Lucky

At LAX, a screener stole $5000 in cash from someone's luggage as it proceeded down the carousel. A fellow TSA agent saw the theft and turned the culprit in.

No comparison!

Poker Player housing

To Charlie's credit, he is still using the same operators he did when he started making phone calls!

I discovered Google's search engine a good time before others did, and I have stayed loyal, converting to Gmail as soon as I could. But now they own YouTube and the videos have commercials on them. My cute little YouTube user name has given way to my Gmail address. My Gmail now has pop-up ads over my email. And they are changing their privacy policies without the customer having any say at all. Sigh.

At the end of 2011, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble had online sales, and I bought 16 books for some $60. I like thriller novels, and one that caught my attention is Danger Close, by William G. Boykin (and Tom Morrisey), which means that Morrisey wrote it and capitalized on Boykin's name. I wouldn't have known who Boykin is, except that he made the news this week when his invitation to speak at West Point was hastily withdrawn after coming into controversy. Or, should I say that Boykin is controversial? Here's the story from the NY Times: General Boykin, a longtime commander of Special Operations forces, first caused controversy after the Sept. 11 attacks when, as a senior Pentagon official, he described the fight against terrorism as a Christian battle against Satan. His remarks, made in numerous speeches to church groups, were publicly repudiated by President George W. Bush, who argued that America’s war was not with Islam but with violent fanatics. Since his retirement in 2007 and a new career as a popular conservative Christian speaker, General Boykin has described Islam as “a totalitarian way of life” and said that Islam should not be protected under the First Amendment. Last week, after learning that General Boykin would be speaking at the prayer breakfast, a liberal veterans’ group, VoteVets.org, demanded that the invitation be revoked. In a letter to West Point’s superintendent, the group said General Boykin’s “incendiary rhetoric regarding Islam” was “incompatible with Army values” and would “put our troops in danger.” Lt. Col. Sherri Reed, West Point’s director of public affairs, defended the invitation on Friday, saying that “cadets are purposefully exposed to different perspectives” and that the breakfast “will be pluralistic with Christians, Jewish and Muslim cadets participating.” But by Monday, several other groups had condemned the invitation and concern was also reportedly being voiced by some faculty members and cadets. The Forum on the Military Chaplaincy (a liberal group of retired military chaplains), the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and the Council on American-Islamic Relations made public appeals to the Pentagon to cancel General Boykin’s appearance." So, knowing that Boykin is a flaming asshole, should I read the book? Should I burn it? I only paid $3 for it, so it's unlikely that he profited from my purchase. It has good reviews at Amazon, but then, they could all be from his friends: Customer Reviews 19 Reviews 5 star: (16) 4 star: (1) 3 star: (1) Here is the book description: Barely into his twenties and already a highly decorated military hero, Army Special Forces veteran Blake Kershaw is now going to college, studying while recuperating from wounds received in Afghanistan, and planning to re-enter the Army as an officer after graduation. But life tosses Blake a curve when his country approaches him about using his special skills to avert a terrorist plot to detonate a nuclear device in a major eastern U.S. city. To do that, he would need to become an operative deep within Al-Qaeda’s innermost circles—changing his entire identity, even his face. A true patriot, Blake makes the journey into a shadow world that leaves friends, family and, seemingly, even God far behind. But when things go terribly wrong, and his country looks set to destroy him, it is God and God’s people who intervene.

"But it's close enough. . . " Gosh, thanks! I did the best I could.

Amazon calls this an old-fashioned telephone, but note the dial! It is $86.14 with free shipping. Here is a plug-in phone for $133.95. Much more in Charlie's price range is this one for $19.57

So far today Jkane is tied with EXPAT for the lead- 26 posts each. Lucky and MsGuy tied at 13...how lucky for me!

hehehe...he is gay. When he was told by someone that he exuded a gay vibe on stage, he didn't take well to the idea. But over time he game to grips with it, and has been a presence in gay activism and AIDS research. He and his former partner, a theater agent, had a rather public breakup. Wong wrote a book about the birth of his children, one of whom died. Given that there are not many parts for Asians, he has done rather well. I saw him in La Cage when he was in the chorus of the traveling company, and then I saw him 3 times in M. Butterfly, where he won a Tony. Then there was the forgettable off-Broadway show that I barely remember. He also sang at Joe's Pub. I don't watch much TV, so have only seen him a handful of times there. I have met him in person and found him to be very friendly.

