On the day a Japanese soldier (1972) is found hiding in Guam, listening to ABC broadcasts to find out when WW2 would end, the ABC is criticised for assaulting the Australian government, vainly hoping people will be exploited by pirates and drown. Apparently burning hands, rather than sewing lips, allows illegal immigrants to speak, and the navy is being criticised for that. Syria's leadership is being discussed on the day a kind of UN despatched Caligula. Climate change is being discussed on the day gold was discovered on hills. Cate Blanchett fears for our warm future, but still buys waterside, possibly humming "Cracklin' Rosie get on board." There is more archaeological evidence for Buddha than there is for the life of L Ron Hubbard. And it is a cold day in Hell.
Australia Day is coming. A time to give thanks for the sacrifice that many made to make this nation great. A time to give thanks for those who built a nation that is a modern democracy. A time to wonder why some hate freedom, compassion, love and hope. A time to stop public funding of the ABC?
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Happy birthday and many happy returns to those born on this day, across the years, including
- 76 – Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)
- 1444 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Italian husband of Bona of Savoy (d. 1476)
- 1670 – William Congreve, English playwright (d. 1729)
- 1732 – Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright (d. 1799)
- 1862 – Edith Wharton, American author (d. 1937)
- 1872 – Ethel Turner, Australian author (d. 1958)
- 1895 – Eugen Roth, German poet and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1918 – Oral Roberts, American evangelist, founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (d. 2009)
- 1941 – Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1941 – Aaron Neville, American singer (Neville Brothers)
- 1943 – Sharon Tate, American actress (d. 1969)
- 1949 – John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1961 – Nastassja Kinski, German-American actress
- 1966 – Jimeoin, Irish comedian and actor
- 1984 – Witold Kiełtyka, Polish drummer (Decapitated) (d. 2007)
- 2012 – Princess Athena of Denmark
Matches
- 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula's uncle Claudius as Emperor
- 1758 – During the Seven Years' War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth I of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763)
- 1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
- 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
- 1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully-fledged university in south Asia.
- 1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
- 1911 – Japanese anarchist Shūsui Kōtoku is hanged for treason in a case now considered a miscarriage of justice.
- 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
- 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
- 1984 – The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
- 1993 – Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
- 1996 – Polish Prime Minister Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.
Despatches
- 41 – Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)
- 1473 – Conrad Paumann, German organist and composer (b. 1410)
- 1895 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English politician (b. 1849)
- 1955 – Ira Hayes, American marine, member of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (b. 1923)
- 1955 – Henry Potter, American golfer (b. 1881)
- 1965 – Winston Churchill, English army officer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- 1971 – Bill W., American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
- 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
ABC, Fairfax trying to undermine border security
Piers Akerman – Friday, January 24, 2014 (6:26am)
FORCED to face the collapse of their repeated pre-election prediction that the Coalition’s border protection policy would be unworkable, the ABC and Fairfax are now doing their utmost to undermine the national effort.
Continue reading 'ABC, Fairfax trying to undermine border security'WHY THEY’RE BURNING HANDS INSTEAD OF SEWING LIPS
Tim Blair – Friday, January 24, 2014 (11:47am)
An imagined ABC broadcast from the near future:
Leigh Sales: We now cross to the ABC’s Indonesia correspondent George Roberts, who has further shocking claims about the Australian Navy’s treatment of asylum seekers.
George Roberts: Thank you, Leigh. I’m here with Abdikarim Zoto Kaafi, a Somali refugee who says that Australian Navy personnel forcibly held him down and sewed his lips together when his asylum seeker vessel was intercepted last week.
If Abdikarim Zoto Kaafi’s allegations are correct, and we have no reason at all to doubt him, this new evidence will dramatically increase tensions between Australia and Indonesia and cast further doubt on Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s controversial border protection policies.
Mr Kaafi, can you please tell our viewers exactly what the Australian Navy officers did to you?
Continue reading 'WHY THEY’RE BURNING HANDS INSTEAD OF SEWING LIPS'ALL CLIMATE CHANGE, ALL THE TIME
Tim Blair – Friday, January 24, 2014 (11:42am)
Poor kids:
Climate change should be taught to all students from primary school and be embedded in a range of subjects, a senior science curriculum expert says.As the Abbott government launches a review of Australia’s school curriculum, the dean of teaching and learning at Curtin University, Dr Vaille Dawson, told Fairfax Media climate change was not explicitly mentioned until year 10 under the national system and should be introduced earlier.She said climate change was the most significant social issue the world was going to face and every student should have access to sound, evidence-based material on the underlying science. She said relating science to major social issues such as climate change also helped better engage students.‘’Many teachers are already teaching climate change to younger students. But the rationale about getting it more explicitly in the curriculum is so that every teacher teaches it,’’ she said.
Really? Every teacher, including those working in English, drama and PE? Still, it shouldn’t be much of shift for any religious instruction teachers. Just change a few words here and there.
BOATS STOPPED
Tim Blair – Friday, January 24, 2014 (11:36am)
Apparently “stop the boats” was more than just a slogan:
Australia has not recorded an asylum seeker boat arrival in five weeks – the first time in five years there has been such a quiet stretch without more people filling detention centres …The development comes as the population of asylum seekers at Christmas Island has also dropped below 2000 for the first time since February last year.“We have our foot on the neck of the smugglers and we are not going to give them any relief,” Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said. “We are going to keep applying the pressure.”
Fewer the boats, greater the crank.
SIGNS
Tim Blair – Friday, January 24, 2014 (10:37am)
SHOE DEFENDED
Tim Blair – Friday, January 24, 2014 (10:27am)
CHILDREN SAFE
Tim Blair – Friday, January 24, 2014 (4:23am)
Wealthy warmies all want to live near water:
Cate Blanchett and her husband, Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Andrew Upton, have spent nearly $2 million on a waterfront apartment in Elizabeth Bay.Sources close to the sale said the purchase is an investment for their three sons, Dashiell, 12, Roman, 9, and Ignatius, 5 …
Cate’s purchase exposes her confidence that the ocean will not rise. Denier!
(Via Fern)
ABC backs off its “evidence” of navy torturers
Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (2:19pm)
Reader Wade notes a backing off:
===
There were two points of “evidence” the ABC used to push the torture story on day one which have both been watered down by day three.
