Bitter Sweet Good-Bye

March 31, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastClam on 1/2-Shell Day
Day 91 of 2008
275 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Panakalupa: Bankrupt
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Balus: Airplane
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Deny the gods, deny their power.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.” (Thomas Jefferson) 

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Maui Culinary Academy - Class Act
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Iraq War Veterans Speak Out
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Tekzilla.com
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  Daily.Mahalo.com


Aloh Air's first plane

 TODAY - March 31st 2008:  Today is the last day that Aloha Air will fly. After 60 years, the airline cites “unfair competition,” meaning go! airlines and its $39 (and at times $19) one-way fair between islands. The latest information is being posted here.

If you are a tourist, you will probably make your way to the mainland via United Airlines, if there is room.  If you fly between islands, right now you’ve lost your money. That may change, if Aloha can get another airline to honor its tickets. Time will tell.

The airline first flew in 1948, just after the World War II and a good ten years before statehood. It was known for the DC model of planes it flew. (The DC line became the most popular aircraft of the 20th century. It is estimated that more than 100 of the planes are still in operation. Aviation Week once called the DC-9 the “finest aircraft ever assembled.” It was a prop, would go too fast, but come hell or high water, it would get you there.)

Only time will tell if Aloha is correct. That is, if the go! ticket prices were set solely to drive competition out of business. If the interisland prices go up soon, we’ll know the airline was right. Read more …

March 31st, 1993: The 110-year-old Hamakua Sugar Co. closes (think Hamakuapoko). The company had been dormant since the previous August.  The last 31 workers are laid off. Today the area is best known as the restoration location of the Old Maui High School.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 31st

  • 1831: Quebec & Montreal are incorporated 
  • 1917: The U.S. pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands
  • 1918: The first daylight savings time in U.S. goes into effect 
  • 1933: Congress authorizes Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 
  • 1966: 25,000 Vietnam War anti-war demonstrators march in New York City 
  • 1967: Jimi Hendrix burns his guitar for the first time (London) 
  • 1982: The rock group Doobie Brothers splits up 
  • 1999: Four New York City police officers are charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo
  • 2004: Four American civilian contractors are killed in Fallujah, Iraq;
  • 2004: Air America, a liberal alternative to conservative talk radio, debuts on 5 stations
  •  2005: Terri Schiavo dies at a hospice in Pinellas Park, FL, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House.

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 31st

  • 1596: Rene Descartes, philosopher
  • 1809: Edward FitzGerald, writer
  • 1809: Nikolai Gogol, father of 19th-century Russian realism
  • 1811: Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen, chemist
  • 1844: Andrew Lang, author
  • 1903: Arthur Godfrey, TV host 
  • 1915: Henry Morgan, comedian/TV panelist
  • 1924: Leo Buscaglia, psychologist 
  • 1926: John Fowles, novelist
  • 1933: Shirley Jones,  actress
  • 1935: Herb Alpert, bandleader/trumpeteer
  • 1935: Judith Rossner,  writer
  • 1935: Richard Chamberlain,  actor 
  • 1938: John Jakes, Chicago, writer
  • 1939: Liz Claiborne,  fashion designer
  • 1940: Barney Frank, (Rep-D-MA)
  • 1940: Patrick J Leahy, (Sen-D-VT) (68 years ago) 
  • 1943: Christopher Walken, actor
  • 1946: Gabe Kaplan, comedian/actor
  • 1948: Albert Gore Jr,  Vice President/Senator (D-Tenn, Nobel Peace laurreate
  • 1948: Rhea Perlman, actress
  • 1953: Valerie Curtin,  actress 
  • 1959: Angus Young,  rock guitarist 
  • 1971: Ewan McGregor, actor
  • 1976: Josh Saviano, actor 

Stuck on Maui

March 30, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastI Am in Control Day
Day 90 of 2008
276 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Olo Hana: Strike
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Slekim: Strike
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “It is work that causes red, hot eyes.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “When work is a pleasure, life is a joy.” (Gorky) 

