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Dear Members (YOU MUST READ THIS THREAD)
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Death sentence for jihadist bomber. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been proud of his achievement of killing three and maiming hundreds of others when he bombed the Boston marathon in 2013. Following the planned explosions, where Dzhokhar placed a bomb close to children, the brothers hijacked a car, killed a policeman and Dzhokhar drove over his dying brother in his car, before hiding in a boat. He is a jihadist, which is to say he is capable of lying, cheating killing and hurting the most vulnerable. He feels emotions strongest when there is talk of him struggling in childhood. He is proud of the damage he has done. Some say he is Islamic, one leaves that to the impotent Islamic leadership which embrace such. He may have fans appreciative of such bestial creatures, but the truth is God does not claim such creatures. God is not a quivering, frightened, threatened creature, intolerant of drawings or criticism, and any such creature that is, is not God and has no power or authority among God's people. It will be a long time before Dzhokhar dies. Maybe ISIL will be defeated before then. Maybe secular democracy will reign in nations under siege of jihadis. It matters little how the garbage is disposed of, so long as it doesn't come back.
Artists who are silenced by a cut to welfare schemes are not brave. They are not insightful in challenging the mores of the ruling elite. They are parasites hurting the weakest who listen to them and accept their logic without reason. The highly lauded actress who brought forth a particularly sapphic Galadriel does not possess the magic to accurately describe the weather. Even though she has a following. Turn off the tap. Let artists who can commercialise prosper.
On this day in 218, a manipulative aunt, Julia Maesa, was banished to her Syrian homeland by an upstart emperor, Macrinus. She got her revenge by starting a rumour that her nephew was favoured by a sun god and marching on the unpopular emperor, whose own troops deserted him. Macrinus was not of senator class. In 1532, the pratt Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England. He had begged Henry VIII of England to leave the role, claiming chest pains. He refused to accept Henry's divorce, and a few years later was beheaded for maintaining that position. More had confused faith in God with politics. But a political leader does not hold sway over a conscience. In 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots fled to England. Her father had died six days after she was born in December 1540, and she had been Queen of Scotland since then. But she gave the throne to her one year old son, James, in order to prevent a husband from claiming her throne. She had also claimed herself to be the legitimate English Queen, and that eventually got her killed. But her son was to succeed her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. In 1770, a 14 yo Marie Antoinette married a 15 yo Louis August who would later become King of France.
In 1843, the first wagon train of a thousand people set out along the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove Missouri to the Pacific Northwest. In 1868, the worst President before Obama, Andrew Johnson, was acquitted of impeachment by one vote. Johnson was a Democrat who had been on a unity ticket with Lincoln. He had failed to do anything worthwhile for America before the assassination, or since. In 1918, another President from the Democrats brought about the 1918 Sedition Act which made it criminal to criticise the government, imprisonable in wartime. It was repealed two years later, an election year.
2014
One of the more disappointing conservatives, Sarkozy, was elected President of France on this day in '07. France had had right wing leadership for awhile leading up to it, but it was indulgent. I remember reading of Sarkozy's casual anti semitism and I had hoped he was merely courting Obama over some issue. But bigotry is older than Obama. Bigotry is also a character flaw. It is a problem for Jewish peoples that anti semites are on both the left and right of European political demarcations. And it is everybody's problem that that is the case. Hollande is not an improvement, but he is socialist and can't be expected to not be a bigot too. There is always a reason for bigotry, and it is never isolated, It is a result of poor values and often a crime of convenience.
Mao's Great Leap Forward had failed, with China's economy shrinking, millions dead, workers pushed from cities to country to work in agriculture. The failed model was advanced by Pol Pot later. So, on this day, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution with his May 16th address denouncing capitalism and claiming that some were undermining Communism. The result was the formation of Red Guard youth groups who informed on their own parents if they appeared to advocate Capitalism. And many tens of millions died in the purges.
The day is not entirely backward. Kuwait voted 35 out of 58 for Women's Suffrage in '05. Soviets landed a probe on Venus in '69 (their moral police are still examining this sentence). In 1888, Tesla experimented with AC which is superior to DC over a relatively large distance. But also, the day saw in 1532 Sir Thomas More resign as Lord Chancellor of England. And in 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots, flee to England. It is that kind of day.
Mao's Great Leap Forward had failed, with China's economy shrinking, millions dead, workers pushed from cities to country to work in agriculture. The failed model was advanced by Pol Pot later. So, on this day, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution with his May 16th address denouncing capitalism and claiming that some were undermining Communism. The result was the formation of Red Guard youth groups who informed on their own parents if they appeared to advocate Capitalism. And many tens of millions died in the purges.
The day is not entirely backward. Kuwait voted 35 out of 58 for Women's Suffrage in '05. Soviets landed a probe on Venus in '69 (their moral police are still examining this sentence). In 1888, Tesla experimented with AC which is superior to DC over a relatively large distance. But also, the day saw in 1532 Sir Thomas More resign as Lord Chancellor of England. And in 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots, flee to England. It is that kind of day.
Historical perspectives on this day
In 218, Julia Maesa, aunt of the assassinated Caracalla, was banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus and declared her 14-year old grandson Elagabalus, emperor of Rome. 1204, Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders was crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. 1527, the Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-established itself as a republic. 1532, sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England. 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England. 1584, Santiago de Vera became sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines. 1770, a 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France. 1771, the Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurred in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
In 1811, Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeated the French at the Battle of Albuera. 1812, Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov signed the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. Bessarabia was annexed by Imperial Russia. 1822, Greek War of Independence: The Turks captured the Greek town of Souli. 1834, the Battle of Asseiceira was fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal. 1843, the first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri. 1866, the U.S. Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaced it with the five cent piece, or nickel. 1868, United States President Andrew Johnson was acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate. 1874, a flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroyed much of four villages and killed 139 people. 1877, May 1877 political crisis in France. 1888, Nikola Tesla delivered a lecture describing the equipment which would allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances. 1891, the International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany, and would feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electrical current (the most common form today).
In 1914, the first ever National Challenge Cup final was played. Brooklyn Field Club defeated Brooklyn Celtic 2–1. 1918, the Sedition Act of 1918 was passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offence. It would be repealed less than two years later. 1919, a naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read left Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight. 1920, in Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonised Joan of Arc. 1929, in Hollywood, the first Academy Awards were awarded. 1943, the Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended. 1951, the first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines. 1953, American journalist William N. Oatis was released after serving 22 months of a ten-year prison sentence for espionage in Czechoslovakia.
In 1960, Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. 1961, Park Chung-hee led a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea. 1966, the Communist Party of China issued the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1969, Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, landed on Venus. 1974, Josip Broz Tito was re-elected president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he was elected for life. 1975, India annexed Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum in which the popular vote was in favour of merging with India. Also 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 1983, Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebelled against the Sudanese government. 1986, the Seville Statement on Violence was adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain. 1988, a report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that the addictive properties of nicotine were similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. She was the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress. 1997, Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, fled the country. 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians were killed and more than 100 people were injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. 2005, Kuwait permitted women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote. 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy took office as President of France. 2011, STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour. 2014, twelve people were killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
In 1811, Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeated the French at the Battle of Albuera. 1812, Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov signed the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. Bessarabia was annexed by Imperial Russia. 1822, Greek War of Independence: The Turks captured the Greek town of Souli. 1834, the Battle of Asseiceira was fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal. 1843, the first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri. 1866, the U.S. Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaced it with the five cent piece, or nickel. 1868, United States President Andrew Johnson was acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate. 1874, a flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroyed much of four villages and killed 139 people. 1877, May 1877 political crisis in France. 1888, Nikola Tesla delivered a lecture describing the equipment which would allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances. 1891, the International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany, and would feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electrical current (the most common form today).
In 1914, the first ever National Challenge Cup final was played. Brooklyn Field Club defeated Brooklyn Celtic 2–1. 1918, the Sedition Act of 1918 was passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offence. It would be repealed less than two years later. 1919, a naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read left Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight. 1920, in Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonised Joan of Arc. 1929, in Hollywood, the first Academy Awards were awarded. 1943, the Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended. 1951, the first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines. 1953, American journalist William N. Oatis was released after serving 22 months of a ten-year prison sentence for espionage in Czechoslovakia.
In 1960, Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. 1961, Park Chung-hee led a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea. 1966, the Communist Party of China issued the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1969, Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, landed on Venus. 1974, Josip Broz Tito was re-elected president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he was elected for life. 1975, India annexed Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum in which the popular vote was in favour of merging with India. Also 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 1983, Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebelled against the Sudanese government. 1986, the Seville Statement on Violence was adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain. 1988, a report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that the addictive properties of nicotine were similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. She was the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress. 1997, Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, fled the country. 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians were killed and more than 100 people were injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. 2005, Kuwait permitted women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote. 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy took office as President of France. 2011, STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour. 2014, twelve people were killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
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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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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more.
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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.
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.
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
Happy birthday and many happy returns Anna Chan and Colin Wong. Born on the same day, across the years. On this day in 1943, one particularly daring mission was launched called Operation Chastise, aka Dam Busters. Also, in 1960, the first working laser was made, fully 6 years before Star Trek Phasers were shown. A lot to live up to. But you were born to do it.
- 1611 – Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
- 1641 – Dudley North, English economist and politician (d. 1691)
- 1821 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (d. 1894)
- 1831 – David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American scientist, co-invented the microphone (d. 1900)
- 1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1982)
- 1919 – Liberace, American singer, pianist, and actor (d. 1987)
- 1930 – Betty Carter, American singer (d. 1998)
- 1931 – Hana Brady, Polish holocaust victim (d. 1944)
- 1946 – Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (King Crimson, Fripp & Eno, and The League of Gentlemen)
- 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor, singer, and producer
- 1955 – Olga Korbut, Belarusian gymnast
- 1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
- 1969 – David Boreanaz, American actor, director, and producer
- 1993 – IU, South Korean singer and actress
- 1998 – Ariel Waller, Canadian actress
Deaths
- 1182 – John Komnenos Vatatzes, Byzantine general (b. 1132)
- 1265 – Simon Stock, English-French saint (b. 1165)
- 1830 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1768)
- 1953 – Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist and composer (Quintette du Hot Club de France) (b. 1910)
- 1956 – H. B. Reese, American candy-maker and businessman, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (b. 1876)
- 1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
- 1984 – Andy Kaufman, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1949)
- 1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, screenwriter, and producer, created The Muppets (b. 1936)
May 16: Sanja Matsuri begins in Tokyo (2015)
- 1771 – The Battle of Alamance—the final battle of the War of the Regulation, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over issues of taxation and local control—was fought.
