Hawaii To Hike Hotel Tax To Cope With Climate Change

Above, the Sheraton Waikiki. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Whether or not climate change (a.k.a. Global Warming) is manmade is debatable.

Democrats love to find ways to tax the living daylights out of people, that includes raising or imposing new taxes to allegedly fight climate change.

Here's a new scheme coming out of Hawaii, which the Democrats have a stranglehold on the state's government on a par with California and other states.

NPR reported:

HONOLULU — In a first-of-its kind move, Hawaii lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations and earmark the new money for programs to cope with a warming planet.

State leaders say they'll use the funds for projects like replenishing sand on eroding beaches, helping homeowners install hurricane clips on their roofs and removing invasive grasses like those that fueled the deadly wildfire that destroyed Lahaina two years ago.

A bill scheduled for House and Senate votes on Wednesday would add an additional 0.75% to the daily room rate tax starting Jan. 1. It's all but certain to pass given Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers and party leaders have agreed on the measure. Gov. Josh Green has said he would sign it into law.

To read more, go here. 

SCOTUS Upholds Arizona Ban On Ballot-Harvesting

This may prove to be monumental in stopping Democrat vote fraud in future elections!

The Epoch Times reported:

Arizona’s ban on ballot-harvesting and out-of-precinct voting does not violate the federal Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 this morning in a closely watched case with implications for future elections.

The court opinion split neatly along ideological and partisan lines with the 6 conservative justices nominated by Republican presidents voting to uphold the state law and the 3 liberal justices voting to strike it down.

The decision reverses a judgment issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and comes the week after the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Georgia over the state’s new electoral integrity-promoting law claiming it amounts to so-called voter suppression. The state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, said the U.S. Department of Justice’s suit was “legally and constitutionally dead wrong.”

I saw earlier that National Public Radio (NPR) was upset over the Supreme Court's ruling. Aw, too bad! 

To read more, go here. 

Native Americans Propose Change To Yellowstone Landmark Names

Above, bison in one of Yellowstone's valley meadows. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In Yellowstone National Park, there's a peak named Mount Doane. Indian tribes want it and other places renamed.

Here's why (Source: National Public Radio):

On a cold January day more than a century ago, U.S. troops massacred nearly 200 Piikani people on a Montana river bank. Most were women, children and old folks. 

"It's hard to imagine," Chief Stanley Charles Grier of the Piikani Nation in Alberta, Canada said. 

The people killed were his ancestors and accounts of the massacre are brutal. Soldiers killed a mother breastfeeding her baby. They shot sick people hiding under blankets. 

"Survivors were basically executed by axes," Grier says. "That's pretty barbaric." 

The man who helped perpetrate this massacre was Army Lt. Gustavus Doane. He later went on to explore parts of Yellowstone and his compatriots named Mount Doane after him. The name stuck, and Grier wants to change it. 

"Lieutenant Doane led that attack and fully implemented the massacre," he says. "We feel that's an atrocity to humanity and it's essentially a war crime." 

Massacres like this were a major part of what some historians call a forgotten genocide during the colonization and settlement of the American West. The perpetrators of these massacres were sometimes honored with mountains, valleys and towns.

Changing geological names isn't that easy. There is opposition to names changes.

But earlier this year, Park County commissioners in Wyoming voted against changing Mount Doane and Hayden Valley. They said people there like the names. They're used to them. 

"This has nothing to do with the Native Americans," Jake Fulkerson, vice chairman of the Park County commissioners, says. "There was one article we saw that said commissioners against the Indians or something and that's garbage." 

According to Fulkerson, the whole issue is overblown. 

"If you go around digging up dirt on people and changing names everywhere, I mean, once this horse leaves the barn, where does it end?" he says.

According to the NPR article, the government body with the power to rename geographical places is the U.S. Board On Geographic Names.

To read more, go here.

Structural Repairs Closes USS Arizona Memorial "Indefinitely"

Above, the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One of Hawaii's most popular tourist attractions is now closed for structural repairs.

