Coss

Well the Clark one is close to (next door) Angeles and Manilla is a 2 (?) hour drive - I'd opt for Clark if it was a direct flight. Unless your talking quality of airport, to which I'd just say, it's the Philippines…

When last there (10+ yrs ago) http://www.orchidinnresort.com was great - in the centre, arrange transport from Manila Airport http://www.orchidinn...facilities.html = painless.

From memory, there's not a lot to do in the daylight hours so a good hotel is a must. Worth the slightly high prices.

Good man Nelson was, I was saddened to see him over the last year or so, propped up for the cameras, so his family and friends could get photo ops.

But still a good man and if there is a heaven, he's got a 1st class ticket to it.

I always find 'horse back riding' incongruous. Most of the world just says 'horse riding'. Unless, it's to distinguish it from 'horse cock riding' in politer circles...

Great if you live under a bridge and dont need anything other than those 4 BMs each day .....

My point exactly.

Or in America, almost 4 big macs a day, that's nearly a whole meal!

I would, in Laos, assuming an 8 hr day, that's 8 good meals a day.

I decided to post this here, as I don't want to offend any BM's. New $100 bill is coming out this Tuesday. How long will banks and exchange companies be accepting the old $100 bill? When I was in LOS in July, I had 15 $100 bills and one of them was the old version. No bank would take it (I tried 4) and one exchange company out of 3 finally took it,

What annoys me, and it's not just the US, is when financial bodies, refuse you your own money, it's not your fault they've screwed up the mechanism whereby you use legal tender and they refuse it. This is one of the glaring faults of the financial world. You give them your worth, they give you paper, and then won't honour it.

No wonder people buy gold and land.

I believe it, one of the fundamental flaws in Democracy, I believe, is that if the capacity of the masses to reason, sinks too low, then the reasoning capacity of their representatives sinks likewise.

Or...

Dumbasses are unlikely to elect clever people to represent them, they'll want one of them, a good 'ol boy, from round here!

Also politicians... Do I need to complain about that profession?

No government = Anarchy

I've always been a student of history but I didn't know this.

CONDOM HISTORY - Interesting piece of history!

In 1272, the Arabic Islamic Muslims invented the condom, using a goat's lower intestine.

In 1873, the British somewhat refined the idea by taking the intestine out of the goat first.

Very funny, spilt my coffee !

I know that most posters here complain about the size and scope of big brother (government), with good reason. The only thing worse than big brother is big business. I grew up never wanting to work for a business and, through age 59, have managed to remain self employed. If it means helping the bottom line even slightly, they will screw both the public and their own employees. I have never had either the desire or the stomach to "play their game."

I used to think that business folk in NZ were by and large good people, who only made harmful decisions when circumstances backed them into a corner. My last corporate job as an Executive Manager made me believe that business folk get all their training for backstabbing, dishonesty, lying and cheating, from hollywood movies.

A case of life imitating art.

Lost a lot of faith in humanity in those 4 years.

Hello and welcome back

In the DC mayor situation, it was gays who were being intolerant! Gay activists hate those who stop being gay, since it undermines the claim that some people are born gay and have no choice. Unfortunately, this gospel singer proved them wrong. It is the same with the unbelievable hostility of gay activists towards psychiatric help for gays who want to become heterosexual. It is all right for a person "trapped in the wrong body" to have "gender reassignment surgery", but it is forbidden for gay people to change their sexual orientation. No one goes out and pounces on gays, trying to force them to become heterosexual, so what is the problem? The only gays who seek help are those those gays unhappy with their situation and want to change it. But the gay activists want to deny it to them.

from an interview...

I used to be Gay, but I had to give it up...

Interviewer: Why?

It made my eyes water...

Michael Gambon

"produce a television miniseries featuring the erstwhile first lady and secretary of state." for a moment there I read that as miseries .

" supervised the 27-year-old lawyer. “Because she was a liar,†Zeifman explained. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.â€.." 27 yr old women (let's face it she was never a girl) will say anything to get what they want, I know I've got one...

Having had two teenage daughters (both now adult) I'd like the law altered, to allow such abortions, up until and including the 75th trimester.

Being deprived of western culture here in the Glorious People's Republic, I watch a lot of movies, most from Hollywood.

And after a while, you get to see that 'mericans cannot enjoy themselves, without a good shoot up (by good, I mean over the top, excessive, prolonged weapons usage, that makes arms dealers everywhere very happy).

Even though I am not a Middle Easterner, Hispanic traveling to Miami or African-American wearing a baseball cap backward, does my reading of the above post, indicate that I am a threat, inside or out?

I get the feeling that if Hollywood can make a movie about something, America will try to bring such to reality...

Quartet - very good - no violence - gentle charm and humour.

At a home for retired musicians, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and the former wife of one of the residents.

Director:

Dustin Hoffman

Writers:

Ronald Harwood (play), Ronald Harwood(screenplay)

Stars:

Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly et al

Or...

When the lead actor is a tough guy, he can always park in front of city hall or where ever.

or...

When they need to be seen going into a place, they park the car 50 metres away then run into the building.

or...

If they are following someone or trying to sneak up on someone at night, they leave the headlights on...

and... the car's windows are always open

and when the hero has been beaten to within an inch of his life, he leaps up good as new and performs a series of Olympic like feats...

Aaahhh, I could go on....

Sex and Fury, from the "Pinky Violence Collection". A Japanese movie with English subs. You could call it porn but there's no genitals on view and there is a huge amount of story (plot). They still get in a bit of whipping and Japanese rope bondage though. This predates Tarantino, it could have been one of his influences (he was 10 in '73). It does suffer from the - 15 people attacking one person dance, where 14 people dance around fancifully whilst the hero/ine deals with them one at a time. Other than that, an entertaining flick.

Silver Linings Playbook - extremely well shot, acted, written etc - but hollywood chick psycobabble.

Hescher - quite disturbing in it's execution - but more psycobabble.

3:10 to Yuma - not bad, a good western.

Gran Torino - excellent - Clint Eastwood, Hmong refugees in the good 'ol USA - a very good movie.

London Boulevard - very good also - british gangsters.

My upgraded internet security:

In Saudi, and two neighbouring countries (I forget the names) famous for this:

They have banned this:

maybe protesters will start using this: