One former union official, Michael Williamson admits he stole millions from poor workers and will not pay it back. He was the ideal ALP President. A foil, while fellow stablemate Craig Thomson held back good government from being achieved. Some say Williamson has paid a high price already. But the betrayal of HSU members alone demands a custodial sentence. Who will hold union officials to account? Abbott has justifiable expenses, but ABC challenges Abbott when it had given a free pass to Williamson and gives free passes to Slipper.
Sydney Morning Herald fails to fact check its articles. ABC caught in a fact check fail. Bolt criticises Abbott for not being quick enough .. a bit like saying a prize student could achieve more. Julian Burnside shows the same balance lacking in the SMH. Geoff Shaw is assaulted by leftwing extremists. Arctic Ice recovers .. rapidly. Miranda Devine on 2GB radio 4pm daily. Obama and his fans are blaming the GOP for wanting to save money.
All the details and links are in this article. However, my chief concern at the moment is to do with the issue of raw sewage which came through my unit starting the evening of Monday Oct 7th, a public holiday. I contacted strata straight away and they gave me a number for a plumber, who delayed until Tuesday morning from attending because Monday was a public holiday. I contacted strata at 8:43 in the evening. I explained the blockage, minor at the time, seemed connected to my upstair neighbours. I was assured that was not possible. I bucketed about 50 litres of sewage from my bathroom floor that evening. I went to bed at 12 pm and got up at 6am. By then, the sewage had filled the toilet, vanity, shower and bath tub, and was through the main hall and into the main living area and kitchen. I mopped and bucketed the increasing mess until 7am, called the plumber, and was told plumber would arrive soon. Plumber came at 7:30am. Plumber lifted toilet from mains and tried to use snake to get blockage. I showed plumber where strata pipes were, and he left for strata secretary to get keys. Plumber decides pipes are too rusty to access and tries to access block with snake through bathroom drain. He tells me the snake isn't sufficient at 9:30 and promises to return in 2 hours with the right equipment. I call him at 12:30 in the afternoon and he tells me a "boy drove of with his truck" so he was doing other work elsewhere until he could attend the block with the right equipment. He returns with a truck by 15:30 By this time, I have contacted home contents insurance and an assessor is on hand. The assessor declares my place uninhabitable. I explain I am staying. That is my right. Cleaners arrive and suction off sewage and spray anti biotic anti fungal protection. Then plumbers decide at 17:30 they can't get the blockage that night and will look again in the morning. Fecal matter had come through my unit with recognisable food stuffs processed from the guts of my celebrating neighbours while the plumber was gone in the morning .. cleaners took pity on me and sandbagged the bathroom and left a water vacuum behind overnight when they left at 9:30 pm. I filled the water vacuum by 10:30 pm. Sandbags were breached by 11:30 pm. I hid in my room. Plumber arrived morning two at 8:30 am without truck. They spent an hour outside with old pipes. By 10 am they claimed they had fixed the block without once entering my unit. The sandbags had prevented more fecal matter getting through the unit in its raw form, but the yellow water had flooded entire unit except laundry. Cleaning crew came again, cut up carpet sprayed anti biotic/fungal protection and organised a time to extract all affected furniture. This afternoon they completed their task, leaving my place a concrete, empty shell. But strata had not yet called Strata insurance. Strata insurance claim they won't be able to look at the empty shell until Thursday 24th October, seventeen days after my first call. sixteen days after my place was declared uninhabitable.
People are willing to help me, but some aren't. If my place had burned down or if I had tripped in a supermarket, this might be national news .. but local news won't go near it. I am desperate. Days from being forced to sell my home .. and I have lost everything but internet access and tv. My tax papers are gone. Everything I've collected over 46 years .. gone.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns to those born on this day, across the years, including
1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (d. 1450)
1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer and author (d. 1843)
1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1900)
1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
1890 – Michael Collins, Irish politician (d. 1922)
1922 – Max Bygraves, English actor and singer (d. 2012)
1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress and singer
1927 – Günter Grass, German author, poet, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate
1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter
2003 – Princess Kritika of Nepal
Matches
456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
1384 – Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.
1590 – Carlo Gesualdo, composer, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos, and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples.
1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
1869 – The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".
1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.
1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
1946 – Nuremberg Trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial.
1962 – The Cuban missile crisis between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union begins when US President John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of missile sites in Cuba.
1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
1970 – In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.
1975 – The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
1975 – The Australian Coalition opposition parties using their senate majority, vote to defer the decision to grant supply of funds for theWhitlam Government's annual budget, sparking the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.
1978 – Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
Despatches
1333 – Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)
1946 – Nuremberg trial executions of the Main Trial:
- Hans Frank, German lawyer (b. 1900)
- Wilhelm Frick, German nazi official (b. 1877)
- Alfred Jodl, German military officer (b. 1890)
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)
- Wilhelm Keitel, German military officer (b. 1882)
- Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi ideologist (b. 1893)
- Fritz Sauckel, German politician (b. 1894)
- Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian lawyer and politician (b. 1892)
- Julius Streicher, German propagandist (b. 1887)
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician (b. 1893)
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WE WILL GRIEVE UNTIL WE FIND OUR WAY
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (2:30pm)
Julian Burnside is crying his precious little eyes out. It’s impossible not to laugh.
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SPINNERS OUT OF ATTACK
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (1:11pm)
“It is a sight that will cheer campaigners across the land.”
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IT’S A GAS, GAS, GAS
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (1:08pm)
Nice work:
Via Imre, who writes: “The only implausible bit is the shower.” The Bunyip also has protesters on his mind.
Via Imre, who writes: “The only implausible bit is the shower.” The Bunyip also has protesters on his mind.
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DOUBLE DAVE
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (3:22am)
There are two David Suzukis, according to the Toronto Sun:
Most of us know one of the Suzukis. Let’s call him Saint Suzuki. That’s the Suzuki whose TV show on the CBC constantly lectures us about our lifestyle. He says we need to consume less, buy less and use less fossil fuels.
That would be the Saint Suzuki who was recently granted hero status by Australia’s fawning ABC. The Sun continues:
But then there’s another Suzuki. Let’s call him Secret Suzuki, because he’s far less well-known.Secret Suzuki is the one who lives on Vancouver’s elite Point Grey Road, on a double lot, overlooking English Bay, right above the exclusive Kitsilano Yacht Club. The City of Vancouver assesses the land value alone at over $8 million. And that’s just one of Secret Suzuki’s properties.He has another million-dollar home in Vancouver. And then there’s another home on Quadra Island. That’s three homes right there, if you count the double lot on Point Grey Road as just one property.But then there’s his large property holdings on Nelson Island.
(Via Waxing Gibberish, who emails: “Funny how so many millionaires like Al Gore, James Cameron, Kevin Rudd and Suzuki etc want us to live a different lifestyle to them.")
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HEALTH STEALING UNION
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (3:15am)
Thieving union boss Michael Williamson was being paid $513,294 per year – more than the Prime Minister – even as he stole almost $1 million from union members.
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MAD MAX
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (3:11am)
Temporary Labor parliamentarian Maxine McKew rips into Kevin Rudd:
The one-term MP, a former ABC 7.30 Report host recruited by Mr Rudd to run in 2007, says Mr Rudd “went off the deep end” when he announced he favoured “the idiocy” of preferential tax rates for companies that moved to the Northern Territory. Ms McKew also says Labor’s “already diminished credibility was practically shredded” when senior public servants disowned the suggestion they had verified a “black hole” in the Coalition’s policy costings …Among the many other attacks on Mr Rudd is that he was a micro-manager who created “confusion” about his political persona when during a debate he said he was an “economic nationalist” who supported revising foreign investment laws. When Mr Rudd was questioned on the ABC’s Q&A about his support for gay marriage, Ms McKew says the then prime minister displayed “rudeness” to a pastor that left the man feeling “humiliated”.
Rudd is rubbish, but still he lurks within Labor, always ready to revive the magic.
UPDATE. Nicholas Stuart on the man who missed out:
I can still remember the evening I first met Anthony Albanese back in 1988. It wasn’t so much his smouldering good looks as rather my surprise at meeting a walking, talking, compendium of political cliches. The trouble is, drinking with Albo became an exercise in listening to him recite party slogans from the 1920s.‘’Lovely bloke,’’ I remember thinking, ‘’it’s just unfortunate he can’t escape from the doctrinaire solutions prescribed by long-dead thinkers.’’
Labor’s living thinkers are a poor batch.
UPDATE II. Further unhappiness for Labor:
One senior Labor source described the situation in the Left as ‘’open warfare’’, with Mr Albanese said to be seeking revenge on those in his faction who did not give him their leadership vote. ‘’One or two more votes in caucus and he would have been leader, so he’s not happy,’’ one insider said.Another said recriminations were still being meted out in the Left, with Albanese loyalists driving them. ‘’The knives are out, yes,’’ the source said. ‘’It is very clear that if you didn’t vote with your faction, you’re going to be punished.’’
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LIVIN’ LARGE IN MALANG
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (3:04am)
The Jakarta Globe reports:
Adj. Comr. Dedy Kusuma Bakti, the Cianjur Police chief, said his office was working with the West Java and Banten police forces to patrol the local waters for signs of people-smuggling activities …“The fact that they’ve coming in on tourist visas shows that they’re not really asylum seekers. People smuggling has become a big business here,” he said …Tedy Pembang, the Cisarua subdistrict chief, said many of the foreigners, mostly from the Middle East, had lived in the area for years, often arriving in the country by boat.He added that they tended to be ostentatious in their spending and socializing, generally keeping up a high profile that did not fit in with their claims of seeking asylum from repressive conditions back in their home countries.
(Via Fern)
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DEVINE RADIO
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (3:02am)
The Daily Telegraph‘s wonderful Miranda Devine moves into talkback radio on Sydney’s 2GB.
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IF ONLY THE ABC HAD A FACT-CHECKING UNIT
Tim Blair – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (2:48am)
Media Watch inserts a sic where no sic is needed:
“Caliber” isn’t a spelling error. The author is American.
“Caliber” isn’t a spelling error. The author is American.
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Double oops
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (4:49pm)
The Sydney Morning Herald is being sued by former News Corp boss Kim Williams. I know mistakes happen in journalism, being fast moving and all that, but this correction suggests the paper is in a bit of strife:
Today the Herald ran a correction to the story on page two, which stated: “An article on September 30 contained the following inaccurate statements: That Kim Williams stormed out of a meeting of the Opera House Trustees on September 17 in disgust at chief executive Louise Herron’s management of the tender for the Bennelong restaurant space; that Mr Williams said of Ms Herron in the meeting ‘I am over you’; that Mr Williams tendered his resignation as chairman shortly after the meeting; that the trustees implored Ms Herron to re-engage with Guillaume Brahimi; that the Opera House director of enterprises, David Watson, was a senior lawyer at Mars Group’s dog food business before joining the Opera House; and that Sydney Opera House engaged consultants from Mars Group. The Herald apologises for these errors.’’
===
Is the Abbott Government moving fast enough?
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (4:31pm)
It will be a month ago
on Friday that the Abbott Government was officially sworn in. In that
time, what has it actually done to cut debt, reduce business costs,
slash red tape, ease workplace restrictions, tame rogue unions and
boost business confidence?
Tony Abbott wanted a government that didn’t give us a drama a day. But should that really mean not giving us any reforms, either?
Among the initiatives which should have been already announced:
But I am not convinced this present pace is what Australia needs or the Government’s PR demands.
Tony Abbott wanted a government that didn’t give us a drama a day. But should that really mean not giving us any reforms, either?
Among the initiatives which should have been already announced:
- the promised referral to the Productivity Commission for a cost-benefit analysis of the Renewable Energy Target that’s driving up power prices.I accept that some things have indeed been done - the scrapping of the Climate Commission, the drawing up of legislation to scrap the carbon tax, the negotiating of an agreement from Indonesia to help stop the boats, the fast-forwarding of trade deals with China and others. I also accept that it is best to hasten slowly - as in getting important changes done right, like reforming the NBN.
- the appointment of the promised commission of audit to review government functions and possible savings.
But I am not convinced this present pace is what Australia needs or the Government’s PR demands.
===
Burnside goes feral: Abbott’s government “corrupt”
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (4:18pm)
The Abbott Government should have nothing at all to do with “human rights” lawyer Julian Burnside after this kind of abuse:
(Via Tim Blair.)
We have a corrupt, hard right-wing Coalition government, led by self-seeking hypocrites.Maintain your dignity. Do not make the mistake of previous Liberal government and think such people can be won over - or that their support is worth a cracker.
(Via Tim Blair.)
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No MP - even Geoff Shaw - should let themselves be attacked
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (3:22pm)
When you are the media’s favorite villain, you’re a monster even when
you defend yourself from attack by protesters trying to block your way.
Geoff Shaw has nothing to apologise for, and saying so should not
“surprise” The Age:
It seems Age reporters also believe in the tyranny of the protest movement, and are shocked when it is challenged:
New CCTV vision shows Shaw being monstered long before the final confrontation, with his “victim” featuring prominently. Premier Dennis Napthine should now (belatedly) come out strongly in Shaw’s defence, As for the “victim”, who lately posed pathetically receiving medical assistance as someone in imminent danger of a “heart attack”, an apology would be nice.
In a surprise move, Speaker Ken Smith appeared to side with Mr Shaw, saying MPs had a right to safely enter and leave Parliament and anyone who impeded that right could be in contempt of parliament…UPDATE
The altercation is just the latest incident for the MP, who quit the parliamentary Liberal Party in March, precipitating the demise of Ted Baillieu as premier. It is a further blow for the Napthine government, which relies on Mr Shaw’s vote to pass laws.
It seems Age reporters also believe in the tyranny of the protest movement, and are shocked when it is challenged:
Tuesday’s violent melee on the steps of Parliament was just the latest of a string of incidents for the troubled independent member for Frankston, who is also facing 24 criminal charges for allegedly rorting his parliamentary vehicle…UPDATE
The argument ... is that MPs have the right to enter and leave Parliament unimpeded…
This may be technically correct, but as far as many members will be concerned it will be a case of defending the indefensible. All the more so from a government that has made so much of its law-and-order credentials - including a crackdown on street violence and anti-social behaviour.
New CCTV vision shows Shaw being monstered long before the final confrontation, with his “victim” featuring prominently. Premier Dennis Napthine should now (belatedly) come out strongly in Shaw’s defence, As for the “victim”, who lately posed pathetically receiving medical assistance as someone in imminent danger of a “heart attack”, an apology would be nice.
===
Professor turns from worm food to worm researcher
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (9:26am)
A professor feels something moving under the lining of his mouth and gets excited:
(Via Instapundit.)
Allen did email his colleagues with the subject line: ”A paper in my mouth.”Well, a worm, actually. But same difference to those excited by science.
(Via Instapundit.)
===
Rapid ice growth in “ice free” Arctic
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (9:17am)
That’s some recovery in the extent of Arctic ice, which alarmists (Al Gore, Tim Flannery, the ABC) warned could actually be all gone this year:
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Labor needs affirmative action for non-union officials
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (9:04am)
Alan Stokes checks whether Bill Shorten’s 30-strong Ministry reflects the “diversity” Labor says it loves:
Fourteen are former union officials – and that’s being generous to some whose official biographies gloss over their union links. Thirteen were party officials, advisers to Labor MPs or electorate officers before entering Parliament.
Five were lawyers, three were public servants, two economists, three in management/consulting, three teachers and two in small business or a trade. (The numbers don’t add up because some Labor MPs do more than one job before entering Parliament, like being a union official AND a party apparatchik).
By contrast, let’s look at the Abbott ministry.
Of the 30 ministers 11 were lawyers, 11 political advisers (so there’s a cosy club there too), 11 were business linked, five in farming or agribusiness, two public servants, one policeman and two from the media. (Again, many MPs were lawyers AND business people.)
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Devine radio
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (8:47am)
Tune in to Miranda Devine’s new 2GB show at 4pm each Sunday.
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ABC decides: Abbott’s justifable expenses vs a Labor president’s $1 million rip-off
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (8:34am)
Tony Abbott claims a
few thousand dollars in justifiable expenses after attending community
sports events and, as Leader of the House, the wedding seven years ago
of a colleague. Huge interest by the ABC’s 7.30:
Maybe tonight?
Yesterday a former national president of the Labor Party admits he ripped off around $1 million from his union members. Check again the above list. Notice the absence of any story?
Maybe tonight?
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Slipper encouraged in his delusion
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (8:17am)
Janet Albrechtsen on the questions Peter Slipper wasn’t asked during his friendly chat on Insiders:
What a shame Cassidy did not ask the most obvious question: Isn’t there a fundamental difference between the current brouhaha over MPs’ entitlements and your situation? That, unlike other MPs, you have been charged with committing a criminal offence involving dishonesty?…
Cassidy could also have asked Slipper about his history of extravagant expenses claims, or about the $20,000 in expenses he has paid back… Cassidy could have asked: what parliamentary or electoral business did Slipper conduct during a 15-day period between July 11 and August 12, 2009, when Slipper claimed almost $6000 for taxis? [Or in this period.]
Another question: Did Slipper consider it extravagant to spend $495,333 of taxpayers’ money during the six months to December 2009 - including more than $400,000 on running his office, $16,038 in taxi fares, $3138 for a Com Car, and $8657 for private vehicle expenses? Slipper’s six-month bill exceeded those of then treasurer Wayne Swan and opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, and was only outdone by prime minister Kevin Rudd, who clocked up $1.16 million in expenses....
Here’s the most critical question: Mr Slipper, is it possible that your own actions have tarnished your reputation, stymied your political career and, ultimately, brought it to an ignoble end?… Cassidy could have pointed out that Slipper seems to like switching sides - from Nationals MP in 1987 to Liberal MP in 1993. Or asked whether Slipper damaged his reputation when he ratted on the Liberals to become Speaker in November 2011 - when every Coalition seat was critical, given the minority Gillard government. Or whether Slipper brought his own career to an end when his lewd texts about female genitalia were exposed - behaviour surely unbecoming of the Speaker of the House of Representatives…
As for the cringe-worthy episode of The Slipper Delusion, the real shame is we funded this tosh.
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McKew now whacks Rudd like she whacked Gillard
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (8:07am)
Labor continues to show the ”zero tolerance for disunity” Bill Shorten promised. Next to tee off, Maxine McKew, turning on the leader she once defended:
The one-term MP, a former ABC 7.30 Report host recruited by Mr Rudd to run in 2007, says Mr Rudd “went off the deep end” when he announced he favoured “the idiocy” of preferential tax rates for companies that moved to the Northern Territory. Ms McKew also says Labor’s “already diminished credibility was practically shredded” when senior public servants disowned the suggestion they had verified a “black hole” in the Coalition’s policy costings.
And she attacks the selection of former Queensland premier Peter Beattie as Labor’s candidate for Forde, describing it as one of the “worst” decisions of the campaign and saying “it looked desperate"…
Ms McKew, whose partner is the former Labor Party national secretary Bob Hogg, reiterates her extensive criticism of Ms Gillard’s prime ministership, dismissing it as an “experiment” that “failed” after Labor was taken to the “edges of irrelevance"…
Among the many other attacks on Mr Rudd is that he was a micro-manager who created “confusion” about his political persona when during a debate he said he was an “economic nationalist” who supported revising foreign investment laws. When Mr Rudd was questioned on the ABC’s Q&A about his support for gay marriage, Ms McKew says the then prime minister displayed “rudeness” to a pastor that left the man feeling “humiliated”.
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ABC Fact Check unit pumps out propaganda instead
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (7:30am)
The ABC Fact Check unit
has become as politically loaded and fact-free as so much ABC
pontificating on boats and global warming.
First it accuses Tony Abbott of merely “splitting hairs” when he points out his policy is to “turn back” the boats, not “tow back” as so many ABC reports have mischievously suggested. Facts, it seems, do not matter so much, after all.
Now the ABC’s Fact Check insists Tony Abbott is exaggerating the savings from scrapping the carbon tax, because Labor actually promised to scrap it already:
What the ABC “overlooks” is that Labor never scrapped the carbon tax, which remains and which Labor says must stay unless replaced with an emissions trading scheme (that Abbott opposes):
(Thanks to reader Mick.)
UPDATE
Abbott heaps the pressure on Labor - taking an element of Clive Palmer’s demand for refunds:
First it accuses Tony Abbott of merely “splitting hairs” when he points out his policy is to “turn back” the boats, not “tow back” as so many ABC reports have mischievously suggested. Facts, it seems, do not matter so much, after all.
Now the ABC’s Fact Check insists Tony Abbott is exaggerating the savings from scrapping the carbon tax, because Labor actually promised to scrap it already:
Mr Abbott’s figure ignores Labor’s proposal to replace the carbon tax with an ETS from July 1, 2014.
His figure is based on a fixed price, which would cost an average household $568 in 2014-15, not an ETS, which would cost $134.
What the ABC “overlooks” is that Labor never scrapped the carbon tax, which remains and which Labor says must stay unless replaced with an emissions trading scheme (that Abbott opposes):
Former climate change minister Mark Butler said Labor had gone to the election also calling for the carbon tax to be scrapped.Abbott is right and the ABC’s Fact Check again wrong.
But there had to be a credible climate change policy to replace it, and Labor did not believe that was the government’s Direct Action plan.
“What the Liberal Party needs to do, if it wants to see this legislation through, and seriously discuss an emissions trading scheme,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
(Thanks to reader Mick.)
UPDATE
Abbott heaps the pressure on Labor - taking an element of Clive Palmer’s demand for refunds:
TONY Abbott has flagged retrospective legislation to backdate the abolition of the carbon tax to July 1 next year if parliament delays his repeal bills and threatened businesses with fines of up to $1.1 million if they fail to pass on price cuts flowing through from scrapping the tax… If the bills are not passed by July 1, and the government is forced to wait for the new Senate, the carbon tax repeal bills will apply retrospectively to that date.
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An unholy trinity of union scandals should tempt even St Tony
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (7:09am)
Prime Minister Tony
Abbott has an attractive idea that deeds will speak for themselves, and
politicking is exactly what the public has had too much of.
Lovely idea. That said, deeds don’t actually speak, politics is exactly the business Abbott is engaged in, and what some people call “politicking” is what others might call a highly desirable exposure of misdeeds and weakness in oversight:
(Thanks to reader Leigh.)
UPDATE
Details of the Williamson scams here. No way could other union officials not have known or suspected.
UPDATE
Reader AP suggests another sign of trouble that could well be investigated:
Lovely idea. That said, deeds don’t actually speak, politics is exactly the business Abbott is engaged in, and what some people call “politicking” is what others might call a highly desirable exposure of misdeeds and weakness in oversight:
THERE is high level Coalition support for a broad ranging judicial inquiry into the union movement - and Michael Williamson’s guilty plea in relation to the Health Services Union adds to the momentum.That said, the police investigation into the AWU is still going and the Thomson trial is not concluded. No need yet for the Government to get involved.
Senior Government figures argue there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to exploit public disgust over corrupt union officials and expose the entire movement to a royal commission…
No decisions have been taken - and Prime Minister Tony Abbott is yet to be convinced of the merits of such a probe…
Dubbed the “$1 million man” due to his extravagant lifestyle, Mr Williamson took nepotism to new heights, ensuring his family were looked after through union contracts and dodgy management practices.
There is also no doubt that his admission of guilt spreads beyond the HSU and its long-suffering members…
At the same time Mr Williamson was admitting guilt, Julia Gillard’s one-time boyfriend Bruce Wilson was locked in a legal tussle with the Victorian fraud squad in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Wilson, a former Australian Workers’ Union official, is at the centre of a fraud investigation stretching back two decades… Ms Gillard was a partner at Slater & Gordon at the same time she was involved in a relationship with Mr Wilson. She provided legal advice to set up the slush fund from which Mr Wilson and another former union official, Ralph Blewitt, are alleged to have misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ms Gillard has consistently denied any wrongdoing…
Then there is the case of Craig Thomson, a former ally of Mr Williamson’s at the HSU, who is facing more than 150 charges of fraud.
(Thanks to reader Leigh.)
UPDATE
Details of the Williamson scams here. No way could other union officials not have known or suspected.
UPDATE
Reader AP suggests another sign of trouble that could well be investigated:
The main construction union used a clause in funding arrangements for a drug and alcohol charity to raise up to $1 million for union activities.And this.
The NSW division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has run a rehabilitation facility in Sydney, Foundation House, since 2000, in partnership with the building industry.
Most of the foundation’s board, a mixture of industry and union representatives, quit late last year over the diversion of funds they believed were earmarked for drug and alcohol programs. At least $500,000 and maybe more than $1 million raised through a workplace levy on employees and employers was transferred to unspecified CFMEU “safety initiatives”.
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Did Labor overlook Burke’s merit? Consult the tape
Andrew Bolt October 15 2013 (7:08pm)
Former Speaker Anna Burke says her party overlooked her merit in denying her a front-bench position.
But here she is giving a talk to the newly elected MPs. Judge for yourself if Burke is right.
But here she is giving a talk to the newly elected MPs. Judge for yourself if Burke is right.
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Roxon whacks “bastard” Rudd
Andrew Bolt October 16 2013 (7:46pm)
Bill Shorten’s appeal for unity is not having much of an effect. Now former Attorney-General Nicola Roxon dumps on Kevin Rudd:
Removing Kevin was an act of political bastardry, for sure. But this act of political bastardy was made possible only because Kevin had been such a bastard himself to so many people.The party of compassion.
