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Monday, June 21, 2004

Our bobble-head governator and the trickle-down pain

By now you’ve heard of the Ohio company that’s produced a bobble-head doll of Governator Schwarzenegger to add to its line of other such dolls that include George W. Bush, Moses, and Jesus. You would think that Ahnuld would be pleased to be in such company. But, no, he is very protective of his screen image and objects to its “unauthorized use.” He may be governor, he proclaims, and as such a public figure whose image is in the public domain, but he is, he adds, first and foremost, an actor…a real baaaad actor. Some would say a clown who’s made our state a worldwide laughing stock.

But how he became governor and what has happened since raises questions far too serious for laughter. Take his “election” last year, another signal that, if Republicans don’t like the results, they’ll just overturn them. Why should California be any different than Florida? Disappointed by the election of Gray Davis? No prob. Gather big bucks from the billionaire crowd, send out an army of professional signature-gatherers, put up a booble-head-in-a- humvee candidate, and – Poof! – recall the person we elected four months earlier. The grounds for recall? Buyer’s remorse? Terminal dullness? Whatever! The world laughed – “They must let 14-year-olds vote out there!” And, we ooohed and aaahed.

Still ooohing and aaahing? Enjoy those daily headlines in the Times-Herald about cuts in services, under-funded schools and the like? The governator’s “plan?” Take it out of the hides of the most vulnerable, including, he tried, our dogs and cats. Slough it off to future generations. Our kids can pay off that $15 billion bond. Act responsibly? Raise taxes? No way!

It’s all part of the Republicans’ new plan of trickle down pain. Dubyah comes to Washington, heir to a healthy Clinton surplus. Three years later, we have the largest deficit in history and are pouring money down a rat hole called Iraq at a rate of about $10 billion a month...not to mention the lives of young Americans at a rate of 60 a month. So what to do? Cut the money going to states for a host of necessary programs ranging from education – Remember “No Child Left Behind?” – to public safety. Homeland Security? The states can pay.

But the trickle down doesn’t stop in Sacramento. We’re still dealing with a state budget disaster caused not only by federal cutbacks to the states, but by California’s special indignity - the deregulation foisted on us by the PG&E blue suits in The City and manipulation of the energy grid by Dubyah’s buddy Kenny Lay and their foul-mouthed grandma muggers. Ahnuld’s answer? Cut back funding to counties and cities. Let them deal with it. The Governator has bigger things to tend to…like his image. No need to deal with the legislature or “interest groups” representing the schools, the arts, public safety, or the homeless. “Over their heads,” he cries, ignoring the people’s representatives and going “directly to the people” with puerile sound-bite public appearances. Seems to be working. Last I looked, Ahnuld’s approval rating stood at 65 percent, the highest for any governor in 45 years. Must be those 14-year olds again.

Oh, it’s working all right…for Ahnuld, that is. Trouble is it’s not working for us. All the pain has finally trickled down to us. The buck stops here…in Vallejo. And it does so with a big thuuud! Layoffs throughout the city government, cutbacks in essential services, a bankrupt school district, no money for community-based activities or festivals, rate hikes, new “fees” everywhere. Pay-as-you-go 911 responses? Now there’s a new low!

But there is a real solution. We could start paying the taxes to pay for the services we demand and, yes, need. Problem is the obvious has been short-circuited by class warfare in Washington and generational warfare in Sacramento. You’ve probably pent your $600 federal refund to pay your state taxes? You can be sure, however, that the Kenny Boys of the world are still raking in their billions in refunds. If you object, you’re guilty of “class warfare” and, worse yet, envy, the truly unforgivable sin in the Republican catechism. Meanwhile, back in California, older, childless voters – like me – continue to block needed tax reform for education, welfare and those generally less fortunate than us. Ever since Prop 13, California schools have gone to hell in a hand basket. That has to end! A new system for financing schools has to be found. And the super majorities required for tax increases have to be eradicated. We all have to carry our fair share and demonstrate a concern for the most needy in our midst. Failure to do so would be a real sin. It’s called greed .

June 21, 2004

Sunday, June 13, 2004

So What Is This?

By "this" I mean the words on these pages, oops, on this screen. This is certainly not straight news reporting, though I do try to stick to the truth and the facts, absurd as they sometimes may appear. A column? A once-a-week opinion on a single issue? Sometimes. Over time, however, this has evolved into a longer review of a variety of issues that strike me as worthy of your notice...a mini-journal or, as the kids might say, zine. With each of the issues - some about Vallejo, some about the world - I'll include the reported facts - some culled from the media, some you'll never see on the pages of the Times-Herald - and treat them in a way intended to provoke critical thinking and moral outrage. To that end, I'll sometimes rage at the lies and cover-ups and sometimes seek your laughter at the absurdities and silliness all around us. I hope you'll laugh and cry with me, but, more importantly, I hope you'll look at the issues raised more closely, get more facts, and draw your own conclusions.

So what issues might we look at? Here are several on the global and national scenes that have attracted my attention this week.

I promise to focus on Vallejo next week, and, in particular, the outrageous sham involving the interim city manager's "negotiations" with the public safety unions. Again, these past two days, the Times-Herald has shamed itself with its "reporting" on the issue, a melange of puffery, disinformation, false alarms, and some very ugly threats.

"I Was Only Following Requests."

How many times did we hear at Nuremberg, "I was only following orders" - as if one could stow their moral compass in the barracks...or outside the doors of governmental leadership. Late last week the civilian leader of our armed forces, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, carried that specious and dismissed argument to an even higher level of absurdity. Asked why he ordered a captured insurgent in Iraq to be kept "off the books" and not reported as required by the Geneva Convention to the International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC, an uncharacteristically soft-spoken Rumsfeld replied "I did so because I received a request from the CIA to do so." Did he ask why the request was made, on what grounds? No, he said, he didn't normally get into the "details" of such requests. He just went ahead and ordered the creation of a "ghost" prisoner, whose name has still not been reported to the ICRC eight months after his capture. In doing so, Mr. Rumsfeld broke the law, for, constitutionally, international treaties to which the United States is signatory are U.S. law. He did so without being ordered and without the slightest bit of intellectual curiosity. All it took was a request. Talk about a moral jellyfish!

Ah, but, Mr. Rumsfeld, as we know, is capable of the highest flights of moral outrage, selective and misplaced though it might be. Pressed at the same press conference about reports of such "ghost" prisoners and others in U.S. custody being tortured, he reverted to his old arm-waving self, berating the media for, he claimed, overplaying and distorting the Abu Ghraib story. Some soldiers, he said, had done "some things they shouldn't have done," but, he added his voice and arms rising, "Torture? No way!" It was simply outrageous to talk about U.S. soldiers engaging in torture. One has to ask, was he not aware that just 15-minutes earlier Attorney General John Ashcroft had announced the indictment of a civilian contractor for the alleged murder of an Afghan detainee at a DOD interrogation center in that country? Was he not aware of other "wrongful death" charges working their way up the military justice system alleging the killing of Iraqi detainees by their American guards? If bludgeoning someone to death with repeated blows from an over-sized flashlight isn't "torture," what is?

Simply put, Rumsfeld should have been unceremoniously fired long ago. These most recent incidents of insensitivity to law and morality make it more imperative than ever that he be fired NOW. The safety of young American soldiers who might fall into enemy hands demands it. So, too, do the good name and honor of the United States of America.

Colin Powell Gets Nervous

A week ago, I made a plea to Colin Powell - resign with honor before the Rumsfelds of the world drag you down with them. Since then, I came across an op-ed piece written by Secretary Powell in the New York Times. Entitled "Why Generals Get Nervous," it reads in part:

During the last three years U.S. armed forces have been used repeatedly to defend our interests and achieve our political objectives....The reason for our success is that in every instance we have carefully matched the use of military force to our political objectives. President Bush, more than any other recent President, understands the proper use of military force. In every instance, he has made sure that the objective was clear and that we knew what we were getting into. We owe it to the men and women who go in harm's way to make sure that their lives are not squandered for unclear purposes.

....But we also recognize that military force is not always the right answer. If force is used imprecisely or out of frustration rather than clear analysis, the situation can be made worse.

Decisive means and results are always to be preferred, even if they are not always possible. So you bet I get nervous when so-called experts suggest that all we need is a little surgical bombing or a limited attack. When the desired result isn't obtained, a new set of experts then comes forward with talk of a little escalation. History has not been kind to this approach.

Sound advice. Trouble is, it was written on October 8, response, believe it or not, to a New York Times editorial criticizing Powell and the military for being too cautious about the use of American military force. And Powell, of course, was writing about the elder President Bush, who understood the demands of statecraft and the limits of force. Can the same be said about Dubyah? Has he, in Iraq, "made sure that the objective was clear and that we knew what we were getting into?" Or did he listen to "so-called experts" and allow "force [to be] used imprecisely or out of frustration?"

Don't you think that General Powell is asking these same questions today and getting more nervous with each passing day? Shouldn't we?

Those of you who have kids are probably familiar that frequent response to a chiding question "Why did you do that?" "Because...." the child shoots back. Nothing more need be said.

That may be cute and excusable in a toddler, but it's neither when resorted to by the President and Vice President of the United States. I'm referring, of course, to their knee-jerk response to the conclusion of the thoroughly bipartisan 9/11 Commission appointed by the President that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and that no "collaborative relationship" existed between Iraq and al Qaeda. To that - something that has been patently clear from the start - the President petulantly responds: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." Huh? Can't you just see the child, hands on hips, scowling a defiant "Because," when caught?

