think I'm hooked, thanks for the tip. I used to be an online subscriber to Rosetta Stone and Duolingo seems quite similar with the exception of it being free! That is what I call value for money! So, I'm now on an intensive two weeks to brush up before my trip. I've also downloaded iSpeak Portuguese which seems like it will come in useful to negotiate fun in the sauna as I suspect Duolingo may not cover such conversations in detail! Thanks again Trzinko and tomcal. Swanny

Istanbul Gay Clubs I went to three clubs, TekYon (Address: Siraselviler Caddesi (street) No 63/1 Beyoglu), Club 17 (Address: Istiklal Cad. Zambak Sokak, No: 17 Taksim) and Ekoo (Address: Tarlabasi Bulvari No: 32 Beyoglu) Generally speaking, these clubs are rather expensive (one beer or one coke is 10 $ ...). In addition you need to pay for the cloakroom (3$). There is no show for this price and action starts very late. They are opened indeed at 11 pm, but there is no one until at least 12.30 am ! Things start really at 1 am. After having said that, I must said that I did enjoy 2 of the places above. Ekoo is a small bar, where a mix a bear, rentboys, queens, travestites gather. Each member of any group seem to know and accept members of other groups. Rather strange afmosphere and place where you can see at the same time a queenie twink dancing in front of a mirror, admiring himself with his ass grabbed by a gay friend and a travestite spealing and laughing with a bear ... Not so bad. Nothing to pick up though ... The second day, I went to Tek Yon. Tek Yon used to be a very friendly bear bar. Since they moved to a new location in 2009, they are catering to the same wide scope as in the case of Ekoo. Very nice place, large dance floor, good music. Outside patio for smokers. Very friendly staff, welcoming you, speaking to you as much as possible, very friendly boss explaining the rules, ... I arrived a bit early also but enjoyed the music and the place. Lot of staff for serving the expensive drinks. Staff is wearing a shirt with a large arrow in the back, with a mention Tek Yon, the arrow clearly in direction of the guy's ass ... Very inviting. I thought that Tek Yon meant something like Bear Den, but, speaking to one member of the staff, I understood that the meaning was "one way", which he said with an inviting gesture showing his own ass ... Not my type at all. But funny. I spotted rapidly a rentboy. Very nice. Black curly hair, nice face, great smile, well defined body. Problem : he was with a local punter. Eye contact was not sufficient to make any move and I went back to my hotel boyless. Finally the last day, I went to Club 17. Very disappointing. Long corridor with a bar. Concrete walls. Some rentboys. No interaction at all. Went to bed earlier than the other days. In summary, a nice week end, but boywise (for both show and action), better to go to Prague,Budapest in Europe or worldwide to Brazil of course, or even to some US cities eg in Florida.

Boywise, Istanbul is not the paradise ... but Istanbul is a nice city. Spent a long week end there Took the bus from airport to Place Taksim where most of the gay clubs and action are. Went to a small pleasant hotel in the area. Since I was looking at a map, many people asked me where I was going, where I was coming from and finally one even took me to the hotel. Turkish people are very friendly. Istanbul is an amazing city. People are very pleasant. Strange mixture of Europe and Asia, of strong and soft islam. Lots of places to visit, to see, to feel. Loved it ! Hagia Sophia (Holy Sophia) in particular was stunning. Incredible result of a former catholic cathedral which was transformed into a muslim mosque, one of the most difficult problem to solved was to have the mosque looking towards the Mecqua ... As for gay places, I started by Taksim square and Park since it is a well known pick up place. Around the square and in the park, on the Bosphorus side. Indeed some hustlers are clearly visible. I was approached by 2. Did not approach any for 2 reasons : - they were ugly - sorry, but there no different world. Poor face, poor body. Of course no English is spoken. One was more or less ok, but not at all my type. Of course I have no clue of how much they ask. - there is a large police station in the park and the park and the square are permanently (day and night) patrolled by policemen. There are stories on internet of people having approached a lad there and being arrested by the police, only because they were starting to speak and they were not turkish ... There are also stories of a guys having been followed a cute lad to the bushed in Taksim park and being attacked and robbed, or another story of a man having taken 2 guys back to his hotel to be first fucked then robbed. Gay activities are really underground is Istanbu, it seems. Many internet sites are not available: it is the case of gayromeo and, even if I had wished, I could not have taken a contact with one or two models who were there. Generally speaking, all turks are presenting themselves as only active, only only top. Only some queenie models seem to admit they can be passive. Other internet sites which are not available are porn sites, such as Seancody. Turkish Baths (Hammams) A policy to fight against cruising places seems to have been implemented since 2007 and most of too openly gay hammams were indeed closed. At the moment, there is not any gay exclusive Turkish hammam in Istanbul. But there are few bath houses the gay men would go very often. The owners and managers of them do not want to be displayed on gay websites and keep sending to the webmasters e-mails for that. Finding a list of these sites is not easy ... Following the advice from Maleire, and after having read some recent negative comments, I decided not to go to Aquarius. I managed to find one hammam. Very hard to find. Very old building (hammam opened in 1445). It is called Firuzawa Hamami on Cukur Kuma 6. I did not know what I was to find inside ... You enter the place, can rent a room or go to the general lockers, which I did, receive flip flops and a cloth. You undress and you go in the hammam, which is composed of a very hot place, with a large marble plate which is heated at rather high temperature, surrounded by small basins where hot and cold water can flow.. There is another room, a shower room, a "cold" room, and another room with a sauna. I was offered a massage which I accepted not knowing which type of massage it would be. I explained only that I needed it later. I wished to see what was going on before with other patrons ! Of course, in this hamman, no one really spoke English. However people are very much welcoming you. When I entered the hot part of the hammam, many people were already lying on the hot marble surface. One was being massaged with a hard on visible under his cloth. The employee soaped him and massage him everywhere, insisting on the crotch and the ass. Then I know which type of massage I wanted. The employee, at least in this particular case did not go all the way to the happy endind. I wonder if they go. Certainly not in public areas. No Rentboys in the place, but hot action in the cold room. All people wanking and sucking. Most patrons are between 30 and 50. I was surprised because most of the patrons had rather small dicks, even in full erection. It was well-known in Algeria where the colonizers who preceded the French, were the Turks. One tried to have me suck his dick, but I rarely suck and never in these places. On the other hand, I had a rather skilled sucker sucking mine while stroking his small tool. Compared to them, I was considered "huge".. I do not have the same sensation in Brazil ... The massage was hot, as planed. I left the place completely relaxed. staff was also very friendly when I left and told me to "come back tomorrow", which I did. It was even better.