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November 27, 2004 - Saturday
A column in Slate earlier this week put a national spotlight on Hawaii's series of crime-related constitutional amendments.
The writer, a New York public defender, concludes: "And once constitutional tinkering becomes the norm, well, who knows? That Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination has always seemed a little bit overrated."
Well, I've got a broad cat question from a former Hawaii writer now planning a move from Texas to Oregon with her two cats. In a car. Together. The farthest we've driven with cats in the car has been about an hour from Kahala to Kaaawa and even that mini-excursion could be a severe test for the human nervous system, so any more informed advice about longer trips would sure be appreciated. Just email me at ian@ilind.net and I'll pass any suggestions along.
In any case, here's the plea for assistance:
I've been cruising pet and discount stores looking for proper transport. PetSmart has something billed as an auto carrier for cats that can be buckled in, but not sure it has enough room for them to get up and turn around.
There are also wire cages and soft-sided carriers with a frame. I'm leaning toward the soft-sided carriers as I'm worried that they might bump against the wire cage in event of sudden stop, or claw it to get out, and be injured. Do you have any thoughts on this?
I'll also be packing their normal food, water from home, favorite toys, the scuzzy sleeping mats that they like, brush and comb, anti-hairball stuff, disposable litter boxes (and litter) for the cross country drive. (I'm probably going to end up with more of their stuff than mine). Is there anything else you think I/they might need?
Advice, please!
November 26, 2004 - Friday
From the "been there, done that" department: That old sinking feeling hit reporters at the Arizona Daily Star last weekend after owner Pulitzer Inc. disclosed it was exploring a possible sale. The Daily Star, which is in a Joint Operating Agreement with Gannett's Tucson Citizen, now faces an uncertain future with the possibility that Gannett will move to terminate the JOA and grab a monopoly in the area, according to a review by the Tucson Weekly.
Of course, the result of a Pulitzer divestment will also hit closer to home, since the company owns Kauai Publishing Co., publishers of the Garden Island newspaper.
I don't know about you, but I found this description of the apparently standard military policy of "dead-checking" in Iraq (Village Voice, Nov. 24-30) profoundly disturbing. I couldn't help take one marine's comment as a direct challenge to the highly sanitized news presented about this war by most news media: "Marines don't shoot rainbows out of our asses," this marine said. "We fucking kill people."
The Berkshire Eagle, the newspaper in Evan Dobelle's former home town of Pittsfield, Massachusets, reported earlier this month that Dobelle's new job came after the New England Board of Higher Education "investigated" his abrupt departure from UH.
A committee named by the New England Board of Higher Education investigated Dobelle's tenure at the University of Hawaii.
The committee concluded that Dobelle had "reshaped the university in ways that improved it academically and that his leadership 'measured up favorably when considered within the context of the apparent misguided attempts by the university's governing board to fire him,' " an announcement from the board reads.
One has to wonder about the Massachusets board's due diligence since their findings diverge so dramatically from other accounts. According to a story by Honolulu Advertiser's Bev Creamer following last week's UH Board of Regents meeting, an accrediting group found Dobelle's reorganization scheme lacking:
Board vice-chairwoman Kitty Lagareta told Beno her comments were "validating," noting that a lot of what accreditors had called micromanagement was an attempt by the board to get details that weren't forthcoming from the former administration.
Lagareta specifically cited details on how the system reorganization done under Dobelle was expected precisely to work.
"We never got anything further than a grand reorganization concept," said Lagareta. "A lot of what you identified as micromanagement was an effort to attach details."
Beno (Barbara Beno, executive director of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges) said she sympathized with the board because accreditors had also been trying to get additional details on how certain aspects of the system reorganization were to work, and had been unable to do so.
"We were after something similar to what you were after. We knew you wouldn't be able to get them, too."
Always quick to deflect blame, Dobelle also compared himself to fellow Democrat John Kerry:
"It was their Swift-boating of me," he said, comparing the regents' attempts to fire him to U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry's opponents' efforts to cast doubt on Kerry's combat record in Vietnam.
And so it goes.
