Today is a momentous day. Copernicus, Merle Oberon, Lee Marvin, Smokey Robinson, Seal and Lisa McCune were born on this day, providing eternal entertainment value to the reality challenged Sarah Hanson-Young. Edison patented the phonograph, allowing us to hear again Thomson's heartfelt protestations of innocence before parliament, which we now know were lies. It is the day Democrat FDR signed executive order 9066 so that anyone identified as Japanese was placed in a camp regardless of virtue. And the day GOP President Ford rescinded that executive order. A day of justice. Give thanks to someone born on this day.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Stephanie Ann, Sylvia Phan, Matthew Tjong, Jacob Bozdas, Sylvia Te and Jacki Bailey. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
- 1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543)
- 1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)
- 1717 – David Garrick, English actor, playwright, and producer (d. 1779)
- 1821 – August Schleicher, German linguist (d. 1868)
- 1824 – Henri Germain, French banker and politician, founded Crédit Lyonnais (d. 1905)
- 1865 – Sven Hedin, Swedish geographer and explorer (d. 1952)
- 1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian poet (d. 1923)
- 1888 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian lawyer and poet (d. 1928)
- 1911 – Merle Oberon, Indian-American actress (d. 1979)
- 1924 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
- 1940 – Smokey Robinson, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Miracles)
- 1940 – Bobby Rogers, American singer-songwriter (The Miracles) (d. 2013)
- 1948 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch sociologist and politician (d. 2002)
- 1960 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York
- 1962 – Hana Mandlíková, Czech tennis player
- 1963 – Seal, English singer-songwriter
- 1967 – Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican actor
- 1971 – Lisa McCune, Australian actress
- 1972 – Sunset Thomas, American porn actress
- 1988 – Selkirk, English race horse (d. 2013)
- 1994 – Tiina Trutsi, Estonian footballer
Matches
- 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
- 356 – Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
- 1594 – Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland in 1587,Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
- 1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
- 1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.
- 1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.
- 1847 – The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.
- 1859 – Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. This is the first time this defense is successfully used in the United States.
- 1861 – Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
- 1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
- 1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
- 1937 – Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
- 1942 – World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
- 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
- 1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
- 1949 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
- 1953 – Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
- 1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald R. Ford's Proclamation 4417
- 1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
- 1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.
Despatches
- 197 – Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (b. 150)
- 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
- 1622 – Henry Savile, English scholar and politician (b. 1549)
The Craig Thomson charade is over
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, February 18, 2014 (8:10pm)
SO Craig Thomson is guilty. Surprise surprise. Now we can drop the whole farce of pretending we buy his ridiculous story that someone stole his credit card, misappropriated his driver licence, cloned his phone, forged his signature, and tried to set him up with prostitutes.
Continue reading 'The Craig Thomson charade is over'If Iran is so evil, why this protest?
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (12:34pm)
I thought the “asylum
seeker” unfortunately killed on Manus Island was actually seeking
asylum from the wicked Iranian regime. So why this protest over his
fate?
===IRAN’S foreign ministry has reportedly summoned Australia’s ambassador to protest the death of an Iranian asylum-seeker during rioting on Manus Island...
Bolt Report back - and bigger
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (11:59am)
The Twitterverse has exploded in rage, but I trust lovers of reason won’t be displeased:
I believe this is meant to be a complaint, but I shall treat it as a request:
===NEWS Corp Australia columnist Andrew Bolt is being given more airtime with his Network Ten show to double in length to one hour when it returns on March 2.The fun starts at 10am and 4pm on Sunday, March 2.
The new-look The Bolt Report will include a new segment, called News Watch, which promises “to put the media under genuine scrutiny”.
I believe this is meant to be a complaint, but I shall treat it as a request:
Among the guests for the first show: Peter Costello, Michael Costa and Gerard Henderson. We have invited Bill Shorten to come on the show on the very near future, of course, and hope the old Labor ban is lifted. I did think it counter-productive.
Freedom-loving fox in ABC Lateline’s henhouse
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (11:50am)
Tim Wilson, being a classical liberal rather than of the Left, gets a hostile introduction from the ABC’s Lateline, which normally treats “human rights” advocates with the most studied respect:
Fuming Leftists are interviewed, making ludicrous analogies that, if they had any merit, could be equally applied to Soutphommasane but were not:
And then a string of questions such as this, showing just where the ABC sides:
Reader Stephen Dawson:
===MARGOT O’NEILL, REPORTER: ....A former media commentator specialising in trade and climate change for the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, he has no conventional professional human rights experience.What on earth is a “conventional professional human rights experience”? What was the “conventional professional human rights experience” of Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, a former Labor staffer?
Fuming Leftists are interviewed, making ludicrous analogies that, if they had any merit, could be equally applied to Soutphommasane but were not:
BEN SAUL, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY: I think the process for his appointment was not fair or open or transparent. ... You can’t just have opinions about human rights, in the same way that I wouldn’t be appointed Chief Medical Officer of the Commonwealth just because I’ve got opinions about hospitals.The interviewer then starts with a hostile question containing a strange non sequitur:
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: ...: Do the other commissioners have any reason to fear your appointment, given that 12 months ago the IPA was actually calling for the abolition of the Human Rights Commission?How would the views of some IPA members (not Wilson himself) on the abolition of the HRC make Wilson’s appointment to that body something to “fear”?
EMMA ALBERICI: Well, can we just talk about - just so that we can really understand your position here, ...Who is this “we”, Emma? Who is this “we” that demands to be reassured?
And then a string of questions such as this, showing just where the ABC sides:
EMMA ALBERICI: But your view presupposes a level playing field, where in fact it becomes survival of the fittest, doesn’t it?Just nail him:
EMMA ALBERICI: But if I could just get - that’s all hypothetical. But as the law currently stands, I just want to pin you on this matter, particularly: is it discriminatory, in your view?And then almost a gasp of surprise at the audacity of freedom:
EMMA ALBERICI: OK. Well this is the Attorney-General’s view. He wants to abolish Section 18C of the [Racial Discrimination Act] ...UPDATE
TIM WILSON: Well he’s actually said he’s going to - looking to change it.
EMMA ALBERICI: Changing it.
TIM WILSON: I want full repeal.
EMMA ALBERICI: Pardon?
Reader Stephen Dawson:
Yesterday I was jolted awake by AM on ABC Radio National. In its report ‘Indonesian foreign minister responds to leaked trade spying report’ the reporter, Helen Brown, called Marty Natalegawa ‘The consummate diplomat’:
HELEN BROWN: The consummate diplomat made the remarks in both English and Indonesian, well knowing that Western and local media reporters were taking note.
I wonder if she would ever term, say, Julie Bishop as ‘the consummate diplomat’.
Parliament could jail Craig Thomson for lying
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (8:23am)
I was wrong on 2GB last night to suggest Craig Thomson could escape punishment for lying to Parliament:
Great skills at the ABC. It publishes a long article on former Labor MP Craig Thomson - a man defended by Labor with Labor Party money - without once mentioning the word “Labor”.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Baldrick.)
