Today Cam's article "Misguided, not terrorists" quotes Seyit "It is time that we take a responsible approach to the issue and reduce the risk of feeding into the right-wing and racist elements in society, which has seen a sudden increase in supporters in the past two years in Australia"
The issue of todays's article is related to a refugee who burned a bank in Springvale, critically injuring people as he set himself on fire after not getting welfare benefits he felt entitled to. Terrorism or not, is it acceptable behaviour for the faith? It harms Islamic Australian relations when entitlement trumps reason and the safety of innocent others. It brings Islam into disrepute.
IPA Review (Nov 2016) features a Georgina Downer article “The High Cost of Populism” on Populist governments threatening trade and prosperity. Downer naively compares President elect Trump’s rhetoric with Pauline Hanson’s policies and makes wrong conclusions. Populism does threaten prosperity, as ALP leader Shorten has demonstrated with over three years of preventing necessary cuts to spending. There is no benefit to Australia for Shorten to do so. The benefit to Shorten is that an ABCC does not examine his past union dealings. Australia is paying a high price to get an ABCC because of Shorten’s opposition and Nick Xenophon Party’s control of the senate. Trump is promising something different to Hanson. Trump is promising to tear up bad deals and replace them with good deals. With good deals everyone wins. With bad deals nobody does. NAFTA is a dog’s breakfast thanks to the ‘leadership’ of Obama. By way of contrast, Hanson is hostile to foreign trade. Hanson and Trump do not compare. Australia wants to export sugar. US farmers want to export sugar too. There is room for both with the right deal.
=== from 2015 ===
The person who shot up an abortion clinic in the US may call themselves a Christian, but they have not served Christ. It isn't up to the servant to make their master's will plain. They might try to. Good intentions aren't the same as service. Some abortions are necessary for survival of the mother. They shouldn't be done lightly. The mother must exercise her conscience, not the state. And not some third party vigilante. By killing a policeman and two others the gunman has broken an old testament commandment that Jesus surpassed. Jesus allows righteousness, which means the old Law can be broken for the right reasons. But this is not right. Even an idiot can be saved by becoming a Christian. But this is not that. It is as wrong as a jihadi engaged in immoral behaviour to be a terrorist. Christians, that are soldiers, can kill and still be faithful to God. But this is not that.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
The abuses of the left with respect to truth are long-standing. Medical grade radioactive isotopes are routinely injected into patients to diagnose cancer. Much lower, safer doses are used by mining the same way to track underground liquids and gasses too. And the anti-mining lobby learns of it and hysterically reports it to left wing journalists who report it without balance. The radioactive isotopes used in mining, and fracking, are the same, but weaker, than those used in medicine. They are no threat to the environment. But then the issue of radiation has been overstated since Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. The hysterics are now claiming milk bottle lids are contaminated waste. Not because of radiation, but even so, the label is misleading and hysterical without being funny.
There is a need to cut and control spending. It is untenable that our children be forced to live worse than we do, to pay for our comforts. Or worse, to be indebted to people who do not celebrate freedom, liberty or equality. Yet the ALP in Australia, and Democrats in the US threaten exactly that. The Australian federal budget cuts were modest, but they must get bigger the longer they are delayed. Meanwhile, extremist leftwing organisations like the ABC, challenged to cut their fingernails with 5%, are cutting off their own limbs and refusing to do core services. Tonight, the second last 7:30 report in NSW was dedicated to opposing Liberal government policy on selling assets to pay for infrastructure. But that is what good government does. It is not the role of good government to maintain pricey services and not build infrastructure.
Frightbats, proud of their efforts to hurt and abuse decent people in triumph of the left, have a party in which they claim to drink the tears of some of their victims. Poet Ben Pobjie defends his abuse of Sean Abbott and Tony Abbott, but fails to account for it. Such rudeness is inexcusable, but mean and small. Meanwhile in the US the meme of white racism is resulting in riots and death. The abuses of the left are not responsible behaviour.
A new report is out describing how Clive Palmer initiated his own political demise by attacking China, apparently illegally. Two jihadist males being tried in an Australian Court refuse to stand for the judge. This threatens many and suggests intimidation. Before it goes much further, contempt of court rulings should settle it. It works with non jihadists too.
The tragic death of Phil Hughes has not been publicly resolved yet. The public will not move on until they are allowed. But a tragic death like this, lamentable and sad, is also a cultural asset. Twelve cricketers have died as a result of their play on the field. Including the Prince of Wales in 1751.
There is a need to cut and control spending. It is untenable that our children be forced to live worse than we do, to pay for our comforts. Or worse, to be indebted to people who do not celebrate freedom, liberty or equality. Yet the ALP in Australia, and Democrats in the US threaten exactly that. The Australian federal budget cuts were modest, but they must get bigger the longer they are delayed. Meanwhile, extremist leftwing organisations like the ABC, challenged to cut their fingernails with 5%, are cutting off their own limbs and refusing to do core services. Tonight, the second last 7:30 report in NSW was dedicated to opposing Liberal government policy on selling assets to pay for infrastructure. But that is what good government does. It is not the role of good government to maintain pricey services and not build infrastructure.
Frightbats, proud of their efforts to hurt and abuse decent people in triumph of the left, have a party in which they claim to drink the tears of some of their victims. Poet Ben Pobjie defends his abuse of Sean Abbott and Tony Abbott, but fails to account for it. Such rudeness is inexcusable, but mean and small. Meanwhile in the US the meme of white racism is resulting in riots and death. The abuses of the left are not responsible behaviour.
A new report is out describing how Clive Palmer initiated his own political demise by attacking China, apparently illegally. Two jihadist males being tried in an Australian Court refuse to stand for the judge. This threatens many and suggests intimidation. Before it goes much further, contempt of court rulings should settle it. It works with non jihadists too.
The tragic death of Phil Hughes has not been publicly resolved yet. The public will not move on until they are allowed. But a tragic death like this, lamentable and sad, is also a cultural asset. Twelve cricketers have died as a result of their play on the field. Including the Prince of Wales in 1751.
The Prince of Wales' epigram (quoted by William Makepeace Thackeray, "Four Georges"):
-
- "Here lies poor Fred who was alive and is dead,
- Had it been his father I had much rather,
- Had it been his sister nobody would have missed her,
- Had it been his brother, still better than another,
- Had it been the whole generation, so much better for the nation,
- But since it is Fred who was alive and is dead,
- There is no more to be said!"
From 2013
The left are crowing at being able to drown people who are desperate and poor. They call it compassion. In order to achieve their aim, they needed to attack Australia's foreign relations with Indonesia and China. A highly partisan ABC have taken the lead as an opposition since the ALP collapsed in its popularity. Fairfax polls were produced showing it to be ALP Christmas time. But, it is still early days. The ALP are not popular. ABC journalists are not competent and the improvement benefits of a conservative government have not been hammered home .. or away. NSW State government has been unfairly criticised. Bolt has pointed his finger of balance. But despite Bolt wanting to see the ALP make one good decision, anywhere, they stubbornly resist.
The threat to label a child for not attending a museum is obscene. Education committees agonise over how to give a child a broad liberal education. But it is parents that make the best decisions. A system might be very bad, but few would notice as the parents do what they do. ALP failed Australia with its attempt at Gonski reform. Pyne, with the Liberals, is setting it right. Maybe some programs will have to be cut. But that will be a good thing. No essential program will be cut. The worst thing that will happen is that teachers will be forced to do what they are paid to do. Something that has never fussed the ABC.
There is a rumour that Tanya Plibersek will roll Shorten over an allegation of sexual assault. I had predicted it would be Jason Clare. Shorten's bad decision making seems to be geared to making it easier to roll him. The allegation is premature if that were the intention, because for drama reasons Clare would need to assert himself with less than a year to go to an election. But Tanya Plibersek may want to be the incompetent that gets toppled, if Shorten is incapable of being merely incompetent. Remember, none of the ALP have shown ability on any issue.
The threat to label a child for not attending a museum is obscene. Education committees agonise over how to give a child a broad liberal education. But it is parents that make the best decisions. A system might be very bad, but few would notice as the parents do what they do. ALP failed Australia with its attempt at Gonski reform. Pyne, with the Liberals, is setting it right. Maybe some programs will have to be cut. But that will be a good thing. No essential program will be cut. The worst thing that will happen is that teachers will be forced to do what they are paid to do. Something that has never fussed the ABC.
There is a rumour that Tanya Plibersek will roll Shorten over an allegation of sexual assault. I had predicted it would be Jason Clare. Shorten's bad decision making seems to be geared to making it easier to roll him. The allegation is premature if that were the intention, because for drama reasons Clare would need to assert himself with less than a year to go to an election. But Tanya Plibersek may want to be the incompetent that gets toppled, if Shorten is incapable of being merely incompetent. Remember, none of the ALP have shown ability on any issue.
Historical perspective on this day
In 587, Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram of Burgundy recognised Childebert II as his heir. In 936, Shi Jingtang was enthroned as the first emperor of the Later Jin by Emperor Taizong of Liao, following a revolt against Emperor Fei of Later Tang. In 1443, Skanderbeg and his forces liberated Kruja in central Albania and raised the Albanian flag. In 1520, after navigating through a strait at the southern end of South America, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European ships to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. In 1582, in Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway paid a £40 bond for their marriage licence. In 1627, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy had its greatest and last victory in the Battle of Oliwa. In 1660, at Gresham College, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decided to found what is later known as the Royal Society. In 1666, at least 3,000 men of the Scottish Royal Army led by Tam Dalyell of the Binns defeated about 900 Covenanter rebels in the Battle of Rullion Green. In 1785, The Treaty of Hopewell was signed.
In 1811, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 1814, The Times in London was for the first time printed by automatic, steam-powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience. In 1821, Panama Independence Day: Panama separated from Spain and joined Gran Colombia. In 1828, Greek War of Independence: The French Morea expeditionto recapture Morea (now the Peloponnese) ended when the last Ottoman forces departed the peninsula. In 1843, Ka Lā Hui (Hawaiian Independence Day): The Kingdom of Hawaii was officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation. In 1862, American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General James G. Blunt defeated General John Marmaduke's Confederates. In 1885, Bulgarian victory in the Serbo-Bulgarian War preserved the Unification of Bulgaria. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in which women vote in a national election. In 1895, the first American automobile race took place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea won in approximately 10 hours. In 1899, the Second Boer War: a British column was engaged by Boer forces at the Battle of Modder River; although the Boers withdrew, the British suffered heavy casualties.
In 1905, Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland. In 1907, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theatre. In 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoffmade the debut performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3, considered to be one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. In 1910, the Liberal Party, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, won the second Greek general election of the year. In 1912, Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opened for bond trading. In 1917, the Estonian Provincial Assembly declared itself the sovereign power of Estonia. In 1918, Bukovina voted for union with the Kingdom of Romania. In 1919, Lady Astor was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She was the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. (Countess Markievicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit.)
In 1920, Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush – The Irish Republican Armyambushed a convoy of British Auxiliaries and killed seventeen. In 1925, the Grand Ole Oprybegan broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance. In 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub killed 492 people. In 1943, World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy. In 1958, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon became autonomous republics within the French Community. In 1960, Mauritania became independent of France. In 1964, Mariner program: NASA launched the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars. Also, Vietnam War: National Security Council members agreed to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam. In 1965, Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos announced he would send troops to help fight in South Vietnam. In 1966, Michel Micombero overthrew the monarchy of Burundi and made himself the first president.
