Stifling business won't create jobs

I would like to ask the Legislature a question: If a small-business owner has a good week in sales and acquires some extra cash in the business checking account, is the business owner more likely to create jobs by hiring new employees for his profitable business if he has to fork over the extra profit to the government for new taxes?

When unemployment is running high in bad economic times, stifling small-business owners with new taxes will not help create new jobs. We do not have communism where everyone works for the government. We have a regulated and taxed market economy, with many people employed in the private sector.

Filthy restrooms ripe for spreading disease

As we near the edge of a worldwide pandemic it is shocking to see how the City and County of Honolulu continues to care for our public facilities at Waikiki Beach in a horrendous Third World manner.

The restrooms that are the most heavily used by visitors and residents alike are atrocious with no hand soap or paper towels, not to mention the horrendous and filthy overall condition they are in. Not only is this simply unacceptable but with the threat of swine flu on the horizon and the continued use of these facilities by the homeless and food concessionaire employees, it's a disaster in the making.

What is needed is an hourly check or maintenance people in the rest- rooms to clean up and provide soap and paper towels (and where's the health inspector?). If the mayor wants to spend billions on a useless and outdated rail system, certainly he can spend some money on soap.

Fly military aircraft over uninhabited areas

I agree with the letter about the shattering of our peace and quiet by the military helicopters training on our island (Star-Bulletin, May 4). The North Shore, where I live, has become a full-scale major training area for these helicopters day and late into the night.

All my efforts to have a serious conversation about all this noise falls on deaf ears. A big problem is the ever-changing command. It is extremely frustrating. Although there are thousands of acres of vacant ag land all around Schofied and Wheeler, they still fly over our homes on a path to get to the ocean and then fly up and down the coast on training missions. They are either unaware, or simply don't care that sound amplifies greatly when over water.

I, too, support the military; in fact, my father is a retired Air Force pilot. But aircraft noise, especially the helicopters, both military and tourist related, are shattering our peace and causing incredible stress in residents from Haleiwa to Hawaii Kai to Kaneohe.

Aircraft need to train in unpopulated areas.

Stimulate the citizens, not the government

The Legislature wants to fund renewable energy and “;food security”; programs (whatever they are) by increasing the tax on a barrel of oil from a nickel to $1.05. This tax will take an estimated $31 million per year out of the pockets of Hawaii's citizens. It is supposed to be only 3 to 5 cents per gallon. Divide the $31 million haul by the 867,000 registered drivers in Hawaii and the state gets an average $35.76 per year from every driver in the state. That's on top of the current 32.6 cents per gallon state tax and 18.4 cent federal tax on gas.

Rep. Hermina Morita says, “;It's a tax that could really be called an investment and viewed as an economic stimulus to us.”; Really?

Abraham Lincoln once asked “;How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail as a leg?”; His answer, “;Four, because counting a tail as a leg doesn't make it a leg.”; And calling a tax an investment doesn't make it one.

A tax is a tax, Representative Morita. All it stimulates is more government spending. How about cutting taxes and then we the citizens can take the money saved and stimulate the economy on our own.

Up in the sky ... A bird! A plane! A pig?

Some believed pigs would fly when an African-American became president.

Well lo and behold: A little over 100 days into the Obama administration ... swine flu.

Cell use while driving is a menace to all

Next time you are out driving, walking or riding your bike or the bus, just watch the drivers going by you. You will certainly see people careening past with a cell phone planted on their head.

Notice the blank, vacant stare on their faces. You will see it. These people are clearly in another world as they run their mouths on their cell phones while propelling 3,000 pounds of steel down the road. Do you feel safe out there?