1506 – Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars in the Battle of Kletsk.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Oriskany, one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the war, was fought about six miles (10 km) east of Fort Stanwix, New York.
1806 – The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by its last emperor, Francis II, during the aftermath of the War of the Third Coalition.
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1966 – Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan became emir and ruler of Abu Dhabi, succeeding his brother, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was deposed in a bloodless coup d'état.
1988 – New York City Police officers charged a crowd protesting a curfew for the previously 24-hour Tompkins Square Park, sparking a riot that led to more than 100 complaints of police brutality. Your day is grand, overshadowed by the un-prosecuted war crime of Truman to the minor tragedy of the life of JonBenét Ramsey. Yet in endeavour, you are unbound, and the world is your oyster.
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Let’s destroy these deadly animals once and for all
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (7:13pm)
EVERY time a mere human is killed or mauled by a pit bull-type dog, all the professional apologists line up to declare: “It’s not the breed, it’s the deed”.
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THESE PEOPLE CAN’T COUNT
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (4:35pm)
Treasurer Chris Bowen gets his numbers wrong:
News Limited owns 70 per cent of the print media in Australia, as I understand it ...
Not so. News owns 32 per cent of the print media in Australia. Bowen, usually more sensible than this, is clearly drawing his information from Bob Brown, which should disqualify the member for McMahon from any position involving numbers. Bowen’s ridiculous boss is also turning Green:
Rudd repeatedly referred to the fact that Murdoch “owned 70% of Australia’s newspapers” …
Someone buy the PM a clue. Andrew Bolt has much more on the current rash of Murdoch media myths.
UPDATE. A News Corp statement:
Recent political commentary has perpetuated a long-standing myth that News Corp Australia owns 70% of Australian newspapers.News Corp Australia owns or co-owns 33% of all ABC and CAB audited newspapers in Australia.News Corp Australia newspapers are popular - over half the adult population of Australia chooses to read a News Corp Australia newspaper each week. This means that News Corp Australia has a 59% share of newspaper circulation.All of this ignores television, radio and the myriad of online news sources which offer more diversity in opinion than at any time in history.
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WEREWOLVES OF SEPTEMBER
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (4:25pm)
September 7 marks the tenth anniversary of Warren Zevon’s death. This must be an election omen of some kind, although according to his wife Crystal, Zevon’s politics defy easy classification:
Warren was not a political being. If you asked five people what his political positions were, you’d get five different answers. It was rumored that the last time Warren voted was for Ross Perot. Yet he was delighted to accompany Tennessee senator Steve Cohen to the 2000 Democratic Convention; he didn’t hesitate for a second when he was asked to play for Jesse Ventura’s gubernatorial inauguration; he told Ryan Rayston that he was a Republican … Billy Bob Thornton may have come the closest to nailing Warren’s thinking – he said that he and Warren had similar political sensibilities as “moderate radicals.”
A biography of Zevon also records this declaration, however:
At one point, he attempts to take custody of his daughter and tells Crystal – who’s touring France on a peace march – that “I’m to the right of your father and Ronald Reagan and if you think I’m going to let my daughter be raised by some f**king Communist hippie, you’re sadly mistaken.”
By and large, I think we can place him on the non-left side of politics.
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MAINSTREAM REDEFINED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (4:21pm)
John Birmingham is sad:
It’s sort of depressing sitting here in the mainstream media …
You’re at Fairfax, John. Turn that frown upside down!
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BACK IN THE USNTTRRWTOPL
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (2:12pm)
Seeking an unbiased and reasonable view on matters Murdoch, the ABC’s PM program naturally turns to David McKnight, a long-time member of Australia’s Communist Party. Not that McKnight’s political views are mentioned, of course. This is the closest we get:
David McKnight, you’ve worked in newspapers before, for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Oh, come now. McKnight’s media involvement went a little further than that. Such as running the official commie paper, for example. The ABC has previously struggled to define McKnight. Here’s Jonathan Holmes’s brave attempt:
McKnight is an Associate Professor of Journalism at UNSW. He’s an unashamedly political animal. He’s had a career-long interest in the politics of the Cold War, and has written about the modern culture wars between left and right, and what should replace them …McKnight has his own political leanings, which are certainly not to the right.
If it had been up to Holmes and the ABC, the old USSR would have been known as the Union of Soviet Not To The Right Republics With Their Own Political Leanings. Try fitting that on a hockey jersey.
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DOUBLE DEBACLE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (1:58pm)
A bright start to the 2013 campaign from Labor’s angry David Bradbury and bumbling Liberal Jaymes Diaz. Meanwhile, who wants to be a Labor candidate? There are plenty of seats available.
UPDATE. The ABC’s transcriber puts unfortunate words in Kevin Rudd’s mouth:
KEVIN RUDD: The first point I note from today’s media is on the very question you raise, and Mr Abbott has gone out and said that the Government is deteriorating the fiscal position, and it’s on a scale to match the disasters of Europe.That is a ball faced untruth.
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POST JEFFED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (1:12pm)
A couple of bargains in the US:
Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post for $250 million …Just three days ago the New York Times Co. sold the Boston Globe for $70 million, having paid $1.1 billion for it in 1993.
Judging by the price paid for Newsweek in 2010, these values are probably still a little high. Mark Steyn’s view:
In 1999 The Worcester Telegram & Gazette (that’s in Massachusetts) sold for $295 million.Fourteen years later, one of the media’s A-list titles – the establishment paper of the capital city, the one that took down a president and made Woodward, Bernstein and Ben Bradlee the Holy Trinity of American journalism’s First Church of Itself – can barely command 80 per cent of that price.No other industry’s management is in quite such poignant inversion to its self-regard.
In a more positive development, the Boston Herald is now running a slick new talk radio station. Professional studio. Production staff and on-air personalities next to the newsroom. Very interesting.
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BIG DIPPER
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 06, 2013 (12:51pm)
Queensland has its own Anthony Weiner:
A state MP has been exposed as a serial sexter, sending images to his secret mistress including a picture of his penis plonked in a glass of red wine.In addition, Ethics Committee chairman and Redlands LNP MP Peter Dowling has confirmed he accepted more than $20,000 in free upgraded flights although he was not required by parliamentary rules to declare them.
The red, er, faced member for Redlands has since stepped down.
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Hair today, gone tomorrow
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (4:10pm)
Watch it. It’s curiously manic:
Kevin Rudd tends to a deal of hair flicking, dipping his head and the right hand sweeping the silvery fringe back when he becomes a little agitated . . . and when the name Rupert Murdoch crosses his lips, the hair flicking becomes positively furious.
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Rates cut because economy weak
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (2:51pm)
The Reserve Bank cuts rates again, because the economy is flatter than it should be - and will be for some time. From its statement:
UPDATE
I note ACTU president Ged Kearney sells this as “good news”, repeating Labor’s deceitful spin. Actually, Ged, a flat economy hurts your members, who need jobs and are finding pay packets aren’t rising as they did. As the Reserve Bank noted: “growth in labour costs [is] moderating”. The interest rate cuts also mean pain for superannuants trying to live off their savings.
Isn’t it time Kearney represented union members to Labor, and not Labor to union members? There can’t be pride in being a Labor apologist.
UPDATE
Smooth FM’s Glenn Daniel calls out Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury on Labor’s latest deceit - and Bradbury loses it:
An analogy that even Bradbury might understand. Saying needing chemotherapy is a consequence of bad health is not the same as saying you want the chemotherapy stopped.
But I think Bradbury knew he was telling a ... nonsense. Hence the bluster.
UPDATE
A Coalition candidate is caught under-researched and unprepared for the gotcha questions of an aggressive journalist:
Another reason why novice candidates are actually requested to avoid giving interviews and leave it to the pros.
UPDATE
Interest rates in Europe at just 0.5 per cent. Given Labor’s spin, this must mean Europe’s economy is doing even better than ours. A few more years of Labor and we night have 0.5 per cent interest rates, too. Then how happy we will all be. Or not.
At its meeting today, the Board decided to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent, effective 7 August 2013.Note that the Bank says commodity prices are still at historically high levels. So how did Labor still rack up huge deficits, leaving us with nothing in the kitty for the tough times?
Recent information is consistent with global growth running a bit below average this year, with reasonable prospects of a pick-up next year. Commodity prices have declined but, overall, remain at high levels by historical standards. Inflation has moderated over recent months in a number of countries…
In Australia, the economy has been growing a bit below trend over the past year. This is expected to continue in the near term as the economy adjusts to lower levels of mining investment. The unemployment rate has edged higher.
UPDATE
I note ACTU president Ged Kearney sells this as “good news”, repeating Labor’s deceitful spin. Actually, Ged, a flat economy hurts your members, who need jobs and are finding pay packets aren’t rising as they did. As the Reserve Bank noted: “growth in labour costs [is] moderating”. The interest rate cuts also mean pain for superannuants trying to live off their savings.
Isn’t it time Kearney represented union members to Labor, and not Labor to union members? There can’t be pride in being a Labor apologist.
UPDATE
Smooth FM’s Glenn Daniel calls out Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury on Labor’s latest deceit - and Bradbury loses it:
Mr Daniel questioned Mr Bradbury’s claim Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey wanted to see higher interest rates when Mr Hockey had warned that any cut by the RBA would be a sign of a weakening economy.“Nonsense” is one word for it. “Lie” is another.
The newsreader told The Daily Telegraph online he believed Mr Bradbury was “surprised,” after calling in to the station himself to offer his thoughts on the pending rate decision, to be asked hard questions.
“What we would say is that interest rate cuts are always welcomed by families and small businesses right around the country. I find it extraordinary that yesterday Mr Hockey was out there barracking for higher interest rates,” Mr Bradbury said.
“...now it seems Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott actually stand for higher interest rates.”
Mr Daniel interjected: “David, hold on what did he say yesterday that you pin that claim on?”
Mr Bradbury shot back: “He said that interest rates should not be cut.”
The retort prompted Mr Daniel to tell a now clearly annoyed Mr Bradbury: “No, no, what he said when interest rates come down it is a sign the economy is not going well. That’s what he said. He’s not saying ‘I want higher interest rates.’”
An irritated Mr Bradbury retorted: “Are we having an argument here, or are we on air? I am just trying to work that out.”
He went on to accuse Mr Daniel of “trying to make the case for the Liberals” and demanded to know his surname.
“Sorry, Glenn are you a Liberal Party member here, or what is going on?” Mr Bradbury asked.
Mr Bradbury pushed on claiming: “If interest rates are not cut today then Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott will be the only two people in the country that will welcome that decision.”
Mr Daniel replied: “no, that’s obviously not right” and accused Mr Bradbury of trying to “twist it into the Coalition wants higher interest rates which you know is a nonsense.”