The ever-thoughtful Mr. Cheney offered a more detailed but no more persuasive rebuttal to the media's "outrageous" interpretation of the commission's finding, insisting yet again that there is "overwhelming" evidence of such ties. Among his details were all the old canards. The Vice President continues to insist, for example, that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met in Prague in April 2001 with Iraqi intelligence officials, even though the commission produced phone records and a bank surveillance video to show that Atta was in Florida at the time. And he still peddles that knowing fuzzing of the truth - namely, that al Qaeda "associate" al Zarqawi operated before the war out a terrorist camp "in Iraq." Surely, the Vice President knows that the Ansar al Islam camp in question was in the Kurdish controlled area of northern Iraq - an area over which Saddam Hussein could only wish he had control. It was, moreover, on the Iranian border and supported not by Saddam, but by Iran.

Isn't it time to grow up? Isn't it time to stop the charade of unsubstantiated and deliberate falsehoods? We're adults aren't we?

Fact is, a far more convincing case can be made for a "collaborative relationship" between Saddam and the United States under Ronald Reagan and Dubyah's dad. Wasn't that Donald Rumsfeld sitting there with Saddam about the time those WMDs were being used against the Kurds and Iranians? Weren't U.S. corporations among those that supplied Saddam with the wherewithal to produce his chemical and biological weapons? Didn't we look the other way when he used them? When his planes "mistakenly" bombed and strafed an American destroyer in the Gulf?

Enough! Please, enough. Just go away. Leave us in peace. We're grown-up enough to pick up the pieces.

"Mr. Sharon, Tear Down That Wall."

How I wish I could hear a U.S. President speak those words. But as that new Israeli wall grows higher - especially in the suburbs of Jerusalem - and cuts more deeply into the West Bank establishing ever newer "realities," our President simply mumbles regrets and calls for calm and an end to violence by "all parties."

Emboldened, Mr. Sharon, now plans a multi-million dollar moat between Egypt and Gaza. Now there's a Biblical metaphor for you, a parting of the seas in the desert. Just last week Jerusalem announced that it had put out bids for contracts for this politico-military and human absurdity. Remember that "McNamara Line" along Vietnam's 17th parallel. There's a reason such foolhardy projects soon earn sobriquets like "Edsel Line." History aside, sounds like something right up Halliburton's alley. I suspect, however, that Israel would not put up the overcharges and cost-overruns it might expect from a Halliburton.

So far, Mr. Sharon's "pacification" campaign in Rafah has led to the bulldozing of hundreds of homes and the re-displacement of about 13,000 Palestinians. The moat will only add to those totals. I use the term "re-displacement" advisedly, because I see there's been a rather uninformed discussion on the pages of the Vallejo Times-Herald about just what Rafah is. It is not a proper city. Nor is it an "internment camp." It is rather a refugee camp, containing new generations of descendants of those displaced in 1948 and again in 1967. Before 1967, it and the rest of Gaza were mal-administered by Egypt in much the same way it has been by Israel since then. It is a place for the human refuse of what once was Palestine, left to fester behind moats, walls, and barbed wire - a shooting field for tanks and helicopters and, yes, a breeding ground for terrorists.

I can understand, however, how there might be some confusion among Americans about just what Rafah is. After more than fifty years, such places can take on a deceptive air of permanence. But surely Mr. Sharon knows what Rafah is. Surely he remembers those other camps Sabra and Shatila. The only thing permanent about them is the despair and desperation they produce. And now Israelis and Americans are tasting the fruits of that desperation. God help us all.

Where's the Outrage?

So now Paul Johnson has met the same barbaric fate as Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl and, maybe soon, a Korean - innocent victims all. Their "crime?" Being there for the taking and the killing. The nature of their murders was calculatedly gruesome, designed to heighten the sense of revulsion and sheer terror. In this, the terrorists have succeeded, sowing confusion and frustration in our midst.

But can't we hope that, in their gratuitous excess, they may have sown the seeds of their own demise. For I have to believe that Arabs and Muslims too must be horrified and outraged by these examples of blasphemous madness in the name of God. It has, however, been far too quiet these past few days across the Middle East and among Muslim Americans. This is not the time for anyone to remain silent. It is rather the time to shout your outrage as fellow human beings at such inhumanity. I don't know how to say it in Arabic, but I urge you as a friend, now is the time, to shout "Enough!" Don't let the false gods of hatred seduce you and drag us all into the deepest depths of self-destruction.

Religion and Politics

For better or for worse, the two - religion and politics - are inter-twined, not just among Muslims, but also among Christians and Jews. Fundamentalism knows no boundaries.

In the United States, the interface between religion and politics has become particularly ugly during this particularly ugly campaign season. I would urge all - politicians and clergy in particular - to tread carefully, thoughtfully, and lovingly through the minefield ahead.

This is no time for religious wedge politics, putting down markers, or putting down people because of what they believe....or don't. That's not what religion is about, though, too often, establishment religion would have us believe it is. The search for God is much too large, much too deep for self-satisfied, self-righteous orthodoxy. Like Bishop Jacques Gaillot, I prefer Sura 2, verse 256 of the Qur'an - "No coercion in matters of religion."

As an autonomous human being, I object to efforts being made to coerce religious orthodoxy in the political arena, particularly about issues of human sexuality, issues often too mysterious for human understanding and far too complex for legislative "quick fixes." Yes, I have in mind issues like abortion, and gay marriage.

As Americans, we have a right to expect that our national discourse on these like other subjects be conducted in a thoughtful and respectful manner and that our decisions be based on the civic principles of equal protection under the law and full civil rights for all.

As an American Episcopalian, I am incredibly proud of how our Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold has framed the discussion of public recognition of committed relationships between members of the same sex. In a February 27 statement, he said, in part:

I am concerned about the advisability of a constitutional amendment being put forth for discussion at this time. Questions of sexuality are far from settled, and a constitutional amendment perceived as settling this matter might make it more difficult to engage in civil discourse around this topic.

Further, sexuality is personal, and therefore engages us at an emotional level where the language used can inflame rather than inform. For example, some who do not support the legal and civil rights of same sex couples are disturbed at the use of the term marriage to describe such unions believing that this term should be used only in reference to the commitment between a man and a woman. Others believe that a term less than marriage is a diminishment of such relationships....

The fullness of truth seldom resides in one point of view and therefore we need to hold ourselves open to the possibility that our own perspectives will be enlarged by those of others with whom we may disagree. It is my prayer that we will find the way forward that respects the best of our civil and religious traditions.

During these debates, both within the church and civil society, I would urge us to remember that we are conversing about an issue that affects the lives of honorable men and women who should be recognized in the dignity of their personhood and not simply discussed as abstractions.

Is that really too much to expect? Should we expect or accept anything less from one another?

Moral Politics

Some of you have suggested that I offer more suggested answers to that inevitable question: "Okay, what do I do now?"

As someone interested in politics, ethics, and language, may I suggest you read George Lakoff's new book Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. It's a humanist manifesto for action by a linguist who believes that words really do have meaning and that more than words are needed. Arguing from a Buddhist perspective of inter-being, he calls for "a radical relationship to the world" and that we think metaphorically, with empathy and responsibility.

As someone who would be a deacon in my Christian church, that's something I understand and embrace wholeheartedly. For a deacon is called upon to keep one foot in the world, one in the church, to bring the urgent concerns of the world to a complacent church and the balm of the church to a hurting people. One recent night, with the San Francisco Night Ministry, I found myself sitting in a Tenderloin bar toward closing hour. The bar tender, a gentle guy, leaned across the mahogany to ask earnestly "What does a deacon do?" "Well...let's talk," I began, thinking to myself "Ah, the start of yet another beautiful friendship." Wanna talk?
Posted by Vicki at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2004

Thursday, June 3, 2004

Some personal reflections on a summer sunday

I know that many, particularly on my side of the political spectrum, may have found it hard to abide the week-long funeral for a man with whom they disagreed. I knew the man and worked for him, albeit at a distance. I had my chances to disagree at the time, when it mattered. And, on occasion, I did...and sometimes even won.

But that's all past and so now, too, last week. And, upon reflection, I'm happy for the respite...and the time for reflection. How petty all the politics, when we pause to catch our national breath.

It came at a good time for me. For thanks to you and your feedback, I've found myself receptive to thinking again and a little more deeply about what this and we are all about. I hope, therefore, you'll allow me some personal reflections on a sunny summer Sunday.

One of you reminded me this past week that of those primary virtues - faith, hope, and charity - it is charity, love, that is paramount, pervasive, and never-ending. I don't know why I had to be reminded, but I did. Let me assure you I now remember.

But let me also confess that I must constantly struggle between that love, which I know will triumph, and the daily anger at the manifest injustices and myriad killings in our world, be they in Baghdad, Belfast, Bangladesh, or Bay View-Hunters Point. It is sometimes hard to maintain one's equilibrium in the face of the outrages that assault us every day. But we are called upon to do so - to soldier on, to be prepared to forgive, and to bring peace.

There is a difference, you know. Sunny optimism in the face of such daily outrages is not what we need. It does not do to say things are right when they are not...which they are not. There is a difference between "Morning in America" and that "City on a Hill." That talk of "morning" merely papered over manifest shortcomings and inequities. Striving for that "city," however, we are called upon to hope that we can be better than our feet of clay remind us we are.

