War makes us do imprudent things

At the William S. Richardson School of Law on Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told law students and faculty that a country at war can make some terrible decisions — such as the internment of Japanese- American citizens during World War II.

He said the Supreme Court’s upholding of it in 1944 "was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again, in time of war."

That’s food for thought when we consider one of the consequences of the "war on terror" after the 9/11 attacks: a massive spying operation by the National Security Agency that has raised fundamental questions about government overreach.

Perhaps the court will address that operation as well. If so, we hope its decision is the right one.

Silver linings here, there, everywhere

Happy days aren’t exactly here again, but there were several economic positives bundled into one news brief Tuesday.

The main point was how bankruptcies here were down by 23 percent in January, compared with a year earlier, with the 122 filings continuing the downward trend since 2010, when cases averaged 330 monthly.

Meanwhile:

» Credit card debt here dropped by 19 percent, to $5,448, in December, versus a year earlier.

» Isle residents have the highest average credit score nationally — 662 — which is a measure of their ability to repay debt.

» Hawaii’s jobless rate was 4.5 percent in December, down from 5.1 percent a year earlier.

These figures don’t tell the whole story — consider all the homeless, for example — but good news is good news.