Bairnsdale Conservative: Sat May 11th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Haris Cehic, Jason Phuong andPeter Sov. Born on the same day, across the years. Today is the anniversary of that day in 868 that the first known printed book to survive to today was made, called the Diamond Sutra. Not the same subject matter as that other Sutra .. Something to live up to
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TERRITORY OF DOOOOM

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 11, 2013 (4:07pm)

We’ve hit peak carbon, people:

The planet has set a significant – and unwelcome – landmark with the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passing 400 parts per million for the first time in more than 3 million years …

“Humanity has never been here before,” John Connor, chief executive of The Climate Institute, said in a statement. “We are in dangerous and uncharted territory, with little time to ensure a safe and sustainable future.”

Readers are encouraged to provide body counts and any other mortality data from their neighbourhoods as the deadly gas takes effect. Location points for corpse disposal would also be useful.

UPDATE. The New York Times:

“It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster,” said Maureen E. Raymo, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a unit of Columbia University.

Actually, it’s a mild 20° here in Sydney at the moment. But it’ll probably heat up once the victims begin decomposing.

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WONDER WHALE

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 11, 2013 (3:13pm)

The ABC salutes its fellow tax-funded repulsive behemoth:

The wondrous Skywhale balloon commissioned by the ACT Government to commemorate Canberra’s centenary has taken flight in our nation’s capital.

Skywhale creator Patricia Piccinini comments at the linked clip, but declines to acknowledge any possible inspiration provided by late Labor politician Mal Colston:

Meanwhile, an ominous development to Canberra’s north spells trouble for our whaley friend. Sashimi, anyone?

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BEEMER SCHEME

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 11, 2013 (3:10pm)

Good news for owners of old BMWs:

The 1988-1991 BMW M3 has appreciated around 27% in the past year alone, and will likely continue climbing. Not to mention, E30 M3 values have more than doubled in the past five years.

But enough about those little guys. If Labor wants to achieve a budget surplus the next time they’re in office, Wayne Swan should immediately buy the world’s remaining stocks of mighty M Coupes, currently rising in value all over the place.

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OBAMA WASN’T JOKING

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 11, 2013 (1:37pm)

2009: “In a commencement speech at Arizona State, the president joked about using the IRS as an enforcement agent for dissenters.”

2013: “Turns out they were being targeted, after all. Today, an IRS head admitted as much and apologized.”

(Via Instapundit)

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PHONAL WARMING

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 11, 2013 (12:37pm)

Settled science from 1881:

(Via Harry Bergeron)

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Clive Palmer’s mad party just got crazier

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (12:46pm)

Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party signs up the MP too hot for the Liberals and Labor:

FORMER Parliamentary Speaker and ex-Liberal MP-turned independent Peter Slipper has joined billionaire Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.
Mr Palmer today confirmed Mr Slipper had applied to become a member of the Party - and his application had been accepted.
But Mr Slipper won’t be standing for the seat of Fisher.
A United Australia Party statement said Bill Schoch - Mr Palmer’s Coolum Resort manager - remained the Party’s endorsed candidate for Fisher in the next Federal election.

More like this and Labor won’t be the worst clown show in the election.
(Thanks to reader Alby.)

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Bolt Report tomorrow

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (10:18am)

On Network Ten at 10am on Sunday: Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop, polling guru Mark Textor and former Labor president Warren Mundine.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.

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Marr’s lousy journalism revealed

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (9:53am)

Lots of errors from David Marr. Just as well he wasn’t been sued for racial discrimination when making them, or they could be used as an excuse for censoring him - although in this case his errors do actually go precisely to the credibility of his allegations.
Media Watch Dog explains:

DAVID MARR ADMITS TO ERRORS IN HIS POLITICAL ANIMAL ESSAY ON TONY ABBOTT AND THE (ALLEGED) “PUNCH”
In the first edition of his Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott (published in late 2012), David Marr claimed that Tony Abbott had punched a wall behind the head of left-wing student activist Barbara Ramjan at Sydney University in September 1977. In subsequent comments, Mr Marr declared unequivocally about “The Punch” that “it happened”. Yet in the second edition of Political Animal, David Marr changed his timing of “The Punch” to 28 July 1977. He did so without explanation. It was not the only correction.
In the first edition of Political Animal (published in early 2013), David Marr wrote of an incident at the Ku-Ring-Gai College of Advanced Education involving Tony Abbott which he said took place in August 1977. Yet in the second edition of Political Animal, David Marr changed the timing of this event to October 1977. Again, without explanation. Mr Marr has subsequently denied that the two editions are inconsistent but later conceded that there is an inconsistency.
The evidence suggests that David Marr’s position on “The Punch” is confused. Yet he has received a soft run in the media concerning his inconsistencies and his unwillingness to acknowledge them publicly. All is explained – and documented – in today’s Correspondence section.

Hit the link.
(Thanks to reader Peter.)

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“We are better than white people” is “pride”. The other stuff is racism

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (9:31am)

The ABC reports on Victoria’s Immigration Museum, now celebrating identity politics and some of that new Good Racism:

JEFF WATERS: They’re as compelling as they are thought provoking - a series of video vignettes. All self-recorded by people in libraries and community centres and in response to questions about cultural identity…
TATIANA MAURI: Unfortunately racism is one of those things that’s come up time and time again and we felt we were in a position to perhaps produce a project, like Talking Difference, that would help people talk to that.
JEFF WATERS: While some of the subjects were bursting with pride…
VOX POP 6: We are Koori. We are better than white people.

Things then get stranger:

JEFF WATERS: The designers of the experiment found they didn’t get many entirely negative videos - only two in about 1,000 responses contained any actual racism at all.
So they’ve decided to take it all out of libraries and are now asking for online contributions as well. They’re anticipating things may very well get heated.

Was “Vox Pop 6”, actually a young girl, one of those deemed to contain racism? I suspect not. The ABC says it’s just someone “bursting with pride”.
But clearly the Immigration Museum was disappointed by the lack of “real racism” it found. So it’s going to try harder to present an indictment of this society.
Immigration Museum video here.
(Thanks to reader Michael.)