In 1971, Fred Quilt, a leader of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation suffered severe abdominal injuriesallegedly caused by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers; he died two days later. Also, Wasfi al-Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan, was assassinated by the Black September unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1972, last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems were guillotined at La Santé Prison. The chief executioner was André Obrecht. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet's accomplice was condemned to death anyway). In 1975, East Timor declared its independence from Portugal. In 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. In 1980, Iran–Iraq War: Operation Morvarid – The bulk of the Iraqi Navy was destroyed by the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf. (Commemorated in Iran as Navy Day.) In 1981, Our Lady of Kibeho: Schoolchildren in Kibeho, Rwanda, experience the first of a series of Marian apparitions. In 1987, South African Airways Flight 295 crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board. In 1989, Cold War: Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would give up its monopoly on political power. In 1991, South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia. In 2002, suicide bombers blew up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya; their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 with surface-to-air missiles. In 2013 a 5.6 earthquake in Iran killed seven people and injured 45.
In 1905, Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland. In 1907, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theatre. In 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoffmade the debut performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3, considered to be one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. In 1910, the Liberal Party, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, won the second Greek general election of the year. In 1912, Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opened for bond trading. In 1917, the Estonian Provincial Assembly declared itself the sovereign power of Estonia. In 1918, Bukovina voted for union with the Kingdom of Romania. In 1919, Lady Astor was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She was the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. (Countess Markievicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit.)
In 1920, Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush – The Irish Republican Armyambushed a convoy of British Auxiliaries and killed seventeen. In 1925, the Grand Ole Oprybegan broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance. In 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub killed 492 people. In 1943, World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy. In 1958, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon became autonomous republics within the French Community. In 1960, Mauritania became independent of France. In 1964, Mariner program: NASA launched the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars. Also, Vietnam War: National Security Council members agreed to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam. In 1965, Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos announced he would send troops to help fight in South Vietnam. In 1966, Michel Micombero overthrew the monarchy of Burundi and made himself the first president.
In 1971, Fred Quilt, a leader of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation suffered severe abdominal injuriesallegedly caused by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers; he died two days later. Also, Wasfi al-Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan, was assassinated by the Black September unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1972, last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems were guillotined at La Santé Prison. The chief executioner was André Obrecht. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet's accomplice was condemned to death anyway). In 1975, East Timor declared its independence from Portugal. In 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. In 1980, Iran–Iraq War: Operation Morvarid – The bulk of the Iraqi Navy was destroyed by the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf. (Commemorated in Iran as Navy Day.) In 1981, Our Lady of Kibeho: Schoolchildren in Kibeho, Rwanda, experience the first of a series of Marian apparitions. In 1987, South African Airways Flight 295 crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board. In 1989, Cold War: Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would give up its monopoly on political power. In 1991, South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia. In 2002, suicide bombers blew up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya; their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 with surface-to-air missiles. In 2013 a 5.6 earthquake in Iran killed seven people and injured 45.
=== 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.
===
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 Mike Peek and Vivian Truong. Born on the same day, across the years, as
Deaths
|
Tim Blair
Andrew Bolt
WHERE YOU BEEN, TIM?
Tim Blair – Saturday, November 28, 2015 (10:30am)
In a final desperate attempt to destroy the planet ahead of this month’s UN climate conference, I’ve yet again been blasting carbon dioxide all over the US. My V8 adventure led me to many remarkable locations, which readers are invited to deduce from the following images:
Trigger warning in a downtown bar.
The only acceptable form of native birdlife is made entirely from attractive and colourful low-density polyethylene.
So far as I’m aware, only one US city sells this delightful sandwich.
When the seas rise, monster lobsters will rule us all.
My bid to kill the world may have actually succeeded if I’d been driving this glorious dinosaur, currently housed at a premises owned by history’s greatest drag racer.
Trigger warning in a downtown bar.
The only acceptable form of native birdlife is made entirely from attractive and colourful low-density polyethylene.
So far as I’m aware, only one US city sells this delightful sandwich.
When the seas rise, monster lobsters will rule us all.
My bid to kill the world may have actually succeeded if I’d been driving this glorious dinosaur, currently housed at a premises owned by history’s greatest drag racer.
Remember when Australian journalists thought this phrase contemptible?
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (1:10pm)
Praise for a phrase:
===It may have been François Hollande’s finest hour. In a 16-minute speech at Les Invalides today – written while jetting around the world – he achieved something that he has rarely achieved in his three years in the Elysée Palace. He spoke for the nation.A common expression now, because it is true:
“A horde of murderers killed 130 of our people...,” Mr Hollande said. “They have a cult of death but we… we have love - the love of life.”
The world is uniting in a bid to destroy the “evil death cult” of the Islamic State (Isis) after the terrorist attacks on Paris, David Cameron has declared. The British prime minister, speaking alongside President François Hollande in Paris on 23 November, also said that the UK would do all that it can to help assist France’s attacks on the jihadists in Syria.Obama uses the phrase:
President Obama on Thursday described ISIS as a “brutal, vicious death cult” ...British novelist Ian McEwan endorses the phrase:
The death cult’s bullets and bombs will come again, here or somewhere else, we can be sure.Journalists here should ask themselves why they thought the phrase so contemptible when used by Tony Abbott:
Machismo, or a word from the wise?
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (11:34am)
James Brown - then Military Fellow at the Lowy Institute and Malcolm Turnbull’s son in law - last year:
No, it’s not just Tony Abbott or his allies, merely trying to embarrass the wonderful Turnbull:
UPDATE
So we instead get this kind of stuff, as described in a particularly good Media Watch Dog round-up:
Try to understand from this waffle what Turnbull’s alternative strategy really is:
UPDATE
Wow. One of the many problems with argument by analogy is that the analogy can often say something very different to what you intended.
Take this bizarre effort from Andrew MacLeod in The New Daily:
And who was suggesting an occupation force in Syria?
(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
===It’s a question of whether we want to contain ISIS or destroy them.Malcolm Turnbull now:
We’ll be able to contain ISIS, stop them from expanding their reach into Iraq, without putting combat troops on the ground, our own at least.
But if we want to destroy ISIS as an organisation then we’ll need to go into Syria and that will need some sort of ground force.
This is not a time for gestures or machismo… I have to report to the House that the consensus of the leaders I met at the G20, at APEC and at the East Asia Summit is that there is no support currently for a large US-led Western army to attempt to conquer and hold ISILcontrolled areas.... [T]here are currently no plans for a significant change in the level or the nature of Australia’s military commitment in Iraq and Syria… Current advice to the Government is that the unilateral deployment of Australian combat troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria is not feasible or practical.UPDATE
No, it’s not just Tony Abbott or his allies, merely trying to embarrass the wonderful Turnbull:
FORMER foreign secretary William Hague has claimed Britain shouldn’t rule out sending ground troops to Syria to smash Islamic State ...This debate has become near impossible here because so many Turnbull supporters - in Parliament and in the media - insist on seeing it purely in terms of an Abbott-Turnbull conflict.
The ex-Cabinet minister ... called on Mr Cameron to think beyond merely bombing ISIS from the air..."The destruction of this enemy also means that someone has to be able to take control on the ground where state failure has allowed a terrorist organisation to roam free.” And while he said “that someone should be Syrians, Iraqis or other Arabs” he added: “It would be a mistake for Britain or other western nations to rule out some of our own forces operating there if that can make the crucial difference to the outcome.”
UPDATE
So we instead get this kind of stuff, as described in a particularly good Media Watch Dog round-up:
Unlike her interview with the new PM on 21 September 2015, [on Thursday] night Leigh Sales did not do a fawning interview. But it was soft, nevertheless. Imagine what Ms Sales would have said if Tony Abbott had just returned from a prime ministerial visit overseas during which he had, (i) told President Barack Obama to find out what is happening with respect to naval visits to Darwin by reading News Corp’s NT News, (ii) failed to understand that United States and Australian ships use the Port of Darwin on occasions and (iii) spoken to China’s premier Li Keqiang about the lessons to be learnt from the Peloponnesian War including a warning that China should not “fall into a Thucydides Trap” and all that. Just imagine ... (T)he 7.30 presenter would almost certainly not let Tony Abbott get away with any errors of commission or omission.In fact, there were no hard questions ... Indeed, when the Prime Minister said that there were people advocating that Australia should “unilaterally” send combat forces to take on the so-called Islamic State – an enquiring presenter might have asked the names of such advocates. Ms Sales was not in enquiry mode last night. So, alas, we do not know who the PM had in mind.UPDATE
Try to understand from this waffle what Turnbull’s alternative strategy really is:
Also try to understand why Turnbull has a reputation for being a good communicator.
UPDATE
Wow. One of the many problems with argument by analogy is that the analogy can often say something very different to what you intended.
Take this bizarre effort from Andrew MacLeod in The New Daily:
Proponents of the ‘boots on the ground’ strategy for Syria avoid one very difficult question: For how long should boots go in?Oh. So is MacLeod saying it was wrong to send troops to fight Hitler? Tojo’s Japan?
Consider this: When did the last allied soldiers leave Germany after World War 2? Answer: They haven’t. When did the last allied soldiers leave Japan after World War 2? Answer: They haven’t.
And who was suggesting an occupation force in Syria?
(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
Another climate scare debunked. Professor urges calm
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (9:40am)
Professor Michael Asten urges calm - and a bit of honesty in the warming debate:
===The UN climate agency, the World Meteorological Organisation, has predictably hyped the global warming associated with this El Nino to encourage political leaders to action in next week’s Paris climate conference (”UN tips 2015 as hottest year”, 26/11).(Thanks to reader Mike.)
However, its press release overlooks the full WMO discussion which notes that this El Nino is similar to three significant events in 1972-73, 1982-83 and 1997-98. It is not an unprecedented event, and past experience shows that prediction of the progress of El Ninos is notoriously difficult. The WMO quotes only surface temperature data, which may be subject to upward biases from meteorological stations sited in cities and ships that are thermal sources. The two data sets of lower atmosphere temperatures as measured globally using weather balloons and satellites were not used by the WMO, but they show a less alarming result — there is no upward statistical trend in global temperatures over the past 18 years, a feature much discussed in scientific journals as “the pause”. Empirical scientists should be alarmed that while the most commonly quoted climate models predict a global temperature increase of 3C per century over this time, it is not happening. Rather than being panicked by the WMO press release, Malcolm Turnbull and Greg Hunt and their opposite numbers represented in Paris would serve us well by pausing their deliberations until science delivers a global temperature model consistent with measurement.
On The Bolt Report tomorrow, November 29
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (9:35am)
On Sunday at 10am and 3pm.
Editorial: Global warmists fiddle while terrorism burns.
My guest: Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.
The panel: former Labor president Warren Mundine and John Roskam, head of the Institute of Public Affairs.
Fact-checking Bill Shorten’s big global warming scare. Plus Mal Brough woes, Tony Abbott’s foes and why Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama still claim the Islamic State is weak.
NewsWatch: Nick Cater, columnist with The Australian and head of the Menzies Research Centre. On some bullies trying to shut us up.
Oh, and a few words about Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: Global warmists fiddle while terrorism burns.
My guest: Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.
The panel: former Labor president Warren Mundine and John Roskam, head of the Institute of Public Affairs.
Fact-checking Bill Shorten’s big global warming scare. Plus Mal Brough woes, Tony Abbott’s foes and why Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama still claim the Islamic State is weak.
NewsWatch: Nick Cater, columnist with The Australian and head of the Menzies Research Centre. On some bullies trying to shut us up.
Oh, and a few words about Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs.
The videos of the shows appear here.
Turnbull pours tea for Gillian Triggs
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (8:48am)
Another bad sign and one that may distress Malcolm Turnbull’s Treasurer, who as Immigration Minister was badly verballed by Triggs. Nor can the Attorney General be too chuffed, after understandably declaring he’d lost confidence in Triggs:
Here’s more on Turnbull’s tea companion:
===The big chill is over. Its end was sealed over a cup of tea, poured by Malcolm Turnbull from his bright red teapot in his Parliament House office, for Gillian Triggs, the woman his predecessor had vilified, tried to remove and finally banished.Hmm. Turnbull pours tea for Triggs but not for any conservative critic.
