Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 797 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Food of Hawaii

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much tuna and other seafood in my life. And you know what? It was delicious. Here are my thoughts on our culinary tour of Hawai’i in no particular order:

Coconut makes everything more delicious. Â I knew this before we left, but my belief was confirmed. Â Coconut pancakes topped with coconut syrup? Â More please! Â (Diamond Head Market & Grill) Â And Starbucks has a Mocha Coconut Frap that you can supposedly only get in Hawaii. Â It’s like a Mounds slushie.
Never, ever, ever miss this if you visit the island of Hawai’i: Tasting or luncheon at the Hawaiian Vanilla Company. Follow their directions, not Google’s. Trust me. But get there and get there fast. The tasting is actually about 3/4 of a meal, or a full lunch if you had an early breakfast. Delicious and divine. We bought several items in the store and plan to replicate most of their recipes. Sugar/vanilla/spicy crusted pecans? Check. Vanilla caramelized onions to top some brie warmed in pastry? I’ll host dinner for guests just as an excuse to make it. Vanilla balsamic vinaigrette? Bought it & already opened it up for dinner last night. Vanilla bean lemonade? I’m all over that one. Also free: tips on mixing vanilla with booze & how to best use said booze in food. This will be an “every future trip” stop for us any time we hit the Big Island again. Best $25 you can spend on food.
Are you an atheist looking for proof of a higher being? Â Proof that there is a God and he loves us is found in a plate of Shrimp Scampi from Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. Â It was so good, we visited both locations the two days we were up on the North Shore.
Best unexpected find? Â Ilikai Bar & Grill. Â Sit outside at the bar, enjoy the sounds of the harbor and take advantage of the good company behind the bar – particularly a bartender named Sarah. Â She was great – so was their coconut shrimp appetizer. Â I kept reading complaints that the property was dated, but I didn’t think it was in a bad way. Â The atmosphere was great.
A great hidden gem: Liliha Bakery. We were the only rental in the lot – that says a lot right there when every other customer in the packed joint was kama’aina. The haupia cake – oh, be still my heart. It was so simple and mild, just what I love about it. Not too sweet, not overpowering, and wonderfully moist. The coco puffs are a delicious treat, and it’s worth picking up some cinnamon donuts for breakfast. There’s a reason they’ve been in business longer than Hawaii has been a state.
Looking for the tiki bar vibe? Â Hit up La Mariana Sailing Club on Oahu. Â The drinks were a bit weak, but sitting on the water and enjoying the harbor sunset made up for that.
Kona Brewing Company was worthy of three stops (two on Oahu because it was the only place outside of Waikiki we could find that was open at a reasonable hour and one on Hawai’i when we stayed in bumf*ck no where and had to drive to Kona for dinner). Â I strongly recommend the roasted garlic appetizer.
Luau: Most people will tell you not to waste your money on a commercial luau. Â I can somewhat sympathize because, from what I have read, most have terrible food and many are pretty damn expensive. Â But, Sebastian was up for a luau, and I read there are only two worth seeing according to residents & frequent visitors: one on Maui & one on the Big Island. Â We were on the Big Island, so we ended our trip with the Polynesian luau hosted by Kona Village Resort. Â At just over $100/person (adding tax & extra drinks), it isn’t cheap. Â But, for a multi-hour dinner show & bbq with a buffet that definitely qualified as filling & good, it was a reasonable price. Â It was a great last evening for a trip to the islands. Â Also, the fire dancer on their website – totally hot in person.

Obviously, we did eat more than just these places. Â Oh, and Sebastian was introduced to the wonderful varieties of macadamia nuts thanks to my grandmother. Â He loves them. Â If you ever want to know, Mauna Loa Honey Roasted are superior to Hawaiian Host Honey Roasted. Â But neither of us turned down either of the bags offered to us. Â And if you aren’t walking it all off, then you aren’t doing Hawaii the right way. :)

Making Shooters the “Norm”

I have a habit that I know sometimes annoys Sebastian. I talk about the Second Amendment and shooting, preferably in places where it is unexpected and might even shake a few people out of their comfort zones. However, as he has learned by now, I’m very good about putting it into a context that people can understand so that they aren’t venturing so far out of their comfort zones that they want to run in the other direction. (That’s what we call counter-productive, not “cool” or something to take pride in.)

