1883 – The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1952 – Thirteen Jewish poets in Moscow were executed for espionage based on false confessions.
1969 – Riots erupted in the Bogside area of Derry and spread across much of Northern Ireland.
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise. A hundred years before the war of independence, Americans killed King Philip. What was the quagga good for anyway? I would cheerfully lock up ever socialist to get back those thirteen poets. A party began in Ireland. Oscar is a lousy name for a submarine. Just sayin' ..
===
FEAR THE MIGHTY RUDD AND HIS NOTES OF DESTRUCTION
Tim Blair – Monday, August 12, 2013 (4:27pm)
Queensland academic Professor Scott Prasser warns Tony Abbott:
Professor Prasser says Mr Rudd was off form last night and he would not advise Mr Abbott to engage in any more debates with the Prime Minister.
Oooooh! Scary Kevni! Meanwhile, desperate Labor fans are pushing lies:
A picture of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott purportedly using speaking notes during the leaders’ debate has surfaced on social media in defence of Kevin Rudd …But despite claims the picture of Abbott with notes was from last night’s debate, the photo was in fact taken during the 2010 leaders’ debate with former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Perhaps this scam is part of Rudd’s awesome social media campaign. While the PM was gathering his notes ahead of last night’s debate debacle, Tony Abbott prepared by competing in a half-marathon:
He ran the 14-kilometre course in 81 minutes. Then he made a policy announcement on Bondi Beach, pledging $8 million to Australia’s surf life saving clubs. Then he announced a $500,000 grant for North Bondi Surf Club. Then he travelled to Canberra. Then he prepared for an election debate. Then he debated the Prime Minister live on national television, without notes (unlike the Prime Minister).
Then he won. Speaking of running, someone in Rudd’s office is probably setting records:
Rudd blamed his staff for failing to advise him of the rules …
(Via CL)
===
AGELESS ALANNAH
Tim Blair – Monday, August 12, 2013 (2:19pm)
Kevin Rudd launches Alannah MacTiernan’s campaign in Perth:
But who is the much younger woman in MacTiernan’s campaign posters? Is it Heather Locklear?
But who is the much younger woman in MacTiernan’s campaign posters? Is it Heather Locklear?
(Via Gregory No. 6)
===
UNDERCARD OVERLOOKED
Tim Blair – Monday, August 12, 2013 (3:52am)
The main contest in Election 2013 may be between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott, but political fight fans shouldn’t overlook the thrilling variety of undercard bouts also taking place during voting season. Let’s work through some of these spectacular September 7 showdowns …
===
LABOR LAGS
Tim Blair – Monday, August 12, 2013 (2:52am)
Latest Newspoll:
The Coalition’s primary vote support of 46 per cent, up two percentage points in the past week, is at athree-month high. Labor’s 35 per cent, down two points since the beginning of the formal campaign last week, is back to where it was when Mr Rudd removed Julia Gillard as leader. The Greens’ primary vote continues to oscillate between 9 per cent and 11 per cent.Based on preference flows at the 2010 election, the two-party-preferred vote is steady on a winning lead for the Coalition of 52 per cent to Labor’s 48 per cent …Mr Rudd again suggested yesterday that Labor was the “underdog” for the September 7 election.
He’s half right. Presently, Labor is just a dog.
===
ALL A PONY NEEDS
Tim Blair – Monday, August 12, 2013 (2:51am)
Being a happy one-trick pony myself, I endorse Paul Simon’s timeless celebration of the mono-skilled.
===
STOP THE NOTES
Tim Blair – Monday, August 12, 2013 (1:44am)
At her 2010 election campaign launch, Labor staffers claimed that Julia Gillard delivered her 40-minute speech entirely without notes. Nearly everyone fell for this lie, including the Age‘s Michael Gordon:
Julia Gillard threw away the script for modern election launches yesterday when she spoke off the cuff for 40 minutes in an attempt to inject the missing ingredient into Labor’s campaign: inspiration.
In fact, Julia’s surprise ingredient was deception. A word-for-word copy of her launch speech was placed on the lectern just before Gillard spoke:
At last night’s debate between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott, no notes were permitted. But rules are for little people:
At last night’s debate between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott, no notes were permitted. But rules are for little people:
Kevin Rudd has been accused of cheating during the leaders’ debate after using speaking notes to help him against Tony Abbott.The debate’s moderator, Sky News political editor David Speers, revealed following the debate that the Prime Minister had used the paperwork against the rules.Footage of Mr Rudd shows he was holding a pile of papers and he appeared to repeatedly reference them while talking.But Speers said he had not noticed during the showdown as he was focusing on his own job moderating and asking questions.
Rudd begged for weeks to debate Abbott, then cheated when he finally got his wish. And, according to most pundits, he still lost. Even worse, Rudd’s notes are the big story emerging from the debate. Not that Fairfax’s Stephanie Peatling is greatly worried:
Was Mr Rudd reading from notes? Yes, say people inside the venue. This is against the rules but maybe the rule is silly.
(Via Wade Laube)
===
Who’s next? Labor
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (12:58pm)
Life is not going to get any easier for Kevin Rudd and Labor with the
Australian Salary Packaging Industry Association unleashing an ad
campaign against its changes to the fringe benefit tax.
UPDATE
It will do damage:
UPDATE
It will do damage:
THE car leasing industry has embarked on a $10 million advertising blitz against the Rudd Government’s changes to the Fringe Benefits Tax…
Although last month was a sales record for July, the industry says the real impact will become apparent in the coming months, with 10,000 forward orders cancelled within the fortnight that followed the July 16 announcement.
===
The one cut-through fact from the debate: Rudd cheated
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (12:22pm)
It is not often I disagree with an editorial in The Australian:
There was no decisive blow so we will refrain from naming a winner...In fact, there was indeed a decisive blow, and Kevin Rudd administered it ... to himself. The readers’ verdict is decisive:
===
Stop the notes
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (11:58am)
Kevin Rudd:
David Speers says he was too busy to notice Kevin Rudd repeatedly cheating right in front of him:
Greg Sheridan probably sums up best:
Moderator David Speers isn’t consciously partisan. He’s just a go-with-the-flow Leftist, trying to be fair but leaving his own prejudices unexamined. So it wasn’t an overtly hostile act that led his moderating last night to be decidedly skewed. Take this exchange, for instance - the interrruptions of Abbott, the soft ball thrown to Rudd, the “Tony”...:
UPDATE
Rudd rejected the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann as moderator, even though Uhlmann’s wife is a Labor MP. Apparently thought he might be tough. Seems Speers turned out the better bet for Labor.
UPDATE
Rudd at a press conference says no one told him he couldn’t take notes to the debate. Says there’s not enough room on his hand for the notes he’d need.
UPDATE
The ABC’s Barrie Cassidy wrote in The Party Thieves of his shock when, as Bob Hawke’s press secretary, he found Andrew Peacock taking notes into the debate:
This election will be about who the Australian people trust...From the official rules of last night’s leader’s debate:
David Speers says he was too busy to notice Kevin Rudd repeatedly cheating right in front of him:
Kevin Rudd has been accused of cheating during the leaders’ debate after using speaking notes to help him against Tony Abbott.UPDATE
The debate’s moderator, Sky News political editor David Speers, revealed following the debate that the Prime Minister had used the paperwork against the rules.
Footage of Mr Rudd shows he was holding a pile of papers and he appeared to repeatedly reference them while talking.
But Speers said he had not noticed during the showdown as he was focusing on his own job moderating and asking questions.
Mr Abbott confirmed on Monday he was told not to bring any notes.UPDATE
“I was interested to see that Mr Rudd turned up with a big wad of papers and he did seem to be reading his opening and his closing statements,” he told Gold 104 FM radio in Melbourne.
“It did strike me as a little odd, given that they were the rules, that he brought all those papers in.”
Greg Sheridan probably sums up best:
TONY Abbott was the clear winner in last night’s great debate…UPDATE
... when you demonise an opponent, as Labor has done with four years of relentless personal attacks on Abbott, a single good debate performance can bring your strategy undone…
This came across strongly last night… Abbott may tend to speak in slogans for the nightly news, but last night he was fluent and straightforward…
On substance, Abbott clearly did better… Abbott looked completely prime ministerial. Debates count most when they run totally counter to one side’s narrative.
