Bairnsdale Conservative: Sat May 25th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Amanda Quach, PhiKong Le and Ivy Kuswendi. Born on the same day across the years. The same day in 1961 JFK promised the US would send a man to the moon and return him alive before 1970. Suggesting through posthumous success, that you can do anything. Anything.
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TWEET BEAT

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (3:01pm)

Happy news for a libelled Lord:

Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, libelled Lord McAlpine by suggesting that he was an alleged paedophile on Twitter, the High Court has ruled.

Mrs Bercow, a Labour party activist, tweeted: “Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*.”

She later apologised publicly to the peer in four tweets and in private letters. But she maintained that her tweet was foolish rather than libelous …

It is understood she will pay significant damages and costs. Lord McAlpine had sued her for up to £50,000.

McAlpine has already collected six-figure payouts from ITV and the BBC, where Guardian failboyIan Katz now finds himself elevated as a consequence.

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LEAF SENTENCE - DAY FOUR

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (1:17pm)

From this angle, it is clear that the leaf is being held in a stem cell:

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STILL WORTHLESS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (4:53am)

Laurie Oakes outlines the case against ABC privatisation:

Apart from anything else, who would buy something that makes no money?

Well, us. We pay more than $1,000,000,000 every year for something Laurie rates as a financial zero, despite more than eight decades of ABC prominence.

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The Bolt Report tomorrow

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (2:17pm)

On The Bolt Report on Network Ten at 10am tomorrow: Opposition industry spokesman Sophie Mirabella, Peter Reith and Cassandra Wilkinson.
The Ford collapse, the Liberals acting Labor-lite, the trouble with Islam and the latest flapping of global warming vultures.
I’d like to talk about the Adam Goodes incident, too, but suspect it doesn’t really fit the format, And with just 22 minutes of time ... Feel free to advise.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.

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AWU scandal: police check Gillard’s claim

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (11:35am)

The police investigation continues:

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has been drawn further into the union fraud investigation involving her former boyfriend, as Victorian police examine her radio account of a 1993 property transaction.
News Limited can reveal Australian Workers Union offices in Perth and Melbourne have also been searched as fraud squad detectives step up their probe into the slush fund scandal.
Ms Gillard has vigorously denied any wrongdoing in relation to the scandal.
The Victorian detective leading the investigation - which is expected to involve up to 100 witnesses - has obtained an official copy of an interview during which Ms Gillard is quizzed about her involvement in a Melbourne property sale. Police also sought a supporting statement from the Sydney radio broadcaster Ben Fordham.
Ms Gillard - a former partner at Slater & Gordon - was legal adviser to Mr Wilson and his then deputy Ralph Blewitt when they purchased a Fitzroy, Melbourne, property for $230,000 in 1993, with $67,722.30 coming from the AWU Workplace Reform Association.
Ms Gillard witnessed a power of attorney document which allowed Mr Wilson to purchase the property on behalf of Mr Blewitt. During a feisty interview with Fordham on March 7, the PM insisted she “absolutely” witnessed the legal document, dated February 4 1993, in the same office as Mr Blewitt.
It is understood that Mr Fordham spent around 20 minutes with Victorian police on Wednesday during which he handed over a recording of his March 7 interview.

The second link explains the interest.
(Thanks to readers Spin Baby, Spin and Internet Nutjob.)

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Goodes should not let one Collingwood teenager have this power

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (11:27am)

I abhor racism and despise racists. In fact, I consider people who shout racist abuse not just vicious but so stupid that I’d be mad to let them determine anything in my life.
In this case, I am uncomfortable that one teenage girl with a potty mouth is given the power to overshadow a game and a celebration witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people at the ground or on TV:

A RACIAL slur directed at Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes by a Collingwood supporter soured Sydney’s 47-point win at the MCG.
Angered Pies president Eddie McGuire sought out Goodes in the Swans rooms immediately after the game to apologise “on behalf of Collingwood and on behalf of football”.
The AFL this week is celebrating Indigenous Round. Goodes will hold a press conference today at 11am to discuss the issue and AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou will also take questions.
Goodes pointed out the fan - allegedly a teenage girl - to security staff in the dying minutes of the game. The fan was escorted from the ground by police.

I am not asking Goodes to accept racist abuse from anyone. But how can one stupid teenager outweigh all the praise heaped on Goodes personally and as a man of Aboriginal ancestry in a game that’s part of an Indigenous round and attended by tens of thousands?
We are now jumping at shadows. To believe we can abolish racism so completely that not even a single teenager, carried away in the heat of a moment, will ever say anything racist is foolish. It is the plan, maybe, of a totalitarian or social engineer, but to react like this is not the act of wise people who understand the crooked timber of humanity.
She’s just a dumb teenager, for heaven’s sake.
Yes, to single her out for group hate may be excused as a valuable teaching moment, although I do wonder what effect this will have on the girl and her family.
To have ignored it and hailed the night as a triumph of reconciliation might have achieved far more that’s good.
UPDATE
Reader Dr Geoff:

I think you sum it up when you say Goodes should not have to accept racial abuse. You often bemoan the lack of consequences for people’s behaviour, well here you have a guy who decided he didn’t need to be abused in his workplace, especially with racist taunts and he did something about it. Good on him.
Let’s be clear- this girl was not arrested and she won’t go to court (hopefully!) so this is not a free speech issue. She was simply removed from a private venue and about time. I have essentially stopped going to live football (in my case rugby league) because of the foul language and abuse hurled in the presence of families and young children. I just wished more people were removed because of their behaviour.
It is a bit sad the girl was so young, but perhaps its a good thing to show the younger generation they don’t have the right to just sit and abuse people no matter how accepted it once was.

I actually agree with everything you say, Geoff. It is not a free speech issue (provided she is not prosecuted) and she should be reprimanded and (almost certainly) evicted - although it’s yet to be established what she actually said.
I have no problem with Goodes wanting her shut up or evicted. I just think turning this into such a massive symbol or cause celebre lacks a sense of proportion. I repeat: she is just one teenage girl, and we don’t even know yet what she said.
Reader The Evil Right:

I am not defending the girls as I think there is a probability that the player would in no way make it up. I personally think she should be made to actually apologise to the player etc…
What surprised me was that the girl (at 14yrs) clearly starting to cry, had her face spread over the TV, which I am sure makes for great ratings but should it not have been blurred? Considering we go to such lengths to protect the identity of young people accused of bashings, stabbings etc. I do not know the girl but I think she might have been shown her error quite easily without such celebration from the media and is likely going to be the target of bullying.

