===
- 904 – Sergius III (pictured), whose pontificate was marked withfeudal violence and disorder in central Italy, came out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
- 1863 – Indian Wars in North America: The United States Army led by Patrick Edward Connor massacred Chief Bear Hunter and forces of the Shoshone at the Bear River Massacre in present day Franklin County, Idaho.
- 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Rennell Island, the last major naval engagement between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navyduring the Guadalcanal Campaign, began.
- 1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, began.
- 2009 – The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt ruled that people who did not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions are also eligible to receive government identity documents.
===
Events
- 904 – Sergius III comes out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
- 1676 – Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.
- 1814 – France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
- 1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
- 1834 – US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.
- 1845 – "The Raven" is published in the New York Evening Mirror, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe
- 1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
- 1856 – Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
- 1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
- 1863 – Bear River Massacre.
- 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
- 1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch.
- 1900 – The American League is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.
- 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
- 1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
- 1918 – Ukrainian-Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kiev, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.
- 1918 – Ukrainian-Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.
- 1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
- 1940 – Three trains on the Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. 181 people are killed.
- 1941 – Alexandros Koryzis becomes Prime Minister of Greece upon the sudden death of his predecessor, dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
- 1943 – The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, U.S. cruiser Chicago is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
- 1944 – World War II: Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.
- 1944 – In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio is destroyed in an air-raid.
- 1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
- 1967 – The "ultimate high" of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
- 1979 – Brenda Spencer kills two people and wounds eight at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School shootings.
- 1985 – Final recording session of We Are The World, by the supergroup USA for Africa.
- 1989 – Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so
- 1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.
- 1996 – President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing.
- 1996 – La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.
- 1998 – In Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.
- 2001 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
- 2002 – In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
- 2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.
- 2009 – The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.
- 2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is convicted of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.
[edit]Births
- 1584 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (d. 1647)
- 1632 – Johann Georg Graevius, German classical scholar and critic (d. 1703)
- 1703 – Carlmann Kolb, German priest, organist, and composer (d. 1765)
- 1711 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (d. 1788)
- 1715 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian composer (d. 1777)
- 1717 – Jeffrey Amherst, British military leader (d. 1797)
- 1718 – Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (d. 1794)
- 1737 – Thomas Paine, English-born American patriot (d. 1809)
- 1749 – King Christian VII of Denmark (d. 1808)
- 1754 – Moses Cleaveland, founder of Cleveland (d. 1806)
- 1756 – Henry Lee III, American General (d. 1818)
- 1761 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1849)
- 1782 – Daniel Auber, French composer (d. 1871)
- 1801 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch composer, violinist and conductor (d. 1857)
- 1801 – Horatia Nelson, daughter of Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson (d. 1881)
- 1810 – Ernst Kummer, German mathematician (d. 1893)
- 1843 – William McKinley, American politician, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901)
- 1846 – Karol Olszewski, Polish scientist (d. 1915)
- 1860 – Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (d. 1904)
- 1862 – Frederick Delius, English composer (d. 1934)
- 1866 – Julio Peris Brell, Spanish painter (d. 1944)
- 1866 – Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1944)
- 1867 – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Spanish writer (d. 1928)
- 1869 – Wilhelm Carstens, German rower (death date unknown)
- 1874 – John D. Rockefeller Jr., American entrepreneur (d. 1960)
- 1876 – Havergal Brian, British composer (d. 1972)
- 1877 – Georges Catroux, French general (d. 1969)
- 1880 – W. C. Fields, American actor (d. 1946)
- 1884 – Douglass Cadwallader, American golfer (d. 1971)
- 1888 – Sydney Chapman, British mathematician and geophysicist (d. 1970)
- 1891 – Elizaveta Gerdt, Russian ballerina (d. 1975)
- 1891 – R. Norris Williams, American survivor of the RMS Titanic sinking (d. 1968)
- 1895 – Muna Lee, American poet (d. 1965)
- 1901 – Allen B. DuMont, American scientist and inventor (d. 1965)
- 1905 – Barnett Newman, American painter (d. 1970)
- 1910 – Colin Middleton, Irish artist (d. 1983)
- 1911 – Peter von Siemens, German industrialist (d. 1986)
- 1913 – Victor Mature, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1913 – Daniel Taradash, American screenwriter (d. 2003)
- 1913 – Peter von Zahn, German journalist and writer (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Bill Peet, American children's book illustrator (d.2002)
- 1915 – John Serry, Sr., American musician and arranger (d. 2003)
- 1918 – John Forsythe, American actor (d. 2010)
- 1920 – José Luis de Vilallonga, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2007)
- 1921 – Anthony George, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Gerda Steinhoff, Nazi concentration camp supervisor (d. 1946)
- 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky, American writer (d. 1981)
- 1923 – Ivo Robić, Croatian singer and songwriter (d. 2000)
