Bairnsdale Conservative: Mon Dec 1st Todays News

Women who abandon their children sometimes to death, are mentally ill and need help. The public desire to punish such behaviour is understandable, but what is better is to understand the issue and work to prevent it from happening. Such women are not fit mothers, but they can still contribute to society. But crime and punishment is not the issue when do gooders try to address the problem by suggesting such women are not mentally ill and require some outrageous public promises designed to not shame them. The eighteenth century London solution is to have a baby drop place that is safe for the child to be left at anonymously. Children need to have their past, including medical history of family and cultural history and that means they need to be able to know who their mother was, even if their mother is not part of their lives. So the modern baby drop off may be private, but should never be anonymous.

Victoria's ALP begin predictably, by cancelling a project on infrastructure but wanting to keep the federal money meant for infrastructure. The Victorian ALP are free to squander what they will that is Victorian. However, Mr Abbott prudently planned to make sure that if the plan derailed, the money would not go there. Minorities will run the Victorian senate, but it is too soon to know how many. Greens lose in poll that should have favoured them, with ALP benefiting from the corrupt union campaign. Greens had anticipated 18% of the vote, but received only 11%. Meanwhile the LNP results showed they lost long time core supporters. If you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. They had been a competent government, without being inspired. Andrews, speaking on the ABC Monday, said he could not work as an adult with the federal government. He said they have to be blamed for imaginary health and education cuts first.

Federally, fall out from the Victorian election has highlighted the ALP have no plan or policy. They block cuts, but could not replace those with any savings. They created the anticipated $650 billion deficit which could well become more. Clearly the narrative of what had happened in the campaign is wrong. The narrative has it that independent peoples stood up for the CFMEU in support of the ALP. But the fact is that the LNP were right to point out that the ALP were too close to the CFMEU. What saved the ALP was the slush funds and the partisan press who were complicit with covering up the corruption. But Shorten, who has no policy, blames Mr Abbott for the loss of Victoria despite the polling extending two years prior to Mr Abbott being PM. The LNP is made to look bad by the partisan press, but they have done nothing wrong and have worked as an inspired unit. The senate blockage is related to ALP having control prior to July and Palmer's PUP blocking things after.

Palmer has real power and he abuses it. He met with Lambie. The outcome of their discussions are not yet known, but they will probably favour the ALP.

People usually have a negative view of politics generally, and the detail becomes too hard to scan. They don't really care about things, but feel the ALP are good for spending money on workers and LNP are good for small business. Which isn't true, but which the partisan press portrays consistently. The ALP are corrupt and negligent and policy less. One example of ALP red tape is highlighted by the fact that Rinehart had to make over 3000 applications to open a mine. The time delays and cost mean Australia is not profitable to mine compared to most other nations. That means that everyone, workers, small business and big business suffer. The only ones who profit are environmental activists.

Historical perspective on this day

In 800, Charlemagne judged the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican. In 1420, Henry V of England entered Paris. In 1577, Francis Walsingham was knighted. In 1640, end of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaimed as King João IV of Portugal, ended 60 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty. In 1768, the slave ship Fredensborg sank off Tromøy in Norway. In 1822, Peter I was crowned Emperor of Brazil. In 1824, United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives was given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1826, French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier forced his way through the Turkish cordon and ascended the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege. In 1828, Argentine general Juan Lavalle made a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution. In 1834, slavery was abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. In 1862, in his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirmed the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1864, Great Fire of Brisbane. In 1865, Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1885, first serving of the soft drink Dr Pepper at a drug store in Waco, Texas.

In 1913, the Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, began operation. Also, the Ford Motor Company introduced the first moving assembly line. Also, Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, was annexed by Greece. In 1918, Transylvania united with the Kingdom of Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28), thus concluding the Great Union. Also, the Kingdom of Iceland became a sovereign state, yet remained a part of the Danish kingdom. Also, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was proclaimed. In 1919, Lady Astor became the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.) Also, the first issue of Diário de Noite was published from Goa. In 1934, in the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergey Kirov was shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad. In 1941, World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gave the final approval to initiate war against the United States. Also, World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signed Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol. In 1948, Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man was found in Adelaide, Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a very rare book; the case remains unsolved and is "one of Australia's most profound mysteries."

In 1952, the New York Daily News reported the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sexual reassignment surgery. In 1955, American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1958, the Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union. Also, the Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago killed 92 children and three nuns. In 1959, Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent. In 1960, Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson. In 1963, Nagaland became the 16th state of India. In 1964, Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers met to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam. Also, Malawi, Malta and Zambia joined the United Nations. In 1965, India's Border Security Force was established. In 1966, the first Gävle goat, an annual Swedish Yule Goat tradition, was erected in Gävle. In 1969, Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States was held since World War II. In 1971, Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray. In 1973, Papua New Guinea gained self-governance from Australia. In 1974, TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashed northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board. Also, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashed northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport. In 1976, Angola joined the United Nations.

In 1981, Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board. In 1984, NASA conducted the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner was deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto was appointed Prime Minister of Pakistan. In 1989, 1989 Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempted to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état. Also, Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolished the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state. In 1990, Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France met 40 metres beneath the seabed. In 1991, Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union. In 1997, in the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacked the CPI(ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people. In 2001, Captain Bill Compton brought Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines. In 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon, which amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, which together comprise the constitutional basis of European Union, came into effect. In 2013, China launched Yutu or Jade Rabbit, its first lunar rover, as part of the Chang'e 3 lunar exploration mission. Also, at least four are dead and 63 are injured following a Metro-North Railroad train derailment near Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, New York City.

2013

I never watched a Fast and Furious movie. In 2006, on the last day of school, some year 9 wanted to watch one but I couldn't and wouldn't let them. It was rated 'M.' But I also despised the kind of movie .. facile and promoting social vice to the young, packaged as adventurous, edgy and sexy. So the tragic death of one of the stars highlights a vice of mine. I am bitter. I don't like it when the uber wealthy promote bad behaviour which would cripple their fans who might try to copy it. Not everyone has the money to get out of a killing ala OJ Simpson. Or out of Michael Jackson's depraved indulgence. But the death is a tragedy. Test driving a new car into a tree. It wasn't the tree's fault. North of Los Angeles, it was unlikely to be an icy road, although global warming is very disappointingly slight. In some ways, the actor has given his fans a moral message as strong as Diana's. But I'd rather be envious of his highly paid under achieving as an actor.

Speaking of extraordinary indulgence, we have an abysmal Governor General trying to be sacked for being partisan, and egged on by irresponsible and unprofessional journalists. PM Abbott is unlikely to sack the fool, as it would carry poison over to the next appointment. It is only a few months. And then, I would love it were the GG to face questions, and possibly serve time, for obstruction of justice re Heiner.