UPDATE
Barry Cable, an AFL great with an Aboriginal mother, is as worried as I am that the AFL’s “reconciliation” push is actually deeply divisive. I’d even call it racist:

WA football great Barry Cable has warned the AFL to act with caution when considering whether to field an all-indigenous side for the International Rules series against Ireland later this year…
The AFL confirmed that chief executive Andrew Demetriou, who arrived in Perth yesterday in the lead-up to this weekend’s indigenous round celebrations, had asked the GAA [Gaelic Athletic Association] to consider the initiative…
“If we’re going to keep going down the track we’re going down, which is getting as many indigenous boys as we can to play the game, it is also very important that they must mix and be in the mainstream ... that’s the key,” Cable said.
“You’re keeping a wedge between the two, so it’s about what you’re trying to achieve by doing it.
“All the players in the AFL are the best and we don’t need to put a wedge between them by doing something like that.
“All players, indigenous or non-indigenous, accept the fact that they all work together and play together and that’s fantastic… Reconciliation means that we all join together and we all help and support each other.”

UPDATE
I know the insult is gross, but I still think the reaction is out of proportion, given the perpetrator is one 13-year-old girl:

Veteran Swans forward Adam Goodes says his side’s famous win over Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night “means nothing” after he was racially abused by a Magpies supporter…
“I’m pretty gutted to be honest,” Goodes told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday morning....
.
“To come to the boundary line and hear a 13 year old girl call me an ‘ape’, and it’s not the first time on a footy field that I’ve been referred to as a ‘monkey’ or an ‘ape’, it was shattering.”
“It’s not her fault. She’s 13, she’s still so innocent. I don’t put any blame on her...”

To repeat: the girl is just 13. She has rung Goodes to apologise. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has apologised. Thousands of people have expressed their support for Goodes over this. Goodes himself conceded the girl probably didn’t know what she was saying. Did she even mean “ape” in a racially derogatory way?
How can this be allowed to make the game meaningingless?
And what on earth are police thinking?

Goodes said that Victoria Police asked if he would like to press charges ...

Police were seriously considering charges against a 13-year-old for calling a man an “ape”? Are we insane?
I do not defend for an instant the insult. But I suspect the person who will be most scarred by the incident is a 13-year-old girl so publicly identfied and vilified.
(Thanks to reader Kiwi.)

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Gillard fought what she cried over

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (11:19am)

Hypocrite:

WHEN Julia Gillard was moved to tears last week as she introduced the increase in the Medicare levy to raise funds for the DisabilityCare scheme, some of her colleagues warmly embraced her and kissed her cheek.

Other Labor MPs were cynical, because the Prime Minister had fought the idea of a levy to pay for disability insurance “every inch of the way” for political reasons over the previous 18 months.
They were despairing because they knew the scheme was late in coming; because Ms Gillard had knocked back repeated appeals from her colleagues in cabinet, in the 2011-12 budget process and in face-to-face meetings for a levy to fund the disability insurance scheme.
Cabinet ministers urging a levy were rebuffed because of the political danger of introducing another “great big new tax”, after Ms Gillard broke an election pledge on the carbon tax.

Labor must consider. Had it declared that the disabled, not climate change, was the “great moral challenge”, where would it be now? The billions it wasted on useless global programs could already be pouring into a disability scheme today - not merely promised for one that won’t be fully running for another six years. Labor wouldn’t have trashed its credibility on a broken promise but would have delivered something real and honorable.
In Gillard’s position, I would have cried, too.

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Too white to watch

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (11:04am)

Sydney Morning Herald writer Clementine Ford singles out ”five of the most awful shows ever made that were once ... thought hip”.
A strange - dare I say racist - objection keeps cropping up:

1. Friends

Long before Girls was accused of whitewashing New York, six friends lived within a stone’s throw from each other in one of the most expensive cities on earth…
This laissez faire approach to money probably also explains why none of them ever locked their doors. But in a city entirely stocked with white people, why would you need to worry about crime?
While it was screening, Friends seemed relatively inoffensive. But rewatching it shows just how conservative it really was....
3. Dawson’s Creek
The theme of white privilege continues with a show which is probably singlehandedly responsible for the fact that any of us have to know who Katie Holmes is right now. The eponymous Dawson had the kind of floppy blonde hair that I guess middle-aged male TV executives think girls like…
4. Beverly Hills 90210
This will be an unpopular inclusion… But it was still dominated by rich white folks battling rich white folk problems...

I sense a certain once-fashionable self-loathing. Or is it self-preening? They are almost indistinguishable now in certain circles.
(Thanks to reader James.)

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Tim Mathieson spending more time alone in a caravan

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (10:53am)

The First Bloke is spending a bit of time on his own now:

Four months ago, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, quietly bought a bush block on the bank of the Goulburn River near Jamieson, in north-east Victoria.
Mr Mathieson has since placed a caravan on the secluded and partly forested block, which backs on to the river as it enters Lake Eildon.
Between periods in residence at The Lodge in Canberra, Mr Mathieson - known as ‘’the First Bloke’’ - has been spending time alone and with his mates on the 1150-square-metre block…
According to a listing on a real estate website, the property at Jamieson ... was sold on January 14 this year… It was listed in the bargain price range of $105,000-$125,000…
The ‘’First Bloke’’ ... has spent the past week touring with a friend in the United States, where he visited one of his daughters.

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Why Laurie Oakes is wrong, and Tony Abbott is right to spurn my “advice”

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (10:52am)

Laurie Oakes makes two fundamental errors - but an unfortunately common ones among Australian journalists:

IT was quite a unity ticket. Mark Latham and Andrew Bolt getting stuck into Tony Abbott on the same day - and for the same reasons.
There was Bolt expressing disappointment at Abbott’s failure to embrace a radically conservative agenda and accusing the Liberal leader of “campaigning as Labor-lite”.
Over in The Financial Review, Latham was sneering at Abbott for not setting out “an alternative vision for smaller government"…
Clearly Bolt was attempting a bit of spine stiffening on behalf of hard-edged conservatives who feel Abbott is starting to let them down.
But elections are won in the middle, not out on the edge - right or left. Abbott knows it…
Bolt faults Abbott for promising no big changes to industrial relations policy, supporting a referendum to recognise Aborigines in the constitution, and refusing to even consider privatising the ABC. As a senior Liberal said yesterday: “Andrew Bolt is a terrific polemicist but not a great political adviser"…
As for constitutional recognition of the first Australians, Bolt will have to get used to the idea that Abbott feels strongly and has a passionate interest in the situation of our indigenous population…
So Abbott, if he is smart, will ignore the ideologues.

