Netanyahu is engaging with Austria and moving to work with the Freedom Party who have distanced themselves from their Nazi supporting past. Europeans can be slow to mature. The extreme left wing of Europe still support terrorists over Israel, and that is wrong. The UN has condemned Israel for trying to live as she was assaulted recently by Hamas soldiers calling themselves civilians. The vote went 120 for to 8 against. US and Australia were among the eight. In order to underline his new found embrace of victims of Nazism, Turnbull deplored an eleven year old photo of a Nazi emblem over an Australian armed force in the Middle East. It had been a stupid 'prank' like that of Prince Harry as a teen dressing in a SS Uniform. It underlines Turnbull's dithering, inappropriate leadership which never deals with anything in a timely fashion. Gillard and Rudd had beat up the armed services over sexual issues too. It didn't work for them, either.
Yesterday I met with Dr Geoff Crawford in Heidelberg, Melbourne. Dr Crawford has a deep interest in telling the truth about Vaccination. He is a former microbiologist. Vaccines are important for public health. People that won't vaccinate risk the most vulnerable in the community. I left Dandenong at 8am and arrived at the destination at 11am. I left Heidelberg at noon and made it home at 3pm. Dan Andrews public transport 'upgrades' caused the ridiculous time spent on transport to be as bad as it was. It won't improve for the expensive changes. I got to my destination, crossed a street to walk a few metres more, and had to cross back for public works which hadn't warned of the blockage. Dr Crawford is good value. Dan Andrews is a lousy premier of Victoria.
Here is a video I made The Goat Paths
James Stephens (February 9, 1882--December 26, 1950) was an Irish novelist and poet.
I
The crooked paths
Go every way
Upon the hill
— They wind about
Through the heather,
In and out
Of a quiet
Sunniness.
Go every way
Upon the hill
— They wind about
Through the heather,
In and out
Of a quiet
Sunniness.
And the goats,
Day after day,
Stray
In sunny
Quietness;
Cropping here,
And cropping there
— As they pause,
And turn,
And pass —
Now a bit
Of heather spray,
Now a mouthful
Of the grass.
Day after day,
Stray
In sunny
Quietness;
Cropping here,
And cropping there
— As they pause,
And turn,
And pass —
Now a bit
Of heather spray,
Now a mouthful
Of the grass.
II
In the deeper
Sunniness;
In the place
Where nothing stirs;
Quietly
In quietness;
In the quiet
Of the furze
They stand a while;
They dream;
They lie;
They stare
Upon the roving sky.
Sunniness;
In the place
Where nothing stirs;
Quietly
In quietness;
In the quiet
Of the furze
They stand a while;
They dream;
They lie;
They stare
Upon the roving sky.
If you approach
They run away!
They will stare,
And stamp,
And bound,
With a sudden angry sound,
To the sunny
Quietude;
They run away!
They will stare,
And stamp,
And bound,
With a sudden angry sound,
To the sunny
Quietude;
To crouch again,
Where nothing stirs,
In the quiet
Of the furze:
To crouch them down again,
And brood,
In the sunny
Solitude.
Where nothing stirs,
In the quiet
Of the furze:
To crouch them down again,
And brood,
In the sunny
Solitude.
III
Were I but
As free
As they,
I would stray
Away
And brood;
I would beat
A hidden way,
Through the quiet
Heather spray,
To a sunny
Solitude.
As free
As they,
I would stray
Away
And brood;
I would beat
A hidden way,
Through the quiet
Heather spray,
To a sunny
Solitude.
And should you come
I'd run away!
I would make an angry sound,
I would stare,
And stamp,
And bound
To the deeper
Quietude;
To the place
Where nothing stirs
In the quiet
Of the furze.
I'd run away!
I would make an angry sound,
I would stare,
And stamp,
And bound
To the deeper
Quietude;
To the place
Where nothing stirs
In the quiet
Of the furze.
IV
In that airy
Quietness
I would dream
As long as they:
Through the quiet
Sunniness
I would stray
Away
And brood,
All among
The heather spray,
In a sunny
Solitude.
Quietness
I would dream
As long as they:
Through the quiet
Sunniness
I would stray
Away
And brood,
All among
The heather spray,
In a sunny
Solitude.
— I would think
Until I found
Something
I can never find;
— Something
Lying
On the ground,
In the bottom
Of my mind.
Until I found
Something
I can never find;
— Something
Lying
On the ground,
In the bottom
Of my mind.
=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. Education is important. Nobody disputes that. But also, while everyone agrees the virtues need to be taught, no-one agrees on exactly what the virtues are. Socrates noted that. And despite the lack of agreement, schools have run ever since. And many students have prospered. It is understandable people want to fix what is wrong with schools. But because of fads, spending large amounts of money does not mean better performance. At the moment, Academy in liberal democracies is overloaded with ridiculous curriculum that is not benefitting students. Sexual identity is not a fit aim of a school curriculum. Students need language skills, coding, mathematics logic, cooking, materials experience, athletics, music, history and art. Gonski mark 2 will not address that. The catch cry of 'funding certainty' is also misleading. All governments are funding education, but some are being unfair and doing so poorly. Every class has a teacher. There is a curriculum, but it needs to be simplified without the extra fads. Dysfunctional schools will not allocate more money better. Schools that are dysfunctional are usually so because of the management and the community. Some ridiculous excesses involve schools having 'team teaching' in high achieving graded classes so as to maximise teacher timetables with contact with such kids. But this neglects the kids that need the time most, the middle ability students who benefit most. We need to work smarter with the kids we have, and by being distracted, we are failing them.
=== from 2016 ===
Appalling left wing rhetoric has been applied to explain the terrorist hit on a gay night club in Florida. The son of a Taliban sympathiser who would call himself the President of Afghanistan, a drug user, a violent man whose wife divorced him, committed the atrocity in the name of ISIL. The venue was a gun free zone. The perpetrator had been questioned by the FBI regarding his extremism and was still able to obtain an assault rifle. And so many blame GOP Presidential candidate Trump, and claim that gun laws are to blame. But the truth is that it is Ramadan and extremist Islamic peoples are targeting people legitimised by left wing media. Media have excused throwing gays off roof tops by Palestinian terrorists, or executing people for being gay in Iran. Or Saudi Arabia. Apparently, it is hateful to quote the bible but compassionate to drown a migrant. That is not Trump's fault. Lots of people will get hysterical about Trump, or gun laws. But it is the sad excuse of appalling behaviour of terrorists that is feeding the atrocities. There is no reason for the atrocity. Either that is acknowledged, or the apologists are themselves complicit.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
Several attempts are being made to divert public attention from ALP Leader Bill Shorten's address to the Royal Commission into union corruption. Prima facie, Shorten is corrupt. But, how does the public feel about negative gearing of investment property? It looks like a unicorn, because to remove negative gearing from the market will mean that poor people suffer from not having rental property available. Keeping negative gearing is a sensible policy, but idiots like Shorten can claim that it is 'inequitable' and the rich benefit more than the poor. There are many such unicorns in which the ALP can point to bad policy to obfuscate the salient issue. Shorten is not a competent leader, but the ALP has no alternative that is worthy. There are plenty of alternatives, but all failed by supporting bad policy, like a tax on Carbon Dioxide, MRRT, overturning the Pacific Solution, Pink Batts, a second rate Education curriculum, weakening health services, throwing money away and worse. One alternative is former Secretary to the PM, Jason Clare. Jason didn't need to campaign in his own seat in '10 as he campaigned with Gillard with the support of the local press in his seat. In Government, Clare demonstrably lied about drugs and corruption in sport. Clare made decisions regarding defence materials procurement which directly affected soldiers on the front line. Many died. Clare clearly has what it takes to replace Shorten as leader of the ALP, without being competent.
There are scare campaigns aplenty, and some oppose each other. Coal seam gas is bad because of fracking, but it is good because it is cheap, plentiful, and profitable. Nuclear power is safe and reliable, cheaper than Solar or Wind and cleaner. But it is opposed because other nuclear power stations of a different design can supply nuclear weapons. Dams which could make the Northern Territory the breadbasket of Asia are opposed because they could change the environment of a desert.
Another unicorn is the allegation that Australia paid boat people to turn around. Apparently Bill Shorten doesn't feel that giving boat people a boat with petrol sufficient to be payment. Expect ALP policy to include a charge to such people for rent of such devices. One wonders what the issue is for the ALP other than a distraction for Bill Shorten over corruption issues. It isn't proportionate with European nations paying ransom to Jihadis. But if Bill Shorten feels it is equivalent, is he also claiming that those boat people are in fact Jihadis?
There are scare campaigns aplenty, and some oppose each other. Coal seam gas is bad because of fracking, but it is good because it is cheap, plentiful, and profitable. Nuclear power is safe and reliable, cheaper than Solar or Wind and cleaner. But it is opposed because other nuclear power stations of a different design can supply nuclear weapons. Dams which could make the Northern Territory the breadbasket of Asia are opposed because they could change the environment of a desert.
Another unicorn is the allegation that Australia paid boat people to turn around. Apparently Bill Shorten doesn't feel that giving boat people a boat with petrol sufficient to be payment. Expect ALP policy to include a charge to such people for rent of such devices. One wonders what the issue is for the ALP other than a distraction for Bill Shorten over corruption issues. It isn't proportionate with European nations paying ransom to Jihadis. But if Bill Shorten feels it is equivalent, is he also claiming that those boat people are in fact Jihadis?
From 2014
How is a life summed up? Masters and Apprentices frontman Jim Keays passed this morning of pneumonia complications from a cancer battle. But it will be as a performer from '65 until the present day he will be remembered. Successful, many children, two wives and a reason to enjoy life. He only sang one song I liked "Because I love you" in 1971. But then my musical taste leans towards ABBA and the Seekers (and Yes, King Crimson (Islands), Genesis) and not to the raw rock that is easier to market to emo teens and perpetually immature. Even so, I'm glad for freedom of choice and liberty which allows the vast majority to live how they please. Not to be confused with the entitlement of a corrupt ALP member, or member of the press. I don't mind dying so long as I can live .. "Give me liberty, or give me death." But life is sweet, and even a stinking coward would willingly trade much to extend it. Thank you, Jim. Rest in peace.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. A former Age editor was appointed by the Howard administration to head the ABC. Mark Scott had worked as an editor for the Age and SMH, both far left news media which adhere to Green politics and suppress issues relevant to conservative politics. He is also a former chief of staff to conservative party education ministers Metherell and Chadwick. If ever my issues are examined the activity of Scott will need to be examined to exonerate him from the possibility of corruption. His appointment to the ABC was met with suspicion by ABC staff fearful of having their bias addressed. However Scott has been inept and has failed to address poor standards. Some say he should resign after the recent adverse court case involving The Chaser posting an image of a balanced journalist fucking a dog. I feel he should have resigned well before that, and possibly should never have been appointed by Metherell.
On this day in 1983, Pioneer 10 left behind the orbit of Neptune .. waving good bye to our solar system. When data had been collected to leave on Pioneer, someone had suggested a recording of Bach, but Carl Sagan said that would be bragging. In 1977, our compassion for the evil was demonstrated when James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin King, was recaptured and jailed instead of being killed outright. In 1971, the NYT began publishing the Pentagon Papers it had ignored while a Democrat was President. In 1970, The Long and Winding Road became the Beatles last number one hit. Some wanted them to make more .. let it be. In 1525, Martin Luther married his chosen mate, something not generally done under the rules of the Catholic Church. In 313, the Edict of Milan was granted, giving religious freedom throughout the Roman empire. And so creating a foundation for the secular society we enjoy today, giving us liberty that the corrupt, like Scott, would prevent.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. A former Age editor was appointed by the Howard administration to head the ABC. Mark Scott had worked as an editor for the Age and SMH, both far left news media which adhere to Green politics and suppress issues relevant to conservative politics. He is also a former chief of staff to conservative party education ministers Metherell and Chadwick. If ever my issues are examined the activity of Scott will need to be examined to exonerate him from the possibility of corruption. His appointment to the ABC was met with suspicion by ABC staff fearful of having their bias addressed. However Scott has been inept and has failed to address poor standards. Some say he should resign after the recent adverse court case involving The Chaser posting an image of a balanced journalist fucking a dog. I feel he should have resigned well before that, and possibly should never have been appointed by Metherell.
On this day in 1983, Pioneer 10 left behind the orbit of Neptune .. waving good bye to our solar system. When data had been collected to leave on Pioneer, someone had suggested a recording of Bach, but Carl Sagan said that would be bragging. In 1977, our compassion for the evil was demonstrated when James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin King, was recaptured and jailed instead of being killed outright. In 1971, the NYT began publishing the Pentagon Papers it had ignored while a Democrat was President. In 1970, The Long and Winding Road became the Beatles last number one hit. Some wanted them to make more .. let it be. In 1525, Martin Luther married his chosen mate, something not generally done under the rules of the Catholic Church. In 313, the Edict of Milan was granted, giving religious freedom throughout the Roman empire. And so creating a foundation for the secular society we enjoy today, giving us liberty that the corrupt, like Scott, would prevent.
Historical perspective on this day
In 313, the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Liciniusgranting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, was posted in Nicomedia. 1373, Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force. 1381, the Peasants' Revoltled by Wat Tyler culminated in the burning of the Savoy Palace.
In 1514, Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at the time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, was dedicated. 1525, Martin Luthermarried Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns. 1625, King Charles I of England married Henrietta Maria of France, Princess of France 1740, Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe began an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine. 1774, Rhode Island became the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves. 1777, American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette landed near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
In 1805, Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewisand four companions sighted the Great Falls of the Missouri River. 1881, the USS Jeannette was crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack. 1886, a fire devastated much of Vancouver, British Columbia. Also 1886, King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in Lake Starnberg south of Munich at 11:30 PM. 1893, Grover Cleveland noticed a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 underwent secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death. 1898, Yukon Territory was formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
In 1910, the University of the Philippines College of Engineering was established. This unit of the university is said to be the largest degree granting unit in the Philippines. 1917, World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I was carried out by Gotha G bombers and resulted in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries. 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh received a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City. 1944, World War II: German combat elements - reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division - launched a counterattack on American forces near Carentan. Also 1944, World War II: Germany launched a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets. 1952, Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 was shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter. 1955, Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, was discovered.
1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them. 1967,U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. 1969, Governor of Texas Preston Smith signed a bill into law converting the former Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, originally founded as a research arm of Texas Instruments, into the University of Texas at Dallas. 1970, "The Long and Winding Road" became The Beatles' last U.S. number one song. 1971, Vietnam War: The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers. 1977, convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray was recaptured after escaping from prison three days before. 1978, Israel Defense Forces withdrew from Lebanon.
In 1981, at the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II. 1982, Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid. Also 1982, Riccardo Paletti, was killed when he crashed on the start grid for the Canadian Grand Prix 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passed beyond the orbit of Neptune (the farthest planet from the Sun at the time). 1990, first day of the June 1990 Mineriad in Romania. At least 240 strikers and students were arrested or killed in the chaos ensuing from the first post-Ceaușescu elections. 1994, a jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blamed recklessness by Exxonand Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages. 1996, the Montana Freemen surrendered after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents. 1997, a jury sentenced Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
In 2000, President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea met Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang. Also 2000, Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981. 2002, the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Also 2002, two 14-year-old South Korean girls were struck and killed by a United States Army armored vehicle, leading to months of public protests against the U.S. 2005, a jury in Santa Maria, California acquitted pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch. 2010, a capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returned to Earth. 2012, a series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, killed at least 93 people and wounded over 300 others.
=== 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 Mr Oh, Mapa Sparta Fisiihoi and James Baker. Born on the same day, across the years. On your day, in 1525, Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy discipline decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests. In 1805, The Lewis and Clark Expedition became the first European Americans to sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River. In 1970, "The Long and Winding Road" became The Beatles' twentieth and final number one single in the United States. Your journey is long and windy. But history shows you will find your passion and marry it.
- 40 – Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman general (d. 93)
- 823 – Charles the Bald, Roman emperor (d. 877)
- 839 – Charles the Fat, Roman emperor (d. 888)
- 1773 – Thomas Young, English polymath (d. 1829)
- 1854 – Charles Algernon Parsons, English-Irish engineer (d. 1931)
- 1863 – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935)
- 1865 – W. B. Yeats, Irish poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1939)
- 1884 – Gerald Gardner, English religious leader, founded Gardnerian Wicca (d. 1964)
- 1892 – Basil Rathbone, South African-American actor (d. 1967)
- 1910 – Mary Whitehouse, English activist, founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Don Budge, American tennis player (d. 2000)
- 1927 – Slim Dusty, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2003)
- 1929 – Ralph McQuarrie, American artist, known for designing many elements of the Star Wars films (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Malcolm McDowell, English actor
- 1944 – Ban Ki-moon, South Korean diplomat, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 1951 – Richard Thomas, American actor, director, and producer
- 1953 – Tim Allen, American actor and producer
- 1963 – Catarina Lindqvist, Swedish tennis player
- 1970 – Chris Cairns, New Zealand cricketer
- 1977 – Emily Harrison, American actress
- 1980 – Sarah Connor, German singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1986 – Azumi Muto, Japanese model and actress (d. 2006)
- 1986 – Ashley Olsen, American actress, singer, producer, and fashion designer
- 1986 – Mary-Kate Olsen, American actress, singer, producer, and fashion designer
- 1996 – Kodi Smit-McPhee, Australian actor
Deaths
- 1036 – Ali az-Zahir, Egyptian caliph (b. 1005)
- 1256 – Tankei, Japanese sculptor (b. 1173)
- 1636 – George Gordon, 1st Marquis of Huntly, Scottish politician (b. 1562)
- 1645 – Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese samurai (b. 1584)
- 1951 – Ben Chifley, Australian politician, 16th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1885)
- 1986 – Benny Goodman, American clarinet player, songwriter, and bandleader (b. 1909)
- 2010 – Jimmy Dean, American singer, actor, and businessman, founded Jimmy Dean Foods (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Jim Keays, Australian rock singer (The Masters Apprentices) (b. 1946)
June 13: Trooping the Colour and the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries (2015)
- 313 – The Edict of Milan, an agreement between Constantine the Great and Licinius to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire, was posted in Nicomedia.
- 1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in Lake Starnberg near Munich under mysterious circumstances.
- 1952 – Soviet warplanes shot down a Swedish military Douglas DC-3A-360 Skytrain carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations, which was followed by the shootdown of a Catalina flying boatsearching for the Skytrain three days later.
- 1971 – The New York Times began to publish the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the nation's political and military involvement in the Vietnam War.
- 2010 – The Japanese Hayabusa (model pictured)space mission became the first to return samples of an asteroid (25143 Itokawa) to Earth for analysis.
Thanks Con, that's great. Don't flip your wig. Take your weapons off the trainers. Burn the papers. Sample life. Let's party.
None from regular columnists
===
DEADLIEST MASS SHOOTING IN MODERN US HISTORY
Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 2016 (3:47am)
More than 50 people died in the Orlando nightclub massacre:
Approximately 50 people were killed inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, Orlando Police Chief John Mina and other officials said Sunday morning, just hours after a shooter opened fire in what appears to be the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.At least 53 more people were injured, he said.
Many of those people suffered critical injuries. Authorities expect the death toll to climb.
The shooter is not from the Orlando area, Mina said. He has been identified as Omar Saddiqui Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, about 120 miles southeast of Orlando, two law enforcement officials tell CNN.Orlando authorities said they consider the violence an act of domestic terror. The FBI is involved. While investigators are exploring all angles, they “have suggestions the individual has leanings towards (Islamic terrorism), but right now we can’t say definitely,” said Ron Hopper, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Orlando bureau.
Mateen was born in the US to Afghan parents, one of whom offered a perverse explanation for his son’s atrocity:
Mir Seddique, Mateen’s father, told NBC News, “this has nothing to do with religion.” Seddique said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting.
Just a theory, but it’s possible religion did have something to do with this. Mateen had previously been noted as a person of interest by the FBI in 2013 and 2014:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation at one point opened an investigation into Mateen but subsequently closed the case when it produced nothing that appeared to warrant further investigation.“He’s a known quantity,” the source said. “He’s been on the radar before.”
The radar was a great help. Orlando is now in a state of emergency.
SOCIALLY DESIRABLE PSYCHOTICS
Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 2016 (2:56am)
Four years ago an academic study claimed it had discovered significant differences between the personalities of conservatives and leftists.
Conservatives, the study alleged, were more inclined towards psychotic behaviour and authoritarianism. Leftists, on the other hand, were noted for niceness.
As the study put it, “those higher in social desirability are also more likely to express socially liberal attitudes”.
Because this study, by three academics at Virginia Commonwealth University in the US, confirmed the stereotype of conservatives as hateful puppy eaters, it received significant coverage. A more recent item has not been so widely publicised.
Earlier this year, the American Journal of Political Science published a remarkable correction. It turns out that the study contained a major mistake. Rather than conservatives being the bad guys, our kindly leftist friends were the authoritarian psychotics.
As the correction explained: “The authors regret that there is an error in the published version of ‘Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies’ American Journal of Political Science56 (1), 34—51. The interpretation of the coding of the political attitude items in the descriptive and preliminary analyses portion of the manuscript was exactly reversed.”
Australia, too, could stand to offer some exact reversals. Let’s begin with salaries for federal MPs, which have lately been vastly increased under the assumption that higher pay would deliver a superior political class.
Instead, we’ve now got the two worst prime ministerial candidates since Billy McMahon and Gough Whitlam duked it out in 1972. We also face the potential return of ego-driven independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor.
If you pay peanuts you get monkeys, according to the popular theory. But it seems if you pay them more peanuts, you just get monkeys who are larger and substantially more monkey-like.
(Continue reading Socially Desirable Psychotics.)
THOSE WHO SERVE VERSUS THOSE WHO TRAIN
Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 2016 (2:15am)
The Australian Army – a social justice and inclusivity movement previously responsible for Australia’s defence – recently conducted a survey of personnel who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The results were stunning, at least to worried Army bosses.
“The vast majority of Australian Defence Force personnel believes the Muslim religion promotes violence and terrorism, despite ‘cultural sensitivity training’ by the ADF to have its soldiers take the view that Islam is a religion of peace,” The Australian reported last week.
“The bombshell new study sponsored by the army finds that such ‘anti-Muslim sentiments’ are ‘probably quite widespread’ among Australian frontline troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Just imagine – people who have been shot at and bombed by Muslims somehow form the view that a certain belief system might not be very friendly.
The study was undertaken by academic Charles Miller and published in the Australian Army Journal, along with a concerned preamble by Chief of Army General Angus Campbell pointing out that his staff “have a number of opposing views on this article’s content”.
“I find little evidence that the official ‘Islam as a religion of peace’ narrative is widely accepted,” wrote Miller, “nor is there evidence that cultural sensitivity training has any effect.”
The peace narrative is also under threat in France, where a Tunisian-born waitress in Nice recently received cultural sensitivity training of her own.
“I was all alone in the bar when two passers-by suddenly appeared,” the woman, unnamed in reports, told French journalists.
“They pointed to the bottles of alcohol behind the bar, then one of them told me in Arabic: ‘You should be ashamed of yourself serving alcohol in the Ramadan period.’”
To enhance their argument, the men next called the waitress, herself Islamic, a “dirty whore” and slapped her so hard she was knocked to the ground.
It’s all part of Europe’s 2016 Ramadanapalooza revelry, which also saw a German migrant centre burned to the ground following a dispute between residents.
(Continue reading Those Who Serve.)
UPDATE. Chris Kenny:
For 15 years our defence personnel have battled Islamist extremists in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They expose themselves to deadly threats, knowing 41 of their colleagues have been killed and 261 wounded. Yet the debate in Australia this week turned to whether these soldiers exhibited enough “cultural sensitivity”.Australian Defence Force personnel combat Islamist extremists so warped that they launch suicide attacks against women and children. Some of our troops have been killed by terrorists who infiltrated Afghan forces to slaughter their foreign “comrades”.
STOP IT
Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 2016 (2:10am)
Something horrible happened a few years back in the comments section of my Daily Telegraph blog. For no good reason at all, commenters ceased using full stops.
This unwelcome development was the result of people commenting online as they do in stupid text messages. I hated it and tried for months to end it, but was finally overwhelmed by the sheer persistence of the non-full stop crowd.
Honestly, I’d rather be a detention centre prostitute than ever see another improperly ended sentence. Yet there they are, every day, at my site and in the comment sections of every other site on earth besides.
The full stop is definitely an endangered species, according to language expert David Crystal in the New York Times. “We are at a momentous moment in the history of the full stop,” Professor Crystal told the paper.
“In an instant message, it is pretty obvious a sentence has come to an end, and none will have a full stop. So why use it?”
Because it is all that separates us from beasts of the field, is why.
In time, I may return to battle against the forces of illiteracy and once again enforce brutal commentary rules. Readers are warned. Use full stops or your comment will be stopped.
Punctuate or perish, people.
GIRLS WILL BE BOYS AND BOYS WILL BE GIRLS
Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 2016 (2:07am)
Lolafication continues in the UK:
Eighty state schools, including 40 primaries, have introduced “gender neutral” uniform policies that allow boys to wear skirts and girls to wear trousers.
The schools have either dropped references to girls and boys in their dress codes or have rewritten their uniform policy – in the case of at least one state primary school – to say that pupils as young as five can dress in the uniform in which they feel most comfortable.It is part of a little-publicised government-funded drive for schools to be more sensitive to “trans” children who are questioning their gender identity.
(Via Andrew R. – or maybe Andrea R.)
ORLANDO ATTACKED
Tim Blair – Sunday, June 12, 2016 (7:21pm)
Details are still emerging from a nightclub attack in Florida:
Unconfirmed reports of a mass shooting at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub are being investigated.Initial witness accounts suggested that at least seven people had been shot at Pulse, a gay nightclub.Accounts indicated that a WESH-TV reporter has said the assailant may have shot 20 or more people and had barricaded himself in the club.The violence reportedly erupted before 2 a.m. June is Gay Pride Month …An Orlando newspaper reporter apparently has indicated that the gunman also may have been armed with a bomb.
UPDATE. Further details and images.
UPDATE II. Live police scanner.
UPDATE III. One dead shooter.
UPDATE IV:
The FBI is investigating a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando as an “act of terrorism” after a gunman was killed and there are “multiple deaths” with 42 people injured.Orlando Police Chief John Mina said “approximately” 20 were dead inside the nightclub in the city, but the exact number of casualties not yet known.
UPDATE V:
When asked whether the shooter had ties to a Jihadist terror group, an FBI official said during a news conference that “we do have suggestions that that individual may have leanings toward that, that particular ideology. But right now we can’t say definitively so we’re still running everything around.”
UPDATE VI:
Kenneth Melendez and his friends were at the club when the shooting happened. Four of his friends were shot and were at ORMC, he said …He said he went to Pulse often because it was a “safe environment where you could express yourself ... Not anymore.”
The same was once true of many places.
UPDATE VII:
ISIS sympathizers online have already begun to use the hashtag “#OrlandoIsBurning” or “Orlando_Is_Burning,” a hashtag which has been used by ISIS since Paris with “ParisIsBurning” and in every terrorist attack by them since, including “Brussels_Is_Burning.”
UPDATE IX. We have a name:
Sources have confirmed to CBS News that authorities are investigating whether the suspect, Omar Mateen, had ties to Islamic terrorism. Mateen is a U.S. citizen with no apparent criminal history, according to sources.
Steven Crowder: “Those who will scream ‘Islamophobia’ don’t seem to understand that the media and police are terrified to ever even admit Islamic terrorism is at play. They go out of their way to avoid it if they can. Okay? Okay. Now, this brings me to the media malpractice. It matters that the shooter was Islamic. It matters that the massacre occurred at a gay night club.”
Islamic State supporter slaughters 50 gays
Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (10:05am)
This great horror - the slaughter of at least 50 gay men in Florida - is a warning made manifest.
It was a warning ignored by most gay activists and others of the Left:
Related. A failure of “cultural sensitivity training” is blamed for Australian soldiers concluding that those trying to kill them and the Afghans they’re protecting are driven by a dangerous faith.
UPDATE
It is time to remember the political leader who was murdered 14 years ago for warning of just this hatred:
Who let him in?
Why wasn’t he arrested?
UPDATE
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten do not mention “Islam”, “Islamic” or “Muslim”.
UPDATE
In a second press conference on the issue, Turnbull does finally mention Islam:
===It was a warning ignored by most gay activists and others of the Left:
I ask again. Where are the gay groups? Where is the Left? This is happening right now and you are silent:The horror comes to America:
The Islamic State group has publicly beheaded three men in northern Iraq, two of them for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts, according to photos shared on social media…
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the the deadliest mass shooting in US history and says the gunman who slaughtered at least 50 innocent party-goers in an Orlando gay club was one of its fighters.And:
Shooter Omar Mateen, 29, from Port St. Lucie in Florida, opened fire at Pulse night club in the early hours of this morning, killing at least 50 people and injuring 53 others.