November 25, 2004 - Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving to those living in the Thanksgiving-celebrating world.
| Yesterday brightened up measurably when Meda's thrift store trolling brought in a big find--a replacement for my favorite Rosti cooking spoon!
This search began 3-1/2 years ago, in July 2001, when I first posted a photo and public plea about my favorite but worn spoons. That original photo has continued to bring periodic inquiries from other Rosti addicts in the U.S. and Europe searching for help in their own extended odysseys.
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Rosti-old & new
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Then the Goodwill Gods put this almost new yellow spoon in Meda's way during her short Kaimuki run yesterday. It's been a long search.
On our morning drive into town, we had listened to a National Public Radio report on the "slow food" movement now spreading globally from its Italian roots.
When we got home last evening, I was happily examining the newly found spoon and Meda commented that the search may be extended but everything can eventually be found at a thrift store, rummage room, or garage sale. You can't find these things retail, but eventually they'll turn up in the rummage.
"Slow shopping", Meda said suddenly, the joy of an "Aha!" moment showing on her face. It's the obvious complement to "slow food" and an antidote for the evils of corporate retail consumerism.
She quickly sent an email off to a colleague and fellow criminologist, Jeff Ferrell, now teaching at Texas Christian University. Ferrell has gained a degree of fame (or notoriety?) through his experiment in surviving on stuff pulled from the dumpsters of the empire, earning the title "Emperor of Scrounge" from the Chronicle of Higher Education for his dumpster diving exploits.
Ferrell responded immediately, pointing to a passage from his op-ed last week in the London Times to show that he's been working on the same concept:
My wife and friends learnt something about scrounging as well. They were a bit suspicious, and more than once my wife, making her way around yet another pile of scrounged books or tools or clothes, noted how thin the line was between autonomy and addiction. Soon, though, she and friends came to appreciate part of the surplus: the scrounged clothes, jewelry, pottery, and artwork that I was able to pass on to them. As I continued (despite the odd protest) to haul in scrounged items, and to regale friends, family and neighbours with stories of scavenged watches and sterling silver, they realised that scrounging constituted a sort of slow-motion shopping — and that once they mentioned a needed item to me, eventually I would more often than not find it. [emphasis added]
And so it goes on this fine Thursday.
For those with more than passing interest, the new spoon is marked:
"516 STORE KIRSTEN (Rosti mark) MEPAL MADE IN DENMARK"
Good hunting.
November 24, 2004 - Wednesday
Bob Jones uses his MidWeek column this week to revisit the issue of the Hawaii Reporter's pre-election attacks on Jennifer Bainum, wife of mayoral candidate Duke Bainum. Nothing real new in his assessment, but he adds his considerable journalistic weight to criticism of the selective use of court records in the published attacks and concludes that the mainstream media should have reported on the basis of their own review and dismissal of the claims.
The watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (www.Fair.org) took aim last week at what it calls "misreporting" of Iraqi civilian casualties in Falluja by the New York Times.
Editor & Publisher picked up the questions in the latest E&P Weekly Briefing.
SPJ, the Honolulu Community-Media Council, and other organizations are sponsoring a forum next week (Wed., Dec. 1), "News Media and Society: How to Restore the Public Trust?"
It is scheduled in the State Capitol's auditorium beginning at 6:30 p.m. Click here for details on the event.
| When the sun finally came up yesterday morning, we were greeted with clear blue sky instead of the heavy rain predicted by the National Weather Service. I snapped this picture as evidence while we walked through the back streets of Kaaawa on the way home, looking back toward the mountains where the rain was supposed to be lurking. |
 Kaaawa storm?
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And this reprieve is good thing for us because our new concrete driveway is scheduled to be poured early this morning, a process that would not be helped by heavy rain.
Keep an eye on the counter at the top of this page which should record the 500,000th "official" visitor soon. And with a week to go before the end of the month, November has already surpassed all previous months in the number of visits (24,936) and total pages (79,506) viewed (both counts as of yesterday). These are modest figures in the big picture, but substantial for this little site nonetheless.
