Consider hemp
Consider hemp
Industry can’t understand how much more profitable it would be for them to grow hemp.
Those “pesky” environmentalists wouldn’t be such a thorn in their side, it should drastically reduce the amount of government regulations, and they wouldn’t have to pay so many lobbyists to saturate governments with billions of dollars to destroy the regulations previous generations worked so hard to attain.
Expensive equipment and toxic processes could be eliminated, and they could even have their PR departments make it appear that they care.
Hemp can grow almost anywhere and doesn’t need fertilizer or any form of biochemical warfare, so instead of pipelines, fields of it can be grown in the area where it would be processed and sold.
It’s good for a composite building material, paper, oil, fabrics and food. Like any other institution, industry is averse to change and the older the institution, the more progress scares the daylights out of them!
Mr. Benz’s first car ran on hemp oil, but the petroleum industry killed it, just like the steam and the first electric car.
It could be to their benefit, if they could only open their eyes.
Dave Kisor
Pahoa
Krugman’s drivel
For me, the opinion pieces by Paul Krugman are irritating at best and, at worst, downright nauseating.
Thus, his rant in (a recent Tribune-Herald), “Moochers on the high plains,” would have you think the dispute about open range control in the western states can be blamed on a white racist man who is merely a “welfare queen of the purple sage.”
Such is how Krugman frequently dumbs down an issue for the benefit of his low-information Democrat readers.
Then again, maybe Krugman is just insecure about his own racial identity and can’t resist playing the usual liberal race card.
Remember that the signature moment of the incident involving rancher Clive Bundy saw the agents of the Bureau of Land Management deploying snipers at the roadblock to make sure they stayed “in control” of the situation.
They apparently learned this technique from the Russians, who employed it recently in the Ukraine crisis.
Were this an isolated incident, we might be tempted to shrug it off as the feds simply maintaining “law and order.” Yet, in recent years we’ve witnessed so many examples of intimidation of citizens by excessively-armed federal thugs we now wonder how it is the federal government has come to so fear its own citizens.
It is not only ranchers but the people of many western states and their locally elected governments that have been pushing back against federal encroachment on their land.
This is all about something Krugman apparently does not want you to think about: the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which warrants “powers not granted to the United States are reserved to the states or to the people.”
States are fighting for their constitutional rights to determine how their land should be used, even as the BLM and the EPA continue to expand federal control over land uses.
Krugman excuses this federal over-reach by explaining the government intervenes “to solve problems.” Obamacare is another example of the federal government “solving problems.”
Curtis Beck
Hilo
Protect the Internet
I wanted to voice my concerns with the recent “net neutrality” issues.
The FCC is breaking our Internet.
Net neutrality is about being able to freely access any content or service on the Internet (such as Facebook or Netflix) without any companies or governments throttling (or slowing down) our Internet service, blocking our access to this content (such as independent news sources or limiting our access to books), or prioritizing one site or service instead of another (to limit our choices).
In efforts to stop net neutrality, the FCC is proposing rules that would allow rampant discrimination and possible censorship online.
Industry giants such as AT&T, Verizon and now Comcast (after the proposed merger with Time Warner) will now be able to discriminate against online content and applications.
What can I do as an average citizen to help this movement?
Jon Carico
Pahoa