===
On this day... |
|---|
December 22: Mother's Day in Indonesia
|
===
Events
- 69 – Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.
- 1769 – Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769) ends with an uneasy truce.
- 1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies.
- 1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
- 1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony,Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).
- 1851 – The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
- 1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
- 1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
- 1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kentville and Kingsport, Nova Scotia.
- 1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.
- 1894 – The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.
- 1920 – The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.
- 1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York, New York.
- 1939 – Indian Muslims observe a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with the United Kingdom.
- 1940 – World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
- 1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
- 1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
- 1944 – World War II: The Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina, now Vietnam.
- 1947 – The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves the Constitution of Italy.
- 1951 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.
- 1956 – Colo, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity, is born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.
- 1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives.
- 1964 – The first test flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird) took place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
- 1965 – In the United Kingdom, a 70 mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
- 1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
- 1974 – The house of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
- 1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
- 1984 – Bernhard Goetz shoots four African American would-be muggers on an express train in Manhattan section of New York, New York.
- 1987 – In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi.
- 1988 – Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
- 1989 – Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife flee Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers.
- 1989 – Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
- 1990 – Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.
- 1990 – The Parliament of Croatia adopts the current Constitution of Croatia.
- 1991 – Armed opposition groups launch a military coup against President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
- 1992 – The Archives of Terror are discovered.
- 1997 – Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred byparamilitary forces.
- 1997 – Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somaliasince 1991.
- 1998 – Hurricane Quinto strikes the Cayman Islands, knocking out power to the entire island for 2 days. Looting is rampant, but contained after 12 hours.
- 1999 – Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509, a Boeing 747-200F crashes shortly after take-off from London Stansted Airport due to pilot error. All 4 crew members are killed.
- 2001 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
- 2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
- 2008 – An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal fly ash slurry.
- 2010 – The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
[edit]Births
- 244 – Diocletian, Roman Emperor (d. 311)
- 1095 – Roger II of Sicily, King of Sicily (d. 1154)
- 1178 – Emperor Antoku of Japan (d. 1185)
- 1546 – Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese Daimyo (d. 1604)
- 1550 – Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher (d. 1631)
- 1639 – Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
- 1666 – Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh guru (d. 1708)
- 1690 – Meidingnu Pamheiba, King of Manipur (d. 1751)
- 1694 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (d. 1768)
- 1696 – James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (d. 1785)
- 1723 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)
- 1765 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician (d. 1825)
- 1805 – John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (d. 1893)
- 1807 – Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (d. 1873)
- 1819 – Franz Abt, German composer (d. 1870)
- 1819 – Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician (d. 1892)
- 1853 – Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist (d. 1917)
- 1853 – Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1919)
- 1853 – Sarada Devi, Indian Philosopher (d. 1920)