- 1924 – Marcelle Ferron, French-Canadian painter and stained glass artist (d. 2001)
- 1924 – Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
- 1924 – Peter Voulkos, American artist (d. 2002)
- 1925 – Robert W. McCollum, American virologist, (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Harold C. Agerholm, American Marine (d. 1944)
- 1925 – Tofik Bahramov, Azerbaijani footballer (d. 1993)
- 1925 – Raúl Corrales, Cuban photographer (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Franco Cerri, Italian musician
- 1926 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1996)
- 1927 – Edward Abbey, American author and environmentalist (d. 1989)
- 1928 – Lee Shau Kee, Hong Kong property developer
- 1929 – George Ross Anderson, Jr., American federal judge United States District Court for the District of South Carolina
- 1930 – Derek Bailey, English guitarist (d. 2005)
- 1930 – John Junkin, English radio, television and film performer (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Jim Baumer, American baseball player (d. 1996)
- 1931 – Ferenc Madl, President of Hungary (d. 2011)
- 1932 – George Allen, English footballer
- 1932 – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
- 1933 – Sacha Distel, French singer and guitarist (d. 2004)
- 1933 – Hugo Herrestrup, Danish actor
- 1933 – Paul Sally, American mathematician
- 1934 – Branko Miljković, Serbian poet (d. 1961)
- 1935 – Roger Payne, American biologist
- 1936 – Patrick Caulfield, English painter and printmaker (d. 2005)
- 1936 – James Jamerson, American bass guitarist (The Funk Brothers) (d. 1983)
- 1937 – Bobby Scott, American musician, producer and songwriter (d. 1990)
- 1938 – Shuji Tsurumi, Men's artistic gymnastics
- 1939 – Germaine Greer, Australian writer
- 1940 – Kunimitsu Takahashi, Japanese motorcycle racer and racing driver
- 1941 – Robin Morgan, American feminist and activist
- 1942 – Robert C. Bonner, former American prosecutor
- 1942 – Claudine Longet, French singer and dancer
- 1943 – Tony Blackburn, English disc jockey
- 1943 – Désiré Letort, French cyclist (d. 2012)
- 1944 – Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda
- 1944 – Katharine Ross, American actress
- 1944 – Andrew Loog Oldham, English rock and roll producer
- 1944 – Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican judge
- 1944 – Pauline van der Wildt, Dutch swimmer
- 1945 – Jim Nicholson, Irish politician
- 1945 – Tom Selleck, American actor, screenwriter and film producer
- 1945 – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Malian prime minister
- 1946 – Bettye Lavette, American soul singer-songwriter
- 1947 – Linda B. Buck, American scientist, Nobel laureate
- 1947 – David Byron, English singer (Uriah Heep and Spice) (d. 1985)
- 1947 – Marián Varga, Slovak musician
- 1948 – Pat Kenny, Irish TV presenter and radio host
- 1948 – Cristina Saralegui, American talk-show host
- 1948 – Marc Singer, Canadian-born actor
- 1949 – Tommi Salmelainen, Finnish hockey player
- 1949 – Evgeny Lovchev, Russian footballer
- 1950 – Ann Jillian, American actress
- 1950 – Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver
- 1950 – Miklós Vámos, Hungarian writer, television host
- 1951 – Andy Roberts, West Indian cricketer
- 1951 – Fereydoon Foroughi, Iranian singer,songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (d.2001)
- 1952 – Klaus-Peter Hanisch, German footballer (d. 2009)
- 1952 – Rupert Hanley, South African cricketer
- 1952 – Tommy Ramone, Hungarian-born musician and record producer (The Ramones)
- 1953 – Richard Younger-Ross, British politician
- 1953 – Peter Baumann, German musician (Tangerine Dream)
- 1953 – Paulin Bordeleau, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1953 – Caesar Cervin, American soccer player
- 1953 – Paul Fusco, American puppeteer, voice-over artist and character actor
- 1953 – Steve March-Tormé, American musician
- 1953 – Lynne McGranger, Australian actress
- 1953 – Ronnie Moore, English footballer
- 1953 – Louie Pérez, American songwriter, percussionist and guitarist (Los Lobos and Latin Playboys)
- 1953 – Dwight Takamine, Okinawan-American Hawaii state senator
- 1953 – Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (d. 1995)
- 1953 – Charlie Wilson, American singer (The Gap Band)
- 1953 – Hwang Woo-Suk, South Korean biomedical scientist
- 1954 – Terry Kinney, American actor
- 1954 – Richard Manitoba, American singer (The Dictators and MC5)
- 1954 – Doug Risebrough, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and executive
- 1954 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host and actress
- 1955 – Eddie Jordan, American basketball player and head coach
- 1955 – Femi Pedro, Nigerian politician
- 1956 – Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish film director
- 1956 – Irlene Mandrell, American musician, actress
- 1957 – Grazyna Miller, Italian poet, translator, and journalist
- 1958 – Glen Cochrane, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1958 – Linda Smith, British comedian (d. 2006)
- 1958 – Stephen Lerner, American labor organizer
- 1959 – Michael Sloane, American actor
- 1959 – Mike Foligno, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 – Matthew Ashford, American actor
- 1960 – Gia Carangi, American model (d. 1986)
- 1960 – Sean Kerly, English field hockey player
- 1960 – Greg Louganis, American diver
- 1960 – Steve Sax, American baseball player
- 1960 – J. G. Thirlwell, Australian-born musician (Wiseblood and The Immaculate Consumptive)
- 1961 – Petra Thumer, German swimmer
- 1961 – Mike Aldrete, American baseball player
- 1962 – Nicholas Turturro, American actor
- 1963 – Bob Holly, American professional wrestler
- 1963 – Monica Horan, American actress
- 1964 – Andre Reed, American football player
- 1964 – Anna Ryder Richardson, British interior designer and television presenter
- 1965 – Dominik Hašek, Czech ice hockey player
- 1965 – Peter Lundgren, Swedish tennis coach
- 1966 – Romário, Brazilian footballer
- 1967 – Stacey King, American basketball player
- 1967 – Cyril Suk, Czech tennis player
- 1968 – Edward Burns, American actor
- 1968 – Susi Erdmann, German bobsledder and luger
- 1968 – Sora Jung, Korean actress
- 1968 – Aeneas Williams, American football player
- 1969 – Hyde, Japanese singer (L'Arc-en-Ciel and Vamps)
- 1970 – Heather Graham, American actress
- 1970 – Jörg Hoffmann, German swimmer
- 1970 – Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Indian shooter
- 1970 – Paul Ryan, American politician
- 1971 – Clare Balding, British sports presenter
- 1972 – Matt Brandstein, American writer
- 1972 – Brian Wood, American writer and artist of graphic novels
- 1973 – Jason Schmidt, American baseball player
- 1974 – Michael Andersen, Danish basketball player
- 1975 – Sara Gilbert, American actress
- 1976 – Chris Castle, American singer-songwriter
- 1976 – Charles Divins, American model and actor
- 1976 – Karsten Kroon, Dutch professional road bicycle racer
- 1977 – Justin Hartley, American actor
- 1977 – Chaly Jones, Dutch footballer
