In Vietnam, the failed Tet Offensive had ruined the North's capacity to wage standing battles. But covert operations were still damaging. The guerrilla tactics included women and children and US troops were poorly equipped to handle the vagaries of civil war. A few villages were identified as being targets and orders were given which were ambiguous, but interpreted by some officers on the ground as 'kill everyone.' Some soldiers refused to follow orders, and attempted to hide some of the women and children, but failed.
Following the massacre, Democrat Congressmen Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, denounced the soldiers who had tried to save women and children as traitors. However, soldiers continued to protest the action and an investigation was held. The action was held on March 16th. On March 28th a report labelled it a success. Six months later, a soldier wrote to a general of their concern at the casual killing of civilians. Colin Powell was then appointed to investigate. It is claimed he attempted to whitewash it.
In March of '69, after LBJ had retired and Nixon was President, GOP Barry Goldwater urged the house armed services committee to investigate a letter he'd received from one of the soldiers who had been present at the massacre. Only after a report was tabled in November '69 was the incident reported. So why does Ray Martin believe that the bias of the ABC was essential for reporting on the massacre? Was it for covering up the massacre until a Republican was President?
===
- 976 – Emperor Sanjō of Japan (d. 1017)
- 1347 – Dorothea of Montau, Prussian saint (d. 1394)
- 1612 – Antoine Arnauld, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1694)
- 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1714)
- 1695 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1726)
- 1721 – Christian Friedrich Heinecken, German child prodigy (d. 1725)
- 1744 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
- 1818 – Henry Litolff, English pianist and composer (d. 1891)
- 1838 – Henry Irving, English actor (d. 1905)
- 1838 – Yisrael Meir Kagan, Lithuanian rabbi (d. 1933)
- 1859 – Wilhelm Cohn, German chess player (d. 1913)
- 1895 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player (d. 1948)
- 1911 – Ronald Reagan, American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
- 1912 – Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)
- 1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress
- 1929 – Colin Murdoch, New Zealand pharmacist, invented the tranquilliser gun (d. 2008)
- 1931 – Rip Torn, American actor
- 1931 – James Bonk, American chemist and educator (d. 2013)
- 1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Bob Marley & The Wailers) (d. 1981)
- 1949 – Mike Batt, English singer-songwriter and producer (The Wombles)
- 1951 – Huw Lloyd-Langton, English guitarist (Hawkwind, Widowmaker, and The Meads of Asphodel) (d. 2012)
- 1952 – Tim Blake, English electronic musician (Gong,Hawkwind, Crystal Machine )
- 1983 – Sreesanth, Indian cricketer
- 1996 – Justina Mikulskytė, Lithuanian tennis player
Matches
- 1649 – The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland is declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.
- 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
- 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and Francesignaling official recognition of the new republic.
- 1806 – Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
- 1815 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.
- 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
- 1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-dayLiberia.
- 1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
- 1843 – The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
- 1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.
- 1900 – The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
- 1918 – British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.
- 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
- 1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.
- 1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4" an hour.
- 1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
- 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
Despatches
- 891 – Photios I of Constantinople (b. 810)
- 1215 – Hōjō Tokimasa, Japanese emperor (b. 1138)
- 1806 – Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, French general (b. 1762)
- 1958 – victims of the Munich air disaster
- – Geoff Bent, English footballer (b. 1932)
- – Roger Byrne, English footballer (b. 1929)
- – Eddie Colman, English footballer (b. 1936)
- – Walter Crickmer, English football manager (b. 1900)
- – Mark Jones, English footballer (b. 1933)
- – David Pegg, English footballer (b. 1935)
- – Frank Swift, English footballer and journalist (b. 1913)
- – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (b. 1932)
- 1998 – Carl Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Beach Boys) (b. 1946)
Sydney can be a city of barbarians
Piers Akerman – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (6:04pm)
THIS is a story of shame. Sydney’s shame and a sorry reflection on our slide into disgrace. It is also a horror story, a tale of outrageous behaviour towards a young woman who was critically ill. It is also every caring parent’s worst nightmare.
Continue reading 'Sydney can be a city of barbarians'AUSTRALIAN BAKING CORPORATION
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (2:11pm)
The ABC sucks down more than $3 million in taxes every single day, but the state broadcaster’s constant pleading of poverty and victimisation has convinced a six-year-old girl to run a charity bake-off:
Six-year-old Isabelle from the Melbourne suburb of Diamond Creek became worried about the future of the ABC in January.The past few months have seen the ABC attacked over its news reporting, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott commenting that many believe the Government-funded broadcaster “takes everyone’s side but Australia’s”.The controversy has seen renewed calls for the ABC to have its funding reduced, or be privatised altogether.Concerned by the reports young Isabelle organised a bake-off, raising $40 for the national broadcaster.774 ABC Melbourne mornings presenter Jon Faine presented the cheque to ABC managing director Mark Scott live on air, while he was in the studio to take talkback.The cheque was accompanied with a hand-written letter from the six-year-old.“I love ABC,” says the letter. “Love from Isabelle.”
Instead of cringing with embarrassment, Mark Scott ($805,392) actually poses with the little girl’s cheque and uses the moment to push some ABC propaganda:
“That’s remarkable,” Mr Scott said.“We know despite the noise in the news we operate with this enormous groundswell of support from the Australian people.“Our most recent research shows that 85 per cent of the Australian people believe that the ABC provides a valuable service, that we’re the most respected media organisation in the country and one of the most respected organisations in the country.”
This might be one of the most ill-advised PR stunts in local media history.
(Via David B)
GREENOID GROUNDED
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (1:58pm)
Weepy eco-worrier Eric Holthaus describes his great sacrifice:
That September morning, after an emotional morning of tears and tweets, I decided to take action.I’m never going to fly again.My reason was simple: Flying used to be my biggest personal source of CO2 emissions. With a single action, I was able to cut my personal impact on climate change by nearly 50 percent.
Let’s see similar commitment from Australia’s carbon-blasting eco-community, beginning with Tim Flannery.
$46 MILLION OF SLOW
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (12:59pm)
This site, just a few hours after the ABC reported video “evidence” of asylum seeker torture:
All we have here is some burned hands. There is no evidence at all as to the cause.
It took the ABC’s Mark Scott ($805,392) and Kate Torney ($350,394) nearly two whole weeks – or $46,153,846 of ABC thinking time, considering the organisation’s $1.2 billion annual budget – to finally reach exactly the same conclusion:
The ABC’s initial reports on the video said that the vision appeared to support the asylum seekers’ claims. That’s because it was the first concrete evidence that the injuries had occurred. What the video did not do was establish how those injuries occurred.
Given how long it takes the ABC to process basic information, the delay over an apology is understandable. These people are simply slow.
BACON DELIVERY SYSTEM REPRESENTED
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (11:57am)
Fascinating legal developments in Queensland:
A man accused of animal cruelty for having a photo taken with a pig with its snout taped shut at the Gabba Ashes Test in Brisbane last year has been ordered to attend mediation …The RSPCA will appear on behalf of the pig at the mediation in April.
(Via CL)
NOT HELPING
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (11:18am)
When your ex-client is on the verge of parole after serving nearly a decade for drug possession, it might not be the best time for this:
Schapelle Corby’s former lawyer, Kerry Smith-Douglas, says the convicted drug smuggler will celebrate her release from a Bali prison with a “big marijuana joint”.
