The last month has gone by with pretty good surf showing throughout. Good tides, fallter weather, and west to northwest groundswells kept things really fun. Of course, I’m still watching from the sidelines – but I’m real close. I haven’t been out, but from the cliff, it looks like there’s been some close comfort among the crew. I think it might have peaked over the holiday weekend. It was already a pretty crowded Sunday lineup at the Steps when 20+ testosterone- pumped transteen surf dogs came running down the street in costumes. They were toting all manner of surfboard. Fake mustaches seemed to be the meme of the day. En mass, they ran down the stairs and charged out to the peak. And low tide had consolidated the lineup into a pretty narrow take-off. Anyway, they lost no time in wreaking havoc. The lineup quickly turned into a free-for-all; all being the costumed marauders. Eight guys to a wave, boards flying, and no shortage of catcalling. Those not clued into the gag were blasted – visitors were disillusioned – even some of the crew had to let go. It was a take over.

MegaUpload – mega-bust, grab mega-assets, mega-law enforcement – I’m not sure about the dollar amount of piracy – the fraction of MegaUpload’s business related to facilitating piracy of music, movies, and other media. But I’m pretty sure it’s a fraction of the amount stolen by the financial industry. Yet, no Mega-Wall Street operation – not a word – nobody arrested, no assets seized – business as usual. Go figure.

It’s common knowledge that many of the top corporations have recently been paying little or no taxes, and I recently posted about how the US is exporting refined products – largest export of 2010 – and I noted how diesel was one of our best sellers because of our regulations restricting sulfur emissions (low-sulfur diesel). Yet – Obama’s jobs council called for overhauling the corporate tax structure and reforming federal regulations. Corporate tax rates should sink to “internationally competitive levels,” the report recommended, and an “all-in strategy” should be adopted to cut reliance on foreign fuels by expanding domestic drilling. Is there some kind of disconnect? I mean – According to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the so-called “Dirty Thirty” corporation paid no federal income taxes while spending more than $475 million on lobbying over a three-year period. And if there were more domestic drilling – the oil would be refined and exported to the global market to be sold for the best price – check it – right now demand is way down and there is plenty of supply – but refined product prices remain at a premium. They say it’s because of uncertainty linked to the Strait of Hormuz and Iran – manufactured uncertainty. It’s bullshit – bottom line – gasoline at the corner station is priced on the global market – period.

I read: “At some point, the top players in lots of sectors in the American economy, in education, finance, military-industry, or health-care are operating less and less in a free market, and more and more in government licensed cartels.” At first, I thought – wow, big government stamping out the free market! But, after some thought – the top players in the American economy are the top lobbyist spenders and thereby have the loudest voice (unheard) in our politics – i.e. government. So, if the top players have created an environment where they are “operating less and less in a free market, and more and more in government licensed cartels”, it’s because they want it that why. Now – why would the top players want that? Less competition (free market = competition)? Legal monopoly? Government and top players = Corpgov. It’s all about profit, not free market, not capitalism – profit. Wait – I am not against profit – I am against zombie profiteers.

The New York Times has revealed new details on how the Securities and Exchange Commission has repeatedly allowed Wall Street firms to skirt punishment for fraud. An analysis shows the SEC has granted nearly 350 waivers to financial companies, allowing them to maintain privileges even after admitting fraudulent practices. JPMorganChase received at least 22 waivers over the past 13 years while settling six fraud cases, while Bank of America and Merrill Lynch received 39 waivers and settled 15 times.

The 269-kilogramme (592-pound) bluefin — caught off the coast of Japan’s northern Aomori prefecture — stood at an eye-popping 56.49 million yen ($736,500) when the hammer came down in the first auction of the year. The figure dwarfs the previous high of 32.49 million yen paid at last year’s inaugural auction at Tsukiji, a huge working market that also features on many Tokyo tourist itineraries.

Rumors are circulating about a new Wall St. research service scam that goes like this… Research reports are written with both recommendations and coded phraseology that enables pre-market manipulation. The way it works – a report that gives recommendations also contains coded phraseology that programs trading bots on the exchange that ‘read’ the report and make various trades. The bots that put on the trades based on the coded info picks up certain word, symbol and number combinations in the report.

In the next research report – the report spells out a recommendation – that will make the trades put on as the result of the previous report profitable. Let’s say in January, the research says, “We love tech. and big pharma” but hidden in the report is coded info that was picked up by trading bots that went long Co. X. The following report recommends Co. X, making those pre-trades profitable (while containing new coded messages for the trading bots in anticipation of the next report).

This ‘research’ service is sold to traders for a hefty fee. It’s inside info that is virtually impossible to detect available to a firm’s best clients on a regular basis. Simply buy the service and enable your computer software that ‘reads’ the research to pick up the code that will trigger what trades will be profitable when the next report is published.

“This also may be the year of the gas-pocalypse, analysts warn. That’s because gasoline prices are the highest ever for the start of the year, and they’re on the rise, supercharged by expensive oil and changes in refinery operations.” The LA Times wrote.

“The Son Tay raid was audacious,” says Ropka. “Very high risk. But this is age-old tradecraft. In a raid, the first element is always surprise. You must do something no one thinks you can—or will—do. That is how to find success.”

Jalal al-Din who is also known as Rumi, was a philosopher and mystic of Islam. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all religions are more or less truth. Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew and Christian alike, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has appealed to people of all sects and creeds. His teachings became the base for the order of the Mevlevi which his son Sultan Walad organized. In the Mevlevi tradition, samāʿ represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes and nations.