The shooter who killed at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando has been identified as Omar Mateen, law enforcement sources told The Post.In case the reporting again tries to white-wash the truth:
Mateen was a U.S. citizen with no apparent criminal history, was born to Afghan parents in New York in 1986 and was living in Port St. Lucie, Fla., according to multiple media reports.
Mateen had committed himself to ISIS before carrying out the bloodiest mass murder in US history at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday, federal officials said.
Mateen “made a pledge of allegiance to ISIS,” California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN.
A law enforcement official said Mateen made a 911 call from the club, professing allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi…Barack Obama prefers to blame the weapons rather than the faith of the man holding them:
The FBI said agents twice investigated Mateen, but closed the cases after interviewing him.
FBI agent Ronald Hopper said ... agents first investigated Mateen after he made inflammatory comments to co-workers alleging possible ties to terrorists.
President Obama called the massacre an “act of terror” and an “act of hate."…UPDATED
“This massacre is a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that let’s them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or movie theater, or in a nightclub,” the president said. “And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be, and to actively do nothing is a decision as well.”
Related. A failure of “cultural sensitivity training” is blamed for Australian soldiers concluding that those trying to kill them and the Afghans they’re protecting are driven by a dangerous faith.
UPDATE
It is time to remember the political leader who was murdered 14 years ago for warning of just this hatred:
Pim Fortuyn, the flamboyant Dutch politician ... was one of the first to break the taboo and call attention to the deadly threat of Muslim immigration.... He was soon notorious for saying he wanted a “cold war” with Islam, which he called “an extraordinary threat” and “a hostile religion.”UPDATE
When he was invited on talk shows, he was often treated like a lunatic, and was usually outnumbered by hostile opponents. However, Fortuyn, who was openly homosexual, had a suave debating style that often routed his opponents.
In one television debate, he flaunted his homosexuality at a Muslim cleric. When the imam responded with furious anti-homosexual invective, Fortuyn calmly explained to viewers that this is the kind of Trojan horse for intolerance the Dutch were letting into their country in the name of multiculturalism…
He said Muslims had no understanding democracy or of the rights of women, homosexuals, or minorities… Fortuyn started getting death threats, and at the time of the publication of his 2002 book, he was hit with a pie filled with feces and urine. He requested security guards, but the Dutch authorities refused to protect him…
On May 6, 2002–just 11 days before the election–Fortuyn gave a radio interview in the city of Hilversum, in which he discussed polls that suggested he might be forming the next government. When he left the studio, a man approached him in the parking lot and shot him in the head, chest and neck. Fortuyn died soon after. The murderer, Volkert van der Graaf, explained at trial that the rise of Fortuyn was like the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. He said he had murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as “scapegoats,” and for targeting “the weak members of society.”
Who let him in?
The father of Omar Mateen, identified by police as the gunman behind the Pulse nightclub shooting, is an Afghan man who holds strong political views, including support for the Afghan Taliban, according to the Washington Post.UPDATE
In a YouTube video he posted on Saturday, he appears to be portraying himself as the president of Afghanistan… In it, he speaks in the Dari language on a variety of political subjects. In one video, Mr Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government.
Why wasn’t he arrested?
The United West investigative team reported in April on an Islamic imam who was invited to speak at the The Husseini Islamic Center in Sanford, Florida. The Husseini Islamic Center invited Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar to speak at their holy mosque…Check where else this death-preaching bigot has spoken:
In a 2013 speech Sheikh Sekaleshfar said this regarding gays,
”Death is the sentence. We know 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.”
And on his schedule last week:
Sekalashfar now claims he’s been taken out of context. He never meant the killing of the innocent and the gunman was wrong.
UPDATE
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten do not mention “Islam”, “Islamic” or “Muslim”.
UPDATE
In a second press conference on the issue, Turnbull does finally mention Islam:
We know that Daesh or ISIL have claimed credit for this attack.
There is some evidence that the killer was linked with Islamist extremism. That is not yet settled. So as I said - further will be known as the facts become clear, but what is clear is that this is a shocking assault on freedom. In this case on assault on people gathering together in a gay nightclub exercising their legal rights to gather together just as we all exercise our legal rights to do so, and should be entitled to do so without fear of being gunned down.
The Queen, the Pope and John Hewson walk into a bar
Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (10:03am)
It’s not about science, you know. Fairfax climate hysteric Elizabeth Farrelly cites her experts:
===The Queen, the Pope and John Hewson all warn of climate change as economic catastrophe if not properly considered.
The broke barbarians
Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (10:01am)
Our politicians tell us we don’t have a financial crisis and don’t have an artistic crisis, either.
That explains why Jon Rose has got nearly $250,000 over the years from the Australia Council for works such as this:
===That explains why Jon Rose has got nearly $250,000 over the years from the Australia Council for works such as this:
And this:
How warming extremists rule our universities
Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (9:02am)
A LINE has been crossed now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is telling massive porkies about the Tasmanian floods.
It’s time to declare war on global warming extremists.
I don’t mean war on Turnbull, himself. He’s just parroting popular untruths. No, I mean war on the extremists who feed him his falsehoods — the alarmists, Marxists and other Leftists who have seized control of our universities and punished the few academics who still dare challenge them.
Last week, Turnbull inspected the flood damage in Tasmania and, in just one widely reported comment, said three false or misleading things that hype the global-warming scare.
Tasmanians “have never seen as much water move as quickly as this,” he claimed.
“Certainly, larger and more frequent storms are one of the consequences that the climate models and climate scientists predict from global warming.”
Falsehood one
(Read full column here.)
===It’s time to declare war on global warming extremists.
I don’t mean war on Turnbull, himself. He’s just parroting popular untruths. No, I mean war on the extremists who feed him his falsehoods — the alarmists, Marxists and other Leftists who have seized control of our universities and punished the few academics who still dare challenge them.
Last week, Turnbull inspected the flood damage in Tasmania and, in just one widely reported comment, said three false or misleading things that hype the global-warming scare.
Tasmanians “have never seen as much water move as quickly as this,” he claimed.
“Certainly, larger and more frequent storms are one of the consequences that the climate models and climate scientists predict from global warming.”
Falsehood one
(Read full column here.)
Don’t let others decide what you may not hear
Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (8:57am)
Cartoonist Patrick Cook gets it said about the Bill Leak piece I’ve linked to below - written when so few understand that free speech matters to them, too:
===You will have read Bill Leak’s forcible defence of his craft and your sense of humour ... You will, where applicable, have forwarded the link to your children to read Bill’s article on one of their devices. They may not otherwise know what is going on because they have been exposed to and bullied by political correctness, by word and by syllabus, ever since they entered kindy (where Stranger Danger has now been replaced by Early Childhood Grooming).
You might like to tell them where the term “political correctness” originated, and what it meant. SnapChat or Instagram illustrations of Stalin will help you to connect with the young folk. It meant that you will follow the party line or we will shoot you and your family will disappear. We don’t do that sort of thing nowadays, of course, unless we are bearded maniacs, advocates for and concerned citizens of the Islamic State community, and you have made mock of or questioned our motivation.
Political correctness is not enforced to protect the sensibilities and shield the vulnerabilities of the helpless and the different and the unfairly maligned. It is enforced to enhance the conceit and swell the power of the enforcers..
I was in Paris on the day of the Charlie Hebdo murders. The next morning I walked to their memorial, in the Place de la Republique, good sentiments there, set in stone, Liberty is the first of them. I laid a pen before the photos of the dead, for everyone in the fellowship of the pen, Bill included, because a pen was all I was packing.
The twerp Peter Carey said that the cartoonists got what they deserved. So I went around to Pete’s place and shot him. No, I didn’t. I chucked his books out, and carried on.
Here’s how it works. If you disapprove of the import of a joke, do not repeat it. Do not seek to pass laws to prevent the joke happening. If you disapprove of pictorial representations of people, and caricature springs to mind, do not draw them. Do not shoot people who do not think as you do.
Leak on those without humour
Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (8:56am)
Bill Leak is not just a great and fearless cartoonist. He can also write - and, again, without fear:
===Political correctness has been thriving in the Islamic world since the seventh century. Not even the smuggest, most self-righteous social justice warrior in Australia today could hold a candle to Mohammed, who made the anti-guy guy David Morrison look like Rodney Rude. Mohammed occasionally smiled but would never display his tonsils, though one of his disciples once did report excitedly that he “indeed saw the Messenger of Allah laugh till his front teeth were exposed”.Do read it all. And once again we are reminded that those without humor tend to be thugs.
He also advised his followers not to laugh because “laughing too much deadens the heart” and warned them off joking by saying: “A man may say something to make his companions laugh, and he will fall into Hell as far as the Pleiades because of it.” In other words, the reward for anyone telling jokes and making his mates laugh was to spend eternity burning in the fires of hell.
If you want to crack a gag at an Islamist open mic night you’ve got to make sure you stick within the guidelines as laid down in the Koran and Hadith. And that means “for humour to be in accordance with Islam, the joke should not insult anyone, should not frighten anyone, should be within the limits of Islamic tolerance, should tell the truth, should not be offensive, should not contain un-Islamic material or promote immorality or indecency”.
Sound familiar?
If you substitute PC for Islam in that set of rules you’ve got the rules governing humour as laid down by the progressive Left in the democracies of the modern world. Right there, in a nutshell. Except you’d have to leave out the one that demands you tell the truth because the primary purpose of PC is the avoidance of it.
Slippery slope Andrew Bolt June 13 2016 (8:55am)
2012:
===Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has resigned as Tony Abbott’s parliamentary secretary amid a fierce backlash over comments he made linking gay marriage to the social acceptance of having sex with animals..Canada, 2005:
During a Senate debate last night Senator Bernardi said the push for same-sex marriage was coming from “radicals” who were determined to overturn the social fabric of Australian society…
“The next step, quite frankly, is having three people or four people that love each other being able to enter into a permanent union endorsed by society - or any other type of relationship,” Senator Bernardi said.
“There are even some creepy people out there… [who] say it is OK to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals. “Will that be a future step?...”
Bill C-38, the law giving same-sex couples the legal right to marry, receives royal assent and becomes law.Canada now:
Sex acts with animals are legal in Canada, so long as there is no penetration involved, according to a surprise ruling issued by the Supreme Court.Germany, 2016:
Germany’s highest court Thursday threw out a challenge to the country’s laws banning sexual relations with animals brought by two plaintiffs identified only as “Mr. F” and “Mrs. S,” the Associated Press reported.(Thanks to many readers.)
The plaintiffs claimed they felt sexually attracted to animals, and argued Germany’s bestiality ban violated their right of “sexual self-determination.” The Federal Constitution Court said the law banning sexual activity with animals wasn’t disproportionate, and protecting animals from being sexually assaulted was a legitimate goal.
SISTA JUST A SISTER
Tim Blair – Friday, June 12, 2015 (11:41pm)
A black community leader in the US is exposed as a white chick with an Afro and a garage full of spray-on tan:
Rachel Dolezal, who heads Spokane’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter and teaches Africana studies at Eastern Washington University, refused to directly answer any questions about her alleged racial ruse after it was reported.A KXLY reporter bluntly asked her, “Are you African-American?”After a stunned pause, she replied: “I don’t understand the question.”The question of her race “is not as easy as it seems,” Dolezal told the Spokane Spokesman-Review.“We’re all from the African continent,” she added.
Dolezal was outed by her white parents, who presented photographs and birth records to local media.
At right, Rachel Dolezal as she is today, and at left during her earlier career as a white girl.
Parents Ruthanne and Lawrence told media their daughter is of Czech, Swedish and German background, with a dash of Native American thrown in. That was good enough for the NAACP in Spokane, an overwhelmingly white area:
At right, Rachel Dolezal as she is today, and at left during her earlier career as a white girl.
Parents Ruthanne and Lawrence told media their daughter is of Czech, Swedish and German background, with a dash of Native American thrown in. That was good enough for the NAACP in Spokane, an overwhelmingly white area:
James Wilburn, former president of the Spokane NAACP chapter, told the CDA press that Dolezal’s race was not what had qualified her for the position in the organisation.“It is traditional to have a person of colour in that position, but that hasn’t always been the case in Spokane,” Wilburn said. A woman of European descent was president in the 1990s, he added, and half of the chapter members were not black. “That is probably a result of the fact that only 1.9% of the population in Spokane is African American,” he said.
BBC reporter Mike Wendling was taken in by Dolezal’s act:
I talked to Dolezal in 2011 in a coffee shop in Spokane, Washington, while producing a BBC World Service documentary on a surge in extremist militia activity in America. She told us that she was of mixed racial heritage but that she primarily identified with her black ancestors. She matter-of-factly listed the abuse she says she received at the hands of racists, including threats, break-ins, and nooses being left at her workplace.At no time during our hour-long interview, or during a number of phone and email conversations before and after, did Dolezal give any cause to doubt her heritage.
It could be, of course, that BBC types are stupid – a suspicion strengthened by this paragraph further into Wendling’s report:
Dolezal’s story brought out others who defended her – and said they themselves identify with other ethnic groups. Godfrey Elfwick, a man who says he was born to white parents but identifies as being black, argues that there are many more people like him in a message retweeted more than 500 times: “I stand by #RachelDolezal. ... It’s not a joke and you have no right to shame us,” he says.
Impressively, this is the second time in less than two months that internet hoaxer Godfrey has pranked the BBC. If only he had a more memorable name.
(Via Fiona F.)
UPDATE. The many lies of Rachel Dolezal.
UPDATE II. You are what you is. Frank Zappa was wise to this race-jumping caper in 1981.
UPDATE III. Ben Ross, whose arm was broken last week during a wrestling match with fellow ex-NRL star Wendell Sailor, describes a frightening reverse-Rachel moment:
“I heard a snap and I didn’t know what had happened,’’ he said on Nine news last night.“When I looked up, my arm was at a different level. But then I looked at Wendell’s face and I knew something was wrong.“His face, if it’s possible, turned white.’’
Anything’s possible these days.
