Bairnsdale Conservative: Sun 16th Dec Todays News

ABC goes bananas to help Julia sell her dodgy record

Piers Akerman – Saturday, December 15, 2012 (11:07pm)

ABC’s AM program gave Prime Minister Julia Gillard an early Christmas present on Friday when host Tony Eastley made the specious claim the government had been able to “bring in changes to education and deliver a National Disability Insurance Scheme”.

Sure, that education change would be the $16 billion Building the Education Revolution that saw the spread of unusable halls and lunch rooms; this, in a week when it was revealed Australian primary school students scored the lowest of any English-speaking nation in an international test of reading, ranking 27th out of 48 countries.

We’re down there with Bulgaria, Slovenia and Lithuania. Is this the sort of change the ABC welcomes?

As for delivering a NDIS, all that has been delivered is a draft that will cover a trial period and the Gillard government is pushing the real delivery of anything substantial five years down the track when its dysfunctional existence will be just a bad memory.

The prime minister’s spin doctors are hoping they can piggyback an election on this pie-in-the-sky promise using the optimism of people with disabilities to cover their failures.

That’s why Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin was shrieking at the opposition across the house in the last sitting week: “Labor. We own the NDIS!”

Except for the funding the states are agreeing to find because the Gillard government can’t count.

They key to the ABC’s loyal attempt to help the government is that there is a widespread perception that Labor is the party of social justice. This illusion must be maintained because Labor doesn’t have any successful policies to boast about and the distractions provided by Trade Minister Craig Emerson and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese are now only remarkable for their grotesque hypocrisy.

The conservative side of politics actually has an astonishingly sound record in the field Labor is trying to co-opt.

When Bob Menzies was forming the Liberal Party in 1944, he said: “What we must look for, and it is a matter of desperate importance to our society, is a true revival of liberal thought which will work for social justice and security, for national power and national progress, and for the full development of the individual citizen, though not through the dull and deadening process of socialism.”

After winning government in 1949 he proceeded to deliver policies which took the ratio of home ownership from about 50 per cent to about 75 per cent, made Australia one of the top-10 trading nations, delivered a sound immigration program with the arrival of 1.25 million immigrants in a decade and created social security measures, including the pensioner medical and free medicines service; free milk to school children and a national health scheme based on self-help, providing cover for all citizens.

It was the Menzies government that established the Australian Universities Commission and introduced commonwealth scholarships for secondary schools.

It was the Menzies government that engaged with Asia and negotiated the remarkable Australia-Japan trade agreement in 1957, establishing the most important trade relationship the nation has had over the past 50 years.

Gillard, with her hollow White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century is only half a century too late. When she recently captivated the luvvie “mummy bloggers” with drinks at Kirribilli House, she probably omitted to mention family allowances and family assistance supplements were introduced in the period of Liberal prime ministers Harold Holt, John Gorton, Billy McMahon and Malcolm Fraser. It’s a cert that the Balmain basket-weavers don’t know that the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Film and Television Corporation and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), were also Liberal creations.

SBS TV and radio, and the Institute of Multicultural Affairs - more from the Libs.

Sport wasn’t neglected either, with the establishment of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), along with the Sport Development Program, National Athlete Reward Scheme, National Committee on Sport and Recreation for the Disabled.

For the gender-obsessed, there was the National Women’s Advisory Council. For the environmentally fixated, the declaration of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, Wilandra Lakes, Lord Howe Island and Southwest Tasmania.

The heavy lifting continued under the Howard government with real wages rising - they had fallen under the previous Labor governments - and policies which delivered an extra $2.4 billion in family benefits and childcare assistance and Work for the Dole, while tighter welfare controls targeting cheats saved taxpayers more than $2 million a day.

Record amounts were spent on health and education - and after paying off Labor’s $96 billon government debt - Australia was saving $8.8 billion a year in interest payments by 2007.

That is some record and it doesn’t tell the whole story.

But Gillard and Labor have an army of spin doctors and the ABC and much of Fairfax working for them.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is undergoing an image transformation - his blue tie matches those worn by world leaders Barack Obama and David Cameron - but as the election year approaches there must be more than a change of uniform.

The message must be one of contrast.

