TampaYankee

Can't say I'm shocked. That's the problem with most one-in-a-million photos. Still... it does give one pause to consider what might go through your mind, or into your pants , if you were to encounter this circumstance. Thanks for shedding light on this.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Asian_Thug_P...on/message/9743 by Douglas Sanders Fridae website/Singapore Unnoticed and unmourned, the pride parades in Thailand have come to an end. What happened? Doug Sanders reports from Bangkok. The Thai paradox is (a) a higher level of comfort with sex and gender diversity than elsewhere, but ( no ‘out’ political or entertainment figures and limited LGBT rights activism. The Nation newspaper commented in an editorial in 2007 that the country “has traditionally been quite tolerant towards homosexuals and transvestites, who are widely regarded as a pretty harmless aberration to the norm…†How’s that for a tolerant putdown? Things seemed to change in 1999 when we saw the first Bangkok Gay Festival, with a parade at Halloween in the central business district. A real live parade! Obviously (to outsiders), this was a “pride†parade, like those in the West, designed to stake out gay (and later lesbian) visibility in a society that limply ‘tolerated’ sexual diversity. Above: Pakorn Pimpton, a dancer and drag performer, organised Bangkok's first gay pride parade. All photos from Bangkok Gay Festival 2000. by Sylvia Tan. The unique things about Thailand were (a) the niche for transgender kathoey in the entertainment and beauty industries, and ( the roughly one hundred gay bars, saunas, massage parlors, restaurants and discos in Bangkok. It was these two factors that came together in 1999. Pakorn Pimpton, a dancer and drag performer, involved with one of the major entertainment companies, was the individual who put the cabaret performers together with the bar owners to back a parade that was a public party, not a political statement. Longtime activist Natee, who had no role in planning the parade, rushed in at the last moment. He put his activist banner at the very front of the parade, claiming that right on the basis of his pioneering anti-AIDS organisation, known as FACT. Tang, of Angaree, the pioneering lesbian organisation, had t-shirts printed up renaming the event the “Gay and Lesbian†festival, and sold them on the margins of the parade. They had, in fact, been ignored in the planning, but claimed a space anyway. Who was in the parade? The cabaret kathoeys and the bar boys. The gay business owners sponsored floats and had their sex workers on show. The business owners saw the parade as a way of drawing in more gay tourists, and, in 1999, that seemed to work. I remember well the crowds of gays on Silom near Soi 4, there to see the parade. Many had come up from the AIDS conference in Kuala Lumpur to have some fun in Bangkok and see the parade. The commercial interests of the business owners and the partying agenda of Pakorn diverged. The business owners took over and pushed Pakorn out of the leadership. The “gay festival†was renamed “Bangkok Pride.†Business owners in Pattaya and Phuket thought there was money to be made, and started their own parades and festivals. Many of Bangkok's gay business owners sponsored floats and had their workers march in the parade along Silom Roads. After a number of years the Bangkok Pride board developed its personality clashes, and faced declining support from businesses and the few NGOs involved. Eventually the main business figures withdrew in favor of the Thai NGOs. But the Thai NGOs had never been the people pushing the parties and the parade. The last parade was held in 2006. The Pattaya parade was completely different, and quite strange. There already was a Pattaya parade on world AIDS Day, December 1st. School children put together anti-AIDS floats, and were judged by a panel of teachers and officials. The gay parade was piggy-backed on the AIDS parade. After all the grim floats came dancing bar boys. I am not sure when this ended, but there has probably been no parade for three years. Pattaya Pride was exclusively organised by expatriate gay businessmen. A number of parties and events continue to be held every year, packaged as the Pattaya Gay Festival (PGF). Instead of an AIDS day march, last year saw a Mr PGF contest at the biggest go-go bar on December 1st. Phuket pride was also exclusively run by gay businesses, but there they seemed to be exclusively Thai. That parade and ‘festival’ is now history. For business owners it is easier to organise some street parties and ‘handsome man’ contests. Those events are closely linked to the gay bars and provide some buzz for tourists. The parades, after the first year, probably drew few new tourists to the gay scene. The Chiang Mai story, clearly, is totally different. A small pride parade was held in Chiang Mai in January, 2008, without advance publicity or media coverage. It was part of the Asian regional conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA). The local organisations supporting the conference and parade were the main gay-run AIDS organisations - Rainbow Sky and M-Plus. So the parade was NGO driven from the beginning, like the parades in the Philippines. The attempt to hold a second Chiang Mai parade in January, 2009, was blocked by ‘red shirt’ political activists loyal to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin. The red shirts claimed to be defending traditional Lanna (Northern Thai) culture. Police did not interfere, though the Red Shirts physically confined the would-be marchers to prevent the parade from happening. Natee, the pioneer activist, lives in Chiang Mai. Just like 1999, the organisers had ignored him. Instead of inviting himself into the parade (as in 1999), he publicly opposed the parade - angering other activists. NGOs in Bangkok held a “Sexual Diversity Day†in November, 2008, with rainbow umbrellas (covered in a previous Fridae story 'Thailand holds first sexual diversity day', see below). Here again we have an NGO backed event, without sponsorship from gay businesses. At this point no one knows if it will become an annual event. Douglas Sanders is a retired Canadian law professor living in Bangkok. He can be contacted at sanders_gwb @ yahoo.ca. Related Articles

