Plastic bags are a big discussion topic with major retailers now charging for them. The issue is supposed to be the environment where bags damage water eco systems, killing fish in similar way that windmills kill birds. Only Australia does not have the pollution problems of Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. I have no problem with business profiting. I object to the excuse. One helpful checkout chick told me that Woolworths would replace any of their damaged shopping bags. I looked at my damaged refrigerator bag, and she quickly added "The ninety nine cent ones, not the refrigerated ones." Quite so.
Trump signs a law to prevent family separation for lawbreakers. It might be found to be unconstitutional. Tygrrrr Express brilliantly illustrates the issue for left wingers. Peter Fonda, fearing his career had tanked, tweeted obscenity, then apologised to Trump.
Study shows almost two thirds of university educated millennials support socialism but do not know who Stalin, Lenin, or, Mao, were. I'm told real socialism will work. It just hasn't been tried yet. Some 100 million dead between Stalin and Mao might disagree if they could.
US Congress and Israel oppose the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey. Turkey spent big to help develop them. When Great Britain refused to pass over two battleships they built for Ottomans which Ottomans had paid for, they made an enemy of them in WW1. Ottomans were not good then, being engaged in genocide against Assyrians and Armenians. The deal is lousy.
Here is a video I made The Mooch o Life
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The book sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year, and is probably one of the highest selling verse novels ever published in Australia.
Contents
A Spring Song
The Intro
The Stoush O' Day
Doreen
The Play
The Stror 'at Coot
The Siren
Mar
Pilot Cove
Hitched
Beef Tea
Uncle Jim
The Kid
The Mooch o' Life
=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. Leftwing rhetorical excess is disgusting. When Kevin Rudd got rolled the first time, his former colleagues unleashed venom so as to prevent his return to leadership. Some of the venom was misplaced. And Rudd returned and saved some of the furniture. Rudd was not as evil as he was portrayed, neither was he ever competent. When Abbott was rolled by Turnbull, Turnbull's allies had an opportunity to heal and grow, to allow the party to go in a better direction than it had been while Turnbull was undermining it. But Turnbull is not a competent leader either, and despite the venom he has unleashed on Abbott, Abbott is the best replacement for Turnbull. In both examples it is the ill disciplined rhetoric of the left which corroded and dissolved and ultimately diminished the office of Australia's Prime Minister. But there is a reason for the venom of left wing politics. Venom works. Turnbull was never a competent Prime Minister, but he did become Prime Minister.
But I am not intending to write about Australian politics and the unhinged politics of the left, but the global variety, with a focus on North Korea. What was done to Otto Warmbier was evil. Although NK perpetrated the evil, it is not contained to them. Fake news media with their calls to check white man's privilege egged on NK. A pathetically weak and inept Obama Presidency gave NK permission. The enormity of Otto's abuse was not unique. NK had targeted Americans before. And Obama had accepted it and a chortling media was amused by it. Otto was departing NK after holidaying there. He was called out of line. He probably had no inkling of what followed as he obediently responded. A trumped up charge. An outrageous sentence. A craven US President ordering his family to accept it. An unhinged media demanding Otto be made an example. And NK delivered an unexplained death of a young man whose only crime was to try to holiday there as a US citizen. Trump cannot fix this crime. Only God will. But Trump can stand tall and do what a snivelling weak Obama could not. NK has to learn there are consequences to their actions.
In 451, Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius battled Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreated, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. Two years later Attila died at his wedding feast and the next year the Huns were crushed. 1685, Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater. James was the illegitimate son of Charles II. He was executed for his attempt. Three years later, his idiot Uncle was removed from power by James II's son in law, William of Orange. 1789, Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath. The situation was the kingdom owed a Greek type national debt of billions of lires, and the general assembly of estates was called to deal with the issue. Except the third estate (first estate being church, 2nd estate nobility, 3rd estate was 97% of the population) was locked out of meeting. It heralded the coming revolution.
I am very good and don't deserve the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.
Thanks to the excellent political acumen of Dry Cleaner to the stars J Fo, we have a working list for senate voting in Victoria. Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, Liberal Democrats, Family First, Shooters and Fishers and Nationals for the Senate. We don't have a list for the House of Representatives, but my tip is to vote LNP as it is essential that they retain government. Of course there is a long view theory that says it might be better for Australia if the ALP win the election and Malcolm Turnbull is removed as LNP leader. Turnbull is that bad. But the short term cost of ALP is substantial. One ALP advert has it that there is over $130 billion in spending policy difference between the two parties. The ALP claim they will recoup the difference in higher taxes. They promise to pork barrel money into education without improving education. They despise important infrastructure projects. The ALP are still toying with drowning migrants and calling it compassionate. It isn't compassionate when Eddie McGuire jokes about it. It isn't compassionate when ALP perpetrate terrible border laws which result in it. If the ALP wins, and Turnbull is removed as leader from the LNP, it might be good for the long term. But in the short term, Australia will be much poorer. And people are likely to die as a result. Workers, migrants and soldiers.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
But I am not intending to write about Australian politics and the unhinged politics of the left, but the global variety, with a focus on North Korea. What was done to Otto Warmbier was evil. Although NK perpetrated the evil, it is not contained to them. Fake news media with their calls to check white man's privilege egged on NK. A pathetically weak and inept Obama Presidency gave NK permission. The enormity of Otto's abuse was not unique. NK had targeted Americans before. And Obama had accepted it and a chortling media was amused by it. Otto was departing NK after holidaying there. He was called out of line. He probably had no inkling of what followed as he obediently responded. A trumped up charge. An outrageous sentence. A craven US President ordering his family to accept it. An unhinged media demanding Otto be made an example. And NK delivered an unexplained death of a young man whose only crime was to try to holiday there as a US citizen. Trump cannot fix this crime. Only God will. But Trump can stand tall and do what a snivelling weak Obama could not. NK has to learn there are consequences to their actions.
In 451, Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius battled Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreated, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. Two years later Attila died at his wedding feast and the next year the Huns were crushed. 1685, Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater. James was the illegitimate son of Charles II. He was executed for his attempt. Three years later, his idiot Uncle was removed from power by James II's son in law, William of Orange. 1789, Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath. The situation was the kingdom owed a Greek type national debt of billions of lires, and the general assembly of estates was called to deal with the issue. Except the third estate (first estate being church, 2nd estate nobility, 3rd estate was 97% of the population) was locked out of meeting. It heralded the coming revolution.
I am very good and don't deserve the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.
=== from 2016 ===
Tragedy as a young actor is killed by a freak accident. Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the reboot of Star Trek franchise had had a drive way with a steep gradient access to the road. He apparently was outside the vehicle and it rolled, pinning him against a concrete letter box. He had had a big future.
Thanks to the excellent political acumen of Dry Cleaner to the stars J Fo, we have a working list for senate voting in Victoria. Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, Liberal Democrats, Family First, Shooters and Fishers and Nationals for the Senate. We don't have a list for the House of Representatives, but my tip is to vote LNP as it is essential that they retain government. Of course there is a long view theory that says it might be better for Australia if the ALP win the election and Malcolm Turnbull is removed as LNP leader. Turnbull is that bad. But the short term cost of ALP is substantial. One ALP advert has it that there is over $130 billion in spending policy difference between the two parties. The ALP claim they will recoup the difference in higher taxes. They promise to pork barrel money into education without improving education. They despise important infrastructure projects. The ALP are still toying with drowning migrants and calling it compassionate. It isn't compassionate when Eddie McGuire jokes about it. It isn't compassionate when ALP perpetrate terrible border laws which result in it. If the ALP wins, and Turnbull is removed as leader from the LNP, it might be good for the long term. But in the short term, Australia will be much poorer. And people are likely to die as a result. Workers, migrants and soldiers.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
Left wing government supporters are fond of saying there is no difference between conservative and left wing governments in democracy. In some ways there is truth to that. Both styles of government rely on process and policy and make decisions that may be unpopular. But there is a stark difference and that is in how the media analyse government performance. Gough Whitlam's sacrifice of the Balibo 5 journalists in 1975 was a harsh real politic decision. He couldn't forbid the journalists from going or he would have to admit he had permitted Indonesia to invade. Indonesian special forces, according to an Australian Coroner in 2007, had targeted the journalists. On this day in 1979, what role had Jimmy Carter played in the death of ABC newsman Bill Stewart? The murderous arrogance of a left wing revolutionary government being courted by Carter is breathtaking. Had the pictures not been taken, would the public outcry and media analysis been muted as Balibo's had been?
Recently, the media have been all over cabinet leaks among the Liberal Party regarding an important decision to address the issue of terrorists returning to Australia and resuming dual citizenship they had renounced. But the media are unwilling to analyse leaks from Bill Shorten's shadow cabinet regarding his policy failures. Democracies stand on a strong, fierce, independent media. But Australia does not have that and it weakens and corrodes infrastructure. In the US, the US President has spoken strongly following the racist shootings in a church in South Carolina. However, Obama's previous claim that the murder of Jews in Paris was random weakens his claim on the current atrocity. His critics may say the atrocity in South Carolina was not racist, but a random attack at a church. It is petty, and wrong, and diminishes the meaning of the atrocity in terms of the victims, which should never happen. In South Carolina, the victims loved ones have stood up in court and addressed the terrorist killer and forgiven him. It is good they have. And it will be good that that forgiven man be executed too. Give him a fair trial first. Let him put forth his argument. And let Obama retract his appalling misstatement. Only the pathetic press won't ask Obama to correct himself.
Recently, the media have been all over cabinet leaks among the Liberal Party regarding an important decision to address the issue of terrorists returning to Australia and resuming dual citizenship they had renounced. But the media are unwilling to analyse leaks from Bill Shorten's shadow cabinet regarding his policy failures. Democracies stand on a strong, fierce, independent media. But Australia does not have that and it weakens and corrodes infrastructure. In the US, the US President has spoken strongly following the racist shootings in a church in South Carolina. However, Obama's previous claim that the murder of Jews in Paris was random weakens his claim on the current atrocity. His critics may say the atrocity in South Carolina was not racist, but a random attack at a church. It is petty, and wrong, and diminishes the meaning of the atrocity in terms of the victims, which should never happen. In South Carolina, the victims loved ones have stood up in court and addressed the terrorist killer and forgiven him. It is good they have. And it will be good that that forgiven man be executed too. Give him a fair trial first. Let him put forth his argument. And let Obama retract his appalling misstatement. Only the pathetic press won't ask Obama to correct himself.
From 2014
Today is remarkable for the charter given Oxford University in 1214. The record of greatness coming from that fine institution for learning is substantial, including 26 PMs and 27 Nobel Laureates. People from Oxford include Kings and Queens and heads of government, Bishops and Cardinals and religious leaders, poets and novelists from Joseph Heller, John Donne to Percy Bysshe Shelley. Dramatists like Oscar Wilde or Russel T Davies. Children's writers like Lewis Carroll or Richard Adams. Scholars like Melvyn Bragg, Samuel Johnson, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein. Rupert Murdoch. Richard Burton. Emilia Fox. Michael York. Rowan Atkinson. Dudley Moore. Donald Crisp. Hugh Grant. Andrew Lloyd Webber. Graham Wiggins. Kris Kristopherson. Edward James and Christopher Wren. Without her, the world would be poorer.
But today is not just a one thing day. Samuel Morse got a patent for the telegraph in 1840. Alexander Graham Bell installed the worlds first telephone service in 1877. Victoria Terminus, the busiest railway in India first opened today in 1887. On this day in 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her dad and step mum. America is great. In 1940, Italy attempted to invade France, but the greater display of chutzpah was three Jews and a priest from Auschwitz dressing as SS and driving away in an SS marked car in '42. One of them fought for the Polish resistance before being jailed for 7 years by the communists following the war. Typically, the reprisals were tragic, with inmates being tattooed with a number following the escape and family members imprisoned and killed. There were race riots in Detroit in '43. Ed Sullivan show began in '48. A red telephone connected the US President and Soviet Premier in '63. Watergate tapes were found to be an imperfect medium in '72. In Nicaragua the US ABC lost a journalist in '79 .. Carter having done for him as Whitlam had the Balibo 5.
In 1733, noted Cherry tree hacker Betty Washington Lewis was born, George would try to cover for her (I cannot tell a lie, I cut down that cherry tree). Cricketer Jack Worrall was born in 1860. Errol Flynn in 1909. Audie Murphy in 1924. Brian Wilson in 1942. Anne Murray in 1945. Xanana Gusmao in 1946. Lionel Ritchie in 1949 and Nicole Kidman in 1967.
But today is not just a one thing day. Samuel Morse got a patent for the telegraph in 1840. Alexander Graham Bell installed the worlds first telephone service in 1877. Victoria Terminus, the busiest railway in India first opened today in 1887. On this day in 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her dad and step mum. America is great. In 1940, Italy attempted to invade France, but the greater display of chutzpah was three Jews and a priest from Auschwitz dressing as SS and driving away in an SS marked car in '42. One of them fought for the Polish resistance before being jailed for 7 years by the communists following the war. Typically, the reprisals were tragic, with inmates being tattooed with a number following the escape and family members imprisoned and killed. There were race riots in Detroit in '43. Ed Sullivan show began in '48. A red telephone connected the US President and Soviet Premier in '63. Watergate tapes were found to be an imperfect medium in '72. In Nicaragua the US ABC lost a journalist in '79 .. Carter having done for him as Whitlam had the Balibo 5.
In 1733, noted Cherry tree hacker Betty Washington Lewis was born, George would try to cover for her (I cannot tell a lie, I cut down that cherry tree). Cricketer Jack Worrall was born in 1860. Errol Flynn in 1909. Audie Murphy in 1924. Brian Wilson in 1942. Anne Murray in 1945. Xanana Gusmao in 1946. Lionel Ritchie in 1949 and Nicole Kidman in 1967.
Historical perspective on this day
In 451, Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius battled Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreated, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. 1248, the University of Oxford received its Royal charter. 1631, the sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore was attacked by Algerian pirates. 1652, Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa was appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire. 1685, Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater. 1756, a British garrison was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta. 1782, the U.S. Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States. 1787, Oliver Ellsworth moved at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States. 1789, Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath.