Moderator David Speers isn’t consciously partisan. He’s just a go-with-the-flow Leftist, trying to be fair but leaving his own prejudices unexamined. So it wasn’t an overtly hostile act that led his moderating last night to be decidedly skewed. Take this exchange, for instance - the interrruptions of Abbott, the soft ball thrown to Rudd, the “Tony”...:
SPEERS: Let’s get to the alternative, Tony Abbott, you do criticise Labor often for running up debt but your own plans - now, just listing a few, you want to cut the Company Tax, you want to scrap the Carbon Tax, you want to scrap the Mining Tax, you want to undo the Fringe Benefits Tax changes, you’re saying you’ll match Labor’s spending on schools and disabilities. You also want to spend a lot more on paid parental leave and a multibillion dollar direct action plan. Where is the money coming from?Later:
ABBOTT: Well David, the thing that you’ve got to understand is that there has been an enormous amount of waste over the last six years. Mr Rudd talks about keeping Australia out of a recession but spending money on pink batts that caught fire in people’s roofs or spending money on over-priced school halls that double what would have been a fair market value…
SPEERS: Let’s stick with your plans.
ABBOTT: That didn’t keep us out of recession. What kept us out of recession was the fact that Mr Rudd inherited a strong economy thanks to the reforms of Mr Hawke, Mr Keating, Mr Howard and Mr Costello, and the China boom kept going. That was what kept us out of the recession.
SPEERS: My question is about how your numbers add up.
ABBOTT: You will see in good time before polling day exactly how much we’re going to spend and exactly how much we’re going to save and exactly how much better the bank balance will be under the Coalition than under the Labor Party.
SPEERS: Mr Abbott, do you acknowledge people are tuning in tonight, you’ve been in this job for a few years, they want to hear tonight how you’re going to stop things getting worse.
ABBOTT: Just on the savings thing, David, the tax cuts without a Carbon Tax, and the pension increases without a Carbon Tax that I’m committed to, and the Company Tax cut that I’m committed to costs $17 billion over the forward estimates period. Now in my National Press Club Speech in January in this very venue and in my Budget reply speech I identified a series of savings that equal $17 billion.
SPEERS: Is that good enough, Prime Minister? You’re the one raising fear campaigns about the GST. Are those savings measures good enough?
PM: I deal in facts actually, David, and the facts are these: Mr Hockey, Mr Abbott’s Treasury spokesman, has said that the Liberal Party faces a $70 billion funding gap, their figure, not ours. Senator Wong, the Finance Minister, has verified that in a statement as recently as last week, in detail, line by line. And the bottom line is this, here we are, four weeks before an election, and the Australian people, if they were voting yesterday, according to the opinion polls, would have elected Mr Abbott Prime Minister. Surely four weeks before an election he can stop being evasive about where the $70 billion worth of cuts to jobs, to health an education would fall, and in the absence of that…
SPEERS: The numbers have moved around lot. Treasury’s numbers have been downgraded and downgraded and downgraded. You can understand some reluctance to lock in on the current set of numbers?
PM: Our experience has been that it is important to be transparent about what you’re going to cut and what you’re going to save. What we’ve had from our opponents in this election campaign is a continued policy of evasion on this. Let’s just say that the $70 billion can’t be made up in terms of all the cuts which have been partly foreshadowed to jobs, health and education, well, it’s legitimate then for us to raise a question about the future of the Goods and Services Tax? Mr Abbott and the Deputy Leader, Julie Bishop who’s here this evening, and Mr Hockey have said that the review of the Goods and Services Tax is on the table. Will it be increased, when will it go to food?
SPEERS: Will it be increased, Tony?
ABBOTT: No, No. No, it won’t. The GST doesn’t changed under the Coalition and I think our country, I think the people at home who are watching this, deserve better than a cheap scare campaign from the Prime Minister of this country. Look, this idea that the Coalition is ready with a great big scalpel to slash health, to slash education, to slash jobs is simply wrong. It’s in fact Mr Rudd’s Government which cut $1.5 billion out of hospital funding, including retrospective cuts in the last mid-year economic update.
SPEERS: OK, no change to the GST. Is that just for one term?
ABBOTT: No change to the GST and, look, a matter of fact which I think is very important, the GST cannot change without the consent of all the State and Territory Governments, and last time I looked that include two Labor Governments.
SPEERS: Is that good enough for you, Prime Minister?
SPEERS: Just on the GST and your plans. It is in your review.Check the transcript to find similarly sustained badgering of Rudd.
ABBOTT: The GST is not going to change.
SPEERS: Ever?
ABBOTT: The GST can’t change without the agreement of the States and Territories and last time I looked that meant the agreement of the Labor Party but it is a little embarrassing-
SPEERS: You won’t, you won’t review it?
ABBOTT: It’s not going to change. It’s a little embarrassing to have the Prime Minister of this country, who had three years in power himself, who is a member of the Government for the rest of the three years, who voted for everything, including the Carbon Tax, who was part of the promise to deliver the surplus that never turned up, after six years, the best he can do is run this embarrassing scare campaign.
UPDATE
Rudd rejected the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann as moderator, even though Uhlmann’s wife is a Labor MP. Apparently thought he might be tough. Seems Speers turned out the better bet for Labor.
UPDATE
Rudd at a press conference says no one told him he couldn’t take notes to the debate. Says there’s not enough room on his hand for the notes he’d need.
UPDATE
The ABC’s Barrie Cassidy wrote in The Party Thieves of his shock when, as Bob Hawke’s press secretary, he found Andrew Peacock taking notes into the debate:
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
===
Under his skin
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (11:49am)
Kevin Rudd is wobbling,
and I wouldn’t rule out a major meltdown before this campaign is over.
At his press conference today he told a “joke” about needing to use
notes for the announcement as was his “usual practice”. He gives a tense
false smile. That’s giving the cheating story just more oxygen.
===
Rudd the orator
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (9:43am)
Kevin Rudd is reputed to be a great speaker. A fine debater. Some commentators even claimed he won last night’s debate.
Here are some of the things the Prime Minister said in that debate that make simply no sense, are completely false or are frankly weird:
Here are some of the things the Prime Minister said in that debate that make simply no sense, are completely false or are frankly weird:
And the Australia we all know and love has been built by you, the Australian people. Built by you, our businesses both big and small, built by you, our seniors, who’ve worked so hard in the past and built by you, young people out there who are our dynamos of the future… (Children built our future?)
...the party that has brought you Medicare is the party has now has brought you DisabilityCare. (DisabilityCare, largely unfunded, actually exists as just two trial schemes.)
To you, my fellow Australians, drawing on the great strengths of our country as it exists now under my Prime Ministership, I offer a new way to secure Australia’s future. (Pardon? “The great strengths of our country as it exists now under my Prime Ministership”? Rather Napoleonic. non?)
Secondly, you have raised asylum seekers, this is a difficult question for the country and the activities of people smugglers concern all Australians. You’re right in 2007 we had a mandate, we implemented that mandate and then our external circumstances, as you know during the course of 2008, 09 and 10, changed. Many things which happened in the international community including a civil war in Sri Lanka, so what I have said on many times already is that, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight you would have begun to adjust the policy earlier. (Rudd again blames the voters for making him dismantle the tough border laws that worked. He skips over the fact that voters may actually have been wanting him to honor his promise to turn back the boats. Rudd claims the civil war in Sri Lanka was a changed circumstance, when in fact it had been going for a quarter of a century.)
The truth about the Pacific Solution is that 70%, thereabouts, of those people sent by Mr Howard to Nauru and elsewhere as part of the Pacific Solution, used it as a wait station and within a couple of years were in Australia anyway. (A lie. As Abbott explained: “As your own former Minister Senator Evans made clear, 30% went home, 30% went to a country other than Australia and, yes, 40% did come to Australia but the Prime Minister owes it to the Australian people to get his facts right, not to invent them, and the boats stopped.")
One measure we’ve taken is to increase the childcare rebate from 30 to 50 per cent, another measure we’ve taken is to ensure that kids who are at school, supporting their families, receive a School Kids’ Bonus. (School children are now “supporting their families”?)