===CRAIG Thomson faces a fresh inquiry for allegedly misleading the parliament over a 2012 speech in which he denied spending union money on prostitutes. Senior government sources have confirmed consideration is being given to re-referring Thomson to parliament’s powerful privileges committee, following yesterday’s court ruling that he defrauded the Health Services Union…UPDATE
The House of Representatives has the power to impose jail terms of up to six months and fines of up to $5000 for a “breach of privilege”. It could also publicly admonish the former MP by calling him “to the bar”, and seeking an apology.
Great skills at the ABC. It publishes a long article on former Labor MP Craig Thomson - a man defended by Labor with Labor Party money - without once mentioning the word “Labor”.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Baldrick.)
Green policies are killing manufacturing - and for what?
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (8:13am)
Brendan Pearson, chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, on how green policies made our power prices among the world’s highest - and for what?.
UPDATE
And workers and the poor o pay most for this new religious mania of the disenchanted urban elite:
===Less than a decade ago, Australia enjoyed the lowest energy costs in the developed world… But today that advantage has largely gone.These green policies are helping to destroy manufacturing in Australia. But even Pearson shies away from nailing the true insanity of them: the carbon tax and renewable energy target actually make essentially zero difference to the global temperature they are meant to lower. All this astonishing pain for zero gain. The scale of the madness is for most Australians simply beyond comprehension.
As a result of the carbon tax, the renewable energy target and a range of other energy policy interventions at the federal and state government level, Australia has some of the highest electricity costs in the developed world.
Household electricity prices have increased by more than 110 per cent in the past five years… Australian businesses - which account for 70 per cent of total electricity use in Australia - have experienced an almost 80 per cent increase in prices since 2009 and there are more rises on the way.
The causes are not hard to find.
The carbon tax accounted for 16 per cent of the electricity bill for a typical large industrial user in NSW in 2012-13.
In 2013-14, the carbon tax added an estimated $6.4 billion to the nation’s tax bill.... Official estimates suggest that the RET will generate a transfer of $20bn from householders and industrial users by 2020…
UPDATE
And workers and the poor o pay most for this new religious mania of the disenchanted urban elite:
Alan Morris and Lynne Chester, The Conversation, September 20, 2012:
AN increasing number of low-income households are suffering from energy poverty ... the lowest 20 per cent of Australian households had an average weekly income of $314. Their average expenditure on household energy was 7 per cent of disposable income, three times more than the wealthiest households ... The Salvation Army recently found that in regional NSW, just over half the people are going without meals to pay for electricity. A third of these people could not afford to heat their homes. Many ... were plagued by constant anxiety and depression was common ...
Human Rights Commission silent when boat policies fail, outraged when they don’t
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (7:50am)
In six years of Labor Government, the Human Rights Commission held just one inquiry
into the policies which had lured 50,000 boat people to Australia,
drowned at least 1100 of them, crammed our detention centres to
overflowing and had thousands of boat people released into the community
without proper vetting or permission to work. And that inquiry was into
only the jailing of the younger people smugglers:
===The outgoing President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Catherine Branson QC, recently completed an Inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children.Not six months into the Abbott Government, and the Human Rights Commission is already holding one inquiry and now demanding a second into policies that have stopped the boats, stopped the drownings and cut the number of detainees. Following the riot and death on Manus Island:
The president of the Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, said Australia was not upholding its international responsibility to asylum seekers, and also called for an inquiry.
Natalegawa fools the ABC again
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (7:30am)
Indonesian foreign
minister Marty Natalegawa is a blowhard who seems to be getting off on
the eagerness of the ABC and Fairfax to report his every attack on the
Abbott Government’s attempts to stop Indonesians from smuggling illegal
immigrants to our shores. Take last week:
===Dr Natalegawa told reporters Indonesia does what it can to stop boats leaving the country and that Australia’s actions are “against the values of humanity”.Bait swallowed. ABC Insiders on Sunday:
He says he will inform US secretary of state John Kerry - who will visit Jakarta next week - about Australia’s actions and let officials draw their own conclusions.
“There is no need to ask; we only need to inform it, and let America draw its own conclusion,” he said.
BARRIE CASSIDY: You are being true to yourself and true to your policy, as you say, but nevertheless it does seem to be offending the Indonesians, to the point where they’re now going to raise this issue with the US Secretary of State, John Kerry.But once again Natalegawa is all headline and no story:
SCOTT MORRISON: They’re welcome to do that…
BARRIE CASSIDY: What do you think John Kerry would do about it anyway, even if he does regard it as a global issue?
SCOTT MORRISON: That’s a matter for secretary Kerry, it’s also a matter for the Indonesians.
EMMA ALBERICI: How concerning was it for yourself and secretary Kerry to hear the foreign minister of Indonesia raise the issue of border protection vis a vis the relationship with Australia? Does it concern you that the relationship between Australia and Indonesia is becoming so strained as a result of those policies?(Thanks to reader Peter.)
DANNY RUSSEL [US assistant secretary of state for East Asia]: Well I didn’t see in our conversation evidence that the issue of border control was something that the Indonesians wanted us to understand let alone do anything about. In the press conference that secretary Kerry and foreign minister Natalegawa gave, of course the Indonesian foreign minister memorably referred to the disclosures reports...
Traitor: Edward Snowden tips off Al-Shabaab terrorists
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (7:14am)
Al-Shabaab, the terrorist group behind the Kenyan mall massacre, gets a heads-up from US traitor Edward Snowden:
===In January, Al-Shabaab issued a 15-day ultimatum for local giant, Hormuud Telecom [Somalia’s biggest telco], to stop proving mobile internet and fibre optic services because it said they were used by Western spy agencies to collect information on Muslims…(Thanks to reader Tabitha N.)
The Mayor of Mogadishu, Mohamed Nur Tarzan, told the media that Hormuud officials had said company staff were forced “at gunpoint” by Al-Shabaab fighters to switch off the mobile internet service…
Mohamed Yusuf, an academic in Mogadishu, said that the extremist group actions to ban mobile internet services in southern and central Somalia were triggered by the Edward Snowden revelations of widespread U.S. government surveillance programmes it maintained in and outside the country…
Yusuf also said that the major reason for the group decision was the possibility that mobile internet connections could be used to track the leaders and commanders of Al-Shabaab, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist entity and a legitimate target for its drone attacks.
In praise of politics
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (6:47am)
In praise of politics. Professor James Allan on Q&A:
YASSMIN ABDEL-MAGIED: That’s the crux of the matter. I mean, the discussion [about a carbon tax] is political. The discussion - The discussion is political. You guys are making something that’s about the future and our environment into something that’s about politics and that’s not what we want to hear. What we want to hear - I mean John Kerry got up and said “Climate change is the weapon of mass destruction”. I mean isn’t that clear? We were people - we were a country that ... HEATHER RIDOUT: He’s a serious guy, John Kerry. Yeah. And Christine Lagarde is a serious person.A proto-autocrat and a hand-maiden to the corporate state are confronted by two democrats. Thank heavens.
YASSMIN ABDEL-MAGIED: Exactly. And so it’s something that we need to tackle with the seriousness that it deserves and I think reducing it to simply a policy discussion is disrespectful and…
JAMES ALLAN: Yassmin, life is about politics when people disagree.
YASSMIN ABDEL-MAGIED: Well, this is true.
JAMES ALLAN: And there is no way you can attend that we are all going to be in a Coke commercial holding hands and singing. People disagree and when you disagree you have politics and politics is a good thing and to say that it’s just about politics misses the point. It is good that it’s people disagree and you have to discuss it and you end up having to vote. It is the only way to resolve disagreement. Unless you believe in some world experts who sit on climate commissions or something deciding these things, which is a bad thing, you have to decide by politics and politics is a good thing.
YASSMIN ABDEL-MAGIED: I mean, look, politics is a good thing but not when it stops progress…
ERIC ABETZ: But who determines what progress is? I’m old-fashioned. I believe in the ballot box and the say of the people.
In praise of even brutal politics. House of Cards writer and show runner Beau Willimon on his creation, the murderous US congressman Francis Underwood:
We tend to make heroes out of folks like Martin Luther King and Gandhi – as we should – who give voice to major ideas that are world-changing. But then there’s the people who actually have to go and enact it into law, figure out how it’s going to work, work with the people Gandhi and Martin Luther King won’t speak to, the other half. And that’s where pragmatism comes into play. Pragmatism is the vehicle of idealism....Mmm. Ronald Reagan? Margaret Thatcher? I wonder whether Willimon, a former Democrat staffer, is speaking more to the Left. But still...
We offer an extreme version of unapologetic self-interest, someone who has no discernible moral code whatsoever other than self-preservation and advancement of himself and his wife. And yet he manages to get more done than most people around him. Is that OK?
There is a case to be made that progress should be divorced from motive. I could have the best motivation in the world, I could be a saint, but if I achieve nothing what good is it?…
I do have to agree with Francis Underwood to a degree. Ideology is a form of quicksand. It’s prescriptive behaviour. You give yourself the illusion of choice – ‘I’m choosing not to support these people’ or ‘I refuse to negotiate because I’m standing up for what I believe in’ – but really you’re just doing nothing. You’re sitting on a white stallion that’s not going anywhere.
Government is the business of compromise. And if people don’t find a way to loosen themselves from their own ideologies … nothing can ever be achieved.
Corrupt. How Labor blew $40 million on its favorite union
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (6:07am)
Julia Gillard was
propped up by the AWU and blew $40 million of our money on fluffing the
pillows of a dying smelter than featherbedded AWU members.
Grace Collier:
Meanwhile, Alcoa has no carbon tax in the United States, and fewer pro-union workplace restrictions on how it runs its operations. So while it has closed some uneconomic potlines there, too, it nevertheless last month announced:
===Grace Collier:
JOE Hockey is dead right: the $40 million of our money given to Alcoa in June 2012 has gone “down the tube”.Gillard did not just want to guarantee the AWU’s support for her against Kevin Rudd. She also wanted to buy the union’s support for the carbon tax that threatened to kill Alcoa’s Point Henry smelter prematurely. From 2012:
Alcoa spent a lot of money on three new enterprise bargaining agreements… Thanks to the EBAs, perhaps up to half of the $40m was committed to cash pay rises and flow-on labour costs. The rest may go towards the closure bill, estimated by Alcoa as between $250m and $270m. Roughly divided, this equates to a budget of $250,000 to $270,000 in redundancy pay and associated benefits for each employee…
The Point Henry Rolled Products EBA gave pay rises totalling 12 per cent from September 2012.
Under the life of that EBA, the entry-level wage for a continuous seven-day shift worker was hiked from $82,106 annually to $91,571 by 2015. The wage for an experienced continuous seven-day shift worker went from $119,334 annually to $133,092 in 2015.
Union representatives get up to 10 days a year paid union training… . Should any other business be contracted to provide labour, Alcoa will force it to match its own terrible wages outcomes.... An employee with 20 years’ service would receive a severance payment of more than two years’ pay.
The Commonwealth is contributing most of the $40 million [actually all] and the Victorian Government is putting up $4 million to go into a fund to help Alcoa’s supply chain…By sheer coincidence, $40 million is what Alcoa had said the year before was what the carbon tax would cost its Victorian plants:
Australian Workers Union federal secretary Paul Howes welcomed the deal and said it guaranteed Australia could continue to produce aluminium…
Mr Howes, who negotiated with Alcoa over the carbon tax, denies the tax’s impending introduction will force the closure of the smelter when its viability is reviewed in 2014…
“[As] all economic modelling shows, the carbon price impact on aluminium smelting is the equivalent of a one cent appreciation in the value of the Australian dollar.”
Its general manager of climate strategy and federal government relations, Tim McAuliffe, told a Senate select committee inquiry into carbon tax pricing mechanisms that Alcoa faced extra costs of $40 million per year if the tax was introduced.No wonder Howes demanded the handout. Check the pain Labor’s carbon tax caused Alcoa last financial year:
Alcoa Australia, which is reportedly close to shutting down its Point Henry aluminium smelter, paid $137.2 million.Another shameful story of subsidies and Labor politics. The word “corrupt” can’t be far off the mark in describing this rank opportunism. And as for the madness of forcing a company to pay $137 million just to make a useless symbolic gesture about global warming…
Meanwhile, Alcoa has no carbon tax in the United States, and fewer pro-union workplace restrictions on how it runs its operations. So while it has closed some uneconomic potlines there, too, it nevertheless last month announced:
Alcoa (NYSE: AA) today announced it has completed a $300 million expansion at its Davenport, Iowa facility dedicated to supplying aluminum sheet products to the automotive industry…Message received yet?
According to automakers, demand for aluminum to produce vehicles—already the second-most-used material used to make cars today—is expected to nearly double by 2025…
In addition to its expansion in Iowa—for which long-term supply agreements have been secured—Alcoa is adding automotive capacity in Alcoa, Tennessee which is scheduled to be complete in mid-2015; and at its joint venture rolling mill in Saudi Arabia, to be complete by the end of 2014. Alcoa is investing approximately $670 million in the three expansions ...
Freedom training
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (5:46am)
A new course is offered on the economics that actually works:
===Most universities teach a biased version of political economy that promotes big government and failed Keynesian policies. In response, the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance (with the support of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation) last year launched “Foundations of Liberty & Free Market Economics” in Sydney, to introduce students to free-market ideas, and the people behind these ideas.
We are now delighted to announce that we shall be launching Foundations of Liberty & Free Market Economics in Melbourne during Semester 1, 2014.
