Not everyone can be a hero, or need be. If one is not a hero, that is not the end of the world. Possibly Johnson thought he was a hero, and he could not face what it meant when that was not how the story would pan out. So what? What if the 17 yo lied? Johnson still had an obligation to her. Another unmet obligation is that of media to their audience. Hyper partisan media who won't accept their heroes going down for their crimes, but tribally denounce and inflate accusations against those they don't support. The hounding of Nixon by a criminal network involving the FBI at the most senior levels is an example. But Nixon did not suicide. And Mark Felt should not have died free. If Mueller does not arrest Democrats for their corruption in illegitimate attacks on Trump then he is no better than when he gave Mark Felt a free pass. #DrainTheSwamp, but fill it with .. ? is there anyone competent in the Democrats? In the FBI? In justice? In establishment GOP?
I have issues, but I thank God for the blessings in my life. It is hard for me not being connected to a church, I needed the one I had grown in and I have lost much I felt through devotion to God, in service I had fostered. I had thought they would provide me with a reference if I applied for a religious school position. I had thought they would be character witnesses as I stood up in public life. But just because they aren't that to me does not mean they aren't faithful servants of God. I know them to be led by the spirit and blessed. Our future is entwined. But it is not what I had hoped, either. We serve the same master, my old church and I. But I do not know this 'pope' Dan Johnson.
I am a decent man and don't care for 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 "ON THE INSIDE"
"ON THE INSIDE"
written by ALLAN CASWELL
The song is important to me because, at age 11, I had an epiphany. I'll write about that elsewhere ..
=== from 2016 ===
Who would be the worst state Premier in Australia. There are three candidates. Queensland's Annastacia Palaszczuk, Victoria’s Dan Andrews, and South Australia’s Jay Weatherill. Each has tried their hardest to be number one. Palaszczuk has reversed the good work of Newman, promoting crime and corruption and hollowing out institutions that might resist corruption. She had started by saying she wasn’t ready for government. She still isn’t. Dan Andrews has undermined the fire protection services, preventing volunteers from volunteering to even save themselves from forest fires. Andrews has also ambitiously tried to make his state more expensive for power costs than South Australia. And Andrews has undermined schools with a reprehensible safe schools policy promoting inappropriate sexual activity for children. But Jay Weatherill has so many advantages, having been part of a continuous ALP government despite voter dissatisfaction. Ruinous power policy has plunged the state into darkness twice for days at a time. Industry is fleeing South Australia. How will $50 billion worth of submarines be built without electricity? The federal government is giving some four times more GST money to South Australians than West Australians. But the competition is a bad joke. None of them are competent. All of them have press support.
=== from 2015 ===
The leader of the National Party, Warren Truss, had an idea to get a Liberal Party member, Ian Macfarlane, to switch to them, and so get a ministerial seat. Made more awkward in Queensland where the Liberal Party and National Party are unified in the LNP. But the National party repudiated their leader. Macfarlane had been a minister who chose Malcolm Turnbull over Tony Abbott. Turnbull felt Macfarlane was the wrong gender and dumped him for a female. Macfarlane had hoped to be a minister again for the Nationals. Macfarlane is the longest serving Liberal minister and has no plans to resign. So having burned both leadership contenders, Macfarlane may have profoundly resigned unplanned. What have the Liberals paid the Nationals so that the division did not widen? The Nationals work for their constituents. Farmers are dying as Turnbull robs them of a billion dollars a year to give to Green scammers. The only certainty is the arrangements will be secret so as to not further damage Turnbull.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
Supporting prisoners of conscience is easy. It would be depraved indifference to the realities of brutal dictatorships to not do so. Which is why the decision of Amnesty International to divert resources meant for prisoners of conscience to support terrorists is so disturbing. David Hicks is not just a dead beat dad that gave up minor crime to embrace terrorism He was the elect of Osama Bin Laden's international recruits. Hicks has hidden behind much corruption. He was captured in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban. He is known to have been to a number of jihadist hot spots prior to that where he has been as faithful to Islam as he's been to his own family. For Hicks, faith means he hates Jews and Westerners. He wants them dead. When he was incarcerated, he was not a prisoner of conscience, but a trained terrorist. Democrats gave approval for his torture, which they now blame entirely on others. Amnesty spent money meant to support those who were imprisoned because they want freedom, on those who killed for bigotry. And they did so egged on by Democrats who gave them permission. Obama was given a Nobel Peace prize for no reason other than the colour of his skin. He repaid that gift by hosting a dinner for those who jailed the winner of the following year's Nobel Peace prize. Obama has a depraved indifference to those suffering for their desire for freedom.
There is division in the Liberal Party as there should be, because the party has a collection of people with divergent views on similar topics. Mr Abbott is an economic conservative, but he also has social conservative views which are well known. As health minister he acted in the national interest, as he does now on on issues he believes in. Abbott is aware and keen to address the issue of Aboriginal disparity and suffering. He is also keen to lessen the burden on young families. One can disagree with his method of addressing these issues, but one cannot deny that they are important.
But such division as there is is exploited by hateful people or professional pundits. Lying, as the Fairfax press has to inflate issues and inspire opposition is not professional punditry. Hockey suing the SMH is important, but there is a defense the SMH can employ, and there is not certainty the judiciary is unbiased. Peta Credilin, the chief of staff of Mr Abbott is under attack after five extraordinary years of successfully serving the party. She might go, but that will not change who Mr Abbott is. He might go but that won't change the issues he addresses. One can oppose the idea of a racist constitution without removing Mr Abbott as PM. Because Mr Abbott is an economic conservative too, and his policies are far broader than one item. There is such a thing as a cultural asset. A cultural asset unites a community where a minority cause divides it. People can be on both sides of a constitutional debate and it will unite the community even if the issue divides it. I will oppose Mr Abbott's constitutional change, but I will support Mr Abbott's decision to put it forward.
Meanwhile a corrupt senate is opposing needed budget measures. They are egged on by a corrupt press. So business criticism of opposition to budget measures is twisted by the media to read as criticism of the government. The press are not biased. They are partisan.
Latham critical of Frightbats. Sunday Age employs activist to report for Greens on climate. Russell Brand is a moron and his lines have been fed by those with a depraved indifference to suffering.
There is division in the Liberal Party as there should be, because the party has a collection of people with divergent views on similar topics. Mr Abbott is an economic conservative, but he also has social conservative views which are well known. As health minister he acted in the national interest, as he does now on on issues he believes in. Abbott is aware and keen to address the issue of Aboriginal disparity and suffering. He is also keen to lessen the burden on young families. One can disagree with his method of addressing these issues, but one cannot deny that they are important.
But such division as there is is exploited by hateful people or professional pundits. Lying, as the Fairfax press has to inflate issues and inspire opposition is not professional punditry. Hockey suing the SMH is important, but there is a defense the SMH can employ, and there is not certainty the judiciary is unbiased. Peta Credilin, the chief of staff of Mr Abbott is under attack after five extraordinary years of successfully serving the party. She might go, but that will not change who Mr Abbott is. He might go but that won't change the issues he addresses. One can oppose the idea of a racist constitution without removing Mr Abbott as PM. Because Mr Abbott is an economic conservative too, and his policies are far broader than one item. There is such a thing as a cultural asset. A cultural asset unites a community where a minority cause divides it. People can be on both sides of a constitutional debate and it will unite the community even if the issue divides it. I will oppose Mr Abbott's constitutional change, but I will support Mr Abbott's decision to put it forward.
Meanwhile a corrupt senate is opposing needed budget measures. They are egged on by a corrupt press. So business criticism of opposition to budget measures is twisted by the media to read as criticism of the government. The press are not biased. They are partisan.
Latham critical of Frightbats. Sunday Age employs activist to report for Greens on climate. Russell Brand is a moron and his lines have been fed by those with a depraved indifference to suffering.
From 2013
Blair Poll shows 0.73% want the ABC to have increased funding, the rest asking for it to be privatised, have funding cut, or punitive measures taken against her staff. Or in gender neutral terms favoured by the ABC, against his/her staff. Obama told the truth, once, just on a different day. Holden has become like many Australian icons, a victim of ALP policy. Al Gore was wrong five years ago with his prediction of an ice free north Polar cap. The hand waver who could not sign, but stood next to the hand wringer who didn't care, has been accused of murder. The hand wringer, meanwhile .. doesn't care. My handwriting is too poor for some plumb jobs. AMWU reps must take their skills elsewhere .. parasite host beware.
Bolt challenges Turnbull on gay marriage statement. Rhiannon admits she was trained by neo-Stalinists. Why our intelligence service targeted the activity of a significant political player. Why is the media hiding the demonstrated effectiveness of boat people policy?
Bolt challenges Turnbull on gay marriage statement. Rhiannon admits she was trained by neo-Stalinists. Why our intelligence service targeted the activity of a significant political player. Why is the media hiding the demonstrated effectiveness of boat people policy?
Historical perspective on this day
In 557, Constantinople was severely damaged by an earthquake. In 835, Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspired to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot was foiled. In 1287, St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people. In 1542, Princess Mary Stuart became Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1751, the Theresian Military Academy was founded as the first military academy in the world. In 1782, the Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.
In 1812, the French invasion of Russia came to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée were expelled from Russia. In 1814, War of 1812: The Royal Navy seized control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana. In 1819, Alabama became the 22nd U.S. state. In 1836, the Toledo War unofficially ended. In 1896, the Glasgow Underground Railway was opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company. In 1900, Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presented a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law. In 1902, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu. In 1903, the Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1907, the schooner Thomas W. Lawson ran aground and foundered near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen died. In 1909, New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
In 1911, Roald Amundsen 's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, became the first to reach the South Pole. In 1913, Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launched, eventually becoming one of the Japaneseworkhorses during World War I and World War II. In 1914, Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1918, Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounced the Finnish throne. Also, Portuguese President Sidónio Pais was assassinated. In 1939, Winter War: The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. In 1941, World War II: Japan signed a treaty of alliance with Thailand. In 1946, the United Nations General Assemblyvoted to establish its headquarters in New York, New York. In 1947, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home of Real Madrid C.F., staged its first football match.
