The terrible violence and exploitation shown in NARCO and part of recent history is known. Why would any responsible person want that for their community? Pablo Escobar was not unique. Dan Andrews is opening a drug use facility next to a Primary school in Melbourne. He is wanting drug users to inject safely, and feels Ice users can then be safely released to the community while high. Andrews calls it best practice. Mathew Guy, opposition leader of the Liberals in Victoria will not endorse the project. Ice use next to primary schools? Will awards be given to any ice user who eats a school child? What would Escobar have done?
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 From The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048--1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubaiyat", (derived from the Arabic root word for 4), meaning "quatrains".
=== from 2017 ===
IPA Review April 2017 has an article on former Australian PM Paul Keating by former conservative minister and current IPA fellow Richard Allsop reviewing Keating by Kerry O'Brien and Paul Keating by Tony Bramston. What must be understood to penetrate the hagiography is that Libertarians are very similar animals to left wingers. Libertarians tend to the centre left. In recent years, left wing parties have vacated the centre left in favour of more extremist left wing positions. The collective good is served by prudent economic management. Libertarians say that, but Obama, HR Clinton, Bill Shorten and Rudd and Gillard are on record despising that view. The miracle of Keating is that although Keating was not very good, he was not insane. Keating milked a divided conservative lobby and got conservative support to bring through badly managed reforms. Rudd and Gillard have largely undone many of the Keating Industrial Relation reforms and Bill Shorten is opportunistically preventing improvement. Keating could have had better policies, but his party would not accept it. But what Keating achieved was done because responsible adults helped him achieve it. Australia still has responsible adults in parliament. But neither the ALP leader nor the current Liberal leader (Malcolm Turnbull) are one of those responsible adults.
Some things should not happen, but they do. Malcolm Turnbull leaking bogus polling about Tony Abbott illustrates that Turnbull can achieve nothing as PM beyond further humiliation. Naming Alan Jones was particularly stupid, as Jones is not backing Turnbull's lie. Turnbull is being hung out to dry. And it is Turnbull's fault. Turnbull only needed to be competent, and attempt any of the performance markers he indicated when he knifed Abbott. But Turnbull has failed every single one. One value Australians love about Australians is loyalty. Turnbull has failed that test. If Malcolm Turnbull had not been born in Australia it is doubtful he would pass a ridgy didge citizen test. For the record some have said that the proposed changes to the citizen test are worthless because people lie. However, some migrants proudly state they would transgress the mooted question values. Clearly, then, the test would have bite.
Some things should not happen, but they do. Malcolm Turnbull leaking bogus polling about Tony Abbott illustrates that Turnbull can achieve nothing as PM beyond further humiliation. Naming Alan Jones was particularly stupid, as Jones is not backing Turnbull's lie. Turnbull is being hung out to dry. And it is Turnbull's fault. Turnbull only needed to be competent, and attempt any of the performance markers he indicated when he knifed Abbott. But Turnbull has failed every single one. One value Australians love about Australians is loyalty. Turnbull has failed that test. If Malcolm Turnbull had not been born in Australia it is doubtful he would pass a ridgy didge citizen test. For the record some have said that the proposed changes to the citizen test are worthless because people lie. However, some migrants proudly state they would transgress the mooted question values. Clearly, then, the test would have bite.
=== from 2016 ===
A full day at work, and I am floored when I get home by the bureaucratic Victorian Institute of Teachers (VIT). I leave home at 6:40 am in the hopes of getting a seat on the train into the city. I get a seat. Just. Busy productive day at work when my employment service calls me at lunch. They tell me the money they promised me for clothes will not be paid for the clothes I got. And I need to show them the physical receipt, not just a copy. Maybe I can explain the purchase of a business shirt for business? Maybe not. I leave for home at the end of the day, thinking of shopping if there is not seat on the train. There is a seat so I don't shop. The rain prevents the bus from being on time. It is too hard to see outside the bus and I miss my stop and have to walk further in the rain. I get home and the internet is down because the broken back door has still not been repaired by AAMI. And I fix the internet, by resetting the modem and reestablishing the new passwords, and I'm told by the VIT that my application to teach has been deemed to be insufficient as I need to say how many prac days I had back in 1991. My full time experience evidently not counting for much.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
A storm has come to Sydney. Cool air. Good where I live on the top floor of a unit block, but terrible for many. Flooding. People have died. This is where infrastructure is important. Flood mitigating initiatives were not pursued for more than a decade when ALP were in office. Instead, money was diverted to a desalination plant in Sydney which has never been useful. Also, the outback needs to be developed so that such an excess of water goes to food production, and not waste. People die from ALP excess wether they know it or not.
Australia's foreign minister visited Charlie Hebdo in France, and thanked the magazine for their work. “If people don’t like it, don’t buy it. The utterly brutal and disproportionate response by the terrorists murdering people at this magazine, is to be condemned.”. An actual journalist working for @Spiegelonline, has found documents which show how ISIL came into being. It is, as Mr Abbott has said many times, a death cult. It has been built around East German Stasi lines as Saddam Hussein's intelligence network chiefs have devised it. It exploits Islam but has nothing to do with it. Which may startle some who weren't observant. Islam doesn't approve of homosexuality, yet jihadis have been given dispensation for sodomy on the front lines of this civil war (everywhere). Islam does not approve of cross dressing, but jihadis do it and act as if it is clever. Islam does not prove of women fighting men, but again the jihadis do that. Islam does not prove of suicide bombing. Islam does not like desecration of holy objects. Islam promotes justice, yet the jihadis version of Sharia Law does not provide it. Jihadis are killing other Muslims. Jihadis torture peaceful peoples who have done nothing to warrant it. Jihadis rape children and innocent women, and men. Were a jihadis to face an established sharia court anywhere in the world with evidence of these crimes they would be killed.
ISIL has been designed by one of Iraq's intelligence colonels who worked for Saddam and was trained by his regime. But the reason why it is so effective is because the inept former PM of Iraq who was in Iran's pocket, did not try to run a cohesive government. A young democratic state was brutally abused by him and Obama. His regime was easy to overthrow because he failed to use all the resources at hand, favouring Shiites over others. Yet those others also have nationalistic pride. And they want to live. What should be of international concern is Iran's development of nuclear weapons. It goes hand in hand with North Korea's development, and is a threat to world peace.
In 753 BC, Rome was founded by Romulus. In 43 BC, at the Battle of Mutina, Antony got a tactical victory over superior numbers of troops, preventing their encirclement of him. Among the republic's forces opposing him was Octavian. Octavian did not like fighting with the forces who killed his adoptive dad, but it gave him honour. In 900, the Laguna Copperplate inscription was made, the earliest record of writing in the Philippines. The writing system was from Java, but based on an earlier Phoenician script. In 1509, King Henry VIII came to the throne on the death of his dad. 1782, Bangkok was founded. In 1792, Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes was hanged, drawn and quartered. It had not gone to plan. He had intended to lead a revolt during a tax take for Portugal three years earlier. But he was betrayed by a trusted friend who was given a promise of tax relief. In 1856, Labour movement involving stonemasons and building workers march from Melbourne University to parliament house over an eight hour work day. It was before television. Melbourne University was less than three years old. Gold had only been discovered five years earlier in Victoria. They were successful. In 1914, the US Navy operating near Veracruz intercepted a German arms shipment to Mexico. In 1918, Richthofen was shot down. In 1934, the Surgeon's Photograph, a known hoax, was supposed to have photographed the Loch Ness Monster.
Australia's foreign minister visited Charlie Hebdo in France, and thanked the magazine for their work. “If people don’t like it, don’t buy it. The utterly brutal and disproportionate response by the terrorists murdering people at this magazine, is to be condemned.”. An actual journalist working for @Spiegelonline, has found documents which show how ISIL came into being. It is, as Mr Abbott has said many times, a death cult. It has been built around East German Stasi lines as Saddam Hussein's intelligence network chiefs have devised it. It exploits Islam but has nothing to do with it. Which may startle some who weren't observant. Islam doesn't approve of homosexuality, yet jihadis have been given dispensation for sodomy on the front lines of this civil war (everywhere). Islam does not approve of cross dressing, but jihadis do it and act as if it is clever. Islam does not prove of women fighting men, but again the jihadis do that. Islam does not prove of suicide bombing. Islam does not like desecration of holy objects. Islam promotes justice, yet the jihadis version of Sharia Law does not provide it. Jihadis are killing other Muslims. Jihadis torture peaceful peoples who have done nothing to warrant it. Jihadis rape children and innocent women, and men. Were a jihadis to face an established sharia court anywhere in the world with evidence of these crimes they would be killed.
ISIL has been designed by one of Iraq's intelligence colonels who worked for Saddam and was trained by his regime. But the reason why it is so effective is because the inept former PM of Iraq who was in Iran's pocket, did not try to run a cohesive government. A young democratic state was brutally abused by him and Obama. His regime was easy to overthrow because he failed to use all the resources at hand, favouring Shiites over others. Yet those others also have nationalistic pride. And they want to live. What should be of international concern is Iran's development of nuclear weapons. It goes hand in hand with North Korea's development, and is a threat to world peace.
In 753 BC, Rome was founded by Romulus. In 43 BC, at the Battle of Mutina, Antony got a tactical victory over superior numbers of troops, preventing their encirclement of him. Among the republic's forces opposing him was Octavian. Octavian did not like fighting with the forces who killed his adoptive dad, but it gave him honour. In 900, the Laguna Copperplate inscription was made, the earliest record of writing in the Philippines. The writing system was from Java, but based on an earlier Phoenician script. In 1509, King Henry VIII came to the throne on the death of his dad. 1782, Bangkok was founded. In 1792, Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes was hanged, drawn and quartered. It had not gone to plan. He had intended to lead a revolt during a tax take for Portugal three years earlier. But he was betrayed by a trusted friend who was given a promise of tax relief. In 1856, Labour movement involving stonemasons and building workers march from Melbourne University to parliament house over an eight hour work day. It was before television. Melbourne University was less than three years old. Gold had only been discovered five years earlier in Victoria. They were successful. In 1914, the US Navy operating near Veracruz intercepted a German arms shipment to Mexico. In 1918, Richthofen was shot down. In 1934, the Surgeon's Photograph, a known hoax, was supposed to have photographed the Loch Ness Monster.
From 2014
Neville Wran is dead. Nearly 38 years of corruption has had an opening close. Only the baton of activity also long passed hands. They aren't stupid. They go into public life thinking they have something to offer. The party machine is evil. They are inducted into corruption. They can't leave it, but advance so they might put their personal stamp on things .. only their tools are corrupt. And those charged with keeping them honest aren't doing it. Some really disturbing things involved with Wran in his years in office .. the assassination of Donald McKay and the inability to prosecute those involved. The growth of Underbelly style organised crime. The smearing of the previous Askin Administration by inflating activity that was occurring under Wran. The disappearance of anti drug campaigners. The early release of criminals from prison to order. Corruption of the public service. The inability of NSW to develop infrastructure. Widespread public strikes. Only now is the second airport being built. A lucky break came with the election of Greiner. NSW sidestepped the late 80's crash thanks to prudent choices he made .. meanwhile ALP governments in Vic, SA and WA saw the collapse of credit unions and resultant issues that have still to be fully addressed today. But the media cheer team are pumping out revisionist history praising Wran. So I will add, Wran was very good. After he was caught being corrupt, he gave the tools to others. And shielded them.
Nobody likes drought, famine or plague. It is understandable that people would do any responsible action to address it, but on this day in 1506 in Portugal, a crowd took steps that were harmful which did not address the problems. It was as if AGW believers had been transported into the past. Some claimed they had seen a miracle of Christ's face on the altar. A new Christian (converted Jew) made the reasonable claim that what was seen was the reflection of a candle. For the temerity of being right, the new Christian was kicked to death by the true believers. But the true believers were not finished. They wanted to end drought, famine and plague. So they found some 1900 new Christians and killed them too. History shows that the drought, famine and plague ended, but that wasn't because the crowd had murdered 1900 new Christians (Jews). It is and was an insult to Jews to call them Christians, or like Christians. They had been forced to convert by a political edict not dissimilar to AGW scientists today giving credentials to other AGW scientists. Today, AGW scientists are demanding we do nothing worthwhile, but spend a lot of money, addressing climate change. It is reasonable, then to charge such people with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Historical perspective on this day
In 753 BC, Romulus founded Rome (traditional date). 43 BC, Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony was again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who was killed. Antony failed to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus was murdered shortly after. 900, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardoned from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations. 1092, the Diocese of Pisa was elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II
In 1506, the three-day Lisbon Massacre came to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics. 1509, Henry VIII ascended the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII. 1526, the last ruler of the Lodi Dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi was defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat. 1615, the Wignacourt Aqueduct was inaugurated in Malta. 1782, the city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, was founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke. 1792, Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, was hanged, drawn and quartered.
In 1806, Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escaped British forces off the coast of South Africa. 1809, two Austrian army corps were driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon I of France as two French corps to the north held off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl. 1821, Benderli Ali Pasha arrived in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remained in power for only nine days before being sent into exile. 1836, Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeated troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. 1856, Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an Eight-hour day. 1863, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, declared his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest". 1894, Norway formally adopted the Krag-Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years. 1898, Spanish–American War: The United States Navy began a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
In 1914, Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico was intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz, Veracruz. 1918, World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", was shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France. 1925, the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals was published in Il Mondo, establishing the political and ideological foundations of Italian Fascism. 1934, the "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, was published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it was revealed to be a hoax). 1941, Emmanouil Tsouderos became the 132nd Prime Minister of Greece. 1945, World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attacked the German High Command headquarters. 1952, Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) was first celebrated.
In 1960, Brasília, Brazil's capital, was officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic were simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. 1962, the Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opened. It was the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II. 1963, the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith was elected for the first time. 1964, a Transit-5bn satellite failed to reach orbit after launch; as it re-entered the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTGpower source was widely dispersed. 1965, the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opened for its second and final season. 1966, Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopiavisited Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day. 1967, Greek military junta of 1967–74: A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulosled a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasted for seven years. 1970, the Hutt River Province Principality seceded from Australia. 1975, Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu fled Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, fell.
In 1982, Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers became the first pitcher to record 300 saves. 1987, the Tamil Tigers were blamed for a car bomb that detonated in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people. 1989, Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang. 1992, the first discoveries of extrasolar planets were announced by astronomers Alexander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12. 1993, the Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentenced former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution. 2004, five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160. 2010, the controversial Kharkiv Pact(Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) was signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev; it would be unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014. 2012, two trains were involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, injuring 116 people.
