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 Twinkle Twinkle
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one of the most popular English nursery rhymes. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem, "The Star" by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is often sung to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" (oldest known publication 1761). The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. Mozart wrote twelve variations on Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7666.
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
How could he see where to go,
If you did not twinkle so?
In the dark blue sky you keep,
Often through my curtains peep
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
=== from 2016 ===
Kudos to Iceland celebrating Brexit.
A lot of people are going to vote for the ALP. It doesn't matter that the ALP have promised to spend more than $100 billion dollars than the conservatives and have claimed they will also tax that back. It doesn't matter that the ALP will spend that money and still not be able to appropriately deal with volunteer firefighters. It doesn't matter that independents will ask for your vote, calling themselves conservatives, and then back the ALP. It doesn't matter that the ALP are not campaigning for a conservative vote but are relying on Malcolm Turnbull to shed conservative votes. A lot of people will vote for the ALP, and they could win government.
But it is very hard to vote conservative because of Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull won't be as damaging as ALP. But he cannot be trusted to be responsible either. Vote LNP in the house of representatives. Vote for Nationals and selected Libs in the senate. Be warned that if the ALP are elected and the senate favours them, there is no protection from their excess. They no longer believe they need to be responsible money managers. ALP will not cut spending to make it that what Australia has, she keeps.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
The issue of Gay marriage is large at the moment. The US federal court, with nine members, has a simple majority claiming it is constitutional. For legal reasons it is a disturbing decision, suggesting anything is possible based on simple majorities without reference to the constitution. It is also disturbing because Gay Activism, which began on this day with 1969's Stonewall riots, is rooted in pedophilia. There are enemies of marriage threatening to wedge gay marriage to introduce bestiality and polygamy. There are activist plans to threaten churches which act on conscience. But in secular terms same sex marriages are good. It could mean that conservative gay authorities will move to protect the institution from corrosive elements, including those of activists.
Gay marriage is a unicorn issue for the left. The Scottish national animal is used to distract from real world problems like the economy, corruption issues and welfare. Partly because marriage is a word with religious tones which the state has owned for the last several centuries so as to determine the behaviour of kings and queens. But royalty is anachronistic. Civil unions exist and the rights of gay couples are exactly the same as that of married ones except as regards churches. But gay activism with a nod and wink has raised the issue and created circumstance which was not previously a problem. As with hospital illness and requirements of family only visitors. In times gone by, hospitals accepted lies, but now there is checking and a burning desire to tell authorities the truth in everything except tax matters. No doubt if one were to lie, Snowden would leak it. Child custody in separation and inheritance laws means that activists can point to *differences* between civil union and gay marriage.
The NYC Stonewall riots are enlightening regarding gay activism. At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union infiltrated the peace movement and mafia so as to manipulate the US domestic audience. They were very successful, tapping into native opposition to government and inflating issues. There is no evidence of Soviet involvement at Stonewall. Stonewall was a gay meeting place run by the Mafia who weren't gay, and who had contempt for gay peoples. The place had controlled entrance with a paid entry including two alcoholic drinks. Local homeless boys could get drinks there. Police raids, which had been routine, were met with riots instead.
There is no issue regarding religion and gays. That should be understood in the same sense that there is no religion underlying jihadism. Clearly there is a religious element regarding Islam and jihadism. But the cross dressing, Muslim killing, brutal and murderous jihadis movement is not how most Islamic peoples live. Similarly, gay activism is not the same as any individual gay person. Clearly religion is used to excuse homophobia and murder. But it isn't orthodox religious behaviour anywhere. Dictatorships don't form orthodox communities. And yes, many Christian bodies denounce gays, or gay behaviour. But, Christian theology puts it that Christ died for everyone. It is up to the individual to embrace Christ. And it is not their sexuality, but their whole being. Sometimes it is secular communities which are homophobic. The point being, homophobia is real and has religious overtones, but is not entirely a religious issue. Marriage is a religious issue, but there is secular marriage, and has been for as long as there has been marriage. It little matters to religion what the state decides. Except where it is law. Why anyone cares for state sanctioned sexual activity is anyone's guess.
Gay marriage is a unicorn issue for the left. The Scottish national animal is used to distract from real world problems like the economy, corruption issues and welfare. Partly because marriage is a word with religious tones which the state has owned for the last several centuries so as to determine the behaviour of kings and queens. But royalty is anachronistic. Civil unions exist and the rights of gay couples are exactly the same as that of married ones except as regards churches. But gay activism with a nod and wink has raised the issue and created circumstance which was not previously a problem. As with hospital illness and requirements of family only visitors. In times gone by, hospitals accepted lies, but now there is checking and a burning desire to tell authorities the truth in everything except tax matters. No doubt if one were to lie, Snowden would leak it. Child custody in separation and inheritance laws means that activists can point to *differences* between civil union and gay marriage.
The NYC Stonewall riots are enlightening regarding gay activism. At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union infiltrated the peace movement and mafia so as to manipulate the US domestic audience. They were very successful, tapping into native opposition to government and inflating issues. There is no evidence of Soviet involvement at Stonewall. Stonewall was a gay meeting place run by the Mafia who weren't gay, and who had contempt for gay peoples. The place had controlled entrance with a paid entry including two alcoholic drinks. Local homeless boys could get drinks there. Police raids, which had been routine, were met with riots instead.
There is no issue regarding religion and gays. That should be understood in the same sense that there is no religion underlying jihadism. Clearly there is a religious element regarding Islam and jihadism. But the cross dressing, Muslim killing, brutal and murderous jihadis movement is not how most Islamic peoples live. Similarly, gay activism is not the same as any individual gay person. Clearly religion is used to excuse homophobia and murder. But it isn't orthodox religious behaviour anywhere. Dictatorships don't form orthodox communities. And yes, many Christian bodies denounce gays, or gay behaviour. But, Christian theology puts it that Christ died for everyone. It is up to the individual to embrace Christ. And it is not their sexuality, but their whole being. Sometimes it is secular communities which are homophobic. The point being, homophobia is real and has religious overtones, but is not entirely a religious issue. Marriage is a religious issue, but there is secular marriage, and has been for as long as there has been marriage. It little matters to religion what the state decides. Except where it is law. Why anyone cares for state sanctioned sexual activity is anyone's guess.
From 2014
I once believed that there was no far right in Australian Politics. The stupid and despicable right wingers who exist around the world spouting hatred and bile, standing for venal self interest pasted on top of foolish ideology just don't seem to get past the gatekeepers. We still have an insane left wing. The insane left wing have a parliamentary presence and they make promises and commit to spending that is unrealistic and damaging. Australia is governed best by the centre. Menzies created and named the Liberal party so as to be centre right. And the Liberal party has in turn anchored the political scene towards the centre. So where do those turn that cannot stomach the left and don't wish to be centrist? Pauline Hanson and One Nation was populated by bigots who clearly had not thought about their positions. Hanson showed in speeches she was shallow and did not understand fundamentals of democracy or policy drivers of prosperity.
Australia has a proud military tradition and her soldiers often fulfil important independent functions in bureaucracy. But many who don't, who simply are not capable of being in administration, but want a political identity, the Australian Defence League (ADL) might be appealing. Only the ADL is a far right organisation, desperate to be heard and bereft of ideas. There is no intellectual discipline underpinning ADL theory .. they have knee jerk reactions that neither address issues nor solve problems. They oppose multiculturalism and cultural diversity, they oppose immigration, they have economy destroying big government ideas that are similar to the left because they oppose Liberal Party ideals. They are trying to be different to the centrist conservative parties.
Australia has a modern economy but the money the ADL craves is not there. So they created the Australian Tea Party so as to link up with the US variety and sponge off the US political cycle which has lots of cash. Also, the ADL has tried to colonise parliaments and in one case had a local counsellor, Hajnal Ban as a member. Hajnal has a wikipedia entry, the ADL do not. The ADL are not notable according to wikipedia, which suits the ADL who encourage that thought. But their English counterparts, the EDL are known. Unlike other parties in Australia, the ADL do not have gifted policy makers. They have memes that would betray their supporters if they were ever made implemented policy.
Today is the hundredth anniversary of idiot fascists who used force to implement their ideas. They wanted what the Austro Hungarian heir offered, had he lived. But they killed him and his wife and tens of millions died as a result. And still, nothing worked the way they had wanted it. Australia does not have a far right political party presence, and she doesn't need it either.
Australia has a proud military tradition and her soldiers often fulfil important independent functions in bureaucracy. But many who don't, who simply are not capable of being in administration, but want a political identity, the Australian Defence League (ADL) might be appealing. Only the ADL is a far right organisation, desperate to be heard and bereft of ideas. There is no intellectual discipline underpinning ADL theory .. they have knee jerk reactions that neither address issues nor solve problems. They oppose multiculturalism and cultural diversity, they oppose immigration, they have economy destroying big government ideas that are similar to the left because they oppose Liberal Party ideals. They are trying to be different to the centrist conservative parties.
Australia has a modern economy but the money the ADL craves is not there. So they created the Australian Tea Party so as to link up with the US variety and sponge off the US political cycle which has lots of cash. Also, the ADL has tried to colonise parliaments and in one case had a local counsellor, Hajnal Ban as a member. Hajnal has a wikipedia entry, the ADL do not. The ADL are not notable according to wikipedia, which suits the ADL who encourage that thought. But their English counterparts, the EDL are known. Unlike other parties in Australia, the ADL do not have gifted policy makers. They have memes that would betray their supporters if they were ever made implemented policy.
Today is the hundredth anniversary of idiot fascists who used force to implement their ideas. They wanted what the Austro Hungarian heir offered, had he lived. But they killed him and his wife and tens of millions died as a result. And still, nothing worked the way they had wanted it. Australia does not have a far right political party presence, and she doesn't need it either.
Historical perspective on this day
In 1098, fighters of the First Crusade defeated Kerbogha of Mosull. 1360, Muhammed VIbecame the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II. 1461, Edward IV was crowned King of England. 1519, Charles V was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. 1635, Guadeloupe became a French colony. 1651, the Battle of Beresteczko between Poland and Ukraine started. 1709, Peter the Great defeated Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava 1745, War of the Austrian Succession: A New Englandcolonial army captured Louisbourg, New France, after a forty-seven-day siege (New Style). 1776, the Battle of Sullivan's Island ended with the first decisive American victory in the American Revolutionary War leading to the commemoration of Carolina Day. Also 1776, Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, was hanged for mutiny and sedition. 1778, the American Continentals engaged the British in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse resulting in standstill and British withdrawal under cover of darkness.
In 1807, second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelock landed at Ensenadaon an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and was defeated by the locals. 1838, Coronationof Victoria of the United Kingdom. 1841, the Paris Opera Ballet premiered Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier 1855, Sigma Chi Fraternity was founded in North America. 1859, the first conformation dog show was held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. 1865, the Army of the Potomac was disbanded. 1880, the Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was captured at Glenrowan. 1881, secret treaty between Austria and Serbia. 1882, the Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marked the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone. 1894, Labor Day became an official US holiday. 1895, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaraguaformed the Greater Republic of Central America. Also 1895, Court of Private Land Claimsrule James Reavis' claim to Barony of Arizona was "wholly fictitious and fraudulent." 1896, an explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City, Pennsylvaniaresulted in a massive cave-in that killed 58 miners.
In 1902, the U.S. Congress passed the Spooner Act, authorising President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal. 1904, the SS Norge ran aground and sank 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnia Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I. 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in Paris, bringing fighting to an end between Germany and the Allies of World War I. 1921, Serbian King Alexander I proclaimed the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution. 1922, the Irish Civil War began with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces. 1926, Mercedes-Benz was formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies. 1936, the Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang was formed in northern China.
In 1940, Romania ceded Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum. 1942, World War II: Nazi Germany started its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue 1945, Poland's Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity was formed over a month after V-E Day. 1948, the Cominformcirculated the "Resolution on the situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia"; Yugoslavia was expelled from the Communist bloc. Also 1948, boxer Dick Turpin beat Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era. 1950, Korean War: Seoul was captured by North Korean troops. Also 1950, Korean War: Suspected communist sympathisers, argued to be between 100,000 and 200,000 were executed in the Bodo League massacre. Also 1950, Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blew up the Hangang Bridge in attempt to slow North Korea's offensive. Also 1950, Korean War: North Korean Army conducted Seoul National University Hospital Massacre. 1956, in Poznań, workers from HCP factory went to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe.
In 1964, Malcolm X formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity. 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem. 1969, Stonewall Riots began in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement. 1973, Elections were held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which would lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time. 1976, the Angolan court sentenced US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial. 1978, the United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke barred quota systems in college admissions. 1981, a powerful bomb exploded in Tehran, killing 73 officials of Islamic Republic Party. 1987, for the first time in military history, a civilian population was targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht. 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivered the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
In 1992, the Constitution of Estonia was signed into law. 1994, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan; Seven people were killed, 660 injured. 1996, the Constitution of Ukraine was signed into law. 1997, Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson was disqualified in the 3rd round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear. 2001, Slobodan Milošević was deported to ICTY to stand trial. 2004, sovereign power was handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation. 2009, Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran political crisis.
In 1807, second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelock landed at Ensenadaon an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and was defeated by the locals. 1838, Coronationof Victoria of the United Kingdom. 1841, the Paris Opera Ballet premiered Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier 1855, Sigma Chi Fraternity was founded in North America. 1859, the first conformation dog show was held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. 1865, the Army of the Potomac was disbanded. 1880, the Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was captured at Glenrowan. 1881, secret treaty between Austria and Serbia. 1882, the Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marked the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone. 1894, Labor Day became an official US holiday. 1895, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaraguaformed the Greater Republic of Central America. Also 1895, Court of Private Land Claimsrule James Reavis' claim to Barony of Arizona was "wholly fictitious and fraudulent." 1896, an explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City, Pennsylvaniaresulted in a massive cave-in that killed 58 miners.
In 1902, the U.S. Congress passed the Spooner Act, authorising President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal. 1904, the SS Norge ran aground and sank 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnia Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I. 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in Paris, bringing fighting to an end between Germany and the Allies of World War I. 1921, Serbian King Alexander I proclaimed the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution. 1922, the Irish Civil War began with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces. 1926, Mercedes-Benz was formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies. 1936, the Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang was formed in northern China.
In 1940, Romania ceded Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum. 1942, World War II: Nazi Germany started its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue 1945, Poland's Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity was formed over a month after V-E Day. 1948, the Cominformcirculated the "Resolution on the situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia"; Yugoslavia was expelled from the Communist bloc. Also 1948, boxer Dick Turpin beat Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era. 1950, Korean War: Seoul was captured by North Korean troops. Also 1950, Korean War: Suspected communist sympathisers, argued to be between 100,000 and 200,000 were executed in the Bodo League massacre. Also 1950, Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blew up the Hangang Bridge in attempt to slow North Korea's offensive. Also 1950, Korean War: North Korean Army conducted Seoul National University Hospital Massacre. 1956, in Poznań, workers from HCP factory went to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe.
