Travelog: Sin city

Asher Kelman said:

No doubt, it all can be found, Jerome, here the difference is the scale of the excess and the public worship of such vulgarity!

More cautious folk still enjoy themselves, but in are more subtle about making public displays of themselves or gluttony!

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You should come during the Oktoberfest.

Asher Kelman said:

well these fine specimens of manhood are there to entertain the women!

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Obviously. Come to think of it: maybe we chose the wrong line of occupation by being photographers. We should have tried to be models. ?

Hi, Jerome,

Jerome Marot said:

So, warfarin, I suppose?

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Yes indeed, or as we call it around the house, "rat poison".

Best regards,

Doug

If one has never been to France, but just seen Paris from TV and magazines, I can see how the folk arriving here can imagine they have had a genuine "Parisian experience"! After all, there's sufficient density of French style stores, that the delusion is sufficient to make the folk happy!

It appears that merchandising some fantasy "Parisian Experience", has winning benefit in commerce!

Asher

And there's a lot of strip houses, of course:




I have no idea what goes on inside that plush establishment. Could be just strip steak, (whatever that is), served by pretty women! ?

Asher

Why is this thread named Sin City? Where is the sin?

Is there anything morally, ethically, religiously, politically, or economically happening in this city to be characterized as such?

I'm a little late to the party, I guess, but better late than never.

I've never been attracted to the idea of going to Las Vegas and the pictures just prove to me that it's not the place for me. I'm, however, extremely curious of why you got this 10 room, all included - limousine, driver, viagra etc.,) deal? Did you win some contest? lol!

I must say, like you, I was very surprised to see the slot machines beside the baggage claim at the airport. How crazy is that? HA!

It occurred to me, that the very garish colors, and all you can eat, seemed like they were attracting children and not sane mature adults. All the fake glitz and glam and garishness really put me off - just not my deal.

It made me laugh to see the posters that were professing to save the planet, save the women and children etc., as it seemed to me like little excuses for the people that are there to feel a little less guilty of being sucked in and feeling like their money was going to a good cause!

fahim mohammed said:

Why is this thread named Sin City? Where is the sin?

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Fahim,

Los Vegas was started by gangsters to provide the "vices" of gambling, prostitution and gluttony for the masses. There was competition and greed. Politicians needed to be bribed for the zoning allowances, managers siphoned off from the huge cash flows which upset the mobster-investors from Chicago, Miami and Cuba. Folk got their hands smashed with a hammer for dipping into the cash draw and helping themselves to the mob's profits.

Guys who were dropped out of favor with the mob ended buried, sometimes, alive, in the desert.

Then the law came down. Casinos were sold and corporations started to run them as legitimate businesses. Surveillance cameras detect cheaters and professional card sharks. There is less bribery. The City is developed now with the major community having little to do with the gambling and "vice.

But for all it's past, it is still called "Sin City".

A married man with cash can go to a "chicken ranch" and enjoy the favors of 1 or more gorgeous women for any imaginable non-torturous sex act and not be accused of wrong doing, as he would in his home town.

If that is a sin, then his sins stay in Vegas! Hence "Sin City!"

I don't gamble, I adore women, but I have fears and am reasonably loyal to my wife. The shows do not interest me. What I enjoy: just observing the throngs of folk taking in the "experience" of New York, Paris, India and the Pyramids without being more than 500 meters away from a MacDonald, Jentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut or ATM!

Asher

Read your very first sentence. Nothing has changed, except a veneer of legal protection.
If you considered it was wrong then, it serves the same purpose today.

‘ ....his sins stay in Vegas..’ Wrong again.
He carries ( whatever you ascribe as sin ) with him wherever he goes.


Out of curiosity, why do you specify only the male gender? Find that interesting too!

p.s. and he, she then copulates with his or her partner, or with another ‘ find ‘.

Maggie Terlecki said:

I'm a little late to the party, I guess, but better late than never.

I've never been attracted to the idea of going to Las Vegas and the pictures just prove to me that it's not the place for me. I'm, however, extremely curious of why you got this 10 room, all included - limousine, driver, viagra etc.,) deal? Did you win some contest? lol!

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Ahah, Maggie,

That part I save till last and I promise I will tell you shortly!

