The difference between the new PM and the old PM by their own words
Abbott’s biographers will find that, despite his degrees in law and economics, his years at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, and his years in a seminary, he has never aspired to be anything other than decent.
When he made his maiden speech to Parliament on May 31, 1994, Abbott began: “On the corner of Castlereagh and Hunter streets in Sydney stands a monument to mark the site of the first Christian service in Australia. The preacher, the Reverend Richard Johnson, took as his text: ‘’What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?
“It is just a small stone obelisk hardly noticed by the thousands of passers-by and dwarfed by skyscrapers, yet its message of faith and hope is fundamental to our nation’s success and the key to Australia’s future.
“The congregation at that first service was poorer, sicker, and less trained than any conceivable group of modern Australians, yet there was nothing small about what they were to achieve. Our challenge, 200 years later, is to have hearts that are just as big. So at this opening of my time in parliament, I place on record my deep conviction that, nourished by the past and inspired by our great ideals, there is no limit to what Australia can achieve. Also, I want to record my deep conviction that our Australian story should fill our hearts with pride and our eyes with tears.
“It is a story of the dispossessed and the outcast, redeemed through the innate goodness of humanity - a society challenged by nature, tested by war, enlarged by other cultures and blessed by such peace, prosperity and tolerance that we are now the envy of the Earth.”
When Rudd made his maiden speech four years later, on November 11, 1998, he said bluntly: “Politics is about power.”
Abbott will have to negotiate a hostile small party senate. But he can do that. Abbott was gracious in his acceptance speech, and humble. Rudd was defiant and brittle. Rudd was apparently defending his reputation relative to Gillard. It is to be hoped both Rudd and Gillard serve jail time for their corruption. It is disturbing that the ALP have retained many seats from senior, bad performers. People who lied about bad policy. Expect Jason Clare to become the next leader, or the next following. He isn't any good. But he is younger.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Jenny Ku, Tram Nguyen and Julie Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years, along with Ansgar (801), Richard I of England (1157), Marin Mersenne (1588), Siegfried Sassoon (1886), Robert Taft (1889), Harry Secombe (1921), Peter Sellers (1925), Patsy Cline (1932), James Packer (1967), Pink (1979) and Kimberlea Berg (1997). On your day, International Literacy Day; Fast of Gedalia (Judaism, 2013); Victory Day in Pakistan (1965)
617 – Li Yuan defeated a Sui Dynasty army in the Battle of Huoyi, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French defeated Austrian forces in Bassano, Venetia, present-day Italy.
1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1935 – U.S. Senator Huey Long was fatally shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1978 – Iranian Revolution: After the government of the Shah of Iran declared martial law in response to protests, the Iranian Army shot and killed at least 88 demonstrators in Tehran on Black Friday. The Imperial capital is captured. Success in Italy. We have a King and Queen. Senators are cheap. Stay clear of Iran. And enjoy your day.
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Abbott closet is skeleton-free
Piers Akerman – Sunday, September 08, 2013 (9:00am)
COAST to coast, the nation is justifiably looking to Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to restore the confidence and stability sapped after six years of Labor mismanagement and economic vandalism.
Putting aside the train wreck that will be exposed when Treasury reveals the true state of the finances, all indicators are that Abbott is the man to rebuild what Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard destroyed.
The record shows Abbott is a team player who was promoted to captain by his peers and who now enjoys the support of his crew, whereas Rudd plotted and white-anted his way to the top and was never trusted by significant sections of the party he led.
Abbott’s biographers will find that, despite his degrees in law and economics, his years at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, and his years in a seminary, he has never aspired to be anything other than decent.
When he made his maiden speech to Parliament on May 31, 1994, Abbott began: “On the corner of Castlereagh and Hunter streets in Sydney stands a monument to mark the site of the first Christian service in Australia. The preacher, the Reverend Richard Johnson, took as his text: ‘’What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?
“It is just a small stone obelisk hardly noticed by the thousands of passers-by and dwarfed by skyscrapers, yet its message of faith and hope is fundamental to our nation’s success and the key to Australia’s future.
“The congregation at that first service was poorer, sicker, and less trained than any conceivable group of modern Australians, yet there was nothing small about what they were to achieve. Our challenge, 200 years later, is to have hearts that are just as big. So at this opening of my time in parliament, I place on record my deep conviction that, nourished by the past and inspired by our great ideals, there is no limit to what Australia can achieve. Also, I want to record my deep conviction that our Australian story should fill our hearts with pride and our eyes with tears.
“It is a story of the dispossessed and the outcast, redeemed through the innate goodness of humanity - a society challenged by nature, tested by war, enlarged by other cultures and blessed by such peace, prosperity and tolerance that we are now the envy of the Earth.”
When Rudd made his maiden speech four years later, on November 11, 1998, he said bluntly: “Politics is about power.”
There has long been a question mark hanging over Rudd’s character, going back to his days as former Queensland Labor premier Wayne Goss’s sinister political apparatchik.
The wider nation didn’t really get an insight into the dark side of his nature until he started to dissemble about his meetings and telephone conversations with disgraced former West Australian premier Brian Burke in early 2007.
Then his oft-repeated claim that, upon his father’s death, his widowed mother and his siblings were evicted from their home on a share-farm property was shown to be deeply suspect.
Surviving members of the family of Aubrey Low (the farmer who owned the property) were able to show that the Rudds were allowed to remain on the property for six months after Rudd Sr’s death. Rudd threw the switch to ugly, and threats were made to author and veteran Canberra journalist Kerry-Anne Walsh. Rudd called the editors of the two Fairfax Sunday newspapers in an attempt to dissuade them from publishing the article.
Only The Sunday Age, a pathetic excuse for a metropolitan newspaper, killed the story.
