On this day in history, in 48BC at the Battle of Pharsalus Julius Caeser comprehensively defeated Pompey. The battle had Caeser with 22000 weary veterans faced off against 45000 rested men. Pompey had the high ground and local support. Both formed three lines of men. Pompey's lines were ten men deep. A river (Enipius) was on one side and so Pompey and Caeser had their cavalry on the other side. Caeser short ranked his lines so as to place infantry in support of cavalry in a fourth line. Caeser's cavalry was smaller than Pompey, and when Pompey's cavalry ran through them, they met the fourth line and were crushed by close quarter pole arms. This allowed Caeser, leading his cavalry, to fall on the flank of Pompey's forces and routing them. Pompey fled, dressed as a peasant, and collected his gold before fleeing to Egypt. The Pharaoh executed Pompey and sent Caeser his head. That was a mistake, as Caeser had wanted to forgive Pompey and unify Rome.
In 378 at the battle of Adrianople the Roman emperor Valens was killed fighting Visigoths who won the battle. It was a mighty turning point, and within a hundred years the empire would collapse. In 1173, the construction of what is now called the Leaning Tower of Pisa began. In 1483, mass was given for the opening of the Sistine Chapel. In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published Walden, a book reflecting on simple living in a natural environment as few people can. In 1892, Thomas Edison invented a two way telegraph. In 1930 Betty Boop debuted in Dizzy Dishes. In 1936, Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. In 1942 at the Battle of Savo Island, US allied forces were defeated by the Japanese, just prior to the US invasion of Guadalcanal. In 1944 Smokey Bear was seen for the first time. In 1944 at The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the Finnish held the Soviet Union to a stalemate. In 1945, Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, vaporising 39000 people and the Japanese Government later gave an unconditional surrender. In 1965, Singapore became the only nation to be given independence unwillingly, from Malaysia. In 1969, Charles Manson went on a murder spree, killing among others, Sharon Tate, pregnant wife of Roman Polanski. In 1974, Nixon resigned rather than facing the Clinton style disgrace of impeachment.
===
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
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
===1483 – The first mass in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City was celebrated.
1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1971 – The Troubles: British authorities began arresting and interning (without trial) people accused of being republican paramilitary members.
1988 – Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in ice hockey history.
2001 – Fifteen people were killed and 130 others were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his bomb at a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem. The first mass in the Sistine Chapel wasn't an accident. It was made with great love. As were you.
Matches
- 48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees toEgypt.
- 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
- 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
- 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.
- 1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.
- 1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
- 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
- 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.
- 1914 – Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace and the first French offensive of World War I.
- 1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India
- 1930 – Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes.
- 1936 – Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad.
- 1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.
- 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island – Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.
- 1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
- 1944 – Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.
- 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright.
- 1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
- 1969 – Followers led by Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actorWojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
- 1971 – The Troubles: The British Army in Northern Ireland launches Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested and interned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed in the violence that followed.
- 1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President,Gerald Ford, becomes president.
- 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
- 1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
- 2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists were arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests were made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation.
Hatches
- 1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English merchant (d. 1274)
- 1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1604)
- 1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German-Dutch theologian (d. 1669)
- 1631 – John Dryden, English poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1700)
- 1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
- 1653 – John Oldham, English poet (d. 1683)
- 1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician (d. 1778)
- 1754 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-American architect and engineer, designed Washington, D.C. (d. 1825)
- 1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish architect and engineer (d. 1834)
- 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian physicist (d. 1856)
- 1805 – Joseph Locke, English engineer (d. 1860)
- 1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist and philosopher (d. 1980)
- 1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
- 1913 – Wilbur Norman Christiansen, Australian astronomer and engineer (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1978)
- 1931 – Paula Kent Meehan, American businesswoman, co-founded Redken (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Patrick Tse, Chinese-Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- 1947 – Barbara Mason, American singer
- 1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress
- 1961 – John Key, New Zealand politician, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (d. 2012)
- 1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1968 – Gillian Anderson, American-English actress
- 1972 – A-mei, Taiwanese singer
- 1976 – Jessica Capshaw, American actress
- 1976 – Audrey Tautou, French actress
- 1989 – Lucy Dixon, English actress
- 1994 - Shadale Din Singer, studying speech pathology.
- 2005 – Caylee Anthony, American murder victim (d. 2008)
Despatches
- 117 – Trajan, Roman emperor (b. 53)
- 378 – Traianus, Roman general
- 378 – Valens, Roman emperor (b. 328)
- 803 – Irene of Athens (b. 752)
- 1107 – Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
- 1534 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian cardinal and philosopher (b. 1470)
- 1942 – Edith Stein, German nun and saint (b. 1891)
- 1949 – Edward Thorndike, American psychologist (b. 1874)
- 1969 – Abigail Folger, American heiress and activist (b. 1943)
- 1969 – Wojciech Frykowski, Polish-American actor and author (b. 1936)
- 1969 – Jay Sebring, American hair stylist, founded Sebring International (b. 1933)
- 1969 – Sharon Tate, American actress (b. 1943)
- 1969 – Steven Parent, American student (b. 1951)
- 1969 – C. F. Powell, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- 1974 – Bill Chase, American trumpet player and bandleader (Chase) (b. 1934)
- 1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1906)
- 1985 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1927)
- 1995 – Jerry Garcia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Legion of Mary, Old and in the Way, andReconstruction) (b. 1942)
- 1996 – Frank Whittle, English soldier and engineer, invented the jet engine (b. 1907)
- 2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1957)
SMEARED AND THREATENED
Tim Blair – Saturday, August 09, 2014 (7:28pm)
If it weren’t for double standards, poor Margo Kingston would have no standards at all. Here’s the great frightbat in 2004, defending heroic whistleblowers:
Why do they do it, these whistleblowers? Why do they dare speak out? Whether in the private or public sector, often they lose their livelihoods, and the strain can damage their health, end their closest relationships and smash their friendships. Almost always they are smeared, threatened and put under intolerable psychological pressure.What do they get in return for their courage, their defiant insistence that one person can make a difference and must, when faced with a choice between right and wrong, look the powerful people in their world in the eye and say “No!”?
Several people this week looked a powerful person in the eye and said “No!” This is Margo’s reaction:
Firstly, there was no leak. The Australian‘s Sharri Markson contacted the people involved and reported their stories. Secondly, is Margo actually calling for an anonymous source to be identified? What happened to her concern about whistleblowers being “smeared, threatened and put under intolerable psychological pressure”?
Mike Carlton wrote a column. Readers replied. Carlton abused them. Readers revealed the abuse. Aside from Carlton’s idiotic attacks, there is no ethical issue here at all.
Poor Mike’s mere five decades of media experience was no match for vicious “trolls” (Margo’s new word for whistleblowers) and their devious email trickery.
Firstly, there was no leak. The Australian‘s Sharri Markson contacted the people involved and reported their stories. Secondly, is Margo actually calling for an anonymous source to be identified? What happened to her concern about whistleblowers being “smeared, threatened and put under intolerable psychological pressure”?
Mike Carlton wrote a column. Readers replied. Carlton abused them. Readers revealed the abuse. Aside from Carlton’s idiotic attacks, there is no ethical issue here at all.
Poor Mike’s mere five decades of media experience was no match for vicious “trolls” (Margo’s new word for whistleblowers) and their devious email trickery.
TILT AND TILTABILITY
Tim Blair – Saturday, August 09, 2014 (5:29pm)
Deep in the Arctic, British luvvie Emma Thompson presents a Compassionate Head Tilt™ combined with a sublime Concern Face™:
Thompson’s daughter is named Gaia. Seriously.
Thompson’s daughter is named Gaia. Seriously.