In 1506, the three-day Lisbon Massacre came to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics. 1509, Henry VIII ascended the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII. 1526, the last ruler of the Lodi Dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi was defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat. 1615, the Wignacourt Aqueduct was inaugurated in Malta. 1782, the city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, was founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke. 1792, Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, was hanged, drawn and quartered.
In 1806, Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escaped British forces off the coast of South Africa. 1809, two Austrian army corps were driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon I of France as two French corps to the north held off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl. 1821, Benderli Ali Pasha arrived in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remained in power for only nine days before being sent into exile. 1836, Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeated troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. 1856, Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an Eight-hour day. 1863, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, declared his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest". 1894, Norway formally adopted the Krag-Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years. 1898, Spanish–American War: The United States Navy began a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
In 1914, Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico was intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz, Veracruz. 1918, World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", was shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France. 1925, the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals was published in Il Mondo, establishing the political and ideological foundations of Italian Fascism. 1934, the "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, was published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it was revealed to be a hoax). 1941, Emmanouil Tsouderos became the 132nd Prime Minister of Greece. 1945, World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attacked the German High Command headquarters. 1952, Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) was first celebrated.
In 1960, Brasília, Brazil's capital, was officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic were simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. 1962, the Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opened. It was the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II. 1963, the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith was elected for the first time. 1964, a Transit-5bn satellite failed to reach orbit after launch; as it re-entered the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTGpower source was widely dispersed. 1965, the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opened for its second and final season. 1966, Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopiavisited Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day. 1967, Greek military junta of 1967–74: A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulosled a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasted for seven years. 1970, the Hutt River Province Principality seceded from Australia. 1975, Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu fled Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, fell.
In 1982, Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers became the first pitcher to record 300 saves. 1987, the Tamil Tigers were blamed for a car bomb that detonated in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people. 1989, Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang. 1992, the first discoveries of extrasolar planets were announced by astronomers Alexander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12. 1993, the Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentenced former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution. 2004, five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160. 2010, the controversial Kharkiv Pact(Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) was signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev; it would be unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014. 2012, two trains were involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, injuring 116 people.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.
List of available items at Create Space
The Amazon Author Page for David Ball
UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWGFrench .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG
German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Happy birthday and many happy returns Little Zee, My Step mum, Helen Pymble, My Sang Le, Peter Debnam and Jackey Luu. Born on the same day as the Queen and my step mother, across the years. That is right, the Queen wasn't born on her birthday. And this year, you weren't born on your birthday either .. you were born years ago.
- 1555 – Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter (d. 1619)
- 1652 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician (d. 1719)
- 1671 – John Law, Scottish economist (d. 1729)
- 1730 – Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1788)
- 1774 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1862)
- 1816 – Charlotte Brontë, English author and poet (d. 1855)
- 1864 – Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (d. 1920)
- 1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985)
- 1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman, invented Clearasil (d. 2000)
- 1915 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor and producer (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish author (d. 1987)
- 1924 – Ira Louvin, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (The Louvin Brothers) (d. 1965)
- 1926 – Elizabeth II of The United Kingdom
- 1939 – Sister Helen Prejean, American author and activist
- 1958 – Andie MacDowell, American actress
- 2007 – Princess Isabella of Denmark
Deaths
- 866 – Bardas, Byzantine chief minister
- 941 – Bajkam, Turkish commander
- 1142 – Peter Abelard, French philosopher and theologian (b. 1079)
- 1557 – Petrus Apianus, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1495)
- 1574 – Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1519)
- 1699 – Jean Racine, French playwright (b. 1639)
- 1996 – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen general and politician, 1st President of Ichkeria (b. 1944)
- 2013 – Captain Steve, American race horse (b. 1997)
- 900 – A debt was pardoned by the Datuof Tondo on the island of Luzon, as inscribed on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known written document found in the Philippines.
- 1782 – A city pillar was erected on Rattanakosin Island, located on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, an act considered the founding of the city of Bangkok.
- 1918 – Manfred von Richthofen (pictured), known as the "Red Baron", was shot down and killed near Vaux-sur-Somme in France, after a career as the most successful fighter pilot of World War I with 80 confirmed air combat victories.
- 1960 – Brasília, a planned city primarily designed by architect and urban planner Lúcio Costa, was officially inaugurated, replacing Rio de Janeiro as the capital of Brazil.
- 1975 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned as President of South Vietnam, and was replaced by Trần Văn Hương, as communist forces closed in on victory.
Writing lasts. Bangkok is established as an act. The Red Baron took his last dive. We have a capital. We have regime change. Let's party.
Tim Blair 2018
PARTIAL REVIEW WORSE THAN NO REVIEW AT ALL
South African fans cheered when an LBW review during the recent RSA-Australia series showed a South African batsman edging the ball. Then the video umpire called for the replay to continue – and the batsman was given out caught.
BE AT PEACE WITH YOUR GOD, PEOPLE, FOR THE TIME IS UPON US
Sydney University public policy lecturer Dr Christopher Pepin-Neff yesterday joined Julia Baird, Jane Caro and the rest of The Drum panel for that program’s usual exhaustingly bloodless and vanilla conversation about current events.
Andrew Bolt 2018
NOT JUST THE BANKS LOOKING BAD
The Turnbull Government fought against a royal commission into the banks for nearly two years before caving to Labor pressure. With the evidence from the royal commission now so damning, it's not surprising that Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison are in trouble - and the leaks are about which one dudded who. Sharri Markson has the goss.
WHY BAN WHAT THESE ABORIGINES ONCE DID?
CLIMBING ULURU Climbing Uluru will be banned next year. We're told it goes against Aboriginal culture. Yet Marc Hendrickx says Aborigines used to climb the rock, too. A ban now will rob millions of a pleasure, and current restrictions have already cost the park 70,000 tourists a year. So how do local Aborigines expect to earn a living?
NEG-ATIVE THAT: THIS WON'T CUT BILLS
Green politics is destroying our cheap and reliable electricity system. And does a single voter think the Turnbull Government's National Energy Guarantee is the answer? Alan Moran warns of worse to come, and former Nationals Senator Ron Boswell attacks the Liberals who claim that getting a coal-fired power station built is "socialism".
MEDIA IGNORES REAL CONSPIRACY; DEMS SUE OVER FAKE TRUMP ONE
The media claimed Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election. Zero evidence, but the Democrats are now suing Trump's team. Michael Barone cuts loose: "Meanwhile, evidence builds of collusion by the Obama administration's law enforcement and intelligence personnel in trying to elect Hillary Clinton and ... delegitimize Donald Trump."
LISA WILKINSON'S MYSTERY GIFT PACK. A CONDOM?
TV celebrity Lisa Wilkinson gave a talk in Melbourne this week for Business Chicks, which aims to give women "the tools, connections and experiences they need to ... be what they can see". Really? So why were women at the lunch given a gift pack with a condom, "Hello Sailor" false eyelashes and pretty Barbie Dolls dressed as executives?
DON'T TRY TO FIX THINGS, GUYS
It's not new, but I've only just been sent it by a woman who - I hope - now admits my reactions are not always so stupidly and unhelpfully insensitive.
KEVIN ANDREWS: LIBS HAVE LOST THE VOTERS' CONFIDENCE
I spoke at a dinner last night for Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and whacked the Turnbull Government. Awkward, but then Andrews spoke: "We [won] government back ... by reflecting the concerns of the Australian people... Yet just a few years later, we have lost their confidence, and are seen as drifting without clear direction or purpose." Read on.
ABC GIVES MITCH TWO FINGERS. SO WHAT NEXT, MINISTER?
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield demanded the ABC investigate why it had called a conservative political candidate and philanthropist a "c..t" on air. The ABC has now said it did nothing wrong. So why is Fifield taking this lying down? Who's in charge here?
THE MODERN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY #265
Universities were once imagined to be the temples of culture, wisdom and inquiry. Now meet Christopher Pepin-Neff - "a Queer American Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Sydney. ... [whose] research looks at theories of the policy process through an analysis of emotional issues such as LGBT issues and the 'politics of shark attacks.'"
BARRY’S CROCKER
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 21, 2016 (8:37pm)
Way back in February, the Herald Sun‘s Ellen Whinnett tipped a July 2 federal election. Media Watch‘s Paul Barry ridiculed her:
Barry continued at some length about how misjudged was Whinnett’s report. Of course, it now emerges that she was absolutely right – and Media Watch‘s sneering dismissal was entirely unjustified. The error-prone show has meekly offered an e-beer by way of apology.
Barry continued at some length about how misjudged was Whinnett’s report. Of course, it now emerges that she was absolutely right – and Media Watch‘s sneering dismissal was entirely unjustified. The error-prone show has meekly offered an e-beer by way of apology.
(Via Rita Panahi.)
UPDATE. Paul Barry: “Busted!”
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JUST AN AVERAGE AUSSIE KID
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 21, 2016 (3:31pm)
Australian Muslim Aisha Novakovich reflects on her childhood:
As a teenager, I had a laminated photo of Osama Bin Laden in my bedroom. A friend once saw the photo and demanded to know why I had it. I told her he was my hero and that I wanted to be one of his wives; that the media was manipulating his image because he was challenging US hegemony.
Bin Laden’s goons murdered 3000 men, women and children in a single day, and 16,000 kilometres away in rural South Australia this girl thought he was Justin Bieber. It’s the Manson cult on a global scale.
From the age of 14, I wore the niqab – the full face veil – with gloves. My mother hated it and said I was becoming a fanatic. For me, it became a marker of difference in the face of discrimination. At university I was determined to learn the political systems in the West in order to subvert and challenge them from within. I believed we needed a caliphate.
Novakovich is now a “community advocate”, by the way.
Eventually, I started to flirt with ways I could leave Australia to join the fight against foreign oppressors. Given different circumstances and times, I might have joined a terrorist organisation when I was younger.
Then the beatings began:
My first husband physically abused me within six months of being married. I was pregnant at the time. The abuse continued for four years.My first marriage wore away my political ideologies. Domestic violence shattered my idealisation of the Muslim family model, where a protective husband with his obedient wife create a safe and loving family home for their children.
Aisha’s current concerns are predictable:
In today’s climate of rising Islamophobia, bigotry and nationalist movements, I shudder to think of the negative impact on the hearts and minds of young children …
So here’s someone whose religion led her to worship a mass killer, despise Australian values and consider becoming a terrorist – and she’s worried instead about young children being negatively impacted by Islamophobia. Wow.
UPDATE. Further on Aisha and her teen idol from Roger Franklin.
UPDATE II. Andrew Bolt wonders:
How on earth did Fairfax come to print something so stunningly stupid – and dangerous?
The answer is in the question.
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WHEN GLOBAL WARMING ARRIVED, part three
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 21, 2016 (4:19am)
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CUBA DEL SUR
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 21, 2016 (4:00am)
In communist Cuba:
The state sector employed 70 percent of the country’s work force in 2015, down from 81 percent five years earlier …
In allegedly free-market Australia:
Look: 44 per cent of you are now living completely off government salaries, pensions and handouts ... All supplied by other taxpayers.
Not much of a gap, is there, between Australia and a nation under communist rule for 57 years. The major difference is that Cuba’s tax-dependent sector is shrinking, while Australia’s is actually growing.
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INCOMPETENCE AND WASTE VERSUS WASTE AND INCOMPETENCE
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 21, 2016 (3:55am)
Tony Abbott – Australia’s last elected Prime Minister – warns against a return to Labor:
By losing control of our borders, building overpriced school halls and installing home insulation batts that caught fire, the Rudd-Gillard government became notorious for its inherent incompetence and waste.By introducing a carbon tax and a mining tax, it demonstrated its addiction to big government.Just how much lasting damage was done by the worst government in our history is only now starting to become apparent.But Labor hasn’t learned and would do it all again – and more.
Abbott’s party loyalty is admirable, but Malcolm Turnbull is offering much of the same big-government ruin. I’m still inclined to opt for three years of Labor pain over the destruction of conservatism within the Liberal party.
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NATIONAL STUDENTS WAHHABIST PARTY
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 21, 2016 (3:03am)
Malia Bouattia, the UK’s new National Union of Students president, has previously railed against “mainstream Zionist-led media outlets” and refused to condemn Islamic State:
In 2014, three students proposed a motion calling on British students ‘to condemn the IS and support Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention’. However, Bouattia – who was then black students’ officer – took issue with this and spoke against the motion. She is reported to have said that ‘condemnation of Isis appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamophobia’.
This young, educated western idealist’s views are identical to those of an illiterate Palestinian suicide bomber.
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IT STOPS TERRORISM, SO THIS SHOULD BE A CINCH
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 20, 2016 (8:57pm)
Somebody has stolen Jonathan Green’s bicycle. Maybe Jonathan can recover the bike by deploying some of his audacious confidence in the fundamental goodness of others.
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BELIEVER DECEIVED
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 20, 2016 (7:52pm)
Fairfax’s Alan Stokes is underwhelmed by our great leader:
For years I pushed Turnbull’s cause. Even suggested we float him on the stock exchange and get him to start a new party. Invented the Mal-o-meter to test how deep your love is for the seemingly great man.That’s how desperate I was for a Turnbull prime ministership.Now I wonder if I’ve been stupid or just conned.
Tough call. A little from column A, a little from column B.
But Turnbull can still win the election and even win back the doubters like me. A strong victory – say, doing much better than Gillard and losing only five seats or less – might give him the mandate to make the brave calls he’s been avoiding. That would allow him to win back younger voters, too.With any luck it would also force Abbott to quit the house. With no Abbott, Bronwyn Bishop, Philip Ruddock and more, the new-generation Turnbull government would have arrived.We can only hope.
Stokes is hoping for the real Malcolm, whoever he imagines that to be.
