I don't have a Samsung phone and won't post video of how it burns up with routine use. So Samsung need not sue me. But I use Apple products because they work.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Andy Trieu and Thanh Tong. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
- 1452 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1531)
- 1713 – Johann Nicolaus Mempel, German cantor and organist (d. 1747)
- 1787 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator, founded the American School for the Deaf (d. 1851)
- 1804 – Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (d. 1851)
- 1815 – Ada Lovelace, English mathematician, eponym of the Ada programming language (d. 1852)
- 1830 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (d. 1886)
- 1851 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, created the Dewey Decimal System (d. 1931)
- 1870 – Mary Bonaparte, French daughter of Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, 5th Prince of Canino (d. 1947)
- 1914 – Dorothy Lamour, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1941 – Peter Sarstedt, Indian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1952 – Susan Dey, American actress
- 1960 – Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and director
- 1961 – Oded Schramm, Israel-American mathematician
- 1978 – Summer Phoenix, American actress
- 1994 – Matti Klinga, Finnish footballer
Matches
- 1041 – The son of Empress Zoe of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire asMichael V.
- 1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
- 1510 – Portuguese Conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
- 1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
- 1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
- 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphorearms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
- 1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
- 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
- 1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.
- 1927 – The phrase "Grand Ole Opry" is used for the first time on-air.
- 1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.
Despatches
- 949 – Herman I, Duke of Swabia
- 1896 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented Dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)
- 1967 – Otis Redding, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1941)
- 1978 – Ed Wood, American director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1924)
HOLDEN’S LAST CHANCE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 10, 2013 (5:31am)
(Scene: Parliament House. Two Holden marketing executives are in Joe Hockey’s office)
Executive #1: Thanks for meeting us, Mr Treasurer.
Joe Hockey: No problem. But I warn you, it won’t be a long meeting. There will be no subsidy increase.
Executive #2: Oh, but you haven’t seen our latest model, Mr Treasurer. It’s a game-changer!
Executive #1: A guaranteed winner! A mega-seller!
(The men present a large colour photograph and slide it across Hockey’s desk)
Hockey: [pause] This is a standard current model 2013 Holden Commodore. What’s new about it?
Executive #1: Take a closer look, Mr Treasurer.
Executive #2: Yes, Mr Treasurer. Look at the badges.
(Joe Hockey squints at the photograph)
Hockey: The Holden … Mandela?
Executive #2: If you say no to the Holden Mandela, Mr Treasurer, you’ll be saying no to the greatest human being who ever lived.
Executive #1: It’s a rolling tribute to the unifier of all humankind, Mr Treasurer.
Hockey: Are you people serious?
Executive #2: As serious as the mobs who will gather outside your house once they learn how much you hate the father of modern Africa, Mr Treasurer.
Hockey: What the …
Executive #1: This model also has the top of the line Madiba option package, Mr Treasurer, with Robben Island trim and Biko brakes.
Executive #2: Zuma zoom-zoom V6 power!
Executive #1: Stompie Seipei seat inserts!
Executive #2: Low-profile Bridgestone necklaces and …
Hockey: Get out. Now. Leave.
(Scene: the two executives are driving away from Canberra)
Executive #2: That didn’t go very well.
Executive #1: It isn’t over, mate. Have those Whitlam badges arrived yet?
APPLICATION ISOLATED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 10, 2013 (5:29am)
Warmists previously relied on the per-capita lie – a trick designed to make a very small number appear very large – to justify a massive and pointless carbon tax. Here’s their latest weasel argument:
The carbon tax is succeeding in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the parts of the economy where it applies, Labor and the Greens say, as they vow to resist Abbott government plans to scrap the key climate change policy.
So it doesn’t matter that the carbon tax makes only a 0.1 per cent difference to Australia’s overall carbon emissions. These people are stupid.
SAID WITH A SMILE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 10, 2013 (5:27am)
From today, this is how I answer the phone:
that jabbering and largely unread halfwit Blair
COALITION DOWN
Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 10, 2013 (5:23am)
It doesn’t mean much this far from the next election, but still worth noting:
Tony Abbott and the Liberals have lost their three-year carbon tax advantage over Labor, with support for the Coalition dropping to its lowest since 2011 to leave the opposition leading on preferences for the first time since the election of the Gillard government.Just three months after being elected, the Abbott government’s primary vote support has dropped to 40 per cent while Labor’s two-party-preferred support has jumped five percentage points to put the ALP in front 52 per cent to 48 per cent.And for the first time since the September 7 election, more voters are dissatisfied with the Prime Minister than satisfied.
Early post-election polls can be deceptive. Recall Kevin Rudd’s soaring numbers in 2008. At the same time, you’d prefer to be ahead than behind.
UMPIRE!
Tim Blair – Monday, December 09, 2013 (6:39pm)
Labor front bench or mixed-gender mature age netball team? You be the judge.
ABC presenter compares Australians fighting for jihadists in Syria to Anzacs in World War 1
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (12:01pm)
Dominic Knight is an ABC presenter. And, like almost every ABC presenter, he is of the ... well, let him speak for himself:
KNIGHT: Can we just stop for a second. Here we have four white Australian males expressing views on Syrians who want to return to fight for what’s right in their homeland.To sum up. ABC presenter Dominic Knight (here debating on Sky News) doesn’t “see any difference” between Australians fighting for their country in a war to aid their country’s allies and Australians fighting for jihadist groups linked to the killing Australian civilians and soldiers, and who are now trying to overrun Syria.
JASON MORRISON: Well that might be your romantic view of things but I’ll point out that many of the people you say are heading home, their home is here. They were born here. Bankstown, Liverpool, Westmead hospitals. Yeah sure have passions about what’s going on over there but it’s a very different thing - a very worrying thing for Australia that they choose to fly to the other side of planet, pick up an AK47 and fight with Al-Qaeda in somebody else’s war…
KNIGHT : ...Somebody else’s war you say? Plenty of Australians historically have fought in other people’s wars. Are you as outraged about say Australian soldiers dying in Britain’s wars? In George Bush’s war?
MORRISON : are you serious?
KNIGHT : I am.
MORRISON : That’s a justification in your mind for young Australians joining up with the associates of terrorists to fight? You bring up 1914, World War One to prove your point. For God’s sake.
KNIGHT : well they weren’t Australia’s wars. I don’t see any difference.
MORRISON : you see no difference between Australians fighting with the sanction of their country in declared wars like the First World War and those fighting with the terrorists today in Syria? They’re just like the diggers are they?
KNIGHT : no it’s just a comparison and I think it’s too easy to condemn these men today..
MORRISON : ...Oh yeah everything is excusable isn’t it. That is a ridiculous comparison actually. Actually let’s call it what is is really - utter bullshit.
No difference at all (although, when challenged, he suggested he was just making “a comparison").
Now imagine Dominic Knight explaining his self-loathing theory to the jihadist groups he so honors with his comparison.
Explain to these guys, Dominic (CAUTION - extremely graphic):
Explain it to these guys, and these, and these. Again: CAUTION. Extremely graphic.
Of course, explaining it to the jihadists might involve Knight taking a few risks with his safety:
A militant group kidnapped two Spanish journalists reporting in Syria in September and is holding them captive, El Mundo newspaper reports… The newspaper identified the captors as members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadist faction in Syria.
Would it help if Knight said he was from the ABC, and there to help?
The ABC is out of control.
World record cold temperature measured
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (11:53am)
It’s weather, not climate - but would warmists say the same if the highest ever temperature had just been recorded instead?
===A new look at NASA satellite data revealed that Earth set a new record for coldest temperature recorded. It happened in August 2010 when it hit -135.8 degrees. Then on July 31 of this year, it came close again: -135.3 degrees.
The old record had been -128.6 degrees, which is -89.2 degrees Celsius.
The greatest scandal with the AWU slush fund is how many in the media aided the cover-up
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (11:50am)
There are actually two
scandals. One centres on the AWU slush fund that Julia Gillard helped to
create. The other involves the many, many senior journalists of the
Left who didn’t just ignore the story, but in many cases aided Labor’s
spin and attacked those trying to get at the truth.
Victoria’s Chief Magistrate, Peter Lauritsen, yesterday ruled that documents prepared or overseen by Julia Gillard as a solicitor were part of a fraud by her then boyfriend and others, and police are therefore entitled to seize them:
BlewittWilson denies any fraud. The magistrate’s finding is made on the “reasonable grounds” test, not “beyond reasonable doubt”.)
But Lauritsen’s finding and Mitchell’s affadavit again raise the question: why did so many in the media run dead on what is clearly a big story?
