I am very good and don't deserve the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.
Here is a video I made English, it is hard
Poem and anecdote illustrating the difficulties of English
cf http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=39402
Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce
and hammers don't ham.
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese; so one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? One mouse, 2 mice, one louse, 2 lice; so one house, 2 hice?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"
=== from 2016 ===
A year ago today a policeman shot and killed Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina. The policeman, Michael Slager, was white, Scott was black. The #BlackLivesMatter movement was immediately outraged. The police report submitted by Slager was at odds with a video posted after the report was made. It looks as if Slager planted evidence of an attempted Taser grab by Scott. Slager shot 8 times while Scott was running away. Only five shots hit. The case goes on trial in October 2016. A medical report shows that Scott was under the influence of Cocaine and alcohol.
Slager has said that Scott tried to grab his taser. That is not seen on the video. Had Slager not killed Scott, Scott would not have been able to sue Slager because of his condition from drugs. It seems clear that Slager has shot wildly and with intent to kill. Much will depend on his testimony from before the video was taken. But if #BlackLivesMatter, then blacks should stop killing black people, and stealing from them.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
Slager has said that Scott tried to grab his taser. That is not seen on the video. Had Slager not killed Scott, Scott would not have been able to sue Slager because of his condition from drugs. It seems clear that Slager has shot wildly and with intent to kill. Much will depend on his testimony from before the video was taken. But if #BlackLivesMatter, then blacks should stop killing black people, and stealing from them.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
US Cop arrested after shooting dead a man who resisted arrest. The footage showing a man who was tasered and who attempted to take the taser is not presented. But the footage of the man running away and being shot is. It looks bad. But the cop is being charged with murder for the possibility of doing his job on his own and unsupported against a violent man who had resisted arrest and allegedly had attempted to obtain a weapon. It is good the situation wasn't reversed.
Some call it a statement of faith, but in 475, when the Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issued a circular to bishops supporting the Monophysite position in Christian theology, he chose to be deposed. He hadn't known that was the choice he was making. He had decided to indulge some monks who felt strongly about the matter. But the religious authorities in positions of power disagreed and moved to have him deposed. Basiliscus was not very smart, but slow. He is described by contemporaries of being slow of understanding and easy to deceive. The previous emperor, Zeno, still lived and was brother in law to Basiliscus. Basiliscus faced insurmountable odds against Zeno after twenty months as Emperor, and surrendered to him on the promise Zeno would not kill him and his family. Zeno had Basiliscus and his family imprisoned in a fortress where they were exposed to the elements until they died. For the record, the Monophysite position is what later theologians adopted.
Some call it a statement of faith, but in 475, when the Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issued a circular to bishops supporting the Monophysite position in Christian theology, he chose to be deposed. He hadn't known that was the choice he was making. He had decided to indulge some monks who felt strongly about the matter. But the religious authorities in positions of power disagreed and moved to have him deposed. Basiliscus was not very smart, but slow. He is described by contemporaries of being slow of understanding and easy to deceive. The previous emperor, Zeno, still lived and was brother in law to Basiliscus. Basiliscus faced insurmountable odds against Zeno after twenty months as Emperor, and surrendered to him on the promise Zeno would not kill him and his family. Zeno had Basiliscus and his family imprisoned in a fortress where they were exposed to the elements until they died. For the record, the Monophysite position is what later theologians adopted.
From 2014
Today is the birthday of Paul Robeson (1898) as well as two significant events involving bad faith race relations, Marian Anderson being declined the right to sing at a function because of her skin colour in 1939 and Hendrick Verwoerd, architect of South Africa's Apartheid, and his failed assassination attempt in 1960 by a white farmer David Pratt.
Verwoerd was a Nazi loving jew hating bigot. He garnered populist support in South Africa with a populist mix of protectionism and nationalism. His worker advocacy illustrates the closeness of Communism to National Socialism. A white farmer, David Pratt shot him twice with a 22 caliber gun at point blank range. But Pratt hadn't meant to kill Verwoerd. Pratt was declared mentally unfit, and committed suicide the day before he was to be paroled. It wasn't until 1966 that another mentally ill person successfully killed Verwoerd. So today is the anniversary of a failure.
Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated voices of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth said "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty." She had been denied In 1939, by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) permission to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. Instead, on this day in 1939, she performed in front of an audience of 75000 and a radio audience of millions on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She was a classical musician of supreme talent who missed opportunities because of bigotry, but who still rose to the pinnacle of achievement.
Paul Robeson was right to speak out about social injustice, but very wrong to embrace communism as a solution. The failure of Communism to deal with human rights is similar to Nazism. But the injustice Robeson protested was real. He was born on this day. A supremely talented actor and singer, his beliefs hurt his career, and while he was also nobbled by the colour of his skin by a bigoted USA, it might have been the case that it would not have hampered his career. We will never know.
Verwoerd was a Nazi loving jew hating bigot. He garnered populist support in South Africa with a populist mix of protectionism and nationalism. His worker advocacy illustrates the closeness of Communism to National Socialism. A white farmer, David Pratt shot him twice with a 22 caliber gun at point blank range. But Pratt hadn't meant to kill Verwoerd. Pratt was declared mentally unfit, and committed suicide the day before he was to be paroled. It wasn't until 1966 that another mentally ill person successfully killed Verwoerd. So today is the anniversary of a failure.
Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated voices of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth said "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty." She had been denied In 1939, by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) permission to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. Instead, on this day in 1939, she performed in front of an audience of 75000 and a radio audience of millions on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She was a classical musician of supreme talent who missed opportunities because of bigotry, but who still rose to the pinnacle of achievement.
Paul Robeson was right to speak out about social injustice, but very wrong to embrace communism as a solution. The failure of Communism to deal with human rights is similar to Nazism. But the injustice Robeson protested was real. He was born on this day. A supremely talented actor and singer, his beliefs hurt his career, and while he was also nobbled by the colour of his skin by a bigoted USA, it might have been the case that it would not have hampered his career. We will never know.
Historical perspective on this day
In 193, Lucius Septimius Severus was proclaimed Emperor by his troops in Illyricum(Balkans). He marched with his army (16 legions) to Rome. 475, Byzantine EmperorBasiliscus issued a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position. 537, Siege of Rome: The Byzantine general Belisariusreceived his promised reinforcements, 1,600 cavalry, mostly of Hunnicor Slavic origin and expert bowmen. He starts, despite shortages, raided against the Gothic camps and Vitiges was forced into a stalemate. 1241, Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeated the Polish and German armies. 1288, Mongol invasions of Vietnam: Yuan forces were defeated by Trần forces in the Battle of Bach Dang in present-day northern Vietnam. 1388, Despite being outnumbered 16 to 1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy were victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Näfels. 1413, Henry V was crowned King of England. 1440, Christopher of Bavaria was appointed King of Denmark. 1454, the Treaty of Lodi was signed, establishing a balance of power among northern Italian city-states for almost 50 years.
In 1511, St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, received its charter. 1585, The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departed England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish the Roanoke Colony. 1609, Eighty Years' War: Spain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Antwerp to initiate twelve years of truce. 1682, Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, claimed it for France and named it Louisiana. 1782, American War of Independence: Battle of the Saintes began. 1860, on his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinvillemade the oldest known recording of an audible human voice. 1865, American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grantat Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war. 1867, Alaska Purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratified a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
In 1909, the U.S. Congress passed the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act. 1914, Mexican Revolution: One of the world's first naval/air skirmishes took place off the coast of western Mexico. 1916, World War I: The Battle of Verdun: German forces launched their third offensive of the battle. 1917, World War I: The Battle of Arras: The battle began with Canadian Corpsexecuting a massive assault on Vimy Ridge. 1918, World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps was crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders. Also 1918, the National Council of Bessarabia proclaimed union with the Kingdom of Romania. 1937, the Kamikaze arrived at Croydon Airport in London. It is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe. 1939, Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
In 1940, World War II: Operation Weserübung: Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Also 1940, Vidkun Quisling seized power in Norway. 1942, World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March: United States forces surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launched an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire were sunk off the island's east coast. 1945, World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was sunk by the Royal Air Force Also 1945, World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ended. Also 1945, the United States Atomic Energy Commission was formed. 1947, the Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornadoes killed 181 and injured 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Also 1947, the Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ridebegan through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel. 1948, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provoked a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia known as La violencia. Also 1948, Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100.
In 1952, Hugo Ballivián's government was overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines 1957, the Suez Canal in Egypt was cleared and opened to shipping. 1959, Project Mercury: NASA announced the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven". 1960, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a white farmer called David Pratt in Johannesburg. 1961, the Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ended operations. 1965, Astrodome opens. First indoor baseball game is played. 1967, The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) made its maiden flight. 1969, the "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Also 1969, the first British-built Concorde 002 made its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford. 1975, the first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world. Also 1975, Eight people in South Korea, who were involved in People's Revolutionary Party Incident, were hanged.
In 1980, the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein killed philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadrand his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture. 1981, the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collided with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it. 1989, the April 9 tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, an anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strike, demanding restoration of Georgian independence was dispersed by the Soviet army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries. 1991, Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union 1992, a U.S. Federal Court found former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. 1999, Battle of Košare began, part of Kosovo War. 2003, Invasion of Iraq: Baghdad fell to American forces; Iraqis turned on symbols of their former leader Saddam Hussein, pulling down a grand statue of him and tearing it to pieces. 2005, Charles, Prince of Wales married Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall. 2009, in Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protested against the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.
In 1511, St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, received its charter. 1585, The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departed England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish the Roanoke Colony. 1609, Eighty Years' War: Spain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Antwerp to initiate twelve years of truce. 1682, Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, claimed it for France and named it Louisiana. 1782, American War of Independence: Battle of the Saintes began. 1860, on his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinvillemade the oldest known recording of an audible human voice. 1865, American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grantat Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war. 1867, Alaska Purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratified a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
In 1909, the U.S. Congress passed the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act. 1914, Mexican Revolution: One of the world's first naval/air skirmishes took place off the coast of western Mexico. 1916, World War I: The Battle of Verdun: German forces launched their third offensive of the battle. 1917, World War I: The Battle of Arras: The battle began with Canadian Corpsexecuting a massive assault on Vimy Ridge. 1918, World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps was crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders. Also 1918, the National Council of Bessarabia proclaimed union with the Kingdom of Romania. 1937, the Kamikaze arrived at Croydon Airport in London. It is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe. 1939, Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
In 1940, World War II: Operation Weserübung: Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Also 1940, Vidkun Quisling seized power in Norway. 1942, World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March: United States forces surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launched an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire were sunk off the island's east coast. 1945, World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was sunk by the Royal Air Force Also 1945, World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ended. Also 1945, the United States Atomic Energy Commission was formed. 1947, the Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornadoes killed 181 and injured 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Also 1947, the Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ridebegan through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel. 1948, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provoked a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia known as La violencia. Also 1948, Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100.
In 1952, Hugo Ballivián's government was overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines 1957, the Suez Canal in Egypt was cleared and opened to shipping. 1959, Project Mercury: NASA announced the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven". 1960, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a white farmer called David Pratt in Johannesburg. 1961, the Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ended operations. 1965, Astrodome opens. First indoor baseball game is played. 1967, The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) made its maiden flight. 1969, the "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Also 1969, the first British-built Concorde 002 made its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford. 1975, the first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world. Also 1975, Eight people in South Korea, who were involved in People's Revolutionary Party Incident, were hanged.
In 1980, the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein killed philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadrand his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture. 1981, the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collided with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it. 1989, the April 9 tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, an anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strike, demanding restoration of Georgian independence was dispersed by the Soviet army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries. 1991, Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union 1992, a U.S. Federal Court found former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. 1999, Battle of Košare began, part of Kosovo War. 2003, Invasion of Iraq: Baghdad fell to American forces; Iraqis turned on symbols of their former leader Saddam Hussein, pulling down a grand statue of him and tearing it to pieces. 2005, Charles, Prince of Wales married Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall. 2009, in Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protested against the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.
=== 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 Daniel Nastevski and Zena Dablan. Born the same day Henry V was crowned King of England! I think Grace should give a pay rise.
- 1336 – Timur, Turkic ruler (d. 1405)
- 1597 – John Davenport, English minister, co-founded the New Haven Colony (d. 1670)
- 1598 – Johann Crüger, German composer (d. 1662)
- 1627 – Johann Kaspar Kerll, German organist and composer (d. 1693)
- 1717 – Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1750)
- 1806 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, English engineer, designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge (d. 1859)
- 1821 – Charles Baudelaire, French poet and critic (d. 1867)
- 1898 – Paul Robeson, American singer, actor, and activist (d. 1976)
- 1918 – Jørn Utzon, Danish architect, designed the Sydney Opera House (d. 2008)
- 1919 – J. Presper Eckert, American engineer, invented the ENIAC (d. 1995)
- 1925 – Art Kane, American photographer (d. 1995)
- 1926 – Hugh Hefner, American publisher, founded Playboy Enterprises
- 1928 – Tom Lehrer, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and mathematician
- 1930 – Wallace McCain, Canadian businessman, founded McCain Foods (d. 2011)
- 1932 – Carl Perkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
- 1943 – Terry Knight, American singer-songwriter and producer (Terry Knight and the Pack) (d. 2004)
- 1971 – Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver
- 1987 – Jesse McCartney, American singer-songwriter and actor (Dream Street)
- 1990 – Kristen Stewart, American actress
- 1998 – Elle Fanning, American actress
- 2000 – Jackie Evancho, American singer and actress
Deaths
- 585 BC – Emperor Jimmu, Japanese emperor (b. 711 BC)
- 93 – Yuan An, Chinese scholar
- 436 – Tan Daoji, Chinese general
- 491 – Zeno, Byzantine emperor (b. 425)
- 1626 – Sir Francis Bacon, English jurist and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1561)
- 1959 – Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater (b. 1867)
April 9: Maundy Thursday (Eastern Christianity, 2015); Vimy Ridge Day in Canada; Day of National Unity in Georgia (1989); Bataan Day in the Philippines
- 1918 – World War I: Aníbal Milhais's actions during the Battle of the Lys made him the only person to be awarded Portugal's highest military honour, the Order of the Tower and Sword, directly on the battlefield.