In 1955, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations. In 1958, the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition became the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility. In 1961, Tanganyika joined the United Nations. In 1962, NASA's Mariner 2became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. In 1963, the dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir burst, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California. In 1964, American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Congress can use the Constitution'sCommerce Clause to fight discrimination. In 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan 's intellectuals were executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.) In 1972, Apollo program: Eugene Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt completed the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
In 1981, Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratified the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights. In 1983, the third Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece started. In 1988, the ET3 television network was launched in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 1992, War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli – A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli was shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia. In 1994, construction began on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river. In 1995, Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1999, Torrential rains caused flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure. In 2003, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. In 2004, the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, was formally inaugurated near Millau, France. In 2008, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bushduring a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, were killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. In 2013 a reported coup attempt in South Sudan led to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
In 1812, the French invasion of Russia came to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée were expelled from Russia. In 1814, War of 1812: The Royal Navy seized control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana. In 1819, Alabama became the 22nd U.S. state. In 1836, the Toledo War unofficially ended. In 1896, the Glasgow Underground Railway was opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company. In 1900, Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presented a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law. In 1902, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu. In 1903, the Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1907, the schooner Thomas W. Lawson ran aground and foundered near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen died. In 1909, New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
In 1911, Roald Amundsen 's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, became the first to reach the South Pole. In 1913, Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launched, eventually becoming one of the Japaneseworkhorses during World War I and World War II. In 1914, Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1918, Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounced the Finnish throne. Also, Portuguese President Sidónio Pais was assassinated. In 1939, Winter War: The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. In 1941, World War II: Japan signed a treaty of alliance with Thailand. In 1946, the United Nations General Assemblyvoted to establish its headquarters in New York, New York. In 1947, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home of Real Madrid C.F., staged its first football match.
In 1955, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations. In 1958, the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition became the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility. In 1961, Tanganyika joined the United Nations. In 1962, NASA's Mariner 2became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. In 1963, the dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir burst, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California. In 1964, American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Congress can use the Constitution'sCommerce Clause to fight discrimination. In 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan 's intellectuals were executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.) In 1972, Apollo program: Eugene Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt completed the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
In 1981, Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratified the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights. In 1983, the third Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece started. In 1988, the ET3 television network was launched in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 1992, War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli – A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli was shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia. In 1994, construction began on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river. In 1995, Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1999, Torrential rains caused flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure. In 2003, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. In 2004, the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, was formally inaugurated near Millau, France. In 2008, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bushduring a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, were killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. In 2013 a reported coup attempt in South Sudan led to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
=== 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
- 1009 – Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (d. 1045)
- 1546 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist (d. 1601)
- 1896 – Jimmy Doolittle, American aviator and general (d. 1993)
- 1946 – Michael Ovitz, American talent agent, co-founded Creative Artists Agency
- 1954 – Steven MacLean, Canadian astronaut, former President of the Canadian Space Agency
- 1970 – Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1973 – Thuy Trang, Vietnamese-American actress (d. 2001)
- 1994 – Joshua Dionisio, Filipino actor
- 557 – A large earthquake severely damaged the city of Constantinople.
- 1836 – The Toledo War, the mostly bloodless boundary dispute between Ohio and the adjoining Territory of Michigan, unofficially ended with a resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".
- 1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class, was launched, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
- 1994 – Construction on the Three Gorges Dam (pictured) began on the Yangtze River in China.
- 2004 – Cuba and Venezuela founded the Alliance for the Americas, an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the integration of Latin American and Caribbean nations.
Deaths
- 1460 – Guarino da Verona, Italian scholar (b. 1370)
- 1510 – Friedrich of Saxony (b. 1473)
- 1542 – James V of Scotland (b. 1512)
- 1553 – Hanibal Lucić, Croatian poet and playwright (b. 1485)
- 1591 – John of the Cross, Spanish priest and saint (b. 1542)
- 1624 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord High Admiral (b. 1536)
- 1651 – Pierre Dupuy, French historian and scholar (b. 1582)
- 1715 – Thomas Tenison, English archbishop (b. 1636)
- 1735 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop (b. 1674)
- 1741 – Charles Rollin, French historian and educator (b. 1661)
- 1788 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (b. 1714)
- 1788 – Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)
- 1799 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (b. 1732)
- 1861 – Albert, Prince Consort, German husband of Queen Victoria (b. 1819)
- 1878 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (b. 1843)
- 1902 – Julia Grant, American wife of Ulysses S. Grant, 21st First Lady of the United States (b. 1826)
- 1940 – Anton Korošec, Slovenian-Yugoslav politician, 10th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1872)
- 1943 – John Harvey Kellogg, American physician and businessman, co-invented corn flakes (b. 1852)
- 1947 – Stanley Baldwin, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
- 1947 – Edward Higgins, English-American evangelist, 3rd General of the Salvation Army (b. 1864)
- 1975 – Arthur Treacher, English-American actor and singer (b. 1894)
- 1993 – Myrna Loy, American actress and singer (b. 1905)
- 2013 – Peter O'Toole, Irish-English actor, singer, and producer (b. 1932)
Andrew Bolt 2017
HOW BIG A SWING DOES KENEALLY NEED TO CROW?
Kristina Keneally is very unlikely to win Saturday's Bennelong by-election. She has too much political baggage, and Sam Dastyari made those bags heavier. Plus she needs a huge swing of nearly 10% against a popular local member. So how big a swing must she get for Labor to claim success? I'd say 7%, although even 4% puts the Liberals on notice.
SPECCIE CHRISTMAS CRACKER OUT NOW
This Spectator Australia Christmas edition is probably the best yet. Read Ian Plimer on being in a plane that's run out of fuel. Jana Wendt is sensational on #notmetoo. Milo says goodbye and Neil Brown is sorry he didn't kill Mugabe. I'm flattered to have been asked to do the Christmas Diary again.
FBI AGENT ON TRUMP PROBE: "F TRUMP"
There are many reasons to dislike Donald Trump. But there are even more to detest his enemies, seemingly attempting a coup of the bureaucracy against him: The "F Trump" emails of an FBI agent investigating first Hillary Clinton and then the Trump team are shocking: "There’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk."
TWO STRIKES AGAINST TRUMP IN MOORE DISASTER
Backing Judge Roy Moore so srongly was a moral mistake by Donald Trump. Losing the Alabama election turned it into a political mistake as well. If you do the wrong thing and lose anyway you lose everything.
Tim Blair
WEDNESDAY NOTICEBOARD
SAUDI COPS SAY THE SAME THING
MILO MEETS MEMORIES
SILENT GILLIAN
CARTOON CRISIS AT THE UN
Andrew Bolt
POLITICAL PRIORITIES
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (4:32am)
Last month Islamic terrorists slaughtered 130 innocent men and women, the youngest aged just 17, in a series of vicious attacks across Paris. More than 40,000 government leaders, negotiators and activists subsequently arrived in Paris to decide what the global temperature will be for people whose grandparents haven’t been born yet.
If you want to get an idea of exactly where political priorities are in 2015, the above paragraph is a pretty good place to start.
While delegates at the United Nations climate change conference were fussing over future carbon dioxide levels, workers at Paris’s Pere Lachaise cemetery met with a psychologist in order to deal with the trauma of rapidly organising dozens of burials. Some of those killed had been attending a show at the Bataclan concert hall, not far from their final resting place.
Appropriately enough, the climate change conference kicked off with a speech from murderous Zimbabwean tyrant bastard Robert Mugabe, who isn’t exactly unfamiliar with large body counts. That includes his 91st birthday party earlier this year, which featured a feast of buffalo, impala and a baby elephant.
“Unless current trends are reversed, disaster stalks planet Earth,” Mugabe told the conference, before presumably heading for the French capital’s Parc Zoologique to see if it had a drive-through.
(Continue reading Political Priorities.)
IF IT’S ON IT’S OFF
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (4:09am)
No invitation without amputation:
A three-day women’s festival to be held in March next year at Mount Martha, south-east of Melbourne, has been criticised for not allowing transgender women to attend unless they have undergone gender re-assignment surgery …Kylee, who did not want her to use her full name as her partner Belle is in the early stages of transitioning, wrote to festival organisers last month to ask whether Belle would be welcome.“We’ve been trying to become more involved in women’s circles so that she can feel more comfortable, but at the moment she’s retreated a bit from life, so I thought a really beautiful camping festival with all women would be a really safe place for her to feel accepted,” she said.She said after messaging and emailing the organisers a number of times, she was told that her partner would not be welcome at the event.
Sadly, the organisers missed the opportunity for some Johnnie Cochran-style zingers. You know the sort of thing:
If it’s still appending, you won’t be attending!
With organs external, rejection’s eternal!
Your request is a failure due to male genitalia!
Incidentally, what was Belle thinking with that pre-op confession? Rookie error, girlfriend. The trick for getting into these all-gal deals is to lie all the way.
Always works for me.
(Via J.F. Beck.)
CLASS OF 2012
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (3:44am)
Leftists made all manner of excuses following Sydney’s 2012 YouTube riot. The Daily Telegraph now looks at the post-2012 careers of several significant riot personalities:
Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who took the nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Sudani after travelling to Syria, was a prominent agitator at the rally.The Sudanese-born jihadist, killed in Syria in March, posted a video montage showing him standing close to speakers at the rally and hurling abuse at police.“Do you see the protesters doing anything violent or hurting anyone? Because I sure can’t see that,” he told his supporters.Mahmoud, a senior Parramatta Street Dawah preacher who claimed he was performing charity work in Syria, was a close friend of former Kings Cross bouncer and dead Islamic State recruiter Mohammad Ali Baryalei and convert preacher Yusuf Ali.
Sydney-based Ali, formerly known as Tyler Casey, was killed alongside wife and former Gold Coast private schoolgirl Amira Karroum shortly after they joined Jabhat al-Nusra. Mahmoud, Baryalei and Ali featured together in propaganda videos promoting the Parramatta Dawah crew.IS thugs Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar, who was killed in a drone strike near the Syrian city of Raqqa in June, also featured at the Hyde Park rally, lunging at police during the protest.Three other men present on the day have since been charged with terror-related offences unrelated to the protest. We are not allowed to name them for legal reasons.Other radicals at the Hyde Park rally included Wassim Fayad, an associate of dead IS fighter Zakaryah Raad. Fayad was later convicted for his involvement in the sharia whipping of a Muslim convert 40 times.Fayad, who worked with police on the day calling for calm at the protest, lauded al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden as a “martyr” following his death. The 48-year-old, linked to members of the Appleby Group, is at the Goulburn Supermax jail.
