Blogger-Surfer Injured

Note the Eye Injury

Long boarding has its hazards. Yesterday, as I was taking off on a head-high wave at Chun's some barney who was paddling out decided to bail off and ditch his board rather than duck dive or turn turtle. Good for him - the wave didn't pound him a bit, but bad for me. I was just paddling INTO the wave to catch it, and his board shot up and whacked me in the eye. Only 5 stitches & a few broken bones inside the eye socket. Fortunately my eye is fine (or will be, once I can open my lid again).

Lessons learned:

1. Expect the most stupid actions of everyone around you.
2. People intent on saving themselves think nothing of anyone else.
3. Surfing is the last haven for the non-litigious. Some injuries just happen - forget the lawyers!

The War Has Two Fronts

Many Americans realize that we are at war, but few see that our war has two fronts. We all know about the war on terrorism - and as hard as this new type of war is to grasp, it is the easier of the two fronts to identify. The more difficult front is our own divisive culture war.

There are many indications that we are involved in a type of civil war. In 1970 Charles A. Reich captured a good forward-looking view of the war in his book The Greening of America:

There is a revolution coming. It will not be like revolutions of the past.

It will originate with the individual and with culture, and it will change the political structure only as its final act. It will not require violence to succeed, and it cannot be successfully resisted by violence. It is now spreading with amazing rapidity, and already our laws, institutions and social structure are changing in consequence. It promises a higher reason, a more human community, and a new and liberated individual. Its ultimate creation will be a new and enduring wholeness and beauty -- a renewed relationship of man to himself, to other men, to society, to nature, and to
the land.

This is the revolution of the new generation. Their protest and rebellion, their culture, clothes, music, drugs, ways of thought, and liberated life-style are not a passing fad or a form of dissent and refusal, nor are they in any sense irrational. The whole emerging pattern, from ideals to campus demonstrations to beads and bell bottoms to the Woodstock Festival, makes sense and is part of a consistent philosophy. It is both necessary and inevitable, and in time it will include not only youth, but all people in America.

The "revolution," as Reich calls it, is the other front of the war we fight. Because the revolutionists, who became visible in the 1960s, are intent on overthrowing the "old order" of values and social mores that characterized the America they despised - they are gleefully observing the more violent front we call the war on terrorism.

Certainly one would not argue that the cultural revolutionists (typified by JFKerry and crew) would personally endorse the violence of the terrorist front. But since "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" - they can passively rejoice at the damage on traditional America that is inflicted by terrorists.

Some may argue that the cultural revolutionists have nearly finished their work in destroying what once characterized our country. As long as we slumber and allow the enemies of traditional America unfettered access to our homes, our places of worship and our government we traditionalists cannot stand, we can only yield to the approaching flood. Only when we awaken our faculties to see and fight our real adversaries can we begin to stem the tide.

As long as we view either enemy as an amorphous swarm they remain only a nuisance and we their helpless victims. Like ants that pick away at a dying carcass, these enemies can hardly be stopped by swatting one or another individual. It is the nest, the hive, the queens that must be our targets.

Bush placed a name on our enemies in the war on terror and he focused our defence. He was able to put a face and a locus of control on the swarming islamofascist enemies that comprise the violent front of this war. We need a hero to likewise clarify our enemies on the other front - or the light from our country and our traditions will pass as the flame of a candle in the wind.

Napoleon Dynamite

I know that only a limited audience has seen Napoleon Dynamite. In fact, due to its very limited distribution, only a few really ever will see this film.

I can tell you, though, that I haven't howled with laughter so much in such a dumb film for decade or more. There was the scene in the the old movie The Accidental Tourist, with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, where the William Hurt character is visiting the "family" that alphabetizes their food. When the phone rings, and nobody will answer it - it just made me burst out laughing. That scene, so underplayed and overly true, was one of the funniest, most subtle stabs at humor that I had ever seen. Now that is replaced by Napoleon.

The IMDb review sums up the plot fairly accurately:

"Napoleon Dynamite" is the story of the days and nights of a super geek teenager. Being a geek must be exhausting for him because he looks like he is going to pass out every time he stands up. Napoleon rambles through life. We see him make friends and enemies. Soon Napoleon realizes his mission. He wants to help his new pal Pedro become the class president. All his drawing and dancing skills will come in handy as he tries to make all of their dreams come true.

This is such a subtle, twisted type of humor - that you will know within the first 5 minutes whether you will laugh your heart out, or whether you should stand up and walk out of the theater.

This film is the funniest one star movie you are ever likely to see. I heartily recommend it to all those who crave a good laugh as they get an all too true view of warped lives.

Mid-Terms

Do the words "mid-term exams" bring terror into your soul? They do to mine. Every school term there is this frenetic burst of activity required of me - no surfing, no leisurely chats with curious students, no time for any serious research, no time for anything fun - this is the time of MID-TERMS.

If you thought that mid-terms brought terror into your life when you were a student, just think about the preparation time and grading time required from the faculty. And this mid-term season I have compounded the problem exponentially.

This year I tried to upgrade my junior-level finance class. I chose a new text and an entirely new course outline. I think that it will be a better course than the last, but oh, what a huge price I am paying. I think that there is a sort of Alzheimer's like affliction that blesses us as academicians. We so easily forget the enormous work associated with bringing forth a new class and even with making changes to an existing class. We somehow let vague lofty ideals about improving the student's education experience grab hold of us - and then we suffer for months. There are new homework assignments to make, new quizzes to create, new grading systems to implement, new learning activities, new exams (Remember? I started this post by moaning about mid-terms). Remind me of this the next time some idealistic thought invades my mind. Remind me of this suffering...

The Soros Short and Lenin

Some well intentioned do-gooders are really down-right evil. In the pursuit of some theoretical good (which often conveniently includes their own self interest) they destroy that which exists with blatant disregard for the suffering they cause. This was certainly true with Lenin, but George Soros now emerges as our modern-day correlate.

The David Medienkritik blog reveals an emerging thread regarding George Soros' own "do-gooder" philosophy combined with his personal self interests. It is widely publicized that in Dec 2003 Soros had a large short position on the U.S. currencies and has voiced his willingness to invest in an anti-Bush position:

"America, under Bush is a danger to the world," the Hungarian-born financier-slash-liberal philanthropist told the Washington Post on Wednesday. "And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is."

While this may sound like any other politically active contributor, Soros has a deep rooted obsession against free-market capitalism and a history of going way beyond political contributions to actual currency manipulations (see Krugman's informal notes on this topic).

True, the free-market of capitalism allows speculation against currencies, but Soros has a visceral dislike for capitalism as it is understood by conservatives and by Republicans (see the Rand publication The Crisis of George Soros, which is a chapter of a larger work "Stradling Economics and Politics").

According to Soros, the flaws of capitalism (i.e., market fundamentalism a la Reagan and Thatcher) "lead Soros to predict the imminent disintegration of the global capitalist system, and to assert that '... the global capitalist system will succumb to its own defects.'" These are views consistent with the Democratic viewpoint and with the Left, in general. And these are the parties that hasten the advent of this disintegration.

The 1992 currency adjustment of Great Britain (arguably toward a sustainable equilibrium) and of Thailand in 1997 may have been to Soros personally profitable, but these provided painful benefits to the free market system. Soros, like most of the Left, doesn't feel the pain of forced upon others by his experiments. He continues in his misguided efforts to shape global currency relationships.

His philosophical "experiments" and political views directly affected (perhaps precipitated) the Russian meltdown of 1998 (see the CFR's book review here). Soros, like Lenin, didn't see the painful results of his experiments. He only saw with detached curiosity the effects he wrought on the capitalist system.

In some ways, this is the beauty of the relatively unregulated global currency market - people are free to identify and exploit imbalances in currencies. This is capitalism. It may create pain, but the results of free-market movements tend to be sustainable.

It is Soros' philosophic view, though, and his willingness to "put his money where his mouth is" that makes us suspect that he has more sinister motives. He is one that has more than a simple political desire to see Bush defeated. This is deep-down vitriol against the capitalist system, coupled with a profit motive.

Soros' investments in the Kerry and Democratic agenda, his visceral aversion to the capitalist system, and his short position on the U.S. market - all of these seem consistent with one objective. He seeks to bring down our brand of free-market capitalism. He knows that Kerry would make serious progress on this viscious agenda. That is why he has a short position on America. He is hoping to profit from the destruction of our economic system. That is why he wants Kerry to win.

Does Genocide Matter?

The January 2004 report by USAID on mass graves in Iraq received scant media attention. (See also this site). At that time, one of the conclusions was:

If these numbers prove accurate, they represent a crime against humanity surpassed only by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pol Pot's Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s, and the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

Now we know there are more sites still being found:

Mr Kehoe investigated mass graves in the Balkans for five years but those burials mainly involved men of fighting age and the Iraqi finds were quite different, he said.

"I've been doing grave sites for a long time, but I've never seen anything like this, women and children executed for no apparent reason," he said.

This type of news doesn't get much play these days, but how can we forget these atrocities? How can any person of feeling and compassion feel that this was the "wrong war at the wrong time?" Can anyone honestly say that we haven't done a great service by ridding the world of the regime of Saddam, the Butcher of Baghdad?

Astonishing Vista of Europe

On occasion I have been known to hike up the neighboring mountains (especially to one of those hidden waterfalls up 4 or 5 miles from the beach). From those steep mountain ridges here on Oahu one can see magnificent vistas - the waves, the sea, little neighboring islands... It is almost overwhelming to see from a distance what is usually only seen from up close. This distance creates a unique perspective for observation and for astonishing insights.

It is from this distance of the islands that I make an astonishing observation. An article cited by lgf from Mark Steyn paints a picture of reality that is terrifying:

’It’s a different kind of war,’ says Kerry. ‘You have to understand it’s not the sands of Iwo Jima.’ That’s true. But Kerry’s mistake is in assuming that because it’s not Iwo Jima, it’s somehow less of a war. Until recently we thought of ‘asymmetrical warfare’ as something the natives did with machetes against the colonialist occupier. But in fact the roles have been reversed. These days, your average Western power — Germany, Canada, Belgium — is utterly incapable of projecting conventional military might to, say, Saudi Arabia or the Pakistani tribal lands. But a dozen young Saudi or Pakistani males with a little cash, some debit cards and the right phone numbers in their address books can project themselves to Frankfurt, Ottawa or Antwerp very easily and to devastating effect. That’s the lesson of 9/11.

What really is terrifying is that the European powers have for so long relied upon NATO and the military strength of the U.S. (and on the economic commitment of the U.S. through NATO), that they have miniaturized their defense and military capabilities. There is not a single western European country with the ability to project military might. Granted, they can join with the U.S. and make a bold stand (as with our true friends, the Brits), but individually they project military impotence. And the likelihood of them coming together to form a united military front, independent of the U.S. is laughably small.

By allowing the U.S. alone to make the military investments of the last several decades, they have cast themselves in a traditionally effeminate role - relying upon the strong, powerful hero to come to their aid. They are totally incapable of playing the traditionally "masculine" role of defender, because they have no strength. They cannot play the role of "alpha-male" in a heirarchichal world because they have willingly conceded the alpha role to the U.S. And now they are overcome with jealousy.

From my distant perspective, it is perfectly understandable why they shrink from conflict, why they would rather talk than act, why they would rather ignore offence and "just try to get along." These are traditional strategies of the weak. And they are weak, and they are vanquished, and they have long-ago conceded the alpha role.

Kerry, and the europhile Democrats are proposing effeminate strategies for the U.S. while the U.S. is the only global superpower. Kerry proposes appeasement and wishes to change from the masculine, Bush approach of projecting might to join the pitiful, helpless, cackling hens of Europe.

Talk about transgendered, and I can finally see it from way over here...

North Shore - First Winter Swell

Well, the first winter swell really hit today. At Indicators we could see that there was definitely some size. We drove past V-Land, lot's of cars and probably too big. We didn't want to climb the rock wall to see, so we kept going.

We looked at Sunset - way too big (2+ times head high sets, very steep), so we drove past Rubber Duckies - fun looking, but a bit sloppy. Coming around the Bay, we saw PinBalls with a crowd, and went on to Chun's. No one out at Chun's but Jocko's was big and scary (to an old man). We watched one big set come through and just clean out Chun's, so we went on around to Haleiwa. Sure enough, relative calm.

Puena Point had head-high slow rolling waves that were ideal for the geriatric set. There was no wind and the the waves were coming in long slow lines. We caught a few waves, and then my buddy thought he was having a heart attack - no really - so we took the next wave in. Well, no telling what ailed him, but he didn't die on me, so it ended up being a fun day.

We stopped at Pipe for a few minutes and watched on the way back. Every once in a while those trademark barrels made for some hootin' good rides. Well, my days of waves like that are well behind me. Ahhh, it is great to grow old (and fat, and bald) in Hawaii.

