Mac98

2 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

It was for a short time after 9-11 attacks. Airports also. I heard from military guys who were active pilots in various Guard units they were unloaded. Personally I think guns in the US should be mostly nbanned except for hunting rifles and shotguns  but I like the idea of Soldiers and Policemen with automatic weapons patrolling airports.

 

I had a culture shock incident at Suwannaphumi Airport. An old old lady in some kind of African or middle eastern costume was afraid to get on the escalator. Her group had already boarded she was left behind, they were shouting something.  I offered my hand to stabilize her maybe I touched her forearm. She actually struck me. I have done similar before but in her country I probably could have been killed for touching an unrelated woman.

A woman arrived and departed my hotel in full Muslim dress. I later learned she was Iranian on one-week holiday with her brother and government minder as she has an administrative job at a helicopter factory run by the military.

   While there she would wade in the pool in what looked like full undergarments plus two bathing suits. One day she got in over her head and panicked. The two fully dressed men with her just watched helplessly. I dove in and pulled her back to shallow water using a cross-chest carry I learned as a young lad. I half expected the knives to come out. They didn't and the young lady talked with me for hours. The two men just glowered. That's how I got her story. We have been in contact via email for years now. I much later learned that drowning is one of the few times an unrelated man my touch a Muslim woman. You never know.

1) How cold everyone keeps their homes at night.

2) How expensive everything is in California.

3) How cheap everything is in Utah.

4) With the rise of Indian casinos, 24-hour gambling now most everywhere.

5) That people will pay $20 to get into a place that is going to charge them $40 for a 2-munute lap dance.

6) Drive-thru restaurants everywhere for many kinds of food.

7) The zero eye contact with younger women.

???? The look of horror when you reply "Thailand" to their inevitable query.

7 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

Congratulations Thailand on a job well done. But it is still way too soon for everyone to drop their guard. 

Or their pants.

I can remember looking up at all those uniforms at church during and just after the war. My much  older brother served from 1945. I went to the library at age 12 and read a six-volume history of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific War.

   This was followed up as a journalist with a daily, six-year historical note in our paper from September 1989 to September 1995 on what took place 50 years ago today in WWII. I was given words of appreciation in letters and some visits, including a B-24 pilot who flew in the most fearsome of raids, that being on the Polesti oil fields.

   During those years I met General of the Army (5 stars) Omar Bradley (Patton's boss); Marine Air Col. Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington, commander of the 'Black Sheep Squadron', who also flew with the Flying Tigers in China; and discussed grand strategy with Luftwaffe Gen. Adolph Galand, who led the first air combat mission of ME-262 fighter jets. At the behest of Marine Gen. (ret.) Victor Krulak, who was associated with the news service I worked for, I was sent to the Aleutian Islands to do an anniversary story on the war for those bleak, but important, islands. A reunion of Aleutian veterans sent a letter and wartime pictures as thanks.

   More recently, I'm a founding member of the American Air Museum at Duxford Air Base in England. I still have the invitation to attend the opening ceremony with the queen participating. I had my brother's name listed on the plaque (a choice they gave us) as it was he who served for 30 years.

17 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Sometimes overlooked in the narrative of the final mths of WW2 is the savagery meted out by some Russian troops on the civilian population of East Prussia and Germany and why many of them tried to flee West .. Stalin's reaction to the murder , rape , thieving and mayhem being carried out by Russian troops was to brush it off with comments like " understand if the Russian soldier crosses thousands of km's of fire , fighting and death he can enjoy German women and a little trifle " and " we lecture our soldiers too much .. we should allow them the initiative " .. Some of the Allies seen these comments as condoning what was happening and said as much in private but as the days of bon homme between Allied and Russian troops after finally defeating the Nazi's began to evaporate the suspicions about each other were solidifying so statements made by the Allies about the brutality being shown to the German civilian population wouldn't go down well in Moscow polarising the standing of both further .. Eventually order began to be restored when the standing Russian forces were confined to camp and it was made a military offence to perpetrate crimes against the German population .. The ongoing consequences of some of the Soviets behaviour left lasting scars on German society such as " Russenbabies " resulting from rapes many of whom were abandoned straight after birth with some women preferring to seek backstreet terminations as the hospitals were controlled by the Russians , and many were infected with serious STD's .. And many woman fearing what would happen prevented it by taking their own lives .. For long after WW2 the Russians refused to acknowledge the extent of what their troops had done in seizing that side of Germany even after Stalin died .. though in the yrs after the Soviet Union collapsed and more records and information began to appear that they began to accept to a degree what happened but even so in the early 2000's a book " Berlin the Downfall " ( compelling but also uncomfortable to read ) which benefitted from information previously unavailable that detailed Russian troops behavior brought scathing criticism from them for trying to drag the reputation of the Red Army down and failing to consider the price the Russians paid in seizing Berlin .. 

