We are all going to die!
Coal or death? Choose coal. The choice was delivered by Australian Green's leader Milne. But the choice was made before the alternative of death was given. Coal is cheap, reliable and long lasting. It also produces plant food. It doesn't kill birds like a windmill or solar power station. It is just better for the environment. Luckily China is building a lot of those beasts.One month before the world ends according to the Rudd Government's CSIRO chief scientist Penny Sackett. She made the rigorous scientific declaration on December 3rd 2009. She had given us five years to avoid it. The modelling is in. The science has settled. Remarkably, the 2 degrees centigrade rise she predicted with such deadly accuracy hasn't arisen. Neither has ice shrinkage, ocean warming or dam crippling droughts. The ABC has suggested we should succumb to such terror, where against terrorists they prescribe quiet stoicism and appeasement. Gaia will not have mercy, but luckily will not have wrath either.
Sunni shoots Shiite in Sydney as a father of many is shot outside a prayer hall which media do not call a mosque. A young daughter is interviewed and she seems to blame anti Muslim sentiment as the camera focuses on her undeveloped chest and not her possibly obscured face. Meanwhile, a 15 yo boy in cadet uniform in UK selling Remembrance Day poppies is approached by a hooded person and burned by a lit aerosol can. The hooded person is described as possibly black or Asian, which is code which may include Pakistani or Afghan.
ISIL kills people with wrong last name. The victims are Sunni but their village chief had resisted ISIL. The victims include women and children, lined up and shot, numbering in the hundreds. Dozens of Australians are supporting ISIL. Many of those Australians were on welfare, some claimed to be unable to work for their disability.
Following the rules
Crazy ALP and Green local councils love legislation and rules for constituents. They make decisions about placing tables next to each other in diners, or the number of chairs patrons are allowed at those tables in those diners. Marrickville is one of the more ridiculous councils, having supported a BDS against Israel and successfully forcing an Israeli company to not employ some 650 Palestinian employees. The council has also approved signs claiming it is Coal Seam Gas free, which it isn't, accepting some 5% energy from CSG. They have rules, but don't follow them either.ALP backed by pokies in Victoria? Racing identity and former Crown Casino boss Lloyd Williams has claimed James Packer is backing the inept, corrupt, unreformed and sleazy ALP in Victoria. ALP had initiated Crown after they had spent other income sources. But Libs offer fiscal responsibility and seem to offer better prospects for all. Lloyd might not speak for James.
Shorten has failed to account for his union activity to the Royal Commission into union corruption. Shorten had been quoted as having said to turn a blind eye. If he didn't, he should say so. If he did, he should explain why. Them's the rules for leaders .. and everyone else who is functional.
Robert Manne has been declared as Australia's foremost intellectual. But he is extraordinarily fact challenged. Not solely on Global Warming where he falsified a hockey stick graph, but also in the Stolen Generation Myth and so called 'Asylum seekers.' Manne seems to enjoy people dying from bureaucratic ambivalence. But that might be left wing ideology unsupported by facts which left wingers mindlessly embrace.
Bureau of Meteorology has consistently miscalled weather, favouring warmer. On any day, they are consistently ten degrees out on overnight lows, almost always claiming it will be warmer. But their forecasts are badly wrong, murderously so when Brisbane flooded. Time for research into the fidelity of the bureau to reporting fact.
Julia Gillard questionable, but protected by left wing mainstream media. Would she have become PM if it were known generally she had created a slush found to allow stand over tactics to be employed to misappropriate funds meant for the poorest workers? It is as if she smoked cigars while stealing from children under her care.
ABC's love affair with NK leader extends to the production of a film which made tribute to NK's oppressor. The film maker described being denied choice by a stalinist government as a "detox" and "serene."
Russell Brand is merely parroting what the left wing claim and although fact checking him shows he is wrong, he will believe it and say it anyway. It is as if an opinion is not backed by reality but vehement assertion.
Uncomfortable truths
Questioning the need for a racist constitution. Australia has prospered from a constitution which has allowed basic freedoms, secular authority and the rule of law. It doesn't need to define race. It doesn't need to distinguish between races. Calls to create a constitution which isolates and favours one race over others will not address basic needs of the poorest, but will prevent the poor from prospering.from 2013
The way wharf side unionists behaved in WW2 was despicable. Protected by leftwing media from questioning, it is too late to do anything about it, except to correct history. Another shameful period in the history of unions. I feel that the success of unions 120 years ago is over stated. Stand over tactics did not make mining safer. The reason for conditions is more political and less union action .. but it is a moot point. They are worse than useless today .. they weaken worker conditions through corruption. In contrast is the diggers work in Afghanistan. The longest engagement in Australian history, one is able to see how administrations affect soldiers. forty died under ALP government, none under Liberal administrations. If the ALP were not going to support them, they should not have kept them there. Regardless, they served with honour. Why would Burnside spit on them?
Clearly the media are not reporting on issues in a way that readers want. The result is falling readership. The media would rather cut their own throats rather than give up preaching to the left. There are too many cats paws in this world.
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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.
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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.
===
- 39 – Lucan, Roman poet (d. 65)
- 1500 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor and painter (d. 1571)
- 1560 – Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (d. 1609)
- 1587 – Samuel Scheidt, German composer (d. 1654)
- 1801 – Karl Baedeker, German author and publisher, founded the Baedeker Publishing Company (d. 1859)
- 1900 – Adolf Dassler, German businessman, founded Adidas (d. 1978)
- 1921 – Charles Bronson, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1948 – Lulu, Scottish singer-songwriter and actress
- 1953 – Kate Capshaw, American actress
- 1987 – Gemma Ward, Australian model and actress
- 1995 – Kendall Jenner, American model
November 3: Culture Day in Japan
- 1812 – French invasion of Russia: As Napoleon's Grande Armée began its retreat, its rear guard was defeated at the Battle of Vyazma.
- 1838 – The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English-language daily broadsheet newspaper, was founded as the The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.
- 1954 – The first film featuring the giant monster known as Godzilla, was released.
- 1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon made a plea to the "silent majority", referring to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time.
- 2007 – Pakistani President and Chief of Army Staff Pervez Musharraf (pictured) declared a state of emergency across Pakistan, suspending the Pakistani Constitution.
Matches
- 361 – Emperor Constantius II dies of a fever at Mopsuestia in Cilicia, on his deathbed he is baptised and declares his cousin Julian rightful successor.
- 644 – Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is assassinated by a Persian slave in Medina.
- 1333 – The River Arno flooding causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.
- 1468 – Liège is sacked by Charles I of Burgundy's troops.
- 1492 – Peace of Etaples between Henry VII and Charles VIII.
- 1493 – Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.
- 1592 – The city of San Luis Potosí is founded.
- 1783 – John Austin, a highwayman, is the last person to be publicly hanged at London's Tyburn gallows.
- 1783 – The American Continental Army is disbanded.
- 1793 – French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.
- 1812 – Napoleon's armies are defeated at the Battle of Vyazma.
- 1817 – The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal.
- 1838 – The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.
- 1848 – A greatly revised Dutch constitution, drafted by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the Dutch monarchy, and strengthening the powers of parliament and ministers, is proclaimed.
- 1867 – Giuseppe Garibaldi and his followers are defeated in the Battle of Mentana and fail to end the Pope's Temporal power in Rome (it would be achieved three years later).
- 1868 – John Willis Menard was the first African American elected to the United States Congress. Because of an electoral challenge, he was never seated.
- 1883 – American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the poet" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves a clue that eventually leads to his capture.
- 1898 – France withdraws its troops from Fashoda (now in Sudan), ending the Fashoda Incident.
- 1903 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama separates from Colombia.
- 1911 – Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.
- 1918 – Austria-Hungary enters into an armistice with the Allies, and the Habsburg-ruled empire dissolves.
- 1918 – Poland declares its independence from Russia.
- 1918 – The German Revolution of 1918–19 begins when 40,000 sailors take over the port in Kiel.
- 1930 – Getúlio Dornelles Vargas becomes Head of the Provisional Government in Brazil after a bloodless coup on October 24.
- 1932 – Panagis Tsaldaris becomes the 142nd Prime Minister of Greece.
- 1935 – George II of Greece regains his throne through a popular, though possible fixed, plebiscite.
- 1942 – World War II: The Koli Point action begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on November 12.
- 1943 – World War II: 500 aircraft of the U.S. 8th Air Force devastate Wilhelmshaven harbor in Germany.
- 1944 – World War II: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.
- 1954 – The first Godzilla film is released and marks the first appearance of the character of the same name.
- 1956 – The Khan Yunis killings are perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces in Egyptian-controlled Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 275 male Arabs.
- 1957 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.
- 1960 – The land that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established by an Act of Congress after a year-long legal battle that pitted local residents against Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials wishing to turn the Great Swamp into a major regional airport for jet aircraft.
- 1964 – Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time.
- 1967 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dak To begins.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.
- 1973 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
- 1975 – Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman, Tajuddin Ahmad, and Muhammad Mansur Ali, Bangladeshi politicians and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman loyalists, murdered in the Dhaka Central Jail.
- 1978 – Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1979 – Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States.
- 1982 – The Salang Tunnel fire in Afghanistan kills up to 2,000 people.
- 1986 – Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
- 1986 – The Federated States of Micronesia gain independence from the United States of America.
- 1988 – Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries try to overthrow the Maldivian government. At President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's request, the Indian military suppresses the coup attempt within 24 hours.
- 1996 – Death of Abdullah Çatlı, leader of the Turkish ultra-nationalist organisation Grey Wolves in the Susurluk car-crash, which leads to the resignation of the Turkish Interior Minister, Mehmet Ağar (a leader of the True Path Party, DYP).
- 1997 – The United States of America imposes economic sanctions against Sudan in response to its human rights abuses of its own citizens and its material and political assistance to Islamic extremist groups across the Middle East and Eastern Africa.
- 2013 – A solar eclipse sweeps across Africa, Europe and the Eastern United States.
Hatches
- 39 – Lucan, Roman poet (d. 65)
- 1500 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor and painter (d. 1571)
- 1558 – Thomas Kyd, English author and playwright (d. 1594)
- 1560 – Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (d. 1609)
- 1587 – Samuel Scheidt, German organist, composer, and educator (d. 1654)
- 1604 – Osman II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1622)
- 1633 – Bernardino Ramazzini, Italian physician and academic (d. 1714)
- 1656 – Georg Reutter, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1738)
- 1689 – Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, Czech composer (d. 1742)
- 1749 – Daniel Rutherford, Scottish chemist and physician (d. 1819)
- 1757 – Robert Smith, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 6th United States Secretary of State (d. 1842)
- 1777 – Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom (d. 1848)
- 1793 – Stephen F. Austin, American businessman and politician (d. 1836)
- 1794 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet and journalist (d. 1878)
- 1799 – William Sprague III, American politician, 14th Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1856)
- 1801 – Karl Baedeker, German author and publisher, founded the Baedeker Publishing Company (d. 1859)
- 1801 – Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (d. 1835)
- 1815 – John Mitchel, Irish journalist and activist (d. 1875)
- 1816 – Jubal Early, American general and lawyer (d. 1894)
- 1816 – Calvin Fairbank, American minister and activist (d. 1898)
- 1845 – Edward Douglass White, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 9th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1921)
- 1852 – Emperor Meiji of Japan (d. 1912)
- 1856 – Jim McCormick, Scottish-American baseball player and manager (d. 1918)
- 1857 – Mikhail Alekseyev, Russian general (d. 1918)
- 1862 – Henry George, Jr., American journalist and politician (d. 1916)
- 1863 – Alfred Perot, French physicist (d. 1925)
- 1871 – Albert Goldthorpe, English rugby player and manager (d. 1943)
- 1875 – Emīls Dārziņš, Latvian composer (d. 1910)
- 1876 – Stephen Alencastre, American bishop and missionary (d. 1940)
- 1877 – Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, Chilean general and politician, 20th President of Chile (d. 1960)
- 1884 – Joseph William Martin, Jr., American publisher and politician, 49th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1968)
- 1884 – Arthur Rosenkampff, American gymnast (d. 1952)
- 1887 – Samuil Marshak, Russian author and poet (d. 1964)
- 1890 – Harry Stephen Keeler, American author (d. 1967)
- 1890 – Eustáquio van Lieshout, Dutch-Brazilian priest and missionary (d. 1943)
- 1894 – William George Barker, Canadian pilot and colonel, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1930)
- 1894 – Sofoklis Venizelos, Greek politician, 133rd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1964)
- 1896 – Gustaf Tenggren, Swedish-American illustrator and animator (d. 1970)
- 1899 – Rezső Seress, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1968)
- 1899 – Gleb Wataghin, Ukrainian-Italian physicist and academic (d. 1986)
- 1900 – Adolf Dassler, German businessman, founded Adidas (d. 1978)
- 1901 – Leopold III of Belgium (d. 1983)
- 1901 – André Malraux, French historian, theorist, and author (d. 1976)
- 1903 – Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)
- 1903 – Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani historian and educator (d. 1981)
- 1905 – Lois Mailou Jones, American painter and academic (d. 1998)
- 1908 – Giovanni Leone, Italian politician, 6th President of Italy (d. 2001)
- 1908 – Bronko Nagurski, Canadian-American football player, wrestler, and coach (d. 1990)
- 1909 – James Reston, Scottish-American journalist (d. 1995)
- 1910 – Richard Hurndall, English actor (d. 1984)
- 1910 – Karel Zeman, Czech director, animator, production designer, and screenwriter (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Kick Smit, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 1974)
- 1912 – Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguayan general and politician, 46th President of Paraguay (d. 2006)
- 1915 – Hal Jackson, American radio host (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Annapurna Maharana, Indian activist (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Claude Barma, French director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1992)
- 1918 – Bob Feller, American sailor, baseball player, and sportscaster (d. 2010)
- 1918 – Elizabeth P. Hoisington, American general (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Russell B. Long, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2003)
- 1918 – Dean Riesner, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2002)
- 1919 – Jesús Blasco, Spanish author and illustrator (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Ludovic Kennedy, Scottish journalist and author (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Květa Legátová, Czech author (d. 2012)
- 1920 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Australian poet, educator, and activist (d. 1993)
- 1921 – Charles Bronson, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1922 – Dennis McDermott, English-Canadian union leader and diplomat (d. 2003)
- 1923 – Yamaguchi Hitomi, Japanese author and critic (d. 1995)
- 1923 – Tomás Ó Fiaich, Irish cardinal (d. 1990)
- 1923 – Leonard Stone, American actor (d. 2011)
- 1924 – Violetta Elvin, Russian ballerina
- 1924 – Samuel Ruiz, Mexican bishop (d. 2011)
- 1924 – Marc Breaux, American choreographer and film director (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Valdas Adamkus, Lithuanian engineer and politician, 3rd President of Lithuania
- 1926 – Maurice Couture, Canadian archbishop
- 1927 – Harrison McCain, Canadian businessman, co-founded McCain Foods (d. 2004)
- 1927 – Peggy McCay, American actress
- 1928 – Goseki Kojima, Japanese illustrator (d. 2000)
- 1928 – Bill Morrison, Australian politician, 37th Australian Minister for Defence (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Osamu Tezuka, Japanese animator and producer (d. 1989)
- 1929 – Alfonso Orueta, Chilean footballer, manager, and politician (d. 2012)
- 1929 – Ed Richards, American fencer (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Bill Dana, American pilot and astronaut (d. 2014)
- 1930 – Mable John, American singer
- 1930 – D. James Kennedy, American pastor and author (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Brian Robinson, English cyclist
- 1930 – Tsutomu Seki, Japanese astronomer
- 1930 – Lois Smith, American actress
- 1930 – Frits Staal, Dutch philosopher and scholar (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Yon Hyong-muk, North Korean politician, 7th Premier of North Korea (d. 2005)
- 1931 – Monica Vitti, Italian actress, singer, and screenwriter
- 1931 – Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese bishop (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Albert Reynolds, Irish businessman and politician, 9th Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 2014)
- 1933 – John Barry, English-American composer and conductor (d. 2011)
- 1933 – Ken Berry, American actor, singer, and dancer
- 1933 – Jeremy Brett, English actor (d. 1995)
- 1933 – Aneta Corsaut, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1933 – Michael Dukakis, American lawyer, academic, and politician, 65th Governor of Massachusetts
- 1933 – Amartya Sen, Indian economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1934 – Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- 1934 – Hans Janmaat, Dutch businessman, educator, and politician (d. 2002)
- 1935 – Ingrid Rüütel, Estonian philologist, 3rd First Lady of Estonia
- 1936 – Roy Emerson, Australian-American tennis player
- 1936 – Takao Saito, Japanese author and illustrator, created Golgo 13
- 1937 – Dietrich Möller, German politician, 15th Mayor of Marburg
- 1938 – Martin Dunwoody, English mathematician and academic
- 1938 – Akira Kobayashi, Japanese actor and singer
- 1938 – Jean Rollin, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1940 – Sonny Rhodes, American singer and guitarist
- 1942 – Martin Cruz Smith, American author and screenwriter
- 1942 – Priit Tomson, Estonian basketball player
- 1943 – Bert Jansch, Scottish-English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Pentangle) (d. 2011)
- 1944 – Jan Boerstoel, Dutch poet and songwriter
- 1945 – Ken Holtzman, American baseball player and manager
- 1945 – Gerd Müller, German footballer and manager
- 1946 – Reinhard Karl, German mountaineer, photographer, and author (d. 1982)
- 1946 – Tom Savini, American actor, stuntman, director, and make-up artist
- 1946 – Wataru Takeshita, Japanese politician
- 1947 – Mazie Hirono, Japanese-American lawyer and politician, 9th Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii
- 1947 – Joe Lala, American actor and drummer (Blues Image and Manassas) (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Siiri Oviir, Estonian politician, 3rd Estonian Minister of Social Affairs
- 1947 – Faraj Sarkohi, Iranian journalist and critic
- 1948 – Lulu, Scottish singer-songwriter and actress (The Luvvers)
- 1948 – Takashi Kawamura, Japanese politician
- 1948 – Helmuth Koinigg, Austrian race car driver (d. 1974)
- 1948 – Rick Kreuger, American baseball player and coach
- 1948 – Rainer Zobel, German footballer, coach, and manager
- 1949 – Mike Evans, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2006)
- 1949 – Osamu Fujimura, Japanese politician
- 1949 – Larry Holmes, American boxer and talk show host
- 1949 – Anna Wintour, English-American journalist
- 1950 – Massimo Mongai, Italian journalist and author
- 1950 – Joe Queenan, American author and critic
- 1951 – Dwight Evans, American baseball player and coach
- 1951 – Ed Murawinski, American cartoonist
- 1951 – André Wetzel, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1952 – Roseanne Barr, American comedian, actress, and producer
- 1952 – Jim Cummings, American voice actor and singer
- 1952 – David Ho, Taiwanese-American scientist
- 1953 – Kate Capshaw, American actress
- 1953 – Helios Creed, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Chrome)
- 1953 – Larry Herndon, American baseball player and coach
- 1953 – Dennis Miller, American comedian, actor, producer, and talk show host
- 1954 – Adam Ant, English singer-songwriter (Adam and the Ants)
- 1955 – Teresa De Sio, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1955 – Anne Milton, English nurse and politician
- 1955 – Phil Simms, American football player and sportscaster
- 1956 – Cathy Jamieson, Scottish politician, 2nd Scottish Minister for Justice
- 1956 – Kevin Murphy, American actor, puppeteer, producer, and screenwriter
- 1956 – Gary Ross, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1956 – Bob Welch, American baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
- 1957 – Peter Gregson, Scottish-English engineer and academic
- 1957 – Dolph Lundgren, Swedish actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and martial artist
- 1957 – Gary Olsen, English-Australian actor (d. 2000)
- 1959 – Hal Hartley, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1960 – Karch Kiraly, American volleyball player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1961 – David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, English businessman
- 1961 – Dave Hahn, Japanese-American mountaineer and journalist
- 1962 – Gabe Newell, American businessman, co-founded the Valve Corporation
- 1962 – David J. Schiappa, American politician
- 1962 – Jacqui Smith, English politician
- 1963 – Davis Guggenheim, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1963 – Shigeaki Hattori, Japanese race car driver
- 1963 – Ian Wright, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
- 1964 – Algimantas Briaunis, Lithuanian footballer and manager
- 1964 – Milly D'Abbraccio, Italian porn actress
- 1964 – Paprika Steen, Danish actress, singer, and director
- 1965 – Gert Heerkes, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1965 – Ann Scott, French-English author
- 1967 – Mike O'Neill, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1967 – John Tomac, American cyclist
- 1967 – Steven Wilson, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, No-Man, and Storm Corrosion)
- 1967 – Mark Roberts, Welsh singer and guitarist (Catatonia, Sherbet Antlers and Y Ffyrc)
- 1968 – Alberto Iñurrategi, Spanish mountaineer
- 1968 – Paul Quantrill, Canadian baseball player and coach
- 1969 – Robert Miles, Swiss-Italian DJ and producer
- 1969 – Niels van Steenis, Dutch rower
- 1970 – Geir Frigård, Norwegian footballer
- 1971 – Diego Alessi, Italian race car driver
- 1971 – Sticky Fingaz, American rapper, producer, and actor (Onyx)
- 1971 – Dylan Moran, Irish comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Alison Williamson, English archer
- 1971 – Dwight Yorke, Tobagonian footballer and coach
- 1972 – Ugo Ehiogu, English footballer and coach
- 1972 – Michael Hofmann, German footballer
- 1972 – Marko Koers, Dutch runner
- 1973 – Nemone, English radio and television host
- 1973 – Julia Channel, French porn actress and singer
- 1973 – Ben Fogle, English television host and author
- 1973 – Mick Thomson, American guitarist (Slipknot)
- 1973 – Christian Picciolini, American businessman and manager
- 1974 – Tariq Abdul-Wahad, French basketball player and coach
- 1974 – Sonali Kulkarni, Indian actress
- 1975 – Darren Sharper, American football player and sportscaster
- 1976 – Tōko Aoyama, Japanese voice actress
- 1976 – Guillermo Franco, Argentinian-Mexican footballer
- 1976 – Jake Shimabukuro, American ukulele player and composer
- 1977 – Aria Giovanni, American porn actress and model
- 1977 – Marcel Ketelaer, German footballer
- 1977 – Sean Ringgold, American actor and stuntman
- 1977 – Jane Monheit, jazz and adult contemporary vocalist
- 1978 – Tim McIlrath, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Rise Against, Baxter, Arma Angelus, and The Killing Tree)
- 1978 – Hiroko Sakai, Japanese softball player
- 1978 – Koshiro Take, Japanese jockey
- 1978 – Julia Taylor, Hungarian porn actress
- 1979 – Pablo Aimar, Argentinian footballer
- 1979 – Beau McDonald, Australian footballer and coach
