Andrew Bolt discusses Kerry's ridiculous decision to place trust in a thief regarding AGW matters. Apparently Australia does not have a quota of racist psychiatrists. There is a strong possibility that the new senate election in WA will harm freedoms by preventing the Abbott administration legislative freedom. ABC find another person who did not witness an atrocity by the detention administration. There is demonstrably no difference between BDS advocacy and anti semitism. Thomson illustrates how ALP is weak on union corruption. Tasmania's electoral system may be broken. The next ALP PM is probably not in parliament. Union is upset that taxpayers don't subsidise workers to $30k above award.
===
- 1631 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English politician (d. 1712)
- 1705 – Nicolas Chédeville, French musette player and composer (d. 1782)
- 1757 – John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, English philanthropist (d. 1834)
- 1802 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1870)
- 1839 – Benjamin Waugh, English activist, founded the NSPCC (d. 1908)
- 1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, author, and fashion designer
- 1925 – Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Sidney Poitier, American actor and director
- 1946 – J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The J. Geils Band)
- 1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American skier and model
- 1950 – Walter Becker, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Steely Dan)
- 1954 – Anthony Head, English actor and singer
- 1954 – Patty Hearst, American actress
- 1991 – Antonio Pedroza, English-Mexican footballer
Matches
- 1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clashed in the Battle of Parabiago.
- 1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
- 1547 – Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
- 1685 – René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
- 1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
- 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, is executed.
- 1816 – Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
- 1846 – Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
- 1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
- 1877 – Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
- 1909 – Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
- 1913 – King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
- 1931 – The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
- 1933 – The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.
- 1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign.
- 1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- 1952 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
- 1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
- 2009 – Two Tamil Tigers aircraft packed with C4 explosives en route to the national airforce headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in akamikaze style attack.
Despatches
- 702 – K'inich Kan B'alam II, Mayan king (b. 635)
- 1862 – William Wallace Lincoln, American son of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1850)
Craig Thomson’s abuse of privilege is an affront to the people
Piers Akerman – Thursday, February 20, 2014 (7:44pm)
WHILE disgraced former Health Services Union official and Labor MP Craig Thomson faces sentencing next month, ordinary Australians have the rare opportunity to make their feelings about this convicted fraudster felt right now.
Continue reading 'Craig Thomson’s abuse of privilege is an affront to the people'Why did John Kerry’s global warming guru hide himself in China?
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (6:22pm)
Bret Stephens on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s bizarre choice of global warming guru - a shadowy insider who cleaned up big on the alarmism:
===The weirdest thing about John Kerry’s weekend speech on climate-change—other than the fact that this is the same guy who in 1997 voted to forbid the U.S. from signing the Kyoto Protocol—is that it begins by quoting something Maurice Strong said at the U.N.’s 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro: “Every bit of evidence I’ve seen persuades me that we are on a course leading to tragedy.”(Thanks to reader Geoff.)
Maurice who?
Mr. Strong, a former oil executive from Canada..., was for many years the U.N.’s ultimate mandarin. He organized many of its environmental mega-confabs, including the 1972 Stockholm Conference and the 1992 Rio summit, before rising to become Kofi Annan’s right-hand man. At various times Mr. Strong has served as director at the World Economic Forum, chairman of the Earth Council and the World Resources Institute, vice chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange and chairman of the China Carbon Corporation, to name just a few of his many prominent affiliations.
In 2005 it emerged that Mr. Strong, who was the chairman of the U.N. panel that created the Office of the Iraq Program, had accepted a check for close to $1 million from a South Korean businessman named Tongsun Park, who in the 1970s had been involved in an effort to bribe U.S. politicians. Mr. Strong claimed that the check, from a Jordanian bank, was meant as an investment in a family company that later went bankrupt. Mr. Park (who also sublet office space from Mr. Strong) later went to prison for trying to bribe U.N. officials overseeing the Oil-for-Food program that was propping up Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Mr. Strong was accused of no wrongdoing and has denied involvement in Oil-for-Food. He left the U.N. that year and moved to Beijing.
Draw your own conclusions.
Ask yourself: Is this a guy who deserves a shout-out from the U.S. Secretary of State?
Things I’d like to discuss
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (6:06pm)
There’s a really interesting and important discussion we should be able to have about this:
===INCOMING Canberra University chancellor Tom Calma has urged ordinary citizens to financially back scholarships for indigenous students, noting the country still has only one Aboriginal psychiatrist.
Abbott’s new Senate could get less helpful
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (3:12pm)
The Liberals could only go backwards:
A reminder of the state of play. The Senate in July was to have the Coalition needing six of the eight seats held by independents and Palmer United Party members who lean largely to the conservative or libertarian side.
Clive Palmer originally won one WA seat to give him a crucial bloc of three of those eight seats. The Abbott Government would have to get Palmer’s agreement to break any logjam caused by a joint Greens-Labor front.
If the Liberals now lose one of the three seats they won at the election, as is possible, to a Left-leaning candidate they will be in some trouble. The would then need the votes of every single Palmer Senator and cross bencher to beat the opposition of the Left.
The best the Liberals can hope for is that they retain all three seats and that Palmer loses to a rationalist or even conservative independent in the crapshoot of preference swapping. That way the Government could beat even Clive Palmer’s no-vote. But the chances....
===WEST Australians will go back to the polls after the High Court declared “absolutely void’’ the disputed result of the state’s Senate election…UPDATE
In September, the Liberal Party won three Senate positions in Western Australia, but it is widely expected that the position of the third Liberal, Senator-elect Linda Reynolds, will be at risk.
A reminder of the state of play. The Senate in July was to have the Coalition needing six of the eight seats held by independents and Palmer United Party members who lean largely to the conservative or libertarian side.
