TampaYankee

Tomcal, Thanks for sharing your experiences. I always find them an interesting read. Besides you, P.A. has gotten very little print over the years. Sounds like a wonderful low key place and still lots of fun.

It seems that Sotomayor has much in common with Scalia and Alito. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/28/a...k_n_208531.html Scalia is on record with similar remarks recognizing that courts, in fact, make policy, or law if you will, as a matter of natural function. Not only do state-court judges possess the power to "make" common law, but they have the immense power to shape the States' constitutions as well. In fact, however, the judges of inferior courts often "make law," since the precedent of the highest court does not cover every situation, and not every case is reviewed. Alito shares reverence for his background of immigrant parents and how that will shape his perspective. ALITO: Senator, I tried to in my opening statement, I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point. ... When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. I included the link so the the context of the remarks can be read as well. This alignment of Sotomayor with Scalia and Alito on the propositions does not mean that either of the propositons is necessarily right, only that if they serve to disqualify Sotomayor then it follows that Scalia and Alito also are disqualified by their own words as well. How could this be lost on the Senators who must advise and consent, and on scholars, reporters and pundits who follow closely these Justice coronation rituals whenever they arise? I personally don't believe that any of them are disqualified on this basis but for those who believe such similar comments reflect differently on different individuals then I must point out ... "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartelby.com offers the following interpretation: A great person does not have to think consistently from one day to the next. This remark comes from the essay "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson does not explain the difference between foolish and wise consistency. I believe this accurately captures the primary guidance for all politicians and most pundits of any stripe. Yes, many great persons for sure.

It is a setting in the forum software. I thought it was set at an hour but I will ask Oz to check and reset if necessary.

That was not at all my take on her comments. Often the law is clear cut for a given set of circumstances and the application is straightforward. Sometimes it is not. It is a fact that laws are written by men and women (mostly men) who don't always say precisely or clearly what they intend to say. This happens all the time. It is not intentional. For example, everyday I see poorly written articles that lead to a certain ambiguity based on faulty grammar and/or puncuation. I'm sure care is given to drafting laws. However, unintended ambiguity or insufficient specificity are sometimes the cause of cases that find their way to higher courts. After all, if the law was absolutely clear and the circumstances always those anticipated in the drafting of the law there would be no need for appeal or attorneys for that matter. All appeals would be denied as a matter of settled law. Uncompromisingly clear written exposition is the exception more than the rule from my experience, and writing and reading was a significant part of my profession. Attorneys, and by extension legislators, as a class are not imbued with any better writing capability than the breadth of other professions. Even the best attempts at clarity often fall short because the authors are imperfect humans. And here is a secret... the editors of most documents including legal docs (law text) are English technicians, not specialists of the discipline under exposition. That means that final textual language intent rests with the lawmakers vetting the technicians version of the doc. The problem with this is the author knows and often reads his intent in what he sees, overlooking amibguities that may appear to someone unfamiliar with the intent. I know, many times I have found this myself when I read something cold that I had written the past. It is also the case that circumstances arise not originally anticpated by law makers. It is impossible to anticipate all circumstances and factual variables that may influence any given case. Whether nuanced or stark divergence from the originally viewed circumstance, the court is called on to apply the law to the case at hand. For any particular case, such ambiguity in the law or circumstances is resloved at the appellate court level. Thus the court establishes what is proper application of the law with any unintended ambiguiities and unforseen circumstances present in the case at hand. Sometimes precedent is set. That is setting a legal policy. Other times existing precedent is deemed to apply-- a policy set by some other court at some other time. This is what the Appellate Courts do and that is what she meant about "we (the Appellate Courts) set policy". Who else is to do it? Someone must be Solomon! Our system also recognizes that this 'appelate legal policy' is also set by imperfect humans open to error, thus leaves it open for review by the SCOTUS, which is it's mission. This is not to denigrate the appleate courts but recognizes the imperfection of the process. Our system even recognizes the imperfection of the SCOTUS which permits it to review itself. Only when perfectly drafted laws that anticipate all possible circumstances and facts are set down by the law givers will we be able to forgo the need for our appellate arbiters that determine the usually ultimate application of law to individual cases. Clearly your arguments lie in the eye of the beholder. Her record is really quite outstanding by some measures. True that three of five decisions were overturned for a 60% reversal rate. However, I understand that Alito had a 100% reversal rate, 2 for 2. Does that mean he is a failed jurist? Roberts had no reversals. He had no decisions to reverse as he never sat on an appeals court. I wonder how he might have faired if he had 380 opinions open to review? Moreover, two of the three Sotomayor reversals put her on the same side as Souter in these cases. Both were 5-4 decisions. Borrowing from Sam Stein at The Huff Post ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/27/s...d_n_208362.html ) Taken as a whole, the decisions suggest that, if anything, Sotomayor is of a similar judicial philosophy to the justice she is poised to replace. The numbers, moreover, make her appear decidedly non-controversial. In an eleven-year career, she issued 380 opinions. Five were appealed to the Supreme Court and only three were reversed. According to SCOTUSblog, a 60 percent reversal rate is actually lower than the overall Supreme Court reversal rate for the past five years. In 2008, for example, the Court reversed 75.3 percent of the cases it considered. It seems to me and Sam Stein and others that her case stats reveal her to be an experienced hard working judge with a 992 batting average that is not out of the moderate-to-liberal mainstream consistent with Souter, Stevens wing of the Court. I don't think you can fairly make this comparison. The stats just don't support it. You may not like her. There may be better candidates. But I think the record shows that she does not deserve being compared in an equivalent manner with Myers.

