We have interacted before, years ago, on your site, but I'm not holding you to remember it. What I'm asking for now is related to what I was asking for then. Only, I'm desperate. I have testimony before the Royal Commission into institutional responses to Pedophilia. The Royal Commission has accepted my testimony, but given it a low priority. They will not investigate it further, but will include it in their report, in years to come. However, my reason for making that submission has made powerful enemies within Australian Government and public service. I have been issued a death threat from a mafia type hit man who is serving time. I have had my citizenship denied, and evidence of it illegally destroyed by a Premier of NSW. I have been abused at my workplace for being fat, and been declared partially disabled, accused of being too fat to teach Mathematics. I am fat, so the charge is hard for me to dismiss. When my students became targeted by my abusers, I resigned from teaching to speak out publicly. That was in 2007. I tried to time it so my complaint was heard after the NSW election and before the Australian one, so as to not intrude into the political cycle. But the ALP panicked, and have smeared me badly, so that no one will report my complaints, and no one will say why. There is no legal impediment for me to work, but no one will hire a teacher who has been political and conservative. I recently lost my library I have been building since I learned to read. About $50k worth of books, videos, CDs and DVDs. Soon I will have to sell my home. Unless there is a remedy for my issues. But the Royal Commission don't view it as important to give me a remedy. I must petition for one. I can't petition the Royal Commission, that isn't their job. But there are those whose job it would be to act on my testimony. The NSW Dept of Ed. The Premier of NSW. The NSW Police. The Federal Police. The attorney General's office of either NSW or Australia. Or the Prime Minister. I've not yet set up the petition. But I am asking for help. Would you help me, Mr Bolt?
===
- 1372 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Muslim scholar of jurisprudence (d. 1448)
- 1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
- 1858 – Wilhelm Schmidt, German pioneer of superheated steam for use in locomotives (d. 1924)
- 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (d. 1988)
- 1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-American singer-songwriter (Plastic Ono Band)
- 1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish comedian, actor, and author
- 1948 – Keith Knudsen, American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Doobie Brothers and Southern Pacific) (d. 2005)
- 1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress and singer
- 1952 – Randy Crawford, American singer
- 1952 – Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1960 – Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress
- 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1993 – Unbridled's Song, American race horse (d. 2013)
- 1995 – Samantha Crawford, American tennis player
Matches
- 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, andBethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
- 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
- 1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
- 1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
- 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
- 1885 – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
- 1911 – The first official flight with air mail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
- 1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
- 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
- 1938 – During the Nanking Massacre the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee" and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
- 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
- 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
- 1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
- 1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
- 1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
- 1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
- 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
- 2007 – Terrorist bombs explode on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
Despatches
- 814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
- 901 – Thābit ibn Qurra, Iraqi physician, astronomer, and mathematician (b. 826)
- 1546 – Martin Luther, German monk and priest, leader of the Protestant Reformation (b. 1483)
- 1564 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1475)
- 1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, French daughter of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1667)
- 1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
- 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
Law upheld
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (4:52pm)
It is reassuring to
know that not even Channel Seven is above the law. Less reassuring is
that some Liberal Minister is apologising for that inconvenience:
===SEVEN’S commercial director Bruce McWilliam says a senior Abbott government minister regretted the raid at his network this morning over a Schapelle Corby deal.
He is furious more than 20 Australian Federal Police officers barged into the offices of Channel Seven at Pyrmont and New Idea to examine their paperwork and correspondence with the Corby family.
What does Labor say now about Craig Thomson and the money it gave him?
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (4:37pm)
August 2011:
Mrs BRONWYN BISHOP (Mackellar) (15:26): My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her statement that she retains complete confidence in the member for Dobell but that she had not undertaken a thorough investigation into the allegations surrounding that member. Has she now conducted an investigation of her own into the allegations surrounding the member for Dobell and is she satisfied that her confidence in the member for Dobell is warranted?June 2012:
Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (15:27): I thank the member for the question. It gives me the opportunity to say I have complete confidence in the member for Dobell. I think he is doing a fine job representing the people of his constituency in this place and raising their concerns in this parliament, as is appropriate for a local member. I look forward to him continuing to do that job for a very long, long, long time to come.
THE NSW Labor Party paid almost $350,000 in legal costs for Craig Thomson before the troubled MP was suspended from the party in May.Today:
FORMER Labor MP Craig Thomson has been found guilty of defrauding the Health Services Union during his time as national secretary.Labor has been soft on union corruption. The links between Labor and the union movement need to be investigated by the royal commission into the union movement.
Melbourne magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg today ruled Mr Thomson had dishonestly obtained a financial advantage by using his union credit card to pay for prostitutes.
PS: Has anyone ever met such a brazen, shameless liar?
The first sign of hope I’ve seen from North Korea
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (10:12am)
Four Corners last night showed a brilliant documentary on North Korea. That it is a murderous tyranny capable of the most appalling cruelty is no secret. But what was startling - at least for me - was the secret footage it showed of North Korean civilians defying authority. Here is a clip from the documentary, and below is the relevant part of the script - the part that gives hope:
NARRATOR: Behind closed doors, even members of the North Korean elite have voiced unhappiness with the regime, like this businesswoman filmed at a private lunch.
[subtitles]
1st MAN: All we’re saying is give us some basic rights, right? We don’t have any.
WOMAN: It’s not like that in China. In China, they’ve got freedom of speech, you know. They went through the Cultural Revolution.
2ndWOMAN: We North Koreans are wise and very loyal. An uprising is still something we don’t understand.
1st MAN: But even that’s only to a certain point.
WOMAN: There can’t be a rebellion. They’ll kill everyone ruthlessly. Yes, ruthlessly. The problem here is that one in three people will secretly report you. That’s the problem. That’s how they do it.
2ndMAN: Let’s just drink up. There’s no use talking about it.
NARRATOR: The cynicism about their leaders comes partly from radical change in the way people make a living.
JIRO ISHIMARU: [through interpreter] Looking at footage shot inside North Korea, we can see that a huge number of people have started doing business with each other. This used to be illegal, and anyone caught buying or selling for personal gain was severely punished.
NARRATOR: Illegal markets first began to appear when the state stopped being able to feed its people during the famine. Today the state tolerates them, but people are pushing the limits of private enterprise. This woman is running an illegal private bus service. An army officer tries to stop her from picking up passengers.
WOMAN: [subtitles] If you’re an officer, where are your stars then? Let me see them then. Let me see your stars then. Where are your stars if you’re an officer? Let me see your stars. Where are your stars if you’re an officer?
OFFICER: Hey! Hey! Hey!
WOMAN: Hey! Hey! Hey! You bastard! You’re an ass-[deleted]!