- 1939 – After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, African American singer Marian Anderson (pictured) gave an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
- 1940 – During the German invasion of Norway, Vidkun Quisling seized control of the government in a Nazi-backed coup d'état.
- 1967 – The first Boeing 737 took its maiden flight, eventually becoming the most ordered and produced commercial passenger jet airliner in the world.
- 2005 – Charles, Prince of Wales, married his long-time mistress Camilla Parker Bowles.
Honour is a good reason, but the least of reasons. Marian deserved better. Quisling deserved nothing. Maiden's take flight. Charles is getting married. Let's party.
Piers Akerman
Libs must return to core values or suffer
===Miranda Devine
Conservative voters have no truck with factions
Andrew Bolt
CHARLES WON'T READ. SO HE SAYS YES TO DANGER
HUH? WHAT LAWS DID UNIONS BREAK TO GIVE US MEDICARE?
JOHN HOWARD WILL FUND CIVILISATION'S ENEMIES
MORE AFRICAN VIOLENCE: WOMAN BASHED
MARK LATHAM ON THE NEW ANTI-WHITE RACISM
CHALKENING DOWNUNDER
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 09, 2016 (4:11pm)
US-style campus chalking campaigns are now occurring in Australia:
One of Australia’s most prestigious universities has condemned vandals who scrawled anti-Muslim messages including “Stop the Mosques” around its Parkville campus today.The University of Melbourne’s Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis has decried the offensive chalk slogans, saying they caused distress and were at odds with its diverse and inclusive community.The graffiti, which also included “Islam is not a race” and “Freedom of Speech”, surfaced this morning at seven sites around the campus, and was quickly removed by maintenance staff …In a statement on the university’s Facebook page, Prof Davis wrote that the “offensive slogans” were unacceptable.“While the University community moved quickly to identify and remove offensive messages, they still have caused distress,” he said …“Such slogans, chalked anonymously and intended to hurt, run counter to the vision of a safe, inclusive, connected and respectful University community, one that embraces diversity.”
Let’s work through these anonymously-chalked “offensive slogans”. Perhaps “Stop the Mosques” is unpleasant, but, then again, so is a campaign by inner-Melbourne leftoids to stop an aged care centre for the disadvantaged and homeless. One Australian Muslim academic recently called for a mosque stoppage himself, preferring greater investment in science and research. “Islam is not a race” is simply a statement of fact. And “Freedom of Speech” ought not be offensive to anyone, or at least anyone who respects freedom of speech.
===
PEACENIKS DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT PEACE LOOKS LIKE
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 09, 2016 (3:33pm)
The celebrated peace Mercedes makes a welcome re-appearance.
For the record, this three-pointed arrangement is a Mercedes symbol, here shown to advantage above the radiator of a certain German fellow’s state-supplied automobile. And this four-pointed deal is your common peace symbol, which emerged some decades later.
===
BEER BUCKLED
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 09, 2016 (2:43pm)
You’ve got to have priorities:
Broome police have charged a suspended driver after he allegedly had cartons of beer buckled into car seats while children were unrestrained in the foot wells.
Police said several children, including a baby less than a year old, were lying on the laps of adults and in foot wells while cartons of beer were piled onto the seats.
To be fair, maybe the beer cartons identified as people. You can never be sure these days.
===
MONEY ON THE MOVE
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 09, 2016 (1:57pm)
The smart money is getting out of Europe:
Millionaires are fleeing France.Around 10,000 millionaires left the country in 2015, according to a report by New World Wealth, which provides analysis on the global wealth sector.Paris saw the biggest exodus of high net worth individuals, with 7,000 millionaires leaving the city last year. That’s roughly 6% of Paris’ millionaires ...Most millionaire Parisians moved to the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and Israel.
Via David T., who emails: “Will this mean less cars to burn?” Maybe, but according to global millionaire migration statistics it also means a lot more wealth in Australia:
Australia … saw 8,000 millionaires coming to its shores. Around 7,000 millionaires moved to the U.S. in 2015, and 4,000 to Israel.
Geoffrey Blainey’s The Tyranny of Distance referred to Australia’s damnable geographic isolation. Now, in an era of terrorism, our isolation is a selling point.
===
WILLIAM AND DEAN
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 09, 2016 (6:29am)
Fairfax reports:
It’s an incongruous pairing. Labor leader Bill Shorten, the ruthless right-wing political operator; and a self-proclaimed “left field artist” and master of the ancient art of throat singing, Dean Frenkel.Frenkel, who lectures at Victoria University in public speaking, has been employed by Shorten, working on and off with the Opposition leader for the best part of a year to improve his communications skills.
This bodes ill for the “ruthless right-wing” Labor leader. In April 2013, Frenkel – a former cricket teammate of mine – praised Julia Gillard’s verbal ability. Within two months Shorten knifed her and handed the Prime Ministership to Kevin Rudd.
===
Political priests backing Labor
Andrew Bolt April 09 2016 (1:07pm)
Last week Labor leader Bill Shorten addressed a union rally in Adelaide with a priest in a dog collar on the stage right behind him.
Today his deputy, Tanya Plibersek, addressed the media at a gay marriage rally with another priest in a dog collar standing at her right shoulder.
If Tony Abbott gave political speeches with priests standing around him it would be a media hate-fest. But Labor can do it and it’s unremarked.
But isn’t it interesting that Leftist priests feel perfectly free to mix faith and politics in a way conservatives may not? And even in ways arguably inconsistent with their Bible?
Today his deputy, Tanya Plibersek, addressed the media at a gay marriage rally with another priest in a dog collar standing at her right shoulder.
If Tony Abbott gave political speeches with priests standing around him it would be a media hate-fest. But Labor can do it and it’s unremarked.
But isn’t it interesting that Leftist priests feel perfectly free to mix faith and politics in a way conservatives may not? And even in ways arguably inconsistent with their Bible?
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Would it really kill Turnbull to thank Abbott, too?
Andrew Bolt April 09 2016 (12:17pm)
An ungracious and ungenerous man just creates a new and damaging diversion.
Speaking at the Victorian Liberal State Council Malcolm Turnbull thanks the “Liberal giants” who have allowed him to see further - Sir Robert Menzies, John Howard and, “from the Victorian division” Peter Costello, Peter Reith, Kay Patterson, Richard Alston, Rod Kemp and David Kemp. Even Speaker Tony Smith gets a long panegyric.
“They are our foundation...”
Not a word of praise for the Liberal without whom there would have been no Prime Ministership for Turnbull to steal - Tony Abbott. No wonder there was no applause.
It was a failing that reminded me strongly of this similarly ungracious moment:
The ghost of Abbott is inadvertently summoned up again when Turnbull criticises Labor leader Bill Shorten as having an agenda that is “the Gillard agenda with a new coat of paint”.
No applause again. Bet you most of the audience was thinking that Turnbull’s agenda was just Abbott’s.
Speaking at the Victorian Liberal State Council Malcolm Turnbull thanks the “Liberal giants” who have allowed him to see further - Sir Robert Menzies, John Howard and, “from the Victorian division” Peter Costello, Peter Reith, Kay Patterson, Richard Alston, Rod Kemp and David Kemp. Even Speaker Tony Smith gets a long panegyric.
“They are our foundation...”
Not a word of praise for the Liberal without whom there would have been no Prime Ministership for Turnbull to steal - Tony Abbott. No wonder there was no applause.
It was a failing that reminded me strongly of this similarly ungracious moment:
KEVIN Rudd has been airbrushed from Labor history, with Julia Gillard refusing to acknowledge him in a speech to the ALP national conference in Sydney yesterday.UPDATE
While Mr Rudd sat smiling in the front row of the Darling Harbour Convention Centre auditorium, Ms Gillard named and paid tribute to former Labor prime ministers since 1940 John Curtin, Ben Chifley, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. The only names missing from the roll-call were Mr Rudd’s and Frank Forde, who only served eight days in 1941.
The ghost of Abbott is inadvertently summoned up again when Turnbull criticises Labor leader Bill Shorten as having an agenda that is “the Gillard agenda with a new coat of paint”.
No applause again. Bet you most of the audience was thinking that Turnbull’s agenda was just Abbott’s.
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Message to Turnbull: fight for the free market
Andrew Bolt April 09 2016 (10:31am)
Grace Collier says Malcolm Turnbull must do more to save independent truck drivers from government price-setting by the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal that will drive them out of business:
Prime Minister, what more are you waiting for — the Lord God himself to come down from the heavens and abolish the RSRT for you?…
You may think that this is only about a bunch of truckies. It is not. This is the thin end of the wedge. What do we call this — socialism, communism or just plain evil? Whatever we call it, the forces of organised labour are watching and waiting, salivating at the possibilities for wider application.
The Coalition stands for the free market or it doesn’t. The Coalition stands for small-business people having free access to open markets or it doesn’t. It stands for the rights of citizens to hire companies without worrying whether they may be prosecuted and fined or it doesn’t… So, Prime Minister, what will you do?
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Week two of this three-month election campaign was another Liberal prat-fall
Andrew Bolt April 09 2016 (10:13am)
Bring back Peta Credlin or someone else tough enough to impose some discipline on a Liberal election campaign that keeps kicking own goals.
Own goal one:
Own goal one:
James Jeffrey:Own goal two:
Treasurer Scott Morrison was having a chinwag with Radio National’s Fran Kelly ... [and] turned his attention to fashion: “Bill Shorten is up there in his ill-fitting suit, puffing his chest up and saying we need to thump the table."…Not smart, unleashing a flurry of criticism.
Mal Farr:
IT WAS a comment at the margin of a serious policy discussion [on Friday] but it betrayed a Commonwealth Treasurer under pressure… It was a moment which jarred because the remark was a word picture as irrelevant as it was nasty.The Financial Review’s Fleur Anderson:
[I]t played right into the Opposition’s portrayal of the Coalition as a bunch of silvertails in three-piece suits protecting their banker mates.Laurie Oakes:
Can he really be such a dill? Or is it a case of pressure getting to him?The response to follow-up questioning on the suit answer suggests Morrison won’t be talking journalists around to his side soon:
More bad messaging from the Government that struggles to sell anything at all:Own goal three:
Turnbull was in Melbourne on Friday morning for a major infrastructure announcement, spruiking $1.5 billion for Victorian roads and rail… But nobody could take their eyes off the massive #squad he had assembled behind him ... a pretty extraordinary, almost ludicrously large assembly. “I’m here today with the Treasurer, Scott Morrison, the Minister for Environment, Greg Hunt, the Minister for Major Projects, Paul Fletcher, the assistant Treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Materiel, Dan Tehan, Senator Scott Ryan, Minister for Vocational Education, and Alan Tudge, the Minister for Human Services,” Turnbull said.That’s 13 Ministers and backbenchers treated as props.
*deep breath*
“I’m also here with Sarah Henderson, the member for Corangamite, Jason Wood, member for La Trobe, Michael Sukar, member for Deakin, Helen Kroger, our candidate in Bruce, Julia Banks, our candidate in Chisholm and James Mathias, our candidate in Holt.” That’s 13—THIRTEEN—people assembled behind the PM to smile and laugh and nod.
What on earth makes Liberals think their poll numbers won’t sink even more? What is this ludicrous complacency? What is Turnbull actually doing that makes them think he can arrest this steady decline?Own goal four:
Barrie Cassidy:
(W)ith Labor hitting the lead [in Newspoll] for the first time since Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister ... (t)he level of anxiety in Coalition ranks has risen. One minister this week was privately asking the “what if” question. What if this is not the low water mark? What if the next poll, or the one after that, shows a further decline? After all, there has been a gradual deterioration since January, with the Government struggling to have a winning week in all that time. More troubling now for the Government, however, is that the issues are starting to work against them. Take education. The Government went flat out this week putting that issue front and centre… And now overlaying the whole education debate is the wash-up from the Prime Minister’s futile attempt to have the states raise their own income taxes. In the process he exposed a preference for the states to fund public schools ... [T]hat preference will be used by Labor to cast doubt over his commitment to public schools.<
Malcolm Turnbull provides the excuse for Bill Shorten to come over the top and trump his union royal commission with one on the banks, neutralising one of his big weaknesses - his ties to unions.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Here’s Turnbull three days ago:
Malcolm Turnbull has publicly reprimanded the big banks over customer mistreatment, but dodged questions about the possibility of calling a royal commission into the sector.Here’s Shorten two days later:
During a speech at a Westpac birthday event, the Prime Minister said… “The truth is that despite the public support offered at their time of need our bankers have not always treated their customers as they should… Some, regrettably as we know have taken advantage of fellow Australians and the savings they’ve spent a lifetime accumulating seeking only dignity and independence in their retirement.”
Bill Shorten has drawn political battlelines for a “workers versus big business” election fight with Malcolm Turnbull, promising a royal commission into the banking sector if Labor wins office.UPDATE
The Opposition Leader’s move to put financial chiefs in the dock over a series of recent scandals that included mistreatment of customers and interest rate manipulation comes as the Prime Minister lays the ground for a double-dissolution election centred around union corruption.
