President Bush had done a very good job, and while he was President in the Whitehouse there was hope for prosperity in the Middle East. Enter Obama and multiple stuff ups and bad policy and now a former detainee is leading a charge to upend the troubled young democracy of Iraq. And Marr is right with this one comment on the issue. The current situation shows what a good job had been done in the past. Marr has shown in the past he is willing to choose his tribes he rejects. He dissed the gay community to attack Alan Jones.
On this day in 1586 Mary Queen of Scots declared Spain to be her heir. Not everything is as you see it. Her own child inherited the kingdom and eventually became King of England too. In 1816, Lord Byron had some guests for dinner, including the poet Percy Byshe Shelley and his runaway bride Mary Shelley. They discussed the recently phenomena of animal electricity. Mary wrote Frankenstein, and few will remember Percy's greater works, although some may point to the prescient work "Revolt of Islam", "Ode to the West Wind", "Ozymandias" to name a few. David Marr has a vision of the world every bit as valid and accurate as Mary Queen of Scots declaration of inheritance.
===
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott 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 https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns to those born on this day, across the years ..
Matches
- 363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Roman forces suffering several attacks from the Persians.
- 632 – Yazdegerd III ascends to the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
- 1407 – Ming–Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.
- 1487 – Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
- 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.
- 1755 – French and Indian War: the French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
- 1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
- 1795 – First Battle of Groix otherwise known as "Cornwallis' Retreat".
- 1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
- 1816 – Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, and inspires his challenge that each guest write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.
- 1836 – The formation of the London Working Men's Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
- 1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
- 1891 – John Abbott becomes Canada's third Prime Minister.
- 1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
- 1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".
- 1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
- 1915 – Foundation of the British Women's Institute.
- 1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin win a large majority.
- 1944 – At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.
- 1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.
- 1955 – In a futile effort to topple President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some forces soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
- 1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.
- 1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
- 1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
- 1976 – Soweto uprising: a non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.
- 1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
- 1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honour.
- 1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
- 2012 – The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
Hatches
- 1139 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (d. 1155)
- 1332 – Isabella de Coucy, English daughter of Edward III of England (d. 1382)
- 1591 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Greek-Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (d. 1655)
- 1644 – Princess Henrietta of England (d. 1670)
- 1801 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1868)
- 1813 – Otto Jahn, German archaeologist and philologist (d. 1869)
- 1821 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1908)
- 1829 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909)
- 1840 – Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer (d. 1913)
- 1885 – Erich Jacoby, Baltic German architect (d. 1941)
- 1890 – Stan Laurel, English-American actor, singer, director, and screenwriter (d. 1965)
- 1912 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician (d. 1998)
- 1916 – John Young, Scottish actor (d. 1996)
- 1929 – Pauline Yates, English actress
- 1934 – Jane Henson, American puppeteer (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Billy "Crash" Craddock, American singer
- 1946 – Mark Ritts, American actor, puppeteer, and producer (d. 2009)
- 1960 – Peter Sterling, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
- 1968 – James Patrick Stuart American actor
- 1971 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper, producer, and actor (Digital Underground, Outlawz, and Thug Life) (d. 1996)
- 1994 – Aarya Ambekar, Indian singer
Despatches
- 1397 – Philip of Artois, Count of Eu (b. 1358)
- 1468 – Jean Le Fevre de Saint-Remy, Burgundian chronicler (b. 1395)
- 1858 – John Snow, English physician (b. 1813)
- 1902 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician (b. 1841)
- 1930 – Ezra Fitch, American lawyer and businessman, co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1866)
- 1930 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor, co-invented the gyrocompass (b. 1860)
- 1959 – George Reeves, American actor and director (b. 1914)
- 1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American engineer (b. 1912)
REPETITION IS THE KEY
Tim Blair – Monday, June 16, 2014 (2:43pm)
Like many of his ABC comrades, Radio National host Jonathan Green yearned for Barack Obama to humiliate Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Writing at the ABC’s Drum site, Green even offered the US President some advice ahead of last week’s meeting with the PM:
Barack, you might like to try this as an opening gambit: “Tony, there are no jobs on a dead planet.” It might help break the ice, it might not. It’s entirely possible that our PM might just blink uncomprehendingly at first mention, but as with any decent slogan, repetition is the key, so keep nagging away, again and again until you think the thing is so worn with use that it might fall apart at the softest touch. Then say it again.
Bear in mind, please, that Green is no teenage leftist idiot. He’s a retirement-age leftist idiot living off your taxes who recently bought a $1.4 million house in inner Melbourne. Let’s imagine how Green’s suggestion might have worked if it had actually been adopted by the US president …
Continue reading 'REPETITION IS THE KEY'LIES LOVED
Tim Blair – Monday, June 16, 2014 (2:28pm)
A friend recently joined the public relations arm of a major Australian energy company. She arrived at the job with a sound knowledge of all the major energy issues and upcoming projects.
What she didn’t expect, however, was the sheer ferocity and underhanded tactics of anti-energy activists. “They just straight-out lie,” she says. “They make things up. They put lies all over Twitter. They’re incredible.”
Continue reading 'LIES LOVED'JOY DIVISION
Tim Blair – Monday, June 16, 2014 (5:27am)
Many Muslims slaughtered in Iraq:
Gruesome photos posted online Sunday by an Al Qaeda splinter group show the summary executions of dozens of captive Iraqi soldiers in the group’s attack on a city in central Iraq and are believed to be authentic, military officials have acknowledged.The release of the images by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, came amid violence elsewhere in Iraq. A string of explosions rocked Badghad Sunday, killing at least 15, according to the Associated Press. Earlier in the day, Agence France-Presse reported six people were killed when a recruitment center in central Iraq for volunteer fighters was hit by mortar rounds.
Wissam Haddad, the head of Sydney’s al-Risalah Islamic Centre, sums up local reaction to Iraq’s bloodshed:
“There’s a feeling of joy.”
Shorten accused
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (7:40pm)
Claimed:
===BILL Shorten became directly involved in elections of the troubled Health Services Union when he was a senior member of the Rudd government in 2009 by donating $5000 to a candidate’s campaign, it was alleged at the royal commission into union corruption today.
Marco Bolano, a key ally of HSU corruption whistleblower Kathy Jackson, said he was “stunned” when he was told Mr Shorten was contributing to his campaign because the now federal Labor leader had been a supporter of his opponent.
When Mr Bolano asked “why on earth” Mr Shorten would pay the money, he said his campaign manager Stephen Donnelly told him: “He’s having a bet both ways”.
The Labor leader today denied the allegation…
Mr Bolano said he wouldn’t know if the alleged $5000 from Mr Shorten came from “some fund” or Mr Shorten personally…
Mr Bolano said Mr Feeney arranged for Mr Donnelly, his chief of staff, to be Mr Bolano’s campaign manager for the 2009 HSU election.
He had learned afterwards that the tobacco company Philip Morris had contributed to his HSU election campaign and he was “perplexed” why a cigarette maker would want to contribute to the campaign of a health union election.
Just one week in the world of Islam. What is wrong with this faith?
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (6:42pm)
What the hell is the problem with Islam? In the past week..
In Kenya:
In Nigeria:
===In Kenya:
At least 34 people have been killed after unidentified armed men stormed the coastal city of Mpeketoni, setting hotels, restaurants, banks and government offices on fire and spraying bullets in streets.
Kenyan army spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir ... blamed al-Shabaab, Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked militant group… “They were shouting in Somali and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” he added, meaning “God is great”, in Arabic.
