Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Musings: Something Creepy

Something creepy is going on. And I'm using the word in both its literal and figurative sense.

What's creepy is the growing intolerance; the determined efforts to narrow choices and options; the suppression of certain Constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly, by PC police and other extremists. It's a troubling mindset that's creeping into so many different arenas, fueled by ignorance and self-righteousness.

Take, for example, news that the University of Ottawa has banned yoga classes — including one offered for free to both disabled and able-bodied students. As the Ottawa Sun reports

“Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced," and which cultures those practices "are being taken from."

The centre [for Students with Disabilities] official argues since many of those cultures "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy ... we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practising yoga."

While cultural appropriation can be a real concern, this particular ban ignores the fact that Indian yogis have traveled the world teaching this discipline to non-Indians. Some Indian masters have specifically adapted yoga to Western students because they want us to practice it.

But mostly, this ban smacks of totalitarianism, with a certain select few determining what is appropriate and then imposing that belief on others, thus denying them access and reducing their choices. Worse, these busy-bodies are coming from a place of moral self-righteousness that ignores their own unconsciousness and hypocrisy.

Another example can be found in the reaction of anti-GMO groups to the AquaBounty salmon, the first GE animal approved for human consumption. As Slate journalist William Saletan noted:

In the context of GE crops, the “right to know” argument is often used simply to stigmatize the GE product. By slapping a label on the fish, anti-GMO activists can scare away all the ill-informed people who say they wouldn’t eat such a thing. In the case of GE salmon, the activists are going further. Friends of the Earth says:

To avoid confusion in the marketplace, and ensure the consumer’s right to know, we are asking grocery stores, seafood restaurants, chefs and seafood companies to demonstrate their commitment to sustainably produced seafood and consumer choice by joining our Pledge for GE-Free Seafood, a commitment to not knowingly purchase or sell genetically engineered salmon or other genetically engineered seafood should it come to market.

That’s not a campaign to label the salmon. It’s a campaign to deny you access to the salmon.

Fundamentally, it's no different than the campaigns aimed at limiting access to abortion. Though most anti-GMO activists would consider themselves far too progressive to deny a woman's right to choose, they have no problem denying a consumer's right to eat. And they're just as fervent in their beliefs, and tactics, as the anti-abortion groups.

I can't help but think this growing intolerance is directly related to what one recent commenter so aptly described as “arrogant ignorance.” I see it expressed in comments that make all sorts of wild claims, followed by the challenge, “Prove I'm wrong.” These folks apparently feel no need to be informed about a topic before weighing in, and instead place the burden on others to disabuse them of their stupidity.

Sometimes, the ignorance and intolerance is due to commercial self-interests. I saw this in a recent email from anti-GMO fanatic Jeffrey Smith, who wrote:

I've been asked hundreds of times: What can I do to heal from the effects of eating GMOs?

I will host a brief conference call interviewing Dr. Zach Bush who will reveal new laboratory research showing how glyphosate--the active ingredient in Roundup and a big part of the danger from GMOs--can open the tight junctions between intestinal cells.  He will also show how a supplement called RESTORE can close those junctions--or even prevent them from opening in the first place.

Now Jeffrey Smith isn't a doctor, or even a scientist. But even as he blasts the FDA for approving an “untested, unsafe” salmon, he's hawking an unregulated supplement that supposedly solves a problem he invented and promoted.

And sometimes the ignorance can be attributed to self-promotion, shoddy media practices and plain old delusional thinking. A recent case in point is The Garden Island's “much ado about nothing” article. It all started when repeat visitor Jeff Pignona wrote a letter to the editor, wondering why the sculpture of an overseer on a horse was no longer part of the sugar industry memorial by the old Koloa mill stack.

TGI then ran a story headlined “Repairs Needed” that included statements from Teddy Blake, who said he’d visited the monument just the week before and everything was in place. After claiming he was single-handedly trying to raise money for repairs, Teddy elaborates:

We can’t figure out how this came about. But the separation is natural. We’re still trying to figure out the phenomenon which caused it to pop off the concrete. And, we still need to come up with the cost of repair.

Huh? Come to find out that sculpture was never even installed. Indeed, the space has been empty for 30 years. 

So WTF are TGI and Blake talking about? And why?

Those are questions we need start to asking more asking often as misinformed people attempt to impose their beliefs, world view, morality, ideology and delusions on the rest of us.

