The New Adventure of Classic Jackie Bag

Gucci has released a new version of Jackie bag designed by Frida Giannini, Creative Director of the company, to extend the glorious success of the flagship handbag of Gucci. The brand name "The Jackie" originally came out in 1950s for the preference of Jacqueline Onassis. Then the series was named after the gracious former first lady amiably with title.
Fashion aficionados who are desperately searching for originality will never be disappointed by the new Jackie. With its distinctive shape and exquisite details, we can tell the modern elements exuding from the classic design. The size is big enough for a business woman or a partyholic and the soft yet durable leather can give you longer boasting memory. The bamboo-detailed tassels surrounding the body of the bag are significant and perfectly harmonized with the overall look of the bag. Needless to say, Gucci offer several color choices as usual for your exclusivity. There are violet, coral red-my favorite, verdant and cloud white and you can also choose traditional light color. Each bag has a signature of Frida Giannini which adds extra contemporary flavor.
Feel exciting? That's not the end of the adventure. The New Jackie succeeds in inheriting some of its initial ideas with new discovery from the delicate workmanship of Gucci's Florentine pattern. This is a bag delicate for everlasting love and endless time.
The devil is in the details especially for this bag. The stitches are meticulously sewn on the bag and all the processes are manual deriving from the traditional saddle-producing workmanship in Florence where Gucci was founded.  This sophisticating and attractive handbag takes at least seven hours to make to ensure the total quality. No wonder it's tagged with an astonishing price.
Legend continues with this new classic JACKIE bag for the luxury and ostentation of Gucci.
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Knowing What's Hot in Liquidation Handbags

Are you selling liquidation handbags as part of your business? The key to selling handbags successfully is making sure you know what women who are buying those handbags want.

In the liquidation world you can get a lot for a little outlay of cash. This is great when it comes to buying liquidation handbags to resell, but you also want to make sure you are getting items that are popular enough to resell to others at a great profit.

In the handbag market the only way to do this is to keep yourself one step ahead of the fashion trends and be selling what all the fashionable women want to be wearing. Here's a look at what fits that bill for The Winter 2008-09 season.

Handbags With Drawstrings

The peek-a-book romance of drawstrings is in again this season. That means if you can find a few drawstring handbags, you won't have a problem making a good profit. There are a couple of ways to go with this design. It could be a small handbag that closes and is held by the drawstring or a larger purse where one of the aspects of the piece is a drawstring closure.

Big Handbags

Big is back. Women this winter want to be able to take it all with them. This means they need bags that are big enough to carry all of the things they need for day or night in their handbags. The bigger the better.

Skin Handbags

The love affair with unique skin handbags continues. From stingray skin to crocodile, trendy women are clamoring to get their hands on a handbag made from a new and exotic skin this season.

Handbags that Make a Statement

Sometimes you want to be the center of attention. This season, handbags are looking to play that role. From bold colors like deep purples, copper and gold to large and in charge accents like massive buckles and handles, it's all about making a statement this winter.

Chain Accents

The final trend in handbags this winter is chains. From chains that dangle from a purse to those that are used as the hand or arm strap, the more chain the better.

Steve Sikes is an MBA and writes articles on wholesale and liquidation auctions and how to make a profit reselling these products. He also writes articles on financial products including insurance and credit cards. To read other articles on wholesale and liquidation auctions and making a profit buying and reselling liquidation clothing, jewelry, electronics, apparel and much more...

Spain is Developing a Colorful Personality

Skiing In Spain

When we think of skiing, we often think of an expensive Alpine adventure. However, there are top flight less expensive spots where ample excitement is available, such as countless skiing experiences in diverse areas of Spain such as the Aragonese Pyrenees, Catalan Pyrenees and Andorran Pyrenees. These are Spanish mountain ranges with first-rate skiing facilities.

It's a fact that numerous five star facilities as well as economical holiday facilities are available in the skiing regions of Spain. It may not be exactly like skiing in France, the Alps, or in Austria, Switzerland or even Italy where it appears to be always snowing; yet the Spanish Pyrenees are second to none when compared to the finest ski destinations. You may even have a nicer time than you would in the more celebrated destinations when you consider what is available in those better known locations. There just may be more value for your money.

In Spain the amenities available in most ski resorts match anything that is available anywhere else. Many ski resorts make accommodation available as an option right on the slopes, with ski-in and ski-out convenience that makes it possible for the guest to ski up to the door - then ski away at their convenience. The resorts have many activities besides skiing among others like snowmobiling, hot tubbing, sledding, horse, and sled, dog-sledding, including indoor and outdoor swimming. Then there are the local forms of entertainment, such as clubs, and theater. In terms of the Spanish ski facility, one may liken it to a Vail ski resort

Baquiera-Beret

Should you be seeking a longer skiing season, you'll want to remember the Baquiera-Beret, located in Lerida. Here, the season begins in November and concludes in April. Another plus for this destination is that it affords the skiing enthusiast numerous slopes with a countless number of handicaps beginning with novice, through to those who like to live on the edge. Spanish facilities are well liked and respected. Everything is provided here in Spain from chairlifts to professional instructors. Spain has the distinction of possessing the largest indoor ski resort in Europe. To the ski enthusiast that means they can play year round - even in the summer months. Considering the warm Spanish climate, skiing in Spain is developing a colorful personality. Your friend back home will know that you have enjoyed yourself. You don't have to worry about summertime weather conditions you only have to be concerned with your own skiing abilities.

