Sealand, the hidden rogue nation

Yes for a measly 30 British Pounds you too can become a Lord, or Lady of Sealand. I find this fascinating because in the United States we have done away with things like Kings, Counts, and Shahs but seeing this it makes me wonder if this was a mistake. Sovereign monarchies are anointed by some higher being to rule a section of land, but in the United States has only been anointed by the small fraction of the country that votes. Lets face it, God could kick our ass.

For those who are ignorant of geography Sealand is a ‘sovereign’ state that is on an old sea fort off the coast of merry ol’ England. Not only does this make it the closest sovereign to the United Kingdom but their greatest threat. Sealand doesn’t have things like an army, navy, or more than five people but it does have determination. That determination and the fact that Sherlock Holmes is dead means that Great Britain is defenseless.

So while no becoming a Baron of Sealand may only get you a square British foot of rusted metal, after their conquest of the ‘mainland’ you could have your choice of York, Newcastle, or the Isle of Man.

In other news, on the 700 club watch Pat Roberson has decided that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is something that is worth less that pagan toilet paper. This is because he just can not believe that the CEO of a company should be responsible for the financial statements of a company. What Patty is saying is that the CEOs responsibility is golfing, screwing his Christian secretary, and donating to the 700 club; but guaranteeing that the owner has the right to accurately know what their company is doing is not one of them. Patty also has a touching story about a woman in debt who got out of debt by donating money to him, and as Patty says the more you give the more you get out of debt, "Maria found that as she gave more, God provided. She was even able to send her son to a private school on her limited salary!" .It is good to know that to get someone to care I'll need to give them money.

National Geographic beyond Thunderdome

The National Geographic Channel is one of my favorite channels to watch. They have started a new show called relentless enemies which seems to record fights between animals. The episode they are advertising is the lion against a water buffalo. This all done in the wild so it isn’t something like putting a bunch of animals in the thunderdome for the entertainment of Tina Turner, that makes it tasteful I guess. Here are some match-ups that I would like, as you can see there could be great potential for the show.

An anaconda, Tiger, and a college age male.

Ostrich and cheetah

Republicans and Darth Vader

Nazis and a fire elemental on the surface of the sun

Republicans Drink the Blood of Babies!!

I almost hit a guy on my drive to school. I was driving down Kalakaua Ave which is the street that goes right by Waikiki Beach. Down a little ways there was a man wearing beach clothing and holding a cup of ABC store coffee on the beach side. Most people have not driven down Kalakaua Ave so let me explain it to you: it is 5 lanes of one way traffic and there is a light and cross walk across every half block. During the morning the lanes on each side are packed with delivery trucks for all the hotels and shops in the area. He kept on stepping out into the street and retreating back to his hiding place between the cars. This went on about six times before he takes a leap (it was a leap, not a step) right not 5 feet in front of my car.

His first reaction was not to get out of my way. Instead it was to look the other way, if he was checking for traffic then he was looking the wrong way down the one way street. I composed myself and hit the other petal and the accompanying sound of rubber sliding across the ground. He then turn towards me (in slow motion mind you) and stared right at me with an expression that asks “Why is there a car driving in the street?” before bounding to the next lane where there was a truck driving next to me. Then he decided that this was the wrong way to go and changed directions to get back to the side of the street. In my head I saw the guy slip and place his head right before my tire before being smashed. Instead by some miracle he just made it (I may have clipped him with my passenger side mirror though).

Then he gave me the finger.

Run and Hide Patty Robertsen

Pat Roberson has done it again. This is old news but after Ariel Sharon’s stroke Pat Robertson announced that, "He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease, the United Nations or the United States of America.'” First off who uses ‘woe’ in any language today. Is he trying to convince people the Bible says, “Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease, the United Nations or the United States of America.”? It isn’t in there and I checked. Of course Pat Roberson apologized and stated that he was misstated in the American media, and the Israeli media. What he meant was that, well I don’t know how to take that statement any different.

In response Israel is kicking Pat Robertson’s tourism center out of Israel. Don’t tell Patty though, his ‘700’ Club' is still advertising the trips. He should be a little more worried about that, if there is one country in the world that you just do not fuck with it is Israel. The entire Arab world fucked with several times, and got spanked every time. I suggest to Pat Robertson watch Spielberg’s wonderful movie Munich. Now that movie is about how violence and becoming an assassin starts a cycle of violence that is difficult to get out of. It is also about how Israel ‘spanked’ some people that fucked with them. Well Patty, you had better watch your back.