MUSLIMS FOR MIKE
Tim Blair – Saturday, August 09, 2014 (2:17pm)
Furious Muslims demand Mike Carlton’s return:
In a letter to Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood and editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir, the Australian National Imams Council, Islamic Council of NSW and the Muslim Legal Network NSW among others say they willboycott the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper unless the outspoken columnist is reinstated.Mr Carlton resigned as a columnist for Fairfax over his use of offensive language towards readers complaining about a recent column and accompanying cartoon about the war in Gaza.“As representatives of the Muslim community we have always regarded Fairfax to be one the more balanced media organisations in the country and where possible we have cooperated with your journalists on countless stories,” the letter said.“But with the resignation of Mr Carlton from your publications we have now lost one of the very few voices advocating for the Palestinian cause in the country.”
This cannot possibly become any more fantastic.
UPDATE. In solidarity with his fallen friend, John Birmingham has refused to take over Carlton’s position at the SMH. No, just kidding. Carlton Light’s first column appeared today:
The Bolt Report tomorrow, August 10
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (4:54pm)
On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial: We’re muzzled, yet hate-preachers rant
My guest: Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles
The panel: Peter Costello and Michael Costa
NewsWatch: The Australian’s Sharri Markson. Mike Carlton’s fall, Media Watch’s silence and the perils of embed journalism from Gaza,
Plenty of talk on the Abbott Government’s communications disasters, Islamism and an even bigger disaster comes home to roost at the White House. Plus the most powerful speech I’ve heard in years.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: We’re muzzled, yet hate-preachers rant
My guest: Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles
The panel: Peter Costello and Michael Costa
NewsWatch: The Australian’s Sharri Markson. Mike Carlton’s fall, Media Watch’s silence and the perils of embed journalism from Gaza,
Plenty of talk on the Abbott Government’s communications disasters, Islamism and an even bigger disaster comes home to roost at the White House. Plus the most powerful speech I’ve heard in years.
The videos of the shows appear here.
A 100-year war against radical Islam? Then surely our immigration program must change
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (2:35pm)
If true, shouldn’t our immigration program be adjusted to keep us safe?
AUSTRALIA needs to prepare for an increasingly savage, 100-year war against radical Islam that will be fought on home soil as well as foreign lands, the former head of the army, Peter Leahy, has warned…It is a betrayal of the national interest not to discuss immigration intakes if you seriously believe we’ll be fighting Islamist extremists on our own streets. And many experts do:
“Australia is involved in the early stages of a war which is likely to last for the rest of the century,” he said. “We must be ready to protect ourselves and, where necessary, act pre-emptively to neutralise the evident threat. Get ready for a long war.”
GREG BARTON, PROFESSOR, GLOBAL TERRORISM RESEARCH CENTRE: ... most of the Australians who went to Afghanistan through the 80s, ah, went on to become involved in violent extremism of some form or another, although, you know, most of them were thwarted. This time around the numbers are much, much larger. The rapidity of people being engaged is much faster and the level of violence people are seeing and experiencing is very much higher. So we just don’t know what’s going to happen but it’s, ah, it’s the biggest threat we’ve faced so far… This will be a problem that’s with us all through the next decade and probably likely well beyond.And:
A BALI-STYLE terror attack on Australian soil is inevitable, a senior member of a parliamentary security committee has warned.Please explain why an immigration program that let in such people is in our interests - and why it should not now be changed?
LABOR MP Anthony Byrne, who is deputy chair of the joint intelligence and security committee, believes the threat to national security is accelerating.
“One of the grave concerns I have ... is that eventually and inevitably in this country an event will occur on this soil of the magnitude of the Bali event,” he told parliament on Monday night.
We’ve been chatting for a while when [Sydney Muslim Wassim Haddad] slants his phone screen our way. It’s a video sent by his good mate Khaled Sharrouf, 32, who went to school not far from here at Chester Hill High. Sharrouf, like Haddad, is Australian born, the son of Lebanese migrants. In the video, Sharrouf ... carries a pistol. On the ground in front of him is a row of kneeling men, their hands tied behind their backs with checked keffiyeh scarves. They are Iraqis — possibly soldiers, possibly police, possibly just government workers such as primary school teachers.UPDATE
Sharrouf walks up behind one of the men and points the pistol at the back of his head… Sharrouf, from Wiley Park, Sydney, pulled the trigger and blew the man’s brains out through his face. Then he sent the video to his mates in Sydney…
In the days after these photos were posted we are sitting in the Golden Bean in Bankstown talking to Haddad. He spoke to Sharrouf just a few hours ago. Sharrouf, he says, is happy, ecstatic. “He says that he loves what he is doing over there,” explains Haddad, who runs the hardline al-Risalah Islamic Centre in Bankstown, which Sharrouf and Elomar had attended.
“He says he is doing the work of Allah in establishing an Islamic caliphate… Why wouldn’t he be happy? He is fulfilling his obligations to Islam. He pretty much called us (other Islamic youth in Sydney) cowards for not being there.” Dozens more would follow, Haddad reckons, but they have had their passports seized by ASIO....
The conflict escalates. Unbelievable, but we now have the Muslim lobby accusing the Sydney Morning Herald of caving in to the Jewish lobby, and demanding it reinstate pet bigot Mike Carlton:
IN a letter to Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood and editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir, the Australian National Imams Council, Islamic Council of NSW and the Muslim Legal Network NSW among others say they will boycott the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper unless the outspoken columnist is reinstated.
Mr Carlton resigned as a columnist for Fairfax over his use of offensive language towards readers complaining about a recent column and accompanying cartoon about the war in Gaza…
“...with the resignation of Mr Carlton from your publications we have now lost one of the very few voices advocating for the Palestinian cause in the country.”
The letter says the groups will consider notifying community organisations and spokespersons to cease cooperating with Fairfax journalists for media interviews…
In the letter sent to Fairfax on Saturday, the concerned Muslim community groups also condemned the cartoon that accompanied Mr Carlton’s column.
“It was indeed a racist cartoon that implicated the Jewish people in the actions of the Israeli state by using Jewish symbolism and stereotype,” the letter said.
“However, the apology from Fairfax makes it clear that Fairfax has been put under pressure by the Israeli lobby.”
Julia Gillard: questions to answer. UPDATE: About Essendon, too
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (12:18pm)
The story the ABC and so many senior Canberra journalists dismissed or refused to cover:
Again, Gillard insists she did nothing wrong and we have not yet heard her give her side of the story to the royal commission.
UPDATE
Julia Gillard responds without responding:
Gillard’s concern for legal process is so touching. So recent, too, to judge from today’s reports on how she intervened in the Essendon (alleged) doping scandal:
===A FORMER top criminal defence lawyer has reviewed reams of evidence about the AWU slush fund scandal at the ongoing Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, resulting in his legal opinion that Julia Gillard has problems best resolved by a jury.Read on. Hanson goes through the allegations and the issues - and right through Mark Latham, too.
Russell Hanson QC, who helped run several royal commission-style probes before his retirement, based his detailed review on sworn witness statements and oral testimony at the commission, as well as key documents including Gillard’s exit interview from the law firm Slater & Gordon in 1995…
“The evidence is overwhelming that the Workplace Reform Association (slush fund) was a sham from start to finish.
“There seems to me to be clear and apparently reliable evidence that Wilson was giving Gillard substantial sums of money for her (home) renovations. Where did it come from? From the (slush fund)? Did Gillard know this? What’s a married man with a family in Perth doing paying thousands of dollars for her renovations? Could she possibly think it was coming out of his own pocket? Tell it to the jury."…
The royal commission is expected to call Gillard, who has always strenuously denied that she did anything wrong in relation to legal advice she gave to her then boyfriend and client, Wilson, that resulted in the establishment of the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association. Wilson has supported Gillard… Gillard has insisted since 2012 that she paid for her renovations and that she did nothing wrong…
Hanson says he considered three key questions. Was the slush fund set up with the intention of operating it as a sham? If so, who was a party to that arrangement? Who knowingly participated in receiving the proceeds obtained by illegal means? “There is no basis in the evidence that I have seen for inferring that there was, at the outset, an intention to operate a legitimate organisation,” he says.
Again, Gillard insists she did nothing wrong and we have not yet heard her give her side of the story to the royal commission.
UPDATE
Julia Gillard responds without responding:
UPDATE
Gillard’s concern for legal process is so touching. So recent, too, to judge from today’s reports on how she intervened in the Essendon (alleged) doping scandal:
According to an affidavit sworn by former ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska, prime minister Julia Gillard’s desire for the investigation to produce quick results was evident within days of the so-called “blackest day in Australian sport’’ when sports chiefs were called to Canberra on February 7, 2013, to stand with ministers for the release of an Australian Crime Commission report into the use of peptides in professional sport and links with organised crime.(Thanks to reader Andrew.)
At a meeting in Canberra between AFL, Essendon and ASADA officials two days later it was made clear the “PM wants it to end’’, Andruska notes.
By the start of winter, sports minister Kate Lundy was feeling the heat from a partyroom fretting over an increasingly unwinnable election, and AFL deputy chief executive Gillon McLachlan was worried about the impact of the scandal on ticket sales for that season’s finals.
At a meeting in Canberra on June 4, Lundy’s departmental deputy secretary Glenys Beauchamp delivered ASADA officials instructions from the minister. According to notes taken by Elen Perdikogiannis, ASADA’s general manager of anti-doping programs and legal services, Beauchamp told them: “Min — her colleagues at her, or accusing her of hampering chances of re-election — you need an outcome.’’
Andruska’s notes taken from the same meeting spell out what that outcome would be: “Deal with AFL — support staff sacked, points off, players off.’’ Essendon coaches would lose their jobs, Essendon would be stripped of premiership points and dumped from the finals series and the players would escape sanction.
This was the deal ratified by the AFL Commission three months later.
Bob Day gives Liberals the chance to vote for their own reforms
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (11:38am)
Family First Senator Bob Day will embarrass the Liberals into declaring whether they truly meant their fine words about freedom of speech:
===Senator Day has revealed he will introduce a private senator’s bill to remove what he describes as “chilling” restrictions on free speech after Tony Abbott this week abandoned plans to rework section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.The two most eloquent defenders of freedom now in Parliament are the conservative Day and the libertarian David Leyonhjelm. Disenchanted Liberals should consider giving them their primary vote in future.
“Someone has to champion the cause of freedom. You can’t allow yourself to be intimidated by any particular group,’’ Senator Day told The Weekend Australian.
The South Australian first-term senator said he was confident of winning support from his fellow balance-of-power crossbenchers.
This would mean any repeal of section 18C would be blocked only if the government failed to back Senator Day’s reforms.
“...I simply cannot stand by and watch a fundamental principle go undefended,” Senator Day said. “...I did not intend to take the running on this but, when the government walked away, someone had to do it.”
The government had proposed scrapping the protections making it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate other people or groups of people because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin and replacing them with provisions making it unlawful to vilify or intimidate others on similar grounds.
US bombs Islamic State
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (11:03am)
A very little, and very late:
UPDATE
Where are the UN peacekeepers? Note that it takes the Americans - not the UN or the Russians, Chinese or Arab League - to stop a genocide:
On another front in this war of self-defence, the BBC finally warns against taking casualty figures from Gaza on trust. More than half of the dead seem to be terrorists or unidentified men of fighting age:
===THE US unleashed a second wave of airstrikes in northern Iraq against militants of the Islamic State group amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.What horror could have been prevented had this not been done much sooner?
The bombing began with US Navy F/A-18 jet fighters and armed drones targeting jihadist positions in northern Iraq… The Pentagon said that air strikes have hit a vehicle convoy and two mortar positions near the city of Irbil…
Separately, four fighter jets struck a stationary convoy of seven vehicles and a mortar position outside Irbil, he said. The jets flew off the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier and dropped a total of eight laser-guided bombs…
The strikes comes as ISIS extremists took hundreds of women captive from a religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear.
UPDATE
Where are the UN peacekeepers? Note that it takes the Americans - not the UN or the Russians, Chinese or Arab League - to stop a genocide:
Iraqi militants seized control Thursday of the country’s largest Christian city—reportedly telling its residents to leave, convert or die—while members of another religious minority remained trapped on a mountain without enough food or water, circumstances that fueled calls for the U.S. and U.N. to get more involved.UPDATE
On another front in this war of self-defence, the BBC finally warns against taking casualty figures from Gaza on trust. More than half of the dead seem to be terrorists or unidentified men of fighting age:
In the Gaza conflict, most news organisations have been quoting from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)…But the vilification continues. Charles Krauthammer:
Its recent report said that as of 6 August, 1,843 Palestinians had been killed and 66 Israelis and one Thai national since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July. Of those Palestinians, the status of 279 could not be identified, at least 1,354 were civilians, including 415 children and 214 women, the UN body reported.
So there were 216 members of armed groups killed, and another 725 men who were civilians. Among civilians, more than three times as many men were killed as women, while three times as many civilian men were killed as fighters…
Nonetheless, if the Israeli attacks have been “indiscriminate”, as the UN Human Rights Council says, it is hard to work out why they have killed so many more civilian men than women…
An analysis by the New York Times looked at the names of 1,431 casualties and found that “the population most likely to be militants, men ages 20 to 29, is also the most overrepresented in the death toll. They are 9% of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, but 34% of those killed whose ages were provided.”
“At the same time, women and children under 15, the least likely to be legitimate targets, were the most underrepresented, making up 71% of the population and 33% of the known-age casualties."…
The IDF say they have killed at least 253 Hamas operatives, 147 Islamic Jihad operatives, 65 “operatives of various organisations” and 603 “operatives whose affiliation is unknown”, although they also stress that this is not a final number.
Spokesman Capt Eytan Buchman told BBC News that “the UN numbers being reported are, by and by large, based on the Gaza health ministry, a Hamas-run organisation”.
When it comes to Europe, I think the overwhelming factor is raw, native, deep-seated anti-Semitism. This is 2,000-year-old anti-Semitism. Now for awhile they discovered that if you put the veneer of anti-Zionism—the cover of anti-Zionism—you can get away with it in respectable society. The veneer and cover are gone. You’ve got placards being carried in Germany of all places, ‘Hitler was right.’ Chants of Jews to the gas…Media Watch Dog:
In the United States, it is very different. Anti-Semitism is not a major factor here… What I think is the most important factor here is sheer, raw ignorance. They have no idea what Hamas is ... They have no idea, for example, that there is no occupation in Gaza. You’ll hear them talk about Gaza being occupied. The Israelis left in 2005. They tore out their settlements. There’s not a settler, there’s not a soldier, there is not a Jew left in Gaza. Do any of these people know it? No.
Are they aware that just a few days ago the spokesman for Hamas in Lebanon said, on Arabic television, that the Jews lust for the killing of children, after all, they have always loved the blood of children in their mazahs on Passover? ... Are they aware to the fact that Hamas’ charter calls not for just the destruction of Israel but for the killing Jews everywhere in the world? This is a openly genocidal organization.
On Radio National Breakfast this morning ... James Carleton again used the taxpayer funded public broadcaster to state the case for the prosecution against Israel. Once again ... Mr Carleton declared that Gaza is occupied. This time he was corrected by Colonel Richard Kemp (the former commander of the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan) who told him that Hamas was running the joint.(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill, ed and Romanoz.)
Sack the Press Council
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (10:55am)
The Press Council has become too powerful, too arrogant and too quick to take up activists’ complaints, ensuring a punishment by process of conservatives in particular.
It has also subscribed too much to the deadening and oppressive view that words are so dangerous that they must be controlled.
Worse, it has also developed a Leftist agenda of its own, not least on global warming.
The Australian has had enough and today takes on this dangerously overbearing body:
===It has also subscribed too much to the deadening and oppressive view that words are so dangerous that they must be controlled.
Worse, it has also developed a Leftist agenda of its own, not least on global warming.
The Australian has had enough and today takes on this dangerously overbearing body:
THE chair of the Australian Press Council, Julian Disney, has been challenged to disqualify himself from adjudicating an editorial complaint against The Australian amid heightening tensions between publishers and the newspaper watchdog.
The APC yesterday received a letter from The Australian’s lawyers that raised concerns over the conduct of a meeting of the APC’s adjudication panel this week which considered a complaint concerning coverage of the communist links of late Labor minister Arthur Gietzelt.