Smith-Douglas later added:
“If the Indonesians can’t take a joke then that’s their problem.”
Or potentially Corby’s. Does anyone else pick up a similarity between the lawyer and Strangers With Candy‘s Jerri Blank?
HOWES ENDORSED
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (10:19am)
Wondering what to make of Paul Howes’s National Press Club speech? Consider this view, from Greens MP Adam Bandt:
“Paul Howes should resign as union secretary and join the Liberal party if he is going to just parrot Tony Abbott’s attack on people’s wages,” said Mr Bandt in a statement.“On the same day the government is in the Fair Work Commission attacking people’s wages, Paul Howes is out there spinning Tony Abbott’s argument. Why is one of the most prominent union leaders in the country giving ammunition to Tony Abbott’s attack on Australian wages? It is a disgrace.”
There can be no higher praise. Here’s the whole speech.
POOR FINANCIAL PLANNING
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (10:13am)
Sometimes I regret not having children. Such as right now, for example, when I might be able to pay some of BMW Sydney’s service bill by selling the kids to organ harvesters.
NOBODY TALKING ABOUT THE TIMES
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 06, 2014 (10:08am)
New York Times staff smash their own paper’s editorial page:
“The fact of the matter is the Wall Street Journal editorial page just kicks our editorial page’s ass. I mean there’s just no contest, from top to bottom, and it’s disappointing ...”“[Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal has] got 14 or 15 people plus a whole bevy of assistants working on these three unsigned editorials every day. They’re completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual. I mean, just try and remember the last time that anybody was talking about one of those editorials.”
Further on this from Roger L. Simon.
Just an ABC oversight, right?
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (5:47pm)
The Victorian Liberal Party today put up this YouTube clip of the rort-ridden CFMEU’s links to Labor.
The clip was quickly yanked off air, and the Victorian editor of ABC News gave this snippy explanation:
The clip was quickly yanked off air, and the Victorian editor of ABC News gave this snippy explanation:
Hmm, OK. But why didn’t the ABC take the same action against these Labor ads?
===
ABC boss hides behind six-year-old Isabelle
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (4:51pm)
ABC boss Mark Scott this morning denied the ABC was too biased, and posed with this evidence of support:
Still, this isn’t a new strategy. As Tim Blair has noted before, the ABC and its Leftist allies routinely defend its currents affairs shows from claims of bias by warning children that conservatives are just out to squash the Bananas in Pyjamas:
===The following story was then written by an ABC staffer who - like the ABC boss - seems not to see how pathetic it is to defend the ABC’s bias in news and current affairs by hiding behind the skirts of a six-year-old girl:
Six-year-old Isabelle from the Melbourne suburb of Diamond Creek became worried about the future of the ABC in January.And I wouldn’t be surprised if Scott even banked Isabelle’s cheque. After all, an ABC which soaks up $1.2 billion a year of our money must really, really need the savings of six-year-olds, too.
The past few months have seen the ABC attacked over its news reporting, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott commenting that many believe the Government-funded broadcaster “takes everyone’s side but Australia’s”.
The controversy has seen renewed calls for the ABC to have its funding reduced, or be privatised altogether.
Concerned by the reports young Isabelle organised a bake-off, raising $40 for the national broadcaster.
774 ABC Melbourne mornings presenter Jon Faine presented the cheque to ABC managing director Mark Scott live on air, while he was in the studio to take talkback.
The cheque was accompanied with a hand-written letter from the six-year-old.
“I love ABC,” says the letter. “Love from Isabelle.”
“That’s remarkable,” Mr Scott said.
“We know despite the noise in the news we operate with this enormous groundswell of support from the Australian people...”
Still, this isn’t a new strategy. As Tim Blair has noted before, the ABC and its Leftist allies routinely defend its currents affairs shows from claims of bias by warning children that conservatives are just out to squash the Bananas in Pyjamas:
(Thanks to reader Paul.)
Crossing a Lines
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (4:29pm)
Labor Senator Sue Lines displays all the courtesy for which the Left today is famous, and gets the comeuppance she deserves. After various snarky comments by Lines about the witness’s alleged lack of preparation, this finale:
===Senator LINES: I will quote, on page 236—(Thanks to reader Nick.)
Ms Tarrant : Senator, the submission is only 19 pages long, so I do not know what you are quoting from.
Is it true, or was it in The Age?
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (11:19am)
The Age prints a ludicrous opinion piece by John Legge - “educator, author and consultant” - replete with wild claims such as this:
===Abbott, when asked about the Holden workers who will lose their jobs, said they should be grateful they were being liberated from slaving on an assembly line, moving to living off Newstart and Work for the Dole. If this sort of liberation will suit Holden workers on $60,000 per year including overtime, how much more delightful it should be for Productivity Commission analysts on three times that. It can’t happen soon enough.Here is what Abbott actually said:
Mr Abbott has conceded that some workers will have difficulty finding new jobs.Doesn’t the Age check the truth of what it publishes? Doesn’t it care if its readers are told falsehoods?
“Some of them will find it difficult, but many of them will probably be liberated to pursue new opportunities and to get on with their lives,” he said.
“We have to accept that what was right for people 10 years ago or 20 years ago is not necessarily going to be right or possible for them far into the future, and we do have to be prepared to adapt - individually and collectively.”
We’re killing ourselves with green energy policies that make no difference to the climate
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (11:13am)
Two things still amaze
me - that we could have done something so pointlessly damaging, and that
it’s taken years for our elite to wake up to our madness:
===QUEENSLAND’S largest power generator will today declare that Australia is one of the world’s most expensive countries for energy and warn that the electricity market is being distorted by the carbon tax, mandatory renewables target and solar-rooftop subsidies.The renewable energy target must go. It makes no difference to global temperatures and just makes power prices too high. We’re insane to have agreed to it in the first place, and it’s scary that so few journalists and even Liberals opposed it.
After Stanwell took the extraordinary step yesterday of announcing it would mothball its biggest gas-fired power station and resurrect a coal facility built in the 1980s - sparking predictions that gas-fired power plants would be withdrawn in other states - it will today call for a scaling back of the renewable energy target.
Before the introduction of the carbon tax, the RET scheme and solar feed-in tariffs, the abundance of coal had made Australia a source of low-cost electricity, the company will say.
“These policies appear to have been implemented for ideological reasons with little analysis of the impact on electricity prices and economic growth,” Stanwell chief executive officer Richard Van Breda will say.
Shorten pays the price of ratting
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (11:06am)
I don’t think AWU boss Paul Howes much cares if he’s hurt former AWU boss Bill Shorten:
Abbott cleans up:
===BILL Shorten has branded union leader Paul Howes’ plan for a new grand bargain on industrial relations as “a fantasy’’, saying there is not even a remote chance of it becoming reality while Tony Abbott is prime minister.Some necessary background:
The Opposition Leader said he was all for consensus in the workplace but the Coalition wasn’t interested in sitting down with unions to resolve industrial issues.
[T]he AWU stuck to Gillard like glue - national president Bill Ludwig, former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan and national secretary Paul Howes, as well as the eight or so MPs aligned with the union.
Shorten’s problem is he played both sides of the contest, telling Gillard and her inner circle he was loyal while talking to Rudd behind the scenes…
The Shorten defection hit Howes hard. A mentoree of his predecessor as national secretary, he didn’t want to believe his mate would rat on the union.
On the night of Gillard’s toppling, Howes was red-eyed from a tearful response to events and Shorten’s betrayal.
