Virtual Jawing

I have not been out since Monday last. Why, you might ask. Lake Titicaca has bigger waves. I guess with all the slack time, the boyz have had a chance to test their jaw power online. Check the comments from the last post; it reads like a jaw session with the Penguin on top. Keep it up boyz - we need the practice. The masses are getting nervous, just like lemmings before they make the leap. Rumors of swell, long drives to find waves, and smoking surf wax. This is a time when the mind begins to regurgitate all the surf of the past - reliving speed runs, off-the-lip whacks, cut backs, tube rides, DYSM. There's probably a run on surf vids, the beer tab is up, and finger nails are chewed to the bone. Of course the swell predictors have a line on the next swell, and so the masses are planning accordingly. Let's see - the swell should be here July 2 at 5:45 pm. The east wind will be blowing, so if I crack it on July 3rd, I should get some waves with only 50 guys out - score! Dude, seriously - I did spy some storm forecasts for the southern hemisphere and it looks like we might get something during the first week of July.

As the Beltway turns - don't believe one word. Think for yourself, research, and makeup your own mind. The power mongers are spending tons of money to turn off your mind and turn you into a zombie. A freedom loving, red, white and blue zombie. Watch out for the words that hit below the belt - children, seniors, troops. Start by reading the Constitution. It's short and sweet. While you're at it, check the 9th Amendment. It hints at rights that may not be generally recognized, and suggests that the general clamp down on our rights is not what the founders were writing into the commander-in-chief job description. The 9th simply reads; "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage other retained by the people." Think about it - other rights retained by the people like questioning authority, or the right not to be herded by religious cowboys. The right to be free from Corpordinatio - the right not to have your information bought and sold like stock. The right to opt out of consumer marketing.

Insight into the founders -

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. -John Adams, 2nd US president (1735-1826)

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison, fourth US president (1751-1836)

Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

I can't see these guys being stoked on the turn of events that have unfolded over the last six years.

Aloha  ¶ 11:08 PM 6 comments

 

Hot as Heck

I'm out in the central valley - with the kids. That's why it's hot as heck. You know, the place you go ifn' you don't go to heaven. It's heck over here. Pulled in, and it was over 100 degrees. I was going to heck in a hand basket. I mean, a heck of a lot of black pavement. Heck, I'm not fool'n. In any case, I've been watching the buoys, just so you guys can't tell me "you missed it" without me really knowing if I missed it. It looks like a swell is starting to pickup from the south. I saw swell at 1.7 to 2.2 feet from 180 to 200 at 14 seconds. Definitely a positive improvement since I left town. Figures. It's just like when you get out of the water after waiting 30 minutes for a set. You're on the beach looking back at the lineup when you see the set of the day rolling in for all the bros you left behind - you've become the sacrificial lamb. So it is for me in heck. Drink your fill boyz, and remember who brought the waves.

Food for thought: Food sovereignty is all about ensuring that farmers, rather than transnational corporations, are in control of what they farm and how they farm it  ¶ 9:28 PM 7 comments

 

Mr. Putin

The surf has been small since the south flurry hit us during the end of May and beginning of June. Surprisingly,we are getting some moderate to very steep windswell from the north. Kinda fun, but kinda guttless. Waist to chest high at the Steps and Tiburones - had some surf time with Hot Dog and the young, young rippers going left. These guys are sooo young, the surf was overhead - but great vibe. Hot Dog - we're way closer to 2 Bucks - it will always be that way. I heard from the Mayor that Penguin is well. Good to hear. He made a point of describing all the lefthanders he has visited. Regarding comments on the last post, both from Sean, Penguin and others, it was great to get a good history lesson and positive thoughts on the Fiesta. Seems like it can only get better. Thanks for the comments - Gustav et. al. - thanks for circa 2007. More windswell on tap and the weather has been beautiful. What a wonderful place we live in. On the flip side, it's fooootball in Modesto for me. A cool 90.

