Happy birthday and many happy returns Jane Le and David Rufful. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
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A not so Divine Comedy
Miranda Devine – Friday, March 22, 2013 (5:52am)
SIMON Crean ended the day as a suicide bomber, nobly sacrificing himself in the best interests of his party. But it was telling that his target in calling for a leadership spill was Wayne Swan.
Crean laid claim to Swan’s deputy leadership yesterday afternoon, saying Labor needed a ‘‘ change of leadership, not just a change of leader’’.
It was Swan he meant when he said success has come to Labor when ‘‘ it has been inclusive, when it has sought consensus. Not when it sought division. Not when it has gone after class warfare’’.
In trying to break the paralysis gripping the Labor Party Crean seemed to be the only grown-up in the room, the last link to Labor’s glory days.
He knows the two most successful governments of the last 40 years were partnerships — Hawke/Keating and Howard/Costello.
The most successful prime ministers have had treasurers to carry the load, and offer wise counsel. Like so many in his party Crean knows Swan is the weakest link, the one constant through the dysfunctional reigns of Rudd and Gillard.
His botched mining tax helped bring down Kevin Rudd and his failed budget surplus has weakened Julia Gillard.
Swan is the Treasurer who has presided over five deficits in a row, then swore he would deliver a budget surplus this year and failed to deliver.
He presided over an economy riding high on the mining boom but then attacked the mining industry on class warfare grounds.
When the 2008 financial crisis hit, he was so green treasury secretary Ken Henry and Rudd sidelined him..Instead of growing in the job, Swan fell back on the us versus them philosophy of his 2005 book Postcode, and attacked the nation’s wealth creators.
For Gillard he has been a dead weight, unable to defend the government or explain its policies, scorned by business, and widely considered to be out of his depth.
Foulmouthed and thin skinned, even in the middle of Labor’s War of the Roses he was as oblivious to reality as Comical Ali was as tanks rolled into Baghdad.
This was @SwannyDPM tweeting yesterday: ‘‘@ JuliaGillard is as tough as they make them she’ll win today & on 14 Sept because she’s got reforms for the future.’’
A friend likens Labor to the Opportunists of Dante’s Inferno: ‘‘Those souls who in life were neither for good nor evil but for themselves…
“The law of Dante’s hell is the law of symbolic retribution. As they sinned so are they punished. They took no sides, therefore they are given no place.’’
All damned, except Crean, who had the courage of his convictions and paid the price.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Tim Blair – Friday, March 22, 2013 (4:53am)
From the ABC’s Leigh Sales to former Labor minister Simon Crean:
Is today’s outcome what you had in mind?
UPDATE. Stabilidy! Cerdundy! Chris Bowen resigns from cabinet, with Kim Carr expected to follow.
UPDATE II. In a solemn demonstration of Prime Ministerial dignity, Julia Gillard discusses yesterday’s bid to remove her from office … with Kyle and Jackie O.
UPDATE III. Greg Combet:
“With the fiasco that was instigated yesterday by some of my colleagues, unfortunately, those who don’t feel that they have all the confidence necessary in Julia Gillard as leader, I think it is time that they have a look at themselves,” he said.“This has got to be an end to it.”
An election might help. For what it’s worth, Kevni says the game is over:
Kevin Rudd says there are now “no circumstances” under which he would return to the Labor leadership.
So why is he still in Parliament? Anne Summers, Australia’s second-most influential female voice, stands up for the PM:
Thursday showed Gillard’s toughness and her coolness under intense pressure. This is an asset that Australians of all stripes should appreciate. It’s what we need in a leader. A person who isnot prone to panic.
In fact, Gillard became Prime Minister in 2010 due to panic over polling and has demonstrated little but panic ever since, as is evident from her frequent short-term ploys to build voter support. Parliament is her personal panic room. And from Mark Latham:
This is not the Labor Party of Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam and Keating. It’s the Labor Party of people who should be just kicked straight out the door …
That process is already underway, at least in a limited sense:
All up, yesterday’s events forced two Labor frontbenchers and three party whips out of their roles.Key Rudd supporter Joel Fitzgibbon - who caused a frenzy of speculation on Wednesday with his comments regarding the leadership - said he would be stepping down from his role as chief whip.Fellow whips Janelle Saffin and Ed Husic are also resigning from their roles, while Richard Marles has given up his parliamentary secretary positions.
It’s nothing but “stability," “safe hands,” and “experience” from the government. Keep it up, kids.
UPDATE IV. Martin Ferguson
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SILENCE, COMMONERS
Tim Blair – Friday, March 22, 2013 (1:42pm)
Disgruntled Australians are a common breed, writes ex-Fairfaxer Paola Totaro:
Yet another political attack against Australia’s leader smacks of a particular strain of antipodean madness. For decades, it is the British who have worn the “whingeing Poms” label. Now, it’s time for Australians to accept the malcontents’ mantle, because it is they who appear incapable of seeing just how lucky they are.Complaint has become the national default position, seen in a political class – and a mainstream media – who spend more time slinging mud or knifing each other than debating and analysing national policy. No other advanced economy can come close to Australia’s 21 years of growth.
Leftoids screamed like goats during John Howard’s entire reign, despite the growth of Australia’s economy. With that growth inherited by Labor – they didn’t build that, you might say – the Left now seeks virtue in docile complacency. Let’s see just how pleased they are following the next three years of economic improvement – under an Abbott government.
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Gillard’s purge widens: Ferguson quits
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(2:25pm)
Martin Ferguson is about to call a press conference. He may be the next to quit. Ferguson does quit: “The events of yesterday are not what I hoped for.”
