New Year’s Day Day 1 of 2008 365 days left in this year

Maluhia: Peace
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “One can boast of a peaceful life.”

---

HAPPY NEW YEAR CARD – Leap Year, Election Year, 2008
UH Warriors play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl, 3:30pm HST.

January 1st, 2008: 

• Thirty-four identified wars are waging on mother earth.
• More than 80,000 humans a day die of starvation and starvation-related diseases each day, 40,000 of them are children under the age of five.
• Every Western religion is at war someplace on the globe.
• The United States has more than $9 trillion in public debt, increasing $1.3 billion per day, with your share currently being $30,000.
• Private debt in the U.S. exceeds $10 trillion.
• An estimated 2,000,000 people will lose their homes in 2008 due to financial mismanagement, theirs and lending institutions.
• 30 million children in the U.S. live below the poverty line.

The line of human destruction stretches back as far as human memory. It has been mercilessly exacerbated and exploited by religions, despots, republics and democracies. And there’s not a damn thing you’re going to do to stop it today. Besides, everything is closed, or should be.

Surf, hit the beach. Read Mark Twain. Watch a Marx Brothers comedy. Laugh. Have a barbecue with friends and watch the Sugar Bowl. Have some peace.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – January 1st

•  1660: Samuel Pepys makes the first entry in his diary 
• 1673: Regular mail delivery begins between New York City and Boston 
• 1788: The Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves 
• 1801: Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first asteroid (later named Ceres) 
• 1801: Ireland & Great Britain (England & Scotland) form the United Kingdom 
• 1808: The U.S. Congress prohibits importation of slaves 
• 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation is issued by President Abraham Lincoln 
• 1863: The first homestead under the Homestead Act is claimed
• 1886: The first Tournament of Roses in Pasadena California 
• 1896: Wilhelm Roëntgen announces his discovery of x-rays 
• 1899: Cuba is liberated from Spain by the U.S.  
• 1923: The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) is established 
• 1947: Britain nationalizes its coal industry 
• 1948: Britain nationalizes its railways 
• 1958: The European Economic Community (EEC aka the “Common Market”) starts operation 
• 1959: Fidel Castro leads a successful coup in Cuba 
• 1975: After 42 years, it again becomes “legal” for individual Americans to own gold 
• 1977: The first woman is formally ordained as an Episcopal priest (Jacqueline Means) 
• 1984: Federal government breaks up AT&T into 8 “Baby Bells”
• 1995: Gary Larson publishes his last syndicated “Far Side” cartoon (began in 1980) 
• 1998: The Californian state law prohibiting smoking in business establishments goes into effect
• 1999: The Euro becomes the official currency of eleven European countries  

BORN ON THIS DAY – January 1st

• 1449: Lorenzo de’Medici
• 1735: Paul Revere, silversmith and Revolutionary hero
• 1864: Alfred Stieglitz, father of modern photography
• 1879: E M Forster, English novelist
• 1895: J Edgar Hoover, FBI Director
• 1909: Barry Goldwater,  U.S. Senator (R-AZ)
• 1918: J.D. Salinger, author
• 1922: Ernest Hollings, U.S. Senator (D-SC) 
• 1940: Frank Langella, actor
• 1947: Jon Corzine, Governor (D-NJ)
• 1950: Steve Ripley,country singer
• 1954: Robert Menendez, U.S. senator (D-NJ)
• 1956: Brian Flynn, country singer
• 1942: Country Joe McDonald,  rock guitarist/vocalist
• 1959: Morris Chestnut, actor