THEY DON’T LIKE BEING TOUCHED
Tim Blair – Friday, June 12, 2015 (9:20pm)
Today is International Hug a Climate Scientist Day. Sadly, Australia’s Asperger’s-addled climate science community has rejected this gesture of normal human affection, instead announcing a brutal campaign of industrial chaos:
Hundreds of scientists from CSIRO and other government agencies will begin walking off the job next Thursday …CSIRO is one of 16 public sector organisations and departments locked in a dispute over pay and conditions under the Abbott government’s public-sector bargaining policy, which prohibits wage increases unless they are traded for conditions or productivity increases.Scientists and researchers from the Bureau of Meteorology, the Department of Environment, the Australian Antarctic Division, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will also down tools.
Which, theoretically at least, should place them at even greater risk of being hugged. Except I don’t really think our sissy climate scientists will go through with it. Everybody knows that climate scientists have been too frightened to emerge from their fortified panic rooms since the Great Death Threat Alarm of 2011 – which eventually turned out to have been caused by a misheard conversation about Canberra’s marsupial population.
Too many anti-Liberal stories are barely enough for Fairfax
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (11:12am)
Today brings no clearer proof that Fairfax’s Internet audience is now far to the Left, and dragging the papers with it:
===Another AWU scandal. And once again the ABC looks away
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (11:04am)
Incredible. The ABC has run dead on the allegations that Labor leader Bill Shorten sold out workers as a union leader by making sweet-heart deals with union bosses in exchange for payments for union membership.
But the clearest example of the ABC running away from this story is this morning’s AMprogram, which failed to mention yesterday afternoon’s big story: that the royal commission had asked Shorten to give evidence about these matters.
UPDATE
Grace Collier describes the kind of scandals the ABC can’t see:
The Australian lists the questions for Shorten (that the ABC won’t ask):
===But the clearest example of the ABC running away from this story is this morning’s AMprogram, which failed to mention yesterday afternoon’s big story: that the royal commission had asked Shorten to give evidence about these matters.
UPDATE
Grace Collier describes the kind of scandals the ABC can’t see:
In Queensland, Justin Steele, a construction union member, appeared in court accused of assaulting a woman, a construction employer. Steele is the first to be arrested by the special police unit associated with the Heydon royal commission into trade union corruption.UPDATE
In NSW, Brian Parker, a construction union boss, stood aside after allegations were made against him at the royal commission, while in Victoria, Cesar Melhem, a state Labor politician, stepped down from his position as party whip after the royal commission criticised a workplace deal he and Paul Howes extended in 2010.
A memorandum of understanding, signed by Howes when he was AWU national secretary, continued a 2006 Work Choices enterprise agreement. Under this EBA, with Cleanevent Australia, workers are said to have collectively lost about $2 million a year in wages. The deal forfeits the right of employees to bargain for better wages or take industrial action. At the same time, the AWU received cash payments from the company…
The AWU rules say that only the boss of the union is allowed to authorise collective agreements, and Shorten will have signed oodles of them in his time…
It is not illegal for employers to just give money to unions, or even to pay the dues of union members, but it is reasonable to ask why this would happen. Already some employees have said to the royal commission they were joined up to the AWU without their agreement or knowledge. An employer has also confessed he put all his workers into the AWU because it was the best way of keeping other unions out of his workplace…
Businesses don’t sign their employees into unions, give unions lists of their workers’ names or give unions money without good commercial reasons, and the workers, as well as the wider public, deserve to know what those reasons are. .. This week, Shorten dumped Melhem like a hot potato. He denied doing deals that leave workers worse off.
The Australian lists the questions for Shorten (that the ABC won’t ask):
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
On The Bolt Report tomorrow, June 14
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (11:03am)
On Channel 10 tomorrow at 10am and 3pm.
Editorial: Did Bill Shorten sell out his union members?
My guest: Christopher Pyne, Education Minister and acting Employment Minister.
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Costa. Did Kevin Rudd save us from recession? Should people smugglers be bribed to turn around? Is the economy finally kicking into life? And how much trouble is Bill Shorten in?
NewsWatch: Piers Akerman, Daily Telegraph columnist, on the Hockey scandal and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: Did Bill Shorten sell out his union members?
My guest: Christopher Pyne, Education Minister and acting Employment Minister.
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Costa. Did Kevin Rudd save us from recession? Should people smugglers be bribed to turn around? Is the economy finally kicking into life? And how much trouble is Bill Shorten in?
NewsWatch: Piers Akerman, Daily Telegraph columnist, on the Hockey scandal and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
Daniel Andrews and the rule of mates
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (10:55am)
The Andrews Government is looking worse by the day - a real mates’-rates rabble:
===The establishment of Infrastructure Victoria will be rubberstamped by Daniel Andrews’ cabinet as early as Monday…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
(W)hat has Tim Pallas’ Treasury and senior figures in the sector gobsmacked is the Premier’s intention to appoint company director Elana Rubin as IV’s inaugural chair.
Rubin is also a director of Transurban Queensland. And it was Transurban that saved Andrews from his own East West Link mess by suddenly and selflessly proposing an alternative project: a $5.5 billion Western Distributor that will undoubtedly be funded substantially by taxpayers. How breathtakingly amateur of the Premier’s office, then, to think a senior Transurban figure could helm the state’s “independent body” on planning and development! ... But Andrews’ affinity for her likely comes down to her deep links with the trade union movement, including as the one-time chair of AustralianSuper.
Dumping Shorten is not impossible
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (10:49am)
Phil Coorey says dumping Bill Shorten isn’t as impossible for Labor as the new rules suggest:
===It is frequently stated that the new rules Kevin Rudd bequeathed Labor in 2013 have put an end to the leadership merry-go-round which has caused the party so much damage in recent years.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Under the changes adopted by caucus ... a sitting prime minister can only be dumped if at least 75 per cent of MPs and Senators support a spill. The threshold drops to 60 per cent to punt an opposition leader.
The other signature change was that in the event of a contested ballot for leader, caucus would pick the candidates but both the caucus and the rank-and-file members have a 50 per cent vote in deciding the winner (I)t is unclear whether the rules really would firewall Bill Shorten from any move to replace him before the next election… If the 60 per cent or 75 per cent thresholds proved too onerous for plotters, ultimately, it still only required 50 per cent-plus-one of the caucus to scrap the rules. And, if there were only one logical challenger to take over in the event of a spill, as is always the case, then the deterrent of going through the lengthy process of balloting both the caucus and the members would not be a factor.
The public understands what Abbott’s critics do not
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (8:50am)
The ABC is horrified. Some of the more Leftist ministers of the Abbott Government objected. Yet Gerard Henderson says the Prime Minister’s latest anti-terrorism plan has huge support in the polls:
The ABC discovers that too many Muslim groups will not help the Government’s latest attempt to defend us from the extremists in their community:
Jason Morrison suggests not everyone in Cabinet is on Tony Abbott’s anti-terrorism page:
As I told Peter Dutton last week on The Bolt Report, I couldn’t understand why the Government wanted a minister and not a court to decide who should lose their citizenship for suspected terrorism offences.
Now this:
(Thanks to readers John and Hugh.)
===According to the Essential Poll, 81 per cent of Australians approve of the proposal that dual national citizens who engage in terrorism should be deprived of their citizenship. Moreover, 73 per cent support such an act if a person is eligible to become a citizen of another country… There comes a time when democratic rights have to yield to national security considerations.UPDATE
Vanstone understood this during her time as a Howard government minister. Age columnists and ABC broadcasters do not have such serious responsibilities.
The ABC discovers that too many Muslim groups will not help the Government’s latest attempt to defend us from the extremists in their community:
SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: It’s billed as a regional summit, but… many Muslim leaders in Australia declined their invitations, and some key groups weren’t invited.UPDATE
RANDA KATTAN, ARAB COUNCIL AUSTRALIA: Different sections of the community, it has not been engaged, truly engaged in the process, and the reason for that is frankly the language that’s coming out of Canberra, out of the Government is extremely isolating, extremely- it places us in a position where we have to kind of decide whether you’re with us or against us, and it really- in fact, it tarnishes the entire community. KURANDA SEYIT, ISLAMIC COUNCIL OF VICTORIA: The Muslim community has a legitimate concern that the Government is probably overdoing the talking and not really doing enough walking.
Jason Morrison suggests not everyone in Cabinet is on Tony Abbott’s anti-terrorism page:
Hizb ut-Tahrir’s popularity was small. Now, they have branches in universities and an active membership in the thousands…UPDATE
Still they’re spreading their threatening message of open hatred towards Jews and plans for an Islamofascist state…
At a Liberal party-room meeting in March, Sydney Hills district MP Alex Hawke rightly asked the question: when is something going to be done?
It struck a nerve with the PM, who immediately showed his frustrations and, in front of all, turned it on his Attorney-General George Brandis, “Yes George, why the delay?”
Brandis started bloviating about academic free speech concerns.
Abbott cut him short and snapped back at his senior minister, “Can we get on with this?"… One long-serving Liberal said of the Prime Minister’s reaction: “I’ve never seen him do his block like that with a minister in front of the party room.”
As I told Peter Dutton last week on The Bolt Report, I couldn’t understand why the Government wanted a minister and not a court to decide who should lose their citizenship for suspected terrorism offences.
Now this:
The government’s proposed legislation to strip terror suspects of their citizenship by ministerial discretion is based on a mistaken reading of advice from one of its top experts on national security law.I think Malcolm Turnbull is right:
Bret Walker SC, the former independent national security legislation monitor, said yesterday he had called for a system that gave central importance to the courts, instead of relying on ministerial discretion.
But under legislation to be introduced in the next fortnight, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will be granted the discretion to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals, with only limited judicial review of the minister’s decision…
But Mr Walker said this had been intended to work with the existing mechanism in the Citizenship Act that permits the minister to revoke the citizenship of those convicted of offences listed in the legislation.
“This is based on what already exists in section 34 (of the Citizenship Act) and that, of course, has as its fulcrum that there is a conviction,” Mr Walker said. He favoured a system in which citizenship could not be revoked by the minister without the trigger of a conviction. “They have to prove that you have done the thing,” he said. “Upon that being done, the minister can then say, ‘I see you have been convicted. I say it is in the public interest that you lose your dual citizenship’,” Mr Walker said. He said a system based on ministerial discretion was “the antithesis of conservative thinking”.
The reality, however, in moral and policy terms is that citizens who commit to participation in terrorist organisations such as Islamic State or Daesh should have their citizenship revoked short of being rendered stateless. This principle has credence in current law where section 35 of the citizenship act automatically revokes citizenship when an individual serves in a foreign army fighting Australia…For citizens in Australia, though, let the government put the case to the courts. True, there is little reason to trust a number of judges to take the threat seriously enough, but politicians, too, make mistakes,
Malcolm Turnbull, for example, has said he would like to “modernise” section 35 so that it applies automatically not just to somebody who fights in a foreign army but who goes to fight with Daesh in Iraq and Syria. But the intent of Abbott and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton goes beyond this to greater ministerial discretion.
(Thanks to readers John and Hugh.)
Correcting the Nobel laureate’s “sexist” joke: when you criticise them they sack you
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (8:34am)
The worst way to prove a scientist wrong when he complains that women are too sensitive is to force him to resign for being so insensitive:
(Thanks to reader Duncan.)
===British Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tim Hunt has resigned from his post at University College London over controversial comments he made about female scientists…The next Nobel Prize should go to a scientist who finds a cure for exaggerated offence-taking.
The 72-year-old said his comments, made at a lunch for women attending the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, were intended to be light-hearted but also “honest"… Hunt, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of protein molecules that control the division of cells, [said:] “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls… Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry.”
(Thanks to reader Duncan.)
Why does the ABC publish such vicious hate? Why does it attract such haters?
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (8:20am)
There are three obvious questions about the comments underneath the report on Rupert Murdoch on the taxpayer-funded ABC’s Facebook site:
2. How does the ABC justify publishing such vile abuse, using its vast state power?
3. Why do so many Murdoch critics, who presume to represent a higher morality, sound so vicious and mean?
(Thanks to reader Gaetano.)
===1. What sort of haters has the ABC attracted and coached?
2. How does the ABC justify publishing such vile abuse, using its vast state power?
3. Why do so many Murdoch critics, who presume to represent a higher morality, sound so vicious and mean?
(Thanks to reader Gaetano.)
Another CBUS executive sacked over leak to CFMEU
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (7:47am)
The royal commission into union corruption is turning up material that’s even too embarrassing for the unions and their moneyed mates:
===A second senior employee with superannuation fund Cbus has been sacked for leaking private information of fund members to the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.(Thanks to reader Jackpott.)
Senior counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, Sarah McNaughton, said on Wednesday that Maria Butera’s position as a Cbus manager has been terminated. It follows the sacking of Lisa Zanatta who, with the knowledge of Ms Butera, hand-delivered the private information to the CFMEU.
The warming scare will not die - despite the cost and the evidence - because the Left needs it
Andrew Bolt June 13 2015 (7:43am)
Matt Ridley on the horrific cost in cash and lives of the global warming movement:
There has been no real warming of the atmosphere for 17 years. There has been no increase in cyclones, and little evidence of a worldwide increase of droughts. Most of the low-lying Pacific and Indian ocean islands we were once warned were drowning are either stable or growing in size. The world’s main food crops have had record harvests. The Arctic has not melted away, after all, and the Antarctic sea ice has been at record levels. Our dams are as full as ever.
In short, the catastrophe that warmists and our top scientific bodies have warned of for years has not come. It is now doubtful it will ever come.
Yet to this day, journalists, green groups, AMA president Brian Owler, politicians and many (but far from all) scientists insist global warming is a massive threat and continue to push vastly expensive schemes that would actually not stop global warming even if it was occurring.
Why?
Steven Hayward suggests an answer:
A warmist comes to praise:
(Via Rafe Champion.)
===Climate policy is already doing harm. Building wind turbines, growing biofuels and substituting wood for coal in power stations — all policies designed explicitly to fight climate change — have had negligible effects on carbon dioxide emissions. But they have driven people into fuel poverty, made industries uncompetitive, driven up food prices, accelerated the destruction of forests, killed rare birds of prey, and divided communities. To name just some of the effects. Mr Goklany estimates that globally nearly 200,000 people are dying every year, because we are turning 5 per cent of the world’s grain crop into motor fuel instead of food: that pushes people into malnutrition and death. In [Britain], 65 people a day are dying because they cannot afford to heat their homes properly, according to Christine Liddell of the University of Ulster, yet the government is planning to double the cost of electricity to consumers by 2030.UPDATE
As Bjorn Lomborg has pointed out, the European Union will pay £165 billion for its current climate policies each and every year for the next 87 years. Britain’s climate policies — subsidising windmills, wood-burners, anaerobic digesters, electric vehicles and all the rest — is due to cost us £1.8 trillion over the course of this century. In exchange for that Brobdingnagian sum, we hope to lower the air temperature by about 0.005?C — which will be undetectable by normal thermometers. The accepted consensus among economists is that every £100 spent fighting climate change brings £3 of benefit.