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Mike Carlton: all abuse, no courage

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (9:22am)

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton is a boor - and I don’t think he’s honest here, either:

[Conservative columnist Miranda] Devine had posted on Twitter that she was “Embedded w NSW Police Public Order & Riot Squad” and included an accompanying photo. Shortly afterwards, Carlton tweeted to his 7935 followers: “@mirandadevine is ‘embedded’ with the Police Riot Squad, as she puts it. What, all of them at once? Must be exhausting.”
His comments were subsequently re-tweeted by many people, including author and feminist academic Catharine Lumby, who has subsequently apologised to Devine…
Devine, a former journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald, which publishes Carlton’s weekly column, has demanded he take the tweet down from the site.
In response, Carlton emailed her: “What a fragile little plant you are. UItterly (sic) devoid of any style, wit, grace or humour. And a fool to boot.”
Carlton has since apologised on Twitter for the remark and has removed it from the site.
“It was silly, it was meant to be a lighthearted gag and if she is offended I apologise,” Carlton told The Weekend Australian. “I didn’t mean to be offensive and I unreservedly withdraw it and apologise for any stress it caused.”

Note Carlton’s weak non-apology:

... if she is offended I apologise.

Only ”if” she’s offended? Like it’s Devine’s fault if she’s sensitive? How gutless.
Note also:

I didn’t mean to be offensive.

That is a lie. Of course Carlton meant to be offensive. Not only did he portray Devine as a slut, but he called her “fragile”, a “fool”, “uItterly (sic) devoid of any style, wit, grace or humour”, an ”airhead”, ”thick as two planks” and a ”dill”.
Abuse of conservatives is Carlton’s shtick. There is nothing else to him. Not even the courage of his malice.
All this confirms for me the conclusions I drew when I last saw Carlton. He’d clearly been drinking, and weaved his way to a group of people including the then chairman of the ABC, before throwing a glass of wine at another conservative he didn’t like, splashing all.
Same lack of courage then. I ordered him out of our presence and he high-tailed it to the other side of the room, but then heckled from a distance as mate Peter FitzSimons stood between us to protect him. I knew the man from that moment.
Zero class. Zero courage. Zero integrity, in my opinion.
AFTERTHOUGHT:
What was it that Carlton once said about some of Gillard’s media critics?

THE PUBLIC and media onslaught upon Julia Gillard goes way beyond the political and personal. It has lunged into vicious misogyny…
This airborne filth gets only the occasional tut-tut from the rogues’ gallery of woman-haters, closet wife-beaters and assorted sleaze-bags who host commercial talkback these days.

Had Alan Jones ever said of Gillard what Carlton has said of Devine, what sanctimonious abuse would Carlton - and the likes of Lumby - have unleashed on him?
With so many of the Left tribe, it’s the side, not the principle.
UPDATE
It really is a tribe:

Did Carlton, centre, explain the ethics of portraying conservatives as sluts and nuts? Did Ackland, left, go on and on again about how only journalists of the Left had the ethics to be trusted with the running of the ABC? Did Marr repeat his dictum that only journalists of the “soft Leftie” kind were real journalists and the rest should “find another job”?
UPDATE
The class of Carlton:

RADIO cellar-dweller Mike Carlton hit a disgusting new low yesterday, continuing his career-long assault on colleague Stan Zemanek by saying he “loathed” and “hated” Zemanek - as his family prepared to bury him.
Responding to a caller’s question about why he wouldn’t be at Zemanek’s funeral, Carlton said: “I’d only go to check that he was actually dead.”

Same weaselly blame-the-offended non-apology then, too, from the man of no courage:

My few comments on 2UE about the late Stan Zemanek have been blown out of all proportion in some sections of the media…
In hindsight, those spontaneous remarks might have been better left to another time.
In replying to the listener, it was not my intention to cause distress to the Zemanek family.
If that has happened, I regret it.

“If” people were offended ... “Not my intention...” “Blown out of proportion by the media"… “Might” have been better left to another time…
Familiar refrain, isn’t it?
Such a boor.

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If the autistic don’t get full cover, where’s the money going?

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (9:21am)

Only “most”? And only “could”? So how much of this $22 billion a year ($22 billion now?) is actually going to the disabled then?

The national disability insurance scheme will cover ‘’most’’ people with autism and could pay the full cost of early intervention programs, Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin has declared in the latest clue as to what the $22 billion-a-year scheme will cover.

UPDATE
Reader B. explains:

Andrew,

A major part of the basis for her comment is the rampant proliferation of an Autism industry that is already rife with perverse incentives biasing in favor of a diagnosis being made. There is no conspiracy, just well meaning misguided bias. I am a very senior medical practitioner in this field and would be very keen to provide you more detail if requested.

There are children with relatively severe Autism that includes being almost non-verbal and with significant cognitive, social and functional impairments. Clearly the families of these groups of children should have a reasonable share of any NDIS funding. It is for these groups that an annual amount of funding (approx $14,000 pa) was made available some years ago, in addition to a modest increase in early intervention services, although these are heavily underfunded and unable to find sufficiently qualified staff in many cases.

The problem is that a diagnosis of ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’ has become quite uncontained with often very broad diagnostic criteria. Things have reached the point these days where any kid that’s not a charming little extrovert will be accused of being, ‘on the spectrum.’ Only rarely is an actual formulation developed of that child and their difficulties in the context of their family.

The fact is, apart from the more severe cases, a diagnosis of autism or asperger’s is simply not very robust, despite many bright, sincere colleagues of mine having an opinion the contrary.

The ‘cut-off’ for NDIS funding will face perhaps its greatest litmus test around this very issue. It is an irreconcilable dilemma, at least for governments which is why the solution lies in having no cut offs decided by the state. Instead there should be an out of pocket payment for families (no matter how small) so that this limited amount of price signalling brings some efficiency into a family’s decision around engaging a particular service that no bureaucracy can ever be sophisticated or fair enough to decide.

Kind regards,

Thanks for that. But this points to a real problem with the disability scheme - and the disability support pension. When medical practitioners give in like this to pressure to define patients as disabled or suffering some syndrome, how can we stop the NDIS from blowing out?
(Thanks to reader Peter.)