Fittingly, only The Age endorsed a return of the Rudd government last week.
Despite the relentless smear campaign which began from the moment he was elected Opposition Leader, Abbott comes to office without any skeletons rattling in his closet.
He is neither a bully nor a thug, contrary to the baseless stories peddled by Labor lickspittles in the media pack.
He is a man of values and principles, a family man with a loving wife and daughters, a man with mates across the spectrum, mates who may not parade themselves in the public eye for PR purposes but who know the special value of true friendship.
Former Coalition prime minister John Howard last week introduced Abbott at a fundraiser saying: “I know Tony Abbott, Tony Abbott is a friend of mine, and I can tell you Tony Abbott won’t let Australia down.”
Coming from the man who restored the nation’s fortunes after Labor squandered them, that should say it all.
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Inside the Abbott victory
Miranda Devine – Sunday, September 08, 2013 (10:16am)
PASTED outside Brian Loughnane’s office in the secret bunker of Coalition campaign headquarters in central Melbourne is a picture of his face, photo-shopped onto Sean Connery, as the ruthless Russian submarine commander in Hunt for Red October.
His staff patched up the pic, reflecting respect for a leader who never cracks under pressure, plays his cards close to his chest, and whose team rarely surfaces from their pop-up office on the 1st floor of a nondescript building on Spring Street.
If there is an unsung hero in the Liberal election campaign it is Federal Director Loughnane, the tall, bespectacled, quietly spoken backroom operative who pollster Mark Textor describes as “the last gentleman”.
At 55, the son of a livestock buyer, from the western district of Victoria, Loughnane likes to describe himself as the “original faceless man”, proudly “under the radar”.
When he leaves the office after a 15-and a half hour day, he wears a spymaster’s beige trenchcoat to stroll down Flinders Lane at 830pm to dine on grilled salmon at Cecconi’s. He divulges nothing.
But on a Friday night in the middle of the campaign, he reluctantly gave us a rare sneak peek of CHQ, where 150 staff work around the clock.
The military precision of the Abbott campaign is reflected in the meticulous order of Loughnane’s office, where two flat screen TVs are tuned into Sky News and ABC 24.
Piled neatly at one end of his desk is three days of the nation’s newspapers, photocopied and stapled together in A4 size. A whiteboard is covered with phrases such as “NSW Labor sleaze” and “Captain Chaos” alongside numbers 30 or 15, which he won’t explain.
Half a dozen plastic boxes are stacked in the corner, containing files on everything from jobs and boats, to hotel arrangements.
“That’s the campaign,” he says. Nothing was left to chance.
It probably helped that Loughnane has been married for 13 years to 6’1” glamazon lawyer Peta Credlin, 42, Tony Abbott’s formidable chief of staff. A notorious control freak, she travelled with the leader and was responsible for everything from subtly re-tooling his image with hair product and blue ties, to publicly bawling out a junior shadow minister for insubordination.
Abbott calls the former schoolgirl rower “the boss”.
Between them, Credlin and Loughnane managed seamlessly to integrate Abbott’s travelling party with CHQ. Abbott came to town half a dozen times, staying at the Park Hyatt, and dining with Loughnane on his favourite meal of rare sirloin steak, token veg.
Mistakes, or “dramas” as Loughnane calls them, occurred, from the flu bug that hit CHQ the first week, the Jaymes Diaz fiasco, to the internet filter policy that was junked after it was announced Thursday. But problems were quickly contained.
The orderliness of Abbott’s campaign was in stark contrast to the shambolic, chronically late Rudd show.
One Labor insider says Rudd’s first action each morning was to “rip up the plan for the day and write a new plan.”
With one third of cabinet and almost all staffers leaving with Julia Gillard in June, Labor had to cobble together a campaign team which had never worked together before: “2000 years worth of experience walked out the door when Rudd walked in” says the insider.
The Abbott campaign, on the other hand, was a machine; 48 of 50 key staff had stayed since the 2010 campaign, and run full bore ever since.
“The campaign started on election night in 2010,” says Loughnane. “The hung parliament meant we had to be battle ready, at great expense. We had to bring forward all our planning contingencies. But not much has changed since Tony became leader (in December 2009)”
He pays tribute to Abbott as a skilful campaigner, in John Howard’s league. “He is battlefit. Those three years of stability really paid off… You don’t need to spend hours and hours training him up. He knows the messages, and just about every issue he’s already had to deal with as leader.”
Abbott’s training as a journalist “makes it easier. He has a great skill with words… can explain complex ideas simply. “
Loughnane never doubted Labor would switch to Rudd before the election. “The Titanic was going down and there was only one lifeboat. [But for us] strategically not a lot changed. We’d set our course…
“In terms of the contest, in our view, we sowed the seeds at the last election.
“We’ve had our own strategy and our own timetable, irrespective of what Labor has done.
“We just stuck to our script, and held our nerve the first couple of weeks.
“There was pressure from everywhere [to do something]. But we wanted to give Rudd enough rope so that once he started doing things he could be judged.”
The change to Rudd helped Loughnane hone the campaign message “Vote for real change”. He quickly put to air TV ads reminding voters Rudd was a “lemon” and a “showman who didn’t deliver the first time,” says Textor.
Loughnane jokes his main role was ensuring his staff “eat properly”, and would organise roast meals for them during the debates.
In turn, they are fiercely loyal.
“He’s an outstanding boss”, says one. “He is very calm and has extremely good judgement.
“He is very available and very strategic. He works phenomenal hours and he leaves nothing to chance… In a campaign there are 100 different issues you have to manage at any one time, and 50 people needing to speak to you. He’s very good at being able to prioritise.”