Visitors to Hawaii's Pearl Harbor will be disappointed to learn that the USS Arizona Memorial is closed for repairs "indefinitely".

National Public Radio reported:

The USS Arizona Memorial off Honolulu's coast is closed for repairs. Jay Blount, a spokesman for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, told Hawaii News Now that the edge where the visitor ramp meets the memorial has fissures on its exterior and the loading ramp is not being properly supported. 

On Friday, an update on the National Park Service Facebook page for the monument said the memorial would remain closed to visitors "for an undetermined period of time while repairs are made." During the repair process, free programs at the USS Arizona Memorial will continue: Visitors can still see a documentary film at the site and receive a harbor tour of Battleship Row, the area where eight U.S. battleships, including the USS Arizona, were moored when the attack on Pearl Harbor began. Other parts of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center will stay open as well. 

"As Memorial Day approaches, across the nation the National Park Service strives to honor our fallen veterans as well as those who continue to serve," the statement says. "We understand the unfortunate nature of the USS Arizona Memorial closure during this period and ask visitors to understand that their safety is our primary concern." 

The USS Arizona Memorial is an extremely popular site: It receives an average of 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a day. Concerns about its condition began earlier this month: Hawaii News Now reports that on May 6, boat transportation to the memorial was suspended after a vessel operator noticed a crack on its exterior. At that time, engineers began what they thought would be short-term repairs. The memorial was temporarily reopened, but closed within hours because additional cracks appeared. At that point, officials realized that there were more extensive structural issues to handle.

Above, the area of concern is where the ramp meets the memorial. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here. 

Old Faithful Geyser's Mechanics

Above, Old Faithful Geyser in full eruption. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Ever wondered how Old Faithful Geyser (or other geysers) at Yellowstone National Park erupt?

NPR (National Public Radio) has posted a transcript of a discussion of the mechanics of Old Faithful Geyser. A new study on the geyser has yielded some interesting findings.

Above, the sign at the information desk in the Old Faithful Inn tells
visitors when Old Faithful Geyser will erupt. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The post begins with:

The Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park blows water approximately every 90 minutes. The the mechanics behind this beautiful mystery have been revealed this week in a new study.

To read the transcript, go here. 

NPR: How 'Professor Godzilla' Learned To Roar

William Tsutsui is a name that hardcore Godzilla fans should be familiar with. He wrote a book on his fondness (or obsession) on Godzilla a few years ago (2004, to be exact), Godzilla On My Mind.

For various reasons, many fans did not like Tsutsui's book. I have to admit, it was different, but it was an interesting read. Many, I think, just didn't understand it.

In the interests of "full disclosure," Tsutsui used some quotes from articles I had written and he also used my photo of a fan-made Mechagodzilla costume.

National Public Radio's (NPR) website has a new article on William Tsutsui. He is about to take the reigns of Hendrix College (not named after Jimi Hendrix, in case you were wondering) in Little Rock, Arkansas.

They wrote:

Hendrix College, a small school outside of Little Rock, Ark., is about to get a new president. His name is William Tsutsui, a Princeton-, Oxford-, and Harvard-educated economist, but he's best known for a certain expertise that has landed him the nickname Professor Godzilla.

A friend sent me an email with a link to the article. In reading the title of the piece, "How 'Professor Godzilla' Learned To Roar," I initially thought it was about how composer Akira Ifukube created Godzilla's roar with musical instruments.

A photo of Tsutsui with some of his Godzilla toys is included with the article.

To read the full article, go here.

NPR Fires CEO Vivian Schiller

National Public Radio fired CEO Vivian Schiller today over the mess caused by a "sting" video of another NPR executive calling the Tea Party "racist" and Republicans "anti-intellectual."

According to the Associated Press, the NPR Board of Directors asked Schiller to turn in her resignation.

This comes at a time when NPR's taxpayer funding may be eliminated by the Republican congress. Congressional Republicans have long complained about NPR's liberal bias and asked, "why should we subsidize liberal propaganda?"