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Making his point: Pyne takes hard line on Lateline

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (9:15am)

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne gets tough on Lateline host Emma Alberici during his debate with Labor’s David Bradbury:

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That’s exactly the problem you have identified, Emma. The spending in the economy will be fuelled by more debt because households are finding more of their disposable income removed from them while the Government tries to increase taxes to cover their own expenditure.
DAVID BRADBURY: You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have it both ways.
EMMA ALBERICI: We will let David Bradbury finish his point.
DAVID BRADBURY: You can’t say interest rates are so dangerously low because the economy is in crisis. That is effectively what Joe Hockey said the other day. And then on the other hand say we have grave concerns about household debt being fuelled by low interest rates.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Emma, if I can make a point…
DAVID BRADBURY: Christopher if you just let me make the point.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You’ve seem to have made all the point so far.
DAVID BRADBURY: What we have seen over recent years, as interest rates have been cut, we have seen households doing a lot of heavy lifting in paying down their debt. That has been a positive thing. The flipside of that has been that they haven’t been spending as much money in the economy. That certainly the evidence that, if you talk to the banks, that is the evidence that is coming through very strongly, that there has been a concerted effort to pay down some of that debt. Whilst household indebtedness continues to be a challenge into the future, we are coming from a base where households have done some heavy lifting in recent times and the country is in a much better position as a result of that.
EMMA ALBERICI: Let’s move on. Christopher Pyne I wanted to talk about…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Are you just going to monopolise this interview, I mean....
EMMA ALBERICI: .... I wanted to talk about the participation issue. It was another issue raised by the Reserve Bank in its monetary statement. The Coalition…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think David should be rebutted actually.
EMMA ALBERICI: Well we’ve talked a lot about that issue and I want to move onto another.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I didn’t get an opportunity to rebut what he said.
EMMA ALBERICI: You had, you had quite a bit of an opportunity and I want to move on…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Not really actually, he has talked for most of the interview so far actually.
EMMA ALBERICI: I’m giving you the opportunity if you let me ask you the question. Part of the statement today from the Reserve Bank was on workforce participation, that they want to see that higher. Your signature policy is on the very generous paid parental leave scheme which many of your MPs think is economically irresponsible. What do you say to that?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Emma, I think firstly David’s points need to be rebutted. He made the point that in fact we’re living ...
DAVID BRADBURY: I understand why you don’t want to talk about paid parental leave.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: ... Oh you having another go David, you want to keep going again do you? Cause you’ve had most of the interview so far.
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne if I can draw you to my question about…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I think David Bradbury’s points need to be rebutted, Emma. Because the point is if we are living in the days of wine and caring as he seems to identify and blaming the consumers now for high debt because apparently they have been trying to pay back their debt so it’s their fault, why is the Government’s budget in complete disarray.
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, the Reserve Bank did not mention Government debt at all in its monetary statement, which is why I raised the issue of household debt. Which the Reserve Bank identified as a key…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But David Bradbury is talking about things that need to be rebutted…
EMMA ALBERICI: Can we move on now?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And you want to move on to another subject which is very typical of Lateline, Emma. The truth is…
DAVID BRADBURY: If he doesn’t want to talk about their paid parental policy I will.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I’m happy to talk about that policy, I’m happy to talk about it…
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne I want to talk about the Reserve Bank’s statement actually and the Reserve Bank did not mention Government debt. The Reserve Bank mentioned the key risk to the economy was household debt.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: David Bradbury made some points which need to be rebutted Emma and unfortunately you are not allowing the other side of the equation to get their points across.

(Thanks to reader Merv.)

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Swan should be sacked

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (8:58am)

Good question from Terry McCrann: Why hasn’t Wayne Swan been sacked?

The Treasurer should go after the disastrous forecasts and assumptions on which his budget was based. It is absolutely fundamental to understand that this is not just a matter of getting forecasts wrong in a volatile and uncertain world....
It is that those forecasts were unrealistic and worse, amateurish from the start…
As I wrote a year ago the budget’s projected “return” to surplus was built on an extraordinary projected $39 billion single-year surge in revenue and a series of fiddles to push spending out of the current year.
But, even so, it would almost certainly stay in deficit. The government bases the now certain (biggish) deficit outcome on a combination of two linked forces: that the terms of trade had fallen more than expected and that nominal GDP had actually grown slower than real GDP. Thereby slashing expected revenues.
Both are tendentious and actually an admission of basic incompetence.
The terms of trade have come off their peak but are still near century-high levels. Indeed, they have arguably stayed higher than what might reasonably have been predicted a year ago…
The projected revenue surge was quite simply built on absurdly optimistic assumptions about capital gains and company tax, to say nothing of the overestimates for the mining tax.

Then, as McCrann says, there was the global warming stupidity embraced by the Government and Treasury…

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What did Slater & Gordon know about the money?

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (8:41am)

Michael Smith has asked Slater & Gordon intriguing questions about what it knew of the source of $68,000 paid for the house bought by Julia Gillard’s then boyfriend, and whose account of that source it relied on.
This follows some observations made to him by a “participant” who was “intimately acquainted” with Slater & Gordon dealings at the time. I suspect strongly we’ve heard from this participant in the past.

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Boat arrivals to fill the MCG in five years, not 20

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (8:26am)

Remember how the compassion industry ridiculed warnings that Labor had left the door wide open, and a trickle of boat people would turn into a flood?

[In 2010], civil libertarian Julian Burnside mocked people who worried about the boat people starting to stream in through Labor’s open door.
”If it keeps up at this rate, it would take about 20 years to fill the MCG with boat arrivals,” the QC scoffed.
Many of the Left were impressed by this airy dismissal.
Take Prime Minister Julia Gillard: “Mr Burnside is very, very right. This is a point well made.”

Chris Kenny says boat people arrivals are now out of control at more than 100 a day:

In the first nine days of this month, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare announced 21 boat arrivals involving 1710 people - more than two boats and 190 people a day…
In just over four months this year, 8767 people have arrived on 127 boats. At this rate the number will be more than 20,000 this year, after topping 17,000 last year.

That would fill the MCG in just five years, if we exclude family reunions.
Kenny is right about the cause:

Labor has been sabotaged all along because large elements of the party (along with a small rump in the Coalition) have conscripted the issue into identity politics. The morally vain have advocated policies to parade their own compassion rather than find solutions. They are the compassionistas.

And we know the ABC’s lack of interest in reporting boat arrivals today will end the day after the election:

If you rely on the ABC for all your news most of this will be a surprise, because the national broadcaster is self-censoring on boat arrivals… From September 15 the ABC will start reporting boat arrivals again, and the new government had better stem the flow.

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How child care became an out-of-control entitlement

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (8:18am)

Judith Sloan gives an example of government creating an entitlement industry by turning a private responsibility into an out-of-control public expense:

Many voters have had children and gone out to work without any assistance from the taxpayer… The assumption was made that parents would work out what was in the best interests of their children and the family, and would act accordingly…
Fast-forward to today and childcare is incredibly expensive and over-regulated. The idea that at least some of the staff at childcare centres require university-level qualifications is ludicrous…
It is not uncommon for daily childcare fees to exceed $100 a day; figures of greater than $150 a day are not unheard of. The cost to the taxpayer of providing childcare fee relief is heading towards $5bn a year, having increased nearly threefold in the past eight years.
The real tragedy is that this outcome was entirely predictable. It starts with an activity funded privately for private gains. There is some government involvement, but mainly at the local government level…
The government decides to get involved on the basis of some trumped-up market failure excuse. The providers see a real opportunity and lobby for government funds in exchange for regulated standards. The mum-and-dad operators are forced out.
The unions see a real opportunity too. Obviously, there are limits to what parents can be charged lest it become uneconomic for them to have their children in childcare.
Shift the cost to the long-suffering taxpayer, snaffle a large chunk of the new funding to pay higher wages and claim lots of social benefits for “investment in early childhood education”.