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Stripe Seekers! Where are Wally, Wenda and Odlaw?
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/tony-abbott-loses-a-mentor-and-a-friend-with-the-death-of-father-emmet-costello/story-e6frg6nf-1226741045448
I'm a proud Christian, but agree with JFo .. conservatism is broad. Leftwing ideology very narrow. - ed
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HISTORY IN THE HEADLINES: Last week, researchers announced that they have located living descendants of a prehistoric iceman discovered along the Italy-Austria border in 1991. Known as Ötzi, he is believed to have lived 5,300 years ago. The news of Ötzi’s living descendants is just the latest in a long of discoveries scientists have made regarding the mummy.http://histv.co/1cqnofD
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Sarah Palin'
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And for more reasons to support Steve Lonegan, please see this testifying video from Cory Booker's "neighbors": http://youtu.be/nycXW90H5zU
Let’s make history. Let’s elect Steve Lonegan to the U.S. Senate tomorrow!
Know anyone in NJ? Call them tonight and remind them to vote for conservative Steve Lonegan tomorrow.
Don’t know anyone in NJ but still want to make calls? Click here to help out:
https://
Live in NJ? Remember to vote tomorrow! If we turn out, we win! The stakes are too high to stay at home. Click here for polling hours and locations:
https://voter.njsvrs.com/
And for more reasons to support Steve Lonegan, please see this testifying video from Cory Booker's "neighbors": http://youtu.be/nycXW90H5zU
Let’s make history. Let’s elect Steve Lonegan to the U.S. Senate tomorrow!
===
Holly Sarah Nguyen
If you try to please everybody, life will be miserable. If it doesn't match what God has put in your heart, let it go in one ear and out the other.
===
Can it be more obvious? Thirteen Syrian rebel groups–including the most important in Aleppo and Damascus–demand an Islamist state in Syria and say they don’t care what the official rebel, U.S.-backed politicians say.
By the way, only one of these groups is an al-Qaida group, Jabhat al-Nusra. There is also the large Salafi Islamist group,Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiya. The others include the powerful Liwa al-Tawhid (Aleppo) and Liwa al-Islam. Both groups operated as part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) umbrella.
===
With the Syrian thriller and its spin-off machinations keeping us at the edge of our seats, who had time to at all notice much less care about the volubility of Ramallah’s honchos?
Too much distracting din made it difficult to pay much mind to Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cronies. But this didn’t keep them from babbling and what they revealed deserved our attention – even if the utterances in question weren’t the sort that the more politically correct in our midst prefer we dwell on.
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I wanted to let you know that the Government has just released the Carbon Tax Repeal Bills for public consultation.
Legislation to scrap the Carbon Tax will be the first item of business when the new Parliament meets in November.
This honours our commitment to the Australian people to move quickly and ease cost of living pressures on families.
Scrapping the Carbon Tax will also lower costs for Australian businesses and manufacturers, boost growth and jobs, and make our country more competitive.
Scrapping the Carbon Tax will result in electricity prices falling 9 per cent and gas prices falling by 7 per cent.
On average, households will be around $550 better off in 2014‑15 than they would have been with the Carbon Tax in place.
The new Labor leader says he wants to ignore the decision of the people at the election and keep the Carbon Tax.
The time has come for Labor to accept the will of the people and vote to scrap this tax.
By scrapping the Carbon Tax we can help businesses create more jobs and help families get ahead.
Today and every day, the Coalition Government will work to deliver the strong economy that our country needs.
Regards,
Tony Abbott
Prime Minister
Click here to read the media statement
Click here to read the exposure drafts of the Bills.
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- 1793 – Marie Antoinette (pictured), queen consort of Louis XVI, was guillotined at thePlace de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the French Revolution.
- 1869 – Girton College, one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge and England's first residential college for women, was founded.
- 1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated in Rawalpindi.
- 1968 – To protest racism in the United States, African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlosperformed the Black Power salute during a medal ceremony at the Mexico City Summer Olympics.
- 1975 – Five journalists for Australian television networks based in the town of Balibo were killed byIndonesian special force soldiers prior to their invasion of East Timor.
===
Events[edit]
- 456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1384 – Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.
- 1590 – Carlo Gesualdo, composer, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos, and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples.
- 1780 – Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont are the last major raids of the American Revolutionary War.
- 1781 – George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia after the Siege of Yorktown.
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
- 1793 – The Battle of Wattignies ends in a French victory.
- 1813 – The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig.
- 1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
- 1841 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
- 1843 – Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension ofcomplex numbers.
- 1846 – William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.
- 1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
- 1869 – The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".
- 1869 – Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.
- 1875 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
- 1882 – The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
- 1905 – The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.
- 1906 – The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.
- 1916 – In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.
- 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.
- 1934 – Chinese Communists begin the Long March; it ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.
- 1939 – World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.
- 1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
- 1944 – Wally Walrus, Woody Woodpecker's first steady foil, was debuted at the The Beach Nut, a Walter Lantz's cartoon.
- 1945 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City, Canada.
- 1946 – Nuremberg Trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial.
- 1949 – Nikolaos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a "temporary cease-fire", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.
- 1949 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.
- 1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.
- 1962 – The Cuban missile crisis between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union begins when US President John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of missile sites in Cuba.
- 1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
- 1964 – Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin are inaugurated as General Secretary of the CPSU and Premier, respectively and the collective leadership is established.
- 1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
- 1968 – Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
- 1970 – In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.
- 1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1975 – The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
- 1975 – Rahima Banu, a two-year old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.
- 1975 – The Australian Coalition opposition parties using their senate majority, vote to defer the decision to grant supply of funds for theWhitlam Government's annual budget, sparking the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.
- 1978 – Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
- 1978 – Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1984 – The Bill debuted on ITV, eventually becoming the longest-running police procedural in British television history.
- 1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1986 – Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders.
- 1991 – Luby's massacre: George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20 in Luby's Cafeteria.
- 1993 – Anti-Nazism riot breaks out in Welling in Kent, after police stop protesters approaching the British National Party headquarters.
- 1995 – The Million Man March occurs in Washington, D.C.
- 1995 – The Skye Bridge is opened.
- 1996 – 84 people are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 football fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.
- 1998 – Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a warrant from Spain requesting his extradition on murder charges.
- 2002 – Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.