Two Government MPs are actually barracking for Shorten’s royal commission.
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The real delusional conservatives
Andrew Bolt April 09 2016 (9:32am)
“Delusional conservatives” are conservatives who think Malcolm Turnbull is one, too, or that he’s made a genius move even when he’s stuffed up big.
Michael Gordon describes the amusing symptoms, shared also by some of Turnbull’s Leftist backers:
But Gordon notes Turnbull has let Labor have a great pre-election build-up:
Phil Coorey agrees- Labor is match-fit for the campaign and the Liberals are not:
Michael Gordon describes the amusing symptoms, shared also by some of Turnbull’s Leftist backers:
[Turnbull’s] problem, or one of them, is that none of the big gambles has yet paid off. Not one.It is actually worse than that. Turnbull was actually described as having been a fox who masterfully called the states’ bluff on raising more taxes, and had cunningly spent months of apparent indecisive inactivity in actually planning the double dissolution ambush. So successful were these “triumphs” that Turnbull destroyed the Liberals’ poll lead.
It is a measure of the immense level of faith and hope that is still invested in Turnbull that, each time, there has been a tendency to rationalise the setbacks as part of some cunning plan that will deliver later on.
The first gamble was canvassing a hike in the GST to pay for personal income tax cuts, an option that was discarded a few days after Treasurer Scott Morrison convinced the Canberra press gallery it was a certainty. The view, back then, was that common sense had prevailed and Turnbull had been saved from himself by the threat of a backbench revolt…
The most recent gamble was the plan to give the states income taxing powers, a reform Turnbull cited as the most important to the Federation in generations. The idea was ditched within three days of being floated. This time, it was the premiers who were portrayed as saving “crazy brave” Malcolm from himself.. In between, was the biggest punt of all: the commitment to go to a double dissolution election on July 2 if the Senate crossbench refuses to pass legislation to restore “a cop on the beat” in the construction industry… It was in the context of pressing his case for state income taxing powers that Turnbull put forward another radical idea, one that had a certain logic in isolation, but was politically unhinged: withdrawing from federal funding public schools.
But Gordon notes Turnbull has let Labor have a great pre-election build-up:
One thing that should concern Turnbull is that his opponent has enjoyed what in the AFL is known as an uninterrupted pre-season, honing his lines in some 10 town hall meetings and almost 50 visits to marginal seats since January.UPDATE
Coalition strategists would not be unduly concerned that 68 of the 100 undecided voters at Thursday night’s Sky News People’s Forum in Brisbane said they were more likely to vote Labor after hearing Shorten speak. But they would be concerned that no one in the audience asked the question at the heart of the Coalition re-election strategy: whether Shorten intends to increase taxes or debt to pay for his expanding list of promises.
Phil Coorey agrees- Labor is match-fit for the campaign and the Liberals are not:
With an election likely to be called in a month’s time, every day this week Bill Shorten and his most senior shadow ministers fanned out to a different capital city somewhere, accompanied by one or two marginal seat candidates, all on message and spruiking Labor’s campaign themes. Apart from Shorten – who ... is already campaign-fit, with about a dozen town hall community forums in the bag – the week featured Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke and Penny Wong. All are former ministers ... and not one of them contradicted each other or their leader…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
By contrast, the Prime Minister and Treasurer Scott Morrison were still struggling to get their lines straight amid a perception the men were not getting on. Julie Bishop has gone missing of late, Mathias Cormann and Josh Frydenberg are good messengers, but things fall away pretty quickly after that. For the opposition, the week was a dress rehearsal for what will be a seven-week campaign if, as now appears likely, the Senate refuses to pass the two industrial relations bills and Malcolm Turnbull calls his July 2 double-dissolution election. Liberals are asking whether they are in shape for such a long campaign… Big plans for tax and economic reform have hit the fence and the budget, the first in memory to be released on the cusp of a campaign, will be little more than an economic statement or balance sheet. That’s a tough sell.
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KEY QUESTION: OVERARM OR UNDERARM?
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 09, 2015 (4:29pm)
For just $279, the Guardian‘s Vanessa Badham will teach you how to mangle facts and twist history:
How to write an opinion column with Van Badham
At that price, Badham’s delicious aerodynamic cheese toasties better be provided as a bonus. In fact, for nearly $300 participants should expect at least an introductory course in cheese toastie trajectory and elevation.
Interestingly, Vanessa’s journalism masterclass costs 21 per cent more than Antony Loewenstein’s previous course, possibly reflecting Antony’s diminished Guardian status.
(Via Jonathan Green)
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THEY WILL ALWAYS BELIEVE
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 09, 2015 (2:58pm)
Lady Pages writer Ruby Hamad joins Jessica Valenti as a fake rape truther:
Let’s recap. Last November, Rolling Stone published the long-form narrative piece by experienced investigative reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely with the intended aim, Erdely would later tell the Washington Post, of highlighting the poor way in which University of Virginia handles rape allegations.What is not in dispute is that the university does indeed have a widespread problem with sexual assault. Also, not in dispute: Erdely and Rolling Stone did not fabricate the story. They genuinely appear to have believed that “Jackie”, the student at the centre of the story, was highly traumatised and telling the truth (it is also important to note that even though police failed to find evidence to corroborate her story, they also said it “doesn’t mean something terrible didn’t happen to Jackie ... We’re just not able to gather sufficient facts to determine what that is.").
Do you know what is in dispute, Ruby? Jackie’s entire story. But that’s OK. You just keep talking about these other things instead.
(Via J.F. Beck)
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HE’S A CROAKER
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 09, 2015 (2:15pm)
Following 30 guilty verdicts for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Iowahawk – with a little help from the Steve Miller Band – considers the next phase of the Boston bomber’s trial.
Also in the US, South Carolina has not applied the death penalty since 2011. That situation may soon change, and with damn good reason.
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SAFE SPACE OF DOOM
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 09, 2015 (5:26am)
Life isn’t all massage circles and journaling in Harvard University’s so-called safe spaces:
A student at Harvard University published an op-ed on Wednesday complaining that her school’s “safe spaces” are just not safe enough. According to Madison E. Johnson, her time spent in the “safe space” was really great at first – there were “massage circles,” “deep conversations,” and “times explicitly delineated for processing and journaling.”But then it all changed.
Read on if you dare. Then visit David Thompson for further examination of the safe space crisis.
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SO MANY GHOSTS
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 09, 2015 (5:15am)
Tim Flannery, 2004:
“I think there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis,” Dr Flannery said. “It’s whole primary production is in dire straits and the eastern states are only 30 years behind.”
Tim Flannery, 2007:
Australian of the Year Tim Flannery is sticking by his warning that Perth could become the first ghost metropolis of the 21st century.
Reality, 2014:
Population growth in Western Australia is the highest of any Australian State or Territory, reaching 2.9% in 2013 and Perth is one of the fastest growing cities on the Australian continent. Between 2006 and 2011, over 210,000 new residents were added to the population.
UPDATE. Look out! Perth is being hit by ghost rain!
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PEOPLE GET DESPERATE
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 09, 2015 (3:11am)
One month after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, a bunch of New York artists – who, as you might expect, come across as a little self-involved – discussed their reactions to the atrocity. Jennifer Camper looked on the bright side:
The majority of Charlie Hebdo’s contributors were white, heterosexual men, and their publication reflects that. With new contributors, that might change.
There’s nothing like wholesale murder to address an editorial imbalance. Melanie West reflected on a perceived power issue:
So many artists are unaware of history. They only see the surface. They don’t understand that drawing a picture of Jesus Christ is vastly different from depicting the Prophet Muhammad. They don’t get that on one side, Christianity is a religion that features a lot of people with a lot of global dominance, while on the other side, Islam is a faith that has been bludgeoned in order to justify the pillaging and imperial slaughter of the East. Within that context, a Western body blatantly disrespecting Islam (like when drawing the Prophet Muhammad) is dropping arrows from the top. They are driving salt into the wound. They’re punching down, and they shouldn’t be surprised when people get desperate and punch back.
Melanie may one day consider the power imbalance between unarmed Parisian cartoonists and assailants carrying AK-47s. She might also consider the huge power wielded by 150 Christian students in Kenya, whose global dominance didn’t prevent them being shot and beheaded by “desperate people” who “punched back”.
The piece was illustrated by Kevin Rudd’s nephew, whose work shows a remarkable resistance to improvement.
(Via Jill)
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Don’t attack Labor in front of Tony Jones
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (3:27pm)
Why does ABC host Tony Jones feel called upon to defend Labor from a Liberal frontbencher?
JOSH FRYDENBERG: Certainly if we try to name and shame [audited businesses] publicly, as the Labor Party is trying to do in a desperate grab for a headline, the ...The ABC is meant by law to be balanced. Which host of a mainstream current affairs show does the ABC have who is as conservative as Jones is Left?
TONY JONES: Oh, come on, you need the Australian Labor Party in the Senate to help you vote this through, don’t you?
JOSH FRYDENBERG: Sure, but, I mean ...
TONY JONES: Do you really want to go down that path?
JOSH FRYDENBERG: No, no, Sam Dastyari is a stuntman. He’s turning into the Evel Knievel of Australian politics. I mean, he knows very well that Chris Bowen, Wayne Swan, Bill Shorten have all said protecting the confidentiality of companies is vital. Now, we will introduce the right laws, but we’ve got to do it in a way that is considered, that is measured and that is done in conjunction with our international counterparts.
TONY JONES: Josh Frydenberg, we’ll have to work out which circus character we can liken you to when you come back on. It won’t be Evel Knievel - you’ve already taken that one.
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Rand Paul’s racist justice disqualifies him as a president
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (1:54pm)
Does America really want another racist as its president?
Paul Mirengoff on the dangerous Rand Paul:
Paul Mirengoff on the dangerous Rand Paul:
Yesterday, in announcing his run for the presidency, Rand Paul demonstrated his unfitness for the office by calling for the repeal of any law that “disproportionately incarcerates people of color.” In effect, as John and I pointed out, Paul thereby called for the repeal of virtually every criminal law.
Paul’s team has now “clarified” his statement. The campaign told Byron Yorkthat the Senator’s words were misunderstood:
“Sen. Paul was referring to nonviolent crimes,” campaign spokeswoman Eleanor May told me via email, adding that the passage in question was “a reference to his criminal justice reforms.”But Paul said he wanted to repeal ”any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color,” (emphasis added) not just laws pertaining to nonviolent crimes. He may have misspoken, but his words weren’t misunderstood…
It’s not far-fetched, though, to believe that Paul doesn’t want to repeal laws against murder and rape, for example — a position that would put him to the left of Al Sharpton. More likely, the Senator chose his words incredibly poorly, which hardly recommends him to be the GOP standard bearer in 2016.
Even with the clarification, Paul’s position remains inane and dangerous. Why should non-violent acts that now constitute crimes be legalized just because a particular group doesn’t obey the current prohibition? No criminal law should be subject, in effect, to a “criminals of color veto."… Even with his backpedaling, Rand Paul is calling for a race-based criminal justice code. This should disqualify him from the GOP nomination.
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Why does Labor tolerate the collective punishment of Jewish Israelis and their defenders?
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (10:33am)
When will Bill Shorten fight the bigots in his party who give such cover to Jew-haters?:
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has called on Bill Shorten to disassociate himself from Labor MP Melissa Parke, who has further aligned herself to the boycott campaign against Israel by supporting pro-Palestinian students and academics in a row over an ugly disruption at Sydney University.(Thanks to readers Grendel and Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Mr Pyne told The Australian the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel “has given anti-Semitism a fashionability among the far Left” which “has no place in Australia”.
Ms Parke and Greens senator Lee Rhiannon this week signed an open letter promoted by a pro-Palestinian group on campus, Sydney Staff for BDS.
The open letter, with more than 600 signatures, supports students who disrupted a talk last month by former British colonel Richard Kemp, and backs pro-BDS academic Jake Lynch, who remonstrated with security guards when they tried to remove the students…
“Free speech in Australia does not extend to threats, intimidation and physical harassment...,” Mr Pyne said… Mr Shorten’s office did not reply when asked for comment
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Lynching the bosses won’t help us pay back the debt Labor created
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (9:00am)
The hysteria about big companies avoiding tax - a hysteria cynically whipped up by Labor - has got some journalists writing utter nonsense.
Terry McCrann tackles one of them:
Is Labor just a little bit worried that its hate-business rabble rousing is getting out of hand?
Tony Boyd reports:
Dastyari yesterday organised a show trial with representatives of Google, Apple and Microsoft appearing simultaneously. It was a marvellous opportunity for grandstanding politicians of the Left to yell at executives from multinationals.
Of course, the crowded witness box and tight time frame meant that no useful information could be extracted that wasn’t available already in the company’s annual reports, but Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon all had a lovely time.
Professor Sinclair Davidson and Chris Berg explain how the outrage was directed at what is a rational response to companies faced with Australia’s uncompetitive tax system, itself a function of our spending addiction:
Terry McCrann tackles one of them:
WHAT do you get when you marry Fairfax Media columnist Michael West with the Nine Network’s A Current Affair? Even more hysterical, utter rubbish, and totally false assertions about companies and tax than you normally get from West, Australian journalism’s “Whac-a-Mole”, writing alone.Read on.
Over the past year West has peddled a series of increasingly bizarre, but quite simply, utterly false, claims about News Corporation, publisher of this paper, and vividly imaginative — in the deeper recesses of whatever functions as West’s brain — schemes to not pay Australian tax.
