===
- 1892 – The first performance of the fairy tale-ballet The Nutcracker was held at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
- 1912 – Amateur archaeologist Charles Dawsonannounced the discovery of fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human, known asPiltdown Man, which later turned out to be a hoax.
- 1939 – Second World War: The German Luftwaffe victory over theRoyal Air Force in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight greatly influenced both sides' future air strategy.
- 1966 – Epimetheus (pictured), one of the moons of Saturn, was discovered, but was mistaken as Janus. It took 12 years to determine that they are two distinct objects sharing the same orbit.
- 1996 – The school board of Oakland, California, passed a controversial resolution officially declaring African American Vernacular English as a separate language or dialect.
===
Events
- 218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.
- 1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.
- 1642 – Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
- 1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.
- 1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
- 1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
- 1793 – Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
- 1878 – John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
- 1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar
- 1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.
- 1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
- 1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in aJeantaud electric car.
- 1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
- 1912 – The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is announced by Charles Dawson.
- 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000casualties.
- 1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.
- 1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.
- 1935 – The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
- 1939 – World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.
- 1944 – World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
- 1956 – Japan joins the United Nations.
- 1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
- 1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
- 1969 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.
- 1971 – Capitol Reef National Park is established in Utah.
- 1972 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmasbombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.
- 1973 – Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
- 1973 – The Islamic Development Bank is founded.
- 1978 – Dominica joins the United Nations.
- 1987 – Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
- 1989 – The European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
- 1997 – HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
- 1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
- 2002 – 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
- 2005 – The civil war in Chad begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.
- 2006 – The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.
- 2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.
- 2010 – Anti-government protests begin in Tunisia, heralding the Arab Spring
[edit]Births
- 1507 – Ōuchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (d. 1551)
- 1602 – Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (d. 1650)
- 1610 – Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist (d. 1688)
- 1620 – Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (d. 1668)
- 1661 – Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)
- 1662 – James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (d. 1711)
- 1707 – Charles Wesley, English Methodist hymnist (d. 1788)
- 1725 – Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (d. 1791)
- 1734 – Jean-Baptiste Rey, French conductor and composer (d. 1810)
- 1756 – Ghasidas, Indian Saint(d.1850)
- 1778 – Joseph Grimaldi, English clown (d. 1837)
- 1825 – Charles Griffin, American general (d. 1876)
- 1825 – John S. Harris, American politician (d. 1906)
- 1835 – Lyman Abbott, American author (d. 1922)
- 1847 – Augusta Holmès, French composer (d. 1903)
- 1849 – Henrietta Edwards, Canadian women’s rights activist (d. 1931)
- 1851 – Graciano López Jaena, Filipino orator and satirist (d. 1896)
- 1856 – Sir J. J. Thomson, English physicist and Nobel laureate (d. 1940)
- 1860 – Edward MacDowell, American composer and pianist (d. 1908)
- 1861 – Lionel Monckton, English composer for the musical theatre (d. 1924)
- 1863 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. 1914)
- 1867 – Foxhall P. Keene, American race horse owner and polo player (d. 1941)
- 1870 – Saki, English writer (d. 1916)
- 1873 – Francis Burton Harrison, American political figure (d. 1957)
- 1878 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
- 1879 – Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter (d. 1940)
- 1882 – Paulin Lemaire, French gymnast (death date unknown)
- 1882 – Richard Maury, American naturalized Argentine engineer (d. 1950)
- 1886 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player (d. 1961)
- 1886 – Martin Dooling, American soccer player (d. 1966)
- 1887 – Bhikhari Thakur, Indian Bhojpuri writer(d.1971)
- 1888 – Dame Gladys Cooper, English actress (d. 1971)
- 1888 – Robert Moses, American public works official (d. 1981)
- 1890 – Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (d. 1954)
- 1897 – Fletcher Henderson, American arranger and composer (d. 1952)
- 1899 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
- 1904 – George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
- 1907 – Bill Holland, American auto racer (d. 1984)
- 1907 – Lawrence Lucie, American jazz guitarist (d. 2009)
- 1908 – Paul Siple, American Antarctic explorer (d. 1969)
- 1908 – Celia Johnson, English actress (d. 1982)
- 1910 – Abe Burrows, American playwright (d. 1985)
- 1910 – Eric Tindill, New Zealand rugby and cricket international player and referee/umpire (d. 2010)
- 1911 – Jules Dassin, American film director (d. 2008)
- 1912 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American General (d. 2002)
- 1913 – Alfred Bester, American author (d. 1987)
- 1913 – Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)
- 1913 – Ray Meyer, American basketball coach (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Douglas Fraser, Scottish-born American trade unionist (d. 2008)
- 1916 – Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)
- 1917 – Ossie Davis, American actor and activist (d. 2005)
- 1920 – Robert Leckie, American marine and author (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Jack Brooks, American politician (d. 2012)
- 1927 – Ramsey Clark, 66th U.S. Attorney General
- 1927 – Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada (d. 2009)
- 1928 – Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (d. 2003)
- 1929 – Gino Cimoli, American baseball player
- 1929 – Józef Glemp, Cardinal-Archbishop Emeritus of Warsaw
- 1930 – Moose Skowron, American baseball player (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Allen Klein, American rock and roll business manager (d. 2009)
- 1931 – Alison Plowden, English historian (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Roger Smith, American actor
- 1933 – Lonnie Brooks, American musician
- 1934 – Boris Volynov, Soviet cosmonaut
- 1935 – Jacques Pépin, French chef
- 1936 – Malcolm Kirk, English professional wrestler (d. 1987)
- 1938 – Chas Chandler, English musician (The Animals) (d. 1996)
- 1938 – Joel Hirschhorn, American songwriter and composer (d. 2005)
- 1938 – Roger E. Mosley, American actor
- 1939 – Michael Moorcock, English author
- 1939 – Harold E. Varmus, American scientist and Nobel laureate
- 1941 – Wadada Leo Smith, American trumpeter and composer
- 1942 – Harvey Atkin, Canadian actor
- 1943 – Keith Richards, English guitarist (The Rolling Stones)
- 1943 – Alan Rudolph, American film director and screenwriter
- 1945 – Jean Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1946 – Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1977)
- 1946 – Alex Ligertwood, Scottish rock singer
- 1946 – Steven Spielberg, American film director
- 1947 – Leonid Yuzefovich, Russian crime fiction writer
- 1948 – Edmund Kemper, American serial killer
- 1948 – Bill Nelson, English musician (Be-Bop Deluxe)
- 1948 – Laurent Voulzy, French singer and composer
- 1949 – David A. Johnston, American volcanologist (d. 1980)
- 1949 – Terry Hertzler, American poet
- 1950 – Gillian Armstrong, Australian film director
- 1950 – Randy Castillo, American drummer (Ozzy Osbourne) (d. 2002)
- 1950 – Sarath Fonseka, former commander of the Sri Lanka Army and a former Chief of Defence of Sri Lanka.
