He was very good at his work, and was a lovely charming person. The dysfunctional nature of my family is more closely related to my mother, and in some ways he would have had to have been a saint to not fail against her attention. He tried, but he made choices, and had integrity. A half sister of mine nominated him for father of the year, which he won. Tony Barber congratulated him on the birth of his first child while my brother was watching from home. But it is really hard to navigate two families in the public face. No one would have known he had a fractured family life. He was made CEO of the Victorian Board of Studies by Kennett, and did a great job, introducing mass testing of students by computer in a world first.
I posted a tribute to him, following his death. It became top on the google search list for him, so my family ordered me to take it down. I did, but reposted it too. I'm not the son he wanted. I'm not his only child. But he was my father.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Jack Tuan Nguyen, Andrew Ridgway, Pio Johann Pamintuan, Duc Vo and Michael Le born on the same day, across the years, as
- 1447 – Chenghua Emperor of China (d. 1487)
- 1508 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555)
- 1571 – Metius, Dutch mathematician and astronomer (d. 1635)
- 1608 – John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)
- 1787 – John Dobson, English architect, designed Eldon Square and Lilburn Tower (d. 1865)
- 1883 – Joseph Pilates, German physical culturist, developed Pilates (d. 1967)
- 1886 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (d. 1956)
- 1906 – Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (d. 1992)
- 1909 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (d. 2000)
- 1916 – Kirk Douglas, American actor
- 1917 – James Jesus Angleton, American CIA counterintelligence chief (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Judi Dench, English actress
- 1946 – Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician, President of the Indian National Congress
- 1950 – Joan Armatrading, Kittitian-English singer-songwriter
- 1953 – John Malkovich, American actor
- 1957 – Donny Osmond, American singer, actor, and television and radio personality (The Osmonds)
- 1963 – Masako, Crown Princess of Japan
- 1995 – McKayla Maroney, American gymnast
Matches
- 480 – Odoacer, first King of Italy, occupies Dalmatia. He later establishes his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate.
- 536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flee the capital.
- 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami.
- 1425 – The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.
- 1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
- 1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
- 1835 – Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio, Texas.
- 1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
- 1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
- 1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
- 1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is founded.
- 1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.
- 1897 – Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.
- 1935 – Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.
- 1946 – The "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" begin with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.
- 1950 – Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to theSoviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
- 1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
- 1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
- 1969 – U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.
- 2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.
Despatches
- 638 – Sergius I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
- 1641 – Anthony van Dyck, Belgian painter (b. 1599)
- 2009 – Samuel Ball (educator) (1935–2009), Australian educator
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Continue reading 'BLONDE JOURNALISM'
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Continue reading 'CHINS MUSIC'
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Continue reading 'HAIL THE WHISTLE-BLOWER'
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A WORD to the Left. Hasn’t this bastardry gone too far? What do you want: bodies in the street?
Three examples from the past week shocked me.
Example 1. The ABC’s main TV news bulletin in Brisbane last Thursday showed the exterior and street number of the home of Bill Mellor, a decorated former army brigadier, and gave out his suburb.
Mellor’s wife was in tears and police rushed in to secure the house.
The reason? As the ABC report pointed out, Mellor was co-ordinating the Queensland Government’s war against criminal bikie gangs linked to murder, rape, drug trafficking and extortion.
Why on earth did the ABC show bikies the home of the man overseeing the fight against them that has led to nearly 400 arrests? How could his home be relevant to its report?
There may be an innocent explanation involving extreme stupidity, but Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and others, me included, also suspect bias.
(Read full article here.)
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The next time some warmist spreads panic about a hot day in winter, remember this picture of Thredbo and the summer snow in Victoria:
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MUCH of the sanctimonious grieving for Nelson Mandela is not just a sin against history - but a danger.
It is true Mandela rose to greatness. Freed after 27 years in a South African jail, the anti-apartheid fighter emerged not bent on vengeance but healing.
He negotiated a peaceful end to apartheid, and as the first president of democratic South Africa, preached - and practised - reconciliation. In this he was great. A healer. An inspiration.
For many whites abroad, he seems even Christ-like - someone who’d suffered for the sins of white guilt, and absolved those who believed in him of the sin of racism.
But Mandela was no Christ nor even Gandhi nor Martin Luther King. He was for decades a man of violence.
(Read full article here.)
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Singapore's prime minister has pledged to prosecute individuals involved with an overnight riot in the city-state, which left at least 18 people injured. Lee Hsien Loong said the government would "spare no effort to identify the culprits" of the riot, described as Singapore's worst in more than 40 years. The incident followed the death of an Indian migrant worker. Read full story here:http://aje.me/18vzIYD
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Anthony Roberts
I am honoured to be the Minister for Resources and Energy, and Special Minister of State in the O'Farrell-Stoner Government.
Thank you to Premier O'Farrell for the opportunity to continue serving the people of our state as part of the NSW Liberal and Nationals team.
I look forward to getting on with the job in this portfolio, one that is crucial to the NSW community and economy.
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That said, dealing with the Greens...a long shower with lots of soap-scrubbing is required ASAP. Yikes.>
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Lol, they forgot to include the corrupt and incompetent former Australian PM Julia Gillard. I can understand why the car dealers use 'sex sells' but don't accept that the image they portray is subservient and not sexy. For me, sexy is an Emma Watson asserting herself on her own terms. Miley's recent work just seems sad. I feel it is wrong to attribute misogyny to Hillary's critics .. many of whom applaud Palin. But if you can't criticise a politician for their effort, and need to rely on their looks, as that KFC meme does, and as those Palin critics do, then you've lost. - ed
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Here are the 23 MOST ADORABLE puppies of 2013
⇁ http://bit.ly/1aJQgMm
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Aprille Love
Went to hospital. Got an Ecg to monitor my heart beat. Err did I flatline at one point?
Lol, my dad was hooked up after a heart attack. He was lying down, but quite healthy .. and with a humorous glint in his eye said "Watch this" and sat up .. - ed
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Happy ending .. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11169158
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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/false-outrage-distracts-from-fight-against-real-racism/story-fni0fhh1-1226778152581
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Two school friends, Ellise Hayes, 12 and Gemma Donnelley, 13, thought it was a ‘‘cool’’ idea.
‘‘It’s good. It saves petrol. If you’re home alone you can just order,’’ Ellise said.
‘‘It’s not unhealthy. If you’re fat you shouldn’t [eat it]. But if you’re skinny you should.’’>
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/the-fats-in-the-firing-line-as-mcdonalds-home-delivers-20131207-2yy6s.html#ixzz2mvc9hZ28
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funny .. but it ain't global warming - ed
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2503733/Paranoid-android-Cleaning-gadget-switches-moves-kitchen-hotplate-suicide-bid.html
"I know now why you cry. But it is something I cannot do" - ed
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4 her
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ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY - at rest with Ho Chi Minh ..
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This and that African Pastor I posted hit home for me today. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my father's death. He hurt me terribly when I was a child, and now I hear these words repeating endlessly "I am not worthy" "I am not love-able" .. but I find solace with the father of all.. ed .. Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin writes "Have you ever wondered what God thinks when he sees you?
God has a mind of his own which has not been influenced by the people who don’t like you, God’s thoughts about you are not influenced by how you think about yourself, nor has God’s thinking concerning you been prejudiced by how you may have messed up before you came to Christ or how you may have blown it this week?
When David considered the wonders of God’s creation he was amazed that God was mindful of men, women and children. David was astounded that God cared so much about men, women and children. The simple reason God thinks so much about you is because he loves you and because He loves you so much he is making a fantastic job of making you the best person you can possibly be.
Here are just few things that God reveals about what he thinks about you and why he thinks that way;
God made you, you are His workmanship - you are wonderfully made
Ps 139:13-14 ...For you created my inmost being.... I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
You are deeply loved Jer 31:3 The LORD...says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
You are not rejected Isa 41:9 “...I have chosen you and have not rejected you.”
You are precious in God’s sight Is 43:4 … you are precious and honoured in my sight, and …I love you
You are the ‘apple’ of God’s eye Zec 2:8 ...This is what the LORD Almighty says…whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye
You are forgiven Luke 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”You are God’s friend John 15:15 “.... I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” So in all,He loves you so much.God bless you."
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Timothy Ly
Too cool .. can't touch that ..ed===
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And the M.E. arms race begins.....http://www.foxnews.com/world/ 2013/12/07/ hagel-outlines-new-weapons-sale -plan-for-gulf-nations-to-prot ect-against-iran/ ?intcmp=obinsite
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May my name be declared upon them, and the names of my forefathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they proliferate abundantly like fish within the Land.
GENESIS (48:16)
וְיִקָּרֵא בָהֶם שְׁמִי וְשֵׁם אֲבֹתַי אַבְרָהָם וְיִצְחָק וְיִדְגּוּ לָרֹב בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ
בראשית מ’’ח:ט’’ז
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THANK YOU for all the birthday wishes!!! The best BIRTHDAY and CHRISTMAS gift you can give to me is to "LIKE" all three and please be PRO-ACTIVE on behalf of Israel:
LISTEN to the truth about the Jewish State on "Insight to Israel":
https://www.facebook.com/ InsighttoIsrael
SEND a message to the Israeli Defense Force that we proudly stand with them as they defend the Jewish State by participating in "Hershey's for Heroes":
https://www.facebook.com/ HersheysforHeroes
WEAR your support for the IDF this and posting your pics:
https://www.facebook.com/ PCSupportIDF
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Even then .. protecting Democrats at the expense of minorities. - ed
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Hey Everyone
Nice to meet you. I would like to introduce you to "LBNY Productions"- a New York City-based entertainment agency, producing music concerts of leading Israeli performers across the US.
This is Our Official FB page: www.facebook.com/ lbnyproductions
Please help us spread the word by Liking it & Sharing with your friends.
Thank you..