Michael Smith, who was forced out of 2UE after asking what management said were “unauthorised questions” of Gillard, sums up the case against the media:
How eager some were to dodge asking the hard questions
How studiously the ABC looked away.
How easily the ABC and senior correspondents such as Laurie Oakes accused the few journalists pursuing the story of just “beating up” old allegations that had been answered “multiple times”.
How astonishingly ready the ABC and Age were to blame themselves for making false claims about the case, when their real mistake was to have repeated Gillard’s spin.
How often the ABC echoed false claims by Gillard to trash the reputation of journalists who’d reported the case.
How hungry senior press gallery journalists were to swallow Gillard’s red herrings, like her confected outrage at a newspaper confusing “trust fund” with “slush fund”.
How hasty journalists such as Laurie Oakes were to declare Gillard had “answered every question” about the scandal and the real liar was Tony Abbott. How quick Michelle Grattan was to claim ”her answers were credible”. For Graham Richardson to vow ”I will speak or write no more on this matter”. For the ABC’s Jon Faine to dismiss the scandal as ”just an obsession for those who work for Rupert Murdoch”. For Age journalist Jason Koutsoukis to claim ”fending off an attack based on this old tale shouldn’t present too many problems for her (Gillard)” For Peter van Onselen to declare to Gillard: ”I believe you that you did nothing wrong.”
Can we now hear from the journalists who reassured Gillard there was nothing to this story when it was raised again in 2007 by since-sacked journalist Glenn Milne?
It continues. Reader Grant watched the ABC 24 breakfast show this morning:
===Victoria’s Chief Magistrate, Peter Lauritsen, yesterday ruled that documents prepared or overseen by Julia Gillard as a solicitor were part of a fraud by her then boyfriend and others, and police are therefore entitled to seize them:
For those documents that (would otherwise attract legal professional privilege under Section 118 of the Evidence Act) I am satisfied that, in each instance, the communication was made or the document prepared in furtherance of the commission of a fraud or an offence.Lauritsen in his finding referred to this affadavit from Victoria Police’s lead investigator in this case, Ross Mitchell, who was damning of the slush fund Gillard helped to create:
The evidence in this investigation points strongly towards establishing that the creation of the Australian Workers Union - Workplace Reform Association Inc was for the sole purpose of legitimising the ‘false’ invoicing for ‘work’ provided by the association.The fraud, according to Mitchell, involves:
- obtaining property by deception;(Gillard has insisted she did nothing wrong and did not know how her boyfriend used the slush fund.
- receiving secret commissions;
- making and using false documents; and
- conspiracy to cheat and defraud
But Lauritsen’s finding and Mitchell’s affadavit again raise the question: why did so many in the media run dead on what is clearly a big story?
Michael Smith, who was forced out of 2UE after asking what management said were “unauthorised questions” of Gillard, sums up the case against the media:
When a sitting Prime Minister, reliant on the votes of the very trade union at the centre of The AWU Scandal for her position, is named in a search warrant executed on her former law offices - that is news. Yesterday’s proceedings in court and the written reasons for Chief Magistrate Lauritsen’s judgement now make clear the breadth of our media’s shortcomings in bringing these matters to the nation’s attention.Hedley Thomas of The Australian:
A vibrant democracy is a fully informed democracy. That requires a curious, fearless and capable media - not a club of barrackers.
The closing words in (Lauritsen’s) ruling - “I am satisfied that, in each instance, the communication was made or the document prepared in furtherance of the commission of a fraud or an offence” - mean the police (subject to the decision not being reversed on appeal) will be able to access more than 360 documents taken from the law firm.But how easily the media was distracted by Labor into attacking Gillard’s accusers instead.
This is a major call. For a start, it should finally put to bed the fanciful arguments of Labor Party figures (such as former leader Mark Latham) and their naive barrackers that there never was a fraud in the first place. Lauritsen’s ruling might wake from their stupor those sections of Australia’s media who have self-censored, looked the other way and even tried to hose down serious matters involving the former prime minister, a key figure in a Victoria Police Fraud Squad investigation, for a year. It should incense taxpayers that the ABC has not reported on the police probe for all of this year, and is only now starting to realise its folly…
It is important to stress that nothing in Lauritsen’s ruling, and nothing in the evidence thus far revealed by the police, establishes that Gillard or (her then boss and now judge Bernard) Murphy were aware at the time the entity was being set up that they knew it would be used in a criminal fraud. Gillard has always strenuously denied knowing this, and Wilson has backed her up. She says she was profoundly misled. Murphy, who was appointed to the Federal Court by Gillard in 2011, has said very little but he has emphatically rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing.
However, Gillard cannot undo her 1995 tape-recorded disclosure to the senior partner at Slater & Gordon, Peter Gordon, that the AWU Workplace Reform Association was really a “slush fund” established for the purpose of funding elections for union officials. It culminated in her abrupt departure from the firm, and the start of a full-time political career.
How eager some were to dodge asking the hard questions
How studiously the ABC looked away.
How easily the ABC and senior correspondents such as Laurie Oakes accused the few journalists pursuing the story of just “beating up” old allegations that had been answered “multiple times”.
How astonishingly ready the ABC and Age were to blame themselves for making false claims about the case, when their real mistake was to have repeated Gillard’s spin.
How often the ABC echoed false claims by Gillard to trash the reputation of journalists who’d reported the case.
How hungry senior press gallery journalists were to swallow Gillard’s red herrings, like her confected outrage at a newspaper confusing “trust fund” with “slush fund”.
How hasty journalists such as Laurie Oakes were to declare Gillard had “answered every question” about the scandal and the real liar was Tony Abbott. How quick Michelle Grattan was to claim ”her answers were credible”. For Graham Richardson to vow ”I will speak or write no more on this matter”. For the ABC’s Jon Faine to dismiss the scandal as ”just an obsession for those who work for Rupert Murdoch”. For Age journalist Jason Koutsoukis to claim ”fending off an attack based on this old tale shouldn’t present too many problems for her (Gillard)” For Peter van Onselen to declare to Gillard: ”I believe you that you did nothing wrong.”
Can we now hear from the journalists who reassured Gillard there was nothing to this story when it was raised again in 2007 by since-sacked journalist Glenn Milne?
Gillard later told biographer Jacqueline Kent: “Over the next two or three days I received phone calls from many of the biggest names in the Canberra press gallery expressing absolute disbelief that such things were said (by Milne).UPDATE
“Nobody followed up the story. It just died.”
It continues. Reader Grant watched the ABC 24 breakfast show this morning:
I watched Virginia and Michael from start to finish this morning and there was not a single mention of the AWU scandal.
The lead story was of the CEO of GM Holden asking for more handouts.
Even the goose who interrupted the Oxbridge rowing and whose appeal was upheld got a run with interviews of him and his wife; this was more newsworthy than the AWU scandal.
Unbelievable
Our subsidies, Holden’s high wages
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (11:14am)
If
it’s good enough for Holden, why doesn’t the Government simply buy a
million more jobs at $50,000 each per year? Unemployment fixed, right?
As Grace Collier notes, taxpayers are paying for Holden’s inflated wages:
===TAXPAYERS are covering about $2500 of the cost of each Australian-made car with subsidies equivalent to as much as $50,000 for every employee directly involved in their manufacture.So what exactly are taxpayers subsidising?
Subsidies to the industry have averaged about $550 million a year for the past six years, not including the benefit of tariffs and the luxury car tax, according to the Productivity Commission.
Holden and Toyota both say their manufacturing costs are about $3750 per car higher in Australia than in other markets… Manufacturing costs added $2000, mainly as a result of labour costs, which it said were double the cost per vehicle compared with European manufacturers, and four times the cost of Asia.
Holden, which has about 2000 staff directly involved in manufacturing at its Elizabeth plant in South Australia and its engine plant in Port Melbourne, received $96m in subsidies last year, or just under $50,000 per employee.Toyota, with 2500 manufacturing employees, received $72m in government grants, or $29,000 per employee.
As Grace Collier notes, taxpayers are paying for Holden’s inflated wages:
The Holden Enterprise Agreement is the document that has utterly sunk Holden’s prospects… Holden’s management masks a union culture beyond most people’s comprehension. Employment costs spiralled way beyond community standards long ago. Neither “pay freezes” nor more money will save Holden, but getting the Fair Work Commission to dissolve the agreement and put all workers on the award wage might be a start…Terry McCrann:
Holden begins each working day paying its workforce almost double what it should. After you add in the other employment costs, I estimate Holden’s workforce costs it somewhere close to triple the amount it should..