- 1980 – Hans Anderson, Danish motorcycle racer
- 1981 – Jimmy Anak Ahar, Bruneian runner
- 1981 – Diego López, Spanish footballer
- 1981 – Vicente Matías Vuoso, Argentinian-Mexican footballer
- 1981 – Rodrigo Millar, Chilean footballer
- 1981 – Sten Pentus, Estonian race car driver
- 1982 – Mike Jenkins, American strongman (d. 2013)
- 1982 – Moniek Kleinsman, Dutch speed skater
- 1982 – Evgeni Plushenko, Russian figure skater
- 1983 – Julie Marie Berman, American actress
- 1983 – Suzane von Richthofen, Brazilian murderer
- 1984 – Christian Bakkerud, Danish race car driver (d. 2011)
- 1984 – Ryo Nishikido, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor (NEWS and Kanjani Eight)
- 1985 – Tyler Hansbrough, American basketball player
- 1986 – Paul Derbyshire, Italian rugby player
- 1986 – Jermaine Jones, American singer and actor
- 1986 – Beth Kingston, English actress
- 1986 – Piet Velthuizen, Dutch footballer
- 1986 – Heo Young-saeng, South Korean singer and actor (SS501)
- 1987 – Cameron, American wrestler, dancer, and model
- 1987 – Colin Kaepernick, American football player
- 1987 – Felix Schütz, German ice hockey player
- 1987 – Gemma Ward, Australian model and actress
- 1988 – Angus McLaren, Australian actor
- 1989 – Paula DeAnda, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1989 – Joyce Jonathan, French singer
- 1990 – Ellyse Perry, Australian footballer and cricketer
- 1992 – Valeria Solovyeva, Russian tennis player
- 1995 – Kendall Jenner, American model
Despatches
- 361 – Constantius II, Roman emperor (b. 317)
- 644 – Umar, Islamic caliph (b. 584)
- 753 – Saint Pirmin, Spanish-German monk (b. 700)
- 1254 – John III Doukas Vatatzes, Byzantine emperor (b. 1193)
- 1428 – Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury, English general and politician (b. 1388)
- 1580 – Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, Spanish historian and author (b. 1512)
- 1584 – Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (b. 1538)
- 1600 – Richard Hooker, English priest and theologian (b. 1554)
- 1639 – Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (b. 1579)
- 1643 – John Bainbridge, English astronomer and academic (b. 1582)
- 1643 – Paul Guldin, Swiss astronomer and mathematician (b. 1577)
- 1711 – John Ernest Grabe, German theologian (b. 1666)
- 1787 – Robert Lowth, English bishop (b. 1710)
- 1793 – Olympe de Gouges, French playwright and activist (b. 1748)
- 1794 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal (b. 1715)
- 1858 – Harriet Taylor Mill, English philosopher and author (b. 1807)
- 1869 – Andreas Kalvos, Greek poet and playwright (b. 1792)
- 1890 – Ulrich Ochsenbein, Swiss politician, 1st President of the Swiss National Council (b. 1811)
- 1891 – Louis Lucien Bonaparte, English-Italian philologist and politician (b. 1813)
- 1914 – Georg Trakl, Austrian-Polish pharmacist and poet (b. 1887)
- 1917 – Léon Bloy, French author and poet (b. 1846)
- 1918 – Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician and physicist (b. 1857)
- 1926 – Annie Oakley, American target shooter (b. 1860)
- 1927 – Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Czech journalist and author (b. 1860)
- 1929 – Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet and educator (b. 1883)
- 1933 – Pierre Paul Émile Roux, French physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist (b. 1853)
- 1939 – Charles Tournemire, French organist and composer (b. 1870)
- 1949 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American art collector and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (b. 1861)
- 1954 – Henri Matisse, French painter and sculptor (b. 1869)
- 1957 – Laika, Russian dog (b. 1954)
- 1957 – Wilhelm Reich, Ukrainian-Austrian psychotherapist and author (b. 1897)
- 1960 – Paul Willis, American actor and director (b. 1901)
- 1962 – Antonius van Loon, Dutch tug of war competitor (b. 1888)
- 1962 – L. O. Wenckebach, Dutch sculptor and painter (b. 1895)
- 1964 – John Henry Barbee, American singer and guitarist (b. 1905)
- 1970 – Peter II of Yugoslavia (b. 1923)
- 1973 – Marc Allégret, Swiss-French director and screenwriter (b. 1900)
- 1975 – Tajuddin Ahmad, Bangladeshi politician, 1st Prime Minister of Bangladesh (b. 1925)
- 1975 – Muhammad Mansur Ali, Bangladeshi politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Bangladesh (b. 1919)
- 1975 – Syed Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician, President of Bangladesh (b. 1925)
- 1975 – Abul Hasnat Muhammad Qamaruzzaman, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
- 1983 – Alfredo Antonini, American conductor and composer (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Mary Shane, American sportscaster (b. 1945)
- 1988 – Henri van Praag, Dutch philosopher, theologian, and educator (b. 1916)
- 1989 – Dorothy Fuldheim, American journalist-commentator (b. 1893)
- 1990 – Mary Martin, American actress and singer (b. 1913)
- 1991 – Mort Shuman, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1936)
- 1991 – Chris Bender American singer (b. 1972)
- 1993 – Léon Theremin, Russian physicist and engineer, invented the Theremin (b. 1895)
- 1993 – Arthur Rowe, English footballer and manager (b. 1906)
- 1994 – Alvin Andreas Herborg Nielsen, American physicist (b. 1910)
- 1994 – Valter Palm, Estonian-American boxer (b. 1905)
- 1995 – Gordon S. Fahrni, Canadian physician (b. 1887)
- 1995 – John Orchard, English actor (b. 1928)
- 1996 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, African general and politician, 2nd President of the Central African Republic (b. 1921)
- 1996 – Abdullah Çatlı, Turkish drug trafficker and murderer (b. 1956)
- 1998 – Bob Kane, American author and illustrator, co-created Batman (b. 1915)
- 1999 – Ian Bannen, Scottish actor (b. 1928)
- 2001 – Ernst Gombrich, Austrian-English historian and author (b. 1909)
- 2002 – Lonnie Donegan, Scottish-English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1931)
- 2002 – Jonathan Harris, American actor (b. 1914)
- 2003 – Rasul Gamzatov, Russian poet (b. 1923)
- 2004 – Sergejs Žoltoks, Latvian ice hockey player (b. 1972)
- 2006 – Paul Mauriat, French pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Marie Rudisill, American author (b. 1911)
- 2006 – Alberto Spencer, Ecuadorean footballer (b. 1937)
- 2007 – Aleksandr Dedyushko, Russian actor (b. 1962)
- 2007 – Martin Meehan, Irish soldier and politician (b. 1945)
- 2007 – Ryan Shay, American runner (b. 1979)
- 2008 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (b. 1913)
- 2009 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish sociologist, author, and critic (b. 1906)
- 2009 – Archie Baird, Scottish footballer, journalist, and educator (b. 1919)
- 2009 – Carl Ballantine, American magician and actor (b. 1917)
- 2010 – Jerry Bock, American composer (b. 1928)
- 2010 – Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician, 30th Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1938)
- 2010 – Jim Clench, Canadian bass player (April Wine and Bachman–Turner Overdrive) (b. 1949)
- 2011 – Peeter Kreitzberg, Estonian politician (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Odd Børretzen, Norwegian author and illustrator (b. 1926)
- 2012 – George Chesterton, English cricketer and coach (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Tommy Godwin, American-English cyclist, coach, and manager (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Thomas K. McCraw, American historian and academic (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Kailashpati Mishra, Indian politician, 18th Governor of Gujarat (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Eugenija Pleškytė, Lithuanian actress (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Ingegerd Troedsson, Swedish politician, Speaker of the Parliament of Sweden (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Reshma, Pakistani singer (b. 1947)
- 2013 – D. Rajendra Babu, Indian director and screenwriter (b. 1951)
- 2013 – Nick Cardy, American illustrator (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Gerard Cieślik, Polish footballer and manager (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Gamani Corea, Sri Lankan economist and diplomat (b. 1925)
- 2013 – William J. Coyne, American lawyer and politician (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Rupert Gerritsen, Australian historian (b. 1953)
- 2013 – Leonard Long, Australian painter (b. 1911)
- 2013 – Trần Văn Quang, Vietnamese general (b. 1917)
2014
- Christian feast day:
- Culture Day (Japan), and its related observances:
- Feudal Lord's Parade or Hakone Daimyō Gyōretsu (Hakone, Kanagawa)
- Independence Day / Separation Day, celebrates the separation and independence of Panama from Colombia in 1903.