Mistake one is Oakes confusing my arguments and observations for advice. Similarly, his “senior Liberal” source is an idiot - and offensive - for assuming my role is that of a “political adviser”.
Let me explain the difference. As a political adviser I would tell Abbott to indeed promise nearly no change in IR. But as a commentator I know, as do most Liberals, that change is necessary.
As a political adviser I would tell Abbott to announces as few cuts as he could possibly get away with. As a commentator I know Australia faces a potentially grave fall in national income, and the cuts Abbott has made so far are peanuts to the ones he may eventually be driven to.
Here is an even clearer example. Almost every Liberal knows Abbott’s parental leave plan is too generous, too expensive, too hard on bosses and too unfair to stay-at-home mothers. But many also know it has been invaluable politically in helping Abbott counter the “misogyny” allegation and showing himself as a “moderate”. As a political adviser I would back Abbott plan; as a commentator I must call it bad public policy.
In my column I did not say Abbott would win or win better if he did what I thought necessary for our economy and our society. I said only what that “necessary” was.
But Oakes also makes a second, related, error. He suggests that my views should be ignored as being “out on the edge”. In particular, I “will have to get used to the idea that Abbott feels strongly and has a passionate interest in the situation of our indigenous population”, and therefore accept his backing for race-based changes to the Constitution.
What Oakes is suggesting is that politicians should accept the mainstream views (as defined, in the main, by journalists such as, well, Oakes) and that “ideologues” (like me) should simply “get used” to whatever our assumed champions believe or espouse at a particular time. Leave the debate to the inner circle.
This is not how reform comes, or how reforming politicians interact with “ideologues” in the media. Nor, I believe, is that how politicians survive in the long term.
As I explained in introducing Abbott at the IPA anniversary dinner, Abbott must operate within the cultural space allowed him. My role is to help expand the cultural space so that what was once thought too hard, too risky, becomes the easy and sane. It is also to point to what needs doing, before most people are ready for the bother.
Let me illustrate what I mean with an example of a position I have long advocated - and which Oakes once similarly painted as out on the edge. Impossible. Political suicide.
In 2009, Oakes insisted the Liberals were finished if they defied Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull and voted against Kevin Rudd’s plans for an emissions trading scheme, as was urged by sceptic and powerbroker Nick Minchin:

Laurie Oakes argued on 21 November that ‘if Senator Minchin wins, the Liberal party loses’ and accused Minchin of doing ‘massive damage to the party’. His prediction that ‘Mr Abbott would be electoral poison if he came to the leadership as the creature of Senator Minchin’ has been somewhat undermined by a string of results from all major published opinion polls since Abbott was made leader. Oakes went even further in a later column, calling Minchin an alien ‘from another planet’ because of his climate change scepticism.

Oakes was sure, along with most the political-media class, that the hard-edged ideologues were wrong about global warming, and the survival of the Liberals depended on listening to mainstream moderates:

Laurie Oakes in November 2009 thought Kevin Rudd’s talk of carbon dioxide cuts could be a winner:
Kevin Rudd and Company can hardly believe their luck… Unless (Opposition Leader Malcolm) Turnbull can bring the climate change dissidents to heel, the Liberals will face humiliation at the polls…
Laurie Oakes in July [2011] thought Gillard’s talk of a carbon dioxide tax could at last be a winner:

IT should be possible to sell Julia Gillard’s climate change package to voters. Despite Tony Abbott’s alarmist claims, it can be portrayed as a good news story… I can reveal that work done by Treasury in final preparations for Sunday’s big announcement shows that over a million more households will benefit from over-compensation via tax cuts and extra payments than was first thought.

Oakes was not alone:

Paul Kelly in 2008:

Any prudent Australian government should move to put an emissions trading scheme in place. Both Rudd and (Opposition Leader Brendan) Nelson remain committed to this concept… Emissions trading looms as Nelson’s ultimate test: it is either the path to a stronger Coalition performance or the issue on which it blows out its political brains.
Paul Kelly in 2009:

By that I mean that I believe that the (Liberal) party room will endorse a series of amendments (to the Government’s emissions trading scheme) which will be the basis for negotiation with the Rudd Government. I mean frankly if they oppose that, that would be signing their own political death warrant… This raises the prospect that the legislation won’t pass and that the election next year will see climate change as a frontline issue. Now this will be a mortal political threat to the Opposition.

Every Canberra correspondent, like Oakes, publicly backed Rudd’s emissions trading scheme, just as they almost to a man backed Julia Gillard’s carbon tax - her most fatal mistake. Polls showed overwhelming public support that “something” be done about global warming.
Yet we “ideologues” out “on the edge” warned Rudd’s policy was ludicrous and would collapse under its own contradictions, particularly when the costs became apparent and gains proved a mirage. We said Gillard’s tax was a betrayal, a con and a drag on the economy which would ultimately be unsustainable.
Since then, of course, what was “out on the edge” has become mainstream. Rudd and Turnbull have lost their jobs, and Gillard soon will - in large part from listening to the likes of Oakes. Abbott is about to become Prime Minister after heeding the climate sceptic “ideologues”.
Oakes is now making a similar mistake over the constitutional recognition of Aborigines - and so, alas, is Abbott. What seems a mainstream and passionately held view today will seem foolish tomorrow, and all the fine intentions will lead only to division and disaster. I could not live with myself if I did not point this out and try to avert the danger.

I am quite aware that to an Oakes and his “very senior Liberal”, what I say seems “out on the edge”. But Abbott would be very mistaken to ignore what I say, even if he were politically smart - for now - to do the opposite, and appeal to the likes of Oakes as a “moderate”.
The difference is this: Abbott wants Abbott to win the election. I want my ideas to win, and not just at this election.
And guess what, Laurie: in the end there may not be as much contradiction between Abbott and me as you suggest. It may just be a question of time.
Time - the element conservatives understand so much better than the Left.