Hostilities began in January, when Triggs’ Human Rights Commission produced a report that condemned the detention of asylum seeker children under the policies of the Abbott and Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments as a clear violation of international law…
After her keynote speech [on Wednesday] prompted a standing ovation from a crowd including volunteer solicitors, benefactors, prominent silks and judges, Triggs was asked what she saw as the likely consequences of the change from Tony Abbott to Turnbull, and responded with trademark candour. “I think the changes will be profound,” she replied. “I hope that I am not breaching any confidence, but I did meet the Prime Minister two days ago and the first thing he said to me, and repeated, was that he hopes to bring cabinet government back in a classical Westminster style, with due process, transparency and the rule of law.”
Here’s more on Turnbull’s tea companion:
First, her commission, paid to defend our rights and freedoms, said not one word of criticism as the Gillard government tried put the media under a government-backed press authority.
Triggs then delayed an inquiry into boat children in detention while Labor was in power, waiting instead until the Liberals had taken over, stopped the boats and started to release hundreds of children.
Triggs told a Senate committee she had not discussed this suspicious delay with the then Labor government, but under heavy questioning admitted she’d in fact discussed it with two Labor ministers.
Then, as she presided over a supposedly impartial inquiry, she made a string of inaccurate and inflammatory claims about conditions in detention.
She exaggerated the number of suicide attempts, wrongly claimed guards at Christmas Island were armed and wrongly insisted that “almost all (detainees at Christmas Island), including the adults, were coughing, were sick, were depressed, unable to communicate (and) weak”.
That, she said, made her want to ask: “Why is this child not being treated?” — wrongly implying that detained children were denied medical treatment. Meanwhile, Triggs recommended a record $5.9 million of compensation payouts, including $350,000 to a PNG “refugee” held in detention who’d beaten his Australian wife to death with a bicycle.
It’s not Turnbull’s left flank that is vulnerable
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (8:44am)
Chris Kenny is right. Malcolm Turnbull is in a powerful position for the moment - but the adulation from the Left obscures that he is in danger from a Labor leader more agile than Bill Shorten. Turnbull actually risks leaving his right flank exposed:
UPDATE
Phil Coorey is no conservative, but makes the point I’ve suggested, too - that Turnbull is vulnerable to a good Labor attack, not least by letting the GST debate go off the rails. But the attack must not come from Turnbull’s Left:
And from Laurie Oakes this warning:
===But make no mistake about his foundation: Coalition certitude on strong borders, national security, climate policy and economic repair contrast sharply against Labor disarray.It is Turnbull’s luck - and Labor’s dilemma - that Albanese is actually from Labor’s Left.
Continuity is Turnbull’s strongest suit, so long as he can deliver on economic reform, where Tony Abbott failed. Seeking easy adulation from the Left on the other issues can only strain relations with Liberal conservatives and the Nationals as well as give Labor an opening to rediscover the mainstream.
Many underestimate this risk, assuming that by taking the Coalition to the centre Turnbull has crowded out the competition. They were saying the same about Rudd in mid-2009 — when Turnbull was opposition leader — and he was gone less than a year later.
Anthony Albanese offered a salient lesson when he targeted Turnbull’s imprecise language over Islamic State.
“These people need to be wiped out,” Albanese told Andrew Bolt, “because what they seek to do is to wipe us and our way of life out. It’s that simple, and Malcolm Turnbull needs to be very clear in his language about that."…
The mainstream wants clarity and strength on security, and here was a leading member of Labor’s Left faction who was able to scoot across to Turnbull’s right flank to deliver a more reassuring message. Turnbull talks about economic agility; this showed how political opponents can be agile if you leave an opening near the centre. There was no damage done — it was a minor skirmish — but it is a lesson that should be heeded.
UPDATE
Phil Coorey is no conservative, but makes the point I’ve suggested, too - that Turnbull is vulnerable to a good Labor attack, not least by letting the GST debate go off the rails. But the attack must not come from Turnbull’s Left:
The fragility of the Turnbull government’s lead in the opinion polls has been exposed by new research which shows voters marking down the government’s performance in every policy issue of concern since Tony Abbott was replaced…UPDATE
The findings are contained in the latest quarterly True Issues survey conducted by JWS Research and canvassing the views of 1100 voters ... from November 5 to November 10 when political debate about a GST increase was prominent. It found that since the last survey in June the government’s performance rating across every issue fell, the first time this has happened.
The issues tested were hospitals and healthcare, the economy, education, immigration and border security, community and social issues, infrastructure, quality of government, environment, defence and security, regional and rural Australia, and business and mining…
JWS Research director John Scales, who informs his analysis with focus group research, believes talk of a GST increase is like a “sea-anchor” in terms of acting as a drag across government.... The poll finds those who think the national economy is headed in the right direction has fallen from 24 to 18 per cent....
When Mr Abbott became prime minister in 2013, one of the biggest shifts in True Issues was the decline of border security and immigration as a priority issue of concern. This was because the government stopped the boat arrivals. But the latest survey finds it has returned as the fourth-highest area of concern, moving from 40 to 46 per cent since June, while the government’s performance rating has dropped from 34 to 29 per cent. Fears of Australians fighting abroad have dropped 15 per cent since June, to be replaced by rising fears about people coming into the country as refugees (up 7 points) and immigrants (up 10 points)… Mr Scales said ... “This is pre-Paris – imagine what has happened since?”
And from Laurie Oakes this warning:
The one issue raising concern about Turnbull’s leadership this week had nothing to do with Abbott or Shorten. It was all his own work...Mal Brough, the Special Minister of State ... is under police investigation over his role in bringing down the then Speaker, Peter Slipper, in 2012.The investigation, according to a search warrant presented when police raided Brough’s home last week, deals with whether he “counselled and procured James Hunter Ashby, being a Commonwealth officer, to disclose extracts from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Peter Slipper’s 2009 to 2012 official diary and provide those extracts to third parties without authority”, contrary to the Crimes Act…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
It was well known when Turnbull became Prime Minister and appointed his Cabinet that Brough had been up to his neck in the Slipper matter. Brough had been asked on the Nine Network’s Sixty Minutes program three years ago if he had requested Ashby, a Slipper staffer, to procure copies of the diaries and replied: “Yes I did.”
It was known police had taken an interest. Yet Turnbull decided that Brough, one of the plotters who helped him roll Abbott, should be rewarded with the Special Minister of State portfolio, which oversees government integrity issues and ministerial standards. Apparently he did it without checking with police whether their investigation had been completed. It was a stupid decision and raised questions not only about Turnbull’s judgment but also about his own attitude to standards. If it was a sign of things to come, Turnbull’s popularity might not remain at stratospheric levels
First, assume the Muslim can-opener
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (7:56am)
Peter Leahy, former chief of army and now director of the National Security Institute at the University of Canberra, is of course right about the danger of sending an army into Syria. The problem is that his own solution assumes exactly what he himself suggests shouldn’t be assumed at all:
One caveat to the above: one country that does send troops to Iraq is fascist Iran, seeking to dominate the Shiite world. Hezbollah, its terrorist proxy in Lebanon, has also send Shiite fighters, to Syria. Does that give comfort or alarm?
===Don’t expect too much. Middle Eastern rulers seem intent on ignoring the problem — how many refugees have they taken in and how many of their troops are on the ground in Iraq and Syria? They seem unable to face the bigger problems, which are the schism between Shia and Sunni and the need for reform within Islam....Fine, but how do we “force” Middle Eastern rulers to send troops when they have no interest at all in doing so? And what must we then do when they don’t?
We are on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, and some would have us in Syria… We should shift the effort from propping up governments to overt and aggressive counter-terrorism. Sure, provide political and economic support to governments, but stop well short of providing boots on the ground. Force them to solve their own problems or force the region to intervene. Yes, more boots are needed on the ground, but not Australian boots. What is needed are Middle Eastern boots solving a Middle Eastern problem. We should play to our strengths of supporting, assisting, training and providing intelligence and air support, and go after the terrorists wherever we can find them.
One caveat to the above: one country that does send troops to Iraq is fascist Iran, seeking to dominate the Shiite world. Hezbollah, its terrorist proxy in Lebanon, has also send Shiite fighters, to Syria. Does that give comfort or alarm?
Why these frantic attempts to shut down debates?
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (7:40am)
Since when did journalists decide debate was unhealthy?
It is bizarre, how so many journalists have become enemies of exactly the kind of freedom on which they should thrive.
We have seen many support laws that quash debate on the new racial politics. We have seen near silence on the legal bid by a Greens candidate to silence the Catholic Church in the debate on same sex marriage. We have seen prominent political journalists oppose a public vote on same sex marriage on the grounds that debate is unhealthy. We have seen journalists back a policy of not giving sceptics a voice in a debate on global warming.
Gerard Henderson gives another example - minor, perhaps, but very telling:
===It is bizarre, how so many journalists have become enemies of exactly the kind of freedom on which they should thrive.
We have seen many support laws that quash debate on the new racial politics. We have seen near silence on the legal bid by a Greens candidate to silence the Catholic Church in the debate on same sex marriage. We have seen prominent political journalists oppose a public vote on same sex marriage on the grounds that debate is unhealthy. We have seen journalists back a policy of not giving sceptics a voice in a debate on global warming.
Gerard Henderson gives another example - minor, perhaps, but very telling:
I was surprised, on the ABC’s Insiders panel last Sunday, to find the Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy and The Courier-Mail’s Dennis Atkins wanted to close down debate in Australia about the response to the so-called Islamic State, or Daesh.When journalists demand debates be shut down they don’t just betray a fear of their public. They also betray a lack of confidence in the power of their arguments - which in too many cases is a fear well-founded.
Writing in The Australian on November 17, [Tony] Abbott had argued the US, Britain, France and Australia — along with Turkey, Egypt and Jordan — “should be prepared to contribute more to a military campaign to destroy the terrorist caliphate on the ground in Syria and Iraq”.... Abbott was not critical of the Turnbull government’s approach to national security policy. He was merely arguing that nations opposed to Islamic State, including Australia, could do more. That’s all. Yet some journalists, who normally would be expected to encourage debate and discussion, do not want to hear from Abbott.
On Insiders, Murphy, who is a fine journalist, said Abbott’s contribution was unnecessary and it was unfortunate he chose “to muddy the waters”. In other words, only the Turnbull position should be heard on this complicated issue of national security after the attack on Paris. Atkins, another good journalist, said it “was confusing for a lot of people in Australia if the former prime minister expressed a different view to his successor”....
On November 15, The Australian Financial Review’s ... Andrew Clark ran much the same argument, maintaining “there’s something distinctly ordinary about politicians on the same side sniping during … a grave political crisis”. Last Tuesday, Paul Bongiorno, on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast , told an approving Fran Kelly that Abbott was “flicking the switch to khaki and trying to scare the pants off a nation”.... There is no easy solution to the threat posed by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ... That’s why the more voices that are heard in the debate, the better… If Australian journalists do not welcome debate on this issue, well, let them eat cake.
Who let their families in, and made us seem too soiled for their loyalty?
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (7:28am)
An imported cultural clash - although “clash” is an understatement:
===THE number of Victorian terrorism sympathisers on the police radar has surged tenfold in the past three years, the state’s police chief has revealed.We need a conservation about the policies, assumptions and moral posturing that led to the importation of this danger, and to the coaching of the essential wickedness of this racist, genocidal and land-raping country? But seeing how those responsible include many members of our political and media class I doubt we will get it.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said “persons of interest” known to counter-terrorism investigators now included children as young as 12…
“It’s people who are ideologically supportive and are under increasing influence of social media in relation to supporting, primarily, IS,” he said…The demand on police resources from such an undertaking was enormous and this week’s state government $49 million cash injection was vital, Mr Ashton said.