In Nigeria:
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have reportedly kidnapped 20 women from a nomadic settlement in north-east Nigeria near the town of Chibok, where the Islamic militants abducted nearly 300 girls in April, most of whom are still missing.In Iraq:
Sunni Islamist militants claimed on Sunday that they had massacred hundreds of captive Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces, posting grisly pictures of a mass execution in Tikrit as evidence and warning of more killing to come.In Syria:
The Al-Qaeda-breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria has prevented food and medical supplies from reaching some neighborhoods in an eastern Syrian city, an activist group said Friday.In Spain:
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ... an offensive by ISIS in eastern Syria against rival Islamic rebel factions has killed more than 640 people and uprooted at least 130,000 since the end of April.
Spanish police arrested eight people in a pre-dawn raid in Madrid on Monday, breaking up a jihadist recruitment network led by a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, the government said…In Belgium:
Spain’s government has said it fears battle-hardened Islamist fighters may return to Spain from Syria… Spain this year marked the 10th anniversary of the March 11, 2004 Al Qaeda-inspired bombing of four packed commuter trains in Madrid, which killed 191 people.
The fourth person to die after a gunman opened fire on the Jewish Museum in Brussels was to be buried in a Muslim cemetery in Morocco.In Indonesia:
Alexandre Strens, whose mother is Jewish and father a Muslim Berber, was to be buried near his grandparents’ graves in the cemetery in Taza, north-east Morocco… A suspect, Mehdi Nemmouche, was arrested in Marseille, southern France, 11 days ago ...
Radical Islamists in Indonesia have been celebrating and swearing allegiance to ISIS on line, raising concerns that more potential terrorists will be attracted to the conflicts in Iraq and Syria… Jakarta-based terrorism expert Sidney Jones says Indonesians are known to be fighting in Syria, and that Indonesians attracted to ISIS are more radical than the Bali bombers.In Sudan:
The retired Libyan general Khalifa Heftar who is leading the military campaign dubbed as ‘Operation Dignity’ against Islamist militias accused Sudan directly of providing aid to these groups… Heftar says that these militias have wreaked havoc in the North African nation.In China:
China today sentenced three people to death over a deadly attack at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square last October, state television reported, an incident blamed by the government on Islamist militants....In Australia:
Five people were killed and 40 hurt when a car ploughed into a crowd at the northern edge of Tiananmen Square and burst into flames…
All of those sentenced appeared to have ethnic Uighur names. Xinjiang is the traditional home of the mostly Muslim Uighurs, and China has blamed previous attacks on separatists… China has been on edge since a suicide bombing last month killed 39 people at a market in Urumqi. In March, 29 people were stabbed to death at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.
ON a hot summer’s day earlier this year, a beautiful young Pakistani girl named Amina stood in the living room of her western Sydney home, listening in horror as her father explained how he planned to murder her.In Britain:
“I am going to kill you now, right here!” he shouted at the 16-year-old. “And no one will say anything about what I do to you. I am too powerful in the community.” Amina’s parents had promised her to a man 13 years her senior and she had made the mistake of refusing to marry him…
For years, child marriage in this country has been hidden under layers of culture and tradition in tight-knit communities… Then came news of a 12-year-old girl who was “married” in January to a 26-year-old Lebanese university student in an Islamic ceremony at the girl’s home in NSW’s Hunter Valley, and the layers of secrecy began to peel away.
The Prime Minister[’s] .... stance appears to be a direct response to the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal which revealed Islamist extremism in schools in Birmingham…In Israel:
The Trojan Horse scandal found some schools had enforced “a culture of fear and intimidation”, with Ofsted’s chief inspector for schools for England Sir Micheal Wilshaw, adding head teachers had been “marginalised or forced out of their jobs” in an “organised campaign to target certain schools"…
Inspectors found boys and girls had been segregated and were told Christian celebrations including Christmas had been scrapped while Muslim festivals went ahead. At one school teachers told pupils they didn’t believe in evolution...
This past Thursday night, three Jewish teenagers — one of whom is a dual American/Israeli citizen — were abducted on the West Bank. The Israelis are certain that Hamas is responsible…
For the moment, we can also observe the reaction of the Palestinian Authority, or the Palestinian authorities. Via the Times of Israel, we learn that the Fatah Facebook page features the image below.
Obama fled Iraq - and the terrorists moved in
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (5:09pm)
Barack Obama pulled out the last US forces in Iraq in December 2011 and declared the war had been won:
===But many Iraqis wanted those forces to stay, reports Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter who was based in Iraq for three years:
We’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war, not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making.
The leaders of all the major Iraqi parties had privately told American commanders that they wanted several thousand military personnel to remain, to train Iraqi forces and to help track down insurgents. The commanders told me that Maliki, too, said that he wanted to keep troops in Iraq. But he argued that the long-standing agreement that gave American soldiers immunity from Iraqi courts was increasingly unpopular; parliament would forbid the troops to stay unless they were subject to local law.Look what’s happened since Obama withdrew US troops:
President Obama, too, was ambivalent about retaining even a small force in Iraq. For several months, American officials told me, they were unable to answer basic questions in meetings with Iraqis—like how many troops they wanted to leave behind—because the Administration had not decided. “We got no guidance from the White House,” Jeffrey told me. “We didn’t know where the President was. Maliki kept saying, ‘I don’t know what I have to sell.’ “ At one meeting, Maliki said that he was willing to sign an executive agreement granting the soldiers permission to stay, if he didn’t have to persuade the parliament to accept immunity. The Obama Administration quickly rejected the idea. “The American attitude was: Let’s get out of here as quickly as possible,” Sami al-Askari, the Iraqi member of parliament, said.
A war that was indeed won was then lost.
If it’s good enough for Kelly, why is it a gaffe for Abbott?
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (12:20pm)
A shocking gaffe. Canadians must be horrified. Why is this woman allowed to host Insiders?
Or can we all agree the “Canadia” issue was indeed just one of those wild anti-Abbott media beat-ups?
(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
===Or can we all agree the “Canadia” issue was indeed just one of those wild anti-Abbott media beat-ups?
(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
Can we just get on with cutting the spending?
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (12:15pm)
Labor was too happy to spend, and is now to happy to stop the Liberals from saving. Mind you, the Liberals haven’t yet put some cuts to the Parliament:
===The federal budget could be pushed further into the red with up to a billion dollars of proposed spending cuts and revenue-raising measures due to start on or soon after July 1 facing delays.Laura Tingle:
A week after his first budget, Treasurer Joe Hockey lashed Labor for blocking up to $40 billion in savings and warned the Australian economy could ‘’fall apart’’.
But at least 15 measures requiring legislation have not even been introduced to Parliament.
The measures face an uncertain future, with the current Labor-Greens-controlled Senate vowing to block some key savings - which are increasingly likely to not even come to a vote before July 1 - and the Palmer United Party threatening to play hard ball over measures such as the so-called ‘’petrol tax’’ when it takes a large share of the balance of power after July 1.
The fate of $30 billion of budget savings remains unclear ahead of the last fortnight of parliamentary sittings before the new Senate is installed, with over $8 billion of cuts due to start on July 1 still to be legislated....(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
This is because, beyond a range of signature policies which are expected to be rejected by both the current and new Senate – including the Medicare payment and changes to pensions – there is uncertainty over other cuts because the government is yet to introduce law, so non-government parties are reserving their voting positions… Beyond the lack of legislation to consider, no party wants to deal itself out of negotiations by declaring its hand on all budget measures.
Their supporters are on our streets
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (8:55am)
In Iraq:
(Via Tim Blair and with thanks to reader Steve.)
===In Australia:
Sunni Islamist militants claimed on Sunday that they had massacred hundreds of captive Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces, posting grisly pictures of a mass execution in Tikrit as evidence and warning of more killing to come…
The group’s announcement was made in a series of gruesome photographs uploaded to an ISIS Twitter feed and on websites late on Saturday night. Some showed insurgents, many wearing black masks, lining up at the edges of what looked like shallow mass graves and apparently firing their weapons into young men who had their hands bound behind their backs and were packed closely together in large groups.
The photographs showed what appeared to be seven massacre sites, although several of them may have been different views of the same sites…
The militants’ captions seemed tailor-made to ignite anger and fear among Shiites. “The filthy Shiites are killed in the hundreds,” one read.
The head of the al-Risalah Islamic Centre in Sydney, ... Wissam Haddad, said Muslims were rejoicing at ISIS’s stunning gains.I believe our immigration policy has not been careful enough to screen out danger.
“There’s a feeling of joy,’’ Mr Haddad told The Weekend Australian.
(Via Tim Blair and with thanks to reader Steve.)
The US failure wasn’t going into Iraq but leaving it
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (8:23am)
Leftists gloat the the invasion of Iraq by terrorist forces proves George W Bush was wrong to topple Saddam Hussein. The ABC’s AM this morning covered this theory as if it were self-evidently true.
War historian Max Boot explains why is isn’t - and the real US failure was to pull out before the gains were secured:
===War historian Max Boot explains why is isn’t - and the real US failure was to pull out before the gains were secured:
Black-clad fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as Al Qaeda in Iraq has rebranded itself, stormed into Mosul last week and seized control....Foreign Minister Julie Bishop won’t criticise Obama - but neither does she deny he pulled out of Iraq too soon:
ISIS, as the name implies, has spread across the border into Syria, where it has been showing increasing strength amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, in no small part because the United States has done so little to aid the non-jihadist opposition to Bashar al-Assad....
Critics of the Iraq war affix blame to President George W. Bush’s decision to invade in 2003. But there is no guarantee that, even absent American intervention, Saddam Hussein would have had any more luck staying in power than other Arab despots. A civil war might well have broken out in Iraq anyway, as has been the case in Syria and Libya.
It is true that Bush’s mismanagement from 2003 to 2007 aggravated the situation… The “surge,” however, turned the tide and created an opening for a more stable and democratic Iraq. Al Qaeda in Iraq was decimated in 2007-08… Violence fell by more than 90 percent, and Iraqi politics began to function.
But that tenuous calm started to unravel the minute that U.S. troops pulled out at the end of 2011.
Freed of effective American oversight, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave full vent to his Shiite sectarian tendencies… Fearing that they no longer had a place in Iraqi politics, many Sunnis welcomed back ISIS as their defenders. The Iraqi military, in turn, was unable to effectively combat the growing terrorist threat because it had been deprived of American military support and because Maliki stuffed its senior ranks with incompetent party hacks beholden to him… Many soldiers now lack the confidence that they are fighting for Iraqi national interests rather than for a sectarian Shiite agenda…
It is hard to know for sure, but odds are Iraq would have continued making progress if at least 10,000 American military advisers were still present…
So why aren’t U.S. troops still there? ... Obama did not try very hard to achieve a Status of Forces Agreement. He waited to start the negotiations until the middle of 2011 even though the last round of talks in 2008 took a year; he leaked word that, even if an agreement were reached, the United States would send only a tiny force of fewer than 5,000 soldiers that was hardly worth the trouble; he insisted that the Iraqi parliament would have to approve the accord even though Iraqi leaders told their American counterparts this was unlikely and unnecessary; he refused to get directly involved in the negotiations; and then he pulled the plug on the talks when they hit their first major obstacle. Obama’s heart just wasn’t in it. ...
In hindsight, the pullout from Iraq looks increasingly like the pullout from Vietnam a generation before.... Obama has helped restart the war.
(Thanks to reader doc molloy.)
Not all divided loyalties involve just soccer
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (8:06am)
I HAVE a secret that horrifies my sons. But I used to think it really more a joke than a warning.
See, I barrack for Holland. I can’t even rule out backing Holland against Australia in the World Cup on Thursday.
This appals my boys. After all, my parents were Dutch but I was born here. Where’s my loyalty?
I can rationalise some of this. I was a bit solitary growing up, and having saved my odd-job money for years, took myself to Holland at 17 and found there an unconditional love and acceptance.
And why should my divided loyalty hurt anyone else? Where else will Holland clash with Australia but in sport?
(Read full article here.)
===See, I barrack for Holland. I can’t even rule out backing Holland against Australia in the World Cup on Thursday.
This appals my boys. After all, my parents were Dutch but I was born here. Where’s my loyalty?
I can rationalise some of this. I was a bit solitary growing up, and having saved my odd-job money for years, took myself to Holland at 17 and found there an unconditional love and acceptance.
And why should my divided loyalty hurt anyone else? Where else will Holland clash with Australia but in sport?
(Read full article here.)
Abbott-hate is blinding journalists
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (7:45am)
MANY journalists despise Tony Abbott. And, boy, have these past two weeks proved their hatred corrupts their reporting.
Take the following examples from the extraordinary coverage of the Prime Minister’s trip to Europe and North America.
NIGEL NO-FRIENDS
SOME TV outlets pounced on footage of Abbott standing on his assigned spot at a photo call for the D-Day commemorations — a metre to the side of other leaders.
Gloated ABC Insiders host Fran Kelly: “Just a little on the outer.”
It was this which prompted Labor foreign affairs spokesman Tanya Plibersek to mock Abbott as “Nigel No-friends”.
In fact, the full tape — not shown on the ABC — shows Abbott flanked seconds later by other latecomers, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko who chats with him.
CHANNEL 9’s Laurie Oakes announced Abbott had blundered by cancelling meetings with “the most important economic policy figures in Washington”.
(Read full article here.)
===Take the following examples from the extraordinary coverage of the Prime Minister’s trip to Europe and North America.
NIGEL NO-FRIENDS
SOME TV outlets pounced on footage of Abbott standing on his assigned spot at a photo call for the D-Day commemorations — a metre to the side of other leaders.
Gloated ABC Insiders host Fran Kelly: “Just a little on the outer.”
It was this which prompted Labor foreign affairs spokesman Tanya Plibersek to mock Abbott as “Nigel No-friends”.
In fact, the full tape — not shown on the ABC — shows Abbott flanked seconds later by other latecomers, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko who chats with him.
RUDE ABBOTT
CHANNEL 9’s Laurie Oakes announced Abbott had blundered by cancelling meetings with “the most important economic policy figures in Washington”.
(Read full article here.)
So why is Labor still forcing us to pay a tax it can’t defend?
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (7:34am)
Labor is forcing us to pay a carbon tax it says may not be necessary - but which it refused to repeal:
===Mr Butler said if the full carbon tax package was repealed by the Senate, as seems likely, “then we’ll obviously as an opposition have to take stock and over the next year or two build an alternative policy arrangement to take to the next election’’…The Australian describes Labor’s climate contortions:
Mr Butler was yesterday asked during an interview on the Sky News Australian Agenda program whether Labor was going to come up with an alternative to an ETS as its policy for the next election. Mr Butler said: “I’m not going to indicate one way or the other.’’