Another indulgence is Gonski. A woman in the NT is knitting wool sourced from her vagina, which she presumably inserts. It is performance art, paid by the tax payer via SBS. Gonski is a similar indulgence which the ALP and press are demanding. No program cut from not honouring Gonski will adversely affect a child. The only result is teachers doing what they are already paid to do. Principals of public schools, taking the lead of the GG, are speaking out and lying about what Gonski cuts mean. which isn't to say that education cannot improve. Centralising education can mean centralising bad practice, as the common core experience in the US shows. But there is an opportunity to expand best practice too.
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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

Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball

Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Josephine Salerno, John T Tran, Tiffany Lee-Shoy and David Vuong. Born on the same day, across the years. Along with

1081 – Louis VI of France (d. 1137)
1083 – Anna Komnene, Greek physician (d. 1153)
1761 – Marie Tussaud, French sculptor, founded Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (d. 1850)
1792 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1856)
1912 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (d. 1986)
1923 – Morris, Belgian cartoonist (d. 2001)
1935 – Woody Allen, American screenwriter, director, and actor
1946 – Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish-English singer-songwriter and pianist
2001 – Aiko, Princess Toshi of Japan

December 1: World AIDS Day; Great Union Day in Romania (1918)

1828 – Juan Lavalle (pictured), returning to Buenos Aires with troops that fought in the Cisplatine War, deposed the provincial governor Manuel Dorrego, reigniting the Argentine Civil Wars.
1913 – Ford Motor Company began operating the world's first moving assembly line for the mass production of automobiles.
1941 – The Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force, was founded.
1959 – Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty, the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War, banning military activity in the Antarctic and setting the continent aside as a scientific preserve.
1990 – Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France met 40 metres (131 ft) beneath the English Channel seabed.

The silver is ours. The gift production line is open. We have them on air. Antarctica will be free. We can dig the tunnel. Let's party.
Matches

800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.
1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris.
1577 – Francis Walsingham is knighted.
1640 – End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King João IV of Portugal, ending 60 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty.
1768 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway.
1822 – Peter I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.
1824 – United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1826 – French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier forces his way through the Turkish cordon and ascends the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege.
1828 – Argentine general Juan Lavalle makes a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.
1834 – Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
1862 – In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.
1864 – Great Fire of Brisbane
1865 – Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.
1885 – First serving of the soft drink Dr Pepper at a drug store in Waco, Texas.
1913 – The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation.
1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
1913 – Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.
1918 – Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28), thus concluding the Great Union.
1918 – The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.
1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.)
1919 – The first issue of Diário de Noite is published from Goa.
1934 – In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergey Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad.
1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to initiate war against the United States.
1941 – World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.
1948 – Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man is found in Adelaide, Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a very rare book; the case remains unsolved and is "one of Australia's most profound mysteries."
1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sexual reassignment surgery.
1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1958 – The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.
1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.
1959 – Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson.
1963 – Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India.
1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.
1964 – Malawi, Malta and Zambia join the United Nations.
1965 – India's Border Security Force is established.
1966 – The first Gävle goat, an annual Swedish Yule Goat tradition, is erected in Gävle.
1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
1971 – Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-governance from Australia.
1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.
1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
1976 – Angola joins the United Nations.
1981 – Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
1984 – NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.
1988 – Benazir Bhutto is appointed Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1989 – 1989 Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état.
1989 – Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.
1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed.
1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
1997 – In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacked the CPI(ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people.
2001 – Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines.
2009 – The Treaty of Lisbon, which amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, which together comprise the constitutional basis of European Union, comes into effect.
2013 – China launches Yutu or Jade Rabbit, its first lunar rover, as part of the Chang'e 3 lunar exploration mission.
2013 – At least four are dead and 63 are injured following a Metro-North Railroad train derailment near Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, New York City.

