Labor lies nailed
Piers Akerman – Monday, January 07, 2013 (7:01am)
THE biggest job the Opposition faces this year is nailing Labor’s lies about leader Tony Abbott.
Principal among these are lies about Abbott’s Catholicism and his views on abortion and IVF.
Abbott’s own chief-of-staff Peta Credlin had a crack at killing these lies at the weekend when she revealed an extraordinarily moving personal story about the assistance her boss had given her when she and her husband were trying to conceive through IVF.
As anyone who has known a couple in an IVF program would understand, it is not an easy procedure, there are no promises, there are a lot of frustrations and there can be no guarantee of success.
Abbott himself had said it was a “myth” that he was against IVF and that in fact he had considered resigning from cabinet over a proposal to limit older women’s access to IVF.
“Perhaps not going ahead with the IVF restrictions was my colleagues’ way of atoning for a decision I deplored,” he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
He said he had never opposed IVF. “How could any pro-family politician not encourage people to have children and make it easier for them to do so?”
Abbott also said “contrary to myth, as health minister, I never sought to restrict access to the morning-after pill, never sought to prevent the importation of RU486 and never sought to limit access to abortion”.
That has not stopped Labor’s most senior law officer, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, from attempting to smear Abbott saying he was “ on record with his views of abortion, his views of RU-486, his views of older women accessing IVF”.
“They’re the sorts of comments that people will judge Mr Abbott on. If he’s changed his view, well then that’s obviously a matter for him to prosecute and see if he can convince the public that he has.”
Abbott’s views remain as sound as they ever were.
Abbott has the same views on abortion on former US President Bill Clinton - that abortion should be safe, legal and rare.
Now senior Opposition figure Christopher Pyne has come forward to talk of the support Abbott provided during a five-year period when Pyne and wife Carolyn were trying to conceive through IVF.
After a long struggle, twins Barnaby and Eleanor were born in August 2000.
“The myth that Tony Abbott is against IVF is just that,” Pyne told The Australian.
“We did the IVF for five years. We had many failed cycles. We had well over a dozen before the twins actually came along.”
“We did the IVF for five years. We had many failed cycles. We had well over a dozen before the twins actually came along.”
Pyne said the government was trying to paint a picture of the Opposition Leader that simply did not bear out the reality.
“I am speaking about it because the myth Labor is creating about Tony is false, unfair and repugnant to me, he said.
“He was always keen to talk about progress.
“We talked about IVF and my twins and the process of getting there many times and he was only ever extraordinarily supportive, often raising the subject and being encouraging, hoping it would all be a great success.
“I remember explicitly talking about the fact that the church at the time was not in favour of IVF. His view was the church’s position was simply misguided and that there was nothing more important or exciting than the birth of children and if IVF could help bear children, then it was a good thing, not bad.”
Pyne said Mr Abbott had strongly opposed cuts to Medicare funding for IVF treatment.
He was against that from the very beginning,” Pyne said.
These personal testimonies will not stop Labor’s propaganda juggernaut but honest Australians should not let the lies persist.
The evidence of Abbott’s good character is abundant. Gillard cannot say the same.
- 1558 – Francis, Duke of Guise (pictured), retook Calais, England's last continental possession, for France.
- 1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and AmericanJohn Jeffries became the first to cross the English Channel by air, in a balloon.
- 1948 – Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell fatally crashed his P-51 Mustang while in pursuit of a UFO near Fort Knox,Kentucky.
- 1993 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana was inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as its president.
- 2007 – Newly appointed Archbishop of Warsaw Stanisław Wielgusresigned amid allegations that he collaborated with the Polish communist government's secret police.
===
Events
- 1325 – Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
- 1558 – France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
- 1598 – Boris Godunov becomes Czar of Russia.
- 1608 – Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.
- 1610 – Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able distinguish the last two until the following day.
- 1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.
- 1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
- 1797 – The modern Italian flag is first used.
- 1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.
- 1894 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
- 1904 – The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".
- 1919 – Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel against the planned annexation of Montenegro by Serbia, but fail.
- 1920 – The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
- 1922 – Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64-57 vote.
- 1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York, New York to London, England, United Kingdom.