I'm not sure if any of you check CSPAN in the late hours, but recently, at the close of the G8 summit, they broadcasted an interview with Mr. Putin of Russia. With our "war on terror" going on and our plan on installing missile systems at Russia's doorstep, I was interested in hearing him answer questions. These questions were not the canned sanitized variety we shoot at our president and other US leadership. It was tough - but he answered the questions with honor, respect, knowledge, and passion. He was not evasive like our own - but forthcoming, articulate, and intelligent. At one point a protester stood up, made a statement, and handed out some fliers. He spoke in German. Security did not jump into action and stop the protest - instead, Mr. Putin spoke with the lad, in German, and asked for one of his fliers so he could consider his issue further. This was not what I was use to seeing from our President. A close friend also saw the press interview and shot me an email expressing his thoughts. It was a great treatment on the subject - so - I copied below. Consider.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an hour and a half-long press conference which was attended by many members of the world media. The contents of that meeting---in which Putin answered all questions concerning nuclear proliferation, human rights, Kosovo, democracy and the present confrontation with the United States over missile defense in Europe---have been completely censored by the
press. Apart from one brief excerpt which appeared in a Washington Post editorial, (and which was used to criticize Putin) the press conference has been scrubbed from the public record. It never happened. (Read the entire press conference archived here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17855.htm)

Putin’s performance was a tour de force. He fielded all of the questions however misleading or insulting. He was candid and statesmanlike and demonstrated a good understanding of all the main issues.

The meeting gave Putin a chance to give his side of the story in the growing debate over missile defense in Eastern Europe. He offered a brief account of the deteriorating state of US-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War, and particularly from 9-11 to present. Since September 11, the Bush administration has carried out an aggressive strategy to surround Russia with military bases, install missiles on its borders, topple allied regimes in Central Asia, and incite political upheaval in Moscow through US-backed “pro-democracy” groups. These openly hostile actions have convinced many Russian hard-liners that the administration is going forward with the neocon plan for “regime change” in Moscow and fragmentation of the Russian Federation. Putin’s testimony suggests that the hardliners are probably right.

The Bush administration’s belligerent foreign policy has backed the Kremlin into a corner and forced Putin to take retaliatory measures. He has no other choice.

If we want to understand why relations between Russia are quickly reaching the boiling-point; we only need to review the main developments since the end of the Cold War. Political analyst Pat Buchanan gives a good rundown of these in his article “Doesn’t Putin Have a Point?” Buchanan says:

“Though the Red Army had picked up and gone home from Eastern Europe voluntarily, and Moscow felt it had an understanding we would not move NATO eastward, we exploited our moment. Not only did we bring Poland into NATO, we brought in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and virtually the whole Warsaw Pact, planting NATO right on Mother Russia's front porch. Now, there is a scheme afoot to bring in Ukraine and Georgia in the Caucasus, the birthplace of Stalin.

Second, America backed a pipeline to deliver Caspian Sea oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey, to bypass Russia.

Third, though Putin gave us a green light to use bases in the old Soviet republics for the liberation of Afghanistan, we now seem hell-bent on making those bases in Central Asia permanent.

Fourth, though Bush sold missile defense as directed at rogue states like North Korea, we now learn we are going to put anti-missile systems into Eastern Europe. And against whom are they directed?

Fifth, through the National Endowment for Democracy, its GOP and Democratic auxiliaries, and tax-exempt think tanks, foundations, and "human rights" institutes such as Freedom House, headed by ex-CIA director James Woolsey, we have been fomenting regime change in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics, and Russia herself.

U.S.-backed revolutions have succeeded in Serbia, Ukraine, and Georgia, but failed in Belarus. Moscow has now legislated restrictions on the foreign agencies that it sees, not without justification, as subversive of pro-Moscow regimes.

Sixth, America conducted 78 days of bombing of Serbia for the crime of fighting to hold on to her rebellious province, Kosovo, and for refusing to grant NATO marching rights through her territory to take over that province. Mother Russia has always had a maternal interest in the Orthodox states of the Balkans.

These are Putin's grievances. Does he not have a small point?”

Yes--as Buchanan opines---Putin does have a point, which is why his press conference was suppressed. The media would rather demonize Putin, than allow him to make his case to the public. (The same is true of other world leaders who choose to use their vast resources to improve the lives of their own citizens rather that hand them over to the transnational oil giants; such as, Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez) Even so, NATO has not yet endorsed the neocon missile defense plan and, according to recent surveys, public opinion in Poland and the Czech Republic is overwhelmingly against it.