Lo and behold, in today’s reporting:
1 – Video of asylum seekers’ injuries which it said ”appears to back” their claims. 2 – Indonesian police, who it quoted as confirming the asylum seekers’ story.
”Indonesian police say the asylum seekers suffered burns when Navy personnel forced them to hold onto hot pipes coming out of the boat’s engine.”
1 – In respect to the video footage, they’re backing away:
2 – As for Indonesian police corroboration:
”Footage obtained by ABC News shows asylum seekers with severe burns to their hands, but it is impossible to verify how they received them.”
”Indonesian police say so far the only witnesses are the asylum seekers.”
Hypocrite alert: Sydney Morning Herald’s deputy editor opposes all abuse except his own
Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (12:24pm)
The deputy editor of the Sydney Morning Herald says normal people don’t resort to abuse:
Greg Hywood, head of Fairfax Media, on his plans for papers like his Sydney Morning Herald:
===The deputy editor of the Sydney Morning Herald is scathing if Prime Minister Tony Abbott is even mildly critical of the Left:
The deputy editor of the Sydney Morning Herald calls out abuse - no matter how mild and well-merited - wherever he sees it, which, strangely, is only on conservative websites:
The deputy editor of the Sydney Morning Herald is a hypocrite:
Is that abuse - in response to some perfectly accurate points about a Herald article on global warmists - actually normal?
Greg Hywood, head of Fairfax Media, on his plans for papers like his Sydney Morning Herald:
We need to invest in high-quality journalism.But then he made Ben Cubby deputy editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.
Bob Carr, the Tourist Minister
Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (9:59am)
How we funded a tourist masquerading as a Foreign Minister:
===Behold a champion of the working class, asking the workers to fund sightseeing for him which they could not afford for themselves.
It reads like the bucket list of a dedicated sightseer. Except Bob Carr managed to tick off some of the world’s must-see tourist and cultural destinations in just 19 months as foreign minister.
The history buff found time in a hectic schedule of official meetings to visit 67 sites in 30 separate countries.
In Turkey, for example, Mr Carr walked Istanbul’s famous spice bazaar and made visits to the Byzantine-era Chora Church, the majestic New Mosque, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia (the Church of the Divine Wisdom) and Topkapi Palace. His wife Helena joined him in Turkey.
During a trip to Egypt, Mr Carr viewed the world’s finest collection of antiquities of the Pharaohs at the Egyptian Museum, the Hanging Church in Old Cairo and visited the district of Islamic Cairo.
In Laos, he visited the World Heritage city Luang Prabang.
In Mr Carr’s advance instructions to embassies he requested visits to ‘’important cultural and historical sites early in a program. Such a visit can add useful context to other parts of the program.’’
Abbott tells Davos Big Government is not the answer
Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (9:27am)
The Abbott Government
has just handed out $20 million for marriage counselling for people who
should pay for it themselves if they think it worth the expense. Worse,
the Government is about to pay for a parental leave system so generous
that it is simply unaffordable.
That said, Prime Minister Tony Abbott talked a very fine game in Davos this week, and if his actions from now on are better tailored to his words we should profit handsomely. From Abbott’s excellent speech:
Abbott in his speech rightly rejects that great folly:
===That said, Prime Minister Tony Abbott talked a very fine game in Davos this week, and if his actions from now on are better tailored to his words we should profit handsomely. From Abbott’s excellent speech:
Despite the Crisis, worldwide, income per person is still up by over 60 per cent in the past decade… This progress is partly due to better science and technology; and partly to the constant aspiration to do better.Remember Kevin Rudd’s vainglorious claim that the global financial crisis had disproved the liberal economics which he himself had been preaching and demonstrated the need for Big Government?
Mostly, though, it’s been driven by the intellectual and philosophical conviction that freer trade and smaller government will strengthen prosperity; the instinct that empowered citizens can do more for themselves than government will ever do for them.
Essentially, officialdom has begun to grasp that human freedom is less a threat than an opportunity.
As soon as people have economic freedom, they create markets.
Markets are the proven answer to the problem of scarcity.
They rest, as Roger Scruton has recently observed, “upon the kind of moral order that arises from below as people take responsibility for their lives, learn to honour their agreements, and live in justice and charity with their neighbours”...
Rudd was widely praised for this hymn to Big Government and policies which have left us deep in debt.
[The crisis] has called into question the prevailing neo-liberal economic orthodoxy of the past 30 years - the orthodoxy that has underpinned the national and global regulatory frameworks that have so spectacularly failed to prevent the economic mayhem which has now been visited upon us.
Not for the first time in history, the international challenge for social democrats is to save capitalism from itself: to recognise the great strengths of open, competitive markets while rejecting the extreme capitalism and unrestrained greed that have perverted so much of the global financial system in recent times… The intellectual challenge for social democrats is not just to repudiate the neo-liberal extremism that has landed us in this mess, but to advance the case that the social-democratic state offers the best guarantee of preserving the productive capacity of properly regulated competitive markets, while ensuring that government is the regulator, that government is the funder or provider of public goods and that government offsets the inevitable inequalities of the market with a commitment to fairness for all.
Abbott in his speech rightly rejects that great folly:
The challenge, as we continue to work through the weaknesses that brought on the Crisis, is to strengthen governance without suppressing the vitality of capitalism.
The Crisis, after all, has not changed any of the basic laws of economics.
The lesson of recent history, whether it’s the collapse of Soviet-style communism, the phenomenal growth of Asian economies, or the slow and painful recovery from the Crisis of 2008 and 2009 is that real progress is always built on clear fundamentals.
You can’t spend what you haven’t got.
No country has ever taxed or subsidised its way to prosperity.
You don’t address debt and deficit with yet more debt and deficit.
And profit is not a dirty word because success in business is something to be proud of…
Above all else, policy-makers need to understand that every dollar government spends comes from the people, either through taxes and borrowings; or, over the past few years, through the process known as quantitative easing which is not indefinitely sustainable.
A certain level of government spending is necessary and good.
In Lincoln’s words, government should do for people what they can’t do for themselves – and no more…
As always, stronger economic growth is the key to addressing almost every global problem.
Stronger growth requires lower, simpler and fairer taxes that don’t stifle business creativity.
And stronger growth requires getting government spending under control so that taxes can come down; and reducing regulation so that productivity can rise…
A strong economy is far less likely to be one responding to central control than one spontaneously generating its own growth.
Are we allowed to protest back by destroying the vandals’ homes?
Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (8:42am)
The Left, like the far Right, tends to licence the inner-totalitarian:
FAMOUS Melbourne landmark Cooks’ Cottage has been targeted by anti-Australia Day vandals.Note also the foul language. What else might such people destroy and deface to get their way? Whatever such barbarians want is unlikely to suit the civilised.
Boats turned back. So who said it wouldn’t work?
Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (7:31am)
Yet another boat turned back rather than escorted to Australia:
Curiously, though, Leftist commentators have never been so critical of border policies than now, when the boats are stopping and the drownings have ended. Is that simply because the Left hates being proved wrong about a policy it agreed could never work?
Greens child-Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2013:
Do we get a sorry from these people?
===A PAKISTANI asylum-seeker who was returned with 35 others to West Java on December 27 claims two Australian navy officers steered their boat towards the Indonesia coast for 14 hours…As a result of the turn-backs and other policies:
Australian authorities refuse to confirm any incidents but The Australian understands at least five and possibly seven boats have been turned back.
AUSTRALIA has not recorded an asylum seeker boat arrival in five weeks - the first time in five years there has been such a quiet stretch without more people filling detention centres.
Curiously, though, Leftist commentators have never been so critical of border policies than now, when the boats are stopping and the drownings have ended. Is that simply because the Left hates being proved wrong about a policy it agreed could never work?
Greens child-Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2013:
Punishing asylum seekers by turning boats around - or sending people to Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Nauru, anywhere but here - will not deter desperate people from making dangerous journeys by boat. It never has and it never will.Labor’s Bill Shorten and Richard Marles in the Guardian in November 2013:
The Coalition government’s boat turn-back policy has failed and its foreign policy is in disarray, Labor says…Prime Minister Julia Gillard in October 2012:
Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles says it’s now plain that turn-backs are not happening… “It was inevitably going to fail. And that’s what we saw yesterday…
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said the government’s boat policy was in serious trouble. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Coalition’s boat person policy is absolutely not working,” he told ABC television.
Mr Abbott is peddling a myth to the Australian people. He knows Indonesia will not agree to facilitate tow backs, and he’s trying not to be exposed as telling the Australian people something that can’t and won’t work.Law lecturer Azadeh Dastya, an associate of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, in July 2013:
A bad copy of a ‘’tow back’’ policy that has not worked and is unlawful in the US context, is not going to be the silver bullet the Coalition is looking for.Former ABC host Monica Attard in The Hoopla in October 2013:
“Turn back the boats” may just disappear in the fog… It will be because there comes a time when every new new prime minister sees the vast and dangerous gulf between sloganeering in opposition and the responsibilities that come with high office.Former ambassador Tony Kevin in Crikey in June, 2013.
Comedian Ben Eltham in New Matilda in July 2013:
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s pledge to turn back asylum seeker boats to Indonesia is unworkable and dangerous… Surely, it is time now for Tony Abbott to cross navy towback off his list of asylum seeker deterrence policies.
So what exactly is “towing back the boats”? Can it be done, and will it work?Melissa Phillips, honorary fellow at Melbourne University, in The Conversation in April, 2013:
The answer depends on who you ask, but most informed opinion seems to support the Government’s view that the policy is dangerous and potentially illegal. In terms of safety, the risks of taking overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels under tow by a large warship are obvious.... For years now, the Opposition has escaped serious scrutiny on some of its more outlandish policy positions. As the campaign develops, that’s starting to change.
Arja Keski-Nummi in the Sydney Morning Herald in June 2013:
People fleeing violence and persecution in Syria, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, are quite obviously leaving because of insecurity in their countries. Rhetoric from politicians about deterrents and “stopping the boats” is targeted at the Australian voting public and not prospective asylum-seekers. We know that in the asylum policy, deterrents simply do not work.
The flood of asylum-seeker boats travelling to Australia will continue under a Coalition government, according to a former senior official in the Immigration Department who says Tony Abbott’s plan to turn back boats and reintroduce temporary protection visas will not stop the dangerous journeys.Professor Damien Kingsbury in the ABC’s The Drum in October 2012:
Arja Keski-Nummi, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Development and former head of the refugee division in the Immigration Department, said only enhanced regional co-operation would reduce the numbers of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia by boat....
‘’If they’re in government, they’re going to own the issue and they’ve made a lot of promises, that I frankly can’t see that they can fulfil. And the main one is stopping the boats,’’ she said.
In short, the ‘tow back’ proposal was and, in so far as it continues to be defended by Opposition speakers, remains a policy disaster… The ‘tow back’ policy, then, can now be expected to be quietly sidelined. Abbott will, meanwhile, be likely reflecting on just being given a lesson in Diplomacy 101.
Do we get a sorry from these people?
The ABC’s selective ear
Andrew Bolt January 23 2014 (4:16pm)
The ABC recently claimed it never reported mere allegations on matters of public importance
- which it defined in this case as the involvement of Prime Minister
Julia Gillard in the creation of a slush fund for her then boyfriend:
For instance, here’s part of one ABC letter to a viewer:
Now let’s contrast.
This week the ABC has had not the slightest hesitation in reporting - at great length and with great vehemence - improbable allegations that our navy tortured boat people:
===For instance, here’s part of one ABC letter to a viewer:
Reporting that the prime minister of the nation is under police investigation is an enormously significant call to make. It cannot be made on supposition, on rumour, or on hearsay…Here’s another:
According to The Australian they’ve been collecting files but you would expect any police investigation to gather up this sort of primary documentation. That does not mean Ms Gillard is under investigation. For all we know, the investigation could be into Ralph Blewitt, or Bruce Wilson or Slater & Gordon or any number of other individuals and entities.
The ABC is aware of these statements but we do not at this stage believe it warrants the attention of our news coverage.Had the ABC made some calls it would have found out that the police investigation does indeed include in its scope the activities of Gillard, who insists she did nothing wrong.
To the extent that it may touch tangentially on a former role of the Prime Minister, we know The Australian newspaper maintains an abiding interest in events 17 years ago at the law firm Slater & Gordon, but the ABC is unaware of any allegation in the public domain which goes to the Prime Minister’s integrity.
Now let’s contrast.
