Bob

No problem (although, in part, it's obvious that the automatic emailer lacked a certain amount of taste ). And it was nice of you to set up the temporary board while the other one was in limbo. For a while, there was a glimmer of hope that some reasonable moderation would deal with the small group of total morons that previously infested the original board; unfortunately, the glimmer's gone.

Know your gun history! An interesting CNN piece today [Khun Khortose, please note the quote by former Chief Justice Warren Burger (a right-winger appointed by Nixon!) towards the end of the article]. http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/08/know-your-gun-rights-history/?hpt=hp_t3

A British term relating to cruising public toilets to have anonymous gay sex there (harkening back to the "glory hole" days) and/or to pick up a partner to have gay sex elsewhere. I've never understood it given I go to bathrooms for other reasons.

Speaking of Texas (too many driving around in pickups with rifles hanging from the rear windows), they now have drive-through liquor joints and it's quite remarkable to see the pickups (with guns hanging in the window) lined up to buy their nightly dose of alcohol. And, before he says it, you're right, Khun Khortose, these places don't generally get robbed. On the other hand, the whole notion of gun-toting cowboys buying alcohol from their car/truck windows somehow scares the bejeebees out of me.

Guns do have other uses such as the sport of target shooting. But, come on, the main purpose of a gun from time immemorial has been to kill or wound other people and animals. If you can't accept that rather basic reality, this argument isn't going anywhere. Even in so-called "self-defense", the purpose of the gun is to thwart the attacker (either by scaring him off or blasting him to pieces). Unlike some, I've been a gunowner (both handguns and long guns) since I was very young. And there are millions of Americans who currently possess guns who shouldn't be allowed to get anywhere near them (and, admittedly, millions of Americans who responsibly own and use guns). The problem, of course, is the the outright creeps (wackos and simply pure criminals) as well as the boneheads who have guns and to suggest we solve that problem by giving everybody else their own bazooka is a theme only Fred Flintsone and the NRA could conjure up. (Folks, neighbor KT is gonna kick my ass when I get back to CM for saying that one...hahaha). Now, you'll have to excuse me. I'm either hungry for some meat or I'm a little unbalanced so I'm going to fuel up my Chevrolet Impala and go out and do a little huntin'......

That line, in my view, says it all. I personally have no use at all for your so-called gossipy scoops; regardless, I have no control at all as to where you post and have had nothing to do with your being banned on several other boards. So, as long as the current board owner allows you to post here, post away. It's no effort at all for me to ignore whatever scoops you claim to have. Regarding the "invite" you received, it's a bit tacky in my view to publicly post private email. Additionally, the invite, I think (because I received a similar one) was to solicit posts not here but at the temporary (and now defunct) Bahtstop board that was running while the old one was temporally inactive.

Great little video. Difficult as usual to watch an innocent kid (ain't they all?) endure all the really unnecessary bullshit from bullies (usually "schoolfriends" but sometimes even parents); on the other hand, in spite of the background, it's nice to see that a lot of kids thankfully overcome all the usual obstacles and can still thrive.

Not intending to continue the gang-up on neighbor KT, but I'm hoping that Khun KT will give an opinion as to how do we keep the guns (handguns or otherwise) out of the hands of people that shouldn't own or possess them. Khun KT, you spelled out the history of the wacko that did the shootings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin this past weekend but didn't mention that he bought the handgun only days before the shootings. So....how do we keep guns (especially handguns) out of the hands of wackos like this? Or, alternatively, do you advocate liberal gun laws (let almost anybody buy and own them) and consider the occasional massacres just collateral damage to the bulk of the people enjoying their constitutional rights?

No guess from me as I'm still busy trying to find out who's buried in Grant's tomb.....

Or a slug of any drink (usually alcohol). Or a slug is a punch with a fist. Or a bullet (usually, at least in the US, referring to a lead bullet in a shotgun shell). Or a slug is that slimey little snail-like creature that infests our gardens.

You tell us this history and the news tells us he bought the handgun within the last two weeks. Something's a bit wrong with that scenario, right? At least we might be on the same page that at least some people ought not be able to purchase or possess handguns.