The complaint related to two articles on Gietzelt by senior writer Troy Bramston… Bramston’s articles, published six days after the former Labor minister’s death, referred to more than 40 years of archival material that related to ASIO’s surveillance of Gietzelt, who was long suspected of links to, or membership of, the Communist Party…
During last week’s hearing, the APC pursued accusations that Bramston harboured an ancient grudge against Gietzelt and was motivated by revenge over a failed local council preselection battle 15 years ago.
Yesterday’s letter to the APC said the inclusion of the accusation in the summary of issues before the panel, in the absence of any evidence, “constitutes a grave indignity on the reputation of a practising journalist”....
Yesterday’s letter from The Australian’s lawyers to the APC asked Professor Disney to excuse himself from considering the matter on the grounds of a potential conflict of interest arising from his own contact with Gietzelt during the 1980s. Professor Disney has defended his conduct during the adjudication panel meeting and rejected outright any assertion that he had a conflict of interest…
Last week’s adjudication meeting was conducted in a manner that was “markedly hostile” to Bramston and The Weekend Australian’s editor, Michelle Gunn, according to the letter sent to the APC by The Australian’s lawyers KellyHazellQuill.
“We are instructed that the questioning of Ms Gunn and Mr Bramston was unusually combative and argumentative, that our clients were interrupted on a number of occasions and that our clients were often prevented from giving complete answers to the APC’s questions,” the letter says.
Labor softer on travellers in jihadist areas than it was on bosses back home
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (9:11am)
Labor two years ago was happy to shift the onus of proof onto bosses accused of discrimination:
Labor was last year happy to shift the onus of proof onto people accused of having unexplained wealth:
===Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has defended her plan to consolidate national anti-discrimination laws ... for business, organisations and individuals, she said…
The draft bill will create a shifting burden of proof. Once a prima facie case has been established, it will have to be disproved by the respondent to the complaint.
Labor was last year happy to shift the onus of proof onto people accused of having unexplained wealth:
DREYFUS: We do have reverse onus of proof provisions and I think they’re better thought of as shifting onus… We are talking about the police bearing the onus of establishing at first instance of sort of prima facie case which says, we allege that this person has been involved in crime, that this unexplained wealth is the product of crime. And then it’s over to the person not to show that they’ve got it by lawful means, but simply to refute the proposition that they made this wealth by crime.But Labor is not happy to now shift the onus of proof onto people traveling in jihadist areas:
[Attorney general] George Brandis flagged a radical overhaul of the law that would see Australians visiting Syria or northern Iraq or other conflict zones presumed to be in the country for “no good purpose” – rather than assumed to be innocent… The principle of reversing the onus of proof is likely to trouble Australia’s legal fraternity....Exactly how beholden is Labor to Muslim voters in its key marginals that it refuses to support a principle applying to travellers in jihadist areas that it was prepared to impose on bosses back home?
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the government needed to maintain a “balanced approach” ... “ I think we have to be very careful in this complex situation about demonising Australians of Middle-Eastern backgrounds...”
Correcting the anti-Abbott record
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (8:41am)
False, Mr van Onselen:
===The Prime Minister even informed commentator Andrew Bolt of his backflip before his cabinet, the ultimate show of disrespect to the team charged with running the country.In fact, I first knew the free speech reforms were dumped precisely because Abbott had informed his cabinet.
Putin bans milk, orders booze
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (8:23am)
Russian President Vladimir Putin bans milk:
===Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree on the full ban for imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway.But Putin says da to to booze:
... his nation will continue to indulge in more than $4 million worth of Australian alcohol.As usual, Putin gives his people what they want but not what they need:
The Saturday Telegraph can reveal alcohol is not on Mr Putin’s absurd list of sanctions… in response to tough sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.
The study, in The Lancet, says 25% of Russian men die before they are 55, and most of the deaths are down to alcohol.
Wrong again
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (8:14am)
I am criticised again for criticising the awarding of an art grant to this man. I actually like his art, though.
===Pyne line
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (12:54am)
A nice line from the talented Mr Pyne:
===A member of the so-called moderate wing of the Liberal Party, his brawls with the rival conservative grouping in South Australia are legendary. In 1984, he signed up for the university Liberal Club and the Young Liberal Party before darkening the door of a lecture theatre. Soon enough, he was running both shows. Ruthlessly (there’s that descriptor again) he purged right-wingers from the executive of the Liberal Club. When half of the 400-strong membership threatened to quit in protest, Pyne cheerfully collected the resignations. He had just learnt an enduring lesson in the dark arts of politics: “Never resign. It’s permanent.”Hmm. He might have just changed my mind…
Not tortured but treated
Andrew Bolt August 09 2014 (12:22am)
I missed this the other day - more evidence that the ABC jumped to the most negative and absurd conclusion:
(Thanks to reader WaG311.)
===Interview records with five Operation Sovereign Borders personnel further undermine allegations aired by the ABC in January that asylum-seekers were deliberately abused by Australian personnel who forced them to hold on to their boat’s hot engine pipes…Big surprise.
One of the documents reads: “Burn to left hand ½ palm … Burn associated with attempt to light fire in engine room.”
Another report indicates the officers applied first-aid to the wound, using field dressings to assist the wounded man.
(Thanks to reader WaG311.)
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her
===
Holly Sarah Nguyen
And without FAITH it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.~ Hebrews 11:6
===
A Wonderful Life: Jimmy Stewart, Actor and B-24 Bomber Pilot
http://
“It may sound corny, but what’s wrong with wanting to fight for your country? Why are people reluctant to use the word patriotism?” ~ Jimmy Stewart
===
I feel that health insurance is to health what semiotics is to sign writing. You can study sign writing and learn the difference between signs posted by the Department for roads or railways, but that doesn't give you choice when you are standing on bitumen or tracks. Page has brilliantly illustrated a serious issue, not solved by mere money. ed
"So I asked, why are people so focused on keeping your medical history private? The answer is probably insurance. You’re very worried that you’re going to be denied insurance. That makes no sense! So we should change the rules around insurance, so they have to insure people. The whole point of insurance is that it insures everyone."
-- Google CEO Larry Page at this year's Google I/O in May
"Ben Schachter, McQuarrie: "How can you improve health care?"
"That’s a great segue from the previous question. I think it’s been difficult. We had Google Health, but we didn’t make that much progress on it. I think primarily we found that all the issues were regulatory. It’s very hard to get technological leverage there. I was talking about how we’re one percent where we can be. That’s by doing real, amazing technological things. And, you know, we found in the kinds of things we were working on in health care, we weren’t able to move beyond that due to all the constraints that we were under. And so I think we’ll see amazing things in health care, but I think they’ll be things that have technological leverage, like DNA sequencing. We’re all going to have that. It’ll cost a dollar or whatever, you’re all going to have your sequence, and something amazing will happen.
I just disclosed yesterday my voice issues. I got so many great emails from people. And thoughtful advice. And I realized, you know, I kind of had the notion that stuff should be really private, but at least in my case I felt I should have done it sooner. And I’m not sure if that answer’s not true for most people. So I asked, why are people so focused on keeping your medical history private? The answer is probably insurance. You’re very worried that you’re going to be denied insurance. That makes no sense! So we should change the rules around insurance, so they have to insure people. The whole point of insurance is that it insures everyone.
So again, maybe we have a safe place where people can go and live in a world like that, where they make those kind of changes. We can see if they work, and then the world can learn from that and move on, but not everybody has to participate in it. Because I’m worried we’re not making some of the fundamental changes we need to make fast enough."
===
===
How many facts can a fact checker check if a fact checker would check facts? ed
===
<What sort of compassion is he talking about? Teaching kids, hell no! Being on an appropriate register for sex offenders and get a job unrelated to children.. maybe.>
===
Holly Sarah Nguyen
Is taking a line from Christ Jesus "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do" when people try your nerves and upset you pray for them they NEED it!===
Life is too short .. But love lasts .. this breaks my heart and I have to ask Him why. I don't understand the answer. It seems incomprehensible. Jailan did not have much of choice or a chance. But there was love. And so There is God. - ed
Kidspot Social forum member, Chantal, recently shared the heartbreaking story of her nephew’s short life. Her family have allowed us to reproduce it here:
“On the 20th of April 2013 my sister went into labour three weeks early and my baby nephew was born at 1:30am on my daughter’s birthday.
“One week earlier my sister began having a few contractions so she went to the hospital. When a scan was performed the doctors noticed that the baby’s small intestine appeared to be blocked, so my sister was transferred to John Hunter Hospital. The surgeon said baby Jailan had bowel atresia and that when he was 12 hours old he would be sent to theatre to cut out the blockage and reattach the intestines. The doctor was confident, and assured us that he had performed this surgery numerous times with high success rates.
“We were upset that bub had to have surgery, but reassured that it was a relatively easy and fairly common operation. (more at the link)
===
Singing in the rain .. probably likes Beethoven .. and violent movies .. ed
===
===
Another of our favorite hidden Orange County beach spots. Great for quiet times!
===
In August, tourists crowd the public beaches of our Laguna Beach but we locals know the small, hidden, quiet gems where you REALLY relax.
===
Pastor Rick Warren.
http://bit.ly/AbdVMy and also http://bit.ly/pyT8mK Sadly, not a single person who's spread the lie has ever contacted me personally to see if it was true. Not one.>
===Pastor Rick Warren
The easiest way to sabotage God's intended purpose for your life is to enter into a wrong relationship.
===
===
===
===
===
===
Quick Pix: Maureen O’Hara
http://
Maureen O’Hara (born 17 August 1920) is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O’Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and long-time friend John Wayne. Her autobiography, ‘Tis Herself, was published in 2004 and was a New York Times Bestseller.
===
<There are no words. Seriously, I can't take it. How can a United States Senator not know how bad the situation is in Egypt? It is his job to know. South Carolina, it's about time Senator Graham's job went to someone else.>
===
===
- 1173 – The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
- 1854 – Henry David Thoreau published Walden, his account of having spent two years living mostly in isolation on the shores of Walden Pondnear Concord, Massachusetts, US.
- 1914 – World War I: France launched its first attack of the war in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the province ofAlsace from Germany.
- 1965 – Malaysia expelled the state of Singapore from its federation due to heated ideological conflict between their respective ruling parties.
- 1974 – In the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office due to the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon(pictured) became the only President of the United States to resign from office.
Events[edit]
- 48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees toEgypt.
- 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
- 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
- 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.
- 1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.
- 1610 – The First Anglo-Powhatan War begins in colonial Virginia.
- 1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.
- 1814 – Indian Wars: the Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.
- 1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
- 1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
- 1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole – A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army
- 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
- 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.
- 1914 – Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace and the first French offensive of World War I.
- 1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India
- 1930 – Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes.
- 1936 – Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad.
- 1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.
- 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island – Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.
- 1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
- 1944 – Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.
- 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright.
- 1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
- 1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
- 1969 – Followers led by Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actorWojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
- 1971 – The Troubles: The British Army in Northern Ireland launches Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested and interned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed in the violence that followed.
- 1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President,Gerald Ford, becomes president.
- 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
- 1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
- 2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists were arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests were made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation.
Births[edit]
- 1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English merchant (d. 1274)
- 1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1604)
- 1544 – Bogislaw XIII, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1606)
- 1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German-Dutch theologian (d. 1669)
- 1631 – John Dryden, English poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1700)
- 1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
- 1653 – John Oldham, English poet (d. 1683)
- 1669 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, Russian wife of Peter the Great (d. 1731)
- 1674 – František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect, designed the Veltrusy Mansion (d. 1766)
- 1696 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1772)
- 1722 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (d. 1758)
- 1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician (d. 1778)
- 1754 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-American architect and engineer, designed Washington, D.C. (d. 1825)
- 1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish architect and engineer (d. 1834)
- 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian physicist (d. 1856)
- 1783 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1801)
- 1788 – Adoniram Judson, American missionary (d. 1850)
- 1797 – Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant (d. 1855)
- 1805 – Joseph Locke, English engineer (d. 1860)
- 1845 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (d. 1937)
- 1847 – Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, French-Italian wife of Amadeo I of Spain (d. 1876)
- 1867 – Evelina Haverfield, Scottish activist (d. 1920)
- 1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria (d. 1962)
- 1874 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan composer and conductor (d. 1947)
- 1874 – Otto Steffen, American gymnast (d. 1957)
- 1875 – Albert Ketèlbey, English pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1959)
- 1896 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (d. 1980)
- 1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist and philosopher (d. 1980)
- 1899 – P. L. Travers, Australian-English author (d. 1996)
- 1901 – Charles Farrell, American actor and singer (d. 1990)
- 1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
- 1902 – Panteleimon Ponomarenko, Russian commander and politician (d. 1984)
- 1909 – V. K. Gokak, Indian scholar (d. 1992)
- 1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (d. 1944)
- 1911 – William Alfred Fowler, American astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate (d. 1996)
- 1911 – Eddie Futch, American boxing trainer (d. 2001)
- 1913 – Wilbur Norman Christiansen, Australian astronomer and engineer (d. 2007)
- 1914 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
- 1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish author (d. 2001)
- 1914 – Joe Mercer, English footballer and manager (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Martin Taras, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
- 1918 – Kermit Beahan, American colonel (d. 1989)
- 1918 – Giles Cooper, Irish playwright (d. 1966)
- 1918 – Albert Seedman, American police officer (d. 2013)
- 1919 – Joop den Uyl, Dutch journalist, economist, and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987)
- 1919 – Ralph Houk, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and author (d. 2007)
- 1920 – Francis Lynch, American politician (d. 1993)
- 1921 – Ernest Angley, American evangelist and author
- 1921 – J. James Exon, American politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet and author (d. 1985)
- 1924 – Mathews Mar Barnabas, Indian metropolitan (d. 2012)
- 1924 – Frank Martínez, American painter (d. 2013)
- 1925 – David A. Huffman, American computer scientist (d. 1999)
- 1927 – Daniel Keyes, American author (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Robert Malpas, British engineer
- 1927 – Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist
- 1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1978)
- 1928 – Zeb Alley, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Bob Cousy, American basketball player and coach
- 1928 – Camilla Wicks, American violinist
- 1928 – Dolores Wilson, American soprano (d. 2010)
- 1929 – Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist and activist (d. 1979)
- 1930 – Milt Bolling, American baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Jacques Parizeau, Canadian economist and politician, 26th Premier of Quebec
- 1931 – Chuck Essegian, American baseball player and lawyer
- 1931 – Paula Kent Meehan, American businesswoman, co-founded Redken (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian footballer and coach
- 1932 – Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician
- 1932 – John Gomery, Canadian jurist
- 1933 – Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese actress, talk show host, and author
- 1935 – Beverlee McKinsey, American actress (d. 2008)
- 1936 – Julián Javier, American baseball player
- 1936 – Patrick Tse, Chinese-Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1938 – Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian politician, 2nd President of Ukraine