It is not a good idea to pour billions of taxpayer money into a single company - and yes, we are talking about billions going forward - if that money is the only, and I do mean, the only, reason it keeps operating.So, after the billions spent on subsidies by Labor, what do we get? Rumors Holden is leaving anyway - rumors not convincingly denied by Holden:
Secondly, that means the company could still up sticks and close at any time. No matter how many billions you poured in, that buys you nothing so far as future certainty is concerned.
Indeed, we’ve got an exact example of that with none other than Holden itself. The last deal it did with the federal, Victorian and SA governments was supposed to guarantee it would stay until at least 2022. Yet it’s now demanding more money or it will go at the same time as Ford at the end of 2016.
We give it more money, and all we guarantee is that - at best - it will ask for more...
Holden managing director Mike Devereux has rejected speculation the company has already decided to leave Australia.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
“No decision has been made,” he told a Productivity Commission inquiry into taxpayer funding for the Australian car industry on Tuesday morning.
The news will be little relief for thousands of Holden workers, who, over the past week, have read stories of alleged leaks from unnamed federal government sources and at least one unnamed senior General Motors official in the US asserting that a decision had already been taken internally to close Holden’s Australian manufacturing operations…
Mr Devereux declined to answer questioning from the Productivity Commission, which is looking into public funding for auto manufacturing, about when the firm would hope to not need government funding… Mr Devereux said that the “business case for having an auto industry is understood all around the world”, because at least three jobs and perhaps up to six people were employed for every one that Holden gave a job in Australia…
He said this “$32.7 billion of economic activity” was “a very good return for the country....”.
Time for talking. Newspoll: Labor 52, Coalition 48
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (9:18am)
Time
the Abbott Government revised its media strategy big time. Its problem
isn’t the execution but the sale - and the hysterical opposition from
the media Left:
===More presence needed. More assertion. More narrative. And, I dare say, more independence for Ministers to create narratives of their own.
The Iran that’s given more rope by the West
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (9:13am)
The newly moderate Iran hailed in the media:
===Iran has executed 529 people this year, including more 300 since President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in August, according to a tally compiled by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC).(Thanks to reader ombudsman.)
The number of executions have significantly spiked since Rouhani took office, leading some to argue that this clashes with his image as a moderate reformer. Iran now has the dubious honor of being the global leader per capita in executions, according to the IHRDC.
Qantas is not Holden with wings
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (9:08am)
Qantas boss Alan Joyce denies he’s after a handout:
===First, Qantas is not Holden. In stark contrast to Qantas, the car industry has received billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money over many years. Since privatisation in 1995, Qantas has performed strongly with no taxpayer subsidies and no tax concessions—nor are we asking for any now…Can’t see anything in that to object to at all.
Second, Qantas is not looking for protection from the free market. On the contrary, the challenges Qantas faces are precisely because of the absence of a free and fair market. Virgin Australia’s 2012 restructure has enabled it to circumvent Australian law and pretend to be an Australian airline, when it is majority owned by three foreign government-backed airlines. Through Virgin, they are pouring money into our domestic market to weaken Qantas and ultimately funnel Australian traffic on their airlines and through their hubs…
Third, Qantas is not seeking an anti-competitive handout or bail out. We are talking to the Abbott government because legislation and regulatory decisions (the Qantas Sale Act, the Air Navigation Act, and decisions by the Foreign Investment Review Board) have created the uneven playing field we find ourselves playing on. We are seeking a fair go ...
Magistrate differs with Gillard on Blewitt
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (7:12am)
Julia Gillard last year on former client Ralph Blewitt, who claimed the “slush fund” she helped create for him and her boyfriend Bruce Wilson was used for a fraud:
Which helped lead to this finding:
===Mr Blewitt, according to people who know him, has been described as a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar and his sister has said he’s a crook and rotten to the core. His word against mine. Make your mind up.Victoria’s chief magistrate, Peter Lauritsen on Blewitt:
One does not reject a person’s sworn evidence unless there is a powerful reason to do so.. In the circumstance of delay between the events and the statement, Blewitt gave adequate detail.More from Lauritsen on Blewitt’s credit here.
Which helped lead to this finding:
VICTORIA’S most senior magistrate has found reasonable grounds to conclude that Julia Gillard’s former boyfriend was involved in a fraud, negating his right to claim privilege over documents held at her old law firm…Gillard says she did nothing wrong and did not know what her boyfriend did with the slush fund.
It is alleged Mr Wilson used the fund to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from construction giant Thiess and buy a house in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. After receiving evidence, including from lead investigator Ross Mitchell and Mr Wilson’s former bagman Ralph Blewitt, Mr Lauritsen said he was satisfied each document that met the requirements for privilege was “prepared in furtherance of the commission of a fraud or an offence"…
Mr Wilson was in a long-term relationship with Ms Gillard when she provided legal advice to help establish the association while working at Slater & Gordon, later describing it to her employer as a “slush fund”.
Just radical Islamists? That’s all right, then
Andrew Bolt December 10 2013 (7:06am)
Russian president Vladimir Putin is a popular target of Western artists rightly concerned with the oppression of gays:
===British pop icon Elton John has escaped serious criticism in Russia after using a sold-out Moscow concert to challenge a highly contentious law banning the “propaganda of homosexuality” to minors…
The only visible outrage came from a radical Islamist organisation that urged the authorities of Tatarstan to forbid him from performing Saturday in the region’s capital of Kazan.
never turn back ..
go on and on ..
do not regret what you have left ..
because if it was back ..
to say that he did not want ..
the journey with you ..
===
Soon to be available as a metal print!
The Mirror Called Merced.
This is a nine image panoramic I shot in late fall at the Valley View area, while clouds formed off the face of El Capitan in dramatic fashion.
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Sebastopol Twilight.
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CamMie Du
Dutch vanilla protein pancakes for breakfast! I'm a genius!! #12health #pancakes #breakfast#delicious @12health
Yum .. with maple syrup cinnamon and butter .. oh, and bacon .. ed===
Meh, sometimes the GOP look bad because they don't have the Presidency .. and no other reason - ed
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http://www.theage.com.au/world/dont-make-me-go-back-to-racist-australia-boat-race-protester-20131210-hv4zt.html
www.theage.com.au
===
Aprille Love
MORNING EVERYONE! DONT FORGET TO BUY YOUR TICKETS TO Philippine Typhoon Christmas Benefit!!! THERE ARE ONLY 2 DAYS TO GO!! DONT MISS OUT ON OUR AMAZING LINE UP!!!
=
With 2 days to go until #help4haiyan charity event! JUST.KEEP.GOING. #morning
===
www.theaustralian.com.au
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/politics-dominates-facebook-trends-in-2013/story-fn3dxiwe-1226779888292===
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/aussies-grow-worlds-hottest-chilli.htm#.UqZCP9F5o8Q.facebook
===I am pleased to report that today I launched my new website.
Check it out at www.carolineglick.com
- Pro Israel Pro Zionist Forum discussing CarolineGlick.com editorials and current...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/opinion/why-machiavelli-matters.html?_r=0
===
===
Mike has a show coming up in January and he's going to feature his work on Metal Prints... I'll let him take it from here:
"Hey guys...so I'm looking for a little help. I have a gallery showing on January 3rd and need to get a bunch of awesome metal prints to display. I'd love to do some large 20x30s or 24x36's images, but they are costly when you want around 10 of them. So what I'm doing is offering these 10 prints (or others) for a fraction of the normal price. Almost cost. You'd buy the print now, I'd use it in the show and then deliver it to you afterwards. If I sell that print in the show, you'll obviously still get one but I'd have to order it again.
It's a win-win.
If you are interested drop me a message. Prices would be under $300. I'm looking to display the images in the link below, but if you see ANYTHING else you like in other galleries, I might consider that as well"
- http://gallery.mikeolbinski.com/p1037888014
The prints have been going fast. He only has #5, #7, and #8 available now.>
===
Look my love ..
===
<" Sarah Hanson Young thought a photo-shopped picture did this:
Senator Hanson-Young says the article implied that being a sex object was the only thing she was good for, that she was not a serious politician, that she was a "joke" and that her asylum-seeking stance had exposed her to ridicule. "
1) Senator Hanson-Young says the article implied that being a sex object was the only thing she was good for…
IN HER FCUKING DREAMS
2) …that she was not a serious politician,
SHE GOT THAT BIT RIGHT LOL
3) that she was a "joke"
ANYONE LAUGHING ?
4) … that her asylum-seeking stance had exposed her to ridicule.
YES BUT WE ARE STIIL NOT LAUGHING.
and after all as Hanson confirmed it was just a thought.