The mantra that "guns don't kill, people do" is about as accurate as Fox New's mantra of "fair and balanced" reporting. Saying something multiple times only increases it's credibility for those that don't think very well in the first place. Guns serve many purposes but their primary purpose is and has always been to kill animals for food or human beings (either in aggression or defense). Simple as that. My good neighbor's attempt to analogize guns to automobiles, toasters, power plants, or any other activity or device that happens to unintentionally kill or harm people or animals is, for me, beyond the pale of logic. Automobiles, as Khun Khortose points out, kill (albeit, unintentionally) every year although the death and injury rate has dramatically fallen over the last many decades due to massive efforts by government and industry to improve and regulate the product (requiring driver education course, requiring teens to have probationary period limitations, requiring seat belts, requiring air bags, improving road guardrails, etc., etc.). The gun industry, led by it's huge lobbying organization (the NRA - the Fox News of all lobbying organizations), has fought every single effort to regulate its product and, frankly, hasn't done one damn thing to help lower the number of gun murders. Some day, the people of the US will say "enough" and actually do something about it (and, if that means amending the Constitution, so be it); meanwhile, the slaughter will in fact continue.

I've been looking forward to this one for over a year. An extremely complicated landing process and, if it works, that alone will be almost miraculous.

That's good. But, given most of Air Asia's business is international, it would seem to make sense that they too would stay at least in part at BKK. We'll see.

Is it possible that any carrier will maintain any flights at all between Chiangmai and Suvarnabhumi? The last time they moved the "domestic" carriers to Don Muang, both Thai and Air Asia still had some flights from CNX and BKK and I'm hoping that at least one of them will do that again.

As I understand it, the underwater cameras are indeed part of the process - the judges watching to some degree to make sure a swimmer isn't breaking the assigned stroke (a person doing the butterfly who inserts some other strokes can be disqualified).

Doesn't mean much to some....but nice to see Khun FH acknowledge that Phelps likely is the best the sport of swimming has ever seen. And, for what it's worth, he's won more Olympic medals than anybody ever. And who really deserves a medal are the parents of all the gifted Olympians/atheletes as they, like their sons and daughters, have sacrificed for years (since many of these atheletes were 7 or 8 years old) to allow their kids to pursue near physical perfection.

We certainly could reasonably debate who would qualify as some of the world's best atheletes. Carl Lewis was certainly one of the greatest track and field guys of all time but I wouldn't rank him as the greatest Olympian based solely on the records (that, of course, doesn't detract from his huge talent). Phelps arguably can be claimed to be the greatest swimmer of all time (well, at least so far) and, in my view, ranks right up there with the greatest of all Olympians. Both Lewis, Phelps, and many others are great atheletes. I agree that the number of Olympic medals isn't an absolute indicator in itself but 15 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals won over a significant span of time (especially for an athelete) is huge in my view.

While I agree that it's best not to have an idiosyncratic, biased, or heavy-handed moderator, it's difficult for me to understand why anybody that would opt for what occurred on the original Bahtstop. What I'm talking about specifically is the small group of morons (all of whom, I believe had been booted off multiple boards) who existed solely to post insults and juvenile/idiotic statements.

I agree with Koko and Mark Spitz. The difficulty in maintaining his level of proficiency over the span of 3 Olympic games is, to me, astounding. And, at least to me (winner of a swimming merit badge back in the dark ages), there is a huge difference in the different swimming strokes (and why you don't often see, for example, an expert in the breaststroke also be an expert in the butterfly).

I can't even see all of the 5 boards we've had around for a while surviving for the long term. It seems to me that there's a limited audience. When Dreaded Ned's was up and running, it was somewhat new to the concept and fairly busy. Since the demise of that board, we've seen several other boards pop up but I'm doubtful that the total participating in all the boards exceeds the total traffic/interest generated by the DN board (or, if it does, it can't be by all that much). And I'd guess that the average age of posters on all the boards has substantially increased over the years and there seemingly isn't all that much new blood that's joined the boards to participate. In a way, maybe all of this somewhat parallels what some see as the slow decline or stagnation of the entire gay scene in Thailand (at least from the falang's point of view).

A bit bizarre nonetheless. The piece starts out explaining that the word "Baccarat" comes from the French language which originally stemmed from the Italian language. I lost it when he started yakking about tarot cards and Charles VIII.....

Just finished watching the opening ceremonies. Great job, Great Britain! And getting the Queen to play along with James Bond (Daniel Craig) was really neat. Whoever thought up that skit ought to get a medal.

As an infant, he was found floating in a basket in some reeds along a stream in Utah, he became a Morman, "saved" the Utah winter olympics, and has a dancing horse competing in the London olympic games. He's currently unemployed but he is has applied to the Republicans to be their nominee for President of the US.

Lol. Well, that's all behind me now (and, if you comment at all about my "behind", I'll pull a rabbit outta your nose!). Now all I do is go to temples and I'm working on becoming a virgin.