Sunday, November 7, 2010

What Does 'Obama Didn't Focus on Jobs' Mean, Anyway?

I thought you would find this interesting:

What Does 'Obama Didn't Focus on Jobs' Mean, Anyway? - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtlanticBusinessChannel/~3/bG9ZoMMJ-UI/click.phdo

Shared from TheAtlantic, an iPhone app made with www.AppMakr.com


Lindsey Swift

NYTimes: Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.

From The New York Times:

Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.

Government officials are considering financial incentives to spur the development of vitally needed antibiotics.

http://nyti.ms/c68GH3

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

NYTimes: Dead Coral Found Near Site of Oil Spill

From The New York Times:

Dead Coral Found Near Site of Oil Spill

The large swaths of darkened coral were almost certainly dying from exposure to toxins, scientists said.

http://nyti.ms/bQ9LMf

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

NYTimes: Savoring Baghdad, Where Each Night Is a Battle

From The New York Times:

Savoring Baghdad, Where Each Night Is a Battle

A night on Baghdad's streets offers little certainty about which side is prevailing.

http://nyti.ms/aoARqG

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Globalization is destroying the American Dream

Globalization is a great idea--with modern technology reducing the barriers to trade and commerce between regions and countries allowing economies to take advantage of whatever uniqueness and efficiencies those areas can contribute. But for the U.S. the current picture of globalization is driven by the "efficency" of lower labor costs. Wages/labor costs are unique in that they represent two conflicting elements in business models--as a cost they raises the price of a product, as a wage they represent potential demand. Keeping that relationship in balance is crucial to a vibrant economy. Before the advent of modern technology a company/corporation had an investment in it's region/country. It was in a relatively closed market for both labor and consumption with, in fact, the labor as consumer. So it was in the best interest of a company to maintain some adequate wage level so that it could sell its products. And, in a related way, the taxes that an entity paid went into the local economy and had a long term benefit for the taxpayer. With the advent of modern technology and the consequent reduction in barriers to globalization a company/corporation was no longer in a closed market. That relationship of labor as consumer was broken and those corporate entities were no longer tied to a region/country. As a multinational corporation it could sell enough product worldwide so that it no longer had an investment in the wage level of any particular region and,in fact, sought the cheapest labor available. The consequence was that as wages went down so did prices and/or profit margins increased. And in the short term as those prices went down more product was sold. But the long term effect was that as wages went down so did demand--as wages represent the ability to buy any product. But is wasn't just a reduction in wages, it was a wholesale migration of jobs to those areas offerring lower wages. As wages represent demand the lowering of wages represents a lowering of demand and lost jobs meant the complete loss of demand.( A recent analysis by EPI indicated that the U.S. has a deficit of 11,000,000 jobs caused by these recession.) The U.S. responded to this loss by racheting up debt and establishing asset bubbles which has ultimately resulted in our current situation.
A major point  in conservative business philosophy is to reduce the power of labor and reduce the wage level.  As indicated this can result in short term profitability but damages the long term economic health of any country. But, as also indicated, multinationals are no longer tied to any countries economic health.
The relationship between wages, taxes, regulation, productivity is a complex interactive one and this is a pretty simplistic model but when you support conservatives you support this model.
 

It Was the Banks | CommonDreams.org

It Was the Banks CommonDreams.org

This is a good read--It addresses the failure of President Obama to address a few of the issues that many liberals are concerned about and resulted, unfortunately, in the low liberal election turnout. The basic message is that banks are not our friends and do not have our interests as a core value of theirs. But as a liberal, our failure to turn out for this election and attempt to repudiate those values means that those conservative values that are so damaging to a liberal worldview will be our values.

