Musings: Wolf Killer

The stars were holding forth, having briefly reclaimed the sky upon the setting of the bright and bulbous moon, when Koko and I set out walking this morning.

Since it was very early, and a Sunday, the operative word was stealth, so as not to get any of the neighborhood dogs barking, although the hundred or so fighting roosters going off at the house down the street didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the racket they were making.

Mist hugged the contours and valleys of the pastures, reaching out to touch us, softly, as we passed by, and all the mountains were vivdly clear as the sky turned rosy behind the Sleeping Giant.

It was a day made for drying laundry, so I headed down the hill with my full basket, and as the clothes washed I sat in the sun outside the Laundromat and talked story with Jim Alalem and Jerry Ooka. You never know who you’re going to run into at the Kapaa laundry. Like me, they came early to avoid the rush.

I found out from Jerry why my homemade poi never turns sour — “you’re too clean in your preparation; it needs yeast from the skin to ferment” — and Jim confirmed a story I’d heard that one of the bullies who held him down in high school and forced him to swallow chicken feet — “You know, I’m still haunted by that,” said Jim, now 51 —went on to become a Kauai vice cop, where he apparently still bedevils those over whom he wields power.

It made me think of a comment from another friend who, upon hearing of my questioning by the cops, recounted his own experience of being held for seven hours by FBI agents. That must have been scary, I said, to be interrogated by the FBI, to which he replied: “Nah, they’re professionals. But the Kauai cops, you never know what they’re gonna do.”

Same is true with Sarah Palin, the GOP VP pick. In case you’re still looking for reasons to oppose this candidate, here’s a good one: she advocates killing wolves from helicopters. Apparently her “pro-life” stance doesn’t extend to other mammals, and last year she approved an initiative offering aerial hunters a $150 bounty for each left foreleg from a wolf that they brought in.

Seems she felt the wolves were giving Alaska hunters too much competition for game. A judge later ruled she didn’t have authority to offer the payments, but still, the scheme tells you a lot —none of it good — about what kind of person, and "sportsman,” she is.

The best anti-Palin bit I’ve read yet is a piece called ”Drill, Drill, Drill” by Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues.” I like it because it’s both astute and beautifully written. Here’s one excerpt, but it’s really worthwhile to read the whole thing:

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

Finally, if you want a laugh, check out this clip from Saturday Night Live, where Tina Fey returns to do Sarah Palin, and does her well.