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Fundamentally, it's no different than the campaigns aimed at limiting access to abortion."

You're slipping off the deep end even more. One is a constitutionally protected right, the other is a fish that has been genetically tampered with eel DNA.

Joan Conrow said...

9:12 -- I'm always fascinated by people whose ideological blinders allow them to completely miss the point.

Anonymous said...

Joan - "I see it expressed in comments that make all sorts of wild claims, followed by the challenge, “Prove I'm wrong.” These folks apparently feel no need to be informed about a topic before weighing in, and instead place the burden on others to disabuse them of their stupidity."

Joan, you made the same point in "Reframing the debate" about the dangers of allowing those you deem ignorant to weigh in on the debate "I'd say it's equally if not more dangerous to have seriously ignorant people weighing in on a debate when they obviously don't have a clue. November 22, 2015 at 3:34 PM

If you are so anti-democratic why allow these seriously ignorant dangerous people on you blog? Wouldn't it be better to only allow experts and science based research on your blog? I believe we should ban these stupid people from public education as well because these freeriders use our public schools to "place the burden on others to disabuse them of their stupidity." Privatize the schools!

Anonymous said...

I basically look at the whole GMO and non GMO issue as a football game.

You have two teams out there competing to win the game. You have the NFL as the sanctioning body who oversees things. You have fanatics, casual fans, and onlooking observers. Then you have people who want to profit from these two teams battling to win ie Las Vegas, local bookies and offshore gambling rings. But one cannot forget about all the factions involved in this hoopla. The media, teams doctors, reporters, and experts trying to spin things. The end result is not about who won the game but who profited the most.

It's a capitalist world ladies and gentlemen so don't get it twisted.

Anonymous said...

Everybody who lives here there whole life knows the last piece was never installed. It had not been started yet, but then there was another idiotic protest that was directed by the perpetually aggrieved to the effect whites were never part of plantation life (huh?).
And the local whites did not like the proposed rendering with the horse. They pointed out that all the old lunas roads and many were Hawaiian and other races. That sugar was a cooperative effort on the plantations, as opposed to the main office on Oahu .
So it never got put in.

Anonymous said...

9:42 - "why allow these seriously ignorant dangerous people on you blog?" Because this blog would be more boring than a peer reviewed scientific journal, that's why. Without the stupid as voluntary shills where is the edutainment?

Anonymous said...

The left wing fascist are everywhere.

Anonymous said...

9:50
Should be lunas rode horses.,Apple spellcheck is a nightmare

Anonymous said...

Speaking of cultural appropriation, I have seen lots of Kung Fu taught.... I'd pay to watch the PC-types try to shut down a dojo....

Anonymous said...

Once again South Park episode "PC Principle " nails the absurdity

Anonymous said...

Too bad south park cocrrator cannot NAIL the murderer of his friend on Kauai.

Anonymous said...

about the missing monument piece. what a laugh ! more TB bullshit. need glasses?

Anonymous said...

There goes Blake shooting from the lip again. The friggin guy is a hoax !

Anonymous said...

That's why Hoale Camp was always better than the other camps. Only after the ILWU forced fair play and equal pay was the discrepancy of jobs, pay and housing corrected.
But, if they brought back some of the old ILWU and Plantation Lunas and made them in charge.....the roads, water and housing would be fixed wiki-wiki.
The Plantation is the heart and soul of the island. Our leaders have forgotten this.
If we do not respect from whence we come, we will be driven by a bunch of loud mouthed, fake rich farmers with multi million dollar "farm" estates and a mainland style of hi-nose "I tell you how for live 'cause I gotta lot of money"
Our Council and Mayor should talk to their relatives and go to the Museum and learn up on the old ways.
Things got done, people worked together (for the most part), we were all Kauaians, we looked after the needy and Puhi Road didn't have pot holes....and Puhi Road had heavier and more frequent loads than today.
Perfect government excuse, "Uh Gee Puhi Road has big trucks" Well County, GF has been down there in Puhi with the heavy machine shop for multi-decades and ran that road 24/7 with no potholes.
But back then, the ILWU would get good people elected, Kauai at heart people. Today, smarmy mouthed do-nothings, feel good let's have a study types and blame the other guys are in office.
And now they want to raise the GET by 20 percent? What under the Good God's Green Earth can they be thinking? The County payroll has almost doubled in ten years and the level of service stinks. Kuhio Hwy Hanalei Bound stinks, Tunnel of Trees stinks, Puhi almost all Mauka lateral roads stink. And roads are the EASIEST thing to fix.
The State/County Pension Plans is way under funded and soon a law will be passed to correct this..every man woman and child in Hawaii each owe over 8000 dollars to our County/State workers for their pensions RIGHT NOW...and it grows by the second.
Bring me back to Palaka shirts and happier days.
Hard work, honest people and good roads.

