Sorry is Not Enough

My sins are legion, but as George Carlin states in his famous monologue THE TEN COMMANDMENTS that the having ten was only a marketing device. The late comedian trimmed the commandments down to two along with Thou Shalt Keep Thy religion to Thyself.

Thou shalt not steal is downsized to being honest, however honesty is a tough commandment to keep, as was witnessed in an English court’s prosecution of a tax advisor for the theft of an old woman’s millions.

The man admitted to stealing from his client’s account even after her death.

He had started small and then within for the ‘wipe-out’ within a year to the tune of 2 million pounds sterling. The pilfered funds were transferred to his Thai girlfriend’s bank account. She was half his age. 57/27. She invested the money in several gambling casinos. The 60 year-old is now looking at a long stretch in prison, while his wife will be calling saying, “Mii mee tang.”

“I don’t have any money.”

Another case of the Thai anti-Midas touch.

Gold into dirt.

Sum num nah.

The Thai Anti-Midas Touch

One of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen IN Pattaya was Ann. Her beauty lasted longer than most of her competition, as if she bathed in the fountain of youth created by contributions of cash and clothing from her countless foreign . The veteran mistress managed these generous farangs like juggler, yet she was always broke, for beauty such as Ann's does not come cheap.

One night a French marine asked Ann to go home. She told him an extraordinary price. The marine laughed her her face. Ann had had many frog beaus and told the dejected garlic-eater, “Fuck ta mère.”

The Frenchman reacted to this insult to his mother by throwing a glass of beer in Ann’s face. The impact shattered the glass and a shard tore an inch scar behind her jaw. Lots of blood. Angry Thais wanting to kill the farang. The police arrested him. He was looking at 6 months in jail, but Ann settled for 400,000 baht to drop charges.

400,000 in a Thai girl’s hands lasts how long?

Less than a week in Ann’s case.

10 baht of gold = 100K

Sick buffalo fund in Ban Nok = 50K

New motorcycle = 50K

Partying for a week = 50K

New clothes = 50K

Lending money to friends = 50K

Money goes quick when you’re having fun, but even Ann was surprised how fast 400K evaporated with the pedal pushed to the metal.

Jamie Parker, a man of little wisdom, heard this story of riches to rags and said, “The Thai Midas Touch works in reverse for a Thai bargirl. Any gold they touch turns into lead, but it doesn’t matter because they think, “There’s plenty more where that went.”

"So it's the anti-Midas touch." King Midas had been gifted with the ability to turn everything he touched into gold by a grateful satyr. The blessing became a curse. Water and food turned to gold. "More like the gold turns to mud."

"Yes, I've been to Ban Nok too." Money earned in Pattaya was funneled into the Isaan economy with hopes of breaking the eternal merry-go-round of poverty. "Throwing money at a problem doesn't make it go away."

"Education." I had graduated from university in the 70s.

"School here isn't what it was when you were growing up and neither is university in th4e USA. I graduated from high school in 1972. I talk to college kids on their backpacking tour. None of them know which planet is closest to the sun. I doubt Ann finished grammar school."

"A beauty like hers doesn't need schooling." She spoke Thai, English, French, and Japanese. Her travels had taken her to Switzerland, Australia, and Japan. The money would keep coming and her patrons would keep giving and she'd always be broke. "She'll be fine."

Jamie was right, because a week later Ann was seeing the French marine.

They were in love.

Kwahm Lak 100%.

And the money came from him and went to the rice fields of Isaan which were only mud once a year if the rains were good.

Sadim is Midas backwards.



