Bruce Mangosteen

Last night Lady Mangosteen and I made the trek up to Soi 1 to the Koreana Korean Restaurant. It is certainly worth a visit, and we enjoyed our meal. The facility itself, while rather small, is clean and brightly lit. The furnishings are basic as Korean restaurants tend to be. BTW, sorry about the quality of the photos, I took them with my phone. BTW, the place is deserted in the pics because it closed just as we were leaving and I snapped those pics on the way out. When we got there, several parties of Koreans were scattered throughout the place. The menu is not elaborate. Lady Mangosteen had never had Korean food before, so I took care of ordering. We had bulgogi, kimchee soup, and a mixed seafood soup. Of course, the first thing to come out are the small side-dishes the Koreans are so famous for, called banchan. In this case they were delicious as they always are, and featured sliced marinated garlic, a particular favorite of mine. The item in the center of the picture is the lettuce, garlic, peppers and ssamjang (Korean pepper paste) you eat the bulgogi with. Of course, of particular interest in a Korean restaurant is the kimchee. Kimchee, which is various sorts of vegetables marinated and fermented in spices and brine, is very individual, and I have never had kimchee in any place that tastes like that of any other place. In the Koreana, the kimchee is not spicy or salty, two things which I like, and that shifted the flavor slightly toward sour. I prefer the flavor a bit more balanced personally, but I was pleased with it overall. The bulgogi was, as always, cooked at the table. Koreans cook it themselves, but us non-Koreans were supplied a waitress to cook the bulgogi and tell us when it was ready. This restaurant, typical of smaller Korean places, cooked the bulgogi on a gas-fired skillet. I much prefer the barbecued type, but it isn't easy to come by outside Korea. When cooked, the waitress turns the heat down and it's time to eat. You grab a lettuce leaf, put some meat on it, add a garlic clove, a piece of green pepper and some ssamjang, roll it up and pop the while thing in your mouth. Delicious. A closer look at the fixins: ...and a prepared mouthful: I'll spare you a picture of me stuffing it into my gob. The kimchee soup was lovely, the spicy taste nicely offset with the slightly sour flavor of the kimchee. It included slices of pork, and what to me was excellent tofu. Tofu is soy bean curd which is pressed and cut into cubes. For those familiar with Thai tofu, Korean tofu is much thicker in consistancy, to the point where it is easily picked up with chopsticks even after it has been boiled, and has a lovely grainy/organic flavor that Thai tofu lacks. In general I MUCH prefer Korean tofu to any other I have tasted; the tofu here was marvelous. The mixed seafood soup was good, although I would have preferred a touch more salt. It featured lots of crab legs and other parts, small clams, vegetables and more of that lovely tofu. I ordered the seafood soup specifically for Lady Mangosteen, and she was quite pleased with it. The drinks menu is short. Heineken and Singha beers, and soft drinks. I believe I saw bottles of soju in the fridge case, but I didn't indulge. Soju is a clear, slightly sweet wine made from rice, and it is a VERY traditional and typical tipple for Koreans. I happen to love soju (it is one of the only sorts of alcohol other than beer that I have drunk in any kind of quantity), especially when miced 50-50 with baeksaju, another rice wine which is flavored with herbs. The meal, including two large bottles of Singha (which complemented the food well I might add), cost me 1,130 baht, and I threw in a 100 baht tip for the excellent, prompt service. The service here deserves a mention. It was polite and VERY fast. Lady M's questions were answered in a courteous manner, and the staff waied us respectfully when we left. BTW, in case you didn't notice, Koreans use stainless steel chopsticks. If you are not VERY proficient with chopsticks these can be like picking up your food with two icecicles. If you need, I am sure they can supply wooden chopsticks which are much easier to use, or even a fork for the infidels. Koreana Restaurant, Soi 1 Pattaya. (038)429-635. Closes 8:00PM. No reservations necessary. It is about 2/3 of the way down Soi 1 on the right as you walk toward the beach. Recommended for its good food and excellent service.

