In other news, Pokemon Go is very bad because it can distract you like any other game app. The writer accuses Pokemon Go of killing a user who stumbled onto thieves in Central America. And Pokemon Go has been asked by some authorities to be respectful regarding monuments. Apparently people are concerned children will notice monuments now, and may wonder what they mean. Maybe, as with Trump, it is the journalists who are giving us their unjustified opinion. Maybe that is it?
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
Has the family court bomber been caught? The individual or persons responsible for shooting deaths of two, the bombing deaths of four and numerous injuries from bombs over thirty years ago, in Sydney, may at last face justice. DNA evidence at the bombing scene of a Jehova's Witness Church has been obtained. A man has been arrested on 29th July 2015, and he is believed to have been an original person of interest. It is important for a family court to be fair and just. But it is an impossible thing to satisfy everyone all the time. But even if a court has gotten it wrong, bombs are not the answer.
Being just involves getting the hard questions right. Something that hasn't happened with Adam Goodes and the booing campaign. Former Australian of the year Goodes was too quick to hit the racism button from his first day, where he highlighted divisions of race within Australia. Race is a poor leader. Race should never be used in government to address peoples because it is intrinsically unfair. There is an industry based on race reading a myth that is hurtful and dangerous to Australia. A shameful truth in Australia is the living conditions of Aboriginal Peoples. Many of the scores for them is imported, like drugs, disease and alcoholism. But the 'cure' addressing such poverty is denied on racist terms. Aboriginals, we are told, don't go to school, don't work and don't follow the law. Racists are claiming that what Aboriginals need are separate laws, separate governments and different courts. It is apartheid and outrageous. And worse, while it is the poverty in the top end that is the issue, sponges in the big cities are absorbing aid intended for those in need. The issue is old. But people in the past, who have greatly helped many have been denounced by the industry as they don't fit the model of what the industry wants. So instead of churches providing accommodation, family, education and health, we have welfare groups whose job is to deny these things under the visage of race collectivism. Goodes has opened this pandora's box. Goodes is a gifted athlete. He has Aboriginal ancestry. But he doesn't speak well for Aboriginal peoples. But now a race commissioner involves himself with dividing peoples on the issues. Race is not a cultural asset. Tim Soutphommasane has said an ordinary sporting chant (Aussie, aussie, aussie, oy, oy, oy") is not good because it is too aggressively nationalistic. However, Tim claims that a war dance is appropriate, even when directed at an audience. Racism is protected by hypocrisy.
Plane debris found, may be MH370. It is a thousand miles away from the search area. But that is to be expected after over 500 days.
Being just involves getting the hard questions right. Something that hasn't happened with Adam Goodes and the booing campaign. Former Australian of the year Goodes was too quick to hit the racism button from his first day, where he highlighted divisions of race within Australia. Race is a poor leader. Race should never be used in government to address peoples because it is intrinsically unfair. There is an industry based on race reading a myth that is hurtful and dangerous to Australia. A shameful truth in Australia is the living conditions of Aboriginal Peoples. Many of the scores for them is imported, like drugs, disease and alcoholism. But the 'cure' addressing such poverty is denied on racist terms. Aboriginals, we are told, don't go to school, don't work and don't follow the law. Racists are claiming that what Aboriginals need are separate laws, separate governments and different courts. It is apartheid and outrageous. And worse, while it is the poverty in the top end that is the issue, sponges in the big cities are absorbing aid intended for those in need. The issue is old. But people in the past, who have greatly helped many have been denounced by the industry as they don't fit the model of what the industry wants. So instead of churches providing accommodation, family, education and health, we have welfare groups whose job is to deny these things under the visage of race collectivism. Goodes has opened this pandora's box. Goodes is a gifted athlete. He has Aboriginal ancestry. But he doesn't speak well for Aboriginal peoples. But now a race commissioner involves himself with dividing peoples on the issues. Race is not a cultural asset. Tim Soutphommasane has said an ordinary sporting chant (Aussie, aussie, aussie, oy, oy, oy") is not good because it is too aggressively nationalistic. However, Tim claims that a war dance is appropriate, even when directed at an audience. Racism is protected by hypocrisy.
Another Union leader arrested over corruption. Shorten had claimed the royal commission was a partisan attack on the ALP. And yet important issues have been outed and are being dealt with which would never have happened while corruption was protected from investigation.
Attack on Bronwyn Bishop amplified after failed campaign against Credlin. It doesn't matter if the attackers come from the LNP, ALP or media. Bishop has not done anything deserving of being sacked. She is a competent speaker. It would be wrong to dismiss her. But that may well happen.
Plane debris found, may be MH370. It is a thousand miles away from the search area. But that is to be expected after over 500 days.
In 762, Baghdad was founded by caliph Al-Mansur. 1419, first Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites killed seven members of the Prague city council. 1502, Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage. 1608, at Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years. 1619, in Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convened for the first time. 1626, an earthquake in Naples, Italy, killed about 10,000 people. 1635, Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans began; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, began the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army. 1656, Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeated the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw. 1676, Nathaniel Bacon issued the "Declaration of the People of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. 1729, foundation of Baltimore, Maryland. 1733, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States was constituted in Massachusetts. 1756, in Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presented the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
In 1811, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, was executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico. 1825, Malden Island was discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron. 1859, first ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps. 1863, American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder. 1864, American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempted to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches. 1865, the steamboat Brother Jonathan sank off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time. 1866, New Orleans, Louisiana's Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150. 1871, the Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler exploded, killing over 85 people.
In 1912, Japan's Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō. 1916, Black Tom Island explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey. 1930, in Montevideo, Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup. 1932, Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short. 1945, World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. 1956, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorising In God we trust as the U.S. national motto. 1962, the Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, was officially opened. 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. 1966, England defeated West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time. 1969, Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and met with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.
In 1971, Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon landed on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover. Also 1971, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collided over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162. 1974, Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States. Also 1974, Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets were killed and fifty-four were injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp. 1975, Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He was never seen or heard from again, and would be declared legally dead on this date in 1982. 1978, the 730 (transport), Okinawa Prefecture changed its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.
In 1980, Vanuatu gained independence. Also 1980, Israel's Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law 1990, George Steinbrenner was forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield. 2003, in Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line. 2006, the world's longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
From 2014
A tale of two battles with the White House being against humanity in each. In Gaza, Obama criticises Israeli people for fighting for their lives. In Ukraine, Obama criticises Putin for not ordering Ukrainian separatists to stop fighting for their lives. In each case Obama does not appear competent or realistic, but he is consistent. Ukraine are perpetuating a battle and using artillery to possibly cover up their involvement in shooting down a civilian aircraft. In perpetuating the conflict with international police in the danger zone, a case could be made for war crimes charges being brought to bear on Ukrainian military and government. In keeping with Obama policy in Gaza, if he wants peace in Ukraine, he should release everyone convicted of a sex crime currently incarcerated in the US. It won't work, but it is in line with what he has ordered Israel to do.
Today it is the deaths of two martyrs in 1540 which highlights world policy today. Robert Barnes and Thomas Abell were on opposite sides of the religious divide. But they were both executed by Henry VIII keen to be even handed so as to not let his enemies unite. Barnes was a reformer, some might call him a Protestant. He had met Martin Luther and, after having delivered what is now called the first sermon of the English reformation, and having written treatise on religious thought, he was recognised by Wolsey and became an adviser. His advise for Henry to marry Anne of Cleves did not work out well for him. Barnes had made political enemies and after Cleves marriage went south, no one could defend him. And so he was executed. Abell was a committed catholic who applied his faith to support Henry VIII first marriage. He had printed his thoughts in a foreign country under a fake name, but his actions were considered treason, and so he was hung, drawn and quartered. Henry's decision was not based on religion, but was political. But both men had made a stance on faith, and died for it. Today, we see what happens when the foolish take sides and are not even handed. Obama might be sincere in his support for Hamas, and an unrepresentative and murderous Ukraine. But political perceptions change.
Also on this day, in 1419, Prague experienced a series of defenestrations of her local councillors. A young woman once asked me if I wished to be defenestrated by her. I had to admit I didn't know. Turns out it means being pushed out of a window. In 1502, Columbus' fourth voyage placed him on an island off Honduras. In 1608 Samuel De Champlain shot and killed two Indian chiefs setting back French relations for a hundred years. In 1619, in Jamestown, the first representative assembly was held in Americas. In 1676, the delightfully named Nathanial Bacon made a declaration that the assembly was not being representative. Later that year he died from dysentery. If only they had listened. In 1733, the first Masonic Grand Lodge opened in the US. In 1866 in New Orleans, the Democrats assaulted an integrated GOP meeting, killing 40 and injuring 150. In 1930, in Montevideo, Uruguay won the first world cup. In 1932, Walt Disney did the first animation in Technicolor. In 1956, Eisenhower approved the monetary motto "In God We Trust" which today still confuses Democrats. In 1971, Apollo 15 use the first moon rover. In 1975. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared for good.
Today it is the deaths of two martyrs in 1540 which highlights world policy today. Robert Barnes and Thomas Abell were on opposite sides of the religious divide. But they were both executed by Henry VIII keen to be even handed so as to not let his enemies unite. Barnes was a reformer, some might call him a Protestant. He had met Martin Luther and, after having delivered what is now called the first sermon of the English reformation, and having written treatise on religious thought, he was recognised by Wolsey and became an adviser. His advise for Henry to marry Anne of Cleves did not work out well for him. Barnes had made political enemies and after Cleves marriage went south, no one could defend him. And so he was executed. Abell was a committed catholic who applied his faith to support Henry VIII first marriage. He had printed his thoughts in a foreign country under a fake name, but his actions were considered treason, and so he was hung, drawn and quartered. Henry's decision was not based on religion, but was political. But both men had made a stance on faith, and died for it. Today, we see what happens when the foolish take sides and are not even handed. Obama might be sincere in his support for Hamas, and an unrepresentative and murderous Ukraine. But political perceptions change.
Also on this day, in 1419, Prague experienced a series of defenestrations of her local councillors. A young woman once asked me if I wished to be defenestrated by her. I had to admit I didn't know. Turns out it means being pushed out of a window. In 1502, Columbus' fourth voyage placed him on an island off Honduras. In 1608 Samuel De Champlain shot and killed two Indian chiefs setting back French relations for a hundred years. In 1619, in Jamestown, the first representative assembly was held in Americas. In 1676, the delightfully named Nathanial Bacon made a declaration that the assembly was not being representative. Later that year he died from dysentery. If only they had listened. In 1733, the first Masonic Grand Lodge opened in the US. In 1866 in New Orleans, the Democrats assaulted an integrated GOP meeting, killing 40 and injuring 150. In 1930, in Montevideo, Uruguay won the first world cup. In 1932, Walt Disney did the first animation in Technicolor. In 1956, Eisenhower approved the monetary motto "In God We Trust" which today still confuses Democrats. In 1971, Apollo 15 use the first moon rover. In 1975. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared for good.
Historical perspective on this day
In 762, Baghdad was founded by caliph Al-Mansur. 1419, first Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites killed seven members of the Prague city council. 1502, Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage. 1608, at Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years. 1619, in Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convened for the first time. 1626, an earthquake in Naples, Italy, killed about 10,000 people. 1635, Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans began; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, began the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army. 1656, Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeated the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw. 1676, Nathaniel Bacon issued the "Declaration of the People of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. 1729, foundation of Baltimore, Maryland. 1733, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States was constituted in Massachusetts. 1756, in Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presented the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
In 1811, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, was executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico. 1825, Malden Island was discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron. 1859, first ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps. 1863, American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder. 1864, American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempted to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches. 1865, the steamboat Brother Jonathansank off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time. 1866, New Orleans, Louisiana's Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150. 1871, the Staten Island FerryWestfield's boiler exploded, killing over 85 people.
In 1912, Japan's Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō. 1916, Black Tom Island explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey. 1930, in Montevideo, Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup. 1932, Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short. 1945, World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. 1956, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorising In God we trust as the U.S. national motto. 1962, the Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, was officially opened. 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. 1966, England defeated West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time. 1969, Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and met with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.
In 1971, Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon landed on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover. Also 1971, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86collided over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162. 1974, Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States. Also 1974, Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets were killed and fifty-four were injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp. 1975, Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He was never seen or heard from again, and would be declared legally dead on this date in 1982. 1978, the 730 (transport), Okinawa Prefecture changed its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.
In 1980, Vanuatu gained independence. Also 1980, Israel's Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law 1990, George Steinbrenner was forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield. 2003, in Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetlerolled off the assembly line. 2006, the world's longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
In 1811, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, was executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico. 1825, Malden Island was discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron. 1859, first ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps. 1863, American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder. 1864, American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempted to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches. 1865, the steamboat Brother Jonathansank off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time. 1866, New Orleans, Louisiana's Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150. 1871, the Staten Island FerryWestfield's boiler exploded, killing over 85 people.
In 1912, Japan's Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō. 1916, Black Tom Island explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey. 1930, in Montevideo, Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup. 1932, Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short. 1945, World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. 1956, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorising In God we trust as the U.S. national motto. 1962, the Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, was officially opened. 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. 1966, England defeated West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time. 1969, Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and met with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.