Secondly, productivity is driven by a bunch of things. It is driven by relative energy prices including the burden faced by a bunch of people through gouging by State Government owned electricity utilities as well. (No, productivity is about workplace practices above all.)
On Sydney Airport, there’s a massive debate about where any second airport should be. I’m from Queensland, I’m not from Sydney. I hear contending arguments in terms of where or if such a new airport should be located. This lies with the Infrastructure Minister… I’ll defer that question to those, for example, Minister Albanese, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Transport, because that is how it’s appropriately deliberated on. (Rudd is the Prime Minister. Of Australia, not Queensland. He isn’t there to shove responsibility for such a big decision onto a minister.)
But hang on, I’d hate again to say to the good folk of Sydney that theirs is not the only airport in the country. There’s one in Brisbane, one in Melbourne, and if the argument which Simon put was about productivity, I’m just making a pretty forthright argument that it’s the efficiency of our important infrastructure in which we’ve massively invested, the efficiency of our rail networks we’re massively investing in and Mr Abbott is saying he won’t ever invest in an urban rail network and we’ve currently got billions going into Brisbane, Redcliffe rail into other and project around the country including Melbourne with the Regional Rail Link... (That’s truly amazing waffle.)
I’ve announced the abolition of the carbon tax. That would bring down the price from $26 a ton to $6 a ton. That’s a fact. (In fact, the Budget update this month showed the carbon price rising to $38 - not $6 - by 2019. Fact.)
===
Shorten and Conroy at odds as Labor wonders who jumped on the Lake
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (9:16am)
Kevin Rudd was right to
have dumped a Labor candidate who once abused a woman in a wheelchair,
but the factions are ready to rumble:
The National Union of Workers is seeking an inquiry into why and how Geoff Lake, the former candidate for the safe federal seat of Hotham in Melbourne, was dumped over an 11-year-old verbal tirade he unleashed against a fellow councillor.
The Prime Minister sought Mr Lake’s disendorsement over the weekend… The move has sparked bitter recriminations from rival elements of the Victorian Right about who leaked against Mr Lake and why he was endorsed in the first place.
Victorian Labor powerbrokers fear the party’s Right, whose highest profile members are Education Minister Bill Shorten and former communications minister Stephen Conroy, is on the brink of splitting, as internal opponents seek retribution over the bungled Hotham preselection…
Mr Lake was endorsed as the candidate last month after a split across the Victorian Right that handed victory to Senator Conroy and defeat to the Shorten forces…
When Mr Lake was endorsed last month, Senator Conroy, the NUW and the shop assistants’ union combined to defeat the forces around Mr Shorten. Senator Conroy voted for former prime minister Julia Gillard in the recent leadership ballot while Mr Shorten backed Mr Rudd.
===
Boat people now sail from PNG, Rudd’s “solution”
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (8:55am)
Sending boat people to PNG may bring them a lot closer to Australia:
ASYLUM seekers have found their own PNG Solution with two Somalis the latest to sail from Australia’s nearest neighbour across the Torres Strait to far north Queensland.Another two:
The state’s Premier Campbell Newman warned the new front across the border would open up after the Federal Government vowed to send all boat arrivals to PNG or Nauru.
Customs and immigration officers found the two Somalis on remote Boigu Island, 6km south of PNG, on Saturday morning.
The discovery of the Somalis, on Saturday morning, came just hours after the sighting by a Customs plane fly-over of another pair, this time a West Papuan and a PNG national in a traditional canoe, just north of Saibai Island, 4km from PNG.Rudd’s PNG solution has not done much to slow the boats:
Since the Government announced the PNG solution just over three weeks ago, 2270 people have arrived with the latest a vessel carrying 52 intercepted near Christmas Island on Saturday night.
===
Next scare: Abbott will be just like Mandela?
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (8:51am)
It always seemed an odd
strategy to me, warning that Tony Abbott will be like the Premier who
leads one of the most popular governments in the country:
KEVIN Rudd’s attacks on the Newman Government appear to have backfired, with Campbell Newman’s administration surging in popularity…
Federal Labor has targeted the Newman Government over cuts to programs and the public service in an effort to warn Queenslanders about the implications of a Tony Abbott-led administration in Canberra.
The ACTU yesterday launched their new ad campaign linking the two LNP leaders, with a giant-headed Campbell Newman and Tony Abbott on show at a union display in Bowen Hills…
However Labor’s condemnation has only served to reignite Queensland’s support for the LNP, reversing the gradual decline the Government has experienced since the March 2012 election…
According to the Galaxy poll conducted last week, the LNP’s primary support has jumped from 44 per cent to 47 per cent in the last three months… On a two-party-preferred basis, the LNP leads 57 per cent to Labor’s 43 per cent, unchanged since the last Galaxy poll in May.
===
Two rules to save us billions
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (8:37am)
THE country is deep in debt, and we need new rules to make governments kick the spending habit.
I suggest two changes that might save millions - even billions - and inject more truth into the political debate.
First, journalists should ban phrases like this, from the ABC: “Mr Abbott says a Coalition Government would fund road and freight rail projects”.
Or this, from AAP: “Mr Rudd announced that a re-elected Labor Government will spend $5 million to redevelop the weary (Hobart showground)”.
Correction.
I suggest two changes that might save millions - even billions - and inject more truth into the political debate.
First, journalists should ban phrases like this, from the ABC: “Mr Abbott says a Coalition Government would fund road and freight rail projects”.
Or this, from AAP: “Mr Rudd announced that a re-elected Labor Government will spend $5 million to redevelop the weary (Hobart showground)”.
Correction.
===
What to expect from Prime Minister Abbott
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (8:32am)
BEFORE you read this about Tony Abbott - the good and the worrying - know I am biased.
It’s a bias I share with former Labor president Warren Mundine about the Opposition Leader.
As Mundine told me: “If you don’t like Tony Abbott, don’t meet him, because when you do meet him he’s a really good bloke.”
In fact, Mundine likes Abbott so much that he quit Labor and on the weekend announced he’d head a council to advise a Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott on indigenous policy.
Mundine had better get ready, just as voters should prepare for the man now almost sure to lead them.
You see, it seems clear the Rudd Government is heading for a beating.
===
The man who inspired Rudd’s anti-Murdoch conspiracy theory now denies it
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (8:08am)
Paul Sheehan backs off the conspiracy theory he suggested to Kevin Rudd, and now attacks the Prime Minister as pathetic for peddling it:
Rudd has sought to neutralise the negative coverage coming from the News Corp newspapers by ... claiming News Corp has a vested commercial interest in bringing down his government.As for the conspiracy theory itself, Sheehan now admits:
He told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday: ‘’… I would like to hear some answers as to what discussions Mr Abbott may have had with Mr Murdoch on the future of Australia’s national broadband network.’’
The person who gave the Prime Minister the ammunition for his conspiracy theory was me.
Even though there is zero evidence to suggest collusion between the Coalition and News, that is what Rudd is suggesting.... As for the Coalition policy being launched at Fox Studios, that is supposed to be a smoking gun. That’s all he’s got. Pathetic.
My argument last week was that News Corp has a long record of blurring the lines between journalism and commercial interest. But this was a dust-up between Fairfax Media and News Corp that Rudd has taken to pure distortion and diversion, a tactic foreshadowed when he announced the election: ‘’Mr Abbott’s advertising campaign will be massive, funded by a massive war chest he has amassed from a whole range of vested interests in industry, not least the tobacco companies.’’
As if the deep pockets of the unions are not vested interests. Or the federal government has not spent $30 million advertising Rudd’s anti-asylum seekers election ploy. Or that Rudd did not accept a first-class round-trip airfare to Europe last year and five-star accommodation from the Korber Foundation, which happens to own the world’s largest supplier of cigarette-making machines. Or that Rudd was not endorsed by some News Corp newspapers in 2007, did not seek advice from Murdoch, have numerous meetings with News Corp executives or give multiple background briefings to News Corp journalists.
I would add that Labor’s broadband network could help Foxtel make more money, not just open it to more competition.