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Mirabella smeared
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (8:55pm)
The damaging claim about Liberal candidate Sophie Mirabella claim in the Benalla Ensign, as reported by editor and former ABC broadcaster Libby Price:
… [Mirabella] took exception to the current Member for Indi, Cathy McGowan, asking to have her photo taken with Mr (Ken) Wyatt in front of the Cooinda plaque commemorating the opening {of a new wing at a retirement home]. Mrs Mirabella very publicly pushed Ms McGowan out of the way to obstruct the photo being taken. All politicians had been invited by Cooinda Village to attend. Ms McGowan did get her photo with the rather bewildered Mr Wyatt, but not in front of the plaque.Pushed? Really? Mirabella denies it and even independent MP McGowan doesn’t make that claim:
She said Ms Mirabella ”intervened to prevent the photo being taken”.The Guardian does not repeat the “push” claim:
Witnesses claim that Mirabella “aggressively” blocked McGowan – the independent candidate who deseated her at the 2013 federal election – from taking a photo with Wyatt at the plaque commemorating the opening.Price, who claims she had four witnesses to back her account, may need to apologise for the slur, which is incredibly damaging for Mirabella. And she should say which “witnesses” gave her the story, and if any have links to McGowan.
According to McGowan Mirabella said the sitting MP could not get a photo with the minister because the wing was funded by the federal government, led by her party, the Liberals.
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Proof: Channel Nine paid the kidnappers
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (8:02pm)
If true, it’s shabby for Channel Nine to have left its hired henchmen to rot in jail while it saved its star:
Excuses:
Two single pieces of paper given to a Beirut court clearly show that Channel Nine paid for the failed kidnapping of two young Lebanese children and the company was aware of the reason for the payment, having included the reference “Investigation Into My Missing Child’’.UPDATE
Joe Karam, the lawyer for Adam Whittington who received the payment and orchestrated the kidnap plan, said Channel Nine had fled Lebanon without a word and was running away from any responsibility for those involved in the botched abduction who remain imprisoned in Beirut. The documentary evidence has called into question the deal that saw the release of the 60 Minutes crew, specifically excluding Whittington and his contractors even though Channel Nine had employed them to commit the snatch.
Excuses:
A local source connected to the case said Nine had made a mistake, paying the money into Sally’s nominated account without realising it was Whittington’s firm.
A Nine spokeswoman said: “We can’t make any comment as all these matters are part of the review we are conducting.”
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Former Osama bin Laden supporter blames us for being too suspicious
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (7:20pm)
Roger Franklin is astonished but not surprised that Fairfax holds up this woman for our admiration and sympathy:
Worse, notes Franklin:
The Fairfax press today features the ghost-written profile of a young Muslim woman we are urged to see as a victim of Australia’s endemic intolerance and bigotry. Shocking stuff! How could anyone feel anything but a empathy for a woman who idolised an Islamist mass murderer?This is how the Fairfax article, ghostwritten for 32-year-old Aisha Novakovich, a “community advocate, law student and mother of two”, starts:
As a teenager, I had a laminated photo of Osama Bin Laden in my bedroom. A friend once saw the photo and demanded to know why I had it. I told her he was my hero and that I wanted to be one of his wives; that the media was manipulating his image because he was challenging US hegemony.She admires - right through to university - a man whose terrorists killed 3000 civilians, including Australians, in the September 11 attacks. And it seems nothing at university talked her out of her mania.
From the age of 14, I wore the niqab – the full face veil – with gloves. My mother hated it and said I was becoming a fanatic. For me, it became a marker of difference in the face of discrimination. At university I was determined to learn the political systems in the West in order to subvert and challenge them from within. I believed we needed a caliphate. Eventually, I started to flirt with ways I could leave Australia to join the fight against foreign oppressors…
Worse, notes Franklin:
At the same time Ms Novakovich was getting about covered head-to-foot, yearning to take a number and await the amorous attentions of the heroic bin Laden, she was being feted by politicians who did not have a clue what the recipient of their attentions looked like, let alone believed. No worries! Here was a Muslim who could be useful in papering over then-recent memories of her dreamboat hero’s attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon. Why not sling her a trophy salad bowl while using the occasion to lecture the greater public about its knuckle-dragging surmise that radical Islam might just have something to do with, you know, Islam. Below is a photo of her accepting Western Australia’s inaugural Minister’s Multicultural Ambassadors Youth Award in 2002…Yet even after idiotic Australian gave a community award to a worshipper of Osama bin Laden and even having had that worship beaten out of her by a Muslim wife-basher, Novakovich still thinks the real problem is that we are too suspicious of her kind and the ideology she so wholeheartedly embraced:
Ms Novakovich’s accolade for her efforts “to increase awareness about the Muslim community” is worth reading. And do bear in mind that, at the same time she was “involved in Police Cadet training”, she was an unabashed admirer of the man whose disciples murdered some 3000 innocent souls for a morning’s work. The award citation concludes by noting that “Aisha is the Muslim and Youth representative of the State Government’s Anti-Racism Strategy Steering Committee” who “seeks to raise awareness of Muslim culture among the wider community.” Not, presumably, by being candid about her admiration for a Koranically motivated mass murderer.
In today’s climate of rising Islamophobia, bigotry and nationalist movements, I shudder to think of the negative impact on the hearts and minds of young children …How on earth did Fairfax come to print something so stunningly stupid - and dangerous?
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Shorten now thinks of reasons to do what he’s already announced
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (6:08pm)
Making it up as they go along:
Bill Shorten has outlined five key areas that he expects his banking royal commission would examine, having jotted down the ideas on his way to a radio interview in Melbourne.Not convincing. But Shorten sure sounded confident in the studio. A new man.
The Opposition Leader has faced mounting pressure over his vagueness of his policy, which Treasurer Scott Morrison has derided as a “blank sheet of paper”
Interviewed by 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, Mr Shorten today indicated the inquiry was “not necessarily” aimed at corruption, but would examine “systemic and widespread problems” in the banking sector. “I wrote down a little list as I was coming in here because obviously this is a key issue,” he told the broadcaster.
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A Credlin needed to whip this rabble into shape
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (11:11am)
BRING back Peta Credlin. Someone must whip the Turnbull government into shape to save it from the worst own goal in Liberal history.
The government’s farcical performance on Tuesday — the day Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed we’d go to the polls on July 2 — should terrify Liberal MPs.
Already Turnbull’s office seems to lack the firm hand of a Credlin, who as Tony Abbott’s chief of staff was vilified by the media and Turnbull supporters as a manic dominatrix
and control freak.
Now see what the opposite looks like — when there is no one tough enough to force the team, including its leader, to sing in tune.
(Read full article here.)
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Where is 60 Minutes’ concern for the children now?
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (9:49am)
So what about the children, 60 Minutes?
How come there is now zero concern about the children’s welfare in this frantic deal making to spring a 60 Minutes crew from jail?
It joined in this apparent conspiracy to kidnap the children (and allegedly paid for it) because it clearly thought they should be in Australia with their mother.
It has now paid perhaps $1 million in a deal which has the children remain in Lebanon with their father.
Meanwhile, Faulkner herself has had to surrender custody of the children while negotiating with a husband with the power to keep her in jail if she does not give in.
So what happened to the great concern for the children?
And to whom has 60 Minutes paid the cash? To a liar or to a terrorist?
The father claims he won’t get the money:
How come there is now zero concern about the children’s welfare in this frantic deal making to spring a 60 Minutes crew from jail?
IF rumours out of Beirut police station are to be believed, Nine has paid $1 million for the biggest TV story of the year — the freedom of their 60 Minutes crew and Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner’s failed bid to bring home her children.This stinks:
The Australian mother and television crew accused of snatching two young children on a Beirut street amid a custody dispute were released from prison… Ms. Faulkner had agreed to give up custody rights and not claim them in the future...How can 60 Minutes excuse this?
It joined in this apparent conspiracy to kidnap the children (and allegedly paid for it) because it clearly thought they should be in Australia with their mother.
It has now paid perhaps $1 million in a deal which has the children remain in Lebanon with their father.
Meanwhile, Faulkner herself has had to surrender custody of the children while negotiating with a husband with the power to keep her in jail if she does not give in.
So what happened to the great concern for the children?
And to whom has 60 Minutes paid the cash? To a liar or to a terrorist?
The father claims he won’t get the money:
He also maintained he has not received a cent from Channel 9 over the release of 60 Minutes crew Tara Brown, Ben Williamson, David Ballment and Stephen Rice.Note:
“Everyone keeps on saying I got compensated… Everyone is saying I got paid millions...”
Jackie then asked: “Ali did you get paid anything?”
“Nothing, not a dime,” he said…
Kyle then asked who was being paid.
“It’s Lebanon, someone is getting paid. Did they pay the judicial system, the brown paper bag is allowed sometimes right?” Mr Elamine insisted he has not received a thing, adding “to be honest it’s more of a political thing.”
The Beirut suburb of Hadath is right on the fringe of the southern part of the Lebanese capital known as the Dahiya, a stronghold of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah ("the Party of God").Hezbollah is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia. From the Australian Government’s list of its 20 proscribed terror groups:
For decades, Hezbollah has in effect been a state within the Lebanese state, controlling and based in the Bekaa Valley that runs along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. But all Lebanese parties have to have a presence in the capital, and the Dahiya – which surrounds Beirut’s international airport – is under Hezbollah’s full security control.
The ESO is a discrete branch within Hizballah responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of terrorist attacks against Hizballah’s enemies outside of Lebanon…This demands an investigation by the Federal Government and a full disclosure to the public.
Although the ESO has not publically admitted responsibility for any terrorist attacks outside Lebanon, ASIO assesses it was almost certainly involved in at least three significant attacks against Israeli/Jewish interests outside of Lebanon… The ESO has an ongoing program of contingency planning for terrorist activities around the world.
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Labor considers making Abbott’s “temporary” tax permanent
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (9:28am)
I warned Tony Abbott at the time about his “temporary” wealth tax of 2 per cent of incomes over $180,000:
Liberals must learn: whenever it raises a tax Labor will always treat it as the new minimum. Only Liberal governments can be trusted to cut taxes overall and no Liberal government can afford to miss the chance to do it.
Abbott’s defence this week of his “temporary” levy just makes him seem sneaky: “I think if there was a permanent increase in taxation that would certainly be inconsistent with the sort of things that were said before the election.”And sure enough:
But a tax is a tax no matter how long it lasts. Besides, what isn’t permanent about Abbott’s planned levy? It would last four years, which is permanent enough.
What’s more, we could have another Labor government by then. Would it really give up this tax on the “rich” when it would need cash for its next spasm of spending?
Bill Shorten is weighing up a tax hit on high-income earners to help pay for Labor promises at the July 2 election as he steps up the policy contest with Malcolm Turnbull over whether to use tax hikes or spending cuts to balance the budget.The “rich” now have 49 cents of every extra dollar taken off them. Some reward for working hard.
Labor is examining the $1.2 billion temporary deficit levy on high-income workers as part of its election platform, adding a potential new element to tax measures that will raise more than $100bn over a decade if it gains power.
Liberals must learn: whenever it raises a tax Labor will always treat it as the new minimum. Only Liberal governments can be trusted to cut taxes overall and no Liberal government can afford to miss the chance to do it.
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The Pope’s “rescue” is a fraud
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (9:15am)
THE Pope is a fraud. Why did he bring back only 12 illegal immigrants from Saturday’s visit to a crowded camp in Greece?
Why just 12, when thousands more were desperate to get on his plane back to Rome?
Three even threw themselves at his feet and sobbed for help.
Why didn’t he take them, too, when his Airbus A320 has seats for 150?
(Read full article here.)
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Memo to the Socialist Left Premier: hands off the CFA
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (9:06am)
The Socialist Left Premier of Victoria is on the brink of letting a hard-Left union start a take-over of a proud and important voluntary organisation:
Labor ministers and MPs responded with outrage Mr Andrews had personally met and negotiated with UFU secretary Peter Marshall last week. One described it as “dangerous”.This is something only some of the far Left could think good - Big Government and Big Unions crushing grass-roots community organisations of the kind that promote virtue and community spirit.
But the Premier is digging in, including on the prospect of introducing to the Country Fire Authority a consultative committee model that could allow the union to stymie management decisions.
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All of us born here are indigenous. So stop this racial division
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (8:36am)
The Australian Government urges Australian top identify themselves by their race.
To which I would add:
I am an Australian and I identify as indigenous.Even Noel Pearson now concedes I am probably right.
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Why is the government bashing white Australians?
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (8:09am)
On the one hand, when it comes to happy news:
An Australian Government video campaign to brag about road and rail project. Features not just white Australians, but Asian, African and Aboriginal.In contrast:
An Australian Government video campaign to promote the Prime Minister’s innovations agenda. Features not just white Australians, but Asian and (I’d guess) Aboriginal.
An Australian Government video campaign to promote defence force recruitment. Features not just white Australians, but Asian.
An Australian Government video campaign to persuade students to serve with the defence forces in their gap year. Features not just white Australians, but Asian and (I’d guess) Pacific Islander.
An Australian Government video campaign to urge girls to get healthy. Features not just white Australians, but Asian, Aboriginal and Muslim.
An Australian Government video campaign to tell Australians how domestic violence is taught to young boys. Every single actor is a white Australian:It’s even more curious given this:
Why?
Indigenous females were 35 times as likely to be hospitalised due to family violence-related assaults as other Australian females.And this, from the ABC:
There are calls to dramatically improve and provide more culturally specific support within Australia’s migrant communities to help address high rates of domestic violence.And this:
While police do not record statistics of family violence based on ethnic or cultural backgrounds, experts say anecdotal evidence shows that rates are higher within migrant communities.
Muslim men who abuse women take advantage of misconceptions about Islam and use it as an excuse for their actions, say advocates who have called for greater efforts to fight domestic violence in the Muslim community.(Thanks to reader Lachie.)
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How Pell’s defence to these smears was overlooked
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (7:54am)
An important article by Peter Westmore on the attack on Cardinal George Pell by a very troubling royal commission. Read it all.
Some key points:
(Also important is this article, disproving the smears of Pell by 60 Minutes.)
And Westmore concludes with questions that I have had, too:
Some key points:
Over four long nights, I have sat through many hours of accusations by counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, Gail Furness SC, that Cardinal George Pell was complicit in or covered up the disgusting sexual abuse of children in Ballarat where he served for many years as a priest, then in Melbourne as an auxiliary to Archbishop Frank Little from 1987.Read on.
Cardinal Pell was directly and repeatedly accused of lying to the commission, of covering up evidence of sexual abuse of children, and of blame-shifting to exonerate himself.
These allegations were broadcast live on television and online to Australia, were featured in press, radio and TV coverage, and formed the basis of the most damaging allegations of criminal activity and impropriety against a religious leader that I have heard in my life.
Cardinal Pell’s repeated denials were mocked and ridiculed. He was subject to vicious character assassination arising from these allegations in the Australian media, particularly social media.
