WARNING: You maybe shouldn't read my new book
7 years ago
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This goes out to every single resident of Hawai'i who heard the siren call of "native" son Barack Obama's presidential election and subsequent visit back "home" to Hawai'i this Holiday season. We're not Stalkarazzi. Hawai'i has always been a place where people with high profile names could come to relax because we locals don't let crap like that slide.
We don't like being shoved out of the way by paparazzi trying to get a picture of someone's ass. We don't like having sand kicked in our face because some idiot with a camera is trying to capture a shot of someone in a bikini. We don't do stuff like that here, so quit it. And shame on YOU, Honolulu Advertiser, for telling your readers to take pictures of Obama and send them in, all to boost revenue sales on your website. You've never done that for any past visiting president nor celebrity alike, even those born and raised here, or those that live here most of the year, and there are many.
My true cause for concern and ire here stems not from the treatment that the locals will receive by those clamoring to get that precious, potentially Pulitzer Prize winning (in your dreams) shot - it's an issue as to the safety of the future president and his family that worries me. The news has been riddled with stories of people and groups plotting to kill him for something as simple as the color of his skin... and we have people taking photos of him in front of his vacation home. This isn't the invited press taking these shots, let me remind you. Yes, Obama invited the usual group of press corps, as is the norm. However, that infamous shot of him without his shirt on didn't come from one of them. How difficult would it have been for that cameraman to have been a man with a grudge, and instead of a camera in his hands, something more dangerous?
Sure, there are going to be people who question why I feel so strongly about this, and let me make it quite clear that yes, I would have made the same comments about Bush had these things happened to him, but frankly, no one really gave a damn about him; Bush has no star power which didn't invite much in the way of public interest outside of the White House. The reality that he will be the least popular President in history will definitely not go unnoticed by both his detractors and his supporters, but let it be known that even he deserves to be safe and be left alone.
Obama and his family have been kept virtual prisoners of their home because of this intense media hounding, and I'm truly saddened by it. He couldn't even say farewell to his tutu in peace, which violates everything we here in Hawai'i stand for. Live Aloha; you see those damn bumper stickers on just about every car here. A'ole pilikia to everyone who forgot what that meant when they stood and took pictures of him saying Aloha to his tutu. Shame on you.
as long as you give them back their money, too.
Supporters of Proposition 8 are pushing for the more than 18k marriages to be dissolved/nullified, which is quite hypocritical when you think of it. Supporters of MARRIAGE want annulments for over 36k people.
Well, that's fine. Of course, in return, the state and counties need to refund all of these couples their marriage license fees, the tax dollars accrued for the event costs, etc... Seems pretty reasonable and fair, right?
What does that amount to again? From my understanding, over $18 million dollars were earned from the state from taxes and fees alone. That doesn't include what the businesses themselves made. That has to go back, too, I'm afraid. Refund it all.
If anyone has a problem with that, you can take it up with your local Prop8 supporter. Marriage may mean a governmental union between one man and one woman now in the State of California, but it wasn't when these individuals got married. If you want to say they couldn't do it at all, retroactively, then they need to be reimbursed.
I hope you enjoy paying up and out. Just think of this as a lesson in fiscal responsibility. Don't want to pay? Don't try and deny people the very same rights you would demand for yourself.
It's been raining something fierce these past couple of days, and though it's supposed to ease off by Monday, come Wednesday we'll be seeing more rain. I have mixed feelings about this, because though we need the rain, it's put damn kinks in my plans.
I was supposed to go to a play this evening with my family, but the rains caused our road to be closed - yay - and we had fifteen cars parked in front of our gate because the intersection just a few feet away from said gate had been overtaken by a fast flowing river that had overflowed its banks. Lovely, no? In the opposite direction was debris, more fast flowing water - though not as much - and a line of cars, a fire truck, and onlookers.
Had we left this evening, I would have been able to meet up with a dear friend of mine whom I haven't been able to see for years. Of course, had we left this evening, we wouldn't have been able to return. The way home has been closed off due to flooding. Fun.
Our neighbor's yard is completely decimated, our yard feels like a soaked sponge, and I feel like such a schmuck for telling my friends that I'd be at the play, and then didn't show up. There's not much I could have done about it, I know, but I still feel poorly about the whole thing. So, hopefully I'll be able to meet up with my friend tomorrow if the weather abates enough.
Oh, and why should you call me Noah? Because I'd be toting my two boys and two girls across the flood. Duh.
The following link takes you to a story of one of the families that lives on our street whose home was flooded just the other day because of all this rain.
http://www.khon2.com/news/local/36035159.html
This one is about the rain on my side of the island.
http://www.khon2.com/news/local/36028394.html
Because I love really odd and quirky crap.
Deep Fried Computer
On this day, four years ago, I gave birth to my youngest daughter, after a very difficult, and stress filled pregnancy. We were told early on that we should abort because of complications that could arise from my undergoing so many x-rays and being treated with certain medications that were detrimental to a growing fetus (we didn't know I was pregnant at the time), but I'm stubborn, but all tests that were taken later showed that my baby girl would be fine.