Why must someone have to go to court to defend themselves against a thought.>
Zoo Weekly sorry for 'sexiest asylum seeker' competition
http://www.adnews.com.au/adnews/zoo-weekly-sorry-for-sexiest-asylum-seeker-competition?fb_action_ids=10152482155809899&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210152482155809899%22%3A10151292671048219%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210152482155809899%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
Men's magazine Zoo Weekly will print an apology for its controversial 'Australia's Hottest Asylum Seeker' competition in its upcoming edition after a public outcry.
===Brothers Grimm story come to life... http://www.news.com.au/world/new-twist-in-creepy-german-cannibal-case/story-fndir2ev-1226777979030
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4 her
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Guess what popular business decided tradition trumps the Scrooges this Christmas season?
See here:
http://www.patheos.com/
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Larry Pickering
MANDELA’S SAD SOUTH AFRICA
... but it's nothing a few decades won’t fix
The week-long Mandela epilogue will be an emotional farewell for South African blacks and coloureds and an excessive bore to others. Significant is the number of whites who also openly show grief at his passing.
Those are people who believe a black person is no less a human being than a white person. They are white people who always believed apartheid was wrong... and if you don’t believe apartheid was wrong you should go find another blog.
The enormity of what Mandela achieved should never be underestimated.
Blood was spilled on both sides as it was in America where, in 1990, Tiger Woods would have been banned from the Masters at Augusta National Golf Course, only blacks could have been caddies and where women gained membership only last year.
Silky crooner, Nat King Cole, could only perform at nightclubs if he entered through the kitchen while his wife waited outside on the pavement.
Martin Luther King, in 1968, paid with his life in return for the eventual dismantling of segregation. It has always taken one great man to change a nation’s hereditary wrongs.
Nelson Mandela was one of those men and history will laud him as one of the greatest.
But what he achieved has been mostly symbolic. South Africa is still a wild, selfish and corrupt nation. Black rule has done nothing to advance the splintered ‘brotherhood’.
It’s a strange place... beautiful but different.
Everyone still carries hand guns. A business associate of mine always carried a huge ceramic gun.
I asked him one day, “Have you ever killed anyone with this thing?” “Oh yes”, he said, “I killed a couple of black dudes last week.” “Why, how?” I asked. “I caught them stealing my car.”
“Really?” “Well, they weren’t actually stealing it… they were sort of leaning on it!” “So you shot them?” “Yeah, I shot one of ‘em dead but the other guy took off… I had only winged him. So I got in the car and chased ‘im up the street. When I caught ‘im, I put a bullet in his forehead… couldn’t have ‘im testifying.”
“Bloody hell”, I knew he was fair dinkum.
There are still 40,000 murders committed in this country each year. Legally they have to keep the bodies for 18 months if they are not identified beforehand.
The mortuary is ten stories high and by the time a police report has been filled in on one murder, another eight have been committed.
Rape is commonplace and rarely reported. Stabbings are rampant and bodies are strewn along the sides of the roads near townships.
But nearly all killings are black-on-black. The tribal fighting is relentless and brutal.
During the apartheid period, the media in the West was misleading its viewers with clips of tanks tearing through black townships with guns blazing. The tanks were there solely to prevent the black-on-black gang killings.
Thousands of hungry blacks from northern countries drift into South Africa. All are looking for a better life, but their brothers are there waiting to ensure their lives are worse.
Of the almost 50 corrupt countries on the African continent, South Africa is the least corrupt yet it’s still a lawless place. You can drive at any speed you want. The police won’t pull you up… it’s too risky for them. A lot of blacks think it’s still preferable to shoot the cop rather than pay the speeding ticket.
Black (and I include Coloureds, Bushmen and Xhosa) persecution is rife. But sometimes it’s hard to find balance.
The pass-card system, that only allowed blacks in and out of the city at certain times during the day, was implemented for a different reason than what the West’s media told us.
The fathers of black families in the townships travelled to the city for work, (mainly stealing) but they wouldn’t return home with the money… if they did, the township’s black warlord would take whatever they earned anyway, so they stayed in town and drank it.
Then the family would travel to the city to find the father and hopefully some food. This resulted in thousands of families sleeping in the doorways of city buildings.
As the morning sun’s rays shifted to different parts of the streets, families would race to different doorways to soak up the warmth.
There were babies and toddlers who, if they didn’t die from disease, froze to death. A mattress was any piece of cardboard.
The “pass-card” law was there to force the father to return to the family each evening.
It is a horrible existence in the city and only marginally better than in the townships, where they are mercilessly ripped off by their own kind.
Apartheid is over now, but the blacks are far worse off because the laws framed to assist them were understandably taken better advantage of by the educated whites.
The “affirmative action” policy means those blacks who want a job could get a “whitie’s” job whenever they wanted, at the expense of the “whitie”.
This doesn’t work of course because it is only a “whitie” who can teach the black how to do the job. And the “whitie” knows how to sabotage potential competition to ensure his own tenure.
I learnt quickly that the Blacks were cowards… they only hunted, stole, raped and killed in packs.
I would walk home from the pub in the early hours. There would be a gang of blacks on each corner. The law of the jungle is: “Never run.”
If you even looked like you were trying to avoid them or you crossed to the other side of the road, it immediately excited them. They would kill you for your sneakers, but only if you were hopelessly outnumbered.
The solution? Walk straight through them, look each of them in the eye. They will stand aside. You are safe as long as you show no weakness.
If I was eating a cold chicken I would walk to the rubbish bin on the corner and stand in front of them and eat the chicken, throwing the bones in the bin. They would dive in the bin and fight like dogs over the bones.
If I was silly enough to give them half the chicken or try to share it with them, that would be a weakness, they were then likely to kill me for the entire chicken.
Sounds wrong? It sure does, but it’s easy to be critical from afar. Time spent in South Africa changes you.
I always figured if I was confronted by a lion I would walk deliberately toward it. The lion must be unsettled by this. This is not the way a lion kills.
I have seen, on the Discovery Channel, a lioness’s total confusion when prey doesn’t flee. It simply doesn’t know how to handle such a situation.
There was an amazing incidence of a bereft antelope calf approaching a lion. It was looking for its mother… it had no fear.
The lion didn’t kill it, it actually adopted it as its own “cub”.
The two lived inseparably for weeks until the calf died through lack of food. Even then the starving lioness didn’t eat it.
But I had respect for the blacks when it came to their kids.
Each week-day morning, children in their thousands would emerge from filthy cardboard and tin shanties, prepared for school.
They would jump the pools of excrement and skip hand in hand to the waiting government buses. Their uniforms were ironed and schoolbags and shoes were polished. They wore pristine white socks and shirts. Little girls’ hair was carefully combed and ribboned. Their parents see education as a way forward.
"Wanna go on a hunting trip?" asked an Afrikaans guy.
A bit of bush tucker sounded fine to me. "Sure, when and where?" "Any long weekend, we shoot up to Botswana. You'll love it!" I went to this bloke's place to see his gear... it was the best I had seen:
A camouflaged four-wheel drive with collapsible seats on the front mudguards and a row of every type of spotlight fixed to a frame on the roof. There were dull metal bars welded everywhere. Inbuilt generators, water tanks and the latest camping equipment.
"Ok, count me in... but is it legal to shoot game up there?" "Not really but we don't shoot game anyway... we shoot blacks."
I searched his face for a sign that he was kidding. There was none.
Hmmm... I'll never know for sure. But others did confirm the atrocity.
The deep divisions are still there and whites are doing it tough under an incompetent and corrupt black administration.
But if you believe in true democracy, and you do, then you must believe apartheid was wrong. If you believe in one-man one-vote, then apartheid was wrong. If you believe in the equality of mankind, then apartheid was wrong.
Nelson Mandela single handedly changed that when he finally tapped the consciences of good white men.
The world must surely owe him something.
===
Dai Le
Catching up with Van-Anh Nguyen - a great Australian Vietnamese and accomplished pianist! So awesome to have connected with her. ThanksMatt Jones for the introduction! We are bound to create something amazing together. — at Mekong Merchant.
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Me, some mornings .. ed
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
You may not see a way out, but with God, all things are possible!
We serve a supernatural God.He is not limited by anything or anyone and He’s ready to do the impossible in your life this season, through His supernatural power.Throughout the Bible, we find people who received a supernatural touch from God that brought healing, joy, restoration and a purpose for living. We see God supernaturally empowering people to rise above and to walk in victory.