This week the ABC has had not the slightest hesitation in reporting - at great length and with great vehemence - improbable allegations that our navy tortured boat people:
Yesterday, [the ABC] reported unproven claims that Australian navy personnel mistreated asylum-seekers by forcing them to grasp a hot engine in a boat turnback operation, causing “severe” burns. An “exclusively” supplied video showed minor hand damage. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison categorically denied the claims and later reports suggest the burns occurred before the vessel was intercepted, possibly as the vessel was sabotaged. Our navy personnel have, after all, saved the lives of hundreds of asylum-seekers.
ABC bulletins also ran strongly with strident criticism from New York-based Human Rights Watch, labelling Australia’s measures “abusive” and accusing the government of “demonising” asylum-seekers. The national broadcaster continues to provide uncritical amplification of this predictable venting, setting itself as the moral conscience of a nation with a brutal government and insensitive populace.
Reading Kipling
Andrew Bolt January 23 2014 (2:00pm)
I’m reading with huge enjoyment Rudyard Kipling’s Something of Myself,
a memoir he left incomplete when he died. (The final words on the last.
unfinished page, describing his office: “Left and right of the table
were two big globes, on one of which a great airman had once outlined
in white paint those air-routes to the East and Australia which were
well in use before my death.")
As a teenaged journalist Kipling worked in British India, a land he’d been born in and loved. He knew soldiers and shopkeepers, Christians, Hindus and Muslims, and he knew what it took to rule and the men on whom that duty fell. He knew because he was there and he saw:
I thought of today’s Leftists particularly - those furiously fighting for “compassionate” boat people policies that actually lured more than 1000 people to their deaths - when I read this excerpt:
More on Kipling’s culture war:
Kipling took his message to Australia. From an interview he gave to The Age during his visit to Melbourne in 1891:
===As a teenaged journalist Kipling worked in British India, a land he’d been born in and loved. He knew soldiers and shopkeepers, Christians, Hindus and Muslims, and he knew what it took to rule and the men on whom that duty fell. He knew because he was there and he saw:
Later I described openings of big bridges and such-like, which meant a night or two with the engineers; floods on railways — more nights in the wet with wretched heads of repair gangs; village festivals and consequent outbreaks of cholera or small-pox; communal riots under the shadow of the Mosque of Wazir Khan, where the patient waiting troops lay in timber-yards or side-alleys till the order came to go in and hit the crowds on the feet with the gun-butt (killing in Civil Administration was then reckoned confession of failure), and the growling, flaring, creed-drunk city would be brought to hand without effusion of blood, or the appearance of any agitated Viceroy...He saw from those early years how power worked, and how it seduced weak men from their even weaker principles:
One evening, while putting the paper to bed, I looked as usual over the [newpaper’s] leader. It was the sort of false-balanced, semi-judicial stuff that some English journals wrote about the Indian White Paper from 1932 to ‘34, and like them it furnished a barely disguised exposition of the Government’s high ideals. In after-life one got to know that touch better, but it astonished me at the time, and I asked my Chief what it all meant. He replied, as I should have done in his place; ‘None of your dam’ business,’ and, being married, went to his home. I repaired to the Club which, remember, was the whole of my outside world.Kipling was, of course, a conservative, like so many of the greatest writers. He knew the difference - moral and practical - between a man’s intentions and a man’s achievements, between a plan and its consequences, between a seeming and a doing. And in that difference he took the side of responsibility. A man owned his deeds.
As I entered the long, shabby dining-room where we all sat at one table, everyone hissed. I was innocent enough to ask; ‘What’s the joke? Who are they hissing?’ ‘You,’ said the man at my side. ‘Your dam’ rag has ratted over the Bill.’
It is not pleasant to sit still when one is twenty while all your universe hisses you. Then uprose a Captain, our Adjutant of Volunteers, and said: ‘Stop that! The boy’s only doing what he’s paid to do.’ The demonstration tailed off, but I had seen a great light. The Adjutant was entirely correct. I was a hireling, paid to do what I was paid to do, and—I did not relish the idea. Someone said kindly; ‘You damned young ass! Don’t you know that your paper has the Government printing-contract?’ I did know it, but I had never before put two and two together.
A few months later one of my two chief proprietors received the decoration that made him a Knight. Then I began to take much interest in certain smooth Civilians, who had seen good in the Government measure and had somehow been shifted out of the heat to billets in Simla. I followed under shrewd guidance, often native, the many pretty ways by which a Government can put veiled pressure on its employees in a land where every circumstance and relation of a man’s life is public property. So, when the great and epoch-making India Bill turned up fifty years later, I felt as one re-treading the tortuous byways of his youth. One recognised the very phrases and assurances of the old days still doing good work, and waited, as in a dream, for the very slightly altered formulas in which those who were parting with their convictions excused themselves. Thus; ‘I may act as a brake, you know. At any rate I’m keeping a more extreme man out of the game.’ ‘There’s no sense running counter to the inevitable,’—and all the other Devil-provided camouflage for the sinner-who-faces-both-ways.
I thought of today’s Leftists particularly - those furiously fighting for “compassionate” boat people policies that actually lured more than 1000 people to their deaths - when I read this excerpt:
UPDATE
More on Kipling’s culture war:
More on Kipling’s respect for the true responsibilities of those who lead:
I had been at work on the rough of a set of verses called later ‘The English Flag’ and had boggled at a line which had to be a key-line but persisted in going ‘soft.’ As was the custom between us, I asked into the air ‘What am I trying to get at?’ Instantly the Mother, with her quick flutter of the hands ‘You’re trying to say; “What do they know of England who only England know,”’ The Father confirmed…
In the talks that followed, I exposed my notion of trying to tell to the English something of the world outside England—not directly but by implication… Bit by bit, my original notion grew into a vast, vague conspectus—Army and Navy Stores List if you like—of the whole sweep and meaning of things and effort and origins throughout the Empire…
I had met several men and an occasional woman, whom I by no means loved. They were overly soft-spoken or blatant, and dealt in pernicious varieties of safe sedition. For the most part they seemed to be purveyors of luxuries to the ‘Aristocracy,’ whose destruction by painful means they loudly professed to desire. They derided my poor little Gods of the East, and asserted that the British in India spent violent lives ‘oppressing’ the Native. (This in a land where white girls of sixteen, at twelve or fourteen pounds per annum, hauled thirty and forty pounds weight of bath-water at a time up four flights of stairs!)