There is only one country in Eruope that has more ski slopes than Spain and that country is Switzerland. After all is said and done, there are some 36-ski resorts here where you'll have ample skiing opportunities. On the Pyrenees it's snowing and you'll find the finest ski resorts. Spanish resorts are as great as any in the Alps. If you travel north of Madrid on the other hand, you'll find a pleasant skiing experience including that of La Rioja, Alto Campoo as well as San Isidro.

These destinations are those in the Pyrenees. Here, there's always fresh powder that lasts for days. So, if you really want to repeat skiing in Spain the Pyrenees should satisfy you. Nonetheless, if you're on a shoestring budget you might want to think about other ski destinations.

The columnist Kurt Schefken is really interested in areas similar to cultural attractions and tourist attractions in Spain. Sharing his passion in works, he confirmed his skill on news relating to Spain attractions and cultural attractions.

Notes From Poland - My Trip to Poland and the Breaking of Communism

My husband and I decided to visit Poland back in 1993. Andrew was originally from Poland but I had never been there. Communism had just ended and the whole country was in a strange turmoil. I could sense it; the Polish people were in a hurry to westernize their country. There was a feeling of trauma and relief throughout the country. I witnessed scenes of beauty and scenes of horror.

June 23, 1993: We were stopped by the police again today, but Ella (this was a friend that we were driving with) told them that she was a doctor and this was an emergency! Ella was in a fact a doctor: a dermatologist. That's the fourth time we've been stopped by the police since we arrived in Poland. Everybody seems paranoid! They stop you on the road for no reason, just to check you out.

Today on the train, Andrew slipped off to the washroom and I was sitting across from my father-in-law who had his eyes closed and was enjoying a short nap. As I stared out the window a scene flashed before my eyes, and it happened so fast that I couldn't quite believe it. I saw a policeman standing on the side of the railroad tracks and he looked very grim, beside him was the body of man who was upside down, body twisted in a strange position and dried blood on the side of his mouth, stuck in some sort of electrical pole. I felt a little bit sick. When my husband came out of the washroom I told him what I had seen. His dad hadn't seen it because he had been sleeping! My husband had a hard time believing my story.

June 25, 1993: I just found out from our friend Benedict Jozefko, who had read the newspaper that the man I had seen had indeed died from jumping off the train. He had come from the Ukraine looking for work to feed his four children. He didn't have a train ticket so when the conductor came by to collect tickets the man had panicked and jumped to his death.

June 25,1993;The Basilicas are absolutely beautiful here. I'm inspired to do a black and gold sculpture when we get back to B.C.

Right now we are on a train to Auschwitz.

June 26, 1993: It sure was creepy being in the concentration camp. Somehow I wanted to honor the people who had suffered such unspeakable horror and tragedy. I felt stronger emotions than I ever did in a church. Pictures of the victims were everywhere on the walls. I had only seen images of Auschwitz and the prisoners in the movies; let me tell you, no actor, no matter how talented, has been able to capture the sheer terror I saw in the eyes of those victims. We saw a short film which was in English. We walked through the camp; there were large rooms with huge piles consisting of thousands of shoes, other piles of hair brushes and toothbrushes, suitcases and eyeglasses. We walked through the gas chambers and the crematorium. It was a very frightening experience. I saw the so-called beds, made of wooden planks and a bit of straw.

I took one reed of grass and a white little flower from Auschwitz and taped it into my journal.

July 5, 1993: The scenes that I really love are the huge stork nests up in the telephone poles. It just looks amazing, the nests are at least 3 feet in diameter and they are everywhere. Sometimes the nests are made on top of old wooden buildings. While I am staring at the stork nests an old carriage with two big old horses and a mound of hay comes walking by .This looks like a scene from a Van Gogh painting.

July8, 1993: We are on a plane back home to Vancouver, B.C. We had a stop over in London. At the airport in the boarding room, Andrew went to the back to sneak a cigarette. While in dental school he started sneaking cigarettes because it just wasn't "cool" to smoke and study medicine! So here he was in London, England sneaking cigarettes and I reminded him of where we were and that nobody would care if he smoked. All of a sudden a really loud voice yelled "Hey, Andrew," "Hey, Andrew," we couldn't believe it, it was someone that Andrew had just graduated from dental school with. We are all on the same plane together going back to Canada.

I have a web site in which I am able to invite other artists. The address is http://www.labedzki-art.com

It's quite simple to join, click on "register", "login", "create/order album" (this is where you give your album a title only,) then "upload images", I usually only load two or three at a time. Once you've loaded you can go to home page click on "user gallery" and you'll see your images! Of course there are no fees and your image upload is unlimited! For art collectors this is a great place to buy original art for a great price.

Thank you so much and I really hope to see your work there.

Regards,

Annette Labedzki

Going To Asia For Medical Tourism? Here Are Some

Ovulation tests Pregnancy tests

If you are one of the thousands of people considering medical tourism as an option for your health needs, how can you be sure that your trip will be everything that you hope it will be? Here are some practical tips to help make sure that your trip is smooth sailing.

