Happy birthday and many happy returns Daniel Staniforth. Born on the same day William Caxton printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables. Talented and fabulous
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Trust God to defend and protect you, because the Lord is your defense and refuge (Ps 94:22)! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/ZI46Ns
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JosephPrince.com celebrates Resurrection Sunday with you! Enjoy a 15% discount on all “Promises” books this week! Experience the power of His resurrection in your life as you meditate on His sure promises for you!
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If you’re hungering and thirsting for something deeper, beyond what human relationships can give you, go to the Lord. He has for you a fountain of everlasting life that will cause you never to thirst again (Jn 4:13)!
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God will turn a negative situation in your life around for your good because He is for you (Rom 8:31)! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/ZHb3fs
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The Bible tells us that when God saw darkness on the face of the deep, He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Gen 1:3). God saw the light and it was good.
Notice that He saw good after He spoke! God wants you to deal with the problems in your life by speaking forth what you want to see. Beloved, when you start speaking the good that you want to see, you will see good show up in your life!
http://josephprince.com/
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Gillard rewards Judas Albanese in new Cabinet
Piers Akerman – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (3:41am)
JULIA Gillard rewarded the Judas of her Cabinet, Anthony Albanese, with a new department.
He gets Simon Crean’s becomes Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and also retains his position as Leader of the House.
Loyal Labor hacks tried to spin that he was being hit with an extra workload as punishment but the more cynical pointed out that Gillard was just rubbing Crean’s nose in the dirt by giving Albo his former responsibilities.
Albanese’s inner-urban electorate is about as far from regional Australia as it is possible to get without moving to Martin Place - so much for the struggling Labor MPs who actually know what the demands of regional Australia are.
Martin Ferguson’s old resources, energy and tourism portfolio has gone to Gary Gray – which has sent the Greens into hysteria.
Gray used to work with energy company Woodside and knows his way around the business circuit.
Further, he was a founder of the Lavoisier Institute which has challenged the Green global warming claims.
Though he has recanted to a degree to placate his political matters, regretting his 1993 comment that evidence linking human activity to climate change was “pop science”, he has never resiled from the view that there needs to be more “intellectual challenge and debate” on the science of the claims of human induced climate change.
Also distressing to Milne and the muppets is the overdue decision to merge the bloated Climate Change department into Greg Combet’s department of Industry. Combet also got tertiary education, but that has not riled the Greens as much as placing the tree-hugging staffers in with the economic rationalists.
Conflict looms.
No-one appears to know what will happen to the climate department’s planned move into the ecologically-sound A-grade, 6-green star efficiency-rated Nishi building at a yearly rent of $6.4 million.
Now what will happen to the special wine cabinet ordered for their comfort.
Jason Clare has been elevated to a full ministry – just as another boat-load of people who cannot be identified as illegal immigrants, according to the Press Council, was found to have capsized close to Christmas Island with the loss of several lives.
Watching Governor General Quentin Bryce swear or affirm the Gillard loyalists in was like watching a replay of the Soviet politbureau convening.
Group-think prevailed.
The only test to attain Cabinet rank in this government is the ability to swear allegiance to Gillard.
This is not good governance, this is political window dressing.
This ministry - and it may not be the final one before the election - will possibly be the one that gets into the history books wyhen the government falls.
It doesn’t deserve to, most of the worst mistakes were made under Rudd and during the earlier Gillard ministries.
At least Judas was grinning.
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Revealing insight into the risky and risque business of dating
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (7:16pm)
MEN apparently expect sex on the third date, especially if they spend more than $150 on dinner, according to a new survey.
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PRIME MOANA
Tim Blair – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (2:36pm)
An unbeatable name for a Greens politician:
Vanuatu’s Parliament has elected the Greens’ leader Moana Carcasses as the country’s new prime minister.
(Via Ashley Stevens)
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LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
Tim Blair – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (2:33pm)
Congratulations, you stupid, selfish bastards! Your Hour of Power antics have upset sensitive Alice. But you weren’t the only people having fun last Saturday …
UPDATE. History’s greatest Earth Day celebration:
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TOILET KEW
Tim Blair – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (2:31pm)
Adventures in modern education:
Former Kew Primary principal Kim Dray, who stood down in 2011 amid controversy over aradical toileting policy, will not return to the school next term despite being exonerated after a 19-month inquiry …Dr Dray came under fire from parents after she trialled a “whole class approach” to toilet breaks, in which the entire class would go to the toilets if one child needed to go.
The ex-principal had hoped the policy would “signal the arrival of a new level of respect for the toilets in the school.”
UPDATE. In other education news: screaming idiots – with drums!
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FUEL BERNED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (2:06pm)
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone slams team orders in the sport, but admits his own speedy shenanigans:
Recalling a similar problem he encountered while at Brabham, the team he owned for 16 years from 1971, Ecclestone explained: “I had one driver challenging for the world championship – I’m not going to say who it was – and the other guy that weekend happened to be b----- quick. I said to him, ‘Whatever you do, you ought to take it easy and let the other guy pass you’. He said, ‘I wouldn’t do that.’ So I replied, ‘Well, you can stand up in the seat of the car and wave him past, so the whole world can see this if you want.’ But he insisted, ‘I’m not going to do it’. So we just made sure he didn’t have enough fuel in the car to finish the race.”
No team orders needed. My favourite F1 scam involves Vittorio Brambilla, the Monza Gorilla, whosomehow claimed pole position in the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix despite his March being slower than rival machines:
Robin Herd, one of the team’s co-founders, was quoted many years later in Britain’s Times newspaper as hinting at a possible explanation. The team’s post on the pit wall happened to be near the timing beam at the start-finish line.“As we lent over the wall with Vittorio’s pit board, it wouldn’t have been too much of a problem to break the beam with it just before the car arrived,” he said. “Whether we did or not, of course, I couldn’t possibly comment.”
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MEME SHORTAGE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (12:16pm)
Among the Prime Minister’s latest stability announcements:
Tony Burke adds Arts to his existing portfolio work. He has a longstanding interest in the arts and was a keen recruit to the task.He will be assisted by Michael Danby as his Parliamentary Secretary whose lifelong commitment to the arts started when, as a teenager, he worked in his mother’s art gallery.
No offence to Mr Danby, but previous generations of Labor politicians would have done everything possible to suppress that information. And as if Labor’s poll problems weren’t bad enough:
If the Newspoll findings apply on September 14 the Labor Party would lose 34 seats and be reduced to just 38 memes in the House of Representatives.
Melbourne University history professor Marilyn Lake has helpfully gathered all of Labor’s misery memes into one great big sack of sad.
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Labor out of fresh talent
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(4:17pm)
Troy Bramston on Julia Gillard’s latest reshuffle, the first I can recall made entirely on the grounds not of national interest but the Prime Minister’s:
The appointments of Sharon Bird, Jan McLucas and Catherine King to the ministry are not promotions that lack merit, but they are also not seen as heavy hitters. The ultimate faceless man, Don Farrell, was elevated because of his number-counting abilities, which should serve him well in the science and research portfolio.
In the early years of the Hawke government, the outer ministry was a breeding ground for future talent: Kim Beazley, Brian Howe, Neal Blewett, Michael Duffy, John Dawkins and John Kerin were junior ministers.
Gillard is not just trashing the Labor brand, but cutting the parliamentary party’s roots. The damage she is doing to Labor is astonishing. That so many still back her is beyond comprehension.
UPDATE
Gillard’s new appointments to her ministry only cement to hold of the New Class over Labor. Reader Rick notes they are from the state-employed and union sectors:
Catherine King is supporting Albanese as Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories, and as Minister for Road Safety.
Before entering politics, Catherine was a social worker, research officer and public servant. She has been a member of EMILY’s List since 1999.
Sharon Bird is supporting Emerson as Minister for Higher Education and Skills. Before entering politics, Sharon was a teacher and electorate officer. She joined EMILY’s List with the organisation’s foundation, in 1997Jan McLucas is appointed Minister for Human Services. Prior to her election to the Senate, Jan was a primary school teacher. In 2009, journalist’s claimed that Jan had effectively been living full-time with her de-facto partner in Canberra for several years, and only occasionally visited her officially listed residence. PM Rudd refused calls to sack her for making shonky travel allowance claims of $13,000. In June of 2009, Jan resigned, ‘to serve her local electorate better’, however media speculation suggested the expenses issue and unfavorable public opinion may have been a factor in her decision. But Jan was re-elected again in 2010 and returned to the Executive. She has been a member of EMILY’s List since its foundation in 1997.Emerson will also be assisted by Don Farrell as Minister for Science and Research and Minister Assisting on Tourism. Don Farrell was listed as number 6 on the Top 10 Political fixers. To quote the ALP’s former deputy leader, Ralph Clarke, “He controls the pre-selection directly or indirectly of every MP in South Australia. If you want to get on, you get on with Don.”Fresh out of University, Don joined the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association Union as a lawyer and in 1980 the position of assistant secretary.Assisting Greg Combet is his Parliamentary Secretary, Yvette D’Ath (new title to be announced). D’Ath gained a Bachelor of Laws and was an employee of the Australian Workers Union (the AWU) as an Industrial Advocate.
There may be almost some credibility with this next “Captain’s choice”.Amanda Rishworth, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water and Disabilities and Carers. Amanda has been a retail worker, a swimming instructor and is still a volunteer lifeguard. Amanda has a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and has practiced as a Psychologist, specialising in mental health care. Amanda also worked as an organiser and trainer for the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association and was President of Young Labor. Amanda is certainly following in the Prime Ministers foot steps. Amanda is single, no spouse, no children, has had reddish hair, wears broad rimmed glasses, similar dress sense, from Adelaide and went to Unley High School.
Do not look for Labor’s rebirth in those new appointments.
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All the spirit Simmonds didn’t really want
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(4:12pm)
Fairfax writer, academic and closet totalitarian Alecia Simmonds:
Where have all the protests gone?… I have to ask: what’s wrong with the youth these days? ... To be honest, I’m not sure why Australia has been burdened with such a mind-numbing, spirit-crushingly boring generation of young people. Are they just the spawn of John Howard?
Actually, many students are indeed passionate about causes - but good causes, like free speech and defying thugs:
FIVE students have been arrested during a protest over staff conditions at Sydney University today.
The students we’re part of a “roving picket line” which burst into a chemistry lecture about 9.30am today and began chanting handing out leaflets about the reasons behind the strike.Protester Brigitte McFadden said students wanted to disrupt the classroom because the lecturer was working during a strike…But not all students supported the protests.“What is at stake is the quality of your education in the long term,” a demonstrator with a megaphone told the students. “It’s amazing that you don’t see that.”
But the protests had no effect with students cutting her off with a repeated chant of “get out”.
Excellent. Resist those who use force rather than argument. I have much faith in those who chanted “get out”.
Can’t wait for Simmonds to praise their spirit. Or was she expecting something else?
UPDATE
Reader The Evil Right:
“What’s wrong with the youth these days?” What the hell is this woman on about! Just last week my nieces all pressed “like” on a protest page!!
Reader viviencja:
Simmonds’ heroes would have been better advised to invade lectures on “Women’s Studies” or “History of Political Struggle” where they would have found kindred spirits.
Chemistry is HARD stuff, REAL stuff...and creates real expertise benefitting the economy and the student. These students have neither the time nor the patience to put up with the enrollees of the mickey mouse faculties. It was the same back in the 60s when the same idle crowd blocked the streets in Melbourne chanting “all the way with LBJ” or “Ho ho ho chi min” and other inanities.
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Monckton in Melbourne
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(3:20pm)
Lord Monckton gives a speech in Melbourne today:
THE United Nations’ climate change chief, Rajendra Pachauri, acknowledged recently in Melbourne, a 17-year pause in global temperature rises, as confirmed by Britain’s Met Office.
Lord Monckton will deliver a speech on what the West must do to prosper now and into the future, in a world with no dangerous man made Global Warming.Titled: “Love, Life & Laughter - the Triumph of the Individual over the Hive Mind”
The dark grey Age of Entitlement (of the Hive Mind) versus The Age of Enlightenment 2.0
This is to confirm that Lord Christopher Monckton will be making a presentation this evening of Tuesday 26th March at Gary Morgan’s at 401 Collins St and this will include a period for questions.
Attendees should arrive from 5.30pm and by 6.00pm. Entrance fees of $60 per head may be purchased at the door.
UPDATE
An overview of my argument with Professor John Quiggin, hired by the Gillard Government to advise on the level of the caron tax and other warming issues. Again, I must ask: qwhy on earth is Quggin treated as an authority in this area.
Apart from the fact he holds the approved alarmist views, that is.
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
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No early election in Barton
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(2:52pm)
Robert McClelland’s loss is Julia Gillard’s great gain:
ONE of the major threats to the survival of the Gillard government has been removed, with Labor MP Robert McClelland’s losing his bid for a top NSW judicial appointment.
It is believed the NSW government, despite believing he was qualified, didn’t want to be responsible for any action that could have created instability in the federal government.If successful in his NSW judicial job application, Mr McClelland’s departure from federal politics before the September 14 election could have forced a decisive by-election in his Sydney seat of Barton…
Aside from not wanting to be responsible for destabilising the federal government, it is believed the state government was also unwilling to defer Mr McClelland’s appointment until after the federal election in September due to the backlog of cases now before the IRC.
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Christians at an Islamic conference
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(1:45pm)
Muslim numbers were low: The organisers had hoped for 20,000 attendees, including 4,000 non-Muslims. However they did not achieve anything like this. The biggest day was Friday, when it was planned that 5,000 Muslims would pray behind the Imam of Mecca who was coming from Saudi Arabia. However news of his coming brought condemnation in the Age, Herald Sun, Australian newspapers and Jewish organisations because he had called for the extermination of the Jews, referring to them as ‘monkeys’, ‘rats’ and ‘the scum of the earth’....
it was not until the night before that the conference organiser announced on their website that he was not coming. Consequently, only 1800 people turned up for the prayers. The other main speaker, a sheik from Kuwait, arrived but fell sick and was not able to attend the conference… Meetings set up to hold thousands were attended by a couple of hundred people....
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One out of seven is the ABC’s balance
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(11:45am)
Six panellists, one host - and only a single conservative among the lot of them. HasQ&A ever loaded the dice so outrageously?
This at a time when nearly six of every 10 voters lean to the Coalition.
The heckling and mocking of Kelly O’Dwyer by so many of the audience shows not just people out of touch - but the rudeness so typical of the Left.
UPDATE
Reader M has created a Wikipedia page on ABC bias and asks for contributions.
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Sexist academic defends Gillard from her critics
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(10:37am)
Marilyn Lake is professor in history at Melbourne University. She claims to be against sexism. What she writes in The Age is not only deeply sexist, but ageist:
There is not just a gender gap in Australian politics - the polls show support for Julia Gillard is stronger among women - there is also a generation gap. It is time now to say goodbye to the old men of politics - Kim Carr, Simon Crean, Martin Ferguson and Kevin Rudd - and give the new team a go, relieved of the heavy burden of a patriarchal past.
In fact, Lake, born in January 1949, is older than every one of the men she attacks as too old for politics. Is she too old for political commentary? Is she too old for academia? Is it time to relieve universities of the heavy burden of feminist victimology?
Note, in Lake’s feminist victimology, Gillard is a victim even though she was given power by (male) backers and is kept propped up by (male) union bosses like Bill Ludwig, above, despite a list of lies, bungles and backtracks that would have long killed off the leadership of any other (male) Prime Minister:
Since Federation, more than 20 men of different parties - from Edmund Barton to Rudd - have served as Australian prime minister. Then Gillard dared to follow in their footsteps. Many fellow politicians and public commentators never forgave her audacity.
It’s not Gillard’s “audacity” that many commentators, including women, cannot forgive. It is her incompetence, divisiveness and untrustworthiness.