Most of the Red Army p.o.w.s and many of it's conquering troops, having been exposed to the comparative riches of Central Europe, were sent on to labor camps by Stalin and never returned home.

Already completed my bucket list. My much older brother had 30 years in the military, beginning in 1945, and would tell me of his travels. For a boy from small town Ohio, educated by nuns and then brothers in an all-boys high school, everything sounded exotic. I started my list of places to see before the interstate highway system was much more than some disjointed links. Ohio was easy. S. Carolina, various places in Texas, Oklahoma, old route 66 to California (got my B.A. there spending weekends in Haight-Ashbury), the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, France, and last on my list was Thailand where he did two tours during the Vietnam War. I arrived here in 1998. Living here now. 

  I've seen much more of the world than that list but it got me going and I've raised my 4 kids to do likewise. Three of them have visited Thailand (among other countries), the 4th I took to tour Edinburgh to London because she had just earned a master's in Shakespearean English and wanted to see a play at the Royal Globe. Thank heaven for frequent flyer miles! And thanks to my Thai friend who got us a 66% discount at a beautiful country lodge where she worked up north near Hadrian's Wall.

On 5/6/2020 at 9:19 AM, petermik said:

Obviously by looking at her expression..bored/miserable then it,s the wife....smiling/happy is the GF or companion.........

Likewise his expression.

2 hours ago, Skallywag said:

Come on.  Can scientists please get back to researching a vaccine please. 

These researches need to "hold back" their urges at a time like this 

 

Researchers rely on grants for funding their yachts. Anything that can be used to scare the population into chastity is always a headline/political/grant winner. Remember we were all going to be dead of AIDS in 1986? 

What if the movie, snack counter and previews included, runs more than two hours?

Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis 1957.

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

I have nothing to worry about than no one ever will published naked pictures mainly showing a balding and pudgy elderly man... 

My playful landlady, unknowingly on my part, shot a revealing picture of me relaxing in the bath after a massage by her. I first saw it on her timeline. My 77-year-old junior partner was well above the suds. It already had 24 likes and 3 gasps of horror. I was fearful of a visit by law enforcement. I also apologized to some more sensitive ladies I knew who shared her posts. Most said it was no big deal, which I did not find comforting.

It's just a game those in charge play. 'Oh look at me, so moral and upright, you know I would always have your interests at heart and never cheat you.'

Pattaya condo, yes.

It was never closed. Never crowded. Happy children every evening.

Trump saw this coming, he was warned, yet he did nothing. Case closed.

It is pricey on Prat Hill to rely on taxis, but I don't go into town much. Popular Thai restaurant bext door, 7-11 on the corner, massage next to that, produce market around the other corner. Love the near constant ocean breezes high on the hill. Be sure your balcony isn't blocked from them. Very quiet at night. I have roomy 1-bdrm, 1 1/2 bath, 2 balcony seaview condo with great lap pool, exercise and steam rooms, excellent maintenance and security, for 8300b a month.

Massage isn't only about fun and games. My older brother, after 30 years in the USAF, had bad circulation problems that turned his feet black. Foot massage eased his final years. My buddy since grade school had similar severe foot and leg problems that became infected. I'm sure massage extended his life by years before passing this month. Another friend, a man who played team rugby into his 40s, has diabetic leg problems, as do I. Thai massage twice a week eases the constant pain of severe neuropathy and allows me to sleep at night. That rest leaves me the energy to swim for exercise. Such regular massage in America would cost $1,000 a month. No, it's not covered by insurance. 

The malls are air conditioned, so restaurants in malls to stay closed?

53 minutes ago, Mac98 said:

Solvang, CA. Gorgeous winter weather in small town, wine tasting, bakeries, they can even get around by horse and buggy like Central Park. 

Ashville, N.C., a scenic mountain town with mild winters, is a popular liberal enclave.

Solvang, CA. Gorgeous winter weather in small town, wine tasting, bakeries, they can even get around by horse and buggy like Central Park. 

The reasons they gave for halting alcohol sales will not have changed during an extended emergency lockdown.

This story should have been labeled 'Flash', not 'Must read'.

If he really is withdrawing cash from the ATM it should be easy to get his identity from the bank.