In 1912, Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition, left his tent to die, saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time." 1935, Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht. Worth thinking about what Adolf did and what Iran is doing with a large nuclear power station or two, capable of creating plutonium.
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/nsw-premier-barry-o-farrell-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball?
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Laurent Boiteux and Ilaisa Moala Ramode . Born on the same day, across the years. You will succeed.
Laurent is author, actor of Hidden Peaks, a zombie gig ..
Laurent is author, actor of Hidden Peaks, a zombie gig ..
- 1338 – Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, English son of Katherine Mortimer, Countess of Warwick (d. 1401)
- 1399 – Xuande Emperor of China (d. 1435)
- 1663 – Jean-Baptiste Matho, French composer (d. 1743)
- 1774 – Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (d. 1814)
- 1789 – Georg Ohm, German physicist (d. 1854)
- 1797 – Alaric Alexander Watts, English poet and journalist (d. 1864)
- 1800 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (d. 1846)
- 1823 – William Henry Monk, English organist, church musician, music editor and composer (d. 1889)
- 1839 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter (d. 1922)
- 1859 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (d. 1906)
- 1883 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (d. 1958)
- 1912 – Pat Nixon, American educator, 39th First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- 1916 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer and businessman (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary and journalist (d. 2002)
- 1926 – Jerry Lewis, American actor, singer, director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1929 – Betty Johnson, American singer (The Johnson Family Singers)
- 1940 – Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian director and screenwriter
- 1944 – Andrew S. Tanenbaum, American computer scientist and author
- 1948 – Richard Desjardins, Canadian singer-songwriter and director
- 1991 – Wolfgang Van Halen, American bass player (Van Halen)
- 1999 – Bailie Key, American artistic gymnast
Matches
- 597 BC – Babylonians capture Jerusalem, and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.
- 455 – Emperor Valentinian III is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers while training with the bow on the Campus Martius (Rome).
- 934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
- 1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York.
- 1244 – Over 200 Cathars are burned after the Fall of Montségur.
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
- 1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
- 1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.
- 1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
- 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
- 1861 – Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who has been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
- 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
- 1912 – Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition, left his tent to die, saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time."
- 1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
- 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
- 1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and lead to a major flood in Pittsburgh.
- 1940 – First person killed in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, James Isbister.
- 1942 – The first V-2 rocket test launch. It exploded at lift-off.
- 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.
- 1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 are killed.
- 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
- 1962 – A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.
- 1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
- 1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
- 1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
- 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped and later killed by his captors.
- 1983 – Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
- 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later died in captivity.
- 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
- 1988 – Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5000 people and injuring about 10000 people.
- 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three people are killed and more than 60 wounded. The attack was filmed by news crews.
- 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
- 2003 – Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman involved with the International Solidarity Movement, is killed trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being destroyed by a bulldozer in Rafah.
Despatches
- 37 – Tiberius, Roman emperor (b. 46 BC)
- 455 – Heraclius, Roman servant
- 455 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (b. 419)
- 1907 – John O'Leary (Fenian), Irish separatist and a leading Fenian (b. 1830)
Quotas for anybody sour politics
Piers Akerman – Sunday, March 16, 2014 (6:56am)
FORMER Liberal minister Sharman Stone became an instant star on ABC radio and in the Fairfax press earlier this year when she demanded a taxpayer-funded bailout for Victorian fruit preserver SPC-Ardmona.
She only heightened her appeal to the Left when she weighed in with a call for the Liberal Party to adopt quotas for women to improve female representation in parliament.
Stone, who represents the seat of Murray in which Ardmona is located, can be cut some slack for barracking for what she probably hoped would be a solution for the threat posed by SPC’s problems to her constituents who worked at the cannery.
She was by no means the only politician or commentator to demand that taxpayers stump up more funds for what was to all appearances a poorly run private business, just like Holden, Toyota and Qantas.
But as a Liberal she looks even sillier than Opposition leader Bill Shorten, his deputy Tanya Plibersek and shadow industry spokesman Kim Carr, who one might expect to support the subsidising of failure.
When Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the federal government would not give SPC the $25 million it needed, the Victorian Liberal government stumped up $22 million as a “co-payment”, which guaranteed an extra five years’ operation, and supermarket giant Woolworths came to the party with a $70 million deal based on the demand for SPC products — that is, a realistic market-based solution to what was basically a marketing problem.
No need for politicians at all, had Australian business not been so conditioned by years of handouts from compliant Labor (and to a lesser degree, conservative) governments.
In making her case for a handout, Stone accused her own government of lying about excessive union award conditions at the packing plant.
She was wrong on that count, too, as the example of the allowances paid to forklift drivers for moving pallets of new cans and shipments destined for foreign sales proved.
However, she was placed on a pedestal by some, including Shane Green, associate editor of socialist daily The Age, who believed that Stone’s distortion was a defining remark, writing: “Stone may be just one MP. But I’d argue that her defiant stand should be a pivotal moment for the conduct of politics in Australia.”
It possibly was pivotal — for Stone. In aligning herself with Shorten, Plibersek and Carr there was only really one way she could go.
Shorten believed that the responsible position taken by the Abbott government would “see hundreds of people put on the unemployment queue and will have a disastrous effect for thousands of others involved in growing fruit and beans”.
Plibersek and Carr went further, predicting the loss of 1500 direct jobs and 2700 indirect jobs; an increase in the unemployment rate for the Greater Shepparton area from 8.6 per cent to 12.1 per cent; lost tax revenue of up to $18 million a year; a reduction in regional economic output of $165 million a year; reduced council rates and increased social security payments.
It’s amazing, then, that the fruit preserver has been saved by private enterprise and not a government handout, and a reminder to all taxpayers of the way Labor would have continued to throw away their money, and borrowed money, had they still been in office.
Perhaps dazzled by her moment as darling of the left-wing media, Stone’s greater folly was to endorse quotas to get women into parliament.
There are obvious arguments against quotas, not the least being their undemocratic and discriminatory nature.
But the biggest most obvious argument against quotas has been the female failures promoted into parliament by Labor via sponsorship through the egregious Emily’s List, promoted by that low water mark in economic and political leadership Joan Kirner, the former Victorian premier.
While I offer her my deepest sympathy as she battles ill health today, I find it difficult to find a redeeming feature in her premiership. Nor, it seems, could her electorate, who voted her out of office.