Corridor gossip suggested he had to convince Ludwig not to fly to Canberra to strip Shorten of his union membership.
Abbott cleans up:
Mr Abbott was quick to draw a distinction between the AWU boss and the Opposition Leader.
“I certainly think that he’s pulled the rug out from underneath Bill Shorten’s scare campaign,” Mr Abbott said.
“That was a very powerful assault on everything Bill Shorten’s been doing for the last few months.”
The Left: natural home of the barbarian
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (10:04am)
The foul language, intolerance and spitting hatred of the modern Leftist exposes the sham behind such preachers of peace and reconciliation. The hate-orgy that follows Deveny’s post is astonishing - an insight into a cultural barbarism. That Deveny has been so heavily nurtured by the ABC says much about the ABC’s decline.
===Labor’s Griffith candidate “proud” of Labor “opening our borders”
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (9:40am)
Terri Butler, Labor’s candidate in this weekend’s Griffith by-election:
===Labor has such a proud history of welcoming immigration, of opening our borders and encouraging people of all cultures to come her and that’s something I’m proud of.Michael Smith:
Terri Butler might be happy about Labor’s proud history of “opening our borders and encouraging people from all cultures to come here” but I can’t imagine too many electors for the Seat of Griffith will be.
Bias makes the Australian Bloated Corporation even more dangerous
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (9:11am)
THE ABC’s bias wouldn’t be so serious if the ABC wasn’t this dangerously big - bigger than is legal for any other media organisation.
Attention Tony Jones, Fran Kelly, Paul Barry, Virginia Trioli, Phillip Adams, Robyn Williams and the ABC’s other Leftist hosts.
Imagine if every single one of the main ABC current affairs shows were hosted not by the likes of you, as they now are.
Imagine them all hosted instead by me and fellow conservatives Janet Albrechtsen, Gerard Henderson, Tim Blair, Miranda Devine, Piers Akerman, Tom Switzer and Rowan Dean.
Imagine Four Corners no longer hosted by a former staffer of Gough Whitlam but of John Howard. Insiders no more hosted by a former staffer of Bob Hawke but of Tony Abbott.
Imagine the result: an ABC that no longer crusaded on boat people, same-sex marriage and global warming, but on free speech, climate scepticism and free markets.
Get it now?
(Read full article here.)
A party at the Corby joint
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (8:56am)
Karl Stefanovic interviews Kerry Smith-Douglas,
Schappelle Corby’s former lawyer, about Corby’s impending release from a
Bali prison midway through a 20-year sentence for smuggling marijuana:
===Karl asked, “You must be a little bit excited by all this, not very far away now?’’.It isn’t the first time Smith-Douglas has given us reason to doubt her client’s claims of innocence:
Smith-Douglas replied: “Yes, it’s very exciting, there’s going to be a lot of parties going on once she is released, and I can’t wait’’
Karl: “Are you going to be having a party?’’
Smith-Douglas: “Oh you betcha’’…
Karl: “How do you think she will celebrate?’’
Smith-Douglas: “She’ll probably pop a cork of champagne and then roll up a big marijuana joint the size of a cigar and kick back and enjoy herself.’’…
Karl...: “You haven’t been smoking this morning have you?’’
Smith-Douglas replied with laughter: “My eyes are red, I know”.
SCHAPELLE CORBY’S Australian lawyer has been sacked after saying she would not be surprised if the drugs Corby went to jail for carrying to Bali had belonged to Corby’s father.
This month, Kerry Smith-Douglas contradicted her own client’s claim that baggage handlers were responsible for the 4.2 kilograms of marijuana found in Corby’s boogie board bag in October 2004.
ABC wars: Turnbull now joins the party
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (8:44am)
Malcolm Turnbull defended ABC boss Mark Scott, denied the ABC was biased and refused to back Tony Abbott’s criticism of the ABC’s cultural hostility to our institutions.
But with the ABC itself now conceding (a tiny) fault and Liberal MPs with their tails up, the Communications Minister moves to bayonet the wounded:
Nick Cater:
===But with the ABC itself now conceding (a tiny) fault and Liberal MPs with their tails up, the Communications Minister moves to bayonet the wounded:
Mr Turnbull said: ‘’The ABC has acknowledged that their reports were wrong. That is good. But this has caused enormous offence and an apology, in my view - just a suggestion - would be appropriate.’’UPDATE
Nick Cater:
In the 1998 financial year the ABC drew $555,991,000 from the public purse, the equivalent of $853,467,000 in 2013 dollars.(Figures at the link.)
In 2013, the ABC received $1,023,700,000 from Treasury, an increase of 20% over 15 years in real terms.
The result: more repeats and more overseas programs…
As Paul Keating once said:
We pay them more than the state of Tasmania. Do we get value for it? It’s a moot point.
So who is lying about SPC?
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (8:29am)
LIBERAL MP Sharman Stone calls Prime Minister Tony Abbott a “liar”, but who exactly is telling whoppers?
It’s already an ask to trust Stone when she evasively claimed on 2GB that “you can’t find a transcript ... of me saying the ‘l’ word”, despite earlier saying of Abbott: “It’s lying.”
So why trust her angry attacks on Abbott for rejecting a $25 million handout for SPC Ardmona, owned by Coca-Cola Amatil, when Stone is the cannery’s local member?
First, Stone claimed Abbott lied because he “explained as the reason for not supporting SPCA, which was basically awards and conditions”.
False.
(Read full article here.)
===It’s already an ask to trust Stone when she evasively claimed on 2GB that “you can’t find a transcript ... of me saying the ‘l’ word”, despite earlier saying of Abbott: “It’s lying.”
So why trust her angry attacks on Abbott for rejecting a $25 million handout for SPC Ardmona, owned by Coca-Cola Amatil, when Stone is the cannery’s local member?
First, Stone claimed Abbott lied because he “explained as the reason for not supporting SPCA, which was basically awards and conditions”.
False.
(Read full article here.)
Abbott now getting it together
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (7:46am)
Niki Savva is right (although too critical of Abbott’s “home team” comment):
===Abbott was doing his job, and appeared to have spent his break thinking about it. Since the political year resumed, he has shown he is beginning to get the hang of it. Not completely, not always, but certainly better than before…
Abbott has also benefited from issues breaking his way. Some of it is luck, some of it is luck he has created or helped along.
One issue where the government has absolute control is asylum-seekers. Like it or not - and the Greens and Labor clearly hate it, even though no boats mean no drownings - the policies are working.
If Abbott shows the same unswerving commitment and passion to fixing the budget deficit without killing the economy as he has to stopping the boats, and as he will to improving the lot of indigenous people, then he will have a handsome record as Prime Minister.
Howes offers deal. Abbott will be smart to consider, wise to dump
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (7:41am)
Paul Howes wants big business and big unions, aided by big government, to make a big deal to fix our future for us:
And while I applaud Howes’ warm-fuzzies call for bosses and union leaders to be less confrontational, I recall how Howes himself has trawled for his members’ votes by playing the bovver boy:
===Union boss Paul Howes has dramatically undermined Bill Shorten’s depiction of the Abbott government as anti-worker, proposing unions enter into a new partnership with the Coalition and business to rein in high wages and lift productivity.It’s a vision with little detail, lots of fine sentiments ... and lots of threats:
Calling for a ‘’grand compact’’ with business and the Abbott government and a new spirit of co-operation to echo the Hawke-Keating government’s accord with unions, Mr Howes stunned fellow unionists by railing against union propaganda and workers pricing themselves out of the market with high wage claims.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and some employer groups immediately welcomed the call from one of the nation’s most powerful union leaders for an end to workplace conflict through a return to a 1980s-style summit of business, government, and unions. But some employer groups, the opposition and fellow union officials rejected out of hand the radical suggestion of a deal to end what Mr Howes called the ‘’see-saw’’ of industrial relations policy in Australia.