In 1971, Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon landed on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover. Also 1971, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86collided over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162. 1974, Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States. Also 1974, Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets were killed and fifty-four were injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp. 1975, Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He was never seen or heard from again, and would be declared legally dead on this date in 1982. 1978, the 730 (transport), Okinawa Prefecture changed its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.
In 1980, Vanuatu gained independence. Also 1980, Israel's Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law 1990, George Steinbrenner was forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield. 2003, in Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetlerolled off the assembly line. 2006, the world's longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
=== Publishing News ===
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.
===
Thanks to Warren for this advice on watching Bolt
Warren Catton Get this for your PC or MAC https://www.foxtel.com.au/foxtelplay/how-it-works/pc-mac.html Once you have installed it start it up and press Live TV you don't need a login to watch Sky News!
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, 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 a free kindle version.
List of available items at Create Space
The Amazon Author Page for David Ball
UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWGFrench .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG
German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG
| Happy birthday and many happy returns Anders Jørgensen and RMMB. Born on the same day, across the years, as Maria Anna Mozart (1751), Emily Brontë (1818), Henry Ford (1863), Paul Anka (1941), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947), Kate Bush (1958), Lisa Kudrow (1963), Markus Näslund (1973), Hilary Swank (1974) and Prince Hridayendra of Nepal (2002). On your day, Independence Day in Vanuatu (1980)
762 – Al-Mansur, the Caliph of Islam, founded the city of Baghdad to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids.
1865 – Off the coast of Crescent City, California, US, the steamship Brother Jonathan, carrying a large shipment of gold coins that would not be retrieved until 1996, struck an uncharted rock and sank, killing 225 people. 1916 – German agents caused a major explosion when they sabotaged American ammunition supplies to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies of World War I. 1930 – Uruguay defeated Argentina, 4–2, in front of their home crowd at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo to win the first Football World Cup. 2012 – The largest power outage in history occurred across 22 Indian states, affecting over 620 million people, or about 9% of the world's population. Come out of the dark. Stand proudly with Uruguay. Take care not to antagonise German insurgents. Steam home. Hold that bag for dad. You remind me of Reinhardt Sosin with that band name .. he was part of Rasta Wookie ..
Deaths
An army marches on its feet. Stay afloat and you will be rich. Hail the new emperor. Hoffa is not missing. Civilians are not shields. Let's party.
|
WATERMELON WHEELS
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 30, 2016 (8:07pm)
Mr Di Natale, your new Bentley is ready:
In other Greens news, it’s war between the party’s tree-hugging and communist wings:
In other Greens news, it’s war between the party’s tree-hugging and communist wings:
Former Greens leader Bob Brown has called on the party’s New South Wales senator Lee Rhiannon to step aside, saying the party is in need of renewal.Mr Brown blamed the poor vote for the NSW Greens at the last election on the “old guard”, and said it was time for fresh blood.“Lee’s given long service to the Greens but it’s time for renewal,” Mr Brown said …“I’ve been approached in the streets in Sydney by people saying, ‘I’m a Green but I’m not going to vote for the candidates you’ve put up here in Sydney’.”
This is the first time in recorded history that Bob Brown has failed to claim a Greens election result as “the greatest ever.” It comes more than four years after he resigned as party leader.
(Via Geoff M.)
MERKELSOMMER MADNESS
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 30, 2016 (6:47pm)
“How is your Merkelsommer going?” asks Douglas Murray:
Britain’s geographical good fortune, relative success in limiting weapons and our justified scepticism of the undiscriminating “open borders” brigade mean we have so far been spared the delights of what Angela Merkel’s growing army of critics call her summer of terror …It is now a fortnight since Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel shouted “Allahu Akbar” and ploughed a truck along the Nice seafront, killing 84.The following Monday Muhammad Riyad, who said he was from Afghanistan but almost certainly came from Pakistan, screamed “Allahu Akbar” while hacking with an axe at his fellow passengers on a Bavarian train.The next day Mohamed Boufarkouch shouted “Allahu Akbar” and stabbed a Frenchwoman and her three daughters (aged eight, 12 and 14) near Montpelier.
Police playfully interact with a traditional Merkelsommer elf.
Mixing things up a little, that Friday’s shooter in Munich was a child of Iranians called Ali David Sonboly.Skip forward a couple of days and a “Syrian asylum seeker” with a machete was hacking a pregnant woman to death in Stuttgart.The next day another “Syrian asylum seeker”, Mohammad Daleel, carried out a suicide bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, Bavaria.And a little over 24 hours later two men shouting the name of ISIS entered a church near Rouen during Mass, took the nuns and congregation hostage and slaughtered the priest with a knife.
BROTHERS IN HARM
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 30, 2016 (3:51am)
Synchronised stupidity damages both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and ex-PM Kevin Rudd:
Three private letters written by Kevin Rudd to Malcolm Turnbull have been released, where he reveals the PM previously showed support for his bid for the UN Secretary-General role.The letters from April 4, May 1 and July 28 show Mr Rudd’s claims that the Prime Minister agreed to back Mr Rudd’s UN bid on several occasions.
Much too late, terrified Malcolm Turnbull realises he’s aligned himself with Cthulhu, destroyer of worlds.
Mr Rudd wrote that he and Mr Turnbull talked about his UN bid via a private messaging service known as Wickr as early as September last year. Mr Rudd said he believed he had support from Mr Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (who is referred to as FM).“You in fact sent me a message on your preferred Wickr system where you stated that you and the FM were ‘as one’ in your support for my candidature,” he wrote in a letter dated May 1.
This is damaging to Rudd because, as Chris Kenny pointed out last night on Sky News, by leaking those letters Rudd is revealed as precisely the sort of petty, vindictive character who should never be in charge of anything, much less an Australian government or the UN. But it is also harmful to Turnbull:
The documents further reveal Mr Turnbull considered Mr Rudd’s request that the government back him for the role of UN Secretary-General from April 4.Mr Rudd had discussed the issue with Mr Turnbull before he ousted Tony Abbott as prime minister in September.
I’m with stupid! Julie Bishop, a prominent member of the Coalition’s Labor faction, backed Rudd’s UN plan.
“These communications leave to one side the multiple conversations we had on the subject of my possible candidature prior to you assuming the Prime Ministership!” he wrote.“You had always said to me that the Australian government would be ‘mad’ not to support my candidature! You will recall saying the same in person to me when we met at my place in New York last year!”
If Rudd’s account is accurate, Turnbull was closer to and more supportive of ex-Labor PM Rudd than he was towards standing Coalition PM Tony Abbott. And, in the end, just as loyal to both.
In another letter, Mr Rudd wrote: “You will understand how shocked I was to receive your telephone call within the last couple of hours, just prior to your taking the matter to Cabinet in Canberra. In your telephone call you said that neither you nor the Cabinet would be supporting my nomination. When I asked the reasons for this, you said that neither you nor the Cabinet has the view that ‘I had the qualifications for the position.’ You will appreciate that you have never expressed that view to me in the multiple conversations we have had on this matter on the past,” he wrote.
Serial backstabbers Rudd and Turnbull have ended up stabbing each other. This is delicious. And it might not end here, as Laurie Oakes writes:
On May 2, the day before the federal Budget, Malcolm Turnbull was asked in Question Time whether he would support the nomination of an Australian candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations.“In the event of this matter becoming a live one, certainly the Cabinet will consider it and give it due attention,” he replied. That statement opens the Prime Minister to the charge of misleading Parliament.
Congratulations, Kevin Rudd. You’ve poisoned three atrocious governments: your own, Julia Gillard’s, and now Malcolm Turnbull’s. If Tony Abbott was still handing out knighthoods for services to the nation, you’d be at the top of the list.
UPPER TOLERANCE LIMIT BREACHED
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 30, 2016 (2:40am)
Victorian conservative Bill Wyndham fell for a lass from the peace, love and tolerance community.
It happens.
Sadly, Bill wasn’t tolerated.
Turnbull vs Rudd: two users fall out. UPDATE: Leaking against each other
Andrew Bolt July 30 2016 (2:44pm)
A fundamental misreading by Paul Kelly:
Turnbull should never have even dreamed of backing Rudd, and should have stuck all along with Tony Abbott’s pledge to back the New Zealand candidate, Helen Clark.
But he instead encouraged Rudd’s plan and let this build into a massive test of his leadership - one inviting a very harsh verdict on his judgement and the worth of Turnbull’s word.
This debacle actually perfectly demonstrates Turnbull’s poor leadership, tin ear and complete untrustworthiness. More amusing is the sight of two users falling out when neither is of use to the other.
Turnbull encouraged Rudd’s ambitions to become UN head back when he courted every critic of Tony Abbott and needed the support of Abbott’s Loyal Deputy, Rudd’s mate and chief backer Julie Bishop.
But once Turnbull became Prime Minister he gradually realised that backing Rudd could destroy him within the Liberal party. Trouble is, he still didn’t have the guts or foresight to head Rudd off before things went too far.
But now that Turnbull in a panic has killed off Rudd’s bid - and in the most publicly humiliating way - Rudd in turn has betrayed Turnbull with the release of documents he clearly prepared earlier for this moment of revenge.
Honestly, these two guys - peas in a pod - deserve each other, but Australia deserved neither.
Dennis Shanahan:
Then there’s a reference to Rudd having relied on Turnbull’s assurances to start lobbying other governments. This adds credibility to Rudd’s claim that Turnbull did indeed lead him on, because Rudd would have been mad to expose himself to this public humiliation without believing he had that support. Moreover, every government now lobbied by Rudd will either conclude that Rudd goes off on mad frolics or that Turnbull is untrustworthy. Or maybe both.
The last reference against suggests Rudd is telling the truth. Why else would Turnbull be visiting Rudd at Rudd’s home if not to support him?
UPDATE
I’ve known thieves to fall out with more dignity:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===Malcolm Turnbull told Kevin Rudd on May 1, two months ago, that neither he nor the cabinet would support him for the post of UN secretary-general… There is little downside for Turnbull in declining to back Rudd.Seriously? Even if we accept that Kelly’s version, fed to him by Turnbull, is true there is indeed a downside to Turnbull killing off Rudd’s bid only yesterday.
Turnbull should never have even dreamed of backing Rudd, and should have stuck all along with Tony Abbott’s pledge to back the New Zealand candidate, Helen Clark.
But he instead encouraged Rudd’s plan and let this build into a massive test of his leadership - one inviting a very harsh verdict on his judgement and the worth of Turnbull’s word.
This debacle actually perfectly demonstrates Turnbull’s poor leadership, tin ear and complete untrustworthiness. More amusing is the sight of two users falling out when neither is of use to the other.
Turnbull encouraged Rudd’s ambitions to become UN head back when he courted every critic of Tony Abbott and needed the support of Abbott’s Loyal Deputy, Rudd’s mate and chief backer Julie Bishop.
But once Turnbull became Prime Minister he gradually realised that backing Rudd could destroy him within the Liberal party. Trouble is, he still didn’t have the guts or foresight to head Rudd off before things went too far.
But now that Turnbull in a panic has killed off Rudd’s bid - and in the most publicly humiliating way - Rudd in turn has betrayed Turnbull with the release of documents he clearly prepared earlier for this moment of revenge.
Honestly, these two guys - peas in a pod - deserve each other, but Australia deserved neither.
Dennis Shanahan:
Letters leaked after Malcolm Turnbull’s brutal decision to end Kevin Rudd’s two-year campaign to become UN secretary-general claim the Prime Minister told the former Labor leader the Coalition would be “mad” not to back him for the job.Some passages in the letters particularly struck me:
The claims Mr Turnbull agreed with Julie Bishop to support Mr Rudd’s nomination but changed his mind have sparked a row over the Prime Minister’s judgment and revealed deep divisions within the Liberal Party leadership.
Three letters from the former Labor prime minister to Mr Turnbull in April, May and this week contain explosive claims that Mr Turnbull had encouraged Mr Rudd to approach other nations, had been “as one” with the Foreign Minister in his support, had secret meetings in New York and Sydney to discuss the nomination and had communicated through Mr Turnbull’s “preferred” social media platform of Wickr....
[L]ast night, the leaked correspondence from Mr Rudd to Mr Turnbull, obtained by The Weekend Australian, suggested Mr Turnbull had long supported Mr Rudd’s nomination as Australia’s candidate and encouraged him to approach other nations.
In a letter dated April 4 in which Mr Rudd formally seeks Australia’s endorsement and staff and diplomatic support, the former Labor leader cites conversations with Ms Bishop and that Mr Turnbull indicated he “would take this matter to cabinet after I had notified you formally of my intention to be a candidate"…
The claims in the letters suggest Mr Turnbull had agreed with Ms Bishop to support Mr Rudd, had encouraged him to run, had multiple conversations with him and had intended to put the nomination to cabinet.
The first two bits I’ve circled is a warning to Turnbull that Rudd has retained records of Turnbull’s commitments to him. They may yet be released, causing Turnbull even more harm and casting further doubt on his judgment and his word.