Hatches

1081 – Louis VI of France (d. 1137)
1083 – Anna Komnene, Byzantine physician and scholar (d. 1153)
1521 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese daimyo (d. 1573)
1525 – Tadeáš Hájek, Czech physician and astronomer (d. 1600)
1580 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (d. 1637)
1690 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (d. 1764)
1709 – Franz Xaver Richter, Czech singer-songwriter, violinist, and conductor (d. 1789)
1716 – Étienne Maurice Falconet, French sculptor (d. 1791)
1743 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist and academic (d. 1817)
1761 – Marie Tussaud, French sculptor, founded Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (d. 1850)
1792 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician and geometer (d. 1856)
1844 – Alexandra of Denmark (d. 1925)
1847 – Julia A. Moore, American poet (d. 1920)
1869 – Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic, assassin of Gabriel Narutowicz (d. 1923)
1884 – Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter (d. 1976)
1886 – Rex Stout, American author (d. 1975)
1893 – Henry J. Cadbury, American biblical scholar and Quaker (d. 1974)
1895 – Henry Williamson, English farmer, soldier, and author (d. 1977)
1896 – Georgy Zhukov, Russian general and politician, 2nd Minister of Defence for the Soviet Union (d. 1974)
1897 – Cyril Ritchard, Australian-American actor and singer (d. 1977)
1898 – Stuart Garson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1977)
1901 – Ilona Fehér, Hungarian-Israeli violinist and educator (d. 1988)
1902 – Rudolf Loo, Estonian wrestler (d. 1983)
1905 – Alex Wilson, Canadian sprinter and coach (d. 1994)
1910 – Alicia Markova, English ballerina and choreographer (d. 2004)
1911 – Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (d. 1984)
1911 – Calvin Griffith, Canadian-American businessman (d. 1999)
1912 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (d. 1986)
1913 – Mary Martin, American actress and singer (d. 1990)
1916 – Wan Li, Chinese politician, 4th Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China
1917 – Thomas Hayward, American tenor and actor (d. 1995)
1917 – Marty Marion, American baseball player and manager (d. 2011)
1921 – Vernon McGarity, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2013)
1922 – Vsevolod Bobrov, Russian ice hockey player, footballer, and manager (d. 1979)
1922 – Paul Picerni, American actor (d. 2011)
1923 – Morris, Belgian cartoonist (d. 2001)
1923 – William F. House, American otologist and physician (d. 2012)
1923 – Dick Shawn, American actor and singer (d. 1987)
1923 – Stansfield Turner, American admiral, 12th Director of Central Intelligence
1925 – Martin Rodbell, American biochemist and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
1926 – Mother Antonia, American-Mexican nun and activist (d. 2013)
1926 – Allyn Ann McLerie, Canadian-American actress, singer, and dancer
1926 – Keith Michell, Australian actor
1926 – Robert Symonds, American actor (d. 2007)
1926 – Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner, Scottish businessman (d. 2010)
1928 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (d. 1991)
1928 – Malachi Throne, American actor (d. 2013)
1929 – David Doyle, American actor (d. 1997)
1930 – Marie Bashir, Australian psychiatrist, academic, and politician, 37th Governor of New South Wales
1930 – Joachim Hoffmann, German historian and author (d. 2002)
1930 – Matt Monro, English singer (d. 1985)
1931 – Jimmy Lyons, American saxophonist (d. 1986)
1931 – Jim Nesbitt, American singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
1933 – Lou Rawls, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2006)
1933 – Curro Romero, Spanish bullfighter
1934 – Billy Paul, American singer
1935 – Woody Allen, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1937 – Muriel Costa-Greenspon, American soprano (d. 2005)
1937 – Gordon Crosse, English composer and academic
1937 – Chuck Low, American actor
1937 – Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Latvian politician, 6th President of Latvia
1938 – Sandy Nelson, American drummer
1939 – Lee Trevino, American golfer
1940 – Mike Denness, Scottish-English cricketer and referee (d. 2013)
1940 – Richard Pryor, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2005)
1940 – Tasso Wild, German footballer
1942 – Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egyptian diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Egypt
1942 – John Crowley, American author and academic
1943 – Kenny Moore, American runner and journalist
1944 – Pierre Arditi, French actor
1944 – Eric Bloom, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Blue Öyster Cult)
1944 – John Densmore, American drummer and songwriter (The Doors and the Butts Band)
1944 – Michael Hagee, American general
1944 – Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan author and poet
1944 – Werner Scholz, German footballer
1945 – Bette Midler, American singer-songwriter, actress and producer
1946 – Kemal Kurspahić, Bosnian journalist and author
1946 – Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish-English singer-songwriter and pianist
1947 – Alain Bashung, French singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2009)
1947 – Elizabeth Baur, American actress
1947 – Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster
1948 – George Foster, American baseball player and radio host
1948 – Sarfraz Nawaz, Pakistani cricketer and politician
1948 – John Roskelley, American mountaineer and author
1948 – Neil Warnock, English footballer and manager
1948 – N. T. Wright, English bishop and scholar
1948 – Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Nigerian politician, Governor of Kaduna State (d. 2012)
1949 – Jan Brett, American author and illustrator
1949 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (d. 1993)
1949 – Jake Hartford, American radio host (d. 2013)
1949 – Sebastián Piñera, Chilean businessman and politician, 35th President of Chile
1949 – Colleen Brennan, American porn actress
1950 – Manju Bansal, Indian molecular biologist
1950 – Filippos Petsalnikos, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Justice
1950 – Keith Thibodeaux, American actor and drummer (David and the Giants)
1951 – Obba Babatundé, American actor, director, and producer
1951 – Albert Ho, Hong Kong lawyer and politician
1951 – Jaco Pastorius, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Weather Report, Trio of Doom, and Blood, Sweat & Tears) (d. 1987)
1951 – Treat Williams, American actor, singer, and author
1952 – Stephen Poliakoff, English director, producer, and playwright
1954 – Bob Goen, American television host
1954 – Judith Hackitt, English chemist and engineer
1954 – Annette Haven, American porn actress
1955 – Verónica Forqué, Spanish actress
1955 – Pat Spillane, Irish footballer and sportscaster
1955 – Mark Thompson, American radio host and actor
1956 – Julee Cruise, American singer-songwriter and actress
1957 – Chris Poland, American guitarist and songwriter (Megadeth, Circle Jerks, Damn the Machine, and OHM)
1957 – Vesta Williams, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2011)
1958 – Javier Aguirre, Mexican footballer and manager
1958 – Candace Bushnell, American journalist and author
1958 – Lisa Fischer, American singer-songwriter
1958 – Gary Peters, American lieutenant and politician
1958 – Charlene Tilton, American actress and singer
1959 – Billy Childish, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter (The Medway Poets, Thee Mighty Caesars, and Thee Headcoats)
1959 – Wally Lewis, Australian rugby player and coach
1960 – Carol Alt, American model and actress
1960 – Jane Turner, Australian actress, producer, and screenwriter
1961 – Safra A. Catz, Israeli-American businesswoman
1961 – Armin Meiwes, German cannibal and murderer
1961 – Jeremy Northam, English actor and singer
1961 – Lynn LeMay, American pornographic actress
1962 – Sylvie Daigle, Canadian speed skater
1962 – Pamela McGee, American basketball player and coach
1963 – Marco Greco, Brazilian race car driver
1963 – Nathalie Lambert, Canadian speed skater
1963 – Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lankan cricketer and politician
1964 – Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer
1964 – Jo Walton, Welsh-Canadian author and poet
1966 – Andrew Adamson, New Zealand director, producer, and screenwriter
1966 – Katherine LaNasa, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
1966 – Ali Mosaffa, Iranian actor, director, and screenwriter
1966 – Larry Walker, Canadian baseball player
1967 – Nestor Carbonell, American actor
1967 – Reggie Sanders, American baseball player
1968 – Justin Chadwick, English actor and director
1968 – Anders Holmertz, Swedish swimmer
1969 – Richard Carrier, American author and blogger
1970 – Jouko Ahola, Finnish strongman and actor
1970 – Golden Brooks, American actress
1970 – Julie Condra, American actress
1970 – Jonathan Coulton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1970 – Lembit Rajala, Estonian footballer
1970 – Kirk Rueter, American baseball player
1970 – Sarah Silverman, American comedian, actress, and singer
1971 – Trinity, American wrestler and stuntwoman
1971 – Emily Mortimer, English actress and screenwriter
1971 – Melanie Peres, German-Israeli model, actress, and singer
1971 – Mika Pohjola, Finnish-American pianist and composer
1971 – John Schlimm, American author and educator
1971 – Dolgorsürengiin Serjbüdee, Mongolian wrestler and mixed martial artist
1971 – Peter Van de Veire, Belgian radio host
1971 – Christian Pescatori, Italian racing driver
1972 – Bart Millard, American singer-songwriter (MercyMe)
1973 – Steve Gibb, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Black Label Society and Crowbar)
1973 – Jon Theodore, American drummer (One Day as a Lion, The Mars Volta, and Golden)
1974 – Costinha, Portuguese footballer and manager
1975 – Matt Fraction, American author
1975 – Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, American keyboard player and producer (The Mars Volta, De Facto, and Free Moral Agents) (d. 2014)
1975 – Thomas Schie, Norwegian racing driver
1975 – Sophia Skou, Danish swimmer
1976 – Tomasz Adamek, Polish boxer
1976 – Laura Ling, American journalist
1976 – Dean O'Gorman, New Zealand actor and photographer
1976 – Evangelos Sklavos, Greek basketball player
1976 – Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
1977 – Brad Delson, American guitarist and producer (Linkin Park)
1977 – Jared Fogle, American spokesman
1977 – Lee McKenzie, Scottish journalist
1977 – Akiva Schaffer, American actor, rapper, director, producer, and screenwriter (The Lonely Island)
1977 – Nate Torrence, American actor
1978 – Mat Kearney, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1979 – Angelique Bates, American actress
1979 – Ryan Malone, American ice hockey player
1980 – Mohammad Kaif, Indian cricketer
1980 – Roger Peterson, Aruban-Dutch singer-songwriter (Intwine)
1981 – Park Hyo-shin, South Korean singer-songwriter
1981 – Luke McPharlin, Australian footballer
1982 – Riz Ahmed, English actor and rapper
1982 – Lloyd Doyley, English footballer
1982 – Christos Kalantzis, Greek footballer
1982 – Christos Melissis, Greek footballer
1985 – John Coughlin, American figure skater
1985 – Philip DeFranco, American video blogger
1985 – Janelle Monáe, American singer-songwriter and producer
1985 – Chanel Preston, American porn actress
1985 – Emiliano Viviano, Italian footballer
1986 – DeSean Jackson, American football player
1987 – Tabarie Henry, Virgin Islander sprinter
1987 – Brett Williams, English footballer
1987 – Simon Dawkins, English-born Jamaican footballer
1988 – Zoë Kravitz, American actress and singer
1988 – Dan Mavraides, Greek-American basketball player
1989 – Sotelúm, Mexican musician
1990 – Chanel Iman, American model
1990 – Tomáš Tatar, Slovak ice hockey player
1991 – Hilda Melander, Swedish tennis player
1992 – Masahudu Alhassan, Ghanaian footballer
1992 – Linos Chrysikopoulos, Greek basketball player
1992 – Marco van Ginkel, Dutch footballer
1993 – Reena Pärnat, Estonian archer
1994 – Seedy Njie, English footballer
1995 – Eva Boto, Slovenian singer
1995 – Agnė Čepelytė, Lithuanian tennis player
1995 – James Wilson, English footballer
2001 – Aiko, Princess Toshi of Japan
2001 – Savannah McReynolds, American actress