A failed government running up a huge debt to pay for failed policies or an opposition with a bloodline of economically responsible pragmatism and a proven record of standing for self-determination and providing support to the most vulnerable.

The conservatives won’t be given any soft Christmas interviews by the ABC or any other media - but then their record doesn’t need manure to shine.

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December 16: National Day in Bahrain

1598 – Admiral Yi Sun-sin's Korean navy defeated the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Noryang, the final naval battle of the Imjin War.
1653 – Oliver Cromwell (pictured) became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England.
1761 – Seven Years' War: Russian forces capturedKolberg, Prussia's last port on the Baltic coast, after afour-month siege.
1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declared the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, a puppet state created by Soviet Russia to justify theLithuanian–Soviet War.
1930 – Herman Lamm, "the father of modern bank robbery", was shot and killed during a botched robbery attempt in Clinton, Indiana, US.

===

Events

755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellionduring the Tang Dynasty of China.
1431 – Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris, France.
1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1575 – The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place.
1598 – Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang – The final battle of the Seven Year War is fought between the China and the Korean Allied Forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Allied Forces victory.
1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussianfortress of Kołobrzeg.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. These four so-called mega-quakes are believed to be an ongoing cataclysmic danger that could reprise the 1811-12 series of 2,000 quakes that affected the lands of what would be eight of today's heartland states of the United States.
1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1838 – Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
1850 – History of New Zealand: The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.
1864 – American Civil War: Franklin–Nashville Campaign – Battle of Nashville – Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower first opened its doors to the guests.
1907 – The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world
1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Elli takes place.
1914 – World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a posse of 200, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak
1942 – Holocaust: Porajmos – Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
1946 – Thailand joins the United Nations.
1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea in theKorean War.
1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1960 – 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York, New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with aTWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts.
1971 – "National Day" of the Kingdom of Bahrain is celebrated. Not to be confused with Bahrain Independence Day which took place on August 15, 1971.
1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris, France.
1972 – Vijay Diwas: (Victory Day) is commemorated every 16 December in India as it marks its military victory over Pakistan in 1971 during theIndo-Pakistani War of 1971.
1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.
1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, having an immediate dramatic effect on the United States.
1985 – Mafia: In New York, New York, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.
1986 – Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist Party of Kazakhstan, known as Jeltoqsan, which becomes the first sign of ethnic strife duringSoviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure
1989 – Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
1989 – Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama.
1991 – Independence of Kazakhstan.
1997 – An episode of Pokémon, "Dennō Senshi Porygon", aired in Japan induces seizures in 685 Japanese children.
1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.
2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.