- Independence Day (Dominica), celebrates the independence of Dominica from the United Kingdom in 1978.
- Independence Day (Micronesia), celebrates the independence of the Federated States of Micronesia from the United States in 1986.
- Victory Day (Maldives)
COAL EQUALS LIFE: MILNE
Tim Blair – Monday, November 03, 2014 (3:26pm)
Christine Milne endorses coal in the strongest possible terms:
Australia needs to choose between coal and death, according to Greens Leader Christine Milne ...“Do you want death or do you want coal?“That’s what we’re talking about here,” she told reporters in Hobart.“Tony Abbott wants coal.”
Given the alternative, who wouldn’t?
MEN OF NO MOTIVE
Tim Blair – Monday, November 03, 2014 (2:03pm)
Muslim against Muslim in Sydney’s west:
Witnesses claimed that a number of people had driven past the Islamic centre on Rosedale Avenue in Greenacre just hours before the shooting, chanting in Arabic that “ISIS [terrorist group Islamic State] is coming” and “ISIS will stay”.The 47-year-old shooting victim, an Iraqi Shiite who is a leader at the centre, was shot in the face and shoulder as he was locking up the centre about 1.15am on Monday …He was expected to undergo surgery on Monday to remove pellets from his face and shoulder, and is expected to survive, police said.
According to Shiite community member Jamal Daoud:
“These people have been conducting a campaign of intimidation for the past few weeks. I talk to many of the people in the community, and they’re very concerned and they’re very scared.”
In fact, the anti-Shiite campaign – involving firebombings, beatings, extortion and death threats – has been running for years. Naturally, authorities remain mystified:
Police are unsure what led to the attack.“At this point in time it does not appear that there is any type of motivation for the shooting,” Inspector Dave Firth said.
There never is.
ONE MONTH REMAINS
Tim Blair – Monday, November 03, 2014 (3:18am)
I don’t mean to frighten anybody, but we’re all about to be destroyed. Our time is almost up.
Continue reading 'ONE MONTH REMAINS'
LONG AND SHORT OF IT
Tim Blair – Monday, November 03, 2014 (2:26am)
SYDNEY’S CRAZIEST COUNCIL
Tim Blair – Monday, November 03, 2014 (1:45am)
Treasurer Joe Hockey recently revealed his personal council bylaws ordeal. It seems that Hockey and his family wanted to join another family enjoying pizzas outdoors, but not only did bylaws prevent connecting two tables, but the treasurer was also banned from obtaining an eighth chair.
That kind of meddling micromanagement is standard for most Sydney councils, which are basically kindergartens for future state and federal government social engineers. The worst of all our councils might be Marrickville, where a grand tradition of idiocy continues to this day.
Continue reading 'SYDNEY’S CRAZIEST COUNCIL'
Surely Packer can’t want Labor, and vice versa
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (3:59pm)
Id have assumed James Packer had better judgement than what Lloyd Williams suggests:
===RACING identity Lloyd Williams has told Daniel Andrews that James Packer “will kick every goal he can” for the Opposition Leader.Still, we shouldn’t forget that Labor brought pokies to Victoria, having typically run out of cash.
The former Crown Casino boss, who is still close to Mr Packer, was speaking in Macedon at a photo opportunity with Mr Andrews when he was picked up on a Channel Ten microphone.
With his hand on Mr Andrews’s back Mr Williams told him; “You should probably know I am on the executive of the Packer estate, and James is going to kick every goal he can for you”.
The apparent endorsement for the Opposition Leader comes after an eight month stand-off between the Napthine Government and Crown Casino over its tax rates that ended in August.
Cadet selling poppies set alight. UPDATE: Sydney shooting
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (2:35pm)
In multicultural Britain:
UPDATE
Meanwhile in Sydney, our wonderful immigration and refugee programs continue to bring us some of the gifts of Middle Eastern culture:
===A 15-year-old boy was burned with a lit aerosol can while selling Remembrance Day poppies yesterday evening…“Asian” in Britain refers also to people of Pakistani or Indian background.
The teenager, who is an Army Cadet, suffered burns to his face and singed hair during the unprovoked attack at a bus stop near Manchester Art Gallery at 6pm.
The boy, who was wearing his uniform while selling poppies, was approached by a man who lifted an aerosol can and lighter and sprayed him with the lit fumes.
The offender, described as black or Asian, 5ft 8in tall and wearing a dark hooded top, then walked away from the bus stop on George Street without saying a word.
UPDATE
Meanwhile in Sydney, our wonderful immigration and refugee programs continue to bring us some of the gifts of Middle Eastern culture:
A man who was shot outside an Islamic prayer centre in Sydney’s west was targeted as he locked up the building following a night observing the holy ritual of Ashura, one of the most important holidays for Shiite Muslims, according to a community member.Then again:
Witnesses claimed that a number of people had driven past the Islamic centre on Rosedale Avenue in Greenacre just hours before the shooting, chanting in Arabic that “ISIS [terrorist group Islamic State] is coming” and “ISIS will stay”.
Islamic State is an extremist organisation made up of Sunni jihadists and is involved in a violent conflict against Shiites and other groups in Iraq.
The 47-year-old shooting victim, an Iraqi Shiite who is a leader at the centre, was shot in the face and shoulder…
Jamal Daoud, a prominent member of Sydney’s Shiite community, said a group of “extremists” had been targeting Shiite Muslims trying to enter the centre to observe Ashura, a 10-day ritual to commemorate the death of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
Hours earlier, occupants inside a car shouted “ISIS will live forever” and “we’ll kill you” outside the hall, Nine News reports, but detectives are also investigating whether a dispute among those running the centre could be behind the shooting as rival factions have been fighting over the management of the hall.Note that for all the complaints from Muslim leaders of racism from non-Muslim, the greatest danger they actually face comes from fellow believers.
The Bolt Report yesterday
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (11:35am)
For those who missed out on yesterday’s Bolt Report repeat after the basketball ran over time, here are:
My editorial on Labor’s deadly refusal to face facts on boats.
My interview with Attorney-General on Julia Gillard, the royal commission into union corruption and free speech.
The panel, Janet Albrechtsen and Sean Kelly, on the Abbott Government’s direct action “win” and governing with Clive Palmer.
The panel on Gillard in trouble at the royal commission, the Nova Peris scandal and the refusal of Julie Bishop to identify as a feminist.
Piers Akerman on the Peris emails. Should the media have published?
UPDATE
Sorry about that. Links now fixed.
===My editorial on Labor’s deadly refusal to face facts on boats.
My interview with Attorney-General on Julia Gillard, the royal commission into union corruption and free speech.
The panel, Janet Albrechtsen and Sean Kelly, on the Abbott Government’s direct action “win” and governing with Clive Palmer.