An analogy that even Bradbury might understand. Saying needing chemotherapy is a consequence of bad health is not the same as saying you want the chemotherapy stopped.
But I think Bradbury knew he was telling a ... nonsense. Hence the bluster.
UPDATE
A Coalition candidate is caught under-researched and unprepared for the gotcha questions of an aggressive journalist:
Another reason why novice candidates are actually requested to avoid giving interviews and leave it to the pros.
UPDATE
Interest rates in Europe at just 0.5 per cent. Given Labor’s spin, this must mean Europe’s economy is doing even better than ours. A few more years of Labor and we night have 0.5 per cent interest rates, too. Then how happy we will all be. Or not.
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Rudd’s power trumps Bowen’s principle
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (11:24am)
TREASURER Chris Bowen has failed to rule out a minority government deal with the Greens, despite declaring a month ago that Labor should always “govern alone”.Rudd deliberately confuses preference deals with deals on minority government as he dodges the question:
Mr Bowen, who blasted the Greens in his recent book as “anti-growth”, said Labor was campaigning to win government in its own right, but repeatedly refused to say [on Lateline] if it should countenance a formal agreement with the Greens in the event of a hung parliament…
He was more emphatic on the ABC’s 7.30 program last month.
“We believe in things that the Greens party fundamentally disagrees with, and that we have a separate existence and that in future we should govern alone,” Mr Bowen said.
KEVIN Rudd has left open doing deals with the Greens and independents in the event of another hung parliament as Tony Abbott declared he would allow Labor to take power rather than lead a minority government.
The Prime Minister said Labor was trying to secure a majority government and attacked the Liberal Party for preferencing the Greens ahead of Labor in the inner-western Sydney seat of Grayndler held by deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
But Mr Rudd did not rule out a deal with minor parties in the event of another hung parliament.
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Virgin loses innocence over carbon tax
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (11:04am)
Virgin Australia is paying plenty for Labor’s utterly useless carbon tax:
(Thanks to reader Ashley and many others.)
The Company today also confirmed that the pre-tax costs of the carbon tax for the 2013 financial year are estimated to be between $45 million to $50 million and were unable to be recovered due to weak economic conditions and the competitive environment. As a result of these factors, Virgin Australia expects a statutory Loss After Tax in the range of $95 million to $110 million.That will teach Sir Richard Brazen for promoting the global warming scare.
(Thanks to reader Ashley and many others.)
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Rudd rushes to poll as his PNG deal totters
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (10:44am)
Has Kevin Rudd rushed to a September 7 election because he knows his boat people “fix” with PNG could collapse any day?
Rudd’s “deal” with Nauru on Saturday looks even dodgier:
THE PNG asylum deal is under a cloud with the country still not ready to sign a formal agreement...Resistance in PNG to the deal - including moves by the Opposition to fight it in the High Court - seems to have made the PNG Prime Minister hasten a lot slower:
Labor was unable to finalise the deal with a Memorandum of Understanding covering “detailed administrative arrangements” yet to be signed when the government entered caretaker mode.
Signing the new memorandum is already almost a week overdue with Kevin Rudd nominating a July 31 deadline…
Currently Labor has only a brief two page “regional resettlement arrangement"deal signed by Mr Rudd and PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.
PAPUA New Guinea will renegotiate its refugee resettlement plan with Australia if the Pacific island nation has trouble managing large numbers of asylum seekers.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill told journalists in Port Moresby on Monday he would not speculate on how many asylum seekers will be sent to Manus Island, where Australia is currently housing more than 60 people.
Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke last week flagged a major expansion of detention places on PNG, as the government implements its new hardline policy.
“I don’t want to inflate numbers that I have not agreed to or (speculate on) what is likely to happen into the future,” Mr O’Neill said in response to a question.
“Of course, if numbers increase, we will sit down and go through it. I have stated this very clearly to the nation, this will be reviewed in 12 months time.”
Rudd’s “deal” with Nauru on Saturday looks even dodgier:
THE Nauru government says asylum-seekers have no chance of permanent residency in the tiny Pacific nation, contradicting Labor’s claim that boatpeople would now be settled there.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill, Mark2 and Baden.)
Two days after Labor signed an agreement with Nauru, the Pacific island nation has disputed the basic terms of the deal, saying permanent settlement is “not allowed"…
“It will now be possible for asylum-seekers to not only be processed in Nauru, if they are found to be in need of protection, they could also be settled there,” Mr Rudd said (on Saturday).
Flanked by Immigration Minister Tony Burke and Nauru President Baron Waqa, Mr Rudd said asylum-seekers would “have the opportunity to settle and reside in Nauru"…
Nauru government spokeswoman Joanna Olsen said yesterday resettlement was not on the table. “Permanent settlement is not allowed - that is correct,” Ms Olsen said… “They can stay here until the processing finishes and then (they are) relocated...”
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Rudd says he’s helping 345,000 children. His minister says it’s 68,000
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (9:49am)
Kevin Rudd exaggerates wildly again this time in selling his first big promise of the election campaign:
But wait. Rudd is giving 345,000 children at up to 500 schools better out-of-school-hour care? That’s at least 690 children per school.
Is that remotely close to the number of children at each school who’d need or use this extra help? How many of these primary schools even have that many children?
Kate Ellis at the same press conference gave a figure just one fifth of that sold by her Prime Minister, using places created rather than students who theoretically could use them:
We’ve heard similar over-promising from Rudd before. From 2010:
More Kevin Rudd over-promising:
The Government will invest an additional $450 million in schools looking to establish outside school hours on their grounds or extend the hours that they currently offer… From 2014, up to 500 schools will benefit from extended services and improved activities. Around 345,000 kids, mostly between five and 12, stand to benefit from this initiative.(Quotes from video at link.)
But wait. Rudd is giving 345,000 children at up to 500 schools better out-of-school-hour care? That’s at least 690 children per school.
Is that remotely close to the number of children at each school who’d need or use this extra help? How many of these primary schools even have that many children?
Kate Ellis at the same press conference gave a figure just one fifth of that sold by her Prime Minister, using places created rather than students who theoretically could use them:
Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis said the funding would provide about 68,000 extra places for school children.UPDATE
We’ve heard similar over-promising from Rudd before. From 2010:
THE Rudd Government has broken its promise to build 260 new childcare centres.UPDATE
Child Care Minister Kate Ellis today said a new report showed there were 65,780 long day care vacancies every day and out of pocket costs for working families had halved so there was no need to deliver the pledge…
Now only 38 of those centres will be built.
More Kevin Rudd over-promising:
THE Rudd Government has been accused of exaggerating the forecast boost in sales of locally-made cars that will come from its “buy Australian” policy…(Thanks to readers Ron O’Knox, Peter, Mark2, Mack and Gab.)
Federal Industry Minister, Senator Kim Carr said the “buy Australian” policy across all levels of government could boost sales of locally-made vehicles “by over 18,000 units per year”. However, figures show that local, state and federal governments combined last year bought only about 16,000 locally-made cars - and sales to state and local governments are down by 37 per cent in the first six months of this year.
“I have no doubt that the government’s estimates are grossly exaggerated,” said Andrew McKellar, the former head of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries who is now the executive director of the Australian Automobile Association.
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Rudd’s AAA excuse is XXX
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (9:22am)
Former Treasurer Peter Costello nails the spendthrift’s excuse:
More fears that Labor and to some extent the Liberals are fiddling while the Budget burns:
More signs of strife:
Kevin Rudd has used Australia’s AAA credit rating as a defence against criticism of the budget deficit blowout to $30 billion last Friday and the breaching of the $300bn debt level.UPDATE
Announcing the September 7 election on Sunday, the Prime Minister deflected questions about the drastic reshaping of the May budget forecasts on rising debt, deficit and unemployment by asking: “If there is a debt and deficit crisis requiring an immediate return to surplus, why did the credit rating agencies provide us with an AAA credit rating?..”
Yesterday, Mr Costello said ... “There was no net debt when he was elected. His starting point was incredibly strong. If he had inherited a position like President (Barack) Obama did or Prime Minister (David) Cameron did in the US and the UK, we would be where they are today.
“Since Labor was elected in 2007, the deterioration in the debt position has been very severe—worse than the US and the UK. The journey has been terrible. What saved us was the starting point.
“If the journey continues in the way it has over the last five years, Australia will be at risk again.”
More fears that Labor and to some extent the Liberals are fiddling while the Budget burns:
Former Future Fund chairman and Commonwealth Bank chief executive David Murray said ... “If the structure of the economy is deteriorating while the rating is strong, then you can be certain the rating will be called into question in the future...”UPDATE
Commonwealth Bank director and former AMP chief executive Andrew Mohl attacked politicians because ... “current tinkering is doing nothing but creating uncertainty"…
“The chance of the structural deficit being addressed in this election campaign is zero,” he said. “I have no doubt the budget policy over the past five years, given the resources boom, has been too loose. There has been wasteful expenditure, policy formulation has been dysfunctional. If we face a fiscal shock, the economy is more vulnerable than it was. We have spent our ammunition and we don’t have much to show for it.”
The comments come after the government on Friday revealed a $33.3 billion revenue writedown in barely 10 weeks - a situation that Brambles and BlueScope chairman Graham Kraehe described yesterday as “incredible”.
“My fundamental view is that economic policy at the moment is absolutely ad hoc from day to day without any long-term cohesive, integrated plan,” said Mr Kraehe, who is also a former Reserve Bank board member.
“We have a history of increasing government spending throughout the resources boom and now that the resources boom is tapering off, there is no suggestion that we are planning to reduce government spending, instead of which we are just increasing taxes...”
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said there had been “no structural reform to the budget” and the statement was “worse than a patch-up job; it’s a complete misreading of the economy”.
More signs of strife:
Retail spending has fallen to its slowest growth rate since July 2000, new car sales for July were lower than the automotive industry expected, and activity in the services sector reached its lowest level since the global financial crisis.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Industry Group on Monday backed up the federal Treasury’s forecasts that the economy is slowing and consumer spending is at its weakest level in 13 years…
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Tony Weber said July figures for new vehicle sales across Australia of 90,235 were lower-than-expected and were already showing the impact of a decision to toughen up the fringe benefits tax rules on work cars.
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Oppose apartheid justice
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (9:00am)
I am deeply, deeply opposed to the creation of apartheid justice in Victoria - different legal systems or procedures for people of a different “race”:
Meanwhile in the High Court:
(No comments. Thanks to readers Too hot for me and Mack.)