Very good news. Thanks for the link.

To rip-off Horace Greely more or less... 'Go north young man! I heartily recommend it. Best though to vacate the northlands by the start of November if one can afford multiple nests. I have grown weary of the snow, finally. While this has been an unsually wet and cool Spring for the Northeast I still much prefer over the H&H of Florida. I also love summers in the Northwest. Seattle and Vancouver are wonderful. Florida is best enjoyed in the late fall and winter and even early Spring.

When the lightning flashes, this is NOT what you want to see. THIS IS A PICTURE THAT SOMEONE TOOK WHO WORKS ON AN OIL RIG. HE WAS GOING TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE LIGHTNING AND WAS UNAWARE OF THE TORNADO UNTIL THE LIGHTNING ILLUMINATED IT. This is a one-in-a-million photo taken Thursday night, April 3, 2008. Lariat Sandridge Energy south of Ft Stockton , TX

Very nice Tomcal. Thanks for sharing. Too bad you cannot telecommute from PA and take up full time residence.

More a fig leaf than an olive branch.

How do they flush out 'the flush' from Nicain?

Hmmm.... well, thank you for trying to follow our illicit instructions. (Hopefully that gaffe will get fixed in the new build.) As for the main point, all I can say is that I view comments about the site to be related to access and performance issues, and to layout, not about information about a particular escort. That I would expect to see in The Buffet. However, I concede that a broader view can be held. As you say, all's well that ends well and thanks again for bringing this sad case to our attention.

Seems red yeast rice, a natural food supplement, is as effective at controlling cholesterol levels as the high powered big pharma statins. Touted as an alternative for those who can't tolerate statins or can't afford them. ABC News broadcast a piece on it tonight. Here is the article... A Substitute for Those Who Can't Take Statins? Red yeast rice does well in small trial, but there are potential risks. By Ed Edelson HealthDay Reporter June 15 MONDAY, June 15 (HealthDay News) -- A new study revives a running controversy about the purported cholesterol-lowering effects of the centuries-old natural product called red yeast rice. Red yeast rice is produced when a yeast, Monascus purpureus, is grown on rice. It has been used in Asian countries for more than a thousand years as food and medicine. In the United States and Europe, it has been proposed as an alternative cholesterol-lowering treatment for people who cannot take statins because of severe side effects, mainly muscle wasting and weakness. The new study, from physicians in Pennsylvania and reported in the June 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, found a significant cholesterol-lowering effect of a commercially available nonprescription red yeast rice product in a small group of such people. The study included 62 people who stopped taking statins because of side effects. All of them followed a lifestyle change program, including education on nutrition, exercise and relaxation techniques. Half also took 1,800 milligrams twice a day of a red yeast rice product for 24 weeks, while the others took an inactive substance. "In the group that took red yeast rice, the average drop in cholesterol was 43 points at 12 weeks," said Dr. Ram Y. Gordon, a cardiologist in private practice who was a member of the research group. "The drop in the placebo group was only 11 points. In the longer run, the drop was 35 versus 15 points. We think the difference narrowed because after 12 weeks we told people to keep on doing it, but maybe some stopped." There are, however, complications related to the product. Red yeast rice is under a regulatory cloud at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because it contains a natural statin, lovastatin, sold as a prescription drug named Mevacor. The FDA moved against several red yeast rice products -- not the one used in the Pennsylvania study -- on the grounds that they were unlicensed pharmaceuticals, a move which was upheld after a court tussle. See the link for the rest of the article. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/sto...6738&page=1