“A grand compact is not just possible, it is desperately needed,’’ he told the National Press Club.The threats are these:
“A grand compact in which unions, business and government create an industrial engagement pursuant to agreed national goals; an industrial engagement that is a key organising imperative, and provides certainty ... on 10,15 and 20-year horizons.’’
Such a deal would acknowledge that productivity is a shared responsibility and making concessions in pursuit of shared goals was seen as a strength, not a weakness.
- no plan or “key organising imperative” (????) can offer “certainty” on “20-year horizons”. History moves too fast. Economies riding high this year could be rocked the next. A Spanish miracle economy, fashionably green, can fast become a cripple. Howes is searching for certainties at a time when we need flexibilities instead.So why might Howes be offering this deal? Some context:
- unions represent just 18 per cent of Australian workers, and just 13 per cent in the private sector. They do not have the right or moral authority to make any “grand compact” binding on the rest of us.
- a deal by big business and big unions will suit both, but neither group represents the the majority of Australians. Add big government and you have almost a kind of soft fascism. Remember when big miners signed a deal with big (Labor) government on the mining tax to the immediate benefit of both? Remember how small miners were clobbered under that deal, and Australian taxpayers got barely a penny? Remember also when big unions, big business and big (Labor) government agreed a carbon tax was a terrific compromise?
- we could be facing a fall in living standards as the bill comes for our debt binge. Unions will come under severe pressure to defend wages and conditions made in better times.Mark Kenny is right to suggest Howes is pulling a rug from underneath Bill Shorten, which explains Tony Abbott’s quick embrace:
- Howes offers a deal now that a Labor government under union instruction is replaced by a Coalition one carrying a big hammer.
- and, of course, Howes may simply be worried that this country really is in trouble.
Like Howes, government and employers are also reading the mood. Their assessment is that Howes is proposing a return to the corporatism of the accord, where big unions, big employers and the government set the outcomes in order to deal unions back into the game.Shorten was asked on the ABC today if he’d known beforehand what Howes was about to say. He dodged giving an answer, which I must presume, then, is “no”. Mates no more.
And their response is to say this is not the workplace relations system in Australia any more.
Still, with Bill Shorten characterising everything the government is proposing as anti-worker union-bashing, the olive branch being extended by Shorten’s successor at the AWU must feel like manna from heaven.
And while I applaud Howes’ warm-fuzzies call for bosses and union leaders to be less confrontational, I recall how Howes himself has trawled for his members’ votes by playing the bovver boy:
On Wednesday he spoke of the need for a ‘’Grand Compact’’ between employers, unions and government and the need for a ‘’profound attitudinal shift’’. He felt uncomfortable about the government hectoring ‘’respected business leaders’’. Nice words.And members’ votes.
But Howes, in 2011, delivered an inflammatory speech directed at a significant business that employs his members. Rio Tinto, he said, was ‘’sucking out the blood’’ of its workforce and ‘’monkeys’’ could do a better job running the miner. He told Rio Tinto’s bosses they ‘’cannot hide behind your slimy, grubby mates in the Coalition because we’re coming after you’’. They never really did come after them in the way Howes said they would. But that didn’t matter. There were plenty of headlines.
What good does the ABC’s Australia Network do?
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (6:52am)
Why on earth are we wasting all this money on the ABC’s Australia Network? Greg Sheridan:
===The money for the Australia Network does not come from the ABC. It comes from [the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]. At the moment, DFAT’s global public diplomacy budget is about $5 million…I would just query this assertion of Greg’s:
Founded by the Keating government, the Australia Network in all its guises has been a colossal waste of money and a complete, absolute failure as public policy…
I have been annoyed on occasion at what I see as an anti-Australian tic in much of the news and documentary stuff on the Australia Network, but that is merely its inevitable reflection of the political culture of its parent organisation, the ABC....
So long as Australia Network exists I don’t want it to become an organ of Australian state propaganda. But nor do I want it to make life harder for the Australian government by taking the ABC editorial line on asylum-seekers, climate change etc, which is opposed to the policies of the Australian government. There’s a simple solution. It doesn’t need to exist at all…
In all of my countless trips to Asia I have never met an Asian who watches Australia Network. But half an eye is cast on it in a desultory fashion by Asian governments and some Asian news organisations. So while it has almost no capacity to do good, it has a substantial capacity to do harm.
But in reality there is absolutely no reason to have it at all. Our highly competent but resource-starved professional diplomats could do much more, much better targeted, with a proper public diplomacy budget.I wouldn’t be so sure, given some ways it’s spending that cash, for instance on Muslim apologist Waleed Aly:
Lex Bartlem, Australian Ambassador to Lebanon:The video DFAT posted of this interview had 30 views when I first linked to it this morning.
Today is the last day of a tour that has taken you through the United Arab Emirates, SaudiArabia, Turkey and now to Beirut in Lebanon. We are delighted that you came. In most of those countries I know that you have met with academics, clerics, students, members of parliament, government officials and ministers. You came to speak to them about Islam in Australia—about its diversity, and about the community’s successes and problems.Aly:
Firstly, let me say it has been a fantastic trip and a great opportunity, and I have to thank you for even thinking of inviting me.... What [people met on the trip] were trying to figure out, it seemed to me, was the relationship that Islam in Australia, or Muslims in Australia, or really anyone in Australia, has with the state…Bartlem:
I know that we are hoping to get you back to the region in January to visit Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.
Time to can SPC instead for misleading
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (6:32am)
Those who called Tony Abbott a liar should be asked to explain themselves:
Grace Collier on the true deceivers:
===In an SPC media release sent to all Coalition colleagues by Ms Stone yesterday, [SPC Ardmona] said the excessive redundancy payments had been trimmed back to 52 weeks in 2012. However, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has confirmed that almost all of the plant’s more than 400 or so employees were employed under a previous enterprise agreement that provided for redundancy of four weeks’ pay for every year of service, up to a maximum of 104 weeks.A company paying generous conditions can hardly expect taxpayers for a handout when the money is gone. I don’t think Stone should be forgiven for her false claims, either:
Dr Stone yesterday stood by her comments and continued to press for government assistance for the company, which has joined her in challenging the assertion of “overgenerous” entitlements at the company’s plants.UPDATE
“Recent claims that SPC Ardmona is a ‘union shop’ or that the cause of its difficulties are because of ‘over generous’ allowances and conditions to staff are mistaken and need to be refuted by the facts,” SPC Ardmona said in its release. However, [AMWU food and confectionary division secretary Tom Hale] confirmed that at least 90 per cent of the company’s production staff were union members.
Grace Collier on the true deceivers:
No one is telling lies when they say the EBA must be altered. Anyone who says the EBA is blameless is the liar....
This week journalists claimed that SPC workers earned on average a modest $50,000. This is hardly possible given that base rates alone range from $48,538 to $61,359…
I estimate SPC labour costs are double what they should be because of direct costs as well as the cost of a wide range of productivity restrictions. Crucially, the EBA shows the ... union has been allowed too much control..