The more subtle among them had plans, which they told me, for ‘snatching away England’s arms when she isn’t looking—just like a naughty child—so that when she wants to fight she’ll find she can’t.’ (We have come far on that road since.) Meantime, their aim was peaceful, intellectual penetration and the formation of what to-day would be called ‘cells’ in unventilated corners. Collaborating with these gentry was a mixed crowd of wide-minded, wide-mouthed Liberals, who darkened counsel with pious but disintegrating catch-words, and took care to live very well indeed. Somewhere, playing up to them, were various journals, not at all badly written, with a most enviable genius for perverting or mistaking anything that did not suit their bilious doctrine. The general situation, as I saw it, promised an alluring ‘dog-fight,’ in which I had no need to take aggressive part because, as soon as the first bloom had faded off my work, my normal output seemed to have the gift of arriding per se the very people I most disliked.
I took ship to Italy, and there chanced to meet Lord Dufferin, our Ambassador… He was kindness itself, and made me his guest at his Villa near Naples where, one evening between lights, he talked—at first to me directly, then sliding into a reverie—of his work in India, Canada, and the world at large. I had seen administrative machinery from beneath, all stripped and overheated. This was the first time I had listened to one who had handled it from above. And unlike the generality of Viceroys, Lord Dufferin knew. Of all his revelations and reminiscences, the sentence that stays with me is ‘And so, you see, there can be no room’ (or was it ‘allowance’?) ‘for good intentions in one’s work.’Kipling sees the Left at work on a visit to Melbourne:
And on a warm night I attended a Labour Congress, where Labour debated whether some much-needed lifeboats should be allowed to be ordered from England, or whether the order should be postponed till life-boats could be built in Australia under Labour direction at Labour prices.UPDATE
Kipling took his message to Australia. From an interview he gave to The Age during his visit to Melbourne in 1891:
His views apparently were not well received.
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- 41 – Cassius Chaerea and the disgruntled Praetorian Guardsmurdered Roman emperor Caligula (bust pictured), replacing him with his uncle Claudius.
- 1857 – The University of Calcutta, the first modern universityin the Indian subcontinent, was established in Calcutta.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Boer forces stopped a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launched Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Binh and Bien Hoa.
- 2009 – Klaus, the most damaging storm since Lothar and Martin inDecember 1999, made landfall near Bordeaux, France.
Events[edit]
- 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula's uncle Claudius as Emperor
- 1438 – The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.
- 1458 – Matthias I Corvinus becomes king of Hungary.
- 1624 – Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
- 1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
- 1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1758 – During the Seven Years' War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth I of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763)
- 1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the Action of Picheuta.
- 1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
- 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
- 1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully-fledged university in south Asia.
- 1859 – Political and state union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as Domnitor in both Principalities.
- 1862 – Bucharest is proclaimed capital of Romania.
- 1878 – The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
- 1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
- 1911 – Japanese anarchist Shūsui Kōtoku is hanged for treason in a case now considered a miscarriage of justice.
- 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
- 1918 – The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14(NS)
- 1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.
- 1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán.
- 1942 – World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
- 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
- 1947 – Greek banker Dimitrios Maximos becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
- 1960 – Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
- 1961 – 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
- 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
- 1977 – Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
- 1978 – Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
- 1984 – The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
- 1986 – Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 kilometres (50,600 mi) of Uranus.
- 1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.
- 1993 – Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
- 1996 – Polish Prime Minister Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.
- 2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
- 2009 – The storm Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France. It subsequently would cause 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.
- 2011 – At least 35 died and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
Births[edit]
- 76 – Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)
- 1287 – Richard de Bury, English bishop (d. 1345)
- 1444 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Italian husband of Bona of Savoy (d. 1476)
- 1540 – Edmund Campion, English priest and martyr (d. 1581)
- 1638 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet (d. 1706)
- 1670 – William Congreve, English playwright (d. 1729)
- 1674 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop (d. 1735)
- 1679 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher (d. 1754)
- 1705 – Farinelli, Italian singer (d. 1782)
- 1709 – Dom Bédos de Celles, French monk and organ builder (d. 1779)
- 1712 – Frederick the Great, Prussian king (d. 1786)
- 1732 – Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright (d. 1799)
- 1742 – Anne, Duchess of Cumberland and Strathearn (d. 1808)
- 1746 – Gustav III of Sweden, Swedish king (d. 1792)
- 1752 – Muzio Clementi, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1832)
- 1754 – Andrew Ellicott, American surveyor (d. 1820)
- 1763 – Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, Russian general (d. 1831)
- 1776 – E. T. A. Hoffmann, German jurist and author (d. 1822)
- 1779 – Elizabeth Alexeievna, German wife of Alexander I of Russia (d. 1826)
- 1841 – Robert Williams, American archer (d. 1914)
- 1843 – Josip Stadler, Croatian archbishop (d. 1918)
- 1848 – Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (d. 1916)
- 1862 – Edith Wharton, American author (d. 1937)
- 1864 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and activist (d. 1936)
- 1866 – Jaan Poska, Estonian lawyer, diplomat and politician (d. 1920)
- 1872 – Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (d. 1943)
- 1872 – Ethel Turner, Australian author (d. 1958)
- 1872 – Morris Travers, English chemist (d. 1961)
- 1883 – Philip Schuster, American gymnast (d. 1926)
- 1886 – Henry King, American director (d. 1982)
- 1888 – Vicki Baum, Austrian author (d. 1960)
- 1888 – Ernst Heinkel, German businessman, founded the Heinkel Aircraft Manufacturing Company (d. 1958)
- 1889 – Charles Hawes, American author (d. 1923)
- 1891 – Walter Model, German field marshal (d. 1945)
- 1895 – Eugen Roth, German poet and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1898 – Cliff Heathcote, American baseball player (d. 1939)
- 1900 – Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian-American geneticist and biologist (d. 1975)
- 1901 – Harry Calder, South African cricketer (d. 1995)