Making Christianity unlawful in Tasmania
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (7:02am)
It is not just bizarre but shameful - even dangerous - that one Greens’ candidate hurt feelings is all the excuse our law needs to silence churches trying to defend traditional marriage.
Paul Kelly on the intolerance of the tolerance movement:
And so the bullies and whingers will rule, in a tyranny of the passive-aggressive.
===Paul Kelly on the intolerance of the tolerance movement:
The calculated assault on freedom of religious liberty in Australia is rapidly gaining pace with the focus in Tasmania where the Catholic Bishops of Australia now face formal action on the grounds that their defence of traditional marriage contravenes anti-discrimination law…How on earth did “offensiveness” - usually determined by activists and professional offence takers - become the trigger for legal moves to ban debate? Are we really such children? Are we really so pathetically fragile? Do we really have such little respect for our freedom to speak, to debate and even to mock?
The Tasmanian action before the state’s Anti-Discrimination Commission highlights what many parliamentarians and journalists have preferred to deny: that the campaign for same-sex marriage threatens to infringe the rights of the church and religious freedom....
The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, ... sketches the cultural crisis the church sees as a potential outcome for Australia — that in 10 years religious schools will be forced by law to teach a gay-friendly concept of marriage in conflict with their beliefs, that clergy will face fines and possibly imprisonment, that faith schools and teachers will be mired in legal threats for “hate speech”, that religious organisations will be compelled by law to extend spousal benefits on a same-sex basis and will have lost their charitable status and that all businesses will be compelled to provide services for same-sex marriage, regardless of their beliefs....
The complainant in Tasmania, transgender Greens political candidate, Martine Delaney, said the church’s 15-page pastoral letter, “Don’t Mess with Marriage” authorised by the Catholic Bishops of Australia was “insulting” and “offensive”. Tasmanian law has an exceptionally low threshold for unlawful conduct under anti-discrimination law…
Australian Marriage Equality, the main lobby group for same-sex marriage, has given robust support to the complaint. “This booklet denigrates and demeans same-sex relationships and will do immense harm to gay students and students being raised by same-sex couples,” AME national director Rodney Croome said in June… Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Robin Banks found the Catholics bishops and Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous have a case to answer… [I]n its essence this is a campaign to force the voice of the churches from the public square on the grounds of offensiveness.
And so the bullies and whingers will rule, in a tyranny of the passive-aggressive.
Syria won’t be solved, and the Islamic State will become too useful to too many
Andrew Bolt November 28 2015 (5:51am)
Turkey has for years battled Turkish Kurds fighting for independence, so its greaest fear with Syria and Iraq is that the Kurds there will carve out the start of an independent Kurdish homeland.
Indeed, Iraq’s Kurds have virtually done so already.
So Turkey is not so unhappy with the rise of the Islamic State, which has fought the Kurds and seized some Kurdish territory.
That may explain this disturbing news:
===Indeed, Iraq’s Kurds have virtually done so already.
So Turkey is not so unhappy with the rise of the Islamic State, which has fought the Kurds and seized some Kurdish territory.
That may explain this disturbing news:
In new blow to media freedoms in Turkey, a court on Thursday ordered two prominent opposition journalists jailed pending trial over charges of willingly aiding an armed group and of espionage for revealing state secrets for their reports on alleged arms smuggling to Syria.You wondered why Turkish forces did not intervene to save the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, on the border with Turkey, from falling (temporarily) into the hands of the Islamic State?
The court in Istanbul ruled that Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar, and the paper’s Ankara representative, Erdem Gul, be taken into custody following more than hours of questioning.
In May, the Cumhuriyet paper published what it said were images of Turkish trucks carrying ammunition to Syrian militants.
The images reportedly date back to January 2014, when local authorities searched Syria-bound trucks, touching off a standoff with Turkish intelligence officials. Cumhuriyet said the images were proof that Turkey was smuggling arms to rebels in Syria. The government had initially denied the trucks were carrying arms, maintaining that the cargo consisted of humanitarian aid. Some officials later suggested the trucks were carrying arms or ammunition destined to Turkmen kinsmen in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the same recently saying: “what difference would it make if they were carrying arms?”
Turkey ... allowed foreign fighters and weapons, including those bound for Islamic State territory, to cross its border into Syria from 2012 to 2014, calculating that they would put more pressure on Assad.And how is the Islamic State able to make millions by smuggling oil to Turkey?
While urging its Western allies to intervene in Syria’s civil war, Turkey shied away from deployed its own army — the largest in the region — against the Islamists, which is what motivated the PKK [a Stalinist Kurdish terrorist force] to go on the offensive again. It watched in anguish as Turkish soldiers did nothing while Kurds were slaughtered across the border.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as Isis, is earning as much as $1m a day through the sale of oil to some of its biggest enemies: middlemen from Turkey, Iraq’s Kurdish community and the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to the US Treasury.Nothing is clear or clean in this war. No one can be trusted, as this analysis by Adam Garfinkle of the Foreign Policy Research Institute makes clear:
The remarks – made in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Thursday by David Cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence – are likely to raise eyebrows in a region where questions are already being asked over Ankara’s commitment to fighting Isis and Kurdish fighters are battling to avoid being over-run by the jihadis in the Syrian city of Kobani… “We have made our position very clear on this issue. Both minister of foreign affairs Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu and minister of energy Taner Y?ld?z have repeatedly denied that oil has been sold by [Isis] to Turkey,” said Tanju Bilgiç, the ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson.
The good news is that the Turkish leadership understands far better than the U.S. leadership does that the Syrian regime is the core of the ISIS problem. The bad news is that in recent months getting rid of Assad has taken a back seat to what is perceived in Ankara as an even greater and more urgent problem: stemming the twinned burgeoning of Kurdish nationalism and battlefield prowess…Read the whole article. It demonstrates that there is virtually no chance of the “political settlement” of Syria that leaders such as Barack Obama and Malcolm Turnbull now talk of - a “power sharing” deal between the mass-murdering Alawite Shia regime of dictator Bashar al Assad and “moderate” representatives of the majority Sunnis, who territory is now the heartland of the Islamic State. And it is even less likely if the US and Australia keep rejecting the idea of sending soldiers to help those “moderate” Sunnis fight:
The Turks see ISIS as a highly dangerous but still useful last-ditch asset against Assad, and they see the Kurds as both a mortal political challenge within the Turkish Republic and as an agent weakening that last-ditch asset. Meanwhile, the Americans see the Kurds as the most effective and reliable ally available so far against ISIS.
Fifth—and this is really the kicker—there is no way to compose a stable peace in the area within the old borders of the Levant. Let us assume for a moment that, somehow, Turks, Kurds, and a Sunni Arab mega-militia, with U.S.-led Western help in training, arming, logistics and intelligence, join together within the next year to overshadow the current Russian and Iranian effort and roll back, if not finally crush, the Islamic State. Assume further that other Western-supported anti-Assad forces prevent the Syrian regime from taking significant advantage of ISIS’s weakening. It is easy to pretend to be Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell, armed with a thick graphite harquebus and an otherwise blank map as they were in 1921, sketching out the borders of an independent Kurdistan composed of selected former Iraqi and Syrian territories, an Alawi-dominated rump Syria along the Mediterranean coast, a Sunni regional government spreading over the old Syrian-Iraqi border, and a rump Shi‘a Iraq centered on Baghdad and Basra. But who would agree to those new lines (and who would not)? Who would, enable, finance, support and enforce the new reality represented by that map?That leaves the Islamic State cast almost in an heroic position for local Sunnis - and not just local:
Maybe Russia and Iran would be satisfied to have preserved a rump Alawi Syria. Maybe, somehow, the Turks could be mollified and compensated in some way as to accept a Kurdish state, if it were skillfully shrouded in symbolic conditionalities and solemnly sworn limits. Maybe the Saudis and the Gulf Arabs would come up with the massive amounts of cash needed to finance stabilization and reconstruction in a newly drawn Levant. Maybe the Egyptians on behalf of the Arab League would lead an Arab force to police the peace until it stuck on its own, and maybe NATO would support that force. But for all these maybes to turn into a real postwar settlement, there would need to be a genuine leader—a great power with the resources, resolve, patience, reputation, and discernment to make it happen. That can only be the United States. But no one in his or her right mind thinks that can happen in the final year of the Obama Administration, and it is by no means clear that its successor would be any more willing to try—unless, of course, an American city (or two) suffers in future as Paris did...
ISIS arose from the U.S. shattering and subsequent premature abandonment of Iraq, two errors in sequence that produced one compound mess. But the fuel that fed ISIS most and allowed it to deepen and spread has been the Syrian civil war, in which the regime has killed upwards of 300,000 Sunni civilians, forced four million more to leave the country, and created unknown numbers of internally displaced persons. ISIS initially struggled, mostly in vain, to fill a vacuum and stop mass murder, because no one else would try—not other Sunni Arab states and not the United States. This must be acknowledged. We can call ISIS all the nasty names we like, and of course we’re not obligated to nominate it for the Nobel Peace Prize. But we cannot readily fix a problem whose origins we refuse to understand.Prediction: Paris will be repeated.
This means that Iranian and Russian efforts to protect Assad in recent and ongoing multilateral diplomacy must not be allowed to succeed, because if they do ISIS cannot be undone. It will regenerate like sliced up planaria in a high school biology lab.
Radioactive meltdown a total beat-up
Piers Akerman – Friday, November 28, 2014 (1:01am)
THE anti-coal seam gas lobby has jumped the shark with its phoney scare campaign against drilling in NSW and Queensland. While there are legitimate arguments about access to good farming land and discussions about artesian water to be had, the Lock the Gate Alliance and its media promoters at the ABC and in the Fairfax press are promoting utterly nonsensical claims to feed the inherent biases of their green-left anti-development followers.
Continue reading 'Radioactive meltdown a total beat-up'
THOSE FRIGHTBATS KNOW HOW TO HAVE A GOOD TIME
Tim Blair – Friday, November 28, 2014 (1:55am)
This was the centrepiece at the Christmas party for Fairfax’s Ladypages.
I’m not sure that Fairfax’s Frightgals have ever made any man cry – with the possible exception of Antony Loewenstein, who won’t be happy that Clementine Ford and her battleaxe battalion have misspelled both his names.
(Via Padraic M.)
GARBAGE AUDITED
Tim Blair – Friday, November 28, 2014 (1:41am)
Milk bottle lids are now “contaminated waste”.
WHAT IS IT WITH FAIRFAX COLUMNISTS AND TWITTER?
Tim Blair – Friday, November 28, 2014 (1:20am)
Following Phil Hughes’s injury at the SCG on Tuesday, Fairfax columnist Ben Pobjie posted this:
Pobjie later deleted the post. Hurt by criticism, he now offers this remarkable excuse:
Pobjie later deleted the post. Hurt by criticism, he now offers this remarkable excuse:
I made a tweet 2 days ago, before it was known Hughes was seriously injured. I deleted it 2 days ago when the situation became clear.
This seems implausible. Hughes received mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before he was taken from the field. Even the earliest reports indicated the seriousness of his condition. Moreover, Pobjie knows cricket, at least in sufficient amount to write the occasional freelance piece (in this item, from October, Pobjie makes a good case for Hughes to bat at three for Australia). He would presumably know, then, that any head injury caused by a ball impact is potentially serious. Yet he claims not to have been aware that Hughes was seriously injured.
No. Not buying it. The denier continues:
If anyone is seeing this tweet after the tragic news, it is only because others are spreading it in order to attack me.
This from someone who used a cricketer’s injury, which proved fatal, in order to attack Tony Abbott. Own your words, Ben.
ANY AND ALL STEPS NECESSARY
Tim Blair – Friday, November 28, 2014 (1:18am)
Bolshie blather from our friends at the billion-dollar broadcaster:
ABC staff in Sydney and Melbourne have voted on a motion condemning the “brutal budget cut handed down by the Federal Government” and its management’s response.Staff have also rejected the “skills assessment matrix” process of assessing staff and vowed not to participate in “this duplicitous process” and vowed to “take any and all steps necessary to demonstrate to our employer that ABC employees are opposed to involuntary redundancy”.