- 1978 – Rob Bironas, American football player
- 1978 – Martin Schmitt, German ski jumper
- 1979 – Marvin Agustin, Filipino actor and entrepreneur
- 1979 – Sui Feifei, Chinese basketball player
- 1979 – Andrew Keegan, American actor
- 1979 – April Scott, American actress and model
- 1979 – Andreas Thorstensson, Swedish website developer
- 1979 – Joseph Todd, Arena Football League player
- 1980 – Yael Bar-Zohar, Israeli actress and model
- 1980 – Ingimundur Ingimundarson, Icelandic handball player
- 1980 – Ivan Klasnić, Croatian football player
- 1980 – Jason James Richter, American actor
- 1981 – Rui En, Singaporean actress & singer
- 1981 – Jonny Lang, American musician
- 1981 – Darío Lopilato, Argentine actor
- 1981 – Álex Ubago, Spanish musician
- 1982 – Adam Lambert, American actor and singer
- 1982 – Heidi Mueller, American actress
- 1982 – Irina Shabayeva American fashion designer
- 1983 – Nedžad Sinanović, Bosnian basketball player
- 1983 – Biagio Pagano, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Nuno Morais, Portuguese footballer
- 1984 – Mohd Safee Mohd Sali, Malaysian footballer
- 1984 – Natalie du Toit, South African swimmer
- 1984 – David Sencar, Austrian footballer
- 1985 – Marc Gasol, Spanish basketball player
- 1985 – Mikey Hachey, American musician (Suburban Legends)
- 1985 – Todd Herzog, American reality-show contestant Survivor: China
- 1985 – Isabel Lucas, Australian actress
- 1985 – Athina Onassis, French heiress
- 1986 – Drew Tyler Bell, American actor
- 1986 – Mark Howard, English football player
- 1986 – Jair Jurrjens, Dutch baseball player
- 1986 – Simon Vukčević, Montenegrin footballer
- 1987 – Matthew Wilson, English world rally driver
- 1987 – Alex Avila, American baseball player
- 1988 – Tatyana Chernova, Russian heptathlete
- 1988 – Stephanie Gilmore, Australian surfer
- 1989 – Kevin Shattenkirk, American ice hockey player
- 1991 – Hugh Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the Duke of Westminster
- 1993 – Michelle Larcher de Brito, Portuguese tennis player
- 1993 – Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japanese model, blogger and recording artist
[edit]Deaths
- 1119 – Pope Gelasius II
- 1240 – Pelagio Galvani, Cardinal-Bishop of Albano (b. c. 1165)
- 1342 – Louis I, Duke of Bourbon (b. 1279)
- 1597 – Elias Ammerbach, German organist (b. 1530)
- 1608 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
- 1647 – Francis Meres, English writer (b. 1565)
- 1676 – Tsar Alexis I of Russia (b. 1629)
- 1678 – Jeronimo Lobo, Portuguese Jesuit missionary (b. 1593)
- 1696 – Tsar Ivan V of Russia, Russian tsar (b. 1666)
- 1706 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and courtier (b. 1638)
- 1737 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, British soldier (b. 1666)
- 1743 – André-Hercule de Fleury, French statesman (b. 1653)
- 1763 – Louis Racine, French poet (b. 1692)
- 1820 – King George III of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
- 1829 – Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras, French politician (b. 1755)
- 1829 – István Pauli (Pável) Hungarian Slovene priest and writer (b. 1760)
- 1847 – Athanasios Christopoulos, Greek poet (b. 1772)
- 1870 – Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)
- 1871 – Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, French Canadian writer (b. 1786)
- 1888 – Edward Lear, English artist, illustrator, author, and poet (b. 1812)
- 1899 – Alfred Sisley, British impressionist painter (b. 1839)
- 1901 – King Milan I of Serbia (b. 1855)
- 1906 – King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
- 1918 – Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin, Russian-counter revolutionary (b. 1861)
- 1928 – Douglas Haig, British soldier (b. 1861)
- 1933 – Sara Teasdale, American poet (b. 1884)
- 1934 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Laureate (b. 1868)
- 1941 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and dictator (b. 1871)
- 1946 – Harry Hopkins, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (b. 1890)
- 1948 – Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (b. 1900)
- 1950 – Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1885)
- 1951 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (b. 1880)
- 1956 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist (b. 1880)
- 1959 – Winifred Brunton, British-born South African painter (b. 1880)
- 1961 – John F. O'Ryan, American major general (b. 1874)
- 1962 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist (b. 1875)
- 1963 – Robert Frost, American poet (b. 1874)
- 1964 – Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1966 – Pierre Mercure, French Canadian composer (b. 1927)
- 1969 – Allen Dulles, American CIA director (b. 1893)
- 1970 – B. H. Liddell Hart, British historian (b. 1895)
- 1975 – Orestis Makris, Greek actor (b. 1898)
- 1977 – Buster Nupen, South African cricketer (b. 1902)
- 1977 – Freddie Prinze, American actor and comedian (b. 1954)
- 1980 – Jimmy Durante, American actor and comedian (b. 1893)
- 1986 – Leif Erickson, American actor (b. 1911)
- 1989 – Halina Konopacka, Polish athlete (b. 1900)
- 1991 – Yasushi Inoue, Japanese historian (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Willie Dixon, American composer and musician (b. 1915)
- 1993 – Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian Chief Justice (b. 1906)
- 1993 – Ron Kostelnik, American football player (b. 1940)
- 1994 – Ulrike Maier, Austrian alpine skier (b. 1967)
- 1998 – Joseph Alioto, American politician (b. 1916)
- 1999 – Lili St. Cyr, American dancer (b. 1918)
- 2002 – Dick "Night Train" Lane, American football player (b. 1928)
- 2002 – Harold Russell, Canadian-born American actor (b. 1914)
- 2003 – Frank Moss, American politician (b. 1911)
- 2004 – M. M. Kaye, British writer (b. 1908)
- 2004 – Janet Frame, New Zealand writer (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Eric Griffiths, Welsh guitarist (The Quarrymen) (b. 1940)
- 2005 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist (b. 1924)
- 2007 – Barbaro, American thoroughbred racehorse (b. 2003)
- 2007 – Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim, Iraqi extremist leader (b. 1970)
- 2008 – Raymond Jacobs, American soldier (b. 1925)
- 2008 – Philippe Khorsand, French actor (b. 1948)
- 2008 – Bengt Lindström, Swedish artist (b. 1925)
- 2008 – Margaret Truman, American writer, daughter of Harry S. Truman (b. 1924)
- 2009 – Bill Frindall, English cricket scorer and statistician (b. 1939)
- 2009 – Hélio Gracie, Brazilian martial artist (b. 1913)
- 2009 – John Martyn, Scottish singer and songwriter (b. 1948)
- 2011 – Milton Babbitt, American composer (b. 1916)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Constitution Day (Gibraltar)
===
Tim gets the finger from the politically correct
Piers Akerman – Tuesday, January 29, 2013 (1:06pm)
Having given the finger to female Asian doctors, Tim Mathieson, the First Bloke, has backed away from his clumsy joke.