- 1950 – Heinz-Josef Kehr, German footballer
- 1950 – Leonard Maltin, American film critic
- 1952 – John Leventhal, musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer, married to Rosanne Cash
- 1953 – Elliot Easton, American guitarist (The Cars)
- 1953 – Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen singer-songwriter
- 1954 – John Booth, British racing driver
- 1954 – Ray Liotta, American actor
- 1955 – Vijay Mallya, Indian Business man
- 1956 – Ron White, American comedian
- 1957 – Jonathan Cainer, English astrologer
- 1958 – Geordie Walker, English rock musician and lead guitarist for post-punk band Killing Joke
- 1958 – Julia Wolfe, American composer
- 1960 – Kazuhide Uekusa, Japanese economist
- 1961 – Brian Orser, Canadian figure skater
- 1961 – Leila Steinberg, American poet, artist manager
- 1962 – Renaldo Lapuz, Filipino-born American singer
- 1963 – Norman Brown, American musician
- 1963 – Karl Dorrell, American football coach
- 1963 – Greg D'Angelo, American musician (White Lion)
- 1963 – Pauline Ester, French singer
- 1963 – Allan Kayser, American actor
- 1963 – Charles Oakley, American basketball player
- 1963 – Brad Pitt, American actor
- 1963 – Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundian politician
- 1964 – Stone Cold Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
- 1964 – Don Beebe, American football player
- 1964 – Robson Green, English actor and singer
- 1965 – Shawn Christian, American actor
- 1965 – Mick Collins, American musician (The Gories, The Dirtbombs)
- 1965 – Manuel Peña Escontrela, Spanish footballer (d. 2012)
- 1965 – Fawna MacLaren, American model and actress
- 1966 – Makiko Esumi, Japanese actress
- 1966 – Mille Petrozza, German singer (Kreator)
- 1966 – Gianluca Pagliuca, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Toine van Peperstraten, Dutch sports journalist
- 1968 – Mario Basler, German footballer
- 1968 – Mark Cooper, English footballer
- 1968 – Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress
- 1968 – Alejandro Sanz, Spanish singer
- 1968 – Casper Van Dien, American actor
- 1968 – Nina Wadia, British actress and comedian
- 1969 – Santiago Cañizares, Spanish footballer
- 1969 – Justin Edinburgh, English footballer
- 1969 – Akira Iida, Japanese racing driver
- 1970 – Anthony Catanzaro, American fitness model
- 1970 – DMX, American rapper and actor
- 1970 – Lucious Harris, American basketball player
- 1970 – Miles Marshall Lewis, American author
- 1970 – Giannis Ploutarhos, Greek singer
- 1970 – Victoria Pratt, Canadian actress and fitness model
- 1970 – Fernando Solabarrieta, Chilean journalist
- 1970 – Cowboy Troy, American rapper
- 1970 – Rob Van Dam, American professional wrestler
- 1970 – Jonathan Yeo, English artist
- 1971 – Barkha Dutt, Indian journalist
- 1971 – Noriko Matsueda, Japanese composer
- 1971 – Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spanish tennis player
- 1972 – Trevor Chowning, American painter
- 1972 – Rah Digga, American rapper
- 1972 – Raymond Herrera, American drummer (Fear Factory) and businessman
- 1972 – DJ Lethal, Latvian-born American DJ (House of Pain, Limp Bizkit)
- 1973 – Leila Arcieri, American actress and model
- 1974 – Peter Boulware, American football player
- 1974 – Bill Duggan, American television actor and host
- 1974 – Euroboy, Norwegian musician (Turbonegro)
- 1974 – Mutassim Gaddafi, Libyan army officer (d. 2011)
- 1975 – Sia Furler. Australian singer
- 1975 – David O'Doherty, Irish comedian
- 1975 – Trish Stratus, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1975 – Masaki Sumitani, Japanese comedian
- 1975 – Vincent van der Voort, Dutch darts player
- 1976 – Koyuki, Japanese actress and model
- 1977 – Axwell, Swedish DJ
- 1977 – José Acevedo, Dominican baseball player
- 1977 – Claudia Gesell, German athlete
- 1977 – Ryan Scott Ottney, American journalist and comic book writer
- 1978 – Daniel Cleary, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Ali Curtis, American soccer player
- 1978 – Katie Holmes, American actress
- 1979 – Mamady Sidibé, Malian footballer
- 1979 – Eric Pérez, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
- 1979 – Carlos, Portuguese footballer
- 1980 – Christina Aguilera, American singer
- 1980 – Heinz Inniger, Swiss snowboarder
- 1980 – Benjamin Watson, American football player
- 1981 – Joshua Dallas, American actor
- 1981 – Jens Schmidt, German rugby player
- 1983 – Darren Carter, English footballer
- 1983 – Andy Fantuz, Canadian football player
- 1984 – Derrick Tribbett, American singer and bass player (Twisted Method and Dope)
- 1985 – Tara Conner, American beauty contestant (Miss USA)
- 1985 – Natalie Gal, Russian fashion model
- 1985 – Hana Soukupová, Czech supermodel
- 1986 – François Hamelin, Canadian short track speed skater
- 1986 – Usman Khawaja, Australian cricketer
- 1987 – Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater
- 1987 – Ayaka, Japanese singer
- 1987 – Fernando Jara, Panamanian jockey
- 1987 – Sneha Ullal, Indian actress
- 1988 – Lizzie Armitstead, English cyclist
- 1989 – Ashley Benson, American actress
- 1989 – Ashley Slanina-Davies, English actress
- 1989 – Emily Atack, English actress
- 1990 – Sierra Kusterbeck, American singer-songwriter and model (VersaEmerge)
- 1990 – James Lawrie, Irish footballer
- 1992 – Bridgit Mendler, American actress and singer
[edit]Deaths
- 821 – Theodulf of Orléans, Bishop of Orléans
- 1133 – Hildebert, French writer (b. 1055)
- 1290 – King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
- 1442 – Pierre Cauchon, French Catholic bishop (b. 1371)
- 1495 – King Alfonso II of Naples (b. 1448)
- 1591 – Marigje Arriens, Dutch suspected witch (b. ca. 1520)