This same supernatural power is available to you right now if you believe.God didn’t reserve His supernatural power only for the people mentioned in the Bible or for presidents or kings. God’s constantly doing the impossible in your life. He’s so loving and wants to bless you in amazing ways. In 2 Peter 1:3, the apostle said it this way, “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence”. Isn’t that incredible? You don’t need to be stressed, or worried or afraid. You don’t have to wonder if you’re a “good enough” Christian to receive it. It has nothing to do with what you did or will ever do. By His divine (supernatural) power, God has given you everything you need. Don’t trust in your strength, your skills, or your talents. Trust in God.God bless you.
We serve a supernatural God.He is not limited by anything or anyone and He’s ready to do the impossible in your life this season, through His supernatural power.Throughout the Bible, we find people who received a supernatural touch from God that brought healing, joy, restoration and a purpose for living. We see God supernaturally empowering people to rise above and to walk in victory.
This same supernatural power is available to you right now if you believe.God didn’t reserve His supernatural power only for the people mentioned in the Bible or for presidents or kings. God’s constantly doing the impossible in your life. He’s so loving and wants to bless you in amazing ways. In 2 Peter 1:3, the apostle said it this way, “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence”. Isn’t that incredible? You don’t need to be stressed, or worried or afraid. You don’t have to wonder if you’re a “good enough” Christian to receive it. It has nothing to do with what you did or will ever do. By His divine (supernatural) power, God has given you everything you need. Don’t trust in your strength, your skills, or your talents. Trust in God.God bless you.
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Remember that if your vision is limitless, your potential is limitless.Don’t miss out.Go beyond the barriers and live the extraordinary life God has planned for you.You are blessed.
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A New Season Ahead - A Prophetic Word.
As I was spending time with the Lord this morning, He shared this word with me and I wanted to share it with you also. The Lord is calling His Church to a time of knowing Him in an intimate way.As you look at everything around you, it is hard to remember sometimes that the greatest miracles do not take place when we are slaving away like the Israelites in Egypt, but rather when we are in the wilderness with no other option than to rest in God
There is a season to sow and a season to reap. There is also a season to work and a season to rest. Now is a season to rest my child and in this time you will experience the growth that you have been seeking me for. For there was a season of work and it was good for you to sow and reap. It was good for you to work the ground as any farmer would.
However, now is the time to rest in my presence and to trust that I will bring the increase. For what miracle is it when you have done all the work by yourself? What miracle is it when you can boast in your own knowledge and skills to get the job done? No my child, you will come to realize that the greatest breakthrough does not come in the season of work, but in the season of rest.
For it is when you rest that I work! It is when you are weak that I am strong. It is when you lack that I provide with abundance. For I chose a weak and foolish people to confound the wise. I took the worse case scenario so that no one could doubt that I am God and that I can surely provide.
For my Church has forgotten my power and have thought that they need to bring the power on their own. They seek me for the anointing, but have stopped to ask me for the power in their daily lives. They have asked for my anointing, but yet marriages are torn apart. The enemy steals their finances and health. Instead of seeking me for my love, they seek a greater anointing as if it is a remedy that will wipe away all the struggles that they are going through.
No my child, my Church does not need more anointing – it needs me! My Bride needs to know that she has a groom that loves her and died for her. Would the wife of a wealthy man care for anything? Did Esther go out from the presence of the King to try and fend for herself? No, this would be foolish, for the king had more than enough to feed her.
Yet my bride so often leaves my presence to try and feed herself instead of resting in our relationship. Instead of trusting that I will bring all things to pass and cause the power to come upon her for wealth and blessing, she has gone out to make things happen for herself.
It is time that my bride comes to me once again and enters into rest. For it is in that moment of rest that you will experience the life changing power that you have been looking for. You will not find it in your striving. You will not find it in the world. You will not find it in the face of others. No, you will only find what you are looking for at my feet.
So enter into my season of rest and allow me to work. Allow your circumstances to fall at your feet. Allow your hands to drop at your side. Allow me to be your God! Allow me to prove myself to you. For when you stop trying to prove that you are strong. When you stop trying to prove that you can “make it” then I can step in and show you that the wisdom of man is foolishness to me!
The wealth of man is poverty to me. The strength of man is weakness to me. Come and know the boundless reach of my power and ability. Come and know me. Come and experience me in this season of rest and then you will surely understand what it means to be still and to know that I am God says the Lord.I pray you are encouraged to enter into God's rest today.With Love.God bless you.
===As I was spending time with the Lord this morning, He shared this word with me and I wanted to share it with you also. The Lord is calling His Church to a time of knowing Him in an intimate way.As you look at everything around you, it is hard to remember sometimes that the greatest miracles do not take place when we are slaving away like the Israelites in Egypt, but rather when we are in the wilderness with no other option than to rest in God
There is a season to sow and a season to reap. There is also a season to work and a season to rest. Now is a season to rest my child and in this time you will experience the growth that you have been seeking me for. For there was a season of work and it was good for you to sow and reap. It was good for you to work the ground as any farmer would.
However, now is the time to rest in my presence and to trust that I will bring the increase. For what miracle is it when you have done all the work by yourself? What miracle is it when you can boast in your own knowledge and skills to get the job done? No my child, you will come to realize that the greatest breakthrough does not come in the season of work, but in the season of rest.
For it is when you rest that I work! It is when you are weak that I am strong. It is when you lack that I provide with abundance. For I chose a weak and foolish people to confound the wise. I took the worse case scenario so that no one could doubt that I am God and that I can surely provide.
For my Church has forgotten my power and have thought that they need to bring the power on their own. They seek me for the anointing, but have stopped to ask me for the power in their daily lives. They have asked for my anointing, but yet marriages are torn apart. The enemy steals their finances and health. Instead of seeking me for my love, they seek a greater anointing as if it is a remedy that will wipe away all the struggles that they are going through.
No my child, my Church does not need more anointing – it needs me! My Bride needs to know that she has a groom that loves her and died for her. Would the wife of a wealthy man care for anything? Did Esther go out from the presence of the King to try and fend for herself? No, this would be foolish, for the king had more than enough to feed her.
Yet my bride so often leaves my presence to try and feed herself instead of resting in our relationship. Instead of trusting that I will bring all things to pass and cause the power to come upon her for wealth and blessing, she has gone out to make things happen for herself.
It is time that my bride comes to me once again and enters into rest. For it is in that moment of rest that you will experience the life changing power that you have been looking for. You will not find it in your striving. You will not find it in the world. You will not find it in the face of others. No, you will only find what you are looking for at my feet.
So enter into my season of rest and allow me to work. Allow your circumstances to fall at your feet. Allow your hands to drop at your side. Allow me to be your God! Allow me to prove myself to you. For when you stop trying to prove that you are strong. When you stop trying to prove that you can “make it” then I can step in and show you that the wisdom of man is foolishness to me!
The wealth of man is poverty to me. The strength of man is weakness to me. Come and know the boundless reach of my power and ability. Come and know me. Come and experience me in this season of rest and then you will surely understand what it means to be still and to know that I am God says the Lord.I pray you are encouraged to enter into God's rest today.With Love.God bless you.
Pastor Rick Warren
FREE to you: Saddleback's ADVENT APP of 30 Christmas Devotionals for iPhone AND Android. http://ow.ly/rflDa===
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Someone quoted this on another thread.... "Ayatollah Khomeini said in 1979:
“We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah.
Patriotism is another name for paganism.
I say let this land [Iran] burn.
I say let this land go up in smoke,
provided Islam emerges triumphant
in the rest of the world. “===
I don't know how accurate this is, but my feeling is it has merit.
atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com
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http://www.michaelfreund.org/14121/misrepresenting-mandela
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http://www.meforum.org/3693/quakers-friends-anti-israel
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1213/obama_guarantees_israel_security.php3#.Uqbrb6WLNa9
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http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Gazas-Future-in-Jeopardy-as-Egyptian-Tunnel-Closure-Continues.html
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http://www.jta.org/2013/12/09/news-opinion/united-states/professors-group-calls-on-association-to-vote-down-academic-boycott-of-israel?utm_source=Newsletter+subscribers&utm_campaign=1687ebac57-JTA_Daily_Briefing_12_09_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dce5bc6f8-1687ebac57-25375673
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1213/obama_israel_iran_realistic#.UqXDQ4i7qp0.facebook
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- 1799 – France became the first country toadopt the metric system as its system for weights and measures.
- 1884 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby American author Mark Twain was first published in the United Kingdom and Canada.
- 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes were awarded, on the anniversary of the 1896 death of their founder, Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel (pictured).
- 1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, representing the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled.
- 1989 – At the first open pro-democracy demonstration in Mongolia, journalist Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the formation of the Mongolian Democratic Union, which would be instrumental in ending Communist rule four months later.