Each time it has been pointed out to him — and the two Fairfax papers that have carried his stories, The Age in Melbourne and the Sydney Morning Herald — that his claims are quite simply wrong.
That’s, not wrong in some technical sense, but wrong on the plain actual facts — that the transactions he claimed took place simply never happened… This escalating farrago of nonsense started last September with a blockbuster report by West that Australia’s top 200 companies were ripping off the Australian Taxation Office by a staggering $8.4 billion a year — adding to a mind-boggling $84 billion over the past 10 years.
Is Labor just a little bit worried that its hate-business rabble rousing is getting out of hand?
Tony Boyd reports:
When the Labor Party’s attack dog against business, Sam Dastyari, last week tried to force the chief executives of the big four banks, Macquarie Group and AMP to appear before his Senate committee for a four-hour grilling, the reaction was not what he wanted.UPDATE
Instead of immediately agreeing to appear as props in Dastyari’s game of political grandstanding, several of the institutions used back channels to find out whether the Labor Party was serious about building a constructive relationship with business.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen found himself in the middle of the imbroglio created by Dastyari.
Bowen was the go-to man for some of the country’s largest institutions because he has been assiduously building relationships in Australian boardrooms.
But the rank political opportunism from Dastyari was undermining Bowen’s efforts.
Australian business is more than willing to participate in the investigatory and information gathering processes of Senate committees.
But it knows a time-wasting exercise deliberately constructed to help Dastyari raise his profile and move up his party’s slippery political ladder....
The formal invitation said that the CEOs of ANZ Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp, Macquarie Group and AMP needed to appear on April 21 from noon to 4 pm. But the formal invitation was withdrawn within hours with no reason given.
Dastyari yesterday organised a show trial with representatives of Google, Apple and Microsoft appearing simultaneously. It was a marvellous opportunity for grandstanding politicians of the Left to yell at executives from multinationals.
Of course, the crowded witness box and tight time frame meant that no useful information could be extracted that wasn’t available already in the company’s annual reports, but Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon all had a lovely time.
Professor Sinclair Davidson and Chris Berg explain how the outrage was directed at what is a rational response to companies faced with Australia’s uncompetitive tax system, itself a function of our spending addiction:
This is an apparent tax minimisation scheme that allows companies with substantial operations in Ireland to reduce their tax liability to below what they would have been had they chosen to locate those same operations in another tax jurisdiction.(Thanks to reader Steve.)
How the scheme operates is best explained by means of an example. Imagine that a large US company establishes its non-US operations in Ireland. That company also registers its intellectual property in the Netherlands. The Irish company then sells services to Australians who pay the Irish company for those services. The Netherlands company then invoices the Irish company for the use of the intellectual property (royalties) embodied in the service sold to the Australian customer. The Netherlands company then remits the revenue to another Irish company that is controlled by yet another company from, say, Bermuda.
The taxation consequences of that transaction are as follows: The US Irish affiliate has no Australian residence and therefore pays no Australian company tax. Ireland levies a very low rate of company taxation and the Netherlands does not tax royalty payments. The inter-EU transfer from the Netherlands to the second Irish company is tax free under EU laws, and Ireland does not tax foreign controlled companies within Ireland.
Given that these companies are all subsidiaries of an US company, when the profit is remitted to the US the company will pay US taxation on the profit with foreign taxes recognised by a tax credit. Ultimately the profit will be taxed at the US company rate (which is higher than the Irish company tax rate and the Australian company tax rate).
Under this arrangement very little company tax is paid on the profit of the transaction where an Australian purchased a service from the US affiliate firm established in Ireland compared to the situation where if that same US affiliate had been established in Australia.
It is important to understand that each step of this transaction is not only perfectly legal but the conditions for the transaction have been deliberately established by the Irish and Dutch governments for the purpose of attracting economic activity to their home economies. In addition, the Double Irish Dutch sandwich does not rely of bank or tax secrecy. In this situation it is clear that Ireland and the Netherlands have more favourable economic environments for certain types of foreign investment than Australia has – this is a deliberate policy choice by each of the three governments. There is nothing stopping the Australian government from adopting similar policies to those adopted by either the Irish or the Dutch government and achieving the same results in attracting foreign investment.
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Andrews Government wants more of the thinking that gave Victoria a desal white elephant
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (8:35am)
Victoria’s Andrews Government imposes an astonishing new McCarthyism: Are you now or have you ever been a climate sceptic?
Now Labor wants more such thinking? More such yes-men?
Answer? Yes.
Yes, this Government seems extraordinarily keen on purging its instrumentalities of dissenters and the independently minded - particularly those who have crossed the unions who helped deliver the Government victory, the ambulance workers and firefighters.
Take Ambulance Victoria:
UPDATE
James Campbell says Victoria has a new Kirner Government:
Worse and worse, as Premier Dan Andrews lets one of the most lawless unions help run his state:
UPDATE
More ideological cleansing by the punitive Government?
Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water, Lisa Neville… [has announced] a complete overhaul of Victoria’s 19 water corporations…The last time Labor demanded water bureaucrats back the global warming faith and plan for a future without rain Victorians got a $6 billion desalination plant that’s been mothballed, plus a $750 million north-south pipeline that’s been plugged for years.
All 135 positions on the state’s boards had been cleared, she announced. However, new and former members are able to apply or re-apply for the roles… Ms Neville said water authorities had failed to plan for climate change under the former government’s instruction, prompting the need for fresh ideas.
Now Labor wants more such thinking? More such yes-men?
Answer? Yes.
Yes, this Government seems extraordinarily keen on purging its instrumentalities of dissenters and the independently minded - particularly those who have crossed the unions who helped deliver the Government victory, the ambulance workers and firefighters.
Take Ambulance Victoria:
The entire board of Ambulance Victoria has resigned at the request of the new State Government.Take Worksafe:
Premier Daniel Andrews promised before the election he would seek the resignations of all nine Ambulance Victoria board members by close of business today or he would sack them… Mr Andrews said he lost faith in the board because of the long-running pay dispute with paramedics, which still has not been resolved after more than two years.
The brutal dismissal of the CEO and chairman of WorkSafe in Victoria over a water contamination scare left some breathless. Did the Premier go too far in publicly calling them liars?…Something very, very worrying is on foot in Victoria.
“They cannot explain how they got this wrong,” Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured) fumed in a press conference on Tuesday. “I will not be lied to, and I will not accept incompetence.” Earlier that day, Finance Minister Robin Scott met with Denise Cosgrove, the chief executive, and chair David Krasnostein over water contamination at the Country Fire Authority’s training facility in Fiskville. In December, WorkSafe told the minister it wasn’t aware of any health and safety concerns. Now the pair told the Minister they couldn’t confirm whether the body had tested the water.
UPDATE
James Campbell says Victoria has a new Kirner Government:
Since coming to office the new Government has — in no particular order — sacked the chair and CEO of WorkSafe, the board of Ambulance Victoria, abolished the Linking Melbourne Authority and, yesterday, dumped every water board in the state. It has repealed the previous government’s “move on” laws designed to break pickets at labour disputes and abolished its construction code, which restricted the CFMEU’s ability to operate on building sites. It has made a downpayment on large pay increases to the members of the paramedics union, which had campaigned hard for it to be elected, pay increases the size of which we have yet to see. In doing so it has junked the idea of having an across-the-board wages policy, running the risk of a public sector wages explosion as other unions line up for a fair suck of the sauce bottle.UPDATE
Then there’s the East West Link debacle. Can you imagine Steve Bracks cancelling the largest infrastructure project in the state days after first getting behind the big desk at 1 Treasury Place?…
[Then there was] last week’s decision to scrap a private hospital inside the new Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. This one is Left-wing ideology pure and simple....
The 42 beds would not have been at the expense of any space for public patients. The expectation was that it would attract wealthy Asians with cancer to come to Melbourne for treatment. The ability to charge these patients would attract top medicos who would also be available to treat patients in the whole of the hospital… Indeed, as a result of this decision it will obviously now treat fewer people… Hang on to your hats, Victoria — we’ve got ourselves a proper honest-to-goodness old-fashioned Kirner-esque Labor Government where the Socialist Left is large and in charge.
Worse and worse, as Premier Dan Andrews lets one of the most lawless unions help run his state:
Planning Minister Dick Wynne is embroiled in a scandal involving Victoria’s militant construction union and a 46-storey tower proposal in central Melbourne that he has rejected.Wynne denies the CFMEU influenced his thinking.
Mr Wynne could face an Ombudsman’s investigation after he admitted in a radio interview that the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union had trooped into his office to oppose the tower proposal lodged by construction giant Grocon.
The ultra-militant CFMEU remains at war with Grocon over the company’s refusal to sign on to a union enterprise bargaining agreement.
Mr Wynne admitted a delegation had petitioned his office to oppose the project, even though it would generate jobs for its members…
Construction industry sources said the CFMEU was opposing the project to get back at Grocon and that Mr Wynne “took every opportunity to reject it” and pander to the union’s demands… The government is likely to face ongoing scrutiny over its links to the CFMEU, which sent a large and prominent delegation to the recent ALP conference led by its controversial state secretary John Setka.
UPDATE
More ideological cleansing by the punitive Government?
It’s understood that Victorian Multicultural Commissioner Chin Tan has resigned and is in talks with the Andrews Government about the details of his departure…(Thanks to readers Michael, Ian and Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
He has generally kept a very low public profile, although he did upset Palestinian groups when he attended a Jewish community event last year to support Israeli soldiers involved in the Gaza conflict…
Mr Tan’s term officially ends on August 30, but it is understood that he will leave the post soon, pending talks with the Government over his contract.
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Our future is carbon, and the Abbott Government dares admit it
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (7:33am)
The carbon economy could still save us, if government lose their fear of green scaremongers:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell looks set to take control of a $US20 billion ($26 billion) LNG processing plant in Queensland after agreeing to a $91 billion (£47 billion) takeover of BG Group.But the green mystics and carpetbaggers threaten to drag us down:
The deal is a huge vote of confidence in Queensland’s $63 billion LNG export industry and comes as the Abbott government bets big on fossil fuels in its long-awaited energy white paper…
The white paper predicts Australia’s energy exports of $71.5 billion will jump to $114 billion within five years, thanks largely to the LNG boom, and marks a return to resource optimism in Australia.
It urges the states to remove barriers to onshore gas production, privatise their remaining state-owned electricity assets and support independent regulation and a more competitive and transparent national energy market. “Unnecessary state regulatory barriers are limiting much-needed new gas supply,” the white paper says in a clear reference to bans and regulatory go-slows in the onshore gas-rich states of Victoria and NSW.
The Abbott government sparked a brawl by adopting a fossil fuel-friendly energy strategy that puts it sharply at odds with generators and climate and renewables activists.Imagine the economic havoc if the Greens had their way with our LNG, coal and uranium industries.
The white paper said Australia should double down on fossil fuels and uranium to exploit an expected one third increase in global energy demand by 2040, but only gave a nod to climate change and renewable energy…
The big bet that fossil fuels will still be thriving in 25 years marked a return to resource optimism in Canberra, and was welcomed by the gas industry and big business…
The white paper said Australia’s energy industry accounts for 7 per cent of the economy, 170,000 jobs and $71.5 billion in exports in 2013-14. Energy exports are expected to jump to $114 billion within five years, thanks to Queensland’s boom in liquefied natural gas. “Australia is among the world’s largest exporters of LNG, coal and uranium. With the right policy settings, our importance to global energy markets will continue to grow, particularly to meet the increasing demand for energy from Asia,” the white paper said.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Who are these child abusers in detention? Why won’t the activists discuss them?
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (7:09am)
“HUMAN rights” campaigners say we should be worried about the children being abused in detention.
But shouldn’t we be just as worried by the abusers in detention?
Why aren’t the campaigners warning us never to let such paedophiles into our country?
Something doesn’t seem right about the latest claims, aired by the anti-Abbott ABC, that children of boat people are sexually abused in detention.
(Read full article here.)
But shouldn’t we be just as worried by the abusers in detention?
Why aren’t the campaigners warning us never to let such paedophiles into our country?
Something doesn’t seem right about the latest claims, aired by the anti-Abbott ABC, that children of boat people are sexually abused in detention.
(Read full article here.)
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Islamophobia bad, Christophobia good
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (7:08am)
CRITICISE Islam and you’re an “Islamophobe”. You risk court, as two Christian pastors in Melbourne found in 2004.
But criticise Christianity – celebrate even the burning of a church – and you’re a “progressive”. The ABC is your friend. Islamophobia bad; Christophobia good.
Take last week. In the days before Easter, Christianity’s holiest time, no fewer than four Melbourne churches were torched.
The loveliest, Brighton’s Catholic Church of St James, was burned down, its magnificent stained glass, bells and organ destroyed.
This was not just an attack on a building, but on a community pledged to goodness.
As the St James website reminds parishioners, each have “special talents or gifts ... given to us for the enrichment of the lives of others and so that we can serve God better”.
So “visit the sick and elderly, feed the hungry, teach those who want to learn, console the lonely and sorrowful ...”
Such teachings have already inspired Christians to create the Red Cross, St John Ambulance, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul Society, World Vision and many fine private hospitals, hospices and schools.
Yet when St James was destroyed, actor Rachel Griffiths was given sympathetic time on Melbourne ABC radio to say how good she felt.
(Read full column here.)
But criticise Christianity – celebrate even the burning of a church – and you’re a “progressive”. The ABC is your friend. Islamophobia bad; Christophobia good.
Take last week. In the days before Easter, Christianity’s holiest time, no fewer than four Melbourne churches were torched.