Anonymous said...

@9:50 am is correct regarding the horse and rider. The Luna or field supervisors of different ethnicities rode horses to manage the workers in their field. Some were mean and some not. The mean ones had a whip wrapped around the pommel. So my assertion would be the horse and rider would be a symbol of dominance. Which is not what made the plantation days rememberable and successful. So don't think that working for the plantation in the early days were all peaches and cream. The people as a standing community of all cultures is what made the plantation days fun and memorable. In my humble opinion the monument at the old mill site in Koloa is about the people not the plantation. The plantation days as referenced is just the era.

Manuahi said...


I found Lee Cataluna's column regarding pesticides and dengue fever interesting:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/newspremium/20151125_pesticides_gmos_may_be__acceptable_to_fight_dengue.html

Anonymous said...

What's even creepier are these racism deniers who are the cultural descendants of the KKK, or the dummies who can't figure out that our state sponsored terror and invasion of Iraq gave rise to ISIS.

Anonymous said...

I support you on the GMO issues, but I think it's time to take a break on it. I know it's your blog, but I really would like to hear your thoughts on our presidential candidates.

Anonymous said...

Really, 1:35? You do not think ISIS are the heirs to the Caliphate which they claim to restore who have modeled themselves on the Assassins. Both institutions date to the Islamic struggles to succeed Mohammad. They actually were pretty successful at employing state sponsored terrorism back in the day. Of course it was before your time.

Anonymous said...

Racism is the new religion .... Always has been always will be.... PC as it's finest. You can not change the world.

Kauai Boy said...

Yep, nothing worse than a busy-body who come from a place of moral self-righteousness that ignores their own unconsciousness and hypocrisy...

And nothing creepier than the growing intolerance!

I, for one, would prefer to deny the eating public access to the GMO salmon because, when produced on a large scale commercial basis, there is too great a chance that these slamon will escape into the wild and either destroy or contaminate our valuable wild slamon heritage fisheries.

Whoops. Can I now be accused of being a creepy busy-body who is coming from a place of moral self-righteousness that ignores my unconciousness and hypocrisy? Or might I just have the urge to voice my concerned opinion?

Anonymous said...

so why all the fuss over a missing sculpture that was never missing in the first place? some half cocked tourist complains, hints of some nefarious reason for the luna's removal, GI gets involved without checking facts, interviews a community figure who is as ignorant as the tourist,: until a kamaaina writes to the forum to say the luna was never installed. The clowns involved should think before they talk. Waste of time. Make A.

Joan Conrow said...

No, Kauai Boy, you're just another one of the misinformed who expresses an uneducated opinion as fact. The GE fish are raised on land, in closed system tanks, the females are sterile and studies showed the fish quickly perished in wild conditions. So there is virtually zero chance of this fish contaminating or destroying wild populations. Unlike other farmed salmon that are constantly escaping. You might want to spend more time boning up on the topic instead of trying to be clever.

Anonymous said...

To avoid transgenic pollution and maintain control over fish populations, AquaBounty states that it will only produce sterile females. However, fish are known to change sex, particularly under stress, and there is no guaranteed method to produce 100% sterility. According to data the company submitted to FDA, several research trials did not achieve complete sterilization: 6 out of 20 lots were found to have less than complete sterilization.[i] The company will need to keep stocks of fertile fish to produce additional offspring. At present, these fertile fish are being reared on Prince Edward Island, Canada in the middle of the historic range of the endangered Atlantic salmon and where there are 22 rivers containing Atlantic salmon.



FDA’s decision also disregards AquaBounty’s disastrous environmental record, which greatly raises the stakes for an environmentally damaging escape of GMO salmon. In recent years, AquaBounty facilities outside the U.S. have dealt with an accidental disease outbreak, an accident that lead to “lost” salmon, and a $9,500 fine from Panamanian regulators who found the company in breach of that country’s environmental laws.