Here's my take on this mess: Fannie and Freddie are nothing but socialist programs in disguise. Fannie was created by FDR in 1938 to offer government-subsidized loans to low income people. In other words, they were supposed to make risky loans, and if the loans defaulted the taxpayers would pay them, exactly what is being proposed. The rest of the subprime crash was caused in large part by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, signed into law by Peanuthead Carter. Here is a description of that program, and Clintoon's modification which forced banks to make riskier loans while loosening the reporting requirements on those bad loans: http://www.ncrc.org/index.php?option=com_c...7&Itemid=80 Passed by Congress in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) states that "regulated financial institutions have continuing and affirmative obligations to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered." The act then establishes a regulatory regime for monitoring the level of lending, investments, and services in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods traditionally underserved by lending institutions. Examiners from four federal agencies assess and "grade" a lending institution's activities in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. If a regulatory agency finds that a lending institution is not serving these neighborhoods, it can delay or deny that institution's request to merge with another lender or to open a branch or expand any of its other services. The financial institution regulatory agency can also approve the merger application subject to specific improvements in a bank's lending or investment record in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. In the spring of 1995, the federal agencies released new CRA regulations. The regulations outline how federal agencies are to assess the activities of lending institutions in traditionally underserved neighborhoods. The federal agencies conducting CRA examinations are: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (http://www.occ.gov) that examines nationally chartered banks, the Office of Thrift Supervision (http://www.ots.treas.gov) that examines savings and loan institutions, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (http://www.fdic.gov) and the Federal Reserve Board (http://www.federalreserve.gov) - both of whom examine state chartered banks. The CRA regulations had been revised as part of the Clinton administration's initiative to create performance-based and objective standards. The new regulations attempt to satisfy community activists by focusing more attention on the lending, investment, and service records of banks. The regulations also attempt to reduce the amount of paperwork required of lending institutions. Gone are previous paper trail generating requirements such as documenting participation by a bank's board of directors in reviewing CRA compliance. In their place, are examinations that are suppose to flexibly assess lending activities in low- and moderate- income neighborhoods of institutions of various financial capacities. The CRA regulation establishes various tests for lending institutions of different sizes and a strategic plan option. Under each test, examiners rate banks according to their lending records and responsiveness to community needs. Banks receive a score based on their evaluations of “outstanding”, “satisfactory”, “needs to improve”, or “substantial non-compliance.” The last two scores can result in delays or denials of mergers, acquisitions, or expansions of services. <snip> The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 established a less frequent exam cycle for small banks of under $250 million in assets with passing CRA ratings. Small banks with outstanding ratings will be examined once every five years and those with satisfactory ratings will be examined once every four years. Banks with passing ratings can be examined more frequently if regulatory agencies believe a compelling reason, such as deteriorating CRA performance, makes it necessary to do so. Community groups should contact the regulatory agencies if they believe that a particular small bank should be examined before its lengthened time cycle. Now, before you question my source, here is what they say they are: http://www.ncrc.org/index.php?option=com_c...&Itemid=104 The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is an association of more than 600 community-based organizations that promote access to basic banking services including credit and savings, to create and sustain affordable housing, job development and vibrant communities for America's working families. Our members include community reinvestment organizations, community development corporations; local and state government agencies; faith-based institutions; community organizing and civil rights groups; minority and women-owned business associations as well as local and social service providers from across the nation. Basically, this is an association of grassroots organizations whose job it is to pressure banks to make more and more bad loans in poor neighborhoods. A peek at their board of directors (http://www.ncrc.org/index.php?option=com_c...4&Itemid=92) leaves little doubt that these are not a bunch or right-wing Republicans. One tactic they use is, when a loan is turned down as too risky, they file a lawsuit to force the bank to make the questionable loan anyway under the provisions of the CRA, provisions that are under the free interpretation of various judges. One such organization is a well-known far-left community action organization called ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Amongst other activitiies, this multi-state organization filed numerous lawsuits designed to coerce banks into making what amount to bad loans by threatening to get the CRA rating of those banks reduced, which would threaten their creditworthiness and restrict their ability to operate in various ways. Before he became a state legislator, this organization benefitted from the legal and personnel training skills of an attorney and community organizer named Barack Obama. As you might imagine, the LMSM has suddenly developed amnesia concerning this item of Obama's resume. However, every once in a while something mistakenly gets by. Here the LMSM actually reports that Obama was on ACORN's staff, a slipup they probably regret now: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16738869/ In 1995, while working for ACORN, Obama was on the legal team who won the CRA suit many credit as seminal in the process that led to the present subprime crash, Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank. http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/detail.php?...rby%7CcaseName; Given these sorts of credentials, it is no wonder that Obama should be a prime recipient of contributions by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He's #3 on the list in fact, right after Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship which (interestingly enough ) amongst other things administers low-interest loan programs for disaster victims and small businesses considered bad credit risks. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/to...s-of-fanni.html Anyway, bottom line is that the government (especially certain members of it whose party affiliations should be pretty obvious by now) is pretty much to blame for this shit. If they intervene now that will pretty much represent ponying up the money to cash a check they wrote at our expense in the first place. This situation is nothing more than a failure of leftist/socialist government intervention in US financial markets, and, after the government has righted the ship, it must STOP MEDDLING in the free markets, and the political left should STOP using political correctness, lawsuits, and slogans like "NO REDLINING!" to force banks to make loans to people who provably can't pay them back.