Fast forward to December 11, 2008 and I'm amazed at how my family has grown, and how incomplete it would be without my precious Lotte's presence. She is a light, a joy, a sweet and precocious child who never leaves you without a smile.
Happy Birthday, mommy's Bebe.
I had Christmas down in Africa! Five golden rings!!!
Share!!
Hit Ctrl + A and then Ctrl + C to Select all and copy. Happy Christmas!
Fighting Against Injustice Against Our Neighbors like looting from our neighbors.
Dec 9, 9:17 PM EST
Clashes, looting rock Greek cities for 4th night
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS and ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press Writer
ATHEN, Greece (AP) -- Masked youths and looters marauded through Greek cities for a fourth night Tuesday, in an explosion of rage triggered by the police shooting of a teenager that has unleashed the most violent riots in a quarter century.
The nightly scenes of burning street barricades, looted stores and overturned cars have threatened to topple the country's increasingly unpopular conservative government, which faces mounting calls for Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to resign.
Police fired tear gas at protesters Tuesday following the funeral of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, who was laid to rest in an Athens burial attended by about 6,000 people.
The rioting - which has engulfed cities from Thessaloniki in the north to the holiday island of Corfu and Crete in the south - threatens the 52-year-old Karamanlis, who already faced growing dissatisfaction over financial and social reforms at a time of deep anxiety over growing economic gloom.
Opposition Socialist leader George Papandreou called for early elections, charging the conservatives were incapable of defending the public from rioters.
"The government cannot handle this crisis and has lost the trust of the Greek people," Papandreou said. "The best thing it can do is resign and let the people find a solution ... We will protect the public."
The call was echoed by protesters, who, though they have not voiced any particular policy goals, say they want Karamanlis out.
"It's very simple - we want the government to fall. This boy's death was the last straw for us," Petros Constantinou, an organizer with the Socialist Workers Party, said in Athens. "This government wants the poor to pay for all the country's problems - never the rich - and they keep those who protest in line using police oppression."
Karamanlis, whose New Democracy party narrowly won re-election a year ago, has ignored the calls.
Greece was torn by years of civil war between communists and right-wing nationalists in the wake of World War II, and was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1967 to 1974.
Though a student uprising succeeded in ending military rule in 1974, it also left a legacy of activism and simmering tensions between the security establishment and a phalanx of deeply entrenched leftist groups that often protest against globalization and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The groups have now evolved into various mainly youth factions that claim to fight trends ranging from globalization to police surveillance cameras. Their impact is usually limited to graffiti and late-night firebomb attacks on targets such as stores and cash machines.
But the latest riots have moved far beyond the small antiestablishment groups to become a siege of Karamanlis' government. Teenagers and university students have joined self-styled anarchists in much of the rioting and destruction.
The fallout from the riots, which has seen police stations nationwide come under attack by rock- and Molotov cocktail-throwing youths, could be far-reaching.
"This reaction will register as major discontent in the next public opinion polls, which will hobble the government's effectiveness," political analyst Anthony Livanios told The Associated Press. Whenever the government tries to pass reforms, "Greek society will react - while the level of parliamentary opposition will increase."
The government is already facing public discontent over the state of the economy, the poor job prospects of students and a series of financial scandals that have badly rattled public confidence.
Greece is heavily dependent on tourism, which could decline as a result of the global economic crisis.
Karamanlis trails the Socialists in recent opinion polls and would struggle to win a general ballot now. His government clings to a single seat majority in the 300-member Parliament and could be brought down by a single defection, though it is unlikely any deputy would risk his political career to topple a government at a time of civil unrest.
A poll released Tuesday gave the Socialists a 4.8 percent lead over Karamanlis' conservatives. The poll gave no margin of error.
A senior Socialist party official, Christos Protopappas, blamed underlying social inequalities for the violence, saying the government's policies exacerbated the gap between rich and poor.
"If there is no change in policies, I fear that what will happen in six months or one year will be much worse," he said.
Analyst Livanios agreed. "This was an emotional reaction after public opinion was outraged by the unfortunate event of the teenager's killing," he said. "Clearly, during very negative economic conditions people with very low incomes and jobless people who can see no future for themselves became part of this social reaction."
On Tuesday, police fired tear gas to dispel dozens of youths throwing stones and sticks and setting trash cans on fire near the funeral for Grigoropoulos, whose death Saturday sparked the rioting. Dozens of local residents gathered on the streets, shouting at police to stop firing gas in the residential area.
Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis said "the winds of destruction are blowing through our city."
Schools and universities across Greece were closed for the funeral and hundreds of teachers, university lecturers and students rallied in central Athens, where hundreds of teenagers threw rocks and scuffled with officers.
Still, the clashes were less severe than the rioting over the past three nights.
Amnesty International accused Greek police of heavy-handed tactics against protesters, saying police "engaged in punitive violence against peaceful demonstrators" instead of focusing on rioters.
----
Associated Press writers Derek Gatopoulos and Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press
A lot of twihards are going to have a hard time accepting the sex scene between Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltran. Oh well.
No limit.
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