JIRO ISHIMARU: [through interpreter] People’s willingness to confront or ignore authority has become more and more common. People around the world have this image of North Koreans as being brainwashed, but that’s very mistaken. Often now, when North Koreans are challenged for infringing a certain law, as long as the offense is not political, they don’t hesitate to protest if they believe the law to be irrational.
NARRATOR: Until recently, it was illegal for women to wear pants. Soldiers are arguing with this woman about breaking the dress code.
WOMAN IN PANTS: [subtitles] Don’t hit me! Why are you hitting me?
OFFICER: [subtitles] Stop it, bitch!
WOMAN IN PANTS: [subtitles] Watch your mouth. Don’t call me a bitch!
NARRATOR: The soldiers put an armband on her to mark her offense.
WOMAN IN PANTS: [subtitles] Those people are wearing trousers.
NARRATOR: But before long, she rips it off, and a senior officer steps in.
[subtitles]
SENIOR OFFICER: You’re not going to be quiet?
FEMALE OFFICER: You’re saying you don’t deserve this? Watch your mouth! Don’t call me a bitch.
SENIOR OFFICER: Please stop it.
WOMAN IN PANTS: Why aren’t you telling off those people wearing trousers? I’m so annoyed.
Now Alcoa closes, too. Labor’s subsidies fail and its carbon tax kills
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (9:04am)
Yesterday:
Note: an aluminium smelter produces what is rightly described as ”congealed electricity”. Our high power prices make such a smelter, and an old one at that, simply unaffordable.
UPDATE
More proof that governments just throw money away when they try to subsidise a dying industry (with, no coincidence, a highly unionised workforce). From June 2012:
Former Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery tells the ABC this morning that the closure of Alcoa is just a “cost” of saving us from having a “filthy planet”.
Green policies mean longer job queues. The AWU members at Alcoa should demand their union explain why it backed the Labor carbon tax that’s helped cost their jobs. Remember this promise?
UPDATE
Treasury three years ago modelled the effects of the Gillard Government’s “Strong Growth, Low Pollution” policies - including the carbon tax - and found the aluminium industry’s output would fall by two thirds by 2050:
Reader StevenM:
===Alcoa says no decision has been made to shut its aluminium smelter at Geelong, and will tell employees if the Point Henry plant will continue to operate by the end of March.Today:
ALCOA will today announce the closure of its Point Henry aluminium smelter near Geelong, endangering 1200 jobs ...That decision has now been announced. It’s another terrible blow to Geelong and to the Victorian Government, already struggling with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
Note: an aluminium smelter produces what is rightly described as ”congealed electricity”. Our high power prices make such a smelter, and an old one at that, simply unaffordable.
UPDATE
More proof that governments just throw money away when they try to subsidise a dying industry (with, no coincidence, a highly unionised workforce). From June 2012:
The Australian and Victorian Governments will invest in a restructure of Alcoa’s Point Henry aluminium smelter in Geelong with more than $40 million in assistance to help ensure its economic sustainability and support more than 500 local jobs…So how stupid was Labor to give subsidies with the one hand, but then take a carbon tax with the other? From 2012:
The Minister for Industry and Innovation, Greg Combet, said the $40 million in Federal funding recognised the challenges to the aluminium sector from the high Australian dollar and low world aluminium prices.
MORE than 300 jobs are set to be lost as a Norwegian company plans to shut its aluminium smelter in the NSW Hunter Valley.In fact, Labor fully expected and planned for its carbon tax to kill aluminium plants such as Alcoa’s, which is also battling a high dollar, ageing technology and low international prices:
Norsk Hydro will shut down its Kurri Kurri plant, as low metals prices and the strong Australian dollar impact its profitability, the company said today… A subsequent review of the plant has revealed ... its long-term viability would be negatively affected by increasing energy costs and the carbon tax, Norsk Hydro said.
Deloitte Access Economics in its report to the Victoria Government last September cites Treasury modelling showing Gillard’s tax will savage the aluminium industry:UPDATE
The climate change scenarios modelled in this report are based around the Commonwealth Treasury modelling of the Government’s Clean Energy Future proposal… Specifically, aluminium output is projected to decrease by about 31% by 2020…The Australian Aluminium Council last year warned how devastating the tax would be:
This imposes a carbon cost on Australian aluminium producers of at least $60 per tonne of aluminium compared to only $8 per tonne in China.… This is putting jobs in Gladstone, Geelong, Hunter Valley, Portland, Tasmania and Western Australia on the line when no other country is exposing their industry to the same risks.Alcoa to the Gillard Government last October:
Given the extraordinary electricity intensity of aluminium smelting and limitations of supply opportunities in Victoria, Alcoa has no flexibility to obtain its long term power needs from anywhere other than Victorian brown coal-fired generators… This situation will impact the future economic viability of these two smelters ...
Former Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery tells the ABC this morning that the closure of Alcoa is just a “cost” of saving us from having a “filthy planet”.
Green policies mean longer job queues. The AWU members at Alcoa should demand their union explain why it backed the Labor carbon tax that’s helped cost their jobs. Remember this promise?
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes has warned the Government that ”if one job is gone, our support [for the carbon tax] is gone”.Labor is still using its Senate numbers to help the Greens stop the Abbott Government from axeing the carbon tax.
UPDATE
Treasury three years ago modelled the effects of the Gillard Government’s “Strong Growth, Low Pollution” policies - including the carbon tax - and found the aluminium industry’s output would fall by two thirds by 2050:
Green activists can put their feet up. They won’t need to do this again:
Climate change protestors halted production for approximately three hours today, in Australia’s largest aluminium smelter.UPDATE
Reader StevenM:
I have long argued that aluminium is the clearest example of the stupidity of the carbon tax. The bauxite will now be shipped overseas to be refined. This will increase the amount shipped seven fold, using seven times the amount of fuel. The bunker fuel burned by large ships is the dirtiest fuel there is.The aluminium will now be refined in the cheapest country available. Cheap power is dirty power - much worse than using Australian power. Emissions can only rise as a result of the counter productive carbon tax.
Two more stories on AM on Abbott’s (successful) border policies
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (8:47am)
As I said yesterday, never has the ABC been so obsessed with boat people policy than now, when the Liberals are succeeding where Labor disastrously failed.
Today again. The ABC’s AM leads with not one but two stories questioning the Abbott Government’s policies.
===Today again. The ABC’s AM leads with not one but two stories questioning the Abbott Government’s policies.
What Scott did next
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (8:32am)
Scott Morrison has
performed even better as Immigration Minister than I predicted. It is
astonishing that no boats have arrived in more than eight weeks, despite
some Indonesian authorities’ refusal to cooperate. Morrison has also
smartened his media presentation, and his performance on Insiders on Sunday was faultless.
