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OPINION
SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2015 | WEST HAWAII TODAY
W
ASHINGTON
— Now come
Greeks bearing
the gift of confirmation
that Margaret Thatcher
was right about socialist
governments: “They
always run out of other
people’s money.” Greece,
from whose ancient
playwrights Western
drama descends, is in
an absurdist melodrama
about securing yet another
cash infusion from
international creditors.
This would add another
boulder to a mountain
of debt almost twice the
size of Greece’s gross
domestic product. This
protracted dispute will
result in desirable carnage
if Greece defaults, thereby
becoming a constructively
frightening example to all
democracies doling out
unsustainable, growth-
suppressing entitlements.
In January, Greek
voters gave power to the
left-wing Syriza party,
one third of which, The
Economist reports, con-
sists of “Maoists, Marxists
and supporters of Che
Guevara.” Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras, 40, a
retired student radical,
immediately denounced
a European Union decla-
ration criticizing Russia’s
dismemberment of
Ukraine. He chose only
one Cabinet member with
prior government experi-
ence — a leader of Greece’s
Stalinist communist party.
Tsipras’ minister for cul-
ture and education says
Greek education “should
not be governed by the
principle of excellence …
it is a warped ambition.”
Practicing what he preach-
es, he proposes abolishing
university entrance exams.
Voters chose Syriza
because it promised to
reverse reforms, partic-
ularly of pensions and
labor laws, demanded by
creditors, and to resist new
demands for rationality.
Tsipras immediately vowed
to rehire 12,000 gov-
ernment employees. His
shrillness increasing as his
options contract, he says
the European Union, the
European Central Bank
and the International
Monetary Fund are trying
to “humiliate” Greece.
How could one humil-
iate a nation that chooses
governments committed
to Rumpelstiltskin eco-
nomics, the belief that
the straw of government
largesse can be spun
into the gold of national
wealth? Tsipras’ approach
to mollifying those who
hold his nation’s fate in
their hands is to say they
must respect his “man-
date” to resist them. He
thinks Greek voters, by
making delusional prom-
ises to themselves, obligate
other European taxpayers
to fund them. Tsipras,
who says the creditors
are “pillaging” Greece, is
trying to pillage his local
governments, which are
resisting his extralegal
demands that they send
him their cash reserves.
Yanis Varoufakis,
Greece’s finance minister,
is an academic admirer
of Nobel laureate John
Nash, the Princeton genius
depicted in the movie
“A Beautiful Mind,” who
recently died. Varoufakis is
interested in Nash’s work
on game theory, especially
the theory of cooperative
games in which two or
more participants aim for
a resolution better for all
than would result absent
cooperation. Varoufakis’
idea of cooperation is to
accuse the creditors whose
money Greece has been
living on of “fiscal water-
boarding.” Tsipras tells
Greece’s creditors to read
“For Whom the Bell Tolls,”
Ernest Hemingway’s novel
of the Spanish Civil War.
His passive-aggressive
message? “Play nicely or
we will kill ourselves.”
Since joining the euro-
zone in 2001, Greece has
borrowed a sum 1.7 times
its 2013 GDP. Its 25 per-
cent unemployment (50
percent among young
workers) results from a
25 percent shrinkage of
GDP. It is a mendicant
reduced to hoping to
“extend and pretend” for-
ever. But extending the
bailout and pretending
that creditors will someday
be paid encourages other
European socialists to con-
template shedding debts
— other people’s money
that is no longer fun.
Greece, with just 11 mil-
lion people and 2 percent
of the eurozone’s GDP, is
unlikely to cause a conta-
gion by leaving the zone. If
it also leaves the misbegot-
ten European Union, this
evidence of the EU’s muta-
bility might encourage
Britain’s “Euro-skeptics”
when, later this year, that
nation has a referendum
on reclaiming national
sovereignty by withdraw-
ing from the EU. If Greece
so cherishes its sovereignty
that it bristles at condi-
tions imposed by creditors,
why is it in the EU, the
perverse point of which is
to “pool” nations’ sover-
eignties in order to dilute
national consciousness?
The EU has a flag no
one salutes, an anthem
no one sings, a president
no one can name, a par-
liament whose powers
subtract from those of
national legislatures,
a bureaucracy no one
admires or controls and
rules of fiscal rectitude
that no member is penal-
ized for ignoring. It does,
however, have in Greece a
member whose difficulties
are wonderfully didactic.
It cannot be said too
often: There cannot be
too many socialist smash-
ups. The best of these
punish reckless creditors
whose lending enables
socialists to live, for a
while, off other people’s
money. The world, which
owes much to ancient
Athens’ legacy, including
the idea of democracy, is
indebted to today’s Athens
for the reminder that
reality does not respect a
democracy’s delusions.
George Will’s email address is
.
Resolution a flimsy
excuse for another holiday
On June16, the Hawaiian County Council
unanimously approved a request to the state
Legislature to provide us with another holiday
— this one for the restoration of the Kingdom
of Hawaii in July 1843. This is the flimsiest
of excuses for a holiday I have ever heard.