It was only in the last half-hour of these four days of evidence that Cardinal Pell’s legal representative in Sydney was able to tender evidence to the commission which demolished any suggestion that he personally knew of sexual abuse in Ballarat, or had stood by while the perpetrators – including priests and brothers – were able to molest children in Ballarat, and later in Melbourne.
This evidence was given after 2am Rome time after most of the journalists in Rome covering the story had left to get some sleep. The evidence led at this early hour of the morning by Cardinal Pell’s legal representative included affidavits and diary entries which were relevant to the accusations made against him. These were potentially available to the commission itself, so if had had done its job, these would have been led by the commission.
(Also important is this article, disproving the smears of Pell by 60 Minutes.)
And Westmore concludes with questions that I have had, too:
Not referred to by (counsel assisting the commission) Furness was the fact that in both Ballarat and Melbourne, there were literally hundreds of people closer to the abusers than was Cardinal Pell.
Quite apart from both Bishop Mulkearns in Ballarat and Archbishop Little in Melbourne, who both clearly knew of the abuses, why did the police not investigate and prosecute child molesters over many years? Where were the parents while all this was going on?
What about other priests in parishes where Ridsdale was committing his terrible crimes? Or priests in adjoining parishes? None of these questions has been asked. Far easier to shaft Cardinal Pell.
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The Doctor will see you tonight
Andrew Bolt April 21 2016 (7:20am)
Your last chance tonight to hear the great Dr Theodore Dalrymple on his latest Australian tour:
MELBOURNE - The Doctor Will See You Now: In Conversation with Dr Theodore Dalrymple…Book here.
The well-known British writer, social critic, psychiatrist and former prison doctor will share decades of knowledge and insights of his personal experience in numerous prisons and hospitals in the British slums to some of the poorest countries of Africa, in the Pacific and Latin America.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to hear from the ‘Skeptical Doctor’ who is renowned for his books like Life at the Bottom, Our Culture, What’s Left of it and his most recent, Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines Morality…
Date: Thursday, 21 April 2016
Time: 5.45pm – 7.30pm Where: Rydges on Swanston, 701 Swanston Street, Carlton VIC 3053
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Where does the Treasurer think banks get their cash?
Andrew Bolt April 20 2016 (8:33pm)
Does the Treasurer actually know how business works? Does he understand how a company - say a bank - finds the millions that a poll-driven government demands it pay?
Treasurer Scott Morrison ... announced this morning that the levy banks already pay will be increased by $121 million and the Federal Government will commit an additional $6 million in taxpayer funds, with the money going to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)…What nonsense. Spoken like a Labor politician.
“The banks will pay for this increased resource and over the next two years, we will get to full funding of ASIC under a user pays model,” he told ABC’s 730 program…
Today Mr Morrison has sounded a warning about any attempts by the banks to bill their customers for the increase. “I would be furious,” he said...
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Ugly deal reached over 60 Minutes farce
Andrew Bolt April 20 2016 (8:07pm)
How much will this deal cost Channel Nine?:
There is something very disturbing about this process though:
UPDATE
Compensation, or something uglier?
Has there been any discussion at all lately about the best interests of the children?
If 60 Minutes went over to Lebanon with their cash to redress the wrong of having the children separated from their mother, how does it feel now of being part of a deal that makes sure that this separation is permanent?
Ali Elamine’s lawyer Hussein Berjawi has confirmed to The Australian that the deal reached was for the immediate release of his estranged wife Sally Faulkner, but not for the remaining 60 Minutes crew or the two British members of the Child Abduction Recovery International firm.I wouldn’t want to be the Channel Nine executives who will soon have to explain all this to chairman Peter Costello.
Negotiations with Channel Nine lawyers are ongoing.
There is something very disturbing about this process though:
The developments are good news for Ms Faulkner, although she has conceded custody to Mr Elamine ...How can this be acceptable for negotiations over the future of the children? To say to the mother that she must give up custody or rot in jail?
UPDATE
Compensation, or something uglier?
Channel Nine’s European correspondent Tom Steinfort confirms that the charges are being dropped against the 60 Minutes crew and Sally Faulkner. He said if Channel Nine can pay compensation by 2pm local time (9pm AEST) then they can all leave the country.UPDATE
Has there been any discussion at all lately about the best interests of the children?
If 60 Minutes went over to Lebanon with their cash to redress the wrong of having the children separated from their mother, how does it feel now of being part of a deal that makes sure that this separation is permanent?
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DIGNITY OF DEATH
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (2:05pm)
The Abbott government has stopped the people smuggling trade in Australian waters, saving many lives. But Greens leader Christine Milne prefers a different approach:
The latest Mediterranean migrant boat disaster has cast a light on Australia’s cruel treatment of asylum seekers, Greens Leader Christine Milne says.The United Nations refugee agency has confirmed 800 migrants died when their boat capsized off Libya on Sunday, as rescue crews continue to recover bodies.The response by Sicilian authorities shows that Europeans respect the dignity of these boat people, Senator Milne said.
As they haul their corpses from the sea.
“The reporting talks about the tragedy as people drown ... they don’t talk about `illegals’ ... and they don’t talk about punishing refugees,” she told reporters in Hobart.“They talk about offering help and assistance.”
To the dead.
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ZERO OUT OF ONE HUNDRED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (1:56pm)
Leftist reader Jane W. disliked Monday’s column:
This article must have been written when young uneducated Tim Blair was drunk!
I completely reject the accusation I was young.
I read this article twenty times ! It made zero sense, zero meaning, zero communication, and zero impact! It had zero intelligence, zero credibility, zero mentality, zero knowledge, zero communication skills, and zero reading skills.
Yes, Jane, but apart from those minor points you’ve got to admit it was pretty good.
Zero marks out of one hundred marks! Is Tim Blair the son of Adolf Hitler?
This is now officially my favourite email of all time.
A three thousand word essay not up to kindergarten standard at primary school (let alone HSC)!
Actually, it was fewer than 1000 words. Although maybe the word count increases with multiple readings.
Yet Daily Telegraph prints his blogs, adores his blogs, and pays for his blogs but not mine.
I’ll talk to our online editors about correcting this terrible situation. As the son of Adolf, I do have some influence around here.
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SUPERVAN VI
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (1:47pm)
“Is the solar revolution finally here?” asked Forbes writer Christopher Helman last year:
Not quite. Even after a decade of rampant growth solar energy still barely moves the needle in the U.S. energy mix. In fact, solar merely equals the amount of electricity that the nation generates by burning natural gas captured from landfills. And it’s only slightly more meaningful than the 7.3 million Mwh we get from burning human waste strained out of municipal sewer systems.
Somewhere in Hollywood, their heir to Lamar Card’s creative genius just saw that last line and imagined a stunning Supervan sequel: Sewervan! Meanwhile, the original solar-power van of the people rolls on. In the latest episode, Supervan leads a bizarrely choreographed car chase with the assistance of fellow vanners whose CB radios for some reason change all their accents to southern:
Other highlights include the appearance of Supervan’s actual builder George Barris – soon to visit Australia, by the way – and a brutal hill-climb contest between Supervan and its conventionally-engined competitors, who may be at an advantage considering the overcast conditions. There is also some of the sweetest romantic dialogue ever recorded:
Other highlights include the appearance of Supervan’s actual builder George Barris – soon to visit Australia, by the way – and a brutal hill-climb contest between Supervan and its conventionally-engined competitors, who may be at an advantage considering the overcast conditions. There is also some of the sweetest romantic dialogue ever recorded:
Karen: “I’ve never felt like I belonged any place before.”
Clint: “Good for you.”
Clint: “Good for you.”
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CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (11:54am)
The ABC’s Jonathan Green deplores the commercialisation of Anzac Day:
Why would we be surprised when the Anzac centenary becomes little more than a carnival of jingoistic schmaltz and corporate opportunism?We can only respond to these great and distant events in the terms of our time, and for modern Australians recalling the acts of daring, blood and sacrifice of another century, what could be more natural than making a commemorative purchase? What greater estimation of value is there than to pay for something?
Such noble thoughts. Such respect. Such decency. But Green’s deeper beliefs emerge just a few paragraphs later:
Gallipoli, then as now, was as much a place of deadly, noble sacrifice, as it was a crock of shit.
In which case Green should not object to any commercialisation. If Gallipoli is no big deal, commemorative purchases are no big deal either.
(Via Andrew Bolt, who has further on the ABC’s conflicted Anzac Day views.)
UPDATE. Previously from Jonathan, who isn’t much chop at basic research:
It would be good if Tim Blair and the like could point to one instance in which a shooter was brought down by an armed bystander.
I provided a couple of examples at the time, and here’s yet another:
Authorities say no charges will be filed against an Uber driver who shot and wounded a gunman who opened fire on a crowd of people in Logan Square over the weekend.The driver had a concealed-carry permit and acted in the defense of himself and others, Assistant State’s Attorney Barry Quinn said in court Sunday.
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Julie Bishop, ditching scarf, defends Western values
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (1:14pm)
Good:
A new cartoon sits on the crowded walls of Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris.... Canberra Times cartoonist David Pope’s stark, confronting “He drew first” pencil sketch, drawn while watching TV reports late at night after the shooting, ... was presented to the staff of Charlie on Monday by foreign minister Julie Bishop, as a gesture of Australia’s sympathy and support.
Ms Bishop said it was a “love your work” gesture… “Satire is controversial, it’s provocative, it offends all religions, all political parties, nothing and no-one is spared. (It) is a counter-balance against power."…
Twelve people died when gunmen attacked the Charlie Hebdo office in January, including leading cartoonists Jean “Cabu” Cabut and Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier. The attack was said to be retaliation for the magazine’s caricatures of Muhammad and other Muslim figures.... But Ms Bishop said she admired the people who worked at Charlie Hebdo… “If people don’t like it, don’t buy it. The utterly brutal and disproportionate response by the terrorists murdering people at this magazine, is to be condemned.”
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Flannery’s council warns sceptics it knows where we live
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (12:31pm)
Tim Flannery bizarrely imagined he’d been threatened by a penguin man and a crowed chanting death threats - chants not heard by any reporters at the scene. He even falsely claimed I had revealed private details about his home, and prompted a Fairfax paper to check if I’d identified the whereabouts of that home to my readers. I hadn’t, of course.
So it is astonishing that Flannery, so hyper-sensitive about his own security, should lead a Climate Council which now tweets this:
(Thanks to reader Paul for the warning.)
So it is astonishing that Flannery, so hyper-sensitive about his own security, should lead a Climate Council which now tweets this:
Which points to this:
Exactly what are Flannery’s goons suggesting be done?
(Thanks to reader Paul for the warning.)
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We are one people. Do not divide us by “race”
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (10:27am)
Gary Johns, former Labor minister and now president of Recognise What?:
Noel Pearson has now abandoned formal constitutional recognition and instead wants a treaty. His support for the proposal for a declaration of indigenous recognition outside of the Constitution came with a catch: an “indigenous constitutional body”, which would, in effect, constitute a nation within the nation.
More than ever, the recognition debate has become a national embarrassment…
Pearson wants ... Aborigines alone to have a treaty clause written into the Constitution such that Aborigines would have to be consulted on any matters affecting them that the parliament or government of the day transacts.
It would be difficult to exclude any matter that affects the diverse interests of Aborigines, in effect, establishing a second (and racially constituted) parliament.
Constitutional recognition would create, in effect, a treaty between some Australian citizens and other Australian citizens on the basis of identity, whether race, culture, language, belief and so on… The people who now constitute Australia have come from 180 or so countries. There is no "people" other than Australian citizens.
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Deal or no deal?
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (9:08am)
Clever deal or dangerous concession to a fascist state that sponsors terrorism?
Pia Akerman:
So we have an intelligence-sharing deal with a regime with military commanders this bat-crazy and hostile:
More from our new allies:
Well, here’s their chance, and they are missing it.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Pia Akerman:
Australian Jewish leaders have questioned the benefits of Julie Bishop’s visit to Iran…Greg Sheridan:
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said there was a clear risk Iran had received all the benefits of the changed relationship with no apparent change in its aggressive stance towards its neighbours…
Dr Rubenstein said Australia’s allies may also hold concerns about the new intelligence-sharing arrangement and that the issue of returning Iranian asylum-seekers — a primary goal of the trip — had seemingly been rebuffed.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has brilliantly pursued a narrow, important, very specifically Australian agenda in Iran. It is all about returning failed asylum-seekers…UPDATE
There are more than 9000 Iranians within the Australian asylum-seeking system. Of these, 7634 are living in the community in Australia on a bridging E Visa. These are people waiting for a determination of their immigration status.
There are a further 759 Iranians in onshore community detention and another 418 Iranians in onshore “held” detention. Beyond this, there are 310 Iranians on Manus Island and 202 Iranians on Nauru.
The Iranians are a special problem because if they are refused refugee status, the Iranian government will not accept them back unless they go willingly, even though Iran is obliged to accept its citizens under normal international practice.That Bishop has thoroughly engaged the Iranians on this issue, and got them to agree to send officials to Australia to discuss it further, is the true achievement of her visit to Iran, not the informal agreement to share some information, although that could be modestly useful in time.
So we have an intelligence-sharing deal with a regime with military commanders this bat-crazy and hostile:
Iran on Friday accused the United States of creating the murderous Islamic State, Boko Haram and al-Nusrah terrorist groups.This is another variance of a strong theme in Muslim apologetics in the Middle East - to blame the West for Muslim dysfunction. And indulge in conspiracy theories.
The commander of Iran’s ground forces, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, said the US had established these terror groups to harm Islam and bolster Israel’s security.
“The ISIL (another name for Islamic State), Boko Haram and al-Nusrah have been created in line with the US strategy of religion against religion, which seeks to impair the divine face of Islam,” Pourdastan said, according to the Iranian Fars news agency. “The American and European people’s high tendency towards Islam and (the necessity for) protection of the Zionist regime’s security have caused the US to create the terrorist groups,"he added, in an address at Tehran University.
More from our new allies:
Over the past two weeks, many Iranian websites have reproduced a long article accusing Jews of murdering gentile children in their synagogues, draining their blood and mixing it in their matzoh for Passover.Strange, you know. So many people of the Left of around my age and probably younger would have dreamed when young of fighting a fascist state that persecuted Jews and “deviants”, trampled on democracy and waged wars of expansion. They wouldn’t be as blind as those who failed to resist the Nazis!
