• Science doesn’t find significant hazards • Prosecutor made decision to charge father • No style for fun run • Military earns respect, but whales should be protected, too Science doesn’t find significant hazards Louisa Wooton wrote (TGI, Friday, June 6): “There have been at least
• Science doesn’t find significant hazards • Prosecutor made decision to charge father • No style for fun run • Military earns respect, but whales should be protected, too
Science doesn’t find significant hazards
Louisa Wooton wrote (TGI, Friday, June 6): “There have been at least an equal number of peer-reviewed studies with supporting data that have raised valid concerns about the safety of GMO farming …”
Last year, three Italian scientists published in the journal: Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, their review of the literature covering all of the scientific literature on genetic engineered plant safety from the recent 10 years: 2002- 2012. The year 2002 was chosen because, by then, GE plants became widely cultivated worldwide. The total was 1,783. Over 300 were completely independent of the industry, including 50 financed and conducted by the European Union’s regulatory commission (notoriously stringent).
The scientists were the first to place the 1,783 records into 12 categories of study which should be very useful.Their comment on the scientific consensus was: We can conclude that the scientific research conducted so far has not detected any significant hazard directly connected with the use of GM crops. That’s GMO 1,783, Louisa Wooton 0.
You can read the abstract here: http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Nicolia-20131.pdf
Pete Antonson
Lawai/Manila
Prosecutor made decision to charge father
Jerry Sokugawa’s letter (TGI, Friday, June 6) blaming Judge Watanabe for “telling the people of Kauai how to discipline their children” is wildly off the mark.
Judge Watanabe had very little to do with this case, ironically enough. The decision to charge the father was made by the prosecuting attorney, not by Watanabe. And once the father decided to plead guilty, Judge Watanabe’s only role was to decide the sentence. Everything else was out of her hands at that point.
As for the sentence, she gave the father the lowest possible reasonable sentence, given that he pleaded guilty to the charge. She actually cut him a break, since she could have sentenced him more severely. I agree that this case was mishandled and showed poor judgement, but put the blame where it belongs — on the prosecuting attorney, who is the one who made the call and kept this ridiculous farce rolling. Thankfully, once the father completes his probation, the conviction will be expunged and he’ll have a clean record. But it’s a shame it had to come to this in the first place.
Richard J. Laue
Koloa
No style for fun run
Who put on the Haena to Hanalei run? I live on the mauka side of Kuhio Highway where the runners turned makai onto Anae Road.
To the person directing the runners, thank you for shouting the F word, very classy.
To the event sponsor, thank you for leaving your broken sign on the side of the road in front of my house.
You guys have no style. Why do I have to pick up your rubbish?
Blake Robeson
Hanalei
Military earns respect, but whales should be protected, too
Dear Stefan,
I was delighted to read your commentary in the Forum, Sunday, June 8. You’re a brilliant writer and a delightful man. So proud to have met and, hopefully, befriended you. The picture of us together at the writers conference which appeared in Midweek, June 4, was pretty neat. Great smiles. To newcomers here, please try to find Stefan’s masterpiece, “The Unveiling.” As public affairs officer at PMRF, you’re worth your weight in gold. If some of my tax dollars must go to the military, I am happy some of them go to you. But, the whales? My first boyfriend and longest friend — since deceased, I miss him — Capt. R.R. Pohli, Annapolis grad, confided in me, quote/unquote, “Sonar doesn’t kill them, it just bursts their eardrums.” Dick didn’t lie. Neither did you. You simply had to say what you had to say. And you said it well. All of us who have ears to listen with know it’s Navy jargon to say, when a whale gets in the way, “Ooops collateral.” Please take note of that. Collateral. Doesn’t it have just a little too much bank-note jazz to it?
As for fuel used in RIMPAC adventures, why don’t you guys put some of these gas-gobbling war toys in mothballs? Don’t drive ‘em around so much. Just like us mushrooms, out here in the dark, don’t drive our gas gobblers around so much.
OK, the good stuff. I was here during Iniki and no one was happier to see the National Guard than me. I commandeered some guys to help me with two injured horses and they were great. FEMA guys, too, by the way. Also, guess what? I’m a George Patton fan. When the world needs a warrior, we need a guy like Patton. I’ll stand alongside my troops defending my country against anyone who dares threaten it. I’ll not have any part of invading another country and blowing up innocent people —men, women, children, seniors — for profit. No. Never.
By the way, you’re going to love my new novel, “Children of the Extinction.” The narrator, a colonel’s wife, says, “They were the best of men at the worst of times.” Guess who she’s talking about?
Bettejo Dux
Kalaheo