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Combet splashed millions on a company he knew was dying

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (10:13am)

Labor wasted millions on what it knew was a hopeless cause:

Industry Minister Greg Combet knew Ford was likely to close its Australian operations in 2016 when he approved $34 million in grants to the United States auto giant in 2011.

(Thanks to readers Peter and Hmmm.)

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A warning to Internet assassins

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (10:01am)

A couple of warnings to internet trolls:

A tweet published by Sally Bercow about Tory peer Lord McAlpine was libellous, [Britain’s] High Court has ruled.
The wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow tweeted two days after BBC Newsnight wrongly linked a “leading Conservative politician” to sex abuse claims.
Amid widespread speculation about his identity, she wrote: “Why is Lord McAlpine trending. *innocent face*.”

And:

ONE of Australia’s leading plastic surgeons, Chris Moss, ... has brought a legal action in the Victorian Supreme Court against Craig Rodda, the managing director of a marketing agency, which he claims has driven business away from his practice…
The posts which began late last year on Australia’s largest on-line plastic surgery forum alleged that authentic positive reviews of Dr Moss’ work were fake and had been written by his own staff…
“I was shocked and appalled by the threads containing (false) suggestions that I was dishonest, unprofessional, overcharged clients and that my surgical work was not a high standard ...,” Dr Moss said in an affidavit.
Dr Moss alleges that an individual operating from an IP address at Mr Rodda’s home had created seven different pseudonyms to criticise his work on the forum and encourage others to follow suit.
Dr Moss alleges the posts were made on the instructions of competitors as there were recommendations to other plastic surgeons…
Mr Rodda told The Weekend Australian that the posts were made from his IP address but claimed he was not the author. He said that his defacto wife had admitted making the posts but had done so “innocently for the purposes of research”.

(Thanks to reader The Great Waisuli.)

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Treasury believes Labor’s green bull

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (8:48am)

Treasury is peddling a green lie that pads out Labor’s budget:

Leading economist Henry Ergas has described the budget projections as “garbage” and opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt has warned the government is exposed to a $6 billion black hole.
The attack is based on an explanation in the budget papers from Treasury that “carbon prices in the budget projection years are not forecasts of carbon prices”.
Instead they represent a straight line drawn between market prices in 2014-15 (about $5.60) to the $38 projection [in 2019-20] contained in Treasury modelling for the government’s initial carbon scheme…
Treasury explained the $38 figure is not a forecast of the market price in 2019-20 but “the price levels required to meet long-term global environmental goals as well as the international commitment pledges for 2020”.
The government was forced to write down $5.3bn in revenue in the budget in 2015-16 ... after cutting the projected carbon price to $12.10 from the $29 projected a year earlier…
The carbon price is fixed until 2015 when it reverts to a floating price and the scheme is linked to the EU scheme.
The writedown was sparked by a collapse in the EU carbon scheme. The Treasury modelling assumes a $5.60 carbon price for 2014-15 rising by $6.50 to $12.10 in 2015-16. It is then forecast to rise by $6.50 every year until 2019-20.

There is almost zero likelihood of the world imposing a carbon price of $38 just six years from now. Europe’s price is closer to $4 today and its economy is unlikely to be strong enough for much more for many years to come. You are being deceived by green fantasists who believe their own bull.
Here’s just one sign that the political will for expensive green schemes is in fact collapsing. Green freeloaders are finally to be made to pay for their own warm fuzzies:

AUSTRALIA’S one million rooftop solar households could be forced to pay new fixed charges to help recover billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies and make electricity prices fairer for all consumers.
A series of electricity industry reports has highlighted the inequity in existing power pricing where customers without solar panels are unfairly subsidising those with them.
Queensland Energy Minister Mark McArdle has warned that existing rooftop solar contracts will cost the state more than $2.8 billion over the next 15 years and is preparing a major submission to cabinet within a month recommending more user-pays charges.

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Chaudhry: “What he said … not many Muslims can disagree”

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (7:28am)

Every society has its cruel and its killers. The measure of that society’s health is how other react to them.
So take the reaction of a prominent British imam to the beheading of a soldier in a London street by two Muslims saying they’d done it in reprisal for what had been done in “our land”:

ANJUM Chaudhry has claimed most Muslims would agree with what the man believed to be the Woolwich attacker was filmed saying moments after the death of Lee Rigby.
Muslim panelists on Newsnight strongly rejected the claims from Anjum Chaudhry
On Newsnight tonight, Chaudhry said while the brutal attack on a serving soldier was shocking what the man covered in blood said about foreign policy explained what he did.
Chaudhry, who set up Islam4UK which was condemned in the Terrorism Act 2000, refused to say he abhorred and was horrified by the attack…
“What he said in the clip which is being televised, not many muslims can disagree with it.”

The video of Chaudhry is here, and is even more confronting - not least because he feels comfortable enough to say it non national television, and has stature enough to have that platform.
Yes, many other Muslim leaders condemn the murder. But…
MEANWHILE…

In Stockholm, immigrants from mainly Muslim lands continue to riot:

At least two schools, a police station, and 15 cars were set ablaze in Stockholm on Thursday night as riots in the suburbs of the Swedish capital continued for the fifth straight night.

UPDATE
Is mass migration worth the fear?:

Britain scrambled fighter jets Friday to intercept a commercial airliner carrying more than 300 people from Pakistan, diverting it to an isolated runway at an airport on the outskirts of London and arresting two British passengers who allegedly threatened to destroy the plane.
A British security official said the situation involving the Pakistan International Airlines flight did not appear terror-related, though police were still investigating…
A Pakistani official briefed by British police and PIA security on the investigation said the two suspects, speaking Urdu, allegedly threatened to “destroy the plane” after an argument with crew.

“There was a family of eight to 10 people on the plane and they were quarrelling among each other,” the PIA source said.
“When PIA staff approached them and asked them to calm down, they told them to go away otherwise they would blow up the plane.”