A man who killed a couple in a drunken, high-speed crash last year has been castigated by two elders in the inaugural sitting of Melbourne’s Koori County Court.UPDATE
Nathan Troy Long, 29, was unlicensed and had a record of driving offences when his van smashed into a car at St Albans at 4.15am on October 15, killing Chuong Tran, 66, and Huong Tran, 64…
As part of the Koori Court procedure, Judge David Parsons removed his robes, as did Ms Bhai and defence lawyer David McKenzie. Long joined his partner and elders Aunty Jackie Stewart and Uncle Lloyd Hood at the bar table for the hearing…
Ms Stewart reminded Long that they had been in similar circumstances before, when they had sat across from each other in the Magistrates Court, addressing his offending and trying to ensure it did not happen again.
She had told him then that he had been lucky, but again now “I sit here before you today as an elder speaking to a person about the same thing, yet you’ve continued to go down the same path”.
“I’m embarrassed as an Aboriginal person,” Ms Stewart said, telling Long he was lucky to be sitting in court while the Tran family did so without their parents present.
She told Long that they had had “this conversation on many occasions”, and “as I just sit here today I am ashamed ... I am embarrassed ... we’ve had this conversation and it’s led to this.”
Mr Hood told Long that “it’s a terrible thing you’ve done” and that “sitting here as a black fella I feel shameful what you have done to this family”....
The role of the elders in the hearing was to take part in the “sentencing conversation” but Long’s ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Parsons.
Meanwhile in the High Court:
For the first time in 30 years the High Court is set to consider whether Aboriginality can be used as a defence in sentencing.So it is asking for different treatment but it’s not.
The court has granted special leave to hear the case of William David Bugmy, a 31-year-old Indigenous man from Wilcannia who was convicted of assaulting a prison officer after throwing a pool ball at a guard in the Broken Hill prison in 2011.
He pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm and was given a six-year sentence.
In his hearing, the court recognised the so-called Fernando Principles, which take into account an offender’s Aboriginal, cultural and social background. But the Crown appealed.
The judge of the New South Wales Criminal Appeals Court ruled that the Fernando Principles diminish over time, particularly for repeat offenders.
Another year-and-a-half was added to Bugmy’s sentence.
However, Bugmy’s lawyers at the Aboriginal Legal Service New South Wales and ACT say a person’s Aboriginality does not diminish over time and are now appealing to the High Court…
His lawyer, Stephen Lawrence, says his client had a difficult childhood.
“There was issues of domestic violence, alcohol abuse in the family, and Mr Bugmy came into contact with the law from an early age, from about 12 or so,” he said…
“Our argument is that particular attention must be paid to the circumstance of Aboriginal offenders, and that that principle does not, in our view, expire.
“And even in the case of somebody with a significant record, it is still of the utmost importance in the sentencing exercise to look closely at the circumstances of the offence, which may well be informed by the circumstances of their life, but also to look closely at those background and systemic factors that generally will have played a role in bringing them before the court."…
However, Mr Lawrence says consideration of the Fernando Principles is not about advocating for a race-based discount.
“In fact completely to the contrary, the arguments are about ensuring equality before the law through paying close attention to the background circumstances of people,” he said.
(No comments. Thanks to readers Too hot for me and Mack.)
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AbbottAbbottAbbott alert
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (8:41am)
Gerard Henderson on Kevin Rudd being positively negative:
On Monday, the AM program led with a 13-minute interview with the Prime Minister. He referred to “Mr Abbott” on 16 occasions - more than once a minute. Rudd’s line was that Abbott represented “the old politics of the past … which is grounded in negativity”.Go to the tape:
KEVIN RUDD: The old politics of the past in which Mr Abbott is a key exponent, is one which is grounded in negativity, he is one of the most negative politicians that the parliament has ever thrown up, and also one grounded in divisiveness....AM interviewed Abbott on the same show. He mentioned Rudd just nine times.
I said very bluntly yesterday that if an election had been held on Saturday then Mr Abbott would have been prime minister ... a campaign of relentless negativity by Mr Abbott ... where are your positive policies Mr Abbott?… Mr Abbott’s response is that he won’t lay bare how he’s going to deal with his $70 billion black hole ... Mr Abbott has gone out and said that the Government is deteriorating the fiscal position ... Mr Abbott simply seems to get away with running one negative line after another ... he has put out a monstrous lie ... Mr Abbott will constantly talk about a debt and deficit crisis ... if it’s so bad Mr Abbott, why have we been given by the three ratings agencies a triple A credit rating?… Mr Abbott is about to lop of half a billion dollars… Mr Abbott has said he would cut that back to around 12,000… the real question here is what Mr Abbott himself has said ... Mr Abbott said ... he said ... he’s declined four debates so far… can you trust Mr Abbott’s word? ... what we have with Mr Abbott is someone who doesn’t want to answer the hard question
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Warming pause continues
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (8:35am)
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Media Watch shocked that one Murdoch paper says this Government’s no good
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (8:34am)
Paul Barry, just the latest Leftist to host Media Watch, seems outraged that Murdoch newspapers do not share his opinion on this disgraceful government.
Barry’s bias leads him to grievously misinform his audience:
And with the election campaign just ONE day old we already know how Rupert Murdoch is going to vote. Not of course that he IS an Australian citizen.No, he’s not. And so? It’s not legitimate for an Australian-born businessman with Australian assets and an Australian home to have opinions about Australia? Why this fake xenophobia, British-born Barry?
However, when you control two-thirds of Australia’s newspapers you can make your choice with a lot more power than the ordinary voter.False. Murdoch’s News Corp owns just 32 per cent of newspapers in Australia - half of what Barry claims. Sure, those papers are so popular that they make up 60 per cent of total newspaper sales, but that is due to Australian readers deciding they’d rather read a Murdoch paper than a competitors’. Murdoch doesn’t “control” that choice. Readers do. Barry has grossly exaggerated, and also mistaken Murdoch’s “control” for what is actually the readers’ choice.
And this morning, on page one, day one , Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph jumped in with both feet… Normally, papers wait till polling day to tell the nation what they think.Barry is disingenous. Actually, most papers make perfectly clear by their daily coverage which side they tend to favor. The Age, for instance, has for decades leaned Left, as does the ABC.
If a paper makes explicit what normally is merely implicit, so what?
As it happens, two newspapers yesterday carried front page editorials denouncing this Labor Government. One was the Daily Telegraph. The other was the Financial Review, which declared:
The first election of Australia’s post-resources boom era marks the end of a decade of rising national prosperity. Now the money has run out. The economy is in trouble. And the dysfunctional politics of the past three years must end. Under both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, Labor has shown itself to be structurally unfit to govern.Why did Barry not mention the Financial Review’s front-page denunciation of Labor in a program devoted to a newspaper’s front-page denunciation of Labor?
Is that because:
A. It would interfere with his anti-Murdoch fear mongering?
B. It would suggest that perhaps this government really is so incompetent as to not just deserve but demand such hounding by newspapers?
And when they do so it’s in more measured tones.
So now it’s the “tone”, rather than content, that disturbs Barry? Would that every reader preferred to read the Financial Review instead, and chose Bach over boy bands.
But Rupert’s tabloids round the world have always punched hard. And for the last few months he’s been tweeting and twitching for the fight to begin.Good. We’re agreed then. Murdoch’s opinions on this disgraceful government are actually “perfectly reasonable”, after all. (Indeed, can any person who loves newspapers with Murdoch’s passion be anything but horrified by Labor’s attempts to censor them? Can any journalist of sense not want this government thrown out for threatening such dangerous restrictions on one of our most fundamental freedoms - to express our opinion? The real scandal is not that the Telegraph holds this view, but that so few journalists in Fairfax and the ABC do not, too.)
“Oz Polls show nothing can save this miserable government. Election cannot come soon enough. People decided and tuned out months ago.
— Twitter, 20th May, 2013”
“Australian public now totally disgusted with Labor Party wrecking country with its sordid intrigues. Now for a quick election.Now it’s a perfectly reasonable point of view that the Labor government has been a disgrace.
— Twitter, 27th June, 2013”
It’s also perfectly reasonable for the Daily Tele to take sides.
But what is of concern is if the views of one powerful man can drive the opinions and reporting of two-thirds of Australia’s major newspapers.Again, Barry repeats a falsehood. Murdoch’s company controls one third of newspapers, not two-thirds. And in this case Barry is complaining about a front-page editorial in just one of those papers.
And looking at the Murdoch press in our capital cities this weekend you have to wonder if they were all speaking with their master’s voice
“ It’s a Ruddy MessThis is now insane. Yes, those newspapers agreed that Labor’s Budget update was a fiasco, showing the Government had somehow blown out by $33 billion in just 11 weeks, and its latest prediction of a surplus in three years was a hoax based on a fiction. The paper of a city with a struggling car-making industry is particularly upset by the slug on salary-sacrificed cars that could finish off Holden. But is that really the conspiracy Barry suggests or simply newspapers describing the bleeding obvious?
— Saturday Herald Sun, 3rd August, 2013"…
“ The Price of Labor
— Daily Telegraph, 3rd August, 2013”
“ Doesn’t add up
— Courier Mail, 3-4th August, 2013”
“ Rudd’s Carr wreck
— The Advertiser, 3rd August, 2013”
For Barry’s conspiracy to have any substance, he must believe that the Budget update was either not a front-page story, or that the massive Budget blowout could have been reported in a positive way instead. Could Barry tell us what headline he’d have preferred? Maybe: “Rudd saves Australia. Budget blowout could have been worse.” Even the far-Left Age had to admit: “Budget deficit blows out to $30b”.
It certainly promises to be an interesting campaign. And we will be watching.As will we, Paul.
And again I ask: why has the ABC never appointed a non-Leftist to host Media Watch? Why is every one of its main current affairs shows headed by someone of the Left?
This political monoculture does make a difference, you know. The audience can see the difference.
PS:
In the 2007 election, Murdoch papers - including the Daily Telegraph, Courier Mail and The Australian - all backed Kevin Rudd. Media Watch was not outraged by this interference by an American with too much clout here.
In the 2010 election, half of Murdoch’s papers backed Julia Gillard. Media Watch was not outraged by this interference by an American with too much clout here.
Now one Murdoch newspaper declares the Rudd Government should be thrown out. Media Watch is now outraged.
UPDATE
Where was Media Watch’s outrage when the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph made this howler - recommending we replace a perfectly good Coalition government with what proved to be a disastrous Rudd rabble?:
(Thanks to reader watty.)
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Rudd tries to buy voters’ love with borrowed billions
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (8:13am)
Two days before calling
the election, Labor revealed the Budget deficit this year alone had
exploded from $18 billion to $30 billion in just 11 weeks.