Actually, it was an old joke, so old it had whiskers, and it must have done the rounds of every doctor’s waiting rooms and every operating theatre – because such jokes do.
Mathieson has now apologised for his joke, saying it was in poor taste.
That was in hind sight (boom boom, pun intended).
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also said that her feller is a great advocate for men’s health and that the joke was in poor taste and that now he has apologised, that should be it.
Unfortunately, Gillard, and more latterly, her Attorney General Nicola Roxon, set the bar on offensive commentary.
First there was Gillard’s shrill attack on Opposition leader Tony Abbott in which she infamously and totally irrationally and falsely branded him a misogynist and more recently there has been Roxon’s attempt to muzzle critics with her over-the-top attack on speech which the politically correct may find offensive.
As we have not yet heard from Finance Minister Penny Wong about Mathieson’s remark, we do not know how the only Asian member of the dysfunctional government feels about the quip but it could certainly have been found to be racist.
It was probably also misogynistic, too.
It goes without saying that most news readers are trying to play down the one-liner – but everyone knows that the howls would still be ringing if an Opposition member had uttered it.
What this underscores is the absolute hypocrisy that Labor and its spin doctors wallow in.
I doubt whether anyone was really offended, and if they were, I feel sorry for them.
Any bloke who has a digital examination would see the funny side of the remark and I doubt whether it will have any effect either way on the number of men who seek prostate checks.
Tim, I am on your side, but you shouldn’t have apologised. You should have had guts to tell your politically correct critics to get a life.
Unfortunately, that was not an option for you because of the strife your de facto has caused with her trumped-up claims of offense over every little remark made by those to whom she is politically opposed.
She has dug a big hole and you have fallen into it.
Now you look like a complete goose.
The politically correct have to give you the finger or they will appear as hypocritical as the ALP and its legion of spin doctors.
Suck it up, son.
===
GREENS SHUNNED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 29, 2013 (4:58am)
Sportsbet opens markets on all 150 electorates for the 2013 federal election:
Currently, the Coalition is favourite in 91 seats and the ALP in 54. Independent Andrew Wilkie and Katter’s Australia Party founder Bob Katter are also favourites in their respective seats, whilethe Greens have no favourites and three electorates – Capricornia (QLD), Hindmarsh (WA) and Werriwa (NSW) – are too close to call.In the overall election winner market, Tony Abbott’s Coalition are the $1.35 favourites, with Labor the $3.30 outsiders. Three in every four bets taken since betting opened after the 2010 federal election has been for the Coalition.
The betting market seems closely aligned with recent BlairPoll numbers.
UPDATE. Identical poll figures:
An opinion poll of marginal seats across Australia suggests federal Labor could lose 18 seats.The result would cut Labor’s numbers from 54 in the lower house, handing power to the coalition with 91 seats, The Australian Financial Review reports.
UPDATE II:
Former federal Attorney-General and prominent Kevin Rudd supporter Robert McClelland is set to resign from federal politics.Mr McClelland will retire at the next federal election. His seat of Barton covers Kogarah in southern Sydney, a seat he has held since 1996.
===
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 29, 2013 (4:54am)
Meagan Tyler, lecturer in sociology at Victoria University, is alarmed by sexist firefighting:
It is practically impossible to ignore the heavily gendered nature of bushfire response in this country.
Yes. All Australians have noticed this and discuss it every day. Meagan’s views are brought to you courtesy of $6 million in taxpayer funding.
(Via Quadrant, now featuring the academic musings of Dr Onan McBroadsheet)
===
WELL DONE CHAMP
Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 29, 2013 (4:51am)
===
LEST WE FORGET DISCO
Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 29, 2013 (4:50am)
Former ABC presenter Julie McCrossin calls for a gay and lesbian museum:
I’d compare it to the Australian War Memorial.
Well, they’d both be buildings.
===
Australia’s new defence strategy: just pray
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(5:07pm)
Australia under Julia Gillard can no longer defend itself.