UPDATE
When immigration is actually colonisation:

There have been calls for an urgent debate in the Dutch parliament about the integration of Muslim immigrants amid claims that one area of The Hague, known locally as “the Sharia triangle”, is being run by a form of unofficial Sharia police.
The claims relate to the district of Schilderswijk, about two kilometres from the city centre, where an almost entirely Muslim population of some 5,000 people surrounds the El Islam mosque, fuelling criticism that the government has failed to ensure a proper ethnic mix in schools and local housing. One recent investigation, in which local people were extensively interviewed, concluded that Schilderswijk had become “orthodox Muslim territory” which was now largely ignored by the city authorities, by politicians and even by the police, on the grounds that it had become self-regulating.
The investigation found that orthodox Muslims had become so dominant that they were dictating what people in the neighbourhood wore and how they behaved…
In the case of women, dress was a particular issue. One woman told how her daughter had been approached and told her short skirt was inappropriate… Another man said he felt he was gradually being driven out of his home because he had a dog, and many traditional Muslims tended not to keep or favour dogs.

(Thanks to reader Baldrick.)

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Newman finds medicine makes Queensland feel better

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (6:32am)

Doing the tough stuff fast sets up Premier Campbell Newman and his Queensland LNP well for the next election:

According to Galaxy, primary support for the LNP increased to 44 per cent, compared with 43 per cent in February. Labor’s support base fell by two per cent to 32 per cent over the same period.
On a two-party preferred basis, the LNP leads Labor 57 per cent to 43 per cent, well short of the 2012 election result but the first improvement since the Government’s controversial cuts to programs and the public service.

(Thanks to reader doc molloy.)

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Big Government hunts down Mrs Catherine Engelbrecht

Andrew Bolt May 25 2013 (12:51am)

Peggy Noonan on perhaps the worst case yet uncovered in the IRS scandal of Big Government punishing conservatives:

The most important IRS story came not from the hearings but from Mike Huckabee’s program on Fox News Channel. He interviewed and told the story of Catherine Engelbrecht—a nice woman, a citizen, an American. She and her husband live in Richmond, Texas. They have a small manufacturing business. In the past few years she became interested in public policy and founded two groups, King Street Patriots, and True the Vote.
In July 2010 she sent applications to the IRS for tax-exempt status. What followed was not the harassment, intrusiveness and delay we’re now used to hearing of. The US government came down on her with full force.
In December 2010 the FBI came to ask about a person who’d attended a King Street Patriots function. In January 2011 the FBI had more questions. The same month the IRS audited her business tax returns. In May 2011 the FBI called again for a general inquiry about King Street Patriots. In June 2011 Engelbrecht’s personal tax returns were audited and the FBI called again. In October 2011 a round of questions on True the Vote. In November 2011 another call from the FBI. The next month, more questions from the FBI. In February 2012 a third round of IRS questions on True the Vote. In February 2012 a first round of questions on King Street Patriots. The same month the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did an unscheduled audit of her business. (It had a license to make firearms but didn’t make them.) In July 2012 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did an unscheduled audit. In November 2012 more IRS questions on True the Vote. In March 2013, more questions. In April 2013 a second ATF audit.
All this because she requested tax-exempt status for a local conservative group and for one that registers voters and tries to get dead people off the rolls. Her attorney, Cleta Mitchell, who provided the timeline above, told me: ‘These people, they are just regular Americans. They try to get dead people off the voter rolls, you would think that they are serial killers.’

(Via Catallaxy Files.)

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Because the world is broken, you cannot keep your children from suffering. But you can go through it with them.

Pastor Rick Warren

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GOD has a way of turning scars into stars. Holly
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4 her
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"When+Then" thinking is a lie: "WHEN I get what I want,THEN I'll be happy." So why didn't your last goal keep you happy? You are as happy as you choose to be right now.

Pastor Rick Warren'

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The body of King Richard III was buried in great haste, a new study finds, possibly because the medieval monarch's corpse had been out for three days in the summer sun. http://bit.ly/124aanR
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It is not only that we are all capable of becoming loving and spiritual people, charitable and kind, filled with serenity and joy. We already are. Remember your true nature.

Dr. Brian Weiss

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Video: Maureen O’Hara and Stefanie Powers talk about McLintock (John Wayne)

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/maureen-ohara-and-stefanie-powers-talk-about-mclintock-video/

McLintock! is a 1963 comedy Western produced by and starring John Wayne, with co-stars including Maureen O’Hara, Yvonne De Carlo, and Wayne’s son Patrick Wayne. The Batjac production is loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
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Enchanted River is found in Barangay Talisay, Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur. It is called "enchanted" because no one has ever reached its bottom.
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John Wayne: The Legend & The Man (Ethan Wayne Interview Video)

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/john-wayne-the-legend-the-man-ethan-wayne-interview-video/

Ethan Wayne, the youngest son of legendary actor and icon John Wayne came in to share stories and photos of his father’s life through a new coffee table book out today, “John Wayne, The Legend and the Man“.
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Smile - it's the weekend. Shabbat Shalom from the IDF!
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Normal programming to resume after this intermission - ed
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Chichen Itza, Mexico
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"it is all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."

-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Near Newcastle Oklahoma. Hail heavy Shelf cloud system moving slowly across the landscape.
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Photo credit: www.jensensutta.com

Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for May 24th. Enjoy!

Hot Air: Did Eric Holder lie in Congressional testimony last week?

Jim Geraghty: The Stingers of Benghazi

Kimberly Strassel: Conservatives became targets in 2008

Twitchy: Some of her best friends are Hispanics? Joan Walsh calls Ted Cruz a ‘skeezy huckster’

Twitchy: Sarah Palin says it’s time for Eric Holder to go … and Huffington Post and Tavis Smiley agree

Munchkins.

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May 25: First Patriotic Government in Argentina (1810);Independence Day in Jordan (1946); Towel Day

1895 – The Republic of Formosa was inaugurated in Taiwan, proclaiming independence from Qing China.
1914 – The British parliament passed theThird Home Rule Act, establishing adevolved government in Ireland.
1936 – Employees of the Remington Rand company began an11-month strike action, during which time the company executives developed the notorious "Mohawk Valley formula" to intimidate the strikers.
1955 – Englishmen Joe Brown and George Band became the first to climb Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world, but stopped short of the summit as per a promise given to the Maharaja of Sikkim that the top would remain inviolate.
1961 – During a speech to a joint session of the United States Congress, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo space program (insignia pictured), with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".