Harvest Freshcuts is a food processor. The plant at Bairnsdale is about the same distance away from Melbourne that Shepparton [SPC’s home] is. Its last EBA, just terminated, was much more appropriate than SPC’s and made with staff rather than a union. The working week is longer. Labour costs look a third lower. Conditions are much closer to or capped at award rates and wages are adjusted only by CPI.
Reflexively liberal, utterly predictable
Andrew Bolt February 06 2014 (12:59am)
New York Times staff talk about the New York Times:
===“The fact of the matter is the Wall Street Journal editorial page just kicks our editorial page’s ass. I mean there’s just no contest, from top to bottom, and it’s disappointing ...”What would Age staff privately say about Age editorials?
“[Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal has] got 14 or 15 people plus a whole bevy of assistants working on these three unsigned editorials every day. They’re completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual. I mean, just try and remember the last time that anybody was talking about one of those editorials.”
===
Keep Searching! But where are Wally and Wizard Whitebeard?
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Daniel is a cousin of mine - ed
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- 1806 – Napoleonic Wars: When squadrons of British and French ships of the line engaged in the Battle of San Domingo (pictured) in the Caribbean Sea, the French ships Impérial and Diomède ran aground to avoid capture, but were caught and destroyed anyway.
- 1833 – Otto became the first modern King of Greece.
- 1919 – Over 65,000 workers in Seattle, Washington, US, began a five-day general strike to gain higher wages after two years of World War I wage controls.
- 1976 – In testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, Lockheedpresident Carl Kotchian admitted that the company had paid out approximately US$3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
- 1987 – Mary Gaudron was appointed as the first female Justice of the High Court of Australia.
Events[edit]
- 1649 – The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland is declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.
- 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
- 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and Francesignaling official recognition of the new republic.
- 1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1806 – Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
- 1815 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.
- 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
- 1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-dayLiberia.
- 1833 – Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece.
- 1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
- 1843 – The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
- 1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.
- 1862 – American Civil War: The U.S. Navy gives the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
- 1899 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
- 1900 – The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
- 1914 – The Bondetåget, a peasant uprising in support of the monarchy, takes place in Sweden
- 1918 – British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.
- 1919 – The five-day Seattle General Strike begins.
- 1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
- 1934 – Far right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
- 1942 – World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Thailand.
- 1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
- 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
- 1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.
- 1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- 1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
- 1975 – A crucial by-election is held in Kankesanthurai, Sri Lanka.
- 1976 – In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
- 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4" an hour.
- 1981 – The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
- 1987 – Justice Mary Gaudron is appointed to the High Court of Australia, the first woman to be appointed.
- 1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
- 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
- 1996 – Willamette Valley Flood of 1996: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.
- 1996 – Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, all 189 people inside the airplane are killed. This is the worst accident/incident involving a Boeing 757.
- 1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
- 2000 – Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.
Births[edit]
- 976 – Emperor Sanjō of Japan (d. 1017)
- 1347 – Dorothea of Montau, Prussian saint (d. 1394)
- 1452 – Joan, Princess of Portugal (d. 1490)
- 1461 – Džore Držić, Croatian poet and playwright (d. 1501)
- 1465 – Scipione del Ferro, Italian mathematician (d. 1526)
- 1536 – Sassa Narimasa, Japanese samurai (d. 1588)
- 1577 – Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman (d. 1599)
- 1582 – Mario Bettinus, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (d. 1657)
- 1605 – Bernard of Corleone, Italian saint (d. 1667)
- 1608 – António Vieira, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1697)
- 1611 – Chongzhen Emperor, Emperor of China (d. 1644)
- 1612 – Antoine Arnauld, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1694)
- 1639 – Daniel Georg Morhof, German author and scholar (d. 1691)
- 1643 – Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, Prussian politician, 1st Minister President of Prussia (d. 1712)
- 1664 – Mustafa II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1703)
- 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1714)
- 1695 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1726)
- 1721 – Christian Friedrich Heinecken, German child prodigy (d. 1725)
- 1726 – Patrick Russell, Scottish surgeon (d. 1805)
- 1732 – Charles Lee, English-American general (d. 1782)
- 1736 – Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German-Austrian sculptor (d. 1783)
- 1744 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
- 1748 – Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher (d. 1830)
- 1753 – Évariste de Parny, French poet (d. 1814)
- 1756 – Aaron Burr, American politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
- 1757 – Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Belarus-Polish poet, playwright, and politician (d. 1841)
- 1769 – Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn, Austrian general (d. 1862)
- 1772 – George Murray, Scottish soldier and politician (d. 1830)
- 1772 – Karl von Kügelgen, German painter (d. 1832)
- 1778 – Ugo Foscolo, Italian author and poet (d. 1827)
- 1781 – John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, Irish soldier (d. 1844)
- 1796 – John Stevens Henslow, English botanist and geologist (d. 1861)
- 1797 – Joseph von Radowitz, Prussian general and politician (d. 1853)
- 1799 – Imre Frivaldszky, Hungarian botanist and entomologist (d. 1870)
- 1800 – Achille Devéria, French painter (d. 1857)
- 1802 – Charles Wheatstone, English physicist (d. 1875)
- 1811 – Henry Liddell, English academic and author (d. 1898)
- 1818 – William M. Evarts, American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of State (d. 1901)
- 1818 – Henry Litolff, English pianist and composer (d. 1891)
- 1818 – Jenaro Quesada, 1st Marquis of Miravalles, Spanish soldier and politician (d. 1889)
- 1829 – Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer, French architect, designed the La Santé Prison and Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge (d. 1914)
- 1830 – Daniel Oliver, English botanist (d. 1916)
- 1832 – John Brown Gordon, American politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia (d. 1904)
- 1833 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author (d. 1906)
- 1833 – J.E.B. Stuart, American army officer (d. 1864)
- 1834 – Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist (d. 1913)
- 1834 – Ema Pukšec, Croatian soprano (d. 1889)
- 1834 – Wilhelm von Scherff, German general and author (d. 1911)
- 1838 – Henry Irving, English actor (d. 1905)
- 1838 – Yisrael Meir Kagan, Lithuanian rabbi (d. 1933)
- 1839 – Eduard Hitzig, German neurologist (d. 1907)
- 1842 – Mary Rudge, English chess player (d. 1919)
- 1843 – Inoue Kowashi, Japanese politician (d. 1895)