In 1819, the U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail. 1837, Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne. 1840, Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph. 1862, Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, was assassinated. 1863, American Civil War: West Virginia was admitted as the 35th U.S. state. 1877, Alexander Graham Bell installed the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 1887, Victoria Terminus, the busiest railway station in India, opened in Bombay. 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother. 1895, the Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, was officially opened.
In 1900, Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China. Also 1900, Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departed Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return. 1921, workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, began a four-month strike.
In 1940, World War II: Italy began an unsuccessful invasion of France. 1942, the Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, stole an SS staff car and escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1943, the Detroit Race Riot broke out and continued for three more days. 1944, World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concluded with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". Also 1944, Continuation war: The Soviet Union demanded an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refused. 1945, the United States Secretary of State approved the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America. 1948, Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, made its television debut. 1956 a Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people. 1959, a rare June hurricane struck Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35. 1960, the Mali Federation gained independence from France (it later split into Mali and Senegal). 1963, the so-called "red telephone" link was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1972, Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appeared in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex. 1973, Ezeiza massacrein Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fired upon left-wing Peronists. At least 13 were killed and more than 300 were injured. 1979, ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder was caught on tape and sparked an international outcry against the regime. 1982, the Argentine base Corbeta Uruguay on Southern Thule surrendered to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War. 1990, Asteroid Eureka was discovered. 1991, the German Bundestag voted to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin. 2001, Andrea Yates, in an attempt to save her young children from Satan, drowned all five of them in a bathtub in Houston, Texas. 2003, the Wikimedia Foundation was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.
In 1819, the U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail. 1837, Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne. 1840, Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph. 1862, Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, was assassinated. 1863, American Civil War: West Virginia was admitted as the 35th U.S. state. 1877, Alexander Graham Bell installed the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 1887, Victoria Terminus, the busiest railway station in India, opened in Bombay. 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother. 1895, the Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, was officially opened.
In 1900, Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China. Also 1900, Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departed Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return. 1921, workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, began a four-month strike.
In 1940, World War II: Italy began an unsuccessful invasion of France. 1942, the Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, stole an SS staff car and escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1943, the Detroit Race Riot broke out and continued for three more days. 1944, World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concluded with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". Also 1944, Continuation war: The Soviet Union demanded an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refused. 1945, the United States Secretary of State approved the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America. 1948, Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, made its television debut. 1956 a Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people. 1959, a rare June hurricane struck Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35. 1960, the Mali Federation gained independence from France (it later split into Mali and Senegal). 1963, the so-called "red telephone" link was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1972, Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appeared in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex. 1973, Ezeiza massacrein Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fired upon left-wing Peronists. At least 13 were killed and more than 300 were injured. 1979, ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder was caught on tape and sparked an international outcry against the regime. 1982, the Argentine base Corbeta Uruguay on Southern Thule surrendered to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War. 1990, Asteroid Eureka was discovered. 1991, the German Bundestag voted to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin. 2001, Andrea Yates, in an attempt to save her young children from Satan, drowned all five of them in a bathtub in Houston, Texas. 2003, the Wikimedia Foundation was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.
=== 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 Betty Washington Lewis, Jack Worrall and Audie Murphy. Born on the same day, across the years. Audie wrote his autobiography that I used to learn to read (To Hell and Back). On your day in 1685, The Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater. In 1887, Victoria Terminus, now the busiest railway station in India, opened in Bombay on the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. In 1900, Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army began a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing. In 1947, Mafia hitman murdered gangster Bugsy Siegel in Beverly Hills, California. 1963, The so-called "red telephone" was established between the White House and the Kremlin, after the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated that direct communications between the two nations were necessary. What a day! Rebellion, confusion, building grandeur, and the death of a gangster in Beverly Hills .. it should have been Chicago.
- 1005 – Ali az-Zahir, Egyptian caliph (d. 1036)
- 1469 – Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Italian husband of Isabella of Naples (d. 1494)
- 1642 – George Hickes, English scholar (d. 1715)
- 1733 – Betty Washington Lewis, American sister of George Washington (d. 1797)
- 1756 – Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (d. 1792)
- 1860 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
- 1872 – George Carpenter, American 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
- 1897 – Elisabeth Hauptmann, German author (d. 1973)
- 1899 – Jean Moulin, French resistance leader (d. 1943)
- 1909 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1959)
- 1914 – Zelda, Israeli poet (d. 1984)
- 1924 – Chet Atkins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2001)
- 1924 – Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1971)
- 1928 – Martin Landau, American actor
- 1942 – Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Beach Boys)
- 1945 – Anne Murray, Canadian singer and guitarist
- 1946 – Xanana Gusmão, Timorese politician, 1st President of East Timor
- 1949 – Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor (Commodores)
- 1952 – John Goodman, American actor and singer
- 1967 – Nicole Kidman, Australian-American actress, singer, and producer
- 1981 – Alisan Porter, American child actress and singer
- 1983 – Cherrie Ying, Taiwanese-Hong Kong actress
- 1987 – Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player
- 1999 – Yui Mizuno, Japanese idol, singer and model
Deaths
- 537 – Pope Silverius
- 840 – Louis the Pious, Roman emperor (b. 778)
- 1787 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German composer (b. 1723)
- 1800 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (b. 1719)
- 1945 – Bruno Frank, German author, poet, and playwright (b. 1878)
- 1947 – Bugsy Siegel, American mobster (b. 1906)
- 1972 – Howard Deering Johnson, American businessman, founded Howard Johnson's (b. 1897)
- 1974 – Horace Lindrum, Australian snooker player (b. 1912)
June 20: World Refugee Day; International Surfing Day; Duanwu/Dragon Boat Festival (Chinese calendar, 2015); Flag Day in Argentina; National Famine Commemoration Day in Ireland (2015)
- 451 – Flavius Aetius, with the help of Roman foederati, defeated Attila in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, and halted the invasion of Gaul by the Huns and their allies.
- 1789 – French Revolution: Meeting in a tennis court near the Palace of Versailles, members of France's Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, pledging not to separate until a new constitution was established.
- 1819 – Arriving in Liverpool, the SS Savannah (pictured) became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1943 – Rioting between blacks and whites began on Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan, and continued for three days.
- 1960 – The Mali Federation gained independence from France, but lasted only two months before dividing into Senegal and Mali.
R U ok Hun? We met at tennis and found love. It was steamy. It was a riot. Then we separated. Let's party.
Andrew Bolt 2018
WHO'D TRUST THIS TATTY SENATE?
Just two years ago Australians elected 76 Senators to represent them. Since then 16 have gone, most because they had failed our citizenship test. Another seven have switched parties. Who could possibly trust this rabble?
MORE MUSLIMS IN GERMANY, MORE ATTACKS ON JEWS
UPDATED More Muslim immigrants, more danger for Jews: "A Syrian migrant will face court in Berlin on Tuesday after he was caught whipping two Jewish men who were wearing traditional kippah skullcaps... The victim, an Arab Israeli, caught the ... assault in a video showing the attacker whipping him with a belt while shouting “Yehudi!” — Arabic for 'Jew.'"
TRUMP FAN REPAYS DE NIRO. HYPOCRITES SQUEAL
UPDATE: TRUMP SOARS Trump-hating artists had no problem with this: "The cast of Hamilton addressed Mike Pence with a powerful speech after the Vice President-elect attended [the] musical." But they abused the man who returned fire: "As the curtain call began for... A Bronx Tale, which De Niro co-directed, someone in the front row held up a large 'Trump 2020' banner."
WRONG, MICHELLE. CAN WE DISCUSS YOUR ABC?
ABC boss Michelle Guthrie is talking absolute bull: "I wouldn’t agree with you when you say that I hide from the media,” Ms Guthrie told [Jon] Faine, who replied he had difficulty in interviewing her on his show." In fact, Guthrie has also rejected every single one of my many requests for an interview. Then there came more bull...
EXPLOSION IN LONDON
No idea yet of the exact cause or any motive: "Several people have been injured after a “minor explosion” at Southgate Tube station in north London... Scotland Yard said it was investigating the cause of the explosion, which followed reports of of a suspicious package at the station." UPDATE: Seems just a battery shortcircuit.
MORE REFUGEES, MORE TERRORISM, ASIO WRONG
The compassion of the open-borders activists comes at a price - usually paid by others: "Nearly 1,000 people were injured or killed in terrorist attacks involving refugees over a four-year span, with Germany facing the highest number of terror plots, according to a new Heritage Foundation report."
SUICIDE BY SNEERING: THE MAD HATRED OF OUR OWN CIVILISATION
Most of the values that have shaped Australia - and for the best - are from Western civilisation. But a great sickness is growing - a suicidal self-hatred of this same civilisation. Let me give some examples from the ABC. My editorial from The Bolt Report.
KEEP-A DANCIN’, SHARIA
Tim Blair – Monday, June 20, 2016 (12:58pm)
Religious rituals are often puzzling to outsiders. What seems rational and reverent to followers of various faiths may strike non-followers as ridiculous.
The correct response to this must be an enhanced awareness by all of us of the colour and diversity provided by all of the world’s great religions. Knowledge of their beliefs, rites and ceremonies can only bring increased tolerance and acceptance.
Today let us examine the Mystical Avoidance Dance, as practised worldwide by followers of the multiculturalist faith. This vibrant ritual takes place whenever an Islamic person decides to reduce the size of the non-Islamic population.
First, obviously, there must be the required act of population reduction. These happen with some frequency, so followers of the multiculturalist faith have to be forever alert for the opportunity to commence their denialist capering.
The process works like this. Immediately following any act of Islamic mayhem, devout multiculturalists are obliged to declare that it was nothing at all to do with Islam. If they work in politics or the media, Islam cannot be mentioned in any comments or news items. At least, adherents must cast doubt on Islam’s possible role.
For example, here is US president Barack Obama following the slaughter of 49 people at a gay nightclub by an Islamist lunatic: “We are still learning all the facts. This is an open investigation. We’ve reached no definitive judgment on the precise motivations of the killer.”
Even by that early stage, of course, a vast amount was already known about Omar Mateen’s motivations, mainly because Mateen had revealed them to everybody. He posted Facebook messages declaring that “real Muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the West,” warning Americans would “taste the Islamic State vengeance” and vowing “in the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the USA’’. During Mateen’s murderous rampage he called police to say he was doing it for Islamic State. He said the same thing to a local Florida television station.
When it comes to Mateen’s motivations, I think we can rule out disappointment over missing out on State of Origin tickets.
(Continue reading Keep-a Dancin’.)
===
The Labor candidate who said Hizb ut Tahrir wasn’t “extremist”. UPDATE: Dean: more extremists wanted
Andrew Bolt June 20 2016 (6:21pm)
A small set-back in the mainstreaming of hard-line Islam:
In fact, Badar is spokesman for a group whose Australian head, Sheik Wahwah, has preached Jew hatred:
UPDATE
Kunde’s idiotic defence of Badar simply confirms what blogger Arthur Chrenkoff said about Malcolm Turnbull’s excuses for his radical dinner guest, Sheik Shady:
UPDATE
Note that Kunde’s astonishing defence of Uthman Badar was published by the ABC’s Religion and Ethics section, led by Scott Stephens, a former Uniting Church minister who has been one of the ABC’s most aggressive promoters of Muslim apologists, notably Waleed Aly.
UPDATE
Rowan Dean demands more radical imams:
A FEDERAL Labor candidate has been revealed to have close ties with Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.Labor must have thought Kunde’s views were fine, given the taxpayer-funded ABC published them gladly two years ago:
Christian Kunde, Labor’s candidate for the NSW seat of Farrer, ... last night resigned after The Daily Telegraph made inquiries into his background.
Labor leader Bill Shorten was reported to be furious that Mr Kunde’s links to the firebrand senior spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia, Uthman Badar, had not been disclosed during the preselection process…
Mr Badar was banned in 2014 from delivering a lecture at the Opera House entitled “Honour Killings Are Morally Justified” after widespread outrage.
Mr Kunde attended several events with Mr Badar and vigorously defended attacks against him and claims that he supported terrorism.
“He has been variously branded a ‘supporter of terrorism’ as well as an ‘extremist’ and a ‘fundamentalist’,” Mr Kunde posted in support in 2014 after attending a rally with Mr Badar.
“Disappointingly, there have been few calls — if any, aside from this one — to support Uthman against this barrage of modern ad hominem."…
The resignation is less than a week after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was embarrassed after it was revealed homophobic cleric Sheik Shady Alsuleiman was allowed to attend a dinner he hosted.
Uthman… has been variously branded a “supporter of terrorism,” as well as an “extremist” and a “fundamentalist.” Disappointingly, there have been few calls - if any, aside from this one - to support Uthman against this barrage of modern ad hominem....Uthman Badar, the Hizb ut Tahrir spokesman, is neither an “extremist” or “fundamentalist”?
At this point, I should say that I know Uthman Badar personally. He is a brilliant economics graduate, who won the Premier’s Award for all round achievement in his Higher School Certificate. Moreover, he is a husband, father, trusted friend and cricket enthusiast. I would trust him with the guardianship of my own child. He is also deeply religious Muslim.
In fact, Badar is spokesman for a group whose Australian head, Sheik Wahwah, has preached Jew hatred:
THE top Australian cleric of extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir has ramped up his hate speech in a rant referring to Jews as who have “corrupted the world” and will “pay for blood with blood”....Wahwah also calls for action against the West - the “enemies” of Islam:
In Mr al-Wahwah’s latest video speech, he says “refraining from fighting (Jews) constitutes widespread evil”. “Jews are the most evil creature of Allah. Moral corruption is linked to the Jews, prostitution in the world began with the Israelites. Usury and gambling began with the Israelites, killing began with the Israelites.”