Our first adventure on Hawai’i was the Mauna Kea Summit & Stars tour (worth every penny). Since we would be on a bus & exploring the top of a mountain together for 8 hours, our tour guide asked us to introduce ourselves (the tours are small) and tell everyone else where we were from and one passion or hobby. Aha – my bright idea bulb goes off. (Poor Sebastian was too busy taking landscape photos to see the look that would have warned him what was to come.)

Aside from meeting another couple from our area in the introductions, it was a useful excuse to say that a hobby and passion of mine was target shooting. At dinner, two other couples came up to talk to me about shooting – one a recreational & occasional shooter and the other a hunter. Suddenly, the number of people who actually shoot or who were fine with guns in the home was now the majority on the bus. Anyone who might have been uncomfortable with it before now had to deal with the fact that they were in the minority opinion in the group. The hunter and I even talked about the various species he and his family members harvest and the deer numbers of northern New York. We created a casual atmosphere for other shooters to come out of the closet and talk about their sport like it was any other hobby or interest rather than a contentious political subject.

Shooting became the norm on that bus headed to the top of Mauna Kea. Mix that with the fact that Sebastian was the only one taking decent shots of the stars (real photos to come later) with everyone wondering how to do it, and some friendly conversation over dinner, and we gave guns a happy, human face.

Polishing the Turd

The Brady folk have an annual report out. Joe Huffman notes that their main theme seems to be declaring victory because they didn’t lose everything. I do have to admit, they say you can’t polish a turd, but the Brady folks are very good at it, reading over their report. Comparing to previous years, they seem to be doing a bit better raising money from new members than in 2007, but worse than 2008. In addition, they seem to be doing a really poor job of keeping members, based on renewal income continuously dropping, despite general contributions to both the Campaign and the Center being up in 2009 over 2008. It’ll be interesting to see their 2009 Form 990s, when they become available.

The Narrative that Just Won’t Die

The Mexican Gun canard is back.

New York Times Weighs in on Lead Ammo Ban

Of course they think it’s a disgrace that the EPA can’t ban lead ammunition, because why can’t we have a back door way to end the shooting sports and hunting as we know it? That would mean Heller and McDonald are without consequence, and we won’t be dismantling New York City’s gun laws in short order. It think that’s what the Times is really afraid of.

We Return to Better Political News…

I’m currently catching up on the insanity in Delaware, where it seems enough crazy broke out over the last couple of weeks to entertain folks on both coasts nearly 24/7 on Twitter.

But, there’s this bit of interesting news from one of my favorite local political news sites:

That means some Democratic-held seats have become more competitive, most notably Patrick Murphyâ€™s 8th District, which now sits at No. 4 on the rankings. Republican challenger Mike Fitzpatrickâ€™s strong fundraising, an anti-Democratic climate and polling data weâ€™ve seen all contributed to this change. Political forecasters increasingly see the Bucks County race as a battleground. No race has become more competitive since we inaugurated the Power Rankingsâ€”itâ€™s moved from No. 10 all the way to No. 4.

This fascinates me, and likely will until the morning after election day. Talking to people on the ground, there’s not much enthusiasm for Fitzpatrick – the GOP candidate looking to reclaim the seat he lost in 2006. However, there is quite a bit of enthusiasm for voting out Patrick Murphy – the Democratic incumbent who ran as a Blue Dog and has voted fairly far left.

Of course, nothing we see here in Pennsylvania compares to the level of political engagement we saw out in Hawaii. Their primary isn’t until next weekend, and yet we saw sign wavers every single time we got in the car (with some exceptions when we were driving late at night). There are signs in lawns and banners hanging off the sides of a huge number of homes. We found it was even common for businesses to get in on the political game by showing their support for various candidates. It’s very clear that the Djou special election win has energized the GOP there, and they are out in full force showing their support for their candidates. On the Democratic side, Mufi Hannemann, the primary challenger to former Congressman Neil Abercrombie for the Governor’s office, appears to have quite the enthusiasm advantage. His volunteers were out everywhere. We never saw any Abercrombie supporters (at least in person – beyond a sign in the yard) until our next to last day. Even then, it was one group doing one sign waving event.