Yes, there is still much to do before the Government can claimed the boats have indeed stopped. The sailing season is still to come. The boat people in detention still need to be sent back home or resettled. But this is a very good start, and a very good job advertisement for Morrison, who is emerging as a potential Liberal leader (behind Joe Hockey). I suspect Tony Abbott would also be comfortable with Morrison’s brand of politics.
Morrison would still need to prove himself in another portfolio or two to widen his experience and demonstrate this success with the boats was no fluke.
So where would a canny Prime Minister - keen to nurture talent, promote his agenda and confound his enemies - next place Morrison? Where could a capable and articulate conservative be employed with great profit?
I look at the ABC and cannot help thinking what tremendous good a Morrison could achieve that a Malcolm Turnbull won’t....
===Yes, there is still much to do before the Government can claimed the boats have indeed stopped. The sailing season is still to come. The boat people in detention still need to be sent back home or resettled. But this is a very good start, and a very good job advertisement for Morrison, who is emerging as a potential Liberal leader (behind Joe Hockey). I suspect Tony Abbott would also be comfortable with Morrison’s brand of politics.
Morrison would still need to prove himself in another portfolio or two to widen his experience and demonstrate this success with the boats was no fluke.
So where would a canny Prime Minister - keen to nurture talent, promote his agenda and confound his enemies - next place Morrison? Where could a capable and articulate conservative be employed with great profit?
I look at the ABC and cannot help thinking what tremendous good a Morrison could achieve that a Malcolm Turnbull won’t....
Climate scientist attacks alarmists who blame England’s floods on warming
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (7:57am)
It has taken years, but finally some warmist scientists are publicly contradicting their more alarmist colleagues:
One of the Met Office’s most senior experts yesterday made a dramatic intervention in the climate change debate by insisting there is no link between the storms that have battered Britain and global warming.Actually, Big Government seems more to blame. Via Jo Nova:
Mat Collins, a Professor in climate systems at Exeter University, said the storms have been driven by the jet stream – the high-speed current of air that girdles the globe – which has been ‘stuck’ further south than usual.
Professor Collins told The Mail on Sunday: ‘There is no evidence that global warming can cause the jet stream to get stuck in the way it has this winter. If this is due to climate change, it is outside our knowledge.’…
Prof Collins is also a senior adviser – a ‘co-ordinating lead author’ – for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His statement appears to contradict Met Office chief scientist Dame Julia Slingo.
Last weekend, she said ‘all the evidence suggests that climate change has a role to play’ in the storms.
Christopher Booker explains in The Spectator that it’s not global warming that caused such ghastly floods in the UK, but incompetence and a Green EU wetland plan. He lives near Somerset, (SW England) so he started investigating the rising water six weeks ago — which has now become widespread inundation there, with damages estimated at over £100 million…Which it now has.
In the Spectator he writes that before 1996, local groups of farmers and engineers managed the drains, but in 1996 the EA (Environmental Agency) took over. Regular dredging stopped happening, the pumping stations were neglected (or stopped...), and the local drainage boards found it hard to get anything done with the EA red tape.
Then things got worse. In 2002, “the Baroness Young of Old Scone, a Labour peeress, became the agency’s new chief executive”. As Booker goes on to note, she used to run the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Natural England, not that that’s a bad thing per se, just that she had different aims to the people who lived there. The locals saw what was coming, they feared that the river had become choked and silted, they wanted control back. Instead, what they got was some parts of Somerset suddenly “returned to wetland” — but that, it seems, was kinda the goal.
Booker and Richard North pored through documents and found remarkable quotes. According to the Baroness, the cheapest way to get a wetland was to “stop drainage” and let “nature take its course”.
The worst thing about the green religion is that is has been a Trojan Horse for the return of unreason.
UPDATE
James Delingpole nails 10 lies about the floods. The highlights:
1. This is the wettest winter since records began.
No it’s not. As Paul Homewood reveals at his website Not A Lot Of People Know That, it was considerably wetter between November 1929 and January 1930. Yes, this January was wet, but it still only ranks as the sixteenth wettest month since records began in 1766…3. Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson should resign.
No, he shouldn’t. Paterson is one of the few politicians to have shown any integrity in this crisis. Unlike his Conservative colleagues David Cameron and Philip Hammond he has not sought to curry easy favour with the green lobby by blaming the floods on ‘climate change’. He was the first senior politician to visit the Somerset Levels and grasp the truth about the problem: that the floods were a direct consequence of Environmental Agency and European Union policy…8. Dredging the rivers wouldn’t have made much difference anyway.
Yes, of course, that’s what environmental apologists would like you to believe… But of course they’re talking rubbish. The only way floodwater can escape is out to sea: hence the need for keeping the conduits for such a process - our rivers - as free-flowing as possible i.e. with regular dredging.
For clear visual evidence of what has gone wrong over the years, have a look at the before and after pictures of the River Parrett unearthed by Richard North at his Eureferendum blog.
The old black and white one shows the river to be wide and free-flowing. The more recent colour one shows how badly the banks have been allowed to silt up…
Delingpole deals with the last lie superbly:
10. “Lessons will be learned.”(Thanks to many readers, including Dave and Kathleen.)
No they won’t. Which is the main reason I wanted to write this list: as a handy reminder of all the things that the government, the liberal-left MSM, the greenies and the rest are going to do their damnedest to make us forget as quickly as possible. The fact - and this cannot be restated often enough - is that these floods are a man-made disaster. But the man-made element has nothing whatsoever to do with anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Rather it is the result of deliberate policy, initiated by the UN (Agenda 21), the European Union and its amen corner the Environment Agency, designed to create wildlife habitats at the expense of humans.
Sceptic Dick Warburton, out and proud but still misunderstood
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (7:44am)
Dick Warburton, who
will lead the Abbott Government’s review of the renewable energy target,
is a man of reason and some courage:
Excellent, but this distinction is too much for a sub-editor at The Australian:
UPDATE
Burchell Wilson of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry exposes the scam to the ABC’s 7.30, albeit without noting it will do nothing stop a global warming that actually stopped 16 years ago:
(Thanks to reader Turtle of WA.)
===I am not a denier of climate change… I am a sceptic that man-made carbon dioxide is creating global warming.(Warburton has today clarified that he means he is sceptical that man-made carbon dioxide is the major cause of global warming.)
Excellent, but this distinction is too much for a sub-editor at The Australian:
Now let’s see if Warburton will ask the bottom-line question: how much difference does the renewable energy target make to the global temperature.