The victims so far of the great Gillard purge of Rudd backers.:
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson - quits.Regional Australia Minister and Arts Minister Simon Crean - sacked.Teritiary Education Minister Chris Bowen - quit.Chief Whip Joel Fitzgibbon - quit.Parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs Richard Marles - quit..Whip: Janelle Saffin - quit.Whip: Ed Husic - quit.Human Services Minister Kim Carr - quits.
Note: these names include some of the better ministers.
UPDATE
Ferguson, himself a gentleman and man of honour, says Crean’s actions yesterday were “courageous”. He would have voted for him as deputy, and Rudd as leader, because he didn’t believe in “winner take all”.
Says Kim Beazley would have made “a wonderful Prime Minister”.
Says he learned as a union official there was a different way than the old “class war”.
He will stay in Parliament and stay the next term, too, if re-elected.
He urges Labor “not to focus on class work rhetoric” but on building prosperity. (Crean yesterday also had a crack on the “class war” now being waged under Gillard.)
He’s a fine man, Ferguson.
UPDATE
Add earlier purge victims Kevin Rudd and Robert McClelland, and Gillard’s 2010 Ministry is starting to look tatty:
(Excuse me if I’ve misidentified Marles’ forehead, top left.)
UPDATE
Now Kim Carr, another Rudd supporter, is calling a press conference.
UPDATE
Some readers want crosses also to mark the departures of Mark Arbib, Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans. But my red crosses are only for those purged or encouraged to resign on the grounds of disloyalty to Gillard.
UPDATE
Kim Carr resigns.
Says he was profoundly disappointed when he was demoted from Cabinet, but hung on. But this time thought it best to resign.
Thought this week was the last possible to put together the strongest team for the election. “Kevin provided the best opportunity” to win the election and the evidence clearly suggested it.
Said he’s advised Rudd not to challenge yesterday. Said the “numbers were very, very close” and “don’t listen to the nonsense” that they were not.
Crean did a “courageous” thing but “no one followed him”.
The worst would have been a narrow win for Rudd that would have made it harder for Labor.
Carr, from the Socialist left, also criticises the Government’s class war talk. He indicated the “communications” around the “modest” changes to the 457 visa were not what he liked, and noted they were backed by Pauline Hanson.
The strong theme coming through is that Old Labor supporters are appalled by Gillard’s divisive rhetoric.
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The Bolt Report on Sunday
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(2:20pm)
On the Bolt Report on Sunday on Channel 10 at 10am: Tony Abbott, Cassandra Wilkinson and Michael Kroger on the bizarre week that was, and what is needed next.
Kevin Rudd, unfortunately, has pulled out.
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Not Labor, but the Gillard Party
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(8:56am)
Bob Hawke in 1987:
if you can’t govern yourselves, you can’t govern the country.
Julia Gillard in 2013 cannot govern Labor, which is now whittled down to the Gillard Lemmings Party:
Ms Gillard will now move to reshuffle her ministry after Simon Crean was sacked and parliamentary secretary Richard Marles resigned over their roles in the coup.Backbencher and Rudd supporter Ed Husic said last night he would quit his role as government whip, along with chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon and fellow whip Janelle Saffin.And key supporters of the Prime Minister - Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Trade Minister Craig Emerson - said the ringleaders of the destabilisation campaign against Ms Gillard needed to “consider their positions”.
Government sources said Mr Smith’s call was “channelling caucus anger” towards Tertiary Education Minister Chris Bowen and Human Services Minister Kim Carr.
UPDATE
Bowen resigns. One of the most talented of them.
UPDATE
Mr Rudd wishes to make 100 per cent clear to all members of the parliamentary Labor Party, including his own supporters, that there are no circumstances under which he will return to the Labor Party leadership in the future.
If true, Labor is doomed. Gillard is allowed to preside as Queen of the Ruins.
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Apologising for revised history
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(8:11am)
There’s no denying the unimaginable pain of being forced to give up a child. Indeed, many women were subject to appallingly cruel practices that deprived them of any chance of keeping their babies.
But it is nonsense to suggest the government policies supporting the relinquishing of infants by single women before the 1970s were prompted by punitive attitudes simply aimed at punishing ‘’immoral’’ women. As with all social policies, the practices of the time were seen as being in the best interests of the children and their mothers, given the stigma attached to being born out of wedlock and the absence of any financial support for single mothers.
A decade ago, in a submission to a 1993 NSW Law Reform Commission review of past adoption practices, the Post Adoption Resource Centre, which worked with many relinquishing mothers, concluded that ‘’many, possibly a majority of the birth mothers seen at the centre, described the adoption as having been in the child’s best interests in view of their own youth, lack of family support, inadequate finances and unreadiness for parenthood’’.
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Not much return so far for $37 billion
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(8:00am)
From the Communications Minister whose attempts to impose internet filters and state control over the free press, another flop:
Instead of passing 341,000 homes by June 30 as envisaged seven months ago, the network will be available to between 190,000 and 220,000 premises.
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Gillard wins, country loses
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(7:48am)
JULIA Gillard won. But, as with so many of her farcical battles lately, Labor and the country lost.
The Prime Minister survived yet another leadership battle when Kevin Rudd did something shocking in today’s Labor.
He actually kept his word.