Having dropped a carbon price when it promised to introduce one, and then delivered a carbon tax when it promised not to, it went to the last election promising to “terminate” the very carbon tax it is now refusing to repeal because the Coalition plans to replace it with “direct action” rather than an ETS. Yet now we learn its commitment to an ETS is wobbly. This will make it increasingly difficult for voters to trust Labor on climate policy.
I’d have sued Gillard, former AWU boss says
Andrew Bolt June 16 2014 (7:25am)
Of course - and it’s no wonder Julia Gillard left Slater & Gordon once her secret work for her boyfriend was exposed:
===JULIA Gillard and her former employer Slater & Gordon would have been sued over the AWU slush fund scandal if the union had known about it at the time, according to a document with the Victoria Police Fraud Squad.But Labor’s media mates still see no evil, hear no evil...
In a formal witness statement, obtained by The Australian late on Friday after a bout in the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne, former AWU national secretary Ian Cambridge told police he would also have taken his serious concerns about the legal conduct to the professional disciplinary body for solicitors, the Law Society.
Mr Cambridge, now a commissioner for Fair Work Australia, told police he was in charge of the AWU at the time, but neither he nor other union officials had knowledge of Ms Gillard’s role in giving legal advice to help her boyfriend set up secret slush fund the AWU Workplace Reform Association, which operated in the 1990s.
Mr Cambridge was unaware until 2012, when The Australian published a confidential transcript of a 1995 Slater & Gordon interview with Ms Gillard, that the former prime minister gave key legal advice and wrote to West Australian authorities to help start the fund for Bruce Wilson, who was her boyfriend and the Victorian head of the AWU at the time....
Mr Cambridge also expressed concern over the purchase of a Kerr Street, Fitzroy, property with slush fund money, and help from the law firm and Ms Gillard in 1993. He said it was wrong that the property was sold in 1996 with more than $200,000 dispersed without AWU knowledge.
“I am unable to understand how Slater & Gordon, who were then acting for the Victoria branch of the AWU, could have permitted the use of funds which were obviously taken from the union, in the purchase of a private property of this nature … without seeking and obtaining proper authority from the AWU,” he says.
Also on Insiders, Marr clears Julia Gillard of any wrongdoing over the AWU affair:
THE case against Gillard has now, as I understand it, been stated before the royal commission. There is no evidence that money from the slush fund was used on her house.Evidence to royal commission from Wayne Hem, former AWU employee:
(BRUCE Wilson) took a wad of notes out of his pocket and he wrote on a piece of paper a bank account number. He handed me the cash and the piece of paper and asked me to deposit the cash into the bank account. He then wrote Julia Gillard on the piece of paper and handed it back to me. I asked him how much money there was. He said $5000. I then verified that by counting it out in front of him … I (went to the bank) and deposited the money into the bank account as requested.Evidence of Athol James, retired builder who did renovation work at Gillard’s house:
DURING the work I would deal with Ms Gillard in relation to any payment for the completed work. I’m certain she said Bruce (Wilson) was paying for it. I am certain I saw Bruce hand Ms Gillard a large amount of cash on two occasions. Ms Gillard said to me that as Bruce brought her the cash she would pay me by cheque.Evidence of Ralph Blewitt, self-confessed AWU fraudster:
AS I entered the house Ms Gillard was in the front room ... I went through the corridor ... Bruce Wilson then asked me to pay the tradesman the sum of $7000. I had more than $7000 cash in my possession from the (slush fund) account ... I then gave $7000 cash to the tradesman.
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Things do not always go as expected, but if we hold on and have faith, we will see that there is a plan... And it will be better than we could have ever expected...
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Supercell thunderstorm in Cuming County Nebraska yesterday. This beast started producing CGs like crazy, so I pulled over and mounted the camera on my tripod and stopped down to f/22, 2.5 sec, ISO 100. Locked the shutter down and watched the CG barrage unfold. This is a stack of two images about 9 seconds apart.
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ɐɥɐɥɐɥ... spuodsǝɹ oɥʍ ǝǝs oʇ ƃuıɥɔʇɐʍ ǝq ןןıʍ I ˙snʇɐʇs ɹnoʎ oʇ ǝʇsɐd puɐ ʎdoɔ sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ noʎ ɟI...ʇsod ı ʇɐɥʍ oʇ uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ʎɐd spuǝıɹɟ ʎɯ ɟo ʎuɐɯ ʍoH
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Molokini Crater, Hawaii, USA
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Cancun Mexico
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Larry Pickering
THE WEST SET TO FUEL SYRIA’S FIRE
Obama and Cameron are preparing to arm rebels in Syria amid claims of chemical weapons being used by the Assad government.
Interfering in other countries’ civil wars has only produced life-costly disasters and makes no more sense than if the Arab world had interfered in the US civil war.
The West is a slow leaner.
While Iraqi civilians pray to Allah for another Saddam Hussein strongman to quell worsening tribal unrest, Obama is now planning to rid the Arab world of Syria’s strongman, Bashar al-Assad.
Libya’s strongman, Muammar Gaddafi, was brutally murdered at the behest of the West and a UN endorsed, and NATO activated, “No Fly Zone” yet the jihadist rebels it assisted promptly murdered four US diplomats in Benghazi.
Do we really believe those we try to assist like us?
Afghanistan’s Taliban is now emboldened, more active, and producing more opium, than when we went there to destroy it.
Al Queda has fragmented to North Africa, successfully establishing cells in every Western country.
The West gave comfort to Egypt’s Arab spring offensive only to see the Muslim Brotherhood take over. The “Brotherhood” was the creator of the terrorist organisation Hamas and has been linked to many political assassinations.
The Brotherhood gains broad acceptance by assisting the poor in the same way as did Chicago’s Al Capone and Colombia’s Pablo Escobar. It's a common tactic.
Obama realises the rebellious movement in Syria is backed by Al Queda which is attracted to any form of rebellion in the Middle East.
But, he says, we will only arm those who are not Al Queda.
“Hands up all those who have Al Queda links! Okay, now you guys aren’t allowed to shoot these weapons we give you. Promise?”
Crumbs are Western leaders really that stupid? Yep!
Syria’s Assad is militarily backed by Russia and Iran. Increased assistance from both is certain if rebels are armed by the West.
Arming disjointed rebel rabble (who have committed worse Islamic inspired atrocities than Assad's regime) will lead to a dangerous international tension.
All instances of interference by the West have left gaping holes for Al Queda jihadists to fill, and we eventually pay in civilian lives.
Australia is finally learning what Europe has already learnt: Islam, in all its forms, is an ideological rabble of tribal bastardry and it is impossible to placate it or confront it.
We should leave it to its own decadent devices... certainly not import it by picking sides in its wars.
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Do you start your day with a cup of coffee or another caffeinated drink? You may be protecting your brain from memory loss, or even helping to stave off Alzheimer’s disease. In animal studies, mice given the equivalent of 3 cups of coffee were able to form new memories more quickly after a trauma than uncaffeinated mice. And in an even more promising 2012 study, older adults with mild cognitive impairment who regularly drank coffee were far less likely to progress to full blown Alzheimer’s disease than those who didn’t. Past studies have also shown that daily coffee drinkers have reduced risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer! Share this post if you love coffee, and use the link below to learn more.
Read more: http://bit.ly/10gFcrc
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"As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie.
In Lying, bestselling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie. He focuses on “white” lies—those lies we tell for the purpose of sparing people discomfort—for these are the lies that most often tempt us. And they tend to be the only lies that good people tell while imagining that they are being good in the process."
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"In a passionate argument for U.S. involvement in Syria, Anthony Cordesman, a security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote Friday that "the ‘discovery’ that Syria used chemical weapons might be a political ploy."