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Shorten’s hype exposed. Liberals’ timidity ditto

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (8:11am)

Bill Shorten, claiming the Liberals’ new workplace policy will force workers to trade ”pizza for penalty rates”, is exposed as a blowhard:

THE academic who helped draft and develop the Fair Work Act has rejected the central premise of Labor’s attack on Tony Abbott’s workplace policy, accusing Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten of exaggerating the impact of the proposed changes.
University of Adelaide professor Andrew Stewart said yesterday the Coalition’s proposed changes to Labor’s system of individual flexibility arrangements were “modest and in line with the recommendations of Labor’s own Fair Work review panel”.
“If you take the Coalition’s policy at face value, the proposed changes to IFAs, I believe, would have very little practical impact,” he told The Weekend Australian.
“This policy has almost no relevance to the overwhelming majority of employers and employees.”

But while Shorten looks like a ridiculous scare-monger, the Opposition looks without the courage of its convictions.

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O’Connor exactly and precisely wrong

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (6:12am)

Last week it became clear the Immigration Minister was just making stuff up as he flogged another Labor scare:

Two weeks ago Immigration Minister Brendon O’Connor offered an exact, precise figure:

I believe that the areas where there’s been an illegitimate use of 457s numbers in the thousands… I would say it would exceed over ten thousand…
O’Connor was asked on the ABC’s AM this morning where he got his 10,000 rorters figure from, when his department’s report says such rorting is “rare”. He refused to answer:

I’m making a forecast… We don’t have an exact, precise figure.
He did but he doesn’t.

An exact, precise figure now contradicts O’Connor’s guess:

A LANDMARK study of skilled migration has punctured Labor’s central argument in its crackdown on the 457 visa program, by revealing far fewer “rorts” than claimed while confirming the scheme’s vital role in lifting economic growth…
The report, to be released this weekend by the Migration Council of Australia, shows clear violations in 2 per cent of cases where foreign workers were not paid the $51,400 minimum salary set for all 457 visas. Applying that to the current visa workforce would amount to 2000 violations.

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Swan’s new surplus promise: would you believe 2017?

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (5:43am)

Wayne Swan, May 2010:

We now expect a surplus in three years, three years ahead of schedule.

Wayne Swan, August 2010:

Well, we’re getting back into surplus in three years. Come hell or high water.

Wayne Swan, April 2011:

We see the surplus in 12-13 as being absolutely fundamental.

Wayne Swan, May 2011:

We’ll be back in the black by 2012/13, as promised.

Wayne Swan, August 2011:

I believe we will attain those forecasts, coming back to surplus in 2012/13.

Wayne Swan, February 2012:

I am determined to produce a surplus in 2012-2013. We have got our colours nailed to the mast.

Wayne Swan, March 2012:

Despite the tough global conditions, we remain determined to return the budget to surplus in 2012/13, and we will get there.

Wayne Swan yesterday:

Wayne Swan has vowed to return the federal budget to surplus within four years, with his government poised to announce further deep cuts to spending.

David Uren:

IF Wayne Swan’s budget next week promised a surplus in 2017-18, would anyone believe it?…
During most of last year, the Treasurer was arguing that if the budget could not be brought back into the black now - given that unemployment was low, commodity prices were high and the economy was growing at about its long-term trend rate - then it would be hard to say when it would ever run a surplus…
During the past five years, the influence of commodity prices on the economy has been complemented by the substantial investment in resource projects. For many years, mining investment averaged barely 2 per cent of GDP, but it has soared to more than 8 per cent. This is why Australia has been able to fare so well…
But in 2012-13 commodity prices have started falling and, from 2013-14, investment by resource companies will start falling as well....
[Professor Bob] Gregory says it is hard to gauge how profound the effect of the reversal of the boom will be, but he notes that Reserve Bank calculations suggest the resource sector directly involves about 20 per cent of the economy.
“If that is correct, then there is disaster around the corner because the benefits that flowed during the boom will be reversed.”

UPDATE
You are being spun:

Deloitte Access Economics director Chris Richardson said ... said it was entirely possible that the 2012-13 deficit next week would be as low as $10bn or less.
“The government has been using figures that, other things equal, make the problem look bigger than it is, with the objective of beating expectations next Tuesday night,” he said.
The government this week used estimates that the writedown in revenue had risen to $17bn this year and $20bn in 2013-14 to inflate expectations of the size of the deficit.
These estimates were comparisons with the forecasts in last May’s budget, not the October budget update. The 2013-14 estimate did not take account of the $5.5bn in additional tax revenue in that year generated by the decision, made at the mid-year update, to bring forward the company tax payments from quarterly to monthly.

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Beware Swan’s mindless spending instead

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (5:19am)

Treasurer Wayne Swan has been flogging a new phrase to make a virtue of blowing the budget:

TREASURER Wayne Swan has warned major economies against leaning toward ”mindless austerity” to repair their balance sheets, as Labor prepares for its own tough budget choices.

Again last month:

“We reject the heartless philosophy of mindless austerity,” Swan said in an essay published by the Chifley Research Centre today.

And Swan warns us where this mindless austerity is worst:

We need new sources of growth to come from developed economies, particularly Europe, but at the moment fiscal austerity there is a huge brake on growth.

Adam Creighton is puzzled. What “mindless austerity”? Where?