Do not trust the oppressors. Do not trust America, Europe or NATO. They are all enemies. Their hearts are black. They hate you, your religion, your Muhammad, and your Koran… Start dealing with them before they start dealing with you. Cut off their hands before they sow corruption upon the land… [Jews and Freemasons] killed our mother, abolished our Caliphate.Badar’s Hizb ut Tahrir colleague Wassim Doureihi, another spokesman, said this:
Even if a thousand bombs went off in this country, all that it will prove is that the Muslims are angry and they have every reason to be angry.Badar’s Hizb ut Tahrir says terrorists such as the Islamic State are merely “relatively powerless groups” which are “forced to react” to “tyranny” and the “oppression” and “greater terrorists” of the West, and their slaughter of civilians is “blown out of all proportion”:
Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia emphasises the following points:…Yet a Labor candidate claims Badar is no extremist? No fundamentalist?
If ‘terrorism’ is the use of violence for ideological or political ends, the world has seen no greater terrorists than western states who have laid entire nations to waste through decade-long invasions and war. Yet they are presented as the philanthropic saviors of humanity whilst the actions of relatively powerless groups reacting to oppressive conditions are blown out of all proportion. At the same time, Muslims in the west who make the sacrifice of going abroad to fight tyranny and assist the oppressed are characteristed as ‘extremists’ and ‘terrorists’…
We should respond to these lies with the truth: the truth that the real problem, the root problem, is western violence, which eclipses the violence of any individual or group many times over and is in fact the cause of the oppression to which people are forced to react.
UPDATE
Kunde’s idiotic defence of Badar simply confirms what blogger Arthur Chrenkoff said about Malcolm Turnbull’s excuses for his radical dinner guest, Sheik Shady:
Mr Turnbull ... subsequently told the media: “I do regret his invitation… If I had been aware he had made those remarks about homosexuals and gay people, he would not have been invited.” But also: “It is also wrong to seek to define the views of all 500,000 Muslims because of the opinions expressed by one person, by one cleric."…Which is why the ABC’s Insiders’ panel was yesterday advocating submission.
So we are faced with this dilemma: if Sheikh Al-Suleiman’s Sharia beliefs are not representative of, and are at odds with, those of Australian Imams and the Australian Islamic community in general, why is he the president of the national peak body of religious preachers? If, however, his Sharia beliefs are representative of, and are consistent with, those of Australian Imams (though not necessarily “all 500,000 [Australian] Muslims") then I would venture to argue that we have a much bigger problem in this country than we would like to admit.
UPDATE
Note that Kunde’s astonishing defence of Uthman Badar was published by the ABC’s Religion and Ethics section, led by Scott Stephens, a former Uniting Church minister who has been one of the ABC’s most aggressive promoters of Muslim apologists, notably Waleed Aly.
UPDATE
Rowan Dean demands more radical imams:
The “radical” Muslims aren’t the crazies with the long beards and the mad staring eyes spouting medieval gibberish that they happen to believe to be the word of God (and who am I to say they are right or wrong?).
No, by the proper use of the word “radical”, they would be those who believe they can transform Islam, with all its traditional beliefs and vile prejudices, into a faith that’s compatible with modern, tolerant Australia.
===
McGuire makes bad splash
Andrew Bolt June 20 2016 (9:48am)
Eddie McGuire campaigns against racism and then likens Adam Goodes to King Kong.
Eddie McGuire campaigns against domestic violence and then does this:
UPDATE
On hearing McGuire being contrite - and the banshee of condemnation of him - I must admit that his sin is far smaller than alleged and the outrage far greater than warranted.
Is he really as evil as made out? Seriously?
It seems to me a lot of people now advertise their virtues by damning others.
Eddie McGuire campaigns against domestic violence and then does this:
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has landed in hot water after saying he would pay $50,000 to see The Age’s chief football writer Caroline Wilson stay under a pool of iced water and charge an extra $10,000 for “everyone to stand around the outside and bomb her”.Then there was Danny Frawley’s contribution:
The comments came just days before McGuire welcomed a new AFL women’s team into the Collingwood fold, and the furore arrived during the prevention of violence against women, White Ribbon AFL round.
The segment was part of Triple M’s coverage of the Big Freeze at the MCG on the Queen’s Birthday public holiday, which raised more than $2 million for Motor Neurone Disease research and awareness.
Triple M had crossed to McGuire as he prepared to enter the pool of iced water when he went on a diatribe about Wilson.
“In fact, I reckon we should start the campaign for a one-person slide next year - Caroline Wilson,” McGuire said. “And I’ll put in 10 grand straight away, make it 20. And if she stays under, 50. What do you reckon guys? ... I reckon we could charge 10 thousand for everyone to stand around the outside and bomb her.”
Frawley: I’ll actually jump in and make sure she doesn’t — I’ll hold her under, Ed.It makes me think McGuire strikes political attitudes for their fashion value, without truly understanding or subscribing to the moral content.
UPDATE
On hearing McGuire being contrite - and the banshee of condemnation of him - I must admit that his sin is far smaller than alleged and the outrage far greater than warranted.
Is he really as evil as made out? Seriously?
It seems to me a lot of people now advertise their virtues by damning others.
===
Flannery drowning in hype
Andrew Bolt June 20 2016 (7:52am)
The Left has far more to fear from demands to criminalise dud claims about global warming:
Tim Flannery, 2004:
Why is Flannery still treated as a guru? Why do ABC presenters not ask him to justify his dud predictions or apologise?
Thirteen state GOP attorneys general have sent a letter to the Democratic AG’s who are investigating ExxonMobile for fraud in climate change research, telling them that if minimizing the danger of climate change is fraud, so is exaggerating the peril. They threaten to prosecute climate alarmists for making spectacular claims of disaster that have not materialized…If exaggerations about global warming are to be a crime, who might be charged?
The “cuts both ways” argument was among those raised by 13 Republican attorneys general in a letter urging their Democratic counterparts to stop using their law enforcement power against fossil fuel companies and others that challenge the climate change catastrophe narrative.
“Consider carefully the legal precedent and threat to free speech, said the state prosecutors in their letter this week, headed by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. “If it is possible to minimize the risks of climate change, then the same goes for exaggeration,” said the letter. “If minimization is fraud, exaggeration is fraud.”
Tim Flannery, 2004:
Speaking last night at the State Government’s Sydney Futures forum, Dr Flannery warned of a city grappling with up to 60 per cent less water…Tim Flannery, 2005:
Sydney could glimpse its future by looking at the devastating impact that global warming had already had on Perth, which he said was likely to become a “ghost metropolis”.
“There will be conditions not seen in 40 million years,” the author of the The Future Eaters warned the forum, which was convened to devise a 30-year plan for Sydney… Measures already announced by the State Government to reduce energy and water use were not nearly enough, he said. He advocated a system of green slips, with which people who reduced their environmental footprint would be rewarded with rebates on their stamp duty.
Perth is facing the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the city’s water supply… I’m personally more worried about Sydney than Perth… Where does Sydney go for more water?… It also has nowhere to put the vast infrastructure of a desalination plant.Tim Flannery, 2007:
We’re already seeing the initial impacts [of global warming] and they include a decline in the winter rainfall zone across southern Australia…Tim Flannery, 2007:
Although we’re getting say a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall in some areas of Australia, that’s translating to a 60 per cent decrease in the run-off into the dams and rivers. That’s because the soil is warmer because of global warming and the plants are under more stress and therefore using more moisture. So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems, and that’s a real worry for the people in the bush.
Over the past 50 years southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming....Desalination plants can provide insurance against drought. In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months.But today’s flood alert for Sydney:
One of the biggest concerns was Warragamba Dam, which was already at about 98 per cent capacity.That is not the first time that Sydney’s main dam has proved Flannery’s warnings were grotesquely exaggerated:
Warragamba Dam last spilled over in August 2015And before that:
Warragamba Dam in Sydney’s west spilled over in 2012.And Brisbane’s water supplies today:
Why is Flannery still treated as a guru? Why do ABC presenters not ask him to justify his dud predictions or apologise?
(Thanks to readers fulchrum and Mark M.)=
===
I admit it: Turnbull is better than Shorten. But let’s look long-term
Andrew Bolt June 20 2016 (6:01am)
CONSERVATIVES must now admit it. Whatever we think of that backstabbing Leftist Malcolm Turnbull, Labor would be worse.
In fact, Labor leader Bill Shorten promised to be worse two weeks ago when he delivered the astonishing suicide note that ended his last chance.
He promised to bury us in even more debt over the next four years than our reckless Prime Minister, who himself promises to put another $85 billion on the credit card.
“Labor will not have the same degree of fiscal contraction as the Liberals over this period,” Shorten declared, in between making one wild spending promise and the next.
Add Labor’s other craziness — the return of an electricity tax, protection for lawless unions, weakness on border laws, talk of an Aboriginal treaty — and every conservative must conclude that Turnbull is our man.
Right?
Not so fast.
If this election were only about the next three years, then, yes, conservatives must back the Liberals and their Nationals partners.
But both the Liberals and Labor tell us not to think just three years ahead. Think the next 10, they insist.
(Read the full column here.)
In fact, Labor leader Bill Shorten promised to be worse two weeks ago when he delivered the astonishing suicide note that ended his last chance.
He promised to bury us in even more debt over the next four years than our reckless Prime Minister, who himself promises to put another $85 billion on the credit card.
“Labor will not have the same degree of fiscal contraction as the Liberals over this period,” Shorten declared, in between making one wild spending promise and the next.
Add Labor’s other craziness — the return of an electricity tax, protection for lawless unions, weakness on border laws, talk of an Aboriginal treaty — and every conservative must conclude that Turnbull is our man.
Right?
Not so fast.
If this election were only about the next three years, then, yes, conservatives must back the Liberals and their Nationals partners.
But both the Liberals and Labor tell us not to think just three years ahead. Think the next 10, they insist.
(Read the full column here.)
===
Sky News: better than the ABC, and without a cent of your taxes
Andrew Bolt June 20 2016 (5:59am)
My relationship with Chris Mitchell, former editor-in-chief of The Australian, has been very fraught at times over the past couple of years. So I think we can take his views as his thoroughly professional opinion:
But don’t take my word for it. Or Mitchell’s. Or even the judgment of the ABC’s director of news.
Check it out for yourself.
Sky News has thrown almost its entire schedule from early morning until 10pm at the poll and CEO Angelos Frangopoulos says the decision has paid off with audience growth since early May…I’d query the words “progressive” and “Right”, but not the judgement that Sky News across the board offers far more compelling coverage than you’ll find on the ABC. It also offers far more diversity of opinion.
Frangopoulos, who says he sometimes needs to pinch himself when he thinks about the “dream team” the network now broadcasts, says the arrival of Bolt has given the network a strong point of difference from the ABC during its nightly 7pm bulletins and 7.30. Leading the wider daily Sky News political coverage is David Speers with PM Agenda. Chief political reporter Kieran Gilbert hosts AM Agenda and Peter Van Onselen hosts PVO Newsday after lunch.
Paul Murray’s PM Live at 9pm is influential among politicians and has benefited from the hiring of former Tony Abbott chief of staff Peta Credlin. Frangopoulos has also stepped up the presence of political reporter Laura Jayes, former NSW premier Kristine Keneally and former federal Labor leader Mark Latham, who appears with Alan Jones on Tuesday at 8pm, and as a regular guest on Bolt and PM Live. Also given more time and space are Peter Beattie and Peter Reith with their own program at 8pm on Wednesday, plus Michael Kroger, Stephen Conroy, Ross Cameron, Janine Perrett and former chief of staff to Julia Gillard, Nicholas Reece…
New ABC director of news, Gaven Morris, ... says he loves the Sky News coverage which “brings lots of verve and vigour” to the campaign.
The left Twitteratti often criticises Sky News for its conservative bias but in truth it employs many progressive commentators and the main news programs before 7pm are straight and interviews are carefully balanced. The nightly programs take a strong commentary position, often on the Right, but within them many progressive voices feature strongly…
At ABC News 24 the aim was to challenge Sky News. It has a way to go.
But don’t take my word for it. Or Mitchell’s. Or even the judgment of the ABC’s director of news.
Check it out for yourself.
===
Newspoll: it is 50/50
Andrew Bolt June 20 2016 (12:16am)
Yes, Labor is said be losing in the marginal seats it needs, but the national Newspoll has it even with the Coalition, with one in five voters still undecided.
UPDATE
They would say that, wouldn’t they?:
UPDATE
If Turnbull wins, as I expect, it will be with virtually no mandate for change, thanks to his inability to resist pressure or argue for reform.
Phil Coorey:
UPDATE
They would say that, wouldn’t they?:
The published polls say Labor is in front, or on level pegging, in overall two-party terms, but losing the battle in the critical marginal seats. This is disputed by Labor insiders, who insist their polling tells a different story.Still, wise to be cautious.
UPDATE
If Turnbull wins, as I expect, it will be with virtually no mandate for change, thanks to his inability to resist pressure or argue for reform.
Phil Coorey:
The federal government has dumped plans to outsource the back-office operations of Medicare in a bid to take some of the sting out of Labor’s key election message…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
(T)he Prime Minister backed down from the plan first announced two years ago, to outsource the processing of about $30 billion in claims annually…
Following a recommendation from the audit commission, in August 2014, the Coalition, through the Department of Finance, called for expressions of interest in providing claims and payment services for the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). “It will reduce red tape for doctors and streamline their administrative processes and, we believe, deliver a saving to the taxpayer,” then health minister Peter Dutton said.
===
Let’s start looking at alternatives
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (11:54pm)
Plenty of Liberal voters don’t trust Malcolm Turnbull but can’t vote Labor.
What are the options in the Senate?
In Western Australia, I still think Mathias Cormann is worth supporting, being a fiscal hawk and a sound conservative.
But if you are looking to send a protest vote - or back a genuinely conservative alternative with your first vote - then there’s not just the small-government and pro-liberty Liberal Democrats to choose.
Christian Democrat Mark Imisides says he is actually your man:
Continue reading 'Let’s start looking at alternatives'
What are the options in the Senate?
In Western Australia, I still think Mathias Cormann is worth supporting, being a fiscal hawk and a sound conservative.