I'm a heterosexual man born male-gendered who defines as a "perve", so I would use the "toilet without urinals" for long periods of time, and always have my trusty periscope handy.

I got there at about 3AM and things were still going. Ugh, my head.

There are bars that allow it and those that don't. You'll just have to ask I'm afraid.

That’s right, at Shooters we are always looking for ways to enlarge our customer base, so this Friday night Shooters will hold our first Shooters Pig-Out night! We’ll be featuring free food from Sam’s Kitchen, and happy hour prices from 8-10! If that doesn’t enlarge our customers, nothing will! : So come on down to Shooters, spread out, expand your horizons, inflate your ego, and loosen your belt, because it’s PIG-OUT TIME! See you Friday!

Shooters has now celebrated our first anniversary, and we are grateful to the members of Pattaya Talk for your contribution to our success. To express our thanks, we invite you to visit us on Saturday, August 16, when we will offer every item in our entire stock on a buy one, get one free basis! That's right, every premium beer, every top-shelf whiskey, every famous tequila, every mixed drink, every shooter, EVERY DRINK IN THE HOUSE, buy one, get one free! So come on down to Shooters, let us say thanks, and sample the best Thailand has to offer! Shooters, Soi Diamond at Second Rd., opposite Casino Club. See you there!

I confirmed the major portions of this story yesterday with Shane from LD1. Although he indicated that some license had been taken, the salient points of the story were correct.

Just to be a BOARD you mean...

Thanks to all who stopped by to el-hango last night! Here are some pics from another fun evening at Shooters: See all you caballeros and bar-damas el-soono at Shooters!

Two hours, ten minutes to go! :)

Bump! See you tonight!

Sorry you'll miss the party, but the Mex food, the Corona, and the girls with the guns will still be around when you get here! See you then!

Hola, guys and bargirls (gringos and Thai-bar-gringettes?)! Tomorrow night Shooters is celebrating Cinco de Mayo! We will have specials on Sierra Tequila, margueritas by the glass or pitcher, mechiladas (draft beer mixed with fresh lime juice with salt on the rim; attention drinkers of shandies and tops!), and Corona Beer! Also, Sam, our resident cocinero mexicano gordo ("friendly Mexican chef" ) will be whipping up some free Mexican nibbles for you to enjoy! So come on down to Shooters, corner Soi Diamond and Second Rd. tomorrow night. The fiesta starts at 8:00PM and runs until the last desperado has left the hacienda! Who knows, maybe you can get a Shooters girl to show you her guns!

