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October 09, 2008
A Republican governor, or killing machine sent from the future?
Happy October, everyone! Let's celebrate another turn of the calendar by reaching into our always unpredictable e-mail grab bag and examining this entry: Folks at the University of Wisconsin saw fit to send me a release titled "Fighting a Different War." It quotes an anti-smoking doctor at the school who is "alarmed" by the number of U.S. soldiers who are coming home from Iraq addicted to tobacco. Hmmm. Sure, respiratory health and good teeth are fine things, but is this really the issue that needs urgent attention re: the troops? Cigarettes—that's the aspect of this fiasco, the one that's cost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, we're going to denounce? Really? OK then.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 2
Here's something to follow: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving over 1 million acres of land on Maui and the Big Island formerly owned by Hawaiian royalty that the state wants to sell, as reported in The Maui News. Native Hawaiians have made claims on the land, and last January the Hawaii Supreme Court imposed an injunction preventing the state from doing anything until those claims are settled. The high court won't rule on the matter until next year, but however it breaks it'll be a huge turning point in the Hawaiian Sovereignty struggle.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 3
Lower the bar enough and it doesn't take much to clear it. That's probably the single biggest lesson to be gleaned from last night's vice presidential debate, which I'm told garnered American Idol-level ratings. I guess that's a good thing (fostering civic involvement and all that), but here's betting at least half of those who tuned in did so primarily to see Sarah Palin fall on her face (perhaps literally—those stripper heels she wears look pretty precarious). In the end, what we got was a series of canned, memorized responses (and I use that word loosely, seeing as how Palin didn't exactly respond so much as she recited) and carefully timed, mildly creepy winks. Oh, and she is almost certainly the first Veep to give a "shout out" to some school kids and to drop "Joe Six Pack" (a moniker that was invented as a derogatory put-down, by the way) into one of her answers. More and more, Ms. Palin is looking like some random lady that won a contest—"Who Wants to be a Maverick?"—and is just sort of whimsically going along for the ride. It'd be funny if it weren't so damn scary… In other news: With Dad sitting pretty a month out from the election, Maui's own Shane Victorino is making headlines on the Mainland as his Philadelphia Phillies blaze through the playoffs. Last night Shane clubbed a pair of doubles, stole two bases and, just for kicks, hit a grand salami to pull Philadelphia within one win of the National League Championship Series.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 4
"We'd love to conserve water, but it'd be bad for the economy." That, in a nutshell, is what representatives from Maui's big resorts told the County Council at a meeting yesterday—and they bought it. Reversing course on a conservation proposal that would have limited outdoor irrigation, the council caved to the demands of the luxury hotels and voted 6-1 to pull the bill back for further "discussion." Perhaps because she's not running for re-election and has very little to lose, Michelle Anderson was willing to vote alone—and to speak the truth. Quoted in The Maui News, she said that further exemptions and compromises could make the measure completely ineffective. "There isn't anything in this bill that would provide an economic hardship to anybody," she added. Look, the Maui economy, as currently constructed, leans heavily on tourism. Tourists like to stay in big fancy resorts with lots of lush tropical looking plants. We get it. But the water shortage is real and pressing, and fixing the problem will require sacrifice. This place is paradise whether we irrigate Wailea or not. Maybe it's time for some serious re-ordering of priorities, rather than head-in-the-sand business as usual.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 5
So I attended my first Maui County Fair yesterday with the wife and wee one. It's funny how county fairs are county fairs wherever you go; the particulars change a bit by region, but some things stay comfortingly consistent: rickety, nausea-inducing rides; hopelessly rigged but impossible to resist carnival games that force you to spend $20 on a $2 stuffed rhinoceros; greasy grub that's deep fried whenever possible; a tent full of farm animals that smells like, well, a tent full of farm animals… in short, good old-fashioned fun.
MONDAY OCTOBER 6
Man, those corn syrup people don't let up. On the heels of the e-mails I mentioned last week, I got a snail mail packet of propaganda-er-information titled (and this one even made me, a guy who's never met a pun or play-on-words he didn't like, gag): "And Now, A Little Food For Thought." It's full of lots of "helpful" information that may or may not claim corn syrup is the cure for cancer (I skimmed). The veracity of their claims aside, what really amazes me is that one little caption in one little newspaper set off a response of this magnitude. Guys, corn syrup is in everything—you're winning. Time to dial back the PR spin cycle a notch or four.
TUESDAY OCTOBER 7
As noted in the AP "this date in history" thing printed in today's Maui News, we have arrived at the five-year anniversary of California's decision to recall Governor Gray Davis and elect in his place Arnold Schwarzenegger. Much like folks of the previous generation with JFK's assassination, I can vividly remember where I was when I heard the news: Heading to the movies in my car with the radio on. I winced, but immediately tried to convince myself it wasn't that bad. Then I arrived at the theater, bought my ticket and walked into the lobby—only to be confronted by a giant Terminator video game, the top of which was outfitted with a larger-than-life recreation of our newly elected chief executive's head replete with glowing red eye. It was a low moment. Say what you will about Gov. Lingle—at least she hasn't embodied a murderous futuristic cyborg… yet. MTW