Make sure you have a signed, valid passport and the required visas. Imagine the inconvenience and the trouble you will get yourself into if you don't have the necessary documents. Worse, you might even end up spending a night or two in jail.

Are you deem fit by your doctor for traveling long distance? This is an important question. You will need to endure about 12 to 16 hours of travel to Asia. Think about how long you want to go away for and how far are you prepared to travel. Will you have to go alone? Do you need somebody to accompany you? Be flexible with your schedule as you can as you may have to stay longer if there is a complication, and it is preferable that the surgeon and provider treat you there and then, rather than at home when it becomes more difficult.

Check all your medical prescriptions for necessary refills. Bring along a list of your medications, and be sure to include their generic names, as brand names may differ from place to place.

Learn about local laws and respect the customs of the countries to which you are traveling. While in a foreign country, you are subject to its laws. When in Thailand, DO NOT publicly criticize or make fun of the Thai monarchy, or you will be jailed for 15 years! So mind what you say and do. DO NOT EVER consume or bring illegal drugs with you. Countries like Singapore impose harsh penalties if caught with illegal drugs. A doctor's prescription is preferably be carried along with any medication.

Make 2 copies of your passport identification page. This will facilitate replacement if your passport is lost or stolen. Leave one copy at home with friends or relatives. Carry the other with you in a separate place from your passport.

Leave a copy of your itinerary with family or friends at home so that you can be contacted in case of an emergency.

DO NOT leave your luggage unattended in public areas. DO NOT accept packages from strangers. We have heard enough horror stories of travelers arrested for unknowingly carrying those packages that contained illegal stuff.

Prior to your departure, you should register with the nearest embassy or consulate of your country. Your country might offer online registration and do check them out. Registration will make your presence and whereabouts known in case it is necessary to contact you in an emergency.

To avoid being a target of crime, do not wear flashy clothing and expensive jewelry and do not carry excessive amounts of money or unnecessary credit cards. In order to avoid violating local laws, deal only with authorized money exchange agents. If you get into trouble, contact you country's nearest embassy as soon as possible.

So, do your homework. Put thoughtful consideration into all your preparation, be alert and mindful of your actions and you too can join the growing ranks of medical tourists. Then you can sit back, relax and enjoy a delightful and memorable medical travel vacation experience.
Drug tests Alcohol tests

10 Tips to Consider When Planning Your Family Vacation

Well, the time is finally drawing near. That long awaited and much anticipated family vacation is fast approaching. You will be off on a new adventure soon.

Oh my, suddenly panic sets in as you scramble to get everything pulled together. You search and search, but the reservation receipts and travel itineraries are nowhere to be found. You break into a cold sweat and begin mumbling out loud. This has quickly turned into the vacation from hell! You now find yourself screaming until suddenly you are awakened to find it was a bad, bad dream.

Your vacation is supposed to be relaxing and carefree, and booking this anticipated fun-filled event should be stress free as well. When planning your vacation it is always best to research your destination, accommodations, and itineraries well in advance. That's how Ward and June Cleaver would do it, right? Well, reality says it doesn't always work that way. Job deadlines, appointments and other day-to-day events often throw a wrench into the mix. Besides, there is always that last-minute deal out there somewhere to pull you through. And where do you suppose your own Wally and Beaver would like to go on vacation?

After you have decided that you are going on a family vacation, the next step is to decide where to go. The tourism industry offers many destinations that will welcome you but certainly there are some choices that are better than others for family vacations. Since you have decided that you will go on vacation with your children, it is clear that this must be the primary consideration in choosing the destination.

Here are some quick travel tips to help you choose and to get the most out of your family vacation:

1 ==> Start making your travel plans early. The earlier you can commit yourself to your travel plans, the more options you will have and the better the deals are likely to be

2 ==> Be firm and decide early about transportation arrangements

3 ==> Focus on just a few places instead of many

4 ==> Stay in one area and discover it's many dimensions: people, history, museums, music, food, monuments, etc. Excess travel can eat up precious vacation time

5 ==> Read as much as possible about the place(s) you are visiting. Browse your public library and read all available guide books for background information and to get a sense of the local culture

6 ==> Get a map of your destination and become familiar with it ahead of time

7 ==> Once you are on your way, get your nose out of the guide book. This should only be for researching your destination prior to your trip.

8 ==> Travel light - enough said!

9 ==> Don't try to do everything. Slow down and build some time into your schedule to relax, play and be spontaneous, especially since you are traveling with kids.

10 ==> Stay alert and hang on to your possessions

A great tool to involve the whole family in your vacation experience is to create a travel journal for your children. They can use a notebook and write a story telling what they experienced each day. You can create a game for them where they count something they see, other children they meet, or towns, etc., and they can keep that information in their journal.

Our favorite activity has always been to give each child a map of the United States and have them color in each state from which they saw a license plate on the trip. On a recent trip to Branson, Missouri we were able to find over 40 different states. We located them as a team in order to avoid arguing over who saw one first and this created more of a sense of working together.

Another option to quell the "are we there yet" syndrome is to download some good positive audio books onto their MP3 players. Get your kids interested in an audio book and you've got the makings of a successful vacation. In her audio book, Tips for the Savvy Traveler, author Deborah Burns says: "The single most important ingredient of successful travel is a positive attitude." Having a positive attitude will allow you to turn what might be disappointment into a learning experience. For example, bad weather may cancel some plans and force you indoors only to discover something you would not have learned otherwise.