I want to saddle and ride a whale

This week has been really busy because of the increase of schoolwork that the professors have decided to dump on us. I finally found my USB cable so I can post some pictures of some whales that Cassie and I saw. I wish the zoom was better on my camera to get better shots though. One must remeber that these humpback whales are an endangered species, please watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for more information why.

Here is a picture of some tako. Tako is good eattin!

Britney Spears is a ho and the fall of the American Empire

I have finished Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat and he had an interesting observation. In China Bill Gates is like Britney Spears, everyone knows his story and everyone wants to be like him. In the United States Britney Spears is like Britney Spears. How I interpret this is that in both societies there is a value to wealth. Of course Bill Gates has much more money than Brittany Spears, but they have different lifestyles. There is a higher value placed on the lifestyle than there is on the means to obtain a lifestyle. It is more desirable to get rich quick and with as little work as possible than it is to work hard and obtain the same result. Remember that Protestant work ethic that they used to teach in schools? Well it has become the Confucian work ethic.

What does this mean and why am I bringing it up? The two most populous countries in the world are now creating the best engineers and scientists in the world, and they are not staying in the United States they are going home. With the new immigration policies that our right leaning government has imposed we won’t even let them in the country. Meanwhile most of our own children can’t even choose the correct role model.

Saturday I had a retake of a finance test because I did not get the grade that I wanted on it the first time (I didn’t flunk though). Every person who was in the retake was American. In fact every American needed to retake the test with one exception. The most frequent complaints was that the “Test was too hard,” or “I didn’t have time to study,” and my favorite, “The test wasn’t what I thought it would be.” I myself make no excuses, I did not study. On the other hand the foreign students thought that it was easy. They studied, and some of them need to translate a third of the words in the study materials and yet they found the time to study.

Now I think I’ll make Bill Gates is my Britney Spears. I mean that in a figurative sense cause Britney Spears is a ho.

Happy MLK Day

Here in business school we talk a lot about what makes a leader, and what is the most important trait of a leader. We have had some big debates about this (mainly about Oprah and Michael Jordan being more of a leader that MLK). I don’t have the answers, but I do have an observation. Leaders know about history, but look towards the future. For example MLK had a dream about what he wanted in the future, and he worked for this dream. He acknowledged the past, but didn’t allow the people who followed him dwell on it. After all you can’t live in the past, but you can prepare for the future. Many times people we think are leaders only point at what has been, and ignore where we are going. These people are not leaders, they may lead but they don’t lead anywhere.

Currently in the world there needs to be more leaders like MLK, and less leaders like you know who.

ipod blues

My ipod is scratched. A couple of months ago I bought a new ipod, the Video ipod. I was almost immediately upset that the apple store did not sell cases for the video ipod that showed the screen. In fact they told me that they carried only on type of case for the video ipod which doesn’t show the screen, it was called the Incase and was actually a good case. I figure that once the novelty of the video function wore off that I wouldn’t be using it that much which happened to be true. Since then the Apple store has gotten some cases with that allow the screen to be seen, but they are always sold out. Buying one online is expensive because all the places charge an arm and a leg for shipping costs to Hawaii (which is unfair because it is not that bad if the US postal service is used).

So I was looking to buy some good mahi fillets and felt the need to change playlist. I got the ipod out, but the cord got wrapped around the case and next thing I know the ipod was sliding across the grocery store, face down. Now there are two large scratches across the screen that I will need to train my eyes to ignore when I’m watching Star Wars on my ipod.

Shame on me for buying it, and shame on me for buying it even without the proper case, and finally shame on me just to shame me. Still, the ipod nano had hundreds of different cases at the store and they came out very close to the same time. No one knew about the nano when it came out. The video ipod was an open secret, but there was no cases that fit it, and the one that did had a major design flaw – you couldn’t see the movie you were watching when it was in the case.

I’m over scratching my ipod, but it bothered me for a little while because it isn’t that old and it was expensive. This is something to think about Mr. Jobs when you come out with your holographic projection ipod.

The Middle East needs Vegas

If on thinks about it Mecca can be just like Las Vegas. First they are both in the middle of desert and both depend on tourists for their income. According to Google 3.8 million visitors went to Mecca last year, while over 40 million went to Las Vegas last year according to an inside source (7 Million came to Honolulu). I don’t know if this 3.8 million figure is correct though because there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and each is supposed to visit Mecca once a year (this means that there are only 380 million Muslims that visit Mecca every 100 years). Meanwhile in 100 years there will be 4 billion visitors to Vegas. Mecca should take some lessons from Vegas to pack all the pilgrims in, they should all get a chance.