Despatches

1135 – Henry I of England (b. 1068)
1241 – Isabella of England (b. 1214)
1433 – Emperor Go-Komatsu of Japan (b. 1377)
1455 – Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor (b. 1378)
1521 – Pope Leo X (b. 1475)
1530 – Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy (b. 1480)
1580 – Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (b. 1509)
1581 – Alexander Briant, English martyr and saint (b. 1556)
1581 – Edmund Campion, English priest, martyr, and saint (b. 1540)
1581 – Ralph Sherwin, English martyr and saint (b. 1550)
1602 – Kobayakawa Hideaki, Japanese daimyo (b. 1582)
1633 – Isabella Clara Eugenia, Spanish wife of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria (b. 1566)
1640 – Miguel de Vasconcelos, Portuguese politician, Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1590)
1660 – Pierre d'Hozier, French genealogist and historian (b. 1592)
1709 – Abraham a Sancta Clara, Austrian monk (b. 1644)
1723 – Susanna Centlivre, English actress and playwright (b. 1667)
1729 – Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer and mathematician (b. 1665)
1750 – Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (b. 1671)
1755 – Maurice Greene, English organist and composer (b. 1696)
1767 – Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, Scottish politician (b. 1710)
1825 – Alexander I of Russia (b. 1777)
1865 – Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich, Swiss pastor, poet, and educator (b. 1796)
1866 – George Everest, Welsh geographer and surveyor, namesake of Mt. Everest (b. 1790)
1884 – William Swainson, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, Attorney-General of the Crown Colony of New Zealand (b. 1809)
1913 – Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet and author (b. 1864)
1914 – Alfred Thayer Mahan, American captain and historian (b. 1840)
1916 – Charles de Foucauld, French priest and martyr (b. 1858)
1917 – John January, American soccer player (b. 1882)
1923 – Virginie Loveling, Belgian author and poet (b. 1836)
1928 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian-American lawyer and poet (b. 1888)
1933 – Pekka Halonen, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
1934 – Sergey Kirov, Russian politician (b. 1886)
1935 – Bernhard Schmidt, Estonian-German optician, invented the Schmidt camera (b. 1879)
1943 – Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian and educator (b. 1862)
1947 – Aleister Crowley, English magician, poet, and mountaineer (b. 1875)
1947 – G. H. Hardy, English mathematician and theorist (b. 1877)
1950 – Ernest John Moeran, English pianist and composer (b. 1894)
1954 – Fred Rose, American pianist, songwriter, and publisher (b. 1898)
1964 – J. B. S. Haldane, English-Indian geneticist and biologist (b. 1892)
1964 – Charilaos Vasilakos, Greek runner (b. 1877)
1968 – Nicolae Bretan, Romanian opera singer, composer, and conductor (b. 1887)
1968 – Darío Moreno, Turkish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1921)
1969 – Magic Sam, American guitarist and singer (b. 1937)
1973 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1886)
1975 – Nellie Fox, American baseball player and coach (b. 1927)
1975 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American journalist (b. 1906)
1981 – Russ Manning, American author and illustrator, created Magnus, Robot Fighter (b. 1929)
1984 – Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter and photographer (b. 1911)
1986 – Frank McCarthy, American general and film producer (b. 1912)
1987 – James Baldwin, American author, poet, and critic (b. 1924)
1987 – Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1918)
1989 – Alvin Ailey, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1931)
1990 – Carla Lehmann, Canadian-English actress (b. 1917)
1991 – George Stigler, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
1993 – Ray Gillen, American singer-songwriter (Badlands, Black Sabbath, Blue Murder, and Sun Red Sun) (b. 1959)
1995 – Hopper Levett, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1995 – Colin Tapley, New Zealand-English actor (b. 1907)
1995 – Maxwell R. Thurman, American general (b. 1931)
1996 – Peter Bronfman, Canadian businessman (b. 1928)
1997 – Michel Bélanger, Canadian businessman and banker (b. 1929)
1997 – Stéphane Grappelli, French violinist (Quintette du Hot Club de France) (b. 1908)
1997 – Endicott Peabody, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1920)
1998 – Freddie Young, English cinematographer (b. 1902)
2001 – Ellis R. Dungan, American director and producer (b. 1909)
2002 – Edward L. Beach, Jr., American captain and author (b. 1918)
2002 – Dave McNally, American baseball player (b. 1942)
2003 – Clark Kerr, American economist and academic (b. 1911)
2003 – Eugenio Monti, Italian bobsledder (b. 1928)
2004 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (b. 1911)
2004 – Bill Brown, Scottish footballer (b. 1931)
2005 – Gust Avrakotos, American CIA officer (b. 1938)
2005 – Mary Hayley Bell, Chinese-English actress and playwright (b. 1911)
2005 – Freeman V. Horner, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1922)
2006 – Claude Jade, French actress (b. 1948)
2006 – Bruce Trigger, Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian (b. 1937)
2007 – Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player and footballer (b. 1929)
2007 – Anton Rodgers, English actor and director (b. 1933)
2008 – Paul Benedict, American actor (b. 1938)
2008 – Mikel Laboa, Spanish singer-songwriter (b. 1934)
2008 – Joseph B. Wirthlin, American businessman and religious leader (b. 1917)
2009 – Gustavo Adolfo Palma, Guatemalan tenor and actor (b. 1920)
2010 – Adriaan Blaauw, Dutch astronomer (b. 1914)
2010 – Hillard Elkins, American actor and producer (b. 1929)
2011 – Christa Wolf, German author and critic (b. 1929)
2012 – Jovan Belcher, American football player (b. 1987)
2012 – Arthur Chaskalson, South African lawyer and judge, 18th Chief Justice of South Africa (b. 1931)
2012 – Mitchell Cole, English footballer (b. 1985)
2012 – Steve Fox, English footballer (b. 1958)
2012 – Rick Majerus, American basketball player and coach (b. 1948)
2012 – Ed Price, American pilot and politician (b. 1918)
2012 – Bhim Bahadur Tamang, Nepali politician (b. 1933)
2012 – Phil Taylor, English footballer and manager (b. 1917)
2012 – Yoshinori Watanabe, Japanese mobster (b. 1941)
2012 – Reinhold Weege, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1949)
2012 – James R. Whelan, American historian, author, and journalist (b. 1933)
2013 – Heinrich Boere, German SS officer (b. 1921)
2013 – Richard Coughlan, English drummer (Caravan and The Wilde Flowers) (b. 1947)
2013 – Stirling Colgate, American physicist and academic (b. 1925)
2013 – Walter E. Ellis, American serial killer (b. 1960)
2013 – T. R. Fehrenbach, American historian, journalist, and author (b. 1925)
2013 – Edward Heffron, American soldier (b. 1923)
2013 – André Schiffrin, French-American author and publisher (b. 1935)
2013 – Martin Sharp, Australian cartoonist and songwriter (b. 1942)
2013 – James von der Heydt, American lawyer and judge (b. 1919)