In conclusion, choosing the destination and itinerary for your family vacation is totally up to you! These are merely suggestions. You are the one who knows best what is interesting for your children and what is not. Take into account what is suitable for them and what is preferred by you. Choose a destination or vacation package which offers the best combination of activities that appeals to all of you -- and you are halfway there.
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Bed and Breakfast to enjoy all the comforts of home when Traveling

Toronto, ON April 10, 2007 – Enjoy the sights, sounds and experiences of traveling across Canada and the U.S. while continuing to experience the comforts of home by staying in one of the thousands of Bed and Breakfasts or B&Bs available across North America.

Whether you are enjoying the emerald green waters of Lake Louise in Alberta or the splendor of the Grand Canyon in Utah, enjoy the intimacy available only from staying at a B&B, where your hosts inevitably become a part of your vacation memories and provide local information and travel suggestions you may miss by staying elsewhere.

And now, you can access the thousands of B&Bs throughout Canada and the U.S. from the comfort of your own home. Before you plan your next trip, visit http://www.bandbcanada.com or http://www.bandbunitedstates.com and open yourself to a whole new way of traveling.
It has been said that B&Bs have existed since the beginning of man. They have become very popular in Great Britain and most of Europe as an inexpensive and friendly place to stay. B&B signs populate the landscape of Ireland as any traveler to that country can attest. In Canada and the United States there is long history of bed and breakfasts, beginning from the time of early settlers. Some of these historic accommodations continue to operate as B&Bs.
A traditional bed and breakfast is generally known as a private home where a guest is provided a place to stay for the night. In some cases, the bathroom is shared with the family but more and more this is changing as guests are beginning to request private bathrooms. Breakfast is usually included with the price of the room.
For the single female traveler, B&Bs are often considered a safer environment and more appealing to the lone traveler.
In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the number of B&Bs in the U.S. The B&B is not viewed as a low-cost lodging facility but as an attractive alternative to the typical standard chain hotel or motel room. Today, some bed and breakfasts offer amenities not unlike those found at the most upscale hotels in the world.
Whether you are traveling in cities or experiencing life in a small town, enjoy the hospitality and intimacy only offered by staying at one of the many Bed and Breakfasts across Canada and the U.S.

A Few Ideas For Weekend Road Trips

Tennessee, Johnson City to Gatlinburg

So dang gorgeous, these 90 miles of rural Tennessee might inspire you to grab a banjo and strum an Appalachian love song.

Take U.S. Route 11E toward Davy Crockett's birthplace (Everyone: "Born on a mountaintop..."). At Greenville, where two

homes of Andrew Johnson anchor a presidential historic site, veer onto U.S. Route 321, skirting the majestic Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. Next day, depending on your preference, visit the park or, for mountains of a different kind, nearby Dollywood.

Florida, Overseas Highway

Only car-crazy America would link a 105-mile long chain of islands -- from Key Largo, just south of Miami, west to Key West -- with a highway, U.S.Route1. "You're on either a bridge or a causeway, surrounded by
shimmering water," says Janet Groene, author of Great Eastern RV Trips.
"It's a lovely, lovely drive." Two tips: Crowds are smaller during spring
and early summer, and catch the sunset at Key West's Mallory Square Dock.

South Dakota, Pierre to Mount Rushmore

Mythic Mount Rushmore does not disappoint, even after driving more than 200 miles across jaw-dropping cool scenery.
From Pierre, follow U.S. Route 83 across the Missouri River and striking grasslands to Interstate 90, going west. The good stuff isn't visible from the interstate,
so be sure to turn off at Murdo for buffalo burgers, Badlands National Park for dusty canyons and Rapid City for dead presidents carved into the Black Hills.

California, Monterey to Morro Bay

Like you needed reminding that state Route 1 along California's central coast ranks as one of America's -- heck, the planet's -- best road trips. South of Monterey begins 125 miles of windy highway within incredible scenery,
most amazing at Big Sur, where the Santa Lucia Range slopes steeply into
the Pacific.
By the time you hit San Simeon, the Hearst Castle's
architectural wonders will barely register against what Mother Nature just
showed you.

Finally, regardless of your road trip, travel pros urge folks to plan their routes in advance and to pack a map, not just directions spat out by a Web site.

Don't be one of those that thinks they know it all and can't get lost. Many
a great weekend trip has been ruined by such poor planning. For the best
maps available go to DrivingDirectionsAndMaps.com

Gregg Hall has been a consultant for years to many different businesses.
When planning a road trip he recommends http://www.drivingdirectionsandmaps.com

Bed and Breakfasts Today

Travelers are seeking new experiences today. Bed and breakfast trends today are attracting people who want to completely get away from their rushed and busy daily lives. These people prefer to travel far from the city and out into the country. They prefer to stay where the hospitality is warm and personal. They prefer smaller hotels, not large impersonal hotels. They want quiet and peaceful surroundings. They want to reconnect to the land, to experience community life and enjoy simple stress-free chatter. In short, they want an experience that only a bed and breakfast can provide. The quaint and simple experience of a bed and breakfast has become a popular tourism trend today.