I would have been astonished if the Court had ruled any differently. Quite simply, it made the only decision it could. That includes upholding the validity of the 18000 marriages. I don't support the purpose of the ammendment and I think that California is most unwise in permitting a simple majority rather than a supermajority to ammend the state constitution. However, that is their State Law. The electorate should have some reasonable mechanism for ammending the consitution as long as there are some reasonable safe guards for minority rights -- hence a supermajority requirement. It is a sad day when a state enshrines in it's constitution second class citizenship for a minority group. IMO a state, any state, shows little forethought for and reverence of its foundation fabric to allow it to be modified by a simple majority. Passions of the electorate run hot and cold. Simple majorities can swing back and forth on a dime. Constitutions should be rooted in enduring principles that enjoy broad support of the electorate unlikely to turn on a dime. Ultimately, I believe that Prop 8 will be stricken down by the SCOTUS on the basis of Brown vs Board of Education Topeka KS which struck down Plessy vs Ferguson. I don't know when this will happen but I'm confident it will happen eventually. That is unless a sense of shame overtakes the California electorate causing them to restore equal rights to their secondary class of citizens.

These 'anonymous' remarks about her intellect seem strongly inconsistent with her academic and professional resume`. Anonymous remarks are the usual tool to conduct character assasination. She may not be well loved by former colleagues and acquaintances. Although I don't know that to be the case either, that along with the usual political motives might provide the grist for this mill. I'm sure we'll get an accurate picture as well as plenty of distortions before this is done. Barring compromising photos of her with animals surfacing on the internet, her confirmation is a certainty. This according to the mumbles coming from the Senate Republicans. But not before conservative chest thumping and breast beating to stir the base and refresh the RNC coffers. It will be entertaining to watch this GOP approach-avoidance tightrope walk, as each bite the Conswervatives/GOP seek to take out of her ass will remove a bite out of theirs with the Hispanic electorate. This exercise in self canibalism will be interesting to watch. Hopefully, it will hasten the reform of the party into something that the middle of the road can embrace again.