That didn’t stop the Prime Minister on day one of the election campaign from promising to spend another $650 million of borrow money:
That didn’t stop the Prime Minister on day one of the election campaign from promising to spend another $650 million of borrow money:
On the first day of the election campaign the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, pledged $450 million dollars for out of school care and $200 million for the car industry.If Rudd makes similar spending commitments every day of this campaign, he’ll add another $21 billion to our debt.
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Even Morgan suggests Rudd’s gloss is going
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (7:44am)
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Rudd out, Dean in
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (12:09am)
Yes, yes, there’s an election, too. But September 7 is significant for the launch of this book, by a writer I admire:
Romping hilariously through the three years of the Gillard/Rudd government, Rowan Dean’s sharp pen and eagle eye chronicle the finest and funniest moments of what has been an exhilarating roller-coaster ride. From the back-stabbing intrigues of Julia Caesar in ancient Rome to the reincarnation of Kevin VII and the latest positions of the Kevin Sutra, from Mission Impossible exploits of forged credit cards and high class hookers to evil climate change denier monsters and ‘the world’s greatest treasurer’, from people smugglers to pink batts to politician pop stars, the most entertaining political story in Australian history finally gets the book it richly deserves.To order, go here.
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Green vandals
Andrew Bolt August 06 2013 (12:01am)
Comedian Griff Rhys Jones isn’t laughing about the green madness that’s turning Britain’s countryside into an industrial park:
Recently, I went running in some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain — and I discovered something so bizarre, so preposterous, that I thought I must have tumbled down a rabbit-hole and, like Alice, ended up in Wonderland…
On a big chunk of that precious, uniquely English countryside, a solar panel company called Hive Energy was proposing to build an energy plant, covering 95 acres with reflective photo-voltaic cells three metres high.
Hive Energy was talking about an area the size of 50 football pitches, planted with 72,000 plastic panels, turning what appears to be a randomly selected piece of Britain’s countryside into an industrial complex…
My dismay, I promise, has nothing to do with the view from my window. Not long ago, I was protesting against a proposed, highly-visible wind farm in a pristine landscape in the North of Scotland…
This issue is as big as the planet. It’s about how logic seems to be leaving our lives. It is about how successive governments are putting our heritage and our national security at risk by pursuing an incomprehensible energy policy…
Britain is aiming to produce 15 per cent of its energy — including electricity, heat and transport — from renewable sources by 2020....
This renewable target is horrendously expensive to achieve. What’s worse, the cost isn’t just economic: we are going to obliterate the most valuable and historic resource we possess. Our landscape.
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Temporise, don't hesitate - ed
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Spotting my pastor and my bro on their tv show debut! — with Uong Nguyen, Jessica King andTony Nguyen.
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4 her
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#woolworths #streetfood exclusive to woolys. Also check out the #chork a fork and chopstick in one! #awesome #inventions
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5 AUG 2013 Where the mass media and International outrage , ??
Ballistic missiles used by the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad are killing many civilians, including children, an international rights group said on Monday.
These missiles "are hitting populated areas, causing large numbers of civilian deaths, including many children", said Human Rights Watch, which has investigated nine ballistic missile strikes that killed at least 215 people in six months.
Among those killed in nine attacks from February to July, 100 were children, said HRW, which has visited seven of the sites.
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Meet the thief Hafid - ed
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Susan Bernobich I hope you change your mind and come to realise that you have abused good people whose kindness could benefit you. - ed
THE passenger who recorded footage of a woman racially abusing an Asian schoolboy on a Sydney bus earlier this year has scoffed at her "lenient" sentence.
Susan Bernobich, 46, from Sydney's inner west pleaded guilty to the offence but has escaped a conviction after appearing briefly in Burwood Local Court today.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of using offensive language in or near a public place or school.
The mother's racist rant aboard the M41 bus from Burwood to Campsie was captured by the passenger on his smartphone in May, causing the NSW Police to intervene with a court appearance notice in June without a formal complaint by the victims.
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Be blessed. Be a blessing. Believe the best for and in you and others! Respect opinions of others as you desire to be respected. -- Phil Munsey
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“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”-Jim Rohn
UPtv I love UP TV!
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Roma Downey'
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." - Confucius
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Quick Pix: Robert Mitchum
http://
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, author, composer and singer. He is #23 on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s.
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told him as much. It's just sad that they don't take the chances and spend the money to get out into severe weather and then create bad art and then sell it, representing themselves to be the originator of the image.
Things like this will never (NEVER) make me put a big huge watermark over my images. It's all just part of the price of working in the digital age.>
Things like this will never (NEVER) make me put a big huge watermark over my images. It's all just part of the price of working in the digital age.>
Emley Moor Lighning Strike FREE POSTAGE
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
Prayer for those that are sick,illness of the body,mind or spirit.
Lord, I pray for all those in need of your healing powers, especially our brothers and sisters who are suffering through illness of body, mind or spirit. I ask You Lord that you walk with them in their suffering, give them the courage and faith to bear that suffering as you bore Your suffering for us in the cross. When their suffering becomes too much to bear, enfold them in your loving arms, carry them through their trials and let them know that they are not alone and in your loving mercy Lord I ask that you grant them the wholeness and healing that they desire,in Jesus name,Amen.
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I'm a little right of the LNP - ed
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Nasrallah's chief accomplishment seems to be having Islamic people killed. - ed
Ethnic tensions in Lebanon are resurfacing over what some say is Hezbollah’s destabilizing role in the region.
In a local television interview, Samir Geagea, a prominent Lebanese Christian, accused the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia on Sunday of “dragging the country into war against the wishes of its leaders,” Israel Radio reported.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Do not let your present day circumstances or hardships which are overwhelming let you ever forget that God has a purpose and plan for your life... And always believe and have trust that today's circumstances are all part of the plan, God will not harm you He will carry you to safety...
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The Republican Party's biggest problem is mental illness. The big elephant party is suffering from a severe case of split personality disorder. It's an old problem that has only gotten worse over the years. - See more at: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/a-schizophrenic-elephant.html#sthash.2Pfy8cqI.dpufLol, a tad over stated .. which is not to deny its legitimacy so much as to say it is too strident in its criticism. Consider, the political neophyte Hoover was responsible for the GOP losing the black vote .. not because he was a bigot, but because a politically savvy FDR was able to exploit the bigotry of his own members. What had happened was Hoover, a civil engineer, had fed Germany following WW2 and after a vicious hurricane damaged Louisiana was contracted to feed Louisiana. Hoover was so popular following he was the most popularly elected President to his day. But during the Louisiana crisis some Democrat bullies had held up black people and taken their emergency relief supplies. Hoover struck a deal with Black advocates to keep the issue quiet and the black community had felt a deal was struck, but GOP wanting white support in the south dumped black candidates for white ones to attract Democrat voters. FDR exploited that and so the Dems have had the black vote ever since .. never having done anything beyond exploiting them. Today, the GOP is flawed. It is still Reagan's big tent. It can still work. It has soft left members who promise too much in the hopes of attracting a left that will never come. It has hard right members. But it also has the US's largest reservoir of conservatives and generally follows their lead. The worst problem of the GOP is it wasn't their turn to have the Presidency .. and without a leadership role, the Elephant tends to wander. - ed
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The poverty of boycotting ISRAEL.
Originally posted by Daniel Katz in Caroline Glick ISRAEL Supporters Group.
The poverty of boycotting ISRAEL.
Those calling for an academic boycott of Israel not only show the depth to which anti-Israel bias is now entrenched in our ivory towers; they show their ignorance about the boycott's major victims: Israel's minorities, its Arab Muslims and Christians.
By Qanta Ahmed | 14:20 25.07.13 |
As a woman, a Muslim and as a physician of Pakistani descent, I can attest personally to the inordinate importance of academic freedom in Britain and the United States. This freedom was extended to me even during the time I was practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia, where - like all women – I was subject to gender apartheid. Because of this experience, I can only see the closing of the academic mind in the form of the ‘academic boycott’ of Israeli citizens and institutions as the act of invertebrate hypocrites. Boycotting Israel, whether academic or cultural is not an act of moral indignation, but an act of moral turpitude.
Academic freedom builds relationships, tolerance, and opportunity. When I moved to Riyadh 15 years ago, I had no doubts about maintaining my professional relationship with my own Jewish American mentor who had guided me throughout my then early career.
While I lived and worked in a country where as a Muslim I could worship but my mentor and his coreligionists could not, I was given every opportunity to develop in the American academic space because of his intellectual generosity. While I was subject to legislated male supremacy and relegated to being a legal minor, no Western academic suggested boycotting the medical academe hosting me in the Kingdom.
Academic freedom was in fact my only freedom at the time and I was determined to share it. I connected my Saudi colleagues - leading Saudi Muslim academics - with my mentor which led to the publication of jointly-authored papers on patient care in the Arab Gulf, benefiting primarily Muslim patients. This work sowed the seeds for subsequent conferences where both my Saudi Muslim and American Jewish colleagues met and developed their own relationships.
In contrast, boycotting Israeli entities penalizes apolitical individuals, their institutions, their innovations and ultimately, stymies a global market of ideas which benefits humanity. Perhaps it's possible to make a more generous assessment of why the various scholars, writers and entertainers who call for a boycott of 'apartheid Israel' claim to act in the interests of Palestinians: That it's based on simple ignorance. They would certainly be wiser if they had had the same opportunity that I recently enjoyed when I visited Israel to meet Israeli academia, and – critically – examined how such a boycott, whether overt or covert, particularly damages Israeli Arabs, or Palestinian citizens of Israel.
I spoke to Arab Muslim undergraduates at Haifa's Technion University during my visit in May this year. Arab undergraduates (most of whom are Muslim with a smaller Christian representation) lead a program to remove barriers to success of fellow Arab undergraduates there. Professor Daoud Bshouty, Dean of Undergraduate Studies (and both Israel’s and Technion's first Christian Arab faculty member) and Sara Katzir, former Israeli Airforce officer and head of the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students, explained the origin of the program, joined by Assistant Professor Youseff Jabareen, an Arab Israeli Muslim graduate, and the Muslim undergraduate Maysoun Hindawi, who related their own experiences as minorities.
When, eight years ago, the Technion examined their own data, they were dismayed to find a high drop-out rate amongst Arab undergraduates, even though they had met the rigorous entry criteria to a university consistently rated amongst the top three science institutes in the world. This was an untenable loss of intellectual talent for the university and in their mind, for Israel.
Since then, the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students has developed one-on-one peer mentorship by and for Israeli Arab undergraduates, with men mentoring men and women mentoring women in view of the cultural sensitivities. The program was funded by Jewish American philanthropists intent on serving all sectors of Technion’s students, majority and minority alike.