Friday, November 5, 2010

NYTimes: Rare Earths Stand Is Asked of G-20

From The New York Times:

Rare Earths Stand Is Asked of G-20

A business coalition asked the organization to oppose the interruption of the flow of the crucial minerals because of industrial policies or political disputes.

http://nyti.ms/aony83

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Fwd: FDA MedWatch - Hyland's Teething Tablets: Recall - Risk of Harm to Children



Lindsey Swift

Begin forwarded message:

From: FDA MedWatch <fda@service.govdelivery.com>
Date: October 23, 2010 11:38:56 PM CDT
To: lindseyadamswift@gmail.com
Subject: FDA MedWatch - Hyland's Teething Tablets: Recall - Risk of Harm to Children

MedWatch logo MedWatch - The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program

Hyland's Teething Tablets: Recall - Risk of Harm to Children

AUDIENCE: Consumers, Pediatrics

ISSUE: FDA notified consumers that Hyland's Teething Tablets is being recalled because the tablets may pose a risk to children. The tablets are manufactured to contain a small amount of belladonna, a substance that can cause serious harm at larger doses. For such a product, it is important that the amount of belladonna be carefully controlled. FDA laboratory analysis has found that Hyland's Teething Tablets contain inconsistent amounts of belladonna.

FDA has received reports of serious adverse events in children taking this product that are consistent with belladonna toxicity. The FDA has also received reports of children who consumed more tablets than recommended, because the containers do not have child resistant caps.

BACKGROUND: Hyland's Teething Tablets is a homeopathic product, intended to provide temporary relief of teething symptoms in children. It is sold over-the-counter (OTC) in retail outlets. The FDA has not evaluated Hyland's Teething Tablets for safety or efficacy, and is not aware of any proven clinical benefit offered by the product.

RECOMMENDATION: FDA recommends that consumers not use this product and dispose of any in their possession. FDA advises consumers to consult their health care professional if their child experiences symptoms such as seizures, difficulty breathing, lethargy, excessive sleepiness, muscle weakness, skin flushing, constipation, difficulty urinating, or agitation after using Hyland's Teething Tablets.

Healthcare professionals and patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of this product to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program:

  • Complete and submit the report Online: www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm
  • Download form or call 1-800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and return to the address on the pre-addressed form, or submit by fax to 1-800-FDA-0178

Read the MedWatch safety alert, including a link to the FDA News Release, at:

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm230764.htm

 

Tell us how we are doing:

http://survey.foreseeresults.com/survey/display?cid=d509U9xg0gZVxkMRcoMsQg==&sid=link&cpp[date]=10_24_2010_0022&cpp[type]=S


You are encouraged to report all serious adverse events and product quality problems to FDA MedWatch at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm

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U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) · 10903 New Hampshire Ave · Silver Spring, MD 20993 · 800-439-1420

Thursday, October 21, 2010

@kate_sheppard, 10/21/10 7:53 PM

Kate Sheppard (@kate_sheppard)
10/21/10 7:53 PM
NOAA Arctic Report Card today says record temps have substantially melted sea ice; "return to previous Arctic conditions is unlikely."


Lindsey Swift

Sunday, October 17, 2010

NYTimes: Will Apple’s Culture Hurt the iPhone?

From The New York Times:

Will Apple's Culture Hurt the iPhone?

Apple's PC-versus-Mac battle almost put it out of business. Is it creating a similar one in the smartphone field?

http://nyti.ms/bThxl1

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

Friday, October 15, 2010

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2025886,00.html


Lindsey Swift

Fwd: Money and Democracy Update

Money isn't free speech, it's the volume level. The marketplace is not the ideal forum for political ideas.

Lindsey Swift

Begin forwarded message:

From: Public Citizen <publiccitizen@mail.democracyinaction.org>
Date: October 15, 2010 2:54:18 PM PDT
To: lindseyadamswift@gmail.com
Subject: Money and Democracy Update
Reply-To: publiccitizen@mail.democracyinaction.org

Public Citizen's 'Money and Democracy Update'
an e-newsletter about the movement to curb corporate influence in politics and restore our democracy

Issue #34 • October 15, 2010

We hope you enjoy this issue of Public Citizen's e-newsletter about the intersection of money and politics. This is part of the campaign we developed following the disastrous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts supporting or attacking political candidates. We'll update you regularly with select news stories and blog posts, legislative developments and ways to get involved.

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

  • Amount the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent this week in new independent expenditures: $6.6 million
  • Amount the committee has spent to date: $19 million
  • The amount the committee is expected to spend before Election Day: $52 million
  • Amount that just two Republican groups, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, have raised to influence the elections: $56 million
FEC should investigate Crossroads GPS for campaign finance law violations, watchdogs say
Crossroads GPS, an organization created by Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie to influence the midterm elections with huge expenditures of money, appears to be violating federal campaign law, Public Citizen and Protect Our Elections told the Federal Election Commission in a complaint filed this week.