In 1964, Malcolm X formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity. 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem. 1969, Stonewall Riots began in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement. 1973, Elections were held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which would lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time. 1976, the Angolan court sentenced US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial. 1978, the United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke barred quota systems in college admissions. 1981, a powerful bomb exploded in Tehran, killing 73 officials of Islamic Republic Party. 1987, for the first time in military history, a civilian population was targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht. 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivered the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
In 1992, the Constitution of Estonia was signed into law. 1994, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan; Seven people were killed, 660 injured. 1996, the Constitution of Ukraine was signed into law. 1997, Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson was disqualified in the 3rd round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear. 2001, Slobodan Milošević was deported to ICTY to stand trial. 2004, sovereign power was handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation. 2009, Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran political crisis.
=== 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
- 1476 – Pope Paul IV (d. 1559)
- 1491 – Henry VIII of England (d. 1547)
- 1503 – Giovanni della Casa, Italian author and poet (d. 1556)
- 1547 – Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1599)
- 1577 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter (d. 1640)
- 1703 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (d. 1791)
- 1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and polymath (d. 1778)
- 1734 – Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier, French organist and composer (d. 1794)
- 1852 – Charles Cruft, English showman, founded Crufts Dog Show (d. 1938)
- 1875 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (d. 1941)
- 1902 – Richard Rodgers, American composer (d. 1979)
- 1915 – David "Honeyboy" Edwards, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
- 1926 – Mel Brooks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1932 – Pat Morita, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1941 – Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist, developed the OBJ language (d. 2006)
- 1945 – David Knights, English bass player and producer (Procol Harum)
- 1948 – Kathy Bates, American actress, singer, and director
- 1951 – Lalla Ward, English actress and author
- 1966 – John Cusack, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1977 – Mark Stoermer, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (The Killers)
- 1986 – Shadia Simmons, Canadian actress
- 1989 – Lucy Rose, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1991 – Seohyun, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress (Girls' Generation and Girls' Generation-TTS)
- 1996 – Donna Vekić, Croatian tennis player
- 548 – Theodora I, Byzantine wife of Justinian I (b. 500)
- 1194 – Emperor Xiaozong of Song (b. 1127)
- 1836 – James Madison, American politician, 4th President of the United States (b. 1751)
- 1914 – Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg (b. 1868)
- 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (b. 1863)
- 1915 – Victor Trumper, Australian cricketer (b. 1877)
- 1960 – Jake Swirbul, American businessman, co-founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (b. 1898)
- 1975 – Rod Serling, American actor, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1924)
- 1841 – Giselle, a ballet by French composer Adolphe Adam, was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris.
- 1880 – Police captured Australian bank robber and cultural icon Ned Kelly(pictured) after a gun battle in Glenrowan, Victoria.
- 1922 – The Irish Civil War began with an assault by the Irish Free State's National Army on the Four Courts building, which had been occupied by the Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army.
- 1989 – President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević gave a speech in which he described the possibility of "armed battles" in the future of Serbia's national development.
- 2005 – War in Afghanistan: Three U.S. Navy SEALs and 16 American Special Operations Forces soldiers were killed during a failed counter-insurgentmission in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
===
Tim Blair
SUBS FOR THE DOLE MAN COPS IT
Andrew Bolt
THE ALRESFORD FLOGGER
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (4:53am)
To fully convey the horror of Britain’s EU independence, the New York Times publishes the tortured thoughts of 27-year-old University of Essex philosophy lecturer Tom Whyman – who isn’t even independent of his parents:
In summer, the land around Alresford, the rural market town in the south of England where I grew up, blooms in a way that seems almost terrible.My parents’ house stands in the middle of a 1980s housing development of suburban ugliness, all detached red-brick blocks and generously proportioned driveways. There is not supposed to be nature in the suburbs, but in Alresford (pronounced AWLS-fud) nature is still powerful — every year the grass at the top of the road will suddenly grow tall, and fill with wildflowers, hedgehogs, little birds of delirious and unusual colors. Every morning the birds wake you up at 4 with a chorus of hoots and trills.
So it’s almost terrible. Apart from the beautiful birds and flowers and wildlife.
Sometimes, in the summer, I walk up the hill and I look out over it, the housing development on one side and the Georgian town center at the bottom of the other, and I have this fantasy image of how it once was, before Alresford was founded in the Middle Ages, when all of this was untouched: just the wild, untamed nature that it keeps wanting to turn itself back into. And sometimes, I think: I wish that would happen. Because all that humans have ever done here is ruin things.
Centuries of human ruin, yet still the birds wake poor Tom at 4am.
Alresford is my personal hell.
At least Tom’s hell has a nice pub.
We are not used to thinking that a place like this — a pleasant town with a pretty center — might actually be hell. There is almost no poverty and only the occasional act of violence. There are good schools, a range of shops, a heritage railway. In fact, it’s somewhere that a lot of people, apparently, actively want to live …But dig below the surface, and you will find the demons crawling.
Sure you’re not thinking of Rotherham, mate?
You can see them in the looks that residents give you when they pass; sneering snobs glaring down their noses with entitlement; small-minded townies, bullying you with eyes that you recognize from the primary school lunchroom; the old people, 80 and above, wearing blank stares. You can hear it in their bothered tutting at the bus stop (especially if they ever hear a visitor mispronouncing the name of the town), the shots that constantly ring out from across the countryside as they set about murdering as many of the local pheasants as they can.
I’m getting the feeling Tom wouldn’t be high on the list of applicants for Alresford’s next tourist bus announcer.
As with any hell, the thing that really makes it so is that you can never leave.
This young woman managed it easily enough.
Poor public transportation makes leaving impossible in a practical, everyday sense – at least if you can’t drive.
Learn how to drive, then. Problem solved.
The town thwarts any ambitions that stretch beyond its borders. From what I can tell, a young person from Alresford, forced to move back in with his parents after college, will typically find himself unable to get work that is not based in Alresford.
That whole “learning how to drive” thing can be extremely helpful.
And it is impossible to leave Alresford, because Alresford is not just a place: It is an ideology that infects your very soul. Let’s call it “Alresfordism.” It is an ideology of smallness, of contraction, of wanting to curl up in our own personal, financially secure hole and will everything amusing or interesting or exciting in the world away.
For the love of God, is there nobody in Britain who can teach this idiot how to operate a steering wheel and a couple of pedals?
Since my late teens, every effort I have ever exerted has been with the intention of escaping Alresford. And yet, I am an early-career academic and so I am forced to move back, every summer, to live with my parents because I cannot …
… drive a car. Just say it, man.
Then, sometimes, I think: What if I’m actually secretly comfortable here? What if I have chosen the security of death in Alresford over the risks of life elsewhere? What if I am in fact fully in the clutches of Alresfordism?
Anyone else sensing that Tom may have expressed these thoughts previously? Perhaps in a professional setting, to someone authorised to prescribe Thorazine?
It was for psychological reasons …
There we go. And now Tom moves on to last week’s Brexit vote:
This referendum wasn’t really a referendum about whether or not we should remain in the European Union. It was a referendum on immigration and on race — on whether to have our borders open or closed.In short: Do we open ourselves up to new things, even if they might be unfamiliar, risky, unexpected, sometimes even undesirable?
He’s still talking about driving.
I knew which way I had to vote. This was a referendum on Alresfordism.
But Tom didn’t vote against Alresfordism in Alresford, because of his inexplicable dark mummy/daddy issues with the place. Instead, he lit out for Essex. Problems ensued:
Three hours on the train, through London, from Winchester to Wivenhoe, then back again, I thought. I was wrong.An electrical storm the night before had caused signal failures across southeast England. I managed to get to London, but when I tried to change for the train to Essex, I found that everything so far that day had been canceled. A convoluted series of changes on the Tube and on buses left me stranded in Romford, in outer London, where the train I had been told I could catch to Colchester had just been canceled. I tried my best, I thought, and I failed miserably. I went home.
For the want of a driver’s licence, the EU was lost.
As a result of this vote, Britain will withdraw rapidly. We will have fewer people coming here, enriching our culture and our lives. There will be fewer opportunities. We will have less of a chance to explore the world for ourselves.
That canceled Conchester train didn’t help.
Brexit is the result of a deep nihilism among the British public. This nihilism has not just emerged recently; I’ve lived alongside it my whole life. This is the nihilism of Alresfordism, a security-driven retraction toward death.
It’s as though someone loaded Elizabeth Farrelly into a particle accelerator, smashed her into a teething two-year-old, and transcribed everything the resulting monstrosity said as it expired.
All I can do is look out at the nature from the window of my room in Alresford. I’m from here, so I can’t be sure whether or not this is just another type of nihilism, but I think: Well, if all this nature is bigger than us, then I want it be get even bigger. I want it to become so big that it will consume all of our smallnesses, invalidate them, smother them out. Not just Alresford. I want a demented, throbbing, fecund nature to overrun this whole country, to overturn the wretched consequences of the laws that we have, in our stupidity, set for ourselves.
TUESDAY NOTICEBOARD
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (3:21am)
Melbourne:
STANDING TALL SOMETIMES MEANS STANDING ALONE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (3:02am)
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on the logic behind Britain’s European Union rejection:
It was the only way in which they would regain control of their borders and regain control of things that are fundamental attributes of an independent nation …It was not unreasonable of people, it was not racist of people, it was not xenophobic of people, to say that we want to keep an eye on the flow of immigration.It is not a rejection of immigration. In fact it’s a reaffirmation of the nation’s determination to decide, as I declared … we’ll decide who comes, the numbers, where they come from, and what skills they bring with them.In Britain they have felt for years with growing apprehension that they just don’t control their borders.
Well said.
DEFERENTIAL WILLIAM
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (2:47am)
In 2012, as many readers will recall, Bill Shorten supported comments made by Julia Gillard – before she actually made them:
“Sexual harassment’s an incredibly serious matter,” Shorten said. “There should be no tolerance for sexual harassment. That’s my view. On the other hand …”
“Sexual harassment’s an incredibly serious matter,” Shorten said. “There should be no tolerance for sexual harassment. That’s my view. On the other hand …”
(Via Dave T., who emails: “Why doesn’t the Coalition just run this for the next week? I don’t understand why they haven’t hammered him over this.")
NOT FRIENDS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (2:39am)
Brexit has already brought down a Conservative prime minister and threatens to remove Labour’s leader. And now:
Matt LeBlanc is allegedly planning to quit Top Gear if his co-host Chris Evans is not removed from the team first, sources have claimed.The American presenter, 48, is said to be concerned about Evans’s rudeness towards other members of the team, with some suggesting he also is frustrating to film with.
Not half as frustrating as he is to watch.
FULL COURT PRESS COUNCIL
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (2:30am)
Dealing with the fury of social justice types is a frequent delight for those of us inclined to free expression. Chris Kenny reports:
You can witness their overbearing hectoring in the sanctimony of progressive politicians, preachiness of the national broadcaster or vile abuse of social media. If you are unlucky enough you’ll find them marching to your door, as happened to me recently after a complaint to the Australian Press Council.Despite her public megaphone in parliament and limitless platforms though largely unquestioning media appearances, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young sought to undermine my reporting from Nauru last October by lodging a complaint.Hanson-Young, despite numerous requests over many years, has refused to grant me an interview to discuss border protection issues.Rather than answer my questions – or ask them of me – she used the APC as a vehicle to try to discredit my efforts at sharing facts and providing transparency on Nauru. Bizarrely, the council decided to investigate the complaint despite chairman David Weisbrot saying: “We are not at all, in this, contesting the accuracy, fairness or balance of the articles – we completely accept those.”Instead, the council looked into the issue of privacy and found in my favour on that count, too. But consider how the press council allowed itself to be used in a game that is antipathetic to its aims of fostering free and open media.
The Press Council has lately become Twitter’s judicial arm. Still, if anyone wishes to make a Press Council complaint about anything appearing here or in any of my columns, please go right ahead. Believe me, you won’t be the first.
FLAT FOUR FLAT OUT
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (2:05am)
Subaru’s Mark Higgins storms the Isle of Man:
Note that Higgins’s heart rate sometimes increases when his car is running at its slowest. Peak stress for racing drivers occurs when braking and cornering rather than when accelerating.
Note that Higgins’s heart rate sometimes increases when his car is running at its slowest. Peak stress for racing drivers occurs when braking and cornering rather than when accelerating.
CORBYN OR CORBOUT
Tim Blair – Monday, June 27, 2016 (9:07pm)
The challenge is on:
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has told Jeremy Corbyn he has “no authority” among Labour MPs and warned him he faces a leadership challenge.The two men met after a spate of resignations from shadow cabinet.The Labour leader launched a fight back on Monday morning, unveiling a new top team after a fresh round of walkouts from shadow ministers.Mr Corbyn, who was elected in September in a landslide victory, is facing a vote of no confidence from Labour MPs.
Brexit just keeps giving.
Late on Sunday evening Mr Corbyn issued a bullish statement and vowed to continue as leader despite the resignations. He said: “I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me – or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them.“Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate.”
And he might very well win, despite further resignations. Yesterday Corbyn replaced some of his departed shadow cabinet with anybody he could find wandering around parliament, including a Cat.
John Stone’s Del-Con voting guide
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (7:24pm)
Former Treasury secretary and Nationals MP John Stone has refined his voting guide for Del-Cons - conservatives who cannot stomach voting for treachery:
===Since Professor James Allan, and shortly thereafter I, expressed our outrage at Tony Abbott’s political assassination, commentators have persistently attacked what Miranda Devine first termed “deluded conservatives” or “Del-Cons”. We were told to “move on”, to “get over it”, and above all, not to risk electing a Labor government led by a man even more untrustworthy and unscrupulous than Malcolm Turnbull. Jennifer Oriel also told us in The Australian that “revenge” was unworthy, and we should follow Abbott’s fine example and opt for “grace” instead.
Let me be clear on both points. First, I reject the term of abuse “deluded” (though happy to wear the Del-Con badge of honour). “Disaffected”, yes; but “deluded”, no. Second, the motivation for us “Dis-Cons” is not revenge – an incidental element of schadenfreude notwithstanding – but determination to teach the Liberal Party a lesson it will never forget. When a child does something seriously wrong, a parent does not chastise it to “take revenge”, but to administer a sharp lesson with a view to affecting future behavior for the better. “Because if treachery and betrayal” on the scale of September 14 last “are not punished, they will beget more such treachery and betrayal, as Labor Party experience amply demonstrates”....