The loveliest, Brighton’s Catholic Church of St James, was burned down, its magnificent stained glass, bells and organ destroyed.
This was not just an attack on a building, but on a community pledged to goodness.
As the St James website reminds parishioners, each have “special talents or gifts ... given to us for the enrichment of the lives of others and so that we can serve God better”.
So “visit the sick and elderly, feed the hungry, teach those who want to learn, console the lonely and sorrowful ...”
Such teachings have already inspired Christians to create the Red Cross, St John Ambulance, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul Society, World Vision and many fine private hospitals, hospices and schools.
Yet when St James was destroyed, actor Rachel Griffiths was given sympathetic time on Melbourne ABC radio to say how good she felt.
(Read full column here.)
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Obama’s mad theory: global warming causes asthma
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (6:56am)
It is frightening that Barack Obama thinks our global warming emissions - essentially carbon dioxide - have anything at all to do with asthma:
President Obama said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that his push to address climate change has been partly influenced by a frightening moment when his daughter Malia had an asthma attack as a 4-year-old.And Obama says this is about the science?
“What I can relate to is the fear a parent has, when your 4-year-old daughter comes up to you and says, ‘Daddy, I’m having trouble breathing.’ The fright you feel is terrible,” the president said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday.
“And if we can make sure that our responses to the environment are reducing those incidents, that’s something that I think every parent would wish for.”
UPDATE
Asthma sufferer Eric Worrall:
...by far the worst trigger for asthma attacks which I encountered was extreme cold. Heat waves cause deaths – but cold is far worse. Death rates soar in winter. The suggestion that milder winters in the future might be a public health threat is absurd.
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Dick Cheney: it’s as if Obama “wanted to take America down”
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (6:43am)
The power vacuum in the Middle East, in part a creation of the Obama Administration, is being filled by a dangerous player:
Iran dispatched a naval destroyer and another vessel Wednesday to waters near Yemen as the United States quickened weapons supply to the Saudi-led coalition striking rebels there, underlining how foreign powers are deepening their involvement in the conflict.Former Vice President Dick Cheney:
Iran’s English-language state broadcaster Press TV quoted Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari as saying the ships would be part of an anti-piracy campaign “safeguarding naval routes for vessels in the region.” The maneuver comes amid an intense Saudi-led Gulf Arab air campaign targeting the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, who come from a Shiite sect. Critics say Shiite power Iran backs the Houthis, though both the Islamic Republic and the rebels deny any direct military assistance.
For most of the last 70 years since World War II, we’ve had a bipartisan record in this country between Democrat and Republican. Harry Truman, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, the Bush’s believed America had to play a leading role in the world and needs to maintain first class military capability to do that and occasionally use it. That the world works best with U.S. leadership.
The first president, really, who doesn’t — no longer believe that fundamental truth is Barack Obama…
I vacillate between the various theories I’ve heard. If you had somebody who, as president — who wanted to take America down. Who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world, reduce our capacity to influence events. Turn our back on our allies and encourage our enemies, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama is doing. I think his actions are constituted in my mind are those of the worst president we’ve ever had.
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We must all live like Farrelly
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (6:31am)
Greens voters claim to like diversity, yet don’t want people to have a diversity of opinions or even homes.
From Greens supporter and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly:
And as CS Lewis noted:
From Greens supporter and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly:
...you could do worse than simply requiring all houses to be conjoined, front-facing, three storeys or less and built for under $200K; encouraging modesty, intensity, social mix and a desire to invest spare energies in honing res publica.Communist tyrannies have had such sweet-sounding plans, too, to make everyone live the same, but if there is one thing more boring than having to listen to someone else’s dreams it is having to live them.
And as CS Lewis noted:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.Why are such painfully learned lessons forgotten again and again by each successive wave of Puritans and straighteners?
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Some minorities are bad. But which?
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (5:26am)
From Greens leader Christine Milne bitter sniping at News Corp Australia chief executive Julian Clarke:
Clarke: I consider The Australian to be the finest national newspaper operating in Australia.
Milne: We’re not agreed.EMMA readership figures for The Australian across print and digital, January:
Clarke: You’re a minority.
Milne: Not according to sales.
Three million.Greens first preference votes by Senate group, federal election, 2013:
1.16 million.
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Charlie Hebdo betrayed: the art of submission
Andrew Bolt April 09 2015 (5:14am)
New York artist Jennifer Camper looks on the bright side of the Charlie Hebdo massacre:
Yes, true.
Kissing the fist in their face.
The majority of Charlie Hebdo’s contributors were white, heterosexual men, and their publication reflects that. With new contributors, that might change.Other artists figure the dead Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and writers had to pay for their impiety and their disproportionate power over the gunmen.
Yes, true.
Kissing the fist in their face.
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Doing The Block on PUP
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, April 08, 2014 (7:52pm)
THE Abbott government has a big problem. He weighs up to 165kg, has a private jet and controls four senators. Someone needs to wrangle Clive Palmer, and fast.
Continue reading 'Doing The Block on PUP'
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THERE GOES RHYMIN’ BRIAN
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 09, 2014 (3:35pm)
Until now, this was the finest rhyme ever achieved in Australian music:
I must say your scones are
Absolutely bonza
The same artist, working in the same exacting genre, also coupled “muffin” with “put the other stuff in”. No audio is available. Not that it matters, because The Ballad of Tecoma – composed by anguished anti-burger activist Brian Baker – sets a stunning new standard for epic local versology:
Tecoma’s a village
In the Dandenong Ranges
McDonald’s wants to move in
We all say it’s outrageous
Thanks for my latest ringtone, Brian. There’s a whole album of similar genius, with Dave Stergo’s howling ode to the terrors of French fries being another highlight.
(Via Andrew S.)
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SHIFT NOTED
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 09, 2014 (3:33pm)
ABC chairman Jim Spigelman in a recently replayed 2013 interview with Margaret Throsby:
Spigelman: My father was a bit of a lefty from his Polish days because Jews in Poland tended to be on the left ‘cause all the anti-Semites were then on the right. That’s exactly the reverse today.Throsby: Is it?
She sounds utterly surprised.
(Via Peter W.)
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NICENESS RETURNS
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 09, 2014 (2:57pm)
Sydney Morning Herald cartoonist John Shakespeare restores decency and civility to political debate.
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BUSINESS CLASS BLUES
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 09, 2014 (2:56pm)
Bob Carr appears to be something of a whiner.
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SLOW TRANSPORT FOR SLOW PEOPLE
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 09, 2014 (2:50pm)
What happens when green types get the high-speed trains they’re always begging for? They try to slow them down:
Government should examine option of maximum speed being slashed from 225 mph to 185 mph to reduce carbon emissions, Environmental Audit Select Committee says
(Via must-read PWAF)
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ARTISTS AGAINST COAL
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 09, 2014 (12:27pm)
Just look at these ridiculous people.
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ARCHES OF VICTORY
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 08, 2014 (7:07pm)
The anti-burger movement is defeated in Victoria:
Protesters rallying against a controversial new McDonald’s restaurant on Melbourne’s eastern fringe have failed to deter a flood of customers from queueing along the Burwood Highway as it opened for the first time on Monday …The protesters vowed to continue their fight against McDonald’s following a three-year battle to keep the company out of the town. They said they would return every day until the company closed the franchise down.Protester Bonnie Zudland vowed the campaign against McDonald’s would continue.“To me this is a bigger fight than just one store in Tecoma, it’s about the love of corporatism in this world,” the school teacher said.
Whatever. Others – many more others – are delighted:
First customer Jake Pancutt, of Upwey, had been waiting outside the outlet for four hours, and ordered a large Quarter Pounder meal with extra meat and cheese.“I’ve been waiting here since seven o’clock this morning. It’s awesome," the 16-year-old said.“We all live around here and the protesters have to understand we all want it.”
(Via Cuckoo)
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Not much point to this deal
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (1:11pm)
Terry McCrann is much less impressed than most with our trade deal with Japan:
Japan has put huge barriers in the way of our agricultural exports — meat, dairy, sugar, rice — to protect their local producers. We can whistle in the wind all we like; they will only cut barriers at their pace.
Yes, we are getting somewhat better access. But really it is quite pathetic. It takes 15 years for the tariff on fresh beef to be cut from 38.5 to 23.5 per cent.
The opening up of dairy access has been carefully structured so that it looks good but is actually all-but ineffective. The same goes for sugar. And rice was just completely off the table.
So should we have walked away? Abstracting from those broader and deeper relationship issues, arguably yes.
We should have much more stridently put it to Japan: do you actually want the good stuff we can sell to your consumers?
If the answer is no, we can just as well do without Japanese cars.
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Don’t help catch the rapists. It makes a newspaper feel bad
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (1:00pm)
Yet again, the Sydney Morning Herald (using AAP copy) would rather alleged rapists escape identification than tell us their ethnic identity:
What it reported:
The ethnic descriptor has also been left off this news.com.au report.
UPDATE
The original AAP copy contained the Middle Eastern reference. This may not be the first time a Fairfax sub-editor has removed an ethnic descriptor.
The rewritten copy at the link now restores the reference.
What it reported:
Two 16-year-old girls have been sexually assaulted in a park in Sydney’s west…What NSW police actually said:
One man is described as being about 19-21 years old, about 178cm tall, with a dark complexion, a thin build and dark hair.
A second is about 175cm tall, with a thin build and black hair. The third male is described as being between 17-19 years old, with a medium build and about 175cm tall.
The first male is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, about 19-21 years old, with a dark complexion, about 178cm tall, with a thin build and dark hair.UPDATE
The second male is also described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, about 175cm tall, with a thin build and black hair. The third male is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, aged between 17-19 years old, with a medium build and about 175cm tall.
The ethnic descriptor has also been left off this news.com.au report.
UPDATE
The original AAP copy contained the Middle Eastern reference. This may not be the first time a Fairfax sub-editor has removed an ethnic descriptor.
The rewritten copy at the link now restores the reference.
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The totalitarian instincts of the Left
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (1:00pm)
Charles Krauthammer on Mozilla’s sacking of its chief executive for having six years earlier donated $1000 to a lobby group against same-sex marriage:
This is the culture of the left not being satisfied with making an argument or even prevailing in an argument, but in destroying personally and marginalizing people who oppose it…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
(P)eople are now declaring the national debate we have had for a decade or two on gay marriage is closed, and anybody who opposes gay marriage is a bigot and should be written out of polite society, ostracized and lose their jobs… Andrew Sullivan, who not only is a gay activist but is the intellectual father of gay marriage ... calls [the targeting of Eich] disgusting. He’s absolutely right. This is totalitarian discourse, and it shows a level of intolerance, it should be unacceptable.
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The car crash of another green dream
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (9:08am)
Electric cars were going to save the world, not least from global warming. But as almost always, green schemes mean red ink:
Better Place was born to be revolutionary, the epitome of the kind of world-changing ambition that routinely gets celebrated. Founder Shai Agassi, a serial entrepreneur turned rising star at German software giant SAP, conceived Better Place “on a Davos afternoon” in 2005 when he asked himself, “How would you run a whole country without oil?” Four years later, onstage at the TED conference, Agassi ... decided to share his findings, that he would sell millions of electric vehicles in his home country and around the world. He implied that converting to electric cars was the moral equivalent of the abolition of human slavery and that it would usher in a new Industrial Revolution.This disaster broke over the heads of a couple of Australians. From 2010:
This was science fiction, but Agassi presented it as fact, as if just by announcing his company he had already built it… And it was intoxicating. The TED crowd gave Agassi a long standing ovation.
Agassi got virtually every meeting he ever asked for--with world leaders, celebrities, and CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies. The press anointed him the creator of a Next Big Thing. (Fast Company included Agassi on its 2009 Most Creative People in Business list.) Money from investors came fast and in big waves, roughly $900 million, and it seemed like it would never stop flowing. Until, suddenly, it did…
Agassi had assumed that the car would cost roughly half the price of a typical gasoline car and would have a range of at least 100 miles. Instead, batteries were delivered with a range of closer to 80 miles, and the terms with ¬Renault meant he was selling an unsexy family car for about the same price as a nice sedan like the Mazda3 or the Toyota Corolla. (Not to mention that customers were asked to spend an additional $3,000 or so a year to rent the battery and pay for the use of charging and swap stations.)…
Meanwhile, the cost to build out Better Place’s charging network had ballooned. The original spreadsheets that Agassi and the Palo Alto founding team had assembled called for swap stations to cost approximately $500,000 each. So, building 40 stations in Israel would cost about $20 million, while 20 in Denmark could be built for about $10 million. Ultimately, however, each switch station cost at least $2 million… Better Place declared bankruptcy. The company and its affiliates in Australia and Denmark had raised almost $1 billion. They had only put around 1,400 or so electric cars on the road by the time the court-ordered liquidation started that spring.
In this seminar for the Monash Sustainability Institute (MSI), Dr Alan Finkel, Chief Technology Officer for Better Place Australia and Chancellor of Monash University, will discuss the factor that will accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.And:
The Australian former head of electric car venture Better Place, Evan Thornley, has blamed the company’s failure on poor management but says the shift away from petrol and diesel-powered cars is inevitable…
Mr Thornley, who made a fortune with his LookSmart internet venture before a brief stint as a Labor MP in the Victorian Parliament, headed Better Place’s Australian operations before becoming global chief executive.
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Protesters get fried with that burger
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (8:17am)
The protesters, purporting to speak of the community, have for years got huge coverage on the ABC. Let’s see if the customers get the same coverage:
PROTESTERS say that the controversial McDonald’s outlet in Tecoma will fail - but locals have lined up for hours to be the first in the store on opening day…Now what could have made me think the protesters didn’t actually speak for the majority?