Loughnane would start his day at 5am, reading the papers and meeting key people, including media director Kate Walshe, deputy director Julian Sheezel, who manages crucial seats, John Griffin, head of tactics, Nationals federal director chief Scott Mitchell, and pollster Mark Textor.
Textor’s qualitative research was crucial, guiding strategy and providing key messages.
For instance, by the end of the first week of the campaign, focus groups were throwing up the words “flim flam” and “fake” to describe Rudd.
“It’s f*ing unbelievable” Textor would say. “The qual is sh*t for him!”
Two days later, the words “flim flam” came out of Abbott’s mouth.
Begging for money is Shane Stone’s department, but Loughnane was chuffed about one email which raised $82,149 within hours. Donors were “exercised” about the previous day’s costings fiasco, in which the nation’s top economic bureaucrats called out Labor for misleading voters on Coalition costings.
The email was copied by Labor campaign director George Wright, and sent to his own database, which Loughnane described as “seriously weird”.
Loughnane never sat in his office for long. All day he strode across his vast floor to chat to staff in pods lined with posters of Abbott.
The social media pod was on the far side of the floor, but they had rigged up a projector against the wall to show off key numbers, such as Facebook Likes.
While Rudd’s million followers on twitter were unbeatable, on the more important Facebook, Abbott outstripped his rival midway through the campaign, with 3000 likes a day.
By Friday, Abbott had more than 240,000 likes while Rudd was languishing on 120,000.
“We’re killing them on social media,” said Loughnane. So much for the so-called “Obama staffers"- US digital consultants hired by Labor.
Each day of the campaign on a pillar outside Loughnane’s office, staff would put up an inspirational quote. On Day 26, the day after Labor’s costings fiasco, the quote was from Winston Churchill:
“There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.”
It summed up the whole campaign.
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ELECTION 2013 III
Tim Blair – Saturday, September 07, 2013 (10:12pm)
Tony Abbott claims victory: “The government of Australia has changed.” Acknowledges Kevin Rudd’s service to the nation.
UPDATE. Very serious, very measured. No showbiz. Hits all the right notes. Also relatively brief and to the point, as were Abbott’s fans:
UPDATE II. Fairfax’s electoral map of Australia:
UPDATE III. Fairfax has changed its map to show Australia as Fairfax believes it should be:
UPDATE II. Fairfax’s electoral map of Australia:
UPDATE III. Fairfax has changed its map to show Australia as Fairfax believes it should be:
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ELECTION 2013 II
Tim Blair – Saturday, September 07, 2013 (8:16pm)
Describing the past four years as a “dance of death”, Labor’s Jason Clare calls for a “generational change” of ALP leadership: “It’s time to put the Rudd-Gillard era behind us.”
Australia’s already done that, Jase.
UPDATE. It’s difficult to tell on Ten’s chaotic broadcast, but someone appears to have given Clive Palmer the win in Fairfax.
UPDATE II. Craig Emerson is losing it on Nine: “I’m entitled to have my say!” He’s still running lines about Abbott’s negativity - as if it matters now. Move on, Craig.
UPDATE III. Julia speaks! It’s her first Twitter comment since July.
UPDATE IV. Kevni’s farewell looms – or does it?
Journalists with Team Rudd have been briefed that Mr Rudd’s speech is about half an hour away. They have been told Mr Rudd has written a draft of a concession speech but that there is a blank space for the bit about whether he stays on as leader.
Maybe he’s worried that someone will leak it. Like himself.
UPDATE V. Laurie Oakes: “Clive Palmer in federal parliament will be interesting.” Sky’s Paul Murray: “Imagine Clive Palmer with parliamentary privilege.”
UPDATE VI. Readers picked an 8pm-9pm concession speech. As usual, however, Kevin Rudd is running late.
UPDATE VII. Adam Bandt claims his victory is a “win for refugees”. Which is great news for all the refugees who live in inner-city Melbourne.
UPDATE VIII. Rudd concedes at 9.37pm. Seems happier now than at any time of the campaign. Mentions the “marvellous tapestry of modern Australia” and the “great Australian miracle.” Wishes Tony Abbott well “coping with the stresses and strains of high office.” Those stresses and strains are clearly gone from Rudd, who is speaking in relaxed and even joyful tones.
UPDATE IX. Rudd claims success in holding Queensland seats and the seats of party executives. Where is this headed? To Rudd staying on?
UPDATE X. Now he’s quoting Obama and rhapsodising over the “light on the hill”. Snipes at Bill Glasson: “Eat your heart out.” On to name-checking individual Labor staffers, much as he did following his first failed comeback bid over Julia Gillard: “I love you all. And for putting up with me, I really thank you for that.”
UPDATE XI: Get to the point, man. He’s been talking for nearly 20 minutes. Staying or going?
UPDATE XII. Here we go: “There comes a time ... I will not be re-contesting the leadership.”
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Unelectable Abbott triumphs. The green movement defied
Andrew Bolt September 08 2013 (7:03am)
TONY Abbott, written off as “unelectable”, has led the Coalition to one of its biggest wins.
This is a victory over a cultural elite that mocked him and Labor, which vilified him as a “misogynist"and bigot.
It is particularly a victory over the green movement, which Abbott fought from the day he won the Opposition leadership four years ago.
This is a victory over a cultural elite that mocked him and Labor, which vilified him as a “misogynist"and bigot.
It is particularly a victory over the green movement, which Abbott fought from the day he won the Opposition leadership four years ago.
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Election washup
Andrew Bolt September 08 2013 (4:16am)
Results so far:
Coalition 88, Labor 57, Greens 1, Bob Katter 1, Andrew Wilkie 1 and two
in doubt, both Liberal - Sophie Mirabella fighting off an alleged rural
independent and Clive Palmer battling to take a Liberal seat. Mirabella,
I think, will hang on.
