In 1179, the Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Earl Erling Skakke was killed, and the battle changed the tide of the civil wars. Skakke was Norman and had been hit in the neck in battle by a Saracen in Sicily. This meant he had a lean for the rest of his life, Skakke means 'slanted.' Skakke installed his son as king of Norway and fought against ruthless enemies. He was a ruthless man. He founded Halsnøy Abbey, a monastery in 1164. 1269, King Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver. Louis IX is venerated as a saint, but he inspired Nazis to greater excess with this act. Within a year, Louis was dead from dysentary in the holy lands on crusade which this tax helped pay for. 1306, The Earl of Pembroke's army defeated Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven. Robert the Bruce had taken Pembroke's word and not defended his position. Robert just escaped with his life, fled to Ireland and raised an army which captured Scotland for Scotland. 1586, English colonists left Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America.
In 1816, Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 1821, Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia). 1846, the first officially recorded, organised baseball game was played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired. 1862, the U.S. Congress prohibited slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford. 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, were finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth. 1867, Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire was executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro. Maximilian had been betrayed by Napoleon III who sent him to be Emperor of Mexico but left him after he was committed and engaged in hostility. 1875, the Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire began.
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 The Maniac's Song
Ann Taylor (30 January 1782 - 20 December 1866) was an English poet and literary critic. In her youth she was a writer of verse for children, for which she achieved long-lasting popularity. In the years immediately preceding her marriage, she became an astringent literary critic of growing reputation. She is, however, best remembered as the elder sister and collaborator of Jane Taylor.
Bring me a garland, bring me a wreath;
Bring me a flower from the dank stream side;
Bring me a herb smelling sweetly of death,
Wet with the drowsy tide.
Haste to the pool with the green-weed breast,
Where the dark wave crawls through the sedge;
Where the bittern of the wilderness builds her nest,
In the flags of its oozy edge;
Where no sun shines through the live-long day,
Because of the blue-wreathed mist,
Where the cockatrice creeps her foul egg to lay,
And the speckled snake has hissed:
And bring me the flag that is moist with the wave,
And the rush where the heath-winds sigh,
And the hemlock plant, that flourishes so brave,
And the poppy, with its coal-black eye;
And weave them tightly, and weave them well,
The fever of my head to allay;–
And soon shall I faint with the death-weed smell,
And sleep these throbbings away.
And my hot, hot heart, that is fluttering so fast,
Shall shudder with a strange, cold thrill;
And the damp hand of Death o'er my forehead shall be passed,
And my lips shall be stiff and still.
And crystals of ice on my bosom shall arise,
Prest out from the shivering pore;
And oft shall it struggle with pent-up sighs,
But soon it shall struggle no more.
For the poppy on my head shall her cool breath shed,
And wind through the blue, blue tide;
And the bony wand of Death shall draw my last breath,
All by the dark stream side.
=== from 2016 ===
There is debate as to whom the PM should invite to dinner. It is as ridiculous as to the debate as to whom Mr Abbott used as press secretary. Turnbull and his cronies inflated the Press Secretary issue of Peta Credlin. Now they cry foul over the invite fiasco. If Mr Turnbull wants to invite a terrorist spokesperson to dinner, then that is his prerogative. Some may call into question his judgement and claim he is incompetent. Let them. So long as 18c of the racial vilification code allows murderous hate speech then it is ok. One day, Turnbull may dine with Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Chavez, Mao and Che. Turnbull has earned the right. After all, it is very hard to screen dinner guests, there not being laws as there are with refugees. Mr Abbott was supported by the same Peta Credlin that Turnbull employed and praised. Thing is for Turnbull, he never knows how he will feel the next day, or what he will think. He is that smart.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
A debate in Australia over laws regarding terrorists who go overseas to fight, has reached a point where defenders of terrorism are saying it is wrong to make people stateless, ever. Only the discussion is not centred on Australian citizens, but dual citizens. And so the issue of statelessness need not arise. Australia does not have a death penalty and is not well equipped to deal with military trained terrorism within her civilian justice system. However, at issue is the nature of dual citizenship. Many terrorists may not be aware that renouncing Australia publicly and claiming citizenship of ISIL may open them to being deemed dual citizens.
A domestic terrorist attack in the US has seen a young white supremacist kill people at a church, telling a survivor it was because black people were raping white girls. All the victims were middle aged or old, mainly female. The accusation is clearly not the real motive. On being captured by police, the white supremacist has allegedly claimed he wanted to start a civil war. One hopes that the white supremacist never enjoys freedom again. It is really important that the 'brains' behind the idiot are never again allowed to foment such hatred. But, who has those brains? Who is it that that raised the white supremacist? Who is it that claimed that there is a war between blacks and whites? Who is it that made indiscriminate killing acceptable as a statement? White church attendees? White atheists? University professors with trans race issues? Media inflating claims of race issues? The President raising race issues which had been dormant?
Pope Francis has released a report which the media will embrace and sideline at the same time. The fact that a tax or Carbon trade won't address the issue of climate change effectively will be ignored by the press. The press are very impressed with the empty statement that rich nations are to blame for anthropogenic global warming (AGW). If it ever becomes a problem, rich nations will be the solution too.
Julian Assange, running from a charge of being an incompetent penis, ran to an embassy on this day in 2012, substantiating allegations his lies had killed people around the world for which he also feared extradition to the United States. Is there sufficient, now, to suggest Assange has dual citizenship?
A domestic terrorist attack in the US has seen a young white supremacist kill people at a church, telling a survivor it was because black people were raping white girls. All the victims were middle aged or old, mainly female. The accusation is clearly not the real motive. On being captured by police, the white supremacist has allegedly claimed he wanted to start a civil war. One hopes that the white supremacist never enjoys freedom again. It is really important that the 'brains' behind the idiot are never again allowed to foment such hatred. But, who has those brains? Who is it that that raised the white supremacist? Who is it that claimed that there is a war between blacks and whites? Who is it that made indiscriminate killing acceptable as a statement? White church attendees? White atheists? University professors with trans race issues? Media inflating claims of race issues? The President raising race issues which had been dormant?
Pope Francis has released a report which the media will embrace and sideline at the same time. The fact that a tax or Carbon trade won't address the issue of climate change effectively will be ignored by the press. The press are very impressed with the empty statement that rich nations are to blame for anthropogenic global warming (AGW). If it ever becomes a problem, rich nations will be the solution too.
Julian Assange, running from a charge of being an incompetent penis, ran to an embassy on this day in 2012, substantiating allegations his lies had killed people around the world for which he also feared extradition to the United States. Is there sufficient, now, to suggest Assange has dual citizenship?
From 2014
Many will misunderstand and inflate the high court decision to stop the government plan to pay for school religious counsellors. It is an over reach, with an ambit claim that it is inappropriate for public schools to provide access to religious education. In fact democracy demands informed citizens and education is a better teacher than rumour. It is ok for students to learn scripture and wrong for atheists to deny it to the children of others. If the truth is so seductive, it should be provided.
Even so, the legislation the High Court panned is not the conservative one, but the ALP vision put in place of a conservative one. The ALP have a shameful history of bad legislation which achieves little. It is often different from the conservative variety, but weaker too. The Gillard Pacific Solution was terrible. The tax on mining, tax on carbon, one which raises no money and the other raises prices for the poorest.
Modern education is based on medieval religious instruction .. they fit. Scripture does not force students to choose. Anecdotally, some students choose not to be religious having experienced it. It is important for many students raised in religious households. It is wrong to deny many to satisfy a few activists. There are many programs that could be threatened if scripture is struck down.
Even so, the legislation the High Court panned is not the conservative one, but the ALP vision put in place of a conservative one. The ALP have a shameful history of bad legislation which achieves little. It is often different from the conservative variety, but weaker too. The Gillard Pacific Solution was terrible. The tax on mining, tax on carbon, one which raises no money and the other raises prices for the poorest.
Modern education is based on medieval religious instruction .. they fit. Scripture does not force students to choose. Anecdotally, some students choose not to be religious having experienced it. It is important for many students raised in religious households. It is wrong to deny many to satisfy a few activists. There are many programs that could be threatened if scripture is struck down.
Historical perspective on this day
In 1179, the Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Earl Erling Skakke was killed, and the battle changed the tide of the civil wars. 1269, King Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver. 1306, The Earl of Pembroke's army defeated Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven. 1586, English colonists left Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America.
In 1816, Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 1821, Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia). 1846, the first officially recorded, organised baseball game was played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired. 1850, Princess Louise of the Netherlands married Crown Prince Karl of Sweden–Norway. 1857, the 19 June 1857 law (Loi relative à l'assainissement et de mise en culture des Landes de Gascogne): A turning point in the history of the Landes forest. 1862, the U.S. Congressprohibited slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford. 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, were finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texasand 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth. 1867, Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire was executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro. 1875, the Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire began.
In 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington. 1911, the Norwegian football club Molde FK was founded. 1913, Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented. 1934, the Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
In 1944, World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing, in New York. 1961, Kuwait declared independence from the United Kingdom. 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate. 1965, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ became Prime Minister of South Vietnam at the head of a military junta; General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu became the figurehead chief of state. 1966, Shiv Sena a political party in India was founded in Mumbai.
In 1970, the Patent Cooperation Treaty was signed. 1978, Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, made its debut. 1982, in one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, was kidnapped. 1985, members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador. 1990, the current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, was ratified for the first time by Norway. Also 1990, the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was founded in Moscow. 1991, the Soviet occupation of Hungary ended.
In 2007, the al-Khilani Mosque bombing in Baghdad left 78 people dead and another 218 injured. 2009, Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers broke out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef. Also 2009, War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces opened Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. 2010, the Wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling was held at Storkyrkan in Stockholm. 2012, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London's Ecuatorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army. 2014, Felipe VI, Prince of Asturias, rose to the Spanish thronefollowing the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.
In 1816, Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 1821, Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia). 1846, the first officially recorded, organised baseball game was played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired. 1850, Princess Louise of the Netherlands married Crown Prince Karl of Sweden–Norway. 1857, the 19 June 1857 law (Loi relative à l'assainissement et de mise en culture des Landes de Gascogne): A turning point in the history of the Landes forest. 1862, the U.S. Congressprohibited slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford. 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, were finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texasand 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth. 1867, Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire was executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro. 1875, the Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire began.
In 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington. 1911, the Norwegian football club Molde FK was founded. 1913, Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented. 1934, the Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
In 1944, World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing, in New York. 1961, Kuwait declared independence from the United Kingdom. 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate. 1965, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ became Prime Minister of South Vietnam at the head of a military junta; General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu became the figurehead chief of state. 1966, Shiv Sena a political party in India was founded in Mumbai.
In 1970, the Patent Cooperation Treaty was signed. 1978, Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, made its debut. 1982, in one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, was kidnapped. 1985, members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador. 1990, the current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, was ratified for the first time by Norway. Also 1990, the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was founded in Moscow. 1991, the Soviet occupation of Hungary ended.
In 2007, the al-Khilani Mosque bombing in Baghdad left 78 people dead and another 218 injured. 2009, Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers broke out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef. Also 2009, War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces opened Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. 2010, the Wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling was held at Storkyrkan in Stockholm. 2012, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London's Ecuatorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army. 2014, Felipe VI, Prince of Asturias, rose to the Spanish thronefollowing the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.
=== 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
- 1301 – Prince Morikuni of Japan (d. 1333)
- 1566 – James VI and I of England (d. 1625)
- 1623 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1662)
- 1771 – Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician (d. 1859)
- 1816 – William H. Webb, American shipbuilder and philanthropist, founded the Webb Institute (d. 1899)
- 1834 – Charles Spurgeon, British preacher (d. 1892)
- 1861 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, British field marshal (d. 1928)
- 1877 – Charles Coburn, American actor and singer (d. 1961)
- 1893 – Madeleine Astor, American survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (d. 1940)
- 1902 – Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American violinist and bandleader (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)
- 1903 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)
- 1910 – Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
- 1928 – Tommy DeVito, American singer and guitarist (The Four Seasons and Four Lovers)
- 1928 – Barry Took, English actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
- 1929 – Raymond Bonham Carter, English banker (d. 2004)
- 1945 – Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1947 – Salman Rushdie, Indian author
- 1954 – Kathleen Turner, American actress
- 1962 – Paula Abdul, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1981 – Christina Baily, English actress
- 1986 – Sjoerd Huisman, Dutch speed skater (d. 2013)
- 1998 – Atticus Shaffer, American actor
Deaths
- 626 – Soga no Umako, Japanese son of Soga no Iname (b. 551)
- 1027 – Romuald, Italian saint (b. 951)
- 1282 – Eleanor de Montfort, wife of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales (b. 1252)
- 1747 – Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (b. 1669)
- 1820 – Joseph Banks, English botanist (b. 1743)
- 1937 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1860)
- 1953 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (b. 1915)
- 1953 – Julius Rosenberg, American spy (b. 1918)
- 2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor (b. 1961)
- 1269 – Louis IX of France imposed a fine of ten livres of silver on Jews found in public without a yellow badge.