The phrase was in an article that described strong strategic and humanitarian reasons for involvement in the crisis, particularly the recent involvement of the Lebanese group Hezbollah on the side of Assad."- excerpt from article
"Political ploys aka....diversion purposes, as well." - comment, Allyson Christy
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=002_1371269929#ymMItEKYZmpETiKb.99
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TODAY’S QUIZ ………………
Question : What’s the difference between the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) - and Rudd/Gillard’s policy of reversing the Coalition’s policies on border protection ?
Answer : More people have arrive on unauthorized boats (44,159) since Labor rolled back the Coalition’s policies - than what the official capacity of the SCG is (44,002 people).
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download at http://
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“A problem is a chance for you to do your best." - Duke Ellington
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She Cant Fall Asleep
Like us for more 7 Second Videos
Subscribe to us on youtube for 7sec compilations:
www.youtube.com/7secvids
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Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983, From world over, he received letters from his fans, One of which conveyed: Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease?
To this, Arthur Ashe replied :
“The world over 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals,When I was holding a cup I never asked God ‘Why me?’. And today in Pain I should not be asking God ‘Why me?’
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- 632 – The final king of the Sasanian Empire of Iran,Yazdegerd III, took the throne at the age of eight.
- 1407 – During the Ming–Hồ War, the Chinese Ming armies captured Hồ Quý Ly and his sons, thus ending the Vietnamese Hồ dynasty.
- 1846 – Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was elected asPius IX (pictured), and he would become the longest-reigning electedpope in the history of the Catholic Church.
- 1958 – Imre Nagy and other leaders of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956 were executed following secret trials.
- 1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival rock festival, the venue for the first major American performances by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, and Ravi Shankar, began in Monterey, California.
Events[edit]
- 363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Roman forces suffering several attacks from the Persians.
- 632 – Yazdegerd III ascends to the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
- 1407 – Ming–Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.
- 1487 – Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
- 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.
- 1745 – British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.
- 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the French Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia (Old Style).
- 1746 – War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
- 1755 – French and Indian War: the French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
- 1774 – Foundation of Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
- 1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
- 1795 – First Battle of Groix otherwise known as "Cornwallis' Retreat".
- 1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
- 1816 – Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, and inspires his challenge that each guest write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.
- 1836 – The formation of the London Working Men's Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
- 1846 – The Papal conclave of 1846 concludes. Pope Pius IX is elected Pope beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
- 1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
- 1858 – The Battle of Morar takes place during the Indian Mutiny.
- 1871 – The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to studytheology).
- 1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England kills 183 children.
- 1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson's "Switchback Railway", opens in New York's Coney Island amusement park.
- 1891 – John Abbott becomes Canada's third Prime Minister.
- 1897 – A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
- 1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
- 1903 – Roald Amundsen commences the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage, leaving Oslo, Norway.
- 1904 – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
- 1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".
- 1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
- 1911 – A 772 gram stony meteorite strikes the earth near Kilbourn, Wisconsin damaging a barn.
- 1915 – Foundation of the British Women's Institute.
- 1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin win a large majority.
- 1924 – The Whampoa Military Academy is founded.
- 1925 – The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the Soviet Union, Artek, is established.
- 1930 – Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR.
- 1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed.
- 1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français).
- 1940 – A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.
- 1944 – At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.
- 1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.
- 1955 – In a futile effort to topple President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some forces soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
- 1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.
- 1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
- 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
- 1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival begins
- 1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
- 1976 – Soweto uprising: a non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.
- 1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
- 1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
- 1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
- 2000 – Israel complies with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 22 years after its issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel does so, except the disputed Shebaa farms.
- 2010 – Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.
- 2012 – China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts – including the first female Chinese astronaut, Liu Yang – to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
- 2012 – The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
Births[edit]
- 1139 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (d. 1155)
- 1332 – Isabella de Coucy, English daughter of Edward III of England (d. 1382)
- 1514 – John Cheke, English scholar (d. 1557)
- 1583 – Axel Oxenstierna, Swedish politician, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (d. 1654)
- 1591 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Greek-Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (d. 1655)
- 1606 – Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall, Irish soldier (d. 1675)
- 1612 – Murad IV, Ottoman sultan (d. 1640)
- 1613 – John Cleveland, English poet (d. 1658)
- 1633 – Jean de Thévenot, French linguist and botanist (d. 1667)
- 1644 – Princess Henrietta of England (d. 1670)
- 1713 – Meshech Weare, American farmer, lawyer, and politician, 1st Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1786)
- 1738 – Mary Katherine Goddard, American publisher (d. 1816)
- 1754 – Salawat Yulayev, Russian poet (d. 1800)
- 1792 – John Linnell, English painter (d. 1882)
- 1801 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1868)
- 1806 – Edward Davy, English physician and chemist (d. 1885)
- 1813 – Otto Jahn, German archaeologist and philologist (d. 1869)
- 1820 – Athanase Josué Coquerel, Dutch-French theologian (d. 1875)
- 1821 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1908)
- 1826 – Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (d. 1897)
- 1829 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909)
- 1836 – Wesley Merritt, American general (d. 1910)
- 1837 – Ernst Laas, German philosopher (d. 1885)
- 1838 – Frederic Archer, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1901)
- 1838 – Cushman Kellogg Davis, American lieutenant and politician, 7th Governor of Minnesota (d. 1900)
- 1840 – Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer (d. 1913)
- 1857 – Arthur Arz von Straußenburg, Austrian-Hungarian general (d. 1935)
- 1858 – Gustaf V of Sweden (d. 1950)
- 1862 – Olaf Frydenlund, Norwegian target shooter (d. 1947)
- 1866 – Germanos Karavangelis, Greek bishop (d. 1935)
- 1874 – Arthur Meighen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1960)
- 1880 – Otto Eisenschiml, Austrian-American chemist and author (d. 1963)
- 1881 – Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter, costume designer, and illustrator (d. 1962)
- 1882 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)
- 1885 – Erich Jacoby, Baltic German architect (d. 1941)
- 1888 – Peter Stoner, American mathematician and astronomer (d. 1980)
- 1890 – Stan Laurel, English-American actor, singer, director, and screenwriter (d. 1965)