===
Newspoll: Labor still behind, 48 to 52. Abbott gains
Andrew Bolt August 12 2013 (7:53am)
No big change in Newspoll - but no sign of hope for Labor:
Former Labor speechwriter Troy Bramston on Labor party polling:
According to the latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian on the weekend, the Coalition’s primary vote support of 46 per cent, up two percentage points in the past week, is at a three-month high. Labor’s 35 per cent, down two points since the beginning of the formal campaign last week, is back to where it was when Mr Rudd removed Julia Gillard as leader…The one real change is in the preferred Prime Minister figure:
Based on preference flows at the 2010 election, the two-party-preferred vote is steady on a winning lead for the Coalition of 52 per cent to Labor’s 48 per cent.
On the question of who would make the better prime minister, Mr Rudd maintained a lead over Mr Abbott with his support of 46 per cent, down from 47 per cent last week, compared with Mr Abbott’s 37 per cent, up four points since last week.UPDATE
Former Labor speechwriter Troy Bramston on Labor party polling:
...there is confidence within Labor that its targeted campaigning in key seats is paying an electoral dividend.
A few months ago, Labor’s polling had the party behind in Lindsay, held by Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury, by 35 to 65 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. At the start of the campaign, Labor’s polling had him behind by just 49 to 51 per cent. Nevertheless, he faces an uphill struggle…
In Dobell, scandal-plagued former Labor MP Craig Thomson is attracting just 6 per cent of the primary vote, according to internal Labor polling. Labor has a two-party vote lead of 55 to 45 per cent.
That was a fortnight ago; Labor is more pessimistic now. NSW remains a key battleground. Elsewhere, Victoria hasn’t received the bounce it hoped after Rudd’s return. Expectations of seat gains are also being lowered in Queensland.
As the Nielsen and Galaxy polls published on the weekend show, the Coalition is ahead of Labor nationally by 52 to 48 per cent and 51 to 49 per cent, respectively. This mirrors Labor’s own polling and the state of play in as many as 20 marginal seats. The seat count is still too close to call.
But as the campaign enters its second week, there is a creeping worry in team Labor that the party is falling behind. There is no clear and consistent theme. There are too many messages being sent and the campaign lacks a day-to-day strategic focus.
===
Thank you Matt, I now have no interest in watching your film - ed
===
Old old old. The last twenty generations of my female ancestors got a man by saying they had a bun in the oven. - ed
Audrey Shulman seems to think so, anyway. In an attempt to snag a boyfriend, the LA-based blogger has been bringing cakes into bars - the assumption being that men will flock over at the promise of baked goods. She calls the process "cakebarring" - and it seems to be working pretty well.
===
MEDIA RELEASE - “These answers, by both potential Prime Ministers, are totally unsatisfactory.
FRED NILE CONDEMNS MR RUDD’S 100 DAY PROMISE CONCERNING LEGAL SAME-SEX HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE
The Rev Fred Nile, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has strongly condemned Mr Rudd’s promise to introduce same-sex homosexual marriage legislation within 100 days should he be re-elected as Prime Minister.
“Sadly, Mr Abbott avoided giving a clear answer to the same-sex marriage question and said it would be up to the newly elected Party Room if he is elected as Prime Minister” said Rev Nile.
“These answers, by both potential Prime Ministers, are totally unsatisfactory.
“This means the Australian voters, who oppose legal same-sex homosexual marriage, have no option but to vote one for the Christian Democratic Party Federal Candidates and then the party of their choice. We can make this Federal Election a referendum on same-sex-homosexual marriage by voting 1 CDP” stated Rev Nile.
The Christian Democratic political party is firmly opposed to same-sex-homosexual marriage as it fully supports Australia’s historic, traditional marriage between a man and a woman.
“Mr Rudd’s performance in this first TV debate was well below his usual standard, especially his change of position in support of same-sex homosexual marriage which he previously strongly opposed” said Rev Fred Nile MLC.
#teamnile
I'm really disappointed by this. It makes Christians look politically naive or stupid. It isn't a political issue right now so Abbotts stance is the same but smarter. However, to actually address the issue .. Take away the states right to define marriage. States can't do it well. They don't know how. Let churches make the call. The only thing the state should do is civil union. - ed===
She was buried 9000 years ago in Bäckaskog in Kiaby, Skåne at the age of 45. The funeral took place in springtime, birch and hazel was in bloom.
The Bäckaskog woman is the oldest and most famous skeleton found in Sweden. In her grave a spear head was found. It was suitable for hunting and fishing, made of bone and sharp flint blades. Because of the grave goods archaeologists first thought she was a man.
The Bäckaskog woman is the oldest and most famous skeleton found in Sweden. In her grave a spear head was found. It was suitable for hunting and fishing, made of bone and sharp flint blades. Because of the grave goods archaeologists first thought she was a man.
She lived at a time when the climate was warm and humid with dense forests of oak, elm and ash trees. Fishing became more important as the sea level rose and new lagoons were created near her living territory.
She was found alone, no other graves were discovered nearby. In life she had given birth to several children so maybe they followed her to the final rest.
She was found alone, no other graves were discovered nearby. In life she had given birth to several children so maybe they followed her to the final rest.
Persistent Item URL: kulturarvsdata.se/shm/object/html/222358
===
===
It's complicated - ed
===
Beautiful and informative. I prefer the message of family to revolutionary salvation through works. Family is generational and regenerative. Transformation suggests cutting and removing. A difference of emphasis in service to God. - ed
Shortly before my twenty-fifth birthday my wife and I started a non-denominational church in the living room of our rented duplex just off the campus of Syracuse University. Eleven people attended our first service.
Twenty-three years later we have the privilege of pastoring a church of over 3,300 members that enjoys the distinction of being one of the most racially diverse congregations in the America.
When our church first began, we wanted to be a part of a revolution.
We wanted to reach the un-churched twenty-somethings of our generation.
We wanted to build a church that would transcend the barriers of race, economics, and social status.
===
===
We were driving home from a family gathering one evening this past May with my husband’s 95-year-old grandmother, Frieda, a Holocaust survivor from a small town outside Warsaw. I told her I’d been spending a lot of time on genealogy websites, immersed in tracing the trajectories of my immigrant relatives, most of whom—lured by the promise of America—had left Eastern Europe long before World War II. I had always thought Frieda’s family’s story was not as flush with immigrant tales; most of her relatives had stayed in Poland, which is precisely why Frieda had so few relatives. She and her late husband Chaim had survived the war by fleeing to Russia in November of 1939. They spent the next six years doing forced labor under increasingly dismal and treacherous conditions. They were the only members of their immediate families to have lived.
And so I asked Frieda what she had heard about America as a child. Did people talk about wanting to go there?
“I didn’t know very much. We didn’t talk about it,” she said. She shrugged dismissively.
And then, almost as an afterthought, she added: “My mother’s two older sisters went there. She was supposed to go, too, but the First World War broke out.”
My pulse quickened. In the 14 years I had known her, I had heard numerous stories about Frieda’s past recounted in vivid detail. But I couldn’t recall her ever once mentioning two aunts in America. And Frieda wasn’t someone who could afford to have two aunts unaccounted for.
===
<A great piece by Paul Sheehan about the political race and how both political leaders (yes, even Rudd, in my book) deserve some respect, not flippant comments about how boring and uninspiring politics is. If leaders are "boring" and "scripted", it's only because they are nit-picked over every statement they make for a "gotcha" gaffe.
Apathetic types should heed the wise words of Plato -
“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
― Plato >
===
===
<More people died in the Battle of Okinawa on both sides than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 9 out of 10 buildings were destroyed. As much as a third of the island’s population committed suicide, fled into caves that were bombed, were used as human shields and were killed when American soldiers found themselves unable to distinguish between Japanese soldiers posing as civilians and actual civilians.
It does not take much to imagine what trying to capture Honshu would have looked like. Take the worst horrors of Vietnam and keep multiplying until you run out of imagination. If you run low, remember that at Okinawa the military was handing out grenades to civilians and its home defense plans involved encouraging the civilian population to commit suicide attacks.> For me, it still doesn't excuse the dropping of the bomb on civilians. But I feel it is excused because a Democrat did it. - ed
===
Somehow the Arab world doesn't seem to care about dying Palestinian Arabs if their deaths cannot be blamed on Jews.