- 1816 – The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, rival fur-trading companies, engaged in a violent confrontation in present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
- 1944 – World War II: The navies of the United States and Imperial Japan engaged each other off the Mariana Islands in the Philippine Sea.
- 1987 – Basque separatist group ETA detonated a car bomb at the Hipercor shopping centre in Barcelona, killing 21 people and injuring 45 others.
- 2010 – The royal wedding between Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling (both pictured) took place in Stockholm Cathedral.
Poor Louis is too ugly for fashion. This is where the fur flies. They are engaged. ETA has planted big ones. And the engagement happily ended. Let's party.
===Tim Blair
THINGS NEED TO CHANGE, FOR NO REASON AT ALL
Andrew Bolt
How our politicians have shamefully swept the revolting truth about Islam under the prayer mat
Piers Akerman – Sunday, June 19, 2016 (12:19am)
THERE was a time, earlier this century, when Malcolm Turnbull was the full bottle on the Muslim religion.
Continue reading 'How our politicians have shamefully swept the revolting truth about Islam under the prayer mat'
For Turnbull, ‘multi-faith’ only means Islam
Miranda Devine – Sunday, June 19, 2016 (12:16am)
It was an inexplicable own goal for Malcolm Turnbull, two weeks before the election, to invite a Muslim hate preacher to a Ramadan dinner at Kirribilli House.
Continue reading 'For Turnbull, ‘multi-faith’ only means Islam'
WHAT ARE 49 DEATHS COMPARED TO THIS?
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 19, 2016 (6:07pm)
The real tragedy of the Orlando nightclub massacre:
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SPOKES MAN
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 19, 2016 (2:52pm)
Sundance Bilson-Thompson
Sundance’s fellow South Australian Cyclist Party senate hopeful is Angus Harker-Smith.
(Via Ian G.)
UPDATE. Sundance has a NSW rival.
THEY COULD’VE JUST ASKED THEM TO TURN IT DOWN
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 19, 2016 (12:54pm)
The fun and excitement of Ramadanadingdong continues:
A group of Radiohead fans have been viciously attacked by a gang of thugs in Turkey, apparently angry at the men for listening to music during the holy month of Ramadan.Video taken inside the Velvet Indieground bar in Instanbul shows a group of people sitting quietly with music playing before several men storm the bar and order them outside.Tense scenes ensue as several men try to barricade themselves inside the store while crashes, shouts and screams can be heard outside.
The hadiths are very strict when it comes to 90s alt-rock bands, mainly because Creep is all about Big Mo. Over in Belgium, Prime Minister Charles Michel and several members of his government have been placed under increased police protection since Friday due to terror risks, while 12 terrorism suspects were arrested in overnight raids. Bangladesh has gone in even harder, and with good reason:
Authorities in Bangladesh have arrested nearly 150 suspected militants and more than 11,000 others as part of a crackdown on extremism after a wave of brutal killings.Police said they detained 145 suspected Islamist militants over four days of raids and that the rest were accused of everything from theft and drug dealing to violence.An officially secular but Muslim-majority nation, Bangladesh has seen a surge of targeted killings – blamed on Islamist radicals – that have claimed the lives of secularists, religious minorities and gay activists.
Further on our Ramadan mates from Peta Credlin.
VIN FOR THE WIN
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 19, 2016 (12:44pm)
Baseball announcer Vin Scully is a more astute political observer than all those Australian leftists who declared their love for Hugo Chavez.
The ground is being prepared for the rise of a new conservative party
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (1:57pm)
===Labor’s launch - secrets to Labor’s failure
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (12:47pm)
Telling points from Labor’s launch:
Chris Bowen lavishly praises the Labor Left’s Tanya Plibersek in his speech - more than he does Bill Shorten. A tip about Labor’s post-defeat line-up?
Three former Labor leaders are at the launch - Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Julia Gillard. Kevin Rudd, the unwanted one, mails in his apologies. Note that Gillard, worst of the three, gets the loudest cheers. Labor loves the losers most. Remember when it cheered Whitlam at these launches but only clapped Hawke?
A welcome to country speech. When will we end this divisive ceremony, a ritual more suitable for an apartheid regime?
Symbolism over realism. There’s a woman on-stage signing for the deaf. Most of the time she’s not on screen.
Plibersek mentions Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as laugh lines. They just happen to be two of the greatest post-war leaders of the West, whose policies rejuvenated their countries. And they are jokes to Labor?
But Plibersek on Tony Abbott: “At least he believed in something.” A moment of truth.
I am sympathetic to Labor’s desire to seem community-focused. People first. But the stage and backdrop make the event seem a bit low-rent, as if Shorten is running for mayor of some inner-city council.
Redemption! The three ex-PMs are introduced again by Shorten. This time Hawke is perhaps cheered a little longer. He is, of course, by far the greatest of the three, and it is heartening that Shorten from the stage gives him the biggest build up.
“We will not be a big-spending government.” Except the figures show it will.
The speech was more a laundry list of promises than a narrative. The centrepiece: a big (fake) scare about Medicare.
===Chris Bowen lavishly praises the Labor Left’s Tanya Plibersek in his speech - more than he does Bill Shorten. A tip about Labor’s post-defeat line-up?
Three former Labor leaders are at the launch - Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Julia Gillard. Kevin Rudd, the unwanted one, mails in his apologies. Note that Gillard, worst of the three, gets the loudest cheers. Labor loves the losers most. Remember when it cheered Whitlam at these launches but only clapped Hawke?
A welcome to country speech. When will we end this divisive ceremony, a ritual more suitable for an apartheid regime?
Symbolism over realism. There’s a woman on-stage signing for the deaf. Most of the time she’s not on screen.
Plibersek mentions Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as laugh lines. They just happen to be two of the greatest post-war leaders of the West, whose policies rejuvenated their countries. And they are jokes to Labor?
But Plibersek on Tony Abbott: “At least he believed in something.” A moment of truth.
I am sympathetic to Labor’s desire to seem community-focused. People first. But the stage and backdrop make the event seem a bit low-rent, as if Shorten is running for mayor of some inner-city council.
Redemption! The three ex-PMs are introduced again by Shorten. This time Hawke is perhaps cheered a little longer. He is, of course, by far the greatest of the three, and it is heartening that Shorten from the stage gives him the biggest build up.
“We will not be a big-spending government.” Except the figures show it will.
The speech was more a laundry list of promises than a narrative. The centrepiece: a big (fake) scare about Medicare.
Savva, Tingle, Kenny: submitting to the hate-preachers
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (10:41am)
Unbelievable. From denial to appeasement.
First, we warn that Islam preaches hate. We’re told by the ABC establishment this is false.
Then, we show that Islamic preachers do preach hate. We’re told by the ABC establishment that they are just unrepresentative Muslims.
Now, we show that the president of the Australian National Imam’s Council, Sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman, in on-line sermons has vilified Jews, called on God to help “destroy the enemies of Islam”, declared the punishment for adulterers “is stoning to death”, damned Christmas parties as “worship of Satan” and accused gays of “spreading all these diseases” through “evil actions that bring evil outcomes to our society”.
So now the ABC/media Left switches from denial and excuses to appeasement - if not surrender.
Witness this astonishing exchange on the ABC’s Insiders this morning, discussing Sheikh Shady’s attendance as an honored guest at the Prime Minister’s end-of-Ramadan meal:
UPDATE
Five weeks ago:
===First, we warn that Islam preaches hate. We’re told by the ABC establishment this is false.
Then, we show that Islamic preachers do preach hate. We’re told by the ABC establishment that they are just unrepresentative Muslims.
Now, we show that the president of the Australian National Imam’s Council, Sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman, in on-line sermons has vilified Jews, called on God to help “destroy the enemies of Islam”, declared the punishment for adulterers “is stoning to death”, damned Christmas parties as “worship of Satan” and accused gays of “spreading all these diseases” through “evil actions that bring evil outcomes to our society”.
So now the ABC/media Left switches from denial and excuses to appeasement - if not surrender.
Witness this astonishing exchange on the ABC’s Insiders this morning, discussing Sheikh Shady’s attendance as an honored guest at the Prime Minister’s end-of-Ramadan meal:
Nikki Savva: Labor has to deal with the same kind of people that Malcolm Turnbull has to deal with if we are to show, you know, that we have links into the Muslim community. And while this imam is offensive and his views are unacceptable, nevertheless both sides have had contact.From too few to worry about to too many to resist. Blink of an eye.
Laura Tingle: He’s got an official position.
Nikki Savva: An official position so he can’t be avoided or isolated....
Mark Kenny: Apparently this guy is regarded by the Government and AFP (Australian Federal Police) and others as important in their deradicalisation dialogue strategy with the Islamic community. And they still regard him as that.... I don’t think this Shady Sheikh would have been the only person with odious views about homosexuals at this thing, and that’s one of the other reasons I think that the parties, the Opposition needs to be a little bit measured in the way it sees this…
Barrie Cassidy: It’s not the only religion with these sorts of views.
UPDATE
Five weeks ago:
Malcolm Turnbull had quietly had a Greens candidate, Lin Hatfield Dodds, made one of the deputy secretaries of his Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, in charge of his social policy.Last week:
When asked by Macquarie Radio if he regretted inviting Sheikh Alsuleiman to dinner, Mr Turnbull said: “I do.” ...
Mr Turnbull said he had spoken with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which had compiled the guest list for Thursday’s event.
Waleed Aly once more excuses Islam for an Islamist slaughter
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (10:38am)
I have detailed how Waleed Aly repeatedly omits or denies the role of Islam in Islamist terrorism.
For that impiety I have been savaged by the state broadcaster, the ABC.
ABC presenter Raphael Epstein misrepresented my argument to accuse me of licensing racism.
Most astonishing was the attack on me from the ABC’s religion editor, former Uniting Church minister Scott Stephens, who damned me as “mad”, “lunatic”, “maniacal” and even “idolatrous” for criticising Islam and Aly, illustrated in the piece wearing Christ’s crown of thorns. The then ABC head praised this litany of abuse as ”scholarly”.
That intellectually dishonest and dangerous evasion continues even after the Orlando massacre, with Aly once more aided by disciple Stephens and your taxpayer-funded ABC.
Michael Smith explains:
When you wade through Aly’s verbal sludge “explaining” Orlando, you are left with this message: that an Islamist slaughter is a sign of the sickness of the West, not of Islam. Yes, here is yet another example of Aly blaming the victims of Islamist terrorism:
Link to the Aly/Stephens show fixed.
UPDATE
More ABC denialism, again sponsored by the ABC, and from another one of Malcolm Turnbull’s top-table guests:
So which “identity” are these young men asserting? Why aren’t non-Muslim men expressing their own :identity” issues through mass slaughter?
(Thanks to reader John.)
===For that impiety I have been savaged by the state broadcaster, the ABC.
ABC presenter Raphael Epstein misrepresented my argument to accuse me of licensing racism.
Most astonishing was the attack on me from the ABC’s religion editor, former Uniting Church minister Scott Stephens, who damned me as “mad”, “lunatic”, “maniacal” and even “idolatrous” for criticising Islam and Aly, illustrated in the piece wearing Christ’s crown of thorns. The then ABC head praised this litany of abuse as ”scholarly”.
That intellectually dishonest and dangerous evasion continues even after the Orlando massacre, with Aly once more aided by disciple Stephens and your taxpayer-funded ABC.
Michael Smith explains:
Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens present a taxpayer funded show on ABC Radio National… Last week The Minefield set out to answer this lofty question: “What is a ‘moral’ response to Orlando?”Listen at the link.
Firstly a synopsis of what that model moral response from Aly and his mate did not include. Naming the shooter, naming his motivation, naming Islam, acknowledging the victims. A moral response has nothing to do with Islam because according to the celebrity Muslim Aly the terror attack itself had nothing to do with Islam.
Aly’s moral response to Orlando? Get rid of freedom, not Islam.
“Freedom (is one of those narratives that) doesn’t work any more” he said…
I wonder what divinely ordained system Mr Aly could have in mind to replace the dangerous freedom that’s been ruining the world?..
I’ll leave you with Aly’s opener to his show - his chance to advise the world on a moral response to Orlando. As you’ll hear, a moral response doesn’t name the shooter, doesn’t acknowledge the victims, it ignores the shooter’s stated motivation and most importantly, a moral response to Islamic terrorism contains this message.
This had nothing to do with Islam.