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — MauiCulinary Academy - Class Act
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Iraq War Veterans Speak Out
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Tekzilla.com
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  Daily.Mahalo.com


Uniate Airlines

TODAY - Merrie Monarch Festival begins on the Big Island: While tickets for the hula competitions have been sold out long ago, this weeklong festival offers many free concerts and fairs for everyone to enjoy. Check the local newspapers and posters for the up-to-date schedule of events, including the big Merrie Monarch parade, which winds through downtown Hilo beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Learn more …

March 30th, 1979: United Airlines, which at this time was the only airline to serve Hawaii from the United States mainland, is hit by a massive machinists strike.  It grounds all aircraft for several weeks.  Tourists in Hawaii are stranded and many become strapped for cash.  Vacationers from the mainland fail to take holiday here.  The tourist industry calls the strike a disaster, and it becomes one of the prime motivators to opening the air channel to several other airlines.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 30th

  •  1822: Florida becomes a territory 
  • 1842: Dr Crawford Long becomes the first physician to use ether as anesthetic 
  • 1867: U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 (Seward’s Folly) 
  • 1870: Texas becomes last confederate state readmitted to Union 
  • 1889: John T Reid opens first U.S. golf course (Yonkers, NY) 
  • 1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean 
  • 1950: Invention of the Phototransistor is announced at Murray Hill, NJ 
  • 1953: Albert Einstein announces his revised Unified Field Theory 
  • 1980: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is founded      
  • 1981: John W Hinckley Jr attempts to assassinate President Ronald Reagan as he walks to his limousine 
  • 1999: A jury in Portland Oregon orders Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades 
  • 2006 American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq.

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 30th

  • 1135: Maimonides, (Moses Ben Maimon),  philosopher/physician  
  • 1719: Sir John Hawkins, wrote first history of music in English  
  • 1853: Vincent van Gogh, artist
  • 1864: Franz Oppenheimer, German sociologist/politician
  • 1880: Sean O’Casey, playwright
  • 1913: Richard Helms, CIA head
  • 1914: Sonny Boy Williamson, blues musician
  • 1937: Warren Beatty,  actor
  • 1944: Graeme Edge, drummer
  • 1945: Eric Clapton, guitarist/vocalist 
  • 1948: Jim Dandy Mangrum, vocalist
  • 1957: Paul Reiser, actor
  • 1957: Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova, cosmonaut
  • 1963: M.C. Hammer, rapper/actor
  • 1968: Céline Dion, singer
  • 1979: Norah Jones, singer

Disguised Racism Prevails

March 30, 2008 Raphael O'Suna No Comments

A number of right wing radio ignoramuses have been faulting African-Americans for not yet forgiving white people, even though white people have already moved on. But this is like a boot, that has crushed a wildflower, wondering why the flower has not yet bounced back, even after it has moved on. Even more than this, however, there are people in America, who, in their roles as boots, would want the flower to scent the boot that crushed it.

I don’t think there has ever been so much disguised racism on our radio waves. It is true that the right wing now realizes the ugliness of its prejudices, because it tries to disguise it, or hide it behind linguistic projections and reversals and other psychological  gymnastics, but this is not real improvement; it is coating with cowardice the ignorance.

For the third time in eight years, I warn you: If you vote for people whose psyches are like meat lockers, lumber rooms or caves, you will get a society that is violent, chaotic and dark. On the other hand, if right wing radio and Fox Broadcasting speak for you — if you think that news should be entertaining, sensational and divisive — then please, by all means, remain aboard the sinking ship of State.