But if you are looking to send a protest vote - or back a genuinely conservative alternative with your first vote - then there’s not just the small-government and pro-liberty Liberal Democrats to choose.
Christian Democrat Mark Imisides says he is actually your man:
Continue reading 'Let’s start looking at alternatives'
===
Thanks, Malcolm, but my family would rather decide this for ourselves
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (10:20pm)
Spoken like a real Leftist, denying children and their parents the right to choose for themselves:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for maths and science to be made compulsory for all students finishing high school to arrest a steep decline in Australia’s standards across both subject areas.
===
The softest interview Shorten ever got. From his wife
Andrew Bolt June 19 2016 (8:52pm)
Bill Shorten won’t let me interview him. I guess he’d prefer a softer interviewer. His wife, maybe:
Still ultra cautious and un-memorable in his reponses, though, when I think Shorten really needs to take some chances.
Still, I reckon it works. Just. Right?
Still ultra cautious and un-memorable in his reponses, though, when I think Shorten really needs to take some chances.
===
WE’RE BAD
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 20, 2015 (3:04pm)
Clementine Ford’s definition of a good man:
I know that men can be good, respectful and kind people who treat women with the dignity that should be afforded to all human beings. I know this because I have seen evidence of it. I see the goodness in men. I experience it in my own life and I witness it in the change I see in men who take the time to listen to what I have to say.
Perhaps her persuasive powers could be usefully deployed against Hizb ut-Tahrir, although it’s difficult to be heard from the back of the room. Clementine’s recent antics have given her a definite boost in this year’s frightbat poll, where she’s now reduced Gillian Triggs’s share of the vote to below 60 per cent.
===
FAIRFAX ATTACKS
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 20, 2015 (2:29pm)
The Sydney Morning Herald delivers a backhanded fashion award to Bill Shorten’s wife:
A bit rough on old Bill there. He doesn’t look that much like a muppet. Over at the Age, which recently promised “explosive results” from an investigation into the Labor leader, this is so far the best they’ve come up with:
A bit rough on old Bill there. He doesn’t look that much like a muppet. Over at the Age, which recently promised “explosive results” from an investigation into the Labor leader, this is so far the best they’ve come up with:
The Labor man shifts in his chair and glances around the cafe. In footy-mad Victoria, what he is about to say amounts to an accusation of heresy – of disloyalty to a code deeper than politics, deeper than unionism. Deeper even than friendship – or at least some friendships. He draws closer. “You know,” he says, “he changed footy teams quite late ...”The swap of teams, by the way, did not coincide with South’s move to Sydney. Shorten changed in the late 1980s, seven years or so after the Swans did, when he was at least 21, probably 22, and became a Magpies supporter.“I think there was an eye on the bigger prize with that decision,” says one old comrade from the time, also recalling that Shorten was not particularly interested in the footy.Another old friend, George Habib, also remembers it well. A Pies supporter, Habib recalls encouraging Shorten.“I do remember on numerous occasions saying, ‘Mate, if you want to become Prime Minister of this country you can’t stay with the Sydney Swans.’”
Shorten’s response:
Some things can’t go uncorrected — Proudly Pies since 1982 after my dad’s beloved Bloods moved north. The Age never even bothered to ask me!
The Age piece also repeats the claim that Shorten’s abysmal “everybody is somebody” line came from Martin Luther King. Wrong. It’s from Jesse Jackson.
===
WHEN TEACHERS DON’T
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 20, 2015 (1:37pm)
Professor Ken Wiltshire, co-chair of the government’s review into the national curriculum, identifies a central problemwith modern education – the teachers:
Professor Wiltshire said he was dismayed by some of the new-age teaching methods he uncovered during his review into the curriculum which left him with the view that Australian schools are letting our kids down.One example included revelations some students had been tasked with identifying the “environmentally irresponsible” passages in the works of 16th century playwright William Shakespeare …“They take a beautiful piece of literature and instead of enjoying it they take a marker out and start ‘deconstructing’ it.“They’re given a work by Shakespeare and told to use a brown marker to indicate the racist passages, a purple marker to indicate the sexist passages and a green marker to indicate the environmentally irresponsible passages.”
In a way, this ties in with the politically-correct creepiness recently noted in the US by comedian Jerry Seinfeld:
To his credit, Seinfeld isn’t backing down. In fact – and, perhaps this, too, speaks to his sense of invulnerability – he seems more eager than ever to engage the issue, as was clear on the Seth Meyers program. The host is straightforwardly liberal; the other guest that evening, New Yorker editor David Remnick, is that and more – a man ever vigilant, lest an errant thought slip into his magazine …Remnick said … that some cover sketches do go over the line, and sometimes there’s “a misfire – I got a misfire today.”“What does that mean, you got a misfire?” Seinfeld asked.“It was a sketch about a possible cover about the Vanity Fair cover recently,” Remnick said, referring to Vanity Fair’s Caitlyn Jenner cover. “But it didn’t work.”“I would like to know what it was,” pressed Seinfeld.“You’re not gonna get it.”The audience laughed and applauded, as if it was all in good fun, but Seinfeld was clearly in earnest. A moment later, he turned to the other media heavy, Meyers. “I saw on Instagram where you said, ‘I’m not going to make any jokes about Caitlyn Jenner.’”Meyers looked momentarily abashed, before replying, lamely, “I said ‘that day.’ I sort’ve thought that was a wonderful moment, so it wasn’t a good time to make jokes.”“Oh, good,” allowed Seinfeld drily. “I feel better about it.”
Seth Meyers only identifies as a comedian.
===
EVERY PERSON AND EVERY GOVERNMENT
Tim Blair – Saturday, June 20, 2015 (12:50pm)
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is criticised for these words:
Daesh is coming, if it can, for every person and for every government with a simple message: submit or die.
That view is supported by the New York Times:
The arrest on Saturday of a Queens college student on charges of conspiring with the Islamic State is just the most recent example of the group’s global strategy, which began about one year ago and has resulted in attacks or arrests in more than a dozen countries.
Click for a map.
===
Russia tempts Greece as Germany threatens
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (2:09pm)
Another Russian-German war, this time to be fought in Greece:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned there must be a deal between Greece and its creditors ahead of Monday’s emergency EU summit… Greece has less than two weeks remaining to strike a deal or face defaulting on a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) IMF loan repayment.(Thanks to reader Low Profile.)
There are fears about the health of Greek banks, amid reports more than €4bn has been withdrawn this week… Meanwhile, Russia says it will consider granting a loan to Greece if it is asked.
===
Work to do. UPDATE: The danger grows
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (11:07am)
There is then a lot to do to warn people that fine feelings can lead us into an ugly future of racial division:
Encouraged, The Australian now demands more than a symbolic change to our constitution:
It seems to me that The Australian is now toying with the proposal it has aired - one suggested by Noel Pearson, its favoured Aboriginal leader. That is to write into the constitution a kind of Aboriginal parliament or council that will advise on all matters affecting Aboriginal people. That means one “race”, and one race alone, gets a superior say in politics - a say not just in the Parliament of us all but in this special council. And so apartheid begins.
But how ludicrous this is. Why give additional political rights to people just on the basis of the “race” of some of their long-dead ancestors? Many Aboriginals today actually have some European ancestors and most have lived in Australia for fewer years than have I and many other non-Aborigines of my age who were born right here. What’s the point of this division? What’s the good to come of such racism?
And be sure of what will follow: demands for treaties, sovereignty and the rest. Victim politics. Resentments stoked for negotiating advantage. Arguments about who is Aboriginal and who not, especially among Aborigines. A lawyers’ picnic. A nasty reaction from the marginalised of other “races”. The whole stupid catastrophe.
And not a single Aborigine lifted out of poverty as a consequence.
UPDATE
I’m afraid Chris Kenny of The Australian uses the ultimate no-but-yes argument to defend Pearson’s plan for an Aboriginal-only council, guaranteed in the Constitution, to advise Parliament:
Another no-but-yes argument:
Another no-but-yes argument:
Mundine, like me, is against apartheid. It shocks me that so few people see the fundamental principle that is being betrayed here. That this principle is being betrayed by people who mean well is little consolation.
And then yet another no-but-yes:
And, to add to this folly, we assume all members of this “race” share “unique challenges”? Even when some are ABC broadcasters, professors, politicians, doctors, lawyers and opera singers, often from urban backgrounds and with many non-Aboriginal ancestors?
Why this crude shoe-horning of such disparate and multi-faceted people into “races”? Why treat one side of their ancestry as some kind of permanent stain or collective marker of character, “challenges” or entitlement to privileges?
What madness is this?
Let this instead remain the guide of the civilised, who see beyond “race”:
Almost two out of three voters are in favour of recognising indigenous Australians in the Constitution.UPDATE
A Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Weekend Australian, reveals 63 per cent support constitutional recognition, with 19 per cent opposed and 18 per cent uncommitted.
Encouraged, The Australian now demands more than a symbolic change to our constitution:
The model to be decided upon, be it in a declaration or an addition to the Constitution, should be generous. Australians, as big-hearted people committed to a fair go, would not want to ask indigenous people to accept a mere nod of recognition just to maintain cohesion with a few noisy critics… A nation as generous, welcoming and innovative as ours ought to be able to embrace in its institutional architecture a recognition of the historical truth that indigenous people and their living culture were here for more than 40,000 years before 1788. And neither should indigenous Australians ever again be denied a voice in this nation’s forums.Er, “indigenous Australians” are not at all “denied a voice in this nation’s forums”. Aborigines have the vote, like all citizens. Aborigines can stand for Parliament, and do. A man with Aboriginal ancestors is Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. People with Aboriginal ancestors have been elected to the Senate and the House of Representatives. No one is being denied a voice, and there is nothing here for a constitutional referendum to fix.
It seems to me that The Australian is now toying with the proposal it has aired - one suggested by Noel Pearson, its favoured Aboriginal leader. That is to write into the constitution a kind of Aboriginal parliament or council that will advise on all matters affecting Aboriginal people. That means one “race”, and one race alone, gets a superior say in politics - a say not just in the Parliament of us all but in this special council. And so apartheid begins.
But how ludicrous this is. Why give additional political rights to people just on the basis of the “race” of some of their long-dead ancestors? Many Aboriginals today actually have some European ancestors and most have lived in Australia for fewer years than have I and many other non-Aborigines of my age who were born right here. What’s the point of this division? What’s the good to come of such racism?
And be sure of what will follow: demands for treaties, sovereignty and the rest. Victim politics. Resentments stoked for negotiating advantage. Arguments about who is Aboriginal and who not, especially among Aborigines. A lawyers’ picnic. A nasty reaction from the marginalised of other “races”. The whole stupid catastrophe.
And not a single Aborigine lifted out of poverty as a consequence.
UPDATE
I’m afraid Chris Kenny of The Australian uses the ultimate no-but-yes argument to defend Pearson’s plan for an Aboriginal-only council, guaranteed in the Constitution, to advise Parliament:
It aims to protect the legal integrity of the Constitution while giving a permanent voice to indigenous people in a way that does not confer special rights but is practically significant.No “special rights”? So can people of all “races” then vote for it? Can people of all “races” serve on it? Can people of all “races” have similar bodies?
Another no-but-yes argument:
It is not about perpetuating distinctions on race but recognising that we introduced a Western culture into a land where cultures already existed.I didn’t introduce “a Western culture” to this land, having been born here into an existing one. So who is “we” and why does Kenny draft me into this collective? Isn’t this exactly “perpetuating distinctions on [sic] race”?
Another no-but-yes argument:
If leading advocates could coalesce around a version of this model the only cohorts disappointed would be the entrenched Right, who are opposed to any change, and the entrenched Left, who seek powers equivalent to an indigenous bill of rights… It is a stretch to call such an advisory body “radical”, as it has been characterised by Warren Mundine.Mundine, a former Labor national president, is neither of the Right nor “entrenched Left, who seek powers equivalent to an indigenous bill of rights”.
Mundine, like me, is against apartheid. It shocks me that so few people see the fundamental principle that is being betrayed here. That this principle is being betrayed by people who mean well is little consolation.
And then yet another no-but-yes:
Could a less-is-more replacement of the race power work…We remove race from the Constitution by defining a group “mainly by race”? Pardon?
Rather than perpetuating a race power, it is possible to see formalisation of federal power over indigenous affairs as being more about giving constitutional authority to the government to legislate for a disparate group of Australians who happen to have special land rights (as recognised under common law and subsequent Mabo and Wik legislation) and unique challenges (as recognised under the common sense of national consensus). This group is identified, in practical terms, mainly by race.
And, to add to this folly, we assume all members of this “race” share “unique challenges”? Even when some are ABC broadcasters, professors, politicians, doctors, lawyers and opera singers, often from urban backgrounds and with many non-Aboriginal ancestors?
Why this crude shoe-horning of such disparate and multi-faceted people into “races”? Why treat one side of their ancestry as some kind of permanent stain or collective marker of character, “challenges” or entitlement to privileges?
What madness is this?
Let this instead remain the guide of the civilised, who see beyond “race”:
===
Pope rants against airconditioning
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (9:50am)
The Pope issues an encyclical against air-conditioning?
But worse is that it contains so much emotional and apocalyptic claptrap of the kind we’d expect in a fundraising pamphlet from Greenpeace but not in a papal encyclical:
And isn’t it a serious moral error to regard pollution as a sin as great as the worst maltreatment of a human being? This is the voice of pantheism, now triumphant in the Vatican.
There is something manic in this railing:
Nor is this true:
The Pope does not consider the cost to the poor of the shift he now advocates:
There is much in the encyclical that is worth considering, not least its appeals to consider the poor, the central importance of the family and the cost of pollution. There is also an argument against abortion which I doubt that the greens now hailing the Pope will demand we heed as they demand we heed his climate alarmism.
But too much of the document seems simply alarmist and just one impatient man’s grumpy opinion.
UPDATE
Reader John defends the Pope, saying I missed a relevant bit of the encyclical:
Bjorn Lomborg:
People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning. The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behaviour, which at times appears self-destructive.Recycling paper, actually a biodegradable product of a renewable resource, is now a religious issue?