In the program, Technion students run after-class tutorials to help each other keep pace with the rapid absorption of knowledge required; sometimes, student mentors intervene in family dilemmas to advocate on behalf of a fellow student to his distressed family. They do so by mediating between student and parents struggling to resolve traditional cultural mores with the demands of advanced education. They render personal counseling on these and other adjustment difficulties, concentration and learning difficulties and the challenges of making vocational choices.
In less than a decade, the Weston Advancement Unit has improved the Technion’s Israeli Arab undergraduate retention rate by over 50 percent, with more gains likely. But The Technion’s support extends beyond their undergraduates. Many Israeli Arabs attend Arabic medium schools, so the move to the Hebrew-language university is a significant challenge. In response, candidates identified as Technion material are given intense year-long programs preparing them (and their Hebrew) – developed by the university itself.
Dumbfounded, I asked why an institution, supposedly pitiless when it comes to academic competition, would devote energies to empower the disadvantaged? Surely academia was the base evolutionary battle of our times: “survival of the fittest”? After all, Technion is affectionately known by its faculty and students as “The City with No Pity’ (referring to Technion’s purist, hardcore meritocracy).
“We have a moral obligation to develop everyone who enters the Technion, because we must nurture scientific ability. It is our responsibility," Katzir told me. The advancement program has been so effective at closing disparity gaps that it has now been rolled out across the institute and offered to every Technion undergrad who needs it, minority or not. After winning national awards, this program is being emulated at other Israeli institutions at government request.
There are also life experience and leadership gaps that need to be overcome for minority students. At the Technion, Maysoun explained, Arab Muslim students are often the first in their families -sometimes in generations - to enter higher education, and, in the case of women, may be breaking stereotypical gender roles in conservative families who may not approve of a female student living on campus. Arab Muslim students must also overcome a leadership gap created by the military service that their Jewish peers have gone through. The program develops the leadership skills of its Israeli Arab Muslim undergraduates who direct many activities themselves, based on merit, not ‘quota’.
My Technion experience clarified for me how calls for academic boycott would particularly imperil the future of these Arab Israeli students and the progressive opportunities they are offered. The shockingly ignorant acquiescence to the widespread braying for boycott, now a socially acceptable sport eclipsing the spirit of academe, whether led by Stephen Hawking or others, reveals the depth to which anti-Israel bias is now entrenched in our ivory towers.
The reality is simple: Calling for an Israeli boycott invites no reprisals. It is more than socially acceptable; it is a badge of honor brandished by those claiming to defend ‘minorities’. Yet ironically, while the costs of boycott will be shouldered by every Israeli, the major costs will be born by Israel’s own minority population, including Israeli Muslims of Palestinian heritage. This is a population which is for the first time becoming highly educated, advancing in the workplace, collaborating with their fellow Israeli Jewish citizens and eager to enter the global marketplace of ideas. These Israeli Muslim Arabs are the keystones to lasting peace in the region. No one else is better positioned to bridge conflicts and cultures and yet no one else will be more penalized by boycott.
Academic freedom means the freedom to collaborate, the freedom to cooperate, the freedom to communicate, the freedom to investigate, and the freedom to know the other. Isolating Israelis imposes upon all of us outside of Israel the worst kind of self-isolation, one which denies our engagement not only with the richly intellectual and extraordinarily productive Israeli academic community but access to those minorities facing the greatest challenges in Israel. The boycott flattens the painstakingly earned, inch-by-inch progress towards coexistence within and outside Israel; and coexistence is surely the primary step towards regional peace. At this discouraging time of increasing academic and cultural siege, every thoughtful academic should join me in lending their name and their reputation to fighting the boycott.
Qanta Ahmed MD is the author of In the Land of Invisible Women (2008), a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion and Associate Professor of Medicine, State University of New York. Follow her on Twitter @MissDiagnosis.
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Warren Mundine, the ex national president of the Australian Labor Party who resigned in 2012 in total disgust, on The Bolt Report yesterday Sunday 4th August 2013 :
" If you like Kevin Rudd, you’ve never met him; If you dislike Tony Abbott, you’ve never met him "
GOLD ! GOLD ! GOLD !
and
" Abbott, strikes me as a person of integrity, he has values in which I too believe, and ethics based on his Christian beliefs. I would much rather place my trust in someone who, in his actions, has shown he is what he says, rather than someone who will say anything to gain a prospective advantage for themselves. "
BY Mark LATHAM, Former Leader of A.L.P.
Both ex Labor men and both conveniently ignored.>
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There are a silent majority of good Islamic peoples who are appalled by terrorism and the exploitation of Islam by a privileged few .. No good person approves of Rudd's compassionate drowning of desperate people. - ed
TONY Abbott has made a direct pitch to Western Sydney voters in a rousing speech to the Muslim community in which he declared himself the "sworn enemy" of those who sought to divide Australia over issues of race or faith.
Speaking to a function of more than 500 Muslims gathered in Lidcome to mark the end of Ramadan, Mr Abbott said Western Sydney would underpin a strong Australian economy and building infrastructure here was vital.
He said multicultural Australia was a "beacon of hope to a troubled and divided world" and we had much to be proud of.
But he said there were still those who sought to tear apart a united Australia and he would fight against them.
"I am the sworn enemy for anyone who seeks to divide Australian over Australian on issues of class, gender, birth place, race and particularly over faith," Mr Abbott said.
"I believe that all religious faiths seek to come to grips with the complexity of human condition.
"We have to respect the specialness of that faith to every person."
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Highlights that Obama could learn from foreign policy analysis .. he apparently learned something from Turkey circa 1912. - ed
You're watching...
'Middle East genocide' of Christians and Jews
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The best outcome Obama offers is that nothing happens. - ed
The civil war will start when people get their strength back. Now it is Ramadan -- the time in the Middle East of enormous masses praying, thirsty in the heat, hungry in the shade; then, in people's homes, after lighting the colored lamps and women serving the best food and drink, rejoicing.
In Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Army clashed again. Indifferent to the visit of Lady Ashton, a million members of the Muslim Brotherhood, at the request of their leader, poured into the streets tonight.
The leader of the army, General Sisi, ignored the European presence. He seems to feel he has a personal mission: to stop the Brotherhood from regaining power at any cost, including death and destruction.
Lady Ashton's many meetings with the nation's new representatives, the leaders of the Brotherhood, and even the deposed President Morsi in a secret location reflects the new government's attempt not so much to find an impossible middle-ground as to define itself as the legitimate power sanctioned by international consent.
Many of Morsi's men, and probably Morsi himself, refused Ashton's multiple requests that he give up the presidency to let others start talks. To the Brotherhood, it is inconceivable.
The Egyptian army, on the other side, in power since 1952, does not seem interested in giving over part of the country to a well-organized force that, once back, would apparently like to take back the government.
For the Muslim Brotherhood, a political compromise is not the answer -- Islam is. Its decades in hiding during a war that cost many lives and injuries, and the subsequent takeover, appear to have convinced its leaders that they are on the right path. The insistence with which they continue protesting in Cairo shows their deep conviction that it is possible to retrieve what was taken from them.
Refusing to compromise during political conflicts seems part of Islamic societies. A look at Syria's background: whether religious or nationalistic, it absolutely precludes a change of direction. The Brotherhood, moreover, openly hopes to expand its influence. A Pew poll from 2011 -- not necessarily accurate in dictatorships, since one never knows who might be watching -- tells them that 88% of citizens of Egypt believe that those who convert from Islam should be condemned to death -- compared to the 37% average in the rest of Muslim countries -- and that 75% want Sharia law, compared to 39% elsewhere.
Being a Muslim Brother is not like being a card-carrying member of a political party. Young boys are recruited at school based on their faith, not politics; it passes from father to son and sheikh to sheikh. Candidates spend one-to-three years passing difficult tests of doctrine, solidarity and sacrifice. When first they pass, they are promoted to muayyad (supporter without the right to vote). After one year, they can become a muntasib, a member, and study Koranic writings. Finally, they become an achmal, a real brother, and can vote for even the most delicate decisions. The Brothers help indoctrinate and monitor each other during elections. This army of pious militants infiltrates societies, runs in elections and it won in Tunisia, dominates in Turkey, holds Gaza, and took over Egypt. The Brotherhood is also strong in Libya and Jordan. It receives billions of dollars from Qatar, and fights in Syria to expel Assad.
The Brotherhood makes its home in 70 countries. It forms alliances to break up ordinary arrangements, like the one attempted by Morsi with Shiite Iran, to help Islam win the world war in which it believes. It is an organization that will never surrender power easily: because it just got hold of it, because it has faith, and because it is aware of its great international strength.
The war between nationalists and Islamists -- that goes back-and-forth, knows no truce and comes drenched in blood -- is, after all, ancient.
Fiamma Nirenstein, journalist and author, former Vice-President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and member of the Italian delegation at the Council of Europe.
This article originally appeared in slightly different form in Italian in Il Giornale; English copyright, Gatestone Institute.
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Obama Frees Taliban from Gitmo, Neglects to Exchange Them for Captured US Soldier===
Appeasement didn't work against 1930's fascism either. - ed
Both the Israeli release of more than a hundred Palestinian killers and the American release of five Taliban killers from Guantanamo are U.S. policy decisions, so it’s fair to treat them as part of a single mindset. There are many possible reasons for releasing prisoners, but most of the time, and especially in recent years, such actions are part of a bigger issue, as are these two examples. The prisoners are typically pawns on a geopolitical chess board. Both Israel and the United States have been involved in this game for decades. It all started as barter, but it has now become an embarrassing form of appeasement.
The Israelis have frequently released Palestinian prisoners, as a component in efforts to reach a stable agreement between the two enemies, but the practice began in 1971 as a simple one-on-one swap, when a terrorist from al Fatah was released in exchange for an Israeli night watchman who had been abducted by the Palestinians.
