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| The REST of the story, etc |
| 03.25.05 (2:00 pm) [edit] |
There was a popular radio feature here called "The REST of the Story". Paul Harvey would tell a story, usually omitting a fact or two, then telling you the REST of the story which would amaze the listener.One such story tells of the first President of the US. It tells the story of George Washington being appointed President of the US and John Adams being appointed Vice President. They began their travel to the capiton of the country, Philadelphia. I seem to remember there was a snow storm or whatever and John Adams arrived first. He was duely sworn in as Vice President. The Constitution was in place at the time and it stated that if the President could not fulfil his job as President, the Vice President would be in charge. So, if the President has not yet been sworn in, he could not be in charge, so in essence, the Vice President was acting President for a few days until George showed up. A technicality? Perhaps, but John Adams was the President for at least a few days. Now you know the REST of the story... ----- September 10th, people around the world wait to see how bad the devastation will be. Many could die tomorrow. A land and its people may never be the same. Oh yes, the world knew in advance the horror of what was to come. They knew in advance. It was no secret. It was in the papers, on the news, all on September 10th. September 10th, 1992. Hurricane Iniki was scheduled to make landfall directly upon the Hawaiian island Kauai. It did, and the destruction was immense. Now you know the REST of the story... --- So now you see how it works. Here are two news items that you may consider. I make no comment on my side of either issue, only that how you feel MAY be effected by the press reports you hear... Item 1: Feb 25, 1990, a woman named Terry Schiavo has a heart attack and both her husband and her parents are working to help and care for her. This type of news item would not get much press. Much later the husband says his wife did not want to be kept alive by mechanical means. The parents say not so! They fight back and forth. Skip ahead to today and USA Today is reporting that this whole back and forth and lawsuits MAY be all related to how a $1 million malpractice settlement Schiavo won 13 years ago over Terri's care should be spent. I personally have not followed the case but can tell you that this information, if true, may explain quite a bit. --- Item 2: Martha Stewart is accused of insider stock trading. Investigations ensue and a big deal is made out of whether she did this and/or covered it up. Yes, many CEO's of large companies have stolen, cheated and/or lied and if that is the case with Martha, her supporters said "Why make an example out of her..." Well, I wondered the same thing. I wondered if there was a vendetta against her. Why spend so much time prosecuting her? Then I read, in small print somewhere, the fact that Martha Stewart was on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange. This means that she needed to be above reproach since she could make decisions that effected the whole stock market process, I'm sure. In this case, it probably was prudent to completely investigate. It was the same as the investigation of House and Senate staff (who oversaw the US budget) to be investigated when they were tied into illegal banking procedures. --- Recently there has been a flurry of messages and news on whether the US should allow citizens to invest their own money for their retirement. SOCIAL SECURITY WILL BE BANKRUPT! "WIDOWS AND ORPHANS WILL BE HOMELESS"... the fight goes on. Let's take a look at the issue. 1st, who ever said Social Security was a "retirement plan". It was NOT meant to be a retirement account. [b]SEC. 702. The Board shall perform the duties imposed upon it by this Act and shall also have the duty of studying and making recommendations as to the most effective methods of providing economic security through social insurance, and as to legislation and matters of administrative policy concerning old-age pensions, unemployment compensation, accident compensation, and related subjects.[/b] It sound more like a catastrophic insurance policy. So, the government comes up with a plan to help make sure that pensions are paid and accident benefits are directed properly, and over the years people begin to treat it as a savings account. Who in their right mind would let the US Government manage their own bank account? Then you begin to look at who wants to keep the process in place and why. One reason to not give up on Social Security might be that it is a cash cow. It takes in money and pays it out, but there is no drawer or account where your money that you have paid in, is kept in. All the funds go into the general fund of the government, who then loans it to other countries, or pays it out in farm credits, or whatever. Later down the road, they pay benefits to recipients from the general fund. That sounds like a slush fund that they can borrow from. Now, maybe I'm wrong, but that is my opinion. I don't fully understand the SS process, nor do I care. I am NOT assuming that any of that money will flow back to me in later years. I am managing my OWN retirement fund, thank you. Another group who might benefit from keeping social secirity as it is, is any political group who keeps voiters on their side by saying the other side is taking this money away from them. People who would be worried are those who are not big wage earners and people who have no money saved for themselves. Another group might be one who makes a lot of money off representing people who might be relying upon social security. I believe that groups like AARP HAVE to be against the privatation of social security. Think about it, what else does AARP do besides talk about Social Security? What would they do if Social Security was not an issue? I don't know. So, always take what news you hear, with a grain of salt. Sometimes you don't get the whole message. Do your own research. I may be completely wrong with every item in this blog., so do your own research. |
| I'm Confused (again) |
| 03.20.05 (2:40 am) [edit] |
|