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Events [edit]

567 BC – Servius Tullius, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victory over the Etruscans.
240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors.
1420 – Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.
1521 – The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Lutheran outlaw.
1659 – Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England.
1738 – A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.
1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: The Carnew massacre, Dunlavin massacre and Carlow massacre takes place.
1809 – Chuquisaca Revolution: a group of patriots in Chuquisaca (modern day Sucre) revolt against the Spanish Empire, starting the South American Wars of Independence.
1810 – May Revolution: citizens of Buenos Aires expel Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros during the May week, starting the Argentine War of Independence.
1819 – The Argentine Constitution of 1819 is promulgated.
1833 – The Chilean Constitution of 1833 is promulgated.
1837 – The Rebels of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom.
1865 – In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes.
1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
1895 – Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
1895 – The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as its president.
1914 – The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes the Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.
1925 – Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in Tennessee.
1926 – Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic.
1935 – Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks three world records and ties a fourth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1936 – The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins.
1938 – Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.
1946 – The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their Emir.
1950 – Public Transport: Green Hornet disaster. A Chicago Surface Lines streetcar crashes into a fuel truck, killing 33.
1953 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conduct their first and only nuclear artillery test.
1953 – The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
1955 – In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
1955 – First ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition led by Charles Evans. Joe Brown andGeorge Band reached the summit on May 25, followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather the next day.
1961 – Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.
1962 – The Old Bay Line, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, goes out of business.
1963 – In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established.
1966 – Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
1966 – The first prominent dàzìbào during the Cultural Revolution in China is posted at Peking University.
1967 – Celtic F.C. from Glasgow, Scotland becomes the first ever Northern European team to win the European Cup; with previous winners being fromSpain, Italy and Portugal.
1968 – Gateway Arch Saint Louis Gateway Arch is dedicated.
1973 – HNS Velos (D-16), while participating in a NATO exercise and in order to protest against the dictatorship in Greece, anchored at Fiumicino,Italy, refusing to return to Greece.
1977 – Star Wars (retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981) is released in theaters, inspiring the Jediism religion and Geek Pride Dayholiday.
1977 – Chinese government removes a decade old ban on William Shakespeare's work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
1979 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
1979 – Six-year-old Etan Patz disappears from the street just two blocks away from his New York City home, prompting an international search for the child, and causing U.S. President Ronald Reagan to designate May 25th as National Missing Children's Day (in 1983).
1981 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1982 – HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War.
1985 – Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
1986 – Hands Across America takes place.
1997 – A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
1999 – The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
2000 – Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
2001 – 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2002 – China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrates in mid-air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait. All 225 people on board are killed.
2009 – North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device. Following the nuclear test, Pyongyang also conducted several missile tests building tensions in the international community.
2011 – Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty five year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
2012 – The Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS).

Births [edit]