SuperPacs are debasing our democracy‎
When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in January, Public Citizen predicted that corporations were sure to accept the court's invitation to overrun the political process. We were hardly alone in offering this prognostication. Nine months later, we concede: Things are much, much worse than we anticipated.

Latest tally of election spending by outside organizations: $153 million
Business associations, unions, ideological groups and other organizations have spent $153 million to influence elections this cycle, according to a new study by Center for Responsive Politics. That's more than double the tally in the 2006 cycle.

Most corporate boards don't oversee political spending
Less than a quarter of S&P 500 companies require their boards to oversee political spending, and nearly 60 percent of S&P 500 companies spend shareholder money from the corporate treasury on political campaigns. Meanwhile, only 20 percent of S&P 500 companies disclose how much they spend on politics. That's according to a new study, "How Companies Influence Elections: Political Campaign Spending Patterns and Oversight at America's Largest Companies," from the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute and the Sustainable Investments Institute.

Minnesota disclosure law becoming model for nation
After the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, Minnesota quickly enacted a law requiring disclosure of corporate donations. Now, it is becoming a national model.

Robert Reich offers guidelines to counter corporate money in elections
Concerned about the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, Robert Reich, secretary of labor under former President Bill Clinton, says people should read the dissent in the Citizens United ruling, talk to candidates, support public financing of elections and talk to their friends.

This Texas oil company doesn't want California climate change law to stand
Houston-based Marathon Oil gave a $500,000 check last week to help defeat Proposition 23, a measure on the California ballot designed to suspend California's landmark greenhouse gas law. Energy companies across the country have been pulling out the stops to pass the measure. Will more corporate money come?

Don't forget the NRA
With so much focus on nonprofit front groups using secret money to influence elections, an organization that is often highlighted for its ad buys is being virtually ignored. But it's still active. The National Rifle Association has said it plans to spend up to $20 million this election cycle. As of today, it was slated to have spent $6.7 million. So look for more NRA-sponsored ads in the next two weeks.

Visit www.DontGetRolled.org to learn more!
 
To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network. To unsubscribe, go to http://action.citizen.org/unsubscribe.jsp.

Contribute | © 2010 Public Citizen | Take Action

International Pen: Resolution on the People's Republic of China >> 88591886-E0C4-ED84-0991CA118B3FDA54

http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/go/news/resolution-on-the-people-s-republic-of-china

Freedom of the mind is as important as freedom of the marketplace. China also has minimal protection, if any, of intellectual property rights.

Lindsey Swift

Big Mac index: Bun fight | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/node/17275912
China imports much, if not most of it's beef. The U.S. produces most of it's own beef. Yet a burger costs less in China than in the U.S. Hmmmm, kind of makes you wonder ?


Lindsey Swift

Heronswood

Lindsey Swift

Financial Re-Regulation | Foreign Affairs

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66760/marc-levinson/financial-re-regulation


Lindsey Swift

http://awea.org/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=487


Lindsey Swift

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Supreme Court declines Bush bumper sticker case - CSMonitor.com

Supreme Court declines Bush bumper sticker case - CSMonitor.com

This event was sponsored by the government, paid for by taxpayers, open to the public, but held on private property. The said reason why these individuals were ejected was because President Bush had a right, thru the First Admendment, to control his speech's message. However, these individuals were not disruptive nor was the vehicle in attendance at the speech. Additionally, part of the defense's arguement was that government officials are shielded from these kind of lawsuits.
I'm not a lawyer and am not knowledgeable about all the laws, court cases, and rulings about our First Admendment rights. But you can clearly see the basic issues--Individuals have a right, in a public forum, to be able to give an undisruptive message yet, in that same forum, others have that same right. How do you balance that conflict ? Can a President in a public forum, with his message paid for by public funds restrict a public message to only his message ? Without public funding what opportunity would others have to give a different message ? And that is the key---a public message in a public forum paid for with public funds but restricted to that message only and no opportunity for others, without the same access to public funding , to give an alternative message.
This ruling clearly benefits a limited group of people and does not benefit the general public.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Why Did Islam Become What It Is?