- 1901 – Edward Turner, English motorcycle designer (d. 1973)
- 1902 – E. A. Speiser, American scholar (d. 1965)
- 1905 – J. Howard Marshall, American lawyer and businessman (d. 1995)
- 1907 – Maurice Couve de Murville, French politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1999)
- 1907 – Tuts Washington, American pianist (d. 1984)
- 1909 – Martin Lings, English author and scholar (d. 2005)
- 1909 – Ann Todd, English actress (d. 1993)
- 1910 – Doris Haddock, American activist (d. 2010)
- 1911 – Muir Mathieson, Scottish conductor and composer (d. 1975)
- 1912 – Frederick Ashworth, American navy officer (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Norman Dello Joio, American composer (d. 2008)
- 1915 – Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
- 1916 – Jack Brickhouse, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
- 1916 – Rafael Caldera, Venezuelan politician, 65th President of Venezuela (d. 2009)
- 1916 – Arnoldo Foà, Italian actor and director
- 1916 – Gene Mako, Hungarian-American tennis player (d. 2013)
- 1917 – Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Oral Roberts, American evangelist, founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Coleman Francis, American director (d. 1973)
- 1920 – Jerry Maren, American actor
- 1922 – Charles Socarides, American psychiatrist (d. 2005)
- 1923 – Vlado Kristl, Croatian painter and director (d. 2004)
- 1924 – Joe Albany, American pianist (d. 1988)
- 1925 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Ruth Asawa, American sculptor (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Georges Lautner, French director and screenwriter
- 1927 – Sir Patrick Macnaghten, 11th Baronet, Scottish chief (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Desmond Morris, English anthropologist
- 1928 – Michel Serrault, French actor (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian politician, former President of Georgia
- 1930 – Mahmoud Farshchian, Iranian-Persian painter
- 1930 – Bernard Matthews, English businessman, founded Bernard Matthews Farms (d. 2010)
- 1930 – John Romita, Sr., American illustrator
- 1930 – Terence Bayler, New Zealand-born stage and screen actor
- 1931 – Leonard Baker, American writer (d. 1984)
- 1931 – Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician (d. 2012)
- 1932 – Jaan Puhvel, Estonian-American linguist and mythographer
- 1933 – Claude Préfontaine, Canadian actor (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Ann Cole, American singer (d. 1986)
- 1934 – Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet (d. 1976)
- 1935 – Eric Ashton, English rugby player (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Bamber Gascoigne, English television presenter and author
- 1936 – William Bogert, American actor
- 1936 – Doug Kershaw, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
- 1936 – Bobby Wellins, Scottish saxophonist
- 1939 – Ray Stevens, American singer-songwriter
- 1940 – Joachim Gauck, German politician, 11th President of Germany
- 1941 – Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1941 – Aaron Neville, American singer (Neville Brothers)
- 1941 – Dan Shechtman, Israeli scientist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Subhash Ghai, Indian director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1943 – Peter Struck, German politician (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Sharon Tate, American actress (d. 1969)
- 1943 – Tony Trimmer, English race car driver
- 1944 – David Gerrold, American author and screenwriter
- 1944 – Klaus Nomi, German singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1983)
- 1945 – D. Todd Christofferson, American religious leader
- 1945 – John Garamendi, American politician, 46th Lieutenant Governor of California
- 1946 – Haji, Canadian-American actress (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor
- 1947 – Michio Kaku, Japanese-American physicist
- 1947 – Masashi Ozaki, Japanese golfer
- 1947 – Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter (Hindu Love Gods and lyme and cybelle) (d. 2003)
- 1948 – Michael Des Barres, English singer-songwriter and actor (Power Station, Silverhead, and Detective)
- 1949 – John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1950 – Daniel Auteuil, French actor
- 1950 – Gennifer Flowers, American actress and model
- 1950 – Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadorian-American author and scholar
- 1951 – David Green, English writer and Chief Executive Civitas
- 1951 – Yakov Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American comedian
- 1953 – Yuri Bashmet, Russian conductor , violinist and violist
- 1953 – Tim Stoddard, American baseball player
- 1954 – Jo Gartner, Austrian race car driver (d. 1986)
- 1955 – Jim Montgomery, American swimmer
- 1956 – Hanne Krogh, Norwegian singer and actress (Bobbysocks)
- 1956 – Lounès Matoub, Algerian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
- 1956 – Jack Neo, Singaporean actor and director
- 1957 – Mark Eaton, American basketball player
- 1957 – Ade Edmondson, English comedian, singer-songwriter, and actor (The Bad Shepherds)
- 1958 – Neil Allen, American baseball player
- 1958 – Jools Holland, English singer-songwriter and pianist (Squeeze and Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra)
- 1959 – Akira Maeda, Japanese wrestler
- 1959 – David Mills, American author
- 1959 – Vic Reeves, English comedian, actor, and author
- 1960 – Rick Leventhal, American journalist
- 1960 – Mária Bajzek Lukács, Hungarian author and educator
- 1961 – Guido Buchwald, German footballer
- 1961 – Nastassja Kinski, German-American actress
- 1961 – Vince Russo, American journalist, author, and wrestling manager
- 1961 – William Van Dijck, Belgian horse racer
- 1962 – Sly Bailey, English business woman
- 1962 – Argiris Kambouris, Greek basketball player
- 1963 – Martyn Grimley, English field hockey player
- 1963 – Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
- 1965 – Mike Awesome, American wrestler (d. 2007)
- 1965 – Pagonis Vakalopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1966 – Jimeoin, Irish comedian and actor
- 1967 – Mark Kozelek, American singer-songwriter and producer (Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon)
- 1967 – Phil LaMarr, American actor
- 1967 – John Myung, American bass player (Dream Theater, Platypus, The Jelly Jam, and Explorers Club)
- 1968 – Robert Chote, British economist
- 1968 – Michael Kiske, German singer-songwriter (Helloween, Unisonic, Place Vendome, and Kiske/Somerville)
- 1968 – Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
- 1969 – Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Icelandic actor
- 1970 – Matthew Lillard, American actor, director, and producer
- 1971 – Cory Bailey, American baseball player
- 1972 – Daniel Kawczynski, Polish-born British politician
- 1972 – Beth Hart, American singer-songwriter
- 1972 – Naoshi Mizuta, Japanese composer
- 1972 – Daan Schuurmans, Dutch actor
- 1972 – Ulla Werbrouck, Belgian martial artist and politician
- 1973 – Eero Endjärv, Estonian architect
- 1974 – Ed Helms, American actor
- 1975 – Isobel Cooper, English soprano
- 1975 – Rónald Gómez, Costa Rican footballer
- 1976 – Shae-Lynn Bourne, Canadian ice dancer
- 1976 – Cindy Pieters, Belgian cyclist
- 1976 – Olga Vymetálková, Czech tennis player
- 1977 – Kensuke Kita, Japanese singer and guitarist (Asian Kung-Fu Generation)
- 1977 – Johann Urb, Estonian-American actor, producer, and model
- 1978 – Kristen Schaal, American actress and author
- 1979 – Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer
- 1979 – Leandro Desábato, Argentine footballer
- 1979 – Tom Kostopoulos, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1979 – Nik Wallenda, American acrobat and daredevil
- 1980 – Rocky Boiman, American football player
- 1980 – Yamandu Costa, Brazilian guitarist and composer
- 1980 – Nicole Marie Lenz, American model and actress
- 1980 – Rebecca Romero, English track cyclist and rower.
