You’ve gotta love this one–the recording of John McCain’s brother’s call to 911 because he’s pissed off at being stuck in traffic. Then he curses at the operator when told 911 is for emergencies only.

And did you notice Advertiser editor Mark Platte’s Sunday column regarding the newspaper’s evolving policy regarding online comments? [Warning: the Advertiser’s new file system will render this link useless in two months.]

Here’s the substance:

In the past week, we have taken two steps to take back our comments section from those who engage in personal attacks.

The first is to limit comments on many of our stories, particularly those about race or crime, that are likely to engender threatening or abusive commentary. If you find you are unable to post a comment on a particular story, it is because we have decided that the reactions will be too incendiary to have them published online. For example, no more comments can be attached to prep sports stories because of abusive language directed toward students and coaches.

The second step we have taken is for bloggers to personally approve each comment that is sent to them before they are posted. This has caused some grumbling among bloggers because of the delay in seeing comments posted automatically but it has sadly become a necessity. We have revised this practice in recent days somewhat by allowing regular posters — those who we know not to be troublemakers — to be allowed to have their comments posted immediately.

Luckily, I haven’t had many problems or issues with comments, although I have removed or declined to approve comments on two or three occasions. But the more heavily trafficked newspaper sites have drawn far more than their fair share of hostile, angry, and just plain nasty comments. I think we’re all just feeling our way forward in this new online news world.

A reader commented on yesterday’s entry:

as a possible follow-up to your item on the Gulick non-conforming structure:

did you notice the consumer column in the S-B (Monday) talking about all that misuse of Kipapa Gulch. Turns out the violation notices have been in place for a long, long time and the fines are long overdue and building at $100 a day …. but apparently nobody really DOES anything but issue notices and MAYBE get around to minimal enforcement.

And KITV gets credit for turning up a very weird aspect of the house collapse in Kalihi. It seems the landlord, a former mayoral candidate who was stripped of his chiropractor’s license in 1996, was doing experiments involving injecting substances into people who rented rooms in the makeshift addition.

One also wonders whether the substantial income, described as $500-$700 for single rooms in this tent-like structure, was reported and taxes paid.

This is one of those stories that could keep unfolding.

And thanks to Big Island blogger Susie Collins for her informative entry explaining why some people have not jumped onto the highly publicized breast cancer awareness pink ribbons campaign.

Collins writes:

My highly critical view of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is along the lines of Samantha King’s, who, in her book Pink Ribbons, Inc., “traces how breast cancer has been transformed from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship.” King maintains that corporations, under the guise of philanthropy, “turn their formidable promotion machines on the curing of the disease while dwarfing public health prevention efforts and stifling the calls for investigation into why and how breast cancer affects such a vast number of people.” I couldn’t agree more.

Woke up this morning to find a medium-size rat dispatched and left in my bathroom, probably the work of little Ms. Annie. She’s the smallest of our cats but, at this point, the most active hunter. And sounds of cats playing caught my attention at 5:45 a.m.. It looks like Ms. Kili may have caught another rat and released it in the house, then lost interest after a short bout of playing. Well, I can’t say they never give me anything.

Speaking of small cats. If you missed yesterday’s Tweet, Mr. Duke went to the vet yesterday and tipped the scales at 19 pounds 6 ounces. That’s the most any of our cats has ever weighed, and I came back with Duke and a bag of diet cat food. We had to find one that had both reduced calories/fat as well as avoids urinary crystals. Science Diet r/d seems to fit the bill. Last night I served up a mix of their current c/d and the new r/d. Who knows how a pack of fussy and spoiled cats are going to respond? Cover the toaster!