That difference is what Gunnar Myrdal so eloquently described in his 1944 classic sociological study An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. In that book, still dear to my heart, Myrdal posits the "dilemma" as a "moral issue" that is "a white man's problem." There was nothing to be optimistic about in 1944, neither on the part of a Swedish sociologist nor of Americans, black and white. But, he made clear, there was reason for hope in what he called the "American Creed" - you know, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the 14th Amendment. Those as yet unattained aspirations, he reminded us sixty years ago, remain a burning coal to our shortcomings, a goad to the fulfillment of what we profess to believe. That is cause for hope!

During the week of eulogies and political point-making over the memory of Ronald Reagan, I could not shed a tear in the face of the orchestrated public grief...until, that is, that final Friday sunset, when Nancy collapsed in the arms of her children, clutching her flag and her memories.

In that very private moment, I recalled what she had once said of her relationship with her Ronnie: "We completed each other." I know what she means, for this week I have been ruminating about my own life. And, rummaging through old letters, I came across one from January 21, 1966 in which my Mimi wrote "You make me feel complete and whole"... as she did me.

I know how Nancy feels tonight - incomplete.

Two of my heroes growing up were I. F. Stone and Max Lerner. They taught me ethics and educated my sense of patriotism. Two of their books - Izzy's In a Time of Torment and Max's Ideas for the Ice Age - taught me how to be a courageous American. Won't you indulge me this tribute?

Izzy wrote of torment,
Max of icy times.
So what to name this current weight
that presses so
upon this heavy soul?

In my pain,
my gaze turns north
in envy
to those less bellicose,
more thoughtful,
and so free of attitude.

Weekend before last - June 5, to be exact - I marched in that parade for peace submerged halfway between United Nations and Justin Hermann Plazas by news of President Reagan's death.

Not knowing - and it would not have made a difference - I afterwards paid homage to other people, other things in North Lori Haigh and Guy Colwell at Capobianco Gallery, to City Lights, and, almost as an afterthought, to Black Oak Books, incongruously snuggled between the Condor and the Hungry I, corpses both.

Rummaging through the eclectic offerings at Black Oaks, I came upon the following broadside drawn from Thomas Merton. Some of you, I'm sure, know Merton, that once-Trappist monk who sought solidarity with his anguished world. For those of you who don't, there's a quiz at the end. The broadside reads:

One of the great tragedies of our time is that in our desperate incapacity to cope with the complexities of our world, we oversimplify every issue and reduce it to a neat ideological formula. Doubtless we have to do something in order to grasp things quickly and effectively. But unfortunately this "quick and effective grasp" too often turns out to be no grasp at all, or only a grasp on a shadow. The ideological formulas for which we are willing to tolerate and even provoke the destruction of entire nations may one day reveal themselves to have been the most complete deceptions....The American conscience is troubled by a sense of tragic ambiguity in our professed motives for massive intervention. Yet in the name of such tenuous and questionable motives we continue to bomb, to burn, and to kill because we think we have no alternative, and because we are reduced to a despairing trust in the assurance of "experts" in whom we have no real confidence.

And now the quiz. What was Merton writing about? Who were those experts? My experts let me down. Don't let your experts lead you similarly astray.

In the Vallejo Times-Herald article announcing this year's Gay Pride Celebration spokesman Brian De Vries assured us that "It's not just a night for gays and lesbians. It's a night for everyone to celebrate this important piece of our city's diversity." I hope so.

I enjoyed last year's first "Pride" event at Mel's, but here and over the years have felt somewhat shunted aside as the forgotten "T" in LGBT. I will be there June 25 for two reasons - solidarity with the Vallejo-Benicia Humane Society, which gave me my loving Tibetan terrier Salsa, and with our LGBT community.

I must question, however, the decision of the Vallejo lesbian and gay community to spotlight "queens" and "drag" at Pride Two. So soon?

Did it ever occur to the organizers that the transgendered community, particularly the transsexuals in that community, might be offended by "drag" "comedy?" Did it ever occur to the organizers to consider that - to us - such "comedy" is not unlike the "black face" of my earlier generation to my African American cohorts of that generation?

The general lesson? Isn't it time to stop seeking another group, a "lower" group, to dump on? In Poland, where I lived for three years, there were no Polish jokes. Everyone told Russian jokes or Bulgarian jokes.

I'm at the bottom of your ladder - gay, straight, or otherwise - and I'm here to say enough!! If we're about PRIDE - and I am - let's talk proudly about who we are instead of putting down the least in our midst.

I accept you, embrace you, as my brothers and sisters. Won't you in the LGBT community accept me as your sister? Won't all of you embrace us as fellow human beings who, like you, cry when we are sad, bleed when we are pricked, and suffer in the news of tomorrow morning's paper?

God Bless.

Posted by Vicki at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2004

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Of Anniversaries

D-Day, the Sixth of June! Brace yourselves, this may be your "Longest Weekend," one marking the 60th anniversary of that great enterprise at Normandy that opened the western front in the liberation of Europe.

Like last week's dedication of Washington's long overdue World War II Memorial, the commemoration at Normandy this weekend will probably be another "final mission" or last reunion for the veterans of D-Day. They deserve a salute and a chance to mourn in silence, for they did a good thing for which we should all be grateful.

I chose those words carefully - "mourn" and "commemoration." "Celebration" is a bit too flip, too removed from the actual event, from the feelings of those who lived through it, and those who died. Those who were actually there and lost a buddy will, above all, mourn. That's why one sees so many old men - and a few women - crying at such events. Oh, some will probably prefer to speak of "celebration;" jingoists usually do. And then there will be the present-day politicians, whose presence is invariably a tolerated intrusion. I urge them, however, to exercise extreme caution this year, lest their hyperbole intrude beyond tolerable limits. It would, for example, be in intolerable bad taste for our President to again equate the invasion of Iraq with World War II or to seek to equate the liberation of Iraq with the liberation of France. Mr. President, remember you are speaking in France.

This year's anniversary also comes at a dicey time for Americans and European-American relations. It would behoove us behave a little more modestly than we have in the past year and more. John Wayne and Tom Selleck aside, we didn't win the war single-handedly. Nor were we the only ones to suffer. As you reflect this weekend on the victory at Normandy, I urge you to think also - however briefly - about the contributions of our allies - the British who fought alone for two years, the Soviets who lost 20 million between Stalingrad and Berlin, and the Canadians - yes, the Canadians - who stormed ashore at Sword and Juno beaches and who, by war's end, had the world's third largest navy. Such is the value of allies, a word we seem to have forgotten.

And let's not forget the Germans, whose boys, although misled, fought just as courageously and just as honorably and died just as miserably. They sleep at Normandy and elsewhere in seldom-visited cemeteries close to ours. And somber places they are, the graves marked not by bright white markers, but dark, rough-hewn granite crosses. I wonder, in this regard, whether PBS will reprise its 50th anniversary film that featured Lauren Bacall and a startling ending. Check it out after "The Longest Day."

Tiananmen Square

D-Day is an anniversary close to my heart. I graduated from the Naval Academy on June 6, 1962. How could I forget. But there's another anniversary this weekend that I can't forget. Friday, June 4 is the 15th anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square.

1989 was a momentous year. The Berlin Wall came tumbling down – not as a result of Mr. Reagan's words, but at the hands of the German people, individual Berliners with sledge hammers - and communism crumbled from within throughout Eastern Europe.

How soon we forgot that, in the spring of 1989, this urge to freedom burned brightest not in Europe, but among the students and workers of China. Remember that white Statue of Freedom looking so much like that green one in New York Harbor? Remember those students talking freely, so full of hope, with Dan Rather and Bette Bao Lord in the square? Remember those "official" television reporters on CCTV, reporting at last freely, professionally, joyfully about the real news taking place in their country? Remember that faceless, nameless democrat facing down that tank? Remember the pulling of the plugs on western television crews? The god-awful scenes of tanks rolling over bleeding bodies in the middle of the night? The years of silence?

Isn't it time to end that silence? Isn't it time to stand with the democrats of Hong Kong who are today carrying on the struggle of 1989? Isn't it time to tell Beijing - and Shanghai - that it may "Be Glorious to Be Rich," but that is not enough. Communist capitalism is not an oxymoron; it is fascism."

The Occupation of Palestine

Lest we forget in the midst of these particularly signal anniversaries, there is another that calls for introspection this weekend. Saturday, June 5 marks the 37th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War, that paradigm for pre-emptive war and the beginning of Israel's occupation of Palestine.

I won't trouble you here with all the bloody history that has stained the Holy Land since then. If you'd like a good history book, send me an e-mail; I'll send you a bibliography. Let me just say that occupation is always ugly, especially when the occupied are displaced and their homes and shops and institutions - and dignity - are crushed under the bulldozers of collective punishment. In the rubble of such actions you will invariably find the seeds of hatred, resistance, and, yes, terrorism. Terrorism, dear friends, does not occur in a vacuum.

I pray each night that Israel will see the light and make peace with its "enemy." After all, one can only make peace with enemies. There is no need to make peace with friends, and there is no possibility of making peace with quislings who represent no one. I take heart in knowing that there are many in Israel who understand this - probably a majority - and who have the courage to act on it. Those courageous Israelis deserve our support.

As an American, however, I must insist that our government embargo the shipment to Israel and condemn the use by the IDF of such American-manufactured tools of oppression as Apache helicopters and Caterpillar bulldozers. I, moreover, urge our government to re-involve itself in a true peace effort and demonstrate at long last a true even-handedness in bringing the two parties together. If we do, perhaps we will not be faced with "celebrating" the 40th anniversary of this war and occupation, still wondering why Arabs hate us and why there are still terrorists out there.