 
 

Sent to you by Lindsey via Google Reader:

 
 

via The Metaphysical Peregrine by rob on 9/29/10

~ "LETTERS FROM EUROPE" - by Rob (Wind Rose Hotel) ~

I have always thought that nobody who has an ounce of common sense—not to speak of sensibility and culture—cannot help but respect other people's religious beliefs, except for those which are manifestly contrary to universal human right principles. Such is, of course, my attitude toward Islam. Hence my deep appreciation for thinkers such as G.K. Chesteron, whose respect for Islam is as strong as his "humanistic" approach to life in general. Which obviously generates some kind of tension between the two needs: respect, but awareness of the most controversial aspects of Islam, with regard to its (much) less humanistic approach…

Here is an example of his, so to speak, "bivalent attitude" toward Islam. There is in Islam "a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace," he wrote in his 1917 Lord Kitchener...

The great creed born in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy out of the very emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, out of the emptiness of its own theology. It affirms, with no little sublimity, something that is not merely the singleness but rather the solitude of God. There is the same extreme simplification in the solitary figure of the Prophet; and yet this isolation perpetually reacts into its own opposite. A void is made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled up again and again by a mere repetition of the revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; the only thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the world; so the apocalypse can only be repeated and the world end again and again. There are no priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude of lawless prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets. Of these the mightiest in modern times were the man whose name was Ahmed, and whose more famous title was the Mahdi; and his more ferocious successor Abdullahi, who was generally known as the Khalifa. These great fanatics, or great creators of fanaticism, succeeded in making a militarism almost as famous and formidable as that of the Turkish Empire on whose frontiers it hovered, and in spreading a reign of terror such as can seldom be organised except by civilisation…

Islam as "the great creed born in the desert." That's the key argument he makes to explain both what is wrong and what is the sublimity hidden in the heart of the religion of Muhammad. Two faces (what is sublime and what is "a permanent menace") of the same coin—a Weltanschauung which is son of the desert and which generates both great mystics and huge fanatics and creators of fanaticism.

But it was not until 1919 that Chesterton had the opportunity of making this perfectly clear to himself, when he left his home in Beaconsfield, and traveled backward through time to the place which is sacred to the three "religions of the Book." And his 1920 The New Jerusalem, is just a philosophical travelogue of his journey across Europe, across the desert, to Palestine.

Chesterton saw Islam as the Way of the Desert. The desert being a place of loss of perspective, and Islam personifying that loss of perspective. When the mind has grown used to the monotony of the desert, he wrote, a curious change takes place:

It may sound strange to say that monotony of its nature becomes novelty. But if any one will try the common experiment of saying some ordinary word such as "moon" or "man" about fifty times, he will find that the expression has become extraordinary by sheer repetition. A man has become a strange animal with a name as queer as that of the gnu; and the moon something monstrous like the moon-calf. Something of this magic of monotony is effected by the monotony of deserts; and the traveller feels as if he had entered into a secret, and was looking at everything from another side. Something of this simplification appears, I think, in the religions of the desert, especially in the religion of Islam. It explains something of the super-human hopes that fill the desert prophets concerning the future; it explains something also about their barbarous indifference to the past.

We think of the desert and its stones as old; but in one sense they are unnaturally new. They are unused, and perhaps unusable. They might be the raw material of a world; only they are so raw as to be rejected. It is not easy to define this quality of something primitive, something not mature enough to be fruitful. Indeed there is a hard simplicity about many Eastern things that is as much crude as archaic. A palm-tree is very like a tree drawn by a child—or by a very futurist artist. Even a pyramid is like a mathematical figure drawn by a schoolmaster teaching children; and its very impressiveness is that of an ultimate Platonic abstraction. There is something curiously simple about the shape in which these colossal crystals of the ancient sands have been cast. It is only when we have felt something of this element, not only of simplicity, but of crudity, and even in a sense of novelty, that we can begin to understand both the immensity and the insufficiency of that power that came out of the desert, the great religion of Mahomet.

And here is a generous eulogy of Islam:

In the red circle of the desert, in the dark and secret place, the prophet discovers the obvious things. I do not say it merely as a sneer, for obvious things are very easily forgotten; and indeed every high civilisation decays by forgetting obvious things.