Anonymous said...

Motion Denied.

Anonymous said...

Kauai Eclectic should be renamed to Kauai GMO Talk or Kauai Hates da Hoos'. You have drifted beyond irrelevance into the insanely boring and predictable.

Joan Conrow said...

Well, then I guess you don't need to bother to stop by and leave your predictably boring and nasty comments!

Anonymous said...

6:11 According the several individuals who have inroads on web activity, a few who are the smartest people in the world, Joan's Blog is getting more hits than ever.
Love it or leave it, Kauai Eclectic is being read by more people.
Oh yeah, these smartest people in the world are ardent Anti-GMO individuals.
Love it or leave it, KE is here to stay. You can finger it out yourself...Webologists report that less than 1 percent of all readers will post anonymously, 1 in a thousand will think about posting with their name on a non-controversial topic....on Kauai only the brave will come out in favor of large farms. the backlash from the Antis is phenomenal. Most people just don't give a damn, Scarlett.
Thank you Joan.
It is good to have some information that is not just frivolous or poorly reported like the GI.

Anonymous said...

@10:50 -- Even if the fish change sex they won't be able to breed with the other sterile fish. The fish are reared on land in fully-enclosed systems with redundant enclosure systems to prevent escape. Even if they did escape, which they won't, they'll be on land, where they'll quickly die and pose no danger of breeding with wild salmon. Your use of "disastrous" to describe AquaBounty's environmental record is more hyperbole. Meanwhile, the genetics of wild salmon are being compromised with the constant escape of salmon that are farmed in open waterways. These farmed fish also spread disease. If protecting the salmon was your true concern, you'd be rallying against those fish-farming practices.

Joan Conrow said...

Here is a link to Teddy Blake's response to The Garden Island article and this blog and its comments.

Anonymous said...

Joan! I understand they will be modifying the fish to grow legs so they'll have fish drumsticks! But Legs will enable them to climb out and escape their ponds, migrate to streams and pollinate with the natural salmon! THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN!!!

Anonymous said...

@7:40 ... that is a lie.

They have already escaped into the wild. And it is a problem.
http://www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/resources/salmon/aquaculture2007/FugitiveSalmon.pdf

Joan Conrow said...

No, 9:22, you are the one who is incorrect. The GE fish have not escaped into the wild. Your article references the common net-pen aquaculture method used for farming salmon, and yes, they are escaping into the wild. The GE fish are raised in land-based freshwater tank systems that physically contain the fish and eliminate some of the environmental and disease transmission concerns associated with net-pen based aquaculture.

Anonymous said...

LOL! How embarrassing for 10:50/9:22 AM !!! Reading must be a challenge for the fool.

Anonymous said...

You know if Costco won't even sell it, ....

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/11/25/gmo-salmon-costco?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-11-25-Costco

Anonymous said...

Just read Blake's back pedaling response to his statements about the missing luna statute. Like his long winded response to a writers comments about his role in the Koloa byway, his latest BS, trying to cover his butt over the missing monument are so off topic so as to leave readers scratching their heads. His answers to this latest fiasco are typical. Talk. talk. talk, but never address his part in creating an issue over nothing.

Joan Conrow said...

10:23. Yes, a year-long harassment campaign by Center for Foood Safety can have that effect, which has nothing to do with the safety of the fish and everything to with CFS's fear-mongering and bullying in an effort to deny you freedom of choice.

Anonymous said...

Joan. Do you know what color the GE salmon meat is ? Do you know what they are fed ? TIA

Anonymous said...

Just curious Joan, are there any environmental or food safety activist organizations that you think are models and are doing a good job? Any public interest attorney's you think are really, really smart and doing public interest work for the right reasons?

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you choke on your GMO food.

Joan Conrow said...

12:07. It's a nice pink color. I do not know what they're fed.

12:21. Harold Bronstein is a smart and great public interest attorney. I'd have to think about the rest of your question. Can't think of any off the top of my head.

12:22. Ah, such a delightful example of the antiGMO mentality.

Anonymous said...

Here's the deal. Blake is using the missing luna brouhaha to brag about what he is supposedly doing all by himself to repair the monument. It's called beating your own drum. Its so stupid and so obvious.

Anonymous said...

