Rain is generally welcome here in Hilo. After all, Hilo is the rainiest city in the world. However, about nine inches of rain fell here last night and it continues to fall day after day. It is insane.

While getting gas on Saturday morning, before taking a trip to Kona, we noticed that part of Kamehameha Ave was closed but it was not flooded. I heard the radio announcements from the Civil Defense and they said Kamehameha Ave was closed today. I really could thought it couldn’t be all that bad since we were just there yesterday. But wow, it is horrible.

Many people have flooded homes and businesses from all this rain. I really cannot even believe this is happening here - it is too surreal. Fortunately, our little neighborhood is fine. The lower part of our backyard is a filled with water but it is far away from the house. Also, we have a giant torrent of water rushing down to the ocean which is making a great deal of noise. I am always able to hear the waves of the ocean at night but not lately… I think if someone stepped into the drainage ditch behind the house they would take a quick trip down to the ocean and would most likely not be seen or heard from again. The current is extremely swift and dangerous.

Here are a couple of photos:

Kamehameha Ave / Sunday

The Wailuku River (normally quite calm)

Photos from the Ha Ha Ha! blog

More photos available here

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I think things will finally be returning back to normal since the holidays are over.  Brian and I went on a vacation to Kauai and had a really nice time.  We did some hiking, kayaking, and sailing and had quite a bit of fun.  It did rain quite a bit and because of it I was unable to go SCUBA diving but we did get to see a number of whales and dolphins while sailing.  We tried to go hiking on the Napali coast but it was raining, windy, cold, and muddy so we were unable to do the swamp and ridge hike.   We did, however, get to see the Napali coast from the SCUBA boat and it was stunning. Unfortunately, rough seas and a storm turned us around before we were able to see the whole thing.  We have also decided that Kauai should be renamed to the Chicken and Mud Isle instead of the Garden Isle…

The holidays were uneventful for me as I don’t really do anything for them.  Brian went to California and will be back in a week.  I have been using my spare time lately to do oil pastels and I am having a lot of fun with it.  I’ve been doing a lot of sketches and have decided to do a Viking mural of some kind on a large canvas that I bought.  It will definitely be a long-term project…

I also finally got around to watching the latest documentary by Michael Moore - Sicko.  It was really rather interesting.  We have certainly had our share of health care related issues living in Hawaii.  Interestingly enough, we have had a good experience with Kaiser Hawaii (although I have heard bad things about Kaiser on the mainland).  Anyone else see his film?  Any thoughts about universal health care?

Anyone do anything fun or interesting for the holidays?  What do you think of the assassination of Bhutto?

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ABC has an article on How Young Is Too Young for Birth Control; the article highlights a proposal to give birth control to sexually active kids at a middle school in Maine. The school is already giving out condoms to these teens.

Apparently, Maine has a law that says you cannot have sex under age 14. I would wager a guess that Maine also has laws that say you cannot drive over the speed limit (at any age) but I would imagine that many people break that law. I do not think that I should have to point out that people don’t always follow the rules - especially hormonal teenagers.

But that is the real crux - this is a middle school - not all of these kids are even teenagers, they are pre-teens. However, if these kids are choosing to have sex then it is crucial that they are given access to birth control. They should definitely be choosing condoms over birth control to prevent disease and pregnancy. At least someone is there to educate these kids on proper birth control and disease prevention methods.

The students will need to have their parents permission to access any of the services offered by the health center. Many of the parents seem to be up in arms about this because they view the school as enablers of sexual activity. These kids would probably engage in sexual activity without protection just like many adults and not think of the consequences until later.

I think the real questions are: Would you want your child to die of AIDS? Would you want your child’s education to be over at age 11?

If you say yes, you should have your children taken away from you. If you say no, then you should support access to birth control.

They should probably start thinking about why their kids want to have sex at age 11. I think it would be wise to offer some kind of counseling to understand why these kids want to have sex at age 11.

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While I cannot stand Ann Coulter for her insanely terrible politics, I think it is egregious that Maxim would point out all of her figure flaws over pointing out how she’s racist, misogynistic, anti-progressive, or how she has an absolute hatred of all people who are not just like her (Republican, Christian, white, heterosexual). In pointing out all of her figure flaws, it has done a terrible disservice to women. Maxim is really saying that they have no respect at all for women and that they have nothing to say that is relevant. That is really pathetic.