UPDATE
Burchell Wilson of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry exposes the scam to the ABC’s 7.30, albeit without noting it will do nothing stop a global warming that actually stopped 16 years ago:
Look, the problem with the Renewable Energy Target is it’s imposing a cost of $1.6 billion across the economy. It amounts to about five per cent of household energy costs now and that’s just going to mushroom over time… [T]he cost of the RET to average households is around $102 per annum…Wilson also scoffs at the Left’s outrage at the appointment of Warburton and Brian Fisher to review the RET:
It’s costing up to $525 per tonne to abate carbon under the renewable energy target. There are low-cost alternatives available and, effectively, we’re undermining our emissions reduction effort by persisting with the Renewable Energy Target…
Look, the Renewable Energy Target is - it’s corporate welfare on a massive scale directed towards the renewable sector.
SARAH FERGUSON: Dick Warburton is a self-avowed sceptic. His views on the subjects are well known. Is he an appropriate person to be leading this review?Reason is returning.
BURCHELL WILSON: Absolutely. Dick led the charge against Australia having the highest carbon tax in the world. You’ll realise that Australians per capita pay $380 per head under the carbon tax, whereas Europeans under the ETS, they’re paying about $1.50…
SARAH FERGUSON: We’ve also got Brian Fisher, who has a long history of being opposed to pricing mechanisms in this area. It does sound as though the outcome of the review is to some extent preordained?
BURCHELL WILSON: Brian Fisher is a first-rate economist, one of the best in the country… [He] will ... tell you ... the Renewable Energy Target is high-cost, it’s inefficient as a means of abating carbon, and if that’s your primary objective with respect to the RET, then we should scrap it altogether.
(Thanks to reader Turtle of WA.)
How many billions are we prepared to give Qantas’s creditors?
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (7:29am)
Uh oh:
===The federal government is leaning towards a two-pronged response to Qantas Airways of a debt guarantee to provide short-term relief and pushing Parliament over the longer term to repeal the Qantas Sale Act that keeps the company Australian controlled…Judith Sloan warns:
Providing a debt guarantee is now viewed within government as inevitable, even though there remains a deep reluctance to expose taxpayers to any liability…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott sought to increase the pressure on Monday by warning Labor that the future of Qantas was at stake if ultimately the opposition did now allow Parliament to repeal the 1992 Qantas Sale Act.
(T)he provision of a government guarantee ... may seem like a cheap round because the company will pay a fee for the guarantee. But there is always the chance that, if the company’s performance does not lift, it will default on its borrowings and the taxpayer will be left holding the baby…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill. Thanks to reader Michael for pointing out my confusion of creditors with debtors. Fixed now.)
Labor should come clean about its refusal to allow the Qantas Sale Act to be rescinded. This is the least costly means of helping the company and the one that should be pursued with great vigour at this point.
Tim Wilson ready to fight George Brandis
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (7:14am)
Good news. Tim Wilson, the new Human Rights Commissioner, signals that he will fight the Attorney-General who appointed him:
Wilson says he opposes the restrictions on speech that “offends, insults, humiliates or intimidates”. Brandis has hinted that he opposes only the restrictions on speech that offends and insults.
Wilson is right, and Brandis has a fight.
===More immediately, the federal government has flagged reforms to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to remove unnecessary restrictions on free speech that offends, insults, humiliates or intimidates people on the basis of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin.
There are diverse views on whether section 18C should be left alone, modestly changed or fully repealed. I will be arguing for its full repeal on the grounds it conflicts with other human rights and therefore does not meet the threshold for restricting speech.
Wilson says he opposes the restrictions on speech that “offends, insults, humiliates or intimidates”. Brandis has hinted that he opposes only the restrictions on speech that offends and insults.
Wilson is right, and Brandis has a fight.
Conservatives outnumbered on Q&A, but the Left outgunned
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (6:47am)
Terrific performance by Professor Jim Allan on Q&A
last night, attacking the carbon tax, mocking our award system and
putting the rude, ill-informed and inarticulate Voice of Youf in her
place. (By the way, why does host Tony Jones produce one token Muslim
after another, but never a token Buddhist?) Allan’s defence of political
debate against the Voice of Youf’s demand for a Kumbayah approach to
global warming was superb.
Heather Ridout once again reminds us what a disgrace it was for the Australian Industry Group to have her lead it. Here she was prattling on about “the science” of global warming as if it were monolithic and proved the wisdom of having an emission trading system which does virtually nothing to change the climate, but which sure hurts business. Here she was praising the awards system that strangles small business, and apparently defending the subsidies to big car makers that the Productivity Commission reported were a drag on the economy. Her attempts to chip Allan for raising the US as a counter-example were pathetic.
Tony Burke is a fine street-fighter in a terrible cause, but I was struck by how many points the often-underrated Eric Abetz took off him, particularly over the renewable energy target. Few Ministers would be as in control of their brief as Abetz, and none make fewer mistakes.
===Heather Ridout once again reminds us what a disgrace it was for the Australian Industry Group to have her lead it. Here she was prattling on about “the science” of global warming as if it were monolithic and proved the wisdom of having an emission trading system which does virtually nothing to change the climate, but which sure hurts business. Here she was praising the awards system that strangles small business, and apparently defending the subsidies to big car makers that the Productivity Commission reported were a drag on the economy. Her attempts to chip Allan for raising the US as a counter-example were pathetic.
Tony Burke is a fine street-fighter in a terrible cause, but I was struck by how many points the often-underrated Eric Abetz took off him, particularly over the renewable energy target. Few Ministers would be as in control of their brief as Abetz, and none make fewer mistakes.
Abbott Government vs the bureaucrats
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (6:38am)
Nick Cater on the triumph of crusading bureaucrats against the elected government of the people:
===In December, at a forum of health ministers from Australia and New Zealand, assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash made it clear that she was sceptical about a plan to place a health star rating on the front of food packets.But asserting the authority of the Minister has been pushed. Furnival was slimed in Left-wing newspapers as having a sinister conflict of interest, having in his past worked for food companies, and he has been forced to resign. Hope the journalists are happy.
She was concerned that the Regulatory Impact Statement, requested by the Office of Best Practice and Regulation in the middle of last year, had not been produced. Nash ordered the department to calculate both costs and benefits and to report back to the forum in June…
Kathy Dennis, the assistant secretary in charge of the Healthy Living and Food Policy branch, decided to press ahead anyway.
Two weeks ago, the department launched a website, http://www.healthstarrating.com.au, explaining the forthcoming health star rating system that the minister had yet to approve.
A ministerial adviser contacted Dennis expressing the minister’s concern, but the website remained in place. Nash’s chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, called Dennis to reinforce the message. Dennis stuck to her guns.
The minister was obliged to take the matter to the acting head of the department, Mark Booth. On Booth’s instructions, the website was taken down and Dennis was moved to other duties…
The mutiny at [the Department of Health] is not an isolated case… Across the board, from the Climate Change Commission to the ABC, the Human Rights Commission and even Infrastructure Australia, all are openly hostile to the popularly elected government.
