As some of you may have heard, a middle school in Maine recently passed a regulation that allows children as young as 11 years old to receive contraceptives. The children need parents permission to see the health center but, because state law says health concerns are confidential, parents won’t be notified if their children are receiving the birth control devices. > more <

Ever since I arrived in Hawaii, I’ve noticed something about the way the Navy Exchange (NEX) operates. Normally, a military exchange checks the ID cards of all patrons to ensure that only military members shop there. This is in addition to having to show your ID to actually get on base. The commissary (military grocery store) is supposed to do this also. But guess what? The NEX doesn’t do that in Hawaii, at least not consistently. > more <

With all the stories of (usually) teenage girls meeting some stranger over the Internet, I just wanted to make this statement. The girls know exactly what they are doing and therefore should be held just as accountable as the guys. Teens have been doing the same thing long before the Internet and just because they aren’t 18 yet doesn’t mean they don’t know what they are doing and what they expect to happen. > more <

One thing I’ve found living in Hawaii (formerly called the Sandwich Islands by Captain Cook in honor of the Earl of Sandwich) is that the locals don’t admit, much less know, the true history of the islands. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of flack for talking about this but I think it’s something that needs to be brought up. > more <

After doing a Google search on “Hawaii sucks”, I’ve found that many people have expressed opinions that match my own. I already know that many of the military people currently here and who have lived here in the past also share the exact same feeling about Hawaii. I’m surprised at how many other people resent this place. To that end, I’m going to just post bits and pieces I find in the local media and personal experiences about the lie that is “paradise”. > more <

Hawaii is considering whether to give school principals the power to search student lockers and use drug-sniffing dogs campus wide, regardless of whether there is there is evidence of wrongdoing.

The idea is to give principals the authority to “keep drugs and weapons out of the schools”. > more <