Unsurprisingly, the Bush administration is going ahead regardless of the controversy.

Putin cannot allow the United States to deploy its missile defense system to Eastern Europe. The system poses a direct threat to Russia’s national security. If Putin planned to deploy a similar system in Cuba or Mexico, the Bush administration would immediately invoke the Monroe Doctrine and threaten to remove it by force. No one doubts this. And no one should doubt that Putin is equally determined to protect his own country’s interests in the same way. We can expect that Russia will now aim its missiles at European targets and rework its foreign policy in a way that compels the US to abandon its current plans.

The media has tried to minimize the dangers of the proposed system. The Washington Post even characterized it as “a small missile defense system” which has set off “waves of paranoia about domestic and foreign opponents”.

Nonsense. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Putin said at the press conference, “Once the missile defense system is put in place IT WILL WORK AUTOMATICALLY WITH THE ENTIRE NUCLEAR CAPABILITY OF THE UNITED STATES. It will be an integral part of the US nuclear capability.

“For the first time in history---and I want to emphasize this---there are elements of the US nuclear capability on the European continent. It simply changes the whole configuration of international security…..Of course, we have to respond to that.”

Putin is right. The “so-called” defense system is actually an expansion (and integration) of America’s existing nuclear weapons system which will now function as one unit. The dangers of this should be obvious.

The Bush administration is maneuvering in a way that will allow it to achieve what Nuclear weapons specialist, Francis A. Boyle, calls the “longstanding US policy of nuclear first-strike against Russia”.

In Boyle’s article “US Missiles in Europe: Beyond Deterrence to First Strike Threat” he states:

"By means of a US first strike about 99%+ of Russian nuclear forces would be taken out. Namely, the United States Government believes that with the deployment of a facially successful first strike capability, they can move beyond deterrence and into "compellence."… This has been analyzed ad nauseam in the professional literature. But especially by one of Harvard's premier warmongers in chief, Thomas Schelling --winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics granted by the Bank of Sweden-- who developed the term "compellence" and distinguished it from "deterrence."

…The USG is breaking out of a "deterrence" posture and moving into a "compellence" posture. (Global Research 6-6-07)

That’s right. The real goal is to force Moscow to conform to Washington’s “diktats” or face the prospect of “first-strike” annihilation. That’s why Putin has expressed growing concern over the administration’s dropping out of the ABM Treaty and the development of a new regime of low yield, bunker-busting nuclear weapons. The “hawks” who surround Bush have abandoned the “deterrence” policy of the past, and now believe that a nuclear war can be “won” by the United States. This is madness and it needs to be taken seriously.

The Bush administration sees itself as a main player in Central Asia and the Middle East---controlling vital resources and pipeline corridors throughout the region. That means Russia’s influence will have to be diminished. Boris Yeltsin was the perfect leader for the neoconservative master-plan (which is why the right-wingers Praised him when he died) Russia disintegrated under Yeltsin. He oversaw the dismantling of the state, the plundering of its resources and state-owned assets, and the restructuring of its economy according to the tenets of neoliberalism.

No wonder the neocons loved him.

Under Putin, Russia has regained its economic footing, its regional influence and its international prestige. The economy is booming, the ruble has stabilized, the standard of living has risen, and Moscow has strengthened alliances with its neighbors. This new-found Russian prosperity poses a real challenge to Bush’s plans.

Two actions in particular have changed the Russian-US relationship from tepid to openly hostile. The first was when Putin announced that Russia’s four largest oil fields would not be open to foreign development. (Russia has been consolidating its oil wealth under state-run Gazprom) And, second, when the Russian Treasury began to convert Russia’s dollar reserves into gold and rubles. Both of these are regarded as high-crimes by US corporate chieftains and western elites. Their response was swift.

John Edwards and Jack Kemp were appointed to lead a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) task force which concocted the basic pretext for an all-out assault on the Putin. This is where the idea that Putin is “rolling back democracy” began; it’s a feeble excuse for political antagonism. In their article “Russia’s Wrong Direction”, Edwards and Kemp state that a “strategic partnership” with Russia is no longer possible. They note that the government has become increasingly “authoritarian” and that the society is growing less “open and pluralistic”. Blah, blah, blah. No one in the Washington really cares about democracy. (Just look at our “good friends” in Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan) What they’re afraid of is Putin ditching the dollar and controlling his own oil. That’s what counts.