===
===
This is an atrocity. You and all these victims deserve love, and life. Instead there is injustice and terrorism. It is unacceptable that the UN, EU and US seem to endorse the terror. - ed
9-Aug-13: Twelve years after the Hamas attack on the Sbarro pizza restaurant, Jerusalem===
E BOOK (Pdf File Full Download To Your Computer You Do NOT Read On Line) Asymmetrical Rocket Warfare and State sponsors of terrorism. Such states do not have to declare war upon their opponent, fight through a proxy and can strike where, when and how at their own choosing. In the age of Asymmetrical Rocket Warfare, the tiny state of Israel is in the center of this storm. This chapter facilitates a more thorough insight towards understanding the magnitude of the deadly threat of these weapons and CBRN. This is a primer for understanding SCUD missiles, Kassam Rockets, cruise missiles, UAVs, solid-fueled, liquid-fueled, hyper-sonic, subsonic, and stealth Capabilities
http://
===
===
The activists do not care about the Palestinians' suffering as much as they are interested in advancing their anti-Israel agenda. They rarely have anything good to offer the Palestinians.
Hamas has finally admitted that it is the Egyptians, and not Israel, who have turned the Gaza Strip into a "big prison."
Ghazi Hamad, a senior official with the Hamas-controlled foreign ministry, was quoted this week as saying that the Gaza Strip has been turned into a "big prison as a result of the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing by the Egyptian authorities since June 30."
Hamad said that since then, the number of Palestinian travelers at the Rafah terminal has dropped from 1,200 to 200 per day.
===
The devil is laughing - ed
Even if some of the children might be fortunate enough to find loving homes, turning these children into gifts, treated as objects -- slaves -- is just as dehumanizing as the terrible alternatives from which they are supposedly being protected. It is not a problem that is being fixed.
In Pakistan, a country beset by problems of violence, poverty and illiteracy, a famous anchorman, Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a religious Muslim as well as a local sex symbol, hosts a "The Price is Right" type of show, call "Gift from God". During Ramadan, it is aired seven hours a day, and the grand prize is a newborn baby.
A special prize for special days. Win and take home a small child. Hussain explains that, in any event, they are "abandoned children that are condemned to grow up in the street, only to be enlisted by terrorists and to end their days as suicide bombers. We offer them an alternative. What is wrong with that?"
===
Quote of the day-
''Sometimes I've had to use notes myself. The problem with the Prime Minister wasn't that he was reading from the notes. The problem was the notes weren't worth reading,'' - Tony Abbott.===
Holly Sarah Nguyen
Loving Father, help me to guard my inclinations. May I be able to appreciate that though I maybe restless from ambition, I also may be restless through discontent. Correct my life, that my desires may meet the true demands of my soul. Strengthen me with the power of calmness, that "I may go softly all my years", even though I walk through the bitterness of sorrow. Amen.
===
===
Positive news story masks real issue .. recession in France pushes money into banks away from investment. - ed
Top French bank BNP Paribas turned in a 4.7 per cent drop in earnings to 1.76 billion euros ($A2.61 billion) for the April to June period, a much smaller fall than had been expected by the market.
Meanwhile, Credit Agricole reported that its second-quarter profits soared 60 per cent to 1.39 billion euros and Societe Generale also largely beat expectations at 955 million euros.
"They are good results in general for the three banks" even if the asset sales and write downs they undertook last year to react to the eurozone crisis made for difficult comparisons, said Gabriella Serres, an analyst at Aurel BGC brokerage.
The price of shares in BNP Paribas has risen by 3.4 per cent since the reporting season began two weeks ago, while Credit Agricole's shares rose by 12.4 per cent, and Societe Generale's shot up by 17.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, the overall CAC 40 index has risen by 2.7 per cent.
===
===
4 her
===
Meanwhile, research on how precious opals were formed in Australia could provide astrobiologists with insight as to what may have happened on the surface of Mars, says Sydney University scientist Patrice Rey.
Precious opal is predominantly found in the red earth of the Great Artesian Basin in central Australia, within 50 meters of the surface.
Rey says it has long been a mystery why there was so much precious opal in the Great Artesian Basin, but almost nowhere else on Earth. He thinks it is because the Great Artesian Basin was once filled by the Eromanga Sea, which at its peak covered about 60 percent of the Australian continent.
Rey discovered that opal, was the result of a process in the drying out of the Eromanga Sea which began approximately 100 million years ago. This weathering is unusual on Earth, however it has been seen on Mars, which would suggest that it shares some other features with the Great Artesian Basin, including types of rocks, a similar history of flooding then drying out, mineralogy and color.
"It costs billions of dollars to send rovers and orbiters to Mars," Rey said in media comments. "Therefore, looking right here on Earth for ancient and modern analogs to Mars' environment is key to carrying on research in greater detail and explore the role biology has in weathering processes."
===
4 her
===
===
If, perchance, you decided to search for the weather forecast for London on the BBC Weather website you would also be offered the additional option of checking out the weather in the country in which that city is situated.
AGW believers .. and politics .. ed
===
OBAMA DECRIES SETTLEMENT ACTIVITY, confirms Indyk headed to IsraelSpecial envoy to meet with diplomatic officials in Jerusalem before heading to Jericho for another round of discussions By Times Of Israel Staff and AP August 8, 2013,
http://
===
===
“More of our troops are coming home. We’ll be down to 34,000 this winter. By the end of next year, in just 17 months, the transition will be complete, Afghans will take full responsibility for their security, and our war in Afghanistan will be over,” the president said.
“…After our nation was attacked, you were some of the very first conventional forces in Afghanistan, racing in hundreds of miles by helicopter, toppling that regime and driving al-Qaeda from its camps.”
Before his address, Obama met with wounded warriors and Gold Star families, as well as local Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). It was his first visit to the base.
Because of the “9/11 generation,” Obama said, “we are accomplishing what we set out to do” — citing first the death of Osama bin Laden.
“Because of you, al-Qaeda’s top ranks have been hammered. The core of al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is on the way to defeat,” he said.
Obama Living the dream? - ed===
Quit trashing Obama’s accomplishments. He has been the first in more areas than any other President before him. Here is a list of his impressive accomplishments:
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on “shovel-ready” jobs when there was no such thing as “shovel-ready” jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. – including those with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 102 to date.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to go on multiple “global apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesdayevening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. – including those with criminal convictions.
First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat the Holy Quran; tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”
Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”
Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
First President to side with a foreign nation over one of America’s 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).
How is this hope and change working out for you?
There are few in the world who would have attempted those. None of which seem wise - ed===
Civilised people regard torture, along with terror, as wrong. The Left have forgotten that. - ed
Why do we inflict torture on each other so much? We have been doing it from the earliest of times. In Syria rival groups are inflicting the most indescribable and barbaric pain on each other (and let us not forget that Assad’s sub-humans started torturing and castrating children). If the reason for this cruelty were to try to get information that might lead to saving lives, this might arguably leave some room for mitigation. But all I see is primitive sadism and barbarism regardless of what the victims themselves may have inflicted on others. I am completely opposed to any torture. It says something very disturbing about those who inflict it.
Torture is not just the inflicting of pain. We can do that to ourselves in the gym. (more at link)
===
<Behind a façade of enlightened sympathy for the Arab side, the international community and our Left in essence treat Arabs as an immature, petulant aggregate of primitives who cannot be counted upon to behave sensibly but must be conciliated with endless gifts.>
===
Engrish
===
Graphic Quotes: Douglas MacArthur
http://
“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any treat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.” Douglas MacArthur
===
===
===
Ali Kadhim
A gorgeous day at the park today! Warmed up with some movement on the bars and some local kids just went crazy, screaming and clapping at my every movement (they were so loud yet so funny ). So I decided to spend the time just hanging with them and teaching them some tricks and games they could pull off, I learnt that even at the tender age of 5 and 6 (yes they all told me their ages haha) they still embodied the concept of competition, they were mostly trying to beat each other to win my approval. I told them it wasn't about that, that it was only about "trying and having fun together." They had their inner doubts and were confused but I know they'll catch on. I showed them how to help each other climb up to the monkey bars and it made me realise how much they didn't know they were capable of together, even they were amazed they could pull it off without my help. All in all it was a wonderful chance to instill some unity and creativity into young and energetic spirits, my only hope is that they'll remember the lessons, since they have a whole other competitive world out there just waiting for them! #nocompetition#nohate #onlypassion #onlylove #alldayeveryday#mindbodysoul #youth #strength #unity#community #fairfieldpark #9livescalisthenics#team9lives #parkour #streetworkout
===
===
Tony Abbott
===
|
===
- 1676 – Puritans and their Native American allies killed Wampanoag sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip"), essentially ending King Philip's War.