First Mecca needs better crowd control 345 people trampled this year in one incident, and 241 trampled last year. Yes, Vegas have had a handful of incidents but comparatively Vegas kills less people per year than Mecca. Second, the gambling issue. Islam prohibits gambling but there are certainly games that they play, and shopping, and why not a Cirque Du Soleil show and Mamma Mia! show? From everything that I know Vegas is selling an experience, and Mecca is a step up on this because they are selling a religious experience. Finally Mecca needs a catchy slogan, though “What goes on in Mecca stays in Mecca,” doesn’t have a good ring to it. How about “Mecca, plenty of rocks to throw here,” or “Muhammad partied here.” Still gambling will attract visitors from other faiths which is something to think about.

I’m talking to you Saudi Arabia: there is a responsibility to provide all followers of Islam 1) a good time 2) enough capacity for all Muslims to make a visit to your wonderful Oasis in the desert.

Is GM rolling over and playing dead?

The American auto industry is in shambles and the two major car manufacturers have decided to take two different approaches to resurrecting themselves. The Detroit Auto Show is half a world away from Honolulu, but that has not decreased my interest in the automobile industry.

GM’s strategy in my opinion is to self destruct. I haven’t seen any new concepts or truly innovative designs from the show from GM. Dispute high fuel prices they have decided to concentrate on producing SUVs and their cars remain fuel inefficient. They have not produced a small hybrid engine car, but have plans to make a hybrid bus (which will be good if it is cheap enough to fit into city budgets), and have made hybrid versions of a few of the larger vehicles such as the Sierra, Silverado, Tahoe, and Yukon. They do have the Sequel concept which is a fuel cell vehicle, but there is no infrastructure (yet) for a hydrogen fuel cell and they are not the innovators in this area. Their lack of real investment in the future isn’t the self-destruction part, it was their announcement today that they were going to lower prices on 57 of their 76 models. GM did this last year with the employee discount and it changed the industry, they lowered prices so much that they didn’t make a profit. Other car manufacturers followed, and they didn’t make a profit. Still a lot of Americans got new cars.

Ford on the other hand has introduced several new cars and concepts that have gotten some press. The Super Chief has gotten some attention as a huge pick up that looks like it can pull a train there are even ottomans for the passengers in the back seat. There is also some excitement for the Ford Shelby GT500, a Mustang with 475 horse power for $40,000.

We’ll see that this summer too. The car that has been getting a lot of press is the Ford Reflex, a B-car that has solar panels, hybrid diesel engine, and is one of the best looking cars ever. The Reflex is a design study but this shows that ford is seriously looking into hybrid-diesel engines which are more fuel efficient and safer for the environment. This car can go 0-60 in about 6.5 seconds AND gets 65 miles per gallon (of diesel), AND it is a B-car. B-cars are really small cars that are popular in Europe (thing Ford Fiesta) and are known to be affordable. It even has easy accessibility to the rear seat to easily get a baby in and out of the child seat. Many of the design aspects of this car may be available in the next two years (solar panels are cool).

My point? Well the hybrid market is expected to grow between 5% - 10% in the next three years (the automobile manufacturers are using the more conservative estimate). Lowering prices is a simple marketing strategy that often leads to self-destructions and is a good indicator that GM is looking into sales and not revenue, which doesn’t help them from their current predicament. GM will need to make revenue, and they will try to do this by screwing the people that they promised a pension to, which makes for great publicity. Lowering prices also is indicative that GM doesn’t have anything of value, they are lowering prices because they need to boost sales (and in fact GM really only talks about sales and ignores revenue) and that they may not have anything of value in the near future. Ford on the other hand hasn’t lowered their prices, and hopefully they will not, it is more important for them to make revenue. Most importantly with the concepts that Ford is looking into they are looking outside the box, and towards what car buyers may be interested in a couple years down the road.

Vacation's End

My vacation is officially at an end. I was able to go back to Chicago, then to Las Vega, then Maui, then home and spend time with Cassie’s family here. Everything did not go as planned, I wanted to see all my friends back in Chicago, and I didn’t get to see everyone, I wanted to buy a couple new suits and I only bought one that I then had to lug to three different cities without using it (that was bad planning on my part), I didn’t get to gamble much in Las Vegas or check out the Hilo Hattie there, and finally there was the incident with Blue Water Rafting that I had already mentioned.

I watched Wedding Crashers last night while taking a long break from working on my finance homework. This got me thinking that if there was one person that I do not want to meet in a dark ally for a West Side Story showdown it is Christopher Walken. The guy is smooth, funny, calm, and he is a hell of a dancer AND a hell of a Vampire.