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I'll share this but I'm worried it is beyond the ken of most of my contacts. The US government is too big, as evidenced by its expenditure to income. Too secret to be free. It's once hopeful future is clouded by bad decision making by its' executive and constituents. But it always looks bad when a President is weak and incompetent. The greatness of Bush was that the fractures so apparent now, weren't so deleterious to the world. The arab spring which the Bush administration allowed through its' policy of engagement with terror and fostering democracy became a lost opportunity under Obama. And now Obama threatens mid East peace with ham fisted action as Clinton did before him. - ed
For almost two centuries American government, though always imperfect, was also a model for the world of limited government, having evolved a system of restraints on executive power through its constitutional arrangement of checks and balances. Since 9/11 however, constitutional practices have been overshadowed by a series of emergency measures to fight terrorism. The latter have mushroomed in size, reach and budget, while traditional government has shrunk. As a result we have today what the journalist Dana Priest has called two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, operated more or less in the open: the other a parallel top secret government whose parts had mushroomed in less than a decade into a gigantic, sprawling universe of its own, visible to only a carefully vetted cadre – and its entirety…visible only to God.1 More and more, it is becoming common to say that America, like Turkey before it, now has what Marc Ambinder and John Tirman have called a deep state behind the public one.2 And this parallel government is guided in surveillance matters by its own Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, which according to the New York Times, “has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court.”3 Thanks largely to Edward Snowden, it is now clear that the FISA Court has permitted this deep state to expand surveillance beyond the tiny number of known and suspected Islamic terrorists, to any incipient protest movement that might challenge the policies of the American war machine. Americans have by and large not questioned this parallel government, accepting that sacrifices of traditional rights and traditional transparency are necessary to keep us safe from al-Qaeda attacks. However secret power is unchecked power, and experience of the last century has only reinforced the truth of Lord Acton’s famous dictum that unchecked power always corrupts. It is time to consider the extent to which American secret agencies have developed a symbiotic relationship with the forces they are supposed to be fighting – and have even on occasion intervened to let al-Qaeda terrorists proceed with their plots. “Intervened to let al-Qaeda terrorists proceed with their plots”? These words as I write them make me wonder yet again, as I so often do, if I am not losing my marbles, and proving myself to be no more than a zany “conspiracy theorist.” Yet I have to remind myself that my claim is not one coming from theory, but rests on certain undisputed facts about incidents that are true even though they have been systematically suppressed or under-reported in the American mainstream media. More telling, I am describing a phenomenon that occurred not just once, but consistently, almost predictably. We shall see that, among the al-Qaeda terrorists who were first protected and then continued their activities were - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3971#sthash.zoHmdSej.dpuf
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He can say that in Toronto or even Israel because they are free lands. He couldn't say the reverse about Israelis shooting Jordanians in the so called Palestinian areas because they kill people there who look different to them. - ed
TORONTO (JTA) — A Palestinian community leader in Toronto said Israelis should be given a two-minute warning before being shot.
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... So let me get this straight now.
Rudd loses all our money DURING THE MINING BOOM WE HAD TO HAVE by driving the country into debt to the tune of $300 BILLION PLUS but then has the chutzpah to ask the Australian public to donate at least $10 each to his advertising fund ( estimated $65 million ) while he and his frumpy ungroomed wife have accumulated in excess of $150 million in a personal fortune thanks to the previous employment policies of the Howard government because he is a Labor man, one of the true believers and normally is giving away our money to others for no beneficial return BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT ALL GOOD SOCIALISTS DO !
Running a country is like operating a corporation one would have thought.
If the CEO does not perform is it normal to re-instate a person based on such an abysmal track record AND A FAILED PERFORMANCE ?
Is it me or am I missing something here ?
I still keep my school boy marbles hidden away so I know I haven't lost them yet when the time comes to rob me. Kevin likes going to schools I noticed. He is such a touch feely sensitive sort of caring guy and is very pleasant when not upset.
Please help. I will take only $5 instead of $10 if that is all you cheap bastards can spare.
It's my wife's 50th birthday coming up and I'd like to leave on the 7th September for a Rhine River tour of central Europe. I promise to wave the flag at half mast if our Kevy scores a goal and pretend, as Kevy often does, to enjoy a tinny of XXXX.
Thank you and please don't keep me waiting.
I simply could not abide any further disppointment.
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Costello writes compellingly. But I can disagree with aspects of things he writes. Rudd's talent is not to be different depending on situation, but to claim to be different. Rudd is like Zelig. A Woody Allen joke. He will try to impress the strongest person in his immediate vicinity. It is a mental illness and very sad for him. - ed
... A Costello Classic.
The ex conservative LNP Treasurer who left us with a AUD$20 Billion surplus writes :
" KEVIN RUDD THE KARMA CHAMELEON
PETER COSTELLO THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 06, 2013 12:00AM
Up until now Kevin Rudd has done well by posing as an Opposition Leader. Are you shocked by the Country's failure to police its borders? Well so is he.
And he is going to be the toughest cop in town with the toughest policy to control it. Are you against the Carbon Tax? Well so is he and he is going to abolish it next year. Are you wondering why the Government can't balance a Budget in the middle of a mining boom? Well so is he and he'll do the tough stuff - like tax smokers to kingdom-come to fix it.
Until now Rudd has been posing as the outsider burying the mistakes of the last Government. He wants to be seen as some kind of "Terminator" coming in to clean things up. He even has the guts to clean up the corruption of Eddie Obeid and Co. in the New South Wales Labor Party!
Now none of this is real, of course. Rudd was the guy who softened border control which invited the people smugglers to resume their deadly trade in the first place. He has a plan to increase the tax on carbon under a floating price scheme. Far from being offended by Eddie Obeid, he actively worked with the machine that nurtured and nourished Eddie to get the Leadership of the Labor Party. And a key part of that machine during all of Eddie's little peccadillos was Bruce Hawker who now serves as Rudd's political strategist.
Here we have the true measure of Rudd's genius. He has an unusual talent to appear what he is not.
You have to admire that. And the strategy, in this second incarnation, has been to portray himself not as leading a Party that has been in Office for six years, not as someone with a record that can be judged, but as the Leader of the Opposition who will save us from all those disasters of the past. In his Press Conference on Sunday he was at it again:- Mr Abbott is the favourite, he's got all the advantages of incumbency and what Kevin needs is for volunteers from all over the country to come over to his side and bring their humble donations of $10 to blast out his powerful opponent. Rudd portrays himself as Australia's Morgan Tsvangirai come to deliver the country from the evil Tony Mugabe with all his entrenched power and stooges pillaging the resources of the country from the poor and innocent folk.
One thing that never got a mention in Rudd's Speech calling the election was the Party he wants people to vote for. Technically speaking, it's the Labor Party. But in fact Rudd wants people to think they are voting for the Rudd Party. If he wins he wants to change the rules so that he can never be sacked again. He wants the Labor machine to disappear, to be airbrushed out of history just like a lot of his record. In the beginning there was Kevin.
In contrast, Tony Abbott did mention the Political Parties contesting the election and he appealed to people to vote for the Coalition. He made frequent mention of his "team" and peppered his speech with reference to "we". Abbott thinks his best asset is his team. Rudd thinks his best asset is himself.
Abbott has a strong group of people around him who have managed to capture public attention over the last few years. Most of Labor's public faces are leaving - Gillard, Crean, Combet, Smith, Emerson etc. The collective memory of Labor is departing. If Rudd wins this election they will be consigned to the dustbin of history. But if he loses you should expect to hear a lot more from them. Just as we were told what Kevin was really like after they dumped him the first time.
There was only one reference to the "bad" Kevin in Sunday's Speech. The Australian people, he said, had seen him "warts and all". Well they haven't, of course. They haven't seen up close and personal the tantrums, the language, the rudeness, the behaviour that caused his colleagues to say he had contempt for them and ultimately contempt for the Australian public (Stephen Conroy's words). But obviously he had been advised to take the issue head-on. After acknowledging there had been some failures he said:- "I would be honoured to serve you". It was a strangely jarring note. It was Kevin Rudd doing humility.
And then I saw the television footage. As the VIP Plane landed on the tarmac in Canberra and Mr and Mrs Rudd came down the stairs to get into their car, I saw him turn back and shake the hand of a Flight Attendant. He was showing how considerate he could be. This was not the type of man who reduced Flight Attendants to tears. It was proof of the new Kevin. It was well done. He instinctively saw the television opportunity and he took it.
What makes Rudd formidable is his unusual ability to be just what he needs to be at any particular moment. At present he is running from his record. The question is whether it will catch him by September 7.
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From a fan. To err is human, to moo bovine.
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Matt Granz'
While heading home from teaching an ApCad class at the SF Zoo, I saw something that looked like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. The whole coastline was in a frenzy. Thousands of sea birds diving into the waters to take advantage of what was probably a smelt run. Thousands upon thousands of birds converging... like an aviary Apocalypse.
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My job is to make sure we move the country forward, and I think we can best do that if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House once again,” President Obama said at a San Francisco fundraiser in April.
That means President Obama endorsed the best-known and most disliked member of Congress, who is from one of the most radical districts in the country, to be the next Speaker. Let’s tick off 8 of the most outrageous things Pelosi’s said. You have to click through this slideshow to see what’s in it.
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Edu-Kingdom Bankstown
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The list is flawed. The professional aspects of those degrees are low compared to professional opportunities among engineering science degrees, but more often a fine artist or commercial artist or writer start their own business .. which if prosperous is many magnitudes better than a profession for remuneration. - ed
Nobody wants to hear that their college degree is worth less than the paper on which it is printed but, unfortunately, that may be the case for some recent college graduates. With opportunities as scarce as they are, many people are learning that their undergraduate degree in early Phoenician literature does not guarantee them a job
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Dean Hamstead
Lets say you got into a relationship with someone. You'd worked hard, paid off all your debts and saved quite a bit. Your new flame borrows your card and spends all your savings, then takes your credit card and maxes it out. They then up the limit and max it again, then again, and again. Meanwhile you get a pay cut and your bills go through the roof to pay for their ridiculous Internet connection and environmentalist gestures. This is 50% of Australia.
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
Father You are a great God. Today I open my heart and life to You in a fresh, new way. I surrender every detail, every moment of every day to You. I choose to acknowledge You in all my ways knowing that Your hand is upon me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.(Proverbs 3:6, NKJV)
The key is that God will only be involved as much as you allow Him to be. Don’t just invite Him into your day on Sunday. Don’t just ask Him about the big things. Learn to hear His voice in the little things. He is big enough to handle every single detail.
Scripture says, “Acknowledge God in all of your ways.” Not some of your ways. Not just the big things — in all things. If you’ll start acknowledging God in all of your ways, He will crown your efforts with success.God bless you.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
You can take away my house, my car, my money, and my rights, but you can NEVER take away my God!
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- 1506 – Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars in theBattle of Kletsk.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Oriskany, one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the war, was fought about six miles (10 km) east of Fort Stanwix, New York.
- 1806 – The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by its last emperor,Francis II, during the aftermath of the War of the Third Coalition.
- 1966 – Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (pictured) becameemir and ruler of Abu Dhabi, succeeding his brother, SheikhShakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was deposed in a bloodless coup d'état.
- 1988 – New York City Police officers charged a crowd protesting a curfew for the previously 24-hour Tompkins Square Park, sparking a riot that led to more than 100 complaints of police brutality.
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Events
- 1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in theMediterranean.
- 1506 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Khanate in the Battle of Kletsk
- 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
- 1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.
- 1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1806 – Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1819 – Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
- 1825 – Bolivia gains independence from Spain.
- 1845 – The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
- 1861 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria.
- 1862 – American Civil War: the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
- 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Wörth results in a decisive Prussian victory.