The real human contact of a bed and breakfast getaway

Bed and breakfasts offer personal customer service by real human beings. Travelers who are seeking the bed and breakfast experience have busy impersonal lives and want to literally stop and breathe in real air and real human contact. Simple and pleasant interactions with the local community is the highlight of any bed and breakfast stay.

Bed and breakfast holidays are romantic and historic

Newlyweds are also looking to spend their honeymoons at bed and breakfast hotels and inns. They want to be pampered and treated like real human beings. Bed and breakfast getaways are often romantic and luxurious experiences. They offer an otherworldly experience. By virtue of being so completely different from your daily life in the big city and often by having a rich history, bed and breakfast inns and hotels make you feel as if you've traveled far, far away into another world.

For all of these reasons, more and more people are turning to bed and breakfast hotels and inns for quality vacationing.

Why do people go for travels?

Human being is of curious nature. To discover new and exciting places, feasting the eyes with beauty of nature and meet with new peoples always excite anyone. To get these excitements people started traveling since very ancient days.

In India travel was developed in the form of ‘Tirth Yatra’ (pilgrimage). ‘Shantanu’, the father of ‘Shravan’, and his wife were blind and unable to travel but they were so curious for their ‘Tirth Yatra’ that his son ‘Shrvan’ made a ‘kanvar’, a special carrier, for his parents and he carried the kavad on his shoulder to fulfill their desire. The great ‘Devarshi Narad’ always used to be on travel only. The ‘Char Dhams’ were purposely made to facilitate and make popular the travels.

Herodotus from Greek made great travels in the 5th century BC. Chinese traveler Heuin Tsang traveled India in 7th Century. History of the world is full of great travelers like Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Odisseus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Przhevalsky, Afanasy Nikitin, Tur Heerdal, Jacque Coustau etc.

Traveling is a great attraction for people of any age. Children are most fond of traveling. Whenever there is any planning for tour and travel, they start being excited and making preparations since several days before from the start of journey.

People go on journey generally for:

• Getting a change from daily routine life
• Feasting their eyes by seeing the beautiful natural scenes like hills, forests, oceans, wild animals etc.
• Visit mythological places

A Retreat

I've taken a room at Stratego's, Oakapalloka's most famous scion. Here he snaps my picture as I study graphs of the Bush Recovery, and monitor a Chinese space flight.

It's a beautiful house on the corner, a block from 'uptown'. This is one of those few very large houses from a century ago that weren't sectioned into apartments. When winter comes Stratego moves his media-room back upstairs somewhere, usually to a room he hasn't tried for years. This one was last discovered in 1977.

My room will have only two monitors on the world. But, he says, at least it has a nice south light for the plants.

I sent hate-mail to an English-speaking Jihadist last night. Wow, the internet is amazing. I think I deleted the lines where I threatened to kill him, because I thought that might be illegal. But I left in the part about nailing his dick to the barn floor and setting the barn on fire (leaving him with a knife). So this morning I woke up and kind of freaked.

Then guess what? Yahoo returned the email, and I was so relieved. Then, two hours later I had a beer and sent it again.

I was all over the net last night, lecturing people. It makes me sick, even now.

Do you want to know how late I was up? I was up so late I actually sent some apologies. I was up so late, in other words, I started cleaning up after myself. That is late. Someone in the Micronesia wrote back "are you serious?"

Reach out and touch someone. It's almost impossible to exaggerate how fing amazing the internet is. When it gets late , you just cross over the time zones is all. Pick on somebody in the Phillipeans. Engage with a Jihadist in England. Mouth off and sign your name, Psmith. The only problem is that I can't direct my signal into my own home town. Oakapallokans are oblivious to the internet, to their credit.

What a waste of time.

sheyah, jinxon

Lunkhead is hilarious.
I've been mapping his mental decline over the last month, since he got on the internet. Now he's got some cyber-sweetie. An ether doll. An Imaginary.

During a online chat last night I suggested that maybe 'she' was a 'he'.

Now, you might think it's impossible to tell over chat when someone is having a panic attack. haha, not so, my friend, not so. He sent me her picture three times in thirty seconds to make sure I wouldn't miss it.

It's nice having a pal you can be unapologetically cruel to. I don't know. It sort of keeps me going. In this respect, Lunk has been my one and only for years. It's like love... except it's hate. (but no. It's not hate. I do love the guy).

Moreover, he's gone out and bought a web cam, having no idea how female that is. Or gay. Sheesh. He's the first guy who ever invited me to see his web-cam. Coincidentally, the olive-skinned Portuguese girl sent an invitation at the same time. I chose hers. She wanted me to see she'd stopped dying her hair. Then I chose his. He had all of his 15 kids wave hello. That was nice of course.

Then he starts quoting my friend Mark to me, about how liberating it is to give up blogging. I say, I know I have a problem, and that gives me the credentials to recognize you have a problem now.

He kept typing "sheyah". Every time I became slightly hypocritical it was: sheyah, Jackson.

I said even if she is female, 10 to 1 she's a communist. He said, well yeah, she is. Haha. Of course. She's from Eugene Oregon.

I said I might write her and introduce myself. I don't know what he thought I would say, that's so bad. I don't have anything to blackmail him, except maybe that I'm one of his friends. Then, wow. The Lunk was threatening to kill me and my family too. (Make a note of that).

Ok, I won't write her, stop blubbering, I type.

I'm thinking in a few weeks he'll be such a mess I can go down there and take over.

Maybe this is what I need to get off line. Kind of like, the crazier he gets, the loftier my spirit.
___
And did I mention he has 11 days off from work. hahaha. It's like he's falling into a crater.

Possibly The Last Straw

Mom has scheduled us for a family portrait this week. It's a great step for her, gathering her nerve after all these years. I remember the last time Mom attempted this, 38 years ago. She still cringes when she recalls the rebellion.

It was after Sunday school and church in November of 1965.

My two older brothers and my dad were learning what a ray of unwelcome, loving sunshine my mom could be, at wildly inappropriate times like when they all wanted to sleep in. Myself, I was still a little bit sweet at that age. I might have even gotten up before her. In fact, I may have woke her up and dragged her out of bed in those days. (I couldn’t make the oatmeal myself, you know.) I was an Early-Riser, a let's get on with the fun boy.

Maybe that’s why people hated me. Hell, I was so cute it was probably my fault she was so insufferably euphoric all the time.

No, really. I was almost Hollywood adorable at the time.
___

This day was a day of rage. Every Sunday was, for years to come, but this day of the portrait was practically revolutionary in scope.

Sunday school, church, and then what?!!

Dad switched sides that fateful day.

Mom’s rosy disposition had produced this sneering, resentful and even hateful rebellion from D and J, and that surely convinced him about Original Sin and the sheer devilishness of his children. And so he became the angry enforcer of Mom’s will on Sunday mornings, for years to come, and he bossed us into our Sunday best and, for ever after, was willing to order us to smile too.
____
There were many botched photos. David and Jerry were livid and scowling, and then I started to bawl. We’d been there an hour (it seemed to me but I didn’t have a watch) and my fascination with the tripod lights, the camera, and the white screens was over. I remember my sweater getting itchy at my neck because of my tears rolling down there.

I probably knew that if I cried, and stopped, everyone would love me for stopping.

I just wanted to cause a hic-cough in this insane family’s bickering, see? That's it.

And when the photographer presented me with a white rubber ducky I stopped crying, and everyone including my brothers were cooing at me because they were so damn relieved I’d stopped making noise.

The lights flashed again and everyone of us was smiling broadly that time. Me with my eyes wet.

The portrait has been on the mantle for years, of course. It was an achievement.
_________
A year later my angry, red-headed cherry-bomb sister was born. The significance of her birth ---to me---was that Mom might try to make us sit for a portrait again.
But Jane’s personality quickly developed into a sort of pre-stamped, ultimate rebellion to my mother’s happy idealism. It was like she arrived with all our spoiled personalities wrapped into one.

Jane was vain and loved to be photographed, but not with us. I don't blame her.

(Speaking of her vanity, she made a clumsy attempt to steal a dress she liked when she was three years old, grabbing it from a hanger and running out of the Carousel gift shop, the idiot. Like Mom wouldn’t catch her---, ha! ---and where was she going to run, anyway? Geez, Jane, you were only two foot tall. )
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We’re all going to kick again this week, I know.

It will be amusing looking into Jerry and David’s rolling and rebellious eyes, the day of the portrait when Mom makes everyone get up early and put on a suit.

I’m going to be so well behaved. That’ll settle it , who’s the good kid.

The Enemy

Please don't call these fucks at Trafalgar Square 'anti-war'. And don't ask me to credit the kids for being naive. They're listening to the speeches from the Muslim Alliance (or whatever it's called). They're adjusting their morals to fit that world view which abides suicide bombers.

How can people be so off their beam nowadays? This is no 'loyal opposition' here. "Young men go crazy because of Bush" and blow themselves up (murdering women and children), but didn't Bush and Blair drive them crazy?

Yes, we've driven these young men crazy! Poor young men (who, having a successful revolution, set up Islamic-fascist states like the Taliban and in Iran).

No, it's Bush and Blair with the fangs and the blood on their chins. And London's mayor says Bush is the most dangerous man in the world.

The speakers here love to repeat that, and thank god, it's true. I'm very happy our American president is in charge of WMD's.
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Like the 'anti-war' protests on the mall in Washington D.C., you get the feeling here reminiscient of the German Bund rallies at Madison Square Garden during the 30's. A few pacifists are on stage here, true,--- old anti-nuke activists,--- but the crowd is driven to a cheering frenzy by the Islamists. As if they represent a liberation movement!

These folks are clearly not anti-war.

I know it's a bad sign, intellectually, when you can't even begin to sympathize with your opponents' view-point. But that's in a democracy, when both sides are trying to appeal to the middle.

But in war, you recognize your enemy. You recognize the enemy of civilization.

Or, you share the stage with them and become the enemy yourselves.
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I find it very interesting, once I've gotten over my own urge to kill: these speakers who are still socially acceptable before Western audiences will often deny that Jihadists were responsible for 911 in the first place.

That is heartening. It shows, at least, that they think the attack on the towers was wrong.

A year or two ago, there was a 'but yet...'

Now, their speeches have changed. There's no denial.

