Deadly Mt. Haleakala

June 24, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
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Day 176 of 2008
190 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DY — Ho’okui: Hit
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Boskru bilong balus: Crew of a plane
 HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “One can enjoy a canoe ride when the paddler is skilled.”
 HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have changed the history of music…and of aviation.” (Tom Stoppard)
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
WWII era plane

June 24th, 1941: Haleakala proves deadly to three Navy planes piloted by Marines who were making a routine night flight over Maui about six months before the U.S. entered World War II. In what is still today a somewhat inexplicable occurrence, all three planes hit the west side of the volcano at about 8,000 feet and the pilots die.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY - June 24th
1497: John Cabot claims eastern Canada for England
1509: Henry VIII becomes King of England
1861: Tennessee becomes the 11th (& last) state to secede from the U.S.
1949: “Hopalong Cassidy” becomes the first televised network western (NBC)
1968: “Resurrection City,” a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People’s March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.
1970: U.S. Senate votes overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1997: The Air Force releases a report on the 1947 “Roswell Incident” that states the alien bodies seen by witnesses were actually life-sized dummies
1998: AT&T Corp. agrees to buy cable television giant Tele-Communications Inc. for $31.7 billion
2004: Federal investigators question President George W. Bush for more than an hour in connection with the news leak of a CIA operative’s name.

BORN ON THIS DAY - June 24th
1771: EI Du Pont, chemist/scientist
1813: Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman/orator
1842: Ambrose Bierce, satirist
1912: Norman Cousins, editor
1915: Fred Hoyle, cosmologist
1916: John Ciardi, poet/critic
1942: Mick Fleetwood, drummer
1944: Bruce Johnston, rocker
1944: Jeff Beck, singer/songwriter
1947: Peter Weller, actor
1950: Nancy Allen, actress
1957: Astro, reggae singer
1961: Curt Smith, rocker
1979: Mindy Kaling actress/producer
1987: Kaitlin Cullum, actress

U.S. Presidents - Andrew Jackson

June 24, 2008 Maui Curmudgeon, U.S. Presidents No Comments

By the Maui Curmudgeon (7th 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.

ANDREW JACKSON: 1829-1837 ~ 7th U.S. President

Andrew Jackson, 7th US presidentWith Andrew Jackson, we come to the first candidate for worst president of the United States. A virulent racist, a corrupt politician, anti-Semite, misogynist, and abusive soldier, he fought most of his public life against the National Bank, refused to take paper currency in any transaction, and tried during his presidency to have paper currency rejected as payment for taxes and other public debts. This from a man who over the the course of the past 150 years has been on the $5, $10, $50 and $10,000 bills before settling on the current $20 bill. During his life, Jackson gave the term “hypocrite” a bad name, if that’s possible.
Read the rest…