Sun 23rd Dec Todays News

December 23: Tenth of Tevet (Judaism, 2012); The Emperor's Birthday in Japan;Festivus

• 1888 – During a bout of mental illness, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh stalked his friend French painter Paul Gauguin with a razor, and then afterwards cut off the lower part of his own left ear and gave it to a prostitute.
• 1957 – Ian Craig of Australia became the youngest Test cricketcaptain in history.
• 1958 – The Tokyo Tower (pictured), the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world at 332.5 metres (1,091 ft), opened.
• 1972 – In one of the most famous plays in the history of American football,Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris made the Immaculate Receptionof a pass by quarterback Terry Bradshaw near the end of a playoff game.
• 1990 – About eighty-eight percent of the population in Slovenia voted to secedefrom the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

===

Events

• 484 – Huneric dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who becomes king of the Vandals. During his reign the Catholics are free from persecutions.
• 962 – Arab–Byzantine Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city of Aleppo.
• 1572 – Theologian Johann Sylvan executed in Heidelberg for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.
• 1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orangeand his daughter Mary.
• 1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
• 1793 – The Battle of Savenay, decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.
• 1823 – A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is published anonymously.
• 1893 – The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.
• 1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.
• 1914 – World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.
• 1916 – World War I: Battle of Magdhaba – Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
• 1919 – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom.
• 1921 – Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated.
• 1936 – Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1936 – First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
• 1938 – Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa.
• 1940 – World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Y-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.
• 1941 – World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island.
• 1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
• 1948 – Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.
• 1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.
• 1958 – Dedication of Tokyo Tower, the world's highest self-supporting iron tower.
• 1968 – The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.
• 1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.
• 1972 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.
• 1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism.
• 1979 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.
• 1982 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
• 1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.
• 1990 – History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia's overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.
• 2002 – A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.
• 2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
• 2007 – An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state.