Government budget deficits in Europe are still up to twice as large as they were before the GFC - when no one described them as austere - and are contributing to already vast public debt burdens. Far from the “savage cuts” of Wayne Swan’s imagination, European governments have reduced only the rate of growth of public spending. Even in Greece, a country with little population or economic growth in recent years, spending is still greater than it was five years ago…
John Taylor, professor of economics at Stanford University, is puzzled by the renewed faith in debt-financed government spending to revive growth, a practice he says was discredited decades ago…
Taylor points to the better economic performance of Poland and Sweden, whose economies have done relatively well and whose governments have tried deliberately to keep their spending in check. Sweden’s Finance Minister Anders Borg successfully cut welfare spending and slashed income taxes, including the top rate by 20 percentage points. Sweden’s economy is now the fastest growing in Europe.
Alberto Alesina, a renowned Italian economist and professor at Harvard University, ... has forensically studied the relationship between budget policy and economic growth in 21 OECD countries, including Australia, from 1970 to 2007, and concludes “not only are tax cuts more stimulatory for economic growth than spending increases, but spending cuts are much more effective than tax increases in stabilising public debt and avoiding economic downturns”.
He found that a 1 per cent permanent reduction in government spending as a share of national income boosted the rate of economic growth by up to 0.75 percentage points.
“Most countries in Europe are actually raising taxes and not cutting expenses; what happens in practice is typically quite different from what is announced,” Alesina says…
Brief Treasury analysis has suggested the government’s massive spending program in 2009 created jobs and made Australia better off, but it has been discredited by independent Australian economists Tony Makin, Ross Guest, and Sinclair Davidson, for instance.
Their alternative modelling accords more with what ordinary people would expect from a debt-financed splurge: a sugar hit followed by the ongoing burden of servicing debt.

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Moustache-led recovery

Andrew Bolt May 11 2013 (12:53am)

Clearly private enterprise is booming in Turkey, because no state program would have tipped this:

TURKEY’S economy is getting hairier, as a booming medical sector profits from a growth spurt: moustache transplants…
Most customers are foreigners, according to surgeons, as Turkey itself has undergone a sharp decline in moustache wearing. A study by Istanbul’s TNS Market Research Company found that 77 per cent of Turkish men had moustaches in 1993 but the figure fell to 34 per cent in 2011.

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A couple had their wedding rings engraved with a waveform of their own voices saying “I do.”
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4 her
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The pedestrian crossing at the intersection on hindmarsh drive & canberra ave, that goes nowhere. Smart.
Born free .. it is so lions can cross safely .. - ed
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Watch for these around your home!
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"At the end of a long day on set, there is nothing that my father enjoyed more than sitting down with his family and friends to enjoy a meal" - Ethan Wayne. Duke was an outdoorsman, who enjoyed hunting, deep sea fishing, and sharing the bounty of the day prepared over a hardwood fire. JOHN WAYNE Briquets provide a delicious, natural BBQ flavor and a long consistent burn! Proudly Made in the USA with a percentage of sales benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Foundation! Available for purchase today!http://bit.ly/johnwaynehardwoodbriquetes
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What do they do at the Department of Climate Science and Meteorology at San Jose State University with books which dare to question global warming?

BURN THEM. Then proudly post a picture to their official web site.

Details at http://www.climatedepot.com/.
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Red River is a 1948 Western film directed by Howard Hawks, giving a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. The dramatic tension stems from a growing feud over the management of the drive, between the Texas rancher who initiated it (John Wayne) and his adopted adult son (Montgomery Clift).

The film also starred Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery Jr. and Harry Carey, Jr. Borden Chase wrote the script with Charles Schnee, based on Chase's original story (which was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1946 as "Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail").

Red River was filmed in 1946 but not released until September 30, 1948. Footage from Red River was later incorporated into the opening montage of Wayne's last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing (Christian Nyby) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. In 1990, Red River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." John Ford—who worked with Wayne on many films (such as The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)—was so impressed with Wayne's performance that he is reported to have said, "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!" In June 2008, AFI listed Red River as the fifth-best film in the western genre.

John Wayne as Thomas Dunson
Montgomery Clift as Matthew 'Matt' Garth
Joanne Dru as Tess Millay
Walter Brennan as Nadine Groot
Coleen Gray as Fen
Harry Carey as Mr. Melville
John Ireland as Cherry Valance
Noah Beery Jr. as Buster McGee
Harry Carey Jr. as Dan Latimer
Chief Yowlachie as Quo
Paul Fix as Teeler Yacey
Hank Worden as Sims Reeves
Ray Hyke as Walt Jergens
Wally Wales as Old Leather
Mickey Kuhn as Young Matt

Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
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Give a Green Labor politician a match then he or she will be warm for a minute but set them on fire and they will be warm for the rest of their pitiful lives.
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Shorten has this up on his Face Book page. Tony Abbott has never said he was bringing back work choices. The words Tony used was "I will go after crooked and corrupt union officials" - ed
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In your valley of trouble, see Jesus as your shield, the glory and lifter of your head (Ps 3:3). See Him turning your circumstances around for your good.
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Beloved, with all our wisdom and high IQs, we aren’t always able to position ourselves at the right place at the right time to experience God's blessings. Yet, when we trust in the favor of God, even if we are not very smart in the natural, He can put us at the right place at the right time and give us good success! Beloved, live life believing that because you are favored by God, He is directing your steps. He is leading you to the very blessings that He has already prepared for you! Amen!
http://josephprince.com/
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Knowing you are forgiven much is the key to loving God and others much. Find out more in today’s devotional.http://bit.ly/11jgmCH
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Beloved, be encouraged to know that our Lord Jesus is serving you tirelessly with compassion and power. He wants to wipe away your tears, heal your body and provide for you today!

Click below to watch a short clip of this encouraging message. Be sure to click 'Like' and share this with your friends! Amen!
http://bit.ly/17JgfED
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Today, God sees you blameless, spotless and righteous (Col 1:22) in Christ. So don’t worry about how you see yourself, or how your spouse, relatives, friends and co-workers see you.
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Did you know that God's not mad at you, but loves you and wants to protect and provide for you today? Be encouraged by this video excerpt as Joseph Prince uncovers God's heart for you through the touching biblical story of David and Jonathan.
http://josephprince.com/
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Do you know that blessing you actually brings joy to God’s heart? When you place a demand on Him, you let Him be God. When you come empty and draw from Him, the one who has endless supply, you honor Him. When you draw from His fullness, you delight Him! Beloved, God wants to pour His abundant supply of health, wholeness and peace into your life today. Come expectantly to Him for your healing and for every other need today!
http://josephprince.com/
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for May 10th. Enjoy!

The Right Sphere: It's official: Obama lied during the presidential debate

David Freddoso: Without real journalism, 'you're on your own'

The Washington Free Beacon: Newseum stands by decision to honor terrorists

Twitchy: You know who ‘forced’ the admin to create lying Benghazi talking points? The GOP, says ex-NSC spokesman

Twitchy: AP: IRS is totally sorry for targeting groups with names that include ‘tea party’ or ‘patriot’

This guy is obviously a great listener.

