Musings: No Takers

Could it be that the rose is off the bloom? The dream of self-sufficiency is fading? The fantasy of feeding the world has smacked up against the reality of hard fricking work and weekend play time?

Gosh, you mean that guilt and shame aren't sufficient motivators? It sounded so good when they held the SHAME banner at the Lege. But hey, if all else fails, Dustin can always resort to intimidation and threats.

Sad indeed. Especially when these folk are claiming they're the ones gonna heal the aina and feed the planet, and they don't need no help from the stinking farmers or GMOs. Also sad are their piss-poor writing skills. The contraction of "you are" is "you're," Katie, not "your."

Equally sad are the misinformed folks who wasted a couple of hours waving anti-GMO signs in front of Safeway when they could have been helping Dustin plant mauka. 

They used to irritate me, but now I mostly just feel sorry for them, because it's clear they're missing a few screws. Like nurse Marghee Maupin, who has spread so much fear on the westside. (Thankfully, she is no longer working at KVMH.) Yet she still believes she's out there "raising awareness," even though it's clear from comments like this that she doesn't know WTF she's talking about:

“I used to work at the hospital over there on the Westside, where they’re testing between 70 and 90 pesticides every day,” Maupin said. “I got Guillain-Barre syndrome and I had to leave. When you look at the list of causes, the only one that fit with me was the pesticides.”

First, they aren't testing any pesticides, much less 70 to 90 per day. Where in the world do they come up with this stuff? As for G-B syndrome, a quick browse of the Mayo Clinic site turned up this:

Guillain-Barre syndrome may be triggered by:

• Most commonly, infection with campylobacter, a type of bacteria often found in undercooked poultry
• Influenza virus
• Epstein-Barr virus
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS
• Mycoplasma pneumonia
• Surgery
• Hodgkin's lymphoma
• Rarely, influenza vaccinations or childhood vaccinations

There ain't nothing about pesticides — until you go to an autism-vaccine site. And this deluded woman is in charge of people's health?

Joanna Wheeler, another anti-GMO ignoramus, chimed in:

"Kauai is called GMO ground zero because they’re testing here and it affects us more than anywhere else. They’re testing chemicals here on Kauai that are banned in their own countries, where the companies are headquartered.” 

Again, they aren't testing anything. But this is what happens when Councilman Gary Hooser, Center for Food Safety, Hawaii SEED and GMO Free Kauai tell a lie loud enough and often enough: People who aren't too bright believe it, and crappy newspapers like The Garden Island reprint it.