- 1843 – Frederic William Henry Myers, English poet and philologist, co-founded the Society for Psychical Research (d. 1901)
- 1845 – Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (d. 1912)
- 1847 – Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect, designed the Plaza Hotel (d. 1918)
- 1849 – Ida Straus, German-American businesswoman (d. 1912)
- 1852 – C. Lloyd Morgan, English zoologist and psychologist (d. 1936)
- 1852 – Vasily Safonov, Russian pianist, conductor, and composer (d. 1918)
- 1853 – Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (d. 1901)
- 1854 – Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa (d. 1931)
- 1859 – Wilhelm Cohn, German chess player (d. 1913)
- 1861 – Nikolay Zelinsky, Russian chemist (d. 1953)
- 1864 – John Henry Mackay, Scottish-German philosopher and author (d. 1933)
- 1866 – Karl Sapper, German linguist and explorer (d. 1945)
- 1872 – Robert Maillart, Swiss engineer, designed the Salginatobel Bridge and Schwandbach Bridge (d. 1940)
- 1874 – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Indian Vaisnava religious leader, founder of the Gaudiya Math and spiritual master of Bhaktivedanta Swami (d. 1937)
- 1875 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (d. 1915)
- 1876 – Henry Blogg, English fisherman and lifeboat man (d. 1954)
- 1876 – Eugène-Henri Gravelotte, French fencer (d. 1939)
- 1878 – Walter B. Pitkin, American educator (d. 1953)
- 1879 – Othon Friesz, French painter (d. 1949)
- 1879 – Magnús Guðmundsson, Icelandic politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1937)
- 1879 – Edwin Samuel Montagu, English politician, Secretary of State for India (d. 1924)
- 1879 – Carl Ramsauer, German physicist (d. 1955)
- 1880 – Nishinoumi Kajirō II, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 25th Yokozuna (d. 1931)
- 1883 – Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1938)
- 1884 – Marcel Cohen, French linguist and scholar (d. 1974)
- 1887 – Josef Frings, German cardinal (d. 1978)
- 1892 – Maximilian Fretter-Pico, German general (d. 1984)
- 1892 – William Parry Murphy, American physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1893 – Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat, 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Pakistan (d. 1985)
- 1894 – Eric Partridge, New Zealand-English lexicographer (d. 1979)
- 1894 – Kirpal Singh, Indian religious leader (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player (d. 1948)
- 1897 – Louis Buchalter, American mobster (d. 1944)
- 1898 – Harry Haywood, American politician (d. 1985)
- 1898 – Alla Tarasova, Russian actress (d. 1973)
- 1899 – Ramón Novarro, Mexican actor (d. 1968)
- 1901 – Ben Lyon, American actor (d. 1979)
- 1902 – George Brunies, American trombonist (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean pianist (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Władysław Gomułka, Polish politician (d. 1982)
- 1905 – Jan Werich, Czech actor and playwright (d. 1980)
- 1906 – Joseph Schull, Canadian playwright and historian (d. 1980)
- 1908 – Amintore Fanfani, Italian politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1999)
- 1908 – Edward Lansdale, American air force officer and CIA agent (d. 1987)
- 1908 – Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (d. 1981)
- 1910 – Irmgard Keun, German author (d. 1982)
- 1910 – Carlos Marcello, Tunisian-American gangster (d. 1993)
- 1911 – Ronald Reagan, American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
- 1912 – Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)
- 1912 – Christopher Hill, English historian and author (d. 2003)
- 1913 – Mary Leakey, English anthropologist (d. 1996)
- 1914 – Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (d. 2005)
- 1915 – Kavi Pradeep, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 1998)
- 1916 – John Crank, English mathematician and physicist (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Louis-Philippe de Grandpré, Canadian lawyer and jurist (d. 2008)
- 1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress
- 1918 – Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Takashi Yanase, Japanese poet and illustrator, created Anpanman (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Carl Neumann Degler, American historian and author
- 1922 – Patrick Macnee, English actor
- 1922 – Denis Norden, English television host
- 1922 – Haskell Wexler, American director, producer, and cinematographer
- 1923 – Gyula Lóránt, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 1981)
- 1924 – Billy Wright, English footballer (d. 1994)
- 1924 – Jin Yong, Hong Kong author
- 1925 – Donald Mitchell, English musicologist
- 1925 – Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian author (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Eugene E. Covert, American scientist
- 1926 – Walker Edmiston, American actor (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Gerard K. O'Neill, American physicist (d. 1992)
- 1928 – Allan H. Meltzer, American economist
- 1929 – Pierre Brice, French actor
- 1929 – Colin Murdoch, New Zealand pharmacist, invented the tranquilliser gun (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Oscar Sambrano Urdaneta, Venezuelan author and critic (d. 2011)
- 1929 – Valentin Yanin, Russian historian and author
- 1930 – Lionel Blue, English Reform rabbi, writer and broadcaster
- 1930 – Jun Kondo, Japanese physicist
- 1931 – James Bonk, American chemist and educator (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Rip Torn, American actor
- 1931 – Mamie Van Doren, American actress and singer
- 1931 – Ricardo Vidal, Filipino cardinal
- 1932 – Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban anarchist (d. 1959)
- 1932 – Heinz-Klaus Metzger, German critic and theorist (d. 2009)
- 1932 – François Truffaut, French actor, director, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1984)
- 1933 – Leslie Crowther, English comedian and actor (d. 1996)
- 1934 – Bernard Erhard, American voice actor (d. 2000)
- 1936 – Donnie Brooks, American singer (d. 2007)
- 1936 – Kent Douglas, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2009)
- 1936 – J. Howard Marshall III, American businessman
- 1938 – Fred Mifflin, Canadian admiral and politician
- 1939 – Jean Beaudin, Canadian director and screenwriter
- 1939 – Mike Farrell, American actor
- 1939 – Orlando Parga, Puerto Rican politician
- 1940 – Tom Brokaw, American journalist
- 1940 – Petr Hájek, Czech mathematician
- 1940 – Jimmy Tarbuck, English comedian and actor
- 1941 – Stephen Albert, American composer (d. 1992)
- 1941 – Gigi Perreau, American actress
- 1941 – Spencer Silver, American chemist
- 1942 – Sarah Brady, American activist
- 1942 – Charlie Coles, American basketball coach (Central Michigan University, Miami University) (d. 2013)
- 1942 – Ahmad-Jabir Ahmadov Ismail oghlu, Azerbaijani philosopher and educator
- 1942 – James Loewen, American sociologist and historian
- 1942 – Tommy Roberts, English fashion designer (d. 2012)
- 1942 – Valentina Titova, Russian actress
- 1943 – Fabian Forte, American singer and actor
- 1943 – Ernie Field, English boxer (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Gayle Hunnicutt, American actress
- 1943 – Georgeanna Tillman, American singer and dancer (The Marvelettes) (d. 1980)
- 1944 – Christine Boutin, French politician
- 1944 – Willie Tee, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (The Wild Magnolias) (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Michael Tucker, American actor
- 1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Bob Marley & The Wailers) (d. 1981)
- 1945 – George Mudie, British politician
- 1946 – Richie Hayward, American drummer and songwriter (Little Feat and Fraternity of Man) (d. 2010)
- 1946 – Kate McGarrigle, Canadian singer-songwriter and accordion player (Kate and Anna McGarrigle and Mountain City Four) (d. 2010)
- 1946 – Jim Turner, American politician
- 1947 – Richard Bowring, British orientalist
- 1947 – Bill Staines, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Daniel Yergin, American author
- 1949 – Mike Batt, English singer-songwriter and producer (The Wombles)
- 1949 – Manuel Orantes, Spanish tennis player
- 1949 – Jim Sheridan, Irish director
- 1950 – Natalie Cole, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1950 – Jane Gordon-Cumming, English author
- 1950 – Timothy M. Dolan, American cardinal
- 1951 – Margo, Irish singer
- 1951 – Marco Antônio, Brazilian footballer
- 1951 – Huw Lloyd-Langton, English guitarist (Hawkwind, Widowmaker, and The Meads of Asphodel) (d. 2012)