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Via Bat Zion Susskind-Sacks
Dear friends please share and forward this excellent letter . (Thank you for forwarding it, Nurit Greenger
The following open letter was sent last month by a British citizen named Mindy Wiesenberg to the U.K. foreign secretary, William Hague. Wiesenberg, a former teacher, has served as chairman of British Emunah, a charity raising funds for social welfare projects in Israel. She is currently on the charity’s executive council.
Dear Mr. Hague,
You have stated that if Israel tries to defend its population through a ground offensive in Gaza, “it risks losing the sympathy of the international community.”
Let me tell you something about the sympathy of the international community, Mr. Hague. My father was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, having lost his entire family, but gaining the sympathy of the international community at the time. After 6 million Jews had been annihilated at the hands of the Nazi regime, the international community had plenty of sympathy for the Jewish people. There is always plenty of sympathy for victims.
Israel doesn’t need the sympathy of the international community.
What it needs is to defend its citizens.
When, as a tiny country, it gained its independence in 1948, it had to absorb 800,000 Jews who were thrown out of Arab lands in the Middle East. It did so without fuss and with dignity, giving them shelter and a place of security in which their children could grow up to become productive citizens.
When Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria tried to destroy Israel in 1948 and again in 1967, they took in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs.
But did they give them dignity or shelter? No, they left them to rot in refugee camps to maintain a symbol of grievance against Israel and use them as a political tool against the Jewish State. What has arisen in those camps is a complicated situation, but it is what has led to Gaza today.
So don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy, Mr. Hague.
Not when Israel has just sent 120 truckloads of food into Gaza to feed the Palestinian people there, because their own leadership is more interested in using its population as human shields, launching rockets against Israel from within major civilian centers.
Don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy, Mr. Hague.
Not when Israel targets, with as much military precision as it can, only terrorists and their bases, trying its utmost to prevent civilian casualties.
Don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy, Mr. Hague.
Not when the Palestinian media deliberately use images of victims of the Syrian civil war and presents them as casualties in Gaza to gain international sympathy.
Go read your history books, Mr. Hague, go see that since the beginning of the 20th century all the Arabs wanted to do was destroy Israel. Go look at the country of Israel now since the Jews have established a state there. Go read what advances in science, medicine, biotechnology, agriculture and high tech Israel has developed, and dedicated that knowledge to making the world a better place for humanity.
Can you imagine any other country that after over 60 years of continuously being under attack could have achieved so much?
So Mr. Hague, don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy.
Israel will do whatever it takes to defend itself from outright attack on its citizens, whether it be from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran or any other country or terrorist group that attacks it.
And if it loses the sympathy of the international community, so be it. We don’t need the international community’s sympathy. We don’t need another 6 million victims.
Yours sincerely,
Mindy Wiesenberg
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FAIR SHAKE
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (1:30pm)
A bus driver had been awarded $400,000 for tomato sauce trauma.
TEST PASSED
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (1:28pm)
My claim:
Those who refer to Nelson Mandela by his clan name of Madiba are fantastic poseurs.
Imre Salusinszky’s response:
The test of that, my friend, will be Fitzsimons’s column tomorrow ...
Indeed. Here we go:
My most compelling memory of Nelson Mandela was when, attending the opening ceremony of the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, the great man came out on to the field. As one, 50,000 white South Africans got to their feet and cheered him, punching their fists into the air, and roaring ‘’Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!’’ All this, just a few kilometres from Robben Island, where he had been imprisoned for 18 of the 27 years he spent behind bars until his release in 1990. The atmosphere was electric, just as it was four weeks later when Mandela came out on to the field for the Springboks v All Blacks final, wearing the No.6 jersey of the Springboks captain, Francois Pienaar … and the people roared once more. Invictus did not get close to capturing the magnificence of the moment. No book could capture the greatness of the man. Vale, Madiba.
It took a while, but the master eventually got there.
BLONDE JOURNALISM
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (5:38am)
Shock! Paris Hilton isn’t the stupidest person on Twitter.
Far from it, in fact. But the popular hotel heiress and amateur video enthusiast does have a certain reputation, so Hilton was an easy target for mockery in the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death last week.
Someone quickly composed a fake tweet in Hilton’s name. “RIP Nelson Mandela,” it read. “Your ‘I Have A Dream’ speech was so inspiring. An amazing man.”
Ha ha ha. Poor dumb Paris. Why, she’d be exactly the type to confuse the former South African president with Martin Luther King Jr! Everyone had a good laugh at the silly blonde before getting all serious about the political implications of Mandela’s death.
And that’s when the real idiots stepped forward.
Continue reading 'BLONDE JOURNALISM'
NAMELESS AND SHAMELESS
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (4:52am)
Back in August, Fairfax’s Jonathan Swan revealed an astonishing story of Labor infighting. Swan cited “multiple sources” from the Prime Minister’s office and among Kevin Rudd’s campaign team, some of whom offered these devastating – but anonymous – quotes:
“The majority of people in HQ actually hate Rudd.”“I don’t want us to win under Rudd.”
Swan, however, only revealed this story on Twitter. Despite having government sources who declared that they wanted Labor to lose, no such story ever appeared in the Fairfax press. Swan’s explanation:
Swan told The Australian he did not report the story elsewhere because “they were unnamed sourcesand that didn’t seem like stringent journalism to me”.
Let’s see how that journalistic stringency is holding up under the new government. On the weekend, Swan contributed to a Fairfax piece slamming Peta Credlin, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff. Check the primary sources for this story:
… anonymous briefings to journalists …… anonymous attacks through the media …… cabinet sources …… one source who witnessed the exchange …
Not a lot of names there. How did this meet Fairfax’s (and Swan’s) standards for “stringent journalism”?
UPDATE. Jonathan Swan calls to point out that his only contribution to this multi-bylined piece were the quotes from Senator Mathias Cormann, who obviously was named – responding to anonymous quotes. Fairfax, however, remains on the hook.
HANG IN THERE, HONEY
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (4:02am)
Only $39,997.99 for a TV? Sign me up for two! (Scroll down to customer reviews for the story of Amanda, her TV-buying parents, and white slavery.)
(Via Irobot)
HELEN WHEELS
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (3:50am)
CHINS MUSIC
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (3:09am)
Wandering around Liverpool in the UK a few months ago, I encountered a fellow who wore his hatred of Australia with pride. The lardy lad was clad in a t-shirt bearing the hand-written words: “He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right, that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is shite.”
It would be interesting to find out if this chap has recently updated his wardrobe.
Continue reading 'CHINS MUSIC'
HAIL THE WHISTLE-BLOWER
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (2:32am)
For many years, a helpful spy deep within the ABC has kept me up to date with the beloved billion-dollar broadcaster’s internal communications.
Earlier in 2013, for example, Marieke – er, I mean, my completely anonymous ABC source, ahem – forwarded an internal email sent to ABC staff from the organisation’s NSW news editor Donald Lange. He was upset about the ABC’s inability to correctly pronounce a certain difficult word.
Continue reading 'HAIL THE WHISTLE-BLOWER'
MASSIVE
Tim Blair – Sunday, December 08, 2013 (6:44pm)
Catherine Deveny reports on a gigantic feminist cycling rally:
The glorious Clementine Ford addresses the massive and final PushyWomen ride for 2013.
Is offering money to an MP’s lawyers - on condition - an offence?
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (10:41am)
This needs some investigation:
===LABOR senator Sam Dastyari has avoided a potentially awkward court battle by settling a claim from Craig Thomson’s lawyer Chris McArdle alleging that he reneged on a promise to pay the then independent MP’s legal fees.How much of members’ money has Labor now donated to Craig Thomson to fight charges relating to what he did with his expenses as a union boss? Do such payments - as alleged - amount to an inducement of a member of parliament, and, if so, should police investigate?
Mr McArdle told The Australian the civil case was settled on mutually satisfactory terms, which under the deal are confidential.
Senator Dastyari has repeatedly denied Mr McArdle’s claims that in a meeting at the lawyer’s office, the then NSW ALP general secretary had promised to find $35,000 to help pay Mr Thomson’s mounting legal debts in his fight against union corruption allegations.
The settlement late last week came a day before Mr Thomson was due to file a sworn statement to the court which, Mr McArdle earlier told The Australian, would claim Senator Dastyari had promised to cover the former Labor member of parliament’s legal fees if he agreed to move quietly to the backbench.
We should not spend a dollar on failing companies with featherbed wages
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (10:23am)
Paul Sheehan:
===At Qantas, two years ago, several unions led staff through months of rolling industrial action, guerilla tactics and disruptions of service, accompanied by vituperative class warfare by union officials. It was designed to bring management to its knees unless unions got the pay rises and job security they were demanding…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Qantas bought short-term peace but the price was long-term decline. It has an unsustainable cost base. Now shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has declared that Qantas is too important to fail and urged the government to consider making a direct equity injection.
This is classic Labor: subsidise the unions, rather than restructure the company, and pass on the cost to taxpayers…
Holden management also warrants a bucketing. As noted in February last year: ‘’Over the past seven years [the GM Holden collective bargaining agreement] has delivered a cumulative wage increase of 29 per cent, an average of more than 4 per cent per year - a real increase over inflation.’’…
It raises the question: why are Australian taxpayers being asked to make sacrifices, via subsidising higher costs, that the local auto-makers and their staff have not themselves been willing to make?’’
Flannery should explain past dud predictions before whipping up fresh scares
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (9:39am)
Professional alarmist Tim Flannery whips up more fear by exploiting bushfires which he falsely claims were “unusual” and “unprecedented”:
What’s more, Flannery claims the NSW fires were the product of unusual heat and dryness:
In fact, the world hasn’t warmed for 15 years, the fires followed years of good rains which built up fuel load and - incidentally - Warragamba is at 92.6 per cent capacity.
Why do Fairfax newspapers still treat Flannery seriously? Why no fact-checking of his claims?