First customer Jake Pancutt, of Upwey, had been waiting outside the outlet for four hours, and ordered a large Quarter Pounder meal with extra meat and cheese…
“We all live around here and the protesters have to understand we all want it.”
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The cultural cringe of the Left
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (7:25am)
Why does the Australian Left assume the rest of the world is sneering at us and not admiring? Take a certain ABC presenter, and a Fairfax and a Guardian writer....
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Where are the Left’s champions of free speech?
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (7:16am)
Janet Albrechtsen talks to Alan Borovoy, founder of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, who helped push for the creation of human rights commissions in Canada but now says they dangerously overreached - just as have ours:
Why did Canada, a country with a long history of political correctness cemented into its laws, repeal its federal hate law? Borovoy told The Australian that human rights commissions started falling into disrepute…I’d actually prefer the Left to say I was quite nice, but I get Mark Steyn’s point:
Whereas HRCs started out applying fairly well-defined prohibitions against certain types of discrimination, when hate laws became part of their ambit, and hurt feelings became the measurement of laws, it turned into a “very risky ball game”, says Borovoy. ”You are running a terrible risk that someone’s thin skin could be the limit of someone else’s free speech.”
Sure enough, Borovoy says, human rights commissions overreached in very public cases. Steyn agrees: “No one minded this stuff when it was just being applied to some Holocaust denier sitting in his bedsit writing some unread screed that he was Xeroxing and sending out to his friends. “But when those same laws are suddenly being applied to Maclean’s magazine — it’s mainstream, it’s big-selling, it’s the dentist’s waiting-room magazine; Maclean’s magazine is basically analogous to Andrew Bolt’s Herald Sun — then people here went ‘Wow, this is crazy stuff’.” Borovoy says that defining what is hate speech became an impossible task. While he would have taken a different position about laws that targeted incitement of imminent violence, “ ‘hatred’ was too fraught with ambiguity”.
A frequent visitor to Australia, and due here later this year, Steyn has watched with disappointment the debate over section 18C. He says that Canada’s cultural Left eventually supported the repeal of section 13 in a way he thought would be repeated here. “They said, ‘Well, obviously we find Steyn a totally disgusting and repulsive figure and we want to emphasise how much we dissociate ourselves from him BUT this is not compatible with a free society and Canadians should be able to decide for themselves on these matters’.
“I thought it would go that way with Andrew Bolt. That people would say, ‘Well, Bolt is a repellent creature BUT …’ Yet from my understanding from the debate in Australia no one on the Left has got to the BUT.” Sadly, Steyn is right that, for ever larger groups on the Left, identity group rights trump the rights of freedom of expression.
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When we pay $400,000 per age pensioner we have a big problem - and growing
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (6:46am)
Here is the problem:
The Australian population is ageing and living much longer. The average taxpayer in 2050 will have to support nearly twice as many people over 65 as we do today. As Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson explained:
Welfare and health costs are exploding, warns Treasury, just as national growth is slowing:
The Australian population is ageing and living much longer. The average taxpayer in 2050 will have to support nearly twice as many people over 65 as we do today. As Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson explained:
… by 2050, there will be only 2.7 people of working age to support each Australian aged 65 years or over, compared with 5 working age people per aged person in 2010, and 7.5 in 1970.About 80 per cent of Australians aged over 65 are on the full or part age pension. And they claim it for much longer:
When the Australian Government introduced the Age Pension in 1909, a man aged 65 years could expect to live around 14 years more, whereas a man born 100 years later could expect to live around 29 years after age 65 years.The single pension is now $842.80 a fortnight. A pensioner living to age 85 will claim $400,000 in pension payments, not including payments for the seniors health card, hospital treatment, aged care or any other government support. Very few would have contributed so much in taxes, which are also meant to pay for schools, roads, defences forces, public transport, the dole.....
Welfare and health costs are exploding, warns Treasury, just as national growth is slowing:
… total Commonwealth expenditure on health is anticipated to rise from $64.7 billion in nominal terms in 2013-14 to ... $116 billion in 2023-24.We have a huge problem. What makes that problem even harder to solve is that there are now so 2 million Australian voters on the age pension. A government which tries to cut back in some way risks election defeat.
Similarly, our three main pension payments – the aged pension, disability support pension and carers’ payment – grow at an annual rate of 6 per cent per annum in nominal terms over the forward estimates, adding ... another $39 billion to annual payments by 2023-24.
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Memo to Labor: it’s the policies, stupid
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (6:40am)
These are not changes that will save Labor from offering stupid policies, which, after all, is what is killing it most:
LABOR faces increasing pressure to overhaul its archaic candidate selection processes, with national president Jenny McAllister calling on faction and union bosses to cede power to members as elder John Faulkner urged rule changes to stamp out corruption.And is this just a strategy to make the party even more unelectable?
In the wake of Labor’s disastrous performance in the re-run of the West Australian Senate election, Ms McAllister is pushing for an end to the system of union bosses and faction leaders selecting upper house candidates.
Ms McAllister and Senator Faulkner are from the party’s Left faction.
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Save our reason. Stop funding such nonsense
Andrew Bolt April 09 2014 (5:51am)
Cut the funding and save money - and our reason:
AFTER a lengthy investigation the nation’s peak medical research body has delivered its verdict on homeopathic remedies — they are useless for human health.So why is the University of Western Sydney wasting taxpayers’ money to teach a mystical cure for which there is no evidence?
The judgement is likely to influence a crucial government review which is deciding whether the 30 per cent tax rebate for private health insurance coverage of complimentary therapies should continue…
The National Health and Medical Research Council ... has ... produced a 300-page draft report that reviews the evidence for homoeopathy in treating 68 clinical conditions. It concludes “there is no reliable evidence that homoeopathy is effective for treating health conditions”. Homoeopathy is a 200-year-old form of alternative medicine based on the principle ... that homeopathic remedies stimulate the body’s ability to fight infection by using molecules in highly diluted substances that retain a ‘memory’ of the original substance.
Bachelor of Applied Science (Naturopathic Studies)...Why has Southern Cross University taught this unscientific nonsense?
Naturopathy uses a broad range of techniques which aim to diagnose, treat and prevent a wide range of health problems, ranging from sports injuries, disorders in children, the care of pregnant and breast-feeding women, to the management of stress and age related and chronic disorders. Treatment is aimed at restoring function to the body through massage, herbal medicine, stress management, homoeopathy, nutritional and lifestyle guidance and counselling.
Introductory Homeopathy...And do taxpayers really have to subsidise this other mystic feel-good at RMIT University?
Builds on the knowledge of the treatment of acute disease gained in Introductory Homeopathy. There will be intensive study of the theory of chronic disease and of case taking, repertorising, prescription, and case-management of more complex cases involving long-established illness and multiple conditions. Study of some of the major acute medicines in the homeopathic materia medica also provides a major focus for the unit.
Course Title: Introduction to Wellness Practices and Perspectives
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is widely embraced by health consumers with an interest in maintaining their personal wellbeing.... Some of the alternative medical systems and modalities covered include: Naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, Ayurvedic Medicine, massage, herbal medicine and others.
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If Emerson says it’s good, he’s probably right
Andrew Bolt April 08 2014 (8:08pm)
Craig Emerson, the former Gillard Government’s Trade Minister, gets points for honesty for this comment on the trade deal with Japan that Labor is now criticising as too little:
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See Daniel Katz's comment .. spot on
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ראש הממשלה השתתף בטקס ''לכל איש יש שם'' שנערך בכנסת. בטקס המרגש, הקריא רה''מ את שמות משפחתו של שמואל בן ארצי ז''ל, אביה של רעיית רה''מ הגברת שרה נתניהו, שנספתה כולה בשואה:
האבא: (סבה של אשתי) משה הון (בן זאב הון).
אשתו: אִיטָה הון.
אחותו התאומה: (של חמי ז"ל) יהוּדִית בת משה הון, בת 24.
האחים:
מאיר הון, בן 18.
שמעון צבי הון, בן 16.
אריה (לֵייבּ) הון , בן 13
ואחותו הקטנה: פֶּיסָלֶה הון, בת 10
מהעיירה טָארְנוֹגְרוֹד:
דודתו (אחות האבא) – מָאטֶל קֶנִיגְשֶטֶיין ובנה הִילל בן יחזקאל ובתה הבכורה, (בת זאב הון). הדוד – מנדל הון, אשתו ושני ילדיהם.
מהעיירה בִּילְגוֹרַיי:
הדוד אברהם טאוּבֵּר, אשתו, ביתו ובנו.
הדודה רחל טאוּבֵּר, שלושת בניה: אברהם,
יעקב ושלמה, נשותיהם וילדיהם.
הדודה הִינְדָה ובעלה יחזקאל.
הדודה הֶנְדֶל, בעלה וילדיהם.
הדודה פָאלֶה ושתי בנותיה.
יהי זכרם ברוך.
The prime minister participated in the "every person has a name" ceremony that took place at the Knesset. In the moving ceremony, the prime minister recited the names of the family of the late Shmuel ben Artzi, father of Ms. Sarah Netanyahu the prime minister's spouse that perished entirely during the holocaust. May their memory be blessed
===
האבא: (סבה של אשתי) משה הון (בן זאב הון).
אשתו: אִיטָה הון.
אחותו התאומה: (של חמי ז"ל) יהוּדִית בת משה הון, בת 24.
האחים:
מאיר הון, בן 18.
שמעון צבי הון, בן 16.
אריה (לֵייבּ) הון , בן 13
ואחותו הקטנה: פֶּיסָלֶה הון, בת 10
מהעיירה טָארְנוֹגְרוֹד:
דודתו (אחות האבא) – מָאטֶל קֶנִיגְשֶטֶיין ובנה הִילל בן יחזקאל ובתה הבכורה, (בת זאב הון). הדוד – מנדל הון, אשתו ושני ילדיהם.
מהעיירה בִּילְגוֹרַיי:
הדוד אברהם טאוּבֵּר, אשתו, ביתו ובנו.
הדודה רחל טאוּבֵּר, שלושת בניה: אברהם,
יעקב ושלמה, נשותיהם וילדיהם.
הדודה הִינְדָה ובעלה יחזקאל.
הדודה הֶנְדֶל, בעלה וילדיהם.
הדודה פָאלֶה ושתי בנותיה.
יהי זכרם ברוך.
The prime minister participated in the "every person has a name" ceremony that took place at the Knesset. In the moving ceremony, the prime minister recited the names of the family of the late Shmuel ben Artzi, father of Ms. Sarah Netanyahu the prime minister's spouse that perished entirely during the holocaust. May their memory be blessed
===
PUBLIC EDUCATION/INDOCTRINATION PROPAGANDA SPOKESPERSON...
"We have never invested as much in PUBLIC EDUCATION as we should have, because we've always had a kind of a private notion of children.
Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very COLLECTIVE notion of these are OUR children.
So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to our families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.
Once it's everybody's responsibIlity and not just the households... then we start making better INVESTMENTS."
-Melissa Harris Perry
https://www.youtube.com/
===
======
===
General Eisenhower Warned Us.
It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.
He did this because he said in words to this effect:
"Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened".
Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This is in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This is in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
===
April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada; Day of National Unity in Georgia (1989); Bataan Day in the Philippines
- 1860 – On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made the oldest known recording of an audible human voice, when he recorded himself singing "Au clair de la lune".
- 1918 – World War I: Aníbal Milhais's actions during theBattle of the Lys made him the only person to be awarded Portugal's highest military honour Order of the Tower and Sword directly on the battlefield.
- 1939 – After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, African American singerMarian Anderson (pictured) gave an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
- 1999 – President of Niger Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was shot to death by soldiers in Niamey.
- 2005 – Charles, Prince of Wales, married his long-time mistress Camilla Parker Bowles.
- 190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground.
- 475 – Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christologicalposition.
- 537 – Siege of Rome: The Byzantine general Belisarius receives his promised reinforcements, 1,600 cavalry, mostly of Hunnic or Slavic origin and expert bowmen. He starts, despite shortages, raids against the Gothic camps and Vitiges is forced into a stalemate.
- 1241 – Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeat the Polish and German armies.
- 1288 – Mongol invasions of Vietnam: Yuan forces are defeated by Trần forces in the Battle of Bach Dang in present-day northern Vietnam.
- 1388 – Despite being outnumbered 16 to 1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy are victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Näfels.
- 1413 – Henry V is crowned King of England.
- 1440 – Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark.
- 1454 – The Treaty of Lodi is signed, establishing a balance of power among northern Italian city-states for almost 50 years.
- 1511 – St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, receives its charter.
- 1585 – The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departs England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish the Roanoke Colony.
- 1609 – Eighty Years' War: Spain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Antwerp to initiate twelve years of truce.
- 1609 – Philip III of Spain issues the decree of the "Expulsion of the Moriscos".
- 1682 – Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
- 1782 – American War of Independence: Battle of the Saintes begins.
- 1860 – On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
- 1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act.
- 1914 – Mexican Revolution: One of the world's first naval/air skirmishes takes place off the coast of western Mexico.
- 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun: German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
- 1917 – World War I: The Battle of Arras: The battle begins with Canadian Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
- 1918 – World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.
- 1918 – The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union with the Kingdom of Romania.
- 1937 – The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London. It is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
- 1939 – Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
- 1940 – World War II: Operation Weserübung: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
- 1940 – Vidkun Quisling seizes power in Norway.
- 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March: United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy DestroyerHMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.
- 1945 – World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk by the Royal Air Force
- 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
- 1945 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.
