Musings: Still SMH

Lately, I've read a few things that left me SMH.....

Like this Instagram posted by defeated Kauai mayoral candidate, MMA fighter and anti-GMO activist Dustin Barca:

OMG. Now the poor guy actually believes he's kanaka. I've heard of “Hawaiian by injection,” but I don't think even that would explain Dustin's transformation.

I especially liked the comment by nicoblue: "not even a Native and I feel your pain."

That's OK, nico. Dustin isn't a Native either. Not that he bothered to correct the misperception, since he's actually trying to foster it. Because this way he gets way more likes than when he writes something "ill," but real:

Then there was Richard L. Turner's asinine guest commentary in today's The Garden Island, where he writes about the dinner he would host with Pierre Omidyar, Jeff Stone and Mark Zuckerberg if he were mayor, which thankfully he is not:

Pierre here are 100 letters to The Garden Island and many studies about the effects the [Mahaulepu] dairy farm you propose will have on the land and people of Kauai. The island is against it, as it will cause pollution of the land and ocean. The smells will be terrible and cause people and business to move, land prices to drop, and tourism to be hurt badly. Please move it to Oahu.

Ah yes. Here we have an example of an echo-chamber existence and NIMBY-ism at its worst. From a Princeville resident, no less. It reminds me of a woman who posted an article recently on Facebook about the damage that 700 dairy farms in Washington are supposedly causing to the coast there in order to justify her opposition to one dairy here.

So are you against all dairies, I asked her, or only the one at Mahaulepu? Oh, only that one, she replied.

Because it's perfectly OK if other places get messed up, so long as Kauai remains pristine (though it actually hasn't been that for centuries now). Just make sure to keep shipping over all those dairy products and everything else, though.

And then there was the Surfrider member who was miffed that Hawaii Dairy Farms and Grove Farm made no effort to stop some guys from wearing tee-shirts that others found offensive: 

It's perfectly all right for the anti-dairy folks to talk complete shit, even make stuff up, but the minute their opponents exercise their own First Amendment rights, why it's hate speech, racist slurs that must be stifled and stopped.

Sorry, but it doesn't work that way.

Speaking of talking shit, I was dismayed at TGI's piece on Mina Morita's resignation as PUC Chair, which played up her illegal B&B, even though that actually had nothing to do with her decision to leave her post. I and many others are grateful for your years of service, Mina.

We're not so grateful for Councilman Gary Hooser's idiotic smoke-banning bill. Prosecutor Justin Kollar, in testimony he'll be presenting to the Council today, points out that enforcement could be tough:

The Draft Bill criminalizes the release of smoke or particulate matter into the atmosphere when that release causes harm to the health of another. Therefore, three separate facts must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to achieve a conviction; first, that the smoke or particulate matter was knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly released from a particular source, second, that it was inhaled by another person, and third, that the smoke or particulate matter caused harm to the health of another.

As to the inhalation and resultant damage to the health of the purported victim of the offense, it would be necessary to engage medical and health experts to prove the element of causation.

Poor Justin. Still enslaved to the archaic rule of law, when in the world of Gary Hooser and his fistee followers, no facts or elements of causation must be proven in order to convict. You just point and blame and bam, they're guilty. 

It worked in Gary's campaign against the seed companies, with hundreds, if not thousands, of dolts willing to sacrifice due process in order to destroy what they consider evil.

Get with it, Justin. Proof is passe. Allegations are sufficient, cost is no issue and enforcement isn't important.

Donchaknow the only thing that matters is getting the bill passed, and Gary's name in print?