Quite a bunch.
WHEN A GOTCHA AIN’T
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (2:51am)
The headline at news.com.au:
Greenpeace exposes climate change deniers professors William Happer and Frank Clemente
This is not supported by the story. Far from it.
(Via Waxing Gibberish.)
PHRASE THAT PAYS
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (2:39am)
If you want a few thousand dollars of Sydney ratepayer cash, just add the words “climate change” to your tragic Sydney University comedy show.
GROW THAT ABC GAP
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (1:50am)
Good for her! The ABC’s Leigh Sales seems to have completely overcome her concern about the gap between rich and poor:
Just in time for Christmas, ABC TV presenter Leigh Sales and her husband, animator Phil Willis, have a new home in Glebe …Set on a generous 400 square metres, with an open-plan living and dining area that overlooks a north-facing garden and lock-up garage, it was on an off-market sale through the same BresicWhitney team.There is no sale price disclosed on title, but it was on offer for more than $2.6 million and a local source said it sold for more than that. It previously traded a year ago for $2,225,000.
One day Sales might run a piece about tax-funded millionaires. She could interview herself.
APOCALYPSO
Tim Blair – Monday, December 14, 2015 (1:30am)
Curtly Ambrose goes through the same agonizing ritual at the start of every Test match. First the West Indies bowling coach gathers his team for a rousing on-field speech encouraging them to perform at their very best.
Then Ambrose retires to the dressing rooms and watches his team collapse.
It happened again in the First Test against Australia in Hobart, where the Windies were beaten by an innings and 212 runs – the second-greatest losing margin in all Tests played between the two teams. This followed one of Ambrose’s more optimistic predictions. “At the end of the day when we perform and beat Australia, then the reporters will have to change their tune,” he said. “We’re going to do much better than you think.”
Great call. The only larger losing margin occurred in the Third Test in Brisbane 85 years ago, when the Australian team enjoyed a slight advantage due to the inclusion of one Donald Bradman. Then playing in just his 12th Test match, Bradman hit 24 boundaries in a rapid double century then spent the next three days watching the Australian bowlers twice dismantle their opponents.
(Continue reading Apocalypso.)
Abbott Government needs a new course of action to win next election
Piers Akerman – Saturday, December 13, 2014 (11:00pm)
DESPITE signing off on a series of significant policy triumphs, the Coalition hasn’t finished the year with a tick from the public in the opinion polls.
Continue reading 'Abbott Government needs a new course of action to win next election'
Whingeing David Hicks has a lot to say sorry for
Miranda Devine – Saturday, December 13, 2014 (11:03pm)
CONVICTED terrorist David Hicks, aka Mohammed Daw-ood, the one-time al-Qaeda golden boy, is at it again, playing the victim, and being applauded by leftist stooges like Sarah Hanson-Young.
Continue reading 'Whingeing David Hicks has a lot to say sorry for'
Why is Abbott giving $5 million to Labor/Fairfax/Aboriginal Leftists to divide us by “race”?
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (11:10am)
I cannot understand how changing the constitution to formally divide us by “race” is actually meant to unite us.
From Tony Abbott’s speech this week insisting the constitution be changed to recognise Aborigines:
And then there’s this - the sad sight of Abbott encouraging something else he should oppose:
Just check who runs the Recognise campaign:
I can hardly believe it. Has Abbott given a single dollar to a conservative to fight this proposal on the grounds that we are all brothers and sisters under the skin and should not by divided by race?
UPDATE
Where is $5 million for the Recognise What? campaign, run by Labor/Aboriginal conservatives?
To donate to Recognise What? - denied equal or any funding by the Abbott Government - go here.
(Thanks to reader amf.)
===From Tony Abbott’s speech this week insisting the constitution be changed to recognise Aborigines:
But there is almost nothing that this generation of Australians could do that would more impress posterity than enabling black and white Australians to walk forward together, forever, as one united people.There is also this:
So, I am a supporter of constitutional recognition because I want our country to transcend the “them and us” mindset to embrace “all of us” in the spirit of generous inclusion that has always marked Australians at our best.
This country we created, as a matter of undisputed fact, has an Aboriginal heritage, a British foundation and a multicultural character and it is high time that this reality was highly recognised in our Constitution.The constitution does not actually recognise “British foundation” let alone our “multicultural character”. Is recognising multiculturalism - a further step in the retribalising of our nation to be the next project of the Left, aided by conservatives in search of friends?
And then there’s this - the sad sight of Abbott encouraging something else he should oppose:
To this end, I announce that the Government will provide a further $5 million to RECOGNISE.This Government now directs taxpayers’ funds to favoured activists? And in this case to activists of the Left?
Just check who runs the Recognise campaign:
Joint Campaign Director Tanya HoschA conservative government has paid $5 million to a divisive activist group driven by the Labor/Fairfax/Aboriginal Left collective that is fighting to impose a new tribalism - the most destructive form of identity politics.
Tanya Hosch is the Joint Campaign director for Recognise, the movement to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution. She was a key contributor in the creation of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples…
Joint Campaign Director Tim Gartrell
Tim Gartrell is the Campaign Director for Recognise… Earlier in his career, he was National Campaign Director for federal Labor, including the 2004 and 2007 election campaign…
Communications Director Misha Schubert Misha Schubert is communications director for Recognise… She came to the role from a long career in journalism, including stints as national political editor for The Sunday Age, political correspondent for The Age and as a reporter for The Australian.
I can hardly believe it. Has Abbott given a single dollar to a conservative to fight this proposal on the grounds that we are all brothers and sisters under the skin and should not by divided by race?
UPDATE
Where is $5 million for the Recognise What? campaign, run by Labor/Aboriginal conservatives?
To donate to Recognise What? - denied equal or any funding by the Abbott Government - go here.
(Thanks to reader amf.)
Entsch just makes the mess worse
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (10:25am)
Tony Abbott’s defence of his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, hasn’t much helped:
===Veteran Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch has now lodged an official complaint against Mr Abbott with the chief whip Philip Ruddock.But if Entsch thinks Abbott should have said less, he might care to explain how his own noisy intervention helps anyone but Labor.
His decision to go public followed the Prime Minister’s claims that Credlin’s critics are sexists.
As Foreign Minister Julie Bishop declined to support the Prime Minister’s claim yesterday that sexism was to blame for attacks on Ms Credlin, she praised her tireless work in the role…
On Friday, the Prime Minister’s claimed in a television interview that Ms Credlin’s critics were sexists who would not make the same claims if her name was “P-E-T-E-R as opposed to P-E-T-A”.
“It’s not about her bloody gender for God’s sake. Let me tell you. It’d doesn’t matter if her name is H-A-R-R-Y or D-I-C-K,’’ Mr Entsch said.
“To suggest there’s an issue because of her gender I find offensive. He’s basically said, ‘if they don’t like it they are sexists’.
Democrats damn the torture they approved
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (10:10am)
Charles Krauthammer on the CIA torture scandal:
===The report by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding CIA interrogation essentially accuses the agency under George W. Bush of war criminality. Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein appears to offer some extenuation when she reminds us in the report’s preamble of the shock and “pervasive fear” felt after 9/11…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
It’s a kind of temporary-insanity defense for the Bush administration. And it is not just unctuous condescension but hypocritical nonsense. In the aftermath of 9/11, there was nothing irrational about believing that a second attack was a serious possibility and therefore everything should be done to prevent it. Indeed, this was the considered opinion of the CIA, the administration, the congressional leadership and the American people…
Nancy Pelosi, then ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, was briefed about the interrogation program, including the so-called torture techniques. As were the other intelligence committee leaders. “We understood what the CIA was doing,” wrote Porter Goss, Pelosi’s chairman on the House committee. “We gave the CIA our bipartisan support; we gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.”
Democrat Jay Rockefeller, while the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was asked in 2003 about turning over Khalid Sheik Mohammed to countries known to torture. He replied: “I wouldn’t take anything off the table where he is concerned.”
There was no uproar about this open countenancing of torture-by-proxy. Which demonstrates not just the shamelessness of Democrats today denouncing practices to which, at the time and at the very least, they made no objection. It demonstrates also how near-consensual was the idea that our national emergency might require extraordinary measures.
This is not to say that in carrying out the program there weren’t abuses, excesses, mismanagement and appalling mistakes (such as the death in custody — unintended but still unforgivable — of two detainees). It is to say that the root-and-branch denunciation of the program as, in principle, unconscionable is not just hypocritical but ahistorical.
To make that case, to produce a prosecutorial brief so entirely and relentlessly one-sided, the committee report (written solely by Democrats) excluded any testimony from the people involved and variously accused. None. No interviews, no hearings, no statements… Why weren’t they interviewed? Answer: So that committee Democrats could make their indictment without contradiction. So they could declare, for example, the whole program to be a failure that yielded no important information — a conclusion denied by practically every major figure involved, including Democrat and former CIA director Leon Panetta; Obama’s current CIA director, John Brennan; and three other CIA directors (including a Clinton appointee).
Latham on the attack of the frightbats
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (9:56am)
Mark Latham vs the feminists he says are picking on him:
UPDATE
Mark Steyn says the victim industry is running out of oppressors:
===In theory, they want men to stay at home, freeing up career opportunities for women. But in practice, when a prominent man actually takes on this responsibility, he’s greeted with disbelief and denigration…Hmm. Seems Latham has encountered the frightbat phenomenon identified by Tim Blair - and which in naming created the greatest controversy facing feminists today:
In truth, no matter what men do, no matter the support they provide for their partners, radical feminists will describe them as misogynistic.
Modern feminism is not about the practicalities of helping families. It’s a sub-culture that positions parenting as a prison and men as women-haters.
While this anti-child/anti-male doctrine is supported by just 1 per cent of the population, left-feminism controls 20 per cent of the journalism profession and 40 per cent of Twitter – an unrepresentative influence.
This was how Julia Gillard and her allies got away with branding Tony Abbott a misogynist, purportedly hating his wife and three daughters.
Not surprisingly, most men are now reluctant to talk about left-feminism, fearing a hysterical backlash.
So let me have a go, with some advice for anyone thinking about becoming a home-dad: it’s very rewarding, an opportunity to really know and love your children. But beware the feminazis: they won’t give you any credit for what you’re doing, only scepticism and ridicule.