It is marvellous that the Australian Defence Force is able to help the emergency services deal with the Queensland floods - and this will be one of the only purposes it is good for on the federal government’s current trajectory…It’s just that it is useless in a traditional large-scale war…China has increased its defence budget faster than any nation in Asia over the past decade. Its military outlays grew at an 11-year compounded annual growth rate of 13.4 per cent, according to a CSIS study. At this rate, it quadruples in a dozen years and will eclipse the US defence budget in 25 years…Australia under Kevin Rudd was hedging against the risk that a rising China could prove to be an aggressive rising power… Australia would be able to defend its northern approaches and contribute to the defence of its allies in the event that the worst came to pass.
But with the passing of Rudd went the passing of this plan. The former defence official and founder of the Kokoda Foundation, Ross Babbage, sums up the Gillard government’s dramatic revision of the 2009 policy:
“The Australian defence budget was cut by almost 5 per cent in 2010-11 and then in last year’s budget it was cut again by 10.47 per cent. This reduced our defence spending to 1.56 per cent of GDP, the lowest it has been since 1938. Further cuts can be expected in this year’s white paper.”
===
More lured to their deaths
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(5:00pm)
The boats keep coming, and so do the drownings:
AT least two Sri Lankan asylum-seekers have drowned and a third is missing after their boat smashed into rocks and broke apart off the coast of Java as they headed for Australia.Twenty survivors, including a four-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, are on the island of Nusa Kambangan near the coastal town of Cilacap after being rescued by fishermen.
===
McClelland quits
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(4:56pm)
Sacked as Minister by Gillard for disloyalty, a Rudd supporter will quit Parliament at the next election:
Former federal Attorney-General and prominent Kevin Rudd supporter Robert McClelland is set to resign from federal politics.
McClelland will feel freer to speak:
As a backbencher last June, Mr McClelland referred to Ms Gillard’s involvement in providing advice on the establishment of a contentious AWU fund in Parliament.
While speaking on a bill to crack down on fraud by union officials, he said: “I never want to see a dollar that a worker gives a union used for any purpose other than the proper purposes of representing that union member’s best interests.“Indeed, I know the Prime Minister is quite familiar with this area of the law; as lawyers in the mid-1990s, we were involved in a matter representing opposing clients.”
McClelland offers no explanation in his statement.
===
Do Gillard’s speech laws ban Mathieson’s Asian joke?
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(3:23pm)
Such classy people we now have in the Lodge:
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard’s partner has joked about small Asian women and prostate examinations.Tim Mathieson made the quip during a speech at The Lodge for the Prime Minister’s XI cricket match which will be held in Canberra today.Mr Mathieson was acting in his capacity as a men’s health ambassador when he encouraged the gathering - which included the West Indian cricket team - to get a prostate examination.“We can get a blood test for it, but the digital examination is the only true way to get a correct reading on your prostate, so make sure you go and do that, and perhaps look for a small, Asian, female doctor is probably the best way,” he said.
Gillard should be asked whether this isn’t exactly the kind of comment she wants to ban under her planned new laws against speech that gives offence. As Attorney-General Nicola Roxon explained:
... as a society we don’t believe it is OK to make racist taunts, even if people laugh…The draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination bill continues this tradition - a new, simpler, streamlined law to protect people from discrimination.:
The IPA’s Simon Breheny notes the part of Gillard’s proposed law that could sink Mathieson:
So does Gillard think her new laws should apply to what her partner said? If not, how does she propose to rewrite them?
UPDATE
If Tony Abbott had told that joke, what would Gillard be saying today?
UPDATE
Reader bigpeteoz:
Tim Mathieson has hit the trifecta with his recent comments about female Asian doctors, that is sexism, racism and misogyny.
UPDATE
Shadow attorney-general George Brandis said the joke, while inappropriate, highlighted the problem with Labor’s “nanny state” laws, which would allow aggrieved parties to sue over offensive comments.“I think Tim Mathieson is lucky he didn’t tell this joke after the Nicola Roxon anti-discrimination bill became law, because if he did he’d probably have been carted away to the re-education camp by the thought police,” Senator Brandis told Sky News.
UPDATE
A very big call indeed from Channel 10 political reporter Stephen Spencer, a former Labor staffer:
Hmm. Let’s imagine:
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has told men to “look for a small, Asian, female doctor” to do their prostate checks.But Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said Abbott’s comments were “no big deal”.“It would be a complete beat-up to claim this innocent joke showed Mr Abbott was somehow sexist or racist.” she said.“Next we’d be accusing politicians of misogyny for just looking at their watch in Question Time,.”
Yeah. Dream on.
UPDATE
Unfortunately, Gillard, and more latterly, her Attorney General Nicola Roxon, set the bar on offensive commentary.First there was Gillard’s shrill attack on Opposition leader Tony Abbott in which she infamously and totally irrationally and falsely branded him a misogynist and more recently there has been Roxon’s attempt to muzzle critics with her over-the-top attack on speech which the politically correct may find offensive…What this underscores is the absolute hypocrisy that Labor and its spin doctors wallow in…Tim, I am on your side, but you shouldn’t have apologised. You should have had guts to tell your politically correct critics to get a life.Unfortunately, that was not an option for you because of the strife your de facto has caused with her trumped-up claims of offense over every little remark made by those to whom she is politically opposed.She has dug a big hole and you have fallen into it.
Perhaps Mr Mathieson, who is known to be a good bloke and was making an important point about men’s health, was really making a protest statement about the government’s crazy pursuit of new anti-discrimination laws....At very best the draft bill seeks to formalise the role of government as the ultimate purveyor of good manners…What we are left with is the awful conclusion that this bill is nothing more than ideology gone mad; that the Left in this country has fought all the really big battles and all that remains available to it is symbolism wrapped in sophistry.Supporters of the bill (there are a few) stick doggedly to the government line that this is about fairness and equity. It is nothing of the sort. It will merely empower those with the wherewithal to commence legal proceedings when they feel the vaguest slight…It needs to go because at its heart Ms Roxon et al want to create an Australia where we would be required to think twice and then think again before we utter a comment, sing a song or crack a gag.