By making gender an issue, Labor politicians, particularly Labor women, must be prepared for scrutiny of their gender-linked performance.
This is not to say there is no shortage of silly male Labor MPs, either, but they were not chosen for their gender.
If fewer women are coming through the Liberal ranks at the moment the answer is not to give them a hospital pass, but surely, it is for conservative women to work as hard as their colleagues within the party.
Politics is a hard game, not unlike the fruit preserving business.
Natural quality of product will bring rewards to those in the canning trade just as outstanding candidates, male or female, of good character, will succeed without the need for added artificial sweeteners.
WHINE SIGNS
Tim Blair – Sunday, March 16, 2014 (2:47pm)
Imre Salusinszky is having too much fun with the March in Marchers. Click on each image to embiggen.
Not every vote is equal in South Australia, the Labor state
Andrew Bolt March 16 2014 (3:08pm)
Reader Yoda wonders
when South Australia will fix its outrageous gerrymander, with the
Liberals once again winning a clear majority of the vote but in danger
of losing the election:
===Historical SA election results for the past 30 years:
So is SA really a Labor state or does it just have an incompetent electoral commission?
1985 - ALP 53.2% 2pp =ALP govt
1989 - LIB 51.9% 2pp = ALP govt
1993 - Lib 61% 2pp = Lib govt
1997 - Lib 51.5% 2pp = Lib govt
2002 - Lib 50.9% 2pp = ALP govt
2006 - ALP 56.8% 2pp =ALP govt
2010 - Lib 51.6% 2pp = ALP govt
2014 - Lib 52.3% 2pp = ??????
Even in death, Labor and the Greens can’t be split
Andrew Bolt March 15 2014 (11:34pm)
The only good thing about the concession speech of Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings - other than the tribute to winner Will Hodgman‘s parents - was that its incredible length spared me one quarter of the pain of watching Richmond lose.
The only fun in Greens leader Nick McKim‘s almost equally mammoth effort was watching him interrupt his blowhard triumphalism and defiance to admit that, actually, he’d just lost a third of the party’s vote.
Really, the level of denial was spectacular, especially from Labor. Note that Labor lost in a landslide largely because it had formed a disastrous alliance with the Greens which led it to do dumb things such as lock up forests and kill lots of jobs. But the old Labor-Greens tango keeps going even after the music stops:
===The only fun in Greens leader Nick McKim‘s almost equally mammoth effort was watching him interrupt his blowhard triumphalism and defiance to admit that, actually, he’d just lost a third of the party’s vote.
Really, the level of denial was spectacular, especially from Labor. Note that Labor lost in a landslide largely because it had formed a disastrous alliance with the Greens which led it to do dumb things such as lock up forests and kill lots of jobs. But the old Labor-Greens tango keeps going even after the music stops:
“I would say to Will Hodgman `do not tear up the Tasmanian forestry agreement’,” Ms Giddings said on Saturday night…
Mr McKim had a similar message to Greens supporters at Hobart’s official election tally room…
“Don’t take us back to war.”
Malaysian PM: the missing plane was hijacked
Andrew Bolt March 15 2014 (5:30pm)
Malaysia’s Prime Minister has just confirmed that the missing Malaysian plane, flight 370, flew a path something roughly like the one on the map above.
He says:
- the pattern is consistent with a hijacking.
- satellite pings on the plane were registered for some five hours after contact with the plane was lost.
- the transponder was switched off.
- investigators are increasing checks on the crew and passengers.
- calculations are being refigured to find how far the plane - with 239 people on board - could have flown.
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~ DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, president of Columbia University, speech to luncheon clubs, Galveston, Texas, December 8, 1949.The New York Times, December 9, 1949, p. 23.
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What's meso-American for "You sunk my battleship?" .. Nacalli ixpolihui would be Nahuatl for "my boat is destroyed."
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A desperate, vindictive government muzzles the media
Andrew BoltMARCH162013(7:12am)
Peter Hartcher, close to the Rudd camp, finds Labor Ministers split on whether the Government’s attack on the free press is driven by revenge or self-interest:
Accepting they are likely to lose the election, Labor’s leaders wanted to punish enemies - the Murdoch empire - and reward friends - the trade unions - as they head for the exit, runs the theory held by some senior ministers.
But there is another explanation, too. ‘’Conroy’s view has been that the media stuff isn’t the worst thing in the world, and it’ll distract from leadership speculation and get us through to the end of next week,’’ says a senior Labor figure. ‘’Gillard’s entire world is an inside game,’’ of how to hold the leadership against any Kevin Rudd recrudescence.
Note: no one Hartcher talks to thinks it’s driven by principle.
UPDATE
From a man who has already seen politicians muzzle the press:
JOURNALIST Joseph Fernandez has lived under heavy-handed government regulation of the media before and is alarmed by the prospect of once again seeing freedom of the press under attack by a government he says should know better.
JOURNALIST Joseph Fernandez has lived under heavy-handed government regulation of the media before and is alarmed by the prospect of once again seeing freedom of the press under attack by a government he says should know better.
As editor-in-chief of Malaysia’s Daily Express for 14 years, until 1992, he worked under the threat of arrest, intimidation and unemployment by the government of Mahathir Mohamad, which saw the regulation and the licensing of newspapers as acceptable while banning publications that were deemed critical of the government.“I am quite taken aback that, in this day and age, Australia, a country that has participated in all sorts of endeavours in the region to fight for freedom in countries lesser-equipped, and with such a strong track record trying to be an international voice to be reckoned with, is getting up to such ill-considered methods to control the freedom of expression,” said Fernandez, the head of journalism at Perth’s Curtin University.
“There are no ifs or buts about whether this amounts to government regulation. This legislation represents a raft of regulations with very serious consequences for the free exchange of ideas on matters of public interest.”
On the free-speech hypocrisy of Eureka Street
Andrew BoltMARCH162013(8:29am)
Eureka Street, the Leftist magazine sponsored by the Jesuits, has been curiously silent about the Gillard Government’s latest vindictive attempt to muzzle journalists.
Is this another craven case of the Left defending not a principle but a side?
Is this another case of monstrous hypocrisy - an acquiescence to government censorship of speech the Left doesn’t like, while demanding every freedom for itself?
There is, in fact, one story defending press freedom in Eureka Street today:
No, it is not about the Government attacking press freedom - the story every big media outlet in the land is covering - but about mining magnate Gina Rinehart allegedly doing so. Here isEureka Street editor Michael Mullins:
Freedom of the press is about freedom to report, not to dominate....
During the week, in which the press freedom debate has raged, this core principle of reporting has been challenged by one of Australia’s up and coming media barons.Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is pursuing legal action that has led to the issue of a subpoena to Fairfax journalist Adele Ferguson, author of the unauthorised biography, Gina Rinehart — The Untold Story of the Richest Woman in the World.It demands she hand over emails, text messages, notebooks and any recordings of interviews made between Rinehart’s eldest son John Hancock and the journalist since September 2011. Ferguson has until the end of this month to comply or be charged with contempt of court. A conviction could carry a jail term. She told the ABC she’d go to jail rather than violate the confidentiality principle…
There has been scant coverage of Ferguson’s plight in some of the major media outlets. Free speech defender Andrew Bolt, who is Rinehart’s media commentator protege, was slow off the mark with a token reference…
It’s left to concerned citizens to fight for this important principle...
Mullins could not have made the moral framework of Eureka Street clearer - the collective must be defended, but principles not.
First to the gratuitous insult. Rather than being “slow off the mark”, I criticised Rinehart’s action on the very day I read of it:
I like Rinehart and do not understand the legal argument here, but this is not a good look for someone on the board of the company employing the journalist...
My point is that Rinehart is perfectly within her rights under the law to pursue this action, but Ferguson feels bound as a journalist not to comply. This puts her at risk of contempt of court, which can carry a jail sentence. For a major shareholder of Fairfax and board member at Channel 10 to take action which could ultimately see one of her company’s own journalists jailed is indeed a terrible look.
But Mullins misstates what is at stake. This is not an attack on free speech, for all his sneers. Rinehart’s subpoena does not question Ferguson’s freedom to say what she has. Ferguson’s freedom to speak is simply not at issue.
Nor is Rinehart seeking to force Ferguson to “reveal sources”, as Mullins suggests. Ferguson has already declared the source for her report is Rinehart’s son.
At issue is the confidentiality of Ferguson notes and the protection of her source, John Rinehart. Ferguson will not want to hand over any material which may (or may not) reveal he broke a confidentiality deal with his mother.
If journalists do not defend their sources our ability to get information is compromised. Ferguson is defending a tool of her trade, even if means protecting someone who may have broken a legally binding agreement to say nothing. And I would do the very same.
So there is a principle to defend, but it is not as grand, fundamental or ethically clear-cut as Mullins suggests. Nor do we know which way the courts will decide, if it gets that far. it is for the courts, not Rinehart, to establish whether the freedom of the press is at stake, and whether it is worth defending.
So why is Eureka Street going to town on this issue while staying silent on a far broader attack on a free press and the free speech - an attack not by an individual but by a government, and not on one journalist but all?
Well, first, of course, because Rinehart is a wicked miner and Ferguson, a Leftist journalist from Fairfax, is “one of us”.
That is not a mere jibe. Mullins himself declares:
By way of disclaimer, Adele Ferguson’s partner is a member of the board of Jesuit Communications, publisher of Eureka Street.
Second, the Gillard Government is Left-wing, out to punish the wickedly conservative Murdoch media, employer of the evil Andrew Bolt mentioned above.
Again, that is not a casual insult.
Eureka Street is not at all the defender of free speech it suddenly pretends to be. It actuallysupports limiting free speech when it is exercised by a conservative.
Eureka Street is not at all the defender of free speech it suddenly pretends to be. It actuallysupports limiting free speech when it is exercised by a conservative.
For instance, it backed the decision of the Federal Court to declare two of my columns unlawful and ban them from republication. See, Eureka Street didn’t like their tone or content. (I’d argued we should not insist on “racial” divisions, and I questioned why some so-called “white Aborigines” identified solely as Aboriginal when, I unlawfully argued, their mixed ancestry suggested they had other options open to them.)
Here is how Eureka Street reacted to my own free speech being denied not in theory but in practice:
Andrew Bolt’s article was simply an egregious example of such bad communication. It was indefensible on ethical grounds… In my judgment, the opponents of the law under which the Bolt case was brought have yet to make a persuasive argument.
Didn’t like it, so let’s ban it.
Eureka Street again, airily dismissing the fact that my free speech was indeed being denied:
Eureka Street again, airily dismissing the fact that my free speech was indeed being denied:
Some voices in the media have presented the case as a challenge to free speech in Australia — political correctness gone crazy. However, this case is not about silencing critiques of the construction of race or ethnicity, nor Bolt himself.
Spencer Zifcak of Liberty Victoria notes that a balance must be struck between ‘the right to be free of racial intolerance and discrimination on the one hand, and freedom of expression on the other.’…
In the end, as David Marr explained in the Sydney Morning Herald, freedom of speech may not be the issue at stake here. Bromberg was simply attacking lousy journalism.
Well, that’s OK then. So do I get to ban journalism I think lousy, too? Perhaps starting with Mullins’?
In fact, Eureka Street is so committed to the principle of banning speech it doesn’t like that it vanishes even its own writers:
On Thursday, Eureka Street published a commentary by Scott Stephens on the Parliamentary Apology to Stolen Generations. The article has been withdrawn. It argued that the Prime Minister’s motivation was self-serving, and his action empty rhetoric. Eureka Street, the Australian Jesuits and Jesuit Communications do not necessarily support the views expressed in our published articles. The publishers specifically disagree with the substance of this article. We apologise to those who were hurt or offended by allegations contained in it.
Eureka Street has falsely insinuated that I do not defend free speech if it is attacked by a friend.
But Eureka Street in fact does far worse. It defends only the speech of its ideological friends, and positively welcomes the silencing of its foes.
UPDATE
Reader Roman makes an excellent point, part of which I have now worked into my piece above:
Andrew, I think you are wrong in your position regarding Gina and the action she has taken. It is not up to individual citizens (whether company board members or not) to consider whether their legal actions have the potential to place another at risk of contempt of court. We all have a right to access the court system to address grievances involving other parties. It is up to the court to decide if the right to privilege of confidentiality, held by the journalist, is worthy of preservation in each case. Let the parties argue their cases in court - and let the court follow precedent, or create new case law in the process. The law does not exclude Rinehart from taking action.
They lie to survive
Andrew BoltMARCH162013(8:54am)
WHAT do you do when you end up with a government which from the Prime Minister down lies so completely, so seamlessly and so continuously?…
The 457 exercise captured [Julia Gillard’s] calculating cynicism, dishonesty and willingness to sacrifice anything—in this case, basic good policy—on the altar of her personal political survival.
The key to the decisions of the past fortnight - the assault on the 457 visa scheme, the raft of industrial law concessions to the unions and the media package - is that they appease the party and indulge the faithful but discredit the government.
Take, for instance, the new proposals to further control the media:
This proposal is bad public policy and defective administration. Labor has singularly failed to identify the exact problem such laws are to solve. It testifies, again, to the defining quality of this government - its addiction to new forms and levels of government intervention in virtually every area of public policy in the utopian delusion that more regulation is the sure path to progress and public satisfaction.
Chris Kenny says if Communications Minister Stephen Conroy wants the media to be more accurate, he should set a far better example. Among the more for-instances Kenny gives:
No journalist could consider Conroy’s period as minister without focusing on his commitment to high-quality broadband. He outlined his plans on the ABC’s Inside Business on February 10, 2008.
“What we have said is that we won’t contribute more than $4.7 billion, whether it’s a fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-home proposal,” he told Alan Kohler. “So fibre to the home has some wonderful potential but it is more costly and people have got to build the business case; they can’t expect the government’s going to give more than $4.7bn.”No doubt many took Conroy at his word, especially some of the more, shall we say, regulated media. Yet we now know he went for a National Broadband Network based on a fibre-to-the-home model and rendering that $4.7bn pledge redundant.On Lateline on September 29, 2010, Conroy said: “The government will only need to put in $27bn at most.” Fair enough; time for the media to adjust numbers - by 600 per cent.
By the way, on Lateline on August 8 last year there was an update. “The capital cost of the NBN is $37.4bn,” said the Communications Minister.
Fight these anti-speech totalitarians
Andrew BoltMARCH162013(9:15am)
Are these people insane?
The broadcaster Alan Jones could have been jailed for up to three years for labelling Lebanese Muslims ‘’vermin’’ and ‘’mongrels’’ who ‘’rape and pillage’’, under a proposed overhaul of NSW racial vilification laws…
The Jewish Board of Deputies and the NSW Community Relations Commission are pushing for a radical overhaul of the laws in submissions to a parliamentary inquiry into whether it should be easier to criminally prosecute cases of serious racial vilification…The inquiry was ordered by the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, who was concerned there has not been a prosecution since the laws began in 1989…The Jewish Board of Deputies argues there is ‘’a serious gap’’ in the law and suggests a new offence of ‘’conduct intended to harass on grounds of race’’. The change would mean criminal prosecutions could be pursued over racial harassment that involves threats, intimidation or ‘’serious racial abuse’’, whether or not a physical threat is involved.The submission argues the maximum penalties should be a fine of $27,500 or two years’ imprisonment for individuals and fines of up to $137,500 for corporations. It also says the offence should be included in the Crimes Act, be subject to a jury trial and include online abuse.
The Community Relations Commission argues for similar changes and proposes a maximum penalty of three years in jail.
Jailing people even for on-line abuse? How many jails must we build?
And have these anti-free-speech advocates considered how such laws will be used by activists and the professionally thin-skinned to silence even “good” opinion through expensive and intimidating litigation?
This crusade against free speech, so recklessly encouraged by O’Farrell without a skerrick of evidence, must be stopped.
To the Jewish groups so foolishing pushing laws which will be used against Israel’s defenders before its enemies I say this: the Holocaust happened not because Hitler was free to preach hate. It happened because none were free to preach against him.
So which of the two worst racial abusers identified in the NSW Anti-Discrimination Tribunal’s annual report should be jailed?
One involved a man with a Jewish wife who used the word Shylock when arguing with another Jew.
He apologised, but insisted he’d spoken in terms of the Shakespearean Shylock.The other was an Aboriginal woman at a golf club who had to wait to collect her pokie winnings while the bar manager served a white man. A misunderstanding, insisted the club, which has many Aboriginal members.
So many years of no warming means it’s time to rethink
Andrew BoltMARCH162013(9:39am)
Astrophysicist Dr David Whitehouse:
In retrospect, nobody predicted that in the age of global warming the annual average global temperature would remain unchanged for so long…
It is incontrovertible that the global annual average temperature of the past decade, and in some datasets the past 15 years, has not increased. Year-on-year fluctuations, and any trend over this period, are within errors of measurement. The only justifiable statistical description of the global temperature during this period is a constant. Technically, this standstill can be seen in the datasets produced by NOAA, NASA, the BEST consortium, HadCRUT3, and especially, its successor HadCRUT4. This standstill has occurred as atmospheric CO2 has increased from 370 parts per million (ppm) to 390 ppm, providing an increasing forcing factor that will raise global temperatures.Some argue that the duration of the standstill is too short to be meaningful. Thirty years is taken to be the baseline for observing climate changes and fifteen years is too short. This report argues that 15 years is not an insignificant period; what has happened to make temperatures remain constant requires an explanation. The period contains important information and should not be dismissed as having no climatic importance. The recent warming period began about 1980 after four decades of globally stable temperatures thus the years of constant temperature are about equal to years when temperatures increased. This is not a trivial observation
Calculations based on ensembles of climate models suggest prolonged standstills of about ten years can occur once every eight decades. Standstills of 15 years are much more difficult to explain. This report shows, that if we have not passed it already, we are on the threshold of global observations becoming incompatible with the consensus theory of climate change.
(Thanks to reader Jamie Spry and others.)
- 597 BC – Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and installed Zedekiah as King of Judah.
- 1190 – Around 150 Jews inside York Castle in York, England, committed mass suicide rather than be killed by a mob.
- 1926 – American scientist Robert H. Goddard (pictured)launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which flew for two-and-a-half seconds before falling to the ground.
- 1978 – Former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro was kidnapped in Rome byMario Moretti and the Red Brigades.
- 2003 – American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by anIsrael Defense Forces armored bulldozer in Rafah as she was protesting thedemolition of a house.
Events[edit]
- 597 BC – Babylonians capture Jerusalem, and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.
- 455 – Emperor Valentinian III is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers while training with the bow on the Campus Martius (Rome).
- 934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
- 1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York.
- 1244 – Over 200 Cathars are burned after the Fall of Montségur.
- 1322 – The Battle of Boroughbridge take place in the Despenser Wars.
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
- 1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
- 1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.