There has been no real warming of the atmosphere for 17 years. There has been no increase in cyclones, and little evidence of a worldwide increase of droughts. Most of the low-lying Pacific and Indian ocean islands we were once warned were drowning are either stable or growing in size. The world’s main food crops have had record harvests. The Arctic has not melted away, after all, and the Antarctic sea ice has been at record levels. Our dams are as full as ever.
In short, the catastrophe that warmists and our top scientific bodies have warned of for years has not come. It is now doubtful it will ever come.
Yet to this day, journalists, green groups, AMA president Brian Owler, politicians and many (but far from all) scientists insist global warming is a massive threat and continue to push vastly expensive schemes that would actually not stop global warming even if it was occurring.
Why?
Steven Hayward suggests an answer:
Try this out as a thought experiment: what would happen if, tomorrow morning, we had definitive proof that catastrophic climate change was impossible, wasn’t happening, and would never happen. Would Al Gore breathe a big sigh of relief…UPDATE
Of course not. The general reaction from environmentalists and the left would be a combination of outrage and despair. The need to believe in oneself as part of the agency of human salvation runs deep for leftists and environmentalists who have made their obsessions a secular religion. And humanity doesn’t need salvation if there is no sin in the first place. Hence human must be sinners—somehow—in need of redemption from the left…
Activist liberal elites always need a Grand Cause to satisfy their messianic needs, or for the political equivalent of a dopamine rush. For such people, the only thing worse that catastrophic climate change is the catastrophe of not having a catastrophe to obsess over—and use as an excuse to extend political control over people and resources…
A warmist comes to praise:
Alan Jones, Ray Hadley, Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine and the like have done a very good job of linking climate change to bongo-playing, weed-smoking hippy lefties.Aw, shucks. But, really, I couldn’t have done it without the help of those “lefties”.
(Via Rafe Champion.)
Subsidising the Green family. UPDATE: Pinata found!
Andrew Bolt June 12 2015 (11:26pm)
A second job - also taxpayer funded - for ABC host Jonathan Green:
UPDATE
But what a cosy and very small world our grants subsidise. Take Green’s friend Sophie Cunningham, who in 2007 attended an election night party at Green’s house where guests were invited to bash a John Hoard piñata with a stick. I did have a photograph of the event, but alas:
UPDATE
Found! Reader Warren says Cunningham’s picture of Green’s Howard piñata is still published here.
===MUP is delighted to announce the appointment of Jonathan Green as editor of Meanjin.I’m certain that some at the Melbourne University Press are particularly delighted by that appointment. I’m thinking of Green’s wife and now colleague, Sally Heath, who last year placed this advertisement:
Applications are invited for the position of Editor of Meanjin, one of Australia’s most significant literary publications…I’m not saying Heath appointed her husband. That decision was made above her pay grade.
Further information is available from: Sally Heath, Executive Publisher 11-15 Argyle Place South, Carlton, 3053 heath[at]unimelb.edu.au
UPDATE
But what a cosy and very small world our grants subsidise. Take Green’s friend Sophie Cunningham, who in 2007 attended an election night party at Green’s house where guests were invited to bash a John Hoard piñata with a stick. I did have a photograph of the event, but alas:
The image of the Howard pinata in Green’s tree that was here has been taken down by order of Green friend Sophie Cunningham, the owner of the site which proudly displayed the picture for two years but now fears it may hurt Green to be shown on this blog.Cunningham was a Meanjin editor, too, until she was replaced by Heath, and then kicked on to head a body which gave Meanjin government grants:
Sophie Cunningham… is a former editor of Meanjin and was until recently the chair of the Australia Council’s Literature Board.Cunningham’s board turned out to be very generous to the far-Left Meanjin and very ungenerous to a conservative competitor, as Keith Windschuttle noted in 2012:
Last month, the Literature Board of the Australia Council slashed its annual grant to Quadrant magazine ... from the $40,000 we received in 2012, to just $20,000 for 2013....What a tight club is our taxpayer-funded literati. They say they are looking after the disadvantaged, but their greatest success seems to me to lie in looking after each other.
As I wrote in a letter to all subscribers last month, the Literature Board has made a blatantly political decision…
Meanjin, for instance, is published only four times a year, compared to Quadrant’s ten issues, and carries less literary content in each of those editions than we do. In its Autumn 2012 edition, Meanjin published three pieces of short fiction and 12 works of poetry, while in December 2012 Quadrant published two pieces of short fiction and 27 works of poetry. Meanjin sells less than 1,000 copies per edition, while Quadrant’s subscription and newsagent sales total 5,500 copies per edition. Yet the Australia Council rewards Meanjin with a privileged position as one of its “key organisations”, which guarantees funding for three-year periods, while Quadrant is made to stand in line like a naughty boy and re-apply for funds each year… So when the Gillard government this year appointed former Meanjin editor and left-wing feminist, Sophie Cunningham, as chair of the Literature Board, we knew what to expect. Still, we did not anticipate such a ruthless and heavy discounting of our good name. Under Cunningham’s editorship, Meanjin published at least one derogatory article about Quadrant and several articles and blogs about me in particular. With such a track record, she was obviously an interested party and should have stepped aside from any decision about our funding.
UPDATE
Found! Reader Warren says Cunningham’s picture of Green’s Howard piñata is still published here.
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Any day now, the report of the U.N.'s controversial Schabas-Davis commission of inquiry on Gaza will be released. Here's...
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Took me far too long.
Posted by UNILAD on Monday, 20 August 2012
I told them it was useful in daily life. They never listened. https://t.co/RBYNCLpuW3 via @YouTube
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
===
I liked a @YouTube video from @mfceoyeager http://t.co/dKj2gP9dMU Hot Crazy Matrix - A Man's Guide to Women
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Photo: oatmeal: More stupid puns here. http://t.co/Cgw5ysR8pi
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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An inflated story to protect Shorten re corruption? Pressure mounts on PM to deny boat claims http://t.co/1Pm3Skfj3y via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Humour aside, there needs to be competent opposition. LibDems Ask Crosby Textor Fullbrook for Help http://t.co/LOikJyYB8D via @guidofawkes
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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In her defence she would not have been paid for being white. http://t.co/unHxvx3TUj
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Why is saying ‘thank you’ so insensitive? | http://t.co/sctuOeYrF0http://t.co/WylB8md9Uv
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
===
If in doubt, practice kindness and grace http://t.co/igXPFglPch
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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How literati argue against conservatives The final moments #flickrhttps://t.co/WWpNGswSsf
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Twitter axes private message limit http://t.co/SWWzzTabgU via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Mexico cheer-dance Nazi routine criticised http://t.co/TEnZco6Tvs via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Incompetent Penis thinks free trade means we will pay more for our meds http://t.co/9CcecyzZax via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Remember what you ate .. How to trick yourself into losing weight http://t.co/njLKy7BH8S via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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The high school entrepreneurs who pull six-figure salaries for their web skills http://t.co/pCzIvUwXKa via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Warning, faces pixilated. ‘How I fell for a Chinese sex scam’ http://t.co/DmNhk7vR0H via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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No. Would getting rid of negative gearing actually save money? http://t.co/izzuaVySF0 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
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Tim Robards: The exercise that could change your life http://t.co/VdnzlHTPfwvia @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) June 13, 2015
=== Posts from last year ===
Not-so-great Scott needs to be reined in
Piers Akerman – Friday, June 13, 2014 (5:52am)
ABC editor-in- chief Mark Scott has given serial cause to be sacked for incompetence during his exorbitantly paid tenure at the head of the taxpayer-funded broadcaster — and probably would have been if he had answered to a board with any courage.
On a salary of more than $800,000 including super and bonuses — $300,000 more than the prime minister — Scott could reasonably be expected to perform the duties attached to his title.
Those might include a regular attendance at the daily conferences of key news managers and producers when the news line-up is discussed. Editor-in-chief Scott is not only a no-show, but his participation has never been discussed.
Nor does he take part in the commissioning conferences at the decision-making level where ABC programming is planned.
One of the things usually attached to a CEO’s big salary is a modicum of responsibility for the performance of the organisation he or she is paid to run. Scott hasn’t shown he understands that side of the deal. He obviously can’t control The Chaser or its crew, though he is ultimately responsible for the garbage they produce.
As editor-in-chief he must take responsibility for the content of the ABC’s news and current affairs, as well as its other programming.
This week, the Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption has heard evidence that would strongly suggest former PM Julia Gillard was given money obtained from a union slush fund by her ex- boyfriend Bruce Wilson, which she used to pay for renovations to a house she owned in Melbourne. Ms Gillard has denied all allegations of any impropriety.
The same commission also heard allegations that Opposition Leader Bill Shorten made threats to a former senior officer of the AWU, Bob Kernohan, and that Kernohan, who had been handed pre-selection to a safe Victorian state Labor seat, subsequently lost that endorsement (it went to Shorten but he withdrew).
Further, Kernohan was sent bullets in the post and was viciously bashed in a manner that was not unlike the punishing bruising meted out to former NSW state Labor MP Peter Baldwin when he stood up to the NSW Right machine in 1980.
Most news organisations, let alone their editors-in-chief, would consider allegations naming a prime minister or an opposition leader worthy of leading their newspapers or bulletins. Not so the ABC under Scott’s leadership. After the astounding allegations were made on oath in the commission’s sitting in Sydney on Wednesday, they didn’t even make it to the first half of the ABC’s NSW evening television news.
But the ABC (and later Fairfax) had made much of a leaked statement made by Gillard’s former boyfriend Wilson, which made unsupported and subsequently unanimously rejected claims about some of the witnesses testifying against him.
The ABC’s flagship current affairs program, 7.30, prosecuted a ferocious line of interrogation against retired lawyer Harry Nowicki, who formerly represented the deregistered Builders Labourers Federation, but failed to substantiate any of Wilson’s allegations. It appears to have been running a defence for Wilson and through that, also for Gillard.
That’s not surprising. The ABC is well-entrenched among the supporters of the women-only political slush fund Emily’s List, who uphold the view that Gillard was unfairly criticised because she was a woman, not because she was demonstratively incompetent.
Though it is nearly nine months since Gillard was dumped by the voters, her shadow still looms large over the ABC mindset.
Thus it was no surprise to see aged US Democrat congressman Henry Waxman used as a prop by ABC reporter Sarah Ferguson to beat up a story about Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s policy to dump the ineffective carbon tax.
It’s just a question of joining the dots.
Waxman’s link to Australia is Bruce Wolpe, a vocal global warmist, who happens to have been a senior adviser to Gillard (and still lists that role on his Linkedin profile). Wolpe is a former communications director at Fairfax, where he shared the views of most inmates of that sheltered workshop.
He worked for Waxman between his gig at Fairfax and in Gillard’s office, where he was charged with liaising with the business.
His success can be gauged by the business community’s unanimous rejection of the Gillard government’s economy-destroying policies.
In reality, what goes to air on the ABC is not decided nor vetted in any practical way by the editor-in-chief or senior management.
In the ABC, Australia’s Big Collective, such decisions are taken at program level and at best the ABC operates more like a university with inter-program fights taking the place of inter-faculty rivalries as key on-air presenters and producers, many of whom have spent their entire careers within the ABC and built their own mini empires, jostle to present their leftist version of events.
Only after the shows have aired does the editor-in-chief and the other highly paid executives on the 14th floor of Ultimo HQ discover what their organisation has broadcast. Scott is an engaging fellow but has never cleaned out the clique of former Fairfax, former Labor staffers who make up his inner circle.
There have been a couple of appointments from News Corp recently, but until the complacent ABC board decides otherwise, no one will be permitted to be the CEO of “our” ABC unless they are compliant to the wishes of the staff.
GOOD SENSE AND POWER GAMES ARE POLES APART
WHAT a stunning vision NSW Premier Mike Baird has offered the state in return for the long-term lease of less than half of the poles and wires carrying the state’s power. What a dismally bleak outlook Opposition Leader John Robertson put forward to frighten the electorate.
The contrast between Premier Baird’s approach and that of the former union boss could not have been greater. I know how hard it was for some of the National MPs to agree to the deal. In small regional communities every job is extremely important and electricity jobs have traditionally been long-lasting and reliable. Essential to the ongoing viability of the town.
But if NSW is to continue to match pace with the rest of the world, and particularly those nations in our region with which we are trying to compete in the service industries, we need to ensure that the state’s infrastructure can meet the demands of the future.
At the moment, the state’s infrastructure doesn’t meet the current needs of the people. Anyone who gets out of Macquarie St knows NSW is in need of a fix.
Last weekend I was in Adelaide and Melbourne. Adelaide is locked in a ‘60s time warp with ‘50 overtones. Melbourne, by comparison, works far better.
Both, however, function more effectively than Sydney.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore is an impediment to progress as far as the inner city goes, relying on the retrogressive elements of society to maintain her stranglehold on the city, but that’s beside the point.
The problem lies where the rubber meets — or doesn’t meet — the road. Our highways and freeways are medieval after Melbourne’s.
Our commuters suffer daily. Unlocking $20 billion in infrastructure funding, including $6 billion for regional NSW, makes sense.
Smarter and more successful Labor figures with union backgrounds, including former Labor Treasurer Michael Costa, argue the proposals are “sensible and moderate” and the “right thing to do”.
Premier Baird has put his political life on the line. Others tried and were thwarted by idiots playing politics. NSW needs this now.
OUR GIFT TO THE WORLD
Tim Blair – Friday, June 13, 2014 (3:06pm)
Women want him. Men want to be like him. Presenting Hector the coal mascot.
Kernohan claim to royal commission: Shorten despised Gillard’s link to communist party
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (11:45am)
From former AWU Victorian president Bob Kernohan’s sworn statement to the royal commission into trade union corruption:
===“118. I knew of Ms. GILLARD back then only in passing at ALP conferences. Bill SHORTEN knew her better than me and he told me that WILSON and GILLARD was an item going back to 1992. I remember that Bill SHORTEN told me on numerous occasions that he despised GILLARD because of her links to the Communist Party.”Julia Gillard was on the management committee of the Socialist Forum, recycling former members of the Communist Party into Labor. In the 1980s she explained this infiltration of the Labor Party:
For the Left to make any real advance all these perspectives on the relationship to Labor in government need to be rejected in favour of a concept of strategic support for Labor governments. We need to recognise the only possibility for major social change is under a long period of Labor administration. Within that administration the Left needs to be willing to participate to shape political outcomes, recognising the need to except (sic) often unpalatable compromises in the short term to bolster the prospect of future advance.(Thanks to reader George Orwell.)