Switzerland fights back tax haven slurs — with half-naked farmers Roger Boyes http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...amp;attr=797093 Switzerland, fed up with being portrayed as a tax-dodgers’ paradise, is rebranding itself as a land of hunky half-naked peasants with waxed chests and tight leather shorts. “We want to show Switzerland in its best light, the countryside and a bit of its culture,†says Tina Steinauer, who has been shooting the 2010 calendar for the Swiss farmers’ union at the village of Seegräben near Zurich. The culture in this case centres mainly on skimpily clad male farmers holding hoes or throwing around bales of hay with what appear to be cowbells stuffed into their underwear. This is apparently known as lingerie farming and is said to be very popular in the Swiss Alps. The aim is to export the calendar and show first of all that Swiss farmers have moved on a bit since Heidi but also that Switzerland is not — or not just — a nation of greedy bankers. The country has had a bad press recently, with Germany and the US criticising it for refusing to surrender the names of tax evasion suspects. Relations with Berlin are particularly brittle. Peer Steinbrück, the German Finance Minister, stirred up sentiment in the Alps by saying that the Swiss were behaving like Red Indians — the old-fashioned word for Native Americans — in flight from the US Cavalry, a reference to the way that bankers have been resisting the opening of accounts. A Swiss deputy then compared Mr Steinbrück to a Nazi. The minister replied by apologising to Native Americans — they, at least, had no record of tax-dodging — but not to the Swiss. This month Mr Steinbrück lumped Switzerland and other tax havens together with Ougadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. This mysterious but presumably humorously intended reference to a country that does not even figure on the OECD list of tax havens, made the Swiss boil with rage. Indeed, they apparently got so hot under the collar that they took the collar off, and did not stop there. Auditioning for the erotic farmers’ calendar is now down to the final two dozen. Hundreds applied and the atmosphere was said to resemble a television talent casting show, only with goats. When it is finally shot, it will be exported to Germany, where farmers tend to be fully clothed and grumpy about milk prices. “We will have to make sure that the German Finance Ministry gets one,†a member of the Swiss Farmers’ Union said.

Steven, clearly you have strong feelings that you were moved to give voice to. I cannot respond to all of your points about other sites. What I can say is that Oz and I founded this site because the passing of HooBoy left a great void in the community and we had issues with other sites. We wanted to establish a level playing field for clients and escorts where each side got fair and equal treatment and all individual escorts were treated equally. We also wanted a review site that offered substantive reviews, not vague praise or cryptic slams. Also we wanted a review site that offered honest reviews, not fake self-serving reviews. We take seriously our obligation to provide a review library with information integrity, not just endless entries of indiscriminant prose. We make an earnest effort to ferret out fake reviews whether by self-serving escorts or apparent 'clients' pushing an agenda. Our review rejection rate is better than one out of two, whether for vague or insufficient information content or for suspect credibiity. It is a fact that many of our rejected reviews (for both reasons) have appeared elsewhere. Oz and I run a site for adults who deserve to be treated as adults and are expected to act as adults. We respect our clientele and we hope we deserve their respect. Finally, your comments are always welcome here whether to add to the intelligent debate or to point out concerns about us, our site, or the industry. We value debate and appreciate participation by everyone. Competition provides contributors and particpants with a choice about product quality, standards, and site ambience. In the end the contributors and particpants get what they are willing to settle for. TY

And a very nice ass it is!! So, what are you doing this weekend?

The US Gov't definition for Small Business requires among other things that it have less than 1000 employees. I am unaware of any gross income requirement. Didn't know the math for CL rent ads. Impressive. Nevertheless, it ain't IBM, Microsoft, or Exxon with limitless funds for legal departments. State AGs have the resources to carry out long term nuisance prosecutions as long as it doesn't involve extensive research and specialists that burn lots of money. Time is on their side as a slow bleed often accomplishes the goal through attrition of the opposition resources and will.

I suspect this is an attempt to forestall other AGs piling on. When one is antagonized withevery indication that it could be a continuing issue it is best to growl and show your teeth and if necessary take a bite in the hopes that defuses the situation. I doubt CL can go toe to toe for long though without help and support. The scales are tipped in favor of the resources of the state compared to those of a very small business.

