…and this is a 
The other dangers of non-anonymous blogging
Category: Weblogs • Weirdness
Posted on: April 12, 2007 1:00 PM, by PZ Myers
People who have seen your photo and know your name might notice you when you pick up two-dollar hookers in the seedy part of town.
Another useful hint: when said observers later mention this fact, it is not a convincing disavowal to state that you do not hang out in the red-light district "on a regular basis."
(Hat tip to Zeno for providing this fabulous PSA. I note that Zeno is pseudonymous and does not have his picture on his blog.)
Comments
I especially liked the part about his writing that he wanted to stay in Thailand after his diplomatic posting ends. I guess he doesn't like to pay British prices for his nookie.
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | April 12, 2007 1:24 PM
he he he... this is exactly the reason why I use a pseudonym :D
kidding! just kidding!
At least this guy's honest. Who doesn't like an honest politician? I just with more people were like him in the sense that he admitted he was doing it without all the BS excuses and lies that the vast majority of politicians would make when faced with such obvious evidence.
Posted by: TAW | April 12, 2007 1:42 PM
WTF is a "web-blogger"? Web Blogger?
Posted by: thickslab | April 12, 2007 2:04 PM
Well, in his defense, speaking as a frequent visitor to Thailand and the spouse of a Thai national, there are perfectly valid reasons to hang out in Thailand's red-light districts. The biggest one, Patpong, is in the middle of downtown Bangkok and hosts a huge night market (where my wife, a superb haggler, does much of her shopping when we are over there), contains many normal shops and restaurants, and is in walking distance to several very nice hotels (including two 4-star and 5-star hotels where my wife was previously a concierge). The second largest, the Nana area, is also full of shopping and restaurants. The one mentioned in this piece, Soi Cowboy, has fewer socially redeeming qualities, but is still entertaining to walk through just to watch the spectacle.
Posted by: MJ Memphis | April 12, 2007 2:19 PM
dscssn wth m
[OK, Martin, GO AWAY. You're banned. You've been plainly told that you are banned. You are prominently listed in the dungeon as banned. There are about 30 repetitive and idiotic messages under your various pseudonyms piled up in the junk folder here. You have been so frantic in your attempts to post crap here that the automatic filters have kicked in and banned your IP address.
You will not be allowed to comment here, ever. Changing your pseudonyms doesn't work, and doesn't make any difference, and only a moron would think I've banned your pseudonym rather than your obtuse, tedious, boring presence.
GO AWAY. It's that simple. -- pzm]
Posted by: TWA | April 12, 2007 2:28 PM
Posted by: llewelly | April 12, 2007 2:31 PM
lol, someone is stealing my pseudonym!
COOL! nobody had ever stolen my name before...
what is the point of putting up your email address then? I thought it was for verification purposes?
Posted by: real TAW | April 12, 2007 2:34 PM
That's the idiot VMartin, John A Davison's pet parrot. He's been hammering away for a few weeks, trying to get past his ban, to no avail -- either my automatic filters catch him, or I notice the twit plugging Davison and manually zap him. Now he had the dumb idea to imitate other posters here, and was so taken with it that he spammed a series of comments with that name so quickly that the auto filters tripped and banned his IP.
Creationists can be such morons.
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 12, 2007 2:44 PM
I am completely and totally in favor of doing away with redundancy.
Posted by: TheBlackCat | April 12, 2007 2:54 PM
They sure can, they sure can.
Thanks PZ!
Posted by: TAW | April 12, 2007 3:01 PM
So, he used protitutes in a country where it is legal. I don't see the problem. He didn't even really try to lie about it. Just because some locals refer to the prostitutes as '2-dollar whores' doesn't make it any less of a profession.
It may not be the smartest thing to do, as I'm not sure how regulated it is, compared to many places in Europe.
I'm curious, PZ, why you felt this was newsworthy?
Cheers.
Posted by: Fastlane | April 12, 2007 3:32 PM
Fastlane: Because people who feel it is okay to exploit women lose all credibility in the eyes of those with any shred of morality.
Posted by: j | April 12, 2007 5:44 PM
Errr...
*cough*
Please ignore my atttempt to respond to VMartin on the coloration thread.
*cringe*
Posted by: Kseniya | April 12, 2007 5:59 PM
Knowing something about the dynamics of the sex trade in Bangkok (and most third world countries), I'm inclined to second j's comment.
Posted by: Azkyroth | April 12, 2007 9:23 PM
Prostitution isn't legal in Thailand. But the law generally isn't enforced. Generally the legal runabout in a Thai knocking shop is men pay for a massage and then by complete chance the person they paid for will decide to have sex with the customer entirely of their own free will.
Fortunately the public health service tries to limit the spread of disease. Unfortunately they haven't been as successful as they could have been.
Posted by: Two-dollar intellectual | April 12, 2007 10:15 PM
So, by not being anonymous, PZ, you're saying ... er ...
Posted by: mollishka | April 12, 2007 10:26 PM
Wait a minute! You mean that, because I'm anonymous, I could go to Bangkok, the Thai town with the unfortunately apt name? Wouldn't that interrupt my hobby of sitting at home reading religious publications that I don't believe and giggling?
Posted by: Zeno | April 13, 2007 1:50 AM
More like $40.
And yeah, Nana and Patpong are great for other things as well.
I took my cousin to Nana last month and we saw, along with the baby elephants, some drunken American shouting, "Buddha can kick Jesus' ass any day! Buddha! Buddha! Buddha!"
Good times.
(and, shhhhhh, my friend in the American embassy is no stranger to the area either)
Posted by: Ick of the East | April 13, 2007 4:20 AM
"Generally the legal runabout in a Thai knocking shop is men pay for a massage and then by complete chance the person they paid for will decide to have sex with the customer entirely of their own free will"
Actually, the majority of massage establishments in Bangkok are, indeed, massage establishments. Thailand has massage places like America has Starbucks- pretty much one every street corner, sometimes several clustered together. At the vast majority, you will get a top-notch Thai massage (at $5 per hour! Can't be beaten.) and nothing else. While there are non-legit massage places (usually easily spotted), the vast majority of the working girls work out of bars (hence the term "bar girl") or stand outside skytrain/metro stations or near major hotels and actively solicit passing foreigners. Trust me, they make absolutely *no* attempt to be discreet, and the police practice a policy of active noninterference- it would hurt the tourist trade too much if they got involved, and no one wants that.
Posted by: MJ Memphis | April 13, 2007 8:12 AM