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May 11: Easter Saturday (Eastern Christianity, 2013)

868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in China, making it the world's oldest dated printed book.
1792 – Merchant sea captain Robert Gray became the first recorded European to navigate the Columbia River in what is now the Pacific Northwest United States.
1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth departed westward from Sydney on an expedition to become the first Europeans confirmed to cross the Blue Mountains.
1858 – Minnesota (flag pictured) was carved out of the eastern half of theMinnesota Territory and admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
1946 – The United Malays National Organisation, today Malaysia's largestpolitical party, was founded, originally to oppose the constitutional framework of the Malayan Union.
1996 – A severe blizzard on Mount Everest caused the deaths of eight climbers, helping make that year the deadliest in the mountain's history.

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Events [edit]

330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it oldest known dated printed book.
912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1310 – In France, fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake as heretics.
1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-dayNew York City.
1745 – War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy – French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.
1792 – Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River.
1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.
1813 – In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
1820 – HMS Beagle, the ship that will take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, is launched.
1846 – President James K. Polk asked for and received a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War
1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State.
1862 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
1867 – Luxembourg gains its independence.
1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California
1891 – The Ōtsu incident: Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia (later Nicholas II) suffers a critical head injury during a sword attack by Japanese policeman Tsuda Sanzō. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark.
1894 – Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.
1907 – 32 Shriners are killed when their chartered train derails at a switch near Surf Depot in Lompoc, California.
1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
1918 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.
1924 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
1942 – William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.
1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
1944 – World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of its crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under its own power.
1946 – UMNO is created.
1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945.
1949 – Israel joins the United Nations.
1953 – The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak: an F5 tornado hits downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114.
1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.
1967 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and socialist politician, is imprisoned in Athens by the Greek military junta.
1968 – The Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor–Danforth line, going to Scarborough in the East, and Etobicoke in the West.
1970 – The Lubbock Tornado, a F5 tornado, hits Lubbock, Texas, killing 26 and causing $250 million in damage.
1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed.
1983 – Aberdeen F.C. defeat Real Madrid 2-1 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1985 – Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.
1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
1987 – In Baltimore, Maryland, the first heart–lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
1995 – In New York City more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.
1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster: on a single day eight people die during summit attempts on Mount Everest.
1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran to include a thermonuclear device.
2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.

Births [edit]