Bush also wants Putin to support sanctions against Iran and rubber stamp a Security Council resolution to separate Kosovo form Serbia. (Since when does the UN have the right to redraw national borders? Was the creation of Israel such a stunning success that the Security Council wants to try its luck again?)

Putin does not accept the “unipolar” world model. As he said in Munich, the unipolar world refers to “a world in which there is one master, one sovereign---- one centre of authority, one centre of force, one centre of decision-making. At the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.… What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at its basis there is and can be no moral foundations for modern civilization.” He added:

“Unilateral and frequently illegitimate actions have not resolved any problems. Moreover, they have caused new human tragedies and created new centers of tension. Judge for yourselves---wars as well as local and regional conflicts have not diminished. More are dying than before. Significantly more, significantly more!

Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force – military force – in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts.

We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state’s legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?

In international relations we increasingly see the desire to resolve a given question according to so-called issues of political expediency, based on the current political climate. And of course this is extremely dangerous. It results in the fact that no one feels safe. I want to emphasise this – no one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them. Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race.

I am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security.”

How can anyone dispute Putin’s analysis?

“Unilateral and illegitimate military actions”, the “uncontained hyper-use of force”, the “disdain for the basic principles of international law”, and most importantly; “No one feels safe!”

These are the irrefutable facts. Putin has simply summarized the Bush Doctrine better than anyone else. The Bush administration has increased its frontline American bases to five thousand men on Russia’s perimeter. Is this conduct of a “trustworthy ally”?

Also, NATO has deployed forces on Russia’s borders even while Putin has continued to fulfill his treaty obligations and move troops and military equipment hundreds of miles away.

As Putin said on Tuesday: “We have removed all of our heavy weapons from the European part of Russia and put them behind the Urals” and “reduced our Armed Forces by 300,000. We have taken several other steps required by the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces Treaty in Europe (ACAF). But what have we seen in response? Eastern Europe is receiving new weapons, two new military bases are being set up in Romania and in Bulgaria, and there are two new missile launch areas -- a radar in Czech republic and missile systems in Poland. And we are asking ourselves the question: what is going on? Russia is disarming unilaterally. But if we disarm unilaterally then we would like to see our partners be willing to do the same thing in Europe. On the contrary, Europe is being pumped full of new weapons systems. And of course we cannot help but be concerned.”

(This is why Putin’s comments did not appear in the western media! They would have been too damaging to the Bush administration and their expansionist plans). Who Destroyed the ABM? Putin said:

“We did not initiate the withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. But what response did we give when we discussed this issue with our American partners? We said that we do not have the resources and desire to establish such a system. But as professionals we both understand that a missile defense system for one side and no such a system for the other creates an illusion of security and increases the possibility of a nuclear conflict. The defense system WILL DESTROY THE STRATEGIC EQUILIBRIUM IN THE WORLD. In order to restore that balance without setting up a missile defense system we will have to create a system to overcome missile defense, which is what we are doing now.”

Putin: “AN ARMS RACE IS UNFOLDING. Was it we who withdrew from the ABM Treaty? We must react to what our partners do. We already told them two years ago, “don’t do this, you don’t need to do this. What are you doing? YOU ARE DESTROYING THE SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY. You must understand that you are forcing us to take retaliatory steps.” …we warned them. No, they did not listen to us. Then we heard about them developing low-yield nuclear weapons and they are continuing to develop these weapons.” We told them that “it would be better to look for other ways to fight terrorism than create low-yield nuclear weapons and lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons, and thereby put humankind on the brink of nuclear catastrophe. But they don’t listen to us. They are not looking for compromise. Their entire point of view can be summed-up in one sentence: ‘Whoever is not with us is against us.’”

Putin asks, “So what should we do?” The present predicament has brought us “the brink of disaster”.

Putin: “Some people have the illusion that you can do everything just as you want, regardless of the interests of other people. Of course it is for precisely this reason that the international situation gets worse and eventually results in an arms race as you pointed out. But we are not the instigators. We do not want it. Why would we want to divert resources to this? And we are not jeopardizing our relations with anyone. But we must respond.

Name even one step that we have taken or one action of ours designed to worsen the situation. There are none. We are not interested in that. We are interested in having a good atmosphere, environment and energy dialogue around Russia”.

So, what should Putin do? And how else can he meet his responsibilities to the Russian people without taking defensive “retaliatory” action to Bush’s act of war. By expanding its nuclear capability to Europe, all of Russia is in imminent danger, and so, Putin must decide “precisely which means will be used to destroy the installations that our experts believe represent a potential threat for the Russian Federation”. (Note that Putin NEVER THREATENS TO AIM HIS MISSILES AT EUROPEAN CITIES AS WAS REPORTED IN THE WESTERN MEDIA)

Putin has made great strides in improving life for the Russian people.

That is why his public approval rating is soaring at 75%. The Russian economy has been growing by 7% a year. He’s lowered the number of people living beneath the poverty-line by more than half and will bring it down to European levels by 2010. Real incomes are growing by an astonishing 12% per year. As Putin says, “Combating poverty is one of our top priorities and we still have to do a lot to improve our pension system too because the correlation between pensions and the average wage is still lower here than in Europe.”

If only that was true in America!

Russia now has the ninth largest economy in the world and has amassed enormous gold and currency reserves--the third largest in the world. It is also one of the leading players in international energy policy with a daily-oil output which now exceeds Saudi Arabia. It is also the largest producer of natural gas in the world. Russia will only get stronger as we get deeper into the century and energy resources become scarcer.

Putin strongly objects to the idea that he is not committed to human rights or is “rolling back democracy”. He points out how truncheon-wielding police in Europe routinely use tear gas, electric-shock devices and water cannons to disperse demonstrators. Is that how the West honors human rights and civil liberties?

As for the Bush administration---Putin produced a copy of Amnesty International’s yearly report condemning the United States conduct in the war on terror. “I have a copy of Amnesty International’s report here, which includes a section on the United States,” he said. “The organization has concluded that the United States IS NOW THE PRINCIPLE VIOLATOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS WORLDWIDE.”

He added, “We have a proverb in Russian, ‘Don’t blame the mirror if your face is crooked.’”

Putin is fiercely nationalistic. He has helped to restore Russia’s self-confidence and rebuild the economy. He’s demonstrated a willingness to compromise with the Bush administration on every substantive issue, but he has been repeatedly rebuffed. The last thing he wants is a nuclear standoff with the United States. But he will do what he must to defend his people from the threat of foreign attack. The deployment of the missile defense system will require that Russia develop its own new weapons systems and change its thinking about trusting the United States. Friendship is not possible in the present climate.

As for “democracy”; Putin said it best himself:

“Am I a ‘pure democrat’? (laughs) Of course I am, absolutely. The problem is that I’m all alone---the only one of my kind in the whole wide world. Just look at what’s happening in North America, it’s simply awful---torture, homeless people, Guantanamo, people detained without trial and investigation. Just look at what’s happening in Europe---harsh treatment of demonstrators, rubber bullets and tear gas used first in one capital then in another, demonstrators killed on the streets….. I have no one to talk to since Mahatma Gandhi died.”

Well said, Vladimir.

On the pic - step back and get a bigger picture - follow up on the last pic.  ¶ 9:32 PM 0 comments

 

Overdue

Yes - I said I would be more conscientious, but I'm inherently lazy. I feel terrible about not keeping the waylaid informed. When I left off last, I wrote about the flat spell we were going through. We usually get waves during the end of May, but this year was looking bleak. The glide can be fun, but there is nothing like racing down the line. To break it up, I took the Falsa out on some knee high days - weak south lines crawling from one hemisphere to the other, barely heaving on the shore, and gasping their last breaths. On one such splendid day, with the glide in full swing and the brotation in effect, a nasty fellow on a 12-foot Soft Top came to claim the day - conquer the weak. This fellow had burned us all with impunity and things finally came to a head. The Mayor spat a few choice words at the impostor, and the next thing I knew, the guy was taking swings at the Mayor (Flytrap) - all while they were gliding along on a shin snapper. On the outside, Mark Whitney was telling me "you got his back!" - What? Let me mention that the impostor was a very large, angry, man. Well, I did my best by jawing at the guy - Penguin, I'm not. No wit, just: "what the fuck is going on? where are you from? we're out here fiddling around and you're getting all agro! - fucking idiot!" That got the guy going, but after his initial onslaught of expletives, he said something I've never heard before - I was dumbfounded - The big angry Soft Top idiot began waggling his finger at us all and exclaimed, "I'm a better longboarder than all of you!" I looked around, and the crew just sat on their boards wide-eyed. What could you say? (We really needed Penguin at this point). We laughed hard the rest of the day - but thinking back - it may have been one of the best maneuvers I've ever witnessed.

As some of the comments from the last post indicate, La Fiesta Tiburones went down with equal measures of stoke and comblitching. The waves were done crawling, and were staggering to the shore, but there was still enough for people to unleash their competitive spirit. Only problem is some forgot the reason behind La Fiesta Tiburones. Originally, the idea was to have a "contest" as a guise to take over our surf spot on a day when the heathens usually converged to destroy our scene. Seems the Fiesta has morphed over the years, and while change is good - sometimes it's not. Ten thousand warriors guard the past, but in this case they got wiped out. I'm sure next year the brain trust will talk long and deep about recent experiences and consider the best mix of past and present.

Thankfully, the swell picked up toward the end of May, and there were some good south pulses. The waits were long, but the brotation was strong. As is typically the case during the summer, south swells tend to arrive on the weekend. So it was with the Memorial Day Weekend. Waves were fun and the crowds were massive. Swell was 2.5 feet from 195 to 200 degrees at about 17 seconds. The Steps was good - Hot Dog, DYSM, Chappy, the Enforcer, other notables, and pros were trashing anything resembling a south wall. The left at Tiburones was also fun with cameo appearances by Hunter, Mark, Charlie, guys you know, and assorted kids. While the crowds were tough, I made it unscathed until Tuesday. All the boyz who thought it was too crowded over the weekend, and waited until Tuesday, were out in force. After eying several wetsuited-asses, I finally lost the battle with my unleashed board. I straightened out and caught a rail in the jaw as I tried to clutch my board in the impact zone. Just a little pain and a depression in my board to remember the experience by. The south swell continued to dole out waves through the week, and with their bellies full, the boyz started to relax. The brotation was back in effect. The trend continued, and the south swell picked up again for another weekend of mayhem. Same as. South swell from 195, 3 feet at 14 seconds. Over the weekend, all the boyz showed. George, Esteban, the Flying Burrito, Ras Mike, Larry "the Brushman" Fuller, Terry, others you know, and many others you don't. Seemed like for the most part I ended up surfing the inside at Tiburones with Kim. The longboard crew set up a wall - a blockade - a flea comb - and what got through we groveled for. I was told the chain of surfboard-covered autos flying over the hill was unbroken. What's notable is I didn't bring any of my boards to Ralph today. It wasn't that I didn't try. Just lucky.

I've noted that our political landscape is covered with weeds. Doublespeak is the language of the day and it's hard to separate government from religion. I think religion kills more people than cancer. What does marriage via religion have to do with civil recognition of a family unit? Evolution is not a belief - it's a theory validated by several lines of evidence that educated people accept and adhere to. Creation is described in Genesis, which is in the Old Testament, which is a manuscript accepted by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim believers. Why is it only the American Christian fringe take the words literally. Lack of an education and basic understanding of metaphors? Organized religion? Why? Recent hearings regarding the Federal Justice Department were revealing. Monica "too good to be true" Goodling broke the law when she considered political and religious affiliation in hiring. Of course her only experience in hiring was while she was student body president at a Christian college founded by Pat Robertson. She hired a couple of people for some low-wage student work. Next thing - she's hiring and firing at the Justice Department. I found out that she was one of 156 students from Pat's Christian college hired by the Bush Abomination - and the school was ranked near the bottom of law schools in the country. Apparently, the Christian focus groups are using the Trojan Horse method to infiltrate and control government. To make us better - to protect us from ourselves - for freedom and the American way (land grab).

I hope you're surfing all those lefts offered by the south swells - I know you've been scoring. Early morning at Moonlight Beach. Now you know - Same as. The pic shows an epic surf spot only a few can reach.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)  ¶ 9:38 PM 5 comments