Musings: Stick a Fork in It

As Kauai's pesticide/GMO regulatory law moves through federal court, former state Attorney General Margery Bronster will be squaring off against the same law firm she confronted while investigating the Bishop Estate: McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP.

Bronster is representing Dow Chemical's Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Agrigenetics Inc., which joined Syngenta and BASF in suing the county over Bill 2491/Ordinance 960. Kauai County just hired McCorriston to handle its defense, allocating $75,000 to get started. Oh, and thanks to The Garden Island for letting us know that Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum approve. Whew.

The Honolulu firm is a regular presence on Kauai, representing Jimmy Pflueger in his criminal case following the Ka Loko dam break, KIUC and frequently the County. In fact, it was hired to conduct an extensive audit into county fuel use, resulting in a report that county Auditor Ernie Pasion and then-Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri allegedly altered to make the mayor look bad.

Speaking of bad, I wrote previously about Huffington Post Hawaii's penchant for insipid pieces about the Islands. Most recently, it published “The 18 worst things about Hawaii,” which essentially bemoaned the fact that this ain't the mainland, as one offended local described it.

But Jonathan Likeke Scheuer fought back, publishing “Seven of the truly worst things about Hawaii” in an effort to “stick a fork in the idea of Hawaii as paradise.” His excellent essay touches on the real issues here, including grave diggers, hunger, homelessness, political retribution, racial discrimination and “the continuous stream of crappy writing about Hawai‘i by people not from here.”

Which leads us to this piece of shit: “Paradise Lost.” Here's its teaser:

A pristine, Eden-like land is settled by a small band who set about to create a modern-day utopia—only to have it all ruined by one devilishly handsome, charismatic interloper.

It's an article that glorifies the squatters who trash Kalalau, focusing on sex-and-drugs and the sensationalism of the Justin Klein case, while throwing in a few bogus celebrity references for good measure: “Will Smith owned a house close by” and “Mark Zuckerberg was recently hunting for a home near the valley.” Oh, really? 

In perusing it, after reading about Surfrider's antipathy for the new dairy, I couldn't help but wonder why that group has never said a peep about hundreds of people living illegally in a wilderness valley, planting alien species, destroying cultural sites, overloading the toilets, polluting the stream and leaving piles of rubbish that have to transported out at public expense. But god forbid there should be a dairy 2 miles from the ocean on “pristine” ag land that's currently being used to raise cattle and was in sugar for a century before that.

Anyway, it's Friday, and it's been kind of a heavy week, so let's end it on a lighter note with this cool Big Island video that reminds us dolphins — like all creatures — are a lot more tuned in than we like to admit.