Australia currently lacks a mainstream debate about feminism, says Ann Mossop, curator of the forthcoming All About Women festival at Sydney Opera House.Self-obsessed much?
Six months after the Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Blair polled his readers to name Australia’s “craziest left-wing frightbat” from a shortlist of 10 women journalists, Mossop said she hoped the programme of talks and lectures on International Women’s Day would open up the conversation.
“Australia has figures like Germaine Greer and Anne Summers, a generation who have been influential across the world, and there are some really interesting young voices talking about feminism in Australia, people like Clementine Ford,” said Mossop as she announced the full line-up.
“But I feel, in some ways, there is not actually a mainstream conversation about this – something the frightbats brou-ha-ha illustrated. Writing from a mainstream position, somebody like Tim Blair was able to dismiss a whole group of female journalists and commentators in a way that was only remarked on in that community.”
UPDATE
Mark Steyn says the victim industry is running out of oppressors:
The problem with a victim culture is that so many people want to join the ranks of victimhood that eventually you run short of oppressors. As I say in my new book… Elizabeth Warren is the whitest white since Frosty the Snowman fell in a vat of Wite-Out, but a dubious claim to be one 32nd Cherokee was enough to persuade Harvard Law School to promote her as their first “woman of color"…(Thanks to readers Steve and Spencer.)
Lena Dunham is an upper-middle-class child of white privilege who’s had a charmed life, but she’s a victim, too. According to her new memoir, she was raped by “Barry”, the token conservative at Oberlin. The real-life Barry the Conservative denies raping her, and Random House has been forced to issue a statement “regretting the confusion” and to cover his legal bills, which he’d been paying for by “crowd-funding”. The publisher couldn’t resist a parting sneer:
We are offering to pay the fees Mr. Minc has billed his client to date. Our offer will allow Mr. Minc and his client to donate all of the crowd-funding raised to not-for-profit organizations assisting survivors of rape and sexual assault.Because even if Barry the Conservative never raped Lena Dunham, odds are he’s raped someone else, right? As Ann Coulter put it:
How about donating it to organizations that assist survivors of false rape accusations?Rather than an epidemic of campus rape, there seems to be some sort of psychological inversion of “white flight”, in which untold numbers feel the need to flee their bland middle-class suburbs and pitch up in edgier ghettos…
The sadly misnamed Cavalier Daily of Charlottesville has a highly non-cavalier story about how “Jackie”, the “victim” of the University of Virginia “gang” “rape”, is owed a debt of gratitude for “pulling back the curtain on rape”:
Jackie, a University student, told Rolling Stone magazine seven men — one of whom she worked with as a lifeguard at the Aquatic and Fitness Center — raped her at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party on September 28, 2012.“Even if she made up the story”, she “pulled back the curtain on rape”. And even if there was no rape going on behind the curtain she raised awareness of how rape culture is so prevalent that women are being traumatized into making up stories that they’ve been gang-raped by seven Phi Kappa Psi men even when they haven’t been.
The fraternity has since disputed Jackie’s story, claiming there was no party on that particular date and that no Phi Kappa Psi brother worked at the Aquatic and Fitness Center at that time…
“… the fact is, whatever happened, something happened to Jackie,” Mirza said. “And even if she made up the story, things like this do happen.... Whatever comes of this, we’re still behind her and we still think she did something brave by coming forward.”
Entitlements are killing our entitlement to keep our own money
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (9:06am)
All this free money is killing us:
===JOE Hockey has warned that childcare and family welfare payments are set to explode by $5.6 billion in a cost blow-out that will reignite the debate over means testing…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The Mid Year Economic Fiscal Outlook will confirm that Family Tax Benefits payments are expected to increase by more $3.2 billion over the next four years.
This blowout is despite the Senate agreeing to a tougher means test for Family Tax Benefit A that will scrap payments for parents earning over $100,000. Labor has blocked proposals to restrict payments to families with children over the age of six. The budget update will also confirm that the Child Care Rebate and Benefit payments are expected to grow by around $2.4 billion over the next four years. Combined, the cost blow-outs will contribute additional cost pressures of $5.6 billion. Over the next four years, the government is already on track to spend $28 billion on childcare subsidies.
Independent? Using a reporter sponsored by green carpetbaggers?
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (8:51am)
The Fairfax boast:
===The Fairfax reality - having the Lima global warming talks reported by a warmist reporter subsidised by the global warming industry:
The Sunday Age adds:
Independent? Always?
How Fairfax sold criticism of Labor as criticism of the Liberals
Andrew Bolt December 14 2014 (7:53am)
How Fairfax’s Sunday Age sells the story - Joe Hockey’s Budget wrecks the economy:
===How Fairfax’s Sunday Herald sells the same story - Joe Hockey’s Budget wrecks the economy:
How the first paragraph sums up this Fairfax story - Joe Hockey’s Budget wrecks the economy:
The Abbott government’s beleaguered first budget is sapping consumer and business confidence at the cost of growth and jobs, the heads of Australia’s biggest banks have warned.What this Fairfax story in fact reveals - Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers wreck the economy by blocking Joe Hockey’s Budget:
Is the delay over the government’s budget measures harming the economy?If you are astonished that a story of bankers actually condemning the uncertainty caused by Labor is sold as a story of bankers attacking the Liberals, then remember this evidence from the court hearing of Hockey’s defamation claim against Fairfax newspapers:
Mike Smith, ANZ: It’s certainly not helping. They have a clear mandate to govern and should be allowed to get on with it.
Ian Narev, CBA: ... these delays are not good for confidence.
Andrew Thorburn, NAB: It is important for business and individuals to have certainty… I know the government is working hard to secure the passage of budget measures and their goal of returning the budget to surplus is encouraging.
George Frazis, St George:… I think it’s important that the budget is put on a long-term sustainable footing…
Jon Sutton, Bank of Queensland: Uncertainty of any kind can potentially impact markets and the economy.
John Nesbitt, Suncorp: We would like to see more bipartisanship ... Political uncertainty, which is a common theme across the globe, is always a negative for investment…
Rob De Luca, Bankwest: The delays in passing key government budget measures in the Senate are adding to anxiety for both businesses and households ....
Scott Tanner, Bank of Melbourne: .... It’s important that the budget is sustainable over the long term and supports economic growth. Legislation often needs to be negotiated through parliament. This Government, like many before, is doing that.
Mike Hirst, Bendigo Bank: Markets hate uncertainty…
[Herald editor-in-chief Darren] Goodsir wrote in an email to [Age and Sunday Age editor-in-chief Andrew] Holden and senior Fairfax reporters: “Given what Andrew and I endured last week with Hockey, I want to have this nailed to the cross in more ways than one ... I have long dreamed (well, actually only since last Friday), of a headline that screams: Sloppy Joe! I think we are not far off, but perhaps even more serious than that.”
Holden also discussed a news story in text messages the day after the initial controversial story ran [falsely claiming Hockey had received and returned a dodgy donation]. “In that story you can run hockey’s claim he knew nothing though as members of the forum entitled to meet him he must have seen membership list. Beyond that f..k him,” Holden texted Goodsir....
On April 19, before going on leave, Goodsir wrote: “I will be back on Mon 28 and want to be in a spot to launch our dirt on Hockey team. This one ain’t over yet!"…
Brand new moron
Andrew Bolt December 13 2014 (9:58pm)
If Russell Brand has lost The Age he’s lost everyone:
===Brand’s ideas are those of a spoiled narcissist. Where he doesn’t understand something, he makes a show of his ignorance (in fact, he makes a virtue of it). History is a joke. Other countries are a joke. The only subject Brand takes seriously is himself, and woe betide the commentator who suggests that his newfound revolutionary principles may be inconsistent with his lavish lifestyle, since it is for this critic that Brand reserves his only flashes of real anger. Everyone else – even the scumbags of IS – just need a bit more love in their lives.Can you believe a man who didn’t even know of the Spanish Civil War having the hide to write a book explaining revolutions?
The book is a grab-bag of vague ideas - a breathless series of riffs upon and rambles through the source material, which includes David Graeber’s thoughts on debt, some fragments of Noam Chomsky and Thomas Piketty, and George Orwell’s essay on the Spanish Civil War (a war which, by the way, Brand hadn’t heard of when he began his book a year ago).Tim Blair notes other signs of fed-uppedness with the hypocrite with the big mouth and small brain.
Photo: Malcolm Fraser and Sarah Hanson-Young. Both support the drowning of desperate asylum seekers. Their... http://t.co/U5ZWcNp1R3
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 14, 2014
===
Photo: all-the-ways-things-are: http://t.co/mlah3LMJLX
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 14, 2014
===
Photo: ri-science: The elegant symmetry of how speakers and microphones work. http://t.co/Cz0Czk7jB2
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 14, 2014
===
Photo: backpackersguidetoearth: From yesterday, a small seaplane took off from the outer harbour while I... http://t.co/v9ydGr5kwW
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 14, 2014
===
Photo: oatmeal: A spelling pet peeve of mine. More grammar comics here. http://t.co/vpjs88SGql
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 14, 2014
===
Photoset: Sexist adverts from... http://t.co/fd3bS4Kznw
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 14, 2014
===
Thank you for blessing us with your gifts. You leave a winner. And retain a competitive spirit. http://t.co/iCOKtqPpR3
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) December 13, 2014
=== Posts from last year ===
POLL BELIEVED
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 14, 2013 (5:29pm)
The ABC’s Barrie Cassidy turns to that most dependable of sources, the online poll:
A recent online poll on ABC funding in the Fairfax media drew 21,145 respondents. Of that, 72 per cent agreed the ABC was an excellent and essential service that deserved more money. Another 12 per cent ticked the box that suggested the ABC did good work, and that funding was about right.Even allowing for a disproportionate number of ABC backers reading the Fairfax newspapers, they are exceptional figures.
And also completely reliable. Let’s see what a trustworthy BlairPoll reveals:
Thank you for voting!
Total Votes: 275
OBAMA DID TELL THE TRUTH, JUST ON A DIFFERENT DAY
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 14, 2013 (4:52pm)
PolitiFact rates Barack Obama’s honesty in 2008:
“No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it,” Obama said. “All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.”Obama is accurately describing his health care plan here … people who want to keep their current insurance should be able to do that under Obama’s plan. His description of his plan is accurate, and we rate his statement True.
PolitiFact rates Barack Obama’s honesty in 2013:
It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change to America’s health insurance system.“If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” President Barack Obama said – many times – of his landmark new law.But the promise was impossible to keep.So this fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong …For all of these reasons, PolitiFact has named “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” the Lie of the Year for 2013.
Or, as the New York Times might put it, the Clear Misspeaking of the Year or the Incorrect Promise of the Year. ViaIowahawk, who celebrates “revolutionary Politi’fact’ science: conclusively writing the results of an experiment before it even happens.” Further from the Washington Examiner:
In an October 2008 column – just before the election – PolitiFact actually rated Obama’s promise as “true.” It said at the time: “Obama is accurately describing his health care plan here. He advocates a program that seeks to build on the current system, rather than dismantling it and starting over.”In other words, it rated him on the basis of whether he was accurately stating his own campaign promise, a hurdle no politician could fail to clear.
Meanwhile the blunders continue. As Esquire famously asked of a previous president, why is this man laughing?
DOORS OPEN, FACTORIES CLOSED
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 14, 2013 (3:12pm)
Among the problems faced by last century’s car designers was “that bugbear of all motorists – the door.”
Happily, Holden engineers were able to meet this awesome technological challenge. Further on Holden’s early days
AL LIED, POLE UNFRIED
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 14, 2013 (2:38pm)
Al Gore predicted the North Polar Ice Cap would be completely ice free in five years.
SCAM LANGUAGE
Tim Blair – Saturday, December 14, 2013 (2:07pm)
What’s the sign language symbol for “hilarious fraud”? Thamsanqa Dyantyi demonstrates:
Mr Dyantyi presumably also knows the symbols for “convicted thief” and “accused murderer”.
Mr Dyantyi presumably also knows the symbols for “convicted thief” and “accused murderer”.
POLITENESS MONEY
Tim Blair – Friday, December 13, 2013 (4:25pm)
Attention, note writers:
Our client, a large Government organisation, is seeking expressions of interest from experienced writers to support a small team on a casual term basis. A requirement for this position is that you must be an Australian Citizen.In this position you will provide support to an engagement team through writing notes to those who have participated in sessions and meetings, thanking them for their contributions.
Seems simple enough. But check out the qualifications:
To be considered for this position, you will be an experienced writer with a capacity in writing, editing and proofreading text. You will be able to demonstrate perseverance, a good grasp of narrative, awareness of audience and the demonstrated ability to develop strong working relationships with a variety of stakeholders.
And also the ability to write: “Thank you for your contribution to this session and/or meeting.”
(Via Ganesh)
JOE BLAMED
Tim Blair – Friday, December 13, 2013 (4:06pm)
Former Fairfax business editor Ian Porter:
The question that needs to be answered after the government effectively forced General Motors to abandon car manufacturing in Australia is a simple one: why did Treasurer Joe Hockey do it?
It’s just possible that one or two other factors were involved in Holden’s decision. Speaking of which, here’s Bill Leak today:
UPDATE. Peter Switzer:
UPDATE. Peter Switzer:
The greatest piece of drama acted out on TV was the Academy Award performance by the Opposition Deputy Leader, Tanya Plibersek, as she reacted to the Holden decision. If you arrived here from Mars on Wednesday, you’d now believe that Joe Hockey chased the company out of the country.Plibersek’s pathos-ridden effort made me recall if she was so tearfully outspoken when Mitsubishi and Ford pulled up stumps under Labor.She wasn’t.
UPDATE II. Doug Cameron is sad.
High Court uses slippery slope argument to defend same sex marriage. Where is Malcolm Turnbull now?
Andrew Bolt December 14 2013 (9:29am)
The High Court this week endorsed the “slippery slope” argument used by opponents of same-sex marriage - and unwisely sneered at by the likes of Malcolm Turnbull.
In this case the argument is simple: once you insist that two gays should be free to marry each other on the grounds that they are consenting adults then you cannot logically oppose three consenting adults from marrying, either. Agree to same sex marriage and you must agree to polygamy, too.
It turns out i was wrong only in one detail - one that actually underlines my point. The High Court says we already legally endorse polygamy for many purposes, so we cannot logically oppose same sex marriage. This is indeed the “slippery slope” argument - backed by our Highest Court, albeit with a different agenda in mind.
The High Court, in over-ruling the ACT’s same sex marriage laws, noted the classic definition of marriage:
Malcolm Turnbull once mocked warnings of the slippery slope when they came from opponents of same-sex marriage. His original article attacking my own warnings is no longer on-line, but here is some of my response to Turnbull at the time:
Weaken that glue and we all will pay.
Turnbull’s once claimed judges would treat the slippery slope argument with contempt. Now that judges in fact use the slippery slope argument to defend same sex marriage, will he now revise his stand?
(Thanks to reader Ganesh.)
===In this case the argument is simple: once you insist that two gays should be free to marry each other on the grounds that they are consenting adults then you cannot logically oppose three consenting adults from marrying, either. Agree to same sex marriage and you must agree to polygamy, too.
It turns out i was wrong only in one detail - one that actually underlines my point. The High Court says we already legally endorse polygamy for many purposes, so we cannot logically oppose same sex marriage. This is indeed the “slippery slope” argument - backed by our Highest Court, albeit with a different agenda in mind.
The High Court, in over-ruling the ACT’s same sex marriage laws, noted the classic definition of marriage:
Reference might also have been made (and now commonly is made) to the earlier decision of Lord Penzance in Hyde v Hyde and Woodmansee and the statement[9] that “marriage, as understood in Christendom, may for this purpose be defined as the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others”.But it said our law already recognised for many purposes, polygamous marriages (contracted overseas, although we also have traditional Aboriginal polygamous unions):
Second, statements made in cases like Hyde v Hyde, suggesting that a potentially polygamous marriage could never be recognised in English law, were later qualified by both judge-made law and statute to the point where in both England and Australia the law now recognises polygamous marriages for many purposes[46].(My bold throughout.) That is exactly the slippery slope argument, used here to justify in advance a future decision by the federal parliament to redefine marriage. To justify more “complex” definitions that “must be recognised”.
Once it is accepted that “marriage” can include polygamous marriages, it becomes evident that the juristic concept of “marriage” cannot be confined to a union having the characteristics described in Hyde v Hyde and other nineteenth century cases. Rather, “marriage” is to be understood in s 51(xxi) of the Constitution as referring to a consensual union formed between natural persons in accordance with legally prescribed requirements which is not only a union the law recognises as intended to endure and be terminable only in accordance with law but also a union to which the law accords a status affecting and defining mutual rights and obligations.
It is not now possible (if it ever was) to confine attention to jurisdictions whose law of marriage provides only for unions between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life. Marriage law is and must be recognised now to be more complex.
Malcolm Turnbull once mocked warnings of the slippery slope when they came from opponents of same-sex marriage. His original article attacking my own warnings is no longer on-line, but here is some of my response to Turnbull at the time:
First (Turnbull) says the “slippery slope” argument against same-sex marriage is nonsense, but without explaining why - other than to assert that unnamed judges would treat it with contempt… Turnbull also fails to explain on which grounds those judges would dismiss the slippery slope argument. Is it simply on a matter of law or through a superior understanding of how humans behave once taboos are broken? I’m not sure Turnbull knows himself.Turnbull back then claimed what the High Court this week implicitly rejected by declaring polygamy was already for many purposes already recognised under our law:
The truth is that we do not need to go far at all to see how slippery the slippery slope can be. For instance, abortion was once - and on a strictly legalistic reading of the law in Victoria still is - limited to those cases in which a woman’s physical or mental health is endangered by her pregnancy. Now the restriction is so broadly interpreted that abortion is available to virtually any adult woman who simply wishes it, even when (in states such as Victoria) the child to be aborted is healthy and just weeks from birth. Australian ethicists, building on the work of Peter Singer, now argue even for the post-birth killing of babies by mothers who no longer want them… As these and other examples show. once a traditional social taboo is lifted, it is very difficult to get people to agree on where the new limits should be set. And, exhausted by disagreement, we sometimes fail to agree on any limits, or none we’re prepared to defend.
Anyway, says Turnbull, “there is no demand, no lobby, no support, no constituency for legalising polygamy under the Marriage Act”, so where’s the slippery slope?The High Court, no doubt inadvertently, this week validated an important objection to same sex marriage - that it opens the door to endless redefinitions of marriage that will turn an important communal custom, freighted by tradition with responsibilities, into little more than highly individualistic arrangements with little moral power. This could be a disaster given that marriage serves one important role above any other: it glues parents together in the combination that is most likely to produce well-socialised children.
I am astonished that someone to the Left of the Liberal Party should be so blind to the desires of some of Muslim citizens, who argue that polygamy - unlike same sex marriage - is licensed by the Koran. Calls for the recognition of polygamy have been made by Sheikh Khalil Chami of the Islamic Welfare Centre in Lakemba and Keysar Trad of the Islamic Friendship Association. Australia’s then Mufti, Sheik Fehmi Naji el-Imam, said polygamy was an issue for the Australian National Council of Imams to discuss, and Yasser Soliman, one of the Muslim advisers handpicked by then prime minister John Howard argued: “I don’t think it should be discussed in terms of any threat to the Australian way of life.” Turnbull says we’d resist polygamy because of our “view of the equality of men and women”, but defenders of polygamy would not just question Turnbull’s judgment or opinion, but would use against him some of the very arguments used to back same-sex marriage: as in, by what right does he deny three adults the freedom to live together in marriage, should that be their wish? Aren’t Islamic values and ideal of equality to be treated as second class? Why is he imposing his values on others? Why is polygamy a threat to his own marriage?
Weaken that glue and we all will pay.
Turnbull’s once claimed judges would treat the slippery slope argument with contempt. Now that judges in fact use the slippery slope argument to defend same sex marriage, will he now revise his stand?
(Thanks to reader Ganesh.)
Rhiannon admits a brutal Communist regime schooled her
Andrew Bolt December 14 2013 (9:14am)
The ABC wins an admission from a Greens Senator that she was educated - as a guest - by a Communist regime long infamous for its brutality and oppression:
===James Carleton: Tell me, you did study – correct me if I’m wrong – in Russia? The International Lenin School for around 6 months or so, when you were a member of the Socialist Party? Is that correct?Gerard Henderson:
Lee Rhiannon: Yes. Yes. I’ve always been very open about my work and I’ve studied in many countries – political economy, Marxism.