– Raphael O’Suna,   Haiku  

Traffic Lights the 3rd Choice

March 29, 2008 > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastSmoke & Mirrors  Day
Day 88 of 2008
278 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Ne’e ‘ana i ke alahele: Traffic
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Pani: Funny
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “One laughs when joyous; sulks when angry.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.” (GB Shaw) 

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Maui Culinary Academy - Class Act
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK —  Jib Jab Easter
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Cranky Geeks
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  Daily.Mahalo.com
Hawaii natioanl Guard directs traffic

March 29, 1958: Four traffic accidents in two days on Oahu brings the National Guard out on Maui.  The governor, William Quinn, flabbergasted that there should be four traffic deaths in such a short period of time, decides that the National Guard is needed to keep calm on Hawaii roadways and restore order at intersections throughout the territory.  The National Guard activity lasts less than two days.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 29th

  •  1867: The British North America Act (Canadian constitution) is passed 
  • 1871: Albert Hall opens its doors in London 
  • 1882: The Knights of Columbus is chartered for Catholic men 
  • 1886: Coca-Cola is created (uses cocaine as one ingredient) 
  • 1961: After a 4-year trial, Nelson Mandela is acquitted of treason
  • 1969: Communist New People’s Army found in Philippines 
  • 1971: Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is Court-martialed for premeditated murder of 22 South Vietnamese in My Lai 
  • 1989: The first U.S. private commercial rocket takes suborbital test flight (NM) 
  • 1989: I.M. Pei’s pyramidal entrance to the Louvre opens in Paris 
  • 1989: Junk Bond King Micheal Milken is indicted on security fraud charges 
  • 1999: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 10,000 for the first time, at 10,006.78
  • 2006 Hamas formally took over the Palestinian government.
  •  2006 The U.N. Security Council demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment.

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 29th

  • 1867: Cy Young, winningest baseball pitcher 
  • 1916: Eugene McCarthy, (Sen-D-Minn, presidential candidate 1968) 
  • 1918: Pearl Bailey, Newport News Virginia, singer (Hello Dolly) (90 years ago) 
  • 1918: Sam Walton, billionaire CEO (Wal-Mart)
  • 1943: John Majors, Prime Minister of Great Britain
  • 1943: Lech Walesa, union leader/president Poland
  • 1956: LaToya Jackson, singer
  • 1964: Elle Macpherson,  model
  • 1970: Lara Flynn Boyle, actress 
  • 1976: Jennifer Capriati, tennis pro 
  • 1988:  Kelly Sweet, singer
     

Self-Invasion Unsuccessful

March 28, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastSomething on a Stick Day
Day 88 of 2008
278 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Ho’Kolohe: Comical
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Pani: Funny
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “One laughs when joyous; sulks when angry.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.” (GB Shaw) 

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Maui Culinary Academy - Class Act
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK —  Jib Jab Easter
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Cranky Geeks
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  Daily.Mahalo.com


March 28th, 1937: The US Army announces that there will be massive war games surrounding the Hawaiian islands.  More than 100 ships and nearly 40,000 men will take part in a faux invasion of Hawaii, and the defensive actions taken to repel it. “Enemy forces” land in Paia Bay two months later but are met with brave defenders of the realm. The army declares the United States is ready to protect its interests in the Pacific.  Pearl Harbor happens four years later.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 28th

  •   193: Roman Emperor Pertinax is killed after only 87 days in office 
  • 1895: Construction begins on the Boston Subway 
  • 1930: Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara 
  • 1935: Goddard uses gyroscopes to control a rocket 
  • 1939: The Spanish Civil War ends as Madrid falls to Francisco Franco 
  • 1945: The last V-1 (buzz bomb) attack is made on London 
  • 1976: The world’s population exceeds 4 BILLION (it will be over SIX billion by the turn of the century) 
  • 1979: America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, PA
  • 1990: Michael Jordan scores 69 points (the 4th time he scores 60 pts in a game) 
  • 1990: President Bush I awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Olympic runner Jesse Owen 
  • 1995: The world’s largest bank is created when Japan’s Mitsubishi Bank merges with the Bank of Tokyo 
  • 1996: A 6.0 earthquake in Ecuador kills at least 27 people, injures 100 and makes several thousand homeless 
  • 1999: A 5.5 earthquake kills over 100 people and injures nearly 400 in the Xizang-India border region 
  • 2000: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules to curtail the police power to depend on tips to stop and search people  