Anschutz Sells Out

We really need to revive American manufactured precision small bores, because the European Manufacturers are going to be increasingly regulated into extinction, or forced to neuter their products. We nearly destroyed Smith & Wesson over less, and now I will never purchase an Anschutz product.

So What’s Happening in the World?

I guess I should find out, and report back. I’ve been so out of it, I haven’t even really been paying attention to e-mail. Obama could have ordered house-to-house confiscation, and I doubt I’d have realized. Definitely haven’t been reading blogs. Many thanks to my guest bloggers for helping fill in for me while I was gone. Normal blogging will resume as soon as I figure out what I’ve been missing.

But one story I will link to is from Marko, and I have to say, after that long flight back from Hawaii, bravo. My parents took the same approach, and even when we were older, it was mostly Imperial Pizza for the family. No fancy places for us.

Back Home

Our Hawaiian adventure is over. Arrived back on the east coast at Newark, New Jersey at 6AM. Too early for the trains to run. Feeling like a day just up and disappeared, I was too tired to wait for them to start running, so we rented a car, one way, at the Newark Airport and high-tailed it down the New Jersey Turnpike for home.Â The good thing about a two week vacation is you’re kind of glad to be home, and don’t have to keep living out of a suitcase.

The latest Hawaiian vacation trend seems to be taking the kids along. Let me amend that — taking your screaming kids along. You’d almost have a hard time believing we’re in a recession, that people have money for the whole family to go on vacation. We took driving vacations to such exciting destinations as Ocean City, New Jersey, Lewes, Delaware (I never did get to see the screen door factory, though) and one trip to Florida (we drove).Â When my parents went on vacations that required flying, we got dropped off at the grandparents.

Standards of public behavior for children have also definitely gone downhill. If my parents had taken us on a plane, there’s no way I would be permitted to run up and down the aisles, and wander the plane annoying people.Â On the flight out, the parents were busy getting liquored up, while their kids were having free reign over the incredibly cramped 757. I think if you have your bratty rug rats with you, and you’d rather drink than parent, you ought to be required to buy drinks for the whole plane. I believe I Â will take this up with the FAA.

I think the root of this problem is you can’t smack your kids in public anymore, and parents seem to think there’s no problem with imposing their kids on the rest of the world. I would have gotten smacked if I had behaved like that. It almost makes this tame:

Burning the Koran: Really Stupid

If you want to get media attention, saying you are going to burn the Koran does that just fine.Â But it is wrong on so many levels.Â Let’s count them, shall we?

1. It anger Muslims, as opposed to persuading them.Â There are a lot of serious criticisms that can be made of the Koran and Islam, but burning the Koran isn’t a serious criticism.Â It’s childish.Â That pastor should have organized a daylong serious analysis of the Koran’s inconsistencies and the difficulties with reading its text that have been acknowledged by Muslim scholars since around 1000 AD.Â Would it have converted many Muslims?Â No.Â But it would not have generated the…firestorm (yes, that’s the word) of passionate rage.Â It makes America look stupid.

2. Book burning has become a symbol of fascism.Â Even the Catholic Church, when it maintained its list of prohibited books, did not burn books.Â Great: a Christian pastor uses a symbol of the Nazis.Â What were you thinking?Â Were you thinking?

3. It provides yet another example of an ignorant Christian pastor for the news media (which is constantly ignoring the many equivalent Islamic radical imams) to use to portray Christianity in a bad light.

4. It almost certainly increases the risk that some Muslim fanatic is going to kill some American somewhere–and there is nothing that we get in return for that increased risk.Â If some action that we took actually increased the possibility of winning the war against Islamofascism in exchange for that risk, it might be worth considering.Â But what does burning Korans buy us?Â Nothing.

I hope this pastor enjoys his brief moment of fame.