These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish. To cite one example, most of the paper we produce is thrown away and not recycled.It is hard to read an encyclical with such passages as a religious document.
But worse is that it contains so much emotional and apocalyptic claptrap of the kind we’d expect in a fundraising pamphlet from Greenpeace but not in a papal encyclical:
The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor.A “sickness evident in the soil”? And in “all forms of life”? The earth “laid waste”? Seriously?
And isn’t it a serious moral error to regard pollution as a sin as great as the worst maltreatment of a human being? This is the voice of pantheism, now triumphant in the Vatican.
There is something manic in this railing:
The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish.This is simply not true of vast parts of our planet. Go outside and see for yourself.
Nor is this true:
A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon… The melting in the polar ice caps and in high altitude plains can lead to the dangerous release of methane gas…In fact, there has been a pause in warming of the global atmosphere that has lasted at least 17 years, to the puzzlement of warmist scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change itself struggles to find any evidence of “an increase of extreme weather events”, such as cyclones, storms or droughts. One of the two polar ice caps has actually seen an increase in sea ice extent, and the other has seen no further deterioration for several years.
The Pope does not consider the cost to the poor of the shift he now advocates:
There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy.A shift to green power will in many cases mean a big increase in the cost of electricity, keeping it beyond the reach of the poorest people in the world. This is the very point stressed by India, whose Prime Minister has set himself the goal of bring electricity to those who have none.
There is much in the encyclical that is worth considering, not least its appeals to consider the poor, the central importance of the family and the cost of pollution. There is also an argument against abortion which I doubt that the greens now hailing the Pope will demand we heed as they demand we heed his climate alarmism.
But too much of the document seems simply alarmist and just one impatient man’s grumpy opinion.
UPDATE
Reader John defends the Pope, saying I missed a relevant bit of the encyclical:
The encyclical does NOT recommend abandoning cheap sources of energy like coal whilst the search for widely-available (read ‘cheap’) renewable energy is developed. In fact it says the exact opposite to what you have written:UPDATE
165. We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay. Until greater progress is made in developing widely accessible sources of renewable energy, it is legitimate to choose the lesser of two evils or to find short-term solutions.
Bjorn Lomborg:
The Pope derides those who have “blind faith” in technological advances as a solution to climate change. Instead, his encyclical declares that the world must stop consuming so much. That, he says, will help the poor people who stand to be affected most by global warming. That is troubling, because technical innovation is exactly what we need more of.
Humanity’s answer to huge levels of famine wasn’t to insist we should eat less.
===
Global warming and the death of science
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (9:42am)
Science author Matt Ridley warns that the reputation of science is being destroyed by the warming scare:
Continue reading 'Global warming and the death of science'
Continue reading 'Global warming and the death of science'
===
The Bolt Report tomorrow, June 21
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (9:12am)
On Channel 10 tomorrow at 10am and 3pm.
My guest: Anthony Albanese, Labor’s Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism spokesman and about the only Labor MP to come out of The Killing Season with his reputation for integrity enhanced.
The panel: Political scientist Jennifer Oriel and Nicholas Reece, former advisor to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
NewsWatch: Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB colleague.
On boats, Shorten’s horror week, terrorism legislation, the Greens’ coup and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
My guest: Anthony Albanese, Labor’s Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism spokesman and about the only Labor MP to come out of The Killing Season with his reputation for integrity enhanced.
The panel: Political scientist Jennifer Oriel and Nicholas Reece, former advisor to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
NewsWatch: Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB colleague.
On boats, Shorten’s horror week, terrorism legislation, the Greens’ coup and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===
Shorten destroyed by the Left he dares not challenge
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (8:28am)
Bill Shorten’s worst and most crippling decisions have come from trying to placate Labor’s Left, rather than represent his own Right faction.
He has committed Labor to another carbon tax. He has refused to endorse boat turnbacks and temporary protection visas.
Then this week he made one of his worst blunders in siding with the Left, although the ABC’s Barrie Cassidy doesn’t quite tell the real tale:
He has committed Labor to another carbon tax. He has refused to endorse boat turnbacks and temporary protection visas.
Then this week he made one of his worst blunders in siding with the Left, although the ABC’s Barrie Cassidy doesn’t quite tell the real tale:
The Government puts up a perfectly modest and reasonable initiative to rein in spending pensions a change to the assets test that will deny the payment to wealthy Australians and deliver a $15 a week increase to full pensioners.But wait. Cassidy is actually far too kind to Shorten. Almost protective. The decision wasn’t line ball at all, according to Dennis Shanahan, who said Shorten sided with (among others) two frontbenchers of the Left, one his leadership rival, against the majority and the Right:
The Greens - yes, the Greens - sign up, and Labor opposes it. Surely the decision would have been line ball within Labor ranks; a tempting step towards much needed co-operation in the battle against runaway deficits. But having decided to vote against it, Labor then cranked it up as the definition of evil, mounting a full blown scare campaign.
On Monday evening, at shadow cabinet, Shorten presided over a heated debate on pension changes, eventually siding with his deputy, Tanya Plibersek, and Labor’s families spokeswoman, Jenny Macklin, in a minority decision to oppose the government’s budget changes…What the Labor Right must think of Shorten now:
Mr Shorten and Labor families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin prevailed in the shadow cabinet debate over the policy, but there are fears within the caucus that the outcome will damage the opposition’s credibility on budget repair — a central issue at the next election.
Labor hardheads such as Chris Bowen, the Treasury spokesman, had been careful to leave room to accept the government plan to save $2.4 billion over four years by tightening the pension asset test.Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill:
Considering the gallery has been been all over Cabinet leaks for weeks, it’s surprising such a significant leak from Shadow Cabinet hasn’t been bigger news.The Daily Telegraph’s Simon Benson sums up very well:
Bill Shorten’s leadership is now being questioned by senior right-wing MPs who believe he has all but capitulated to structural forces within a recalibrated Labor Party. They claim he has sold out his own faction to a resurgent and aggressive left, which is not only asserting a new-found political authority but using its influence to shift policy away from the centre — Shorten’s natural political alignment.,,(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and brett t r.)
His caucus is now starting to recognise that there are problems. The most immediate is the breakdown in what has been a bipartisanship on national security and Shorten’s inability or unwillingness to rein in national security spokesman Dreyfus.
His suggestion yesterday that terrorists should be brought back to Australia to be prosecuted — before having their citizenship stripped from them — sent several Labor MPs into a panic.
“It was inexcusable,” said one. “He has done irreparable damage with that single comment.”
Shorten needed to deal with this. He chose not to. Nor has he dealt with the issue of asylum seekers and what Labor’s policy will be. This more than perhaps any other issue has the potential to eviscerate his leadership.
The danger he faces internally was evident in what happened to shadow immigration minister Richard Marles when he dared to articulate earlier this year that Labor had to change tack, suggesting it should adopt the Coalition’s boat turnback policy. Marles was destroyed by the left…
The essential problem for Labor now, which has become manifest in the shift on national security this week, is that it is a party that is now left of centre. It is a party whose MPs live in the political vacuum of Twitter and the inner-city commentariat, out of kilter with mainstream Australia… The irony is that it has come about from the move to reduce the influence of unions at conference. The membership of the ALP is concentrated now around inner-city branches. The bulk of those members are of the left.
===
Sounds reasonable to me, with the boats stopped and the laws toughened
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (8:04am)
Michael Gordon of The Age:
Just because a claim hurts Labor doesn’t make it false.
Having declared that “Daesh is coming, if it can, for every person and for every government with a simple message: submit or die”, Abbott’s emphatic message now is that Australians are safer from terrorism under the Coalition. This is an extraordinary and irresponsible claim.It is?
Just because a claim hurts Labor doesn’t make it false.
===
An ad for a new Labor party, courtesy of United Voice
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (7:19am)
United Voice have produced this curious ad to attack the people who have taken over Labor, the party of the unions:
Or maybe not. The uproar from the new political class has forced the union to ditch the ad, as the Sydney Morning Herald tut tuts:
Many members might take this to be a metaphor for the takeover of politics generally. In fact, the ad suggests to me that there are many conservative Labor supporters who would very much appreciate a return to the Labor party of Hawke and Chifley.
Or maybe not. The uproar from the new political class has forced the union to ditch the ad, as the Sydney Morning Herald tut tuts:
One of the country’s biggest unions has been forced to pull a video off YouTube, after social media expressed shock and dismay over its suggestion that union members should reassert their “values” in the ALP over same-sex people, environmentalists and other members.Why “confusion”?
The South Australian branch of United Voice originally posted the clip in late May but removed it on Friday afternoon…
The video, entitled “have your say”, begins with a young couple, who share the same “values” and build a house together.
Then a “lawyer” comes by and moves in. “Some students”, “some environmentalists”, a “same-sex couple”, “many religious orders” and “a group called political staffers” - represented as clowns - also move in.
“At first everyone is happy and gets along because everyone under your roof shares the same values. You’re even happy to pay most of the bills,” the voiceover says.
But the house becomes crowded and noisy and “eventually some differences arise”.
The diverse bunch then decides the original owners should leave in order to reduce the numbers - but continue to pay for the costs of the house.
“The same thing is happening to your political party. Your political party is your house, a trade unionist house,” the voiceover continues.
“It’s time to reclaim the house we built ... we urge you as a trade unionist to stand up and play your part.” The video, which comes ahead of the Labor Party’s national conference in July, was circulated on social media on Friday, where commenters expressed confusion and surprise.
.
===
The ultimate blame-the-victim
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (7:07am)
A racist misfit - given a gun by his insanely stupid father - shoots dead a black pastor and eight of his black parishioners.
This happens in America, so guess which character in this evil is being blamed by National Rifle Association board member Charles L. Cotton?
Unbelievably, it’s the pastor, who is also a South Carolina State Senator who voted for more comprehensive background checks on gun sales:
This happens in America, so guess which character in this evil is being blamed by National Rifle Association board member Charles L. Cotton?
Unbelievably, it’s the pastor, who is also a South Carolina State Senator who voted for more comprehensive background checks on gun sales:
===
In defence of Shorten’s deals
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (6:47am)
Kelty and Ferguson make good points in defence of Bill Shorten’s controversial deals with bosses:
So thank Shorten for that.
But how does any of that explain this?:
Ferguson has a go:
Bill Kelty and Martin Ferguson have followed the lead of former Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd in praising the improved productivity and workplace flexibility the now Opposition Leader oversaw at a major Melbourne road project in 2005.True, and it’s the point I’ve made several times on 2GB: thanks to Shorten’s deals, taxpayers and road users have probably been saved a lot of money. Imagine such projects in the hands of the CFMEU. Indeed, if the CFMEU had more such projects, we’d have less. Investment would be frightened off, and workers would have fewer jobs.
The deal with joint venture partner Thiess John Holland for the $2.5 billion EastLink tollway is said to have saved the company up to $100 million and delivered the project five months early…
“He was brave and flexible when the country needed brave and flexible union officials to make big changes,” Mr Kelty, ACTU secretary in 1983-2000, told The Weekend Australian.
“To be criticised for that flexibility and adaptability borders on the class warfare of the 1890s in reverse, which is ‘How dare you deal with the employer, how dare you embrace good employers’. It’s the sort of thing you would expect of the loony Left.”
Mr Ferguson, ACTU president in 1990-96, said the deal struck with Thiess John Holland for Melbourne’s tollway was an example of “what the Hawke and Keating governments achieved”. “The leadership of the AWU under Bill Shorten in partnership with the Victorian government was something we could only hope that was achieved on more infrastructure projects, especially when you compare it to the debacle and thuggery on parts of the upgraded West Gate (project), with the CFMEU aggressively trying to undermine the AWU and cause industrial disruption,” he told The Weekend Australian.
So thank Shorten for that.
But how does any of that explain this?:
However, the AWU went on to receive more than $200,000 in payments from the company in subsequent years, including a $134,500 “donation” to the union’s Victorian branch in 2006-07…That is the bit that will cause Shorten a lot of trouble, I expect, at the royal commission.
The government has continued to hound Mr Shorten over any connection to a series of deals, following evidence to the commission that low-paid cleaners missed out on $2 million in penalty rates in return for $75,000 and payments to the union by a builder for more than $225,000 that were disguised. Tony Abbott said yesterday it seemed to have been a pattern of the AWU that workers had been “ripped off” so that union bosses could benefit.
Ferguson has a go:
Mr Ferguson ... was yesterday confident the payments of more than $200,000 made by Thiess John Holland to the AWU would have been used for legitimate training purposes.May I just add that Ferguson is defending Shorten even though Shorten failed to defend Ferguson from union moves to expel him from Labor?
===
Chad bans burqa after Islamists kill 33
Andrew Bolt June 20 2015 (5:52am)
Chad, predominantly Muslim, now bans the burqa:
THE central African nation of Chad has banned the full-face Muslim veil and ordered security forces to seize burqas from markets after 33 people were killed in suicide bombings blamed on Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.(Thanks to reader WaG311.)
“Wearing the burqa must stop immediately from today, not only in public places and schools but throughout the whole of the country,” Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet said in a speech to religious leaders on Wednesday, a day before the start of the holy Muslim festival of Ramadan.
Any type of clothing that leaves only the eyes visible was a form of “camouflage"… Anyone found wearing a burqa would be “arrested, tried and sentenced in summary proceedings”, he said…
Boko Haram extremists ... have in the past used female suicide bombers to launch attacks by hiding explosive devices under their clothes.
===
This three-year-old sales video by Israel's Elbit Systems describes the anti-missile systems all of Israel's civilian...
Posted by The Jewish Standard on Wednesday, 23 July 2014
===
Amazing & Unique Starfish ᴷᴬ
Posted by Architecture & Design on Tuesday, 16 June 2015
===
Don't let summer distractions slow you down. Follow these 5 tips to stay productive: http://bit.ly/1JI1NAX
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Friday, 19 June 2015
===
Have we been doing it wrong this whole time?Morgs.