Fairfax worships a new God
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (10:48am)
Mark Kenny and the Sydney Morning Herald sum up the dominant Fairfax prejudices beyond the point of parody: Tony Abbott is a slave to stupid Christianity when the truth faith is global warming and Barack Obama is God:
===Abbott-haters and warmists confounded: Obama and Abbott hold warm meeting
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (10:18am)
The anti-Abbott beat-up is exposed. Remember all the hungry predictions by Leftist reporters that Barack Obama would whack Tony Abbott over climate change in their White House meeting?
Fairfax’s Mark Kenny predicted a weakened bond:
UPDATE
Unable to accept the failure of her predictions of a frosty meeting, the ABC’s Lisa Millar tries one last time to get Obama’s spokesman to comment on Abbott’s “offensive” statements. Still no luck, though:
More interested in trying to winkle out some criticism of Abbott rather than explore what he’d actually achieved.
(Thanks to reader Cyanpixie.)
===Fairfax’s Mark Kenny predicted a weakened bond:
Fundamental differences over climate-change policy continue to hamper Tony Abbott’s capacity to build links in the US as both President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon want more support from Australia for international action on carbon dioxide emissions.The Guardian’s Lenore Taylor hoped and prayed:
As Obama and Abbott prepare for their first formal meeting in Washington on Thursday, the differences between their positions on global warming are clearer than ever, and according to diplomatic sources the president will not seek to downplay them.Fairfax’s Peter Hannan, in a front-page story in The Age, warned of a damaging showdown:
... a top adviser to the Obama administration on climate change said Australia could jeopardise its relationship with the United States if the Abbott government fails to fall into line on climate policy.The ABC’s North American correspondent, Lisa Millar, hoped for the worst:
When the Prime Minister arrives at the White House, there will be none of the fanfare that has welcomed previous Prime Ministers, the lack of regard seems mutual...The ABC is now forced to report the truth as opposed to the beat-up - deeper ties, no climate change showdown and expressions of warmth:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and US president Barack Obama have agreed to a new defence initiative which paves the way for extra American military forces and activity in Australia.Publicly, there were only expressions of warmth and a deepening of ties:
During wide-ranging talks at the White House, the pair also discussed their different approaches to climate change, with both agreeing they would like energy efficiency on the G20 agenda… Mr Obama reportedly said he understood the Australian Government had a mandate for its policy, while Mr Abbott said the fuel excise is already acting as a carbon price signal to improve energy efficiency.
Perhaps tellingly, the topic was not raised in front of the cameras. Regional trade and investment came first.... ... the meeting of political opposites appeared warm.
Obama described Australia as one of a handful of countries that the U.S. can always count on. “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,” he said.Real tense - not:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: So thank you, Tony.Yeah, here’s Obama showing Abbott his “lack of regard”:
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT: Well, thank you so much, Barack.
When Mr Abbott told the President he had to stop by Honolulu to refuel on his way home, the President’s eyes lit up.So all those preview pieces predicting tensions proved ill-informed, driven by prejudice rather than analysis. Yet another example of how global warming evangelism blinds believers.
“You work too hard Tony,” the President said.
“You should try and get a surf in while you are there,” he said.
It was a jovial end to what was a successful first meeting between the two since Mr Abbott was elected. And it had been a similar start to their summit as they joked about the fact that the 9 foot Malibu Mr Abbott had given the President as an official gift from Australia, was too big to fit into the oval office.
UPDATE
Unable to accept the failure of her predictions of a frosty meeting, the ABC’s Lisa Millar tries one last time to get Obama’s spokesman to comment on Abbott’s “offensive” statements. Still no luck, though:
Incredible.
More interested in trying to winkle out some criticism of Abbott rather than explore what he’d actually achieved.
(Thanks to reader Cyanpixie.)
Aly does it again: excusing a terrorist movement as just Western blowback
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (10:15am)
Fairfax columnist and Muslim apologist Waleed Aly did it with Boko Haram and does it again with Iraq. Don’t mention Islam!
In Iraq we have Islamist extremists - led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - slaughtering Shiites, attacking the Iraqi democracy and claiming a new Islamic Sunni state in the north of Iraq and Syria.
Who does Aly blame? The West:
And what words never pass his lips in this article? Yes, “Islam” and “Muslim”.
True, he does mention “Islamic” - but only once, in noting the Sunni force involved is indeed the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Nowhere does Aly describe Islam’s role in fostering such violence and contempt for democracy, whether in Iraq, Egypt or Syria, all countries he discusses in this piece. No, just blame the West for Muslims slaughtering Muslims to impose a fascist state.
It’s always the West, which makes Aly’s piece reads dangerously like an apologia for Islamist extremism of the deadliest kind.
But just to underline Aly’s slipperiness, here is the core of his argument. The West was stupid to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq and thus unleash this terrorist “blowback”. But it was stupid not to remove Bashar al-Assad in Syria and thus allow this terrorist uprising. Whatever it chooses, the West is wrong:
It is impossible to ignore the influence of Islam in this conflict:
===In Iraq we have Islamist extremists - led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - slaughtering Shiites, attacking the Iraqi democracy and claiming a new Islamic Sunni state in the north of Iraq and Syria.
Who does Aly blame? The West:
We haven’t yet come to terms with just how much damage the invasion of Iraq has done. It’s likely we won’t fully know for decades. But it’s clear that the blowback is already under way...Predictably, Aly does not even mention a more telling fact: that the US pulled out prematurely from Iraq in 2011, leaving a vacuum that terrorists now fill. Nor does he mention that the regime the West toppled in 2003 was one of the most brutal known, responsible for starting two wars and a genocide. If he believes that regime should have been left in place he should say so explicitly and reckon what that would have cost in more lives lost.
And what words never pass his lips in this article? Yes, “Islam” and “Muslim”.
True, he does mention “Islamic” - but only once, in noting the Sunni force involved is indeed the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Nowhere does Aly describe Islam’s role in fostering such violence and contempt for democracy, whether in Iraq, Egypt or Syria, all countries he discusses in this piece. No, just blame the West for Muslims slaughtering Muslims to impose a fascist state.
It’s always the West, which makes Aly’s piece reads dangerously like an apologia for Islamist extremism of the deadliest kind.
But just to underline Aly’s slipperiness, here is the core of his argument. The West was stupid to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq and thus unleash this terrorist “blowback”. But it was stupid not to remove Bashar al-Assad in Syria and thus allow this terrorist uprising. Whatever it chooses, the West is wrong:
Obama ran an anaemic campaign for military intervention in Syria that went nowhere. These days he regards Syria merely as “somebody else’s civil war”.UPDATE
We will never know what would have happened had America intervened at that stage. But we do know that Bashar al-Assad had free reign to unleash brutal force, thereby radicalising the environment and laying down a magnet for Sunni terrorist groups. And we now know that those groups are enmeshed with those in Iraq.... Mosul is in terrorist hands because we blew the lid off Iraq, then refused to help put it back on Syria.
It is impossible to ignore the influence of Islam in this conflict:
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has imposed a strict set of Sharia laws on the citizens of Nineveh province just days after capturing the provincial capital of Mosul.
In a document circulating on social media attributed to the group, Isis warned tribal leaders and sheikhs not to “work with [the Iraqi] government and be traitors” while proclaiming that women should only go outside if absolutely necessary.
“For women, dress decently and wear wide clothes. Only go out if needed,” read the document ...
The document added that Isis wish to destroy all shrines and graves, in reference to Shia shrines in towns such as Samarra where fighting is continuing. “For those asking who are you? We are soldiers of Islam and took on our responsiblity to bring back glory of the Islamic Caliphate… Anyone who steals [will have their] hands cut,” the document translation read.
The Bolt Report on Sunday
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (9:39am)
A cracker of a line-up for the show this week.
Editorial: It’s not one Tanya Plibersek and a few journalists will want to watch.
My guest: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Iraq and Abbott’s meeting with Obama.
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa on welfarism, the Budget, the AWU scandal and more.
NewsWatch: Rowan Dean. Examining the media narrative of a stumble-bum PM.
Plus: a Senate embarrassment.
On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm.
The videos of the shows appear here.
Oh, and once again we’ve tried to get Labor shadow ministers onto the show.
===Editorial: It’s not one Tanya Plibersek and a few journalists will want to watch.
My guest: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Iraq and Abbott’s meeting with Obama.
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa on welfarism, the Budget, the AWU scandal and more.
NewsWatch: Rowan Dean. Examining the media narrative of a stumble-bum PM.
Plus: a Senate embarrassment.
On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm.
The videos of the shows appear here.
Oh, and once again we’ve tried to get Labor shadow ministers onto the show.
Richo: Turnbull doing a Rudd
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (9:16am)
Graham Richardson is not the only commentator to wonder whether I wasn’t right about Malcolm Turnbull’s ambitions and strategy, after all:
And, again, the caveat that was ignored last time: Turnbull is not actively agitating for the leadership, and almost no Liberal MP would have him anyway.
What’s more, I doubt very, very much there will be a vacancy this side of the election.
===Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones hopped into him and he belted them right back…Looking forward to Turnbull now attacking Richo as “bordering on the demented”, “deranged” and “unhinged”. But of course there are reasons Turnbull finds it more useful to demonise me than to demonise Richo. That, too, is part of his strategy.
Just as I was beginning to accept that he was merely defending himself and was in no way pursuing a strategy of keeping his name before the public in case Tony Abbott stumbled and fell, I received a call from Tony Burke, the manager of opposition business.... Burke reminded me that Rudd worked out that the caucus would only ever turn in his direction if he became so popular with the public that he could not be ignored… The parallels between Rudd and Turnbull are hard to miss… With the Prime Minister away Turnbull came out to play just as Rudd did when Gillard went overseas.
And, again, the caveat that was ignored last time: Turnbull is not actively agitating for the leadership, and almost no Liberal MP would have him anyway.
What’s more, I doubt very, very much there will be a vacancy this side of the election.
Bruce Wilson’s story - and a document that challenges it
Andrew Bolt June 13 2014 (8:59am)
Bruce Wilson’s day in the dock summed up:
UPDATE
Hedley Thomas:
===JULIA Gillard’s former union boyfriend has admitted to extracting large sums of money from the Thiess construction company for a secret slush fund he set up with legal assistance from the then future Labor prime minister…Julia Gillard insists she did nothing wrong, did not know how the slush fund operated, did not benefit from the fund and paid for her renovations herself.
Mr Wilson, a former Australian Workers Union official, went out of his way in evidence to the commission yesterday to distance Ms Gillard from wrongdoing by insisting that she had no role in the operations of the AWU Workplace Reform Association after helping him create it in 1992.
He also rejected as “lies” the sworn evidence given to the commission by builder Athol James on Wednesday that Mr Wilson paid for renovations on Ms Gillard’s Melbourne house, and that Mr James saw Mr Wilson give Ms Gillard “a large amount of cash” to cover her cheque payments for the work…
It heard from former AWU bagman Ralph Blewitt last month that he handed over $7000 in cash from the slush fund on Mr Wilson’s orders to pay tradesmen when Ms Gillard was present at the house…
Mr Wilson told the commission yesterday that Mr Blewitt never paid tradesmen in “bib-and-brace overalls” at the Gillard house as he had claimed…
At no time did he pay for Ms Gillard’s renovations, Mr Wilson said…
The former AWU official — who should face criminal charges for fraud and conspiracy over the slush fund, according to commission counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar SC — rejected the allegation he “deliberately and knowingly” set up the AWU Workplace Reform Association as a device to obtain funds from Thiess…
[H]e insisted that Ms Gillard had no role in the fund after providing legal advice to set it up. He said he never raised with her how the association would raise money… He said Ms Gillard had helped draft the rules…
While Mr Wilson conceded that Thiess paid money to the fund for almost a year in return for no services and that “in part” he did conceal its existence from others at the union, he denied that invoices sent to the company were false.
He claimed he hired AWU official Glen Ivory, who died in 2004, to perform training services with Thiess… In a surprise move, Mr Stoljar produced a sworn statement to police made by Mr Ivory in 1997, in which the former AWU official said he and the union’s executive were never made aware of the Workplace Reform Association, and he never worked for it as a training officer…
Mr Wilson confirmed that money from the slush fund was used to partly fund the purchase of a house in the Melbourne suburb Fitzroy in 1993, and that he had a power of attorney document arranged by Ms Gillard so he could bid for the property at an auction on Mr Blewitt’s behalf. The house was mortgaged to Slater & Gordon. Funding for the Fitzroy house came from the slush fund, but the house was bought in Mr Blewitt’s name “in part” to keep activities of the AWU Workplace Relations Association concealed from others in the AWU.
UPDATE
Hedley Thomas:
JULIA Gillard went for the jugular in a withering attack 18 months ago. Her target, Ralph Blewitt, a corrupt union official in the AWU slush fund scandal, had been speaking openly to The Australian and Victoria Police, incriminating himself and Bruce Wilson in an alleged fraud — and implicating her by claiming she was a vital cog in its machinery and even a beneficiary of cash....Ouch.
Gillard let fly. “You can work out who you believe: the person who is standing here, prime minister of Australia, who has done nothing wrong, or the man who says he’s guilty and is looking for an immunity. Mr Blewitt, according to people who know him, has been described as a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar, and his sister has said he’s a crook and rotten to the core. His word against mine. Make your mind up.” The lead lawyer in Australia’s national royal commission into union corruption, Jeremy Stoljar, SC, has made his mind up.
There is worse to come. The inquiry has flagged investigations into a second Wilson slush fund, involving one of Gillard’s closest friends, Robyn McCleod.
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Heavenly Father,I thank You for the promise to fill my hunger. I open my heart to You and ask that You draw me by Your Spirit. Teach me to walk in Your ways of righteousness that I may honor and serve You all the days of my life. I bless Your name today. In Jesus’ name....
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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6, NIV) Just like you have to stop what you are doing to take time to eat in the natural, you have to take time to “eat” or partake of the right things spiritually. We have to...
===Graphic Quotes: Barack Hussein Obama
http://
“To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structured feminists and punk-rock performance poets.” Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father
===
Larry Pickering
PAROLE BOARD RESPONSIBLE FOR JILL’S DEATH... and police were fast asleep
Facts were reported (illegally, due to a suppression order) in the Pickering Post on September 30, 2012.