I thought that Steve Howey could give Jim Carrey a run for the money, but I wasn't thinking about Ace!

Thanks for the info. I have yet to see where the Ipad will let me sign up for me.com, but then, I have yet to look!

I had no idea he was even on a show, not to mention stark naked!

Two straight guys rise to the occasion in the web series steamroomstories.com:

Reba once replaced Bernadette Peters in the Broadway musical Annie get Your Gun. What had been a lackluster show suddenly thrived with the endearing and talented McIntire. I then watched a multitude of episodes of the sitcom, Reba, where she played a divorced Houston housewife raising children while continually encountering her ex and his new wife. The very cute Steve Howey played her comedic son-in-law. Over the years his body went from tall and skinny to quite hunky, but as he aged he put on weigh and began to look like a young Al Gore. I still have the show on my Roku Hulu Plus. All of which is to say that I am a Reba fan. And now, she may have a new sitcom coming! The Huffington Post reports that the Hollywood Reporter reports the following: Reba McEntire is making a comeback. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC has ordered "Malibu Country," a sitcom pilot written by and starring the country music legend. The show, if picked up, would follow McEntire as a woman who moves her children away from her cheating husband in Nashville and seeks to revive her singing career in the very different climes of Malibu. "Malibu Country" would also mark McEntire's first full-time foray into TV since her show "Reba" ended in 2007. That show ran for six seasons on The WB and The CW networks. McEntire has since made appearances in the short-lived series "Better With You" and "Working Class."

A look at the downside of Facebook and its IPO: Facebook

More TSA shenanigans: A series of stupid screw-ups by screeners at Newark Airport yesterday closed down a terminal for three hours, delayed 11 flights and forced the rescreening of nearly 200 angry people, The Post has learned. The comedy of errors began about 11 a.m. when a Transportation Security Administration agent decided a passenger’s bag had to be rescreened. But somehow, the wrong bag was picked up — and the owner of the suspect luggage was allowed to carry it through security. Seven minutes later, after realizing the mistake and discovering that nobody could describe the owner of the bag, the agents closed the checkpoint to review security video. (Everyone in the terminal then had to return for re-screening!) Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/newark_in_knots_amid_tsa_blunders_ejKWubjyv7307eHvZ7tFJK#ixzz1lEcozjQ3

If so, I would think I would have noticed it by now. Surely some people don't like Google, Yahoo, and Hotmail. I think they suck. I would prefer to pay for an email company that let me filter my mail better than these people do. Junk, junk, and more junk, despite their claims that they are doing something about it.

One week later: EXPAT 787 Lucky 343 Jkane 148 FourAces 122 Lurkerspks 95 CharliePS and MsGuy are fighting it out, with 67 for Charlie and 64 for Msguy. It looks like all of the above could reach 300 by May 1st.

BD Wong will be 52 this summer. He used a false birthdate for a long while, claiming to have been born in 1963, but I guess that reality took over and he decided he looked pretty good for his age anyway.

America's least favorite agency, the TSA, is admitting that one of its employees stole Ipads while searching travelers' luggage. He was caught after one victim used the tracking device to find that her Ipad was at the home of the employee, along with 7 other stolen Ipads: Those Lovable TSA Thieves

gcursor has such a great sense of humor that he might consider stand-up comedy, at least as a pastime. He has also self-published a book, and is apparently a computer whiz. Lots of skills there should mean a good future.

Thanks for the link, KY. It's a sad story all around. Certainly the kids did not expect him to commit suicide over it, but they weren't too concerned with the ramifications of it at all.