[edit]Births

1485 – Catherine of Aragon, consort of Henry VIII of England (d. 1536)
1584 – John Selden, English jurist and oriental scholar (d. 1654)
1614 – Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1674)
1714 – George Whitefield, English-born Methodist leader (d. 1770)
1716 – Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini, Duc de Nivernais, French diplomat and writer (d. 1798)
1717 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer (d. 1806)
1742 – Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt, German Field Marshal (d. 1819)
1775 – Jane Austen, English writer (d. 1817)
1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist (d. 1827)
1775 – François-Adrien Boïeldieu, French composer (d. 1834)
1776 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist (d. 1810)
1778 – John Ordronaux, privateer of the War of 1812 (d. 1841)
1787 – Mary Russell Mitford, English writer (d. 1855)
1790 – King Leopold I of Belgium (d. 1865)
1804 – Viktor Bunyakovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1889)
1834 – Léon Walras, French economist (d. 1910)
1861 – Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917)
1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher and writer (d. 1952)
1865 – Olavo Bilac, Brazilian poet (d. 1918)
1866 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born French abstract painter (d. 1944)
1867 – Amy Carmichael, missionary in Dohnavur, India (d. 1951)
1869 – Hristo Tatarchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1952)
1872 – Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian general (d. 1947)
1882 – Sir Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (d. 1963)
1882 – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (d. 1967)
1882 – Walther Meissner, German physicist (d. 1974)
1883 – Károly Kós, Hungarian architect, writer and politician from Transylvania (d. 1977)
1883 – Max Linder, French pioneer of silent film (d. 1925)
1888 – King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)
1888 – Alphonse Juin, marshal of France (d. 1967)
1889 – Kim Jwa-jin, played an important role in the Korean Anarchist Movement (d. 1930)
1899 – Sir Noël Coward, English playwright, actor and composer (d. 1973)
1900 – V. S. Pritchett, English author and critic (d. 1997)
1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
1902 – Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet (d. 1999)
1902 – Yu Gwan-sun, Korean independence fighter (d. 1920)
1903 – Hardie Albright, American actor (d. 1975)
1905 – Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor (d. 1996)
1907 – Barbara Kent, Canadian-born American silent film actress and WAMPAS Baby Stars (d. 2011)
1913 – George Ignatieff, Russian-born Canadian diplomat (d. 1989)
1915 – Turk Murphy, American trombonist (d. 1987)
1916 – Birgitta Valberg, Swedish actress
1917 – Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, Sindhi scholar (d. 2011)
1917 – Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English writer (d. 2008)
1917 – Ruth Johnson Colvin, Founder of Literacy Volunteers of America
1918 – Pierre Delanoë, French songwriter and lyricist (d. 2006)
1920 – Frederick Rotimi Williams, Nigerian politician and jurist (d. 2005)
1922 – Cy Leslie, American music and video executive (d. 2008)
1923 – Menahem Pressler, German-Israeli pianist.
1926 – James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
1927 – Randall Garrett, American writer (d. 1987)
1928 – Terry Carter, American actor
1928 – Philip K. Dick, American writer (d. 1982)
1929 – Nicholas Courtney, English actor (d. 2011)
1931 – Karl Denver, Scottish recording artist (d. 1998)
1932 – Rodion Shchedrin, Soviet/Russian composer
1932 – Quentin Blake, English Illustrator
1934 – Rodolfo_Llinás, Colombian neuroscientist
1936 – Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
1937 – Joyce Bulifant, American actress
1938 – Frank Deford, American sportswriter
1938 – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
1939 – Philip Langridge, English opera singer (d. 2010)
1941 – Robert Kerman, American actor
1941 – Lesley Stahl, American journalist
1942 – Donald Carcieri, American politician, governor of Rhode Island
1942 – Eugene Robert Glazer, American actor
1943 – Steven Bochco, American television producer and writer
1943 – Tony Hicks, English guitarist (The Hollies)
1944 – Jeff Kanew, American film director, writer and editor
1944 – Don Meyer, American basketball coach
1944 – N!xau, Namibian actor and bush farmer (d. 2003)
1945 – Patti Deutsch, American actress and Match Game panelist
1945 – Bobby George, English professional darts player
1945 – Yukio Hattori, Japanese television commentator
1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish musician, singer and songwriter (ABBA)
1946 – Charles Dennis, Canadian actor
1946 – Christopher Ellison, English actor
1946 – Terence Knox, American actor
1946 – Trevor Pinnock, English conductor and harpsichordist
1946 – Tom Stern, American cinematographer
1947 – Ben Cross, English actor
