Memorial Day

Aloha, Friend.
It is Memorial Day-
Honoring Veterans
and Those Who Made
the Ultimate Sacrifice. . .

click on photos to enlarge them and yourself

While there are no official lyrics for Taps,
the following unofficial verses (author unknown)
are often used:

"Fading light dims the sight,

And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.

From afar drawing nigh -- Falls the night.



Day is done, gone the sun,

From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;

All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

Then good night, peaceful night,

Till the light of the dawn shineth bright;

God is near, do not fear -- Friend, good night."



(Above Information Courtesy of
United States Army Center for Military History)

Yes,

We proudly remember the veterans of WWII
though today, the Germans and Japanese
are our allies and business partners.
Strange.

The even more distant First World War
is now seen
as a case of outmoded statecraft
sliding into an ancient
and formerly inevitable
choice
of war.

Our understanding matures
as the latest war recedes in the rear-view mirror
but the suffering and loss
remain very real
to this day.

To stand on guard of others
is noble.

To attack another people
is not.

Yet, should we stand back
in Burma,
or Africa,
where opportunist elites
enslave their own people?

Until these questions
are blotted out by understanding
we will need those willing
to play on a team
bigger than their own
convenience or benefit.

We call these people
"Military"

Sons, daughters
fathers, parents, neighbors
we call them
when we need help the most.

As with many things in a free society
we have mixed feelings about military power
and assumptions
but NEVER about those who serve,
who pay the price
and who always have.


We honor them the most
by fighting for the values and ideals
that motivated them:
Fairness, opportunity,
and a basic humanity
towards our fellow citizens;
To tell the truth
and listen to the other guy's truth
with real respect for his humanity too.


Let's build
and BE
the world they fought
and died for.


Amen

Sunday Sights

Aloha, Friend :)

"All theory, dear friend, is gray,

but the golden tree of life springs ever green."


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If you don't know what happened
you won't know what's happening."

Whoopie Goldberg

“Do you need proof of God?

Does one light a torch to see the sun?”


Japanese Proverb

“The day you decide to do it is your lucky day”

Japanese Proverb

DreamTime

Aloha, Friend!

"Be like the water,

the wind, the clouds,

the dancing trees;

Flow with joy

where Spirit takes you,

with non-attachment, flexibility

and ease."

Sandra Jayne Bellen

"The supreme object of life is to live.

Few people live.

It is true life only to realize one's own perfection,

to make one's every dream a reality."

Oscar Wilde

"Somewhere over the rainbow,

skies are blue,

and the dreams that you dare to dream

really do come true."

L. Frank Baum

Orange you glad that you scrolled down to this picture?

><>

Australian aborigines talk about the Dream Time,

the insubstantial ground of everything.

The dream, they feel, is mother to the material world

and it is in this fertile space,

(that only seems like a dream)

where the action really occurs.

We moderns prefer the measurable,

and collectible,

transformable by science.

If you can't sell it

it doesn't exist for us.

But what do we think about

and who are we really

underneath the lab coat?

ALOHA, cloudia

Conspiral

Aloha, FRIEND!



Click, please, oh click on the photos

This shot looks black & white;
(except for the blue sky)
but when I made it so via software,
all the magic disappeared.



"We read to know we are not alone."


C.S. Lewis

“I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore,

and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble

or a prettier shell than ordinary,

whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

Isaac Newton

Lobby of the iconic Ilikai Hotel



“The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral

rather than a straight line”

Joanna Field

Spiral on Firal!

You well may inquiral

Circle with a difference, open,

Your circumference broadening out

Expanding your clout

Medium of communion

between

"In"

and

"Out."


Warmly, cloudia

It Worked

U.S. set to make $8 billion from bailing out Citi

By David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writer

The Washington Post

updated 10:13 p.m. HT, Fri., March. 26, 2010

Among the banks that rule Wall Street, Citigroup got a bailout that was bigger than the rest. Now the company is about to pay a king's ransom for its federal rescue.

The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New York bank, according to industry and federal sources.

At today's prices, the sale would net more than $8 billion, by far the largest profit returned from any firm that accepted bailout funds and the transaction would be the second-largest stock sale in history.

