Remember

I've been out of the water, but I've been tracking the swells and watching the rest of you. While I think some have tried to make me feel like I haven't missed anything, the swell numbers, weather, and lines I've seen during the first part of the month lead me to believe I've missed something. Swell size has ranged from 4 to 12 feet at between 12 and 17 seconds with swell directions between 290 and 315. On the steep side, swells missed the Steps unless there was size, but on the west days it looked fun. Especially that swell that arrived with the strong offshores. I'm on the sacrificial alter, but maybe it's not enough. Don't lie - I've seen you guys having fun - Hot Dog? And what about Penguin acting like Chilly Willy in SoCal, while rubbing it in at the post. Waves, sun, and most of all, warm water. Fine. I've used the down time to get my sticks ready for my return; Ralph has been cranking out the ProWork and Rich made me a new set of fins so I could change the Falsa into a twinzer. The boards are stacked against the wall and calling. I was even shocked to hear from a shaper I ordered a board from two years ago telling me the board is shaped and being glassed - we shall see. I got a couple of remembers -

Remember the bumper stickers "Stand Tall" with an American Flag background? John Wayneish. I saw one recently. The colors had faded just like SPB's attention span. The war rages on, people killed and maimed, Palestine thrashed, the Mid-East Victim wails, and Afghanistan grows a bumper crop. Meanwhile, Rosie and Donald headline the news. If we are going to leave it all behind, then let's leave it all behind. Or are there profits to be made. Corpordinatio = militaryindustrial complex.

Remember when winter came to town and the traffic disappeared with the summer migration? Seems to me as each year passes the difference between summer crowds and winter respite becomes less and less clear.

Remember the meek investigation into WMD and the lead up to the war? The problem we were told was bad intel. You can get on to Google Earth and check out your backyard, but Corpordinatio couldn't tell what was up in Iraq. Nobody on the ground, no SR-71 spying, phone taps, Predator supercomputer following net traffic, defectors, Iranians with a grudge? Instead, just bad intel. I'm puzzled that with bad intel, why not consider the possibility of a bad decision. All the money spent to gather intel, decisions made, and propaganda spewed and in the end, no one is really responsible - it was the bad intel. What makes SPB think the intel is any better? And yet they ready themselves to stuff Iran - sure that they are building a nuc - so what? We get rid of nucs instead of pursuing them and ask the rest of the world to do the same. Instead of a militaryindustrial complex, what about a peaceindustrial complex? - the peace corp at war.

Now the argument for solving the Iraq clusterfuck is to send in more troops. Dub just doesn't give a fuck about what anybody says. I've even heard it said by committee witnesses that we need to send a massive force over, mow down the violence, take control, clear the streets, military curfew -MPs. Doesn't that sound like what the last guy did? Replace one military dictator with another.

OK - one last bit of spew. The latest group of politicians suggest that they can't do much about the war because Dub is commander and thief, and the Congress doesn't want to leave the troops with no funds. Reading the Constitution, I found that this talk is disingenuous. It's clear to me that the founding fathers did not want to leave the military in the hands of executive branch to do what it pleases with. Article 1, Section 8 gives the power to Congress to raise and support Armies and to provide and maintain a Navy, and to make rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces. Seems to me that if the Congress can raise the Armies, they can disband all or a portion of the Armies by law and fund the transition. Similarly, they can regulate land and naval Forces. The Congress could write law that would decrease the Armies to a point where America would have to stop its imperial threat. Then, start over with something more sensible and less beholding to the military industrial complex. The Constitution puts a time limit on appropriations of money for Armies of two years - seems to me their vision was that a military was to be used only when absolutely necessary, and only for a limited time. They didn't want the military and executive getting all-powerful and turning on the people they defend - you know, like for our safety. I think the Congress - and that is suppose to mean you and I, has more power than Corpordinatio would like us to believe.

In many communities, the Mayor is a repository of history. So it is with our own community, and The Mayor . With the pic above he shares some of that history - Lannita es mui bonita!

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)  ¶ 9:56 PM 1 comments

 

Mucho Tiempo

The month closes and a new year begins. Mucho tiempo closed in a small space, or so it seems. Swells kept the surf coming through most of the month For example, between 12 December and 15 December the swell ranged from 10.8 feet from 215 at 17 seconds to 15.9 feet from 285 at 14 seconds. That span of swell alone accounted for some great surf all along the point. I surfed the Steps, Tiburones, Boils-in-Between, and Privates. Shoulder-high to over-head and reasonable water temperature. I got great bottom turns, pitched over the falls, run in to, snaps off the top, floaters, I dropped in on guys, I got dropped in on, I got yelled at dropping in on guys, I got yelled at for dropping in behind guys. I pulled cutbacks, off-the-lips, screamed down the line, and got a great third bol dry barrel (DYSM approved). It was like a reflection of the whole year squeezed into a week. The swell cooled a little, but began to crank back up for Christmas hitting 25 feet from 310 at 12 seconds with strong offshores. I saw an insane wave breaking in front of the sand plant - of course no one was out. My last day of surf before an injury time out was 20 December, the day before the winter solstice. The days are only getting longer from here, and my injury getting better. I had shoulder surgery on the solstice. Short time swells continue to appear, and though I can't partake, I have watched the boyz having fun.

I'm sure you noticed one of the crew hasn't been with us lately. There have been some great beach days, but no 'cue - Where's Lance? Well, Lance is giving back. Sacrificing his way of live, he has gone down to New Orleans to help in the post-Katrina reconstruction effort. With tourism at a low and plenty of construction to be done, our own went into battle. I understand he wasted no time contributing to the cause. Checking into a room strategically located across from a T&A bar, Lance started pouring money into the economy beginning with cocktails, dinner, and dessert at the bar. I'm proud to know this American. I'm not sure what Lance is up to now, but Fly Trap has been in touch with him. I'll post as soon as I hear something.

It's comforting to know that our Beltway Leader has decided to listen to the experts. I guess God has ceased talking to him. While on the surface there has been quite a show to convince us the Beltway Leader is not only the Decider, but the Listener, I am not convinced. Yes, after years of war an investigation commission was formed, report issued, and recommendation made - but as far as I can tell, the Listener is working the shell game to distract the public from the recontamination, stretch some time, and change the name but stay the same. The way forward is like moving forward along a circle. We wait for the Listener to become the Decider and speak. With a new Congress, you'd think corporations would be riding the tide of uncertainty. The stock market infers that is not the case. Why not? I thought Demopublicans ride roughshod over the corporate world. Well, upon closer inspection one realizes the corporations don't worry because they are the government. War will continue to create profits, and then when the destruction is over, profits will be reaped in reconstruction. The marketing boys don't sleep. How about equipping the back of your eyelids with a thin LED screen the corps can use to make your life better? The screen would be input/output, and be connected via wireless to a chip injected just under your skin. The chip would also communicate with wireless hubs located through the country - fuck it, the world. Receiving constant input from the consumer, the corps will tailor an infomercial just for you, instructing you about every aspect of your life in an effort to make it better - and have you comply. The Beltway will be stoked because it will allow them to identify terrorists and other nefarious persons, and better protect its children. Sound wild? SPB will go along because, "why should you mind unless you are doing something wrong..." Corpordinatio (ordinatio is Latin for government)is here now and it's no longer hiding in the shadows.

A couple of pics included. One shows a highlight for 2006. I've been to Maui several times and never saw the top of Molokai until this year - it was worth the trip. The second shows an idea for a shirt I'm putting together - going back to go forward.

A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics". All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. -George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)  ¶ 3:56 PM 8 comments