1947 – Vincent Matthews, American sprinter
1948 – Christopher Biggins, English actor
1949 – Billy Gibbons, American guitarist (ZZ Top)
1950 – Claudia Cohen, American gossip columnist and socialite (d. 2007)
1950 – Roy Schuiten, Dutch cyclist (d. 2006)
1951 – Robben Ford, American guitarist
1951 – Mike Flanagan, American baseball pitcher (d. 2011)
1951 – Mark Heard, American record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter (d. 1992)
1952 – Joel Garner, Barbadian cricketer
1952 – Francesco Graziani, Italian footballer
1953 – Rebecca Forstadt, American voice actor
1955 – Xander Berkeley, American actor
1955 – Carol Browner, American environmentalist and government official
1955 – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
1957 – Antonio Vega, Spanish pop singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
1958 – Katie Leigh, American voice actress
1958 – Bart Oates, American football player
1959 – Alison LaPlaca, American actress
1959 – Steve Mattsson, American writer
1959 – Larry Poindexter, American actor and singer
1960 – Pat Van Den Hauwe, Belgian footballer
1960 – Canuto Kallan, Danish visual artist
1961 – Andre Andersen, Russian/Danish multi-instrumentalist and composer
1961 – Shane Black, American actor, writer and director
1961 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (d. 1994)
1961 – LaChanze, American singer
1961 – David Wild, American writer
1961 – Gretchen Palmer, American actress
1961 – Sam Robards, American actor
1961 – Jon Tenney, American actor
1962 – Maruschka Detmers, Dutch actress
1962 – William Perry, American football player
1962 – Melanie Smith, American actress
1963 – Benjamin Bratt, American actor
1963 – Jeff Carson, American singer
1963 – James Mangold, American film director and screenwriter
1964 – Heike Drechsler, East German sprinter
1964 – Gail Harris, English actress
1964 – Georgie Parker, Australian actress
1964 – Billy Ripken, American baseball player
1964 – Paul Vogt, American actor and comedian
1965 – Chris Jones, American baseball player
1965 – Melanie Sloan, American attorney
1965 – Nancy Valen, American actress
1966 – Clifford Robinson, American basketball player
1966 – Dennis Wise, English footballer
1967 – Donovan Bailey, Jamaican/Canadian sprinter,
1967 – Mark Palmer, American ambassador
1967 – Miranda Otto, Australian actress
1968 – Peter Dante, American actor
1968 – Lalah Hathaway, American singer
1968 – Mark Dean Schwab, American rapist and murderer (d. 2008)
1969 – Florencia Lozano, American actress
1969 – Adam Riess, American astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate
1969 – Shane, American adult film actress
1970 – Valerie Chow, Hong Kong actress
1970 – Daniel Cosgrove, American actor
1971 – Michael McCary, American singer (Boyz II Men)
1971 – Seyhan Kurt, French/Turkish poet,writer
1971 – Paul van Dyk, German DJ
1972 – Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress
1972 – Charles Gipson, American baseball player
1972 – Željko Kalac, Australian footballer
1972 – Paul Leyden, Australian actor
1973 – Sarah Kozer, American model and actress
1973 – Themba Mnguni, South African footballer
1973 – Luisa Ranieri, Italian actress
1973 – Scott Storch, Canadian/American hip-hop producer
1974 – Frida Hallgren, Swedish actress
1974 – Earl C. Poitier, American actor
1975 – Valentin Bădoi, Romanian footballer
1975 – Nawo Kawakita, Japanese drummer (Maximum the Hormone)
1975 – Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian musician (Billy Talent)
1975 – Jonathan Scarfe, Canadian actor
1977 – Éric Bélanger, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Sylvain Distin, French footballer
1978 – Joe Absolom, English actor
1978 – John Morris, Canadian Curler
1978 – Gunter Van Handenhoven, Belgian footballer
1979 – Trevor Immelman, South African golfer
1979 – Mihai Trăistariu, Romanian singer
1979 – Jessie Ward, American professional wrestler
1979 – Flo Rida, American rapper and singer
1981 – Krysten Ritter, American actress
1981 – Anna Sedokova, Ukrainian singer
1981 – Gareth Williams, Scottish footballer
1982 – Garnon Davies, Welsh actor
1982 – Justin Mentell, American artist and actor (d. 2010)
1982 – Antrel Rolle, American football player
1982 – Stanislav Šesták, Slovakian footballer
1983 – Kelenna Azubuike, American basketball player
1983 – Frankie Ballard, American singer
1983 – Danielle Lloyd, English model
1984 – Theo James, American actor
1985 – Amanda Setton, American actress
1985 – Keita Tachibana, Japanese singer (w-inds.)
1986 – Candice Crawford, American beauty queen and sports reporter
1986 – Alcides Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player
1987 – Mame Biram Diouf, Senegalese footballer
1987 – Beau Dowler, Australian rules footballer
1987 – Hallee Hirsh, American actress
1988 – Anna Popplewell, English actress
1988 – Mats Hummels, German footballer
1990 – Julito McCullum, American actor
1992 – Ulrikke Eikeri, Norwegian tennis player
1993 – Lola Créton, French actress
1999 – Bryce Robinson, American actor

