But Mr Shorten and Senator Ryan thought official duties were over and chose to travel to the airport in Dubai earlier than originally scheduled, stopping off to shop before flying out hours later" Under what circumstances would Malcolm Turnbull resign, as he demanded of AMP chiefs last week so they may be responsible for their decisions?
Stormy Daniels is de-facto head of the Democrat Party as they seek to delegitimise Trump's election as President. Although Daniels seems to have confused Trump with her husband in claims she made back in the day. Although the claims have no weight on the Presidency. Although the situation does not mirror Bill Clinton's disgrace. Although the corruptly obtained detail that Daniels was paid by Trump's lawyer does not mean Trump was aware of the payment. Democrats live in hope. Or is that fantasy? Democrat Congress hopeful Ammar Campa-Najjar is a unicorn?
Tears as 57,000 Hondurans who lived in the US for over 20 years are evicted among 400,000. We don't live in isolation. People are dying through people smuggling and that has to stop. There are migration pathways and there are refugee pathways. These people are not victims of Trump, but victim to people smugglers who promised what was not legally delivered.
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 Leisure
William Henry Davies or W. H. Davies (3 July 1871 -- 26 September 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer.
W. H. Davies
Leisure
WHAT is this life if, full of care,We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
We have no time to stand and stare.
=== from 2017 ===
IPA Review April 2017 has a piece on Red Tape. The Australia Tax is related to red tape. Australia's market is not very big compared to the US, Europe, Asia or Africa, but in niche areas, between Sydney and Melbourne, there is no excuse for things not being world competitive. But they aren't Sometimes it is because a council tacks on $100k to the price of a home through bad planning. Or businesses are not allowed to trade optimally. Currently, there are applications for drone technology which would save people from tasks which are dull, dirty or dangerous. But no one is allowed to exploit them. Australia is stopping collecting environmentally sound, cheap gas, and instead producing expensive electric power through so called renewables. Even Greens supporters complain of the bills.
Some things should not happen, but they do. School curriculum is a plan that allows teachers to produce meaningful lessons for their students. A year 8 Jacaranda Press Science Textbook, called Science Quest in Victoria, lectures school students that Aboriginals were the first to use mill stones to produce flour. It is not respectful to Aboriginal peoples to make things up. It is exploitative. The comment was not referenced, so it is not possible to say how it was wrong, precisely. The textbook was almost certainly written from a curriculum base which includes the lie. Soon, as has happened in the recent past too, students will be examined on what they have learned. If they don't repeat the lie, they are marked wrong.
Some things should not happen, but they do. School curriculum is a plan that allows teachers to produce meaningful lessons for their students. A year 8 Jacaranda Press Science Textbook, called Science Quest in Victoria, lectures school students that Aboriginals were the first to use mill stones to produce flour. It is not respectful to Aboriginal peoples to make things up. It is exploitative. The comment was not referenced, so it is not possible to say how it was wrong, precisely. The textbook was almost certainly written from a curriculum base which includes the lie. Soon, as has happened in the recent past too, students will be examined on what they have learned. If they don't repeat the lie, they are marked wrong.
=== from 2016 ===
I have moved to a good home. I leave behind the ice house. Dan Andrews would rather I lived with an ice addict, and that you should too.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
The cuts Australia needs to make to its budget are deep and fair. It is selfish to leave a legacy of debt to our children which would be so big it would give them a lifestyle that is life threatening. Failure to cut now means they might not have education then, or health care, or welfare. That is what Shorten and the ALP are insisting on. Debt that is unsustainable and a permanent loss of service Australians take for granted. If your local member tells you cuts are not possible, ask them what it is they are prepared to take from our children.
In 553, the Second Council of Constantinople began. It was the fifth ecumenical council of seven. The council was to address a schism in the church involving a heresy put forward by Nestor that Christ was separately man (Jesus) and God. It was a form of arianism that Cyril opposed. The council supported Cyril's position, but should have condemned the man's bloody politics. The separation of church and state had not yet been established. Cyril had died in '44 and his killings, including Hypatia, were mere historical footnotes.
In 1215, rebel barons renounced their fealty to King John of England. It would result in the Magna Carta. John was petty, spiteful and cruel, and a bit more than a year later, was dead at 49 years of age, from dysentery. In 1260, Kublai Kahn became emperor of Mongolia, his realm reached from the Pacific to the Black Sea, from Siberia to modern day Afghanistan – one fifth of the world's inhabited land area. In 1494, Columbus landed in Jamaica and claimed it for Spain. In 1809, on the same day Mary Kies had got her patent, the Swiss canton of Aargau had allowed citizenship to Jews. In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi set out from Genoa with an expedition of a thousand to conquer and to unite Italy. In 1891, Carnegie Hall opened with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.
In 1904, Cy Young threw a perfect game of Baseball. The first in the modern era. In 1905 in London, the trial of the Stratton Brothers began. It was the first time fingerprints were used to gain conviction for murder. Before peace advocates promoted left wing causes, even war, anarchists did the same. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian born anarchists who came to the US separately in 1908, and did not meet until 1917 at a strike. They were both followers of Galleani who advocated bombings and killing for anarchy. They were both probably killers. But they were arrested on this day in 1920 for a crime they were probably involved in, and eventually executed for. But the left wing, world wide, denounced their conviction as insufficient. Even as bombs were tossed worldwide in protest of the convictions. In 1934, the Three Stooges released their short Woman Haters.
In 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East began in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Proportionately more Japanese were executed than Germans. In 1977, the first of the Frost and Nixon interviews was broadcast. Frost claimed a gotcha that was not there. In 1981, Bobby Sands died voluntarily. He was a terrorist who had been caught, and protested by not eating food. In 2010, protestors in Greece protested austerity measures made to help them pay for their selfish greed.
In 553, the Second Council of Constantinople began. It was the fifth ecumenical council of seven. The council was to address a schism in the church involving a heresy put forward by Nestor that Christ was separately man (Jesus) and God. It was a form of arianism that Cyril opposed. The council supported Cyril's position, but should have condemned the man's bloody politics. The separation of church and state had not yet been established. Cyril had died in '44 and his killings, including Hypatia, were mere historical footnotes.
In 1215, rebel barons renounced their fealty to King John of England. It would result in the Magna Carta. John was petty, spiteful and cruel, and a bit more than a year later, was dead at 49 years of age, from dysentery. In 1260, Kublai Kahn became emperor of Mongolia, his realm reached from the Pacific to the Black Sea, from Siberia to modern day Afghanistan – one fifth of the world's inhabited land area. In 1494, Columbus landed in Jamaica and claimed it for Spain. In 1809, on the same day Mary Kies had got her patent, the Swiss canton of Aargau had allowed citizenship to Jews. In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi set out from Genoa with an expedition of a thousand to conquer and to unite Italy. In 1891, Carnegie Hall opened with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.
In 1904, Cy Young threw a perfect game of Baseball. The first in the modern era. In 1905 in London, the trial of the Stratton Brothers began. It was the first time fingerprints were used to gain conviction for murder. Before peace advocates promoted left wing causes, even war, anarchists did the same. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian born anarchists who came to the US separately in 1908, and did not meet until 1917 at a strike. They were both followers of Galleani who advocated bombings and killing for anarchy. They were both probably killers. But they were arrested on this day in 1920 for a crime they were probably involved in, and eventually executed for. But the left wing, world wide, denounced their conviction as insufficient. Even as bombs were tossed worldwide in protest of the convictions. In 1934, the Three Stooges released their short Woman Haters.
In 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East began in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Proportionately more Japanese were executed than Germans. In 1977, the first of the Frost and Nixon interviews was broadcast. Frost claimed a gotcha that was not there. In 1981, Bobby Sands died voluntarily. He was a terrorist who had been caught, and protested by not eating food. In 2010, protestors in Greece protested austerity measures made to help them pay for their selfish greed.
From 2014
There are many lauding Mary Kies for being the first US woman to get a patent on this day in 1809. She had developed a weaving process for straw and silk which was useful and popular. Other women had had good ideas which a few years before they had not profited from and had not got patents for. Intellectual property is important. Apple, Google and Amazon profit handsomely from it. Some drugs are extraordinarily expensive because of it, despite the cheapness of the ingredients. But,cynicism aside, it drives growth and invention. Sad to report, then that Mary died in poverty, never having profited from it. Making her, like Obama, another highly lauded symbol of groundbreaking achievement.
Annoyingly, Wikipedia lists this day in 1865 as being the time and place of the first train robbery in the US at North Bend, Ohio, but it fails to list details. Luckily there is Google. It is rumoured to have been the work of Frank and Jesse James. About a dozen had torn up tracks and derailed the train. Then, gunmen had demanded cash and valuables from the passengers. Also they stole safes and opened them. The telegraph was used to alert authorities, but the culprits were never brought to book. A bit like the Obama Presidency as well.
Tennessee representative John W Butler was sincere but did not know about what was eventually legislated with his name. The Butler Act denied permission to teach evolution in Tennessee schools. He had done so because as he later stated, "I didn't know anything about evolution... I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense." American Civil Liberties Union made a test case, funding John Scopes, a science teacher to use a textbook which included a treatise on Evolution, Race and Eugenics. Interestingly, Race and Eugenics are discredited in science. While the dispute was between Christian Modernists who hold that science is not in opposition to faith and Christian fundamentalists who hold that science is irrelevant, the case is now pitched between faith and atheism. Defence attorney Darrow was agnostic. Except the way the case is now understood is widely different to what it was about. The Butler Act was stupid. It is disappointing that the defence brought it down with a treatise including Race and Eugenics. But it was 1925 and Scopes was arrested on this day.
Annoyingly, Wikipedia lists this day in 1865 as being the time and place of the first train robbery in the US at North Bend, Ohio, but it fails to list details. Luckily there is Google. It is rumoured to have been the work of Frank and Jesse James. About a dozen had torn up tracks and derailed the train. Then, gunmen had demanded cash and valuables from the passengers. Also they stole safes and opened them. The telegraph was used to alert authorities, but the culprits were never brought to book. A bit like the Obama Presidency as well.
Tennessee representative John W Butler was sincere but did not know about what was eventually legislated with his name. The Butler Act denied permission to teach evolution in Tennessee schools. He had done so because as he later stated, "I didn't know anything about evolution... I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense." American Civil Liberties Union made a test case, funding John Scopes, a science teacher to use a textbook which included a treatise on Evolution, Race and Eugenics. Interestingly, Race and Eugenics are discredited in science. While the dispute was between Christian Modernists who hold that science is not in opposition to faith and Christian fundamentalists who hold that science is irrelevant, the case is now pitched between faith and atheism. Defence attorney Darrow was agnostic. Except the way the case is now understood is widely different to what it was about. The Butler Act was stupid. It is disappointing that the defence brought it down with a treatise including Race and Eugenics. But it was 1925 and Scopes was arrested on this day.
