"Where Truth Lies..." 'Michael Herr' (Aloha Friday)

 Renowned author Michael Herr is back guest blogging on this awesome Aloha Friday about where truth lies within the context of the recent news story concerning the shooting of a Florida youth Trayvon Martin.

(News story from Washington Post concerning the recent shooting of Trayvon Martin)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-prosecutor-taps-experts-to-review-911-calls-in-trayvon-martin-shooting/2012/03/27/gIQAp0bWeS_story.html

Michael is happily retired and pursuing his dreams of writing and publishing books, he currently lives in Walnut Creek California.  (Michael is pictured above with his latest book,"The old Queen and the Maui Maiden." To purchase this book or any of Michael's 6 other novella's go to; http://www.michaelherr.com

ALOHA FRIDAY

March 30, 2012

It's Aloha Friday.

Where Truth Lies

Aloha folks.

It seems we have our own little version of the Japanese classic Rashomon in the news lately. Have you read the story, or seen the movie version? In brief, a bandit kills a husband and rapes the man's wife. But when the local magistrate investigates he gets three slightly different stories. One from the bandit. One from the wife. And one from the ghost of the dead man. At the end it is left up to us, the audience/reader, to determine who is telling the truth. Or what the truth there might be in each story.

Now, here's our own newest version of this classic story.

A young man down in Florida went to a store one night. On the way home another young man saw the first young man and thought he looked suspicious. The second young man called the police and voiced his suspicions. Despite being told to stay where he was he got out of his vehicle and began to follow the first young man. Minutes later the first young man lay dead. And here is where this story begins to sound like Rashomon. The second young man says the first young man jumped him, hit him in the nose, and slammed his head against the ground. He admits he shot the first young man and killed him. A girl who was on the phone with the first young man heard sounds of a scuffle. A witness, or two, now says that he saw the second young man on the ground. Others say they heard a cry, but whether it was from the young man who was shot or from the young man who shot him they can't say.

There has been talk about the second young man muttering racist comments into his phone while approaching the first young man. There has been note made of the fact that the first young man was tall and strong. That the first young man was wearing a 'hoodie' seems to figure into this whole matter in some way.

The only facts that are apparent from this whole incident are that one young man, carrying a gun, killed another young man who had done nothing wrong up to the time that the second young man confronted him and questioned his right to be walking in that neighborhood.

For now we have only the young shooter's account to go by. We have no ghost to tell us a different story.

Thus, as in Rashomon, we are left to determine where the truth lies. But truth and lies are so frequently intertwined.

Okay folks, see you next week.


Encore-Hana Hou, Please check out this you-tube of a singing dog! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiblYasnzWE

 

For more of Michael's writings go to http://www.michaelherr.com

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-prosecutor-taps-experts-to-review-911-calls-in-trayvon-martin-shooting/2012/03/27/gIQAp0bWeS_story.html

"Living obituaries..." 'Obama Da Dog'

     "Life is short, say nice things about others while they're still alive..." Don't wait to read about a friend's death in the daily obituaries, say nice things while your friends are still alive and kickin..."
I recently received in my email in-box a forwarded message from a friend, it stated;" How many flowers are sent to a person when he or she expires and how many flowers did he or she receive alive? A dead nose can't smell a rose."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we looked at our friends and relatives and told them the stories we would tell at their funeral, but instead tell them while their still breathing?

Our lives are not video recordings, we cannot reverse and edit and make up for our mistakes and regrets.

 Write or say  something nice for a friend that is still living, instead of waiting to tell how great a person they were at their funeral. Say something nice to your friends and relatives directly, while they're still alive.

Obituaries are 99%  positive, if only we treated each other with such do respect while we're alive.

Why not pretend your best friend, partner,sibling, neighbor or co-worker just passed away and tell them to their face the thoughts you have! Living obituaries, wouldn't that be awesome!

For everyone reading this, these imaginary roses are for you.

 Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher

"Nudity..." 'Bettejo Dux' (Classic Wednesdays)

Guest-blogger Bettejo Dux is one of Kauai's most colorful people, she has lived on the cosmic island of Kaua'i for over 40 years... She is an animal lover, people lover and enjoys life to the fullest.Today she guest blogs about nudity, enjoy... She also  publishes her own blog column.

You can check it out at ;  http://www.bettejo.wordpress.com .   Besides her blog she recently published and authored the humorous fiction book, "The Scam," check it out at(www.bettejodux.com) or  on Amazon.

NUDITY

Nudity. A pretty sounding word, rolls tripling  off the tongue. Brings to mind beautiful bodies, male and female, nude babes and babies on tiger skin rugs. 