The panel on Gillard in trouble at the royal commission, the Nova Peris scandal and the refusal of Julie Bishop to identify as a feminist.
Piers Akerman on the Peris emails. Should the media have published?
UPDATE
Sorry about that. Links now fixed.
Why has Bill Shorten still not given the royal commission his answer?
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (10:24am)
When will Bill Shorten answer a request for information from the Royal Commission into trade union corruption?
One scandal the royal commission is investigating is the use of a slush fund by Julia Gillard’s then boyfriend and client, AWU state secretary Bruce Wilson, to rip off $380.000. Eventually the AWU discovered Wilson had been using an association misleadingly called the Australian Workers Union Workers Reform Association for his ripoffs. But rather than go to the police, it paid Wilson a $55,000 redundancy to quietly go away.
Counsel assisting the royal commission, Jeremy Stoljar, on Friday noted:
When will Shorten give his account of that conversation to the royal commission? And on oath?
===One scandal the royal commission is investigating is the use of a slush fund by Julia Gillard’s then boyfriend and client, AWU state secretary Bruce Wilson, to rip off $380.000. Eventually the AWU discovered Wilson had been using an association misleadingly called the Australian Workers Union Workers Reform Association for his ripoffs. But rather than go to the police, it paid Wilson a $55,000 redundancy to quietly go away.
Counsel assisting the royal commission, Jeremy Stoljar, on Friday noted:
[AWU official Bob] Kernohan was appalled by what he had discovered on receipt of the court documents. In particular he was appalled by the fact that redundancy payments had been made to Mr Wilson and others. He deposes that he had a conversation with Mr Shorten and others in which he said words to the following effect:
I told them it was a bloody disgrace that they received redundancy payments whilst they were internally investigated for fraud.Mr Kernohan deposed that Mr Shorten (then a junior official in the AWU) told him in essence not to take it any further and that ‘we are all just moving on’. At the time of writing these submissions evidence had been sought but not yet received from Mr Shorten on this topic.
When will Shorten give his account of that conversation to the royal commission? And on oath?
Is something wrong with the Bureau’s models?
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (9:07am)
The Sydney Morning Herald, July 24:
===The worst of the winter is likely to be over, with the outlook pointing to warmer and drier than normal weather over coming months…October 15:
Brett Dutschke, senior meteorologist with Weatherzone [using Bureau of Metereology data says"] “It looks like all of winter’s strong cold fronts could be confined to July."…
Meanwhile, conditions in the Pacific remain primed for an El Nino, a weather event that typically leads to warmer and drier conditions across eastern Australia… Models run by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, NOAA and other agencies continue to tip the likelihood of an El Nino forming later this year.
The NSW SES reported unseasonally heavy snowfall of up to 20cm in parts of the Blue Mountains including Lithgow. A warning was issued for people to avoid the area due to snow causing branches to fall on cars and also local roads closures.October 22:
Weather models are now showing an El Nino is unlikely to develop this year.Reader Mark M:
When will questions be asked about the continual failure of the BoM’s carbon(sic) forced computer models? The Queensland floods of 2011 stand as another monument to the BoM’s deadly failed predictions.
The questionable Julia Gillard
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (9:07am)
JULIA Gillard would never have become prime minister had we known then
what the royal commission into union corruption showed us last week.
But even now, Gillard can count on some in the media to go soft on what most of the Canberra press gallery for so long refused to even cover.
“Trade union royal commission clears Julia Gillard of any crime,’’ announced the ABC.
Well, not quite. Counsel assisting the commission, Jeremy Stoljar, simply asked royal commissioner Dyson Heydon not to recommend Gillard face charges.
Stoljar concludes from the evidence that Gillard “did not commit any crime and was not aware of any criminality” when, as a solicitor, she provided advice about setting up a slush fund for her then boyfriend, Australian Workers’ Union official Bruce Wilson, and his sidekick Ralph Blewitt.
He says she had no idea the two would use that association to bill construction giant Thiess for “training” and “consultants” they never supplied.
More than $380,000 went into the pair’s pockets, and even today some is still missing.
In fact, thanks to a union cover-up, neither Wilson nor Blewitt “have ever been called to account”, says Stoljar in his recommendation, released on Friday.
Worse, the AWU, after detecting the rip-offs, sent Wilson and Blewitt away with handsome redundancies — $55,000 for Wilson and $30,000 for Blewitt — and when one AWU official protested, another, now Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, allegedly told him: “We are all just moving on.”
So does Gillard emerge from this as spotless as she always claimed, the victim of a baseless witch hunt?
No.
(Read full column here.)
===But even now, Gillard can count on some in the media to go soft on what most of the Canberra press gallery for so long refused to even cover.
“Trade union royal commission clears Julia Gillard of any crime,’’ announced the ABC.
Well, not quite. Counsel assisting the commission, Jeremy Stoljar, simply asked royal commissioner Dyson Heydon not to recommend Gillard face charges.
Stoljar concludes from the evidence that Gillard “did not commit any crime and was not aware of any criminality” when, as a solicitor, she provided advice about setting up a slush fund for her then boyfriend, Australian Workers’ Union official Bruce Wilson, and his sidekick Ralph Blewitt.
He says she had no idea the two would use that association to bill construction giant Thiess for “training” and “consultants” they never supplied.
More than $380,000 went into the pair’s pockets, and even today some is still missing.
In fact, thanks to a union cover-up, neither Wilson nor Blewitt “have ever been called to account”, says Stoljar in his recommendation, released on Friday.
Worse, the AWU, after detecting the rip-offs, sent Wilson and Blewitt away with handsome redundancies — $55,000 for Wilson and $30,000 for Blewitt — and when one AWU official protested, another, now Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, allegedly told him: “We are all just moving on.”
So does Gillard emerge from this as spotless as she always claimed, the victim of a baseless witch hunt?
No.
(Read full column here.)
The ABC way: using North Korea’s help to make us poorer
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (8:25am)
The ABC yesterday screened a tribute to one of the world’s most savage dictators:
And doesn’t it seem rather sick for a taxpayer-funded Australian filmmaker to user North Korean help to destroy the kind of wealth they’d desperately want themselves?
(Thanks to reader Kev.)
===ABOUT THE FILMBroinowski explains why she made her film, and how being denied choice by a Stalinist government is a “detox” and “serene”:
AIM HIGH IN CREATION! is a revolutionary comedy about the cinematic genius of North Korea’s late Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il, with a ground breaking experiment at its heart: a propaganda film, made according to the rules of his 1987 Manifesto The Cinema and Directing.
Determined to stop a new gas mine near her Sydney home, director Anna Broinowski (Forbidden Lie$) goes to North Korea to learn from the masters of propaganda cinema. In a worldwide first, Pyongyang’s top directors, composers and movie stars take her to script rehearsals, Taekwondo stunt fights, group dances, drunken picnics, and a film shoot on a real-life captured US spy ship – to teach her Kim ass="spellchecked_word">Jong ass="spellchecked_word">Il’s techniques.
Back in Sydney, Anna’s fearless cast follow the North Koreans’ instructions to produce a didactic socialist melodrama, full of song and kick-ass fights, in which “heroic workers” rise up to defeat the “evil, gas-fracking miners.”
Through the shared love of cinema, AIM HIGH! forges an astonishing new bond – between North Korea’s hidden filmmakers, and their collaborators in the Free World. Revealing an unexpected truth about the most isolated nation on earth: Filmmakers, no matter where they live – are Family.
I was experiencing capitalism despair [in Australia]. Every time I turned on the news I’d see oil tankers washing up on pristine reefs, or a McDonald’s being built in a hospital, the mining giants doing whatever they wanted - and a coal seam gas mine had just been approved 200 metres from my house. It felt like capitalism was on steroids…Broinowski did her best to sanitise her film to minimise offence to Dear Leader:
[North Korea] was like a 3½-week capitalism and materialism detox… If you remove the brutality of the regime, which I didn’t see, it was serene and beautiful to be in a country with no internet, no advertising.