- 1692 – Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (b. 1626)
- 1737 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker (b. 1644)
- 1787 – Francis William Drake, British Admiral and territorial governor (b. 1724)
- 1787 – Soame Jenyns, English writer (b. 1704)
- 1799 – Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician (b. 1725)
- 1803 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (b. 1744)
- 1829 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French scientist (b. 1744)
- 1843 – Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, British statesman (b. 1748)
- 1848 – Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian mathematician and priest (b. 1781)
- 1869 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
- 1880 – Michel Chasles, French mathematician (b. 1793)
- 1892 – Richard Owen, English biologist (b. 1804)
- 1922 – Sir Carl Meyer, 1st Baronet, British banker and mining magnate (b. 1851)
- 1927 – Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian Revolutionary (b. 1897)
- 1936 – Andrija Mohorovičić, Austro-Hungarian-born Croatian seismologist (b. 1857)
- 1944 – Alexander Cudmore, American soccer player (b. 1888)
- 1950 – Johnny Hyde, Russian-born American talent agent (b. 1895)
- 1968 – Joan Tabor, American film and television actress (b. 1932)
- 1969 – Charles Dvorak, American track and field athlete (b. 1878)
- 1971 – Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
- 1971 – Diana Lynn, American actress (b. 1926)
- 1973 – Allamah Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani orator and philosopher (b. 1908)
- 1974 – Harry Hooper, American baseball player (b. 1887)
- 1975 – Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian geneticist (b. 1900)
- 1977 – Michio Nishizawa, Japanese baseball player (b. 1921)
- 1980 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet politician and Premier (b. 1904)
- 1980 – Gabrielle Robinne, French actress (b. 1886)
- 1982 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German pilot (b. 1916)
- 1984 – Aris Maliagros, Greek actor (b. 1895)
- 1985 – Xuan Dieu, Vietnamese poet (b. 1916)
- 1987 – Konrad "Conny" Plank, German record producer and musician (b. 1940)
- 1990 – Anne Revere, American actress (b. 1903)
- 1990 – Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (b. 1914)
- 1991 – George Abecassis, English Formula 1 driver (b. 1913)
- 1992 – Mark Goodson, American game show producer (b. 1915)
- 1993 – Sam Wanamaker, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1994 – Roger Apéry, Greek-French mathematician (b. 1916)
- 1995 – Brian Brockless, English organist (b. 1926)
- 1995 – Konrad Zuse, German engineer and computing pioneer (b. 1910)
- 1996 – Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist (b. 1904)
- 1997 – Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (b. 1964)
- 1998 – Lev Dyomin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1926)
- 1999 – Robert Bresson, French film director (b. 1907)
- 2000 – Stan Fox, American race car driver (b. 1952)
- 2000 – Randolph Apperson Hearst, son of William Randolph Hearst; father of Patty Hearst (b. 1915)
- 2000 – Kirsty MacColl, English singer and songwriter (b. 1959)
- 2001 – Gilbert Bécaud, French singer (b. 1927)
- 2001 – Marcel Mule, French saxophonist (b. 1901)
- 2001 – Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek composer (b. 1914)
- 2002 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian politician (b. 1934)
- 2002 – Wayne Owens, American politician (b. 1937)
- 2004 – Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (b. 1926)
- 2005 – Alan Voorhees, American engineer and urban planner (b. 1922)
- 2006 – Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (b. 1911)
- 2006 – Ruth Bernhard, American photographer (b. 1905)
- 2006 – Mike Dickin, British radio broadcaster (b. 1943)
- 2006 – Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani author and political activist (b. 1923)
- 2007 – Gerald Le Dain, Canadian Supreme Court Justice (b. 1924)
- 2007 – Jack Linkletter, American television host; son of Art Linkletter (b. 1937)
- 2007 – William Strauss, American writer (b. 1947)
- 2007 – Alan Wagner, American opera critic (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Majel Barrett, American actress; widow of Gene Roddenberry (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Mark Felt, American Watergate figure (b. 1913)
- 2010 – Phil Cavarretta, American baseball player (b. 1916)
- 2010 – Tasso Kavadia, Greek actress (b. 1921)
- 2010 – Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and economist (b. 1940)
- 2010 – James Pickles, English jurist and columnist (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist and classical scholar (b. 1913)
- 2011 – Václav Havel, playwright, philosopher and dissident, last president of Czechoslovakia, and the first president of the Czech Republic (b. 1936)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Eponalia, feast of Epona, celebrated during Saturnalia. (Roman Empire)
- International Migrants Day (International)
- National Day (Qatar)
- Republic Day (Niger)
- UN Arabic Language Day (United Nations)
===
We’re off overseas again but this time the children really are excited. After many years I’ve relented and said yes to the United States. NBA games for the boys! Harry Potter World for my daughter! Movie studios! The Seinfeld tour! ‘Finally we’re going to a place where they speak English,’ notes number three, the youngest and most phlegmatic. No one had to spell it out for Dad. They’ve never been this up about Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Hungary and all those other places filled with art galleries and museums staffed by people who speak non-English.