On paper, the government's 27 percent stake has grown in value to $33 billion. The size of the deal in the works has Wall Street buzzing. Only the stock offering by Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which raised $36.8 billion in 1987, was larger, according to Thomson Reuters.

Leading financial firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, are vying to be chosen as the deal's underwriters to gain the prestige of managing a historic stock sale as well as the fees from investors who buy the shares.

To improve their chances, some banks, such as Goldman Sachs, are offering their services to the Treasury Department at almost no cost, industry officials familiar with the matter said.

Sign of bailout's success
The windfall expected from the stock sale would amount to a validation of the rescue plan adopted by government officials during the height of the financial panic, when the banking system neared the brink of collapse.

A year ago, Citigroup's stock hovered around a dollar a share, and the bank's future seemed in doubt. On Friday, the stock closed at $4.31.

If the sale proceeds as planned, Citigroup would be able to cut nearly all of its ties to the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program. Meanwhile, the administration could highlight the profit generated from the rescue of big banks.

"It's unprecedented to do [a stock sale] of this size right after the financial industry has been so battered," said an industry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. "It's just a very bullish sign."

The Treasury, as well as the Wall Street firms, declined to comment on the stock sale.

Citigroup's performance has lagged behind its rivals in Lower Manhattan. In January, the company announced a $1.6 billion loss for 2009. By comparison, J.P. Morgan Chase earned $11.7 billion. But Citigroup's executives said at the time that they saw its business stabilizing, allowing the company to set aside less money in the last three months of 2009 to cover losses than it did for the same period of 2008.

Citigroup was among nine major banks that were the first to take bailout funds in October 2008, and all have returned their federal loans. In addition to these repayments, the Treasury has received interest, dividends and about $3.5 billion from the sale of warrants, which are contracts allowing a holder to buy a company's stock in the future.

Lower than expected costs
The true cost of rescuing the financial system, however, is not yet known. Senior Treasury officials have said that they expect the ultimate cost of TARP to be less than $100 billion. Besides TARP programs, mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have received more than $125 billion in federal aid. There is no indication that either firm will be able to repay the government anytime soon.

Yet many economists say that rescuing large Wall Street firms has come at a much lower cost than expected.

During the height of the financial crisis in October and November of 2008, Citigroup got more than $45 billion in federal aid in exchange for preferred shares. The government later restructured that package. Officials converted $20 billion into a loan, and the remaining $25 billion was converted in September into common stock at the price of $3.25 a share.

Citigroup was the only bank that gave common shares to the government, because the firm was in worse shape than its rivals and couldn't promise to repay its aid entirely in cash.

In December, the bank announced it would raise money from investors to repay the $20 billion loan. The Treasury said at that time that it would sell its Citigroup shares in phases this year, beginning with a $5 billion deal.

The value of the government's stake had grown to $33.1 billion at the end of regular trading Friday.

By issuing stock and giving it to the government last year, Citigroup had diluted the value of stock held by existing shareholders. The company could ratify a reverse stock split to enhance the value of shares.

Last fall, the bank's shareholders approved a proposal by the company's board of directors to speed a reverse stock split before June 30.

© 2010 The Washington Post Company

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36062775/ns/business-washington_post/

MSN Privacy . Legal

© 2010 MSNBC.com

So Clooney - So Close

Aloha Movie Fans!



Click on the Clooney

"Ideals are like stars,

you will not succeed in touching them with your hands.

But like the seafarer on the desert of waters,

you choose them as your guides,

and following them

you will reach your destiny."


Carl Shurz

"Tact is,

after all,

a kind of

mind-reading."


Sarah Orne-Jewitt

"Man (or woman :)

will do many things to be loved;

he will do all things

to get himself envied."


Mark Twain


><>

I rarely go to the yacht club anymore,

even though it is just 156 steps from my boat.

But Saturday night,

a little angel whispered in my ear:

"Why not put on some bling and go over to the club?"

The idea was tantalizing for a moment

before being overtaken by

Polynesian paralysis.

The next day the harbor was abuzz;

George Clooney,

and a few of his colleagues

who are filming here on Oahu

were at OUR club

for a quiet evening of drinking!

George was tending bar

and VERY approachable

to club members who came by.

You can't avoid me forever,

George!

Tilapia Ballet

Aloha!
It's Monday -
But That's OK :)



Click on the photos

Boys and their toys. Cool lines.