‘I not an apologist by any means… ‘I know it’s an evil, repressive place as well, where 200,000 people are political prisoners and it’s brutal. However, I don’t think we’re getting the real story about the rest of North Korea.
Despite the fact that we removed several things from the film that could potentially get our collaborators “into trouble”, and respected the way we were told to film images of the Dear Leader, I am certain that the commentary about him, and certain moments in the film, remain too (inadvertently) offensive for it to ever be shown to North Koreans.Yes, some of the insights Broinowski’s film give of North Korea are fresh and intriguing, showing North Koreans are not all programmed automatons. Yet would we accept a sweet and unquestioning documentary on Hitler’s filmmakers?
And doesn’t it seem rather sick for a taxpayer-funded Australian filmmaker to user North Korean help to destroy the kind of wealth they’d desperately want themselves?
(Thanks to reader Kev.)
The Left can’t disown Russell Brand. His madness is theirs
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (8:12am)
Brendan O’Neill
says the Left shouldn’t complain that Russell Brand is destroying its
image. Brand is simply the logical creation of its own flight from
reality:
===All that Brand does is regurgitate to the twenty-first-century left, in super-flowery lingo, its own thoughtless prejudices and feeling of exhaustion with humanity. He’s copped a lot of flak for hinting that 9/11 might have been an inside job - but from Occupy’s handwringing over the Octopus-like banker cliques that control the world to the New Statesman’s claims of a ‘Kosher conspiracy’ of ‘Big Jewry’ that dominates political discourse to Labour MP Tom Watson’s barking ramblings about the Murdoch Empire ‘orchestrat[ing] public life from the shadows’, conspiratorial thinking has become rampant on the modern left. He’s been bashed for his ‘1920s and 1930s’-style rantings about wicked corporations brainwashing the little folk - but from Owen Jones’ recent book about the ‘shadowy and labyrinthe system that controls our lives’ to everything Naomi Klein has ever written about the masses becoming enslaved by consumerism and wealth envy, the notion that secret gangs of financial folk control everything is an article of faith among pretty much everyone who identifies as left today.So take a long, hard look at yourselves:
Notably, Brand hasn’t received quite as much of a pounding over his eco-bollocks, his claim that we live in ‘a spherical ecosystem, suspended in, as far as we know, infinite space, upon which there are billions of carbon-based lifeforms, of which we presume ourselves to be the most important, and a limited amount of resources’ - and that’s because this, too, this humanity-defaming idea that we are just ‘lifeforms’ recklessly raiding Mother Nature’s larder and using up all her stuff, is a brainfart that lurks not only in Brand’s head but in the heart and manifesto of everyone who calls himself a progressive these days.
Far from destroying left-wing thought, Brand embodies the misanthropy and naturalism that were once characteristics of Romantics and the right but which now pass for ‘left-wing thought’. You’re a leftist who has been rattled by Russ’s book? Then pull up a chair, plonk it in front of a mirror, and take a good, long look. For it was your own movement’s jettisoning of its principles and positivity and progress that paved the way for the rise of the ugly misanthropy of Brand and all the rest who have turned ‘left’ into a codeword for anti-humanism.(Thanks to reader John.)
Government closing gap: now 49 to Labor’s 51
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (7:54am)
Bit by bit, the Abbott Government has inched back from the depths:
===The first Fairfax Ipsos nationwide poll shows Mr Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are now tied as preferred prime minister…Small sample, of course, but all the momentum is with the Liberals. Labor, meanwhile, is painting itself into a corner - opposing boat policies that work, opposing the budget repair that’s urgent, demanding another carbon tax in the form of emissions trading.
Overall, the poll of 1401 voters, conducted between Thursday and Saturday, shows the Coalition trails Labor 49 per cent to 51 per cent...
From the enemy we are fighting. And which some Australians are fighting for
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (7:43am)
Dozens of Australians are fighting for the Islamic State. From last week:
Militants from the Islamic State lined up 30 Sunni men in a town west of Baghdad and shot them dead this morning, an Iraqi official and residents said…
It is understood the murdered men were mainly local tribal leaders who had allied with the Iraqi government and were helping to organise anti-ISIS operations in the embattled town.
More news today:
THE Islamic State jihadist group has in recent days executed more than 200 members of an Iraqi tribe that fought against it, officials and a tribal leader say.
Accounts varied as to the exact period in which the Sunni Albu Nimr tribesmen were killed in various areas of Iraq’s Anbar province, but the executions were all said to have been carried out within the last 10 days.
Police Colonel Shaaban al-Obaidi said there were more than 200 people killed, while Faleh al-Essawi, the deputy head of the Anbar provincial council, put the toll at 258.
The victims, “including women and children, all of them from the Albu Nimr tribe,” were killed “during the past three days,” Essawi said.
What good will a racist constitution do?
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (7:35am)
John Roskam on a great folly - the attempt to make the constitution divide us by race:
===Exactly how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will be recognised in the Constitution is not yet known. Nor what such recognition will achieve. Indigenous recognition is a lot like the carbon tax — whenever its advocates were asked what difference it would make to the world’s temperature, they refused to answer.
The evidence of global warming is the hot words, not the temperature
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (7:02am)
The BBC, reporting on yesterday’s IPCC, points to the evidence of global warming:
The IPCC claims 15 years of no warming is too short a period to mean anything:
UPDATE
Former warmist scientist Dr Judith Curry questions the IPCC report:
But readers report an ABC in ecstasy.
Reader Robert:
===The language in the UN’s climate reports has been steadily ratcheted up over the years...The temperature, however:
UPDATE
The IPCC claims 15 years of no warming is too short a period to mean anything:
In addition to robust multi-decadal warming, the globally averaged surface temperature exhibits substantial decadal and interannual variability (Figure 1.1). Due to this natural variability, trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not in general reflect long-term climate trends. As one example, the rate of warming over the past 15 years (1998–2012; 0.05 [–0.05 to 0.15] °C per decade), which begins with a strong El Niño, is smaller than the rate calculated since 1951 (1951–2012; 0.12 [0.08 to 0.14] °C per decade...The IPCC should give warming a deadline. How many years of non-warming can we see before we conclude the warmist theory is broken?
UPDATE
Former warmist scientist Dr Judith Curry questions the IPCC report:
Here is why it is increasingly unlikely that that we will reach the 2C danger limit by 2040:UPDATE
- the ongoing surface temperature hiatus, which may continue until the 2030’s or even 2040 if the increasing number of hypotheses about AMO, PDO and natural internal variability are correct.
- the growing number of observation-based climate sensitivity studies that find lower values of transient and equilibrium climate sensitivity ...
- unrealistic scenarios of future coal burning by the IPCC…
- underestimate by 16% of plant CO2 absorption
But readers report an ABC in ecstasy.
Reader Robert:
The first item on ABC breakfast was the IPPC report and the need to stop using fossil fuels, or else. Nothing much about the lack of evidence of any temperature increases for the past 18 years. It’s pure conjecture and politics, nothing much to do with science.Reader Ubique:
This IPCC report has taken up 90% of the ABC Breakfast Show this morning.Reader Lisle:
It is absolute joy over at ABCNews24 Breakfast this morning as Trioli makes sure we all know about this report and its contents. Too much talk, Virginia, to persuade me.
Victorian Liberals way behind
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (6:47am)
Inertia, in-fighting
and no clear sense of direction have crippled the Victorian Liberals,
despite their careful minding of our money:
===Newspoll shows that Labor is now holding a comfortable two-party-preferred lead of 54 per cent to 46 per cent, and that the Coalition’s primary vote is languishing at less than 40 per cent for the fifth survey since August last year.It no longer is enough to simply say you are good economic managers. And so Labor with its big-spending promises, record of waste, global warming enthusiasm and ties to militant unions looks set to take over unless the large number of undecided voters get nervous.