Clive Palmer originally won one WA seat to give him a crucial bloc of three of those eight seats. The Abbott Government would have to get Palmer’s agreement to break any logjam caused by a joint Greens-Labor front.
If the Liberals now lose one of the three seats they won at the election, as is possible, to a Left-leaning candidate they will be in some trouble. The would then need the votes of every single Palmer Senator and cross bencher to beat the opposition of the Left.
The best the Liberals can hope for is that they retain all three seats and that Palmer loses to a rationalist or even conservative independent in the crapshoot of preference swapping. That way the Government could beat even Clive Palmer’s no-vote. But the chances....
ABC finds another boat people witness who wasn’t
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (12:36pm)
The ABC’s 7.30 yesterday:
===CONOR DUFFY: Fresh accounts from inside the Manus Island detention centre emerged today. Iranian-Australian interpreter Azita Bokan was at the centre. She claims it was calm until detainees were told on Sunday they wouldn’t be resettled in Australia or Papua New Guinea.But today in Fairfax:
AZITA BOKAN, INTERPRETER: They had no hope. Their hope was gone. You could see their sickness in the camp.
SCOTT MORRISON: That was never true and they were told what the standing policy was, and that is that they would be settled in Papua New Guinea.
CONOR DUFFY: Ms Bokan says she was escorted from the centre after protesting about security staff hitting detainees.
AZITA BOKAN: When they walking out, I see people with the Band-Aid, some of them not even Band-Aid, but blood, was too much blood on shirts, especially the one on a wheelchair, the amount of blood was like you could have not really hold yourself together.
Ms Bokan says she did not witness the violence, but was in the area where the injured were taken,...Bokan still claims in Fairfax:
‘’Definitely, 100 per cent, I stand by the statement that the local people, including some employed by [security contractor] G4S, they were the ones who caused this drama,’’ Ms Bokan said after flying out of Manus Island on Wednesday.The PNG Prime Minister disagrees:
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday… rejected suggestions that villagers in Manus were involved in the disturbances at the asylum processing centre in Manus.... “At no time did the good people of Manus get involved.”Bokan again in Fairfax:
‘’There was blood everywhere. The number injured was horrific: people with massive head injuries, at least one with a slashed throat,’’ she said.Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says he’s seen no reports of any such thing:
I have no reports of a person’s throat being slit.Has the ABC yet again leapt to believe an atrocity monger only too ready to help it attack the Abbott Government’s successful border policies? And is Fairfax yet again doing the same?
No discount for the Jew from Israel
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (10:46am)
It is increasingly hard
to tell the difference between the Greens-backed Boycott Divestment and
Sanctions movement and old-fashioned anti-Semitism.
Australian company Cinematic Strings advertises a product:
Moreover, when that tribalism is then put into the service of a movement aimed at only one side in a conflict involving at least two parties, the other of which uses terrorism and preaches a religious hatred of its enemy, we must ask what truly lies behind this BDS movement. It smells like something very old and putrid.
But good news: it didn’t take long after this issue hit the Internet for Cinematic Strings to think again:
===Australian company Cinematic Strings advertises a product:
Cinematic Strings 2 is a completely redesigned and updated version of the original orchestral strings sample library. Whilst retaining the warm luscious tones produced in the world class Verbrugghen Hall of the Sydney Conservatorium, the new version features a sleek new interface and even smoother legato.It offers a discount to students:
Supporting Students and Institutions WorldwideAnd then it sends this reply to a Jewish student placing an order:
We believe that the latest technology should be readily available to the education sector to facilitate learning and to keep training up-to-date and relevant to industry requirements. For this reason we offer a range of individual educational discounts to both teachers and students; we also have tailored packages available for universities and colleges that seek to incorporate a professional-level string library into their program.
Hi Yossela,For the company to say this decision “is not in any way directed at you personally” is to actually explain one of the offensive things about it. Yossela is not being judged as an individual but as an Israeli, and specifically a Jewish Israeli. (Would the ban apply to him were he an Israeli Arab?) This is the tribalism of the Left - a tribalism that strips us all of our individuality and our individual worth.
I am very, very sorry but I will not be able to provide you with a student discount. We support the BDS movement worldwide and the cultural boycott against Israel until Israel ceases its illegal settlement activities in the West Bank and ceases its discrimination against the Palestinian people. Please see this website for further information http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/cultural-boycott.
Please understand that this is not in any way directed at you personally and we have heard from many Israeli students who have been very sympathetic towards the Palestinian people. However we are fairly powerless here in Australia to act on behalf of the victims of oppression and so the BDS is the only way we can have a voice.
We wish you all the best in your future musical endeavours.
Kindest regards,
Alex and the CS team.
Moreover, when that tribalism is then put into the service of a movement aimed at only one side in a conflict involving at least two parties, the other of which uses terrorism and preaches a religious hatred of its enemy, we must ask what truly lies behind this BDS movement. It smells like something very old and putrid.
But good news: it didn’t take long after this issue hit the Internet for Cinematic Strings to think again:
While we stand by our reasons, we can see now that this action itself may be construed as discriminatory, and therefore we will make discounts available to all students regardless of location. If Yossela would like to contact us again we will make the discount available to him.(Thanks to readers Jill and Stephen Dawson.)
Krauthammer on Obama’s “settled science”
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (10:43am)
The arrogance - the stupidity - of people who claim global warming science is “settled”.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
===(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
Fairfax writer: one death under Abbott worse than 1000 under Labor
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (9:29am)
Jacqueline Maley of the Sydney Morning Herald
says it’s morally worse that one boat people died under the Abbott
Government’s policies than that more than 1000 died under Labor’s:
I don’t think that argument washes, particularly when the man who died at Manus Island this week also seems to have been killed in a wild brawl instigated by the detainees themselves and finished by PNG police. And especially not when we are comparing just one death to more than 1000.
