I went surfing today. This is the third time I've been in the water since my return from the Gulf. Parts of it are like learning to surf all over again. I am quite pleased that I do still remember what to do once I manage to get to a standing position. Getting to the standing position was, a couple of times, a bit of a challenge.
I'm going out again tomorrow. Let's see how long it takes to get back to the physical condition I was in when I left for the Gulf.
Aloha
An excellent article on the rest of the Christians in America. Not all of us believe that it is possible to legislate morality. Not all of us believe that it is possible to codify the whole of the Christian life into law. I would even suggest that the moderate Christians are the silent, or at least less vocal, majority. I do not agree with everything Mr. Danforth puts forth in his article but I do agree wholeheartedly with the basic tenet that the Christian Right does not speak for or accurately represent the whole of the Christian church.
At the core of this issue for me is really freedom of religious belief. One of the issues that exemplifies this well is prayer in school. In my opinion, if we are to allow prayer in school and we are to respect the First Amendment to the United States Constitution then each school would need a schedule to ensure that every religion represented in the school population was represented in the school prayer. I suppose one way to do that would be to have one prayer for each religion everyday. I suspect, however, that would cut deeply into total teaching minutes for the day. Better might be to have a different religion pray each day. So, the school prayer schedule might look like this. Monday is Protestant Christian, Tuesday is Hindu, Wednesday is Buddhist, Thursday Muslim (everyone arriving in time for morning prayer), and Friday there is no prayer in recognition of the Atheists. Of course, it wouldn't be long before an entire month was taken up just so that all the Christian denominations could have their say.
The point is, while our founding fathers may well have been Christians themselves they understood the importance of being free to believe according to one's heart. Ensuring one's own freedom to worship as they please or not at all is best guaranteed by ensuring that everyone has the freedom to worship as they please. As soon as we begin to exclude any religion we put at risk our own religion.
Aloha
This two page article in the Washington Post carries on about students spending "borrowed money" in the form of their student loans on lattes at specialty coffee shops "like Starbucks." Erika Lim, director of career services at Seattle University School of Law seems to be at the fore of this campaign to persuade students to stop drinking "expensive coffee". Interesting to me that Lim chooses coffee. I have to wonder how much alcohol students purchase with 'borrowed money'. This seems to me a more worthy target. Not only would the students save money but they would also improve their health (unless they are only drinking the small amount of alcohol necessary for health benefits) as well. And they might even learn more as a result of being alert in class instead of hung over. All of which is to say, it seems that there are a number of more worthy targets than coffee for Lim to take aim at.
Interestingly enough, Erika Lim will drink an expensive latte as long as someone else buys it. Hum? Erika Lim better hope that not too many of her friends take the advice she's doling out lest she herself have to start living without lattes.
Aloha
This smacks of childishness. And that is not to say the the Republicans aren't equally capable of such childish behaviour. Only that the Dems were caught at it this time.
Of particular interest to me is the line of reasoning or lack thereof. It is quite possible that the reporter intends to present the Dems in bad light. However, from this article it seems that the line of reasoning goes Bush got approval for this war under false pretenses and therefore we should pull the US military out of Iraq immediately. One does not follow the other. If President Bush knowingly deceived Congress and the American public in order to get approval to invade Iraq, that should be brought to light and dealt with appropriately. First it needs to be proven that President Bush knowingly deceived.
I said before the invasion that no WMD would be found. I think the line of reasoning used by the White House was misguided at best. As I said in this blog, there were far more logical and sound reasons for invading Iraq. Reasons that would have been far more likely to rally International support for the action. At some point it should be determined what President Bush knew and whether he or his staff intentionally manipulated information to support their intended action. If it is found that intentional manipulation did occur, it should be dealt with appropriately. However, all of this is water under the bridge.
Coalition Forces have invaded Iraq and toppled the existing government. Regardless of their reason for doing so it is now the responsibility of the Coalition to restore a government to Iraq. To simply withdraw all military forces from Iraq and leave them to sort things out for themselves is irresponsible to say the least. Even if it is proven that President Bush is the consummate liar and successfully deceived everyone in the course of invading Iraq, that still leaves the United States with the responsibility of caring for Iraq and its people until some form of government can be restored. In fact, I would even argue that if President Bush is proven the deceiver that the Dems believe him to be, our responsibility is even greater.
I do not like the reasoning that the Bush administration used to get the United States into this war. I think it was misguided and not well thought out. I think there were far better lines of logic to justify the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. However, I do think that invasion and forcible regime change was inescapable. I wished that President Bush had been a little more willing to take the time to build a more complete International consensus before invading Iraq. I do not think this was required but I think it should have been done. President Bush seemed very impatient. Maybe there were reasons for this. However, in the end, regardless of what I think about whether and how we go into Iraq, we now have to look at the present situation and the road ahead. To leave Iraq before its government is restored and its own security forces are ready and the country is capable of finishing the rebuilding of its infrastructure would be criminal.
Aloha
This is just funny. Dell is hoping that Apple is going to offer them an alternative to Microsoft Windows. In fact, the Net is a buzz with conversation along the line of Mac OS X will now run on any old Intel box. Which is pretty funny and naive.