Sigh. Somewhere between my childhood and theirs, someone built a bypass. All roads no longer lead to Europe, but to New York. I played soccer, hoping to be the next Pat Jennings, and religiously watched Brian Moore present English soccer onThe Big Match. Money from my paper round in Darwin was spent on second-hand Agatha Christies. But my 12-year-old, a Houston Rockets fanatic, can name the starting five for just about every NBA team, and checks the results every day on the internet — when he’s not watching The Simpsons or Modern Family. He has told all his friends about the games we’ll see in the US, but when I first took the children by boat around Amsterdam — look, guys, your grandparents lived close by these very streets when they were your age! — they were so bored they played Uno. I feel rejected.
The price of my surrender is that we first celebrate Christmas in Holland with my relatives. I can’t wait. It’s said the Eskimos have a dozen words for snow, being so familiar with the stuff. The Dutch, one of the most domesticated of peoples until recently, have their own almost untranslatable vocabulary to describe the various kinds of social cosiness they’ve long specialised in. Gezellig is the best of them, implying lots of cosy pleasantness indoors, with the easy familiarity Jan Steen famously captured in his paintings.
I expect that will make Christmas more Christmassy than last year, when we went to the source of it all. A Jewish taxi driver didn’t dare take us all the way into Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem, and it was raining to drown Noah. Soldiers ambled over Manger Square with that pregnant purposeless typical of overstuffed Middle Eastern security forces. The biggest icon was a three-storey high portrait of that kleptomaniac terrorist Yasser Arafat. Interesting it was. Christmas it wasn’t. ‘Happy Christmas,’ a wandering clout of local youths yelled at us.
To be frank, I am glad to leave Australia for a spell. There’s an unpleasantly strident tone to the political debate. A new viciousness. I know, I know — I’ve been right in there, too, hurling grenades and shouting of slush funds, spin and broken promises. I plead justification. I wouldn’t be so critical of Julia Gillard if there wasn’t so much to be critical about. I feel like the bloke who jumps in to wrestle the man-eating crocodile and comes out covered in mud. I blame the crocodile but I’m still dirty, and resent it.
Gillard is even busting up friendships. When I left the ABC’s Insiders two year ago to start The Bolt Report I parted with host Barrie Cassidy on excellent terms. Tears were shed. He said kind things about me and I wrote even kinder things about him to his boss. But now? I’ve been dismayed by Barrie’s open barracking for Gillard, and his airy dismissal of her disgraceful role in the AWU slush fund scandal. Is his friendship with Gillard’s boyfriend clouding his judgment? Barrie in turn has written of the public being ‘badly let down this year’ by pundits too critical of Gillard. Unlike me, he’s too nice to name names, but there aren’t so many anti-Gillard pundits around that he needs to. Damn you, Julia Gillard! I need a new Prime Minister who — as Barrie’s old boss Bob Hawke once promised — will ‘bring Australians together’. Starting with Barrie and me.
While we’re away, builder Brett, his team and his dog will finish the new garage with a mini-flat above for our 18-year-old. It’s our cunning ploy to keep him at home while giving him more independence. Yet I again seem at odds with mainstream culture. It’s a feeling I often had as the son of migrants who ping-ponged around the more remote parts of Australia, and it got worse in some ways when I married. For instance, I actually loved my mother-in-law and found mother-in-law jokes — long a staple of Australian culture — a bit off. Today, stratospheric house prices have made a joke of the one million grown children who won’t leave the family home. They are the new mothers-in-law, and comic Trevor Marmalade has even made commercials for Lawson’s bread giving tips for driving them out of the nest. He’s from Dutch parents, too. He should know better.
I first lived in Holland as a 17-year-old and was soon checked by the remnants of the culture that had created such a bourgeois society. I was clipping my aunt’s hedge when pious Neighbour Nap approached, frowning: ‘Working on Sundays. We don’t do that here.’ This month three Moroccan teenagers from an Amsterdam club ended a soccer game by kicking a linesman, one of the dads, to death. The mayor of Amsterdam meanwhile unveiled a plan to exile anti-social citizens in public housing to what have been dubbed ‘scum villages’, where they’ll live in shipping containers and caravans. Holland is not quite so gezellig any more, and even my impeccably leftist relatives wonder if Holland’s flirtation with liberalism went rather too far. Of course, the mayor’s spokesman presented scum villages as an unimpeachably liberal scheme to defend, say, gays from ferals: ‘We want to defend the liberal values of Amsterdam. We want everyone to be who he and she is — whether they are gay and lesbian.’ I may have chosen the wrong place for a holiday from spin.
===
2012 Dishonest Reporting Awards
DECEMBER 17, 2012 15:05BY PESACH BENSON
The 2012 Dishonest Reporter: Gideon Levy, Haaretz
Gideon Levy
In a break with tradition for HonestReporting readers, this year’s Dishonest Reporter winner is not a member of the international media but someone disturbingly close to home.
It’s no secret that some of the most critical stories concerning Israel in the international press are lifted straight from the pages of Israel’s very own Haaretz newspaper, and all the more so thanks to its English language website.
While Haaretz is entitled to fulfill its role as a critical domestic judge of Israel and its government’s policies, what happened when it published a story that was — quite simply — dishonest?
Gideon Levy’s front page article ”Most Israelis support an apartheid regime in Israel,” backed by a survey, made headlines around the world:
Israeli back discrimination against Arabs: poll (Sydney Morning Herald)
Levy regularly demonizes the Jewish state to foreign audiences and in his own newspaper columns. He regularly goes beyond legitimate criticism of Israel, crossing red lines and allying himself with those who refer to Israel as a racist “apartheid state”, promote boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and wish to see the very destruction of Israel.
On the basis that Levy promotes the canard of Israeli “apartheid”, he is the last journalist who could give an objective analysis of this polls results.
His article opened with the following premise:
Most of the Jewish public in Israel supports the establishment of an apartheid regime in Israel if it formally annexes the West Bank.
Levy’s entire premise was based, however, on a hypothetical situation where Israel annexes the West Bank – a policy that the majority of Israelis are opposed to according to the very same poll.