UPDATE
Reader john of gaunt:
===The people who were drowning off those boats, off Christmas Island and so forth, which was horrendous and awful and nobody wanted to see, they were doing that sort of on their own watch, if you like.Maley’s argument - and selective indignation - is not that much more sophisticated than that of Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young:
This is a person who’s died and the 77 of so people who’ve been injured, they were under our care… That’s a strong moral difference to me.
Greens child-Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2011 when another 200 boat people are lured to their deaths by Labor policies:Maley’s argument relies on Labor being able to wash its hands of the utterly predictable - even inevitable - consequences of a policy to weaken our border laws. She believes Labor holds no moral responsibility for luring more than 1000 people to their deaths, any more than, I guess, a gun shop owner bears moral responsibility for the consequences of selling machineguns to bikies or a chemist for selling 20 packets of Pentobarbital to a weeping widow. She believes Labor cannot be blamed for deaths that it was warned would occur under its policy, was warned was occurring under its policy, and which it finally conceded had occurred as a consequence of its policy.
Pressed on whether the Greens accepted responsibility for the tragedy, Senator Hanson-Young said: “Of course not. Tragedies happen, accidents happen.”Greens child-Senator Sarah Hanson-Young today after learning our navy accidentally entered Indonesian waters in safely returning dozens of boat people to Indonesia in line with Liberal policies:
The minister is begging for forgiveness while carrying on with a policy that was always going to lead to this type of disaster.
I don’t think that argument washes, particularly when the man who died at Manus Island this week also seems to have been killed in a wild brawl instigated by the detainees themselves and finished by PNG police. And especially not when we are comparing just one death to more than 1000.
UPDATE
Reader john of gaunt:
You’re not under someone’s care if you forcibly choose to leave that care. Unless the argument is that the centre needs to have stronger walls.(Thanks to reader Sparks.)
Thomson shows Labor weak on corrupt unions
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (7:34am)
FORMER Labor MP Craig Thomson had been found guilty at last and we can get on with the real question. What’s this about Labor?
Why did it for years protect Thomson when his guilt stank to the heavens?
Indeed, the royal commission into union corruption should investigate why Labor has been so soft on so much union lawlessness. Thomson is only the most obvious example.
(Read full article here.)
===Why did it for years protect Thomson when his guilt stank to the heavens?
Indeed, the royal commission into union corruption should investigate why Labor has been so soft on so much union lawlessness. Thomson is only the most obvious example.
(Read full article here.)
This mad and bad carbon tax must go
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (7:30am)
HOW many more manufacturing workers must be sacked, thanks to green policies that only pretend to stop global warming?
How many of the jobless won’t be able to heat or cool their homes, with these same mad policies helping to hike power prices by 110 per cent in only five years?
And all this pain to make no difference to the world’s temperature. What a fraud.
True, the carbon tax and less-known Renewable Energy Target did not themselves kill Alcoa’s Point Henry smelter or Toyota’s Australian plants this month.
But the carbon tax alone cost Alcoa $137 million last year. How brainless is that, when its Australian smelters were already battling to survive competition from leaner competitors overseas?
The carbon tax also cost Toyota $115 a car. How stupid is that, when Australian-made cars were already struggling to compete against cheaper imports?
Apologists for the carbon tax claim it’s nothing compared with everything else smashing our manufacturers — a high dollar, green tape, crazy workplace restrictions and bloody-minded unions.
But it’s a straw breaking the back of a lot of camels.
(Read full article here.)
Tasmania needs a system that produces stronger leaders
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (6:15am)
There is something sick in Tasmania’s electoral system when such a lead in the popular vote is likely to deliver the Liberals majority government next month only by a whisker:
===[A]n analysis of a [ReachTEL] poll published by The Saturday Mercury last weekend suggests the Liberals would win a clear majority of 14 seats, Labor only six, the Greens four or five and the PUP potentially one. The poll, of 2912 Tasmanians, has the Liberals on 47.2 per cent of the vote to Labor’s 24.6, the Greens 17.2 and the Palmer United Party 7.5.Tasmania’s system almost guarantees the need for coalitions to govern, with the inevitable uncertain leadership and a dodging of consequences by the junior partner - too often the Greens:
Under Tasmania’s Hare-Clark electoral system, each of the state’s five electorates return five MPs, with parties running tickets and the quota to get elected set at 16.7 per cent of the vote.
Giddings failed to deliver her full promise: bravely beginning a clampdown on government spending, but ultimately relenting under the pressure of union bosses and a nervous and near-sighted caucus.Tasmania seems to me a state with an electoral system designed to never produce the strong leadership it needs to dig it out of a hole as big as the one it’s now in.
For the past four years, Labor’s power-sharing deal with the Greens has alienated its core base…
The Greens have suffered some decline in support as a result of wearing unpopular decisions as a part of government. But the minor party has fared far better than Labor in terms of quarantining its political brand from cross-contamination by its power-sharing partner.
The next Prime Minister after Abbott doesn’t look like Shorten
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (5:51am)
Niki Savva on the field of candidates to replace Tony Abbott:
Health Services Union whistleblower Marco Bolano agrees - Bill Shorten should back the royal commission into union corruption:
===As treasurer, [Joe] Hockey is so far performing well. He would be in front of a crowded field of contenders if Tony Abbott fell off his bike tomorrow…But is Labor’s next prime minister in Parliament? Savva is less sure:
If he doesn’t [eventually make it], and if his immediate frontbench competitors like Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have either left the scene or fail the many tests before them, there are still others - Christian Porter for one - who could be groomed for the job. The point of this is that right now in the parliament sits the next Coalition prime minister.