Liberals silence some of their best with kindness
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (6:23am)
I’m worried that some
of the Liberals’ most effective cultural warriors are being put out to
lush pastures when there are great battles to win:
===Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer is set to be named high commissioner to London in a move that would cut short the term of the Labor appointee Mike Rann…Note, by the way, the Age writer harrumphing about “jobs for the boys” after having been perfectly happy with the appointment by Labor of the Labor politicians these Liberals replace.
Victoria’s erstwhile Labor premier Steve Bracks was blocked on the eve of his departure for the United Nations post in New York, shortly after the Coalition came to power last year. He has since been replaced by the former Howard finance minister Nick Minchin in a move criticised as jobs for the boys.
This free blog passes on the subsidised ABC’s story on newspapers having trouble selling copies
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (6:00am)
Media Watch on the future of newspapers. As in, there’s a future?
===Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for the last 3 months of 2013 show another huge fall ... with Fairfax Media’s The Age and Sydney Morning Herald down by a shocking 17% from the same period of 2012.
News Corp’s Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph fared slightly better, but still fell 12%, after even bigger falls in the previous quarter…
In absolute terms the Herald and Age are now selling not much more than 130,000 copies each a day.
Meanwhile, the mighty Herald Sun has sunk below 400,000 and the Daily Telegraph below 300,000…
But ... the news on advertising revenue is even worse… Fairfax Media’s 2013 results show that print advertising revenue for its two big Metro mastheads—the Herald and the Age—fell by 25% last financial year, or by almost exactly $100 million…
Fairfax has shed some 2,000 jobs , announced the closure of its two biggest printing plants, shut down magazines, moved to a tabloid format and got rid of some its best-known writers .
On the plus side, the Age and Herald have put up paywalls on their popular websites… Last year Fairfax’s digital ad revenue rose by only $5.5 million, while its print ad revenue fell $100 million, or almost 20 times as much.
Abbott cleans up after Labor’s spies. Shorten blames him for the broken glass
Andrew Bolt February 17 2014 (7:40pm)
Labor sure dropped the Abbott Government into the Indonesian soup:
No, no shame at all from Labor leader Bill Shorten, a minister in both the Rudd and Gillard governments:
===THE Abbott government faces a fresh test of its relationship with Jakarta amid new allegations an Australian intelligence agency spied on Indonesia last year and passed the information it gathered to the US.Will Labor take any of the blame?
In the latest damaging leak of top-secret information from former US security analyst Edward Snowden, The New York Times says an Australian intelligence agency spied on a US law firm representing Indonesia in a trade dispute with the US.
The report is expected to add to the ongoing tensions with Jakarta over the Coalition’s strategy for stopping asylum-seeker boats at sea and revelations last year that the Australian Signals Directorate, formerly the Defence Signals Directorate, listened to the phone conversations of Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and associates, including his wife.
While the earlier eavesdropping claims concerned events under the Rudd Labor government in 2009, the new document refers to activity under way just a year ago, in February last year, under the term of the Gillard government.
No, no shame at all from Labor leader Bill Shorten, a minister in both the Rudd and Gillard governments:
I am concerned that in the course of five and a half months, Tony Abbott has taken our relationship with Indonesia from hero to zero.What a fraud.
4 her
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- 1766 – A mutiny by captive Malagasy began at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
- 1878 – Competition between two merchants in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, US, turned into a range war when a member of one faction was murdered by the other.
- 1957 – Kenyan independence leader Dedan Kimathi (statue pictured), who spearheaded the Mau Mau Uprising, was executed by British authorities, who saw him as a terrorist.
- 1970 – An American jury acquitted the "Chicago Seven" of conspiracyand inciting riots stemming from protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
- 2007 – Terrorist bombs exploded on the Samjhauta Express train inPanipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
Events[edit]
- 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, andBethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
- 1268 – The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakvere.
- 1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
- 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
- 1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
- 1745 – The city of Surakarta, Central Java is founded on the banks of Bengawan Solo River, and becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Surakarta.
- 1766 – A mutiny by captive Malagasy begins at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
- 1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
- 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
- 1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
- 1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.
- 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
- 1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- 1885 – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
- 1906 – Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
- 1911 – The first official flight with air mail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
- 1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.
- 1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
- 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
- 1932 – The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.
- 1938 – During the Nanking Massacre tha Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee" and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
- 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
- 1943 – The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
- 1943 – Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
- 1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
- 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
- 1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
- 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
- 1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
- 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1969 – Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 crashes into Mount Whitney killing all on board.
- 1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
- 1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death rowinmates to life imprisonment.
- 1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
- 1978 – The first Ironman Triathlon competition takes place on the island of Oahu and is won by Gordon Haller.
- 1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
- 1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
- 1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
- 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
- 2001 – Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt dies in an accident during the Daytona 500.
