TotallyOz

Now down to 3. Yippee!!!!

We are now 13 away from this great milestone! Counting down! Oz

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN Published: October 30, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24 — This Halloween, the Glindas, gladiators and harem boys of the Castro — along with untold numbers who plan to dress up as Senator Larry E. Craig, this year’s camp celebrity — will be celebrating behind closed doors. The city’s most popular Halloween party, in America’s largest gay neighborhood, is canceled. he once-exuberant street party, a symbol of sexual liberation since 1979 has in recent years become a Nightmare on Castro Street, drawing as many as 200,000 people, many of them costumeless outsiders, and there has been talk of moving it outside the district because of increasing violence. Last year, nine people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the celebration. For many in the Castro District, the cancellation is a blow that strikes at the heart of neighborhood identity, and it has brought soul-searching that goes beyond concerns about crime. These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village, with population shifts, booming development, and a waning sense of belonging that is also being felt in gay enclaves across the nation, from Key West, Fla., to West Hollywood, as they struggle to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification. There has been a notable shift of gravity from the Castro, with young gay men and lesbians fanning out into less-expensive neighborhoods like Mission Dolores and the Outer Sunset, and farther away to Marin and Alameda Counties, “mirroring national trends where you are seeing same-sex couples becoming less urban, even as the population become slightly more urban,” said Gary J. Gates, a demographer and senior research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. At the same time, cities not widely considered gay meccas have seen a sharp increase in same-sex couples. Among them: Fort Worth; El Paso; Albuquerque; Louisville, Ky.; and Virginia Beach, according to census figures and extrapolations by Dr. Gates for The New York Times. “Twenty years ago, if you were gay and lived in rural Kansas, you went to San Francisco or New York,” he said. “Now you can just go to Kansas City.” For the full article go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us/30gay...amp;oref=slogin

Stephan, As always, you amaze me! I am so glad you are doing the ride. It is an amazing experience. Tips? Read over my post from before. Best tips: 1. Get good bike shorts. 2. Train by riding daily for many months. 3. Ride at least one 100 mile ride before the trip to know how it feels for your body. 4. Spend time on the forums for the event and get great info and tips. 5. Drinks lots of water and liquid on the trip. 6. Make sure you eat plenty daily.

This was one of my favorite shows this season. I loved Glen Close and the plot was interesting. The shift back and forth in time was great to watch and keep me yearning for the answers to all my questions. The last episode really did sum things up great! I do think that there are many loose ends that need to be tied up and I look forward to a second season. The show did remind me of another show I loved called Murder 1. Not sure if many of you remember that but I saw several similarities. Looking forward to seeing what happens once the duel between The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat return to the same office.

I saw a very heart-warming movie tonight called "Lars and the Real Girl". The movie was well written, well acted and really did touch the heart of many who watched. When this movie comes to your area, give it a try. It is not your typical love story, but it is a great adventure. Cast & Credits Lars: Ryan Gosling Karin: Emily Mortimer Gus: Paul Schneider Dagmar: Patricia Clarkson Margo: Kelli Garner Holly: Lauren Ash Mrs. Gruner: Nancy Beatty By Roger Ebert How do you make a film about a life-sized love doll, ordered through the Internet, into a life-affirming statement of hope? In "Lars and the Real Girl," you do it with faith in human nature, and with a performance by Ryan Gosling that says things that cannot be said. And you surround him with actors who express the instinctive kindness we show to those we love. Gosling, who has played neo-Nazis and district attorneys, now plays Lars Lindstrom, a painfully shy young man who can barely stand the touch of another human being. He functions in the world and has an office job, but in the evening, he sits alone in a cabin in the back yard of his family home. His mother died years ago, his depressive father more recently. Now the big house is occupied by his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and pregnant sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer). She makes it her business to invite him to dinner, to share their lives, but he begs off with one lame excuse after another, and sits alone in the dark. One day a co-worker at the office, surfing Internet porn, shows Lars a life-size vinyl love doll that can be order customized to specifications. A few weeks later, a packing crate is delivered to Lars, and soon his brother and sister-in-law are introduced to the doll. She is, they learn, named Bianca. She is a paraplegic missionary, of Brazilian and Danish blood, and Lars takes her everywhere in a wheelchair. He has an explanation for everything, including why she doesn't talk or eat. To read the rest of the review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../710180304/1023