- 1811 – Peninsular War: An allied force of British, Spanish, and Portuguese troops clashed with the French at the Battle of Albuera south of Badajoz, Spain.
- 1918 – The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forcesduring the ongoing World War I.
- 1960 – American physicist Theodore Maiman operated the first working laser (example pictured) at the Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1975 – Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its 22nd state.
We won that battle. And another. We won't criticise our leaders. Our attention is laser sharp. We annexed by referendum. Let's party.
Matches
- 218 – Julia Maesa, aunt of the assassinated Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus and declares her 14-year old grandson Elagabalus, emperor of Rome.
- 1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1527 – The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
- 1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.
- 1584 – Santiago de Vera becomes sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.
- 1770 – A 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
- 1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
- 1811 – Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.
- 1812 – Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. Bessarabia is annexed by Imperial Russia.
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
- 1834 – The Battle of Asseiceira is fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.
- 1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
- 1866 – The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
- 1868 – United States President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.
- 1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
- 1877 – May 1877 political crisis in France.
- 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.
- 1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electrical current (the most common form today).
- 1914 – The first ever National Challenge Cup final is played. Brooklyn Field Club defeats Brooklyn Celtic 2–1.
- 1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
- 1919 – A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.
- 1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards are awarded.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
- 1953 – American journalist William N. Oatis is released after serving 22 months of a ten-year prison sentence for espionage in Czechoslovakia.
- 1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1961 – Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
- 1966 – The Communist Party of China issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
- 1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.
- 1974 – Josip Broz Tito is re-elected president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he is elected for life.
- 1975 – India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote is in favor of merging with India.
- 1975 – Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1983 – Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.
- 1986 – The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.
- 1988 – A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- 1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
- 1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.
- 2003 – In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- 2005 – Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.
- 2007 – Nicolas Sarkozy takes office as President of France.
- 2011 – STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.
- 2014 – Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
Hatches
- 1611 – Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
- 1641 – Dudley North, English economist and politician (d. 1691)
- 1710 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (d. 1782)
- 1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1799)
- 1763 – Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist (d. 1829)
- 1788 – Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator (d. 1866)
- 1801 – William H. Seward, American politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (d. 1872)
- 1819 – Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (d. 1890)
- 1821 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (d. 1894)
- 1824 – Levi P. Morton, American politician, 22nd United States Vice President (d. 1920)
- 1827 – Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect, designed the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and Rijksmuseum (d. 1921)
- 1831 – David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (d. 1900)
- 1845 – Élie Metchnikoff, Ukrainian-French biologist and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)
- 1861 – H. H. Holmes, American serial killer (d. 1896)
- 1879 – Pierre Gilliard, Swiss author and academic (d. 1962)
- 1882 – Simeon Price, American golfer (d. 1945)
- 1883 – Celâl Bayar, Turkish politician, statesman, and the third President of Turkey (d. 1986)
- 1888 – Royal Rife, American scientist (d. 1971)
- 1891 – Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor and actor (d. 1948)
- 1897 – Zvi Sliternik, Israeli entomologist (d. 1994)
- 1898 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish painter (d. 1980)
- 1898 – Desanka Maksimović, Serbian poet (d. 1993)
- 1898 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (d. 1956)
- 1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1982)
- 1906 – Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter (d. 1988)
- 1906 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan lawyer, journalist, and author (d. 2001)
- 1906 – Margret Rey, German author and illustrator (d. 1996)
- 1907 – Bob Tisdall, Irish hurdler (d. 2004)
- 1907 – Luigi Villoresi, Italian race car driver (d. 1997)
- 1909 – Margaret Sullavan, American actress (d. 1960)
- 1910 – Olga Bergholz, Russian poet (d. 1975)
- 1910 – Higashifushimi Kunihide, Japanese monk and educator (d. 2014)
- 1910 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter (d. 1972)
- 1912 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (d. 1987)
- 1914 – Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author (d. 2009)
- 1915 – Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Adriana Caselotti, American actress and singer (d. 1997)
- 1916 – Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (d. 2009)
- 1917 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor and singer
- 1917 – James C. Murray, American lawyer and politician (d. 1999)
- 1917 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican author and photographer (d. 1986)
- 1918 – Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
- 1919 – Liberace, American singer, pianist, and actor (d. 1987)
- 1919 – Ramon Margalef, Spanish ecologist and biologist (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Martine Carol, French actress (d. 1967)
- 1921 – Harry Carey, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Eddie Bert, American trombonist (d. 2012)
- 1923 – Victoria Fromkin, American linguist and academic (d. 2000)
- 1923 – Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
- 1923 – Peter Underwood, English parapsychologist and author (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Nancy Roman, American astronomer
- 1925 – Bobbejaan Schoepen, Belgian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Ola Vincent, Nigerian banker and economist (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1929 – Betty Carter, American singer (d. 1998)
- 1929 – John Conyers, American lawyer and politician
- 1929 – Claude Morin, Canadian politician
- 1929 – Adrienne Rich, American poet and author (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 2000)
- 1931 – Hana Brady, Poland-born Holocaust victim (d. 1944)
- 1931 – Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Jack Dodson, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1931 – Denise Filiatrault, Canadian actress and director
- 1931 – K. Natwar Singh, Indian politician, Minister of External Affairs for India
- 1931 – Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., American politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut
- 1934 – Kenneth O. Morgan, Welsh historian and author
- 1934 – Anthony Walker, English general
- 1935 – Floyd Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1936 – Roy Hudd, English actor
- 1936 – Karl Lehmann, German cardinal
- 1937 – Yvonne Craig, American actress and dancer
- 1938 – Stuart Bell, English politician (d. 2012)
- 1940 – Ole Ernst, Danish actor (d. 2013)
- 1941 – Denis Hart, Australian archbishop
- 1942 – David Penry-Davey, English judge
- 1943 – Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews, English politician
- 1943 – Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany
- 1943 – Marko Kravos, Italian-Slovenian poet
- 1944 – Billy Cobham, Panamanian-American drummer, composer, and bandleader (Mahavishnu Orchestra, New York Jazz Quartet, Jazz Is Dead, and Bobby and the Midnites)
- 1944 – Antal Nagy, Hungarian footballer
- 1944 – Danny Trejo, American actor and producer
- 1945 – Nicky Chinn, English songwriter and producer
- 1945 – Massimo Moratti, Italian businessman
- 1945 – Marta Beatriz Roque, Cuban economist
- 1946 – Roger Earl, English drummer (Savoy Brown and Foghat)
- 1946 – Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1946 – John Law, British sociologist
- 1947 – Barbara Lee, American singer (The Chiffons) (d. 1992)
- 1947 – Bill Smitrovich, American actor
- 1947 – Darrell Sweet, English-Scottish drummer (Nazareth) (d. 1999)
- 1947 – Roch Thériault, Canadian religious leader (d. 2011)
- 1948 – Jesper Christensen, Danish actor
- 1948 – Katia Dandoulaki, Greek actress
- 1948 – Judy Finnigan, English talk show host and author
- 1948 – Emma Georgina Rothschild, English historian and academic
- 1948 – Staf Van Roosbroeck, Belgian cyclist
- 1949 – Rick Reuschel, American baseball player
- 1950 – Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1950 – Ray Condo, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2004)
- 1950 – Bruce Coville, American author
- 1951 – Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer
- 1951 – Jonathan Richman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Modern Lovers)
- 1951 – Janet Soskice, Canadian philosopher and theologian
- 1951 – Unshō Ishizuka, Japanese voice actor
- 1952 – James Herndon, American psychologist
- 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer
- 1953 – David Maclean, Scottish politician
- 1953 – Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna
- 1953 – Stephen Woolman, Lord Woolman, Scottish judge and academic
- 1954 – Dafydd Williams, Canadian physician and astronaut
- 1955 – Olga Korbut, Belarusian gymnast
- 1955 – Jack Morris, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1955 – Hazel O'Connor, English-Irish singer-songwriter and actress
- 1955 – Páidí Ó Sé, Irish footballer and manager (d. 2012)
- 1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
- 1957 – Joan Benoit, American runner
- 1957 – Benjamin Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, English politician
- 1957 – Yuri Shevchuk, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist (DDT)
- 1957 – Anthony St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso, English lawyer and businessman
- 1957 – Bob Suter, American ice hockey player (d. 2014)
- 1957 – Nigel Twiston-Davies, English horse trainer
- 1958 – Gitane Demone, American singer-songwriter (Christian Death and Pompeii 99)
- 1958 – Glenn Gregory, English singer-songwriter (Heaven 17, Honeyroot, and ABC)
- 1959 – Mitch Webster, American baseball player
- 1959 – Mare Winningham, American actress and singer
- 1960 – Landon Deireragea, Nauruan politician
- 1960 – S. Shanmuganathan, Sri Lankan politician (d. 1998)
- 1961 – Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor and screenwriter
- 1961 – Charles Wright, American wrestler
- 1962 – Jimmy Hood, Scottish politician
- 1962 – Helga Radtke, German long jumper
- 1962 – Lisa Yuskavage, American visual artist
- 1963 – Jon Coffelt, American painter and sculptor
- 1963 – Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
- 1963 – Serge Teyssot-Gay, French guitarist (Noir Désir)
- 1963 – David Wilkinson, English theologian and academic
- 1964 – John Salley, American basketball player and actor
- 1964 – Boyd Tinsley, American singer-songwriter and violinist (Dave Matthews Band)
- 1964 – Edit Bérces, Hungarian runner
- 1964 – Mary Anne Hobbs, English DJ and journalist
- 1964 – Milton Jones, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Krist Novoselic, American bass player and songwriter (Nirvana, Flipper, Sweet 75, The No WTO Combo, and Eyes Adrift)
- 1965 – Tanel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist and politician
- 1966 – Celia Ireland, Australian actress
- 1966 – Sommore, American comedian and actress
- 1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actress
- 1966 – Scott Reeves, American singer-songwriter and actor (Blue County)
- 1966 – Metin Şentürk, Turkish pop singer
- 1966 – Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1967 – Doug Brocail, American baseball player and coach
- 1968 – Ralph Tresvant, American singer, actor, and producer (New Edition and Heads of State)
- 1968 – Chingmy Yau, Hong Kong actress
- 1969 – David Boreanaz, American actor, director, and producer
- 1969 – Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller
- 1969 – Tracey Gold, American actress
- 1969 – Steve Lewis, American sprinter
- 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player
- 1970 – Danielle Spencer, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1971 – Phil Clarke, English rugby player and sportscaster
- 1971 – Rachel Goswell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Slowdive and Mojave 3)
- 1972 – Christian Califano, French rugby player
- 1972 – Khary Payton, American actor
- 1973 – Jason Acuña, American actor and stuntman
- 1973 – Special Ed, American rapper and actor (Crooklyn Dodgers)
- 1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television star, and author
- 1974 – Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1974 – Adam Richman, American actor and television host
- 1974 – Sonny Sandoval, American singer-songwriter (P.O.D.)