Then there’s a reference to Rudd having relied on Turnbull’s assurances to start lobbying other governments. This adds credibility to Rudd’s claim that Turnbull did indeed lead him on, because Rudd would have been mad to expose himself to this public humiliation without believing he had that support. Moreover, every government now lobbied by Rudd will either conclude that Rudd goes off on mad frolics or that Turnbull is untrustworthy. Or maybe both.
The last reference against suggests Rudd is telling the truth. Why else would Turnbull be visiting Rudd at Rudd’s home if not to support him?
UPDATE
I’ve known thieves to fall out with more dignity:
Mr Rudd’s spokeswoman said Mr Rudd had decided to release the letters because he believed Mr Turnbull was briefing reporters on his version of events.When leakers fall out, prepare for a flood.
“As you are aware, Mr Rudd had a conversation with Mr Turnbull [on Friday] morning about Mr Rudd’s interest in becoming a candidate for UNSG,” she said.
“Mr Turnbull ... asked Mr Rudd to keep the confidentiality of their conversations on this matter.
“Mr Rudd has unfortunately now discovered that briefings are occurring conveying the Prime Minister’s version of events. In the interests of transparency Mr Rudd thinks it is far better that he release the three letters he sent Mr Turnbull on this issue over the past few months.”
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Book meets NT giant
Andrew Bolt July 30 2016 (2:39pm)
My book took off on an international frolic without me, visiting London, Lake Como, Ithaca, Scotland, the Bay of Naples and Fiji, before being caught and sentenced to work in the mines of Kalgoorlie. On release, it worked on the coal seam gas fields of Condabri, Queensland, but is now back on the road.
Reader RomeoMikeNovemberDelta reports:
And I’m reliably informed that the book has once more left the country. Further news tomorrow.
To buy a copy for the traveler in your life, go here. A second edition will be printed soon, so don’t wait if you want one of the remaining first editions.
The third edition of the Bolt Bulletin, available to on-line buyers, went out last week.
UPDATE
Thank you very much to the 150 people who turned up to the Adelaide launch of my book yesterday. I am grateful to you. Terrific event.
===Reader RomeoMikeNovemberDelta reports:
I’ve attached a photo of your book at Aileron Roadhouse, about 130 km north of Alice Springs in the NT. Colourful local identity Greg Dick is the Roadhouse resident owner.
Overlooking the Roadhouse is a 17-metre tall statue of local Aboriginal man Charlie Quartpots, aka “Anmatjere Man”. Apparently he was the rainmaker in the local area. Charlie was constructed and erected in 2005 by artist Mark Egan, son of famed musician and one-time Administrator of the NT, Ted Egan.
PS. I’m reliably informed that one of Charlie’s balls contains a time capsule!
And I’m reliably informed that the book has once more left the country. Further news tomorrow.
To buy a copy for the traveler in your life, go here. A second edition will be printed soon, so don’t wait if you want one of the remaining first editions.
The third edition of the Bolt Bulletin, available to on-line buyers, went out last week.
UPDATE
Thank you very much to the 150 people who turned up to the Adelaide launch of my book yesterday. I am grateful to you. Terrific event.
But anything goes when the ABC can vilify Pell
Andrew Bolt July 30 2016 (2:24pm)
Too shocking:
The ABC is a disgrace.
===Maribyrnong Council has asked a small business in Footscray to take down an “offensive” mural by a renowned Australian street artist featuring US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a swimsuit.Wins prize - and the ABC gives the picture national coverage:
A controversial painting depicting Cardinal George Pell with a face formed from male genitalia has won Australia’s most irreverent portraiture prize.The difference?
Titled ‘Nothing to Say’, the painting is the work of artist Pat Hudson, a first time entrant in the Bald Archy, which is a parody of the more serious and revered Archibald Prize.
The ABC is a disgrace.
The royal commission will look the wrong way
Andrew Bolt July 30 2016 (2:12pm)
A correct call - but brave - from Warren Mundine, adviser to the Prime Minister on Aboriginal issues:
===Allegations of mistreatment at Don Dale detention centre have surfaced and been investigated before. What made Four Corners horrific was the videos – children set upon by guards; a boy stripped and left naked in his cell; a guard grabbing a boy’s throat; a youth in a restraint chair wearing a “spit hood”; children overcome by tear gas; teens harming themselves and their surrounds.
I’ve visited juvenile detention facilities; talked to corrective services officers, social workers and juvenile offenders; sat on committees, reviewed statistics and research; and advised government officials on juvenile incarceration. I’ve also seen violence and substance fuelled rage up close.
So, when I saw the visuals, I didn’t just see the incidents. I also saw familiar signs of social breakdown in Indigenous families and communities that’re destroying us…
Indigenous suicide is twice that of non-Indigenous. For males in their twenties it’s four times and for females, five times… Not long before Four Corners aired, a Western Australian research report was released showing Aboriginal mothers in WA were 17 and a half times more likely to be murdered.
Domestic violence figures for Indigenous women are substantially worse, including being 34 times more likely to be hospitalised from domestic violence…
Some people conclude the cause is historical wrongs to Indigenous people. But this theory doesn’t compute. Indigenous incarceration rates have nearly doubled since 1991…
I don’t see inter-generational trauma grounded in history. I see Indigenous people in crisis, today…
If governments want fewer Don Dale correction centres, then take a tougher stand on school attendance, welfare to work and enabling real economies in Indigenous communities where enterprise can grow. And implement mandatory diversionary programs for juvenile offenders, requiring them to go into jobs and education instead of detention.
Interventions need to be early because there’s a point of no return. I once met a friendly 14 year old in detention for serial rape; a nice teenager who tortured and killed her baby in a rage.
Indigenous incarceration is high because Indigenous people are committing crimes, mostly against Indigenous victims. That’s why the idea of setting Closing the Gap targets for incarceration is misconceived.
The Prime Minister’s immediate call for a Royal Commission satisfies the outrage of elites and may provide answers on specific incidents. But I’ve never seen a royal commission deliver longstanding benefits or solve underlying problems for Indigenous people.
Anyone who’s stood face to face with real violence, who’s lived in communities where dysfunction festers, who’s seen how terrifying someone wasted on substances can be, knows that social breakdown will continue after the Royal Commission. Unless we – Australians and Indigenous people – address its root causes head on.
CECIL BE DEMISED
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 30, 2015 (2:49am)
If nothing else, the Zimbabwean lion-hunting controversy has given us this compelling new phrase: “Cecil-killing dentist”. Unless a dental specialist has previously offed someone by that name, it is unlikely that those words have ever before been written or spoken in that precise order. Here are some Twitter highlights in the wake of Cecil the lion’s dentist-driven demise:
• RIP, Cecil, I hope you are avenged.• Less negativity! More positivity please! Cecil would want this for us.• Can’t bear to watch Cecil story anymore without tearing up. Palmer should pay dearly. They should hunt him down.• There are mad other lions out there having lion sex & birthing cubs go steal one of those place a tracker on him & look at that a new Cecil.• How much will it cost me to hunt Walter Palmer with a bow and arrow in his natural habitat?• Seriously eff this Cecil-killing dentist.
There does seem to be some serious anti-dentite hatred involved:
• People loved Cecil the lion. He was warm and friendly with humans. Because he was never hungry.• Does anyone know if the lion was named ‘Cecil’ after Rhodes? Was it a white supremacist lion, or do its views remain unknown?• The person I feel for the most in this Cecil situation is my man Mugabe.• I hope Walter Palmer gets raped by a bull elephant, a lion, a rhino, a vulture and a hyena ... after I’ve shot him with a bow & arrow.• Wonder how many pets were named Cecil yesterday. Maybe children too.• I wonder if any of the babies that Planned Parenthood aborted and sold would have been named Cecil. I guess we’ll never know.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have called for dentist Walter Palmer’s execution:
“Hunting is a coward’s pastime,” said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk in the statement. “If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.”
Wow. Wait until Ingrid hears about serial animal tormentor Jonathan Green. Further Cecil-related thoughts from James Delingpole.
UPDATE. The Guardian‘s Cecil coverage is surprisingly restrained:
Come on, Guardian. We need to know Cecil’s star sign, his opinion of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership candidacy, what he thought about climate change deniers and his favourite Islington vegan restaurant. People want information!
Come on, Guardian. We need to know Cecil’s star sign, his opinion of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership candidacy, what he thought about climate change deniers and his favourite Islington vegan restaurant. People want information!
FROM SQUEAL LIKE A PIG TO SING LIKE AN ANGEL
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 30, 2015 (2:42am)
Brilliant character actor Ned Beatty – Network, Deliverance, Nashville – is also a wonderful singer. Click for a couple of samples.
GREAT PLATES
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 30, 2015 (2:10am)
I prefer this design, being fond of flying monkeys, but I’m also inclined to buy the giant robot. Other choices are available.
BIRMINGHAM BATTERING
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 30, 2015 (12:49am)
Australia is bowled out for just 136 runs in the first innings of the Third Test at Edgbaston, having won the toss and elected to collapse.
UPDATE. Fairfax’s pre-match call: “It might be Australia in three days.”
The debate the Left says should never have been held
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (9:31pm)
The debate that has the Left choking on vomit. See, the ABC included me. Subject: Adam Goodes.
Charlie King seems a nice guy. We’re catching up after.
UPDATE
You can see why the Left is comparing me to the Gestapo (although that might have been meant as praise from this author). After all, check the truly horrible things I said:
===Charlie King seems a nice guy. We’re catching up after.
UPDATE
You can see why the Left is comparing me to the Gestapo (although that might have been meant as praise from this author). After all, check the truly horrible things I said:
I wish the booing had never started. I wish it would stop. I think it’s a sort of cruel bullying of its own. But I mean, to ignore what’s really behind this and to just try to shut the crowd up by saying, “You’re all racist and we’ll all get together and exacerbate this.” Look, you might stop the booing now, but our long-term future has to be in seeing each other as individuals, not as racial artefacts or symbols or anything like this and to play down this idea that we’re fundamentally a racist country. We are not.
Is it fair to import such danger?
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (8:52am)
Sweden is very generous to refugees and immigrants from the Middle East and Africa. The price is increased violence:
===Four grenade attacks this week have rocked Malmo, the third largest city in Sweden, prompting police to sound an alarm over the increasing violence. Multiple explosions, shootings and arson struck the city, which has a large migrant population…(Thanks to reader Grendel.)
The attack came ... two days after a car bomb attack that injured a man outside a community center in the south.
“It is the thirtieth explosive attack since the New Year. We have a situation that is serious,” said the Malmö police chief, Stefan Sintéus, about the explosion on Friday…
Since the beginning of 2015, 18 explosions rocked the city prompting the Swedish police’s national bomb squad (NSB) to be called in…
Police said they believe this week’s explosions are linked with the court sentencing of three young men on July 10 for their roles in the Christmas Eve bombing in Rosengard – the city district which has been dubbed by media as Sweden’s “most notorious refugee ghetto.” ...
Over 80 percent of residents there are immigrants, hailing from the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. Only 38 percent of residents in the district are employed, according to the Economist, prompting restive youth to take to rioting and crime… Sweden has been taking in a larger share of asylum seekers than any other EU state compared to its existing population size. Sweden’s population is about 9.6 million while in 2014 asylum was granted to more than 33,000 refugees...
Race Commissioner shows just the double standards that makes those booers cross
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (8:46am)
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, a former Labor staffer, can be trusted to bring petrol to a fire. Last night he predictably damned the booing of Adam Goodes as racist. He also demonstrated the double standards on race that drive the booers mad.
Here is Soutphommasane attacking an unwarlike patriotic chant used by Australian sports fans of all races:
Australian nationalism is “aggressive”. An Aboriginal war dance aimed at whites is “good sporting spirit”.
I suspect most of the booers are not racists but people protesting against a new racism. And Soutphommasane sure gives them more to boo.
UPDATE
Dallas Scott writes too rarely on his Black Steam Train blog. But when he does write, it’s wise and memorable:
(Thanks to readers machac22 and gc-p.)
===Here is Soutphommasane attacking an unwarlike patriotic chant used by Australian sports fans of all races:
Over the past decade, we are seeing some of this sentiment on the rise. Not all that long ago, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” was just a harmless chant at sporting events. Waving the national flag in public was regarded as something done not by Aussies but by Americans.... Not today. And there is a strain of patriotic expression that is tainted with the stain of aggressive nationalism.But here was Soutphommasane praising a war dance used by Adam Goodes, to symbolically threaten white sports fans with spearing:
It was done in a good sporting spirit… It was done in that spirit of having pride in his identity rather than being aggressive towards supporters.Australians of all colours chanting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” is suspicious. An Aborigine threatening whites with a war dance is just “having pride”.
Australian nationalism is “aggressive”. An Aboriginal war dance aimed at whites is “good sporting spirit”.
I suspect most of the booers are not racists but people protesting against a new racism. And Soutphommasane sure gives them more to boo.
UPDATE
Dallas Scott writes too rarely on his Black Steam Train blog. But when he does write, it’s wise and memorable:
Of course, we have the regular roster of apologists come out, shaming the country and our society for cutting down a sports star who happens to have Aboriginal blood as part of his racial make-up. The caring, informed and sensitive city dwellers who, despite their alabaster skin tone and lack of racial diversity, can not only see, smell and hear racism, but tragically, are so deeply affected by it that they feel they must differentiate themselves from the white person next to them by pointing at them and screaming racist long enough and loud enough that somehow, somewhere in the midst of all their righteous shouting, their own skin tone will be forgotten or ignored.Read the whole thing.
One thing I’ve come to understand about our society is that often, those who see themselves as the most tolerant, educated and enlightened are usually most racist, close-minded of all. These types were the first to pick up their keyboard or a microphone and declare that speaking negatively about the so-called ‘war dance’ effort from Adam Goodes over the weekend means that we are culturally ignorant, yet in making such a claim, have themselves ignored an entire segment of the Aboriginal community, who are appalled at the ‘performance’. In wanting us to be a homogenous community capable of only thinking and feeling one way, therefore enabling them to have the correct information and be ‘right’, they are guilty of the same crime they are continually accusing an entire nation of – RACISM.
The fact is, some Aboriginal people, myself included, saw that embarrassing display and did not feel pride. Instead, we felt shame, and a sense of sadness and loss. Some of this stems from seeing yet more of our traditions mocked and traded upon, invented and earning overnight acclaim, for little more than cheap thrills while the long standing traditions are ignored, left to die quietly and uncelebrated until they are forgotten and lost forever. Some of this comes from the fact we’re tired of the theatrics, and how his need for attention will play out for the rest of us, and creep a little into our own lives. For an urban blackfella like me, I hate the fact that all of a sudden my opinion is relevant. I haven’t written a blog post in almost a year, or bothered to watch free to air television in even longer, yet received two messages on my phone today – one from SBS and the other from 2GB, wanting to know what I think about the whole Goodes drama and depending on what I think, whether they want to hear from me. They aren’t the only ones. Friends, acquaintances and even the random guy standing next to me in line at the supermarket suddenly wants to hear what I have to say, but only on this one topic, just for now. The easiest way to get rid of them is to gauge their personal feelings, then just agree with them. If someone is genuinely looking for a discussion, they are easy to tell, but most people just want me to be the token black who validates their own feelings on the matter.
Views like mine, that are contrary to the representations being made by the rabid, name-calling media, are ignored or rejected by all those who simply want to brand every incident or comment with an ‘ism’, because the object of their outrage is never to stimulate an educated debate or a discussion, but rather they wish to simply stand on their given podium and recite their narcissistic lecture, a pointless exercise for them to reinforce their followers that they alone are a bastion of cultural relevance, understanding and compassion. Sadly, theses ‘enlightened’ folks also tend to take their cues on history from the most removed people of a culture, merely because they tend to occupy the cubicle or apartment next to them, or speak with the most authoritarian voice or sense of victimhood – a sure sign that they must know what they are on about, according to our current high standards of journalism in this country – instead of seeking the truth and looking for those with knowledge that comes from a life of lived tradition, rather than being well removed from it....
As Adam walks out for his next game, before making his way onto that perfectly manicured stadium lawn, I suggest he take a deep, slow breath and reflect upon the reality of his life. Rather than having to emerge from the sheds for the ‘coloured people’, kept separate from the white folks playing beside him, he will run out after being supported by his entire team, not kept to the back. When he is thirsty, he doesn’t have to take a drink at the appropriately labelled drinking fountain, set aside for only folks with his racial identity, but rather will be served like a prince, with a special servant whose only job is to provide refreshments for the thirsty players, regardless of their skin colour or heritage. As he drives his brand new sports car to training, where he looks around at the other players arriving in their equally expensive vehicles and stops to realise he is paid just as much as them, if not more, he should perhaps pause a moment and wonder about whether he is fighting a war that has already been won, and instead of complaining from his position at the top, realise how those on the bottom rungs might be sick of hearing him whinging and would much rather he just got on with life.
(Thanks to readers machac22 and gc-p.)
Third arrest in three weeks over alleged union scandal
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (8:46am)
Let’s hear again from Labor that this royal commission is just a get-Julia or get-Bill or get-unions stitch-up:
===A witness at the royal commission into trade union governance and corruption has been arrested in Canberra, and charged with perjury…(Thanks to reader WaG311.)
Tuungafasi Manase ... is an associate of Fihi Kivalu, the former construction union official who was arrested and charged with blackmail in the first week of a series of ACT hearings this month. The commission heard evidence that Mr Manase was involved with Mr Kivalu’s alleged blackmailing of formwork company owner Elias Taleb....
Last week, the commission arrested former Canberra Raiders football star and construction union organiser John Lomax who was also charged with blackmail.
Plane debris found. MH370 suspected
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (8:22am)
A breakthrough?
A MYSTERIOUS piece of plane debris has washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, prompting speculation it could be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.It could be MH370:
Reunion island is more than 6000km from where the plane was last known to fly before it vanished on March 8, 2014. The two-metre long piece of wreckage, which seemed to be part of a wing, was found by people cleaning up a beach.
A US official has told Associated Press that air safety investigators have a “high degree of confidence” that a photo of aircraft debris found in the Indian Ocean is of a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared last year.
The official says investigators — including a Boeing air safety investigator — have identified the component as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a 777 wing.
Bronwyn Bishop just became a leadership issue
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (7:57am)
BRONWYN Bishop’s expenses scandal is now splitting the Abbott Government and dragging the Prime Minister into renewed leadership trouble.
Tony Abbott has stuck by Bishop, a friend and ally, but yesterday rivals Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull both attacked the embattled Speaker. Suddenly a problem for the Government is a problem for Abbott personally, again raising the question: is he too loyal to make tough calls?
Loyalty doesn’t seem a problem for Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, who twice yesterday undermined Speaker Bishop over her claims for travel expenses to a wedding and Liberal fundraiser.
First, the Foreign Affairs Minister falsely implied Speaker Bishop was considering resigning to avoid further damage to the Government. “I understand that the Labor Party will seek to use this to destabilise Question Time, for example, and I’m sure Speaker Bishop will take that into account as she considers her position.”
And asked if the Speaker’s position was “now untenable”, she merely said “the Department of Finance is carrying out an investigation ... and ... I’ll await the outcome”.
These responses astonished Bronwyn Bishop, who recalled that just days earlier “Julie Bishop rang me and said I had her full support”.
As for the talk of “considering her position”, forget it.
(Read full column here.)
===Tony Abbott has stuck by Bishop, a friend and ally, but yesterday rivals Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull both attacked the embattled Speaker. Suddenly a problem for the Government is a problem for Abbott personally, again raising the question: is he too loyal to make tough calls?
Loyalty doesn’t seem a problem for Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, who twice yesterday undermined Speaker Bishop over her claims for travel expenses to a wedding and Liberal fundraiser.
First, the Foreign Affairs Minister falsely implied Speaker Bishop was considering resigning to avoid further damage to the Government. “I understand that the Labor Party will seek to use this to destabilise Question Time, for example, and I’m sure Speaker Bishop will take that into account as she considers her position.”
And asked if the Speaker’s position was “now untenable”, she merely said “the Department of Finance is carrying out an investigation ... and ... I’ll await the outcome”.
These responses astonished Bronwyn Bishop, who recalled that just days earlier “Julie Bishop rang me and said I had her full support”.
As for the talk of “considering her position”, forget it.
(Read full column here.)
Is saving Bronwyn worth this damage?
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (7:53am)
Tony Abbott may be putting loyalty to Bronwyn Bishop above loyalty to the Liberal team - let alone to taxpayers.
Dennis Shanahan:
Finally the sorry that was missing from Bishop’s first, disastrously defiant press conference on this issue:
===Dennis Shanahan:
Bronwyn Bishop should be gone as Speaker but she’s not. The hard-core, right-wing, conservative Liberal warrior who could smile in an abattoir has done wrong: she has admitted it…Niki Savva:
Since she spent $5000 on a helicopter ride between Melbourne and Geelong, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has been ridiculed, lampooned and demonised with good cause.... Indeed, other claims, which included trips to weddings and which she says were genuinely work-related, have only served to make it worse.
Why then is she still in her job and why hasn’t she stepped aside from her position, at least while the helicopter flight is investigated? The simple answer is that she has the sure support of Tony Abbott as a friend and factional ally…
Joe Hockey, Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull (all potential leadership contenders) are making it clear they are unhappy with the impact Bishop’s behaviour is having on the Coalition, while Labor has declared open season.
Bill Shorten still has a lot of work to do to convince people he is serious about boat turnbacks and that his renewable energy target is more than a thought bubble or a sop to the Left. However, his recovery and repositioning have benefited mightily from one major factor that has bought him time, and that has been corroding the Tony Abbott’s authority and drowning out all other messages from the government: Bronwyn Bishop.UPDATE
Finally the sorry that was missing from Bishop’s first, disastrously defiant press conference on this issue:
Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has finally apologised for taking a $5000 helicopter ride from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser.More:
”I want to apologise to the Australian people for an error of judgment,” she told 2GB on Thursday. “I feel I’ve let them down.”
She also said she understood the anger Australians felt about this issue, but insists she won’t step down.That’s more like it.
“I won’t be resigning,” she said.
Ms Bishop said she would also repay all expenses related to travel to weddings of which “while technically in the rules just doesn’t apply”.
It has emerged recently the MP claimed travel allowances for trips that included the weddings of Liberal colleagues Sophie Mirabella and Teresa Gambaro.
“I know that I’ve disappointed and let down the Australian people,” she said.
Asked whether it had been a mistake to not apologise when the first stories broke about her expenses three weeks ago, Mrs Bishop said it was.
“I wish I had,” she said. “I feel very, very sorry that I’ve let the Australian people down.”
This mad “reconciliation” is making us enemies and destroying Adam Goodes
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (7:52am)
No sporting code has pushed “reconciliation” harder than the AFL. Now see the frightening results.
We’ve got crowds nastily booing Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes, a divisive symbol of this “reconciliation”.
We’ve got sanctimonious commentators in return vilifying fans as “racist”, infuriating thousands who simply dislike Goodes for his race talk and his public humiliation of a teary 13-year-old girl as the “face of racism”.
We’ve also got Aboriginal players inflaming white crowds by threatening them with imaginary spears, while white racists exploit the controversy by howling insults in return.
And now Goodes is allegedly so broken that he’s contemplating quitting the game he has so distinguished.
Wow. Feeling reconciled yet?
Let’s consider where we should be instead.
(Read full article here.)
Russia uses veto to protect mass murderers
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (7:47am)
Russia bares its teeth:
===Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has lambasted Russia for using its veto power to block a United Nations proposal to establish an international criminal tribunal into the MH17 disaster…Well said by Julie Bishop:
The resolution to establish a criminal tribunal was supported by 11 countries with Russia - as one of five permanent members with veto power - the only nation to vote against the proposal.
Angola, China and Venezuela abstained from the vote. The Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year, an hour into its flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 passengers and crew, including 39 Australian citizens and residents, were killed.
Ms Bishop, in a speech shortly after the vote, said it was “inconceivable the Security Council would now walk away from holding to account those who brought down a commercial aeroplane”.
“The veto only compounds the atrocity,” she said.
“Only one hand was raised in opposition, but a veto should never be allowed to deny justice.” “The exercise of the veto today is an affront to the memory of the 298 victims of MH17 and their families and friends,” Ms Bishop said.
If Boko Haram killed lions instead of people, its name would be mud
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (7:23am)
Tim Blair notes the astonishing distress at the Guardian over the death of one lion:
===The coverage of the murder of 10 humans - also in Africa - is more restrained.
Storming Britain
Andrew Bolt July 30 2015 (7:07am)
More on the invasion of Europe:
===One man was found dead yesterday as 1500 migrants attempted to enter the Eurotunnel terminal in a desperate bid to get to England…But Labor here is promising to weaken our border laws.
The man of Sudanese origin believed to be aged between 25 and 30, was hit by a truck that was leaving a cross-Channel ferry, a police source said. The overnight attempts at storming the Eurotunnel terminal came after 2000 bids to enter the site were recorded the previous night, which was described as the biggest incursion effort in six weeks.
Five out of five ABC panellists agree with each other that we’re all racist. Except them, of course
Andrew Bolt July 29 2015 (7:40pm)
A typical ABC debate, where everyone agrees with each other. And, incidentally, where all are sanctimonious and simply wrong.
The subject: Adam Goodes.
The conclusion: the booing just proves Australians are racists.
Agreeing with each other: Steve Cannane, Anthony Benscher, Kate Mills, Jonathan Green and Francis Leach.
Is the ABC so terrified of debate? So contemptuous of its legal obligation to be impartial?
===The subject: Adam Goodes.
The conclusion: the booing just proves Australians are racists.
Agreeing with each other: Steve Cannane, Anthony Benscher, Kate Mills, Jonathan Green and Francis Leach.
Is the ABC so terrified of debate? So contemptuous of its legal obligation to be impartial?
Wise advice from Grant Thomas to Adam Goodes
Andrew Bolt July 29 2015 (5:30pm)
I said yesterday that Adam Goodes could end the booing and actually emerge a hero by apologising for how he reacted to that 13-year-old girl who yelled “ape”. It would be brave and hard, but very effective. Making clear he loved this country he’s so damned would also help.