1048 – Emperor Shenzong of Song (d. 1085)
1334 – Emperor Sukō, Japanese 3rd Pretender (d. 1398)
1458 – Mahmud Begada Indian sultan of Gujarat (d. 1511)
1572 – Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1632)
1606 – Charles Garnier, French missionary (d. 1649)
1661 – Claude Buffier, French philosopher and historian (d. 1737)
1713 – John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Scottish nobleman and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)
1725 – Samuel Ward, American politician (d. 1776)
1749 – Gregorio Funes, Argentine clergyman, politician and Junta Grande figure (d. 1829)
1783 – Philip Pendleton Barbour, American politician, 12th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1841)
1803 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
1803 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)
1818 – Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian (d. 1897)
1845 – Lip Pike, American baseball player (d. 1893)
1846 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (d. 1923)
1846 – Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet and writer (d. 1900)
1848 – Johann Baptist Singenberger, Swiss composer, editor, and publisher (d. 1924)
1852 – William Muldoon, American wrestler (d. 1933)
1856 – Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (d. 1942)
1860 – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (d. 1944)
1865 – John Mott, American evangelical, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
1865 – Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
1867 – Anders Peter Nielsen, Danish shooter (d. 1950)
1877 – Billy Murray, American singer (d. 1954)
1878 – Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American dancer and actor (d. 1949)
1879 – Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian-English businessman, politician, and writer (d. 1964)
1879 – Andrew Kennaway Henderson, New Zealand illustrator, cartoonist, and pacifist (d. 1960)
1879 – William Stickney, American golfer (d. 1944)
1880 – Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist (d. 1967)
1882 – Marie Doro, American actress (d. 1956)
1886 – Philip Murray, Scottish-American labor leader (d. 1952)
1886 – Rash Behari Bose, Indian revolutionary (d. 1945)
1887 – Pio of Pietrelcina, Italian priest and saint (d. 1968)
1888 – Miles Malleson, English actor (d. 1969)
1889 – Günther Lütjens, German admiral (d. 1941)
1889 – Igor Sikorsky, Russian-American aviation pioneer (d. 1972)
1897 – Gene Tunney, American boxer (d. 1978)
1898 – Bennett Cerf, American publisher, co-founder of Random House (d. 1971)
1899 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet and musician (d. 1976)
1900 – Alain Grandbois, French-Canadian poet (d. 1975)
1903 – Binnie Barnes, English actress (d. 1998)
1907 – U Nu, Burmese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (d. 1995)
1908 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
1909 – Alfred Kubel, German politician (d. 1999)
1909 – Marie Menken, American filmmaker and painter (d. 1970)
1912 – Deokhye, Princess of Korea (d. 1989)
1912 – Dean Rockwell, American wrestling and football coach (d. 2005)
1913 – Heinrich Bär, German pilot (d. 1957)
1913 – Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and broadcaster (d. 1965)
1916 – Brian Dickson, Canadian politician, 15th Chief Justice of Canada (d. 1998)
1917 – Theodore Hesburgh, American educator and theologian
1917 – Steve Cochran, American actor (d. 1965)
1921 – Hal David, American composer and songwriter (d. 2012)
1921 – Jack Steinberger, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1922 – Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (d. 1984)
1922 – Kitty Kallen, American singer
1924 – István Nyers, Hungarian footballer (d. 2005)
1925 – Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (d. 1974)
1925 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)
1925 – Don Liddle, American baseball player (d. 2000)
1926 – Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)
1927 – Robert Ludlum, American writer (d. 2001)
1927 – Norman Petty, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 1984)
1929 – Ann Robinson, American actress, War Of The Worlds
1929 – Beverly Sills, American soprano (d. 2007)
1929 – Warren Frost, American actor
1931 – Georgy Grechko, Russian astronaut
1931 – Aili Jõgi, Estonian rebel and activist
1931 – Irwin Winkler, American director and producer
1932 – John Gregory Dunne, American writer (d. 2003)
1932 – K. C. Jones, American basketball player and coach
1933 – Basdeo Panday, Trinidadian statesman
1933 – Ray Spencer, English footballer
1933 – Jógvan Sundstein, Faroese politician, 7th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
1935 – Cookie Gilchrist, American football player
1935 – W. P. Kinsella, Canadian writer
1935 – Victoria Shaw, Australian-American actress (d. 1988)
1936 – Tom T. Hall, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1936 – Rusi Surti, Indian cricketer (d. 2013)
1938 – Raymond Carver, American writer (d. 1988)
1939 – Dixie Carter, American actress (d. 2010)
1939 – Ian McKellen, English actor
1941 – Vladimir Voronin, Moldovan politician, 3rd President of Moldova
1943 – Jessi Colter, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1943 – John Palmer, English musician (Family, Eclection, and Blossom Toes)
1943 – Leslie Uggams, American actress
1944 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
1944 – John Bunnell, American police officer, actor, and television host
1944 – Robert MacPherson, American mathematician
1944 – Frank Oz, English-American puppeteer and director
1946 – Bill Adam, Scottish-Canadian race car driver
1946 – David A. Hargrave, American writer and game designer (d. 1988)
1947 – Mitch Margo, American singer-songwriter (The Tokens)
1947 – Karen Valentine, American actress
1948 – Klaus Meine, German singer-songwriter and guitarist (Scorpions)
1949 – Jamaica Kincaid, Antiguan author
1949 – Joe Unger, American actor
1949 – Barry Windsor-Smith, English comics artist
1951 – Bob Gale, American screenwriter
1952 – Jeffrey Bewkes, American businessman
1952 – Al Sarrantonio, American writer
1952 – Gordon Smith, American politician
1953 – Eve Ensler, American playwright
1953 – Daniel Passarella, Argentine footballer
1953 – Stan Sakai, Japanese-American cartoonist
1954 – Murali, Indian actor (d. 2009)
1955 – Alistair Burt, English politician
1956 – Stavros Arnaoutakis, Greek politician
1956 – Tatsutoshi Goto, Japanese wrestler
1956 – Sugar Minott, Jamaican singer and producer (The African Brothers) (d. 2010)
1956 – David P. Sartor, American composer and conductor
1957 – Edward Lee, American writer
1957 – Robert Picard, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 – Hillary B. Smith, American actress
1958 – Aikaterini Batzeli, Greek politician
1958 – Carrie Newcomer, American singer-songwriter and musician
1958 – Paul Weller, English singer-songwriter, musician, and poet (The Jam and The Style Council)
1959 – Julian Clary, English comedian and author
1959 – Manolis Kefalogiannis, Greek politician
1959 – Rick Wamsley, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 – Amy Klobuchar, American politician
1960 – Anthea Turner, English journalist and television host
1962 – Rick Nattress, Canadian ice hockey player
1963 – George Hickenlooper, American filmmaker (d. 2010)
1963 – Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
1963 – Eha Rünne, Estonian shot putter and discus thrower
1964 – Ivan Bella, Slovak air force officer and astronaut
1964 – David Shaw, Canadian ice hockey player
1964 – Ray Stevenson, English actor
1965 – Yahya Jammeh, Gambian military officer and politician, President of the Gambia
1966 – Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands
1967 – Poppy Z. Brite, American author
1968 – Kendall Gill, American basketball player
1969 – Glen Drover, Canadian musician and songwriter (Megadeth, Eidolon, and King Diamond)
1969 – Anne Heche, American actress
1969 – Stacy London, American fashion consultant
1970 – Sandra Dopfer, Austrian tennis player
1970 – Joey Eischen, American baseball player
1970 – Lindsay Greenbush, American actress, boxer, and trainer
1970 – Sidney Greenbush, American actress, horse rider, and jewelry designer
1970 – Jamie Kennedy, American actor
1970 – Octavia Spencer, American actress
1970 – Satsuki Yukino, Japanese voice actress
1971 – Marco Cappato, Italian politician
1971 – Justin Henry, American actor
1972 – Karan Johar, Indian director, producer, writer, and actor
1973 – Daz Dillinger, American rapper, musician, and producer (Tha Dogg Pound)
1973 – Demetri Martin, American actor, comedian, musician and writer
1973 – Molly Sims, American model and actress
1974 – Frank Klepacki, American musician and composer (Home Cookin' and I Am)
1974 – Miguel Tejada, Dominican baseball player
1975 – Lauryn Hill, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actress (Fugees)
1975 – Blaise Nkufo, Swiss footballer
1976 – Tarik Glenn, American football player
1976 – Cillian Murphy, Irish actor
1976 – Sandra Nasic, German singer (Guano Apes)
1976 – Marcelo José da Silva, Brazilian footballer
1976 – Ethan Suplee, American actor
1976 – Miguel Zepeda, Mexican footballer
1977 – Karthik Sivakumar, Indian actor
1977 – Alberto Del Rio, Mexican wrestler
1978 – Brian Urlacher, American football player
1979 – Carlos Bocanegra, American soccer player
1979 – Sayed Moawad, Egyptian footballer
1979 – Caroline Ouellette, French-Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Sam Sodje, Nigerian footballer
1979 – Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player
1980 – Jae Hee, South Korean actor
1980 – Joe King, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Fray)
1980 – David Navarro, Spanish footballer
1981 – Michalis Pelekanos, Greek basketball player
1982 – Adam Boyd, English footballer
1982 – Daniel Braaten, Norwegian footballer
1982 – Ryan Gallant, American skateboarder
1982 – Roger Guerreiro, Polish footballer
1982 – Jason Kubel, American baseball player
1982 – Luke Webster, Australian rules footballer
1983 – Kunal Khemu, Indian actor
1983 – Tiago Cardoso Fonseca Brazilian footballer
1984 – Luke Ball, Australian rules footballer
1984 – Kyle Brodziak, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – A. J. Foyt IV, American race car driver
1984 – Kostas Martakis, Greek singer
1984 – Shawne Merriman, American football player
1984 – Marion Raven, Norwegian singer-songwriter, musician, and actress (M2M)
1984 – Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir, Icelandic model, actress, lawyer, and anthropologist, Miss World 2005
1985 – Luciana Abreu, Portuguese singer and actress (2B)
1985 – Joe Anoa'i, American football player and wrestler
1985 – Demba Ba, Senegalese footballer
1986 – Lauren Crace, English actress
1986 – Edewin Fanini, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Yoan Gouffran, French footballer
1986 – Neon Hitch, English singer
1986 – Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist
1986 – Juri Ueno, Japanese actress
1987 – Timothy Derijck, Belgian footballer
1987 – Yves De Winter, Belgian footballer
1988 – Elle Fowler, American beauty guru
1988 – Cameron van der Burgh, South African swimmer
1990 – Nikita Filatov, Russian ice hockey player
1991 – Jillian Wheeler, American singer-songwriter and actress
1994 – Aly Raisman, American gymnast
1995 – Gabby Soleil, American actress