But a second later he challenges those whom he has just praised:

But it is true that in such a solitude men tend to take very simple ideas as if they were entirely new ideas. There is a love of concentration which comes from the lack of comparison. The lonely man looking at the lonely palm-tree does see the elementary truths about the palm-tree; and the elementary truths are very essential. Thus he does see that though the palm-tree may be a very simple design, it was not he who designed it. It may look like a tree drawn by a child, but he is not the child who could draw it. He has not command of that magic slate on which the pictures can come to life, or of that magic green chalk of which the green lines can grow. He sees at once that a power is at work in whose presence he and the palm-tree are alike little children. In other words, he is intelligent enough to believe in God; and the Moslem, the man of the desert, is intelligent enough to believe in God. But his belief is lacking in that humane complexity that comes from comparison.
[Italics mine]


And a few lines below he says:

[Islam] was content with the idea that it had a great truth; as indeed it had a colossal truth. It was so huge a truth that it was hard to see it was a half-truth.


What does he mean by that? Let's follow his reasoning:

Islam was a movement; that is why it has ceased to move. For a movement can only be a mood. It may be a very necessary movement arising from a very noble mood, but sooner or later it must find its level in a larger philosophy, and be balanced against other things. Islam was a reaction towards simplicity; it was a violent simplification, which turned out to be an over-simplification. Stevenson has somewhere one of his perfectly picked phrases for an empty-minded man; that he has not one thought to rub against another while he waits for a train. The Moslem had one thought, and that a most vital one; the greatness of God which levels all men. But the Moslem had not one thought to rub against another, because he really had not another. It is the friction of two spiritual things, of tradition and invention, or of substance and symbol, from which the mind takes fire. The creeds condemned as complex have something like the secret of sex; they can breed thoughts.
[…]
The philosophy of the desert can only begin over again. It cannot grow; it cannot have what Protestants call progress and Catholics call development.
[…]
The highest message of Mahomet is a piece of divine tautology. The very cry that God is God is a repetition of words, like the repetitions of wide sands and rolling skies. The very phrase is like an everlasting echo, that can never cease to say the same sacred word; and when I saw afterwards the mightiest and most magnificent of all the mosques of that land, I found that its inscriptions had the same character of a deliberate and defiant sameness.
The ancient Arabic alphabet and script is itself at once so elegant and so exact that it can be used as a fixed ornament, like the egg and dart pattern or the Greek key. It is as if we could make a heraldry of handwriting, or cover a wall-paper with signatures. But the literary style is as recurrent as the decorative style; perhaps that is why it can be used as a decorative style. Phrases are repeated again and again like ornamental stars or flowers. Many modern people, for example, imagine that the Athanasian Creed is full of vain repetitions; but that is because people are too lazy to listen to it, or not lucid enough to understand it. The same terms are used throughout, as they are in a proposition of Euclid. But the steps are all as differentiated and progressive as in a proposition of Euclid. But in the inscriptions of the Mosque whole sentences seem to occur, not like the steps of an argument, but rather like the chorus of a song. This is the impression everywhere produced by this spirit of the sandy wastes; this is the voice of the desert, though the muezzin cries from the high turrets of the city. Indeed one is driven to repeating oneself about the repetition, so overpowering is the impression of the tall horizons of those tremendous plains, brooding upon the soul with all the solemn weight of the self-evident. [Italics mine]

Isn't that a wonderful explanation of the (abyssal) difference between them and us, whose minds have been nurtured by Greek rationality and Judaic-Christian values? This difference is also why, compared with its millennial rival, Christendom, the world of Islam had become poor, weak, and ignorant. In his What Went Wrong, Bernard Lewis asks, but does not answer, the following questions: "Why did the discoverers of America sail from Spain and not a Muslim Atlantic port, where such voyages were indeed attempted in earlier times? Why did the great scientific breakthrough occur in Europe and not, as one might reasonably have expected, in the richer, more advanced, and in most respects more enlightened realm of Islam?" One might say, Just read The New Jerusalem to get the right answers to these questions and a few others.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Fwd: Only in My Head : George Tipping: A Remembrance

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <gator18001@aol.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 10:20 AM
Subject: Re: Only in My Head : George Tipping: A Remembrance
To: lindseyadamswift@gmail.com


Lindsey,

Wow!!!!!  What a story you told about George. He was a very special
guy and he touched a lot of hearts the same way he touched yours. Your
letter made me cry and think of all the good times we shared together
at the old Winn/Dixie and McDonalds and Jetties.