- 2001 – Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Indonesia, that will ultimately result in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
- 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
- 2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
- 2007 – Terrorist bombs explode on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
Births[edit]
- 1372 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Muslim scholar of jurisprudence (d. 1448)
- 1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
- 1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian saint (d. 1534)
- 1516 – Mary I of England, Queen of England and Ireland (d. 1558)
- 1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyo (d. 1578)
- 1543 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1608)
- 1559 – Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar (d. 1614)
- 1602 – Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland (d. 1680)
- 1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician (d. 1674)
- 1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1692)
- 1635 – Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish politician (d. 1680)
- 1642 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
- 1658 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author (d. 1743)
- 1677 – Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1756)
- 1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer (d. 1809)
- 1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (d. 1827)
- 1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900)
- 1817 – Lewis Armistead, American general (d. 1863)
- 1818 – Perucho Figueredo, Cuban poet and activist (d. 1870)
- 1836 – Ramakrishna, Indian mystic and guru (d. 1886)
- 1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
- 1841 – Gergely Luthár, Slovenian-Hungarian author (d. 1925)
- 1846 – Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)
- 1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (d. 1933)
- 1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)
- 1850 – George Henschel, German-English opera singer, conductor, and composer (d. 1934)
- 1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French author and diplomat (d. 1932)
- 1858 – Wilhelm Schmidt, German pioneer of superheated steam for use in locomotives (d. 1924)
- 1862 – Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel (d. 1939)
- 1870 – William Laurel Harris, American painter and author (d. 1924)
- 1871 – Harry Brearley, English scientist (d. 1948)
- 1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
- 1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek author (d. 1957)
- 1884 – Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
- 1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
- 1892 – Wendell Willkie, American lawyer and politician (d. 1944)
- 1894 – Rafi Ahmed Kidwai,Indian Independence Activist(d.1954)
- 1897 – Charles Kuentz, German soldier (d. 2005)
- 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (d. 1988)
- 1898 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (d. 1980)
- 1899 – Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist (d. 1985)
- 1901 – Reginald Sheffield, English-American actor (d. 1957)
- 1902 – Walter Herbert, German-American conductor (d. 1975)
- 1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian politician (d. 1983)
- 1905 – Queenie Leonard, English-American actress and singer (d. 2002)
- 1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
- 1907 – Oscar Brodney, American lawyer and screenwriter (d. 2008)
- 1909 – C. Arulampalam, Sri Lankan Tamil politician
- 1909 – Tuppy Owen-Smith, South African-English cricketer and rugby player (d. 1990)
- 1909 – Wallace Stegner, American historian and author (d. 1993)
- 1914 – Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
- 1915 – Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
- 1917 – José Curbelo, Cuban-American pianist and manager (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Dona Massin, Canadian actress and choreographer (d. 2001)
- 1918 – Jane Loevinger, American psychologist (d. 2008)
- 1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
- 1921 – Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian composer (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)
- 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American author and publisher (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Allan Melvin, American actor (d. 2008)
- 1922 – Juhan Smuul, Estonian writer (d. 1971)
- 1922 – Joe Tipton, American baseball player (d. 1994)
- 1922 – Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player (d. 1995)
- 1924 – Humberto Fernández Morán, Venezuelan scientist (d. 1999)
- 1924 – Louis Laberge, Canadian union leader (d. 2002)
- 1924 – Nicolo Rizzuto, Italian-Canadian mob boss (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Sam Rolfe, American screenwriter (d. 1993)
- 1925 – Marcel Barbeau, Canadian painter
- 1925 – Jack Gilbert, American poet (d. 2012)
- 1925 – George Kennedy, American actor
- 1926 – A. R. Ammons, American poet (d. 2001)
- 1926 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (d. 1976)
- 1926 – Nalini Jaywant, Indian actress (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Jan Zwartkruis, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican baseball player
- 1927 – Peter Fryer, English journalist and author (d. 2006)
- 1927 – John Warner, American politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy
- 1928 – Tom Johnson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Len Deighton, English historian and author
- 1929 – André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 1968)
- 1930 – Gahan Wilson, American author and illustrator
- 1931 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
- 1931 – Toni Morrison, American author, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 – Swraj Paul, Indian-born British businessman, philanthropist and politician
- 1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player
- 1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech-American director and screenwriter
- 1933 – Gerhard Frey, German publisher and politician (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-American singer-songwriter (Plastic Ono Band)
- 1933 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (d. 2009)
- 1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
- 1934 – Audre Lorde, American poet and activist (d. 1992)
- 1934 – Heini Müller, German footballer
- 1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish-French fashion designer
- 1935 – Janette Oke, Canadian author
- 1936 – Jean M. Auel, American author
- 1936 – Dick Duff, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1936 – Ab McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1937 – Ulvi Voog, Estonian swimmer
- 1938 – Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player
- 1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 50th Yokozuna
- 1938 – István Szabó, Hungarian director and screenwriter
- 1939 – Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist (d. 1996)
- 1939 – Marek Janowski, Polish-German conductor
- 1939 – Dal Maxvill, American baseball player
- 1940 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
- 1940 – Prue Leith, South African restaurateur, caterer, broadcaster and food writer
- 1941 – Mati Nuude, Estonian weightlifter and singer (Apelsin) (d. 2001)
- 1941 – Herman Santiago, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter (The Teenagers)
- 1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer-songwriter
- 1942 – John Hughes, Welsh footballer
- 1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish comedian, actor, and author
- 1944 – Pat Bowlen, American businessman
- 1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer
- 1946 – Michael Buerk, English journalist
- 1946 – Jean-Claude Dreyfus, French actor
- 1947 – José Maria Cañizares, Spanish golfer
- 1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (Styx)
- 1947 – Eliot Engel, American politician
- 1947 – Princess Christina of the Netherlands
- 1947 – Carlos Lopes, Portuguese runner
- 1948 – Georg Brunnhuber, German politician
- 1948 – Sinéad Cusack, Irish-English actress
- 1948 – Keith Knudsen, American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Doobie Brothers and Southern Pacific) (d. 2005)
- 1948 – Gilbert Sicotte, Canadian actor
- 1948 – Geoff Thomas, Welsh footballer (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
- 1950 – Michel Gauthier, Canadian politician
- 1950 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
- 1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress and singer
- 1951 – Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist
- 1952 – Randy Crawford, American singer
- 1952 – Maurice Lucas, American basketball player (d. 2010)
- 1952 – Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1952 – Julia Peyton-Jones, English co-director of Serpentine Gallery
- 1952 – Martin J. Taylor, English mathematician
- 1952 – Bernard Valcourt, Canadian lawyer and politician
- 1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian drummer (Brave Belt and Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
- 1953 – Mihkel Mutt, Estonian writer and culture journalist
- 1953 – Derek Pellicci, Australian drummer (Little River Band and Mississippi)
- 1954 – Charlie Fowler, American mountaineer, author, and photographer (d. 2006)
- 1954 – John Travolta, American actor, singer, and producer
- 1955 – Peter Luff , English politician
- 1955 – Raymond Rougeau, Canadian wrestler
- 1955 – Miles Tredinnick, English singer-songwriter and playwright (London)
- 1956 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
- 1956 – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Georgia
- 1956 – Paul Reed Smith, American businessman, founded PRS Guitars
