Monday, September 28, 2009

Musings: Outrageous

A star fell as Koko and I stepped out the door this morning, reminding me of the old saying that where a star falls, the fish are biting, so today, it seems, that would be in the east. The stars that stayed put gave way to clouds as we walked, further darkening the dark, and when a strip of dawn appeared on the horizon, it illuminated the scalloped edge of a cloud that I knew soon would be dropping rain, and it did, but not on us.

As we walked, I was thinking about outrage, a musing prompted by a comment a reader left on the last post, wondering where mine was when I wrote about the seal killer's light penalty (I guess I just did a poor job of conveying it), as well as all the other outrageous things that passed through my consciousness just this past weekend alone. I’m talking about:

• The “foreign bands” of pornographers who are taking advantage of the extreme poverty in Peru to obtain children as young as 3, often for 34 cents or a quarter of a chicken, to sexually assault in videos sold to other extreme sickos.

• The heavily-armed Pittsburgh cops who used tear gas, stun grenades, smoke canisters and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which emits a piercing whistle, to disperse people exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly at the G20 summit.

And related to that, the 20 countries that control 80% of the world's resources.

• The revelation that the equivalent of 560 coal-fired power plants, or 230 nuclear plants, will need to be built over the next 20 years just to satisfy the demand from our flatscreen TVS, computers, game consoles and other electronics, thus making it that much harder to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• The way the U.S. has wasted $150 billion developing missile defense systems — the bread and butter of Kauai’s PMRF — since President Reagan first proposed “Star Wars” in the 1980s “Yet in 25 years the program has not produced a workable weapons system, something unprecedented even in the annals of the Pentagon's bloated budgets.”

• The General Accounting Office report that the ill-conceived 661-mile-long fence on the U.S.-Mexico border will cost $6.5 billion to maintain over the next 20 years and haas already been breached 3,363 times.

• News that Glenn Beck will make more than $23 million this year for peddling his brand of blather, which he bills as the “fusion between entertainment and enlightenment.”

The declaration that “conspicuous consumption is definitely out,” because that means it once was, weirdly, “in."

• The ill-informed woman from LA who thinks she even has the right to weigh in on the vacation rental issue, much less criticize Barbara Robeson and Caren Diamond as “self-appointed civilian enforcers” while falsely insinuating they engaged in trespassing to gather their information about property owners breaking the law.

• People who called Ehren Watada a coward and traitor when he had the tremendous courage to stand by his convictions and refuse another tour of duty in Iraq.

• And, of course, that lying sack of shit Charles Vidinha, who claimed he was just trying to "scare" the monk seal he shot twice, (as if that’s a valid excuse) as well as his attorney Alexander Silvert — you can tell just by watching his eye movements on the video that he’s lying as he repeats Vidinha’s fantastic story — and KITV news, which tried to drum up sympathy for the monk seal killer by describing him as “an elderly Kauai paniolo” and saying: “Even though he said it was an accident, Charles Vidinha was immediately sent to prison.”

Kinda makes you wish for a return to ye old days of the public stocks, so we could heap all sorts of abuse and rotten veggies on the perps.

There’s still a lot that doesn’t add up with the story. If Vidinha was too broke to pay a fine, how did he come up with the $10,000 bond? You need keys to get through the gate to Pilaa, so was he working for Jimmy Pflueger, who owns most of that land? If so, does Jimmy generally arm his employees, and why? And what was that bit about preparing the beach for campers from Oahu? Are they running a little “private beach” tourism biz there?

The Advertiser, for some reason, didn’t allow comments on its article, but the Star-Bulletin story generated lots of outraged responses. My favorite:

One would think that firing 4 shots is more than just an accident. Too bad the seal wasn't packing.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of PMRF; I was recently reflecting on the times we the people so unanimously and consistently protested the closure of Majors Bay beach which was enjoyed by all families on weekends. And the overall access denial by PMRF ʻofficialsʻ.

Remember what they told us? There was possibility of terrorists entering base on surfboards, etc.

When, in truth, the Missile Defense System was locked and loaded and ready to be installed. As were the cabins for fat white alcoholic retired military freeloaders to fry their collective blubber on another stolen beach.

