Happy birthday and many happy returns Henry Thay, Fiona Woodward and Linda Tran. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
===
- 1541 – Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia foundedSantiago, today the capital of Chile, as Santiago del Nuevo Extremo.
- 1855 – Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the United States' first agricultural college.
- 1912 – Xinhai Revolution: Puyi, the last Emperor of China, abdicated under a deal brokered by military official and politician Yuan Shikai, formally replacing the Qing Dynasty with a new republic in China.
- 1974 – Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested and subsequently deported from the Soviet Union for writing The Gulag Archipelago, an exposé of theSoviet forced labour camp system.
- 2001 – NASA's robotic space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros(pictured), becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
===
Events
- 881 – Pope John VIII crowns Charles the Fat, the King of Italy: Holy Roman Emperor
- 1429 – English forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orléans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and Sir John Stewart of Darnley in the Battle of Rouvray (also known as the Battle of the Herrings).
- 1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.
- 1541 – Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
- 1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
- 1593 – Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwon Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.
- 1689 – The Convention Parliament declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
- 1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).
- 1771 – Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.
- 1816 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is destroyed by fire.
- 1817 – An Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops on the Battle of Chacabuco.
- 1818 – Bernardo O'Higgins formally approved the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, Chile.
- 1825 – The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government by the Treaty of Indian Springs, and migrate west.
- 1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
- 1851 – Edward Hargraves announces that he has found gold in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, starting the Australian gold rushes.
- 1855 – Michigan State University is established.
- 1894 – Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris, France's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
- 1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
- 1909 – New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
- 1912 – The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.
- 1914 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
- 1934 – The Austrian Civil War begins.
- 1934 – In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista decides to merge the movement with the Falange Española.
- 1935 – USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks.
- 1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
- 1946 – African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the Civil Rights Movement and partially inspires Orson Welles' film Touch of Evil.
- 1947 – A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
- 1961 – Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
- 1963 – Constrcution begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
- 1968 – Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre.
- 1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
- 1990 – Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia.
- 1992 – The current Constitution of Mongolia comes into effect.
- 1994 – Four men break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.
- 1999 – President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
- 2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
- 2002 – The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, begins at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague,Netherlands. He dies four years later before its conclusion.
- 2002 – An Iran Airtour Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119.
- 2004 – The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
- 2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.
- 2012 – A primary election is held in Venezuela to choose the contendent against incumbent President Hugo Chávez
[edit]Births
- 41 – Britannicus, Roman son of Emperor Claudius {d. 55}
- 1074 – Conrad II of Italy, King of Germany and Italy (d. 1101)
- 1218 – Kujō Yoritsune, Japanese shogun (d. 1256)
- 1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer and poet (d. 1620)
- 1584 – Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch theologian, poet, and historian (d. 1648)
- 1606 – John Winthrop the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)
- 1637 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist (d. 1680)
- 1663 – Cotton Mather, New England minister (d. 1728)
- 1665 – Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721)
- 1704 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer (d. 1772)
- 1728 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (d. 1799)
- 1752 – Dorothea Ackermann, German actress (d. 1821)
- 1752 – Josef Reicha, Czech cellist, composer and conductor (d. 1795)
- 1753 – François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, French admiral (d. 1798)
- 1761 – Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech composer and pianist (d. 1812)
- 1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
- 1775 – Louisa Adams, First Lady of the United States (1825–1829), widow of John Quincy Adams (d. 1852)
- 1777 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist (d. 1838)
- 1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German poet (d. 1843)
- 1785 – Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist (d. 1838)
- 1787 – Norbert Provencher, Canadian clergyman and missionary (d. 1853)
- 1788 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (d. 1869)
- 1791 – Peter Cooper, American Industrialist, inventor and philanthropist (d. 1883)
- 1794 – Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player (d. 1867)
- 1804 – Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (d. 1865)
- 1809 – Charles Darwin, English naturalist (d. 1882)
- 1809 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1861-his death) (d. 1865)
- 1828 – George Meredith, English writer (d. 1909)
- 1843 – John Graham Chambers, English athlete who wrote the Marquess of Queensberry Rules for boxing (d. 1883)
- 1857 – Eugène Atget, French photographer (d. 1927)
- 1857 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer (d. 1943)
- 1861 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-born author (d. 1937)
- 1865 – Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (d. 1940)
- 1869 – Emperor Kien Phuc, the 7th emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty (d. 1884)
- 1870 – Marie Lloyd, English music-hall performer (d. 1922)
- 1872 – Oscar Stribolt, Danish actor (d. 1927)
- 1872 – Guillermo Hayden Wright, Mexican polo player (d. 1949)
- 1874 – Edward Marsh, American rower (death date unknown)
- 1876 – Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama, (1879-his death) (d. 1933)
- 1877 – Louis Renault, French industrialist, one of the founders of Renault and a pioneer of the automobile industry. (d. 1944)
- 1880 – John L. Lewis, American labor union leader (d. 1969)
- 1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)
- 1884 – Max Beckmann, German artist (d. 1950)
- 1884 – Johan Laidoner, Estonian military commander (d. 1953)
- 1884 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth, elder daughter of Theodore Roosevelt (d. 1980)
- 1884 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)
- 1885 – Julius Streicher, Nazi German publisher (d. 1946)
- 1889 – Bhante Dharmawara, Cambodian monk and supercentenarian (d. 1999)
- 1893 – Omar Bradley, American general, the last surviving five-star general in the United States and the 1st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (d. 1981)
- 1895 – Kristian Djurhuus, Faroese politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1984)
- 1897 – Vola Vale, American actress (d. 1970)
- 1898 – Wallace Ford, English-born actor (d. 1966)
- 1900 – Roger J. Traynor, American judge (d. 1983)
- 1902 – William Collier, American stage and film actor (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Joseph F. Biroc, American cinematographer (d. 1996)
- 1903 – Chick Hafey, baseball player (d. 1973)
- 1904 – Ted Mack, American television host (d. 1976)
- 1907 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (d. 1962)
- 1907 – Clifton C. Edom, American photojournalism educator (d. 1991)
- 1908 – Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Jacques Herbrand, French logician and mathematician (d. 1931)
- 1908 – August Neo, Estonian wrestler (d. 1982)
- 1909 – Sigmund Rascher, German Schutzstaffel doctor (d. 1945)
- 1911 – Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1994)
- 1911 – Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive (d. 1968)
- 1912 – R. F. Delderfield, English author (d. 1972)