[edit]Deaths

705 – Empress Wu of Zhou (b. 625)
714 – Pippin of Herstal, Frankish noble
867 – Eberhard of Friuli
999 – Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. 931)
1325 – Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (b. 1270)
1378 – Otto III of Montferrat
1379 – John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel, British noble and naval commander
1470 – John II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1425)
1515 – Afonso de Albuquerque Portuguese naval commander (b. 1453)
1598 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean admiral (b. 1545)
1669 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. c. 1608)
1687 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (b. 1623)
1751 – Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (b. 1700)
1765 – Peter Frederick Haldimand, Swiss military officer and surveyor (b. 1741/42)
1774 – François Quesnay, French economist (b. 1694)
1783 – Johann A. Hasse, German composer (b. 1699)
1783 – Sir William James, British naval commander (b. 1720)
1809 – Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, French chemist (b. 1755)
1859 – Wilhelm Grimm, German writer and folklorist (b. 1786)
1892 – Henry Yesler, American entrepreneur and politician (b. 1810)
1897 – Alphonse Daudet, French novelist and short story writer (b. 1840)
1898 – Pavel Tretyakov, Russian businessman and art collector (b. 1832)
1914 – Ivan Zajc, Croatian composer (b. 1832)
1916 – Ognjeslav Kostović Stepanović, Serbian inventor (b. 1851)
1921 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)
1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz, Polish politician (b. 1865)
1925 – Maurice Lecoq, French sports shooter (b. 1854)
1928 – Elinor Wylie, American poet and writer (b. 1885)
1930 – Herman Lamm, German-born American bank robber (b. 1890)
1935 – Thelma Todd, American actress (b. 1905)
1940 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player (b. 1866)
1944 – Betsie ten Boom, sister of Corrie ten Boom and Holocaust victim (b. 1885)
1945 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1866)
1945 – Fumimaro Konoye, Japanese politician (b. 1891)
1948 – Denham Fouts, American gigolo and socialite (b. 1914)
1949 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
1952 – Robert Henry Best, South Carolina-born broadcaster of Nazi propaganda convicted of treason in 1948 (b. 1896)
1956 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
1963 – Nam Phương, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1914)
1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (b. 1874)
1968 – Futabayama Sadaji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 35th Yokozuna (b. 1912)
1968 – General Muhammad Suheimat, Jordanian military commander and statesman (b.1916)
1976 – Réal Caouette, French-Canadian politician (b. 1917)
1977 – Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (b. 1934)
1980 – Colonel Sanders, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1890)
1980 – Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (b. 1900)
1982 – Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer (b. 1928)
1983 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (b. 1907)
1985 – Thomas Bilotti, American organized crime figure (b. 1940)
1985 – Paul Castellano, American organized crime figure (b. 1915)
1988 – Sylvester James, American singer (b. 1948)
1989 – Óscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing driver (b. 1913)
1989 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (b. 1930)
1989 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (b. 1895)
1989 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (b. 1925)
1990 – Douglas Campbell, American aviator (b. 1896)
1991 – Tamási Eszter, Hungarian TV announcer and actress (b. 1938)
1993 – Moses Gunn, American actor (b. 1929)
1993 – Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese politician (b. 1918)
1993 – Charizma, American Hip-Hop MC (b. 1973)
1995 – Johnny Moss, American poker player (b. 1907)
1995 – Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (b. 1939)
1996 – Quentin Bell, English art historian (b. 1910)
1997 – Lillian Disney, widow of Walt Disney (b. 1899)
1997 – Nicolette Larson, American singer (b. 1952)
1998 – William Gaddis, American writer (b. 1922)
2001 – Stuart Adamson, English-born Scottish musician (The Skids, Big Country) (b. 1958)
2001 – Stefan Heym, German author (b. 1913)
2003 – Robert Stanfield, Canadian politician (b. 1914)
2003 – Gary Stewart, American musician and songwriter (b. 1945)
2004 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (b. 1933)
2004 – Deyda Hydara, Gambian journalist (b. 1946)
2005 – Kenneth Bulmer, English author (b. 1921)
2005 – Ed Hansen, American film director and editor (b. 1937)
2005 – John Spencer, American actor (b. 1946)
2006 – Don Jardine, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1940)
2006 – Taliep Petersen, South African singer and composer (b. 1950)
2006 – Pnina Salzman, Israeli pianist (b. 1922)
2007 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer/songwriter (b. 1951)
2009 – Roy E. Disney, American film industry executive (b. 1930)
2009 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian politician (b. 1956)
2009 – Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South African physician and politician (b. 1940)
2010 – Melvin E. Biddle, American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1923)
2011 – Dan Frazer, American actor (b. 1921)