When you wade through Aly’s verbal sludge “explaining” Orlando, you are left with this message: that an Islamist slaughter is a sign of the sickness of the West, not of Islam. Yes, here is yet another example of Aly blaming the victims of Islamist terrorism:
And if I had to try to explain that – that it would be a lengthy dissertation – but if I tried to do it briefly it would go something like this: That our world is now one that is an increasingly polarised and polarising contest between new frontiers of cosmopolitism on the one hand and quite responsive and symbiotically related frontiers of atavism on the other. And within that lie all of the political narratives that have sustained us through the 20th century that simply don’t work anymore. Narratives like freedom, right, which, you know, expresses its own contradictions in America every time there is a mass shooting. When you see what freedom and a certain conception of freedom ends up looking like – and how an adherence to that kind of ideological idea of freedom prevents you from doing anything about the consequences of it. Where this freedom just kind of ends up consuming itself in a very strange, dark sort of a way.UPDATE
And at the same time as you have those kind of old narratives going on, I think, you have a world where the ever proliferating notions of identity and self-determination and the celebration of alterities, right. And I suppose you would have to put LGBTQ rights and that kind of civil rights movement in that context with respect to the way society that had operated over the past however many centuries and the narratives that have governed society.
As that happens, as more and more minorities come out and claim their rights – and they’re justified in trying to claim their rights – what you will inevitably get is the response of those who feel like something huge and drastic and epic is being lost. And what is giving way in all of that, Scott, is the centre. And I feel like the centre must give way because we are in a radical time.
We are in a time where the modern world is so at odds with itself, it is so trying to hold together these completely opposing views, these completely opposing vectors, these opposing movements in politics and identity. Societies don’t subsist that way because every now and again you get a reminder of the failure of modern society to subsist under all of these kind of contradictory pressures. I don’t know if I’m explaining myself as well as I feel. To me it feels clear. It’s just very hard to explain it.
Link to the Aly/Stephens show fixed.
UPDATE
More ABC denialism, again sponsored by the ABC, and from another one of Malcolm Turnbull’s top-table guests:
Click here for the audio.
So which “identity” are these young men asserting? Why aren’t non-Muslim men expressing their own :identity” issues through mass slaughter?
(Thanks to reader John.)
Andrews the arsonist
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (9:19am)
Mark Knight is, of course, brilliant:
===James Campbell on the far-Left thugs ruling Victoria and feeding the CFA volunteers to their union mates:
LAST Tuesday Daniel Andrews was interviewed by the ABC’s Jon Faine about the future of Lucinda Nolan, chief executive of the CFA.Andrews is a deceitful bully prepared even to destroy the CFA to pay off union mates. His colleagues shoud be ashamed to go along with this.
The previous Friday, the new Emergency Services Minister, James Merlino, had announced he was sacking the CFA board. Faine wanted to know if the Premier had confidence in Nolan…
But instead of doing the upright and manly thing by saying he wanted her gone, Dan — as is his way — pretended the whole thing had nothing to do with him.
“She’s the CEO and the CEO, if you like, the process to choose the CEO, issues of the performance of the CEO are a matter for the board,” he said…
“I’m not going to try and impose myself on that, that’s not appropriate.”
Fast forward to 1pm last Friday and the announcement by Merlino of five of the nine new members of the CFA board — the other four, to be appointed later, will come from the ranks of the volunteer firefighters.
Two hours later Nolan resigned.
Then, at 7pm, CFA chair Greg Smith announced the new board had appointed health bureaucrat Frances Diver as Nolan’s replacement as chief executive…
Really? This board, which had only been in place six hours, was able to select and interview a new chief executive within three hours of the exit of the old one?
We have to believe so because the alternative — that the Government had lined up the new chief before the board took over — would mean Daniel Andrews was lying ...
Devine Delcon: the prodigal returns
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (8:51am)
Miranda Devine in April, attacking the “Delcons”:
UPDATE
Peta Credlin:
===I AM a conservative pariah.... I am accused of being either paid by or in “love” with Malcolm Turnbull. Elder statesmen of the Delusional Conservative (Delcon) movement send me more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger missives accusing me of gross naïveté.Miranda Devine today, joining the Delcons:
All because I have resisted the delusion that Tony Abbott was a conservative warrior cut down in his prime by leftie treachery…
The joke is on the Delcons, carrying water for the Left… Abbott was no conservative prime minister.. [A]ppeasing the left cost him the support of the party room. No one is under any illusion about Turnbull’s ideological leanings, but so far he is not making the same mistake.
It was an inexplicable own goal for Malcolm Turnbull, two weeks before the election, to invite a Muslim hate preacher to a Ramadan dinner at Kirribilli House…These are merely “suspicions”?
But equally inexplicable was the fact that, at an event billed as “multi-faith”, the Prime Minister seated only Muslims with him at the table marked “1”, including divisive leftist icon Waleed Aly…
Of course it’s important for the PM to practice interfaith bridge-building and multicultural outreach, but pandering to the most aggressive religion at the expense of others is not a recipe for community harmony.
And it is cynical and divisive to insinuate that, if we want Muslims in our own country not to attack us, we must practice a craven appeasement…
The appearance of political appeasement will cost the Coalition votes, and reaffirm suspicions that Turnbull is a politically correct progressive without the answers to the greatest problem of our time.
UPDATE
Peta Credlin:
Fair enough, have a Ramadan Iftar dinner at Kirribilli House but if the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Australian Federal Police, the ceremonial branch and the Prime Minister’s own office can’t recognise a hate preacher and exclude him, we have a massive problem.
Another three unrepresentive Muslims charged
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (8:42am)
Muslim immigration into secular and multi-faith western democracies is proving to be very dangerous and expensive:
===Belgian prosecutors have charged three men with terror offences following overnight raids that took place amid heightened security in Belgium and France due to the Euro 2016 soccer tournament.
Three months after Islamist bombers killed 32 people in Brussels, police searched dozens of houses across the country and arrested 12 people the night before Belgium’s Euro 2016 game against Ireland on Saturday.
Nine of them were released after questioning but three Belgian nationals identified as 27-year-old Samir C., 40-year-old Moustapha B., and 29-year-old Jawad B., were charged with “having attempted to commit a terrorist murder and for participation in the activities of a terrorist group”, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Some media reports said the suspects had planned attacks against fans watching the Euro 2016 games in Brussels, and had possibly been targeting Saturday afternoon’s Belgium vs Ireland match.
Our national security is Labor’s insecurity
Piers Akerman – Friday, June 19, 2015 (8:36am)
The Greens are way out of step with ordinary Australians on a range of critical security issues. According to the latest Lowy Institute Poll, released on Tuesday, of eight potential risks to Australia’s security, Australians rank terrorism-related threats first, second and third.
Yet Labor and the Greens are scrambling to protect the human rights of terrorists through their challenges to the Abbott government’s desire to treat terrorists holding dual citizenship as traitors and strip them of their Australian citizenship.
Though the government has yet to finalise its legislation, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus wants to ensure terrorists currently fighting in Raqqa in Syria can return safely to Australia to face a trial before any action is taken against them.
Labor may not be ready to ‘roll out the red carpet” as Prime Minister Tony Abbott suggested, but it has not offered constructive suggestions to cope with the difficulty of establishing watertight cases against the deluded jihadists who boast of their allegiance to Islamic State, or Daesh, on anti-social media sites as they seek to recruit new followers to the death cult.
The Lowy survey found 69 per cent of those polled agreed the emergence of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is a high risk to Australia’s security in the next 10 years.
Fifty-five per cent believed that there was a high risk of terrorist attacks on Australians overseas and 53 per cent said there was a high risk from home-grown terrorism in Australia.
It recorded the lowest feelings of safety among Australians in its 11-year history of polling. In a tracking question first asked in 2005, fewer than one in four (24 per cent) of Australian adults said they felt ‘very safe” in 2015, 18 points down from the 42 per cent who felt very safe when the question was last asked in 2010.
The threat of terrorism appears to be the primary cause.
Risks of conflict in our region ranked far lower in Australians’ threat perceptions, with only 20 per cent seeing ‘military conflict between the United States and China in Asia” as a high risk.
‘Maritime disputes between China and its neighbours in Asian territorial seas” are seen as high risk by only 26 per cent of Australians.
The people understand what Labor and the Greens appear to want to ignore. This can only be understood if one embraces the luvvies’ nonsensical blind trust in human nature.
It ignores such realities as the unsuccessful al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah-guided conspiracy to bomb Israeli and Jewish targets during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Lashkar e-Toiba plot foiled in Sydney in 2003, the plan to attack Holsworthy Army Barracks foiled in 2009 and, most recently, the stabbing attack by 18-year-old Numan Haider on two Melbourne police officers last September, during which he was shot dead.
It ignores the Martin Place hostage siege in December in which Man Haron Monis was shot dead by police after he killed hostage Tori Johnson, and another hostage, Katrina Dawson, lost her life after being hit by a ricocheting police bullet.
It ignores the difficulties experienced by counter-terror specialists from ASIO, the AFP, Victorian and NSW police forces in successfully prosecuting 18 men involved in terrorist cells in Melbourne and Sydney under Operation Pendennis.
It ignores the number of Islamist extremists from Australia who have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen and Syria.
The Lowy survey found most Australians (69 per cent) support Australia’s participation in military action against Islamic State even though a majority (55 per cent) believe that participation increases the risk of terrorism to Australia now, and only 20 per cent think it makes us safer from terrorism in the future.
Despite the fears of an increased risk of terrorism, the Australians who support air strikes against Islamic State and the provision of military assistance to Iraq far outnumber those (22 per cent) who oppose it.
Dr Michael Fullilove, the executive director of the Lowy Institute, said that level of support was ‘remarkable considering that so few think this military action makes Australia safer from terrorism in the future.’’ Unlike Labor, which under the Rudd government slashed funding to the key counter-terrorism agencies by $292 million (from $790 million in 2007-08 to $498 million), the Abbott government recently boosted counter-terrorism spending by over $630 million to prevent a further decline to $438 million by 2017-18.
Even the government’s new metadata retention laws have the support of a clear majority of Australians, according to the poll, which found that 63 per cent believed the legislation was ‘justified as part of the effort to combat terrorism and protect national security”.
Only one-third (33 per cent) said it went too far in violating citizens’ privacy and was therefore not justified.
Again, security comes first, even when a degree of privacy may be sacrificed. The results of the Lowy survey will reinforce what most Australians instinctively understand.The security of the nation is far too important to leave to the kumbaya crowd barracking for Labor and the Greens.
Yet Labor and the Greens are scrambling to protect the human rights of terrorists through their challenges to the Abbott government’s desire to treat terrorists holding dual citizenship as traitors and strip them of their Australian citizenship.
Though the government has yet to finalise its legislation, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus wants to ensure terrorists currently fighting in Raqqa in Syria can return safely to Australia to face a trial before any action is taken against them.
Labor may not be ready to ‘roll out the red carpet” as Prime Minister Tony Abbott suggested, but it has not offered constructive suggestions to cope with the difficulty of establishing watertight cases against the deluded jihadists who boast of their allegiance to Islamic State, or Daesh, on anti-social media sites as they seek to recruit new followers to the death cult.
The Lowy survey found 69 per cent of those polled agreed the emergence of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is a high risk to Australia’s security in the next 10 years.
Fifty-five per cent believed that there was a high risk of terrorist attacks on Australians overseas and 53 per cent said there was a high risk from home-grown terrorism in Australia.
It recorded the lowest feelings of safety among Australians in its 11-year history of polling. In a tracking question first asked in 2005, fewer than one in four (24 per cent) of Australian adults said they felt ‘very safe” in 2015, 18 points down from the 42 per cent who felt very safe when the question was last asked in 2010.
The threat of terrorism appears to be the primary cause.
Risks of conflict in our region ranked far lower in Australians’ threat perceptions, with only 20 per cent seeing ‘military conflict between the United States and China in Asia” as a high risk.
‘Maritime disputes between China and its neighbours in Asian territorial seas” are seen as high risk by only 26 per cent of Australians.
The people understand what Labor and the Greens appear to want to ignore. This can only be understood if one embraces the luvvies’ nonsensical blind trust in human nature.
It ignores such realities as the unsuccessful al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah-guided conspiracy to bomb Israeli and Jewish targets during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Lashkar e-Toiba plot foiled in Sydney in 2003, the plan to attack Holsworthy Army Barracks foiled in 2009 and, most recently, the stabbing attack by 18-year-old Numan Haider on two Melbourne police officers last September, during which he was shot dead.
It ignores the Martin Place hostage siege in December in which Man Haron Monis was shot dead by police after he killed hostage Tori Johnson, and another hostage, Katrina Dawson, lost her life after being hit by a ricocheting police bullet.
It ignores the difficulties experienced by counter-terror specialists from ASIO, the AFP, Victorian and NSW police forces in successfully prosecuting 18 men involved in terrorist cells in Melbourne and Sydney under Operation Pendennis.
It ignores the number of Islamist extremists from Australia who have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen and Syria.
The Lowy survey found most Australians (69 per cent) support Australia’s participation in military action against Islamic State even though a majority (55 per cent) believe that participation increases the risk of terrorism to Australia now, and only 20 per cent think it makes us safer from terrorism in the future.