Beautiful. These people are channelling Fred Kite:
In Canberra, a Greens politician is worried for the future of women’s sport:
In Canberra, a Greens politician is worried for the future of women’s sport:
The announcement earlier this week that the Federal Government would cut $254 million from the budget of our national broadcaster, along with $50m from SBS, will have a detrimental impact on local media coverage and a potentially devastating impact on women’s sport, said ACT Greens MLA, Shane Rattenbury …“It is likely that televising a number of women’s sports will cease, including the W-League and the WNBL.“This is a betrayal of women’s sport, which has grown vastly in the past few decades. Many of the teams now have a considerable supporter base and substantial sponsorship deals.“With no TV coverage, teams could struggle to attract the same level of sponsorship …”
Is Rattenbury actually arguing for the ABC to apply commercial considerations to its programming? If so, let him take it to the logical conclusion. Privatise the ABC.
(Via A.R.M. Jones and Noel G.)
IT’S LIKE AN EDIBLE SKYWHALE
Tim Blair – Friday, November 28, 2014 (1:04am)
Behold the delicious cthurkey.
David Leyonhjelm’s challenge: cut spending. Here’s his list. Where’s yours?
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (7:18pm)
Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm on the need to cut spending.
He starts with a challenge:
Leyonhjelm notes the result:
The full speech here:
Continue reading 'David Leyonhjelm’s challenge: cut spending. Here’s his list. Where’s yours?'
===He starts with a challenge:
My hope for this general business debate is for Senators from across the Chamber to outline spending cuts they would support.And he’s alive to Labor’s tricks:
I also hope that each Senator proposes more spending cuts than they oppose.Leyonhjelm’s list:
- ... MPs to travel in economy class by default, to abandon junkets overseas, and to leave their spouses behind when they travel.Yes, there’s no chance yet of the big parties and the Greens cutting like that and offending the millions of people who’ve come to feel entitled to their handouts. Voters have become clients of government as much as its master, and are playing it like a poker machine.
- ... abolish government-provided foreign aid, other than short term humanitarian responses to natural disasters, including the Ebola outbreak.
- ... I support ending what people normally think of as industry assistance, like spending on agriculture, tourism, mining, manufacturing, and construction industries. But industry assistance goes beyond that. It includes funding for the arts industry, the sports industry, and the communications industry, including the ABC and SBS.
- .... responsible spending cuts are possible in defence… This implies less of a need for other aspects of our current military, like most of the navy’s surface fleet
- ... cut ... subsidies to landowners to support biodiversity, subsidies to employers for taking on apprentices, and subsidies for ‘clean technology’ and carbon capture and storage.
- ... cuts to higher education and the Australian Research Council
- ... cuts to Medicare rebates for GPs and the private health insurance rebate
- ... cuts to welfare payments for individuals and corporate welfare
- ... Commonwealth payments to the States, Territories and local governments… should be abolished. Abolition would prompt the States to means test access to public hospitals and schools, and to put tolls on arterial roads and highways… The abolition of Commonwealth payments to States would increase the autonomy and accountability of the States, and allow greater competition and experimentation between the States.
- ... get rid of middle class welfare and indeed upper class welfare.... We need ... the removal of the Schoolkids Bonus and Family Tax Benefit Part B.
- ... We need to target Family Tax Benefit Part A to families with the least income.
- ... And we need to include the family home in the assets test for the aged pension.
- ... The typical wage across the entire Australian workforce is around $62,000. But that’s roughly what a public service graduate gets at the start of their career. By the time they have worked for a few years many are on around $100,000 per year… A cut to public service budgets totalling $2 billion could prompt salary cuts of around ten per cent.
Leyonhjelm notes the result:
[Mr President], after accounting for inflation, Commonwealth Government spending per person has increased by more than a third since the introduction of the GST. Commonwealth Government spending is more than a quarter of GDP, which is well above the post GST average.But that intervention must start with the voters. Demand cuts in spending now, before it’s too late.
It’s time for the denial to end. Our Government has a spending problem. And it is time for an intervention.
The full speech here:
Continue reading 'David Leyonhjelm’s challenge: cut spending. Here’s his list. Where’s yours?'On The Bolt Report on Sunday, November 30
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (4:59pm)
On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm.
Editorial: Why do we pay the $27 million Human Rights Commission after its incredible bias?
My guest: Immigration Minister Scott Morrison
The panel: former Labor advisor Cassandra Wilkinson and IPA boss John Roskam
NewsWatch: Rowan Dean, Australian Spectator editor, Financial Review columnist and Sky News commentator. Dissecting the ABC’s anti-Murdoch conspiracy theory - and checking just which media organisation is balanced.
Plus the Victorian election roundup and a debate: does the Abbott Government need a reshuffle?
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: Why do we pay the $27 million Human Rights Commission after its incredible bias?
My guest: Immigration Minister Scott Morrison
The panel: former Labor advisor Cassandra Wilkinson and IPA boss John Roskam
NewsWatch: Rowan Dean, Australian Spectator editor, Financial Review columnist and Sky News commentator. Dissecting the ABC’s anti-Murdoch conspiracy theory - and checking just which media organisation is balanced.
Plus the Victorian election roundup and a debate: does the Abbott Government need a reshuffle?
The videos of the shows appear here.
The white racism meme no longer explains this mayhem
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (9:21am)
Jason L Riley on the lies the Left tell about Michael Brown:
WE now know that Michael Brown was much more of a menace than a martyr, but that won’t stop US liberals from pushing an anti-police narrative that harms the black poor in the name of helping them.
The black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, robbed a store, attacked a white police officer and was shot dead while resisting arrest. That was the conclusion of a St Louis County grand jury that brought no charges against the officer after considering all the physical evidence, along with eyewitness accounts from blacks in the vicinity of the confrontation.
Not that any amount of evidence would have stopped the hooligans in Ferguson this week who were determined to use Brown’s death as a pretext for more bad behaviour. Nor will evidence thwart liberals who are bent on making excuses for black criminality and pretending that police shootings are responsible for America’s high black body count.
According to the FBI, homicide is the leading cause of death among young black men, who are 10 times more likely than their white counterparts to be murdered. And while you’d never know it watching MSNBC, the police are not to blame. Blacks are just 13 per cent of the population but responsible for a majority of murders in the US, and more than 90 per cent of black murder victims are killed by other blacks. Liberals like to point out that most whites are killed by other whites, too. That’s true but beside the point given that the white crime rate is so much lower than the black rate.
Blacks commit violent crimes at seven to 10 times the rate that whites do. The fact that their victims tend to be of the same race suggests that young black men in the ghetto live in danger of being shot by each other, not cops. Nor is this a function of “over-policing” certain neighbourhoods to juice black arrest rates. Research has long shown that the rate at which blacks are arrested is nearly identical to the rate at which crime victims identify blacks as their assailants. The police are in these communities because that’s where the emergency calls originate, and they spend much of their time trying to stop residents of the same race from harming one another…
And if black criminal behaviour is a response to white racism, how is it that black crime rates were lower in the 1940s and 50s, when black poverty was higher, racial discrimination was rampant and legal, and the country was more than a half-century away from twice electing a black president?
Joe Hockey in the gun
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (8:45am)
The Australian sends a signal:
But should Abbott change his mind, here is how it could go. Hockey to Foreign Affairs, a marvellous consolation prize. Bishop to Treasury, the only job she’s likely to accept if she wants to be Prime Minister - and a job more likely to shift votes than Foreign Affairs.
Christian Porter, a former WA Finance Minister and fresh face, in as Assistant Treasurer to help her. (It will help logistically that both are from WA.)
Elevate Michaelia Cash to Cabinet, replacing David Johnston, both to reward performance and to freshen and sharpen the sales.
Give Scott Morrison a bigger job, and a problem to fix. An expanded national security position is a minimum.
Make Kelly O’Dwyer a Parliamentary Secretary, again to reward talent and effort, but also to address the deficit of senior women and prominent Victorians.
Replace any Minister likely to quit at the next election and lacking cut-through. Pack the ministry with fighters. There are people in the list of Parliamentary Secretaries I’ve never heard speak. Yet people like Peter Hendy and Paul Fletcher are on the back bench? Give more say to the articulate, like Simon Birmingham.
Fight.
===If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it 1000 times, it’s time for a rethink on big-hearted JoeI like Hockey. I think he’s a better communicator than The Australian implies. He’s being blamed in part for the decisions of the team. And Abbott is highly unlikely to want to shift him.
But should Abbott change his mind, here is how it could go. Hockey to Foreign Affairs, a marvellous consolation prize. Bishop to Treasury, the only job she’s likely to accept if she wants to be Prime Minister - and a job more likely to shift votes than Foreign Affairs.
Christian Porter, a former WA Finance Minister and fresh face, in as Assistant Treasurer to help her. (It will help logistically that both are from WA.)
Elevate Michaelia Cash to Cabinet, replacing David Johnston, both to reward performance and to freshen and sharpen the sales.
Give Scott Morrison a bigger job, and a problem to fix. An expanded national security position is a minimum.
Make Kelly O’Dwyer a Parliamentary Secretary, again to reward talent and effort, but also to address the deficit of senior women and prominent Victorians.
Replace any Minister likely to quit at the next election and lacking cut-through. Pack the ministry with fighters. There are people in the list of Parliamentary Secretaries I’ve never heard speak. Yet people like Peter Hendy and Paul Fletcher are on the back bench? Give more say to the articulate, like Simon Birmingham.
Fight.
How Clive Palmer started the fire under his feet
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (8:42am)
Hedley Thomas on Clive Palmer’s biggest mistake:
===CLIVE Palmer, a tycoon with the traits of an all-or-nothing gambler, made an impossible bet in early February this year.Palmer is now in court. This could turn out very ugly for him.
He told his solicitor, Michael Dunham, to slip down to the Federal Court’s registry in Perth. He started a conflagration that, once started, would be hard to douse. Palmer tried to wind up China Inc.
Beijing’s state-owned Citic Pacific group, the international financial muscle of the Chinese Communist Party, could buy and sell Palmer and his company, Mineralogy, many times over.
Palmer had been demanding it pay him about $14 million. The Chinese were being invoiced this amount for the purported costs of running the port of Cape Preston. They were being pressured to cough up.
But the Chinese questioned the invoice and demands for the $14m — and they were scratching their heads as to how Palmer and his company had spent $12.167m of China’s funds in August and September last year on the remote port, as he was neither operating nor in possession of the port.
This is when Palmer doubled down. The wind-up proceedings were started by Dunham with a $3145 filing fee that he paid at 1.12pm on February 7. Dunham spoke to Palmer’s Brisbane-based PR adviser, Andrew Crook, who had been told by the federal member for Fairfax to put out a media release about how he was bringing to heel, bringing to its financial knees, the company spending $10 billion on China’s largest project in Australia.
The Left will destroy Australia out of spite for Abbott
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (7:59am)
Financial Review:
Maurice Newman describes well this betrayal of Australia’s true interests by the Left:
===[Tony Abbott’s] wider failure to make the case for the budget, to explain why it is so important, has cost him a chance to get the country behind what is a very real job of economic repair…I have been as critical as anyone about the Government sales pitch, but the Financial Review makes a mistake in thinking that failure is in any way comparable to Labor’s sabotage not just of Abbott’s program but of the rescue of our economy. Abbott could talk like Demosthenes and still have Labor, the Greens and Palmer’s rabble smash his attempts to repair the Budget, end the welfare culture and reform our workplaces.
The government now has $30 billion worth of cuts stalled in the Senate, and rapidly diminishing chances of reducing $200 billion in debt to zero by 2017-2018.