The Melbourne program will be jointly run by two of Australia’s leading economists, Professor Sinclair Davidson and Professor Jason Potts, and is a must for all students and recent graduates interested in expanding their knowledge of economics and the fundamental underpinnings of a free society.
The course shall consist of 10 interactive 2 hour evening seminars and will include student-led discussion, stimulating debate, and structured material, followed by further discussion over beer and pizza…
The cost of the full program is $750. However, both full and half scholarships will be awarded to up to 15 deserving applicants.
This course is open to EVERYONE and not just currently enrolled tertiary students.
Enrol here.
Bad news for Barry: we’ve got more readers than ever
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (5:35am)
Paul Barry seems to have been in too much of a hurry to bury News Corp:
===NEWS Corp Australia has hit out at the ABC’s Media Watch for lacking professionalism after host Paul Barry failed to seek any response before airing an episode “littered with errors”.
“You’d think after the national bollocking the ABC rightly received just this month about the lack of fact checking and serious lack of balance they would have been a little more careful with Monday night’s Media Watch,” News Corp CEO Julian Clarke said on Tuesday…
“Paul Barry subjects his viewers to a lecture about the state of our business and the standards of journalism and fails to contact a single executive from our company while compiling his report,” Mr Clarke said…
“Barry quoted the Herald Sun’s circulation as being under 400,000 sales per day. If Media Watch was attempting to give the viewers some insight into the newspaper business, it may have pointed out that the Herald Sun’s total audience, print and digital, is larger this year than last year and that the public are happily paying for the digital version,” Mr Clarke said.
“He should also have pointed out that The Australian has over 57,000 digital subscribers, with paid digital sales growing 45 per cent over the last year. Total print and digital sales are up 4.4 per cent over the year."…
Given the chance to reply, Mr Barry repeatedly refused to say whether Media Watch had a duty under the ABC code of practice to give News an opportunity to respond.
Turnbull denies telling Channel Seven mate he regretted police raid
Andrew Bolt February 19 2014 (5:11am)
A misjudgement, if true:
As far as I can tell, Seven’s story is that it has a deal with Corby but doesn’t, and that it wouldn’t pay her - well, at least not more than $1 million. And how dare the police believe it’s about to help a convicted criminal from benefitting from the proceeds of crime.
Channel Seven seems to me to feel peculiarly free to play the law and the public for suckers:
===SEVEN’S commercial director Bruce McWilliam says a senior Abbott government minister regretted the raid at his network [yesterday] over a Schapelle Corby deal…A bad look, given the police investigation is and should be independent of government, although Turnbull denies he apologised:
“I did speak to someone in government and they didn’t know this raid was occurring,’’ he said. “When they went back and checked they were told what I believe to be a falsehood, that we weren’t co-operating (with police), which is completely untrue,” he said.
FEDERAL communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull ... phoned the Attorney General George Brandis and Justice Minister Michael Keenan after receiving a call from Seven commercial director, former business associate and friend Bruce McWilliam after scores of armed AFP officers descended on the Pyrmont headquarters yesterday morning over Seven’s planned paid interview with the convicted drug smuggler…McWilliam is aggrieved by the even the slightest inconvenience caused by police checking to see if, as is widely suspected, his network is in the process of breaching laws against criminals benefitting from their crimes:
Mr Turnbull last night said his actions were “entirely appropriate”.
“I’m the communications minister and it’s perfectly natural for a television business that’s got problems of any kind to call me — I’m their minister.” he said.
“They rang me about the AFP raid and I rang or got in touch with and spoke to the relevant ministers, Michael Keenan and George Brandis, just to ascertain what was going on.
“And then I told Channel Seven that if they wanted to discuss the matter further with the government they should call George Brandis. And that’s it.
”I didn’t express any sort of views about the merits of it either way.’’…
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Bruce McWilliam go back a long way. Both lawyers, the pair formed their own firm, Turnbull McWilliam, in 1986...
Poor Kim Wilson, the editor of New Idea, had all her fabric samples pushed aside while they sought evidence of criminal offences in her office...UPDATE
As far as I can tell, Seven’s story is that it has a deal with Corby but doesn’t, and that it wouldn’t pay her - well, at least not more than $1 million. And how dare the police believe it’s about to help a convicted criminal from benefitting from the proceeds of crime.
Channel Seven seems to me to feel peculiarly free to play the law and the public for suckers:
Seven itself initially reported an agreement with the Corbys for an exclusive interview had been made and provided to the police, although Mr McWilliam subsequently said that “no one has reached an agreement — I think that’s the element the federal police don’t accept”.That’s not how Channel Seven’s own David Koch and Samantha Armytage understood the deal last week:
Mr McWilliam said Seven’s offer for the exclusive interview with Corby was well under $1 million — not the $2m reported…
Veteran journalist and Sunday Night reporter Mike Willesee fronted the media in Bali yesterday, reiterating that no deal had been signed with Corby but said Seven was in the box seat when it was appropriate for her to give an interview.
“I reckon we should have nothing to do with her as a network. Totally disagree with paying a convicted drug smuggler $2 million,” Koch said.
His co-host, Samantha Armytage, responded: “Too late for that.”
Law upheld
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (8:32pm)
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:
Chris Berg of the IPA:
===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.UPDATE
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.
Chris Berg of the IPA:
As I argued in this recent FreedomWatch post, Australia’s literary proceeds of crime laws are a restriction on freedom of speech. An AFP on a media organisation is an incredibly serious thing.I disagree. Corby is perfectly entitled to speak to whomever about her experiences as a convicted drug smuggler. The legislation merely prevents her from being paid for it. The only thing that’s being kept shut here is Channel Seven’s wallet.
What does Labor say now about Craig Thomson and the money it gave him?
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (7:37pm)
September 2010:
PS: Has anyone ever met such a brazen, shameless liar?
===Neil Mitchell:August 2011:
You’ve run a union, you understand these things, do you support him?
Bill Shorten:
Oh, yeah, I believe him.
Neil Mitchell:
You believe him [Thomson], no case to answer?
Bill Shorten:
I believe him;
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?
Who is minding the gate?
Andrew Bolt February 18 2014 (7:29pm)
Once again, I would
like some assurances on how our immigration program is being run to our
benefit. Yes, we import families who produce brilliant medicos, but we
also seem to import people seemingly ill-equipped to join in:
===Kareem Al-Salami, 48, was charged with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed highly respected surgeon and award-winning researcher Dr Michael Wong in the foyer at the Western Hospital in Footscray about 8.30am…
His lawyer said the man spoke “very broken English” and was assisted by an Arabic interpreter during the police interview, but not while speaking with his lawyer.
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Dogs should not take steroids .. ed
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MADU Odiokwu Pastorvin
PRAY.