Despite the fears of an increased risk of terrorism, the Australians who support air strikes against Islamic State and the provision of military assistance to Iraq far outnumber those (22 per cent) who oppose it.
Dr Michael Fullilove, the executive director of the Lowy Institute, said that level of support was ‘remarkable considering that so few think this military action makes Australia safer from terrorism in the future.’’ Unlike Labor, which under the Rudd government slashed funding to the key counter-terrorism agencies by $292 million (from $790 million in 2007-08 to $498 million), the Abbott government recently boosted counter-terrorism spending by over $630 million to prevent a further decline to $438 million by 2017-18.
Even the government’s new metadata retention laws have the support of a clear majority of Australians, according to the poll, which found that 63 per cent believed the legislation was ‘justified as part of the effort to combat terrorism and protect national security”.
Only one-third (33 per cent) said it went too far in violating citizens’ privacy and was therefore not justified.
Again, security comes first, even when a degree of privacy may be sacrificed. The results of the Lowy survey will reinforce what most Australians instinctively understand.The security of the nation is far too important to leave to the kumbaya crowd barracking for Labor and the Greens.
Cutting through red tape to make tax less taxing
The the bulk of Australians, I’m a PAYG (Pay As You Go) taxpayer with a relatively uncomplicated tax return to file in the next few weeks.
This may seem like heresy to many readers, but recent changes to the Australian Tax Office wrought by Commissioner Chris Jordan, a relative newbie brought in to shake-up what has been a stifling red-tape bound bureaucracy, are very encouraging.
After 2½ years in the job, he has chalked up an impressive record. Not only did he recently refuse to reveal confidential information held by the Tax Office to Labor’s Senator Sam Dastyari , but he has applied a rare practicality to the ATO’s operations.
With an impressive background both as an adviser and in the private sector, Jordan has uncluttered the ATO and freed up its staff to make their own decisions - a revolutionary approach for public servants. Just eliminating Certificates of Assurance (people signing off that they have met process conformance and obligations) has done away with 2400 pages of reporting.
Corporate Practice Management policy documents have been reduced from 178 to 60 - more than a thousand pages reduction - and the new versions are shorter, sharper, written in plain English with an application of commonsense rather than trying to specify everything people needed to do.
With Jordan’s enthusiastic encouragement, 13 prescriptive assessment matrices for quality assessment have been replaced with one principle-based universal quality matrix, 130 pages have been reduced to six pages, eliminating in the Compliance Group the need for more than 8700 case level quality assessments annually with no real reduction in assurance To make compliance simpler, 119 different audit types have been rationalised to 12, 106 review types rationalised to five and instructions and manuals reduced by more than 7000 pages.
Corporate performance measures have been reduced from more than 500 separate reportable measures to less than 250 - and he says this is just the first stage.
The ATO’s Code of Settlement has been reduced from 45 pages to two pages and 50 related procedural guides reduced to one practice guide.
The Indirect Tax procedural documents have been cut by about 860, with reduction of about 3500 pages of instructions.
The simplification will make it easier for everyone and will raise greater revenues.While the pity is that he is not part of the political wing making policy, he is demonstrating how process can be improved and bureaucracy made to work.
The the bulk of Australians, I’m a PAYG (Pay As You Go) taxpayer with a relatively uncomplicated tax return to file in the next few weeks.
This may seem like heresy to many readers, but recent changes to the Australian Tax Office wrought by Commissioner Chris Jordan, a relative newbie brought in to shake-up what has been a stifling red-tape bound bureaucracy, are very encouraging.
After 2½ years in the job, he has chalked up an impressive record. Not only did he recently refuse to reveal confidential information held by the Tax Office to Labor’s Senator Sam Dastyari , but he has applied a rare practicality to the ATO’s operations.
With an impressive background both as an adviser and in the private sector, Jordan has uncluttered the ATO and freed up its staff to make their own decisions - a revolutionary approach for public servants. Just eliminating Certificates of Assurance (people signing off that they have met process conformance and obligations) has done away with 2400 pages of reporting.
Corporate Practice Management policy documents have been reduced from 178 to 60 - more than a thousand pages reduction - and the new versions are shorter, sharper, written in plain English with an application of commonsense rather than trying to specify everything people needed to do.
With Jordan’s enthusiastic encouragement, 13 prescriptive assessment matrices for quality assessment have been replaced with one principle-based universal quality matrix, 130 pages have been reduced to six pages, eliminating in the Compliance Group the need for more than 8700 case level quality assessments annually with no real reduction in assurance To make compliance simpler, 119 different audit types have been rationalised to 12, 106 review types rationalised to five and instructions and manuals reduced by more than 7000 pages.
Corporate performance measures have been reduced from more than 500 separate reportable measures to less than 250 - and he says this is just the first stage.
The ATO’s Code of Settlement has been reduced from 45 pages to two pages and 50 related procedural guides reduced to one practice guide.
The Indirect Tax procedural documents have been cut by about 860, with reduction of about 3500 pages of instructions.
The simplification will make it easier for everyone and will raise greater revenues.While the pity is that he is not part of the political wing making policy, he is demonstrating how process can be improved and bureaucracy made to work.
EVERYBODY OUT
Tim Blair – Friday, June 19, 2015 (3:47pm)
Shortly after it was posted, this trade union ad was removed from YouTube following hilarious leftist outrage:
BRILLIANT BATTING
Tim Blair – Friday, June 19, 2015 (1:52pm)
In 1972, after being told he’d been dropped from the Australian cricket team, John Benaud responded in the best possible way:
He thrashed 142 against Pakistan at the MCG, a furious innings played in the knowledge that he had already been left out of the next Test.
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Elizabeth Farrelly is now demonstrating the same defiant spirit. Clearly outraged by her omission from this year’s frightbat poll, Queen Elizabeth has fought back with one of her frightbattiest columns ever:
Tony Abbott, proudly philistine leader of a proudly philistine country, makes world news by declaring war on renewables for reasons of, you betcha, taste. Windmills bad because windmills ugly.
If Liz hates Australia so much, why did she move here from New Zealand?
I like windmills. I like their whiteness and grandeur …
RAAACIST!
… and how they catch the morning light like so many celestial beings beamed across the landscape. I like the spin of those spiky trefoils, all slightly out-of-sync in eerie contrapuntal rhythm.
And I like how, without trying, they do what art should – combining the visual, the kinetic and the semantic in a single gesture that lets deep meaning look like arresting simplicity.
She continues in this manner for several hundred further words. Like Benaud at the MCG in 1972, Farrelly will not be tamed.
Coal is not good for humanity, Tony. Coal is a death cult.
Tell it to the birds, dear.
If she can maintain this high standard, Farrelly is practically guaranteed a poll return in 2016. Meanwhile, 2014 runner-up and current second-place holder Clementine Ford has launched a stunning bid to rein in runaway 2015 frightbat leader Gillian Triggs. Who knew these gals were so competitive?
MEANWHILE, LABOR IS CRUISING
Tim Blair – Friday, June 19, 2015 (12:27pm)
The latest noitciderp from Bob Ellis:
Abbott has had a big press conference about the North, with Truss, Robb and Barnaby Joyce at his side, proposing billions in aid to that region.It is likely this is a diversion from his quarrel with Malcolm Turnbull, who may in the next few days overthrow him …It is likely, though not certain, that Turnbull will resign over this, and with Bishop’s collusion strike at the leadership and win it, sack Hockey and put another Budget quickly together and call an August election he might win.
As usual, none of this will happen.
POPE FLANNERY SCHOOLED
Tim Blair – Friday, June 19, 2015 (5:48am)
The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.
That’s why we call it “dirt,” genius.
HUNT FOR A KILLER
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 18, 2015 (11:17pm)
South Carolina has the death penalty, and yet again is going to need it:
CHARLESTON, S.C. — An intense manhunt was underway Thursday for a white gunman who opened fire on Wednesday night at a historic black church in this city’s downtown, killing nine people before fleeing.The chief of police of Charleston, Greg Mullen … said that law enforcement officials, including the F.B.I. and other federal agencies, were assisting in the investigation of the shooting, which left six women and three men dead.
The killer, shown below entering the church, apparently spent the best part of an hour with members of a bible study group before unleashing his evil:
Clementa Pinckney, a state senator and pastor at the historic church – once visited by Martin Luther King Jr – was among the victims. Pinckney’s sister was also killed.
Clementa Pinckney, a state senator and pastor at the historic church – once visited by Martin Luther King Jr – was among the victims. Pinckney’s sister was also killed.
Given that the murders were clearly planned, and that the young white gunman may have altered his appearance in order to avoid swift identification, the obvious concern is that he intends to strike again.
Incidentally, Charleston is one of the most beautiful and welcoming cities in the US. The downtown area, where the church is located, is especially charming. It is extremely difficult to reconcile this vicious crime with Charleston’s deep and genuine warmth.
UPDATE II. Weed-limbed white supremacist Roof poses with his … Hyundai Elantra.
UPDATE III. Roof reportedly captured.
UPDATE IV. South Carolina still allows the option of execution by electric chair. Dylann Roof’s final headline might write itself.
The Bolt Report on Sunday, June 21
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (9:33am)
On Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 3pm.
My guest: Anthony Albanese, Labor’s Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism spokesman and about the only Labor MP to come out of The Killing Season with his reputation for integrity enhanced.
The panel: Political scientist Jennifer Oriel and Nicholas Reece, former advisor to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
NewsWatch: Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB colleague.
On boats, Shorten’s horror week, terrorism legislation, the Greens’ coup and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===My guest: Anthony Albanese, Labor’s Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism spokesman and about the only Labor MP to come out of The Killing Season with his reputation for integrity enhanced.
The panel: Political scientist Jennifer Oriel and Nicholas Reece, former advisor to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
NewsWatch: Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB colleague.
On boats, Shorten’s horror week, terrorism legislation, the Greens’ coup and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
No wonder Labor MPs want Dreyfus sacked
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (9:14am)
As I said on 2GB last night, a strong leader would have told Mark Dreyfus to clean up his own mess.
But not Bill Shorten:
===But not Bill Shorten:
OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten is under mounting pressure to sack his shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus after the outspoken Labor frontbencher declared he wanted to bring Australian terrorists with dual citizenship home.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Labor backbenchers were yesterday outraged Mr Shorten had not publicly reprimanded Mr Dreyfus nor distanced the Labor Party from the comments, saying it had caused “irreparable damage” to the party…
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten yesterday refused to publicly contradict Mr Dreyfus’s stance. Instead, The Daily Telegraph has learned Mr Shorten chose to quietly reprimand Mr Dreyfus during a parliamentary tactics meeting. Sources claimed Mr Shorten told the meeting Mr Dreyfus’s comments did not reflect Labor’s policy position.
Mr Shorten’s office last night insisted the party was continuing to give the government “in-principle” support for the measures but would not form a final view until the legislation had been read.... “(Dreyfus) was inexcusable. (He) has done irreparable damage with that single comment. He (Shorten) needed to come out and say something publicly,” one senior MP said.
Oops: Shorten told Royal Commission in 2002 bosses shouldn’t secretly pay union fees
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (9:00am)
Bill Shorten gave evidence as national secretary of the Australian Workers Union to the Cole Royal Commission in 2002.
Represented by Mordy Bromberg, he made clear then that he knew it was wrong for a union to make a deal with bosses for a donation for union memberships without the workers knowing. From page 2395:
===Represented by Mordy Bromberg, he made clear then that he knew it was wrong for a union to make a deal with bosses for a donation for union memberships without the workers knowing. From page 2395:
Quest: What about the notion of the union fees of workers being paid by their employers. Is that a matter on which you have a view?This could create severe problems for Shorten, given recent revelations:
Shorten: In terms of the theory of it, I guess I would have two comments to make. One is: if an employer advance pays union dues and then deducts it from the workers, and this is done with the consent of the workers, that’s pretty good for cash flow for the organisation. The issue is if an employer pays money for workers who don’t know they are in the union, or haven’t asked to be in that union, well, I think that’s a pretty bold employer who does that. If that employer does it, and we would never advise an employer to simply pay money, for instance, to the CFMEU in the context of - in lieu of union membership, we don’t think employers should do that....
Quest: Let’s bring it to your union. Has your union, during your time as secretary or as a full-time official, ever taken money from an employer without, at the same time, receiving application forms for membership?
Shorten: Not to my knowledge. I would just make one point about it, and it is not so much in construction: sometimes companies with payroll deduction, someone may leave - the company has a system and they will pay a weekly membership, and if you’re interested, it’s $6.20, but sometimes people will change jobs, some people will start in a business, some will leave. So we will, I guess, from time to time receive amounts of money for a name which we mightn’t have yet fully processed the membership card, but I am not really sure that’s what you are getting at.