Lee Cataluna wrote an excellent piece yesterday about how the anti-GMO nuts went very silent on the Big Island when the DOH announced (more likely had been ordered) to commence pesticide use within and about all schools, without exception. Seems the fear of actual hardship to themselves or family caused a bit of backtracking. The fear of dengue is both rational and very well deserved.
In fact parents are calling for a continuous treatment program because the rain will wash away the insecticide.

Anonymous said...

Harold Bronstein is one of your examples of a good public interest attorney? He signed on to a letter supporting bill 2491 along with Earth Justice and the Center for Food Safety! He is also in the same category as the fistees and the rest.

Anonymous said...

1:15PM hilarious!!!! You are 100% correct! These dumbass anti everything fucks are all about the right to know and the ability to choose what they consume as well as what they think surrounds them. Thats fine and dandy and i have no qualms of personal beliefs. BUT 1. This comes from a type of person that has enough money to make a choice. 2. They have google, why not figure it out yourself and make personal purchasing decisions and not shove your bullshit down EVERYONE'S throat! (Whoops, i forgot your social media said its the devil, must be a fact! So lets spread the gospel)

I don't force everyone to buy into my religion or beliefs especially with bullying or fear mongering. Why the fuck do they feel the need belittle people who are not of the same opinion? ALOHA, thats what everyone needs to re-learn

Anonymous said...

You said it yourself so listen to the words you preach.

Anonymous said...

If you want organic food, labeling requirements are in place. All other food is governed by other requirements. Genetically enhanced food meets requirements beyond the testing of organic food for safety. No need to label as food is food. Nutritional levels are the same.

Joan Conrow said...

No, 10:04, Harold is in a category all his own: ethical, effective and earnest. His pro bono shoreline litigation has done so much for the general public in Hawaii.

Anonymous said...

But Harold Bronstein supported Bill 2491! How can he be both a fistee and "in a different class"?

Joan Conrow said...

6:15 -- Harold is not a fistee. Not everyone who opposed GMOs or supported 2491 is.

Anonymous said...

How do you characterize a fistee? Wondering if i am in Harold's party or just a plain old woman fistee!

Anonymous said...

12:21. Harold Bronstein is a smart and great public interest attorney. I'd have to think about the rest of your question. Can't think of any off the top of my head.

Hmmmm..... Just like how you support Hawaiian sovereignty, but can't name a Hawaiian sovereignty leader you respect?

Joan Conrow said...

10:36 -- why is supporting the goals, principles and values of a social or even political movement dependent on respecting a particular "leader?

9:06. A fistee is someone who subscribes to Gary Hooser's bullying, trample everyone to get what you want, disregard the truth in the name of ideology, approach to politics.

Anonymous said...

Joan surely you can think of one person in the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement who is in a leadership position that you support? Same with regards to the environmental movement. Surely there is one organization that you think is doing a good job? Joan you have spent the greater part of your life championing so many of these people, groups and goals and now that you have joined the pro gmo team, you are disavowing all of them? Auwe!

Joan Conrow said...

You're the one making the faulty assumption that I have disavowed all people, goals and groups associated with Hawaiian sovereignty and environmentalists. It's not my reality.

I'm not going to play your little name game. I identify someone, and then you pick them apart.

I know where I stand, and that's all that matters.

Anonymous said...

There's a big difference between the cause and the leadership. Just because the cause is valid or righteous doesn't mean that it's led by decent or capable leaders. In fact, that's been the problem from the get-go and why the Hawaiian community is taking so long to get its act together. Case in point, the bozos pushing the Kingdom of Atooi. Not that there aren't any. There's plenty Hawaiians who could do it, and do it well, but they're more interested in good careers and raising decent families than politicking and pulling their hair out dealing with a bunch ya-yas.

Anonymous said...

good point 4:46

sadly, in the void created by the absence of Hawaiians who are capable, the space is filled by delusional, self-righteous promotors who believe they know what's best for the rest of the us. Of course, their main purpose is to put themselves out front, brag, use the system, while enriching themselves on grants and tax money. These are the folks who create divisiveness and hold solidarity back. You know who you are. No shame?

Anonymous said...

1:00 PM

Isn't Blake's non-profit Malama Koloa, set up to malama Koloa? So whats the crying about? Maybe Malama Koloa is as phony as its creator.

Anonymous said...

waha nui