So it seems. I agree again. I also think that 'paying for result' will 'encourage' more integrated treatment as determining who is responsible for the outcome, thus who gets paid, will become the issue among indivual actor service providers.

I dont disagree about cost containment being the tall pole in the tent. However, coverage for the uninsured/underinsured cannot be separated from cost containment because treatng them as system nonparticpants in the system is a serious cost driver for hospital costs. I agree with the basic/supplemental insurance view. However, I do think the delivery system will change if we get the public option. I believe the delivery model will consist of much more integrated services delievery in place of the piecemeal individual service actors in today's model. Else I don't see much efficiency to be gained for cost containment. Records reform alone can't accomplish what is necessary. Neither can capping service charges in the present model IMO. That doesn't address unnecessary or redundant services.

I agree with all you say with the exception as to whether it will happen this year. It may not but I hope that it does. It certainly won't happen next year and I'm not sure Obama will have reserved enough political captial to get it through the year after. The longer it drags out the more I think reform will move in the directon of the GOP vision which IMO is only concerned with slowing cost growth. They care little about opening access to anyone who can't ante up going insurance rates or aren't covered under an employer's umbrella.

A general comment about the national Health Care debate inspired by the debate about private and public Health Care carried out in the news, radio and TV by politicans and pundits. I refer to 'Business' to indicate for-profit Health Care providers and Insurance providers as distinct from employers that provided Health Care benefits. Health care isn't about business and it shouldn't be. It is about persons, persons like you and me. It is also about the poor and working poor, the middle class who find it harder to afford every year and who believe thay are covered until, in their time of need, they learn about exclusions and limitations. It is about life and death, and pain and suffering. It is about affordability and access and it has also become about personal bankruptcy, even for the insured, on an alarming level. If business can help deliver Health Care then all to the good, but business considerations or whether business can even compete in comprehensive health care delivery should not dictate or even influence the design of the Health Care delivery system. It is a distortion of history to even make that argument. Business didn't even enter the fray until the 50s and 60s and then mostly through B(lue)C(ross)BS as a vehicle by pyhsicians to see that physicans were paid in a reliable consistent manner. With the urbanization and suburbaniztion of America, payment by barter of services or goods, or time payments extended to neighbors and friends became untenable. It was also the case that medicine was less complex and many people died before tremendous bills accrued or were treated in ways that didnt call for big expenses, eg. amputation over reconstruction and rehabilitation of severly injured limbs). For-profit hospitals and HMOs entered the scene in a big way only in the late 70s and 80s. Clearly, the saw an opportunity to make money. That is their reason d'etre. Else if the private sector were moved by altruistic motives they would be not-for-profits which have inherent advantages for rendering public services. Before all that, most physicans were individual providers and almost all hospitals were government owned and operated with a small number run by religious entities. Business entities were not the be-all and end-all of medical care delivery that the GOP and Conservadems make them out to be today. That is not to argue that Business cannot play a role in the delivery of Health Care, maybe an important role. Only that Health Care delivery should not be straightjacketed primarily to provide Business the control to determine what, how and at what cost services will be provide, and even more, who will have access to those services. IMO, a public option is essential as a stalking horse to provide real competition to and among Business Health Plans. If as the GOP complains: that nobody would sign up for a private plan with a governement option avialable, then that puts the lie to the also often remarked GOP comment that: people like their medical care as currently constituted and don't want to see government run their health care. Which is it? My bottom line: If Business can be part of the solution to comprehensive Health Care reform then I'm all for it. Competition is good for all. However, it is unacceptable if Health Care reform is constrained to meet Business needs/demands at the expense of Health Care affordability and delivery. I hope to see a public/private solution so that those who want to keep what they have are satisfied and for those who don't have that option for reasons of access, affordability or whatever reasons also have a public option open to them. But to deny a public option to facilitate private business interests over public health policy is unacceptable.

