It's a beautiful day in So. California, especially at the beach. This is the first real sunny day we've had in almost two weeks. The beaches are packed but the waves are so big that not many people are swimming today. We walked along the coastal footpath to San Clemente and back earlier today, and I didn't hear a single person or see a single sign complaining about Obama or the economy—what a relief! Lots of flags and BBQs though, as people get ready to watch the fireworks tonight.
The first shot is looking down on Calafia Beach from a nearby bluff, and the second shot is looking west (Calafia beach is almost a south-facing beach) towards the San Clemente pier with Dana Point in the background. On a clearer day you can see Catalina Island off to the left.
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ReplyDeleteNice, Scott. Hope you had a good 4th!
ReplyDeleteScott and all those who contribute to this board,
ReplyDeleteHope everyone who celebrates our nations birthday had a terrific day with family and friends or however you choose to spend it. Taking a day off from the markets, politics, and the general mayhem that seems to be our lives today, is a necessity.
God Bless us and keep us.
Bob
November 2, 2010 is our next shot at independence. Saving my fireworks for November 3, 2010 and hoping it becomes a new holiday.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday America and Happy 4th of July (even if today is the 5th) to all here, and a special thanks to Scott for the work (probably thoroughly enjoyable work) that he does and for providing this place without regard to the wing we fly with... it takes two wings to fly, after all.
ReplyDeleteI skipped the fireworks and stayed home on this 4th of July, for first time in my life. The bombs bursting outside sounded, for a flashing, dawning, moment, as if the country itself were blowing up, ...which it is.
ReplyDeleteOur city borrowed money to put on the show.
Pop, pop, patriotism.
Who can deny that our foreign owned debt is a new phenomenon?
Growing an economy with our mini-population of ultra skilled workers who will be attempting to carry huge transfer payments and to make interest payments whilst securing an overload of retirees, and to compete?
Impossible. They will abandon a sinking ship, if history is a guide.
American prosperity has become a physical impossibility.
Following the pattern of failed states, are the Pentagon, the Secret Service, and Mafia to rule over an abrupt decline while our elite Congress simply role-plays?
Does this mean a return to an age of Asian dominance?
Should America start a world war to protect our pop-debt culture? Could we even rally the energy for a "real" war next time? Would it be in our interest to destroy markets and the producers of our consumer goods?
And, who would join us? The British recognize nothing in common with our current president. In the next World War we would be on the side of copious consumerism against the dawning of humanity elsewhere. Of course, we're already losing the basic contest along those lines.
On July 4th, 2010, just three generations after "the great war," America has become a Disney fantasy of functional communities and of earnest children with undeniable futures, ...a fantasy founded upon denial.
This year's fireworks, bombs bursting in air, were proof through the night, that our flag is in utter shreds.
Gee pcpb, I feel better now. Thanks for the uplifting comments.
ReplyDeleteContrary to your pessimism and gloating on the negatives, which are all real and true, thank you, America can and I believe will pull herself up by the bootstraps and shake off the yoke of socialism and pessimism you have succumbed to, and continue to be the beacon of freedom and prosperity she has been to the worlds oppressed these many years.
This thread was supposed to be a day off and minute to be thankful and cheerful.
pcpb: You express the sentiment of many I think, but I think it's too early to give up hope. The American spirit is still alive and well, and great political change is afoot. Just look at Obama's poll numbers.
ReplyDeleteBob:
ReplyDeleteThe US Constitution isn't working, though there is no preferable alternative.
We must admit that the US has grave problems of her own making and enabled by our competitors.
As players in history we've been "thankful" and self-admiring since our elementary school days, succumbing to the usual propaganda preached by every country to its children.
We're simply the best people ever to have inhabited the earth.
A less innocent view would acknowledge the devastation of Europe and Asia by wars, and the abundant North American natural resources, both of which contributed to our wealth, and then to dynamic hubris, leading to lopsided debt, for which we we pledge momentum as collateral.
But reversals happen.
Who can deny the credit default swap/CDO epoch and the catastrophic result? What adult culture would have pursued that madness?
Unfortunately, the declaration of America's "Dependence Day" will not be America's prerogative.
Scott:
I do look at the polls, Brown is ahead of Whitman, Obama is 50/50.
But my (our) disgust is my (our) hope.
-pcpb