Too Many Bugga’s Ova Dere!

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastDisobedience Day
Day 185 of 2008
181 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hoa paio: Adversary
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Poro: Friend
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The mouths of people make noise like mud crabs.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.” (Frederich Niezsche)

WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing Maui
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — You Look Nice Today
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — John Cusack in MoveOn New Video


July 3, 1919: The first copies of the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper are delivered by airmail to Maui. No one wanted to read it then, either.
EVENTS ON THIS DAY — July 3rd
1775: Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge Massachusetts
1806: Michael Keens exhibits the first cultivated strawberry
1848: Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands)
1986: The renovated Statue of Liberty is re-dedicated
2001: General Electric’s $41 billion purchase of Honeywell International is vetoed by the European Union
2005: NASA space probe, Deep Impact, hit its comet target as planned in a mission to learn how the solar system formed.

BORN ON THIS DAY — July 3rd
1567: Samuel de Champlain, explorer
1878: George M. Cohan, producer/director
1883: Franz Kafka, writer
1925: Tony Curtis,  actor
1927: Ken Russell, director
1937: Tom Stoppard, playwright
1941: Gloria Allred, feminist attorney
1943: Geraldo Rivera newsman/TV show host
1947: Dave Barry, humorist
1962: Tom Cruise, actor

A Disaster of Peaceniks

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastUFO Day
Day 184 of 2008
182 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Mai’a: Banana
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Wanpela tasol: Alone
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Lying face up and counting the rafters.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.” (Mark Twain)

WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing Maui
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — You Look Nice Today
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — John Cusack in MoveOn New Video

July 2nd, 1968: Maui is nearly destroyed, and everything we now hold dear about this island is made nearly extinct, by an overwhelming invasion. Or, at least the nutjob of a mayor thought so. Elmer Cravalho says, “the presence of hippies on Maui is causing more unrest in the community than any event since World War II.” The mayor estimates the number of hippies on the island at 100.
World War II…Hippies. World War II..Hippies. Yeah, they come out about equal on my scale, too. Oh wait, it’s unfair. There’s a finger on one side of the scale. Let me give that finger to Mr. Cravalho.
Maui Curmudgen

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — July 2nd
1832: Native American Black Hawk is defeated in Iowa
1881: President Garfield is shot in Washington DC by Charles J Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker (Garfield dies in September)
1890 Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act
1937: Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator
1947: An object crashes near Roswell, New Mexico that the US Army Air Force later insists is a weather balloon (but eyewitness accounts give rise to speculation it may be an alien spacecraft)
1961: Author Ernest Hemingway, 61, shoots himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law a sweeping civil rights bill
1971: Oregon enacts the first state litter law
1976: North & South Vietnam are formally reunified
1976: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual punishment
1986: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in two rulings
2002: American Steve Fossett returns to western Australia to become the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world
2007: President George W. Bush commutes the sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, sparing him from a two-and-half-year prison term in the CIA leak case.
BORN ON THIS DAY — July 2nd
1894: Walter Brennan, actor
1908: Thurgood Marshall, first black Supreme Court justice
1925: Medgar Evers, African-American rights leader
1925: Patrice Lumumba, revolutionary
1929: Imelda Marcos, former Phillipine first lady
1949: Larry David, writer-director
1952: Linda M Godwin, PhD/astronaut
1956: Jeffrey Cooper, guitarist
1964: Jose Canseco, baseball player
1986: Lindsay Lohan, New York City, actress

Haleakala Park Dedicated

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastCanada Day
Day 183 of 2008
183 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Kahikoli: Early morning sun
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Ples bilong klaut: Sky
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The firebrand soars proudly over the cliffs.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.” (George Carlin)

WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing Maui
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — You Look Nice Today
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — John Cusack in MoveOn New Video


Haleakala National Park, Maui Hawaii

~ 2008 IS HALF OVER
~ FISCAL NEW YEAR

July 1st, 1961: The 30th U.S. National Park is dedicated - Haleakala National Park right here on Maui. It poured during the entire ceremony. Facts, figures, history and lots of good things about this park that includes the world’s largest inactive volcano, are available right here: http://www.nps.gov/hale