This entry is somewhat similar to a previous blog, but what the heck. I posted this in FlyerTalk after a member asked a funny question "Island or peninsula?". There was no other reference, just THAT question, meant to evoke a laugh. My response was: --- By any other name.... ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ----- Ok, hang on for dear life... I live on an island, the island called Hawaii in the county of Hawaii in the state of Hawaii. Yet when people say they are go to Hawaii, many mean they are going to the island called Oahu in the county of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. So my island (the one they call Hawaii), we have to call it the Big Island, because well, it is the biggest island. If you live here you can only say you are Hawaiian if you have Hawaiian blood. Otherwise you are a visitor or malahini. When visitors came to old Hawaii they were called haole, a foreigner. Since the foreigners were all caucasions, haole generally means white person. So on this island is a town we call Kona, but Kona also means the leeward side of the island, so the west side is the Kona Side. To avoid confusion with the direction/town name, they also call the town Kailua. Well there is a Kailua on Oahu, but it is on the east side of that island, so they call this town here on my island Kailua-Kona. To further complicate matters, there is a town here called Volcano but luckily, it is right near the volcano, well near "A" volcano, because this particular island has at least 5 volcanos. They range from extinct (or hopefully close to it) right up to active. Every other island also was formed from at least 1 volcano. Now in this state, any older woman is called "Auntie" and older man called "Uncle" whether that person is actually related to the person or not. There is a word the Hawaiians use, Aloha. This means hello or welcome. It also means good bye. They also use it to express love. Here in/on the islands, there is a fish. The name of the fish is mahi mahi, perhaps you have heard of it? Well they also call the fish a dolphin-fish with the emphasis on the fish part so people don't think they are eating a regular dolphin, which is not a fish but a mammal. Mahi mahi is not to be confused with ahi, which is a yellow fin tuna, not to be confused with a regular tuna. The regular tuna must not be a fish or people would not specify tuna as being "tuna FISH" unless there was a non-fish tuna. Does that make sense? Here in the islands there is an expression "ono" meaning good. But ono is also the name of a fish. Ono is also known as a wahoo (not to be confused with Yahoo) and the ono is a close relative to the mackerel, except that unlike the mackerel, the ono does not school. Now there is an expression here called "dakine" which really has no meaning but can be used to express whatever the person wishes it to mean. "That dakine guy gets on my nerves". On an island, even this big island, we don't know north or south. We use the expression mauka (towards the mountain) and makai (towards the sea). Sometimes it makes more sense to say you are headed towards a town or landmark (on Oahu you might be Ewa bound or Diamond Head bound). Note that Diamond Head (the volcano crater) was not named because it looks like a diamond, but rather that parts of it glistened like a diamond. Ok, so I hope you hung on and followed along. The following will test your understanding: My Hawaiian Auntie and my haole Uncle fly Hawaii. Dey go Ewa-bound to get some dakine ono ahi! It was so good, it broke da mouth. Then dey went windward and mauka go see Diamond Head. When dey got to Kona-Town dey went pass volcano to dah park see Pele in her splendor. I wish dem much aloha! |
| A Full Week and Then Some! |
| 03.09.05 (10:16 pm) [edit] |
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There are slow weeks and there are full weeks. This one was pretty full. A year ago I received an email from a couple wanting to vacation in Hawaii. I often get these emails because I participate in numerous forums and discussion groups. These people listen to the consumer advisor, Clark Howard. I gave them some travel tips and helped them decide which islands they want to visit (Hawaii and Kauai). Along the way they mentioned that they wanted to get married in the islands, so I helped then coordinate things here in Kona. They arrive Thursday night and the wedding ceremony is scheduled for Saturday night. Their cost is about $550 including the Justice of the Peace, flowers, a hotel location, certificates and a bottle of champagne. All in all, not a very expensive event in the scheme of things. They will stop by a local store for Hawaiian Wear prior to the ceremony. I’ll be a witness and will be taking photos for them. Since they will know no one on the island (I’ve not even met them yet), I tried to get them to arrive last week so they could do the ceremony at the monthly KonaWeb picnic. We had TONS of people there this month and it would have been neat to have the new couple meet 20 or 30 new friends here. Unfortunately, they could not get he in time. Oh well J I have invited KonaWebbers to stop by for a drink of champagne. Perhaps a few people will be able to make it. Otherwise, it’ll be just the 4 of us (until the Justice of the Peace leaves J I have had 3 Ebay auctions recently; 2 in the last week. One woman got a pretty good deal on a pound of coffee but has yet to pay. The last auction bidder was the only one to bid and got 2 of my 4 ounce bags of coffee for 99 cents (plus $3.85 shipping). WOW! I love getting deals and believe it or not, I also love GIVING deals, if that is the way it turns out. Perhaps I’ll get a bit of repeat business from the auction winners. Speaking of Ebay, I found a fantastic deal for websites at $10 a year and got a few. Although they offer great packages for installation, I found that the sites are not appropriate for ecommerce. You cannot get a static IP address and the site also does not support SSL certificates either. I then found a pretty good deal ($78 a year) for a site that gives you a static IP if you want it. So I bought a SSL certificate for my site and got it working. As I converted my old site to the new hosting company, I ran into major problems and had to do a bunch of converting and troubleshooting. Just as I got things workinga nd ready again for customers, my site went down! I sent an email to the trouble desk and went to a coffee meeting about farms and taxes. When I got back I found the site was again running. Whew! I have been testing out a router for a neighbor who also runs a coffee farm business. Unfortunately she does not yet know about the SSL problem and she will have the same issues. At least the router (which I got on, let me think, Ebay), was a great bargain. I also talked the seller into using the post offices Flat Rate Box (FRB-1) and saved like $14 shipping cost! The neighbor will be up on high speed along with her renter and both should be happy with the internet speed. I was hoping to get her interested in the Packet8.Net deal for internet long distance. It would save her even more money if she uses my discount code LAVAROCK J I bought a backpack sprayer and walked part of the property spraying Roundup on the weeds. I have an area near the garage cleared and will be putting a weed mat there soon. The mat will protect the area when I get ready to build my nursery for little keiki coffee plants. I also went price shopping for refrigerators again and am about ready to get one. I may have to keep it downstairs until I get the kitchen remodeled. I am still working on that project. I got a call from the USDA about my application for a grant for water conservation. I’ll meet with them Monday. I want to get my coffee into one store nearby to see how well it sells. The results may help me decide if I will invest in UPC codes and sell in many stores. There are other things which happened this week, but I am tired just thinking about them, so aloha for now! |