Events[edit]
- 1041 – The son of Empress Zoe of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire asMichael V.
- 1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
- 1510 – Portuguese Conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
- 1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
- 1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
- 1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter
- 1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
- 1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
- 1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
- 1861 – American Civil War: the Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
- 1861 – Forces led by Nguyen Trung Truc, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outerConfederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
- 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphorearms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
- 1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
- 1896 – Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris, a riot ensues upon the first utterance.
- 1898 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
- 1899 – Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
- 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
- 1902 – Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
- 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
- 1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.
- 1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
- 1911 – The first transcontinental flight across the United States is completed. Calbraith Perry Rodgers began the flight on 17 September 1911, taking off from Sheepshead Bay NY.
- 1927 – The phrase "Grand Ole Opry" is used for the first time on-air.
- 1932 – Thailand adopts a constitution and becomes a constitutional monarchy.
- 1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded to halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
- 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
- 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
- 1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
- 1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
- 1955 – The Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on television.
- 1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.
- 1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
- 1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
- 1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
- 1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the assumption of President Raúl Alfonsín.
- 1989 – Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia's democratic movement that changes the second oldest communist country into a democracy.
- 1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durhamcoalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
- 1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.
Births[edit]
- 1452 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1531)
- 1588 – Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher (d. 1637)
- 1713 – Johann Nicolaus Mempel, German cantor and organist (d. 1747)
- 1751 – George Shaw, English botanist and zoologist (d. 1813)
- 1787 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator, founded the American School for the Deaf (d. 1851)
- 1804 – Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (d. 1851)
- 1805 – Joseph Škoda, Czech physician (d. 1881)
- 1815 – Ada Lovelace, English mathematician, eponym of the Ada programming language (d. 1852)
- 1821 – Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet (d. 1877)
- 1822 – César Franck, Belgian composer and organist (d. 1890)
- 1824 – George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet, and minister (d. 1905)
- 1827 – Eugene O'Keefe, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1913)
- 1830 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (d. 1886)
- 1851 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, created the Dewey Decimal System (d. 1931)
- 1861 – Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, British socialite, mistress to Edward VII (d. 1938)
- 1866 – Louis Bolk, Dutch anatomist (d. 1930)
- 1870 – Mary Bonaparte, French daughter of Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, 5th Prince of Canino (d. 1947)
- 1870 – Adolf Loos, Austrian architect, designed Villa Müller (d. 1933)
- 1870 – Pierre Louÿs, French author (d. 1925)
- 1878 – C. Rajagopalachari, Indian lawyer and politician, last Governor-General of India (d. 1972)
- 1880 – Fred Immler, German actor (d. 1965)
- 1880 – Charles King, American jumper (1904 Olympics) (d. 1958)
- 1882 – Otto Neurath, Austrian sociologist and philosopher (d. 1945)
- 1882 – Shigenori Tōgō, Japanese politician, 37th Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1950)
- 1882 – Louis Wilkins, American pole vaulter (1904 Olympics) (d. 1950)
- 1884 – Zinaida Serebriakova, Russian-French painter (d. 1967)
- 1885 – Marios Varvoglis, Greek composer (d. 1967)
- 1886 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal, 17th Governor General of Canada (d. 1969)
- 1886 – Annie Bos, Dutch actress (d. 1975)
- 1891 – Nelly Sachs, German-Swedish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
- 1896 – Torsten Bergström, Swedish actor and film director (d. 1948)
- 1903 – Una Merkel, American actress (d. 1986)
- 1905 – Valter Palm, Estonian boxer (d. 1994)
- 1907 – Rumer Godden, English author (d. 1998)
- 1907 – Lucien Laurent, French footballer (d. 2005)
- 1908 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer and ornithologist (d. 1992)
- 1909 – Hermes Pan, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1990)
- 1911 – Chet Huntley, American journalist (d. 1974)
- 1912 – Philip Hart, American lawyer and politician, 49th Lieutenant Governor of Michigan (d. 1976)
- 1913 – Morton Gould, American composer (d. 1996)
- 1913 – Pannonica de Koenigswarter, English-American jazz patroness (d. 1988)
- 1913 – Harry Locke, English actor (d. 1987)
- 1914 – Dorothy Lamour, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1916 – Walt Arfons, American race car driver (d. 2013)
- 1916 – Rafael Ruiz, Spanish field hockey player (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Yahya Petra of Kelantan, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (d. 1979)
- 1918 – Anne Gwynne, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1918 – Anatoli Tarasov, Russian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Alexander Courage, American composer (d. 2008)
- 1920 – Clarice Lispector, Ukrainian-Brazilian author (d. 1977)
- 1920 – Reginald Rose, American screenwriter (d. 2002)
- 1922 – Lucía Hiriart, Chilean wife of Augusto Pinochet, First Lady of Chile
- 1923 – Harold Gould, American actor (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Clorindo Testa, Italian-Argentinian architect, designed the National Library of the Argentine Republic and Marriott Plaza Hotel (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Michael Manley, Jamaican politician, 4th Prime Minister of Jamaica (d. 1997)
- 1925 – Jean Byron, American actress (d. 2006)
- 1925 – Carolyn Kizer, American poet
- 1927 – Agnes Nixon, American actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1928 – Dan Blocker, American actor (d. 1972)
- 1928 – John Colicos, Canadian actor (d. 2000)
- 1930 – Wayne D. Anderson, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Philip R. Craig, American author (d. 2007)
- 1933 – Larry Morris, American football player (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Mako Iwamatsu, Japanese-American actor (d. 2006)
- 1934 – Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- 1935 – Terry Allcock, English footballer
- 1938 – Yuri Temirkanov, Russian conductor
- 1939 – Dick Bavetta, American basketball referee
- 1939 – Barry Cunliffe, English archaeologist
- 1941 – Fionnula Flanagan, Irish actress
- 1941 – Tommy Kirk, American actor
- 1941 – Tommy Rettig, American actor (d. 1996)
- 1941 – Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer and actor (d. 1985)
- 1941 – Peter Sarstedt, Indian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1941 – Chad Stuart, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Chad & Jeremy)
- 1944 – Steve Renko, American baseball player
- 1945 – Mukhtar Altynbayev, Kazakhstani general and politician, 3rd & 5th Minister of Defence
- 1946 – Thomas Lux, American poet
- 1947 – Douglas Kenney, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1980)
- 1947 – Rasul Guliyev, Azerbaijani politician, Speaker of the National Assembly (1993-1996)
- 1947 – Rainer Seifert, German field hockey player
- 1948 – Jasuben Shilpi, Indian sculptor (d. 2013)
- 1948 – Muhammad Zaidan, Syrian-Palestinian terrorist and negotiator, founded the Palestine Liberation Front (d. 2004)
- 1948 – Dušan Bajević, Bosnian Serb footballer and manager
- 1950 – John Boozman, American politician, Senator from Arkansas
- 1951 – Ellen Nikolaysen, Norwegian singer and actress
- 1952 – Clive Anderson, English lawyer and television host
- 1952 – Susan Dey, American actress
- 1952 – Greg Mortimer, Australian mountaineer
- 1952 – Paul Varul, Estonian lawyer and politician, Minister of Justice (1995-1999)
- 1953 – Chris Bury, American journalist
- 1954 – Jack Hues, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Wang Chung)
- 1954 – Enn Sellik, Estonian runner
- 1955 – Nazir Sabir, Pakistani mountaineer
- 1956 – Rod Blagojevich, American politician and criminal, 40th Governor of Illinois
- 1956 – Roberto Cassinelli, Italian politician
- 1956 – Jacquelyn Mitchard, American journalist and author
- 1956 – Jan van Dijk, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1957 – Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1957 – Paul Hardcastle, English composer and producer
- 1957 – Prem Rawat, Indian guru, leader of the Divine Light Mission
- 1958 – Pepsi Demacque, English singer (Pepsi & Shirlie)
- 1958 – Cornelia Funke, German author
- 1958 – John J. York, American actor
- 1959 – Mark Aguirre, American basketball player
- 1959 – Udi Aloni, American-Israeli director and author