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas says the issue is actually far simpler than I say, but, yes, an act of contrition by Goodes would more than restore his reputation:
===Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas says the issue is actually far simpler than I say, but, yes, an act of contrition by Goodes would more than restore his reputation:
There is only one man I know – and one man alone – that can fix the currently out of control issue involving Adam Goodes.Read on.
His name is Adam Goodes.
At the moment the situation has the potential to deteriorate into a massive divide amongst many, many people with untold and possibly irretrievable damage....
I will not stand by and witness the ridiculous pandemonium, the irresponsible accusations, the overreacting and the personal agenda’s from pedestals. Nor will I will be intimidated by do-gooders on soap boxes clutching rosary beads, media representatives taking the moral high ground or people in positions of responsibility who feel the need to act now out of some sort of pathetic pressure from those around them.
For 150 years fans have preyed on players hoping to get a rise out of them. Most – and I mean nearly all of them – have not been seduced into responding, acknowledging or letting it outwardly affect them. If fans sense a hint of reaction they intensify their actions baying for blood.
Two things have struck me in relation to the Adam Goodes saga.
Firstly he is probably the first player I can remember that has taken obvious offence to the booing and reacted.
And secondly he has publicly denounced the people doing it and returned fire.
Both of these actions are like a red rag to a bull for regular footy fans.
I have no doubt there is now a small racist element taking advantage of the situation Adam finds himself in…
Has Adam done anything wrong? Not as far as I am concerned. The only criticism I have of Adam is the manner in which he has dealt with the situation. It comes across to me that he is not taking enough responsibility or giving much consideration to his actions.
Let me say that I do not subscribe to the following negative accusations that are circling around the traps;
- the way he plays & acts - having the 13 year old girl evicted from the stadium...Whilst I did not agree with his speech in it’s entirety, I truly respected his courage and conviction in using the platform to heighten the awareness and focus on the debilitating indigenous situation in Australia.
- being made Australian of the Year
- Australian of the Year acceptance speech
What I am most interested in right now, is how he responds to the situation and what he makes of it. At the moment he is either deliberately or inadvertently dividing the nation and his advisers are unfortunately providing him with bad advice. This should not be about accusing every fan who boo’s Adam as a racist. We know that’s a ridiculous accusation…
Adam Goodes is obviously a decent person… He has the opportunity to pour water on this drastic, out of control bushfire and reduce it to a great lesson, an incredible gesture of compassion, understanding and empathy.
He will not only become the modern day hero and leader of the very proud indigenous people he represents so passionately but also the entire population of this country, and abroad. People greatly respect humility and taking responsibility – that’s leadership. Adam may not believe he has transgressed by his standards or morals but ... he should say something like the following: ...
Bronwyn Bishop’s expenses scandal just became a leadership issue
Andrew Bolt July 29 2015 (2:27pm)
SPEAKER Bronwyn Bishop’s expenses scandal got even more dangerous for Prime Minister Tony Abbott, after Bishop was attacked by Abbott’s two biggest leadership rivals.
Abbott has stuck firm by Bishop, a close friend and supporter, but rivals Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull today undermined the embattled Speaker, making her resignation more likely.
Adding to the doubt about the Speaker’s survival, even Social Services Minister Scott Morrison, an Abbott loyalist and the most likely successor, said the Speaker was “consulting with colleagues” when asked whether she still had his confidence.
(Read full article here.)
===Abbott has stuck firm by Bishop, a close friend and supporter, but rivals Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull today undermined the embattled Speaker, making her resignation more likely.
Adding to the doubt about the Speaker’s survival, even Social Services Minister Scott Morrison, an Abbott loyalist and the most likely successor, said the Speaker was “consulting with colleagues” when asked whether she still had his confidence.
(Read full article here.)
Allow Jack Black, Morgan Freeman and Queen Noor Al Hussein الملكة نور الحسين to explain why the Iran deal is so important.
Posted by The Huffington Post on Tuesday, 28 July 2015
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This is quite possibly the best video I have ever seen in my entire life! LOL It is SPOT ON!!! I have watched it...
Posted by Laura Parrish - #TNS Mastermind on Friday, 3 October 2014
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The Left blind to slaughter of Christians
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 29, 2014 (7:11pm)
IN the ancient Christian city of Mosul in Iraq the terrorist group Islamic State (formerly ISIL) has painted the Arabic letter “N” on doors of houses to signify that a Christian family lives inside and is in store for special treatment.
Continue reading 'The Left blind to slaughter of Christians'Making highs legal will be followed by health lows
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 29, 2014 (7:10pm)
THE campaign for medical marijuana has been astonishingly effective.
It’s presented as a humanitarian slam dunk, complete with telegenic cancer victims condemned to a life of pain by cruel anti-drug advocates.
Premier Mike Baird and his aptly named deputy Andrew Stoner have given provisional support for legalising the drug for medicinal use, albeit with concerns about safe supply and regulation.
The Greens are behind the push, as is energetic drug liberaliser Dr Alex Wodak, who lurks at the back of press conferences at state parliament.
But no one mentions that the active ingredient of marijuana, THC, is already available on prescription in pill form, Dronabinol, as is the oral whole-leaf cannabis extract, Sativex.
It’s not hard to conclude that the drug lobby is using medical marijuana to play on public sympathy as the first step to decriminalisation of recreational marijuana use.
We are being urged to copy the situation in the United States, where medical marijuana has been legalised in 21 states.
But the Journal of the American Medical Association sounded a warning last month.
Yale University researchers cited “evidence that marijuana exposure is associated with an increased risk of psychotic disorders in vulnerable individuals”, structural brain changes, a decline in IQ, respiratory problems and immune suppression.
They also warn marijuana use will increase, especially among adolescents, as the public assumes the drug is safe because it’s legal.
Marijuana “should be subjected to the same evidence-based review and regulatory oversight as other medications”, not simply approved by opinion polls or politicians, they conclude. Otherwise, we are effectively legalising recreational marijuana use but forcing doctors to act as “gatekeepers”.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore is living in cloud cuckoo land
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 29, 2014 (7:08pm)
CLOVER Moore lives in a fantasy world where people spend their time sitting around cafes drinking chai or riding pushbikes.
Continue reading 'Lord Mayor Clover Moore is living in cloud cuckoo land'FROM KARL MARX TO KIRSTIE ALLEY: AN ACADEMIC’S JOURNEY
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (7:09pm)
“The row can be traced back to 2008 when [Martin] Hirst posted a photo of himself at Karl Marx’s grave at Highgate cemetery in London,” reports the Guardian, “which he later used as a profile picture on his personal Twitter account.
“In April 2014 Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Blair posted the photo on his blog, describing the photo as ‘the finest leftie selfie ever taken’.”
“In April 2014 Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Blair posted the photo on his blog, describing the photo as ‘the finest leftie selfie ever taken’.”
And that’s when the fun began. Please do read on.
SYDNEY’S ART LOAD
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (5:09am)
For most people, finding $9.3 million to fund a bunch of ridiculous artists and their absurd and indulgent creationswould be something of a challenge.
Not for Lord Mayor Clover Moore and Sydney City Council, however, who have access to all of that cash thanks to inner-city ratepayers – many of whom might be wondering now why they didn’t make a greater effort to vote Moore out when they last had the chance.
Clover Moore and some ribbony crap yesterday
Here’s a tougher challenge for Moore and her crew. Beginning in 2017, when Space Noodle, Big Milk Crate and Stupid Bronze Birds are scheduled to be installed, find someone – anyone – who will honestly say that their visit to Sydney was inspired by these examples of alleged art.
Continue reading 'SYDNEY’S ART LOAD'Clover Moore and some ribbony crap yesterday
Here’s a tougher challenge for Moore and her crew. Beginning in 2017, when Space Noodle, Big Milk Crate and Stupid Bronze Birds are scheduled to be installed, find someone – anyone – who will honestly say that their visit to Sydney was inspired by these examples of alleged art.
MINE NOW
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (5:05am)
Former AFP correspondent Amy Coopes joins my unholy legion of the night:
At this rate I’ll soon be the next Papa Lazarou.
At this rate I’ll soon be the next Papa Lazarou.
HE COULDN’T RESIST
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (4:23am)
Labor’s Greg Combet alerts his colleagues to a terrible menace:
The former front bencher who quit following Ms Gillard’s loss to Kevin Rudd in the leadership ballot sounded a clear warning about the role of the Greens in any future carbon pricing debate.“Don’t be seduced by the Greens,” Mr Combet warned …“They voted with Abbott in 2009 to defeat an ETS. We’ve got to stop being seduced by them ...”
Good advice. But if Combet was already aware of the Greens’ idiot allure in 2009, why did he allow himself to be seduced in 2011?
AYATOLLAH’S CANADIAN COMEBACK
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (4:08am)
Mark Steyn: “This is Toronto on a summer weekend in 2014.”
CAR AIMED
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (4:02am)
AGE OF CHAOS
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (2:26am)
Andrew Landeryou charts a photographic meltdown at the Age:
Continue reading 'AGE OF CHAOS'I “smear” an academic by publishing his vile abuse. His colleagues protest
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (6:48pm)
Both laughable and utterly depressing for anyone who looks to universities to pass on the gift of reason:
Fact is, Hirst was not suspended for merely using the word “f..k”. Here are the Hirst tweets I first posted:
Because, I suspect, it wanted to make this a story about the wicked Bolt oppressing an almost blameless academic:
First, I did not “smear” Hirst. I merely repeated exactly the tweets he himself had published. The sin was his, not mine.
Second, to claim Hirst was merely “indulging in the same vile language that [frolls] employed against him” robs him of moral agency, reducing him to a kind of child who should not be blamed if they copy whatever foul example is set by other children. Aren’t academics supposed to lead thought, not follow?
Third, I do not have any “control over Deakin university’s hiring and firing policies”. Deakin University reacted not to what I wrote but what Hirst himself wrote. It made its own judgment as to how well he’d fulfilled his duties and set its own punishment without any suggestion from me.
I still wonder what value Hirst could offer journalism students. Reading the letter of support by his Deakin colleagues, I wonder what they could offer students, too, in any field requiring logic, factual accuracy, leadership and personal responsibility.
This letter is a disgrace.
===A university journalism professor will keep his job after spending three months suspended without pay for describing his alleged Twitter trolls as “stupid as f..k”.The Guardian reporter who wrote those lines has already vastly minimised Hirst’s offence - I suspect in order to invent my own to an audience as far-Left as Hirst himself. Hey, she even falsely claims I am “right-wing”.
Martin Hirst was accused of bringing Deakin university into disrepute after right-wing press columnist, Andrew Bolt, posted a series of the tweets on his blog in the Herald Sun.
Fact is, Hirst was not suspended for merely using the word “f..k”. Here are the Hirst tweets I first posted:
These tweets are astonishingly abusive. They are certainly childish and betray a strident Leftism that would make conservative students reluctant to divulge their own political leanings. In all they shame the university. The next day I posted more Hirst tweets, asking how Hirst was fulfilling the Deakin mission of “driving the digital frontier to enable globally connected education for the jobs of the future and research that makes a difference to the benefit of our students, our staff and the communities we serve”:
How could the Guardian possibly sum up the offence here as a mere use of “f..k”?
Because, I suspect, it wanted to make this a story about the wicked Bolt oppressing an almost blameless academic:
But after a letter to the university authorities signed by 150 academics and PhD students, the case was settled on Wednesday and Hirst reinstated.I am astonished that so many academics and PhD students could be so deceptive and so paranoid.
The row can be traced back to 2008 when Hirst posted a photo of himself at Karl Marx’s grave at Highgate cemetery in London, which he later used as a profile picture on his personal Twitter account.
In April 2014 Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Blair posted the photo on his blog, describing the photo as “the finest leftie selfie ever taken”.
A Twitter user began mocking Hirst for the photo, and a back-and-forth between the troll and Hirst ensued, prompting other people to join in.
In his final response to his alleged Twitter trolls, Hirst adopted a tweet by US actress Kirstie Alley: “… dear stupid as # people who just like to be stupid, go be stupid with other stupid people. #stupidfuckcity”
Bolt then intervened, posting the comments along with a quote from university vice chancellor, Jane den Hollander, which described Deakin as: “A premier university in driving the digital frontier to enable globally connected education for the jobs of the future and research that makes a difference to the benefit of our students, our staff and the communities we serve.”
The university suspended Hirst without pay for serious misconduct, amid claims he had brought the university into disrepute…
But the case was settled after the supporting letter was sent to den Hollander on Tuesday.
“We can understand your concern at Dr Hirst’s actions and the unwelcome attention that Mr Bolt’s blog posts brought to Deakin University,” the letter said. “...We are assured that Dr Hirst has recognised his mistake in engaging with the offensive and anonymous trolls and indulging in the same vile language that they employed against him. We are also pleased to know that Dr Hirst apologised for his actions immediately that Mr Bolt’s attempt to smear him and the University was brought to his attention.” An email also circulated among staff calling on them to sign the letter in support of Hirst, saying; “It is scandalous that Andrew Bolt and the Murdoch press should have such control over Deakin university’s hiring and firing policies.”
First, I did not “smear” Hirst. I merely repeated exactly the tweets he himself had published. The sin was his, not mine.
Second, to claim Hirst was merely “indulging in the same vile language that [frolls] employed against him” robs him of moral agency, reducing him to a kind of child who should not be blamed if they copy whatever foul example is set by other children. Aren’t academics supposed to lead thought, not follow?
Third, I do not have any “control over Deakin university’s hiring and firing policies”. Deakin University reacted not to what I wrote but what Hirst himself wrote. It made its own judgment as to how well he’d fulfilled his duties and set its own punishment without any suggestion from me.
I still wonder what value Hirst could offer journalism students. Reading the letter of support by his Deakin colleagues, I wonder what they could offer students, too, in any field requiring logic, factual accuracy, leadership and personal responsibility.
This letter is a disgrace.
Jackson paid husband $50,000 of once-union money
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (5:41pm)
Extremely ugly:
===WHISTLEBLOWER Kathy Jackson has accused the royal commission into union corruption of “ambushing” her after it was revealed that she paid her former husband $50,000 from union members’ money that she had transferred to a personal bank account she controlled…
Earlier, the counsel assisting the royal commission, Jeremy Stoljar SC, revealed that an investigation of accounts showed Ms Jackson shifted $50,000 from her union’s accounts in 2009 to a Commonwealth Bank account she controlled, and 24 hours later made a withdrawal of the same amount and gave it to her former husband, Jeff Jackson, as a $50,000 bank cheque.
Ms Jackson, whose current partner is Fair Work Commission deputy president Michael Lawler, claimed that the $50,000 sum and funds totalling $284,000 that she transferred to the account between 2004 and 2010 were no longer union members’ money once the money arrived in her bank account. She said she had a general authorisation from her union’s branch committee of management to use the funds at her discretion.
Ms Jackson said her former husband, Jeff Jackson, who continued as secretary of another HSU Victorian branch when the couple separated in 2008, was involved in a union battle with a fellow unionist in 2009, and she believed the money was used for this purpose. During evidence to the commission last month, Ms Jackson could not remember the purpose of the $50,000 withdrawal — but she guessed then that it could have had something to do with Mr Jackson’s HSU No. 1 branch.
Why Germany had to be beaten in World War 1
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (5:20pm)
Merv Bendle on German guilt for World War 1 - and a culture which had to be beaten:
===Too many historians have sought to “normalise” Wilhelmine Germany, ignoring the ideological and cultural pathologies an earlier generation were prepared to confront. Today—July 28, the 100th anniversary of the Great War’s eruption—that combination of pious duty and conscienceless brutality should be kept very much in mind…
Regrettably, more recent discussions of the Great War have tended to ignore the central role played by this ideology and the earlier scholarship that explored it. They overlook the powerful grip it had on the German people and the continuity that existed between it and Nazi ideology, and they avoid facing the dreadful implications for the world if a Germany possessed by that ideology had prevailed in the war. Instead, such histories have tended towards anachronism, projecting backwards into the past an image of the Second Reich not illuminated by the barbarism of the Third Reich, but one informed by the apparent stability and moderation of contemporary Germany. They tend to view the war on the Western Front as a conflict between comparable regimes, and not an epoch-defining struggle between political systems and underlying cultures that were fundamentally divergent and incompatible…
By ignoring the Germanic Ideology and the hold it had on the German people, recent histories of the Great War gloss over the ideological causes of the war and the passions that surrounded its outbreak. They also imply that Hitler and the Nazis were a sui generis product of the war, conjured up out of an historical and cultural vacuum, and not an expression of extremely powerful ideological and cultural forces within German society, which presumably, according to Niall Ferguson’s scenario, would have just evaporated if the Germans had been allowed to win the war and get it all out of their system. And they discount the alternative view, that the Great War was the first explosive martial expression of the Germanic Ideology, and that Hitler, the Nazis, and the Third Reich were manifestations of its resurgence less than a generation later.
Considered in this fashion, the resilience and power of the Germanic Ideology testify to its deep, almost unquenchable roots in German history, whilst also confirming its capacity—first demonstrated in the Great War—to mobilise the German people on a massive scale, later revealing in the Holocaust and the monstrosities in Eastern Europe the absolute extremity of its aims and methods as it raced towards its ultimate Götterdämmerung.
But the union isn’t the Catholic church, so don’t worry
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (9:04am)
Just as well the union wasn’t led by a Catholic bishop or the ABC would be right onto this:
===Union pressure led to the reinstatement of a suspended South Australian government worker who later was charged with molesting at least seven preschoolers in his care…(Thanks to reader Baden.)
[T]he carer, suspended by Families SA last year after a complaint about his interaction with a female toddler, was reinstated to his role and given a pay rise after the state’s influential Public Service Association lobbied the Child Development Department.
Why do journalists treat Hanson-Young seriously?
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (8:56am)
The Australian describes the child-Senator well:
(Thanks to reader John.)
===GREENS senator Sarah Hanson-Young is to border policy what Eddie the Eagle was to ski jumping — failure doesn’t stop her.Perhaps it wouldn’t matter so much if this stupidity weren’t so lethal. The destruction of the Howard Government’s border laws by Labor, with the Greens cheering it on, resulted in 1200 boat people being lured to their deaths at sea.
It is extraordinary, however, that someone so rash, wrong and irresponsible on asylum-seeker issues is the go-to person for many in the media…
India is the world’s largest democracy seeking to overcome poverty and extremism through the rule of law, economic liberalism and multicultural tolerance… Yet this senator suggests that sending Indian asylum-seekers back to India is akin to returning Iraqis to the sectarian bloodlust of the Islamic State-controlled badlands. That this is an insult to India is obvious. That it belittles the horrors in Iraq and Syria is also clear. But it is so obviously ill-informed, immature and unhelpful that it is remarkable media organisations take it seriously. Editors are paid to make judgments and ensure their journalists provide context. To assign merit to these views is to mislead the public — more sensible to highlight their silliness, lest audiences think the media is as unhinged as the senator.
(Thanks to reader John.)
Essential poll: Labor leads just 51 to 49.
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (8:51am)
I said this week’s Newspoll seemed to overstate Labor’s lead at 54 to 46 (2PP).
I suspect that even more strongly now, given the latest Essential Poll shows Labor ahead just 51 to 49.
I suspect the truth is around the middle.
(Thanks to reader Mike of NQ.)
===I suspect that even more strongly now, given the latest Essential Poll shows Labor ahead just 51 to 49.
I suspect the truth is around the middle.
(Thanks to reader Mike of NQ.)
Hamas stops Jews protesting for peace
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (8:40am)
Irony alert:
(Thanks to reader Gab.)
===Several thousand left-wing activists gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday evening, calling for an end to bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and a return to negotiations with the Palestinians.The whole story right there.
Slogans chanted by the protesters included “Stop the war,” “Bring the soldiers back home” and “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies,” Channel 2 reported… The demonstrations were cut short when Hamas unilaterally ended a humanitarian truce with Israel and resumed rocket-fire from Gaza.
(Thanks to reader Gab.)
I wish alarmism was threatened with extinction instead
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (8:14am)
Does anyone seriously believe this kind of alarmism any more?
Hold that alarm.
This stuff is now published by news.com.au?
(Thanks to many readers, including Leigh and Staggering.)
===EARTH’S sixth great extinction event has already begun. Now science is calling for urgent action to prevent life as we know it going the way of the dinosaurs…One third of all life on Earth is now threatened or endangered.In this same story about a “great extinction event” that “has already begun”, these details:
The journal Science reports more than 320 animal and bird species alone have vanished since the 1500s. Most other animal populations from among the more than five million species on our planet have declined by an average 28 per cent.’’So 0.0064 per cent of species have vanished (counting animals and birds only) in the past 600 years. And that’s when colonisers were introducing foxes, cats, rats and other introduced species to new lands.
Hold that alarm.
This stuff is now published by news.com.au?
(Thanks to many readers, including Leigh and Staggering.)
Muslim immigrants make France no longer safe for Jews
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (7:40am)
Mass immigration from the Middle East has turned some streets of France into another Middle Eastern war zone, with Jewish shops torched and police attacked:
UPDATE
In Canada:
===Jews count the damage of a violent anti-Semitism imported to France - as it has been throughout much of the West:
That the Left has helped to incite and legitimise this new Jew-hatred makes it only more frightening. I fear for the future.
UPDATE
In Canada:
“Go back to Germany where they can kill you again.”
Why didn’t the Left get this upset about the 1200 it lured to their deaths?
Andrew Bolt July 30 2014 (7:04am)
Why was the Australian Left near silent on one of these death tolls? Why hysterical about the other?
Gaza:
===Gaza:
More than 1,200 Palestinians have died since the latest escalation in tensions erupted earlier this month.Australia:
Under Labor’s watch we saw about 1200 men, women and children die at sea, drown in un-seaworthy boats coming to Australia.Contrast:
INDONESIAN police are investigating whether an asylum boat that sank 75km off the coast of Java, sending about 200 asylum-seekers to their deaths, was dispatched by an associate of the recently arrested people-smuggling kingpin Sayed Abbas…
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young yesterday stood by her party’s policies. Pressed on whether the Greens accepted responsibility for the tragedy, Senator Hanson-Young said: “Of course not. Tragedies happen, accidents happen.”
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Daddy had better be very good to mummy for a long time .. - ed===
AUNTY IS A CLOSED, LEFT-WING WORKSHOP
Don’t worry about Fairfax, that irrelevant organisation is slowly pulling its own plug. But the ABC is government-funded and its charter is to cater for a range of views.
If the ABC was a private enterprise venture it would be insolvent within a week. It has no interest in ratings (as ratings clearly show) but its programming has been excellent and many, butnot enough, enjoy its non-commercial basis.
Those who wish to see the abolition of “Aunty” will be disappointed. Those who wish to see its reformation have reason to be hopeful because it has clearly overstepped the mark of late.
There is no doubting its proclivity for Left-wing bias, but that’s not unusual, all developed nations have their “government” media outlets and all are bereft of a conservative view.
Commercial stations are forced, via advertising, to cater for a broad audience.
The ABC’s annual budget of $1.2 billion in taxpayer funds should rightly be used to appeal to a cross section of its paying supporters.
Of course the ABC doesn’t even aspire to that, and the reason is that it simply doesn’t have to.
SBS’s charter was to cater for the ethnic viewer and that seems to have got lost along the way, except for its addiction to soccer.
SBS has a modicum of commercials and many see the answer to the ABC’s far Left self-indulgence is to convert it to a commercial licence or combine it with SBS. This won’t happen.
As daily newspapers rapidly disintegrate into on-line news services, so too will free-to-air channels eventually succumb to pay TV.
It would be intolerable to further split diminishing advertising dollars available to the free-to-air channels by creating more commercial licences.
So, how can the people’s ABC be reformed? It clearly can’t be allowed to continue as it has been.
It can only be reformed from the top.
Jim Spigelman, the current ABC Chairman, is an ALP appointment and a former Senior Advisor and Principal Private Secretary to Gough Whitlam. He is of the Left.
These sort of blatantly political appointments from either side of politics are damaging Aunty in the long run.
When Abbott is elected he will no doubt make some changes but the effects will be generational as the acolyte appointees of Spigelman are already firmly ensconced in a middle management system that has employed those who choose what we see and those who present it to us.
The ABC is in dire need of jolting back to the centre and if Abbott could he would take the knife to middle management too. But he can't do that.
So, we will need to endure the rabid Left until those changes take effect.
Unfortunately, by the time the ABC behemoth is restored to a political centre it will be time to vote in another Labor Government.
It's time to rid government from our government station.
Don’t worry about Fairfax, that irrelevant organisation is slowly pulling its own plug. But the ABC is government-funded and its charter is to cater for a range of views.
If the ABC was a private enterprise venture it would be insolvent within a week. It has no interest in ratings (as ratings clearly show) but its programming has been excellent and many, butnot enough, enjoy its non-commercial basis.
Those who wish to see the abolition of “Aunty” will be disappointed. Those who wish to see its reformation have reason to be hopeful because it has clearly overstepped the mark of late.
There is no doubting its proclivity for Left-wing bias, but that’s not unusual, all developed nations have their “government” media outlets and all are bereft of a conservative view.
Commercial stations are forced, via advertising, to cater for a broad audience.
The ABC’s annual budget of $1.2 billion in taxpayer funds should rightly be used to appeal to a cross section of its paying supporters.
Of course the ABC doesn’t even aspire to that, and the reason is that it simply doesn’t have to.
SBS’s charter was to cater for the ethnic viewer and that seems to have got lost along the way, except for its addiction to soccer.
SBS has a modicum of commercials and many see the answer to the ABC’s far Left self-indulgence is to convert it to a commercial licence or combine it with SBS. This won’t happen.
As daily newspapers rapidly disintegrate into on-line news services, so too will free-to-air channels eventually succumb to pay TV.
It would be intolerable to further split diminishing advertising dollars available to the free-to-air channels by creating more commercial licences.
So, how can the people’s ABC be reformed? It clearly can’t be allowed to continue as it has been.
It can only be reformed from the top.
Jim Spigelman, the current ABC Chairman, is an ALP appointment and a former Senior Advisor and Principal Private Secretary to Gough Whitlam. He is of the Left.
These sort of blatantly political appointments from either side of politics are damaging Aunty in the long run.