Historians of the future will see more clearly perhaps than we can the pattern of relentless attacks on her that followed, both inside and outside Parliament, including the astonishing press campaigns by male journalists calling on her to resign, male cartoonists vilifying her, and some male colleagues - yesterday’s men - continually plotting to unseat her. Now hopefully they will retire from office and allow a new young cohort to succeed them.
And the female journalists calling on Gillard to resign or be sacked? What are they, in Lake’s world? Quislings? Tools of the patriarchy? Non-females?
She has been subject to sexist attacks and unwittingly called up the misogyny that lays deep in Australian culture, brought to the surface by the terrifying sight of women in power.
I would bet that most male commentators appalled by Gillard’s leadership are admirers of Margaret Thatcher. Lake is lazy and abusive, countering arguments against Gillard not with reason but the cheapest of smears. Those against Gillard are simply misogynists. All of them. Crean, Ferguson, conservative commentators - even, by Lake’s argument, the women.
Note the supporters brave enough to support Rudd publicly when he declared he would not stand in last week’s ballot:
Misogynists. All of them.
When they call Gillard’s judgment into question - one of the most common charges levelled against her - they draw on centuries-old prejudices that hold that women can’t be trusted.
No, not all women. Just this one, who promised us no carbon tax under this government, plus a surplus this year.
...male commentators now move to deplore her toughness - an admirable quality in a man - suggesting surely that it is unbecoming in a woman.
Name a single male commentator who has said toughness is unbecoming in a woman. I have not seen one, and would bet Lake hasn’t either. The closest comments I can find to what Lake claims is that Gillard has confused toughness with selfishness and inflexibility. In a man, we’d call it pig-headedness, and not a virtue.
Lake’s piece is a disgrace. It is deeply sexist, suggesting that no female politician, no matter how incompetent and mendacious, can be legitimately criticised. Anyone daring to attack Gillard - even women - must instead be presumed to be misogynists.
Is Lake a misandrist?
UPDATE
To borrow exactly from Lake’s offensive mode of analysis, is it time to say goodbye to the old women of academia? Is it time to give a new team a go, relieved of the heavy burden of a radical feminist past?
From Lake’s previous public contributions:
Anzac was a celebration of race and manhood… The Anzac myth requires us to forget gender and racial exclusions, the long history of pacifism and anti-war movements, the democratic social experiments and visions of social justice that once defined Australia; to forget that at Gallipoli we fought for “empire” not the nation, symbolising our continuing colonial condition.
It does all that? Wow. What a terrible distraction Anzac Day is from the causes burning in Lake’s mind.But here’s one other thing the myth requires us to forget during our remembering, if the solemnity of the moment is not to be lost:Professor Marilyn Lake, the feminist who claims women are ‘worked to death’ as ‘slaves to the nation’ now gets $480,000 (from the Australian Research Council) to attack the ‘history of white Australia through an investigation of the idea of the ‘white man’s country’ as a defensive response to a changing world order’.
A final question: Is Lake herself a misogynist, to so fear and smear Gina Rinehart?
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More from the nation of tribes
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(10:23am)
DISGRACEFUL scenes of violence and intimidation by fans of the Western Sydney Wanderers football club have forced Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione to bolster officer numbers at future matches.
Frightening video of fans terrorising families before Saturday night’s A-League derby at Parramatta came to light yesterday. More than 100 Wanderers supporters were filmed surrounding an outside section of a restaurant, yelling, swearing and spitting. A plate and a glass were thrown, hitting a Sydney FC fan who was dining with friends.
Innocent patrons, including children and the elderly, were caught up in the violence as they dined at a steak restaurant near the Riverside Theatre.
Is there a us-against-them mentality at the club that goes beyond just sport? From last year:
OFFICIALS yesterday denied that a brawl at a pre-season match in Sydney on Wednesday night hosted by a Croatian supporters’ club was ethnically driven.
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Gillard, the Prime Minister of 1984
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(9:42am)
Terry McCrann on Labor’s culture of spin, now about to collapse under its absurd contradictions (I fervently hope):
There is no other way to describe Julia Gillard’s performance yesterday, as she went far beyond the unending spin and dishonesty which have characterised her prime ministership, to completely upending reality.In Orwell’s 1984 the Party slogans were “War is Peace”, “Freedom is Slavery”, “Ignorance is Strength”.In Gillard’s world, those old dependables still apply…She has of course just spent a week arguing that for the Press to be Free it must be Enslaved by Government…Not content with just relying on Orwell’s guidance, Gillard has been writing her own inversions.The complete dysfunctionality of her leadership and of her Government, the shambles of process? Dysfunctionality is Focus. Chaos is Clarity.The war between the two halves of her party? The ministers that have been “disappeared”’ to the backbench, in a modern day version of 1984’s removing them from historical photos?Division is Unity.And then there’s Anthony Albanese, the co-conspirator who she singled out for promotion. Not simply singled out but actually placed right upfront; the first name she mentioned; the specific reference to his promotion.
Treachery is Loyalty.
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Bludgers abroad
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(9:31am)
“CAN you look after my dog while I’m away?” “Will the sand in Egypt upset my asthma?”
Believe it or not, these were real requests received by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade consular emergency assistance line.
Time governments stopped giving in to outrageous demands for help:
In the civil strife in Egypt in 2011, the government flew Australians out on charter planes at taxpayer expense. It must have been a frightening experience and the government response was swift and effective. But when strikes closed down Bangkok airport in 2008, Australia provided free planes then too; the situation was inconvenient and uncomfortable but hardly dangerous. Is this really the best use of our taxes?
In late 2011 when a young Australian got himself in trouble attempting to buy marijuana in Indonesia, the foreign minister made the case his “highest priority” and Julia Gillard spoke to the boy on the telephone…
Each time the government buckles under public and media pressure to “do something” to help the latest citizen in distress, expectations are raised and become more difficult to meet.
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None of this chaos is ever Gillard’s fault
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(8:22am)
A canny leader admits faults. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie was a master at it. Voters liked the honesty and liked the impression that they were been heeded and lessons were being learned.
None of that applies to Julia Gillard. Nothing, nothing is ever her fault.
It’s as if she is taunting voters, putting her fingers in her ears and pretending not to hear. Or maybe it’s just a deep personal flaw to deny fault - and deny inconvenient truths.
Consider. Her party’s poll numbers are catastrophic. Her government is bitterly split. Her government has run out of money and has bungled everything from boat people policy to media “reform”. Yet none of that is Gillard’s fault:
LEIGH SALES: Why should we trust Labor’s plans for future when you’ve had so many problems and so much dysfunction in your past?JULIA GILLARD: People are entitled to look at what we’ve achieved, what we’ve said we would do and what we have done. We said we’d create jobs and keep strengthening our economy and we’ve done that… We’ve also done some big, hard controversial things, like putting a price on carbon…LEIGH SALES: Well, Prime Minister, you’ve given me a laundry list there, so let me give you one back. When people look at what you’ve done, they also see a promise not to introduce a carbon tax broken, they see a promise to deliver a budget surplus this year broken, an East Timor solution for asylum seekers proposed then withdrawn, a Malaysia solution proposed and then abandoned, even as today we see a ship sink and people killed in another incident, a ban on live cattle imports imposed and then withdrawn, the disastrous appointment of Peter Slipper, the redesign of a mining tax so it now returns a fraction of what was banked on. I return to my earlier question: how do you expect the public to have any faith in what you’re planning to do going forwards?JULIA GILLARD: Well, Leigh, I’m happy to go through those one by one if you would like. We said we would introduce a price on carbon. I always wanted to see an emissions trading scheme. And by the time people vote in September, we will be less than two years from that emissions trading scheme and the end of the carbon tax. On things like ...LEIGH SALES: But Prime Minister, you’re not addressing my central problem there, which was that there was a broken promise ...JULIA GILLARD: Well, I’m not agreeing with your list, Leigh…LEIGH SALES: Some of your own colleagues when they decided to step down from cabinet, Martin Ferguson and Simon Crean, have raised concerns about the process of government and in particular the media reforms last week saying that it was mishandled and that it was a debacle. Doesn’t that go to the very heart of the way you run government when senior ministers in your own team have stepped down and made that criticism?JULIA GILLARD: ...On media law reform, we got through two important pieces of legislation during the week, including of course broadening the ambit of what the ABC does and that’s a good thing. Leigh, it was always going to be a controversial debate…LEIGH SALES: If we judge - sorry, Prime Minister, to interrupt. If we judge the process on the end result, you put up six pieces of legislation and only two of them got through, so therefore on any assessment you’d have to agree that it was a mishandled and a botched process.JULIA GILLARD: We have a minority parliament, Leigh. You come to this minority parliament. We’ve got an amazing track record in these circumstances of a minority parliament of getting things through, but we haven’t been able to get everything through and I wasn’t prepared to cross-trade and do any deal to get these bills through.LEIGH SALES: So you were quite happy with how that process was handled last week from woe to go, the media reforms?JULIA GILLARD: Well, the last fortnight has been the last fortnight, but the point I’m putting to you, Leigh, is that there was a long period of review and reflection that led up to the last fortnight…LEIGH SALES: ... Isn’t the reality though that many of your colleagues are in despair about your leadership and about the ALP’s prospects in the election, but that they just don’t see a viable alternative?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, Leigh, it’s done, it’s dusted, anybody who had the - anybody who wanted to had the opportunity to nominate for consideration in Labor caucus last Thursday. No-one did… I don’t think that any of this is worth speaking about anymore.