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 28th

  • 1760: Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist  
  • 1868: Maxim Gorki, Russia, writer
  • 1905: Marlin Perkins,  TV host 
  • 1909: Nelson Algren, novelist 
  • 1920: Dirk Bogarde, actor 
  • 1928: Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor
  • 1944: Ken Howard,  actor
  • 1944: Rick Barry, ABA/NBA forward
  • 1955: Reba McEntire, country singer/songwriter  
  • 1968: Lucy Lawless, actress
  • 1969: Salt, rocker
  • 1969: Rodney Atkins, country singer
  • 1969:  Brett Ratner, director    
  • 1970: Vince Vaughn, actor
  • 1977: Angelo Garcia, singer

Earthquake & Tidal Waves

March 27, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastEducation-Sharing Day
Day 87 of 2008
279 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Pulu: Wet
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— i gat wara: Wet
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Nothing from the shore; nothing from the upland.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “Our earthly ball a peopled garden.” (Goethe) 

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Support Tibet Against Chinese Atrocities
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK —  Jib Jab Easter
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Global Podcasting Directory
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  The Daily Kos

March 27th, 1964: A series of tsunamis hit Maui, Molokai, Oahu, and to a lesser extent Kauai and the Big Island. No one is hurt and little damage is reported in Hawii. The tidal waves were triggered by an Alaskan earthquake – the strongest in North American history– that killed 117 people. Signs of the this magnitude 8.4 quake can still be seen near Anchorage to this day. 

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 27th

  • 1512: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sights Florida 
  • 1836: First Mormon temple dedicated (Kirtland Ohio) 
  • 1860: M L Byrn patents the corkscrew (NY) 
  • 1866: President Andrew Johnson vetoes civil rights bill; it later becomes 14th amendment
  • 1899: Marconi transmits the first international wireless message 
  • 1912: First Japanese cherry trees planted in Washington DC 
  • 1939: University of Oregon wins first NCAA basketball championship 
  • 1945: The last V-2 rocket is fired in WWII 
  • 1998 The FDA approves the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, to fight male impotence
  • 2001: California regulators approve electricity rate hikes of up to 46 percent 

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 27th

  • 1845: WQilhelm Roewntgen, Nobel physicist 
  • 1914: Budd Schulberg, author 
  • 1914: Richard Denning, actor
  • 1915:  Edward Steichen, photographer
  • 1917: Harry West, Unionist party leader 
  • 1930: David Janssen,  actor
  • 1942: Sarah Vaughan, jazz vocalist and pianist
  • 1942: Michael York, actor
  • 1950: Tony Banks, rock keyboardist 
  • 1963: Quentin Tarantino, director/writer/actor
  • 1963: Randall Cunningham, NFL QB 
  • 1970: Mariah Carey, singer (
  • 1971: Nathan Fillion, actor
  • 1984: Emily Ann Lloyd, actress
  • 1995: Taylor Atelian, actress

Prince Kuhio Holiday

March 26, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastPrince Kuhio Day
Day 86 of 2008
280 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Keiki ali‘i: Prince
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Kalabus: Prison
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The red fish that causes a red color to show in the sea.” (Harbinger of a royal death)
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “The example of the prince is followed by the masses.” (Lorenzo de Medici) 

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Support Tibet Against Chinese Atrocities
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK —  Jib Jab Easter
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Global Podcasting Directory
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  The Daily Kos
Hawaiian Prince Jonah KuhioPRINCE KUHIO DAY: Parade in Lahaina, 9:00am
This offiicial holiday in the state of Hawaii, celebrates the birthday of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, the “Citizen Prince,” heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii,  and later territorial delegate to the United States Congress from 1903 to 1921.Prince Kuhio was in line to become king before the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in 1893. In 1895, at the age of 24,  he participated in a rebellion against the Republic of Hawaii, but the rebelswere no match for the Republic troops and police, and shortly after hostilities began, all those involved in the rebellion were captured. Kuhio was sentenced to a year in prison while others were charged with treason and sentenced with execution (later commuted to imprisonment). Kuhio and his wife left Hawaii upon his release and traveled widely in Europe.