[edit]Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:
- Adelaide of Italy
- December 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
National Day, celebrates the withdrawal of United Kingdom from Bahrain, making Bahrain an independent emirate in 1971. However December 16 is only the date on which the state celebrates the event, while the actual day on which the independence of Bahrain was declared was August 15, 1971 (see Bahrain Independence Day)
National Sports Day (Thailand)
Nine-day celebration of Mary and Joseph's search for a place to stay where Jesus could be born begins (Hispanidad):
- The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, Latin America)
- The first day of the Simbang Gabi novena of masses (Philippines)
Victory Day (Bangladesh)
Victory Day (India)

===

We’ve failed to give kids education they need

Miranda Devine – Saturday, December 15, 2012 (11:05pm)

THE woeful results of Australian primary students in an international reading test are a disgrace. Our Year 4 students are ranked the lowest in reading skills of all the English-speaking countries tested in the first Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 325,000 students.

Australia came 27th of 48 countries tested, behind top scorers Hong Kong, Russia, Finland and Singapore, and also behind Northern Ireland, the US, Ireland, England, Canada and New Zealand.

One quarter of our students even failed to meet the minimum standard for their age group, despite being among the relatively most advantaged in terms of reading resources, home environment and the emphasis on early grades on reading skills.

In science and maths, our students are similarly languishing, at 25th and 18th place, respectively.

But it is not the fault of the students that they have performed poorly. Nor is it entirely the fault of their teachers. The fault lies with the progressive education ideology that has infected teacher training establishments and education departments in every state for 40 years.

Faced with more proof that their methods haven’t worked, education academics last week flocked on to the universities’ website, The Conversation, to declare that the PIRLS test is suspect, the results meaningless, and all that is needed is more taxpayer money.

That was the blindingly brilliant recommendation of the Gonski review, to pour $5 billion extra into schools for smaller class sizes and more specialist teachers. In other words, do more of the same that hasn’t worked.

But it’s not as if we don’t know what actually does work. The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (NITL) of which I was a committee member identified Australia’s literacy problem in 2005 and mapped out a clear solution, after a year examining the wealth of scientific evidence which shows the best way to teach children to read.

Our Year 4 students who fared so miserably in the PIRLS tests were two years old when that inquiry concluded. Had its recommendations been implemented, those students might have been able to read and comprehend properly today.

Children need “early systematic and explicit teaching of phonics” to learn to read successfully, the inquiry found. They need to be taught how to link sounds with letters and “break the code” of reading.

Yet trainee teachers are barely taught how to teach reading. Instead, various guises of the discredited “whole-language” philosophy remain entrenched, in which children are supposed to learn to read by osmosis just by looking at books. Some will, but most won’t.

The inquiry, headed by the late Professor Ken Rowe, found that as many as 30 per cent of children were leaving school functionally illiterate.

Its Teaching Reading report made straightforward recommendations about teacher training and early reading instruction which should have been followed.

Seven years later the report has been buried, its recommendations ignored, and the nine-year-old students who would have benefited from its wisdom are lagging well behind the rest of the world.

Professor Kevin Wheldall - one of the nation’s leading reading researchers and founder of the MultiLit remedial reading program - says the only way we can improve student skills is to forget ideology and follow the evidence.

What works and what doesn’t work was laid out methodically in the 2008 book Visible Learning by John Hattie, research director of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. Hattie has distilled the results of 800 “meta-analyses” of 50,000 studies involving more than 80 million students from around the world.

And what worked was, “surprise, surprise, systematic, explicit, direct instruction”, says Wheldall. That is, organised, clear, face-to-face teaching, with constant checking to make sure the student understands. In other words, traditional teaching.

Hattie found phonics instruction was highly effective and whole language was not. Nor did the research find much merit in the other “sacred cows” of progressive education, such as “constructivist” (where students basically teach themselves, or “construct” their own learning).