Historical perspective on this day
In 553, the Second Council of Constantinople began. 1215, rebel barons renounced their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. 1260, Kublai Khan became ruler of the Mongol Empire. 1494, Christopher Columbuslanded on the island of Jamaica and claimed it for Spain. 1640, King Charles I of England dissolved the Short Parliament. 1762, Russia and Prussia signed the Treaty of St. Petersburg. 1789, in France, the Estates-General convened for the first time since 1614.
In 1809, Mary Kies became the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread. Also 1809, the Swiss canton of Aargau allowed citizenship to Jews. 1811, in the second day of fighting at the Peninsular War Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro the French army, under Marshall André Masséna, drove in the Duke of Wellington's overextended right flank, but French frontal assaults failed to take the town of Fuentes de Oñoro and the Anglo-Portuguese army held the field at the end of the day. 1821, Emperor Napoleon I died in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. 1835, in Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opened between Brussels and Mechelen. 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi set sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy. 1862, Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halted a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico. 1864, American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness began in Spotsylvania County. 1865, in North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States took place. 1866, Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York. 1877, American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull led his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles. 1886, the Bay View Tragedy: A militia fired into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, killing seven. 1891, the Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) had its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
In 1904, Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball. 1905, the trial in the Stratton Brothers case began in London, England; it marked the first time that fingerprint evidence was used to gain a conviction for murder. 1920, authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder. 1925, Scopes Trial: Serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act. Also 1925, the government of South Africa declared Afrikaans an official language. 1934, the first Three Stoogesshort, Woman Haters, was released. 1936, Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In 1940, World War II: Norwegian refugees formed a government-in-exile in London Also 1940, World War II: Norwegian Campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulated to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms. 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Dayor Patriots' Victory Day. 1944, German troops executed 216 civilians in the village of Kleisoura in Greece. 1945, World War II: Canadian and British troops liberated the Netherlands and Denmark from Germanoccupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulated. Also 1945, World War II: The Prague uprising began as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation. 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East began in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 1949, the Treaty of London established the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as the first European institution working for European integration. 1950, Bhumibol Adulyadej was crowned King Rama IX of Thailand. 1955, West Germany gained full sovereignty. 1961, The Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 3: Alan Shepardbecame the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight. 1964, the Council of Europe declared May 5 as Europe Day.
In 1972, Alitalia Flight 112 crashed into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy. 1973, Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing record. 1977, the first of The Nixon Interviewsbetween David Frost and Richard Nixon were broadcast. 1980, Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service stormed the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege. 1981, Bobby Sandsdied in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. 1987, Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America 1991, a riot broke out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shot a Salvadoranman. 1994, the signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively froze the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Also 1994, American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism. 2006, the government of Sudan signed an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army. 2010, Mass protests in Greece erupted in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek debt crisis.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.
List of available items at Create Space
The Amazon Author Page for David Ball
UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWGFrench .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG
German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Happy birthday and many happy returns Nguyen Sa Tran. Born on the same date as Garibaldi set sail to conquer the kingdom of two Sicilies. Also Cy Young threw the first perfect game in professional baseball. So lots celebrate your day. Thank you.
- 867 – Emperor Uda of Japan (d. 931)
- 1546 – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English soldier and politician (d. 1623)
- 1800 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (d. 1864)
- 1830 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (d. 1906)
- 1858 – John L. Leal, American physician (d. 1914)
- 1901 – Blind Willie McTell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1959)
- 1943 – Michael Palin, English actor and screenwriter
- 1957 – Richard E. Grant, Swiss-English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1988 – Adele, English singer-songwriter and musician
- 1988 – Jessica Dubroff, American pilot (d. 1996)
- 1990 – Song Jieun, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress (Secret)
- 1999 – Nathan Chen, American figure skater
Deaths
- 984 – Gerberga of Saxony (b. 913)
- 1672 – Samuel Cooper, English painter (b. 1609)
- 1821 – Napoleon, French general and emperor (b. 1769)
May 5: Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; Children's Day in Japan and South Korea
- 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople, considered by many Christian churches to have been the fifth Christian Ecumenical Council, began to discuss the topics of Nestorianism and Origenism, among others.
- 1860 – Led by Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi, the volunteerExpedition of the Thousand set sail from Genoa on a campaign to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
- 1891 – New York City's Carnegie Hall (interior pictured), built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert conducted by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
- 1940 – World War II: A squad of 250 Norwegian volunteers in Hegra Fortress finally surrendered to a vastly superior Nazi force after a 25-day siege.
- 1991 – Rioting broke out in Washington, D.C., after a rookie police officer shot a Salvadorean man in the chest.
Our committee settled the issue. Garibaldi led it. Our hall had an honoured guest. Norwegians showed hitler Norway. Rioting broke out after a dead man resisted arrest. Let's party.
Tim Blair 2018
THERE’S NO BEAR IN THERE
Our national broadcaster briefly suspends its savage ursine bloodlust, opting to hunt vegetation instead.
KEEP ON TRUCKIN’, YASSMIN
There may be a very urgent reason why Yassmin Alby-Mangels is in our faces quite so often lately, despite fleeing hateful Australia for London’s serene milieu of jellied eels, poisoned Russians and constant stabbings.
WASPS WARLIKE, REPTILES REDEEMED
I’m presently dealing with my own tense Korean scenario. My backyard patio has become a miniature, bug-populated version of Seoul versus Pyongyang.
GET UP, STAND UP, STAND UP FOR THE JUDGE
UPDATED Freedom sack enthusiast Moutia Elzahed last year repeatedly declined to stand for the judge during a legal case initiated by Elzahed herself. Now she’s returned to court for the verdict on her non-standing stunt.
Andrew Bolt 2018
ME, MARX, PETE AND JAMES
Talking Karl Marx with Pete and my son James on the Young IPA podcast. Listen here.
WHAT'S THAT GOT TO DO WITH A RUSSIA PROBE?
Finally a judge questions the "unfettered power" Robert Mueller has assumed to persecute people over issues nothing to do with his actual brief - to investigate Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russia. Why is Mueller hounding Paul Manafort over business dealings with Ukraine a decade earlier? Where's his authority?
FAKE FACTS: ELECTRICITY BOSS TRASHES COAL
CANAVAN ATTACKS How can we trust the Turnbull Government's Energy Security Board chairwoman when she makes such false claims: "The cost of running a clean-coal plant is much more expensive than running a combination of wind, solar and gas, or, better yet, wind, solar and pumped hydro." That's not what the Chief Scientist thinks. Not if we want reliable power.
POWER ELITE DEMANDS MORE IMMIGRANTS. LET THE POOR SUFFER
Vested interests - and union sell-outs - combine to demand more of what makes life tougher for poorer Australians: "The historic coalition of peak unions, employer groups and the ethnic lobby will release a united policy document today warning of the economic and social consequences of dropping the annual migration rate."
PROUD OF DEATH, ASHAMED OF LIFE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 05, 2015 (4:54am)
Sophisticated left-wing types are now enduring one of their periodic ”ashamed to be Australian” episodes, which typically involve public expressions of concern at how Australia is viewed overseas.
For some reason these episodes always seem to coincide with Coalition governments.
Well, our left-wing friends can relax, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as always, hardly anybody overseas is as obsessed with Australia politics as are local lefties. For reasons that might have something to do with them not living in Australia, foreigners rarely take much interest in our domestic political capering.
And secondly, in a rare instance of foreigners actually noticing what we’re up to, Australia is being applauded. Right now, Aussies in Europe especially might find themselves being asked all sorts of interesting and well-informed questions about a particular Australian success story.
Continue reading 'PROUD OF DEATH, ASHAMED OF LIFE'
===
READING IS WRONG
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 05, 2015 (4:33am)
The ABC’s Joe Gelonesi explains Radio National’s bizarre questioning of bedtime reading for children, on the grounds that it would disadvantage other kids:
Contacted by The Daily Telegraph, Gelonesi said the bedtime stories angle was highlighted by the ABC “as a way of getting attention”.
We’ll try that line the next time ABC’s Media Watch attacks a Telegraph headline. Doubt it will work.
Asked if it might be just as easy to level the playing field by encouraging other parents to read bedtime stories, Gelonesi said: “We didn’t discuss that.”
Of course they didn’t. Equality advocates tend always to aim down. Aiming up doesn’t seem to be an option. Click for a searing response to this stupidity from David Thompson.
===
LISTEN FOR THE SQUIGTONE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 05, 2015 (3:49am)
As a service to the anxious, this site will sound an official Lenny & Squiggy Trigger Warning following every news report mentioning a certain breed of solitary predatory canines:
UPDATE. One of the dead Texas shooters was a known wolf.
UPDATE. One of the dead Texas shooters was a known wolf.
===
UNANIMOUS DECISION
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 05, 2015 (3:40am)
Filipino fighting machine Manny Pacquiao may have been defeated by Floyd Mayweather on the weekend, but locally the Philippines scored an impressive victory:
The Philippines’ most wanted Islamist militant, whose death at the weekend could boost peace efforts in the country’s south, was killed by his own bodyguards in pursuit of a bounty offered by the United States, the head of the military said on May 4.Abdul Basit Usman, a militant with strong al Qaeda links who was blamed for numerous bomb attacks in the southern Philippines, had been hunted by security forces since 2002.
(Via Dan F.)
===
Tim Storrier and the other Tim’s hat
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (12:21pm)
I prefer to believe Tim Storrier’s print, a highlight of next week’s Leonard Joel sale of specialist prints, has been mistitled:
The proper title, I believe, is Apres moi le deluge: Tim Flannery’s hat.
===
We cannot keep paying pensions to the rich
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (9:56am)
Now we’re talking, even if Labor will once again attack:
UPDATE
Nick Cater spells out another problem with pensions and super that Labor is strangely reluctant to fix:
UPDATE
Unprincipled rabble-rousing, and never mind the cost:
Federal cabinet has locked in plans to tighten access to the age pension for wealthy retirees who have enough private assets to pay their own way, securing a major budget saving while leaving room to reward others on modest private incomes.This is the kind of reform we need - and I say so as someone who will clearly be affected.
A new pension assets test will scale back payments to older Australians who have substantial private wealth in addition to their family homes, but the changes will be balanced so there will be winners as well as losers from the changes.
UPDATE
Nick Cater spells out another problem with pensions and super that Labor is strangely reluctant to fix:
Australians will have $9 trillion saved in superannuation in 25 years yet seven out of 10 retirees still will rely on welfare, according to last month’s Intergenerational Report…(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and brett t r.)
As the Murray Financial System Inquiry pointed out last year ... (a) relatively simple way of increasing [retirement] income ... would be to reduce administrative fees and other charges creamed off by fund managers and give contributors the freedom to invest their money in the fund of their choice. At present some enterprise agreements dictate to which industry fund compulsory superannuation payments are made: Murray’s proposals would put a stop to that and by doing so increase retirement incomes for workers on average pay by 25 to 40 per cent.