Posted by Chef Co-Op on Tuesday, 5 May 2015
===
O vídeo mostra a lindíssima Mariposa Atlas-Gigante (nome científico Attacus atlas).Esses insetos incríveis são...
Posted by JornalCiencia on Monday, 28 July 2014
===
Photo of the Day: A rainbow brightens the sky over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia.
Posted by Fox News on Wednesday, 17 June 2015
===
Structure...or SLC, which stands for Scary Looking Clouds. This will probably look lousy here on Facebook and I will more than likely post a link to Flickr after I post it there tomorrow.
Posted by Matt Granz on Friday, 19 June 2015
===
>> PowerofPositivity.com
Posted by Power of Positivity on Thursday, 18 June 2015
===
SERIOUSLY
Tim Blair – Friday, June 20, 2014 (2:13pm)
Frightbat was actually a thing on ABC News 24. At the two-minutes mark:
In other frighty developments, Margo Kingston orders:
In other frighty developments, Margo Kingston orders:
Don’t contribute to Blair blog – trying build his brand off your energy.
Oh, it’s already built, dear. Now I’m just adding a pool and a four-car garage. Clem Bastow complains:
Good to see that Tim Blair went to the trouble of finding one of my skimpier Instagram shots to link to in his latest piece.
No trouble, Clem. That shot appears at the top of the very first page of a Google search. Total effort: one click.
===
PLOY REVEALED
Tim Blair – Friday, June 20, 2014 (12:50pm)
Isn’t marriage merely a clever ploy to keep us quiet about the trickier issues such as the deportation of lesbian asylum seekers?
===
The Bolt Report on Sunday
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (4:11pm)
On Sunday on Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
My guest:Labor’s immigration spokesman Richard Marles Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on boats and immigration.
The panel: Janet Albrechtsen and former Labor advisor Bruce Hawker.
NewsWatch: Sharri Markson,.
Plus the obligatory dig at the Greens, whose rudeness needs repaying.
And a question: how come the mud isn’t sticking to Bill Shorten?
The videos of the shows appear here.
My guest:
The panel: Janet Albrechtsen and former Labor advisor Bruce Hawker.
NewsWatch: Sharri Markson,.
Plus the obligatory dig at the Greens, whose rudeness needs repaying.
And a question: how come the mud isn’t sticking to Bill Shorten?
The videos of the shows appear here.
===
Latham smells conspiracy
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (10:47am)
Most people of reason would think three independent witnesses testifying to the same thing as a powerful corroboration.
Mark Latham sees it as conspiracy:
(Via Michael Smith.)
Continue reading 'Latham smells conspiracy'
Mark Latham sees it as conspiracy:
Documents aside, what verbal evidence has come before the commission concerning Gillard? Like a parade of ageing Oompa Loompas, three impish men – Ralph Blewitt, Wayne Hem and Athol James – claimed to remember cash being exchanged in and around her Melbourne home.Bizarre.
Indeed, the nature of their recollections is remarkably similar.
(Via Michael Smith.)
Continue reading 'Latham smells conspiracy'
===
Gore blames Syria on global warming
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (10:25am)
Al Gore blames the jihadist uprising in Syria on global warming:
Syria is one of the countries that has been in the bull’s-eye of climate change. From 2006 to 2010, a historic drought destroyed 60 percent of the country’s farms and 80 percent of its livestock - driving a million refugees from rural agricultural areas into cities already crowded with the million refugees who had taken shelter there from the Iraq War. As early as 2008, U.S. State Department cables quoted Syrian government officials warning that the social and economic impacts of the drought are “beyond our capacity as a country to deal with.” Though the hellish and ongoing civil war in Syria has multiple causes - including the perfidy of the Assad government and the brutality on all sides - their climate-related drought may have been the biggest underlying trigger for the horror.
===
ABC campaigns against royal commission
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (10:13am)
The ABC’s bias is now shameless - and dangerous in a state organisation that is now by far our biggest media outlet:
Piers Akerman on the ABC’s shameful protection racket, running dead on the AWU slush fund story:
The ABC is out of control.
UPDATE
It takes only 400 Leftists to turn up at a pub for the ABC to treat it like a new mass movement:
Stupid question.
THE ABC and its Melbourne radio host Jon Faine have been attacked over their reporting of the royal commission into union corruption, with a veteran Coalition senator calling on managing director Mark Scott to step in to ensure the broadcaster’s coverage was accurate, fair and balanced.UPDATE
Liberal National Party senator Ian Macdonald ... last night told the Senate that Faine had been “reprimanded before by his bosses for not being impartial in relation to the royal commission, and it would seem he needs to be reprimanded again’’.
He said the ABC appeared to have joined Faine in imposing a “reporting ban’’ on covering any critical news out of the commission.
“The ABC’s editor-in-chief Mr Scott really needs to review his organisation’s coverage of the royal commission and instruct them to report accurately, widely and fairly in a balanced way. That is what the public demands for their dollar,’’ Senator Macdonald told parliament. Senator Macdonald ... quoted Media Watch’s criticism on Monday of the ABC’s reporting of the royal commission and the subdued coverage in Fairfax publications, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Piers Akerman on the ABC’s shameful protection racket, running dead on the AWU slush fund story:
The ABC, under its self-described editor-in-chief Mark Scott, flatly refused to run any news stories about the investigations launched by the Victorian police into Gillard’s former boyfriend and her role in providing legal advice for the establishment of a slush fund which was later shown to be the vehicle for his corrupt behaviour, the AWU Workplace Reform Association.Faine is entitled to his opinion, ill-founded and politically motivated though it is. The question for the ABC is: which of its other presenters offers the balance?
ABC Insiders’ host Barrie Cassidy, and his Left-leaning guests, rejected any discussion of the ongoing case… Other ABC figures continuing to run interference for Gillard include Melbourne radio host Jon Faine and the Sydney radio host Linda Mottram.
On Tuesday last week, Faine laboriously read on- air a lengthy statement by Bruce Wilson, which included some claims that he had allegedly been offered $200,000 by veteran union lawyer Harry Nowicki to fabricate material implicating Gillard in the AWU Reform Association scam.
Two days later royal commissioner Dyson Heydon said flatly: “I would reject those paragraphs as irrelevant.”
The ABC’s Faine was at it again this week with another attack on Harry Nowicki based on a 2011 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal reprimand against the Melbourne lawyer.
Nowicki had admitted swearing to an affidavit without properly reading and investigating the material attached, which related to how his firm had divided a settlement it won for a woman injured in a car accident.
“That’s about as bad a finding short of getting struck off that a solicitor can have,” Faine said, branding the decision as “extraordinary stuff”.
In reality, a reprimand is possibly the least finding that could have been made given that both parties agreed to the facts and indeed made joint submissions as to disposition including penalties and submitted consent orders for the tribunal to consider. A reading of the VCAT decision shows deputy president Michael Macnamara actually wondered whether Nowicki’s failure to adequately probe the affidavit prepared by his office really amounted to professional misconduct.
“I think it is a relatively finely balanced issue and one on which minds might differ,” he said.
Faine, a former lawyer, was reprimanded by ABC management last year following interviews he conducted with broadcaster Michael Smith and Age editor-at-large Mark Baker about the case. And he deserves another whack for his attempts to impugn the commission’s witness.
The ABC is out of control.
UPDATE
It takes only 400 Leftists to turn up at a pub for the ABC to treat it like a new mass movement:
CHRIS UHLMANN: Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser says the major parties are showing a “descent into inhumanity” in their treatment of asylum seekers. In front of a packed crowd in a Sydney pub last night, Mr Fraser was critical of policies on both sides of the political divide… AM’s Thomas Oriti went along.Wow. The next time I speak to 400 people, will the ABC give me that awed treatment, too? Or is it reserved only for speakers of the Left?
(Sound of noisy pub)
THOMAS ORITI: The weekly Politics in the Pub event in Sydney is described as a discussion for the political left. But at what was arguably the most successful event in its 26 year history last night, former Liberal Party prime minister Malcolm Fraser was the star… Over the years, Sydney’s Harold Park Hotel has hosted countless events. But the publican, William Ryan, says he’s never seen a crowd quite like this.
WILLIAM RYAN: We’ve always done the Politics in the Pub, the Poets in the Pub, but tonight probably caps off everything we’ve ever done.
THOMAS ORITI: And the event attracted all ages.
Ardy Prasad was born almost a decade after Malcolm Fraser lost the 1983 election. ARDY PRASAD: It’s just really out of curiosity and to see a man who has been in the Liberal Party and to see how much things have changed in the past 30 or 40 years and how he’s reacted to that sort of change.
Stupid question.
===
Richo: Labor would lose an election now
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (9:23am)
Graham Richardson says Labor shouldn’t be daring Tony Abbott to call a double dissolution election:
Newspoll captures the mood of the nation at a given point in time. Last weekend the government would have lost an election by a considerable margin, and that is all well and good up to a point — there was no election. Moreover, elections are held only after a minimum five-week campaign where Labor and the Greens will be massively outspent by the Liberal and Nationals parties, let alone the Clive Palmer spectre now lurking in the foreground of Australian politics.And of course:
Such a campaign would feature millions of dollars in advertising Labor’s failures in economic management. While those claims would no doubt be highly exaggerated, it would be impossible to camouflage the political ineptitude and downright stupidity of the Rudd and Gillard prime ministerships. The images of that incompetence are still vividly imprinted on the minds of voters and the 53 per cent-47 per cent two-party preferred result in Newspoll would be reversed in the first few weeks of any election campaign held any time soon. Labor will not win an election held this year and would do well to chloroform those who push this envelope too far.
Shorten has ... been less than inspiring.... [H]e must tell Australia soon what he would do as opposed to what he refuses to allow the government to do.And Richo is right to warn the Government against counting on Palmer’s rabble of Senators to split from him any time soon:
Dio Wang from Western Australia works for Palmer and will be financially dependent on him when he fails to be re-elected in six years — and fail he will.
Jacqui Lambie from Tasmania is a former spurned Liberal whose capacity to spit out nasty rhetoric is the most impressive talent she appears to have.
Then there is Glenn Lazarus, who seems a fundamentally decent fellow but is quite obviously seriously out of his depth. He is the likeliest to break away from his boss, but it won’t happen in time to save any measure in this budget. The brilliant work done by Mike Willesee on the Seven Network a couple of weeks ago demonstrated a level of dependence on Palmer from these three that was almost sickening. Ricky Muir’s level of dependence on Palmer was actually sickening.
===
Party of bad bosses
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (9:07am)
How embarrassing for Labor - again:
A friend of Constas and Liberal donor says I have every reason to be suspicious of bullying claims. So easily made, so hard to defend, so tempting to reach a settlement which in this case is confidential, leaving Constas now unable to defend herself.
DANIEL Andrews has issued a grovelling apology and party figures are questioning his judgment after Labor’s bully fiasco.I’m always suspicious about bullying claims, but it’s odd that the party of workers seems to attract them.
In his worst day as Opposition Leader, his candidate for the key seat of Frankston was forced to resign over a bullying scandal revealed by the Herald Sun.
Helen Constas, who aimed to topple rogue MP Geoff Shaw at November’s election, stood aside yesterday after the ALP was briefed on a confidential workplace bullying case brought by her former assistant at the Peninsula Community Legal Centre.
According to a court statement of claim, Ms Constas “screamed” and “threatened” the 60-year-old during repeated phone calls the day she resigned.
It was alleged that she presided over a culture of “bullying and harassment” while chief executive of the Frankston centre. The Supreme Court claim, which was settled confidentially last year, escaped Labor’s vetting process for new candidates.
Clare O’Neil, who at 23 became the youngest female mayor in Australian history, has emerged as a contender for the safe Labor seat of Hotham.UPDATE
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday announced the preselected Labor candidate, Geoff Lake, would be dumped after revelations that he had verbally abused a wheelchair bound woman during a 2002 council meeting.
A friend of Constas and Liberal donor says I have every reason to be suspicious of bullying claims. So easily made, so hard to defend, so tempting to reach a settlement which in this case is confidential, leaving Constas now unable to defend herself.
===
Obama puts back troops he withdrew. UPDATE: Terrorists seize Saddam’s chemical weapons
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (8:43am)
Barack Obama yesterday blamed Iraq for making him pull out all his troops in Iraq in 2011:
And just how hard did he argue for immunity in 2011?
UPDATE
This is not satire:
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
[JOURNALIST]: Just very quickly, do you wish you had left a residual force in Iraq? Any regrets about that decision in 2011?Question: if Iraq’s refusal to offer immunity to troops in 2011 forced Obama to pull out all troops in 2011, why does he now feel free to send back troops in 2014?:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me; that was a decision made by the Iraqi government. We offered a modest residual force to help continue to train and advise Iraqi security forces. We had a core requirement which we require in any situation where we have U.S. troops overseas, and that is, is that they’re provided immunity since they’re being invited by the sovereign government there, so that if, for example, they end up acting in self-defense if they are attacked and find themselves in a tough situation, that they’re not somehow hauled before a foreign court. That’s a core requirement that we have for U.S. troop presence anywhere. The Iraqi government and Prime Minister Maliki declined to provide us that immunity.
We’re prepared to create joint operation centers in Baghdad and northern Iraq to share intelligence and coordinate planning to confront the terrorist threat of ISIL ... and we’re prepared to send a small number of additional American military advisors—up to 300—to assess how we can best train, advise, and support Iraqi security forces going forward.Has Iraq offered those 300 soldiers immunity, after all? Or is Obama dropping that demand, at least for advisors?
American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq, but we will help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi people, the region, and American interests as well.
And just how hard did he argue for immunity in 2011?
UPDATE
This is not satire:
Sunni extremists in Iraq have occupied what was once Saddam Hussein’s premier chemical-weapons production facility, a complex that still contains a stockpile of old weapons, State Department and other U.S. government officials said.Among other things, this demonstrates why removing Saddam was essential. What could terrorists have seized had Saddam’s weapons programs continued?
U.S. officials don’t believe the Sunni militants will be able to create a functional chemical weapon from the material. The weapons stockpiled at the Al Muthanna complex are old, contaminated and hard to move, officials said.