I have a twink living with me at the moment and with that comes the loss of my tv priviliges. Today was the worst. The twink is into MTV and VH1 and the show for the day was a marathon called I Love New York. It was the saddest excuse for a show I have ever seen. It is based on a hoochie mama named New York. The show is funny but OMG. I have never seen anything quite like this. Perhaps I am just not hip anymore. Perhaps I am just not on the same twink gaydar as I used to be. Perhaps I have been out of America for too long. But, man, this show really sucks. Now, I am back to listening to it as I get some work done. The upside is I have a cute twink walking around in his underwear laughing every 30 seconds so loud the neighbors are going to complain.

LOL. Yes, witches and queers. Every fundamentalist's nightmare.

I could not agree with you more. He is amazing and sweet! Plus, he is the only one I know that so easily puts me to shame with his knowledge of computers. Anytime I have a computer problem, I IM him and he saves the day!

Well, it was better than I expected but my expectations were not high. It cost 25 to get in. There were many companies that were represented there and the exhibitors were from a wide variety of venues. Eros has a booth, Naked Sword, PrideStore, tons of video companies and 2 escort sites including the Rentboy booth. Most of the booths had boys working there and the video stores were selling videos fairly cheap. There were many porn stars there and they had shows every few hours. The shows were a mix gogo dances and drag skits. They were fun and enjoyable to watch. The guy in the pic with the long cock did a dance routine and he pulled a long strip of beads out of his ass. It got me turned on. There were many hot guys there but no twinks. The hottest booth there was the Muscle Bear booth. The guys were hot, sexy and friendly. The one in the pics from above was very nice and I think he was Mr. Eagle 2007. They gave away free flyers and most had a code for a free membership for a few days or a week. HX was a main sponsor and they had 2 vampire boys that were hot. One said he was straight and there to make money. I kept talking to him for a bit and he finally said he also escorted on Craig's List. I asked him to post a profile here and if he does, I'll be the first one to hire him. He was latin and a total top (so he said) but he was sexy and I loved the vampire theme. I had a good time. It was not as big as many fairs I have been to but it was fun and enjoyable.

A few photos from Saturday.

Having read the books and watched the movies, it has been a great adventure to see the growth of the Harry Potter franchise. I stood in lines at midnight with neices and nephews to get the latest books. I saw all the movies on opening night. Each I loved. I am glad that Rowling finally outted her gay friend. From the BCC: Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay. She made her revelation to a packed house in New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday, as part of her US book tour. She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found "true love". "Dumbledore is gay," she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she said, and added Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down" and his love for Grindelwald was his "great tragedy". "Oh, my god," Rowling, 42, concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction". Fan sites have long speculated on Dumbledore's sexuality as he was known for having a mysterious, troubled past. Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she saw the script carried a reference to a girl who was once of interest to Dumbledore. She said she ensured director David Yates was made aware of the truth about her character. Rowling also did a brief reading from the seventh book in her best-selling series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as part of her Open Book Tour of the US - her first there for seven years. She said she regarded her novels as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority". But she added that not everyone likes her work. Christian groups have alleged the books promote witchcraft. The author said her revelation about Dumbledore would give them one more reason. The seventh Potter book broke sales records on both sides of the Atlantic when it was published in July, selling 11 million copies in 24 hours. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7053982.stm

Apple is soon coming out with its latest version of OS 10. It's nameis Leopard. It looks amazing and anything by Apple seems to set the standards. Take a look at this through the guided tour. http://www.apple.com/macosx/guidedtour/