Quest: No. What I am getting at is the situation where, as a result of a demand by your union on an employer whose workforce is CFMEU, or some other union, that they become members of your union, that the employer simply writes out a cheque to the AWU to cover that workforce and the AWU does not have, at that time, signed application forms for membership of any or all of those employees?
Shorten: No, I’m not aware of that in the construction industry, for our union.
Quest: Does your union have a policy on such a matter?
Shorten: I am not sure we have a policy, but our rules do require that I keep a register of members, and so what we do like to have is a name and a form for each person for whom we are receiving union dues. It is not an affirmative policy, it is sort of a practical auditing mechanism.
The AWU organiser at the Winslow EBA meeting was Peter Smoljko.... Winslow has already been under the spotlight in the Trade Union Royal Commission for admitting to paying its workers’ membership fees to the AWU in return for, it’s alleged, lower wages and conditions.(Thanks to reader Relevance Please.)
The Royal Commission was provided documents from Mr Shorten’s tenure as leader which showed the union dues were paid by Winslow.
Mr Smoljko admitted to the royal commission the company paid workers’ union fees, changing the transaction on records to look like an occupational health and safety expense.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne grilled Mr Shorten in Question Time on Thursday about the Winslow deals.
“He needs to answer what did Winslow Constructions receive in considerations for the $38,000 of payments to the AWU that they made when he was the Victorian state secretary?” Mr Pyne said.
Why is the ABC so scared of debate?
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (8:45am)
The ABC last night held a special Q&A on same-sex marriage, which polls suggest is opposed by between 25 per cent and 34 per cent of Australians, not including those who are undecided.
Yet just one of the seven (including the host) on the Q&A panel was an opponent of same-sex marriage.
If the panel had reflected the polls, there should have been at least two or three opponents. So why the imbalance?
(Thanks to reader Liam D.)
===Yet just one of the seven (including the host) on the Q&A panel was an opponent of same-sex marriage.
If the panel had reflected the polls, there should have been at least two or three opponents. So why the imbalance?
(Thanks to reader Liam D.)
Pearson should explain: would a “white Australia” still fund the black “First Nations”
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (8:10am)
Dividing Australians by “race” in the Constitution will be just the first step. Having sacrificed the principle of one people bound by one law, we will be driven to follow with actions to match.
Noel Pearson spells out our divided future in disturbingly militaristic language:
And how are we to divide ourselves into different “nations”. Which nation does someone with only one Aboriginal great-grandparent belong? In what way does this racial division help anyone? How does it lift standards?
Having divided ourselves like this, does the presumably white Australian nation then continue to fund the “First Nations”?
Do Pearson’s Cape York communities, for instance, continue to get the kind of funding that has poured in $125 million for Pearson’s Cape York Initiative, covering only a few thousand people and achieving remarkably little?
===Noel Pearson spells out our divided future in disturbingly militaristic language:
Noel Pearson has proposed treaties between government and regional Aboriginal bodies…I thought we had funded Pearson’s reforms not to produce “strong, healthy and educated soldiers’’ to fight for indigenous rights into the future but to produce people with the education to get off welfare, get jobs and make their own way in the world.
In a speech to the National Native Title Conference in Port Douglas, north of Cairns, the indigenous leader canvassed a range of issues, including ... funding for teaching of traditional languages in schools.
Mr Pearson, the architect of welfare trials in Cape York communities to stamp out violence and increase school attendance, also defended his hardline, often unpopular stance as the only way to produce “strong, healthy and educated soldiers’’ to fight for indigenous rights into the future.
More than two decades after native title was first recognised in the Mabo decision, Mr Pearson said the ensuing land-use agreements and moves towards economic development across indigenous communities had laid the foundations of regional treaties with government…
“The streams of work under way — some more advanced than others — is heading towards, in the next decade, a Cape York framework for a First Nations domestic treaty settlement,’’ he said. “That is the logic of the work we have been doing over the past quarter-century, we feel all of those threads are coming together.”
And how are we to divide ourselves into different “nations”. Which nation does someone with only one Aboriginal great-grandparent belong? In what way does this racial division help anyone? How does it lift standards?
Having divided ourselves like this, does the presumably white Australian nation then continue to fund the “First Nations”?
Do Pearson’s Cape York communities, for instance, continue to get the kind of funding that has poured in $125 million for Pearson’s Cape York Initiative, covering only a few thousand people and achieving remarkably little?
Turnbull is less the wrecker than his critics claim
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (7:54am)
The Liberals should be less damning of Malcolm Turnbull. It is better than it listen to him now than have its legislation struck down by the High Court.
Moreover, if Turnbull can now give the legislation a public tick he’ll have sent the public a strong signal that it’s been well thrashed out and is now OK:
UPDATE
But Dennis Shanahan is right - there have been too many signs of the Abbott Government reverting to old habits that got it into such terrible strife just a few months ago:
===Moreover, if Turnbull can now give the legislation a public tick he’ll have sent the public a strong signal that it’s been well thrashed out and is now OK:
Tony Abbott has quelled cabinet dissent over stripping citizenship from terrorists and challenged Labor to support the contentious laws when they come to parliament next week.There may be questions to ask about how Turnbull has voiced his concern, but there should be none about him trying to make the legislation solid. And if he now sells it, gold.
In a combination of public bravado and private consultation, the Prime Minister has satisfied Malcolm Turnbull — the outstanding Liberal critic of the proposal to take Australian citizenship from dual nationals serving as terrorists and stranding them overseas — that his concerns will be addressed in the drafting changes to the bill…
Since the leaking of the cabinet dispute over the original proposal, Mr Turnbull has written to the Prime Minister’s office several times, including a submission on how he thought a change could be made to add “armed forces” to legislation — to cover Islamic State terrorists — to limit ministerial discretion and fend off a High Court challenge.
Mr Abbott has now responded to Mr Turnbull and addressed his concerns… But Mr Turnbull has now been given advice from the Solicitor-General, which raised some queries, and has been consulted by Mr Abbott, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Attorney-General George Brandis.
Liberal backbenchers, who overwhelmingly support the stripping of citizenship of terrorists, have become increasingly angry with Mr Turnbull as he has campaigned to have the decision brought back to the full cabinet.
UPDATE
But Dennis Shanahan is right - there have been too many signs of the Abbott Government reverting to old habits that got it into such terrible strife just a few months ago:
The Prime Minister, although operating on precedent about how the National Security Council of cabinet works and its ability to make a decision that is then transmitted to full cabinet — should have been alert to renewed accusations of a lack of proper process. That the original recommendation was passed from the NSC to cabinet without being on the formal agenda only served to heighten suspicion and feed an argument about “process”. As a result, what was an electoral winner and an idea overwhelmingly supported by the Coalition backbench, as well as a potential pincer on Labor, became mired at birth.Hubris?
Catholic Church falls to the pagan greens
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (7:40am)
I’m afraid the Pope has an eco-catatrophist’s view of the world:
UPDATE
How bizarre. The media pack that attacks Tony Abbott for holding Catholic views on same-sex marriage and abortion now insists he listen to Church teachings on global warming.
Fairfax’s Mark Kenny jeers:
===The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.After 17 years of no-warming, the Pope is convinced the world is actually warming to hell and rich countries should curb their grow but let giant emitters such as China and India keep going:
He says fossil fuels, especially coal, needs to be “progressively replaced without delay."…It is tragic to see the Catholic Church fall to the pagan faith of the nature worshippers.
‘“Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most.”
UPDATE
How bizarre. The media pack that attacks Tony Abbott for holding Catholic views on same-sex marriage and abortion now insists he listen to Church teachings on global warming.
Fairfax’s Mark Kenny jeers:
That doesn’t leave a lot of options for Australia’s famously Catholic, famously anti-windfarm Prime Minister.
The Age can’t trust its Abbott-hating ears
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (7:30am)
You cannot trust Fairfax newspapers when the topic is Tony Abbott.
Yesterday the Prime Minister has a minor slip of the tongue while talking about turning back the boats. As you can clearly hear, this is what he said about Labor before correcting himself:
===Yesterday the Prime Minister has a minor slip of the tongue while talking about turning back the boats. As you can clearly hear, this is what he said about Labor before correcting himself:
They never did a single turnbook.This is today turned by The Age into:
“They never did a single Turnbull,” Mr Abbott declared.Which is then given this headline:
Stop the Malcolms: Abbott drops Turnbull into the deepA small detail, yes. But it indicates that when it comes to attacking Abbott, The Age hears what it wants to hear and makes the worst of it.
Shorten-led union donated to Shorten election
Andrew Bolt June 19 2015 (7:25am)
This stinks:
===Bill Shorten’s union tipped thousands of dollars into his own campaign for the safe seat of Maribyrnong in the federal election of 2007 when he was still the union’s national secretary and preparing to enter Federal Parliament....
A late 2009 filing by the Australian Workers Union national office records a $25,000 payment to ALP-Maribyrnong. Similar donations were also made to campaigns for the seats of Petrie and Stirling. Labor and union sources have also told Fairfax Media that AWU staff worked on Mr Shorten’s campaign. Fair Work Commission records show Mr Shorten resigned as AWU national secretary on November 26, 2007, two months after the donations, and the same month as the federal election.
Posted by Delilah on Monday, 18 August 2014
Do you have a child that is having a lot of meltdowns? Do you find you're too busy to get everything done in your day...
Posted by Canberra Mummy on Wednesday, 17 June 2015
How true is this? Funny post for the night.
Posted by North Shore City on Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Dragon (or Wyvern) backpack. I need one of these!http://9gag.com/gag/ad6ygNM?ref=fbp
Posted by 9GAG on Saturday, 2 August 2014
LIKE and SHARE if you agree with the Prime Minister.
Posted by Liberal Party of Australia on Thursday, 18 June 2015
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The untouchable truths that blind
Piers Akerman – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (7:17pm)
THE priorities of the ABC and much of the Fairfax media have been clarified by their response to the trade union royal commission.
Continue reading 'The untouchable truths that blind'PORTRAIT OF A DISABILITY PENSIONER
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (5:30pm)
Khaled Sharrouf lived on a disability pension in Sydney, but he’s well enough to plan terrorist attacks here and towage jihad in Syria and Iraq:
My translation may be wrong, but I think he’s holding a “handicapped parking only” banner.
My translation may be wrong, but I think he’s holding a “handicapped parking only” banner.
JUMP OR PUSH
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (5:13pm)
Richard Ackland has filed his final typos for the Sydney Morning Herald:
SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir responds:
SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir responds:
Our long-time respected columnist Richard Ackland has taken to Twitter to claim he has been sacked …I was informed by Richard last Friday by email after lunch that he was doing a regular column for The Saturday Paper.Given Richard had worked as a regular columnist for the SMH for 17 years, I felt – perhaps naively – that he would have sought my thoughts prior to committing to this work – not AFTER the fact …I have not sacked him. He has made his own decision.
In other media moves, Stephen Spencer is out at Ten:
He was ruthlessly let go on Friday, in the network’s latest round of redundancies, and left Parliament House devastated at 1pm.
FRIGHTBATTERY FURY
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (5:46am)
When you describe hysterical crazy people as crazy and hysterical, it creates hysterical craziness. Tuesday’s pollgenerated masses of delicious Twitter outrage and some of the finest hate messages I’ve ever received:
• So Tim Blair the rapist who can’t get it up without violence wants to blame the women of Australia for his problems.• Hi Tim. You will be excited to know that this survey has successfully moved you to the top of the list of people I’d like to see floating in a river, wrapped in plastic. We can only wait and hope that people like yourself will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.• Timmy needs to stop being a coward, do the right thing and put a bullet in his temple.
Academic and Fairfax columnist Jenna Price, one of the original Frightbat Ten, told of the chilling moment she learned about her inclusion in the poll:
I got the phone call about 6pm on Tuesday night.“Mum," said the voice. “Mum, are you OK?”Turns out that one of my children had stumbled across a few sentences written by the Daily Telegraph blogger Tim Blair … My child called with real concern for my feelings.
You’d think those feelings might have become a little more robust during Price’s various protest campaigns, includingsending a tampon every month to immigration minister Scott Morrison. But that’s the way of the modern left. They dish out the most ridiculous abuse, but turn into delicate 19th century maidens when criticism or mockery is returned. Don’t make fun of us; we’re just girls! Speaking of history, here’s a lecturer in Ancient Greek from Melbourne University:
“Frightbat" is a metaphorical endocentric compound. It refers to a type of bat, but one which is metaphorically understood to be a female person. Blair is drawing here on a venerable tradition of associating dangerous females with witchcraft and creatures of the night.
Er, yes. Or it might’ve just sounded funny. Several of the Frightbat Ten now embrace the term, offering a line of t-shirts and planning a calendar:
Hey frightbats! Let’s do 2015 calender and donate the profits to all the women’s shelters who have lost funding. What do you say?