Perhaps the most prominent site was news site Alef, under the title “What group has been the biggest criminals in the history of mankind?"… It claims that the reason Jews were expelled from Spain was because of their habits of murdering Christian babies.
The article even reproduces a cover of Der Sturmer from 1939 showing the Nazi paper accusing Jews of ritual murder as evidence that it must be true!…
Beyond that, the article claims that rabbis mix human blood with wine and place it on the lips of the infant boy during circumcision…
Other news sites that reproduced the article, verbatim, include Mashregh News, Asredena,Harfeakhar, Khabarist, Khabarkhoon, Habbe, and Ghatreh. From there it has spread to blogs and other secondary sites… Nothing gets published in Iranian websites without permission of the government, and this is a clear and conscious decision to promote Jew-hatred in Iran. Antisemitism is official Iranian policy.
Well, here’s their chance, and they are missing it.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Why won’t the Left condemn Saudi Arabia as it did Israel?
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (8:38am)
Saudi Arabia fights Islamist extremists in a neighbouring country and kills civilians. No international fuss at all, and the media Left barely notice:
(Thanks to reader Barney Rubble.)
At least 18 civilians have been killed in Saudi airstrikes on a missile depot in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a.Israel fights Islamist extremists in a neighbouring country and kills many fewer civilians. Massive international fuss, and the media Left savages Israel:
According to Yemeni medics on Monday, 300 have been wounded and scores of nearby houses and vehicles were destroyed in the attack hitting the Faj Attan district in the mountainous outskirts of the capital, where the missile depot is located… According to reports, at least 2,680 people, including women and children, have so far lost their lives in the attacks.
WHY is the ABC barracking for Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza and is firing rockets at Israel?...Then there’s the ABC’s claims that Israel is recklessly killing civilians in Gaza.The media exaggerations of Israel’s alleged crimes were legion:
Here’s 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson interviewing an Israeli government spokesman: “You say you don’t target civilians ... Do you take enough care to avoid those casualties, because it appears the answer is no?”
In fact, Israel drops leaflets in targeted areas warning civilians to get out. At times it also gives a knock at the door — a rocket that just makes a loud noise as a warning before the real missiles come. But Hamas hides its missiles among civilians it conscripts as a human shield — and as propaganda props if they die.
Report after report during the fighting in Gaza stressed how Israel was carelessly killing civilians - and so many of them… True, hundreds did, tragically, die, as Hamas fought from behind their human shields, but once again it seems the truth was spun:But for sheer hypocrisy, here is Saudi Arabia’s king in 2014:
Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi, who works with the Corriere della serra newspaper, reported Thursday that Hamas had vastly overstated the number of civilian deaths in Gaza. While Hamas claims that 1,330 residents of Gaza were killed in the operation and approximately 5,000 wounded, the real number of casualties was far lower, Cremonesi says. Cremonesi’s report was based on his own findings after touring hospitals in Gaza and talking to families of those killed or wounded.... Cremonesi estimated that between 500 to 600 people were killed in the fighting. Most were young men between the ages of 17 and 23 who were members of Hamas, he said.
Saudi King Abdullah said yesterday that world silence over Israeli “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip was inexcusable and would only breed more violence in the future.Strange, how fighting back is only a sin if Israel does it.
“We see the blood of out brothers in Palestine being shed in collective massacres that have spared nobody, and in war crimes against humanity,” the king said…
King Abdullah’s statement was lauded by the UAE, which it said came “at a delicate juncture while we are witnesses [to] the continuous brutal Israeli aggression against the innocent civilians in Gaza” and “clearly reflects stances of the UAE and its people”.
(Thanks to reader Barney Rubble.)
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The ABC does Anzac Day
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (8:10am)
How does the ABC mark Anzac Day?
The ABC’s Triple J:
UPDATE
In contrast, the Prime Minister:
The ABC’s Triple J:
5 things you didn’t know about the AnzacsABC host Jonathan Green:
They rioted in Egypt, got STIs and Gallipoli wasn’t (entirely) England’s fault…
1. They started a riot in Egypt
On the way to Gallipoli the Australian troops spent a couple of months training in Egypt, while this readies them for battle it also exposes them to vices they previously haven’t seen. One of those vices was the local brothels....
2. STIs were a bit of a problem
Remember those brothels? Well, it’s because of them the Anzacs managed to find themselves with the sort of souvenirs you’d rather not end up with: STIs…
3. They got paid pretty well
They were taking home 6 shillings a day, about $150 in today’s dollars. It’s heaps compared to the British soldiers, who were only getting 1 shilling a day. This is probably part of the reason they got up to so much mischief in Egypt.
And why would we be surprised when the Anzac centenary becomes little more than a carnival of jingoistic schmaltz and corporate opportunism?…Your taxes, their nihilism.
It works for politics, too. What could be more obvious than turning a lavishly promoted sense of a militarised, masculine Australian ideal to the quiet service of a political class held in something close to open contempt by most modern-day ordinary Australians?… Gallipoli, then as now, was as much a place of deadly, noble sacrifice, as it was a crock of shit.
UPDATE
In contrast, the Prime Minister:
It’s no wonder that World War One cast a pall over Australia for a generation, because the scale of the sacrifice is almost unimaginable. We had a population of scarcely four million people, more than 400,000 volunteered to serve, 330,000 went overseas, 160,000 were wounded, 61,000 died and of course of those who came back many bore the scars, seen and unseen, for the rest of their days. And something like 50 per cent of men aged between 18 and 42 volunteered for service – an absolutely extraordinary sacrifice on a scale we can scarcely imagine today.(Thanks to reader Patty.)
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There should be no doubt why Numan Haider was shot
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (7:59am)
I think this appeal, though welcome, lacks something:
This simply feeds the lethal victimology of some Muslims.
Here, for clarity, is why Numan Haider was shot:
UPDATE
This kind of hysterical language from Muslim academic, and published by the ABC, risks further inflaming an already dangerous sense of victimhood. The author is Shakira Hussein, who, far from being “vomited from the body politic” and “purged”, is embedded in it as the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne:
THE devastated parents of a knife-wielding teen shot dead by police have appealed for radicalised young Australians not to inflict terror in their son’s name.Don’t think their son was a terrorist? Don’t know why he was shot?
Numan Haider’s parents called for “only peace’’… following reports that five teenagers arrested over allegations of an Anzac Day terrorist plot against police had planned it to avenge their son…
Asked if they had seen the teens at their son’s funeral at Doveton mosque last year, Haider’s father replied: “We have no idea. There were 800 people there.
“But our son was not a terrorist....”
Still wearing mourning black, his mother said through tears that she had been “shocked and upset” to read of the arrests of the teenagers. “I just don’t understand it. I feel confused — we still don’t know why the police killed our son....”
This simply feeds the lethal victimology of some Muslims.
Here, for clarity, is why Numan Haider was shot:
When met by two counter-terrorism police officers outside the station Haider pulled a knife from his pocket, the court heard.I think that is so perfectly clear that anyone claiming to be mystified is not to be trusted.
He stabbed the Victorian officer in the left arm and then the Australian Federal Police officer in the face, chest and shoulder.
When the federal police officer fell to the ground Haider climbed on top of him and continued to stab him.
The inquest heard the Victorian officer shouted at him to stop before shooting Haider once in the head.
UPDATE
This kind of hysterical language from Muslim academic, and published by the ABC, risks further inflaming an already dangerous sense of victimhood. The author is Shakira Hussein, who, far from being “vomited from the body politic” and “purged”, is embedded in it as the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne:
Yet the campaign against halal certification impacts on our lives, too. Its message is that, however discrete our presence, however well-integrated we may believe ourselves to be, we are not welcome here. The anti-Muslim racists behind the campaign want us to know that our absorption into Australian society makes them gag. We must be rejected, spat out, vomited from the body politic. In other words, purged.(Thanks to reader Dean.)
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Students demand ban on “controversial” ideas
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (7:37am)
Students against “controversial” thinking? Dear God, talk about the closing of the Western mind:
(Thanks to reader Geo.)
The University of Western Australia’s vice-chancellor has defended the establishment of a think tank linked to controversial environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg.My tip to warmists who do not want to consider challenging facts. Just don’t enrol in Lomborg’s lectures. You can preserve your own ignorance without shutting down someone else’s course.
Dr Lomborg has attracted controversy in the past for suggesting that the dangers of climate change are overstated and that alleviating poverty is a greater priority.
The UWA Consensus Centre will use the methods of Doctor Lomborg’s Copenhagen Center.
The Federal Government’s decision to provide $4 million to fund the UWA centre has been attacked by environmentalists while its Student Guild has called for the concept to be dumped.
In a statement, its president Lizzy O’Shea said the guild had fielded many complaints.
“Dr Lomborg has been internationally criticised and [is] very controversial,” she said.
(Thanks to reader Geo.)
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We’re “fatigued” only by Anzac Day make-believe
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (7:29am)
No, we are not fatigued by Gallipoli. We are merely defending its power. We want the sacred and the real, but not the entertainment and the make-believe:
As the centenary commemorations at Gallipoli draw closer, some of Australian television’s biggest names have been caught in the cross-fire at the 11th hour as network bosses begin to wonder if they misjudged the national appetite for what had previously been considered a broadcasting bonanza.TV shows might have got poor numbers. My tip is that the services and parades most certainly won’t. And certainly not after the news of an alleged plot against police at Anzac Day.
Following a series of Gallipoli-themed television programs failing to attract big audience numbers and increasing sensitivities about commercial interests appearing to exploit an event loaded with sacrosanct sensitivities, network bosses are now pulling back on their original plans… Several media executives have now started to wonder if audiences have developed a case of Gallipoli fatigue, opting for fluffier shows like My Kitchen Rules instead of tuning into the grim reality of a war that shaped much of our national psyche.
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Europe’s borders fall
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (6:43am)
We’ve seen just this scenario ourselves - deaths, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and our navy used as a taxi service:
Raspail, now 89, said two years ago that his warnings were ignored and now it’s too late:
On a day that 27 survivors of the weekend’s Mediterranean boat disaster were taken to Sicily and salvage crews scoured the waters off Libya for the bodies of up to 900 more victims, reports came in of many more desperate migrants heading for Europe in unseaworthy craft, oblivious to the overwhelming odds against them.But the numbers flooding Europe are far greater, and threaten civil disorder in the long term:
Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, said rescues were under way to help save migrants trapped on two vessels carrying about 450 people off the Libyan coast.
Last year, a record 220,000 of the so-called Mediterranean boatpeople were rescued from rickety boats as they tried to make their way to Italy, Greece and Malta. It tested rescue and resettlement resources to the limit. Few thought it would be surpassed.But Europe’s political and media class refuse to learn the obvious lessons. Retired major-general Jim Molan was chief of operations of all allied forces in Iraq and helped to implement the Abbott Government’s successful border policies:
Yet already this year, as the northern hemisphere summer begins and the “boat season” arrives, the numbers look infinitely worse, more challenging, with Italian government projections that in 2015 more than 500,000 men, women and children will arrive in boats on European shores, expecting to be given the opportunity to start new lives.
What should also be familiar to Australians is the incompetent policy reaction by European authorities to the situation…One of the most brilliant, important and prescient novels of the 20th century is Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints:
Europe needs to make a very big decision and to make it soon. If it does not want to control its borders then it should establish a sea bridge across the Mediterranean, let everyone in who wants to come, and not let these people die. If it does want to control its borders, as the most recent voting patterns in almost every country of Europe indicates, European governments should realise that border control can be done and start showing a bit of leadership. It may involve some tough policy from European governments who appear weak on many issues, but borders can be controlled, they can be controlled to the benefit of all, and there is a moral obligation to control them…
And of course, people are flooding to Europe by other means, not only across the sea from Libya. It was put to me in Pakistan recently that 7000 Afghans or Pakistanis per month cross illegally from Turkey into Europe. And I understand that the third route is from north Africa into Spain. Europe is a big place and, like Australia, meets its refugee obligations, but the exploitation by criminals of an outdated convention is now rife… Europe will need to decide what is the local version of boat turnbacks in the Mediterranean. The error committed by Europe and the US in not putting effective boots on the ground in Libya, and the ongoing failure of the UN to advocate peace-keeping forces in such places will always have consequences. When Europe and the US brought down Muammar Gaddafi, they did not commit ground forces because of the unpredictable consequences. Now they must manage the totally predictable consequences.
...Jean Raspail’s brilliant and brutally confronting 1971 satire (or indictment), Camp of the Saints, describing how Europe, frozen with self-loathing, greets an Armada of one million boat people sailing in to help itself to the riches of the West:...Read an extract at the link.
Raspail, now 89, said two years ago that his warnings were ignored and now it’s too late:
What do you feel about the current situation?(Thanks to reader Nicholas.)
You know, I’ve no wish to join the big group of intellectuals who spend their time debating immigration… I have the impression that these talks serve no purpose. The people already know it all, intuitively: that France, as our ancestors fashioned it centuries ago, is disappearing. And that we keep the gallery amused by talking ceaselessly of immigration without ever saying the final truth. A truth that is moreover unsayable…
Is the seriousness of the problem being kept from the French people?
Yes. Starting with the politicians in charge first of all! Publicly “everything’s going well, Madame Marquessa”. But behind closed doors, they acknowledge that “yes, you’re right: there is a real problem”. I have several edifying letters on this subject from prominent leftist politicians, from those on the right too, to whom I sent the Camp of the Saints. “But you understand: we can’t say it ...” ...
You don’t believe it’s possible to assimilate the foreigners welcomed into France?
No. The model of integration isn’t working. Even if a few more illegals are escorted to the border and we succeed in integrating foreigners a bit more than today, their numbers will not stop growing and that will change nothing in the fundamental problem: the progressive invasion of France and Europe by a numberless third-world. I’m not a prophet, but you see clearly the fragility of these countries, where an unbearable poverty is established and grows ceaselessly alongside indecent wealth. Those people don’t turn to their governments to protest. They expect nothing of them.
They turn to us and arrive in Europe in boats, ever more numerous, today in Lampedusa, tomorrow elsewhere. Nothing discourages them. And thanks to the demography game, by the 2050s, there will be as many young indigenous French as there are young foreigners in France.
Many will be naturalised.
Which doesn’t mean they’ll have become French. I don’t say these are bad people, but “naturalisations on paper” aren’t naturalisations of the heart. I cannot consider them my compatriots. We need to drastically toughen the law, as a matter of urgency.