Deaths [edit]

615 – Pope Boniface IV (b. 550)
709 – Aldhelm, English-Latin poet and scholar, Bishop of Salisbury (b. 639)
967 – Emperor Murakami of Japan (b. 926)
992 – Mieszko I of Poland (b. 935)
1085 – Pope Gregory VII (b. 1020)
1261 – Pope Alexander IV (b. 1185)
1452 – John Stafford, English statesman, Archbishop of Canterbury
1555 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (b. 1508)
1555 – Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)
1595 – Valens Acidalius, German critic and poet (b. 1567)
1632 – Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1572)
1667 – Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (b. 1620)
1681 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish playwright (b. 1600)
1693 – Madame de La Fayette, French writer (b. 1634)
1741 – Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian (b. 1660)
1786 – Peter III of Portugal (b. 1717)
1789 – Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
1797 – John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, English field marshal (b. 1719)
1805 – William Paley, English philosopher (b. 1743)
1848 – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (b. 1797)
1849 – Benjamin d'Urban, English general (b. 1777)
1899 – Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (b. 1822)
1912 – Austin Lane Crothers, American politician (b. 1860)
1917 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (b. 1891)
1919 – Eliza Pollock, American archer (b. 1840)
1919 – Madam C. J. Walker, American businesswoman and philanthropist (b. 1867)
1924 – Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (b. 1889)
1926 – Symon Petliura, Ukrainian politician and statesman (b. 1879)
1927 – Payne Whitney, American businessman (b. 1876)
1930 – Randall Davidson, Scottish bishop, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1848)
1934 – Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
1939 – Frank Watson Dyson, English astronomer (b. 1868)
1940 – Joe De Grasse, American director (b. 1873)
1942 – Emanuel Feuermann, Austrian-American cellist (b. 1902)
1943 – Nils von Dardel, Swedish painter (b. 1888)
1946 – Marcel Petiot, French doctor and serial killer (b. 1897)
1951 – Paula von Preradović, Croatian writer (b. 1887)
1954 – Robert Capa, Hungarian photographer and journalist (b. 1913)
1957 – Leo Goodwin, American freestyle swimmer, diver and water polo player (b. 1883)
1965 – Sonny Boy Williamson II, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (b. 1908)
1968 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (b. 1881)
1970 – Tom Patey, Scottish mountaineer and writer (b. 1932)
1977 – Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (b. 1904)
1979 – Itzhak Bentov, Czech scientist (b. 1923)
1979 – John Arthur Spenkelink, American murderer (b. 1949)
1981 – Fredric Warburg, English publisher and author (b. 1898)
1983 – Idris of Libya (b. 1889)
1983 – Jean Rougeau, French-Canadian wrestler (b. 1925)
1983 – Black Jack Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1917)
1986 – Chester Bowles, American politician (b. 1901)
1988 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
1990 – Vic Tayback, American actor (b.1930)
1994 – Sonny Sharrock, American guitarist (Last Exit) (b. 1940)
1995 – Dany Robin, French actress (b. 1927)
1996 – Renzo De Felice, Italian historian (b. 1929)
1996 – Bradley Nowell, American singer-songwriter and musician (Sublime) (b. 1968)
2000 – Nicholas Clay, English actor (b. 1946)
2002 – Pat Coombs, English actress (b. 1926)
2003 – Jeremy Michael Ward, American singer and guitarist (The Mars Volta and De Facto) (b. 1976)
2003 – Sloan Wilson, American writer (b. 1920)
2004 – Roger Williams Straus, Jr., American publisher, co-founder of Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishing company (b. 1917)
2005 – Sunil Dutt, Indian actor and politician (b. 1929)
2005 – Robert Jankel, English automotive designer, founder of Panther Westwinds (b. 1938)
2005 – Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (b. 1965)
2005 – Graham Kennedy, Australian actor and writer (b. 1934)
2006 – Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1941)
2007 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor, comedian, director, and educator (b. 1931)
2007 – Laurie Bartram, American actress and ballet dancer (b. 1958)
2008 – J. R. Simplot, American potato farmer (b. 1909)
2008 – Camu Tao, American rapper and producer (The Weathermen) (b. 1977)
2009 – Haakon Lie, Norwegian politician (b. 1905)
2010 – Alexander Belostenny, Ukrainian basketball player (b. 1959)
2010 – Michael H. Jordan, American businessman (b. 1936)
2010 – Alan Hickinbotham, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1925)
2010 – Silvius Magnago, Italian politician (b. 1914)
2010 – Siphiwo Ntshebe, South African opera singer (b. 1975)
2010 – Gabriel Vargas, Mexican cartoonist (b. 1915)
2011 – Terry Jenner, Australian cricketer (b. 1944)
2012 – Dilip, Indian actor (b. 1955)
2012 – Keith Gardner, Jamaican athlete (b. 1929)
2012 – Edoardo Mangiarotti, Italian fencer (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances [edit]

Africa Day (African Union)
African Liberation Day (African Union)
Christian Feast Day:
- Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, Scholar and Poet, 709 (Anglican Communion)
- Bede
- Gerard of Lunel
- Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
- Pope Gregory VII
- Pope Urban I
- May 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Youth, celebrated on Josip Broz Tito's birthday (the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
Geek Pride Day (geek culture):
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Jordan from the United Kingdom in 1946
Last bell (Russia, post-Soviet countries)
Liberation Day (Lebanon)
First National Government / National Day (Argentina)
National Missing Children's Day (United States)
Towel Day in honour of the work of the writer Douglas Adams

Saturday, May 25, 2013

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