Musings: Near Misses

If you haven't been out yet to see Venus and Jupiter lined up with assorted brilliant stars in the pre-dawn eastern sky, well, all I can say is you're missing something special.

You missed some serious fuel-burning aggravation if you skipped the “Stars and Stripes Freedom Celebration” at PMRF Tuesday night. Seems the two-and-a-half-hour concert was followed by a two-hour bumper-to-bumper commute to the DUI checkpoint the cops had set up at the Waimea ballpark. Good thing the beer gardens ran out early.

Ah, yes, living free in Amerika.

Hey, I hear there's a new act in town, and if you're a masochist, you won't want to miss it. I'm talking about the Public Safety Trio: Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, Councilman Mel Rapozo and Police Chief Darryl Perry. Yup, they'll be appearing live at five venues around the island, starting next week. So much charisma in one room. And no cover charge.  But no beer garden, either. Actually, I'm not positive the chief will be there. Though he's quoted in the press release, it wasn't clear if it will be him or another "community leader" from KPD. 

It's the kind of idea that probably sounded wickedly clever after the fifth martini: “Hey, Mel, let's ramp up the Shay and Jake dog-and-pony show." "Whattya mean?" "Let's you and me team up for a series of town hall meetings." "And field those same tired complaints about ice, break-ins, prescription drug abuse and unsolved murders? Nah, I don't think so." "Silly boy, it's just pretend. We'll actually be campaigning. We can even bring the chief along, so everybody knows he's on our side, not that *#@$&% Justin's." "Yeah, maybe we could have him set up a roadblock after, just to remind voters who really wears the pants in this county." "Wait, but then I might get busted.”

Sometimes you want to try to save people from themselves, but then you realize, it's just not possible.

In case you missed the news, turns out Fukushima “was a profoundly man-made disaster — that could and should have been foreseen and prevented,” according to Kiyoshi Kurokawa, chair of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission. Imagine that. Radiation circling the globe. Compromised health. Ruined lives. Toxic land. Contaminated fish. All that horror, suffering and destruction, the result of one big scheming selfish "oops."

I'm sure our equally-colluding government-nuke industry won't miss the significance of this wake up call.....ahem.

And finally, if you think you've been missing something by not getting out to Kalalau, stop. A friend who was just there said the toilets are so pilau and stink that people don't even want to use them. Instead, they're making shishi and doodoo wherever, including leaving uncovered piles alongside the trails.  Na Pali Coast. Eco-tourism at its finest.