MH17 forgery
MH17 photograph exposed as a forgery. Plane is flying in wrong direction and contains wrong details for the actual craft. In all probability, the entire tragedy is a Washington sting against Russia. Russia should never have allowed the equipment to be used by the separatists, but important questions need to be asked of Ukraine too .. like why they failed to warn Malaysia of the war they were fighting as well as the likelihood they deliberately got Russian separatists to target MH17. Blame Washington .. they got upset with Russia over Syria and negotiations on Iran .. and encouraged an illegitimate government in Ukraine to bid for economic independence and to deny Russia access to their naval port .. that, is the proximate cause of all of this. But, in the meantime, there is an intelligence war. The release of phone calls hours after the tragedy suggest Washington planned a smear well.
Islamo fascist bloody fail
Australia contributed four jihadis brothers to IS. Two so obese they could barely walk. Their mother is puzzled as to what has attracted them, saying they are simple boys. But simple is the kind of person who is attracted to the organisation killing Muslims and others. Meanwhile IS kills an Islamic convert who had been an aid worker, and then kills sixteen Islamic peoples who were soldiers for Syria. The killings have been deplored by world leaders, but impotent Islamic leaders are still not sure if there is sufficient evidence that the terrorists are not in fact Islamic.
Equal pay for female tech writer?
A female tech writer who was outraged by a shirt worn by an eminent scientist has claimed she has received death threats. It is wrong to threaten the life of such fools. Take away their livelihood. They listen to money, so they say. The tech writer had been outraged by the shirt of an astro physicist who had managed the unique feat of landing a probe on an asteroid.
Free Trade with China
The free trade deal with China has been signed. SMH are concerned about an arrangement which is already built into immigration whereby Chinese workers can be employed at Chinese projects if no Australian has the requisite skill. The 457 visa already exists for just that. Some things are not covered, like Sugar, rice and wheat. However there will be substantial expansion in key markets like education, finance, tourism and health. Also, 85% of all sales will be tariff free, expanding to 95% in a decade.
Left wing fails
Laura Tingle misrepresented Mr Abbott's success at the G20. Mr Abbott managed to have the final communique reflect economic ambitions as Obama crowed emptily over climatic ones. However, Laura was not the only idiot fooled. Many on ABC and Channel 9 lied about what had happened at the conference. On the Insiders the panel agreed that the 'shirtfront' comment was not understood by the panel but had not affected the summit. Malcolm Farr felt that Abbott shouldn't be allowed to say such confusing things. Sky News is taking on the role of national broadcaster, getting coverage of political debates as the ABC cannot be trusted.
Historical perspective on this day
In 474, Emperor Leo II died after a reign of 10 months. He was succeeded by his father Zeno, who became sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. In 794, Japanese Emperor Kanmu changed his residence from Nara to Kyoto. In 1183, the Battle of Mizushima. In 1292, John Balliol became King of Scotland. In 1405, Sharif ul-Hāshim established the Sultanate of Sulu. In 1511, Henry VIII of England concluded the Treaty of Westminster—a pledge of mutual aid against the French—with Ferdinand II of Aragon. In 1558, Elizabethan era began: Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England. In 1603, English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason. In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed between France and Spain. In 1777, Articles of Confederation (United States) were submitted to the states for ratification. In 1796, French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole – French forces defeated the Austrians in Italy.In 1800, the United States Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C. In 1810, Sweden declared war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever took place. In 1811, José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, was sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile. In 1820, Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.) In 1831, Ecuador and Venezuela were separated from Gran Colombia. In 1839, Oberto, Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, opened at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. In 1855, David Livingstone became the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe. In 1856, American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army established Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase. In 1858, modified Julian Day zero. In 1863, American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville began – Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege. In 1869, In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was inaugurated. In 1871, the National Rifle Association was granted a charter by the state of New York. In 1876, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Slavonic March" was given its premiere performance in Moscow, Russia. In 1878, first assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg. In 1885, Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa began. In 1896, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party split into two groups: the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). In 1911, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, which was the first black Greek-lettered organization founded at an American historically black college or university, was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1922, former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI went into exile in Italy. In 1933, United States recognised Soviet Union. In 1939, nine Czech students were executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities were shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic. In 1947, the Screen Actors Guild implemented an anti-Communist loyalty oath. Also, American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observed the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
In 1950, Lhamo Dondrub was officially named the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1953, the remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland, were evacuated to the mainland. In 1957, Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashed at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause was a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy dedicated Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region. In 1967, Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson told the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." In 1968, Alexandros Panagoulis was condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos. Also, British European Airways introduced the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service. Also, viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States were denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcast Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S. In 1969, Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States met in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
In 1970, Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley went on trial for the My Lai Massacre. Also, Luna programme: The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and was released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. In 1973, Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon told 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook." Also, the Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ended in bloodshed in the Greek capital. In 1979, Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra was commissioned. In 1982, Duk Koo Kim died from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing. In 1983, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation was founded in Mexico. In 1989, Cold War: Velvet Revolution began: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague was quelled by riot police. This sparked an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeded on December 29).
In 1990, Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, became active again and erupted. In 1993, United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement after greater authority in trade negotiations was granted to President George Bush in 1991. Also, in Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousted the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup. In 1997, in Luxor, Egypt, 62 people were killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then killed the assailants). In 2000, a catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and caused millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years. Also, Alberto Fujimori was removed from office as president of Peru. In 2012, at least 50 schoolchildren were killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt. In 2013, fifty people were killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed at Kazan Airport, Russia. Also, a rare late-season tornado outbreak struck the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touched down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.
from 2013
The dots have not yet connected Rudd to an allegation against a senior Victorian ALP MP. But otherwise, mystery remains as to why he resigned, but clearly he is as broken as he was dysfunctional in office. Fools cannot be taught. There are many lessons from Rudd's mistakes in office. One example of hubris is given by channel 9, who reported this morning on an investigator into the assassination of JFK. JFK was shot by two people, one Lee Harvey Oswald who was acting alone and using full metal jacket bullets. Two bullets were recovered from the three casings he left behind from some 15 seconds of shooting, 9 seconds of which were captured on tape. The other shooter was an accident from a secret service agent whose rifle had a dum-dum. The agent had taken the loaded rifle, undid the safety and the accidental discharge hit JFK in the back of the head. There was a cover up of the accident. However, channel 9 found a Democrat enthusiast who felt JFK, who was probably worse than Carter or Obama, had been cut in his prime. The fact that civilisation exists today is powerful testimony to a clumsy secret service agent. But that translates poorly to the ALP, which retain significant support. JFK did not learn from his mistakes, but was claimed by one of another. Climate fear mongering by AGW alarmists is still fed with public money. It will take them a long time to fully exhaust the $trillions of dollars they took from the worlds' poorest peoples (they claimed it came from the rich, but when rich don't spend, it is the poor who suffer).
Also suffering are fans of Bridget Jones' Diary. In a post modernist twist, the fans lose interest in the sequel. Which is a salient warning to the ALP who don't seem to be able to pick a leader who in story terms is a good person.
Today is a special anniversary. Czech students in the velvet revolution begin demonstrating for freedom in 1989, fifty six years after FDR recognised Soviet Union.
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This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
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
Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
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.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns John Bailey, Da Goose and Ray Lam. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
- 9 – Vespasian, Roman emperor (d. 79)
- 1503 – Agnolo di Cosimo, Italian painter (d. 1572)
- 1749 – Nicolas Appert, French chef, inventor of canning (d. 1841)
- 1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (d. 1868)
- 1896 – Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)
- 1906 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, co-founded the Honda Motor Company (d. 1991)
- 1925 – Rock Hudson, American actor (d. 1985)
- 1937 – Peter Cook, English comedian and actor (d. 1995)
- 1938 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1940 – Luke Kelly, Irish singer and banjo player (The Dubliners) (d. 1984)
- 1942 – Martin Scorsese, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
- 1944 – Danny DeVito, American actor, director, and producer
- 1958 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress and singer
- 1966 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Gods and Monsters) (d. 1997)
- 1966 – Kate Ceberano, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1966 – Sophie Marceau, French actress
- 1994 – Raquel Castro, American actress and singer
- 1292 – John Balliol was chosen to be King of Scots over Robert de Brus.
- 1839 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
- 1950 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama(pictured), was enthroned as Tibet's head of state at the age of fifteen.
- 1993 – General Sani Abacha ousted Ernest Shonekan to become chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council of Nigeria.
- 2009 – Administrators at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia discovered that their servers had been hacked and thousands of emails and files on climate change had been stolen.
Matches
- 474 – Emperor Leo II dies after a reign of 10 months. He is succeeded by his father Zeno, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
- 794 – Japanese Emperor Kanmu changes his residence from Nara to Kyoto.
- 1183 – The Battle of Mizushima.
- 1292 – John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.
- 1405 – Sharif ul-Hāshim establishes the Sultanate of Sulu.
- 1511 – Henry VIII of England concluded the Treaty of Westminster—a pledge of mutual aid against the French—with Ferdinand II of Aragon.
- 1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.
- 1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
- 1659 – The Treaty of the Pyrenees is signed between France and Spain.
- 1777 – Articles of Confederation (United States) are submitted to the states for ratification.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole – French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.
- 1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.
- 1810 – Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place.
- 1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.
- 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.)
- 1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia.
- 1839 – Oberto, Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, opens at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy.
- 1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe.
- 1856 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.
- 1858 – Modified Julian Day zero.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins – Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege.
- 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
- 1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
- 1876 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Slavonic March" is given its premiere performance in Moscow, Russia.
- 1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg.
- 1885 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa begins.
- 1896 – The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.
- 1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks(Russian for "minority").
- 1911 – Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, which is the first black Greek-lettered organization founded at an American historically black college or university, was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.
- 1922 – Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI goes into exile in Italy.
- 1933 – United States recognizes Soviet Union.
- 1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities are shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Dayis celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.
- 1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
- 1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
- 1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.
- 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland.
- 1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft.
- 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.
- 1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress."
- 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos.
- 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.
- 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.
- 1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
- 1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.
- 1970 – Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
- 1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
- 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
- 1979 – Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra is commissioned.
- 1982 – Duk Koo Kim dies from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.
- 1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.
- 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
- 1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts.
- 1993 – United States House of Representatives passes resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement after greater authority in trade negotiations was granted to President George Bush in 1991.
- 1993 – In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.
- 1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then kill the assailants).
- 2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
- 2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
- 2012 – At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.
- 2013 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.
- 2013 – A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.
Hatches
- 9 – Vespasian, Roman emperor (d. 79)
- 1503 – Bronzino, Italian painter (d. 1572)
- 1576 – Roque González de Santa Cruz, Paraguayan missionary and saint (d. 1628)
- 1587 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1679)
- 1612 – Dorgon, Manchu son of Nurhaci (d. 1650)
- 1681 – Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian and author (d. 1776)
- 1685 – Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, Canadian commander and explorer (d. 1749)
- 1729 – Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain (d. 1785)
- 1749 – Nicolas Appert, French chef, inventor of canning (d. 1841)
- 1753 – Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American clergyman and botanist (d. 1815)
- 1755 – Louis XVIII of France (d. 1824)
- 1765 – Jacques MacDonald, French general (d. 1840)
- 1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1868)
- 1793 – Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter, historian, and academic (d. 1865)
- 1816 – August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer and historian (d. 1876)
- 1827 – Petko Slaveykov, Bulgarian journalist and poet (d. 1895)
- 1835 – Andrew L. Harris, American general and politician, 44th Governor of Ohio (d. 1915)
- 1854 – Hubert Lyautey, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1934)
- 1857 – Joseph Babinski, French neurologist and academic (d. 1932)
- 1866 – Voltairine de Cleyre, American author and activist (d. 1912)
- 1868 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist and academic (d. 1918)
- 1877 – Frank Calder, English-Canadian journalist and businessman (d. 1943)
- 1878 – Grace Abbott, American social worker (d. 1939)
- 1878 – Augustus Goessling, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1963)
- 1886 – Walter Terence Stace, English-American philosopher, academic, and civil servant (d. 1967)
- 1887 – Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, English field marshal (d. 1976)
- 1895 – Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher and critic (d. 1975)
- 1895 – Gregorio López, Mexican journalist, author, and poet (d. 1966)
- 1896 – Lev Vygotsky, Belarusian-Russian psychologist and philosopher (d. 1934)
- 1897 – Frank Fay, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1961)
- 1899 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian-American engineer (d. 1971)
- 1901 – Walter Hallstein, German academic and politician, 1st President of the European Commission (d. 1982)
- 1901 – Lee Strasberg, Ukrainian-American actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1902 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- 1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor and architect (d. 1988)
- 1905 – Mischa Auer, Russian-American actor and singer (d. 1967)
- 1905 – Astrid of Sweden (d. 1935)
- 1906 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, co-founded the Honda Motor Company (d. 1991)
- 1906 – Rollie Stiles, American baseball player (d. 2007)
- 1907 – Israel Regardie, English occultist and author (d. 1985)
- 1911 – Christian Fouchet, French politician, French Minister of the Interior (d. 1974)
- 1916 – Shelby Foote, American historian and author (d. 2005)
- 1920 – Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgian singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1920 – Gemini Ganesan, Indian actor and director (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Albert Bertelsen, Danish painter and illustrator
- 1922 – Stanley Cohen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1923 – Hubertus Brandenburg, Swedish bishop (d. 2009)
- 1923 – Mike Garcia, American baseball player (d. 1986)
- 1923 – Aristides Pereira, Cape Verdean politician, 1st President of Cape Verde (d. 2011)
- 1923 – Bert Sutcliffe, New Zealand cricketer and coach (d. 2001)
- 1925 – Jean Faut, American baseball player
- 1925 – Rock Hudson, American actor and singer (d. 1985)
- 1925 – Charles Mackerras,American-Australian oboe player conductor (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Robert Brown, American actor
- 1927 – Robert Drasnin, American clarinet player and composer
- 1927 – Fenella Fielding, English actress
- 1928 – Arman, French-American painter and sculptor (d. 2005)
- 1928 – Rance Howard, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1929 – Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (d. 1999)
- 1930 – Bob Mathias, American decathlete, actor, and politician (d. 2006)
- 1932 – Jeremy Black, English admiral
- 1933 – Dan Osinski, American baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Orlando Peña, Cuban-American baseball player and scout
- 1934 – Jim Inhofe, American soldier and politician, 32nd Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma
- 1934 – Anthony King, Canadian-English psephologist and academic
- 1934 – Terry Rand, American basketball player (d. 2014)
- 1935 – Bobby Joe Conrad, American football player
- 1935 – Toni Sailer, Austrian skier and actor (d. 2009)
- 1936 – Crispian Hollis, English bishop
- 1937 – Peter Cook, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
- 1938 – Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, Scottish general
- 1938 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1939 – Auberon Waugh, English journalist and author (d. 2001)
- 1940 – Luke Kelly, Irish singer and banjo player (The Dubliners) (d. 1984)
- 1940 – Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, Turkish composer, author, and poet (d. 2002)
- 1942 – Partha Dasgupta, Bangladeshi economist and academic
- 1942 – Bob Gaudio, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (The Four Seasons)
- 1942 – Kang Kek Iew, Cambodian criminal
- 1942 – Lesley Rees, English endocrinologist and academic
- 1942 – István Rosztóczy, Hungarian-Japanese microbiologist and physician (d. 1993)
- 1942 – Martin Scorsese, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
- 1943 – Lauren Hutton, American actress and producer
- 1944 – Jim Boeheim, American basketball player and coach
- 1944 – Malcolm Bruce, Scottish politician
- 1944 – Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter (The Byrds, The New Christy Minstrels, and Dillard & Clark) (d. 1991)
- 1944 – Danny DeVito, American actor, director, and producer
- 1944 – Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect, designed the Seattle Central Library
- 1944 – Lorne Michaels, Canadian-American screenwriter and producer, created Saturday Night Live
- 1944 – Tom Seaver, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1945 – Lesley Abdela, English journalist and activist
- 1945 – Jeremy Hanley, English accountant and politician, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom
- 1945 – Elvin Hayes, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1945 – Roland Joffé, English-French director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1946 – Martin Barre, English guitarist and songwriter (Jethro Tull)
- 1946 – Terry Branstad, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 39th Governor of Iowa
- 1947 – Robert "Stewkey" Antoni, American singer and keyboard player (Nazz and Fuse)
- 1947 – Steven E. de Souza, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1947 – Inky Mark, Chinese-Canadian educator and politician
- 1948 – Howard Dean, American physician and politician, 79th Governor of Vermont
- 1948 – East Bay Ray, American guitarist (Dead Kennedys)
