"Hairy is out..."

Hairy chests are no longer in style, my sisters use to marvel at men with hairy chests. My father had a hairy chest and when I was a child I couldn't wait to have hair on my chest some day.

Fast forward to the 21st century, men now shave their chests, legs and private parts, hairless is the new sexy, and hairy is out.

Watch any movie with leading men and when they are shirtless they are hairless. Why the infatuation with no hair?

Even in the men's locker room at the local Gym, many men shave their private parts, not that I'm looking or anything, but you just can't avoid it.

I always considered myself a hip guy, thinking that a hairy body was sexy?

I guess it time to buy that special razor and pray I do not give myself a self inflicted circumcision.

"Next year at Taco Bell..!"

These days for me a Holiday is not much different than any other day, everyday of the year is someones birthday, and with all the religious holidays and secular holidays, it gets hard deciding which ones to celebrate.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday, since it is an American holiday!

The rules of holidays are what I question. For the Jewish holiday of passover, Jews are not suppose to eat leaven (bread or anything with yeast for 8 days.) This tradition starts with the Jews escape from Egyptian bondage and slavery. While on the run they didn't have time for the baking of bread, therefore we eat Matzo, a bland cracker with very little taste during this holiday.

We celebrate passover with the humbleness with no bread, however we prepare huge holiday meals of a roasted brisket with pan fried potatoes, matzo ball soup with chicken, elaborate salads and special cookies made from matzo meal instead of flour. I don't believe the Jews had time to make those items either if they didn't even have the time to bake bread.

The other irony is when you mix flour and water in a warm environment it creates sourdough, which is a sour yeast, I therefore believe that the matzo cracker would had risen in many cases.

We eat matzo and have elaborate gourmet meals to remember the days of slavery.

Why not just enjoy a nice spontaneous meal on the move, as most probably did during the exodus.

How about going through the drive through at Taco Bell.(after all tortilla's are unleavened) This would sure make one humble and an appropriate way to remember hard times.

Next year at Taco Bell!

(editors note, the last words at every passover Seder are next year in Jerusalem, next year at Taco bell is a play on words and an attempt at humor)

"Every Friday is good Friday..!"

The Friday preceding Easter is called "Good Friday." Jesus was said to die on a Friday, however why do Christians celebrate this day as good?

Many believe the the Bible instructs us to remember Christ’s death by observing the last supper. The last supper for the most part is the Jewish celebration of Passover. In the last few decades many Christian churches have conducted their own passover Seders and many Jews have come to believe in Jesus and call themselves Messianic Jews.

Many Jews believe every Friday to be good Friday, commencing at sundown on Friday begins the sabbath, the day of rest lasting until sundown on Saturday. Jewish children are taught that every Friday is a day of rest and a feast like that of Thanksgiving is common for the shabbat meal.

Remember every Friday is good Friday,as it brings in the Sabbath, the ultimate day of rest for Jew and Gentile alike.

Have a Good Friday every Friday...

"Girls have not gone wild..!"

Girls have not gone wild, the American dollar has gone wild!

The local Dollar store changed their name to the Dollar Plus store, and when they say plus they mean plus, plus, plus times three.

America should model their monetary system after that of Japan. The Japanese do not print one dollar bills or even 5 dollar bills, they have coins for those denominations.

Most paper money gets beat up  hard and usually after one year in circulation needs to be replaced, while coins can last decades and over the lifetime of the currency it costs much less to produce coins than paper currency.

During these rough economic times it seems appropriate to start replacing many denominations of paper money with coins, after all one dollar buys what a quarter bought a few years back.

The federal government would be wise to adopt a system of a one dollar and five dollar coin, in the long run it will save the taxpayer millions of dollars, however when was the government ever concerned about saving the taxpayer?

this appeared as an opinion article in the Kaua'i Garden Island news on 08-24-11;
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_f3101474-ce1d-11e0-895b-001cc4c03286.html

"How to conquer it all..!"

How much longer can car's and trucks be manufactured and sold year after year, while more drivers obtain licenses?

Imagine an endless line of cars with nowhere to go, every year there are more cars, and more people becoming of age to drive.

It seems all the car dealerships on Kauai are doing fine, in contrast to many other business's closing shop.

Living on an island that's only 33 miles long and 25 miles wide with few roads, while the major road which runs around the island is called a highway although it looks nothing like a highway, more like a country road with the speed limit posted in most spots only 25mph.

There are more than one million registered motor vehicles in the state of Hawaii, that's almost one vehicle for every man woman and child.

There is no state in the United States with fewer lane miles, with Kaua'i ranking last place in miles of road amongst the four major Hawaiian islands.

With only approximately 235 miles of paved roadways and 40 miles of unpaved roadways on Kauai, soon there will be no place to go, just motor vehicles at a standstill from one end of the island to the other. With under 300 miles of paved roads on Kauai and over 60,000 vehicles and growing, eventually there will be the ultimate traffic jam with nowhere left to go.

I always get a thrill while riding my bike and passing car after car that has spent almost $5.00 a gallon for gas and looking at angry faces stuck in traffic as my dog runs in stride following me alongside my bicycle as I get my thrill thinking I have conquered all.

"The Royal reality show wedding..."‏

England like America is going through a major recession along with the rest of the world.

Every time you turn on the TV there is talk of the royal wedding, who cares?

It seems America is more obsessed with this wedding than Londoners.

Many of the commoners in England are appalled as I would be if my country used taxpayer money to pay for a politician's child's wedding.

The estimated cost of the royal wedding is said to exceed 60 million dollars with about half of it being payed by the UK government.

People are going hungry, people have lost jobs and businesses are closing rapidly in England as in America.

Spending over 30 million dollars of taxpayer money on a wedding for Prince William and what's her face is a disgrace.

It's no wonder the world is in a recession, it's not just America spending foolishly but the Brit's as well.

Maybe Prince William should elope with Kate and call it a reality show, allowing advertisers to bring money to the people and not away from the people.

"Politicians must look in the mirror..!"

 The local paper (The Kaua'i Garden island news recently ran an editorial titled,"state should collect sales tax from online retailers," is a bad idea for many reasons.

http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_2419a084-68c6-11e0-bace-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story

In the  editorial they neglect to state that when you buy online there is usually a shipping and handling fee which usually amounts to more than what the sales tax would be.

People have been buying mail order for years, even before the Internet people who lived in rural communities more than anyone relied on on mail order for much of their shopping needs. The Internet did not invent mail order companies.

If such a tax where to be voted into law it would force many mail order companies to have disclaimers, "not available in Hawaii."

Many companies that include free shipping already have such a disclaimer.

What business located outside of Hawai'i would want the extra work of filing a Hawaiian tax form, hence creating more book-keeping for them?

How about this for a start, every state, and county politicians take a mandatory 20% pay-cut and donate their car allowances to the state budget.

Mail order has existed for ever, no more laws, we are buried with laws, let us breathe!

Politicians must look in the mirror before proceeding, no new taxes, period.!