Yet while the government sits trapped in its own rhetoric of broken promises – which has emboldened Labor to oppose all sensible economy measures – the real-world case for making them gets stronger by the day…
Heavy investment in mining is over. The terms of trade boom peaked in 2011. The iron ore price has fallen steadily from $US140 to $US68 a tonne in 12 months and is unlikely to improve much… Something has to give, and ... the Parliamentary Budget Office ... suggested that a further 10 per cent decline in the terms of trade will leave the budget $12 billion short in a decade. Workforce growth will not help: that peaked late last decade. And without much higher than average productivity growth to make up the shortfall elsewhere, says the PBO, then the budget hole could open up to $33 billion over the next 10 years.
Maurice Newman describes well this betrayal of Australia’s true interests by the Left:
The Shorten opposition still fails to acknowledge the magnitude of the problem. It plays semantic games questioning whether our deteriorating fiscal situation is a genuine budget emergency. It ignores the disturbing trajectory, made worse by the $10 billion hole it has blown in the government’s budget. It ignores copious evidence that a political tipping point is reached long before an economic crisis becomes a reality.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Labor pretends it has plenty of alternatives to the government’s “unfair” budget. It doesn’t. It talks populism and social engineering while denying the magnitude of the task of repairing the damage it has caused.
Labor may tax 16,000 wealthy superannuated retirees but that is little more than an exercise in class envy. With corporate tax rates declining around the world, upping Australian rates is not an option. Labor could net $3 billion a year through bracket creep, but already, full-time average weekly earnings are in the second highest category and, without an indexation freeze, will rise 25 per cent within the decade. Good luck with the economics and politics of that. This is not a Coalition-Labor problem. It is an Australian problem. With 64 per cent of tax being paid by the top 17 per cent of taxpayers, this goose looks decidedly unwell and its days of laying golden eggs are virtually over.
And, thanks to the “unfair budget” campaign, the 60 per cent of families who pay no net tax will strenuously resist any further attempt to extract concessions from them....
The mass-produced ignorance drummed up by “progressive” elites has encouraged a dangerous voter mindset. By playing to welfare dependence, class envy and the notion that there is nothing serious to worry about, the illusion has been created that there is a painless growth option. Forget the Labor legacy and our deteriorating terms of trade, negative real wage growth and their collective impact on national income and tax revenue. Better to blame Abbott.
Proof that Tony Abbott lacks a communications guru
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (7:27am)
Yet more evidence that the Abbott Government lacks a strong media guru by the Prime Minister’s side:
Minchin would be great. Or is there a backbencher Abbott trusts who could do it, as Peter Mandelsohn famously did for Tony Blair?
===Tony Abbott [told] coalition MPs mystified by their government’s miserable ratings that he would scrape one or two barnacles away before the summer break…On many levels this incident shows why Abbott needs an additional source of advice in the heart of its office - someone skilled in messaging and with the authority of a Nick Minchin or Peta Credlin to direct it.
Abbott’s office ... [privately briefed] correspondents on Wednesday that in the first instance, just one thing would go by the wayside: the GP-charge on bulk-billed patients.
The unpopular measure cannot proceed in the current parliament, press gallery journalists from different organisations were told.
Yet just 12 hours later, ... Treasurer Joe Hockey told reporters the policy remained as central as it had been since the budget declaring “our policy stands”.
Reporter: “Why was the Prime Minister’s office briefing that it was gone yesterday?” Hockey: “I haven’t heard that.”
Point one: the Government in this specific case has once again talked itself into trouble.Abbott should get himself that guru soon. He’d have trouble recruiting someone senior and talented if he waits so long that they get little time in the job and a much tougher challenge.
Point two: that the co-payment is so friendless although so necessary is itself evidence that the Government’s sales job has been poor.
Point three: those who briefed journalists into writing a story that was instantly contradicted have lost credibility and pull with the media they’re paid to influence.
Minchin would be great. Or is there a backbencher Abbott trusts who could do it, as Peter Mandelsohn famously did for Tony Blair?
Voting for Labor to do what it promised not to
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (7:17am)
Victorian voters haven’t learned that they can’t have both Labor and the East West link:
===[A] new Herald Sun/Galaxy poll ... shows Labor still on track to take government, ahead of the Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis by 52 points to 48.And back we go to a Greens/Labor government:
About 60 per cent of people said they wanted the link built regardless of who they planned to vote for. This included 43 per cent of Labor supporters.
It’s likely that neither Labor nor the Coalition will control the Upper House on its own…Oh dear.
On your feet
Andrew Bolt November 28 2014 (7:02am)
Again, we must ask how compatible Islam is to a secular nation like ours, comprising people of many faiths and none:
===TWO Muslims have refused to stand for a District Court judge, with one claiming they are not “at the behest of any authority other than Islam”.A statement should be made that this is a country bound by a common law. Don’t like it? Then leave.
Under NSW law an accused is required to stand to hear the charge against them and respond with a plea of guilty or not guilty.
Wassim Fayad and co-accused Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah Al-Ahmadzai both defied the law yesterday and remained seated during their arraignments on an aggravated break and enter charge in Parramatta District Court.
Fayad initially refused to stand for Judge Andrew Colefax in the morning but elected to stand in the afternoon and plead not guilty to one charge of aggravated break and enter and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Al-Ahmadzai, 24, has now been referred to NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard after refusing to stand for Judge Colefax three times during his proceedings…The pair laughed and talked to each other while Judge Colefax addressed the court.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/08/italy-islam-not-recognized-as-a-religion-denied-religious-tax-status.html
===
http://www.cocktailrevolution.com.au/recipes/sangria/?gclid=CNHx2PjjhbsCFQQwpAodWiYARA#&slider1=1
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GONSKI SCAM
Bill Shorten’s hysteria over Gonski should fall on deaf ears because I’m certain my ears weren’t deaf when I heard Tony Abbott warn Gillard that her proposed Gonski scheme would not be valid unless it was a truly national scheme.
Gillard then tried everything to get all States and territories on board but she failed.
The extra millions in bribes may have worked for Napthine and O’Farrell but it disadvantaged Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory who had understandably refused to sign.
Then, in a fit of pique, the $1.2 billion that was originally allotted to those that didn’t sign was brought back into consolidated revenue by Labor to improve its budget position, leaving two States and the NT without any funding at all via Gonski.
Now Christopher Pyne has to renegotiate schools funding for the next 4 years with all States and Territories due to Labor’s initial funding mish-mash.
Of course those States who fell for Gillard’s web of bribery are now crying foul.
Pyne has had to find hundreds of millions to fill the gap in overall national funding.
Gillard was warned that her scheme needed to be national. It wasn’t!
Even David Gonski saw the idiocy of Gillard’s scheme and asked that his name be removed from the program.
It’s a shame the Press gallery didn’t understand what had happened.
Instead they were salivating at yet another opportunity to go Abbott bashing.
===Bill Shorten’s hysteria over Gonski should fall on deaf ears because I’m certain my ears weren’t deaf when I heard Tony Abbott warn Gillard that her proposed Gonski scheme would not be valid unless it was a truly national scheme.
Gillard then tried everything to get all States and territories on board but she failed.
The extra millions in bribes may have worked for Napthine and O’Farrell but it disadvantaged Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory who had understandably refused to sign.
Then, in a fit of pique, the $1.2 billion that was originally allotted to those that didn’t sign was brought back into consolidated revenue by Labor to improve its budget position, leaving two States and the NT without any funding at all via Gonski.
Now Christopher Pyne has to renegotiate schools funding for the next 4 years with all States and Territories due to Labor’s initial funding mish-mash.
Of course those States who fell for Gillard’s web of bribery are now crying foul.
Pyne has had to find hundreds of millions to fill the gap in overall national funding.
Gillard was warned that her scheme needed to be national. It wasn’t!
Even David Gonski saw the idiocy of Gillard’s scheme and asked that his name be removed from the program.
It’s a shame the Press gallery didn’t understand what had happened.
Instead they were salivating at yet another opportunity to go Abbott bashing.
"The ABC's decision to publish intelligence secrets stolen by the traitor Edward Snowden has whipped the Left into an extraordinary orgy of cant, conspiracy theories and stupidity."
===
===
Gittany is a Lebanese last name, from Zgharta .. ed
===
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174519
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174533
===
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174530
===- 587 – Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram of Burgundy recognizes Childebert II as his heir.
- 936 – Shi Jingtang is enthroned as the first emperor of the Later Jin by Emperor Taizong of Liao, following a revolt against Emperor Fei of Later Tang.
- 1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in central Albania and raise the Albanian flag.
- 1470 – Champa–Đại Việt War: Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Đại Việt formally launches his attack against Champa.
- 1520 – An expedition under the command of Ferdinand Magellan passes through the Strait of Magellan.
- 1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage licence.
- 1627 – The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy has its greatest and last victory in the Battle of Oliwa.
- 1660 – At Gresham College, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moraydecide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.
- 1666 – At least 3,000 men of the Royal Scots Army led by Tam Dalyell of the Binns defeat about 900 Covenanter rebels in the Battle of Rullion Green.
- 1785 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed.
- 1811 – Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, premieres at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
- 1814 – The Times of London becomes the first newspaper to be produced on a steam-powered printing press, built by the German team of Koenig & Bauer.
- 1821 – Panama Independence Day: Panama separates from Spain and joins Gran Colombia.
- 1843 – Ka Lā Hui (Hawaiian Independence Day): The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.
- 1862 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General James G. Blunt defeat General John Marmaduke's Confederates.
- 1885 – Bulgarian victory in the Serbo-Bulgarian War preserves the Unification of Bulgaria.
- 1893 – Women's suffrage in New Zealand concludes with the New Zealand general election, 1893.
- 1895 – The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours.
- 1899 – The Second Boer War: a British column is engaged by Boer forces at the Battle of Modder River; although the Boers withdraw, the British suffer heavy casualties.
- 1905 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.
- 1908 – A mine explosion in Marianna, Pennsylvania, kills 154 men, leaving only one survivor.
- 1909 – Sergei Rachmaninoff makes the debut performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3, considered to be one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire.
- 1910 – The Liberal Party, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, wins the second Greek general election of the year.
- 1912 – Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1914 – World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
- 1917 – The Estonian Provincial Assembly declares itself the sovereign power of Estonia.
- 1919 – Lady Astor is elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She is the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. (Countess Markievicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit.)
- 1920 – Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush: The Irish Republican Army ambush a convoy of British Auxiliaries and kill seventeen.
- 1925 – The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance.
- 1942 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 492 people.
- 1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchilland Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy.
- 1958 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.
- 1960 – Mauritania becomes independent of France.
- 1964 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.
- 1964 – Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnsonadopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
- 1966 – Michel Micombero overthrows the monarchy of Burundi and makes himself the first president.
- 1967 – The first pulsar known as PSR B1919+21 in the constellation of Vulpecula was discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.
- 1971 – Fred Quilt, a leader of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation suffers severe abdominal injuries allegedly caused by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers; he dies two days later.
- 1971 – Wasfi al-Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan, is assassinated by the Black September unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
- 1972 – Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison.
- 1975 – East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.
- 1979 – Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.
- 1980 – Iran–Iraq War: Operation Morvarid: The bulk of the Iraqi Navy is destroyed by the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf. (Commemorated in Iran as Navy Day.)
- 1987 – South African Airways Flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board.
- 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution: In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power.
- 1991 – South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.
- 2002 – Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya; their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 with surface-to-air missiles.
- 2014 – Gunmen set off three bombs at the central mosque in the northern city of Kano killing at least 120 people.