- 1949 – John Boehner, American businessman and politician, 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
- 1949 – Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, Vietnamese soldier and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Vietnam
- 1950 – Tom Walkinshaw, Scottish race car driver, founded Tom Walkinshaw Racing (d. 2010)
- 1951 – Butch Davis, American football player and coach
- 1951 – Werner Hoyer, German economist and politician
- 1951 – Dean Paul Martin, American singer, actor, and tennis player (Dino, Desi & Billy) (d. 1987)
- 1951 – Stephen Root, American actor
- 1951 – Jack Vettriano, Scottish painter
- 1952 – David Emanuel, Welsh fashion designer
- 1952 – Ties Kruize, Dutch field hockey player
- 1952 – Cyril Ramaphosa, South African businessman and politician
- 1953 – Babis Tennes, Greek footballer and manager
- 1954 – Chopper Read, Australian criminal and author (d. 2013)
- 1954 – Kevin James, American porn actor (d. 1990)
- 1955 – Yolanda King, American actress and activist (d. 2007)
- 1955 – Dennis Maruk, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1955 – Dan Schnurrenberger, American canoe racer
- 1956 – Graham Jones, English psychologist and author
- 1956 – Jim McGovern, Scottish politician
- 1957 – Debbie Thrower, English journalist
- 1958 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress and singer
- 1959 – Terry Fenwick, English footballer and manager
- 1959 – William R. Moses, American actor and producer
- 1959 – Jaanus Tamkivi, Estonian politician
- 1960 – RuPaul, American drag queen performer, actor, and singer
- 1960 – Michael Hertwig, German footballer and manager
- 1960 – Jonathan Ross, English actor and talk show host
- 1960 – Mandy Yachad, South African cricketer and field hockey player
- 1961 – Robert Stethem, American soldier (d. 1985)
- 1961 – Pat Toomey, American businessman and politician
- 1962 – Dédé Fortin, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Les Colocs) (d. 2000)
- 1963 – Randy Black, Canadian drummer (Annihilator and Primal Fear)
- 1964 – Ralph Garman, American actor and radio host
- 1964 – Susan Rice, American academic and politician, 24th United States National Security Advisor
- 1964 – Mitch Williams, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1965 – Amanda Brown, Australian violinist and composer (The Go-Betweens)
- 1966 – Ben Allison, American bassist and composer
- 1966 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Gods and Monsters) (d. 1997)
- 1966 – Kate Ceberano, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (I'm Talking)
- 1966 – Richard Fortus, American guitarist (Guns N' Roses and Love Spit Love)
- 1966 – Daisy Fuentes, Cuban-American model and actress
- 1966 – Sophie Marceau, French actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1967 – Tab Benoit, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1967 – Ronnie DeVoe, American singer, producer, and actor (New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe)
- 1968 – Sean Miller, American basketball player and coach
- 1969 – Ryōtarō Okiayu, Japanese voice actor
- 1969 – Jean-Michel Saive, Belgian table tennis player
- 1969 – Rebecca Walker, American author
- 1970 – Paul Allender, English guitarist and songwriter (Cradle of Filth and The Blood Divine)
- 1970 – Wendy Piatt, English businesswoman
- 1972 – Kimya Dawson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Moldy Peaches)
- 1972 – Joanne Goode, English badminton player
- 1972 – Lorraine Pascale, English model and chef
- 1972 – Leonard Roberts, American actor
- 1973 – Andreas Hedlund, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer (Vintersorg, Borknagar, Cronian, Fission, Waterclime, and Otyg)
- 1973 – Eli Marrero, Cuban-American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1973 – Bernd Schneider, German footballer
- 1973 – Alexei Urmanov, Russian figure skater
- 1973 – Leslie Bibb, American actress and producer
- 1974 – Eunice Barber, Sierra Leonean-French heptathlete and long jumper
- 1974 – Berto Romero, Spanish comedian and actor
- 1975 – Kinga Baranowska, Polish mountaineer
- 1975 – Roland de Marigny, South African-Italian rugby player
- 1975 – Lord Infamous, American rapper (Three 6 Mafia) (d. 2013)
- 1975 – Jerome James, American basketball player
- 1976 – Jacqueline Aguilera, Venezuelan model, Miss World 1995
- 1976 – Brandon Call, American actor
- 1976 – Diane Neal, American actress
- 1977 – Ryk Neethling, South African swimmer
- 1977 – Paul Shepherd, English footballer
- 1978 – Glen Air, Australian rugby player
- 1978 – Zoë Bell, New Zealand actress and stuntwoman
- 1978 – Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress
- 1978 – Reggie Wayne, American football player
- 1979 – Matthew Spring, English footballer
- 1980 – Jay Bradley, American wrestler
- 1980 – Isaac Hanson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Hanson)
- 1980 – Israel Idonije, Nigerian-Canadian football player
- 1980 – Mercedes Martinez, American wrestler
- 1981 – Sarah Harding, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (Girls Aloud)
- 1982 – Lucy Durack, Australian actress and singer
- 1982 – Katie Feenstra-Mattera, American basketball player
- 1982 – Otacílio Mariano Neto, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Yusuf Pathan, Indian cricketer
- 1982 – Hollie Smith, New Zealand singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1983 – Viva Bianca, Australian actress
- 1983 – Ioannis Bourousis, Greek basketball player
- 1983 – Ryan Bradley, American figure skater
- 1983 – Ryan Braun, American baseball player
- 1983 – Trevor Crowe, American baseball player
- 1983 – Harry Lloyd, English actor
- 1983 – Nick Markakis, American baseball player
- 1983 – Scott Moore, American baseball player
- 1983 – Christopher Paolini, American author
- 1984 – Amanda Evora, American figure skater
- 1984 – Park Han-byul, South Korean actress
- 1985 – Panbanisha, American bonobo (d. 2012)
- 1985 – Sékou Camara, Malian footballer (d. 2013)
- 1986 – Nani, Portuguese footballer
- 1986 – Luis Aguiar, Uruguayan footballer
- 1986 – Fabio Concas, Italian footballer
- 1986 – Everth Cabrera, Nicaraguan baseball player
- 1986 – Greg Rutherford, English long jumper
- 1987 – Craig Noone, English footballer
- 1987 – Gemma Spofforth, English swimmer
- 1989 – Ryan Griffin, American football player
- 1993 – Taylor Gold, American Olympian snowboarder
- 1994 – Raquel Castro, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 2005 – Giant George, American dog (d. 2013)
Despatches
- 344 – Emperor Kang of Jin (b. 322)
- 375 – Valentinian I, Roman emperor (b. 321)
- 474 – Leo II, Byzantine emperor (b. 467)
- 594 – Gregory of Tours, Roman bishop and saint (b. 538)
- 641 – Emperor Jomei of Japan (b. 593)
- 885 – Liutgard of Saxony (b. 845)
- 1104 – Nikephoros Melissenos, Byzantine general (b. 1045)
- 1231 – Elizabeth of Hungary (b. 1207)
- 1326 – Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician (b. 1285)
- 1492 – Jami, Persian poet and saint (b. 1414)
- 1494 – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher and author (b. 1463)
- 1558 – Mary I of England (b. 1516)
- 1558 – Reginald Pole, English cardinal (b. 1500)
- 1562 – Antoine of Navarre (b. 1518)
- 1592 – John III of Sweden (b. 1537)
- 1600 – Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese commander (b. 1542)
- 1632 – Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Bavarian field marshal (b. 1594)
- 1643 – Jean-Baptiste Budes, Comte de Guébriant, French general (b. 1602)
- 1648 – Thomas Ford, English viol player, composer, and poet (b. 1580)
- 1665 – John Earle, English bishop (b. 1601)
- 1668 – Joseph Alleine, English pastor and author (b. 1634)
- 1690 – Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, French general and politician (b. 1610)
- 1708 – Ludolf Bakhuizen, German-Dutch painter (b. 1631)
- 1713 – Abraham van Riebeeck, South African-Indonesian politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1653)
- 1747 – Alain-René Lesage, French author and playwright (b. 1668)
- 1768 – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1693)
- 1776 – James Ferguson, English astronomer (b. 1710)
- 1780 – Bernardo Bellotto, Italian painter and illustrator (b. 1720)
- 1794 – Jacques François Dugommier, French general (b. 1738)
- 1796 – Catherine the Great, Russian wife of Peter III of Russia (b. 1729)
- 1808 – David Zeisberger, Czech-American clergyman and missionary (b. 1721)
- 1818 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1744)
- 1835 – Carle Vernet, French painter (b. 1758)
- 1849 – Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (b. 1794)
- 1858 – Robert Owen, Welsh activist (b. 1771)
- 1865 – James McCune Smith, American physician and author (b. 1813)
- 1897 – George Hendric Houghton, American clergyman and theologian (b. 1820)
- 1902 – Hugh Price Hughes, Welsh theologian and educator (b. 1847)
- 1905 – Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, (b. 1817)
- 1910 – Ralph Johnstone, American pilot (b. 1886)
- 1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (b. 1840)
- 1922 – Robert Comtesse, Swiss politician, 29th President of the Swiss Confederation (b. 1847)
- 1924 – Patriarch Gregory VII of Constantinople (b. 1850)
- 1928 – Lala Lajpat Rai, Indian author and politician (b. 1865)
- 1929 – Herman Hollerith, American businessman (b. 1860)
- 1932 – Charles W. Chesnutt, American lawyer, author, and activist (b. 1858)
- 1936 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink, German-American singer (b. 1861)
- 1937 – Jack Worrall, Australian footballer, cricketer, and coach (b. 1860)
- 1938 – Ante Trumbić, Croatian lawyer and politician, 20th Mayor of Split (b. 1864)
- 1940 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and typeface designer (b. 1882)
- 1940 – Robert Lane, Canadian soccer player (b. 1882)
- 1940 – Raymond Pearl, American biologist and academic (b. 1879)
- 1947 – Victor Serge, Russian historian and author (b. 1890)
- 1954 – Yitzhak Lamdan, Russian-Israeli poet and journalist (b. 1899)
- 1955 – James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer (b. 1894)
- 1958 – Mort Cooper, American baseball player (b. 1913)
- 1959 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian guitarist and composer (b. 1887)
- 1968 – Mervyn Peake, English poet, author, and illustrator (b. 1911)
- 1971 – Debaki Bose, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1898)
- 1973 – Mirra Alfassa, French-Indian spiritual leader (b. 1878)
- 1976 – Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1880)
- 1979 – John Glascock, English singer and bass player (Jethro Tull, The Gods, Toe Fat, Carmen, and Chicken Shack) (b. 1951)
- 1982 – Duk Koo Kim, South Korean boxer (b. 1959)
- 1982 – Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer and conductor (b. 1905)
- 1986 – Georges Besse, French businessman (b. 1927)
- 1987 – Paul Derringer, American baseball player (b. 1906)
- 1988 – Sheilah Graham Westbrook, English-American actress, author, and journalist (b. 1904)
- 1989 – Costabile Farace, American criminal (b. 1960)