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — July 1st
1776: The first vote is held on the Declaration of Independence
1795: John Rutledge becomes the 2nd Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
1847: The first U.S. postage stamps go on sale (5¢ Franklin & 10¢ Washington-NYC)
1867: Canada becomes a self-governing dominion of Great Britain
1898: Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charge up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American war
1943: Automatic withholding of Federal taxes from paychecks begins in the U.S.
1971: The Golden Gate Bridge is finally fully paid for
2000: Vermont’s Civil Unions Law goes into effect
2004: Saddam Hussein made a defiant first public appearance in an Iraqi court
2005: Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, announced her retirement.
BORN ON THIS DAY — July 1st
1646: Gottfried W Leibnitz, mathematician-philosopher
1804: George Sand, Romantic novelist
1853: Cecil John Rhodes, South African politician, diamond merchant
1899: Charles Laughton, actor
1902: Billy Wyler, director
1908: Estee Lauder, CEO
1912: David Brower, environmentalist/president Sierra Club
1941: Twyla Tharp, choreographer
1942: Genevieve Bujold, actress
1942: Karen Black, actress
1945: Deborah Harry, rocker
1946: Ron Silver, actor
1952: Dan Aykroyd, comedian/actor
1961: Princess Diana of Wales
1967: Pamela Anderson, actress

An Interesting First

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastMeteor Day
Day 182 of 2008
184 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Ha’a: Dance
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Kukim long paia: Barbecue
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Be careful lest you be struck by the voice.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn’t changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I’m just wearing better shoes.” (Oprah Winfrey)

WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing Maui
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — You Look Nice Today
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — John Cusack in MoveOn New Video

Quantas AirJune 30, 1959: This really has nothing to do with Maui per se, but I find it interesting anyway. Before Hawaii became a state, the very first commercial jet to come to Hawaii arrived today, from San Francisco. The flight took 4 hours and 49 minutes (which is about what it takes today too). It was a Boeing 707 called The City of Sydney, and yes, it was owned by Quantas Airlines. The Royal Hawaiian Band played “Waltzing Matilda”. And for those of you who remember the movie “Rainman,” yes, it’s true. Quantas is the only major carrier in  the world that has never had an air accident.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — June 30th
1894: Korea declares independence from China and asks for Japanese aid
1914: Mahatma Gandhi’s is arrested for the first time in a campaign for Indian equal rights in South Africa
1929: Bobby Jones wins golf’s U.S. Open
1936: 40-hour work week law is approved in the U.S.
1948: The transistor is first demonstrated (Murray Hill NJ)
1950: President Truman orders U.S. troops into Korea
1971: The 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the minimum voting age to 18, is ratified
2001: Doctors implant a dual-purpose pacemaker in Vice President Dick Cheney’s chest.
2004: The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit after a nearly seven-year journey.
2005: Spain legalized gay marriage
BORN ON THIS DAY — June 30th
1909: Juan Bosch, poet/pres of the Dominican Republic
1917: Buddy Rich, drummer/orchestra leader
1917: Lena Horne, singer
1918: Susan Hayward, actress
1934: Harry Blackstone Jr, magician
1936: Nancy Dussault, actress
1951: Stanley Clarke, bass
1951: Stephen S Oswald, astronaut
1962: Julianne Regan, rock musician
1953: Hal Lindes, rock musician (Dire Straits)
1966: Mike Tyson, boxer
1969: Vincent D’Onofrio, actor
1962: Deirdre Lovejoy, actress (”The Wire”)

Paddle Sunday

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastStand Up Paddling Day
Day 181 of 2008
185 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hoe: Paddle
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Pul long: Paddle
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Put forward the paddle and draw it back.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “For Haoles, paddle means “spank” not “row.” (Anon)

WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Stand Up Paddle Surfing Maui
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — You Look Nice Today
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — John Cusack in MoveOn New Video