Prince Kuhio died of heart disease on January 7, 1922, at the age of 50 and was buried at the royal mausoleum in Nuuanu Valley on Oahu. He is best remembered for his successful effort to have Congress pass the 1920 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, which provides homesteads for native Hawaiians.  His plan was to return tenement dwellers to the land and encourage them to be self-sufficient farmers, ranchers and homesteaders on leased parcels of reserved land. With John Wise, John Lane and Noah Alulii, they formed the first Hawaiian civic club in 1917 to stimulate civic efforts and education within the Hawaiian community and promote Hawaiian culture. Read more …

March 26th, 1986: Pan American Airways announces that it will cease flying to Hawaii, including Maui, by the upcoming summer, and it does so.  Five years later the airline declares bankruptcy and Delta purchases the remaining pieces of the company, including its Hawaii routes.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 26th

  • 1790: Congress allows naturalization of alien free white persons 
  • 1871: The Paris Commune is founded 
  • 1926: Dr Robert H. Goddard demonstrates the practicality of rockets at Auburn,
  • 1936: 200” telescope lens shipped, from the Corning Glass Works, NY to Cal Tech 
  • 1953: Dr. Jonas Salk announces new vaccine to immunize people against polio 
  • 1962: Supreme Court backs 1-man-1-vote apportionment of seats in state leg 
  • 1970: 500th nuclear explosion announced by the U.S. since 1945 
  • 1979: Camp David peace treaty is signed by Israel and Egypt 
  • 1997: The bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate cult members, who had committed suicide, are found inside a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
  • 1999: Dr. Jack Kevorkian is convicted of second-degree murder

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 26th

  • 1859: A E Housman, poet
  • 1874: Robert Frost,  poet
  • 1904: Joseph Campbell, mythologist
  • 1911: Tennessee Williams,  playwright
  • 1924: Bob Elliot, comedian
  • 1930: Gregory Corso, beat poet 
  • 1930: Sandra Day O’Connor, 1st female Supreme Court Justice
  • 1931: Leonard Nimoy,  actor
  • 1934: Alan Arkin, actor
  • 1939: James Caan, actor
  • 1940: Nancy Pelosi, 1st female Speaker of the House (D-CA)
  • 1942: Erica Jong, author
  • 1943: Bob Woodward, investigative reporter
  • 1944: Diana Ross, singer  
  • 1948: Steven Tyler  rock vocalist
  • 1949: Vicki Lawrence,  actress
  • 1957: Leeza Gibbons, TV host
  • 1950: Martin Short, actor, comedian
  • 1953:  Lincoln Chafee, former US senator, (R-RI)
  • 1960: Jennifer Grey, actress
  • 1968:  Kenny Chesney, country singer
  • 1973:  T.R. Knight, actor
  • 1985: Keira Knightley, actress

The End Begins

March 25, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastWaffle Day
Day 85 of 2008
281 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Po’ino: Disaster
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Ples tambu: Forbidden place
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “It is now a barreness.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?” (S.J. Lek)
 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Support Tibet Against Chinese Atrocities
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK —  Jib Jab Easter
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Global Podcasting Directory
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  The Daily Kos

Ka'anapali Beach today March 25th, 1960: The Pioneer Mill Company announces sweeping plans for development of a property it  owns to the northwest of Lahaina — a relatively barren stretch of coastline with a gorgeous beach known as Ka’anapali. The rest, as they say, is dismal history.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 25th