Nonetheless, the capture of the chemical-weapon stockpile by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS or ISIL, the militant group that is seizing territory in the country, has grabbed the attention of the U.S.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
===
Fixing Abbott’s messaging
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (8:07am)
David Crowe on the Abbott Government’s muddled media messaging:
The conventional wisdom is that Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, is pulling the strings behind every move. If that’s so, the ministers certainly aren’t responding as they should.My own observations:
If anything, Abbott and his office seem to show remarkable restraint when ministers wander away from the government’s core business.
When Brandis aired his view on East Jerusalem, the Prime Minister’s first response was to let his minister have his way.
When Pyne opened a new front in the HECS debate, members of the leadership team could not even get their lines straight. Behind the scenes in recent days, Abbott addressed some of these challenges in talks with ministers. While it might be going too far to say there were rebukes for those who haven’t been helping, the Prime Minister’s concerns would have been obvious.
- In fact, some of the media “mistakes” would seem less so if the Government actually took on its critics with verve and wit, instead of backing and filling. Apologise less, and assert more. Think Keating. It is better to seem too confident than too hesitant.This is exactly not the embattled look the Government wants, but which that hostile media is imposing:
- Minor media stunts such as the video support of “Mike” Jedinak just aren’t up to scratch. It’s not up to Abbott to check Jedinak’s first name. And who on earth thought it would be convincing to have Abbott tape his support from an office with just a Socceroo scarf tossed over his suit to simulate interest in soccer? So clumsy and lazy. Howard at least got into green and gold tracksuits and released photos of him jumping with excitement as he watched sport. Bob Hawke got himself sprayed with booze watching the America’s Cup.
- Abbott is not being shown as natural. He always seems formal and often on the defensive, peppered by hostile questions. Why is he not shown out and about with people who like him, being as normal and easy as he privately is?
- Ministers often do media with an only too apparent - and only too justified - awareness of the hostility of most press gallery journalists and presenters. They seem then defensive or, in a couple of cases, smart-arse or aggressive in responding. Ministers should realise the people they must convince are not the journalists but the audience watching. Radiate more geniality and authority. More smiles. Don’t look so under siege. Learn from Hockey.
- Where is the attention to media happenings that the Liberals in Opposition did so well? Just calling a press conference is like putting yourself at the wrong end of a duck shoot. Don’t just tell but show. Illustrate more. I remember Abbott in Opposition going to business after business to show people complaining about their carbon tax bill. It worked for him then, so why hasn’t he repeated that kind of campaigning as PM?
- For heaven’s sake, look in charge.
Four senior ministers in the Abbott government have been assigned secret-service style protection amid an angry backlash over the federal budget, while a fifth minister is also receiving personal protection over specific threats.
===
Petrol head wooed by Greens
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (7:55am)
The incompatibility of Senator and issue should be plain:
Ricky Muir could frustrate the Abbott government’s plans to dismantle Labor’s carbon tax package in its entirety as the likelihood the elusive senator-elect will decide the fate of the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation is growing…
Mr Muir, of the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party, ... is being courted by the Greens.
===
McKitrick: the warming theory is falling apart
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (7:18am)
Ross McKitrick, professor of environmental economics, says the warming pause is about to smash global warming theory:
Both satellites and surface records show that sometime around 2000, temperature data ceased its upward path and leveled off. Over the past 100 years there is a statistically significant upward trend in the data amounting to about 0.7 oC per century. If one looks only at the past 15 years though, there is no trend.(Thanks to reader Steve.)
It will by 2017 be impossible to reconcile climate models with reality
A leveling-off period is not, on its own, the least bit remarkable. What makes it remarkable is that it coincides with 20 years of rapidly rising atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. Since 1990, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen 13%… Climate models all predicted that this should have led to warming of the lower troposphere and surface. Instead, temperatures flatlined and even started declining…
The chart on this page reproduces an important diagram from Chapter 9 of the IPCC report. The gray line shows the surface temperature record (HadCRUT4 from the UK Met Office) from 1860 to the present. The black line shows the average of climate model runs covering the same interval. The black line in effect sums up mainstream views on how the climate works....
The data prior to the year 2000 represent historical reconstructions. Modellers were able to “peek at the answer” ... . The match over the historical interval is therefore not proof of model accuracy since the models were forced to line up with observations.
But as of around 2000, the models are run prospectively, and this is where they begin to fail.... [T]he post-1999 gap is something new. It has not only run the longest of any previous gap but it is still widening… [I]t is difficult to see models and observations ever agreeing again… We will reach the 20 year mark with no trend in the satellite data at the end of 2015, and in the surface data at the end of 2017. With CO2 levels continuing to rise, it will at that point be impossible to reconcile climate models with reality and the mainstream consensus on how the climate system responds to greenhouse gases will begin breaking apart… At this point it seems unlikely that climate models in their current form will survive another five years.
===
Pensioner on jihad
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (7:06am)
We paid Khaled Sharrouf a disability pension, but he’s not too disabled to serve with jihadists in Iraq.
(Via Tim Blair.)
(Via Tim Blair.)
===
India fights green imperialism
Andrew Bolt June 20 2014 (6:59am)
India says no to green imperialism:
Following an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report that alleged foreign-funded NGOs were creating obstacles to India’s economic growth, the Home Ministry has clamped down on Greenpeace, an international campaign group present in 40 countries.
In a letter dated 13th June, the Ministry has directed the Reserve Bank of India that all foreign contributions originating from Greenpeace International and Climate Works Foundation — two principal international contributors to Greenpeace India Society — must be kept on hold until individual clearances are obtained from the Ministry for each transaction…
Greenpeace was specifically targeted because the IB report had charged it with orchestrating “massive efforts to take down India’s coal-fired power projects and mining activity.” According to the report, public protests in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli region — which produces 15,000 MW energy — were being engineered by Greenpeace, “actively aided and led by foreign activists.”
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
G’day friends,
Bad luck comes in threes, they say, and fate’s cruel blows cannot have had a greater recent impact than on the sports-minded residents of the Sunshine Coast. Hot on the heels of Queensland’s loss to NSW in the State of Origin, the first time that unnatural state of affairs has manifested itself in eight years, the Socceroos went down to defeat in Brazil. And just to cap off the litany of misery visited upon residents in the seat of Fairfax there can be no consolation off the pitch. After all, having sent the antic Clive Palmer to Canberra last September, every day’s headlines are reminder that the ballot box will suffice for a net when voters are determined to kick own goals.
Of course I am counting on the good sense of humour of my many Queensland friends who may just follow Rugby League & International Soccer……… Nothing personal!
Have a great weekend and I hope your team wins (as long as they are not playing against the Mighty Sydney Roosters)
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist
0414293765
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
G’day,
I believe that if the Iraq Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government had not insisted that the US troops left back in 2011 and that the US President, Barack Obama had not been so compliment with the request, then the current civil war and quite possibly the sectarian implosion of the the Middle East would not be happing today. Nuri al-Maliki’s was still struggling with a delicate power-sharing arrangement between Shi’ite, Kurdish and Sunni parties, leaving Iraq vulnerable to meddling by Sunni Arab nations and Shi’ite Iran and of course the interests of Syria. Sure puts truth to the adage , “Careful what you wish for, for you might just get it>”
Seems like a Vietnam all over again but this time, unlike Vietnam the US may just have to go back in and try to sought these warring sides out. Another damn waste of lives of course and I sure as hell hope that our PM stays well and truly out of this mess, we just do not need to be there. We’ll no doubt do our best when it comes to humanitarian aid and refugee placement.
I hope I am wrong but I think this is just the beginning and that this conflict will set off a conflict that will engulf us all…… please I hope I am wrong!
Godspeed
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist
0414293765
===
I saw Babel .. these kids don’t seem Afghan .. they seem Morrocan. - ed
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
WHAT started as a five-year-old girl selling lemonade outside a church has sparked a twitter tirade of the most unholy kind.
===
- 1782 – The Congress of the Confederation adopted theGreat Seal of the United States, used to authenticate certain documents issued by the federal government.
- 1789 – French Revolution: Meeting in a tennis court near the Palace of Versailles, members of France's Third Estate took theTennis Court Oath, pledging not to separate until a new constitutionwas established.
- 1837 – Victoria succeeded to the British throne, starting a reign that lasted for more than 63 years.
- 1895 – The Kiel Canal (pictured), connecting the North Sea to the Baltic Sea across the base of the Jutland peninsula in Germany, was officially opened.
- 1921 – Workers at the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, began a four-month strike.
- 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
- 1620 – The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years' War.
- 1631 – The sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
- 1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
- 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
- 1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
- 1787 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the 'United States'.
- 1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
- 1819 – The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.
- 1837 – Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
- 1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.
- 1862 – Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
- 1863 – American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
- 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
- 1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.
- 1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.
- 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.
- 1900 – Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.
- 1921 – Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.
- 1941 – The United States Army Air Corps is deprecated to being the American training and logistics section of what is known until 1947 as the United States Army Air Forces, just two days before Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.
- 1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
- 1943 – The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days.
- 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria.
- 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".
- 1944 – Continuation War: The Soviet Union demands an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.
- 1944 – The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.
- 1945 – The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.
- 1948 – The Deutsche Mark is introduced in Western Allied-occupied Germany. The Communists respond by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.
- 1956 – A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.
- 1959 – A rare June hurricane strikes Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
- 1960 – The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).
- 1963 – Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called "red telephone" link between Washington and Moscow.
- 1972 – Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.
- 1973 – Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
- 1975 – The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as "summer blockbusters".
- 1979 – ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
- 1982 – The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.
- 1990 – Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
- 1990 – The 7.4 Mw Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.
- 1991 – German Bundestag votes to move seat of government to Berlin.
- 1994 – The 1994 Imam Reza shrine bomb explosion in Iran leaves at least 25 dead and 70 to 300 injured.
- 2003 – The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.