- 1914 – Tex Beneke, American musician and band leader (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Arvid Pardo, Maltese diplomat, a.k.a. "Father of the Law of the Sea Conference" (d. 1999)
- 1915 – Andrew Goodpaster, American army general (d. 2005)
- 1915 – Lorne Greene, Canadian actor (d. 1987)
- 1916 – Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
- 1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 2009)
- 1917 – Raizo Matsuno, Japanese politician (d. 2006)
- 1918 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1994)
- 1919 – Forrest Tucker, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1920 – William Roscoe Estep, Baptist historian and professor (d. 2000)
- 1920 – Pran, Indian actor
- 1922 – Hussein Onn, Malaysian politician, Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
- 1922 – Guy F. Tozzoli, American architect (d. 2013)
- 1923 – Chaskel Besser, Orthodox rabbi (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director
- 1925 – Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (d. 1984)
- 1926 – Joe Garagiola, American baseball player and announcer
- 1926 – Charles Van Doren, American quiz show contestant
- 1930 – John Doyle, Irish hurler (d. 2010)
- 1930 – Arlen Specter, American politician (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch author (d. 2008)
- 1932 – Maurice Filion, Canadian ice hockey coach and manager
- 1932 – Axel Jensen, Norwegian author (d. 2003)
- 1932 – Julian Simon, American economist and author (d. 1998)
- 1933 – Costa-Gavras, Greek filmmaker
- 1934 – Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress
- 1934 – Anne Krueger, American economist
- 1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player
- 1935 – Gene McDaniels, American singer (d. 2011)
- 1935 – John Quimby, American politician (d. 2012)
- 1936 – Joe Don Baker, American actor
- 1936 – Paul Shenar, American actor
- 1937 – Charles Dumas, American athlete (d. 2004)
- 1938 – Judy Blume, American author
- 1938 – Peter Temple-Morris, Baron Temple-Morris, British politician
- 1939 – Akbar Adibi, Iranian engineer (d. 2000)
- 1939 – Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist (The Doors)
- 1940 – Ralph Bates, English actor (d. 1991)
- 1940 – Richard Lynch, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1941 – Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (d. 1984)
- 1942 – Ehud Barak, Israeli politician, Prime Minister of Israel
- 1942 – Pat Dobson, American baseball player (d. 2006)
- 1942 – Lionel Grigson, British jazz pianist, composer and educator (d. 1994)
- 1944 – Moe Bandy, American singer
- 1945 – Maud Adams, Swedish actress
- 1945 – Cliff DeYoung, American actor and musician (Clear Light)
- 1945 – David D. Friedman, American economist
- 1946 – Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Prime Minister of Gabon
- 1946 – Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer
- 1947 – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Indian leader of Damdami Taksal (d. 1984)
- 1947 – Jim Durham, American sportscaster (d. 2012)
- 1948 – Ray Kurzweil, American inventor and author
- 1948 – Mike Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1949 – Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, Canadian politician and activist
- 1949 – Enzo Hernández, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Joaquín Sabina, Spanish singer-songwriter
- 1950 – Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer and composer
- 1950 – Michael Ironside, Canadian actor
- 1950 – Steve Hackett, English guitarist (Genesis)
- 1951 – Steven Parent, Manson murder victim (d. 1969)
- 1952 – Simon MacCorkindale, British actor (d. 2010)
- 1952 – Michael McDonald, American musician
- 1953 – Joanna Kerns, American actress
- 1953 – Nabil Shaban, British actor
- 1953 – Robin Thomas, American actor
- 1954 – Joseph Jordania, Australian/Georgian evolutionary musicologist
- 1954 – Tzimis Panousis, Greek musician and stand-up comedian
- 1954 – Phil Zimmermann, American cryptographer
- 1955 – Bill Laswell, American bassist and record producer
- 1955 – Chet Lemon, American baseball player
- 1956 – Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host
- 1956 – Ad Melkert, Dutch politician
- 1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish musician (Thin Lizzy and Motörhead)
- 1957 – Willie Smits, Dutch trained forester, microbiologist, conservationist, animal rights activist and social entrepreneur
- 1958 – Grant McLennan, Australian musician (The Go-Betweens) (d. 2006)
- 1958 – Bobby Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1959 – Larry Nance, American basketball player
- 1959 – Dan Puric, Romanian actor, director and writer
- 1959 – Sigrid Thornton, Australian actress
- 1960 – George Gray, American professional wrestler
- 1961 – Tonnie Dirks, Dutch long distance runner
- 1961 – Jim Harris, Canadian politician
- 1961 – Michel Martelly, Haitian musician, businessman and politician
- 1962 – Jimmy Kirkwood, Irish-born field hockey player
- 1963 – Ed Lover, American radio personality
- 1963 – Jacqueline Woodson, American children's author
- 1964 – Michel Petit, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1965 – Rubén Amaro, Jr., American baseball player
- 1965 – Christine Elise, American actress
- 1965 – John Michael Higgins, American actor
- 1965 – David Westlake, English singer-songwriter and musician (The Servants)
- 1967 – Chris McKinstry, Canadian computer scientist
- 1967 – N. Ravikiran, Indian composer and musician
- 1968 – Josh Brolin, American actor
- 1968 – Gregory Charles, Canadian singer, dancer, pianist, radio and television host
- 1968 – Christopher McCandless, American nomad, subject of biography Into the Wild (d. 1992)
- 1968 – Chynna Phillips, American singer (Wilson Phillips)
- 1969 – Darren Aronofsky, American director and writer
- 1969 – Dean Bergeron, Canadian paralympic athlete
- 1969 – Hong Myung-Bo, Korean footballer
- 1969 – Meja, Swedish singer
- 1969 – Brad Werenka, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1970 – Jim Creeggan, Canadian bassist (Barenaked Ladies)
- 1970 – Bryan Roy, Dutch footballer
- 1970 – Judd Winick, writer and artist
- 1971 – Scott Menville American voice actor
- 1972 – Ajay Naidu, Indian-American actor
- 1972 – Owen Nolan, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1972 – Sophie Zelmani, Swedish singer/songwriter
- 1973 – Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater
- 1973 – Tara Strong, Canadian voice actress
- 1974 – Toranosuke Takagi, Japanese race car driver
- 1975 – Cliff Bleszinski, Design director for Epic Games
- 1975 – Scot Pollard, American basketball player
- 1976 – Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby union footballer
- 1976 – Silvia Saint, Czech pornographic actress
- 1977 – Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player
- 1977 – Raylene (Stacey Briana Bernstein), American pornographic actress
- 1978 – Brett Hodgson, Australian rugby league footballer
- 1978 – Gethin Jones, Welsh television presenter
- 1978 – Silver Meikar, Estonian politician
- 1979 – Antonio Chatman, American football player
- 1979 – Matt Mauck, American football player
- 1979 – Jesse Spencer, Australian actor
- 1980 – Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player
- 1980 – Sarah Lancaster, American actress
- 1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress
- 1981 – Lisa Hannigan, Irish singer
- 1981 – Loren Kreiss, American artist
- 1982 – Jonas Hiller, Swiss ice hockey player
- 1982 – Louis Tsatoumas, Greek long jumper
- 1982 – Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand All Black rugby player
- 1983 – Carlton Brewster, American football player
- 1984 – Lolly Badcock, English pornographic actress
- 1984 – Alexandra Dahlström, Swedish actress
- 1984 – Brad Keselowski, American racing car driver
- 1984 – Aylar Lie, Norwegian model
- 1984 – Tobias Schlauderer, German footballer
- 1984 – Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer
- 1985 – Saskia Burmeister, Australian actress
- 1988 – Nana Eikura, Japanese actress
- 1988 – Mike Posner, American singer, composer and producer
- 1990 – Moussa Koné, Ivorian footballer
- 1990 – Robert Griffin III, American football player
- 1991 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
- 1991 – Michael Schimpelsberger, Austrian footballer
- 1992 – Faisal bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, prince of Bahrain (d. 2006)
- 1993 – Jennifer Stone, American actress
- 1994 – Alex Galchenyuk, Russian American ice hockey player
- 1996 – Doménica González, Ecuadorian tennis player
[edit]Deaths
- 1538 – Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter
- 1554 – Lord Guildford Dudley, consort of Lady Jane Grey (b. 1536)
- 1554 – Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the English throne (b. 1537)
- 1571 – Nicholas Throckmorton, English diplomat and politician (b. 1515)
- 1590 – François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (b. 1524)
- 1612 – Christopher Clavius, German astronomer (b. 1538)
- 1624 – George Heriot, Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist (b. 1563)
- 1630 – Fynes Moryson, English traveler and writer (b. 1566)
- 1692 – Hendrick Hamel, Dutch sailor and writer (b. 1630)
- 1700 – Aleksei Shein, Russian general and statesman (b. 1662)
- 1724 – Elkanah Settle, English writer (b. 1648)
- 1728 – Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat and composer (b. 1653)
- 1762 – Laurent Belissen, French composer (b. 1693)
- 1763 – Pierre de Marivaux, French writer (b. 1688)
- 1771 – Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (b. 1710)
- 1789 – Ethan Allen, American patriot (b. 1738)
- 1799 – Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist (b. 1729)
- 1804 – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (b. 1724)
- 1834 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German philosopher (b. 1768)
- 1894 – Hans von Bülow, German pianist and composer (b. 1830)
- 1896 – Ambroise Thomas, French opera composer (b. 1811)
- 1915 – Émile Waldteufel, French composer (b. 1837)
- 1916 – Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (b. 1831)
- 1920 – Aurore Gagnon, Victim of child abuse (b. 1909)
- 1929 – Lillie Langtry, British singer and actress (b. 1853)
- 1931 – Samad bey Mehmandarov, Russian general (b. 1855)
- 1933 – Henri Duparc, French composer (b. 1848)
- 1935 – Georges Auguste Escoffier, French chef (b. 1846)
- 1942 – Avraham Stern, Jewish paramilitary leader (b. 1907)
- 1942 – Grant Wood, American painter (b.1891)
- 1942 – Eugene Esmonde, British pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross (b. 1909)
- 1943 – Claude Jameson, American soccer player (b. 1886)
- 1945 – Walraven van Hall, a Dutch banker and resistance leader during the occupation of the Netherlands in World War II (b. 1906)
- 1945 – Antonio Villa-Real, Filipino jurist (b. 1880)
- 1947 – Moses Gomberg, Russian-born American chemist (b. 1866)
- 1949 – Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
- 1954 – Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896)
- 1957 – Eric Alfred Knudsen, American folklorist (b. 1872)
- 1958 – Douglas Hartree, English mathematical physicist (b. 1897)
- 1960 – Jean-Michel Atlan, French painter (b. 1913)
- 1961 – Branko Miljković, Serbian poet (b. 1934)
- 1969 – Paltiel Daykan, Russian-born Israeli jurist (b. 1885)
- 1970 – Ishman Bracey, American blues musician (b. 1901)
- 1971 – James C. Penney, American department store founder (b. 1875)
- 1976 – Sal Mineo, American actor (b. 1939)
- 1977 – Herman Dooyeweerd, Dutch philosopher (b. 1894)
- 1979 – Jean Renoir, French director (b. 1894)
- 1980 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (b. 1913)
- 1982 – Victor Jory, Canadian actor (b. 1902)
- 1983 – Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1887)
- 1983 – Jan Klaassens, Dutch footballer (b. 1931)
- 1984 – Anna Anderson, claimant to the throne of Russia (b. 1896)
- 1984 – Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
- 1985 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924)
- 1989 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian playwright and novelist (b. 1931)
- 1991 – Roger Patterson, American death metal bass player (Atheist) (b. 1968)
- 1992 – Roy Slemon, Canadian military officer (b. 1904)
- 1992 – Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (b. 1907)
- 1994 – Sue Rodriguez, Canadian assisted suicide advocate (b. 1950)
- 1995 – Philip Taylor Kramer, American musician (Iron Butterfly) (b. 1952)
- 1998 – Gardner Ackley, American economist (b.1915)
- 1999 – Toni Fisher, American pop singer (b. 1931)
- 2000 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American musician (b. 1929)
- 2000 – Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
- 2000 – Andy Lewis, Australian musician (b. 1967)
- 2000 – Charles M. Schulz, American comics author (b. 1922)
- 2000 – Oliver, American pop singer (b. 1945)
- 2001 – Tiberio Mitri, Italian boxer (b. 1926)
- 2001 – Kristina Söderbaum, German actress (b. 1912)
- 2002 – John Eriksen, Danish footballer (b. 1957)
- 2003 – Vali Myers, Australian painter (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Sammi Smith, American country music singer (b. 1943)
- 2005 – Dorothy Stang, Brazilian nun (b. 1931)
- 2005 – Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete (b. 1964)
- 2007 – Peggy Gilbert, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1905)
- 2007 – Randy Stone, American actor and casting director (b. 1958)
- 2007 – Eldee Young, American jazz player (Ramsey Lewis Trio) (b. 1936)
- 2008 – Oscar Brodney, American screenwriter (b. 1907)
- 2009 – notable victims of Colgan Air Flight 3407:
- Alison Des Forges, American investigator of the Rwanda genocide (b. 1942)
- Beverly Eckert, American co-chair of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee (b. 1951)
- Mat Mathews, Dutch jazz accordionist (b. 1924)
- Coleman Mellett, American musician (b. 1974)
- Gerry Niewood, American musician (b. 1943)
- Claude Nollier, French actress (b. 1919)
- 2010 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (b. 1988)
- 2011 – Peter Alexander, Austrian singer, actor, entertainer (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Mato Damjanović, Croatian chess grandmaster (b. 1927)
- 2011 – Betty Garrett, American actress and dancer (b. 1919)
- 2011 – Fedor den Hertog, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1946)
- 2011 – Kenneth Mars, American actor and voice actor (b. 1935)
- 2012 – David Kelly, Irish actor (b. 1929)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Darwin Day (International)
- Georgia Day (Georgia (U.S. state))
- Lincoln's Birthday (United States)
- National Freedom to Marry Day, unofficial (United States)
- Red Hand Day (United Nations)
- Union Day (Myanmar)
- Youth Day (Venezuela)
===
Australian retirees are being dudded
Piers Akerman – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (4:08am)
AUSTRALIAN retirees are being slugged compared to those in six of eight of the more advanced nations, a new study has found.
No-one should be surprised.
What was a good idea has been rorted and corrupted by Labor (even though Labor introduced compulsory super) as it tries to find money to meet its burgeoning deficit.
The international consultants, Mercer, found Canada, Chile, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the US and the UK all had more generous tax treatment of retirees while Denmark and Sweden provided lower benefits – but spent more on pensions than Australia.
According to a report in The Australian, Mercer found Australia is the only country of all nine to charge a tax rate on employer contributions, at 15 per cent, and the only one not to offer employee tax deductible contributions. It’s also one of three to have a tax rate on investment income.
It found that the net retirement benefit of an average British worker was 16.4 per cent - or $43,534 - higher than their Australian counterpart.
Australia has the lowest contribution cap - at $25,000 per annum - which is significantly short of other countries when expressed as a percentage of average earnings.
Australia has the lowest contribution cap - at $25,000 per annum - which is significantly short of other countries when expressed as a percentage of average earnings.
“We believe increasing concessional caps, particularly for those aged over 45 should be a priority for government, rather than reducing super tax concessions,” Mercer managing director David Anderson said.
“Higher superannuation benefits due to increased contributions, improved investment returns or lower taxation will lead to less pressure from the ageing population in future budgets.”
Labor plays the politics of envy and has systematically reduced the amount of money that can put aside even though self-funded retirees reduce the burden on the state and the cost of administering super regulations is greater than the revenue the government receives.
.The government claims there is a cost of $32 billion in so-called “tax concessions” given to taxpayers but that ignores the benefit of removing the burden from government of retirees who fund their own retirement.
Super is ripe for reform. Even taking it back to the model former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating installed would be better than the current corrupted system.
But Prime Minister Gillard’s failed Treasurer Wayne Swan and his henchman, Bill Shorten, are circling Australian super savings like Eddie Obeid over a coal field.
Watch your wallets and watch your super when this gang is on the move.
===
Wiping smiles off their faces
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (8:01pm)
IAN Macdonald pushed determinedly through the media scrum outside the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s headquarters Tuesday morning with a peculiar smile fixed on his face.
===
I VISIT WORLDS AND QUESTION THINGS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (6:40pm)
Reading the Sydney Morning Herald makes a young woman with evident psychological issues leap off a building:
===
MALI SMILES
Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (1:18pm)
Quote of the day from a young Malian, whose nation is being liberated from Islamist oppression by French forces:
The crowd gawked at human torso remains lying in the rubble, along with other fragments of flesh.“It’s disgusting but wonderful to see. These people tortured us, they did nothing but damage here,” said Mahamane Tandina, 24, cheered on by the crowd.“We like this, frankly,” he said with a smile.
Quite so.
===
SIR DAVE COOLED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (12:03pm)
Warmies always exaggerate, and they always get busted:
The BBC has backed down over Sir David Attenborough’s widely contested claim that parts of the world have warmed by 3.5C over the last two decades.The comment, first broadcast in the final episode of the Africa series last Wednesday, was removed from Sunday night’s repeat of the show.
Local warmies just keep banging on, however.
===
HAPPY PEOPLE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (11:56am)
Press release from the University of Queensland:
A research team from UQ Psychology conducted a study among 816 undergraduate students at the University to identify why conservatives were reportedly “happy” and their liberal counterparts were not.UQ Psychology Professor Jolanda Jetten said the findings indicated that conservatives were happier than liberals due to greater access to social capital, a great source of well-being.“The difference in happiness between conservatives and liberals came to light in 2006, when the Pew Research Center found that Republicans were much more likely to report being ‘very happy’ than Democrats,” Professor Jetten said.“In 2008, New York University psychologists Jaime Napier and John Jost were the first to attempt to explain this difference in happiness, arguing that the happiness gap is caused by the difference in ideology between conservatives and liberals.“In particular, they argued that conservative ideology has a palliative (system-justifying) function that protects conservatives’ (but not liberals’) happiness.“Our study found no evidence that system-justifying ideology accounted for the relationship between conservatism and life satisfaction.“It appears that what makes conservatives happy is not conservative ideology but rather their social and material advantage – the same advantage that makes conservative ideology appealing in the first place.”
Just a theory, but the key may be giving up being jealous of others’ wealth. It’s the first step in curing leftism.
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TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH HIS FAMILY
Tim Blair – Monday, February 11, 2013 (10:40pm)
Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation. I didn’t know he was a Labor MP.
UPDATE. He’s been in charge since 2005, but the SMH still can’t get his name right:
UPDATE II. In less-important SMH nomenclature news, singer Gotye’s stupid stage name is – according to the linked video – pronounced guy-it-tay. Apparently the chap’s preferred pronunciation is “gore-ti-yeah”, although friends and family know him as Wally.
UPDATE II. In less-important SMH nomenclature news, singer Gotye’s stupid stage name is – according to the linked video – pronounced guy-it-tay. Apparently the chap’s preferred pronunciation is “gore-ti-yeah”, although friends and family know him as Wally.
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Richo: it could be Rudd by the Ides of March - or just after
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(4:42pm)
Graham Richardson on Ben Fordham’s show this afternoon said Kevin Rudd could have the numbers to topple Gillard by the end of next month.
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Rudd blames Gillard, Swan for dud tax
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(4:23pm)
Of course it’s their fault:
KEVIN Rudd says Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard must bear the responsibility for Labor’s mining tax and deal with the consequences its near non-existent revenue.The former prime minister said the government must now be mindful of the undertakings it gave the mining industry when recasting the tax after he was deposed as Labor leader…“I think in terms of any future changes to the tax, given the fact that it has not collected any real revenue of any significance so far, that really is for the Prime Minister and for the Treasurer to consider, and I’ll leave it with them,” Mr Rudd told Sky News.He said history would judge whether Ms Gillard and Mr Swan gave away too much in their negotiations with mining companies.
Then there are the other idiocies, like spending the expected revenue before actually collecting - giving away billions in handouts to be paid for by a tax that’s so far raised just $126 million.
Rudd is enjoying this. He remembers how Wayne Swan bungled the initial tax, shoved the blame onto Rudd and then helped to knife him. The new tax is what Swan then negotiated with Gillard’s help, giving the big miners concessions that were always going to leave the Government with empty hands.
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Alarmist Carr sees seas rising where measurements don’t
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(4:00pm)
Australia will give $15 million to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati towards the cost of rebuilding a main road damaged by rising sea levels…“Kiribati is at the front line of climate change,” Senator Carr said in a statement on Monday, adding its highest point is now just three metres above sea level.
A new paper published in the AGU’s house journal Eos Transactions shows why caution is often justified. Here (via a screengrab, as the entire thing is behind a password) is the 1993-2011 sea level trend data from Tarawa atoll, part of Kiribati in the central Pacific:Whoa! No sea-level rise there, then. And yet of course climate campaigners – and even the Kiribati government – understandably anxious to highlight the future existential threat to the islands, have used storm surges, flooding events and suchlike as evidence of current sea-level rise impacts. Which they are almost certainly not, at least not in Tarawa atoll anyway.
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(Thanks to reader Mark and others.)
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Yet another boat people failure. Spare us
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(12:43pm)
The Gillard Government has many failures to its name, but boat people policy surely is its most spectacular. Today, two more farces.
First, another scheme, a desperate attempt to empty detention centres, collapses through government bungling and the pickiness of boat people:
THE federal government’s much-heralded “homestay” program for asylum seekers has collapsed, with just four people who have arrived on boats currently staying with Australian families…Australian Homestay Network executive chairman David Bycroft said host families had been left “disappointed” after services providers for asylum seekers slowed placements to a trickle.The hearing heard the program was on a “hiatus” until the Department of Immigration could place asylum seekers with hosts close to services. He said in some cases boat people wanted to be closer to their friends…Former immigration minister Chris Bowen and the Homestay Network agreed host families would be paid almost $300 a week if they housed two asylum seekers. There were 600 asylum seekers placed but the program has suddenly come to a near halt after just 34 placements so far this year and currently only four people are staying in family homes.
Second: the family of a people smuggler who fled after being exposed as a phoney “refugee” still manages to stay here:
The revelation, at a Senate budget estimates hearing, came as immigration officials admitted the children and ex-wife of alleged people smuggling kingpin Captain Emad remain in Australia on visas despite having deceived the government about the status of their father and husband.... (I)mmigration official Robert Illingworth told the hearing that although Mr Bowen had cancelled the permanent protection visas of Captain Emad’s family they had been allowed to stay on other visas.
Astonishing. No wonder boat people arrivals so far this year are at record levels, after a record year.
UPDATE
That first failure has shown up the “compassion” lobby. As I noted last year when the homestay scheme was announced;
(Thanks to readers John, Dani, Mike and others.)
UPDATE
From reader Royston Mitchell, this inside look:
• Indonesian ‘recidivist’ crew are returning for a second or third time to Christmas Island. In the last week alone, TWO crew were identified as recidivists; one has a serious criminal record in Australia. They are returning because there is no longer any penalty for arriving as an Indonesian people smuggler under Australian law (since August 2012)• Visa applicants in the Middle East are turning up on Christmas Island while their applications are still pending. In several cases over the last year, applicants have arrived on Christmas Island as asylum seekers because they have gotten tired of waiting to be granted, or have been refused. The message across the region is now clear: it is far easier to arrive via Christmas Island than apply through legitimate channels and wait for an outcome• The department of immigration is aware of a number of person who have arrived on Christmas Island claiming to be Afghan asylum seekers, but are actually Pakistani citizens. Their protection visas have been granted protection on the basis that they are Afghans fleeing persecution. No action has been taken against these persons as yet.
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Useless scheme, massive waste, fraudsters let off
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(12:38pm)
Ah, what the hell. It’s not as if it’s the politicians’ own cash anyway:
Nearly $14 million owed by companies believed to have wrongly claimed subsidies under the failed scheme has been written off, a senate estimates hearing was told yesterday.
(Thanks to reader Darren and others.)
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Warmists snowed under again
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(12:05pm)
2000 - a prediction from the centre of global warming alarmism:
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.”Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
2000: a prediction from Professor Mojib Latif of Germany’s GEOMAR Heimholtz Centre for Ocean Research:
2008 - another prediction:
A study of snowfall spanning 60 years has indicated that the Alps’s entire winter sports industry could grind to a halt through lack of snow.It found a dramatic “step-like” drop in snowfall at the end of the 1980s which has never recovered, New Scientist magazine reported.... In some years the amount that fell was 60 per cent lower than was typical in the early 1980s, said Christoph Marty, from the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos, who analysed the records.
But in 2013:
A ski station in the French Pyrénées has had to temporarily shut down because there has been too much snow… Since the beginning of winter, Cauterets has had 15 metres of snow in total, the French television channel TF1 reported on Friday. Local residents say this winter has seen the heaviest snowfalls in 30 years.
The weather seems to be contradicting Viner et al every single year. How many more years before he admits he was wrong?
(Thanks to reader Lee.)
(Thanks to reader Lee.)
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France’s easy victory isn’t
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(9:21am)
When French and Malian forces captured the town of Kidal last week, Islamist militants lost control of the last major town in northern Mali. Yet the battle continues despite France’s success at capturing the cities as the militants have moved to the vast, empty mountains in the north. African and French forces have begun to push forward to flush the Islamists out of their last desert strongholds, but they’re discovering that fighting in this inhospitable terrain is considerably more difficult than the urban combat they’ve seen so far. . . .The fun part of the Mali war is over, but the war itself has only just begun. The bombing raids that wipe out enemy formations, the fall of cities, the parades with the kisses and flowers: All that is pretty much over and done with, but the enemy survives and will be heard from again.
An explosion shook the largest city in northern Mali early on Monday, hours after Islamist gunmen battled French and Malian troops and following two suicide bombings in two days.Malian troops said the blast appeared to have been in the north of Gao, possibly near the checkpoint at the city’s northern entrance that was the target of the suicide bombings on Friday and Saturday.Islamist gunmen attacked Gao on Sunday, intensifying their insurgency on territory reclaimed by French-led forces.
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Cambridge tells witnesses to AWU scandal to speak up
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(8:49am)
Former AWU secretary Ian Cambridge once called for a royal commission into the alleged frauds of Julia Gillard’s then boyfriend.
Now a Fair Work Australia commissioner, he is not backing off:
Cambridge ... told The Australian it was vitally important for witnesses to help an escalating investigation by detectives from Victoria Police’s fraud and extortion squad.Mr Cambridge named his former AWU boss, federal president Bill Ludwig, among the people who should help police investigating the fraud allegedly committed in the 1990s by former union official Bruce Wilson.“I want it put on the record that I will fully co-operate with police investigations and I will provide police with all the information that I have,” Mr Cambridge said yesterday in Sydney. “The other point is that I urge all the other individuals who are connected with this matter to do the same...”In the mid-1990s, Mr Ludwig wanted Mr Wilson, then an AWU official in Victoria, prosecuted for the alleged fraud involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr Wilson, who at the time was Ms Gillard’s boyfriend and client at the law firm Slater & Gordon, has denied wrongdoing.Mr Cambridge publicly urged a royal commission into the corruption in 1995… Mr Cambridge said yesterday he still stood by “what I said at the time"…In 1995, Mr Ludwig also publicly backed and joined Mr Cambridge’s efforts to have Mr Wilson and AWU corruption investigated by police and even a royal commission. However, Mr Ludwig pledged the union’s support for Ms Gillard in 2010, leading to her ousting Kevin Rudd as prime minister. The AWU is no longer pressing police to investigate the scandal…A large part of the fraud was allegedly perpetrated by Mr Wilson using an entity, the AWU Workplace Reform Association, which was established on legal advice from Ms Gillard, then a partner at Slater & Gordon in Melbourne.Neither Mr Cambridge nor the AWU, for whom Ms Gillard was acting as a solicitor, knew of the existence of the association that she later described as a union “slush fund"…Ms Gillard has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insisted she was not aware of the workings of the association.
Are Gillard’s supporters blind about where all this may lead to and what it may do to the Labor party?
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The ABC should follow the law, not its “common sense”
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(8:29am)
The letter of the law is clear, and for broadcasting purposes the election campaign period has started - even if the ABC is now trying to rewrite the rules that bind it:
THE nation’s commercial television industry has ruled that the election campaign has begun and declared that all political advertising will now be officially vetted.FreeTV, the body representing the commercial television networks, has told political parties that sections of the Broadcasting Services Act covering election campaigns have been triggered.“As a result of the Prime Minister’s announcement of the election date as 14 September, 2013, we are now formally in an election period, as defined at clause 1 of Schedule 2 to the Broadcasting Services Act,” FreeTV Commercials Advice said in a letter to the Liberal Party’s federal director, Brian Loughnane.Legal experts have told The Australian they agree with the ruling and believe television and radio stations will have to meet the obligations under the law, although they already say they provide balanced coverage as a matter of course.
The first clause of Schedule 2 of the Broadcasting Services Act is indeed clear on this point:
“election period” means:(a) in relation to an election to the Legislative Council of Tasmania, or an ordinary election to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory--the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day; and(b) in relation to any other election to a Parliament--the period that starts on:(ii) the day on which the writs for the election are issued;whichever happens first…
As I noted last week, the Australian Broadcasting Act includes exactly the same definition - that the election campaign starts when the writs are issued or when the “proposed polling day for the election is publicly announced”, whichever comes first.
Gillard herself has said she “announced” the date nearly two weeks ago:
So, today I announce that I will advise the Governor-General to dissolve the House of Representatives and to issue writs on Monday the 12th of August, for an election for the House and half the Senate to be held on Saturday, the 14th of September.
But the ABC decides to follow its own “common sense” - rather than the law:
ABC managing director Mark Scott yesterday confirmed the national broadcaster had decided the election period would not begin until the writs were issued on August 12 for a general election. Mr Scott said the broadcaster would take a “commonsense” approach.“For all practical purposes, we will treat the election campaign period as running from the issuing of the writs to the close of polling,” he said.
Scott should consult the law rather than his “common sense”. If the law is nuts, let the Government alter it. Until then, the ABC should consider itself bound by it.
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A degree of uselessness
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(8:13am)
Analysis of 2006 census data last year by Mike Dockery and Paul Miller from Curtin University found that more than one in 10 workers has spent longer in education than they needed to qualify for their job. Among clerical and administrative workers, up to 35 per cent in some occupations have spent more years than required in education.Thus, even before we reach the Bradley review’s 40 per cent target, we find ourselves in the dystopia of ubiquitous higher education described by Pierre Ryckmans in his 1996 Boyer Lecture. The reckoning would be complete, warned Ryckmans, “on the day - now not very distant - when we shall see universities of catering, car driving instruction and carmaking”.
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Why did the Govenment choose no sportswomen - or Keneally - to pose as the guilty?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(7:49am)
Why did the Gillard Government not include a single woman on stage to represent the guilty?
As I asked on 2GB last night: why did the Government summon only five men, representing five essentially male sporting codes, to stand on a stage last week as representatives of the guilty while two grandstanding ministers banged on about sport’s day of shame?
Up on stage were not just male administrators representing the AFL and NRL, but men representing soccer, cricket and rugby union, against which no allegations have been made. The only women there were the “goodies” - Sports Minister Kate Lundy and drug agency boss Aurora Andruska.
Where were the female administrators of netball and softball? Where were women representing our swimmers, tennis players, basketballers or hockey teams? Or would that have cut across the Government’s other campaign - to drag in the women’s vote?
It’s not as if it couldn’t have found a woman prepared to help out Labor with another stunt:
Basketball Australia today announced former New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally will be appointed as the organisation’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective 3 August 2012.
How awkward that would have been for Labor, to have a former NSW Premier included in a line-up of sports officials representing allegedly corrupted Australian sport. Can’t think why her invitation went missing.
In fact, the evidence is mounting that the Government last week destroyed the good name of Australian sport around the world for no good reason - simply for political advantage. It made all athletes look suspect. It made all codes look potentially riddled with corruption. It made all sponsors nervous about their investment. It made all betting agencies seem dogged by match fixing.
But where’s the evidence to justify this damage?
On our 2GB show, former Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones said he was amazed at the lack of hard evidence to back up the claims of widespread doping and of matchfixing. He’s just returned from South Africa, where he said the smear on our sport was widely reported and greeted by people he spoke to as the explanation for our sporting prowess.
On 7.30 last night, the sole man so far identified as a subject of the thin report being touted by the Government strongly argued that he had administered no illegal substances to athletes:
[Reporter] CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Did you inject any Essendon players with a prohibited substance?STEVE DANK: No…CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How then were peptides applied?…STEVE DANK: Look, as I said, I’m not gonna go through the specifics of the whole program… Even within the protein powders themselves, there could’ve been anywhere from maybe three to four different peptides that were part of the ingredients… But again, all very, very legal and certainly all within the constraints of WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency]…CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: ... In September, Steve Dank was interviewed at length by the ACC.STEVE DANK: They obviously were quite happy with what I had discussed with them and I figured that that must’ve been consistent with whatever information that they’d had. And they’d indicated to me that they were happy with that information.CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How did the ACC indicate that to you? What were the words they used?STEVE DANK: Oh, they said they didn’t think that I’d done anything wrong.
The Minister for Justice, who oversees the ACC among other agencies, is supposed to be responsible for matters relating to the security of life within Australia. He is not expected to be an investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury whose public advocacy happily coincides with the perpetual 24/7 news cycle. The Minister for Sport is responsible for supporting sport from the grassroots to the professional levels. She is not expected to hector and threaten sporting organisations.Yet, in an extraordinary media conference in Parliament House last Thursday, Clare and Lundy stood at podiums with the ACC chief executive, John Lawler, and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chief executive, Aurora Andruska, nearby. Flanking them was what seemed like an old fashioned police identification line-up…The ACC’s report does not justify its media-grabbing title Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport. If organised crime has established such ‘’a tangible and expanding footprint’’ as the report suggests, then you would expect it would have come to the attention of the Australian Federal Police and its state and territory counterparts…Clare and Lundy used the report as a platform to lecture-at-large about the unspecified involvement of organised crime and the undocumented prevalence of illegal drugs in unnamed sporting organisations. Initially, Clare declared ‘’the findings are shocking and they’ll disgust Australian sports fans’’. In fact, the ACC did not make specific findings and its conclusion is vague…Then Lundy proclaimed a threat: ‘’For those that wish to ruin the games that we love, the government has a simple message; if you want to cheat we will catch you, if you want to fix a match we will catch you.’’ There is virtually no evidence of match fixing in Australia. In any event, the role of government is to make laws. It is up to police to catch alleged law breakers, not politicians.
UPDATE
Thanks to reader Frank for reminding me of Kristina Keneally’s new job. That snippet has now been included in my original post above.
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Pope Benedict resigns, the job too much
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(7:20am)
In a letter to his Catholic brethren Pope Benedict, 85, said his advanced age and the pace of change in the modern world had left him unable to “adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me”.
I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter…Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects.
John Moody, biographer of Pope John Paul 2:
From the moment he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s on April 19, 2005, to greet the faithful, Benedict XVI faced an insurmountable problem: He was not John Paul II.Benedict’s decision to resign the papacy is being blamed on his age – nearly 86 – and his health – never robust. He might just as well have been diagnosed with a broken papal heart.Because his nearly eight years on the Throne of the Fisherman never really produced the results he hoped for. He did not unite the conservative and progressive wings of the Catholic Church. He did not re-establish its place in Europe, the work of a previous Pope Benedict and the reason he took that name. Nor did he expand its foothold in Asia, cement its dominance in Latin America, or make serious inroads in Africa. And he did not bring to fruition the ecumenical understanding with other major faiths that he hoped would bloom during his reign.Benedict faced nearly impossible odds, even before he was elected. Joseph Ratzinger—his given name—was already white-haired and stooped when he became pope… But what stymied him was who he isn’t.His Polish predecessor as Pope, Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, exploded into worldwide prominence and popularity in 1978 as a strong, smiling face for a church that had not elected a non-Italian for nearly 500 years… Then, John Paul revealed his true nature: a brilliant, conservative theologian, a master politician and historian, a nonpareil philosopher, a polished performer thanks to his youthful acting career, an unapologetic anti-communist, and an inveterate traveler. He also didn’t mind showing off… And he never stopped talking, in any of the seven or eight languages he spoke fluently, about how God loves us.By contrast, Benedict’s meek initial outings were public relations meltdowns.
He was a fine theologian and a gifted teacher but a truly terrible administrator, with little sense of how to marshal the vast but disparate resources which the papacy commands.
[Kelly] says Benedict XVI will go down in history as one of “the very great Popes"…The Archbishop described Benedict XVI as “a great listener” and “somebody who is able to give you a wider perspective and make you aware of things that just hadn’t crossed your mind”.He praised the Pope for being “vigorous” on the issue of child abuse throughout his career: “He took the strongest possible action and guided us into a very different future.”
I wonder if the Pope saw this lovely film on a runaway pontiff:
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More reason for Emerson to apologise for being wrong about global warming
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY122013(6:59am)
Attention Craig Emerson, Minister for Trade in the government which gave us the carbon tax.
Last week you claimed I was wrong to say the world hadn’t warmed for 16 years.
So I showed you even the IPCC couldn’t find any measurement showing any statistically significant warming for around that period.
You refused to apologise or retract.
So I showed you an easy-to-read graphic showing no statistically significant warming for between nearly 16 years and 23 years, depending on the measurement used.
You refused to apologise or retract.
Today I will try again. Professor Sinclair Davidson has recalculated the temperature of the past 18 years using HADCRUT3 data and agrees: from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming.
Craig, will you now apologise and retract?
Minister, when the facts change, do you change your opinion?
UPDATE
Cut & Paste helps Emerson by summing up in an easy-to-read way the counter-evidencehe must address.
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but .. but when would I discuss ALP policy?
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@Joe_Hildebrand: BREAKING: Macdonald accused of obstruction in ICAC after answering all questions about farm holdings with "E-I-E-I-O".
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I hate making projects that look dull, cheap and 'community', i opt for making projects that demonstrates that the community are capable of producing innovative, epic outcomes that can engage audiences! - Maria Tran
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Latest Morgan Poll, just out .............
The L-NP primary vote is 45% (up 2.5%), clearly ahead of the ALP 33.5% (down 5%).
2 party prefered - Coalition 56% v Labor 44%.
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Labor's hypocrisy: 1. Foreign Minister Bob Carr visits Kiribati pledging $15 million of taxpayers money to fix roads caused by rising sea levels and to lobby the UN for action on climate change. 2. Along with three other massive coal and gas projects, Environment Minister Tony Burke approves the Maules Creek open-cut coal mine, which alone will emit more carbon pollution each year than the whole of New Zealand and put Kiribati and other island nations at increased risk. I say the best lobbying Bob Carr could do on climate change is back at home within his own Labor party.
http://catefaehrmann.org/
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It's the Hassidinator !
Only in Israel
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OUR PRIME MINISTER IS A CROOK Part X by Larry Pickering
For the first time in Australia’s history we are now witnessing a sitting Prime Minister seeking re-election while under investigation by a major fraud squad. The Left of the Press still shows no interest.
The Victorian Fraud Squad is not investigating Blewitt, Wilson, Bill the Greek, Bill Shorten or anyone else except... The Honorable Ms Julia Eileen Gillard.
Sacked for attempting to expose Gillard, radio jock Michael Smith filed a complaint against her, and only her.
Smith, an ex cop, knows his business and is certain to have had his paperwork in order.
A mountain of evidence involves central character Gillard and a comprehensive prima facie case will shortly be dumped on the desk of the Public Prosecutor.
Fraud squads do not react to innuendo, rumour or smear, only evidence and the diligence and confidence it has exhibited so far suggest charges are imminent.
Media Lefties who are still clinging to the line, “this story is going nowhere”, might like to consider the following:
Ralph Blewitt has returned twice from Asia to give further evidence.
Bob Kernohan has spent considerable time at St Kilda Road headquarters.
Former partner in Slater & Gordon, Nick Styant-Browne has refuted Peter Gordon’s account surrounding Gillard’s dismissal, stating it was “stunningly incomplete”. He also has been interviewed.
Bruce Wilson’s bodyguard, Vassilis Telikostoglou (or Bill the Greek bullshit artist as Gillard refers to him) has returned from Greece.
A dozen detectives have spent time is NSW and five days in QLD interrogating Gillard’s paralegal assistant at the time, Olive Brosnahan.
Tim Daly, ex WA AWU Secretary says he has boxes of evidence under lock and key. He said he, “...knew this matter would one day rear its ugly head”. Mr Daly has given evidence.
Ian Cambridge and the ALP’s Rob McClelland, authors of the comprehensive and explosive "Cambridge Affidavit", are damning of Julia Gillard.
Cambridge, a FWA Commissioner, originally said he was unable to comment, later saying he would stand by his affidavit.
He has now agreed to cooperate fully with detectives and is encouraging others to do the same.
Cambridge has already been interviewed.
Sacked Attorney General, McClelland is also expected to cooperate.
Federal Court Judge Bernard Murphy (a Gillard appointment) will also be interviewed.
The extent and veracity of existing evidence invariably promotes further evidence in what is now an unstoppable, expanding snowball of damning evidence against Gillard.
The cooperation of the AWU’s culpable Paul Howes, Bill Ludwig and Bill Shorten is not so assured.
Craig Thomson of the HSU has been charged with 154 offences including fraud. He continues to sit in Parliament and Gillard continues to accept his tainted vote.
But can a Prime Minister facing numerous fraud charges stay seated?
Can she claim she has done nothing wrong while competing on the hustings for re-election? Extremely unlikely.
That would be unprecedented but Gillard would do that if she was allowed to.
Fortunately she can expect a tap on the shoulder very shortly.
She will be the last person to be asked for an interview and she will likely refuse to cooperate in yet a further example of poor judgment.
A refusal to be interviewed would invite a possible embarrassing trip to a Police Station and a strip search followed by a court appearance and an application for bail. Just ask another sitting MP, Craig Thomson.
We have witnessed daily an array of diversionary tactics but Gillard cannot escape the inevitable.
The Press meanwhile is besotted with NSW’s Obeid and Macdonald.
Rudd also attracts their relentless interest as he circles like a confused shark. He smells blood in the water but is unsure if he wants a fight, a feed or a f**k.
Meanwhile, this far bigger story is gathering a head of steam and about to blow Parliament House off its foundations while the Left of the Press yawns in stoic denial.
The Press insists, nonchalantly, that the Victorian Fraud Squad is boringly investigating a range of people. That is incorrect.
Evidence has been taken from a range of people but there is only one person of interest, there is only one person a complaint has been levelled against, there is only one person under investigation, and that’s Julia Eileen Gillard.
The Fraud Squad has implied they are thrilled with their progress and hopes to have its case wrapped up in weeks.
Their case will revolve primarily around four criminal actions “allegedly” committed by Gillard. There are many others but these four are the easiest to prove.
1: Gillard as a solicitor had acted to facilitate fraud on her employer’s own client, the AWU.
Gillard will say she was taking instructions from the AWU (Blewitt and Wilson). This claim will not hold water and naivete can be no excuse this time. As a solicitor she was the guiding and advisory entity. There were a number of due diligence steps she should, and could, have taken as a solicitor but omitted to because, by taking those steps she would have alerted her employer and its client to the fraud.
Likely outcome? Guilty as charged.
Crimes Act 1958 - SECT 86 (2): A person who dishonestly, with a view to gain for himself or herself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, by any deception procures the execution of a valuable security is guilty of an indictable offence.
Level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum)
2: A false document.
Gillard produced a false document, namely an “Association” designed to facilitate fraud on her employer’s client, the AWU.
It was named as a vehicle for “workplace reform”. Recently Gillard claimed it was a “slush fund” holding funds used for election of unionists, but the document with her own handwriting notates it as, “The Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association”.
It was clearly meant to be neither. It was to be used for, and was duly used for, defrauding Gillard’s employer’s major client, the AWU. No file was opened, no charges for work done were made so as not to alert her employers or their major client. Gillard was sacked when the charade was discovered. But it was too late, by then over $1million dollars had passed through 13 different bank accounts and had disappeared. Gillard will claim there is no proof other than Blewitt’s testimony. Not true. There were two other people present at the Slater & Gordon office when she drew up that false document, Senior Partner Bernard Murphy and Bruce Wilson. Senior Equity Partner Jonathan Rothfield (who underwrote the mortgage on the Kerr Street property) was also briefly present.
When the extent of the fraud became evident, Slater & Gordon, Gillard, Wilson and the AWU itself went to ground. The other rats immediately scattered and soon there was no involved person left working for Slater & Gordon. Peter Gordon left, Bernard Murphy shot through to Maurice Blackburn to continue ripping off insurance claimants. Rothfield disappeared while the uninvolved, diminutive Adam Bandt went quietly about his business. Gillard wasn’t seen for the next six months and never tried to renew her Practising Certificate. When the matter was raised in the Victorian Parliament a massive cover-up ensued as it was clearly a damning indictment on everyone involved. It had remained covered up until Julia Gillard, as PM, and in another display of exquisite judgment insisted two journalists be sacked for daring to expose it.
Likely outcome? Guilty as charged.
Crimes Act 1958 - SECT 83A
Falsification of documents
(5B) A person must not, with the intention that another person may commit an offence against subsection (1), make, or have in his or her custody, or under his or her control, a machine or implement, or paper or other material, which is, and which he or she knows to be, specially designed or adapted for the making of a document which, if made by that other person, would be false.
Penalty: Level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).
3: Misleading the WA Corporate Affairs Commissioner.
When an initial attempt to mislead the WA Commissioner failed, Gillard wrote to him offering the bona fides of Slater & Gordon as a guarantee that the proposed “Association” was legitimate. That letter has disappeared from the Commission’s files. If that letter can be located by the Fraud Squad it represents the most serious of the allegations. A copy of the letter was in Gillard's private file. Bernard Murphy took the file when he left. It was given to Nicola Roxan at Maurice Blackburn. It clearly showed an intention to gain an advantage by deception. If the letter is not located, it is likely that someone in the Commission will testify as to its existence and its intent to decieve. The proposed Association document was also deficient of the legal requirement of at least five members, there were only two. Regardless, the Commissioner understandably accepted the assurances of Gillard's letter on a Slater & Gordon letterhead.
Likely outcome? Guilty as charged.
Crimes Act 1958 - SECT 83A
Falsification of documents
(1) A person must not make a false document with the intention that he or she, or another person, shall use it to induce another person to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to that other person's, or to another person's prejudice.
Penalty: Level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).
4: Witnessing a person’s (Blewitt’s) signature on a legal document, namely an affidavit, while not in the presence of, and without the knowledge of, that person. This should be an open and shut case as dates and times and Blewitt’s absence or presence can easily be ascertained. Gillard was present at the auction of, and did the conveyancing for, a Fitzroy house for her boyfriend Bruce Wilson. Wilson used the false Power of Attorney for Blewitt to purchase the house with fraudulently extorted funds without Blewitt’s knowledge. It was hurriedly sold without Blewitt's knowledge
Likely outcome? Guilty as charged.
Crimes Act 1958 - SECT 83A
Falsification of documents
(4) A person must not use a copy of a document which is, and which he or she knows to be, a false document, with the intention of inducing another person to accept it as a copy of a genuine document and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to that other person's, or to another person's prejudice.
Penalty: Level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum)
There are many other instances of illegalities including inducing WA AWU union members to allow funds to be moved to another account that Gillard could reasonably have been expected to know was not an AWU account.
Bruce Wilson, with a new partner and baby, may not be keen to spend a long period in jail. His prior agreement forged with Gillard that they both doggedly declare their innocence may well fall apart once he is confronted with the Fraud Squad’s evidence.
Up until now there has been no complaint filed against Bruce Wilson, only Gillard.
He is likely to reassess his situation once he sees the futility of denying it and is offered part immunity.
Bruce Wilson is not a man known for his moral fibre.
Blewitt was not given immunity but was assured that any evidence he gave would not be used against him in court.
Now that sort of assurance would be a very attractive proposition to Bruce Wilson.
Blewitt could still be charged on peripheral or unrelated matters.
The former statement of Bill the Greek’s builder mate, Con Spyrides, was that Gillard had no knowledge of the source of funds used to renovate her house in Abbottsford.
When asked to make a statement to that effect he refused on legal advice. That refusal speaks volumes as to the truth.
Mr Spyrides knows he would be breaking the law if he were to make that statement under oath.
Regardless there is plenty of evidence to show that funds laundered through fashion house, Town Mode, and casinos were used to renovate Gillard's house, with her full knowledge.
I’m no detective but if I had the massive resources of a professional fraud squad and had interviewed all persons of interest and corroborating parties including past employees of Slater & Gordon, I would certainly feel confident I had sufficient evidence against Gillard to put her away for a lengthy period.
Whether that happens or not is problematic. But Gillard is certainly under investigation right now and should resign.
If she is charged she will be forced to resign. She is not a Craig Thomson who can rely on the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ principal.
She will not be permitted by her own party to sully the Office more than she already has.
The ICAC’s exposure of rampant fraud within the NSW ALP (those who catapulted Gillard into Office) will not help Gillard.
The ALP’s endemic criminality is percolating through all State ALP branches, Governments and major unions.
Gillard is blind to the sense of the determination of fresh fraud squads under a new Victorian Commissioner. There is a determination to redress the bad taste of past police criminality under Labor Governments.
Gillard and her many supporters in the media seem oblivious to the seriousness of what is happening.
But, now there is nothing left for we sexist nutjob bloggers to do except to sit back and watch the long arm of the law take its inevitable course.
Justice will have to be seen to be done.
ALP and union corruption will both be cleansed by the fires of the pyres of the guilty.
We will need a comprehensive, competent and clean Opposition to the overbearing numbers of an Abbot Government.
The end
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Teacher was saying that "Sugar" was the only word in the english language beginning with an "s" and a "u." Student called out "You sure?"
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Grace is saying to you, “I can give you a wonderful future, regardless of your past.” Will you receive it into your heart today?
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To my N .. An 'N' is an unknown in Math, and I'm a Mathematics teacher ..
My friends ask me not to do things like this. But they haven't spoken to me in a while .. this is old school.
I love TMN but we haven't spoken in years. Except she is very eloquent while not speaking. I have to respect her decision. Yet my heart hears 'hope.' In some ways I welcome the end of hope as I fear it. - ed===
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AUSTRALIA GIVES $15 MILLION TO KIRIBATI TO REPAIR ROAD.
Labor’s Mr. Carr announced at an official dinner in Kiribati on Sunday night, that Australia will give $15 million to Kiribati to repair a main road undermined by “rising sea levels” and coastal erosion. (see article in the comments below).
Firstly, I’m sure the residents of Hughes, waiting for much needed improvements to Heathcote Road, Henry Lawson Drive, and M5 (just to name a few) are very pleased that Labor are generously using their taxes to pay for a road in Kiribati rather than fixing local roads.
Secondly, what do the tide gauges on Kiribati about “rising sea levels” ??
Below is a graph of the the monthly Kiribati tide gauge data for the last 20 years.
Why does this Government continue to tell us untruths ?
The former President of the International Association of Quaternary Research’s Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner said:
"The graph reveals that there, in fact, is no ongoing sea level rise that threatens the habitation of the islands. This is the hard observational fact, which we should all face before starting to talk about future flooding and the need for evacuation.
If the president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, claims that the islands will soon be flooded and that there is an urgent need to buy new land for possible future refugees, it is the president’s own tactical idea in order to raise money from abroad. Let us respect the observational facts and stay away from invented disasters."
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Check out this lighthearted list of things most Christians do:
http://r.beliefnet.com/
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Congresswoman Sanchez attends the Tet Festival in Garden Grove with Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan and his wife Huong Ngo. Sanchez pressed the Communist Vietnamese Government for Dr. Quan's release after he was imprisoned for nine months in Vietnam because of his human rights activism. He was able to return home just in time for the Tet Festival.
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Situated in the center of ancient Athens, the Acropolis is a hill featuring some of the greatest monuments of the ancient world.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2b82
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Traci claims Jinda is obsessed with her, but Jinda says she just misses her dear friend. Can Dr. Phil figure out what is really going on?
http://bitly.com/DRP0211
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"Five Things I Can Do Now That I'm Not in Harry Potter:
1) Be the bad girl.
2) Make outrageous changes to my appearance when I please.
3) Find time to watch really bad TV with my family.
4) Travel outside of Wattford/London.
5) Sleep in the mornings!!!!!"
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Looking up at One WTC from inside the Transportation Hub.
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As if the mining tax weren't bad enough...collecting little revenue, yet the highly optimistic assumptions in terms of tax take are already spent.
Then there is the carbon tax, where the government is betting that when the price is fixed by the market (and they have tied it to the European Exchange price) it will be over $25 per tonne, and have regulated compensation accordingly, yet the European spot price is under $10, and the futures market is even lower (around $6). Talk about spending your money before you receive it!! - Dennis Jensen
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Get your hands on your own Dalek Death Ray Stalk, a set of Gallifreyan symbol coasters or even River Song's Squareness gun in this new range of Doctor Who replicas made by one of the show's longest serving prop-makers.
More info and gallery of props here:http://bit.ly/XC1Kg7
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This was the last stop for the Aperture Academy's "Night Owl" workshop this past Friday, and everyone was excited as we came to the Embarcadero and saw the lights flashing across the bridge in many various patterns as the artist and his crew gear up for the official opening ceremonies in early March. It's going to be great! - Matt Granz
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Beautiful: Thousands gather at Cowboys Stadium to remember slain hero Chris Kyle [photos, video] ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/
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Todd and I are in Dallas today to attend Chris Kyle’s memorial and funeral service. I find it sad to see that flags aren’t flying at half staff for this American hero. We’re surrounded today by American patriots here in Texas – by Chris’ fellow veterans and active duty warriors. In honor of them, I hope our commander in chief pays his respects in some gesture of condolence for their comrade in arms who sacrificed so much to keep him and all of us safe.
We may never know to what extent Chris kept us free or how many lives he saved by his brave actions in the line of fire. But his fellow warriors know how important he was. My son Track couldn’t meet Chris when Todd and I first met him because Track was deployed to Iraq. Then when we got to know Chris even better, our son was deployed in Afghanistan. We’ve met a lot of people in recent years, and Track has been privileged to meet them as well. But he said about Chris, “Mom, he’s the ONE person in the entire world I would be star-struck to meet. He’s it.”
God bless this great warrior. Let us keep his wife and children in our prayers, and may we never forget him or his sacrifice.
- Sarah Palin
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