- 1975 – B.Slade, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1975 – Tony Kakko, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sonata Arctica and Northern Kings)
- 1976 – Dirk Nannes, Australian-Dutch cricketer
- 1977 – Dolcenera, Italian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1977 – Claudia Albertario, Argentinian model and actress
- 1977 – Jean-Sébastien Giguère, retired Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 – Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress
- 1977 – Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer-songwriter (GusGus)
- 1978 – Scott Nicholls, English motorcycle racer
- 1978 – Lionel Scaloni, Argentinian footballer
- 1978 – Jim Sturgess, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1979 – McKenzie Lee, English porn actress
- 1979 – Barbara Nedeljáková, Slovak actress
- 1980 – Nuria Llagostera Vives, Spanish tennis player
- 1981 – Ricardo Costa, Portuguese footballer
- 1981 – Joseph Morgan, English actor
- 1981 – Taavi Rähn, Estonian footballer
- 1982 – Billy Crawford, Filipino-American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1982 – Ju Ji-hoon, South Korean actor
- 1982 – Łukasz Kubot, Polish tennis player
- 1982 – Hanna Mariën, Belgian sprinter
- 1983 – Nancy Ajram, Lebanese singer
- 1983 – Daniel Kerr, Australian footballer
- 1983 – Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Darío Cvitanich, Argentinian footballer
- 1984 – Tomáš Fleischmann, Czech ice hockey player
- 1984 – Mickie Knuckles, American wrestler
- 1984 – Jensen Lewis, American baseball player
- 1984 – Pania Rose, Australian fashion model
- 1984 – Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2011)
- 1985 – Stanislav Ianevski, Bulgarian actor
- 1985 – Anja Mittag, German footballer
- 1985 – Tadayoshi Okura, Japanese singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor (Kanjani Eight)
- 1985 – Rodrigo Peters Marques, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Emanuel Saldaño, Argentinian cyclist (d. 2014)
- 1985 – Kazuhito Tanaka, Japanese gymnast
- 1986 – Megan Fox, American actress
- 1986 – Andy Keogh, Irish footballer
- 1986 – Shamcey Supsup, Filipino arhitect, model, Miss Universe 2011 3rd runner-up
- 1987 – Can Bonomo, Turkish-Jewish singer
- 1987 – Tom Onslow-Cole, English race car driver
- 1988 – Abella Anderson, Cuban-American porn actress
- 1988 – Jesús Castillo, Mexican footballer
- 1988 – Martynas Gecevičius, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1988 – Jaak Põldma, Estonian tennis player
- 1989 – Behati Prinsloo, Namibian model
- 1990 – Amanda Carreras, Gibraltarian tennis player
- 1990 – Charlotte Crosby, English television personality
- 1990 – Thomas Sangster, English actor
- 1990 – Darko Šarović, Serbian sprinter
- 1990 – Omar Strong, American basketball player
- 1991 – Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player
- 1991 – Ashley Wagner, American figure skater
- 1992 – Davika Hoorne Thai actress
- 1992 – Jeff Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1993 – IU, South Korean singer-songwriter and actress
- 1993 – Karol Mets, Estonian footballer
- 1994 – Miles Heizer, American actor
- 1994 – Aaron Moores, English swimmer
- 1994 – Kathinka von Deichmann, Liechtensteinerin tennis player
- 1995 – Elizabeth Ralston, Australian Football Player
- 1996 – Louisa Chirico, American tennis player
- 1998 – Ariel Waller, Canadian actress
Despatches
- 1182 – John Komnenos Vatatzes, Byzantine general (b. 1132)
- 1265 – Simon Stock, English-French saint (b. 1165)
- 1569 – Dirk Willems, Dutch anabaptist
- 1620 – William Adams, English sailor and navigator (b. 1564)
- 1657 – Andrew Bobola, Polish missionary and martyr (b. 1591)
- 1667 – Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1607)
- 1669 – Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter and architect, designed the Santi Luca e Martina (b. 1596)
- 1691 – Jacob Leisler, German-American politician, 8th Colonial Governor of New York (b. 1640)
- 1703 – Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
- 1778 – Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1718)
- 1790 – Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (b. 1720)
- 1818 – Matthew Lewis, English author and playwright (b. 1775)
- 1830 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1768)
- 1882 – Reuben Chapman, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Alabama (b. 1799)
- 1980 – Mihkel Veske, Estonian poet, linguist and theologist (b. 1843)
- 1891 – Ion C. Brătianu, Romanian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1821)
- 1913 – Louis Perrier, Swiss politician (b. 1849)
- 1920 – Levi P. Morton, American politician, 22nd United States Vice President (b. 1824)
- 1926 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman sultan (b. 1861)
- 1936 – Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, Greek general and senator (b. 1860)
- 1940 – Jacques Goudstikker, Dutch art dealer (b. 1897)
- 1943 – Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist (b. 1865)
- 1944 – George Ade, American journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1866)
- 1946 – Bruno Tesch, German chemist and Nazi war criminal (executed) (b. 1890)
- 1946 – Karl Weinbacher, German manager and war criminal (executed) (b. 1898)
- 1947 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- 1947 – Zhang Lingfu, Chinese general (b. 1903)
- 1953 – Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist and composer (Quintette du Hot Club de France) (b. 1910)
- 1954 – Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor (b. 1893)
- 1955 – James Agee, American author, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1909)
- 1956 – H. B. Reese, American candy-maker and businessman, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (b. 1876)
- 1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
- 1959 – Elisha Scott, Irish footballer and manager (b. 1894)
- 1961 – George A. Malcolm, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1881)
- 1977 – Modibo Keïta, Malian politician, 1st President of Mali (b. 1915)
- 1979 – A. Philip Randolph, American union leader and activist (b. 1889)
- 1981 – Ernie Freeman, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1922)
- 1981 – Willy Hartner, German physician and educator (b. 1905)
- 1984 – Andy Kaufman, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1949)
- 1984 – Irwin Shaw, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1913)
- 1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1989 – Leila Kasra, Iranian poet and lyricist (b. 1939)
- 1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, and actor (b. 1925)
- 1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, screenwriter, and producer, created The Muppets (b. 1936)
- 1992 – Chalino Sánchez, Mexican singer-songwriter (b. 1960)
- 1993 – Marv Johnson, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1938)
- 1994 – Alain Cuny, French actor (b. 1908)
- 1996 – Jeremy Michael Boorda, American admiral (b. 1939)
- 1997 – Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (b. 1903)
- 1998 – Sevim Tanürek, Turkish classical music artist (b. 1934)
- 2000 – Bodacious, American bull (b. 1988)
- 2002 – Alec Campbell, Australian soldier (b. 1899)
- 2003 – Mark McCormack, American lawyer and sports agent, founded IMG (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Andrew Goodpaster, American general (b. 1915)
- 2008 – Robert Mondavi, American winemaker, co-founded the Opus One Winery (b. 1913)
- 2010 – Ronnie James Dio, American singer-songwriter and producer (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven & Hell, and Elf) (b. 1942)
- 2010 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1918)
- 2011 – Ralph Barker, English author (b. 1917)
- 2011 – Bob Davis, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Edward Hardwicke, English actor (b. 1932)
- 2011 – Kiyoshi Kodama, Japanese actor (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Patricia Aakhus, American author (b. 1952)
- 2012 – James Abdnor, American politician, 30th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Maria Bieşu, Moldovan opera singer (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Chuck Brown, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Ernie Chan, Filipino-American illustrator (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Kurt Felix, Swiss television host (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Kevin Hickey, American baseball player (b. 1956)
- 2013 – Angelo Errichetti, American politician (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Bryan Illerbrun, Canadian football player (b. 1957)
- 2013 – Frankie Librán, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Paul Shane, English actor and singer (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Dick Trickle, American race car driver (b. 1941)
- 2013 – Bernard Waber, American author and illustrator (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Chris Duckworth, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Vito Favero, Italian cyclist (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Nicola Ghiuselev, Bulgarian actor and singer (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Bud Hollowell, American baseball player and manager (b. 1943)
- 2014 – Russi Mody, Indian businessman (b. 1918)
- 2014 – Clyde Snow, American anthropologist (b. 1928)
2015
- Christian feast day:
- Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Mass Graves Day (Iraq)
- National Day, declared by Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan)
- Teachers' Day (Malaysia)
THE SILENCING HAS BEGUN
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 16, 2015 (3:27pm)
Vanessa Badham is too stupid to realise it, but she’s just called for the abolition of government arts funding:
In a free and fair society, there exists the necessity for a culture to express itself – and experiment with that expression – without the interference of the state, political parties or private interests such as corporations.
Vanessa’s argument, of course, is that the current system whereby a group just one step removed from government – the Australia Council – determines grant recipients somehow negates any state interference. This is incorrect. The grant money itself is the interference, regardless of who is throwing it around. Vanessa (or Chaka Toastie, to use her rap name) continues:
In my own sector, the theatre, companies as renowned as Back-to-Back, Perth Theatre Company, Brisbane’s La Boite and important regional companies like HotHouse theatre in Albury and North Queensland’s Jute are among the many left exposed in this new uncertain climate.
It’s always fun when arts types complain about “uncertainty”. If that’s their problem, take an accounting degree.
I spoke directly to arts practitioners located within companies across the sector for background for this article; although reaction was one of “nervousness, apprehension, concern and actual fear”, not one agreed to speak on the record.
See what happens when artists become grant-dependent invertebrates, Vanessa? They would have been similarly scared if she’d invited them to criticise the “independent” Australia Council, or anyone else handing out the tax-funded cheques.
One of my sources directed me to examine the Twitter feeds of the arts companies to determine reactions to the changes. “The most you’ll get is a ‘wow’, or an expression of shock,” the source said.
Which is more than they’ll ever get from their work.
The policy of artistic silencing has already begun.
If artists are so unmotivated and welfare-addicted, they deserve to be silenced.
MOTOWN
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 16, 2015 (3:14pm)
BITTER CLINGER
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 16, 2015 (3:00pm)
If it sometimes seems as though Greens are shocking hypocrites, it’s because they are:
NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has renominated for another term, despite once advocating Green MPs serve only one term in parliament to guard against “careerists”.If elected, Senator Rhiannon would be 72 by the time she had served her second term and would have served 12 years in the Senate after 11 years in the NSW parliament.Senator Rhiannon confirmed her decision to stand again, saying her priority was “to take on and defeat the Abbott government”.