How can Europe deal with these migrations?
There are only two solutions. Either we accommodate them and France - its culture, its civilisation — will be erased without even a funeral. In my view, that’s what’s going to happen. Or we don’t accommodate them at all - that means stop sacralising the Other and rediscover your neighbour, that means those next to you. Which means that we stop giving a damn sometime about these “Christian ideas gone mad”, as Chesterton said, or these depraved human rights, and that we take the indispensable measures to distance ourselves, without appeal, to avoid the dissolution of our country into a general métissage [literally race-mixing but used as a sort of equivalent of the English diversity]. I don’t see any other solution. I travelled a lot in my youth. All peoples are fascinating but when you mix them too much, it is much more animosity that develops than sympathy. Métissage is never peaceful. It is a dangerous utopia. Look at South Africa!
At the point where we are now, the measures we would have to take would necessarily be very coercive. I don’t believe it will happen and I don’t see anyone who has the courage to do it. They would need to put their soul in the balance, but who is ready for that? That said, I don’t believe for an instant that the supporters of immigration are more charitable than me: there probably isn’t a single one of them who intends to welcome one of these unfortunates into his home… all of that’s just an emotional pretence, an irresponsible maelstrom that will engulf us.
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California goes mad, the Victorian Labor way
Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (4:02am)
Green cranks in charge. A phobia of dams. A mad plan to empty those dams to please the fish. A hatred of development. And a drought.
Boy, didn’t we go through this in Victoria, and didn’t it end up a horror story for taxpayers? California does a repeat:
Boy, didn’t we go through this in Victoria, and didn’t it end up a horror story for taxpayers? California does a repeat:
But ultimately the responsibility for California’s future lies with our political leadership, who need to develop the kind of typically bold approaches past generations have embraced. One step would be building new storage capacity, which Governor Jerry Brown, after opposing it for years, has begun to admit is necessary. Desalinization, widely used in the even more arid Middle East, notably Israel, has been blocked by environmental interests but could tap a virtually unlimited supply of the wet stuff, and lies close to the state’s most densely populated areas. Essentially the state could build enough desalinization facilities, and the energy plants to run them, for less money than Brown wants to spend on his high-speed choo-choo to nowhere. This piece of infrastructure is so irrelevant to the state’s needs that even many progressives, such as Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum, consider it a “ridiculous” waste of money.
And there needs to be, at least for the short term, an end to dumping water into San Francisco Bay for the purpose of restoring a long-gone salmon run, or to the Delta, in order to save a bait-fish, the Delta smelt, which may already be close to extinct. This dumping of water has continued even as the state has faced a potentially crippling water shortage; nothing is too good for our fish, or to salve the hyper-heated consciousness of the environmental illuminati.
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I had a dream last night that I solved all of California's water problems. What do you guys think of my plan?
Posted by TERRY JAYMES on Saturday, 18 April 2015
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Rabbi Meir Kahane Rabbi Kahana was born in 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, to an orthodox Jewish family. He first earned...
Posted by My Nation Lives עמי-חי on Tuesday, 11 November 2014
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Did you know today's punctuation marks look nothing like they did 2,300 years ago? http://huff.to/1JZ8ltu
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Monday, 20 April 2015
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Follow Me On IG ---> Instagram.com/DrFarrahGray
Posted by Dr. Farrah Gray on Monday, 20 April 2015
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Pro-abortion Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was asked if she's OK with killing a 7 lb. baby that's not born yet....
Posted by National Pro-Life Alliance on Friday, 10 April 2015
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South Sea Pearl & Diamond Earrings simply gorgeous!http://bit.ly/1zfW6Br#earrings #pearl #diamond #bride #love
Posted by Diamond Imports on Monday, 20 April 2015
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The ALP and independents have wrought this .. Budget jitters remain among consumers http://t.co/b4B9GDh1nY via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Good advice http://t.co/5e8nJNEVVt
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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That's Irish http://t.co/nEFLyVgBjQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Does working hard automatically mean you can buy your own home? http://t.co/uaEQrwu93R via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Anzac Day terror plot ‘involved killing cop, shooting rampage’ as teenagers including 14-year-old... http://t.co/EXNRB4a8Qr via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Cruise ship stuck off Sydney http://t.co/S3QlHW1Sut via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Two missing after fierce storm http://t.co/YyZTGukO7c via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Pope Francis Warns of Anti-Semitic Trends in Europe, Calls on Christians to Show ‘Solidarity With the Jewish People’ http://t.co/XIZ32OrdJj
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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ISIL created by Saddam Intel agent to exploit Islam, not to be it. http://t.co/EXNRB4a8Qr
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Thank Mr Morrison for ending Aus's tragedy .. Tragedy of incompetent policy and failure to put troops in Libya http://t.co/bePxnbATIk
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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The Terror Strategist: Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State http://t.co/wh8TQUfNZR via @SPIEGELONLINE
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Pescadero https://t.co/kaol2Ik1UM
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
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Bird on a Rock https://t.co/p2FvIFjDhr
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 21, 2015
=== Posts from last year ===
CHOOSE ONLY ONE
Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (4:42am)
A Sydney University campus newspaper survey asks:
And here are your options:
Continue reading 'CHOOSE ONLY ONE'
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STRIKE WHILE THE EARTH IS HOT
Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (4:08am)
Bill McKibben has probably never cracked a decent joke in his entire life. That is as you’d expect. McKibben is an American academic who specialises in climate change, and such rigid types usually lack the fleetness of mind to knock out even a simple gag.
Key word: “usually”. A few weeks ago McKibben made up for decades of humour deficiency by devising a joke so brilliant that it verges on genius.
Continue reading 'STRIKE WHILE THE EARTH IS HOT'
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NON-REPORTER
Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (3:44am)
Former Sydney Morning Herald political writer Margo Kingston recently complained to the Press Council about this newspaper. Kingston believed that two stories and a photograph, on page 17, were insufficient to cover the Federal Court’s dismissal of a sexual harassment suit brought against former speaker Peter Slipper by James Ashby.
For what it’s worth, the Press Council agreed with her. Yet Kingston’s previous inclination, as a member of Canberra’s press gallery, was to outright suppress information.
Continue reading 'NON-REPORTER'
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ONE OPTION IS SLIGHTLY LESS LIKELY TO RESULT IN ARREST
Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (2:58am)
Celebrate Earth Day this week by murdering your girlfriend and turning her into compost. Or, alternatively, celebrate it by joining the 9th Annual Iowahawk Earth Week Cruise-In.
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THE CLOONEY EFFECT
Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (2:50am)
Australian environmentalist Jon Dee believes George Clooney is killing the world with coffee:
‘’George Clooney has almost single-handedly launched an entire new waste stream globally as a result of fronting the Nespresso adverts,’’ Mr Dee said. ‘’It shows the Clooney effect has undoubtedly been enormous in this. But George Clooney – for a guy who is so switched on to civil rights and other issues – to lead the charge in causing such such environmental damage and waste and other issues is really disappointing.’’
Dee plans to drag Nescafe, maker of Clooney’s caffeinated deathpods, before the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. There is no pleasure tiny enough to escape the scolding gaze of modern environmentalism.
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HAPPY MONDAY
Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (1:37am)
They really do want us to live in trees. Speaking of them, shyster zillionaire Al Gore thinks we’re immoral, unethical and despicable, which is just about the nicest start to the week you could possibly wish for. And here’s some Mark Steyn to make it perfect.
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NEVILLE WRAN
Tim Blair – Sunday, April 20, 2014 (11:04pm)
Former NSW premier Neville Wran has died at 87. Malcolm Turnbull farewells his long-time friend and business partner.
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What’s our reconciliation movement doing about this?
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (8:01am)
One of our most pressing race problems isn’t honestly debated. Another example:
THE owner of a Queensland outback pub has told how she spent a terrifying hour fearing for her life after a drunken mob armed with rocks and iron bars allegedly started a riot early yesterday morning.Two weeks ago in Perth:
Pam Forster, owner of the Dangi Pub in Urandangi – near the NT border – was serving Easter patrons when she was forced to turn away the group because they were drunk and trying to get cigarettes from patrons.
The accused group, who had crossed the border, then destroyed several cars and attempted to knock down the pub’s front doors…
“They were going to bash down the door and kill us,’’ [Forster] said. “It was frightening, they were carrying iron bars and throwing rocks....” The alleged riot has reignited debate about the accessibility of alcohol in Aboriginal communities.
A mass brawl broke out when up to 50 youths gatecrashed a wedding reception in Perth’s southern suburbs.In Sydney last week:
Bricks were hurled through the windows of Point Walter Cafe in Bicton as the youths tried to force their way into the venue on Saturday night…
The incident began when a number of youths were refused a cigarette by one of the guests attending the wedding reception…
Seven guests, including four men and three women, were injured in the violence and a number of them were treated at Fremantle Hospital. The offenders, who were described as mostly dark-skinned males aged about 16 to 22 years old, fled the scene before police arrived at 9:10pm.
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Big unions, big money, big questions
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:38am)
Australia is quickly learning we haven’t been the cleanskins we so long assumed:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
EMPLOYERS will urge the Heydon royal commission to investigate allegations that unions are receiving lucrative undisclosed commissions after coercing companies into signing up to costly but inferior income protection insurance schemes.I’d love also an inquiry into the money trail that runs through the great global warming scare.
The Australian Industry Group said yesterday unions were pressuring employers to sign up to insurance products that are more costly to companies and offer fewer benefits to employees, including union members.
In evidence to be given to the royal commission into union governance and corruption, the Ai Group accused unions of pushing the products in order to get big commissions from the companies. It estimated that up to 30 per cent of the insurance protection money paid by an employer was paid as a union commission. Due to the significant commission, unions often refused to accept an employer’s offer to provide equivalent or better benefits to employees through an alternative provider, the Ai Group said.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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How can bad students make good teachers?
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:12am)
Labor and the teacher unions convinced us more teachers (and thus smaller classes) were better. False: better teachers are better. But to lower class sizes meant hiring more teachers of lower quality.
Rita Panahi:
Rita Panahi:
In South Korea teachers are recruited from the top 5 per cent of school leavers.
Compare that with Australia, where standards have dropped so low that, in 2011, teaching accounted for the highest proportion of university offers for students with an Australian tertiary admission rank of less than 50. Those academic failures, who could not get into any other course but teaching, will be graduating soon and coming to a school near you.
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First they came for the Catholics and sceptics
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:03am)
FIRST they came for the Catholics and climate sceptics. Beware: the true bigots will next reach for your throat, too.
Attorney-General George Brandis, raised a Catholic, was right last week: “The Left haas embraced a new authoritarianism.”
They have given us a “new and illiberal climate of anti-intellectualism” so that “rather than winning the argument (they) exclude their antagonists from the argument”.
Brandis said he first realised this when Senator Penny Wong, Labor’s former climate change minister, falsely claimed the debate on global was over because “the science is settled”.
She wasn’t alone.
(Read full article here.)
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Still waiting for justice from ICAC
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:02am)
Henry Ergas says ICAC’s form of justice hurts the good more than the bad:
That said, former Labor minister Barry Cohen says even little gifts tend to corrupt, although big gift corrupt absolutely.
… its two greatest victims have been Nick Greiner and O’ Farrell, who both resigned when their honour and credibility were impugned, while crooks have been left burdened only by damaged reputations they care nothing about.UPDATE
For shysters such as Eddie Obeid, the opprobrium of public exposure matters little so long as ICAC allows them, as it too often has, to retain the spoils they have gained from plundering the public estate. Nor is the harm that causes limited to its obvious inequity. Should the scoundrels remain secure in their luxury villas, while ICAC’s processes most severely punish the mistakes of good people, it will have undermined the very goal it exists to pursue.
That said, former Labor minister Barry Cohen says even little gifts tend to corrupt, although big gift corrupt absolutely.
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Marxist Brendan O’Neill on the new green naggers - and the Left’s betrayal of free speech
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:56am)
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Even a bad election promise on pensions is still a promise
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:46am)
The Liberals made some foolish pre-election promises - but promises are promises:
My own view on promises - even, damn it, the one to the ABC:
THE asset test that allows older Australians with million-dollar assets to collect a part-pension is likely to be spared the budget axe.But the Government should at least now prepare a mandate for change to take to the next election.
Despite signals the government plans to increase the pension age to 70 as early as 2029, The Australian can reveal its expenditure review committee believes the assets test should not be altered in next month’s budget, with Tony Abbott strongly of the view that any changes would breach an election commitment… The Australian Council of Social Service believes tightening the asset test so that couples with more than $1m in assets apart from their home did not qualify for a pension would save the budget $1.3bn in 2014-15 and $1.4bn in 2015-16.
My own view on promises - even, damn it, the one to the ABC:
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China’s Christian conversion
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:25am)
Perhaps the most reassuring news to come out of China in years:
The 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a “miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church”.Christianity is a bulwark against totalitarianism. Hence:
The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China’s breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth…
“By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon,” said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
“It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."…
In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline. By 2030, China’s total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
Christians are being urged by persecution watchdog group Open Doors to pray for the 33 people who are facing the death penalty in North Korea reportedly for their connection with a South Korean missionary…In South Korea, however:
...until the 1990s, Buddhism was the leading religion in the country. However, now about 32% of the population identifies as a part of a Christian Church.
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Alarm, alarm
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:11am)
Tim Blair reports that 16 years of non-warming has alarmed alarmists even more alarmingly:
Lately they’ve become louder and crazier than ever, presumably out of panic as the whole global warming issue continues to cool.Alarming examples follow.
===
Adam Bandt should be careful about the TV ban he wishes for
Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (12:02am)
WHOOPS. Acting Greens leader Adam Bandt really shouldn’t want the wrongheaded banned from television.
Bandt last week dismissed Attorney-General George Brandis’s plea for warming sceptics to be included in debates, sneering: If someone said “two plus two equals five”, would you insist on giving them as much airtime in the media as someone who said “two plus two equals four”?
But who actually argues “two plus two equals five”?
Here are some people who, under Bandt’s illiberal rule, should not be allowed on TV.
(Read full column here.)
Bandt last week dismissed Attorney-General George Brandis’s plea for warming sceptics to be included in debates, sneering: If someone said “two plus two equals five”, would you insist on giving them as much airtime in the media as someone who said “two plus two equals four”?
But who actually argues “two plus two equals five”?
Here are some people who, under Bandt’s illiberal rule, should not be allowed on TV.