- 1118 – Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1180)
- 1570 – James Whitelocke, English judge and politician, Chief Justice of Chester (d. 1632)
- 1598 – Hans Nansen, Danish lawyer and politician (d. 1667)
- 1628 – John Bunyan, English preacher, theologian, and author (d. 1688)
- 1632 – Jean-Baptiste Lully, Italian-French composer and manager (d. 1687)
- 1640 – Willem de Vlamingh, Flemish captain and explorer (d. 1698)
- 1661 – Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, English soldier and politician, 14th Colonial Governor of New York (d. 1723)
- 1681 – Jean Cavalier, French rebel leader (d. 1740)
- 1700 – Nathaniel Bliss, English astronomer and mathematician (d. 1764)
- 1700 – Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (d. 1770)
- 1757 – William Blake, English poet and painter (d. 1827)
- 1772 – Luke Howard, English chemist and meteorologist (d. 1864)
- 1774 – Maria Antonia of Parma (d. 1841)
- 1785 – Victor de Broglie, French lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of France (d. 1870)
- 1792 – Victor Cousin, French philosopher and academic (d. 1867)
- 1793 – Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, Swedish poet, composer, and critic (d. 1866)
- 1805 – John Lloyd Stephens, American archeologist and explorer (d. 1852)
- 1810 – William Froude, English engineer and architect (d. 1879)
- 1820 – Friedrich Engels, German-English philosopher, economist, and journalist (d. 1895)
- 1829 – Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1894)
- 1837 – John Wesley Hyatt, American engineer (d. 1920)
- 1853 – Helen Magill White, American academic (d. 1944)
- 1857 – Alfonso XII of Spain (d. 1885)
- 1864 – James Allen, English author and poet (d. 1912)
- 1864 – Lindley Miller Garrison, American lawyer and politician, 46th United States Secretary of War (d. 1932)
- 1866 – Henry Bacon, American architect, designed the Lincoln Memorial (d. 1924)
- 1876 – Bert Vogler, South African cricketer (d. 1946)
- 1880 – Alexander Blok, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1921)
- 1881 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian author, playwright, and journalist (d. 1942)
- 1887 – Ernst Röhm, German soldier and politician (d. 1934)
- 1891 – Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino journalist, jurist, and politician (d. 1949)
- 1894 – Henry Hazlitt, American economist and philosopher (d. 1993)
- 1895 – José Iturbi, Spanish pianist and conductor (d. 1980)
- 1896 – Dawn Powell, American author and playwright (d. 1965)
- 1896 – Lilia Skala, Austrian-American actress (d. 1994)
- 1898 – İhap Hulusi Görey, Turkish graphic artist (d. 1986)
- 1903 – Gladys O'Connor, English-Canadian actress (d. 2012)
- 1904 – James Eastland, American planter and politician (d. 1986)
- 1904 – Nancy Mitford, English journalist and author (d. 1973)
- 1907 – Rose Bampton, American soprano and educator (d. 2007)
- 1907 – Alberto Moravia, Italian journalist and author (d. 1990)
- 1907 – Henry Picard, American golfer (d. 1997)
- 1908 – Michael Adekunle Ajasin, Nigerian educator and politician, 3rd Governor of Ondo State (d. 1997)
- 1908 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-French anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 2009)
- 1910 – Elsie Quarterman, American ecologist and academic (d. 2014)
- 1911 – Václav Renč, Czech poet and playwright (d. 1973)
- 1912 – Morris Louis, American painter (d. 1962)
- 1913 – Cliff Addison, English chemist and academic (d. 1994)
- 1915 – Evald Okas, Estonian painter and academic (d. 2011)
- 1915 – Yves Thériault, Canadian author (d. 1983)
- 1916 – Lilian, Princess of Réthy (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Ramón José Velásquez, Venezuelan journalist, lawyer, and politician, President of Venezuela (d. 2014)
- 1919 – Keith Miller, Australian cricketer, footballer, and pilot (d. 2004)
- 1923 – Gloria Grahame, American actress (d. 1981)
- 1924 – Dennis Brutus, South African journalist, poet, and academic (d. 2009)
- 1924 – Johanna Döbereiner, Czech-Brazilian agronomist and academic (d. 2000)
- 1925 – József Bozsik, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 1978)
- 1925 – Gigi Gryce, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1983)
- 1927 – Chuck Mitchell, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1928 – Arthur Melvin Okun, American economist and academic (d. 1980)
- 1928 – Piet Steenbergen, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 2010)
- 1929 – Berry Gordy, Jr., American songwriter and producer, founded Motown Records
- 1931 – Dervla Murphy, Irish cyclist and author
- 1931 – Tomi Ungerer, French author and illustrator
- 1931 – Ed Young, Chinese-American author and illustrator
- 1932 – Gato Barbieri, Argentinian saxophonist and composer (d. 2016)
- 1932 – Terence Frisby, English author and playwright
- 1933 – Joe Knollenberg, American soldier and politician
- 1933 – Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1935 – Frik du Preez, South African rugby player
- 1935 – Randolph Stow, Australian-English author and poet (d. 2010)
- 1936 – Gary Hart, American lawyer and politician, 6th United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland
- 1936 – Celin Romero, Spanish-American guitarist
- 1940 – Bruce Channel, American singer-songwriter
- 1941 – Laura Antonelli, Croatian-Italian actress (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Manolo Blahnik, Spanish-English shoe designer
- 1942 – Paul Warfield, American football player and sportscaster
- 1943 – Randy Newman, American singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1944 – Rita Mae Brown, American author, poet, and screenwriter
- 1944 – R. B. Greaves, Guyanese-American singer-songwriter (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Franklin Drilon, Filipino lawyer and politician, 22nd President of the Senate of the Philippines
- 1946 – Joe Dante, American director and producer
- 1947 – Michel Berger, French singer-songwriter (d. 1992)
- 1947 – Maria Farantouri, Greek singer and politician
- 1948 – Beeb Birtles, Dutch-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1948 – Mick Channon, English footballer and horse trainer
- 1948 – Alan Lightman, American physicist, author, and academic
- 1948 – Dick Morris, American political consultant, journalist, and author
- 1949 – Alexander Godunov, Russian-American actor and dancer (d. 1995)
- 1949 – Paul Shaffer, Canadian-American singer, keyboard player, and bandleader (CBS Orchestra)
- 1950 – Ed Harris, American actor and producer
- 1950 – Russell Alan Hulse, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1951 – Barbara Morgan, American educator and astronaut
- 1952 – S. Epatha Merkerson, American actress
- 1952 – Ole Thomsen, Norwegian guitarist and composer
- 1953 – Alistair Darling, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
- 1953 – Helen De Michiel, American director and producer
- 1953 – Sixto Lezcano, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
- 1953 – Gordon Marsden, English journalist and politician
- 1954 – Necip Hablemitoğlu, Turkish historian and academic (d. 2002)
- 1955 – Alessandro Altobelli, Italian footballer and sportscaster
- 1955 – Adem Jashari, Kosovo commander (d. 1998)
- 1956 – Fiona Armstrong, English-Scottish journalist and author
- 1957 – Peeter Järvelaid, Estonian historian and scholar
- 1958 – Kriss Akabusi, English sprinter and hurdler
- 1958 – Dave Righetti, American baseball player and coach
- 1959 – Nancy Charest, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
- 1959 – Judd Nelson, American actor and screenwriter
- 1959 – Stephen Roche, Irish cyclist and sportscaster
- 1960 – Jorge Domecq, Spanish lawyer and diplomat
- 1960 – John Galliano, Gibraltarian-English fashion designer
- 1960 – Andy Ritchie, English footballer and manager
- 1960 – Kenny Wharton, English footballer and coach
- 1961 – Martin Clunes, English actor, singer, and director
- 1961 – Alfonso Cuarón, Mexican director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Matt Cameron, American drummer and songwriter
- 1962 – Paul Dinello, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Juan Carlos Rosero, Ecuadorian cyclist (d. 2013)
- 1962 – Jon Stewart, American comedian, actor, and television host
- 1963 – Armando Iannucci, Scottish comedian, actor, director, and producer
- 1963 – Andrew Jones, English politician
- 1963 – Johnny Newman, American basketball player
- 1963 – Walt Weiss, American baseball player and manager
- 1964 – Michael Bennet, Indian-American lawyer and politician
- 1964 – John Burkett, American baseball player and bowler
- 1964 – Roy Tarpley, American basketball player (d. 2015)
- 1964 – Sian Williams, English-Welsh journalist
- 1965 – Erwin Mortier, Belgian author and poet
- 1965 – Matt Williams, American baseball player and manager
- 1967 – Chris Heaton-Harris, English businessman and politician
- 1967 – José del Solar, Peruvian footballer and manager
- 1967 – Stephnie Weir, American actress and comedian
- 1968 – Darren Bett, English journalist
- 1969 – Nick Knight, English cricketer and sportscaster
- 1969 – Robb Nen, American baseball player and manager
- 1969 – Valeri Nikitin, Estonian wrestler
- 1969 – Sonia O'Sullivan, Irish athlete
- 1970 – Álex López Morón, Spanish tennis player
- 1970 – Richard Osman, English television host, director, and producer
- 1971 – Rob Conway, American wrestler
- 1971 – Fenriz, Norwegian singer-songwriter
- 1971 – Cathy Garcia-Molina, Filipino actress and director
- 1972 – Paulo Figueiredo, Angolan footballer
- 1972 – Anastasia Kelesidou, German-Greek discus thrower
- 1972 – Jesper Strömblad, Swedish guitarist and songwriter
- 1973 – Jade Puget, American guitarist and producer
- 1974 – apl.de.ap, Filipino-American singer and rapper
- 1974 – András Tölcséres, Hungarian footballer and manager
- 1975 – Bakarhythm, Japanese comedian, actor, playwright, and composer
- 1975 – Eka Kurniawan, Indonesian journalist and author
- 1975 – Park Sung-bae, South Korean footballer
- 1975 – Takashi Shimoda, Japanese footballer
- 1975 – Sigurd Wongraven, Norwegian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1976 – Ryan Kwanten, Australian actor
- 1977 – Marlon Broomes, English footballer
- 1977 – Fabio Grosso, Italian footballer and manager
- 1977 – Acer Nethercott, English rower (d. 2013)
- 1977 – Gavin Rae, Scottish footballer
- 1977 – Greg Somerville, New Zealand rugby player
- 1977 – DeMya Walker, American basketball player
- 1978 – Brent Albright, American wrestler
- 1978 – Darryl Flahavan, English footballer
- 1978 – Aimee Garcia, American actress
- 1978 – Camilla Long, English columnist
- 1978 – Freddie Mitchell, American football player
- 1978 – Mehdi Nafti, Tunisian footballer
- 1978 – Michael Simpkins, English footballer
- 1978 – Haytham Tambal, Sudanese footballer
- 1979 – Chamillionaire, American rapper, entrepreneur, and investor
- 1979 – Katarzyna Strączy, Polish tennis player
- 1980 – Lisa Middelhauve, German singer-songwriter
- 1980 – Stuart Taylor, English footballer
- 1981 – Jacqui Ainsley, English model
- 1981 – Sharon Needles, American drag queen performer and singer
- 1981 – Erick Rowan, American wrestler
- 1981 – Brian Tevreden, Dutch footballer
- 1982 – Leandro Barbosa, Brazilian basketball player
- 1982 – Chris Harris, English motorcycle racer
- 1982 – Raido Villers, Estonian basketball player
- 1983 – Tyler Glenn, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1983 – Summer Rae, American football player, wrestler, and actress
- 1983 – Édouard Roger-Vasselin, French tennis player
- 1983 – Nelson Haedo Valdez, Paraguayan footballer
- 1984 – Andrew Bogut, Australian basketball player
- 1984 – Marc-André Fleury, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Trey Songz, American R&B singer-songwriter and actor
- 1984 – Mary Elizabeth Winstead, American actress and producer
- 1985 – Mike Kostka, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Caitlin McClatchey, English-Scottish swimmer
- 1985 – Álvaro Pereira, Uruguayan footballer
- 1986 – Mouhamadou Dabo, French footballer
- 1987 – Karen Gillan, Scottish actress
- 1987 – Craig Kieswetter, English cricketer
- 1988 – Daniel Matsunaga, Brazilian-Japanese actor and model
- 1989 – Laura Alleway, Australian footballer
- 1989 – Jamie Buhrer, Australian rugby league player
- 1990 – Dedryck Boyata, Belgian footballer
- 1990 – Bradley Smith, English motorcycle racer
- 1992 – Jake Miller, American singer-songwriter
- 1993 – David Nofoaluma, Australian-Samoan rugby league player
- 1995 – Chase Elliott, American race car driver
Births[edit]
- 741 – Pope Gregory III
- 1170 – Owain Gwynedd, Welsh king (b. 1080)
- 1290 – Eleanor of Castile (b. 1241)
- 1574 – Georg Major, German theologian and educator (b. 1502)
- 1585 – Hernando Franco, Spanish composer (b. 1532)
- 1667 – Jean de Thévenot, French linguist and botanist (b. 1633)
- 1675 – Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh, English soldier and politician (b. 1608)
- 1675 – Leonard Hoar, English minister and academic (b. 1630)
- 1680 – Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1598)
- 1680 – Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Italian painter and architect (b. 1606)
- 1694 – Matsuo Bashō, Japanese poet and scholar (b. 1644)