Here’s a suggestion. Why not ask Flannery for an article explaining this prediction of his from 2008, just brought to my attention by reader Richard:
===In October, huge bushfires devastated communities, property and livelihoods in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Tragically, two lives were lost. As the Climate Council’s first major report makes clear, our changing climate is increasing the chances of similar events in future.As I’ve shown several times already, even the 2009 Black Saturday fires were far from our biggest recorded - in 1851. NSW has had several severe October fires that were bigger and deadlier than this year’s.
Yes, bushfires are part of the Australian experience, but large and severe bushfires in October are unusual…
The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria were also preceded by extreme fire danger conditions: a decade-long drought and a number of record hot years, all compounded by a heatwave in the week prior. The ferocity of these fires was unprecedented, and so severe were they that they broke the record for the Forest Fire Danger Index, and a new category - ‘’catastrophic’’ or ‘’code red’’ - was added.
What’s more, Flannery claims the NSW fires were the product of unusual heat and dryness:
Hot, dry conditions create conditions favourable for bushfires. Australia has just experienced its hottest 12 months ever recorded.And, of course, that’s the kind of global warming Flannery was warning of in 2005:
I’M afraid that the science around climate change is firming up fairly quickly . . . we’ve seen just drought, drought, drought, and particularly regions like Sydney and the Warragamba catchment—if you look at the Warragamba catchment figures, since 98 the water has been in virtual freefall, and they’ve got about two years of supply left . . .
Maxine McKew: But. . . we won’t see a return to more normal patterns?
Flannery: . . . they do seem to be of a permanent nature.
In fact, the world hasn’t warmed for 15 years, the fires followed years of good rains which built up fuel load and - incidentally - Warragamba is at 92.6 per cent capacity.
Why do Fairfax newspapers still treat Flannery seriously? Why no fact-checking of his claims?
Here’s a suggestion. Why not ask Flannery for an article explaining this prediction of his from 2008, just brought to my attention by reader Richard:
Just imagine yourself in a world five years from now, when there is no more ice over the Arctic, when we stand under threat of a rapidly warming Arctic Ocean, when we’re starting to see the first destabilisation of the Greenland ice cap, and all of those things happening because we don’t have a solution, because if things advance that rapidly we simply will not have a solution, in terms of reducing emissions. Then you’ve got to start pulling in your last-ditch efforts.Arctic ice cover five years later:
Not a croc story
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (9:20am)
Rachel Hancock is the first woman to edit the NT News,
a paper I used to sell as a boy. People wondered: how would the paper’s
culture change? Would Hancock make it less blokey and less obsessed
with stories of crocodiles?
The answer is yes. Here is the new feminised NT News, full of compelling reading with not a croc in sight:
(Via Andrew Landeryou, a sad loss to blogging.)
===The answer is yes. Here is the new feminised NT News, full of compelling reading with not a croc in sight:
Love it.
(Via Andrew Landeryou, a sad loss to blogging.)
The Left’s hatred risks turning lethal
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (9:18am)
A WORD to the Left. Hasn’t this bastardry gone too far? What do you want: bodies in the street?
Three examples from the past week shocked me.
Example 1. The ABC’s main TV news bulletin in Brisbane last Thursday showed the exterior and street number of the home of Bill Mellor, a decorated former army brigadier, and gave out his suburb.
Mellor’s wife was in tears and police rushed in to secure the house.
The reason? As the ABC report pointed out, Mellor was co-ordinating the Queensland Government’s war against criminal bikie gangs linked to murder, rape, drug trafficking and extortion.
Why on earth did the ABC show bikies the home of the man overseeing the fight against them that has led to nearly 400 arrests? How could his home be relevant to its report?
There may be an innocent explanation involving extreme stupidity, but Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and others, me included, also suspect bias.
(Read full article here.)
Would you create a $1.2 billion-a-year ABC today?
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (9:14am)
Boy On A Bike asks for help:
===If we lived in a world where the ABC did not exist in 2013 (ie, it had never been created), what reasons could be given for creating an ABC in 2014?(Thanks to reader Gab, who is stumped.)
Go ahead, give it your best shot. If Turnbull was asking for $1 billion to create this entity, what arguments would he be making in public for the annual expenditure of this money?
I’ve got my thinking cap on……..can’t think of anything so far. Help me out here.
But a hot day in June is called global warming
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (9:08am)
The next time some warmist spreads panic about a hot day in winter, remember this picture of Thredbo and the summer snow in Victoria:
Snow falling. In Australia. In summer. That is all(Thanks to reader Viperous.)
Column - Mandela’s greatness does not excuse his backing of tyrants and terrorists
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (8:26am)
MUCH of the sanctimonious grieving for Nelson Mandela is not just a sin against history - but a danger.
It is true Mandela rose to greatness. Freed after 27 years in a South African jail, the anti-apartheid fighter emerged not bent on vengeance but healing.
He negotiated a peaceful end to apartheid, and as the first president of democratic South Africa, preached - and practised - reconciliation. In this he was great. A healer. An inspiration.
For many whites abroad, he seems even Christ-like - someone who’d suffered for the sins of white guilt, and absolved those who believed in him of the sin of racism.
But Mandela was no Christ nor even Gandhi nor Martin Luther King. He was for decades a man of violence.
(Read full article here.)
If Holden doesn’t want the handout, the handout wouldn’t save it
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (7:48am)
The money might or might not be too much. But why won’t Holden say if it actually wants it?
===The Abbott government has confidential documents that show it would cost less than $150 million extra a year to keep Holden in Australia until 2025, says former industry minister Kim Carr…If Holden is pulling out anyway, then Carr’s claim that “just” $150 million more a year would save it is plainly false.
The claim comes as a dominant group of Coalition ministers says the government can do nothing to keep Holden in Australia, because the company has made up its mind and “doesn’t want to be saved"…
A spokesman said Holden would not “engage in speculation” and refused to say whether it had already decided to leave Australia.
An offer too good to refuse
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (7:44am)
Win win:
===Mr Bakr was one of at least 20 men whose passports have been cancelled by ASIO on the grounds they were prepared to engage in politically motivated violence or had a ‘’jihadist mentality’’…
Wissam Haddad, a spokesman for the 20 men, said he knew of at least 45 Sydney Muslims who have had their passports cancelled or bank accounts frozen, often without warning or the ability to provide evidence in their defence.
Mr Haddad said the men were so incensed that, if they could, they would leave the country and not return.
‘’...These people are willing to hand in their citizenship and not return if they’re not welcome here.’’
Defenders of laws against offending people shouldn’t be so offensive. Note well, Mark Leibler
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (7:22am)
Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz says those of us wanting to scrap section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 are dishonest:
And again: I believe Jewish community leaders now leading the charge to defend the RDA have seriously misread the lessons of their community’s tragic history. The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, for whom Meyerowitz-Katz speaks, is profoundly wrong about this and is now publicly insulting people it privately supports.
AIJAC chairman Mark Leibler is causing more harm than he realises by sanctioning this vilification of people whose free speech his community and organisation has relied upon. Mark, making me collateral damage in your campaign is something I cannot forgive.
===If people genuinely think it should be legal for Australians to harass others on the basis of race, then they are welcome to make that argument. What’s troubling about the anti-18C campaign is its dishonesty…Samuel J rebuts Meyerowitz-Katz’s outrageous smear:
But then, being honest about 18C makes it harder to spin the provision as a threat to free speech, and nobody wants to openly defend racial harassment. Do they?
It suggests that those who oppose section 18C are automatically supporters of racial abuse. That is a type of false dilemma.I made a similar argument last week:
I support absolute freedom of speech, which is presently best expressed in the United States under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. But I do not support racial abuse.
Meyerowith-Katz cannot comprehend the difference. For him, the State should regulate our conduct and our behaviour. Only someone with a blinker could argue..
Au contraire. Racial abuse of the type covered by section 18C is the province of good manners.
Diversity Council of Australia CEO Nareen Young ... tries to scare gays and lesbians into believing the Abbott Government’s planned repeal of parts of the Racial Discrimination Act will unleash a torrent of abuse - and against them, too:The latest line of defence of the RDA is offensive, false and, I suspect, not honest. It is an argument by vilification - reductio ad villainum - which is curious from people claiming we need laws to stop insults.
If the RDA is amended to remove section 18C that makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people because of their race, does that mean that words like ‘wog’, ‘gook’, ‘slope’, ‘kike’ or ‘coon’ become acceptable in the course of the working day or night? What next? Will equivalent sections of the Sex Discrimination Act be repealed so that describing a co-worker as a ‘slut’, ‘hag‘, ‘silly cow‘ or ‘bitch’ is not deemed to be offensive?This is almost as obscene as it is absurd.
It is pretty clear where this could be heading for the LGBTI community.... I mean, really, if ‘Abo’, ‘coon’, ‘dago’ or ‘slope’ are ok, the inevitable question from some quarters will be why are ‘the gays’ being so sensitive?
No one I know who supports these reforms thinks the insults Young lists are “acceptable”, “OK” or not offensive. What is offensive is the suggestion that this argument about the RDA is about making such insults “OK”. On the contrary, they were not socially acceptable before the law was passed and will not be after.
The truth is that there are many things more powerful - yet more democratic and less chafing - than the law to enforce good manners and I expect they to remain powerful. These are the social sanctions that are present in every healthy community.
And again: I believe Jewish community leaders now leading the charge to defend the RDA have seriously misread the lessons of their community’s tragic history. The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, for whom Meyerowitz-Katz speaks, is profoundly wrong about this and is now publicly insulting people it privately supports.
AIJAC chairman Mark Leibler is causing more harm than he realises by sanctioning this vilification of people whose free speech his community and organisation has relied upon. Mark, making me collateral damage in your campaign is something I cannot forgive.
Hilton too good for Mike
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (6:55am)
Mike Carlton makes Paris Hilton seem a genius.
And isn’t Mandela a hero for wanting reconciliation? Then why do some of his professed admirers use his name to vilify others?
===And isn’t Mandela a hero for wanting reconciliation? Then why do some of his professed admirers use his name to vilify others?