One would expect the Labor Party to embrace these proposals to help the working poor. Strangely not, however. Evidence to Heydon’s royal commission helps us understand why…
The intimate relationship between the TWU, TWUSUPER and the ALP furnishes one explanation. Between July 2006 and June last year, TWUSUPER paid $6.8 million to the TWU ... for directors’ meeting fees, reimbursement of directors’ expenses, superannuation “liaison officer expenses”, office rental, advertising expenses and sponsorship…
TWUSUPER, Cbus and other industry superfunds have turned into the kind of “tearaway industry with rorts” Keating warned against. These inadequately supervised bodies, overseen by boards stacked with union and Labor Party stalwarts, are henhouses run by foxes…
The TWU — recipient of millions of dollars from TWUSUPER — gave almost $4.9m to Labor between July 2006 and June last year. It gave $2.1m to the party in 2010-11 alone to bankroll Labor’s election. If Shorten and Bowen want to retain their credibility, they should insist that the ALP hands that money back.
UPDATE
Unprincipled rabble-rousing, and never mind the cost:
“Tony Abbott’s treatment of pensioners in the last 12 months has been nothing short of a national disgrace,” Mr Shorten said this morning after The Australian revealed the cabinet decision to tighten the pension assets test.
“They just need to come clean: drop the cuts to the pension.”
===
Clive Palmer’s Borodino: a devastating win
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (9:50am)
Hedley Thomas says Clive Palmer’s court win yesterday was not all good news:
(Thanks to reader WaG311.)
Judge David Jackson’s decision to sidestep the question of whether Palmer acted fraudulently and dishonestly when he took more than $12 million in Chinese funds means it is likely to be left to police to determine.Note: a man who acts like this is now a member of Parliament. This is a disgrace, in my opinion.
The problem for Palmer is that Jackson did go on and make a number of conclusions that look bad for the tycoon.
This cash was meant to have been spent on a port. Palmer knew that… It was funnelled instead to pay for his political creature, the Palmer United Party. He signed the cheques…
Palmer’s legal argument that the Chinese funds were not held “on trust” by him or his company has been upheld. That is his win. Having found there was not an actual trust, Jackson decided he would not need to rule on whether the parliamentarian had acted dishonestly and fraudulently in taking and spending all the cash. That was another win.
While Jackson avoided making such a declaration, however, he spiked his judgment with details adverse to Palmer. He described Palmer’s “apparent attempt to manufacture evidence to show that there was a written contract” to authorise his withdrawals. The judge appeared unimpressed by this purportedly “sham document”, which was allegedly fraudulently pulled together and backdated… Palmer knew, too, his $10m payment to Cosmo and $2.167m payment to Media Circus were not authorised, Jackson ruled.
The serious accusations of fraudulent conduct that were levelled against Palmer by the Chinese were not unjustified, according to Jackson, who found they had a “reasonable basis"…Some will be scratching their heads after the narrow outcome of these civil proceedings. A wealthy politician helps himself to millions of dollars, spends it on private interests unrelated to a port, and allegedly “manufactures” a document after the fact to justify the withdrawals. Then he pays the money back — and says he did nothing wrong. Does it pass the sniff test. It falls to police to clear it up once and for all.
(Thanks to reader WaG311.)
===
How Bill Shorten (doesn’t) answer questions
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (9:29am)
From Bill Shorten’s astonishing press conference yesterday, this list of complete non-answers from the man who promised this would be the “year of ideas”:
JOURNALIST: What do you make of the reports this morning Mr Shorten that the deficit levy could be gone in this coming Budget after 2017, and also no GST on goods purchased online under $1,000. Would you be supportive of those measures?
SHORTEN: There’s the Government going again with thought bubbles in substitute for well-argued and reasoned policy.... In terms of what we will support, I think the Government just needs to do its homework, tell Australians of what it’s doing – not a process of selective leaks of half thought-out ideas which they then retreat from as soon as they get the first whiff of political gunpowder in their nostrils.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see the deficit levy continue?
SHORTEN: Well first of all I’d like to see what the numbers in the Budget are. I’m not going to start putting up all the propositions of the Government....
JOURNALIST: When will the Labor Government deliver a Budget surplus?
SHORTEN: First of all we have to be in Government. I think the question though that should be asked of the Abbott Government is that – they’ve now been in power about 604, 605 days, when will they stop blaming Labor around every corner for everything that this Government hasn’t done? ...
JOURNALIST: Can I ask what is needed – more spending cuts or tax increases?
SHORTEN: What’s needed is the Government to keep its election promises, what’s needed is the Government not to attack low-paid people....
JOURNALIST: This morning Tony Abbott said that the Government has been able to save about $3 billion or so over the forward estimates as a result of its asylum seeker policy. Is this something that Labor will continue if you were to win Government?
SHORTEN: Well, I will give some tips to Tony Abbott. He could save north of $20 billion by taking up our changes to multinationals and superannuation…
JOURNALIST: But given the savings that Operation Sovereign Borders – the Government says – have been achieved, is it a policy that Labor would continue with if you were to win government next year?
SHORTEN: Well, I don’t accept the assumption – you’re asserting numbers, we haven’t seen them yet. Let’s see what they look like in the Budget. But in the meantime, I just invite Tony Abbott to take up our constructive suggestions… Tough areas, superannuation concessions for the mega-wealthy, looking at multinational taxation…
JOURNALIST: You were saying before that you’ve got three tests that you are going to apply to the Abbott Government’s Budget, if the savings measures that they propose don’t meet those tests, are you committed to blocking them?
SHORTEN: Well, first of all, let’s see what they do. We all know that last year’s Budget was a complete disaster… The question is, does he only have two gears – dull and do nothing and save his job, or extreme ideology…
JOURNALIST: Well, what do you make of what the AFP have had to say?
SHORTEN: Well I’ll need to see what they’ve actually said.
===
Bill Shorten will and won’t on boats
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (9:21am)
Bill Shorten yesterday hinted he might finally get tough on illegal immigrants:
I cannot also lie to myself and I will not live in an intellectually dishonest world where I say that if we have policies which drag people here to hop on unsafe boats and drown at sea, well I’m not going to be party to that either. Just as we saw at Lampedusa, where 700 refugees died by boat, I cannot turn my mind and ignore that truth too. Because how do I ask people to go and get people out of the sea, how do I ask people to fish people out of the sea and not be prepared to deal with the policy consequences of it. That answer mightn’t satisfy you but it makes me live a little better each day.Bill Shorten on Monday refused to hint he’d get tough on illegal immigrants:
JOURNALIST: This morning Tony Abbott said that the Government has been able to save about $3 billion or so over the forward estimates as a result of its asylum seeker policy. Is this something that Labor will continue if you were to win Government?(Thanks to reader Paul.)
SHORTEN: Well, I will give some tips to Tony Abbott. He could save north of $20 billion by taking up our changes to multinationals and superannuation. Tony Abbott needs to stop focusing on political point scoring against Labor. He has been in office for 604 days. When will the man do his day job and stop blaming everyone else, and start working in the long-term interests of Australia?…
JOURNALIST: But given the savings that Operation Sovereign Borders – the Government says – have been achieved, is it a policy that Labor would continue with if you were to win government next year?
SHORTEN: Well, I don’t accept the assumption – you’re asserting numbers, we haven’t seen them yet. Let’s see what they look like in the Budget. But in the meantime, I just invite Tony Abbott to take up our constructive suggestions. We remember the long years of Tony Abbott as Opposition Leader. Did you ever see him offering billions of dollars of bipartisan agreement to make sure that this country can do better in the future? Billions of dollars proposed by Labor. Tough areas, superannuation concessions for the mega-wealthy, looking at multinational taxation.
===
The shooters aren’t the victims
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (9:04am)
Ben Shapiro:
UPDATE
Pamela Geller, organiser of the event that was attacked, deals very nicely with a CNN host who tried to cast her as the villain:
On Monday, the media came out and defended the Texas Draw Muhammad event targeted by radical Muslims. The Chicago Tribune said the event “poke[s] wicked fun at [religion] … lampoons the ability of persons of faith to compartmentalize.” The New York Times praised the event for “scrupulously disassemb[ling]” and mocking Islam with “vignettes” that “float into the high altitudes of absurdity.” Variety called the event a “nonstop fusillade of obscenities.”I saw the Book of Mormon with my family, incidentally. Very funny. Mind you, I didn’t leave the theatre wondering if we’d get shot, either, which would have made it less funny.
Oh, wait. Sorry, that was The Book of Mormon, the Mormonism-bashing Tony-award winning musical that actually carries a song with the lyrics “f*** you, God.” Nobody got shot for making that “brave musical.” The media worshipped it, nonetheless, as a blow for freedom.
But when two radical Muslims shoot up a Draw Muhammad event in Garland, Texas, the media jump to rip the event.... The American left no longer believes in freedom of speech. They believe in their freedom to criticize those things they find offensive; when shamed, they will occasionally pretend to support freedom of speech for those with whom they disagree, as with Charlie Hebdo. But in the end, they will justify those they believe are victims, even when those “victims” are busily shooting up free speech events in the heart of the United States.
UPDATE
Pamela Geller, organiser of the event that was attacked, deals very nicely with a CNN host who tried to cast her as the villain:
CNN sounds awfully like Islamic apologists apologists such as Kuranda Seyit, spokesman of the Islamic Council of Victoria:
This is really about baiting Muslims. It’s about you know venting hatred towards one religious community. It is not about free speech. And it’s a ridiculous notion to have a competition offering $10,000 so someone can denigrate the prophet And they did this knowingly that this would upset lots and lot of Muslims in the community and tragically what we’ve got is a result of someone’s incompetence and stupidity to even run such an event. It is a shame and I very sad that this is happened, but if you do this, if you poke a dog with a stick it’s going to bite you.UPDATE
An Australian Twitter user who supports Islamic State urged an attack at an anti-Islamic event in Texas just days before two people were shot dead as it wrapped up yesterday.(Thanks to readers Hawkeye P and Nick.)
The Melbourne man, known only as “Australi Witness”, went as far as sharing a map of the community centre where the event was held, while sharing calls last week by Islamic State fighters and supporters for “brothers in Texas” to go there “with your weapons, bombs or with knifes”. The same man also posted the addresses of synagogues in Australia and the location of Anzac Day services, along with details of individuals he claims have insulted Muslims. It is believed that Australian authorities are monitoring the posts.
===
The very modern Anthony Trollope
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (8:06am)
Anthony Trollope is a great and wise writer who is finally receiving the honour that is his due, as Adam Gopnik records in the New Yorker:
And that, of course, is what makes him so very modern, particularly in times like ours:
Trollope is ever sceptical of the wild claims of reformers, as Gopnik notes without quite appreciating the Trollope words he quotes:
This is deeply unfair on Trollope, whose cast of great characters includes Madame Max Goesler, a rich Viennese widow who is clearly Jewish. Goesler emerges as one of the heroines of the Palliser series - a noble, discreet and self-sacrificing woman who uses her wealth and industry to save Phineas Finn from the scaffold. Trollope also treats other Jewish characters sympathetically, but, as always, as individuals rather than types.
How strange that Gopnik, loving Trollope as I do, so fundamentally misreads him at the end. But read his entire essay. There is much wisdom and love in it still, and a true Trollope admirer would never let some flaw blind them to other virtues.
... one professor has discovered that as many books were published about Trollope in the five years between 1976 and 1981 as had appeared in the entire near-century since his death, in 1882.Trollope’s wisdom is to see the good in the bad, the bad in the good, the sting in reform and the golden thread in even the most thread-bare tradition. He has a merciful eye, and is the enemy of the ideologues and bullies who seek to stamp us straight.
And that, of course, is what makes him so very modern, particularly in times like ours:
The main burden of “The Warden,” the short novel that Trollope’s epiphany first produced, is the reform of an ancient charitable legacy that is meant to guarantee the welfare of pensioners in an almshouse in the imaginary cathedral town of Barchester, in the county of Barsetshire. The legacy has been diverted over time to provide a large sinecure for the clerical warden of the place. John Bold, a young man of radical turn, witnessing this misuse, sets out to reform it. In a Trollopian touch, he is also falling in love with the warden’s daughter, and, in a second Trollopian touch, the warden, far from being a parasite on the old men, is shown to be doing as good a job as imaginable in the circumstances. Mr. Harding, the warden, is within corruption without being corrupt, as the young man is battling for reform while admiring the old institution and the gracious women it produces…I think Gopnik goes too far in claiming Trollope as a man of the Left. That, in part, comes from a common error in confusing Conservative - too often a reactionary party in Trollope’s time - with conservative, as in the tendency to trust what works above claims of what would work better, and to prefer reform to revolution. I suspect Trollope would today have been sceptical about global warmists, for instance, and would have delighted in a character as comic as Tim Flannery. He’d also have flinched from the moral certitude and intolerance of the same-sex marriage push. As I understand him, Trollope was a conservative of the kind put so brilliantly by Giuseppe di Lampedusa: ”For things to remain the same, everything must change.” Preserve what is good by cutting away what rots.
Trollope sees that the agents of reform are often ugly, that the beneficiaries of corruption are often graceful, that the effects of reform are often dubious, but that reform in a liberal society is nonetheless as inevitable as the standardization of measurement. ...
What makes Trollope a novelist rather than a polemicist is that, although he is on the side of reform, he is capable of empathetic engagement with its victims. Mr. Harding is a very good man who is in an unfair position, and eventually, heartbreakingly, he recognizes this.... It’s a sign of Trollope’s gift for imagining the internal politics of large, self-approving bureaucracies that every one of his Barsetshire character types can be found in any American university. Trollope’s Low Church Bishop Proudie would today be a newly appointed university president, eager for online courses and increased enrollment; the High Church party of the Arabins would be found in the humanities faculty, distraught at having to prove that esoteric comp-lit studies are in any sense “profitable.” The Reverend Dr. Stanhope, the clergyman called back from a long holiday in Italy, is a professor summoned from a sabbatical at the American Academy in Rome and ordered to start teaching freshmen again. Even the condition of Trollope’s curates, like poor Mr. Quiverful, is exactly reproduced by those long-term adjuncts who teach semester to semester and live contract to contract.
Trollope is ever sceptical of the wild claims of reformers, as Gopnik notes without quite appreciating the Trollope words he quotes:
“Liberals think it to be for the welfare of the people and the good of the country that distances should be reduced and gradually annihilated. The Conservative thinks it to be for the good that he should maintain the great ‘distance’ or degree of difference which divides the Duke from the laborer.” Trollope is also clear that these “distances” to be reduced are not merely the hereditary ones that filled his England: “Accumulating wealth will re-create the distances almost as fast as they are dissolved by popular energy.”I also take issue with this:
Trollope could be stirred, a little peevishly, at times, by speculative capitalism, his bête noire… The only truly illiberal novel Trollope wrote on this theme, in the midst of the Palliser series, is, by a familiar paradox of taste, the one that has had a recent vogue: “The Way We Live Now.” It tells the story of the evil Melmotte, a foreign financier, presumed to be Jewish, and of his rise to Parliament and power. Not truly racist, it still shows the corruption of England by intruders—Melmotte is in league with an American named Hamilton Fisker—in a style that the cosmopolitan Trollope would usually have rejected, or deepened. It is a surprisingly bad-tempered work, and has gained popularity, one suspects, mainly because of its all-purpose title and its very atypical spleen… “The Way We Live Now” is the Trollope novel for people who don’t like Trollope novels.That last sentence, in my case at least, is clearly false, and I wonder whether Gopnik has made a mistake too common among polemicists of the Left and exactly the one Trollope never made: to judge people as types rather than individuals. Melmotte is Melmotte, not “speculative capitalism” on legs. He is not an archetypal Jew who is typically corrupting England (indeed, I cannot think of Melmotte without Clive Palmer coming to mind). This is not a character who should expose Trollope to Gopnik’s no-but-yes reproof as “not truly racist”.
This is deeply unfair on Trollope, whose cast of great characters includes Madame Max Goesler, a rich Viennese widow who is clearly Jewish. Goesler emerges as one of the heroines of the Palliser series - a noble, discreet and self-sacrificing woman who uses her wealth and industry to save Phineas Finn from the scaffold. Trollope also treats other Jewish characters sympathetically, but, as always, as individuals rather than types.
How strange that Gopnik, loving Trollope as I do, so fundamentally misreads him at the end. But read his entire essay. There is much wisdom and love in it still, and a true Trollope admirer would never let some flaw blind them to other virtues.
===
Newspoll: Labor 52 to Coalition 48
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (7:49am)
Step by step, the Abbott Government gets back into the contest after seeming near dead and buried in January:
Now for the Budget. If the Government can this time deliver something reassuring, Labor will be in trouble.
And, after trailing Bill Shorten since November as the nation’s preferred prime minister, Mr Abbott has drawn level with the Labor leader, according to the latest Newspoll… While Labor’s primary vote has fallen to its lowest since October at 35 per cent, the ALP continues to hold a two-party-preferred lead over the Coalition, of 52 per cent to 48 per cent.As I said at the previous Newspoll, Labor’s purported lead then of 51 to 49 seemed an underestimation, particularly given other poll results. This seems a truer measure.
Now for the Budget. If the Government can this time deliver something reassuring, Labor will be in trouble.
===
Qantas flies to the Left
Andrew Bolt May 05 2015 (7:40am)
First Qantas pushes the Recognise campaign to divide us by race. Now it wants to back another cause of the Left:
But I wonder whether the same freedom will be allowed if Joyce’s replacement is a conservative who campaigns against gay marriage or for tough border controls.
Noting that the Qantas workforce includes a significant number of gay people and that more than 70 per cent of Australians support same-sex marriage, according to recent polling, [CEO Alan] Joyce said it was important for the airline to advocate for reform.Joyce is perfectly entitled to use Qantas to push his pet causes, and particularly ones he believes would give Qantas a funky, “progressive” image.
But I wonder whether the same freedom will be allowed if Joyce’s replacement is a conservative who campaigns against gay marriage or for tough border controls.
===
Memo to the Australian: blast Kelly, not me
Andrew Bolt May 04 2015 (8:58pm)
I don’t think the latest over-the-top salvo at me from The Australianexplains at all this disgraceful threat or suggestion from Paul Kelly:
As for The Australian, a simple reassurance that Kelly did not speak for the editor would have been sufficient and more graceful.
Oh, and to claim that “Bolt insists only one side is being put” by The Australian is, of course, completely false and a straw man. Not for the first time do I wonder at The Australian’s response to someone who points out a clear problem in its coverage.
As the referendum advances, how much liberty will be extended to Bolt by his editors to continue his campaign in their newspapers?The questions remain: what did Kelly mean? Will he apologise either to me or to the editors he maligned in suggesting they would shut down an opponent of the racist campaign, backed by The Australian, to change our constitution?
As for The Australian, a simple reassurance that Kelly did not speak for the editor would have been sufficient and more graceful.
Oh, and to claim that “Bolt insists only one side is being put” by The Australian is, of course, completely false and a straw man. Not for the first time do I wonder at The Australian’s response to someone who points out a clear problem in its coverage.
===
BEST FRIENDS! When one turtle spotted his buddy flipped over onto his shell, he immediately got to work helping him. #Mates <3 br="" mashable="" via="">Posted by iRadio on Tuesday, 16 December 2014
===
Mine too!J
Posted by Infantryfollowme on Monday, 4 May 2015
===
Live each day to the fullest, then write about it!
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Monday, 4 May 2015
===
Imperial Sand Dunes with Prometheus Design Werx, Bay Area Expeditions Explore and Tactical Outfitters Eddie Dennis
Posted by Chris Van Loan on Monday, 4 May 2015
===
CRAB BREAK
Tim Blair – Monday, May 05, 2014 (12:02am)
These two-hour working days (sometimes even two-and-a-half hours) have exhausted me. Also, Sydney is cold and I can’t find a decent crab sandwich, so I’ve fled to Queensland. Back in a week or so.
===
ICAC makes even Hockey’s-fee-for-access look bad. UPDATE: Hockey to sue; Shorten snagged
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (4:46pm)
I think the times are rapidly changing and the public isn’t as tolerant of this kind of pay-for-access. That said, there is no wrongdoing unless anyone can show the money led to a favorable decision, and that is not even alleged against Joe Hockey - and I cannot believe ever would be:
UPDATE
The headline all over The Age and Sydney Morning Herald front page and on the Fairfax website - “Treasurer for sale” - seemed to me extreme and offensive. And not surprisingly:
Funny. Fairfax hasn’t headlined this story “Opposition Leader for sale”, or does it reserve defamatory attacks for the Coalition?
UPDATE
Wonderful to get a bracing lecture from Greens leader Christine Milne on Sky News saying we needed a ban or a cap on donations to political parties.
Yes, the same Christine Milne:
Hell. no:
Treasurer Joe Hockey is offering privileged access to a select group including business people and industry lobbyists in return for tens of thousands of dollars in donations to the Liberal Party via a secretive fund-raising body whose activities are not fully disclosed to election funding authorities…I’d just want disclosure.
The donors are members of the North Sydney Forum, a campaign fundraising body run by Mr Hockey’s North Sydney Federal Electoral Conference (FEC). In return for annual fees of up to $22,000, members are rewarded with “VIP” meetings with Mr Hockey, often in private boardrooms.
The North Sydney FEC officials who run the forum – which is an incorporated entity of the Liberal Party – say its membership lists and therefore the identities of its donors are “confidential"…
What little public information is available reveals members of the forum include National Australia Bank as well as the influential Financial Services Council, whose chief executive is former NSW Liberal leader John Brogden.
UPDATE
The headline all over The Age and Sydney Morning Herald front page and on the Fairfax website - “Treasurer for sale” - seemed to me extreme and offensive. And not surprisingly:
JOE Hockey is seeking legal advice in response to Fairfax Media’s “offensive and repugnant” accusations that he was “for sale” to corporate donors…UPDATE
In a statement, Mr Hockey today said: “Accusations made in Fairfax Media today are both offensive and repugnant. “As the matter is now in the hands of lawyers no further comment can be made...”
Funny. Fairfax hasn’t headlined this story “Opposition Leader for sale”, or does it reserve defamatory attacks for the Coalition?
Labor is offering business leaders exclusive access to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in the lead up to the federal budget, but it comes at a high price – a cool $3300 for a board room lunch.Disclaimer: I don’t accuse Shorten for a second of offering favors for that money, just as I don’t with Hockey.
UPDATE
Wonderful to get a bracing lecture from Greens leader Christine Milne on Sky News saying we needed a ban or a cap on donations to political parties.
Yes, the same Christine Milne:
The Greens received the biggest single political donation in Australian history in 2011 when Wotif founder Graeme Wood gave the party $1.6 million to fund a TV advertising campaign.Sod did the Sydney Morning Herald report this donation as something sinister? Dress it up with a defamatory “Greens for sale” headline?
Hell. no:
Web millionaire bankrolled Greens
January 8, 2011
A MULTIMILLIONAIRE internet entrepreneur worried about climate change bankrolled the Greens’ federal election surge last year by making the largest single political donation in Australian history.
Wotif founder Graeme Wood, whose wealth is estimated at $372 million, gave $1.6 million to fund the Greens’ television advertising campaign, helping to significantly increase votes for the party in key states. The Greens will hold the balance of power in the Senate from mid-year. Mr Wood’s benevolence helped the Greens, led by Senator Bob Brown, boost their national profile. They captured their first lower house seat and, with key rural independents, gained increased leverage over government policy.
===
Is it worth this pain?
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (3:39pm)
Labor’s latest ad pounces on the broken tax promise Tony Abbott is contemplating. Why give Labor this gift to exploit for the two and half years until the election?
The attack should really be on Labor for making the pain necessary with its mad spending and its own broken promise to deliver a surplus.
The attack should really be on Labor for making the pain necessary with its mad spending and its own broken promise to deliver a surplus.
===
Labor has nothing to lose but its socialist chains
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (9:48am)
It says something about Labor’s members that removing this reference is highly controversial - and Shorten is likely to fail:
BILL Shorten wants to restart debate on whether Labor should maintain its near-century-long commitment to democratic socialism and is open to removing the symbolic mission statement from the party’s constitution…When Shorten says he wants Labor members to have more say in the party he’s talking about the members who’d defend Labor’s socialist objective.
The socialist objective describes Labor as “a democratic socialist party” and binds members to support “the democratic socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange, to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation ... in these fields”.
===
Packer in fist-fight with Gyngell
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (9:34am)
A bit unseemly:
Pictures. More. without the scribble, in tomorrow’s News Corp papers, including the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.
UPDATE
In a way, the publication of the pictures is reassuring. Packer is from an old media dynasty, albeit now much, much smaller. Gyngell heads Channel Nine and is an old Packer mate, despite this. A good friend of Packer is Lachlan Murdoch, whose family’s interests include Australia’s News Corp papers. Yet:
Photographs that have hit the market this morning show billionaire James Packer in a fist fight with Nine Entertainment Group CEO David Gyngell…Seems serious:
The former friends can be seen brawling on the street outside Packer’s multi-million dollar Bondi beach pad in Sydney. The stills show the men wrestling, before falling to the ground… It is unknown what the fight was in regards to, but reports claim Gyngell was waiting outside the property for Packer to arrive from the airport.
Speculation:
Sources close to both men told PS this morning that their life-long friendship soured soon after Packer and his second wife, Erica, announced their shock separation six months ago.UPDATE
It is understood Gyngell confronted Packer about his decision to walk away from his seven-year marriage that had produced three children, an approach to which Packer did not react kindly.
In a joint statement this morning, they said ”we have been friends for 35 years and still are”.“In that time we have had our fair share of ups and downs. We respect each other and neither of us will be commenting further.”UPDATE
Pictures. More. without the scribble, in tomorrow’s News Corp papers, including the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.
UPDATE
In a way, the publication of the pictures is reassuring. Packer is from an old media dynasty, albeit now much, much smaller. Gyngell heads Channel Nine and is an old Packer mate, despite this. A good friend of Packer is Lachlan Murdoch, whose family’s interests include Australia’s News Corp papers. Yet:
Publisher News Corp obtained the exclusive set of photographs from Beirne’s agency Media Mode after outbidding Gyngell’s Nine Entertainment.
===
Obama doesn’t find himself funny
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (9:22am)
It takes a big man to laugh at himself. Rip Curl didn’t see one at dinner:
Once a year, at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the president drops in to deliver a short comedy bit heavy on self deprecation. President Reagan was a master, goofing on himself as a slow-witted Hollywood rube; George H.W. Bush stepped out of his stiff patrician bearing to hit himself with a few zingers… And George W. Bush was, frankly, a master. Derided like Reagan, a slow witted rube, but this time from Texas, Bush once brought an impersonator on stage to mock him nonstop, for everything from his marble-mouthed delivery to his low approval rating. Mastery.
But President Obama each year proves he just isn’t man enough to point his super-intellectual humor at himself....
“It is great to be back. What a year, huh? I usually start these dinners with a few self-deprecating jokes. After my stellar 2013, what can I possibly talk about?” he said right at the top of his 20-minute routine.
He was, of course, going to mock the dismal rollout of Obamacare. But in his very first joke, he did so not by targeting himself, but by going after 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“At one point, things got so bad, the 47 percent called Mitt Romney to apologize,” he said to applause and laughter from the heavily liberal crowd…
But he would go on to eviscerate his foes, bring up Kenya and “birthers” not once but twice, delight in charging Republicans with racism..., target two private citizens, the Koch brothers, and muse about “what did we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?” (Classy.)
He seemed positively obsessed with the Republicans who are going to vie for his job...., apparently seeking to connect [Rand] Paul with embattled Nevada rancher [and racist] Cliven Bundy.
He targeted Sen. Ted Cruz too… And he took aim at Texas Gov. Rick Perry…
Throughout the monologue, the 2,500 people in the Washington Hilton howled their approval at the over-the-top attacks. Later, when comedian Joal McHale made a Nancy Pelosi joke, there were only groans. But Obama knows that the highly partisan crowd at the annual event will eat up his vindictive diatribe, and each year, it does. So every year, Obama makes it all just a bit more vicious. Still, that seems to be just the problem: A man who can’t laugh at himself is a man devoid of humor, and nearly always, bitter and petty.
===
Gay bishop divorces
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (8:53am)
The problem with replacing what seem God’s laws - or sacred traditions - with man’s contracts is that keeping vows becomes far more optional:
The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who became a symbol for gay rights far beyond the church while deeply dividing the world’s Anglicans, plans to divorce his husband.Robinson became the model of a bishop for a Left that wants no God but themselves:
Bishop Gene Robinson announced the end of his marriage to Mark Andrew… Robinson would not disclose details about the end of their 25-year relationship…
“All of us sincerely intend, when we take our wedding vows, to live up to the ideal of ‘til death do us part. But not all of us are able to see this through until death indeed parts us."… Robinson, 66, had been married to a woman and had two children before he and his wife divorced.
Robinson was also widely celebrated as a pioneer for gay rights, became an advocate for gay marriage and was the subject of several books and a documentary about Christianity, the Bible and same-sex relationships. He delivered the benediction at the opening 2009 inaugural event for President Barack Obama and, after retirement, became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank with close ties to the White House.If religion is in part to acquaint man with the eternal, Robinson is not its voice.
===
Why have we imported this danger? Why won’t the ABC discuss it?
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (8:26am)
Is it fair on Australians to have imported such danger? Is it fair on Australians that our immigration program is deemed too sensitive to frankly discuss?
These are tough questions, and check how far the ABC and official police sources go to avoid even suggesting them. Which religion? Which country was she heading to?
Reader Ursus Augustus:
POLICE had to call in reinforcements after a group of hardline Muslims gathered at a Sydney police station clamouring for the release of a woman later charged with supporting terrorism.So we already have enough “hardline Muslims” supporting a woman charged with supporting terrorism to force police to call for reinforcements. Now imagine if their community was allowed to triple in size. How many more police would be needed at such protests? How many more Australians would be serving with terrorist groups?
The mother-of-four was arrested as she allegedly tried to board a flight in Sydney carrying cash and equipment — believed to include camouflage gear — for her husband fighting in Syria…
Three search warrants were also executed — two in Sydney and one in Brisbane.
Hardline supporters arrived at the police station after news of the woman’s arrest was posted on social media, with police forced to call for back-up to deal with them… More than 100 Australians, many from NSW and mostly young men, have travelled to Syria via alleged terrorist support networks linked to Jabhat Al Nusra and State of Iraq and the Levant movements.
These are tough questions, and check how far the ABC and official police sources go to avoid even suggesting them. Which religion? Which country was she heading to?
A mother of four has been arrested at Sydney Airport and charged during a police counterterrorism operation.But even the Sydney Morning Herald is able to report what the ABC won’t:
Officers from the joint counterterrorism team stopped a woman trying to board an international flight with her four young children on Saturday evening.
Police say the 29-year-old Brisbane woman was arrested and taken to Mascot Police Station in Sydney’s south, where she was charged with supporting incursions into a foreign state with the intention of engaging in hostile activities. Police will not say where the woman is from or where she was intending to travel.
A mother-of-four has been charged with supporting terrorism after she was arrested at Sydney Airport while trying to board a flight to Syria with her young children, police say…UPDATE
The organiser of the Bankstown-based al-Risalah Facebook page claimed on Sunday morning that the woman’s passport had been confiscated.
Reader Ursus Augustus:
Let the spirit of RDA 18C be upon you all - or else.(Thanks to many readers, including Straight Talk and annette.)
===
Column - What crisis? Shorten sells out our future
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (8:17am)
BILL Shorten is trashing our tomorrow for cheap votes today. And the shame is much of the public seem to be cheering him on.
Wake up! Thousand of Australians may pay for the Opposition Leader’s reckless politicking with their jobs, and millions could get poorer.
“We are not buying this argument that there’s some Budget emergency,” Shorten soothed voters last week.
“There is no Budget crisis,” echoed his Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen.
No, there’s no need to accept the cuts of the wicked Abbott Government. It’s all a Liberal hoax.
“The truth is they wanted to confect or manufacture a Budget crisis because these are the sorts of cuts they actually want to bring in,” sneers Labor’s finance spokesman, Tony Burke.
What makes this worse is that Shorten is kicking Abbott for trying to fix the disaster created by Labor.
(Read the full article here.)
UPDATE
And some context from the commission of audit:
Wake up! Thousand of Australians may pay for the Opposition Leader’s reckless politicking with their jobs, and millions could get poorer.
“We are not buying this argument that there’s some Budget emergency,” Shorten soothed voters last week.
“There is no Budget crisis,” echoed his Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen.
No, there’s no need to accept the cuts of the wicked Abbott Government. It’s all a Liberal hoax.
“The truth is they wanted to confect or manufacture a Budget crisis because these are the sorts of cuts they actually want to bring in,” sneers Labor’s finance spokesman, Tony Burke.
What makes this worse is that Shorten is kicking Abbott for trying to fix the disaster created by Labor.
(Read the full article here.)
UPDATE
And some context from the commission of audit:
===
Let’s pretend spending isn’t the problem, and taxes are
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (8:08am)
The Left just wants more taxes, not less spending, and is torturing the truth to attack Tony Abbott’s plans:
Paul Sheehan on when the trouble really started:
A spending crisis? It’s the revenue, stupid. David Marr on ABC Insiders yesterday:From the commission of audit’s report:
NOW they’ve got to get back the revenue stream and, politically, it’s really tough.Host Fran Kelly jumps in, in furious agreement:
EVERYONE was thinking once we were through the global financial crisis it would come back and it has not come back.Fairfax’s Phil Coorey interrupts with his dash of woe:
IT’S not going to ...The Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2013-14, table D12, Australian government accrual revenue, expenses and fiscal balance, December 17 last year:
2013-14 revenue (estimated) $373,922,000. 2016-17 revenue (projected) $445,032,00.Oz Fact Checker, The Australian, Friday: THE Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, released in December, showed revenue growing by about 4.6 per cent in 2013-14 ... to about 7 per cent the following year ... Revenue growth is directly tied to the increase in nominal GDP, which at 3.5 per cent (in MYEFO) is barely half the trend pace but is expected to pick up in the next four years. The latest national accounts, for the December quarter, put nominal growth just under 5 per cent. At about these levels, revenue will grow between 5 per cent and 7 per cent. Revenue is not really the problem.
UPDATE
Paul Sheehan on when the trouble really started:
Unusually, history offers a precise time and place, right down to the day, to appreciate why Australia has gone, seemingly suddenly, from a land of boom to a nation facing an austerity budget with sacrifices expected of all. The date was February 4, 2009.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The cause ... was the size and scale, and haste and dubious design, of six appropriations bills that Kevin Rudd’s government was about to ram through Parliament. These bills would transform the budget… Rudd said Australia needed decisive action to avoid a recession. When the opposition caught a glimpse of what he intended it saw immediately that Rudd’s grandiosity was dangerously at work. We are now discovering in great detail, via the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Scheme, the extent of dysfunction of Rudd’s management vision...
===
I’m wrong, says McCrann. But he doesn’t get Abbott off the hook
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (7:41am)
TONY Abbott should drop his planned new deficit tax and say sorry for even thinking of breaking a promise.
The Prime Minister’s sorry could then force attention on to the real problem — which isn’t actually his plan for an extra 1 per cent tax on incomes above $80,000 and 2 per cent above $140,000.
True, my colleague Terry McCrann has elsewhere argued I’m wrong — Abbott never promised not to give us such a tax.
(Read full article here.)
The Prime Minister’s sorry could then force attention on to the real problem — which isn’t actually his plan for an extra 1 per cent tax on incomes above $80,000 and 2 per cent above $140,000.
True, my colleague Terry McCrann has elsewhere argued I’m wrong — Abbott never promised not to give us such a tax.
(Read full article here.)
===
17 years of no warming could soon end with a new record
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (6:43am)
Christopher Monckton warns that 17 years of no warming could be about to end - kind of:
The RSS satellite data .... shows no global warming for 17 years 9 months.When in fact any rise in global temperature is Much Less Than They Ever Thought.
Enjoy The Pause while it lasts. A Kelvin wave is galloping across the Pacific, and the usual suspects would be praying for a super El Niño… Already the well-paid extremists are predicting a new record annual mean surface temperature either in 2014 or in 2015.
Their prediction for 2014 will probably not come true. Four months without any warming make it difficult to imagine that this will be a record year for global temperature, though it is barely possible.
The notion of a new record temperature next year is less implausible, particularly if there is a strong or prolonged el Niño followed by a weak la Niña. As Roy Spencer points out on his hard-headed and ever-sensible blog, all things being equal one would expect temperature records to be broken from time to time, for CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere and some warming – eventually – is to be expected. However, as the also hard-headed Dick Lindzen points out, the new record, when it happens, will be hundredths of a degree above the old, and it will be well within the natural variability of the climate. When warming eventually resumes, probably towards the end of this year, for El Niño is a seasonal event, it will probably not be much to write home about. And the following La Niña may cancel much of it. But that will not prevent the usual suspects from screeching that It’s Worse Than We Ever Thought.
===
What iceberg? What economic crisis?
Andrew Bolt May 05 2014 (6:35am)
No to cuts, a tax rise or even a tiny charge on doctors’ visits. Yes to giving more and more people the pension for 20 years.
What crisis?
UPDATE
Errol Simper is generous, given his politics, but also bemused:
What crisis?
An exclusive poll commissioned by The Daily Telegraph has revealed that 55 per cent of voters are opposed to plans to scrap bulk billing and to introduce a $6 co-payment to visit their GP.Add an opportunistic Opposition Leader claiming the budget crisis doesn’t exist and isn’t worth fixing and we’re on the way to Greece.
Even more have rejected Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey’s proposal to lift the retirement age to 70, with 69 per cent claiming the government should leave it where it is… The results come on the back of a poll by The Sunday Telegraph that revealed 72 per cent considered the government’s debt levy was a “broken promise”.
UPDATE
Errol Simper is generous, given his politics, but also bemused:
Andrew Bolt’s The Bolt Report has improved considerably and can be pretty watchable… He can still be difficult to fathom. Why he — now apparently supported by the federal government — so regularly attacks (as again today) the concept of house owners getting an aged pension must be a mystery. House owners usually own houses because they’ve spent their working lives paying off stressful bank loans…At the risk of making an enemy the instant someone unexpectedly says a kind word, let me help Simper to fathom me.
By Bolt’s logic, you should work your insides out to acquire what you fondly think of as an asset but accept that, in your old age, it has become a liability, which automatically bars you from an income. An aged pension should be everyone’s right, as is the case in Britain. By the time you reach pensionable age, your pension has been bought and paid for. It’s yours. It doesn’t belong to government. This federal administration, and commentators such as Bolt, should stop terrifying the aged.
1. Relax. The government will not include the family home in the assets test. It lacks the suicidal instinct.I’m arguing against my own personal interests here. I am only 11 years off retirement age and I finally own my own home. It’s not that expensive, but I don’t see why taxpayers should be forced to pay me a pension to keep it when I could reverse-mortgage or sell it and pay more of my own way.
2. I don’t attack “the concept of house owners getting an aged pension”. I attack the concept of well-off Australians getting paid a pension by people who are battling.
3. I don’t think owning your own home “automatically bars you from an income”. I think owning a relatively expensive home should only bar you from getting as much of the pension as we pay the poor.
4. Sadly, it’s not true that “by the time you reach pensionable age, your pension has been bought and paid for”. Very, very few pensioners will have paid as much in taxes - after deductions for schools, roads, hospitals, defence, aged care and so on - as they claim in pension payments, which is on average $400,000 or more. The pension now takes 10 per cent of the government budget and rising, and it simply hasn’t been paid for.
5. Can we really afford to claim that “an aged pension should be everyone’s right”? Even a tycoon’s? Can this be afforded when the money is running out, when the average pensioner now lives 20 years on the pension, and when over the next 50 years there will be half the number of workers to support each pensioner?
===
The Gift Of Hope - Holly
Hope is a gift to grasp
A gift that we can give,
Hope is a very special treasure
To grant us strength to live.
We do not know its worth
Until our joy is lost,
We do not understand its power
Nor what its loss will cost.
When we are burdened down
With pain that is too great,
Then hope alone inspires our faith
That God rejuvenates.
There's much beyond our sight
We cannot comprehend,
But, God is working with design
And loves us as a friend.
He has a very special way
To bring His plan about,
If we have hope just like a child
His love will work it out.
When we are burdened down
With pain that is too great,
Then hope alone inspires our faith
That God rejuvenates.
There's much beyond our sight
We cannot comprehend,
But, God is working with design
And loves us as a friend.
He has a very special way
To bring His plan about,
If we have hope just like a child
His love will work it out.
===
May 5: Yom Hazikaron in Israel (2014); Feast of Saint George(Palestinians); Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; Children's Day in Japan and South Korea; Cinco de Mayoin Mexico and the United States
- 1864 – American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in Virginia began with the Battle of the Wilderness (centennial stamp pictured) in Spotsylvania County.
- 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops captured Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unopposed.
- 1981 – After a sixty-six day hunger strike, Irish republican Bobby Sands died of starvation in HM Prison Maze.
- 1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime.
- 2010 – A series of demonstrations in Athens and general strikesacross Greece began in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the debt crisis.
- 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople begins.
- 1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.
- 1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
- 1494 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
- 1640 – King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.
- 1654 – Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh.
- 1762 – Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.
- 1789 – In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.
- 1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
- 1809 – The Swiss canton of Aargau allowed citizenship to Jews.
- 1811 – In the second day of fighting at the Peninsular War Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro the French army, under Marshall André Masséna, drive in the Duke of Wellington's overextended right flank, but French frontal assaults fail to take the town of Fuentes de Oñoro and the Anglo-Portuguese army holds the field at the end of the day.
- 1821 – Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
- 1835 – The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.
- 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy.
- 1862 – Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Confederate District of the Gulf surrenders about 4,000 men at Citronelle, Alabama.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Confederate government was declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia.
- 1866 – Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.
- 1877 – American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
- 1886 – The Bay View massacre: A militia fires into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, killing seven.
- 1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
- 1904 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americansthrows the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
- 1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.
- 1912 – Pravda, the "voice" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.
- 1920 – Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.
- 1925 – Scopes Trial: Serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
- 1925 – The government of South Africa declares Afrikaans an official language.
- 1927 – To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is first published.
- 1936 – Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- 1940 – World War II: Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London.
- 1940 – World War II: Norwegian Campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.
- 1941 – Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day.
- 1944 – German troops execute 216 civilians in the village of Kleisoura, Greece.
- 1945 – World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.
- 1945 – World War II: Six people are killed when a Japanese fire balloon explodes near Bly, Oregon. They are the only Americans killed in the continental US during the war.
- 1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- 1950 – Bhumibol Adulyadej is crowned as King of Thailand.
- 1955 – The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.
- 1961 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.
- 1964 – The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.
- 1972 – Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
- 1973 – Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, an as-yet unbeaten record.
- 1980 – Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.
- 1981 – Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.
- 1985 – Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech.
- 1987 – Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America
- 1991 – A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.
- 1992 – Armand Césari Stadium disaster in Bastia (Corsica): 18 people are killed and 2,300 are injured when one of the terraces collapses before a football match between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille.
- 1994 – The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
- 1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.
- 2006 – The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.
- 2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis.
- 2014 – Eleven people are missing after a Chinese cargo ship collides with a Marshall Islands registered container ship off the coast of Hong Kong.
- 2014 – Twenty-two people die after two boats carrying refugees collide in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece.
- 1210 – Afonso III of Portugal (d. 1279)
- 1282 – Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (d. 1322)
- 1310 – Preczlaw of Pogarell, Cardinal and Bishop of Wrocław (d. 1376)
- 1352 – Rupert of Germany, Count Palatine of the Rhine (d. 1410)
- 1479 – Guru Amar Das, Indian 3rd Sikh Guru (d. 1574)
- 1504 – Stanislaus Hosius, Polish cardinal (d. 1579)
- 1530 – Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, French nobleman (d. 1574)
- 1542 – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire (d. 1623)
- 1582 – John Frederick, Duke of Württemberg (1608–1628) (d. 1628)
- 1684 – Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné, French wife of Adrien Maurice de Noailles (d. 1739)
- 1747 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1792)
- 1749 – Jean-Frédéric Edelmann, French pianist and composer (d. 1794)
- 1764 – Robert Craufurd, Scottish general and politician (d. 1812)
- 1800 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (d. 1864)
- 1813 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and author (d. 1855)
- 1818 – Karl Marx, German philosopher, sociologist, and journalist (d. 1883)
- 1826 – Eugénie de Montijo, French wife of Napoleon III (d. 1920)
- 1830 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (d. 1906)
- 1832 – Hubert Howe Bancroft, American ethnologist and historian (d. 1918)
- 1833 – Ferdinand von Richthofen, German geographer and academic (d. 1905)
- 1834 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter and architect (d. 1873)
- 1843 – William George Beers, Canadian dentist and patriot (d. 1900)
- 1846 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)
- 1858 – John L. Leal, American physician (d. 1914)
- 1864 – Nellie Bly, American journalist and author (d. 1922)
- 1865 – Helen Maud Merrill, American litterateur and poet (d. 1943)
- 1866 – Thomas B. Thrige, Danish businessman (d. 1938)
- 1869 – Fabián de la Rosa, Filipino painter and educator (d. 1937)
- 1869 – Hans Pfitzner, German composer and conductor (d. 1949)
- 1874 – Thomas Bavin, New Zealand-Australian politician, 24th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1941)
- 1883 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, English general and politician, 43rd Governor-General of India (d. 1950)
- 1884 – Chief Bender, American baseball player and coach (d. 1954)
- 1887 – Mervyn S. Bennion, American captain, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1941)
- 1885 – Kingsley Fairbridge, South African-Australian scholar and politician (d. 1924)
- 1889 – Herbie Taylor, South African cricketer and soldier (d. 1973)
- 1890 – Christopher Morley, American journalist and author (d. 1957)
- 1892 – Dorothy Garrod, British archaeologist (d. 1968)
- 1898 – Elsie Eaves, American engineer (d. 1983)
- 1898 – Blind Willie McTell, American Piedmont blues singer and guitar player (d. 1959)
- 1899 – Freeman Gosden, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1900 – Helen Redfield, American geneticist (d. 1988) [1]
- 1903 – James Beard, American chef and author (d. 1985)
- 1905 – Floyd Gottfredson, American author and illustrator (d. 1986)
- 1906 – Charles Exbrayat, French author and screenwriter (d. 1989)
- 1907 – Iryna Vilde, Ukrainian journalist and author (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Kurt Böhme, German opera singer (d. 1989)
- 1909 – Miklós Radnóti, Hungarian poet and author (d. 1944)
- 1910 – Leo Lionni, American author and illustrator (d. 1999)
- 1911 – Gilles Grangier, French director and screenwriter (d. 1996)
- 1911 – Andor Lilienthal, Russian-Hungarian chess player (d. 2010)
- 1911 – Pritilata Waddedar, Indian educator and activist (d. 1932)
- 1913 – Duane Carter, American racing driver (d. 1993)
- 1914 – Tyrone Power, American actor (d. 1958)
- 1915 – Alice Faye, American actress and singer (d. 1998)
- 1916 – Zail Singh, Indian politician, 7th President of India (d. 1994)
- 1917 – Pío Leyva, Cuban singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1918 – Egidio Galea, Maltese Roman Catholic priest (d. 2005)
- 1919 – Georgios Papadopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, 169th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1999)
- 1921 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- 1922 – Irene Gut Opdyke, Polish nurse and humanitarian (d. 2003)
- 1923 – William C. Campbell, American golfer (d. 2013)
- 1923 – James Gilbert, Scottish television producer and director (d. 2016)
- 1923 – Richard Wollheim, English philosopher and academic (d. 2003)
- 1925 – Leo Ryan, American soldier, educator, and politician (d. 1978)
- 1926 – Ann B. Davis, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Pat Carroll, American actress
- 1927 – Sylvia Fedoruk, Canadian physicist and politician, 17th Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Hans Abramson, Swedish director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Greg, Belgian author and illustrator (d. 1999)
- 1932 – Stan Goldberg, American illustrator (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Bob Said, American race car driver and bobsled racer (d. 2002)
- 1933 – Igor Kashkarov, Russian high jumper
- 1933 – Collie Smith, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1959)
- 1934 – Ace Cannon, American saxophonist
- 1934 – Victor Garland, Australian accountant and politician, 26th Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs
- 1934 – Johnnie Taylor, American singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
- 1935 – Bernard Pivot, French journalist, talk show host, and producer
- 1935 – Robert Rehme, American film producer
- 1936 – Sandy Baron, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
- 1936 – Patrick Gowers, English composer and educator (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Ervin Lázár, Hungarian author (d. 2006)
- 1936 – John Maxton, Scottish politician
- 1937 – Delia Derbyshire, English keyboard player and composer (d. 2001)
- 1938 – Michael Murphy, American actor
- 1938 – Bill Robertson, American businessman and politician (d. 2013)
- 1938 – Barbara Wagner, Canadian figure skater and coach
- 1939 – Ray Gosling, English journalist, author, and activist (d. 2013)
- 1940 – Lance Henriksen, American actor
- 1940 – Michael Lindsay-Hogg, American director and producer
- 1941 – Alexander Ragulin, Russian ice hockey player (d. 2004)
- 1942 – István Bujtor, Hungarian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
- 1942 – Jean Corston, Baroness Corston, English lawyer and politician
- 1942 – Hugh Courtenay, 18th Earl of Devon, English politician (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
- 1943 – Michael Palin, English actor and screenwriter
- 1943 – Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish journalist and author
- 1944 – Bo Larsson, Swedish footballer
- 1944 – John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor and screenwriter
- 1944 – Roger Rees, Welsh-American actor and director (d. 2015)
- 1945 – Kurt Loder, American journalist, author, and critic
- 1945 – Dianne Willcocks, English sociologist and academic
- 1946 – Aydın Menderes, Turkish politician (d. 2011)
- 1948 – Bella van der Spiegel-Hage, Dutch cyclist
- 1948 – Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter
- 1949 – Eppie Bleeker, Dutch speed skater
- 1950 – Rex Caldwell, American golfer
- 1950 – Maggie MacNeal, Dutch singer
- 1951 – Rudolf Finsterer, German rugby player and coach
- 1951 – Toomas Vilosius, Estonian physician and politician, 2nd Minister of Social Affairs of Estonia
- 1952 – Ed Lee, American politician and attorney, 43rd Mayor of San Francisco (d. 2017)
- 1952 – Jorge Llopart, Spanish race walker
- 1952 – Willem Witteveen, Dutch scholar and politician (d. 2014)
- 1955 – Jon Butcher, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and freelance multimedia producer
- 1956 – Steve Scott, American runner and coach
- 1957 – Richard E. Grant, Swazi-English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1957 – Peter Howitt, English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1957 – Aad van Mil, Dutch water polo player
- 1958 – Ron Arad, Israeli colonel and pilot (d. 1986)
- 1958 – Robert DiPierdomenico, Australian footballer and sportscaster
- 1958 – Vanessa Downing, Australian actress
- 1958 – Jack Wishna, American businessman, co-founded Rockcityclub (d. 2012)
- 1959 – Bobby Ellsworth, American singer and bass player
- 1959 – Ian McCulloch, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1959 – Steve Stevens, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1959 – Brian Williams, American journalist
- 1960 – Doug Hawkins, Australian footballer and sportscaster
- 1961 – Marg Downey, Australian actress
- 1961 – Hiroshi Hase, Japanese wrestler and politician
- 1961 – Rob Williams, American basketball player (d. 2014)
- 1962 – Kaoru Wada, Japanese composer and conductor
- 1963 – James LaBrie, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1963 – Simon Rimmer, English chef and author
- 1963 – Scott Westerfeld, American author and composer
- 1964 – Jean-François Copé, French politician, French Minister of Budget
- 1964 – Heike Henkel, German high jumper
- 1964 – Don Payne, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
- 1964 – Minami Takayama, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1965 – Glenn Seton, Australian race car driver
- 1966 – Shawn Drover, Canadian drummer
- 1966 – Sergei Stanishev, Bulgarian politician, 46th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- 1966 – Josh Weinstein, American screenwriter and producer
- 1967 – Adam Hughes, American author and illustrator
- 1967 – Alexis Sinduhije, Burundian journalist and politician
- 1969 – Pieter Muller, South African rugby player
- 1970 – Kyan Douglas, American television host and author
- 1970 – LaPhonso Ellis, American basketball player
- 1970 – Todd Newton, American Game Show Host
- 1971 – Harold Miner, American basketball player
- 1971 – Mike Redmond, American baseball player and manager
- 1972 – James Cracknell, English rower
- 1972 – Žigmund Pálffy, Slovakian ice hockey player
- 1972 – Mikael Renberg, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1975 – Meb Keflezighi, American runner
- 1976 – Dieter Brummer, Australian actor
- 1976 – Jean-François Dumoulin, Canadian race car driver
- 1976 – Anastasios Pantos, Greek footballer
- 1976 – Juan Pablo Sorín, Argentinian footballer and sportscaster
- 1976 – Sage Stallone, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1978 – Morgan Pehme, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1979 – Vincent Kartheiser, American actor
- 1980 – Yossi Benayoun, Israeli footballer
- 1980 – Hank Green, American entrepreneur, educator, and vlogger
- 1980 – DerMarr Johnson, American basketball player
- 1981 – Craig David, English singer-songwriter, musician and producer
- 1982 – Ferrie Bodde, Dutch footballer
- 1982 – Wouter D'Haene, Belgian sprinter
- 1982 – Randall Gay, American football player
- 1982 – Corey Parker, Australian rugby league footballer
- 1983 – James Anyon, English cricketer
- 1983 – Henry Cavill, English actor
- 1983 – Mabel Gay, Cuban triple jumper
- 1983 – Annie Villeneuve, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1983 – Scott Ware, American football player
- 1984 – Johanna Hedva, Korean-american artist and genderqueer activist[2]
- 1984 – Wade MacNeil, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1984 – Christian Valdez, Mexican footballer
- 1985 – Shoko Nakagawa, Japanese actress and singer
- 1985 – Emanuele Giaccherini, Italian footballer
- 1985 – Tsepo Masilela, South African footballer
- 1985 – Marcos Rogério Oliveira Duarte, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Terrence Wheatley, American football player
- 1987 – Graham Dorrans, Scottish footballer
- 1988 – Adele, English singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Mervyn Westfield, English cricketer
- 1989 – Chris Brown, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
- 1991 – Xenofon Fetsis, Greek footballer
- 1991 – Raúl Jiménez, Mexican footballer
- 1992 – Loïck Landre, French footballer
- 1996 – Isaac Heeney, Australian footballer
- 1999 – Nathan Chen, American figure skater
- 465 – Gerontius, Archbishop of Milan
- 1194 – Casimir II the Just, Polish son of Bolesław III Wrymouth (b. 1138)
- 1243 – Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent, English justiciar (b. c. 1160)
- 1306 – Constantine Palaiologos, Byzantine general (b. 1261)
- 1309 – Charles II of Naples (b. 1254)
- 1380 – Saint Philotheos, Coptic martyr[3]
- 1432 – Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, Italian adventurer
- 1338 – Prince Tsunenaga, son of the Japanese Emperor (b. 1324)
- 1525 – Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (b. 1463)
- 1582 – Charlotte of Bourbon, Princess consort of Orange, married to William I of Orange (b. 1547)
- 1586 – Henry Sidney, Irish politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1529)
- 1671 – Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, English general and politician, Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom(b. 1602)
- 1672 – Samuel Cooper, English painter and linguist (b. 1609)
- 1700 – Angelo Italia, Italian architect (b. 1628)
- 1705 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1640)
- 1760 – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English politician (b. 1720)
- 1766 – Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (b. 1684)
- 1808 – Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist and philosopher (b. 1757)
- 1821 – Napoleon, French general and emperor (b. 1769)
- 1827 – Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (b. 1750)
- 1833 – Sophia Campbell, English-Australian painter (b. 1777)
- 1855 – Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, English politician (b. 1786)
- 1859 – Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (b. 1805)
- 1860 – Jean-Charles Prince, Canadian bishop (b. 1804)
- 1883 – John O'Shanassy, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Victoria (b. 1818)
- 1892 – August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist and academic (b. 1818)
- 1896 – Silas Adams, American lawyer and politician (b. 1839)
- 1902 – Bret Harte, American short story writer and poet (b. 1836)
- 1907 – Şeker Ahmed Pasha, Turkish soldier and painter (b. 1841)
- 1916 – John MacBride, Irish soldier and rebel (b. 1865)
- 1916 – Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (b. 1866)
- 1921 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian journalist and publicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- 1924 – A. Sabapathy, Sri Lankan journalist and politician (b. 1853)
- 1931 – Glen Kidston, English pilot and race car driver (b. 1899)
- 1942 – Qemal Stafa, Albanian politician (b. 1920)
- 1947 – Ty LaForest, Canadian-American baseball player (b. 1917)
- 1957 – Leopold Löwenheim, German mathematician and logician (b. 1878)
- 1959 – Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentinian academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1878)
- 1962 – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (b. 1889)
- 1965 – Nikos Gounaris, Greek tenor and composer (b. 1915)
- 1965 – John Waters, American director and screenwriter (b. 1893)
- 1971 – Violet Jessop, Argentinean-English nurse (b. 1887)
- 1973 – Zekai Özger, Turkish poet and academic (b. 1948)
- 1977 – Ludwig Erhard, German economist and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1897)
- 1981 – Bobby Sands, PIRA volunteer and hunger striker (b. 1954)
- 1983 – Horst Schumann, German physician (b. 1901)
- 1983 – John Williams, English-American actor (b. 1903)
- 1985 – Donald Bailey, English engineer, designed the Bailey bridge (b. 1901)
- 1988 – Michael Shaara, American author and academic (b. 1928)
- 1993 – Irving Howe, American literary and social critic (b. 1920)
- 1994 – Mário Quintana, Brazilian poet and translator (b. 1906)
- 1995 – Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player and coach (b. 1911)
- 1999 – Vasilis Diamantopoulos, Greek actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (b. 1914)
- 2000 – Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (b. 1940)
- 2001 – Morris Graves, American painter and educator (b. 1910)
- 2001 – Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, created CliffsNotes (b. 1918)
- 2002 – Hugo Banzer, Bolivian general and politician, 62nd President of Bolivia (b. 1926)
- 2002 – Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (b. 1904)
- 2002 – George Sidney, American director and producer (b. 1916)
- 2003 – Sam Bockarie, Sierra Leonean commander (b. 1964)
- 2003 – Walter Sisulu, South African activist and politician (b. 1912)
- 2006 – Naushad Ali, Indian composer and producer (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Atıf Yılmaz, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Theodore Harold Maiman, American-Canadian physicist and engineer, created the laser (b. 1927)
- 2008 – Irv Robbins, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded Baskin-Robbins (b. 1917)
- 2008 – Jerry Wallace, American singer and guitarist (b. 1928)
- 2010 – Giulietta Simionato, Italian soprano (b. 1910)
- 2010 – Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian academic and politician, 13th President of Nigeria (b. 1951)
- 2011 – Claude Choules, English-Australian soldier (b. 1901)
- 2011 – Yosef Merimovich, Israeli footballer and manager (b. 1924)
- 2011 – Dana Wynter, British actress (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Surendranath, Indian cricketer (b. 1937)
- 2012 – Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (b. 1916)
- 2012 – Aatos Erkko, Finnish journalist and publisher (b. 1932)
- 2012 – George Knobel, Dutch footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Roy Padayachie, South African lawyer and politician, South African Minister of Communications (b. 1950)
- 2013 – Sarah Kirsch, German poet and author (b. 1935)
- 2013 – Robert Ressler, American FBI agent and author (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Michael Otedola, Nigerian journalist and politician, 9th Governor of Lagos State (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Jobst Brandt, American cyclist, engineer, and author (b. 1935)
- 2015 – Hans Jansen, Dutch linguist, academic, and politician (b. 1942)
- 2017 – Binyamin Elon, Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician (b. 1954)
- 2017 – Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, Mauritanian politician (b. 1953)
- Children's Day (Japan)
- Children's Day (South Korea)
- Christian feast day:
- Cinco de Mayo (Mexico and the United States)
- Constitution Day (Kyrgyzstan)
- Europe Day (Council of Europe)
- Feast of al-Khadr or Saint George (Palestinian)
- Indian Arrival Day (Guyana)
- International Midwives' Day (International)
- Liberation Day (Denmark)
- Liberation Day (Netherlands)
- Lusophone Culture Day (Community of Portuguese Language Countries)
- Martyrs' Day (Albania)
- Patriots' Victory Day (Ethiopia)
- Senior Citizens Day (Palau)
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan's star shines no longer, and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them. Favourite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting upon them above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their dear ones.
It is truly said that "they are no gods," for the objects of our foolish love are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous, and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed. Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity!
"The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee."
Evening
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible."
1 Peter 1:23
1 Peter 1:23
Peter most earnestly exhorted the scattered saints to love each other "with a pure heart fervently" and he wisely fetched his argument, not from the law, from nature, or from philosophy, but from that high and divine nature which God hath implanted in his people. Just as some judicious tutor of princes might labour to beget and foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behaviour, finding arguments in their position and descent, so, looking upon God's people as heirs of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth's truest and oldest aristocracy, Peter saith to them, "See that ye love one another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed; because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things; and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall cease." It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king's royalty often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his inmost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, written among "the peculiar people" and who therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the world's citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness, and to avoid the very appearance of evil.
===
Achan, Achar, Achor
[Ā'chăn,Ā'chär, Ā'chôr] - trouble. The son of Carmi of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 7; 1 Chron. 2:7).
[Ā'chăn,Ā'chär, Ā'chôr] - trouble. The son of Carmi of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 7; 1 Chron. 2:7).
The Man Who Brought Trouble to a Nation
It did not take Joshua long to discover that his defeat at Ai, after a succession of victories, was due to some transgression of the divine covenant (Josh. 7:8-12 ). Thus, as the result of an inquiry, Achan was exposed as the transgressor, and confessing his sin in stealing and hiding part of the spoil taken at the destruction of Jericho, was put to death in consequence. In keeping with the custom of those days, Achan was probably stoned with his immediate relatives, and their dead bodies burned - the latter making punishment more terrible in the eyes of the Israelites.
Achan was put to death in "the valley of Achor" meaning "the valley of trouble" - the valley being called atter Achan who had been the troubler of Israel (Josh. 7:25, 26). Thus in 1 Chronicles 2:7 Achan is spelled as Achar. But "the valley of trouble" became a "door of hope" all of which is spiritually suggestive (Isa. 65:10; Hos. 2:15).
I. Covetousness means defeat. God had forbidden anyone taking to himself the spoils of Jericho, but one man, only oneamongst all the hosts of Israel, disobeyed and brought failure upon all. Achan's sin teaches us the oneness of the people of God. "Israel hath sinned" (Josh. 7:11 ). The whole cause of Christ can be delayed by the sin, neglect or lack of spirituality of one person (1 Cor. 5:1-7; 12:12, 14, 26).
II. The whole process of sin. Along with Eve and David in their respective sins, Achan also saw, coveted and took. James expresses the rise, progress and end of sin when he says that man is "drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (Jas. 1:14, 15 ). The inward corruption of Achan's heart was first drawn forth by enticing objects - desire of gratification was then formed - ultimately determination to attain was fixed.
III. Prayer was rejected for action. When the most unexpected defeat of Ai came about, Joshua fell on his face before the Lord, and earnestly asked for an explanation of the reverse. But God said, "Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? ...Take away the accursed thing" (Josh. 7:10, 13). God cannot hear and bless if there is sin in the camp. For often we acknowledge the greatness of our national sins, but fail to drag out our personal sins testifying against us. Once Achan was discovered and judged, Israel went forward to victory.
IV. The richness of divine mercy. When the accursed thing was removed and chastisement exercised, triumph quickly followed trouble. The valley of Achor became a door of hope. The locust-eaten years are restored. Confession and forgiveness open closed lips, quicken dormant energies and liberate power in the service of the Lord.
===
Today's reading: 1 Kings 16-18, Luke 22:47-71 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Kings 16-18
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu son of Hanani concerning Baasha: 2 "I lifted you up from the dust and appointed you ruler over my people Israel, but you followed the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to arouse my anger by their sins. 3 So I am about to wipe out Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 4 Dogs will eat those belonging to Baasha who die in the city, and birds will feed on those who die in the country...."Today's New Testament reading: Luke 22:47-71
Jesus Arrested
47 While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"
49 When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
51 But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him....
No comments:
Post a Comment