Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Musings: On the Gamut

I feel a little sorry for Maui, having a chemtrail believer and anti-GMO campaigner leading its fight against the rat lungworm virus.

I'm talking about its state health officer, Dr. Lorrin Pang. He's been a bit distracted in recent years, which may help explain why he failed to recognize or head off a real and serious health threat on his island.

Still, as one friend observed upon seeing a news photo of him picking through leaves in search of the semi slugs that spread the disease, “Finally they have Lorrin Pang doing something productive.”
It's also been interesting to see some of the anti-pesticide folks avidly embrace poison — sales of rat traps and slug bait are booming — once they feel threatened by a pest.

In following up on last week's water forum on Kauai, the truly telling part came when panelists were asked whether they condemned or condoned last October's vandalism at the Blue Hole diversion last October. Adam Asquith, Kui Palama and Hope Kallai didn't consider it vandalism at all; indeed, they felt it was justified.

While I respect Kui for the well-researched work he's done to uphold traditional Hawaiian rights, which included a prolonged (and ultimately successful) court case following his 2011 arrest for hunting pig on Gay & Robinson land, Adam more typically incites others to do the dirty work rather than risk a run in with the law himself. As for Hope, why was she even on that panel? How is she qualified to be talking about Kauai water issues?

In any case, those who condone the vandalism of a fully permitted water diversion that serves a public utility's hydro plants are standing on shaky moral and legal ground. One, KIUC customers will foot the bill for the damage. Two, the vandalism was poorly executed and ineffective in achieving its goal, though it did dump debris into the stream. Three, it was stupid, especially since the state and KIUC are already working to establish flow standards for that stream and revise the diversion so it doesn't take 100 percent of the stream during low-flow periods.
Rubble dumped in stream from vandalism.
In other words, a solution based in law and science was already in the works before vandals got into the act. Moral of the story? Educate yourself before jumping to conclusions and taking matters into your own hands. And it's always wrong for people who should know better — Adam and Don Heacock — to use misinformation to provoke others to do something foolish.

Speaking of doing something foolish, the state Legislature is still considering HB 2, which would allow the construction of tiny homes on agricultural lands. As written, the bill currently applies only to Hawaii Island, but it sets a terrible precedent for allowing the proliferation of housing — and sub-standard housing, at that — on ag land. The bill is set for a conference committee hearing today, where hopefully it will be put to death.

Rep. Cindy Evans, who introduced the measure, deserves an F grade for promoting a really stupid approach to her island's housing shortage. As a leader, she should be finding solutions to the housing problem, not allowing non-farmers to profit by building shoddy shacks on their ag parcels. Talk about a cop out.

Continuing on the “something foolish” track, the Lege is also considering two bills that would allow online brokers, like Airbnb and VRBO, to collect taxes for the state. Problem is, only one would require operators to prove they are in compliance with county laws, while the other allows owners to self-certify.

Now, why would the Lege want to undermine the hard work of county planning departments, which are already struggling to enforce the existing vacation rental ordinances?

Speaking of which, Kauai County recently scored an enforcement victory when Judge Kathleen Watanabe found the county acted properly in shutting down Rene Campos' illegal TVR in Kilauea. Though attorney Jonathan Chun argued the conversion of a guest house to a TVR was “grandfathered,” the judge didn't buy it. Planning Director Mike Dahilig praised the action, using strong language in a a county press release:

“I would like to acknowledge our legal team in defending our enforcement actions to stop those wishing to cheat our land use laws because they are tempted by the large sums of money these vacation rentals can yield. Illegal vacation rentals like these take valuable housing out of the long-term housing market for our local residents, and is precisely why our vacation rental laws need to be respected.”

Yup.

And finally, Joni Kamiya managed to win over one of the activists protesting her participation in the Honolulu March for Science on Saturday. Turns out he didn't actually know what he was talking about, and like so many other misinformed activists, wrongly equates Monsanto with all things GMO.

Education is a wonderful thing, so long as a mind is open enough to accept it. 

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

You wonder why Hope was there but not Kui? What the fuck does he know about water besides illegally diverting Hanapepe river to bring water to the conservation lands he's illegally squatting on and breaking a county water main in the process which the tax payers have to pay for? There's a story you can dig into.

Anonymous said...

"It's also been interesting to see some of the anti-pesticide folks avidly embrace poison — sales of rat and slug bait are booming — once they feel threatened by a pest."

citation please

Joan Conrow said...

@10:57

http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/04/tad-bartimus-hanas-do-it-yourself-battle-against-rat-lungworm/

Anonymous said...

That article mentions rat traps (which aren't poison) and slug jugs, which are also nontoxic traps. As well as a host of anti slug and rat measures using common and good pest "hygiene" like washing vegetables.

Where did you see mention of "rat bait?" I use peanut butter by the way.

Joan Conrow said...