- 1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- 1938 – Otto Rehhagel, German footballer, coach, and manager
- 1939 – Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer
- 1939 – Vincent Hanna, Irish journalist (d. 1997)
- 1939 – The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2014)
- 1939 – Billy Henderson, American singer with The Spinners (d. 2007)
- 1939 – Bulle Ogier, French actress
- 1939 – Romano Prodi, Italian politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Italy
- 1939 – Butch Warren, American bassist (d. 2013)
- 1941 – Way Bandy, American make-up artist (d. 1986)
- 1941 – Shirlee Busbee, American author
- 1942 – Tommie Agee, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1942 – Jack DeJohnette, American drummer, pianist, and composer
- 1942 – David Steinberg, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1942 – David VandeLinde, American electrical engineer and academic
- 1943 – Ken Norton, American boxer and actor (d. 2013)
- 1944 – Sam Elliott, American actor
- 1944 – Patricia McKissack, American author
- 1944 – Patrick Depailler, French Grand Prix racing driver (d. 1980)
- 1944 – John Simpson, English television journalist
- 1945 – Barbara Delinsky, American author
- 1945 – Aleksandr Gorelik, Russian figure skater (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Zurab Sakandelidze, Georgian basketball player (d. 2004)
- 1945 – Posy Simmonds, English illustrator
- 1946 – Jim Kiick, American football player
- 1947 – Roy Hodgson, English footballer and manager
- 1947 – Barbara Mason, American singer
- 1947 – John Varley, American author
- 1948 – Bill Campbell, American baseball player
- 1949 – Jonathan Kellerman, American psychologist and author
- 1949 – Ted Simmons, American baseball player and coach
- 1951 – James Naughtie, Scottish radio presenter
- 1951 – Steve Swisher, American baseball player and manager
- 1952 – Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Thai politician
- 1953 – Kay Stenshjemmet, Norwegian speed skater
- 1953 – Roberta Tovey, English actress and singer
- 1954 – Ray Jennings, South African cricketer and coach
- 1955 – Peter Schmuck, American journalist
- 1955 – John E. Sweeney, American lawyer and politician
- 1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress
- 1958 – Amanda Bearse, American actress and director
- 1958 – James Lileks, American journalist
- 1958 – Calie Pistorius, South African electrical engineer and academic
- 1959 – Kurtis Blow, American rapper and producer
- 1959 – Stuart Hughes, Canadian actor
- 1959 – Michael Kors, American fashion designer
- 1959 – Toni Servillo, Italian actor and director
- 1961 – Brad Gilbert, American tennis player
- 1961 – John Key, New Zealand politician, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1961 – Amy Stiller, American actress
- 1962 – Louis Lipps, American football player and radio host
- 1962 – Kevin Mack, American football player
- 1962 – John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player
- 1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (d. 2012)
- 1963 – Jay Leggett, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1964 – Brett Hull, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
- 1964 – Hoda Kotb, American journalist
- 1965 – Chin Kar-lok, Hong Kong actor
- 1966 – Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach
- 1967 – Deion Sanders, American football and baseball player
- 1968 – McG, American director and producer
- 1968 – Gillian Anderson, American-English actress
- 1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1968 – Sam Fogarino, American drummer (Interpol and Magnetic Morning)
- 1969 – Smaragda Karydi, Greek actress
- 1969 – Troy Percival, American baseball player and coach
- 1969 – Estella Marie Thompson, American sex worker
- 1970 – Rod Brind'Amour, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1970 – Chris Cuomo, American journalist
- 1970 – Thomas Lennon, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Mack 10, American rapper and actor (Westside Connection)
- 1971 – James Kim, American technology expert (d. 2006)
- 1971 – Mark Povinelli, American actor
- 1971 – Davide Rebellin, Italian cyclist
- 1971 – Nikki Ziering, American model and actress
- 1972 – A-mei, Taiwanese singer
- 1972 – Juanes, Colombian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Ekhymosis)
- 1972 – Ryan Bollman, American actor
- 1973 – Filippo Inzaghi, Italian footballer
- 1973 – Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor and director
- 1973 – Gene Luen Yang, American author and illustrator
- 1973 – Håvard Solbakken, Norwegian cross country skier
- 1974 – Derek Fisher, American basketball player
- 1974 – Stephen Fung, Hong Kong actor, singer, director, and screenwriter
- 1974 – Matt Morris, American baseball player
- 1974 – Kirill Reznik, American lawyer and politician
- 1974 – Nicola Stapleton, English actress and singer
- 1974 – Raphaël Poirée, French biathlete
- 1975 – Mahesh Babu, Indian actor
- 1975 – Mike Lamb, American baseball player
- 1975 – Robbie Middleby, Australian soccer player
- 1976 – Nawaf al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist, hijacker American Airlines Flight 77 (d. 2001)
- 1976 – Jessica Capshaw, American actress
- 1976 – Aled Haydn Jones, Welsh radio host and producer
- 1976 – Rhona Mitra, English actress and singer
- 1976 – Mark Priestley, Australian actor (d. 2008)
- 1976 – Audrey Tautou, French actress
- 1977 – Csaba Csordás, Hungarian footballer
- 1977 – Jason Frasor, American baseball player
- 1977 – Chamique Holdsclaw, American basketball player
- 1977 – Adewale Ogunleye, American football player
- 1977 – Ime Udoka, American basketball player and coach
- 1977 – Mikaël Silvestre, French footballer
- 1978 – Daniela Denby-Ashe, English actress
- 1978 – Dorin Chirtoacă, Moldavian politician and primary
- 1978 – Ana Serradilla, Mexican actress
- 1979 – Michael Kingma, Australian basketball player
- 1979 – Lisa Nandy, English politician
- 1979 – Tony Stewart, American football player
- 1979 – Kyle Watson, American mixed martial artist
- 1980 – Texas Battle, American actor
- 1980 – Nuria Cabanillas, Canadian-Spanish gymnast
- 1980 – Charlie David, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Rachel Kramer, Dutch singer
- 1980 – Ryoo Seung-bum, South Korean actor and singer
- 1980 – Dominic Tabuna, Nauruan politician
- 1981 – Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player
- 1981 – Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player
- 1982 – Joel Anthony, American basketball player
- 1982 – Tyson Gay, American sprinter
- 1982 – Yekaterina Samutsevich, Russian singer and activist (Pussy Riot)
- 1982 – Kanstantsin Siutsou, Belorussian cyclist
- 1983 – Ashley Johnson, American actress and singer
- 1983 – Shane O'Brien, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Alicja Smietana, Polish-English violinist
- 1984 – Paul Gallagher, Scottish footballer
- 1985 – Luca Filippi, Italian race car driver
- 1985 – Anna Kendrick, American actress and singer
- 1985 – Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer
- 1985 – JaMarcus Russell, American football player
- 1985 – Chandler Williams, American football player (d. 2013)
- 1986 – Michael Lerchl, German footballer
- 1986 – Daniel Preussner, German rugby player
- 1986 – Tyler "Telle" Smith, American singer-songwriter and bass player (The Word Alive, In Fear and Faith, and Greeley Estates)
- 1986 – Rafaela Zanella, Brazilian model, Miss Brazil 2006
- 1987 – Marco Carmona, Mexican illustrator
- 1987 – Marek Niit, Estonian sprinter
- 1988 – Anthony Castonzo, American football player
- 1988 – Vasilios Koutsianikoulis, Greek footballer
- 1989 – Lucy Dixon, English actress
- 1989 – Jason Heyward, American baseball player
- 1989 – Stefano Okaka, Italian footballer
- 1990 – Adelaide Kane, Australian actress
- 1990 – Bill Skarsgård, Swedish actor
- 1990 – Brice Roger, French alpine skier
- 1991 – Alice Barlow, English actress and singer
- 1991 – Hansika Motwani, Indian actress
- 1991 – Candela Vetrano, Argentinian actress and singer
- 2005 – Caylee Anthony, American murder victim (d. 2008)
Deaths[edit]
- 117 – Trajan, Roman emperor (b. 53)
- 378 – Traianus, Roman general
- 378 – Valens, Roman emperor (b. 328)
- 803 – Irene of Athens (b. 752)
- 833 – Al-Ma'mun, Iraqi caliph (b. 786)
- 1048 – Pope Damasus II
- 1107 – Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
- 1173 – Najm ad-Din Ayyub, Kurdish soldier and politician
- 1250 – Eric IV of Denmark (b. 1216)
- 1534 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian cardinal and philosopher (b. 1470)
- 1580 – Patriarch Metrophanes III of Constantinople (b. 1520)
- 1601 – Michael the Brave, Romanian prince (b. 1558)
- 1634 – William Noy, English jurist (b. 1577)
- 1720 – Simon Ockley, English orientalist (b. 1678)
- 1744 – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English politician (b. 1673)
- 1816 – Johann August Apel, German jurist and author (b. 1771)
- 1837 – Xavier Sigalon, French painter (b. 1787)
- 1886 – Samuel Ferguson, Irish poet (b. 1810)
- 1910 – Huo Yuanjia, Chinese martial artist, co-founded the Chin Woo Athletic Association (b. 1868)
- 1919 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
- 1942 – Edith Stein, German nun and saint (b. 1891)
- 1943 – Chaim Soutine, Belarusian-French painter (b. 1894)
- 1945 – Robert Hampton Gray, Canadian lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1917)
- 1945 – Harry Hillman, American runner (b. 1881)
- 1946 – Bert Vogler, South African cricketer (b. 1876)
- 1948 – Hugo Ferdinand Boss, German fashion designer (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Edward Thorndike, American psychologist (b. 1874)
- 1957 – Carl Clauberg, German physician (b. 1898)
- 1962 – Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
- 1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, American son of John F. Kennedy (b. 1963)
- 1967 – Joe Orton, English author and playwright (b. 1933)
- 1969 – Abigail Folger, American heiress and activist (b. 1943)
- 1969 – Wojciech Frykowski, Polish-American actor and author (b. 1936)
- 1969 – Jay Sebring, American hair stylist, founded Sebring International (b. 1933)
- 1969 – Sharon Tate, American actress (b. 1943)
- 1969 – Steven Parent, American student (b. 1951)