In other news my buddy here Terrance informed me that my infrequent letters to Disney produced results, Duck Tales is finally out on DVD. For those who didn’t know Duck Tales is one of the few success stories for Disney; many people love Disney and many hate Disney but everyone loves Duck Tails. I don’t know when they released it either, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have sent an angry letter to Disney even after it came out, not matter. After Walt Disney’s cryogenically frozen head is attached to the top of the Epcot Center and renews his plans for world domination I’ll have season one of Duck Tails to prove my loyalty.

Finally kudos to Jon Tien who told me he just wanted to be mentioned in a blog.

Fabish

I made my first Wiktionary entry, it is for the word fabish.

George Bush's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize

President Bush just called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a “Man of Peace” Of course he led an underground military organization during the Israeli war for Independence. Blew up a couple of villages. He was a general in the 6 day war, and a damn good one, but was a harsh general against the Arabs. He enforced an occupation that was nothing but harsh. As Defense Minister he moved to invade Lebanon which resulted in the massacre of thousands of civilians. He had not made peace ever in his life. I am not saying that any military action by Israel is justified, nor am I making a judgment for Sharon as a person because I think he has done many good things for Israel. If Ariel Sharon is a man of peace it is snowing outside right now, and it is sunny and 83 degrees F in Honolulu.

Maybe that is the largest problem with George Bush, he thinks that this man is a man of peace. We can see how fucked up his world view is.

Why the United States should have socialized medicine.

Think about it, pharmaceutical companies, and the medical establishment in the United States should be doing everything possible to promote socialized medicine. The basic concept is simple, if the government paid for my medical bills then 2 things happen. First, I’ll go to the doctor and take anything that he says that I need to keep me healthy. Second, I don’t care what the doctor charges me because I’m not footing the bill the government it. Think about every medical bill in the United States, doe the government have time to pour over every bill to determine if the pricing is fair? No the prices don’t need to change. The problem with socialized medicine is higher taxes. Yes, we’ll all have to pay a little more to pay our medical bills, but I say take a little of that out of the military programs that are going nowhere.

Some people worry about the quality of the medical care in the United States, but there are developing states (like Cuba, and Thailand) who have much better medical care than the United States. In Cuba the medical establishment has become one of the world’s best because of the heavy state involvement in that industry.

Opponents of socialized medicine will try to complicate this argument so I’ll make the argument simple. First, the function of any government should be the protection of the people under it. Therefore it should be the duty of all governments to provide socialized medicine. Second, allowing people to suffer medical problems when there are ways to help them is just immoral. That is it, simple where is the socialized medical establishment in the United States.

President Bush, meet Martin Niemöller

President Bush is continuing to push for an extension of the “Patriot” Act. He supports provisions that discard civil liberties in exchange for catching “terrorists” and criminals. Some republicans have noted that this is an even tradeoff, a police state to catch some “terrorists”

Since this “War on Terror” my government has locked “terrorists” up without any accusations. We have spied on our own people, a charge our president continues to try and justify. The President fought to allow certain types of torture available for use by the intelligence services. The government wants to know what I’m reading. The government feels that it is not necessary for me to be notified if they search my house.

My government will talk about spreading democracy in the Middle East only after not finding links to terrorists in Iraq or any illegal weapons. Meanwhile we can support oppressive regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan because they have been helpful in throwing us a terrorist or two in “cooperation.” The only lesion that we are telling the world is that oppressive regimes that act like they help the US are fine, all other oppressive regimes can continue because we’re too busy in Iraq.

Some people may think that I go a little extreme but there is controversy over what American values are. Some believe that they are the same as fundamentalist Christian values, and others believe in democracy, liberty, privacy, and the belief that the government works for the people and not for itself or any God. History has never been a popular subject in the United States, and this has allowed some people to forget what has once happened.

When they came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

- Pastor Martin Niemöller

Maui Wowie!!

Well I have arrived back from my time off island, and even spent some of that time on the mainland. For any of you that want to go to Maui, which really should be all of you, I recommend Ocean Riders Rafting. During this trip you’ll see shipwrecks, whales (in season), dolphins (in season), and all sorts of things. In my two time in Maui this adventure tour has been the highlight of the trip. We got to see some whales up real close too, but to be a little honest it was awesome!! If I was ever lost in the middle of the Ocean I would not want to fight a humpback whale, and to think that before all my whale knowledge came from the 4th Star Trek movie.

On the other hand there is Blue Rafting Adventure. This tour lost our reservation, charged us anyway, and called Aqua Adventures and tried to cancel our tour there. In addition they made no attempt to remedy the situation besides slapping a brochure in my hand and telling me to “make a reservation.” That wasn’t the worst part about the trip. That was when Cassie and I got home and all of the piping under the bathroom sink got up and walked away. It still hasn’t returned, though my landlord assures me that it will be here soon.