Few stories have touched me more than the images of monks being arrested, beaten and killed in Burma. Having lived a time in that part of the world, I know the reverence that is placed upon monks by their followers. It has saddened me greatly to see this and know that we won't do anything to help as they don't have oil for our SUV's. Here is a very good article on the plight of the people there. Please feel free to post others. CNN editor's note: An I-Reporter inside Myanmar shares experiences of what it's like to live there. Because of safety concerns, CNN.com has agreed not to identify the author. The views expressed here are those of the author alone. YANGON, Myanmar -- On the surface, Yangon appears almost normal since most of the military's activities now take place under cover of a nighttime curfew away from the cameras. But what is normal -- and what happens beyond normal? The military crackdown has been unbelievably severe, especially considering this country's deep reverence for Buddhist monks. To see monks attacked during peaceful demonstrations is disturbing, as is the vengeance with which the military attempts to cover up its abuse and prevent news from leaking to the outside world. But the abuse goes beyond that. Every day, I hear sad stories. A father is killed when trying to reach his son in a school that is cordoned off by the military. A young student in a village school is killed by overzealous military, but the family cannot obtain the body, which was conveniently cremated. If the family protests, the whole village suffers. For full story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/1...port/index.html

The article and photos can be found at: http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_19_10_50.htm The following appears in the PATTAYA CITY NEWS: _____ Exclusive – Canadian Pedophile Began his Thailand Trip Here in Pattaya. As reported in the National and International Press, the Canadian National wanted on charges of pedophilia has now been caught. Mr. Christopher Paul Neil aged 32 was arrested in Nakorn Rachasima Province in the North-East of Thailand, some 200 kms from Bangkok. Interpol, who has been tracking the man from South Korea, where he worked as an English Teacher, informed the Thai Police that he had come to Thailand on 11th October. We can exclusively reveal that his first stop on his trip to Thailand was here in Pattaya. We obtained CCTV pictures from a Hotel in Soi VC in South Pattaya which clearly show Mr. Neil checking in on 11th October with a Thai Friend who is believed to have previously organized liaisons with underage boys and girls, during his first trip to Thailand in 2002. He checked out of the hotel on 13th October as planned and then made his way to the North-East which is where he was eventually caught on Friday. __________ The PATTAYA DAILY NEWS also has a story: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.p...NEWS=0000004055

Anyone heading to the Expo this weekend? http://gayeroticexpo.squarespace.com/home/

I am looking into get a good heart rate monitor that will give me more training information. Anyone have any recommendations that are compatible with Macs?

Anyone seen this movie yet? http://www.forthebibletellsmeso.org/

I have found this site a joy to work with and be a part of. We are getting close to another milestone and that is our 2000th escort profile. Hurrah!

I think you are right. The guys with me were younger and in the early 20's. One loved it and was in tears, the other is still talking today about how boring it was. I had other friends that saw it and had the same reaction. I was at the theatre again tonight to see another flick and Across the Universe was letting out and I stopped and talked to a group of young ladies. 3 loved it and 1 hated it. Tonight I saw the Why do Women get Married moive. It was funny as hell. But, it did not compare to the experience of last night.