  • 1655: Christiaan Huygens discovers Titan (Saturn’s largest satellite) 
  • 1900: U.S. Socialist Party formed at Indianapolis 
  • 1954: RCA manufactures the first COLOR television set 
  • 1960: First guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut) 
  • 1961: Elvis Presley performs live on the USS Arizona 
  • 1965: Martin Luther King Jr led 25,000 to state capitol in Montgomery, AL
  • 1967: Who & Cream make U.S. debut at Murray the K’s Easter Show 
  • 1969: John & Yoko stage their first bed-in for peace (Amsterdam) 
  • 1990: Fire in an illegal New York City social club kills 87 people 
  • 1996: The U.S. issues its newly-redesigned $100 bill using technologies to combat counterfeiting
  • 2004: Congress passed a law making it a separate offense to harm a fetus during a violent federal crime.

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 25th

  • 1133: Henry II, King of England
  • 1881: Bela Bartok, composer/pianist 
  • 1901: Ed Begley,  actor  
  • 1925: Flannery O’Connor, novelist
  • 1934: Gloria Steinem,  feminist/publisher 
  • 1938: Hoyt Axton, singer/actor 
  • 1940: Anita Bryant, Miss America candidate/singer/homophobe 
  • 1942: Aretha Franklin, singer
  • 1942: Paul Michael Glaser, actor
  • 1944: Frank Oz, muppetteer  
  • 1946: Bonnie Bedelia, actress 
  • 1947: Elton John, singer
  • 1949: Nick Lowe, rocker
  • 1965: Sarah Jessica Parker, actress
  • 1967: Debi Thomas,  figure skater
  • 1971: Sheryl Swoops, basketball forward

Yesterday’s Gone

March 24, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastEaster Monday
Day 83 of 2008
283 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Aohiohi: Resistance
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Daunim: Overcome
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Do not believe all that is told you.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “I will surrender to the Divine — to nothing else.” (Emerson)
 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Support Tibet Against Chinese Atrocities
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Ken Kesey Across the Border
 PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Global Podcasting Directory
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  The Daily Kos
God Screws Up Again
It is worth noting that Bart D. Ehrman has come out with a new book — God’s Problem, How the Bible fails to answer our most important question: why we suffer. Ehrman is the James A Gray distinguished Professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is on the religious radar now because of his previous book, a best seller called Misquoting Jesus. In that book, he skewers the Bible and Christians who believe in it, particularly those who take the Bible as the Word of God.  His painstakingly detailed research has revealed more than 90,000 major errors in today’s Bible and more than 200,000 minor errors in transcription.  So complete and devastating was his work that Christians mounted a defense which they published in the book called Misquoting Ehrman. It is almost comical that in fact the title is very appropriate.  By Ehrman’s own account, the book makes more than 500 errors just in describing his point.

 The new book — God’s Problem - details how the Bible makes flimsy inexcusable claims for why humanity suffers.  The problem can be presented in an 11 word syllogism: God is all-powerful, God is all loving, There is suffering.  All three cannot be true at once.  The simplest explanation — there is no God — solves the problem and in fact any problem associated with the syllogism.  Christians refused this explanation but can present no viable, logical, common sense solution to the challenge. What makes Ehrman so delightful is his clean writing, his commonsense approach, and his ability to get facts right.

Several Christian publications have called him God’s enemy and has made his disreputation their  number one priority.  Their attempts have backfired.

– Maui Curmudgeon

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 24th

  • 1629: The first game law is passed in the American colonies (by Virginia) 
  • 1664: Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island 
  • 1765: Britain enacts the Quartering Act 
  • 1832: Mormon Joseph Smith is beaten, tarred & feathered in Ohio 
  • 1924: Greece becomes a republic 
  • 1930: The first religious services are telecast in U.S. (W2XBS in NYC) 
  • 1958: Elvis Presley is inducted into Army in Memphis, TN
  • 1967: The first “Teach-in” is held at University of Michigan after US bombing of North Vietnam 
  • 1976: Argentine President Isabel Peron is deposed by country’s military 
  • 1989: The Exxon tanker “Valdez” spills 240,000 barrels of oil (11.3 mil gallons) into Alaska’s Prince William Sound (the worst U.S. oil spill) 
  • 1999: For the first time in its 50-year existence, NATO attacks a sovereign country, launching airstrikes against Yugoslavia   