The roots of this need to spend is highlighted in an article from this 1928 article featured in 2bangkok.com

Bangkok, Siam… It has always been a moot question in all minds as to why people of Siam are never over-burdened with riches. Now the answer comes in the form of a series of pictures which demonstrates in graphic way how surplus riches of the people are disposed of. When a man of Siam thinks he’s too wealthy to go to heaven he promptly goes out and purchases as much food, clothing, fruit, etc. as will relieve him of his surplus money. He then mounts a high platform built for the express purpose and throws his gifts down to members of the poorer class below. Since all have a right to the food and clothing offered a merry battle goes on for possession of the offerings. Hooks are even made which might tend to give the seeker a better chance to make a good haul. However, before the foodstuffs and clothing are given away, prayers and praises to the king of the devil or “Phya Yomaraj” are sung. The prayers insure the donors of recognition when they dies and are led before the king of the devil for entrance to heaven. After the prayers are said and the food distributed, the huge image is burnt, and residents of Siam must wait until they pile up more coin of the realm before they can stage another similar celebration. October 23, 1928

Easy come, easy go.

Consumer Exhaustion

The White House and GOP signed a debt-ceiling pact before the doomsday deadline and the traders on the US stock market was quick to react to the $2.4 trillion by cashing out profits for Big Money. The ticker tape responded with a downward trend and the day ended with the Dow Jones losing mo than 2% of it's value. In real money terms the losses amounted to nearly a trillion dollars or almost half the amount that the GOP want to cut from social services over the next decade.

A trillion dollars blown in an afternoon.

The descent came on the heels of an government announcement that consumer spending was down for the month of July. Millions of Americans are in debt drowning school and they have responded to the devastation of their income and savings by finally saying no to buying the crap offered by the retailers in the shopping malls. High gas prices haven't helped enthusiasm, but the main influence of the weakening spending spree is consumer weariness.

Americans have bought enough junk to last them the decade.

They have the cars, the TVs, the fancy clothing and realize that they don't really need anything else.

Exhaustion is how one economist termed the economic mood in America.

Too tired to shop until they drop.

Get ready to the tough times ahead.

99 cent store ae the future.

Everything is cheap there.

Even beer.

A Pack Of Criminals

NBA or NFL

Which organization is this?
                       
36 have been accused of spousal abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad checks

117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have done time for assault

71, I repeat 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges 8 have been arrested! for shoplifting

21currently are defendants in lawsuits, and 84have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year ! Can you guess which organization this is?

Is it the NBA Or NFL?

Give up yet?

Neither, it's the 535 members of the United States Congress

The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

This information is not only interesting, but true.

Thanks to Larry Adams of Frank's Lounge on Fulton Street

Thailand on $10 a Day

Early backpackers traveled the world in search of pristine beaches, staggering beautiful scenery, ancient temples, good food and decent accommodations. The vast majority were on shoe-string budgets and these globe tramps set up a chain of low-cost ghettoes across Asia. Indonesia, India, Nepal, and Thailand became favorite destinations over the years and a guide book flourished under the title '_____ON $10 A DAY.

On several occasions I attempted to live on that amount in Bali or Chiangmai.

Drinking beer pushed my spending over $10 a day, even with a large bottle of Singha beer costing a little over a dollar.

This task was impossible when the baht was 25 to the dollar throughout the early 90s and now with the price rising to Western levels $10 a day is only for sober people on a starvation diet, yet business leaders and government view the raise as the coming of communism.

$10 a day is not a living, but it's doable, if you're alone or living in the 1950s.

Early backpackers traveled the world in search of pristine beaches, staggering beautiful scenery, ancient temples, good food and decent accommodations. The vast majority were on shoe-string budgets and these globe tramps set up a chain of low-cost ghettos across Asia. Indonesia, India, Nepal, and Thailand became favorite destinations over the years and a guide book flourished under the title '_____ON $10 A DAY.

On several occasions I attempted to live on that amount in Bali or Chiangmai.

Drinking beer pushed my spending over $10 a day, even with a large bottle of Singha beer costing a little over a dollar.

This task was impossible when the baht was 25 to the dollar throughout the early 90s and now with the price rising to Western levels $10 a day is only for sober people on a starvation diet, yet business leaders and government official are arguing over setting the minimum daily wage to 300 baht a day.