With her walking frame.
GONE A BIT STRANGE
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 16, 2015 (12:31pm)
Queensland teen Oliver Bridgeman becomes Yusef Oli, Syria-based jihadist with the Al-Nusra Front:
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” one stunned friend said yesterday. “We knew he had gone a bit strange but never imagined he would do anything like this. He was just a kid who loved school, football and music.”Bridgeman apparently converted to Islam after becoming friends with several Muslims at school.
“They weren’t radical Muslims but he may have been influenced by older men,” a friend said.“Everyone was becoming more and more worried about him but no-one thought he would do this (join the jihad).”
The process was remarkably rapid:
A Facebook page set up around June 2014 under the name Yusef Oli shows Bridgeman socialising with young Muslims in Toowoomba and at prayer session at a hall that, he said, acts as a mosque …He also praised the #illridewithyou movement, saying it was “comforting” Australians were “mature”.
Unlike “Yusef”. Meanwhile, his fellow jihadi youngster Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death in Boston.
Sydney Morning Hypocrite
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (12:45pm)
The Sydney Morning Herald in 2013:
===Yet it is the kind of abuse Gillard has had to cop all of her prime ministership and it is unprecedented… No need to list all the occasions here when the PM has been the subject of deeply personal and sexist attacks - although she did a good job herself of reminding us of some of them during a media conference early in the week.The Sydney Morning Herald today:
Underneath the feminist facade was, all along, the hairy chested?, budgie-smuggler-sporting Tones of old: the manly eater of onions, the high-vis vested friend of the tradies?… OK, Tones, time for your brickbat. You’re a rat.And this SMH sexism from ageing while male Mark Kelly, whose editor-in-chief deputy editor, managing director and chairman are all ageing white men, too:
The paid parental leave debacle now consuming an otherwise soft and friction-free budget, is testament to the stubbornness of ageing white men and to the durability of their ideas, even really bad ones. When the all-male Expenditure Review Committee members huffed their scornful reproach...And:
The stupidity of Abbott ... a born-again zealot .... hypocrisy ... harsh
Morrison now the successor, but he should have some rivals
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (10:52am)
My tip in February:
I’d give Malcolm Turnbull some fresh challenges and opportunities. I’d fast-track the next generation, too - people such as Christian Porter and Angus Taylor. Add some healthy competition for the title of “legitimate successor” - competition that lifts the performance of the government overall.
And I say that as a long-term Morrison booster.
===...next week is Turnbull’s last best chance to be Prime Minister.And behold. Simon Benson today:
Time has suddenly become his enemy.
Tony Abbott has performed well these past couple of weeks. He is changing as critics claimed he wouldn’t. His poll numbers are recovering…
That’s one pressure on Turnbull.
Another is Scott Morrison. Morrison has performed brilliantly as Social Services Minister. The man who stopped the boat now charms the votes.... More importantly, unlike Turnbull he has not offended the party’s conservative base, despite not being a conservative himself, and will not split the party if made leader....
As time passes, Turnbull is likely to grow weaker and Morrison and Abbott stronger...
Morrison has in the space of three months leapfrogged Malcolm Turnbull as the most likely contender now for the leadership, if and when Abbott retires.Mind you, a leader with just one legitimate and popular successor also has a powerful rival should things get sticky.
Morrison knows it, and according to some of Turnbull’s colleagues, Turnbull now knows it as well…
Abbott considers Morrison the most competent of his Ministers. He has a genuine fondness for Morrison as well…
Morrison is young, he turned45[47] on Wednesday. He can wait. But he knows that for those [leadership] ambitions to be realised, Abbott has to win the next election.
While Turnbull and Julie Bishop have numbers from the Left, they do not have any from the Right. Morrison has both. The leadership will come to Morrison eventually.
But the Right, the base, will not wear Morrison taking it from him. He would need Abbott’s endorsement. And this is becoming a far more likely scenario in a second Abbott term.
Abbott now has a legitimate successor.
I’d give Malcolm Turnbull some fresh challenges and opportunities. I’d fast-track the next generation, too - people such as Christian Porter and Angus Taylor. Add some healthy competition for the title of “legitimate successor” - competition that lifts the performance of the government overall.
And I say that as a long-term Morrison booster.
Why is Labor defending $50,000 parental leave payouts to the well-off? UPDATE: Tips for Liberals
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (10:18am)
Judith Sloan on the hypocrites now attacking Tony Abbott for being too stingy on parental leave for the well-off:
Much of the “outrage” being whipped up by Labor and the media is about the government “seeming” to be mean to women on maternity leave by - allegedly - calling them fraudsters if they’ve double-dipped.
But that offence (largely trumped up and exaggerated) has actually nothing to do with the “achieving” - the ending of an unfair and costly system that gives two lots of parental leave support to largely wealthier new mothers, and directs the savings to child care for largely poorer ones.
The Government, then, is faulted for “seeming” unfair to attack, in order to attack what it is actually “achieving”, which is indeed fair.
More commentators should ask themselves: what is more important to the nation, whether a Minister fluffed one line in one interview to seem mean, or whether the Government has steered welfare money from the rich to the poor?
Please, we must be better than this, or the country will go over a cliff.
And a word to the Liberals: why aren’t more of you saying that the Government is ending a perk that applies to politicians like them - two lots of parental leave - that is not available to most other Australians?
UPDATE
Why aren’t Liberals repeatedly making the point that scrapping this double dipping does not affect any women now pregnant? The change comes in from July next year.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===Does anyone remember, let alone lament, Tony Abbott’s fair-dinkum paid parental leave scheme? ... (M)ost feminist commentators were only too happy to loudly criticise the scheme for its generosity and supposed unfairnessChris Kenny:
What most of these commentators never realised was that one of the factors that motivated Abbott to put forward his scheme ... was his perception of the patent unfairness of existing arrangements.
Whether you call it double-dipping or, more accurately, accessing employer-provided paid parental leave in addition to the government PPL scheme, there is effectively one set of arrangements for one group of mothers and another — much more generous — for another group of mothers.
And that second group is generally well paid and disproportionately comes from the public sector. It is estimated that of the 80,000 recipients of both employer-provided and government-paid parental leave, 60 per cent (or about 50,000) work in the public sector
At a minimum, public-sector workers receive 12 weeks of earnings-related paid parental leave, and in many cases more…
As long as these public-sector workers earn less than $150,000 a year, they are entitled to an additional $11,500 from the government PPL based on 18 weeks at the national minimum wage.
It’s not difficult to get to a figure of $50,000 for six months’ leave for some of these double-dippers, a figure that so outraged the feminist commentators when it was part of the last version of Abbott’s fair-dinkum PPL scheme…
So what’s all the fuss about now? Surely it is fair that the scheme is essentially restricted to women who have no access (or very limited access) to employer-provided paid parental leave. This levels the playing field and releases scarce taxpayer money (more than $1 billion across four years) to fund… an additional $3.5bn on childcare across five years, with low-income earners receiving fee subsidies....
Public servants receive paid parental leave entitlements that most families can only dream about — 14 weeks at full salary or 28 weeks at half pay.Sinclair Davidson:
For Labor to argue these workers — well over half of all double-dippers — should continue to receive an additional 18 weeks at the minimum wage (totalling $11,500) under the Centrelink scheme while most women are stuck with only the Centrelink scheme shows the party cares less about spending restraint or equity than it does about featherbedding for public service unions…
The issue is not really the same for private-sector workers because taxpayers aren’t being hit twice.
Claiming the government PPL while also claiming your employers PPL is double-dipping… The government, quite rightly, has said that people should choose one or the other, but not both…The Left, as I have often said, seems too concerned with seeming rather than achieving. Here is a classic case.
The ability of luvvies to confect outrage is remarkable and, no doubt, they will have a good run with the “young mum are crooks” meme that they have manufactured.
Much of the “outrage” being whipped up by Labor and the media is about the government “seeming” to be mean to women on maternity leave by - allegedly - calling them fraudsters if they’ve double-dipped.
But that offence (largely trumped up and exaggerated) has actually nothing to do with the “achieving” - the ending of an unfair and costly system that gives two lots of parental leave support to largely wealthier new mothers, and directs the savings to child care for largely poorer ones.
The Government, then, is faulted for “seeming” unfair to attack, in order to attack what it is actually “achieving”, which is indeed fair.
More commentators should ask themselves: what is more important to the nation, whether a Minister fluffed one line in one interview to seem mean, or whether the Government has steered welfare money from the rich to the poor?
Please, we must be better than this, or the country will go over a cliff.
And a word to the Liberals: why aren’t more of you saying that the Government is ending a perk that applies to politicians like them - two lots of parental leave - that is not available to most other Australians?
UPDATE
Why aren’t Liberals repeatedly making the point that scrapping this double dipping does not affect any women now pregnant? The change comes in from July next year.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Will Dee Madigan now demand Bill Shorten cough up the missing 90 per cent of funding?
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (10:02am)
Will Labor shill Dee Madigan demand leader Bill Shorten get serious on paying for his promises now that it turns out he’d raise only one tenth of what she’d believed?
Those figures are what Shorten himself says he’d raise over 10 years, not one. Is Madigan now appalled, or is her support for Labor’s promises completely uncondititonal on whether they are paid for?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===Paul Murray: ... Bill Shorten’s budget in reply ... shopping list ... (T)he fundamental question he has to deal with is – how do you pay for it?
Dee Madigan: Well, $14 billion from taxing rich superannuants, $7 billion from making multi-nationals pay their fair share....
Paul Murray: Can I just say, the numbers that you just mentioned about multi-nationals. Is that in one year that that money comes out. Or over four? Or over ten?
Dee Madigan: Yes. No. I think it’s over the one [year]. I’d have to check that, though.
Those figures are what Shorten himself says he’d raise over 10 years, not one. Is Madigan now appalled, or is her support for Labor’s promises completely uncondititonal on whether they are paid for?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The Bolt Report tomorrow, May 17
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (9:26am)
Malcolm Turnbull has agreed for the first time to be my guest on Sunday’s The Bolt Report.
We’ll talk about the Budget and the ABC, of course, and about the arguments that have divided us. It will be a conversation, not a confrontation, despite the history and this drumming up of publicity:
The panel: Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger and former Labor Minister Craig Emerson.