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The authoritarian Left reveals itself
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(7:40am)
Labor has dropped its plan for state control over the free press. But Cassandra Wilkinson is rightly shocked the plan had such support from the cultural elite:
It is not wrong or surprising that culturally sophisticated people defended art from the censors. It is only surprising that the same people can’t bring themselves to rebuke the proposed censorship of “tabloid media”. It is odd, to say the least, that freedom to report the news as we see fit attracts less support from the Left than freedom to blaspheme or freedom to watch pornography.
Given the progressive Left’s history of supporting freedom from censorship as a minimum condition of political freedom, it is startling that a Labor government would propose greater restrictions on freedom of speech. That the “progressive” Greens committed to support these measures made the hypocrisy complete.
THE Gillard government’s backdown on its outrageous media regulation and anti-free-speech discrimination laws is welcome. But it’s terrible that in 2013, in a liberal democracy like Australia, we even had to have the debate.
Australians should never have to worry about losing their right to free speech. But the sad truth is that the Left has abandoned freedom of speech.
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Election now
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(6:56am)
Please, Prime Minister, take the one decisive and urgently needed step that can advance our country and call an election.
Myer chief Bernie Brookes, Grand Prix boss Ron Walker, Harvey Norman owner Gerry Harvey and Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose were among those to voice their discontent.“Surely it is time for the public to have a say in who governs our country,” Mr Brookes said.
Mr Harvey said: “The average guy on the street is thinking, ‘Why don’t they just get it over and done with and have an election?’.”
Minority government has become a monumental blunder for Labor. The claims of the independents in 2010 to back Labor on the grounds of stability are rendered absurd. The nation badly needs an election.
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Fiasco: Crean had no clout
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(6:31am)
Depending on who you chose to believe, Rudd had between 44 and 49 votes and that was not enough.Then along came Crean who believed he could bring six or seven votes with him. This heroic bunch were supposed to file one by one into the Chief Whip Joel Fitzgibbon’s office and solemnly pledge their fealty to Rudd.The Rudd supporters were reinvigorated. They believed they were back in the game and they were entitled to be optimistic.Crean is the venerable old man of the party. He and his family have played major roles in the Labor Party for more than half a century. He had seniority. He had experience. He had gravitas. What he didn’t have was numbers.When yesterday morning came, only one Crean-ite made the trip to Fitzgibbon’s office… The fact that two MPs almost certain to support Rudd were overseas didn’t help either.By lunchtime yesterday the count could not go past 47 - hardly the mass caucus draft Rudd would have hoped.
No numbers, no challenge. The maths is simple, and those criticising Rudd for being chicken are just repeating Gillard’s spin.
And while Gillard is poison and Rudd popular, I cannot be this emphatic:
And there it all died. There is no talk of continuing the war. Every Rudd-backer I have spoken to has run up a white flag.
Even so, no one will believe the declarations it’s over and they’re all working together as a team to stop that nasty Opposition Leader from winning the election, and that, yes, of course they can do it with Gillard as leader.
They might mean it when they say it, although that is doubtful, but as soon as the next bad poll emerges, which is any day now, off it will go again. The wobbles and the night sweats will set in, they will toy with each other, muse about another tilt, Rudd will tease and stalk, and still fall short. Gillard will probably stare them all down again because she is, as she keeps telling us and on this she is right, tougher than all of them.
JULIA Gillard and all the ministers and MPs who support her are declaring Labor’s problems and leadership farce “at an end”. While the Prime Minister’s leadership is now stronger, Labor’s problems are far from over - in fact, they are entrenched and enhanced.
The Gillard government’s shortcomings are not just about the personal animosity and rivalry between Gillard and Kevin Rudd, they are deeper flaws about policy failure and corruption, short-term politics over long-term governance and a departure from proper process.
UPDATE
Tony Wright:
Simon Crean believed the Labor Party needed something approaching a bomb to blow a hole in its thin facade as a competitive political outfit.
He could hardly have imagined that instead, he would become a suicide bomber, abandoned to wander down a lonely alley and detonate himself, leaving the party he has served for a fair slice of his adult life a smoking ruin.
He began the day as a respected party elder and Minister for Regional Australia and the Arts. He ended it a backbencher, sacked by the Prime Minister he had long supported.
UPDATE
Crean was supposed to break the stalemate by declaring that he had lost confidence in the Prime Minister. In the leadership spill that would eventually follow, he was counted on to bring three or four other votes to give Rudd a winning edge.
But while he certainly broke the stalemate, he turned out to represent a faction of one.
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When murder looks like abortion
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(5:52am)
Whatever we think of abortion, surely no one can seriously support the killing of healthy late-term babies, which we do in Australia.
Once we accept the killing of healthy babies eight or nine months in the womb, what is to stop us from killing babies outside the womb? Indeed, pro-abortion ”ethicists” here have argued there is no difference (which is true) and we should be allowed to kill babies after birth:
As the authors say: “If criteria such as the costs (social, psychological, economic) for the potential parents are good enough reasons for having an abortion even when the foetus is healthy, if the moral status of the newborn is the same as that of the infant and if neither has any moral value by virtue of being a potential person, then the same reasons which justify abortion should also justify the killing of the potential person when it is at the stage of a newborn.”
And a prominent American abortionist agrees not only in principle:
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist now on trial in Philadelphia charged with seven counts of first-degree murder--he allegedly cut the spinal cords of late-term aborted babies who were born alive--apparently used to joke about the large size of some the infants he aborted and in one case, according to what a co-worker told the grand jury, said, “This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.”
WARNING: DO NOT CLICK THAT LAST LINK IF PICTURES OF DEAD BABIES KILLED BY THIS ABORTIONIST OFFEND.
And if they do offend, do not support the practices which have consequences so horrific you cannot bear to see.