Father,I thank You for Your exceeding, abundant promises.I thank You for giving me everything I need to fulfill the dreams You’ve placed in my heart. I choose to stay focused and press forward into the good things You have for me.I invite You to have Your way in and through me. Show me Your ways that I may walk with You and honor You all the days of my life in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Father,I thank You for Your exceeding, abundant promises.I thank You for giving me everything I need to fulfill the dreams You’ve placed in my heart. I choose to stay focused and press forward into the good things You have for me.I invite You to have Your way in and through me. Show me Your ways that I may walk with You and honor You all the days of my life in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Power at Work!
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
(Ephesians 3:20, NKJV)
Today’s verse tells us that God will do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or think. But here’s the key: the next part says that it’s “...according to the power that works in you.” It’s not according to the power that’s in your neighbor, your boss, your pastor, your priest, the bank or the stock market. It’s according to the power that works in you. In other words, it depends on what you’re believing. If you go around telling yourself, “I’m just average. I’m not that talented. I come from the wrong family,” then the exceeding greatness of God’s power is not going to work in you. That treasure is going to stay buried.
But when you acknowledge God’s greatness in your life, when you see yourself the way He sees you and live by the Word of God, that’s when His power works in you Remember, you’ve been created in the image of Almighty God. You have treasure on the inside. If that treasure is going to come out, you have to have the attitude, “I’ve got what it takes. I’m not waiting on it. I’m not hoping to get it one day. I’m not begging somebody to give me a break. No, I’m equipped, empowered, talented and creative, and I will fulfill the destiny He has in store for me.Reason that way and you will see the difference.God bless you.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
(Ephesians 3:20, NKJV)
Today’s verse tells us that God will do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or think. But here’s the key: the next part says that it’s “...according to the power that works in you.” It’s not according to the power that’s in your neighbor, your boss, your pastor, your priest, the bank or the stock market. It’s according to the power that works in you. In other words, it depends on what you’re believing. If you go around telling yourself, “I’m just average. I’m not that talented. I come from the wrong family,” then the exceeding greatness of God’s power is not going to work in you. That treasure is going to stay buried.
But when you acknowledge God’s greatness in your life, when you see yourself the way He sees you and live by the Word of God, that’s when His power works in you Remember, you’ve been created in the image of Almighty God. You have treasure on the inside. If that treasure is going to come out, you have to have the attitude, “I’ve got what it takes. I’m not waiting on it. I’m not hoping to get it one day. I’m not begging somebody to give me a break. No, I’m equipped, empowered, talented and creative, and I will fulfill the destiny He has in store for me.Reason that way and you will see the difference.God bless you.
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Father,I thank You for giving me everything I need to fulfill the dreams You’ve placed in my heart. I choose to stay focused and press forward into the good things You have me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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I REPEAT THIS TOPIC BECAUSE IT IS DEADLY.
The Topic Is Worry.
lots of people are worried about their bills,marriage, health, kids, wrinkles in their faces and all other things. It's an unconscious habit that people are doing that.
Listen. In Matthew 6:25-27 Scripture says that we shouldn't be anxious about our life because "worrying" won't add a single hour in your life. So how do you break the habit of worrying? The WORD.Instead of meditating on the negative, why not meditate on God's Words and promises to you.God bless you.
===The Topic Is Worry.
lots of people are worried about their bills,marriage, health, kids, wrinkles in their faces and all other things. It's an unconscious habit that people are doing that.
Listen. In Matthew 6:25-27 Scripture says that we shouldn't be anxious about our life because "worrying" won't add a single hour in your life. So how do you break the habit of worrying? The WORD.Instead of meditating on the negative, why not meditate on God's Words and promises to you.God bless you.
Post by DoubleTapper.
Celebrate IDF diversity
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- 1674 – The Third Anglo-Dutch War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster, with England regaining New York, and the Netherlands takingSuriname.
- 1884 – More than sixty tornadoes struck across the Southern United States, believed to be among the largest and most widespread tornado outbreaks in American history.
- 1942 – Second World War: In the largest attacks mounted by a foreign power against Australia, more than 240 bombers and fighters of theImperial Japanese Navy bombed Darwin, Northern Territory.
- 1965 – Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Vietminh, along with Generals Lam Van Phat and Tran Thien Khiem attempted a coupagainst the military junta of Nguyen Khanh.
- 2011 – Items from the Belitung shipwreck (bowls pictured), the biggest single collection of Tang Dynasty artefacts found in one location, were first put on display in Singapore.
Events[edit]
- 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
- 356 – Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
- 1594 – Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland in 1587,Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
- 1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
- 1649 – The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.
- 1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
- 1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.
- 1819 – British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III.
- 1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.
- 1847 – The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.
- 1859 – Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. This is the first time this defense is successfully used in the United States.
- 1861 – Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
- 1876 – Founding of the National Amateur Press Association (NAPA) in Philadelphia.
- 1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
- 1884 – More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
- 1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
- 1937 – Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
- 1942 – World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
- 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
- 1943 – World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
- 1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
- 1948 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
- 1949 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
- 1953 – Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
- 1959 – The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is then formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
- 1960 – China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
- 1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique reawakens the Feminist Movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
- 1972 – The Asama-Sansō hostage standoff begins in Japan.
- 1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald R. Ford's Proclamation 4417
- 1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
- 1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.
- 1985 – Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
- 1986 – Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers the eastern province of Sri Lanka.
- 2001 – The Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
- 2002 – NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
- 2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.
- 2006 – A methane explosion in a coal mine near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, kills 65 miners.
- 2011 – The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang Dynasty artefacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.
Births[edit]
- 1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543)
- 1526 – Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist (d. 1609)
- 1552 – Melchior Klesl, Austrian cardinal (d. 1630)
- 1630 – Shivaji, Indian emperor (d. 1680)
- 1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)
- 1671 – Charles-Hubert Gervais, French composer (d. 1744)
- 1717 – David Garrick, English actor, playwright, and producer (d. 1779)
- 1722 – Charles-François Tiphaigne de la Roche, French author (d. 1774)
- 1743 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1805)
- 1780 – Richard McCarty, American politician (d. 1844)
- 1798 – Allan MacNab, Canadian politician (d. 1862)
- 1800 – Émilie Gamelin, Canadian nun, founded the Sisters of Providence (d. 1851)
- 1802 – Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss politician (d. 1881)
- 1804 – Baron Carl von Rokitansky, German physician (d. 1878)
- 1804 – David Wark, Irish-Canadian politician (d. 1905)
- 1821 – August Schleicher, German linguist (d. 1868)
- 1824 – Henri Germain, French banker and politician, founded Crédit Lyonnais (d. 1905)
- 1833 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
- 1843 – Adelina Patti, Spanish opera singer (d. 1919)
- 1855 – Nishinoumi Kajirō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 16th Yokozuna (d. 1908)
- 1859 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
- 1865 – Sven Hedin, Swedish geographer and explorer (d. 1952)
- 1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian poet (d. 1923)
- 1872 – Johan Pitka, Estonian military commander (d. 1944)
- 1876 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor (d. 1957)
- 1877 – Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)
- 1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
- 1880 – Álvaro Obregón, Mexican politician, 39th President of Mexico (d. 1928)
- 1886 – Karl Ast, Estonian writer and politician (d. 1971)
- 1886 – José Abad Santos, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 5th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (d. 1942)
- 1888 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian lawyer and poet (d. 1928)
- 1888 – Aurora Quezon, Filipino wife of Manuel L. Quezon, 2nd First Lady of the Philippines (d. 1949)
- 1893 – Cedric Hardwicke, English actor (d. 1964)
- 1895 – Louis Calhern, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1895 – Diego Mazquiarán, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1940)
- 1895 – August Torma, Estonian military officer and diplomat (d. 1971)
- 1896 – André Breton, French poet (d. 1966)
- 1897 – Alma Rubens, American actress (d. 1931)
- 1899 – Lucio Fontana, Italian-Argentinian painter and sculptor (d. 1968)
- 1899 – Yury Olesha, Russian author (d. 1960)
- 1901 – Florence Green, English soldier (d. 2012)
- 1902 – Kay Boyle, American author and educator (d. 1992)
- 1903 – Louis Slobodkin, American children's author and illustrator (d. 1975)
- 1904 – Havank, Dutch journalist and author (d. 1964)
- 1904 – Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, Irish author (d. 1950)
- 1906 – Eugene Eisenmann, Panamanian-American ornithologist (d. 1981)
- 1910 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1911 – Merle Oberon, Indian-American actress (d. 1979)
- 1912 – Saul Chaplin, American composer and director (d. 1997)
- 1913 – Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza (d. 2007)
- 1914 – Jacques Dufilho, French actor (d. 2005)
- 1915 – John Freeman, English former politician, diplomat and broadcaster
- 1916 – Eddie Arcaro, American jockey (d. 1997)
- 1917 – Carson McCullers, American author (d. 1967)
- 1918 – Nigel Forbes, 22nd Lord Forbes, Scottish soldier and politician (d. 2013)
- 1920 – C. Z. Guest, American actress, fashion designer, and author(d. 2003)
- 1920 – Jaan Kross, Estonian author (d. 2007)
- 1920 – George Rose, English actor (d. 1988)
- 1924 – David Bronstein, Ukrainian chess player (d. 2006)
- 1924 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
- 1924 – Borghild Niskin, Norwegian skier (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Bruce Norris, American businessman (d. 1986)
- 1924 – František Vláčil, Czech director and painter (d. 1999)
- 1926 – György Kurtág, Hungarian composer
- 1926 – Ross Thomas, American crime fiction writer (d. 1995)
- 1929 – Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
- 1930 – John Frankenheimer, American director and producer (d. 2002)
- 1930 – Kaashinathuni Vishwanath, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1932 – Joseph P. Kerwin, American physician and astronaut
- 1934 – Pierre Barouh, French singer-songwriter
- 1934 – Carole Eastman, American screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1935 – Dave Niehaus, American sportscaster (d. 2010)
- 1936 – Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1936 – Marin Sorescu, Romanian author (d. 1997)
- 1937 – Terry Carr, American science fiction editor (d. 1987)
- 1937 – Alan Munro, British immunologist and entrepreneur
- 1937 – Boris Pugo, Latvian politician, Soviet Interior Minister (d.1991)
- 1937 – Robert Walker Jr., American guitarist
- 1938 – René Muñoz, Cuban-Mexican actor and screenwriter (d. 2000)
- 1938 – Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (d. 1989)
- 1938 – Dutch Mason, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
- 1939 – Erin Pizzey,English family care activist, writer and broadcaster
- 1939 – Gwen Taylor, English actress
- 1940 – Jaan Kiivit, Jr., Estonian clergyman (d. 2005)
- 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmen politician, 1st President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)
- 1940 – Smokey Robinson, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Miracles)
- 1940 – Bobby Rogers, American singer-songwriter (The Miracles) (d. 2013)
- 1941 – David Gross, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 – Jenny Tonge, English politician
- 1942 – Paul Krause, American football player
- 1942 – Howard Stringer, Welsh businessman
- 1943 – Lou Christie, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Jim Cosman, American baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Homer Hickam, American author and engineer
- 1943 – Tim Hunt, English biochemist, Nobel laureate
- 1943 – Gert Wünsche, German footballer
- 1944 – Les Hinton, English-born American journalist and business executive
- 1945 – Yuri Antonov, Uzbek-Russian singer-songwriter
- 1945 – Michael Nader, American actor
- 1945 – Jürgen Rumor, German footballer
- 1945 – Zlatko Sirotić, Croatian painter
- 1946 – Paul Dean, Canadian guitarist (Loverboy and Streetheart)
- 1946 – Barry Everitt, British professor of behavioural neuroscience
- 1946 – Hiroshi Fujioka, Japanese actor
- 1946 – Peter Hudson, Australian footballer
- 1946 – Karen Silkwood, American technician and activist (d. 1974)
- 1947 – Tim Shadbolt, New Zealand politician, 42nd Mayor of Invercargill
- 1948 – Mark Andes, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Spirit, Firefall, Jo Jo Gunne, and Heart)
- 1948 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch sociologist and politician (d. 2002)
- 1948 – Tony Iommi, English guitarist and songwriter (Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Velvett Fogg, and Mythology)
- 1948 – Big John Studd, American wrestler and actor (d. 1995)
- 1949 – Danielle Bunten Berry, American game designer and programmer, (d. 1998)
- 1949 – Andrew Jameson,English sports commentator and former swimmer
- 1949 – William Messner-Loebs, American writer and illustrator
- 1950 – Juice Leskinen, Finnish singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1950 – Andy Powell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Wishbone Ash)
- 1951 – Stephen Nichols, American actor
- 1951 – Maciej Pawlikowski, Polish mountaineer
- 1951 – Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Pakistani scholar and politician, founded Minhaj-ul-Quran
- 1952 – Amy Tan, American author
- 1952 – Danilo Türk, Slovene politician, 3rd President of Slovenia
- 1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican astronaut
- 1952 – Stephen South, English race car driver
- 1953 – Corrado Barazzutti, Italian former tennis player
- 1953 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentinian politician, 55th President of Argentina
- 1953 – Bill Kirchenbauer American comedian and actor
- 1953 – Massimo Troisi, Italian actor (d. 1994)
- 1953 – Attilio Bettega, Italian rally driver (d. 1985)
- 1954 – Sócrates, Brazilian footballer (d. 2011)
- 1954 – Francis Buchholz, German bass player (Scorpions and Michael Schenker Group)