NewsWatch: Sharri Markson, media editor of The Australian.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===We’ll talk about the Budget and the ABC, of course, and about the arguments that have divided us. It will be a conversation, not a confrontation, despite the history and this drumming up of publicity:
Editorial: The ABC declares war on the Budget.
The panel: Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger and former Labor Minister Craig Emerson.
NewsWatch: Sharri Markson, media editor of The Australian.
The videos of the shows appear here.
Return to sender
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (8:21am)
What do we do with immigrants who believe their faith compels them to attack Australians? We can’t lock them up forever.
So why not send them back to where there are few infidels to provoke them, and fewer still to harm?:
UPDATE
Any more rallies here? Candlelight vigils?
===So why not send them back to where there are few infidels to provoke them, and fewer still to harm?:
HATE preachers and terrorists face being stripped of their Australian citizenship and sent back to their original countries under tough anti-terrorism measures being examined by the Abbott Government…The trouble will lie in getting their country of birth to accept them. Most Muslim governments have little love for such extremists, either, so I doubt very much that this will work.
The move could for the first time encompass Australian citizens who were not dual nationals, meaning the terrorists and hate preachers would have to be accepted by another country.
That would mean people such as Melbourne hate preacher Harun Mehicevic, who migrated from Bosnia but became an Australian citizen in 1996, are on notice they could be stripped of their citizenship if found to be acting against the interests of Australia…
The Government has been examining the Citizenship Act since February but until now was believed to be focused on dual nationals, such as the leaders of the 2005 MCG terror plot, Abdul Nacer Benbrika and Mohamed Ali Elomar.
But [the chairman of Parliament’s powerful Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Dan Tehan,] has gone further, writing in the Herald Sun that Australia should follow Britain in cracking down on citizens who betray the country that has bestowed citizenship upon them.
UPDATE
Any more rallies here? Candlelight vigils?
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death Friday for his role in the detonation of two powerful pressure cooker bombs in a festive crowd near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, a terror attack intended to strike a blow against the United States that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.
We’re losing this half-hearted war
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (3:14am)
The US-led war on the Islamic State is going badly, like so many of Barack Obama’s foreign forays:
===ISLAMIC State militants have assumed control of most of the capital city of west Iraq’s Anbar province, a security official says, marking a major advance for the extremist militia.
“AROUND 90 per cent of Ramadi is now under the control of Daesh,” the official said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Jihadists overran the provincial government’s headquarters in the city centre after clashes with government troops. Ramadi is 110 kilometres west of the capital, Baghdad.
Lomborg on the warmists’ war on facts
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (2:26am)
Bjorn Lomborg on the despicable campaign by group-thinking academics to shut down his proposed centre at the University of Western Australia:
Many on the Left have found themselves putting no-but-yes arguments to advance the intolerance they actually like to think they oppose.
For instance, many want racial division introduced to our Constitution, yet want the kudos of still seeming anti-racist.
Many want free speech restricted, yet still want to seem warriors for free speech.
Many want to excuse Islam as a benign faith opposed only by racists, yet still want to seem feminists.
Graham Readfern, a warmist extremist, now gives a typical no-but-yes argument in The Guardian to justify the shutting down of Lomborg’s centre:
Pathetic. And even more so when Redfearn has not proved a single real example of Lomborg’s methods being “wanting”, merely referring to contestable claims by fellow alarmists. All we have left against Lomborg is that his views are “offensive” to warmists.
So no-but-yes, Lomborg is indeed a victim of “zealotry and a mob of raging climate campaigners”. Hear it from the mouth of one of those zealots, confirming what he denies.
===Opponents of free debate are celebrating. Last week, under pressure from climate-change activists, the University of Western Australia cancelled its contract to host a planned research centre, Australia Consensus, intended to apply economic cost-benefit analysis to development projects — giving policymakers a tool to ensure their aid budgets are spent wisely.UPDATE
The centre in Perth was to be a collaboration with a think tank I run, Copenhagen Consensus, which for a decade has conducted similar research. Working with more than 100 economists, including seven Nobel laureates, we have produced research that measures the social and economic benefits of a wide range of policies, such as fighting malaria, reducing malnutrition, cutting air pollution, improving education and tackling climate change.
Therein lay the problem. This kind of comparison can upset those who are committed to advocating less effective investments, particularly poor responses to climate change…
There is a strong sense among some climate-change activists, however, that global warming should not be subject to such [cost-benefit] comparison. Thus it is easier for them to use emotional labels like “climate denier” ...
An 88-year-old UWA professor said he had never seen anything like this at the university. “People have been rejected on account of insufficient abilities but not because they do not have the right type of view,” Hank Greenway told The Weekend Australian. What is the lesson for young academics? Avoid producing research that could lead to politically difficult answers. Steer clear of results that others might find contentious…
Facts must never, ever be seen as an unwelcome contribution to policy debate.
Many on the Left have found themselves putting no-but-yes arguments to advance the intolerance they actually like to think they oppose.
For instance, many want racial division introduced to our Constitution, yet want the kudos of still seeming anti-racist.
Many want free speech restricted, yet still want to seem warriors for free speech.
Many want to excuse Islam as a benign faith opposed only by racists, yet still want to seem feminists.
Graham Readfern, a warmist extremist, now gives a typical no-but-yes argument in The Guardian to justify the shutting down of Lomborg’s centre:
Conservatives and climate science deniers desperately want to make a martyr out of Lomborg, claiming he has been the victim of zealotry and a mob of raging climate campaigners.“Offensive”, note, not false.
What really happened is that too many academics found Lomborg’s methods wanting and his historic views on climate change to be offensive.
Pathetic. And even more so when Redfearn has not proved a single real example of Lomborg’s methods being “wanting”, merely referring to contestable claims by fellow alarmists. All we have left against Lomborg is that his views are “offensive” to warmists.
So no-but-yes, Lomborg is indeed a victim of “zealotry and a mob of raging climate campaigners”. Hear it from the mouth of one of those zealots, confirming what he denies.
Abbott can’t be tougher. Only re-election can bring reform
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (2:00am)
As I’ve argued, the Budget is too soft but the Abbott Government had no option, thanks to reckless Labor, the complacent public and the populist media:
Abbott now has one duty: to get re-elected, and hope for a more reasonable Senate next time to get through his reforms. The media might then be more inclined to accept his authority and the public to accept the argument for change.
Given that, speculation that Abbott will call an early double dissolution election is crazy, and not just for the obvious reasons: that the Government would look desperate, the public would rebel, the polls are unfavorable and the chances of more Lambies getting elected to the Senate improved.
Here is a more fundamental argument still: the Government needs not just a win, but one as big as possible. It needs as many Senate seats as it can get to maximise its chances of getting some of its program through in the next Parliament, and not facing this debilitating and often humiliating opposition to almost every cut and workplace reform.
No early election would give it such a win. The Government needs as much time as possible to make its case, establish trust, expose Labor as bankrupt and let crossbenchers like Lambie and Muir flame and burn. That won’t happen overnight.
===....despite all the Abbott Government’s alleged meanness, it will still spend $96 million a day more than it is earning…Paul Kelly agrees:
But do I blame the Government for not being tougher?
No. Remember last year’s Budget?
That one went hell for leather to cut spending, particularly on our gargantuan welfare bill… But the Senate — dominated by vengeful Labor, spend-happy Greens and mad populists like Jacqui Lambie — stopped those cuts.
The media flayed Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and his colleagues nearly sacked him.
Think they should try even tougher spending cuts now?
Abbott already faces the battle of his life getting just the key savings of this Budget through the Senate — the savings meant to pay for its spending goodies.
Shorten talks tough about one of the most innocuous budgets for a generation. There is only one major stand-alone entitlement cancellation: a justified but badly presented effort to save $1 billion over four years by preventing women from using two paid parental leave schemes.
The current PPL system that Labor ferociously defends is manifestly unfair and needs reform. But the emotional brawl over the proposed PPL changes proves the Abbott-Hockey budget strategy is correct — if they had gone for more tough spending saves, can you imagine what Shorten would have said?
Last year’s Labor-induced political bloodbath in the Senate would have been revisited. Tony Abbott would have committed political suicide and his government would have been ruined. Many of the columnists denouncing Abbott for going soft on the deficit would have led the charge against him and demanded his removal as Prime Minister off the back of another 2015 Senate stalemate.
It is true Abbott and Joe Hockey should have done more in this budget. Abbott says the budget is “based on what was politically achievable”. Even then, not all of this budget will even be delivered. Abbott’s point, however, is that he didn’t feel an obligation to commit political suicide, a position being criticised as unreasonable and selfish.
Abbott now has one duty: to get re-elected, and hope for a more reasonable Senate next time to get through his reforms. The media might then be more inclined to accept his authority and the public to accept the argument for change.
Given that, speculation that Abbott will call an early double dissolution election is crazy, and not just for the obvious reasons: that the Government would look desperate, the public would rebel, the polls are unfavorable and the chances of more Lambies getting elected to the Senate improved.
Here is a more fundamental argument still: the Government needs not just a win, but one as big as possible. It needs as many Senate seats as it can get to maximise its chances of getting some of its program through in the next Parliament, and not facing this debilitating and often humiliating opposition to almost every cut and workplace reform.
No early election would give it such a win. The Government needs as much time as possible to make its case, establish trust, expose Labor as bankrupt and let crossbenchers like Lambie and Muir flame and burn. That won’t happen overnight.
Credlin’s back, and Abbott ascendant
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (12:58am)
Peta Credlin made
mistakes, was too controlling and bruised some egos, but the campaign to
drive her out seemed way over the top. She was being scapegoated by
some, and also blamed by lesser performers for just doing her job.
Still others were setting up Tony Abbott - if he gave in and sacked her, he’d then be attacked for making a woman take the fall for his own failings. He’d be next.
As I’ve argued from the start, the central problem wasn’t Credlin but that there were not more Credlins around Abbott.
And that seems well on the way to fixed:
As recently as January I thought Abbott was unlikely to last until the election, which the Government would probably lose.
Now I’d say he’s virtually certain to stay, and likely to win.
Interestingly, several of his biggest white-anters in the party, notably Andrew Laming, are suddenly claiming to be behind him, leaving just Arthur Sinodinos as a bitter and public critic, this week again.
Now Credlin feels it’s safe enough to re-emerge. The article I’ve linked to, by the informed Dennis Shanahan, suggests The Australian may now ease up on what seemed a campaign to drive her out, now that changes have been made.