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“Clear air” won’t save her
Andrew BoltMARCH222013(5:26am)
Labor keeps making the mistake of thinking Gillard just needs “clear air” to sell the public lies, spin, waste, debt and failure:
Ms Gillard now appears almost certain to lead Labor to the September 14 election, with her supporters calling for unity to give the government clear air and allow it to sell its policies and lift its primary vote above the low 30 per cent range, where it has now been trapped for months.
Clear air? Hey, didn’t Gillard supporters say she’d actually got that clear air in February, 2011?
CLEAR air. For the first five months of Julia Gillard’s prime ministership, it was the one thing she craved, but never had.... Gillard finally found her clear air during the break between Christmas and New Year. While the rest of the country went to the beach, she sat at a computer in a room with a view at Kirribilli House and wrote what she calls her ‘’schemer for the year’’, setting out timelines for delivering on a host of difficult issues, from pricing carbon to workforce participation.
Didn’t they say she’d had clear air in August 2011?
Granted more clear air than she has had since the election a year ago this month, Gillard put to bed the health and hospital reform deal, kicked along the national broadband network, sealed a forestry deal in Tasmania and began preparing the ground for today’s aged-care report by the Productivity Commission.
Didn’t she get clear air after her leadership win last year?
It was the clear air Gillard craved and the opportunity to recast her frontbench on merit, revive the government and address some policy horrors.
If Gillard lacks “clear air” it is because of two things.
First, her performance is utterly shocking. She is deceitful, wasteful and incompetent.
Second, we still - mercifully - have a free press which occasionally points out those failures.
UPDATE
Julie Owens, Labor MP for Parramatta, is counting on her voters being as uninterested and uninformed as she claims:
(Thanks to reader Jules.)
UPDATE
It is probably no coincidence that when Gillard and the ALP were riding high(er) in the polls, at the end of last year, it was when any chance of a Rudd comeback had been thoroughly dismissed by the media and there was no obvious public dissent within the ranks.
The descent in the polls for the party and for Gillard personally can be tracked to the Rudd comeback talk.
Amazing. Summers seriously claims that leadership speculation caused Gillard’s bad poll figures, rather than the other way around.
To maintain that fantasy, Summers somehow omits a few salient facts that better help to explain that fall in the polls. Here are just a few: since December, Gillard has abandoned her “no ifs or buts” promise of a surplus, admitted her mining tax raised peanuts, promised billions in fresh spending of money she doesn’t have, set new records for boat people arrivals, created a hate campaign against foreign workers on the basis of dodgy claims, announced a September 14 election date widely regarded as a stunt, promised “days of governing” only to embark on a five-day campaign of western Sydney, promised “stability” only to promptly announce two resignations, tried to impose “anti-discrimination” laws so draconian she had to drop them and tried to impose state control over the free press.
Might that not explain why voters have switched off this government? Why Labor in desperation might wish for another leader?
But, no, to Summers it all comes down to sex in the end - sex and a lack of clear air to sell crap to the peasants:
Imagine if ... the Rudd forces in the ALP were to set aside their petulant and self-indulgent conduct and throw their energies into promoting the government and its impressive legislative track record. What would the polls make of that?Thursday showed Gillard’s toughness and her coolness under intense pressure. This is an asset that Australians of all stripes should appreciate…
The trouble is Australians are not used to such toughness in a woman and there are plenty who feel uncomfortable with it… Being a tough female prime minister makes Gillard a unique target...
Er, like the great and long-popular Margaret Thatcher?
Gillard’s sin is not toughness but incompetence. She is not a victim but perpetrator.
UPDATE
SO, Labor has opted to stick with the current chaos and quite frankly the worst prime minister in our history leading our worst ever government - over going back to the previous chaos and what had then been the worst ever prime minister and government.
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He regrets nothing
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- 1871 – William Woods Holden became the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office due to impeachment.
- 1913 – Phan Xich Long (pictured), the self-proclaimed Emperor of Vietnam, was arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French Indochina, which was nevertheless carried out by his supporters the following day.
- 1943 – World War II: The entire population of the village of Khatyn in Belarus was burnt alive by Nazi German forces, with participation from their Ukrainian and Belarusian collaborators.
- 1945 – Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen founded the Arab League, a regional organization that facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific and social programs designed to promote the interests of the Arab world.
- 1963 – Please Please Me, the first album recorded by The Beatles, was released.
===
Events
- 238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman Emperors.
- 1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissions Amerigo Vespucci chief navigator of the Spanish Empire.
- 1621 – The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
- 1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
- 1630 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
- 1638 – Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
- 1739 – Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.
- 1765 – The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies.
- 1784 – The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current location in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.
- 1829 – The three protecting powers (United Kingdom, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.
- 1849 – The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.
- 1871 – In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
- 1873 – A law is approved by the Spanish National Assembly in Puerto Rico to abolish slavery.
- 1894 – The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts.
- 1906 – First Anglo-French rugby union match at Parc des Princes in Paris
- 1916 – The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored.
- 1920 – Azeri and Turkish army soldiers with participation of Kurdish gangs attacked the Armenian inhabitants of Shushi (Nagorno Karabakh).
- 1923 – The first radio broadcast of ice hockey is made by Foster Hewitt.
- 1939 – World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania.
- 1942 – World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, the Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.
- 1943 – World War II: the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by German occupation forces.
- 1945 – The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
- 1954 – Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens.
- 1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser
- 1963 – The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, is released in the United Kingdom.
- 1972 – The United States Congress sends the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.