[Shorten should] do an about-face on the carbon tax and the mining tax… He could say anything really, even we wuz wrong, it doesn’t matter - as long as he changes the story and begins to repair early negative impressions of his leadership which mark him, among other things, as a captive of the unions at a time they really stink. Craig Thomson’s conviction strengthens - not weakens - the case for a royal commission into union corruption. If he had the guts, Shorten would back it…UPDATE
I do know if he wants to realise the decades-long hype about him one day becoming prime minister, he won’t get there by doing what he’s doing now.
Health Services Union whistleblower Marco Bolano agrees - Bill Shorten should back the royal commission into union corruption:
CRAIG Thomson’s conviction over his dishonest dealing with Health Services Union resources should be cause for me to celebrate. But it’s not.
In 2012 Thomson abused the privilege he enjoyed as a federal MP to allege that I threatened to set him up “with a bunch of hookers” and, along with another HSU whistleblower, Kathy Jackson, had executed an intricate plot to frame him…
Thomson’s lies were believed only in the upper echelons of the federal Labor Party and some nuts in the blogosphere…
While opposing a royal commission into union governance, Bill Shorten announced himself captain of the “few bad apples” team by arguing that only the police should investigate alleged union wrongdoing… Giving police more resources to investigate union corruption is a good idea, but while he was the federal minister responsible for union regulation Shorten never thought to do that…
Members of the [HSU’s] national finance committee ... supervised Thomson’s spending (including an unauthorised $250,000 to Thomson’s ALP campaign…
The leaderships of a plethora of unions that used official resources in HSU elections need to explain how it’s in their members’ interests that their money is wasted in internecine manoeuvres designed to gain ALP power for a handful of union heavies. And the Fair Work Commission should explain how it has come to be so irredeemably useless in policing misconduct, including the delayed and botched investigation of Thomson himself. None of these are matters for the police.
The queue in Indonesia is shrinking
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (5:45am)
The message is getting out:
===Monthly applications for asylum-seeker registration handled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Jakarta — overwhelmingly the busiest in Indonesia — dropped 71 per cent between February 2013 and last month.Some way to go, though.
The monthly totals of asylum-seekers newly registered throughout Indonesia fell almost 44 per cent in that time to 434 people in January.
SPC union furious taxpayers won’t subsidise wages $30,000 above the award
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (5:31am)
I don’t know what the
Abbott Government really said, but do know it’s not the role of
government to hand over taxpayers’ money so a dying company can keep
paying workers $30,000 a year above the award:
That this effrontery is treated seriously in The Age shows how completely out of touch with commercial reality that paper’s journalistic culture is.
===The Abbott government pressed SPC Ardmona to slash pay for workers by as much as 40 per cent under a radical bailout plan for the food processor.The lack of self-awareness here from the union officials complaining to the too-sympathetic Age is astonishing:
Three union officials told Fairfax Media they had meetings with SPC Ardmona managing director Peter Kelly before Christmas in which Mr Kelly said he was being pressured by the Abbott government to put workers on the award if the company wanted a $25 million subsidy…
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane refused to directly answer questions on the issue…
If SPC Ardmona workers had been moved on to the award, pay for a level-two process worker would have been cut from about $50,000 a year to $33,000. For higher-paid maintenance workers, the falls would have been even more dramatic, dropping from as much as $85,000 a year to about $50,000.
Another union official who met Mr Kelly in mid-December, the ETU’s Damian King, confirmed the same. He said the union had offered a two-year wage freeze to try to keep its members in work but SPC Ardmona said it would cut 73 maintenance staff and outsource the work.So the union is insisting that a company in desperate strife keep paying wages way above the award - and above those of competitors - even though it means the workers it represents get replaced by cheaper contractors. And we’re supposed to subsidise this?
That this effrontery is treated seriously in The Age shows how completely out of touch with commercial reality that paper’s journalistic culture is.
Iran tells Australia to leave the killing of Iranians to the mullahs
Andrew Bolt February 20 2014 (12:05am)
Iran shows its commitment to the safety of its citizens:
===Australian ambassador Paul Foley met with Iranian officials this week after the death of the 24-year-old Iranian asylum seeker on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island following a riot on Monday.Iran shows its commitment to the safety of its citizens:
The ministry’s consular director, Seyyed Hossein Mirfakhar, reportedly expressed Iran’s “protest and discontent” about the “practice of violence and mistreatment” which led to the death.
An Arab-Iranian poet and human rights activist, Hashem Shaabani, has been executed for being an “enemy of God” and threatening national security, according to local human rights groups.
Shaabani and a man named Hadi Rashedi were hanged in unidentified prison on January 27, rights groups have said…
Iran executed 40 people over two weeks of that month, according to Amnesty International. According to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre (IHRDC) more than 300 people have been executed since Hasan Rouhani became president in August.
A festival that might be improved by a boycott
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (7:26pm)
The kind of people
who’d pull out could be just the kind you’d want to prune from a
serious art festival for the truly thoughtful:
===Artists involved in this year’s Biennale of Sydney have threatened to pull out unless event organisers abandon a sponsorship deal with a company involved in offshore detention centres…
The Biennale of Sydney, which starts on March 21, lists Transfield as a major sponsor. The company holds contracts with the Immigration Department to provide services at detention facilities at Nauru, such as management, maintenance and perimeter security
Terrible ABC scandal
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (6:56pm)
The ABC will have a field day with this:
What a scandal. For the ABC.
