2-25-2024 (updated – 2-27-2024)

Hokhak – Thailand

Hokhak is a production team headed by a man who goes by the name of “AA” and a woman named “Fang”.

The preface of their show is when given a tip about someone in need or who has been “forgotten” (we call them destitute), Hokhak will go all over Thailand in search of that person(s) to determine if what they were told is true and to showcase their predicament finding out how they came to be in that situation before asking what do they want most and then Hokhak helps provide accommodations, assistance, food and substance, even paying to get utilities turned back on or hiring contractors to make repairs or new construction.

Mr AA is from a wealthy family in Bangkok and can easily be seen with his top knot style ponytail. He knows what having much is like and has decided to help wherever he can without it costing the recipients anything.

I’m sure they have sponsors as this program showcases doing good for complete strangers, expecting nothing in return.

Before he leaves he asks them to promise to:

Don’t lie

Don’t steal

Don’t do drugs

(& two more that I can’t remember at the moment)

The show has aired nearly 100+ episodes totally in the Thai language with no foreign subtitles.

This is a reality show unlike any other and guaranteed to cause your eyes to leak, so grab a box of tissues or keep a roll of t. paper handy.

This program has its own You Tube channel so don’t forget to like, follow or subscribe.

This is Hokhak – Episode 1

It’s worth watching. – RTM

Chiropractor or Thai Massage

If you’re thinking this is about kinky massage parlors scroll right on by.

Bye Bye.

My back trouble began during my military service and have gotten increasingly worse over time.

About 5 years after retiring from the army and while sitting in front of a computer workstation my back froze up and for a few minutes I couldn’t even move.

I called a nearby chiropractor who got me in right away. His hour long sessions spanned the next 25+ years with varying degrees of success.

Occasionally I needed more intense physical therapy and sought out a friend of our family who was a Thai masseuse. She learned techniques from her father who practiced in Thailand while she was growing up.

Now living in the US this wife, mother and grandmother had taken the required massage school classes and for certification purposes needed to document the clients she treated. Although a small Asian woman she knew Thai massage and after only a couple of sessions I returned to regular chiropractic treatments.

On one trip to Thailand my wife and I went downtown to see about getting our backs massaged. I really didn’t know what to expect until lying on the massage table this lady resembling a sumo wrestler (not really) gave me a regular Thai beat down, complete with walking on my back. Painful – you bet it was. I felt lucky to just walk away.

Many years later I saw a documentary on the difference between Traditional Thai massage and Swedish oil massage techniques.

Traditional Thai massages are more geared to realigning the body and muscles much the same way we would go to a gym (only different). Swedish massage is a hand rubbing of oil into the muscles with relaxing music in the background. Both technique or styles may target certain pressure points of the body. There is no real comparison – torture or luxury.

The guy on the documentary certainly found out the difference first hand by the master masseuse instructor.

Actually there are real needs for each style but the masseuse must know what they are doing or they could cause real harm.

There are so many areas (feet, back, arms, neck and head are just to name a few) and types (oil, aromatic oils, or Thai) massages that produce full health benefits without being sensual or sexual in nature.

Beware of the massage parlors with “operators” who are neither trained or certified as actual masseuse technicians. – RTM

2-25-2024

Who is your measuring stick?

When you get up in the mornings who do you compare yourself to? I mean against whom do you fail to measure up to? Don’t give me that “I don’t have one” look, of course you do – everyone does.

It’s either someone who has what you don’t or someone who has achieved what you can’t. There is a saying “Whose who can – Do” Everyone else just talks about doing it better.

So back to the question, who is your standard bearer? Who do you most admire – today, right now, this very moment?

Who do you feel has “made it” and you want to be just like them when you grow up?

Look at your favorite idols – movie stars, singers, movers and shakers, who do you most admire or better yet, who do you lust after?

There are people who have done more, raised their kids better, have a great taste in women or men, have bigger, better or more big boy toys or unlimited bank accounts and investments that make my head spin.

The one person I admire most in the whole wide world was a carpenter with no home to speak of, no earthly treasures, no storage of food or an abundance of friends to draw from when times were tough.

He has a father that loves him with all of his heart. A father that provides his every need. A father who tells him what to say and do. A father who has no favorites in all creation. A father who loves all of his creation exactly the same.

The person I want to be like when I grow up is Jesus. He loved me so much that he sacrificed himself to make a way for me to stand before the Father completely blameless and free from my sins because he paid the ultimate price – death, that I could have life.