- 1972 – Eisenstadt v. Baird decision by the United States Supreme Court allows unmarried persons the right to contraceptives
- 1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels.
- 1978 – Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- 1982 – NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.
- 1984 – Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- 1989 – Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
- 1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after liftoff from New York City's LaGuardia Airport, leading to a number of studies into the effect that ice has on aircraft.
- 1993 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
- 1995 – Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.
- 1997 – Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion women's World Figure Skating Champion.
- 1997 – The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.
- 2004 – Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards, and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.
- 2006 – ETA, the armed Basque separatist group, declares a permanent ceasefire.
- 2006 – Three Christian Peacemaker Team hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days of captivity and the murder of their colleague, AmericanTom Fox.
[edit]Births
- 841 – Bernard Plantapilosa, Count of Auvergne (d. 885)
- 875 – William I, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 918)
- 924 – Dinh Bo Linh, the first emperor of Vietnam (d. 979)
- 1212 – Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (d. 1235)
- 1366 – Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, English politician (d. 1399)
- 1459 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1519)
- 1503 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (d. 1583)
- 1599 – Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (d. 1641)
- 1609 – King John II Casimir of Poland (d. 1672)
- 1663 – August Hermann Francke, German minister (d. 1727)
- 1684 – William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, English politician (d. 1764)
- 1712 – Edward Moore, English writer (d. 1757)
- 1728 – Anton Raphael Mengs, German painter (d. 1779)
- 1720 – Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (d. 1799)
- 1723 – Charles Carroll, American statesman (d. 1783)
- 1759 – Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, Queen of Sweden and Norway (d. 1818)
- 1797 – William I, German Emperor (d. 1888)
- 1808 – David Swinson Maynard, American frontiersman and physician (d. 1873)
- 1812 – Stephen Pearl Andrews, American abolitionist (d. 1886)
- 1814 – Thomas Crawford, American sculptor (d. 1857)
- 1817 – Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876)
- 1818 – John Ainsworth Horrocks, English explorer of South Australia (d. 1846)
- 1837 – Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (d. 1899)
- 1842 – Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1912)
- 1846 – Randolph Caldecott, British artist and illustrator (d. 1886)
- 1846 – James Timberlake, American lawman (d. 1891)
- 1852 – Otakar Ševčík, Czech violinist and violin teacher (d. 1934)
- 1857 – Paul Doumer, French President (d. 1932)
- 1860 – Alfred Ploetz, German physician (d. 1940)
- 1866 – Jack Boyle, American baseball player (d. 1913)
- 1868 – Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
- 1869 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino statesman (d. 1964)
- 1878 – Michel Théato, Luxembourgian athlete (d. 1919)
- 1880 – Ernie Quigley, Canadian-born American sports official (d. 1960)
- 1884 – Arthur Vandenberg, United States Senator from Michigan (d. 1951)
- 1885 – Aryeh Levin, Lithuanian rabbi (d. 1969)
- 1887 – Chico Marx, American comedian and actor (d. 1961)
- 1896 – He Long, Chinese marshal (d. 1969)
- 1896 – Joseph Schildkraut, Austrian-born American actor (d. 1964)
- 1899 – Ruth Page, American ballet dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
- 1901 – Greta Kempton, American artist (d. 1991)
- 1902 – Johannes Brinkman, Dutch architect (d. 1949)
- 1902 – Madeleine Milhaud, French actress (d. 2008)
- 1903 – Bill Holman, American cartoonist (d. 1987)
- 1907 – James Gavin, American general and ambassador (d. 1990)
- 1907 – Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun and mystic (d. 2005)
- 1908 – Jack Crawford, Australian tennis player (d. 1991)
- 1908 – Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
- 1909 – Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (d. 1983)
- 1910 – Nicholas Monsarrat, British novelist (d. 1979)
- 1912 – Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (d. 1985)
- 1912 – Karl Malden, American actor (d. 2009)
- 1913 – Sabiha Gökçen, Turkish combat pilot (d. 2001)
- 1913 – Tom McCall, American politician and journalist, 30th Governor of Oregon (d. 1983)
- 1913 – Lew Wasserman, American film studio executive (d. 2002)
- 1914 – John Stanley, American comics artist (d. 1993)
- 1915 – Georgiy Zhzhonov, Russian actor and writer (d. 2005)
- 1917 – Virginia Grey, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1917 – Irving Kaplansky, American mathematician (d. 2006)
- 1918 – Cheddi Jagan, Guyanan politician (d. 1997)
- 1919 – Bernard Krigstein, American illustrator and gallery artist (d. 1990)
- 1920 – James Brown, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1920 – Werner Klemperer, German actor (d. 2000)
- 1920 – Ross Martin, Polish-American actor (d. 1981)
- 1920 – Lloyd MacPhail, Canadian politician (d. 1995)
- 1921 – Nino Manfredi, Italian actor (d. 2004)
- 1923 – Marcel Marceau, French mime artist (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Al Neuharth, American businessman, author, and columnist, founder of USA Today
- 1924 – Bill Roost, English footballer (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Bill Wendell, American television announcer (d. 1999)