===
2014

Christian feast day:

Damrong Rajanubhab Day (Thailand)
Earliest day on which Farmer's Day can fall, while December 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Friday in December. (Ghana)
Earliest day on which Good Neighborliness Day can fall, while December 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in December. (Turkmenistan)
First President Day (Kazakhstan)
Freedom and Democracy Day (Chad)
Great Union Day, celebrates the Union of Transylvania with Romania in 1918; since 1990, National Day (Romania)
Military Abolition Day (Costa Rica)
National Day (Burma)
Republic Day (Central African Republic)
Restoration of Independence (Portugal)
Self-governance Day or Fullveldisdagurinn (Iceland)
Teachers' Day (Panama)
World AIDS Day (International)

===

WINKLER IN SHARK-JUMP DRAMA

Tim Blair – Monday, December 01, 2014 (5:39pm)

An appropriate name, considering the circumstances:

A shark has reportedly leapt from the water during a surf competition involving a mothers club in Coffs Harbour …

Surfer Sharni Winkler told the Advocate “it was real” and that her arms were aching from the frantic paddle back to shore.

Click for the photograph. Of course, the original Winkler preferred to jump sharks rather than be jumped by a shark:

(Via A.R.M. Jones)

===

SOCIAL FABRIC

Tim Blair – Monday, December 01, 2014 (12:45pm)

Feminists should pay more attention to clothes. No, wait – that sounds sexist. What I mean to say is that feminists should pay more attention to the complicated and interconnected issues associated with clothes in the broader context of an oppressive capitalist patriarchy.

Continue reading 'SOCIAL FABRIC'

===

THESE PEOPLE VOTE

Tim Blair – Monday, December 01, 2014 (12:01pm)

Protesters make their various, er, points during the G20 summit:

===

GO FOR IT

Tim Blair – Monday, December 01, 2014 (11:30am)

Politics, most of the time, is a necessarily cautious game. This is why the Greens usually hold their party conferences behind closed doors, away from any media attention. No point exposing the public to the absolute madness behind the Greens’ carefully contrived mainstream facade.

There are two circumstances where governments may be justified in taking a risky approach. One is when polls show a large enough lead that even policies which alienate some voters still won’t do enough damage to wreck chances of re-election.

Continue reading 'GO FOR IT'

===

TACOS OPENLY CELEBRATED

Tim Blair – Monday, December 01, 2014 (11:14am)

Joe Hildebrand discovers a hotbed of cultural insensitivity on the north coast of NSW:

I bet they didn’t even have any lecturers to explain Mexican history. This looks like a job for the Autonomous Collective Against Racism.

===

Does Leyonhjelm want his conservative supporters to be equally absolutist with him?

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (7:57pm)

I’m not sure David Leyonhjelm would want to give his many conservative admirers reason to drop off him - not when the Left won’t ever thank him enough to vote for him anyway:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott faces opening up a new battle front in the Senate, with Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm pledging to block government legislation if MPs are not allowed to properly debate his same-sex marriage bill.
Last week, Senator Leyonhjelm introduced a bill into the Senate that would amend the Marriage Act to allow marriage between same-sex couples, as well as for transgender and intersex Australians.
In response to Mr Abbott’s comments, Senator Leyonhjelm observed that newly independent senator Jacqui Lambie was not the only one on the crossbench who could veto the government’s legislation in protest.

===

Glenn Lazarus taken to hospital

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (1:14pm)

Party leader Clive Palmer says his Senate leader has been taken to hospital for a “condition”.
UPDATE
And Palmer won’t been feeling well after his car-crash appearance at the National Press Club today, with several journalists trying to ask him about his court case. In the end Palmer just kept talking over the questions to stop them being asked, and personally insulted the journalists asking them.
This man is a clown, yes. He is also sinister. Imagine him with real power.
Oh, wait....

===

Campaigns matter less, performance more

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (12:54pm)

Simon Benson makes a good point about not just the Victorian election:

If the extraordinarily high number of pre-poll votes is a sign of a new phenomenon, parties will have to rewrite the election campaign guide book.
With one million Victorians voting three weeks before the poll, campaigns can no longer rely on a surge of promises in the final two weeks ...
John Howard always said it that you can’t fatten a pig on market day. Never before has that been truer.