(Read full column here.)
===
Henderson: September 11 turned Carr against Israel
Andrew Bolt April 20 2014 (12:20pm)
Gerard Henderson offers a deeply disturbing insight into the anti-Israel leanings of former foreign minister Bob Carr:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The date was September 17, 2001. The occasion was the dinner to announce the winners in the 2001 NSW Premier’s History Awards. Carr was premier of NSW at the time and was delighted that the famous American documentary maker Ken Burns had accepted his invitation to present the prizes at the dinner in Sydney.Which, if accurate, suggests that Carr is his own way is an enabler of terrorism. He shows terrorists that killing people is a very effective way of changing a politician’s mind - particularly on Israel.
It turned out that Burns was a last-minute scratching from the event. It was around a week since al-Qa’ida’s terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Air transport from the US had been disrupted…
At the start of the dinner Carr came over to talk to me… To my surprise, Carr seemed quite shaken by the 9/11 attack. He said to me that he had now come to the conclusion that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 had been a mistake.
Carr stated his belief that the Arab world would never accept the creation of a Jewish state and that Islamists would continue to target Western nations.
From around late 2001, I noticed a change in Carr’s attitude towards Israel.
There was also the political factor. There are numerous references in his diary to the importance of the Muslim Arab vote, especially in Sydney’s western suburbs.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===
Numbers don’t lie
Andrew Bolt April 20 2014 (12:18pm)
If far Left is one and hard Right is five (and far Right is off the chart), how biased is the ABC’s Insiders?
Oh.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Oh.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Each morning, like clockwork, they board the subway, off to begin their daily routine amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.
But these aren't just any daily commuters. These are stray dogs who live in the outskirts of Moscow Russia and commute on the underground trains to and from the city centre in search of food scraps.
Then after a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.
Experts studying the dogs, who usually choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train, say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop – after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.
Scientists believe this phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, and Russia’s new capitalists moved industrial complexes from the city centre to the suburbs.
Dr Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and Evolution Institute, said: “These complexes were used by homeless dogs as shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses. Because the best scavenging for food is in the city centre, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway – to get to the centre in the morning, then back home in the evening, just like people.”
Dr Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He said: “They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.”
The dogs have also amazingly learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely, said Dr Poiarkov. And they use cunning tactics to obtain tasty morsels of shawarma, a kebab-like snack popular in Moscow.
With children the dogs “play cute” by putting their heads on youngsters’ knees and staring pleadingly into their eyes to win sympathy – and scraps.
Dr Poiarkov added: “Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists.”
SOURCE : http://www.thesun.co.uk/
Experts studying the dogs, who usually choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train, say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop – after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.
Scientists believe this phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, and Russia’s new capitalists moved industrial complexes from the city centre to the suburbs.
Dr Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and Evolution Institute, said: “These complexes were used by homeless dogs as shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses. Because the best scavenging for food is in the city centre, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway – to get to the centre in the morning, then back home in the evening, just like people.”
Dr Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He said: “They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.”
The dogs have also amazingly learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely, said Dr Poiarkov. And they use cunning tactics to obtain tasty morsels of shawarma, a kebab-like snack popular in Moscow.
With children the dogs “play cute” by putting their heads on youngsters’ knees and staring pleadingly into their eyes to win sympathy – and scraps.
Dr Poiarkov added: “Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists.”
SOURCE : http://www.thesun.co.uk/
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New way to serve potatoes, love it!!
Just mash potatoes plain with butter or you can add yummy ingredients like cooked bacon, cheese, parsley, green onion, garlic, etc. Stuff in to a greased muffin tin, run a fork along the top and brush with melted butter or olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees or until tops are crispy and golden.
Yes we still need carbs in our diet even when we are trying to lose weight so this is a great way to stick with portion control!!!
Also remember there are varying sizes in muffin pans so you can choose the serving size!! Using mini muffin tins you can turn this into a healthy alternative to chips or wedges too. You still get the soft potato centre with the crunch on the outside without all the fat!!!!
PLEASE SHARE :) To SAVE this recipe, be sure to click SHARE so it will store on your personal page.
For more healthy recipes, tips, motivation and fun, join us here: Lifestyle Transformationhttps://www.facebook.com/
Also remember there are varying sizes in muffin pans so you can choose the serving size!! Using mini muffin tins you can turn this into a healthy alternative to chips or wedges too. You still get the soft potato centre with the crunch on the outside without all the fat!!!!
PLEASE SHARE :) To SAVE this recipe, be sure to click SHARE so it will store on your personal page.
For more healthy recipes, tips, motivation and fun, join us here: Lifestyle Transformationhttps://www.facebook.com/
===
I feel the dichotomy drawn is bad. I feel that Islam is badly served by terrorists and leaders. It is sad that their leaders only rarely defend their religion and not those terrorists in the name of Islam. The Uncle of the Boston Bombers was right to do so, few Islamic leaders have done so. I don't blame Islam. I look forward to the day when Islamic leaders rise who are not spineless cowardly murderous thugs. One indicator will be a willingness to have peace and collaboration with Israel .. an apology for past transgressions would be good too. I'll understand if they wish to spit on the face of Jimmy Carter for endorsing a view of Islam for which believers must be ashamed. - ed
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- 753 BC – Romulus and Remus founded Rome, according to the calculations by Roman scholar Varro Reatinus.
- 1836 – Texan forces led by Sam Houston defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna and his Mexican troops in the Battle of San Jacinto near La Porte, the decisive battle in the Texas Revolution.
- 1914 – Mexican Revolution: The United States detained a German steamer carrying materiel for the Mexican federal government.
- 1975 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (pictured) resigned as President of South Vietnam, and was replaced by Trần Văn Hương, as communist forces closed in on victory.
- 1992 – Radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frailannounced the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsarPSR B1257+12, the first definitive detection of exoplanets.
- 753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).
- 43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
- 900 – The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations.
- 1092 – The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II
- 1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.
- 1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.
- 1526 – The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat.
- 1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.
- 1782 – The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
- 1792 – Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.
- 1802 – Twelve thousand Wahhabis under Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, invaded city of Karbala, killed over three thousand inhabitants, and sacked the city.
- 1806 – Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escapes British forces off the coast of South Africa.
- 1809 – Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.
- 1821 – Benderli Ali Pasha arrives in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remains in power for only nine days before being sent into exile.
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
- 1856 – Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.
- 1894 – Norway formally adopts the Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
- 1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congressissued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
- 1914 – Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.
- 1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
- 1926 – Al-Baqi cemetery, former site of the mausoleum of four Shi'a Imams, is leveled to the ground by Wahhabis.
- 1934 – The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).
- 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
- 1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.
- 1952 – Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated.
- 1960 – Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
- 1962 – The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
- 1963 – The first election of the Universal House of Justice is held, marking its establishment as the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith.
- 1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.
- 1965 – The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.
- 1966 – Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
- 1967 – Greek military junta of 1967–74: A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulosleads a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
- 1975 – Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu flees Saigon, as Xuân Lộc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
- 1977 – Annie opens on Broadway.
- 1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
- 1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.
- 1987 – The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that detonates in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people.
- 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
- 1993 – The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis García Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.
- 2004 – Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.
- 2010 – The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; it was unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014.
- 2012 – Two trains are involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, injuring 116 people.
- 2012 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 2043 relating to Syrian uprising is adopted.
- 2014 – The American city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis which has caused lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and 15 deaths from Legionnaires disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
- 1132 – Sancho VI, king of Navarre (d. 1194)
- 1488 – Ulrich von Hutten, German religious reformer (d. 1523)
- 1523 – Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (d. 1571)
- 1555 – Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter and etcher (d. 1619)
- 1619 – Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch founder of Cape Town (d. 1677)
- 1630 – Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten, Dutch-English painter (d. 1700)
- 1631 – Francesco Maidalchini, Catholic cardinal (d. 1700)
- 1642 – Simon de la Loubère, French mathematician, poet, and diplomat (d. 1729)
- 1651 – Joseph Vaz, Sri Lankan priest, missionary, and saint (d. 1711)
- 1652 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician and academic (d. 1719)
- 1671 – John Law, Scottish economist (d. 1729)
- 1673 – Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1742)
- 1713 – Louis de Noailles, French general (d. 1793)
- 1730 – Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1788)
- 1752 – Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, French engineer, hydrographer, and politician, French Minister of Marine and the Colonies (d. 1807)
- 1752 – Humphry Repton, English gardener and author (d. 1818)
- 1774 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1862)
- 1775 – Alexander Anderson, Scottish-American illustrator and engraver (d. 1870)
- 1790 – Manuel Blanco Encalada, Spanish-Chilean admiral and politician, 1st President of Chile (d. 1876)
- 1810 – John Putnam Chapin, American politician, 10th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1864)
- 1811 – Alson Sherman, American merchant and politician, 8th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1903)
- 1814 – Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, English art collector and philanthropist (d. 1906)
- 1816 – Charlotte Brontë, Cornish-English novelist and poet (d. 1855)
- 1837 – Fredrik Bajer, Danish lieutenant and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1922)
- 1838 – John Muir, Scottish-American environmentalist and author (d. 1914)
- 1851 – Charles Barrois, French geologist and palaeontologist (d. 1939)
- 1854 – William Stang, German-American bishop (d. 1907)
- 1864 – Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (d. 1920)
- 1868 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (d. 1932)
- 1870 – Edwin Stanton Porter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1941)
- 1874 – Vincent Scotto, French actor and composer (d. 1952)
- 1882 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1885 – Tatu Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (d. 1967)
- 1887 – Joe McCarthy, American baseball player and manager (d. 1978)
- 1889 – Marcel Boussac, French businessman (d. 1980)
- 1889 – Paul Karrer, Russian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- 1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985)
- 1892 – Freddie Dixon, English motorcycle racer and racing driver (d. 1956)
- 1893 – Romeo Bertini, Italian runner (d. 1973)
- 1898 – Maurice Wilson, English soldier, pilot, and mountaineer (d. 1934)
- 1899 – Randall Thompson, American composer and academic (d. 1984)
- 1903 – Luis Saslavsky, Argentinian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
- 1904 – Jean Hélion, French painter (d. 1987)
- 1904 – Odilo Globocnik, Italian-Austrian SS officer (d. 1945)
- 1905 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (d. 1996)
- 1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman, developed Clearasil (d. 2000)
- 1911 – Kemal Satır, Turkish physician and politician (d. 1991)
- 1912 – Eve Arnold, Russian-American photojournalist (d. 2012)
- 1912 – Marcel Camus, French director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1913 – Norman Parkinson, English photographer (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Angelo Savoldi, Italian-American wrestler and promoter, co-founded International World Class Championship Wrestling (d. 2013)
- 1915 – Garrett Hardin, American ecologist, author, and academic (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (d. 2001)
- 1916 – Estella B. Diggs, American businesswoman and politician (d. 2013)
- 1918 – Eddy Christiani, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
- 1919 – Don Cornell, American singer and trumpet player (d. 2004)
- 1919 – Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor (d. 1981)
- 1919 – Licio Gelli, Italian financer (d. 2015)
- 1920 – Edmund Adamkiewicz, German footballer (d. 1991)
- 1922 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist and screenwriter (d. 1987)
- 1922 – Allan Watkins, Welsh-English cricketer (d. 2011)
- 1923 – John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (d. 2009)
- 1924 – Ira Louvin, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (d. 1965)
- 1925 – Anthony Mason, Australian soldier and judge, 9th Chief Justice of Australia
- 1925 – John Swinton of Kimmerghame, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire
- 1926 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and her other realms
- 1926 – Arthur Rowley, English footballer, cricketer, and manager (d. 2002)
- 1927 – Ahmed Arif, Turkish poet and author (d. 1991)
- 1928 – Jack Evans, Welsh-Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
- 1930 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (d. 2004)
- 1930 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (d. 1989)
- 1930 – Dieter Roth, German-Swiss illustrator and sculptor (d. 1998)
- 1930 – Jack Taylor, English footballer and referee (d. 2012)
- 1932 – Slide Hampton, African-American trombonist and composer
- 1932 – Elaine May, American actress, comedian, director, and screenwriter
- 1932 – Angela Mortimer, English tennis player
- 1933 – Edelmiro Amante, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Easley Blackwood, Jr., American pianist, composer, and educator
- 1933 – Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch (d. 2014)
- 1935 – Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host
- 1935 – Thomas Kean, American academic and politician, 48th Governor of New Jersey
- 1936 – James Dobson, American evangelist, psychologist, and author, founded Focus on the Family
- 1936 – Reg Fleming, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2009)
- 1937 – Gary Peters (baseball), American baseball player
- 1937 – Ben Zinn, Israeli-born American academic and former international soccer player
- 1939 – John McCabe, English pianist and composer (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Sister Helen Prejean, American nun, activist, and author
- 1939 – Reni Santoni, American actor
- 1940 – Jacques Caron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1940 – Souleymane Cissé, Malian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1941 – David L. Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma
- 1942 – Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand politician, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1945 – Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Indian cricketer and umpire
- 1945 – Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (d. 2017)
- 1945 – Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (d. 2000)
- 1947 – Al Bumbry, American baseball player
- 1947 – Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1947 – John Weider, English bass player
- 1948 – Gary Condit, American businessman and politician
- 1948 – Paul Davis, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2008)
- 1948 – Josef Flammer, Swiss ophthalmologist
- 1948 – Dieter Fromm, German runner
- 1949 – Patti LuPone, American actress and singer
- 1950 – Shivaji Satam, Indian actor
- 1951 – Tony Danza, American actor and producer
- 1951 – Michael Freedman, American mathematician and academic
- 1951 – Steve Vickers, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1952 – Gerald Early, American author and academic
- 1952 – Cheryl Gillan, British businesswoman and politician, Secretary of State for Wales
- 1953 – John Brumby, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Victoria
- 1954 – Ebiet G. Ade, Indonesian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1954 – James Morrison, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1955 – Murathan Mungan, Turkish author, poet, and playwright
- 1955 – Doug Soetaert, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Peter Kosminsky, English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1956 – Phillip Longman, German-American demographer and journalist
- 1957 – Hervé Le Tellier, French linguist and author
- 1957 – Jesse Orosco, American baseball player
- 1957 – Herbert Wetterauer, German painter, sculptor, and author
- 1958 – Andie MacDowell, American model, actress, and producer
- 1958 – Yoshito Usui, Japanese illustrator (d. 2009)
- 1958 – Michael Zarnock, American author
- 1959 – Tim Jacobus, American illustrator and painter
- 1959 – Olga Kuragina, Russian pentathlete
- 1959 – Arno Pijpers, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1959 – Robert Smith, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1960 – Michel Goulet, Canadian ice hockey player and scout
- 1960 – Julius Korir, Kenyan runner
- 1961 – Cathy Cavadini, American voice actress
- 1961 – Carey Hayes, American screenwriter and producer
- 1961 – Chad Hayes, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1961 – Neale Marmon, English-German footballer, coach, and manager
- 1961 – David Servan-Schreiber, French physician, neuroscientist, and author (d. 2011)
- 1962 – Les Lancaster, American baseball player and coach
- 1962 – Craig Robinson, American basketball player and coach
- 1962 – Aavo Sarap, Estonian footballer and coach
- 1963 – Ken Caminiti, American baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1963 – Roy Dupuis, Canadian actor
- 1963 – John Cameron Mitchell, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Alex Baumann, Czech-Canadian swimmer
- 1964 – Ludmila Engquist, Russian-Swedish hurdler
- 1965 – Ed Belfour, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1965 – Karen Foster, American model and actress
- 1965 – Gary Grant, American basketball player
- 1965 – Thomas Helmer, German footballer
- 1965 – Fiona Kelleghan, American academic, critic and librarian
- 1967 – Emilio Valle, Cuban hurdler
- 1968 – Peter van Vossen, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1969 – John Kibowen, Kenyan runner
- 1969 – Toby Stephens, English actor
- 1970 – Jeff Anderson, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1970 – Glen Hansard, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1970 – Rob Riggle, American actor and comedian
- 1970 – Nicole Sullivan, American actress, comedian, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Axl Rotten, American wrestler (d. 2016)
- 1971 – Michael Turner, American author and illustrator (d. 2008)
- 1972 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan runner (d. 2001)
- 1972 – Gwendal Peizerat, French ice dancer
- 1973 – Steve Backshall, English naturalist, writer, and television presenter
- 1973 – Jonathan Nsenga, Belgian hurdler and coach
- 1974 – Maksim Gruznov, Estonian footballer
- 1974 – Orlando Jordan, American wrestler
- 1974 – David Peachey, Australian rugby league player
- 1975 – Danyon Loader, New Zealand swimmer
- 1976 – Rommel Adducul, Filipino basketball player
- 1976 – Petero Civoniceva, Fijian-Australian rugby league player
- 1977 – Gyula Koi, Hungarian scholar and educator
- 1977 – Jamie Salé, Canadian figure skater
- 1978 – Jacob Burns, Australian footballer
- 1978 – Jukka Nevalainen, Finnish drummer
- 1978 – Yuliya Pechonkina, Russian hurdler
- 1979 – Tobias Linderoth, French-Swedish footballer and coach
- 1979 – James McAvoy, Scottish actor
- 1980 – Jeff Keppinger, American baseball player
- 1980 – Vincent Lecavalier, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Tony Romo, American football player
- 1981 – Mads Junker, Danish footballer
- 1982 – Khalif Barnes, American football player
- 1982 – Micheal Luck, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Carnell Williams, American football player
- 1983 – Paweł Brożek, Polish footballer
- 1983 – Marco Donadel, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Shayna Fox, American voice actress
- 1986 – Audra Cohen, American tennis player
- 1986 – Alexander Edler, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1986 – Rodney Stuckey, American basketball player
- 1986 – Mirko Valdifiori, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Nadif Chowdhury, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1987 – Eric Devendorf, American basketball player
- 1987 – Leroy George, Dutch footballer
- 1987 – Anastasia Prikhodko, Ukrainian singer
- 1988 – Jencarlos Canela, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1988 – Pedro Mosquera, Spanish footballer
- 1988 – Adam Rooney, Irish footballer
- 1989 – Tatyana McFadden, Russian-American sprinter and skier
- 1989 – Carlos Muñoz, Chilean footballer
- 1990 – Aleksandar Prijović, Swiss footballer
- 1992 – Isco, Spanish footballer
- 1992 – Rene Santos, Brazilian footballer
- 1994 – Mitchell Weiser, German footballer
- 234 – Emperor Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (b. 181)
- 586 – Liuvigild, king of the Visigoths
- 847 – Odgar, Frankish archbishop of Mainz
- 866 – Bardas, de facto regent of the Byzantine Empire
- 941 – Bajkam, de facto regent of the Abbasid Caliphate
- 1073 – Pope Alexander II
- 1109 – Anselm of Canterbury, Italian-English archbishop and saint (b. 1033)
- 1136 – Stephen, Count of Tréguier Breton noblemen (b. c. 1058/62)
- 1142 – Peter Abelard, French philosopher and theologian (b. 1079)
- 1213 – Maria of Montpellier, Lady of Montpellier, Queen of Aragon (b. 1182)
- 1329 – Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1282)
- 1400 – John Wittlebury, English politician (b. 1333)[1]
- 1509 – Henry VII of England (b. 1457)
- 1557 – Petrus Apianus, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1495)
- 1574 – Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1519)
- 1591 – Sen no Rikyu, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (b. 1522)
- 1650 – Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)
- 1668 – Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (b. c. 1604)
- 1699 – Jean Racine, French playwright and poet (b. 1639)
- 1719 – Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1640)
- 1720 – Antoine Hamilton, Irish-French soldier and author (b. 1646)
- 1722 – Robert Beverley, Jr., English historian and author (b. 1673)
- 1736 – Prince Eugene of Savoy (b. 1663)
- 1740 – Thomas Tickell, English poet and author (b. 1685)
- 1758 – Francesco Zerafa, Maltese architect (b. 1679)
- 1815 – Joseph Winston, American soldier and politician (b. 1746)
- 1825 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician and academic (b. 1765)
- 1852 – Ivan Nabokov, Russian general (b. 1787)
- 1863 – Sir Robert Bateson, 1st Baronet, Irish politician (b. 1782)
- 1900 – Vikramatji Khimojiraj, Indian ruler (b. 1819)
- 1910 – Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (b. 1835)
- 1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, German captain and pilot (b. 1892)
- 1924 – Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (b. 1858)
- 1930 – Robert Bridges, English poet and author (b. 1844)
- 1932 – Friedrich Gustav Piffl, Bohemian cardinal (b. 1864)
- 1938 – Muhammad Iqbal, Indian-Pakistani philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
- 1941 – Fritz Manteuffel, German gymnast (b. 1875)
- 1945 – Walter Model, German field marshal (b. 1891)
- 1946 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist and philosopher (b. 1883)
- 1948 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist and author (b. 1887)
- 1952 – Leslie Banks, American actor, director and producer (b. 1890)
- 1954 – Emil Leon Post, Polish-American mathematician and logician (b. 1897)
- 1956 – Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)
- 1965 – Edward Victor Appleton, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
- 1971 – François Duvalier, Haitian physician and politician, 40th President of Haiti (b. 1907)
- 1973 – Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
- 1973 – Kemal Tahir, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1910)
- 1974 – Chic Harley, American football player (b. 1894)
- 1977 – Gummo Marx, American vaudevillian and talent agent (b. 1893)
- 1978 – Sandy Denny, English singer-songwriter (b.1947)
- 1978 – Thomas Wyatt Turner, American biologist and academic (b. 1877)
- 1980 – Alexander Oparin, Russian biochemist and academic (b. 1894)
- 1980 – Sohrab Sepehri, Iranian poet and painter (b. 1928)
- 1983 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-American actor and singer (b. 1902)
- 1984 – Marcel Janco, Romanian-Israeli artist (b. 1895)
- 1984 – Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian engineer and mountaineer (b. 1943)
- 1985 – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-American fashion designer, created the monokini (b. 1922)
- 1985 – Tancredo Neves, Brazilian banker and politician, Prime Minister of Brazil (b. 1910)
- 1986 – Marjorie Eaton, American painter and actress (b. 1901)
- 1986 – Salah Jahin, Egyptian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1930)
- 1987 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1906)
- 1989 – James Kirkwood, Jr., American actor, playwright, and author (b. 1924)
- 1990 – Erté, Russian-French illustrator (b. 1892)
- 1991 – Willi Boskovsky, Austrian violinist and conductor (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Zora Arkus-Duntov, Belgian-born American engineer and racing driver (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen general and politician, 1st President of Ichkeria (b. 1944)
- 1996 – Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistani cricketer (b. 1925)
- 1996 – Jimmy Snyder, American sportscaster (b. 1919)
- 1998 – Jean-François Lyotard, French sociologist and philosopher (b. 1924)
- 1999 – Buddy Rogers, American actor (b. 1904)
- 2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist (b. 1933)
- 2004 – Mary McGrory, American journalist (b. 1918)
- 2005 – Gerry Marshall, English race car driver and journalist (b. 1941)
- 2006 – Johnny Checketts, New Zealand commander and pilot (b. 1912)
- 2006 – T. K. Ramakrishnan, Indian politician (b. 1922)
- 2006 – Telê Santana, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1931)
- 2007 – Lobby Loyde, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer (b. 1941)
- 2009 – Vivian Maier, American photographer (b. 1926)
- 2010 – Gustav Lorentzen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
- 2010 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Kanagaratnam Sriskandan, Sri Lankan-English engineer and civil servant (b. 1930)
- 2011 – Catharina Halkes, Dutch theologian and academic (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Doris Betts, American author and academic (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and activist, founded Prison Fellowship (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Albert Falco, French captain and diver (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Charles Higham, English-American author and poet (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Jerry Toppazzini, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Chrissy Amphlett, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1959)
- 2013 – Shakuntala Devi, Indian mathematician and astrologer (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor, author, and educator (b. 1905)
- 2013 – Gordon D. Gayle, American general and historian (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Herb Gray, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Janet Gray Hayes, American politician, 60th Mayor of San Jose (b. 1926)
- 2014 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Win Tin, Burmese journalist and politician, co-founded the National League for Democracy (b. 1930)
- 2015 – M. H. Abrams, American author, critic, and academic (b. 1912)
- 2015 – Steve Byrnes, American sportscaster and producer (b. 1959)
- 2015 – John Moshoeu, South African footballer and manager (b. 1965)
- 2015 – Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, Indian politician, Governor of Assam (b. 1927)
- 2015 – Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters, Canadian general (b. 1920)
- 2015 – Betsy von Furstenberg, German-American actress (b. 1931)
- 2016 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1958)
- 2017 – Ugo Ehiogu, English footballer (b. 1972)
- Christian feast day:
- Civil Service Day (India)
- Day of Local Self-Government (Russia)
- Grounation Day (Rastafari movement)
- Heroic Defense of Veracruz (Mexico)
- Kang Pan-sok’s Birthday (North Korea)
- Kartini Day (Indonesia)
- Local Self Government Day (Russia)
- National Tree Planting Day (Kenya)
- San Jacinto Day (Texas)
- Queen's Official Birthday (Falkland Islands)
- Tiradentes' Day (Brazil)
- Vietnam Book Day (Vietnam)
““Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
O child of God, death hath lost its sting, because the devil's power over it is destroyed. Then cease to fear dying. Ask grace from God the Holy Ghost, that by an intimate knowledge and a firm belief of thy Redeemer's death, thou mayst be strengthened for that dread hour. Living near the cross of Calvary thou mayst think of death with pleasure, and welcome it when it comes with intense delight. It is sweet to die in the Lord: it is a covenant-blessing to sleep in Jesus. Death is no longer banishment, it is a return from exile, a going home to the many mansions where the loved ones already dwell. The distance between glorified spirits in heaven and militant saints on earth seems great; but it is not so. We are not far from home--a moment will bring us there. The sail is spread; the soul is launched upon the deep. How long will be its voyage? How many wearying winds must beat upon the sail ere it shall be reefed in the port of peace? How long shall that soul be tossed upon the waves before it comes to that sea which knows no storm? Listen to the answer, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Yon ship has just departed, but it is already at its haven. It did but spread its sail and it was there. Like that ship of old, upon the Lake of Galilee, a storm had tossed it, but Jesus said, "Peace, be still," and immediately it came to land. Think not that a long period intervenes between the instant of death and the eternity of glory. When the eyes close on earth they open in heaven. The horses of fire are not an instant on the road. Then, O child of God, what is there for thee to fear in death, seeing that through the death of thy Lord its curse and sting are destroyed? and now it is but a Jacob's ladder whose foot is in the dark grave, but its top reaches to glory everlasting.
Evening
The sacramental host of God's elect is warring still on earth, Jesus Christ being the Captain of their salvation. He has said, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Hark to the shouts of war! Now let the people of God stand fast in their ranks, and let no man's heart fail him. It is true that just now in England the battle is turned against us, and unless the Lord Jesus shall lift his sword, we know not what may become of the church of God in this land; but let us be of good courage, and play the man. There never was a day when Protestantism seemed to tremble more in the scales than now that a fierce effort is making to restore the Romish antichrist to his ancient seat. We greatly want a bold voice and a strong hand to preach and publish the old gospel for which martyrs bled and confessors died. The Saviour is, by his Spirit, still on earth; let this cheer us. He is ever in the midst of the fight, and therefore the battle is not doubtful. And as the conflict rages, what a sweet satisfaction it is to know that the Lord Jesus, in his office as our great Intercessor, is prevalently pleading for his people! O anxious gazer, look not so much at the battle below, for there thou shalt be enshrouded in smoke, and amazed with garments rolled in blood; but lift thine eyes yonder where the Saviour lives and pleads, for while he intercedes, the cause of God is safe. Let us fight as if it all depended upon us, but let us look up and know that all depends upon him.
Now, by the lilies of Christian purity, and by the roses of the Saviour's atonement, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, we charge you who are lovers of Jesus, to do valiantly in the Holy War, for truth and righteousness, for the kingdom and crown jewels of your Master. Onward! "for the battle is not yours but God's."
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Nimrod
[NÄ m'rÅd] - valiant, strong or he that rules.
A son of Cush, son of Ham. Nimrod was a mighty hunter and a potent monarch whose land bore his name (Gen. 10:8, 9; 1 Chron. 1:10;Micah 5:6).
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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 9-11, Luke 15:11-32 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 9-11
David and Mephibosheth
1 David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?"
2 Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?"
"At your service," he replied.
3 The king asked, "Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?"
Today's New Testament reading: Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.
13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything....
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Today's Lent reading: John 17-18 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayJesus Prays to Be Glorified
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began....
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