[edit]Births

• 1173 – Louis I, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1231)
• 1513 – Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (d. 1577)
• 1582 – Severo Bonini, Italian composer (d. 1663)
• 1597 – Martin Opitz, German poet (d. 1639)
• 1613 – Carl Gustaf Wrangel, Swedish soldier (d. 1676)
• 1621 – Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (d. 1678)
• 1621 – Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1682)
• 1689 – Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, French composer (d. 1755)
• 1713 – Maruyama Gondazaemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 3rd Yokozuna (d. 1749)
• 1732 – Richard Arkwright, English industrialist and inventor (d. 1792)
• 1743 – Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (d. 1803)
• 1750 – King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (d. 1827)
• 1758 – Nathan Wilson U.S. Representative from New York (d. 1834)
• 1777 – Czar Alexander I of Russia (d. 1825)
• 1790 – Jean-François Champollion, French Egyptologist (d. 1832)
• 1804 – Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French literary critic (d. 1869)
• 1805 – Joseph Smith, American religious leader (d. 1844)
• 1812 – Samuel Smiles, Scottish author and reformer (d. 1904)
• 1819 – Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch poet and clergyman (d. 1889)
• 1822 – Wilhelm Bauer, German engineer (d. 1875)
• 1839 – János Murkovics, Slovene writer and teacher in Hungary (d. 1917)
• 1843 – Richard Conner, American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient (d. 1924)
• 1854 – Henry B. Guppy, British botanist (d. 1926)
• 1864 – Princess Zorka of Montenegro, Princess of Serbia (d. 1890)
• 1867 – Madam C. J. Walker, American philanthropist and tycoon (d. 1919)
• 1874 – Viggo Wiehe, Danish actor (d. 1956)
• 1878 – Stephen Timoshenko, Ukrainian-born mechanical engineer (d. 1972)
• 1885 – Pierre Brissaud, French artist (d. 1964)
• 1891 – Alexander Rodchenko, Russian painter and photographer (d. 1956)
• 1896 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Sicilian writer (d. 1957)
• 1900 – Otto Soglow, American comics artist (d. 1975)
• 1902 – Norman Maclean, American author (d. 1990)
• 1902 – Charan Singh, Indian Prime Minister(d.1987)
• 1907 – Manuel Lopes, Cape Verdean writer and poet (d. 2005)
• 1907 – James Roosevelt, American politician, soldier and son of Franklin D. Roosevelt, (d. 1991)
• 1907 – Avraham Stern, Polish-born Zionist leader (d. 1942)
• 1908 – Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born, Canadian portrait photographer (d. 2002)
• 1910 – Kurt Meyer, German SS officer (d. 1961)
• 1911 – Niels Kaj Jerne, English-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
• 1911 – James Gregory, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1916 – Dino Risi, Italian film director and screenwriter (d. 2008)
• 1918 – Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of Germany
• 1918 – José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (d. 2001)
• 1918 – Kumar Pallana, Indian-born American actor
• 1919 – Kenneth M. Taylor, American pilot (d. 2006)
• 1921 – Guy Beaulne, French Canadian actor and theatre director (d. 2001)
• 1922 – Micheline Ostermeyer, French athlete and musician (d. 2001)
• 1923 – Onofre Marimón, Argentine racing driver (d. 1954)
• 1923 – Günther Schifter, Austrian music journalist (d. 2008)
• 1923 – Claudio Scimone, Italian conductor
• 1923 – James Stockdale, American admiral and Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2005)
• 1924 – Bob Kurland, American basketball player
• 1925 – Duncan Hallas, British political figure (d. 2002)
• 1925 – Rayner Unwin, British book publisher (d. 2000)
• 1926 – Robert Bly, American poet
• 1928 – Chronis Aidonidis, Greek singer
• 1929 – Chet Baker, American jazz trumpet player (d. 1988)
• 1929 – Dick Weber, American professional tenpin bowler (d. 2005)
• 1931 – Ronnie Schell, American actor
• 1933 – Akihito, Emperor of Japan
• 1935 – Paul Hornung, American football player
• 1935 – Abdul Ghani Minhat, Malaysian footballer (d. 2012)
• 1935 – Esther Phillips, American singer (d. 1984)
• 1936 – Frederic Forrest, American actor
• 1937 – Barney Rosenzweig, American television producer
• 1937 – Edward Irving Wortis, American author
• 1938 – Bob Kahn, American Internet pioneer
• 1940 – Jorma Kaukonen, American musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
• 1940 – Robert Labine, French-Canadian politician
• 1940 – Eugene Record, American singer (The Chi-Lites) (d. 2005)
• 1941 – Tim Hardin, American musician (d. 1980)
• 1941 – Serge Reding, Belgian weightlifter (d. 1975)
• 1942 – Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia
• 1942 – John Peterman, American fashion designer
• 1943 – Mikhail Gromov, Russian-born mathematician
• 1943 – Harry Shearer, American actor
• 1943 – Ron Allen, American baseball player
• 1943 – Elizabeth Hartman, American actress (d. 1987)
• 1943 – Queen Silvia of Sweden
• 1944 – Wesley Clark, American military officer
• 1945 – Ron Bushy, American drummer (Iron Butterfly)
• 1946 – Edita Gruberová, Slovak operatic soprano
• 1946 – Susan Lucci, American actress
• 1946 – John Sullivan, British screenwriter (d. 2011)
