Lawmakers' DUIs need bigger consequences

Last weekend Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu sent me a postcard. He discussed his DUI offense, the incident when he drove while he was under the influence of alcohol and was involved in a one-car accident with his vehicle on the H-1 freeway. He admitted his mistake, said he paid his fine, completed his community service and apologized to constituents.

What Karamatsu does not understand is the fact that he broke the law and committed a serious crime that could have resulted in tragic consequences and the deaths of innocent people. I hold his conduct to a higher standard. As a lawmaker he should not break laws and should not be permitted to return to office. I will be voting for Rito Saniatan to replace Karamatsu in representing District 41.

Ignorance is bliss if you're eating meat

I enjoyed reading Charles Memminger's witty column “;We treat our Spam musubi quite ethically.”; I understand the cultural connection Hawaii has to its “;Suspiciously Produced Alternative Meat.”; I, too, used to enjoy fried Spam in my scrambled eggs and fried rice until I adopted a plant-based diet three years ago, after one of my students handed me a brochure on the cruelties of factory farming. This encounter prompted me to do my own research. I was shocked and alarmed at what I found.

Besides the animal cruelty issue, there is the health issue. Processed meats like Spam, hot dogs, sausage, salami and bacon all fall into the same category. Numerous studies by medical health associations have linked these processed meats to stomach cancer, diabetes and other serious health problems.

Today, at 52 years of age, I feel healthier than ever before. I completed the 2006 Boston Marathon after being on a meatless diet for one year. I eat a wider selection of foods than I ever did before. I encourage anyone who cares about their health to closely examine what they are putting into their body — it has the power to hurt or to heal.

Kobayashi makes unrealistic proposals

Ann Kobayashi's insincere 2004 proposal to move the landfill to a site that simply was not suitable was as laughable then as her ridiculous bus and freeway proposal is now.

There is a clear pattern here. Kobayashi will wait until the last minute, and then spout a bunch of happy talk about a miraculous alternative that has no basis in fact.

That's exactly what she did in the landfill debacle, and it's what she's doing now regarding mass transit.

We all deserve more respect than that from people we elect.

Rail more than offsets traffic from UH

Complain, lie and misrepresent. That's all the anti-rail whiners seem to do.

Fact: When the University of Hawaii and public and private schools break for summer, the freeway opens up and traffic congestion is significantly eased.

Fact: The amount of traffic generated by the UH and school commuters is less than the 11 percent reduction in vehicles that rail will provide.

Don't swallow the Kool-Aid the opposition keeps offering — rail will offer real traffic relief. Taking 25,000 cars off the roads is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm voting “;yes”; for rail, and I hope you do to.

With EzWay, rail just doesn't make sense

It just doesn't make any sense why anybody would not choose Ann Kobayashi's EzWay system when EzWay would cost billions less, would relieve traffic congestion by taking away buses, HOV and fuel-efficient cars from the H1, and would provide express service plus a faster and more convenient commute with no bus-train-bus transfer. It just doesn't make sense that anybody would choose rail, which would cost billions more than EzWay, will not relieve traffic gridlock, cannot provide express service and the commute would be slower and inconvenient because of bus-train-bus transfers.

Obama will bring Russia-style change

In his drive to become president, Sen. Barack Obama is promising something he cannot deliver as president: a tax cut to 95 percent of his fellow citizens.

No president can either collect or spend a dime of taxpayer money, much less cut their taxes. Only Congress has that authority. Moreover 40 percent of Obama's fellow citizens do not pay any federal income tax. The only way he can “;cut”; their taxes is to persuade Congress to cut them each a welfare check.

Maybe that is what he meant — in a dangerously unrehearsed conversation with Toledo Joe the plumber — when he revealed his intentions to use the coercive force of government to “;spread the wealth.”;

That idea was embraced by those who overthrew the Russian Czar in 1918. They established the utterly dysfunctional Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that over the next seven decades never met its domestic production targets, “;succeeding”; only in further impoverishing millions of desperately poor people across eight time zones.

Is this what Obama means by “;change”; or “;leveling the playing field”;?