The win is less, then, that many expected. But still very big.
The Labor-held seats where it is trailing:
UPDATE
The Senate is still a mystery, but it’s still possible that the Coalition could have enough independents or - gulp, a Palmer politician to make deals with:
Two-party preferred swing against Labor: 3.5.per cent.
Palmer United Party wins 5.59 per cent, and is in the mix for two Senate seats and one lower house (with Palmer himself.)
UPDATE
Kevin Rudd’s election concession speech sounded like a cry of victory, and in praising himself he again misstated the truth:
The win is less, then, that many expected. But still very big.
The Labor-held seats where it is trailing:
Add also the seats lost or left by Independents to the Coalition: Fisher (Peter Slipper), New England (Tony Windsor) and Lyne (Rob Oakeshott).
UPDATE
The Senate is still a mystery, but it’s still possible that the Coalition could have enough independents or - gulp, a Palmer politician to make deals with:
[The Coalition’s] Senate representation looked set to fall short of the 39 spots necessary to give the coalition an upper house majority, despite collecting additional seats in Saturday’s poll…Another take on the Senate:
South Australia was on track to return Senator Nick Xenophon, and possibly his party’s second candidate, Stirling Griff.
By 11pm (AEST) Saturday the SA state swing against the ALP had passed 15 per cent, meaning preferences could determine the return of a second Labor senator or that of Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Nova Peris will become Australia’s first indigenous woman in parliament with her on track to win a Senate seat in the Northern Territory.
In Queensland, the Palmer United Party looked likely to collect a Senate seat with a 10 per cent swing pushing number one candidate, former football player Glenn Lazurus, close to reaching the necessary quota.
The party, making its political debut for billionaire businessman Clive Palmer, is also a chance of picking up a Senate ticket in Tasmania, where it saw a seven per cent swing.
In NSW, One Nation candidate Pauline Hanson or the Liberal Democrats remained a chance.
Instead of Labor and the Greens being able to form a blocking majority, the Abbott government must deal with the uncertainty of minor party senators, including one or perhaps two from the insurgent Palmer United Party, South Australian Nick Xenophon and an allied candidate, and potentially a Motoring Enthusiast Party senator from Victoria.Swing against the Greens: 3.34 points, to 8.42. More than a quarter of their vote gone.
Results are highly provisional
The strength of the swing to the Coalition in Tasmania also increases the government’s chances of snaring a third Senate seat, to Labor’s two, with the Greens facing the Palmer insurgency for the sixth Senate spot…
Anxiety was high for the Coalition in NSW, where Arthur Sinodinos, who could be a senior figure in the new government, was in a life-and-death struggle with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson for the state’s sixth seat…
In South Australia, the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young was struggling to keep her head above water in a fight to retain the sixth seat, which looked set to become a minor party raffle.
The territories’ seats have historically been evenly shared by the major parties, but if their candidates fall below a quota, the door opens for the Greens at the Coalition’s expense in the ACT and an ex-Labor independent who could oust the ALP in the North Territory. Both major parties were hovering in the danger zone.
Two-party preferred swing against Labor: 3.5.per cent.
Palmer United Party wins 5.59 per cent, and is in the mix for two Senate seats and one lower house (with Palmer himself.)
UPDATE
Kevin Rudd’s election concession speech sounded like a cry of victory, and in praising himself he again misstated the truth:
I’m proud of the fact that we’ve held each of our seats in Queensland, I’m proud of the fact that every cabinet minister has been returned at this electionThis was just a cheap and nasty crack at his opponent:
It would be un prime ministerial of me to say Bill Glasson eat your heart out, so I won’t.Yuck.
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Bolt Report today
Andrew Bolt September 08 2013 (4:11am)
On The Bolt Report on Channel 10:
Tony Abbott - from unelectable to landslide. Labor - from green dream to nightmare.
Our special panel - Warren Mundine, Michael Costa and Peter Reith.
At 10am and 4pm.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
Tony Abbott - from unelectable to landslide. Labor - from green dream to nightmare.
Our special panel - Warren Mundine, Michael Costa and Peter Reith.
At 10am and 4pm.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
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4 her
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Working with the amazing Lawrence Leung.#goodtimes #TV #dudes #kickass@Lawrence_leung
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If Obama Wants to Bomb Someone, How About the Syrian Terror Training Camps of the Benghazi Attackers? - FrontPage Mag
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One in five applicants for jobs at the Central Intelligence Agency have ties to Muslim terrorist organizations, according to the latest round of Snowden leaks. And Israel is a major target of American counterintelligence. Washington is insane.
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As Congress debates whether to authorize President Obama to engage in a punitive-deterrent military attack on Syria, the Assad regime is adopting what I have called the "dead baby" strategy, perfected by Hamas in its battles with Israel. This approach is as simple as it is brutal: Force the United States, as Hamas forced Israel, to kill as many civilians as possible by deliberately moving legitimate military targets into civilian areas, or by moving civilians into military areas. Democracies, such as the United States and Israel, which care about avoiding civilian casualties, are then put to the tragic choice of either foregoing a legitimate attack against military targets, or by attacking them, being blamed for the civilian casualties, that were willfully caused by their enemies' illegal use of human shields.
This strategy can only work in an age of instant and pervasive television coverage of military actions. Syria and Hamas know that every baby killed by a US or Israeli rocket will be paraded in front of television cameras being held by grieving mothers and fathers. It is these vivid and horrifying pictures that are the goal of the dead baby strategy. Syria and Hamas understand that these emotional pictures will mask the reality that these dead babies are not "collateral damage" caused by legitimate military actions, but rather deliberate targets selected by Syria and Hamas in a cynical attempt to shift blame from them onto the democracies that try their best to avoid civilian casualties, even in the face of deliberate efforts by Hamas and Syria to multiply them.
Lest there be any doubt about Syria's intentions. Listen to retired American General David A. Deptula:
"The additional time gives Assad the potential advantage of complicating United States targeting by surreptitiously moving people or even chemical munitions into them, aiming to create casualties or chemical release as a direct result of US attacks."
United States General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that assessment when he said that American spy agencies are "keeping up with that movement", which includes prisoners who may be used as "human shields."
If there is any doubt that Hamas has used this despicable strategy, listen to Fathi Hammad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
"For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life.'"
When Hamas employed this dead baby strategy against Israel, it was a resounding success. Despite the fact that Hamas deliberately fired rockets from schoolyards, hospitals and densely populated civilian areas, the international community blamed Israel for trying to prevent rockets from attacking its civilians by targeting the rockets and occasionally killing civilians. It was Israel, rather than Hamas, that was accused of "war crimes," even though it is clearly a war crime to use civilians as human shields. Israel had little choice but to protect its own citizens against rocket attacks, but the world focused not on the moral correctness of Israel's decisions, but rather on the gruesome pictures of dead Palestinians babies, even though some of them were actually caused by errant Palestinian rockets.
President Assad of Syria has apparently learned this lesson well and is now prepared to act on it. This will once again put a democracy, this time the United States, to a difficult choice: forego legitimate military targets, thereby increasing the likelihood that Syria will continue to gas its own citizens; or attack these military targets, inevitably causing some civilian casualties and playing into the hands of Syria's dead baby strategy.
If the media and the international community continue to enable these tyrannical regimes by falling for this cynical dead baby strategy, it will continue and expand in scope. It's a win-win strategy for tyrants who don't care about their own civilians, and a lose-lose strategy for democracies that do.
Another reason why this strategy succeeds is that the world seems to care far less about civilian deaths caused by Arab and Muslim nations against their own citizens than deaths caused by Western democracies. If American bombs were to kill 100 Syrian civilians, there would be more outcry than when 100,000 Syrians, including tens of thousands of civilians, have been killed by Syrian forces on both sides of this civil war. This is pure and simple racism, holding Western democracies to a higher standard than Muslim tyrannies and theocracies. It's is an old story, but it will once again rear its bigoted head when and if American forces kill Syrian civilians who were deliberately placed in harm's way as human shields by the Syrian regime.
To stop this once and for all, the international community and the media must place the blame for these dead babies where it belongs: on the shoulders of tyrants who deliberately use their own civilians as human shields.
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My fellow Muslims are allowing our faith to be hijacked from us -- into the hands of theocrats and thugs.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir [Party of Liberation] is a radical, international pan-Islamic political organization. It is commonly associated with the goal of all Muslim countries: unifying as an Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law, and with a head of state (caliph) elected by Muslims. Hizb-ut-Tahrir [HT], established in 1953 in East Jerusalem, has been banned in Russia, several Central Asian countries and many Middle Eastern Countries. It has also been banned in Germany on account of its desire to use force for political ends, as well as its anti-Semitism. It is even banned in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, already cauldrons of extremism.
Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy as being un-Islamic and a Western system. But it members seem to have no qualms about using Western freedoms to promote their expansionist agenda and aggressive goals. Article 56 of their draft constitution for the proposed state describes conscription as a compulsory individual duty, for all citizens: "Every male Muslim, fifteen years and over, is obliged to undergo military training in readiness for jihad."
As the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir America, Dr. Mohammed Malkawi, remarked at a conference in Jordon in June 2013: "Let Britain, America, and the entire West go to hell, because the Caliphate is coming, Allah willing."
It was incomprehensible that they were hosting a meeting in Canada. Media inquiries received wishy-washy answers, as in, "We can't really do anything unless there is proof of violence." Further, as the HT meeting was scheduled to take place on a weekend, it was apparently of no particular interest to the media.
Were they really planning to establish a Caliphate even in the West? As a woman alone would arouse suspicion, my husband accompanied me. I pulled out the burqa I had imported from Afghanistan earlier in the year for a play. It would perhaps be the first and last time I adjusted a burqa around my body and even part of my face, with just my eyes showing – and dark glasses, and my husband in traditional Pakistani garb.
The heavily guarded community center in which the meeting was held was gender-segregated -- men and women separate. Most of the attendees were young converts, who had brought their children. When my husband sat with crossed legs, he was told that is not the Islamic way, so he immediately uncrossed them, in order not to attract attention.
Organizations such as HT are careful how they operate; their speakers are known for saying one thing in English and another in their own language. That way they can instill hardcore ideas and an ideology without being accused of using hate speech. At this meeting the message was clear: It is incumbent on every Muslim living in a non-Muslim land to impose sharia law; to work towards an Islamic state, and to convert people as is their mandate. According to the HT website, "The meaning of Jihad being a duty of sufficiency is that we initiate the fighting of the enemy even if he did not attack us. If the Muslims failed to initiate the fighting at any given time, they would all be sinful."
This by the way is totally against the teaching of the Quran, which advises Muslims to follow the laws of the lands in which they live. One young man in the audience asked who the Caliph would be, and was told it would be from among them.
I left the meeting trembling, partly with anger and partly with fear: anger because I saw a straightforward attempt to hijack our freedoms and, by turning them against us, to impose sharia; fear because my fellow Muslims are allowing our faith be hijacked from us -- into the hands of theocrats and thugs.