• 1947 – Graham Bonnet, English musician
• 1948 – Jim Ferguson, American guitarist, composer, educator, author, and music journalist
• 1948 – Jack Ham, American football player
• 1948 – Charles Herbert, American child actor
• 1949 – Adrian Belew, American musician (King Crimson)
• 1949 – Reinhold Weege, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2012)
• 1950 – Michael C. Burgess, American politician
• 1950 – Vicente del Bosque, Spanish football manager
• 1950 – Ilchi Lee, Korean educator and author
• 1951 – Anthony Phillips, British musician (Genesis)
• 1952 – William Kristol, American political commentator
• 1953 – Maria Vladimirovna, Grand Duchess of Russia
• 1955 – Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet and playwright; Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
• 1956 – Michele Alboreto, Italian Formula One driver (d. 2001)
• 1956 – Dale Berra, American baseball player
• 1956 – Dave Murray, English musician (Iron Maiden)
• 1957 – Dan Bigras, Canadian singer
• 1957 – Trisha Goddard, English television presenter
• 1958 – Victoria Williams, American singer
• 1958 – Joan Severance, American actress
• 1959 – Geoff Willis, British engineer
• 1961 – Carol Smillie, British television personality
• 1961 – Ezzat el Kamhawi, Egyptian novelist
• 1961 – Lorna Tolentino, Filipina actress, host and executive producer
• 1962 – Bertrand Gachot, Belgian racing driver
• 1962 – Kang Je-gyu, South Korean film director
• 1962 – Keiji Mutoh, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1963 – Jim Harbaugh, American football player
• 1963 – Jess Harnell, American voice actor and singer
• 1963 – Donna Tartt, American author
• 1963 – Ante Zelck, German entrepreneur and hostel pioneer.
• 1964 – Eddie Vedder, American musician (Pearl Jam)
• 1966 – Badi Assad, Brazilian singer, songwriter, percussionist and guitarist
• 1967 – Carla Bruni, Italian-French model and singer
• 1967 – Tim Fountain, British playwright
• 1967 – Otis Grant, Jamaican-Canadian Professional Boxer
• 1968 – Quincy Jones III, Swedish-American musician
• 1968 – Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, American photographer
• 1968 – René Tretschok, German footballer
• 1968 – Karyn Bryant, American actress, writer and television personality
• 1969 – Martha Byrne, American actress
• 1969 – Rodney Culver, American football running back (d. 1996)
• 1969 – Rob Pelinka, American sports agent
• 1969 – Mary Boquitas, Mexican singer and actress
• 1970 – Catriona Le May Doan, Canadian speed skater
• 1970 – Raymont Harris, American football player
• 1970 – Holly Samos, British radio presenter
• 1970 – Karine Polwart, Scottish folk singer-songwriter
• 1971 – Corey Haim, Canadian actor (d. 2010)
• 1971 – Masayoshi Yamazaki, Japanese singer-songwriter
• 1971 – Michalis Klokidis, Greek footballer
• 1971 – Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, British socialite
• 1971 – Wim Vansevenant, Belgian cyclist
• 1972 – Christian Potenza, Canadian actor
• 1974 – Agustín Delgado, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1975 – Sky Lopez, American actress
• 1975 – Thanasis Sentementes, Greek footballer
• 1975 – Vadim Sharifijanov, Russian ice hockey player
• 1976 – Brad Lidge, American baseball player
• 1976 – Dimitris Mavrogenidis, Greek footballer
• 1976 – Jamie Noble, American professional wrestler
• 1977 – Matt Baker, British television presenter
• 1977 – Alge Crumpler, American football player
• 1977 – Jari Mäenpää, Finnish guitarist and singer
• 1977 – Paul Shirley, American basketball player
• 1978 – Andra Davis, American football player
• 1978 – Esthero, Canadian musician and singer
• 1978 – Jodie Marsh, British glamour model
• 1978 – Víctor Martínez, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1978 – Estella Warren, Canadian model and actress
• 1979 – Summer Altice, American model and actress
• 1979 – Scott Gomez, American ice hockey player
• 1979 – Holly Madison, American model
• 1979 – Kenny Miller, Scottish football player
• 1980 – Cody Ross, American baseball player
• 1980 – Elvin Ng, Singaporean actor
• 1981 – Beth, Spanish singer
• 1981 – Yuriorkis Gamboa, Cuban boxer
• 1981 – Mario Santana, Argentine footballer
• 1981 – Maritza Correia, American swimmer
• 1982 – Brad Nelson, American baseball player
• 1982 – Thomas Rohregger, Austrian cyclist (Leopard Trek)
• 1983 – Michael Chopra, English footballer
• 1983 – Hanley Ramírez, Dominican baseball player
• 1983 – Carlos Jiménez, Spanish basketball player
• 1984 – Sebastian Werle, German rugby player
• 1985 – Harry Judd, British drummer (McFly)
• 1985 – Luke O'Loughlin, Australian actor
• 1985 – Kenny Eldredge, Genius
• 1986 – T. J. Oshie, American ice hockey player
• 1986 – Beau Champion, Australian Rugby League Player
• 1987 – Tommaso Bellazzini, Italian footballer
• 1987 – Owen Franks, New Zealand All Black rugby player
• 1988 – Eri Kamei, Japanese singer {Morning Musume)
• 1988 – Yuka Kashino, Japanese singer (Perfume)
• 1988 – Eliana Ramos, Uruguayan fashion model (d. 2007)
• 1990 – Anna Maria Perez de Taglé, American actress, model, and singer
• 1992 – Jeff Schlupp, German footballer
• 1993 – Makrina Diakaki, Ecology Student, Muse and hobbit lover