Yes, anything could happen, and the deficit is likely to blow. The Government still lags in the polls. More more needs doing, not least through steady, predictable and well-communicated government over a sustained period, and developing a moral case and cause for the government - such as gathering the forgotten children, lost in welfare ghettos, Aboriginal camps, violent homes and failed schools:
===Still others were setting up Tony Abbott - if he gave in and sacked her, he’d then be attacked for making a woman take the fall for his own failings. He’d be next.
As I’ve argued from the start, the central problem wasn’t Credlin but that there were not more Credlins around Abbott.
And that seems well on the way to fixed:
After a self-imposed exile from the public spotlight, Peta Credlin is back and her appearance is a sign she is not going anywhere.The Abbott Government this year is infinitely better than that of last year, when I warned the Government had to ”change or die”.
Tony Abbott’s chief of staff ... quietly resumed her place in the adviser’s box behind Abbott in parliament on Tuesday night.
But while Credlin is staying in the Prime Minister’s office and working as chief of staff, there are changes to her operations that will remain — such as not attending cabinet and devolving some duties she had performed in the first year of the Abbott government. There are further changes likely to come to the office when John Howard’s former adviser, Tony Nutt, who ran the NSW Liberal Party through its crisis and election, is expected to come to Canberra…
Credlin cut back on travel with Abbott and when she did travel she ensured she was well in the background…
Since February, after a Fijian holiday, Credlin has been consulting individual backbenchers, staying out of cabinet meetings and Hirst has been running the media policy.
One ERC participant said Credlin’s role at ERC meetings was consultative and collegiate and appeared “less interventionist” than last year.
There is evidence that both Credlin and Abbott had learned much from the experience of last year and welcomed new ideas from more people…
The economic team was expanded this year to include Frydenberg, who replaced Arthur Sinodinos pending the findings of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Scott Morrison as Social Services Minister, and Kelly O’Dwyer and Christian Porter as parliamentary secretaries.
All three departmental heads at ERC were also new this year: Michael Thawley at Prime Minister and Cabinet, John Fraser as Treasury Secretary and Jane Halton as the head of Finance…
As the chair of the ERC, Abbott was “meticulous” in seeking advice from the public service advisers and wanted as much “contestability of ideas” as possible.
As recently as January I thought Abbott was unlikely to last until the election, which the Government would probably lose.
Now I’d say he’s virtually certain to stay, and likely to win.
Interestingly, several of his biggest white-anters in the party, notably Andrew Laming, are suddenly claiming to be behind him, leaving just Arthur Sinodinos as a bitter and public critic, this week again.
Now Credlin feels it’s safe enough to re-emerge. The article I’ve linked to, by the informed Dennis Shanahan, suggests The Australian may now ease up on what seemed a campaign to drive her out, now that changes have been made.
Yes, anything could happen, and the deficit is likely to blow. The Government still lags in the polls. More more needs doing, not least through steady, predictable and well-communicated government over a sustained period, and developing a moral case and cause for the government - such as gathering the forgotten children, lost in welfare ghettos, Aboriginal camps, violent homes and failed schools:
The exclusive Galaxy poll of around 1600 voters, commissioned by The Daily Telegraph, has revealed that the Coalition has rallied since February — prior to a failed leadership coup against Prime Minister Tony Abbott — when it was trailing on a two party preferred basis by 57 to 43.But Abbott is getting stronger while Bill Shorten is getting weaker, and the wary public, I think, is switching on.
The poll shows a 10 point turnaround since the last Galaxy survey, with the Coalition now within striking distance of Labor having closing the gap to 48/52.
Shorten’s promises would add $12 billion a year to our debt
Andrew Bolt May 16 2015 (12:25am)
Bill Shorten opposes at least $6 billion a year of savings cuts in the Budget - to family tax benefits, tertiary fee subsidies, double dipping of parental leave and more.
Shorten attacks $8 billion a year of cuts to education and health spending proposed by the Gillard Government, without saying if he’d restore them.
He has promised tax rises - on super and foreign multinationals - which would raise just $2 billion a year.
The deficit is $35 billion next year, so already Shorten would plunge us deeper into debt, on current policies, by $4 billion a year, and much more if he reverses $31 billion of cuts he’s attacked.
Now this:
This is simply not credible.
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan:
===Shorten attacks $8 billion a year of cuts to education and health spending proposed by the Gillard Government, without saying if he’d restore them.
He has promised tax rises - on super and foreign multinationals - which would raise just $2 billion a year.
The deficit is $35 billion next year, so already Shorten would plunge us deeper into debt, on current policies, by $4 billion a year, and much more if he reverses $31 billion of cuts he’s attacked.
Now this:
Labor’s top three pledges to boost small business, help students, and expand research and development could cost up to $40 billion over five years.Mind you, Shorten promised more spending besides.
Grattan Institute chief executive John Daley estimated that cutting small business tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent would cost the government $3.5 billion a year in tax receipts…
Universities Australia estimated the government would have to increase its investment in R&D by $4 billion a year to hit its 3 per cent GDP target [up from 2 per cent today]…
The Coalition on Friday attacked Labor’s estimated cost of $45 million over four years to wipe the HECS debts of 100,000 STEM graduates, arguing the true cost of the policy would be at least $2.25 billion [$22,500 per student, at $562 million a year]…
Recent figures from Graduate Careers Australia showed the under-employment rate for recent life science graduates was over 50 per cent – the second worst only to the visual and performing arts.
This is simply not credible.
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan:
Shorten’s ... explicit promises are vague and unfunded. His implicit promises are misleading and undeliverable…
The key explicit promise of cutting the company tax rate from 30c in the dollar to 25c ... is uncosted, unfunded and a reiteration of the Rudd government’s promise based on using funds from the failed resource super-profits tax. The key implicit promise, that Labor will restore $80bn it claims Tony Abbott ripped off the states in an unfair breach of promise, simply can’t be delivered…
With no choice but to support Joe Hockey’s small-business spending incentive package, Shorten in his speech sought to downplay its impact and outbid the Treasurer.
“A giveaway to start a firesale at second-hand car yards and Harvey Norman, that’s good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go very far,” Shorten said in his reply speech… So, the plan he has committed to support is nothing more than “a firesale at a second-hand car yard”. What he offers to trump that short-term fix is his uncosted company tax rate delivered over more than one term of parliament…
Given Labor’s failure to deliver in the past and its decision to dump the promise in 2012, small-business leaders are understandably wary.
Posted by David Daniel Ball on Friday, 15 May 2015
===
"A prince must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take up any profession but that of war, its methods and...
Posted by Niccolò Machiavelli on Friday, 15 May 2015
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He voted informal? Candidate with no votes demands recount because he ‘voted for himself’ http://t.co/ZrnJLmqfK9 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Hate preachers and terrorists could be stripped of citizenship under anti-terrorism proposal http://t.co/JwEIrIJHk8 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
===
Jihadist? Restaurant caught serving human flesh http://t.co/GMIBV1yIDJ via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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PHD goes well with internet IQ 182 Can We Guess Your Level Of Education? Give It A Try! http://t.co/gi8YnuFx1R via @tickld
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Alan Keyes: Obama Is A Serial Killer In The Mold Of Hitler And Stalin | Right Wing Watch http://t.co/CEE1jJdX29 via @rightwingwatch
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Photo: Cultural diversity http://t.co/oIhi2AXkDs
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Parents seeking reform at ‘dictatorial’ Islamic school http://t.co/ffAMmD0DNF
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Google’s driverless car ready for road http://t.co/OgcPtH5b54 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Stuck in traffic? Blame Labor http://t.co/zjWbcVsIoK via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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He can keep his dogs. He just has to accept quarantine laws. http://t.co/14i4PcCBqE via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Why you could be flying over the danger zone of Somalia http://t.co/q6qbp9n8HB via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Death in sport Australia’s sporting shame http://t.co/YO7TiCEZQb via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Comedy sketch? ‘Stormin Mormon’ Romney to fight Holyfield http://t.co/2RhqC0cplz via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Fully earned Boston bomber gets death penalty http://t.co/golHDt2N69 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 16, 2015
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Why Emoji Are Suddenly Acceptable at Work http://t.co/tgJIYZqppP
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 15, 2015
=== Posts from last year ===
Green fantasy would drive us all to red ruin
Piers Akerman – Friday, May 16, 2014 (9:23am)
THE reaction to the federal Budget from both Labor and the Greens would indicate they want to ensure Australia becomes a nation of innumerate bludgers.
Continue reading 'Green fantasy would drive us all to red ruin'A COMMUNE AIN’T A COMMUNITY
Tim Blair – Friday, May 16, 2014 (2:26pm)
The NSW government yesterday suspended Metgasco’s licence to explore for gas in the state’s north coast. Reason for the suspension: the government claims Metgasco has failed to undertake genuine and effective community consultation.
Let’s meet some of those community members, who seem in many cases not to be members of the local community at all:
(Via JT)
(Via JT)
UPDATE. Margo Kingston, spiritual leader of the Bentley people, declares: “The blockaders have won.”
SELF-STYLED NIGERIAN PATRIOTS
Tim Blair – Friday, May 16, 2014 (2:06pm)
When bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon, Waleed Aly ($187,500) wrote of the “very real suspicion that the perpetrators here are self-styled American patriots.” In case readers didn’t get the message, the Sydney Morning Herald accompanied Aly’s column with a Tea Party terror image. Of course, the bombers turned out to be a pair ofyoung Muslims, one of whom was “angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.”
Now Aly is ducking and weaving over the religious affiliation of girl-stealing Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram. Here’s Aly’s answer when asked to describe Boko Haram:
“They are a really, really hard group to define because they are so splintered and so diverse,” he said.“What we do know though is that the broader movement is a terrorist movement and they’ve been wanting to overthrow the Nigerian government and establish a government of their own.“But beyond that, this particular group, who have done this particular thing, it’s hard to identify who they are and they might just be vigilantes.”
And they just might be Kunu Party members or even self-styled Nigerian patriots. Who knows? When Waleed Aly says “it’s hard to identify who they are”, he’s not talking about Boko Haram. He’s talking about his own difficulties in ever recognising Islamic evil. As it happens, the only vigilantes involved are volunteers from the village where children were stolen:
The village has deployed its own civilian force of fighters to defend the area. Bulus Mungo Park, a 38-year-old civil servant who says two of his nieces are among the kidnapped, is one of them. A volunteer in the national vigilante association, Mungo Park says the local force is about 300 strong. “We must fight this Boko Haram and we will win,” he says.
Quite so. These vigilantes are fantastic. So are the brave locals currently dealing out justice to Boko terrorists:
Residents of three villages in northeastern Nigeria took security into their own hands this week, repelling attacks by Boko Haram insurgents and killing more than 200 of them, residents and officials said.