UPDATE
The ABC’s PM yesterday seems to be campaigning, not just reporting:
===A HIGH-LEVEL review has found that Royal Australian Navy and Customs vessels breached Indonesian sovereignty six times during counter people smuggling operations in December and January. ...It is shocking, simply shocking, that naval vessels crewed by men who openly torture boat people repeatedly trampled on the sacred sovereignty of our angelic Indonesian neighbours just to lessen the risk of boat people drowning on their return to shore.
Those breaches occurred during tow-back operations when the ships were trying to get asylum seeker vessels as close as possible to a landfall.
What a scandal. For the ABC.
UPDATE
The ABC’s PM yesterday seems to be campaigning, not just reporting:
Today again:
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- 1846 – Polish insurgents led an uprising in the Free City of Kraków to incite a fight for national independence that was put down by the Austrian Empire nine days later.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Union suffered one of its bloodiest losses at the Battle of Olustee near Lake City, Florida.
- 1965 – NASA's Ranger 8 spacecraft (Ranger Block III pictured) successfully transmitted 7,137 photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing into Mare Tranquillitatis.
- 1998 – At the age of 15, American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest gold medal winner in the history of the Winter Olympic Games.
- 2009 – The Tamil Tigers attempted to crash two aircraft packed with C-4 in suicide attacks on Colombo, Sri Lanka, but the planes were shot down before they reached their targets.
Events[edit]
- 1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clashed in the Battle of Parabiago.
- 1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
- 1547 – Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
- 1685 – René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
- 1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
- 1798 – Louis Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
- 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, is executed.
- 1813 – Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
- 1816 – Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
- 1835 – Concepción, Chile is destroyed by an earthquake.
- 1846 – Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Olustee occurs – the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
- 1865 – End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance.
- 1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
- 1873 – The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
- 1877 – Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
- 1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
- 1909 – Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
- 1913 – King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
- 1921 – The Young Communist League of Czechoslovakia is founded.
- 1931 – The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
- 1933 – The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.
- 1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign.
- 1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
- 1942 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
- 1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- 1943 – The Parícutin volcano begins to form in Parícutin, Mexico.
- 1943 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union addresstheme of Four Freedoms.
- 1944 – World War II: The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
- 1944 – World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
- 1952 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
- 1956 – The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.
- 1959 – The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
- 1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
- 1965 – Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
- 1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
- 1978 – The last Order of Victory is bestowed upon Leonid Brezhnev.
- 1986 – The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for 10 of those years.
- 1987 – Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, a bomb explodes in a computer store.
- 1988 – The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
- 1989 – An IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England.
- 1991 – A gigantic statue of Albania's long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters.
- 1998 – American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
- 2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
- 2005 – Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
- 2006 –In South Korea the United Liberal Democrats, the three top political parties was merged into Grand National Party.
- 2009 – Two Tamil Tigers aircraft packed with C4 explosives en route to the national airforce headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in akamikaze style attack.
- 2010 – In Madeira Island, Portugal, heavy rain causes floods and mudslides, resulting in at least 43 deaths, in the worst disaster in the history of the archipelago.
- 2013 – The smallest Extrasolar planet, Kepler-37b is discovered.
Births[edit]
- 1631 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English politician (d. 1712)
- 1633 – Jan de Baen, Dutch painter (d. 1702)
- 1705 – Nicolas Chédeville, French musette player and composer (d. 1782)
- 1726 – William Prescott, American colonel (d. 1795)
- 1745 – Henry James Pye, English poet (d. 1813)
- 1751 – Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet (d. 1826)
- 1753 – Louis-Alexandre Berthier, French marshal (d. 1815)
- 1757 – John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, English philanthropist (d. 1834)
- 1759 – Johann Christian Reil, German physician (d. 1813)
- 1761 – Ludwig Abeille, German pianist and composer (d. 1838)
- 1763 – Adalbert Gyrowetz, Bohemian composer (d. 1850)
- 1792 – Eliza Courtney, French daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (d. 1859)
- 1794 – William Carleton, Irish author (d. 1869)
- 1802 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1870)
- 1819 – Alfred Escher, Swiss businessman and politician (d. 1882)
- 1839 – Benjamin Waugh, English activist, founded the NSPCC (d. 1908)
- 1844 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (d. 1906)
- 1844 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian sailor and adventurer (d. 1909)
- 1848 – E. H. Harriman, American businessman (d. 1909)
- 1850 – Nérée Beauchemin, Canadian physician and poet (d. 1931)
- 1860 – Karl Mantzius, Danish actor and director (d. 1921)
- 1866 – Carl Westman, Swedish architect, designed the Stockholm Court House and Röhsska Museum (d. 1936)
- 1874 – Mary Garden, Scottish soprano (d. 1967)
- 1879 – Hod Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1907)
- 1867 – Louise, Princess Royal of England (d. 1931)
- 1880 – Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, French author and poet (d. 1923)
- 1887 – Vincent Massey, Canadian politician, 18th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967)
- 1888 – Georges Bernanos, French soldier and author (d. 1948)
- 1893 – Russel Crouse, American playwright (d. 1966)
- 1893 – Elizabeth Holloway Marston, American psychologist (d. 1993)