Hold it there. How frightfully interesting. Caught on the hop, Senator Rhiannon admitted that she had studied at the International Lenin School in Moscow at the time when the communist neo-Stalinist (to use Mark Aarons’ term) dictator Leonid Brezhnev ran the Soviet Union. The year was 1977 and Rhiannon (born in 1951) was in her mid 20s....
But the point is that Lee O’Gorman (as she then was) undertook a course at the International Lenin School – which was an exclusive institution in Moscow which trained willing comrades for political action and which was controlled and funded by a totalitarian communist regime which locked up dissidents in psychiatric institutions and was overly anti-Semitic. The Greens Senator did not break with the pro-Moscow communists until 1990 – when she was close to 40 years of age....
MWD is astounded, absolutely astounded, that few members of the Canberra Press Gallery – outside the News Corp stable, where Christian Kerr has done considerable research – have focused on what Lee Rhiannon did between the ages of 18 and 39. Yet there has been excessive focus on David Marr’s unproven (and now revised) claim that Tony Abbott punched a wall at Sydney University when still a teenager. See MWD passim.
And then there is the matter of double standards. Imagine what ABC journalists would say if Cardinal George Pell confessed on RN Drivethat he studied at, say, the International Mussolini School in Rome financed by the French National Front. Just imagine.
Why we spied on a harmless Indonesian housewife to the horror of our media Left
Andrew Bolt December 14 2013 (7:31am)
Naive reporters - or worse - pretended there was no reason for us to monitor the phone of the Indonesian president’s wife, thus justifying their otherwise baseless claim that our spying was such an outrage that it had to be exposed despite the damage it would cause and the drownings it would lead to.
A typical example, from Crikey’s Bernard Keane:
You have to despair at the stupidity of so much media today, so often made manifest by the cynicism of the idiot who trusts nothing but the ignorance he takes for his superior intellect. Who trusts his own uniformed prejudices about the considered professional judgment of our intelligence agencies and the politicians overseeing them.
The truth:
===A typical example, from Crikey’s Bernard Keane:
The Australian Signals Directorate, as it’s now called (formerly the DSD), has sailed serenely through the trashing of our relations with Indonesia, and the damage inflicted on a new government that had nothing to do with its actions, with little attention. Its errors of judgement in taking so grievously offensive a step as spying on the Indonesian President’s wife merely because it could, rather than for any particular intelligence value....It was as if the reporters were sexists who really believed President Yudhoyono’s wife just did the ironing and cooking as she waited meekly each night for her husband to come home.
You have to despair at the stupidity of so much media today, so often made manifest by the cynicism of the idiot who trusts nothing but the ignorance he takes for his superior intellect. Who trusts his own uniformed prejudices about the considered professional judgment of our intelligence agencies and the politicians overseeing them.
The truth:
AUSTRALIAN intelligence agencies targeted the mobile phone of Indonesia’s first lady in 2009 because she had become the single most influential adviser to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and was thought to be hatching a presidential succession plan for her eldest son.
The decision to target Kristiani Herawati’s phone was not done on a whim but was part of a deliberate and calculated strategy to learn more about the shifting balance of power inside Jakarta’s ruling elite.
Who is hiding the non-boats?
Andrew Bolt December 14 2013 (7:03am)
Labor and its media mates accused the Abbott Government of not informing the public of boat arrivals:
===Bill Shorten accused the Coalition of ”hiding the boats”....But when the Abbott Government slows boat arrivals this past week to just one, carrying just three people, it is the media which shows almost zero interest in informing the public.
http://www.news.com.au/world/cancer-victim-colby-curtin-10-granted-dying-to-see-new-pixar-movie-up/story-fndir2ev-1226782890443
==="We're not left or right, we're individuals!" *Snigger*
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/mark-scott-must-step-up-and-rid-abc-of-its-green-hue/story-fnkqo7i5-1226782717544#mm-register
===
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2522875/Ho-Ho-Ho-The-awkward-family-photos-Santa-Claus-real-belly-laugh.html
===
http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/scientists-discover-indonesian-cave-with-stunning-record-of-tsunamis-dating-back-thousands-of-years/story-fn5fsgyc-1226782895230
===Professor Henry Graff : “I taught at Columbia for 46 years” Obama Could Not Have Gone There
===
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/new-york-emergency-services-send-bill-to-unknown-asian/story-fnkjidjt-1226781908863
=== - 557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.
- 835 – Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynastyconspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.
- 1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
- 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
- 1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
- 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km (1.2 mi).
- 1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
- 1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
- 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
- 1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.
- 1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
- 1900 – Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
- 1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
- 1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
- 1907 – The Thomas W. Lawson, the largest ever ship without a heat engine, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
- 1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
- 1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
- 1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
- 1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- 1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
- 1918 – Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
- 1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
- 1940 – Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.
- 1941 – World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.
- 1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.
- 1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.
- 1960 – Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.
- 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
- 1963 – The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.
- 1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.
- 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)
- 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
- 1981 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights.
- 1992 – War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.
- 1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.
- 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 1998 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.
- 1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.
- 2003 – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
- 2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.
- 2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
- 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
- 2013 – A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
- 1009 – Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (d. 1045)
- 1332 – Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1381)
- 1546 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist (d. 1601)
- 1599 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, English politician (d. 1668)
- 1607 – János Kemény, Hungarian prince (d. 1662)
- 1625 – Barthélemy d'Herbelot, French orientalist and academic (d. 1695)
- 1631 – Anne Conway, English philosopher and author (d. 1679)
- 1640 – Aphra Behn, English playwright and author (d. 1689)
- 1678 – Daniel Neal, English historian and author (d. 1743)
- 1720 – Justus Möser, German jurist and theorist (d. 1794)
- 1730 – Capel Bond, English organist and composer (d. 1790)
- 1738 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, Czech composer and educator (d. 1814)
- 1775 – Philander Chase, American bishop and educator, founded Kenyon College (d. 1852)
- 1775 – Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish admiral and politician (d. 1860)
- 1777 – Du Pre Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon, Irish politician, Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone (d. 1839)
- 1784 – Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (d. 1806)
- 1789 – Maria Szymanowska, Polish composer and pianist (d. 1831)
- 1791 – Charles Wolfe, Irish priest and poet (d. 1823)
- 1794 – Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (d. 1872)
- 1816 – Abraham Hochmuth, Hungarian rabbi and educator (d. 1889)
- 1824 – Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter and illustrator (d. 1898)
- 1832 – Daniel H. Reynolds, American general, lawyer, and politician (d. 1902)
- 1851 – Mary Tappan Wright, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1916)
- 1852 – Daniel De Leon, Curaçaoan-American journalist and politician (d. 1914)
- 1853 – Errico Malatesta, Italian activist and theorist (d. 1932)
- 1856 – Louis Marshall, American lawyer and activist (d. 1929)
- 1866 – Roger Fry, English painter and critic (d. 1934)
- 1870 – Karl Renner, Austrian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Austria (d. 1950)
- 1881 – Katherine MacDonald, American actress and producer (d. 1956)
- 1883 – Manolis Kalomiris, Greek pianist and composer (d. 1962)
- 1883 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, developed aikido (d. 1969)
- 1884 – Jane Cowl, American actress and playwright (d. 1950)
- 1887 – Xul Solar, Argentinian painter and sculptor (d. 1963)
- 1894 – Alexander Nelke, Estonian-American painter and carpenter (d. 1974)
- 1895 – George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
- 1895 – Paul Éluard, French poet and author (d. 1952)
- 1896 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1993)
- 1897 – Kurt Schuschnigg, Italian-Austrian lawyer and politician, 15th Federal Chancellor of Austria(d. 1977)
- 1897 – Margaret Chase Smith, American educator and politician (d. 1995)
- 1899 – DeFord Bailey, American Hall of Fame country and blues musician (d. 1982)
- 1901 – Henri Cochet, French tennis player (d. 1987)
- 1901 – Paul of Greece (d. 1964)
- 1902 – Frances Bavier, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1902 – Herbert Feigl, Austrian philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1988)
- 1903 – Walter Rangeley, English sprinter (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Morey Amsterdam, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1996)
- 1908 – Claude Davey, Welsh rugby player (d. 2001)
- 1908 – Mária Szepes, Hungarian journalist, author, and screenwriter (d. 2007)
- 1909 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
- 1911 – Spike Jones, American singer and bandleader (d. 1965)
- 1911 – Hans von Ohain, German-American physicist and engineer (d. 1998)
- 1911 – Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz, Greek-Polish swimmer and water polo player (d. 1943)
- 1914 – Karl Carstens, German lieutenant and politician, 5th President of the Federal Republic of Germany (d. 1992)
- 1914 – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichord player (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Dan Dailey, American dancer and actor (d. 1978)
- 1916 – Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1965)
- 1917 – C.-H. Hermansson, Swedish author and politician (d. 2016)
- 1917 – Elyse Knox, American actress and fashion designer (d. 2012)
- 1917 – June Taylor, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2004)
- 1918 – James T. Aubrey, American broadcaster (d. 1994)
- 1918 – Radu Beligan, Romanian actor and director (d. 2016)
- 1918 – B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and author, founded Iyengar Yoga (d. 2014)
- 1920 – Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (d. 2015)
- 1922 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Don Hewitt, American journalist and producer, created 60 Minutes (d. 2009)
- 1922 – Junior J. Spurrier, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1984)
- 1923 – Gerard Reve, Dutch-Belgian author and poet (d. 2006)