Good. And here’s Boris Johnson:
It is hard to think of any group of human beings more obviously loathsome than those who go by the general nom de guerre of “Boko Haram”. I yearn for them all to be rounded up by helicopter gunship …
Readers are invited to submit alternative words for “rounded up”.
INVASION OF THE TUBE PEOPLE
Tim Blair – Friday, May 16, 2014 (1:53pm)
Armed with cash from Clover Moore’s Sydney council, a bunch of artistic types have built this device outside my home:
It’s apparently a musical instrument, but the only sounds I’ve heard so far seem to mimic whales suffering extreme intestinal distress. Similar infestations are occurring throughout Surry Hills.
It’s apparently a musical instrument, but the only sounds I’ve heard so far seem to mimic whales suffering extreme intestinal distress. Similar infestations are occurring throughout Surry Hills.
HER STORY
Tim Blair – Friday, May 16, 2014 (1:34pm)
Julia Gillard’s book My Story won’t be released until October, leaving fans of the former Prime Minister facing a painful five-month wait for all of her fascinating political insights.
To help those fans survive, Daily Telegraph literature expert Tim Blair has located what he swears are 100 per cent genuine* extracts from Gillard’s blazing biography. Read on as the ex-PM defends her record and smites her enemies.
To help those fans survive, Daily Telegraph literature expert Tim Blair has located what he swears are 100 per cent genuine* extracts from Gillard’s blazing biography. Read on as the ex-PM defends her record and smites her enemies.
Continue reading 'HER STORY'AND THEN JAIL THEM
Tim Blair – Friday, May 16, 2014 (1:19pm)
Here’s one good reason to licence cyclists: so we can take their licences away.
(Via Dave, who emails: “Elizabeth Farrelly could get a week’s worth of columns on the injustice of this police state.")
Sorry Palmer
Andrew Bolt May 16 2014 (11:21am)
The Australian last week reported:
===CLIVE Palmer’s private company Mineralogy has been accused of wrongfully siphoning more than $12 million from his Chinese business partners, with some of the funds allegedly used to cover political expenses for the costly federal election campaign by his Palmer United Party.Clive Palmer denied it when grilled on his favorite station by his favorite journalist:
The Federal Court in Perth was told yesterday that there were “serious questions” about the unauthorised use of large sums of money that Chinese-backed CITIC Pacific had put aside in a bank account for the operation of a port at its Sino Iron mining project in Western Australia.
TONY JONES: Now Clive Palmer, one final question; it’s a personal one actually because you would have seen in The Australian arguments made by your partners in Western Australia CITIC Pacific that you’ve somehow taken a large sum of money from a fund set aside to manage the port facilities in WA and possibly used that to fund your election campaigning. I don’t think I’ve heard your response to those allegations yet. What is it?In fact, it was Palmer’s side which did the apologising:
CLIVE PALMER: Well it’s certainly scandalous and I can’t say - but there’s always been a resolution of that matter and it’s been pointed out to people and they’ve made the appropriate apology to us.
TONY JONES: Is CITIC pressing to investigate what happened to that money?
CLIVE PALMER: Not that I’m aware of… No, I think it’s just another make-up by the Rupert Murdoch press, really. It doesn’t seem to have any substance. These things happen about me regularly ‘cause people don’t like me, they don’t like the fact that I’m concerned about our pensioners and I will stand up for them.
TONY JONES: Well your CITIC partners seem to be quite angry. You’re saying they’ve backed off? Basically they’re talking about a sum of money, over $10 million, I think it was, and then saying that, you know, you’ve spent pretty much that sort of amount of money on your election and linking the two things. Whether they’re making a direct allegation, I don’t know.
CLIVE PALMER: Well my companies turn over over $1 billion a year, Tony. That’s not the only money that we’ve got available to us, and of course, that’s just not true, what’s been alleged.
TONY JONES: Are you saying that CITIC has apologised about this?
CLIVE PALMER: There’s been an apology given and I can’t divulge who it is under the terms of it.
TONY JONES: Clive Palmer, we’ll have to leave you. Thank you very much for coming in to join us tonight. Always interesting to talk to you.
CLIVE PALMER: It’s good to talk to you, Tony. You’re a great journalist.
CLIVE Palmer’s key lawyer, Michael Dunham, has issued an apology in a Federal Court row that revolves around more than $12 million in missing funds belonging to a Chinese state-owned company.
Mr Dunham’s sworn affidavit also features an apology from Mr Palmer’s media and public relations manager, Andrew Crook, because of a media release that he improperly issued three months ago in an attack on the company, Citic Pacific....
Yesterday Citic Pacific rejected Mr Palmer’s claims on Lateline including that its allegations and concerns about the missing money were “another make-up by the Rupert Murdoch press”, which publishes The Australian…
Citic Pacific issued a statement yesterday in which it repeated its calls for a significant investigation into the missing funds… “It was incorrect for Mr Palmer to say that there has been a resolution of the administrative fund matter. Citic has made no apology to Mr Palmer in relation to that matter. As was made clear to the Federal Court last week, Citic considers that a ‘searching inquiry’ should be made into the missing funds. That inquiry is continuing in confidential arbitration proceedings.”
I want lunch with Richo
Andrew Bolt May 16 2014 (10:35am)
Graham Richardson must dine at only the very best:
===In the corner offices of corporate Australia they can’t believe their luck. They have been left unscathed. Does anyone believe that a person on $500,000 a year will even notice their extra 2c-in-the-dollar tax increase? It would barely add up to the cost of a good lunch once or twice a month.Really?
For Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who earns $500,000, the tax hike will force him to pay an additional $6400 a year.That’s enough to pay for a monthly lunch worth $533. The only time I had a bill that big was when I paid for a table of nine.
The Bolt Report on Sunday
Andrew Bolt May 16 2014 (10:29am)
On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm.
How spiteful has been some media coverage of the Budget?
My guest: Treasurer Joe Hockey.
The panel: former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa and Judith Sloan, former productivity commissioner and now columnist with The Australian.
On NewsWatch: Sharri Markson on some of the week’s worst media tricks.
Plus spin of the week. I can’t split the winners.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===How spiteful has been some media coverage of the Budget?
My guest: Treasurer Joe Hockey.
The panel: former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa and Judith Sloan, former productivity commissioner and now columnist with The Australian.
On NewsWatch: Sharri Markson on some of the week’s worst media tricks.
Plus spin of the week. I can’t split the winners.
The videos of the shows appear here.
On being denounced for blaspheming against Islam and Waleed Aly
Andrew Bolt May 16 2014 (10:27am)
Scott Stephens, religion editor for ABC Online, is a former Uniting Church minister. You’d expect him to preach a milksop peace, reconciliation and love of even our enemies.
But Stephens has just published an astonishing paroxysm of abuse – a true shock-jock sermon.
He has found a heretic so evil – guess who - that he denounces this Beelzebub as not just “mad”, “lunatic” and “maniacal” but “idolatrous”.
Idolatrous? Now there’s a word we don’t hear much these days in a culture unmoored from its religious foundations.
So which faith have I wickedly blasphemed against with what Stephens calls my “pseudo-intellectual thuggery”, “vulgar generalisations” and “desiccated reason”?
Well, it’s not Christianity, of course. No violence against that faith ever prompts a Uniting Church minister, past or present, into this kind of vilification.
No, my sin is, as you’d guess, against Islam, which Scott rapturously praises as embracing “conscientious humility, the devout hesitation before the inscrutability of the Divine”. My sin is particularly against that faith’s great new preacher, an ABC presenter who Stephens says speaks “against the idolatry in one’s own heart”.
This preacher, Waleed Aly, was born in a land so distant from his father’s home in the Middle East, and Stephens says his “very presence, prominence even, in the Australian media is enough to give the most despondent among us hope” .
And in case you didn’t get the Messiah allusions in Stephens’ text, the ABC has published an accompanying portrait showing Aly, former spokesman of the Islamic Council of Victoria, with blood pouring from wounds on his head, as if I’d pressed down with particular force a crown of thorns. (See above.)
I don’t think I could ever win an argument about Aly with a man determined to see him as a modern Christ. Against such faith, reason wilts.
Even so, it’s astonishing to see how Stephens tortures the truth, like some medieval Inquisitor.
My criticism of Aly - adopted by the ABC, Fairfax newspapers and Network 10’s The Project as a model moderate Muslim - was perfectly reasonable and easy to understand, I naively thought.
Asked on The Project to explain who’d stolen nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria, Aly, who doubles as a lecturer at Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre, had claimed: “It’s hard to identify who they are and they might just be vigilantes”.
In fact, in his entire interview, not once did Aly say the girl-stealers were Boko Haram terrorists, identifying as Muslims. Not once did the word “Islamic” even cross his lips, even though Boko Haram’s leader had already been filmed telling the world had Allah commanded him to take these schoolgirls and sell them.
Be very clear about what I argued, because Stephens grossly misrepresents it.
I pointed out that these men claimed to be motivated by Islamic teachings.
“Nor is there any mystery about Boko Haram’s agenda.And I concluded: “They are yet another variety of the Muslim extremists who have struck from Moscow to Mumbai, Bali to London, Syria to New York.”
“Boko Haram means ‘Western education is sinful’ — haram being the loaned Arabic word meaning sinful or forbidden by Allah. The group’s official title is Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad.
“In his latest video Shekau stated his group’s agenda so clearly a true terrorism expert could not have missed it.
“This was ‘a war against Christians’, Shekau shouted, and “real Muslims, who are following Salafism” should support him.
“‘Kill, kill, kill, kill.’”
Someone asked to explain the motivations and program of Boko Haram could not sensibly avoid mentioning they were Islamists. How else could we understand, for instance, why Boko Haram has declared war on Christians and slaughtered thousands, or why it demands shariah law be imposed in Western Africa?
You don’t have to agree with Boko Haram’s interpretation of Islam, and hundreds of millions of Muslims don’t . But pretending it isn’t an interpretation – with Boko Haram itself quoting passages from the Koran to justify enslaving female captives and killing infidels – is intellectually dishonest.
To be fair, Stephens is not quite that dishonest. He actually agrees Boko Haram has roots in Islam, even if he is far quicker than me to distance it from Islamic tradition.
“Boko Haram is, at best, a kind of bastard Salafism,” Stephens writes.