They lied.
Can they be trusted?
Not to mention, the FACT that the Missile Defense System is a HOAX.

Anonymous said...

Ehren Watada is a hero for refusing kill people in an illegal war. Others who "were just following orders" including Bush the lesser might be considered war criminals. Ehren is a great role model for personal responsibility in the spirit of Jeffery Patterson the US Marine who years before sat down on the airport tarmac at Kaneohe refusing to go to Vietnam.

We should have a parade to welcome Ehren back home!

Anonymous said...

"• The “foreign bands” of pornographers who are taking advantage of the extreme poverty in Peru to obtain children as young as 3, often for 34 cents or a quarter of a chicken, to sexually assault in videos sold to other extreme sickos."

You mean like the sickos like the prime time violence pornographers like Nancy Disgrace, and Jane Velez-Mitchell who sensationalize and titillate viewers ad nauseam with their psycho-sexual self righteous rants for ratings. Believe it or not these bottom feeders call themselves "journalists".

Mauibrad said...

Like your list of outrageous items, Joan.

Anonymous said...

Thatʻs a great description of Vidinha, a lying sack of shit.

Something is peculiar alright and he even admitted to trying to scare the seal which in itself is harassment.

If your dog - or you- go too close to a seal, you will be charged with a felony.

Somethingʻs way wrong in this picture.
Maybe Phleuger was going to feed seal to his Guamanian and Samoan laborers.

Anonymous said...

so chances are to some extent this guy was related to antone “kona” vidinha (top kauai cop, then mayor '67-72; wife a 40 yr local teacher, bla bla). got it. does that translate into present cops creating a favorable case file? do the feds even defer much to that file? i for one have no idea, but the favorable treatment that "say" guy got even tho his relative was a local police commissioner ages ago does come to mind

and when is one "indigent"? is it "net assets" dependent?

and does the "reckless disregard" standard play into this? 4 shots seem to support such a mens rea finding

it may very well be the proper court outcome. but easy to see how the public is upset / confused


oh and as to the "Not to mention, the FACT that the Missile Defense System is a HOAX" thing:

-- thanks for the heads up. feel free to expand on that..


a_mainland_mentaility

Anonymous said...

You mean like the sickos like the prime time violence pornographers like Nancy Disgrace, and Jane Velez-Mitchell

Um, no. Like real sickos who are actually taking advantage of the extreme poverty in Peru to obtain children as young as 3, often for 34 cents or a quarter of a chicken, to sexually assault in videos sold to other extreme sickos.

Liberals have no perspective.

Anonymous said...

"Liberals have no perspective."

DOn't know about "liberals" but Disgrace and their ilk are parasites feeding off and benefiting from the other sickos that give them fodder. This is not "no" perspective, but rather a "broader" perspective. Sicko #1 exploits child, and sicko #2 titillates and horrifies and increasingly sick audiences to make a little pin money while hypocritically fegining concern for the "children". Got it!

Anonymous said...

Soooooo, no one can report on child sexploitation or else to your mind they are feeding off and benefiting from the other sickos that give them fodder.

That's ridiculous.

And how do you suppose we're supposed to believe you are omniscient enough to know that their outrage is not sincere and that they are only "feigning" concern for children. You're just talking out your ass.

Anonymous said...

I've been wondering when someone would pick up on the Vidinha-Pflueger connection relating to the monk seal killing. Pflueger's legacy of arrogance continues. While Jimmy may not have pulled the trigger, his swaggering attitude and the fact that he allowed armed cowboys on the property he controls makes him, in my mind, at least partly responsible for this killing.

I believe I read that the act was witnessed by some tourist. Well that person must have either 1) come through Jimmy's locked gate him/herself or done a long rock dance down the coastline to get to the beach. Either Jimmy has his own reality/tourism show going on at Pilaa or that tourist would be viewed as a trespasser (even though the beach is public) and in danger of armed employees themselves.

Jimmy in stocks? Sure, followed by a hefty jail sentence for the Koloko killings and, if he lives through that, banishment forever from Kauai!

Anonymous said...

The 7 Deadly Sins in one post.