Apple is a computer hardware company that also makes software. This is bore out in any review of Apple's sales figures for just about any quarter you'd like to choose. Mac OS X sells for $135. The upgrade for Windows XP Professional is $235. Steve Jobs in his communications meetings with Apple employees often mentions that one of Apple's biggest strengths is that they are one of the last companies to make the "whole widget". Apple is not about to give up its hardware business. If you want to run Mac OS X, you are going to have to buy a computer made by Apple.
It will be interesting to see what happens when people can buy an Intel based PowerMac and then install Windows XP on it in a dual boot configuration. Boot into Mac OS X or Windows XP (or Linux) from a single machine. That will be kind of cool.
Aloha
It is good to see that Sunni Arabs have joined the political process in Iraq. I think it is also significant to note that Iraqi forces freed the Australian hostage with the cooperation of some coalition units.
So, Iraqis are making progress in forming their own government and the Iraqi military is gaining its own feet and becoming capable of handling its own missions. It is a good thing that is happening in Iraq. I'm proud to have played a part and, to be honest, I hope I get the chance to go over again.
Aloha
It has been proposed in Congress that the US pull out of Iraq. The proposal comes in the form of a congressional resolution backed by Representatives Jones and Abercrombie. The rationale for the proposal is fairly representative of what we hear in the press as well. US presence is causing the insurgent violence and the implication that our job there is done.
The insurgents are currently focusing the majority of their efforts on Iraqi military targets and soft civilian targets. The insurgents are inciting a civil war because they are not happy with the current political process for government. They want to influence and even take over control of the governmental process through extraordinary means. Others in congress are quite correct when they say that setting a withdrawal date for the US military or the coalition forces as a whole would embolden the insurgents. It would be a clear statement to the insurgents that they are winning or have won.
Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina states that we have "given Iraqis a chance to have democracy..." More accurately, we are in the process of giving the Iraqis a chance to establish a democracy. However, if we pull our forces out before the Iraqis have had the opportunity to establish a firm government and a military capable of handling the insurgents, the job of giving Iraqis a chance to have democracy is not finished.
I have not yet seen anyone in the press make note of the fact that the focus of insurgent hostilities has shifted to Iraqi military target and softer targets. It was the Iraqi military that freed the Australian hostage. At the end of January it was the Iraqi military that protected the voting places and there were no successful attacks.
Rep. Jones asks, "do we want to be there for 20 years or 30 years?" No, Mr. Jones. We only want to be there until the Iraqis are ready to tell us we are relieved and they have the watch. Currently, the Iraqi interim government is asking us to stay. When the Iraqi government asks us to leave and we refuse, they I think Rep. Jones will have a point.
The immediate withdrawal of American forces in Iraq would almost ensure the fall of the interim government and ensuing civil war. Whatever anyone might think about how the US got into this situation in Iraq we are now responsible for what happens there. History will not only remember how this war started. It will also remember how it ends. And, in my opinion most importantly, the Iraqi people have a real chance at a democracy society where justice and liberty prevail.
Aloha
Building a nation is not easy. In most cases when building a nation you must first educate the populace of that future nation in order to have a foundation on which to build. Case in point, Iraq. In the western world of incredibly short attention spans, sound bites, video clips, little knowledge of history and less understanding of political science it is much easier to grab hold of that one bite, clip or fact that resonates and build an entire opinion of something very complex on that one datum. Every once in a while the news media manages, if only momentarily, to raise above itself and provide some truly enlightening and useful information.
This article gives us a brief glimpse into the difficulties involved in building a new government and in fact a new nation in Iraq. This article talks about the struggle of the Sunnis but the fact of the matter is that all of the various political groups in Iraq are going to need to learn a new way of doing politics. The king of the hill style of politics that has been going on in Iraq for at least 40 years is not a sound foundation for a stable government that is ready to participate as a responsible member of the world community.
From this article we can also extrapolate the difficulties that are occurring in other arenas as well. Serving in the Iraqi military, now called the Self Defense Force, is entirely different than serving in the military under Saddam Hussein. Voting in Iraq today means something very different than it did a couple years ago when Iraq supposedly voted 99.8% in support of Saddam Hussein. The people of Iraq like the idea of being freed from tyranny. We saw that when Saddam was first toppled. The people of Iraq are excited about having their own country, an Iraq for Iraqis. We saw that in the celebrations across the country when the Coalition turned over control of the country to the interim government. The people of Iraq like the idea of a freely elected, democracy government. We saw that with the high turn out rates at the first election in Iraq. However, there are a lot of details to be worked out in order for a secular, representative government to be successfully implemented in Iraq. Details take time.
Free Iraq for Iraqis. I think that the US could be proud of having participated in establishing a Free Iraq for Iraqis.
Aloha
Hey guys! Ocean Revolution is an organization that is about protecting our beaches and oceans. They sponsor the Pack Your Trash events.
They are having a benefit concert here in Santa Cruz at The Catalyst that looks pretty cool. The group Ape carves a Tiki Statue during their concert and the Mermen
The Hula Halau that my family belongs to is selling tickets for $26.25. That is the same price you'll pay at the Catalyst and cheaper than the pre-order on the web site since the web site will charge you $5 shipping. Moreover, the halau would like to demonstrate their commitment to Ocean Revolution and clean oceans buy selling some tickets. The halau does not benefit from the sell of tickets other than the brownie points with Ocean Revolution.
This is a volunteer effort by Santa Cruz Hula School to support Ocean Revolution. Your support would be greatly appreciated.
Aloha