Other statistics were casually tossed into the mix by Levy in an attempt to fit the figures to his framing of Israel as an apartheid state. Minority opinions were highlighted and illustrative graphs that appeared in the Haaretz Hebrew edition were noticeably absent from the English article.
Levy stated that the survey was commissioned by the New Israel Fund’s Yisraela Goldblum Fund. It was perhaps an indicator of just how politicized and toxic this poll was that the New Israel Fund publicly disassociated itself (Hebrew) from it.
After an outcry over the article, Haaretz was forced to issue a clarification stating that the original headline did not accurately reflect the findings of the poll and amended the headline. While it did not represent a correction or apology, Haaretz did publish an opinion piece by Dr. Yehuda Ben Meir, who shredded Levy, concluding:
There’s a lot of room for improvement in Israeli society, but this article does an injustice to the State of Israel, the Jewish people and the truth. an injustice to the State of Israel, the Jewish people and the truth.
Toronto’s Globe & Mail (to its credit) was the only non-Israeli paper to report the clarification – an indication of just how much damage the original story had caused to Israel internationally.
But Levy wasn’t finished. While acknowledging an error, he appeared to be utterly unrepentant, writing a follow up piece in Haaretz claiming that the errors were negligible and going on to attack those who called him out. Levy continued milking his apartheid agenda in, of all places, the South African Mail & Guardian.
In most organizations and businesses, a major error that causes immense damage results in those responsible being held accountable — perhaps even heads rolling. But not at Haaretz.
For his slander against the State of Israel and his persistent promotion of the falsehood even after he had been found out, HonestReporting readers judged Gideon Levy a worthy winner of the 2012 Dishonest Reporter Award.
The 2012 Dishonest Reporting Awards:
- The 2012 Dishonest Reporter: Gideon Levy, Haaretz
- Most Feckless Fact-Checking Fail: Associated Press
- Shallowest View of Terror: Globe & Mail
- Biggest Train Wreck Over Principle: The Guardian, and UK Press Complaints Commission
- Poison Pen Award: Michael Leunig, The Age
- Most Unholy Row: Bob Simon, 60 Minutes
- Special Achievement in Bigotry on Live TV: Vincent Browne, TV3
- Photo Editors Asleep At the Wheel Award: SABC
- Biggest Twit (USA): Anthony De Rosa, Reuters
- Biggest Twit (UK): Jon Donnison, BBC
- Biggest Twit (UN): Khulood Badawi, OCHA
- Dumbest Conspiracy Theory: Geneive Abdo
- Worst Ambush Interview: Mishal Husain, BBC
- Most Specious Statistic to Bash Israel: Justin Martin, Columbia Journalism Review
- Most Anti-Semitic-Themed Cartoon: Steve Bell, The Guardian
When Arab rioters stormed US diplomatic missions in Benghazi and Egypt, it appeared — at first glance — to be spontaneous rage overInnocence of Muslims, an obscure, tawdry film ridiculing Islam in general and Mohammed in particular.
AP sought to find the people behind the video, and they found “Sam Bacile.” He identified himself as an Israeli Jew, said the film “was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors,” and called Islam a “cancer.”
But when The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg started fact-checking what was known about “Bacile,’ he found more questions than answers; Goldberg then ripped AP for not independently verifying the man’s claims.
It turned out that “Sam Bacile” and “Mark Basseley Youssef” were aliases for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian living in the US — with no ties to Israel. In November, Nakoula was sentenced to one year in prison for fraudulently opening 60 checking accounts with numerous aliases. Nakoula told the NY Times he had no regrets for the movie.
Hamas, under the leadership of Khaled Meshaal, dispatched no shortage of suicide bombers, fired thousands of rockets, violently took over the Gaza Strip, stymied Palestinian unity, kidnapped Gilad Shalit, and is in bed with both Iran and Sinai jihadis.
But when it was reported in February that Meshaal considered stepping down as the Hamas politburo chief, the Globe & Mail‘s Patrick Martin painted him as a pragmatic individual whose moderation was needed more than ever.
Martin also depicted lulls in violence to Meshaal’s loftiness, not Israeli security measures. But asIslamic Jihad chief Ramadan Shalah conceded in a moment of candor, the lack of terror was due to the lack of Palestinian ability, not desire. He told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV:
For example, in the West Bank, there is the separation fence which is an obstacle to the resistance. And if it were not there, the situation would be entirely different.
By the end of 2012, Palestinian rocket fire escalated, leading to Operation Pillar of Defense. Meshaal returned to Gaza and gave a fiery speech saying he would never concede anything to Israel, and that “Jihad and the armed resistance is the only true path to liberation.”
If that’s moderation, what would the Globe & Mail consider “radical?” As liberal American columnist Michael Tomasky pointed out after the speech:
But I ask you how any progressive person can fully support a movement like Meshal’s. Granted, the world doesn’t always offer us clean choices. We must prioritize, and the clear priority here is opposing occupation and working to end it.
But secular liberal people must also have the fortitude to demand that leaders of the occupied move away from destructive positions like Meshal’s, which just make for a downward spiral to nowhere.
It all started off with a touching EPA photo of Israelis observing a nation-wide minute of silence on Yom HaShoah.
That Jim Hollander’s image just happened to be in Jerusalem was irrelevant. The moment he captured was about the emotion of Israelis remembering the six million Jews who perished in the the Holocaust.
The Guardian published Hollander’s photo, noting in the caption that the scene took place in Jerusalem, “the Israeli capital.” The extra info wasn’t relevant to the image, but nonetheless accurate. But then The Guardian did something strange.
It issued a correction, insisting that the paper’s style guide considers Tel Aviv to be Israel’s capital. A look at The Guardian’s style guide found this:
Had The Guardian referred to Jerusalem as the “disputed” capital, that would’ve been one thing. But Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital any more than Manchester is Britain’s capital.
An HonestReporting complaint to the Press Complaints Commission was inexplicably turned down, so HonestReporting and the law offices of Trevor Asserson threatened legal action against the PCC. The matter even prompted Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai to take the unusual step ofdeclaring on video the self-evident fact that Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital.
