1st  Day of Aquarius Day 20 of 2008 346 days left in this year

PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Lait: Light
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY

January 20, 2007: After six years of debate (we kid you not), the Maui County Council finally approves standards for outdoor lights in both private and public venues. The regulations, which followed very closely the ones in effect on the Big Island for years, were passed 9 - 0.

This was a environmental issue, which in part explains the ridiculous time it took to decide the matter: the council never passes anything favorable to the environment unless its collective feet are held to the lava. In this case, arguments included a possible increase in technical jobs at the summit of Haleakala. The observatories there had complained for years that the increasing development of the island was making it harder to work nights up there. Light pollution obscured the heavens.

The bill has a loophole you could drive a quasar through, though: there is no agency or county department charged with overseeing that developers follow the new regulations.

Even here on Maui, the numbers of stars we have to wish upon is dwindling.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — January 20th

• 1265: The first English Parliament is called into session by the Earl of Leicester 
• 1783: Hostilities cease in the Revolutionary War 
• 1801: John Marshall is appointed U.S. chief justice 
• 1809: The first U.S. geology book is published by William Maclure 
• 1841: China cedes Hong Kong to the British 
• 1887: Pearl Harbor is obtained by the U.S. from Hawaii for use as a naval base 
• 1929: The first feature-length talking motion picture taken outdoors, “In Old Arizona,” is released 
• 1981: Iran releases the 52 American prisoners it has held when it took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran (they had been held for 444 days)   

BORN ON THIS DAY — January 20th

We are a self-absorbed, indulgent and disrespectful society. One that is being propped up by a monetary policy which simultaneously devalues our personal assets. Our national managers are trying to buy our way out of a crisis, which was caused by unrestrained credit and spending. We continue to want to pay our debts with credit. The whole country is involved in a Great Ponzi Scheme.

Smart money moved to commodities, but no asset or investment will be protected from the societal dislocations which must inevitably follow a corrupt, ignorant and uneducated Federal Administration. Skeletons and ghosts try to reassure us that there is plenty of fat to go around. But there isn’t.

We need a day of National Recollection. A day in which everyone pauses for reflection. What are the motives of our actions? Why are we doing what we are doing? Do we understand that we are consuming resources for inessentials?

Do we not see that the accumulation of money drives us to evil? And there are no limits to this evil. And no end to the rationalizations and falsifications offered in defense of evil. Everyone of us must get his house in order. Everyone of us must realize that the party is over. We are living in a Red Zone at a Red Time.

If we do not develop a New Materialism, the Red will liquify before our eyes.

– Raphael O’Suna, Haiku