The denial is astonishing. It is also lethally counterproductive.
Is Gillard truly arguing she has not made a single error? That nothing she has done has produced this chaos, division and dysfunction?
No, it’s always someone else’s fault. Dennis Shanahan:
Instead of simply saying that as Prime Minister she took responsibility for the government dysfunction, which of course included the spectacularly unsuccessful media law changes put forward by ultra-loyal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and acknowledging that Labor was aware of its shortcomings, Gillard simply blamed Rudd and promised more of the same.
UPDATE
Can any blog readers remember a single instance of Gillard admitting as Prime Minister to a political fault of her own?
UPDATE
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Gillard’s fresh start: Labor 42 to Coalition 58
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(7:40am)
Labor was unelectable already. Now Newspoll adds the cost of the latest two weeks of catastrophe:
Based on preference flows at the 2010 election, the Coalition’s two-party-preferred vote rose six points to a 12-month high of 58 per cent while Labor’s fell to 42 per cent.
And on the single measure that Julia Gillard for months touted as the means to recovery - her relative popularity over Tony Abbott:
On the question of who would make the better prime minister, Ms Gillard’s support dropped seven percentage points to 35 per cent, its lowest since October 2011, while Mr Abbott’s support jumped five points to 43 per cent, his highest since September 2011.
Rudd didn’t bring in the botched media laws; he didn’t declare the election six months early; he didn’t design the current mining tax, promise a budget surplus or declare a class or gender war.
UPDATE
Morgan Poll puts the split at 43-57. Essential Media (which did half its polling before the leadership farce) puts it much narrower, 46 to 54.
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
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The class war Labor needs is against the New Class
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(7:07am)
Yet if today’s class war rhetoric sounds phony, it is because it is. Its advocates are not, by any stretch of the imagination, working-class people. They are the heirs of an extraordinary coup that took place in February 1967 when Whitlam replaced Calwell…Whitlam somehow overcame the impediment of twin degrees to become the duly elected leader of the opposition with a teacher as his deputy and two more lawyers as leader and deputy in the upper house. The following morning, the second line in [journalist Alan] Ramsey’s splash noted the historical significance: “It is a break from Labor tradition and a sweeping victory for the party’s new-look politicians. None has a union background but three have a university education.”These days it is all but impossible to become a member of the political class without going to university.... Today’s MPs are a different breed from the people they represent. In the seat of Maribyrnong, for example, fewer than 0.6 per cent of the adult population have a law degree, making their local member, Bill Shorten, a bit of an oddball. In the Labor Party caucus in Canberra, however, he is among friends: 36 per cent of Labor lower house members graduated in law.
Of the 71 Labor members, 61 are graduates—85 per cent—compared with 25 per cent in the broader population. Tasmanian Dick Adams is a curiosity, a former meatworker and one of only a handful of Labor members with genuine working-class pretensions. He has not been at the forefront of the class-war debate.
Nothing at all wrong with a degree. But university arts faculties in particular skew so far to the dilletante Left that a graduate might easily find themselves hopelessly lost in space.
Martin Ferguson, who quit from Gillard’s Cabinet, was early in detecting this withering of Labor’s roots:
Ferguson has been telling his colleagues since he entered parliament that it would be a mistake to repackage party as progressive or as a rainbow coalition of special interest groups. In 1999, ... Ferguson wrote a tough and prescient foreword to Michael Thompson’s book Labor Without Class…
“There is a view—forcibly expressed in some quarters—that the interests of narrow, well-mobilised groups have sometimes taken precedence over the interests and concerns of ordinary working people,” he wrote.
“(Thompson’s book) draws attention to the too often self-serving agendas of special interest groups, who are skilled at cloaking their self-interest in the language of compassion, and whose moral outrage is often levelled at fundamental working-class values such as hard work, independence and the traditional family.” He concludes: “We must ask whom we truly represent.”
UPDATE
To see the mindset reinforced by a modern Australian university, browse through the post-graduate research now being undertaken at the University of Sydney. Note the language, heavily coded to maintain privilege. Note the arcania. Note how little practical and optimistic grappling with practical issues, Note the drive to a disengaged elitism:
- My thesis uses the concepts of acculturation, place and allegiance to underpin an account of the Free French Movement in Australia, 1940-44.- I’m interested in how and why deeply ingrained acoustemological differences created cultural conflict between natives and newcomers both in and beyond the colonial period in the New World.- My thesis studies death rituals and funeral culture in the city of Shanghai and its surrounding region from 1843 to 1966.- In the early nineteenth century, asylums for the mentally ill appeared throughout Europe and its colonial territories… I parallel the moral treatment in lunatic asylums with practices in penitentiaries, juvenile prisons, schools and other institutions, reconstructing an empire of the mind stretched across the geographical empire, working to form and reform the child, the criminal, the lunatic, the native and the empire itself.- My research focuses on the early Egyptian cinema, and in particular examines Egyptian uses of the cinema to respond to western stereotypes of Egyptians, Arabs and Muslims.- I am tracing the commodification of knowledge and the consequences of a shift from academic authority to the authority of the market - from academic freedom to market freedom.- As they encountered local species, the settlers incorporated their perceptions of indigenous animals into a dynamic matrix of moral, economic and emotional relationships. ... My research triangulates scientific, cultural and animal perspectives to explain the construction of identities for venomous fauna in colonial Australasia…- A biographical study of West Australian nurse and author, Mollie Skinner; informed by her relationship with D H Lawrence following his encounter with Therevada Buddhism in 1922. Uses Modern discourses on the nature of being, with Cognitive Science and Buddhist theories, to develop a biographic model that does not circumscribe a unified cognizing subject.- My thesis explores how ‘the road’ as both a physical and cultural entity has been imagined, experienced and represented in Australia, with particular focus on the motoring era from late nineteenth century to the present.- My thesis explores the development, definition and implications of the concept of the ‘nation’ in histories and geographies published in the vernacular in England between 1570 and 1630.- My research examines conflicting ideas about mass culture and colonial modernity in Australia, China and the Pacific between 1890 and 1945. My analysis focuses on the personal papers and archival remains of ‘smiling professionals’ and people on the make… My aim is to show how these commercial networks de-center the Anglo American story of consumer society…- My thesis examines the place of rank-and-file soldiers and sailors within the society of the colonial Philippines - including the Mariana Islands - during the seventeenth century.- My research interests are war journalism and peace journalism exploring the psychological impacts of different framings of conflict.- Research interests: adult conversion and recruitment to the religious life, ca. 1000-1200; ‘textual communities’ and the problem of hermeneutic contingency; the historic links between Cîteaux, La Chartreuse, and Afflighem with Vallombrosa, Molesme and the neo-Cluniacs…- My PhD thesis explores the triangular relationship between animal rights’ thought and practice (specifically looking at the cases of vegetarianism and anti-vivisectionism), evolutionary theories (from Erasmus Darwin to Henri Bergson) and radical and alternative religious movements (Bible Christianity, Deism, theosophy, spiritualism) in Britain from the time of the French Revolution to the end of World War I.- I investigate and historicise two crucial aspects of British expansion into Oceania: the use of languages of love and friendship in imperial endeavour and the impact of imperial endeavour upon relations of friendship and love.... . I suggest that British-Oceanic relations were imagined as amorous or amicable in efforts to secure the virtue of an imperial mission charged with corruption.- Ephraim Moses Lilien is widely recognised as the major modern Jewish and Zionist artist whose construction of a ‘New [Male] Jew’ formed an important part of fin de siècle discourse on Jewish alterity.- I am investigating the connection between witchcraft, illness, and healing in early modern England, with a particular emphasis on cunning folk… It thus suggests the imperial genealogy of public health and social welfare interventions in Australia and the United Nations.- The thesis chronicles the history of one of the twentieth century’s most resilient literary cults, that of the eccentric English novelist Frederick Rolfe (1860-1913)…
(Thanks to reader Professor Frank and others.)
UPDATE
What kind of contemptuous and arrogant barbarians do our universities now produce to stock our “elite”? Judge by the cover of the latest magazine of the University of NSW students - and, caution, do not read on if bad language and graphic sexual imagery offend:
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No comment from me, but pray that Dallas may discuss
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(7:03am)
The courts have made it too dangerous for me to comment, but author Dallas Scott of Black Steam Train is so clearly Aboriginal that to sue him, too, would make the law a laughing stock.
So read what I may not write and wonder at what the rest of us dare not remark on. This should be debated, but until we change the Racial Discrimination Act honest discussion is too dangerous:
(Thanks to reader Anthony, also Aboriginal.)
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Local blogging heroes. Bookmark them now
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(12:29am)
Two very fine local blogs have taken out first prizes in the 13th Annual Weblog Awards. Oddly, neither have scored a date with the Prime Minister, now busily cultivating bloggers.
Simon Turnill won Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog for his excellent Australian Climate Madness.
And Michael Smith won Best-Kept Secret Weblog for Michael Smith News. His most recent posts are intriguing, but it’s his pursuit of the Prime Minister’s AWU scandal that is most remarkable.
It was a good haul by conservatives. Friend James Delingpole took out Best Weblog about Politics. Jo Nova performed strongly in the Best Science Weblog, but was pipped by the great Watts Up With That, another site sceptical about the man-made warming scare, and winner of the Best Weblog of the Year.
Invading Holland won Best European Weblog.
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Free phone cards to call over more clients for our welfare
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(12:13am)
We’re now advertising for more refugees to come from the Middle East? With more handouts to show just how absurdly generous our welfarism is?
An announcement last week from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship:
Free phone cards to “call home” with important messages about Australia’s changed refugee processing arrangements and increased humanitarian and family visa places will be distributed as part of new year celebrations in Melbourne this weekend.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) will join Melbourne’s Kurdish community on Sunday (March 24) celebrating Nowruz/Newroz, the Persian new year, staffing an information booth promoting awareness of the dangers of people smuggling and the regular ways to migrate to Australia…
The DIAC information booth will include online access to the department’s website and a $5 international phone card for people to contact family members at home to spread the message.
The Kurds here don’t have $5 themselves to phone their families to come on over? Given that their families, of course, are in such dire need of saving from whatever it is that makes them “refugees”.
(Thanks to reader Irene.)
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Kelty: Gillard must end class war
Andrew BoltMARCH262013(12:10am)
FORMER ACTU secretary Bill Kelty has criticised the Gillard government’s labelling of 457 visa holders as “foreigners” ..., as he backed Martin Ferguson’s call for Labor to end its “class warfare”.
Mr Kelty, who led the trade union movement from 1983 to 2000, ... strongly endorsed last week’s call from Mr Ferguson, a former president of the ACTU, for the Labor Party to “reclaim the mantra of the Hawke and Keating governments to govern for all Australians”.He also backed the former minister’s warning that “the class war that started with the mining dispute of 2010 must stop"…He backed comments by outgoing minister Kim Carr over the government’s approach to 457 visa holders. “Kim Carr says the language on the 457 visas surprised him. Well, it surprised me too. I don’t think you use terms like foreigners when a significant part of this country are people who come from other countries. We are not a xenophobic party and we are not a xenophobic nation, and we’ll welcome people from other nations…
“We do not talk about foreigners. This is not the language of the Labor Party.”
Gillard has made not the slightest sign that she accepts the criticism and will change what is in fact her entire political strategy.
UPDATE
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Evolution of memory
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"Downstream" ∞ Buderim, QLD - Australia
After the recent heavy rain in South-East Queensland back in January I thought it'd be an opportune time to re-visit one of the more accessible waterfalls in the area - locals will recognise this as Serenity Falls on the Sunshine Coast. Being a walk of only a couple of hundred metres makes this a fairly popular location, but that doesn't mean there isn't a good shot to be had! Check it out next time you're up this way, it's far from being the "gruelling bushwalk" that so many of the great SEQ waterfalls can be.
As always prints are available atwww.jasonasherphotography.
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4 Her
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someone has narrowed my cat flap!!!
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Mesquite Dunes Memories
I was out of water and dehydrating fast, but the light was changing and so I waited. The payoff was nice, but it was a long dark thirsty trip back to the road. — at Stovepipe Wells.
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"Dear President Obama,
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
I can’t figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
” We’re no longer a Christian nation”
” America is arrogant”
– (Your wife even
announced to the world,” America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our
war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)
I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”
Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle…
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes"
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In a Stand-off?
http://bitly.com/StandOff
Mother/Daughter Rivalry?
http://bitly.com/
Spouse Wish You Were Hotter?
http://bitly.com/
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I recently had a wonderful chat with Jane Lu, founder of Show Pony Fashion. Here is our interview on Shoe String TV. https://
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The first cows brought to the Americas by explorer Christopher Columbus originated from two extinct wild beasts from India and Europe, a new genetic analysis shows.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/3bjo
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Larry Pickering
GILLARD STILL NOT SAFE
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” is a maxim Ms Gillard has ignored. She has ruthlessly dealt with challengers and they are now plotting to rescue their Labor Party. The Labor Party she has trashed.
Ten disgruntled ex-Ministers languishing on the back bench bear testimony to the extent of Ms Gillard’s purge.
If she expects them to be good little boys and wear their dunces’ hats in disgrace then her judgment is sorely astray once again.
Every move of Ms Gillard was made to protect Ms Gillard. Those who have challenged her have sought only to protect the Labor Party from destruction at their own selfless cost.
If she truly believes her challengers will be content to sit, staring out the window playing with their dongers for six months then she has a nasty surprise coming... and it will come in the budget session.
Gillard is not sympathetic to anything beyond the preservation of her own tenure.
Those she has killed off are concerned only with the penalty Labor will pay by retaining her.
They know the penalty will not be confined to the loss of a mere 20 or 30 seats. Oh no, the destruction wrought by the Gillard factor will run far deeper than that.
Rebuilding the Party will be a mammoth task. New Coalition members will be determined to keep Labor from returning to their hard won seats. Incumbency is a huge advantage.
Right now it needs just a few more Caucus numbers to rid the ALP of Gillard and the vanquished backbenchers will be lobbying hard to get them.
The Rudd camp is livid and hunting hard for the tigress but their choice will not be Rudd. There are better people who could save the Party from annihilation.
But another fearful scenario may play out.
Kim Carr was correct when he said the greatest danger to Labor was Abbott’s determination for a Royal Commission into union corruption.
Crumbs, now why would that be a danger I wonder?
Gillard was still a glint in her father's eye when, in 1954, the Labor Party split and the DLP was born.
The reason for the split? Roman Catholics, led by B. A. Santamaria, were incensed at the growing influence on the ALP of Communist trade unions.
The Movement grew quickly and cascaded through to State ALP Branches.
If Gillard survives, the powerful NSW Catholic Right will pick its way through the entrails of the Party looking for a solution.
The ingredients in that 1954 mix were ominously the same as today’s.
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10 days till the launch of the first draft of "Change Of Our Lives". 40 page script that I'm going to have fun (stress) pulling together! Good team on board! Maria Tran
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Professor Fritz Vahrenholt, one of the fathers of Germany's environmental movement and the one of Europe's largest renewable energy companies, has just admitted the IPCC are WRONG on global warming theory, and warned against the danger of an economic catastrophe from rushing carbon taxes and renewable energy schemes.
This the greatest ‘mea culpa’ yet by the warmists, and a major turning point in the debate.
These are words from his recent speech;
“For many years, I was an active supporter of the IPCC and its CO2 theory. Recent experience with the UN's climate panel, however, forced me to reassess my position.
"……..the halt in global warming and is likely to continue for a while ……we should expect that by 2100 temperatures will not have risen more than 1°C, significantly less than proposed by the IPCC.
"The choice is no longer between ‘global warming catastrophe’ and economic growth but between ‘economic catastrophe’ and ‘climate sense’.”
Full speech available at http://
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Did you know that every part of your body has a sensory point in the bottom of the foot? If you massage these points you will comfort the pain and stress. Does it work for you?
** 10 Tips to Prevent Problems When Walking --
http://www.emaxhealth.com/
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The A-team ready for our Shockwave Comp!!!!
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I want all of us not just to survive hard days, but to come out with a new place to stand.
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Todd and I and our family send our best wishes this evening as Jewish people around the world celebrate Passover, commemorating their deliverance from bondage and their Exodus to the Land of Israel. This timeless and beautiful story reminds us of the universal human aspiration for freedom and that the Almighty hears the cries of a suffering people and fulfills His promises. Chag kasher V'Sameach. Happy Passover. And next year in Jerusalem.
And yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the beginning of the holiest of weeks for Christians. During this time, we honor the sacrifice of Jesus, reflect on amazing grace, and celebrate resurrection power!
“And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.” –Mark 11:8-10
- Sarah Palin
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Join us in celebrating Easter! Visit Fairfield City Town centre, Thursday, 28 March to see Alice in Wonderland AND the Easter bunny!
When: 11.30am - 1.30pm
Where: Ware/Smart & Spencer streets, Fairfield
Cost: FREE
Phone: 9725 0222
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TWC came to me asking for a moonbow shot. That sort of made my day. I hope the show they need it for happens.
I'll be teaching Moonbow workshops with the Aperture Academy this June. I can't wait! — atUpper Yosemite Falls.
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A narrow cobblestone laneway in Stockholm, Sweden 2001
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Happy birthday to Second Doctor Patrick Troughton!
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Always remember young Warriors that we are not here to waste our time, nor to waste yours. Our approach to training is tough for a reason, because change never comes with comfort and nothing worthwhile ever comes easy. Understand this, make it your mantra and there will be nothing stopping you from achieving your goals. #team9lives #9livesparkour
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- 590 – Byzantine emperor Mauriceproclaimed his son Theodosius as his co-emperor.
- 1484 – William Caxton printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables.
- 1885 – Feeling that Canada had failed to address the protection of their rights, the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, began the North-West Rebellion.
- 1913 – First Balkan War: After a five-month siege, the Bulgarian Second Army captured the Ottoman city ofAdrianople.
- 1973 – The first episode of The Young and the Restlesswas broadcast, eventually becoming the most watcheddaytime drama on American television from 1988 onwards.
- 1978 – Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan'sNarita International Airport (pictured), a group of protesters destroyed much of the equipment in the control tower withMolotov cocktails.
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Events
- 590 – Emperor Maurice proclaims his son Theodosius as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1027 – Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1351 – Combat of the Thirty : Thirty Breton Knights call out and defeat thirty English Knights.
- 1484 – William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables.
- 1552 – Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh Guru.
- 1636 – Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands.
- 1812 – An earthquake destroys Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1812 – A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term "gerrymander" to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection.
- 1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.
- 1839 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.
- 1881 – Thessaly is freed and becomes part of Greece again.
- 1885 – The Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel begin the North-West Rebellion againstCanada.
- 1913 – Balkan War: Bulgarian forces capture Adrianople.
- 1917 – World War I: First Battle of Gaza – British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
- 1931 – SwissAir is founded as the national airline of Switzerland.
- 1934 – The driving test is introduced in the United Kingdom.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists begin their final offensive of the war.
- 1942 – World War II: The first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
- 1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
- 1958 – The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris.
- 1967 – Ten thousand people gather for one of many Central Park be-ins in New York City
- 1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation Warbegins.
- 1974 – Gaura Devi leads a group of 27 women of Laata village, Henwalghati, Garhwal Himalayas, to form circles around trees to stop them being felled and giving rise to the Chipko Movement in India.
- 1975 – The Biological Weapons Convention comes into force.
- 1978 – Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan's Narita International Airport, a group of protestors destroys much of the equipment in thecontrol tower with Molotov cocktails.
- 1979 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C..
- 1982 – A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C..
- 1991 – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur, the South Common Market.
- 1991 – Five South Korean boys, nicknamed the Frog Boys, disappear while hunting for frogs and are murdered in a case that remains unsolved.
- 1995 – The Schengen Treaty comes into effect.
- 1997 – Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides.
- 1998 – Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria: 52 people are killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
- 1999 – The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.
- 1999 – A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.
- 2005 – The Taiwanese government calls on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China. Around 200,000 to 300,000 attend the demonstration.
[edit]Births
- 603 – Pacal II, Mayan (d. 683)
- 1031 – Malcolm III of Scotland (d. 1093)
- 1516 – Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist (d. 1565)
- 1554 – Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, French military leader (d. 1611)
- 1634 – Domenico Freschi Italian composer and Roman Catholic priest (d. 1710)
- 1698 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist (d. 1765)
- 1749 – William Blount, American statesman (d. 1800)
- 1753 – Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (d. 1814)
- 1773 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician and navigator (d. 1838)
- 1794 – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German painter (d. 1872)
- 1854 – Maurice Lecoq, French sports shooter (d. 1925)
- 1856 – William Massey, New Zealand politician, 19th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1925)
- 1859 – Alfred Edward Housman, English poet (d. 1936)
- 1859 – Adolf Hurwitz, German mathematician (d. 1919)
- 1866 – Fred Karno, British music hall impresario (d. 1941)
- 1868 – King Fuad I of Egypt (d. 1936)
- 1871 – Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole of the Kingdom of Hawaii (d. 1922)
- 1874 – Robert Frost, American poet (d. 1963)
- 1875 – Max Abraham, German physicist (d. 1922)
- 1875 – Syngman Rhee, South Korean politician (d. 1965)
- 1876 – Prince William of Wied (d. 1945)
- 1879 – Othmar Ammann, Swiss bridge engineer (d. 1965)
- 1879 – Waldemar Tietgens, German rower (d. 1917)
- 1880 – André Prévost, French tennis player (d. 1919)
- 1881 – Guccio Gucci, Italian businessman and fashion designer (d. 1953)
- 1882 – Hermann Obrecht, Swiss jurist (d. 1940)
- 1884 – Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (d. 1969)
- 1886 – Hugh Mulzac, America military officer (d. 1971)
- 1888 – Elsa Brändström, Swedish nurse (d. 1948)
- 1893 – Palmiro Togliatti, Italian communist leader (d. 1964)
- 1894 – Viorica Ursuleac, Romanian soprano (d. 1985)
- 1898 – Rudolf Dassler, German sportswear executive (d. 1974)
- 1898 – Charles Shadwell, English conductor and bandleader (d. 1979)
- 1904 – Joseph Campbell, American author (d. 1987)
- 1904 – Emilio Fernández, Mexican actor and filmmaker (d. 1986)
- 1904 – Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and politician (d. 2004)
- 1905 – Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1997)
- 1905 – Monty Berman, British producer (d. 2006)
- 1906 – Rafael Mendez, Mexican trumpeter (d. 1981)
- 1907 – Azellus Denis, Canadian politician (d. 1991)
- 1907 – Mahadevi Varma, Indian poet (d. 1987)
- 1908 – Franz Stangl, German concentration camp commandant (d. 1971)
- 1908 – Henry (Hank) Sylvern, American radio personality (d. 1964)
- 1911 – Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2003)
- 1911 – Tennessee Williams, American dramatist (d. 1983)
- 1911 – T. Hee, American animator (d. 1988)
- 1913 – Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1996)
- 1913 – Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist and classical scholar (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Toru Kumon, Japanese educator (d. 1995)
- 1914 – William Westmoreland, American military commander (d. 2005)
- 1915 – Hwang Sunwon, Korean writer (d. 2000)
- 1916 – Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1995)
- 1916 – Bill Edrich, English cricketer (d. 1986)
- 1916 – Sterling Hayden, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1916 – Harry Rabinowitz, South African composer and conductor
- 1919 – Roger Leger, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1965)
- 1919 – Strother Martin, American actor (d. 1980)
- 1920 – Sergio Livingstone, Chilean footballer and sportscaster (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Oscar Sala, Italian-born physicist (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Gert Bastian, German politician (d. 1992)
- 1923 – Bob Elliott, American comedian
- 1925 – Pierre Boulez, French composer and conductor
- 1925 – James Moody, American jazz musician (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Ben Mondor, Canadian-American baseball executive (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Ventsislav Yankov, Bulgarian pianist
- 1927 – Harold Chapman, British photographer
- 1929 – Edwin Turney, American businessman (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Tom Foley, American politician and 57th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
- 1930 – Gregory Corso, American poet (d. 2001)
- 1930 – Sandra Day O'Connor, American jurist
- 1931 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
- 1933 – Acharya Kuber Nath Rai, Indian Writer
- 1933 – Vine Deloria Jr., American scholar (d. 2005)
- 1934 – Alan Arkin, American actor
- 1935 – Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian statesman
- 1936 – Harry Kalas, American sportscaster (d. 2009)
- 1936 – Giora Feidman, Argentinian-Jewish klezmer clarinetist
- 1937 – Wayne Embry, American basketball player
- 1937 – James Lee, Canadian politician
- 1938 – Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1940 – James Caan, American actor
- 1940 – Nancy Pelosi, American politician and 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
- 1941 – Richard Dawkins, British biologist
- 1941 – Yvon Marcoux, Canadian politician
- 1942 – Erica Jong, American author
- 1943 – Bob Woodward, American journalist
- 1944 – Diana Ross, American singer (The Supremes)
- 1945 – Mikhail Voronin, Soviet gymnast (d. 2004)
- 1946 – Johnny Crawford, American actor
- 1946 – Jiří Kabeš, Czech singer, violist, violinist, guitarist and songwriter
- 1946 – Alain Madelin, French politician
- 1947 – Dar Robinson, American stuntman (d. 1986)
- 1948 – Richard Tandy, British keyboardist (Electric Light Orchestra)
- 1948 – Steven Tyler, American singer (Aerosmith)
- 1949 – Vicki Lawrence, American actress and singer
- 1949 – Fran Sheehan, American musician (Boston)
- 1949 – Patrick Süskind, German writer
- 1950 – Teddy Pendergrass, American singer (Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes) (d. 2010)
- 1950 – Martin Short, Canadian comedian
- 1950 – Ernest Thomas, American actor
- 1950 – Alan Silvestri, American film composer
- 1951 – Carl Wieman, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1952 – T. A. Barron, American writer
- 1952 – Didier Pironi, French Formula 1 driver (d. 1987)
- 1953 – Elaine Chao, American, 24th United States Secretary of Labor
- 1953 – Lincoln Chafee, American politician
- 1953 – Youssouf Togoïmi, Chadian nationalist (d. 2002)
- 1954 – Kazuhiko Inoue, Japanese voice actor
- 1954 – Clive Palmer, Australian businessman
- 1954 – Curtis Sliwa, American anti-crime activist
- 1955 – Danny Arndt, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Charly McClain, American singer
- 1957 – Leeza Gibbons, American television host
- 1957 – Paul Morley, English journalist
- 1958 – Chris Codiroli, American baseball player
- 1958 – Elio de Angelis, Italian racing driver (d. 1986)
- 1959 – Chris Hansen, American reporter and correspondent
- 1960 – Marcus Allen, American football player
- 1960 – Jennifer Grey, American actress
- 1960 – Øystein Mæland, Norweigian psychiatrist, civil servant and politician
- 1960 – Axel Prahl, German actor
- 1961 – Leigh Bowery, Australian performance artist (d. 1994)
- 1961 – William Hague, British politician
- 1961 – Billy Warlock, American actor
- 1962 – Eric Allan Kramer, American actor
- 1962 – Richard Coles, English musician and priest
- 1962 – John Stockton, American basketball player
- 1962 – Paul de Leeuw, Dutch television host
- 1963 – Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Japanese writer
- 1963 – Roch Voisine, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1964 – Todd Barry, American Comedian
- 1964 – Martin Donnelly, Irish race car driver
- 1964 – Ulf Samuelsson, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1964 – Hai Zi, Chinese poet (d. 1989)
- 1965 – Trey Azagthoth, American guitarist (Morbid Angel)
- 1966 – Nick Wirth, British engineer
- 1966 – Michael Imperioli, American actor
- 1967 – Mark Carroll, Australian rugby league footballer
- 1968 – Kenny Chesney, American singer
- 1968 – James Iha, American musician (The Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle)
- 1968 – Laurent Brochard, French cyclist
- 1969 – Alessandro Moscardi, Italian rugby player
- 1970 – Paul Bosvelt, Dutch football player
- 1970 – Thomas Kyparissis, Greek footballer
- 1970 – Martin McDonagh, Anglo-Irish playwright and director
- 1971 – Behzad Ghorbani, Iranian zoologist and sociobiologist
- 1972 – Jon Reep, American comedian and actor
- 1972 – Jason Maxwell, American baseball player
- 1972 – Leslie Mann, American actress
- 1973 – Heather Goldenhersh, American actress
- 1973 – Lawrence E. Page, American computer scientist, Co-Founder of Google
- 1973 – T. R. Knight, American actor
- 1973 – Matt Burke, Australian rugby player
- 1974 – Mike Peca, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Juvenile, American rapper (Hot Boys)
- 1976 – Joachim Alcine, Haitian-born Canadian boxer
- 1976 – Amy Smart, American actress
- 1976 – Natalia Livingston, American actress
- 1976 – Nurgül Yeşilçay, Turkish actress
- 1976 – Ufuk Talay, Australian footballer
- 1977 – Kevin Davies, English footballer
- 1977 – Sylvain Grenier, Canadian wrestler
- 1978 – Anastasia Kostaki, Greek basketball player
- 1979 – Hiromi Uehara, Japanese jazz pianist
- 1979 – Pierre Womé, Cameroonian footballer
- 1979 – Nacho Novo, Spanish footballer
- 1980 – Niina Kelo, Finnish heptathlete
- 1980 – Son Ho Young, Korean singer (g.o.d)
- 1980 – Richie Wellens, English footballer
- 1981 – Baruch Dego, Israeli football player
- 1981 – Massimo Donati, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Jay Sean, British singer
- 1981 – Josh Wilson, American baseball player
- 1982 – Mikel Arteta, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Nate Kaeding, American football player
- 1983 – Roman Bednar, Czech footballer
- 1983 – Michael Brendli, American wrestler
- 1984 – Jimmy Howard, American ice hockey player
- 1984 – Stéphanie Lapointe, Canadian singer and actress
- 1984 – David McGowan, English footballer
- 1984 – Alberto Schettino, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Annette Schwarz, German pornographic actress
- 1984 – Marco Stier, German footballer
- 1984 – Gregory Strydom, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1984 – Sara Jean Underwood, American model
- 1985 – Keira Knightley, English actress
- 1985 – Jonathan Groff, American actor
- 1985 – Prosper Utseya, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1986 – Jonny Craig, Canadian singer and songwriter (Emarosa, Dance Gavin Dance, and Isles & Glaciers)
- 1986 – Emma Laine, Finnish tennis player
- 1986 – Misty Stone, American pornographic actress and model
- 1987 – Jermichael Finley, American football player
- 1987 – Steven Fletcher, Scottish footballer
- 1987 – YUI, Japanese singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1988 – Suvi Koponen, Finnish model
- 1989 – Matteo Guidicelli, Filipino actor and racer
- 1989 – Simon Kjær, Danish footballer
- 1989 – Josiah Leming, American singer-songwriter
- 1990 – Yuya Takaki, Japanese actor and singer
- 1990 – Yūya Yagira, Japanese actor
- 1992 – Haley Ramm, American actress
- 1994 – Mayu Watanabe, Japanese actress and singer (AKB48 and Watarirouka Hashiritai)
- 2005 – Countess Luana of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg
[edit]Deaths
- 304 – Saint Emmanuel, Christian martyr killed under Diocletian
- 922 – Al-Hallaj, Persian Sufi teacher and writer
- 1130 – King Sigurd I of Norway (b. c. 1090)
- 1212 – King Sancho I of Portugal (b. 1154)
- 1517 – Heinrich Isaac, Flemish composer
- 1535 – Georg Tannstetter, Austrian scientist (b. 1482)
- 1546 – Thomas Elyot, English diplomat
- 1566 – Antonio de Cabezón, Spanish composer (b. 1510)
- 1649 – John Winthrop,English lawyer and second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
- 1679 – Johannes Schefferus, Alsatian-born humanist (b. 1621)
- 1697 – Godfrey McCulloch, Scottish politician and murderer (b. 1640)
- 1726 – Sir John Vanbrugh, English dramatist (b. 1664)
- 1772 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer (b. 1704)
- 1776 – Samuel Ward, American politician (b. 1725)
- 1780 – Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1713)
- 1793 – John Mudge, English physician (b. 1721)
- 1797 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (b. 1726)
- 1814 – Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician, namesake of the guillotine (b. 1738)
- 1827 – Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (b. 1770)
- 1858 – John Addison Thomas, American soldier (b. 1811)
- 1881 – Roman Sanguszko, Polish aristocrat (b. 1800)
- 1885 – Anson Stager, American telegraphist (b. 1825)
- 1888 – Barghash bin Said, Zanzibar ruler, second Sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1837)
- 1892 – Walt Whitman, American poet (b. 1819)
- 1902 – Cecil Rhodes, English explorer (b. 1853)
- 1905 – Maurice Barrymore, American actor (b. 1849)
- 1910 – Auguste Charlois, French astronomer (b. 1864)
- 1910 – An Jung-geun, Korean general (b. 1879)
- 1920 – William Chester Minor, American surgeon and contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary (b. 1834)
- 1923 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (b. 1844)
- 1926 – Konstantin Fehrenbach, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1852)
- 1929 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (b. 1859)
- 1933 – Eddie Lang, American jazz musician (b. 1902)
- 1934 – John Biller, American athlete (b. 1877)
- 1940 – Wilhelm Anderson, Baltic German astrophysicist (b. 1880)
- 1940 – Spiridon Louis, Greek runner, winner of the first modern Olympics marathon (b. 1873)
- 1942 – Jimmy Burke, American baseball player (b. 1874)
- 1945 – David Lloyd George, British politician and statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1863)
- 1948 – Emile St. Godard, Canadian dog sled racer (b. 1905)
- 1951 – James F. Hinkle, American politician, sixth Governor of New Mexico (b. 1864)
- 1954 – Charles Perrin, French rower (b. 1875)
- 1957 – Édouard Herriot, French politician (b. 1872)
- 1958 – Phil Mead, English cricketer (b. 1887)
- 1959 – Raymond Chandler, American-born novelist (b. 1888)
- 1965 – Olof Sandborg, Swedish film and theatre actor (b. 1884)
- 1966 – Victor Hochepied, French swimmer (b. 1883)
- 1969 – John Kennedy Toole, American author (b. 1937)
- 1973 – Noël Coward, English composer and playwright (b. 1899)
- 1973 – Johnny Drake, American football player (b. 1916)
- 1973 – Don Messer, Canadian fiddler (b. 1909)
- 1973 – George Sisler, American baseball player (b. 1893)
- 1976 – Josef Albers, German artist (b. 1888)
- 1976 – Lin Yutang, Chinese writer (b. 1895)
- 1978 – Wilfred Pickles, English actor and broadcaster (b. 1904)
- 1983 – Anthony Blunt, British art historian and spy (b. 1907)
- 1984 – Ahmed Sékou Touré, African political leader and President of Guinea (b. 1922)
- 1987 – Eugen Jochum, German conductor (b. 1902)
- 1989 – Hai Zi, Chinese poet (b. 1964)
- 1990 – Halston, American fashion designer (b. 1932)
- 1992 – Barbara Frum, Canadian journalist (b. 1937)
- 1993 – Louis Falco, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1942)
- 1995 – Eazy-E, American rapper (N.W.A) (b. 1963)
- 1996 – Edmund Muskie, American politician (b. 1914)
- 1996 – David Packard, American engineer and businessman (b. 1912)
- 1997 – Marshall Applewhite, American cult leader (b. 1931)
- 2000 – Alex Comfort, American author (b. 1920)
- 2002 – Randy Castillo, American drummer (Red Square Black and Mötley Crüe) (b. 1950)
- 2003 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American politician and sociologist. (b. 1927)
- 2004 – Jan Berry, American musician (Jan and Dean) (b. 1941)
- 2004 – Jan Sterling, American actress (b. 1921)
- 2005 – James Callaghan, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1976-1979 (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Gérard Filion, Quebec businessman and journalist (b. 1909)
- 2005 – Paul Hester, Australian drummer (Split Enz, Crowded House, Deckchairs Overboard and Tarmac Adam) (b. 1959)
- 2005 – Marius Russo, American baseball player (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Frederick Rotimi Williams Nigerian politician and jurist (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Frank Searle, British Loch Ness Monster hoaxer (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Anil Biswas, Indian politician (b. 1944)
- 2006 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (b. 1975)
- 2006 – Nikki Sudden, British singer-songwriter (Jacobites and Swell Maps) (b. 1956)
- 2008 – Heath Benedict, American football player (b. 1983)
- 2008 – Robert Fagles, American translator and professor (b. 1933)
- 2008 – Wally Phillips, American radio personality (b. 1925)
- 2008 – Manuel Marulanda Velez, Colombian rebel leader, founder and lifelong leader of rebel group FARC-EP (b. 1930)
- 2009 – Shane McConkey, Canadian skier and BASE jumper (b. 1969)
- 2011 – Geraldine Ferraro, American congresswoman and vice-president nominee (b. 1935)
- 2011 – Roger Abbott, Canadian comedian (b. 1946)
- 2011 – Diana Wynne Jones, British writer (b. 1934)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Independence Day and National Day (Bangladesh), celebrates the declaration of independence from Pakistan in 1971.
- Martyr's Day or Day of Democracy (Mali)
- Prince Kuhio Day (Hawaii)
- Prophet Zoroaster's Birthday (Zoroastrianism)
- Purple Day: The Global Day of Epilepsy Awareness founded by Cassidy Megan, an inspirational epileptic girl from Nova Scotia, Canada who is dedicated to increasing epilepsy awareness worldwide. March 26 is officially recognized by law as Purple Day for epilepsy awareness in Canada.[1]
- Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel (Eastern Christianity)
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