It’s not the principle but the side with The Age
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (6:46am)
Fairfax reporter Jonathan Swan doesn’t report stories from “unnamed sources” because that’s not “stringent journalism”. But when unnamed sources smear a Liberal instead...
UPDATE
In fairness, the piece smearing Peta Credlin on the say-so of “sources” did not originally carry Swan’s byline but that of two other Age reporters. Swan tweets that he contributed only a sourced quote some time later, so he’s off the hook for hypocrisy.
===UPDATE
In fairness, the piece smearing Peta Credlin on the say-so of “sources” did not originally carry Swan’s byline but that of two other Age reporters. Swan tweets that he contributed only a sourced quote some time later, so he’s off the hook for hypocrisy.
Conroy Awards
Andrew Bolt December 09 2013 (6:34am)
Neck Leys hands out the Conroy Media Awards for 2013 for leakers, whingers, main chancers and a man with a glass jaw who had the hide to sool a lawyer onto me, too.
===If Hanson-Young has a case, Chris Kenny sure does
Andrew BoltDECEMBER092013(4:33pm)
The ABC said it was perfectly entitled to televise a doctored picture of a conservative critic having sex with a dog, under the banner “Chris Kenny, dog f...er”.
But a judge has ruled it’s probably off merely to photoshop the face of a Greens MP onto the body of a bikini model:
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has won a preliminary fight in her defamation battle with men’s magazine Zoo Weekly, which published a picture of her head photoshopped on to a bikini model’s body…
In a decision that paves the way for the matter to proceed to a jury trial next year, NSW Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum ... said all four of the defamatory imputations claimed by the senator “were capable of being made out"…
“To say of a politician that he or she is not serious does specify [defamatory] imputation of that politician which is capable of being considered to arise.”
Justice McCallum also said that the publication was “reasonably capable of conveying that, by reason of her pro asylum seeker stance, the plaintiff was justifiably exposed to ridicule”.
I’m actually amazed that Hanson-Young has shown herself to be so censorious, and worried that a judge has given her such comfort. There should be nothing wrong in claiming Hanson-Young is ridiculous and and not serious. In fact, I believe she is as irresponsible and self-regarding as a child.
But the judgment at least sets up a direct comparison on how judges treat a Greens MP and a conservative who have both been mocked by photoshopped images. Although I must say that having your head photoshopped onto a bikini model’s body is infinitely less offensive than being shown sodomising a dog.
If I were the ABC, I’d start preparing an exit strategy.
Christian Porter gives maiden a speech. Well, a married woman
Andrew BoltDECEMBER092013(4:25pm)
Christian Porter, the former WA Treasurer, is one of the federal Liberals’ finest recruits in the last election. He should have now sewn up the women’s vote with this tribute to his wife in his maiden speech in Parliament today:
I am perhaps a bit slow to give my wife public compliments. But as Ray Charles said, ‘wake up boy, because a girl like that aint going to wait all night.’ So here is my compliment to my wife…
Jennifer, if I were told that it were within in my power to go back to the 1970s to watch Dennis Lillee bowl again at the WACA, that I could take all my friends, that Sir Isaiah Berlin and Han Solo would be special guests and James Reyne would do an acoustic set during the lunch break, but the one catch was that you couldn’t attend with me, then I wouldn’t bother.
AWU scandal: magistrate rules Slater & Gordon documents were arguably part of a fraud
Andrew BoltDECEMBER092013(4:08pm)
This scandal was nearly buried - not least by Julia Gillard and her media supporters:
Magistrate Peter Lauritsen today ruled that lead investigator Ross Mitchell could access 363 documents, seized by a warrant from law firm Slater & Gordon, over which former AWU boss Bruce Wilson claimed privilege…
Mr Wilson is being investigated amid allegations he used the AWU Workplace Reform Association to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from construction giant Thiess and to purchase a house in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.
Mr Wilson was in a long-term relationship with Julia Gillard when she provided legal advice to help to help establish the association while working at Slater & Gordon, later describing it to her employer as a “slush fund’’.
In his ruling, Mr Lauritsen said ... “The evidence of Blewitt establishes that Thiess was deceived… It believed it was paying for a particular service. The association provided no such service.
“Wilson bought a home with some of Thiess’ payments. Only he knows what happened (to) the rest."…Money was withdrawn from the fund to purchase the Fitzroy house in Mr Blewitt’s name at a 1993 auction, which Ms Gillard attended with Mr Wilson, who subsequently lived in the property.Slater & Gordon handled the conveyancing and helped provide finance…Ms Gillard has denied wrongdoing and said she had no knowledge of the fund’s operations other than it was a “slush fund’’ for the re-election of union officials.
Mr Wilson has not been charged with any offence and has similarly denied any wrongdoing.
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Matt Granz
People sometimes make me pause and wonder.
It snowed in Yosemite and my friend Darvin Atkeson went there to document and make some fine art out of what he saw.
His report included that while shooting he heard the sound of stomping feet and witnessed two photographers trashing an area where there had been pristine snow. One said to the other "there, that will keep anyone else from getting this shot!" To which my reply is... Really??? Talk about juvenile, and not respecting nature! I'm glad I wasn't there.... I might have done something equally stupid, such as calling them out very loudly.
Like I said... People sometimes realy cause me to wonder....
===It snowed in Yosemite and my friend Darvin Atkeson went there to document and make some fine art out of what he saw.
His report included that while shooting he heard the sound of stomping feet and witnessed two photographers trashing an area where there had been pristine snow. One said to the other "there, that will keep anyone else from getting this shot!" To which my reply is... Really??? Talk about juvenile, and not respecting nature! I'm glad I wasn't there.... I might have done something equally stupid, such as calling them out very loudly.
Like I said... People sometimes realy cause me to wonder....
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Anthony Roberts
I am honoured to be the Minister for Resources and Energy, and Special Minister of State in the O'Farrell-Stoner Government.
Thank you to Premier O'Farrell for the opportunity to continue serving the people of our state as part of the NSW Liberal and Nationals team.
I look forward to getting on with the job in this portfolio, one that is crucial to the NSW community and economy.
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/magistrate-says-slater-gordon-documents-were-part-of-awu-fraud/story-fng5kxvh-1226778847865
===That said, dealing with the Greens...a long shower with lots of soap-scrubbing is required ASAP. Yikes.>
www.canberratimes.com.au
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senate-approves-scrapping-of-debt-ceiling-20131209-2z0n9.html===
Lol, they forgot to include the corrupt and incompetent former Australian PM Julia Gillard. I can understand why the car dealers use 'sex sells' but don't accept that the image they portray is subservient and not sexy. For me, sexy is an Emma Watson asserting herself on her own terms. Miley's recent work just seems sad. I feel it is wrong to attribute misogyny to Hillary's critics .. many of whom applaud Palin. But if you can't criticise a politician for their effort, and need to rely on their looks, as that KFC meme does, and as those Palin critics do, then you've lost. - ed
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David Bowles
<Another compelling article on the dire need for culturally relevant and diverse children's literature.>
mediadiversified.org
Aye, books movies, political positions .. I celebrate cultural diversity. But I despise the bean counting cultural imperialists who would have one believe that rich diversity be balanced with nuanced difference. Let there be those stories where race makes no difference .. it is challenging precisely because the rules of story telling suggest an issue raised should be resolved. - ed===Here are the 23 MOST ADORABLE puppies of 2013
⇁ http://bit.ly/1aJQgMm
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Aprille Love
Went to hospital. Got an Ecg to monitor my heart beat. Err did I flatline at one point?
Lol, my dad was hooked up after a heart attack. He was lying down, but quite healthy .. and with a humorous glint in his eye said "Watch this" and sat up .. - ed
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www.dailylife.com.au
http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/stop-rewarding-romantic-stalker-behaviour-online-20131208-2yz5e.htmlHappy ending .. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11169158
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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/false-outrage-distracts-from-fight-against-real-racism/story-fni0fhh1-1226778152581
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Two school friends, Ellise Hayes, 12 and Gemma Donnelley, 13, thought it was a ‘‘cool’’ idea.
‘‘It’s good. It saves petrol. If you’re home alone you can just order,’’ Ellise said.
‘‘It’s not unhealthy. If you’re fat you shouldn’t [eat it]. But if you’re skinny you should.’’>
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/the-fats-in-the-firing-line-as-mcdonalds-home-delivers-20131207-2yy6s.html#ixzz2mvc9hZ28
Daniel Bufkin
There were 2 Trees in the Garden Of Eden.... The Tree Of Life... and The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good and Evil.... Notice that the wrong tree involves "knowledge" of this world and those things that are considered to be Good and/or Evil.... Knowledge... Learning Of The Mind.... The Feeling Of Needing To "Understand" Is Usually Rooted In Unbelief and Doubt and Especially Fear.... Trying to "understand" is our source of Security instead of God's Love and Faithfulness being our Security.... We Falsely Think That "Controlling Everything and Everybody Around Us Will Bring Security and Happiness"..... But It Never Does..!!! The Right Tree To Eat From Is The Tree Of God's Life.... The Tree Of Life.... Partaking Of "The Life Of God' and Resting In God's Faithfulness and Love.... Learning Spiritual Truth instead of Head Knowledge.... Growing In Spiritual Strength instead of Mental Strength... Learning To ""Walk By Faith and Not By Sight""..!!!
Careful, brother. I want to encourage you, but I most point out that it isn't humble to stand before the Lord and say "I did not eat of that fruit." Instead, we have been blessed through grace. We have *some* knowledge, but not all of it. And we are to use it too, not bury it. My father knows my heart. I might see the devil, but I will hold fast to my father, the Lord. - ed
funny .. but it ain't global warming - ed
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2503733/Paranoid-android-Cleaning-gadget-switches-moves-kitchen-hotplate-suicide-bid.html
"I know now why you cry. But it is something I cannot do" - ed
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4 her
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ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY - at rest with Ho Chi Minh ..
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This and that African Pastor I posted hit home for me today. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my father's death. He hurt me terribly when I was a child, and now I hear these words repeating endlessly "I am not worthy" "I am not love-able" .. but I find solace with the father of all.. ed .. Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin writes "Have you ever wondered what God thinks when he sees you?