Kucinich speech at Latino Congresso, via MyDD I'm so grateful to be with you this morning. It's such an honor. When I am with this community, I realize the real connection I have, from the heart, (el corazón). It's a connection that transcends the issues, but it connects us to the issues at the same time. When I started my career in politics forty years ago in Cleveland, the Puerto Rican population was growing, and there were a lot of problems between that community and the police. And so when I finally got elected to city council with the help of the Puerto Rican community, the first thing I did was to take a Spanish language course, so that I could better understand and communicate with members of the Latino community. One of the things we first discovered in the city council was the fact that the police were arresting Latinos without reading them their rights, in direct violation of the Miranda decision. So if someone didn't speak English, they didn't have any rights. The police didn't understand that even if people couldn't speak English, it didn't mean that those people shouldn't have rights. So I was responsible for causing the Cleveland Police to have to learn the Miranda rights in Spanish and carry a card with them. Now the people in the Administration of George Bush better remember their Miranda rights, because when I'm elected President I'm going to see that they are arrested. I'm not kidding here! I want to let you to know something; how I feel about what's happened to our country. We have been led into a war based upon lies -- an unjust a war. We've seen our civil liberties taken away because of lies. The President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense are all part of this. They're going to be held accountable under the law. If someone runs a traffic light, they'll get a ticket here. There are a million dead Iraqis and almost 4,000 dead American soldiers as a result of this war. Where is the accountability? What's happened is that our constitution is being torn up. And in this toxic environment, the Administration, in its never-ending quest for more scapegoats, focuses on immigrants. You know it and I know it. And we see, unfortunately, the failure of the Democratic Party to stand up to this Administration. I'm going to give you an example of something that occurred a couple of weeks ago. We had the bill on children's health care that we passed out of the House and it covered all children, including the children of legal immigrants: about 600,000 children. But because of some Republicans in the Senate, who said, "Look, we're not dealing with any immigrants," it doesn't even matter if they're legal at this point, the Democrats wouldn't fight to keep it in the Bill. They took it out. So they brought the bill back to the House, without 600,000 children of immigrants who are legal. Now, think about what that means. It means that we are in so much fear in this country that our children are now being affected by it. You see, I happen to believe that all children, whether they are the children of those that are documented or not, should be covered for their health care. When our politics has gotten to the point where we start to divide our children into various camps, where we start to separate our children from one another, we set the stage for the splitting of the Nation. I want to see our Nation united together. It is time that we had a President who understood that human unity is what makes for peace. And that when we impose the wrath of the law that is unjust, what we're doing is we're stopping peace from happening. So, I'm running for President to make sure that all the people in America know that they have someone who they can count on, and know that they will have a President who will stand up for them. And I will tell you today that the Latino community, in particular, has a right to expect that all the candidates will stand in front of you and say, "Yes. We must have a path to legalization. Yes. There must be a way for people to work in this country, if they want to live in Mexico. Yes. We must take down that wall!" Isn't it interesting how famous Ronald Reagan became for saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, take down that wall." Oh, how far we've come from those days. When President Reagan said, "Take down that wall," and President Bush now says, "Build up a wall," where are we going as a nation? I believe the way the immigrant community is treated, whether documented or not, reflects the direction and future of America. We must believe that our brothers and sisters, Latinos and all of the other ethnic groups, are essential to who we are as Americans. We are forgetting what it is that made this country great. We are forgetting that the Statue of Liberty was there for all nationalities. Maybe it would be helpful if we put Emma Lazarus's poem into Spanish, where she said, "Give me your tired, give me your poor." This is at the base of the Statue of Liberty. "Give me your tired, your poor/your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shores/Send these, the homeless, the tempest tossed to me." Those powerful, heartfelt sentiments welcomed generations of immigrants to our country; welcomed people in America to a beacon of freedom. We know that there have always been challenges, which have confronted each group that has come to this country. But never before in America have we had a discussion about having to send millions of people back across the border. Never before in America have we seen this attempt to divide us so deeply. And never before in America has there been a need to unite us so totally. And that's what my candidacy for President of the United States is all about. It is about the imperative of human unity. It is that -- we are all one. So we have to make sure, as the unity blueprint for immigration reform is being talked about, that we protect the well-being and safety of immigrant and U.S. citizen children alike. We must make sure we achieve faithful enforcement of immigration laws by reinstating the jurisdiction of Federal Courts to review agency decisions. We have to stop these raids. We have to stop it. They are not worthy of the United States of America. We need to make sure that workers' rights are protected. This is why I say that as President, my first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO. We all know what happened when NAFTA was being considered. The corporations went to the Mexico legislature and said, "Pass this. It will mean better living, better lives for the people of Mexico. Wages will go up. There will be prosperity." What happened? It passed, and wages went down. People lost jobs and fled north into the waiting arms of corporations. And the corporations said, "Yes. Come and work for us, but don't worry about what you're going to be paid, because it won't be much. You will have no rights; no rights to organize, or to collective bargaining." South of the border workers were faced with the same thing. Corporations achieved enormous control with the passage of NAFTA. People were not given a chance for their basic rights to be protected. So when I say cancel NAFTA, what I mean is that we go to Mexico and renegotiate a trade agreement. And what are the principles of that trade agreement? That all workers will have the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike, the right to decent wages and benefits, the right to a secure retirement, the right to a safe workplace. It will mean prohibitions on child labor, slave labor, and prison labor. It will mean that the air and the water are protected. It is time to have a President of the United States who will stand up for workers, who will stand up for immigrants, who will stand up for working immigrants, who will stand up for those who have documents, who will stand up for those who don't have documents, who will