So who is yours? – RTM

2-24-2024

Lifestyle of the not rich or famous

There’s always someone who knows it all and has done it all and has no problem telling you how to handle your money, but they seem to always have a cash flow problem.

I never knew I had to have a CPA to tell me how to withdraw funds from an IRA. So what exactly is an IRA?

Maybe I should just stick to piling my money under the mattress? I’d have to buy a smaller mattress.

I tried using a big name money management firm back n the late 1990s and the stock market crash nearly wiped me out. I vowed – never again.

In fact I have had times where my checkbook couldn’t even balance, so I took a college class on Income Tax and Accounting 101. It’s one of those classes all full of numbers and made my head spin. After completing the class the instructor handed me his business card and advised me not to do my own taxes.

So back to this CPA thing, maybe I should look into taking a course in CPA 101?

Naw, I think not. Swimming should always be done in a pool and under adult supervision.

I guess I’m just not cut out to be rich or famous. – RTM

2-23-2024

Dogs are logical

I’ve often wondered what goes thru the mind of man’s best friend?

Family pets are an extension of nature’s protectors. Try messing with family and they will stand up, even at risk of their own life.

Dogs are territorial. It doesn’t take long before they know the boundaries of your property. When they leave the family home they are constantly on patrol.

Some dogs are guard dogs and that they will do extremely well.

Some dogs are trained support animals and they recognize and assist the one they are supporting.

Some dogs are trained in law enforcement duties in which they excel.

Sometimes people think their pooch is their support animal because they take them everywhere shopping, beauty parlor, traveling or wherever. Many dogs do not make good support animals.

One such animal is the junkyard dog. He has a duty to perform and that is to keep intruders out.

Never violate the rule of the junkyard dog, “This is my yard and you’re in it.”

No other rules apply.. – RTM

2-21-2024

Justice Served

For what it’s worth NY AG Letitia James (with her in-office affair) probably never thought about her impropriety staining the office of the AG when she made it her campaign mantra “to get Trump” and then after getting elected she sued Trump in 2022.

Neither did the NY Supreme Court judge Arthur Engoron who agreed to try the case against Trump and even fined Trump $15,000 for violating his gag order, but did nothing about the person who “leaked sentencing details to the press before his honor rendered his decision during Trump’s trial.

Neither of these “officers of the court” have given any thought to the political implications of a potential defamation of character lawsuit and/or election tampering charges should Trump choose to bring those against them.

In fact both of those upstanding elected/appointed officials are ignorant of the fact that they both can be impeached and removed from office for using their positions of power for strictly political purposes.

Might I remind AG James of her own words “Nobody is above the law!”

No, Not even AG James!

Little do they know that they are neither woman enough nor man enough to take down the man they think Trump is. Remember the Dems have been singing that “get Trump” tune since 2015.

What has become apparent is that NYC, New York State and the nation (for that matter) are/will be suffering the effects of democratically controlled “Bidenomics” for a long time to come.

I don’t see Trump losing sleep over it.

In fact it has done the opposite in boosting Trumps poll numbers tremendously. From what I see are the Dems true colors are exposed like yesterday’s laundry.

All the democratic accusations in the world won’t stick when they’ve been dealt from an underhanded deck.

Trump’s legal team will appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court so isn’t that why someone is trying to bribe Justice Thomas with $1M to retire?

RED FLAG HERE – Bribing a Supreme Court Justice!

So Biden can replace Justice Thomas before the election?

Follow the money and it becomes another real sticky wicket for the blue team.

Wasn’t it Michelle Obama who said “when they go high, we go low”?

So how low will they go?

(They’re still digging!)

It sounds like Democratic Mumbo Jumbo to me and just like quicksand it’s become a bottomless pit. – RTM

2-21-2024

I Tend To Agree With Trump About NATO

For all of my 74 years NATO has been deemed a necessity to preventing a major global war during the Cold War era.

Since its inception in 1949 the NATO club has tripled its membership to include the very real threats to world peace by the very communist nations NATO was created to protect from.

Talk about foxes guarding the henhouse.

What is more alarming is the composition and funding of NATO is primarily by the US.

So if the US were to withdraw from NATO it would be a matter of months if not weeks before it would fold.

Without US troop, equipment and funding NATO would be nothing more than a paper tiger.