- 1954 – Michael Gira, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Swans, Angels of Light, The World of Skin, and Circus Mort)
- 1955 – Jeff Daniels, American actor, singer, and playwright
- 1956 – Kathleen Beller, American actress
- 1956 – Peter Holsapple, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The dBs and The Continental Drifters)
- 1956 – Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 – Dave Wakeling, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Beat and General Public)
- 1957 – Falco, Austrian singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
- 1957 – Lorianne Crook, American radio and television host
- 1957 – Ray Winstone, English actor
- 1958 – Tommy Cairo, American wrestler
- 1958 – Helen Fielding, English author and screenwriter
- 1959 – Simmu Tiik, Estonian diplomat
- 1960 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York
- 1960 – Leslie Ash, English actress
- 1961 – Benoît Chamoux, French mountaineer (d. 1995)
- 1961 – Justin Fashanu, English footballer (d. 1998)
- 1961 – Andy Wallace, English race car driver
- 1962 – John Laroche, American horticulturalist
- 1962 – Hana Mandlíková, Czech tennis player
- 1963 – Seal, English singer-songwriter
- 1963 – Laurell K. Hamilton, American author
- 1963 – Jessica Tuck, American actress
- 1964 – Doug Aldrich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Whitesnake, Burning Rain, Hurricane, Bad Moon Rising, Lion, and Dio)
- 1964 – Jonathan Lethem, American author
- 1964 – Dmitri Lipskerov, Russian author and playwright
- 1964 – Richard A. Scott, American writer and illustrator
- 1964 – Sonu Walia, Indian actress, Miss India 1985
- 1965 – Leroy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Smash Mouth)
- 1965 – Jon Fishman, American drummer (Phish, Pork Tornado, and Surrender to the Air)
- 1966 – Justine Bateman, American actress and producer
- 1966 – Paul Haarhuis, Dutch tennis player
- 1966 – Enzo Scifo, Belgian footballer
- 1966 – Eduardo Xol, American designer and author
- 1967 – Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican actor
- 1969 – Burton C. Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Fear Factory, Ascension of the Watchers, City of Fire, and GZR)
- 1969 – Helena Guergis, Canadian politician
- 1970 – Joacim Cans, Swedish singer-songwriter (HammerFall and Warlord)
- 1971 – Miguel Batista, Dominican baseball player
- 1971 – Jeff Kinney, American cartoonist and children's author
- 1971 – Lisa McCune, Australian actress
- 1971 – Gil Shaham, Israeli-American violinist
- 1972 – Francine Fournier, American wrestler
- 1972 – Sunset Thomas, American porn actress
- 1973 – Ramon Kaju, Estonian high jumper, decathlete and basketball player
- 1973 – Eric Lange, American actor
- 1973 – Nikos Oikonomou, Greek basketball player
- 1974 – Danny Doring, American wrestler
- 1975 – Daniel Adair, Canadian drummer and producer (Nickelback and 3 Doors Down)
- 1975 – Mikko Kavén, Finnish footballer
- 1975 – Katja Schuurman, Dutch actress and singer
- 1975 – Daewon Song, South Korean-American skateboarder, co-founded Almost Skateboards
- 1976 – Jahidi White, American basketball player
- 1977 – Ola Salo, Swedish singer-songwriter and keyboard player (The Ark)
- 1977 – Andrew Ross Sorkin, American journalist and author
- 1977 – Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer
- 1978 – Ben Gummer, English politician
- 1978 – Michalis Konstantinou, Cypriot footballer
- 1978 – Immortal Technique, Peruvian-American rapper
- 1979 – Bassnectar, American DJ and producer
- 1979 – Mariska, Finnish rapper
- 1979 – Andrew Buchan, English actor
- 1979 – Steve Cherundolo, American soccer player
- 1979 – Sergio Júnior, Brazilian footballer
- 1979 – Mariana Ochoa, Mexican singer and actress (OV7)
- 1979 – René Renno, German footballer
- 1980 – Dwight Freeney, American football player
- 1980 – David Gandy, English model
- 1980 – Spyridon Gianniotis, Greek swimmer
- 1980 – Ma Lin, Chinese table tennis player
- 1980 – Mike Miller, American basketball player
- 1981 – Vitas, Russian singer-songwriter
- 1981 – Ronnie Arneill, Canadian wrestler
- 1981 – Beth Ditto, American singer-songwriter (The Gossip)
- 1981 – Kyle Martino, American soccer player
- 1981 – Gil Reyes, American boxer
- 1981 – Nicky Shorey, English footballer
- 1982 – Camelia Potec, Romanian swimmer
- 1983 – Kotoōshū Katsunori, Bulgarian sumo wrestler
- 1983 – Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
- 1983 – Ryan Whitney, American ice hockey player
- 1984 – Chris Richardson, American singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Haylie Duff, American actress and singer
- 1985 – Arielle Kebbel, American actress
- 1985 – Sławomir Peszko, Polish footballer
- 1986 – Kyle Chipchura, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Björn Gustafsson, Swedish comedian and actor
- 1986 – Reon Kadena, Japanese model and actress
- 1986 – Henri Karjalainen, Finnish race car driver
- 1986 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Jayde Nicole, Canadian model
- 1986 – Michael Schwimer, American baseball player
- 1986 – Marta Vieira da Silva, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 – Vanesa Furlanetto, Argentine tennis player
- 1988 – Selkirk, English race horse (d. 2013)
- 1988 – Miyu Irino, Japanese voice actor
- 1989 – Kaisa Pajusalu, Estonian rower
- 1990 – Luke Pasqualino, English actor
- 1991 – Trevor Bayne, American race car driver
- 1992 – Jelena Simić, Bosnian tennis player
- 1993 – Mauro Icardi, Argentine footballer
- 1993 – Victoria Justice, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1993 – Empress Schuck, Filipino actress
- 1994 – Tiina Trutsi, Estonian footballer
Deaths[edit]
- 197 – Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (b. 150)
- 1133 – Irene Doukaina, Byzantine wife of Alexius I Comnenus (b. 1066)
- 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
- 1605 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (b. 1550)
- 1602 – Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur (b. 1558)
- 1620 – Roemer Visscher, Dutch merchant and author (b. 1547)
- 1622 – Henry Savile, English scholar and politician (b. 1549)
- 1663 – Adam Adami, German bishop (b. 1603)
- 1672 – Charles Chauncy, English-American academic (b. 1592)
- 1709 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (b. 1646)
- 1716 – Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norwegian poet (b. 1634)
- 1789 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Delaware (b. 1738)
- 1799 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (b. 1733)
- 1806 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet (b. 1717)
- 1837 – Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)
- 1837 – Thomas Burgess, English bishop, author, and philosopher (b. 1756)
- 1887 – Multatuli, Dutch author (b. 1820)
- 1897 – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (b. 1815)
- 1915 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian politician (b. 1866)
- 1916 – Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
- 1927 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer (b. 1847)
- 1936 – Charles Harding Firth, English historian (b. 1857)
- 1936 – Billy Mitchell, American general (b. 1879)
- 1942 – Frank Abbandando, American gangster (b. 1910)
- 1945 – John Basilone, American marine, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1916)
- 1945 – Fay Moulton, American sprinter, football player, coach and lawyer (b. 1876)
- 1952 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
- 1957 – Maurice Garin, French cyclist (b. 1871)
- 1958 – Charles King, American jumper (b. 1880)
- 1959 – Willard Miller, American sailor, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1877)
- 1962 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the Pap smear (b. 1883)
- 1968 – Georg Hackenschmidt, Estonian-English strongman and wrestler (b. 1877)
- 1969 – Madge Blake, American actress (b. 1899)
- 1970 – Christoforos Nezer, Greek actor (b. 1887)
- 1972 – John Grierson, Scottish director (b. 1898)
- 1972 – Lee Morgan, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1938)
- 1972 – Tedd Pierce, American animator, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1906)
- 1973 – Kostas Negrepontis, Greek footballer (b. 1897)
- 1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
- 1975 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (b. 1904)
- 1977 – Anthony Crosland, English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (b. 1918)
- 1977 – Mike González, Cuban baseball player (b. 1890)
- 1980 – Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (AC/DC, The Valentines, The Spektors, and Fraternity) (b. 1946)
- 1983 – Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
- 1986 – Adolfo Celi, Italian actor and director (b. 1922)
- 1988 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1988 – René Char, French poet (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Tojo Yamamoto, American wrestler (b. 1927)
- 1994 – Derek Jarman, English director and set designer (b. 1942)
- 1996 – Antonio Creus, Spanish race car driver (b. 1924)
- 1996 – Charlie Finley, American businessman (b. 1918)
- 1997 – Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1904)
- 1998 – Grandpa Jones, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (b. 1913)
- 1999 – Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric (b. 1943)
- 2000 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian-New Zealand painter and illustrator (b. 1928)
- 2001 – Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (b. 1913)
- 2001 – Charles Trenet, French singer-songwriter (b. 1913)
- 2002 – Virginia Hamilton, African-American children's author (b. 1934)
- 2003 – Johnny Paycheck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
- 2007 – Janet Blair, American actress (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Celia Franca, English-Canadian dancer and director, founded the National Ballet of Canada (b. 1921)
- 2008 – Yegor Letov, Russian singer-songwriter (Grazhdanskaya Oborona) (b. 1964)
- 2008 – Lydia Shum, Chinese-Hong Kong actress and singer (b. 1945)
- 2009 – Kelly Groucutt, English singer and bass player (Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II) (b. 1945)
- 2010 – Jamie Gillis, American porn actor and director (b. 1943)
- 2010 – Laura Spurr, American tribal leader (b. 1945)
- 2011 – Ollie Matson, American sprinter and football player (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Robin Corbett, Baron Corbett of Castle Vale, Australian-English politician (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Frits Staal, Dutch philosopher (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Stasys Stonkus, Lithuanian basketball player, coach and pedagogue (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Jaroslav Velinský, Czech author and songwriter (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Armen Alchian, Armenian-American economist (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Eva Bergh, Norwegian actress (b. 1926)
- 2013 – John Brascia, American actor and dancer (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Park Chul-soo, South Korean director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Joaquín Cordero, Mexican actor (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Elmer Diedtrich, American politician (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Gerhard Frey, German publisher and politician (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Lou Myers, American actor (b. 1935)
- 2013 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Hubert Schieth, German footballer and manager (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Mickey Stubblefield, American baseball player (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Eugene Whelan, Canadian politician (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Chip Woodrum, American lawyer and politician (b. 1938)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
- Birthday of Shivaji or Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra, India)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Commemoration of Bulgaria's Apostle of Freedom Vassil Levski (Bulgaria)
- Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 8:38-39
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 18: Morning
"Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me." - Job 10:2
Perhaps, O tried soul, the Lord is doing this to develop thy graces. There are some of thy graces which would never be discovered if it were not for thy trials. Dost thou not know that thy faith never looks so grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Love is too often like a glow-worm, showing but little light except it be in the midst of surrounding darkness. Hope itself is like a star--not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Afflictions are often the black foils in which God doth set the jewels of his children's graces, to make them shine the better. It was but a little while ago that on thy knees thou wast saying, "Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith." Was not this really, though perhaps unconsciously, praying for trials?--for how canst thou know that thou hast faith until thy faith is exercised? Depend upon it, God often sends us trials that our graces may be discovered, and that we may be certified of their existence. Besides, it is not merely discovery, real growth in grace is the result of sanctified trials. God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains his soldiers, not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long mile with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. Well, Christian, may not this account for the troubles through which thou art passing? Is not the Lord bringing out your graces, and making them grow? Is not this the reason why he is contending with you?
"Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet,
Lay me low, and keep me there."
"Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet,
Lay me low, and keep me there."
Evening
"Father, I have sinned." - Luke 15:18
It is quite certain that those whom Christ has washed in his precious blood need not make a confession of sin, as culprits or criminals, before God the Judge, for Christ has forever taken away all their sins in a legal sense, so that they no longer stand where they can be condemned, but are once for all accepted in the Beloved; but having become children, and offending as children, ought they not every day to go before their heavenly Father and confess their sin, and acknowledge their iniquity in that character? Nature teaches that it is the duty of erring children to make a confession to their earthly father, and the grace of God in the heart teaches us that we, as Christians, owe the same duty to our heavenly Father. We daily offend, and ought not to rest without daily pardon. For, supposing that my trespasses against my Father are not at once taken to him to be washed away by the cleansing power of the Lord Jesus, what will be the consequence? If I have not sought forgiveness and been washed from these offences against my Father, I shall feel at a distance from him; I shall doubt his love to me; I shall tremble at him; I shall be afraid to pray to him: I shall grow like the prodigal, who, although still a child, was yet far off from his father. But if, with a child's sorrow at offending so gracious and loving a Parent, I go to him and tell him all, and rest not till I realize that I am forgiven, then I shall feel a holy love to my Father, and shall go through my Christian career, not only as saved, but as one enjoying present peace in God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There is a wide distinction between confessing sin as a culprit, and confessing sin as a child. The Father's bosom is the place for penitent confessions. We have been cleansed once for all, but our feet still need to be washed from the defilement of our daily walk as children of God.
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Rufus
[Ro̅o̅'fus] - red.
1. A son of Simon the Cyrenian who was compelled to bear the Cross (Mark 15:21).
2. A believer in Rome greeted by Paul as "the chosen in the Lord" together with "his mother and mine" (Rom. 16:13). Some writers feel that these two may have been the same persons. "Simon's widow might have emigrated to Rome with her two sons, where they became people of eminence in the Church, and that this is the reason why the brothers are mentioned by Mark (15:21), who probably wrote in Rome" (Hastings Dictionary).
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Today's reading: Leviticus 23-24, Mark 1:1-22 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 23-24
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
The Sabbath
3 "'There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD....
Today's New Testament reading: Mark 1:1-22
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way"--
3 "a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.'"
who will prepare your way"--
3 "a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.'"
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