- 1898 – Jimmy Yancey, American pianist and composer (d. 1951)
- 1899 – Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman (d. 1992)
- 1901 – René Dubos, French-born American biologist and author (d. 1982)
- 1901 – Cecil Harmsworth King, English publisher (d. 1987)
- 1901 – Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian general and politician, 1st President of Egypt (d. 1984)
- 1901 – Ramakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili, Indian lawyer and politician (d. 1978)
- 1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer (d. 1984)
- 1904 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet politician, 8th Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
- 1906 – Gale Gordon, American actor (d. 1995)
- 1907 – Malcolm Atterbury, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1912 – Pierre Boulle, French author (d. 1994)
- 1913 – Tommy Henrich, American baseball player (d. 2009)
- 1914 – John Charles Daly, South African–American journalist and game show host (d. 1991)
- 1916 – Jean Erdman, American dancer and choreographer
- 1918 – Leonore Annenberg, American businesswoman (d. 2009)
- 1919 – James O'Meara, English pilot (d. 1974)
- 1920 – Yevgeny Dragunov, Russian weapons designer, designed the Dragunov sniper rifle (d. 1991)
- 1920 – Jadwiga Piłsudska, English pilot
- 1920 – Carl Schwende, Canadian fencer (d. 2002)
- 1921 – René Jalbert, Canadian soldier (d. 1996)
- 1921 – Tom McGuigan, New Zealand politician (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Buddy Rogers, American wrestler (d. 1992)
- 1923 – Forbes Burnham, Guyanese politician, 2nd President of Guyana (d. 1985)
- 1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, author, and fashion designer
- 1925 – Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
- 1925 – Tochinishiki Kiyotaka, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 44th Yokozuna (d. 1990)
- 1925 – Heinz Kluncker, German union leader (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Adolf Bechtold, German footballer (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Matthew Bucksbaum, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded General Growth Properties (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Gillian Lynne, English choreographer, theatre director, actor and former ballerina
- 1926 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Roy Cohn, American lawyer (d. 1986)
- 1927 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer (Buena Vista Social Club and Afro-Cuban All Stars) (d. 2005)
- 1927 – Sidney Poitier, American actor and director
- 1928 – Roy Face, American baseball player
- 1928 – Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat, 25th United States Ambassador to Ireland
- 1929 – Amanda Blake, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1930 – Willie Cunningham, Irish footballer (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino journalist and author (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Tom Patey, Scottish mountaineer (d. 1970)
- 1934 – Bobby Unser, American race car driver
- 1935 – Ellen Gilchrist, American writer
- 1936 – Marj Dusay, American actress
- 1936 – Larry Hovis, American actor and singer (d. 2003)
- 1936 – Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and coach
- 1937 – Robert Huber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1937 – Roger Penske, American race car driver, racing team principal and entrepreneur
- 1937 – Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress
- 1938 – Richard Beymer, American actor
- 1938 – Inge Lønning, Norwegian theologian, educator, and politician (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Frank Arundel, English footballer (d. 1994)
- 1940 – John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, German-English businessman
- 1940 – Jimmy Greaves, English footballer
- 1940 – Robin Weiss, British molecular biologist
- 1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1941 – Lim Kit Siang, Malaysian politician
- 1942 – Phil Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1942 – Charlie Gillett, English radio host (d. 2010)
- 1942 – Mitch McConnell, American politician
- 1942 – Claude Miller, French director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1942 – Arbo Valdma, Estonian pianist
- 1943 – Moshe Cotel, American pianist and composer (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Antonio Inoki, Japanese wrestler
- 1943 – Carlos, French singer, actor and entertainer (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Mike Leigh, English director
- 1943 – Tom McNally, English politician
- 1944 – Robert de Cotret, Canadian politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1999)
- 1944 – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1945 – Andrew Bergman, American screenwriter and director
- 1945 – Alan Hull, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Lindisfarne) (d. 1995)
- 1945 – Brion James, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1945 – Annu Kapoor, Indian actor
- 1945 – Henry Polic II, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Brenda Blethyn, English actress
- 1946 – Riccardo Cocciante, French-Italian singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1946 – Sandy Duncan, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1946 – J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The J. Geils Band)
- 1947 – Eggert Magnússon, Icelandic businessman
- 1947 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (d. 2006)
- 1947 – Peter Strauss, American actor and producer
- 1947 – André van Duin, Dutch actor and singer
- 1948 – Juhan Aare, Estonian politician
- 1948 – Pierre Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1948 – Andrew Fabian, British astronomer and astrophysicist
- 1948 – Jennifer O'Neill, Brazilian-American actress
- 1949 – Mab Segrest, American author and activist
- 1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American skier and model
- 1950 – Walter Becker, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Steely Dan)
- 1950 – Ken Shimura, Japanese actor
- 1950 – Tony Wilson, English journalist (d. 2007)
- 1951 – Edward Albert, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1951 – Gordon Brown, Scottish politician, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1951 – Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Spirit and The Blue Flame) (d. 1997)
- 1951 – Phil Neal, English footballer
- 1951 – Sean Wilentz, American historian and author
- 1952 – Penny Driver, English Anglican priest
- 1953 – Riccardo Chailly, Italian conductor
- 1953 – Roberto Ciotti, Italian guitarist and composer (d. 2013)
- 1953 – Poison Ivy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (The Cramps)
- 1954 – Jon Brant, American bass player (Cheap Trick)
- 1954 – Anthony Head, English actor and singer
- 1954 – Patty Hearst, American actress
- 1954 – Billy Pontoni, Colombian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1956 – Rick Green, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1957 – Glen Hanlon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1958 – James Wilby, English actor
- 1959 – Scott Brayton, American race car driver (d. 1996)
- 1959 – Bill Gullickson, American baseball player