- 2006 – Hawaii earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocks Hawaii, causing property damage, injuries, landslides, power outages, and the closure of Honolulu International Airport.
- 2012 – The extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered.
Births[edit]
- 1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (d. 1450)
- 1430 – James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
- 1483 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
- 1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (d. 1585)
- 1620 – Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)
- 1679 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Czech composer (d. 1745)
- 1710 – Andreas Hadik, Austrian-Hungarian general (d. 1790)
- 1714 – Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (d. 1795)
- 1726 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801)
- 1729 – Pierre van Maldere, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1768)
- 1751 – Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1805)
- 1752 – Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian (d. 1827)
- 1754 – Morgan Lewis, American politician, 3rd Governor of New York (d. 1844)
- 1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer and author (d. 1843)
- 1762 – Paul Hamilton, American politician, 42nd Governor of South Carolina (d. 1816)
- 1789 – William Burton, American physician and politician, 39th Governor of Delaware (d. 1866)
- 1795 – William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and author (d. 1876)
- 1802 – Isaac Murphy, American politician, 8th Governor of Arkansas (d. 1882)
- 1804 – Benjamin Russell, American painter (d. 1885)
- 1806 – William P. Fessenden, American politician (d. 1869)
- 1815 – Francis Lubbock, American politician, 9th Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
- 1819 – Austin F. Pike, American politician (d. 1886)
- 1840 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
- 1841 – Itō Hirobumi, Japanese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1909)
- 1854 – Karl Kautsky, Czech-German theoretician (d. 1938)
- 1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1900)
- 1855 – Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (d. 1931)
- 1861 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian and scholar (d. 1927)
- 1863 – Austen Chamberlain, English politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)
- 1869 – Claude H. Van Tyne, American historian and author (d. 1930)
- 1872 – Walter Buckmaster, English polo player (d. 1942)
- 1876 – Jimmy Sinclair, South African cricketer and rugby player (d. 1913)
- 1880 – Wilhelm Anderson, Baltic German astrophysicist (d. 1940)
- 1881 – William Orthwein, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1955)
- 1883 – Vasiliki Maliaros, Greek actress (d. 1973)
- 1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
- 1885 – Alfred Braunschweiger, German diver (d. 1952)
- 1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
- 1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
- 1888 – Paul Popenoe, American founder of relationship counseling (d. 1979)
- 1890 – Michael Collins, Irish politician (d. 1922)
- 1890 – Maria Goretti, Italian martyr and saint (d. 1902)
- 1890 – Paul Strand, American photographer (d. 1975)
- 1897 – Louis de Cazenave, French soldier and super-centenarian (d. 2008)
- 1898 – William O. Douglas, American jurist (d. 1980)
- 1900 – Edward Ardizzone, Vietnamese-English author and illustrator (d. 1979)
- 1900 – Primo Conti, Italian painter (d. 1988)
- 1900 – Goose Goslin, American baseball player (d. 1971)
- 1903 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French author (d. 2003)
- 1905 – Ernst Kuzorra, German footballer (d. 1990)
- 1906 – León Klimovsky, Argentine director (d. 1996)
- 1908 – Olivia Coolidge, American and British author (d. 2006)
- 1908 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian politician, Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1985)
- 1912 – Clifford Hansen, American politician, 26th Governor of Wyoming (d. 2009)
- 1914 – Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghan king (d. 2007)
- 1916 – George Turner, Australian author (d. 1997)
- 1917 – Alice Pearce, American actress (d. 1966)
- 1918 – Louis Althusser, French philosopher (d. 1990)
- 1918 – Tony Rolt, English race car driver (d. 2008)
- 1919 – Kathleen Winsor, American author (d. 2003)
- 1921 – Matt Batts, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1921 – MacKenzie Miller, American horse trainer and breeder (d. 2010)
- 1922 – Max Bygraves, English actor and singer (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Leon Sullivan, American minister and activist (d. 2001)
- 1923 – Linda Darnell, American actress (d. 1965)
- 1923 – Bert Kaempfert, German orchestra leader and composer (d. 1980)
- 1923 – Bill McLaren, Scottish sportscaster (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress and singer
- 1926 – Charles Dolan, American businessman, founded Cablevision and HBO
- 1927 – Günter Grass, German author, poet, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1928 – Mary Daly, American philosopher and theologian (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress
- 1929 – Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian actress
- 1930 – Carmen Sevilla, Spanish actress
- 1931 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and author (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Valery Klimov, Russian violinist
- 1931 – Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress
- 1931 – P. W. Underwood, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1932 – John Grant, English politician (d. 2000)
- 1932 – Henry Lewis, American bassist and conductor (d. 1996)
- 1932 – Lucien Paiement, Canadian doctor and politician (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Peter Ashdown, English race car driver
- 1936 – Peter Bowles, English actor
- 1936 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (d. 1994)
- 1936 – Akira Machida, Japanese judge
- 1938 – Nico, German singer-songwriter, model, and actress (d. 1988)
- 1938 – Carl Gunter, Jr., American politician (d. 1999)
- 1939 – Joe Dolan, Irish singer (d. 2007)
- 1940 – Barry Corbin, American actor
- 1940 – Dave DeBusschere, American basketball player (d. 2003)
- 1940 – Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and author (d. 2009)
- 1941 – Tim McCarver, American baseball player
- 1943 – Fred Turner, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player (Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Brave Belt)
- 1944 – Kaizer Motaung, South African footballer and manager
- 1945 – Paul Monette, American author and poet (d. 1995)
- 1946 – Suzanne Somers, American actress
- 1947 – Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
- 1947 – Bob Weir, American singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Grateful Dead, The Other Ones, Bobby and the Midnites, Kingfish, RatDog,Furthur, and The Dead)
- 1947 – David Zucker, American director
- 1948 – Hema Malini, Indian actress
- 1948 – Leo Mazzone, American baseball player and coach
- 1952 – Christopher Cox, American politician
- 1952 – Cordell Mosson, American bass player (Parliament-Funkadelic) (d. 2013)
- 1952 – Ron Taylor, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1953 – Tony Carey, American keyboard player (Rainbow, Planet P Project, and Over the Rainbow)
- 1953 – Paulo Roberto Falcão, Brazilian footballer
- 1953 – Fred Ridgeway, Irish actor (d. 2012)
- 1953 – Al Sobotka, American sports manager
- 1953 – Martha Smith, American actress and model
- 1954 – Lorenzo Carcaterra, American writer
- 1954 – Serafino Ghizzoni, Italian rugby player
- 1954 – Corinna Harfouch, German actress
- 1954 – Stephen Mellor, American actor
- 1955 – Ellen Dolan, American actress
- 1956 – John Chavis, American football player and coach
- 1956 – Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet (d. 1992)
- 1958 – Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Greek singer
- 1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1959 – Marc Collins-Rector, American businessman, founded Digital Entertainment Network
- 1959 – Brian Harper, American baseball player
- 1959 – Gary Kemp, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Spandau Ballet)
- 1959 – Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian composer
- 1960 – Bob Mould, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Hüsker Dü and Sugar)
- 1961 – Marc Levy, French author
- 1961 – Randy Vasquez, American actor
- 1962 – Flea, Australian-American bass player, songwriter, and actor (Red Hot Chili Peppers, What Is This?, Atoms for Peace, and Fear)
- 1962 – Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player (d. 2010)
- 1962 – Ken Chinn, Canadian singer-songwriter (SNFU and Slaveco.)