stand up for human beings. We must realize that there is no such thing as an illegal human being. We need a President who will stand up for the people! We understand that there needs to be a realistic framework for future migration. No one's saying that there shouldn't be an attempt to create some flow back and forth across the borders that makes sense. But, that's not what's happening. When you hear what is going on in Marico County --what is that hotline about but an encouragement of a kind of fascism? People reporting each other, what's that about? You get reported for speaking Spanish? When I was in the Ohio state legislature as a state senator there was an attempt to pass an English-only bill, and I rose and spoke about it. I gave a speech in Spanish objecting the English only. Let me tell you about how I defeated the bill: I pointed out that the founding documents of the state of Ohio were in German. So here we are in a county where people are saying "solamente." It would be good if every child had a working knowledge of the English language, and that our children receive the kind of education where they learn to read and write English perfectly. I have a proposal that's already been introduced in the Congress; one that I am getting ready to re-introduce in a couple of weeks for a universal pre-kindergarten. Children ages three, four, and five will have access to full-time daycare. How many of our parents, particularly working mothers, realize that if you don't have quality daycare, you are paying as much for daycare as you are paying for a college education? You work almost the whole week just to pay for daycare, so by the time you are through working you don't have much left at all, and you still have to worry about benefits like healthcare. What I am talking about is this: A universal pre-kindergarten daycare, where children ages three, four, and five will have access to full- time day care, fully paid, where they will learn things like music, art, reading skills, social skills and they would also learn languages. So we say all of the children in this country should learn languages like Spanish so they can reach out to the wider world. We can give our children the gift of knowing that there is a big world out there and not shut ourselves out from it, but say we are one with the world. So our children should be given this gift of learning languages at a young age, and this fear of the other will not exist anymore. This is such an important opportunity for our nation. However, in order to go from where we are to where we hope to be, there are a few things we have to do. Number one, we have to break the fear that is holding so many of our fellow citizens captive. It's not only the fear of the other; it's the fear that people will not be safe. You know and I know that the war against the people of Iraq has made this country less safe. You know and I know that it is important to have a President who not only rejects the war against Iraq, who not only rejects a war against Iran, but who rejects war as an instrument of policy. It is time to have a President who truly stands for peace. Dr. King understood this, forty years ago when he said the war in Vietnam was destroying the people of two nations. We don't have enough money to build bridges in this country, yet we blow them up in Iraq. We don't have money to build schools in this country, but we have seen schools and hospitals and other institutions destroyed in Iraq. We cannot take care of matters here at home, and yet we have leaders who want to go all around the world and tell people what to do. Let's come back home. Let's take care of things here. Let's have a country that we can be proud of, with housing for all and jobs for all and education for all and healthcare for all. That's the kind of America that people will love; the kind of America that will be an example to people all over the world as a country that you believe in, a country that you want to see succeed. Are we ready to take the path towards that kind of an America? I want to conclude with an issue that I see as the number one domestic issue affecting America. And that's the issue of healthcare. This issue affects every family in this country. We all know that people cannot afford healthcare in this country. People can't afford to be sick, and they can't afford to get well. We have a situation where these insurance companies are making a lot of money. But we have to ask how they are making that money? For instance, car dealers make money. Shoe salesmen make money. How do these private insurance companies make money? They make money by not providing healthcare. What is going on in this country? The more they deny you healthcare, the more money they make. So doctors are on the phone with you saying, "No, you cannot have that test, no, you cannot have that procedure." The insurance companies are playing doctor now. People are not getting the care they are paying for. But then there are 47 million Americans who don't have any insurance at all. And you know what? The largest percentage happens to be Latino. You know this, and I know this. So isn't it time we recognize in America that we should have the same kind of care for its people that every other industrialized nation has? That's why I am the co-author of a bill, HR 676, Medicare for all, a not-for- profit health care system -- one that covers everyone. It is time to break the hold that these private insurance companies have on our political system; a political system that is failing the American people. We need to reclaim it, so that we can restore the health of the American people. It is time to have a not-for-profit heath care system that covers everyone. Half the bankruptcies in America are due to people who cannot pay their medical bills, so they just go bankrupt. We all know that in households throughout the country, where families discuss this everyday, that someone says, "Honey I don't feel well, but I can't go to the doctor because we can't afford it." People forego the care that they need, until they end up in an emergency room very ill, and the costs go through the roof at that point. Our system is not about caring for people, it is about caring for profits and insurance companies. The system that I am talking about is a not-for-profit system, and it will have enough money for vision care, dental care, mental health care, long-term care, and prescription drugs. Healthcare today is being used to accelerate the wealth of the rich. We need to reclaim the system so all people will have the money for their healthcare, and also for other things, like housing. You know, I started an investigation a couple of months ago about these mortgage companies that were going into communities of people of color and selling these sub-prime loans creating a wave of bankruptcies. The housing needs of America are greater than ever. Healthcare needs are greater than ever. The job needs of America are greater than ever. The need for higher wages is greater than ever. The need for a fair and just immigration policy is greater than ever. The need to stand for peace is greater than ever. Our system is failing the American people. My candidacy is about rallying the American people to defend their basic human and economic rights. This is our moment to reclaim our nation. This is our moment to restore our nation; our moment to say what America really stands for. This is our moment to say we are part of this country; we helped build this country; we helped make this country what it is. And we are not going to let anyone take this country away from us, whether it's for oil or for money or for blood. This is our nation, and we will reclaim it. We will restore it, and we will call it the United States of America for all the people. Thank you very much. Thank you. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27692