"Never a ship sails out of the bay
But carries my heart as a stowaway."

~Roselle Mercier Montgomery, The Stowaway

Back Street Honolulu


"I'll always be a Backstreet Boy."

Brian Littrell

Modest Shell Ginger


"Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances,
I consider my life to be immeasurably rich."

Sonia Sotomayor

><>



Waikiki means
Spouting Waters
so named
for the fresh water (Wai)
running into the sea (Kai)
at this place,
creating a healing
micro-climate.

Below, the fish are enjoying the
brackish convergence!

Bye now :)

You the Dolly

ALOHA

Means Warm Welcome,

Friend!

Care to click on the photos?

"No bubble is so iridescent,
or floats longer
than that blown
by the successful
teacher."

William Osler

"Every moment

and every event of every man's life on earth

plants something in his soul. "

Thomas Merton

"When ambition ends, happiness begins. "

Thomas Merton

><>

The other day on Oprah

Dolly Parton talked about the time,

one Halloween,

when she found herself between gigs

in a town with a large gay community.

Dolly thought that it would be a

wonderful opportunity

to go out anonymously

and just have her some fun.

As expected, she got lost in a sea of

Cher and Dolly impersonators;

and though she had put on even MORE makeup

than usual

(remember, we're talking about Dolly Parton here)

no one looked at her twice amidst the tall drag queens

flouncing about everywhere.

She even entered a "Dolly Parton Look Alike Contest"

and to hear her tell it,

everybody overlooked the runt!

That's right:

Dolly Parton LOST

a Dolly Parton Look-alike contest.

So remember,

people seldom realize what is right before their eyes.

They are too self-preoccupied to recognize

the Star in You.

But that's OK,

we both know

that you are the

real

Dolly!

Warmly, cloudia

Merrie Month of May

Aloha Friend



Click on the photos, dally a while

Your Chair is Waiting. . .



"There is much pleasure to be gained
from useless knowledge."

Bertrand Russell

"So I'll meet you AFTER. . ."


"People find life
entirely too
time-consuming."

Stanislaw J. Lec

"How to get beat up at school."


"The biggest big business in America
is not steel,
automobiles, or television.
It is the manufacture,
refinement,
and distribution
of anxiety."

Eric Sevareid




Say!

That makes this blog kind of radical.

Revolution!
Let's refuse anxiety. . .

if only for today.


Warmly, cloudia

A Treat to See

Aloha, Friend!



Click on photos

Sky Rabbit


"One must truly HOLD A SPACE for oneself.
All things conspire
to close up this space."

Kay Ryan

"All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!"

The Wind in the Willows
'Ducks Ditty'
by Rat

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it,
it's your world for the moment.
I want to give that world to someone else.
Most people in the city rush around so,
they have no time to look at a flower.
I want them to see it whether they want to or not."

Georgia O'Keeffe

><>



A Plain Ordinary Steel Needle
Can Float on Pure Water
by
Kay Ryan,
Poet Laureate of the United States

It's a treat to see water
so rubbery, a needle
so peaceful, the point encased
in the tenderest dimple.
It seems so simple
when things or people
have modified each others' qualities
somewhat.

Staying Berthed

ALOHA!

Click on the photos

"Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song,

and all about you will be beauty.

There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail."

Robert Motherwell

"A morning-glory at my window

satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."

Walt Whitman

"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar,

and there is a hippopotamus in me

that wants to wallow in the mud."
Carl Sandburg

><>

Never forget

(I remind myself)

what a blessing it is

to walk on the beach

at the end of a busy day.

It is especially sweet today

because we passed our annual

harbor inspection and "buoy run."

The reliable ancient

Detroit Diesel

thrummed us past the rows of boats

and out of the harbor

by Magic Island.

Sky was perfect,

kitty stood her ground

and watched from her place on the deck,

not hidden under a bunk below

as she was for many years.

She and I

have both flung ourselves

in love to the breezes;

bracing our paws

we look unflinchingly

into a salty spray.

Damn the bureaucrats;

Full Speed Ahead!

So we have the right to reside here

on the water

for another year.

To walk on the beach

to rock with the tide.

Summer?

Bring it

ON!

ALOHA, cloudia