- 1925 – Gilles Pelletier, Canadian actor
- 1928 – Carrie Donovan, American fashion editor (d. 2001)
- 1928 – E.D. Hirsch, American social commentator
- 1928 – Ed Macauley, American basketball player (d. 2011)
- 1929 – Mort Drucker, American caricaturist and comics artist
- 1929 – Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist
- 1930 – Derek Bok, American lawyer and educator
- 1930 – Pat Robertson, American media mogul and religious televangelist
- 1930 – Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist
- 1931 – Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 – William Shatner, Canadian actor
- 1932 – Els Borst, Dutch politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1932 – Larry Evans, American chess player and journalist (d. 2010)
- 1933 – Abolhassan Banisadr, Iranian politician
- 1933 – May Britt, Swedish actress
- 1934 – Orrin Hatch, American politician
- 1934 – Larry Martyn, English actor (d. 1994)
- 1935 – Frank Pulli, American baseball umpire
- 1935 – M. Emmet Walsh, American actor
- 1936 – Ron Carey, American labor leader (d. 2008)
- 1936 – Roger Whittaker, British singer
- 1937 – Angelo Badalamenti, American composer
- 1937 – Armin Hary, German athlete
- 1940 – Dave Keon, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1940 – Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian-American physician, actor and author (d. 1996)
- 1941 – Jeremy Clyde, British actor and musician (Chad and Jeremy)
- 1941 – Billy Collins, American poet
- 1941 – Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor
- 1941 – Cassam Uteem, Mauritian political figure
- 1942 – Bernd Herzsprung, German actor
- 1942 – Jorge Ben Jor, Brazilian singer-songwriter
- 1942 – Dick Pound, Canadian sports executive
- 1943 – George Benson, American musician
- 1943 – Nazem Ganjapour, Iranian footballer (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Keith Relf, English musician (The Yardbirds, Renaissance, and Armaggedon) (d. 1976)
- 1945 – Eric Roth, American screenwriter
- 1946 – Don Chaney, American basketball player and coach
- 1946 – Rivka Golani, Israeli violist
- 1946 – Rudy Rucker, American author
- 1947 – James Patterson, American author
- 1948 – Wolf Blitzer, American journalist
- 1948 – Randy Jo Hobbs, American musician (The McCoys and Montrose) (d. 1993)
- 1948 – Andrew Lloyd Webber, English composer
- 1949 – Fanny Ardant, French actress
- 1949 – Brian Hanrahan, English journalist and broadcaster (d.2010)
- 1950 – Jocky Wilson, Scottish darts player
- 1950 – Mary Tamm, British actress (d. 2012)
- 1952 – Bob Costas, American sports commentator
- 1952 – Jay Dee Daugherty, American drummer and songwriter (The Church)
- 1955 – James House, American singer-songwriter
- 1955 – Lena Olin, Swedish actress
- 1955 – Pete Sessions, American politician
- 1955 – Valdis Zatlers, Latvian politician
- 1956 – Generosa Ammon, American murder suspect (d. 2003)
- 1957 – Jürgen Bucher, German footballer
- 1957 – Stephanie Mills, American actress and singer
- 1958 – Laurie David, American political activist
- 1958 – Pete Wylie, British singer-songwriter (Crucial Three and The Spitfire Boys)
- 1959 – Carlton Cuse, Mexican-American TV writer and executive
- 1959 – Avraham Fried, American singer-songwriter
- 1959 – Matthew Modine, American actor
- 1960 – Lauri Vahtre, Estonian historian
- 1965 – John Kordic, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1992)
- 1965 – Emma Wray, English actress
- 1966 – Todd Ewen, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1966 – Artis Pabriks, Latvian politician
- 1966 – Brian Shaw, American basketball player
- 1967 – Mario Cipollini, Italian cyclist
- 1967 – Bernie Gallacher, British footballer (d. 2011)
- 1968 – Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth), Norwegian guitarist (Mayhem) (d. 1993)
- 1970 – Andreas Johnson, Swedish singer
- 1970 – Leontien van Moorsel, Dutch cyclist
- 1971 – Iben Hjejle, Danish actress
- 1971 – Will Yun Lee, American actor
- 1972 – Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
- 1972 – Cory Lidle, American baseball player (d. 2006)
- 1972 – Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
- 1973 – Beverley Knight, English singer
- 1973 – Joe Nedney, American football player
- 1974 – Marcus Camby, American basketball player
- 1974 – Philippe Clement, Belgian footballer
- 1974 – Kidada Jones, American actress
- 1974 – Gert Peens, South African-born Italian rugby player
- 1975 – Anne Dudek, American actress
- 1975 – Jason Fletcher, American sports agent
- 1975 – Cole Hauser, American actor
- 1975 – Jiří Novák, Czech tennis player
- 1976 – Kathryn Jean Lopez, American columnist and editor
- 1976 – Teun de Nooijer, Dutch field hockey player
- 1976 – Kellie Shanygne Williams, American actress
- 1976 – Reese Witherspoon, American actress and film producer
- 1977 – John Otto, American musician (Limp Bizkit)
- 1977 – Joey Porter, American football player
- 1977 – Tom Poti, American ice hockey player
- 1979 – Aaron North, American musician (Jubilee and The Icarus Line)
- 1979 – Juan Uribe, Dominican baseball player
- 1980 – Shannon Bex, American singer (Danity Kane)
- 1980 – Pamela O'Connor, Scottish ice dancer
- 1981 – Mims (Shawn Mims), American rapper
- 1982 – Michael Janyk, Canadian alpine skier
- 1984 – Piotr Trochowski, German footballer
- 1985 – Mayola Biboko, Belgian footballer
- 1985 – Jakob Fuglsang, Danish cyclist
- 1985 – Mike Jenkins, American football player
- 1985 – Justin Masterson, American baseball player
- 1985 – Chris Wallace, American singer-songwriter and producer (The White Tie Affair)
- 1986 – Jeon Boram, South Korean singer, actress (T-ara)
- 1986 – David Choi, Korean-American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1987 – Ike Davis, American baseball player