I never watch Idol but I sometimes dance with the stars. Sometimes shouting in an empty room can be theraputic. Helps purge the psyche of angst, if temporarily. Cute guys. I can see why the winner won, late bloomer or not, he blossomed nicely.

lol... that bad huh? Thanks for providing the thoughtful follow up. I enjoyed reading the elaboration of your views. Some food for thought. I cannot comment on many of your specifics as you are clearly more intimately knowledgable with the details than I. I will say that I am uncertain with some of Geitner's decisions/plans as I understand them. I tend to favor the old RTC approach in the best of all worlds but as you point out, liquidity is an issue. I also favor a more agressive approach to breaking up the banks along more traditional lines where banks are banks, not insurance companies or investment houses. The Age of Too Big To Fail should be history. I fear he is too invested in the current business architecture to take the meat axe to it that it needs, feeling this baby need not be thrown out with the bathwater.

For those with a scientific bent... http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7603618&page=1 Primate Fossil Could Be Key Link in Evolution Young Female Had Thumbs, Fingernails, May Have Walked By NED POTTER May 16, 2009 Scientists say a 47-million-year-old fossil found in Germany may be a key link to explain the evolution of modern human beings. The fossil, of a young female that probably resembled a modern-day lemur, is described as "the most complete primate fossil ever found." It is small -- with a body about the size of a raccoon -- but it has characteristics that suggest a relationship both to primates and humans. It has, among other things, opposable thumbs, similar to humans' and unlike those found on other modern mammals. It has fingernails instead of claws. And scientists say they believe there is evidence it was able to walk on its hind legs. Remains From a German Caldera The find is being published next week in the online journal Public Library of Science - One (PLoS One for short). The cable channel History, which bought the North American documentary rights to the find, provided exclusive details to ABC News. "She is a transitional species showing characteristics from both the non-human (prosimians and lemurs) and human (anthropoids, monkeys, apes and man) evolutionary lines," said the producers in a statement reviewed by the authors of the PLoS One paper. It was discovered by amateur fossil hunters in 1983 in a mile-wide crater called the Messel Shale Pit, not far from Frankfurt. Scientists speculate that at one time the pit was a volcanic caldera, where animals got caught and their remains unusually were well preserved. The amateurs recognized that they had a very good fossil, but they did not recognize its potential importance. The location, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been the source of many other fossils from the Eocene Period, about 50 million years ago. The fossil was shown by collectors to Dr. Jorn Hurum of the University of Oslo, who brought in colleagues from Oslo and Norway's Senckenberg Research Institute to authenticate the find. They bought the specimen so that it would not disappear into private hands. Examination of the fossil went on for two years. They have called the specimen Darwinius masillae. The researchers were able to keep their work secret until word leaked out in the last week. Fossil May Be Evolution 'Link' Hurum's team said 98 percent of the fossil's skeleton appears intact. It has a long, curling tail. X-rays show it was young; it had baby teeth and, beneath them, adult teeth forming to replace them. There also was evidence that the animal had once broken its wrist. Evolution Debate It is hard to say what the find may do to the modern debate over evolution. The fossil, for one thing, is far older than any of the human ancestors other scientists have reported finding in what is now eastern Africa. "Lucy," probably the best-known African fossil that is generally accepted as pre-human, is somewhat more than three million years old. This year happens to be the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, originator of the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Most scientists, following Darwin, believe that humans and modern apes had common ancestors, but the fossil record has had gaps in it. The fossil is to be unveiled Tuesday, when the paper is released in PLoS One and a news conference takes place in New York. The fossil will be shown on "Good Morning America" to coincide with the announcement. History plans to air its two-hour documentary, titled "The Link," on Monday, May 25.

We will never know is how successful TARP has been or ever will be. It is easy enough to catalog its failings and they are manifest. What we will never know is to what extent it managed to forestall a disasterous crisis in confidence that would have generated wholesale runs on banks and sucked the remainder of the economy down the same black hole that swallowed Bear Stearns and AIG. If it did that then it was worth every penny. However, there is no way we can ever 'know' what would have been without it. We are where we are. It is hard to argue, it seems to me, that we definitely would have been better off without it. The success of TARP, it can be argued, lies more in the fact that it showed convincingly that the government was willing to take unprecedented action to intervene in the crisis rather than let it drift on its own or to make a less than convincing case that it would do whatever is necessary. It seems to me the Monday morning quaterback discussion is limited to how TARP funds could have been better targeted or better dispensed and tracked or, for the survivial of the fittest crowd, the overriding long-term benefits of sacrificing large segments of the economy and population to economic death and dismemberment over a multiyear economic down turn.