November 23, 2004 - Tuesday
It isn't raining in Kaaawa. Well, maybe it's drizzling. But the National Weather Service issued an early morning advisory indicating heavy rains close by:
SHORT TERM FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI
436 AM HST TUE NOV 23 2004
HIZ008-009-231636-
OAHU KOOLAU-OLOMANA-
436 AM HST TUE NOV 23 2004
.NOW...
MODERATE TO HEAVY SHOWERS CONTINUE TO FALL OVER PORTIONS OF THE KOOLAU MOUNTAINS. MOST OF THE SHOWER ACTIVITY IS FOCUSED OVER THE KAHANA VALLEY OF WINDWARD OAHU UPSLOPE OF KAMEHAMEHA HIGHWAY.
Portions of the Koolau mountains over Kahana Valley? Those are the same mountains right behind us here in Kaaawa.
With concrete scheduled to be poured for our new driveway tomorrow morning, we're watching the weather with more direct interest than usual.
Otherwise, it's a slow Tuesday morning in a week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, so I'm just trolling for interesting tidbits.
The Office of Information Practices has migrated its Records Report System (RRS) to the Internet for public access. This system was set up to identify the types of official records maintained by state and local agencies. It can be a very useful tool in understanding how a particular agency works, or where to find specific types of information. You can waste a bit of time by just randomly choosing an agency and then browsing the kinds of documents it maintains. It's a shortcut to the true meaning of bureaucracy.
And over at the Federal Election Commission, it's easy to browse through political committees registered in Hawaii. Just go to their advanced search page and ask for everything in Hawaii, then explore at will. You can then easily check sources of funding to candidates and political action committees and understand more about the flow of money and interests. There's always informative stuff to be "discovered".
It's still not raining. We'll see.
November 22, 2004 - Monday
| It was, unfortunately, a clear indication that we were back in Honolulu. A section of the walk between the main terminal of the airport and the United gates is cordoned off and containers are set out to catch the worst of the leaks. It's one of those things you become inured to here--when things break, somehow it takes an inordinate amount of time to fix them. |
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It's the introduction to Hawaii of the thousands of visitors who arrive on United every day. It seems like this would be up there at the top of the priority list for at least a cosmetic fix. The roof leaks? Fix it. I wonder how long it's been left this way?
On the other hand, the swift action by interim UH President David McClain to bring in professionals to deal with Manoa's flood damage was impressive. I half expected the airport solution--string up some of that orange tape around the library, hang a "closed sign", and let it sit. Instead, McClain not only took quick action, he looked out of state for expertise. Good job!
Jim Dooley had a good bread-and-butter investigative story in yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser describing a conflict of interest involving city janatorial contracts. Although the tip apparently resulted from a contested divorce, Jim was able to build the story through extensive use of city records. And the Advertiser gave him enough space to present the details that make the story.
The Star-Bulletin countered with a story on victims of predatory and deceptive mortgage loans, but it fell short in two ways. Most important, in my view, was the lack of detail that ultimately rendered the story unsatisfying. .Who were the lenders involved in the cases examined? Who were the crooked mortgage brokers? How about some of the gritty details on at least one of those cases? Another problem, in my view, is the credibility of attorney Gary Dubin as a primary source. Dubin has had his own problems over the years and does not have the best of reputations within the legal community.
November 21, 2004 - Sunday
Well, at least one astute observer, a former Hawaii journalist transplanted into hurricane country, figured out how to beat the system:
Flipping photos? Recognizing obscure landmarks? Guessing at hints and the position of the sun and the clothes and the climate? No Ian....
The real way to find out where you are .... quick and easy, every time (at least for those of us getting degrees in criminal justice, who have all this stuff bookmarked) -
1. Go to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service calendar of events (http://eventscalendar.ncjrs.org/GenSrchPub.asp)
2. Plug in the date. Pick the most likely conference.
3. Submit.
Sure enough, that would have located us in Nashville without too much extra fussing.
It's Sunday. We're winging our way back home beginning very early in the morning after being away on our longest trip in many years (9 days). With reasonable luck, we'll be home eating dinner with all the cats by the end of the day.
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