(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)

===

Abbott changes

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (11:56am)

Tony Abbott has heard and is starting to change. His press conference today was probably his longest yet and arguably his best.
We wanted him to show he was listening and learning from his stumbles. He acknowledged last week’s performance was “ragged” and said he would restore the allowances that were being cut from defence services’ pay.
We wanted to him to make changes in his staff. He said highly experienced diplomat Michael Thawley, a top public servant with serious experience in the private sector, would become head of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Yes, he did defend his personal staff, as he should, but he hasn’t ruled out changes there - and should make them.
We wanted him to sound less scripted and more heartfelt. His tone today - and the sheer length of the press conference - was spot on. This was genuine Abbott being more open about his stumbles and the challenges he was trying to balance.
We wanted him not to treat people like idiots and to stop denying he’d broken promises. He admitted his cuts to the ABC were “at odds with what I said immediately prior to the election”. That’s still not quite good enough. Abbott simply stuffed up in that one interview in mistaking what was clear and explicit and often-repeated policy, but this is miles better than last week’s evasions.
We wanted him to focus more on the purpose to the pain, to describe the sunny uplands. There was some of that, too, albeit not yet enough. Just as importantly, though, he sounded confident, calm and focussed.
We wanted him to ditch the unaffordable - notably the paid parental leave scheme. Well, he won’t quite do that, saying he’d promised it so often, but hinted that it might be further modified to get Senate support.
But we also wanted him not to stray from the central story, and, indeed, to focus more on it - that the nation does face a financial crisis and spending must be restrained if we are to give people jobs. There was plenty of that, and Abbott crucially did not give in on the ADF pay offer itself - a 1.5 per cent increase. We simply cannot afford more, he said.
I thought this was a very promising start.
Abbott needs to give people, especially his critics, a reason or excuse to give him another look, another chance.
That requires him to acknowledge but also to change. We’re getting a fair bit of the first but not yet enough of the second, which will take time. His office needs beefing up, his ministers need some reshuffling, his ministers need to sell harder, his ministers need more freedom, the Government’s policies need sharpening, the constitutional recognition campaign needs to be quietly buried, the job queues need to be tackled, the government needs to show it gets people and is helping them in their daily lives.
Abbott needs to go harder on his strengths - the can-do man and community volunteer. Surround himself with more friends - the quiet doers. Fixing their problems. Lauding their virtues. Giving strength to their arm. Abbott’s Australia.
But after today I am feeling a lot more optimistic about the Abbott Government than I have for a few weeks.
UPDATE
But this remains the greatest threat to the Government’s re-election:

THE torrent of revenue delivered by the resources boom to the federal government has dried up sooner than expected, all but destroying Tony Abbott’s promise to return the federal budget to surplus even if he manages to convince the Senate to pass his controversial savings.
The mid-year budget update, due within weeks, will reveal a deficit blowout of more than $35 billion over the next four years and show that for the first time in more than a decade the state of the economy has become a drag on the budget, according to a report by economic forecaster Deloitte Access Economics....
Deloitte says that sharper-than-expected falls in the price of Australia’s biggest export, iron ore — down more than 35 per cent since May to less than $US70 a tonne — and sluggish wage growth at home have lopped more than $9bn from projected revenues over the next two years alone, rendering hopes of a surplus in 2017-18 “well and truly toast"…
Chris Richardson, head of economics at Deloitte ... points out that about 80 per cent of the deterioration in the budget’s bottom line since 2000 was due to extra spending rather than tax cuts…
At the peak of the boom in 2007, the revenue bonanza was adding about $80bn a year to government revenues but the state of the economy will now subtract $24bn from the budget over the next four years…
In his report, Mr Richardson says the budget delivered in May is “the only road map to structural fiscal repair Australia has”.
“The opposition and minor parties have washed their hands of setting out detailed alternatives, preferring populist posturing...”

Where’s Labor’s plan? Why is it actively sabotaging the rescue of the economy? Why is it putting its ambitions ahead of the interests of the Australians who need jobs for themselves and their children?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)

===

Rinehart: more than 3000 approvals just to build a mine

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (9:52am)

A strong speech from mining boss Gina Rinehart on this bizarre culture of crippling the investments we need to pay for all we demand:

Mining is the largest earner of export income generating more than $200 billion in much needed revenue for our country, a country in record debt…
For an industry that delivers so much, wouldn’t you think that there would be just a little more understanding and less negativity for what mining contributes to our country?…

Recently, the Boston Consulting Group looked at the performance of the major exporting nations and put Australia at the bottom of the list… Expensive labor and energy costs were significant and so was low productivity.
Despite all the talk of reform, when it comes to international comparisons, Australia is going backwards. We’re now bundled in with Italy and France.
The report found, our wages grew by 48 percent from 2004 to 2014, but labour productivity remained virtually flat.
In the same period, electricity costs rose by about 60%.
What has definitely grown though is government imposed costs - regulation and compliance.
Deloitte recently calculated that regulation is costing Australia an incredible $250 billion a year.... They estimate the red tape industry unproductively employs more than 1 million people nationwide now – and consider this – compliance has become Australia’s fastest growing sector!
Of course, mining remains THE most regulated of all industries…

When I was at Port Hedland the day before yesterday, for the two thirds milestone of our Roy Hill project, I heard that one Department wants us to spend approximately $3million to re-vegetate an access road which had cost us about $12 million to build. Whereas the locals don’t want the road closed and want to be able to use it after us. Why waste $15 million dollars? And then how much would it take the government to then rebuild with taxpayers money a similar access road, no doubt much more than this!…
We can’t change international commodity prices, and Australians are reluctant to have their wages lowered, so it should be blindingly obvious that we must reduce our costs, so government burdens have to be reduced…
I’ve spoken of our Roy Hill experience with its 3000 plus approvals and licences.
But at a coal project we used to have 100% of in Queensland, guess how many approvals and licences our staff found were required? Firstly they advised after years of searching, over 3000! But later they found even more, more than 5000 approvals and licences were required. And we’re not talking a simple short form . Some of these approvals require thousands of pages to be submitted, a recent approval it was published utilised 500 consultants. If I’d known this beforehand, I doubt I would have even bothered to invest and advance the project.
Contrast the Australian experience to how mining is treated in our competitor nations and we should start to think. Just take for instance the USA, a much more heavily populated and built up country. We’re told approvals and licences required for major projects would be less than 100 in total. I’ve heard as low as 35.

===

Russell was right

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (9:30am)

Bertrand Russell:

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

Take Damiya Hayden, who has been an Oaktree Foundation ambassador and Australian Young Greens campaign co-coordinator and ticks many of the boxes of the identity politics that define the Left:

I’m a white, queer, disabled, middle class Italian-Australian woman

And her suffering hasn’t made her more conspicuously compassionate:

(Via Menzies House.)

===

The devil meets his imp

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (9:11am)

Lambie meets with “the devil” who spent up to $700,000 to win her seat for her:

Jacqui Lambie… met Clive Palmer for a drink to discuss her ex-leader’s position on better pay for the defence force.
A photograph emerged on social media on Sunday night showing the pair meeting at Canberra’s Hotel Hotel, a surprising move given the toxic nature of the pair’s relationship…
”I did have a meeting with the devil himself,” she told reporters.