Throughout time men and women have been moved to give up their sexuality for any of several reasons, one of those being for vocation. So I assume your wonder has to do with being 'a killer for the military'. This seems to be something of a 'loaded' statement. I'm unaware of any charges of illegal or unsanctioned activites on his part beyond DADT violations. Some people are moved to serve a cause. Some of those are willing to put their lives on the line for our country if it is deemed essential to our safety, security and preservation of our way of life. To be clear, he is not a killer for the military. The military are killers for us, if and when we deem that necessary. We charter and underwrite the recruitment, training, equipping and general support for them to protect us and our interests. The fault in that purusit, if there is any, does not lie in the man but in the mission. The mission is way above his pay grade. That responsibility lies more with us than him. I won't rise to the 'smart asians' comment because I suspect your tongue is in your cheek and longing rather to be up his derriere. Just a guess.

You're not complaining about those two gaupos that stole your virginity, are you? Seriously, I had you (and others) in mind when I posted this. I have been down on safety in Mexico for a couple of years with kidnappings and all. Just seems to be getting worse

Hey KYTOP, thanks for the link. Cute guy. Could he be Sanjaya's better looking brother?

My mom used to tell me on occasion: 'haste makes waste' and 'measure twice, cut once'. One might take the diametrically opposed view that taking time to carefully evaluate all prospective projects may actually avoid waste, fraud and corruption in the process. Hard to know until we see the results.

Craig Newmark... Your post, especially the EBay connection, prompted me to do my own Google. EBay connection is definitely sleeping with the enemy IMO. However, it seems that the EBay particpation is actually a back door operation. Rather than CL selling out to EBay, EBay acquired its interest directly from a former stockholder independently. It seems CL may have undertaken steps to diminish EBay's effective stake in the concern. (See third link below.) CL still seems to be a closely held, formal profit making concern, with 25 employees that limits is income source to charges for job ads in ten cities and apt ads in NYC. I don't see that as a lost cause yet, though if EBay ever gets control... I don't think there is hundreds of millions in stock value to loose or investment bankers swarming over the carcus... yet. http://www.craigslist.org/about/pr/factsheet http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display...master_company/ http://investing.businessweek.com/research...vcapId=11251097

So. Carolina eyes 'criminal investigation' of Craigslist http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10242507-93.html The attorney general of South Carolina is ready to launch a criminal investigation of Craigslist in connection with erotic ads appearing on the classified ads Web site. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster (Credit: South Carolina Attorney General's office) Attorney General Henry McMaster had given Craigslist until Friday afternoon to remove erotically charged material from its South Carolina listings. The AG's Web site now has this statement posted: As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution. Craigslist responded Saturday with a blog post voicing exasperation with the attorney general's statement, comparing the "adult services" listings on Craigslist with the adult section of a Greenville, S.C., Web site and others like it elsewhere in the state, along with telephone yellow page listings and print publications. Seriously? The CL "adult services" section for Greenville, SC has a total of 1 ad for the last 3 days, featuring a photograph of a fully clothed person. The "erotic services" section for Greenville, recently closed, has 8 ads total, images and text all quite tame. Meanwhile, the "adult entertainment" section of greenville.backpage.com (careful with link, NSFW), owned by Village Voice Media, has over 60 ads for the last 3 days, and about 250 in total. In sharp contrast with craigslist, many of these ads are quite explicit, quoting prices for specific sex acts, featuring close-ups of bare genitalia, etc. Craigslist views itself as unfairly targeted by the attorney general's office. Of course, no one in mainstream legal circles thinks either company should be subject to civil suit, let alone a criminal investigation. But if for whatever reason you were so motivated, would you target a venue with 9 PG-13 rated ads, or one with 250 XXX rated ones? The South Carolina Attorney General's office was not immediately available for comment. On Wednesday, Craigslist bowed to pressure from authorities in a number of states and said that it would remove its "erotic services" section, replacing it with a more closely monitored "adult services" section for legal enterprises. CEO Jim Buckmaster said at the time that Craigslist would be on the lookout for sex workers trying to outmaneuver the new restrictions. "We have blocking and filtering technologies in place site wide. And of course our flagging system remains fully in effect across all the categories, but we will be monitoring that situation," Buckmaster told CNET News. On top of ongoing allegations that Craigslist--which runs a wide variety of classified ads, including job and apartment listings--had become an outsized Internet bordello, the company's image recently was tarnished by news stories about a so-called "Craigslist killer" in connection with a murder investigation in Boston.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/15/4...-_n_204119.html TIJUANA, Mexico — The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday. The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California. U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims _ two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista areas _ were U.S. citizens. The state attorney general's office in Baja California said one of the women was Mexican. Their deaths are the latest in a string of violence in Tijuana that authorities blame on a bloody turf war between drug cartels. "I just don't think kids should be going to Tijuana right now," Chula Vista police Lt. Scott Arsenault told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "They ran into the wrong people, obviously." Bernard Gonzales, a spokesman for the Chula Vista Police Department, said a friend told the women's parents they were headed to nightclubs in Tijuana on Thursday night. They were reported missing the next day when they did not answer their cell phones.