- 1924 – Raj Kapoor, Pakistani-Indian actor, director, and producer (d. 1988)
- 1925 – Sam Jones, American baseball player (d. 1971)
- 1927 – Richard Cassilly, American tenor and actor (d. 1998)
- 1927 – Koos Rietkerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of the Interior (d. 1986)
- 1929 – Ron Jarden, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1977)
- 1930 – David R. Harris, English geographer, anthropologist, and archaeologist (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Margaret Bakkes, South African author (d. 2016)
- 1931 – Jon Elia, Pakistani philosopher, poet, and scholar (d. 2002)
- 1931 – Vladimir-Georg Karassev-Orgusaar, Estonian director and politician (d. 2015)
- 1932 – George Furth, American actor and playwright (d. 2008)
- 1932 – Abbe Lane, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1932 – Charlie Rich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)
- 1934 – Shyam Benegal, Indian director and screenwriter
- 1934 – Charlie Hodge, American guitarist and singer (d. 2006)
- 1935 – Lewis Arquette, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2001)
- 1935 – Lee Remick, American actress (d. 1991)
- 1938 – Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian and author
- 1938 – Charlie Griffith, Barbadian cricketer
- 1939 – Ann Cryer, English academic and politician
- 1939 – Ernie Davis, American football player (d. 1963)
- 1940 – Lex Gold, Scottish footballer and civil servant
- 1941 – Karan Armstrong, American soprano and actress
- 1941 – Ellen Willis, American journalist, critic, and academic (d. 2006)
- 1942 – Chris Harris, English actor and director (d. 2014)
- 1942 – Dick Wagner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2014)
- 1943 – Tommy McAvoy, Scottish politician
- 1943 – Emmett Tyrrell, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded The American Spectator
- 1944 – Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham, English businessman, founded DFS
- 1946 – Antony Beevor, English historian and author
- 1946 – Jane Birkin, English-French actress and singer
- 1946 – John Du Prez, English conductor and composer
- 1946 – Patty Duke, American actress (d. 2016)
- 1946 – Ruth Fuchs, German javelin thrower and politician
- 1946 – Michael Ovitz, American talent agent, co-founded Creative Artists Agency
- 1946 – Stan Smith, American tennis player and coach
- 1946 – Joyce Vincent Wilson, American singer
- 1947 – Christopher Parkening, American guitarist and educator
- 1947 – Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian economist and politician, 36th President of Brazil
- 1948 – Lester Bangs, American journalist and author (d. 1982)
- 1948 – Kim Beazley, Australian politician and diplomat, 9th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
- 1948 – Boudewijn Büch, Dutch author, poet, and television host (d. 2002)
- 1948 – Peeter Kreitzberg, Estonian lawyer and politician (d. 2011)
- 1949 – Bill Buckner, American baseball player and manager
- 1949 – Cliff Williams, Australian bass player
- 1951 – Jan Timman, Dutch chess player and author
- 1952 – John Lurie, American actor, saxophonist, painter, director, and producer
- 1953 – Vijay Amritraj, Indian tennis player and sportscaster
- 1953 – Wade Davis, Canadian anthropologist, author, and photographer
- 1953 – René Eespere, Estonian composer
- 1953 – Vangelis Meimarakis, Greek lawyer and politician, 4th Greek Minister for National Defence
- 1953 – Mikael Odenberg, Swedish soldier and politician, 29th Swedish Minister for Defence
- 1954 – Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (d. 1993)
- 1954 – Steve MacLean, Canadian physicist and astronaut
- 1955 – Jane Crafter, Australian golfer
- 1955 – Jill Pipher, American mathematician and academic
- 1956 – Linda Fabiani, Scottish politician
- 1956 – Hanni Wenzel, German skier
- 1958 – Mike Scott, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1958 – Spider Stacy, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1959 – Bob Paris, American-Canadian bodybuilder and actor
- 1959 – Jorge Vaca, Mexican boxer
- 1960 – Don Franklin, American actor
- 1960 – Chris Waddle, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
- 1960 – Diane Williams, American sprinter
- 1960 – James Comey, FBI Director
- 1961 – Jeff Robinson, American baseball player (d. 2014)
- 1961 – Patrik Sundström, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1963 – Greg Abbott, English footballer and manager
- 1963 – Diana Gansky, German discus thrower
- 1965 – Craig Biggio, American baseball player and coach
- 1965 – Ken Hill, American baseball player
- 1965 – Ted Raimi, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Fabrizio Giovanardi, Italian race car driver
- 1966 – Anthony Mason, American basketball player (d. 2015)
- 1966 – Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Danish academic and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Denmark
- 1966 – Bill Ranford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1966 – Tim Sköld, Swedish bass player and producer
- 1967 – Ewa Białołęcka, Polish author
- 1967 – Hanne Haugland, Norwegian high jumper and coach
- 1968 – Kelley Armstrong, Canadian author
- 1969 – Scott Hatteberg, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1969 – Archie Kao, American actor and producer
- 1969 – Arthur Numan, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1969 – Natascha McElhone, English-Irish actress
- 1970 – Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1970 – Beth Orton, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 – Michaela Watkins, American actor and comedian
- 1972 – Miranda Hart, English actress
- 1972 – Marcus Jensen, American baseball player and coach
- 1973 – Falk Balzer, German hurdler
- 1973 – Pat Burke, Irish basketball player
- 1973 – Tomasz Radzinski, Polish-Canadian footballer
- 1973 – Saulius Štombergas, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
- 1974 – Billy Koch, American baseball player
- 1975 – Justin Furstenfeld, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1975 – Ben Kay, English rugby player
- 1976 – Tammy Blanchard, American actress and singer
- 1976 – Leland Chapman, American bounty hunter
- 1976 – Sebastien Chaule, French-German rugby player
- 1976 – André Couto, Portuguese race car driver
- 1976 – Santiago Ezquerro, Spanish footballer
- 1977 – Jamie Peacock, English rugby player and manager
- 1978 – Dean Brogan, Australian footballer and coach
- 1978 – Shedrack Kibet Korir, Kenyan runner
- 1978 – Zdeněk Pospěch, Czech footballer
- 1978 – Patty Schnyder, Swiss tennis player
- 1978 – Kim St-Pierre, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1979 – Jean-Alain Boumsong, French footballer
- 1979 – Andrei Makrov, Estonian ice hockey player
- 1979 – Sophie Monk, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1979 – Michael Owen, English footballer and sportscaster
- 1980 – Gordon Greer, Scottish footballer
- 1980 – Didier Zokora, Ivorian footballer
- 1980 – Thed Björk, Swedish racing driver
- 1981 – Rebecca Jarvis, American journalist
- 1981 – Johnny Jeter, American wrestler
- 1981 – Liam Lawrence, Irish footballer
- 1981 – Shaun Marcum, American baseball player
- 1982 – Josh Fields, American baseball player
- 1982 – Steve Sidwell, English footballer
- 1982 – Anthony Way, English singer and actor
- 1983 – Leanne Mitchell, English singer-songwriter
- 1984 – Chris Brunt, Northern Irish footballer
- 1984 – Rana Daggubati, Indian actor and producer
- 1984 – Ed Rainsford, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1985 – Jakub Błaszczykowski, Polish footballer
- 1985 – Alex Pennie, Welsh keyboard player
- 1985 – Paul Rabil, American lacrosse player
- 1985 – Tom Smith, English-Welsh rugby player
- 1985 – Nonami Takizawa, Japanese actress and singer
- 1987 – Kenneth Medwood, Belizean-American hurdler
- 1988 – Nicolas Batum, French basketball player
- 1988 – Nate Ebner, American football player
- 1988 – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress and singer
- 1988 – Hayato Sakamoto, Japanese baseball player
- 1989 – Sam Burgess, English rugby league player
- 1989 – Pedro Roberto Silva Botelho, Brazilian footballer
- 1989 – Onew, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1991 – Ben Henry, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1991 – Offset, American rapper
- 1992 – Tori Kelly, American singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Ryo Miyaichi, Japanese footballer
- 1993 – Antonio Giovinazzi, Italian racing driver
- 1996 – Li Zijun, Chinese figure skater
Births[edit]
- 618 – Xue Rengao, emperor of Qin
- 704 – Aldfrith, king of Northumbria (or 705)
- 872 – Pope Adrian II (b. 792)
- 1077 – Agnes of Poitou, Holy Roman Empress and regent (b. c. 1025)
- 1293 – Al-Ashraf Khalil, Mamluk sultan of Egypt
- 1311 – Margaret of Brabant, German queen consort (b. 1276)
- 1332 – Rinchinbal Khan, Mongolian emperor (b. 1326)
- 1359 – Cangrande II della Scala, Lord of Verona (b. 1332)
- 1417 – John Oldcastle, English Lollard leader
- 1460 – Guarino da Verona, Italian scholar and translator (b. 1370)
- 1480 – Niccolò Perotti, humanist scholar (b. 1429)
- 1503 – Sten Sture the Elder, regent of Sweden (b. 1440)
- 1510 – Friedrich of Saxony (b. 1473)
- 1542 – James V of Scotland (b. 1512)
- 1591 – John of the Cross, Spanish priest and saint (b. 1542)
- 1595 – Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1535)
- 1624 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord High Admiral (b. 1536)
- 1651 – Pierre Dupuy, French historian and scholar (b. 1582)
- 1715 – Thomas Tenison, English archbishop (b. 1636)
- 1735 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop and historian (b. 1674)
- 1741 – Charles Rollin, French historian and educator (b. 1661)
- 1785 – Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Italian painter and engraver (b. 1727)
- 1788 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (b. 1714)
- 1788 – Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)
- 1799 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (b. 1732)
- 1831 – Martin Baum, American businessman and politician, 5th Mayor of Cincinnati (b. 1765)
- 1838 – Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (b. 1806)
- 1860 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)
- 1861 – Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (b. 1819)
- 1865 – Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist and mineralogist (b. 1794)
- 1873 – Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist (b. 1807)
- 1878 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (b. 1843)
- 1912 – Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1887)
- 1917 – Phil Waller, Welsh rugby player (b. 1889)
- 1920 – George Gipp, American football player (b. 1895)
- 1927 – Julian Sochocki, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1842)
- 1935 – Stanley G. Weinbaum, American author (b. 1902)
- 1937 – Fabián de la Rosa, Filipino painter and educator (b. 1869)
- 1940 – Anton Korošec, Slovenian priest and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1872)
- 1943 – John Harvey Kellogg, American physician and businessman, co-invented corn flakes (b. 1852)
- 1947 – Stanley Baldwin, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
- 1947 – Edward Higgins, English-American 3rd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1864)
- 1953 – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American author and academic (b. 1896)
- 1956 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, Finnish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)
- 1963 – Dinah Washington, American singer and pianist (b. 1924)
- 1964 – William Bendix, American actor (b. 1906)
- 1970 – Franz Schlegelberger, German judge and politician, German Reich Minister of Justice (b. 1876)
- 1971 – Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury, Bangladeshi linguist and scholar (b. 1926)
- 1971 – Munier Choudhury, Bangladeshi author, playwright, and critic (b. 1925)
- 1971 – Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi journalist and author (b. 1927)
- 1974 – Walter Lippmann, American journalist and author (b. 1889)
- 1975 – Arthur Treacher, English-American entertainer (b. 1894)
- 1978 – Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish historian and diplomat, co-founded the College of Europe(b. 1886)
- 1980 – Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (b. 1929)
- 1984 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
- 1985 – Catherine Doherty, Russian-Canadian activist, founded the Madonna House Apostolate (b. 1896)
- 1985 – Roger Maris, American baseball player and coach (b. 1934)
- 1989 – Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (b. 1919)
- 1989 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
- 1990 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and playwright (b. 1921)