[B]oth sides now agree that Turnbull will lose quite a few seats, but not enough to lose government.
Since such an outcome would immediately place Turnbull’s leadership under strong (and sooner or later, irresistible) pressure, this would be an ideal Del-Con result… With few exceptions, Del-Cons don’t wish to see the government defeated, because (as The Spectator Australia editorialized last week) a Shorten-led Labor government is too horrible to contemplate.
Since however there now seems no reasonable likelihood of that, Del-Cons can safely vote in pursuit of their objective. Doing so does not automatically mean “putting the Liberal last”; that only applies to those with the Mark of Cain upon them, who voted to oust Abbott last September (see https://truebluenz.com/ ). There were originally 56 Liberal (including Liberal National Party) members in that category, but nine have since left the Parliament; in those latter cases one needs to examine their pre-selected replacements closely. In Mackellar, for example, the new Liberal candidate, Jason Falinski, is even further Left than Turnbull; so put him last. To recap, then, those “Rules of Engagement”, first for the House: (1) vote National wherever a National Party candidate is standing; (2) if your Liberal Party member was among those betraying their leader last September, put that person last – and last means last; but if not, then vote for him or her as usual. In the Senate, the same principles apply but, because of the different voting system, must be activated somewhat differently: (3) most importantly, vote below the line, filling in 12 squares but excluding anyone in the Coalition lists who betrayed Abbott. To illustrate, in NSW I propose to give my first four votes to the four Nationals listed on the joint ticket; then to three Liberals, but excluding Marise Payne, Arthur Sinodinos and (for other reasons) Hollie Hughes; and then to Family First, Christian Democrats, Australian Liberty Alliance, Liberal Democrats and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party. Easy; just follow the Rules.
Is this Turnbull’s secret plan to allow same-sex marriage?
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (9:56am)
As I have warned before, Malcolm Turnbull has given no commitment to refuse a vote of politicians to allow same-sex marriage if the Senate blocks his promised plebiscite.
I suspect Turnbull would love to give in and hold a vote to make himself a hero of the Left.
Peta Credlin warned of just this on my show last night:
===I suspect Turnbull would love to give in and hold a vote to make himself a hero of the Left.
Peta Credlin warned of just this on my show last night:
Peta Credlin, a former senior adviser to both Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, anticipated the Senate would not agree to hold such a plebiscite.Conservative MPs had better get a guarantee now, before the election, because there is every chance they will be brushed off after.
A resulting push for a parliamentary vote would drive a “very big schism” through the Coalition, similar to the ructions over climate change that brought the Liberal Party to the brink of a split in 2009. “The government may claim a mandate, but if Labor and the Greens block it in the upper house, what is Plan B?” Credlin told Sky News. “I think it will end up being a parliamentary vote.”
Why won’t Turnbull save these students from this race-based persecution?
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (8:55am)
This is not just a disgusting attempt to punish free speech. This is not just evidence of the appalling rise of a new racism that sets Australians against each other.
Now it’s become sheer victimisation of mere students by oppressive organs of the state:
UPDATE
Chris Kenny gives another example of the Left using the institutions to punish free speech - not by debate but by process and regulation:
===Now it’s become sheer victimisation of mere students by oppressive organs of the state:
Human Rights Commission staff and president Gillian Triggs were accused in a racial hatred case yesterday of “stooping” to a regrettable low in a desperate attempt to “avoid scrutiny of their shameful conduct” against university students.Why has the Turnbull Government refused to indemnify these students? Has its commitment to free speech died under Malcolm Turnbull?
In an escalating row between the students, indigenous staff member Cindy Prior, who ejected them from their Queensland University of Technology’s “culturally safe” computer lab because they were white, and the commission, the human rights body is coming under unprecedented scrutiny…
Professor Triggs last week urged independent barrister Angus Stewart SC to stop investigations into the complaints by students Calum Thwaites, Jackson Powell and Alex Wood that their human rights had been "flagrantly" breached by the commission…
The students are accused of racial hatred for writing Facebook posts which caused offence to Ms Prior after she had turned them away from the computer lab in the Oodgeroo Unit in May 2013. Ms Prior went on stress leave and is seeking more than $250,000 damages after not working for almost all of the past three years.
[Barrister Tony] Morris , in a damning reply yesterday, revealed that Mr Thwaites had recently abandoned his study to become a schoolteacher because he was concerned the taint on his reputation from being accused of racial hatred under the controversial section 18c would make him unemployable…
Mr Morris said it was wrong and unjust that an “utterly unmeritorious complaint” by Ms Prior had attracted from the Human Rights Commission “greater forbearance and leniency than the grave and serious complaints by the (students)"…
“The nature of the allegations made by Ms Prior, even if those allegations were ultimately to be dismissed, had the capacity to inflict long-term and devastating injury to the reputations of seven young tertiary students, and the very real potential to jeopardise their future employment prospects,” Mr Morris said. The three students still in the case have refused to pay Ms Prior any of the money her lawyers were demanding, while four others who were named in her original litigation made private settlements.
UPDATE
Chris Kenny gives another example of the Left using the institutions to punish free speech - not by debate but by process and regulation:
You can witness their overbearing hectoring in the sanctimony of progressive politicians, preachiness of the national broadcaster or vile abuse of social media. If you are unlucky enough you’ll find them marching to your door, as happened to me recently after a complaint to the Australian Press Council.I have been given two fresh examples of the Press Council being manipulated to stifle free speech in a way that shames the council and should deeply concern you. Unfortunately, I have been given this information in confidence and cannot yet reveal it for fear of jeopardising the position of the two much-admired people who are the targets of this attack.
Despite her public megaphone in parliament and limitless platforms though largely unquestioning media appearances, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young sought to undermine my reporting from Nauru last October by lodging a complaint.
Hanson-Young, despite numerous requests over many years, has refused to grant me an interview to discuss border protection issues.
Rather than answer my questions – or ask them of me – she used the APC as a vehicle to try to discredit my efforts at sharing facts and providing transparency on Nauru. Bizarrely, the council decided to investigate the complaint despite chairman David Weisbrot saying: “We are not at all, in this, contesting the accuracy, fairness or balance of the articles – we completely accept those.” Instead, the council looked into the issue of privacy and found in my favour on that count, too. But consider how the press council allowed itself to be used in a game that is antipathetic to its aims of fostering free and open media.
Brexit a blow to the authoritarian Left
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (8:50am)
Rowan Dean on Britain’s vote to leave the authoritarian European Union:
Reader Clive passes on the news:
Iceland fans warned before the amazing game against England of even worse:
Terry McCrann on the Brexit hysteria:
===WHAT to do when the New Left have infiltrated and taken over key institutions of our classic Western way of life? Ditch the institutions.My take on last night’s The Bolt Report:
That is the overarching lesson from Britain’s brave, scary, exhilarating and glorious decision to quit the EU. Brexit was about True Conservatives taking on the arrogant New Left. And these True Conservatives (who, perversely, include many traditional Labourites and exclude many modern Tories) won hands down.
By the New Left I mean that class of people typified in Australia by supporters of the Greens, Labor, Nick Xenophon and “progressive” causes. They believe in climate change, same-sex marriage, being nice to immigrants even when they hate you, open borders, indigenous “recognition” yadda yadda.
UPDATE
Reader Clive passes on the news:
Reports suggest “Brexit could soon be followed by Grexit, Departugal, Italeave, Czechout, Oustria, Finish, Slovakout, Latervia, Byegium. Only Remainia will stay.UPDATE
Iceland fans warned before the amazing game against England of even worse:
UPDATE
Terry McCrann on the Brexit hysteria:
All that has happened has been a vote — by a relatively narrow 52-48 margin — to Brexit. And what’s got lost in the hysteria, is that it is a totally non-binding vote.
The only way the actual Brexit can be actioned is by BOTH executive action by the British Government AND legislation by the British Parliament…
So, just as Cameron hasn’t actually resigned, nor has Britain ... exited the European Union; and you should understand there remains a very big question whether it ever will.
First, what if the government delays and delays again triggering the process? What if parliament simply refuses to so legislate; more than two thirds of the current one wanted to stay in the EU?
What if the exit process simply got bogged down in exactly the bureaucratic morass of Brussels that is the very reason to exit...?
Secondly, what Britain should precisely NOT do is to “negotiate” to be bound by all the rules of the EU, but while no longer being a member. That’s all responsibility and no power.
The whole point of Brexit is to get out of the utterly stultifying, completely dysfunctional and ultimately civilizationally suicidal disaster of the EU.
Spend more, tax more, borrow more. Which Labor genius thought this would work?
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (8:16am)
Labor kissed the election goodbye three weeks ago when it promised - actually promised - to spend more and borrow more than even the Liberals over the next four years.
On Sunday Labor confirmed the size of disaster, revealing it would add an extra $101 billion to our debt over the next four years - $16.5 billion more than the Liberals.
Its figures also suggest it will tax us $12 billion more than the Liberals and spend $28.5 billion more. And that’s the problem right there: a massive addiction to spending.
That is where Labor threw away the election, gambling everything on the voters’ blind greed. It somehow believed it could buy its way to power by promising to spend more than the Liberals, tax more than the Liberals and borrow more than the Liberals.
So there are inherent problems with this mooted line-up for Labor’s post-defeat leadership contest
But if he does go, does Labor really think Bowen, the shadow treasurer, deserves to take his job after drafting such a terrible economic package? More profoundly, does Labor really think it should go even further to the Left with Albanese or Plibersek?
Albo will have to do a Nixon-to-China and announce a commitment to fiscal conservatism and a return to the basics that made Bob Hawke so electable after years of mad Labornomics just like this.
===On Sunday Labor confirmed the size of disaster, revealing it would add an extra $101 billion to our debt over the next four years - $16.5 billion more than the Liberals.
Its figures also suggest it will tax us $12 billion more than the Liberals and spend $28.5 billion more. And that’s the problem right there: a massive addiction to spending.
That is where Labor threw away the election, gambling everything on the voters’ blind greed. It somehow believed it could buy its way to power by promising to spend more than the Liberals, tax more than the Liberals and borrow more than the Liberals.
So there are inherent problems with this mooted line-up for Labor’s post-defeat leadership contest
Former deputy Labor leader Anthony Albanese is considered the man most likely to throw his hat into the ring, but there have also been suggestions that another frontbencher such as Tanya Plibersek or Chris Bowen could put their hand up.In my Bolt Bulletin two weeks ago, I tipped Labor to pick up eight to 10 seats, which suggests trouble for Shorten’s leadership.
One MP in the party’s right faction, who backed Mr Shorten, said the right and the unions still backed him and there was a “consensus view that Bill has campaigned very well...”. “A credible result, like 10 seats, is the margin for Bill. Below that, we will have something to talk about.”
But if he does go, does Labor really think Bowen, the shadow treasurer, deserves to take his job after drafting such a terrible economic package? More profoundly, does Labor really think it should go even further to the Left with Albanese or Plibersek?
Albo will have to do a Nixon-to-China and announce a commitment to fiscal conservatism and a return to the basics that made Bob Hawke so electable after years of mad Labornomics just like this.
Turnbull attacks Abbott. Invites payback
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (8:03am)
What a mongrel act from Malcolm Turnbull - to repay Tony Abbott’s team effort with this graceless put-down to make himself look better:
Kevin Rudd whiteanted Julia Gillard and got back the leadership.
Abbott refuses to whiteant Turnbull and gets this trashtalking.
Turnbull lacks character, and will pay.
===Malcolm Turnbull has said that if he had not become leader, the Coalition would have lost this election “very resoundingly” under Tony Abbott.Turnbull whiteanted Abbott and got the leadership.
Turnbull delivered his blunt assessment in an interview with Sarah Ferguson for the ABC’s Four Corners…
Turnbull dodged when asked if, with the election tight, he was grateful for the buffer of seats Abbott had left him. He again made it clear there would be no room for Abbott in cabinet in a re-elected Turnbull government, saying he would keep his present team.
Kevin Rudd whiteanted Julia Gillard and got back the leadership.
Abbott refuses to whiteant Turnbull and gets this trashtalking.
Turnbull lacks character, and will pay.
Windsor accused of being a bully
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (7:53am)
Are you surprised?
Windsor denies:
===Tony Windsor whipped schoolboys’ buttocks with a riding crop and hit their knuckles with the back of a knife, at times until they bled, according to his fellow former students.UPDATE
As the independent candidate for New England steps up his campaign to re-enter federal parliament, six of his former school peers have broken their silence about his alleged behaviour at Tamworth’s Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in north west NSW, where he had the nickname “Hood Windsor”. Farrer had a culture, known as “SACK”, that encouraged older students to control younger students through physical punishment and intimidation, similar to conduct of which Mr Windsor is accused. Tamworth cattle and horse breeder Richard Bull, 61, wells up as he tells how Mr Windsor “terrorised” him during his first year of boarding school in 1967 when he was 11 years old.
Windsor denies:
Former independent MP Tony Windsor has referred to his lawyers allegations he was a bully at school nearly 50 years ago.
A second Bolt Bulletin next week
Andrew Bolt June 28 2016 (12:46am)
A second Bolt Bulletin - a post-election edition - will be sent to readers who buy my new book online. The book will be mailed free.
Book here for the Sydney launch of my new book on July 15, with friends Rowan Dean, editor of the Spectator Australia, and IPA boss John Roskam chatting with me on stage. Book here for the Melbourne launch on July 22, again with Rowan, John and me.
Book here for the Adelaide launch at Senator Cory Bernardi’s Conservative Leadership Foundation on July 29.
===Book here for the Sydney launch of my new book on July 15, with friends Rowan Dean, editor of the Spectator Australia, and IPA boss John Roskam chatting with me on stage. Book here for the Melbourne launch on July 22, again with Rowan, John and me.
Book here for the Adelaide launch at Senator Cory Bernardi’s Conservative Leadership Foundation on July 29.
Grubby excuses cannot erase the ABC’s shame
Piers Akerman – Sunday, June 28, 2015 (12:01am)
ABC CEO Mark Scott ably demonstrated why he is abjectly unfit to head the monolithic broadcasting organisation with his intellectually impoverished freedom of speech defence of the landmark Q&A program’s grotesque decision to provide a national platform for an obscenely offensive convicted criminal and terrorism sympathiser.
Continue reading 'Grubby excuses cannot erase the ABC’s shame'ABC’s Q&A gives succour to enemies of the West
Miranda Devine – Saturday, June 27, 2015 (11:59pm)
WHEN the ABC’s Q&A program aired a Thursday night special on same sex marriage a week ago, it included just one panellist who supported traditional marriage.