 We have magazines, calendars, paintings, photographs, movies, all dedicated to showing off the naked body. We have boob and butt and porn mags and films and other less classy exposures. But they make some folks happy and many professionals think they’re harmless. Maybe, even, serve a healthy purpose. Better to look at pictures than rip clothes off or commit  sexual offenses.

We are reminded of that delightful Marilyn Monroe photo, the darling full length picture of John and Yoko, the gorgeous Playboy cover girls and even the beautiful butt and leg shot of a Muslim sweetie in red stiletto heels and burqa on the cover of a recent Humanist magazine.  Compared to Marilyn’s day and her  cutie pose on a plush red background, many of today’s teen age fashion magazines are beyond the pale.

I’m at the moment perusing the thirty full length nude pages in the Century of Sex, Playboy’s history of the sexual revolution 1900-1999 by James R. Petersen with a foreword by Hugh Hefner editor in chief . The section begins with some really rather funny ads from the 1900′s. A picture of Anna Held’s over clothed  ’perfect figure’ and ends with a 1999 ad for Viagra, a 1992 cover of Future Sex magazine, lead article CYBERSEX, and a priceless PETA ad  featuring supermodels Emma Sjoberg, Tatjana Patitz, Heather Stewart-Whyte, Fabienne Terwinghe and Naomi Campbell with the caption “We’d rather go naked than wear fur.”  We've come a long way, baby. Goody for us.

A stroll down this memory lane- towards the end, anyway- ends up with Elvis and William Masters and Virginia Johnson and Hair and the Graduate and Lolita and Betty Grable and Jane Russell, in no chronological order, with Timothy Leary, Mickey Spillane and Petty girls and Ziegfeld girls and even fruit crate art and, in World War Two, pin up girls as bomber art.

We had Tropic of Cancer, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Memories of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill). That’s Henry Miller, D.H. Lawrence, John Cleland, if you recall. We had Ida Craddock, Alfred Kinsey, Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer.
Back up a bit and we had the New York Society for the Suppression  of Vice and Anthony Comstock, Secretary of the Society from 1872 until 1915. He wrote the Comstock Act, declaring it illegal to send through the mails anything about abortion, birth control or sex. That was a hoot.

Fast forward. Today we have the religious right anti-abortion bunch. Wade-Roe must go. The down with Planned Parenthood lunatics. The sexually corrupt Catholic church elbowing its noisy way into the fray. In Hawaii we had the Ed Silvoso  crowd and on Kauai we have  an uproar about nudes on beaches.  What is it with religious folks and sex and the naked body? Do you think maybe all of them are really ugly with their clothes off? Some of”em ain’t so hot with their clothes on. That’s a bad bad but methinks we’re going backwards full speed ahead.

Bettejo has a blog of her own you can check out at ; http://www.bettejo.wordpress.com  

www.bettejodux.com

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher.



http://www.bettejodux.com/




"TSA, not in hospitality business..!" 'James "Kimo" Rosen'

"Many complaints have surfaced in the last few months about the security agents and their lack of courtesy at Lihue airport. Not that I condone this, but at the same time understand the mindset..." 

This blog appeared an an opinion article i the April 2, 2012 edition of th Kaua'i Garden Island news titled, "Airport Security."
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letters-for-monday-april/article_9ba560f4-7ca5-11e1-a234-0019bb2963f4.html

The last few months there have been many complaints expressed  about the TSA  security and lack of aloha  at Lihu'e airport.
The TSA website www.tsa.gov  has a complaint form you can fill out along with a toll free number, (866-289-9673) to report problems. The website also has a blog with a comments section to share your frustrations and tribulations.
 After reading the website I have come to the conclusion that  the Transportation Security Administration employee's take their jobs serious and go through hundreds of hours of training.
  TSA employees are not in the hospitality business, in fact quite the contrary, these men and woman are stressed since  according to the TSA website, seven times every day, every checkpoint in the U.S. is tested with 'fake' threats to ensure that the TSA officers and agents are on alert.
 Many people may interpret TSA employees as being rude,  everyone likes the rules bent for them, however these agents jobs are on the line every-day with fake threats, how can they determine if we are real of fake.
 Leave the Aloha to the hospitality industry and our safety to 'rude' TSA employees if it means lives being saved. We all need to  put on some thick skin. Everyone is too sensitive these days, nobody can handle criticism but everyone loves to dish it out.
 Do we really want TSA agents looking the other way? My guess is we all want TSA agents to look the other way for us, but not for  the other guy.

http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letters-for-monday-april/article_9ba560f4-7ca5-11e1-a234-0019bb2963f4.html

 Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher

"Weather has become a mystery..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Monday)

Judith Whitehead is back guest-blogging on this awesome Inspirational Monday about  real life climate change. Judy lives in Amherst N.Y. and has worked in the medical profession for over 30 years.