When Abbott is elected he will no doubt make some changes but the effects will be generational as the acolyte appointees of Spigelman are already firmly ensconced in a middle management system that has employed those who choose what we see and those who present it to us.
The ABC is in dire need of jolting back to the centre and if Abbott could he would take the knife to middle management too. But he can't do that.
So, we will need to endure the rabid Left until those changes take effect.
Unfortunately, by the time the ABC behemoth is restored to a political centre it will be time to vote in another Labor Government.
It's time to rid government from our government station.
Tony Abbott
Earlier today I committed the Coalition to providing for the fair indexation of military superannuation pensions.
The Coalition will keep faith with the 57,000 recipients of military superannuation pensions by providing fair indexation.
You can read our policy here: http://lbr.al/defsup
===
Caroline Glick
Bibi - Shame on you!
Below is a link to an oped written by Adi Moses, a victim of terror. Her pregnant mother and little brother were murdered. She was critically wounded. And to make Obama and Kerry happy, Bibi decided to release their murderers, along with another 103 murderers. Just to make Obama and Kerry happy.
You think they'll bomb Iran now?
Bibi, you are a disgrace to your people, and to the memory of your brother. Shame on you.
I'm following this post, not 'liking' it. I am reminded of how JFK was paired with a 'partner in peace' with Khrushchev. Khrushchev negotiated with JFK and backed down over the Cuban Missile crisis. Thing was, Khrushchev also negotiated missiles out of Turkey. Not being able to discuss about Turkey, Khrushchev looked weak and was rolled by the monster Breshnev. I don't know why Netanyahu has done what he has done, it cannot have a good excuse. But I know it is Obama's fault and there is none to replace Netanyahu that is better for Israel atm. - ed
===
Institute of Public Affairs
IPA like to excuse their historical preference for the ALP with such empty rhetoric. The fact is that policy influences industry profoundly, and can, as the ALP have demonstrated time and again, wreck a lot. - ed
===
You can tell the size of our God by looking at the size of our worry list. The longer our list, the smaller our God
===Pastor Rick Warren
When life doesn't make sense, an explanation doesn't ease your pain; the presence of God does.
===I would hope next time Pope Francis offers to meet with the press, they would take to heart his message about fearless service and report to their readers what he actually said, rather than what they wish they had heard.
===
Essentially, nobody likes being lectured about how racist they are. That quaint notion of national sovereignty, however unfashionable among the inner-city set, still holds sway in many parts of the country.>
===
Terrorism has led to sad and inglorious appeasement. And because the Palestinian leadership has always used terrorism as the tactic of first resort, their cause has received worldwide recognition.
===
G Dan Mitchell
In reply to (yet another) example of asking the false question about so-called post-processing, I wrote:
"It is time to stop being defensive about so-called "processing" of photographs. It is simply a bizarre and unsupportable myth that great photographs reflect reality (in fact, every photograph lies!) or are produced simply by making brilliant decisions about what to point that camera at and when. To suggest that great photography comes only from careful capture - without denying the importance of that part of the process - is akin to suggesting that great cooking is purely the result of great farming."
===Iron oxide isn't rare either - ed
===
- 634 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Byzantine forces under Theodore were defeated by the Rashidun Caliphate near Beit Shemesh in modern Israel.
- 1676 – Virginia colonist Nathaniel Bacon and his makeshift army issued a Declaration of the People of Virginia, instigating a rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
- 1811 – Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (pictured), an early leader of the Mexican War of Independence, was executed by Spanish authorities.
- 1930 – Uruguay defeated Argentina, 4–2, in front of their home crowd at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo to win the first Football World Cup.
- 2012 – The largest power outage in history occurred across 22 Indian states, affecting over 620 million people, or about 9% of the world's population.
- 762 – Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.
- 1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.
- 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Hondurasduring his fourth voyage.
- 1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
- 1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.
- 1626 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills about 10,000 people.
- 1635 – Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army.
- 1656 – Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
- 1676 – Nathaniel Bacon issues the "Declaration of the People of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
- 1729 – Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland.
- 1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.
- 1756 – In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
- 1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico.
- 1825 – Malden Island is discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron.
- 1859 – First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
- 1863 – American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginiaby exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
- 1865 – The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time.
- 1866 – Armed Confederate veterans in New Orleans riot against a meeting of Radical Republicans, killing 48 people and injuring another 100.
- 1871 – The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.
- 1912 – Japan's Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.
- 1916 – Black Tom Island explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey.
- 1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup.
- 1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.
- 1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
- 1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we trustas the U.S. national motto.
- 1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world, is officially opened.
- 1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
- 1966 – England defeats West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.
- 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.
- 1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162.
- 1974 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 1974 – Six Canadian Army cadets are killed and fifty-four are injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB ValcartierCadet Camp.
- 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again.
- 1978 – The 730 (transport), Okinawa Prefecture changes its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.
- 1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.
- 1980 – Israel's Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law
- 1990 – George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankeesfor hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield.
- 2003 – In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
- 2006 – The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
- 2012 – A train fire kills 32 passengers and injures 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India.
- 2012 – A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India.
- 2014 – One hundred and fifty people are trapped after a landslide in the village of Ambe in the Pune district in India's Maharashtra state with 20 killed.
- 1470 – Hongzhi, emperor of the Ming dynasty (d. 1505)
- 1511 – Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter, historian, and architect (d. 1574)
- 1549 – Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1609)
- 1641 – Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (d. 1673)
- 1751 – Maria Anna Mozart, Austrian pianist (d. 1829)
- 1763 – Samuel Rogers, English poet and art collector (d. 1855)
- 1809 – Charles Chiniquy, Canadian-American priest and theologian (d. 1899)
- 1818 – Emily Brontë, English author and poet (d. 1848)
- 1818 – Jan Heemskerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, 16th and 19th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1897)
- 1825 – Chaim Aronson, Lithuanian engineer and author (d. 1893)
- 1832 – George Lemuel Woods, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 3rd Governor of Oregon (d. 1890)
- 1855 – Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, German-Swiss businessman (d. 1919)
- 1857 – Thorstein Veblen, American economist and sociologist (d. 1929)
- 1859 – Henry Simpson Lunn, English minister and humanitarian, founded Lunn Poly (d. 1939)
- 1862 – Nikolai Yudenich, Russian general (d. 1933)
- 1863 – Henry Ford, American engineer and businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (d. 1947)
- 1872 – Princess Clémentine of Belgium (d. 1955)
- 1881 – Smedley Butler, American general, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1940)
- 1890 – Casey Stengel, American baseball player and manager (d. 1975)
- 1893 – Fatima Jinnah, Pakistani dentist and politician (d. 1967)
- 1898 – Henry Moore, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 1986)
- 1899 – Gerald Moore, English pianist (d. 1987)
- 1901 – Alfred Lépine, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1955)
- 1904 – Salvador Novo, Mexican poet and playwright (d. 1974)
- 1909 – C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian and author (d. 1993)
- 1910 – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-American photographer (d. 2003)
- 1913 – Lou Darvas, American soldier and cartoonist (d. 1987)
- 1914 – Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin, Irish journalist and author, 6th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1999)
- 1916 – Dick Wilson, English-American actor (d. 2007)
- 1920 – Walter Schuck, German lieutenant and pilot (d. 2015)
- 1921 – Grant Johannesen, American pianist and educator (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Henry W. Bloch, American banker and businessman, co-founded H&R Block
- 1925 – Stan Stennett, Welsh actor and trumpet player (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Alexander Trocchi, Scottish author and poet (d. 1984)
- 1927 – Richard Johnson, English actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1927 – Pete Schoening, American mountaineer (d. 2004)
- 1927 – Victor Wong, American actor (d. 2001)
- 1928 – Eunice Muñoz, Portuguese actress
- 1928 – Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Sid Krofft, Canadian-American puppeteer and producer
- 1931 – Dominique Lapierre, French historian and author
- 1933 – Edd Byrnes, American actor
- 1933 – Ben Piazza, American actor (d. 1991)
- 1934 – Bud Selig, American businessman
- 1936 – Buddy Guy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1936 – Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz
- 1938 – Hervé de Charette, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1938 – Terry O'Neill, English photographer
- 1939 – Peter Bogdanovich, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1939 – Eleanor Smeal, American activist, founded the Feminist Majority Foundation
- 1940 – Patricia Schroeder, American lawyer and politician
- 1940 – Clive Sinclair, English businessman, founded Sinclair Radionics and Sinclair Research
- 1941 – Paul Anka, Canadian singer-songwriter and actor
- 1942 – Pollyanna Pickering, English environmentalist and painter
- 1943 – Henri-François Gautrin, Canadian physicist and politician
- 1944 – Gerry Birrell, Scottish race car driver (d. 1973)
- 1944 – Peter Bottomley, English politician
- 1944 – Frances de la Tour, English actress
- 1945 – Patrick Modiano, French author and screenwriter, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1945 – David Sanborn, American saxophonist and composer
- 1946 – Neil Bonnett, American race car driver, sportscaster, and actor (d. 1994)
- 1946 – Jeffrey Hammond, English bass player (Jethro Tull)
- 1947 – William Atherton, American actor and producer
- 1947 – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, French virologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1947 – Jonathan Mann, American physician and author (d. 1998)
- 1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California
- 1948 – John Briscoe, South African-American epidemiologist, engineer, and academic (d. 2014)
- 1948 – Billy Paultz, American basketball player
- 1948 – Jean Reno, Moroccan-French actor
- 1948 – Otis Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1948 – Julia Tsenova, Bulgarian pianist and composer (d. 2010)
- 1949 – Duck Baker, American guitarist
- 1949 – Sonia Proudman, English lawyer and judge
- 1950 – Harriet Harman, English lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales
- 1951 – Alan Kourie, South African cricketer
- 1951 – Gerry Judah, Indian-English painter and sculptor
- 1952 – Stephen Blackmore, English botanist and author
- 1954 – Ken Olin, American actor, director, and producer
- 1955 – Rat Scabies, English drummer and producer (The Damned and Vicious White Kids)
- 1955 – Christopher Warren-Green, English violinist and conductor
- 1956 – Delta Burke, American actress
- 1956 – Réal Cloutier, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Anita Hill, American lawyer and academic
- 1956 – Soraida Martinez, American painter and educator
- 1957 – Antonio Adamo, Italian director and cinematographer
- 1957 – Bill Cartwright, American basketball player and coach
- 1957 – Clint Hurdle, American baseball player and manager
- 1957 – Nery Pumpido, Argentinian footballer, coach, and manager
- 1957 – Leon Wesley Walls, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist
- 1958 – Kate Bush, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1958 – Neal McCoy, American singer-songwriter
- 1958 – Daley Thompson, English decathlete and trainer
- 1960 – Jennifer Barnes, American-English musicologist and academic
- 1960 – Richard Linklater, American director and screenwriter
- 1960 – Jeff Rudom, American basketball player and actor (d. 2011)
- 1961 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor and producer
- 1962 – Alton Brown, American chef, author, and producer
- 1962 – Jay Feaster, American ice hockey player and manager
- 1962 – Yakub Memon, Indian accountant and terrorist (d. 2015)
- 1963 – Peter Bowler, English-Australian cricketer
- 1963 – Lisa Kudrow, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1963 – Chris Mullin, American basketball player and manager
- 1964 – Ron Block, American singer-songwriter and banjo player
- 1964 – Vivica A. Fox, American actress and producer
- 1964 – Alek Keshishian, Lebanese-American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Jürgen Klinsmann, German footballer and manager
- 1964 – Laine Randjärv, Estonian lawyer and politician, 6th Estonian Minister of Culture
- 1965 – Tim Munton, English cricketer
- 1966 – Kerry Fox, New Zealand actress and screenwriter
- 1966 – Craig Gannon, English guitarist and songwriter (The Smiths, The Bluebells, and The Adult Net)
- 1966 – Allan Langer, Australian rugby player and coach
- 1968 – Terry Crews, American football player and actor
- 1968 – Robert Korzeniowski, Polish race walker and coach
- 1968 – Sean Moore, Welsh drummer and songwriter (Manic Street Preachers)
- 1969 – Simon Baker, Australian actor, director, and producer
- 1969 – Errol Stewart, South African cricketer and lawyer
- 1970 – Alun Cairns, Welsh businessman and politician
- 1970 – Dean Edwards, American comedian, actor, and singer
- 1970 – Christopher Nolan, English-American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Elvis Crespo, American-Puerto Rican singer (Grupo Manía)
- 1971 – Tom Green, Canadian comedian, actor, and rapper
- 1971 – Sagi Kalev, Israeli-American bodybuilder and model
- 1971 – Christine Taylor, American actress
- 1972 – Jim McIlvaine, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1973 – Kenton Cool, English mountaineer
- 1973 – Ümit Davala, Turkish footballer and manager
- 1973 – Anastasios Katsabis, Greek footballer