- 1962 – Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer
- 1962 – Nico Lazaridis, German footballer
- 1963 – Brendan Kibble, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Bam Balams, Navahodads, and Vampire Lovers)
- 1964 – Shawn Little, Canadian politician (d. 2012)
- 1965 – Steve Lamacq, English radio host
- 1965 – Kang Kyung-ok, South Korean author
- 1965 – Tom Tolbert, American basketball player
- 1967 – Michael Laffy, Australian rules footballer
- 1967 – Davina McCall, English television host
- 1968 – Randall Batinkoff, American actor
- 1968 – Mark Lee, Singaporean actor and director
- 1968 – Elsa Zylberstein, French actress
- 1969 – Roy Hargrove, American trumpet player
- 1969 – Danny Hesp, Dutch footballer
- 1969 – Takao Ōmori, Japanese wrestler
- 1969 – Terri J. Vaughn, American actress
- 1969 – Wendy Wilson, American singer (Wilson Phillips)
- 1970 – Kazuyuki Fujita, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
- 1970 – Mehmet Scholl, German footballer
- 1971 – Chad Gray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mudvayne and Hellyeah)
- 1972 – Adrianne Frost, American comedian, actress, and author
- 1972 – Darius Kasparaitis, Russian ice hockey player
- 1972 – Tomas Lindberg, Swedish singer-songwriter (At the Gates, Lock Up, Disfear, The Great Deceiver, Grotesque, The Crown,Skitsystem, and Liers in Wait)
- 1972 – Kordell Stewart, American football player
- 1973 – Justin Credible, American wrestler
- 1973 – María Eugenia Larraín, Chilean model
- 1973 – David Unsworth, English footballer
- 1974 – Aurela Gaçe, Albanian singer
- 1974 – Paul Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Mahmood Al Zarooni, Emirati horse rider and trainer
- 1975 – Ernesto Noel Aquino, Honduran footballer
- 1975 – Brynjar Gunnarsson, Icelandic footballer
- 1975 – Jacques Kallis, South African cricketer
- 1975 – Kellie Martin, American actress
- 1976 – Ryan Fitzgerald, Australian footballer
- 1977 – John Mayer, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (John Mayer Trio)
- 1978 – Ethan Luck, American guitarist and drummer (The O.C. Supertones, Demon Hunter, and Relient K)
- 1979 – Erin Brown, American actress
- 1980 – Sue Bird, American basketball player
- 1980 – Jeremy Jackson, American actor and singer
- 1980 – Timana Tahu, Australian rugby player
- 1981 – Ali B, Dutch rapper
- 1981 – Martin Halle, Danish footballer
- 1981 – Anthony Reyes, American baseball player
- 1981 – Caterina Scorsone, Canadian actress
- 1981 – Gregory Sedoc, Dutch hurdler
- 1982 – Pippa Black, Australian actress
- 1982 – Vincy Chan, Hong Kong singer
- 1982 – Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player
- 1982 – Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
- 1982 – Gareth McGrillen, Australian musician (Knife Party, Pendulum)
- 1982 – Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indian actor
- 1983 – Loreen, Swedish singer
- 1983 – Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player
- 1984 – Melissa Lauren, French porn actress
- 1984 – Rachel Reilly, American reality constant on Big Brother
- 1984 – Shayne Ward, English singer
- 1985 – Verena Sailer, German sprinter
- 1985 – Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer
- 1986 – Inna, Romanian singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1986 – Nicky Adams, Welsh footballer
- 1986 – Derk Boerrigter, Dutch footballer
- 1986 – Craig Pickering, English sprinter
- 1988 – Zoltán Stieber, Hungarian footballer
- 1990 – Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, Icelandic singer
- 1990 – Amina Satō, Japanese singer (AKB48)
- 1991 – John and Edward Grimes (twins), Irish singers
- 1992 – Viktorija Golubic, Swiss tennis player
- 1992 – Bryce Harper, American baseball player
- 2003 – Princess Kritika of Nepal
Deaths[edit]
- 1333 – Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)
- 1355 – Louis, King of Sicily (b. 1337)
- 1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
- 1555 – Hugh Latimer, English bishop (b. 1487)
- 1555 – Nicholas Ridley, English bishop (b. 1500)
- 1591 – Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
- 1594 – William Allen, English cardinal (b. 1532)
- 1621 – Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer (b. 1562)
- 1628 – François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)
- 1649 – Isaac van Ostade, Dutch painter (b. 1621)
- 1655 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (b. 1591)
- 1679 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, English soldier and politician (b. 1621)
- 1680 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian-Austrian general (b. 1609)
- 1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French-American explorer and politician, founded Detroit (b. 1658)
- 1750 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer and lutenist (b. 1687)
- 1755 – Gerard Majella, Italian saint (b. 1725)
- 1774 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (b. 1750)
- 1781 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English navy officer (b. 1705)
- 1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and statesman (b. 1739)
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette, Austrian wife of Louis XVI of France (b. 1755)
- 1793 – John Hunter, Scottish doctor and philosopher (b. 1728)
- 1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (b. 1726)
- 1810 – Nachman of Breslov, Ukrainian religious leader, founder of Breslov Hasidic movement (b. 1772)
- 1822 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian dancer (b. 1724)
- 1865 – Andrés Bello, Venezuelan poet, lawmaker, philosopher, and sociologist (b. 1781)
- 1877 – Théodore Barrière, French playwright (b. 1823)
- 1888 – John Wentworth, American politician, 21st Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
- 1908 – Joseph Leycester Lyne, English preacher (b. 1837)
- 1909 – Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Sorbian writer (b. 1856)
- 1913 – Ralph Rose, American track and field athlete (b. 1885)
- 1937 – Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
- 1946 – Nuremberg trial executions of the Main Trial:
- Hans Frank, German lawyer (b. 1900)
- Wilhelm Frick, German nazi official (b. 1877)
- Alfred Jodl, German military officer (b. 1890)
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)
- Wilhelm Keitel, German military officer (b. 1882)
- Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi ideologist (b. 1893)
- Fritz Sauckel, German politician (b. 1894)
- Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian lawyer and politician (b. 1892)
- Julius Streicher, German propagandist (b. 1887)
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician (b. 1893)
- 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (b 1895)
- 1952 – Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and poet (b. 1876)
- 1956 – Jules Rimet, French football administrator, 3rd President of FIFA (b. 1873)
- 1959 – Minor Hall, American drummer (b. 1897)
- 1959 – George Marshall, American military officer and politician, 50th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1880)
- 1962 – Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (b. 1884)
- 1964 – Patsy Callighen, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1906)
- 1966 – George O'Hara, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1968 – Ellis Kinder, American baseball player (b. 1914)
- 1971 – Robin Boyd, Australian architect (b. 1919)