- 1990 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
- 1992 – Audre Lorde, Caribbean-American author, poet, and activist (b. 1934)
- 1993 – Gérard D. Levesque, Canadian politician, 5th Deputy Premier of Quebec (b. 1926)
- 1995 – Alan Hull, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Lindisfarne) (b. 1945)
- 1998 – Kea Bouman, Dutch tennis player (b. 1903)
- 1998 – Esther Rolle, American actress (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Louis Néel, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- 2001 – Michael Karoli, German guitarist and songwriter (Can) (b. 1948)
- 2001 – Harrison A. Williams, American lawyer and politician (b. 1919)
- 2002 – Abba Eban, South African-Israeli soldier and politician, 3rd Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1915)
- 2002 – Frank McCarthy, American painter and illustrator (b. 1924)
- 2003 – Surjit Bindrakhia, Indian singer (b. 1962)
- 2003 – Arthur Conley, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
- 2003 – Don Gibson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)
- 2004 – Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (b. 1970)
- 2004 – Alexander Ragulin, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1941)
- 2005 – Marek Perepeczko, Polish actor and director (b. 1942)
- 2006 – Ruth Brown, American singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1928)
- 2006 – Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer and manager (b. 1927)
- 2006 – Flo Sandon's, Italian singer (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Bo Schembechler, American football player and coach (b. 1929)
- 2007 – Aarne Hermlin, Estonian chess player (b. 1940)
- 2008 – George Stephen Morrison, American admiral (b. 1919)
- 2008 – Pete Newell, American basketball player and coach (b. 1915)
- 2011 – Olin Branstetter, American businessman and politician (b. 1929)
- 2011 – Kurt Budke, American basketball player and coach (b. 1961)
- 2012 – Ponty Chadha, Indian businessman (b. 1957)
- 2012 – Armand Desmet, Belgian cyclist (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Lea Gottlieb, Hungarian-Israeli fashion designer, founded the Gottex Company (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Arnaud Maggs, Canadian photographer (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Freddy Schmidt, American baseball player (b. 1916)
- 2012 – Billy Scott, American singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Bal Thackeray, Indian politician (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Margaret Yorke, English author (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Zeke Bella, American baseball player (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Alfred Blake, English colonel (b. 1915)
- 2013 – Frank Chamberlin, American football player (b. 1978)
- 2013 – Syd Field, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1935)
- 2013 – Doris Lessing, Iranian-English author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Alex Marques, Portuguese footballer (b. 1993)
- 2013 – Nicholas Mevoli, American diver (b. 1981)
- 2013 – Mary Nesbitt Wisham, American baseball player (b. 1925)
2014
- Christian feast day:
- Earliest day on which National Survivors of Suicide Day can fall, while November 23 is the latest; celebrated on Saturday before Thanksgiving. (United States)
- International Students' Day (International)
- Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
WADDLE SQUAD
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (1:42pm)
They’ll have fun, fun, fun ‘til jihadis take their t-bones away:
Four Sydney brothers who are believed to have joined Islamic State jihadists in Syria are “simple boys” who were so disorganised they missed their original flight out of Australia and had to rebook tickets for the following day, according to their family.The two oldest brothers are also obese, tipping the scales at more than 140 kilograms each, according to family friend and Muslim community leader Dr Jamal Rifi …“The mother, she’s questioning why would they go there? Two of them barely can walk, they’re very unfit, and obese.”
To paraphrase a great line: “Fat, Islamic and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
EDEN THE ENFORCER
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (4:03am)
Who decides Sydney’s cultural trends? Is it bar bosses like Justin Hemmes and Fraser Short? Maybe the likes of Lara Bingle and Jennifer Hawkins lead the way, or those ridiculous apex hipsters from Newtown.
In fact, none of the above. The individual who determines what’s happening in our city is Eden Caceda, a second-year arts student at Sydney University.
Continue reading 'EDEN THE ENFORCER'BEWARE THE WITLESS
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (3:12am)
Following his entertaining review of Peter Rankin’s Joan Littlewood biography – British theatre identity Littlewood was evidently something of a monster – Roger Lewis observes:
The most dangerous people are always those with no sense of humour. Without exception they are nasty, aggressive and stupid. Not geniuses by any stretch of the imagination. Not many laughs in the Kremlin.
Not many laughs lately from our modern behaviour enforcers, either. Do they ever laugh?
GOING BOLDLY WHERE NO SHIRT HAS GONE BEFORE
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (2:32am)
Fairfax’s lazy Ladypages examine the sexist scientist shirt scandal:
A female tech writer has received abuse and death threats on Twitter after criticising the sexist shirt worn by a scientist involved in this week’s Philae comet landing.Matt Taylor – a scientist from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Project, which successfully landed a space probe on the comet 67P on Wednesday morning, following a decade-long mission – drew online criticism after he was interviewed wearing a shirt with naked women on it.
Aside from the women not being naked and the absence of death threats (none are shown by the Ladypages) this might almost be accurate.
Continue reading 'GOING BOLDLY WHERE NO SHIRT HAS GONE BEFORE'OBAMA? YO MAMA!
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (2:22am)
Fairfax’s Laura Tingle was one of many who delighted at what they saw as the US president’s G20 slam on Tony Abbott:
Barack Obama has delivered a rather humiliating exercise in power politics over the weekend: showing how leadership and power lies in setting and controlling an agenda …
Well, he certainly showed how leadership and power lies. Tingle continued:
Whatever the G20 communique says about climate change, everyone will know our prime minister – rather than leading and shaping the debate – was dragged kicking and screaming to it.
That’s not quite how things worked out. Yesterday Abbott dragged climate alarmism into the street, gave it a solid kicking, and ignored the screams of Obama and other cash-craving carbon crybabies:
Tony Abbott has foiled Barack Obama’s attempt to hijack the G20 with climate change, refusing to put a cent into the US President’s push for a $10 billion global green climate fund.And as chair of the G20, he succeeded in ensuring global economic growth and job creation was at the top of the final declaration yesterday, delivering a blow to Mr Obama’s attempts to elevate climate change to a first order issue of the world leader’s meeting.In one of the rare instances of an Australian leader standing up to a US President on a major policy issue, Mr Abbott refused to allow the final communiqué to include a binding requirement that all G20 nations commit to the Green Climate Fund announced by Mr Obama on Saturday at University of Queensland.
An Australian Prime Minister has opposed the US. Lefties should be ecstatic.
GET YOUR LOCKS OFF
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (1:55am)
A look at the long-distance lockist community:
Anti-mining extremists are wasting police time and putting communities at risk during a wave of “lock-on” protests.
Activists at exploration sites in NSW are using reinforced locks with thick metal covers to secure themselves to barricades and equipment.The locks are modified in order to extend the amount of time police need to detach the activists. One activist group recently bragged online that it took police more than four hours to cut a protester loose from a site in Gloucester …
OBAMAMATH
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (1:29am)
From the ABC’s list of holy Barack Obama quotes:
The President is wrong. According to this table, in 2012 Australia produced 430,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. In the same year, the US produced twelve times that amount: 5,190,000,000 tonnes.
The President is wrong. According to this table, in 2012 Australia produced 430,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. In the same year, the US produced twelve times that amount: 5,190,000,000 tonnes.
(Via J.F. Beck)
UPDATE: Numbers corrected. See comments.
DOOR TO DOOR BORES
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (1:21am)
An excellent idea:
One of California’s largest newspapers has asked reporters and other employees to help deliver papers on Sundays, according to a memo obtained by Reuters, the latest sign of the toll that financial woes are taking on print journalism.
This could catch on in Australia, where certain titles need to make all the savings they can. It shouldn’t take Agejournalists long to cover the two or three Melbourne suburbs where they still have subscribers. But why stop at deliveries? Imagine some of Fairfax’s finest roving door to door trying to sell subscriptions, particularly in areas that have long abandoned Fairfax publications: “Hello, sir, my name is Elizabeth Farrelly and I’m … wait a minute. Is that a delivery truck in your driveway?”
BATSMAN vs CHATSMEN
Tim Blair – Monday, November 17, 2014 (12:36am)
The top ten ways in which Michael Clarke’s hamstring injury is more significant than the G20 summit:
Continue reading 'BATSMAN vs CHATSMEN'Are our journalists the world’s most warming-obsessed?
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (2:41pm)
Tony Abbott’s press conference yesterday:
===Questions from non-Australian journalists: 4British Prime Minister David Cameron’s press conference yesterday:
Questions from non-Australian journalists about global warming: 0
Questions from Australian journalists: 10
Questions from Australian journalists about global warming: 4
Questions from non-Australian journalists: 9
Questions from non-Australian journalists about global warming: 1
Questions from Australian journalists: 1
Questions from Australian journalists about global warming: 1
Let’s get down to business
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (1:35pm)
Far more important than global warming is this deal landed by Tony Abbott:
Chinese president Xi Jinping addresses our Parliament. He talks of business. He assures us that while some worry about China - the “big guy” in the room - its history shows it values peace. He says its first aim is to increase the wealth of the people. He does not once mention global warming.