===

Liberals and Nationals lose loyalists in Victoria. Swing biggest in safest seats

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (9:02am)

Demographer and former Labor Senator John Black says Victorian Liberals lost their base:

...a lead-footed, hesitant Coalition government got clobbered by an effective and populist Labor campaign. On the current political settings, the same thing is likely to happen to Tony Abbott in 2016 for the same reasons....
Saturday’s Victorian swing of 2.5 per cent was not big enough to be emphatic; nor was it concentrated on 2010 Coalition marginal seats, where it picked up six or seven seats out of a dozen marginals....
This means the biggest swings to Labor came from hardcore Coalition voters in seats such as Sandringham, Hawthorn, Bass, Caulfield, Nepean, Benambra, Gippsland, Murray Plains, Werribee, Kew and Warrandyte. Get the picture?
Labor didn’t win this election. Hardcore Liberal voters chucked out their own. Just as hardcore Labor voters chucked out state Labor governments during the chaotic Rudd/Gillard era.

The swing to Labor overall was indeed 2.5 per cent. But the swing in many of the safest Liberal and Nationals seats was much higher.

The swing in Shepparton - 32.5 per cent.
Sandringham - 8.3
Hawthorn - 8.1
Caulfield - 6.7
Murray Plains - 6.2
Warrandyte - 5.6
Kew - 5.6
Brighton - 4.5
Malvern - 4.3

Yes, Hawthorn and Kew had sitting members quit. Special factors were at play in Shepparton, with the Nationals losing to an independent. And, of course, fewer people are rusted on these days, as Labor has already found.
But the message seems clear: the Victorian Liberals and Nationals did not have a happy base.
That’s very true of the Nationals:

The National Party faces losing party status in Victoria, with its state-wide primary vote reduced to about 5.3 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent in 2010.
Although thousands of pre-poll votes are still to be counted, the Nationals appear to have lost the seat of Shepparton, which it has held for 47 years, to rural independent Suzanna Sheed after suffering a whopping 32.5 per cent swing.
The seat of Morwell is also under a cloud, with Nationals incumbent Russell Northe suffering an 11.6 per cent swing.

Which suggests Abbott’s big push on the Monday after the Victorian election is exactly not what’s needed if he wants to inspire his own troops to fight:

TONY Abbott has stepped up the campaign to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution with a passionate and direct appeal to constitutional monarchists, the group most against reforms and the constituency he successfully led to defeat the 1999 republican referendum. Delivering the Neville Bonner Oration to Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy on Friday night, the Prime Minister argued that as a “constitutional conservative” he did not want to change the Constitution, just “complete it"…
“The challenge is to find a way to acknowledge Aboriginal people in the Constitution without otherwise changing it,” he told the private function in Sydney.
In an ardent appeal to the group he once led against constitutional change, Mr Abbott said: “I invite the friends of the Constitution to suspend scepticism...”

That Abbott is explicitly and openly taking on conservatives says everything. This is not a winning strategy - to antagonise your allies without placating your foes:

Indigenous leader Mick Dodson ... criticised the Abbott government for contributing to a “discourse of negativity” about Aboriginal people and ...said the government’s focus on child protection, community safety and employment in indigenous affairs emphasised failure.
“The negativity actually makes people sick....”

John Black continues:

Which moves us neatly onto Abbott. His erratic leadership of a cabinet of angry old men is reminding me more and more of the last few months of John Gorton. The problems for Abbott lie not just with his cabinet, an ineffectual Treasurer, an unsellable budget, a bogan Senate and duff policies.
The problems for Abbott start with Abbott himself.

UPDATE
ABC presenter Jon Faine, a Greens sympathiser, gloats that the Victorian result shows elections can’t be won from the radical right, and this was the “last roar of the dinosaurs” of the Liberals. The Liberals must move to the centre.
We know why Faine, who offered no such analysis following the fall of Labor, would want this to be true. But what makes that analysis so transparently self-serving is that is relies on imagining the Baillieu and Napthine governments as radical right-wing. The exact opposite is true.
Faine has form. This is the same ABC radical who, after the fall of the Howard Government, asked the editor of the Herald Sun if he’d then have a “cleansing” of his conservative columnists (of whom there were but me and Terry McCrann):

JON FAINE: I want to expand our discussion to another aspect of media which I think is quite intriguing as the Rudd Government is about to start it’s first session in the parliament, and that is whether or not the media needs to go through a bit of a rethink, as it would seem, according to last year’s election, the nation has. Have things moved on and have some of the staples of the media in the Howard era worn out their usefulness as we enter a Rudd era? ... I’m going to talk in particular about columnists… and Bruce you have some notorious ones of your own? ... so you’re not going through a cleansing process?

But Faine called for no “cleansing” of “notorious” Leftists at the ABC or Fairfax (like himself) when Labor just five years later lost the federal election and was left in power only in South Australia. There was no talk then of the “last roar of the dinosaurs”.
To celebrate this morning, Faine gives a very kind interview to the Greens, with none of the rude heckling that he invariably gives to Coalition MPs. The Greens look like holding just one of the 88 seats in the lower house.
Too transparent, Jon.

UPDATE
Excellent piece by Roger Franklin:

Advance your enemies, betray your friends – that might be another epitaph worth inscribing on the Liberal headstone.
As to the next four years, well, it is a horror-show script. For starters, the incoming government has sworn that it will shut down much of the state’s coal-burning capacity to generate electricity. Plus, there are some $30 billion dollars worth of promises, a union thugocracy waiting to issue orders, and emergency service workers to be lavishly rewarded for their truculence with pay raises that will set the scale for many, many more of similar size to come. If Victorians wish to glimpse the future, look not to Andrews’ promises but across Bass Strait, where Tasmania’s basket-case economy sets the benchmark.

UPDATE
Professor Sinclair Davidson:

The problem with the Victorian Liberals is that they are embarrassed by their constituents – they want the votes, but don’t want to deliver. Ronald Reagan is said to have observed that you’ve got to go home with the one that brung you to the dance. Well, true – but before you go home, you’ve got to dance with the one that brung you too.
The Victorian Liberals don’t get that. These are people who won office in 2010 promising to repeal the Charter of Human Rights and by 2014 the same people were campaigning to retain 18c. I can’t imagine why any liberally minded person could ever vote for them – the Victorian Liberals were so useless they couldn’t articulate any reason why they should remain in office either.

(Thanks to reader Gab.)

===

Timid, tongue-tied government in turmoil smashed. The real lessons for Tony Abbott

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (7:34am)

Politics - federal

IF you’re a Liberal, be scared. If you’re Prime Minister Tony Abbott, be alarmed. The Liberals should never have lost Victoria’s election.