- 1959 – Kevin Ash, English journalist (d. 2013)
- 1959 – Wolf Hoffmann, German guitarist (Accept)
- 1960 – Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and director
- 1960 – Michael Schoeffling, American actor
- 1961 – Nia Peeples, American singer and actress
- 1961 – Oded Schramm, Israel-American mathematician
- 1962 – John de Wolf, Dutch footballer
- 1963 – Jahangir Khan, Pakistani squash player
- 1964 – Stef Blok, Dutch politician, Minister without Portfolio
- 1964 – Bobby Flay, American chef and television personality
- 1964 – George Newbern, American actor
- 1965 – Greg Giraldo, American comedian (d. 2010)
- 1965 – J Mascis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Dinosaur Jr., Witch, Deep Wound, and Upsidedown Cross)
- 1965 – Stephanie Morgenstern, Canadian actress
- 1966 – Mel Rojas, Dominican baseball player
- 1969 – Rob Blake, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1970 – Bryant Stith, American basketball player
- 1971 – Bill Baroni, American politician
- 1971 – Brian Nichols, American spree killer
- 1972 – Donavon Frankenreiter, American surfer, singer-songwriter, and guitarist
- 1972 – Brian Molko, Belgian-Luxembourger singer-songwriter and guitarist (Placebo)
- 1972 – Puff Johnson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
- 1973 – Gabriela Spanic, Venezuelan actress
- 1974 – Meg White, American drummer (The White Stripes)
- 1975 – Steve Bradley, American wrestler (d. 2008)
- 1975 – Josip Skoko, Australian footballer
- 1975 – Kristel Verbeke, Belgian singer and actress (K3)
- 1976 – Shane "Shakey" Byrne, English motorcycle racer
- 1977 – Mr. Águila, Mexican wrestler
- 1977 – Emmanuelle Chriqui, Canadian actress
- 1978 – Summer Phoenix, American actress
- 1979 – Matt Bentley, American wrestler
- 1980 – Massari, Lebanese-Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1980 – Sarah Chang, American violinist
- 1981 – Taufik Batisah, Singaporean singer
- 1981 – Ryan Pini, Papua New Guinean swimmer
- 1981 – Fábio Rochemback, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Shilpa Anand, South African-Indian actress
- 1982 – Claudia Hoffmann, German sprinter
- 1983 – Patrick Flueger, American actor
- 1983 – Habib Mohamed, Ghanaian footballer
- 1983 – Xavier Samuel, Australian actor
- 1983 – Katrin Siska, Estonian singer (Vanilla Ninja)
- 1984 – JTG, American wrestler
- 1984 – Mark Applegarth, English rugby player
- 1985 – Charlie Adam, Scottish footballer
- 1985 – Matt Forte, American football player
- 1985 – T. J. Hensick, American ice hockey player
- 1985 – Lê Công Vinh, Vietnamese footballer
- 1985 – Trésor Mputu, Congolese footballer
- 1985 – Raven-Symoné, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1986 – Matthew Bates, English footballer
- 1987 – Gonzalo Higuaín, French-Argentine footballer
- 1988 – Wilfried Bony, Ivorian footballer
- 1988 – Mitchell Donald, Dutch footballer
- 1989 – Ng Chee Yang, Singaporean singer
- 1989 – Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, French politician, youngest parliamentarian in modern French history
- 1989 – Zachary Porter, American singer
- 1990 – Kazenga LuaLua, Congolese-English footballer
- 1990 – Shoya Tomizawa, Japanese motorcycle racer (d. 2010)
- 1994 – Matti Klinga, Finnish footballer
Deaths[edit]
- 949 – Herman I, Duke of Swabia
- 1041 – Michael IV the Paphlagonian, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1010)
- 1198 – Averroes, Spanish philosopher and polymath (b. 1126)
- 1508 – René II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1451)
- 1603 – William Gilbert, English astronomer, physicist, and physician (b. 1544)
- 1618 – Giulio Caccini, Italian composer (b. 1551)
- 1626 – Edmund Gunter, English mathematician (b. 1581)
- 1665 – Tarquinio Merula, Italian organist, violinist, and composer (b. 1594)
- 1736 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese military leader, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (b. 1663)
- 1831 – Thomas Johann Seebeck, German physicist (b. 1770)
- 1850 – Józef Bem, Polish general (b. 1794)
- 1850 – François Sulpice Beudant, French geologist (b. 1787)
- 1865 – Leopold I of Belgium (b. 1790)
- 1867 – Sakamoto Ryōma, Japanese samurai (b. 1836)
- 1896 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented Dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)
- 1909 – Red Cloud, Oglala-American tribal chief (b. 1822)
- 1911 – Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (b. 1817)
- 1914 – Robert Williams, American archer (b. 1841)
- 1917 – Mackenzie Bowell, Canadian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1823)
- 1920 – Horace Elgin Dodge, American businessman, co-founded Dodge (b. 1868)
- 1922 – Clement Lindley Wragge, English meteorologist (b. 1852)
- 1926 – Nikola Pašić, Serbian-Yugoslav politician, 5th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1845)
- 1928 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (b. 1868)
- 1936 – Bobby Abel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
- 1936 – Luigi Pirandello, Italian author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
- 1939 – John Grieb, American gymnast (b. 1879)
- 1941 – Erich Jacoby, Estonian architect (b. 1885)
- 1941 – Colin Kelly, American pilot (b. 1915)
- 1944 – John Brunt, English military officer (b. 1922)
- 1945 – Theodor Dannecker, German SS officer (b. 1913)
- 1946 – Walter Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1887)
- 1946 – Damon Runyon, American journalist and author (b. 1884)
- 1948 – Na Hye-sok, South Korean journalist, poet, and painter (b. 1896)
- 1951 – Algernon Blackwood, English author (b. 1869)
- 1953 – Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian scholar and translator (b. 1872)
- 1956 – David Shimoni, Russian-Israeli poet (b. 1891)
- 1958 – Adolfo Camarillo, American horse breeder (b. 1864)
- 1967 – Ronnie Caldwell, American organist (The Bar-Kays) (b. 1948)
- 1967 – Phalon Jones, American saxophonist (The Bar-Kays) (b. 1949)
- 1967 – Otis Redding, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1941)
- 1968 – Karl Barth, Swiss theologian (b. 1886)
- 1968 – George Forrest, Northern Irish politician, MP for Mid Ulster (b. 1921)
- 1968 – Thomas Merton, American monk and author (b. 1915)
- 1972 – Mark Van Doren, American poet (b. 1894)
- 1973 – Wolf V. Vishniac, American microbiologist (b. 1922)
- 1977 – Adolph Rupp, American basketball player and coach (b. 1901)
- 1978 – Ed Wood, American director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1924)
- 1979 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (b. 1912)
- 1982 – Freeman Fisher Gosden, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Susan Cabot, American actress (b. 1927)
- 1986 – Kate Wolf, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1942)
- 1987 – Jascha Heifetz, Russian violinist (b. 1901)
- 1988 – Richard S. Castellano, American actor (b. 1933)
- 1988 – Johnny Lawrence, English cricketer (b. 1911)
- 1990 – Armand Hammer, American businessman, founded Occidental Petroleum (b. 1898)
- 1991 – Greta Kempton, American painter (b. 1901)
- 1991 – Headman Shabalala, South African singer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) (b. 1945)
- 1992 – Dan Maskell, English tennis player and sportscaster (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Alice Tully, American singer (b. 1902)
- 1994 – Keith Joseph, English politician (b. 1918)
- 1994 – Alex Wilson, Canadian sprinter (b. 1905)
- 1995 – Darren Robinson, American rapper (The Fat Boys) (b. 1967)
- 1996 – Faron Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1932)
- 1999 – Rick Danko, Canadian singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (The Band) (b. 1942)
- 1999 – Lex Goudsmit, Dutch actor (b. 1913)
- 1999 – Shirley Hemphill, American actress (b. 1947)
- 1999 – Franjo Tuđman, Croat politician, 1st President of Croatia (b. 1922)
- 2000 – Marie Windsor, American actress (b. 1919)
- 2001 – Ashok Kumar, Indian actor (b. 1911)
- 2002 – Andres Küng, Swedish journalist and politician (b. 1945)
- 2004 – Gary Webb, American journalist (b. 1955)
- 2005 – Eugene McCarthy, America politician, Senator from Minnesota (b. 1916)
- 2005 – Richard Pryor, American comedian and actor (b. 1940)
- 2006 – Olivia Coolidge, British-American children's writer (b. 1908)
- 2006 – Augusto Pinochet, Chilean general and politician, 30th President of Chile (b. 1915)
- 2007 – Ashleigh Aston Moore, Canadian actress (b. 1981)
- 2007 – Aqsa Parvez, Pakistani-Canadian murder victim (b. 1991)
- 2008 – Didith Reyes, Filipino actress and singer (b. 1948)
- 2009 – Vladimir Teplyakov, Russian physicist (b. 1925)
- 2010 – John Fenn, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- 2010 – J. Michael Hagopian, Armenian-American director and producer (b. 1913)
- 2010 – MacKenzie Miller, American horse trainer and breeder (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi politician, 13th President of Bangladesh (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Vladimir Bakulin, Kazakhstani wrestler (b. 1939)
- 2012 – Cliff Brown, American football player (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Antonio Cubillo, Spanish politician, founder the Canary Islands Independence Movement (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Lisa Della Casa, Swiss soprano (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Harry Iauko, Ni-Vanuatu politician
- 2012 – Johnny Lira, American boxer (b. 1951)
- 2012 – Ciarán Maher, Irish footballer (b. 1962)
- 2012 – Bob Munden, American target shooter (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Paul Rauch, American television producer (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Tommy Roberts, English fashion designer (b. 1942)
- 2012 – John Small, American football player (b. 1946)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Alfred Nobel Day or Nobeldagen, presentation ceremony of the Nobel Prize. (Sweden)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Constitution Day (Thailand)
- Human Rights Day (International)
““I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:5,8NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you."