Some say … NO! Only days old, the frightbat feminist movement is already fatally fractured. Clem Bastow rejects frightbat solidarity:
Personally I’d rather drink vase water than wear “Frightbat”, with all that implies, as some reclaimed badge of honour.
Not to mention the difficulty of badge placement. As an all-purpose problem solver, there are always Lydia E. Pinkham’s magic tablets.
IT’S BEEN A WHILE
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (5:35am)
The last time NSW won a State of Origin series, Bob Carr was Premier, John Howard was Prime Minister and George W. Bush was President. Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were still alive. Bill Shorten hadn’t even entered parliament.
GROUP OF DEATH
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (4:58am)
A Chinese man has bored himself to death watching soccer. It’s far worse in Nigeria, where World Cup fans are beingslaughtered by soccer-hating Islamists:
At least 21 people have been killed in a bomb blast in northern Nigeria as they were watching a World Cup match, a hospital source has told the BBC.Witnesses in Damaturu, in Yobe state, say a suicide bomber in a tricycle taxi detonated explosives as people watched Brazil’s match against Mexico on TV.
Boko Haram, suspected of involvement in the murders, still holds more than 200 girls captive.
TWISTED SISTERS
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (4:43am)
Leather gloves put in a dryer – “Now they’ll only fit Dr Seuss” – and a wind turbine hit by lightning look much the same, and are about equal in environmental usefulness. Except that the gloves probably didn’t kill as many birds.
MILANO NOGGIN
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 19, 2014 (4:34am)
ABC not biased? Imagine how much it would have written if the boats were still coming
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (2:48pm)
The Abbott Government today achieved an astonish milestone - six months without a single boat arriving.
In the same period last year, 13,000 boat people turned up and God knows how many drowned.
Even I thought it impossible to stop every boat so fast.
So how much coverage did the ABC devote to this today? Here is its national news list as of 2.45pm:
In the same period last year, 13,000 boat people turned up and God knows how many drowned.
Even I thought it impossible to stop every boat so fast.
So how much coverage did the ABC devote to this today? Here is its national news list as of 2.45pm:
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How Kathy Jackson was smeared
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (11:09am)
In April The Age ran this smear of Kathy Jackson, the union corruption whistleblower and critic of Bill Shorten:
The result was very damaging to McGregor - and not flattering for the media outlets who ran with his material. Will The Age now apologise to Jackson?
===The claims:
Health Services Union boss turned whistleblower Kathy Jackson ran a secretive union slush fund that used up to $300,000 in members’ money to help support the political and factional campaigns of her allies, including those from other unions.But this week the source of these allegations, Craig McGregor, was quizzed in the royal commission about what he actually knew, what steps he’d actually taken to check his suspicions, and what chance he’d given Jackson to respond before leaking to The Age and the ABC.
Internal union banking records reveal $284,000 was transferred with Ms Jackson’s authorisation from her union’s main account into the “National Health Development Account” between 2003 and 2010.
Fairfax Media has confirmed that some of these funds were used to support Ms Jackson’s political allies, including officials from the Australian Workers Union, which was previously headed by federal opposition leader Bill Shorten…
“This sort of conduct has done incredible damage to the union movement. Members’ money must be used in a transparent and accountable manner,” said HSU branch secretary Craig McGregor, who in 2012 left his job as a radiographer after being elected to head the branch that Ms Jackson used to lead…
Leaked documents suggest there may have been an attempt inside the HSU to obscure the existence of the fund, with auditor accounts revealing an unknown person working for the HSU edited the spreadsheets to remove references to the NHDA.
The changes resulted in an accounting error in the 2006 financial statement, with $38,000 of members’ money sent to the fund removed from the final accounts.
The result was very damaging to McGregor - and not flattering for the media outlets who ran with his material. Will The Age now apologise to Jackson?
The anti-Abbott axis grows: ABC makes Palmer its honored guest
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (7:49am)
The ABC upgrades its schmoozing of its pet Abbott-hater:
UPDATE
Dinner results:
===ABC’s managing director Mark Scott and the broadcaster’s chairman James Spigelman hosted controversial MP Clive Palmer on their table at the press gallery Midwinter Ball in Canberra last night.So damn obvious. With the ABC so defiantly partisan, from the very top down, the question for the Liberals is how to make the ABC live up to its charter - or slash it to a less dangerous size.
Mr Palmer, who has vowed to vote against many of the government’s budget measures, was invited onto the ABC’s corporate table so that Mr Scott could establish a good relationship with the Queensland MP, who already is a fixture on the ABC’s news and current affairs channels.
“Mr Palmer will hold the balance of power and we are trying to keep good relations with him,” Mr Scott told The Australian…
Mr Scott is fighting to stop further funding cuts to the ABC… The second politician the ABC had on its table was the member for Perth, Melissa Parke, who introduced an internal caucus motion to change the Labor Party position on offshore processing specific to Manus island and Nauru.
UPDATE
Dinner results:
At $15,100, a dinner for four with the Prime Minister was the highest price paid in the final minutes of the auction, while dinner for two with Mr Shorten and his deputy Tanya Plibersek reached $3950.No one likes Greens with their dinner.
A home-cooked meal by Julie Bishop and Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull was the second most popular item with 24 bids, reaching $10,600. Dinner with Clive Palmer was bought for $5200 while dinner with the Greens attracted one bid, by the Forest Products Association, of $3000.
Bill Shorten, branch stacker? Surely not
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (4:38am)
It would be useful to get a convincing denial from Bill Shorten:
===BILL Shorten has been accused of handing thousands of dollars in cash to a Victorian Labor “branch stacker” to pay for ALP memberships.That said:
The potentially damaging claim against the federal Labor leader came from Health Services Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson just minutes before the conclusion of her evidence to the royal commission into union corruption yesterday.
Ms Jackson, who exposed convicted former HSU bosses Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson over large-scale fraud, admitted to the commission that she had used HSU union money running to thousands of dollars to pay for ALP memberships.
But in a surprise move, she then dropped Mr Shorten in the middle of rort allegations by claiming he told her one weekend at his house that he had given money to the same ALP branch stacker just after she had given the man $7000.
“That weekend when I did speak to Mr Shorten about giving Mr (David) Asmar the $7000, he laughed and said that he had also given him money, and you know, ‘the bastard must have double-dipped’ that week or that month,” Ms Jackson said.
According to Ms Jackson, the alleged payments occurred before Mr Shorten entered parliament in 2007, when he was national and Victorian secretary of the Australian Workers Union, a leader of the Victorian ALP’s Right faction and a senior office bearer in the party....
The alleged ALP branch-stacker, Mr Asmar, worked for Victorian ALP senator and faction boss Stephen Conroy…
A spokesman for Mr Shorten dismissed Ms Jackson’s allegation against the Labor leader.
“That is just untrue,” the spokesman said.
Ms Jackson ...defended herself against allegations she misappropriated union funds, denying she used HSU credit cards for more than $1 million in personal expenses, illegitimately siphoned off almost $250,000 in union money meant for former Cancer Centre workers to a slush fund or inappropriately paid $36,774 in union funds to Neranto No 10, a company of which she was co-director with her former husband, Jeff Jackson.
Why are the Greens so hateful?
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (4:32am)
The Greens claim to be the party of compassion, but in fact best represent the politics of hatred and abuse:
True, Milne later apologised ... to the mentally ill.
UPDATE
The Left really is the natural home of the hater. Tim Blair gets the most astonishing hate-tweets from the compassionate Left.
===CHRISTINE MILNE, GREENS LEADER: But here we’ve got a Prime Minister who is effectively barking mad on climate change.But that anger has always been a hallmark of religious zealots.
True, Milne later apologised ... to the mentally ill.
UPDATE
The Left really is the natural home of the hater. Tim Blair gets the most astonishing hate-tweets from the compassionate Left.
Only good racism wanted
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (4:28am)
Does this panel of experts demanding changes to our Constitution not realise it’s pushing a pushmepullyou contradiction?
===Under the expert panel’s model, a new section, 116A, would be established that would prohibit the commonwealth, states or territories from creating laws that discriminated on the grounds of race, colour or ethnic or national origin. However, the panel added that this did not preclude the making of laws or measures for the purpose of “overcoming disadvantage, ameliorating the effects of past discrimination, or protecting the cultures, languages or heritage of any group’’.
Blame Islam before blaming the West
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (4:18am)
THE blame game over Iraq — Bush’s fault? Obama’s? — should not blind us to the real cause of the mayhem.
It isn’t the West. What we see in Iraq are Muslims killing Muslims and in the name of Islam.
(Read full article here.)
===It isn’t the West. What we see in Iraq are Muslims killing Muslims and in the name of Islam.
(Read full article here.)
Won by Bush, lost by Obama
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (4:12am)
DON’T blame George W Bush’s 2003 invasion for the throat-cutting jihadist army now rampaging through Iraq.
Bush’s war was actually won three years ago.
How do we know? Because President Barack Obama and his Vice-President, Joe Biden, claimed Bush’s victory for themselves.
(Read full article here.)
===Bush’s war was actually won three years ago.
How do we know? Because President Barack Obama and his Vice-President, Joe Biden, claimed Bush’s victory for themselves.
(Read full article here.)
Tutor taught lesson
Andrew Bolt June 19 2014 (4:06am)
Tell us again the universities haven’t been captured by the Left:
===A MAGISTRATE lectured East West Link protesters about the project’s benefits yesterday as he convicted anti-tunnel activist Anthony Main of wilful damage.A university tutor? How surprisingly unsurprising.
Magistrate Jonathon Klestadt told Main and co-accused Ashley Hall that as a “long-term resident of the western suburbs” he was “acutely aware” of the need for a road connecting Melbourne’s east and west…
Main and Hall pleaded guilty to damaging temporary fencing surrounding a drilling rig on Charlotte St, Collingwood, about 5.30am on January 15… Hall, a university tutor, was placed on a six-month good behaviour bond and ordered to pay $350 to charity and $630 to police witnesses.
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The guy who thought Obama should give a stimulus of $100k to every American .. costing approx $30 trillion, backs Gilard. He thought about it. Deeply.
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Mudar Zahran
I just wonder why we Palestinians Arabs have chosen to fight Israel, while it brings the very modern values and qualities of life we leave our homes, travel thousands of miles away, to enjoy in the West....
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FOR WHOM THE POLL TOLLS
This site has consistently claimed that Kevin Rudd can never lead Labor again. Polls that show a Rudd return might give Labor a fighting chance are misleading and indicate only the extremity of the public’s distaste for Gillard.
I have a ripper little dog called Blinky who would poll well when compared to Gillard. Even Ivan Milat would poll well if voters were forced to achoice. That’s the extent of Gillard’s unpopularity and it holds no Brownie points for Rudd
Media have been beating up Rudd’s prospects for years, he makes great copy, but if Labor is to field more than a lacrosse team after this election it needs to ignore the Milky Bar Kid.
Let’s face it, Kevin (I have to zip folks) Rudd is a political simpleton who was used as a footstool for Gillard’s elevation.
When the AWU could stand him no longer, it ruthlessly killed him off. Seriously, would it now agree to his reinstatement?
When union thugs and crooks like Howes and Ludwig decide who leads this nation what more can we expect than an ideologically driven gangsters’ moll like Gillard.
Ludwig’s heir in waiting, Bill Shorten, will certainly lead what’s left of this once-great Party after the election.
He could replace Gillard now, he has broad factional support, but he has a few problems.
First problem is he can’t keep his dick in his trousers.
Second, he is embroiled in the coming explosive expose on the AWU/Gillard/Slater & Gordon fraud case under investigation by the Victorian Fraud Squad.
Third, he doesn’t want to be the one to lead the Labor Party to an embarrassing defeat.
But in Opposition he will need numbers he can build on and that will not be possible if Gillard stays. What a dilemma for little Bill.
Leaked ACTU polling shows a Labor massacre. Why was it leaked? Because ACTU luminaries were ruefully coveting safe Labor seats that will no longer exist if Gillard stays.
The ACTU wants Gillard gone too, but it wants anyone but Rudd.
With illegal immigration looming as the major election issue, the cerumen-ingesting, overfed public servant with female hands would have less electoral credibility than does Gillard.
Gillard and McTernan are deperate to drag Abbott into the cesspit of their gender division with yet another spurious charge; this time, touching an aboriginal woman on the arm and linking the dastardly deed to domestic violence.
The aboriginal woman, and Labor sympathiser, said she needed counselling and felt like wearing a burka to escape his lascivious clutches. WTF?
Perhaps future Opposition leader Shorten might care to answer the charge that he touched a 23yo staffer somewhere else that necessitated an abortion.
But that’s just another rumour eh?... a rumour that ABC Insiders’ panellists won’t have heard of either.
So, who exactly has taken politics to this depth of sewage in a desperate attempt to cling to power? Mmmm.