In fact, the only one to mention his “deal” with Barack Obama - a non-binding agreement which allows China to keep increasing emissions for another 16 years- is Bill Shorten in his welcoming remarks, trying to make a domestic political point.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===TONY Abbott has won a dramatic increase in market access for Australian farmers, services and manufacturers in a trade deal worth at least $18 billion over a decade that maintains full scrutiny of investments by Chinese state-owned enterprises…Phil Coorey:
Under the deal, 85 per cent of all Australian exports will enter China tariff-free. This is expected to rise to 93 per cent within four years and 95 per cent when the deal is fully in force in more than a decade…
The deal will ease the concerns of some coalminers; the newly imposed 3 per cent tariff on coking coal exports worth $6bn will be abolished as soon as the agreement takes effect. But surprisingly, the 6 per cent tariff on thermal and other coal will be phased out over two years instead of immediately...
Under the deal, financial services providers will have access to China second only to that of providers in Hong Kong and Macau, both special regions of China.UPDATE
Access will be provided to such sectors as banking, securities, futures and insurance. It is understood Australian insurers will have access to China’s lucrative third-party motor vehicle insurance scheme, fund managers will be able to manage Chinese investments, and Australian superannuation funds will be able to invest in the Chinese market.
Tourism and health providers, for example, will be able to build and operate hospitals, hotels and other facilities in China.
Chinese president Xi Jinping addresses our Parliament. He talks of business. He assures us that while some worry about China - the “big guy” in the room - its history shows it values peace. He says its first aim is to increase the wealth of the people. He does not once mention global warming.
In fact, the only one to mention his “deal” with Barack Obama - a non-binding agreement which allows China to keep increasing emissions for another 16 years- is Bill Shorten in his welcoming remarks, trying to make a domestic political point.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Greens get the independent foreign policy they called for
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (10:32am)
Greens leader Christine Milne: in September:
The Greens must be, er, pleased.
UPDATE
Laura Tingle might have to rewrite her weekend gloat to reverse the roles:
Memo to Abbott Government ministers: listen to how Environment Minister Greg Hunt called out the ABC’s Fran Kelly for verballing and hyperboling in her typical global warming enthusiasm. The ABC’s bias must be challenged at every turn. It is out of control.
But with the Hunt interview over, Kelly then gets on two fellow journalists - Mark Kenny and Michelle Grattan - to agree with her that Obama is a climate hero, Abbott is a zero and climate change a menace.
The ABC’s balance?
UPDATE
Reader The Village Idiot (Reformed) confirms that the G20 communique gave Barack Obama virtually nothing - and the Fairfax media (and Channel 9 yesterday) were spinning wildly in claiming Obama put global warming on the agenda against Tony Abbott’s wishes:
Contrast these facts with the Sydney Morning Herald’s tale of Obama triumphing over Abbott’s defence of coal:
===Greens leader Christine Milne has condemned the government’s decision to follow the US ...Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers:
“It’s time Australians recognised we need to have our own independent foreign policy,” she said.
TONY Abbott has foiled Barack Obama’s attempt to hijack the G20 with climate change, refusing to put a cent into the US President’s push for a $10 billion global green climate fund.Abbott’s defiance is important. It saves taxpayers money, prevents waste and helps the poor and unemployed.
And as chair of the G20, he succeeded in ensuring global economic growth and job creation was at the top of the final declaration yesterday, delivering a blow to Mr Obama’s attempts to elevate climate change to a first order issue of the world leader’s meeting.
In one of the rare instances of an Australian leader standing up to a US President on a major policy issue, Mr Abbott refused to allow the final communiqué to include a binding requirement that all G20 nations commit to the Green Climate Fund announced by Mr Obama on Saturday at University of Queensland.
Several Australian officials, however, said privately that it had been “discourteous” of the US President to grandstand on the issue as a guest in Australia — this year’s host of the G20.
The Greens must be, er, pleased.
UPDATE
Laura Tingle might have to rewrite her weekend gloat to reverse the roles:
Barack Obama has delivered a rather humiliating exercise in power politics over the weekend: showing how leadership and power lies in setting and controlling an agenda …UPDATE
Memo to Abbott Government ministers: listen to how Environment Minister Greg Hunt called out the ABC’s Fran Kelly for verballing and hyperboling in her typical global warming enthusiasm. The ABC’s bias must be challenged at every turn. It is out of control.
But with the Hunt interview over, Kelly then gets on two fellow journalists - Mark Kenny and Michelle Grattan - to agree with her that Obama is a climate hero, Abbott is a zero and climate change a menace.
The ABC’s balance?
UPDATE
Reader The Village Idiot (Reformed) confirms that the G20 communique gave Barack Obama virtually nothing - and the Fairfax media (and Channel 9 yesterday) were spinning wildly in claiming Obama put global warming on the agenda against Tony Abbott’s wishes:
The Sydney Morning Herald ... led with this quote from the Brisbane communique:
The final communique calls on G20 members to “rationalise and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.In fact, the communique said:
“ We reaffirm our commitment to rationalise and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, recognising the need to support the poor.So in fact the G20 only wants wasteful consumption stopped, and it should not affect our Aborigines, single mums, our aged or our infirmed.
The 2013 St. Petersburg communique read as follows:
“94. We reaffirm our commitment to rationalise and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption over the medium term while being conscious of necessity to provide targeted support for the poorest.Sounds like a cut and paste by the Brisbane delegates that any Macquarie University Arts undergraduate would be proud to submit in an assignment.
The 2012 Los Cabos, Mexico communique states:
“74. We welcome the progress report on fossil fuel subsidies, and we reaffirm our commitment to rationalize and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsides that encourage wasteful consumption over the medium term while providing targeted support for the poorest”The 2011 Cannes communique:
“57. We reaffirm our commitment to rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, while providing targeted support for the poorest.”The 2010 Seoul communique:
“58. We reaffirm our commitment to rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, with timing on national circumstances, while providing targeted support for the poorest.”
Contrast these facts with the Sydney Morning Herald’s tale of Obama triumphing over Abbott’s defence of coal:
Mr Obama is understood to have spoken forcefully against Mr Abbott’s position on fossil fuel subsidies. The final communique calls on G20 members to “rationalise and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.
Robyn Dixon and Peter Hartcher swap quotes to prove the world agrees Australia is stupid
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (9:50am)
Here’s how this game
works: the media Left in one country quotes the media Left in another to
persuade its readers that the whole world thinks Left.
But has anyone played this game as comically as Robyn Dixon of the Los Angeles Times and Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald?
To LA Times readers, Dixon quotes Fairfax’s Hatcher, a Leftist long known as Kevin Rudd’s postbox:
UPDATE
Former Fairfax writer Robyn Dixon, now with the equally Leftist Los Angeles Times, sprays her American readers with her contempt for Australia, hatred of Tony Abbott and zeal for global warmism. Naturally The Age is delighted to publish her rant as the view from the US:
If the LA Times readers were stupid enough to believe Dixon they’d think Australians were aching to spend more on global warming policies, and that our relations with Indonesia were broken - rather than better than they ever were under Rudd or Gillard:
===But has anyone played this game as comically as Robyn Dixon of the Los Angeles Times and Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald?
To LA Times readers, Dixon quotes Fairfax’s Hatcher, a Leftist long known as Kevin Rudd’s postbox:
Hartcher believes that Australian politicians have lately squandered opportunities to strengthen the country’s global position at the time of a major global power shift.To Fairfax readers, Hartcher in turn quotes Dixon, portraying this Australian and former Fairfax journalist as in fact the voice of the US:
But [Abbott’s G20] achievement was almost buried under a towering international indignation at Abbott’s suspected climate change denialism.Robyn Dixon, a Leftist from Melbourne, is the measure of “towering international indignation” against Abbott? Seriously, Peter?
“He throws in a boast that his government repealed the country’s carbon tax, standing out among Western nations as the one willing to reverse progress on climate change,” commented a Los Angeles Times journalist, Robyn Dixon, “just days after the United States and China reached a landmark climate change deal.”
Australia, she wrote before the summit’s end, looked like an “adolescent country”.
UPDATE
Former Fairfax writer Robyn Dixon, now with the equally Leftist Los Angeles Times, sprays her American readers with her contempt for Australia, hatred of Tony Abbott and zeal for global warmism. Naturally The Age is delighted to publish her rant as the view from the US:
The adolescent country. The bit player. The shrimp of the schoolyard.Really?
For Australians it’s not so bad - most of the time - to be so far away, so overlooked, so seemingly insignificant as to almost never factor in major international news. The lifestyle makes up for it.
But occasionally, there’s an awkward, pimply youth moment so embarrassing that it does sting. Like when 19 of the world’s most important leaders visit for a global summit and Prime Minister Tony Abbott opens their retreat on Saturday with a whinge about his doomed efforts to get his fellow Australians to pay $7 to see a doctor.
And then he throws in a boast that his government repealed the country’s carbon tax, standing out among Western nations as the one willing to reverse progress on climate change - just days after the United States and China reached a landmark climate change deal.
The Group of 20 summit could have been Australia’s moment, signalling its arrival as a global player, some here argued. But in all, the summit had Australians cringing more than cheering.