482 – Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor (d. 565)
1366 – Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard II of England (d. 1394)
1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (d. 1637)
1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, German child of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach (d. 1739)
1715 – Ignazio Fiorillo, Italian composer (d. 1787)
1720 – Baron Münchhausen, German nobleman (d. 1797)
1722 – Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (d. 1789)
1733 – Princess Victoire of France (d. 1799)
1752 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (d. 1840)
1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian poet (d. 1845)
1771 – Laskarina Bouboulina, Greek naval commander (d. 1825)
1799 – John Lowell, American philanthropist (d. 1836)
1801 – Henri Labrouste, French architect (d. 1875)
1811 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai-American conjoined twins (d. 1874)
1811 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1893)
1817 – Fanny Cerrito, Italian ballet dancer (d. 1909)
1824 – Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter and sculptor (d. 1904)
1827 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (d. 1875)
1835 – Kārlis Baumanis, Latvian composer (d. 1905)
1838 – Walter Goodman, English painter, illustrator, and author (d. 1912)
1852 – Charles W. Fairbanks, American politician, 26th United States Vice President (d. 1918)
1854 – Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer (d. 1932)
1861 – Frederick Russell Burnham, American scout and adventurer (d. 1947)
1869 – Archibald Warden, British tennis player (d. 1943)
1870 – Otto von Friesen, Swedish runologist, linguist, and educator (d. 1942)
1871 – Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer (d. 1943)
1875 – Harriet Quimby, American aviatrix (d. 1912)
1881 – Al Cabrera, Spanish-Cuban baseball player (d. 1964)
1881 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian physicist (d. 1963)
1881 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1944)
1885 – Joe "King" Oliver, American cornet player and bandleader (d. 1938)
1888 – Irving Berlin, American composer (d. 1989)
1888 – Willis A. Lee, American naval admiral (d. 1945)
1890 – Woodall Rodgers, American attorney, businessman, and politician, Mayor of Dallas (d. 1961)
1892 – Margaret Rutherford, English actress (d. 1972)
1894 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
1895 – William Grant Still, American composer (d. 1978)
1896 – Josip Štolcer-Slavenski Croatian composer (d. 1955)
1897 – Kurt Gerron, German director (d. 1944)
1897 – Robert E. Gross, American businessman (d. 1961)
1899 – Paulino Masip, Spanish playwright (d. 1963)
1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter (d. 1989)
1907 – Rose Ausländer, German poet (d. 1988)
1907 – Rip Sewell, American baseball player (d. 1989)
1909 – Ellis R. Dungan, American-Indian director (d. 2001)
1909 – Herbert Murrill, English composer (d. 1952)
1911 – Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (d. 2004)
1911 – Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)
1912 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
1912 – Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistani writer (d. 1955)
1913 – Robert Jungk, Austrian publicist (d. 1994)
1914 – Haroun Tazieff, French volcanologist and geologist (d. 1998)
1916 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
1918 – Sheila Burnford, British novelist (d. 1984)
1918 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
1918 – Phil Rasmussen, American lieutenant (d. 2005)
1920 – Denver Pyle, American actor (d. 1997)
1921 – Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician
1922 – Nestor Chylak, American baseball umpire (d. 1992)
1922 – Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
1924 – Eugene Dynkin, Russian mathematician
1924 – Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer, Nobel laureate
1924 – Ninfa Laurenzo, restaurateur, founded Ninfa's
1925 – Edward J. King, American politician, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2006)
1927 – Mort Sahl, Canadian comedian and political commentator
1927 – Bernard Fox, English actor
1927 – Gene Savoy, American author, explorer, scholar, and cleric (d. 2007)
1928 – Yaacov Agam, Israeli sculptor
1928 – Brother Andrew, Dutch missionary
1928 – Marco Ferreri, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1928 – Vern Rapp, American baseball manager and coach
1929 – Fernand Lindsay, Canadian churchman, educator, organist, and festival director (d. 2009)
1930 – Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (d. 2002)
1930 – Bud Ekins, American stuntman (d. 2007)
1932 – Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer, founded Valentino SpA company
1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American Nation of Islam leader
1934 – Jim Jeffords, American politician
1934 – Arthur Labatt, Canadian businessman
1935 – Kit Lambert, English producer and manager (d. 1981)
1935 – Doug McClure, American actor (d. 1995)
1935 – Francisco Umbral, Spanish novelist (d. 2007)
1936 – Carla Bley, American musician, bandleader, and composer
1939 – Carlos Lyra, Brazilian musician
1939 – Dante Tinga, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
1940 – Juan Downey, Chilean artist (d. 1993)
1941 – Eric Burdon, English singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and painter (The Animals and War)
1941 – Graham Miles, English snooker player
1942 – Rachel Billington, English author
1943 – Les Chadwick, English bassist (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
1943 – Nancy Greene, Canadian alpine skier
1943 – Juliet Harmer, English actress
1946 – Robert Jarvik, American scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur, developed the Artificial heart
1946 – Plume Latraverse, Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, and author
1947 – Butch Trucks, American drummer (The Allman Brothers Band and The 31st of February)
1948 – Nirj Deva, Sri Lankan-English politician
1948 – Shigeru Izumiya, Japanese singer, actor, and poet
1950 – Dane Iorg, American baseball player
1950 – Jeremy Paxman, English journalist and author
1951 – Ed Stelmach, Canadian politician, 13th Premier of Alberta
1952 – Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress
1952 – Frances Fisher, English actress
1952 – Mike Lupica, American journalist
1952 – Renaud, French composer
1952 – Warren Littlefield, American television executive
1953 – David Gest, American concert promoter and media personality
1953 – Céline Lomez, Canadian actress and singer
1954 – John Gregory, English football manager
1954 – Lubomir Stoykov, Bulgarian journalist and broadcaster
1955 – John DeStefano, Jr., American politician
1956 – Theresa Burke, Canadian journalist
1956 – Alex Lester, English broadcaster
1957 – Mike Nesbitt, Irish journalist and politician
1957 – Peter North, Canadian porn actor
1958 – Christian Brando, American actor (d. 2008)
1958 – Dan Ireland, American director
1958 – Phil Smyth, Australian basketball player
1958 – Walt Terrell, American baseball player
1959 – Martha Quinn, American television and radio host
1960 – Gildor Roy, French-Canadian actor and singer
1961 – Luis Felipe, Cuban gangster, founder of the Latin Kings
1963 – Gunilla Carlsson, Swedish politician
1963 – Masatoshi Hamada, Japanese comedian
1963 – Natasha Richardson, English-American actress (d. 2009)
1963 – Roark Critchlow, Canadian actor
1964 – Tim Blake Nelson, American actor
1964 – John Parrott, English snooker player
1964 – Katie Wagner, American reporter
1964 – Bobby Witt, American baseball player
1964 – Floyd Youmans, American baseball player
1965 – Stefano Domenicali, Italian race car manager
1965 – Greg Dulli, American musician (The Twilight Singers, The Afghan Whigs, and The Gutter Twins)
1965 – Monsour del Rosario, Filipino martial artist and actor
1966 – Christoph Schneider, German musician (Rammstein and Feeling B)
1967 – Alberto García Aspe, Mexican footballer
1968 – Jeffrey Donovan, American actor
1970 – Nicky Katt, American actor
1970 – Glenn Hugill, English television presenter and producer
1970 – Harold Ford Jr., American politician
1972 – Anita Hegh, Australian actress
1972 – Daniel Ornellas, Zimbabwean bassist
1974 – Kevin Brown, English-Canadian ice hockey player
1974 – Stanley Gene, Papua New Guinean rugby league footballer
1974 – Billy Kidman, American wrestler
1974 – Benoît Magimel, French actor
1974 – Darren Ward, Welsh footballer
1975 – Coby Bell, American actor
1975 – Francisco Cordero, Dominican baseball player
1975 – Ziad Jarrah, Lebanese hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93 (d. 2001)
1977 – Janne Ahonen, Finnish ski jumper
1977 – Gonzalo Colsa, Spanish footballer
1977 – Pablo García, Uruguayan footballer
1977 – Victor Matfield, South African rugby player
1978 – Laetitia Casta, French model and actress
1978 – Perttu Kivilaakso, Finnish cellist and composer (Apocalyptica)
1979 – Erin Lang, Canadian singer, musician, and composer
1980 – Ernest Vardanean, Moldovan journalist of Armenian origin
1981 – Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
1981 – Daniel Ortmeier, American baseball player
1981 – Dusán Mukics, Slovene journalist
1981 – Austin O'Brien, American actor
1982 – Jonathan Jackson, American actor
1982 – Andrew Walter, American football player
1982 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and singer
1982 – Guji Lorenzana, Filipino singer and actor
1983 – Matt Leinart, American football player
1983 – Daizee Haze, American wrestler
1983 – Holly Valance, Australian actress, model, and singer
1983 – Hanna Verboom, Dutch actress
1983 – Frédéric Xhonneux, Belgian decathlete
1984 – John Bowie, American football player
1984 – Gerald Clayton, Dutch-American pianist and composer
1984 – Andrés Iniesta, Spanish footballer
1984 – Marvin Wijks, Dutch footballer
1985 – Matt Giraud, American singer-songwriter and musician
1985 – Sifow, Japanese singer
1985 – Beau Ryan, Australian professional Rugby League footballer
1986 – Abou Diaby, French footballer
1986 – Ronny Heberson Furtado de Araújo, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Manuel Schenkhuizen, Dutch gamer
1986 – Miguel Veloso, Portuguese footballer
1987 – Justin King, American football player
1987 – Louis Murphy, American football player
1987 – Monica Roşu, Romanian gymnast
1988 – Ace Hood, American rapper and songwriter
1988 – Jeremy Maclin, American football player
1988 – Brad Marchand, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Marcel Kittel, German cyclist
1989 – Gianluigi Bianco, Italian footballer
1989 – Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer
1989 – Cam Newton, American football player
1991 – Alex Nimely, Liberian-English footballer
1992 – Thibaut Courtois, Belgian footballer
1993 – Jirapong Meenapra, Thai sprinter
1996 – Valeria Patiuk, Israeli tennis player

Deaths [edit]