Our pro-Israeli policies (that is, pro-democracy policies) are so egregious that young people go insane. And Bush Bush Boosh! is responsible.
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It appears that the expected 1968 style 'days of rage' are a wash out, though. This morning's bombings in Turkey against the British (after bombings earlier this week against synagogues) have shamed most of the expected protester away. A blogger compared the turn-out to the number of protesters against the Augusta National country club for not admitting women. That's an exaggeration, but so are CNN's assertions that there were 'tens of thousands', apparently.

Common sense is going to prevail, surely. I worry sometimes myself, since I think the Left is under the hypnosis of rock and roll and hip hop. After all, it's hard to imagine how anyone who is deeply humanitarian can protest this war after those mass-graves were discovered. (All they can say is, why not go up against the other tyrants too...but you know they'd buck if we did. And what's wrong with starting at square one?)

Tonight my mom worried that she isn't a nice person anymore. She feels she ought to be anti-war, but knows she can't be now.

I hope our faddish British and American peace-nicks are coming to the same conclusion. Because it's pretty damn obvious that 'anti war' actually means 'anti-western' and pro-fascist "liberation".

Mark And Elly Update

Mark comments below:

"Still around, guys! We're enjoying married life and calling each other "wife" and "husband." It it starting not to sound so strange to our ears. "Mrs. Morris," when referring to Elly, however, still sounds a bit weird.

"The amazing thing about not blogging: the longer you go without it, the less importance you place on it. I may never blog again, but I still drop by old sites occasionally.

"Elly and I, or as I like to say now, the wife and I, may be moving soon. I'll keep you informed, John."

Up To Town

I guess I won’t be moving into the apartments above the old Mercy Clinic downtown. It sounded right for me, living above The Batman pharmacy and the Peanut Pub, but the kid who owns the pub said the ex-cons are about as thick as the cockroaches. The cons tried to break in here three times this month, so far. The cops are called so often, all the officers have a key to the security doors.

“Rent is weekly. It’s like that, ha-ha, you know?”

Does that include cable?

“Ha-ha.” Friendly kid. It was just him and me at 4 in the afternoon. He asked if I would join his new ‘beer club’ to sample all his 40 dark beer and micro-beer specialties.

That reminds me of my two-beer lunches when I worked at Barnes And Noble. I’d come in the same time everyday and the waiters would remove the paper table covering (it was a theme restaurant…the idea was that you could crayon while you waited, I guess. I didn’t like paper tablecloths.)
First name basis with all the waiters and waitresses. They served me a different, obscure brand of beer everyday and apparently kept records.
Then one day I come in with a co-worker and find my name on a plaque, over the bar. I’d ‘won’. Sampled every damn beer on the menu. Wow.

So I don’t join ‘beer clubs’. (Never did. That at Garfield's was an ambush.)

And it looks like I won’t be moving in either. Too bad.

Long day away from my media annex, which Mom has stopped calling the Sewing Room. I did a lot of walking around downtown, looking in the shop windows to check my reflection. Say, I don’t look half as bad as I should. Nice posture, and more color in my face then you’d expect from an alcoholic, pill-addicted recluse.

All the usual characters on the square. Cops walking their bikes on the sidewalk. “Hellooo, Mr. Jackson. I heard you were back in town. How are you? Living with your folks now?”

“Just visiting for a few months. Maybe a year!”

The Christmas decorations are up on the light poles. The same that made me so happy when I was ten but they’re looking a bit shabby, singed by traffic exhaust. Starting at dawn, December 26th, they all come down.

Christmas music already, playing from the megaphone shaped speakers on the bandstand.

I walked to Shrago’s. Rang the bell to set Leon, the German shepherd, into a frenzy. Shrago opened up and as usual Leon barked at my crotch. RAR!RARRARRRAAR!! Lord Jesus, take my hand.
“Leon, it’s me!”
Five minutes later I say hello to Shrago too. As usual, he’s in his captain’s chair before the bank of monitors, and he’s enjoying a wooden bowl of rice and beans. With chopsticks, no less.

I’m here to announce that I’m ready to rent a room.

“What? No inheritance yet?”

We spend about an hour upstairs. One room is being remodeled. I like this. The thing is, I want an Internet connection, and cable of course. But it isn’t wired yet.

“I can have it done by thanksgiving. I suppose that’s when you want to move in?”

Yeah. And just until January, I say. That’s when Mom abandons the house for Mr. Toad’s.

And I won’t be here all the time. I just want a retreat and to give Mom a break. I’ll pay extra for breakfast lunch and dinner by the way.

It’ll be great. I can use the weight room. There will be lots of visitors, so I can leech off Shrago’s popularity. Maybe sleep with one of his cast-off divorces that come and go...

One of the Weekend Pundit writers noticed my Michael Moore post. That's nice, after a lot of guff.

Wish I'd cleaned it up more. I am so lazy with this blog.

Another drunken post. Oh well...

Calculated Risk

Michael Moore sat down to discuss his book, 'Dude, Where's My Country?' with Brian Lamb on C-span tonight.

hahahaha.

Yeah, it was great.
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I should have been taking notes but then, it wasn't like he was defending a P.H.D.