- 1883 – The last known quagga (pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo inAmsterdam.
- 1952 – Thirteen Jewish poets in Moscow were executed forespionage based on false confessions.
- 1969 – Riots erupted in the Bogside area of Derry and spread across much of Northern Ireland.
- 2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
===
Events
- 30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an aspbite.
- 1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
- 1121 – Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commanderIlghazi.
- 1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
- 1323 – Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia), that regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.
- 1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.
- 1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
- 1624 – The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.
- 1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
- 1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.
- 1779 – The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- 1793 – The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
- 1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.
- 1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.
- 1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
- 1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
- 1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- 1898 – An Armistice ends the Spanish–American War.
- 1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
- 1914 – World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
- 1914 – World War I: the Battle of Haelen a.k.a. (Battle of the Silver Helmets) last cavalry style attack from the German army on the city of Halen, Belgium.
- 1944 – Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
- 1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.
- 1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
- 1948 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is struck from the naval record.
- 1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.
- 1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
- 1953 – Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
- 1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
- 1958 – Art Kane photographs 57 notable jazz musicians in the black and white group portrait "A Great Day in Harlem" in front of a Brownstone in New York City.
- 1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
- 1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
- 1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
- 1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
- 1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
- 1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
- 1977 – The 1977 riots in Sri Lanka, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
- 1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed.
- 1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin American Integration Association, is signed.
- 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
- 1982 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and theThird World.
- 1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
- 1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, was discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
- 1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
- 1993 – Pope John Paul II starts his 8th annual World Youth Day in Denver's Mile High Stadium.
- 1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
- 2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
- 2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
- 2007 – The bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
Births
- 1503 – Christian III of Denmark (d. 1559)
- 1566 – Isabella Clara Eugenia Spanish wife of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria (d. 1633)
- 1604 – Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese 3rd shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty (d. 1651)
- 1629 – Alexis of Russia (d. 1676)
- 1644 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)
- 1647 – Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
- 1686 – John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
- 1696 – Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)
- 1720 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)
- 1762 – George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)
- 1774 – Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)
- 1773 – Karl Faber, German historian (d. 1853)
- 1831 – Helena Blavatsky, Russian scholar and theosophist (d. 1891)
- 1856 – Diamond Jim Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
- 1859 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)
- 1860 – Klara Hitler, Austrian mother of Adolf Hitler (d. 1907)
- 1866 – Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
- 1866 – Henrik Sillem, Dutch sports shooter (d. 1907)
- 1867 – Edith Hamilton, German-American author and educator (d. 1963)
- 1872 – Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1956)
- 1876 – Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author (d. 1958)
- 1877 – Albert Bartha, Hungarian military officer and politician (d. 1960)
- 1880 – Radclyffe Hall, English poet, novelist, and activist (d. 1943)
- 1880 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d. 1925)
- 1881 – Cecil B. DeMille, American director (d. 1959)
- 1883 – Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938)
- 1883 – Martha Hedman, Swedish-American actress (d. 1974)
- 1883 – Marion Lorne, American actress (d. 1968)
- 1885 – Jean Cabannes, French physicist (d. 1959)
- 1886 – Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist (d. 1952)
- 1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1889 – Zerna Sharp, American author and educator (d. 1981)
- 1891 – C. E. M. Joad, British philosopher and broadcaster (d. 1953)
- 1892 – Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1896 – Ejner Federspiel, Danish actor (d. 1981)
- 1897 – Maurice Fernandes, Guyanese cricketer (d. 1981)
- 1899 – Ben Sealey, Trinidadian cricketer (d. 1963)
- 1902 – Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician, 1st Vice President of Indonesia (d. 1980)
- 1904 – Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1904 – Tamás Lossonczy, Hungarian painter (d. 2009)
- 1906 – Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (d. 1985)
- 1906 – Tedd Pierce, American animator, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1972)
- 1907 – Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)
- 1907 – Benjamin Henry Sheares, Singaporean politician, 2nd President of Singapore (d. 1981)
- 1909 – Bruce Matthews, Canadian army officer and businessman (d. 1991)
- 1910 – Yusof bin Ishak, Singaporean politician, 1st President of Singapore (d. 1970)
- 1910 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)
- 1911 – Cantinflas, Mexican actor, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1993)
- 1912 – Samuel Fuller, American director (d. 1997)
- 1913 – Richard L. Bare, American director
- 1913 – Xavier Thaninayagam, Sri Lankan Tamil academic (d. 1980)
- 1914 – Gerd Buchdahl, German philosopher (d. 2001)
- 1914 – Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and songwriter (d. 1981)
- 1915 – Sickan Carlsson, Swedish actress and singer (d. 2011)
- 1915 – Michael Kidd, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2007)
- 1916 – Ioan Dicezare, Romanian fighter pilot (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Oliver Crawford, American screenwriter and author (d. 2008)
- 1918 – Guy Gibson, British Royal Air Force pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1944)
- 1919 – Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)
- 1922 – Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor (d. 1987)
- 1923 – John Holt, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1997)
- 1924 – Derek Shackleton, English cricketer (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq,Pakistani politician, 6th President of Pakistan (d. 1988)
- 1925 – Dale Bumpers, American politician, 38th Governor of Arkansas
- 1925 – Guillermo Cano Isaza, Colombian journalist (d. 1986)
- 1925 – Donald Justice, American poet (d. 2004)
- 1925 – Norris McWhirter, Scottish writer and activist co-founder of the Guinness World Records (d. 2004)
- 1925 – Ross McWhirter, Scottish writer and activist, co-founder of the Guinness World Records (d. 1975)
- 1925 – George Wetherill, American physicist (d. 2006)
- 1926 – John Derek, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1926 – Joe Jones, American singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Wallace Markfield, American author (d. 2002)
- 1927 – Porter Wagoner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Charles Blackman, Australian artist
- 1928 – Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1928 – Dan Curtis, American director and producer (d. 2006)
- 1929 – Buck Owens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Buckaroos) (d. 2006)
- 1930 – George Soros Hungarian-American businessman, financier, and philanthropist
- 1930 – Kanagaratnam Sriskandan, Sri Lankan Tamil engineer and civil servant (d. 2010)
- 1930 – Jacques Tits, Belgian-French mathematician
- 1931 – William Goldman, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
- 1932 – Sirikit, Thai Queen, wife of Bhumibol Adulyadej
- 1932 – Dallin H. Oaks, American lawyer, jurist, and religious leader
- 1932 – Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer (d. 2010)
- 1933 – Parnelli Jones, American race car driver
- 1933 – Frederic Lindsay, Scottish author (d. 2013)
- 1935 – John Cazale, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1937 – Walter Dean Myers, American author and poet
- 1938 – Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian politician, 38th Mayor of Quebec City
- 1939 – Michael D. Antonovich, American politician
- 1939 – Skip Caray, American sportscaster (d. 2008)
- 1939 – George Hamilton, American actor
- 1939 – Roy Romanow, Canadian politician
- 1940 – Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
- 1941 – Réjean Ducharme, Canadian novelist and playwright
- 1941 – Dana Ivey, American actress
- 1942 – Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, German physician
- 1943 – Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1945 – Ron Mael, American keyboard player and songwriter (Sparks)
- 1946 – Deborah Howe, American author
- 1946 – Terry Nutkins, English television host and author (d. 2012)
- 1947 – Sam Rosen, American sportscaster
- 1948 – Siddaramaiah, 22nd Chief Minister of Karnataka state,India.