Christian Democrats Leader Fred Nile, 80, the sole heterosexual on the panel, was outnumbered six to one. He did a valiant job, but it was no contest against such odds. The show was an hour of blatant taxpayer-funded propaganda, with Nile as its neutered fig leaf.
This is the way Q&A works. A pure creature of the ABC culture, it relentlessly promotes leftist-Green causes, while slyly pretending to offer open debate and freedom of expression.
Its influence is pernicious.
Whether it’s same sex marriage, climate change, asylum seekers, reconciliation, or national security, on all the touchstone issues of the left, the ABC culture always favours enemies of the West, atheists, climate alarmists, radical feminists, Marxists, and any trendy cause which undermines the middle class Judeo-Christian morality which underpins Australia.
There is no balance, unless you count a handful of pet conservatives tolerated because they are progressive on social issues, or useful because they might damage Tony Abbott.
Otherwise, the conservative viewpoint is represented by some poor sap set up as a hated gargoyle, ridiculed by audience and host alike.
The best you can hope for from the ABC is the occasional straight bat, but never on Q&A, which is simply the most overt expression of the debased, oddly elitist culture which taxpayers fund to the tune of more than $1billion a year.
Against the backdrop of last week’s Zaky Mallah furore, Fred Nile’s experience is instructive.
In the weeks leading up to Q&A’s “Between a Frock and a Hard Place” special, Nile’s media advisor Neveen Pavlatos says she raised concerns several times to the show’s producers about what was shaping up to be a “skewed panel”. To no avail.
On the night of the show, she says two producers, Amanda Collinge and Christine El Khouri, refused to allow Nile’s guests to join the audience, claiming it was Q&A policy not to allow staffers and volunteers of panelists.
Yet, says Pavlatos, it was obvious that at least two audience members with pre-approved questions were associated with other panelists, because they joined them in the Green Room for drinks and canapés after the show.
“Not only was the Rev out numbered on the panel and the audience ridiculously skewed, but to also restrict our guests taking part in the audience was pathetically unprofessional and unacceptable,” an angry Pavlatos told me last week.
(I had a similar experience the last time I appeared on Q&A, when two journalist friends I had invited for moral support were banned from the audience, until I kicked up a stink.)
Yes, the Q&A audience is as cunningly curated to favour the “progressive” side of the argument as everything else about the show.
The bogus statistics flashed on the screen, for instance, claiming the audience is evenly balanced between Coalition and Labor/Green voters, are just a sick inside joke.
No half-conservative audience would have applauded Mallah when he appeared on the show last week, with a scripted question attacking the government’s efforts to strip citizenship from dual national jihadist fighters.
Just six months after the Lindt Café siege, Q&A saw fit to invite an unstable convicted criminal and known terrorist sympathiser into its audience to confront the Foreign Minister’s parliamentary secretary Steve Ciobo.
Mallah supports al-Qaeda backed terrorist groups, and has returned from the Syrian frontline, where he claims he didn’t fight. He has been convicted of threatening to kidnap and kill an ASIO officer, and acquitted of two counts of planning a terrorist attack on a government building using a gun and hostages.
He was arrested in 2003 after police searching his home found a Sterling .22 rifle and ammunition he had recently purchased, a handwritten will and a document titled “How can I prepare myself for Jihad”.
In the years since, he has made sexually violent and obscene public statements on Twitter and YouTube about me and another News Corp colleague.
And yet, the ABC’s Managing Director Mark Scott last week defended Q&A’s appalling judgement on free speech grounds. The only mistake was that Mallah’s comments were aired live.
In an embarrassing speech on Thursday, Scott invoked Voltaire and Martin Luther King and, obscenely, the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Is he stupid, ignorant, or just arrogant?
Q&A’s problem has nothing to do with free speech. Mallah is free to express his repellent views whenever he likes, and has done so frequently on social media, and in interviews.
The problem is that Q&A chose to elevate his status, promote his views and encourage his delusions by providing him a live television platform from which to harangue a federal government minister and pose as a victim. Predictably, he used that platform to justify Islamic State recruitment of Australians.
“At times, free speech principles mean giving platforms to those with whom we fundamentally disagree,” Scott declared.
But these aren’t just “views” about which civilised people can disagree, “fundamentally” or otherwise.
There is no “other side of the argument” when it comes to murdering innocents, whether in a café in Martin Place, at a gas factory in France, or on a Tunisian beach.
There is no “debate” when it comes to inciting gang rape against two female columnists. There is no grey area, no moral relativity. There is just right and wrong.
THE MANY MOODS OF CLEMENTINE FORD
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 28, 2015 (5:01am)
“F**k Tony Abbott.” – The slogan on t-shirts sold online by Fairfax columnist Clementine Ford and endorsed by her publisher.
“F**k off dickhead.” – Ford chats with a fellow Twitter user.
“OMG F**K OFF SERIOUSLY.” – Another day, another sweet message from Clementine.
Continue reading 'THE MANY MOODS OF CLEMENTINE FORD'LET THE CHILDREN PLAY (WITH SEVERED HEADS)
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 28, 2015 (4:33am)
Confirmation that Khaled Sharrouf avoided his constant companion Mohamed Elomar’s drone-directed dispatch to paradise:
Highly classified images captured by the US military in Al-Raqqah, Syria, have confirmed the death of Sydney terrorist Elomar.But authorities say that none of the photographs suggest Sharrouf was killed in the missile strike …It is understood there are three images that capture the moment Elomar was killed by a Predator drone during an attack on an Islamic State convoy.
I haven’t seen them, but I’m guessing these images would make excellent screensavers or t-shirts. On Sharrouf-related matters, Adelaide’s Amanda Blair – no relation, so far as I’m aware – pleads for the return of the terrorist’s family to Australia:
The land of their birth. The land where they hold citizenship. They’re currently in Syria where they relocated to in 2013.
They merely relocated to Syria. Just a lifestyle choice. Forget sea changes and tree changes; their move was a Sharia change.
It’s impossible that you’ve missed the story, it’s also impossible not to feel torn.
You mean like this guy?
[Tara Nettleton’s] five Australian children who were just 12, 11, 8, 7, and 2 when they were removed from this country are not to blame. They had no say in the actions their parents took.
At 14, Sharrouf’s eldest daughter reportedly married drone magnet Elomar. An Islamic State widow is not exactly your standard-issue troubled teen.
Please, let’s not give up on them. Let’s not cut our ties and abandon them to a life of more evil and depravity.
Why not? It’s not as though Australia had any strong ties with them to begin with.
Sure, the parents did a whole lot of wrong …
Readers may detect the slightest hint of understatement.
… but to not give people a fair go, a right to redemption, a right to make better choices – particularly children – is about as un-Australian as it gets.
I’d say this is rather more un-Australian.
We’ve been lucky here in the lucky country. No planes have flown into skyscrapers, no bombs have gone off and nobody’s been beheaded on their way to work.
Luck has nothing to do with it.
Terrorism is frightening to us all. It’s something we don’t really understand and only see on the television news.
Or in Sydney cafés.
So like politicians, we break down a complex issue into simple terms because it’s easier to digest and for the politicians, much easier to sell. We make it black and white. Us and them. Yes or no. But it’s not a simple issue …
It couldn’t be simpler. Terrorists want to kill us. We want to stop terrorists killing us. It really is that basic. Just ask the terrorists.
I’ve always believed that it takes a village to raise a child.
In Syria, Islamic State children raze villages.
I’d rather the Nettleton children were home in my village than left in an evil one in Syria where their only option is to commit the same sins as their father.
It’s settled, then. The Sharrouf kids and their mother will live in Amanda’s Adelaide street – ideally, in her house. Pro tip: keep the knives in a safe.
(Via Turps)
No to racism in our constitution, Liberals warn Abbott
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (10:00pm)
Grass-roots Liberals say no to Tony Abbott’s plan to change our Constitution:
And another motion asking the Abbott Government to be true to its Liberal roots and fight for freedom:
===With the Prime Minister backing a referendum for constitutional recognition of indigenous people in the Constitution, the Liberal federal council, meeting in Melbourne today, passed a motion backing “efforts to eliminate any references to race in the Commonwealth Constitution’’ ...Spot on.
Another WA party member, Lorraine Finlay, proposed the motion, arguing that Australia’s Constitution should be a document that united all Australians, rather than drew distinctions based on the colour of their skin.
Ms Finlay said the inclusion of references to race was based upon an assumption that indigenous Australians formed a homogenous group.
She also opposed a race power which only allowed for beneficial legislation for a particular group.
“Racism is racism, whether it’s done for a good reason or a bad reason,” Ms Finlay said.
And another motion asking the Abbott Government to be true to its Liberal roots and fight for freedom:
The West Australian branch ... also called on the federal government to remove the words “offend’’ and “insult’’ from Section 18C of the RDA [Racial Discrimination Act] as grounds.I don’t know what’s in the water in Western Australia but they should bottle it.
The present law prohibits statements which may insult or offend people based on race and was used to prosecute media commentator Andrew Bolt.
The Abbott Coalition government has backed away from changes to Section 18C, arguing such a move would impede progress on other policy areas…
Abbott wrong to excuse Islam
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (8:51pm)
THE Prime Minister is wrong. I’m sure Tony Abbott knows it, too, but does not dare publicly tell the truth about Islamic terrorism.
Abbott insists Islam had nothing to do with last week’s shooting of tourists in Tunisia, bombing of Shia worshippers in Kuwait and beheading of a man in France.
“What’s being done by Daish (the Islamic State) has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with religion,” he claimed on Saturday.
Is he kidding us?
The Islamic State, which claims credit for the two worst attacks and is linked to the beheading, has nothing to do with Islam?
For heaven’s sake, we can all read. “Islam” is in the very title of this terrorist outfit.
And if religion had nothing to do with the attacks, why has Tunisia’s president just ordered 80 of the country’s mosques to be closed in response?
(Read full article here.)
===Abbott insists Islam had nothing to do with last week’s shooting of tourists in Tunisia, bombing of Shia worshippers in Kuwait and beheading of a man in France.
“What’s being done by Daish (the Islamic State) has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with religion,” he claimed on Saturday.
Is he kidding us?
The Islamic State, which claims credit for the two worst attacks and is linked to the beheading, has nothing to do with Islam?
For heaven’s sake, we can all read. “Islam” is in the very title of this terrorist outfit.
And if religion had nothing to do with the attacks, why has Tunisia’s president just ordered 80 of the country’s mosques to be closed in response?
(Read full article here.)
On The Bolt Report today, June 28
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (6:21am)
On Channel 10 at 10am and 3pm.
My guests: The man the ABC tried to ambush, Parliamentary Secretary Steven Ciobo; Janet Albrechtsen, a former ABC board member and now columnist with The Australian; Michael Kauter, former deputy campaign director of the Nationals; and Nick Cater, Australiancolumnist and director of the Menzies Research Centre.
So very much to discuss, including the Islamist attacks, the role of Islam, the ABC’s betrayal, Bill Shorten’s lie and the Sydney Morning Herald’s astonishing half-baked global warming scare.
Plus: in praise of Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama. Yes!
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Apologies for the very slow posting of comments today. Moving house.
===My guests: The man the ABC tried to ambush, Parliamentary Secretary Steven Ciobo; Janet Albrechtsen, a former ABC board member and now columnist with The Australian; Michael Kauter, former deputy campaign director of the Nationals; and Nick Cater, Australiancolumnist and director of the Menzies Research Centre.
So very much to discuss, including the Islamist attacks, the role of Islam, the ABC’s betrayal, Bill Shorten’s lie and the Sydney Morning Herald’s astonishing half-baked global warming scare.
Plus: in praise of Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama. Yes!
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Apologies for the very slow posting of comments today. Moving house.
A tyranny of judges forces same-sex marriage on US voters
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (6:04am)
The US Supreme Court has decided by the barest of margins - five votes to four - to invent the right to same-sex marriage in direct opposition to the expressed views of voters in several states.
From the magnificent dissenting judgment of Justice Samuel Alito:
===From the magnificent dissenting judgment of Justice Samuel Alito:
At present, no one—including social scientists, philosophers, and historians—can predict with any certainty what the long-term ramifications of widespread acceptance of same-sex marriage will be. And judges are certainly not equipped to make such an assessment. The Members of this Court have the authority and the responsibility to interpret and apply the Constitution. Thus, if the Constitution contained a provision guaranteeing the right to marry a person of the same sex, it would be our duty to enforce that right. But the Constitution simply does not speak to the issue of same-sex marriage. In our system of government, ultimate sovereignty rests with the people, and the people have the right to control their own destiny. Any change on a question so fundamental should be made by the people through their elected officials.”And this:
Today’s decision usurps the constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the traditional understanding of marriage. The decision will also have other important consequences.
It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy. In the course of its opinion, the majority compares traditional marriage laws to laws that denied equal treatment for African-Americans and women. E.g., ante, at 11–13. The implications of this analogy will be exploited by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent.
Today’s decision will also have a fundamental effect on this Court and its ability to uphold the rule of law. If a bare majority of Justices [5 for vs 4 against] can invent a new right and impose that right on the rest of the country, the only real limit on what future majorities will be able to do is their own sense of what those with political power and cultural influence are willing to tolerate.
Even enthusiastic supporters of same-sex marriage should worry about the scope of the power that today’s majority claims. Most Americans—understandably—will cheer or lament today’s decision because of their views on the issue of same-sex marriage. But all Americans, whatever their thinking on that issue, should worry about what the majority’s claim of power portends.
And to allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation… But what really astounds is the hubris reflected in today’s judicial Putsch.(Thanks to readers Andrew and Steve.)
Luck had nothing to do with it
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (5:58am)
A magnificent take-down by Tim Blair of a columnist with a slight lack of appreciation of the evil done by Islamic State jihadist Khaled Sharrouf and of the work done by our security officials to stop the same evil here..
===Greece really is the cashless society
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (5:55am)
Greece won’t repay what it borrowed to finance its tax-phobic manana society, and the crunch is coming:
===Two senior Greek retail bank executives said as many as 500 of the country’s more than 7,000 ATMs had run out of cash as of Saturday morning, and that some lenders may not be able to open on Monday unless there was an emergency liquidity injection from the Bank of Greece.
Nothing to do with religion? They why have 80 mosques been closed?