Yes, the article did mention those measures, and it also referenced "slug bait," hence the image I used, and it included a comment about slug bait and rat traps being sold out. I erred in leaving out the word "trap" after the word "rat," and have corrected the post.

As for rat bait, I've found a piece of cooked Portuguese sausage works wonders.

Anonymous said...

Pesticides, everyone's against them.....until they need 'em.

Unknown said...

This is a link of a video of the guy in charge of health department in Maui. What a joke!
https://youtu.be/Yazf24zabYo

Bill Wilder said...

Ashley Lukens came to my house and showed me how to properly wash my veggies to avoid lungworms. I take my veggies, say lettuce, and run them under the faucet in a colander and I scrub them till they are well rinsed. Then I spray them with vinegar from a spray bottle and wash and rinse them one more time. Take care not to leave the veggies outside on the ground after this because slugs can get them again. Really hard to avoid lungworms if you can't wash the veggies. Thanks for all the tips Ashley, you doctors really know your stuff.

Anonymous said...

"Pesticides, everyone's against them.....until they need 'em"

Yep, like lawyers and police.

Anonymous said...

There is no rat lung on Kauai so no need pesticides. You no like rats around your house get one cat. You no like snails and slugs get some chickens or ducks.

Unknown said...

Can rat lung disease infect chickens and ducks? Can they contaminate the eggs?

Anonymous said...

"The parasite cannot be passed on through meat or eggs. It is not known at this time if chickens can get the disease from eating slugs. However, studies done in Australia have shown that parrots can contract the disease."

Anonymous said...

"At this time there have been no reported cases of cats contracting the disease, in spite of the fact that they are predators of rats. There have been cases of dogs and horses getting the disease."

Anonymous said...

"None of the 11 most recent patients have died. However, state health officials have said there have been two rat lungworm-related deaths since 2007." Who's fear mongering now?

Anonymous said...

Too much common sense. I think you might have totally confused them and now they'll cry to council to create a law to ban cats and chickens like the dog barking and smoke laws those county council fucktards created to please those kinds of people.

Anonymous said...

@ 1:20

"Who's fear mongering now?" People should fear RLW. You know . . . because it's real, and has real symptoms, and has caused real deaths, and has really been traced to a real source?

Anonymous said...

I bet there has been more than 2 deaths from pesticide poisoning since 2007 @1:20

Anonymous said...

And pesticide poisoning isn't real? Have any symptoms? Caused any deaths? Hasn't been traced to s real source? @5:21

Anonymous said...

Drugs are a 1,000 times more then pesticides. Recently 1 got shot DEAD / guys in jail for this stupid act. DEAD at 45, 35, 38. Plus some suicides. Name your 2 directly related to pesticides.

How much beach braddah's n sistah's headed down this same drug / pesticide death row! Freaking too much.

Same bs of yours, different day.

Anonymous said...

Pesticide poisoning as described by Cornell University: http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/Tutorials/core-tutorial/module09/index.aspx

Joan Conrow said...

@5:41 & 7:10

Yes, but all the hooha has been about ag pesticides. I challenge you to identify one death in Hawaii since 2007 due to pesticides used in an agricultural setting.

Anonymous said...

Chronic exposure to pesticides is responsible for illnesses that cause death. Way more desths than 2.

Anonymous said...

Who do you think makes the chemicals that go into making "ice"? The same companies that are making the chemicals that go into our food and everything else. You need to learn who your real enemy is .@ 10:31

Anonymous said...

6:31/6:41 Citations, please.

Anonymous said...

@6:49 from Cornell again: "Exposure to pesticides may also result in the following:

Reproductive effects: effects on the reproductive system or on the ability to produce healthy offspring.
Teratogenic effects: effects on unborn offspring, such as birth defects.
Carcinogenic effects: produces cancer in living animal tissues.
Oncogenic effects: tumor-forming effects (not necessarily cancerous.)
Mutagenic effects: permanent effects on genetic material that can be inherited.
Neurotoxicity: poisoning of the nervous system, including the brain.
Immunosuppression: blocking of natural responses of the immune system responsible for protecting the body.".
http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/Tutorials/core-tutorial/module04/index.aspx

Anonymous said...

@ 6:41 a.m. I'm 10:31 p.m. Yes, I know who the enemy is. It's ignorance. It is you, it is me. it's all of us on this dumb ass merry go round of words.

go ahead, 6:41 a.m. name your direct pesticide death here on Kauai.

And i'll keep on telling you, Drugs (which is in some way a by product of chemicals) that is killing our Kauai families. but it's not the direct result of pesticides.

Ice is not made up of insecticides, herbicides or fungicides.

how I know! freaking night marcher's are all around of us. from one end of the island to the other. I see them. don't turn the blind eye to this epidemic.

Seriously, Thursday is one day from Friday. Have a great weekend.

BTW, Evslin, you still grasping at empty straws. I read your recent GI post. "pesticides" within the article. smells stink from a mile away. and you know that.