- 1951 – Jacques Villeret, French actor (d. 2005)
- 1951 – Kevin Whately, English actor
- 1952 – Viktor Giacobbo, Swiss comedian and actor
- 1952 – Tim Blake, English electronic musician (Gong,Hawkwind, Crystal Machine )
- 1952 – Ricardo La Volpe, Argentinian footballer, manager, and coach
- 1954 – Bob Sirois, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1955 – Michael Pollan, American journalist
- 1955 – Bruno Stolorz, French rugby coach
- 1957 – Andres Lipstok, Estonian economist and politician
- 1957 – Kathy Najimy, American actress
- 1957 – Simon Phillips, English drummer (Toto, Michael Schenker Group, 801, RMS, and PhD)
- 1957 – Robert Townsend, American actor and director
- 1958 – Cecily Adams, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1958 – Tim Dakin, English cleric, Bishop of Winchester
- 1958 – Barry Miller, American actor
- 1959 – Ken Nelson, English record producer
- 1960 – Jeremy Bowen, Welsh journalist and television reporter
- 1960 – Megan Gallagher, American actress
- 1960 – Frank Jeske, German footballer (d. 1994)
- 1961 – Cam Cameron, American football coach
- 1961 – Yury Onufriyenko, Ukrainian-Russian astronaut
- 1962 – Stavros Lambrinidis, Greek politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Greece
- 1962 – Axl Rose, American singer-songwriter and producer (Guns N' Roses, Hollywood Rose, and Rapidfire)
- 1963 – David Capel, English cricketer
- 1963 – Scott Gordon, American ice hockey player and coach
- 1963 – Mike Hough, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1963 – Quentin Letts, English journalist and critic
- 1963 – Kevin Trudeau, American radio host and author
- 1964 – Gordon Downie, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (The Tragically Hip)
- 1964 – Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russian actor and director
- 1965 – Jan Svěrák, Czech director
- 1966 – Rick Astley, English singer-songwriter
- 1967 – Anita Cochran, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1967 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer-songwriter (Zard) (d. 2007)
- 1968 – Adolfo Valencia, Colombian footballer
- 1968 – Akira Yamaoka, Japanese composer and producer
- 1969 – David Hayter, American actor and screenwriter
- 1969 – Masaharu Fukuyama, Japanese singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1969 – Tim Sherwood, English footballer and coach
- 1970 – Per Frandsen, Danish footballer
- 1970 – Zhou Kehua, Chinese criminal and murderer (d. 2012)
- 1971 – Dana Eskelson, American actress
- 1971 – Brad Hogg, Australian cricketer
- 1971 – Carlos Rogers, American basketball player
- 1971 – Brian Stepanek, American actor
- 1972 – Stefano Bettarini, Italian footballer
- 1972 – David Binn, American football player
- 1973 – Jeff B. Davis, American actor and singer
- 1975 – Chad Allen, American baseball player
- 1975 – Orkut Büyükkökten, Turkish software engineer, created Orkut
- 1975 – Brett Hawke, Australian swimmer
- 1975 – Tomoko Kawase, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer (The Brilliant Green and Tommy heavenly6)
- 1976 – Tanja Frieden, Swiss snowboarder
- 1976 – Kasper Hvidt, Danish handball player
- 1976 – Princess Marie of Denmark
- 1976 – Kim Zmeskal, American gymnast
- 1977 – Jason Euell, English footballer
- 1977 – Josh Stewart, American actor
- 1977 – Sergei Sychyov, Ukrainian-Estonian ice dancer
- 1978 – Yael Naim, French-Israeli singer-songwriter
- 1979 – Dan Bălan, Moldovan singer-songwriter and producer (O-Zone)
- 1980 – Ben Lawson, Australian actor
- 1980 – Mamiko Noto, Japanese voice actress
- 1980 – Conor O'Brian, American wrestler
- 1980 – Kim Poirier, Canadian actress, singer, and producer
- 1980 – Luke Ravenstahl, American politician, 58th Mayor of Pittsburgh
- 1981 – Ricky Barnes, American golfer
- 1981 – Calum Best, American-English model
- 1981 – Shim Eun Jin, South Korean singer (Baby V.O.X.)
- 1981 – Jens Lekman, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1981 – Alison Haislip, American actress
- 1981 – Ty Warren, American football player
- 1982 – Tank, Taiwanese singer-songwriter (Mandopop)
- 1982 – Jade Edmistone, Australian swimmer
- 1982 – Alice Eve, English actress
- 1982 – Elise Ray, American gymnast
- 1983 – Sreesanth, Indian cricketer
- 1983 – Melrose Bickerstaff, American model and fashion designer
- 1983 – Brodie Croyle, American football player
- 1983 – Dimas Delgado, Spanish footballer
- 1983 – Jamie Whincup, Australian race car driver
- 1983 – Myron Wolf Child, Canadian activist (d. 2007)
- 1984 – Darren Bent, English footballer
- 1984 – Piret Järvis, Estonian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Vanilla Ninja)
- 1984 – Antoine Wright, American basketball player
- 1985 – Kris Humphries, American basketball player
- 1985 – Joji Kato, Japanese speed skater
- 1985 – Yang Yu, Chinese swimmer
- 1986 – Yunho, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor (TVXQ)
- 1986 – Alice Greczyn, American actress
- 1986 – Brendan Taylor, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1987 – Luisa Värk, Estonian singer
- 1988 – Bailey Hanks, American actress and singer
- 1988 – Allison Holker, American dancer
- 1988 – Jennifer White, American pornographic actress
- 1989 – Craig Cathcart, Irish footballer
- 1989 – Jonny Flynn, American basketball player
- 1990 – Adam Henrique, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1992 – Víctor Mañon, Mexican footballer
- 1993 – Teresa Scanlan, American model, Miss America 2011
- 1995 – Jongup, South Korean singer, (B.A.P)
- 1996 – Justina Mikulskytė, Lithuanian tennis player
Deaths[edit]
- 891 – Photios I of Constantinople (b. 810)
- 1215 – Hōjō Tokimasa, Japanese emperor (b. 1138)
- 1378 – Joanna of Bourbon (b. 1338)
- 1497 – Johannes Ockeghem, Flemish composer (b. 1410)
- 1515 – Aldus Manutius, Italian publisher, founded the Aldine Press (b. 1449)
- 1585 – Edmund Plowden, English lawyer and scholar (b. 1518)
- 1593 – Jacques Amyot, French author (b. 1513)
- 1593 – Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan (b. 1517)
- 1612 – Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)
- 1617 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1553)
- 1685 – Charles II of England (b. 1630)
- 1740 – Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)
- 1775 – William Dowdeswell, English politician (b. 1721)
- 1783 – Lancelot "Capability" Brown, English gardener (b. 1716)
- 1793 – Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright (b. 1707)
- 1806 – Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, French general (b. 1762)
- 1807 – John Reid, Scottish general (b. 1721)
- 1833 – Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist (b. 1762)
- 1834 – Richard Lemon Lander, English explorer (b. 1804)
- 1855 – Josef Munzinger, Swiss politician (b. 1791)
- 1899 – Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1874)
- 1899 – Leo von Caprivi, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
- 1910 – Alfonso Maria Fusco, Italian priest (b. 1839)
- 1916 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan poet (b. 1867)
- 1918 – Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (b. 1862)
- 1927 – Sam Maguire, Irish footballer (b. 1879)
- 1929 – Maria Christina of Austria (b. 1858)
- 1931 – Motilal Nehru, Indian layer and politician (b. 1861)
- 1938 – Marianne von Werefkin, Russian-Swiss painter (b. 1860)
- 1942 – Jaan Soots, Estonian military commander (b. 1880)
- 1950 – Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (b. 1884)
- 1951 – Gabby Street, American baseball player (b. 1882)
- 1952 – George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1895)
- 1958 – victims of the Munich air disaster
- – Geoff Bent, English footballer (b. 1932)
- – Roger Byrne, English footballer (b. 1929)
- – Eddie Colman, English footballer (b. 1936)
- – Walter Crickmer, English football manager (b. 1900)
- – Mark Jones, English footballer (b. 1933)
- – David Pegg, English footballer (b. 1935)
- – Frank Swift, English footballer and journalist (b. 1913)
- – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (b. 1932)
- 1963 – Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi, Moroccan guerrilla leader (b. 1880)
- 1964 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino general and politician, 1st President of the Philippines (b. 1869)
- 1966 – Narcisa de Leon, Filipino film producer (b. 1877)
- 1967 – Martine Carol, French actress (b. 1920)
- 1976 – Ritwik Ghatak, Bangladeshi-Indian director and scriptwriter (b. 1925)
- 1976 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1928)