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (5:44am)
Tunisia’s Muslim president takes action unthinkable in Australia after another massacre of tourists:
===He announced a string of tough measures to fight extremism, including examining the funding of organizations suspected of promoting radicalism, closing some 80 mosques outside government control and declaring certain mountainous zones military areas.Which suggests Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s reaction yesterday to this latest Islamic State atrocity was not altogether correct:
...what is being done by Daesh [Islamic State] has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with religion,
The Mallah mistake: ABC journalists again use ABC power to attack ABC’s critics
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (5:26am)
Annabel Crabb is the latest ABC journalist to attack critics of the ABC’s decision to give screen time to an Islamist who vilified women and was jailed for threatening to kill ASIO officials.
Add her to a growing list: Alison Carabine, Jonathon Green, Emma Alberici, Rafael Epstein.
But not a single ABC journalist has yet spoken in unqualified criticism of the ABC. Not one, in Australia’s biggest media organisation. Not one has voiced the opinion of many, many angry taxpayers.
That indicates either a lack of courage, or, more probable, the lack of diversity in a media organisation which has not a single conservative presenter of a main current affairs show.
Which is the whole problem.
UPDATE
And Crabb’s argument is incredibly weak:
Second, context. Doureihi was brought onto Lateline to be held to account. The purpose was to discredit Doureihi. Mallah was brought on to Q&A to ambush a government minister. The purpose was to discredit the Minister.
Third, more context. Doureihi has, at least, not been jailed for threatening to kill government officials. Mallah has.
The difference here, I suspect, is one of circumstance and vibe. To hear the Q&A audience remain awkwardly silent when the government’s Steve Ciobo declared he’d be pleased to see Mallah deported, and yet burst into applause when Mallah responded that he’d prefer an Australia that was Ciobo-free – that was a pretty dreadful moment, and one which I don’t doubt drove much of the Coalition’s anger at the broadcast. Ciobo won that encounter, with honesty and directness, and the audience clapped the wrong guy.
But what does the ABC do – apologise for the misguided clapping instincts of an audience? Introduce mandated applause controls? Zap people when they reward a jerk?
The other issue was the physical placement of Mallah in the audience. Speaking for myself and physical cowards everywhere, I reckon I would not want to sit near a guy who, in the past, has threatened to inflict violence on people in public places.
But none of this provides a good reason to silence people such as Mallah.
===Add her to a growing list: Alison Carabine, Jonathon Green, Emma Alberici, Rafael Epstein.
But not a single ABC journalist has yet spoken in unqualified criticism of the ABC. Not one, in Australia’s biggest media organisation. Not one has voiced the opinion of many, many angry taxpayers.
That indicates either a lack of courage, or, more probable, the lack of diversity in a media organisation which has not a single conservative presenter of a main current affairs show.
Which is the whole problem.
UPDATE
And Crabb’s argument is incredibly weak:
This is the same Prime Minister who last October applauded ABC presenter Emma Alberici for getting Hizb-ut-Tahrir spokesman Wassim Doureihi on Lateline and showing him a bit of Alberici steel…First, this is not about the Prime Minister but the ABC.
If it’s patriotic for Alberici to give Doureihi a platform, why is it seditious for Tony Jones to give Mallah one?
Second, context. Doureihi was brought onto Lateline to be held to account. The purpose was to discredit Doureihi. Mallah was brought on to Q&A to ambush a government minister. The purpose was to discredit the Minister.
Third, more context. Doureihi has, at least, not been jailed for threatening to kill government officials. Mallah has.
The difference here, I suspect, is one of circumstance and vibe. To hear the Q&A audience remain awkwardly silent when the government’s Steve Ciobo declared he’d be pleased to see Mallah deported, and yet burst into applause when Mallah responded that he’d prefer an Australia that was Ciobo-free – that was a pretty dreadful moment, and one which I don’t doubt drove much of the Coalition’s anger at the broadcast. Ciobo won that encounter, with honesty and directness, and the audience clapped the wrong guy.
But what does the ABC do – apologise for the misguided clapping instincts of an audience? Introduce mandated applause controls? Zap people when they reward a jerk?
The other issue was the physical placement of Mallah in the audience. Speaking for myself and physical cowards everywhere, I reckon I would not want to sit near a guy who, in the past, has threatened to inflict violence on people in public places.
But none of this provides a good reason to silence people such as Mallah.
Claim: Sharrouf still alive
Andrew Bolt June 28 2015 (5:09am)
In which case the non-widow and non-orphans may continue to stay in Iraq and enjoy the protection of the non-dead Sharrouf:
===AUSTRALIA’S most notorious terrorist Khaled Sharrouf is still alive after surviving the drone attack that killed Mohamed Elomar.
Highly classified images captured by the US military in Al-Raqqah, Syria, have confirmed the death of Sydney terrorist Elomar.
But authorities say that none of the photographs suggest Sharrouf was killed in the missile strike…
As the Sharrouf family attempts to negotiate the return to Australia of his five children, the terrorist may be hoping to exploit reports of his death to help his family escape Syria.
For the love of Oliver
Andrew Bolt June 27 2015 (10:02pm)
Long-time blog reader and tip-giver Observer of Wodonga writes:
===I know your blog is not normally used for such things but I was hoping to highlight the plight of my two year old great nephew, Oliver.
He has a very rare disease called Pearson’s Syndrome that will eventually be fatal for him. In the mean time he has had to endure long stints in hospital being poked and prodded with needles for blood transfusions, etc. Despite all this he remains a happy little chappy and his parents Matthew (my nephew) and his partner Nadine are trying to give him the best possible life whilst they have him with them. Unfortunately, the long stints in hospital mean that their finances have taken a large hit, given it is difficult to work during these times and they still have all the usual bills, as well as others like the daily trip to hospital (as only one can stay overnight each day).
A crowd source fund has been set up to help them out and is doing well, however, as a relative I’m trying to spread the word and raise awareness of poor Oliver’s plight so that perhaps with extra assistance Matt and Nadine may be able to achieve their aim to make Oliver’s life as good as possible in the short time it will be.
The Adelaide Advertiser ran an article on them just the other day and as I said there is a link for the crowd funding to help them out.
I hope you can help me and them out by doing a post for your widespread readership to look at and consider sending some funding their way.
I am humbled by the enthusiastic support of Liberal Party members who came from every corner of Indi and entrusted me with their support. We all share the same passion to stand up for the things that are important in Indi.
Together with locals I look forward to continuing the extensive listening post programme started by the Liberals for Indi office. We will be working with communities across the North East to focus on delivering what really matters to them.
Christians & Yazidis fleeing for their lives from ISIS death squads with nothing but their children & whatever they can...
Posted by Oliver North on Saturday, 27 June 2015
Follow this DIY exercise and watch your writing get better every day: http://bit.ly/1BkRrFU
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Saturday, 27 June 2015
Terry Crews.....This Guy Is Hilarious
Posted by Gerardo Gabriel on Saturday, 4 April 2015
===
WE NEED THIS
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 28, 2014 (4:17pm)
A fine example for Australian towns and cities to follow:
Sandy Springs, Georgia may look like any other town in America. It has parks, roads, and beautiful places to live. But there’s one thing that separates this town from every other town: Sandy Springsprivatized almost everything.
It seems like a great place. Do read on.
FORTY-TWO YEARS OF HAT
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 28, 2014 (3:52pm)
BARGAIN BUDDY
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 28, 2014 (3:23pm)
Before Lance Franklin had even played one game for Sydney, Peter FitzSimons trashed him:
I predict tears. Many tears before bedtime.
After Franklin’s unsuccessful first match, a vindicated FitzSimons slammed his recruitment as “insanity”. But Sydney is now shooting for ten straight wins, something the club has not accomplished for 80 years, and Franklin is largely responsible:
Lance Franklin’s $10 million price tag is shaping as a massive bargain with the Swans on target to pay off the debt in just two years.In every way you want to measure Sydney’s financial performance Franklin and the Swans are kicking goals.Membership will tip over the 40,000 mark for the first time in the club’s history, an increase of more than 3600 … Corporate support is up a massive $2 million …Franklin has also had another obvious effect on the Swans — he’s helping them win football games.In the last two matches he has been the difference between winning and losing.
I predict tears … from FitzSimons.
WORD EFFED
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 28, 2014 (2:43am)
An inspired decision by Barry Humphries:
The Australian comic, known worldwide for his character Dame Edna Everage, has banned performers from dropping the F-bomb at the next Adelaide Cabaret Festival.“I have found, without wanting to sound prudish, that too many young comedians — many of great brilliance — still resort to the F-word to get a laugh,” Humphries, who is the incoming director of the event, told the Adelaide Advertiser .“So there’s only one rule: I’m banning it. It will be a good discipline for them — and it might be a relief to members of the public. Festival is the only F-word we’re using next year.”
The language-limited are upset:
Adelaide stand-up John Brooks has slammed the idea.“I think it’s a bit rich because (Humphries) is the master of some of the filthiest innuendos ever to pass the lips of someone on the stage or screen,” he said.
Really? Examples, please. Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais discussed this topic last year – watch the whole thing, but the f-issue appears at 17:00, 27:40, and 35:20:
HAIRY STRAW
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 28, 2014 (1:35am)
Australia’s newest and fastest-growing activist group, Twitter Women Against Tim, is absolutely seething. Again. Looks like it’ll be a fun weekend. Meanwhile, the strangest line from a previously-linked article is this complaint from Margo Kingston:
Kingston says the final straw was a comment to the effect that she had hair on her palms.“Like I was an animal, just pretending to be human, but not really human at all.”
I’m not really sure if any animals actually have hairy palms – it would kind of defeat their purpose – but that is beside the point. Margo, practically alone among English-speakers older than 30, is unaware that the phrase (not used by me, by the way) doesn’t refer to animals at all.
UPDATE. Clementine Ford sends this note:
“The standard leftist response to satire or criticism is to instantly become all prissy and middle-class, and to beg for the polite respect they decline others.” Is that why you’ve been calling Jane Gilmore all day and threatening her with legal action?
This isn’t true. I called Gilmore on Thursday night and asked if her piece had been legalled prior to publication. She said it had. I pointed out two claims in the opening paragraphs that might be legally problematic and suggested she again submit the piece for a legal check.
She said she hadn’t written those paragraphs, incorrectly denied the piece claimed my site “specialises in personal abuse” (Gilmore: “That’s your word") and asked if I intended to sue for defamation. I said no, not at this time, and repeated my advice that the piece be checked again by a lawyer. This is actually the opposite of threatening to sue – instead, it’s providing a way to avoid any legal problems. Besides which, I’d already linked to the piece, which would be hugely counter-productive if I intended to sue. Also, I did not ask that the piece be taken down.
Our conversation followed an agreement from Gilmore that it would be off the record. Within minutes a distorted version of our chat was on Twitter – via Clementine Ford.
I spoke to Gilmore just once more on Friday morning. Sadly, shortly after asking her what “off the record” means, Gilmore’s phone suddenly developed connectivity problems. A few subsequent attempts to reach her yesterday morning failed. There was no legal threat in our solitary Friday conversation. Indeed, there have been no legal threats.
The Bolt Report tomorrow
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (11:06am)
On Sunday on Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial: How did Clive Palmer manage to fool so many warmist journalists so easily? Names named.
My guest: Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews on new plans to reform welfare and handouts.
The panel: former Gillard media advisor Sean Kelly and former Howard chief of staff Grahame Morris.
NewsWatch: Gerard Henderson on giving extremists a platform - and the anti-Murdoch witch-hunt.
Plus spin of the week, the dark side of al Jazeera and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: How did Clive Palmer manage to fool so many warmist journalists so easily? Names named.
My guest: Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews on new plans to reform welfare and handouts.
The panel: former Gillard media advisor Sean Kelly and former Howard chief of staff Grahame Morris.
NewsWatch: Gerard Henderson on giving extremists a platform - and the anti-Murdoch witch-hunt.
Plus spin of the week, the dark side of al Jazeera and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
The “nuanced” argument for murdering disobedient women
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (10:53am)
Gerard Henderson on the “honour killings” fiasco of the Left-stacked Festival of Dangerous Ideas:
UPDATE
Jeremy Sammut:
===In its infancy, the [Festival of Dangerous Ideas] was essentially a leftist-stack. After criticism of its initial programs, the FODI decided to invite a few conservatives along who invariably end up being targets against whom audiences can attest their higher morality. At the 2014 FODI, Judith Sloan, Tom Switzer and Bettina Arndt will be heard. But the Australian-speaker contingent is dominated by the likes of Jane Caro, Tim Flannery, Dan Ilic, Mark Latham, Chip Rolley and, of course, John Pilger. Only two people with contemporary or previous associations with the Liberal Party are on the speakers’ list. Namely, Malcolm Fraser and John Hewson — both vocal critics of the current Liberal Party leadership…May I suggest an alternative topic than the justification for murdering uppity wives and daughters? How about: “the planet hasn’t actually been warming”. Or is that an idea even more dangerous than murdering women?
(T)he 2014 FODI organisers considered the topic “Honour killings are morally justified” as suitable for discussion among consenting adults. They invited Islamic radical Uthman Badar along to lead the discussion. He heads the Australian arm of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic organisation which advocates the introduction of sharia law in Australia.
After a decision was made to drop the session, the St James Ethics Centre’s Simon Longstaff tweeted: “The session to explore ‘honour killing’ has been cancelled. Alas, people read the session title — and no further. Just too dangerous.” Later he commented: “Have not the ‘Islamophobes’ already won the day when a person dare not speak out on controversial matters because he is a Muslim.” Later still he added that “the session title was a mistake as it does not do justice to the nuanced argument we would have heard”. How twee can you get? Only an intellectual would declare that there is a “nuanced argument” worth hearing about murdering women.
UPDATE
Jeremy Sammut:
The fact is that not all questions are worth asking and not all answers are worth listening too.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
A dangerous idea worth discussing is one that challenges a prevailing orthodoxy and which, if implemented, would generate public and/or private benefits, without generating public or private harms to others.
It should go without saying, but honour killings comprehensively fail this test. It is disturbing that the Sydney Opera House and the St James Ethics Centre – organisations that claim to provide cultural and thought leadership – failed to understand why it was not worth talking about justifying the murder of women just because they happen to be born as Muslims.
ReachTEL poll: Palmer loses a third of his vote in Fairfax
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (10:11am)
Hopeful, if accurate:
===CLIVE Palmer is losing votes in his backyard and would not retain his Queensland seat of Fairfax if an election were held now…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
(O)ne-third of the people who voted directly for him last September have abandoned him, according to a 7 News-ReachTEL poll…
The poll of 1000 Fairfax voters on Thursday shows his support has tumbled from 26.5 per cent to 17.7 per cent. Liberal National Party support rose from 41.4 per cent to 44 per cent and it would be likely to win back the seat. Labor’s support lifted from 18.2 per cent to 20.2 per cent. Fairfax was the closest lower-house seat at the last election: Mr Palmer won by just 53 votes. A separate 7 News-ReachTEL poll of 3376 voters nationwide found 35 per cent of voters believed Mr Palmer’s influence was good for Australia, 35 per cent thought it was bad and 30 per cent were undecided.