I had some hope that craigslist would stand up for its freedom of speech, possibly with the help of the Electronic Freedom Foundation or the ACLU. It's not like it depends on advertising or an alcohol license to operate. No one is forced to go there and the erotic services section is/was a very small part of the overall menu of listings. So yes, I hoped. Luckily, this front has been forestalled with the Obama election but the proponents are biding their time. Their day will return. Remember that the 2257 controversy remains alive and if that prevails it is not an unforseeable step that a conservative administration might leverage that against ISPs in the future. I have little confidence in being able to beat back their attempts to succeed. My opinion is based on recent observations with the bank bailouts, bankruptcy reform failure, credit card reform timidness, waivering support for closing offshore tax loopholes, health care politics, Employed Free Choice Act, etc. It has been crystal clear that the Republican lawmakers have been in the pocket of BIG OIL, BIG BUSINESS, BIG PHARMA, and BIG AGRA not to mention Banking and Finance. What I find so demoralizing is, after eight years of watching the middle class blatantly sacrificed to these entities, it is also clear that many/most of the Democratic lawmakers are also deep in bed with various of these same BIG INTERESTS. Some of the Democrats that are not in bed are boderline crazy in the other direction. Bottom line is that money is power and power seeks to corrupt the government process in its favor. They succeed more often than not. Check out the above issues and look at the Tax Code if you believe otherwise. To add to the shame... Congress sells itself so cheaply for smallish campaign contributions. So yes, I believe the cards are stacked. The goose has fattened, there is too much money to be made. It's just a matter of time. The only problem it causes for me is that when I have absolutely nothing else to do and have exhausted the usual news/politics blogs, I seek a little diversion on CL checking out various cities to see what is going on locally. With a little luck I might encounter a little eye candy. There is plenty of other eyecandy out in cyberspace just not tied to local scenes around the country.

It was worth seeing. Establishes a sufficient basis to grind out a couple of sequels. Not exactly the beginning I would have imagined, story and relationship wise. Some of it was a bit of a stretch, even for the die-hard Trekkie, IMO. Nevertheless, a fun sci-fi action-adventure with familiar characters in unfamiliar skins and surroundings. Writing adequate. I also checked out 'Taken'. Wanted to see it since it's first-run release. Finally got around to it. Good action movie, enthralling 'page-turner' that keeps you in your seat on an action roller-coaster ride but requires you to suspend belief frequently as things happen without much (any) foundation or resources appear out of nowhere, not to mention unbelievable outcomes in life and death skirmishes. Just like movie popcorn, great while it lasts, not much in the way of lingering memories. Chalk both of these movies up as escape, not art.

I learned long ago that AC qualifies as a personal appliance -- if it ain't there then take it with you. That presumes a 24/7 reliable electricity supply though. Not sure that is a given yet. May have to settle for twinks with large ostrich feather fans. Four or five at a time ought be be enough.