- 1948 – Sue Monk Kidd, American author
- 1949 – Panagiotis Chinofotis, Greek politician
- 1949 – Mark Knopfler, British musician,singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer (Dire Straits and The Notting Hillbillies)
- 1949 – Lou Martin, British pianist, songwriter, and producer (d. 2012)
- 1949 – Rick Ridgeway, American mountaineer
- 1950 – Jim Beaver, American actor and scriptwriter
- 1951 – Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist
- 1952 – Chen Kaige, Chinese director
- 1954 – Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong politician, 3rd Chief Executive of Hong Kong
- 1954 – Ibolya Dávid, Hungarian lawyer and politician
- 1954 – François Hollande, French politician, 24th President of France
- 1954 – Sam J. Jones, American actor
- 1954 – Pat Metheny, American guitarist and composer (Pat Metheny Group)
- 1955 – Ann M. Martin, American author
- 1955 – Terry Taylor, American wrestler
- 1956 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
- 1956 – Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1957 – Friedhelm Schütte, German footballer
- 1958 – Jürgen Dehmel, German bass player and songwriter (Nena)
- 1959 – Amanda Redman, English actress
- 1960 – Laurent Fignon, French cyclist (d. 2010)
- 1960 – Greg Thomas, England cricketer
- 1960 – Eduardo Tokeshi, Peruvian artist
- 1961 – Roy Hay, English musician and composer (Culture Club)
- 1961 – Lawrence Hayward, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Felt, Denim, and Go Kart Mozart)
- 1961 – Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer
- 1963 – Kōji Kitao), Japanese sumo wrestler (the 60th Yokozuna)
- 1963 – Sir Mix-a-Lot, American rapper and producer
- 1964 – Katherine Boo, American journalist and author
- 1965 – Peter Krause, American actor
- 1967 – Andy Hui, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor (Big Four)
- 1967 – Andrey Plotnikov, Russian race walker
- 1967 – Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer
- 1968 – Thorsten Boer, German footballer
- 1968 – Andras Jones, American actor
- 1969 – Aga Muhlach, Filipino actor
- 1969 – Tanita Tikaram, German-English singer-songwriter
- 1969 – Stuart Williams, Nevisian cricketer
- 1970 – Charles Mesure, English-Australian actor
- 1970 – Jim Schlossnagle, American baseball coach
- 1970 – Anthony Swofford, American novelist
- 1971 – Michael Ian Black, American comedian, actor, writer, and director
- 1971 – Yvette Nicole Brown, American actress
- 1971 – Rebecca Gayheart, American actress
- 1971 – Pete Sampras, American tennis player
- 1972 – Del the Funky Homosapien, American rapper and producer (Hieroglyphics, Deltron 3030, and Gorillaz)
- 1972 – Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer
- 1972 – Takanohana Kōji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 65th Yokozuna
- 1972 – Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer
- 1973 – Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi theologian and political leader
- 1973 – Joseba Beloki, Spanish cyclist
- 1973 – Jonathan Coachman, American wrestler and sportscaster
- 1973 – Todd Marchant, American ice hockey player
- 1973 – Richard Reid, British terrorist, attempted the 2001 shoe bomb plot
- 1974 – Matt Clement, American baseball player
- 1975 – Casey Affleck, American actor and director
- 1976 – Wednesday 13, American singer-songwriter and musician (Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, Murderdolls, Bourbon Crow, and Gunfire 76)
- 1976 – Pedro Collins, Barbadian cricketer
- 1976 – Mikko Lindström, Finnish singer and guitarist (HIM and WhoCares)
- 1976 – Brad Lukowich, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Richard McCourt, English comedian and actor
- 1976 – Henry Tuilagi, Samoan rugby player
- 1976 – Antoine Walker, American basketball player
- 1977 – Plaxico Burress, American football player
- 1977 – Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer
- 1977 – Park Yong-ha, South Korean singer and actor (d. 2010)
- 1978 – Chris Chambers, American football player
- 1978 – Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1979 – D. J. Houlton, American baseball player
- 1979 – Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater
- 1979 – Austra Skujytė, Lithuanian athlete
- 1980 – Maggie Lawson, American actress
- 1980 – Dominique Swain, American actress
- 1980 – Matt Thiessen, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Relient K)
- 1980 – Jade Villalon, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress (Sweetbox)
- 1981 – Tony Capaldi, Irish footballer
- 1981 – Djibril Cissé, French footballer
- 1981 – Riin Tamm, Estonian geneticist
- 1982 – Iza Calzado, Filipino actress
- 1982 – Alexandros Tzorvas, Greek footballer
- 1983 – Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer
- 1983 – Manoa Vosawai, Italian rugby player
- 1983 – Mark Webster, Welsh darts player
- 1984 – Yua Aida, Japanese model
- 1984 – Martin Goeres, German actor and stuntman
- 1984 – Bryan Pata, American football player (d. 2006)
- 1984 – Marian Rivera, Filipino actress
- 1985 – Franck Moutsinga, German rugby player
- 1985 – Charlotte Salt, English actress
- 1986 – Kyle Arrington, American football player
- 1986 – Electra Avellan, Venezuelan actress
- 1986 – Elise Avellan, Venezuelan actress
- 1986 – Holley Ann Dorrough, American model
- 1986 – Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukrainian tennis player
- 1987 – Sabrina Herft, Sri Lankan model, Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2012
- 1988 – Justin Gaston, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1988 – Leah Pipes, American actress
- 1989 – Tom Cleverley, English footballer
- 1990 – Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer
- 1990 – Enzo Pineda, Filipino actor and dancer
- 1990 – Marvin Zeegelaar, Dutch footballer
- 1990 – Martin Zurawsky, German footballer
- 1991 – Jesinta Campbell, Australian model, Miss Universe Australia 2010
- 1992 – Isabella Escobar, Guatemalan tennis player
- 1992 – Teo Gheorghiu, Swiss-Canadian pianist and actor
- 1992 – Jacinta Wawatai, New Zealand actress
- 1992 – Cara Delevingne, British fashion model
- 1993 – Ewa Farna, Czech singer
Deaths
- 30 BC – Cleopatra VII, Egyptian queen (b. 69 BC)
- 875 – Louis II of Italy (b. 825)
- 1424 – Yongle Emperor of China (b. 1360)
- 1484 – George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher and scholar (b. 1395)
- 1484 – Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)
- 1512 – Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
- 1577 – Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)
- 1588 – Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder, Italian composer (b. 1543)
- 1612 – Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer (b. 1557)
- 1633 – Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)
- 1638 – Johannes Althusius, German writer (b. 1557)
- 1648 – Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)
- 1674 – Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)
- 1689 – Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)
- 1778 – Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English general (b. 1714)
- 1809 – Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)
- 1810 – Étienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)
- 1822 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Irish-English politician (b. 1769)
- 1827 – William Blake, English poet and painter (b. 1757)
- 1829 – Charles Sapinaud de La Rairie, French general (b. 1760)
- 1848 – George Stephenson, English engineer (b. 1781)
- 1849 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1761)
- 1851 – John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, Indian-born British lawyer and activist (b. 1801)
- 1861 – Eliphalet Remington, American inventor and businessman, founded Remington Arms (b. 1793)
- 1864 – Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese politician and scholar (b. 1811)
- 1865 – William Jackson Hooker, British botanist (b. 1785)
- 1891 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
- 1896 – Thomas Chamberlain, American military officer (b. 1841)
- 1900 – Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)
- 1901 – Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
- 1904 – William Renshaw, British tennis player (b. 1861)
- 1914 – John Philip Holland, Irish engineer, designed the HMS Holland 1 (b. 1840)
- 1918 – Anna Held, Polish-American actress and singer (b. 1872)
- 1918 – William Thompson, American archer (b. 1848)
- 1921 – Pyotr Boborykin, Russian writer, playwright, and journalist (b. 1836)
- 1922 – Arthur Griffith, Irish politician (b. 1871)
- 1924 – Sándor Bródy, Hungarian author and journalist (b. 1863)
- 1928 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- 1934 – Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect, designed the Beurs van Berlage (b. 1856)
- 1935 – Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)
- 1941 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
- 1941 – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, British liberal politician, 56th Governor General of Canada (b. 1866)
- 1943 – Vittorio Sella, Italian photographer (b. 1859)
- 1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., American navy officer and pilot (b. 1915)
- 1948 – Harry Brearley, British metallurgist, developed stainless steel (b. 1871)
- 1952 – David Bergelson, Ukrainian-Soviet writer (b. 1884)
- 1955 – Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
- 1955 – James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1959 – Mike O'Neill, Irish-American baseball player (b. 1877)
- 1964 – Ian Fleming, British intelligence officer, journalist, and author (b. 1908)
- 1967 – Esther Forbes, American novelist (b. 1891)
- 1973 – Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
- 1973 – Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
- 1979 – Ernst Boris Chain, German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1982 – Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1982 – Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
- 1982 – Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)
- 1984 – Lenny Breau, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1941)
- 1985 – Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1941)
- 1985 – Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)
- 1986 – Evaline Ness, American children's author and illustrator (b. 1911)