M<aui Stand Up Paddling
EVENTS ON THIS DAY — June 29th
1776:    Mission Dolores founded by San Francisco Bay
1927:    First flight from the West Coast arrives in Hawaii
1929:    First high-speed jet wind tunnel completed Langley Field, CA
1966:    Bombing of Hanoi, North Vietnam begins
1992:    A divided U.S. Supreme Court rules that women have a constitutional right to abortion
1995:    A department store in Seoul South Korea collapses and kills 501 people
2007:     The first Apple iPhones went on sale.
BORN ON THIS DAY — June 29th
1900:    Antoine Saint-Exupery, aviator/writer
1919:    Slim Pickens, actor
1933:    Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, actor
1934:    Carl Levin, (Sen-D-MI) (74 years ago)
1944:    Gary Busey,  actor
1947:    Richard Lewis, comedian/actor
1972:    Samantha Smith, actress

U.S. Presidents - William Henry Harrison

Maui Curmudgeon, U.S. Presidents No Comments

By the Maui Curmudgeon (9th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 1841 ~ 9th U.S. President

Wiulliam Henry Harrison, 9th US presidentStop me if this sounds familiar:

A man who was Senator, who had a storied military career, but who was old by current standards, spends most of his campaign running around trying to convince everyone he isn’t too old to be President of the United States, that his health was good and modern medicine had come a long way.

Nope, not John McCain, the current Republican candidate, but William Henry Harrison. Mr. Harrison took the oath of office on March 4, 1841, caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia, and on April 4, just 31 days later, he died. He was 68 years old, four years younger than McCain is today.

Harrison barely filled most of his cabinet, and there is nothing in his administration on which to judge him.

One can hope that McCain picks a nice, young, healthy running mate.

Harrison’s term is so short and inconsequential that he holds no rank in any historical Presidential poll. You are best finding a biography of him in a used book store sometime. It will be a thin text. He was not photographed in office.

INTERESTING BITS

  • He delivered the longest innaugural address.
  • He served the shortest time in office.
  • He was the first U.S. President to die in office.

 

Remember “Compassionate Conservatism”?

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastPaul Bunyan  Day
Day 150 of 2008
186 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hoomanaoana: Memory
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Holim long tingting: Remember
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “High flies the cloud in the sky lifted by the wind.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Nothing is so much strengthened by practice, nor weakened by neglect, as memory.(Quintillian)


WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Naomi Klein’s Website
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — John Cusack in Move On’s New Video
NETCASTS OF THE WEEK — Naomi Klein Audio | Gore Vidal’s Article of Impeachment
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — Hawaii Canines

BORN ON THIS DAY - June 28th
1491: Henry VIII, of England
1577: Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque painter
1712: Jean Jacques Rousseau, social commentator
1867: Luigi Pirandello, writer
1909: Eric Ambler, suspense author
1926: Mel Brooks, comedic actor/director/playwright
1933: Pat (Noriyuki) Morita, actor
1945: David Knights, bassist
1946: Gilda Radner, comedienne
1948: Kathy Bates, actress
1960: John Elway, NFL QB
1966: John Cusack, actor
1966: Mary Stuart Masterson, actress
1973: Alessandro Nivola, actor
1986: Kellie Pickler, country singer
EVENTS ON THIS DAY - June 28th
1838: Britain’s Queen Victoria is crowned in Westminster Abbey
1938: The National Minimum Wage Act is passed by Congress
1951: The radio program “Amos ‘n Andy” premieres on television (CBS) to become the first TV series with an all-African American cast (also negatively stereotyping African Americans)
1956: The first atomic reactor is built for private research (Chicago Illinois)
1965: The first U.S. ground combat forces in Vietnam are authorized by President Johnson
1967: Israel formally declares that Jerusalem is reunified under its sovereignty (the Arab sector was captured in June)
1977: The U.S. Supreme Court rules to allow Federal control of the Nixon tapes and transcripts
2000: Elian Gonzalez is returned to Cuba, seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits
2000: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders
2001: Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
2004: The United States resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya after a 24-year break.

Becoming Fearless

Raphael O'Suna No Comments

Fear and negativity are the King and Queen of America at present. There are numerous reasons for this, both real and imagined.

There are so many fears, in fact, that it is pointless to deal with them individually. One must deal with fear itself. One must gain a perspective which raises one above fear. Otherwise one will use all of his energy and time dealing with fears one at a time.