- 1931 – Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
- 1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.
- 1940 – Winter War: The Finnish 9th Division stops and completely destroys the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.
- 1942 – World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
- 1945 – World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
- 1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.
- 1954 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
- 1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
- 1960 – The Polaris missile is test launched.
- 1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.
- 1973 – Mark Essex fatally shoots 10 people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, before being shot to death by police officers.
- 1979 – Third Indochina War – Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
- 1980 – President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
- 1984 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
- 1985 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.
- 1989 – Prince Akihito is sworn in as the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Hirohito
- 1990 – The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns.
- 1991 – Roger Lafontant, former leader of the Tonton Macoutes in Haiti under François Duvalier, attempts a coup d'état, which ends in his arrest.
- 1993 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President.
- 1993 – Bosnian War: The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.
- 1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.
- 2010 – Muslim gunmen in Egypt open fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians leaving church after celebrating a midnight Christmas mass, killing eight of them as well as one Muslim bystander.
[edit]Births
- 1355 – Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III of England (d. 1397)
- 1502 – Pope Gregory XIII (d. 1585)
- 1528 – Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (d. 1572)
- 1634 – Adam Krieger, German composer (d. 1666)
- 1647 – Wilhelm Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1677)
- 1685 – Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (d. 1761)
- 1706 – Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)
- 1713 – Giovanni Battista Locatelli, Italian opera director, impresario and owner of a private opera company (d. 1785)
- 1718 – Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1790)
- 1746 – George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1823)
- 1768 – Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (d. 1844)
- 1786 – John Catron, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1865)
- 1796 – Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (d. 1817)
- 1800 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874)
- 1827 – Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)
- 1831 – Heinrich von Stephan, German labor organizer (d. 1897)
- 1832 – James Munro, Premier of Victoria (d. 1908)
- 1834 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and inventor (d. 1874)
- 1837 – Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line shipping company (d. 1899)
- 1844 – Bernadette Soubirous, French saint (d. 1879)
- 1845 – King Ludwig III of Bavaria (d. 1921)
- 1858 – Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, key figure in the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language (d. 1922)
- 1860 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)
- 1870 – Lord Gordon Hewart, British judge (d. 1943)
- 1871 – Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician (d. 1956)
- 1873 – Charles Péguy, French poet and essayist (d. 1914)
- 1873 – Adolph Zukor, Hungarian producer (d. 1976)
- 1875 – Gustav Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1945)
- 1875 – Thomas Hicks, American runner (d. 1963)
- 1876 – William Hurlstone, English composer (d. 1906)
- 1879 – John Bissinger, American gymnast (d. 1941)
- 1880 – Jerome Steever, American water polo player (d. 1957)
- 1885 – Edwin Swatek, American backstroke swimmer and water polo player (d. 1966)
- 1887 – Oskar Luts, Estonian writer and playwright (d. 1953)
- 1888 – Vera de Bosset, Russian artist, wife of Igor Stravinsky (d. 1982)
- 1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, African-American writer (d. 1960)
- 1895 – Hudson Fysh, Australian aviator and co-founder of Qantas (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Clara Haskil, Romanian pianist (d. 1960)
- 1896 – Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (d. 1984)
- 1899 – Al Bowlly, British jazz singer (d. 1941)
- 1899 – Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)
- 1900 – John Brownlee, Australian tenor (d. 1969)
- 1900 – Robert Le Vigan, French actor (d. 1972)