[edit]Deaths

• 484 – Huneric, king of the Vandals
• 668 – Mor Gabriel, Syriac Orthodox Saint (b. 594)
• 679 – King Dagobert II of Austrasia (b. c. 650)
• 910 – Saint Naum, Bulgarian scholar
• 918 – Conrad I of Germany
• 1230 – Berengaria of Navarre, queen of Richard I of England
• 1556 – Nicholas Udall, English playwright (b. 1504)
• 1568 – Roger Ascham, tutor of Elizabeth I of England
• 1575 – Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese military commander (b. 1531)
• 1588 – Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (b. 1550)
• 1631 – Michael Drayton, English poet (b. 1563)
• 1646 – François Maynard, French poet (b. 1582)
• 1652 – John Cotton, English-born American minister (b. 1585)
• 1675 – Caesar, duc de Choiseul, French marshal and diplomat (b. 1602)
• 1722 – Pierre Varignon, French mathematician (b. 1654)
• 1761 – Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, Scottish Jacobite spy
• 1763 – Antoine François Prévost, French author and novelist (b. 1697)
• 1771 – Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian saint (b. 1701)
• 1779 – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (b. 1724)
• 1789 – Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist (b. 1712)
• 1795 – Sir Henry Clinton, British general (b. 1730)
• 1805 – Pehr Osbeck, Swedish explorer and naturalist (b. 1723)
• 1834 – Thomas Malthus, English demographer and economist (b. 1766)
• 1846 – Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, French naturalist (b. 1780)
• 1884 – John Chisum, American Cattle Baron (b. 1824)
• 1902 – Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1821)
• 1912 – Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (b. 1850)
• 1926 – Swami Shraddhanand,(b.1856)
• 1931 – Wilson Bentley, American scientist (b. 1865)
• 1939 – Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (b. 1890)
• 1944 – Peder Lykkeberg, Danish swimmer (b. 1878)
• 1946 – John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (b. 1873)
• 1946 – Kiki Preston, American socialite (b. 1898)
• 1948 – Akira Mutō, Japanese army commander (b. 1883)
• 1948 – Hideki Tōjō, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1884)
• 1950 – Vincenzo Tommasini, Italian composer (b. 1878)
• 1953 – Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet politician (b. 1899)
• 1954 – René Iché, French sculptor (b. 1897)
• 1961 – Kurt Meyer, German SS officer (b. 1910)
• 1970 – Charles Ruggles, American actor (b. 1886)
• 1971 – Pasha Hristova, Bulgarian singer (b. 1946)
• 1972 – Andrei Tupolev, Soviet aircraft designer (b. 1888)
• 1973 – Charles Atlas, Italian-born American bodybuilder (b. 1892)
• 1973 – Irna Phillips, American television writer, director, and producer (b. 1901)
• 1979 – Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (b. 1898)
• 1982 – Jack Webb, American actor, producer, and director (b. 1920)
• 1983 – Colin Middleton, Northern Irish artist (b. 1910)
• 1984 – Joan Lindsay, Australian author (b. 1896)
• 1992 – Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (b. 1934)
• 1992 – Eddie Hazel, American guitarist (Funkadelic) (b. 1950)
• 1994 – Sebastian Shaw, English actor (b. 1905)
• 1995 – Patric Knowles, English actor (b. 1911)
• 1997 – Stanley Cortez, American cinematographer (b. 1908)
• 1998 – Michelle Thomas, American actress (b. 1968)
• 2000 – Billy Barty, American actor (b. 1924)
• 2000 – Victor Borge, Danish-born comedian and pianist (b. 1909)
• 2000 – Noor Jehan, Pakistani singer and actress (b. 1926)
• 2001 – Bola Ige, Nigerian politician (b. 1930)
• 2004 – P. V. Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India (b. 1921)
• 2005 – Lajos Baróti, Hungarian footballer and coach (b. 1914)
• 2005 – Norman D. Vaughan, American polar explorer and musher (b. 1905)
• 2006 – Charlie Drake, English comedian (b. 1925)
• 2006 – Timothy J. Tobias, American composer and musician (b. 1952)
• 2006 – Johnny Vincent, English footballer (b. 1947)
• 2007 – William Francis Ganong, Jr., American physiologist (b. 1924)
• 2007 – Michael Kidd, American film and stage choreographer (b. 1915)
• 2007 – Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist and composer (b. 1925)
• 2009 – Robert L. Howard, American Vietnam War soldier; Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1939)
• 2009 – Edward Schillebeeckx, Belgian Roman Catholic theologian (b. 1914)
• 2009 – Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Tibetan official (b. 1910)
• 2010 – K. Karunakaran, Indian politician (b. 1918)
• 2010 – Fred Hargesheimer, American World War II pilot (b. 1916)