*crickets* Er, bump?

Yes, boys and barirls, Shooters will have another free draft beer night on Monday, April 28. If all goes wrong, and the twats at Lufthansa dont fuck up their job, I should make it back for that too! See y'all! I sure hope ....

Next one is tonight! See you there! :)

The prevailing opinion is correct, San Mig Light is pretty much available everywhere in Patts. I personally prefer the San Mig Pils to the Light. However, better than both IMO is Beerlao, a German tasting lager with good body and a very smooth aftertaste. Unfortunately, Beerlao is nowhere near as widely available as the San Migs.

I have a condo here now so I don't stay in hotels anymore. However, I have talked to a number of people who have stayed in the Rockhouse and they were very satisfied. My friend Alex is a great host, the rooms are quite large, and the bar is excellent. Here's a link to their website: http://www.rockhousepattaya.com/ The rooms feature free WiFi internet. The Rockhouse is close to BobsBBQ as well as other good places to eat. If you want to stay farther south, you can try The Vault. http://www.thevaultpattaya.com/ It is located on Second Rd. just south of Marine Plaza; a short walk from Walking Street as well as several discos. Mike is also a good friend who runs a very honest establishment. The rooms are very large for the price and again I have talked to many satisfied customers. They have free in-room internet access. Another choice is Secrets. It is on Soi 15 just up from Walking St. http://www.thevaultpattaya.com/ They are steps from Walking St. Their rooms are also a good value for the money, the bar/restaurant is quite nice, and they have free WiFi internet too. Note: If you stay in either of the latter two places, you will be very close to a certain bar that features great burgers and sandwiches, fantastic wings, and excellent Mexican food. Not to mention a huge selection of beers and spirits, and great music. (Sorry for the shameless self-promo... )

As stupid as it is old.

See you tonight!

Vibs103, the "Big Cowboy", throws a Party at Shooters on Thursday, February 14th! Starts 8 pm, Free Food (A Pig on the spit, and lots of Mexican and American Food) at about 8:30 The theme as well as the dress code for our girls is "Sexy Schoolgirls!" Oh, as it is Valentines Day on Thursday as well, expect some extra surprises! Bring your tii-rak! Hope to see you all!

Last night was one of the most fun nights we have had in Shooters. I would like to thank the members of the various boards who stopped by to hang last night, including CampariO, jcolorado, BigSmile, Alan (Eneukman), roidfreak, Bitch Controller, RockyMtnJay, pedro01, Phoenix, jilinpattaya, and BobbyDLL. Sorry if I forgot you, I'll add you as my memory of the evening returns. L-R: Secrets BM Phoenix, our partner Sam, and Secrets BM RockyMtnJay chew the fat. The lovely Dao and her date for the evening. Nok looking radiant as always. She even makes Phoenix look good! Secrets BM pedro01 [r] and his mate. Sunny Valentine's wife clowning. ...and with the lovely Gate. Dtum and friend. We were visited by omens of good luck! My dear friend Kevin and his wife Jit. This is one of the shining and beautiful success stories of love between farang and TBG. Secrets BM BobbyDLL and the beautiful Jan. I have always loved this girl. Bobby let me have a picture with her under the condition that both my hands remained visible at all times. Secrets BM jilinpattaya and his Filipina girlfriend. Thanks again to all who attended. Sunny will be along as soon as he recovers from the after-effects of all that champagne he bought for everybody to post more pics. And, hopefully, pics of my birthday on that thread as well, RIGHT, SUNNY?

See you tonight, guys!

We are at the Second Rd. end of Soi Diamond. If coming from Walking Street we are the last bar on the left, opposite Casino Club. If coming in from Second Rd. we are the first place on the right just past the 7/11. See you tomorrow!