Foley wants to be Premier in NSW. He offers 'White Flight' as a simplified explanation for demographic change in Sydney, singling out Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Recently, refugee acceptance has shifted from Islam dominated to Christian dominated refugees. Which explains why Foley is speaking out now about something that has been happening since Sydney was founded. But it is a stupid diminution of what is happening, and does not explain the success story of Cabramatta against the failure of Bankstown. The Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu or Confucian led Asian communities contribute well to their new homes. Assimilation is not an issue for them. In particular, the Vietnamese community has offered far more than it has ever taken. But Foley needs to dog whistle racist bigots for support. The message has to be simple, or they just won't get it.
Trump calls off NK Summit. He did so citing the hostility of NK's recent messages. Trump has left the door open. Critics of Trump who hope for failure are already saying they knew Trump would mess up. But Trump has not messed up. Already, with the dismantling of one NK nuclear site, Trump has been more successful than all sixteen years of Clinton and Obama.
Brad Parscale and RNC have demanded FB show transparency (and evenhandedness) on censorship. Last week, FB booted me for two days over a video I'd shared. I had not known the full story behind the video, it was an image of a guy pointing a gun at women and children and being shot and arrested by one of the women. It was grainy and did not show detail like blood. I had thought it was a mock up illustrating a gun rights meme. I shared it from FB to my page, and from my page to a group I run. Someone complained, possibly, and I was banned for 48 hours, but apparently the site I shared it from was untouched. Later, as the news media caught on to events in Brazil where it was taken, the full story emerged and the video became ubiquitous. FB's handling was poor, regarding me. They engaged in procedural unfairness and failed to recognise my good citizenship. As a protest I have stopped sharing timeline historical data which took significant effort on my part and really only boosted FB.
Here is a video I made Poem about Poems about Vietnam
Jon (Howie) Stallworthy (born 18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) FBA FRSL was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford. He was also a Fellow (and was twice Acting President) of Wolfson College, a poet, and a literary critic. From 1977 to 1986, he was the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English at Cornell
=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. Trotsky's dying words were reputedly of admiration for Stalin. One may be forgiven for thinking that the dying thoughts of children in Manchester's nail bombing was of Trump being too close to Putin and fighting climate change. The children that died may never have known what was happening. Those that survived will never forget. And the press have got it wrong. Donald Trump was in the Middle East for peace. Trump met with leaders in the Middle East. And terrorists. One terrorist Trump met was the so called Palestinian leader Abbas. Abbas rose through ranks to be the successor to Yassir Arafat. Arafat invented the nail bomb suicide vest, the type of device used on Manchester children. Some will tell me that suicide vests predate Arafat. Chinese soldiers used suicide bomb vests to destroy Japanese tanks in WW2. An early nail bomb was the 1970 Weather Underground 'accident' where one prematurely went off killing terrorists. Arafat was well connected with socialists around the world. Nelson Mandela was a fan. IRA collaborated with Fatah. No one who worked with Arafat ever achieved peace. Arafat got rich from exploiting his people. Likewise Abbas. No deal Trump makes with Abbas will benefit anyone other than Abbas. Were Trotsky alive today, he'd admire the work of Abbas. And if they'd known the link, the dying kids may have had thoughts for Abbas too. Because the suicide ideology which the press promotes is pro Palestinian, anti-Semitic and terrorist enabling. Much like Christian churches who promote that rubbish, yet see their people butchered by those they endorse.
1487, the ten-year-old Lambert Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. Henry VII captured him and pardoned him, employing him in his kitchen. In 1607, One hundred English settlers disembarked in Jamestown, the first English colony in America. 1689, the English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were intentionally excluded. 1738, John Wesley was converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. He claimed the moment of his conversion was when he felt his heart warmed. Methodism is very good at sending out disciples to work with the poor and needy. It has an estimated 80 million adherents today. Wesley opposed Calvinist predestination doctrine, believing instead anyone could achieve the state where the love of god "Reigned supreme in their hearts" giving them outward holiness. 1798, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule began. They were inspired by the US and French revolutions. It went badly for the rebels and many atrocities were committed. The Catholic Church opposed the rebellion at the time, but a legend grew that they supported it which they fostered later. 1940, acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrated an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. Another assassin got Trotsky later that year. Trotsky's dying words were of admiration to Stalin.
1487, the ten-year-old Lambert Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. Henry VII captured him and pardoned him, employing him in his kitchen. In 1607, One hundred English settlers disembarked in Jamestown, the first English colony in America. 1689, the English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were intentionally excluded. 1738, John Wesley was converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. He claimed the moment of his conversion was when he felt his heart warmed. Methodism is very good at sending out disciples to work with the poor and needy. It has an estimated 80 million adherents today. Wesley opposed Calvinist predestination doctrine, believing instead anyone could achieve the state where the love of god "Reigned supreme in their hearts" giving them outward holiness. 1798, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule began. They were inspired by the US and French revolutions. It went badly for the rebels and many atrocities were committed. The Catholic Church opposed the rebellion at the time, but a legend grew that they supported it which they fostered later. 1940, acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrated an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. Another assassin got Trotsky later that year. Trotsky's dying words were of admiration to Stalin.
=== 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 ===
A brilliant Bolt Report today had the compere, Andrew Bolt, pointing out that some who gave up Australian Citizenship to join the ISIL death cult, but now want to return, are disappointing because they have gone there and are still not clear as to why Australia is better. One person who claims to want to return has said that watching a couple stoned to death was distasteful, but not wrong. He said "People want Sharia" and "That is Sharia." But, more saliently, and Bolt walked past this, journalists have gone there and said much the same thing, not highlighting why Australia is better. What many journalists espouse is a fantasy for jihadists of victimology, suggesting there is reason and purpose to what jihadists do. The truth is that ISIL atrocities are not commensurate with international law which is very low by modern standards. It might not be commensurate with Islam, but their impotent leaders aren't *really* sure.
Impotent Islamic leadership have caused much pain for Rohingya in Myanmar. They are Muslim and subject to much state abuse. They don't necessarily wish to leave, but wish that the state wouldn't kill them indiscriminately. Meanwhile Bangladeshi who are
Peter Greste, an Australian journalist who worked for Al Jazeera and was saved from Egypt, after political intervention, has said he wants to go back and fight for his colleagues in court. He had been convicted of news reporting damaging to Egypt's national security, and Al Jazeera's bigoted anti Israel pro jihadist material fits that bill. Greste may claim he was professional, but only to a low BBC/ABC/CNN standard which may be nuanced in a strong democracy, but which is murderous in a fractured and fractious land such as Egypt.
Impotent Islamic leadership have caused much pain for Rohingya in Myanmar. They are Muslim and subject to much state abuse. They don't necessarily wish to leave, but wish that the state wouldn't kill them indiscriminately. Meanwhile Bangladeshi who are
Peter Greste, an Australian journalist who worked for Al Jazeera and was saved from Egypt, after political intervention, has said he wants to go back and fight for his colleagues in court. He had been convicted of news reporting damaging to Egypt's national security, and Al Jazeera's bigoted anti Israel pro jihadist material fits that bill. Greste may claim he was professional, but only to a low BBC/ABC/CNN standard which may be nuanced in a strong democracy, but which is murderous in a fractured and fractious land such as Egypt.
From 2014
None in 2014 because of Government and public service corruption related to the petitions
Historical perspective on this day
In 1218, the Fifth Crusade left Acre for Egypt. 1276, Magnus Ladulås was crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. 1487, the ten-year-old Lambert Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. 1595, Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appeared, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
In 1607, One hundred English settlers disembarked in Jamestown, the first English colony in America. 1621, the Protestant Union was formally dissolved. 1626, Peter Minuit bought Manhattan. 1667, the French Royal Army crossed the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance. 1689, the English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were intentionally excluded. 1738, John Wesley was converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. 1798, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule began.
In 1813, South American independence leader Simón Bolívarentered Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and was proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1822, Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secured the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1830, Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale was published. Also 1830, the first revenue trains in the United States began service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland, and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland. 1832, the First Kingdom of Greece was declared in the London Conference. 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblicalquotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line. 1856, John Brown and his men killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861, American Civil War: Union troops occupied Alexandria, Virginia. 1883, the Brooklyn Bridgein New York City was opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1895, Henry Irving became the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
In 1900, Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexed the Orange Free State. 1901, Seventy-eight miners died in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales. 1921, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opened. 1930, Amy Johnsonlanded in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she had left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1935, the first night game in Major League Baseball history was played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. 1939, first issue of Fashizmi was published in Tirana. 1940, Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopterflight. Also 1940, acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVDagent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrated an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. 1941, World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sank then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen. 1943, The Holocaust: Josef Mengele became chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1948, Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captured the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gave Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later. 1956, conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna. Also 1956, the first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland. 1958, United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
In 1960, following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle began to erupt. 1961, American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. Also 1961, Cyprusjoined the Council of Europe. 1962, Project Mercury: American astronautScott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1963, Baldwin–Kennedy meeting on race relations in the US 1967, Egyptimposed a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel. 1968, FLQseparatists bombed the U.S. consulate in Quebec City. 1970, the drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole began in the Soviet Union. 1976, the London to Washington, D.C., Concorde service began. Also 1976, the Judgement of Paris took place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine. 1981, Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee died in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha. 1982, Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recaptured the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War. 1988, Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority could not intentionally promote homosexuality, was enacted.
In 1991, Israel conducted Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992, the last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigned following pro-democracy protests. 1993, Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia. 1994, four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1999, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicted Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000, Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2001, Mountain climbing: Temba Tsheri, a 16-year-old Sherpa, became the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. Also 2001, the Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel killed 23 and injured over 200. 2002, Russia and the United States signed the Moscow Treaty.
In 1607, One hundred English settlers disembarked in Jamestown, the first English colony in America. 1621, the Protestant Union was formally dissolved. 1626, Peter Minuit bought Manhattan. 1667, the French Royal Army crossed the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance. 1689, the English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were intentionally excluded. 1738, John Wesley was converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. 1798, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule began.
In 1813, South American independence leader Simón Bolívarentered Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and was proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1822, Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secured the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1830, Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale was published. Also 1830, the first revenue trains in the United States began service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland, and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland. 1832, the First Kingdom of Greece was declared in the London Conference. 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblicalquotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line. 1856, John Brown and his men killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861, American Civil War: Union troops occupied Alexandria, Virginia. 1883, the Brooklyn Bridgein New York City was opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1895, Henry Irving became the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
In 1900, Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexed the Orange Free State. 1901, Seventy-eight miners died in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales. 1921, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opened. 1930, Amy Johnsonlanded in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she had left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1935, the first night game in Major League Baseball history was played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. 1939, first issue of Fashizmi was published in Tirana. 1940, Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopterflight. Also 1940, acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVDagent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrated an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. 1941, World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sank then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen. 1943, The Holocaust: Josef Mengele became chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1948, Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captured the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gave Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later. 1956, conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna. Also 1956, the first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland. 1958, United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
In 1960, following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle began to erupt. 1961, American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. Also 1961, Cyprusjoined the Council of Europe. 1962, Project Mercury: American astronautScott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1963, Baldwin–Kennedy meeting on race relations in the US 1967, Egyptimposed a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel. 1968, FLQseparatists bombed the U.S. consulate in Quebec City. 1970, the drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole began in the Soviet Union. 1976, the London to Washington, D.C., Concorde service began. Also 1976, the Judgement of Paris took place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine. 1981, Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee died in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha. 1982, Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recaptured the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War. 1988, Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority could not intentionally promote homosexuality, was enacted.
In 1991, Israel conducted Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992, the last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigned following pro-democracy protests. 1993, Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia. 1994, four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1999, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicted Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000, Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2001, Mountain climbing: Temba Tsheri, a 16-year-old Sherpa, became the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. Also 2001, the Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel killed 23 and injured over 200. 2002, Russia and the United States signed the Moscow Treaty.
=== 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 Vn Dragon. Born on the remarkable day which in 1738 John Wesley experienced a spiritual rebirth. 1830 saw the first class 1 railroad in the US and in 1991 Israel began the remarkable Operation Solomon. I don't know what you plan .. but I'm sure it will be remarkable.
- 15 BC – Germanicus, Roman general (d. 19)
- 1494 – Pontormo, Italian painter (d. 1557)
- 1522 – John Jewel, English bishop (d. 1571)
- 1544 – William Gilbert, English physician, physicist, and astronomer (d. 1603)
- 1616 – John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, Scottish politician, Secretary of State, Scotland (d. 1682)
- 1671 – Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1737)
- 1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Polish-German physicist and engineer, developed the Fahrenheit scale (d. 1736)
- 1743 – Jean-Paul Marat, Swiss-French physician, journalist, and politician (d. 1793)
- 1810 – Abraham Geiger, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1874)
- 1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
- 1836 – Joseph Rowntree, English businessman and philanthropist (d. 1925)
- 1879 – H. B. Reese, American candy maker, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (d. 1956)
- 1885 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English psychologist and academic (d. 1948)
- 1891 – William F. Albright, American archeologist, philologist, and scholar (d. 1971)
- 1895 – Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr., American publisher, founded Advance Publications (d. 1979)
- 1898 – Kathleen Hale, English author and illustrator (d. 2000)
- 1913 – Joe Abreu, American baseball player (d. 1993)
- 1916 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (d. 2002)
- 1917 – Alan Campbell, Baron Campbell of Alloway, English lawyer and judge (d. 2013)
- 1941 – Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Traveling Wilburys)
- 1944 – Patti LaBelle, American singer-songwriter and actress (Labelle)
- 1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress and businesswoman
- 1949 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician and academic
- 1950 – Terry Scott Taylor, American singer-songwriter and producer (Daniel Amos, Swirling Eddies, and Lost Dogs)
- 1956 – Larry Blackmon, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (Cameo and Black Ivory)
- 1960 – Guy Fletcher, English keyboard player, guitarist, and producer (Dire Straits and The Notting Hillbillies)
- 1965 – Jens Becker, German bass player (Grave Digger, Running Wild, and X-Wild)
- 1969 – Rich Robinson, American guitarist and songwriter (The Black Crowes)
- 1981 – Andy Lee, Australian comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean model and actress (d. 2009)
- 1990 – Yuya Matsushita, Japanese singer, dancer, and actor
- 2001 – Darren Espanto, Filipino-Canadian singer
Deaths
- 1153 – David I of Scotland (b. 1083)
- 1351 – Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, Moroccan sultan (b. 1297)
- 1408 – Taejo of Joseon (b. 1335)
- 1425 – Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany (b. 1362)
- 1456 – Ambroise de Loré, French commander (b. 1396)
- 1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (b. 1473)
- 1612 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1563)
- 1627 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish poet and cleric (b. 1561)
- 1632 – Robert Hues, English mathematician and geographer (b. 1553)
- 1725 – Jonathan Wild, English criminal (b. 1682)
- 1734 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)
- 1843 – Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician (b. 1765)
- 1879 – William Lloyd Garrison, American journalist and activist (b. 1805)
- 1881 – Samuel Palmer, English painter and illustrator (b. 1805)
- 1908 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)
- 1915 – John Condon, Irish-English soldier (b. 1896)
- 1919 – Amado Nervo, Mexican poet (b. 1870)
- 1941 – Lancelot Holland, English admiral (b. 1887)
- 1945 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German field marshal (b. 1892)
- 1974 – Duke Ellington, American pianist and composer (b. 1899)
- 1991 – Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Byrds and Dillard & Clark) (b. 1944)
- 1995 – Harold Wilson, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
- 2005 – Carl Amery, German activist and author (b. 1922)
- 2007 – Bill Johnston, Australian cricketer (b. 1922)
- 2008 – Dick Martin, American actor and director (b. 1922)
- 1689 – The Act of Toleration became law in England, granting freedom of worship to Nonconformists under certain circumstances, but deliberately excluding Catholics.
- 1830 – The nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was first published as an original poem by Sarah Josepha Hale.
- 1913 – Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia(pictured) married Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, one of the last great social events of European royalty before World War I began fourteen months later.
- 1963 – United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy met with African American author James Baldwin in an unsuccessful attempt to improve race relations.
- 1970 – On the Kola Peninsula in Russia, drilling began on the Kola Superdeep Borehole, eventually reaching 12,262 metres (40,230 ft), making it the deepest hole ever drilled and the deepest artificial point on the earth.
We tolerate large quantities of alcohol. Try a little lamb. Remember when royalty was grand? Kennedy didn't listen. Kola has a point, and bubbles. Let's party.
Tim Blair 2018
WHITE FLIGHT FOLEY FIGHT
NSW Labor leader Luke Foley yesterday spoke to the Daily Telegraph about the pressures associated with placing thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Western Sydney, and the resultant “white flight” among long-term residents.
===Andrew Bolt 2018
DENYING "WHITE FLIGHT" IS DISHONEST
NSW Labor leader Luke Foley is right. Mass immigration is causing "white flight" in some Sydney suburbs, and shutting him up doesn't change a reality most politicians are too scared to face. My editorial from The Bolt Report.
DID YOU REALLY WANT HASTIE GAGGED?
COLUMN Are they kidding, I wondered on Wednesday. I kept hearing journalists ask: should Andrew Hastie have really said it? What? Shouldn’t we discuss what this Liberal MP actually told federal parliament on Tuesday under parliamentary privilege? Let me quote from his speech - reveal the name of an influential Chinese donor accused of bribery.
MINISTERS DEFEND SACKED SCEPTIC
Finally, Turnbull Government ministers are waking up to a frightening thought: are our universities muzzling global warming sceptics? Three ministers have now expressed concern about the latest apparent example: the sacking of marine scientist Professor Peter Ridd.
CHINA BULLIES, AND WE MUST NOT KOWTOW
The Turnbull Government is dumb to say it's got a great relationship with China when it's meanwhile telling off Julie Bishop and issuing threats. But let's not forget one big thing: China is a dictatorship and bully and our Government has doing nothing wrong. My editorial from The Bolt Report.
KENDRICK LAMAR SHAMES A WORD-PERFECT FAN
Kendrick Lamar, the US rapper and Pulitzer prize winner, halted a gig to call out a white fan for rapping the "n-word" from his own lyrics. Rowan Dean cuts loose on The Bolt Report.
Bill Shorten is all at sea with wishy-washy policies
Piers Akerman – Saturday, May 23, 2015 (11:39pm)
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten seems intent on keeping Labor in the political wilderness as he fights the Abbott government, his own fractious MPs and the Greens.
Continue reading 'Bill Shorten is all at sea with wishy-washy policies'
===
It’s easy to blame Cardinal George Pell but that misses target
Miranda Devine – Saturday, May 23, 2015 (11:42pm)
“DIE Pell” was the headline on The Age newspaper’s Facebook page, over a photograph of Cardinal George Pell.
Continue reading 'It’s easy to blame Cardinal George Pell but that misses target'
===
THEY BELIEVE ANYTHING
Tim Blair – Sunday, May 24, 2015 (2:34pm)
The Age‘s economics editor falls for an obvious gag:
As a disclaimer at that site points out: “For the avoidance of doubt: most stories here are works of fiction, and you would have to be a moron to believe them!”
As a disclaimer at that site points out: “For the avoidance of doubt: most stories here are works of fiction, and you would have to be a moron to believe them!”
(Via Monsterdome)
===
NARRATED BY JULIA!
Tim Blair – Sunday, May 24, 2015 (12:15pm)
===
Fantasy bidding
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (3:45pm)
If money were no object at the next Mossgreen auction:
Reader mem sounds like someone who knows:
UPDATE
Reader mem sounds like someone who knows:
Your eye is improving. I notice that again there is a Tim Storrier in your selection. It’s one of his more complex works, so therefore stands out from his seemingly endless burning rope series. It is very strong and intriguing, but also very large requiring viewing space and nothing else in near competition. Great for a ware house. The Kemp has excellent depth, is smaller but still quite large. It should work well with other paintings though and I think, is appropriately priced but may possibly exceed estimate as there have not been many of this quality on the market in recent times. And it is within reach of the nouveau fine art buyer. (Do I buy the Kemp or the new car or pay off the mortgage?). Keep dreaming.The important details of the Storrier aren’t obvious from this picture. Go to the site and you’ll see better.
===
The Bolt Report today, May 24
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (6:49am)
On Channel 10 at 10am and 3pm.
My guests: Parliamentary secretary Christian Porter; Janet Albrechtsen of The Australian ; Nicholas Reece, former adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard; and Nick Cater, columnist of The Australian and head of the Menzies Research Centre.
Plenty to debate: boats, jihadists. the media and George Pell, t the silence of the churches, the fall of Bill Shorten and two excellent reasons for stripping the Australia Council of arts grants funding.
The videos of the shows appear here.
My guests: Parliamentary secretary Christian Porter; Janet Albrechtsen of The Australian ; Nicholas Reece, former adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard; and Nick Cater, columnist of The Australian and head of the Menzies Research Centre.
Plenty to debate: boats, jihadists. the media and George Pell, t the silence of the churches, the fall of Bill Shorten and two excellent reasons for stripping the Australia Council of arts grants funding.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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Smearing Pell
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (6:00am)
Some of the media vilification of George Pell today is astonishing - and astonishingly ill-informed. You’d think from Claire Harvey and Peter FitzSimons, for instance, that Pell had not responded to the allegations against him on oath al ready. You’d think he hadn’t given evidence to the royal commission twice already.
And you certainly wouldn’t know what Miranda Devine says:
And you certainly wouldn’t know what Miranda Devine says:
David Ridsdale told the royal commission last week that he phoned Pell in early 1993 to inform him about the sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of his uncle, and that Pell said: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”I am not clear on that exact timing, but even David Ridsdale acknowledges police had already decided to charge his uncle.
Ridsdale says he remembers those exact words and his response: “F… you, George, and everything you stand for.”
This has been reported as fact and underpinned the venom against Pell last week. But the allegation does not even make sense. At the time of the alleged phone conversation, Gerald Ridsdale had already been charged and had pleaded guilty to 46 charges involving 21 children. There was no reason to keep anything quiet.
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Bernardi gets a sorry
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (5:42am)
Is it at all surprising that the victim of The Saturday Paper’s foul and preposterous smear is a conservative?
Apology to Senator Cory BernardiThat’s what comes of holding a cartoonish view that conservatives are not simply wrong but evil. You’ll then believe anything of them.
On February 21, 2015, The Saturday Paper published an article by Kate Doak regarding Senator Cory Bernardi.
In discussing the financial and business dealings of Senator Bernardi, the article falsely alleged that one of the Senator’s companies had been forced to surrender its security dealers’ licence after a review by ASIC, that the Senator improperly used his electoral office as a place of business, that the Senator withheld funds from a children’s charity, and that the Senator breached parliamentary obligations in failing to comply with parliamentary disclosure requirements. The Saturday Paper and Ms Doak retract those allegations and apologise to Senator Bernardi for the distress and damage caused to him by their publication.
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A paper which abuses Abbott so violently is neither compassionate nor reasonable
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (5:18am)
The Age cheered Labor’s scrapping of the border laws - a disastrous act of “compassion” that cost 1200 lives and $10 billion, and brought over 50,000 people we did not choose and struggle to assimilate.
Yet it has the hide to now abuse Abbott for maintaining the policies which ended the deaths, cut the costs and reserved refugee places for people who were truly fleeing violence:
The Age is angry that Abbott won’t take in Rohingya and Bangladeshis on boats that Thailand and Malaysia were refusing to let land, hoping to stop a vicious people trafficking:
The Age also ignores the fact that most of the people it’s talking about are actually Bangladeshi laborers, who are poor, badly educated Muslim laborers who, like the Rohingya, would almost certainly struggle to fit in here. It also ignores that far from doing nothing to help, Abbott has just increased our aid to the Rohingya by $5 million. The boat people are being rescued and the people trade of laborers to Malaysia, involving prison camps, ransoms and mass graves, is now being stopped. Burma has meanwhile agreed to take more responsibility for the Rohingya. Simply accepting a few thousand more boat people would have done nothing to fix the wider problem, and almost certainly have made it worse.
The Age is run by people who emote, not analyse. Their vicious hatred for Abbott - and their policies - both belie their claim to greater “compassion"/
Yet it has the hide to now abuse Abbott for maintaining the policies which ended the deaths, cut the costs and reserved refugee places for people who were truly fleeing violence:
The Prime Minister’s wall of negativity says much about this nation’s failures but far more about his government’s appalling lack of compassion and its globally embarrassing hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy ... Mr Abbott will never be a community father figure, nor a statesman who garners respect. He practises policies that are devoid of empathy.That is sheer abuse and simply untrue. It is also demanding Abbott do a Rudd - show “compassion” rather than achieve real good..
The Age is angry that Abbott won’t take in Rohingya and Bangladeshis on boats that Thailand and Malaysia were refusing to let land, hoping to stop a vicious people trafficking:
It will do “absolutely nothing” because, according to Mr Abbott’s flawed logic, doing something would encourage people smugglers to press on.Yet Abbott is right, and our own bitter experience proves that The Age was wrong and has learned nothing from being so.
The Age also ignores the fact that most of the people it’s talking about are actually Bangladeshi laborers, who are poor, badly educated Muslim laborers who, like the Rohingya, would almost certainly struggle to fit in here. It also ignores that far from doing nothing to help, Abbott has just increased our aid to the Rohingya by $5 million. The boat people are being rescued and the people trade of laborers to Malaysia, involving prison camps, ransoms and mass graves, is now being stopped. Burma has meanwhile agreed to take more responsibility for the Rohingya. Simply accepting a few thousand more boat people would have done nothing to fix the wider problem, and almost certainly have made it worse.
The Age is run by people who emote, not analyse. Their vicious hatred for Abbott - and their policies - both belie their claim to greater “compassion"/
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Ireland votes for gay marriage
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (5:10am)
I am wary of the damage I fear could be done to the tradition, but support this manner of changing something so fundamental:
The people of Ireland have voted overwhelmingly to legalise gay marriage following a historic referendum…Yes to a popular vote; no to a political one.
Irish people from around the world travelled home to take part in the referendum, which came only 22 years after homosexuality was decriminalised.
As crowds gathered at Dublin Castle to celebrate the result… it was confirmed that Amendment 34 to the Irish constitution had passed by 62% to 38%.
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Victorian Labor powerbroker and Shorten ally accused
Andrew Bolt May 24 2015 (4:50am)
Something doesn’t feel right about this Socialist Left Government:
THE Andrews Government has been rocked by its first scandal, with Small Business Minister Adem Somyurek stood down pending an investigation into claims of bullying.How much of this is politics?
Premier Daniel Andrews called a snap press conference yesterday to reveal Mr Somyurek had been accused by his chief of staff Dimity Paul of “threatening and intimidating” behaviour…
It is understood Mr Somyurek’s office has experienced problems recently, with internal tensions and disagreements between the minister and key staff. One member of staff left the office last week.
Sources said last week’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, which Mr Somyurek attended as Small Business, Innovation and Trade Minister, was a catalyst for heated arguments.
The Coalition at that hearing leapt on Mr Somyurek and what it said was his lack of preparedness..
The sensational claims caused an immediate flurry of internal Labor tension, with allies of Mr Somyurek — a key factional powerbroker in the Government — quick to jump to his defence....
. In 2009 Mr Somyurek was chastised publicly by then premier John Brumby after he was given a one-month suspended jail sentence and $300 fine for driving his taxpayer-funded car while disqualified and while talking on his mobile phone.
The alleged misconduct – which Mr Somyurek has strenuously denied – is said to have taken place over the past few months, and relates to a number of employees in his ministerial office, including his chief of staff, Dimity Paul.UPDATE
At least one incident is alleged to have been physical, which led to Ms Paul feeling “unsafe” in his presence… Some Labor insiders have suggested that part of the scandal could be tied up in a political power-play between Mr Somyurek and Ms Paul, whose factions fell out following a recent realignment within the Right of the Victorian ALP.
Mr Somyurek was one of a group of Labor right-wing MPs who recently shifted allegiance from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association section of the Right faction to the dominant Centre Unity grouping effectively headed by Victorian federal frontbenchers Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy.
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This happens quite a lot. Just remember: 1 = 1st2 = 2nd3 = 3rd4 -10 = 4th-10th
Posted by Grammarly on Friday, 22 May 2015
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Do you see it? Is it bothering you??
Posted by KHOP @ 95.1fm on Sunday, 11 May 2014
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It's true! The new laws were voted in last night.Amazing idea. Hopefully more countries follow their lead!
Posted by 92.9 The Bull on Friday, 22 May 2015
It is a bureaucratic idea which will make things worse by making the more expensive option the only choice. Robespierre would be proud.
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Author Dan Sheehan is giving veterans a voice through his writing. Watch his story here this Tuesday.
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Saturday, 23 May 2015
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Pun for your weekend via sardonicsalad.com.
Posted by Grammarly on Saturday, 23 May 2015
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WHO CHOSE WHO?
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (5:48pm)
Network Ten’s Canberra chief Stephen Spencer suffered a severe case of panty bunchitis back in March when people criticised Julia Gillard’s appearance with Kyle Sandilands at Kirribilli House:
2Day organised it. Gillard didn’t choose Kyle, 2DAY chose Kiribilli … Kyle asked pm if he could use Kirribilli for charity event for sick and dying kids. She said yes. End of story.
Maybe not. Gillard’s communications boss John McTernan, defending Gillard’s latest Sandilands shenanigans, now says that he organised the March event:
“[Kyle] is a popular and talented broadcaster and is listened to by more than a million people every morning.‘’His work with charity is well known but it apparently disturbs you that the Prime Minister hosted Kyle and Jackie O and kids from Bear Cottage at Kirribilli House. Well I will never apologise for arranging that.‘’Perhaps one day you will know what it is like to entertain and touch the hearts of millions of people like Kyle and Jackie O do every day. And perhaps then you will reflect on the darts of the pygmies who sneer at success.’’
Whatever, John. Over to Spencer for clarification. Was he perhaps misled by the Prime Minister’s office?
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LEAF SENTENCE - DAY THREE
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (11:06am)
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MESSAGE UNHEARD
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (11:24am)
You can’t help but feel a little bit sorry for your average Muslim terrorist. They go to all the trouble of blowing up children in Boston, killing US Army personnel in Texas, detonating bars in Bali, flying jets into New York skyscrapers and now basically removing a soldier’s head in a London street, all in the holy name of Islam.
But where’s the credit?
Where’s the respect?
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MR BIG
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (5:11am)
An alleged people smuggler charged in Jakarta:
Indonesian police have arrested an Australian resident refugee they are treating as a major people-smuggling suspect.The Iranian man, Mohammad Abdi, 36, was arrested at an apartment in West Jakarta early yesterday along with two other Iranians.A senior Indonesian National Police source said Mr Abdi, also known as Said Ali, was “a big smuggler”.
Big is the word:
The arrest of Abdi, who denies any smuggling involvement, follows the exposure last year of smuggler and Canberra trolley skipper Captain Emad.
The arrest of Abdi, who denies any smuggling involvement, follows the exposure last year of smuggler and Canberra trolley skipper Captain Emad.
(Via Waxing Gibberish)
UPDATE. “Polisi di Jakarta telah menahan seorang pengungsi,” reports Radio Australia. “Yang memegang dokumen perjalanan Australia tapi belum menjadi warganegara Australia, ditahan bersama dua orang lainnya.” Well, obviously.
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JUST A TINY $1,000,000,000 PER YEAR
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (5:02am)
ABC columnist and big thinker Tim Dunlop stands up for the weeny community broadcaster:
Kind of funny how much the very existence of the ABC gets up some people’s noses; this tiny redoubt against all-conquering marketisation
The ABC receives more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds every year and claims to be the nation’s single-biggest employer of journalists. Dunlop, an expert reporter, is currently writing a bookabout the media.
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PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (4:45am)
Tasmanian behaviour recorded:
A man who set up a video camera to capture paranormal activity in his kitchen instead recorded evidence of his partner engaging in a sexual relationship with his 16-year-old son, the Supreme Court heard ...
Well, it’s Tasmania. Aim for paranormal, get normal.
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BIG OIL WINS AGAIN
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (4:28am)
The jug ban is over:
A European Union ban on the use of unmarked olive oil jugs on restaurant tables has been dropped following a public outcry across Europe.The climb down overrides an EU decision last week requiring that olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in factory packaged bottles with a tamper-proof “hygienic” nozzle and printed labelling in line with Brussels standards.
It’s a victory for the Prick.
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MICHAEL BECOMES MUJAAHID
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (2:20am)
Details emerge about South London machete maniac and Koran convert Michael Adebolajo, theman with the blood on his hands:
Former neighbours of Michael Adebolajo have described him as a “nasty kid” who once punched a young girl neighbour in the face.Whilst some have described his family as devout Christians, others have painted a different picture and blamed his home life for his alleged actions.One 68-year-old Romford resident, who did not want to be named, said she was informed by a young girl’s brother that she had been attacked by him.“He said Michael had spat in her face and then punched her. I looked out the window and he was stood in his front garden in a rage. The police turned up but I don’t think he was ever arrested,” she said.She continued … “Michael would regularly have a large group of friends over and they would sit in the garage with music blaring. They would also bring in lots of beer.”
Then he heard Islam’s siren call:
Counter-terrorism officers and the security services are examining Adebolajo’s links to the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun. It is understood he was radicalised around 10 years ago, changing his name to Mujaahid, which means “one who engages in jihad” …Adebolajo was frequently seen in Woolwich handing out Islamist literature in the High Street.Anjem Choudary, the former leader of al-Muhajiroun, has confirmed that he knew Adebolajo …Choudary said Mujaahid had converted to Islam in 2003 and was a British-born Nigerian. He said he had attended meetings of al-Muhajiroun from around 2005-11, but stopped attending the meetings, and those its successor organisations, two years ago.At the meetings he heard an interpretation of Islam preached by the group’s founder, Omar Bakri Mohammed, which many Muslims would consider extreme.Choudary said: “He was on our ideological wave-length.”
It’s a wave-length that SBS can’t pick up.
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HAZEL HAWKE
Tim Blair – Friday, May 24, 2013 (1:00am)
Hazel Hawke, the universally admired former wife of ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke, has died at 83.
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Don’t mention the pause, or there may be Nazis
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (12:58pm)
An emeritus professor from Sydney warns me to cease and desist:
To readers who asked: yes, he is an emeritus professor in a field of science.
Reader gbees responds:
I have read several times and hear your statements on TV that there has been no change in the Earths temperature for 10 years ( in todays paper 15years)UPDATE
Though there has been no change for 10 years ( if you believe the modeling), its really only half the story and so is misleading. Simple regression analysis of the calculated data would fit such points as “experimental scatter” on the best fit to the data since the industrial revolution. This is probably because other things which contribute to global warming or cooling than carbon dioxide vary somewhat. Water vapour effects are not well understood.
Put in simple terms its like using the arguments that the weather has been warmer this winter demonstrates global warming, it does not. Your arguments are as invalid in supporting no climate change over the industrial revolution period.
The problem with such half information, the normal method of argument of lawyers I am sad to say, is that it misleads the public, especially the public who are scientifically ignorant.
At best this gives ammunition to the rabid left, who can see inconsistencies in logic while ignoring their own, at worst it leads to such disasters in change in public opinion such as with Eugenics and the Nazis.
To readers who asked: yes, he is an emeritus professor in a field of science.
Reader gbees responds:
Andrew, I take umbrage at the remark “especially the public who are scientifically ignorant”. I have 3 degrees and they are all loaded with the mathematics used in climate science, epidemiology, econometrics, engineering science etc.. etc. The maths is the same in all those disciplines…
I also wish to take the good professor to task on a couple of his comments. But where we do agree is that 10 years is not long enough to determine the climate is changing due to CO2 and neither is the years since the start of the industrial evolution. In fact, there are not enough data points. One has to go back, way back thousands of years to get enough data points. And when that is done there is no empirical evidence that the temperature fluctuations are anything other than natural and certainly not from man made CO2 emissions.
His comment “there has been no change for 10 years ( if you believe the modeling)” - the assumption here is that the data you have been providing in your graphs is from a computer model. In fact your data is empirical (observed), so the professor got that wrong.
Further ‘simple regression’ is not the way to interpret the data of climate science. One needs at a minimum a well constructed multiple regression algorithm including numerous variables because the climate is driven by many different sources. It’s quite a complex system. And that’s the real issue. It’s not well understood. Simple linear regression just does not cut it.
Further, as far as I’m aware you have always stated that there is no statistically significant, discernible increase in temperature since 1998. I think that’s a fair enough conclusion at this stage. Although I would always like you to add that there’s no evidence that CO2 is the driver of temperature change.
All in all, there is still no empirical scientific evidence that human CO2 emissions are causing runaway catastrophic global warming, which is what AGW proponents want us to believe.
Keep up the good work. You’re on the right track ..
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Confront the construction thugs
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (12:19pm)
A victory for the rule of law and the right to go to work without fear of harassment and intimidation:
THE construction workers union has been convicted of contempt of court for illegally blocking access to Grocon sites during its bitter dispute with the building giant last year.More needs to be done to counter an astonishing escalation of the tactics of intimidation:
Victorian Supreme Court judge Anthony Cavanough today ruled that 30 charges against the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union had been proven in relation to its blockade of the Melbourne Emporium site and a Footscray development site in August and September.
The industrial protests saw Melbourne’s CBD brought to a standstill for two weeks as the streets filled with hundreds of construction workers, goaded by union officials on loudspeakers.
Justice Cavanough singled out Victorian state secretary John Setka for his “hostile and insulting” response to a Grocon worker who told him: “We just want to go to work, John. This is not our blue.” “You f . . king dogs,” Mr Setka replied.
THE building industry’s corruption watchdog has become the target of a vicious campaign. Victoria Police is investigating the circulation around Melbourne of a leaflet in which Nigel Hadgkiss’s wife, Moira, is named and photographed.Even more sinister:
The leaflet, which the Herald Sun understands is part of a larger file on Mr Hadgkiss, shows Mrs Hadgkiss in the family driveway. It also shows the number plate of the car in the drive, and reveals it is registered to the Department of Treasury and Finance…
Mr Hadgkiss is the director of the State Government’s Construction Code Compliance Unit and has been compiling a report on corruption and bikie links in the building industry for more than six months.
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union denied any involvement with the flyer, which state secretary John Setka said had been circulating around government offices in recent weeks.
He questioned whether it was right for Mrs Hadgkiss to use a taxpayer-funded car.
A senior Comanchero and two other members of the outlaw bikie club barged into the family home of one of Australia’s leading builders in a suspected standover attempt to force the construction firm owner to pay a disputed debt.There is something very sick in the construction industry. Tony Abbott’s promise to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission - so recklessly dismantled by Julia Gillard - is a good first step.
Master Builders Association federal vice-president Trevor Evans was at his suburban Melbourne home when the bikie trio, led by Comanchero sergeant-at-arms Norm Meyer, entered his house through an unlocked door and confronted him over money that a subcontractor claims he is owed.
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The Bolt Report on Sunday
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (11:25am)
On The Bolt Report on Network Ten at 10am Sunday: Opposition industry spokesman Sophie Mirabella, Peter Reith and Cassandra Wilkinson.
What Ford tells us about the trouble we’re in.
How useless are hand-outs to car-makers and other corporate teat-suckers?
Are the Liberals just Labor-lite?
The trouble with Islam. And global warming vultures.
Also invited on the show: Julia Gillard and other Labor Ministers.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
What Ford tells us about the trouble we’re in.
How useless are hand-outs to car-makers and other corporate teat-suckers?
Are the Liberals just Labor-lite?
The trouble with Islam. And global warming vultures.
Also invited on the show: Julia Gillard and other Labor Ministers.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
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Global warming preachers burn the gases we must not
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (7:46am)
Frequent-flying hypocrites:
(Thanks to reader Case.)
A LABOR senator has questioned Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery’s decision to snub a budget estimates hearing next week to fly overseas on a private trip.I won’t believe the planet’s future depends on me slashing emissions until Tim Flannery acts like he really believes it, too.
Committee chair Senator Doug Cameron said Mr Flannery, paid a reported $180,000 for his part-time job, should have attended.
Two other key CEOs of climate bodies established by the government have also sent apologies - because they are off to Europe.
Anthea Harris, head of the Climate Change Authority which reviews and makes recommendations about the carbon tax, and Chloe Munro, head of the Clean Energy Regulator which administers the carbon tax, will be at a carbon expo in Spain… A return flight to Spain is likely to produce more than five tonnes of carbon.
(Thanks to reader Case.)
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More climate alarmism from the ABC’s Lateline
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (7:16am)
Showing a graphic of temperature change since 1997 might have solved the issue for ABC viewers, who were last night treated to a puff-piece on warming extremist Bill McKibben:
TONY JONES: Let’s start with the statement most frequently used by climate change sceptics: the planet has stopped warming since 1998 and started to cool, actually cool, since 2003. True or false?Lateline last night also puffed this deeply deceptive claim:
BILL MCKIBBEN: Completely false. The data is unfortunately abundantly clear here. Not only is the air temperature continuing to go up, but a whole slew of studies in recent months have shown that in fact the rate of warming in the oceans is accelerating and of course that heat will eventually make its way back out into the atmosphere…
TONY JONES: Let’s just look at that figure though. 1998 was pretty much the planet’s hottest year, at least some argue that it was, since accurate temperature recordings were done. It appears there was a spike in that year, a spike in the temperature and since then temperatures have actually gone down? BILL MCKIBBEN: No, temperatures haven’t gone down. The last decade was the warmest by far on record. 1998 was a very strong El Nino year and so it set a new record, a record we’ve now broken twice by small margins, but in general the pace of climate change continues unabated.
KERRY BREWSTER: Research fellow John Cook has studied thousands of scientific papers to gauge the level of consensus among climate scientists.In fact:
JOHN COOK: What we’ve done is actually look at the last 21 years of climate research and looked at - just identified all the papers that state a position on whether - just that simple question: whether humans are causing global warming. And we identified about 4,000 papers that stated the position on this, and among those 4,000 papers, more than 97 per cent endorse human-caused global warming.
First, the papers which explicitly endorsed the standard global warming theory were outnumbered by those which explicitly denied it:
...This study found ~4,000 abstracts that say humans cause some amount of global warming. Only 143 of those indicate how much warming humans are responsible for. Of those, 65 say its a lot, 78 say it isn’t much.Second, a theory is not proved by the number of scientists who believe it. And however popular, it can be disproved by a single fact.
Third, Cook’s study missed key papers by sceptical scientists. Fourth, some of the papers Cook claims endorse global warming theory do not. Says who? Say the scientists who wrote them...
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Costello endorses Abbott
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (7:05am)
Peter Costello makes it harder this time for Labor to quote him:
PETER Costello, the Liberal treasurer who featured in a Labor Party attack ad during the last election campaign accusing Tony Abbott of being an economic illiterate, will tonight praise the Opposition Leader’s budget reply speech as “the best in decades”.
Australia’s longest-serving treasurer and Mr Abbott’s senior cabinet and party colleague for all his years in the Howard government ministry will declare that the Coalition, under Mr Abbott, is ready to “rescue” the economy.
“Tony Abbott’s budget-in-reply speech was the best in decades,” Mr Costello will say at a gala Liberal function at the Melbourne Museum tonight in his honour. “It shows that the Coalition understands the dimension of the task ahead and is ready to rescue the situation.”
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No hijab for you
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (6:47am)
Egyptian journalist Riham Said confrontsfundamentalist Islamic cleric Yousuf Badri on Egypt’s Al-Nahar TV.
The great Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci did the hijab thing first, with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini:
The great Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci did the hijab thing first, with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini:
Fallaci makes an attempt at poking fun by asking Khomeini how it is possible to swim in a veil, which irritates the Imam again:(Thanks to reader John.)
“This is none of your business. Our customs are none of your business. If you do not like Islamic dress you are not obliged to wear it. Besides, Islamic dress is for good and proper young women.”
Funny enough, the suggestion that she is not a “good and proper” young woman angers Fallaci: “That’s very kind of you, Imam. And since you said so, I’m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now. There. Done...”
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Muslims riot in Stockholm for fourth day
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (5:49am)
Swedish multiculturalism:
Not working out as the starry-eyed imagined:
Some of the immigrants in Husby are smarter than the Integration Minister:
Stockholm was braced for a fifth night of riots as violent unrest that began almost a week ago in the northern suburbs of the Swedish capital continued to spread to other corners of the city…So very few reports are frank about who precisely is rioting, preferring the euphemism “youths”. However:
Up to 40 cars, a police station and a restaurant in the southern suburb of Skogas were set ablaze on Wednesday. Fire crew were pelted with stones – mainly by young men with their faces covered – as they attempted to douse the flames. Around 300 cars have been set on fire this week. The unrest began on Sunday in the rundown, mainly immigrant, northern suburb of Husby… Groups from local mosques have been patrolling the streets of Husby, pleading with youths for calm.
The riots began on Sunday in Husby, just outside of the capital, where about 80 percent of the population is either first or second generation immigrants. Most of them come from largely Muslim countries like Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Somalia…Is this what Sweden envisaged with mass immigration? A more divided society, with ethnic and religious riots?
“We see a society that is becoming increasingly divided and where the gaps, both socially and economically, are becoming larger,” said co-founder Rami Al-Khamisi with the group Megafonen, which purports to represent suburbs and minorities… “We have institutional racism.”
Others in Sweden lashed out at immigrants and massive immigration in general, saying the riots illustrated the “failure of multiculturalism” and the problems with allowing too many foreigners in without a real plan. As the debate over immigration raged, the Sweden Democrats party, which seeks to implement broad restrictions on further immigration, has now become the third largest political party based on recent polls.
Not working out as the starry-eyed imagined:
This is not the first time the Scandinavian country has seen riots among immigrants.When mass Muslim immigration requires such an effort from the host country to make work, with such a high price for failure, is it worth it?
In 2010, up to 100 youths threw bricks, set fires and attacked the local police station in the immigrant-heavy suburb of Rinkeby for two nights. And in 2008, hundreds of youths rioted against police in the southern Swedish town of Malmoe, sparked by the closure of an Islamic cultural centre in the suburb of Rosengaard that housed a mosque.
[Integration Minister Erik] Ullenhag explained that the unrest is not a question of young people against society.Note how the onus falls on the Swedes to make immigrants adapt, and not on the rioters.
“I’ve seen in the international media that this is a riot between young people in some parts of Stockholm and the society, but this is not true. It’s a small proportion. The majority of young people in Tensta, Husby, Rinkeby, they go to schools and they want to have opportunities in Sweden, and it’s important to tell that story,” he said.
Ullenhag added that he was looking into reforms targeting such areas that would create a much more individualized process when it comes to integrating immigrants. “For someone with no formal education, the best way to learn Swedish is probably to have an internship and to combine that with studying Swedish,” he explained.
Some of the immigrants in Husby are smarter than the Integration Minister:
Marianne Farede ... agreed that high youth unemployment was part of the problem, she put more blame on parents rather than a lack of support programmes from the Swedish state.Sweden has swallow something it cannot digest.
“It’s how they’ve been raised. Everything comes back to their parents,” she explained. “It’s not the state’s fault. You have to take control of your life…
“If I lived in my homeland, I wouldn’t have it as good as I do now. That’s something I really appreciate,” the Lebanon-born Farede explained.
“There aren’t enough who do appreciate what they have. They want even more...”
Shahnaz Darabi, ... a native of Iran who has lived in Sweden for 19 years, also cited a lack of involvement by parents as a contributing factor to the riots.
“Parents are ultimately responsible. They need to set boundaries. They need to have more of a check on their children’s lives,” she said…
Darabi believes that too many immigrant parents fail to integrate into Swedish society, thus making it harder for their children.
“Many sit at home and watch television from their home countries, don’t learn the Swedish language, they are out of work and living on benefits and can’t move forward. They are stuck,” she said. “It’s the individual and parents who need to take responsibility. But many don’t; they only think about money and how to get benefits this month and next month. That affects their children. There has to be a limit. The state has given them too much, frankly.”
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Car cash can’t stop Ford crash
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (5:17am)
The fall of Ford shows the folly of taxing good industries to prop up the bad - and failing anyway:
Bill Scales, who chaired the Industry Commission and the Automotive Industry Authority that implemented the Button car plan under the Hawke government, said it was “foolish in the extreme to be trying to create industry or firm-specific assistance”.So what did we get for all that?
“This is the worst of all worlds because not only do they try and target an industry, but the current industry assistance tries to target assistance to meet the needs of a particular firm,” Mr Scales told The Australian. “There’s no evidence, no evidence in any reasonable, well-recognised study that says this works…
“But in most cases, it shows that that investment is foolhardly and that’s what this particular decision I think shows, that once again this form of investment simply does not work.” The government’s current commitment to the entire car industry until 2020 under the “New Car Plan” is $5.4 billion.
Ford has collected an estimated $1.1 billion in federal assistance over the past decade.How hard did we make it for the businesses who had to pay the taxes to “save” Ford?
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SBS can’t spot a Muslim killer even when he quotes the Koran
Andrew Bolt May 24 2013 (12:01am)
Within an hour or so this film was on YouTube. It records one of the killers of an unarmed British soldier in London shouting:
SBS reporter Hannah Sinclair even asks directly:
Sinclair tries - tentatively - again:
UPDATE
The taxpayer-funded SBS also publishes an analysis written by Monash University academic Andy Ruddock for the taxpayer-funded Conversation which somehow twists a murder by Islamists into an interrogation of not the perpetrators or their ideology but of those reacting to them.
It. too, astonishingly fails to mention “Muslim”, “Islam”, “Allah” or “Koran”. The only hint it gives of the motives of the killers is this line damning the killers’ critics:
The facts:
More stuff SBS will have trouble reporting, except for the Christian bit, of course:
There are many, many ayah throughout the Koran that we must fight them as they fight us, an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth. We — I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you.But SBS, in a report nearly seven minutes long, somehow fails to mention even once the words, “Muslim”, “Islam”, “Allah” or “Koran”. Listen to this stunning example of non-reporting - a deliberate and deceptive evasion.
SBS reporter Hannah Sinclair even asks directly:
What kind of attack was this?London-based Australian journalist Adam McIlrick actually refers to the film above, in which a killer explains exactly what he’s about, yet claims:
Everything was captured [on film] which makes this so much harder to understand.Harder to understand? When the killer actually confesses?
Sinclair tries - tentatively - again:
Is there any indication of the background of the suspects involved?McIlrick pretends to be blind to the appearance of the killers and deaf to their cries:
No indication… Links to extremist organisations are being investigated.... Nothing clear has emerged… It hasn’t been confirmed that this is a terror attack.This is astonishing. Scandalous, even. What else does SBS refuse to tell its audience?
UPDATE
The taxpayer-funded SBS also publishes an analysis written by Monash University academic Andy Ruddock for the taxpayer-funded Conversation which somehow twists a murder by Islamists into an interrogation of not the perpetrators or their ideology but of those reacting to them.
It. too, astonishingly fails to mention “Muslim”, “Islam”, “Allah” or “Koran”. The only hint it gives of the motives of the killers is this line damning the killers’ critics:
Journalist Laurie Penny used the same platform to warn of “ugly racism and Islamophobia”.What name can you give this cowardly. deceptive and intellectually dishonest kind of reportage?:
A man has been horrifically and wilfully murdered in public. Footage of this appalling crime has spread through global media outlets.Mind you, SBS has form for covering up for Islamic extremists:
The world has seen one of the alleged murderers, cleaver in his bloodied hand.
What has happened is clear.
Why it happened, and what the murder means for British society, is another matter.
Social media users have acted quickly to frame the event.
British National Party chairman Nick Griffin immediately turned to Twitter to relate the attack to his anti-immigration agenda.
Journalist Laurie Penny used the same platform to warn of “ugly racism and Islamophobia”.
At this time, when so little is known, it’s worth noting that images of the crime are not neutral – they will play an active part in deciding what the Woolwich murder means – and what is done about it.
The images we are all consuming with disgust are doing more than just showing us something horrible.
There’s a political twist on the old adage about pictures being worth a thousand words.
In the 1950s, semiotician Roland Barthes explained how a simple image of a black soldier saluting the French flag, on the cover of the Paris Match magazine, conveyed a complicated apology for French Imperialism.
At a time when France’s colonial investments were a matter of intense political debate, the picture was hardly disinterested.
In the immediate attempts to connect Woolwich with particular positions on British multiculturalism, we see the same ideological struggle coming into play.Behind the simple truth, here’s a man saluting a flag, here’s a man holding a bloody cleaver: different camps are jockeying to secure the significance of the visuals.
SBS after the September 11 attacks destroyed tape it had filmed of the then mufti of Australia praising suicide bombers in his mosque.UPDATE
SBS told me it wanted to stop you jumping to an “unfair” conclusion about this hate-preacher.
The facts:
THE WOOLWICH suspected terrorists, who allegedly hacked a British soldier to death in the street are believed to be British citizens with a Nigerian background who converted to a radical form of Islam.UPDATE
The men, who are being treated in separate hospitals while under arrest, are most likely to have converted to a radical form of Islam from Christianity but are not thought to have links to West African terrorist group - Boko Haram.
One of the men has been identified as 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo who grew up in east London and converted to Islam some 10 years ago… He was the alleged killer in black seen ranting on video shortly after the murder.
THE off-duty soldier slain in London has been identified as a young father of one ...UPDATE
More stuff SBS will have trouble reporting, except for the Christian bit, of course:
Michael Adebolajo, one of the men arrested over the Woolwich murder, was a polite and well-mannered schoolboy rapper who turned to militant Islam after rebelling against his devoutly Christian family…More inspiration:
Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the banned Islamist organisation, Al Muhajiroun, confirmed that he knew Mr Adebolajo, who converted in 2003 and attended meetings of the group and its successor organisations for eight years…Al Muhajiroun, founded in 1983 by Islamist Omar Bakri Muhammad, became notorious for attempting to justify the 9/11 attacks. Mr Choudary, who has long been a controversial figures in Britain’s Islamist circles, has been an outspoken critic of British military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2008, Parviz Khan, 37, of Birmingham, was sentenced to 14 years’ jail for plotting to kidnap and behead a British soldier. In covert recordings he was heard making plans for the killing - and to film it, to ensure the terror message hit home in Britain. ‘’This was not only a plot to kill a soldier but a plot to undermine the morale of the British Army and inhibit recruitment,’’ High Court judge Justice Richard Henriques said…(Thanks to reader H.)
This was an attack from the al-Qaeda handbook. The terrorist group’s English-language magazine, Inspire, produced in the Arabian Peninsula, exhorts people to carry out ‘’lone wolf’’ attacks. Articles and advertisements urged readers to use knives and run people down in vehicles...
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When you forgive...you heal. When you let go...you grow. When you cry out to God...you surrender. When you love unconditionally...you show others Christ's love. Holly
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By LEON WATSON
Barbaric textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief's hands and feet under Sharia law, it has emerged.
The shocking books, paid for and printed by the Saudi government, also tell teenagers that Jews need to be exterminated and homosexuals should be 'put to death'.
Recent editions were obtained by the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C., which says they should raise fears in the West over the use of jihadist language.
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Saudi Columnist: Clerics Have Corrupted The Mind Of The Youth With Violent And Bloodthirsty IdeologyIn an article in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, columnist 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Samari criticized Arab society in general and Saudi society in particular, saying that they reject diversity of opinion and see anyone who voices dissenting views as an enemy. He added that some Saudi clerics preach extremism and have corrupted the minds of the youth with violent and bloodthirsty ideology. He called upon the Saudi authorities to purge the school curricula of extremist content, and to replace the current education methods, based on rigid indoctrination, with a comprehensive cultural program to foster pluralism and respect for the other.
===
I was in a pet shop when I noticed a girl in Islamic dress with the most amazingly coloured parrot perched on her shoulder.
"Where did you get that from ?" I asked.
" Birmingham !!!... There's thousands of 'em!" ........said the Parrot.
===
May 24: Saints Cyril and Methodius Day in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Russia; Independence Day in Eritrea (1993)
- 1738 – At a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate, London, John Wesley (pictured) experienced aspiritual rebirth, leading him to launch theMethodist movement.
- 1830 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first common carrier and Class I railroad in the United States, opened for scheduled service.
- 1956 – The first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland.
- 1960 – Cordón Caulle in the Andes in Chile, began to erupt, less than two days after the Valdivia earthquake struck the region.
- 1991 – The Israel Defense Forces began Operation Solomon, a covert operation to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
- 919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.
- 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
- 1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.
- 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.
- 1567 – Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles.
- 1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
- 1607 – 100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America.
- 1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.
- 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
- 1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.
- 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.
- 1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics.
- 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.
- 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
- 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").
- 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.
- 1830 – "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
- 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
- 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
- 1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
- 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
- 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
- 1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies.
- 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
- 1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Redsbeating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field.
- 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
- 1940 – Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico.
- 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
- 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.
- 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.
- 1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
- 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
- 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
- 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
- 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.
- 1976 – The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.
- 1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.
- 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.
- 1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
- 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
- 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
- 1992 – The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town.
- 1993 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
- 1994 – Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
- 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
- 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
- 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
- 2014 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people.
- 2014 – At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium.
- 15 BC – Germanicus, Roman general (d. 19)
- 1335 – Margaret of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary (d. 1349)
- 1494 – Pontormo, Italian painter (d. 1557)
- 1522 – John Jewel, English bishop (d. 1571)
- 1544 – William Gilbert, English physician, physicist, and astronomer (d. 1603)
- 1576 – Elizabeth Carey, Lady Berkeley, English courtier (d. 1635)
- 1616 – John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, Scottish politician, Secretary of State, Scotland (d. 1682)
- 1628 – Marek Sobieski, Polish noble (d. 1652)
- 1669 – Emerentia von Düben, Swedish royal favorite (d. 1743)
- 1671 – Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1737)
- 1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Polish-German physicist and engineer, developed the Fahrenheit scale (d. 1736)
- 1689 – Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1769)
- 1743 – Jean-Paul Marat, Swiss-French physician, journalist, and politician (d. 1793)
- 1789 – Cathinka Buchwieser, German operatic singer and actress (d.1828)
- 1794 – William Whewell, English priest and philosopher (d. 1866)
- 1803 – Alexander von Nordmann, Finnish biologist and paleontologist (d. 1866)
- 1810 – Abraham Geiger, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1874)
- 1816 – Emanuel Leutze, German-American painter (d. 1868)
- 1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
- 1830 – Alexei Savrasov, Russian painter and academic (d. 1897)
- 1855 – Arthur Wing Pinero, English actor, director, and playwright (d. 1934)
- 1861 – Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland, Maltese lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Malta (d. 1940)
- 1863 – George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (d. 1938)
- 1868 – Charlie Taylor, American engineer and mechanic (d. 1956)
- 1870 – Benjamin N. Cardozo, American lawyer and judge (d. 1938)
- 1870 – Jan Smuts, South African lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1950)
- 1874 – Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1878)
- 1875 – Robert Garrett, American discus thrower and shot putter (d. 1961)
- 1878 – Lillian Moller Gilbreth, American psychologist and engineer (d. 1972)
- 1879 – H. B. Reese, American candy maker, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (d. 1956)
- 1886 – Paul Paray, French organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1979)
- 1887 – Mick Mannock, Irish soldier and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1918)
- 1891 – William F. Albright, American archaeologist, philologist, and scholar (d. 1971)
- 1895 – Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., American publisher, founded Advance Publications (d. 1979)
- 1899 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
- 1899 – Henri Michaux, Belgian-French poet and painter (d. 1984)
- 1900 – Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1901 – José Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer and manager (d. 1968)
- 1902 – Lionel Conacher, Canadian football player and politician (d. 1954)
- 1902 – Sylvia Daoust, Canadian sculptor (d. 2004)
- 1905 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- 1909 – Wilbur Mills, American banker and politician (d. 1992)
- 1910 – Jimmy Demaret, American golfer (d. 1983)
- 1913 – Joe Abreu, American baseball player and soldier (d. 1993)
- 1914 – Lilli Palmer, German-American actress (d. 1986)
- 1916 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (d. 2002)
- 1917 – Alan Campbell, Baron Campbell of Alloway, English lawyer and judge (d. 2013)
- 1918 – Coleman Young, American politician, 66th Mayor of Detroit (d. 1997)
- 1923 – Siobhán McKenna, Irish actress (d. 1986)
- 1924 – Philip Pearlstein, American soldier and painter
- 1925 – Carmine Infantino, American illustrator and educator (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Mai Zetterling, Swedish actress and director (d. 1994)
- 1926 – Stanley Baxter, Scottish actor and screenwriter
- 1928 – William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer (d. 2016)
- 1932 – Arnold Wesker, English playwright and producer (d. 2016)
- 1933 – Jane Byrne, American lawyer and politician, 50th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Réal Giguère, Canadian television host and actor
- 1933 – Aharon Lichtenstein, French-Israeli rabbi and author (d. 2015)
- 1935 – Joan Micklin Silver, American director and screenwriter
- 1936 – Harold Budd, American composer and poet
- 1937 – Maryvonne Dupureur, French runner and educator (d. 2008)
- 1937 – Archie Shepp, American saxophonist and composer
- 1938 – Prince Buster, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2016)
- 1938 – Tommy Chong, Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1940 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- 1941 – Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, artist, writer, and producer; Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 – Patricia Hollis, Baroness Hollis of Heigham, English academic and politician
- 1942 – Ali Bacher, South African cricketer and manager
- 1942 – Hannu Mikkola, Finnish race car driver
- 1942 – Ichirō Ozawa, Japanese lawyer and politician, Japanese Minister of Home Affairs
- 1943 – Gary Burghoff, American actor
- 1944 – Patti LaBelle, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1944 – Dominique Lavanant, French actress
- 1945 – Terry Callier, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Steven Norris, English engineer and politician
- 1945 – Richard Ottaway, English lieutenant and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- 1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress and businesswoman
- 1946 – Tansu Çiller, Turkish economist and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Turkey
- 1946 – Jesualdo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer and manager
- 1946 – Irena Szewińska, Russian-Polish sprinter
- 1947 – Albert Bouchard, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and drummer
- 1947 – Mike De Leon, Filipino director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer
- 1947 – Mike Reid, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and retired American football player
- 1947 – Waddy Wachtel, American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and record producer
- 1947 – Martin Winterkorn, German businessman
- 1948 – Richard Dembo, French director and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1949 – Jim Broadbent, English actor
- 1949 – Roger Deakins , Enghlish cinematographer
- 1953 – Alfred Molina, English actor
- 1955 – Rosanne Cash, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1955 – Philippe Lafontaine, Belgian singer and songwriter
- 1955 – Rajesh Roshan, Indian composer
- 1956 – R. B. Bernstein, constitutional historian
- 1956 – Larry Blackmon, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1956 – Dominic Grieve, English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales
- 1956 – Michael Jackson, Irish archbishop
- 1958 – Chip Ganassi, American race car driver, team owner and businessman
- 1959 – Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish-American ice hockey player (d. 1985)
- 1959 – Barry O'Farrell, Australian politician, 43rd Premier of New South Wales
- 1960 – Guy Fletcher, English keyboard player, guitarist, and producer
- 1960 – Bill Harrigan, Australian rugby league referee and sportscaster
- 1960 – Kristin Scott Thomas, English actress
- 1961 – Lorella Cedroni, Italian philosopher and theorist (d. 2013)
- 1961 – Alain Lemieux, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach
- 1962 – Héctor Camacho, Puerto Rican-American boxer (d. 2012)
- 1962 – Gene Anthony Ray, American actor, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2003)
- 1963 – Ivan Capelli, Italian race car driver and sportscaster
- 1963 – Michael Chabon, American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter
- 1963 – Joe Dumars, American basketball player
- 1963 – Rich Rodriguez, American football player and coach
- 1963 – Valerie Taylor, American computer scientist and educator
- 1964 – Liz McColgan, Scottish educator and runner
- 1964 – Adrian Moorhouse, English swimmer
- 1964 – Isidro Pérez, Mexican boxer (d. 2013)
- 1964 – Pat Verbeek, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
- 1965 – John C. Reilly, American actor
- 1965 – Shinichirō Watanabe, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Éric Cantona, French footballer, manager, and actor
- 1966 – Ricky Craven, American race car driver and sportscaster
- 1967 – Tamer Karadağlı, Turkish actor
- 1967 – Andrey Borodin, Russian-English economist and businessman
- 1967 – Eric Close, American actor
- 1967 – Heavy D, Jamaican-American rapper, producer, and actor (d. 2011)
- 1967 – Carlos Hernández, Venezuelan-American baseball player and manager
- 1969 – Martin McCague, Northern Irish-English cricketer
- 1969 – Jacob Rees-Mogg, English politician
- 1969 – Rich Robinson, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1971 – Kris Draper, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
- 1972 – Greg Berlanti, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1973 – Rodrigo, Argentinian singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
- 1973 – Bartolo Colón, Dominican-American baseball player
- 1973 – Shirish Kunder, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1973 – Vladimír Šmicer, Czech footballer and manager
- 1974 – Sébastien Foucan, French runner and actor
- 1974 – Masahide Kobayashi, Japanese baseball player and coach
- 1974 – Magnus Manske, German biochemist and computer programmer, developed MediaWiki
- 1974 – Will Sasso, Canadian actor and comedian
- 1975 – Marc Gagnon, Canadian speed skater
- 1975 – Giannis Goumas, Greek footballer and coach
- 1975 – Maria Lawson, English singer-songwriter
- 1976 – Alessandro Cortini, Italian-American singer and keyboard player
- 1976 – Catherine Cox, New Zealand-Australian netball player
- 1976 – Silje Vige, Norwegian singer
- 1978 – Elijah Burke, American wrestler
- 1978 – Johan Holmqvist, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1978 – Brad Penny, American baseball player
- 1978 – Rose, French singer, songwriter and composer
- 1979 – Tracy McGrady, American basketball player
- 1979 – Kareem McKenzie, American football player
- 1980 – Jason Babin, American football player
- 1980 – Anthony Minichiello, Australian rugby league player
- 1981 – Andy Lee, Australian comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1982 – Issah Gabriel Ahmed, Ghanaian footballer
- 1982 – Rian Wallace, American football player
- 1983 – Custódio Castro, Portuguese footballer
- 1983 – Pedram Javaheri, Iranian-American meteorologist and journalist
- 1983 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean model and actress (d. 2009)
- 1984 – Sarah Hagan, American actress
- 1984 – Dmitri Kruglov, Estonian footballer
- 1985 – Tim Bridgman, English race car driver
- 1986 – Mark Ballas, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, dancer, and actor
- 1986 – Giannis Kontoes, Greek footballer
- 1987 – Déborah François, Belgian actress
- 1987 – Guillaume Latendresse, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Artem Anisimov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Monica Lin Brown, American sergeant
- 1988 – Billy Gilman, American singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Lucian Wintrich, American political artist and White House correspondent
- 1989 – Andrew Jordan, English race car driver
- 1990 – Mattias Ekholm, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1991 – Aled Davies, Welsh discus thrower
- 1991 – Cody Eakin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1993 – Christopher Bramell, English beauty pageant winner
- 1999 – Tarjei Sandvik Moe, Norwegian actor
- 688 – Ségéne, bishop of Armagh (b. c. 610)
- 1089 – Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1136 – Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar (b. c. 1070)
- 1153 – David I of Scotland (b. 1083)
- 1201 – Theobald III, Count of Champagne (b. 1179)
- 1351 – Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, Moroccan sultan (b. 1297)
- 1408 – Taejo of Joseon (b. 1335)
- 1425 – Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, Scottish politician (b. 1362)
- 1456 – Ambroise de Loré, French commander (b. 1396)
- 1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (b. 1473)
- 1612 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1563)
- 1627 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish poet and cleric (b. 1561)
- 1632 – Robert Hues, English mathematician and geographer (b. 1553)
- 1734 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)
- 1792 – George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, English admiral and politician, 16th Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1718)
- 1806 – John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, Scottish field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Argyllshire (b. 1723)
- 1843 – Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician and academic (b. 1765)
- 1848 – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German author and composer (b. 1797)[1]
- 1861 – Elmer E. Ellsworth, American colonel (b. 1837)
- 1872 – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German painter and illustrator (b. 1794)
- 1879 – William Lloyd Garrison, American journalist and activist (b. 1805)
- 1881 – Samuel Palmer, English painter and illustrator (b. 1805)
- 1901 – Louis-Zéphirin Moreau, Canadian bishop (b. 1824)
- 1908 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer and architect (b. 1821)
- 1915 – John Condon, Irish-English soldier (b. 1896)
- 1919 – Amado Nervo, Mexican poet, journalist, and educator (b. 1870)
- 1941 – Lancelot Holland, English admiral (b. 1887)
- 1945 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German field marshal and pilot (b. 1892)
- 1948 – Jacques Feyder, Belgian actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Alexey Shchusev, Russian architect, designed Lenin's Mausoleum and Moscow Kazanskaya railway station (b. 1873)
- 1950 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, English field marshal and politician, 43rd Governor-General of India (b. 1883)
- 1951 – Thomas N. Heffron, American actor, director, screenwriter (b. 1872)
- 1958 – Frank Rowe, Australian public servant (b. 1895)
- 1959 – John Foster Dulles, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 52nd United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)
- 1963 – Elmore James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1918)
- 1965 – Sonny Boy Williamson II, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (b. 1908)
- 1974 – Duke Ellington, American pianist and composer (b. 1899)
- 1976 – Denise Pelletier, Canadian actress (b. 1923)
- 1979 – Ernest Bullock, English organist, composer, and educator (b. 1890)
- 1981 – Herbert Müller, Swiss race car driver (b. 1940)
- 1984 – Vince McMahon Sr., American wrestling promoter and businessman, founded WWE (b. 1914)
- 1988 – Freddie Frith, English motorcycle road racer (b. 1909)
- 1990 – Arthur Villeneuve, Canadian painter (b. 1910)
- 1991 – Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
- 1992 – Hitoshi Ogawa, Japanese race car driver (b. 1956)
- 1995 – Harold Wilson, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
- 1996 – Enrique Álvarez Félix, Mexican actor (b. 1934)
- 1996 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist and author (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (b. 1923)
- 2000 – Kurt Schork, American journalist and scholar (b. 1947)
- 2000 – Majrooh Sultanpuri, Indian poet and songwriter (b. 1919)
- 2002 – Wallace Markfield, American author (b. 1926)
- 2003 – Rachel Kempson, English actress (b. 1910)
- 2004 – Henry Ries, German-American photographer (b. 1917)
- 2004 – Milton Shulman, Canadian author and critic (b. 1913)
- 2004 – Edward Wagenknecht, American critic and educator (b. 1900)
- 2005 – Carl Amery, German activist and author (b. 1922)
- 2005 – Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist and poet (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Guy Tardif, Canadian academic and politician (b. 1935)
- 2006 – Henry Bumstead, American art director and production designer (b. 1915)
- 2006 – Claude Piéplu, French actor (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Michał Życzkowski, Polish technician and educator (b. 1930)
- 2008 – Dick Martin, American actor, comedian, and director (b. 1922)
- 2008 – Jimmy McGriff, American organist and bandleader (b. 1936)
- 2009 – Jay Bennett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1963)
- 2010 – Ray Alan, English ventriloquist, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Paul Gray, American bass player and songwriter (b. 1972)
- 2010 – Raymond V. Haysbert, American businessman and activist (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Petr Muk, Czech singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1965)
- 2010 – Anneliese Rothenberger, German soprano and actress (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Huguette Clark, American heiress, painter, and philanthropist (b. 1906)
- 2011 – Hakim Ali Zardari Indian-Pakistani businessman and politician (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Klaas Carel Faber Dutch-German SS officer (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Kathi Kamen Goldmark, American journalist and author (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Jacqueline Harpman, Belgian psychoanalyst and author (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Juan Francisco Lombardo, Argentinian footballer (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Lee Rich, American production manager and producer (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Helmut Braunlich, German-American violinist and composer (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Ron Davies, Welsh footballer (b. 1942)
- 2013 – Gotthard Graubner, German painter (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Haynes Johnson, American journalist and author (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Pyotr Todorovsky, Ukrainian-Russian director and screenwriter (b. 1925)
- 2014 – David Allen, English cricketer (b. 1935)
- 2014 – Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, Iranian businessman (b. 1969)
- 2014 – Knowlton Nash, Canadian journalist and author (b. 1927)
- 2014 – John Vasconcellos, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (b. 1932)
- 2015 – Dean Carroll, English rugby player (b. 1962)
- 2015 – Kenneth Jacobs, Australian lawyer and judge (b. 1917)
- 2015 – Tanith Lee, English author (b. 1947)
- Feast of Mary Help of Christians (Roman Catholicism)
- Aldersgate Day/Wesley Day (Methodism)
- Battle of Pichincha Day (Ecuador)
- Bermuda Day (Bermuda), celebrated on the nearest weekday if May 24 falls on the weekend.
- Christian feast day:
- Commonwealth Day (Belize)
- Earliest day on which El Colacho tradition can fall, while June 27 is the latest; celebrated on Sunday after Corpus Christi. (Castrillo de Murcia, near Burgos)
- Independence Day (Eritrea), celebrates the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993.
- Lubiri Memorial Day (Buganda)
- Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Eastern Orthodox Church) and its related observance:
- Victoria Day; celebrated on Monday on or before May 24. (Canada), and its related observance:
- National Patriots' Day or Journée nationale des patriotes (Quebec)
“Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.” - Romans 15:2
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Most manifestly the confidence which the Psalmist here expressed was a divine confidence. He did not say, "I have grace enough to perfect that which concerneth me--my faith is so steady that it will not stagger--my love is so warm that it will never grow cold--my resolution is so firm that nothing can move it"; no, his dependence was on the Lord alone. If we indulge in any confidence which is not grounded on the Rock of Ages, our confidence is worse than a dream, it will fall upon us, and cover us with its ruins, to our sorrow and confusion. All that Nature spins time will unravel, to the eternal confusion of all who are clothed therein. The Psalmist was wise, he rested upon nothing short of the Lord's work. It is the Lord who has begun the good work within us; it is he who has carried it on; and if he does not finish it, it never will be complete. If there be one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness which we are to insert ourselves, then we are lost; but this is our confidence, the Lord who began will perfect. He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do. Unbelief insinuates--"You will never be able to stand. Look at the evil of your heart, you can never conquer sin; remember the sinful pleasures and temptations of the world that beset you, you will be certainly allured by them and led astray." Ah! yes, we should indeed perish if left to our own strength. If we had alone to navigate our frail vessels over so rough a sea, we might well give up the voyage in despair; but, thanks be to God, he will perfect that which concerneth us, and bring us to the desired haven. We can never be too confident when we confide in him alone, and never too much concerned to have such a trust.
Evening
Worshippers at the temple were wont to bring presents of sweet perfumes to be burned upon the altar of God: but Israel, in the time of her backsliding, became ungenerous, and made but few votive offerings to her Lord: this was an evidence of coldness of heart towards God and his house. Reader, does this never occur with you? Might not the complaint of the text be occasionally, if not frequently, brought against you? Those who are poor in pocket, if rich in faith, will be accepted none the less because their gifts are small; but, poor reader, do you give in fair proportion to the Lord, or is the widow's mite kept back from the sacred treasury? The rich believer should be thankful for the talent entrusted to him, but should not forget his large responsibility, for where much is given much will be required; but, rich reader, are you mindful of your obligations, and rendering to the Lord according to the benefit received? Jesus gave his blood for us, what shall we give to him? We are his, and all that we have, for he has purchased us unto himself--can we act as if we were our own? O for more consecration! and to this end, O for more love! Blessed Jesus, how good it is of thee to accept our sweet cane bought with money! nothing is too costly as a tribute to thine unrivalled love, and yet thou dost receive with favour the smallest sincere token of affection! Thou dost receive our poor forget-me-nots and love-tokens as though they were intrinsically precious, though indeed they are but as the bunch of wild flowers which the child brings to its mother. Never may we grow niggardly towards thee, and from this hour never may we hear thee complain of us again for withholding the gifts of our love. We will give thee the first fruits of our increase, and pay thee tithes of all, and then we will confess "of thine own have we given thee."
===
Balaam
[Bā'laam] - a pilgrim, devouring or lord of the people. A diviner, son of Beor and resident of the town of Pethor (Num. 22; 23; 24; Deut. 23:4).
[Bā'laam] - a pilgrim, devouring or lord of the people. A diviner, son of Beor and resident of the town of Pethor (Num. 22; 23; 24; Deut. 23:4).
The Man Who Heard an Ass Speak
Peter, Jude and John deal with Balaam as a historical presence (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14).
In Balaam we have a fitting yet tragic illustration of our Lord's teaching about the light in us being darkness. Balaam had ahead full of light but a heart that was dark - and great was the darkness! This man of Mesopotamia, counted a prophet, yet followed the unholy practice of Eastern soothsayers.
Balak the king, greatly alarmed because of the Israelites swarming the Plains of Moab, sent for Balaam to pronounce a curse upon the people of God so that he would have nothing more to fear. Balaam refused and declared that all who blessed Israel would be blessed. Balak sent for Balaam again and again, tempting him with bribes but Balaam remained firm. In a further approach of Balak, Balaam was more cautious in his refusal. Instead of saying with Daniel, "Thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another," Balaam caught the bait held out and proved that he loved the wages of unrighteousness.
Balak's messengers were not immediately dismissed. Balaam asked for time to consult God as to what he should do. The line of duty, however, was perfectly clear. There was no need to pray. God allowed Balaam to go, but he did not carry divine approval with him. Sometimes God punishes us by allowing us to have our own way. Thus Balaam started to Balak but did not reach him. Suddenly the ass he was riding stopped and could not be induced to proceed. God's angel was before him although Balaam could not see him standing in the way with his drawn sword. Then the ass, the most stupid of all beasts, was made to speak and reprove one of the wisest of men. Awestruck at what had happened and trembling with fear, Balaam confessed, "I have sinned." Balaam must have known that his whole conduct was displeasing to God and that he had been wilfully blind.
Back Balaam went and with a great parade built seven altars and offered bullocks and rams on every altar. But God was not pleased with such offerings. Yet God employed Balaam for His own purposes, for He put into his mouth some of the most blessed and glorious words spoken concerning His people Israel. With his heart turned towards the eternal world Balaam wanted to die the death of a righteous man, but his end was far from righteous. He died in a general massacre and we have no record of his repentance. He died in his sins.
Clearly evident are the lessons to be learned from this renowned man who was self-willed (Num. 22:5-22); saved from death by a beast (Num. 22:33); double-minded in that he was eloquent in prophecy but presumptuous in seeking to alter the divine plan (Num. 23; 24); a failure in his mission (Num. 24:10); an evil counselor (Num. 31:16); overcome by the besetting sin of avarice ( 2 Pet. 2:13):
The clearest knowledge without grace is worthless.
The presence of any sin is ruinous, especially covetousness.
The most pious wishes are sometimes vain. The road to hell can be paved with good resolutions.
To die well one must live well.
===Elisabeth
The Woman Who Bore a Son in Her Old Age
Scripture Reference-Luke 1:5-80
Name Meaning -Elisabeth means "God is my oath" that is, "a worshiper of God." In his hymn of praise, uttered soon after the birth of his son John, Zacharias alludes to the significance of his wife's name when he said, "the oath which God swore to Abraham." The son was called John by divine command, and means "the mercy or favor of God."
Family Connections-Luke describes Elisabeth as "one of the daughters of Aaron" which means she came of an honored priestly line (Exodus 6:23 ). She was the wife of a priest, Zacharias, of the course of Abia, that is one of the sets of priests who ministered in the Temple from Sabbath to Sabbath (1 Chronicles 24:10). There was thus a priestly descent on both sides. Priests were allowed to marry pious women (Leviticus 21:7). Elisabeth became the mother of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Assessing the life and character of Elisabeth we know that she was prominent as-
A Godly Woman
It is said of both Elisabeth and Zacharias that they were "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments of the Lord blameless." What a coveted commendation! The priestly wife was a woman of unusual piety, strong faith and spiritual gifts. All through her life she preserved the blessed traditions of Aaron and his descendants.
A Childless Woman
Righteous toward God and most faithful to her husband we yet have five words containing a world of heartbreak and disappointment, "And they had no child." For years they had both prayed and longed for a child; now they were both well-stricken in years and the prospect of natural childbearing was past. A childless state, more so for the daughter of a priest and the wife of a priest, was humiliating, for in Israel it was the dream of every woman that it might be her privilege to be the mother of the Messiah, promised to Eve, earth's first mother.
A Privileged Woman
For this beloved wife with a pious heart and cultivated intellect, God performed a miracle, as He did for Mary her cousin. "She conceived a son in her old age." It was while Zacharias was exercising his holy office in the sanctuary that the angelic messenger appeared and said, "Thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." Although beyond the age when the birth of a child was possible, did Zacharias and his wife believe that God was able to do the impossible, and even at their advanced age remove their "reproach among men"? Well, the miracle happened. God gave Elisabeth conception, and after six months of her pregnancy, another miracle happened when without cohabitation Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Zacharias, who had been struck dumb as a sign that God would fulfill His word and grant him a son, had his speech restored when John was born. He hailed John's birth with a God-glorifying song in which he said of the God-given child, "Thou shalt be called the prophet of the highest." This famous son, who came to prepare the way of the Lord, was privileged to have such godly parents to teach him ineffaceable lessons. But John was also directly nurtured by God in the deserts where he lived "till the day of his shewing unto Israel." Thus, as Donald Davidson reminds us in Mothers of the Bible-
It was not at his mother's knee that John learned the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but out on the lonely desert where in the silence and the solitude he found close fellowship with God, and came to know the secrets of His will.
Because of their old age when their son was born, we can assume that Zacharias and Elisabeth both died years before their godly son was cruelly murdered by Herod.
But Elisabeth was a privileged woman in another way in that she was the first woman to confess Jesus in the flesh. When she was six months with child she was visited by her cousin Mary and as soon as the Virgin entered the home, the babe leaped in Elisabeth's womb, as if to welcome the One whom Mary was to bear. Both mother and child were affected by the Holy Spirit, and Elisabeth gave Mary the most honorable of names, "The mother of my Lord." Elisabeth knew the Messiah was come and she prayed to Him and confessed Him. All Messianic hopes were about to be fulfilled for, "There, beneath that woman's clothes, my Saviour is concealed." It was her Spirit-filled greeting which prompted Mary to reply in a song called, The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56; compare 1 Samuel 2:1-10).
For queens and females of all walks of life Elisabeth has been a favorite name, evidenced by the fact that in America alone there are almost two million females bearing such an honored name. If only all who bear this name would be "righteous before God" and blameless in character, what a mighty spiritual force they would be in the life of the nation of which they are a part. The present sovereign of Great Britain is Queen Elizabeth II, who seeks to live a life beyond reproach, and who manifests deep interest in Dr. Billy Graham's work.
===Today's reading: 1 Chronicles 19-21, John 8:1-27 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Chronicles 19-21
David Defeats the Ammonites
1 In the course of time, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, "I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me." So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father....
Today's New Testament reading: John 8:1-27
Dispute Over Jesus' Testimony
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
13 The Pharisees challenged him, "Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid."
14 Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going...."
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