[edit]Holidays and observances

• Birthday of the Queen Silvia, an official flag day (Sweden)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Abassad (Coptic Church)
  • John Cantius
  • O Emmanuel
  • Psote (Coptic Church)
  • Thorlac Thorhallsson, patron saint of Iceland; The last day of preparations before Christmas.
• Festivus, a holiday made popular by the sitcom Seinfeld
• HumanLight (Secular humanism in United States)
• Larentalia, in honor of Larenta. (Roman Empire)
• Night of the Radishes (Oaxaca, Mexico)
• The Emperor's Birthday, birthday of Akihito, the current Emperor of Japan. (Japan)
• Tibb's Eve, a celebration marking the start of the Christmas season in Newfoundland and Labrador.

===

THE CATO DOCTRINE

Tim Blair – Sunday, December 23, 2012 (6:30pm)

Jane Cato – Australia’s third-most influential female voice – discusses the Sandy Hook massacre with her daughter, who is a teacher: 

Last Saturday, my 24-year-old daughter rang me and told me the story of 27-year-old Victoria Soto. She was the teacher who shielded her class of five- and six-year-olds by hiding them in a cupboard during the appalling massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. She lied to the gunman, telling him her class was in the gym, knowing full well that he would then shoot her. Which he did.

I cried as my daughter told me the story and when she had finished telling me all about the wonderful Ms Soto, I said this to her; “You are never to do anything like that.” 

Don’t save the children. Inspirational, Jane. As to what her daughter should do in such circumstances, Cato doesn’t say. Make a run for it, presumably. 

I doubt there is a teacher in America who wants to carry a gun at school. 

Wrong, Jane. Our correspondent clearly graduated from the Jonathan Green Academy of American Ignorance, one of few educational facilities in this country without the internet. 

I am tremendously proud that my daughter is a teacher. She is brilliant at it and loves her work. If we lived in the US, I would do everything I could to stop her being one. 

So might school administrators, if her daughter is inclined to follow Cato’s child-safety advice.

===

SURPLUS RE-PROMISED

Tim Blair – Sunday, December 23, 2012 (6:09pm)

Having promised more than 200 times to deliver a surplus in 2012/13, Labor – through trade minister Craig Emerson – now starts the count on a surplus for 2013/14: 

So long as the economy continues to improve we will get a surplus next year. 

And we probably will, since Labor by then will likely be out of office. Anyway, all of you haters, Emerson and his colleagues could easily have delivered a surplus on time – it’s just that they didn’t want to: 

In fact can I point out that we would be able to get a surplus this year quite readily by having tax as a share of GDP anywhere near the level of the previous Coalition government, the highest taxing government in Australia’s history.

So if we wanted to get a surplus as a political objective, a surplus at any cost, we would simply apply taxes at the rate that the previous government did and you know what the surplus would be; more than $20 billion. 

So there. It’s Howard’s fault.

===

POLICY DEBATED

Tim Blair – Sunday, December 23, 2012 (4:27pm)

Foreign minister Bob Carr‘s Syrian wish: 

Perhaps an assassination combined with a major defection taking a large part of its military is what is required to get one, a ceasefire, and two, political negotiations. 

The response from Australians for Syria: 

I just am shocked. I am shocked. He is presenting a lynch mob mentality, and presented that on behalf of the Australian government and the Australia people. He’s not referring to international law. He’s not showing any understanding of the conflict in Syria or the suffering of the people. He’s talking about Syria as if Syria doesn’t have 23 million people who are suffering because of the war there. 

