McCain and Palin will get many Hawaii votes

Please do not be biased against Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin. They have a big chance of getting elected this November. Our Hawaii state economy and industries are getting weaker every day, and will need all the help they can get from these two prominent candidates when they get elected as president and vice president of our great country.

Both McCain and Palin are pro-life, and lots of citizens in our state will vote for these two candidates. We can be sure that a majority of those votes will come from people who belong to religious sectors throughout the state. I suggest that you do not rely too much on the polls taken here in Hawaii that give too much advantage to Sen. Barack Obama. You probably do not know how reliable those polls are, and publishing them will mislead your readers and valued subscribers of your newspaper.

Your vote could change Supreme Court

The next president will probably appoint several new Supreme Court justices. John McCain and Barack Obama would pick judges with very different viewpoints. If McCain is elected he has promised the far right of the Republican Party to fill vacancies with ultra-conservative justices. What does this really mean?

His Web site announces his intention to overthrow Roe v. Wade, the right of a woman to choose abortion. (His running mate, Sarah Palin, believes that abortion should be forbidden even in cases of rape or incest.) McCain thinks the government has the right to imprison people indefinitely without seeing lawyers or their families. Hard-won protections of clean air and water, food and drug safety, safety at the workplace, and discrimination against women and minorities would likely be repealed.

Obama would probably pick moderate judges, not flaming liberals but sensible jurists who would take our society forward - not back to the injustices of 100 years ago.

Think carefully about this, one of the most important and least-discussed issues of this election.

On second thought, we do need truth

Truth is hard to find these days ... perhaps we should just give up on truth, especially in politics!

Why have it?

Who needs it?

What good is it?

Life is relative, all is speculative, perceptions vary, opinions contradict, judgments conflict.

But trust is build upon it, love can't survive without it, human kindness evaporates in its absence, nations go to war and millions die for lack of it.

I rest my case on behalf of keeping it!

Why doesn't state have more ag inspectors?

Regarding Sandra Lee Kunimoto's “;Another View”; article (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 16), its sad to see so little effort to prevent and contain honeybee parasites.

Kunimoto, chairwoman of the state Board of Agriculture, says it's everyone's responsibility to watch for new pests. True, but it's unrealistic to expect citizens, who aren't funded, organized or trained in pest control, to do the work of state inspectors. She says with so few inspectors certain pests are given priority. Does this mean others are ignored?

Hawaii has just 94 inspectors statewide. With all the ships, planes and people needing inspection, why so few? That's less security guarding Hawaii's agriculture than most businesses have guarding their warehouses!

I volunteer with a local honey company. At the farmers market, people carrying baskets filled with food that relies on bees for pollination love Hawaiian honey. Their baskets might go empty because the Board of Agriculture doesn't rank agriculture high enough to hire some more inspectors.

New Web site reminds reader of old Hawaii

I'd like to thank and congratulate the staff at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for their decision to redesign the newspaper's online version. To use a techie term, the new Web site “;skin”; - whose header features an old sepia photograph of tourists in front of Diamond Head along with a watermark imprint of hula dancers - hearkens back to the days of classic Hawaii and makes a great cultural ambassador for off-island visitors to starbulletin.com. It reminds us that no matter what the news might be, no matter what is going on in the world, this is still Hawaii, and this is still our paradise. I can almost hear the haunting tune of “;Beyond the Reef”; playing in my mind every time I navigate to the Star-Bulletin's new page.

Since the Star-Bulletin's inception in 1882 as the Evening Bulletin, this paper has consistently shown itself to be one of the finest news organizations in the world and has in many ways become part of Hawaii's brand. Much love, aloha and mahalo to all of the great people making this such a great paper.