I hope to see many of you Saturday, June 5 at the march in The City against the war in Iraq and the occupation of Palestine. It begins at 11:00 a.m. at United Nations Plaza and will proceed to the Embarcadero for speeches and music at 1:00 p.m.

Anybody Out There?

Forgive me this unrelated query. I increasingly feel I'm spinning my wheels here. And so I must ask: Is there anybody out there? Do you care? If you do, won't you drop me an e-mail? The address is A simple "I'm here" will do.

Happy anniversaries. Have a nice weekend.


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Kids Taekwondo

Tue & Thur 7-8PM

Taekwondo is just one of many skills students learn while attending class. Respect, self confidence, and self discipline are just a few of  the additional skills your student will learn. Try 2 free classes and see if its a good fit.

Adult Taekwondo

Tuesdays 8-9PM

Adults join our class for a variety of reasons. Some want to learn to defend themselves, and some are trying to find a new and fun way to improve their physical and mental fitness.  No matter the goals, we can help to achieve them. Adult class welcomes ages 13+ and all fitness levels.

Saturday 10-11AM

Hapkido is a Korean martial art practiced the world over. Characterized by joint locks, throws, and dynamic kicking techniques, it is unique among Korean martial arts in its emphasis on deflecting an opponent’s attacks instead of forceful blocking.

We strive to provide a fun, engaging and challenging environment where our students are given every opportunity to develop their martial arts skills, as well as the mental skills to succeed in life outside of class. Self confidence, self control, respect, discipline, and perseverance are the primary characteristics we try to instill in our students.

We offer 2 free classes so you can decide if you like how we do things. Just stop in a little before the start of class and we'll get you set up.

Class Schedule:
Kids Taekwondo: Tue & Thur 7-8PM
Adult Taekwondo: Tue & Thur 8-9PM
Hapkido: Saturday 10-11AM

4201 South Oxbow Ave
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, SD 57106

Phone: (605) 582-5646

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Welcome to Villa Brigitte – the latest self-catering luxury apartments in the heart of Tučepi, one of the most idyllic towns in all of Dalmatia.

We invite you to browse our website to learn more about Villa Brigitte, the beautiful town of Tučepi, and the Markarska Riviera. The Mediterranean as it once was.

Read on and find out why your stay at Villa Brigitte will be one of the most memorable vacations you will ever experience.

Perfect for You

Villa Brigitte houses 5 beautifully maintained self-catering apartments consisting of 2 two-bedroom, 2 one-bedroom and 1 studio apartments.

Apartments 4 & 5 contain two bedrooms with double beds, one ensuite and an open-plan living area with a double sofa-bed.

Apartments 2 & 3 contain one bedroom with double bed and an open-plan living area with a double sofa-bed, kitchen table and chairs.

What’s Inside?

Each apartment comes equipped with satellite television, WiFi, air-conditioning, central heating, kitchenette with refrigerator and electrical cooker, as well as a bathroom with shower, basin and WC

A Room With a View

Each apartment is located on the top floor and each apartment boasts a generously proportioned balcony with furniture, exceptional sea views of the Adriatic and the nearby islands of Hvar and Brac.

Hosts With the Most

Come and enjoy the local hospitality with Irma and Ante Bajalo, Vila Brigitte’s proud owners. They speak both English and Croatian and will ensure you have a wonderful stay.


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Home Beauty How To Get Rid Of Laugh Lines Naturally

How To Get Rid Of Laugh Lines Naturally

We all know that laughter is the best medicine!

But for many people, it can turn into a nightmare. Too much of this good thing can lead to smile lines, also called laugh lines, around your mouth.

Smile lines are types of wrinkles that primarily develop around the sides of your mouth, and the lines are more noticeable when you smile. Such lines develop due to repetitive facial movements, including frowning, smiling, laughing and many other facial expressions.

These types of wrinkles are a normal part of the aging process. As you get older, any lines on your face can deepen or multiply in number. Other causes of smile lines include loss of elasticity (collagen), dehydrated skin, genetics, smoking, stress, the wrong sleeping position, and sun damage.

While smile lines do not cause any problem, many people want to get rid of the lines as they can make you appear older than you truly are.

Nothing can be done about lines that have developed due to age. But you can prevent many causes of laugh lines with good lifestyle habits and some easy and effective home remedies.

1. Olive Oil

Olive oil is incredibly beneficial to help deal with smile lines. The anti-aging properties of olive oil come from the polyphenols and oleic acid in it.

Also, the monounsaturated fats in the oil help prevent the appearance of new smile lines, while also contributing to smoothing out existing lines.

Plus, olive oil is beneficial for keeping the skin moisturized and regenerating skin cells.

A study published in PLoS One in 2012 researchers found that intake of dietary monounsaturated fatty acids in olive oil leads to the healthier appearance and aging of the skin.

  • Rub some olive oil on your face and massage gently to help the oil penetrate deep into the skin. Do it twice daily.
  • Alternatively, mix equal amounts of olive oil and honey. Rub this homemade paste on your smile lines using light, circular motions for a few minutes. Wash your face, then apply a light moisturizer. Do this 1 or 2 times a day.

2. Argan Oil

Argan oil contains up to 80 percent fatty acids that help fight free-radical damage. This, in turn, helps prevent wrinkles and smile lines on the face.

The vitamins A and E in this oil also help reduce wrinkles, as well as age spots and sagging skin. It also keeps the skin moisturized and improves the elasticity to keep it firm and youthful.

A 2015 study published in Clinical Interventions in Aging reports that daily intake and/or topical application of argan oil has an anti-aging effect on the skin and helps improve skin elasticity.

  • After removing your makeup and washing your face thoroughly, apply a few drops of argan oil on your skin and massage gently using circular motions. Do this daily before going to bed.
  • Also, include 1 tablespoon of culinary argan oil in your daily.

3. Kiwi Scrub

Exfoliating your skin once a week with some homemade kiwi scrub can help deal with smile lines.

Exfoliating helps remove dead skin cells to reveal the healthier, younger skin that lies beneath the surface, thereby reducing fine lines caused by laughing and smiling.

Kiwi works as an effective natural exfoliant and also contains antioxidants, especially vitamin C and polyphenols that help nourish your skin.

  1. Put 1 tablespoon each of mashed kiwi, sugar and olive oil in a bowl.
  2. Mix it well.
  3. Apply it on your face and gently exfoliate the skin using circular motions.
  4. Rinse your face with lukewarm water.
  5. Pat your skin dry and apply a moisturizing lotion.
  6. Use this homemade scrub once or twice a week.

4. Facial Exercises

Facial exercises can also help reduce laugh lines around the mouth. There are several exercises that target muscles to tighten facial skin. This, in turn, reduces the appearance of any wrinkles. You can also give yourself a face or eye massage for younger skin.

Also, exercise prompts your body to produce endorphins, which can contribute to your skin’s health.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

  1. Keep your lips partially separated.
  2. Now use your fingers to pull the corners of your mouth back toward the face as far as possible.
  3. Hold this position for about 10 seconds.
  4. Relax and repeat.
  5. Do it 10 to 25 times, once daily.

5. Sunscreen

To prevent smile lines that are related to sun damage, a good quality sunscreen lotion is a good choice.

Too much exposure to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays can damage your skin, particularly its elastin, and cause a loss of collagen. This can lead to smile lines as well as sun spots, uneven skin tone, dryness, rough skin, and sunburn.

Apply sunscreen on your face on a daily basis. Aim for a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher for daily use, and an SPF of 30 for intense or extended outdoor activities like a day at the beach or picnics.

Also, try to spend more time in the shade, and wear a hat to protect your skin and reduce laugh lines.

6. Water

Dehydrated skin is more prone to smile lines, so you need to try your best to keep your skin hydrated from within. To do so, drink an adequate amount of water throughout the day.

Regular water intake helps keep your skin hydrated and moisturized, which makes it look younger and healthier.

On the other hand, when you don’t drink enough water, your skin can become dry, dull and dehydrated, leading to issues like fine lines and wrinkles.

To stay hydrated, drink about 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. Apart from water, you can also drink green tea, fruit and vegetable juices, or eat fruits and vegetables rich in water content.

7. Quit Smoking

Smoking is dangerous to your health and is extremely bad for your skin health. In fact, smoking is one of the preventable causes of wrinkles, including smile lines. The harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke can destroy the collagen and elastin in your skin and worsen existing laugh lines.

A 2002 study published in the International Journal of Dermatology found that cigarette smoking is associated with premature facial wrinkling. Hence, attention should be paid to smoking-associated facial wrinkling in young people and added to the list of disorders seemingly caused by smoking.

Another study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2013 reports that smoking reduces collagen formation, results in collagen degradation, reduces the skin circulation and also nicotine reduces the skin thickness. All of these reduce skin elasticity and cause premature aging and lead to wrinkles.

If you smoke, try to quit as soon as possible to get rid of laugh lines and wrinkles.

8. Reduce Stress

The body produces the hormone cortisol when you’re under stress. In addition to breaking down cell bonds, cortisol accelerates the production of free radicals.

Free-radical damage creates havoc on your skin by preventing your body from producing collagen and elastin. This accelerates the skin-aging process and leads to the formation of wrinkles on the face.

To fight back against smile lines, take steps to reduce your stress level. You can take a warm bath, go for a walk, listen to music, spend time on your favorite hobby or choose any other activity that can distract your mind from whatever is increasing your stress level.