- 1973 – Markus Näslund, Swedish ice hockey player and manager
- 1973 – Sonu Nigam, Indian playback singer and actor
- 1973 – Clementa C. Pinckney, American minister and politician (d. 2015)
- 1974 – Radostin Kishishev, Bulgarian footballer and manager
- 1974 – Jason Robinson, English rugby player and coach
- 1974 – Hilary Swank, American actress and producer
- 1975 – Graham Nicholls, English author and activist
- 1975 – Kate Starbird, American basketball player and computer scientist
- 1977 – Diana Bolocco, Chilean model and journalist Miss Universe 1987
- 1977 – Misty May-Treanor, American volleyball player and coach
- 1977 – Jaime Pressly, American actress
- 1977 – Bootsy Thornton, American basketball player
- 1977 – Ian Watkins, Welsh singer-songwriter (Lostprophets and Public Disturbance)
- 1979 – Carlos Arroyo, Puerto Rican basketball player and singer
- 1979 – Chad Keegan, South African cricketer and coach
- 1979 – Graeme McDowell, Northern Irish golfer
- 1979 – Maya Nasser, Syrian journalist (d. 2012)
- 1980 – Justin Rose, South African-English golfer
- 1981 – Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer
- 1981 – Juan Smith, South African rugby player
- 1981 – Indrek Turi, Estonian decathlete
- 1982 – Jehad Al-Hussain, Syrian footballer
- 1982 – James Anderson, English cricketer
- 1983 – Seán Dillon, Irish footballer
- 1984 – Marko Asmer, Estonian race car driver
- 1984 – Gabrielle Christian, American actress and singer
- 1984 – Kevin Pittsnogle, American basketball player
- 1985 – Aml Ameen, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1985 – Daniel Fredheim Holm, Norwegian footballer
- 1985 – Matthew Scott, Australian rugby player
- 1986 – Tiago Alencar, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – William Zillman, Australian rugby player
- 1987 – Anton Fink, German footballer
- 1987 – Sam Saunders, American golfer
- 1989 – Aleix Espargaró, Spanish motorcycle racer
- 1989 – Wayne Parnell, South African cricketer
- 1990 – Eliot Sumner, Italian-English singer-songwriter
- 1990 – Chris Maxwell, Welsh footballer
- 1991 – Jiyul, South Korean singer and actress (Dal Shabet)
- 1991 – Diana Vickers, English singer-songwriter and actress
- 1992 – Hannah Cockroft, English wheelchair racer
- 1993 – Katie Cecil, American singer, guitarist, and actress (KSM)
- 1993 – Miho Miyazaki, Japanese singer and actress (AKB48)
- 1993 – Margarida Moura, Portuguese tennis player
- 1996 – Nina Stojanović, Serbian tennis player
Births[edit]
- 578 – Jacob Baradaeus, Greek bishop
- 579 – Pope Benedict I
- 734 – Tatwine, English archbishop (b. 670)
- 1516 – Johann V of Nassau-Vianden-Dietz (b. 1455)
- 1540 – Thomas Abel, English priest and martyr (b. 1497)
- 1540 – Robert Barnes, English martyr and reformer (b. 1495)
- 1550 – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1505)
- 1652 – Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours (b. 1624)
- 1680 – Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, Irish admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1634)
- 1683 – Maria Theresa of Spain (b. 1638)
- 1691 – Daniel Georg Morhof, German scholar and academic (b. 1639)
- 1718 – William Penn, English businessman and philosopher, founded the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
- 1771 – Thomas Gray, English poet (b. 1716)
- 1789 – Giovanna Bonanno, Italian criminal (b. 1713)
- 1811 – Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Mexican priest and soldier (b. 1753)
- 1875 – George Pickett, American general (b. 1825)
- 1889 – Charlie Absolom, England cricketer (b. 1846)
- 1898 – Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of Germany (b. 1815)
- 1900 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1844)
- 1912 – Emperor Meiji of Japan (b. 1852)
- 1918 – Joyce Kilmer, American soldier, journalist, and poet (b. 1886)
- 1920 – Albert Gustaf Dahlman, Swedish executioner (b. 1848)
- 1930 – Joan Gamper, Swiss-Spanish footballer and businessman, founded FC Barcelona (b. 1877)
- 1938 – John Derbyshire, English swimmer and water polo player (b. 1878)
- 1941 – Hugo Celmiņš, Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia (b. 1877)
- 1947 – Joseph Cook, English-Australian miner and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1860)
- 1965 – Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Japanese author and playwright (b. 1886)
- 1970 – Walter Murdoch, Scottish-Australian academic (b. 1874)
- 1970 – George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor and composer (b. 1897)
- 1975 – James Blish, American author and critic (b. 1921)
- 1977 – Emory Holloway, American scholar, author, and educator (b. 1885)
- 1983 – Howard Dietz, American songwriter and publicist (b. 1896)
- 1983 – Lynn Fontanne, English-American actress (b. 1887)
- 1985 – Julia Robinson, American mathematician and theorist (b. 1919)
- 1989 – Lane Frost, American bull rider (b. 1963)
- 1992 – Brenda Marshall, Filipino-American actress and singer (b. 1915)
- 1992 – Joe Shuster, Canadian-American illustrator, co-created Superman (b. 1914)
- 1994 – Ryszard Riedel, Polish singer-songwriter (Dżem) (b. 1956)
- 1996 – Claudette Colbert, French-American actress and singer (b. 1903)
- 1996 – Magda Schneider, German actress and singer (b. 1909)
- 1997 – Bảo Đại, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1913)
- 1998 – Jorge Russek, Mexican actor (b. 1932)
- 1998 – Buffalo Bob Smith, American television host (b. 1917)
- 2001 – Anton Schwarzkopf, German engineer (b. 1924)
- 2003 – Steve Hislop, Scottish motorcycle racer (b. 1962)
- 2003 – Sam Phillips, American record producer, founded Sun Records (b. 1923)
- 2004 – Andre Noble, Canadian actor (b. 1979)
- 2005 – Ray Cunningham, American baseball player (b. 1905)
- 2005 – John Garang, Sudanese colonel and politician, 6th President of South Sudan (b. 1945)
- 2006 – Duygu Asena, Turkish journalist and author(b. 1946)
- 2006 – Al Balding, Canadian golfer (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Murray Bookchin, American philosopher and author (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Anthony Galla-Rini, American accordion player and composer (b. 1904)
- 2006 – Akbar Mohammadi, Iranian activist (b. 1972)
- 2007 – Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1912)
- 2007 – Teoctist Arăpașu, Romanian patriarch (b. 1915)
- 2007 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1918)
- 2007 – Bill Walsh, American football player and coach (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Anne Armstrong, American businesswoman and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (b. 1927)
- 2009 – Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian militant leader, founded Boko Haram (b. 1970)
- 2009 – Peter Zadek, German director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Bob Peterson, American basketball player (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Maeve Binchy, Irish author, playwright, and journalist (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Bill Doss, American singer and guitarist (The Olivia Tremor Control, The Apples in Stereo, and The Sunshine Fix) (b. 1968)
- 2012 – Stig Ossian Ericson, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Les Green, English footballer and manager (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Jonathan Hardy, New Zealand-Australian actor and screenwriter (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Bill Kitchen, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1960)
- 2012 – Mary Louise Rasmuson, American colonel (b. 1911)
- 2013 – Cecil Alexander, American architect, designed the State of Georgia Building (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Berthold Beitz, German businessman (b. 1913)
- 2013 – Robert Neelly Bellah, American sociologist and author (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Harry F. Byrd, Jr., American lieutenant, publisher, and politician (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Ossie Schectman, American basketball player (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Benjamin Walker, Indian-English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1913)
- 2014 – Robert Drew, American director and producer (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Harun Farocki, German director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1944)
- 2014 – Julio Grondona, Argentinian businessman (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Peter Hall, English geographer, author, and academic (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Dick Smith, American make-up artist (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Dick Wagner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Frost) (b. 1942)
- 2015 – Lynn Anderson, American singer (b. 1947)
- 2015 – Endel Lippmaa, Estonian physicist (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Francis Paul Prucha, American historian and academic (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Alena Vrzáňová, Czech figure skater (b. 1931)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Feast of the Throne (Morocco)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Vanuatu from the United Kingdom and France in 1980.
- International Day of Friendship (international), and its related observances:
- Martyrs Day (South Sudan)
Holidays and observances[edit]
“I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.” Psalm 119:93 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Nevertheless I am continually with thee."Psalm 73:23
"Nevertheless,"--As if, notwithstanding all the foolishness and ignorance which David had just been confessing to God, not one atom the less was it true and certain that David was saved and accepted, and that the blessing of being constantly in God's presence was undoubtedly his. Fully conscious of his own lost estate, and of the deceitfulness and vileness of his nature, yet, by a glorious outburst of faith, he sings "nevertheless I am continually with thee." Believer, you are forced to enter into Asaph's confession and acknowledgment, endeavour in like spirit to say "nevertheless, since I belong to Christ I am continually with God!" By this is meant continually upon his mind, he is always thinking of me for my good. Continually before his eye;--the eye of the Lord never sleepeth, but is perpetually watching over my welfare. Continually in his hand, so that none shall be able to pluck me thence. Continually on his heart, worn there as a memorial, even as the high priest bore the names of the twelve tribes upon his heart forever. Thou always thinkest of me, O God. The bowels of thy love continually yearn towards me. Thou art always making providence work for my good. Thou hast set me as a signet upon thine arm; thy love is strong as death, many waters cannot quench it; neither can the floods drown it. Surprising grace! Thou seest me in Christ, and though in myself abhorred, thou beholdest me as wearing Christ's garments, and washed in his blood, and thus I stand accepted in thy presence. I am thus continually in thy favour--"continually with thee." Here is comfort for the tried and afflicted soul; vexed with the tempest within--look at the calm without. "Nevertheless"--O say it in thy heart, and take the peace it gives. "Nevertheless I am continually with thee."
Evening
"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me."John 6:37
This declaration involves the doctrine of election: there are some whom the Father gave to Christ. It involves the doctrine of effectual calling: these who are given must and shall come; however stoutly they may set themselves against it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light. It teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith; for even those who are given to Christ are not saved except they come to Jesus. Even they must come, for there is no other way to heaven but by the door, Christ Jesus. All that the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to him, therefore none can come to heaven except they come to Christ.
Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the words "shall come." He does not say they have power to come, nor they may come if they will, but they "shall come." The Lord Jesus doth by his messengers, his word, and his Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they may eat of his marriage supper; and this he does, not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of his grace. I may exercise power over another man's will, and yet that other man's will may be perfectly free, because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of his Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to his government, subdued by sovereign love. But how shall those be known whom God hath chosen? By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon him as all their salvation and all their desire. Reader, have you thus come to Jesus?
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Today's reading: Psalm 49-50, Romans 1 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 49-50
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 Hear this, all you peoples;
listen, all who live in this world,
2 both low and high,
rich and poor alike:
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom;
the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb;
with the harp I will expound my riddle:
5 Why should I fear when evil days come,listen, all who live in this world,
2 both low and high,
rich and poor alike:
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom;
the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb;
with the harp I will expound my riddle:
when wicked deceivers surround me--
6 those who trust in their wealth
and boast of their great riches?
Today's New Testament reading: Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ....
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Esau
[Ē'sôu] - hairy. The eldest son of Isaac and twin brother of Jacob by Rebekah. His name is associated with his appearance at birth (Gen. 25:25).
[Ē'sôu] - hairy. The eldest son of Isaac and twin brother of Jacob by Rebekah. His name is associated with his appearance at birth (Gen. 25:25).
The Man Who Bartered His Birthright
This cunning hunter and man of the field (Gen. 25:27 ) supplies us with one of the tragic biographies among the men of the Bible. He is prominent in God's portrait gallery as the man rejected of God because he had sold his birthright. Let us briefly sketch what Scripture records of "Esau, who is Edom." Had he retained his birthright we might have read "Esau, who is Israel." The wrong act, however, left a black mark upon his future history.
He was a profane person. What a terrible epitome! It is like a label fastened to Esau as he disappears from Bible history (Heb. 12:16 ). The work "profane" does not mean that he delighted in profanity, but that he was a man of the earth who lived for worldly things and nothing else. With many good qualities, Esau was of the earth, earthy.
He sold his birthright . As the elder son of his father, even although he came from the womb only a half-hour before his twin brother, Jacob, he was entitled by law and custom to receive twice as much as a younger son's portion, and to be regarded in due time as the head of the family. But we all know the story of how, for a mess of pottage, he bartered away his spiritual and temporal rights. The record says that Esau sold his birthright because he "despised" it. How easily some men part with the rich blessings they are heirs to!
His was a fruitless repentance . Esau lifted up his voice and cried, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" But his repentant prayer was directed, not to God, but to Isaac. In the whole of Genesis Esau does not mention the name of God. Had Esau's repentance been Godward, what a different story we would have had! Esau only repented of his bargain, not ofhis sin. Such a bargain turned out to be a bad one, and he was sorry for it. Further, all Esau sought was restitution, not pardon. He had lost one blessing, and sought another.
Under grace the penitent sinner who has wasted his substance has a Saviour to turn to, and repenting of his sin, finds mercy. Esau, even with his tears, found no mercy. God was not in his thoughts, and he had therefore to abide by the consequences of what he had brought upon himself. Yet he learned his lesson, for Esau called his firstborn Eliphaz, "strength of God," and his second son Reuel, "joy of God."
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