This germ Bayley had at least 16 convictions for violent rape, there were many more unaccounted for and he was prematurely out on parole.
He was a person very well-known to police and there had been a rash of rape reports in inner Melbourne suburbs prior to Jill Meagher’s murder.
A German backpacker was raped in StKilda only weeks before Jill went missing and had given police an excellent description of a ginger-headed man.
Police had issued an identikit pic of the assailant yet didn’t even recognise Bayley from their own description!
They made public a copy of a bridal shop’s CCT video and asked TV audiences for assistance to identify a person they already knew. WTF?
Why police cars didn’t immediately arrive at Bayley’s address demanding an alibi is astounding. And where the hell was his parole officer?
Oh yes, his parole officer had tipped him off that the police might be on to him. Even Bayley’s parents had told police that he was likely to re-offend again while on parole. Incredible!
A report written three years ago, recommended that "immediate priority" be given to fixing a Victorian Police problem: The report revealed that 11 (eleven) "parolees" were charged with murder between July 1, 2008, and November 17, 2010.
What the hell has been going on in Victoria?
When he raped and murdered Jill Meagher, Bayley had already been released on parole for the rape of two other girls.
While in jail he sent the two girls birthday cards each year, reliving his experiences with them.
The girls, who had already been through stressful court testimony, now had to suffer Bayley’s ghoulish reminisces.
The police did nothing to prevent the torment.
A police report, marked "Protected" and written by Detective Acting Inspector Mark Newlan, warned that the parole problem exposed Victoria Police to "legitimate criticism by the media and the broader community" and significant damage to the force's reputation.
Screw the force’s “reputation”! What about the public’s safety, Mr Newlan?
Premier Baillieu, at the time, said, "We've known about the problems, but particular problems in regards to parolees, the failure of Victoria Police, I’ve read about those over the last 24 hours," he said.
"I think like most Victorians I'm shocked that basic information like this has not been available. Police should have available to them all the information about parolees, indeed any breaches of parolees ought to be addressed very promptly.
"I am appalled, I am shocked, I can only say we will deal with this problem," he said.
He didn’t deal with it. And it was not until Bayley was sentenced that a suppression order was lifted allowing the public to know who and what they have a right to be aware of.
Police Association Secretary, Greg Davies, said the parolees charged with murder should not have been let out of jail early in the first place.
"Why are these people on parole? How can the Parole Board get it so wrong that they allow these people to be released early from jail?" Mr Davies asked.
Whether they are released early or not, the public is still at risk. People like Bayley are sick and will reoffend whenever they are released.
The problem is suppression orders keep the public in the dark and juries politically correctly unaware of an accused’s criminal history.
The Victoria Police have been accepting of praise for work well done but why wasn’t this known serial rapist in their cross-hairs long before this tragedy ocurred? They knew him better than anyone!
No wonder the Victorian Police asked Jill’s husband to tell everyone not to discuss the matter at the time.
Melbourne residents have not been safe for years and have had no way of knowing who they should be wary of.
Parents also are not allowed to know where serial paedophiles are living.
Juries are not allowed to know the history of someone they are asked to find guilty or innocent.
Judicial political correctness victimises the victim while protecting the criminal.
===
Pastor Rick Warren
The prize is always on the other side of pain. You must cross that river to get the reward.
===
We welcome today's announcement that every school in NSW will have flashing lights by 2015:http://bit.ly/13Tzqck
Flashing lights go a long way to ensure that motorists are aware that they are travelling in a school zone and need to slow down.
Do you find they help you?
We would also like to see the RMS adopt a regular program of school zone audits to identify safety issues.
We are currently collecting information from the public regarding neglected school zones and we would like to hear from parents or teachers, and particularly Parent & Citizens Committees, that have safety concerns with their local school zone:http://bit.ly/14tOLm7
The survey will remain open until 29 July 2013 with the results to be provided to the NSW Government to assist in the further roll-out of Australian-standard signs and flashing lights: To fill out the survey, please go to:http://bit.ly/14tOLm7
===
- 1525 – Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora (pictured), defying the celibacy discipline decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests.
- 1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in Lake Starnberg near Munich under mysterious circumstances.
- 1966 – The Miranda v. Arizona landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court established the Miranda warning, requiring law enforcement officials to advise a suspect in custody of his rights to remain silent and to obtain an attorney.
- 1982 – Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia, succeeding his half-brotherKhalid upon the latter's death.
- 1997 – In one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history, 59 people died and 103 others were seriously injured during a premiere screening of the film Border at the Uphaar Cinema in Green Park, Delhi.
- 313 – The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Liciniusgranting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, is posted in Nicomedia.
- 1381 – The Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler culminated in the burning of the Savoy Palace.
- 1514 – Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.
- 1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.
- 1625 – King Charles I of England marries Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Navarre, at Canterbury.
- 1740 – Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine.
- 1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
- 1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.
- 1881 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
- 1886 – A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
- 1893 – Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
- 1898 – Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
- 1917 – World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London of the war is carried out by Gotha G.IV bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.
- 1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.
- 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Villers-Bocage: German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, destroying up to fourteen tanks, fifteen personnel carriers and two anti-tank guns in a Tiger I tank.
- 1944 – World War II: German combat elements, reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.
- 1944 – World War II: Germany launches the first V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs strike their targets.
- 1952 – Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
- 1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
- 1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 1971 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
- 1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
- 1981 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1982 – Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
- 1982 – Battles of Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge, during the Falklands War.
- 1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.
- 1990 – First day of the June 1990 Mineriad in Romania. At least 240 strikers and students are arrested or killed in the chaos ensuing from the first post-Ceaușescu elections.
- 1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdezdisaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
- 1996 – The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
- 1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
- 2000 – President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.
- 2000 – Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
- 2002 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
- 2007 – The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.
- 2010 – A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth.
- 2012 – A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others.
- 2015 – A man opens fire at policemen outside the police headquarters in Dallas, Texas, while a bag containing a pipe bomb is also found. He was later shot dead by police.
- AD 40– Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman general (d. 93)
- 823 – Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 877)
- 839 – Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 888)
- 1367 – Taejong of Joseon (d. 1422)
- 1500 – Ernest of Bavaria, pledge lord of the County of Glatz (d. 1560)
- 1508 – Alessandro Piccolomini, Italian astronomer and philosopher (d. 1579)
- 1539 – Jost Amman, Swiss printmaker (d. 1591)
- 1555 – Giovanni Antonio Magini, Italian mathematician, cartographer and astronomer (d. 1617)
- 1580 – Willebrord Snell, Dutch astronomer and mathematician (d. 1626)
- 1595 – Jan Marek Marci, Czech physician and scientist (d. 1667)
- 1617 – Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1656)
- 1649 – Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (d. 1706)
- 1711 – Sir Richard Glyn, 1st Baronet, of Ewell, English banker and politician, Lord Mayor of London (d. 1773)
- 1752 – Frances Burney, English novelist and playwright (d. 1840)
- 1761 – Antonín Vranický, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1820)
- 1763 – José Bonifácio de Andrada, Brazilian poet, academic, and politician (d. 1838)
- 1773 – Thomas Young, English physicist and physiologist (d. 1829)
- 1775 – Antoni Radziwiłł, Polish-Lithuanian composer and politician (d. 1833)
- 1786 – Winfield Scott, American general (d. 1866)
- 1790 – José Antonio Páez, Venezuelan general and politician, President of Venezuela (d. 1873)
- 1809 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German psychiatrist and author (d. 1894)
- 1822 – Carl Schmidt, Latvian-German chemist and academic (d. 1894)
- 1827 – Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer and businessman (d. 1882)
- 1831 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist and mathematician (d. 1879)
- 1840 – Augusta Lundin, the first international Swedish fashion designer (d. 1919)
- 1854 – Charles Algernon Parsons, English engineer, founded C. A. Parsons and Company (d. 1931)
- 1863 – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935)
- 1864 – Rudolf Kjellén, Swedish political scientist and academic (d. 1922)
- 1864 – Dwight B. Waldo, American historian and academic (d. 1939)
- 1865 – Karl Blossfeldt, German photographer (d. 1932)
- 1865 – W. B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1939)
- 1868 – Wallace Clement Sabine, American physicist and academic (d. 1919)
- 1870 – Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1872 – Thomas N. Heffron, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1951)
- 1873 – Karin Swanström, Swedish actress, director, and producer (d. 1942)
- 1875 – Paul Neumann, Austrian swimmer and physician (d. 1932)
- 1876 – William Sealy Gosset, English chemist and statistician (d. 1937)
- 1879 – Heinrich Gutkin, Estonian businessman and politician (d. 1941)
- 1879 – Charalambos Tseroulis, Greek general and politician, Greek Minister for Military Affairs (d. 1929)
- 1884 – Leon Chwistek, Polish painter, philosopher, and mathematician (d. 1944)
- 1884 – Étienne Gilson, French philosopher and academic (d. 1978)
- 1885 – Henry George Lamond, Australian farmer and author (d. 1969)
- 1887 – André François-Poncet, French politician and diplomat (d. 1978)
- 1887 – Bruno Frank, German-American author, poet, and playwright (d. 1945)
- 1888 – Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet and critic (d. 1935)
- 1892 – Basil Rathbone, South African-born British-American actor (d. 1967)
- 1893 – Alan Arnold Griffith, English engineer (d. 1963)
- 1893 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English author and poet (d. 1957)
- 1894 – Leo Kanner, Ukrainian-American psychiatrist and physician (d. 1981)
- 1894 – Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer and painter (d. 1986)
- 1897 – Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner and coach (d. 1973)
- 1899 – Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer, conductor, and journalist, founded the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra (d. 1978)
- 1901 – Tage Erlander, Swedish lieutenant and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
- 1902 – Carolyn Eisele, American mathematician and historian (d. 2000)
- 1903 – Willard Harrison Bennett, American physicist and chemist (d. 1987)
- 1905 – James T. Rutnam, Sri Lankan historian and author (d. 1988)
- 1906 – Bruno de Finetti, Austrian-Italian mathematician and statistician (d. 1985)
- 1909 – E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Indian theorist and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Kerala (d. 1998)
- 1910 – Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Spanish journalist, author, and playwright (d. 1999)
- 1910 – Mary Wickes, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1910 – Mary Whitehouse, English activist, founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (d. 2001)
- 1911 – Luis Walter Alvarez, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
- 1911 – Maurice Copeland, American actor (d. 1985)
- 1911 – Erwin Wilhelm Müller, German physicist and academic (d. 1977)
- 1912 – Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, Canadian poet and painter (d. 1943)
- 1913 – Ralph Edwards, American radio and television host (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Yitzhak Pundak, Israeli general, diplomat and politician (d. 2017)
- 1914 – Frederic Franklin, English-American ballet dancer and director (d. 2013)
- 1915 – Don Budge, American tennis player and coach (d. 2000)
- 1916 – Wu Zhengyi, Chinese botanist and academic (d. 2013)
- 1917 – Teddy Turner, English actor (d. 1992)
- 1917 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (d. 2005)
- 1918 – Ben Johnson, American actor and stuntman (d. 1996)
- 1918 – Helmut Lent, German soldier and pilot (d. 1944)
- 1918 – Percy Rodriguez, Canadian-American actor (d. 2007)
- 1920 – Rolf Huisgen, German chemist and academic
- 1920 – Iosif Vorovich, Russian mathematician and engineer (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Lennart Strand, Swedish runner (d. 2004)
- 1922 – Etienne Leroux, South African author (d. 1989)
- 1923 – Lloyd Conover, American chemist and inventor (d. 2017)
- 1925 – Kristine Miller, American actress (d. 2015)
- 1926 – Jérôme Lejeune, French pediatrician and geneticist (d. 1994)
- 1926 – Paul Lynde, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)
- 1927 – Slim Dusty, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2003)
- 1928 – Giacomo Biffi, Italian cardinal (d. 2015)
- 1928 – Renée Morisset, Canadian pianist (d. 2009)
- 1928 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Ralph McQuarrie, American illustrator (d. 2012)
- 1929 – Robert W. Scott, American farmer and politician, 67th Governor of North Carolina (d. 2009)
- 1930 – Gotthard Graubner, German painter and educator (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Ryszard Kukliński, Polish colonel and spy (d. 2004)
- 1930 – Paul Veyne, French archaeologist, historian, and academic
- 1931 – Nora Kovach, Hungarian-American ballerina (d. 2009)
- 1931 – Reed Scowen, Canadian politician
- 1931 – Irvin D. Yalom, American psychotherapist and academic
- 1932 – Raymond Jolliffe, 5th Baron Hylton, English politician
- 1932 – Bob McGrath, American singer and actor (Sesame Street)
- 1932 – Billy Williams, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Defence
- 1933 – Norman Lloyd-Edwards, Welsh lawyer and politician, Lord Lieutenant of South Glamorgan
- 1934 – Bill Blakeley, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
- 1934 – Lucjan Brychczy, Polish footballer and coach
- 1934 – Manuel Clouthier, Mexican businessman and politician (d. 1989)
- 1934 – James Anthony Griffin, American bishop
- 1934 – Uriel Jones, American drummer (d. 2009)
- 1934 – Leonard Kleinrock, American computer scientist and engineer
- 1935 – Christo, Bulgarian-French sculptor and painter
- 1935 – Jeanne-Claude, Moroccan sculptor and painter (d. 2009)
- 1935 – Samak Sundaravej, Thai politician, 25th Prime Minister of Thailand (d. 2009)
- 1937 – Eleanor Holmes Norton, American lawyer and politician
- 1937 – Erich Ribbeck, German footballer and manager
- 1937 – Andreas Whittam Smith, English journalist and publisher, co-founded The Independent
- 1940 – Bobby Freeman, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 2017)
- 1940 – Dallas Long, American shot putter and physician
- 1941 – Marcel Lachemann, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1941 – Serge Lemoyne, Canadian painter (d. 1998)
- 1941 – Marv Tarplin, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2011)
- 1942 – Yiannis Boutaris, Greek businessman and politician, Mayor of Thessaloniki
- 1943 – Harry Collins, English sociologist, author, and academic
- 1943 – Malcolm McDowell, English actor and producer
- 1943 – Jim Guy Tucker, American lawyer and politician, 43rd Governor of Arkansas
- 1944 – Christine Beasley, English nursing administrator
- 1944 – David Curry, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
- 1944 – Ban Ki-moon, South Korean politician and diplomat, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 1945 – Whitley Strieber, American author
- 1946 – Sher Bahadur Deuba, Nepalese politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Nepal
- 1946 – Paul L. Modrich, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1946 – Gabriel of Komana, Belgian-Dutch archbishop (d. 2013)
- 1948 – Garnet Bailey, Canadian-American ice hockey player and scout (d. 2001)
- 1948 – Joe Roth, American director and producer, co-founded Morgan Creek Productions
- 1949 – Ann Druyan, American popular science writer
- 1949 – Dennis Locorriere, American singer and musician (Dr. Hook)
- 1949 – Ulla Schmidt, German educator and politician, German Federal Minister of Health
- 1949 – Red Symons, English-Australian musician, writer, actor, composer, record producer, television, and radio personality
- 1950 – Nick Brown, English politician, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
- 1950 – Gerd Zewe, German footballer and manager
- 1951 – Howard Leese, American guitarist and producer
- 1951 – Richard Thomas, American actor, director, and producer
- 1951 – Stellan Skarsgård, Swedish actor
- 1952 – Jean-Marie Dedecker, Belgian martial artist and politician
- 1953 – Tim Allen, American actor, comedian, and producer
- 1954 – Andrzej Lepper, Polish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland (d. 2011)
- 1954 – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian economist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Nigeria
- 1955 – Alan Hansen, Scottish footballer and sportscaster
- 1955 – Leah Ward Sears, German-American lawyer and jurist
- 1956 – Blair Chapman, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Sal Paolantonio, American lieutenant and journalist
- 1957 – Ron Areshenkoff, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1957 – Roy Cooper, American lawyer and politician, 75th Governor of North Carolina
- 1957 – Bruce Flowers, American basketball player
- 1957 – Andrzej Morozowski, Polish journalist and author
- 1957 – Dicky Thompson, American golfer
- 1959 – Boyko Borissov, Bulgarian footballer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- 1959 – Maurice G. Dantec, French-born Canadian science fiction writer (d. 2016)
- 1959 – Steve Georganas, Australian politician
- 1959 – Klaus Iohannis, Romanian educator and politician, 5th President of Romania
- 1960 – Jacques Rougeau, Canadian wrestler
- 1961 – Anders Järryd, Swedish tennis player
- 1962 – Davey Hamilton, American race car driver
- 1962 – Glenn Michibata, Canadian-American tennis player and coach
- 1962 – Ally Sheedy, American actress and author
- 1962 – Hannah Storm, American journalist and author
- 1963 – Bettina Bunge, Swiss-German tennis player
- 1963 – Sarah Connolly, English soprano and actress
- 1963 – Audrey Niffenegger, American author and academic
- 1964 – Christian Wilhelm Berger, Romanian organist, composer, and educator
- 1964 – Kathy Burke, English actress, director, and playwright
- 1964 – Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways, Government of India, Politician
- 1965 – Infanta Cristina Federica of Spain
- 1965 – Vassilis Karapialis, Greek footballer
- 1965 – Lukas Ligeti, Austrian-American drummer and composer
- 1965 – Maninder Singh, Indian cricketer
- 1966 – Henry Bond, English photographer and curator
- 1966 – Grigori Perelman, Russian mathematician
- 1966 – Naoki Hattori, Japanese race car driver
- 1967 – Taşkın Aksoy, German-Turkish footballer and manager
- 1968 – Fabio Baldato, Italian cyclist
- 1968 – Peter DeBoer, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1968 – Darren Dreger, Canadian sportscaster
- 1968 – David Gray, English-Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1968 – Tim Leveque, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1968 – Denise Pearson, English singer-songwriter
- 1968 – Marcel Theroux, Ugandan-English journalist and author
- 1969 – Cayetana Guillén Cuervo, Spanish actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1969 – Virginie Despentes, French author, screenwriter, and director
- 1969 – Laura Kightlinger, American actress, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
- 1969 – Svetlana Krivelyova, Russian shot putter
- 1969 – Søren Rasted, Danish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1970 – Rivers Cuomo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1970 – Chris Cairns, New Zealand cricketer.