- 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
- 1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
- 1912 – The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum.
- 1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Atlantic – two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
- 1914 – World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
- 1915 – World War I: Battle of Sari Bair – the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
- 1917 – World War I: Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins.
- 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
- 1926 – In New York, New York, the Warner Bros.' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
- 1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York and disappears never to be seen again.
- 1940 – Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.
- 1942 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
- 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
- 1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
- 1960 – Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
- 1962 – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1964 – Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down.
- 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
- 1976 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lays the foundation stone of Port Qasim, Karachi.
- 1986 – A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- 1988 – The Tompkins Square Park Riot in New York City spurs a reform of the NYPD, held responsible for the event.
- 1990 – Gulf War: the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
- 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
- 1991 – Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
- 1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
- 2001 – Erwadi fire incident, 28 mentally ill persons tied to chain were burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.
- 2008 – A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
- 2010 – Flash floods across a large part of Jammu and Kashmir, India, damages 71 towns and kills at least 255 people.
- 2011 – A march in protest of the death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, London, ends in a riot, sparking off a wave of rioting throughout the country over the following four nights.
- 2012 – NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.
Births
- 1180 – Emperor Go-Toba of Japan (d. 1239)
- 1504 – Matthew Parker, English archbishop (d. 1575)
- 1609 – Richard Bennett, English Governor of the Colony of Virginia (d. 1675)
- 1619 – Barbara Strozzi, Italian singer and composer (d. 1677)
- 1638 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (d. 1715)
- 1644 – Louise de La Vallière, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (d. 1710)
- 1656 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (d. 1733)
- 1666 – Maria Sofia of Neuburg (d. 1699)
- 1697 – Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1745)
- 1715 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer (d. 1747)
- 1765 – Petros Mavromichalis, Greek general and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1848)
- 1766 – William Hyde Wollaston, British chemist (d. 1828)
- 1768 – Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (d. 1813)
- 1775 – Daniel O'Connell, Irish politician (d. 1847)
- 1809 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
- 1826 – Thomas Alexander Browne, Australian writer (d. 1915)
- 1844 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900)
- 1844 – James Henry Greathead, British engineer (d. 1896)
- 1846 – Anna Haining Bates, Canadian giant (d. 1888)
- 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American wife of Theodore Roosevelt, 27th First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
- 1866 – Allen Lard, American golfer (d. 1946)
- 1868 – Paul Claudel, French poet (d. 1955)
- 1874 – Charles Fort, American writer (d. 1932)
- 1877 – Wallace H. White, Jr., American politician (d. 1952)
- 1880 – Hans Moser, Austrian actor (d. 1964)
- 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
- 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
- 1881 – Louella Parsons, American columnist (d. 1972)
- 1882 – Ernst Eklund, Swedish actor (d. 1971)
- 1883 – Scott Nearing, American writer and educator (d. 1983)
- 1886 – Edward Ballantine, American composer (d. 1971)
- 1887 – Dudley Benjafield, English race car driver (d. 1957)
- 1888 – Heinrich Schlusnus, German singer (d. 1952)
- 1889 – George Kenney, American general (d. 1977)
- 1889 – John Middleton Murry, English poet (d. 1957)
- 1891 – William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, British military commander, 13th Governor-General of Australia (d. 1970)
- 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
- 1893 – Wright Patman, American politician (d. 1976)
- 1895 – Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1963)
- 1900 – Cecil Howard Green, English-American geophysicist (d. 2003)
- 1902 – Dutch Schultz, American mobster (d. 1935)
- 1904 – Jean Dessès, Greek-Egyptian fashion designer (d. 1970)
- 1904 – Henry Iba, American basketball player and coach (d. 1993)
- 1906 – Vic Dickenson, American trombonist (d. 1984)
- 1907 – László Heller, Hungarian engineer (d. 1980)
- 1908 – Helen Jacobs, American tennis player (d. 1997)
- 1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Lajos Vajda, Hungarian painter (d. 1941)
- 1909 – Diana Keppel, Countess of Albemarle (d. 2013)
- 1910 – Charles Crichton, British director (d. 1999)
- 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Norman Gordon, South African cricketer
- 1911 – Constance Heaven, British author (d. 1995)
- 1912 – Richard C. Miller, American photographer (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Richard Hofstadter, American historian (d. 1970)
- 1916 – Dom Mintoff, Maltese politician and journalist, 8th Prime Minister of Malta (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Barbara Cooney, American children's author and illustrator (d. 2000)
- 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
- 1918 – Norman Granz, American record producer (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Ella Raines, American actress (d. 1988)
- 1922 – Freddie Laker, British entrepreneur, founded Laker Airways (d. 2006)
- 1923 – Jess Collins, American artist (d. 2004)
- 1924 – Samuel Bowers, American murder, co-founded White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (d. 2006)
- 1925 – Barbara Bates, American actress (d. 1969)
- 1926 – Elisabeth Beresford, British author and creator of The Wombles (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Frank Finlay, English actor
- 1926 – Clem Labine, American baseball player (d. 2007)
- 1926 – Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 2013)
- 1926 – János Rózsás, Hungarian writer
- 1926 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (d. 1999)
- 1928 – Herb Moford, American baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
- 1929 – Mike Elliott, Jamaican saxophonist (The Foundations)
- 1929 – Roch La Salle, Canadian politician (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Abbey Lincoln, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2010)
- 1931 – Chalmers Johnson, American scholar and author (d. 2010)
- 1932 – Howard Hodgkin, British painter and print maker
- 1933 – A. G. Kripal Singh, Indian cricketer (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Piers Anthony, English-American writer
- 1934 – Chris Bonington, British mountaineer
- 1934 – Billy Boston, Welsh rugby player
- 1935 – Fortunato Baldelli, Italian cardinal (d. 2012)
- 1935 – Octavio Getino, Spanish-Argentine director (d. 2012)
- 1937 – Baden Powell de Aquino, Brazilian guitarist (d. 2000)
- 1937 – Charlie Haden, American jazz musician
- 1937 – Barbara Windsor, English actress
- 1938 – Paul Bartel, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1938 – Peter Bonerz, American actor
- 1940 – Mukhu Aliyev, Russian politician
- 1940 – Louise Sorel, American actress
- 1941 – Lyle Berman, American poker player
- 1941 – Ray Culp, American baseball player
- 1942 – George Jung, American convicted drug smuggler
- 1942 – Byard Lancaster, American saxophonist (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)
- 1944 – Inday Badiday, Filipino journalist (d. 2003)
- 1945 – Ron Jones, British television director (d. 1993)
- 1945 – Andy Messersmith, American baseball player
- 1946 – Allan Holdsworth, English guitarist and composer (UK, The Tony Williams Lifetime, HoBoLeMa, and Tempest)
- 1946 – Masaaki Sakai, Japanese comedian, actor, and musician (The Spiders)
- 1947 – Tony Dell, Australian cricketer
- 1949 – Dino Bravo, Italian-Canadian wrestler (d. 1993)
- 1949 – Alan Campbell, Irish pastor
- 1949 – Clarence Richard Silva, American bishop
- 1950 – Dorian Harewood, American actor
- 1951 – Catherine Hicks, American actress
- 1951 – Daryl Somers, Australian television host
- 1952 – Pat MacDonald, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Timbuk3)
- 1952 – Ton Scherpenzeel, Dutch keyboard player, composer, and producer (Kayak Camel, and Earth and Fire)
- 1952 – Vinnie Vincent, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Kiss and Vinnie Vincent Invasion)
- 1953 – Iqbal Qasim, Pakistani cricketer
- 1954 – Paul Steigerwald, American sportscaster
- 1955 – Gregory Bryant-Bey, American convicted murderer (d. 2008)
- 1955 – Rusty Magee, American composer (d. 2003)
- 1956 – Stepfanie Kramer, American actress
- 1957 – Bob Horner, American baseball player
- 1957 – Jim McGreevey, American politician
- 1958 – Randy DeBarge, American singer-songwriter and bass player (DeBarge)
- 1959 – Rajendra Singh Indian water conservationist
- 1960 – Dale Ellis, American basketball player
- 1962 – Marc Lavoine, French singer and actor
- 1962 – Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian-Hong Kong actress
- 1963 – Charles Ingram, British Army major, game show contestant and author
- 1963 – Kevin Mitnick, American computer hacker and author
- 1964 – Moosie Drier, American actor and director
- 1964 – Gary Valenciano, Filipino singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1965 – Yuki Kajiura, Japanese pianist and composer (See-Saw)
- 1965 – Juliane Köhler, German actress
- 1965 – David Robinson, American basketball player
- 1965 – Mark Speight, English television host (d. 2008)
- 1965 – Vincent Wells, England cricketer
- 1967 – Mike Greenberg, American sportscaster
- 1967 – Julie Snyder, Canadian talk show host and producer
- 1968 – Jack de Gier, Dutch footballer
- 1969 – Simon Doull, New Zealand cricketer
- 1969 – Elliott Smith, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Heatmiser (d. 2003)
- 1970 – M. Night Shyamalan, Indian-American director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1970 – Erwin Thijs, Belgian cyclist
- 1971 – Merrin Dungey, American actress
- 1971 – Scott Minto, English footballer
- 1971 – Piyal Wijetunge, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1972 – Paolo Bacigalupi, American author
- 1972 – Geri Halliwell, English singer-songwriter, author, and actress (Spice Girls)
- 1972 – Ray Lucas, American football player
- 1973 – Vera Farmiga, American actress
- 1973 – Monica Goodling, American lawyer
- 1973 – Max Kellerman, American sportscaster
- 1973 – Stuart O'Grady, Australian cyclist
- 1973 – Karenna Gore Schiff, American journalist, lawyer, and author
- 1974 – Ever Carradine, American actress
- 1974 – Bobby Petta, Dutch footballer
- 1974 – Luis Vizcaíno, Dominican baseball player
- 1974 – Alvin Williams, American basketball player
- 1975 – Renate Götschl, Austrian skier
- 1975 – Víctor Zambrano, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1975 – Jamie McGonnigal, American voice actor, LGBT advocate
- 1975 – Jason Crump, Australian Speedway Rider, Three times world champion
- 1976 – Soleil Moon Frye, American actress
- 1976 – Melissa George, Australian actress
- 1977 – Leandro Amaral, Brazilian footballer
- 1977 – Jennifer Lyons, American actress
- 1977 – Jimmy Nielsen, Danish footballer
- 1977 – Luciano Zavagno, Argentine footballer
- 1978 – Marisa Miller, American model and actress
- 1978 – Reuben Rox, American actor, director, and producer