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 24th

  • 1494: Georgius Agricola, mineralogist
  • 1814: Galen Clark, U.S. naturalist, 
  • 1834: John Wesley Powell, geologist/explorer/ethnologist
  • 1834: William Morris, England, designer/craftsman/poet/socialist 
  • 1871: Sir Ernest Rutherford, nuclear scientist 
  • 1874: Harry Houdini, magician and escape artist      
  • 1887: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, actor 
  • 1897: Wilhelm Reich,  psycho analysis
  • 1909: Clyde Barrow, bank robber
  • 1911: Joseph Barbera, animator
  • 1930: Steve McQueen,  actor
  • 1944: Patti Labelle, singer 
  • 1949: Nick Lowe, vocalist/producer
  • 1951: Tommy Hilfiger, designer
  • 1960: Kelly LeBrock, actress  
  • 1970: Lara Flynn Boyle, actress
  • 1976:  Peyton Manning, NFL quarterback
  • 1990: Keisha Castle-Hughes, actress (”The Whale Rider”)

Pagan Spring Fertility Rite

March 23, 2008 > MAUI TODAY No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastLiberty Day
Day 82 of 2008
284 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hoomana: Religion
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Lotu: Religion, worship
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “One hand points upward, the other gropes downward.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  “RELIGION: The daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.” (Ambrose Bierce)

 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Support Tibet Against Chinese Atrocities
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Ken Kesey Across the Border
 PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Global Podcasting Directory
 BLOG OF THE WEEK —  The Daily Kos
Pagan Geology - Mother Earth

TODAY: Easter Sunday
Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. It is believed by the Christians to be the resurrection of Jesus, which they believe occurred on the third day after his crucifixion around  33 BCE. Easter is a moveable feast that has its origins in Jewish Passover and pagan rites of spring. Many non-religious cultural elements have become part of this holiday, and those aspects are often celebrated by christians, pagans and others alike. Read more ….

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 23rd

  • 1775: Patrick Henry gives his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech to the Virginia convention 
  • 1806: Lewis the Clark reach the Pacific coast 
  • 1912: The Dixie Cup (paper cup) is invented 
  • 1925: Tennessee becomes the first state to outlaw teaching theory of evolution in public schools 
  • 1929: The first telephone is installed in the White House 
  • 1933: The German Reichstag grants Adolph Hitler dictatorial powers 
  • 1956: Pakistan proclaims itself as an Islamic republic within the British Commonwealth (National Day) 
  • 1956: Sudan becomes an independent country 
  • 1971: The House of Representatives passes the 26th Amendment to the Constitution (lowering the voting age to 18) and passes it on to the states for ratification 
  • 1973: Yoko Ono is granted permanent residence in U.S. 
  • 1983: President Ronald Reagan gives his “Star Wars” speech announcing the beginning of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (
  • 1998: The Supreme Court rules that term limits for state lawmakers are constitutional
  • 2001: Russia’s orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific.

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 23rd

  • 1769: William Smith, geologist
  • 1857: Fannie Farmer, actress
  • 1900: Erich Fromm,  psychologist 
  • 1908: Joan Crawford, actress
  • 1910: Akira Kurosawa,  director
  • 1912: Werner von Braun, rocket expert
  • 1929: Roger Bannister, 1st to run a mile under 4 minutes
  • 1953: Louie Anderson, comedian
  • 1957: Amanda Plummer, actress
  • 1965: Richard Grieco, actor
  • 1966: Marti Pellow, rocker
  • 1976: Keri Russell, actress
  • 1977: Josh Ackerman, actor

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