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I was talking about the Tulemar cove beach where the waves and tides were impressive. Manuek Antonio had scores of surfers on the beach which tells me that the waves can be rather big.

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I live in Miami where we have warm, very gentle waters. The Pacific beach in Costa Rica that I visited scared the beJesus out of me. The waves and tides were fierce. I watched nervously as my son surfed the waves on his little boogie board. Later, after a rain storm had passed by, my wife was knocked down by a wave while she was standing many, many yards away from what she thought was the reach of the water. I was Maytagged in my kayak as well. It is easy to break a neck there.
Don’t get me wrong. I had fun…but you absolutely must be sure of your swimming abilities and be vary cautious with rip tides.

I have seen unaccompanied Tico children playing in the fast, ferocious rivers in Costa Rica with a 12 foot croc sunning on the muddy beach not far away. I am constantly amazed at how little concern the Ticos show for these dangers. Maybe I am just a typical overly fearful gringo.

Edited on May 12, 2009 16:21

Edited on May 12, 2009 16:22

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“Aren’t you all just getting sick of all the lies?”
Unfortunately, for entire societies, there is no in between ground when it comes to these lies. Societies in general either believe or do not believe…in the whole. Governments and corporations either lie all the time or never. Their motives are suspect, or they are not.

As individuals, we do have a middle ground. We each develop our own world views and biases which color how we deal with news like the current pandemic potential. How much of that world view bias should be applied to the decision to reject, accept or question news reports is what is at issue here. I choose the latter in this instance since I don’t have enough informtion to either accept or reject.

Edited on Apr 30, 2009 06:05

Edited on Apr 30, 2009 06:06

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Interesting read. Thanks.

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The hard part is tying action to results. You can put forth a theory, as does Scott here, that the intention of the ruling autocracy is to use terrorism as a means to gain further wealth. That is not objective nor does it have to be. The objectivity comes into play when analyzing cause and effect.

The cause of cigarette tax is government. The effect of actually paying the revenuue of a cigarette tax is the choice of smokers. The intention of both parties is addressed and satisfied by mutual consent. I donlt see any mystery here. However, Scott’s theory is bothersome and requires some hard proof before acceptance.

Edited on Apr 29, 2009 07:11

Edited on Apr 29, 2009 07:12

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The greed of big pharma is a product of capitalism. Releasing a virus on the public in order to “capitalise” on the situation to sell their vaccine would be in line with any corporate charter which is exclusively to make money. The people who would make such a decision might be as morally bankrupt as those banking and Wall Street CEO’s and their republican toadies who pillaged our treasury recently. It is possible.

I prefer not to think too much about this matter. There is nothing one can do to stop it and little one can do to avoid becoming a victim except maybe to run to hills. That log cabin of yours way up in the mountains would be a great place for you to wait out a truly horrific pandemic if it had a good sized vegetable garden.

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People CHOOSE to smoke. They don’t choose the flu.

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My left wing view of the world is open to such ideas. Although Pearl Harbor was indeed a set up and it is entirely possible that our government permitted 911 to happen, without any solid proof, I have to relegate the conspiracy theory to a status no higher than “suspicious. That does not, however, take away from my firm belief that the US government is being used as a tool by a corporate autocracy to further their ends.

The illnesses in Mexico and the States could hardly be faked to just cause a scare unless a lot of medical examiners were included in a conspiracy. If that is your contention, then the conspirators have agreed to a substantial loss of property in order to effect their plan. What would the pay off be?

And if you suggest that a type A influenza virus would be purposely introduced to kill a lot of people while preserving property, then we are dealing with state terrorism so completely evil and dedicated that there are no measures to stop it. If you truly believe these things, I canlt see how you could sleep at night.

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I am not sure I follow your line of thinking, Scott. Are you suggesting the pandemic level 4 call is merely an exercise in preparedness for a potential bio-terrorist attack? So much collateral economic damage is probable with any pandemic scare, that I see no value for anyone in that, neither for the government nor for the population.

The regular flu supposedly kills between 1 and 2% of the infected. Swine flu should be about the same. The reason for concern is that so many more will be infected that there will be a higher death rate. I think I will accept the level 4 call as legitimate. So far, too much is unknown. We should know enough before the week end to determine if we have a true pandemic.

Edited on Apr 28, 2009 08:06

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Keviyon,

Please don’t take offense but when you talk about an imaginary supreme being and its righteousness as being as a legitimate objective to pursue, you are going to lose credibility as one who argues with logic. Words and their meanings DO change over time and so do popular concepts as to what are universal principles. The U.S. once held a universal principle which, at the time, considered black slaves as less than human and therefor undeserving of constitutional protections.

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The whole point of TV and religion is to distract everyone from the REAL reality. Some of us know this, some of us do not.

By the way, the ousted governor of Illinois, the guy who was trying to sell Obama’s vacated senatorial seat, Blogovitch, is asking a judge for permission to leave the U.S. during his trial so that he can particicpate in this Costa Rican TV reality show.
I would prefer to see them drop him in the middle of San Jose after dark rather than in the jungle.

Edited on Apr 15, 2009 13:55

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The Fed is shutting down two banks per week in the US. The rate appears to be on the move upward too.

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Ted Nugent is a nut job, plain and simple. And so is anyone else who has the same viral ideaology which places more value on personal property than on human life. He advertises his insanity and flaunts his weapons as if they were some sort of god given bodily appendage.

Nugent loves to kill animals for sport. He doesn’t do it to control imbalanced animal populations nor does he do it for food. He does it for fun. He keeps animals on his land just so he can go out and slaughter them for fun. I repeat, he is a nut job.

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Stock and commodities markets are a gamble as is ANY business. Roulette wheels and black jack tables are usually for fun gambling, for those who are attracted to that, but I see no differenece between any business venture and investment or stock trading activity. It all depends upon the intent and the knowledge of the “player”.

Living in a corporate autocracy requires that one either play their game, or retire from the country. I have to do the former until I can afford the latter, ubfortunatelty.

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Good points, Edlreed. It might also be pointed out that most of the founding fathers were deists, not christians, and had a healthy fear o organized religion. Also, Jefferson was a proponent of national banks and feared that one day private bankers would subvert democracy. I guess he would be called a socialist or a collectivist to day by the right wing.The more I learn about that man, the more respect I have for him.

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