- 1960 – Joel Hodgson, American comedian and actor
- 1960 – Siobhain McDonagh, English politician
- 1960 – Kee Marcello, Swedish guitarist (Europe and Kee Marcello's K2)
- 1961 – Imogen Stubbs, English actress
- 1962 – Atul Chitnis, German-Indian technologist (d. 2013)
- 1962 – Kenn Nesbitt, American author
- 1962 – Dwayne McDuffie, American author, screenwriter, and producer, co-founded Milestone Media (d. 2011)
- 1963 – Charles Barkley, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1963 – Ian Brown, English singer-songwriter (The Stone Roses)
- 1963 – Jon Lynn Christensen, American politician
- 1963 – Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Greek politician
- 1964 – Willie Garson, American actor
- 1964 – Tom Harris, Scottish politician
- 1964 – Rodney Rowland, American actor
- 1964 – French Stewart, American actor
- 1965 – Ron Eldard, American actor
- 1965 – Philip Hensher, English novelist, critic and journalist
- 1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model and actress
- 1967 – Paul Accola, Swiss skier
- 1967 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Nirvana and Fecal Matter) (d. 1994)
- 1967 – David Herman, American comedian and actor
- 1967 – Andrew Shue, American actor
- 1967 – Lili Taylor, American actress
- 1967 – Tom Waddle, American football player
- 1967 – Ha Seok-Ju. South Korean football player
- 1968 – Ted Hankey, English darts player
- 1969 – Gedo, Japanese wrestler
- 1969 – Vaginal Davis, American drag queen performer
- 1969 – Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian footballer
- 1969 – Esther Moreno, Mexican wrestler
- 1969 – Danis Tanovic, Bosnian director and screenwriter
- 1969 – Tommy Vardell, American football player
- 1971 – Calpernia Addams, American actress, author, and activist
- 1971 – Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
- 1971 – Shawn McKenzie, American programmer, created AutoTheme
- 1972 – k-os, Canadian rapper and producer
- 1972 – Brent Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1973 – Kimberley Davies, Australian actress
- 1973 – Rohan Alexander, Jamaican-American cricketer
- 1974 – Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer
- 1974 – Kateřina Kroupová-Sisková, Czech tennis player
- 1974 – Ophelie Winter, French actress
- 1975 – Liván Hernández, Cuban baseball player
- 1975 – Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor (Backstreet Boys)
- 1975 – Niclas Wallin, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1976 – Rohan Gavaskar, Indian cricketer
- 1976 – Ed Graham, English drummer (The Darkness and Stone Gods)
- 1977 – Amal Hijazi, Lebanese singer and model
- 1977 – Gail Kim, Canadian wrestler and actress
- 1977 – Bartosz Kizierowski, Polish swimmer
- 1977 – Stephon Marbury, American basketball player
- 1977 – T. J. Slaughter, American football player
- 1978 – Lauren Ambrose, American actress
- 1978 – Jakki Degg, English model and actress
- 1978 – Jay Hernandez, American actor
- 1978 – Julia Jentsch, German actress
- 1980 – Artur Boruc, Polish footballer
- 1980 – Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
- 1980 – Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer
- 1980 – Yūichi Nakamura, Japanese voice actor
- 1981 – Tony Hibbert, English footballer
- 1981 – Fred Jackson, American football player
- 1981 – Chris Thile, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers)
- 1982 – Fait-Florian Banser, German footballer
- 1982 – Jason Hirsh, American baseball player
- 1983 – Jose Morales, Puerto Rican baseball player
- 1983 – Justin Verlander, American baseball player
- 1984 – Brian McCann, American baseball player
- 1984 – Gilles Pagnon, French-German rugby player
- 1984 – Ramzee Robinson, American football player
- 1985 – Ryan Sweeney, American baseball player
- 1985 – Julia Volkova, Russian singer (t.A.T.u. and Neposedi)
- 1986 – Diego Reis, Brazilian footballer
- 1988 – Rihanna, Barbadian-American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1988 – Jiah Khan, American-Indian actress and singer (d. 2013)
- 1988 – Kealoha Pilares, American football player
- 1989 – Iga Wyrwał, Polish model and actress
- 1991 – Giovanni Kyeremateng Italian footballer
- 1991 – Angelique van der Meet, Dutch tennis player
- 1991 – Antonio Pedroza, English-Mexican footballer
Deaths[edit]
- 702 – K'inich Kan B'alam II, Mayan king (b. 635)
- 1154 – Wulfric of Haselbury, English saint (b. 1080)
- 1171 – Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (b. 1138)
- 1194 – Tancred, King of Sicily (b. 1138)
- 1258 – Al-Musta'sim, Iraqi caliph (b. 1213)
- 1408 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English son of Mary of Lancaster (b. 1342)
- 1431 – Pope Martin V (b. 1368)
- 1524 – Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler (b. 1500)
- 1579 – Nicholas Bacon, English politician (b. 1509)
- 1618 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)
- 1626 – John Dowland, English lute player and composer (b. 1563)
- 1653 – Luigi Rossi, Italian composer (b. 1597)
- 1762 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1771 – Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist and astronomer (b. 1678)
- 1773 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
- 1778 – Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)
- 1790 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
- 1803 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
- 1806 – Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American military leader and politician (b. 1725)
- 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Italian rebel leader (b. 1767)
- 1862 – William Wallace Lincoln, American son of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1850)
- 1871 – Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter (b. 1810)
- 1893 – P. G. T. Beauregard, American general (b. 1818)
- 1895 – Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (b. 1818)
- 1905 – Jeremiah W. Farnham, American captain (b. 1829)
- 1907 – Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- 1910 – Boutros Ghali, Egyptian politician, 9th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1846)
- 1916 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist, author, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
- 1917 – Leone Sextus Tollemache, English captain (b. 1884)
- 1920 – Jacinta Marto, Portuguese saint (b. 1910)
- 1920 – Robert Peary, American explorer (b. 1856)
- 1929 – Manuel Díaz, Cuban fencer (b. 1874)
- 1936 – Max Schreck, German actor (b. 1879)
- 1941 – Madame Bolduc, Canadian singer-songwriter (b. 1894)
- 1942 – Juliusz Bursche, Polish bishop (b. 1862)
- 1961 – Percy Grainger, Australian-American pianist and composer (b. 1882)
- 1963 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian-Austrian conductor (b. 1914)
- 1963 – Jacob Gade, Danish violinist and composer(b. 1879)
- 1965 – Fred Immler, German actor (b. 1880)
- 1966 – Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
- 1968 – Anthony Asquith, English director (b. 1902)
- 1969 – Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
- 1970 – Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (b. 1885)
- 1972 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)
- 1972 – Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)
- 1974 – David Monrad Johansen, Norwegian composer (b. 1888)