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Another day in rural Canley Heights
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It's time for both parties to come together and stand up for the kind of world we want to live in —> http://at.wh.gov/oEDNp #Syria
So why ignore Benghazi? - ed
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I waited a few days for the excitement to die down before going to the new bridge... sure, I will not hit the top charts with this photo now, but I had the whole beach to myself. I really like the new span, and how elegant it appears. Later I traveled over it, and it's just superb....almost as beautiful as Yosemite... almost. — at San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
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U.N. ambassador Samantha Power thought U.S. might win Iran’s support against Syria ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/
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I'm ambivalent about this atheist meme .. I recognise the humour, but feel it is too sharp. It isn't kind. ed===
""Our own demons are often to hardest to recognise."
- Monkey
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The Gray Lady shows little understanding of events in the Australian election, highlighting how badly mainstream press have diverted attention from serious issues. Bowen was successful in holding off Ray King in Western Sydney, but the smears employed to do so are appalling. Jason Clare was protected by a press running interference for him .. he made a challenge to Rudd on election night which sounds engineered. My bet is he will be the next leader, unopposed. It should worry responsible people that those following Fairfax and the ABC would not know of many serious issues. Why are Australians wanting a new government despite their economy which is superior to much of the developed world? Because the ALP were devaluing that economy at a substantial rate through a mixture of corruption and sleaze. The negative campaigning of the ALP through fear (Abbott, Abbott, Abbott, cuts cuts cuts) will not hold water in the aftermath, and my tip is that the electorate will reward Abbott in the future for his honesty and integrity despite ALP smears. Meanwhile, there are a number of corruption issues that are yet to play out. Heiner. AWU rorting. Aboriginal politics. Refugee drownings. National bankruptcy. Executive abuse. Workplace relations. How long before Murdoch acquires 70% media market share? ed
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The Lighthouse and the Milky Way Galaxy
Getting ready for tonight's Aperture Academy class "The Dark Side of Photography" where Jean and I will be teaching our students how to shoot long exposures at night.
This picture was taken tonight. Many thanks to my friends who went with me. It was a fantastic night.— at Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park
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Matt Granz
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It is with a deep sense of responsibility that the Liberal National Coalition begins its work for you – the Australian people.
Elections by their nature are tough contests and I honour everyone, from every political party, who stood or participated in yesterday’s election. I respect the conviction that makes men and women stand up for the things they believe in and I pay tribute to it.
It is our differences that prove we are free and it is our willingness to come together after the contest that makes our country strong.
We are a great country and a great people. My colleagues and I are determined to deliver the strong, stable and accountable government that you deserve.
My team will hit the ground running and deliver the stronger Australia and better future that you voted for.
Click here to read my full letter to the people of Australia.
There is much to do and my colleagues and I are grateful for the trust that the people have placed in us. We have our Plan. From today we will move decisively on our commitments and deliver the stronger Australia that all of us want.
Regards
Tony Abbott
Authorised by Brian Loughnane, Cnr Blackall and Macquarie Streets, Barton ACT 2604.
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Shortly before 9pm last night I had the great privilege of informing Tony Abbott that he was in a position to command a majority of seats in the House of Representatives.
While he was obviously pleased, I was struck by the great sense of responsibility with which our Prime Minister-elect received the news.
Shortly afterwards we were joined by John Howard, whose personal delight at the success of Tony and the team was clear.
In addition to the unprecedented efforts of Tony Abbott and his senior colleagues, our success yesterday was due to the efforts of many, many people.
I wish to thank our great team of candidates and the more than 150,000 volunteers who tirelessly supported them over the last five weeks.
I am deeply grateful to the Party Executive led by our President, Alan Stockdale, and our Treasurer, Philip Higginson, for their dedicated work and support.
I particularly want to thank my Deputy, Julian Sheezel, for his phenomenal support for me and our candidates. I would also like to thank my National Party counterpart, Scott Mitchell, Tony Abbott's fantastic staff led by Peta Credlin, as well as our team of State Directors and all the professional staff across Australia. I am privileged to lead the most experienced team of political professionals in Australia. They are one of the Party’s most significant assets.
And to each of you, for whatever you have done over the last three years to assist our cause: Thank you!
Due to your efforts, Australia will, in the next few days, have a Government ready to get on with business, restore stability and certainty and build a stronger Australia and a better future for all.
Thank you
Brian Loughnane
Authorised by Brian Loughnane, Cnr Blackall and Macquarie Streets, Barton ACT 2604.
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September 8: International Literacy Day; Fast of Gedalia (Judaism, 2013); Victory Day in Pakistan (1965)
- 617 – Li Yuan defeated a Sui Dynasty army in the Battle of Huoyi, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of theTang Dynasty.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French defeatedAustrian forces in Bassano, Venetia, present-day Italy.
- 1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1935 – U.S. Senator Huey Long (pictured) was fatally shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- 1978 – Iranian Revolution: After the government of the Shah of Irandeclared martial law in response to protests, the Iranian Army shot and killed at least 88 demonstrators in Tehran on Black Friday.
===
Events
- 70 – Roman forces under Titus sack Jerusalem.
- 617 – Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui Dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
- 1264 – The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
- 1331 – Stephen Uroš IV Dušan declares himself king of Serbia
- 1380 – Battle of Kulikovo – Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
- 1504 – Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence.
- 1514 – Battle of Orsha – in one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
- 1551 – The foundation day in Vitória, Brazil
- 1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Turkish siege of Malta that began on May 18.
- 1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge, making it the first time the city is captured by a foreign army.
- 1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
- 1755 – French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
- 1756 – French and Indian War: Kittanning Expedition.
- 1761 – Marriage of King George III of the United Kingdom to Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
- 1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war's last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
- 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Hondschoote.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano – French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano del Grappa.
- 1810 – The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor's men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
- 1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1860 – The Steamship Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass – on the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Unioninvasion of Texas.
- 1883 – The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
- 1888 – In Spain, the first travel of Isaac Peral submarine, was the first practical submarine ever made.
- 1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.
- 1888 – In England the first six Football League matches are played.
- 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
- 1900 – Galveston Hurricane of 1900: a powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
- 1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
- 1921 – 16-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.
- 1923 – Honda Point Disaster: nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
- 1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations.
- 1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
- 1934 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 135 people.
- 1935 – US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.
- 1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
- 1943 – World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati is bombed by USAAF.
- 1943 – World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
- 1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
- 1944 – World War II: Menton is liberated from Germany.
- 1945 – Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
- 1951 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
- 1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
- 1959 – The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) is established.
- 1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
- 1962 – Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a constitution.
- 1962 – Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
- 1965 – Pakistan Navy raids Indian coasts without any resistance in Operation Dwarka, Pakistan celebrates Victory Day annually.
- 1966 – The Severn Bridge is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1966 – The first Star Trek series premieres on NBC.
- 1967 – The formal end of steam traction in the North East of England by British Railways.
- 1971 – In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
- 1974 – Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
- 1975 – Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Timemagazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He is given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.
- 1988 – Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
- 1991 – The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
- 1994 – USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.
- 2004 – NASA's unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
- 2005 – Two EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
Births
- 801 – Ansgar, German archbishop (d. 865)
- 828 – Ali al-Hadi, Shia tenth of the Twelve Imams (d. 868)
- 1157 – Richard I of England (d. 1199)
- 1209 – Sancho II of Portugal (d. 1248)
- 1271 – Charles Martel of Anjou (d. 1295)
- 1380 – Bernardino of Siena, Italian priest, missionary, and saint (d. 1444)
- 1474 – Ludovico Ariosto, Italian poet (d. 1533)
- 1515 – Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish scholar (d. 1585)
- 1588 – Marin Mersenne, French mathematician (d. 1648)
- 1611 – Johann Friedrich Gronovius, German scholar (d. 1671)
- 1621 – Louis, Grand Condé, French general (d. 1686)
- 1633 – Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans (d. 1654)
- 1672 – Nicolas de Grigny, French organist and composer (d. 1703)
- 1698 – François Francoeur, French composer and violinist (d. 1787)
- 1742 – Ozias Humphry, English painter (d. 1810)
- 1749 – Yolande de Polastron, French educator (d. 1793)
- 1749 – Princess Marie Louise of Savoy (d. 1792)
- 1750 – Tanikaze Kajinosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 4th Yokozuna (d. 1795)
- 1752 – Carl Stenborg, Swedish opera singer, actor, and director (d. 1813)
- 1767 – August Wilhelm Schlegel, German poet (d. 1845)
- 1774 – Anne Catherine Emmerich, German nun, stigmatic, and mystic (d. 1824)
- 1779 – Mustafa IV, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1808)
- 1783 – Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, Danish writer and philosopher (d. 1872)
- 1804 – Eduard Mörike, German poet (d. 1875)
- 1814 – Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, French archaeologist and historian (d. 1874)
- 1815 – Giuseppina Strepponi, Italian soprano (d. 1897)
- 1824 – Jaime Nunó, Spanish composer (d. 1908)
- 1828 – Joshua Chamberlain, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Maine (d. 1914)
- 1828 – Clarence Cook, American writer and critic (d. 1900)
- 1830 – Frédéric Mistral, French poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
- 1831 – Wilhelm Raabe, German novelist (d. 1910)
- 1841 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (d. 1904)
- 1841 – Charles J. Guiteau, American preacher, writer, and lawyer, assassin of James A. Garfield (d. 1882)
- 1846 – Paul Chater, Indian-Hong Kong businessman (d. 1926)
- 1851 – John Jenkins, American-Australian politician, 22nd Premier of South Australia (d. 1923)
- 1852 – Gojong of the Korean Empire (d. 1919)
- 1857 – Georg Michaelis, German politician, 6th Chancellor of Germany (d. 1936)
- 1871 – Samuel McLaughlin, Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded McLaughlin automobile (d. 1972)
- 1873 – Alfred Jarry, French playwright (d. 1907)
- 1873 – David O. McKay, American religious leader, 9th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1970)
- 1881 – Harry Hillman, American hurdler (d. 1945)
- 1884 – Théodore Pilette, Belgian race car driver (d. 1921)
- 1886 – Siegfried Sassoon, English poet (d. 1967)
- 1886 – Ninon Vallin, French soprano (d. 1961)
- 1889 – Robert Taft, American politician (d. 1953)
- 1894 – John Samuel Bourque, Canadian politician (d. 1974)
- 1894 – Willem Pijper, Dutch composer and critic (d. 1947)
- 1895 – Sara García, Mexican actress (d. 1980)
- 1896 – Howard Dietz, American publicist, songwriter, and librettist (d. 1983)
- 1897 – Jimmie Rodgers, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1933)
- 1900 – Tilly Devine, English-Australian criminal (d. 1970)
- 1900 – Claude Pepper, American politician (d. 1989)
- 1901 – Hendrik Verwoerd, South African politician, 7th Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1966)
- 1903 – Jane Arbor, English author (d. 1994)
- 1904 – Tzavalas Karousos, Greek actor (d. 1969)
- 1905 – Ivy Bean, English centenarian (d. 2010)