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Carstles
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(12:44pm)
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The money is on a Coalition landslide
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(11:52am)
UPDATE
A new poll, with a large sample size of 3300, suggests the punters are incredibly smart:
An opinion poll of marginal seats across Australia suggests federal Labor could lose 18 seats.The result would cut Labor’s numbers from 54 in the lower house, handing power to the coalition with 91 seats, The Australian Financial Review reports.
The ECG analysis:
The ECG/JWS poll shows that Tony Abbott is on track to win ten seats in News South Wales alone, enough to see him form an absolute majority in the House of Representatives. And this number does not include the seats held by the two independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, which were not included in the research because they were not deemed to have met the criteria of six-percent-or-less. However, the Coalition anticipates it can win both…Some of these losses will be offset by gains in Queensland, with the ALP set to pick up as many as six seats ... In Victoria, there is a 4.1 percent swing away from the government in the 10 marginals polled. If this were replicated at the next election it would result in a three-seat loss for the government. In WA, Labor would avoid losing any seats…In the smaller States and Territories, the swing away from the government was signi?cant although sample sizes were not sufficient to draw too many conclusions in those jurisdictions.
But Labor seems likely to lose one or more seats in Tasmania, and possibly even Warren Snowdon’s in the Northern Territory.
UPDATE
SARA EVERINGHAM: The backlash from the Prime Minister’s captain’s pick of Nova Peris is not over.Three Indigenous ALP members are running a ballot against Nova Peris in protest against the pre-selection being taken out of the hands of the party rank and file.Marion Scrymgour, a former deputy chief minister, is one of those candidates. She says local branch members are also asking whether territory Labor’s most senior federal representative, the Federal Minister Warren Snowdon, supports the decision to parachute in a candidate.MARION SCRYMGOUR: There are many members of the Labor Party in the Northern Territory who would like to know you just what his role was in all of this. You can’t be a minister in the Federal Government and not know what was going down.SARA EVERINGHAM: Last night in Darwin, Warren Snowdon was asked whether he supports the Prime Minister’s decision to intervene in the Northern Territory Senate pre-selection, and whether he was consulted.WARREN SNOWDON: I’m not making any comment on matters to do with the Labor Party tonight....REPORTER: But you’re the most senior member of the Northern Territory Labor Party.WARREN SNOWDON: I’ve told you - what I’ve said is what I’ve said.REPORTER: When were you consulted about the decision…?WARREN SNOWDON: I wasn’t.... There is a party process and maybe not the one that people in the Northern Territory think is appropriate and I understand the concerns that have been expressed very strongly...
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How does Mundine get away with it?
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(11:41am)
it seems Anthony Mundine may question Aboriginal identity while others may not for fear of being sued under the Racial Discrimination Act.
Journalist Paul Kent describtes his confrontation with Mundine:
Me: “You left the game because you said it was racist - and there were Aboriginals (sic) in front of you. The five-eighth in front of you was Aboriginal.”Mundine: “How?”Me: “Laurie Daley.”Mundine: “How was he Aboriginal? He didn’t claim to be Aboriginal, he was like this fella (pointing to Geale). He never claimed to be Koori.”
I wonder what it is about Mundine that gives him effective immunity. But note one other difference: Mundine wants to insist on “racial” divisions; I wanted us to transcend them.
I’m losing.
(Thanks to reader Michael.)
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Has the ABC turned on Gillard?
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(9:48am)
From the ABC’s website, a typo - or a protest.
(Thanks to reader Jules.)
UPDATE
A Juliar no longer, the ABC decides.
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Comparison made
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(9:35am)
A certain lack of proportion:
A MUSEUM dedicated to Sydney’s gay and lesbian history is as important as institutions that preserve Jewish history and Australia’s military past, says a leading broadcaster and gay rights activist.‘’I’d compare it to the Australian War Memorial,’’ said Julie McCrossin.
Really? One group - including gays - laid down their lives for their country. More than 100,000 in all.
The other group were simply born gay. Some suffered for it, others did not.
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10 reasons not to bother fighting global warming
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(9:26am)
Science writer Matt Ridley explains the 10 things he’d first need to hear before he agrees climate change really is dangerous and we should try to “stop” it.
An excerpt:
Given that we know that the warming so far has increased global vegetation cover, increased precipitation, lengthened growing seasons, cause minimal ecological change and had no impact on extreme weather events, I need persuading that future warming will be fast enough and large enough to do net harm rather than net good....So I cannot see why this relatively poor generation should bear the cost of damage that will not become apparent until the time of a far richer future generation, any more than people in 1900 should have borne sacrifices to make people today slightly richer....Finally, you might make the argument that even a very small probability of a very large and dangerous change in the climate justifies drastic action. But I would reply that a very small probability of a very large and dangerous effect from the adoption of large-scale renewable energy, reduced economic growth through carbon taxes or geo-engineering also justifies extreme caution. Pascal’s wager cuts both ways.At the moment, it seems highly likely that the cure is worse than disease. We are taking chemotherapy for a cold.
UPDATE
So how much cooler has the world become, thanks to this sacrifice?
Peak retail industry body the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) today supported the Australian Industry Group’s (Ai Group) findings that surveyed business’ costs had increased by 14.5 percent on average as a direct result of the carbon tax.ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said it supported ARA data from a survey* conducted in late 2012 showing 80 percent of retailers felt their business had been negatively impacted since the introduction of the carbon tax in July 2012.
What’s been the gain from this pain?
(No link to press release.)
UPDATE
Meanwhile, the world seems to be flourishing under global warming. Never have we grown such crops:
Global production of corn, wheat and rice have all more than doubled since 1970 as global warming occurred. Corn production, the current flavor of the week for Internet fear-mongering, has more than tripled since 1970. So, too, has global vegetable production as a whole.
