THE column idea drought is over. From Christmas to the middle of January might be a lot of fun for most people, but it's murder for columnists. When Senate reigns,
ideas pourThe world seems to stop. I managed to fill two days with columns on my Worldwide I Hate Mayonnaise Club which prompted a few friends to berate me.
"Haven't your editors wised up to the fact that you only write about the mayo club when you don't have anything else to write about?" one said. "How long are you going to get away with it?"
I thought that was rather harsh. True, but harsh.
But the drought is over. The Legislature is back in business. Those lovable knuckleheads are a veritable mother lode of column-writing ideas.
For instance, Senate Prez Norman Mizuguchi says he wants to improve child protection laws in light of recent deaths and injuries to abused children.
That's great. But the most important thing lawmakers can do for children is raise the age of consent for sexual contact.
Right now, the age of consent is 14, which is an embarrassment to Hawaii. It is the lowest in the country. It makes us look like a bunch of backwoods rubes.
I'm not sure what the age of consent should be. As the father of a daughter, would it be too drastic to suggest the age ought to be 35?
Dealing with the economy will be a big issue in the Legislature this year. Nothing will come of it, but it will be a big issue.
I've suggested legislators take one day off and spend it with a small business owner. That way, they might not be so quick to raise the state excise tax and impose other regulations that make Hawaii the worst place to do business in the country.
SOMETHING has to be done about auto insurance. The new insurance forms that allow you to customize your coverage are too complicated. I filled mine out but I think I might have gone overboard. I checked the box that covers me in case I run over a Nepalese yak herder. I was going to get coverage for the yak, too, but it was an extra 50 cents a year. So I showed some restraint there.
I'm leaning toward the "pay at the pump" idea. That's where they would just jack up the price of gas to cover everyone's insurance. Some say that would hurt the poor. Hey, they're poor. They hurt already. If they are poor, they should just stay home and figure out how to get un-poor. Then they should get un-poor enough to be able to afford to buy gas at $10 a gallon, which is what it should be selling for.
(I haven't been getting much mail lately. The preceding should take care of that problem.)
Another thing the Legislature should consider doing is giving tax credits to people who live in high rise buildings that don't have sprinkler systems. The tax break would go to any condo owner who buys a sprinkler for his unit.
I was shocked to see that the Century Center, which caught fire recently, doesn't have a sprinkler system. Buildings built before 1979 don't have to have sprinklers. That's pretty stupid, since it's the old buildings that need them most. But that's the way it is.
It would cost millions to put in sprinklers. But individual condo owners could probably do it themselves for a couple of hundred bucks each. It's not rocket science.
A tax break, like those given for installation of solar water panels, might be all it takes to to make these old buildings safer.
Those are just a few ideas for them to mull over in Legislature Land. Don't hold your breath. Soon all we'll be hearing about is gambling, same-sex marriage, spanking and bento-temperature enforcement. But at least there'll be plenty write about.