- 1856 – Frank B. Kellogg, 45th U.S. Secretary of State, Nobel laureate (d. 1937)
- 1858 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1924)
- 1860 – Austin Norman Palmer, American penmanship innovator (d. 1927)
- 1862 – Connie Mack, American baseball executive (d. 1956)
- 1865 – Charles Sands, American golfer and tennis player (d. 1945)
- 1869 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (d. 1935)
- 1869 – Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1931)
- 1872 – Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist (d. 1961)
- 1874 – Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)
- 1876 – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet and editor (d. 1944)
- 1878 – Myer Prinstein, Polish born-American athlete (d. 1925)
- 1883 – Marcus Hurley, American cyclist (d. 1941)
- 1883 – Edgard Varèse French-born composer (d. 1965)
- 1885 – Deems Taylor American conductor and music critic (d. 1966)
- 1885 – Abe Manley, Negro League Baseball owner (d. 1952)
- 1887 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d. 1920)
- 1888 – J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank, British film producer (d. 1972)
- 1889 – Minor Watson, American actor (d. 1965)
- 1892 – Herman Potočnik, Slovenian rocket engineer (d. 1929)
- 1898 – Vladimir Fock, Russian physicist (d. 1974)
- 1899 – Gustaf Gründgens, German actor (d. 1963)
- 1900 – Marc Allégret, French film director and screenwriter (d. 1973)
- 1901 – Andre Kostelanetz, American popular music orchestra leader and arranger (d. 1980)
- 1903 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1983)
- 1905 – Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d. 1982)
- 1905 – Pierre Brasseur, French actor (d. 1972)
- 1907 – Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (d. 1991)
- 1909 – Patricia Hayes, English actress (d. 1998)
- 1912 – Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States (d. 2007)
- 1912 – Elias Degiannis, Greek navy officer and Resistance fighter (d. 1943)
- 1914 – Satchidananda Saraswati, Yogi and Spiritual teacher (d. 2002)
- 1915 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1917 – Gene Rayburn, American game show host (d. 1999)
- 1919 – Lil Green, American Blues Singer (d. 1954)
- 1921 – Dimitri Fampas, Greek classical guitarist (d. 1996)
- 1921 – Hawkshaw Hawkins, American country singer (d. 1963)
- 1922 – Jack Brooks, American politician
- 1922 – Ruth Roman, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1924 – Frank Corsaro, American stage director
- 1925 – Lewis Glucksman, American financier (d. 2006)
- 1934 – David Pearson, American racecar driver
- 1936 – James Burke, British writer
- 1936 – Héctor Elizondo, American actor
- 1936 – Wojciech Frykowski, Polish actor (d. 1969)
- 1937 – Charlotte Lamb, English novelist (d. 2000)
- 1937 – Eduard Uspensky, Russian writer
- 1938 – Matty Alou, Dominican baseball player
- 1938 – Lucien Bouchard, Canadian politician
- 1939 – James Gurley, American musician (d. 2009)
- 1940 – Luis Francisco Cuéllar, Colombian politician (d. 2009)
- 1942 – Dick Parry, English saxophonist
- 1943 – Stefan Janos, Slovak-Swiss physicist
- 1943 – Paul Wolfowitz, American politician
- 1944 – Steve Carlton, American baseball player
- 1944 – Guido De Angelis, Italian musician
- 1945 – Diane Sawyer, American journalist
- 1946 – Rick Nielsen, American musician (Cheap Trick)
- 1947 – Brian Daley, American science-fiction writer (d. 1996)
- 1948 – Noel Edmonds, English game show host
- 1948 – Steve Garvey, American baseball player
- 1948 – Flip Mark, American actor
- 1948 – Chris Old, English cricketer
- 1948 – Lynne Thigpen, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1949 – Maurice Gibb, English musician (Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
- 1949 – Robin Gibb, English musician (Bee Gees) (d. 2012)
- 1951 – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster
- 1951 – Dan Martin, American voice actor
- 1953 – Bern Nadette Stanis, actress
- 1953 – Ian Turnbull, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1953 – Tom Underwood, American baseball player (d. 2010)
- 1954 – Hideshi Matsuda, Japanese racing driver
- 1955 – Lonnie Smith, American baseball player
- 1957 – Carole James, Canadian politician
- 1957 – Susan Powter, Australian author and motivational speaker
- 1958 – Frank Gambale, Australian musician
- 1958 – David Heavener, American actor and musician
- 1959 – Bernd Schuster, German footballer
- 1960 – Wakin Chau, Chinese singer
- 1960 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American artist (d. 1988)
- 1960 – Mark Brydon, British musician (Moloko)
- 1960 – Luther Campbell, American rap artist (2 Live Crew)
- 1960 – Patrick Fitzgerald, American attorney
- 1961 – Andrew Fastow, American businessman
- 1961 – Yuri Malenchenko, Russian astronaut
- 1962 – Ralph Fiennes, English actor
- 1963 – Giuseppe Bergomi, Italian footballer
- 1963 – Luna H. Mitani, Japanese American surrealism painter
- 1963 – Brian McMillan, South African cricketer