If the LA Times readers were stupid enough to believe Dixon they’d think Australians were aching to spend more on global warming policies, and that our relations with Indonesia were broken - rather than better than they ever were under Rudd or Gillard:
[Abbott] offended the world’s most populous Muslim country and one of Australia’s closest and most important neighbours, Indonesia, over his handling of his policy to turn back boats...They’d think Abbott was turning his back on the world, rather than helping to lead it in confronting Russia, signing three free trade deals with major partners, chairing a successful G20 meeting to promote economic development:
Hartcher believes that Australian politicians have lately squandered opportunities to strengthen the country’s global position at the time of a major global power shift.They’d think Abbott was at war with China, rather than so engaged that he will today announce an historic free trade deal with China and give the Chinese president the honor of addressing the Australian parliament:
Since his election last year, Abbott has also taken a tough line with China, his country’s biggest trading partner.They’d think that Abbott’s G20 meeting had been dominated by Obama’s global warming evangelism, when - as another Fairfax writer sadly concedes - Obama’s agenda was confined to a passing and perfunctory mention in the communique:
In the lead-up to the G20 summit, the conservative Abbott insisted climate change would not be on the agenda, only to be wrong-footed by the US-China climate change deal and President Barack Obama’s pledge to contribute $3 billion to a fund to help developing countries deal with the effects of global warming.And Dixon’s LA Times readers would think Australians regarded Gough Whitlam as the great leader, rather than as one of our worst:
For some, the G20 moment stung all the more after a memorial service this month for a reformist Australian, former Labor Party prime minister Gough Whitlam, who died in October at 98. It was a day of stirring speeches, with nostalgia for a time when leaders had sweeping ideas of the country’s identity, vision and place in the world and weren’t afraid to spell them out in grand, compelling speeches.Ah, yes, the Left’s obsession with grand speeches and contempt for gritty achievements. And, of course, for facts.
Liberals don’t trust the ABC with election debates. The new national broadcaster is Sky News
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (9:24am)
The ABC is upset that yet again it won’t hold an election debate - this one between the Victorian Premier and Opposition Leader.
It was also shunned for the leader debates in the past couple of federal elections and the past NSW and South Australian elections, each time losing out to Sky News. The 2012 leaders debate in the Queensland election was hosted by the Courier Mail.
The ABC should realise what this means: its bias is so clear and toxic that almost no Liberal or LNP leader trusts the ABC to be fair when it counts most.
ABC presenter Jon Faine was complaining this morning about Sky News edging out the ABC again in Victoria.
His own interview with Police and Emergency Services Minister Kim Wells just minutes earlier should have told him why the Liberals are entitled to think the ABC unworthy. He recycled the spin of the far-Left Firefighters Union to badger Wells about a complete pre-election furphy - that the Liberal Government had allegedly slashed the CFA, and that this volunteer body might be more efficient if given to the (heavily unionised) Metropolitan Fire Brigade instead.
===It was also shunned for the leader debates in the past couple of federal elections and the past NSW and South Australian elections, each time losing out to Sky News. The 2012 leaders debate in the Queensland election was hosted by the Courier Mail.
The ABC should realise what this means: its bias is so clear and toxic that almost no Liberal or LNP leader trusts the ABC to be fair when it counts most.
ABC presenter Jon Faine was complaining this morning about Sky News edging out the ABC again in Victoria.
His own interview with Police and Emergency Services Minister Kim Wells just minutes earlier should have told him why the Liberals are entitled to think the ABC unworthy. He recycled the spin of the far-Left Firefighters Union to badger Wells about a complete pre-election furphy - that the Liberal Government had allegedly slashed the CFA, and that this volunteer body might be more efficient if given to the (heavily unionised) Metropolitan Fire Brigade instead.
Russia’s MH17 lie exposed
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (9:05am)
As Russian president Vladimir Putin jetted into Brisbane for the G20 meeting, Russian state television broadcast fake pictures to take the pressure off him over Russian involvement in the shooting down of MH17.
As Australian outlets helpfully reported:
Russian state television has broadcast what it says are satellite images of a MiG-29 fighter jet flying near the Malaysia Airlines jet that was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July.Bellingcat exposes the fraud:
The report on Saturday quoted Ivan Andrijewski, vice president of the Russian union of engineers, as saying the images presumably came from a British or a US spy satellite.
Overlaying the image with known data points about the MH17 flight path and debris gives the following results, showing the aircraft in the picture off the reported course....It is clear that the satellite map imagery is created from a composite of different satellite map imagery…More evidence, pictures and links at the Bellingcat site.
Looking at the plane that is supposedly flight MH17, the appearance of the aircraft does not match the real 9M-MRD: the Malaysian airlines logo is in the wrong place, with the Malaysia Airlines logo beginning above the wing in reference images for MH17, while the satellite map imagery shows the logo beginning just in front of the wing.
I asked Foreign Minister Julie Bishop about this yesterday:
There are citizen journalists who take the time to assess these things very closely, and it would seem that the picture of the jet was something just downloaded from Google. It wasn’t MH17, and they’ve done a comparison with the markings on the plane and the markings on this photograph and they don’t match up. So, if that is another attempt by Russia to blame Ukraine for what is clearly, in our mind, from the evidence that we’ve seen, a matter involving Russia, then it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
The five reasons Obama’s climate “breakthrough” is a con
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (8:44am)
ALMOST everything you’re told about Barack Obama’s “breakthrough” deal with China on global warming is a con.
But, God, listen to the spin.
President Obama told ecstatic students in Brisbane on Saturday that last week’s deal to limit carbon dioxide emissions would help save our Great Barrier Reef and “I want that there 50 years from now”.
Greens leader Christine Milne insisted it showed the Prime Minister Tony Abbott “is completely out of step with the rest of the world”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it recognised “human activity is already changing the world’s climate system”, and “we most certainly need to address climate change as the presidents of China and the United States have done”.
Red China was going green, agreed the warmist ABC, since “the most concrete target is to have 20 per cent of China’s energy produced from renewable sources by 2030”.
Hear all that?
Every claim is actually false, fake or overblown, as so often with the global warming scare.
Here are the five biggest falsehoods told about this “breakthrough”.
(Read full article here.)
===But, God, listen to the spin.
President Obama told ecstatic students in Brisbane on Saturday that last week’s deal to limit carbon dioxide emissions would help save our Great Barrier Reef and “I want that there 50 years from now”.
Greens leader Christine Milne insisted it showed the Prime Minister Tony Abbott “is completely out of step with the rest of the world”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it recognised “human activity is already changing the world’s climate system”, and “we most certainly need to address climate change as the presidents of China and the United States have done”.
Red China was going green, agreed the warmist ABC, since “the most concrete target is to have 20 per cent of China’s energy produced from renewable sources by 2030”.
Hear all that?
Every claim is actually false, fake or overblown, as so often with the global warming scare.
Here are the five biggest falsehoods told about this “breakthrough”.
(Read full article here.)
Obama’s climate posturing weakens the US, helps China and betrays Australia
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (8:34am)
Barack Obama on his visit here was crass, graceless, bombastic and deliberately rude.
His global warming speech in Brisbane was a deliberate, hyperbolic and inappropriate attack on the Abbott Government. His attempt to hijack the G20 agenda was mere posturing on an issue which he was too cowardly to raise in his own election debates. And his clowning around at the staged handshake with Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was clearly meant to show disrespect to his host.
Obama always was a windbag and a disastrously weak and ineffectual President. But now that his power is ebbing after the Republican landslide in the mid-term elections he’s become a particularly vindictive one.
Greg Sheridan on Barack Obama’s treachery - which I suspect won’t actually do Tony Abbott much harm as long as the government makes clear it defied and defeated Obama’s empty grandstanding:
Maurice Newman agrees Obama’s deal is a fraud - as well as a threat to the US:
But on Labor leader Bill Shorten, Kelly is surely correct:
Nine Graphs That Prove Using Fossil Fuels Hasn’t Harmed The Planet
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.)
===His global warming speech in Brisbane was a deliberate, hyperbolic and inappropriate attack on the Abbott Government. His attempt to hijack the G20 agenda was mere posturing on an issue which he was too cowardly to raise in his own election debates. And his clowning around at the staged handshake with Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was clearly meant to show disrespect to his host.
Obama always was a windbag and a disastrously weak and ineffectual President. But now that his power is ebbing after the Republican landslide in the mid-term elections he’s become a particularly vindictive one.
Greg Sheridan on Barack Obama’s treachery - which I suspect won’t actually do Tony Abbott much harm as long as the government makes clear it defied and defeated Obama’s empty grandstanding:
BARACK Obama blindsided the Abbott government in Brisbane, pretty viciously. Through his remarks on climate change, he has damaged the government politically.It is a feature of global warmists to lack all moderation and sense of proportion. But the faith always did appeal to the inner totalitarian.
It’s a strange way to treat a friend but it is all of a piece, sadly, with Obama’s presidential style…
The damage may not be long-lasting because the US President’s remarks bore little relation to anything he can deliver or will do. Instead, they reprise the most ineffably capricious and inconsequential moments in the Obama presidency: grand gestures, soaring visions, which never actually get implemented in the real world.