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Zaya Toma
Chris Bowen just updated his cover photo to one with Kevin Rudd. In Facebook language, this is basically a declaration of war. I believe this is a sign that there is going to be a leadership challenge by Kevin Rudd in the coming days. Let this be the final leadership battle before the election of a strong, cohesive and disciplined Abbott led, Liberal Government. #auspol
===SOME OF YOU ASKED FOR THIS AGAIN....HERE YOU GO!!♥
FAT FLUSH WATER !!!
You should drink at least three 8 oz glasses per day, they say the longer it sits, the better it tastes. You can eat them as well but they are intended as flavoring and still work, so that is a personal choice. The Vitamin C turns fat into fuel, the tangerine increases your sensitivity to insulin, and the cucumber makes you feel full. Try it for 10 days and see what you think!
Ingredients per 8 oz serving
Water
1 slice grapefruit
1 tangerine
½ cucumber, sliced
2 peppermint leaves
Ice – as much as you like
Directions
Wash grapefruit, tangerine cucumber and peppermint leaves. Slice cucumber, grapefruit and tangerine (or peel). Combine all ingredients (fruits, vegetables, 8 oz water, and ice) into a large pitcher.
Stir & Enjoy!
PLEASE SHARE To SAVE this recipe, be sure to click SHARE so it will store on your personal page.
For more healthy recipes, tips, motivation and fun, join us here: For more recipes & Good Idea's go to my support group
WWW.LOSINGWEIGHTWITHHEATHE
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A beautiful testimony about Gods angels and how God can turn discouragement into assurance and peace.
An angel.
I believe I met one of Gods angels today. Last night I stayed up crying in bed asking God why my life turned out the way it is. I woke up the next morning and started my long day at 5.45am. Work started at 8 and finished at 1.There has been a lot happening at home, so I decided to go to uni and study. I have been feeling sad and discouraged for the last couple of months. I had felt like everything around me was falling apart. I often questioned God and asked him why I was going through so much struggle and pain and when my life was going to change. I really forgot who God was, I forgot he had a plan and purpose for everything and that he would never let me down. I finished of my study at 8.45pm. It began to rain. It was cold and dark. I quickly ran to my car, turned the radio on and began to drive home. I usually take the M4 home as it is the quickest. Drove past the Westmead exit and I saw a 3 car pile up. I said a quick prayer driving past and hoped noone was hurt. I continued driving down the M4 until I slammed on my breaks because the driver infront of me had gone into 2 other cars. At that moment my car started to slide.I saw a tiny gap on the next lane and knew my car wouldn't fit into it. I continued to slam my breaks. It was all so sudden, I was in that next lane. I believe an angel came and steered my car into the next lane. It definitely wasn't me.Some people may think I'm crazy but I know it was God. I could feel it. I began to cry and cry because I had no explanation to it. In that moment I felt God telling me not to be discouraged and that this was a reminder that he is still here watching over me and that he has a plan for everything and to wait patiently. - Anonymous
I don't find these kind of stories encouraging .. it makes me skeptical. I believe in God awake and active. This seems to me to be double mindedness. Good things happen when God is part of your life .. it doesn't mean blind luck. Give thanks to him because he has been there for you, from before birth, and will be there for you long after your body passes. - ed
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Don't focus on the problem , you give the problem more power, focus on the solution, and have faith, live in hope, never despair.. God will not forsake you..
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June 19: Corpus Christi (various Western Christian churches, 2014); Day of the Independent Hungary; Juneteenth in some parts of the United States
- 1269 – Louis IX of France imposed a fine of ten livres of silver on Jews found in public without a yellow badge.
- 1846 – The first officially recorded baseball game using modern rules developed by Alexander Cartwright was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, US.
- 1867 – Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (pictured) wasexecuted by firing squad in Querétaro.
- 1961 – Kuwait declared independence from the United Kingdom.
- 2009 – Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers broke out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef.
- 1179 – The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Earl Erling Skakkeis killed, and the battle changes the tide of the civil wars.
- 1269 – King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
- 1306 – The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
- 1586 – English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America.
- 1800 – War of the Second Coalition Battle of Höchstädt results in a French victory over Austria.
- 1816 – Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
- 1821 – Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia).
- 1846 – The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23–1. Cartwright umpired.
- 1850 – Princess Louise of the Netherlands marries Crown Prince Karl of Sweden–Norway.
- 1862 – The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
- 1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
- 1867 – Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro.
- 1875 – The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
- 1910 – The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
- 1913 – Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented.
- 1934 – The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
- 1944 – World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
- 1949 – The first ever NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- 1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
- 1961 – Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
- 1965 – Nguyễn Cao Kỳ becomes Prime Minister of South Vietnam at the head of a military junta; General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu becomes the figurehead chief of state.
- 1978 – Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
- 1982 – In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.
- 1985 – Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador.
- 1987 – Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45.
- 1988 – Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
- 1990 – The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway.
- 1990 – The Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is founded in Moscow.
- 1991 – The Soviet occupation of Hungary ends.
- 2007 – The al-Khilani Mosque bombing in Baghdad leaves 78 people dead and another 218 injured.
- 2009 – Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers break out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef.
- 2009 – War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
- 2012 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army.
- 1301 – Prince Morikuni of Japan (d. 1333)
- 1417 – Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Rimini (d. 1468)
- 1566 – James VI and I of the United Kingdom (d. 1625)
- 1590 – Philip Bell, British colonial governor (d. 1678)
- 1595 – Guru Har Gobind, the Sixth Sikh Guru (d. 1644)
- 1598 – Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1677)
- 1606 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (d. 1649)
- 1623 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1662)
- 1633 – Philipp van Limborch, Dutch author and theologian (d. 1712)
- 1701 – François Rebel, French violinist and composer (d. 1775)
- 1731 – Joaquim Machado de Castro, Portuguese sculptor (d. 1822)
- 1764 – José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan general and politician (d. 1850)
- 1771 – Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1859)
- 1776 – Francis Johnson, American lawyer and politician (d. 1842)
- 1783 – Friedrich Sertürner, German chemist and pharmacist (d. 1841)
- 1793 – Joseph Earl Sheffield, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1882)
- 1795 – James Braid, Scottish-English surgeon (d. 1860)
- 1815 – Cornelius Krieghoff, Dutch-Canadian painter (d. 1872)
- 1816 – William H. Webb, American shipbuilder and philanthropist, founded the Webb Institute (d. 1899)
- 1833 – Mary Tenney Gray, American editorial writer, club-woman, philanthropist, and suffragette (d. 1904)
- 1834 – Charles Spurgeon, English pastor and author (d. 1892)
- 1840 – Georg Karl Maria Seidlitz, German entomologist and academic (d. 1917)
- 1843 – Mary Sibbet Copley, American philanthropist (d. 1929)
- 1845 – Cléophas Beausoleil, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1904)
- 1846 – Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer and academic (d. 1928)
- 1850 – David Jayne Hill, American historian and politician, 24th United States Assistant Secretary of State(d. 1932)
- 1851 – Billy Midwinter, English-Australian cricketer (d. 1890)
- 1851 – Silvanus P. Thompson, English physicist, engineer, and academic (d. 1916)
- 1854 – Alfredo Catalani, Italian composer and academic (d. 1893)
- 1854 – Hjalmar Mellin, Finnish mathematician and theorist (d. 1933)
- 1854 – Eleanor Norcross, American painter (d. 1923)
- 1855 – George F. Roesch, American lawyer and politician (d. 1917)
- 1858 – Sam Walter Foss, American poet and librarian (d. 1911)
- 1861 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish-English field marshal (d. 1928)
- 1861 – Émile Haug, French geologist and paleontologist (d. 1927)
- 1861 – José Rizal, Filipino journalist, author, and poet (d. 1896)
- 1865 – May Whitty, English actress (d. 1948)
- 1871 – Alajos Szokolyi, Hungarian hurdler, jumper, and physician (d. 1932)
- 1872 – Theodore Payne, English-American gardener and botanist (d. 1963)
- 1874 – Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish physicist and engineer (d. 1941)
- 1876 – Nigel Gresley, Scottish-English engineer (d. 1941)
- 1877 – Charles Coburn, American actor (d. 1961)
- 1881 – Maginel Wright Enright, American illustrator (d. 1966)
- 1883 – Gladys Mills Phipps, American horse breeder (d. 1970)
- 1884 – Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French painter and historian (d. 1974)
- 1886 – Finley Hamilton, American lawyer and politician (d. 1940)
- 1888 – Arthur Massey Berry, Canadian soldier and pilot (d. 1970)
- 1891 – John Heartfield, German photographer and activist (d. 1968)
- 1896 – Rajani Palme Dutt, English journalist and politician (d. 1974)
- 1897 – Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
- 1897 – Moe Howard, American comedian (d. 1975)
- 1898 – James Joseph Sweeney, American bishop (d. 1968)
- 1900 – Laura Z. Hobson, American author (d. 1986)
- 1902 – Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American violinist and bandleader (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Mary Callery, American-French sculptor and academic (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)
- 1903 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer and coach (d. 1965)
- 1903 – Hans Litten, German lawyer (d. 1938)
- 1905 – Mildred Natwick, American actress (d. 1994)
- 1906 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-Irish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
- 1906 – Knut Kroon, Swedish footballer (d. 1975)
- 1906 – Walter Rauff, German SS officer (d. 1984)
- 1907 – Clarence Wiseman, Canadian 10th General of the Salvation Army (d. 1985)
- 1909 – Osamu Dazai, Japanese author (d. 1948)
- 1909 – Rūdolfs Jurciņš, Latvian basketball player (d. 1948)
- 1910 – Sydney Allard, English race car driver, founded the Allard Company (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Paul Flory, American chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
- 1910 – Abe Fortas, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1982)
- 1912 – Don Gutteridge, American baseball player and manager (d. 2008)
- 1912 – Virginia MacWatters, American soprano and actress (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Helene Madison, American swimmer (d. 1970)
- 1914 – Alan Cranston, American journalist and politician (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Lester Flatt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1979)
- 1915 – Pat Buttram, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1915 – Julius Schwartz, American publisher and agent (d. 2004)
- 1917 – Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwean guerrilla leader and politician, Vice President of Zimbabwe (d. 1999)
- 1919 – Pauline Kael, American film critic (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Yves Robert, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Louis Jourdan, French-American actor and singer (d. 2015)
- 1922 – Aage Bohr, Danish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
- 1922 – Marilyn P. Johnson, American educator and diplomat, 8th United States Ambassador to Togo
- 1923 – Bob Hank, Australian footballer and coach (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Erna Schneider Hoover, American mathematician and inventor
- 1928 – Elizabeth Connelly, American politician (d. 2006)
- 1928 – Nancy Marchand, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1930 – Bryan Kneale, Manx sculptor and academic
- 1930 – Gena Rowlands, American actress
- 1932 – Pier Angeli, Italian actress (d. 1971)
- 1932 – José Sanchis Grau, Spanish author and illustrator (d. 2011)
- 1932 – Marisa Pavan, Italian actress
- 1933 – Michael M. Ames, Canadian anthropologist and academic (d. 2006)
- 1933 – Viktor Patsayev, Kazakh engineer and astronaut (d. 1971)
- 1934 – Gérard Latortue, Haitian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Haiti
- 1936 – Marisa Galvany, American soprano and actress
- 1936 – Shirley Goodman, American singer (d. 2005)
- 1937 – André Glucksmann, French philosopher and author (d. 2015)
- 1938 – Jean-Claude Labrecque, Canadian director and cinematographer
- 1938 – Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and wrestler (d. 2002)
- 1938 – Beth Phinney, Canadian educator and politician
- 1938 – John Sheil, English lawyer and judge
- 1939 – Bernd Hoss, German footballer and manager (d. 2016)
- 1939 – John F. MacArthur, American minister and theologian
- 1940 – Shirley Muldowney, American race car driver
- 1941 – Conchita Carpio-Morales, Filipino lawyer and jurist
- 1941 – Václav Klaus, Czech economist and politician, 2nd President of the Czech Republic
- 1942 – Jos Brink, Dutch actor and producer (d. 2007)
- 1942 – Merata Mita, New Zealand director and producer (d. 2010)
- 1945 – John Hind, English bishop and theologian
- 1945 – Radovan Karadžić, Serbian-Bosnian politician and convicted war criminal, 1st President of Republika Srpska
- 1945 – Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1945 – Tobias Wolff, American short story writer, memoirist, and novelist