A great YouTube video from France. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsNFxOOnjgw

The new Julie Taymor movie is amazing. I loved it from beginning to end. I went with a few younger guys who were so excited to see it and one loved it and the other hated it. I thought that Taymor did an outstanding job with this and I was mesmerized by the songs and the 60's experience. I think there was more than just a few of those in the audience who had smoked a little weed before the show as I smelled it on more than just our group. All in all, the show really did deliver a great time. I was apprehensive at first to see it and the two young lads who were with me were excited. When we exited, there were tears in the eyes of one and matter in the sleepy eyes of the other. 2 hr. 11 min. | PG-13 - for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson Director: Julie Taymor Genre: Period Film, Musical Romance, Musical A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n' roll, moving from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude and Lucy, along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with Dr. Robert and Mr. Kite as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy--against all odds--to find their own way back to each other www.fandango.com

In the USA, there is a TV show called 20/20 on ABC. It is a documentary show with various topics each week. This week, the show was on children working at young ages. There was a 9 year-old preacher, 15 year old actress, an 11 year old Matador, and several 8 year old Muay Thai boxers. All in all, the thought behind the show was how young is too young for a child to work. The segment on the boxers in Thailand was extremely interesting to watch. It showed how the parents were using the kids to bring in money for the family. It was interesting to see the slant on the Muay Thai boxers was on the parents pushing the children into the ring but the same slant was not applied as harshly to the other children. The Muay Thai segment was based on a new movie out called, Raised in the Ring. The movie looks very interesting and I wonder if it is shown in Thailand? Has anyone seen it? The segment also dealt with parents pushing the girls at a young age to work in the ring. I have known many bar boys who said the same thing, that their parents wanted them to go to Pattaya or Bangkok to work in a bar to bring home money for the family. This seems to happen often in Thailand and other places around the globe. It was only 100 years ago that the USA enacted Child Labor laws. I venture to say that child protection laws are not the norm in most countries. An education is something that has only been expected for the young in the USA in the last one hundred or so years. I do believe it is the way out of poverty but I also wonder why westerns hold other countries that are not as developed to their own standards. How young is too young to work for the family? How young is too young to be a professional boxer? How young is too young to work in a bar? How young is too young to stop a required education?

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej is in hospital after feeling weak in his right side, the royal palace has said. The 79-year-old king was taken to Bangkok's Siriraj hospital on Saturday morning, where scans revealed an inadequate blood supply to his brain. The condition improved after treatment but requires further observation. King Bhumibol, the world's longest reigning current monarch, is greatly revered in Thailand and his health is a subject of great national concern. A statement from the Bureau of the Royal Household said scans had revealed "a minimal cerebral ischemia" on the left side of the king's brain, meaning that part of his brain was not receiving enough blood to function normally. "The team of royal physicians then recommended hospitalisation for treatment and observation," the statement said. "After a period of approximately eight hours of treatment, the weakness of the right leg has improved," it added. Concerns over King Bhumibol's health have deepened since he underwent spinal surgery last year, after complaining of back pain. Since that operation, the monarch has rarely appeared in public. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7043205.stm