- 1971 – Nóra Köves, Hungarian tennis player
- 1972 – Natalie MacMaster, Canadian fiddler
- 1972 – Marek Jerzy Minakowski, Polish philosopher, historian, genealogist
- 1973 – Sam Adams, American football player
- 1973 – Tanner Foust, American race car driver and television host
- 1973 – Mattias Hellberg, Swedish singer-songwriter
- 1973 – Stuart Karppinen, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1973 – Ville Laihiala, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Valeri Bure, Russian-American ice hockey player
- 1975 – Ante Covic, Australian footballer
- 1975 – Jeff Davis, American screenwriter and producer
- 1975 – Jennifer Nicole Lee, American model, actress, and author
- 1975 – Jaan Pehk, Estonian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1975 – Riccardo Scimeca, English footballer
- 1976 – Kym Marsh, English singer-songwriter and actress
- 1977 – Romain Mesnil, French pole vaulter
- 1977 – Earthwind Moreland, American football player
- 1978 – Ethan Embry, American actor
- 1979 – Esther Anderson, Australian actress
- 1979 – Nila Håkedal, Norwegian volleyball player
- 1979 – Miguel Pate, American long jumper
- 1979 – Ryan Pickett, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Florent Malouda, French footballer
- 1980 – Diego Mendieta, Paraguayan footballer (d. 2012)
- 1980 – Jamario Moon, American basketball player
- 1980 – Juan Carlos Navarro, Spanish basketball player
- 1980 – Darius Vassell, English footballer
- 1980 – Markus Winkelhock, German race car driver
- 1981 – Chris Evans, American actor and producer
- 1981 – Blake Judd, American actor, director, and producer
- 1981 – David Madden, founder and executive director of both the National History Bee and the National History Bowl who was a 19-day champion on Jeopardy!.
- 1981 – Radim Vrbata, Czech ice hockey player
- 1982 – Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopian runner
- 1982 – Krzysztof Bosak, Polish politician
- 1982 – Nate Jones, American football player
- 1983 – Steve Novak, American basketball player
- 1983 – Jason Spezza, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Rachel Taylor, Welsh rugby union player
- 1984 – Nery Castillo, Mexican-Uruguayan footballer
- 1984 – Kaori Icho, Japanese wrestler
- 1984 – Antje Möldner-Schmidt, German runner
- 1985 – Filipe Albuquerque, Portuguese race car driver
- 1985 – Silvio Bankert, German footballer
- 1985 – Pedro Strop, Dominican baseball player
- 1985 – Danny Syvret, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Kat Dennings, American actress and comedian
- 1986 – Keisuke Honda, Japanese footballer
- 1986 – Jonathan Lucroy, American baseball catcher
- 1986 – Ashley Olsen, American child actress, fashion designer, and businesswoman
- 1986 – Mary-Kate Olsen, American child actress, fashion designer, and businesswoman
- 1986 – DJ Snake, French DJ and record producer
- 1986 – Lea Verou, Greek computer scientist and author
- 1986 – Måns Zelmerlöw, Swedish singer
- 1987 – Marko Grgić, Croatian footballer
- 1988 – Gabe Carimi, American football player
- 1988 – Cody Walker, American actor
- 1989 – Ben Barba, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – James Calado, English racing driver
- 1989 – Ryan McDonagh, American ice hockey defenseman
- 1989 – Daniel Mortimer, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Andreas Samaris, Greek footballer
- 1989 – Tommy Searle, English motocross racer
- 1989 – Hassan Whiteside, American basketball player
- 1989 – Erica Wiebe, Canadian wrestler
- 1990 – James McCann, American baseball player
- 1990 – Nicole Riner, Swiss tennis player
- 1990 – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, English actor
- 1991 – Will Claye, American jumper
- 1991 – Ryan Mason, English footballer
- 1992 – Semi Radradra, Fijian rugby league player
- 1993 – Simona Senoner, Italian ski jumper (d. 2011)
- 1993 – Denis Ten, Kazakhstani figure skater
- 1995 – Emily Fanning, New Zealand tennis player
- 1995 – Laura Ucrós, Colombian tennis player
- 2000 – Penny Oleksiak, Canadian swimmer
- 220 – Xiahou Dun, Chinese general
- 976 – Mansur I, Samanid emir
- 995 – Fujiwara no Michikane, Japanese nobleman (b. 961)
- 1036 – Ali az-Zahir, Fatimid caliph (b. 1005)
- 1231 – Anthony of Padua, Portuguese priest and saint (b. 1195)
- 1256 – Tankei, Japanese sculptor (b. 1173)
- 1348 – Juan Manuel, Spanish prince (b. 1282)[1]
- 1432 – Uko Fockena, Frisian chieftain (b. c. 1408)
- 1550 – Veronica Gambara, Italian poet (b. 1485)
- 1636 – George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, Scottish politician (b. 1562)
- 1645 – Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese samurai (b. 1584)
- 1661 – Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth, English politician (b. 1595)
- 1665 – Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, Dutch admiral (b. 1604)
- 1784 – Henry Middleton, American farmer and politician, 2nd President of the Continental Congress (b. 1717)
- 1846 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer and author (b. 1767)
- 1861 – Henry Gray, English anatomist and surgeon (b. 1827)
- 1881 – Joseph Škoda, Czech physician and dermatologist (b. 1805)
- 1886 – Ludwig II, king of Bavaria (b. 1845)
- 1894 – John Cox Bray, Australian politician, 15th Premier of South Australia (b. 1842)
- 1898 – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Premier of Quebec (b. 1840)
- 1904 – Nikiforos Lytras, Greek painter and educator (b. 1832)
- 1917 – Louis-Philippe Hébert, Canadian sculptor (b. 1850)
- 1918 – Michael Alexandrovich, Russian Grand Duke (b. 1878)
- 1930 – Henry Segrave, American-English race car driver (b. 1896)
- 1931 – Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese physician and bacteriologist (b. 1851)
- 1943 – Kočo Racin, Macedonian author and activist (b. 1908)
- 1948 – Osamu Dazai, Japanese author (b. 1909)
- 1951 – Ben Chifley, Australian engineer and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1885)
- 1957 – Irving Baxter, American high jumper and pole vaulter (b. 1876)
- 1958 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, English poet and academic (b. 1887)
- 1965 – Martin Buber, Austrian-Israeli philosopher and theologian (b. 1878)
- 1965 – David Drummond, Australian farmer and politician (b. 1890)
- 1969 – Pralhad Keshav Atre, Indian journalist, director, and producer (b. 1898)
- 1972 – Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- 1972 – Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-German spy (b. 1891)
- 1979 – Demetrio Stratos, Egyptian-Italian singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1945)
- 1980 – Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and activist (b. 1942)
- 1981 – Olivério Pinto, Brazilian zoologist and physician (b. 1896)
- 1984 – António Variações, Portuguese singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
- 1986 – Benny Goodman, American clarinet player, songwriter, and bandleader (b. 1909)
- 1987 – Geraldine Page, American actress (b. 1924)
- 1989 – Fran Allison, American television personality and puppeteer (b. 1907)
- 1993 – Gérard Côté, Canadian runner (b. 1913)
- 1993 – Deke Slayton, American soldier, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1924)
- 1994 – Nadia Gray, Romanian-French actress (b. 1923)
- 1997 – Nguyen Manh Tuong, Vietnamese lawyer and academic (b. 1909)
- 1998 – Alfred Gerrard, English sculptor and academic (b. 1899)
- 1998 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian ski jumper (b. 1911)
- 1998 – Reg Smythe, English cartoonist (b. 1917)
- 2002 – John Hope, American navigator and meteorologist (b. 1919)
- 2002 – Maia Wojciechowska, Polish-American author (b. 1927)
- 2003 – Malik Meraj Khalid, Pakistani lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Ralph Wiley, American journalist and author (b. 1952)
- 2005 – Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese academic and politician (b. 1913)
- 2005 – David Diamond, American pianist and composer (b. 1915)
- 2006 – Charles Haughey, Irish lawyer and politician, 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Walid Eido, Lebanese judge and politician (b. 1942)
- 2008 – Tim Russert, American journalist and lawyer (b. 1950)
- 2009 – Fathi Yakan, Lebanese scholar and politician (b. 1933)
- 2010 – Jimmy Dean, American singer and businessman, founded Jimmy Dean Foods (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Sam Beddingfield, American pilot and engineer (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Graeme Bell, Australian pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1914)
- 2012 – Roger Garaudy, French philosopher and author (b. 1913)
- 2012 – Jože Humer, Slovenian composer and translator (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Mehdi Hassan, Pakistani ghazal singer and playback singer for Lollywood (b. 1927)
- 2013 – David Deutsch, American businessman, founded Deutsch Inc. (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Sam Most, American flute player and saxophonist (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Albert White Hat, American educator and activist (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Mahdi Elmandjra, Moroccan economist and sociologist (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer and manager (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Jim Keays, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1946)
- 2014 – Chuck Noll, American football player and coach (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Robert Peters, American poet, playwright, and critic (b. 1924)
- 2015 – Buddy Boudreaux, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1917)
- 2015 – Sergio Renán, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Mike Shrimpton, New Zealand cricketer and coach (b. 1940)
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“For the director of music. A psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”Psalm 19:1-2 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God's Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, "Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God's mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?" Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavour to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did--"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"? If we thus read God's Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, "Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be found wanting,' when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment." "Judge yourselves that ye be not judged."
Evening
The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "Who hath saved us." Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. They are not looked upon as persons who are in a hopeful state, and may ultimately be saved, but they are already saved. Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised, and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly saved in God's purpose; God has ordained him unto salvation, and that purpose is complete. He is saved also as to the price which has been paid for him: "It is finished" was the cry of the Saviour ere he died. The believer is also perfectly saved in his covenant head, for as he fell in Adam, so he lives in Christ. This complete salvation is accompanied by a holy calling. Those whom the Saviour saved upon the cross are in due time effectually called by the power of God the Holy Spirit unto holiness: they leave their sins; they endeavour to be like Christ; they choose holiness, not out of any compulsion, but from the stress of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice in holiness just as naturally as aforetime they delighted in sin. God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy, but he called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by his workmanship in them. The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself. Thus is brought out very sweetly the fulness of the grace of God. Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord is the author of it: and what motive but grace could move him to save the guilty? Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord works in such a manner that our righteousness is forever excluded. Such is the believer's privilege--a present salvation; such is the evidence that he is called to it--a holy life.
===Today's reading: Ezra 3-5, John 20 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Ezra 3-5
Rebuilding the Altar
1 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. 2 Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices. 4 Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. 5 After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the LORD, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the LORD. 6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD's temple had not yet been laid....
Today's New Testament reading: John 20
The Empty Tomb
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
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