- 1988 – Tania Raymonde, American actress
- 1989 – Ben King, American cyclist
- 1989 – Ruben Popa, Romanian footballer
- 1989 – J.J. Watt, American football player
- 1990 – Lisa Mitchell, Australian singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Jessie Andrews, American pornographic actress
- 1994 – Kolohe Andino, American surfer
- 1994 – Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Belarusian tennis player
- 1995 – Nick Robinson, American actor
[edit]Deaths
- 1322 – Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, English politician (b. 1278)
- 1418 – Dietrich of Nieheim, German historian
- 1421 – Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of Henry IV of England (b. 1388)
- 1471– George of Podebrady, King of Bohemia (b. 1420)
- 1544 – Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (b. 1488)
- 1602 – Agostino Carracci, Italian artist (b. 1557)
- 1685 – Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (b. 1638)
- 1687 – Jean-Baptiste Lully, Italian-born French composer (b. 1632)
- 1758 – Jonathan Edwards, American minister (b. 1703)
- 1758 – Richard Leveridge, English bass singer and composer (b. 1670)
- 1772 – John Canton, English physicist (b. 1718)
- 1820 – Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (b. 1779)
- 1832 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer (b. 1749)
- 1840 – Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician (b. 1798)
- 1896 – Thomas Hughes, English novelist (b. 1822)
- 1913 – Sung Chiao-jen, Chinese Nationalist (b. 1882)
- 1924 – William Macewen, Scottish surgeon (b. 1848)
- 1934 – Theophilos Hatzimihail, Greek painter (b. 1870)
- 1942 – Frederick Cuming, British cricket player (b. 1875)
- 1942 – William Donne, English cricket player (b. 1875)
- 1945 – John Hessin Clarke, American lawyer and judge, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1857)
- 1952 – Uncle Dave Macon, American musician (b. 1870)
- 1955 – Ivan Šubašić, Croatian-Yugoslav politician, Kingdom of Yugoslavia prime minister and last ban of Croatia (b. 1892)
- 1958 – Mike Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
- 1960 – José Antonio Aguirre, Basque politician (b. 1904)
- 1966 – John Harlin, American mountaineer (b. 1935)
- 1971 – Hanuman Prasad Poddar Indian Author (b.1892)
- 1974 – Peter Revson, American racing driver (b. 1939)
- 1977 – A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (b. 1904)
- 1978 – Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (b. 1905)
- 1981 – James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (b. 1915)
- 1986 – Olive Deering, American actress (b. 1918)
- 1986 – Mark Dinning, American singer (b. 1933)
- 1986 – Charles Starrett, American actor (b. 1903)
- 1987 – Odysseas Angelis, Greek officer involved in the coup of April 1967 (b. 1912)
- 1990 – Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (b. 1928)
- 1991 – Léon Balcer, Canadian politician (b. 1917)
- 1991 – Paul Engle, American writer (b. 1908)
- 1991 – Dave Guard, American folk singer (The Kingston Trio) (b. 1934)
- 1991 – Gloria Holden, American actress (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Steve Olin, American baseball player (b. 1965)
- 1994 – Dan Hartman, American singer, songwriter, and record producer (b. 1950)
- 1994 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (b. 1900)
- 1996 – Don Murray, American drummer (The Turtles) (b. 1945)
- 1996 – Robert F. Overmyer, American test pilot and astronaut (b. 1936)
- 1996 – Billy Williamson, American musician (Bill Haley & His Comets) (b. 1925)
- 1999 – Max Beloff, British historian (b. 1913)
- 1999 – David Strickland, American actor (b. 1969)
- 2001 – Sabiha Gökçen, Turkish combat pilot (b. 1913)
- 2001 – William Hanna, American animator (b. 1910)
- 2001 – Robert Fletcher Shaw, Canadian civil servant, deputy commissioner general of the Expo 67 (b. 1910)
- 2002 – Rudolf Baumgartner, Swiss conductor and violinist (b. 1917)
- 2003 – Terry Lloyd, English reporter (b. 1952)
- 2004 – Ahmed Yassin, Palestinian co-founder of Hamas (b. c. 1937)
- 2005 – Kenzo Tange, Japanese architect (b. 1913)
- 2006 – Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Pio Leyva, Cuban singer and composer (Buena Vista Social Club) (b. 1917)
- 2006 – Lawrence Stephen, Nauruan politician (b. 1939)
- 2006 – Kurt von Trojan, Australian author (b. 1937)
- 2007 – Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (b. 1918)
- 2008 – Cachao López, Cuban mambo musician and composer (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Jade Goody, British reality show contestant on Big Brother (b. 1981)
- 2009 – Leon Walker, British rugby player (b. 1988)
- 2010 – James W. Black, Scottish Nobel Prize-winning doctor and medical research scientist (b. 1924)
- 2011 – Artur Agostinho, Portuguese awarded actor, journalist, writer and broadcaster (b. 1920)
- 2011 – Victor Bouchard, Canadian pianist and composer (b. 1926)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Earliest day on which Earth Hour can fall, while March 31 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday in March. (International)
- Earliest day on which Easter Sunday can fall (last in 1818, will not happen again until 2285), while April 25 is the latest. (Christianity)
- Emancipation Day or Día de la Abolición de la Esclavitud (Puerto Rico)
- World Day for Water (International)
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OBAMA VISITS MT HERZL, YAD VASHEM: 'MAY G-D BLESS THE MEMORY OF THE MILLIONS'
President Barack Obama concluded his 51-hour trip to Israel today with a jam-packed morning that spoke to some of the more emotional sites in the Jewish state. He traveled to Mount Herzl to visit the graves of Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, then went to Yad Vashem and delivered an address, quoted here.