- 1981 – Travis Hanson, American baseball player
- 1981 – Michael Wolf, German ice hockey player
- 1982 – Fiona Xie, Singaporean actress
- 1983 – Davide Biondini, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Diane Birch, American singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1983 – Wyatt Crockett, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Shaun Maloney, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – Scott Speed, American race car driver
- 1984 – Jay Briscoe, American wrestler
- 1984 – Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
- 1984 – Witold Kiełtyka, Polish drummer (Decapitated) (d. 2007)
- 1984 – Paulo Sérgio Moreira Gonçalves, Portuguese footballer
- 1985 – Josie Gibson, English reality contestant on Big Brother UK
- 1986 – Vieirinha, Portuguese footballer
- 1986 – Mischa Barton, English-American actress
- 1986 – Vladislav Ivanov, Russian footballer
- 1986 – Michael Kightly, English footballer
- 1986 – Ricky Ullman, Israeli-American actor and singer
- 1987 – Luis Suárez, Uruguayan footballer
- 1988 – Jade Ewen, English singer-songwriter and actress (Sugababes)
- 1989 – Samba Diakité, Malian footballer
- 1989 – Calvin Goldspink, English singer and actor (S Club 8)
- 1989 – Ki Sung-Yueng, South Korean footballer
- 1990 – Mao Abe, Japanese singer-songwriter
- 1990 – Artjom Artjunin, Estonian footballer
- 1990 – Zuzana Zlochová, Slovak tennis player
- 1994 – Youngjae, South Korean singer (B.A.P)
- 1995 – Callan McAuliffe, Australian actor
- 1997 – Dylan Riley Snyder, American actor, singer, and dancer
- 2012 – Princess Athena of Denmark
Deaths[edit]
- 41 – Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)
- 1125 – David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
- 1366 – Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
- 1376 – Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader (b. 1306)
- 1473 – Conrad Paumann, German organist and composer (b. 1410)
- 1595 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (b. 1529)
- 1626 – Samuel Argall, English navy officer (b. 1572)
- 1639 – Jörg Jenatsch, Swiss politician (b. 1596)
- 1666 – Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer (b. 1588)
- 1709 – George Rooke, English admiral (b. 1650)
- 1769 – François de Chevert, French general (b. 1695)
- 1877 – Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist (b. 1796)
- 1882 – Levi Boone, American politician, 17th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1808)
- 1883 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (b. 1812)
- 1895 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English politician (b. 1849)
- 1911 – David Graham Phillips, American journalist and author (b. 1867)
- 1918 – George Arthur Crump, American architect, designed the Pine Valley Golf Club (b. 1871)
- 1920 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1884)
- 1924 – Anna Bayerová, Czech physician (b. 1853)
- 1924 – Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1894)
- 1932 – Alfred Yarrow, English businessman, founded Yarrow Shipbuilders (b. 1842)
- 1936 – Harry T. Morey, American actor (b. 1873)
- 1939 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
- 1943 – John Burns, English union leader and politician (b. 1858)
- 1948 – Maria Mandel, Austrian SS officer (b. 1912)
- 1955 – Ira Hayes, American marine, member of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (b. 1923)
- 1955 – Henry Potter, American golfer (b. 1881)
- 1960 – Arthur Murray Chisholm, American author (b. 1872)
- 1960 – Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor (b. 1886)
- 1961 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (b. 1884)
- 1962 – André Lhote, French painter (b. 1885)
- 1962 – Stanley Lord, English captain (b. 1877)
- 1965 – Winston Churchill, English army officer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- 1966 – Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist (b. 1909)
- 1969 – Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
- 1970 – Caresse Crosby, American poet (b. 1891)
- 1971 – Bill W., American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
- 1973 – J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1897)
- 1973 – Masao Ohba, Japanese boxer (b. 1949)
- 1975 – Larry Fine, American actor and comedian (b. 1902)
- 1978 – Herta Oberheuser, German physician (b. 1911)
- 1980 – Lil Dagover, Dutch-German actress (b. 1887)
- 1981 – Orville Brown, American wrestler (b. 1908)
- 1982 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian general and politician, 56th President of Bolivia (b. 1918)
- 1983 – George Cukor, American director (b. 1899)
- 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
- 1986 – Flo Hyman, American volleyball player (b. 1954)
- 1986 – Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
- 1988 – Werner Fenchel, German mathematician (b. 1905)
- 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
- 1989 – George Knudson, Canadian golfer (b. 1937)
- 1990 – Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
- 1991 – John M. Kelly, Irish politician and academic (b. 1931)
- 1991 – Jack Schaefer, American author (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (b. 1909)
- 1992 – Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)
- 1993 – Gustav Ernesaks, Estonian composer and conductor (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Thurgood Marshall, American jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Uğur Mumcu, Turkish journalist (b. 1942)
- 1994 – Yves Navarre, French author (b. 1940)
- 1997 – Dr. Jerry Graham, American wrestler (b. 1921)
- 1998 – Walter D. Edmonds, American author (b. 1903)
- 2000 – Bobby Duncum, Jr., American wrestler (b. 1965)
- 2002 – Peter Gzowski, Canadian journalist and broadcaster (b. 1934)
- 2002 – Elie Hobeika, Lebanese military commander (b. 1956)
- 2003 – Gianni Agnelli, Italian businessman (b. 1921)
- 2004 – Leônidas da Silva, Brazilian footballer (b. 1913)
- 2005 – June Bronhill, Australian soprano (b. 1929)
- 2005 – Volodymyr Ivanovych Savchenko, Ukrainian author (b. 1933)
- 2005 – Chalkie White, English rugby player and coach (b. 1929)
- 2006 – Schafik Handal, Salvadoran politician (b. 1930)
- 2006 – Fayard Nicholas, American dancer, actor, and choreographer (b. 1914)
- 2006 – Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)
- 2006 – Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, Sri Lankan Tamil journalist (b. 1970)
- 2007 – Krystyna Feldman, Polish actress (b. 1916)
- 2007 – Guadalupe Larriva, Ecuadorian politician (b. 1956)
- 2007 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto Rican soldier (b. 1891)
- 2008 – Lee Embree, American sergeant and photographer (b. 1915)
- 2008 – Randy Salerno, American journalist (b. 1963)
- 2009 – Gérard Blanc, French singer and guitarist (b. 1947)
- 2009 – Reg Gutteridge, English sportscaster (b. 1924)
- 2009 – Kay Yow, American basketball coach (b. 1942)
- 2010 – Pernell Roberts, American actor and singer (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Bernd Eichinger, German director and producer (b. 1949)
- 2011 – Bhimsen Joshi, Indian singer (b. 1922)