- 1947 – The Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
- 1947 – The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
- 1947 – The United Nations Security Council Resolution 22 is adopted.
- 1948 – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia.
- 1948 – Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100.
- 1952 – Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalization of tin mines
- 1957 – The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping.
- 1959 – Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
- 1960 – Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer, David Pratt in Johannesburg.
- 1961 – The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations.
- 1965 – Astrodome opens. First indoor baseball game is played.
- 1967 – The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight.
- 1969 – The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.
- 1975 – The first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world.
- 1976 – The EMD F40PH diesel locomotive enters revenue service with Amtrak.
- 1980 – The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein kills philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture.
- 1981 – The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it.
- 1989 – The April 9 tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, an anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strikes, demanding restoration of Georgian independence is dispersed by the Soviet Army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
- 1991 – Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union
- 1992 – A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
- 1999 – Kosovo War: The Battle of Košare begins.
- 2003 – Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces; Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader Saddam Hussein, pulling down a grand statue of him and tearing it to pieces.
- 2005 – Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall.
- 2009 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protest against the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.
- 2013 – A 6.1–magnitude earthquake strikes Iran killing 32 people and injuring over 850 people.
- 2013 – At least 13 people are killed and another three injured after a man goes on a spree shootingin the Serbian village of Velika Ivanča.
- 2014 – A student stabs 20 people at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.
- 1283 – Margaret, Maid of Norway, Queen of Scotland (d. 1290)
- 1458 – Camilla Battista da Varano, Italian saint (d. 1524)
- 1498 – Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine (d. 1550)
- 1597 – John Davenport, English minister, co-founded the New Haven Colony (d. 1670)
- 1598 – Johann Crüger, German composer and theorist (d. 1662)
- 1627 – Johann Caspar Kerll, German organist and composer (d. 1693)
- 1634 – Countess Albertine Agnes of Nassau (d. 1696)
- 1648 – Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1720)
- 1649 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Dutch-English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire (d. 1685)
- 1654 – Samuel Fritz, Czech Jesuit missionary to South America (d. 1725?)
- 1680 – Philippe Néricault Destouches, French playwright (d. 1754)
- 1686 – James Craggs the Younger, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (d. 1721)
- 1691 – Johann Matthias Gesner, German scholar and academic (d. 1761)
- 1717 – Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1750)
- 1770 – Thomas Johann Seebeck, German physicist and academic (d. 1831)
- 1773 – Étienne Aignan, French author and academic (d. 1824)
- 1794 – Theobald Boehm, German flute player and composer (d. 1881)
- 1802 – Elias Lönnrot, Finnish physician and philologist (d. 1884)
- 1806 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, English engineer, designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge (d. 1859)
- 1807 – James Bannerman, Scottish theologian and academic (d. 1868)
- 1821 – Charles Baudelaire, French poet and critic (d. 1867)
- 1830 – Eadweard Muybridge, English photographer and cinematographer (d. 1904)
- 1835 – Leopold II of Belgium (d. 1909)
- 1835 – Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore (d. 1913)
- 1846 – Paolo Tosti, Italian-English composer and educator (d. 1916)
- 1848 – Ezequiél Moreno y Díaz, Spanish Augustinian Recollect priest and saint (d. 1906)
- 1865 – Erich Ludendorff, German general and politician (d. 1937)
- 1865 – Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Polish-American mathematician and engineer (d. 1923)
- 1867 – Chris Watson, Chilean-Australian journalist and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1941)
- 1867 – Charles Winckler, Danish tug of war competitor, discus thrower, and shot putter (d. 1932)
- 1872 – Léon Blum, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1950)
- 1875 – Jacques Futrelle, American journalist and author (d. 1912)
- 1880 – Jan Letzel, Czech architect (d. 1925)
- 1882 – Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1946)
- 1882 – Otz Tollen, German actor (d. 1965)
- 1883 – Frank King, American cartoonist (d. 1969)
- 1887 – Konrad Tom, Polish actor, writer, singer, and director (d. 1957)
- 1888 – Sol Hurok, Ukrainian-American talent manager (d. 1974)
- 1893 – Charles E. Burchfield, American painter (d.1967)
- 1893 – Victor Gollancz, English publisher, founded Victor Gollancz Ltd (d. 1967)
- 1893 – Rahul Sankrityayan, Indian linguist, author, and scholar (d. 1963)
- 1895 – Mance Lipscomb, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1976)
- 1895 – Michel Simon, Swiss-French actor (d. 1975)
- 1897 – John B. Gambling, American radio host (d. 1974)
- 1898 – Curly Lambeau, American football player and coach (d. 1965)
- 1898 – Paul Robeson, American singer, actor, and activist (d. 1976)
- 1900 – Allen Jenkins, American actor and singer (d. 1974)
- 1901 – Jean Bruchési, Canadian historian and author (d. 1979)
- 1901 – Paul Willis, American actor and director (d. 1960)
- 1902 – Théodore Monod, French explorer and scholar (d. 2000)
- 1903 – Ward Bond, American actor (d. 1960)
- 1904 – Sharkey Bonano, American singer, trumpet player, and bandleader (d. 1972)
- 1905 – J. William Fulbright, American lawyer and politician (d. 1995)
- 1906 – Rafaela Aparicio, Spanish actress (d. 1996)
- 1906 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian-American conductor and composer (d. 1988)
- 1908 – Joseph Krumgold, American author and screenwriter (d. 1980)
- 1908 – Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-French painter (d. 1997)
- 1909 – Robert Helpmann, Australian dancer, actor, and choreographer (d. 1986)
- 1910 – Abraham A. Ribicoff, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (d. 1998)
- 1912 – Lev Kopelev, Ukrainian-German author and academic (d. 1997)
- 1915 – Daniel Johnson, Sr., Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Premier of Quebec (d. 1968)
- 1916 – Julian Dash, American swing music jazz tenor saxophonist (d. 1974)
- 1916 – Heinz Meyer, German Fallschirmjäger during World War II (d. 1987)
- 1916 – Bill Leonard, American journalist (d. 1994)
- 1917 – Johannes Bobrowski, German songwriter and poet (d. 1965)
- 1917 – Ronnie Burgess, Welsh footballer and manager (d. 2005)
- 1917 – Brad Dexter, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Jørn Utzon, Danish architect, designed the Sydney Opera House (d. 2008)
- 1919 – J. Presper Eckert, American engineer, invented the ENIAC (d. 1995)
- 1921 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French businessman (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Yitzhak Navon, Israeli politician (d. 2015)
- 1921 – Frankie Thomas, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1922 – Carl Amery, German author and activist (d. 2005)
- 1923 – Leonard Levy, American historian and author (d. 2006)
- 1924 – Arthur Shaw, English professional footballer (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Virginia Gibson, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Art Kane, American photographer (d. 1995)
- 1926 – Gerry Fitt, Northern Irish soldier and politician; British life peer (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Hugh Hefner, American publisher, founded Playboy Enterprises
- 1927 – Tiny Hill, New Zealand rugby player
- 1928 – Paul Arizin, American basketball player (d. 2006)
- 1928 – Tom Lehrer, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and mathematician
- 1929 – Sharan Rani Backliwal, Indian sarod player and scholar (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Fred Hollows, New Zealand-Australian ophthalmologist (d. 1993)
- 1929 – Paule Marshall, American author and academic
- 1930 – Nathaniel Branden, Canadian-American psychotherapist and author (d. 2014)
- 1930 – F. Albert Cotton, American chemist and academic (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Wallace McCain, Canadian businessman, founded McCain Foods (d. 2011)
- 1931 – Richard Hatfield, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Premier of New Brunswick (d. 1991)
- 1932 – Jim Fowler, American zoologist and television host
- 1932 – Armin Jordan, Swiss conductor (d. 2006)
- 1932 – Peter Moores, English businessman and philanthropist (d. 2016)
- 1932 – Carl Perkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
- 1933 – Jean-Paul Belmondo, French actor and producer
- 1933 – René Burri, Swiss photographer and journalist (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Fern Michaels, American author
- 1933 – Richard Rose, American political scientist and academic
- 1933 – Gian Maria Volontè, Italian actor (d. 1994)
- 1934 – Bill Birch, New Zealand surveyor and politician, 38th New Zealand Minister of Finance
- 1934 – Tom Phillis, Australian motorcycle racer (d. 1962)
- 1934 – Mariya Pisareva, Russian high jumper
- 1935 – Aulis Sallinen, Finnish composer and academic
- 1935 – Avery Schreiber, American actor and comedian (d. 2002)
- 1936 – Jerzy Maksymiuk, Polish pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1936 – Valerie Solanas, American radical feminist author, attempted murderer (d. 1988)
- 1937 – Simon Brown, Baron Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, English lieutenant, lawyer, and judge
- 1937 – Marty Krofft, Canadian screenwriter and producer
- 1937 – Valerie Singleton, English television and radio host
- 1938 – Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian businessman and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Russia (d. 2010)
- 1939 – Michael Learned, American actress
- 1940 – Hans-Joachim Reske, German sprinter
- 1940 – Jim Roberts, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1941 – Kay Adams, American singer-songwriter
- 1942 – Brandon deWilde, American actor (d. 1972)
- 1942 – Margo Smith, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Terry Knight, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2004)
- 1944 – Joe Brinkman, American baseball player and umpire
- 1944 – Heinz-Joachim Rothenburg, German shot putter
- 1945 – Steve Gadd, American drummer and percussionist
- 1945 – Peter Gammons, American journalist
- 1946 – Nate Colbert, American baseball player
- 1946 – Mike Hancock, English politician
- 1946 – Alan Knott, English cricketer
- 1946 – Sara Parkin, Scottish activist and politician
- 1946 – David Webb, English footballer, coach, and manager
- 1947 – Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Italian economist and academic
- 1948 – Jaya Bachchan, Indian actress and politician
- 1948 – Michel Parizeau, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1948 – Patty Pravo, Italian singer
- 1949 – Tony Cragg, English sculptor
- 1950 – Nathan Cook, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1952 – Robert Clark, American author
- 1952 – Bruce Robertson, New Zealand rugby player
- 1952 – Tania Tsanaklidou, Greek singer and actress
- 1953 – John Howard, English singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1953 – Hal Ketchum, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1954 – Ken Kalfus, American journalist and author
- 1954 – Dennis Quaid, American actor
- 1954 – Iain Duncan Smith, British soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- 1955 – Yamina Benguigui, French director and politician
- 1955 – Joolz Denby, English poet and author
- 1956 – Miguel Ángel Russo, Argentinian footballer and coach
- 1956 – Nigel Shadbolt, English computer scientist and academic
- 1956 – Vahur Sova, Estonian architect
- 1956 – Marina Zueva, Russian ice dancer and coach
- 1957 – Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer and architect (d. 2011)
- 1957 – Martin Margiela, Belgian fashion designer
- 1958 – Tony Sibson, English boxer
- 1958 – Nigel Slater, English journalist and author
- 1959 – Bernard Jenkin, English businessman and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
- 1960 – Jaak Aab, Estonian educator and politician, Minister of Social Affairs of Estonia
- 1961 – Mark Kelly, Irish keyboard player
- 1961 – Kirk McCaskill, Canadian-American baseball and hockey player
- 1962 – John Eaves, American production designer and illustrator
- 1962 – Ihor Podolchak, Ukrainian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Imran Sherwani, English field hockey player
- 1962 – Jeff Turner, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1963 – Marc Jacobs, American-French fashion designer
- 1963 – Joe Scarborough, American journalist, lawyer, and politician
- 1964 – Rob Awalt, German-American football player
- 1964 – Juliet Cuthbert, Jamaican sprinter
- 1964 – Peter Penashue, Canadian businessman and politician, 9th Canadian Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
- 1964 – Margaret Peterson Haddix, American author
- 1964 – Rick Tocchet, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach
- 1965 – Helen Alfredsson, Swedish golfer
- 1965 – Paulina Porizkova, Czech-born Swedish-American model and actress
- 1965 – Jeff Zucker, American businessman
- 1966 – John Hammond, English weather forecaster
- 1966 – Cynthia Nixon, American actress
- 1967 – Natascha Engel, German-English translator and politician
- 1968 – Jay Chandrasekhar, American actor, comedian, writer and director
- 1969 – Linda Kisabaka, German runner
- 1970 – Chorão, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
- 1971 – Peter Canavan, Irish footballer and manager
- 1971 – Leo Fortune-West, English footballer and manager
- 1971 – Austin Peck, American actor
- 1971 – Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver
- 1972 – Bernard Ackah, German-Japanese martial artist and kick-boxer
- 1972 – Siiri Vallner, Estonian architect
- 1973 – Spencer Rice, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1975 – Robbie Fowler, English footballer and manager
- 1975 – David Gordon Green, American director and screenwriter
- 1976 – Kyle Peterson, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1977 – Gerard Way, American singer-songwriter and comic book writer
- 1978 – Kousei Amano, Japanese actor
- 1978 – Jorge Andrade, Portuguese footballer
- 1978 – Rachel Stevens, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1979 – Albina Dzhanabaeva, Russian singer and actress
- 1979 – Albert Hammond, Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1979 – Jeff Reed, American football player
- 1980 – Sarah Ayton, English sailor
- 1980 – Luciano Galletti, Argentinian footballer
- 1981 – Milan Bartovič, Czech ice hockey player
- 1981 – A. J. Ellis, American baseball player
- 1981 – Ireneusz Jeleń, Polish footballer
- 1981 – Dennis Sarfate, American baseball player
- 1982 – Jay Baruchel, Canadian actor
- 1982 – Carlos Hernández, Costa Rican footballer
- 1982 – Kathleen Munroe, Canadian-American actress
- 1983 – Ryan Clark, Australian actor
- 1983 – Willie Colon, American football player
- 1984 – Habiba Ghribi, Tunisian runner
- 1984 – Adam Loewen, Canadian baseball player
- 1984 – Óscar Razo, Mexican footballer
- 1985 – Antonio Nocerino, Italian footballer
- 1985 – David Robertson, American baseball player
- 1986 – Mike Hart, American football player
- 1986 – Leighton Meester, American actress
- 1987 – Kassim Abdallah, French-Comorian footballer