- 1903 – Alan Napier, English actor (d. 1988)
- 1906 – Bobbi Trout, American aviator (d. 2003)
- 1907 – Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist (d. 1993)
- 1908 – Red Allen, American musician (d. 1967)
- 1910 – Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994)
- 1911 – Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1912 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
- 1912 – Günter Wand, German conductor, composer (d. 2002)
- 1913 – Johnny Mize, American baseball player (d. 1993)
- 1916 – Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975)
- 1917 – Ulysses Kay, American composer (d. 1995)
- 1921 – Chester Kallman, American writer (d. 1975)
- 1922 – Alvin Dark, American baseball player and manager
- 1922 – Vincent Gardenia, Italian-born actor (d. 1992)
- 1922 – Eric Jupp, British-born Australian composer, arranger, conductor (d. 2003)
- 1922 – Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist (d. 2000)
- 1923 – Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary critic (d. 2003)
- 1924 – Geoffrey Bayldon, British actor
- 1924 – Pablo Birger, Argentine racing driver (d. 1966)
- 1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist (d. 1995)
- 1926 – Kim Jong-pil, South Korean politician
- 1928 – William Peter Blatty, American screenwriter
- 1929 – Robert Juniper, Australian painter and sculptor (d. 2012)
- 1929 – Terry Moore, American actress
- 1932 – Joe Berinson, Australian politician
- 1933 – Elliott Kastner, American film producer (d. 2010)
- 1934 – Jean Corbeil, Canadian politician (d. 2002)
- 1934 – Charles Jenkins, American sprinter
- 1934 – Tassos Papadopoulos, President of Cyprus (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Kenny Davern, American jazz clarinetist (d. 2006)
- 1935 – Tommy Johnson, American tubist (d. 2006)
- 1935 – Valeri Kubasov, Soviet cosmonaut
- 1935 – Ducky Schofield, American baseball player
- 1936 – G. Robert Blakey, American attorney
- 1936 – Ben Cropp, Australian shark hunter and photographer
- 1938 – Lou Graham, American golfer
- 1938 – Roland Topor, French illustrator (d. 1997)
- 1939 – Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark
- 1941 – Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor (d. 2004)
- 1941 – Frederick D. Gregory, NASA astronaut
- 1941 – Manfred Schellscheidt, German American soccer coach
- 1941 – John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 – Vasily Alexeev, Russian weightlifter
- 1942 – Jim Lefebvre, American baseball player and manager
- 1942 – Danny Steinmann, American director and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1942 – Danny Williams, South African singer (d. 2005)
- 1943 – Richard Armstrong, British conductor
- 1943 – Sadako Sasaki, Japanese child victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (d. 1955)
- 1944 – Arne Scheie, Norwegian sports commentator
- 1944 – Tony Whitlam, Australian judge
- 1945 – Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (d. 1990)
- 1945 – Gilles Marotte, French Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
- 1945 – Dick Marty, Swiss politician
- 1945 – Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya
- 1946 – Michael Roizen, American anesthesiologist, internist and author
- 1946 – Jann Wenner, American publisher
- 1946 – Mike Wilds, British Formula One racing driver
- 1947 – Shobha De, Indian writer
- 1948 – Kenny Loggins, American singer (Loggins and Messina)
- 1948 – Ichirou Mizuki, Japanese voice actor
- 1949 – Marshall Chapman, American singer-songwriter
- 1949 – Anne Schedeen, American actress
- 1949 – Steven Williams, American actor
- 1950 – Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer-songwriter
- 1950 – Erin Gray, American actress
- 1950 – Ross Grimsley, American baseball player
- 1950 – Malcolm Macdonald, English footballer
- 1951 – Helen Worth, British actress
- 1952 – Sammo Hung, Hong Kong actor
- 1953 – Morris Titanic, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1954 – Jodi Long, American actress
- 1954 – José María Vitier, Cuban composer and pianist
- 1956 – David Caruso, American actor
- 1956 – Mike Liut, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Uwe Ochsenknecht, German actor and singer
- 1956 – Kostas Petropoulos, Greek basketball player and coach
- 1957 – Nicholson Baker, American novelist
- 1957 – Katie Couric, American television host
- 1957 – Reena Roy, Indian actress
- 1957 – Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer
- 1958 – Linda Kozlowski, American actress
- 1958 – Donna Rice, American sex scandal figure
- 1959 – Jon Larsen, Norwegian musician and composer
- 1959 – Kathy Valentine, American musician (The Go-Go's)
- 1960 – David Marciano, American actor
- 1960 – Loretta Sanchez, American politician, U.S. Representative from California
- 1961 – Supriya Pathak, Indian actress
- 1961 – Andrew Thomson, Australian politician
- 1961 – John Thune, American politician, junior senator of South Dakota
- 1962 – Aleksandr Dugin, Russian politician
- 1962 – Hallie Todd, American actress
- 1963 – Clint Mansell, English musician and composer (Pop Will Eat Itself)
- 1963 – Rand Paul, American politician, Junior Senator from Kentucky
- 1964 – Nicolas Cage, American actor
- 1966 – Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist (d. 1999)
- 1966 – Corrie Sanders, South African boxer (d. 2012)
- 1966 – Ehab Tawfik, Egyptian singer
- 1967 – Nick Clegg, British Liberal Democrat Leader
- 1967 – Guy Hebert, American ice hockey player
- 1967 – Mark Lamarr, British comedian and broadcaster
- 1969 – David Yost, American actor
- 1970 – Todd Day, American basketball player
- 1970 – Doug E. Doug, American actor
- 1970 – Joao Ricardo, Angolan footballer
- 1971 – C.W. Anderson, American professional wrestler
- 1971 – Tina Anderson, American comic book writer
- 1971 – Jeremy Renner, American actor
- 1972 – Donald Brashear, American ice hockey player
- 1973 – Baiba Broka, Latvian actress
- 1973 – Jonna Tervomaa, Finnish singer
- 1974 – Alenka Bikar, Slovenian athlete
- 1974 – John Rich, American musician (Big & Rich)
- 1975 – Tift Merritt, American singer songwriter (The Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt)
- 1975 – Hossein Derakhshan, Iranian dissident blogger
- 1976 – Éric Gagné, Canadian baseball player
- 1976 – Alfonso Soriano, Dominican baseball player
- 1977 – Michelle Behennah, British model
- 1977 – Marco Storari, Italian footballer
- 1977 – Dustin Diamond, American actor
- 1977 – John Gidding, American architect and TV host
- 1978 – Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian shooting victim (d. 2005)
- 1978 – Kevin Mench, American baseball player
- 1978 – Emilio Palma, first person born on the Antarctic continent
- 1979 – Bipasha Basu, Indian model and actress
- 1979 – Ricardo Maurício, Brazilian racing driver
- 1979 – Mariangel Ruiz, Venezuelan actress and model
- 1980 – Campbell Johnstone, New Zealand rugby player
- 1980 – Zöe Salmon, Irish television presenter
- 1981 – Jinxx, American guitarist (Black Veil Brides, The Dreaming, and Amen)
- 1981 – Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Marquis Daniels, American basketball player
- 1982 – Francisco Rodriguez, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1982 – Hannah Stockbauer, German swimmer
- 1982 – Ianina Zanazzi, Argentine racing driver
- 1983 – Edwin Encarnación, Dominican baseball player
- 1983 – Natalie Gulbis, American golfer
- 1983 – Robert Ri'chard, American actor
- 1983 – Liesbeth Mouha, Belgian beach volleyball player
- 1984 – Diego Balbinot, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Jon Lester, American baseball player
- 1984 – Antonino Saviano, Italian footballer
- 1985 – Lewis Hamilton, English F1 racing driver
- 1985 – Wayne Routledge, English footballer
- 1986 – Grant Leadbitter, English footballer
- 1987 – Lyndsy Fonseca, American actress
- 1987 – Stefan Babović, Serbian footballer
- 1987 – Jimmy Smith, English footballer
- 1988 – Haley Bennett, American singer and actress
- 1988 – Scott Pendlebury, Australian rules footballer
- 1988 – Robert Sheehan, Irish actor
- 1989 – Emiliano Insúa, Argentine footballer
- 1990 – Liam Aiken, American actor
- 1990 – Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater
- 1990 – Camryn Grimes, American actress
- 1990 – Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper
- 1991 – Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer
- 1991 – Max Morrow, Canadian actor
- 1997 – Ayumi Ishida, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
[edit]Deaths
- 1285 – King Charles I of Naples (b. 1226)
- 1325 – King Dinis of Portugal (b. 1261)
- 1400 – Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (b. 1374)
- 1451 – Count Amadeus VIII of Svoy (b. 1383)
- 1536 – Catherine of Aragon, consort of Henry VIII of England (b. 1485)
- 1566 – Louis de Blois, Flemish mystic (b. 1506)
- 1619 – Nicholas Hilliard, English painter (b. c.1547)
- 1625 – Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer (b. c.1560)
- 1655 – Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
- 1658 – Theophilus Eaton, American colonist (b. 1590)
- 1694 – Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English general (b. c.1618)
- 1700 – Raffaello Fabretti, Italian antiquarian (b. 1618)
- 1715 – François Fénelon, French-Catholic theologian and writer (b. 1651)
- 1758 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (b. 1686)
- 1767 – Thomas Clap, 1st president of Yale University (b. 1703)
- 1770 – Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician (b. 1695)
- 1783 – William Tans'ur, English hymnist (b. 1700)
- 1786 – Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and scientist (b. 1715)
- 1812 – Joseph Dennie, American writer (b. 1768)
- 1830 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter (b. 1769)
- 1830 – John Campbell, Australian public servant and politician (b. 1770)
- 1864 – Caleb Blood Smith, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808)
- 1876 – Juste Olivier, Swiss poet (b. 1807)
- 1878 – François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (b. 1794)
- 1892 – Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (b. 1852)
- 1893 – Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician (b. 1835)
- 1904 – Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek writer and journalist (b. 1836)
- 1913 – Jack Boyle, American baseball player (b. 1866)
- 1919 – Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1843)
- 1920 – Sir Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)
- 1927 – Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician (b. 1851)
- 1932 – André Maginot, French eponym of the Maginot Line (b. 1877)
- 1936 – Guy d'Hardelot, French composer, best known for Because (b. 1858)
- 1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born inventor and electrical engineer (b. 1856)
- 1944 – Lou Hoover, U.S. First Lady (b. 1874)
- 1944 – Napoleon Lapathiotis, Greek poet (b. 1888)
- 1946 – Adamo Didur, Polish tenor (b. 1874)
- 1951 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b. 1886)
- 1953 – Osa Johnson, American explorer (b. 1894)
- 1960 – Dorothea Douglass Chambers (aka Katharine Lambert Chambers), UK tennis player (b. 1878)
- 1963 – Arthur Moore, Premier of Queensland (b. 1876)
- 1964 – Cyril Davies, English musician (b. 1932)
- 1966 – Allan Chapman, Scottish politician (b. 1897)
- 1967 – David Goodis, American writer (b. 1917)
- 1967 – Carl Schuricht, German conductor (b. 1880)
- 1968 – Prof. James Smith, South African ichthyologist (b. 1897)
- 1968 – Gholamreza Takhti, Iranian wrestler (b. 1930)
- 1972 – John Berryman, American poet (b. 1914)
- 1972 – Eftichia Papagianopoulos, Greek lyricist (b. 1893)
- 1980 – Larry Williams, American singer and songwriter (b. 1935)
- 1981 – Alvar Lidell, UK radio broadcaster (b. 1908)
- 1981 – Eric Robinson, Australian politician (b. 1926)
- 1984 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1985 – Mary Hardy, Australian radio and television presenter (b. 1931)
- 1986 – P. D. Eastman, American children's book writer and illustrator (b. 1909)
- 1986 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (b. 1917)
- 1988 – Michel Auclair, French actor (b. 1922)
- 1988 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)
- 1989 – Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1901)
- 1990 – Bronko Nagurski, American football player (b. 1908)
- 1990 – Horace Stoneham, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
- 1992 – Richard Hunt, American puppeteer (The Muppets) (b. 1951)
- 1995 – Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)
- 1996 – Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician (b. 1930)
- 1996 – Tarō Okamoto, Japanese avant-garde artist (b. 1911)
- 1998 – Owen Bradley, American record producer (b. 1915)
- 1998 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 2000 – Gary Albright, American professional wrestler (b. 1963)
- 2001 – James Carr, American Rhythm & Blues and soul musician (b. 1942)
- 2002 – Jon Lee, Welsh musician (Feeder) (b. 1968)
- 2002 – Avery Schreiber, American actor (b. 1935)
- 2004 – Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (b. 1926)
- 2005 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Eileen Desmond, Irish politician (b. 1932)
- 2006 – Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1912)
- 2007 – Bobby Hamilton, NASCAR team owner (b. 1957)
- 2007 – Magnús Magnússon, Icelandic-born television presenter (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Alwyn Schlebusch, South African vice state president (b. 1917)
- 2009 – Maria Dimitriadi, Greek singer (b. 1950)
- 2010 – Willie Mitchell, American soul singer (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Derek Gardner, British Formula 1 car designer (b. 1931)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian Calendar)
- Distaff Day (medieval Europe)
- Festival of Seven Herbs or Nanakusa no sekku (Japan)
- Pioneer's Day (Liberia (controversial))
- Synaxis of John the Forerunner & Baptist (Julian Calendar)
- Tricolour day or Festa del Tricolore (Italy)
- Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia)
===
GET ON THE BANDTWAGON
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (6:33pm)
Are you on the dole? Have you been unemployed for years? Do you struggle to get work because employers demand “experience” and “qualifications”?
What you need is a boss who is sympathetic to the unemployed and wants to help you begin a rewarding career. Apply here.
===
SLIPPER SUMMONSED
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (4:32pm)
An announcement from the Australian Federal Police:
The AFP has today (7 January 2013) served the legal representative of Mr Peter Slipper MP with a summons in relation to three offences of Dishonestly Causing a Risk of a Loss to the Commonwealth pursuant to section 135.1(5) Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).Mr Slipper MP has been summonsed to appear in the Canberra Magistrates Court on 15 February 2013.
No comments.
UPDATE. Section 135.1(5) of the Criminal Code Act 1995:
A person is guilty of an offence if:
(a) the person dishonestly causes a loss, or dishonestly causes a risk of loss, to another person; and
(b) the first-mentioned person knows or believes that the loss will occur or that there is a substantial risk of the loss occurring; and
(c) the other person is a Commonwealth entity.Penalty: Imprisonment for 5 years.
===
ABOVE THE PROLES
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (2:40pm)
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Catherine Armitage recently wondered how Australia might look in 2050. With some help from Phil O’Neill, foundation director of the Urban Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney, Armitage came up with a vision of five-star facilities at the Badgerys Creek aerotropolis, “jewel of Sydney’s west”. But this splendid aerotropolis won’t be available to just any common folk, as Armitage and O’Neill explained:
“Air travel draws together ‘some of the most elite citizens on the planet, highly educated, highly paid, highly mobile people’, he says, especially when flying reverts to a premium-priced luxury in the low-carbon economy.”
In other words, welcome back to the tyranny of distance, when Australians of limited means were unable to afford air travel. Instead, we’ll have an airborne aristocracy insulated by wealth from low-carbon privations. London, Paris and New York will still be open to the elite, but it’s Mildura for the rest of you.
===
FULL DISCLOSURE
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (2:15pm)
It’s our money, so we have a right to know:
The ABC could be forced to disclose details of the pay packets of its top broadcasters and producers at programs such as Media Watch, Four Corners and Mornings with Jon Faine after it lost two appeals to block access to the information.The national broadcaster received $1 billion in government funding in the last financial year and spent $486 million on wages and superannuation.
This could be hilarious. What might Holiday Holmes be earning?
===
EARN TOP DOLLARS
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (12:31pm)
Not for the first time, Adam Bandt misses the point. The Greens deputy leader has responded to Families Minister Jenny Macklin’s claim that she can survive on the $35-per-day dole by vowing tolive on that amount for a week.
Bandt will be joined in his quest for headlines by fellow Green Rachel Siewert. ‘’At least by trying to survive for a week, it gives me a feel what people are living day in, day out,” said the empathetic Greens senator.
So we’ll soon have a couple of Greens briefly imitating their broad support base by doing nothing and living on benefits. We might reasonably predict that at the end of their ordeal both will demand an increase in the dole to something approximating a “living wage”.
They’re Greens, so this type of sorrow-mongering, ego-driven pointlessness comes as little surprise. What they should do is to spend a week on the dole as the system is intended. Instead of trying to merely live for a week on $35 per day, they should try to get a job while living on $35 per day.
===
BIG GRAB
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (11:40am)
Big Bash League players Shane Warne and Marlon Samuels face charges following this incident(language warning). Background to Warne’s outburst may be found near the end of this clip:
Naturally, some are quick to accuse Warne of racism, which is absurd. The fight may have been idiotic, but it had no racial element. I’ve seen worse confrontations at sub-district level. Meanwhile, a top-edged bouncer from Lasith Malinga leaves Samuels with more serious problems:
Naturally, some are quick to accuse Warne of racism, which is absurd. The fight may have been idiotic, but it had no racial element. I’ve seen worse confrontations at sub-district level. Meanwhile, a top-edged bouncer from Lasith Malinga leaves Samuels with more serious problems:
Samuels was last night taken to hospital after a later separate incident in which he was struck by a bouncer and suffered what is believed to be a fractured eye socket.
The hearing date is yet to be announced.
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WHERE THE ELITE MEET TO BEAT THE HEAT
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (3:59am)
Ten top locations for avoiding Sydney’s searing summer:
• Establishment 218, 29 O’Riordan Street, Alexandria. This brilliant butcher shop features a walk-through industrial chiller filled with prime cuts of meat – and one or two people who just need a heat break.
• Penrith Ice Palace, 7 Pattys Place, Jamisontown. Just $20 buys an adult session ticket. Be quick getting your skates on, however. The carbon tax is set to push prices higher.
• Kemeny’s Food & Liquor Store,137 Bondi Road, Bondi. The big beer fridge is an arctic delight, with the added bonus of selling beer.
• Event Cinemas, 159-175 Church Street, Parramatta. All cinemas are a good bet when the heat is on, but this mega movie house also offers three gold class sections for added cool.
• Sydney Fish Market, Bank Street, Pyrmont. So much ice! So many oysters! You can’t go wrong.
• Liverpool Catholic Club Sports Complex, 424-458 Hoxton Park Road, Liverpool West. Home base of the Sydney Ice Dogs. Watch in chilly comfort as the Dogs compete in the Australian Ice Hockey League.
• Porsche Centre Sydney South, 470 Gardeners Road, Alexandria. Take a very slow test drive in a Porsche 911, reputed to have the best air conditioning (including ventilated seats) of any modern car.
• Snowglobes.com.au. Sells Australia’s largest range of snowglobes. Feel your temperature drop as you scroll down each globe-filled page.
• Mr Iceman, 37-47 Borec Road, Penrith. Supplies industrial quantities of ice and dry ice throughout Sydney. Drop in and buy a 6kg block.
• The United States, western hemisphere. Nearly 70 per cent of the US was covered by snow on January 1. It’s an expensive option, but currently guarantees impressive heat relief.
UPDATE. Another option:
Temperatures in China have plunged to their lowest in almost three decades, cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, official media said at the weekend.
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LIVES SAVED
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (3:26am)
Georgia’s Donnie Herman: “My wife is a hero. She protected her kids. She did what she was supposed to do as [a] responsible, prepared gun owner. Her life is saved, and her kids’ life is saved, and that’s all I’d like to say.” Meanwhile, the gun debate has lost some heat.
UPDATE. Meanwhile, in gun-controlled Sydney:
A gang of young thieves have attacked people in their beds with machetes during a string of violent home invasions in Sydney’s west, leaving some with horrific and disfiguring injuries.Police say the group, believed to be aged in their teens and early 20s, could also be involved in a number of armed robberies on businesses in the area.They are hunting for up to six youths who stormed six different homes in Auburn between September and November last year.The young offenders stole only mobile phones, laptops and cash.Six people were injured, one in each robbery, including a man who was left missing a large chunk of his forehead after being hit with an axe.Another man suffered horrific injuries to his face and skull after being attacked with a machete.
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UNIVERSAL TRUTH
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (3:13am)
Further on Jon Henley’s Guardian piece defending paedophilia:
The problem was less with content than with tone. Henley tried to bring “objectivity” to an issue – the potential or literal abuse of children – about which there is no reason to be objective …Not only has a space been open for debate about something that hardly needs debating, but it’s also injected the misleading discourse of “reason” vs “hysteria” in to it. The constant call for “reason” can become a way of blinding us to certainly universal truths that don’t require reason to resonate.
Quite so.
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NERVES OF ICE
Tim Blair – Monday, January 07, 2013 (2:43am)
Poley bear meets man in a cage.
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Tell me again .. - ed
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I'm waiting for love - ed
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