God has a mind of his own which has not been influenced by the people who don’t like you, God’s thoughts about you are not influenced by how you think about yourself, nor has God’s thinking concerning you been prejudiced by how you may have messed up before you came to Christ or how you may have blown it this week?
When David considered the wonders of God’s creation he was amazed that God was mindful of men, women and children. David was astounded that God cared so much about men, women and children. The simple reason God thinks so much about you is because he loves you and because He loves you so much he is making a fantastic job of making you the best person you can possibly be.
Here are just few things that God reveals about what he thinks about you and why he thinks that way;
God made you, you are His workmanship - you are wonderfully made
Ps 139:13-14 ...For you created my inmost being.... I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
You are deeply loved Jer 31:3 The LORD...says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
You are not rejected Isa 41:9 “...I have chosen you and have not rejected you.”
You are precious in God’s sight Is 43:4 … you are precious and honoured in my sight, and …I love you
You are the ‘apple’ of God’s eye Zec 2:8 ...This is what the LORD Almighty says…whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye
You are forgiven Luke 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”You are God’s friend John 15:15 “.... I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” So in all,He loves you so much.God bless you."
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Timothy Ly
Too cool .. can't touch that ..ed===
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
PRAY ALONG.
Father,I thank You for the work You are doing in my life. Help me to keep the vision in front of me. Show me where to place my focus. Confirm Your Word with signs following as I stay on the course You have set for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Father,I thank You for the work You are doing in my life. Help me to keep the vision in front of me. Show me where to place my focus. Confirm Your Word with signs following as I stay on the course You have set for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ (Zechariah 4:7, NKJV)
when Zerubabbel wanted to rebuild the temple, he laid the foundation, but people came against him and forced him to stop. For ten years, no work could be done. Zachariah, the prophet, came by and told him to do something interesting. He said, “Go get the capstone.” The capstone was the stone that was reserved as the final piece of stone for the building. It was symbolic. It represent the finished product.
Why was it important that he keep the capstone in front of him? Because every time he looked at it, it would remind him that God would finish what he started. When Zerubabbel was tempted to get tired and discouraged, he would go look at that capstone. That was God saying to him, “I’m still on the throne. I’m going to do what I promised. Just stay in faith.” Do you have your capstone in front of you? Do you have something that represents the final piece to your dreams? Keep that vision in front of you. Keep focused on where you are headed. Get the capstone and thank God for His faithfulness to complete the work in you.He will see you through.God bless you.
when Zerubabbel wanted to rebuild the temple, he laid the foundation, but people came against him and forced him to stop. For ten years, no work could be done. Zachariah, the prophet, came by and told him to do something interesting. He said, “Go get the capstone.” The capstone was the stone that was reserved as the final piece of stone for the building. It was symbolic. It represent the finished product.
Why was it important that he keep the capstone in front of him? Because every time he looked at it, it would remind him that God would finish what he started. When Zerubabbel was tempted to get tired and discouraged, he would go look at that capstone. That was God saying to him, “I’m still on the throne. I’m going to do what I promised. Just stay in faith.” Do you have your capstone in front of you? Do you have something that represents the final piece to your dreams? Keep that vision in front of you. Keep focused on where you are headed. Get the capstone and thank God for His faithfulness to complete the work in you.He will see you through.God bless you.
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You Will Crossover!
Are you at a crossroad of your life where you know what God wants you to do or are you afraid to obey His command? Is God asking you to make a decision yet you are wavering? Or, you already decided and you are excited to take a step of faith. If you are, then I believe this message is for you.Let us open our Bibles to Joshua chapters 3 and 4. We will glean our lessons from their miraculous crossing through the Jordan River.Joshua and the nation of Israel were poised to attack the Promised Land. They waited for this moment for 40 years already. For three days, they were camped near the edge of the Jordan River. Their leaders gave them specific instructions to wait for the Ark of Covenant before moving out. Then, Joshua ordered them: “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” This brings me to our first point: CONSECRATE yourselves.
God commanded Moses, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal.” Note the words “Consecrate” and “belongs to me”. There are times we ask God what His will is, like the choice of a mate or career. But He doesn’t answer our prayers because we have no intention of obeying it. If we like His will, if it is to our advantage, we might obey. But if we don’t like it, if we feel it’s hard, we won’t follow. Even before we ask for His will, let us commit ourselves to obey.
There are times we can’t obey His will because we have some sin issues. We want to obey but we are not prepared to obey. Is there a sin or a relationship that we need to deal with so we can be ready to obey the Lord? For the Lord is looking for a clean vessel, not a golden one. 2 Timothy 2:21-22 says, “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace.” So, let us cleanse ourselves from sin and commit ourselves to obey so we can take the step of faith.Joshua commanded the people to wait for the Ark of the Covenant because, “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.” The Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of the Lord Himself. Moses prayed to the Lord, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send.Now, the priests were standing at the edge of the raging, overflowing river. About 900 meters away, about 2 million Israelites were watching as they wait on what would happen next.
Seriously, at that moment, they decided by faith to OBEY! So, as they hold their breath, the priests took the step. As soon as “their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away… while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” Today,if you cleanse yourself,you can cross any obstacle in your life.There is Power greater than that in the Blood of our Jesus Christ.Let me stop.God bless you.
===Are you at a crossroad of your life where you know what God wants you to do or are you afraid to obey His command? Is God asking you to make a decision yet you are wavering? Or, you already decided and you are excited to take a step of faith. If you are, then I believe this message is for you.Let us open our Bibles to Joshua chapters 3 and 4. We will glean our lessons from their miraculous crossing through the Jordan River.Joshua and the nation of Israel were poised to attack the Promised Land. They waited for this moment for 40 years already. For three days, they were camped near the edge of the Jordan River. Their leaders gave them specific instructions to wait for the Ark of Covenant before moving out. Then, Joshua ordered them: “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” This brings me to our first point: CONSECRATE yourselves.
God commanded Moses, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal.” Note the words “Consecrate” and “belongs to me”. There are times we ask God what His will is, like the choice of a mate or career. But He doesn’t answer our prayers because we have no intention of obeying it. If we like His will, if it is to our advantage, we might obey. But if we don’t like it, if we feel it’s hard, we won’t follow. Even before we ask for His will, let us commit ourselves to obey.
There are times we can’t obey His will because we have some sin issues. We want to obey but we are not prepared to obey. Is there a sin or a relationship that we need to deal with so we can be ready to obey the Lord? For the Lord is looking for a clean vessel, not a golden one. 2 Timothy 2:21-22 says, “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace.” So, let us cleanse ourselves from sin and commit ourselves to obey so we can take the step of faith.Joshua commanded the people to wait for the Ark of the Covenant because, “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.” The Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of the Lord Himself. Moses prayed to the Lord, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send.Now, the priests were standing at the edge of the raging, overflowing river. About 900 meters away, about 2 million Israelites were watching as they wait on what would happen next.
Seriously, at that moment, they decided by faith to OBEY! So, as they hold their breath, the priests took the step. As soon as “their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away… while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” Today,if you cleanse yourself,you can cross any obstacle in your life.There is Power greater than that in the Blood of our Jesus Christ.Let me stop.God bless you.
Pastor Rick Warren
#PEACE is the second of the 4 Sundays of Advent.#AdventAtSaddleback Join us online!http://bit.ly/1dYPov8
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Watch this POWERFUL MESSAGE by Derwin Gray NOW! http://bit.ly/1dYPov8 It will move you. I'm so proud of my friend.
RT @DerwinLGray This weekend I'm preaching for my mentor @RickWarren at @Saddleback.
===RT @DerwinLGray This weekend I'm preaching for my mentor @RickWarren at @Saddleback.
And the M.E. arms race begins.....http://www.foxnews.com/world/
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http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/07/iran-announces-refusal-to-recognize-israel-at-united-nations-session/
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http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/08/obama-opposes-israel’s-request-for-iran-nuclear-deal-to-halt-all-enrichment/
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http://newsblaze.com/story/20131208004709nurg.nb/topstory.html
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http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.co.il/2013/12/video-un-israel-and-how-human-rights.html
===May my name be declared upon them, and the names of my forefathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they proliferate abundantly like fish within the Land.
GENESIS (48:16)
וְיִקָּרֵא בָהֶם שְׁמִי וְשֵׁם אֲבֹתַי אַבְרָהָם וְיִצְחָק וְיִדְגּוּ לָרֹב בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ
בראשית מ’’ח:ט’’ז
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THANK YOU for all the birthday wishes!!! The best BIRTHDAY and CHRISTMAS gift you can give to me is to "LIKE" all three and please be PRO-ACTIVE on behalf of Israel:
LISTEN to the truth about the Jewish State on "Insight to Israel":
https://www.facebook.com/
SEND a message to the Israeli Defense Force that we proudly stand with them as they defend the Jewish State by participating in "Hershey's for Heroes":
https://www.facebook.com/
WEAR your support for the IDF this and posting your pics:
https://www.facebook.com/
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/188519989/Rubin-v-Cubic-Defense
===Even then .. protecting Democrats at the expense of minorities. - ed
===
Hey Everyone
Nice to meet you. I would like to introduce you to "LBNY Productions"- a New York City-based entertainment agency, producing music concerts of leading Israeli performers across the US.
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Please help us spread the word by Liking it & Sharing with your friends.
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===
Via Bat Zion Susskind-Sacks
Dear friends please share and forward this excellent letter . (Thank you for forwarding it, Nurit Greenger
The following open letter was sent last month by a British citizen named Mindy Wiesenberg to the U.K. foreign secretary, William Hague. Wiesenberg, a former teacher, has served as chairman of British Emunah, a charity raising funds for social welfare projects in Israel. She is currently on the charity’s executive council.
Dear Mr. Hague,
You have stated that if Israel tries to defend its population through a ground offensive in Gaza, “it risks losing the sympathy of the international community.”