Fortunately, Maxim has a small and dwindling audience. Therefore, we will probably not have to hear what they have to say for much longer.

Walmart even removed the magazine from all stores in 2003 in response to customer complaints.

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According to a study published in Springer by Laurie Rudman and Julie Phelan, feminism and romance are not incompatible. Furthermore, feminism may also

improve the quality of heterosexual relationships. The study showed that negative feminist stereotypes, that tend to stigmatize feminists as being unattractive and not sexually appealing, are not supported.

ScienceDaily originally reported on this story.

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FauxNews has an article about Ahmadinejad’s visit with part of the opening paragraph that states that “watching Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak to students at Columbia University showed just how disconnected certain factions of American society have become to the sacrifices of their sons, daughters, parents and spouses.” (Such a statement would not be inconsistent with a website that has an advertisement at the bottom of the page for “free Ann Coulter email addresses.”)

I think this article is completely untrue and absurd. The people interviewed in the article seem to think that squashing free speech and only hearing from people that have like-minded viewpoints is the best way to deal with problems in the world. Ahmadinejad was not even treated well at Columbia - he was blasted by the president of Columbia for a laundry list of reasons why people dislike him. Ahmadinejad is a total joke - his statements about homosexuals in Iran, his positions on women, and his stance on nuclear weapons make him a ridiculous figure. Nonetheless, he was not afforded the same respect that any other world leader would have gotten from the university which will only serve to bolster negative world opinions of Americans. I think it was completely appropriate that he was laughed at for stating that Iran has no homosexuals - such a statement is deserving of laughter merely for being entirely untrue and absurd. It is a well documented fact that Iran does have homosexuals and they routinely kill them by hanging, stoning, sword halving, or dropping them off a perch for being gay. Iran is violating basic human rights of homosexuals, women, and well most everyone in their country.

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You can click here to watch Iran’s Ahmadinejad say that his country does not have the “phenomenon” of homosexuality and he does not know who told the Americans that they do have homosexuals.  They also don’t have basic human rights - so congratulations on that too.

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It is really quite odd living in Hawaii.  When I lived on the mainland I was very interested in politics and was very concerned about domestic and foreign issues.  I have found that living in Hawaii has really changed my level of interest in world politics.  We really do live in our own little isolated world here.  Brian reads the news more often than I do so he tends to keep me abreast of world politics.  Occasionally, something he mentions piques my interest and I look into it more.  But frankly, security here is relaxed and our way of living is just not bothered by terrorism and all of the other things that people worry about living on the mainland.  We are so far removed from living like that - it’s like living in a pre-911 society, really.  I think I am done rambling…

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Brian just sent me this link from the wondrous Fox News - the bastion of fair & balanced news (ha).  I am actually surprised that they report science related happenings.  At any rate, I read this strange little blip about the missing Chilean Lake and thought it was rather interesting.  Brian said that he thought it was very X-Files like - I have to agree.  It does seem rather odd that a lake would disappear through fissures without earthquake activity.  I, unlike Brian, am not really willing to entertain the notion that aliens came to take the water.  It is more probable that the LA Water Authority stole the water.  Considering they have stolen all the water throughout California (and probably other states too) I would not be surprised that they are having to resort to other countries.  They should really check to see if any pipes underground are leading to LA.  They have to water the desert, you know.

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I was just checking the news on CNN and saw that Bush uses “The Google” on the”internets” - that’s great. What an idiot…

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Bush is such an idiot. He keeps spewing out rhetoric about how high gas prices are a matter of national security but all he does is put a little oil from the reserves out on the market. That does not help the oil problem - it just keeps it at bay for a month or two longer. Give me a break.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/25/bush.energy/index.html

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Click here to read about a story that happened here in Hilo. Brian and I were trying to get to the gym as all this was happening. This guy got shot right across from the gym we go to and they had the streets all shut down. We had to park a long way from the gym and walk down the sidewalk of a ghost town Hilo to get to the gym. You could still see the puddle of blood on the road where they shot and killed the guy. Then they covered it up with some kind of weird powder that got rid of all the guts and goo. It was creepy that they shot the guy in the head - that seems rather harsh since he was barefoot, unarmed, and not even a violent criminal. You would think they would have just shot him in the leg or something…