Read the rest…

Contact Governor Lingle

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Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastHIV Testing Day
Day 179 of 2008
187 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Ano o ka nohana: Environment
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Bus: Countryside
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Where were you when the rain poured?”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “We are far more concerned about the desecration of the flag than we are about the desecration of our land .(Wendell Berry)


WEB SURF SPOTS OF THE WEEK — Naomi Klein’s Website
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — I’m Voting Republican
NETCASTS OF THE WEEK — Naomi Klein Audio | Gore Vidal’s Article of Impeachment
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — Hawaii Canines

TODAY: Hawai’i First in Nation to Require Solar
This landmark legislation (Act 204) to require solar on new homes would not have passed without community support. But Governor Linda Lingle is threatening to veto three key environmental bills.
  • Electronic Waste Recycling - SB 2843 establishes a much-needed electronic waste (e-waste) recycling program.
  • “Right to Dry” Clothesline Bill - SB 2933 allows the use of clotheslines anywhere-including in community associations where restrictive covenants sometimes prohibit them.
  • Invasives Prevention Funding - HB 2843 increases critical funding for the prevention of invasive species.
Contact Governor Lingle at 808-586-0034 or governor.lingle@hawaii.gov ASAP (before Friday, July 4), thank her for supporting the Solar Roofs bill, and ask that she let the measures below become law.
BORN ON THIS DAY - June 27th
1846: Charles Stewart Parnell, Ireland nationalist
1869: Emma Goldman, anarchist/publisher
1880: Helen Keller, blind-deaf author/lecturer
1927: Bob Keeshan, aka Captain Kangaroo/Clarabelle
1938: Bruce E. Babbitt, former governor of AZ
1942: Bruce Johnston, rocker
1966: J.J. Abrams, writer/producer
1975: Tobey Maguire, actor
1991: Madylin Sweeten, actress

EVENTS ON THIS DAY - June 27th
1542: Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo departs from the port of Navidad Mexico, leading the first European expedition to explore what is now the west coast of the United States
1838: Queen Victoria is crowned
1844: Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, is killed (Carthage IL)
1846: Smithsonian Institution established
1847: Telegraph wires connect Boston and New York
1950: President Truman orders Air Force and Navy troops into the Korean conflict after the U.N. calls for assistance for South Korea
1950: The U.S. sends 35 military advisers to South Vietnam
1954: CIA-sponsored rebels overthrow the elected government of Guatemala
1955: The first automobile seat belt legislation is enacted (Illinois)
1969: The birth of the homosexual rights movement: police raid the Stonewall Gay Bar in Greenwich Village NY (about 400 to 1,000 patrons riot against the police for 3 days)
1973: John W Dean tells the Watergate Committee about the “enemies list” of the Nixon White House
1986: The World Court rules that U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan Contras is illegal
1990: Salman Rushdie, condemned to death by Iran, contributes $8,600 to help their earthquake victims
2007 Former Treasury chief Gordon Brown became British prime minister, succeeding Tony Blair.

U.S. Presidents - Martin Van Buren

Maui Curmudgeon, U.S. Presidents 2 Comments

By the Maui Curmudgeon (8th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

MARTIN  VAN BUREN: 1837-1841 ~ 8th U.S. President

Martin van Buren - 8th US presidentA man of prodigious accomplishments, Van Buren was the country’s first self-made man to become president. Born of poor tenant farmers, Van Buren used his tenuous links with propertied rich friends (the New York Van Nesses) to gain entrance into law school where he eventually repudiated them. He was off, and before he was finished he would become known as “the little magician.”

Contemporaries of his, those with well-known names and fat wallets, people like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, coveted the presidency, but only Van Buren won it. He had worked his way up from law school, to a lucrative practice in New York, then as a New York Senator and Governor. Under Jackson, he was Minister to Great Britian, and Jackson’s vice-president during the second term. Jackson adored Van Buren, and respected his amazing ability to work bureaucracies to accomplish tasks, which is why Jackson held onto him, and even endorsed him as his successor, when Van Buren often didn’t like Jackson’s practices. Read the rest…

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