- 1957 – Marita Koch, German sprinter
- 1957 – George Pelecanos, American author
- 1957 – Vanna White, American actress and game show host
- 1958 – Giovanni Lavaggi, Italian race car driver
- 1958 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (Megadeth) (d. 1999)
- 1958 – Lucie Visser, Dutch actress and model
- 1959 – Jayne Atkinson, English film actresses
- 1959 – Christian Koeberl, Austrian professor
- 1959 – Hallgrímur Helgason, Icelandic writers
- 1959 – Ken Freedman, American radio executives
- 1959 – James Metzger, American businessman and philanthropist
- 1959 – Bryan Brandenburg, American information and reference writer
- 1960 – Tony Anselmo, American animator and voice actor
- 1960 – Carol McGiffin, English television and radio host
- 1960 – Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 – Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress
- 1961 – Hironobu Kageyama, Japanese singer (Lazy and JAM Project)
- 1961 – Douglas Rushkoff, American theorist and author
- 1961 – Cosmo Wilson, American lighting designer
- 1961 – Alison Owen, English film producer
- 1962 – Moe Lemay, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1962 – Julie Strain, American actress and model
- 1963 – Rob Andrew, English rugby union administrator and former player
- 1963 – Henry Winter, English journalist
- 1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor and director
- 1964 – Paul Hanley, English drummer and songwriter (The Fall and Tom Hingley and the Lovers)
- 1965 – Dr. Dre, American rapper, producer, and actor (World Class Wreckin' Cru and N.W.A)
- 1965 – Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (d. 2005)
- 1966 – Phillip DeFreitas, Dominican-born English cricketer
- 1966 – Guy Ferland, American director
- 1967 – Marco Aurélio, Brazilian footballer
- 1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Tracey Edmonds, American businesswoman
- 1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh sprint and hurdling athlete
- 1967 – Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, Thai director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1967 – John Valentin, American baseball player
- 1967 – Harry Van Barneveld, Belgian martial artist
- 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1969 – Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer (d. 2009)
- 1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player
- 1970 – Susan Egan, American actress and singer
- 1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Our Lady Peace)
- 1970 – Andy Williams, English singer-songwriter and drummer (Doves and Sub Sub)
- 1970 – Jez Williams, English guitarist and songwriter (Doves and Sub Sub)
- 1971 – Merritt Gant, American guitarist (Overkill)
- 1971 – Constantin Popa, Romanian-Israeli basketball player
- 1972 – Rupert Goold, English theatre director
- 1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player
- 1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer
- 1974 – Carrie Ann Baade, American painter
- 1974 – Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
- 1974 – Radek Černý, Czech footballer
- 1974 – Ruby Dhalla, Canadian politician
- 1974 – Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist
- 1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
- 1974 – Jillian Michaels, American fitness trainer
- 1975 – Sarah Brown, American actress
- 1975 – Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer
- 1975 – Simon Kvamm, Danish singer, keyboard player, and actor (Nephew)
- 1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer
- 1975 – Charly Manson, Mexican wrestler
- 1976 – Leilani Munter, American race car driver
- 1976 – Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
- 1976 – Bernadette Sembrano, Filipino journalist
- 1977 – Kátia, Brazilian footballer
- 1977 – Ike Barinholtz, American actor
- 1977 – Sean Watkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Nickel Creek, Fiction Family and Works Progress Administration)
- 1977 – Chrissie Wellington, English triathlete
- 1978 – Oliver Pocher, German comedian and actor
- 1978 – Josip Šimunić, Croatian footballer
- 1980 – Aivar Anniste, Estonian footballer
- 1980 – Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Regina Spektor, Russian-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1981 – Kim Jaewon, South Korean actor
- 1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- 1981 – Alex Ríos, American baseball player
- 1981 – Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer
- 1982 – Kaspars Cipruss, Latvian basketball player
- 1982 – Juelz Santana, American rapper and actor (Skull Gang and The Diplomats)
- 1982 – Christian Tiffert, German footballer
- 1983 – Troy Bienemann, American football player
- 1983 – Joel Huiqui, Mexican footballer
- 1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English footballer
- 1983 – Jason Maxiell, American basketball player
- 1984 – Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
- 1984 – Idriss Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer
- 1984 – Ricardo Salampessy, Indonesian footballer
- 1984 – Kathrin Wörle, German tennis player
- 1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
- 1985 – Chelsea Hobbs, Canadian actress
- 1985 – Todd Lasance, Australian actor
- 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican-American murderer
- 1986 – Vika Jigulina, Moldavian-Romanian singer
- 1986 – T.J. Mack, American wrestler
- 1986 – Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Vicente Guaita, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Skin Diamond, American pornographic actress and nude model
- 1988 – Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor (TVXQ)
- 1988 – Hannah Blossom, English wrestler
- 1988 – Holly Blossom, English wrestler
- 1988 – Shane Lyons, American actor and chef
- 1988 – Maiara Walsh, American actress
- 1989 – Bruno Leonardo Vicente, Brazilian footballer
- 1990 – Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player
- 1990 – Park Shin-hye, South Korean actress and singer
- 1990 – Penny Pax, American pornographic actress and model
- 1991 – Malese Jow, American actress and singer
- 1991 – Marek Kaljumäe, Estonian footballer
- 1991 – Sebastian Neumann, German footballer
- 1991 – Henry Surtees, English race car driver (d. 2009)
- 1992 – Logan Miller, American actor
- 1993 – Unbridled's Song, American race horse (d. 2013)
- 1994 – Ulrik Munther, Swedish singer-songwriter
- 1995 – Samantha Crawford, American tennis player
Deaths[edit]
- 814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
- 901 – Thābit ibn Qurra, Iraqi physician, astronomer, and mathematician (b. 826)
- 999 – Pope Gregory V (b. 972)
- 1139 – Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)
- 1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongolian emperor (b. 1215)
- 1379 – Albert II, Duke of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
- 1405 – Timur, Turko-Mongol conqueror (b. 1336)
- 1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian painter (b. 1395)
- 1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. 1449)
- 1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian (b. 1486)
- 1546 – Martin Luther, German monk and priest, leader of the Protestant Reformation (b. 1483)
- 1564 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1475)
- 1583 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian author (b. 1503)
- 1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (b. 1594)
- 1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
- 1712 – Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1682)
- 1718 – Peter Anthony Motteux, French-English author and playwright (b. 1663)
- 1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, French daughter of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1667)
- 1748 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
- 1772 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician (b. 1712)
- 1778 – Joseph Marie Terray, French politician (b. 1715)
- 1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
- 1788 – John Whitehurst, English geologist (b. 1713)
- 1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)
- 1842 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English businessman, founded Hazlehurst & Sons (b. 1779)
- 1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
- 1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (b. 1837)
- 1889 – Jerónimo Espejo, Argentinian general (b. 1801)
- 1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (b. 1814)
- 1895 – Carl Abs, German wrestler (b. 1851)
- 1895 – Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen (b. 1817)
- 1900 – Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)
- 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
- 1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (b. 1830)
- 1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
- 1923 – Alois Rašín, Czech economist and politician (b. 1867)
- 1931 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian, author, and politician (b. 1879)
- 1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
- 1938 – David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
- 1942 – Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)
- 1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
- 1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
- 1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
- 1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
- 1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and businessman, founded Bombardier Inc. (b. 1907)
- 1966 – Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1908)
- 1967 – Dragiša Cvetković, Yugoslav politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
- 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
- 1971 – David M. Potter, American historian (b. 1910)