Isaiah 30:18
Isaiah 30:18
God often delays in answering prayer. We have several instances of this in sacred Scripture. Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the dawn of day--he had to wrestle all night for it. The poor woman of Syrophoenicia was answered not a word for a long while. Paul besought the Lord thrice that "the thorn in the flesh" might be taken from him, and he received no assurance that it should be taken away, but instead thereof a promise that God's grace should be sufficient for him. If thou hast been knocking at the gate of mercy, and hast received no answer, shall I tell thee why the mighty Maker hath not opened the door and let thee in? Our Father has reasons peculiar to himself for thus keeping us waiting. Sometimes it is to show his power and his sovereignty, that men may know that Jehovah has a right to give or to withhold. More frequently the delay is for our profit. Thou art perhaps kept waiting in order that thy desires may be more fervent. God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if he keeps thee waiting thou wilt see thy necessity more clearly, and wilt seek more earnestly; and that thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long tarrying. There may also be something wrong in thee which has need to be removed, before the joy of the Lord is given. Perhaps thy views of the Gospel plan are confused, or thou mayest be placing some little reliance on thyself, instead of trusting simply and entirely to the Lord Jesus. Or, God makes thee tarry awhile that he may the more fully display the riches of his grace to thee at last. Thy prayers are all filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered they are certainly not forgotten, but in a little while shall be fulfilled to thy delight and satisfaction. Let not despair make thee silent, but continue instant in earnest supplication.
Evening
"My people shall dwell in quiet resting places."
Isaiah 32:18
Isaiah 32:18
Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of his word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace to our spirits.
"I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
'Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name,
'Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:
The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh."
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Today's reading: Daniel 11-12, Jude 1 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Daniel 11-12
The Kings of the South and the North
2 "Now then, I tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. When he has gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. 3Then a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great power and do as he pleases. 4After he has arisen, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others.
5 "The king of the South will become strong, but one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power. 6 After some years, they will become allies. The daughter of the king of the South will go to the king of the North to make an alliance, but she will not retain her power, and he and his power will not last. In those days she will be betrayed, together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her....
Today's New Testament reading: Jude 1
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord....
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Micah, Michah, Mica, Micha[Mī'cah,Mī'chah, Mī'că, Mī'cha]—who is like jehovah.
- An Ephramite who hired a Levite to be priest to his image (Judg. 17; 18 ). This unworthy character brought great calamity to Israel. Dr. C. I. Scofield says of Micah’s consecration of the Levite that it affords a striking illustration of apostasy. “With his entire departure from the revealed will of God concerning worship and priesthood there is yet an exaltation of false priesthood. Saying, ‘Blessed be thou of Jehovah,’ Micah’s mother makes an idol; and Micah expects the blessing of Jehovah because he has linked the idolatry to the ancient levitical order.”
- The head of a family of Reuben (1 Chron. 5:5).
- A son of Mephibosheth , grandson of Saul (1 Chron. 8:34, 35; 9:40, 41).
- A Levite of the family of Asaph ( 1 Chron. 9:15). SeeMICHA.
- A son of Uzziel, a Kohathite (1 Chron. 23:20; 24:24, 25).
- Father of Abdon whom Josiah sent to enquire of the Lord when the Law was found (2 Chron. 34:20).
- The prophet surnamed the Morasthite, and called Michaiah in the V.L. (Jer. 26:18; Mic. 1:1).
The Man of Strong Convictions
Micah prophesied during the reign of Jothan, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Mic. 1:1; Jer. 26:18 ). He was a younger contemporary of Hosea. He is called “the Morasthite” since he came from Moresheth Gath. Micah, unlike Isaiah, was no politician. He did not censure the habit of looking to Egypt or to Assyria for help. He denounces the depravity of the nation, and threatens the vengeance of God. Isaiah prophesied to royalty, Micah ministered to common people, the sort who heard Jesus gladly. Isaiah was a courtier; Micah, a rustic from an obscure town some twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem.
Micah was probably a yeoman, farming his own plot of land, and in vivid sympathy with the class to which he belonged. The land hunger of rich men, always to be deprecated, was positively dangerous to a country like Palestine with little foreign trade, relying mainly on the produce of the soil for the support of its citizens. The grasping avarice of large landholders doomed to poverty a considerable part of the population, and so Micah stands out as a preacher to the poor and oppressed. He regarded selfish luxury, joined with oppression of the poor, as the crowning sin of Judah. The people were heavily taxed, the Assyrians demanding large payments in tribute to satisfy their lavishness in their architectural magnificence. Thus Zion was built up with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity (Mic. 3:10). Because of such exaction and idolatry, Micah was called and empowered to declare the judgment of God (Mic. 3:8).
Micah was a man of strong convictions and corresponding courage, and as a true preacher, uncovered sin and pointed to the coming Christ. As a prophet he went against the stream and uttered truths the people did not want. For this he was consequently stoned—the usual lot of a faithful prophet. His cry, in essence, was:
Back to Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2 ). In other words, back to the Messianic hope. Back to David, who did so much for the nation, and to whom God promised He would raise up the Messiah. Back to David, the constant ideal of the monarchy. The Messiah of Israel’s coming golden age would be like David.
Back to ethical righteousness (Mic. 6:8). Micah brushed aside all former ritual in favor of a righteousness given by God, and that had a heart for the need of others. It was a righteousness based upon God’s salvation.
Back to the prince of peace ( Mic. 4:1-3; 5:2-7). Micah heralded the message that the reign of the Messiah was Israel’s only hope of peace. We know it to be the only hope of world peace. The Messianic predictions form the most significant passages in Micah.
The most outstanding incident in Micah’s prophetic career was his preaching which led to the reformation under Hezekiah ( Jer. 26:18). When king and people sought God and repented, He turned from the fierceness of His anger. The humble crofter of Philistia was chosen as God’s messenger to the people, and the secret of his power was the fulness of the Holy Spirit (Mic. 3:8).
The book Micah wrote is characterized by deep spirituality, with a simple, but not rugged style. Sin and corruption, the sighing and agony of the people over the misrule of men in authority, the insistence on return to God, are all dealt with in no uncertain tones (Mic. 1:2; 3:1; 6:1 ). Broadly speaking, Micah’s prophecy can be divided thus:
Chapters one, two and three—judgment.
Chapters four and five—comfort.
Chapters six and seven—salvation.
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JESUS
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. - Luke 2:7
Sometimes a name is just a name, and sometimes a name captures someone perfectly. The ancients inclined to choose names carefully, so as to make a lifelong statement about a person's identity. "Jesus" is a name so familiar to us, that we easily forget that it was a name with an extraordinary significance. The name an angel announced should be given to Mary and Joseph's new child. And what a name! "Jesus" means "the Lord saves."
He does indeed.
Call him Jesus, the angel said, "because he will save people from their sins." None of us can save ourselves anymore than a person sinking in a rowboat can save himself by pulling up on the side of the boat. We need a savior, and not just a theoretical savior, but one who really has the power of God to separate us from the tyranny and the guilt of sin.
Now for good reason we associate the saving work of Jesus with his sacrificial death on the cross. But there would not have been a saving sacrifice if there had not been an incarnation. Bethlehem was the start of the mission. We don't need to wait until Good Friday and Easter to celebrate the savior. The saving started at the birth of Jesus.
Mary and Joseph could not have understood all this, of course. They were obedient and named the newborn Jesus, "the Lord saves," but how and when that would be was a mystery to them. Not so for us. This side of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus we know the extent of the saving love of God.
Prayer for today: Lord, make me more aware today of my sins, and help me know that they shrink before the powerful person of Jesus.
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