This is all blindingly obvious to anyone with common sense. Now, with a prime minister who says her focus is education, all we ever hear is Gonski, Gonski, Gonski. Yet the Gonski review doesn’t refer to the evidence of what actually works in teaching.

Since its release in February it has taken on iconic status with the militant left-wing teacher unions who love smaller class sizes and who hope that its shake-up of the school funding model will achieve their dearest aim - cutting off funding for non-government schools.

In fact, the evidence shows that, expensive though it is, reducing class sizes makes little difference to student learning. It also shows that more money is not the answer.

Australia increased spending on schools by 44 per cent between 2000 and 2009, far more than the OECD average, and yet the performance of our students declined markedly, according to a report by the Grattan Institute. Reading scores fell from second place to seventh place, and maths scores fell from fifth to 13th in OECD rankings.

Now, when the chickens are coming home to roost, the education establishment wants to waste more taxpayer money on more strategies that don’t work.

The evidence is in - no more excuses. Parents will vote for the party that understands our children deserve better.

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DEFENCE-FREE ZONES

Tim Blair – Sunday, December 16, 2012 (2:59am)

“The Sandy Hook school was a gun-free zone,” reports Emily Miller. “The shooting in July in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. was also in a gun-free zone. Rather than engaging in yet another debate about the Second Amendment, perhaps we should be discussing whether security is enhanced or weakened by not allowing a school to be armed for self defense.”

Good point. Further from Glenn Reynolds:

“After a shooting spree,” author William Burroughs once said, “they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.” Burroughs continued: “I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.”

Plenty of people — especially among America’s political and journalistic classes — feel differently. They’d be much more comfortable seeing ordinary Americans disarmed. And whenever there is a mass shooting, or other gun incident that snags the headlines, they do their best to exploit the tragedy and push for laws that would, well, take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.

There are a lot of problems with this approach, but one of the most significant is this one: It doesn’t work.

Read on. Meanwhile, and not for the first time, Paul Toohey and Miranda Devine disagree with me about gun control.

UPDATE:

The gunman who slaughtered 20 young children and six adults at a US school in Connecticut“forced” his way into the building, police say.

Lieutenant Paul Vance of Connecticut State Police said the man – identified widely in media reports as 20-year-old Adam Lanza – was not let into the Sandy Hook Elementary School “voluntarily”.

One method might have stopped him.

UPDATE II. A request:

Here are two.

UPDATE III. Further reading for Jonathan, via Douglas Bass.

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MAN OF THE YEAR

Tim Blair – Sunday, December 16, 2012 (2:16am)

Tony Abbott rules the nation:

Ms Gillard has no doubts about who was to blame for the brutal year in politics, which included the Craig Thomson affair, the asylum seeker issue, the Peter Slipper-James Ashby case and the AWU slush fund.

“All of it was the decision and style of the opposition under Tony Abbott,’’ she said.

Not bad. Imagine how much more influential Abbott might be as Prime Minister.

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NEWTOWN, CONN. – Federal investigators planned to visit dozens of shooting ranges and gun stores across Connecticut Sunday, attempting to figure out what led smart but painfully awkward 20-year-old Adam Lanza to murder 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, while townspeople and President Obama prepared to attend an interfaith vigil amid sorrow and confusion.

The tragedy brought forth soul-searching and grief around the globe. Families as far away as Puerto Rico began to plan funerals for victims who still had their baby teeth, world leaders extended condolences, and vigils were held around the U.S.

The gunman's father released a statement on Saturday.

"Our hearts go out to the families and friends who lost loved ones and to all those who were injured," Peter Lanza said. "Our family is grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy. No words can truly express how heartbroken we are. We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why. We have cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so. Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired."

The victims of the shooting were shot multiple times by rifle, the medical examiner said Saturday, and Dr. H. Wayne Carver said the deaths are classified as homicides. Police began releasing the identities of the dead.

Police said they had found "very good evidence" they hoped would answer questions about the motives of the gunman, described as brilliant but remote, who forced his way into the school and killed 26 children and adults in one of the world's worst mass shootings.