Approximately $10, unless the dollar loses more ground against the world currencies.

Manufactures complain that Thailand will lose its international competitiveness with the increase. Free-market economists warn more money in the pockets of the masses could lead to inflation. Large farming concerns worry that the attractiveness of better pay will create a massive exodus from the rice fields for the industries in the cities. The ruling party Pheau Thai has yet to commit to the policy until they've headed from all the special interests..

The present daily wage is 215. Workers are systematically paid less. Slaving 30 days a month means a person comes home with 6000 baht a month or $200. This amount times 12 months means an annual income of $2400. The per capita income of the world's 26th economy is nearly $4000 per annum. This gap is a result of the khon yai taking most of the money out ok'd the system to pay for their luxury condos, expensive cars, and their wives' helmet head coiffures,

The 50,000 Thais constituting the ultra rich are resisting any change in the pay scale. The top 40 dominate the wealth with holdings of $25 billion or 10% of the nation's annual GDP.

300 baht a day is hardly a living wage, but if enough family members work the Thais can thrive on the collective salaries.

It's either that or revolution, for the people have little patience with the upper classes or glòom kon têe râm ruay gwàa kon eun.

Hard work will not make a poor man rich.

Only birth, marriage, or theft can achieve that goal and at 300 baht of month the only people stealing are the rich, but that is because they believe in making money the old-fashioned way.

"By stealing it."

Choke di khon Thai.

The revolution is coming.

Unite.

Tam hâi ruam gan.

Even backpackers are up to $25 a day.


Approximately $10, unless the dollar loses more ground against the world currencies.

Manufactures complain that Thailand will lose its international competitiveness with the increase. Free-market economists warn more money in the pockets of the masses could lead to inflation. Large farming concerns worry that the attractiveness of better pay will create a massive exodus from the rice filelds for the industries in the cities. The ruling party Pheau Thai has yet to commit to the policy until they've headed from all the special interests..

The present daily wage is 215. Workers are systematically paid less. Slaving 30 days a month means a person comes home with 6000 baht a month or $200. This amount times 12 months means an annual income of $2400. The per capita income of the world's 26th economy is nearly $4000 per annum. This gap is a result of the khon yai taking most of the money out ok'd the system to pay for their luxury condos, expensive cars, and their wives' helmet head coiffures,

The 50,000 Thais constituting the ultra rich are resisting any change in the pay scale. The top 40 dominate the wealth with holdings of $25 billion

Naked As A Jaybird

Nudity was considered taboo throughout my youth. The weather in New England offered few occasions for such a freedom. The only naked people on display for a young boy were to be found in National Geographic. That illustrious magazine displayed photos of Amazonian tribeswomen with saggy breasts and African nymphettes with pointed nipples. Men without clothing was considered perverse and parents warned their children about strange men. The Blue Hills south of Boston was haunted by such perverts. My older brother, best friend, and myself steered clear of areas frequented by queers.

Adam had been shamed by his nakedness after eating the apple offered by Eve. His innocence was gone forever taught the nuns of Our Lady of the Foothills. I recalled having bathed with my sisters and brothers. There we six of us. None of us had ever felt Adam's humiliation in the shared tub.

Nudity was innocent up to a certain age.

My father banned our communal baths when my older brother hit 9. I was 6. The year was 1961.

That summer my older brother and I were sent to a Boy Scout camp in New Hampshire. Our troop had it's own camp site. We slept in tents. Showers were open stalls. My older brother and I washed in the lake. We weren't getting naked for anyone.

One afternoon after our merit badge course of hiking I hurried to the outhouse to take a dump. I dropped my pants and sat of the wooden throne. The latrine stunk of shit. Our fecal matter dropped five feet into a seething pit of slime. I held my breath doing a # 2. I had good lungs. After wiping my ass I waddled from the crapper with my trousers at my ankles.

A scout from Lowell had a camera in his hands. He snapped a shoot of my exit. I shouted for him to give me the film, but he ran into the woods. I told no one about is invasion of my privacy and hunted for the puerile pornographer for days. I never found him and for the rest of 1961 I worried that my photo with my pants down would appear in the Boston Globe.

It didn't hit the front page in 1962, 1963, or any of the following years.

My concern disappeared in my teens. I skinny-dipped at the Quincy Quarries and stripped naked to lie in my backyard on summer nights to pray for the extraterrestrials to rescue me from the suburbs. I dreamed of stripping off my clothing with a girl. I had seen stroke books. Nudity was a thrill, but none of my girlfriends in high school went all the way. That pleasure occurred at the age of 18 and I've never suffered Adam's shame in my adult life.

Still that one nude photo curbed my exhibitionism and to this day the idea of sending someone a naughty picture remains abhorrent. Somewhere in Boston a man has a picture of me with my pants down. I hope it gives him pleasure.

My inhibition jaundiced my opinion of public figure emailing naked photos of themselves to women they meet on the Internet.

Yesterday another politician was outted by a GOP website whose webmaster had a legal dispute with the New Jersey lawmaker. The Democrat had been contacted by a woman who asked for photos. The idiot sent them from his Blackberry and the angry webmaster posted them online. His fellow democrats called for s resignation, remarking that nudity wasn't a crime, but that e man had shown little common sense in a state where corruption is a god-given right to the people's representatives.

Nudity is political death to the right-minded New Jerseyians.

The episode echoed the earlier scandal of NY congressman Anthony Weiner. His Twitter account was hacked by a website and his naked photos scorched the Internet. He denied the photos were of him, going so far as to say that he could not recognize the body as his own.

Getting caught in a lie is political death, but only if the voters don't believe the lie.

I understand these politicians' dilemma, but my hackles are buzzing with the suspicion that both these men were removed from office thanks to the hacking tactics of the Rupert Murdoch empire. If it was happening in the UK, then sure as a boy scout shits in a crapper, then minions of the Murdoch organization were committing the same crime here.

It's not like anyone is dragging a well-known congressional majority leader out of the closet.

Homosexuality isn't a crime.

Neither is nudity.

What is questionable is how this GOP stalwart amassed $34 million on a senator's yearly salary of $180,000 during a 20 year stint in the Senate.

He musts be good with numbers

The Clock Stops Ticking

Hollywood movies love car chases in parking garages, gun ballets, Barbie and Ken love scenes, and ticking clock of doom. The suits in power can produce a film without them. They have no grasp on reality, but people sit in theaters to escape their lives and eat popcorn.

Art tends to imitate life and vice versa as seen in the recent countdown to national debt default in America. The GOP refused to entertain any concessions to tax increases and the White House folded in the face of the rivals' demand to cut social services. The world economies teetered on the brink of disaster, but the stalling from the fanatic right touched the common man, for I watched the dollar shrink 3% against the Thai Baht during the last week.

Leo beer got more expensive.

Russia's ex-president Putin called the USA a parasite. The Chinese were shaking in their copy Adidas. The Middle Kingdom holds trillions of our debt. A dollar meltdown would have cost them hundreds of billions.

The Tea Party representive and senators adamantly resisted any deal with the White House. Their party chairman didn't have the votes to pass any deal. The clock was ticking toward Wednesday, but the collapse was averted by a last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling balanced by cutting $2.4 trillion from the budget.

Most of it social services.

$60,000 less for the people and nothing from the rich.

Even then GOP presidential hopefuls Michele Bachman and Milt Romney announced their continued opposition to the plan despite an overwhelming vote to approve the package.

Fucking wankers.

95 Democratic lawmakers thought the same, but for a different reason.

More fucking the people for the sake of the rich.

The fucking will continue in the Senate and the President's signing will officialized the fucking.

The more people say things will change the more the change soudns the same as no change.