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This story is unbelievable and reaffirms exactly why I want to help women and children in other countries that are oppressed and mistreated by the patriarchy. Click here to read the story about this young woman that was beaten, mistreated, nearly killed, starved, and married off at 4 years old. Most likely, this young woman is unable to read, was never educated, and definitely is not an idiot…

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Congress, Sports, and Steroids - Give me a break. I think Congress has more important things to do than sit around and talk about how bad it that some sports goons like to take steroids. They have spent more time yapping about steroids than they have on the war gone wrong in Iraq. They want to bark about how dangerous steroids are and how they will kill people. Here is a news flash: The war in Iraq is not only costing the US government more money than steroids but it is killing a heck of a lot more people too. Not to mention the fact that no one wants to kill Americans because they use steroids. This is more taxpayer waste and stupidity from the US government.

Congress presses Bush for answers - I am sure all they will get out of Bush is some incoherent babble. With his approval rating dropping so low I doubt he cares anymore about what anyone has to say to him. And why should he care he is in his second term and has no need to be nice or do anything to make anyone happy. Any individual that cannot chew his food and becomes incapacitated as a result of eating should not be made president of this country. The “guy next door” does not make a great president, he makes a great neighbor. But frankly, I would not want Bush as a neighbor. He probably throws beer cans on his front lawn…

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Take a look at this article: Mom gives birth to sixteenth child and wants more

How in the world could someone be a good parent to 16 kids, especially with very little children in the house? At least these people have the financial means to support these children and they seem to want them. But really, if you have to build “dormitory style” housing for your kids, do you not have a few too many? How could a child receive quality time in a family situation like that? If you sleep 8 hours per day that leaves you 16 hours that you can do other things with. The Dad has a real job so he obviously cannot spend even 30 minutes to an hour of alone time just talking to each child each day. The mother stays at home but that means that she is cooking, using the four washers and dryers, cleaning the 7000 sq ft home, and also they find time to reproduce (over and over again). These people could not be spending very much individual time with the kids. This does seem like irresponsible breeding to me. Do they NEED 16 children? Do they have a large farm? No. They just WANT 16 children. Could they not have had a couple of kids and adopted the rest? I mean, if you are going to have a ton of kids, why not help children that need homes rather than create more. At this point, they are just contributing to overpopulation, environmental damage (through trash, a giant house, no doubt gas guzzling cars to carry around all those kids, etc.) In addition, can any of these kids ever do anything they want? If one wants to play soccer and another wants to play lacrosse, do they let them or do they make them all play baseball because they can just drop off all the kids at the park because it is convenient? At any rate, these people seem rather creepy to me and the fact that this couple still has a good 10+ years of breeding left (or more) is frightening. Also, they seem to be ignorant of the conception process. The husband said, “I have asked Michelle if she wants more and she said yes, if the Lord wants to give us some she will accept them…” HELLO. This is not the virgin Mary we are talking about here. They had sex to make babies, it was not an immaculate conception! People who do not understand this should not make babies!!! Also, the bit about “she will accept them…” makes it sound as though she takes them only because the Lord is making a request of her. Is there a psychological disorder for someone who likes to make babies? If so, this couple has it. Alternatively, if they are not really sure about how this is happening, that might also be the problem.

Yesterday, I surfed on to CNN.com and saw that they had a little street documentary about the Big Mac and how McDonalds is putting nutrition labels about calories, fat, sat. fat, sodium, etc right on the wrapper so that all people who eat a Big Mac and fries know they are eating a billion grams of saturated fat, tons of calories, and enough sodium to make any blood pressure medication manufacturer happy. And the Americans they interviewed by in large said they did not want to know what they were putting inside of their bodies! Most of the British people they interviewed DID want to know what they were putting in their bodies. Why do Americans have to be stupid? They also asked people how many calories they thought were in a Big Mac and the french fries. One woman seriously said “10 calories.” When they told her the Big Mac had 560 calories she was in shock. Ten calories? Are you kidding me? How can you NOT know what a calorie is and how much is in your food at least enough to hazard a reasonable estimate? People are dumb!

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