- 1966 – Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast
- 1966 – Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer, German singer and bass player (Destruction)
- 1967 – Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer
- 1967 – Richey Edwards, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers) (disappeared in 1995)
- 1967 – Stéphane Gendron, Quebec politician
- 1967 – Paul Morris, Australian racing driver
- 1968 – Luis Hernández, Mexican footballer
- 1968 – Dina Meyer, American actress
- 1968 – Lauralee Bell, American actress
- 1969 – Myriam Bédard, Canadian athlete
- 1969 – Greg Biffle, American racecar driver
- 1970 – Gary Anderson, Scottish darts player
- 1971 – Pat Mastroianni, Canadian actor
- 1972 – Big Tigger, television host
- 1972 – Kirk Maltby, Canadian Winger (ice hockey)
- 1972 – Vanessa Paradis, French singer
- 1974 – Michael Barron, English footballer and coach
- 1974 – Heather Donahue, American actress
- 1975 – Chris Adler, American actor
- 1975 – Dmitri Khokhlov, Russian footballer
- 1975 – Stanislav Neckář, Czech ice hockey player
- 1975 – Sergei Aschwanden, Swiss judoka
- 1976 – Katleen De Caluwé, Belgian athlete
- 1976 – Jason Lane, American baseball player
- 1977 – Steve Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Joanne Kelly, Canadian Actress
- 1978 – Emmanuel Olisadebe, Nigerian/Polish footballer
- 1979 – Jamie Langfield, Scottish football player
- 1980 – Chris Carmack, American actor
- 1982 – Brooke Nevin, Canadian actress
- 1983 – Jennifer Hawkins, Australian beauty pageant contestant
- 1983 – Drew Hankinson, American wrestler
- 1984 – Basshunter, Swedish singer
- 1986 – Dennis Armfield, Australian rules footballer
- 1986 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Nigerian terrorist suspect
- 1987 – Éderzito António Macedo Lopes, Guinea-Bissauan footballer
- 1988 – Leigh Halfpenny, Welsh rugby player
- 1989 – Logan Huffman, American actor
- 1989 – Jordin Sparks, American singer
- 1989 – Jharal Yow Yeh, professional rugby league player
- 1990 – Josef Newgarden American race car driver
- 1990 – Jean-Baptiste Maunier, French actor and singer
- 1992 – Michaela Hončová, Slovak tennis player
- 1993 – Ali Lohan, American singer
- 1996 – Makisig Morales, Filipino child actor
- 1998 – G. Hannelius, American child actress
[edit]Deaths
- 69 – Vitellius (b. 15)
- 1100 – Duke Bretislaus II, Duke of Bohemia
- 1550 – Richard Plantagenet, British bricklayer and claimant to the House of Plantagenet
- 1603 – Mehmed III of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1566)
- 1646 – Peter Mogila, Moldavian religious figure (b. 1596)
- 1660 – André Tacquet, Flemish mathematician (b. 1612)
- 1681 – Richard Alleine, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1611)
- 1708 – Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, Swedish writer (b. 1681)
- 1738 – Constantia Jones, British prostitute (b. c. 1708)
- 1767 – John Newbery, English publisher (b. 1713)
- 1788 – Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (b. 1714)
- 1806 – William Vernon, American merchant (b. 1719)
- 1828 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (b. 1766)
- 1867 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician (b. 1788)
- 1870 – Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet and writer (b. 1836)
- 1880 – George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)
- 1899 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)
- 1902 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (b. 1840)
- 1917 – Saint Francesca Xavier Cabrini, American Catholic saint (b. 1850)
- 1918 – Aristeidis Moraitinis, pioneer Greek military aviator (b. 1891)
- 1919 – Hermann Weingärtner, German gymnast (b. 1864)
- 1939 – Ma Rainey, American singer (b. 1886)
- 1940 – Nathanael West, American writer (b. 1903)
- 1942 – Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)
- 1943 – Beatrix Potter, English writer (b. 1866)
- 1944 – Harry Langdon, American film actor (b. 1884)
- 1944 – Eleni Papadaki, Greek actress (b. 1903)
- 1950 – Frederick Freake, British polo player (b. 1876)
- 1955 – Jules De Bisschop, Belgian rower (b. 1879)
- 1955 – Otto Eppers, American cartoonist (b. 1893)
- 1959 – Gilda Gray, Polish-born American dancer and actress (b. 1901)
- 1960 – Ninian Comper, Scottish architect (b. 1864)
- 1963 – Giovanni Giorgio Trissino, Italian horse rider (b. 1877)
- 1965 – Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and broadcaster (b. 1913)
- 1968 – Raymond Gram Swing, American journalist and broadcaster (b. 1887)
- 1971 – Godfried Bomans, Dutch author and television personality (b. 1913)
- 1974 – Sterling North, American author (b. 1906)
- 1979 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American producer (b. 1902)
- 1985 – D. Boon, American singer and guitarist (The Minutemen) (b. 1958)
- 1986 – Ida Cook (aka Mary Burchell), British heroine and novelist (b. 1904)
- 1987 – Luca Prodan, Italian-Scottish singer (Sumo) (b. 1953)
- 1988 – Chico Mendes, Brazilian rubber tapper and environmental activist (b. 1944)