I leared that lesson a while back along with Brazilian sites and even an Agentine escort site. However, it seems that bugs are being placed on more sites that traditionally fell into the less dangerous category.

Priofile removed. Thanks for the notification.

Yes, of course we do and I think our history shows that. Unfortunately, I did not see your recently posted suggestion. My computer was taken down by malware and I've been distracted dealing with the issues of recovery. The best way to contact 'admin' in a timely manner about a pressing issue is to use our 'Contact Us' link on the bottom of every page or email us as Oz suggested. Site suggestions, while important to us, usually aren't monitored as a 'pressing issues' forum. The more so when my computer is dead in the water.

I can respond only to what he claims. "I have written reviews so I know there are some new ones to post." He claims 'to know' that there are new reviews to post because he has written them. I point out that 'Bander' has no reviews in the queue nor has he ever submitted any. Thus I am puzzled about the basis of his claim. It would not be the first time that someone has confused us with another site.

You must have us confused with some other site. You have no reviews submitted under this screen name.

Taken usually means 'off the market', unavailable, whether by a paramour or sugar daddy. Does the reason really matter unless perhaps one is willing to outbid the sugar daddy in that case? Even then money isn't necessarily everything.

I asked Oz to look into this. He is in the middle of the AIDS bike-a-thon right now. Please be patient.

The writing is mediocre at best and the acting is not memorable. But that is not the attraction -- strictly eye candy in motion. Interest will fade if they keep him in clothes.

A TV fantasy series about good and evil mired in medicore writing. However, I'm its newest, greatest fan. Well, its lead really, Craig Horner. I had channel surfed over the show numerous times in the past giving it little more than a moments notice. However, tonight I stumbled across it once again at the opening of the first episode (rerun no doubt. What caught my eye and undying enthusiasm was a scene where the obvious male lead was shirtless in leather pants spiltting fire wood with an ax. This guy has a primo, numero uno, one in a billion body. I was hopelessly hooked. They guy turns out to be Craig Horner. ANy number of his photos show him to be a cute guy easily worth a tumble -- a nice face and body. Definitely top ten percent material but not the guy splitting wood that captured the center of my lust. I guess he went through some body sculpting for this series. From Wikipedia: Craig Horner (born in Brisbane, Australia in 1983)[1] is an Australian actor who first appeared in the Australian television program Cybergirl, appearing in other TV programs since. Horner also portrayed Garry Miller on the series Blue Water High and Ash Dove in the series H2o: Just Add Water.[2] He currently stars as Richard Cypher in Legend of the Seeker, the syndicated television adaption of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series of books. He has defintely stolen my heart. So much so that I'm saving myself for him. Warning: the following photos and video via the link are scorching and could lead to blindness, particularly if your hands become inappropriately occupied while viewing. See it in motion at: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7l4cz_cr...f-th_gaylesbian ... and some photos from his Peter Parker stage before molting into an Adonis

Maybe Oz can offer you some response as I have relationship with the Video Store. What does this mean? Has something happened to Xtube?

Just had an escort report to me that scammers are afoot againg using our email facility to attempt to scam escorts with crazy offers. They usually promise an engagement with a prepayment check if only the escort will return the excess cash by return check. Of course the original check bounces and the escort is out the amount of excess $ he refunded. There are numerous variations to this scheme. Remember if is sounds a bit off or just too good to be true it usually is. Use common sense and don't trust anyone that asks you to send money, no matter what the cirumstances.