- 1969 – C. F. Powell, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- 1974 – Bill Chase, American trumpet player and bandleader (Chase) (b. 1934)
- 1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1906)
- 1978 – James Gould Cozzens, American author (b. 1903)
- 1979 – Walter O'Malley, American businessman (b. 1903)
- 1979 – Raymond Washington, American gang leader, founded the Crips (b. 1953)
- 1980 – Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
- 1985 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1927)
- 1988 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (b. 1905)
- 1988 – Ramón Valdés, Mexican actor (b. 1923)
- 1990 – Joe Mercer, English footballer and manager (b. 1914)
- 1992 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (b. 1938)
- 1995 – Jerry Garcia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Legion of Mary, Old and in the Way, andReconstruction) (b. 1942)
- 1996 – Frank Whittle, English soldier and engineer, invented the jet engine (b. 1907)
- 1999 – Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian politician (b. 1910)
- 2000 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Nicholas Markowitz, American murder victim (b. 1984)
- 2002 – Paul Samson, English guitarist (Samson) (b. 1953)
- 2002 – Peter Neville, English sociologist and activist
- 2003 – Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 2003 – Ray Harford, English footballer and manager (b. 1945)
- 2003 – Gregory Hines, American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1946)
- 2003 – Chester Ludgin, American opera singer (b. 1925)
- 2003 – R. Sivagurunathan, Sri Lankan lawyer, journalist, and academic (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Robert Lecourt, French lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of France (b. 1908)
- 2004 – Tony Mottola, American guitarist (b. 1918)
- 2004 – David Raksin, American composer (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Matthew McGrory, American actor (b. 1973)
- 2005 – Judith Rossner, American author (b. 1935)
- 2006 – Philip E. High, English author (b. 1914)
- 2006 – James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914)
- 2007 – Joe O'Donnell, American photographer and journalist (b. 1922)
- 2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1957)
- 2008 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian author and poet (b. 1941)
- 2009 – John Quade, American actor (b. 1938)
- 2010 – Ted Stevens, American politician (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, American electric blues bassist and singer (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Gerard Campbell, American academic (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Carl Davis, American record producer (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Gene F. Franklin, American theorist (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Al Freeman, Jr., American actor, director, and educator (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Dale Olson, American publicist (b. 1934)
- 2012 – David Rakoff, Canadian-American actor and journalist (b. 1964)
- 2012 – Carmen Belen Richardson, Puerto Rican actress (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Mel Stuart, American director and producer (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Haji, Canadian-American actress (b. 1946)
- 2013 – Harry Elliott, American baseball player and coach (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Eduardo Falú, Argentinian guitarist and composer (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Glen Hobbie, American baseball player (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Louis Killen, English singer (b. 1934)
- 2013 – Johnny Logan, American baseball player (b. 1927)
- 2013 – William Lynch, Jr., American politician (b. 1947)
- 2013 – Brian Moll, English-Australian actor (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Ahmed Ishtiaq Mubarak, Malaysian hurdler (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Phill Nixon, English darts player (b. 1956)
- 2013 – John H. Ross, American caption (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Vladimir Vikulov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1946)
- – Raju shrivastav, English-Australian actor (b. 1955)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- International Day of the World's Indigenous People (International)
- National Day, celebrates the independence of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.
- National Peacekeepers' Day, celebrated on Sunday closest to the day (Canada)
- National Women's Day (South Africa)
“For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.” Psalm 149:4NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"They weave the spider's web."
Isaiah 59:5
Isaiah 59:5
See the spider's web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite's religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. A spider's web is a marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning hunter's wiles. Is not a deceiver's religion equally wonderful? How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold? A spider's web comes all from the creature's own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God. But a spider's web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant's broom, or the traveller's staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord's house: he will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever. O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider's web. Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.
Evening
"All things are possible to him that believeth."
Mark 9:23
Mark 9:23
Many professed Christians are always doubting and fearing, and they forlornly think that this is the necessary state of believers. This is a mistake, for "all things are possible to him that believeth"; and it is possible for us to mount into a state in which a doubt or a fear shall be but as a bird of passage flitting across the soul, but never lingering there. When you read of the high and sweet communions enjoyed by favoured saints, you sigh and murmur in the chamber of your heart, "Alas! these are not for me." O climber, if thou hast but faith, thou shalt yet stand upon the sunny pinnacle of the temple, for "all things are possible to him that believeth." You hear of exploits which holy men have done for Jesus; what they have enjoyed of him; how much they have been like him; how they have been able to endure great persecutions for his sake; and you say, "Ah! as for me, I am but a worm; I can never attain to this." But there is nothing which one saint was, that you may not be. There is no elevation of grace, no attainment of spirituality, no clearness of assurance, no post of duty, which is not open to you if you have but the power to believe. Lay aside your sackcloth and ashes, and rise to the dignity of your true position; you are little in Israel because you will be so, not because there is any necessity for it. It is not meet that thou shouldst grovel in the dust, O child of a King. Ascend! The golden throne of assurance is waiting for you! The crown of communion with Jesus is ready to bedeck your brow. Wrap yourself in scarlet and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day; for if thou believest, thou mayst eat the fat of kidneys of wheat; thy land shall flow with milk and honey, and thy soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Gather golden sheaves of grace, for they await thee in the fields of faith. "All things are possible to him that believeth."
===
Today's reading: Psalm 74-76, Romans 9:16-33 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 74-76
1 O God, why have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the nation you purchased long ago,
the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed-
Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
3 Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the nation you purchased long ago,
the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed-
Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
3 Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
4 Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
they set up their standards as signs.
5 They behaved like men wielding axes
to cut through a thicket of trees.
6 They smashed all the carved paneling
with their axes and hatchets.
7 They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
8 They said in their hearts, "We will crush them completely!"
They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land....
they set up their standards as signs.
5 They behaved like men wielding axes
to cut through a thicket of trees.
6 They smashed all the carved paneling
with their axes and hatchets.
7 They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
8 They said in their hearts, "We will crush them completely!"
They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land....
Today's New Testament reading: Romans 9:16-33
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?" 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
===
Rhoda
The Woman Who Was Called Mad
Scripture Reference - Acts 12:1-19
Name Meaning - Foreign born, this domestic servant of Mary the mother of Mark had a Greek name meaning "rose." Wilkinson remarks that as "Barnabas, Mary's brother, was of the country of Cyprus, it is a very reasonable supposition that the family had been resident there, and brought thence this maiden, who, like so many of her nation born in foreign parts, had received a Greek name." Although she carried one of the most beautiful names she was called by another not so pleasant. The saints in Mary's home called her Manias meaning, "a mad woman."
In the human episode in which Rhoda is the prominent character, nothing is said of pedigree. As a slave-maid she did not merit any genealogy. As a servant, she had no hours. The fact that it was long past midnight when Peter reached Mary's house, and that Rhoda the portress answered the door, indicates that she was willing to serve long and late. Mary, her mistress, also found in Rhoda a spiritual help. Doubtless she, too, was on her knees with the others praying for Peter, and hearing his knock went to the door. Perhaps we can break up the narrative in this threefold way. Peter knocked - Rhoda was shocked - The saints mocked.