- 1972 – Nick Begich, American politician (b. 1932)
- 1972 – Hale Boggs, American politician (b. 1914)
- 1972 – Leo G. Carroll, English actor (b. 1886)
- 1973 – Gene Krupa, American drummer and composer (b. 1909)
- 1974 – Chembai, Indian singer (b. 1895)
- 1975 – Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1885)
- 1978 – Dan Dailey, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1979 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
- 1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
- 1981 – Eugene Eisenmann, Panamanian-American ornithologist (b. 1906)
- 1982 – Mario Del Monaco, Italian tenor (b. 1915)
- 1983 – Kelso, American race horse (b. 1957)
- 1983 – Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (b. 1895)
- 1986 – Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist and pianist (b. 1921)
- 1989 – Walter Farley, American author (b. 1915)
- 1989 – Scott O'Dell, American author (b. 1898)
- 1989 – Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1990 – Art Blakey, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1919)
- 1990 – Jorge Bolet, Cuban-American pianist (b. 1914)
- 1991 – Ole Beich, Danish bass player (Guns n Roses and L.A. Guns) (b. 1955)
- 1992 – Shirley Booth, American actress (b. 1898)
- 1996 – Jason Bernard, American actor (b. 1938)
- 1996 – Eric Malpass, English author (b. 1910)
- 1997 – Audra Lindley, American actress (b. 1918)
- 1997 – James A. Michener, American author (b. 1907)
- 1998 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (b. 1943)
- 1999 – Jean Shepherd, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 2000 – Mel Carnahan, American politician, 51st Governor of Missouri (b. 1934)
- 2003 – Avni Arbaş, Turkish painter (b. 1919)
- 2003 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler (b. 1915)
- 2003 – László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
- 2004 – Pierre Salinger, American politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
- 2005 – Elmer Dresslar, Jr., American voice actor and singer (b. 1925)
- 2005 – Ursula Howells, English actress (b. 1922)
- 2005 – Eugene Gordon Lee, American actor (b. 1933)
- 2005 – David Reilly, American singer-songwriter (God Lives Underwater) (b. 1971)
- 2006 – Ross Davidson, Scottish actor (b. 1949)
- 2006 – Tommy Johnson, American tuba player (b. 1935)
- 2006 – John Murra, Ukrainian-American anthropologist (b. 1916)
- 2006 – Valentín Paniagua, Peruvian politician (b. 1936)
- 2006 – Lister Sinclair, Canadian broadcaster and playwright (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Toše Proeski, Macedonian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1981)
- 2007 – Barbara West, English survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (b. 1911)
- 2010 – Eyedea, American rapper and producer (Eyedea & Abilities and Face Candy) (b. 1981)
- 2010 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (b. 1915)
- 2011 – Dan Wheldon, English race car driver (b. 1978)
- 2012 – James Conte, American politician (b. 1959)
- 2012 – John A. Durkin, American politician (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Mario Gallegos, Jr., American politician (b. 1950)
- 2012 – Aleksandr Koshkyn, Russian boxer (b. 1959)
- 2012 – Bódog Török, Hungarian handball player and coach (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Eddie Yost, American baseball player and coach (b. 1926)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Air Force Day (Bulgaria)
- Boss's Day (United States and Canada)
- Ada Lovelace Day (International)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Day of Pope John Paul II (Poland)
- Death anniversary of Liaquat Ali Khan (Pakistan)
- Teachers' Day (Chile)
- World Food Day (International)
- World Anaesthesia Day (International)
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““How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.” 2 Samuel 7:22 NIV
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Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening
Morning
"But who may abide the day of his coming?"
Malachi 3:2
Malachi 3:2
His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing might. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their professions by rejecting him when he came. His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few enough could abide the process. But what will his second advent be? What sinner can endure to think of it? "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." When in his humiliation he did but say to the soldiers, "I am he," they fell backward; what will be the terror of his enemies when he shall more fully reveal himself as the "I am?" His death shook earth and darkened heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendour of that day in which as the living Saviour, he shall summon the quick and dead before him? O that the terrors of the Lord would persuade men to forsake their sins and kiss the Son lest he be angry! Though a lamb, he is yet the lion of the tribe of Judah, rending the prey in pieces; and though he breaks not the bruised reed, yet will he break his enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. None of his foes shall bear up before the tempest of his wrath, or hide themselves from the sweeping hail of his indignation; but his beloved blood washed people look for his appearing with joy, and hope to abide it without fear: to them he sits as a refiner even now, and when he has tried them they shall come forth as gold. Let us search ourselves this morning and make our calling and election sure, so that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark forebodings in our mind. O for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be found of him sincere and without rebuke in the day of his appearing.
Evening
"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck."
Exodus 34:20
Exodus 34:20
Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's, but since the ass was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits of no exceptions. The ass is his due, but he will not accept it; he will not abate the claim, but yet he cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but redemption--the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for thee. That unclean animal is thyself; thou art justly the property of the Lord who made thee and preserves thee, but thou art so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in thy stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know of thy gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee, and so redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the ass or the lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare? Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass is spared. My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom had been mine had not plenteous redemption been found! The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty, but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 45-46, 1 Thessalonians 3 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 45-46
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things....
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Thessalonians 3
1 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
Timothy’s Encouraging Report
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith....
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