NATO consists of 31 countries basically plugged into the US “piggy bank” that are either not willing or physically able and depend largely on the US contingent to defend their sovereignty.

It’s like giving each one a key or pass code to OUR personal bank account!

Couple that with the weakening our own national security with this open border nonsense and it’s as if there is nobody minding the store.

Trump doesn’t look at the world through the eyes of a politician, but through the eyes of a businessman.

In that respect I fully support Trump’s decision to tentatively withdraw from NATO.

I favor pulling all US forces from overseas (not the way Biden withdrew from Afghanistan), but a measured and orderly return to defend US soil and sovereignty.

Might I suggest considering withdrawing from the UN and removing them from US soil (NYC) as well sir?

There was a time when US citizens were in trouble abroad the President dispatched a squad of US marines to take care of it.

The events of 9/11 changed everything.

The Wuhan Virus caused even more changes in how we view the world.

The migrant invasion of America is causing even more changes than we could even imagine.

It is the constitutional duty of the President and Congress to protect Americans at home and abroad.

It’s time for our government to do just that once again. – RTM

2-20-2024

From Where Does Freedom Come?

Does freedom come riding on the wind? Or is it given by government? Maybe freedom comes at the end of a commitment? Or Is freedom like a bell in “let freedom ring”?

I say with certainty that freedom comes from the Creator God.

Legalists will tell you otherwise, but don’t be fooled. All creation was made to glorify God.

You were made to bring glory, honor and power to God.

It is our purpose to know God and to be known by God.

We call Him – Abba, Father.

He calls us friend.

We are free to worship Him with our mind, body, soul and spirit or not at all.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Those who refuse to believe in Him are condemned already.

We are in the world but not of the world.

My Freedom comes from the Lord! – RTM

2-20-2024

Son of God or Worst Rabbi Ever

The biblical account of Jesus begins in Genesis 1 and ends after Revelations in the maps.

Either it’s true (I believe it is) or Jesus had to be the worst Rabbi ever.

Think about it. Jesus was born in a manger not fit for a bed. He had no formal rabbinical training (no endorsement or certification from man) and yet as a child he could be found in the synagogue listening, reading from the scrolls and speaking as one with authority.

Jesus was a carpenter, a tradesman, someone who created, as his father before him.

His cousin John lived as a wild man heralding the coming of the chosen one. John baptized Jesus as the Lamb of God as the one he was not worthy of loosening his sandals.

John outed the king for marrying the wife of a man he sent to his certain and sudden death.

To begin his ministry Jesus went out and hand-picked his disciples, hardened fishermen, tax collectors and zealots. These were men whose language would make sailors blush.

Jesus simply said follow me.

During his short 3 years of ministry people were drawn to him. Jesus had compassion, healed many and raised the dead.

Religious leaders tried to trick him so he could be killed. They finally crucified him because he said he was God.

I’ll bet there was a huge victory party with all the demons of hell celebrating right up until Jesus snatched away the keys to death, hell and the grave.

Spoiler alert – Bummer!

On the third day Jesus rose from the grave just as he said he would.

Jesus made the way for sinful man to stand sinless before God the Father.

I tend to think of Jesus as the ultimate warrior doing battle against the forces of evil right out in plain sight.

King of Kings!

Lord of Lords!

Even though we are sinful men, Jesus died to make us free! – RTM

3-19-2024

No Man is an Island

The world population is said to be 8.1 Billion people and I don’t know the demographics of how many live in abject poverty but I suspect it is literally in the billions.

Until you live among them , do as they do, eat when and what they eat and survive as they survive, complaining about having nothing to do just doesn’t cut it.

The good book tells us to love God and our neighbors (one another) as we love ourselves.

Where is YOUR love.

If your love is in money, places or things it is for nothing! If your love is not in God, you have no hope.

If one man (or woman) can make a difference- will you be that one man or woman?

If your life is a beacon – does it point to God or back to you?

Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the father except through me”. And no he didn’t say – except through you.

I’ve been to many places watched as people want to believe , but have misplaced their trust, their whole heart into a god, idol or ideal that has no value and brings no hope of eternity with God.

Going through life alone with nothing to show for it other than the clothes on your back is not the way God created you.

No man is an island.

I keep thinking back to Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get a long?”

If you’re not sure of my quotes just Google them.

And don’t let AI make you artificially intelligent. If it’s not in your brain, there is no gain. – RTM