When the PCC notified HR it was reconsidering its ruling, The Guardian brass realized it couldn’t prove that Tel Aviv is Israel’s capital; it unilaterally issued another correction and amended its style guide.
[W]e accept that it is wrong to state that Tel Aviv – the country’s financial and diplomatic centre – is the capital.
Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is sick enough, but using Pastor Martin Niemoller’s famous statement is even more warped. Is it any wonder that the Australian Jewish community is fed up with this Michael Leunig cartoon published in The Age of Melbourne?
But the cartoon also took a swipe at the Australian Jewish community as well, making it impossible for activists to protest without the perception of “bitterness and spiteful condemnations” Leunig described.
Activists rightly spoke up, and Leunig simply dug in his heels.
The leadup to Christmas means de rigueur news content ranging from reasonable to ridiculous: shrinking Christian demographics, Bethlehem’s tourist industry, reporters tracing the footsteps of Jesus, and Santas scuffling with soldiers. All these angles have been spun against Israel in shorter dispatches barely scratching the surface.
Unfortunately, even big-name journos with time and budget to do the story right have fallen short. Christiane Amanpour failed so miserably with “God’s Warriors,” she won he 2007 Dishonest Reporter Award.
So Israelis took note with understandable trepidation when Bob Simon of 60 Minutes began working on “Christians of the Holy Land.” Their concerns proved to be well-founded.
Simon’s report, among other things:
- Blamed Israeli settlements and checkpoints for Christian flight.
- Didn’t take into account Palestinian Muslim persecution of Christians — particularly land-theft, forced conversions, discrimination, and creeping Sharia.
- Whitewashed the controversial Kairos Palestine Document.
- Featured Simon’s theatrics with Ambassador Michael Oren.
The broadcast had the potential to drive a wedge between Israel and its Christian supporters, which would explain why Ambassador Oren wrote a Wall St. Journal op-ed addressing the Christian exodus. But the broadcast made for an unholy row between CBS News and Israel’s supporters.
Later in the year Simon and 60 Minutes made nice by returning to Israel, doing a softer piece:From Fear to Fortune: Tel Aviv’s New Attitude.
What an unholy row that was.
On his live Irish TV3 show, veteran broadcaster Vincent Browne crossed the line from legitimate criticism to demonization by calling Israel “the cancer in world affairs.” Strong language? Everyone knows there’s only one way to deal with cancer.
But rather than apologize, Browne added fuel to the fire:
Mr Browne admitted that his choice of language could have been better but insisted that the criticism was justified.
“What I resent is the suggestion that because you’re critical of Israel, you’re automatically anti-Semitic. I don’t think that’s acceptable,” he said.
Mr Browne refused to apologise for his remarks, saying that Israel was founded in 1948 by taking land from the Arabs.
At that point, nobody had called Browne an anti-Semite. His reaction to the fuss suggests he’s tone deaf to the difference between reasonable criticism and bigotry. Whether he realized it or not, Browne sounded too much like uncouth Iranian smacktalk. Cancer indeed.
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Dumb women support Gillard
Piers Akerman – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (1:08am)
Thank you Henry Ergas for helping me understand what sort of women still support Julia Gillard’s prime ministership.
It’s the dumb ones.
In an insightful essay in The Australian “The PM cannot count on women’s votes because she has done nothing for them,” Ergas yesterday outlined how Gillard has failed her female fans.
“Since Labor came to power”, he wrote, “the female unemployment rate has risen from 4.4 to 5.2 per cent. And surveys show women feel more at risk of losing their job now than at any point in the Howard years.”
What a betrayal of women by the woman who the rabid feministas claim as their heroine.
But, as the man in the advertisements used to say, there is more and Ergas has done his homework.
Female labour force participation rate has stagnated, he found. Between April 1996 and November 2007, it increased from 53.8 per cent to 58.5 per cent. But Labor’s election basically stopped that rise, and five years on it still sits at 58.7 per cent.
Things actually have worsened for women under Gillard.
The gap between annual female and male full-time earnings has increased by $3848 as the cost of living for families has taken off, with utilities bills rising at an unprecedented 12.5 per cent a year, childcare charges increasing at over 8 per cent a year and health and education fees rising to a rate of 5.5 per cent.
Further, he warned, the real risks for women go beyond those immediate concerns. For few changes have made a greater contribution to women’s wellbeing than the labour market deregulation Gillard and her union backers are determined to reverse.
“Until the 1990s, employment conditions for more than 80 per cent of workers were determined by awards,” he wrote. “At unions’ insistence, those awards routinely set limits on part-time jobs, including by prohibiting the recruitment of part-timers if any unemployed union members were seeking full-time jobs. With few flexible opportunities, women faced a stark choice: work full-time or not at all, entrenching low participation.
“Freeing up the labour market helped dramatically change that picture. In 1966, 8 per cent of working age women worked part-time; by 2007 it had increased to 25 per cent.
“And the increase was even greater for younger generations: of the women born in 1936, fewer than 10 per cent were in part-time work at age 34; in contrast, more than 40 per cent of women born in 1976 worked part-time at that age.
“As the share of women in full-time employment has increased only 3 percentage points since the 1960s, that growth of part-time work accounts for rising female labour force participation.
“Far from disliking part-time work, only 5 per cent of the overall workforce would prefer to move from part-time to full-time jobs: that is less than half the number who would like to move the other way. Moreover, measures of job satisfaction, subjective wellbeing and work-life balance are all significantly above average for women in part-time work, and especially for those with partners who work full-time.
“It is unsurprising part-time work scores so highly, for its increased availability opened new scope to earn an income while having a family. After all, study after study finds today’s young women don’t simply decide to have children: they choose to be a mother, because of the satisfactions that brings. A flexible labour market allows women both their own income and continuity of work experience.
“Mothers have chosen that option in droves. Of women aged 25 to 44 who work part-time, 60 per cent do so to care for children; and 70 per cent of working mothers with children under the age of five work part-time.”
Shrieking at Opposition leader Tony Abbott may excite extremist feminists but Gillard’s legacy has been disastrous for women, as Ergas has demonstrated.
The election will show whether the rusted-on feminists, mummy bloggers and luvvies are there for Labor and Gillard or whether they are there for progress and a sound future.
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How dare these crazies, busybodies and bureaucrats tell us to shut up
Andrew BoltDECEMBER182012(5:23pm)
AT first I thought it was a joke, but it turned out to be true. Two women decided to take me to the Human Rights Commission, complaining about a play I had written. Set in Sarajevo, it was based on a beauty pageant held during the siege in the Balkan conflict. I wrote it because I was tired of films and plays that depicted the misery of the events, always portraying the besieged as victims. I was more interested in the beauty contestants symbolising the resilience of the human spirit.
The two women had no connection to the siege or the ethnic groups involved. However, they had decided that I was pro-Serbian and the clincher was that one of the actresses in the Melbourne production had a Serb background. The women wanted royalties from previous productions confiscated and demanded the play be banned because it was a piece of Serbian propaganda.Their interpretation of the play couldn’t have been more wrong, so much so that I wondered just how bright they were. But if I thought the ludicrous nature of the complaint would be laughed off by the HRC, then I didn’t understand its bureaucratic mission. For a year I had to deal with hundreds of pages pouring out of the commission and had to engage a lawyer. The complaint eventually was thrown out but, not to be denied, these two dolts found a loophole in the law and appealed again. It was nearly another year before this appeal was dismissed.During this time I didn’t write a play. I found I was censoring myself. Just what could I write that wouldn’t offend anybody, even if they took offence from a total misinterpretation of the play? What subjects would cause other people to take me to the HRC? What disturbed me above all was that there was no attempt to understand my side of the story. If the two women intended to creatively paralyse me then they couldn’t have found a better bureaucratic vehicle.
Read it all. This new war against free speech not only endangers us but shames us. It is mad and bad.
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If the ABC won’t reform, we have only one option left
Andrew BoltDECEMBER182012(4:59pm)
When even Maurice Newman as chairman of the ABC couldn’t achieve some balance or diversity in its presentation of important political and social issues, does this suggest reform is impossible?
On November 24, Robyn Williams intoned to his audience on ABC’s The Science Show, “if I told you that pedophilia is good for children, or asbestos is an excellent inhalant for those with asthma, or, that smoking crack is a normal part and a healthy one of teenage life, you’d rightly find it outrageous. Similar statements are coming out of inexpert mouths again and again, distorting the science”. My article was given as an example of an anti-scientific position.
Really? Questioning climate science is like advocating pedophilia, abetting mesothelioma and pushing drugs to teenagers? Well yes, according to the ABC’s science man. Stephan Lewandowsky, a guest on the program, asserted that those with a free market background were, according to his research, more likely to be sceptical of science. As well as climate science, “they are also rejecting the link between smoking and lung cancer; they are rejecting the link between HIV and AIDS”, the professor said. Happily, it was extremely difficult to detect people on the “Left side of politics who are rejecting scientific evidence”....Ordinarily it should be unnecessary to object to such appalling commentary. It should have been automatically withdrawn. But no. An ABC response used sophistry to satisfy itself “that the presenter Robyn Williams did not equate climate change sceptics to pedophiles”. Tell that to his listeners…We have seen the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discredited. We know the science is less robust. And, for the past 16 years, mother nature has been kind to the sceptics… Yet the “weight of evidence” argument is often used as a licence to vilify holders of alternative views. As a taxpayer-funded organisation, the ABC shouldn’t even have a view on global warming. What it does have is a duty to all Australians to broadcast honestly the best available evidence on both sides of the argument so that we can make up our own minds. This is not happening.
I retain a deep affection for the ABC. But, like the BBC, there are signs that a small but powerful group has captured the corporation, at least on climate change. It is up to the board and management to rectify this.
And if they cannot…
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Socialists drive Asterix and Obelix from France
Andrew BoltDECEMBER182012(4:50pm)
Socialists may tax but the rich may move. And when the rich are as loved as Depardieu, Socialists are left with neither money nor honor:
Asterix and Obelix have deserted Gaul. Or at least the two actors who played them in three blockbuster movies have. With Gérard “Obelix” Depardieu’s much-trumpeted exile to Belgium last week, following Christian “Asterix” Clavier’s move to London in October, France has lost her best-known fictional heroes, undefeated by Julius Caesar’s legions, but vanquished by François Hollande’s punitive new 75 per cent top marginal income tax rate, recently hiked capital gains tax, and reinforced wealth tax.
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In Holland
Andrew BoltDECEMBER182012(1:56pm)
My Spectator diary. With regret that Julia Gillard should divide me from Barrie Cassidy.
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Have we surrendered in the war on drugs?
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (7:00pm)
IN his school photo, Nick Mitchell looks like a typical skateboard-mad Central Coast 15-year-old: a cheeky grin, twinkling blue eyes and tousled hair. He could be anyone’s son.
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GUN USER CONFESSES
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (1:43pm)
The ABC’s Phillip Adams on Twitter:
time to show guns as metal dicks attempting to dignify weak whackers. To lampoon phallic symbolism and depict gun users as sexually insecure
The ABC’s Phillip Adams on Radio National:
I actually shoot the odd feral cat at the farm.
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CARBON TAXLOTTO
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (1:40pm)
A wealth distribution bonus for lucky Victorian parents:
The Federal Government is giving state-based charities and environment groups $100 million from the carbon tax to run projects for low-income Australians.Among the people to get help in the first round of grants, worth about $40 million, is the group of new parents in Victoria.
This is supposed to benefit the environment somehow.
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DOWN AT THE GLOBE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (1:35pm)
Troubled online journalism venture The Global Mail has taken a meat axe to its own staff — telling six employees they are redundant just days before Christmas — as funder Graeme Wood looks to spend millions on an Australian version of The Guardian.
Why would he bother?
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GUN-EQUIPPED ZONES
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (4:26am)
The first thing people do when some maniac begins firing a gun is to call for help from other people who carry guns. Just a thought, but it might be more efficient if those closer to the scene carried guns in the first place. Which brings us to Fairfax’s Nick O’Malley:
Despite the carnage, the gun lobby has never seemed more powerful; each week it wins new victories. The day before the shootings in Newtown, politicians in Michigan ignored the protests of school boards and passed a law allowing people to carry concealed weapons in schools.