Obama went out of his way to imply, in the most politically damaging fashion he could, that Australia’s efforts on climate change were negligible and compared poorly with America’s. In fact, Australia’s efforts on greenhouse gas reduction are almost identical with those of the US. As some American journalists observed, it is not a speech Obama would have given at home, where his authority is gone and nobody buys the moonshine any more…
In reality, the US is in no position to lecture Australia on climate change. In the period covered by the first Kyoto agreement, for example, the US committed, amid great fanfare, to a 7 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It recorded a 9 per cent increase....
On current commitments, if 1990 is the base year, then by 2020 Australia will have cut its emissions 4 per cent, if it meets its targets, and the US by 5 per cent, if it meets its targets. On the same figures, if you take 2005 as the base year, Australia will have cut its emissions 12 per cent and the US 17 per cent....
Obama’s new targets for the US do represent an increase, but he won’t be in office to implement these targets and congress is likely to oppose the regulatory measures required for them. They are in every sense hypothetical. ... Nor did Obama in his speech point out that under this deal China is not committed to doing anything at all before 2030 and that its emissions will keep rising until then.
But by using motifs which have figured in the domestic Australian debate, such as the fate of the Great Barrier Reef, Obama’s speechwriters determined to hurt the Abbott government.
Maurice Newman agrees Obama’s deal is a fraud - as well as a threat to the US:
While Obama may have noble intent, his latest climate “deal” with China reveals faulty judgment and dangerous naivety. As The Wall Street Journal editorialised on Thursday, “The Chinese ... must have been delighted to see a US President agree to make America less economically competitive in return for rhetorical bows to doing something some day about climate change."…Paul Kelly, a luke warmist, says Obama has put pressure on Tony Abbott to lift his targets for cuts to emissions - although I’d say it puts pressure on Tony Abbott to challenge the warmist dogma.
[China] ... has signed a meaningless agreement to the rapturous acclaim of the world’s climate cheerleaders… It has potentially inflicted harm and slower growth on the US economy and ensured renewed hostilities between the Obama administration and the new majority Republican lawmakers, when the American people had hoped that political gridlock was behind them.
Agreement or no agreement, for China it will be business as usual. But for the US it will mean working out how to cut its emissions by 26 per cent below 2005 levels without slashing coal-fired electricity output by 75 per cent by 2025. Senator James Inhofe, who is likely to chair the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, has called the deal “a non-binding charade..”
But on Labor leader Bill Shorten, Kelly is surely correct:
Shorten mocks Abbott as stubborn, an isolationist and an ideologue. Yet Shorten has the same target as Abbott — a 5 per cent emission reduction target by 2020....UPDATE
Labor, as Shorten signalled yesterday, must increase its target. He said Abbott “needs to do more”, yet that comment applies equally to Labor. Shorten affirmed that Labor’s “fallback’’ position was still operative: to go to a 15 per cent reduction if the world moved. And the world, of course, is moving. [Really? - AB]
The problem for Labor lies in the text of the US-China agreement. It ... does not mention carbon pricing or an emissions trading scheme, yet a national ETS is what Labor will take to the 2016 election. The risk for Labor is that the world is moving away from economy wide, “one size fits all’’ ETS schemes as legislated by the former Gillard government. Shorten’s 2016 problem is that he will champion a national ETS that does not exist in the US, a powerful negative for him.
Labor’s ETS policy also means the higher the target, the higher the price. And the higher the carbon price, the more lethal will be Abbott’s attack.
Nine Graphs That Prove Using Fossil Fuels Hasn’t Harmed The Planet
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.)
Why is the government saving state media by crippling the commercials?
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (8:31am)
HOW strange. Why would the Abbott Government help our gigantic state media tighten its grip on debate?
Does it really think the ABC and SBS need more help to crush their commercial rivals — and belt up conservatives?
No healthy democracy can afford a state-funded media this big.
The ABC has four TV stations and five radio stations in every city, as well as an online newspaper, bookshops and a publishing house.
SBS has two TV stations (three, including the indigenous one) and four radio stations. This an overwhelming presence. No private media comes close in size. In fact, there are laws against it.
This megasize would be a problem even if the ABC and SBS were balanced and not relentlessly pushing the Left’s creeds of global warming, “reconciliation”, mass immigration, multiculturalism, same sex marriage and the predictable rest.
(Read the full article here.)
===Does it really think the ABC and SBS need more help to crush their commercial rivals — and belt up conservatives?
No healthy democracy can afford a state-funded media this big.
The ABC has four TV stations and five radio stations in every city, as well as an online newspaper, bookshops and a publishing house.
SBS has two TV stations (three, including the indigenous one) and four radio stations. This an overwhelming presence. No private media comes close in size. In fact, there are laws against it.
This megasize would be a problem even if the ABC and SBS were balanced and not relentlessly pushing the Left’s creeds of global warming, “reconciliation”, mass immigration, multiculturalism, same sex marriage and the predictable rest.
(Read the full article here.)
ABC hails hot day in Brisbane as “climate change”
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (8:06am)
Global warming alarmism on the ABC’s Insiders:
Meanwhile, Arctic ice is at its highest level in a decade.
(Thanks to reader Old Fellah.)
===BARRIE CASSIDY: And I understand the temperature will reach at least 40 degrees in Brisbane today, so climate change has arrived certainly in more ways than one it seems at this conference.Would Cassidy have said the same if the G20 had been held in the US instead:
Record-setting cold continues for another day on Thursday in the Central U.S., where frigid temperatures are hovering to 45 degrees below average.UPDATE
Casper, Wyo., fell to a low temperature of minus 27 degrees on Wednesday night, which breaks the record for all-time November low temperature of minus 21 degrees, set in 1985.
Overnight lows in Denver, Colo., plummeted to 14 degrees below zero, which ties the record for second coldest temperature in November.
Meanwhile, Arctic ice is at its highest level in a decade.
(Thanks to reader Old Fellah.)
Submitting to Islamists won’t save us
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (7:59am)
It is a ghastly metaphor. No kindness, no submission is enough to appease Islamism:
===THE Islamic State jihadist group is claiming to have executed US aid worker Peter Kassig as a warning to the United States.The love of cruelty is also noteworthy. Even the Nazis preferred to keep their worst barbarity a secret:
The extremist group has released a video showing a masked militant claiming to have beheaded Kassig, also known as Abdul-Rahman, and standing over a severed head…
Kassig, 26, was captured last year while helping provide medical aid to Syrians. His friends say he converted to Islam in captivity and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman.
The video also showed what appeared to be the mass beheading of several captured Syrian soldiers.
In the highly choreographed sequence, jihadists march the prisoners by a wooden box of long military knives, each taking one as they pass, before forcing their victims to kneel in a line and decapitating them.
Why feminism is crashing to earth
Andrew Bolt November 17 2014 (12:01am)
A team of male and female scientists land a space vehicle on a tiny comet in an astonishing triumph of science. But...:
Matt Taylor, was wearing a shirt, made for him by a female “close pal,” featuring comic-book depictions of semi-naked women. And suddenly, the triumph of the comet landing was drowned out by shouts of feminist outrage about...what people were wearing. It was one small shirt for a man, one giant leap backward for womankind....The woman who made the shirt and gave it to Taylor:
What should have been the greatest day in a man’s life—accomplishing something never before done in the history of humanity—was instead derailed by people with their own axes to grind. As Chloe Price observed: “Imagine the ...storm if the scientist had been a woman and everyone focused solely on her clothes and not her achievements.”
Dr. Matt Taylor is an amazing, kind, loving and sensitive person. I never expected him to wear my gift to him for such a big event and was surprised and deeply moved that he did… I am so proud of Matt and his achievements and the fact he is an interesting and very brave person to do what he did with the very sweet gesture he made towards my gift and to wear his individuality with pride.Tim Blair:
Fairfax’s lazy Ladypages examine the sexist scientist shirt scandal:I wouldn’t count on feminists unable to describe a shirt being able to land a rocket.
A female tech writer has received abuse and death threats on Twitter after criticising the sexist shirt worn by a scientist involved in this week’s Philae comet landing.Aside from the women not being naked and the absence of death threats (none are shown by the Ladypages) this might almost be accurate.
Matt Taylor – a scientist from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Project, which successfully landed a space probe on the comet 67P on Wednesday morning, following a decade-long mission – drew online criticism after he was interviewed wearing a shirt with naked women on it.
Post by Dallas Beaufort.
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Post by Jacqui Lambie.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Post by New Scientist.
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Post by Tony Abbott.
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Post by Tara Hayes Lane.
Food for thought. I dont ask for discounts nor do I expect it, because I know how much it would cost when running a small business. People think you can afford it, actually with overheads and taxes, you really cant. So discounting and giving away things for free as a promotional exercise doesnt work, you want to retain long term customers, not ones who only come when its cheap. However I am happy to reward my long term customers, with something free now and then, or do something special for their birthday, because they have definitely earned it by coming back time and time again. Next time you want something for free, think about who's pocket it comes out of. Someone has to pay for it in the end. Nothing is ever really free. Respect the small business. Respect the price. - RO
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Post by Matt Granz.
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Post by Mauricio Duque.