- 1989 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1992 – Frederick Franz, American religious personality (Jehovah's Witness) (b. 1893)
- 1992 – Harry Bluestone, Film music Composer (b. 1907)
- 1995 – Butterfly McQueen, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1995 – James Meade, English economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Jack Hamm, American cartoonist (b. 1916)
- 1997 – Sebastian Arcos Bergnes, Cuban dissident (b. 1931)
- 2001 – Ovidiu Iacov, Romanian footballer (b. 1981)
- 2002 – Desmond Hoyte, Guyanan politician (b. 1929)
- 2002 – Joe Strummer, English musician (The Clash) (b. 1952)
- 2003 – Dave Dudley, American singer (b. 1928)
- 2004 – Doug Ault, American baseball player (b. 1950)
- 2006 – Elena Mukhina, Russian gymnast (b. 1960)
- 2006 – Galina Ustvolskaya, Russian composer (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Dennis Linde, American songwriter (b. 1943)
- 2007 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino writer (b. 1932)
- 2009 – Albert Scanlon, English footballer (b. 1935)
- 2009 – Luis Francisco Cuéllar, Colombian politician (b. 1940)
- 2009 – Christos Lambrakis, Greek businessman, owner of the Lambrakis Press Group (b. 1934)
- 2010 – Fred Foy, American radio and television announcer (b. 1921)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Armed Forces Day (Vietnam)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Mother's Day (Indonesia)
- National Mathematics Day (India)
- Unity Day (Zimbabwe)
- Winter solstice related observance (see December 21):
===
Federal government is surplus to requirements
Piers Akerman – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (8:49pm)
There is no need to buy Christmas crackers for their corny jokes this year - we have the Gillard minority government and its assorted clowns to provide all the laughs we can handle and then some.
To say that Prime Minister Julia Gillard presides over the worst government in Australian history is repeating the obvious.
The ailing Gough Whitlam may even take some heart this yuletide that he will not be remembered as the greatest-ever Labor failure.
Small joy, however, for the long-suffering public who have had to endure the antics of a series of talentless ministers and their abysmal policies since former prime minister Kevin Rudd conned the public with his promise to be John Howard “lite” five years ago.
Rudd was lightweight, he was never John Howard.
The highlight of his brutally curtailed prime ministership was his ludicrous 2020 rear-vision Summit at which assorted adoring luvvies, largely self-selected and many from such Left-wing front organisations as GetUp!, stood enthralled as
Rudd squatted on the floor of a parliamentary hearing room doodling away on butcher’s paper, mapping his vision for the nation. After unloading their angst about fashionable causes, even the luvvies felt dudded - or Rudded - when they discovered that their ideas had largely been shelved to accommodate a range of predetermined positions.
This was second-rate leadership by any measure. Former Labor prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating must have flinched, at the very least, as they viewed the farce.
So farcical did Rudd’s leadership become that the so-called faceless men, the union bosses who control the numbers, instructed the parliamentary party to dump the elected leader and replace him with his deputy, Julia Gillard.
While Rudd’s leadership was certainly a failed experiment the remedy has proven to be worse.
Gillard has shown herself to be no more than a second-rate student politician. She lacks gravitas, she lacks authority - particularly within her own party.
Anything more than a cursory examination of Gillard’s career and personal history should have alerted Labor’s powerbrokers to the risk they were running when they decided to give her the prime ministership but they were mesmerised, as she is, by gender issues.
Today, her remaining support base relies on the gender card.
She has failed the character test on every count and her words on almost every important policy issue are returning to haunt her.
We now have not only the infamous carbon tax promise but we have a plethora of Gillard’s now-broken pledges about the surplus.
Take your pick: “The budget will be back in surplus in 2013 if I’m re-elected, if my government is re-elected on Saturday ... the budget is coming back to surplus, no ifs no buts, it will happen.” August 17, 2010.
Or, the following day: “Failure is not an option here and we won’t fail.” Year in, year out, even when the dogs were barking and the cocks were crowing, when the likelihood of achieving a budget surplus was as likely as a unicorn winning the Melbourne Cup, both Gillard and her moronic Treasurer Wayne Swan continued to claim they were on track oblivious to the obvious.
On April 13, 2011, Gillard repeated: “My commitment to a surplus in 2012-13 was a promise made and it will be honoured.”