- 1695 – Giovanni Paolo Colonna, Italian organist, composer, and educator (b. 1637)
- 1695 – Anthony Wood, English historian and author (b. 1632)
- 1698 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, French soldier and politician, 3rd Governor General of New France (b. 1622)
- 1763 – Naungdawgyi, Burmese king (b. 1734)
- 1785 – William Whipple, American general and politician (b. 1730)
- 1794 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian-American general (b. 1730)
- 1794 – Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet, English politician (b. 1736)
- 1801 – Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, French geologist and academic (b. 1750)
- 1815 – Johann Peter Salomon, German violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1745)
- 1852 – Ludger Duvernay, French journalist and politician (b. 1799)
- 1852 – Emmanuil Xanthos, Greek activist, co-founded Filiki Eteria (b. 1772)
- 1859 – Washington Irving, American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian (b. 1783)
- 1870 – Frédéric Bazille, French soldier and painter (b. 1841)
- 1872 – Mary Somerville, Scottish-Italian astronomer, mathematician, and author (b. 1780)
- 1873 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer and meteorologist (b. 1808)
- 1878 – Orson Hyde, American religious leader, 3rd President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (b. 1805)
- 1880 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, Portuguese archbishop (b. 1837)
- 1890 – Jyotirao Phule, Indian philosopher and activist (b. 1827)
- 1899 – Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (b. 1837)
- 1901 – Moses Dickson, African-American abolitionist, soldier, minister and founder of The Knights of Liberty (b. 1824)
- 1904 – Hermann de Pourtalès, Swiss sailor (b. 1847)
- 1907 – Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish playwright, poet, and painter (b. 1869)
- 1912 – Walter Benona Sharp, American businessman (b. 1870)
- 1917 – Mikelis Avlichos, Greek poet and scholar (b. 1844)
- 1930 – Constantine VI of Constantinople (b. 1859)
- 1935 – Erich von Hornbostel, Austrian musicologist and scholar (b. 1877)
- 1939 – James Naismith, Canadian-American physician and educator, created basketball (b. 1861)
- 1943 – Aleksander Hellat, Estonian lawyer and politician, 6th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1881)
- 1945 – Dwight F. Davis, American tennis player and politician, 49th United States Secretary of War (b. 1879)
- 1947 – Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, French general (b. 1902)
- 1953 – Frank Olson, American biologist and chemist (b. 1910)
- 1954 – Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- 1960 – Dirk Jan de Geer, Dutch lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1870)
- 1960 – Tsunenohana Kan'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 31st Yokozuna (b. 1896)
- 1960 – Max Pruss, Prussian captain (b. 1891)
- 1960 – Richard Wright, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet (b. 1908)
- 1962 – K. C. Dey, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1893)
- 1962 – Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (b. 1880)
- 1968 – Enid Blyton, English author and poet (b. 1897)
- 1971 – Wasfi al-Tal, Jordanian captain and politician, 34th Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1920)
- 1972 – Havergal Brian, English composer (b. 1875)
- 1973 – Marthe Bibesco, Romanian-French author and poet (b. 1886)
- 1976 – Rosalind Russell, American actress, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1907)
- 1977 – Bob Meusel, American baseball player and sailor (b. 1896)
- 1978 – Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Argentinian businessman (b. 1902)
- 1982 – Helen of Greece and Denmark (b. 1896)
- 1983 – Christopher George, American actor (b. 1929)
- 1987 – Choh Hao Li, Chinese-American biologist and chemist (b. 1913)
- 1992 – Sidney Nolan, Australian-English painter and academic (b. 1917)
- 1993 – Jerry Edmonton, Canadian-American drummer (b. 1946)
- 1993 – Garry Moore, American comedian, television personality, and game show host (b. 1915)
- 1994 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (b. 1960)
- 1994 – Buster Edwards, English boxer and criminal (b. 1932)
- 1994 – Jerry Rubin, American businessman and activist (b. 1938)
- 1995 – Joe Kelly, Irish race car driver (b. 1915)
- 1997 – Georges Marchal, French actor (b. 1920)
- 1998 – Kerry Wendell Thornley, American soldier and author (b. 1938)
- 2001 – Kal Mann, American songwriter (b. 1917)
- 2001 – William Reid, Scottish lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1921)
- 2002 – Melih Cevdet Anday, Turkish poet and author (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Ted Bates, English footballer and manager (b. 1918)
- 2003 – Antonia Forest, English author (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Mihkel Mathiesen, Estonian engineer and politician (b. 1918)
- 2005 – Marc Lawrence, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1910)
- 2005 – Jack Concannon, American football player and actor (b. 1943)
- 2006 – Lyubov Polishchuk, Russian actress (b. 1949)
- 2007 – Gudrun Wagner, Prussian director and producer (b. 1944)
- 2008 – Havaldar Gajender Singh, Indian sergeant (b. 1972)
- 2008 – Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Indian soldier (b. 1977)
- 2009 – Gilles Carle, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
- 2009 – Takeo Kajiwara, Japanese Go player (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Giorgos Fountas, Greek actor (b. 1922)
- 2010 – Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American actor and producer (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Lloyd J. Old, American immunologist and academic (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Knut Ahnlund, Swedish historian, author, and academic (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Don Rhymer, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1961)
- 2012 – Spain Rodriguez, American illustrator (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Franco Ventriglia, American opera singer (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Zig Ziglar, American soldier and author (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Jack Matthews, American author, playwright, and academic (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Mitja Ribičič, Italian-Slovenian soldier and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Jean-Louis Roux, Canadian actor and politician, 34th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Austrian-American poet and songwriter (b. 1920)
- 2014 – Chespirito, Mexican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 2014 – Said Akl, Lebanese poet, playwright, and linguist (b. 1912)
- 2014 – Dale Armstrong, Canadian race car driver (b. 1941)
- 2015 – Wayne Bickerton, Welsh songwriter and producer (b. 1941)
- 2015 – Luc Bondy, Swiss director and producer (b. 1948)
- 2015 – Gerry Byrne, English-Welsh footballer (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Doug Lennox, Canadian actor and radio host (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Marjorie Lord, American actress (b. 1918)
- 2015 – Olene Walker, American lawyer and politician, 15th Governor of Utah (b. 1930)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Catherine Labouré
- Feast of the Holy Sovereigns (Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii)
- Kamehameha and Emma (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Herman of Alaska, the anniversary of his actual death. Eastern Orthodox
- Pope Gregory III
- Albanian Flag Day, celebrate the independence of Albania from Turkey in 1912, the first Albanian flag raise by Skanderbeg in 1443, and for the new parliamentary constitution in 1998.
- Heroes' Day (Sri Lanka)
- Hōonkō (Japan)
- Independence Day (Mauritania), celebrate the independence of Mauritania from France in 1960.
- Independence Day (Panama), celebrate the independence of Panama from Spain in 1821.
- Navy Day (Iran)
- Republic Day (Burundi)
- Republic Day (Chad)
Holidays and observances[edit]
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” Colossians 3:16 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
In Joshua the high priest we see a picture of each and every child of God, who has been made nigh by the blood of Christ, and has been taught to minister in holy things, and enter into that which is within the veil. Jesus has made us priests and kings unto God, and even here upon earth we exercise the priesthood of consecrated living and hallowed service. But this high priest is said to be "standing before the angel of the Lord," that is, standing to minister. This should be the perpetual position of every true believer. Every place is now God's temple, and his people can as truly serve him in their daily employments as in his house. They are to be always "ministering," offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting themselves a "living sacrifice." But notice where it is that Joshua stands to minister, it is before the angel of Jehovah. It is only through a mediator that we poor defiled ones can ever become priests unto God. I present what I have before the messenger, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus; and through him my prayers find acceptance wrapped up in his prayers; my praises become sweet as they are bound up with bundles of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia from Christ's own garden. If I can bring him nothing but my tears, he will put them with his own tears in his own bottle for he once wept; if I can bring him nothing but my groans and sighs, he will accept these as an acceptable sacrifice, for he once was broken in heart, and sighed heavily in spirit. I myself, standing in him, am accepted in the Beloved; and all my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine abhorrence, are so received, that God smelleth a sweet savour. He is content and I am blessed. See, then, the position of the Christian--"a priest--standing--before the angel of the Lord."
Evening
Could there be a sweeter word in any language than that word "forgiveness," when it sounds in a guilty sinner's ear, like the silver notes of jubilee to the captive Israelite? Blessed, forever blessed be that dear star of pardon which shines into the condemned cell, and gives the perishing a gleam of hope amid the midnight of despair! Can it be possible that sin, such sin as mine, can be forgiven, forgiven altogether, and forever? Hell is my portion as a sinner--there is no possibility of my escaping from it while sin remains upon me--can the load of guilt be uplifted, the crimson stain removed? Can the adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be loosed from their mortices, or the doors be lifted from their hinges? Jesus tells me that I may yet be clear. Forever blessed be the revelation of atoning love which not only tells me that pardon is possible, but that it is secured to all who rest in Jesus. I have believed in the appointed propitiation, even Jesus crucified, and therefore my sins are at this moment, and forever, forgiven by virtue of his substitutionary pains and death. What joy is this! What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! My soul dedicates all her powers to him who of his own unpurchased love became my surety, and wrought out for me redemption through his blood. What riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive at all, to forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive forever! Here is a constellation of wonders; and when I think of how great my sins were, how dear were the precious drops which cleansed me from them, and how gracious was the method by which pardon was sealed home to me, I am in a maze of wondering worshipping affection. I bow before the throne which absolves me, I clasp the cross which delivers me, I serve henceforth all my days the Incarnate God, through whom I am this night a pardoned soul.
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Today's reading: Ezekiel 30-32, 1 Peter 4 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 30-32
A Lament Over Egypt
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“‘Wail and say,
“Alas for that day!”
3 For the day is near,
the day of the LORD is near—
a day of clouds,
a time of doom for the nations.
4 A sword will come against Egypt,
and anguish will come upon Cush.
When the slain fall in Egypt,
her wealth will be carried away
and her foundations torn down.
“Alas for that day!”
3 For the day is near,
the day of the LORD is near—
a day of clouds,
a time of doom for the nations.
4 A sword will come against Egypt,
and anguish will come upon Cush.
When the slain fall in Egypt,
her wealth will be carried away
and her foundations torn down.
5 Cush and Libya, Lydia and all Arabia, Kub and the people of the covenant land will fall by the sword along with Egypt.
6 “‘This is what the LORD says:
“‘The allies of Egypt will falland her proud strength will fail....
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Peter 4
Living for God
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit....
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