Celebrate Mark Kamins Tonight

Tonight Lower Manhattan celebrates the life of Mark Kamins, legendary nightclub DJ. Everyone will be there. DJs, dancers, bands, old friends, and a few fiends. I'll be working the door early. Entrance is $20. The money goes to his kids. See you there @ Santos Party House - 96 Lafayette Street below Canal. From 8pm to 'I can't believe it's this late'.

CNN Opps Again

Americans have a low opinion of the news media. According to Gallup 55% of Americans have little or no trust of the press. This afternoon CNN's John King verified this negativity by declaring that the Boston Police had 'a dark-skinned male' in custody for Monday's Boston marathon bombings. AP followed CNN's lead and their news-breaking claims were quickly reputed by city and state officials. As for the Gallup Poll, no one trusts them after the 2012 Presidential Election.

Redcoat Suspect

AP and I were sitting in the garden of the Fort Greene Observatory, discussing the lack of a video declaration from the Boston Marathon bomber(s). I had bought us big cans of 'Gansett beer. It came from New England. "It was only one person," I voiced my hunch. "He carried the two bombs in bags and dropped one and then the other." "Why four hours after the first runners?" AP had attended RISD. He had an analytical mind. "Because it was too crowded. Someone walking with two bags would have attracted attention." "And it didn't four hours later?" AP was a New Yorker. "The cops were standing down. The spectators were friends and family. No one was paying attention to a forty year-old white male with two bags over his shoulder." I knew my Boston, but didn't say that the police were in a bar on Newbury Street. There isn't anything more agreeable to any working man than getting paid to drink on the job. "One man? Those bags were heavy." The FBI said they were constructed out of pressure cookers loaded with household chemicals and ball bearings. "30-40 pounds each." I carried heavier bags, while smashing knives this winter. "He dropped the first up the street and then the second, which he detonated first and then blew the second." "And you're sticking with either a single bomber? The 42 year-old white guy from New Hampshire." "Missing a front tooth." "But not a Muslim." "A Muslim would have gone for a suicide mission, but there is another suspect." I put down my beer. It was empty. Luckily I had bought us two each. "The descendant of a redcoat officer from the Battle of Concord. Those Brits have a long memory." "That's the Irish in you speaking." AP was familiar with my blood. "Maybe you're right, so my money stays on the white guy from New Hampshire." "With the missing front tooth." We clunked our 'Gansett cans together. I hope they catch the bastard. Dead better than alive. And that's the Irish in me too.

The Iron Lady Restem In Infernum

This morning the funeral cortege of Margaret Thatcher was taken from Westminster to a funeral service at St. Paul's Cathedral. Millions lined the streets of London to pay homage to the Old Lady, who was Britain's longest serving prime minister of modern times. The funeral service was simple in accordance with the deceased' wishes. Members of the family and Conservative party were bereft with grief for Thatcher, who sat at 10 Downing Street through the Falklands War, the Poll Tax riots, the privatization of public housing, the escape of Chilean dictator Pinochet, the IRA hunger strikes, and the violent police repression of the coal workers. Britons proudly claim that Mrs. Thatcher put the 'great' back in Great Britain. She certainly had a way about her and that way wasn't to the pleasure of many, however no large-scale protests marred the proceedings, even though DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD is # 1 on the BBC. And they have that right. Even iron melts in a fire.

Boston Suspect # 1

On Monday two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and over 170 were injured by the infernal devices. The explosion took place four hours after the start of the beloved race from Hopkington to Boston Garden held every year on Patriots Day commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord. My friend Eric was waiting for his wife on Columbus and Berkeley. She was in the changing room at the corner of Arlington and Boylston. His 82 year-old father-in-law went out to search for Meredith. They are both Boston natives. Two minutes later Eric heard a sharp boom and then ten seconds afterwards a smaller thud. "Bombs." He deducted within a second and called his wife. She was okay and he ran outside to get her father, whom he found standing in the rush of screaming people. "It was like 9/11." Eric collected his wife and got on the Mass Pike to drive west to Springfield before the police shut down the highways. East-bound traffic was dominated by first responders and black Ford SUVs with lights flashing within the shaded windows. I was glad to hear that he had escape harm. My older brother was fine. He worked on the other side of the Commons. Nobody I knew had been hurt, but my heart as well as many of those across the nation felt for the families of the dead and wounded, while asking, "Who?" Fox News was quick to accuse an Arab extremist, but upon seeing the footage on TV I immediately thought 'white male, 42, angry at liberals, pro-gun, anti-abortion and from New Hampshire'. Why New Hampshire? Just a hunch. Suspect # 2 a lone Muslim angered by the hunger strike at Git-Mo. I have no # 3. Two days later the FBI haven't a lead other than the bombs themselves. "It will take time... but we will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice” President Obama vowed, as the FBI transported the evidence to Quantico for further investigation.

CCTV SOI 6

Several years ago I was out with the boys on Soi 6.

Strictly for sociological research.

Nick was drinking vodkas. Sammie was searching for Ms. Perfect, and young Marton was wrestling with an undersized bargirl on the sofa for what seemed to be about an hour. He weighs in at 85 kilos and she couldn't have been more than 42, however he was never able to pin her without coming across with a 200 baht bar fine.

In the end Marton was out of breath.

Noticing a CCTV in the corner I asked the mama-san if she could play the last 30 minutes. She wasn't sure how to accomplish this, however Sammie is an electrician for the Aussie Post Office and within a minute we were viewing Marton's wrestling match..

We wanted to buy a copy to send his wife.

Marton outbid us with a 1000 baht tip to the mama-san.

These CCTVs are meant to survey the bars for any wrong-doings; sex, drugs, and violence.

Mostly the footage is old men drinking beer.

Not a crime anywhere but Saudi Arabia, although later that month an interesting hoax email popped up on teakdoor.com with a farang complaining about being stopped at Cobra Swamp Airport for questioning.

Here's his email:

I had a big problem going home. Via the internet, I discovered a few bars had streaming web cams. I wanted to show off a bit to my mates back home, so I arranged a time for them to view me in the bars getting pissed and frolicking with all the pretty birds. I made sure I “hammed it up” with the ladies right in front of the web cams. That was the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life, and at the time, I had no clue. Here’s what happened.

All went well during my trips to Bangkok and Pattaya, but the problems started at the new airport upon leaving for home. I arrived at the exit visa desk and I was soon escorted by three Thai police to a private and strange room. They kept me in the room for almost an hour asking me all sorts of personal questions about my holiday in Thailand.

They queried me about where I had visited; which bars I had patronized; which girls I had brought back to my hotel room; and more silly questions. I gave all very honest and forthright answers, since I knew I had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Then, the three police took me to some official who took my passport and stamped it with the wording "persona non gratis Thailand” (in Thai) Then, I was taken into some horrible holding cell for several hours. After that I was escorted to my flight and sent home.

Upon arrival back into the UK, customs did a complete search of me, my camera, laptop, everything. This searching took most of the day, and finally I was released. Then it gets much, much worse. Two days later the police arrived at my place of employment with a search warrant and seized my work computer and all my external hard drives. Trying to explain to my employer what this was all about was a major challenge and disaster, and I was soon relieved of my job.

Then, the police arrived at my flat with a search warrant and examined the entire contents of the flat. They seized my computer, and to this day it hasn’t been returned. I was then escorted to the local cop shop for further questioning about my Thailand holiday.

________________________________________________

The consensus on the teakdoor forum was this email was a fake.

But people are watching so wear clean underwear just in case it was the truth.

Pi-Sow Yai is watching.

1984 Plus 29

CCTV was used instituted by Siemens AG at Test Stand VII in Peenemünde, Germany in 1942 to observe the launch of V-2 rockets according to Wikipedia. After the defeat of Nazi Germany the technology was adopted by the West to protect military and security installations. In 1973 the NYPD installed several cameras in Times Square to combat crime. In the 90s police departments expanded CCTV surveillance, however nowhere took to the Big Brotherism like Orwell's England. # 1 was in King's Lynn, Norfolk. The present number stands at 4.2 million or one for every 14 people in the Britain. Surveillance cameras blankets the country's schools, street, hospitals, prisons, sidewalks, sports venue, bars, and highways, so that a British citizen appears on TV up to 300 times a day, which the BBC reported earned the UK the dubious dishonor of being the most surveilled nation in the West. Advocates of CCTV claim that these cameras prevent crime, but there are other factors to be considered for the drop in car thefts and robberies i.e. the rising age of the population, better lighting, and a repressive political order. Most people do nothing wrong, however their guilt or innocence is determined by police watchers. On July 22, 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube station, who feared he was carrying a bomb. He had nothing in his bag and according to brother Giovani Menezes, "The film showed that Jean did not have suspicious behavior". Opps. CCTV can prove innocence as well as guilt, but never to a legal system which regards its citizens as the enemy.