Price of Paradise pt 2

Living in Hawaii is expensive. The price of a gallon of gasoline is well above $2, we currently have the most expensive bus fare also $2, a box of Apple Jacks cereal is $5. Don't even get me started on the cost of real estate. So it's no suprise that Hawai'i's housing is the most 'crowded' in the nation

Hawai'i leads the country in apartment living and in "crowded households," according to a 2000 Census report released yesterday.

Nearly a third of Hawai'i's housing that existed in the census year was made up of apartments, the highest proportion in the country. Hawai'i even edged New York in the proportion of housing in buildings with five or more apartments — 32.5 percent vs. 32.4 percent.

The urban Honolulu area is a hodge-podge of single homes, low-rise apartments and high-rise condominiums, with expensive high-rise condos right next door to an eight unit low-rise section-8 apartment. So all of this is nothing too shocking to Myself. But the money quote is at the end of the article:

The mobile home is America's fastest-growing type of housing, but not in Hawai'i. The state leads the country with the smallest proportion of mobile homes at 0.2 percent.

Umm, we live on island, what the f**k are you going to do with a mobile home? Where the hell are you going to go? The cost of shipping one of those thing out here and trying to sell it would probaly end up costing more than buying a condo, duh.

Myself Rule of life #15

Cluelessness: There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.

Corollary: Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups

if it looks like a duck

Seems that both Eugene Volkh and Katherine Lopez have the same "friend" in London who email's the same letter, about W's visit. Great now we have rightie pundits laying down astroturf.

update:It seems both Eugene Volokh and K Lo have replied to what I found, after this got picked-up by Jessie and then Atrios saying hey, no biggie here, we simply have a mutual friend, and it was purely coincidence. No conspiracy. Well Myself is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt theat they actually know said friend. But I still stand by my original call of astroturf, only instead of the editorial page this particular astroturf is of the blogosphere variety. Not as bad as the first type but astroturf nonetheless. Said friend is making the attempt to show that the protests are, in actuality, not as it is being portrayed by the "liberal media". Kind of hard to tell since the SCLM is more concerned with covering the Santa Clara airport.

So this guy goes to his doctor...

"Doc, you've gotta help me! My wife just isn't interested in sex anymore. Haven't you got a pill or something I can give her?"
"Look, I can't prescribe..."
"Doc, we've been friends for years. Have you ever seen me this upset? I am desperate! I can't think; I can't concentrate; my life is going utterly to hell! You've got to help me."
The doctor opens his desk drawer and removes a small bottle of pills. "Ordinarily, I wouldn't do this. These are experimental; the tests so far indicate that they're VERY powerful. Don't give her more than ONE, understand? Just ONE."
"I don't know, doc, she's awfully cold..."
"One. No more. In her coffee. Okay?"
"Um, okay."
The guy expresses gratitude and leaves for home, where his wife has dinner waiting. When dinner is finished, she goes to the kitchen to bring dessert. The man hastily pulls the pills from his pocket and drops one into his wife's coffee. He reflects for a moment, hesitates, then drops in a second pill.
And then he begins to worry. The doctor did say they were powerful.
Then inspiration strikes, he drops one pill into his own coffee.
His wife returns with the shortcake and they enjoy their dessert and coffee. Sure enough, a few minutes after they finish, his wife shudders a little, sighs deeply and heavily, and a strange look comes over her. In a near-whisper and a tone of voice he has never heard her use before, she says, "I...need...a man"
His eyes glitter and his hands tremble as he replies, "Me...too..."

In Local news

One of the two challenges to the Kamehameha Schools native Hawaiians only admissions policy has been upheld

A federal judge today tossed out a challenge to Kamehameha Schools’ admissions policy which gives preference to Hawaiians, saying the policy does not violate a federal anti-discrimination law so long as it has a narrowly defined, legitimate justification.

U.S. District Judge Alan Kay said the school’s admissions policy seeks to address cultural and socio-economic disadvantages that have beset Hawaiians since the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

...
He found that a special trust relationship exists between the federal government and Hawaiians, and that as recently as 2002 Congress endorsed the school’s efforts via the Native Hawaiian Education Act. The law calls upon Kamehameha to redouble its efforts to educate children of Hawaiian ancestry.

Lawyers John Goemans of the Big Island and Eric Grant of Sacramento, Calif., authors of two federal court challenges to Kamehameha’s admissions policy, claimed it is discriminatory because it gives preferential treatment to Hawaiians.

But school attorneys said the admissions policy amounts to an affirmative-action plan, one designed to help offset what they say are historical inequities that have plagued Hawaiians for more than a century.

Myself does not have a problem with the policy, because 1) it is a private institution and if they want to accept only native hawaiians then that's their choice. If a Catholic school can select based on religion, the Kamehameha Schools (KS) can select based on race. and 2) myself also agrees with the last quote. Native Hawaiians have had the short end of the stick for years, and like Affirmative Actiion, a little compensaton is in order. There is another case pending that challenges the state's Office of Hawaiian Affairs as also being discriminatory in that it is a constitutionally established agency (meaning tax dollars being spent for native Hawaiians and not for Whiny White People).More on this one as it develops. Hawaiian sovereignity is a hot button issue here, with advocates calling from everything from establishing rights similar to Native Americans (there is a bill struggling in congress trying to do just that) to seceeding from the US to form a Kingdom of Hawaii (yeah, right).

Watch your aim

That's right it's World Toilet day

...Report flushes that do not work and help tourists find the bathroom at shopping malls as well, the Singapore-based World Toilet Organization said in a campaign on latrine etiquette ahead of World Toilet Day on Wednesday.

This follows the See-if-you-can-remove-the-cigarette-ash-stains-with-your-pee-competition.