WMDs or no WMDs, it's Bush Sr.'s fault
Regarding the debate about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction: If no one can define this term, then what was Saddam Hussein? Ask the many thousands of murdered people (Kurds and Sunnis) if he was a WMD.
To our way of thinking, George Bush Sr. screwed up by not following up and destroying Saddam during Desert Storm. But no ... this would not have been politically correct among the Arab nations. (Not to speak of the love for their oil.)
Now, George W., for doing what should have been done back when, has to endure the liberals' rage.
Oh yes, I can hear you liberals loud and clear: "We should not be involved ... it is none of our business." You should have lived through the days of Neville Chamberlain and Joseph Kennedy Sr. regarding Adolf Hitler back in 1939.
William and Kala Talley
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Miami terror suspects had little to go on
Of course, we are glad that the FBI is out there keeping an eye on the kooks, but this so-called "Sears Tower Plot" was really something out of a comic book.
The Keystone Terrorists were a bunch of guys in the ghetto in Miami with a lot of resentments and big dreams of glory (and very little in the way of brains, it would seem). The head honcho didn't have a dime's worth of bombs, nor even a dime to buy them with. So he presented his shopping list to an undercover FBI informant posing as an al-Qaida agent.
Now a good guess would be that the eventual attorney for the defense will argue something like "entrapment." They were a deluded bunch so their "charismatic leader" took the bait, and voila! Homeland Security gets a media boost -- and so, by extension, does the Bush administration.
We need not be impressed. The real Osama is still out there.
Stephen D. O'Harrow
Waikiki
TV caters to the viewer's mean side
When did "mean" become popular on TV? I'm not just talking about the plethora of reality shows that capitalize on the embarrassment and humiliation of their participants, but the more insidious programs that try to make comedy out of dire life situations. "Punk'd," "Girls Behaving Badly" and "Scare Tactics" come to mind, with "Scare Tactics" being the worst. Here's a show where unsuspecting people are put into life-and-death situations and are brought to the brink of terror and hysteria before being told of the prank. Good times. Then there's "Jackass," where the fun starts with a doll in a child's car seat left on top of a van as the driver pulls away. The entertainment here is seeing the horror and concern on the faces of the good people desperately trying to get the attention of the driver.
Even commercials are not immune. In one car insurance ad, two squirrels high-five each other after one of them steps into the path of an oncoming car, causing it to swerve and crash. In a window-cleaner ad, a bird flies down to close a glass sliding door after the human goes inside, only to crack up with his cohort when the unsuspecting human crashes into the door on his way out. After seeing that, I want to run out and get some Windex.
Yes, long gone is the Sunday night lineup of "Disney" and "Wild Kingdom," with their accompanying family-theme commercials, but if the programming and ads now are an indication of what our popular culture finds entertaining, then we'll be sure to see more incivility, insensitivity and meanness in the future.
David Tucciarone
Honolulu
Above-ground utilities are uglier than rail
Why is an elevated rail track (
Star-Bulletin, June 23) any more ugly than the numerous concrete-and-glass high-rises that are increasing filling our city views, or for that matter any manmade structure that is required in a congested human habitat? The proposed rail certainly is not as ugly as the above-ground utilities that blight our fair city (without, it seems, inane comments by our enlightened pols).
John Wilber
Honolulu
Seat-belt stakeouts misuse of cops' time
Recently I have noticed squads of plainclothes as well as uniformed officers targeting ordinary citizens for seat-belt offenses. I feel for the officers who want to solve real crimes but are forced to spend their day on seat-belt stakeouts. I am sure the car thieves and graffiti vandals are cheering.
Chris Cramer
Honolulu