912 – Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine Emperor (b. 866)
1304 – Ghazan, Mongol ruler (b. 1271)
1610 – Matteo Ricci, Italian missionary (b. 1552)
1672 – Charles Seton, 2nd Earl of Dunfermline (b. 1615)
1686 – Otto von Guericke, German scientist, inventor, and politician (b. 1602)
1708 – Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (b. 1646)
1723 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (b. 1656)
1760 – Alaungpaya, Myanmar founder of Konbaung Dynasty (b. 1714)
1777 – George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, English governor (b. 1719)
1778 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1708)
1779 – John Hart, American delegate and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1711)
1812 – Spencer Perceval, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1762)
1848 – Tom Cribb, English boxer (b. 1781)
1849 – Juliette Récamier, French society leader (b. 1777)
1871 – John Herschel, British mathematician and astronomer (b. 1792)
1887 – Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (b. 1802)
1891 – A. E. Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1820)
1915 – Arthur Hussey, American golfer (b. 1882)
1916 – Max Reger, German composer (b. 1873)
1916 – Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (b. 1873)
1920 – William Dean Howells, American writer (b. 1837)
1927 – Juan Gris, Spanish cubist artist (b. 1887)
1929 – Jozef Murgaš, Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter, patriot, and priest (b. 1864)
1934 – Blaise Diagne, Sengalese politician (b. 1872)
1934 – Orest Khvolson, Russian physicist (b. 1852)
1938 – George Lyon, Canadian golfer (b. 1858)
1939 – Evgenii Miller, Russian general (b. 1867)
1940 – Chujiro Hayashi, Japanese Physician (b. 1880)
1955 – Gilbert Laird Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
1960 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist (b. 1874)
1963 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
1966 – Alfred Wintle, English soldier and author (b. 1897)
1967 – James E. Brewton, American painter and printmaker (b. 1930)
1970 – Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist (b. 1906)
1973 – Lex Barker, American actor (b. 1919)
1976 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect and designer (b. 1898)
1979 – Lester Flatt, American singer-songwriter and musician (Foggy Mountain Boys and Nashville Grass) (b. 1914)
1981 – Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1897)
1981 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician (Bob Marley & The Wailers) (b. 1945)
1985 – Chester Gould, American cartoonist (b. 1900)
1986 – Alexander Akimov, Ukrainian Chernobyl worker (b. 1953)
1986 – Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist (b. 1910)
1986 – Fritz Pollard, American football player (b. 1894)
1988 – Kim Philby, English spy (b. 1912)
1990 – Stratos Dionysiou, Greek singer (b. 1935)
1994 – Timothy Carey, American actor (b. 1928)
1996 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigerian politician, President of Nigeria (b. 1904)
1996 – Rodney Culver, American football running back (b. 1969)
1996 – Rob Hall, New Zealand mountaineer (b. 1961)
1996 – Walter Hyatt, American songwriter and musician (b. 1949)
1996 – Candi Kubeck, American pilot of Valujet Flight 592 (b. 1961)
1996 – Ademir Marques de Menezes, Brazilian footballer (b. 1922)
1996 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (b. 1949)
1996 – Sam Ragan, American author, journalist and poet (b. 1915)
1997 – Ernie Fields, American musician, arranger, and bandleader (b. 1905)
1998 – Oreste Kirkop, Maltese tenor and actor (b. 1923)
1999 – Giorgos Kappis, Greek actor (b. 1929)
2000 – René Muñoz, Cuban actor and screenwriter (b. 1938)
2000 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
2001 – Douglas Adams, English author (b. 1952)
2002 – Joseph Bonanno, Sicilian-American mafioso (b. 1905)
2002 – Renaude Lapointe, French-Canadian journalist and senator (b. 1912)
2002 – Bill Peet, American children's illustrator (b. 1915)
2003 – Noel Redding, English bassist (The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Road, Fat Mattress, and The Noel Redding Band) (b. 1945)
2004 – Mick Doyle, Irish rugby player and coach (b. 1941)
2004 – John Whitehead, American singer-songwriter and producer (McFadden & Whitehead) (b. 1949)
2005 – Michalis Genitsaris, Greek singer and composer (b. 1917)
2005 – Léo Cadieux, Canadian politician (b. 1908)
2006 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b. 1935)
2006 – Frankie Thomas, American actor (b. 1921)
2006 – Yossi Banai, Israeli singer and actor (b. 1932)
2007 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan head of state (b. 1913)
2007 – Bernard Gordon, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
2008 – Dottie Rambo, American singer-songwriter (The Rambos) (b. 1934)
2008 – John Rutsey, Canadian drummer (Rush) (b. 1953)
2008 – Bruno Neves, Portuguese cyclist (b. 1981)
2009 – Pat Booth, English model, photographer, and author (b. 1943)
2009 – Lude Check, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1917)
2009 – Abel Goumba, African politician (b. 1926)
2009 – Claudio Huepe, Chilean politician, engineer, and economist (b. 1939)
2009 – Bill Kelso, American baseball player (b. 1940)
2009 – Mark Landon, American actor (b. 1948)
2009 – Shanthi Lekha, Sri Lankan actress (b. 1929)
2009 – Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda, Indian admiral (b. 1915)
2009 – Peter Philips, Australian politician (b. 1927)
2009 – Leonard Shlain, American surgeon and writer (b. 1937)
2010 – Robert H. Burris, American biochemist and educator (b. 1914)
2010 – John Fugh, Chinese-American general (b. 1934)
2010 – Brian Gibson, English footballer (b. 1928)
2010 – Timothy Grubb, English show jumper (b. 1954)
2010 – Rauf Jabbarov, Azerbaijani boxing manager and trainer (b. 1935)
2010 – Maciej Kozłowski, Polish actor (b. 1957)
2010 – Richard LaMotta, American inventor, businessman, lawyer, inventor of Chipwich (b. 1942)
2010 – Bud Mahurin, American pilot (b. 1918)
2010 – Emmanuel Ngobese, South African soccer player (b. 1980)
2010 – Jeff Shaw, Australian lawyer, politician, and judge (b. 1949)
2010 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress, dancer, and author (b. 1904)
2010 – Bob Watt, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1927)
2011 – Maurice Goldhaber, Austrian-American physicist (b. 1911)
2011 – Leo Kahn, American businessman, co-founder of Staples Inc. (b. 1916)
2011 – Reach Sambath, Cambodian journalist (b. 1964)
2011 – Elisabeth Svendsen, English animal welfare advocate, founded The Donkey Sanctuary (b. 1930)
2011 – Robert Traylor, American basketball player (b. 1977)
2011 – Glyn Williams, Welsh footballer (b. 1918)
2011 – Snooky Young, American trumpeter (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and Count Basie Orchestra)
2012 – Jack Benaroya, American real estate developer and philanthropist (b. 1921)
2012 – Patrick Bosch, Dutch footballer (b. 1964)
2012 – Tony DeZuniga, Filipino comic-book artist (b. 1932)
2012 – Ramesh Mehta, India playwright, director, actor, and translator (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances [edit]

Christian Feast Day:
Earliest date on which Whit Monday can fall, while June 14 is the latest; celebrated on the day after Pentecost. (Christianity)
Nisga'a Day, celebration of the effective date of the Nisga'a Final Agreement. (Nisga'a Nation)
One of the three days of the Feast of the Lemures. (Roman Empire)
May 11 on some years can fall on mothers day, the next occurrence is in 2014
National Technology Day (India)
Statehood Day (Minnesota)

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Sat May 11th Todays News