And the response from the Australian Syrian Association: 

Assassination is the best choice. 

===

TUBBY BEARDO’S SEASONAL SHUNNING

Tim Blair – Sunday, December 23, 2012 (5:42am)

Sydney’s Lakemba mosque puts a fatwa on Christmas: 

The religious ruling, which followed a similar lecture during Friday prayers at Australia’s biggest mosque, was posted on its Facebook site on Saturday morning.

The head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, had told the congregation during prayers that they should not take part in anything to do with Christmas …

The fatwa, which has sparked widespread community debate and condemnation, warns that the “disbelievers are trying to draw Muslims away from the straight path”. 

Well, if he’s going to be all anti-Christmas, Sheikh Yahya should surrender his stupid Santa hat.

===

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.

===

Another bright day in multicultural Sydney

Andrew BoltDECEMBER232012(3:18pm)

A news roundup from today’s Sydney Morning Herald, giving another bracing insight into the success of our immigration program.

Item one:

When two men in traditional Middle Eastern dress sat down with the owner of a Bankstown restaurant recently, they were after only one thing.

At first they shared a hookah pipe and chatted amiably about religion, but the conversation quickly turned to extortion: they wanted $50,000 in exchange for ‘’protection’’.

The terrified restaurant owner told Fairfax Media they asked him a menacing question he was sure was rhetoric: ‘’Have you heard of Brothers 4 Life?’’

It’s a question many south-west Sydney communities are grappling with as the gang founded by the murderer Bassam Hamzy attempts to flex its muscles in Sydney again.

With shootings and gun crime reaching fever pitch, the group’s insignia of two crossed AK47 machine guns has appeared at crime scenes with increasing regularity.

On Wednesday, a handful of young men, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the ‘’B4L’’ logo, arrived at Owen Street in Punchbowl following the brutal execution of Bachir Arja, a petty criminal with drug links who was shot up to eight times on the front lawn of his mother’s house.

In October, Yehya Amoud was shot dead as he and a friend, Bassam Hijazi, sat on Greenacre Road in an expensive Mercedes that bore the number plate ‘’B F L’’. And in August, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the leg in a driveway scrawled with ‘’Brothers 4 Life’’ graffiti. T-shirts with the insignia could also be seen being worn by people who were among the crowd during the violent Muslim protest in Hyde Park in September.

Underworld sources said the group was on a recruitment drive looking for young Middle Eastern men who could act as foot soldiers and carry out drug runs and criminal acts in exchange for protection and power.

Wasn’t the second generation meant to assimilate into the community the way their parents understandably could not?

Oops. Seems we were given a false assurance.

On to item two:

Australia’s biggest mosque has removed an online post that called for a ‘fatwa’ against Christmas following harsh condemnation from the Muslim community.

The Lakemba Mosque had posted the religious ruling or ‘fatwa’ on its Facebook page on Saturday morning, warning followers it was a “sin” to even wish people a Merry Christmas.

It followed a similar lecture during Friday prayers at the western Sydney mosque.

The head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, had told the congregation during prayers that they should not take part in anything to do with Christmas.

Samier Dandan, the president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, confirmed to Fairfax on Sunday morning that the post had been removed from the mosque’s Facebook page.

He said a youth worker had copied the text of the fatwa from another Islamic website and it did not reflect Sheikh Safi’s lecture or the views of the LMA.

Of course, we can choose to take comfort from the backtracking and weaselly excuse making - as well as the condemnation by other Muslims. Or we might wonder what else is preached in Australia’s biggest mosque that is not reported and therefore not recanted.

But on to the third item:

A father who took his son out for a bike ride has been stabbed by a gang of teenagers who wanted a turn on the bicycle, police say.

The 58-year-old man was with his son in a park in the southwest Sydney suburb of Canley Vale on Saturday evening when three teenagers, aged about 15, asked to borrow the boy’s bike.

Oh, and the detail provided by the police media release but unaccountably missing from theSMH website:

Investigators have been given only limited descriptions of the males involved, with all three having a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean appearance and aged around 15 years.

The census tells us there are more Buddhists than Muslims in this country. Yet I cannot find a single reference in today’s paper to Buddhist Australians behaving badly.

UPDATE

Radio Netherlands publishes this reader’s comment about political leader Geert Wilders, whose real message lies not in what he says but in what is done to him:

Look no one agrees with Wilders he is not dutch.

His father is a german soldier run away met with his Malaysian muslim mother see he is sick in the head i wish the moroccans will kill him and solve this problem ones for all .

Matter effect the moroccan intelligent services may just do it 

===

Our enemies get their water and electricity from Israel, yet they now want to boycott us completely...enjoy being thirsty in the dark losers!

Thanks to Jewish Press Cartoons- Asher Schwartz

===

===

===
I hope they are stripped of ill gotten assets too. - ed

Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald to repay $1m if found corrupt by ICAC

BARCLAY CRAWFORD

PREMIER Barry O'Farrell will order former Labor power broker Eddie Obeid and former resources minister Ian Macdonald to repay more than a million dollars in taxpayer funded legal fees if they are found to have acted corruptly.

The two former state MPs are before the Independent Commission Against Corruption over allegations Mr Obeid and his family earned up to $100 million by using inside information obtained from Mr Macdonald regarding the release of coal exploration licences in the Bylong Valley, near the Hunter Valley.

Mr Obeid and his sons allegedly conspired to have mining exploration company Cascade Coal win the tender to coal leases at Mount Penny, about 125km west of New- castle, in exchange for $60 million, half of which has already been paid.

Counsel assisting the ICAC Commissioner Geoffrey Watson SC said, if proved, the conduct of Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald would be "corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps".

Despite the fact Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald are personally wealthy, both have submitted costly legal bills for their defence, which they are entitled to do under state laws.

Ian Macdonald will face ICAC. Picture: John Grainger

This has angered the NSW government and Labor Opposition due to the enormity of the allegations against the pair.

Top silk Tim Hale SC, is representing Mr Macdonald, who is also employing barrister David Mackay and law firm Bilbie Dan.

Mr Obeid has hired prominent silk Stuart Littlemore, QC, and Tim Breene of Breene and Breene solicitors.

But Mr O'Farrell said any witness appearing before the ICAC who was convicted of an offence following a finding of corruption would be required to repay all funds received from taxpayers, including costs, adding this decision had the full approval of Cabinet.

Mr O'Farrell did not comment on the case before the ICAC but said he "felt sorry" former premiers Morris Iemma and Nathan Rees were forced to give evidence while Kristina Keneally escaped scrutiny.

"I'm sorry Nathan and Morris had to get dragged into it," Mr O'Farrell said. "Nathan Rees sacked Ian Macdonald and no one has ever suggested Morris was in any way involved with any of the behaviour we are hearing before ICAC."

===
Funny. I break hearts every time I leave a classroom. I break promises every time I think things through. As for trust, that isn't up to me. - ed

===

===

===
In 1954, when Ben Gurion was Prime Minister, he traveled to the USA to meet with President Eisenhower to request his assistance and support in the early and difficult days of the State of Israel.

John Foster Dulles who was the then secretary of state confronted Ben Gurion and challenged him as follows: "Tell me, Mr. Prime Minister - who do you and your state
represent? Does it represent the Jews of Poland, perhaps Yemen, Romania, Morocco, Iraq, Russia or perhaps Brazil ? After 2000 years of exile can you honestly speak about a single nation, a single culture? Can you speak about a single heritage or perhaps a single Jewish tradition?"

Ben Gurion answered him as follows: "Look, Mr. Secretary of State - approximately 300 years ago the Mayflower set sail from England and on it were the first settlers who
settled in what would become the largest democratic superpower known as the United States of America. Now, do me a favor - go out into the streets and find 10 American children and ask them the following:

What was the name of the Captain of the Mayflower?
How long did the voyage take?
What did the people who were on the ship eat?
What were the conditions of sailing during the voyage?

I'm sure you would agree with me that there is a good chance that you won't get a good answer to these questions. Now in contrast - not 300 but more than 3000 years ago, the Jews left the land of Egypt . I would kindly request from you Mr. Secretary
that on one of your trips around the world, try and meet 10 Jewish children in different countries. And ask them:

What was the name of the leader who took the Jews out of Egypt ?
How long did it take them before they got to the land of Israel ?
What did they eat during the period when they were
wandering in the desert?
And what happened to the sea when they encountered it?