Does O’Malley think it a bad thing that US schools might possess the ability to stop murderers? Doing so is the ambition of both sides in the ongoing firearms debate, which at one level is simply an issue of timing: do you want your armed responder to turn up now or later?
Once again, none of this is to diminish the horror of the Sandy Hook slaughter, but while everyone is urging legislative change to deal with mass slayings, it’s worth considering some history:
Those who study mass shootings say they are not becoming more common.“There is no pattern, there is no increase,” says criminologist James Allen Fox of Boston’s Northeastern University, who has been studying the subject since the 1980s, spurred by a rash of mass shootings in post offices.The random mass shootings that get the most media attention are the rarest, Fox says …Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, said that while mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929, according to his data. He estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century.Chances of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, are probably no greater than being struck by lightning.
The goal is to make these atrocities less frequent still. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman points out that US schools are required by legislation to guard against fire – despite student deaths caused by fire being far less likely than mass shootings, for which relatively little preparation is evident.
Well, maybe declaring schools to be “gun-free zones” is a kind of preparation. It doesn’t seem to stop killers turning up with guns, however. Nor does it stop schools subsequently calling for armed assistance. The most practical method of reducing shooting deaths at US schools might be to bring that assistance forward.
Many in Australia have pointed to the gun control legislation introduced by John Howard as a template for Barack Obama to follow. Instead, Obama might find his guidance in the way Howard’s legislation went against the conservative Prime Minister’s political base. Rather than push for Democrat-friendly gun control laws that will do little to constrain killers seeking soft targets, Obama could go counter-intuitive and propose to fund armed security for all schools.
As the President himself asked: “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage?”
UPDATE. Australian views on the US gun issue are mostly framed by pieces like this, depicting the US as a blood-drenched nation of gun cranks laying waste to all before them. But check the numbers:
• There are around 12,000 gun homicides in the US every year, which works out to about 0.0038 per cent of the US population.
• If an identical percentage of our population were to be killed on Australian roads each year, we’d have a road toll of 860.
• Australia’s road toll last year was 1,292, the lowest since 1946.
• Therefore, even given our massive improvement in road safety, it is still more likely that an Australian will die in a car crash than an American is to be shot dead.
• For the record, America’s road toll in 2011 was 32,788.
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CROWDED DIARY
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (4:19am)
The Herald Sun‘s Alan Howe defends prize winning Canberra couch occupant Tim Mathieson:
You’ll be surprised to learn he might be busier than any other prime ministerial partner: until the end of last month he attended, and often hosted, at least an event each week …
No wonder Tim needs that shed. He’s probably got a hyperbaric chamber in there.
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ONE POLL COUNTS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (4:13am)
Peter Brent ponders Tony Abbott’s unpopularity:
Lenore Taylor writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that 63 is the second-biggest recorded disapproval rating for an opposition leader in that pollster’s history. (I believe they go back to the early 1980s.)The highest was Andrew Peacock’s in October 1984. I haven’t been able to find that poll, but we can be very sure it showed Prime Minister Bob Hawke with very high approval and the Labor government way ahead of the Coalition in voting intentions.[Update: it sure did. Sample 1,992 over two weekends. Primary votes ALP 56, LNP 36. Hawke approve 74; disapprove 21. Peacock approve 23; disapprove 72.]Less than two months after that survey, Australians went to an early election which went down in history mainly for one thing: voters giving the Hawke government an unexpected scare. An anticipated landslide re-election turned out to be reasonably close, with the opposition achieving a 1.4 per cent swing …
If the opposition achieves that swing next year, it won’t merely deliver a scare.
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WHERE CRAP LIVES
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (4:09am)
Mark Steyn might disagree, but Australia is clearly the capital for CRAP Health.
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GO INSIDE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 18, 2012 (4:05am)
The latest Lancet maths:
Human mortality caused by climate change has shown the most dangerous spurt over the last four decades. The Global Burden of Disease Study, 2010, published by the British medical journal, The Lancet, on Thursday shows that there has been a 523% increase in mortality due to “exposure to forces of nature”.
Brought to you by the same people who invented half a million dead Iraqis.
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GIRLS have dominated the top spots in HSC subjects across NSW, with young women also achieving a "clean sweep" of mathematics.
As thousands of students prepare to get their HSC results on Wednesday, more than 100 NSW high achievers celebrated taking out first place in their courses at a ceremony at the Australian Technology Park at Eveleigh in Sydney on Tuesday.
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said two-thirds of the award recipients were young women, with females also dominating the first course results for mathematics.
"This is the first time since the HSC was reviewed in 2001 that women have achieved a clean-sweep of the mathematics courses," he said in a statement.
"Hearing about the experiences of these HSC students, it is very clear that their HSC courses have demanded diligence and application."
The awards were given to those who came first in 111 courses, with three new heritage language courses in Chinese (Mandarin), Korean and Japanese included in the list for the first time.
Five students received a first in course award for more than one course, with one student topping four courses.
Seventeen students live in regions outside of Sydney including, Wollongong, Canberra, Woy Woy, Tuggerah, Picton, Bolwarra, Welby, Wallsend, Scone, Canowindra, Belbora, Nimmitabel, Wanaaring, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
It comes as more than 70,000 students get set to receive their HSC results from 6am (AEDT) on Wednesday.
What concerns me of the imbalance is that boys don't do worse, neither girls do better, but the difference in achievement is solely related to the assessment system bias. - ed
- Did anyone do a survey to see the ratio of girls vs boys? More girls could be doing better to being that there are just more girls.
- David Daniel Ball Yep, but not so in Extension 2 Mathematics and boy domination is still pronounced in Extension 1 but less than for the old 4 unit Math course. I understand that girls are better at doing assessment tasks and handing them in, while boys are better at swotting prior to one last exam. The assessment regime promotes gender bias either way.
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God bless you. I don't know when you will find your rest, but I know your life is inspirational.- ed
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