Maggie Terlecki said:

I must say, like you, I was very surprised to see the slot machines beside the baggage claim at the airport. How crazy is that? HA!

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That is unabashed greed! It also defeats the initial founding concepts of "privacy", where one could gamble and live to excess and "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas". This way tgecairport gets a cut of the gambling income! Why not have storefronts with girls and boys available for 1/2 hr rentals?

Maggie Terlecki said:

It occurred to me, that the very garish colors, and all you can eat, seemed like they were attracting children and not sane mature adults. All the fake glitz and glam and garishness really put me off - just not my deal.

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Childish motivations were always there in these people. Just that, it is accepted that the restrictions of adulthood and responsibility are loosened somewhat in everyone who visits for "fun" and much more, depending on the amount of liquor they have imbibed.

Maggie Terlecki said:

It made me laugh to see the posters that were professing to save the planet, save the women and children etc., as it seemed to me like little excuses for the people that are there to feel a little less guilty of being sucked in and feeling like their money was going to a good cause!

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Here you are mistaken. Those ads are put up by folk like you and I to try to make things right. They are not sponsored by the casinos. Rather the agencies that want to protect and rescue victims of trafficking and threatened species, bring their message to the teeming masses.

I would have expected some "Jesus Christ Savior" signs too, but I missed them. For sure they are there too, plus folk of goodwill looking for lost children to bring them to a Church for sanctuary. I know they are around, but wasn't there long enough to find all the good folk dedicated to helping others.

Asher

fahim mohammed said:

Read your very first sentence. Nothing has changed, except a veneer of legal protection.
If you considered it was wrong then, it serves the same purpose today.

‘ ....his sins stay in Vegas..’ Wrong again.
He carries ( whatever you ascribe as sin ) with him wherever he goes.


Out of curiosity, why do you specify only the male gender? Find that interesting too!

p.s. and he, she then copulates with his or her partner, or with another ‘ find ‘.

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Again, course you are correct! But the Phrase "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" is a banner of the Los Vegas Tourist Board! They essentially aim to reassure the political consciences of visitors, that when they drink to excess, spend irresponsibly and "hook up" with another person for casual sex that night, no one In their home town or place of work or house of worship will ever find out!

Once more, of course, Fahim, for the 1% of folk who share the chlamydia, flagellates, spirochetes, gonococci, ticks and lice, (in the beds in sin City), do not know the rules of the Tourist Board, to stay in Vegas, LOL! That is a pity!

Los Vegas turns out to be a window on the incompleteness of the development of man. It releases enough of our "weaknesses to excess", for self-reassessment to become an obvious necessity!

Asher

Asher.

The 1% you mention is not significant...it is just a medical issue.

But 100% take their conscience with them. They cannot leave it behind. And everyone sleeps alone; sharing a bed is not the same as living with one's conscience day in and day out..every single day into the future.

Each of us sleeps with ourself.

fahim mohammed said:

Asher.

The 1% you mention is not significant...it is just a medical issue.

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50 years ago, Gonorrhoea was cured with a singe shot of pennicilin. Now, common strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics. That is the damage to the human ecosystem that, in the end, gets to innocent people.

fahim mohammed said:

But 100% take their conscience with them. They cannot leave it behind. And everyone sleeps alone; sharing a bed is not the same as living with one's conscience day in and day out..every single day into the future.

Each of us sleeps with ourself.

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What you say is intuitively wise, Fahim. I wish it were so. I feel that a lot of folk have managed to suppress the good advice of the direction the conscience strives to lead us.

Tom Dinning took a delight in telling me he lacked empathy and a conscience, yet as I understood him more, I found it was more complex. I believe he suppressed empathy as he got satisfaction in exposing other folk's aparrent shortcomings and failings. But all his rulers to measure behavior, required a value system from a conscience. His anger at people we knew, likely as not, stemmed from insustices he saw around him,painful beyond belief, which he coudnt not resolve himself. So, instead he'd to constantly berate others for perceived pverty of thought, exploitation, indifference and infamy. In the end, on a macro level, Tom turns out to have very good values, but wrapped up in a complex patina of anti-social behaviors that obscure real hurt and justifiable anger.

The people who vote for racist leaders, do so without stress as they have been brain-infected with a memic idea that suppresses their Chirsitian, Muslim, Jewish or other enlightened Conscience. Most folk in any house of worship are kind and considerate and would give their shirt to a stranger in times of need.