  Weather has become a mystery...

Living on the East coast of the United States, New Yorkers have come to take for granted that we can expect four seasons here, Fall, winter Spring and summer.  You could always set your clock on rain in March and April, snow in December and humid August weather.  What has our world come to!!

Here it is march in New York and we have had 80 degree weather all week;  it has gone from winter, such as it was this year, to summer….

Our snow plowing service came on 10 times this winter as compared to 60 times last year. I am not complaining but this weather is freaking us all out. Not to mention the $350.00 I spent to clear away the snow this year….(snow or no snow) donation to my snow plow man. I know it is like insurance but never the less….

Our flower bulbs came up in 2 days!  Our world weather is surely changing and it makes me nervous; I am a person who likes predictable things and each day of being a surprise is surely an adventure for us Buffalonians. 

Look out Hawai'i…you may see snow some day!

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher.

"Payton's, Peyton place and Peyton's Big pay day, or is it Luck?" 'James "Kimo" Rosen'

"Peyton place was the original American soap opera, now the National football league follows tradition with their own Peyton place, or should I say Payton place..?"

This blog also ran as an opinion article in the Kaua'i Garden Island new, this same day, Saturday 03-24-12 with the title,
"The good Luck, the bad Payton and the ugly Peyton"
http://thegardenisland.com/promo/homepage/letters-for-saturday-march/article_72102314-7598-11e1-89fb-001871e3ce6c.html (they edited the best paragraph, oh well)

Payton's, Peyton place and Peyton's big pay day, or is it Luck?

The National Football league is in the off season and although  professional hockey and basketball are currently in prime time, the NFL is still number one in the news.New Orleans head coach Sean Peyton was suspended for one year without payment  of his 7.5 million salary for  the placing monetary bounties on opposing teams quarterback's to knock them out of the game.
Defensive coach Greg Williams was also suspended indefinitely and the general manager was also suspended for 8 games, along with losing two number two draft picks and a $500,000 fine.
Not really A great day for the 2010 super bowl champion New Orleans saints!
Now let's look at the other Peyton. Peyton Manning signed a  96 million 5 year contract to play quarterback with the Denver Bronco's. Peyton's former team declined to resign the future hall of famer after Peyton sat out all last season from neck surgeries.  
Manning's former team had only two wins last season making them eligible for the number one draft pick in the upcoming NFL draft. The Colts decided to let Peyton go and will most likely depend on Luck, Andrew Luck the runner up for two consecutive years for  the Heisman trophy.
It looks like Peyton Manning relying on some Luck while Sean Payton is the true "Peyton," living in his own Peyton place of a soap opera, being the fall guy for every fan they ever yelled out, "kill that guy," (symbolic of course)

If anyone missed the news you can always with some luck TiVo it from your TV, I  said TiVo not Tebow.

http://thegardenisland.com/promo/homepage/letters-for-saturday-march/article_72102314-7598-11e1-89fb-001871e3ce6c.html

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher

"TSA personal pat down..." 'Chester "Unc" Lau' (Source)

"Chester "Unc" Lau a retired cinematographer living his golden years on the Island of Oahu. He is back guest-blogging about the day he misplaced his car key's..."

Several days ago, as I left a meeting, I desperately gave myself a personal TSA pat down. I was looking for my keys. They were not in my pockets. A quick search in the meeting room revealed nothing. Suddenly I realized, I must have left them in the car. Frantically I headed for the parking lot.

My girlfriend Kumiko has scolded me many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. My theory is the ignition is the best place not to lose them. Her theory is that the car will be stolen. As I burst through the doors, I came to a terrifying conclusion. Her theory was right. The parking lot was empty I immediately called the police. I gave them my location, confessed that I had left my keys in the car, and that it had been stolen. Then I made the most difficult call of all, "Honey," I stammered. I always call her "honey" in times like these. "I left my keys in the car, and it has been stolen." There was a period of silence. I thought the call had been dropped, but then I heard Kumiko's voice.

"Unc" you jackass, " she barked, "I dropped you off!" Now it was my time to be silent. Embarrassed, I said, "Well, come and get me." Kumiko retorted, "I will, as soon as I convince this cop I have not stolen your car !"I call it just another 'Senior moment'!

Encore, Hana Hou, click on the URL below to be inspired about a dog without it's front legs.
http://www.dogwork.com/kan6/

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher.