Happy birthday and many happy returns Frozen Entropy,Cindy Lim, Ivy Lam, Wendy Sun-Song and Luke Baker. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
===
- 1258 – Hulagu Khan and the Mongols sacked and burnedBaghdad, a cultural and commercial centre of the Islamic world at the time, ending the rule of the Abbasid caliphate.
- 1567 – After an explosion destroyed the house in Kirk o' Field,Edinburgh, where he was staying, the strangled body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the King consort of Scotland, was found in a nearby orchard.
- 1930 – The Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang launched the failed Yen Bai mutiny in the hope of ending French colonial rule in Vietnam.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists concluded their conquest of Cataloniaand sealed the border with France.
- 2008 – The Namdaemun gate in Seoul, the first of South Korea's National Treasures, was severely damaged by arson (damage pictured).
===
Events
- 1258 – Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.
- 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence
- 1355 – The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
- 1567 – Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.
- 1763 – French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.
- 1798 – Louis Alexandre Berthier invades Rome, proclaims a Roman Republic on February 15 and then on February 20 takes Pope Pius VI prisoner.
- 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Champaubert ends in French victory over the Russians and the Prussians.
- 1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
- 1846 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon – British defeat Sikhs in final battle of the war
- 1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
- 1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
- 1870 – The YWCA is founded in New York City.
- 1906 – HMS Dreadnought, the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships is christened and launched by King Edward VII.
- 1920 – Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.
- 1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas
- 1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.
- 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops launched the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian defenders.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France.
- 1940 – The Soviet Union begins mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia.
- 1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor.
- 1947 – Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.
- 1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
- 1962 – Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
- 1964 – Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.
- 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
- 1981 – A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.
- 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
- 1996 – The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
- 1998 – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
- 2003 – France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
- 2009 – The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.
[edit]Births
- 1499 – Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d. 1582)
- 1524 – Albrecht Giese, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)
- 1606 – Christine Marie of France, regent of Savoy (d. 1663)
- 1609 – John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)
- 1685 – Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)
- 1696 – Johann Melchior Molter, German composer and violinist (d. 1765)
- 1744 – William Cornwallis, English Royal Navy admiral (d.1819)
- 1775 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (d. 1834)
- 1783 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (d. 1873)
- 1785 – Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist (d. 1836)
- 1795 – Ary Scheffer, French painter (d. 1858)
- 1824 – Samuel Plimsoll, British politician (d. 1898)
- 1846 – Lord Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d. 1919)
- 1846 – Ira Remsen, American chemist (d. 1927)
- 1847 – Nabinchandra Sen, Bengali poet (d. 1909)
- 1859 – Alexandre Millerand, French politician (d. 1943)
- 1868 – Prince Waldemar of Prussia (d. 1879)
- 1881 – Pauline Brunius, Swedish stage and film actress, theatre and film director (d. 1954)
- 1884 – Frederick Hawksworth, English engineer (d. 1976)
- 1888 – Alexander Cudmore, American soccer player (d. 1944)
- 1890 – Fanny Kaplan, Russian revolutionary (d. 1918)
- 1890 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1960)
- 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., American actor (d. 1950)
- 1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor and comedian (d. 1980)
- 1893 – Bill Tilden, American tennis player (d. 1953)
- 1894 – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)
- 1897 – Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)
- 1897 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1985)
- 1898 – Bertolt Brecht, German author (d. 1956)
- 1898 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and novelist (d. 1979)
- 1901 – Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)
- 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)
- 1903 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
- 1904 – John Farrow, American director (d. 1963)
- 1905 – Walter A. Brown, American team owner (d. 1964)
- 1905 – Chick Webb (William Henry), American drummer and band leader (d. 1939)
- 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
- 1906 – Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)
- 1908 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and music educator (d. 2000)
- 1910 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar, Nobel laureate (d. 1969)
- 1910 – Sofia Vembo, Greek singer and actress (d. 1978)
- 1913 – Douglas Slocombe, British cinematographer
- 1914 – Larry Adler, American harmonica player (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Alex Comfort, English physician and writer (d. 2000)
- 1920 – Neva Patterson, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1920 – José Manuel Castañón, Spanish writer (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Árpád Göncz, President of Hungary
- 1924 – Bud Poile, Canadian ice hockey player and executive (d. 2005)
- 1925 – Pierre Mondy, French actor and director (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1993)
- 1927 – Leontyne Price, American soprano
- 1927 – Brian Priestman, English conductor
- 1927 – William Tetley, Canadian professor and politician
- 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2004)
- 1929 – Jim Whittaker, American mountaineer
- 1929 – Lou Whittaker, American mountaineer
- 1930 – E. L. Konigsburg, American author and illustrator
- 1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor
- 1931 – Doug Young, American voice actor
- 1933 – Richard Schickel, American film critic
- 1933 – Faramarz Payvar, Iranian composer and musician (d. 2009)
- 1934 – Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
- 1935 – John Alcorn, American designer and illustrator (d. 1992)
- 1935 – Theodore Antoniou, Greek composer
- 1937 – Roberta Flack, American singer
- 1939 – Adrienne Clarkson, Canadian politician
- 1939 – Peter Purves, English actor and TV presenter
- 1940 – Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikh, Saudi Arabian scholar, 4th Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia
- 1940 – Kenny Rankin, American singer and songwriter (d. 2009)
- 1940 – Mary Rand, English athlete
- 1941 – Michael Apted, British director
- 1943 – Ral Donner, American singer (d. 1984)
- 1943 – Bill Laskey, American football player
- 1944 – Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d. 1992)
- 1944 – Frank Keating, American politician
- 1944 – Frances Moore Lappe, American writer and activist
- 1944 – Rufus Reid, American bassist
- 1944 – Vernor Vinge, American novelist
- 1946 – Eliot Wald, American comedy writer
- 1947 – Louise Arbour, Canadian jurist
- 1947 – Butch Morris, American cornet player, composer, and conductor (d. 2013)
- 1947 – Nicholas Owen, English journalist
- 1948 – Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d. 1994)
- 1948 – Conrad Cummings, American composer
- 1949 – Jim Corcoran, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1949 – Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
- 1949 – Nigel Olsson, English drummer
- 1949 – Harold Sylvester, American actor
- 1950 – Mark Spitz, American swimmer
- 1951 – Robert Iger, American entertainment executive
- 1952 – Lee Hsien Loong, Singaporean politician
- 1954 – Larry McWilliams, American baseball player
- 1955 – Christopher Adams, English wrestler and judoka (d. 2001)
- 1955 – Jim Cramer, American TV personality
- 1955 – Greg Norman, Australian golfer
- 1956 – Enele Sopoaga, Tuvaluan politician and diplomat
- 1957 – Ochirbatyn Dashbalbar, Mongolian poet and politician (d. 1999)
- 1958 – Michael Weiss, American pianist
- 1959 – John Calipari, American basketball coach
- 1959 – Dennis Gentry, American football player
- 1959 – Lisa McPherson, American scientologist (d. 1995)
- 1960 – Robert Addie, English actor (d. 2003)
- 1961 – Theo Gries, German footballer
- 1961 – Alexander Payne, American film director
- 1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American political commentator
- 1962 – Cliff Burton, American bass player (Metallica) (d. 1986)
- 1962 – Bobby Czyz, American boxer
- 1962 – Piero Pelù, Italian singer and songwriter (Litfiba)
- 1962 – Randy Velischek, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1963 – Lenny Dykstra, American baseball player
- 1963 – Philip Glenister, English actor
- 1964 – Glenn Beck, American author, radio and TV host
- 1964 – Victor Davis, Canadian swimmer (d. 1989)
- 1964 – Arthur Lenk, Israeli diplomat
- 1964 – Francesca Neri, Italian actress
- 1965 – Mario Jean, Canadian comedian and TV actor
- 1966 – Daryl Johnston, American football player
- 1966 – Ioannis Kalitzakis, Greek footballer
- 1966 – Ji Suk-jin, South Korean variety shows artist
- 1967 – Laura Dern, American actress
- 1967 – Jacky Durand, French cyclist
- 1967 – Ivan Francescato, Italian rugby player (d. 1999)
- 1967 – Armand Serrano, Filipino animator
- 1968 – Matthias Hamann, German footballer
- 1968 – Peter Popovic, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1968 – Garrett Reisman, American astronaut
- 1968 – Atika Suri, Indonesian TV newscaster
- 1969 – Laurie Dhue, American TV personality
- 1969 – Joe Mangrum, American artist
- 1970 – Iván Velázquez Caballero, Mexican drug trafficker
- 1970 – Alberto Castillo, Dominican baseball player
- 1970 – Melissa Doyle, Australian TV personality
- 1970 – Nobushige Kumakubo, Japanese racing driver
- 1970 – Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan footballer
- 1970 – Åsne Seierstad, Norwegian journalist
- 1971 – Louie Spicolli, American wrestler (d. 1998)
- 1971 – Lisa Marie Varon, American wrestler
- 1974 – Elizabeth Banks, American actress
- 1974 – Ty Law, American football player
- 1974 – Ivri Lider, Israeli singer
- 1974 – Tanoai Reed, American stunt performer
- 1975 – Hiroki Kuroda, Japanese baseball player
- 1975 – Kool Savas, German rapper
- 1976 – Lance Berkman, American baseball player
- 1976 – Keeley Hawes, English actress
- 1976 – Vedran Runje, Croatian footballer
- 1977 – Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer
- 1978 – Lorna Bailey, English ceramic designer
- 1978 – Don Omar, Puerto Rican singer
- 1979 – Joey Hand, American race car driver
- 1979 – Jumaine Jones, American basketball player
- 1979 – Daryl Palumbo, American musician (Glassjaw, Head Automatica)
- 1979 – Ross Powers, American snowboarder
- 1980 – César Izturis, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1980 – Enzo Maresca, Italian footballer
- 1980 – Mike Ribeiro, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Bruno Sundov, Croatian basketball player
- 1981 – Christian Fickert, German footballer
- 1981 – Andrew Johnson, English footballer
- 1981 – Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer
- 1981 – Holly Willoughby, English TV presenter
- 1982 – Keith Dunne, Irish footballer
- 1982 – Justin Gatlin, American sprinter
- 1982 – Iafeta Paleaaesina, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Bless, Canadian rapper
- 1983 – Daiane dos Santos, Brazilian gymnast
- 1983 – Ricardo Clark, American soccer player
- 1983 – James Ryan, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Vic Fuentes Musician, lead singer of Pierce the Veil
- 1984 – Brent Everett, Canadian porn actor and director
- 1984 – Alex Gordon, American baseball player
- 1984 – Kim Hyo-jin, South Korean actress
- 1986 – Jeff Adrien, American basketball player
- 1986 – Radamel Falcao García, Colombian footballer
- 1986 – Roberto Jiménez Gago, Spanish footballer
- 1986 – Yui Ichikawa, Japanese actress and model
- 1986 – Viktor Troicki, Serbian tennis player
- 1987 – Erin Burger, South African netballer
- 1987 – Facundo Roncaglia, Argentine footballer
- 1987 – Choi Siwon, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
- 1987 – Yuja Wang, Chinese classical pianist
- 1989 – Bunmi Mojekwu, English actress
- 1990 – Sooyoung (Choi Soo-young), South Korean singer (Girls' Generation)
- 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress
- 1992 – Reinhold Yabo, German footballer
- 1992 – Misha B, British singer
- 1994 – Makenzie Vega, American actress
- 1995 – Haruna Kawaguchi, Japanese model and actress
- 1996 – Christina Parie, Australian singer-songwriter
- 1997 – Chloë Grace Moretz, American actress
- 1998 – Candy Hsu, Taiwanese singer-songwriter
- 1999 – Tiffany Espensen, Chinese-American actress
[edit]Deaths
- 1126 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1071)
- 1162 – King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130)
- 1242 – Emperor Shijō of Japan (b. 1231)
- 1278 – Margaret II of Flanders (b. 1202)
- 1576 – Guilielmus Xylander, German scholar (b. 1532)
- 1645 – Dorothea Sophia, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg (b. 1587)
- 1686 – William Dugdale, English antiquarian (b. 1605)
- 1722 – Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (b. 1682)
- 1755 – Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)
- 1758 – Thomas Ripley, English architect (b. 1682)
- 1782 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)
- 1829 – Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)
- 1837 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet and novelist (b. 1799)
- 1857 – David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b. 1770)
- 1865 – Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (b. 1804)
- 1887 – Ellen Wood, English novelist (b. 1814)
- 1891 – Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)
- 1904 – John A. Roche, American politician (b. 1844)
- 1906 – Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1827)
- 1907 – Claude Whittindale, British rugby player (b. 1881)
- 1912 – Joseph Lister, English surgeon (b. 1827)
- 1913 – Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, Greek athlete and Olympic champion (b. 1888)
- 1917 – John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (b. 1849)
- 1918 – Abdul Hamid II Ottoman sultan (b. 1842)
- 1918 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, Nobel laureate (b. 1833)
- 1920 – Amedee Reyburn, American freestyle swimmer and water polo player (b. 1879)
- 1923 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1845)
- 1932 – Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)
- 1939 – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
- 1944 – Eugène Michel Antoniadi, Greek astronomer (b. 1870)
- 1945 – Anacleto Diaz, Filipino jurist (b. 1878)
- 1950 – Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (b. 1872)
- 1950 – Herbert Nicol, British rugby player (b. 1873)
- 1952 – Henry Drysdale Dakin, English-American biochemist (b. 1880)
- 1956 – Wilbert Coffin, Canadian prospector and murderer (b. 1915)
- 1956 – Emmanouil Tsouderos, Greek banker and politician (b. 1882)
- 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)
- 1960 – Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b. 1898)
- 1964 – Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
- 1966 – Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)
- 1975 – Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (b. 1910)
- 1979 – Edvard Kardelj, Yugoslav communist leader (b. 1910)
- 1984 – David Von Erich, American wrestler (b. 1958)
- 1985 – Johnny Mokan, American baseball player (b. 1895)
- 1987 – Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Pakistani calligrapher and artist (b. 1930)
- 1990 – Bill Sherwood, American producer and composer (b. 1952)
- 1992 – Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)
- 1993 – Fred Hollows, New Zealand ophthalmologist (b. 1929)
- 1995 – Paul Monette, American author and activist (b. 1945)
- 1998 – Yorgos Vrasivanopoulos, Greek actor (b. 1924)
- 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)
- 2001 – Abraham Beame, American politician (b. 1906)
- 2001 – George "Buddy" Tate, American musician (b. 1913)
- 2002 – Ramón Arellano Félix, Mexican drug trafficker (b. 1964)
- 2002 – Traudl Junge, German secretary (b. 1920)
- 2002 – Dave Van Ronk, American singer and songwriter (b. 1936)
- 2003 – Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b. 1910)
- 2003 – Curt Hennig, American wrestler (b. 1959)
- 2003 – Clark MacGregor, American politician (b. 1922)
- 2003 – Al Ruffo, American politician (b. 1908)
- 2003 – Ron Ziegler, American politician (b. 1939)
- 2004 – Guy Provost, Canadian actor (b. 1925)
- 2005 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)
- 2006 – J Dilla, American rapper and producer (b. 1974)
- 2006 – Dick Harmon, American golf instructor (b. 1947)
- 2006 – Beko Ransome-Kuti, Nigerian doctor and activist (b. 1940)
- 2007 – Ned Austin, American character actor (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Jeong Da-bin, South Korean actress (b. 1980)
- 2008 – Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Steve Gerber, American comics writer (b. 1947)
- 2008 – Adeline Jay Geo-Karis, American politician (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Leila Hadley, American writer (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Jeremy Lusk, American freestyle motocross racer (b. 1984)
- 2010 – Fred Schaus, American basketball coach and executive (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Charles Wilson, American politician (b. 1933)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (Malta)
- Fenkil Day (Eritrea)
- National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe, commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiles and Foibe massacres (Italy, especially in Trieste)
===
I watched a political show so comical it was a tragedy
Piers Akerman – Saturday, February 09, 2013 (10:44pm)
POLITICAL channel surfers had the option of watching three competing programs last week - the latest from the Obeid Family Files, Julia’s Disintegrating Party and a new show, Australia’s Dopiest Sports Stars.
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There are worse things for unborn babies than Chrissie Swan smoking
Miranda Devine – Sunday, February 10, 2013 (8:18am)
CHRISSIE Swan is one of the new crop of instant B-grade celebrities whose fame has come through just being themselves on reality TV.
In her case she was a runner up on Big Brother.
As a rare “plus size” celebrity, the 39-year-old won a loyal following which catapulted her into a job hosting her own morning TV talk show, the Circle, now defunct, as well as a gig as a Jenny Craig spokesmodel.
But now she is in the news for all the wrong reasons - photographed by paparazzi smoking a cigarette in her car during her third pregnancy.
In a tearful confession on Melbourne radio last week Swan said: ‘I have struggled terribly with totally giving up cigarettes since I found out I was pregnant”.
Outrage and condemnation ensued, with twitter abuse so virulent Swan shut down her account.
Swan’s parenting skills again were called into question, less than a year after she was criticized for having a child who is overweight, a fact she volunteered after posing with him for a photograph in the Australian Women’s Weekly.
Obviously, it would be better for her unborn child if it wasn’t getting nicotine and carbon monoxide mixed in with its oxygen. Clearly, pregnant women shouldn’t smoke, and community disapproval has a role in limiting the practice.
But for those few who persist in risking the odd “sneaky cigarette” it’s a matter for their own conscience.
And the fact is that in previous eras, women puffed away like chimneys throughout pregnancy with no obvious ill effects on the ensuing generation.
There is a famously evocative photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy in 1960, eight months pregnant and smoking while reading a book on the back of a yacht. Her baby grew up to be the strapping John Jnr, as perfect a specimen of manhood as ever existed.
Frankly, there are worse things for unborn children. Like abortion. But not so many people complain about that.
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Voters are sick of handouts
Miranda Devine – Saturday, February 09, 2013 (10:46pm)
A GOOD example of the entitlement mentality that seems to have infected a growing section of our once proudly self-reliant populace came in a talkback call to Ray Hadley’s 2GB radio show on Friday morning.
A single mother of four boys, the oldest aged 10, twins aged five, and a special needs two-year-old, called to say Julia Gillard reminds her of a song called “What About Me?” because she “takes more than she gives.”
The 31-year-old from western Sydney was cranky with the Prime Minister because application for a one-off $10,000 “carer adjustment” payment had been rejected.
But she also revealed she received $1400 every fortnight in welfare payments, plus $250 a fortnight in child support payments from two of the three fathers of her children.
So her income is $825 a week, tax free, plus the $5000 baby bonus.
But if she went to Hadley for sympathy, all she got was tough love.
“I can see people head-butting the steering wheels of their trucks as they drive around Sydney, having left home at four o’clock this morning to provide for their wife and family.”
Sure enough, callers queued up, aggrieved at a system which provides little incentive to work when your neighbour earns almost as much on welfare.
David, a father of three: “I take home $800 a week after working six days. I don’t get free or cheap medicine, free transport, or free registration on my vehicle. I’d like to sit home and earn $800 a week.”
Rob, a father of four: “I work two jobs, 60 hours a week and I barely make 1100 bucks. I pay the mortgage, pay the bills, feed the kids ... It drives you nuts. I’m here working, sweating and making the money so I can feed my kids and (for) other people out there it’s a career for them (to) just have kids for the money.”
It’s just a slice of community attitudes, but the conversation reflects a growing dismay at government handouts from a dwindling taxpayer base hit with soaring energy and other bills.
Effectively, about 80 per cent of the money collected in income tax is now spent on social security and welfare. And for the past 40 years, welfare spending, along with education and health expenditure, has been ballooning, according to the Institute of Public Affairs.
It estimates that social spending has increased by almost one third, from 44 per cent to 58 per cent of commonwealth expenditure, as the percentage of working age welfare recipients has tripled.
And with an estimated $11 billion to $22 billion a year required to fund the government’s leviathan new welfare bureaucracy, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, on top of an extra $5 billion a year on education a la Gonski, and with the promised surplus gone and government revenue raising initiatives, such as the mining tax, generating risibly little cash, you can be forgiven for asking where the dollars will come from.
Against this gloomy scenario last week came a ray of sunshine in the form of a leaked discussion paper outlining Coalition plans to generate wealth out of the underdeveloped Top End, Australia’s “last frontier”.
It looks at ways of turning those vast expanses of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, north of the Tropic of Capricorn, into a food bowl, which would double our agricultural output, of creating a $150 billion energy export industry, and tripling resource exports.
It also suggests relocating defence facilities to the Top End, and establishing “world-class medical centres of excellence”, and specialised higher education centres.
There would be relocation and personal tax incentives to increase the population of Darwin, Cairns/Townsville and Karratha, and new infrastructure including dams and hydroelectricity projects to “deliver baseload levels of clean energy across northern Australia and into the National Electricity Market”.
And every child in remote communities would have access to a boarding school scholarship.
Of course, Greens leader Christine Milne dismissed the idea as “madness”.
But the response from the government was equally disappointing, with ministers lining up to slam the idea as “wacky”, would somehow hurt western Sydney and proved the Opposition was taking orders from mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
Why Tony Abbott didn’t proudly own the initiative, instead of backing away from it in panic, was a mystery. The idea is wildly popular with voters sick of the tax and spend game that leaves them overburdened supplicants of the state in a softening economy.
A 2011 Galaxy poll found 60 per cent of people favour a Special Economic Zone in Northern Australia while only 20 per cent are opposed.
We’d love just a fraction of the can-do mentality that has transformed Shanghai into China’s financial hub in just 20 years since Deng Xiaoping drew a circle on a map and said “build it there”.
Across the Huangpu River from the picturesque old city, Pudong was an expanse of rice paddies. Today it is a booming metropolis bristling with futuristic skyscrapers, and impressive new infrastructure, including 13 metro lines, numerous bridges and tunnels, an elevated expressway, an airport, and a high-speed magnetic levitation train.
And we can’t even build a train line from Chatswood to Parramatta.
There has to be a way for Australia to sweep aside the negative Nimbies and the green and red tape bureaucracies that are stifling innovation and development.
Creating tax incentives for enterprising Australians to create wealth in our underdeveloped north is a plan to run with, not run away from.
That is a serious misreading of an electorate hungry for government that frees people to create their own opportunities, rather than crushing morale with sit-down money.
===
TELL YOUR FANS WHAT IS GOING ON
Tim Blair – Sunday, February 10, 2013 (3:05pm)
Julia Gillard urges AFL and NRL clubs to step forward:
I would say to clubs, please come clean. Make sure that you tell your fans what is going on. For clubs who have absolutely nothing to hide then it will come as a great relief to fans to know that. For clubs who have had problems, then it’s better off to step forward and be very clear about that.
Julia Gillard following suspended Labor MP Craig Thomson’s arrest:
It’s a matter for the police.
===
TV TIM
Tim Blair – Sunday, February 10, 2013 (2:11pm)
On Sky tonight with Chris Kenny. From 8.00pm.
===
We’re twice as mad as Europe about cutting emissions
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(11:31am)
Tim Wilson shows that warmist Labor is twice as stupid as even Europe about cutting the emissions it swears are heating the world dangerously:
WHILE increasing our carbon tax bill, at last December’s climate change summit in Doha the Gillard government committed to cutting emissions by more than twice as much as comparable countries.
The headline story from the summit was that Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Russia walked away from the Kyoto Protocol… But not much scrutiny was applied to those who stayed inside the tent, such as Australia…
So Australia has offered to cut emissions by more than double the rate of Europe.
That will cost, of course. Money, jobs… And for what?
===
YouTube punished
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(11:14am)
I hope YouTube does not bow to this attempt to censor:
YouTube, a subsidiary of US internet giant Google, has been blocked in Pakistan since December for refusing to heed Islamabad’s call to remove the controversial video.The site simply decided to restrict access to the film for Internet users in several countries, among them Egypt, Libya, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
This concession already goes exactly far enough:
It’s not the video that’s the threat to peace, but the brutal reaction to satire and criticism.
But in Australia we can no longer be sure of our right to show this video in public, especially under the Gillard Government’s obscene plan to further limit free speech.
===
The rise of Bishop
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(10:44am)
Many Liberals have noted how impressively Julie Bishop has performed over the past months.
The Deputy Opposition Leader stepped up at a critical time when Tony Abbott seemed floundering under Labor’s vicious campaign to paint him as a woman hater. Her forensic probing of Julia Gillard on the AWU scandal was brutally effective on its own terms, but also helped to mute Labor’s misogyny attack, which now looks more like the Battle of the Bulge in its last days.
The rise of Bishop continues today, with a broadening of her image:
The deputy opposition leader, who has no children, said she understands the dilemma facing young career women and revealed the difficult choices she has made during a high-flying career in law and politics.As Attorney-General Nicola Roxon announced she was resigning to spend more time with her daughter, Ms Bishop said she agrees with a US academic who argues it’s impossible for women to have top careers and be mothers unless they are rich, self-employed or super human.
“I’m in the Anne-Marie Slaughter school - women can’t have it all,” Ms Bishop said. “They can have plenty of choices, but at the end of the day, they choose something which means they can’t have something else.”
Abbott is fortunate. Having looked too often like a one-man band, he’s found key members of his team performing more strongly.
There is Bishop, of course. But shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey not only looks better than ever, thanks to radical weight-loss surgery, but is taking paint off Wayne Swan. He won Stunt of the Week by toting around a great bundle of documents listing every instance of Gillard and Swan promising a surplus this year, and he was also devastating in attacking Labor for sending out taxpayer-funded pamphlets which lied about having delivered the surplus already.
But praise also to Malcolm Turnbull. He looks less angry and hungry for Abbott’s job and more the team player. He always had the gifts - the intellectual heft - to be one of the Opposition’s most effective communicators, especially to the ABC crowd. If he gets the Opposition’s broadband policy right, he could do be a particularly potent asset.
Scott Morrison, of course, has always give the Opposition full service. i suspect Abbott feels more than ever that he really does now have a team. Indeed, an alternative government.
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Taking the food from the mouths of the poor
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(10:41am)
Erk:
Eight backpackers were seen on two nights last week using the Exodus Foundation night food van service at the Domain carpark. After receiving a bag of food, some of the backpackers wandered back to the nearby Elephant Backpacker Hostel, while others sat by the road eating.
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Gillard should take FitzSimons’ advice. Her enemies will cheer
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(10:26am)
I really hope Julia Gillard takes Peter FitzSimons’ advice. That should really cook the goose of our worst Prime Minister:
I think Julia Gillard can win. It is not likely, mind, and I suspect she is only a 30 per cent chance, but I maintain a True Believers II election is at least a possibility. In the time between now and September 14, it goes without saying they must focus on governing well, but there is another obvious star to steer by: Do It Like Barack Obama Did It. Embrace progressive policies and stitch together your own coalition of people who want change, not same old, same old.
Don’t run away from the carbon tax - glory in it. Point out that while Rome is burning, Australia is actually at the forefront of trying to douse the flames. Ramp up the republic. Sure, that will annoy the conservatives, but that’s just a bonus! Highlight that the National Disability Insurance Scheme really is a breakthrough for those Australians who’ve been dealt a bad hand, through no fault of their own.And one more thing: put gay marriage back on the agenda.
Great stuff. Promise huge welfare programs to be paid for with yet more borrowed money. Promise a republic you cannot deliver as a distraction that even the blind will spot and scorn. Say you’re a campaigner for gay marriage despite swearing for the past couple of years you aren’t, and plunge us into yet another divisive debate of the kind voters are now sick of.
Yes, could work, Peter. Great skills. This program should really clear out Labor’s dead wood. It’s green wood, too. Even the office cleaner will be swept out.
I particularly liked this blithely offered suggestion for Gillard to do in the next seven months what she’s been incapable of for the past two years:
...it goes without saying they must focus on governing well...
I’d suggest the Government indeed finally focus on that last bit most if it truly wants to save itself. Sure, trying to govern well was what I suggested Labor do a year ago under a leader who could credibly do it - say Simon Crean - and it’s now past midnight. But it can’t hurt even now.
(Thanks to reader Country Liberal.)
(Thanks to reader Country Liberal.)
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Who’s who in the rise of Obeid
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(10:11am)
Alex Mitchell on the rise of Eddie Obeid - and on those who helped him to turn the NSW Labor Party into his private business:
At 11.50am on Thursday, September 12, 1991, MPs from the two houses of the NSW Parliament - the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council - met in a joint session to approve the millionaire businessman and Lebanese newspaper owner Eddie Obeid as the state’s newest Labor MP.
He was the ALP head office’s candidate to succeed Jack Hallam, the former agriculture minister and leader of the opposition in the upper house…The opposition leader, Bob Carr, jumped to his feet saying: ‘’I propose Edward Moses Obeid, OAM, as an eligible person to fill the vacant seat.’’…Obeid’s political career was sponsored by Graham Richardson, the former NSW ALP general secretary who became a senator and a senior cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating governments… Richardson had met the owner and publisher of the Arabic-language El Telegraph during the late 1970s and was impressed by his willingness to donate to the ALP and by his bountiful hospitality…...someone else crafted Obeid’s inaugural speech… He gave public thanks to his supporters, starting with Richardson and including Carr, Wran, Della Bosca, Loosley, Michael Easson, the federal parliament speaker, Leo McLeay, upper house MPs Johnno Johnson and Deirdre Grusovin and former attorney-general Terry Sheahan…With the speech delivered, Obeid set about recruiting MPs to the Terrigals, the right-wing sub-faction… The faction attracted influential right-wingers who exercised ruthless power in two key areas: preselection of parliamentary candidates and promotion to cabinet…Obeid’s biggest breakthrough came after the 1999 election when the then-premier Carr appointed him minister for fisheries and minister for mineral resources, aka the state’s ‘’Mr Fish and Mr Coal’’. After his victory at the 2003 election, Carr sacked Obeid from the cabinet, provoking a flaming row in the premier’s office. From that day they became sworn political enemies.By this stage there was a clear division of labour at the top of the state: Carr ran the Premier’s Department, Michael Egan ran Treasury but Obeid’s Terrigals ruled the Labor caucus.Their ruthless power became public when they broke Carr’s premiership and forced him into early retirement, killed off the premiership ambitions of Carl Scully, ended the reigns of premiers Morris Iemma and Nathan Rees, and cynically elevated Kristina Keneally to the top job…
The Obeid legacy is now being played out in sensational hearings at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, where secret deals involving mineral resources in the Upper Hunter Valley worth hundreds of millions of dollars are being forensically examined. Voters are being given a ringside glimpse of how the nation’s oldest parliament had become a private fiefdom for insider profiteering.
Read the whole lot.
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A handy scandal
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(9:53am)
This sports scandal - sports’ ”blackest day” - is sure being beaten up by this government. A very handy conversation topic for Julia Gillard:
“I would have a clear message. Fans are anxious to know what the circumstances are of their clubs,” she said.
“‘Please come clean, make sure that you tell your fans what is going on.”She said those with problems should “step forward”.
But for the rest of us we have no names, no clubs, no specific allegations. Just a broad brush smear - and distraction.
The backlash is forcing the Australian Crime Commission to swear this really is the monster scandal and we’d know it, too, if only clubs could say what they can’t:
THE drug and corruption scandal enveloping Australian sport has snared six National Rugby League clubs, with the revelation they are named in the Australian Crime Commission’s explosive report.
Facing a backlash over the refusal to name implicated clubs and players, ACC chief executive John Lawler said he was working with the individual codes to work out if there was a way for full disclosure to take place.But Mr Lawler told The Sunday Telegraph the release of club names would have to be within the law, which states there cannot be any adverse impact on a club or individual. While the codes were aware of the clubs involved, they were under strict legal obligations not to release the names publicly, he said.
But it seems that all this great big media stunt was about was a little reminder to all sporting codes to be as careful as most already are:
Mr Lawler said he was sympathetic to clubs and players that were in the right, but the purpose of the report was intended to be an “alert” to everyone to improve their safeguards against drug taking - a point he felt had been missed in the hunt for names.It also served as a trigger for players, coaches and individuals to come forward to police.
“This is about making sure that they are alert to the risks and vulnerabilities, and that they are actively doing something about it,” he said.
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Lincoln: don’t mention the warts
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(9:39am)
Chris Berg says Lincoln is a whitewash:
Take one memorable scene. In Congress, a fiery New York Democrat, Fernando Wood, accuses the president of being a tyrant. Lincoln, Wood shouts, is a ‘’violator of habeas corpus and freedom of the press, abuser of states’ rights, radical republican autocrat ruling by fiat and martial law’’.The film skates quickly over the accusation. Wood seems ridiculous. He describes the president as ‘’our Great Usurping Caesar’’. He supports slavery, a much greater tyranny. But many of his claims were correct.The Lincoln administration declared martial law. It suspended the writ of habeas corpus, allowing the government to detain civilians without charge and without trial....Many civilians were locked up for selling alcohol to soldiers, even though there was no law against it. Others were locked up for ‘’disloyalty’’ or using ‘’treasonable language’’.... At least 14,000 people were locked up as political prisoners during the war, according to the historian Mark E. Neely, jnr....Lincoln’s administration suppressed at least 300 newspapers. Most of the suppressed papers were Democrat ones. Nineteenth-century journalism was proudly partisan.
Lincoln authorised torture, too. The technique, also used against civilians, is eerily familiar… Essentially, a high-powered hose was sprayed against a person’s body until skin broke. This ‘’shower’’ could last for hours.
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Labor leader attacks carbon tax
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(9:33am)
I am told by readers that WA Opposition Leader Mark McGowan has broken ranks with other Labor leaders to denounce the carbon tax.
Surprisingly, the only reference anyway I can find to this important news - which the Coalition will surely exploit heavily in politics - is this item from Jo Nova:
I saw on the ABC news tonight that Mark McGowan announced that he doesn’t like the Carbon Tax. He’s the West Australian state opposition leader and there are just four weeks left before the State election. Strangely I can find no story, no news headline to confirm this.
UPDATE
Reader DP:
Interesting that last night on 7 news WA’s Mark McGowan admitted for the first time when questioned that he ‘does not believe in the Carbon Tax’.
Also the WA ALP adverts here are now telling people ‘we are not Canberra’.Note also that Gillard has been told to stay away while the campaigning is on.
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Boat breakthrough! NZ to take fewer than a week of arrivals
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(12:32am)
2 February 2013
HMAS Bathurst, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north east of Christmas Island overnight.
Initial indications suggest there are 60 people on board.
3 February 2013
HMAS Maryborough, operating under the coordination of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia), has rendered assistance to a suspected irregular entry vessel that sought assistance north west of Christmas Island today.
Initial indications suggest there are 132 passengers and three crew on board.
9 February 2013
ACV Storm Bay, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel south-west of Scott Reef last night.
Initial indications suggest there are 53 passengers and two crew on board.
9 February 2013
JULIA Gillard insisted that New Zealand’s decision to accept 150 refugees a year from Australia would not encourage more asylum-seeker arrivals.
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Rudd determined to expose Gillard’s staff
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY102013(12:07am)
This report makes Kevin Rudd seem a little unhinged:
In a bizarre development, Mr Rudd has confirmed he lodged a freedom of information request into his own correspondence with the Federal Police, before leaking hundreds of pages of correspondence relating to ‘Operation Mesco” this week to the media.
In fact, his letter to police last November requesting better investigation of the theft of the above video - clearly leaked to embarrass him - reveals a man with strong suspicions and a natural desire to see justice be done and a press minister’s dirt unit exposed.
If you doubt how dirty that unit in Gillard’s office could be, remember who and how it created this:
Now read these parts of Rudd’s letter:
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QUOTE OF THE DAY :
Stop blaming others for what you have or don’t have, or for what you feel or don’t feel. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility and perpetuate the problem. Stop giving your power away and start taking responsibility for your life. Blaming is just another sorry excuse, and making excuses is the first step towards failure; you and only you are responsible for your life choices and decisions.
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4 TMN
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Myth: The temperature today is warmer than Earth has been for the last 1,000 years.
Fact: False. The Medieval Warm Period of 1,000 years ago was warmer than today. Grapes were growing in London. Sixty-three of sixty-five peer reviewed studies confirm that the Medival Warm Period was as warm or warmer than today.
The human race was flourishing, just as it had a thousand years before that during the Roman Warm Period. Temperatures during the last interglacial, 110,000 to 150,000 years ago were as much as five degrees Celsius warmer than today and sea level was approximately 19 feet higher; all before man began putting CO2 into the atmosphere.
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At the Chinese Embassy in Canberra last Thursday for Lunar New Year celebrations. Craig Kelly
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Representing Tony Abbott and the Federal Coalition last night at a service for the 'Feast of St Maroun' with Sydney’s Lebanese Maronite Community. Craig Kelly
Also with state Liberals; Victor Dominello, John Ajaka, Tony Issa and John Sidoti MP.
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When you sit still & trust Him, God works. When you work & trust yourself, God sits still. Which do you prefer?
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My old home state of NJ .. I loved playing in the snow .. I remember being able to place toy soldiers in incredible scenes ..
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She love me not
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Our Chaotic Climate System
Chaos theory was originally developed by Ed Lorenz during early experiments with computerized weather prediction models, the forerunners of today’s climate models. Lorenz found that, for example, even tiny changes in the initial state of the atmosphere can completely change how weather patterns evolve in the coming weeks. Chaos is what limits the predictability of weather to 10 days or so.
Chaotic behavior is a characteristic of most nonlinear dynamical systems, that is, systems which evolve over time and are governed by rather complex physical processes. We usually think of chaos in the atmosphere operating on time scales of days to weeks.
But the ocean is also a nonlinear dynamical system. And it has time scales ranging from years up to hundreds or even thousands of years…time scales we associate with climate change.
El Nino and La Nina can, for example, be thought of as a chaotic fluctuation in the climate system. Like the famous butterfly-shaped Lorenz Attractor, El Nino and La Nina are the two wings of the butterfly, and the climate system during Northern Hemisphere winter tends to alternate between El Nino and La Nina, sometimes getting “stuck” in a multi-year pattern of more frequent El Ninos or La Ninas.
Now, while El Nino and La Nina are the best known (and most frequently occurring) ocean-based climate phenomenon, what other longer-term modes of climate variability might there be which are “unforced”?) By unforced, I mean they are not caused by some external forcing mechanism (like the sun), but are just the natural results of how the system varies all by itself.) Well, we really don’t know, partly because so little research is funded to study the problem.
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it is interesting to note that, even though carbon dioxide is necessary for life on Earth to exist, there is precious little of it in Earth’s atmosphere. As of 2008, only 39 out of every 100,000 molecules of air were CO2, and it will take mankind’s CO2 emissions 5 more years to increase that number by 1, to 40.
Are we there yet?===
What is the miracle you need today? There is nothing left for you to do, but to believe—that Jesus has done it all for you at the cross. Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all!http://bit.ly/Wlzayz
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A scare campaign to replace others .. ed
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Music is being prepped for our singers for THE TUDORS, our candlelit concert on Saturday, March 9. Check out this incredible manuscript score from the famed Eton Choirbook, circa 1500. We'll be performing a work from the Eton Choirbook on the program (but we'll use modern scores).
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╭⌒╮ ❤ ❤╭⌒╮☀
╭⌒╭⌒╮╭⌒╮～❤
,❤︶︶︶︶ ︶~~
╬ ╱◥███◣❤
╬ ︱田︱田 田 ︱╬╬╬
May you have a blissful, lovely year. ㊗All the best to you in snake year 2013
✨✨
Happy Lunar New Year!
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