- 1981 – Hugo Montenegro, American composer and conductor (b. 1925)
- 1981 – Frederica of Hanover (b. 1917)
- 1985 – James Hadley Chase, English author (b. 1906)
- 1986 – Georges Cabana, Canadian archbishop (b. 1894)
- 1986 – Frederick Coutts, Scottish 8th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Dandy Nichols, English actress (b. 1907)
- 1986 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (b. 1912)
- 1987 – Julien Chouinard, Canadian lawyer, civil servant, and jurist (b. 1929)
- 1989 – André Cayatte, French director and lawyer (b. 1909)
- 1989 – Chris Gueffroy, German man attempted to climb the Berlin Wall (b. 1968)
- 1989 – Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (b. 1937)
- 1989 – King Tubby, Jamaican DJ producer, and composer (b. 1941)
- 1989 – Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian and author (b. 1912)
- 1990 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American composer (b. 1913)
- 1991 – Salvador Luria, Italian biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- 1991 – Danny Thomas, American singer, actor, and producer (b. 1914)
- 1993 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (b. 1943)
- 1994 – Joseph Cotten, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1994 – Jack Kirby, American writer and illustrator (b. 1917)
- 1995 – James Merrill, American poet (b. 1926)
- 1996 – Guy Madison, American actor (b. 1922)
- 1997 – Roger Laurent, Belgian race car driver (b. 1913)
- 1998 – Falco, Austrian singer-songwriter (b. 1957)
- 1998 – José Marroquín Leal, Mexican actor and clown (b. 1933)
- 1998 – Carl Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Beach Boys) (b. 1946)
- 1999 – Danny Dayton, American actor (b. 1923)
- 1999 – Don Dunstan, Australian politician, 35th Premier of South Australia (b. 1926)
- 1999 – Jimmy Roberts, American tenor (b. 1924)
- 2001 – Fulgence Charpentier, Canadian journalist (b. 1897)
- 2001 – Filemon Lagman, Filipino theoretician and activist (b. 1953)
- 2002 – Max Perutz, Austrian biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
- 2004 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian civil servant (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Lazar Berman, Russian pianist (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Karl Haas, German-American pianist, conductor, and radio host (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Lew Burdette, American baseball player (b. 1926)
- 2007 – Lee Hoffman, American author (b. 1932)
- 2007 – Len Hopkins, Canadian politician (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Frankie Laine, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Willye White, American long jumper (b. 1939)
- 2007 – Harry Webster, English automotive engineer (b. 1927)
- 2008 – John McWethy, American journalist (b. 1947)
- 2008 – Tony Rolt, English race car driver, winner of 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Philip Carey, American actor (b. 1925)
- 2009 – James Whitmore, American actor (b. 1921)
- 2011 – Gary Moore, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Skid Row and Thin Lizzy) (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Sharada Dwivedi, Indian historian and author (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Antoni Tàpies, Catalan painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Mo-Do, Italian singer-songwriter (b. 1966)
- 2013 – Chokri Belaid, Tunisian lawyer and politician (b. 1964)
- 2013 – Menachem Elon, Israeli jurist and educator (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Joseph Madec, French bishop (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Alden Mason, American painter (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Yahya Sulong, Malaysian comedian and actor (b. 1929)
- 2013 – René Vestri, French politician (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Douglas Warren, Australian bishop (b. 1919)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (United Nations)
- Ronald Reagan Day (California)
- Sami National Day (Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden)
- Waitangi Day, celebrates the founding of New Zealand in 1840.
“For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” - Psalm 33:4-5
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 5: Morning
"The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." - 1 John 4:14
It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without his Father's permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father, that he might be the Saviour of men. We are too apt to forget that, while there are distinctions as to the persons in the Trinity, there are no distinctions of honour. We too frequently ascribe the honour of our salvation, or at least the depths of its benevolence, more to Jesus Christ than we do the Father. This is a very great mistake. What if Jesus came? Did not his Father send him? If he spake wondrously, did not his Father pour grace into his lips, that he might be an able minister of the new covenant? He who knoweth the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost as he should know them, never setteth one before another in his love; he sees them at Bethlehem, at Gethsemane, and on Calvary, all equally engaged in the work of salvation. O Christian, hast thou put thy confidence in the Man Christ Jesus? Hast thou placed thy reliance solely on him? And art thou united with him? Then believe that thou art united unto the God of heaven. Since to the Man Christ Jesus thou art brother, and holdest closest fellowship, thou art linked thereby with God the Eternal, and "the Ancient of days" is thy Father and thy friend. Didst thou ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped his Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this thy day's meditation. The Father sent him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the Father wills. In the wounds of the dying Saviour see the love of the great I AM. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the Eternal, ever-blessed God, for "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief."
Evening
"At that time Jesus answered." - Matthew 11:25
This is a singular way in which to commence a verse--"At that time Jesus answered." If you will look at the context you will not perceive that any person had asked him a question, or that he was in conversation with any human being. Yet it is written, "Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father." When a man answers, he answers a person who has been speaking to him. Who, then, had spoken to Christ? his Father. Yet there is no record of it; and this should teach us that Jesus had constant fellowship with his Father, and that God spake into his heart so often, so continually, that it was not a circumstance singular enough to be recorded. It was the habit and life of Jesus to talk with God. Even as Jesus was, in this world, so are we; let us therefore learn the lesson which this simple statement concerning him teaches us. May we likewise have silent fellowship with the Father, so that often we may answer him, and though the world wotteth not to whom we speak, may we be responding to that secret voice unheard of any other ear, which our own ear, opened by the Spirit of God, recognizes with joy. God has spoken to us, let us speak to God--either to set our seal that God is true and faithful to his promise, or to confess the sin of which the Spirit of God has convinced us, or to acknowledge the mercy which God's providence has given, or to express assent to the great truths which God the Holy Ghost has opened to our understanding. What a privilege is intimate communion with the Father of our spirits! It is a secret hidden from the world, a joy with which even the nearest friend intermeddleth not. If we would hear the whispers of God's love, our ear must be purged and fitted to listen to his voice. This very evening may our hearts be in such a state, that when God speaks to us, we, like Jesus, may be prepared at once to answer him.
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Today's reading: Exodus 36-38, Matthew 23:1-22 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Exodus 36-38
1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded."
2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done...."
Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 23:1-22
A Warning Against Hypocrisy
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them..."
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