Let me tell you something about the sympathy of the international community, Mr. Hague. My father was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, having lost his entire family, but gaining the sympathy of the international community at the time. After 6 million Jews had been annihilated at the hands of the Nazi regime, the international community had plenty of sympathy for the Jewish people. There is always plenty of sympathy for victims.
Israel doesn’t need the sympathy of the international community.
What it needs is to defend its citizens.
When, as a tiny country, it gained its independence in 1948, it had to absorb 800,000 Jews who were thrown out of Arab lands in the Middle East. It did so without fuss and with dignity, giving them shelter and a place of security in which their children could grow up to become productive citizens.
When Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria tried to destroy Israel in 1948 and again in 1967, they took in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs.
But did they give them dignity or shelter? No, they left them to rot in refugee camps to maintain a symbol of grievance against Israel and use them as a political tool against the Jewish State. What has arisen in those camps is a complicated situation, but it is what has led to Gaza today.
So don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy, Mr. Hague.
Not when Israel has just sent 120 truckloads of food into Gaza to feed the Palestinian people there, because their own leadership is more interested in using its population as human shields, launching rockets against Israel from within major civilian centers.
Don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy, Mr. Hague.
Not when Israel targets, with as much military precision as it can, only terrorists and their bases, trying its utmost to prevent civilian casualties.
Don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy, Mr. Hague.
Not when the Palestinian media deliberately use images of victims of the Syrian civil war and presents them as casualties in Gaza to gain international sympathy.
Go read your history books, Mr. Hague, go see that since the beginning of the 20th century all the Arabs wanted to do was destroy Israel. Go look at the country of Israel now since the Jews have established a state there. Go read what advances in science, medicine, biotechnology, agriculture and high tech Israel has developed, and dedicated that knowledge to making the world a better place for humanity.
Can you imagine any other country that after over 60 years of continuously being under attack could have achieved so much?
So Mr. Hague, don’t lecture Israel on international sympathy.
Israel will do whatever it takes to defend itself from outright attack on its citizens, whether it be from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran or any other country or terrorist group that attacks it.
And if it loses the sympathy of the international community, so be it. We don’t need the international community’s sympathy. We don’t need another 6 million victims.
Yours sincerely,
Mindy Wiesenberg
===
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- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: After their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia.
- 1917 – First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered the city to the British.
- 1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting thecomputer mouse (pictured), hypertext, and the bit-mappedgraphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
- 1979 – A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated from nature.
- 2008 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was arrestedfor a number of corruption crimes, including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat that was being vacated by then-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.
Events[edit]
- 480 – Odoacer, first King of Italy, occupies Dalmatia. He later establishes his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate.
- 536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flee the capital.
- 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami.
- 1425 – The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.
- 1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops lose the Battle of Great Bridge, and leave Virginia soon afterward.
- 1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
- 1824 – Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
- 1835 – Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio, Texas.
- 1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
- 1856 – The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
- 1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
- 1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
- 1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is founded.
- 1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.
- 1897 – Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.
- 1905 – In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
- 1911 – A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.
- 1917 – World War I: In Palestine, Field Marshal Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem.
- 1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.
- 1931 – The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
- 1935 – Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.
- 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking – Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing (Nanking).
- 1940 – World War II: Operation Compass – British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italianforces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
- 1941 – World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.
- 1941 – World War II: The American 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.
- 1946 – The "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" begin with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.
- 1946 – The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.
- 1950 – Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to theSoviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
- 1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
- 1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.
- 1958 – The John Birch Society is founded in the United States.
- 1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
- 1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
- 1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
- 1965 – Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined the object.
- 1966 – Barbados joins the United Nations.
- 1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
- 1969 – U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.
- 1971 – The United Arab Emirates join the United Nations.
- 1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.
- 1973 – British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executiveand a cross-border Council of Ireland.
- 1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
- 1987 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
- 1988 – The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland, is officially opened.
- 2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
- 2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.
Births[edit]
- 1447 – Chenghua Emperor of China (d. 1487)
- 1508 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555)
- 1561 – Edwin Sandys, English politician (d. 1629)
- 1571 – Metius, Dutch mathematician and astronomer (d. 1635)
- 1579 – Martin de Porres, Peruvian Catholic lay brother and saint (d. 1639)
- 1594 – Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (d. 1632)
- 1608 – John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)
- 1610 – Baldassare Ferri, Italian singer (d. 1680)
- 1652 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician (d. 1723)
- 1667 – William Whiston, English mathematician (d. 1752)
- 1717 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German historian (d. 1768)
- 1721 – Peter Pelham, English-American organist and composer (d. 1805)
- 1728 – Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, Italian composer (d. 1804)
- 1745 – Maddalena Laura Sirmen, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1818)
- 1748 – Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)
- 1751 – Maria Luisa of Parma, Italian wife of Charles IV of Spain (d. 1819)
- 1787 – John Dobson, English architect, designed Eldon Square and Lilburn Tower (d. 1865)
- 1806 – Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (d. 1838)
- 1813 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (d. 1885)
- 1837 – Émile Waldteufel, French composer (d. 1915)
- 1842 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian scientist and anarcho-communist philosopher (d. 1921)
- 1845 – Joel Chandler Harris, American journalist and author (d. 1908)
- 1847 – George Grossmith, English actor and singer (d. 1912)
- 1850 – Emma Abbott, American soprano (d. 1891)
- 1861 – Hélène Smith, French psychic (d. 1929)
- 1867 – Gregorios Xenopoulos, Greek journalist and author (d. 1951)
- 1868 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)
- 1870 – Ida S. Scudder, Indian physician and missionary (d. 1960)
- 1871 – Joe Kelley, American baseball player (d. 1943)
- 1875 – Harry Miller, American race car designer and builder (d. 1943)
- 1876 – Berton Churchill, American actor (d. 1940)
- 1876 – Pauline Whittier, American golfer (d. 1946)
- 1877 – Mart Kuusik, Russian rower, (1912 Olympics) (d. 1964)
- 1882 – Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (d. 1949)
- 1883 – Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician (d. 1950)
- 1883 – Alexander Papagos, Greek general and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1955)
- 1883 – Joseph Pilates, German physical culturist, developed Pilates (d. 1967)
- 1886 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (d. 1956)
- 1887 – Tim Moore, American actor and comedian (d. 1958)
- 1889 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (d. 1966)
- 1891 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Russian Belarusian poet (d. 1917)
- 1895 – Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish politician (d. 1989)
- 1895 – Conchita Supervía, Spanish soprano (d. 1936)
- 1897 – Hermione Gingold, English actress (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Emmett Kelly, American clown (d. 1979)
- 1899 – Jean de Brunhoff, French author (d. 1937)
- 1900 – Albert Weisbord, American activist, founded the Communist League of Struggle (d. 1977)
- 1901 – Carol Dempster, American actress (d. 1991)
- 1901 – Jean Mermoz, French pilot (d. 1936)
- 1901 – Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-German author and playwright (d. 1938)
- 1902 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (d. 1985)
- 1904 – Robert Livingston, American actor (d. 1988)
- 1905 – Dalton Trumbo, American author and screenwriter (d. 1976)
- 1906 – Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (d. 1992)
- 1909 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (d. 2000)
- 1911 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)
- 1911 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1911 – Ryūzō Sejima, Japanese army officer and educator (d. 2007)
- 1912 – Tip O'Neill, American politician, 55th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1994)
- 1914 – Max Manus, Norwegian resistance fighter (d. 1996)
- 1914 – Frances Reid, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Ljubica Sokić, Serbian painter (d. 2009)
- 1915 – Eloise Jarvis McGraw, American author (d. 2000)
- 1915 – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-Austrian soprano (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Kirk Douglas, American actor
- 1916 – Jerome Beatty Jr., American author (d. 2002)
- 1917 – James Jesus Angleton, American CIA counterintelligence chief (d. 1987)
- 1917 – James Rainwater, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- 1918 – Joyce Redman, Irish actress (d. 2012)
- 1919 – V. Dakshinamoorthy, Indian composer (d. 2013)