By July 4, 2011, it was apparently a done deal, at least in Gillard’s mind, as she said: “We saved jobs, stayed out of recession and got back to surplus.”
It was all a result of her excellent administration, apparently, she had decided by July 24, 2011: “So, we’ve got a good track record of making the hard decisions to find savings to get the budget to add up, we’ll do it again and the budget will come to surplus in 2012-13, exactly as promised.”
She was still boasting of her record on April 29 this year: “Here we are in Australia due to the careful management of the government, we have a strong economy, strong fundamentals, low unemployment. What that means is it’s unambiguously in our nation’s interest to deliver a budget surplus, and we will.”
That surplus was non-negotiable, she assured Sky News viewers as recently as August 19, 2012.
She must have been taking some advice from her Treasurer, who had been just as adamant in his protestations in discussion with his good friend Kochie on the Sunrise TV program the previous day: “Come hell or high water, but we’ve got the judgment to handle these situations. If we would have gone into recession we wouldn’t be in this position and that’s where we would have been if the Liberals had been in power.”
All absolute nonsense, spoken by two individuals completely out of touch with reality.
The warning bells were ringing at the beginning of the year, before the May budget, klaxons were whooping and wailing before Swan’s October MYEFO statement, a masterpiece in illusion and deception.
Yet, late Thursday, even after Swan had finally acknowledged what every thinking person had known there would be no surplus Treasury’s website was still carrying his words: “The budget is returning to surplus as promised, with surpluses growing over the forward estimates. A surplus is appropriate given our strong economic fundamentals and an economy returning to trend growth.
“The return to surplus, ahead of any other major advanced economy, sends a strong message to international investors on the government’s commitment to fiscal discipline and provides a buffer in uncertain economic times.”
Well, some surplus, some message, as Churchill might have pronounced.
Here’s wishing you all a very merry Christmas, keep smiling.
===
All things bright and beautiful
Miranda Devine – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (8:51pm)
There is nothing better to get you into the Christmas spirit than an exuberant, over-the-top light display.
How I admire the civic-mindedness of those Clark Griswolds of Sydney who have brightened up our suburbs, from Second St in Ashbury to Prince Albert St in Mosman, from Geraldine St in Baulkham Hills to Camellia St in Greystanes - everywhere from the Cumberland Plain to the Bondi seashore.
A brightly lit Christmas house festooned with Santas is a rebuke to eco-wowserism. It is a joyful display of optimism in the future.
It’s a communal act by generous people inspired by the Christmas spirit of giving.
More often than not, owners of the biggest light displays collect money for charity from the visitors who flock to see their handiwork.
There’s a house on a busy corner in my neighbourhood on the lower north shore which is lit up, literally, like a Christmas tree.
It features a giant nativity set with a donkey and a camel, lots of Santas, reindeer, snowmen, stars and all sorts of festive baubles.
Every night, hundreds of people come to marvel at the spectacle, bringing delighted children in pyjamas, and donating money to the Cancer Council.
It puts a smile on your face as you pass by.
The display is a three-month labor of love for the Mallikopoulos family of Cremorne. But this year it almost turned tragic for matriarch Hellen Mallikopoulos, who fell off a ladder while putting lights on the roof and broke her back.
The entire neighbourhood breathed a sigh of relief when she walked out of hospital, needing a back brace, but well enough to flick the light switch on December 1.
As lighting technology becomes cheaper than ever, Christmas displays are a growing phenomenon, with neighbours in some Sydney streets waging a sort of arms race of fairy lights.
We haven’t quite reached the extremes of America, where in parts of Brooklyn displays have become so ornate that professional lighting consultants have to do the job.
It is annoying enough trying to detangle a single strand of fairy lights to dangle off the front veranda, so it’s hard to imagine the commitment required to create a North Pole extravaganza in your front yard - not to mention the hazards of shaky ladders.
Bravo to the brave Christmas lights champions of Sydney and happy Christmas to all our lovely readers. Thanks for all your feedback and support through the year.
===
Worst policy of the year
Andrew BoltDECEMBER222012(6:21pm)
Australian Education Bill 2012
Supertrawler ban
Illegal Logging Act
Schoolkids Bonus
Anti-Dumping Commission
Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal
You might quarrel with Sloan’s choice of winner, but you cannot doubt her judgment on the mournful standard set by this Government.