- 1988 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American painter (b. 1960)
- 1989 – Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (b. 1964)
- 1989 – William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 1990 – B. Kliban, American cartoonist (b. 1935)
- 1990 – Dorothy Mackaill, English-American actress (b. 1903)
- 1992 – John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)
- 1996 – Robert Gravel, Canadian actor and director (b. 1945)
- 1996 – Mark Gruenwald, American writer, illustrator, and editor (b. 1953)
- 1996 – Viktor Hambardzumyan, Soviet-Armenian scientist (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Luther Allison, American guitarist (b. 1939)
- 1999 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian politician (b. 1916)
- 2000 – Gennady Lyachin, Russian captain (b. 1955)
- 2000 – Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
- 2002 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Godfrey Hounsfield, British engineer and inventor, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
- 2004 – Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)
- 2005 – John Loder, English sound engineer and producer (Crass) (b. 1946)
- 2005 – Relangi Selvarajah, Sri Lankan Tamil broadcaster (b. 1960)
- 2007 – Merv Griffin, American actor, singer, and producer, created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Mike Wieringo, American writer and illustrator (b. 1963)
- 2008 – Christie Allen, English-Australian singer (b. 1954)
- 2010 – Isaac Bonewits, American writer and activist, founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (b. 1949)
- 2010 – Richie Hayward, American drummer and songwriter (Little Feat and Fraternity of Man) (b. 1946)
- 2010 – André Kim, South Korean fashion designer (b. 1935)
- 2010 – Guido de Marco, Maltese politician, 6th President of Malta (b. 1931)
- 2011 – Robert Robinson, English journalist and author (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Eileen Beasley, Welsh educator and activist (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Jimmy Carr, American football player (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Prabuddha Dasgupta, Indian photographer (b. 1956)
- 2012 – Alex Falconer, Scottish politician (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Jerry Grant, American race car driver (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Dominic Hibberd, English biographer (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Joe Kubert, American illustrator, founded The Kubert School (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Frank Martin, American attorney and politician (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Édgar Morales Pérez, Mexican politician
- 2012 – Alf Morris, British politician and disability campaigner(b. 1928)
- 2012 – Jackie Watters, Scottish footballer (b. 1920)
Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Glorious Twelfth (United Kingdom)
- HM the Queen's Birthday and National Mother's Day (Thailand)
- International Youth Day (United Nations)
- The first day of Awa Dance Festival (Tokushima)
- The Feast of the Prophet and his Bride (Thelema)
===
“I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” Psalm 119:14 NIV
===
Morning
"Oh that I were as in months past."
Job 29:2
Job 29:2
Numbers of Christians can view the past with pleasure, but regard the present with dissatisfaction; they look back upon the days which they have passed in communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have ever known, but as to the present, it is clad in a sable garb of gloom and dreariness. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they have wandered from him, and they say, "O that I were as in months past!" They complain that they have lost their evidences, or that they have not present peace of mind, or that they have no enjoyment in the means of grace, or that conscience is not so tender, or that they have not so much zeal for God's glory. The causes of this mournful state of things are manifold. It may arise through a comparative neglect of prayer, for a neglected closet is the beginning of all spiritual decline. Or it may be the result of idolatry. The heart has been occupied with something else, more than with God; the affections have been set on the things of earth, instead of the things of heaven. A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; he must be loved first and best. He will withdraw the sunshine of his presence from a cold, wandering heart. Or the cause may be found in self-confidence and self-righteousness. Pride is busy in the heart, and self is exalted instead of lying low at the foot of the cross. Christian, if you are not now as you "were in months past," do not rest satisfied with wishing for a return of former happiness, but go at once to seek your Master, and tell him your sad state. Ask his grace and strength to help you to walk more closely with him; humble yourself before him, and he will lift you up, and give you yet again to enjoy the light of his countenance. Do not sit down to sigh and lament; while the beloved Physician lives there is hope, nay there is a certainty of recovery for the worst cases.
Evening
"Everlasting consolation."
2 Thessalonians 2:16
2 Thessalonians 2:16
"Consolation." There is music in the word: like David's harp, it charms away the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a distinguished honour to Barnabas to be called "the son of consolation"; nay, it is one of the illustrious names of a greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is "the consolation of Israel." "Everlasting consolation"--here is the cream of all, for the eternity of comfort is the crown and glory of it. What is this "everlasting consolation"? It includes a sense of pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the witness of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a cloud, and his transgressions like a thick cloud. If sin be pardoned, is not that an everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord gives his people an abiding sense of acceptance in Christ. The Christian knows that God looks upon him as standing in union with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting. Let sickness prostrate us, have we not seen hundreds of believers as happy in the weakness of disease as they would have been in the strength of hale and blooming health? Let death's arrows pierce us to the heart, our comfort dies not, for have not our ears full often heard the songs of saints as they have rejoiced because the living love of God was shed abroad in their hearts in dying moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in the Beloved is an everlasting consolation. Moreover, the Christian has a conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who trust in Christ: the Christian does trust in Christ, and he believes that God will be as good as his word, and will save him. He feels that he is safe by virtue of his being bound up with the person and work of Jesus.
===
Today's reading: Psalm 81-83, Romans 11:19-36 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 81-82
1 Sing for joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
play the melodious harp and lyre.
shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
play the melodious harp and lyre.
3 Sound the ram's horn at the New Moon,
and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
4 this is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 When God went out against Egypt,
he established it as a statute for Joseph....
and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
4 this is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 When God went out against Egypt,
he established it as a statute for Joseph....
Today's New Testament reading: Romans 11:19-36
19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
===
Levi
[Lē'vī] - joined or adhesion.
[Lē'vī] - joined or adhesion.
- Another name for Matthew, the one-time Roman tax-gatherer (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27, 29). See MATTHEW.
- An ancestor of Jesus Christ(Luke 3:24).
- Another ancestor of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:29).
- The third son of Jacob by Leah. Levi had three sons, and died in Egypt at the age of 137 (Gen. 29:34; 46:11; Exod. 6:16). His descendants, the Levites, had care of the sanctuary. The Book of Leviticus describes their ministry.
The Man of Isolation
Isolation is a feature in the history of Levi, quite as much as it characterizes Simeon, with whom he is paired. The capacity to stand alone made Simeon and Levi conspicuous among their brethren in their attack upon the Shechemites, and proved a valuable instrument for the work of the Lord. The tribe of Levi was fitted by the discipline of trial to discharge a most important duty in Israel - a duty which made Levi second in importance to none but Judah, whoseforerunner and counterpart he was formed to be. Levi stands before Judah in the prophecies of Jacob - Judah before Levi in the blessings of Moses, the man of God.
"The true Levites," says Dr. C. H. Waller, "are the men who have been made lonely among their brethren that they may live alone with Jehovah, and so dwell as the families of others that they may unite them to the family of God."
Levi came under the ban of Jacob, who, in his prophecy set Simeon and Levi under a "curse." To the patriarch they were bad brothers.
Dr. Dinsdale Young has a telling chapter on Simeon and Levi in which he elaborates on these features:
I. They constituted an unholy brotherhood - they had a common disposition (Gen. 49:5).
II. They had unhallowed belongings ( Gen. 49:5) - sinful homes and perverted instruments.
III. They drew from their father a heart-felt prayer (Gen. 49:6). Reviewing their sinful courses, the dying father prays for them.
IV. Their father uttered a righteous imprecation upon their sin. Jacob did not curse them, but their sin (Gen. 49:7).
V. A just judgment was pronounced upon them, "I will divide them" (Gen. 49:7 ). Though divided and scattered, they were not cut off from the promised land. Theirs was not the abundant entrance of others, yet they were privileged to enter.
===
| ||||||||
|
===
| ||||||
|
===
| |||||
|
===
|
===
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
===
No comments:
Post a Comment