The Economics of Terrorism

William Tucker, over at the American Spectator (read article) speaks of the idiocy of treating the GWOT as a law enforcement issue. He speaks directly to the notion that drug dealers (as mentioned in Kerry's analogy of prostitutes and drug dealers) have an economic incentive for their actions, and terrorists don't:

Islamic terrorists are driven by religion, not money. Their motives are not economic, which is exactly the problem. Poverty and misery are not the underlying cause.

Now this highlights the most disturbing twist in the discussion. Terrorists are not fighting for something better, as we in the west define it. Our current concept of their "self-interest," which thanks to Adam Smith is something that we think we understand, is not something that we can believe they are trying to advance. Their motives cannot be considered "economic" as we understand economics. Their motives are considered outside the bounds of what we normally think of as "rational" thinking.

Some might argue that theirs is a "heavenly economy" in which they attempt to improve their status in the after-life. But this argument is muted by the analysis of the actions of those 19 terrorists of 911. Their final days were not filled with religious piety, but with debauchery. They couldn't have seriously been seeking religious fulfillment while they acted contrary to their religious beliefs. But then again, some people might make extraordinary withdrawals from an account if they expect to make an inordinately large deposit. But, I just don't buy these religious economy arguments. However, I argue that the long-term nature of the religious benefits is not something what is driving their actions.

Instead we have to consider that their motives might really have been governed by something else, something more difficult for us to understand.

We know that under certain circumstances even economic individuals will forego a superior long-term reward for an inferior, but more proximate short-term reward. Almost all of us weight-watchers sacrifice our long-term desire for a sleeker form for the immediate lure of a caloric treat (but only on the rarest of occasions). And what about the reformed alcoholic who "slips" and takes a drink if their guard isn't up? All economic individuals will, under the right circumstances, choose an inferior reward over a superior outcome if the inferior reward is near enough in its realization to overcome the long-term benefits of the alternative.

So what is this inferior but more proximate reward that causes the terrorist to give up life? Or to shed the values of a religion that they do, in fact, know (by reading the Koran)? I believe that the proximate incentive is hate. I believe that these individuals are, in fact, economic - in that they are seeking blood-lust fulfillment of a hate - and this proximate fulfillment of a blood lust somehow weighs superior to their long-term fulfillment of life.

If this is the case, then the terrorists are not "non-economic" individuals. Instead, the long-term value of their "life" is minimal, and the short-term satisfaction of acting on their "hate" must is maximal. That is all. It is a fulfillment of this short-term lust for blood and revenge that drives terrorists. It isn't really religious.

This means that those that benefit from terrorism (the leaders of the Islamic movement), derive their power from minimizing the value of life. By encouraging squalid conditions, by increasingly subjecting "their people" to forms of tyranny, they degrade the human experience. At the same time, they maximize hate, and direct hate toward specific peoples (Jews and Americans). It is this satisfaction of enmity that provides the short-term benefits to terrorists.

So, yes, terrorists are economic. But their economy is foreign to us.

Warm Summer Weather

Even though it is mid-October, the weather here is warm and summer-like. The Trades aren't really blowing now, so the days seem sticky - almost sweltering. We had some students come over to eat some aebelskiver with us today, and just to stay comfortable we all had to sit on the lanai (patio).

Warm sultry days remind me of the current political climate, which is sweltering in its own right. Each day is long and unpleasant, and even the slightest breeze of good news provides such a feeling of relief. Today, the polls are with Bush. I can hardly wait for these dog-days of the election to end. If things tip towards Kerry, though, I can't imagine how I might feel. Somehow, I just want to believe that everything will fall toward the right.

I surfed yesterday afternoon at Turtle Bay and escaped the heat. It was fun surf, waist to chest high and drawing only the mellowest of crowds. We caught high tide (that was bad) but the crowd (5-8 people, some hotel guests) couldn't have been more pleasant. The only downer of the day was of my own doing. We brought a new recruit, and I lent him my 9' Stewart board. I took off on a wave behind him and then I suppose he panicked when he saw me and/or the wave about to break. Anyhow, he bailed off his/my board shoving it broadside in front of me. I felt the thump of my fin hitting the Stewart and the painful thought, "They're both my boards," went through my mind. The damage ended the session and an otherwise perfect day.

Debate Shebate

Are there really any undecided voters still out there? I think everybody that has enough intelligence to mark a ballot really has their mind made up already - and all of this blather about being undecided is nothing but self-agrandizement. This posturing is nothing but trying to feel important by self-proclaiming oneself a part of the group that will "determine" the election.