Peter Knocked
The background of the record which Rhoda shares can be briefly cited. Mary of Jerusalem, a rich widow and mother of Mark the evangelist, owned a large and conspicuous house in the city which she placed at the service of the Lord. During the days of terrible persecution the saints in Jerusalem gathered regularly in her lovely home not only for the reading and exposition of the Word, but also to pray for afflicted saints. On the night in question the saints concentrated on the deliverance of a precious life, namely, Peter their leader. Herod's sword of persecution had fallen heavily upon the church in Jerusalem. James the Greater had already drunk the cup of martyrdom prophesied for him by his Lord, and the gathered intercessors had learned that Peter, imprisoned by Herod, was the next to be led forth to die. If their shepherd was smitten what could the sheep do. Such a crisis brought Peter's fellow believers to their knees in night-long intercession.
As the church in the house earnestly petitioned the Lord, their prayers were heard. In the prison the Lord, by means of an angel, miraculously freed Peter. Peter sped past guards and through opened doors, and came to the closed door of a house where he knew the saints were gathered together praying. Peter knocked at the door, but because of Rhoda's excitement, she failed to open the door. Peter continued knocking until the door was opened, not by angelic hands, as at the prison he had left, but by unbelieving human hands. Such a delay might have been dangerous, if the guards, discovering their prisoner had escaped, had tracked him down and found him standing at the closed gate of Mary's ancient house.
Rhoda Was Shocked
Peter not only knocked but also spoke, for we read that she knew his voice - the dear voice she had listened to so often expounding the sacred truths of the Word. But she was so stunned and overwhelmed at the answer to those midnight prayers standing there, that she failed to draw the bolts and admit Peter. "She opened not the gate for gladness." Such gladness would have been changed to sadness had Herod's soldiers appeared at that moment and taken Peter back to prison. We can understand Rhoda not opening the gate as soon as she heard the knock. "Never open a door in the dark until you know who is behind it." In those days when the saints were not sure who would be the next to join the noble army of martyrs, great caution was necessary. That knock might have been the summons of cruel Herod, making a fresh inroad on the little flock. But when Rhoda asked, "Who is knocking?" and received the muffled reply, "It is Peter, open quickly," she should have opened the gate before opening her mouth to others in the house about Peter standing outside. Knowing that for certain it was Peter, it was her duty as the maid to open the door. But stunned by the glad tidings she was momentarily thoughtless.
There are some characteristics of this maidservant who only has this one notice in Scripture, which are attractive. First, unbounded joy was hers. Luke, the beloved physician, who wrote the Acts, analyzes Rhoda's state of consciousness when the good news of answered prayer on Peter's behalf overpowered her presence of mind. She forgot herself - and her duty - and ran in to tell the intercessors to pray no more for Peter was at the gate. We can imagine how excitedly she shouted, "Peter is free! Peter is knocking at the door!" A spontaneous child of nature, she manifested her exuberance. Had hers been a calmer, less passionate nature, she would have opened the door when she knew it was Peter, and then gone in to tell the praying band that Peter was safe and free.
Further, when her good, glad information was scorned by the saints whose prayers for Peter had been interrupted by Rhoda's joyous outburst, "she constantly affirmed that it was even so." Her young heart believed in God and in the power of prayer, and knowing definitely that prayer had been answered, she would not suffer the praying band in the house of her mistress to browbeat her into silence. Although only the maid, she was not to be subdued by the sarcastic criticism of the large congregation present. She knew it was Peter, and nothing could move her from that belief. Rhoda wore the red rose of courage so beautifully as she persisted against opposition to constantly affirm the truth.
The Saints Mocked
How revealing was the reaction of those gathered together to Rhoda's excited announcement. First of all, they told the glad maid that she was mad . They accused her of insanity! But Rhoda was in good company because it had been said of the Saviour whom she had come to know and love, "He is beside Himself." Then, when Paul's eye kindled with the glory of his message, just as the face of Rhoda glowed as she told of answered prayer, Festus said of the Apostle, "Thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad." The prophet speaks about the spiritual man being mad (Hosea 9:7 ). Have we ever been thought mad for Christ, or fools for His sake? We are in the best of company if others sneer at us as we declare and live the message of God's power through Christ. But being told she had lost her senses did not deter Rhoda from the repetition of what she knew to be true.
Departing from their accusation, the band said, "It is his angel." Failing to move Rhoda from her persistent testimony, the saints treated her message as coming from the dead. It was a common Jewish belief that every true Israelite had a guardian angel especially assigned to him, who, when he appeared in human form, assumed the likeness of the man whom he protected. The continued knocking of Peter, however, stifled that interpretation of Rhoda's testimony because guardian angels are not prevented from carrying out their mission by closed doors. So, feeling that there was something insistently human about that constant knocking "they opened the door, saw Peter, and were astonished."
Astonished! How this description of their feelings revealed their unbelief! They had been praying for hours for Peter, yet when Peter stood at the door they did not believe it. Lack of faith was mingled with their intercessions, and so they were surprised at the miracle God had performed in Peter's escape from prison. Our Lord instructed His disciples to pray believingly. "When ye ask, believe that ye receive." Spurgeon once said, "If the Lord wants to surprise His people, He has only at once to give them an answer. No sooner do they receive an answer than they say, 'Who would have thought it?'" Mary of Jerusalem came to value her godly maid, Rhoda, more than ever because of the great assistance she had rendered that memorable day. And once in the house, Peter must have commended her for her persistence.
===
Enoch, Henoch
[Ē'nŏch,Hē'nŏch] - teacher, initiated, dedicated.
[Ē'nŏch,Hē'nŏch] - teacher, initiated, dedicated.
- The eldest son of Cain, who had a city called after him (Gen. 4:17, 18; 1 Chron. 1:3).
- A son of Jared, a descendant of Seth and father of Methuselah (Gen. 5:18-23; Luke 3:37; Heb. 11:5; Jude 14).
The Man Who Was Missed
In some six verses the Bible sets forth the brief biography of this Old Testament saint - but what a biography! We know nothing of the rank or profession of Enoch. Two things of great interest characterize him, namely, his holy life on earth and his glorious exit from earth.
Enoch walked with God. Twice over we are reminded of this evident fact. The wicked are "without God." Enoch was at peace with God. Although born a child of wrath, he became a child of grace. He must have been at peace with God; two cannot walk together unless they be agreed (Amos 3:3).
Enoch enjoyed close communion with God . What a real union of hearts the repeated phrase, "walked with God" implies! What sweet hours of holy and happy intercourse God and Enoch must have had as they communed with each other. There was never a cloud between their fellowship. God was a pleasure to Enoch, and Enoch pleased God.
Enoch was separated from the world. This seventh man from Adam did not walk in the way of the sinners of his corrupt age. His character and conduct were a distinct rebuke to the godless around. Jude tells us that Enoch functioned as a prophet, declaring God's just judgment upon the unrighteousness of his time.
Enoch's life was one of progress . Walking with God implies a steady progress in his course. He did not walk for awhile and then stand still. Each day found him nearer the divine goal. In unbroken companionship with his Friend, he found himself more weaned from the world and more ripe for heaven. He did not attempt to walk alone to heaven. He walked with God, and as he took each step his eyes were fixed on his heavenly Companion.
Enoch had an unusually glorious end . He is the only one of the line of whom it is not said that "he died." He was not - God took him. "He was not" suggests that his friends sought for him. He was a missing person they could not trace. "God took him," which means he was translated that he should not taste death. Among the millions upon millions of men who have lived, only two out of the vast number never died - Enoch and Elijah! Andrew Bonar has the sweet suggestion that God and Enoch were in the habit of taking a long walk together every day and that one day God said to his companion, "Why go home? Come all the way with Me." Thus at 365 years of age - a year for every day of our year - God took His servant directly to heaven.
===
===
No comments:
Post a Comment