Man, that's like being called to the Principals office, meeting Brian Lamb. It looked to me like Moore was losing weight the first ten minutes. I about reached out to adjust the color on my set too, because he was so pale. And his throat. Gulp, gulp.
Moore was trying to swallow and relax but he couldn't, at least for the first ten minutes. Then as time went on he relaxed, with a sort of 'never mind that, what about health care?' approach. Lamb is a genius and allowed that that to pass.
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I'm sure there will be a great deal of commentary in the blogosphere over the next week. Moore squirmed, he lied, he contradicted himself, he was ridiculous. After a half-hour he became more confident and more entertaining as he realized Brian Lamb wasn't going to ride his ass.

When Moore said that Bush had argued that Saddam was partly responsible for 9-11, and that this argument was proven a lie, Lamb didn't bother to ask 'when did President Bush ever say that?'.

Lamb is thorough. He makes you talk. He lets you hang yourself.
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Moore became comfortable after he'd established his working-class Flint credentials, but this was with a lot of regrettable insinuations that 'blue collar' people can't be expected to be overly bright.

Once Brian Lamb had him comfortable, and started quoting passages of his book to him, Moore let out several high pitched giggles for the rest of the night:
That's satire, Brian!

Now there I'm serious, Brian!
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Moore said that before his first movie hit, 'Roger and Me', he'd never made a paycheck over 8000 dollars. In the next breath he said he'd averaged 12,000. Or, well, 17,000.
He was living at his folks. He dropped out of his sophomore year in college for some silly reason. Lack of parking space at the 'commuter college' in Flint...
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I learned a lot tonight, but nothing to change my mind.

Moore was the first 18 year old to ever be elected to office, back in the early '70s (to a school board? I missed that).

Just a kid with a great love for his country, and an urgent desire to turn it away from Republican Evil. After all, it was Flint, Michigan, so you have to forgive me for being a boob. You don't think I was some sophisticate like the people on the West coast!
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I wish Brian had asked 'but weren't you the editor of Mother Jones magazine?'

Average Flint my ass.
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What struck me most during the interview was Moore's declaration that Bush found 911 a 'bonanza' for political gain. I can't quote here before the transcript, but it was noteworthy how many of the old talking points are gone now.

It's tough, after you've opposed the overthrow of the Taliban and Saddam. I mean, what to say?

Bush used 9-11 to support Alaskan oil drilling. And jerryfalwelljohnashcroftetc are evil.

No more 'it's for oil' argument. No more colonialism argument. Moore didn't even try to tie the war to our treatment of American Indians, and he didn't mention Custer.

His thesis makes a hullabaloo about our historic connection/ ties with the Saudis, of course, but that fails as a partisan issue. It fails even more since the Bush Doctrine is precisely addressing that issue.
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Michael Moore is probably the most hated person on the internet, after Ted Rall.

He had to account for himself. I think that, confronted by the school-master, he revealed himself as a show-man who's dying in some pathetic, Willy Loman/doomed salesman sort of way. If not Huey Long.

What bothers me is that he performs so well, with his book-tours filling stadiums with 10,000 people.
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That's what bothers Lamb, too. One of his very few confrontational questions was : what will you do with this power?

Moore blanched, and it was a wonderful moment. He seemed to pause and wonder if he wasn't becoming Jim Jones. Or Lenin or Stalin or Hitler. Then suddenly he was yelling that education polls show that youngsters don't even know where Iraq is! "We should make a law! You can't bomb a place if you can't find it on the map!"

Jesus that's pathetic. But mind you, Michael Moore is from Flint Michigan, so forgive him for being an a hole.
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All in all, I think the charges of plagiarism, fakery, and elitism will stick to Michael Moore. The blogs will prevail.

But natch, it ought to worry us that he's filling stadiums.

It's very difficult pulling down a working class hero who's in favor of peace, love, and a free food and drug administration.

Just a question

Everyone from the New York Times to National Review agrees that we f*cked up in Afghanistan during the 1980's.

We abandoned Afghanistan then, according to the conventional wisdom.

My question is, how exactly do people figure that after bank-rolling their liberation, we're somehow all the more responsible to babysit them and see them through to a civil society? Yes, I understand that would have been best, but at the time, how does this moral arithmetic work?

We didn't trick or fool the Afghans into resisting Soviet oppression. Their resistance was natural, and we helped them drive the Soviets out.

Why apologize? The U.S.A. is not imperial. We usually itch to get out of foreign entanglements, not to stay.
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I think the loyal opposition here actually regrets that we sent aid to defeat the communists. That naive humanitarianism which buttressed genocidal communism is alive and well. Their argument now is sort of childish, like "ha! look what you got in the Soviet's place." But this loyal opposition is the same that would cry bloody murder if we'd tried to interfere in Afghanistan's politics after that war.

It's probably true that our politicians could never have persuaded the voting populace to keep pouring money into that rubble-strewn, ancient land anyway. It would take 911 to persuade us that Islamo-fascism was uniquely dangerous.

Still, my question: why, after helping the Afghans win their war against the Soviets, should we have felt more obliged to that country?

Yes, the latent effect was marvelous. Eastern Europe and all the countries of the Soviet Union were liberated (to some degree).

That doesn't mean we didn't do the Afghans a great favor.

I don't see that we let them down. On the contrary: by some twisted fundamentalist zealotry didn't they declare war on us?