- 1976 – René Cassin, French judge, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1976 – Kathryn Kuhlman, American evangelist (b. 1907)
- 1981 – Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-American banker and publisher (b. 1904)
- 1983 – Fritz Köberle, Austrian-Brazilian physician (b. 1910)
- 1985 – Clarence Nash, American voice actor (b. 1904)
- 1987 – Wayne Boring, American illustrator (b. 1905)
- 1992 – A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (b. 1898)
- 1992 – Roberto D'Aubuisson, Salvadoran politician (b. 1944)
- 1992 – Pierre Dervaux, French conductor and composer (b. 1917)
- 1992 – John Kneubuhl, American Samoan screenwriter, playwright and Polynesian historian (b. 1920)
- 1992 – Dick York, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, founded Lamborghini (b. 1916)
- 1993 – Ernest L. Massad, American general (b. 1908)
- 1996 – Solomon Asch, American psychologist (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Toru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (b. 1930)
- 1997 – Zachary Breaux, American guitarist (b. 1960)
- 1999 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
- 1999 – Gene Siskel, American journalist and critic (b. 1946)
- 2000 – Anatoly Sobchak, Russian politician (b. 1937)
- 2001 – Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (b. 1910)
- 2001 – Donella Meadows, American scientist (b. 1941)
- 2001 – Nam Sung-yong, South Korean marathon bronze Olympian (b. 1912)
- 2003 – Maurice Blanchot, French author (b. 1907)
- 2003 – Orville Freeman, American politician, 29th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1918)
- 2003 – Harry Jacunski, American football player (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Ty Longley, American singer and guitarist (Great White and Samantha 7) (b. 1971)
- 2003 – Mushaf Ali Mir, Pakistani air marshal (b. 1947)
- 2005 – Pam Bricker, American singer (b. 1954)
- 2005 – Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1944)
- 2005 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (b. 1937)
- 2005 – Thomas Willmore, English mathematician (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Michael M. Ames, Canadian academic (b. 1933)
- 2006 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist (b. 1920)
- 2007 – F. Albert Cotton, American chemist (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Carl-Henning Pedersen, Danish painter (b. 1913)
- 2008 – Emily Perry, English actress (b. 1907)
- 2009 – Larry H. Miller, American businessman (b. 1944)
- 2009 – Paul Vigay, British computer programmer (b. 1964)
- 2010 – Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (b. 1924)
- 2010 – Basavaraju Venkata Padmanabha Rao, Indian actor (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Asar Eppel, Russian author (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Katie Hall, American politician (b. 1938)
- 2012 – S. N. Lakshmi, Indian actress (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Kenji Eno, Japanese game designer and composer (b. 1970)
- 2013 – Jean Gauthier, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Emma McDougall, English footballer (b. 1991)
- 2013 – David S. McKay, American astrobiologist (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Antonio Roma, Argentinian footballer (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Yussef Sleman, Syrian footballer (b. 1986)
- 2013 – Ozzie Sweet, American photographer (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Osmo Antero Wiio, Finnish journalist, academic, and politician (b. 1928)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- World Day of Social Justice (International)
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” - 1 John 4:11-12
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 19: Morning
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." - Ezekiel 36:37
Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true in your own personal experience. God has given you many an unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has always been the prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found peace through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and earnestly interceding with God that he would remove your doubts, and deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the result of prayer. When at any time you have had high and rapturous joys, you have been obliged to look upon them as answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." Prayer is always the preface to blessing. It goes before the blessing as the blessing's shadow. When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill of mercies, he himself shines behind them, and he casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus connected with the blessing to show us the value of it. If we had the blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought for them earnestly.
"Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above."
"Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above."
Evening
"He first findeth his own brother Simon." - John 1:41
This case is an excellent pattern of all cases where spiritual life is vigorous. As soon as a man has found Christ, he begins to find others. I will not believe that thou hast tasted of the honey of the gospel if thou canst eat it all thyself. True grace puts an end to all spiritual monopoly. Andrew first found his own brother Simon, and then others. Relationship has a very strong demand upon our first individual efforts. Andrew, thou didst well to begin with Simon. I doubt whether there are not some Christians giving away tracts at other people's houses who would do well to give away a tract at their own--whether there are not some engaged in works of usefulness abroad who are neglecting their special sphere of usefulness at home. Thou mayst or thou mayst not be called to evangelize the people in any particular locality, but certainly thou art called to see after thine own servants, thine own kinsfolk and acquaintance. Let thy religion begin at home. Many tradesmen export their best commodities--the Christian should not. He should have all his conversation everywhere of the best savour; but let him have a care to put forth the sweetest fruit of spiritual life and testimony in his own family. When Andrew went to find his brother, he little imagined how eminent Simon would become. Simon Peter was worth ten Andrews so far as we can gather from sacred history, and yet Andrew was instrumental in bringing him to Jesus. You may be very deficient in talent yourself, and yet you may be the means of drawing to Christ one who shall become eminent in grace and service. Ah! dear friend, you little know the possibilities which are in you. You may but speak a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian church in years to come. Andrew has only two talents, but he finds Peter. Go thou and do likewise.
===
Today's reading: Leviticus 25, Mark 1:23-45 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 25
The Sabbath Year
1 The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops....Today's New Testament reading: Mark 1:23-45
23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God!"
25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek....
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