- 1919 – William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian politician, 10th President of Italy
- 1922 – Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (d. 1991)
- 1925 – Dina Merrill, American actress
- 1925 – Roy Rubin, American basketball player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- 1926 – Jan Křesadlo, Czech psychologist (d. 1995)
- 1927 – Pierre Henry, French composer
- 1928 – Joan Blos, American author and literacy advocate
- 1928 – André Milhoux, Belgian race car driver
- 1928 – Dick Van Patten, American actor
- 1929 – John Cassavetes, American actor, screenwriter, and director (d. 1989)
- 1929 – Bob Hawke, Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia
- 1930 – Buck Henry, American actor, screenwriter, and director
- 1931 – William Reynolds, American actor
- 1931 – Ladislav Smoljak, Czech actor, screenwriter, and director (d. 2010)
- 1932 – Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (d. 2013)
- 1932 – Billy Edd Wheeler, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1933 – Ashleigh Brilliant, American author
- 1933 – Morton Downey, Jr., American talk show host, singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2001)
- 1933 – Monique Miller, Canadian actress
- 1933 – Orville Moody, American golfer (d. 2008)
- 1934 – Judi Dench, English actress
- 1934 – Junior Wells, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (The Aces) (d. 1998)
- 1936 – Ben Pon, Dutch race car driver
- 1937 – Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1938 – John Braheny, American singer-songwriter and author (d. 2013)
- 1938 – David Houston, American singer-songwriter (d. 1993)
- 1938 – Deacon Jones, American football player and actor (d. 2013)
- 1940 – Clancy Eccles, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2005)
- 1941 – Mehmet Ali Birand, Turkish journalist (d. 2013)
- 1941 – Beau Bridges, American actor and director
- 1941 – Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Charlatans and The Acoustic Warriors)
- 1942 – Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Dick Butkus, American football player and actor
- 1942 – David Harsent, English poet and scriptwriter
- 1943 – Pit Martin, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Joanna Trollope, English author
- 1944 – Neil Innes, English singer-songwriter and actor (Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and The Rutles)
- 1944 – Tadashi Irie, Japanese mobster
- 1944 – Ki Longfellow, American author
- 1944 – Bob O'Connor, American politician, 57th Mayor of Pittsburgh (d. 2006)
- 1945 – Matti Mäntylä, Finnish actor
- 1945 – Michael Nouri, American actor
- 1946 – David Currie, English economist
- 1946 – Dennis Dunaway, American bass player and songwriter
- 1946 – Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician, President of the Indian National Congress
- 1946 – Nicholas Reade, English former Anglican Bishop of Blackburn
- 1946 – Shatrughan Sinha, Indian actor
- 1947 – Tom Daschle, American politician, Senator from South Dakota (1987-2005)
- 1947 – Jaak Jõerüüt, Estonian diplomat, politician and writer
- 1947 – Allan Jones, English cricket umpire and former cricketer
- 1948 – Marleen Gorris, Dutch director
- 1948 – Jonathan Sumption, British judge and medieval historian
- 1949 – Tom Kite, American golfer
- 1949 – Nando Parrado, Uruguayan survivor of the 1972 Andes flight disaster
- 1950 – Joan Armatrading, Kittitian-English singer-songwriter
- 1952 – Liaqat Baloch, Pakistani politician
- 1952 – Michael Dorn, American actor
- 1953 – Cornelis de Bondt, Dutch composer
- 1953 – World B. Free, American basketball player
- 1953 – John Malkovich, American actor
- 1954 – Phil Bryant, American politician, 63rd Governor of Mississippi
- 1954 – Herman Finkers, Dutch comedian
- 1954 – Henk ten Cate, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1955 – Otis Birdsong, American basketball player
- 1955 – Chamras Saewataporn, Thai composer
- 1956 – Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author
- 1957 – Peter O'Mara, Australian guitarist and composer
- 1957 – Donny Osmond, American singer, actor, and television and radio personality (The Osmonds)
- 1957 – Steve Taylor, American singer-songwriter and producer (Chagall Guevara)
- 1958 – Rikk Agnew, American guitarist (The Adolescents, D.I., Social Distortion, and Christian Death)
- 1958 – Nick Seymour, Australian bass player, songwriter, and producer (Crowded House, Deadstar, and Tarmac Adam)
- 1959 – Susan Bullock, English soprano
- 1959 – John Martin Scripps, English murderer (d. 1996)
- 1960 – Stefen Fangmeier, American director
- 1960 – Caroline Lucas, English politician
- 1960 – Terry Moran, American journalist
- 1960 – Dobroslav Paraga, Croatian politician, founded the Croatian Party of Rights 1861
- 1960 – Juan Samuel, Dominican baseball player
- 1961 – David Anthony Higgins, American actor
- 1961 – Joe Lando, American actor
- 1962 – Felicity Huffman, American actress and producer
- 1963 – Dave Hilton, Jr., Canadian boxer
- 1963 – Masako, Crown Princess of Japan
- 1964 – Hape Kerkeling, German actor and comedian
- 1964 – Johannes B. Kerner, German sportscaster
- 1964 – Paul Landers, German guitarist (Rammstein, Feeling B, and First Arsch)
- 1965 – Joe Ausanio, American baseball player
- 1965 – Vecepia Towery, American reality contestant, winner of Survivor: Marquesas
- 1966 – Michael Foster, American drummer (FireHouse)
- 1966 – Kirsten Gillibrand, American politician, Senator from New York
- 1966 – Montserrat Gil Torné, Andorran politician
- 1966 – Dave Harold, English snooker player
- 1966 – Toby Huss, American actor
- 1966 – Dana Murzyn, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1966 – Spencer Rochfort, Canadian-American actor
- 1966 – Julio Rodas, Guatemalan footballer
- 1966 – Mateo Romero, American painter
- 1966 – Gideon Sa'ar, Israeli politician, 24th Minister of Internal Affairs
- 1966 – Kadyrbek Sarbayev, Kyrgyzstani diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs (2009-2010)
- 1966 – Shane Scott, American director and producer
- 1966 – Martin Taylor, English footballer and coach
- 1966 – Natee Thongsookkaew, Thai footballer
- 1967 – Joshua Bell, American violinist
- 1967 – Jason Dozzell, English footballer
- 1967 – Gheorghe Popescu, Romanian footballer
- 1968 – Kurt Angle, American wrestler and actor
- 1968 – Brian Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Weezer, Space Twins, and The Relationship)
- 1968 – Brent Price, American basketball player
- 1969 – Jakob Dylan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Wallflowers)
- 1969 – Bixente Lizarazu, French footballer
- 1969 – Raphaël Rouquier, French mathematician
- 1969 – Allison Smith, American actress
- 1969 – Sebastian Spence, Canadian actor
- 1970 – Kara DioGuardi, American singer-songwriter and producer (Platinum Weird)
- 1970 – Lance Krall, American comedian and actor
- 1971 – Geoff Barrow, English musician, composer, and producer (Portishead, Beak, and Quakers)
- 1971 – Petr Nedvěd, Czech ice hockey player
- 1972 – Reiko Aylesworth, American actress
- 1972 – Tré Cool, German-American drummer (Green Day, The Lookouts, Foxboro Hot Tubs, and The Network)
- 1972 – Backhouse Mike, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1972 – Fabrice Santoro, Tahitian-French tennis player
- 1973 – Fabio Artico, Italian footballer
- 1973 – Bárbara Padilla, Mexican-American soprano
- 1974 – Canibus, Jamaican-American rapper and actor (The Hrsmn)
- 1974 – Aloísio da Silva Filho, Brazilian footballer
- 1974 – Wendy Dillinger, American footballer and coach
- 1974 – Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani singer
- 1976 – Chris Booker, American baseball player
- 1977 – Saskia Garel, Canadian actress
- 1977 – Shayne Graham, American football player
- 1977 – Imogen Heap, English singer-songwriter (Frou Frou and Urban Species)
- 1978 – Gaston Gaudio, Argentine tennis player
- 1978 – Jesse Metcalfe, American actor
- 1979 – Chen Hao, Chinese actress and singer
- 1979 – Olivia Lufkin, Japanese-American singer-songwriter (D&D)
- 1979 – Stephen McPhail, Irish footballer
- 1980 – Simon Helberg, American actor
- 1980 – Ryder Hesjedal, Canadian cyclist
- 1981 – Mardy Fish, American tennis player
- 1981 – Dia Mirza, Indian actress
- 1982 – Tamilla Abassova, Russian cyclist
- 1982 – Nathalie De Vos, Belgian runner
- 1982 – Ryan Grant, American football player
- 1982 – Bastian Swillims, German sprinter
- 1983 – Jermaine Beckford, English-Jamaican footballer
- 1983 – Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer
- 1984 – Michael Adam, German politician
- 1984 – Leon Hall, American football player
- 1984 – Angel Guirado, Spanish–Filipino footballer
- 1985 – Wil Besseling, Dutch golfer
- 1987 – Kostas Giannoulis, Greek footballer
- 1987 – Mat Latos, American baseball player
- 1987 – Hikaru Nakamura, Japanese-American chess player
- 1988 – Kwadwo Asamoah, Ghanaian footballer
- 1989 – Lindsey Evans, American model
- 1990 – LaFee, German singer-songwriter
- 1991 – Prince Joachim of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
- 1991 – Choi Minho, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor (Shinee)
- 1993 – Laura Smulders, Dutch cyclist
- 1995 – McKayla Maroney, American gymnast
Deaths[edit]
- 638 – Sergius I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
- 748 – Nasr ibn Sayyar, Umayyad general and politician, governor of Khurasan (b. 663)
- 1165 – Malcolm IV of Scotland (b. 1141)
- 1437 – Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1368)
- 1544 – Teofilo Folengo, Italian poet (b. 1491)
- 1565 – Pope Pius IV (b. 1499)
- 1603 – William Watson, English priest and conspirator (b. 1559)
- 1625 – Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (b. 1547)
- 1636 – Fabian Birkowski, Polish author and preacher (b. 1566)
- 1641 – Anthony van Dyck, Belgian painter (b. 1599)
- 1669 – Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
- 1674 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English politician, Lord Chancellor (b. 1609)
- 1706 – Peter II of Portugal (b. 1648)
- 1718 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer (b. 1650)
- 1793 – Yolande de Polastron, French educator (b. 1749)
- 1798 – Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist (b. 1729)
- 1830 – Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher, Danish surgeon (b. 1757)
- 1854 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese journalist and author (b. 1799)
- 1858 – Robert Baldwin, Canadian politician, 3rd Premier of Canada West (b. 1804)
- 1887 – Mahmadu Lamine, Senegalese marabout and military leader
- 1906 – Ferdinand Brunetière, French author and critic (b. 1849)
- 1916 – Natsume Sōseki, Japanese author (b. 1867)
- 1924 – Bernard Zweers, Dutch composer and educator (b. 1854)
- 1930 – Rube Foster, American baseball player (b. 1879)
- 1932 – Roquia Sakhawat Hussain, Bengali social worker (b. 1880)
- 1935 – Walter Liggett, American journalist (b. 1886)
- 1937 – Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
- 1941 – Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian author, poet, and philosopher (b. 1865)
- 1943 – Georges Dufrénoy, French painter (b. 1870)
- 1952 – Abe Manley, American baseball executive (b. 1885)
- 1955 – Hermann Weyl, German mathematician (b. 1885)
- 1963 – Daniel O. Fagunwa, Nigerian author (b. 1903)
- 1963 – Perry Miller, American historian (b. 1905)
- 1964 – Edith Sitwell, English poet and critic (b. 1887)
- 1965 – Branch Rickey, American baseball player and executive (b. 1884)
- 1967 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and judge, 3rd President of the European Court of Justice (b. 1898)
- 1968 – Enoch L. Johnson, American political boss and racketeer (b. 1883)
- 1970 – Artem Mikoyan, Soviet businessman, co-founded the Mikoyan Company (b. 1905)
- 1970 – Feroz Khan Noon, Pakistani politician, 7th Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1893)
- 1971 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- 1971 – Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (b. 1874)
- 1972 – Louella Parsons, American movie columnist (b. 1881)
- 1975 – William A. Wellman, American director (b. 1896)
- 1979 – Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic televangelist, Titular Archbishop of Newport (Wales) (b. 1895)
