i L i n d . n e t

It’s drizzling in Kaaawa this morning, delaying our walk while we try to wait out the precipitation.

We’re entering Day 4 of this kitten rescue. The other cats are not amused. This morning I found it is very hard to get anything done in front of a computer with six or eight ounces of wiggling kitten trying very hard to find a nipple somewhere in my beard, around my neck, or on my shirt. So just click on this photo for a few larger pictures of the as yet unnamed guy.

Interesting times on the Big Island, where the County Council voted this week to turn down federal funding to continue the “Green Harvest” attacks on local marijuana growers. Both the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and the Star-Bulletin covered the vote, with the Bulletin’s Rod Thompson doing a good job reporting. Green Harvest was one of the first initiatives in the “war on drugs”, but has often been perceived as targeting small independent growers while ignoring the larger organized crime operations. Thompson notes concerns about due process and the need to focus resources on the more serious “ice” problem.

The Advertiser finally got around to noting the most recent controversy over conference travel to Hawaii by public officials, something I’ve been grousing about for some time. Reporter Robbie Dingeman got comments on the general issue of Hawaii’s “boondoggle” image from a couple of industry types, but their observations are all quite passive. There’s no indication that the state or visitor industry take direct action to counter these perceptions. It seems that the industry is like the Elliot Gould character in that old Jules Feiffer movie, “Little Murders“. Gould, who plays an alienated photographer, is always getting beaten up but does nothing to defend himself. “They get tired,” Gould explains. I guess that’s the strategy we’re pursuing as well.

For a look at one aspect of warfare of the future, don’t miss this Washington Post story about the attack on Estonia and the flow of rapid response teams from other countries eager to get some combat experience in this new form of international conflict. I don’t necessarily understand all of the specifics, but the description of the battlefield just behind the structures of our everyday world is quite an eye opener.