A table of crop yields here. Someone on the Press Council should take note, for reasons I am not allowed to divulge.
(Thanks to reader Craig.)
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The $6 million workplace nanny
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(9:07am)
All organisations employing more than 100 employees have to self-identify to the WGEA and must report annually on their workplace program for women… In this case, non-compliant organisations are not eligible for commonwealth contracts for the procurement of goods and services....The agency offers employers advice and assistance if they fail to meet minimum standards with “a view to improving the employers’ performance”.The mind boggles—WGEA staff helping private sector companies to improve their performance in relation to a government-mandated standard that bears no relation to commercial realities… Having commercially inexperienced bureaucrats make judgments about the written material companies are compelled to produce would almost certainly fail any sensible cost-benefit test.My advice to the Coalition is to promise to abolish the WGEA. It is a bad and costly joke and we would be better off without it.
UPDATE
Writing at the Cat, Samuel J notes a certain hypocrisy:
As for gender equality, the Agency fails in its own mission. Here is a time series of employees for the Agency and its predecessor, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency: Do what we say, not what we do.
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NBN behind even its new, low targets
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(9:02am)
For a scheme costing taxpayers $36 billion, you should expect better than still more delays:
Figures released on Monday show only 72,400 premises had been passed by the end of December after 18 months of fibre rollout. In order to meet its own targets, NBN Co will need to pass 268,000 premises in the next five months.
And note that the NBN targets have been made rubbery, requiring only that a cable be laid near a house, and not to it:
NBN Co counts as ‘’passed’’ premises where cable has been laid in the street but a house is yet to be connected.
UPDATE
We’re paying billions just for cables in the ground?
The Opposition’s Malcolm Turnbull details the many signs of a scheme in trouble, and adds that the real metric - paying customers - is also below target::
UPDATE
Reader Michael:
I have just been in contact with relatives in Queensland for the first time since the present disaster occurred. They were on the NBN and it was the first thing to fail during the flooding. It still has not been restored but mobile net is back on line.I am beginning to question the value of fiber optic to the home as opposed to fiber to node.
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Captain Cook made him do it
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(1:24am)
Another grim step towards treating people not as individuals but representatives of a “race”, not masters of their own destiny but victims of a collective history:
The application for special leave to appeal to the High Court has been lodged by solicitors acting for William David Bugmy, from Wilcannia in far western NSW, a chronic alcoholic who has a mental illness and has been almost continually incarcerated since he was 13 years old.Bugmy was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for grievous bodily harm, with a non-parole period of five years, last October when the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal increased a previous six-year term of imprisonment handed down by the NSW District Court.The then 29-year-old had assaulted a prison guard by pelting him with pool balls. The guard was hit in the left eye, suffering retinal detachment, eye socket fractures and permanent loss of vision....Bugmy’s solicitors, the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT, are asking the High Court to follow the Canadian Supreme Court judgment of R v Ipeelee, which ruled that real equality under the law cannot be achieved unless courts accept that historical, social and economic deprivation can affect moral culpability.“The overrepresentation of the indigenous population in custodial settings both nationally and in NSW . . . is far worse than the figures examined in those (Canadian) cases,” Bugmy’s lawyers said in their summary of argument filed in the High Court last week.
It is not hard to see how such arguments swiftly degenerate into excuses. Even a licence.
And if “overrepresentation in jail” becomes a factor in sentencing, we’re down to racial quotas - and hence different standards of justice for different “races”.
“Equality of sentencing” between the “races” becomes inequality of sentencing between individuals, with an offender from one “overrepresented” race becoming less likely to be jailed than a similar offender from an “underrepresented” one.
Note also the implied assumption that colonisation was a disaster for Aborigines today. Never mind how many Aborigines live lives richer, freer, safer, healthier and fuller of possibilities than any that Aboriginal society could have provided. Never mind that colonisation for almost all brought not only their “oppressors” but some of their own ancestors.
It is now all the more critical that we should be much more free than the law permits to discuss racial identity. The nature of egalitarian Australia is being changed for the dramatic worse, and we should be freer to resist.
UPDATE
Stephanie Jarrett suggests high levels of violence in Aboriginal communities are caused not so much by colonisation but traditional Aboriginal culture. That’s the true link that judges should acknowledge:
ABORIGINAL people suffer violence more than other Australians. This was so in pre-contact times, as it is today.It is important to acknowledge this link between today’s Aboriginal violence and a violent, pre-contact tradition because until policymakers are honest in their assessment of the causes, Aboriginal people can never be liberated from violence. The nation needs to understand that to liberate Aboriginal people from violence, deep cultural change is necessary, away from traditional norms and practices of violence. Such fundamental change is unlikely to occur in separate, self-determined communities which are premised on maintaining traditional culture.Our courts also need to acknowledge the link between today’s Aboriginal violence and a violent, pre-contact tradition. Securing justice and safety for Aboriginal victims of Aboriginal violence depends upon it. “Cultural rights” thinking favours Aboriginal perpetrators, so Aboriginal victims need the full force of liberal-democratic law, which disallows the private use of violence.
Others think Jarrett is right:
QUEENSLAND’S Child Protection Commissioner has raised a controversial theory that Aboriginal traditional culture was “inherently violent” before white settlement and mainstream laws are needed to ensure the safety of women and children.
Jarrett’s new book, Liberating Aboriginal People from Violence (with a foreward by Bess Price, is launched today by former Labor Minister Gary Johns.
Jarrett explains why the book had to be written:
Q: Why did you write this book? It would seem to fall into the “brave” category in that merely raising the topic of Indigenous violence will earn you a long list of ardent enemies.