- 1987 – Graham Gano, American football player
- 1987 – Craig Mabbitt, American singer
- 1987 – Jesse McCartney, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1987 – Jarrod Mullen, Australian rugby league player
- 1987 – Jazmine Sullivan, American singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Uee, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress
- 1988 – Michel Alves Baroni, Brazilian footballer
- 1988 – Dino Imperial, Filipino actor
- 1988 – Jeremy Metcalfe, English race car driver
- 1989 – Danielle Kahle, American figure skater
- 1990 – Kristen Stewart, American actress
- 1990 – Ryan Williams, American football player
- 1991 – Ryan Kelly, American basketball player
- 1991 – Mary Killman, American synchronized swimmer
- 1992 – Joshua Ledet, American singer
- 1994 – Joey Pollari, American actor
- 1995 – Domagoj Bošnjak, Croatian basketball player
- 1995 – Robert Bauer, German-Kazakhstani footballer
- 1996 – Emerson Hyndman, American soccer player
- 1998 – Elle Fanning, American actress
- 2000 – Jackie Evancho, American singer
Births[edit]
- 585 BC – Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan (b. 711 BC)
- AD 93 – Yuan An, Chinese scholar and politician
- 436 – Tan Daoji, Chinese general and politician
- 491 – Zeno, Byzantine emperor (b. 425)
- 682 – Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari, Egyptian politician, Governor of Egypt (b. 616)
- 715 – Pope Constantine (b. 664)
- 1024 – Pope Benedict VIII (b. 980)
- 1137 – William X, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1099)
- 1241 – Duke Henry II of Poland
- 1283 – Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway (b. 1261; childbirth)
- 1327 – Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland (ca. 1296)
- 1483 – Edward IV of England (b. 1442)
- 1484 – Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales (b. 1473)
- 1553 – François Rabelais, French monk and scholar (b. 1494)
- 1557 – Mikael Agricola, Finnish priest and scholar (b. 1510)
- 1626 – Francis Bacon, English jurist and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1561)
- 1654 – Matei Basarab, Romanian prince (b. 1588)
- 1693 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author (b. 1618)
- 1747 – Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, Scottish soldier and politician (b. 1667)
- 1754 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher and academic (b. 1679)
- 1761 – William Law, English priest and theologian (b. 1686)
- 1768 – Sarah Fielding, English author (b. 1710)
- 1804 – Jacques Necker, Swiss-French politician, Chief Minister to the French Monarch (b. 1732)
- 1806 – William V, Prince of Orange (b. 1748)
- 1872 – Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (b. 1794)
- 1876 – Charles Goodyear, American lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1804)
- 1882 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (b. 1828)
- 1889 – Michel Eugène Chevreul, French chemist and academic (b. 1786)
- 1909 – Helena Modjeska, Polish-American actress (b. 1840)
- 1915 – Raymond Whittindale, English rugby player (b. 1883)
- 1917 – James Hope Moulton, English philologist and scholar (b. 1863)
- 1922 – Hans Fruhstorfer, German entomologist and explorer (b. 1866)
- 1926 – Zip the Pinhead, American freak show performer (b. 1857)
- 1936 – Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1855)
- 1940 – Mrs. Patrick Campbell, English actress (b. 1865)
- 1944 – Yevgeniya Rudneva, Ukrainian lieutenant and pilot (b. 1920)
- 1945 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (b. 1906)
- 1945 – Wilhelm Canaris, German admiral (b. 1887)
- 1945 – Johann Georg Elser, German carpenter (b. 1903)
- 1945 – Hans Oster, German general (b. 1887)
- 1945 – Karl Sack, German lawyer and jurist (b. 1896)
- 1945 – Hans von Dohnányi, Austrian-German lawyer and jurist (b. 1902)
- 1948 – George Carpenter, Australian 5th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1872)
- 1948 – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian lawyer and politician, 16th Colombian Minister of National Education (b. 1903)
- 1951 – Vilhelm Bjerknes, Norwegian physicist and meteorologist (b. 1862)
- 1953 – Eddie Cochems, American football player and coach (b. 1877)
- 1953 – C. E. M. Joad, English philosopher and television host (b. 1891)
- 1953 – Hans Reichenbach, German philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1891)
- 1959 – Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater (b. 1867)
- 1961 – Zog I of Albania (b. 1895)
- 1963 – Eddie Edwards, American trombonist (b. 1891)
- 1963 – Xul Solar, Argentinian painter and sculptor (b. 1887)
- 1970 – Gustaf Tenggren, Swedish-American illustrator and animator (b. 1896)
- 1976 – Dagmar Nordstrom, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1903)
- 1976 – Phil Ochs, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
- 1978 – Clough Williams-Ellis, English-Welsh architect, designed Portmeirion (b. 1883)
- 1980 – Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric and philosopher (b. 1935)
- 1982 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1896)
- 1988 – Brook Benton, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1931)
- 1988 – Hans Berndt, German footballer (b. 1913)
- 1988 – Dave Prater, American singer (b. 1937)
- 1991 – Forrest Towns, American hurdler and coach (b. 1914)
- 1993 – Joseph B. Soloveitchik, American rabbi and philosopher (b. 1903)
- 1996 – Richard Condon, American author and publicist (b. 1915)
- 1997 – Mae Boren Axton, American singer-songwriter (b. 1914)
- 1997 – Helene Hanff, American author and screenwriter (b. 1916)
- 1998 – Tom Cora, American cellist and composer (b. 1953)
- 1999 – Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, Nigerien general and politician, President of Niger (b. 1949)
- 2001 – Willie Stargell, American baseball player and coach (b. 1940)
- 2002 – Pat Flaherty, American race car driver (b. 1926)
- 2002 – Leopold Vietoris, Austrian soldier, mathematician, and academic (b. 1891)
- 2003 – Jerry Bittle, American cartoonist (b. 1949)
- 2006 – Billy Hitchcock, American baseball player, coach, manager (b. 1916)
- 2006 – Vilgot Sjöman, Swedish director and screenwriter (b. 1924)
- 2007 – Egon Bondy, Czech philosopher and poet (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Dorrit Hoffleit, American astronomer and academic (b. 1907)
- 2009 – Nick Adenhart, American baseball player (b. 1986)
- 2010 – Zoltán Varga, Hungarian footballer and manager (b. 1945)
- 2011 – Zakariya Rashid Hassan al-Ashiri, Bahraini journalist (b. 1971)
- 2011 – Sidney Lumet, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Malcolm Thomas, Welsh rugby player and cricketer (b. 1929)
- 2013 – David Hayes, American sculptor and painter (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Greg McCrary, American football player (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Mordechai Mishani, Israeli lawyer and politician (b. 1945)
- 2013 – McCandlish Phillips, American journalist and author (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Paolo Soleri, Italian-American architect, designed the Cosanti (b. 1919)
- 2014 – Gil Askey, American trumpet player, composer, and producer (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Chris Banks, American football player (b. 1973)
- 2014 – Rory Ellinger, American lawyer and politician (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Norman Girvan, Jamaican economist, academic, and politician (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Aelay Narendra, Indian politician (b. 1946)
- 2014 – A. N. R. Robinson, Trinbagonian politician, 3rd President of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Svetlana Velmar-Janković, Serbian author (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Paul Almond, Canadian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Nina Companeez, French director and screenwriter (b. 1937)
- 2015 – Alexander Dalgarno, English physicist and academic (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Ivan Doig, American journalist and author (b. 1939)
- 2015 – Tsien Tsuen-hsuin, Chinese-American academic (b. 1909)
- 2016 – Duane Clarridge, American spy (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Will Smith, American football player (b. 1981)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Anniversary of the German Invasion of Denmark (Denmark)
- Baghdad Liberation Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)
- Bataan Day or Araw ng Kagitingan (Philippines)
- Constitution Day (Kosovo)
- Day of National Unity (Georgia)
- Day of the Finnish Language (Finland)
- Feast of the Second Day of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema)
- Martyr's Day (Tunisia)
- National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day (United States)
- Remembrance for Haakon Sigurdsson (The Troth)
- Vimy Ridge Day (Canada)
Holidays and observances[edit]
“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” - Romans 5:10
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Among other interpretations of this suggestive question, the following is full of teaching: "If the innocent substitute for sinners, suffer thus, what will be done when the sinner himself--the dry tree--shall fall into the hands of an angry God?" When God saw Jesus in the sinner's place, he did not spare him; and when he finds the unregenerate without Christ, he will not spare them. O sinner, Jesus was led away by his enemies: so shall you be dragged away by fiends to the place appointed for you. Jesus was deserted of God; and if he, who was only imputedly a sinner, was deserted, how much more shall you be? "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" what an awful shriek! But what shall be your cry when you shall say, "O God! O God! why hast thou forsaken me?" and the answer shall come back, "Because ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." If God spared not his own Son, how much less will he spare you! What whips of burning wire will be yours when conscience shall smite you with all its terrors. Ye richest, ye merriest, ye most self-righteous sinners--who would stand in your place when God shall say, "Awake, O sword, against the man that rejected me; smite him, and let him feel the smart forever"? Jesus was spit upon: sinner, what shame will be yours! We cannot sum up in one word all the mass of sorrows which met upon the head of Jesus who died for us; therefore it is impossible for us to tell you what streams, what oceans of grief must roll over your spirit if you die as you now are. You may die so, you may die now. By the agonies of Christ, by his wounds and by his blood, do not bring upon yourselves the wrath to come! Trust in the Son of God, and you shall never die.
Evening
Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian's heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss! Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit's power to comfort us. Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content. Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross--a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul. Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus' name will be your soul's best music, and his person your dear delight. Socrates used to say, "Philosophers can be happy without music;" and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below.
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Daniel
[Dăn'iel] - god is my judge.
1. The second son of David, also called Chileol (1 Chron. 3:1).
2. A son or descendant of Ithamar who, after the return from exile, sealed the covenant (Ezra 8:2; Neh. 10:6).
3. The celebrated Jewish prophet, fourth of the so-called Major Prophets, of royal or noble descent. Daniel was taken to Babylon and trained with others for the king's service (Ezek. 14:14, 20; 28:3; Dan. 1:6, 21).
The Man Who Kept His Window Open
Nothing is known of the ancestry and early life of this celebrated Jewish prophet who exercised tremendous influence in the Babylonian court, and whose name can mean: "Who in the name of God does Justice." Daniel was not a priest like Jeremiah or Ezekiel but like Isaiah he was descended from the time of Judah and was probably of royal blood (Dan. 1:3-6). A comparison of 2 Kings 20:17, 18 with Isaiah 29:6, 7 seems to indicate that Daniel was descended from king Hezekiah.
As a youth of the age of fifteen or thereabouts, Daniel was carried captive to Babylon (Dan. 1:1-4 ) in the third year of Jehoiakim. From then on his whole life was spent in exile. What Daniel was like we are not expressly told but the details given in the first chapter of his book suggest he must have been a handsome youth. There is a tradition to the effect that "he had a spare, dry, tall figure with a beautiful expression." Dr. Alexander Whyte says of Daniel: "There is always a singular lustre and nobility and stately distinction about him. There is a note of birth and breeding and aristocracy about his whole name and character." As we study his character we cannot but be impressed with his refinement, his reserve and the high sculpture of his life.
Daniel comes before us as an interpreter of dreams and of signs, a conspicuous seer, an official of kings. He lived a long and active life in the courts and councils of some of the greatest monarchs the world has known, like Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus and Darius. Close intimacy with heaven made Daniel the courtier, statesman, man of business and prophet he was. Bishop Ken reminds us that "Daniel was one that kept his station in the greatest of revolutions, reconciling politics and religion, business and devotion, magnanimity with humility, authority with affability, conversation with retirement, Heaven and the Court, the favour of God and of the King."
The significant meaning of Daniel's name accords with the character and contents of the Book of Daniel, written by the prophet himself - the first six chapters in the third person, the last six in the first person.
As the distinguished historian of some of the most important dispensational teaching given in the Bible, Daniel's book sets forth:
A statement of God's judgment on history.
The purpose of God until the final consummation.
The vindication of righteousness.
It would take a whole book to deal with Daniel's prophetic visions of Gentile dominion and defeat. Profitable homiletical material can be used showing Daniel's self-control (Dan. 1:8; 10:3), undaunted courage (5:22, 23), constant integrity (Dan. 6:4), unceasing prayerfulness (Dan. 2:17, 18; 6:16), native humility (Dan. 10:17) and spiritual vision ( Dan. 7:9, 12; 10:5, 6).
===Today's reading: 1 Samuel 10-12, Luke 9:37-62 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 10-12
1 Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him, saying, "Has not the LORD anointed you ruler over his inheritance? 2 When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, 'The donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, "What shall I do about my son?"'
3 "Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine. 4 They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them....
Today's New Testament reading: Luke 9:37-62
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
37 The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 A man in the crowd called out, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.39 A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not."
41 "You unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here."
42 Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God....
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Today's Lent reading: Luke 21-22 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayThe Widow's Offering
1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3"Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
5 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6"As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."
7 "Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"
8 He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away."
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