Come on, nobody with half a mind or that is awake is undecided still. If someone really is still undecided - I would contend that they are so out of touch with reality that they almost assuredly will not vote (at least for themselves - maybe their nursing-home caregivers will vote for them, though).

So if there aren't undecided voters, what use are these debates? I don't think these undecided really exist. I think that the debates are more of a showcase for the pundits and for the television news analysts who get yet another opportunity to push their particular candidate.

The debates are a sham. Boycott them!

Chilling Season

You might have noticed that bkm, the spinswimmer, Jim Geraghty and Stanley Kurtz over at NRO are noticing that there is a chilling climate of fear creeping into this election season. Their observation is based on the somewhat disturbing reports coming in from various places around the country.

We have seen what thugery has done in Venezuela. The popular "revolution" of Chavez has quickly turned into unadulterated totalitarianism. Class envy, and hate fueled his revolution.
Now in our own country we are seeing hate as a driving and motivating political force. The politics of hate is a powerful force to unleash on a democracy. While we have all heard of the brown shirts that emerged as the Nazi hate machine rose to power, how many of us recall the vile hate-politics of Indira Ghandi and her decimation of India? Invoking this force called "hate" may provide some immediate political gains, but at a dear, dear cost.

We have already witnessed the erosion of cordiality and the brushing aside of "politics stopping at the waters edge." This election cycle shows that we are surrounded by campaigns saturated with vitriol, increasing levels of invective (even on foreign soil), and now actual programs of violence against the very symbols of democracy - the campaign office.

Hate is a powerful force, but once unleashed this force obeys no master.

Chun's Reef

Well, today Chun's Reef was the place for an old long boarder. At noon, there was hardly any wind, the waves were head-plus high and really clean, and the crowd was small and mellow. My entrepreneurial buddy and I took an extended lunch and squeezed in a whole hour and a half of surf.

We drove past Sunset and the point was breaking well over head high; it looked fun, but a bit intimidating for old men, and the swell direction was odd. People were surfing the beach break and way over to the left of the regular point break. Rubber Duckies was almost breaking, but not quite. Chun's, however, was perfect. (They seem to be filming something there, so the crew trucks were taking up half of the parking.)

We paddled out (I had my Robert August/Wingnut 9'3" epoxy board), and joined just 6 other surfers in the line-up. and two were way inside the point break. One of the surfers was a girl, and all were totally mellow. They must have been from the mainland. Waves were plentiful and had enough size to be really, really fun. My buddy caught one of his "most memorable" rides (he gets one of those every few weeks or so). He caught it out on the reef and made it through three sections, all the way into the beach break (where three other kids were surfing).

I got a few rides myself... very, very fun. I love this place!

Liberalism as a religion

Thanks to Carnival of the Vanities I was belatedly reading Strat and he refers to the cult of Che Guevera worshippers among those he calls liberals. He is baffled by the double standards that necessarily exist when a "do gooder" liberal concerned about, say, human rights at the same time sees the virtue of "a true totalitarian like Che Guevara" (later in the article):

I am completely baffled by Sundance liberals who puff up with justifiable discussion about stopping human rights abuses around the world and then, in the very next breath, extol the virtues of Che Guevara!

It is actually very easy to understand this duality of THINKING. It is similar to that found among the religious. I consider myself a believer in the Judeao-Christian tenet that God created the earth. However, I have no idea exactly how my "feeling" that God created the earth squares with other knowledge I have about evolutionary processes and the long, long development history of the earth. (Well actually, I do - but that is for another post). When you hold religious beliefs - you take them on faith, they don't always square with beliefs based on the real world.

So liberalism is like a religion in that it is based on tenets that don't necessarily have to fit well into real-world facts. Socialism and communism can be utopian (faith) - despite the fact that no real-world instance of communism has ever been anything but totalitarian. Popular revolutionaries can be heros of a noble cause (faith) - despite the fact that they are real-world cruel and despotic autocrats. This world and the other world just don't have to agree.

This makes it ever-so more understandable why liberalism can adopt secular humanism... It's simply a religion.

Posting from the North Shore

After being a reader for quite some time, I am cautiously venturing into the stormy sea of real blogging. My first several posts will undoubtedly be amaturish and boring, but hopefully I will learn the ropes and be able to make a contribution.
I am, as you might guess, becoming politically active and am increasingly becoming more vocal. I tend to have strong opinions on political, economic and social issues. Please bear with me as I attempt these treacherous waters of the blogosphere.