A: My profession entails a responsibility to uphold truth, despite my primary political orientation, and any personal discomfort and attack that may follow. I see little point in post-graduate studies specialising in political science at one of Australia’s finest universities if I do not hold to this principle.I am committed to the liberal-democratic principles of universal individual human rights and non-relativism regarding violence. My left-leaning feminism increases my outrage against the oppressions endured by remote Aboriginal women. Through my research, I came to understand that Aboriginal self-determination is a key causal factor in the persistent, high levels of violence against Aboriginal women.I also saw the necessity for this book for the following reasons. There is a persistent non liberal-democratic, cultural relativist approach among white professionals regarding Aboriginal violence. There remains a denial of the violence in pre-contact Australia, despite scholarly works detailing this violence. There is an evasion of the implications that traditional violence has for self-determination policies. Above all, I wrote this book as my contribution towards a less violent future for Aboriginal Australians…Q: One need not venture too far off the beaten track to witness the consequence of violence in Indigenous life. How could so many people professing their concern for Aboriginal betterment have remained so blind for so long?
A: A key reason is the guilt white Australians carry for the injustices and losses Aboriginal people suffered under white colonisation. For many caring, well-educated white Australians, the primary task is to address these past colonial wrongs. For them, cultural respect, cultural rights, cultural relativism even for violence, “never criticise”, and a sense of “otherness” more than our shared humanity, are uppermost. These inhibit perception that intra-community violence needs mainstream attention. They blunt national outrage and the sense that it is even our concern… As a nation, we are outraged and saddened by the horrific rape and murder of the young Indian woman in New Delhi. We are a caring people, but we are largely mute about the many horrific instances of rape, assault and murder of remote Aboriginal women.
Aboriginal women in particular will hope that High Court hears such arguments, too.
(Thanks to readers Turtle and Elizabeth.)
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Gillard’s carbon scheme faces collapse
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(12:38am)
The Gillard Government has hit Australia with a carbon tax of $23 a tonne. It predicts that when we switch to international carbon trading in 2015/16, the world price for carbon credits will be $29 a tonne.
That now seems highly unlikely, given the collapse of the two main carbon trading markets:
Last week, the price of an EU carbon allowance briefly tumbled to a record low of €2.81 a tonne [$3.64], heaping embarrassment on the EU’s flagship policy to combat global warming....The price collapse is only the latest indignity the carbon market has suffered during its eight-year history – from value added tax frauds to cyber-thefts of allowances. Yet moribund prices may be the most worrying because they call into question the workings of a market designed to promote clean technology investment by putting a price on carbon and forcing companies to buy allowances to offset their pollution.What the architects failed to anticipate was an economic crisis that has restrained industrial activity, and thus reduced the need for allowances…Some wonder, therefore, if the EU carbon market will follow the path of its smaller cousin, the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism offset carbon market.This scheme promised to enable companies, including those covered by the EU emissions trading system, to offset their carbon emissions with credits generated from clean energy projects in developing markets. But the weakness of the EU market – and limits on the amount and type of CDM credits allowed in it – has led to the collapse of CDM credit prices to less than €0.50, sinking much of the industry of project developers, analysts and assessors that grew up to support it.
This confronts the Gillard Government with a financial and political disaster.
It is giving many Australians compensation to match a carbon price of $23 - and rising as the carbon tax increases. That compensation is paid for by the carbon tax. But if the tax does not match the compensation, a great financial crater opens under the Government’s feet - unless it slashes the handouts:
But even if the carbon price falls to only $10, and then rises after that by 4 per cent in real terms annually, the commonwealth’s fiscal position during the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20 worsens by $25 billion. To leave budget outcomes unchanged, the government therefore needs an additional $25bn in revenues, spending cuts or both. Where are those savings, Mr Swan?But the Treasurer isn’t the only minister swinging in the breeze. After all, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet repeatedly stressed that the entire purpose of the carbon scheme was to provide a “predictable, long-term price signal” whose steady rise investors in renewables and other low-emissions technologies could rely on.Moreover, the floor price was essential to achieving that goal, as it ensures “stability and predictability” and avoids “the risk of sharp downward movements in the carbon price, which could undermine long-term investment in clean technologies”. Where is that predictability now, given the wild gyrations that characterise European carbon prices?
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The racism game
Andrew BoltJANUARY292013(12:07am)
Long bow drawn:
Researchers from University of Michigan and Iowa State assessed levels of prejudice against Arabs by those participants that played a terrorism-themed video game versus a golf game.The results indicate that because of the absence of personal contact, society is more likely to draw stereotypical traits from the media, which rarely depicts Arabs in a positive light.
So what stereotypes do video games promote when played by Arabs?
PS: Which group of people should those interested in terrorism regard instead as the source of the greatest threat?
Lutherans? Buddhists? South Americans? The Dutch?
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ACT
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Do you want the ones I have licked or those who have not licked? Joke, I licked them all.
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We all have to do our bit for the environment .. fish gotta swim .. bird gotta fly .. but they don't last long if they try
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You cannot have faith and no action to back it up. Faith without action is dead.
Think about Abraham. He had faith and He showed his faith when he was willing to sacrifice his only son to God. So wherever your faith level is always make sure it is backed up with action.
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If you cut a loaf of bread in half you can make your own BEATS headphones #dyi #beats #kitchenninja #kitchenwhiz #headphones #channel9
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For TMN
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It was terrific to be joined by my daughter Frances today for a tour of the wonderful facilities at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
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With Edu-Kingdom
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Moon over the Bay
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Dr. Phil will be the first to interview the man behind the Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax in a two-part, exclusive interview this Thursday & Friday. Stay tuned for more info: http://bitly.com/
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Next Stop Hollywood continues TONIGHT at 9.30pm
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Voting for Obama was asking to be lied to.
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The moment you say, “Lord, I cannot, but You can. Today, I rest in Your unmerited favor,” whatever demand that is upon you disappears into the vast ocean of His abundant supply.
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Freedom Quote of the Week, from Milton Friedman:
"The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.”
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