Whoopi Goldberg’s fashionable racism
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (10:04am)
Whoopi Goldberg demonstrates the new racism of the Left in debating Will Cain:
===That is spoken like a true white guy! And I don’t mean it in a bad way!Jim Treacher:
No, you just mean it in a way that’s intended to shut him up.
Goldberg admits she doesn’t know Cain’s background. She doesn’t need to know his background, or anything about him, because she can see the color of his skin. All people with white skin are alike. Right?
Welfare ghettos do not work, and nor does Aboriginal culture
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (9:48am)
We cannot expect great improvement in the lives of Aborigines in bush settlements while we valorise Aboriginal culture and keep funding towns kept alive almost solely with welfare payments:
More cultural imperialism by “Europeans” and our institutions may do more good than the kind of pandering we’ve seen too often. From 2007:
===This isn’t a crisis caused by lack of government money:
INCOME management will continue for another two years in the indigenous communities participating in the Cape York Welfare Reform trial.UPDATE
Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said the extension of the trial in Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge would be covered by the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2013… The Cape York trial, which has received a total of about $100 million from the federal and Queensland governments, includes funding for economic development projects, but is centred on the Family Responsibility Commission.
More cultural imperialism by “Europeans” and our institutions may do more good than the kind of pandering we’ve seen too often. From 2007:
It is difficult to imagine a worse message for vulnerable girls and women on indigenous communities everywhere than the one sent by [Queensland District Court judge Sarah Bradley] over the incident that took place at Aurukun on Cape York two years ago…Then there is the deadly “stolen generations” myth - that ultimate pandering to Aboriginal “culture” and the grievance industry:
As The Australian’s Tony Koch reports today, nine men, six of them juveniles, admitted having sex with the 10-year-old-girl at Aurukun. The six juveniles are aged 14 to 16 years, and the adults aged 17 to 26. Judge Bradley sentenced the adults to six months’ imprisonment, fully suspended for 12 months. The juveniles were each placed on probation for 12 months, with no conviction recorded.
In passing sentence, Judge Bradley gave little indication that she considered the charges to be much more than an episode of tomfoolery that the participants should not repeat. “All of you have pleaded guilty to having sex with a 10-year-old girl,” she said. “All of you have to understand you cannot have sex with a girl under 16. If you do, you are breaking the law.” Judge Bradley said she accepted the girl involved “was not forced and that she probably agreed to have sex with all of you, but you were taking advantage of a 10-year-old girl and she needs to be protected, and young girls generally in this community need to be protected”.
A senior departmental official yesterday told The Australian that the child involved was sexually abused at age seven and, as a safety measure, was put with various foster families, eventually ending up in 2005 with a non-indigenous family in Cairns. But she was returned nine months later to Aurukun, where she was gang-raped by the nine males.(Thanks to reader Correllio.)
“These non-indigenous people were fantastic - ensuring she went to school, and the father actually took a year off his work to personally supervise this girl,” he said. “But two new social workers were appointed to the north and they expressed the view, which was repeated many times to the investigating committee, that putting an indigenous child with white foster parents was another stolen generation...”
How did Palmer fool so many journalists while saving himself a motza?
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (9:00am)
How on earth did so many journalists let themselves be fooled so completely by Clive Palmer’s hoax conference with Al Gore?
Paul Kelly marvels:
Fact is, Palmer was simply scrapping a tax that cost him $6 million a year, but wanted to seem noble in doing it:
UPDATE
Palmer’s plan for an emissions trading scheme one our major trading partners (China, US, Europe, Japan and Korea) all have one too was just some tinsel put out to dazzle and distract warmist journalists. Palmer’s conditions mean the scheme would never happen.
Even Greens leader Christine Milne now admits such an international trading scheme won’t happen any time soon:
===Paul Kelly marvels:
Palmer’s proposal to move an amendment to create a new ETS with a carbon price of zero coming into effect at some unknown time when Australia’s main trading partners establish such a scheme is a grand hoax.The ABC’s Sarah Ferguson:
The purpose was to fool people into thinking he is an enthusiast for action. A surprising number of people were keen to be fooled.
Provided this remains an unconditional amendment — as Palmer says — then it has no leverage. Abbott will not support it. He has no reason to support it. Indeed, it would be sign of serious weakness. The hoax ETS amendment, therefore, faces certain defeat. But Palmer will be happy that his purpose is achieved. Much of the Thursday morning coverage took him seriously and even elevated him to quasi-heroic status.
Now the green miner is putting himself at the vanguard of climate change policy...The Financial Review headline:
Palmer hijacks Abbott’s vow to repeal carbon taxSydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton:
Amused that the Queensland populists always screw the Tories.The Age headline:
PALMER IN CARBON TAX BLOW TO PMABC boss Mark Scott:
Sensing hyperventilation in The Australian’s editorial room. #palmgoreLaura Tingle:
Clive Palmer’s stunning wedging of not just Tony Abbott but Labor and the Greens means climate change remains on the table as an issue for the next election. But not in the way the Prime Minister envisaged.The Sydney Morning Herald front page:
The lethal message for Tony Abbott is that an emissions trading scheme can be resuscitated – without the agony of renegotiating an entire carbon scheme – when anyone but Abbott is Prime Minister.
Clive Palmer has thrown into chaos Tony Abbott’s plan to abolish the carbon tax, demanding the Prime Minister instead create an emissions trading scheme...The Sydney Morning Herald editorial (falsely claiming Palmer made scrapping the tax conditional on enacting his highly qualified plan for an emissions trading scheme):
At last welcome signs of a positive approach to climate change… The key proposals put on the table by Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer on Wednesday evening are based on a rationale the Herald has pushed… Mr Palmer revealed the three incoming PUP senators who in effect hold the balance of power would vote to scrap the carbon tax… Crucially, PUP will only do so if it is replaced with a dormant emissions trading scheme… The Palmer plan is a game-changer that recognises, as the Herald has argued, the world is moving quickly towards combined action on global warming.Astonishing. Just astonishing.
Fact is, Palmer was simply scrapping a tax that cost him $6 million a year, but wanted to seem noble in doing it:
This is about self-interest, not the national interest. Palmer is freed from a carbon tax bill likely to be about $6 million annually. He tells the anti-carbon tax brigade that he is keeping his word. He teams up with Al Gore to generate the optics of a climate change activist. He tells the ABC’s Tony Jones that he has changed his mind on climate change because he is concerned “about the wellbeing of the Australian people”.Simply by getting Al Gore to stand next to him, Palmer fooled the cream of the Canberra press gallery - and proved that some people just listen with their eyes.
When the celebrity and atmospherics are swept away, what is Palmer’s core position? It is opposition to the climate change policies of both major parties. He is killing the Labor-Greens ETS, perhaps the most comprehensive ETS in the world, contemptuously saying “we’ll just chuck it out”. He wants to strangle Abbott’s “direct action” policy before it gets any life, again treating Abbott’s policy with contempt. Yet his own ETS proposal is a fraud.
UPDATE
Palmer’s plan for an emissions trading scheme one our major trading partners (China, US, Europe, Japan and Korea) all have one too was just some tinsel put out to dazzle and distract warmist journalists. Palmer’s conditions mean the scheme would never happen.
Even Greens leader Christine Milne now admits such an international trading scheme won’t happen any time soon:
Oh, the entire world won’t move to an emissions trading scheme in the foreseeable future...
From India? Then they aren’t refugees
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (8:40am)
If they are from India they are not refugees, but such is the desperation of the Left to attack the Abbott Government border policies that they will accept anyone:
===Passengers claiming to be refugees say they are in a leaking boat 300 kilometres off Christmas Island after spending two weeks at sea during a non-stop journey from India.Note how these boat people had the phone numbers already of the “refugee” activists of the far Left here in Australia, who are turning this into a propaganda event with the active help of sympathetic journalists:
After being contacted by a refugee advocate, Fairfax Media spoke to two of the 153 people allegedly onboard the boat, who told of their plight via satellite phone…
Another man, who spoke Tamil came to the phone saying, ‘’We have come to Christmas Island because we don’t have anything. We have travelled all the way from India… The boat allegedly left India from Puducherry in the south of India...
Fairfax Media has informed the Australian Maritime Safety Authority of the details of the boat.
Neil Mitchell: don’t mention the jihad
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (8:27am)
How far will some journalists go to cover up the link between Islam and terrorism?
Here is 3AW host Neil Mitchell, quizzed by a talkback caller on the terrorist group now rampaging through Iraq:
===Here is 3AW host Neil Mitchell, quizzed by a talkback caller on the terrorist group now rampaging through Iraq:
Damian: I was just wondering if you thought that any of this stuff that was happening in Iraq and Bagdad had anything to do with Islam.
Mitchell: Well, it’s funny you should mention that. I’ll be getting some advice from a Muslim leader after 9 o’clock. I don’t know. I don’t claim to understand it. I look at what’s happening, I read about what’s happening and I can’t claim to understand it.
Damian: Neil, can you tell me what ISIS stands for?
Mitchell: Not off the top, no.
Damian: You don’t know what ISIS stands for?
Mitchell: Well I do know but I don’t have it in front of me. It’s also called ISIL, with an L, isn’t it?
Damian: No, Neil, I think you are being very devious here. You do know what ISIS stands for but you just don’t want to say it.
Mitchell: All right. What’s it stand for?
Damian: I want to hear you say it.
Mitchell: No, you tell me.
Damian: Look, you can’t even say it. Is it that…
Mitchell (interrupting): Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, and Syria.
Damian: Thank you.
Mitchell: So what?
Damian: Now that we’ve got that clear, do you actually think Islam has anything to do with what is going on there? Mitchell: Of c… Look Damian I just don’t claim to understand it … of course, there’s an Islamic element to it.
Save Our Scenery: rescuing landscape from Palmer’s ban
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (8:20am)
It would actually be better to stop all funding to projects to “stop” global warming - other than research:
And anything that saves us from having more landscape scarred by wind farms has to be good.
THE Clean Energy Finance Corporation is likely to be directed away from lending to wind farms in favour of programs that support the Coalition’s “direct action” plan such as energy-efficiency schemes and leasing for solar hot water systems.Still, it’s a useful way to deliver Coalition policy without increasing spending, given Clive Palmer’s silly decision to help the Labor-Greens stop the scrapping of the CEFC.
In the wake of Clive Palmer’s declaration this week that his senators will vote to retain the CEFC, it has emerged that Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann have the power to alter the CEFC’s investment mandate without parliament being able to reverse the move. Senior government sources have told The Weekend Australian the CEFC could be instructed to favour direct action-style programs such as providing leasing for households to install solar hot water systems and for energy-efficiency programs instead of wind farms. Twenty-two per cent of the CEFC’s loans in its first year were for wind projects.
And anything that saves us from having more landscape scarred by wind farms has to be good.
===
True wit: Humphries declares war on the F-word
Andrew Bolt June 28 2014 (8:06am)
The great Barry Humphries bans comedians at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival from getting cheap laughs by using the F-word. F-ing outrage ensues from those without true wit. Tim Blair hosts a discussion on the issue.
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PIC: “No Firearms Allowed” at the Safeway in the City of ClaytonIt is good the doors are automatic .. so law abiding citizens don't have to shoot their way in - ed
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this video captured his style and shows it to the world - ed
===
Even so, when a video surfaces of Palestinian terrorists firebombing Israeli Defense Forces while hiding behind journalists, you might expect the media to cover it; especially considering that the human shields in the incident are the colleagues and friends of the very reporters and editors ignoring the story. And yet… not a peep from the popular press.
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/06/wheres_the_coverage_palestinia_6.html#comments
===
There is poetry in the following exchange in Elie Wiesel’s story, “A Man and His Little Sister”:
One more thing.
Yes?
When you speak of your little sister leaving you like that, without a hug, without a goodbye, without wishing you a good journey, will you say that it was not her fault?
It was not your fault.
Then whose fault was it?
I shall find out. And I shall tell. I swear it to you, little sister. I shall.
===
An Egged bus traveling through the 'Palestinian' village of Harawa in northern Samaria came under fire on Tuesday morning. You won't read about it in any mainstream media, because thank God no one was hurt.
Terrorists opened fire Tuesday on a bus that was traveling through the village of Hawara, south of Shechem, in Samaria.
No one was hurt.
Large police and army forces arrived on the scene, and located a bullet lodged in the bus's luggage compartment. The security forces are combing the area in search of the shooter.
A similar attack took place in Hawara less than three weeks ago.
Just another morning preparing for 'peace talks'....
===
Thavee Rose Ftk
The Lord is my light and my salvation-
whom shall i fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life-
of whom shall I be afraid?
I am still confident if this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
WAIT FOR THE LORD;
BE STRONG AND TAKE HEART
AND WAIT FOR THE LORD.
(Psalms 27:1,13-14)
===LABOR’S GONSKI CONSKI EXPOSED
Yesterday the Auditor General confirmed that Labor’s so-called Gonski education reforms will result in net spending on education FALLING $20.6m in 2014-15 and $135.6m in 2015-16.
Those running around the place proclaiming “I give a Gonski”, have been hoodwinked.
The Auditor General has made it clear – those that support Labor’s education “reforms”, are supporting CUTTING FUNDS to education by $20.6 million in 2014/5 and a further CUT of $135.6 million in 2015/16.
Just another reminder that Labor can’t be believed or trusted.
===
Letting go is hard. for 20 years they were a friend, but I had to walk away 14 years ago .. they weren't good friends .. scratching, gouging taking. Recently I welcomed them back. They wrote "This is why we cannot be friends anymore ... and that breaks my heart It really does ... . Yes, duh, violence breeds violence. you have just been violent to me; now I am violent to you. Look and learn
I am not beating N#### to death and i am molesting you, either. You cannot be a man of justice till you get things in proportion, David."
===
What he said was that Oslo was over, the Peace ‘process’ is over and there is no purpose in flogging an idea that was stillborn 20 years ago and hasn’t magically come to life since. He said simply, that Israelis are fed up with pretending there’s anyone on the other side of the table at all. There is not. Not an enemy, not a partner, nothing. No one. He said that the tactic of talking to yourself at the behest of the President of the US or Tony Blair is a dead end. That the so called “Arab Plan” which was concocted by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and pulled off the shelf last month is still the dead letter it always was. He said the details don’t matter because the whole farce is imaginary.
===
WALKING IN ERETZ YISRAEL: REDISCOVERY & REAFFIRMATION
(by Bat Zion Susskind-Sacks)
"Even though I own a car, I choose, on many occasions, to walk into town when I need to run errands.