“Perhaps more accurately, it represents the still-born offspring of Salafist ahistorical restorationism and unprincipled political opportunism, on the one hand, and Wahhabist anti-intellectual supremacism, on the other. This corrupted and all-corrupting Salafabist hybrid ... has been aggressively disseminated and massively funded throughout the Muslim world - including Nigeria - by Saudi Arabia, who promote it, not as one expression or sect of Islam, but as Islam tout court.”It’s odd that Stephens, the former Uniting Church minister, believes he knows better than Saudi Arabia’s leaders and imams the truth of Islam, which he says actually advocates “devout hesitation before the inscrutability of the Divine” and urges a “penitent, generous life in shared pursuit of mercy, charity and beauty”.
The fact that a rich Muslim power has spread a radically different view through much of the Muslim world – and that dozens of terrorist groups do likewise - should make Stephens wonder, as I do, whether the Koran too easily lends itself to interpretations that licence terrorism, intolerance, oppression and the subjugation of women.
But this isn’t an argument I covered in this column on Aly, other than to note in a single sentence that Boko Haram again raised a question the Left did not want to debate and which it looked to Aly to deflect: “Is Islam a threat?”
My column instead criticised Aly for not acknowledging what even Stephens does – the Islamic roots of Boko Haram’s program.
So it’s strange to find Stephens then demonising me as “mad”, “lunatic”, “maniacal” and “idolatrous” for making this rather obvious point. What could possibly be my sin?
I suspect it’s just the “vibe of the thing” – my pointing out (correctly) that yet another terrorist group claimed Islam as its inspiration, and that the Left’s favourite Muslim apologist had pretended not to even notice.
So if Stephens essentially agrees with me, how can he then rationalise his fury, insults and collectivist support for a fellow ABC staffer?
Simple. He invents my transgressions.
“What Bolt wants from Waleed Aly, it would seem, is the same maniacal lucidity that Abubakar Shekau exhibits,” Stephens claims.
“Without the slightest hesitation, the leader of Boko Haram can claim to speak in the name of God...”
No, Scott. That’s not what I want or argued. I made plain that I merely wanted Aly to acknowledge exactly what you’ve just said, that “the leader of Boko Haram can claim to speak in the name of God”.
Stephens again: “It is not at all clear to me that Waleed Aly was being purposefully evasive in his description of Boko Haram. If anything, his attempt to characterise so impossibly diffuse and promiscuous an ‘organisation’ suffered from too much detail.”
False again. Aly’s description contained absolutely no detail, including the most obvious of all – that the group claimed Islamic inspiration. Aly even suggested the girl-stealing could have been done by “vigilantes”, although the leader of Boko Haram had already taken credit on video. And Aly has a history of such evasions, in my opinion, examples of which I gave.
Stephens again: “What Bolt wants, in other words, is for Aly to admit the “obvious”: that Islam is defined by the conduct of those who purport to be Muslims.”
False again: No, I just wanted Aly to admit the girl-stealing was by Boko Haram, and that it claimed to act from Islamic principles. That’s it. That’s all I wrote.
True, elsewhere I have argued that an ideology should be judged not just by what it says but the behaviour it actually inspires, yet I cannot see Stephens really quarrelling with that truism. Isn’t that how many people legitimately question, say, Marxism, arguing it means well but, alas, leads too easily to evil? (That’s not quite my argument, I should add.)
In the same way I should ask Stephens what faith he follows that licences such abuse, such misrepresentation and such intellectual evasion? Against which faith have I been so “idolatrous” that I must be pronounced not just wrong but “mad”?
I suspect Stephens, in fact, is the true voice of the “maniacal clarity” he denounces. Witness him now scourging blasphemers and diagnosing madness in any who dare mock his new Christ.
UPDATE
No sooner written than I read more evidence that perhaps the Koran really is too easily interpreted as licensing violence and the subjugation of women:
A SUDANESE judge sentenced a pregnant Christian woman to hang for apostasy after she refused to convert to Islam, despite appeals by Western embassies for compassion and respect for religious freedom.UPDATE
Mark Scott, under whose leadership the ABC has betrayed its statutory duty to be balanced, is very excited that one of his staff has smeared a conservative as “mad”, “lunatic”, “maniacal” and “idolatrous”. Not for the first time, he directs his followers to a trashy hit job, praising it as “scholarly”:
Once again, the ABC is abusing its enormous power as a state broadcaster to vilify critics of the organisation and its staff.
Chris Kenny, for instance, was branded a “dogf...er” and shown on national TV in a doctored photograph buggering a dog. (Scott apologised seven months later, as Kenny’s defamation case posted some early victories.)
I was branded a racist and falsely accused of publishing vile abuse of an academic which, again falsely, was claimed to have driven her from public life. (The ABC grudgingly apologised, although Scott directed readers to further smears published in another publication.)
This week the ABC published a warning that Immigration Minister Scott Morrison had a private army and could grow in power as did Heinrich Himmler. For that it has not yet apologised.
The ABC is out of control. And Scott is the man most responsible.
Shorten promises more of the red ink Labor spilled
Andrew Bolt May 16 2014 (9:36am)
An abusive Bill Shorten last night promised to stop almost everything - other than the essentially insignificant deficit levy - to fix the budgetary disaster Labor left:
UPDATE
Shorten’s bill:
===BILL SHORTEN: Labor will not support a system of higher fees, bigger student debt, reduced access and greater inequality.Labor didn’t just mortgage our future. Under Shorten it promises not to repay.
TOM IGGULDEN: Labor’ll also try and amputate the doctor’s fee from the Budget, ...
BILL SHORTEN: We shall fight this wicked - this wicked and punitive measure to its ultimate end.
TOM IGGULDEN: ... keep dole payments for young people intact ...
BILL SHORTEN: The Prime Minister’s vicious, victim-blaming policy.
TOM IGGULDEN: ... and oppose most if not all changes to the pension.
BILL SHORTEN: Labor will not surrender the security of your retirement. We will fight for a fair pension and we will prevail.
TOM IGGULDEN: The $2 billion fuel levy increase will also be opposed. So will some, but not all the changes to family tax benefits. BILL SHORTEN: We’re working though the exact scenarios, the tables, but one thing’s for sure: families who get family payments in Australia are going to get a better deal out of Labor under this harsh bunch of roosters.
UPDATE
Shorten’s bill:
BILL Shorten has dared Tony Abbott to force an election over the federal budget by vowing to vote down measures worth almost $18 billion…Labor lit the fire and now cuts the fire hose.
The Australian was told Labor would definitely vote against the withdrawal of FTB Part B from families with children older than six. This measure saves $1.9bn over four years.
The new GP fee raises $3.5bn; the $5 charge on subsidised medicines raises $1.3bn; and the changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule raise $3.5bn over four years. The increase in fuel excise raises $2.2bn over four years.
The tougher measures for job seekers younger than 30 saves $1.2bn over four years and the changes to seniors-card concessions saves $2bn. Labor’s position on the detail of every tertiary education change was not clear last night but the government’s reforms save at least $3.1bn and as much as $5bn over four years. In total, Labor’s policy positions could deepen the deficits by about $18bn without any alternative savings or revenue measures to offset the impact.
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The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing
But I
I love it when you read to me
And you
You can read me anything
The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I
I love it when you sing to me
And you
You can sing me anything
===
- 1771 – The Battle of Alamance—the final battle of the War of the Regulation, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over issues of taxation and local control—was fought.
- 1811 – Peninsular War: An allied force of British, Spanish, and Portuguese troops clashed with the French at the Battle of Albuera south of Badajoz, Spain.
- 1929 – The 1st Academy Awards (statuette pictured) ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
- 1961 – The Military Revolution Committee, led by Park Chung-hee, carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Bo-seon, ending the Second Republic of South Korea.
- 1966 – Chinese leader Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution officially as a campaign to rid China of its liberal bourgeois elements and to continue revolutionary class struggle.
“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” - Ecclesiastes 11:5
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"All that believe are justified."
Acts 13:39
Acts 13:39
The believer in Christ receives a present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit by-and-by, but now. So far as justification is the result of faith, it is given to the soul in the moment when it closes with Christ, and accepts him as its all in all. Are they who stand before the throne of God justified now?--so are we, as truly and as clearly justified as they who walk in white and sing melodious praises to celestial harps. The thief upon the cross was justified the moment that he turned the eye of faith to Jesus; and Paul, the aged, after years of service, was not more justified than was the thief with no service at all. We are today accepted in the Beloved, today absolved from sin, today acquitted at the bar of God. Oh! soul-transporting thought! There are some clusters of Eshcol's vine which we shall not be able to gather till we enter heaven; but this is a bough which runneth over the wall. This is not as the corn of the land, which we can never eat till we cross the Jordan; but this is part of the manna in the wilderness, a portion of our daily nutriment with which God supplies us in our journeying to and fro. We are now--even now pardoned; even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted, as though we had never been guilty. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." There is not a sin in the Book of God, even now, against one of his people. Who dareth to lay anything to their charge? There is neither speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing remaining upon any one believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the Judge of all the earth. Let present privilege awaken us to present duty, and now, while life lasts, let us spend and be spent for our sweet Lord Jesus.
Evening
"Made perfect."
Hebrews 12:23
Hebrews 12:23
Recollect that there are two kinds of perfection which the Christian needs--the perfection of justification in the person of Jesus, and the perfection of sanctification wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. At present, corruption yet remains even in the breasts of the regenerate--experience soon teaches us this. Within us are still lusts and evil imaginations. But I rejoice to know that the day is coming when God shall finish the work which he has begun; and he shall present my soul, not only perfect in Christ, but perfect through the Spirit, without spot or blemish, or any such thing. Can it be true that this poor sinful heart of mine is to become holy even as God is holy? Can it be that this spirit, which often cries, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this sin and death?" shall get rid of sin and death--that I shall have no evil things to vex my ears, and no unholy thoughts to disturb my peace? Oh, happy hour! may it be hastened! When I cross the Jordan, the work of sanctification will be finished; but not till that moment shall I even claim perfection in myself. Then my spirit shall have its last baptism in the Holy Spirit's fire. Methinks I long to die to receive that last and final purification which shall usher me into heaven. Not an angel more pure than I shall be, for I shall be able to say, in a double sense, "I am clean," through Jesus' blood, and through the Spirit's work. Oh, how should we extol the power of the Holy Ghost in thus making us fit to stand before our Father in heaven! Yet let not the hope of perfection hereafter make us content with imperfection now. If it does this, our hope cannot be genuine; for a good hope is a purifying thing, even now. The work of grace must be abiding in us now or it cannot be perfected then. Let us pray to "be filled with the Spirit," that we may bring forth increasingly the fruits of righteousness.
Today's reading: 2 Kings 22-23, John 4:31-54 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 2 Kings 22-23
The Book of the Law Found
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left....
Today's New Testament reading: John 4:31-54
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest....'"
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