- 1894 – Norman Kerry, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1896 – Murray Leinster, American author (d. 1976)
- 1897 – Elaine Hammerstein, American actress (d. 1948)
- 1897 – Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1902 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
- 1902 – George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist (d. 1984)
- 1903 – Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)
- 1907 – Jack Albertson, American actor and singer (d. 1981)
- 1909 – Archie Carr, American biologist (d. 1987)
- 1910 – Juan Velasco Alvarado, Peruvian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (d. 1977)
- 1912 – Albert Chartier, Canadian illustrator (d. 2004)
- 1912 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician (d. 1998)
- 1915 – John Tukey, American mathematician (d. 2000)
- 1916 – Hank Luisetti, American basketball player (d. 2002)
- 1916 – John Young, Scottish actor (d. 1996)
- 1917 – Phaedon Gizikis, Greek general and politician, President of Greece (d. 1999)
- 1917 – Katharine Graham, American publisher (d. 2001)
- 1917 – Aurelio Lampredi, Italian engineer (d. 1989)
- 1917 – Irving Penn, American photographer (d. 2009)
- 1920 – John Howard Griffin, American journalist (d. 1980)
- 1920 – Isabelle Holland, Swiss-American author (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Raymond Lemieux, Canadian chemist (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Indian singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1989)
- 1920 – José López Portillo, Mexican politician, 31st President of Mexico (d. 2004)
- 1922 – Ilmar Kullam, Estonian basketball player and coach (d. 2011)
- 1923 – Ron Flockhart, Scottish race car driver (d. 1962)
- 1924 – Faith Domergue, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1924 – Lucky Thompson, American saxophonist (d. 2005)
- 1925 – Jean d'Ormesson, French author
- 1925 – Otto Muehl, Austrian painter (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemalan general and politician, 26th President of Guatemala
- 1927 – Tom Graveney, English cricketer
- 1927 – Herbert Lichtenfeld, German author and screenwriter (d. 2001)
- 1927 – Brian Wilde, English actor (d. 2008)
- 1928 – Annie Cordy, Belgian singer and actress
- 1928 – Speedy Long, American lawyer and politician (d. 2006)
- 1929 – Ramon Bieri, American actor (d. 2001)
- 1929 – Pauline Yates, English actress
- 1930 – Allan D'Arcangelo, American painter (d. 1998)
- 1930 – Mike Sparken, French race car driver (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer
- 1932 – Norman Jones, English actor (d. 2013)
- 1932 – Ralph Robins, British businessman
- 1934 – Eileen Atkins, British actress
- 1934 – Bill Cobbs, American actor
- 1934 – Jane Henson, American puppeteer (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Elvira Vinogradova, Russian television producer
- 1935 – James Bolam, English actor
- 1935 – Jim Dine, American painter
- 1936 – Ann Carter, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Bulgarian politician, 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- 1937 – Erich Segal, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1938 – Thomas Boyd-Carpenter, British Army officer
- 1938 – Torgny Lindgren, Swedish author and poet
- 1938 – Joyce Carol Oates, American author
- 1938 – Charles B. Pierce, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1939 – Billy "Crash" Craddock, American singer
- 1940 – Neil Goldschmidt, American lawyer and politician, 33rd Governor of Oregon
- 1940 – Nigel Wicks, British civil servant
- 1941 – Lamont Dozier, American songwriter and producer
- 1941 – Tõnu Õim, Estonian chess player
- 1941 – Mumtaz Hamid Rao, Pakistani journalist (d. 2011)
- 1942 – Giacomo Agostini, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1942 – Eddie Levert, American singer-songwriter and producer (The O'Jays)
- 1943 – Joan Van Ark, American actress
- 1944 – Henri Richelet, French painter
- 1945 – Claire Alexander, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1945 – Buddy Roberts, American wrestler (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Lucienne Robillard, Canadian politician
- 1946 – Rick Adelman, American basketball player and coach
- 1946 – John Astor, British businessman and politician
- 1946 – Karen Dunnell, British statistician
- 1946 – Tom Harrell, American trumpeter and composer
- 1946 – Neil MacGregor, British museum director
- 1946 – Iain Matthews, English singer-songwriter Fairport Convention, Plainsong
- 1946 – Jodi Rell, American politician, 87th Governor of Connecticut
- 1946 – Mark Ritts, American actor, puppeteer, and producer (d. 2009)
- 1946 – Derek Sanderson, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1946 – Simon Williams, British actor
- 1947 – -minu, Swiss journalist
- 1947 – Günther Kaufmann, German actor (d. 2012)
- 1947 – Tom Wyner, English-American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1947 – Tom Malone, American musician, arranger and producer
- 1948 – Ron LeFlore, American baseball player and manager
- 1948 – V. Hanumantha Rao, Indian politician
- 1949 – Paulo Cézar Caju, Brazilian footballer
- 1949 – Ralph Mann, American hurdler
- 1950 – Mithun Chakraborty, Indian actor
- 1950 – Michel Clair, Canadian politician
- 1951 – Charlie Dominici, American singer and guitarist (Dream Theater and Dominici)
- 1951 – Roberto Durán, Panamanian boxer
- 1952 – George Papandreou, Greek politician, 182nd Prime Minister of Greece
- 1952 – Gino Vannelli, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1953 – Paul Goggins, British politician (d. 2014)
- 1953 – Valerie Mahaffey, American actress and producer
- 1953 – Ian Mosley, English drummer (Marillion)
- 1954 – Matthew Saad Muhammad, American boxer (d. 2014)
- 1955 – Grete Faremo, Norwegian politician
- 1955 – Laurie Metcalf, American actress
- 1957 – Ian Buchanan, Scottish-American actor
- 1957 – Leeona Dorrian, British judge
- 1958 – Darrell Griffith, American basketball player
- 1958 – Jóhannes Helgason, Icelandic guitarist and pilot (Þeyr)
- 1958 – Ulrike Tauber, German swimmer
- 1959 – John Franklin, American actor
- 1959 – Desirée Rogers, American businesswoman
- 1959 – The Ultimate Warrior, American wrestler (d. 2014)
- 1960 – Peter Sterling, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
- 1961 – Dzintar Klavan, Estonian footballer
- 1961 – Steve Larmer, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1961 – Margus Metstak, Estonian basketball player
- 1962 – Wally Joyner, American baseball player and coach
- 1962 – Femi Kuti, English-Nigerian singer-songwriter and saxophonist
- 1962 – Arnold Vosloo, South African-American actor
- 1962 – Anthony Wong, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and producer (Tat Ming Pair)
- 1963 – Scott Alexander, American screenwriter and producer
- 1963 – Deb Caletti, American author
- 1963 – The Sandman, American wrestler
- 1964 – Danny Burstein, American actor
- 1965 – Laverne Eve, Bahamian javelin thrower
- 1965 – Richard Madaleno, American politician
- 1966 – Phil Vischer, American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower
- 1967 – Charalambos Andreou, Cypriot footballer
- 1967 – Jürgen Klopp, German footballer and manager
- 1967 – Rupert Onslow, British insurance underwriter and hereditary peer
- 1968 – James Patrick Stuart American actor
- 1969 – Shami Chakrabarti, English academic
- 1969 – Mark Crossley, English-Welsh footballer and manager
- 1969 – Tommy Tiernan, Irish comedian and actor
- 1970 – Younus AlGohar, Pakistani humanitarian
- 1970 – Clifton Collins, Jr., American actor
- 1970 – Cobi Jones, American soccer player and manager
- 1970 – Phil Mickelson, American golfer
- 1971 – Chris Gomez, American baseball player
- 1971 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper, producer, and actor (Digital Underground, Outlawz, and Thug Life) (d. 1996)
- 1972 – John Cho, South Korean-American actor
- 1972 – Simon Khan, English golfer
- 1972 – Ann Shoket, American journalist
- 1973 – Amanda Byram, Irish television host
- 1973 – Eddie Cibrian, American actor
- 1973 – Nikos Machlas, Greek footballer
- 1974 – Paul Lee, English-American sculptor
- 1975 – Anthony Carter, American basketball player
- 1975 – Heather Peace, English actress and singer
- 1976 – Cian Ciaran, Welsh keyboard player (Super Furry Animals)
- 1976 – Edwin Tenorio, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1977 – Craig Fitzgibbon, Australian rugby player
- 1977 – Kevin Foster, American murderer
- 1877 – Duncan Hames, English politician
- 1977 – Simone Legno, Italian artist
- 1977 – Petros Papadakis, American sportscaster
- 1977 – Kerry Wood, American baseball player
- 1978 – Daniel Brühl, Spanish-German actor
- 1978 – Fish Leong, Malaysian singer
- 1978 – Lyndsey Marshal, English actress
- 1978 – Jay Moriarity, American surfer
- 1978 – Dainius Zubrus, Lithuanian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Brandon Armstrong, American basketball player
- 1980 – Phil Christophers, German-English rugby player
- 1980 – Nehir Erdoğan, Turkish actress
- 1980 – Brad Gushue, Canadian curler
- 1980 – Daré Nibombé, Togolese footballer
- 1980 – Martin Stranzl, Austrian footballer
- 1980 – Justin Tranter, American singer-songwriter and jewelry designer (Semi Precious Weapons)
- 1980 – Joey Yung, Hong Kong singer and actress
- 1981 – Benjamin Becker, German tennis player
- 1981 – Kevin Bieksa, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Ben Kweller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Radish and The Bens)