9. Proper Sleep

The amount of sleep you get every night directly affects the smile lines that form around your mouth. Less sleep means your body produces cortisol, which can result in sagging skin and fine lines.

On the other hand, getting sound sleep helps the body produce growth hormones that strengthen the bonds between the cells in your skin. This results in tighter, smoother and younger-looking skin.

So no matter what, try to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Along with sound sleep, you need to pay attention to your sleeping position.

Your sleep position also plays an important role when it comes to the development of smile lines. When you sleep on your side or your stomach, the delicate skin of your face endures constant friction that ultimately contributes to smile lines.

So, try to sleep on your back and use silk pillowcases.

10. Acupressure

Acupressure is based on a Chinese healing technique that uses pressure points to stimulate energy flow and boost circulation as well as relax and tone your muscles.

Stimulating the acupressure points also helps bring moisture back to the skin, which in turn helps reduce the fine lines.

As acupressure treatment involves massaging specific acupressure points on your face, it is important to get it done by an expert. You can also take classes to learn it and practice it regularly.

Additional Tips:

  • Wash your face once or twice a day and follow up with a moisturizer tailored to your skin type.
  • Exercise on a regular basis to promote blood flow to your skin. This helps produce natural oils and moisture and increases the rate of new cell growth.
  • Eat plenty of foods rich in antioxidants to help boost collagen and elastin production in your skin, and eliminate fine lines and wrinkles.
  • Also, include foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids to help eliminate laugh lines by reducing inflammation and naturally boosting the health of your skin.
  • Aim to maintain a healthy body weight and avoid weight fluctuations.
  • Blurring creams or primer can help hide laugh lines.
  • A good wrinkle-fighting serum can also help a lot in reducing and preventing the fine lines that are caused by repetitive movements like smiling.

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Make Your Small Kitchen Space Seem Larger With These Tips

Musical Seats – Prevent arguments about seating by having the children switch seats every so many miles or minutes. Specific job assignments can be assigned to specific seating as well.

Don’t let the Internet capabilities overwhelm you. In just a short time you can gain the knowledge needed to getting started. One of the greatest concerns with having a website is the cost. This will only depend on the extravagance of what you choose. If you’re looking for a professional website, it will most likely be on the expensive side. The good thing is there are many options for creating some low budget online marketing solutions.

Most European payphones do not have coin slots. They only have calling cards slots. So in the event of an emergency, if you do not have one of these cards, you can be in serious trouble. Plus, payphones are used as public toilets, they are dirty and smelly, and very difficult to find, since there are not many.

Ibuprofen: A long day of riding can result in muscles soreness and/or stiffness. A muscle relaxer like Ibuprofen taken before bed, and can help the rider wake up more comfortable and ready for more riding.

You can buy fancy glass bottles or use cellophane or even ziploc bags to store your bath salts. Glass is always preferable when using essential oils, but plastic van be used for short term storage. Baby food and jelly jars are nice to use as you can makes mall batches of different scents! Just divide the above recipe and reduce the essential oils to about 7 per jar. for baby food jars. You can also fitness evolution canning jars that will work perfectly too.

High Tea is often mistakenly presumed to be a tea ceremony reserved for the elite class of the upper crust of society. This is an unfortunate misgiving however, High Tea does not in fact refer to an individual’s social standing. The term “High” in High Tea refers to the height of the table at which the tea was served, specifically a dining table instead of the lower tables of a parlor. High Tea was actually a full meal consisting of meats, bread, cakes, and of course plenty of dark rich tea. In the working or agricultural communities of England individuals would come home around dark, normally around six in the evening, and at that time the evening meal would be served, hence the origin or High Tea.

Maybe your child isn’t into the cowboy look. Another inexpensive look may be a Wizard with a long cloak, pointy hat and fake beard. Cloth can be found at any inexpensive thrift store or fabric store for just a few dollars a yard. A piece of poster board rolled into a cone shape and covered in fabric would work nicely for a Wizard cap, and wouldn’t be too heavy on the child’s head. A clean, dry, stringy mop head would give the perfect look for a Wizard’s beard. If you choose to add a wand, a yard stick will do. You may also be able to find a small plastic one from a toy store in your location.

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Phone: (08) 9383 1119

How Long Will Treatment Take?

Most patients attend an average of four to eight voice therapy sessions over a three to four month period. This varies depending on the severity of the problem, the condition of the larynx and occupational voice requirements.

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Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist

Member Australian Voice Association

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Business Goals for 2019

Funny how the year shakes out, huh? 2018 marked my first full year as an audiobook narrator, which brought a wealth of challenges and triumphs. While I didn’t narrate as many books as I wanted to, I did invest time and resources into some awesome coaching. I also redid my website, started this blog, and strengthened relationships with current authors. I attended APAC for the first time, recorded new demos, and became more active on social media in a more professional sense.

Oh, and I got to see the last book of The Secret World Chronicle novel series published. That was epic, considering that it’s the series that launched me into the world of podcasting and audiobook narration. Full circle, eh?

So, what do I want to do for the coming year? What do I want to accomplish in 2019?

Narrate More Books

This seems like a no-brainer for any audiobook narrator in the early stages of their career, but I’m a fan of tackling the most obvious goals first. In 2018, I narrated eleven books alongside a slew of podcast work, both for Secret World Chronicle and for short story podcasts. Slow, but I was able to establish a workflow and find excellent audio engineers to edit and master those projects. Many of those projects were for established authors and series, which helped the sales of previous books in the series. For the coming year, I’d like to narrate at least fifteen books. That comes out to more than one a month, a completely realistic goal when outsourcing proofing, editing, and mastering, and leaves room for going beyond that initial benchmark.

Work with New Authors

Narrating more books in the coming year means working with new authors. New authors doesn’t necessarily mean completely new people, just authors for whom I’ve not narrated yet. Being part of a great creative community like Balticon and finding fellow authors among the Listeners of the Dead Robots’ Society podcast are both great assets as an audiobook narrator. Sometimes the up-front cost of an audiobook can present a challenge, but I’m always open to having a conversation about pricing, funding opportunities, and promotion with indie authors. For my part, I’d like to work with at least three new authors this calendar year. Maybe on one book, maybe on a series, but for 2019, I want to grow my circle of authors by three.

Audition, Audition, Audition

Again, this goal goes hand in hand with the first two, but it requires a little something extra. For me, auditions are one of the more difficult aspects of the narration business because they involve (*gasp*) reaching out to people I’ve not met and demonstrating that I can be the best match for their work. It’s the sort of thing that makes my anxiety twinge, but it’s a necessary and vital component of being a working audiobook narrator, especially at this stage in my career. I’ve been fortunate for the past year to have steady work from my established authors, and that’s translated into great royalties and fantastic sales. For the coming year, I want to put out at least three auditions a month, on top of my regular work and podcast commitments. If more happen, awesome! Still, setting the bar at something challenging yet achievable is what establishing goals is all about, and three per month comes out to 36 in the year. If ten percent of those turn into gigs, that’s three books I wouldn’t have narrated, had I not auditioned for them.

Treat It Like A Business

I’m not sure if this is the easiest of the four goals or the hardest, but it’s certainly necessary, given the other three I’m establishing. One of the quotes I keep above my desk is by Julius Erving, and it sums up the necessary attitude for any small business owner in a single sentence.

“Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.”

And the truth is, I love narrating audiobooks. I love finding new stories and characters and ideas, and I love being able to put them out in a form that more people can access. I don’t always love the self-promotion, the auditioning, the bookkeeping, or the scheduling… and truly, I don’t have to make myself love those parts. I do, however, need to recognize and accept that they’re part of this adventure, and there’s no success in this career without making time for them. So, for 2019, I need to stick a little closer to my schedules and monthly (or even weekly) benchmarks. Even though I’m balancing the business with my family obligations, that doesn’t mean that I can use those obligations as an excuse to avoid the work that I need to accomplish for a given day. Self-care is all well and good, but there’s a line between “I need thirty minutes to rest, recharge, and eat lunch” and “This one thing bothered me, so I’m throwing in the towel on the rest of the morning.”

Treating this like a business means using my planner and sticking to the goals I’ve established, in addition to the regular practices in my #narratorbiz repertoire. It means putting in the time on a daily basis and taking action on each listed item, rather than just talk about taking action. It means putting on my #momboss hat and holding myself accountable to what I know I can accomplish in the next twelve months.

And, it means that I’m going to need another cup of coffee. Happy 2019!

  1. Dawn Blair

    Good for you! Thank you for sharing your goals. I love seeing what others are doing. I know when I wrote my wrap-up of 2018 and my goals for 2019, I was surprised at how much I had done. I thought I’d had a failure of a year, but reviewing and looking back on it, all those small, consistent steps had really come together. That’s all you can do: plan where you want to be, take consistent action in that direction, and hopefully not let life overbalance you in the wrong direction. I wish you well into your plans and hope 2019 is a stellar year for you.

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Read Inspiring Volleyball Quotes From the Coaching Legend

Take a close look at these inspiring volleyball quotes from Mr. Bernardo Rocha de Rezende. We are positive you'll get many things out of them and love them as much as we do.

Volleyball Coach Rezende Inspiring Quotes from the Legend

We read these volleyball quotes over and over again - and never stop admiring his coaching philosophy and his drive to push his team forward.

Mr. Rezende from Brazil is a true volleyball legend and his skills are recognized by the volleyball fans all over the world.

Bernardo's team, men's national team of Brazil has won nearly every international tournament under Rezende's leadership since year 2001.

Volleyball Quotes about Coach Rezende

Fivb, international volleyball governing body, described “For Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende, perfection and satisfaction are unreachable goals in a never-ending quest.”

To read more about coach Rezende, visit Famous Volleyball Players pages.

Inspiring Volleyball Quotes from Coach Rezende

Volleyball Coach Bernardo RezendeCoach Bernardo Rezende

“After the first very important victories, the biggest problem was to overcome the changing environment around the team. If the players change their attitude, loosing the firm discipline - the winning squads suddenly disappear." --Bernardo Rezende

"Each time an important tournament finishes, I start to think about the future." Rezende said after a victorious World Championship tournament as his players danced with the trophy and he was calm, deep in thought.

"It isn't easy, and I hope they keep this essence.” --Bernardo Rezende spoke after another win.

"I think it is very special winning after everything we won and seeing them like they are winning for the first time. --Bernardo Rezende

"I am happy that we got to the final, after six years working with this team. But my main feeling is one of relief. First we had to get to the semi-finals, then the final. Now we have a third goal. The pressure is still there." --Bernardo Rezende

"We are a soccer country, and they don't like second place. It is not well-received in our country." --Bernardo Rezende

Volleyball Quotes from Coach Bernardo Rezende

"We have to do our best. We owe that to ourselves. We have to refocus and think about what we are going to do tomorrow." Rezende guiding his team to look forward to the final after winning a semi-final match.

"I think the key is that we only focus on the next tournament as the most important one no matter the previous victories," Rezende referred to the long domination of Brazil after winning 2010 World Championship, which was the third time in the row.

"Since both teams were basically at the same level, whoever made less errors would have won the match."

"We must believe more in ourselves."

To read more quotes from coach Rezende visit Famous Volleyball Players pages.

More Inspirational Volleyball Quotes - Famous Volleyball Players

Karch Kiraly Quotes

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Home / News / Start Sailing in 2020
Home / News / Start Sailing in 2020

Start Sailing in 2020

Published 03:10 on 16 Dec 2019

Two new ADULT Learn to Sail courses are now open for bookings. Make some time to tick the sailing box, make new friends and learn new skills.

Both courses start mid Feb 2020 and run on Saturdays for 6 weeks. Boats provided.

Level 1 Saturday morning (9am-12pm)

Level 2 Saturday afternoon (1pm - 4pm)

*Level 1 is a beginner course. We encourage those who completed Level 1 last season to move on to Level 2 to enhance their skills and be more confident and ready to join club sailing.

  • DATES:
  • Saturday 15th February
  • Saturday 22nd February
  • Saturday 29th February
  • Saturday 7th March
  • Saturday 14th March
  • Saturday 21st March
  • Save Day: Saturday 4th April

To view course details go to our Calendar in the main menu

Bookings are only open to club members with a login so if you are new to Wakatere, complete our Membership application first

Even more Learn to Sail information

Email us if you have any questions or concerns at

Last updated 04:06 on 8 January 2020

© 2020 Wakatere Boating Club powered by Sailing Club Manager


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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Pecos River Bridge -- Fort Sumner, New Mexico

Pecos River Bridge

In eastern New Mexico, the Pecos River is barely a stream.  Where the BNSF Transcontinental Mainline crosses, at Fort Sumner, the river is about ten yards wide and perhaps six inches deep.  Yet over the eons, the Pecos River has carved its way through the surrounding red soil, requiring the construction of a bridge all out of proportion to the size of the river being crossed.

Named after Edwin Vose Sumner, a former military governor, Fort Sumner was the internment site of Navajo and Mescalero Apaches from 1863 to 1868.  I find this part of America's past repugnant, though it is what it is and, at least in my opinion, should not be ignored or minimized.  The settlement of the American West was neither peaceful nor democratic, and the remnants of that era testify to the bloodshed.

Mighty Pecos River in Eastern New Mexico

One reason for the small size of the Pecos River at Fort Sumner is Lake Sumner, a reservoir about twelves miles upstream that restricts the natural flow of the river.  When the dam is closed, which is most of the time, water flow is minimal.  The reservoir also prevents the spring flooding that, over millions of years, created the flood plane spanned by the railroad bridge.

Pecos River Bridge From South of River
Same Bridge

Fort Sumner was closed in 1868 and sold to Lucien Maxwell, whose son Pete befriended Billy the Kid in the late 1870's.  Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid in Pete's house, and both the Kid and Lucien Maxwell are buried in the old military cemetery.  I don't know where Pete is buried.
Eastbound Grainer as Seen From the Riverside

The Pecos River Bridge is one of the few stretches of single track remaining on the BNSF Transcon.  Abo Canyon is now double-tracked, and as of the date of this entry (November 11, 2015), BNSF is completing a second track on the Vaughn "Fly-over."  (As of mid-December 2015, the second track is now complete.)  To my knowledge, the only other remaining single track section is a short stretch northeast of Avard, Oklahoma.  I don't count the portion of the Transcon through the Flint Hills in Kansas as single track, because BNSF uses a line through Wichita and a portion of the La Junta subdivision as a second track for this area.

Eastbound Approaching Bridge With Clean UP Power
Eastbound Pushers on Bridge

This single-track bridge can be a bottleneck.  In the photograph immediately below, four trains are waiting in the far distance, on the north side of the river, to cross the bridge.

Westbound Climbing Grade out of Pecos River Valley with Four More Westbounds Waiting in the Background

This bridge was part of the Belen Cut-off built by the AT&SF beginning in 1903 as a route to avoid the three percent grades of Raton Pass.  The Cut-off was constructed by B. Lantry and Sons of Strong City, Kansas.  I don't know if you've ever been to Strong City, but it is a tiny remnant of a town in the Flint Hills west of Emporia.  I cannot, for the life of me, imagine a time when Strong City was large enough to support a company that constructed the Belen Cut-off.
Most of the Bridge Crosses Dry Land

In any event, the company began construction at Belen, south of Albuquerque along the Rio Grande, in 1903 and worked east for six months until a financial panic halted work for two years.  Construction started again in 1905.  The two most difficult and complex portions of the project were Abo Canyon and the Pecos River Bridge.

Eastbound Z

Most of the construction workers came from Kansas.  They lived in tent camps, some with cafeterias, company stores, blacksmith shops and mule corrals.  One major camp. Sunnyside, has survived to the present day as a portion of Fort Sumner.

Westbound on Bridge

Same Westbound Approaching Bridge
The best time for photographing the bridge is morning in winter along the highway, when the sun is low in the southeastern sky.  In summer, the bridge must be photographed from the west side of the bridge in the afternoon, but access on the west is restricted.  The only road I have found is gated and locked and used exclusively by heavy trucks that appear to come and go from a quarry.

Fort Sumner's elevation is about 4,100 feet, and  winter weather can turn harsh rapidly.  I remember standing near the roadside east of the bridge on a clear day between Christmas and New Year's.  The wind was light, and the sun felt warm on my back.  With an hour, however, clouds had rolled in from the northwest, the wind had picked up and my hands began to tingle from the cold.  By mid-afternoon, snow flurries had appeared.  I went to bed that evening with Mighty Dog (aka Bear), expecting the sun to be out in the morning.  Instead, I awoke to about ten inches of snow.  The images from that day will appear in another post.

Westbound Exiting Bridge

Westbound on Bridge

Westbound Approaching Bridge on Large Embankment

I am intrigued by the locations chosen by surveyors and civil engineers for railroad lines.  I believe Fort Sumner was chosen as the site for a bridge because the flood plane narrows here, and the approach embankments on each side and the bridge itself were shorter than other locations would have required, which is amazing when you look at the bridge and approach embankments actually constructed.  Nothing about this part of the country is small.

Eastbound Approaching Bridge on Embankment
Another Eastbound Approaching Bridge on Embankment

I think the Pecos River Bridge is one of the loveliest in the country, though opinions vary like women's shoes.  An added bonus of photographing this bridge is the heavy train traffic.  When I have been on the bridge on Fridays and Saturdays, the Transcon has reliably run three to four trains per hour.

Eastbound on Bridge
Same Eastbound on Full Bridge
The westbound grade out of the river valley is steep, forcing the tracks to head due south out of town, angling sideways up the slope before making a dramatic ninety degree curve to the west.  To this day, heavy westbound trains struggle up the grade, while eastbounds roar down the hill at track speed.

Southbound Heavy Manifest (railroad west) Climbing Grade out of Pecos River Valley
Loaded Coal Train Straining into Grade

Stack Train Climbing Grade with Windmills on Ridge Above Fort Sumner
Another Westbound Train on the Grade

The Transcon south of Fort Sumner crosses some extremely isolated territory but can be reached by taking state highway twenty out of town, then turning west on county road I-20, which slowly climbs upgrade out of the river valley until reaching and then crossing the tracks.  Following the road further west reveals excellent shots of trains in both directions in late afternoon.  The land beyond the tracks extends until disappearing beyond the curvature of the earth with no trees, shrubs, rocks or hills to block the view.  Although Montana is Big Sky Country, it is no more wide open than the high plains of eastern New Mexico.

Eastbound Gliding Downgrade with High Plains Backdrop

Nothing Breaks the View but the Earth's Curvature
Captain Randolph B. March in 1852, looking for a favorable route from Ft. Smith to Santa Fe, stated: "When we were upon the high table land, a view presented itself as boundless as the ocean."  Robert Carter, pursuing Quanah Parker with the United States Cavalry, described these plains as "a vast, almost illimitable expanse of prairie.  As far as the eye could reach, not a bush or tree, a twig or stone, not an object of any kind or a living thing, was in sight.  It stretched out before us -- one uninterrupted plain, only to be compared to the ocean in its vastness."  The images below, and above, give some indication of the size of this country.
Stacks on the Grade Before Christmas

More Pre-Christmas Stacks
Following are images from the big curve south of town where the line swings due west while still attacking the grade.  To my knowledge, the curve has no name, so I hereby christen it "Pecos Curve."
Westbound Stacks Turning West

Westbound in Curve Still Grinding Uphill
Eastbounds gliding downgrade roar through the curve at alarming speeds, but the steady stream of traffic is such that an individual train dare not slow down.  The crew change point for eastbounds is Amarillo, Texas, some 170 miles to the northeast, so the operative phrase for everyone on these high plains is "keep moving."
Eastbound Approaching Curve and Gliding Downgrade

Eastbound With Rear of Train at Top of Grade

Eastbound Beginning Curve to South

Eastbound with Canadian Accent
The Pecos River Bridge also lends itself to silhouette photography at first dark.  Although the afterglow for these shots only lasts about thirty minutes, the heavy traffic on the line will often provide a train at the proper moment.

Pushers on Westbound at Dusk

Westbound Stacks

Westbound on Pecos River Bridge

Pushers on Westbound Loaded Coal Train

East of Fort Sumner, the line is not as scenic, though there are still some reasonable photographic opportunities.

Eastbound Manifest Near US 60 Overpass

Westbound Manifest from US 60 Overpass

Eastbound Bare Table

Another Eastbound
The area around Fort Sumner is some of the most isolated and yet most beautiful country you will ever see.  Stand alone on the high plains at night and peer at the millions of stars above.  If your perspective on life does not change, then I cannot help you.

  1. Gorgeous! Thanks for the captions and the insights.

  2. You have a real ability for writing unique content. I like how you think and the way you represent your views in this article. I agree with your way of thinking. Thank you for sharing. Dslr camera price in pakistan

  3. May I please have your permission to download one of your photographs to use as a background on our church's website? Lora Chandler, Third and Kilgore Church of Christ, Portales, NM.


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Chaos over cranberries

Rivalry week. After stuffing ourselves with stuffing on Turkey Day, there will be a lot of football to watch, and we are hoping for one thing. Chaos. Upsets. More Upsets. And it all started with Oregon losing to Arizona State last week. Let’s hope we get to see a few more this week to throw the playoff selection committee’s decision-making process into a tailspin.

 With that said, there’re a lot of games to go over this week, so let’s dispense with the commentary and get out the dartboard and see whooza gonna win this week’s games:

BOSTON COLLEGE AT PITTSBURGH: This one comes down to the Panthers’ rush defense against Eagle star RB AJ Dillon. The ACC really needs BC to win to gain bowl eligibility (a common thread through the games this weekend), but we don’t see that happening. The unstoppable force wins here…Pittsburgh 30, Boston College 20.

LOUISVILLE AT KENTUCKY: The Cardinals have surprised everyone in their first year under new coach Scott Satterfield. A win here against their in-state SEC rival would be the cherry on top. But this game in Lexington will show lower tier SEC teams are better than their middle of the pack ACC counterparts….Kentucky 28, Louisville 24.

FLORIDA STATE AT FLORIDA: This once was must see TV in the college football world. But now, the Noles’ fall from the Bowden years just shows it’s about the coach, not the program. FSU won’t return to national prominence till they fill that hole. Their coaching search will be the only thing must see in Tallahassee in the immediate future. This one in Gainesville will be a blowout…Florida 35, Florida State 17.

CLEMSON AT SOUTH CAROLINA: The Gamecocks will be the only Southeastern Conference team to fall in this weekend’s ACC/SEC challenge. But at the end of the day, Clemson really is an SEC team playing in the ACC. The Tigers have not lost in 26 straight games, and their streak should be good for at least two more games. Another blowout in Death Valley Columbia….Clemson 56, South Carolina 14.

GEORGIA AT GEORGIA TECH: We’re the Ramblin Wreck from Georgia Tech and a heckuva engineer. But not much of a football team this year. Georgia has exceeded expectations on the road this year, going 3-0 against the point spread. They’ll exceed Vegas expectations here as well, but all they really need is to be healthy after its over…Georgia 42, Georgia Tech 10.

VIRGINIA TECH AT VIRGINIA:  The winner of this one gets the right to go to Charlotte for the Clemson Invitational. We think overall UVA is the better team and, with the Wahoos at home, this should be an easy pick. But the Hokies’ D hasn’t given up a point in the last nine quarters, and they have dominated this series in the past. So let’s call this one a toss up, and the next Tiger victim is

.Virginia Tech 28, Virginia 27.

TULSA AT EAST CAROLINA: The Pirates have improved noticeable this year under new coach Mike Houston. The only concern we have is that we hope the folks in Greenville have a big buyout clause because the power five schools will be coming soon, if they have ADs with any common sense. A win here will still leave East Carolina short of bowl eligibility, but 5-7 is better than 3-9…East Carolina 38, Tulsa 35.

MIAMI AT DUKE: Duke’s loss last week to Wake eliminated them from contention for a bowl. Miami’s loss last week to Florida International eliminated them from taking any step this year toward restoring their glory years. The Canes have six wins and don’t need this one for any reason other than to wash the stink off the FIU loss. The Blue Devils fans are already in basketball mode. Blah….Miami 27, Duke 21.

WAKE FOREST AT SYRACUSE: The Orange, like Duke, lost last week and cost the ACC another potential bowl team. At the start of the year, they were the trendy pick to be the mythical second best team in the ACC behind Clemson. At the end of the year, they are the only ACC team that lost to N.C. State. Wake had another solid year and, with the potential for 10 wins, place head coach Dave Clawson’s name on speed dial for a lot of big-name programs. They get win nine here…Wake Forest 35, Syracuse 27.

NORTH CAROLINA AT N.C. STATE: After five straight bowl seasons, this year has been a disaster for the Wolfpack. In coach Dave Doeren’s seventh year, it is likely State will win only one game and will stay home for the holidays. In Chapel Hill, fortunes have reversed after two dreadful years as new (returning) Head Coach Mack Brown has the local media fawning over five wins plus one close loss to Clemson. If the Heels lose here, though, it would be no bowl and a loss to a rival having their worst season in half a decade. Surely they will break their three-game losing streak to the Pack here. They better….North Carolina 31, N.C. State 21.

LIGHTNING ROUND:  Charlotte 31, Old Dominion 21 (the Niners are going bowling for the first time)

Appalachian State 34, Troy 20 (Mountaineers will play for Sun Belt Championship)

.Memphis 42, Cincinnati 35 (they’ll play again next week for the AAC championship)

.Oklahoma State 42, Oklahoma 38 (Bedlam)

.Wisconsin 21, Minnesota 14 (Paul Bunyan’s Axe)

.Michigan 24, Ohio State 21 (Chaos)

.Alabama 28, Auburn 27 (A toss up).

OTHER GAMES:  Tennessee over Vanderbilt, LSU over Texas A&M, Mississippi State over Ole Miss, Missouri over Arkansas, Texas over Texas Tech, Iowa over Nebraska, Washington over Washington State, Oregon over Oregon State, Utah over Colorado, Notre Dame over Stanford, Arizona State over Arizona

TOFF/CFP TOP TEN:   1.  LSU   2.  Ohio State  3.  Clemson  4.  Georgia  5.  Alabama  6.  Oregon  7.  Utah  8.  Oklahoma  9. Florida. 10. Minnesota

Southeast Sports Syndicate, 2019


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Last Name - W

Martin Warren

Near the East Entrance and about ten paces away from the Union Memorial, one can honor the grave of the founder of our proud city, Martin Warren. This pioneer served as a Private in the Virginia Continental Line during the American Revolutionary War and his name can be seen etched in stone between the Holy Cross and the Sons of the American Revolution Emblem. Though people searching through the old cemetery off of Gay Street will discover another tombstone belonging to our city's founder, his body was moved to Sunset Hill in 1915.

Learn more about Warren

Paul Verle Webb

Located beside a beautifully sculpted flower bed, lies the remains of World War II veteran Paul Verle Webb. The artistic sculpture includes engravings of numerous children or angels performing a religious celebration.
Paul Verle Webb

Michael Wayne Whisenhunt

In the Memorial Section near the beautiful statue of Jesus carrying a young child, lies the grave of eight day old Michael Whisenhunt. Surrounded by numerous, permanent flower vases, Michael's gravestone shows a teddy bear playing on a swing and reads, "Playing In God's Garden."

Frank E. Whittington

Near the massive, homemade, above ground mausoleum located at the back of the cemetery, lies the remains of Frank Whittington. Frank created the structure to honor his wife's request not to be buried in the ground.


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Submitted by:  Dave Malerk, Newark Pilots
Photos Courtesy of Steve Plopper

The Oneonta Outlaws (1-0) won their season opener and Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) debut 4-3 over the Newark Pilots (1-1) in front 1,853 fans at Colburn Park on Thursday night.

The Pilots committed six errors that resulted in four unearned runs for the Outlaws. Two of those runs were scored in seventh inning trailing 3-2. D.J. Luna (Vanderbilt) reached and scored on two separate errors, followed by the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly by Omar Garcia (State College of Florida).

Sheldon Lee
Sheldon Lee (University of San Francisco) earned the win for the Outlaws in his first regular season start. In his six innings of work, Lee gave up three runs, one earned, on four hits. He struck out a game-high seven while walking none.

The Pilots struck first by scoring in the bottom of the first. With men on second and third, Kane Sweeney (Morehead) grounded out, allowing Josh Crowdus (Delta State) to score.

Oneonta tied it in the top of the third. Garcia reached on a bunt single, advancing to second on a throwing error by Pilots’ catcher Jared Watson (Samford). Garcia then stole third before scoring on throwing error by Johnathan Christensen (Oklahoma Baptist) at the plate.

The Outlaws took 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth. Luna reached base by a throwing error committed by Joe Landi (Rhode Island). He scored on a RBI single by Lucas Leifield (Grand Canyon).

The Pilots scored one run in both of the fifth and sixth innings. With Josh Perez (Mississippi College) on third, Crowdus struck out but reached on a pass ball allowing Perez to score. To start the bottom of the sixth Lee hit Landi. After a passed ball and a stolen base, Landi scored on Leifield’s second passed ball of the inning.

Johnathan Christensen
Christensen got the start on the mound for the Pilots in a losing effort. He pitched seven innings, giving up four unearned runs on five hits while striking out five. Perez led Newark with three hits and scored once.

Entering in the bottom of the seventh, reliever Jeremy Rhoades (Illinois State University) retired six of the next seven batters by strikeouts. David Sosebee (Georgia) earned in his first save of the season in the ninth. Garcia and Clay Holcomb (Troy) combined for four of the Outlaws five hits with two apiece.

The Pilots will venture to Elmira to face the Pioneers at Dunn Field at 7:05 p.m. Friday night.

Newark returns home on Monday, June 11 against the same Pioneers.

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Unbreakable Olympian Lolo Jones – Olympic Track & Field Team 2012

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Online Zoning Atlas NOW AVAILABLE

The Washington County, Tennessee Zoning Office is pleased to announce that the online release of its Zoning Atlas is now available thru its GIS Services.  This service will be maintained and kept up to date with new zoning classification changes.  You may access the website HERE.  This service is in draft form and will be improved over the next couple of weeks.


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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Canada Day ~ July 1 ~ National Flag

The Maple Leaf flag was first raised on February 15, 1965 in Ottawa, Ontario and is now seen all over the world as Canadians wave their flags.
Several flags of Canada flying in the wind in Vancouver
The National flag of Canada flies in Vancouver, BC
“The flag is the symbol of the nation’s unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction or race, language, belief or opinion."
Honorable Maurice Bouget, Speaker of the Senate ~ February 15, 1965
A boat is covered with Canadian flags, passes by as a float in the parade.
Blind Bay Parade, July 1, 2011
July 1st is the anniversary of the date that Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain in 1867.  We celebrated Dominion Day until 1982 until it was officially named Canada Day in 1983.  The special day is celebrated across Canada and beyond and the flag can be seen in all shapes and sizes to show our pride and colors.
Ship called Osprey 2000 flies the National Flag of Canada
Osprey 2000 on Kootenay Lake, BC
The flag is a symbol of pride and honor and should be treated with respect and take precedence over all other national flags flown in Canada.  The only ones to take precedence over these would be for Royal Family members or Her Majesty’s 11 representatives in Canada.
Soldiers stand behind the flags for the ceremony of Portraits of Honor
Portrait of Honor, Kamloops, BC
 When flown with other flags, the National Flag of Canada should be in the center of a combination.  This special display was during the ceremony for the Portraits of Honor in 2011 held in Riverside Park.
The flags for the Aboriginal, British Columbia and Canada all fly
Aboriginal Days in Kamloops, BC
 Flag etiquette is not governed by legislation but by an established practice over the years.  The etiquette information is here if you wish to check it out, but showing respect could be the number one rule.
The Shriners carry the flags in the parade includine the National flag of Canada
Shriners Parade in Kamloops, BC
When the National Flag is raised or lowered or carried past in a parade, all present should face the flag, men should remove their hats and all should remain silent.  Those in uniform should salute.
The Pipe Band plays in the parade being led by those carrying flags.
Santa Claus Parade in Kamloops, BC
 Red and white have been the official colors of Canada since they were appointed by King George V in 1921.  This Santa parade also had another great symbol of red and white appear when Santa Claus went by, and that symbol began much earlier than 1921.
The Canadian flag welcomes Canadians to this park in the USA
Flag of Canada flies in the USA
During our visits to the U.S. we often see our Canadian flag flown alongside the American flag to welcome us there.  It always gives me a special sense of pride to see our flag in another country, showing the ‘welcome mat’ and I’ve taken photos of many of them.
The flag was flying to celebrate July 1 at a family gathering.
The National Flag of Canada at Kamloops Lake
We may not be flag-wavers like other countries are, but we do have great pride in this great country we call home and July 1 is one time that we do show our patriotism and wave our flags high.

Grandson wears the hat
Kamloops will celebrate July 1 with culture, art, music and festivities being celebrated.  The day begins with a Lions Pancake breakfast and ends the day with a fireworks display after dark.    Don’t forget the free concerts begin July 1 with Music in the Park from 7 – 8:30pm.  All of this takes place in Riverside Park.  See you there!

  1. Very nicely done Sheila, geeez your on top of everything aren't you.
    You make our holidays even more special.

  2. I love the way you write and share your niche! Very interesting and different! Keep it coming! find best residential flag pole


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6 Health Benefits of Acai Berry Fruit

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acai berry weight loss

Do you like to eat chocolate and wild berries at the same time?

If yes, then you’d like the taste of acai berry fruit – a balanced combination of wild berries and chocolate in a single bite.

Acai Berry Fruit

The acai berry fruit looks pretty much as a small sized grape, but unlike grapes, acai berries come from the acai palm tree – native to the regions of South and Central America. It is round and about one inch in diameter (2 – 3 cm). Appears deep-purple and reddish in color when completely mature. So if you see it dark-green – just don’t buy it – cause it’s still immature.

Superfood – what’s that?

Superfoods are foods that are supposed to be:

  • extremely healthy,
  • fewer in calories,
  • very rich in nutrients in relatively smaller quantities.

Acai berries are a superfood. A superfood with some of the most fantastic properties – weight loss and anti-aging. But are those claims really true?
Read on to find out…

Health Benefits of Acai Berries

acai-berry_smallGenerally Acai Berry fruit contains antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber and fats (that are good for the heart). Honestly speaking Acai Berries are not much different from similar products like blueberries, for example, but recently have been recognized as Superfood in the Western world, which inevitably lead to such huge craze about them.

  • Powerful antioxidant properties

    Anthocyanin is the antioxidant that gives this rich purple color to fruits. Anthocyanin is a very powerful antioxidant with the ability to protect the body from harmful free radicals – disposable products of our body metabolisms.
    This way acai berries could protect the body against:

    • inflammation,
    • bacterial infections,
    • aging,
    • neurological diseases,
    • diabetes and even
    • cancer.
  • High caloric values between 80 to 250 calories per 100 grams of fruits depending on method of preparation and serving.
  • Heart aid

    Acai berry fruit is also rich in oleic acid (omega-9) and linoleic acid (omega-6). They aid reduce bad cholesterol levels and raise good cholesterol levels in the body. Hence why those fats are good for the heart, cause they help reduce the risk of heart disease.

  • Anti-aging benefits

    Acai Berry fats are used in beauty products for their great properties to prevent skin dryness and maintaining balanced moisture in the skin.

  • Rich in fiber

    Acai Berries aid perfectly digestion and work great for detoxification and cleansing of the body from the bad cholesterol and free radicals (excretes them through stools and urine).

  • Rich in minerals and vitamins such as potassium, manganese, copper, iron, magnesium, Vit B-complex, Vit K, Vit. B-6 and riboflavin:
    • Potassium helps controlling heart rate thus regulates blood pressure.
    • Manganese aids antioxidant work.
    • Vitamins help the body to better metabolize proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

Finally the most important question:

Does Acai Berry help weight loss?

acai-berry_smallYes, if you rely on the websites, which sell weight loss products that contain an Acai Berry extract. Usually these are capsules, drops, juices or some other form of Acai Berry extract.

Yes, if you rely on the good old nutritious diet of fresh Acai Berries, that has been used for centuries by the native Amazonian.

Yes, if you ask any dietitian – I am pretty sure they will agree that Acai berries, like any other fresh fruits, are a extremely important part of any healthy eating diet plan, which purpose is to help you lose weight and maintain it.

How to find the perfect Acai Berry product for weight loss?

I will continue my research into Acai Berry health properties. I am sure there must be a high potency acai berry extract formula that is most beneficial for successful weight loss.

However, if you prefer eating fresh Acai Berry fruits, then you should know how to combine and prepare them into smoothies, low-fat desserts, in-between meals (snacks)… I will look into a few diet recipes.

How to fully enjoy these nutritious and exotic berries?

Yes, it is important to know how to fully enjoy the taste and experience the benefits of these small purple reddish berries – fresh or frozen, of course.

One thing is for sure – acai fruit pulp is much richer in antioxidants compared to the pulp of some other similar fruits such as blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries.
So you either eat the whole fruits fresh or use them to improve the flavor of other healthy meals you like. You can also use frozen acai berry pulp or pure to make a fantastic weight loss smoothies and desserts.

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