I do it because of what I see and experience along the way. This simple walk becomes a journey each time I embark on it, a journey to rediscover and reaffirm the right decision in coming back to Eretz Yisrael.
It should take no more than about 15-20 minutes of a brisk walk to get to my destination. However, the journey ends up taking much longer. I guess one loses track of time when one enters the path of falling in love with a nation, with a place, with a HOME.
How can I walk by a young mother who is pushing a stroller
where a cheerful young baby is smiling at me? How can I not stop and return a smile, bend down and play with or hold the hand of that tiny spark of hope for Israel and my Jewish people?
How can I pass by a group of youngsters and not stop and express a silent prayer that G-d will watch over them and keep them safe for many years to come?
How can I not stop and offer help to the elderly lady who is carrying the heavy load of groceries and help relieve, at least momentarily, her worries about the hardships of life?
How can I not stop and marvel at these wonderful, brave people, who by no choice of their own were born in this country, caress them with my eyes in an effort to reassure them that all will be well?
How can I not stop and congratulate those I end up striking a conversation with on their decision to move Home when I find out that they are new in this country?
How can I ever stop loving my people? How can I ever stop loving my country? How can I ever stop loving my HOME!?
Shabbat Shalom~" from Kosher Culture Foundation ✡www.facebook.com/
[image via www.kulfoto.com]
===
June 28: Armed Forces Day in the United Kingdom (2014)
- 1651 – Khmelnytsky Uprising: The Zaporozhian Cossacksbegan clashing with forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Berestechko in theVolhynia Region of present-day Ukraine.
- 1895 – The United States Court of Private Land Claimsruled that the title claimed by James Reavis to 18,600 sq mi (48,000 km2) in present-day Arizona and New Mexico was "wholly fictitious and fraudulent".
- 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated (Ferdinand's blood-stained uniform pictured) by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip during a motorcade in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of World War I.
- 1969 – In response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, groups of gay and transgender people began to riot against New York City Police officers, a watershed event for the worldwide gay rights movement.
- 2004 – The Coalition Provisional Authority dissolved after handing the governance of Iraq to the Iraqi Interim Government.
- 572 – Assassination of Alboin, King of the Lombards
- 1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosull.
- 1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II.
- 1461 – Edward IV is crowned King of England.
- 1519 – Charles V is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1635 – Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.
- 1651 – The Battle of Berestechko between Poland and Ukraine starts.
- 1709 – Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava
- 1745 – A New England colonial army captures the French fortifications at Louisbourg (New Style).
- 1776 – The Battle of Sullivan's Island ends with the American victory in the American Revolutionary Warleading to the commemoration of Carolina Day.
- 1776 – Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.
- 1778 – The American Continentals engage the British in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse resulting in standstill and British withdrawal under cover of darkness.
- 1807 – Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelocke lands at Ensenada on an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the locals.
- 1838 – Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
- 1841 – The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier
- 1846 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone
- 1855 – Sigma Chi fraternity is founded in North America.
- 1859 – The first conformation dog show is held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
- 1865 – The Army of the Potomac is disbanded.
- 1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.
- 1881 – The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 is secretly signed.
- 1882 – The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marks the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone.
- 1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.
- 1895 – El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form the Greater Republic of Central America.
- 1895 – The United States Court of Private Land Claims rules James Reavis' claim to Barony of Arizona is "wholly fictitious and fraudulent."
- 1896 – An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.
- 1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.
- 1904 – The SS Norge runs aground and sinks
- 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo; this is the casus belli of World War I.
- 1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I.
- 1921 – Serbian King Alexander I proclaims the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution.
- 1922 – The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.
- 1926 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
- 1936 – The Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang is formed in northern China.
- 1940 – Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum.
- 1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany starts its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue
- 1945 – Poland's Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity is formed over a month after V-E Day.
- 1948 – The Tito–Stalin Split results in the expulsion of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from the Cominform.
- 1948 – Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.
- 1950 – Korean War: Seoul is captured by North Korean troops.
- 1950 – Korean War: Suspected communist sympathizers (between as many as 100,000 to 200,000) are executed in the Bodo League massacre.
- 1950 – Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge to in attempt to slow North Korea's offensive.
- 1950 – Korean War: North Korean Army conducts Seoul National University Hospital massacre.
- 1956 – in Poznań, workers from HCP factory go to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe.
- 1964 – Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
- 1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
- 1973 – Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
- 1976 – The Angolan court sentences US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial.
- 1978 – The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars quota systems in college admissions.
- 1981 – A powerful bomb explodes in Tehran, killing 73 officials of the Islamic Republican Party.
- 1987 – For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht.
- 1989 – On the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
- 1997 – Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear.
- 2001 – Slobodan Milošević is extradited to the ICTY in The Hague to stand trial.
- 2004 – Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation.
- 2009 – Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.
- 2016 – A terrorist attack in Turkey's Istanbul Atatürk Airport kills 42 people and injures more than 230 others.
- 751 – Carloman I, king of the Franks (d. 771)
- 1243 – Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (d. 1304)
- 1444 – Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus (d. 1487)
- 1476 – Pope Paul IV (d. 1559)
- 1490 – Albert of Mainz, German archbishop (d. 1545)
- 1491 – Henry VIII of England (d. 1547)
- 1503 – Giovanni della Casa, Italian author and poet (d. 1556)
- 1547 – Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1599)
- 1557 – Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel, English nobleman (d. 1595)
- 1560 – Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1657)
- 1573 – Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, English noble (d. 1644)
- 1577 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter and diplomat (d. 1640)
- 1582 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English politician (d. 1662)
- 1604 – Heinrich Albert, German composer and poet (d. 1651)
- 1641 – Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien, consort to King John III Sobieski (d. 1716)
- 1653 – Muhammad Azam Shah, Mughal emperor (d. 1707)
- 1703 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (d. 1791)
- 1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and polymath (d. 1778)
- 1719 – Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1785)
- 1734 – Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier, French organist and composer (d. 1794)
- 1742 – William Hooper, American physician, lawyer, and politician (d. 1790)
- 1824 – Paul Broca, French physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (d. 1880)
- 1831 – Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1907)
- 1836 – Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek journalist and author (d. 1904)
- 1844 – John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (d. 1890)
- 1852 – Charles Cruft, English showman, founded Crufts Dog Show (d. 1938)
- 1867 – Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
- 1873 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
- 1875 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician and academic (d. 1941)
- 1879 – Wilhelm Steinkopf, German chemist (d. 1949)
- 1883 – Pierre Laval, French soldier and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France (d. 1945)
- 1884 – Lamina Sankoh, Sierra Leonean banker and politician (d. 1964)
- 1888 – George Challenor, Barbadian cricketer (d. 1947)
- 1888 – Stefi Geyer, Hungarian violinist and educator (d. 1956)
- 1891 – Esther Forbes, American historian and author (d. 1968)
- 1891 – Carl Andrew Spaatz, American general (d. 1974)
- 1893 – August Zamoyski, Polish-French sculptor (d. 1970)
- 1894 – Francis Hunter, American tennis player (d. 1981)
- 1902 – Richard Rodgers, American playwright and composer (d. 1979)
- 1906 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Polish-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- 1907 – Jimmy Mundy, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1983)
- 1909 – Eric Ambler, English author and screenwriter (d. 1998)
- 1912 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (d. 2007)
- 1913 – Franz Antel, Austrian director and producer (d. 2007)
- 1913 – George Lloyd, English soldier and composer (d. 1998)
- 1913 – Walter Oesau, German colonel and pilot (d. 1944)
- 1914 – Aribert Heim, Austrian SS physician and Nazi war criminal (d. 1992)
- 1918 – William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, Scottish-English politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1999)
- 1919 – Joseph P. Lordi, American government official (d. 1983)
- 1920 – A. E. Hotchner, American author and playwright
- 1921 – P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of India (d. 2004)
- 1922 – Lloyd La Beach, Panamanian sprinter and long jumper (d. 1999)
- 1923 – Pete Candoli, American trumpet player (d. 2008)
- 1923 – Adolfo Schwelm Cruz, Argentinian race car driver (d. 2012)
- 1923 – Gaye Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Mel Brooks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1926 – Robert Ledley, American academic and inventor (d. 2012)
- 1927 – Correlli Barnett, English historian and author
- 1927 – Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
- 1928 – Hans Blix, Swedish politician and diplomat, 33rd Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1928 – Harold Evans, English-American historian and journalist
- 1928 – Peter Heine, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
- 1928 – Cyril Smith, English politician (d. 2010)
- 1930 – William C. Campbell, Irish-American biologist and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 – Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (d. 2011)
- 1930 – Jack Gold, English director and producer (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1931 – Junior Johnson, American race car driver
- 1931 – Lucien Victor, Belgian cyclist (d. 1995)
- 1932 – Pat Morita, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1933 – Gusty Spence, Northern Irish loyalist and politician (d. 2011)
- 1934 – Robert Carswell, Baron Carswell, Northern Irish lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
- 1934 – Roy Gilchrist, Jamaican cricketer (d. 2001)
- 1934 – Bette Greene, American journalist and author
- 1934 – Carl Levin, American lawyer and politician
- 1934 – Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French journalist and cartoonist (d. 2015)
- 1935 – John Inman, English actor (d. 2007)
- 1936 – Chuck Howley, American football player
- 1937 – George Knudson, Canadian golfer (d. 1989)
- 1937 – Fernand Labrie, Canadian endocrinologist and academic
- 1937 – Ron Luciano, American baseball player and umpire (d. 1995)
- 1938 – John Byner, American actor and comedian
- 1938 – Leon Panetta, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of Defense
- 1938 – S. Sivamaharajah, Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper publisher and politician (d. 2006)
- 1939 – Klaus Schmiegel, German chemist
- 1940 – Karpal Singh, Malaysian lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
- 1940 – Muhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 – Al Downing, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1941 – Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist and academic, developed the OBJ language (d. 2006)
- 1941 – David Johnston, Canadian academic, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor-General of Canada
- 1942 – Chris Hani, South African politician (d. 1993)
- 1942 – Hans-Joachim Walde, German decathlete (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Jens Birkemose, Danish painter
- 1943 – Donald Johanson, American paleontologist and academic
- 1943 – Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1945 – Ken Buchanan, Scottish boxer
- 1945 – David Knights, English bass player and producer (Procol Harum)
- 1945 – Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1989)
- 1945 – Türkan Şoray, Turkish actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1946 – Robert Asprin, American soldier and author (d. 2008)
- 1946 – Bruce Davison, American actor and director
- 1946 – David Duckham, English rugby player
- 1946 – Jaime Guzmán, Chilean lawyer and politician (d. 1991)
- 1946 – Gilda Radner, American actress and comedian (d. 1989)
- 1947 – Mark Helprin, American novelist and journalist
- 1947 – Laura Tyson, American economist and academic
- 1948 – Kathy Bates, American actress
- 1948 – Sergei Bodrov, Russian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1948 – Deborah Moggach, English author and screenwriter
- 1948 – Daniel Wegner, Canadian-American psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Don Baylor, American baseball player and coach
- 1950 – Philip Fowke, English pianist and educator
- 1950 – Mauricio Rojas, Chilean-Swedish economist and politician
- 1950 – Chris Speier, American baseball player and coach
- 1951 – Mick Cronin, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1951 – Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (d. 2014)
- 1951 – Lalla Ward, English actress and author
- 1952 – Enis Batur, Turkish poet and author
- 1952 – Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter and politician (d. 2013)
- 1952 – Jean-Christophe Rufin, French physician and author
- 1954 – A. A. Gill, Scottish author and critic (d. 2016)
- 1954 – Alice Krige, South African actress
- 1956 – Amira Hass, Israeli journalist and author
- 1956 – Noel Mugavin, Australian footballer and coach
- 1957 – Lance Nethery, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1957 – Georgi Parvanov, Bulgarian historian and politician, 4th President of Bulgaria
- 1957 – Mike Skinner, American race car driver
- 1957 – Jim Spanarkel, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1958 – Donna Edwards, American lawyer and politician
- 1958 – Félix Gray, Tunisian-French singer-songwriter
- 1959 – Clint Boon, English singer and keyboard player
- 1959 – John Shelley British illustrator
- 1960 – John Elway, American football player and manager
- 1960 – Roland Melanson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1961 – Jeff Malone, American basketball player and coach
- 1962 – Anișoara Cușmir-Stanciu, Romanian long jumper
- 1962 – Artur Hajzer, Polish mountaineer (d. 2013)
- 1962 – Ann-Louise Skoglund, Swedish hurdler
- 1963 – Peter Baynham, Welsh actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1963 – Charlie Clouser, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
- 1964 – Mark Grace, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1964 – Bernie McCahill, New Zealand rugby player
- 1964 – Dan Stains, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1964 – Steve Williamson, English saxophonist and composer
- 1965 – Jessica Hecht, American actress
- 1965 – Tiaan Strauss, South African rugby player
- 1966 – Peeter Allik, Estonian painter and illustrator
- 1966 – Bobby Bare Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1966 – John Cusack, American actor and screenwriter
- 1966 – Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress
- 1967 – Leona Aglukkaq, Canadian politician, 7th Canadian Minister of Health
- 1967 – Gil Bellows, Canadian actor and producer
- 1967 – Zhong Huandi, Chinese runner
- 1967 – Lars Riedel, German discus thrower
- 1968 – Chayanne, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1969 – Tichina Arnold, American actress and singer
- 1969 – Fabrizio Mori, Italian hurdler
- 1970 – Mushtaq Ahmed, Pakistani cricketer and coach
- 1970 – Tom Merritt, American journalist
- 1970 – Mike White, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Lorenzo Amoruso, Italian footballer
- 1971 – Fabien Barthez, French footballer
- 1971 – Bobby Hurley, American basketball player and coach
- 1971 – Ron Mahay, American baseball player and scout
- 1971 – Elon Musk, South African-born American businessman
- 1972 – Ngô Bảo Châu, Vietnamese-French mathematician and academic
- 1972 – Christopher Leslie, English politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
- 1972 – Alessandro Nivola, American actor
- 1973 – Adrián Annus, Hungarian hammer thrower
- 1973 – Corey Koskie, Canadian baseball player
- 1975 – Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish singer-songwriter, and guitarist (d. 2006)
- 1976 – Shinobu Asagoe, Japanese tennis player
- 1977 – Chris Spurling, American baseball player
- 1977 – Mark Stoermer, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (The Killers)
- 1977 – Harun Tekin, Turkish singer and guitarist
- 1978 – Simon Larose, Canadian tennis player