- 1981 – Miguel Villalta, Peruvian footballer
- 1982 – May Andersen, Danish model
- 1982 – Fraser Cartmell, Scottish triathlete
- 1982 – Matt Costa, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1982 – Missy Peregrym, Canadian actress
- 1982 – Jodi Santamaria, Filipino actress
- 1982 – Chris Wingert, American soccer player
- 1983 – Armend Dallku, Albanian footballer
- 1984 – Jonathan Broxton, American baseball player
- 1984 – Gábor Császár, Hungarian handball player
- 1984 – Rick Nash, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Steven Whittaker, Scottish footballer
- 1986 – Rodrigo Defendi, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Urby Emanuelson, Dutch footballer
- 1986 – Fernando Muslera, Uruguayan footballer
- 1986 – Farhad Reza, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1986 – Robert Rothbart, Israeli-Serbian basketball player
- 1987 – Kelly Blatz, American actor and singer
- 1987 – Diana DeGarmo, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1987 – Abby Elliott, American actress
- 1987 – Christian Tshimanga Kabeya, Belgian footballer
- 1987 – Per Ciljan Skjelbred, Norwegian footballer
- 1988 – Keshia Chanté, Canadian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1988 – Leeland Dayton Mooring, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Leeland)
- 1988 – Nathan Parsons, Australian-American actor
- 1989 – Jelena Glebova, Estonian figure skater
- 1990 – John Newman, English soul singer and songwriter
- 1991 – Joe McElderry, English singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Vladimir Morozov, Russian swimmer
- 1994 – Aarya Ambekar, Indian singer
Deaths[edit]
- 1397 – Philip of Artois, Count of Eu (b. 1358)
- 1468 – Jean Le Fevre de Saint-Remy, Burgundian chronicler (b. 1395)
- 1622 – Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1555)
- 1623 – Christian the Younger of Brunswick (b. 1599)
- 1666 – Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, English poet and diplomat (b. 1608)
- 1671 – Stenka Razin, Russian rebel leader (b. 1630)
- 1707 – Marie de Nemours, French wife of Henri II, Duke of Nemours (b. 1625)
- 1722 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician (b. 1650)
- 1749 – Johann Baptista Ruffini, Italian salt trader (b. 1672)
- 1752 – Joseph Butler, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1692)
- 1777 – Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and playwright (b. 1709)
- 1778 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor (b. 1720)
- 1779 – Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1712)
- 1792 – Benjamin Tupper, American general (b. 1738)
- 1804 – Johann Adam Hiller, German composer and conductor (b. 1728)
- 1824 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, French politician (b. 1739)
- 1849 – Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, German theologian and scholar (b. 1780)
- 1850 – William Lawson, English-Australian explorer (b. 1774)
- 1858 – John Snow, English physician (b. 1813)
- 1862 – Hidenoyama Raigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 9th Yokozuna (b. 1808)
- 1869 – Charles Sturt, Indian-English explorer (b. 1795)
- 1872 – Norman MacLeod, Scottish clergyman and author (b. 1812)
- 1878 – Crawford Long, American surgeon and pharmacist (b. 1815)
- 1881 – Marie Laveau, American voodoo practitioner (b. 1801)
- 1881 – Josiah Mason, English businessman (b. 1795)
- 1885 – Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter (b. 1818)
- 1902 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician (b. 1841)
- 1925 – Chittaranjan Das, Indian politician (b. 1870)
- 1925 – Emmett Hardy, American cornet player (New Orleans Rhythm Kings) (b. 1903)
- 1928 – Mark Keppel, American educator (b. 1867)
- 1929 – Bramwell Booth, English 2nd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1856)
- 1929 – Vernon Louis Parrington, American historian and football coach (b. 1871)
- 1930 – Ezra Fitch, American lawyer and businessman, co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1866)
- 1930 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor, co-invented the gyrocompass (b. 1860)
- 1939 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1905)
- 1940 – DuBose Heyward, American author (b. 1885)
- 1944 – Marc Bloch, French historian (b. 1886)
- 1945 – Aris Velouchiotis, Greek military leader (b. 1905)
- 1946 – Gordon Brewster, Irish cartoonist (b 1889)
- 1952 – Andrew Lawson, Scottish-American geologist and educator (b. 1861)
- 1953 – Margaret Bondfield, English politician (b. 1873)
- 1955 – Ozias Leduc, Canadian painter (b. 1864)
- 1958 – Imre Nagy, Hungarian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1895)
- 1959 – George Reeves, American actor and director (b. 1914)
- 1961 – Marcel Junod, Swiss physician (b. 1904)
- 1967 – Reginald Denny, English actor and singer (b. 1891)
- 1969 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal and politician, 17th Governor General of Canada(b. 1891)
- 1970 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (b. 1888)
- 1970 – Heino Eller, Estonian composer (b. 1887)
- 1970 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (b. 1943)
- 1971 – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (b. 1889)
- 1973 – Louise Latimer, American actress (b. 1913)
- 1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American engineer (b. 1912)
- 1979 – Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Ghanaian general, 6th Head of state of Ghana (b. 1931)
- 1979 – Nicholas Ray, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
- 1981 – Jule Gregory Charney, American meteorologist (b. 1917)
- 1982 – James Honeyman-Scott, English guitarist and songwriter (The Pretenders) (b. 1956)
- 1984 – Lew Andreas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)
- 1984 – Erni Krusten, Estonian writer (b. 1900)
- 1986 – Maurice Duruflé, French organist and composer (b. 1902)
- 1987 – Marguerite de Angeli, American author and illustrator (b. 1889)
- 1988 – Miguel Piñero, Puerto Rican-American actor and playwright, co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café (b. 1946)
- 1990 – Gertrude Baniszewski, American murderer of Sylvia Likens (b. 1929)
- 1990 – Megan Leigh, American porn actress (b. 1964)
- 1993 – Lindsay Hassett, Australian cricketer (b. 1913)
- 1994 – Kristen Pfaff, American bass player and songwriter (Hole and Janitor Joe) (b. 1967)
- 1996 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster (b. 1913)
- 1997 – Dal Stivens, Australian author (b. 1911)
- 1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer (b. 1940)
- 2000 – Empress Kōjun of Japan (b. 1903)
- 2003 – Pierre Bourgault, Canadian politician (b. 1934)
- 2003 – Georg Henrik von Wright, Finnish–Swedish philosopher (b. 1916)
- 2003 – Philip Stone, English actor (b. 1924)
- 2004 – Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai field marshal and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1911)
- 2004 – Jacques Miquelon, Canadian lawyer and judge (b. 1911)
- 2005 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican author and critic (b. 1906)
- 2006 – Igor Śmiałowski, Polish actor (b. 1917)
- 2007 – Mohammad Fazel Lankarani, Iranian cleric (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Tom Compernolle, Belgian runner (b. 1975)
- 2008 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian author (b. 1921)
- 2010 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (b. 1932)
- 2010 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian opera singer (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Ronald Neame, English cinematographer, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
- 2011 – Östen Mäkitalo, Swedish engineer (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Howie Chizek, American radio host (b. 1947)
- 2012 – Dan Dorfman, American journalist (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier (b. 1917)
- 2012 – Jorge Lankenau, Mexican banker and businessman (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Sławomir Petelicki, Polish general (b. 1946)
- 2012 – Thierry Roland, French sportscaster (b. 1937)
- 2012 – Susan Tyrrell, American actress (b. 1945)
- 2013 – Sam Farber, American businessman, co-founded OXO (b. 1924)
- 2013 – T. Ed Garrison, Jr., American politician (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Hans Hass, Austrian diver (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Khondakar Ashraf Hossain, Bangladesh poet and academic (b. 1950)
- 2013 – Josip Kuže, Croatian footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Richard Marlow, English organist and conductor (b. 1939)
- 2013 – Norman Ian MacKenzie, English journalist (b. 1921)
- 2013 – D. M. Schurman, Canadian historian (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Ottmar Walter, German footballer (b. 1924)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Bloomsday (Dublin, James Joyce fans)
- Christian feast day:
- Benno
- Lutgardis
- Quiricus and Julietta
- Richard of Chichester (Church of England)
- George Berkeley and Joseph Butler (commemoration, The Episcopal Church)
- June 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- International Day of the African Child
- Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev (Sikhism)
- Sussex Day (Sussex)
- Youth Day (South Africa)
“The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.” Proverbs 23:24 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."
Genesis 21:6
Genesis 21:6
It was far above the power of nature, and even contrary to its laws, that the aged Sarah should be honoured with a son; and even so it is beyond all ordinary rules that I, a poor, helpless, undone sinner, should find grace to bear about in my soul the indwelling Spirit of the Lord Jesus. I, who once despaired, as well I might, for my nature was as dry, and withered, and barren, and accursed as a howling wilderness, even I have been made to bring forth fruit unto holiness. Well may my mouth be filled with joyous laughter, because of the singular, surprising grace which I have received of the Lord, for I have found Jesus, the promised seed, and he is mine forever. This day will I lift up psalms of triumph unto the Lord who has remembered my low estate, for "my heart rejoiceth in the Lord; mine horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation."
I would have all those that hear of my great deliverance from hell, and my most blessed visitation from on high, laugh for joy with me. I would surprise my family with my abundant peace; I would delight my friends with my ever-increasing happiness; I would edify the Church with my grateful confessions; and even impress the world with the cheerfulness of my daily conversation. Bunyan tells us that Mercy laughed in her sleep, and no wonder when she dreamed of Jesus; my joy shall not stop short of hers while my Beloved is the theme of my daily thoughts. The Lord Jesus is a deep sea of joy: my soul shall dive therein, shall be swallowed up in the delights of his society. Sarah looked on her Isaac, and laughed with excess of rapture, and all her friends laughed with her; and thou, my soul, look on thy Jesus, and bid heaven and earth unite in thy joy unspeakable.
Evening
"He openeth, and no man shutteth."
Revelation 3:7
Revelation 3:7
Jesus is the keeper of the gates of paradise and before every believing soul he setteth an open door, which no man or devil shall be able to close against it. What joy it will be to find that faith in him is the golden key to the everlasting doors. My soul, dost thou carry this key in thy bosom, or art thou trusting to some deceitful pick-lock, which will fail thee at last? Hear this parable of the preacher, and remember it. The great King has made a banquet, and he has proclaimed to all the world that none shall enter but those who bring with them the fairest flower that blooms. The spirits of men advance to the gate by thousands, and they bring each one the flower which he esteems the queen of the garden; but in crowds they are driven from the royal presence, and enter not into the festive halls. Some bear in their hand the deadly nightshade of superstition, or the flaunting poppies of Rome, or the hemlock of self- righteousness, but these are not dear to the King, the bearers are shut out of the pearly gates. My soul, hast thou gathered the rose of Sharon? Dost thou wear the lily of the valley in thy bosom constantly? If so, when thou comest up to the gates of heaven thou wilt know its value, for thou hast only to show this choicest of flowers, and the Porter will open: not for a moment will he deny thee admission, for to that rose the Porter openeth ever. Thou shalt find thy way with the rose of Sharon in thy hand up to the throne of God himself, for heaven itself possesses nothing that excels its radiant beauty, and of all the flowers that bloom in paradise there is none that can rival the lily of the valley. My soul, get Calvary's blood-red rose into thy hand by faith, by love wear it, by communion preserve it, by daily watchfulness make it thine all in all, and thou shalt be blessed beyond all bliss, happy beyond a dream. Jesus, be mine forever, my God, my heaven, my all.
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Barnabas
[Bär'nabăs] - son of prophecy orconsolation. Surname of Joses, Paul's companion in several of his missionary journeys (Acts 4:36; 9:27).
[Bär'nabăs] - son of prophecy orconsolation. Surname of Joses, Paul's companion in several of his missionary journeys (Acts 4:36; 9:27).
The Man Renowned for His Winsomeness
The features of this lovable man stand out in bold relief.
I. His magnificent generosity. The first recorded deed of this Levite of Cyprus was the selling of his property and the grateful sacrifice of the money secured to the common fund of the first Christian community ( Acts. 4:36). The Church has many on her ancient roll who knew what it was to be baptized with the baptism of Barnabas. His exuberant generosity inspired them to surrender their all.
II. His impressive personality. The Lycaonians named Barnabas Jupiter, the name of the emperor of gods in Grecian mythology (Acts 14:12 ). Evidently this "son of comfort" had a commanding, dignified, venerable appearance and his physical nobility added to his influence. The culture and consecration of a commendable physical personality is not to be despised. Also mentally and morally, Barnabas was a man among men.
III. His innate goodness. What triple grace this man possessed! "A good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith" (Acts 11:24 ). God-possessed, Barnabas was full of love, sympathy and faith. Vision and allegiance were his. Spirit-filled, he exuded the comfort of the Spirit. Dean Church says that Barnabas was "an earthly reflection of the Paraclete."
IV. His notable ministry. Barnabas had an inspiring influence (Acts 11:25, 26), was trustworthy (Acts 11:29, 30), was adapted to missionary work (Acts 13:2), encouraged converts (Acts 11:23 ), was a son of Christian prophecy in that he uttered God's messages, was a devoted toiler and self-supporting (1 Cor. 9:6).
V. His lamentable contention. It is sad to realize that such a captivating man as Barnabas was a party to a quarrel. How true it is that there are "surprises of sin in holiest histories." The doleful story of the sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas is told in Acts 15:36-39 . Perhaps both good men were wrong. Paul proposed to Barnabas that they should visit the brethren in every city where they had labored. Barnabas agreed and wanted to take Mark, his nephew, with them. Paul felt that Mark, having left them once, was not fit to accompany them, so they parted. Had Paul been too resentful against Mark? Had Barnabas been too eager to urge the claims of his relative? Was one too stern, the other too easy? It is good to know that they were afterwards reconciled.
There are also hints of a certain lack of firmness in Barnabas'otherwise strong character. Writing of dissembling Jews, Paul had to say that even "Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation" (Gal. 2:13). Barnabas, like the rest of us, had some defective qualities. There has only been one perfect Man on earth - the Saviour Barnabas loved and rejoiced to preach about.
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Today's reading: Nehemiah 1-3, Acts 2:1-21 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Nehemiah 1-3
Nehemiah's Prayer
1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven....
Today's New Testament reading: Acts 2:1-21
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them....
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