- 1991 – Robert Eddison, Japanese-English actor (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Jeff Alm, American football player (b. 1968)
- 1993 – Myrna Loy, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1994 – Orval Faubus, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1910)
- 1995 – G. C. Edmondson, American soldier and author (b. 1922)
- 1996 – Gaston Miron, Canadian poet and author (b. 1928)
- 1997 – Stubby Kaye, American actor and comedian (b. 1918)
- 1997 – Emily Cheney Neville, American author (b. 1919)
- 1997 – Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist and songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1998 – Norman Fell, American actor and comedian (b. 1924)
- 1998 – A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., American lawyer, judge, and activist (b. 1928)
- 1998 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and politician, Mayor of Dallas (b. 1924)
- 2001 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist, essayist, and poet (b. 1944)
- 2003 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (b. 1925)
- 2003 – Blas Ople, Filipino journalist and politician, 21st President of the Senate of the Philippines(b. 1927)
- 2003 – Frank Sheeran, American union leader and mobster (b. 1920)
- 2004 – Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (b. 1934)
- 2004 – Fernando Poe, Jr., Filipino actor, director, producer, and politician (b. 1939)
- 2006 – Anton Balasingham, Sri Lankan-English strategist and negotiator (b. 1938)
- 2006 – Ahmet Ertegün, Turkish-American composer and producer, co-founded Atlantic Records (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Mike Evans, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1949)
- 2009 – Alan A'Court, English footballer and manager (b. 1934)
- 2010 – Timothy Davlin, American politician, Mayor of Springfield (b. 1957)
- 2010 – Neva Patterson, American actress (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Dale Roberts, English footballer (b. 1986)
- 2011 – Joe Simon, American author and illustrator (b. 1913)
- 2011 – Billie Jo Spears, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
- 2012 – John Graham, English general (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Edward Jones, American police officer and politician (b. 1950)
- 2012 – Victoria Leigh Soto, American educator (b. 1985)
- 2013 – Janet Dailey, American author (b. 1944)
- 2013 – C. N. Karunakaran, Indian painter and illustrator (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Dennis Lindley, English statistician and academic (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor (b. 1932)
- 2013 – George Rodrigue, American painter (b. 1944)
- 2014 – Theo Colborn, American zoologist and academic (b. 1927)
- 2014 – Irene Dalis, American soprano and pianist (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Louis Alphonse Koyagialo, Congolese politician, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1947)
- 2014 – Bess Myerson, American model, activist, game show panelist and television personality; Miss America 1945 (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Fred Thurston, American football player (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Terry Backer, American soldier and politician (b. 1954)
- 2015 – Glen Sonmor, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Vadym Tyshchenko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (b. 1963)
- 2015 – Lillian Vernon, German-American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded the Lillian Vernon Company (b. 1927)
- 2016 – Paulo Evaristo Arns, Brazilian cardinal (b. 1921)
- 2016 – Bernard Fox, Welsh actor (b. 1927)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Alabama Day (Alabama)
- Forty-seven Ronin Remembrance Day (Sengaku-ji, Tokyo)
- Martyred Intellectuals Day (Bangladesh)
- Monkey Day (International)
Holidays and observances[edit]
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Salt was used in every offering made by fire unto the Lord, and from its preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine grace in the soul. It is worthy of our attentive regard that, when Artaxerxes gave salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be quite certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among his royal priesthood, the supply is not cut short by him. Often are we straitened in ourselves, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna will find that he may have as much as he desires. There is no such famine in Jerusalem that the citizens should eat their bread by weight and drink their water by measure. Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never have a single drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made, "Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given unto thee." Parents need to lock up the fruit cupboard, and the sweet jars, but there is no need to keep the salt-box under lock and key, for few children will eat too greedily from that. A man may have too much money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much grace. When Jeshurun waxed fat in the flesh, he kicked against God, but there is no fear of a man's becoming too full of grace: a plethora of grace is impossible. More wealth brings more care, but more grace brings more joy. Increased wisdom is increased sorrow, but abundance of the Spirit is fulness of joy. Believer, go to the throne for a large supply of heavenly salt. It will season thine afflictions, which are unsavoury without salt; it will preserve thy heart which corrupts if salt be absent, and it will kill thy sins even as salt kills reptiles. Thou needest much; seek much, and have much.
Evening
The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected by heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual house must not be dark, for the Israelites had light in their dwellings; there must therefore be windows to let the light in and to allow the inhabitants to gaze abroad. These windows are precious as agates: the ways in which the church beholds her Lord and heaven, and spiritual truth in general, are to be had in the highest esteem. Agates are not the most transparent of gems, they are but semi-pellucid at the best:
"Our knowledge of that life is small,
Our eye of faith is dim."
Faith is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it is often so misty and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and mistake much that we do see. Yet if we cannot gaze through windows of diamonds and know even as we are known, it is a glorious thing to behold the altogether lovely One, even though the glass be hazy as the agate. Experience is another of these dim but precious windows, yielding to us a subdued religious light, in which we see the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, through our own afflictions. Our weak eyes could not endure windows of transparent glass to let in the Master's glory, but when they are dimmed with weeping, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness are tempered, and shine through the windows of agate with a soft radiance inexpressibly soothing to tempted souls. Sanctification, as it conforms us to our Lord, is another agate window. Only as we become heavenly can we comprehend heavenly things. The pure in heart see a pure God. Those who are like Jesus see him as he is. Because we are so little like him, the window is but agate; because we are somewhat like him, it is agate. We thank God for what we have, and long for more. When shall we see God and Jesus, and heaven and truth, face to face?
===Today's reading: Hosea 12-14, Revelation 4 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Hosea 12-14
1 Ephraim feeds on the wind;
he pursues the east wind all day
and multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a treaty with Assyria
and sends olive oil to Egypt.
2 The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah;
he will punish Jacob according to his ways
and repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
as a man he struggled with God.
4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there—
5 the LORD God Almighty,
the LORD is his name!
6 But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always.
he pursues the east wind all day
and multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a treaty with Assyria
and sends olive oil to Egypt.
2 The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah;
he will punish Jacob according to his ways
and repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
as a man he struggled with God.
4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there—
5 the LORD God Almighty,
the LORD is his name!
6 But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always.
7 The merchant uses dishonest scales
and loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim boasts,
“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.
With all my wealth they will not find in me
any iniquity or sin....”
and loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim boasts,
“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.
With all my wealth they will not find in me
any iniquity or sin....”
Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 4
The Throne in Heaven
1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. 6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal....
Manasseh, Manasses[Mānăs’seh,Mānăs’sēs]—causing forgetfulness.
- The elder son of Joseph, who was born in Egypt and was half Hebrew and half Egyptian. He was the founder of a tribe (Gen. 41:51; Num. 1:10 ). Manasseh and his brother Ephraim were Jacob’s Gentile descendants, since both were children of an Egyptian mother. Ephraim means “the multitude of nations,” or “the fulness of the Gentiles,” and was prophetic of Christ as the Saviour of the world. The tribe of Manasseh produced two out of the four Old Testament men whose faith has been thought worthy of notice in the New Testament—Gideon and Jephthah (Heb. 11:32).
- The grandfather of Jonathan who, with his sons, became a priest to the tribe of Dan when they set up a graven image in Laish ( Judg. 18:30). Perhaps Moses should be read for Manasseh in the verse.
- The son of Hezekiah and father of Amon, king of Judah, who succeeded his father when he was only twelve years of age (2 Kings 20:21; 21).
The Man Whose Policy Was Wrong
Manasseh, the prodigal king of the Old Testament, was overwhelmed by Assyrian forces and in the twenty-third year of his reign was taken as a prisoner to Babylon where he lingered for twelve years. During these years he turned to God and was restored to freedom and his kingdom. For the next twenty years left to him, he sought to undo the wrong of the past. His long reign of fifty-five years, the longest in Jewish history, closed not inauspiciously. He died a penitent, and left a son who followed his father in his sins but not in his repentance.
Gathering together what we can of Manasseh’s life, it would seem that he was a man of policy:
His policy of idolatry . How he hated the first two commandments of Sinai, and reversed the reforms of his father! How exceedingly bold he was in his idolatry!
His policy of immorality. Idolatry and immorality go together, thus in rejecting God there came the worship of the Syrian Venus. This action let loose a flood of iniquity over the land of Judah.
His policy of persecution. Manasseh allowed nothing to stand in the way of license and open evil. Martyrdom became the cost of service. Idolatry was set up under the pain of death.
His policy of destruction . As far as he could, Manasseh destroyed the Word of God. Every copy found was consigned to the flames. God’s truth testified too plainly against the sins of king and people. So complete was this destruction of the Word of God that when Josiah, Manasseh’s grandson, came to the throne, a copy of it was found in the Temple.
But Manasseh’s eyes were opened to his sinful condition and he sobbed out the misery of his helpless and craven soul. Theoccasion of his repentance was affliction. In the prison-house of Babylon he prayed. As to the character of his repentance, he besought the Lord and humbled himself before the God of his fathers and prayed unto Him. Penniless and penitent, his cry for mercy came from a broken heart, and God graciously received this prodigal king. Alas, however, he stopped short of being out-and-out for God! He allowed the high places of idolatry to remain. It will not be possible to doubt God’s grace in heaven in the ages to come if we can but catch a glimpse of Manasseh—godly-reared, apostate, idolatrous, devilish, stricken, humbled, repentant Manasseh!
4. One of the family of Hashum who had married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:33).
5. One of the family of Pahath-moab who had done the same (Ezra 10:30).
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