3rd Post

This week I read an article about how Mikhail Gorbachev is branching off to form a new political party in Russia. He isn't alone in his venture, he's supported by Alexander Lebedev. This is a party independent of the Kremlin. The name of the party is the Independent Democratic Party, and it probably won't be very popular. This is because even though Gorbachev is liked in the West, he is disliked in Russia by the government because he was the ruler of the Soviet Union when it fell apart in 1991. In fact, when he last ran for president in 1996, he only won a half of a percent of the vote. The party wants legal and economic reform and wants independent media. Gorbachev doesn't expect to get any seats in parliament, but he does want youth and party splinters to join his party, especially with the lowering popularity of the right-wing SPS party. Gorbachev is smart about voicing his opinions on the government. For example, instead of directly criticizing the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he merely criticizes the practices of the ruler. This is smart because by not directly attacking the Prime Minister himself, Gorbachev manages to evade being killed by the Prime Minister's men. Gorbachev's new party would favor less state capitalism, which means he wants less government involvement in the economy. This is quite different from the current system in Russia. Gorbachev is also admired by the western countries because he won a Nobel peace prize for allowing peaceful revolutions that would eventually lead to the fall of the Soviet Union.

2nd Post

For this post, I decided to read a short story in the book Skin by Roald Dahl. While Dahl is most known for writing children's books such as Matilda and The BFG, he also has written fractured fairy tales and some short stories that are a little dark. The story in Skin that I read is the title story, Skin. The story is about a man who got a tattoo of his wife on his back when he was nearly passed-out drunk. The tattoo artist was a melancholy painter who first painted a portrait of the man's wife, then tattooed over it. The painting was actually more in the mannerism style than a true still life, but it was beautiful. The man remembers that night when he sees a painting by the same artist in a gallery. He goes into the gallery to see more paintings by the man, but he is asked to leave. Drioli, the main character, gets very frustrated, and tears off his shirt as proof that he has a work by the artist in question. The people in the gallery see the tattoo, and a man offers 200,000 francs for the work. Drioli asks how that would happen, and the man invited him to dinner so they could discuss the plans. One idea was for him to live with the man at his hotel, but that was tossed out. The two went to dinner, and Drioli and the man were never seen again. Later, the painting showed up for sale in Buenos Aires, but it wasn't on Drioli's back, if you catch my drift. Another creepy fact is that the buyer didn't own a hotel in Cannes as he said. This story is creepy on so many levels. The ending is open-endedly chilling and kind of scary if you think about it. However, Drioli wouldn't have suffered the same fate if he had listened to his wife and the painter and had not gotten the tattoo. Still, I don't know why the man would go to such lengths as to cut the design off of his back to get a beautiful painting. I guess some people will go to great lengths to get what they want.

1st Post!

So I read this article on the internet. It was kind of creepy. It was about this mom who stole her 15-year-old daughter's identity to go back to high school and become a cheerleader. She said she went because she wanted to get a high school degree and because she never got to be a cheerleader in high school. She got caught because the check for her uniform bounced. I think this lady is messed up! I mean, why would she steal her daughter's identity? And on my list, the two reasons she gave didn't count. But I have to give her credit, I mean, to make the cheerleading team at like 33 is pretty impressive. But maybe she made it because there was a small amount of people (i.e. everybody gets on the team).(150) The daughter was currently attending a high school in Nevada where she was living with her dad. Obviously, the daughter had no idea that her mom was posing as herself as a cheerleader. The mother, Wendy Brown, has had problems with identity theft in the past, and could face 6 years in prison and a fine of $10,000 if she's convicted. I also think it's strange how the mother had the daughter at 18, which probably contributed to the mom's "lack of childhood" that drove her to do this. Also, I found this article on comcast.net, it was a headline of the news feed.