I forgot to mention this incident after we moved from Hawaii to San Diego. As everyone who has flown in the US knows, you have to send your bags through x-ray machines. After 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the federal agency responsible for baggage checks at airports. The TSA screeners are supposed to monitor all passengers and baggage going through the checkpoint, to the point of requiring people to remove their shoes for independent x-raying. > more <

Below is part of a Navy message that talks about expediting the process for non-US citizens to receive citizenship. Apparently you don’t have to be a citizen to serve in the US military and any non-American citizen serving in the US Armed Forces is eligible to bypass much of the citizenship process. > more <

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 <

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 <

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 <