On Feb. 10, 1843, British Naval Capt. Lord
Paulet, full of himself and perhaps too much
rum, entered Honolulu Harbor and made
outrageous demands on the government. On
Feb. 25, still full of himself and perhaps too
much rum, the captain threatened to level
Honolulu with canon fire if he was not given
control of the government. He was, and the
Union Jack replaced the Hawaiian flag.
Five months later, which was a short time
in the early days of sea voyage, British Adm.
Richard Thomas, recognizing how out of
line his Capt. Paulet had been, restored the
Kingdom of Hawaii. It was late July 1843.
For this we should have a holiday?
The Hawaiian monarchy, under
the strong influence of the Protestant
ministry, had outlawed Catholicism and
persecuted and imprisoned Catholics.
On July 9, 1839, the French warship
Artemis under the command of Capt. Cyrille
Laplace entered Honolulu Harbor. Capt.
Laplace threatened military action unless
five demands were met, including the release
from jail of all Catholics and a deposit of
$20,000 to be held by the French to ensure
compliance with the other demands.
His demands were met by King
Kamehemeha III and in 1846, the
$20,000 was returned to the kingdom
as part of a treaty signing.
In my opinion this attempt to separate
religion from government would be a better
reason, however flimsy, for a holiday.
Michael Robinson
Kailua-Kona
Why is there no policy
on stray cats at resort?
My family and I just spent a lovely week
in the Waikoloa area, staying at the Hilton’s
Kings’ Land resort. We were greeted by
a total of six sweet but wary cats on our
patio. Noticing that none of them had
notched ears to indicate they were spayed
or neutered, I contacted the Hawaii Island
Humane Society to ask if they were involved
in curtailing the propagation of this colony.
Donna Whitaker, the executive director
of the Hawaii Island Humane Society,
wrote me back to say they do not have
a TNR (trap-neuter-release) program
but an organization called AdvoCats
does. That’s when it got interesting.
Cindy Thurston returned my call and
told me that AdvoCats is not allowed
on the property at Kings’ Land per the
directive of its general manager. That
surprised me, given that advocacy groups
often provide free services to mitigate stray
populations and minimize the suffering
of domesticated animals that have been
abandoned to fend for themselves.
I inquired about the stray cat situation at
the Kings’ Land front desk because I wanted
to know what community organizations they
are working with if they aren’t permitting
AdvoCats on property. The assistant general
manager told me they don’t share their
policy regarding the stray cat population.
One wonders what their mystery policies
are and why they aren’t shared.
Given that we observed six cats, I’m
certain that in short order Kings’ Land will
have 60. Hopefully, management will be
encouraged to work with the community
services available in order to minimize
the stray cat colony at Kings’ Land.
Lynn Elliott
Abingdon, Va.
Let Greece go
GEORGE WILL |
THE WASHINGTON POST
EDITORIAL |
BLOOMBERG NEWS
F
rom the formaldehyde
in your floorboards
to the phthalates in
your nail polish to the flame
retardants in your upholstery,
substances that can be toxic
to humans are in countless
everyday products. Are they
safe when used in these ways?
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is supposed
to ensure that they are, but
its hands are largely tied: The
1976 law that governs chemical
regulation sets the bar for
action too high. Before limiting
the use of any substance, the
agency must show that its
restriction is less burdensome
than possible alternatives and
that the financial benefits
outweigh the costs — a
standard that’s been hard
to prove in court. The EPA
hasn’t issued any restrictions
on chemicals since 1990.
Many states have rushed in
to fill the vacuum, but this isn’t
ideal, either. If a chemical is
proved to be dangerous to you
or your children, protection
from it shouldn’t depend
on what state you live in.
(Conversely, if a chemical is
proved to be safe, access to it
shouldn’t depend on where
you live, either.) Meanwhile,
manufacturers are left
trying to follow sometimes
contradictory regulations.
A better fix is to update
federal law to give the EPA
the authority and resources
it needs to investigate — and
when necessary, restrict or
ban — chemicals used in
commercial and industrial
products. Bipartisan legislation
in Congress would move in
this direction by making it
easier for the EPA to impose
restrictions on chemicals it
deems unsafe and requiring
the agency to review at least
25 chemicals every five years.
The bill isn’t perfect, though.
It would also prevent states
from putting restrictions on
any chemicals the EPA says it
plans to examine — a process
that can take years. And it
would enable the EPA to
approve vaguely defined “low-
priority” chemicals without a
full-scale review. So if for some
reason the EPA were to lose
interest in such regulation,
state efforts could be blocked
without much to replace them.
Congress could address this
concern by amending the bill
to let states decide whether to
apply their own restrictions
on a chemical until the EPA
has finished its review.
Then the bill would go a long
way toward fixing a system
that serves neither consumers
nor industry particularly
well. And it would ease any
concerns that the stuff in
your living room or medicine
cabinet is going to kill you.
LETTERS
| YOUR VOICE
Is your living room poisoning you? The EPA should find out
