Black and White

This Martin/Zimmerman case has longed bothered me. Not because I think Zimmerman was wrong. Not because I think Zimmerman was right. What has bothered me most is that the facts in this case seem irrelevant. Cherry picking facts and distorting information has been about the name of the game in the reporting of this case. There are people in this world that think just because an action involves one white person (or in this case Hispanic) and one black person that IT MUST BE RACIAL - and go about building a storyline to promote their case. And when I say PROMOTE, I mean promote. In early days, everyone from Barack Obama to Al Sharpten to Kayne West had spun a web of racial prosecution. Defending the "hoodie" became a call to arms. I honestly feel enormous sympathy for the family for the loss of a child, but even they made public relation maneuvers. The picture released of Trayvon Martin and shown on every available media outlet was FIVE YEARS OLD! The boy in that picture was truly a BOY of 12 years old.

If I can stress anything to everyone I discuss issues with it's: nothing is ever cut and dry, or forgive the pun, black and white. People can do what's right, and people can do what's wrong. There are cases where bad people do bad things. However, in major news stories there are often many sides to every case. One should not jump to conclusions without at least reviewing each side. The following Reuters story on George Zimmerman is quite interesting. It's a little hoaky, but it certainly doesn't paint a picture of a premeditated, racially-drived killer.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/us-usa-florida-shooting-zimmerman-idUSBRE83O18H20120425

Marks on the mark

Howard Marks is the legendary investor and founder of Oaktree Capital in California. He is a former convertible bond guy, and I know a few people at Oaktree. I have always admired his work. He gave a speech called "The Human Side of Investing: Theory and Practice" at the New York Society of Securities Analysts (NYSSA) last week. I wish I had been able to see the actual speech, but did not. However, there is an excellent summation of it CLICK HERE.

I particularly liked the parts about value/price relationship, contrarian investing and the "us versus them" schools of thought. Those points encapsulate how I try and live my professional life.

Double Digits

Emily turns 10. Hard to believe that 10 years ago tonight we were speeding to the White Plains hospital. Luckily I didn't park the car, because I would have missed it. We arrived at the hospital at 9:50pm and Emily was born at 10:02. Katie was 12 hours of labor. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, that doesn't surprise me anymore.

Although disappointed she had school on her birthday (in NY it was usually vacation week, and here her first two were Saturday and Sunday respectively), she is making the best of it. French Toast for breakfast. Baked Ziti for dinner. Getting presents certainly helped too.






Not bad for a first timer:

Marco ... Polo... I mean, Romney

District Band

Westonka's All-District Band concert in full minus the one hour of all non-Moore performances. Oh yeah. 1 1/2 hours of performances by the 5th, 6th, 7th, and four different High School bands. I know, you wish you could be in my shoes...

Kaua'i 2012 - The Movie

This vacation was much more mellow than past ones. As such, we took a lot less video since our activities were mostly swimming, beaching and eating. So calling this a movie is a bit of a stretch. It's more slideshow than video.

Enjoy. If you click the square next to the "You Tube" logo on the bottom right corner, it will enlarge to Full Screen mode.

god, archive footage is a biatch

Kaua'i horses

On Emily's suggestion, we signed up for horseback riding. We booked a two-hour trail ride that would have been just us plus a guide at a stables close to our hotel. We picked that facility because it would allow us to "trot" the horses rather than just walk. However, with all the rain they got here last week, the stables called us the morning of our afternoon ride and had to cancel. The trails and the facilities were too muddy and the horses didn't have the proper horseshoes.

Fortunately, we were able to book a stable the next day. It was further away, but in the same direction as other plans we had. This ride was shorter (an hour and a half) and no trotting. Additionally, there was another family of three with us. Nevertheless, it was a fun ride, and Alison was probably pleased there was no trotting involved.

The trails here were muddy, but not terrible.



It wasn't all dense, wet trails. We had a nice view of the Napali Coast mountains.



Following the horse riding, we had a terrific afternoon/evening in Hanelei Bay. Our friends were renting a house right on the beach. It is actually two houses down from one of the houses featured in George Clooney's movie The Decendants. We had lunch, and then hit the waves. Bill and his friend, Dave, surfed numerous sections of the beach - from high waves that were probably too high for our skill level, and low waves for practicing. Bill tried an SUP (Stand-up Paddleboard), and did very little actual standing. The girls and boys body boarding in the waves near the beach. Even Alison got into the action. It was her first and only time in the Ocean here.

Afterwards we had a nice take-out dinner and watched the sun set on Hanalei Bay. The kids played Go-Fish on cards that were imaged with Hawaiian fish as opposed to traditional numerals and face cards. A good one to have is the humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa.

Tuesday fun and ride

Today we hit the beach early. The girls rented body boards for the week and toook them to the waves. Katie took and early tumble and put the board away before the video came out. Emily hit it hard.



From the beach we took to the road, hitting the South and West coasts for lunch, ice cream and sightseeing. The West coast ride took us through the Waimae Canyon. The canyon has a few lookout points including the following:

South side...west side