But put them in a football stadium, and they may riot against opposing fans! Put them in a political rally, and they lose empathy for those exlcuded and uncompetiive.

Conscience is universal, but it is under the thumb of diversions from cradeled grudges, politics, passion and demagogery.

Consicence works best on an individual level, when an exhausted German Soldier doesnt shoot the vanquished British force becuae of some essence of humanity managed to survive the brutality of war.

For a lot of folk, conscience is mostly asleep as self-interest has the corner office in the management suite!

Asher

Asher, what you write is correct, as far as the psychology of crowds is concerned.
It is also fairly accurate to state that very often, individual can ( and does ) get carried away by crowd instinct to reveal a personality that is quite different than when alone.

However, one does sleep alone...even in a crowd. The instinct exhibited as a voluntary crowd action does take a breather. The ‘ self ‘ does reflect,however briefly..and it takes enormous effort to suppress the conscience calling. The older on gets, the past gets more vivid. The future becomes short, the memories are long. The conscience is always there and as the end approaches, one often contemplates more...’ wish it could have been different ‘ becomes an ever increasing and louder companion.

The crowds have gone. Time to sleep. It becomes harder.
One always sleeps alone. With only one’s conscience as company.

One does usually return from Vegas. To his/her individual self.
The example of Tom Dinning is an example of a hate filled and hypocritical individual; and no medical excuses are needed to bring him into a civilized discussion.

fahim mohammed said:

Asher, what you write is correct, as far as the psychology of crowds is concerned.
It is also fairly accurate to state that very often, individual can ( and does ) get carried away by crowd instinct to reveal a personality that is quite different than when alone.

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What you say brings us a measure of hope.

But sometimes one brave person stands up and challenges the tanks or calls out authority. A Palestinian teenage girl slapped an Israeli soldier's face. A lawyer for the US army before the hateful autocratic senator McCarthy amazingly overcame everyone's fear of him and defiantly asked, "Have you no decency?" That led to the collapse of the reign of fear.

fahim mohammed said:

However, one does sleep alone...even in a crowd. The instinct exhibited as a voluntary crowd action does take a breather. The ‘ self ‘ does reflect,however briefly..and it takes enormous effort to suppress the conscience calling. The older on gets, the past gets more vivid. The future becomes short, the memories are long. The conscience is always there and as the end approaches, one often contemplates more...’ wish it could have been different ‘ becomes an ever increasing and louder companion.

The crowds have gone. Time to sleep. It becomes harder.
One always sleeps alone. With only one’s conscience as company.

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To some extent you may be projecting your own values. But most cultures, the basic training sharpens human values and so there is all the groundwork for you being correct.

fahim mohammed said:

One does usually return from Vegas. To his/her individual self.
The example of Tom Dinning is an example of a hate filled and hypocritical individual; and no medical excuses are needed to bring him into a civilized discussion.

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I had the same opinion, but in the final scenes which you missed I learned where the evil came from, not the illness. I will inform you privately.

Asher

Of course, I speak only from my perspective. I do not claim to speak for anyone else.

Tom? Don’t know him nor care...just an insignificant speck of dust on my exquisitely tailored suit from London...brushed it away.

I like my suits to be immaculate.

Fahim,

Thinking more about the conscience reasserting itself when we are alone, I wonder about folk alone: they could be a person at prayer or a thief stealing a cola or a diamond ring when the owner is at prayer!

Perhaps solitude can give one the space and strength for ideas that help or damn the soul.

.....But I do admit that in bed, just before sleep, I may have a feeling of being alone and really regretting things I have done wrong, many decades ago. That is my conscience speaking.

But most nights I thank my wife for so many things and she reminds me, not to be waking her up, like that, and then I fall aleep happy!

Asher

Asher, cool set of pictures. I had wondered what happened to Tom. You think he still checks out the forum laughing at you and Fahim for having to talk about him ? LOL
Don

Don Ferguson Jr. said:

Asher, cool set of pictures. I had wondered what happened to Tom. You think he still checks out the forum laughing at you and Fahim for having to talk about him ? LOL
Don

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Don,

I never thought you noticed the aggravation, LOL!

Asher