- 1978 – Marvel Smith, American football player
- 1979 – Francesco Bellotti, Italian cyclist
- 1979 – Jaime Correa, Mexican footballer
- 1979 – Megumi Okina, Japanese actress and singer
- 1980 – Roman Weidenfeller, German footballer
- 1980 – Danny Collins, Welsh footballer
- 1980 – Monique Ganderton, Canadian actress and stunt-woman
- 1980 – András Horváth, Hungarian footballer
- 1980 – Charles McCarthy, American mixed martial artist
- 1980 – Wilber Pan, American-Taiwanese singer, producer, and actor
- 1980 – Seneca Wallace, American football player
- 1981 – Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italian race car driver
- 1981 – Travie McCoy, American rapper and songwriter (Gym Class Heroes)
- 1981 – Diána Póth, Hungarian figure skater
- 1982 – Adrianne Curry, American model, actress, and producer
- 1982 – Karl Davies, English actor
- 1982 – Romola Garai, English actress and model
- 1982 – Danny Lopes, American model and actor
- 1982 – Ryan Sypek, American actor
- 1982 – Jordis Unga, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1982 – Kevin van der Perren, Belgian figure skater
- 1983 – Annevig Schelde Ebbe, Danish actress
- 1983 – Neil Harvey, English-Barbadian footballer
- 1983 – C.J. Mosley, American football player
- 1983 – Landon Pigg, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1983 – Robin van Persie, Dutch footballer
- 1984 – Sofia Essaïdi, French-Moroccan singer, dancer, and actress
- 1985 – Jesse Ryder, New Zealand cricketer
- 1984 – Vedad Ibišević, Bosnian footballer
- 1985 – Mickaël Delage, French cyclist
- 1985 – Bafétimbi Gomis, French footballer
- 1985 – Garrett Weber-Gale, American swimmer
- 1986 – Raphael Pyrasch, German rugby player
- 1986 – Reby Sky, American model and wrestler
- 1987 – Charley Chase, American porn actress
- 1987 – Aditya Narayan, Indian actor, singer, and composer
- 1988 – Aleska Diamond, Hungarian porn actress
- 1988 – Chelsee Healey, English actress
- 1988 – Jared Murillo, American singer and dancer (V Factory)
- 1990 – JonBenét Ramsey, American model and murder victim (d. 1996)
- 1991 – Jiao Liuyang, Chinese swimmer
- 1993 – Kaori Ishihara, Japanese voice actress
- 1995 – Rebecca Peterson, Swedish tennis player
- 1998 – Jack Scanlon, English actor
- 2001 – Ty Simpkins, American actor
Deaths
- 258 – Pope Sixtus II
- 523 – Pope Hormisdas (b. 450)
- 1162 – Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona (b. 1113)
- 1195 – Henry the Lion, German son of Henry X, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1129)
- 1221 – Saint Dominic, Spanish founder of the Dominican Order (b. 1170)
- 1272 – Stephen V of Hungary (b. 1239)
- 1414 – Ladislaus of Naples (b. 1377)
- 1458 – Pope Callixtus III (b. 1378)
- 1623 – Anne Hathaway, English wife of William Shakespeare (b. 1555 or 1556)
- 1628 – Johannes Junius, German politician, victim of the Bamberg witch trials (b. 1573)
- 1637 – Ben Jonson, English writer (b. 1572)
- 1645 – Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, English merchant and politician (b. 1575)
- 1657 – Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ukrainian hetman (b. 1595)
- 1660 – Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter (b. 1599)
- 1679 – John Snell, Scottish-English founder of the Snell Exhibition (b. 1629)
- 1694 – Antoine Arnauld, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1612)
- 1695 – François de Harlay de Champvallon, French archbishop (b. 1625)
- 1753 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist (b. 1711)
- 1757 – Ádám Mányoki, Hungarian painter (b. 1673)
- 1759 – Eugene Aram, English philologist (b. 1704)
- 1794 – Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, British lawyer and politician (b. 1714)
- 1815 – James A. Bayard, American politician (b. 1767)
- 1828 – Konstantin von Benckendorff, Russian general and diplomat (b. 1785)
- 1850 – Edward Walsh, Irish poet (b. 1805)
- 1866 – John Mason Neale, English scholar and hymnwriter (b. 1818)
- 1881 – James Springer White, American preacher and author, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (b. 1821)
- 1884 – Robert Spear Hudson, English businessman (b. 1812)
- 1890 – William Kemmler, American murderer (b. 1860)
- 1893 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician (b. 1811)
- 1904 – Eduard Hanslick, Austrian critic (b. 1825)
- 1914 – Ellen Axson Wilson, American wife of Woodrow Wilson, 29th First Lady of the United States (b. 1860)
- 1920 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish pilot and author (b. 1890)
- 1925 – Surendranath Banerjee, Indian leader of the Indian National Congress (b. 1848)
- 1931 – Bix Beiderbecke, American cornetist, pianist, and composer (The Wolverines) (b. 1903)
- 1945 – Richard Bong, American pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1920)
- 1945 – Hiram Johnson, American politician (b. 1866)
- 1945 – Yi Wu, Korean prince and army officer (b. 1912)
- 1946 – Tony Lazzeri, American baseball player (b. 1903)
- 1957 – Ernest Linton, Canadian football player (b. 1880)
- 1959 – Preston Sturges, American playwright, screenwriter, and director (b. 1898)
- 1964 – Cedric Hardwicke, English actor (b. 1893)
- 1966 – Cordwainer Smith, American writer (b. 1913)
- 1969 – Theodor W. Adorno, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1903)
- 1970 – Nikos Tsiforos, Greek screenwriter and director (b. 1912)
- 1973 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban military leader and politician, President of Cuba (b. 1901)
- 1973 – Memphis Minnie, American singer-songwriter (b. 1897)
- 1974 – Gene Ammons, American saxophonist (b. 1925)
- 1976 – Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian-American cellist (b. 1903)
- 1978 – Pope Paul VI (b. 1897)
- 1978 – Edward Durell Stone, American architect, designed Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center (b. 1902)
- 1979 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 1983 – Klaus Nomi, German singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1944)
- 1985 – Forbes Burnham, Guyanese politician, 2nd President of Guyana (b. 1923)
- 1986 – Emilio Fernández, Mexican actor, screenwriter, and director (b. 1904)
- 1987 – Ira C. Eaker, American general (b. 1896)
- 1990 – Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (b. 1912)
- 1991 – Shapour Bakhtiar, Iranian politician, 74th Prime Minister of Iran (b. 1915)
- 1991 – Roland Michener, Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 20th Governor General of Canada (b. 1900)
- 1991 – Harry Reasoner, American journalist (b. 1923)
- 1992 – Leszek Błażyński, Polish boxer (b. 1949)
- 1993 – Tex Hughson, American baseball player (b. 1916)
- 1994 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer-songwriter, actor, and politician (b. 1928)
- 1998 – André Weil, French mathematician (b. 1906)
- 1999 – Rita Sakellariou, Greek singer (b. 1934)
- 2001 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (b. 1912)
- 2001 – Wilhelm Mohnke, German SS staff guard (b. 1911)
- 2001 – Shan Ratnam, Sri Lankan Tamil physician and academic (b. 1928)
- 2001 – Dorothy Tutin, English actress (b. 1930)
- 2002 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (b. 1930)
- 2003 – Julius Baker, American flautist (b. 1915)
- 2004 – Rick James, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (The Mynah Birds) (b. 1948)
- 2004 – Donald Justice, American poet (b. 1925)
- 2005 – Keter Betts, American bassist (b. 1928)
- 2005 – Robin Cook, British foreign secretary (b. 1946)
- 2005 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer (Buena Vista Social Club) (b. 1927)
- 2007 – Heinz Barth, German SS officer (b. 1920)
- 2007 – Zsolt Daczi, Hungarian guitarist (Bikini) (b. 1969)
- 2008 – Angelos Kitsos, Greek lawyer, scriptwriter, and author (b. 1934)
- 2009 – Riccardo Cassin, Italian mountaineer (b. 1909)
- 2009 – Willy DeVille, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mink DeVille) (b. 1950)
- 2009 – John Hughes, American director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1950)
- 2009 – W. S. Rendra, Indonesian poet and playwright (b. 1935)
- 2011 – Fe del Mundo, Filipino pediatrician (b. 1911)
- 2012 – Richard Cragun, American ballet dancer (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Marvin Hamlisch, American composer, conductor, and pianist (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Robert Hughes, Australian critic and writer (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Bernard Lovell, British physicist, astronomer and designer of Jodrell Bank (b. 1913)
- 2012 – Mark O'Donnell, American playwright and author (b. 1954)
- 2012 – Ruggiero Ricci, American violinist (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Dan Roundfield, American basketball player (b. 1953)
- 2012 – Eleftherios Verivakis, Greek politician (b. 1935)
Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's Accession Day. (United Arab Emirates)
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony (Hiroshima, Japan)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Bolivia from Spain in 1825.
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Jamaica from the United Kingdom in 1962.
- The beginning of Tanabata festival. (Sendai, Japan)
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“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God."
Romans 8:28
Romans 8:28
Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely, that he brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to any of thy children."
"Say not my soul, From whence can God relieve my care?'
Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime, his heart profoundly kind,
God never is before his time, and never is behind."
Evening
"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"
Numbers 32:6
Numbers 32:6
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks. Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and if we fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more the duty of all because it is cheerfully and abundantly rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question for this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease from blowing because our bark is on the deep? Why and wherefore should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first resigned to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and, like Samson, to find honey in the lion.
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Today's reading: Psalm 68-69, Romans 8:1-21 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 68-69
1 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
2 May you blow them away like smoke-
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
3 But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
may his foes flee before him.
2 May you blow them away like smoke-
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
3 But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
4 Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him-his name is the LORD.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land....
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him-his name is the LORD.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land....
Today's New Testament reading: Romans 8:1-21
Life Through the Spirit
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit....
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Manoah
[Mānō'ah] - rest or quiet. A Danitebelonging to Zorah, and father of Samson (Judg. 13; 16:31). Manoah was a godly, hospitable man and was against any alliance with the Philistines. A divine messenger brought him word of Samson's birth. We have four glimpses of this devout worshiper of Jehovah:
[Mānō'ah] - rest or quiet. A Danitebelonging to Zorah, and father of Samson (Judg. 13; 16:31). Manoah was a godly, hospitable man and was against any alliance with the Philistines. A divine messenger brought him word of Samson's birth. We have four glimpses of this devout worshiper of Jehovah:
His remonstrance with Samson over his Philistine marriage (Judg. 14:2, 3).
His visit with Samson to Timnah ( Judg. 14:5, 6).
His presence at his son's marriage (Judg. 14:9, 10).
His death before Samson's tragic death (Judg. 16:31).
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