Once you get the answers to these questions, please carefully consider the question that you have just asked me!"

===

...WHAT A REAL AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER'S FAMILY SHOULD LOOK LIKE !
===

===

Demonising adoption dishonours its heroes

Miranda Devine – Saturday, December 22, 2012 (11:00pm)

THERE are a few things this government could apologise for. Adoption is not one of them.

Nevertheless, in an exercise as cynical as it is pointless, one of Julia Gillard’s first acts of 2013 will be a formal apology for past adoption practices.

Thus another class of victims is created in Australia.

There is no doubt many of the young unmarried mothers of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, who gave up their babies for adoption, did suffer, and some now feel their children were stolen.

But was adoption really the “horror of our history” that a Senate Committee chaired by Greens MP Rachel Siewert concluded this year?

We are judging the past by the standards of the present, with moral arrogance and conceit.

Who are we to judge that we are superior to our forebears? On evidence such as child abuse and neglect we certainly are not.

The fact is that there was a strong social stigma against unmarried mothers and illegitimate children which didn’t dissipate until the mid-1970s. Like all social stigmas it originated for a reason.

It was to ensure children were brought up in the optimal environment of a nuclear family to become happy, well-adjusted and productive members of the community.

Unmarried mothers were frowned upon because they disrupted the social order. They were mostly children themselves, some as young as 12 and 13. They had brought great shame on themselves and their families, and were often whisked away secretly to maternity homes to see out their pregnancy, and then resume life where they left off.

It is fascinating to watch three ABC documentaries made in 1965, 1970 and 2012, and see how society’s views changed.

The earlier programs show that, technically, girls were free to keep their babies, with a 30-day cooling off period built into adoption papers so they could change their minds. But in practice, they rarely did, because of societal pressures and their own consciences.

“Walking up the street … if anyone notices us they usually stare at us with scorn,” says a young pregnant girl from a maternity home in the 1965 documentary “The Unmarried Mother”.

“No one will ever know I have had the baby,” said another pregnant girl. “Because my family is wonderful to me, I wouldn’t like to hurt them any more.”

There were heartrending stories: “I decided I couldn’t stand not seeing the baby again,” said one young mother. “Matron and sister were very kind and understanding… and brought the baby out and I just sort of stood there for about half an hour and looked. I kept thinking, “Will I or won’t I?”.

“It was such a temptation to say, ‘yes, I’ll keep her’. I looked at her again and she was all small and sort of curly and I thought, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that to her .’ I couldn’t let her know she had a mother who wasn’t married because it might affect her terribly later on…”

What a courageous young girl, putting her baby’s interests ahead of her own happiness.

Our attitude to adoption today forgets that in so many cases the giving up was done out of love. It was a sacrifice. A gift of love by the mother, for her baby and for the strangers who would adopt it.

This is how one mother, who adopted a baby in 1970, describes it, in a beautiful letter to the ABC this February after the Four Corners program, “ Given or taken”.

“I would like to thank his biological mother for her great gift to us,” wrote Michele King.

“… We had been told that we would never have a child… Imagine the pure joy … when we were given this beautiful boy to cherish. He was truly loved and still is. So you see, in a way, we do know his biological mother. She must be very like him. He is now a fine man with his own family… I for one have never forgotten the anguish paid for one mother’s truly beautiful gift to us.”

Those young women who gave up their babies were the heroes of their time. 

It is wrong of us now to devalue their gift. To say that it was not a gift but a theft. That poisons the adopted child’s life narrative too. Instead of being loved and cherished by an adoptive family, they are turned into victims, torn from some idyllic alternative upbringing.

What is the point of thinking like this?

In the 1970 documentary, a childless couple arrives at hospital to pick up their adopted baby and the narrator concludes: “If, in six months time, the couple have fulfilled their requirements as responsible parents, this little illegitimate bundle will become legitimised. By adoption this child will escape the handicap of his birth.”

That was the reality of those times.

Today we have banished all stigma, so it is perfectly tolerable for young women to have babies to a variety of feckless men on the taxpayer tab, leaving the children vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and neglect. This is an epidemic.

Damaged children are growing up and inflicting the same Hobbesian chaos on their own children. That truly is a horror of our history. Will we be apologising for it in 40 years? We should.