One of the little observed results of the 2012 election on Maui was the decisive approval of a Charter Commission proposal calling for a County Auditor. While not the sexiest job around, a decisive majority of voters (54 percent to 29 percent) voted to bring Maui County into the 20th century and hire an independent […]
Great Art and Government Follies and The Bar Is Always Open
THE BAR IS ALWAYS OPEN A 61-year-old Texas man admitted to a hospital not long ago appearing to be falling-down-drunk, even though denying having had even a single drink, was discovered to be unintentionally manufacturing beer in his stomach. With “auto-brewery syndrome,” stomach-based yeast automatically ferments all starches (even vegetables or grains) passing through, converting […]
US Representative Tulsi Gabbard Blasts Pentagon Brass And National Security Agency Surveillance
TULSI GABBARD’S ON FIRE Wow, it isn’t every week that a Democratic congressional representative–especially one with impeccable military credentials–starts blasting both Pentagon brass and the Obama Administration’s immense National Security state. Then again, Tulsi Gabbard–who represents Hawaii’s Second District–isn’t your average congressional member. This is surprising because of her dual government roles. As a member […]
Backyard Barnyards and Crappy Art and Congress Saves Party Balloons
BACKYARD BARNYARD The Department of Agriculture reported recently that in four of America’s largest cities–New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Denver–nearly one home out of 100 keeps chickens either for a fresh egg supply or as pets, giving rise to chicken services such as Backyard Poultry magazine, MyPetChicken.com and Julie Baker’s Pampered Poultry store. Among […]
First Amendment Blues and Celebrity Immigration and People With Too Much Money
FIRST AMENDMENT BLUES A bar in Horry County, S.C., named the Suck Bang Blow filed a lawsuit in May challenging the county’s new ordinance prohibiting motorcyclists’ “burnouts” (engine-revving with back-tire-spinning, creating smoke–and enormous noise). The bar claims that burnouts are important expressions of its customers’ “manliness and macho” and as such are protected by the […]
Holy Handguns and Government In Action and Redneck Chronicles
HOLY HANDGUNS One of the many decisions greeting Pope Francis, as Salon.com pointed out, is whether to officially recognize a Patron Saint of Handgunners–as urged by a U.S. organization of activists for more than 20 years. According to legend, St. Gabriel Possenti rescued an Italian village from a small band of pillagers (and perhaps rapists) […]
County Of Maui Wins Transparency Award From Group That Hates Transparency While Sugar Cane Burning Starts Again
THE COUNTY OF MAUI IS MY SUNSHINE One of the great things about the County of Maui is that they don’t discriminate against anyone willing to give them an award. Regardless of the organization, its funding or the fact that it doesn’t really like government of any kind, if it’s willing to hand over an […]
Government Waste And Heroic Military Bureaucrats And World of Warcraft Politicians
GOVERNMENT IN ACTION Among the federally funded projects highlighted in the “2012 Waste Book” of U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn were a $325,000 grant to develop a “robosquirrel” (to help study the somehow-confusing interaction between squirrels and rattlesnakes) and a $700,000 grant by the National Science Foundation for a New York theater company to create a […]
Male Cosmetics In South Korea and The Art Of Sleeping Women
MEN WANT TO BE PRETTY, TOO For some reason, South Korea (with about one-sixth the men that America has) is the world’s largest consumer of male cosmetics, with its leading company approaching $1 billion a year in sales. According to a September Bloomberg Business Week dispatch, South Korean males became fascinated with the country’s 2002 […]
First Amendment Blues and Celebrity Immigration Policies and People With Too Much Money
FIRST AMENDMENT BLUES A bar in Horry County, S.C., named the Suck Bang Blow filed a lawsuit in May challenging the county’s new ordinance prohibiting motorcyclists’ “burnouts” (engine-revving with back-tire-spinning, creating smoke–and enormous noise). The bar claims that burnouts are important expressions of its customers’ “manliness and macho” and as such are protected by the […]
Readers Respond To Stories About Olowalu Development And Ed Case
HATES BIG PROJECTS THAT COULD KILL REEFS Maui has the best politicians money can buy and most were bought long ago. Graft is, after all, a sacred Maui county government tradition. I watched the reefs at Kaanapali finish dying off after six hotels were built in 1980. I am still seeing development rotting the reefs […]
Invisible Art and Government Funded Sex Studies
CULINARY SLEIGHT OF PAN Delivering gourmet meals to customers’ doors is a fast-growing business model, with chefs in nearly every large modern city trying to cash in. So far, perhaps only London’s brand-new Housebites goes the extra step. According to its press release, cited by Huffington Post in June, Housebites not only home-delivers “restaurant quality” […]
Illegal Siding and Psycho Real Estate Schemes
LAZINESS SAVES! Dr. Oliver Di Pietro of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., is a leading prescriber of the “K-E diet” that offers desperate people drastic short-term weight loss by threading a feeding tube through the nose to the stomach and dripping in a protein-fat solution, as clients’ only “meals,” for 10 straight days. “Within a few […]