- 1005 – Ali az-Zahir, Fatimid caliph of Egypt (d. 1036)
- 1389 – John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, English statesman (d. 1435)
- 1469 – Gian Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan (d. 1494)
- 1566 – Sigismund III Vasa, Polish and Swedish king (d. 1632)
- 1583 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden (d. 1652)
- 1634 – Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy (d. 1675)
- 1642 – George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
- 1647 – John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
- 1717 – Jacques Saly, French sculptor and painter (d. 1776)
- 1723 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
- 1737 – Tokugawa Ieharu, Japanese shogun (d. 1786)
- 1754 – Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, princess of Baden (d. 1832)
- 1756 – Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer and educator (d. 1792)
- 1761 – Jacob Hübner, German entomologist and author (d. 1826)
- 1763 – Wolfe Tone, Irish rebel leader (d. 1798)
- 1770 – Moses Waddel, American minister and academic (d. 1840)
- 1771 – Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright (d. 1820)
- 1771 – Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (d. 1848)
- 1777 – Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (d. 1840)
- 1778 – Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac, French politician, 7th Prime Minister of France (d. 1832)
- 1786 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet and author (d. 1859)
- 1796 – Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso, Italian cardinal (d. 1878)
- 1808 – Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1888)
- 1809 – Isaak August Dorner, German theologian and academic (d. 1884)
- 1813 – Joseph Autran, French poet and author (d. 1877)
- 1819 – Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer (d. 1880)
- 1855 – Richard Lodge, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
- 1858 – Charles W. Chesnutt, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1932)
- 1860 – Alexander Winton, Scottish-American race car driver and engineer (d. 1932)
- 1860 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
- 1861 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- 1865 – George Redmayne Murray, English biologist and physician (d. 1939)
- 1866 – James Burns, English cricketer (d. 1957)
- 1869 – Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Indian businessman, founded the Kirloskar Group (d. 1956)
- 1870 – Georges Dufrénoy, French painter and academic (d. 1943)
- 1872 – George Carpenter, American 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
- 1875 – Reginald Punnett, English geneticist, statistician, and academic (d. 1967)
- 1882 – Daniel Sawyer, American golfer (d. 1937)
- 1884 – Mary R. Calvert, American astronomer and author (d. 1974)
- 1884 – Johannes Heinrich Schultz, German psychiatrist and psychotherapist (d. 1970)
- 1885 – Andrzej Gawroński, Polish linguist and academic (d. 1927)
- 1887 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter and illustrator (d. 1948)
- 1889 – John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
- 1891 – Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Italian soprano (d. 1951)
- 1891 – John A. Costello, Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1976)
- 1893 – Wilhelm Zaisser, German soldier and politician (d. 1958)
- 1894 – Lloyd Hall, American chemist and academic (d. 1971)
- 1896 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1982)
- 1897 – Elisabeth Hauptmann, German author and playwright (d. 1973)
- 1899 – Jean Moulin, French soldier and engineer (d. 1943)
- 1903 – Sam Rabin, English wrestler, sculptor, and singer (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Lillian Hellman, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1906 – Bob King, American high jumper and obstetrician (d. 1965)
- 1907 – Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (d. 1998)
- 1908 – Billy Werber, American baseball player (d. 2009)
- 1908 – Gus Schilling, American actor (d. 1957)
- 1909 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor (d. 1959)
- 1910 – Josephine Johnson, American author and poet (d. 1990)
- 1911 – Gail Patrick, American actress (d. 1980)
- 1912 – Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
- 1912 – Jack Torrance, American shot putter and football player (d. 1969)
- 1914 – Gordon Juckes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1994)
- 1914 – Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkish archaeologist and academic
- 1915 – Dick Reynolds, Australian footballer and coach (d. 2002)
- 1915 – Terence Young, Chinese-English director and screenwriter (d. 1994)
- 1916 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (d. 1973)
- 1916 – T. Texas Tyler, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972)
- 1917 – Helena Rasiowa, Austrian-Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1994)
- 1918 – George Lynch, American race car driver (d. 1997)
- 1918 – Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian-American author (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Geoffrey Baker, English Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the British Army (d. 1980)
- 1920 – Danny Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader (d. 1954)
- 1920 – Thomas Jefferson, American trumpet player
- 1921 – Byron Farwell, American historian and author (d. 1999)
- 1921 – Pancho Segura, Ecuadorian tennis player (d. 2017)
- 1923 – Peter Gay, German-American historian, author, and academic (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Jerzy Nowak, Polish actor and educator (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Chet Atkins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2001)
- 1924 – Fritz Koenig, German sculptor and academic, designed The Sphere (d. 2017)
- 1925 – Doris Hart, American tennis player and educator (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1971)
- 1926 – Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli general and politician, 9th Israeli Minister of Tourism (d. 2001)
- 1927 – Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (d. 2014)
- 1928 – Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer (d. 1964)
- 1928 – Martin Landau, American actor and producer (d. 2017)
- 1928 – Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician
- 1928 – Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopian surgeon and educator (d. 1999)
- 1929 – Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Anne Weale, English journalist and author (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Edith Windsor, American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist (d. 2017)
- 1930 – Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish sculptor and academic (d. 2017)
- 1930 – John Waine, English bishop
- 1931 – Olympia Dukakis, American actress
- 1931 – James Tolkan, American actor and director
- 1932 – Robert Rozhdestvensky, Russian poet and author (d. 1994)
- 1933 – Danny Aiello, American actor
- 1933 – Claire Tomalin, English journalist and author
- 1934 – Wendy Craig, English actress
- 1935 – Jim Barker, American politician (d. 2005)
- 1935 – Len Dawson, American football player and sportscaster
- 1935 – Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (d. 1971)
- 1936 – Billy Guy, American singer (d. 2002)
- 1936 – Enn Vetemaa, Estonian author and screenwriter (d. 2017)
- 1937 – Stafford Dean, English actor and singer
- 1937 – Jerry Keller, American singer-songwriter
- 1938 – Joan Kirner, Australian educator and politician, 42nd Premier of Victoria (d. 2015)
- 1938 – Mickie Most, English music producer (d. 2003)
- 1939 – Ramakant Desai, Indian cricketer (d. 1998)
- 1939 – Budge Rogers, English rugby player and manager
- 1940 – Eugen Drewermann, German priest and theologian
- 1940 – John Mahoney, English actor (d. 2018)
- 1941 – Stephen Frears, English actor, director, and producer
- 1941 – Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
- 1942 – Neil Trudinger, Australian mathematician and theorist
- 1942 – Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1945 – Anne Murray, Canadian singer and guitarist
- 1946 – Xanana Gusmão, Timorese soldier and politician, 1st President of East Timor
- 1946 – David Kazhdan, Russian-Israeli mathematician and academic
- 1946 – André Watts, American pianist and educator
- 1947 – Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, American pop singer (The Crystals)
- 1948 – Cirilo Flores, American bishop (d. 2014)
- 1948 – Ludwig Scotty, Nauruan politician, 10th President of Nauru
- 1949 – Alan Longmuir, Scottish bass player and songwriter
- 1949 – Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor
- 1950 – Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi politician, 76th Prime Minister of Iraq
- 1951 – Tress MacNeille, American actress and voice artist
- 1951 – Sheila McLean, Scottish scholar and academic
- 1951 – Paul Muldoon, Irish poet and academic
- 1952 – John Goodman, American actor
- 1952 – Vikram Seth, Indian author and poet
- 1953 – Robert Crais, American author and screenwriter
- 1953 – Raúl Ramírez, Mexican tennis player
- 1953 – Willy Rampf, German engineer
- 1954 – Allan Lamb, South African-English cricketer and sportscaster
- 1954 – Ilan Ramon, Israeli colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2003)
- 1955 – E. Lynn Harris, American author (d. 2009)
- 1956 – Peter Reid, English footballer and manager
- 1956 – Sohn Suk-hee, South Korean newscaster
- 1958 – Kelly Johnson, English hard rock guitarist and songwriter (d. 2007)
- 1960 – Philip M. Parker, American economist and author
- 1960 – John Taylor, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor
- 1963 – Kirk Baptiste, American sprinter
- 1964 – Pierfrancesco Chili, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1964 – Silke Möller, German runner
- 1966 – Boaz Yakin, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – Nicole Kidman, American-Australian actress
- 1967 – Dan Tyminski, American singer-songwriter
- 1968 – Robert Rodriguez, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1969 – Paulo Bento, Portuguese footballer and manager
- 1969 – Misha Verbitsky, Russian mathematician and academic
- 1969 – MaliVai Washington, American tennis player and sportscaster
- 1970 – Andrea Nahles, German politician, German Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
- 1970 – Athol Williams, South African poet and social philosopher
- 1971 – Josh Lucas, American actor
- 1971 – Rodney Rogers, American basketball player and coach
- 1971 – Jeordie White, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bass player
- 1972 – Alexis Alexoudis, Greek footballer
- 1973 – Chino Moreno, American singer-songwriter
- 1975 – Joan Balcells, Spanish tennis player
- 1975 – Daniel Zítka, Czech footballer
- 1976 – Juliano Belletti, Brazilian footballer
- 1976 – Carlos Lee, Panamanian baseball player
- 1977 – Gordan Giriček, Croatian basketball player
- 1977 – Amos Lee, American singer-songwriter
- 1978 – Frank Lampard, English footballer
- 1978 – Jan-Paul Saeijs, Dutch footballer
- 1979 – Charles Howell III, American golfer
- 1980 – Tony Lovato, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1980 – Franco Semioli, Italian footballer
- 1980 – Fabian Wegmann, German cyclist
- 1981 – Brede Hangeland, Norwegian footballer
- 1982 – Aleksei Berezutski, Russian footballer
- 1982 – Vasili Berezutski, Russian footballer
- 1982 – Example, English singer/rapper
- 1983 – Josh Childress, American basketball player
- 1983 – Masashi Mikami, Japanese actor
- 1983 – Darren Sproles, American football player
- 1984 – Hassan Adams, American basketball player
- 1985 – Saki Aibu, Japanese actress
- 1985 – Aurélien Chedjou, Cameroonian footballer
- 1985 – Matt Flynn, American football player
- 1986 – Dreama Walker, American actress
- 1987 – A-fu, Taiwanese singer and songwriter
- 1987 – Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player
- 1987 – Asmir Begović, Bosnian footballer
- 1987 – Joseph Ebuya, Kenyan runner
- 1989 – Christopher Mintz-Plasse, American actor
- 1989 – Javier Pastore, Argentinian footballer
- 1989 – Terrelle Pryor, American football player
- 1990 – DeQuan Jones, American basketball player
- 1991 – Kalidou Koulibaly, Senegalese footballer
- 1991 – Rick ten Voorde, Dutch footballer
- 1993 – Sead Kolašinac, Bosnian footballer
- 1994 – Leonard Williams, American football player
- 1996 – Sam Bennett, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1999 – Yui Mizuno, Japanese singer
- 465 – Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei (b. 440)
- 656 – Uthman ibn Affan, Rashidun caliph (b. 577)
- 840 – Louis the Pious, Carolingian emperor (b. 778)
- 930 – Hucbald, Frankish monk and music theorist
- 1176 – Mikhail of Vladimir, Russian prince
- 1351 – Margareta Ebner, German nun and mystic (b. 1291)
- 1405 – Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, fourth son of King Robert II of Scotland (b. 1343)
- 1597 – Willem Barentsz, Dutch cartographer and explorer (b. 1550)
- 1605 – Feodor II of Russia (b. 1589)
- 1668 – Heinrich Roth, German missionary and scholar (b. 1620)
- 1776 – Benjamin Huntsman, English businessman (b. 1704)
- 1787 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German viol player and composer (b. 1723)
- 1800 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician and academic (b. 1719)
- 1810 – Axel von Fersen the Younger, Swedish general and politician (b. 1755)
- 1815 – Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general (b. 1766)
- 1820 – Manuel Belgrano, Argentinian general, economist, and politician (b. 1770)
- 1837 – William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
- 1840 – Pierre Claude François Daunou, French historian and politician (b. 1761)
- 1847 – Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician (b. 1782)
- 1869 – Hijikata Toshizō, Japanese commander (b. 1835)
- 1870 – Jules de Goncourt, French historian and author (b. 1830)
- 1872 – Élie Frédéric Forey, French general (b. 1804)
- 1875 – Joseph Meek, American police officer and politician (b. 1810)
- 1888 – Johannes Zukertort, Polish-English chess player (b. 1842)
- 1906 – John Clayton Adams, English painter (b. 1840)
- 1909 – Friedrich Martens, Estonian-Russian historian, lawyer, and diplomat (b. 1845)
- 1925 – Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and psychologist (b. 1842)
- 1929 – Emmanouil Benakis, Greek merchant and politician, 35th Mayor of Athens (b. 1843)
- 1945 – Bruno Frank, German author, poet, and playwright (b. 1878)
- 1947 – Bugsy Siegel, American mobster (b. 1906)
- 1952 – Luigi Fagioli, Italian race car driver (b. 1898)
- 1958 – Kurt Alder, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1963 – Raphaël Salem, Greek-French mathematician and academic (b. 1898)
- 1965 – Bernard Baruch, American financier and politician (b. 1870)
- 1966 – Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1894)
- 1975 – Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Hatian anthropologist (b. 1898)[1]
- 1974 – Horace Lindrum, Australian snooker player (b. 1912)
- 1978 – Mark Robson, Canadian-American director and producer (b. 1913)
- 1984 – Estelle Winwood, English actress (b. 1883)
- 1995 – Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and educator (b. 1911)
- 1997 – Cahit Külebi, Turkish poet and author (b. 1917)
- 1999 – Clifton Fadiman, American game show host, author, and critic (b. 1902)
- 2001 – Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano (b. 1900)
- 2002 – Erwin Chargaff, Austrian-American biochemist and academic (b. 1905)
- 2002 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Jim Bacon, Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania (b. 1950)
- 2005 – Larry Collins, American journalist, historian, and author (b. 1929)
- 2005 – Jack Kilby, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Roberto Rosato, Italian footballer (b. 1943)
- 2010 – Harry B. Whittington, English palaeontologist and academic (b. 1916)
- 2011 – Ryan Dunn, American television personality (b. 1977)
- 2012 – LeRoy Neiman, American painter (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Andrew Sarris, American critic (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Ingvar Rydell, Swedish footballer (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Angelo Niculescu, Romanian footballer and manager (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Miriam Schapiro, Canadian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Prodigy, (Albert Johnson), American music artist (b. 1974)
- Christian feast day:
- Day of the National Flag (Argentina)
- Earliest date for the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern hemisphere, and its related observance:
- Earliest day on which Day of the Finnish Flag can fall, while June 26 is the latest; celebrated on Saturday of Midsummer's Day (Finland)
- International Surfing Day (on or near Summer solstice)
- Litha / Midsummer celebrations in the northern hemisphere, Yule in the southern hemisphere.
- Gas Sector Day (Azerbaijan)
- Martyrs' Day (Eritrea)
- West Virginia Day (West Virginia)
- World Refugee Day (International)
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,” Ephesians 5:25-26 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Rich were the blessings of this day if all of us were filled with the Holy Ghost. The consequences of this sacred filling of the soul it would be impossible to overestimate. Life, comfort, light, purity, power, peace; and many other precious blessings are inseparable from the Spirit's benign presence. As sacred oil, he anoints the head of the believer, sets him apart to the priesthood of saints, and gives him grace to execute his office aright. As the only truly purifying water he cleanses us from the power of sin and sanctifies us unto holiness, working in us to will and to do of the Lord's good pleasure. As the light, he manifested to us at first our lost estate, and now he reveals the Lord Jesus to us and in us, and guides us in the way of righteousness. Enlightened by his pure celestial ray, we are no more darkness but light in the Lord. As fire, he both purges us from dross, and sets our consecrated nature on a blaze. He is the sacrificial flame by which we are enabled to offer our whole souls as a living sacrifice unto God. As heavenly dew, he removes our barrenness and fertilizes our lives. O that he would drop from above upon us at this early hour! Such morning dew would be a sweet commencement for the day. As the dove, with wings of peaceful love he broods over his Church and over the souls of believers, and as a Comforter he dispels the cares and doubts which mar the peace of his beloved. He descends upon the chosen as upon the Lord in Jordan, and bears witness to their sonship by working in them a filial spirit by which they cry Abba, Father. As the wind, he brings the breath of life to men; blowing where he listeth he performs the quickening operations by which the spiritual creation is animated and sustained. Would to God, that we might feel his presence this day and every day.
Evening
"My Beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."
Song of Solomon 2:16-17
Song of Solomon 2:16-17
Surely if there be a happy verse in the Bible it is this--"My Beloved is mine, and I am his." So peaceful, so full of assurance, so overrunning with happiness and contentment is it, that it might well have been written by the same hand which penned the twenty-third Psalm. Yet though the prospect is exceeding fair and lovely--earth cannot show its superior--it is not entirely a sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene. Listen, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away."
There is a word, too, about the "mountains of Bether," or, "the mountains of division," and to our love, anything like division is bitterness. Beloved, this may be your present state of mind; you do not doubt your salvation; you know that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with him. You understand your vital interest in him, so that you have no shadow of a doubt of your being his, and of his being yours, but still his left hand is not under your head, nor doth his right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is cast over your heart, perhaps by affliction, certainly by the temporary absence of your Lord, so even while exclaiming, "I am his," you are forced to take to your knees, and to pray, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved."
"Where is he?" asks the soul. And the answer comes, "He feedeth among the lilies." If we would find Christ, we must get into communion with his people, we must come to the ordinances with his saints. Oh, for an evening glimpse of him! Oh, to sup with him tonight!
===
Today's reading: Nehemiah 12-13, Acts 4:23-37 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Nehemiah 12-13
Priests and Levites
1 These were the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Joshua:
Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,
2 Amariah, Malluk, Hattush,
3 Shekaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,
4 Iddo, Ginnethon, Abijah,
5 Mijamin, Moadiah, Bilgah,
6 Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah,
7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah and Jedaiah....
Today's New Testament reading: Acts 4:23-37
The Believers Pray
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
"'Why do the nations rageand the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.'
===
No comments:
Post a Comment