- 1979 – Randy McMichael, American football player
- 1979 – Neil Shanahan, Irish race car driver (d. 1999)
- 1979 – Florian Zeller, French author and playwright
- 1980 – Jevgeni Novikov, Estonian footballer
- 1981 – Savage, New Zealand rapper
- 1981 – Michael Crafter, Australian singer-songwriter
- 1981 – Guillermo Martínez, Cuban javelin thrower
- 1981 – Brandon Phillips, American baseball player
- 1982 – Ibrahim Camejo, Cuban long jumper
- 1985 – Phil Bardsley, English footballer
- 1985 – Colt Hynes, American baseball player
- 1986 – Kellie Pickler, American singer-songwriter
- 1987 – Sonata Tamošaitytė, Lithuanian hurdler
- 1987 – Terrence Williams, American basketball player
- 1989 – Jason Clark, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Andrew Fifita, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – David Fifita, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Julia Zlobina, Russian-Azerbaijani figure skater
- 1989 – Nicole Rottmann, Austrian tennis player
- 1991 – Seohyun, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress
- 1991 – Kevin De Bruyne, Belgian footballer
- 1991 – Kang Min-hyuk, South Korean singer, drummer, and actor
- 1992 – Oscar Hiljemark, Swedish footballer
- 1993 – Bradley Beal, American basketball player
- 1996 – Donna Vekić, Croatian tennis player
- 1999 – Markéta Vondroušová, Czech tennis player
Births[edit]
- 202 – Yuan Shao, Chinese warlord
- 548 – Theodora I, Byzantine wife of Justinian I (b. 500)
- 572 – Alboin, Lombard king (b. 530)
- 683 – Pope Leo II (b. 611)
- 767 – Pope Paul I (b. 700)
- 928 – Louis the Blind, Roman emperor (b. 880)
- 1061 – Floris I, Count of Holland (b. 1020)
- 1175 – Andrey Bogolyubsky, Russian saint (b. 1111)
- 1189 – Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony (b. 1156)
- 1194 – Emperor Xiaozong of Song (b. 1127)
- 1385 – Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1348)
- 1497 – James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley (b. c. 1463)
- 1575 – Yonekura Shigetsugu, Japanese samurai
- 1586 – Primož Trubar, Slovenian author and reformer (b. 1508)
- 1598 – Abraham Ortelius, Flemish cartographer and geographer (b. 1527)
- 1607 – Domenico Fontana, Italian architect (b. 1543)
- 1716 – George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (b. 1665)
- 1798 – John Henry Colclough, Irish revolutionary (b. ca. 1769)
- 1813 – Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (b. 1755)
- 1834 – Joseph Bové, Russian architect, designed the Triumphal Arch of Moscow (b. 1784)
- 1836 – James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (b. 1751)
- 1880 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American soldier and hunter (b. 1846)
- 1881 – Jules Armand Dufaure, French politician, 33rd Prime Minister of France (b. 1798)
- 1889 – Maria Mitchell, American astronomer and academic (b. 1818)
- 1892 – Alexandros Rizos Rangavis, Greek poet and politician, Greek Foreign Minister (b. 1810)
- 1913 – Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Brazil (b. 1841)
- 1914 – Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg (b. 1868)
- 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (b. 1863)
- 1915 – Victor Trumper, Australian cricketer (b. 1877)
- 1917 – Ștefan Luchian, Romanian painter and educator (b. 1868)
- 1922 – Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet and playwright (b. 1885)
- 1929 – Edward Carpenter, English poet and philosopher (b. 1844)
- 1936 – Alexander Berkman, American author and activist (d. 1870)
- 1939 – Douglas H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation (b. 1856)
- 1944 – Friedrich Dollmann, German general (b. 1882)
- 1945 – Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, Turkish journalist (d. 1879)
- 1960 – Jake Swirbul, American businessman, co-founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (b. 1898)
- 1962 – Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player and manager (b. 1903)
- 1962 – Cy Morgan, American baseball player (b. 1878)
- 1965 – Red Nichols, American cornet player, bandleader, and composer (b. 1905)
- 1966 – Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Turkish historian and politician, 21st Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1890)
- 1971 – Franz Stangl, Austrian SS officer (b. 1908)
- 1975 – Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, Greek architect (b. 1913)
- 1975 – Rod Serling, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1924)
- 1978 – Clifford Dupont, English-Rhodesian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Rhodesia (b. 1905)
- 1980 – José Iturbi, Spanish pianist and conductor (b. 1895)
- 1981 – Terry Fox, Canadian runner and activist (b. 1958)
- 1983 – Alf Francis, German-English motor racing mechanic and racing car constructor (b. 1918)
- 1984 – Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, general, and politician (b. 1917)
- 1985 – Lynd Ward, American author and illustrator (b. 1905)
- 1989 – Joris Ivens, Dutch journalist, director, and producer (b. 1898)
- 1992 – Guy Nève, Belgian race car driver (b. 1955)
- 1992 – Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player (b. 1936)
- 1995 – Petri Walli, Finnish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1969)
- 2000 – Jane Birdwood, Baroness Birdwood, Canadian-English publisher and politician (b. 1913)
- 2000 – Nils Poppe, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 2001 – Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher and author (b. 1902)
- 2003 – Joan Lowery Nixon, American journalist and author (b. 1927)
- 2004 – Anthony Buckeridge, English author (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Brenda Howard, American activist (b. 1946)
- 2005 – Michael P. Murphy, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1976)
- 2006 – Jim Baen, American publisher, founded Baen Books (b. 1943)
- 2006 – Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1919)
- 2006 – George Unwin, English pilot and commander (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Eugene B. Fluckey, American admiral, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Kiichi Miyazawa, Japanese lawyer and politician, 78th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1919)
- 2009 – A. K. Lohithadas, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1955)
- 2010 – Robert Byrd, American lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
- 2012 – Richard Isay, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Leontine T. Kelly, American bishop (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Robert Sabatier, French author and poet (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Doris Sams, American baseball player (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Ted Hood, American sailor and architect (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Tamás Katona, Hungarian historian and politician (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Kenneth Minogue, New Zealand-Australian political scientist and academic (b. 1930)
- 2013 – F. D. Reeve, American author and academic (b. 1928)
- 2013 – David Rubitsky, American sergeant (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Seymour Barab, American cellist and composer (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Jim Brosnan, American baseball player (b. 1929)
- 2014 – On Kawara, Japanese painter (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Jack Carter, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Jope Seniloli, Fijian politician, Vice-President of Fiji (b. 1939)
- 2015 – Wally Stanowski, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919)
- 2016 – Pat Summitt, American women's college basketball head coach (b. 1952)
- 2016 – Buddy Ryan, American football coach (b. 1931)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Constitution Day (Ukraine)
- Earliest day on which Vardavar can fall, while August 1 is the latest; celebrated on the 14th weeks after Easter (Armenia)
- Family Day (Vietnam)
- Poznań Remembrance Day (Poland)
- Vidovdan, celebrating St. Vitus and an important day in Serbian history. (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Holidays and observances[edit]
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor bondaged Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms, and the observation of his spies. After the same fashion, the world loves not the non-conformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of dissent; it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too severe a hand. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even condemned. Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of "moderation." According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced. "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little gay society, an occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a theatre. What's the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?" Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice, to their own eternal ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls his sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet-call be sounded, "Come ye out from among them, be ye separate."
Evening
Some persons have the foolish notion that the only way in which they can live for God is by becoming ministers, missionaries, or Bible women. Alas! how many would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifying the Most High if this were the case. Beloved, it is not office, it is earnestness; it is not position, it is grace which will enable us to glorify God. God is most surely glorified in that cobbler's stall, where the godly worker, as he plies the awl, sings of the Saviour's love, aye, glorified far more than in many a prebendal stall where official religiousness performs its scanty duties. The name of Jesus is glorified by the poor unlearned carter as he drives his horse, and blesses his God, or speaks to his fellow labourer by the roadside, as much as by the popular divine who, throughout the country, like Boanerges, is thundering out the gospel. God is glorified by our serving him in our proper vocations. Take care, dear reader, that you do not forsake the path of duty by leaving your occupation, and take care you do not dishonour your profession while in it. Think little of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. Every lawful trade may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you will find the most menial forms of labour connected either with most daring deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness. Therefore be not discontented with your calling. Whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you are quite sure that he calls you to something else. Let your first care be to glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere to his praise, and if he needs you in another he will show it you. This evening lay aside vexatious ambition, and embrace peaceful content.
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Athaliah
The Woman Who Was a Notorious Murderess
Scripture References - 2 Kings 8:26; 11; 2 Chronicles 22; 23:13-21; 24:7
Name Meaning - Taken away of the Lord, or Jehovah has afflicted. Athaliah is also the name of two males ( 1 Chronicles 8:26, 27; Ezra 8:7).
Family Connections - She was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and so was half Israelite and half Phoenician, and she personified all the evil of her ill-famed parents and transferred the poison of idolatry into Jerusalem's veins. She was the granddaughter of Omri, 6th king of Israel, "who waded through slaughter to a throne he never inherited." Athaliah married Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat. After many years of strife between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel political relations were more friendly, and as a mother of political expediency on the part of Jehoshaphat - which remains a blot upon his otherwise good memory - he gave his eldest son, Jehoram, in marriage to Athaliah whose brothers, loyal to the worship of Jehovah were murdered by Jehoram. Of this union Ahaziah was born who, with such a revolting figure as a mother, licentious and the personification of despicable arrogance, never had a chance to develop finer qualities of character. With such a mother as his wicked counselor what else could he do but walk in the ways of godless Ahab (2 Chronicles 22:3).
After reigning for eight years Jehoram died, unmourned, of a predicted incurable disease. While he reigned, he was dominated by Athaliah who had the stronger character of the two, and who, having inherited from her evil mother strength of will and fanatical devtion to the worship of Baal, made Judah idolatrous. Ahaziah only reigned for a year. Wounded in battle by Jehu, he fled to Megiddo, where he died, and his wicked mother (2 Chronicles 24:7 ) became envious of the throne. But the sons of Ahaziah stood in her way, and with fanatical ambition she seized the opportunity and massacred all the legal heirs - so she thought. This wholesale, merciless, cruel-hearted murderess sought to exterminate the last vestiges of the House of David through which the promised Messiah was to come. Behind her dastardly crime to destroy "The Seed Royal" we can detect the evil machinations of the devil - a murderer from the beginning - to annihilate the promised seed of the woman predestined to bruise the satanic head. A bad woman bent on destruction is doubly dangerous.
After putting to death her young grandsons, Athaliah reigned for six years, and was the only woman to reign as queen of Judah. The daughter of a king, wife of a king, mother of a king, she is now queen. While her husband reigned she was the powerbehind the throne - now she is the poweron the throne, and proof of her energy, forcefulness and ability are seen in the length of her reign. A despotic ruler, her every gesture had to be obeyed. During her reign part of the Temple of Jehovah was pulled down and the material used in the building of a temple of Baal. But the God who over-rules in the destinies of men and nations, intervened to redeem His promise of a Saviour from the tribe of Judah.
Unknown to Athaliah as she set out to massacre all her grandsons, the youngest was hid from the orgy of destruction. The sister of Ahaziah, Jehosheba, wife of Jehoiada the high priest hid Joash until he was seven years old ( 2 Kings 11:2; 2 Chronicles 22:11). Jehoiada had plotted to put Joash (Jehoash) on the throne and waited for the opportune moment to declare the remaining son of Ahaziah the lawful king of Judah. Athaliah came into the Temple as the coronation of Joash took place, and rending her robe, cried: "Treason!" To save the Temple from being defiled with her evil blood she was slain just outside the door where the avenging guards waited to end her infamous life. Thus, as Edith Deen expresses it,
The horses trampled over her body where she lay dead at the gates. In her miserable end Athaliah bore a singular resemblance to her mother Jezebel, who was abandoned to the dogs. Athaliah was left in a horse-path, to be trampled upon. Like her mother she died a queen, but without a hand to help her or an eye to pity her.
Among the lessons one can gather from the record of the murderess is that we reap what we sow. To Athaliah life was cheap, and thus those who thwarted her purpose must be destroyed. But taking the sword, she perished by it. She breathed out murder, and was in turn murdered. A further lesson we learn from her stained history is that no one can thwart God's purposes of grace. Having promised a sinful world a Saviour, none could make such a promise null and void. Persecution and martyrdom have never been able to destroy the loyal worship of the true God. Idolatry and infidelity cannot possibly annihilate the imperishable Word of God. As we leave the shameful story of Athaliah we find ourselves in full agreement with the summary of her bloody career as given by Dr. Robert G. Lee -
Her very name is an execration. She put the whole nation under the shadow of a great horror. She trampled on all faith. She violated all obligation. She lived with the shrieks of those she butchered in her ears. She lived with her hands red with the blood of princes and princesses. She died, frantic with rage, with the accusation of Treason on her lips. She died in the barnyard under the battleaxes of an aroused people.
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Tychicus
[Tĭch'ĭcŭs] - fortunate or fortuitous. A Christian in Asia Minor, who traveled in advance of Paul as well as with him at times (Acts 20:4). Paul sent him to Ephesus where he delivered, and likely read, the circular letter, the Epistle to the Ephesians, to the Church there (Eph. 6:21). Then he went to Colosse and did the same with Colossians (Col. 4:7 ). He also had a mission to fulfill in Crete (2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12). Paul speaks of him in affectionate terms - "A brother beloved and faithful minister in the Lord," and able to "comfort your hearts."
[Tĭch'ĭcŭs] - fortunate or fortuitous. A Christian in Asia Minor, who traveled in advance of Paul as well as with him at times (Acts 20:4). Paul sent him to Ephesus where he delivered, and likely read, the circular letter, the Epistle to the Ephesians, to the Church there (Eph. 6:21). Then he went to Colosse and did the same with Colossians (Col. 4:7 ). He also had a mission to fulfill in Crete (2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12). Paul speaks of him in affectionate terms - "A brother beloved and faithful minister in the Lord," and able to "comfort your hearts."
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Today's reading: Job 8-10, Acts 8:26-40 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Job 8-10
Bildad
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 "How long will you say such things?
Your words are a blustering wind.
3 Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 When your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
5 But if you will seek God earnestly
and plead with the Almighty,
6 if you are pure and upright,
even now he will rouse himself on your behalf
and restore you to your prosperous state.
7 Your beginnings will seem humble,
so prosperous will your future be.
Your words are a blustering wind.
3 Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 When your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
5 But if you will seek God earnestly
and plead with the Almighty,
6 if you are pure and upright,
even now he will rouse himself on your behalf
and restore you to your prosperous state.
7 Your beginnings will seem humble,
so prosperous will your future be.
Today's New Testament reading: Acts 8:26-40
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means "queen of the Ethiopians"). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it...."
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