George designed and had his friend Eaton from Sunshine Surfboards
build me my first new surfboard. It was a 6'11" Sunshine Swallow Tail
single fin. George and that new surfboard changed me forever into a
better surfer and a better person. The surfboard was so fast and cut
so easy. After George had rode my board one day he did his beast to
get me to sell it to him. he said that it was the best surfboard he
had ever designed.

Right after that George moved out west and I think it was because
Goerge, Ike Smith, Pepe Steffinalle, and my self all went to the North
Jetties for a party and ended up at the Ft. George Gold course and
someone had hotwired the golf carts and about a 100 of us rode them
all night. I lost my wallet and got arrested for all the damage done
to the golf course ( $ 200,000.00 ) and they all thought that I might
tell names but I took the whole rap myself. But George moved the
Calif., and Pepe moved the Minnasota and I went to jail. I never saw
George again until the North Jetties Reunion in 2005. But the was the
same old george and we had a good laugh about the whole thing.

I loved George as a friend and I always will. He will be greatly
missed. And yes, if there is a heaven for surfers then I know Goerge
will be there tearing up the waves and living on the beach. For he was
the "ulitmate beach surfer Dude" that we all would have liked to have
been at some point in our lives.

Lindsey, Thanks for your story about George.

Steve Newmans

-----Original Message-----
From: Lindsey Swift <lindseyadamswift@gmail.com>
To: gator18001@aol.com
Sent: Tue, Sep 28, 2010 10:03 pm
Subject: Only in My Head : George Tipping: A Remembrance

Lindsey Swift has sent you a link to a blog:

George Tipping

Blog: Only in My Head
Post: George Tipping: A Remembrance
Link: http://lindsey-onlyinmyhead.blogspot.com/2010/09/george-tipping-remembrance.html

--
Powered by Blogger
http://www.blogger.com/

--
Lindsey Swift

Monday, September 27, 2010

George Tipping: A Remembrance

I met George Tipping sometime around 1967 or 1968 surfing at the North Jetties of Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The jetties was a special kind of place in the 60's and 70's---very isolated, difficult to get to, but lots of good waves. Because of its isolation not many people went there in those years and the surfers and friends that did go there became bonded for life. In the late 60's and early 70's George was, in my humble opinion, the best goofy-foot at the jetties, a beautifully creative rider with powerful, concise turns, power on big waves and finesse on small waves. I was also a goofy-foot and we became good friends over the years, hung together, partied together, and mostly, surfed together. In the summer of 1969 we camped out together for two weeks at the jetties, $10.00 between us and just a couple of blankets. That was an experience...at one point we were so hungry we figured out a way to catch the small fish that were trapped in the pools of water around the rocks and ate them raw....yummy !! George was a very unique individual with a charismatic personality yet so laid-back and unmotivated in normal ways. In the years I knew George well he never worked or went to school...he just surfed and hung out !! At some point in the early 70's the first great love of my life decided to move on and I was traumatized.....at least until I realized she had moved on to George Tipping, and it was such a great match that....how could I be upset ? All better then!! But, eventually she moved on from George as well and I can't help but think that that affected him. Maybe if she had stayed, with her strength and character, he would have become more focused and more motivated. But then again, maybe not..... maybe he was forever locked into that iconic, laid-back "moon doggie" lifestyle of his.
At the end of the 70's, as we all moved on into marriages, family, and careers George moved out west, and I lost touch with him and only saw him a couple of times ever again. In 2003 we started the Jetty Reunions and in 2005 I managed to track George down and he came to that reunion. And guess what, he was the same George I knew all those years ago, living that iconic, laid-back "moon-doggie" lifestyle with even more outrageous stories to tell. That was the last time I saw George and a few days ago I was told that he had died in 2008 from lung cancer.
A page was turned......a story was ended.....the book was placed on the shelf  with all the Beatle books, albums with pictures of the past, maybe to be read again.....but probably not. At 62 life still goes on and memories fade.
But one final note----I have never been a religous man, and heaven and hell has never been an obvious influence in my life. But if I've been wrong, and there is a heaven, and God mysteriously forgives me for all my failures and transgressions, and I do manage to go to heaven then my idea of that heaven is the North Jetties of the 60's and 70's with all of us hanging and surfing together. And one of those mornings as I walk across the sand heading for the beach, I see the tops of the waves feathering in the distance over the rise of the flats. As I get to the beach and head to the rocks I see the waves are 2-3 foot overhead, bowling up in that perfect peak at the rocks and that long right wall, slight west wind holding up the wave. Heading into the water I see George with his surfboard lying in the sand at the waters edge, sitting back on his heels, his left hand is waxing his board and the ever present cigarette is in his right. As I approach he rises, flicks the cigarette into the water, looks at me with that iconic Tipping look....."hey Swift, waves are good, let's go surfing" !