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Sweden at war with GB in 1810. Was this the first war between two democracies? @stephenfry nb no fighting https://t.co/ZD5TWTMxAp
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 17, 2014
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foreign workers who have expertise grow the economy allowing more employment for Australians too .. http://t.co/x13QhdEov6 via @smh
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 17, 2014
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The obsession with defaming Abbott at the G20 http://t.co/wqM8iUqLv6 via @wordpressdotcom
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 17, 2014
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Iraq Christians guard village taken from IS group http://t.co/IHI6EeJltA via @YahooNews
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 17, 2014
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More bad news for AGW hysterics http://t.co/9bwZCV3yMo
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
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Photo: http://t.co/3T8oKF18aF
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
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Photo: gemmacorrell: (via Four Eyes Comic Strip on http://t.co/BOXPfTKwtM) its a sign .. http://t.co/GnYMvhMbr1
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
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Photo: all-the-ways-things-are: http://t.co/rZ0PCuCzYs
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
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Photo: all-the-ways-things-are: http://t.co/pGTzqhNM2A
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
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Except it isn't exactly same. It was cntnd and ltd. .. On immigration, Obama may follow an existing trail http://t.co/pgPMjK9znS via @maddow
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
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I liked a @YouTube video http://t.co/mguFFJwzq3 Marlisa Punzalan - Winner's Single - Stand By You - Grand Final - The X Factor
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 16, 2014
=== Posts from last year ===
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Daniel Katz
I am seeing pictures of grieving Israeli Jewish families pouring their hearts out over the coffins of their loved ones before burial.
These emotive scenes should not be photographed and published to fullfil the blood lust of news thirsty media.
It encourages future murderers and gives their supporters satisfaction.
The father of the young cowardly Arab boy who stabbed to death an innocent sleeping young Israeli soldier last week in a bus has praised his son for the murder.
You can not reason with such disgraceful people. Diplomacy has failed and will continue to fail.
Indeed all decent people are under attack, Muslim or non Muslim.
Either the jihadist scum are hunted down like dogs and killed or be prepared to be killed by them.
These barbarian douche bags are the people the apostate Muslim anti POTUS Barry Soetoro wants Israel to have a two state solution with.
It takes only one filthy lying douche bag like Obama's support of these Arabs to promote more murders in the future.
It's time Israel cuts their umbilical chord from the USA and stands alone because they will be standing alone anyway as we saw in the past and we now see in the future with increasing anti Semitism while countries are infiltrated by Islamist invaders spreading their poison with the left wing socialist alliance.
History has shown what happens to those nations that attack their Jews and we are now witnessing the self destruction of the American empire filled with dumb downed ferals who re elected the most treacherous evil POTUS undermining the USA and it's constitution by allowing the Muslim Brotherhood a voice.
One can only unbelievably admire the efforts of the Egyptian army for recognising and eliminating the same problem that the USA now protects and supports.
Benghazi was not an omen. It was an attack on the USA and Obama and his goons did nothing.
... Just another bribe making the corrupt Phallistinean Authority richer in the West Bank.
How many millions of Americans now live below the poverty line while their money is being given away to people who hate them ?
And how can a country that is close to USD$18 trillion in debt keep giving away money ?
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5263318/meet-debbi-wood-most-jealous-woman-in-world.html
Auditions for Dr Phil? ed
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Enjoy feeling proud of the Jewish State of Israel:
http://www.youtube.com/
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http://newsblaze.com/story/20131026075925nurg.nb/topstory.html
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http://networkedblogs.com/QtCfY
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14113#.UohAbOKRmM8
I heard a story of injustice by Stephen Fry on QI recently. In the dark ages of England, a peasant looked like a pig .. straggly hair,, obese .. one eye .. ears raised .. worse, there was a pig with the same one eye. He was accused of unnatural acts with the pig's sow-mum. He denied it. Finally the accusers said "We could show you mercy if you only admitted it." He'd been tortured and confessed. Whereupon he was told that the mercy would be shown by G-d. To execute him, they required two witnesses. His confession meant he was one witness. The pig was considered the other. The pig was executed too. I would like to show Obama mercy .. ed===
Class warfare hurts everyone.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/one-million-families-downgraded-private-health-cover-after-labor-cut-rebate/story-fni0cx12-1226761691526
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http://publicculture.org/articles/view/19/3/jews-lice-and-history
==="My point here is that many Europeans behaved with incredible cowardice and indecency. No matter what they pretended later, they pretty much knew what Hitler had in store for a bunch of innocent men, women and children whose only crime was that they were Jews, and they only thing they cared about was looking out for number one and dividing up any spoils that were left over.">
Read more here :
joshuapundit.blogspot.com
http://joshuapundit.blogspot.se/2013/02/why-europeans-wil-never-forgive-jews.html===
“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” Psalm 119:18 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"The Lord is my portion, saith my soul."
Lamentations 3:24
Lamentations 3:24
It is not "The Lord is partly my portion," nor "The Lord is in my portion"; but he himself makes up the sum total of my soul's inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not his grace merely, nor his love, nor his covenant, but Jehovah himself. He has chosen us for his portion, and we have chosen him for ours. It is true that the Lord must first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of electing love, we can sing--
"Lov'd of my God for him again
With love intense I burn;
Chosen of him ere time began,
I choose him in return."
The Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills himself; and if God is all-sufficient in himself, he must be all- sufficient for us. It is not easy to satisfy man's desires. When he dreams that he is satisfied, anon he wakes to the perception that there is somewhat yet beyond, and straightway the horse-leech in his heart cries, "Give, give." But all that we can wish for is to be found in our divine portion, so that we ask, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Well may we "delight ourselves in the Lord" who makes us to drink of the river of his pleasures. Our faith stretches her wings and mounts like an eagle into the heaven of divine love as to her proper dwelling-place. "The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; yea, we have a goodly heritage." Let us rejoice in the Lord always; let us show to the world that we are a happy and a blessed people, and thus induce them to exclaim, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."
Evening
"Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty."
Isaiah 33:17
Isaiah 33:17
The more you know about Christ the less will you be satisfied with superficial views of him; and the more deeply you study his transactions in the eternal covenant, his engagements on your behalf as the eternal Surety, and the fulness of his grace which shines in all his offices, the more truly will you see the King in his beauty. Be much in such outlooks. Long more and more to see Jesus. Meditation and contemplation are often like windows of agate, and gates of carbuncle, through which we behold the Redeemer. Meditation puts the telescope to the eye, and enables us to see Jesus after a better sort than we could have seen him if we had lived in the days of his flesh. Would that our conversation were more in heaven, and that we were more taken up with the person, the work, the beauty of our incarnate Lord. More meditation, and the beauty of the King would flash upon us with more resplendence. Beloved, it is very probable that we shall have such a sight of our glorious King as we never had before, when we come to die. Many saints in dying have looked up from amidst the stormy waters, and have seen Jesus walking on the waves of the sea, and heard him say, "It is I, be not afraid." Ah, yes! when the tenement begins to shake, and the clay falls away, we see Christ through the rifts, and between the rafters the sunlight of heaven comes streaming in. But if we want to see face to face the "King in his beauty" we must go to heaven for the sight, or the King must come here in person. O that he would come on the wings of the wind! He is our Husband, and we are widowed by his absence; he is our Brother dear and fair, and we are lonely without him. Thick veils and clouds hang between our souls and their true life: when shall the day break and the shadows flee away? Oh, long-expected day, begin!
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Today's reading: Ezekiel 3-4, Hebrews 11:20-40 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 3-4
1 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3 Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4 He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. 5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel— 6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. 8 But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. 9 I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people....”
Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 11:20-40
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel....
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Demas
[Dē'mas] - popular or ruler of people.A companion of Paul during his first Roman imprisonment (Col. 4:14; Philem. 24).
[Dē'mas] - popular or ruler of people.A companion of Paul during his first Roman imprisonment (Col. 4:14; Philem. 24).
The Man Who Forsook His Friend
This seems to be an indication that this native of Thessalonica was not fully trusted even when he was near to Paul (Phil. 2:20). Scripture has this against him, that he forsook Paul for this present world ( 2 Tim. 4:10). It is amazing how a student of Comparative Anatomy can build up a whole unknown structure from one or two known bones. In the same way we can sketch the character of Demas from the few references to him in the Bible's portrait gallery.
Before he met Paul we can picture him as an agreeable young man with no particular vice. The material of his character had no rent in it. It was only shoddy throughout. Under the strong influence of Paul's personality, Demas was like a piece of soft iron, temporarily magnetized by the presence of a magnet. Becoming a disciple, he was carried away by the enthusiasm of sacrifice. He wanted to live with Paul and die with him, and have a throne and a halo among the martyred saints.
But when Demas came up to the great capital of the then known world in company with the Lord's prisoners, Paul and Epaphras, it was a different story. He was not a prisoner, and gradually the contrast between the cell and the outer world became intolerable to him. He saw the magnificent halls of the Caesars, the gorgeous homes of the rich and the glitter of a world of music, venal loves, jest and wine. Such a gay world cast its glamor over Demas, and he yielded to its charms. The prison where his friends were languishing seemed wretched alongside the music-haunted, scented, dazzling halls of Rome. Thus Paul had to write one of the most heartbreaking lines in his letters:
"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." This man of wavering impulse who surrendered the passion of sacrifice and sank in the swirling waters of the world, is a true reflection of the thought that where our love is, there we finally are.
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