Peter Craven on Robert Manne’s abuse
Andrew Bolt November 03 2014 (5:02am)
Peter Craven on Professor Robert Manne, twice voted by peers as our leader public intellectual:
Craven had a box seat:
Craven proceeds to fillet Manne all over again....
===In practice, [Paul] Kelly’s Triumph and Demise is such an authoritative articulation of what happened [under the Rudd and the Gillard government] and the subsequent testimony of the players themselves that it was a bit boggling to see the book dismissed with such inflamed outrage by Robert Manne in October’s The Monthly....But I have seen Manne’s decline into the most intemperate and fact-challenged polemics that now so distinguishes the far Left.
Craven had a box seat:
I was editor of Quarterly Essay in 2001 when [Manne] wrote the first one, about the Stolen Generations, and I left three years later at the time of his second essay, about asylum-seekers.Manne, of course, has famously failed to meet my challenge to name even 10 children stolen as he describes. He has repeatedly failed.
Craven proceeds to fillet Manne all over again....
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Bouncing? Man wearing Disney Tigger costume seen by child having ‘full blown sex’ baby change room http://t.co/MpT9urO6Yh via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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Man invites daughter’s alleged rapist to dinner, then tortures him to death http://t.co/X10rRrTMr7 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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Trainee teacher entry scores drop http://t.co/O8ryEUnskw via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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Controversial piece on Richard Branson here. What do YOU think? http://t.co/52xAC0ppky via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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But what is the excuse? .. British expat charged after body found in suitcase in Hong Kong http://t.co/v61SNa0b6r via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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I wish her well. Don't attack journalists who help you .. ‘I’m quite ashamed, it’s just how I feel’ http://t.co/RbRXrhhTuQ via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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Man who taxied plane to Newman pub faces charges http://t.co/6TJeWmBOS0 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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Ancient Phaistos Disk enigma gives up secrets http://t.co/nYZqiDikf0 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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‘Incest’ mum Betty Colt to be sentenced http://t.co/KPxwfY475x via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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Satire? .. Pay for our trips home - the Islamic Women's Welfare Association http://t.co/Gt3BTRk4aw
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 3, 2014
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The Australian Climate Sceptics Blog: Focus on stopping global warming and extreme weath... http://t.co/dN5g8vmcKc
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 2, 2014
=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her===
faulty analysis is behind lots of bad policy. An illusion got Reagan to panic spend on education when statistics showed a fall in standards, Thing was .. every single ethnic subgroup .. and 'other' improved in those categories. The difference in results highlights a fact of math .. averages don't compare across different populations .. what had happened was the number of low performing ethnic subgroups had increased relative to high performers (more blacks and hispanics, fewer Asias and caucasian). Another truth is that people look for what they want to see .. ed
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The UNHRC Charter has a special article (Article 7) which stipulates that any conference on human rights must hold a separate discussion on Israel. This stipulation applies only to Israel, and no other country in the world is subject to such treatment – not even actual and horrendous human rights abusers such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, China or Sudan. This “Israel-only” clause was adopted by the UNHRC in 2007. http://
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Mary Cagalitan Photography
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Pastor Rick Warren
Quiet prayer doesn't always end the storm,
but it always steadies me in the storm until it passes.
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When you be who God made you to be, you compete with no one.
(great photo by Dietmar Rogaki)
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How do I know when I'm a legalist? When I'm harsh on others.
How do I know when I'm living by grace? I'm gracious to others
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Bob Carroll
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Darth Obama...
http://
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I gather they were all 18-20. I'd be proud if my daughter looked like any of 'em - ed
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The Night Train
Commuters fly by at night back to their homes at seeming light speed in this thirty second exposure.
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JOHN WAYNE
November 1, 1928 ~ "Noah's Ark" was released to movie theaters 85 years ago today. The Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood, with a parallel story of soldiers in the First World War. JOHN WAYNE along with his pal Andy Devine played uncredited flood extras/stunt swimmers in this film.
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Incredible! This dad created a prosthetic hand for his son using 3-D technology. Paul and Leon McCarthy shared their story today on FOX & Friends Weekend: http://tinyurl.com/pl3uw5g
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Andy Trieu
Opportunity doesn't seem to knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.
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David Bowles
Ender's Game: better than it had any right to be, but not quite as good as fans would have liked. Given that the much slimmer Hobbit is being made into THREE movies, I'd have liked another 30 minutes of character development and battle room stuff (and a less ADHD editor). The last half hour was really compelling.
I like the writer's short stories "Maps in a mirror" I didn't take to Ender's game for no good reason .. I didn't like the hyper awareness of characters to nuance .. same thing made Dune series dull for me .. but a ripping yarn with excellent character - ed
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Which is why children grow, but adults don't? - ed
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Dai Le
In Canley Heights supporting the Vietnamese Community in Australia (VCA) Bushfire Appeal with Son Brown and his team.===
The Real Popeye the Sailor Man
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Tune-In Tuesday: In an exclusive two-part interview, Ariel Castro’s first victim, Michelle Knight, tells her story of the horrifying 11 years she spent as his captive.
http://bit.ly/
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Photographer Jimmy Nelson finds the last tribes on earth
http://bit.ly/HmogHn
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Timmy Lingy
They told me I could be anything. So I became a piano tuner. ;__;
Any place piano tuners won't go .. I would not want to go .. it just wouldn't sound right - ed===
"The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more things you'll have to express gratitude for."- Zig Ziglar
more at The Zig Ziglar Foundation
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Meh, propaganda .. ed
Joey Duong
Head to toes. Toes to head. Hehe.
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Samuel Reshevsky, at age eight, defeating several chess masters
in France !!! Reshevsky won the U.S. Chess Championship in
1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, and 1969.
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“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"I am the Lord, I change not."
Malachi 3:6
Malachi 3:6
It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed--all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth--"I am the Lord, I change not."
The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian's hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with "an everlasting love"; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.
"Death and change are busy ever,
Man decays, and ages move;
But his mercy waneth never;
God is wisdom, God is love."
Evening
"Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law."
Psalm 119:53
Psalm 119:53
My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David's cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness, Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel's vision, were those who sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder, because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man's highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in others horrifies a believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, "He fell today, and I may fall to-morrow." Sin to a believer is horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God to His face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it, the just God will have it, or repay His adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin's fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord's enemy. View it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.
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Today's reading: Jeremiah 27-29, Titus 3 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 27-29
Judah to Serve Nebuchadnezzar
1 Early in the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 This is what the LORD said to me: “Make a yoke out of straps and crossbars and put it on your neck. 3 Then send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4Give them a message for their masters and say, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Tell this to your masters: 5 With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. 6 Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. 7 All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.
8 “‘“If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I destroy it by his hand. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 They prophesy lies to you that will only serve to remove you far from your lands; I will banish you and you will perish. 11 But if any nation will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let that nation remain in its own land to till it and to live there, declares the LORD....”’”
Today's New Testament reading: Titus 3
Saved in Order to Do Good
1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned....
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Naboth
[NÄ'bÅth] - prominence. A Jezreelite of the tribe of Issachar, whom Jezebel, wife of Ahab, caused to be put to death to obtain his vineyard adjoining the palace (1 Kings 21; 2 Kings 9:21-26).
For this dastardly act doom was pronounced upon Ahab and his house by Elijah. "The murder of Naboth seems to have deeply impressed the popular mind," comments W. F. Boyd, "and the deaths of Joram and Jezebel near the spot were regarded as Divine retribution on the act."
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