"I'm right behind you, George."



Thanks for being my friend, George Tipping.......and we'll see you later.


...............

Sunday, September 26, 2010

NYTimes: Forbes Article Spurs Media Soul Searching

From The New York Times:

Forbes Article Spurs Media Soul Searching

Dinesh D'Souza's article asserting that President Obama has anticolonial beliefs raises questions about opinion versus reporting.

http://nyti.ms/9rrgu7

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Lindsey Swift

NYTimes: Forbes Article Spurs Media Soul Searching

From The New York Times:

Forbes Article Spurs Media Soul Searching

Dinesh D'Souza's article asserting that President Obama has anticolonial beliefs raises questions about opinion versus reporting.

http://nyti.ms/9rrgu7

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

Saturday, September 25, 2010

NYTimes: Voters Moving to Oust Judges Over Decisions

From The New York Times:

Voters Moving to Oust Judges Over Decisions

Judicial elections that were designed to be as apolitical as possible are suddenly as contentious as any another race.

http://nyti.ms/axAPBV

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

NYTimes: GMAC’s Errors Leave Foreclosures in Question

From The New York Times:

GMAC's Errors Leave Foreclosures in Question

The lender's admission that it had filed dubious foreclosure documents could inspire a broad legal furor against hasty foreclosures.

http://nyti.ms/bf68QM

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

NYTimes: Gas Blasts Spur Questions on Oversight

From The New York Times:

Gas Blasts Spur Questions on Oversight

Experts say that weak oversight of the 2.7 million miles of gas pipeline in the United States has contributed to hundreds of episodes that have killed 60 people in the last five years.

http://nyti.ms/9UIAJj

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes


Lindsey Swift

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965

In the Spring 2010 issue of the The Living Bird, a publication of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, an editorial by John Fitzpatrick, the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director, discusses funding for National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Forests. I'm just passing along some of that info.
The LWCF (the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965) earmarked a portion of the annual proceeds gained from depleting nonrenewable resources (outer continental shelf mineral, oil, and gas leases) to help funding for purchasing in-holdings, strategic expansions, and buffer areas for national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, grasslands, river systems, and seashores. The act also provided that a portion of these funds would be transferred to states and local governments for similar purposes. Currently more than than $13 billion dollars has been provided for these purposes but, since 1965, the recorded balance in off-shore oil revenues credited to, but NOT APPROPRIATED from, the LWCF is $17 billion dollars. For 46 years the LWCF has been authorized to receive $900 million annually from those oil and gas revenues but only once, 1998, has that amount been actually appropriated. The proposed fiscal year 2011 federal budget requests more than $600 million dollars for the LWCF (including $384 million for federal land acquisition, $100 million for the USDA Forestry Legacy Program, $85 million for the cooperative endangered species fund, and $50 million for state transfers and grants).
Environmental protection occurs in many ways and public ownership of, and management of, some of our key national resources is one critical path.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