===
This can be said, but what I wrote not
Andrew BoltDECEMBER222012(5:59pm)
Curiously, what I wrote about self-identifying Aborigine Bindi Cole was apparently more damaging and hurtful than what she volunteers about herself, and thus needed to be suppressed. More I had better not say.
===
MUPPETS TRY AGAIN
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (9:54pm)
A bold prediction:
Global temperatures are forecast to be 0.57 degrees above the long-term average next year, making 2013 one of the warmest years on record, Britain’s Met Office said on Thursday.“It is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest 10 years in the record which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012,” the Met Office said in its annual forecast for the coming year.
Prepare to freeze, people. The Met Office – a tardocracy infested with 1,800 wealthy warmies – isfrequently wrong. As an enraged London Times reader once fumed:
I bought a yacht earlier in the year and consequently I’ve been paying very careful attention to weather forecasts from the Met office - basically, they’re bunk!Check the forecast for tomorrow in the morning and it will be one thing, check in the afternoon and it will be something else, and when tomorrow arrives, the weather is a third unpredicted thing entirely. This has been a consistent pattern about 2/3rds of the time since April. They just make it up! Sack the lot of them and just guess that tomorrow’s weather will be like today’s and you’ll more than likely be right.As for this winter’s weather; it will be a surprise, won’t it? There’s certainly no way the muppets at the Met office could predict it.
Quite so, sir.
===
A LITTLE BIT OUT OF PLACE
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (6:20am)
David Paris, digital communications coordinator for the Greens, proudly shares an image of hisnew apartment. Dave’s digs are slightly fancier than Bob Brown’s old hut, but that’s OK because it’s an “energy efficient building”. And besides, luxury-living David feels “a little bit out of place here”.
(Via Mike S.)
===
JUST LOOK AT THEM
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (6:17am)
Labor’s surplus of losers:
===
HUGO KNOWS
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (6:13am)
A spooky shout-out from Gaspo the Feminist:
Yikes! Let’s hope he doesn’t attempt to kill us. Then again, he usually only tries that withunconscious women.
Yikes! Let’s hope he doesn’t attempt to kill us. Then again, he usually only tries that withunconscious women.
===
ENDING THE DAD-GUM SHOOT FEST
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (6:07am)
Beginning in 2008, the superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District in Texas allowed teachers to carry arms. As David Thweatt explained one year later:
Would you stick a sign at a school that says, ‘No guns on this property’? Why wouldn’t you? It invites nasty people to come. That’s what you’ve done to every public school in the nation. That’s why there were no shootings until Columbine. It’s turned into a dad-gum shoot fest.
His words seem remarkably prescient following the latest in a spate of horrific US school shootings. The Harrold policy is now being being considered in at least five other US states.
UPDATE. The WSJ’s James Taranto:
Every time one of these horrible shooting sprees occurs, countless voices in the media declaim that (1) we need a debate on gun control, and (2) the other side’s views are despicable, stupid and unworthy of consideration. The “debate” they say they want is a one-sided one. Of course, they are conducting just such a “debate.” What infuriates them is that the other side refuses to cooperate and disappear.
An example of this fury may be found in Piers Morgan’s chat with Gun Owners of America executive director Larry Pratt:
===
===
The letter from Ken Schmack in North Gosford, NSW, was typical, a cry more in sorrow than anger: "I have rarely missed Insiders since its introduction, but I have finally come to the conclusion that among my new year resolutions has to be one to give the program the flick. The pro-Labor, anti-Coalition bias exhibited by its presenter and, generally, two of the three guests has become ingrained.
===
BOB KERNOHAN... damaged but undiminished Larry Pickering
To the thousands who sent Xmas cards and gifts to Bob: Never, ever underestimate the good you have done.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s thugs came close to crushing Bob. All he wanted was her and her boyfriend to return the millions stolen from his AWU Members.
Bob refused to be paid off with a safe Labor seat, as others were. And he has paid an incredibly heavy price.
Bob now knows he has a groundswell of support that is manifesting itself in many ways that are soon to be disclosed.
Thanks must also go to Michael Smith, along with Rick and Harry, for their tireless forensic work. To Ralph Blewitt for thankless bravery in the face of Gillard’s vile venom.
Me? I’m just a bloody story teller.
We will all lose more blood before this is over but giving blood can be a good thing.
Happy Xmas to all you blokes and to all who send cards.
===
===
No comments:
Post a Comment