- 1946 – Jimmy Greenhoff, English footballer and manager
- 1947 – Linda Myers, American archer
- 1947 – Salman Rushdie, Indian-English novelist and essayist
- 1947 – John Ralston Saul, Canadian philosopher and author
- 1948 – Nick Drake, English singer-songwriter (d. 1974)
- 1948 – Barry Hearn, English accountant and businessman
- 1948 – Phylicia Rashad, American actress
- 1950 – Neil Asher Silberman, American archaeologist and historian
- 1951 – Ayman al-Zawahiri, Egyptian terrorist
- 1951 – Patty Larkin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1951 – Francesco Moser, Italian cyclist
- 1952 – Bob Ainsworth, English politician, Secretary of State for Defence
- 1953 – Larry Dunn, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
- 1953 – Hilary Jones, English physician, television host and media personality
- 1953 – Simon Wright, English drummer
- 1954 – Mike O'Brien, English lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales
- 1954 – Lou Pearlman, American music producer and fraudster (d. 2016)
- 1954 – Kathleen Turner, American actress
- 1955 – Mary O'Connor, New Zealand runner
- 1955 – Mary Schapiro, American lawyer and politician
- 1956 – Danny Chauncey, American guitarist
- 1957 – Anna Lindh, Swedish politician, 39th Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2003)
- 1957 – Jean Rabe, American journalist and author
- 1958 – Sergei Makarov, Russian-American ice hockey player and coach
- 1959 – Mark DeBarge, American singer-songwriter and trumpet player
- 1959 – Christian Wulff, German lawyer and politician, 10th President of Germany
- 1960 – Andrew Dilnot, English economist and academic
- 1960 – Johnny Gray, American runner and coach
- 1960 – Luke Morley, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1960 – Patti Rizzo, American golfer
- 1962 – Paula Abdul, American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, and presenter
- 1962 – Jeremy Bates, English tennis player
- 1962 – Peter Bradshaw, English author and critic
- 1963 – Laura Ingraham, American radio host and author
- 1963 – Margarita Ponomaryova, Russian hurdler
- 1963 – Rory Underwood, English rugby player, lieutenant, and pilot
- 1964 – Bill Barretta, American actor and puppeteer
- 1964 – Brent Goulet, American soccer player and manager
- 1964 – Boris Johnson, British journalist and politician, Mayor of London
- 1964 – Brian Vander Ark, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1965 – Sabine Braun, German heptathlete
- 1965 – Sadie Frost, English actress and producer
- 1966 – Michalis Romanidis, Greek basketball player
- 1967 – Bjørn Dæhlie, Norwegian skier and businessman
- 1968 – Alastair Lynch, Australian footballer and sportscaster
- 1968 – Timothy Morton, American philosopher and academic
- 1969 – Thomas Breitling, American journalist and businessman
- 1969 – Lara Spencer, American journalist
- 1970 – Rahul Gandhi, Indian lawyer and politician
- 1970 – Quincy Watts, American sprinter and football player
- 1970 – Brian Welch, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 – Chris Armstrong, English footballer
- 1972 – Ilya Markov, Russian race walker
- 1972 – Brian McBride, American soccer player and coach
- 1972 – Poppy Montgomery, Australian-American actress
- 1972 – Robin Tunney, American actress
- 1973 – Jahine Arnold, American football player
- 1973 – Yuko Nakazawa, Japanese singer
- 1973 – Yasuhiko Yabuta, Japanese baseball player
- 1974 – Doug Mientkiewicz, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1975 – Hugh Dancy, English actor and model
- 1975 – Anthony Parker, American basketball player
- 1976 – Dennis Crowley, American businessman, co-founded Foursquare
- 1976 – Bryan Hughes, English footballer and manager
- 1976 – Abdoul Thiam, German footballer
- 1976 – Anita Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1978 – Dirk Nowitzki, German basketball player
- 1978 – Zoe Saldana, American actress
- 1978 – Claudio Vargas, Dominican baseball player
- 1979 – José Kléberson, Brazilian footballer
- 1980 – Jean Carroll, Irish cricketer
- 1980 – Dan Ellis, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Robbie Neilson, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1980 – Nuno Santos, Portuguese footballer
- 1981 – Mohammed Al-Khuwalidi, Saudi Arabian long jumper
- 1981 – Moss Burmester, New Zealand swimmer
- 1981 – Melissa McMorrow, American boxer
- 1982 – Alexander Frolov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Macklemore, American rapper
- 1984 – Paul Dano, American actor
- 1984 – Wieke Dijkstra, Dutch field hockey player
- 1985 – Ai Miyazato, Japanese golfer
- 1985 – José Ernesto Sosa, Argentinian footballer
- 1985 – Dire Tune, Ethiopian runner
- 1986 – Lázaro Borges, Cuban pole vaulter
- 1986 – Diego Hypólito, Brazilian gymnast
- 1986 – Dimitris Sialmas, Greek footballer
- 1986 – Marvin Williams, American basketball player
- 1987 – Rashard Mendenhall, American football player
- 1987 – Mutsumi Tamura, Japanese voice actress
- 1988 – Jacob deGrom, American baseball player
- 1990 – Moa Hjelmer, Swedish sprinter
- 1992 – Oscar Taveras, Dominican-Canadian baseball player (d. 2014)
- 1996 – Larisa Iordache, Romanian gymnast
Births[edit]
- 404 – Huan Xuan, warlord and emperor of the Jin Dynasty (b. 369)
- 626 – Soga no Umako, Japanese son of Soga no Iname (b. 551)
- 930 – Xiao Qing, chancellor of Later Liang (b. 862)
- 1027 – Romuald, Italian mystic and saint (b. 951)
- 1312 – Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English politician (b. 1284)
- 1341 – Juliana Falconieri, Italian nun and saint (b. 1270)
- 1364 – Elisenda of Montcada, queen consort and regent of Aragon (b. 1292)
- 1504 – Bernhard Walther, German astronomer and humanist (b. 1430)
- 1542 – Leo Jud, Swiss theologian and reformer (b. 1482)
- 1545 – Abraomas Kulvietis, Lithuanian-Russian lawyer and jurist (b. 1509)
- 1567 – Anna of Brandenburg, Duchess of Mecklenburg (b. 1507)
- 1584 – Francis, Duke of Anjou (b. 1555)
- 1608 – Alberico Gentili, Italian lawyer and jurist (b. 1551)
- 1650 – Matthäus Merian, Swiss-German engraver and publisher (b. 1593)
- 1747 – Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer and educator (b. 1669)
- 1762 – Johann Ernst Eberlin, German organist and composer (b. 1702)
- 1768 – Benjamin Tasker Sr., American soldier and politician, 10th Colonial Governor of Maryland (b. 1690)
- 1786 – Nathanael Greene, American general (b. 1742)
- 1805 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter and educator (b. 1724)
- 1820 – Joseph Banks, English botanist and author (b. 1743)
- 1844 – Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French zoologist and biologist (b. 1772)
- 1864 – Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, American soldier (b. 1843)
- 1865 – Evangelos Zappas, Greek-Romanian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1800)
- 1884 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentinian-French politician and diplomat (b. 1810)
- 1867 – Maximilian I of Mexico (b. 1832)
- 1874 – Ferdinand Stoliczka, Moravian palaeontologist and ornithologist (b. 1838)
- 1896 – Margaret Carver Leighton, American author (b. 1896)
- 1903 – Herbert Vaughan, English cardinal (b. 1832)
- 1918 – Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (b. 1888)
- 1921 – Ramón López Velarde, Mexican poet and author (b. 1888)
- 1922 – Hitachiyama Taniemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 19th Yokozuna (b. 1874)
- 1932 – Sol Plaatje, South African journalist and activist (b. 1876)
- 1937 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (b. 1860)
- 1939 – Grace Abbott, American social worker and activist (b. 1878)
- 1940 – Maurice Jaubert, French composer and conductor (b. 1900)
- 1941 – C. V. Hartman, Swiss botanist and anthropologist (b. 1862)
- 1941 – Otto Hirsch, German jurist and politician (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Indian philosopher and academic (b. 1885)
- 1951 – Angelos Sikelianos, Greek poet and playwright (b. 1884)
- 1953 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (b. 1915)
- 1953 – Julius Rosenberg, American spy (b. 1918)
- 1956 – Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (b. 1874)
- 1962 – Frank Borzage, American film director and actor (b. 1894)
- 1966 – Ed Wynn, American actor and comedian (b. 1886)
- 1968 – James Joseph Sweeney, American bishop (b. 1898)
- 1975 – Sam Giancana, American mob boss (b. 1908)
- 1977 – Ali Shariati, Iranian sociologist and philosopher (b. 1933)
- 1979 – Paul Popenoe, American explorer and scholar, founded Relationship counseling (b. 1888)
- 1984 – Lee Krasner, American painter and educator (b. 1908)
- 1986 – Len Bias, American basketball player (b. 1963)
- 1988 – Fernand Seguin, Canadian biochemist and academic (b. 1922)
- 1988 – Gladys Spellman, American lawyer and politician (b. 1918)
- 1989 – Betti Alver, Estonian author and poet (b. 1906)
- 1990 – George Addes, American trade union leader, co-founded United Automobile Workers (b. 1911)
- 1991 – Jean Arthur, American actress (b. 1900)
- 1993 – William Golding, British novelist, playwright, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 1995 – Peter Townsend, Burmese-English captain and pilot (b. 1914)
- 2001 – Stanley Mosk, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (b. 1912)
- 2001 – John Heyer, Australian director and producer (b. 1916)
- 2007 – Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Alberto Mijangos, Mexican-American painter and educator (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Terry Hoeppner, American football player and coach (b. 1947)
- 2007 – Ze'ev Schiff, Israeli journalist and author (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Barun Sengupta, Bengali journalist, founded Bartaman (b. 1934)
- 2008 – Bennie Swain, American basketball player and coach (b. 1930)
- 2009 – Tomoji Tanabe, Japanese engineer and surveyor (b. 1895)
- 2010 – Manute Bol, Sudanese-American basketball player and activist (b. 1962)
- 2010 – Anthony Quinton, Baron Quinton, English philosopher and academic (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican writer, journalist and political activist (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Emili Teixidor, Catalan journalist and author (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Norbert Tiemann, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Nebraska (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Vince Flynn, American author (b. 1966)
- 2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor and producer (b. 1961)
- 2013 – Gyula Horn, Hungarian politician, 37th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Dave Jennings, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Filip Topol, Czech singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1965)
- 2013 – Slim Whitman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Oskar-Hubert Dennhardt, German general (b. 1915)
- 2014 – Gerry Goffin, American songwriter (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Ibrahim Touré, Ivorian footballer (b. 1985)
- 2015 – Earl Norem, American painter and illustrator (b. 1924)
- 2015 – James Salter, American novelist and short-story writer (b. 1925)
- 2016 – Anton Yelchin, American actor (b. 1989)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Day of the Independent Hungary (Hungary)
- Feast of Forest (Palawan)
- Juneteenth (United States, especially African Americans)
- Labour Day (Trinidad and Tobago)
- Laguna Day (Laguna)
- Never Again Day (Uruguay)
- Surigao del Norte Day (Surigao del Norte)
- Surigao del Sur Day (Surigao del Sur)
- World Sickle Cell Day (International)
- World Sauntering Day
Holidays and observances[edit]
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”Ephesians 6:4 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Jesus, the Redeemer, is altogether ours and ours forever. All the offices of Christ are held on our behalf. He is king for us, priest for us, and prophet for us. Whenever we read a new title of the Redeemer, let us appropriate him as ours under that name as much as under any other. The shepherd's staff, the father's rod, the captain's sword, the priest's mitre, the prince's sceptre, the prophet's mantle, all are ours. Jesus hath no dignity which he will not employ for our exaltation, and no prerogative which he will not exercise for our defence. His fulness of Godhead is our unfailing, inexhaustible treasure-house.
His manhood also, which he took upon him for us, is ours in all its perfection. To us our gracious Lord communicates the spotless virtue of a stainless character; to us he gives the meritorious efficacy of a devoted life; on us he bestows the reward procured by obedient submission and incessant service. He makes the unsullied garment of his life our covering beauty; the glittering virtues of his character our ornaments and jewels; and the superhuman meekness of his death our boast and glory. He bequeaths us his manger, from which to learn how God came down to man; and his Cross to teach us how man may go up to God. All his thoughts, emotions, actions, utterances, miracles, and intercessions, were for us. He trod the road of sorrow on our behalf, and hath made over to us as his heavenly legacy the full results of all the labours of his life. He is now as much ours as heretofore; and he blushes not to acknowledge himself "our Lord Jesus Christ," though he is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Christ everywhere and every way is our Christ, forever and ever most richly to enjoy. O my soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit! call him this morning, "thy Redeemer."
Evening
The heart of the believer is Christ's garden. He bought it with his precious blood, and he enters it and claims it as his own. A garden implies separation. It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, "Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that," thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity. A garden is a place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ's garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ's deservings; let us not put him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls his own. The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above. A garden is a place of retirement. So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which he can manifest himself, as he doth not unto the world. O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at his feet as we should. The Lord grant the sweet showers of his grace to water his garden this day.
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Today's reading: Nehemiah 10-11, Acts 4:1-22 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Nehemiah 10-11
1 Those who sealed it were:
Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hakaliah.
Zedekiah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah,
4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluk,
5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
8 Maaziah, Bilgai and Shemaiah....
Today's New Testament reading: Acts 4:1-22
Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand....
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