No other Victorian government in the past 59 years has been thrown out after just one term.
This one shouldn’t have been, either.
Its Budget is the healthiest in the country. It’s had no major scandals, and no Labor-style desalination plant disaster bleeding billions.
It’s also had no inspirational Opposition. New Labor Premier Daniel Andrews is a man from the Socialist Left who vowed to tear up a massive road contract at God knows what cost, and made at least $24 billion of promises.
Labor even remains formally tied to the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, many of whose officials have had charges recommended against them by the counsel assisting the royal commission into union corruption. The new Planning Minister is a CFMEU member.
And to make things worse, the Greens, as predicted, may help control the balance of power in the Upper House, and have at least one seat in the Lower House. When did Labor and Greens between them last deliver prosperity?
Yet the Liberals lost. And the Abbott Government may well lose, too, especially if it’s now panicked into repeating the mistakes that helped lose Victoria.
True, Abbott cost the Liberals votes. Labor didn’t put up posters of his face at every polling station because voters love him.
But let’s not exaggerate.
(Read full article here.)

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Oh dear. Another government needing fringe parties’ support

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (7:20am)

Increasingly we must ask whether upper houses and proportional representation gives us more democracy or more instability:

MINOR parties have claimed victory in the battle to control Victoria’s upper house, with the new Labor government likely to require support from the Shooters and Fishers Party, the Sex Party or other electoral minnows to pass its legislation.

Less than 60 per cent of the vote had been counted by yesterday afternoon, but the early figures suggest Labor will hold 13 seats, the Greens five and the Coalition 16 in the 40-seat Legislative Council.
That leaves six seats open, with the possibility that the Shooters could emerge as a major winner with two or possibly three seats.
The Australian Sex Party is also likely to claim its first MP… The Democratic Labour Party and the Country Alliance are also ahead, as is Vote 1 Local Jobs, which ran chiefly in the Western Victorian district.
Created by Moyne Shire councillor James Purcell, who has previously stood as an independent, the party opposes foreign ownership of agricultural land...

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Greens support static in Victoria

Andrew Bolt December 01 2014 (7:06am)

Yes, the Greens won at least one seat in Victoria’s lower house and maybe five in the upper. But after polls predicting a vote of up to 18 per cent, the reality is more sober:

When counting resumes on Monday the party’s first preference result will be hovering on the same 11 per cent figure it won four years ago.

The Greens celebrate winning Melbourne by murdering plants and handing the corpses to new MP Ellen Sandell:

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.. I lost my feathers long ago .. I'm not a bird .. but .. I'm just like everyone else
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Post by Diamond Imports.

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Scott is paid $800k pa and all he has is fantasy cuts off limb rather than trimming nail. http://t.co/RMIT9WeZ5y
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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Public duped by union corruption http://t.co/suHdfISUzK
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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Photo: entitlement. make of it what you will http://t.co/eE8pGHVUu6
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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Photo: "who let themselves run over a paving stone" .. one step at a time .. http://t.co/85FXxYuU0C
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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UN approved genocide Iraqi Christians Weigh Taking Up Arms Against the Islamic State http://t.co/gr217BtIDe via @NatGeo
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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(US) Mesopotamian Org (AMO) Calls on Assyrians to Support the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) http://t.co/ifI0EESvoq via @PRWeb
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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Beaten to death with a baseball bat after bravely defending teenage girls http://t.co/BkqqrqwTO8 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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Australian Greens Coordinator Wants To Murder Political Opponents http://t.co/POgSWPghr3 via @MenziesHouse
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 1, 2014

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Why I voted Greens...: http://t.co/WwCxkY4eKk via @YouTube
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) November 30, 2014

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“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” 2 Peter 3:10-11 NIV

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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this."
2 Chronicles 25:9

A very important question this seemed to be to the king of Judah, and possibly it is of even more weight with the tried and tempted O Christian. To lose money is at no times pleasant, and when principle involves it, the flesh is not always ready to make the sacrifice. "Why lose that which may be so usefully employed? May not the truth itself be bought too dear? What shall we do without it? Remember the children, and our small income!" All these things and a thousand more would tempt the Christian to put forth his hand to unrighteous gain, or stay himself from carrying out his conscientious convictions, when they involve serious loss. All men cannot view these matters in the light of faith; and even with the followers of Jesus, the doctrine of "we must live" has quite sufficient weight.

The Lord is able to give thee much more than this is a very satisfactory answer to the anxious question. Our Father holds the purse-strings, and what we lose for his sake he can repay a thousand-fold. It is ours to obey his will, and we may rest assured that he will provide for us. The Lord will be no man's debtor at the last. Saints know that a grain of heart's-ease is of more value than a ton of gold. He who wraps a threadbare coat about a good conscience has gained a spiritual wealth far more desirable than any he has lost. God's smile and a dungeon are enough for a true heart; his frown and a palace would be hell to a gracious spirit. Let the worst come to the worst, let all the talents go, we have not lost our treasure, for that is above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Meanwhile, even now, the Lord maketh the meek to inherit the earth, and no good thing doth he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Evening

"Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels."
Revelation 12:7

War always will rage between the two great sovereignties until one or other be crushed. Peace between good and evil is an impossibility; the very pretence of it would, in fact, be the triumph of the powers of darkness. Michael will always fight; his holy soul is vexed with sin, and will not endure it. Jesus will always be the dragon's foe, and that not in a quiet sense, but actively, vigorously, with full determination to exterminate evil. All his servants, whether angels in heaven or messengers on earth, will and must fight; they are born to be warriors--at the cross they enter into covenant never to make truce with evil; they are a warlike company, firm in defence and fierce in attack. The duty of every soldier in the army of the Lord is daily, with all his heart, and soul, and strength, to fight against the dragon.

The dragon and his angels will not decline the affray; they are incessant in their onslaughts, sparing no weapon, fair or foul. We are foolish to expect to serve God without opposition: the more zealous we are, the more sure are we to be assailed by the myrmidons of hell. The church may become slothful, but not so her great antagonist; his restless spirit never suffers the war to pause; he hates the woman's seed, and would fain devour the church if he could. The servants of Satan partake much of the old dragon's energy, and are usually an active race. War rages all around, and to dream of peace is dangerous and futile.

Glory be to God, we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast out and forever destroyed, while Jesus and they who are with him shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords tonight, and pray the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for the conflict. Never battle so important, never crown so glorious. Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!

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Today's reading: Ezekiel 37-39, 2 Peter 2 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 37-39

The Valley of Dry Bones

¹ The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breathenter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them....

...read the rest on Bible Gateway

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Peter 2

False Teachers and Their Destruction

¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³ In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping....