Singapore summit on the 12th of June happened on Loving Day in the US. Loving Day is the anniversary of the US Supreme Court's 1967 decision to strike out anti miscegenation laws in sixteen states, all of which were Democrat strongholds at the time. Trump struck the right note in Singapore with Kim Jong Un .. and China. North Korea is committed to decommissioning her nuclear industry. US will not engage in war games next year with South Korea. China feels more secure too. Why do Democrats denigrate the achievements? Don't they want peace? And why do Democrats want race laws and segregation?
Death of a comedian in Melbourne as a 22 yo female almost makes it home after a routine walk after a successful performance. She was raped and murdered minutes after tweeting she was nearly home. Her body was found at 2:40 am, after she left the venue at 10:40 PM. A mentally ill man has been arrested in relation to the rape and murder. Victorians do not feel safe in Dan Andrews' Victoria. I'm not saying Andrews is corrupt and profiting from misery. I'm saying Andrews would be no different were he corrupt and profiting from misery in Victoria.
James Bolt writes "Read the transcript of Daniel Wild’s speech to the Australian Libertarian Society’s Friedman Conference on why tax reform is needed to get business investment back on track. Meanwhile, President Trump’s tax reforms sent the US to the top of the IMD Competitiveness Center’s global rankings."
Here is a video I made The Hand that signed the Paper
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 -- 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself. His public readings, particularly in America, won him great acclaim; his sonorous voice with a subtle Welsh lilt became almost as famous as his works. His best-known works include the "play for voices" Under Milk Wood and the celebrated villanelle for his dying father, "Do not go gentle into that good night". Appreciative critics have also noted the superb craftsmanship and compression of poems such as "In my Craft or Sullen Art" and the rhapsodic lyricism of "Fern Hill'". The hand that signed the paper by Dylan Thomas
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The fingers' joints are cramped with chalk;
A goose's quill has put an end to murder
That put an end to talk.
The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.
The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.
=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. I'm a Liberal Party supporter and I felt that the last election result had been answered prayer. Bill Shorten did not win and Malcolm Turnbull could not last. But I put a caveat on that, Turnbull could not last and the Liberals prosper. In 2009, Turnbull's office asked what he could do to be an effective leader. Journalist Piers Akerman had written glowingly of Turnbull, excusing his AGW activism as being that of a merchant banker who feels that a tax is a tax. I blogged, advising that a conservative leader does not have to agree with the party on everything. Scruples are part of conservatism. But sincerely held beliefs are usually underpinned by much that a leader can use to sway others. I don't think Turnbull paid attention to me, but the argument was embraced spectacularly, and he imploded against Hockey, letting Abbott get the prize without Abbott having betrayed him. Turnbull called the leadership spill for Hockey. Abbott only stood up after Hockey tanked, calling AGW a moral dilemma. Only spending $US100 trillion for a fraction of a degree cooling in a hundred years time is absurd. Taking that money from the world's poorest is criminal. Gonski and Finkel are not matters of state, but a resignation letter from Turnbull, to responsibility a Prime Minister cannot abrogate.
The US is catching up to Comey's leaking meaning that the Russia investigation is bogus. A high rise building in London is on fire. Twenty Four stories. Built in 1974. 1 am in the morning. Many would have been asleep in their homes. The fire allegedly began from a short in a refrigerator. Apparently many could not escape the upper stories. Israel has an invention allowing quick escape from such. People reported seeing lights and hearing cries from the upper stories. Six confirmed fatalities. A baby was reputedly thrown from a window. Firefighters allegedly were concerned that using water to douse flames might push the flames into places where upper level tenants were hiding.
In 1158, Munich was founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the river Isar. Henry was a builder who acquired a magnificent landholding before being stripped of it by petty rivals. 1216, First Barons' War: Prince Louis of France captured the city of Winchester and soon conquered over half of the Kingdom of England. King John had signed, but not abided the Magna Carta. John was a loser who lost. 1276, while taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song dynasty court held the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song. He only lived another few years. Zhao Shi drowned, fleeing Mongols, at age nine years old. 1285, Second Mongol invasion of Vietnam: Forces led by Prince Trần Quang Khải of the Trần Dynasty destroyed most of the invading Mongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong. It had been 27 years since the previous Mongol invasion had successfully demanded a three year tribute. That tribute had stopped. Two years later, the Mongols would suffer a comprehensive defeat at the Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288). 1287, Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria. 1381, Richard II of England met leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London was stormed by rebels who entered without resistance. The fourteen year old King Henry agreed to end serfdom but then the rebellion overplayed its' hand and lost all. It is recognised now as a model of socialist uprising. 1404, Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr, having declared himself Prince of Wales, allied himself with the French against King Henry IV of England. Owain had been at the peasant's revolt and had been successful initially. However, Owain lacked artillery and ships and England overcame his resistance. Owain never surrendered to the English. He was recorded as having died eleven years later.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
Che grew up in a well off Argentinian family that was well read and left wing. His parents gave him a wide education that extended from the centre left to far left, celebrating poetry of Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Pablo Neruda. It was pitiless and unhinged. He went to medical school, toured South America making contact with other extreme leftists and came into contact with the Castro brothers. The outrage Guevara felt at the conditions of some workers in South America is understandable .. Banana republics were appalling. Miners often did not prosper. poverty was rife. Che heard the grumblings of the poor and disenfranchised and applied his full intelligence to come up with a solution he applied in Cuba and later .. killing innocent people to scare others. Applying injustice as a weapon against those who disagreed with him. Che decided to win, he must taunt the corpse of an opponent.
He was particularly uncompromising and blood thirty and was placed in charge of a political prison by Fidel Castro. As second in charge in Cuba, Che shot defectors and labelled deserters as traitors, whom he would then track down and despatch. When he found a poor uneducated person, Che would deluge them with leftist literature. Those surrounding Che felt he was smart. And uncompromising. Castro booted him from Cuba and gave him assignments in foreign lands stirring up trouble. He got to address the UN where he was received like a rock star. He aligned himself with the Soviet Union, but felt they were too soft. From Algeria, the Congo and Bolivia, Che pursued armed rebellion, and to this day, where he went, there is little prosperity, but substantial poverty.
It was in Bolivia that Che was finally cornered, with Bolivia having aid of the CIA. Che was captured and killed. Unlike his birth day, that was a liberating day. On this day in 1940, Germany occupied Paris. Not even the birth of Alan Carr in 1976 makes the day cheerful. Worth remembering is that Benedict Arnold died on this day in 1801. Arnold had intended to betray the united states by surrendering West Point. He then fought as a general for the British. It is telling that his last days were as a free merchant. Unlike leftism, the free peoples of the United States offered prosperity, not perpetual enmity.
The US is catching up to Comey's leaking meaning that the Russia investigation is bogus. A high rise building in London is on fire. Twenty Four stories. Built in 1974. 1 am in the morning. Many would have been asleep in their homes. The fire allegedly began from a short in a refrigerator. Apparently many could not escape the upper stories. Israel has an invention allowing quick escape from such. People reported seeing lights and hearing cries from the upper stories. Six confirmed fatalities. A baby was reputedly thrown from a window. Firefighters allegedly were concerned that using water to douse flames might push the flames into places where upper level tenants were hiding.
In 1158, Munich was founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the river Isar. Henry was a builder who acquired a magnificent landholding before being stripped of it by petty rivals. 1216, First Barons' War: Prince Louis of France captured the city of Winchester and soon conquered over half of the Kingdom of England. King John had signed, but not abided the Magna Carta. John was a loser who lost. 1276, while taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song dynasty court held the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song. He only lived another few years. Zhao Shi drowned, fleeing Mongols, at age nine years old. 1285, Second Mongol invasion of Vietnam: Forces led by Prince Trần Quang Khải of the Trần Dynasty destroyed most of the invading Mongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong. It had been 27 years since the previous Mongol invasion had successfully demanded a three year tribute. That tribute had stopped. Two years later, the Mongols would suffer a comprehensive defeat at the Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288). 1287, Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria. 1381, Richard II of England met leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London was stormed by rebels who entered without resistance. The fourteen year old King Henry agreed to end serfdom but then the rebellion overplayed its' hand and lost all. It is recognised now as a model of socialist uprising. 1404, Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr, having declared himself Prince of Wales, allied himself with the French against King Henry IV of England. Owain had been at the peasant's revolt and had been successful initially. However, Owain lacked artillery and ships and England overcame his resistance. Owain never surrendered to the English. He was recorded as having died eleven years later.
=== from 2016 ===
Early polling has opened for the Australian Federal Election on 2nd July. It is really important to consider the difference between the major parties. The conservative coalition are campaigning on responsible economic handling with increased spending and taxes. Malcolm Turnbull had a sad childhood and doesn't want to be criticized for appallingly bad behavior and judgment. The progressive opposition want to raise taxes in the hopes of diminishing the wealth of the wealthiest, even if it means hurting the poorest. They will spend bigger too, and then balance the budget. The opposition promise not to drown people for compassion this time, but aren't convinced they were wrong to last time. The opposition stands for gays, unless Muslims really want to kill them. Preferably gay Muslims. But they can marry, so long as they spit on a church. Bring pets too. The pets are to be handled by Halal specialists. And as the sound of music crescendos, the lyric is heard "What do we do with a problem like Sharia?"
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
A powerful case is being mounted suggesting Australia needs to increase her refugee intake from Syria and Iraq where Christians face an existential threat. At the moment, a strong Israel is all that saves them from death by atrocity. But the UN hates Israel and is too focused on the myth of AGW (human caused global warming) to act. Obama is using the tragedy to highlight how his regional policy 'works.'
Another unicorn has been sighted for Bill Shorten to avoid speaking to the royal commission on Union corruption and explain what he has done. It looks like Shorten got the union to charge a company bribe money to keep poor working conditions. The union has not benefited the members. Some members may not even be aware they were members. But the press have discovered Treasurer Joe Hockey has legitimately made expense claims. Mr Hockey is a good money manager and has become relatively wealthy in a non Turnbull/Rudd kind of way. The press don't like conservatives who can make money. Which may be why the press laud Wayne Swan who lost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
Another unicorn has been sighted for Bill Shorten to avoid speaking to the royal commission on Union corruption and explain what he has done. It looks like Shorten got the union to charge a company bribe money to keep poor working conditions. The union has not benefited the members. Some members may not even be aware they were members. But the press have discovered Treasurer Joe Hockey has legitimately made expense claims. Mr Hockey is a good money manager and has become relatively wealthy in a non Turnbull/Rudd kind of way. The press don't like conservatives who can make money. Which may be why the press laud Wayne Swan who lost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
From 2014
It is the birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811), author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Also Alois Alzeheimer (1864) who forgot more than many will ever know. In 1856, mathematician Andrey Markov whose work in probability and recursion is subtle and profound. But it is the tragedy of the birthday of Che Guevara (1928) which stands out for me.
Che grew up in a well off Argentinian family that was well read and left wing. His parents gave him a wide education that extended from the centre left to far left, celebrating poetry of Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Pablo Neruda. It was pitiless and unhinged. He went to medical school, toured South America making contact with other extreme leftists and came into contact with the Castro brothers. The outrage Guevara felt at the conditions of some workers in South America is understandable .. Banana republics were appalling. Miners often did not prosper. poverty was rife. Che heard the grumblings of the poor and disenfranchised and applied his full intelligence to come up with a solution he applied in Cuba and later .. killing innocent people to scare others. Applying injustice as a weapon against those who disagreed with him. Che decided to win, he must taunt the corpse of an opponent.
He was particularly uncompromising and blood thirty and was placed in charge of a political prison by Fidel Castro. As second in charge in Cuba, Che shot defectors and labelled deserters as traitors, whom he would then track down and despatch. When he found a poor uneducated person, Che would deluge them with leftist literature. Those surrounding Che felt he was smart. And uncompromising. Castro booted him from Cuba and gave him assignments in foreign lands stirring up trouble. He got to address the UN where he was received like a rock star. He aligned himself with the Soviet Union, but felt they were too soft. From Algeria, the Congo and Bolivia, Che pursued armed rebellion, and to this day, where he went, there is little prosperity, but substantial poverty.
It was in Bolivia that Che was finally cornered, with Bolivia having aid of the CIA. Che was captured and killed. Unlike his birth day, that was a liberating day. On this day in 1940, Germany occupied Paris. Not even the birth of Alan Carr in 1976 makes the day cheerful. Worth remembering is that Benedict Arnold died on this day in 1801. Arnold had intended to betray the united states by surrendering West Point. He then fought as a general for the British. It is telling that his last days were as a free merchant. Unlike leftism, the free peoples of the United States offered prosperity, not perpetual enmity.
Historical perspective on this day
In 1158, Munich was founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the river Isar. 1216, First Barons' War: Prince Louis of France captured the city of Winchester and soon conquered over half of the Kingdom of England. 1276, while taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song dynasty court held the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song. 1285, Second Mongol invasion of Vietnam: Forces led by Prince Trần Quang Khải of the Trần Dynasty destroyed most of the invading Mongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong. 1287, Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjiginprinces in East Mongolia and Manchuria. 1381, Richard II of England met leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London was stormed by rebels who entered without resistance. 1404, Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr, having declared himself Prince of Wales, allied himself with the French against King Henry IV of England.
In 1618, Joris Veseler printed the first Dutch newspaper Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, & in c. in Amsterdam (approximate date). 1645, English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces were beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers. 1667, the Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet in the Second Anglo-Dutch War ended. It had lasted for five days and resulted in the worst ever defeat of the Royal Navy. 1690, King William III of England(William of Orange) landed in Ireland to confront the former King James II. 1775, American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army. 1777, the Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States. 1789, Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reached Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat. Also 1789, Whiskey distilled from maize was first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It was named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
In 1800, the French Army of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquered Italy. 1807, Emperor Napoleon's French Grande Armée defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland in Poland (modern Russian Kaliningrad Oblast) ending the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1821, Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrendered his throne and realm to Isma'il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom. 1822, Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". 1830, beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers began their invasion of Algiers, landing 27 kilometres west at Sidi Fredj. 1839, Henley Royal Regatta: the village of Henley-on-Thames, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, staged its first regatta. 1846, Bear Flag Revolt began – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, started a rebellion against Mexico and proclaimed the California Republic. 1863, American Civil War: Second Battle of Winchester – a Union garrison was defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia. 1863, Second Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson during the American Civil War. 1872, Trade unions were legalised in Canada.
In 1900, Hawaii became a United States territory. Also 1900, the Reichstag approved a second law that allowed the expansion of the German navy. 1907, Norway granted women the right to vote. 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown departed from St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight. 1926, Brazil left the League of Nations 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) state of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday. Also 1937, U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marihuana Tax Act.
1940, World War II: Paris fell under German occupation, and Allied forces retreated. Also 1940, the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence. Also 1940, a group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów became the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1941, June deportation: the first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, began. 1944, World War II: After several failed attempts, the British Army abandoned Operation Perch, its plan to capture the German-occupied town of Caen. 1945, World War II: Filipino troops of the 15th, 66th and 121st Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL liberated the captured in Ilocos Sur and start the Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon. 1949, Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space. 1951, UNIVAC I was dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau. 1952, the keel was laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus. 1954, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance. 1955, Chile became a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1959, Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opened to the public in Anaheim, California. 1959, a group of Dominican exiles departed from Cuba and landed in the Dominican Republic with the intent of overthrowing the totalitarian government of Rafael Trujillo. All but four were killed or executed.
In 1962, the European Space Research Organisation was established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency. 1966, the Vatican announced the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557. 1967, Mariner program: Mariner 5 was launched towards Venus. 1967, the People's Republic of China tested its first hydrogen bomb. 1982, Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrendered to British forces. 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked by Lebanese Islamist organisation Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens, Greece. 1994, the 1994 Stanley Cup riot occurred after the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup from Vancouver, causing an estimated CA$1.1 million, leading to 200 arrests and injuries. 2002, Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
In 1618, Joris Veseler printed the first Dutch newspaper Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, & in c. in Amsterdam (approximate date). 1645, English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces were beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers. 1667, the Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet in the Second Anglo-Dutch War ended. It had lasted for five days and resulted in the worst ever defeat of the Royal Navy. 1690, King William III of England(William of Orange) landed in Ireland to confront the former King James II. 1775, American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army. 1777, the Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States. 1789, Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reached Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat. Also 1789, Whiskey distilled from maize was first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It was named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
In 1800, the French Army of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquered Italy. 1807, Emperor Napoleon's French Grande Armée defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland in Poland (modern Russian Kaliningrad Oblast) ending the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1821, Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrendered his throne and realm to Isma'il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom. 1822, Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". 1830, beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers began their invasion of Algiers, landing 27 kilometres west at Sidi Fredj. 1839, Henley Royal Regatta: the village of Henley-on-Thames, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, staged its first regatta. 1846, Bear Flag Revolt began – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, started a rebellion against Mexico and proclaimed the California Republic. 1863, American Civil War: Second Battle of Winchester – a Union garrison was defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia. 1863, Second Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson during the American Civil War. 1872, Trade unions were legalised in Canada.
In 1900, Hawaii became a United States territory. Also 1900, the Reichstag approved a second law that allowed the expansion of the German navy. 1907, Norway granted women the right to vote. 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown departed from St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight. 1926, Brazil left the League of Nations 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) state of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday. Also 1937, U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marihuana Tax Act.
1940, World War II: Paris fell under German occupation, and Allied forces retreated. Also 1940, the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence. Also 1940, a group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów became the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1941, June deportation: the first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, began. 1944, World War II: After several failed attempts, the British Army abandoned Operation Perch, its plan to capture the German-occupied town of Caen. 1945, World War II: Filipino troops of the 15th, 66th and 121st Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL liberated the captured in Ilocos Sur and start the Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon. 1949, Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space. 1951, UNIVAC I was dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau. 1952, the keel was laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus. 1954, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance. 1955, Chile became a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1959, Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opened to the public in Anaheim, California. 1959, a group of Dominican exiles departed from Cuba and landed in the Dominican Republic with the intent of overthrowing the totalitarian government of Rafael Trujillo. All but four were killed or executed.
In 1962, the European Space Research Organisation was established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency. 1966, the Vatican announced the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557. 1967, Mariner program: Mariner 5 was launched towards Venus. 1967, the People's Republic of China tested its first hydrogen bomb. 1982, Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrendered to British forces. 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked by Lebanese Islamist organisation Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens, Greece. 1994, the 1994 Stanley Cup riot occurred after the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup from Vancouver, causing an estimated CA$1.1 million, leading to 200 arrests and injuries. 2002, Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
=== 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 Phil Fishman and to those born on this day, across the years
- 1444 – Nilakantha Somayaji, Indian astronomer and mathematician (d. 1544)
- 1479 – Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1552)
- 1691 – Jan Francisci, Slovak organist and composer (d. 1758)
- 1780 – Henry Salt, English artist, diplomat, and Egyptologist (d. 1827)
- 1801 – Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (d. 1868)
- 1811 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and activist (d. 1896)
- 1840 – William F. Nast, American attaché, railroad executive and inventor, and father of Condé Nast (d. 1893)
- 1856 – Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (d. 1922)
- 1864 – Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (d. 1915)
- 1893 – Siggie Nordstrom, American singer and actress (Nordstrom Sisters) (d. 1980)
- 1909 – Burl Ives, American actor and singer (d. 1995)
- 1917 – Lise Nørgaard, Danish journalist and author
- 1919 – Sam Wanamaker, American actor and director (d. 1993)
- 1926 – Hermann Kant, German author
- 1928 – Che Guevara, Argentinian-Cuban physician, author, and guerrilla leader (d. 1967)
- 1936 – Renaldo Benson, American singer-songwriter (The Four Tops) (d. 2005)
- 1939 – James Wright, British academic
- 1942 – Andy Irvine, English-Irish singer-songwriter and bouzouki player (Planxty, Sweeney's Men, and Patrick Street)
- 1946 – Donald Trump, American businessman, founded the Trump Entertainment Resorts
- 1947 – Paul Rudolph, Canadian singer, guitarist, bassist and cyclist (Pink Fairies and Hawkwind)
- 1949 – Alan White, English drummer (Yes, Plastic Ono Band, White, and Circa)
- 1950 – Rowan Williams, Welsh archbishop
- 1958 – Pamela Geller, American blogger and author
- 1961 – Boy George, English singer-songwriter and producer (Culture Club, Bow Wow Wow, and Jesus Loves You)
- 1969 – Steffi Graf, German tennis player
- 1976 – Alan Carr, English comedian and actor
- 1984 – Siobhán Donaghy, English singer-songwriter (Sugababes)
- 1993 – Svetlana Issakova, Estonian figure skater
Deaths
- 767 – Abū Ḥanīfa, Iraqi scholar (b. 699)
- 1497 – Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandia, Italian son of Pope Alexander VI (b. 1474)
- 1801 – Benedict Arnold, American general (b. 1741)
- 1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist (b. 1857)
- 1936 – G. K. Chesterton, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1874)
- 1994 – Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (b. 1924)
June 14: Father's Day in various countries (2015); Liberation Day in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (1982); Flag Day in the United States
- 1645 – English Civil War: In the Battle of Naseby, the main army of King Charles I was defeated by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.
- 1775 – The United States Army was founded as the Continental Army by an act of the Continental Congress.
- 1822 – In a paper presented to the Royal Astronomical Society, English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine(pictured), an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions.
- 1940 – The Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding that the Red Army be allowed to enter the country and form a new pro-Soviet government.
- 1985 – The Schengen Agreement, a treaty to abolish systematic border controls between participating European countries, was signed between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community.
Chucky is looking for you. We found the army. We have a machine which looks at differences. We have an ultimatum. We have an agreement. Let's party.
Tim Blair 2018
SCIENCE ON THE LOOSE IN BOURBON COUNTRY
Word on the street is that unusual climate change activity has recently been observed in deepest Kentucky.
===ONE OR THE OTHER BUT NOT BOTH
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (8:25pm)
Milo Yiannopolous on America’s decision:
America has to make a choice. Does it want gay rights, women’s emancipation, and tolerance for people of all nonviolent faiths — or does it want Islam?
Australia needs to make the same choice. Alas, Europe has already decided. Meanwhile, let’s review various Muslim opinions arising from the Orlando slaughter, as translated by Ahmed:
The opinions continue.
The opinions continue.
(Via Richard of Oz.)
WIN TO BIN
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (8:05pm)
Last week I stayed with friends in Northcote, where perennial Greens candidate Alex Bhathal’s campaign images were abundant. Not so prominent was any support for sitting Labor member David Feeney. A Labor pal told me Bhathal was considered unbeatable. Then the Liberal Party took a preference stand against the Greens, and Sportsbet now predicts a Labor win:
The Liberal Party’s decision to preference the Greens last has all but snuffed Alex Bhathal’s chances of winning Batman, with Labor’s David Feeney now the favourite. Feeney’s odds have been cut from $2.45 into $1.15.Bhathal has been wound out from $1.50 to $4.00. Feeney is now the best backed in the seat, with 65% of money predicting he will win.
Alex and her fans may be upset about this, but the Liberal preference arrangement will most likely deliver the seat to the candidate who wins the most first-preference votes. A Bhathal win would’ve subverted democracy, which is unsurprisingly the form of democracy Greens generally endorse.
SOME SAY WE SHOULD THROW THEM FROM A HIGH PLACE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (4:05pm)
Barack Obama, speaking in the wake of the Orlando massacre:
The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.
In fact, that wasn’t Obama. It was leading Sunni cleric and chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and he wasn’t talking about Orlando. He was talking in 2006 about how gays should be punished. Here’s a longer quote:
The schools of thought disagree about the punishment. Some say they should be punished like fornicators, and then we distinguish between married and unmarried men, and between married and unmarried women. Some say both should be punished the same way. Some say we should throw them from a high place, like God did with the people of Sodom. Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement … The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.
Via Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who makes the following four points:
1. Muslim homophobia is institutionalized. Islamic law as derived from scripture, and as evolved over several centuries, not only condemns but prescribes cruel and unusual punishments for homosexuality.2. Many Muslim-majority countries have laws that criminalize and punish homosexuals in line with Islamic law.3. It is thus not surprising that the attitudes of Muslims in Muslim-majority countries are homophobic and that many people from those countries take those attitudes with them when they migrate to the West.4. The rise of modern Islamic extremism has worsened the intolerance toward homosexuality. Extremists don’t just commit violence against LGBT people. They also spread the prejudice globally by preaching that homosexuality is a disease and a crime.
Well, Hirsi Ali would say that. After all, as one leftist previously put it: “Her view on Islam is too much coloured by her own experience.”
PLAY IF POISONED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (4:02pm)
Because he cares so damn much, David Pocock has produced a video that should be very helpful in case anybody ever needs to induce vomiting:
SHE’S LEARNING
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (3:27pm)
Ted Cruz, June 2014:
“It is striking that neither President Obama nor Hillary Clinton are willing to utter the words radical Islamic terrorism. They do not understand the radical religious extremism of individuals committed to jihad, who have pledged to murder Americans, and that leads them to keep making mistakes over and over and over again.”
Hillary Clinton, June 2016:
Clinton breaks from Obama, calls Orlando attack ‘radical Islamism’.
(Via Alan R.M. Jones.)
TEACHER NEEDS TEACHING
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (3:09pm)
Sacked journalism academic Martin Hirst really should have been fired years ago for not being able to write.
DON’T GET MAD, GET ILLUMINATED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 2016 (1:01pm)
“Behold the fury of our abstract symbolic gestures, bloodthirsty 7th-century cavemen”:
Via Iowahawk, who adds: “I don’t know the best way to respond to these massacres, but I think we now can safely rule out candlelight vigils, light shows & ‘Imagine’.”
Via Iowahawk, who adds: “I don’t know the best way to respond to these massacres, but I think we now can safely rule out candlelight vigils, light shows & ‘Imagine’.”
Turnbull: whites “invaded” this land. This “always will be Aboriginal land”
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (7:30pm)
I have warned conservatives about what Malcolm Turnbull would be like once elected.
You don’t actually need to wait that long after today’s presser:
===You don’t actually need to wait that long after today’s presser:
JOURNALIST:And never may people with no Aboriginal ancestors feel an equal right to call this home:
Do you agree that the colonisation of Australia can fairly be described as an invasion?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think it can be fairly described as that and I’ve got no doubt – and obviously our first Australians, Aboriginal Australians describe it as an invasion.
So this was and is and always will be Aboriginal land.And so the racial division of this country proceeds, encouraged by the party many would have expected to resist.
Shorten goes back to Labor’s disastrous past
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (1:00pm)
Terry McCrann on a Labor party that’s learned nothing:
===OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten has now officially committed to embracing two of the three policies that defined the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard governments as the two worst in our history…
Yesterday, Shorten committed to go back to the ‘Rolls-Royce’ version of the National Broadband Network that Rudd signed off on during a VIP flight with then communications minister Stephen Conroy.
Bill Shorten.
This joins Shorten’s earlier commitment to bring back the carbon tax which Rudd’s successor Gillard imposed on Australians in her squalid deal with then Greens leader Bob Brown.
That would leave just the boats and the 50,000-plus illegal arrivals and the 1200-plus deaths at sea. But does anyone doubt that if we got a Shorten-led government in three weeks that the boats would start coming again? And once they did, that Shorten would cave on the Abbott government’s tough-love turn-back policies?
Where’s their apology to Abbott?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (10:47am)
Tony Abbott was right to propose his cuts, after all. Labor and its media cheer-leaders should apologise for their opposition to those cuts, and for the damage done in delaying them for so long:
===Labor has now accepted more than $33 billion in Coalition spending cuts that it campaigned against in parliament over the past three years, a figure that may rise higher if it incorporates some of the Coalition’s cuts to superannuation into its costings.
The highly publicised reversal in position on the Schoolkids Bonus and Age Pension assets test, which together save $8bn over the four-year budget period, have been accompanied by a series of Labor spending commitments that only partially reverse the Coalition’s spending cuts. These include its promises on higher education, foreign aid, family benefits and the ABC, while there are still a number of savings measures that Labor has opposed and are included in the budget forward estimates but which are yet to go to parliament.
See what this law has reduced us to?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (10:41am)
For a law meant to improve niceness, it’s sure not working. And the lawyers defending this law don’t seem filled with niceness, either:
===A judge in a racial vilification case pitting university students against an indigenous administrative officer over Facebook posts yesterday noted tensions and “acrimony” between the opposing lawyers.What an incredible case. May we laugh this to scorn, or is that no longer allowed, either?
Barrister Susan Anderson appeared to fling a bundle of documents at Michael Henry, a lawyer for two of the students, as he sat beside her during legal argument in the Federal Circuit Court in Brisbane....The lawyers for Cindy Prior, the indigenous Queensland University of Technology administrative officer who launched the racial hatred case, are solicitors Susan Moriarty and Labor candidate Meaghan Scanlon, as well as barrister Ms Anderson. They want the 18C case advanced to address the hurt and distress Ms Prior says she suffered after her action in turning the white students away from an indigenous-only computer lab at QUT led to a series of Facebook posts, resulting in her inability to work for about 2½ years. Ms Prior is seeking $250,000 in damages.
What else would Labor destroy to please its union mates?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (10:35am)
Shame on Labor:
===A TOP lawyer who assisted the Black Saturday bushfires royal commission has slammed Premier Daniel Andrews for ramming through the Country Fire Authority workplace deal.
Jack Rush, QC, who assisted the commission, said he had carefully considered the controversial EBA and believed it threatened to strip away the independence of volunteer brigades.
The plan should concern every Victorian as “the whole ethic of volunteering is under threat”, Mr Rush said.
Yiannopoulos: the Left chooses Islam over gays
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (9:47am)
Milo Yiannopoulos says the Left chose Islam over gay lives:
From a Gallup poll of British Muslims in 2009:
Greg Sheridan, deservedly made an officer in the Order of Australia yesterday, says Barack Obama is dodging the truth:
===Over 100 people have been killed or maimed at a gay dance club in Orlando by Omar Mateen, a Muslim terrorist. How many more innocent gays need to die before we admit that America, and the world, has an Islam problem?From an ICM poll of Muslims in Britain two months ago:
I don’t mean a “radical Islam” problem or an “extremist Islam problem.” Violence is not the extreme in Islam any more: it’s the norm…
Obama’s response to the tragedy today was similarly limp-wristed. He made no mention of Islam or Muslims, instead condemning “hate and terror” and taking a brazen swipe at gun rights activists by noting “how easy it is to let people get their hands on a weapon.” He didn’t even address the uniquely homophobic character of the attack. What a good liberal!…
According to the murderer’s father, his son became angry after he saw two men kissing in the street. “This had nothing to do with religion,” said the father, Seddique Mateen. “He saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry” — as if that was some kind of excuse....
What sort of a man gets so angry by displays of affection, joy, and love that he chooses to gun down innocent people in a nightclub? A Muslim man. And if this one isn’t particularly religious, imagine how much worse the faithful must be....
America has to make a choice. Does it want gay rights, women’s emancipation, and tolerance for people of all nonviolent faiths — or does it want Islam?[…
Once again, this isn’t about “radical” Islam. This isn’t a tiny fringe. In Britain, a 2009 Gallup survey found that not one Muslim believed that homosexual acts were acceptable. Not one! And another poll this year revealed that over half of British Muslims believe gay sex should be illegal.
… when asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that homosexuality should be legal in Britain, 18% said they agreed and 52% said they disagreed, compared with 5% among the public at large who disagreed. Almost half (47%) said they did not agree that it was acceptable for a gay person to become a teacher, compared with 14% of the general population.A Civitas poll in 2014 said 61 per cent of British Muslims thought homosexuality should be illegal.
From a Gallup poll of British Muslims in 2009:
None of the 500 British Muslims interviewed believed that homosexual acts were morally acceptable.UPDATE
Greg Sheridan, deservedly made an officer in the Order of Australia yesterday, says Barack Obama is dodging the truth:
The appalling shootings in Florida are ... an act of radical Islamist terrorism.(Thanks to readers WaG311 and Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
We know this because the terrorist, Omar Mateen, rang authorities from inside the Pulse nightclub ... to pledge his allegiance to the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi, and his support for the Boston bombers…
President Barack Obama has virtually banned anyone in his administration from using terms like “radical Islamist terrorism”. This is a terrible decision. It exacerbates community tension and the corroding sense that politicians are dissemblers…
Mainstream Muslims are certainly not in any way responsible for the appalling actions of extremists. But modern radical Islamist terrorism springs from a minority interpretation of Islam which does have the support, in varying degrees, of a small but significant minority of Muslims…
Turnbull, though fully committed to robust counter-terrorist action, is equivocal in the language he uses and licenses his colleagues to use. He rightly labelled this attack an act of terror but said it was important to find out what the gunman’s real motivation was. But the gunman has told us what his motivation was.
Oakeshott finds politics rewarding
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (9:39am)
Troy Bramston has a theory about the surprise run of former independent MP Rob Oakeshott:
===Anybody who read Rob Oakeshott’s memoir — and let’s face it, there weren’t many — could be forgiven for being left with the impression that the reason he has decided to run for parliament again is the money.
Oakeshott’s book, The Independent Member for Lyne, was a misery memoir. He was disillusioned with politics. He missed his family. He was “physically and mentally” a “mess”.. He was also struggling financially. He had made some bad investments. He had a wife and young children to support. He was so strapped for cash and “knee-deep in debt” that he hung up his washing in his office and scoured diplomatic buffets around Canberra looking for a free feed…
“We had to sell the family home we loved, which was excruciating....”
So why on earth would he return to parliament? ... All signs in the misery memoir point to money. If Oakeshott returns to parliament, he will earn a not so meagre base salary of $199,040 a year. He will also be entitled to an electorate allowance of at least $32,000 that can be taken as taxable salary, plus generous travel allowances…
But Oakeshott does not need to win the seat to boost his bank balance..
If he receives more than 4 per cent of the vote, his $1000 nomination fee will be refunded. He also earns $2.62 for every vote received...If he manages to secure between 10,000 and 20,000 votes, he could pocket $26,200 to $52,400. Not bad for three weeks’ work… Leaving his decision to run until nominations closed last week, Oakeshott has minimised his campaign expenditure and can rely mostly on free media coverage.
Now it’s O’Dwyer’s turn
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (8:30am)
Karma comes calling on yet another Liberal to have turned on Tony Abbott:
===Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer is under siege from Greens candidate Jason Ball in the once-safe Liberal seat of Higgins, with the latest poll revealing her primary vote has collapsed to just 44.1 per cent.
Who minds our gates? And why does the Left hate Wilders but tolerate what he warns of?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (8:05am)
As I said on TV last night, and to Liberal frontbencher Josh Frydenberg, who let this hate-preacher in?:
Yet a Muslim cleric preaching death for gays waltzes into Australia a couple of times without a breeze of criticism - until now. Indeed, the first time he came he spoke at the University of Western Sydney.
===An Islamic cleric who has sparked outrage by saying death is a compassionate sentence for homosexuality and we should “get rid of them now” is in Australia lecturing at a Muslim centre.It is amazing. When Dutch political leader Geert Wilders, who warns of the threat of Islam, wanted to come speak in Australia he faced huge obstacles. His visa was delayed, politicians condemned and refused to meet him, he was denied permission to speak on government property, venues refused to host him and Muslim and Jewish groups vilified him, as did journalists and academics, while Left-wing protesters assaulted Australians wanting to hear him..
British-born Farrokh Sekaleshfar arrived last Tuesday as a guest of the Imam Husain Islamic Centre in Earlwood, in inner-western Sydney. He is acting as a guest speaker for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
At a lecture at the University of Michigan in 2013, when asked about homosexuality he said: “Death is the sentence. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about this. Death is the sentence. We have to have that compassion for people. With homosexuals, it’s the same. Out of compassion, let’s get rid of them now.”
Yet a Muslim cleric preaching death for gays waltzes into Australia a couple of times without a breeze of criticism - until now. Indeed, the first time he came he spoke at the University of Western Sydney.
Moral coward: Birmingham’s rage at Islam’s preachers of hate is transferred to those who oppose them
Andrew Bolt June 14 2016 (7:35am)
How sickly desperate are some on the Left to be apologists for a lethal ideology?
Take Fairfax writer John Birmingham.
He learns that a follower of the Islamic State, which murders gays by throwing them off tall buildings, has himself murdered 50 people at a gay night club. He reads that the Islamic State cheers this massacre as a tribute to it pitiless brand of the faith that licenses the state-sponsored execution of gays in all seven countries which make homosexuality a capital offence.
And Birmingham responds by accusing one person in particular of hating gays - of “victimising [them] for years”, of being “sick-making”, of being a “massive idiot” and of the “hypocrites” obsessed by “the killer’s invisible friend, Allah”. having “prayers ... fervently directed towards oppressing and even terrorising” gays.
No, Birmingham is not talking about the murderer. He’s not talking about the head of the Islamic State.
He’s talking about Donald Trump.
UPDATE
More evasion and displacement, if not quite so pathological.
The Age editorial treats the Orlando massacre at merely an act of homophobia in keeping not with Islam but mainstream American culture - rather than with the Islam that sanctions the execution of gays in seven countries and has followers massacre them in the Islamic State.:
===Take Fairfax writer John Birmingham.
He learns that a follower of the Islamic State, which murders gays by throwing them off tall buildings, has himself murdered 50 people at a gay night club. He reads that the Islamic State cheers this massacre as a tribute to it pitiless brand of the faith that licenses the state-sponsored execution of gays in all seven countries which make homosexuality a capital offence.
And Birmingham responds by accusing one person in particular of hating gays - of “victimising [them] for years”, of being “sick-making”, of being a “massive idiot” and of the “hypocrites” obsessed by “the killer’s invisible friend, Allah”. having “prayers ... fervently directed towards oppressing and even terrorising” gays.
No, Birmingham is not talking about the murderer. He’s not talking about the head of the Islamic State.
He’s talking about Donald Trump.
UPDATE
More evasion and displacement, if not quite so pathological.
The Age editorial treats the Orlando massacre at merely an act of homophobia in keeping not with Islam but mainstream American culture - rather than with the Islam that sanctions the execution of gays in seven countries and has followers massacre them in the Islamic State.:
It is unknown whether [the killer] had any direct links to IS; this will be the subject of investigation. It is important to state the attack was certainly homophobic, and that the LGBTI population in the US and elsewhere continues to suffer appalling discrimination, victimisation and prejudice.Oh, an it’s all a problem to solved by stopping the importation of guns, not the importation of people with a certain ideology:
Most people in the US support changes to gun laws.. US President Barack Obama and others who support changes have cited Australia’s experience. In what is widely acclaimed as a wonderful legacy, then prime minister John Howard successfully legislated gun restrictions in the aftermath of our worst mass killing, the Port Arthur massacre, 20 years ago… That does not mean a catastrophe like that in Orlando will not happen here, but, particularly given our gun laws, we can be confident appropriate protections are in place.
For whom did Bill Shorten toil?
Piers Akerman – Sunday, June 14, 2015 (1:23am)
OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten maintains that his career with the AWU was devoted to providing fair wages and conditions for its members but it seems that is not necessarily so.
Continue reading 'For whom did Bill Shorten toil?'
Let’s give safe haven to Syrian and Iraqi refugees
Miranda Devine – Sunday, June 14, 2015 (1:21am)
WHILE the Greens and Labor play gotcha games about whether the Abbott government paid asylum boats to return to Indonesia, the unprecedented refugee tragedy on the other side of the world is being ignored.
Continue reading 'Let’s give safe haven to Syrian and Iraqi refugees'What is it with the Left and violence?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (5:39pm)
Why is the Left the natural home of the violent?
===A 33-year-old man has been charged after allegedly throwing a pair of shoes at Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.But all praise to the cool former copper:
Police arrested the man, from Ocean View west of Caboolture, shortly after two shoes were thrown at the minister as he spoke at a refugee welcome ceremony at the Annerley Football Club about 10.10am Sunday.
He dodged the first one and caught the second.
What else are you not allowed to hear?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (3:48pm)
Australia today. Lawyers have told me it is too dangerous for me to correct an incontrovertible error of fact in the ABC’s description of a long-dead activist.
The ABC is free to tell a falsehood. I am not free to tell a truth.
Nor am I able to report another incontrovertible fact: the findings of a fascinating survey by academics at Charles Darwin University.
Hence I am unable tomorrow to make relevant observations on an issue of great and topical public importance, thanks to a truly insane law prohibiting free speech.
===The ABC is free to tell a falsehood. I am not free to tell a truth.
Nor am I able to report another incontrovertible fact: the findings of a fascinating survey by academics at Charles Darwin University.
Hence I am unable tomorrow to make relevant observations on an issue of great and topical public importance, thanks to a truly insane law prohibiting free speech.
The Bolt Report today, June 14
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (11:22am)
On Channel 10 at 10am and 3pm.
My guests: Christopher Pyne, Education Minister and acting Employment Minister; former Treasurer Peter Costello; former NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Costa; and Daily Telegraphcolumnist Piers Akerman.
The Shorten scandal, the boat people scandal, the Hockey scandal and scandals that actually aren’t. Plus excerpts from one of the best speeches - off the cuff - you will hear this year.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Don’t miss the 3pm replay, with Costello’s review of the ABC’s The Killing Season and Costa’s comments on Shorten and on wind farms.
From the interview with Christopher Pyne, Pyne on the Shorten’s AWU deal with builder Winslow Constructions:
Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today, June 14'
===My guests: Christopher Pyne, Education Minister and acting Employment Minister; former Treasurer Peter Costello; former NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Costa; and Daily Telegraphcolumnist Piers Akerman.
The Shorten scandal, the boat people scandal, the Hockey scandal and scandals that actually aren’t. Plus excerpts from one of the best speeches - off the cuff - you will hear this year.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Don’t miss the 3pm replay, with Costello’s review of the ABC’s The Killing Season and Costa’s comments on Shorten and on wind farms.
From the interview with Christopher Pyne, Pyne on the Shorten’s AWU deal with builder Winslow Constructions:
Well, Andrew, the important claim that needs to be refuted by Bill Shorten is what Winslow Constructions got in relation to their payment to the AWU. Now, businesses don’t give money to unions because they like the cut of the jib of the union secretary, or the smile on their face. They pay money to unions to get consideration in return. And what Bill Shorten hasn’t explained is what was that consideration, because if it was workers getting lower rates of pay, or having their penalty rates traded away, as in the case of Cleanevent, then that’s a very serious matter....Pyne on the damage done by recent leaks from Cabinet discussions:
If this was so above-board, and there was no reason for anybody to try and hide it, why did Winslow Constructions describe their payments to the AWU as for safety training, when they were actually being used for AWU memberships? And was this during the battle within the Victorian ALP for the heart and soul of a number of pre-selections, one of which Bill Shorten won in Maribyrnong, Richard Marles won in Corio, Stephen Conroy was a warlord at the time in the Victorian ALP right. I mean, these memberships played into power within the Victorian ALP, to defeat other ALP figures. Who benefitted from that? These are the questions that Bill Shorten needs to answer...
… it makes, you know, being in Cabinet something that, while I enjoy it immensely, one does need to be careful what they’re going to say, if it’s going to end up in the newspapers. Now, that’s not the way government should operate… I might curb that colourful turn of phrase, because sadly, it seems very quotable in the media when people want to leak it.Pyne on his reported objection, leaked to papers, to government plans to let the Minister strip suspected terrorists of citizenship, rather than a court:
...there’s always risk involved in every decision like this, every piece of legislation, particularly around national security, and the interpretation that the courts will put on our legislation, and the power that the Government is giving itself, or giving the Parliament. So government’s a lot about mitigating that risk. We believe that the legislation that we’ve – that we will be introducing in the next fortnight, to strip dual citizens who are foreign fighters of their Australian citizenship, mitigates that risk as far as humanly possible. In the end, that’ll be a matter for the High Court to decide, should it be litigated in the High Court....Full transcript, including Pyne’s comments on his friend Amanda Vanstone’s attack on Tony Abbott:
ANDREW BOLT: Yeah, but you were obviously against that.... It’s whether a minister makes the call, rather than a court.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I think the Institute of Public Affairs, Tim Wilson, yourself, many others, have expressed reservations about that matter on its own, and that’s why the discussion is happening at a national level about where that matter ends up, and I don’t think that is yet resolved.
ANDREW BOLT: And you say Tim Wilson, me – and Christopher Pyne as well?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I mean, this is a matter for national discussion. As a member of the Cabinet, it would be unwise of me to pre-empt the final decision of the Cabinet. So I will continue to keep my counsel within the Cabinet, and hope that it doesn’t leak into the newspapers, Andrew.
Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today, June 14'
Questions for Shorten
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (5:52am)
Piers Akerman, who will be on The Bolt Report at 10am and 3pm:
Rowan Dean is inspired by selfless union officials:
===When [Labor leader Bill] Shorten appears before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption in late August or early September, he will face a raft of questions which should examine the loss of benefits to workers under contracts he signed including the 2001 Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust agreement, the 2001 Cirque du Soleil agreement, the 2003 Cut and Fill agreement and the 2004 Chiquita Mushrooms agreement.UPDATE
These agreements signed by Shorten laid the groundwork for a culture only now being repudiated by current AWU office holders…
Shorten is adamant that he can “guarantee about any of the matters that we always improved workers’ conditions, full stop”.
“That is my answer on these matters, my record … I spent every day of my adult life representing workers. My record is there for all to see.” But that record shows as head of the Victorian branch of the AWU (1998–2006) and National Secretary (2001– 2007), he negotiated or signed multiple enterprise agreements some of which stripped workers of penalty rates or overtime pay or imposed unfavourable conditions.
Rowan Dean is inspired by selfless union officials:
In order to buy a home in Sydney or Melbourne, the Treasurer has advised that you need a “good job” with “good money”. But what is a good job and what sort of home can you buy?..(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Cleaning industry union official: One of the quickest and easiest ways to get good money is to take it off somebody else. In this exciting and fulfilling role you get to go out to lunch with the boss and strike a deal on behalf of the workers that gives them far less pay than they would otherwise have got under the normal awards if you hadn’t interfered! The boss makes squillions and then rewards you by signing up loads of union members without telling them so not only do you get the membership fees but you also get to boost your power base and leap into politics!…
Building industry union official. If it’s a new home in some trendy inner-city Melbourne suburb that you’re after, this is a very good job that’ll get you there quicker than almost any other. But first, grab yourself a girlfriend who’s a lawyer, get her to set up a company using the name of your union, go to a large construction company and get them to give you loads of cash, go with your girlfriend to an auction and buy the house of your dreams, with a nice back yard handy for burying any leftover cash. And if the house needs any renos, why not give Bill the Greek a buzz?… Health services union official (1) : people are always getting sick so there’s never a shortage of people going to hospital needing their bedpans cleaned, bottoms wiped, urine-soaked sheets changed and so on. But don’t worry – they’re the bad jobs. The good job is the one that means you don’t ever have to get your hands dirty. And it comes with very, very good money. Simply take all the union membership fees, pop them onto a black credit card, and start getting used to the high life! Best of all, you’ll now be able to afford a roof over your head and a comfy bed for the night in the swankiest inner-city Sydney suburb, complete with your very own choice of our most luscious ... escort girls ready and eager to service your mortgage in any way you choose.
Another policy Labor would not use to stop the boats
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (5:29am)
Not sure I care, as long as it stops the boats, but I do wonder if our navy really does cruise the seas with $US30,000 in the safe in case they find a boat of people smugglers they need to pay to turn around:
UPDATE
Daily Express readers wish their own politicians were as innovative in stopping boat people.
UPDATE
People smuggling?
Link fixed.
UPDATE
The Daily Express manages to make three mistakes in this short except, one of them truly frightening:
===Indonesia’s foreign minister has asked the Australian government to explain claims that its authorities paid people smugglers to return 65 asylum seekers to Indonesian waters, as a local police chief insists the payment occurred....But I guess from Labor’s talk that this is just one more policy, like turnbacks, that they would not use to stop the boats.
Fairfax Media is aware of the contents of a detailed official report submitted to the Indonesian National Police in Jakarta, which is now also investigating the incident, and has seen photographs of stacks of $US100 bills allegedly paid to the boat crew.
The report outlines claims by the boat’s captain, Yohanis Humiang, that an Australian official gave each of the six crew members $US5000 on the condition they never engage in people smuggling again.
Hidayat is adamant the captain is speaking the truth. He said the money had been given to the crew by an Australian official and was not evidence of a crime.
UPDATE
Daily Express readers wish their own politicians were as innovative in stopping boat people.
UPDATE
People smuggling?
Professor of international law at the Australian National University, Don Rothwell, says if proven the activity could be tantamount to people smuggling under current regional protocols.No, the real government-backed people smuggling was under the Gillard Government:
Eighty-one asylum seekers were transferred to HMAS Childers south-west of Java late yesterday and were on their way to Christmas Island…UPDATE
Link fixed.
UPDATE
The Daily Express manages to make three mistakes in this short except, one of them truly frightening:
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, leader of the Australia’s opposition party, slammed Abbott for declining to address the “appalling” accusations, which she called.(Thanks to readers pJ, Dan and many eagle-eyed people who alerted me to our new alternative prime minister.)
He said: “Either the Australian government has paid for the trafficking of people on the high seas or it didn’t....”
From car thief to car chief
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (5:23am)
The question now is whether Campbell then reformed and made good or reverted to type:
===Clyde Campbell, the former Fiat Chrysler Australia boss at the centre of a $30 million scandal rocking the auto-maker, has previously faced criminal charges for stealing cars and was once involved with an interstate car theft racket that operated in Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
Last month Fairfax Media revealed that Mr Campbell was being sued by Fiat Chrysler, which has accused him of misappropriating and misusing more than $30 million of company money to fund an extravagant lifestyle for his family and business associates. Now it can be revealed that Mr Campbell was charged with a number of car theft offences between 1990 and 1992, in the wake of an 18-month investigation by South Australia’s Organised Crime Task Force and Victoria Police.
So is Hockey the only politician we shouldn’t pay a travel allowance?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2015 (5:00am)
So?
Hockey’s arrangements are perfectly reasonable and beyond criticism, and if you want to sool the outrage police onto how politicians have used their per diem, try this deal instead:
===TREASURER Joe Hockey charges taxpayers $1000 a month, the equivalent of the Newstart unemployment benefit, to sleep in his wife’s $2 million Canberra home.This is just envy politics. Every politician gets the same daily travel allowance for accommodation. It doesn’t cost taxpayers a cent extra if some choose to buy a home in Canberra and stay there rather than rent from a stranger or stay in a hotel.
Hockey’s arrangements are perfectly reasonable and beyond criticism, and if you want to sool the outrage police onto how politicians have used their per diem, try this deal instead:
The brisk air at Cooma jail has done little to improve the memory of former union boss [and former Labor president] Michael Williamson, who is doing a five-year stretch for diverting millions of dollars from the Health Services Union to fund his lifestyle…
His former union wants to know where the $5 million he has admitted to misappropriating has gone and if there is any chance of clawing it back…
The former union boss was also vague about union funds being used to pay the rent and furnish a luxury Canberra apartment occupied by his daughter Alexandra when she worked for then prime minister Julia Gillard… Fairfax Media has previously revealed that during 2007 to 2009, then Labor senator Mark Arbib stayed in Ms Williamson’s two-bedroom apartment in Forrest… Mr Arbib maintained he paid his share of the rent directly to Ms Williamson.
What was the big treat at the canteen when you were at school?
Posted by 702 ABC Sydney on Thursday, 11 June 2015
Via Science, Critical Thinking and Skepticism
Posted by The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe on Tuesday, 14 October 2014
We have just received a report that last week in West Papua, a Papuan man was allegedly shot in the back by a "drunk...
Posted by Free West Papua Campaign on Saturday, 13 June 2015
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A Tribute to The Benny Hill Show #EBBA #FUNNY
Posted by eBBa on Saturday, 6 June 2015
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ABBOTT IN AMERICA
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 14, 2014 (3:57pm)
Leftoids desperately wished for an Obama smackdown on Tony Abbott. Instead, this happened:
Continuing what has been a remarkably successful US tour, the PM next visited the Lone Star state:
Continuing what has been a remarkably successful US tour, the PM next visited the Lone Star state:
Mr Abbott declared he wanted Australia to be “an affordable energy superpower” like Texas, the “world energy capital”.
He was greeted with applause when he announced a fully fledged consulate-general would be placed in Houston to promote trade and investment.
Excellent.
FLYING PIE
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 14, 2014 (2:57pm)
Vanessa Badham’s recipe for bacon and egg pie:
Preheat oven to 200. Line flan plan with a sheet of puff pastry. Lay in 200g of bacon you have fried in a pan. Season. Sprinkle with a handful of chopped fresh parsley and chives. Now, carefully add five eggs, yolks intact. Season. Add five more eggs, yolks intact. Sprinkle another handful of chives and parsley across what’s in the pan. Seal lid with sheet of puff pastry. Brush lid with one beaten raw egg. Punctuate lid with pretty patterns made by fork. Reduce oven heat to 180. Put pie in. Cool for 20 mins or until fabulous golden brown.
And the crucial final step: throw it at a wall.
The Bolt Report tomorrow
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (12:04pm)
A great line-up for the show tomorrow.
Editorial: About Tanya Plibersek and “Nigel No-friends"…
My guest: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Iraq. Is Obama losing it?
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa on the AWU scandal and more.
NewsWatch: Rowan Dean. Examining the media narrative of a stumble-bum PM.
On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: About Tanya Plibersek and “Nigel No-friends"…
My guest: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Iraq. Is Obama losing it?
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa on the AWU scandal and more.
NewsWatch: Rowan Dean. Examining the media narrative of a stumble-bum PM.
On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm.
The videos of the shows appear here.
Ignore the ABC conspiracy theory on the AWU scandal
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (11:20am)
Hedley Thomas on ABC attempts to discredit the royal commission now investigating the AWU slush fund - and the activities of Julia Gillard:
===THERE are two theatres now busily engaged in starkly different productions about the Australian Workers Union slush fund scandal…Gillard says she did not receive that cash and did nothing wrong.
The big theatre is the national royal commission into union corruption. It has hard evidence, forensic examinations, legal rules, witnesses and documents in its lead-up to eventual findings on a fraud that has followed Julia Gillard for 22 years.
The noisier, smaller theatre revolves around former union boss Bruce Wilson. It is rich with vaudeville and make-believe, heavily reliant on helpful reviews from friendly sections of the media, junk on Twitter, Mark Latham and other politically partisan silliness. It is setting up a conspiracy theory devoid of substance and evidence…
The even more important outcome from this purpose of the little theatre is the hosing-down of troubling allegations at the royal commission from credible witnesses — such as retired builder Athol James and former AWU archivist Wayne Hem — about wads of cash handed over by Wilson for his then girlfriend, Gillard…
The sideshow relies on one slice of Wilson’s witness statement — his evidence-free claims that a retired lawyer, Harry Nowicki, had offered him large sums of money to confess all about the AWU slush fund, and even to make up evidence detrimental to Gillard. The problem with Wilson’s claims, even if true (Nowicki, a former Builders Labourers Federation lawyer who has been researching the AWU slush fund for two years, says they are the “lies of a con man’’ facing criminal charges), is they have zero connection to the actual slush fund fraud. Wilson’s contact with Nowicki over the past two years is not remotely connected by time, events or circumstances to what happened in the slush fund from 1992-95, when it was siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from building company, Thiess....
This sideshow is designed to undermine former High Court judge Dyson Heydon’s royal commission so that any findings that may be adverse to Wilson — or to Gillard, due to her role as the solicitor who helped set up his slush fund — are less damaging in the court of public opinion…
When the Nowicki portion of Wilson’s witness statement was leaked to Melbourne-based ABC radio broadcaster Jon Faine, a former lawyer, and read aloud on Tuesday morning as the royal commission was set to restart its public hearings, ... Faine said: “It’s an explosive counter-narrative. The claim is made by Wilson that he was told that anonymous benefactors were financially backing and bankrolling the campaign in pursuit of Gillard.’’
Faine stressed: “This claim goes to the motivation and the credibility of many of the witnesses lined up for this week at the royal commission hearings in Sydney.
“If true, then Wilson’s claims destroy the credibility of many of the witnesses that this royal commission seeks to rely upon.”
How? People such as the 84-year-old James and Hem — two witnesses who gave evidence on Wednesday about wads of cash handed to Gillard and deposited into her bank account on Wilson’s instruction — have never met Nowicki; they had “no contact with him whatsoever’’… Heydon ruled late on Thursday: “As the evidence stands then, there is no witness who has accepted that anything he or she was going to say was the result of any overture from Mr Nowicki...”
How DiCaprio fights global warming
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (10:23am)
The talk:
===The walk:
HOLLYWOOD star Leo DiCaprio has hired billionaire Man City owner Sheikh Mansour’s mega yacht so he and 21 pals can enjoy the World Cup in style. The actor and his friends jetted into Rio de Janeiro yesterday/on Wednesday, a day after the sheikh’s POUNDS 400 million super yacht Topaz docked in the city.
Which of the two visits was the embarrassing one?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (10:04am)
Labor foreign affairs spokesman Tanya Plibersek last week:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits the White House:
===Australians have to worry that he’ll be embarrassing us on the world stage.Hmm. Spot the embarrassment.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits the White House:
The pair met at the White House for 40 minutes before a visit to nearby Wakefield High School.Prime Minister Tony Abbott visits the White House:
Not only did the US President extend the planned one hour meeting with the PM, he had brought in six of his most senior Cabinet members and several advisors [including] his vice president Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
How does Fox Sports justify this anti-Abbott propaganda?
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (8:45am)
AAP in March sends a picture with this caption:
If it can’t justify these claims, could it explain why this kind of reporting is tolerated?
(Thanks to reader the Village Idiot.)
===SOCCEROOS FRIENDLY PRESSER LONDONThe ABC in May sends this report:
New Socceroos captain Mike Jedinak (left) and coach Ange Postecoglou speak during a press conference at The Den in London, Tuesday, March 4, 2014. The Socceroos verse Ecuador in a World Cup friendly in London on Wednesday. (AAP Image/Julian Drape) NO ARCHIVING
Byline JULIAN DRAPE
Credit AAPIMAGE
Source AAP
In this Update: Australians dominate stage 11 of the Giro D’Italia; midfielder Mike Jedinak will captain the Socceroos at the World Cup in Brazil.It’s not really wrong, of course, given his full name:
Mile Jedinak has been Australia’s standout performer in the past year… Michael John Jedinak is excellent captaincy material and just could be the Socceroos skipper for many years to come.But now Fox Sports jeers - and even invents “upset Canadians” and earlier “gaffes”:
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott, draped in a Socceroos scarf, has called the team’s captain Mile Jedinak “Mike” in a message of support posted on his YouTube channel…Could Fox Sports name a single Canadian “upset” by Abbott’s “minor slip of the tongue”? Could it explain why Abbott’s highly successful overseas trip actually amounts to a “tough couple of weeks”? Could it justify its claim that Abbott has “often been prone to gaffes”?
It has been a tough couple of weeks for Mr Abbott, who upset Canadians with a minor slip of the tongue when he referred to the country as Canadia. He has often been prone to gaffes, including a recent one where he caught winking mid interview to an ABC radio host when a sex worker called in to talk to him.
If it can’t justify these claims, could it explain why this kind of reporting is tolerated?
(Thanks to reader the Village Idiot.)
Obama rules out troops for Iraq hours after hinting he wouldn’t. Abbott left hanging
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (8:11am)
Two days ago, in a press conference with Tony Abbott, President Barack Obama hinted he could - reluctantly - even send troops back into Iraq:
===So my team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them. I don’t rule out anything, because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter.I have no doubt that this is why Abbott, too, then refused to rule out sending troops:
But the basic principle obviously is that we, like all nations, are prepared to take military action whenever our national security is threatened. Where the issues have to do with the broader international order—humanitarian concerns, concerns around rights to navigation, concerns around our ability to deal with instability or fragile states or failed states, and the consequences for populations there and refugee flows—those sorts of international issues, wherever we can, our preference should be to partner with other countries.... And that’s why—well, that’s part of where Australia is so important to us. There are a handful of countries in the world that we always know we can count on, not just because they share our values, but we know we can count on them because they’ve got real capacity. Australia is one of those countries… And Aussies know how to fight, and I like having them in a foxhole if we’re in trouble. So I can’t think of a better partner.
Asked if he would rule out military intervention, Mr Abbott replied: “Look, I don’t. I hope it doesn’t come to that of course, but this is a serious situation and it does need to be dealt with.But Obama backtracks hours later - showing all the dithering leadership that has cost the US so badly:
“America and its allies, including Australia, liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein some years ago and I don’t think any of us liberated Iraq from Saddam to see Iraq fall into people who are like the Taliban or worse, to fall into their hands...’’
No troops to Iraq, but other options are being considered.George W Bush refuses to criticise:
That was President Barack Obama’s message Friday… In a statement delivered from the White House South Lawn, Obama said the United States “will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq,” but that he would be reviewing a range of other options in coming days.
Former President George W. Bush has been reluctant to weigh in on the latest developments in the region where he spent years deploying military assets that Obama would later pull back.
A request for comment from the former president was met with a non-response from his communications director Freddy Ford, who told MailOnline: ‘I don’t have a comment for you. When he left office President Bush decided not to criticize his successor.’
The madness of the Abbott haters
Andrew Bolt June 14 2014 (7:24am)
Labor and its media allies have embarrassed themselves over Tony Abbott’s trip overseas.
Simon Benson:
Gerard Henderson:
===Simon Benson:
THE political pre-occupation with Tony Abbott’s anticipated failure at everything is getting ridiculous…It wasn’t just Labor, though, who made these absurd claims. Here is Laurie Oakes last week:
Even before the Prime Minister had left the shores of Normandy last week, where he marked the commemoration of the D-Day landings, Labor had already labelled his onward trip to the US as a failure and an embarrassment… The chief protagonist has been Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek. But even Labor leader Bill Shorten, who should know better, has been at it.
Describing the PM’s meeting with President Obama (a Labor-aligned Democrat) as part of an overseas “sabbatical” and an embarrassing failure, before it had even happened, did not go unnoticed by US officials who get briefed by the embassy in Canberra. The greater embarrassment, of course, was the premise on which Labor’s attacks this week were based…
Plibersek labelled Abbott an embarrassment because he had apparently ditched a meeting with IMF boss Christine Lagarde and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.
“Australians have to worry that he’ll be embarrassing us on the world stage,” Plibersek said this week.
Well, she was wrong. In fact, Abbott did meet with Lagarde — last night at an official reception at the Australian Ambassador’s residence in Washington DC. Abbott was also toweled up for apparently cancelled meetings with the chair of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Wrong again. He will see them today. The only thing Plibersek got right was her praise of Abbott’s decision to again extend Kim Beazley’s term as Australian Ambassador to the United States.
THERE was some consternation among bureaucrats in Canberra this week when word spread that Tony Abbott had decided against meeting three of the most important economic policy figures in Washington during his forthcoming visit.Another dud anti-Abbott prediction from Oakes two weeks ago:
Arrangements had been made for the Prime Minister to meet Jack Lew, the US Treasury Secretary. He was also scheduled to hold talks with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim. The meetings were locked into the diaries of those key officials. Then the arrangements were cast into doubt by Abbott’s office.
President Obama described climate change as “a creeping national security crisis”.UPDATE
Politics watchers in Washington were already predicting climate change would be “the elephant in the room” when the two leaders meet in the Oval Office…
But with Abbott there is little common ground and considerable potential for embarrassment. Even if Abbott and Obama tiptoe around the issue, journalists might not co-operate at the customary joint media conference.
Gerard Henderson:
AS the saying goes, we’ve seen the movie before. It’s called"Coalition PM Travels Overseas and Embarrasses Australians”. The original starred John Howard. Remake, Tony Abbott.
It all started on Monday when online news reported that, during an official visit to Ottawa, the Prime Minister said “Canadia, Canada, probably has more involvement in the affairs of Europe than Australia often has"…
It came as no surprise when Labor frontbencher David Feeney threw the switch to ridicule with a tweet laughing at Abbott…
Last Monday, the Nine Network’s evening news bulletin gave prominence to Abbott’s slip of the tongue. Journalist Lane Calcutt reported that “he has trouble saying” Canada.
Some serious commentators also joined in. Erik Jensen commented: “What can you expect from the Australian Prime Minister?” Jensen is editor of the super-boring The Saturday Paper.
...on ABC radio, Sydney morning presenter Linda Mottram began an interview on Tuesday with journalist Mark Riley as follows: “You can feel the pain, can’t you? ‘Canadia’ — I mean, it’s just a stumble, isn’t it? One of those things when you’re jet-lagged?”
Well, yes. Yet Mottram consciously decided to start an interview with this instantly corrected error. The true story of the Prime Minister’s Canada visit is that it appears to have been a success… The Prime Minister had not even commenced his official visit to the US before it was dismissed by Fairfax Media (apart from The Australian Financial Review). Last Saturday, the key story on page one of The Age was titled “US ties at risk over climate"… To depict the relationship as hinging on future approaches to climate change is tosh.
ABC latest: Abbott driving women to prostitution
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (9:08pm)
Gerard Henderson notes the ABC’s curious willingness to believe Tony Abbott is driving women to prostitution:
Let’s go to the transcript:
Linda Mottram, should know this. Yet, in her role as presenter, she went along with Jo’s suggestion that the Abbott government is “forcing young kids into prostitution” and that this is “what the Abbott government is doing”.
And the same Nice Mr Scott wonders why the ABC is criticised for the hostility to the Coalition evident in such programs as Mornings with Linda Mottram.
===Let’s go to the transcript:
Linda Mottram [ABC radio 702]: Let’s chat to Jo who’s on the line. You own a lingerie store, Jo. Good morning.Goodness, gracious – as the saying goes. The fact is that, in its nine months in office, the Abbott government has not increased university fees or reduced benefits payable to tertiary students. Moreover, there had been no increase in unemployment.
Jo : Hi Linda. Look I was waiting on this because I really felt compelled to tell you of my experience that I’ve had through the week and it’s becoming more common now what’s happening. I own a lingerie store and I had a young girl come in through the week, sheepishly walking around the store. She would be no more than twenty, twenty one. Anyway we got to the end of the conversation and I had to serve her and I served her some nice lingerie but it couldn’t be black because she’s not allowed to wear black. And I said, “Oh, he doesn’t like black?” and she said “No, I’m an escort”.
And she was explaining to me how hard it is to get a job number one, how difficult it is to go to uni and find that she needs money…
But my concern is – I’m a mum and I was talking to my other co-workers as well. Our daughters, are they being pushed into, not my daughter, well hopefully
not my daughter. And are they being pushed into with what the new government’s actually forcing these young kids to do. Into prostitution.
Linda Mottram : Interesting, interesting point. And you say this isn’t the only case you’ve seen?
Jo : Not at all and its growing. Her friends are all doing it.
Linda Mottram : Goodness
Jo: She has to survive.
Linda Mottram : Yeah, yeah, yeah, you need money…
Jo : Yeah but my concern is, you know, what the Abbott government is doing. And, you know, we do have a lot of kids come in say, “Do you have any jobs? And I’m finding more kids coming in asking if we have any employment in the store. And that’s on the increase as well. Linda Mottram : Yeah well, thanks for the insight Jo – much appreciated.
Linda Mottram, should know this. Yet, in her role as presenter, she went along with Jo’s suggestion that the Abbott government is “forcing young kids into prostitution” and that this is “what the Abbott government is doing”.
And the same Nice Mr Scott wonders why the ABC is criticised for the hostility to the Coalition evident in such programs as Mornings with Linda Mottram.
Former ACTU president attacks ABC whitewash of AWU slush fund boss
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (9:03pm)
Jennie George, former ACTU president and Labor MP, is not impressed by one ABC presenter’s attempt to whitewash Bruce Wilson:
===JON Faine, well known ABC broadcaster, gives a free plug to Bruce Wilson reading from his unsworn statement. At the same time, the counsel assisting the royal commission puts the case as to why Wilson should face criminal charges. Supporters of the ABC expect the public broadcaster to act impartially and in accordance with its charter. Faine has failed the test.
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Hoax alert: The NSW Police Force has received numerous enquiries on social media about this letter.While police promote safety awareness messages on a regular basis, this letter is a hoax that is designed to create unnecessary fear in our community.
The incidents outlined are, to the best knowledge of NSW Police, entirely fictitious. There is no known gang in NSW called the 'Bloods' that usesthis method of initiation. This particular hoax has been circulating the internet for 20 years and adapted to different locations in the world.
The NSW Police Force actively uses social media, however, any serious crime is the subject of mainstream media release as well as social media posting. We urge social media users not to share the hoax letter.
For more information about this hoax, please see:http://www.snopes.com/
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Allyson Christy
Timing is always so guided under a precision-based, politicised agenda. Timing, within any political sphere, is everything, after all, and of the essence to any agenda; needed or otherwise.
Amid rising scandals, it seems fitting that the White House now formally acknowledges a 'red line' was crossed specific to Syria.
"Congress has been notified that the United States will acknowledge that Syria has used chemical weapons on a small scale multiple times and a "red line" has been crossed, according to congressional sources.
The intelligence community has concluded that sarin gas was used and 100-150 people have died, a senior intelligence official said Thursday.
The Syrian government and rebels have accused each other of using chemical weapons on the battlefield, prompting the United Nations to call for the deployment of an international team of investigators. Both sides have denied using chemical weapons.
The Syrian government has been battling a rebellion for more than two years." - CNN Breaking News
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The NSA Director walks into a bar.
Bartender: I've got a new joke for you.
NSA Director: Heard it.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen'
The promise of Gods words are YES and AMEN...
===Allyson Christy via Martin Sherman
"No matter how often the doctrine of political appeasement and territorial concession failed to win approval at the ballot box, it nevertheless continued to dominate the policy-making decisions of governments – even of those elected in express opposition to it.
Astonishingly, time and time again, the prescriptions of the vanquished became the policy of the victors.
It is thus an accumulated consequence of individual decisions and actions driven by the short-term pursuit of prestige and profit of a group of empowered individuals, and which trump considerations of the long-term interest of the wider collective.
It will not be remedied by electing different politicians...but by promoting, emplacing and empowering new competing civil society elites who can challenge the incumbents and displace them from their positions of unelected influence....
The first step in advancing this crucial revolution is to engender a total revaluation of the strategy of giving by right-wing benefactors.
For one cannot win a war without a war chest..." - Martin Sherman
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" The world knew about the Holocaust and did nothing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from the Auschwitz death camp Thursday, vowing that Israel would take matters into its own hands to prevent a second Holocaust.
“The Allied leaders knew about the Holocaust as it was happening. They understood perfectly what was taking place in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not,” said Netanyahu. “For us Jews, the lesson is clear. We must not stand idle before the threats of annihilation. We must not bury our heads in the sand, or let others do our work. From here, the place that provides testimony for the will to eradicate us, I, the prime minister of Israel, the Jewish state, tell all the nations of the world: The State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to prevent a second Holocaust.” "
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June 14: Liberation Day in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (1982); Trooping the Colour and the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries (2014); Flag Day in the United States
- 1285 – Forces led by Prince Trần Quang Khải of Vietnam's Trần dynasty destroyed most of the invadingMongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong.
- 1846 – Anglo-American settlers in the Town of Sonomabegan a rebellion against Mexico, proclaiming the California Republicand eventually raising a homemade flag with a bear and star (digital reproduction pictured).
- 1940 – Four days after the French government fled Paris, German forces occupied the French capital, essentially ending the Battle of France.
- 1982 – Argentine forces surrendered to the British, essentially ending theFalklands War.
- 1994 – After the Vancouver Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in ice hockey's Stanley Cup Finals, a riot ensued in Downtown Vancouver, causing C$1.1 million in damage.
- 1158 – Munich is founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the river Isar.
- 1216 – First Barons' War: Prince Louis of France captures the city of Winchester and soon conquers over half of the Kingdom of England.
- 1276 – While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song dynasty court hold the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong.
- 1285 – Second Mongol invasion of Vietnam: Forces led by Prince Trần Quang Khải of the Trần dynasty destroy most of the invading Mongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong.
- 1287 – Kublai Khan defeats the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria.
- 1381 – Richard II of England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt at Mile End. The Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance.
- 1404 – Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr, having declared himself Prince of Wales, allies himself with the French against King Henry IV of England.
- 1618 – Joris Veseler prints the first Dutch newspaper Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. in Amsterdam (approximate date).
- 1645 – English Civil War: Battle of Naseby: Twelve thousand Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentariansoldiers.
- 1667 – The Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet in the Second Anglo-Dutch War ends. It had lasted for five days and resulted in the worst ever defeat of the Royal Navy.
- 1690 – King William III of England (William of Orange) lands in Ireland to confront the former King James II.
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army is established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army.
- 1777 – The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
- 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timorafter a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat.
- 1800 – The French Army of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquers Italy.
- 1807 – Emperor Napoleon's French Grande Armée defeats the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland in Poland (modern Russian Kaliningrad Oblast) ending the War of the Fourth Coalition.
- 1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables".
- 1830 – Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: Thirty-four thousand French soldiers begin their invasion of Algiers, landing 27 kilometers west at Sidi Fredj.
- 1839 – Henley Royal Regatta: the village of Henley-on-Thames, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, stages its first regatta.
- 1846 – Bear Flag Revolt begins: Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Winchester: A Union garrison is defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia.
- 1863 – Second Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson during the American Civil War.
- 1872 – Trade unions are legalized in Canada.
- 1881 – The White Rajahs territories become the British protectorate of Sarawak.
- 1900 – Hawaii becomes a United States territory.
- 1900 – The second German Naval Law calls for the Imperial German Navy to be doubled in size.
- 1907 – Norway grants women the right to vote.
- 1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart from St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
- 1926 – Brazil leaves the League of Nations
- 1937 – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) state of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
- 1937 – U.S. House of Representatives passes the Marihuana Tax Act.
- 1940 – World War II: The German occupation of Paris begins.
- 1940 – The Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence.
- 1940 – Seven hundred twenty-eight Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
- 1941 – June deportation: the first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, begins.
- 1944 – World War II: After several failed attempts, the British Army abandons Operation Perch, its plan to capture the German-occupied town of Caen.
- 1945 – World War II: Filipino troops of the 15th, 66th and 121st Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL liberate the captured in Ilocos Sur and start the Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon.
- 1949 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space.
- 1949 – Uttarakhand Mahaparishad, an NGO was formed by Govind Ballabh Pant in India with the main objective to solve social and economic problems of the hill region of Uttarkhand.
- 1951 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
- 1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law that places the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
- 1955 – Chile becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1959 – Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
- 1959 – A group of Dominican exiles depart from Cuba and land in the Dominican Republic with the intent of overthrowing the totalitarian government of Rafael Trujillo. All but four are killed or executed.
- 1962 – The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
- 1966 – The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557.
- 1967 – Mariner program: Mariner 5 is launched towards Venus.
- 1982 – Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrender to British forces.
- 1986 – The Mindbender derails and kills three riders at Galaxyland.
- 1994 – The 1994 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot occurs after the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup from Vancouver, causing an estimated C$1.1 million, leading to 200 arrests and injuries.
- 2002 – Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
- 2014 – A Ukraine military Ilyushin Il-76 airlifter is shot down, killing all 49 people on board.
- 2017 – London: A fire in a high-rise apartment building in North Kensington leaves at least 80 people dead and another 74 injured.
- 2017 – in Alexandria, Virginia, Republican member of Congress and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana is shot while practicing for charity baseball.
- 1444 – Nilakantha Somayaji, Indian astronomer and mathematician (d. 1544)
- 1463 – Henry IV, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1514)
- 1479 – Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1552)
- 1529 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (d. 1595)
- 1627 – Johann Abraham Ihle, German astronomer (d. 1699)
- 1691 – Jan Francisci, Slovak organist and composer (d. 1758)
- 1726 – Thomas Pennant, Welsh ornithologist and historian (d. 1798)
- 1730 – Antonio Sacchini, Italian composer and educator (d. 1786)
- 1736 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist and engineer (d. 1806)
- 1763 – Simon Mayr, German composer and educator (d. 1845)
- 1780 – Henry Salt, English historian and diplomat, British Consul-General in Egypt (d. 1827)
- 1796 – Nikolai Brashman, Czech-Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1866)
- 1798 – František Palacký, Czech historian and politician (d. 1876)
- 1801 – Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (d. 1868)
- 1811 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and activist (d. 1896)
- 1812 – Fernando Wood, American merchant and politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City (d. 1881)
- 1819 – Henry Gardner, American merchant and politician, 23rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1892)
- 1820 – John Bartlett, American author and publisher (d. 1905)
- 1829 – Bernard Petitjean, French Roman Catholic missionary to Japan (d. 1884)
- 1838 – Yamagata Aritomo, Japanese Field Marshal and politician, 3rd and 9th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1922)
- 1840 – William F. Nast, American businessman (d. 1893)
- 1848 – Bernard Bosanquet, English philosopher and theorist (d. 1923)
- 1848 – Max Erdmannsdörfer, German conductor and composer (d. 1905)
- 1855 – Robert M. La Follette Sr., American lawyer and politician, 20th Governor of Wisconsin (d. 1925)
- 1856 – Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician and theorist (d. 1922)
- 1862 – John Ulric Nef, Swiss-American chemist and academic (d. 1915)
- 1864 – Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (d. 1915)
- 1868 – Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
- 1870 – Sophia of Prussia (d. 1932)
- 1871 – Hermanus Brockmann, Dutch rower (d. 1936)
- 1871 – Jacob Ellehammer, Danish mechanic and engineer (d. 1946)
- 1872 – János Szlepecz, Slovene priest and author (d. 1936)
- 1877 – Jane Bathori, French soprano (d. 1970)
- 1878 – Léon Thiébaut, French fencer (d. 1943)
- 1879 – Arthur Duffey, American sprinter and coach (d. 1955)
- 1884 – John McCormack, Irish tenor and actor (d. 1945)
- 1884 – Georg Zacharias, German swimmer (d. 1953)
- 1890 – May Allison, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1894 – Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1924)
- 1894 – José Carlos Mariátegui (d. 1930)
- 1894 – W. W. E. Ross, Canadian geophysicist and poet (d. 1966)
- 1895 – Jack Adams, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 1968)
- 1900 – Ruth Nanda Anshen, American writer, editor, and philosopher (d. 2003)
- 1900 – June Walker, American stage and film actress (d. 1966)
- 1903 – Alonzo Church, American mathematician and logician (d. 1995)
- 1903 – Rose Rand, Austrian-American logician and philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1980)
- 1904 – Margaret Bourke-White, American photographer and journalist (d. 1971)
- 1905 – Steve Broidy, American businessman (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Arthur Davis, American animator and director (d. 2000)
- 1907 – Nicolas Bentley, English author and illustrator (d. 1978)
- 1907 – René Char, French poet and author (d. 1988)
- 1909 – Burl Ives, American actor and singer (d. 1995)
- 1910 – Rudolf Kempe, German pianist and conductor (d. 1976)
- 1913 – Joe Morris, English-Canadian lieutenant and trade union leader (d. 1996)
- 1916 – Dorothy McGuire, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1917 – Lise Nørgaard, Danish journalist, author, and screenwriter
- 1917 – Gilbert Prouteau, French poet and director (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Atle Selberg, Norwegian-American mathematician and academic (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Fred Baur, American chemist and founder of Pringles (d. 2008)
- 1919 – Gene Barry, American actor (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Sam Wanamaker, American actor and director (d. 1993)
- 1921 – Martha Greenhouse, American actress (d. 2013)
- 1923 – Judith Kerr, German-English author and illustrator
- 1923 – Green Wix Unthank, American soldier, lawyer, and judge (d. 2013)
- 1924 – James Black, Scottish pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Pierre Salinger, American journalist and politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (d. 2004)
- 1926 – Don Newcombe, American baseball player
- 1928 – Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Argentinian-Cuban physician, author, guerrilla leader and politician (d. 1967)
- 1929 – Cy Coleman, American pianist and composer (d. 2004)
- 1929 – Alan Davidson, Australian cricketer
- 1929 – Johnny Wilson, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2011)
- 1931 – Marla Gibbs, American actress and comedian
- 1931 – Ross Higgins, Australian actor (d. 2016)
- 1931 – Junior Walker, American saxophonist (d. 1995)
- 1932 – Joe Arpaio, American police officer and sheriff
- 1933 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (d. 1991)
- 1933 – Vladislav Rastorotsky, Russian gymnast and coach
- 1936 – Renaldo Benson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1936 – Irmelin Sandman Lilius, Finnish author, poet, and translator
- 1938 – Julie Felix, American-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1939 – Steny Hoyer, American lawyer and politician
- 1939 – Peter Mayle, English author and screenwriter (d. 2018)
- 1939 – Colin Thubron, English journalist and author
- 1942 – Jonathan Raban, English author and academic
- 1942 – Roberto García-Calvo Montiel, Spanish judge (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Barry Burman, English painter and academic (d. 2001)
- 1943 – Jennifer Gretton, Baroness Gretton, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire
- 1943 – John Miles, English race car driver and journalist
- 1943 – Harold Wheeler, American composer, conductor, and producer
- 1944 – Laurie Colwin, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1992)
- 1945 – Rod Argent, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1945 – Carlos Reichenbach, Brazilian director and producer (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Richard Stebbins, American sprinter and educator
- 1946 – Robert Louis-Dreyfus, French-Swiss businessman (d. 2009)
- 1946 – Tõnu Sepp, Estonian instrument maker and educator
- 1946 – Donald Trump, American businessman, television personality and 45th President of the United States
- 1947 – Roger Liddle, Baron Liddle, English politician
- 1947 – Barry Melton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Paul Rudolph, Canadian singer, guitarist, and cyclist
- 1948 – Laurence Yep, American author and playwright
- 1949 – Jim Lea, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
- 1949 – Roger Powell, English-Australian scientist and academic
- 1949 – Antony Sher, South African-British actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1949 – Harry Turtledove, American historian and author
- 1949 – Alan White, English drummer and songwriter
- 1950 – Rowan Williams, Welsh archbishop and theologian
- 1951 – Paul Boateng, English lawyer and politician, British High Commissioner to South Africa
- 1951 – Danny Edwards, American golfer
- 1952 – Robert Lepikson, Estonian race car driver and politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior (d. 2006)
- 1952 – Pat Summitt, American basketball player and coach (d. 2016)
- 1952 – Leon Wieseltier, American philosopher, journalist, and critic
- 1953 – Janet Mackey, New Zealand lawyer and politician
- 1954 – Will Patton, American actor
- 1955 – Michael D. Duvall, American businessman and politician
- 1955 – Paul O'Grady, English television host, producer, and drag performer
- 1955 – Kirron Kher, Indian theatre, film & television actress, TV talk show host, Politician and Member of Parliament
- 1956 – Fred Funk, American golfer and coach
- 1956 – King Diamond (Kim Bendix Petersen), heavy metal musician
- 1957 – Suzanne Nora Johnson, American lawyer and businesswoman
- 1957 – Mona Simpson, American novelist
- 1958 – Pamela Geller, American activist and blogger
- 1959 – Marcus Miller, American bass player, composer, and producer
- 1960 – Tonie Campbell, American hurdler
- 1960 – Mike Laga, American baseball player
- 1961 – Boy George, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1961 – Dušan Kojić, Serbian singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1961 – Sam Perkins, American basketball player
- 1963 – Grant Kenny, Australian iron man and canoeist
- 1964 – Peter Gilliver, English lexicographer and academic
- 1967 – Dedrick Dodge, American football player and coach
- 1968 – Campbell Brown, American journalist
- 1968 – Faizon Love, Cuban-American actor and screenwriter
- 1969 – Éric Desjardins, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1969 – Steffi Graf, German tennis player
- 1970 – Heather McDonald, American comedian, actress, and author
- 1971 – Bruce Bowen, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1971 – Ramon Vega, Swiss footballer
- 1972 – Rick Brunson, American basketball player and coach
- 1972 – Matthias Ettrich, German computer scientist and engineer, founded KDE
- 1972 – Dominic Brown, English guitarist and songwriter
- 1972 – Claude Henderson, South African cricketer
- 1972 – Danny McFarlane, Jamaican hurdler and sprinter
- 1973 – Sami Kapanen, Finnish-American ice hockey player and manager
- 1976 – Alan Carr, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1976 – Massimo Oddo, Italian footballer and manager
- 1977 – Boeta Dippenaar, South African cricketer
- 1977 – Chris McAlister, American football player
- 1977 – Joe Worsley, English rugby player and coach
- 1978 – Steve Bégin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Diablo Cody, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1978 – Annia Hatch, Cuban-American gymnast and coach
- 1978 – Nikola Vujčić, Croatian former professional basketball player
- 1979 – Shannon Hegarty, Australian rugby league player
- 1981 – Elano, Brazilian footballer and manager
- 1982 – Jamie Green, English race car driver
- 1982 – Nicole Irving, Australian swimmer
- 1982 – Lang Lang, Chinese pianist
- 1983 – Trevor Barry, Bahamian high jumper
- 1983 – Louis Garrel, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1984 – Lorenzo Booker, American football player
- 1984 – Mark Cosgrove, Australian cricketer
- 1984 – Siobhán Donaghy, English singer-songwriter
- 1984 – Yury Prilukov, Russian swimmer
- 1985 – Oleg Medvedev. Russian luger
- 1985 – Andy Soucek, Spanish race car driver
- 1986 – Matt Read, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Andrew Cogliano, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Mohamed Diamé, Senegalese footballer
- 1988 – Adrián Aldrete, Mexican footballer
- 1989 – Lucy Hale, American actress and singer-songwriter
- 1989 – Brad Takairangi, Australian-Cook Islands rugby league player
- 1989 – Jubin Nautiyal, Indian playback singer
- 1990 – Patrice Cormier, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Stephen McLaughlin, Irish footballer
- 1991 – Kostas Manolas, Greek footballer
- 1992 – Devante Smith-Pelly, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1993 – Gurinder Sandhu, Australian cricketer
- 1994 – Moon Tae-il, Korean singer (NCT)
- 1999 – Chou Tzu-yu, Taiwanese singer (Twice)
- 767 – Abu Hanifa, Iraqi scholar and educator (b. 699)
- 809 – Ōtomo no Otomaro, Japanese general (b. 731)
- 847 – Methodius I, patriarch of Constantinople
- 957 – Guadamir, bishop of Vic (Spain)
- 976 – Aron, Bulgarian nobleman
- 1161 – Emperor Qinzong of the Song dynasty (b. 1100)
- 1205 – Walter III, Count of Brienne
- 1349 – Günther von Schwarzburg, German king (b. 1304)
- 1381 – Simon Sudbury, English archbishop (b. 1316)
- 1497 – Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandia, Italian son of Pope Alexander VI (b. 1474)
- 1516 – John III of Navarre (b. 1469)
- 1544 – Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1489)
- 1548 – Carpentras, French composer (b. 1470)
- 1583 – Shibata Katsuie, Japanese samurai (b. 1522)
- 1594 – Orlande de Lassus, Flemish composer and educator (b. 1532)
- 1662 – Henry Vane the Younger, English-American politician, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1613)
- 1674 – Marin le Roy de Gomberville, French author and poet (b. 1600)
- 1746 – Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician (b. 1698)
- 1794 – Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, English courtier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1718)
- 1800 – Louis Desaix, French general (b. 1768)
- 1800 – Jean-Baptiste Kléber, French general (b. 1753)
- 1801 – Benedict Arnold, American general during the American Revolution later turned British spy (b. 1741)
- 1825 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-American architect and engineer, designed Washington, D.C. (b. 1754)
- 1837 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet and philosopher (b. 1798)
- 1864 – Leonidas Polk, American general and bishop (b. 1806)
- 1887 – Mary Carpenter, English educational and social reformer (b. 1807)
- 1883 – Edward FitzGerald, English poet and author (b. 1809)
- 1886 – Alexander Ostrovsky, Russian director and playwright (b. 1823)
- 1907 – William Le Baron Jenney, American architect and engineer, designed the Home Insurance Building (b. 1832)
- 1907 – Bartolomé Masó, Cuban soldier and politician (b. 1830)
- 1908 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, English captain and politician, 6th Governor General of Canada (b. 1841)
- 1914 – Adlai Stevenson I, American lawyer and politician, 23rd Vice President of the United States (b. 1835)
- 1916 – João Simões Lopes Neto, Brazilian author (b. 1865)
- 1920 – Max Weber, German sociologist and economist (b. 1864)
- 1923 – Isabelle Bogelot, French philanthropist (b. 1838)
- 1926 – Mary Cassatt, American-French painter (b. 1843)
- 1927 – Ottavio Bottecchia, Italian cyclist (b. 1894)
- 1927 – Jerome K. Jerome, English author (b. 1859)
- 1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist and academic (b. 1857)
- 1932 – Dorimène Roy Desjardins, Canadian businesswoman, co-founded Desjardins Group (b. 1858)
- 1933 – Justinien de Clary, French target shooter (b. 1860)
- 1936 – G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, playwright, and novelist (b. 1874)
- 1936 – Hans Poelzig, German architect, painter, and designer, designed the IG Farben Building (b. 1869)
- 1946 – John Logie Baird, Scottish-English physicist and engineer (b. 1888)
- 1946 – Jorge Ubico, 21st President of Guatemala (b. 1878)
- 1953 – Tom Cole, Welsh-American racing driver (b. 1922)
- 1968 – Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian novelist and poet, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1901)
- 1972 – Dündar Taşer, Turkish soldier and politician (b. 1925)
- 1977 – Robert Middleton, American actor (b. 1911)
- 1977 – Alan Reed, American actor, original voice of Fred Flintstone (b.1907)
- 1979 – Ahmad Zahir, Afghan singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1980 – Charles Miller, American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1939)
- 1986 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Alan Jay Lerner, American composer and songwriter (b. 1918)
- 1987 – Stanisław Bareja, Polish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 1990 – Erna Berger, German soprano and actress (b. 1900)
- 1991 – Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (b. 1907)
- 1994 – Lionel Grigson, English pianist, composer, and educator (b. 1942)
- 1994 – Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (b. 1924)
- 1994 – Marcel Mouloudji, French singer and actor (b. 1922)
- 1995 – Els Aarne, Ukrainian-Estonian pianist, composer, and educator (b. 1917)
- 1995 – Rory Gallagher, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1949)
- 1995 – Roger Zelazny, American author and poet (b. 1937)
- 1996 – Noemí Gerstein, Argentinian sculptor and illustrator (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Richard Jaeckel, American actor (b. 1926)
- 1999 – Bernie Faloney, American-Canadian football player and sportscaster (b. 1932)
- 2000 – Attilio Bertolucci, Italian poet and author (b. 1911)
- 2002 – June Jordan, American author and activist (b. 1936)
- 2003 – Dale Whittington, American race car driver (b. 1959)
- 2004 – Ulrich Inderbinen, Swiss mountaineer and guide (b. 1900)
- 2005 – Carlo Maria Giulini, Italian conductor and director (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Mimi Parent, Canadian-Swiss painter (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Monty Berman, English director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1905)
- 2006 – Jean Roba, Belgian author and illustrator (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Ruth Graham, Chinese-American author, poet, and painter (b. 1920)
- 2007 – Robin Olds, American general and pilot (b. 1922)
- 2007 – Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician and war criminal, 9th President of Austria (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Bob Bogle, American musician (The Ventures) (b. 1934)
- 2009 – William McIntyre, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and judge (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Peter Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell, English lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Bob Chappuis, American football player and soldier (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Margie Hyams, American pianist and vibraphone player (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, German pianist and academic (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Carlos Reichenbach, Brazilian director and producer (b. 1945)
- 2012 – Gitta Sereny, Austrian-English historian, journalist, and author (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Elroy Schwartz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Alberto Cañas Escalante, Costa Rican journalist and politician (b. 1920)
- 2014 – Isabelle Collin Dufresne, French actress (b. 1935)
- 2014 – Robert Lebeck, German photographer and journalist (b. 1929)
- 2014 – James E. Rogers, American lawyer, businessman, and academic (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Richard Cotton, Australian geneticist and academic (b. 1940)
- 2015 – Anne Nicol Gaylor, American activist, co-founded the Freedom From Religion Foundation (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Qiao Shi, Chinese politician (b. 1924)
- 2016 – Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress and singer (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Gilles Lamontagne, Canadian politician, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1919)
- Christian feast day:
- Burchard of Meissen
- Caomhán of Inisheer
- Elisha (Roman Catholic and Lutheran)
- Fortunatus of Naples (Roman Catholic)
- Blessed Francisca de Paula de Jesus (Nhá Chica)
- Joseph the Hymnographer (Roman Catholic: Orthodox April 3)
- Methodios I of Constantinople
- Quintian of Rodez (Rodez)
- Richard Baxter (Church of England)
- Valerius and Rufinus
- June 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Commemoration of the Soviet Deportation related observances:
- Day of Memory for Repressed People (Armenia)
- Flag Day (United States)
- Freedom Day (Malawi)
- Liberation Day (Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands)
- World Blood Donor Day
“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”” Luke 11:13 NIV
===
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Jesus says, "take freely." He wants no payment or preparation. He seeks no recommendation from our virtuous emotions. If you have no good feelings, if you be but willing, you are invited; therefore come! You have no belief and no repentance,--come to him, and he will give them to you. Come just as you are, and take "Freely," without money and without price. He gives himself to needy ones. The drinking fountains at the corners of our streets are valuable institutions; and we can hardly imagine any one so foolish as to feel for his purse, when he stands before one of them, and to cry, "I cannot drink because I have not five pounds in my pocket." However poor the man is, there is the fountain, and just as he is he may drink of it. Thirsty passengers, as they go by, whether they are dressed in fustian or in broadcloth, do not look for any warrant for drinking; its being there is their warrant for taking its water freely. The liberality of some good friends has put the refreshing crystal there and we take it, and ask no questions. Perhaps the only persons who need go thirsty through the street where there is a drinking fountain, are the fine ladies and gentlemen who are in their carriages. They are very thirsty, but cannot think of being so vulgar as to get out to drink. It would demean them, they think, to drink at a common drinking fountain: so they ride by with parched lips. Oh, how many there are who are rich in their own good works and cannot therefore come to Christ! "I will not be saved," they say, "in the same way as the harlot or the swearer." What! go to heaven in the same way as a chimney sweep. Is there no pathway to glory but the path which led the thief there? I will not be saved that way. Such proud boasters must remain without the living water; but, "Whosoever will, let him TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY."
Evening
"O my God, be not far from me."
--Psalm 38:21
Here we have two great lessons--what to deprecate and what to supplicate. The happiest state of a Christian is the holiest state. As there is the most heat nearest to the sun, so there is the most happiness nearest to Christ. No Christian enjoys comfort when his eyes are fixed on vanity--he finds no satisfaction unless his soul is quickened in the ways of God. The world may win happiness elsewhere, but he cannot. I do not blame ungodly men for rushing to their pleasures. Why should I? Let them have their fill. That is all they have to enjoy. A converted wife who despaired of her husband was always very kind to him, for she said, "I fear that this is the only world in which he will be happy, and therefore I have made up my mind to make him as happy as I can in it." Christians must seek their delights in a higher sphere than the insipid frivolities or sinful enjoyments of the world. Vain pursuits are dangerous to renewed souls. We have heard of a philosopher who, while he looked up to the stars, fell into a pit; but how deeply do they fall who look down. Their fall is fatal. No Christian is safe when his soul is slothful, and his God is far from him. Every Christian is always safe as to the great matter of his standing in Christ, but he is not safe as regards his experience in holiness, and communion with Jesus in this life. Satan does not often attack a Christian who is living near to God. It is when the Christian departs from his God, becomes spiritually starved, and endeavours to feed on vanities, that the devil discovers his vantage hour. He may sometimes stand foot to foot with the child of God who is active in his Master's service, but the battle is generally short: he who slips as he goes down into the Valley of Humiliation, every time he takes a false step invites Apollyon to assail him. O for grace to walk humbly with our God!
===Rahab
The Woman God Took From the Dunghill
Scripture References - Joshua 2:1,3; 6:17-25; Matthew 1:5; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25
Name Meaning - The first part of Rahab - "Ra," was the name of an Egyptian god. As an Amorite, Rahab belonged to an idolatrous people, and had a name meaning "insolence," "fierceness," or "broad," "spaciousness."
Family Connections - While Rahab's parents, brothers and sisters were alive at the time of her association with the spies Joshua sent out, we are not given any of their names (Joshua 2:13). Some of the ancient Jewish fathers who held her in high reputation reckoned that she was the wife of Joshua himself, but in the royal genealogy of Jesus, Rahab is referred to as being the wife of Salmon, one of the two spies she sheltered. In turn, she became the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth from whose son, Obed, Jesse the father of David came, through whose line Jesus was born (Matthew 1:5, where the asv reads, "Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab" - not Rachab). Salmon was a prince of the house of Judah, and thus, Rahab, the one time heathen harlot, married into one of the leading families of Israel and became an ancestress of our Lord, the other foreign ancestresses being Tamar, Ruth and Bathsheba. The gratitude Salmon felt for Rahab ripened into love, and when grace erased her former life of shame he made her his wife. Jerome's comment of the inclusion of the four foreign women in Matthew's genealogy is suggestive -
In it none of the holy women are included, only those whom the Scriptures blame, in order that He who came in behalf of sinners, Himself being born of sinners, might destroy the sins of all.
Both Jewish and Christian writers have tried to prove that Rahab was a different woman from the one whom the Bible always speaks of as a "harlot." To them it was abhorrent that such a disreputable person should be included in our Lord's genealogy and by Paul, as a woman of faith, and so her story has been distorted in order to further a scheme of salvation based upon human goodness. Although man's sense of refinement may be shocked, the fact remains that Rahab, Tamar and Bathsheba were sinful women who were purged by God, and had their share in the royal line from which Jesus sprang.
It has been suggested that the word "harlot" can be translated "innkeeper," thus making Rahab the landlady of a wayside tavern. Guesses have been made that she had been a concubine, such as Hagar and Zilpah had been, but that in Jericho she was a reputable woman identified with a respectable business. The Bible, however, makes no attempt to smooth over the unpleasant fact that Rahab had been a harlot. Endeavoring to understand her character, we have -
Her Sin
Three times over Rahab is referred to as "the harlot," and the Hebrew term zoonah and the Greek word porne have at no time meant anything else but "harlot" - a woman who yields herself indiscriminately to every man approaching her. Rahab indulged in venal wantonness as traveling merchants came her way and were housed in her illfamed abode. Evidently Rahab had her own house and lived apart from her parents and family. Although she never lost her concern for her dear ones, perhaps she was treated as a moral leper. We are told that prostitution was not regarded with the same horror then, as now, but the Bible with one voice speaks of harlotry with moral revulsion and social ostracism.
Rahab's house was built against the town wall with the roof almost level with the ramparts, and with a stairway leading up to a flat roof that appears to be a continuation of the wall. Thus, the people of Jericho knew all about the men who entered and left such a disreputable house. While her name came to be sanctified and ennobled, both Paul and James affix the label to her name, Rahab the harlot . She still carried the evil, distinguishing name, thus declaring the peculiar grace of the transforming power of God. How Rahab came to forsake her evil career we are not told! Like many a young girl today perhaps she found the restrictions of her respectable home too irk-some. She wanted a freer life, a life of thrill and excitement, away from the drab monotony of the home giving her birth and protection. So, high-spirited and independent she left her parents, set up her own apartment with dire consequences. Frequently women like Rahab are more often sinned against than sinners. Man's lust for the unlawful is responsible for harlotry.
Her Scheme
It was from some of the travelers Rahab entertained and sinned with, that she came to learn the facts of the Exodus of Israel, the miracle of the Red Sea, and the overthrow of Sihon and Og. So, when the two spies from Joshua sought cover in her house, she knew that sooner or later the king of Jericho would get to know of the accommodation she gave them. Here were two men, different from other men who came seeking her favors. These were men of God, not idolaters, bent on one mission, namely, the overthrow of the enemies of His people, and brilliantly she planned their protection and escape. The flax that she spread on her roof and the scarlet cord she used as a sign indicated that Rahab manufactured linen and also dyed it. If only, like Lydia, she had kept to such an honorable occupation, what a different story would have been hers.
Rahab's skillful scheme succeeded. The two Jewish spies were in desperate straits, seeing the Amorite pursuers were hot on their trail, but Rahab, although her safety and patriotism as an Amorite would be assured if she informed against the spies, decided to hide and preserve them. Seeing their hunted and dreaded look, Rahab assuredly said, "Fear not, I will not betray you nor your leader. Follow me," and taking them up to the flat roof of her house, bade the men cover themselves completely with a pile of flax lying there to dry. Shortly after, when the pursuers had tracked the two spies to Rahab's house, she met them with a plausible excuse that they were there but had left by way of the Eastern Gate. If they doubted her word, they could come in and search her house. But off the pursuers went to catch up with their prey, not knowing that the spies were being befriended by Rahab. As soon as the way was clear, under cover of night, she let the spies down from the window in the wall and, knowing the country, guided the spies in the best way to escape capture.
There are one or two features associated with this clever plan of Rahab which are worthy of notice. First of all, idolater though she had been, with a phase of immorality associated with her idolatrous life, she witnessed to a remarkable understanding of the sovereignty of the true God for she said to the spies -
I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us.... The Lord, your God he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath ( Joshua 2:9-11).
Harlot though Rahab had been, intuition from above had been given her that the spies were men of God, the forerunners of His people who were to execute His will, and that to take sides with them was to take sides with God Himself.
Further, there was in Rahab's mind, no matter how faintly understood, a distinct call from God, that she was being singled out from her own idolatrous people to aid the God she had a growing conception of. Her faith of this God who worked great wonders was altogether marvelous and singular. It was such a call that made her willing to sacrifice her own nation - an act which would have been otherwise treasonable. Does not her confession of God's power and purpose, and her service for the spies indicate that she knew the race of which she was part was accursed of God for its crimes and idolatry, and that she wished to be separated from such a doomed people, and identified with the people of God? The declaration of faith given by this Canaanite woman places her in a unique position among the women of the Bible.
Her Sacrifice
When Rahab hid the spies, put those who sought them on a false trail and helped the spies to escape and melt away into the shadows of night, and lay concealed until they could reach Joshua with their report, she took her life in her own hands. We cannot but admire her courage and willingness to risk her own neck. Had those spies been discovered hiding in her house, she would have died at the hands of the king of Jericho. Yet with a calm demeanor, and without the slightest trace of inner agitation, she met the searchers and succeeded in setting them out on a false trail. By her act Rahab was actually betraying her own country, and for such treason certain death would have been hers had she been found out. To hide spies was a crime punishable with death. Seeing the faces of the spies filled with fear, Rahab assured their hearts that she was on their side, and in spite of the sacrifice involved said, "I will not betray you. Follow me!" By military law the spies were likewise liable to instant death because of the threat of war, and Rahab, willing to do all in her power to protect her nation's enemies, faced a like terrible end. How gloriously daring was her faith, and how richly rewarded she was for her willingness to sacrifice her life in a cause she knew to be of God!
Her Sign
As Rahab offered to shelter the spies and aid them in their escape, she received from them the promise that when they returned to her country, along with Joshua and his army, that she and her family would be spared alive. While her sin had possibly estranged her from her loved ones, she was concerned about their safety as well as her own. Rahab wanted the kindness she was showing the spies to be reciprocated, and they assured her that she would be dealt with "kindly and truly." The spies said, "Our life for yours if ye utter not this our business." Then the sign of the scarlet rope - their means of escape - was arranged. "According unto thy words, so be it," said Rahab as she let the spies down, and making fast the scarlet rope, she awaited her own deliverance. That red token at the window was likewise a signal to the outside world that Rahab believed in the ultimate triumph of Jehovah.
Much has been said of Rahab's deceit when confronted by the king of Jericho. She told a lie and Scripture forbids a lie or any "evil doing, that good may come of it" (Romans 3:7, 8 ). But under the rules of war, Rahab is not to be blamed for her protection of those righteous forces set against the forces of evil. What the Bible commends is not her deception, but the faith which was the mainspring of her conduct. The characteristic feature of the scarlet rope was that it had to be placed outside the window for Joshua and his men to see. Those inside did not see the token of security. As that scarlet line, because of its color and sign of safety, speaks of the sacrificial work of Christ (Hebrews 9:19, 22), the ground of our assurance of salvation is not experience or feelings within, but the token without. Like the Israelites, Rahab and her relatives might not have felt safe within the house, but the same promise prevailed, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13).
Her Salvation
Jericho was the worst of the cities of the Amorites, thus God commanded Joshua to destroy both the city and the inhabitants. By divine decree, it was to be given over to a perpetual desolation. When Joshua entered the city he set about the execution of the divine command, but respected the promise made to Rahab by the spies. Under the protection of the scarlet line, Rahab and all her kindred were brought out of the house. The spies came to her house, not to indulge in sin with Rahab, but to prepare the way for Joshua to take Jericho. She saved the spies not out of human pity, or because of expediency, but because she knew that they were servants of the Lord. In turn, she was saved. The spies she had hid brought her, and her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had out of her doomed house, and made them secure without the camp of Israel (Joshua 6:17-25). Brought out of an accursed city, and from her own sins which were as scarlet, Rahab is a fitting illustration of another miracle of divine grace, namely, the calling forth of His church out of a godless, Gentile world.
Her Status
The threefold reference to Rahab in the New Testament reveals how she became a faithful follower of the Lord. She had been taken from the dunghill and placed among the saints in the genealogy of the Saviour (Matthew 1:5 where Rachab [kjv] and Rahab [asv ], are to be identified as the same person). Her remarkable faith was a sanctifying faith leading her to a pure life and honorable career. As the result of her marriage to Salmon, one of the two spies whom she had saved, who "paid back the life he owed her by a love that was honourable and true," Rahab became an ancestress in the royal line from which Jesus came as the Saviour of lost souls. "Poor Rahab, the muddy, the defiled, became the fountainhead of the River of the Water of Life which floweth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Her name became sanctified and ennobled, and is worthy of inclusion among many saints.
Paul highly commends Rahab for her energetic faith and gives her a place on the illustrious roll of the Old Testament of those who triumphed by faith. "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she received the spies with peace" (Hebrews 11:31). What a suggestive touch that is, "with peace." There was not only faith in her heart that God would be victorious, but also an assured peace when she hid the spies that her deliverance from destruction would be taken care of. She knew the rest of faith. In fact, Rahab is the only woman besides Sarah who is designated as an example of faith in the great cloud of witnesses. What a manifestation of divine grace it is to find the one-time harlot ranked along with saints like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David!
The Apostle James adds to Paul's record about Rahab being justified by faith by saying that she was likewise justified by works (James 2:25 ), and there is no contradiction between these two aspects for Rahab's courageous deed was but faith in practice. Faith had wrought in her a change of heart and life, and it likewise enabled her to shield the spies as she did in the confidence God would triumph over His enemies. She exemplified her faith by her brave act, and so James quotes Rahab as exemplifying justification by works evidentially. As Fausset puts it -
Paul's justification by faith alone means a faith, not dead but working by love (Galatians 5:6 ). Again, Rahab's act cannot prove justification by works as such, for she was a woman ofbad character. But as an example of grace, justifying through an operative as opposed to mere verbal faith, none could be more suitable than the saved "harlot." She believed, so as to act on her belief, what her countrymen disbelieved; and this in the face of every improbability that an unwarlike force would conquer a well armed one, far more numerous. She believed with the heart (Romans 10:9, 10), confessed with the mouth, and acted on her profession at the risk of her life.
In conclusion, what are the lessons to be gathered from the harlot whom God used to fulfill His purpose? First of all, we are reminded by Rahab's change of heart and life, that "His blood can make the vilest clean," and that "His blood avails for me." Was it not a wonderful condescension on the part of the Redeemer when He became manifest in the flesh to take hold of a root so humble in type as poor, despised Rahab to magnify His abounding grace for all sinners? Rahab was well worth saving from her evil life both for her own sake and for the place she had in God's plan. Other women in Jericho saw no beauty in Rahab that they should desire her company, but through faith she became one of God's heroines, and is included among the harlots entering the kingdom of God before the self-righteous. Rahab's sins had been scarlet, but the scarlet line freeing the spies, and remaining as a token of her safety, typified the red blood of Jesus whereby the worst of sinners can be saved from sin and hell (Matthew 21:31, 32). While the door of mercy stands ajar, the vilest sinner can return and know what it is to be saved and safe.
A further lesson to be gleaned from Rahab the harlot is that of deep concern for the salvation of others. With the shadow of death and destruction over Jericho, Rahab extracted a promise from Joshua's spies not only to spare her, but also all those bound to her by human ties. While her life of sin and shame had estranged her from her family, self was not her sole consideration in her request for safety. She desired all her loved ones to share in the preservation. What a vein of gold that was in such a despised character! When the mighty change took place in Rahab's life, and she was transformed from a whore into a worshiper of Jehovah, we are not told. As she received and hid the spies, her tribute to God's omnipotence and sure triumph over His foes reveals a spiritual insight God grants to all who believe. And restored to honor and holiness, the redeemed harlot pleads for her parents, and brothers, and sisters. Do we make Rahab's prayer for the salvation of her family, the cry for our own homes? Is ours the same passionate supplication for all of our dear ones that when death strikes they may be found sheltered by the atoning blood of the Redeemer? When at evening the sun goeth down, will our loved ones be as stars in our crown?
Rahab is likewise a poetic and symbolic name for Egypt (Psalms 87:4; 89:10; Isaiah 51:9.
The practical lessons to be learned from the history of Hagar have been fittingly summarized by Dr. James Crichton in his article on Hagar in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia -
The life and experience of Hagar teach, among other truths, the temptations incident to a new position; the foolishness of hasty action in times of trial and difficulty; the care exercised over the lonely by the all-seeing God; the Divine purpose in the life of everyone, however obscure and friendless; how God works out His gracious purposes by seemingly harsh methods; and the strength, comfort and encouragement that ever accompany the hardest experiences of His children.
It only remains to be said that Paul uses the story of Hagar as an allegory to distinguish law from grace (Galatians 4:21-31 ). Hagar the bondwoman is contrasted with Sarah the freewoman, and Ishmael "born after the flesh" with Isaac "born through promise"; thence freedom and grace appear as the characteristic qualities of Christianity. Hagar represents the Old Covenant and Sarah the New Covenant which is superior to the Old with its ordinances. Under grace all within the household of faith live by faith, and Sarah represents "the Jerusalem that is above" - "our mother" (rv), which is the free spiritual city to which all children of the promise even now belong ( Philippians 3:21).
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Joseph
[JÅ'zeph] - may god add or increaser.
[JÅ'zeph] - may god add or increaser.
The husband of Mary, and foster-father of our Lord (Matt. 1:16-24; 2:13; Luke 1:27; 2:4-43; 3:23; 4:22; John 1:45; 6:42).
The Man of Wood and Nails
It is somewhat unique that two Josephs were associated with Christ, one at His birth and the other at His death. Both of these godly men gave Jesus of their best. In this section we think of Joseph the carpenter, who was present at the manger when Jesus was born, even though he was not His father. While Christ came as the Son of Man, He was never a son of a man.
Joseph's presence at Christ's birth witnesses to a severe test that had emerged triumphant. Mary was the pure young woman he had fallen in love with, and was about to make his wife. Yet the Child she was about to bear would not be his. Seeing her "great with child," without fanfare Joseph was minded to put her away. He never acted rashly with his espoused, although he was baffled by her condition. This serves for all time as an example of godly wisdom and tender consideration for others.
Bitterly disappointed that Mary had apparently betrayed him, yet believing, he made no haste. As a praying man he waited upon God, and his love for and patience with Mary were rewarded. God understood his mental difficulties and rewarded Joseph's conscientious attitude toward Mary by revealing His redemptive plan. God never fails those who carry their anxieties to Him. Joseph received a direct and distinct revelation from God, and at once his fears were banished, and his line of duty made clear.
Tenderly he cared for his dear one as if the Child she was bearing were his own. Overawed by the mystery of it all, that his beloved Mary had been chosen as the mother of the Lord he as a devout Jew had eagerly anticipated, we can imagine how he would superintend every detail of the Nativity.
What holy thoughts must have filled the mind of Mary's guardian. Where suspicion regarding Mary's purity once lurked, strong faith now reigned as he looked into the lovely face of Mary's Child. At last God's promises had been fulfilled and before him was the Babe through whom God's covenants would be established.
When it became necessary because of Herod's hatred to flee into Egypt, Joseph cared for Mary and her first-born Son with reverent devotion until tidings came that Herod was dead, and that they could safely return to their own land. While a shroud of secrecy covers the thirty years Christ spent at home, we can be sure of this, that between Jesus and Joseph there was an affection strong and deep.
Briefly stated, we have these glimpses of Joseph:
I. He was "a son of David" and could claim royal or priestly descent (Matt. 1:20).
II. His family belonged to Bethlehem, David's city.
III. He followed the trade of carpenter, and doubtless taught Christ how to use wood and nails (Matt. 13:55).
IV. He was a pious Israelite, faithful in all the ordinances of the Temple (Luke 2:22-24, 41, 42).
V. He was a kindly, charitable man, treating Mary gently in her time of need (Matt. 1:19; Luke 2:1-7).
VI. He was faithful in his care of Christ, and deserved to be called His "father" (Luke 2:33. John 1:45; 6:42).
VII. He never appears in the Gospels after Christ was twelve years of age and became "a son of the Law" (Luke 2:41-51), which may suggest that he died during the interval. This would explain why Jesus at His death asked John to care for His mother.
VIII. He died, tradition says, at the age of 111 years, when Jesus was but eighteen years of age.
===Today's reading: Ezra 6-8, John 21 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Ezra 6-8
The Decree of Darius
1 King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon. 2 A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it:
Memorandum:
3 In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem:
Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, 4 with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury. 5 Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God....
Today's New Testament reading: John 21
Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish
1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing....
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