- 1981 – Daniel Faulkner, American police officer and murder victim (b. 1955)
- 1982 – Leon Jaworski, American prosecutor (b. 1905)
- 1984 – Razzle, English drummer (Hanoi Rocks) (b. 1960)
- 1992 – Vincent Gardenia, American actor (b. 1922)
- 1993 – Danny Blanchflower, Irish footballer and manager (b. 1926)
- 1994 – Garnett Silk, Jamaican singer (b. 1966)
- 1995 – Toni Cade Bambara, American author (b. 1939)
- 1995 – Douglas Corrigan, American pilot (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Patty Donahue, American singer-songwriter (The Waitresses) (b. 1956)
- 1996 – Mary Leakey, English archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913)
- 1996 – Alain Poher, French politician, President of France (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 1998 – Shaughnessy Cohen, Canadian politician, MP for Windsor-St. Clair (b. 1948)
- 1998 – Archie Moore, American boxer (b. 1913)
- 2001 – Michael Carver, Baron Carver, English field marshal, 6th Chief of the Defence Staff (b. 1915)
- 2002 – Mary Hansen, Australian guitarist and singer (Stereolab) (b. 1966)
- 2002 – Ian Hornak, American painter and sculptor (b. 1944)
- 2002 – Stan Rice, American painter and poet (b. 1942)
- 2003 – Norm Sloan, American basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
- 2003 – Paul Simon, American politician, Senator from Illinois (b. 1928)
- 2004 – David Brudnoy, American radio host (b. 1940)
- 2004 – Lea De Mae, Czech actress (b. 1976)
- 2005 – György Sándor, Hungarian pianist (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Robert Sheckley, American author (b. 1928)
- 2007 – Thore Skogman, Swedish singer and actor (b. 1931)
- 2007 – Gordon Zahn, American sociologist (b. 1918)
- 2007 – Rafael Sperafico, Brazilian racing driver (b. 1981)
- 2008 – Ibrahim Dossey, Ghanaian footballer (b. 1972)
- 2008 – Yuri Glazkov, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut and general (b. 1939)
- 2009 – Gene Barry, American actor (b. 1919)
- 2010 – John Eleuthère du Pont, American philanthropist and murderer (b. 1938)
- 2010 – James Moody, American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Dov Shilansky, Lithuanian-Israeli politician, 10th Speaker of the Knesset (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Béla Nagy Abodi, Hungarian painter (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Barbara Alby, American politician (b. 1946)
- 2012 – Mathews Mar Barnabas, Indian bishop (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Ivan Ljavinec, Czech bishop (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Patrick Moore, English astronomer (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Alex Moulton, English engineer and businessman, founded the Moulton Bicycle Company (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Jenni Rivera, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1969)
- 2012 – Charles Rosen, American pianist (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Riccardo Schicchi, Italian porn producer, co-founded Diva Futura (b. 1953)
- 2012 – Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor, co-created the bar code (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Anna's Day, marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve, as well as a Swedish name day, celebrating all people named Anna. (Sweden and Finland)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Independence Day, celebrate the independence of Tanganyika from Britain in 1961. (Tanzania)
- International Anti-Corruption Day (International)
- National Heroes Day, formerly V.C. Bird Day. (Antigua and Barbuda)
- Yuri's Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy."
Revelation 3:4
Revelation 3:4
We may understand this to refer to justification. "They shall walk in white;" that is, they shall enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith; they shall understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, that they have all been washed and made whiter than the newly-fallen snow.
Again, it refers to joy and gladness: for white robes were holiday dresses among the Jews. They who have not defiled their garments shall have their faces always bright; they shall understand what Solomon meant when he said "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Let thy garments be always white, for God hath accepted thy works." He who is accepted of God shall wear white garments of joy and gladness, while he walks in sweet communion with the Lord Jesus. Whence so many doubts, so much misery, and mourning? It is because so many believers defile their garments with sin and error, and hence they lose the joy of their salvation, and the comfortable fellowship of the Lord Jesus, they do not here below walk in white.
The promise also refers to walking in white before the throne of God. Those who have not defiled their garments here shall most certainly walk in white up yonder, where the white-robed hosts sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High. They shall possess joys inconceivable, happiness beyond a dream, bliss which imagination knoweth not, blessedness which even the stretch of desire hath not reached. The "undefiled in the way" shall have all this--not of merit, nor of works, but of grace. They shall walk with Christ in white, for he has made them "worthy." In his sweet company they shall drink of the living fountains of waters.
Evening
"Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor."
Psalm 68:10
Psalm 68:10
All God's gifts are prepared gifts laid up in store for wants foreseen. He anticipates our needs; and out of the fulness which he has treasured up in Christ Jesus, he provides of his goodness for the poor. You may trust him for all the necessities that can occur, for he has infallibly foreknown every one of them. He can say of us in all conditions, "I knew that thou wouldst be this and that." A man goes a journey across the desert, and when he has made a day's advance, and pitched his tent, he discovers that he wants many comforts and necessaries which he has not brought in his baggage. "Ah!" says he, "I did not foresee this: if I had this journey to go again, I should bring these things with me, so necessary to my comfort." But God has marked with prescient eye all the requirements of his poor wandering children, and when those needs occur, supplies are ready. It is goodness which he has prepared for the poor in heart, goodness and goodness only. "My grace is sufficient for thee." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."
Reader, is your heart heavy this evening? God knew it would be; the comfort which your heart wants is treasured in the sweet assurance of the text. You are poor and needy, but he has thought upon you, and has the exact blessing which you require in store for you. Plead the promise, believe it and obtain its fulfilment. Do you feel that you never were so consciously vile as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still, with all its former efficacy, to wash your sin away. Never shall you come into such a position that Christ cannot aid you. No pinch shall ever arrive in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus Christ shall not be equal to the emergency, for your history has all been foreknown and provided for in Jesus.
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Today's reading: Daniel 8-10, 3 John 1 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Daniel 8-10
Daniel’s Vision of a Ram and a Goat
1 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me.2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.
5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven....
Today's New Testament reading: 3 John 1
1 The elder,
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. 6They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth....
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Nicodemus [Nĭco dē'mus]—innocent blood or victor over the people. An elderly and somewhat wealthy Phariseeand a member of the Sanhedrin (John 3:1-9; 7:50; 19:39 ).
The Man Who Came to Jesus by Night
Whenever Nicodemus is mentioned it is always with the label, “the same that came to Jesus by night.” Why is this master in Israel always spoken of in this way? Was he a coward, afraid of what the fellow-members of the Sanhedrin would say if they saw him seeking out Jesus? We feel that he came by night because it was the best time for both Jesus and himself to have a quiet, uninterrupted conversation about spiritual matters. Nicodemus had been occupied all day with his teaching duties, and Jesus had been active in His out-of-door ministry. Now both could relax and talk through the night. It may be that Nicodemus had such a heart hunger that he could not wait until morning, and so came running to Jesus as soon as he could.
There had been no direct voice from God in Israel for a long time, and here was One whose message carried the stamp of divine authority. So Nicodemus, the cautious enquirer, but a man of spiritual perception (John 3:2), sought out Christ, and listened to one of His remarkable conversational sermons. Nicodemus figures three times in John’s gospel:
He came to Christ (John 3:2 ). This master in Israel confessed Christ to be a Teacher sent from God and heard that in spite of his culture, position and religion, he needed to be born anew by the Spirit of God. His name, meaning “innocent blood,” is suggestive. Nicodemus came to realize that his salvation was dependent upon the shedding of innocent blood (John 3:14, 16).
He spoke for Christ ( John 7:45-52). As a fair-minded man, Nicodemus, although a disciple at heart and afraid to avow his faith, raised his voice on behalf of Christ as the Sanhedrin devised measures against Him. The rulers were His avowed enemies, and Nicodemus raised a point of order in favor of the One he had learned so much from. Perhaps he should have been more courageous and outspoken on Christ’s behalf. When the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death, there was no protest from Nicodemus. It is likely that he absented himself from that fateful meeting.
He honored Christ ( John 19:39, 40 ). After the death of Christ, ashamed of his cowardice, Nicodemus rendered loving though belated service to Christ. Openly he joined Joseph of Arimathaea, another secret disciple, in preparing Christ’s body for a kingly burial. But the dead cannot appreciate our loving attention. Mary gave her spices to Jesus while He was alive. It is better to give flowers to the living than reserve them for their burial.
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MANGER
She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. -Luke 2:7
Where is the first place a baby is placed after it emerges from the mother's womb? Today we use hyper-sterilized blankets and sanitized cribs. A Plexiglas dome, if necessary. All precautions go toward minimizing the germs the child may come into contact with.
But Mary laid Jesus in the feeding trough for an animal. The Good Shepherd took refuge that night in the sheep's manger, and when the shepherds came to see what was announced to them, how stunned they must have been.
Of course, this would not have been Mary and Joseph's first choice. They would have preferred a modest room at a local inn, had there been any vacancy. If it all took place today, maybe a red neon light would have flashed a big "NO" that made a ghastly pool of light on the asphalt of the parking lot.
There are times when "no" is the hardest thing we have to hear. Yet Jesus has seen and continues to see the "no" sign from the very human race he had a hand in creating. Many don't even want to consider him. Even in the life of a faithful believer, there is so much in us that wants to say to him, Stay out of that part of my life; keep that door closed; no, you may not spend the night.
So instead, he stays where he can. A feeding trough will do. Not protected from the world, but lying in it.
Prayer for today:
Lord, make way in my heart and mind for you today. Unlock every door. Open the most valued places. Don't let me try to exclude you from any part of my life.
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