- 1973 – Frank Costello, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1891)
- 1976 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (b. 1926)
- 1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
- 1981 – Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (b. 1895)
- 1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
- 1989 – Mildred Burke, American wrestler (b. 1915)
- 1990 – Richard de Zoysa, Sri Lankan journalist (b. 1958)
- 1993 – Jacqueline Hill, English actress (b. 1929)
- 1993 – Erwin Thiesies, German rugby player and coach (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Kerry Von Erich, American wrestler (b. 1960)
- 1995 – Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler (b. 1961)
- 1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (The Replacements and Static Taxi) (b. 1959)
- 1997 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (b. 1905)
- 1998 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (b. 1914)
- 1998 – Robbie James, Welsh footballer (b. 1957)
- 1999 – Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
- 2000 – Will, Belgian writer and illustrator (b. 1927)
- 2001 – Balthus, French painter (b. 1908)
- 2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)
- 2001 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player (b. 1931)
- 2003 – Isser Harel, Belarusian-Israeli intelligence officer (b. 1912)
- 2004 – Jean Rouch, French anthropologist and director (b. 1917)
- 2006 – Richard Bright, American actor (b. 1937)
- 2006 – Bill Cowsill, American singer and guitarist (The Cowsills) (b. 1948)
- 2008 – Dick Knowles, English politician (b. 1917)
- 2008 – Mihaela Mitrache, Romanian actress (b. 1955)
- 2008 – Mickey Renaud, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1988)
- 2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French author and director (b. 1922)
- 2009 – Eleanor Jorden, American scholar and educator (b. 1920)
- 2009 – Tayeb Salih, Sudanese author and columnist (b. 1929)
- 2009 – Miika Tenkula, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sentenced) (b. 1974)
- 2010 – John Babcock, Canadian soldier (b. 1900)
- 2011 – Victor Martinez, Mexican American poet and author (b. 1954)
- 2012 – Roald Aas, Norwegian speed skater and cyclist (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Peter Halliday, Welsh actor (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Matt Lamb, American painter (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Roger Miner, American judge (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Cal Murphy, Canadian football coach and manager (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Soft Machine and The Wilde Flowers) (b. 1944)
- 2013 – Otto Beisheim, German businessman, founded Metro AG (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Kevin Black, New Zealand radio host (b. 1943)
- 2013 – Jerry Buss, American businessman and chemist (b. 1933)
- 2013 – B. G. Dyess, American minister and politician (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Milan Gvero, Serbian general (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Damon Harris, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1950)
- 2013 – Godfrey Hewitt, English geneticist (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Chieko Honda, Japanese voice actress (b. 1963)
- 2013 – Anthony Theodore Lobo, Pakistani bishop (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Matt Mattox, American dancer and actor (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Martin Zweig, American financier (b. 1942)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- Earliest day on which Wife's Day or Konudagur can fall, while February 24 is the latest; celebrated on Sunday between 18 and 24 February (Iceland)
- Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.
- National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal)
- Sepandārmazgān or "Women's Day" (Zoroastrian Iran)
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” - Romans 8:35,37
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 17: Morning
"Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi." - Genesis 25:11
Hagar had once found deliverance there and Ishmael had drank from the water so graciously revealed by the God who liveth and seeth the sons of men; but this was a merely casual visit, such as worldlings pay to the Lord in times of need, when it serves their turn. They cry to him in trouble, but forsake him in prosperity. Isaac dwelt there, and made the well of the living and all-seeing God his constant source of supply. The usual tenor of a man's life, the dwelling of his soul, is the true test of his state. Perhaps the providential visitation experienced by Hagar struck Isaac's mind, and led him to revere the place; its mystical name endeared it to him; his frequent musings by its brim at eventide made him familiar with the well; his meeting Rebecca there had made his spirit feel at home near the spot; but best of all, the fact that he there enjoyed fellowship with the living God, had made him select that hallowed ground for his dwelling. Let us learn to live in the presence of the living God; let us pray the Holy Spirit that this day, and every other day, we may feel, "Thou God seest me." May the Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting, unfailing, springing up unto eternal life. The bottle of the creature cracks and dries up, but the well of the Creator never fails; happy is he who dwells at the well, and so has abundant and constant supplies near at hand. The Lord has been a sure helper to others: his name is Shaddai, God All-sufficient; our hearts have often had most delightful intercourse with him; through him our soul has found her glorious Husband, the Lord Jesus; and in him this day we live, and move, and have our being; let us, then, dwell in closest fellowship with him. Glorious Lord, constrain us that we may never leave thee, but dwell by the well of the living God.
Evening
"Whereas the Lord was there." - Ezekiel 35:10
Edom's princes saw the whole country left desolate, and counted upon its easy conquest; but there was one great difficulty in their way--quite unknown to them--"The Lord was there;" and in his presence lay the special security of the chosen land. Whatever may be the machinations and devices of the enemies of God's people, there is still the same effectual barrier to thwart their design. The saints are God's heritage, and he is in the midst of them, and will protect his own. What comfort this assurance yields us in our troubles and spiritual conflicts! We are constantly opposed, and yet perpetually preserved! How often Satan shoots his arrows against our faith, but our faith defies the power of hell's fiery darts; they are not only turned aside, but they are quenched upon its shield, for "the Lord is there." Our good works are the subjects of Satan's attacks. A saint never yet had a virtue or a grace which was not the target for hellish bullets: whether it was hope bright and sparkling, or love warm and fervent, or patience all-enduring, or zeal flaming like coals of fire, the old enemy of everything that is good has tried to destroy it. The only reason why anything virtuous or lovely survives in us is this, "the Lord is there."
If the Lord be with us through life, we need not fear for our dying confidence; for when we come to die, we shall find that "the Lord is there;" where the billows are most tempestuous, and the water is most chill, we shall feel the bottom, and know that it is good: our feet shall stand upon the Rock of Ages when time is passing away. Beloved, from the first of a Christian's life to the last, the only reason why he does not perish is because "the Lord is there." When the God of everlasting love shall change and leave his elect to perish, then may the Church of God be destroyed; but not till then, because it is written, Jehovah Shammah, "The Lord is there."
If the Lord be with us through life, we need not fear for our dying confidence; for when we come to die, we shall find that "the Lord is there;" where the billows are most tempestuous, and the water is most chill, we shall feel the bottom, and know that it is good: our feet shall stand upon the Rock of Ages when time is passing away. Beloved, from the first of a Christian's life to the last, the only reason why he does not perish is because "the Lord is there." When the God of everlasting love shall change and leave his elect to perish, then may the Church of God be destroyed; but not till then, because it is written, Jehovah Shammah, "The Lord is there."
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Thaddaeus
[Thăddae'us] - breast, one that praises or man of heart.
One of the twelve apostles of Christ (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18), also called Labbeus, or Lebbeus, and sometimes identified as Jude, who wrote the epistle bearing his name. This apostle then, was known by three names, two of which were terms of endearment used toward him from early days. In this least known among the apostles, we have a man who discovered that love is the secret of obedience and that obedience is the secret of blessedness.
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Today's reading: Leviticus 21-22, Matthew 28 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 21-22
Rules for Priests
1 The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: 'A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die, 2 except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother, 3 or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband--for her he may make himself unclean. 4 He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself....
Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 28
Jesus Has Risen
1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men....
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