North Jetty Surfers Reunion

On Saturday, April 24th at the Ft. George Island Community Center we are having our 8th reunion. This year we are establishing the North Jetty Surfers Hall of Fame and we have initiated the Hall of Fame with 5 inductees selected by the nominating committee. Those individuals are Jack and Essie Mae Bolger "Mom and Pop", Jerry Newton, Bobby Newton, and Steve Horne. Jack and Essie Mae ran the store at Ft. George that was the supply station for the surfers and helped us out in so many ways. Jerry, Bobby, and Steve were among the best of the early jetty surfers and the first really good surfers many of us knew. Jimmy Rodgers, the founder and, until recently, owner of the Ft. George Island surf shop will do a presentation on Jack and Essie Mae. Cora Hudnall Cooper, a Ft. George native and one of the best early women surfers from the jetties, will do a presentation on Jerry and Bobby Newton. Dan "Stroker" Campbell, one of this years nominees for HOF, will do a presentation on Steve Horne.
This year at the reunion will be the first time we vote and elect 2 individuals to the HOF. Anyone at the reunion may vote if they so chose. This years nominees are Dan "Stroker" Campbell, William "Butch" Goodwyne, Billy "Troy" King, George Tipping, and.............
For myself, Danny Campbell and George Tipping were very good friends and we spent many a day sharing waves at the jetties, and all up and down the East Coast, for that matter.
All of these surfers started on longboards and had styles adapted to those boards. Danny was the ultimate power surfer---aggressive,deep bottom turns, hard cutbacks and had a distinctly unique personality. When shortboards arrived on the scene we, at first, imposed our longboard styles on those boards but Danny, influenced by Greenough, went in a completely different direction--he became a kneeboarder. He has been the only consistant and really good kneeboarder I've known. It's a testament to his athleticism and surfing skill that he made the day to day transition between kneeboarding and power surfing.
Like myself, George was a goofy-foot who honed his skill on the long right wall at the rocks. In the middle 60's the river was dredged and the sand was dumped out at the end of the flats (the point) and created a beautiful point break during 1965,1966,1967. But the sand slowly drifted toward the rocks and by 1968 a break had formed there that shaped a fantastic peak break with an indented bowl that had a short, quick left and a long, long right wall. On good days that was an absolutely BEA-U-TI-FUL wave and George was an artist-in-motion backsiding on that long right wall. Surfing backside is more of a point to point motion than a continuous motion and George's quick, precise,and powerful turns combined with the long lines of a backside cutback made him a surfer to watch.
Butch and Billy were a little different, Butch was a good friend but, except for surfing the jetties together, I didn't know Billy. They were a little intimidating because they were like God's Gift to surfing, they were so good, and my knowing them would like.....you know.....throw the universe out of kilter. Again, they started on longboards but, while they did the bottom turn, cutback thing as well as anyone they were masters at noseriding. And when the shortboards arrived, as I mentioned earlier, everyone used their longboard styles on the shorter boards.....except for Billy and Butch. They were the first to adapt their styles to match the capabilities of the shorter boards. Butch was Mr. Versatile, he could do everything, and during this time of transition we tried everything. Everything was tried, different lengths, different tail shapes, different rail shapes, fins of all sizes and descriptions. From Sebastian Butch picked up on finger fins, fins the size of a finger, and became a master at tail-sliding, slipping all around the wave. Butch eventually went to Hawaii, stayed there for a few years, but came home and surfs St. Augustine and the jetties. Billy could also do everything but his most enduring characteristic, to me, was that he was always in control. Everybody I knew, even the best surfers, had those deer-in-the-headlight moments when either you or the wave did something unexpected and, for at least that moment, you were discombobulated. I never saw that happen to Billy, he was always, always one step ahead of.......everything.
These are very, very brief descriptions of these surfers that many of us know so well and the intent is to motivate you to come and vote for one of them at this years reunion. There will be music in some form, good friends, good conversation, badminton, croquet, and volleyball. Please remember to bring some F&B with you and see you at the reunion.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

North Jetty Surfers Reunion

As you should hopefully know we are having a surfers reunion this year
at the Ft. George Island Community Club on April 24. We hope you plan
on attending as this should be a very fun and interesting event ths
year. We are trying to establish a surfers Hall of Fame and right now
we are determining the criteria for nominees and, in fact, choosing
the first nominees. Jeff Gordon is heading a group making those
determinations and we would like your input. He can be reached in a
number of ways : phone: 904-699-6937, email: jag10@windstream.net, or
visit Facebook.com and post comments on the discussion board of the
group " It's All About the North Jetties ". We are working a website
and will soon have a blog associated with that site and you can
currently visit the website at www.northjettiesurfers.com. More info o
follow in another email. Thank You

--
Lindsey Swift

Thursday, January 7, 2010

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