- 2011 – Gerry Ortega, Filipino journalist, politician, and environmentalist (b. 1963)
- 2012 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director and producer (b. 1935)
- 2012 – James Farentino, American actor (b. 1938)
- 2013 – José Colomer, Spanish field hockey player (b. 1935)
- 2013 – Khuseyn Gakayev, Russian military leader (b. 1970)
- 2013 – Dave Harper, English footballer (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Miroslav Janů, Czech footballer and manager (b. 1959)
- 2013 – Gottfried Landwehr, German physicist (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Barbara Leonard, American politician (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Jim Line, American basketball player (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Umashanker Singh, Indian politician (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Richard G. Stern, American author and educator (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Harry Taylor, American baseball player (b. 1935)
- 2013 – Jim Wallwork, English pilot (b. 1919)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- Cadoc (Wales)
- Francis de Sales
- January 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Li Tim-Oi (Episcopal Church (USA))
- St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, (commemoration, Anglicanism)
- Earliest day on which Saturday of Souls can fall, while February 27 (or 28 during Leap Year) is the latest; observed 57 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)
- Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances:
- First day of the Sementivae, in honor of Ceres and Terra (Roman Empire)
- Unification Day (Romania)
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” -James 1:5
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
January 23: Morning
"I have exalted one chosen out of the people." - Psalm 89:19
Why was Christ chosen out of the people? Speak, my heart, for heart-thoughts are best. Was it not that he might be able to be our brother, in the blest tie of kindred blood? Oh, what relationship there is between Christ and the believer! The believer can say, "I have a Brother in heaven; I may be poor, but I have a Brother who is rich, and is a King, and will he suffer me to want while he is on his throne? Oh, no! He loves me; he is my Brother." Believer, wear this blessed thought, like a necklace of diamonds, around the neck of thy memory; put it, as a golden ring, on the finger of recollection, and use it as the King's own seal, stamping the petitions of thy faith with confidence of success. He is a brother born for adversity, treat him as such.
Christ was also chosen out of the people that he might know our wants and sympathize with us. "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." In all our sorrows we have his sympathy. Temptation, pain, disappointment, weakness, weariness, poverty--he knows them all, for he has felt all. Remember this, Christian, and let it comfort thee. However difficult and painful thy road, it is marked by the footsteps of thy Saviour; and even when thou reachest the dark valley of the shadow of death, and the deep waters of the swelling Jordan, thou wilt find his footprints there. In all places whithersoever we go, he has been our forerunner; each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the shoulders of Immanuel.
"His way was much rougher and darker than mine
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?"
Take courage! Royal feet have left a blood-red track upon the road, and consecrated the thorny path forever.
Christ was also chosen out of the people that he might know our wants and sympathize with us. "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." In all our sorrows we have his sympathy. Temptation, pain, disappointment, weakness, weariness, poverty--he knows them all, for he has felt all. Remember this, Christian, and let it comfort thee. However difficult and painful thy road, it is marked by the footsteps of thy Saviour; and even when thou reachest the dark valley of the shadow of death, and the deep waters of the swelling Jordan, thou wilt find his footprints there. In all places whithersoever we go, he has been our forerunner; each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the shoulders of Immanuel.
"His way was much rougher and darker than mine
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?"
Take courage! Royal feet have left a blood-red track upon the road, and consecrated the thorny path forever.
Evening
"We will remember thy love more than wine." - Song of Solomon 1:4
Jesus will not let his people forget his love. If all the love they have enjoyed should be forgotten, he will visit them with fresh love. "Do you forget my cross?" says he, "I will cause you to remember it; for at my table I will manifest myself anew to you. Do you forget what I did for you in the council-chamber of eternity? I will remind you of it, for you shall need a counsellor, and shall find me ready at your call." Mothers do not let their children forget them. If the boy has gone to Australia, and does not write home, his mother writes--"Has John forgotten his mother?" Then there comes back a sweet epistle, which proves that the gentle reminder was not in vain. So is it with Jesus, he says to us, "Remember me," and our response is, "We will remember thy love." We will remember thy love and its matchless history. It is ancient as the glory which thou hadst with the Father before the world was. We remember, O Jesus, thine eternal love when thou didst become our Surety, and espouse us as thy betrothed. We remember the love which suggested the sacrifice of thyself, the love which, until the fulness of time, mused over that sacrifice, and long for the hour whereof in the volume of the book it was written of thee, "Lo, I come." We remember thy love, O Jesus as it was manifest to us in thy holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the garden of Gethsemane. We track thee from the cradle to the grave--for every word and deed of thine was love--and we rejoice in thy love, which death did not exhaust; thy love which shone resplendent in thy resurrection. We remember that burning fire of love which will never let thee hold thy peace until thy chosen ones be all safely housed, until Zion be glorified, and Jerusalem settled on her everlasting foundations of light and love in heaven.
===
Today's reading: Exodus 7-8, Matthew 15:1-20 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Exodus 7-8
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."
6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them.7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh....
Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 15:1-20
That Which Defiles
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is 'devoted to God,' 6 they are not to 'honor their father or mother' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 "'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules....'"
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules....'"
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