Read more about the end of Obama's Israel trip:http://www.jspace.com/
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4 Her, so she can see herself through my eyes
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After the events of the last 24 hours, it is clear there is a deep, irreconcilable split in the Australian Labor Party.
The resignation of five frontbenchers in just a day demonstrates that, despite Julia Gillard’s claims to the contrary, the matter has not ended. http://lbr.al/1t5o
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Well well well, an interesting development in the LACK of Greenland ice melt.
This is an interesting admission:
The melt extent algorithm used by Greenland Ice Sheet Today has been overestimating the melt extent, and as a result, daily images posted on this site in February and March may have indicated melt where none occurred.
This makes you wonder what other kinds of issues remain undetected in the satellite data. NSIDC has had to issue corrections in the past, when it was pointed out that their data and reality didn’t match. – Anthony
From NSIDC: An early spring re-calibration for melt detection
The algorithm for the Greenland Ice Sheet Today daily melt extent has been revised to account for unusually warm winter snow layers and residual meltwater deep in the snow. Meltwater from last summer’s intense melt season did not completely re-freeze through at least mid December. The adjusted algorithm shows greatly reduced melt extent for early 2013. This much lower extent is more consistent with available weather and climate records.
See here for NSIDC statement : http://nsidc.org/
FOr more information here : http://
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Rudd says important to bind the wounds and be inclusive. Hmm that seems odd with mass resignations today!
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From Sleepy Hollow
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Photo from Ministerial Wing of Federal Parliament earlier today.
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HARMONY DAY ....... my speech in Parliament just before Question Time yesterday..........
Mr CRAIG KELLY (Hughes) (13:56): I rise to speak on this wonderful day of Harmony Day—a day when we can all come together and hold hands and sing Kumbaya! Let the sun shine in!
But, on this Harmony Day, what a rabble and a farce we are seeing on the other side of the House.
But the problem is not with the personalities; the problem is with the policies.
We have seen the most disgraceful array of policies from that side of the chamber, from GroceryWatch to the carbon tax.
We have seen Australian families and small businesses putting up with almost a doubling of their electricity prices under this government.
We have seen a loss of control of our borders.
We have seen the pink batts tragedy.
We have seen the overpriced school halls, the mining tax, the live cattle disaster, the set-top box fiasco—the list goes on and on and on.
And now we are going to see the most farcical question time in the history of this chamber.
It is time for this government to finally call it off—to go. The public have had enough. Your time is over.
It is time for an election, to give the public their say, to get rid of the most incompetent and untrustworthy government in our nation’s history. (Time expired)
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Mitt Romney tweets wedding photo on 44th anniversary; Haters hate ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/
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Another sunrise shot from Mono Lake. This picture was taken a very short time after the last one I posted just this morning. Here the sky erupted in a glorious explosion of warm colored hues.
I like to think that if there was once life on Mars that this is what it would have looked like. — withMiguel De La Cruz and Darvin Atkeson at Mono Lake.
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Morning at Mono Lake
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OMG! Is this for me?
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Our reader Jennie shared this hilarious picture of her cat staring intently as moose raid the bird feeder! Alaska!
See more member photos tonight at ->www.AndMyCat.com
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Did you know that giving to you actually brings joy to God’s heart? When you place a demand on Him—like look to Him to heal you—you let Him be God. When you draw from His fullness—His abundance of life, health and blessing—you delight Him!
Discover how when you come empty and draw from God, the One who has endless supply, you honor Him and let Him be God.
Find out more on Meditate & Believe Right. Be sure to sign up for this series of devotionals and have it delivered to your mailbox daily!
http://www.josephprince.com/meditate/
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God wants to give you His wisdom and guide you with His spiritual insight. If you ask God for wisdom, He will always answer your prayer because it is one of His top priorities. James 1:5 says that when you ask for God’s wisdom, He will give it to you liberally and without reproach.
Once you ask, believe that you have received! Find Him guiding and leading you to steward, and make sound decisions in, your finances. Find Him giving you the desire to value your health over worldly pursuits. Find Him leading you to do the right thing at the right time!http://josephprince.com/
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This week's audio and video podcasts are now available! Subscribe to or download Joseph Prince's podcasts today!http://www.josephprince.org/
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It pleases God when you place your faith in Him and believe Him for all your needs! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all!http://bit.ly/ZI1gbj
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Beloved, open your heart to the incredible magnitude of God’s love for you today, and be empowered with bold faith to overcome every temptation and challenge!
Click below to watch a short clip of this uplifting message. Be sure to click 'Like' and share this with your friends! Amen! http://bit.ly/15l4iBO
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How do you see God today? Beloved, He is not angry with you. He is always well-pleased with you because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
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In 100 Days Of Favor, embark on a purposeful and powerful journey in discovering and experiencing the unmerited favor of God. Dive headfirst into the vast ocean of God’s favor and learn how it releases good success in your life.
Check out a preview of the ebook on Apple's iBooks today!
http://bit.ly/XCoudY
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God created everything in the universe. He has the answer to everything! Doesn’t it then behoove you to seek His wisdom for every situation?
If you are facing a financial debt, God can miraculously cancel your debt. But He wants to go one step higher, and show you how to avoid getting into such problems in the future.
God’s wisdom will always help you out of a crisis, and give you specific answers to your problems!
So beloved, ask God for wisdom today! The Bible tells us that wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding (Proverbs 4:7).http://josephprince.com/
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