- 1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
- 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
- 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
- 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
- 1812 – Battle of Badajoz (March 16 – April 6) – British and Portuguese forces besieged and defeated French garrison during Peninsular War.
- 1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
- 1818 – In the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, Spanish forces defeated Chileans under José de San Martín.
- 1861 – Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who has been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
- 1864 – American Civil War: During the Red River Campaign, Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
- 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
- 1912 – Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition, left his tent to die, saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time."
- 1916 – The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
- 1924 – In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.
- 1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
- 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
- 1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and lead to a major flood in Pittsburgh.
- 1939 – From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
- 1939 – Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
- 1940 – First person killed in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, James Isbister.
- 1942 – The first V-2 rocket test launch. It exploded at lift-off.
- 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.
- 1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 are killed.
- 1950 – Communist Czechoslovakia's ministry of foreign affairs asks nuncios of Vatican to leave the country.
- 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
- 1962 – A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.
- 1966 – Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
- 1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
- 1969 – A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.
- 1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
- 1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
- 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped and later killed by his captors.
- 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.
- 1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ends the war.
- 1983 – Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
- 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later died in captivity.
- 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
- 1988 – Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
- 1988 – Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5000 people and injuring about 10000 people.
- 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three people are killed and more than 60 wounded. The attack was filmed by news crews.
- 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
- 2003 – Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman involved with the International Solidarity Movement, is killed trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being destroyed by a bulldozer in Rafah.
- 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
Births[edit]
- 1338 – Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, English son of Katherine Mortimer, Countess of Warwick (d. 1401)
- 1399 – Xuande Emperor of China (d. 1435)
- 1445 – Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, Swiss priest (d. 1510)
- 1473 – Henry IV, Duke of Saxony (d. 1541)
- 1581 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and poet (d. 1647)
- 1585 – Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1618)
- 1631 – René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)
- 1654 – Andreas Acoluthus, German scholar (d. 1704)
- 1663 – Jean-Baptiste Matho, French composer (d. 1743)
- 1750 – Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (d. 1848)
- 1751 – James Madison, American politician, 4th President of the United States (d. 1836)
- 1771 – Antoine-Jean Gros, French painter (d. 1835)
- 1773 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentinian military leader and politician, 6th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (d. 1836)
- 1774 – Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (d. 1814)
- 1789 – Francis Chesney, English general and explorer (d. 1872)
- 1789 – Georg Ohm, German physicist (d. 1854)
- 1794 – Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (d. 1881)
- 1797 – Alaric Alexander Watts, English poet and journalist (d. 1864)
- 1800 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (d. 1846)
- 1805 – Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (d. 1861)
- 1821 – Eduard Heine, German mathematician (d. 1881)
- 1822 – Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (d. 1899)
- 1823 – William Henry Monk, English organist, church musician, music editor and composer (d. 1889)
- 1834 – James Hector, Scottish geologist (d. 1907)
- 1839 – Sully Prudhomme, French poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
- 1839 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter (d. 1922)
- 1840 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese businessman (d. 1931)
- 1845 – Umegatani Tōtarō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 15th Yokozuna (d. 1928)
- 1846 – Jurgis Bielinis, Lithuanian book smuggler (d. 1918)
- 1846 – Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician (d. 1927)
- 1848 – Axel Heiberg, Norwegian diplomat, financier and patron (d. 1932)
- 1851 – Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (d. 1879)
- 1857 – Charles Harding Firth, English historian (d. 1936)
- 1859 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (d. 1906)
- 1865 – Patsy Donovan, Irish-American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
- 1869 – Willy Burmester, Germann violinist (d. 1933)
- 1869 – F. A. Forbes, Scottish author (d. 1936)
- 1871 – Hans Merensky, South African geologist and philanthropist (d. 1951)
- 1871 – Frantz Reichel, French rugby player (d. 1932)
- 1876 – Charles Halton, American actor (d. 1959)
- 1877 – Léo-Ernest Ouimet, Canadian director (d. 1972)
- 1878 – Clemens August Graf von Galen, German cardinal (d. 1946)
- 1883 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (d. 1958)
- 1884 – Eric P. Kelly, American journalist and author (d. 1960)
- 1885 – Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer and musicologist (d. 1943)
- 1885 – Emory Holloway, American author
- 1889 – Reggie Walker, South African runner (d. 1951)
- 1890 – Solomon Mikhoels, Latvian actor (d. 1948)
- 1890 – Robert Natus, Baltic German architect (d. 1950)
- 1892 – James Petrillo, American union leader (d. 1984)
- 1892 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (d. 1938)
- 1897 – Conrad Nagel, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1899 – Alberto Gainza Paz, Argentinian journalist and activist (d. 1977)
- 1901 – Edward Pawley, American actor (d. 1988)
- 1901 – Potti Sreeramulu, Indian activist (d. 1952)
- 1902 – Leon Roppolo, American clarinet player (New Orleans Rhythm Kings) (d. 1943)
- 1903 – Mike Mansfield, American politician and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to Japan (d. 2001)
- 1905 – Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress, producer, and author (d. 1977)
- 1906 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish author (d. 2009)
- 1906 – Henny Youngman, English-American violinist and comedian (d. 1998)
- 1908 – René Daumal, French author and poet (d. 1944)
- 1908 – Robert Rossen, American director, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1966)
- 1911 – Pierre Harmel, Belgian politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2009)
- 1911 – Josef Mengele, German physician and SS officer (d. 1979)
- 1912 – Pat Nixon, American educator, 39th First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- 1916 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1916 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer and businessman (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Sapru (actor), Indian actor (d. 1979)
- 1917 – Samael Aun Weor, Colombian author (d. 1977)
- 1917 – Louis C. Wyman, American politician (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1920 – John Addison, English composer (d. 1998)
- 1920 – Dorothea Binz, German SS officer (d. 1947)
- 1920 – Sid Fleischman, American author (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary and journalist (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Leo McKern, Australian-English actor (d. 2002)
- 1922 – Harding Lemay, American screenwriter and playwright
- 1924 – Beryl Davis, English-American singer (d. 2011)
- 1925 – Ervin Kassai, Hungarian basketball referee (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist (d. 2004)
- 1926 – Charles Goodell, American politician (d. 1987)
- 1926 – Jerry Lewis, American actor, singer, director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1927 – Ruby Braff, American trumpet player (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)
- 1927 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Olga San Juan, American actress and dancer (d. 2009)
- 1928 – Karlheinz Böhm, German-Austrian actor
- 1928 – Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 45th Yokozuna (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Christa Ludwig, German soprano
- 1929 – Betty Johnson, American singer (The Johnson Family Singers)
- 1929 – Nadja Tiller, Austrian-German actress
- 1930 – Tommy Flanagan, American pianist (d. 2001)
- 1931 – John Munro, Canadian politician (d. 2003)
- 1932 – Don Blasingame, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Walter Cunningham, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
- 1932 – Kurt Diemberger, Austrian mountaineer and author
- 1932 – Herbert Marx, Canadian lawyer, politician, and judge
- 1933 – Sanford I. Weill, American banker, financier, and philanthropist
- 1934 – Jean Cournoyer, Canadian politician and radio host
- 1934 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Governor-General of Canada (d. 2002)
- 1934 – Mack McInnis, American politician (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Ray Walker, American singer (The Jordanaires)
- 1935 – Teresa Berganza, Spanish soprano
- 1936 – Fred Neil, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
- 1936 – Raymond Vahan Damadian, Armenian-American inventor, invented the MRI
- 1936 – Elisabeth Volkmann, German actress and voice actor (d. 2006)
- 1937 – Amos Tversky, Israeli psychologist (d. 1996)
- 1939 – Carlos Bilardo, Argentinian footballer and coach
- 1940 – Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian director and screenwriter
- 1940 – Jan Pronk, Dutch politician
- 1940 – Keith Rowe, English guitarist (AMM)
- 1940 – Vagif Mustafazadeh, Azeri jazz pianist and composer
- 1941 – Robert Guéï, Ivorian military leader and politician, 3rd President of Côte d'Ivoire (d. 2002)
- 1941 – Chuck Woolery, American game show host
- 1942 – Roger Crozier, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1996)
- 1942 – James Soong, Chinese-Taiwanese politician, Governor of Taiwan Province
- 1942 – Jerry Jeff Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Lost Gonzo Band)
- 1943 – Ursula Goodenough, American biologist, zoologist, and author
- 1943 – Kim Mu-saeng, South Korean actor (d. 2005)
- 1944 – Andrew S. Tanenbaum, American computer scientist and author
- 1946 – Michael Basman, English chess player
- 1946 – Hubert Soudant, Dutch conductor
- 1947 – Ramzan Paskayev, Kazakh accordion player and composer
- 1947 – Baek Yoon-sik, South Korean actor
- 1947 – Trevor Hartley, English footballer and manager
- 1948 – Michael Owen Bruce, American singer-songwriter
- 1948 – Richard Desjardins, Canadian singer-songwriter and director
- 1948 – Margaret Weis, American author
- 1949 – Erik Estrada, American actor
- 1949 – Victor Garber, Canadian actor and singer
- 1949 – Elliott Murphy, American-French singer-songwriter and author
- 1949 – Joseph Pilato, American actor
- 1951 – Ray Benson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Asleep at the Wheel)
- 1951 – Erich Cviertna, Czech footballer and manager (d. 2013)
- 1951 – Joe DeLamielleure, American football player
- 1951 – Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress
- 1952 – Graham Cole, English actor
- 1952 – Alice Hoffman, American author
- 1952 – Philippe Kahn, French businessman, co-founded Fullpower Technologies
- 1952 – Scott Simon, American journalist
- 1953 – Isabelle Huppert, French actress
- 1953 – Óscar Ramírez, Peruvian terrorist
- 1953 – Richard Stallman, American computer programmer
- 1954 – Jimmy Nail, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1954 – Hollis Stacy, American golfer
- 1954 – Nancy Wilson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress (Heart)
- 1955 – Svetlana Alexeeva, Russian ice dancer and coach
- 1955 – Bruno Barreto, Brazilian director
- 1955 – Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer
- 1956 – Ozzie Newsome, American football player
- 1956 – Clifton Powell, American actor
- 1958 – Kate Worley, American author (d. 2004)
- 1959 – Sebastian Currier, American composer
- 1959 – Flavor Flav, American rapper and actor (Public Enemy)
- 1959 – Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian politician, 27th Prime Minister of Norway
- 1960 – Jenny Eclair, English actress and author
- 1960 – Duane Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1961 – Brett Kenny, Australian rugby player
- 1961 – Todd McFarlane, Canadian writer, illustrator, and businessman, founded McFarlane Toys
- 1961 – Michiru Oshima, Japanese composer and producer
- 1963 – Jimmy DeGrasso, American drummer (Megadeth, Black Star Riders, F5, Y&T, and Suicidal Tendencies)
- 1963 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (d. 2002)
- 1964 – Mark Canterbury, American wrestler
- 1964 – Patty Griffin, American singer-songwriter (Band of Joy)
- 1964 – Pascal Richard, Swiss cyclist
- 1964 – Gore Verbinski, American director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1965 – Steve Armstrong, American wrestler
- 1965 – Mark Carney, Canadian banker
- 1965 – Richard Daniel Roman, English-Spanish songwriter and producer
- 1965 – Belén Rueda, Spanish actress
- 1966 – H.P. Baxxter, German singer-songwriter (Scooter and Celebrate the Nun)
- 1967 – Tracy Bonham, American singer and violinist
- 1967 – John Darnielle, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Mountain Goats, The Extra Lens, and The Bloody Hawaiians)
- 1967 – Lauren Graham, American actress and producer
- 1968 – Ananya Khare, Indian actress
- 1968 – Trevor Wilson, American basketball player
- 1969 – Judah Friedlander, American actor and comedian
- 1969 – Aggelos Koronios, Greek basketball player and coach
- 1970 – Joakim Berg, Swedish singer-songwriter (Kent)
- 1970 – Paul Oscar, Icelandic singer-songwriter
- 1970 – Reynolds Wolf, American meteorologist and journalist
- 1971 – Alan Tudyk, American actor
- 1972 – Veiko Õunpuu, Estonian director and screenwriter
- 1972 – Velibor Radović, Serbian basketball player
- 1973 – Tim Kang, American actor
- 1973 – Vonda Ward, American boxer
- 1973 – Patrick N. Millsaps, American lawyer
- 1974 – Georgios Anatolakis, Greek footballer and politician
- 1974 – Fotini Vavatsi, Greek archer
- 1975 – Sienna Guillory, English actress
- 1976 – Blu Cantrell, American singer-songwriter
- 1976 – Abraham Núñez, Dominican baseball player
- 1976 – Paul Schneider, American actor and director
- 1976 – Nick Spano, American actor
- 1977 – Donal Óg Cusack, Irish hurler
- 1978 – Brooke Burns, American actress
- 1978 – Ayesha Dharker, Indian actress
- 1979 – Édison Méndez, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1979 – Rashad Moore, American football player
- 1979 – Leena Peisa, Finnish keyboard player and songwriter (Lordi)
- 1979 – Andrei Stepanov, Estonian footballer
- 1980 – Todd Heap, American football player
- 1980 – Felipe Reyes, Spanish basketball player
- 1981 – Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
- 1981 – Curtis Granderson, American baseball player
- 1981 – Danny Brown, American rapper
- 1981 – Yoav Ziv, Israeli footballer
- 1981 – Maher Zain, Lebanese-Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
- 1982 – Riley Cote, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1982 – Dian Sastrowardoyo, Indonesian model and actress
- 1982 – Brian Wilson, American baseball player
- 1983 – Brandon League, American baseball player
- 1983 – Stephen Drew, American baseball player
- 1983 – Vitali Gussev, Estonian footballer
- 1983 – Joe Mande, American comedian
- 1983 – Tramon Williams, American football player
- 1984 – Levi Brown, American football player
- 1984 – Hosea Gear, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Brandon Prust, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Nele-Liis Vaiksoo, Estonian singer and actress
- 1985 – Eddy Lover, Panamanian singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Joe Denly, English cricketer
- 1986 – Toney Douglas, American basketball player
- 1986 – Kenny Dykstra, American wrestler
- 1986 – T. J. Jordan, American basketball player
- 1986 – Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer
- 1986 – Daisuke Takahashi, Japanese figure skater
- 1986 – Nicole Trunfio, Australian model
- 1987 – Paw Diaz, Filipino actress
- 1987 – Tiiu Kuik, Estonian model
- 1988 – Jessica Gregg, Canadian speed skater
- 1988 – Jhené Aiko, American R&B singer
- 1988 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
- 1988 – Brett DiBiase, American wrestler and referee
- 1989 – Blake Griffin, American basketball player
- 1989 – Theo Walcott, English footballer
- 1991 – Wolfgang Van Halen, American bass player (Van Halen)
- 1992 – Brett Davern, American actor
- 1999 – Bailie Key, American artistic gymnast
Deaths[edit]
- 37 – Tiberius, Roman emperor (b. 46 BC)
- 455 – Heraclius, Roman servant
- 455 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (b. 419)
- 1021 – Heribert of Cologne, German archbishop (b. 970)
- 1072 – Adalbert of Hamburg, German archbishop (b. 1000)
- 1322 – Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1276)
- 1410 – John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, French-English admiral (b. 1373)
- 1457 – Ladislaus Hunyadi, Hungarian politician (b. 1433)
- 1485 – Anne Neville, English wife of Richard III of England (b. 1456)
- 1559 – Anthony St. Leger, English-Irish politician Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1496)
- 1649 – Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint (b. 1593)
- 1679 – John Leverett, English-American soldier and politician, 19th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1616)
- 1721 – James Craggs the Elder, English politician (b. 1657)
- 1736 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian organist and composer (b. 1710)
- 1737 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American clergyman and academic (b. 1670)
- 1738 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (b. 1666)
- 1747 – Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (b. 1690)
- 1838 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American captain and mathematician (b. 1773)
- 1888 – Hippolyte Carnot, French politician (b. 1801)
- 1890 – Princess Zorka of Montenegro (b. 1864)
- 1892 – Samuel F. Miller, American politician (b. 1827)
- 1898 – Aubrey Beardsley, English author and illustrator (b. 1872)
- 1899 – Joseph Medill, American politician, 26th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1823)
- 1903 – Roy Bean, American jurist (b. 1825)
- 1907 – John O'Leary (Fenian), Irish separatist and a leading Fenian (b. 1830)
- 1914 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1843)
- 1914 – Gaston Calmette, French journalist and newspaper editor (b.1858)
- 1926 – Sergeant Stubby, American dog (b. 1916)
- 1927 – Edward William Exshaw, English sailor (b. 1866)
- 1930 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1870)
- 1935 – John James Rickard Macleod, Scottish physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
- 1935 – Aron Nimzowitsch, Latvian-Danish chess player (b. 1886)
- 1936 – Marguerite Durand, French journalist and activist (b. 1864)
- 1937 – Alexander von Staël-Holstein, Baltic German orientalist (b. 1877)
- 1940 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
- 1945 – Simeon Price, American golfer (b. 1882)
- 1945 – Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
- 1955 – Nicolas de Staël, French-Russian painter (b. 1914)
- 1957 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor (b. 1876)
- 1961 – Václav Talich, Czech conductor, violinist and pedagogue (b. 1883)
- 1961 – Chen Geng, Chinese general (b. 1903)
- 1963 – Laura Adams Armer, American artist and writer (b. 1874)
- 1968 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American composer (b. 1895)
- 1968 – Gunnar Ekelöf, Swedish poet (b. 1907)
- 1970 – Tammi Terrell, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1971 – Thomas E. Dewey, American politician, 47th Governor of New York (b. 1902)
- 1975 – Richard W. DeKorte, American politician (b. 1936)
- 1975 – T-Bone Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1910)
- 1977 – Kamal Jumblatt, Lebanese politician (b. 1917)
- 1979 – Jean-Guy Cardinal, Canadian politician (b. 1925)
- 1979 – Lucien Démanet, French gymnast (b. 1874)
- 1979 – Jean Monnet, French economist and politician (b. 1888)
- 1980 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (b. 1898)
- 1983 – Arthur Godfrey, American actor and television host (b. 1903)
- 1983 – Fred Rose, Canadian politician (b. 1907)
- 1984 – John Hoagland, American photographer (b. 1947)
- 1985 – Eddie Shore, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1902)
- 1992 – Roger Lemelin, Canadian author and screenwriter (b. 1919)
- 1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist (b. 1903)
- 1993 – Johnny Cymbal, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1945)
- 1996 – Charlie Barnett, American actor (b. 1954)
- 1998 – Derek Barton, English-American chemist and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
- 1999 – Gratien Gélinas, Canadian actor, playwright, and director (b. 1909)
- 2000 – Thomas Ferebee, American colonel (b. 1918)
- 2000 – Michael Starr, Canadian politician (b. 1910)
- 2001 – Norma MacMillan, Canadian voice actress (b. 1921)
- 2001 – Bob Wollek, French race car driver (b. 1943)
- 2003 – Rachel Corrie, American activist (b. 1979)
- 2003 – Ronald Ferguson, English army officer, polo player, and manager (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Vilém Tauský, Czech conductor and composer (b. 1910)
- 2005 – Todd Bell, American football player (b. 1958)
- 2005 – Ralph Erskine, English architect, designed the The London Ark (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Anthony George, American actor (b. 1921)
- 2005 – Allan Hendrickse, South African politician (b. 1927)
- 2005 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (b. 1937)
- 2006 – David Feintuch, American author (b. 1944)
- 2006 – Minnie Pwerle, Australian painter (b. 1910)
- 2007 – Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (b. 1984)
- 2008 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (b. 1912)
- 2008 – Ola Brunkert, Swedish drummer (b. 1946)
- 2008 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (b. 1942)
- 2008 – John Hewer, English actor (b. 1922)
- 2008 – G. David Low, American astronaut and engineer (b. 1956)
- 2008 – Daniel MacMaster, Canadian singer (Bonham) (b. 1968)
- 2009 – Marvin Sutton, American criminal (b. 1946)
- 2011 – Richard Wirthlin, American strategist (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Trond Brænne, Norwegian actor and author (b. 1953)
- 2013 – Larcenia Bullard, American politician (b. 1947)
- 2013 – Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (b. 1939)
- 2013 – José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentinian economist (b. 1925)
- 2013 – John Marvel, American politician (b. 1926)
- 2013 – David Mills, English cricketer (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Jason Molina, American singer-songwriter (b. 1973)
- 2013 – Yadier Pedroso, Cuban baseball player (b. 1986)
- 2013 – Bobby Smith, American singer (The Spinners) (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Marina Solodkin, Russian-Israeli politician (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Jae Spears, American politician (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Frank Thornton, English actor (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- Latvian Legion Day (Latvia)
- Saint Urho's Day (Finnish community in U.S. and Canada)
- The first day of the Bacchanalia (Roman Empire)
- The day of the Book Smugglers (Lithuania)
“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”” - Acts 4:10,12
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
March 15: Morning
"Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." - 2 Timothy 2:1
Christ has grace without measure in himself, but he hath not retained it for himself. As the reservoir empties itself into the pipes, so hath Christ emptied out his grace for his people. "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." He seems only to have in order to dispense to us. He stands like the fountain, always flowing, but only running in order to supply the empty pitchers and the thirsty lips which draw nigh unto it. Like a tree, he bears sweet fruit, not to hang on boughs, but to be gathered by those who need. Grace, whether its work be to pardon, to cleanse, to preserve, to strengthen, to enlighten, to quicken, or to restore, is ever to be had from him freely and without price; nor is there one form of the work of grace which he has not bestowed upon his people. As the blood of the body, though flowing from the heart, belongs equally to every member, so the influences of grace are the inheritance of every saint united to the Lamb; and herein there is a sweet communion between Christ and his Church, inasmuch as they both receive the same grace. Christ is the head upon which the oil is first poured; but the same oil runs to the very skirts of the garments, so that the meanest saint has an unction of the same costly moisture as that which fell upon the head. This is true communion when the sap of grace flows from the stem to the branch, and when it is perceived that the stem itself is sustained by the very nourishment which feeds the branch. As we day by day receive grace from Jesus, and more constantly recognize it as coming from him, we shall behold him in communion with us, and enjoy the felicity of communion with him. Let us make daily use of our riches, and ever repair to him as to our own Lord in covenant, taking from him the supply of all we need with as much boldness as men take money from their own purse.
Evening
"He did it with all his heart and prospered." - 2 Chronicles 31:21
This is no unusual occurrence; it is the general rule of the moral universe that those men prosper who do their work with all their hearts, while those are almost certain to fail who go to their labour leaving half their hearts behind them. God does not give harvests to idle men except harvests of thistles, nor is he pleased to send wealth to those who will not dig in the field to find its hid treasure. It is universally confessed that if a man would prosper, he must be diligent in business. It is the same in religion as it is in other things. If you would prosper in your work for Jesus, let it be heart work, and let it be done with all your heart. Put as much force, energy, heartiness, and earnestness into religion as ever you do into business, for it deserves far more. The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, but he does not encourage our idleness; he loves active believers. Who are the most useful men in the Christian church? The men who do what they undertake for God with all their hearts. Who are the most successful Sabbath-school teachers? The most talented? No; the most zealous; the men whose hearts are on fire, those are the men who see their Lord riding forth prosperously in the majesty of his salvation. Whole-heartedness shows itself in perseverance; there may be failure at first, but the earnest worker will say, "It is the Lord's work, and it must be done; my Lord has bidden me do it, and in his strength I will accomplish it." Christian, art thou thus "with all thine heart" serving thy Master? Remember the earnestness of Jesus! Think what heart-work was his! He could say, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." When he sweat great drops of blood, it was no light burden he had to carry upon those blessed shoulders; and when he poured out his heart, it was no weak effort he was making for the salvation of his people. Was Jesus in earnest, and are we lukewarm?
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Hophni
[Hŏph'nī] - strong.
A son of Eli, the high priest and judge who proved unworthy of his sacred offices (1 Sam. 1:3; 2:34; 4:4-17). Hophni is always associated with his brother Phinehas. The two were partners in evil practices and brought a twice-pronounced curse upon their heads (1 Sam. 2:34; 3). Both were slain at the battle of Aphek, and this coupled with the loss of the Ark, caused the death of Eli. Both sons disgraced their priestly office in a twofold way:
I. In claiming and appropriating more than their due of the sacrifices (1 Sam. 2:13-17).
II. In their immoral actions in the Tabernacle (Amos 2:7-8).
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Today's reading: Deuteronomy 25-27, Mark 14:27-53 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Deuteronomy 25-27
1 When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. 2If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, 3 but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes. If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes....Today's New Testament reading: Mark 14:27-53
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial
27 "You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written:
"'I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.'
and the sheep will be scattered.'
28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."
29 Peter declared, "Even if all fall away, I will not."
30 "Truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "today--yes, tonight--before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times."
31 But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the others said the same....
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Today's Lent reading: Matthew 15-16 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayThat Which Defiles
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is 'devoted to God,' 6 they are not to 'honor their father or mother' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 "'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules....'"
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules....'"
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