Click here to see a list of the victims.

Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police said Saturday morning that the suspect was not voluntarily let into the school.

Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, drove to the school in her car with at least three guns, including a high-powered rifle that he apparently left in the back of the vehicle, and shot up two classrooms around 9:30 a.m. Friday, law enforcement officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A custodian ran through the halls, warning of a gunman on the loose, and someone switched on the intercom, alerting people in the building to the attack -- and perhaps saving many lives -- by letting them hear the hysteria going on in the school office, a teacher said. Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in closets as shots echoed through the building.

Lanza was found dead inside the school, according to officials. Eighteen of the children and six more adults were dead at the school and two more children died later, Lt. Vance said at a press conference Friday.

The well-liked principal, Dawn Hochsprung, was believed to be among the dead. A woman who worked at the school was wounded.

President Barack Obama will attend an interfaith memorial service Sunday in Newtown. It will be the fourth time he has traveled to a city after a mass shooting.

The president had planned to travel to Maine Wednesday for an event promoting his positions in "fiscal cliff" negotiations, but the White House canceled that trip because of the shooting.

The tragedy elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, a 20-year-old described as brilliant but remote, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims.

The rampage, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that claimed 33 lives in 2007.

In tight-knit Newtown on Saturday, overflow crowds packed St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church. The Rev. Richard Scinto, a deacon, gave a homily.

"In the past 48 hours I've said the phrase `I don't know' about 1,000 times," he said. "That not knowing has got to be the worst part of this whole thing."

At St. John's Episcopal Church, 54-year-old Donna Denner, an art teacher at an elementary school in nearby Danbury whose classroom was locked down after the shooting, said she feels the same way she did after 9/11 but isn't sure the rest of the country is.

"I don't know if the rest of the country is struggling to understand it the same way we are here," she said. "Life goes on, but you're not the same. Is the rest of the country -- are they going about their regular activities? Is it just another news story to them?"

Lanza's brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, who was widely and erroneously reported to be the suspect, was questioned in Hoboken, N.J., but authorities said he was not involved. An FBI source tells Fox News that Ryan Lanza and the father, Peter Lanza, have both been cleared and are not longer being questioned.

The vehicle the suspect drove to the school was registered to his mother. At least three guns were found -- a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car, authorities said.

Sources told Fox News the guns used in the shooting were owned by and legally registered to Nancy Lanza.

ATF spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun said earlier that there was no evidence Lanza was involved in gun clubs or had trained for the shooting. When reached later in the day and asked whether that was still true, she said, "We're following any and all leads related to this individual and firearms."

Dean Price, director of the Wooster Mountain State Range -- a shooting range in Danbury -- said two ATF agents visited the range Friday night and stayed into the early morning looking through thousands of names on sign-in logs.

He said that he had never seen Adam or Nancy Lanza there and that agents told him they did not find their names on the sign-in sheets.

Law enforcement officials have said they've found no note or manifesto from Lanza of the sort they have come to expect after murderous rampages such as the Virginia Tech bloodbath in 2007 that left 33 people dead.

Vance said during Friday afternoon's news conference that police arrived at the scene "within minutes" of a 911 call placed shortly after 9:30 a.m. Friday.

"Every door, every crack, every crevice of that school" was checked, Vance said. “The entire school was searched.” He said the shooting occurred inside two rooms in "one section of the school."

Lanza was believed to suffer from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to discuss it.

Education officials said they had found no link between Lanza's mother and the school, contrary to news reports that said she was a teacher there. Investigators said they believe Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary many years ago, but they had no explanation for why he went there Friday.

President Obama was notified of the shooting about an hour after it occurred, White House officials said.

"Our hearts are broken today," Obama said in a brief address to the nation on Friday. "We've endured too many of these tragedies in these past few years, and each time I receive the news I react not as a president, but as a parent."

"Most victims were children, between five and 10 years old...They had their entire lives ahead of them, birthdays, graduations weddings, kids of their own," he said, pausing before wiping tears from his eyes.

Sandy Hook Elementary School has close to 700 students.

Newtown is in Fairfield County, about 45 miles southwest of Hartford and 60 miles northeast of New York City.

A fund has been set up for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Click here for more information.