- 1905 – Henry Wilcoxon, Dominican-American actor (d. 1984)
- 1906 – Andrei Kirilenko, Soviet politician (d. 1990)
- 1907 – William Wentworth, Australian politician (d. 2003)
- 1910 – Jean-Louis Barrault, French actor and director (d. 1994)
- 1914 – Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople (d. 1991)
- 1914 – Denys Lasdun, English architect, designed the Royal National Theatre (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Frank Cady, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1915 – Frank Pullen, English businessman (d. 1992)
- 1917 – Jan Sedivka, Czech-Australian violinist (d. 2009)
- 1918 – Derek Barton, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1919 – Gianni Brera, Italian journalist and author (d. 1992)
- 1921 – Harry Secombe, Welsh tenor and actor (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Sid Caesar, American comedian and actor
- 1922 – Lyndon LaRouche, American politician and activist, founded the LaRouche movement
- 1923 – Rasul Gamzatov, Russian poet (d. 2003)
- 1924 – Jean-Paul Cloutier, Canadian politician (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Marie-Claire Kirkland, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician
- 1924 – Grace Metalious, American novelist (d. 1964)
- 1924 – Mimi Parent, Canadian painter (d. 2005)
- 1925 – Jacqueline Ceballos, American activist
- 1925 – Peter Sellers, English film actor, comedian and singer (d. 1980)
- 1927 – Harlan Howard, American songwriter (d. 2002)
- 1927 – Robert L. Rock, American politician, 42nd Lieutenant Governor of Indiana (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Roger Byrne, English footballer (d. 1958)
- 1929 – Christoph von Dohnányi, German conductor
- 1930 – Mario Adorf, Swiss-German actor
- 1930 – Nguyen Cao Ky, Vietnamese politician, 16th Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam (d. 2011)
- 1930 – Robert W. Firestone, American psychologist and author
- 1931 – John Garrett, English politician (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Patsy Cline, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1963)
- 1933 – Asha Bhosle, Indian singer
- 1933 – Paul M. Fleiss, American pediatrician and author
- 1933 – Michael Frayn, English playwright and author
- 1933 – Jeffrey Koo Sr., Taiwanese businessman (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Eric Salzman, American composer
- 1934 – Rodrigue Biron, Canadian politician
- 1934 – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor
- 1937 – Barbara Frum, Canadian journalist (d. 1992)
- 1937 – Archie Goodwin, American comic book writer, editor and artist (d. 1998)
- 1938 – Kenichi Horie, Japanese sailor
- 1938 – Sam Nunn, American lawyer and politician
- 1939 – Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
- 1939 – Guitar Shorty, American guitarist
- 1940 – Quentin L. Cook, American religious leader, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
- 1940 – Jack Prelutsky, American author
- 1941 – Bernie Sanders, American politician
- 1942 – Brian Cole, American bass player (The Association) (d. 1972)
- 1943 – Adelaide C. Eckardt, American politician
- 1944 – Peter Bellamy, English singer-songwriter (The Young Tradition) (d. 1991)
- 1944 – Terry Jenner, Australian cricketer
- 1945 – Vinko Puljić, Croatian cardinal, 6th Archbishop of Vrhbosna
- 1945 – Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, American singer-songwriter and musician (Grateful Dead) (d. 1973)
- 1945 – Jon Scieszka, American author
- 1945 – Rogie Vachon, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1945 – Kelly Groucutt, English singer and bass player (Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II) (d. 2009)
- 1946 – Ronnie Burns, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Cotton Keays & Morris)
- 1946 – L. C. Greenwood, American football player
- 1947 – Valery Afanassiev, Russian pianist
- 1947 – Halldór Ásgrímsson, Icelandic politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Iceland
- 1947 – Ann Beattie, American author
- 1947 – Benjamin Orr, American singer-songwriter and bass player (The Cars) (d. 2000)
- 1947 – Marianne Wiggins, American author
- 1948 – Jean-Pierre Monseré, Belgian cyclist (d. 1971)
- 1948 – Great Kabuki, Japanese wrestler
- 1950 – Zachary Richard, American singer-songwriter and poet
- 1950 – Mike Simpson, American politician
- 1951 – Tim Gullikson American tennis player (d. 1996)
- 1951 – Tom Gullikson, American tennis player and coach
- 1951 – Nikos Karvelas, Greek composer
- 1951 – Dezső Ránki, Hungarian pianist
- 1952 – David R. Ellis, American director, actor, and stuntman (d. 2013)
- 1953 – Pascal Greggory, French actor
- 1954 – Mark Lindsay Chapman, English actor
- 1954 – Anne Diamond, English journalist
- 1954 – Mark Foley, American politician
- 1954 – Michael Shermer, American historian and writer, founded The Skeptics Society
- 1954 – Giorgos Toussas, Greek politician
- 1955 – David O'Halloran, Australian footballer (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Julian Richings, English-Canadian actor
- 1955 – Terry Tempest Williams, American author and environmentalist
- 1956 – Mick Brown, American drummer (Dokken and Tooth and Nail)
- 1956 – Maurice Cheeks, American basketball player and coach
- 1956 – Fad Gadget, English singer (d. 2002)
- 1956 – Stefan Johansson, Swedish race car driver
- 1957 – Walt Easley, American football player (d. 2013)
- 1957 – Heather Thomas, American actress
- 1958 – Michael Lardie, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (Great White and Night Ranger)
- 1958 – Mitsuru Miyamoto, Japanese voice actor
- 1959 – Carmen Campagne, Canadian singer
- 1959 – Daler Nazarov, Tajik singer-songwriter and actor
- 1960 – Stefano Casiraghi, Italian businessman, husband of Caroline, Princess of Hanover (d. 1990)
- 1960 – Aimee Mann, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress ('Til Tuesday)
- 1960 – David Steele, English bass player and songwriter (The Beat and Fine Young Cannibals)
- 1960 – Aguri Suzuki, Japanese race car driver
- 1962 – Sergio Casal, Spanish tennis player
- 1962 – Christopher Klim, American novelist
- 1962 – Thomas Kretschmann, German actor
- 1962 – Jay Ziskrout, American drummer and producer (Bad Religion)
- 1963 – Alexandros Alexiou, Greek footballer
- 1963 – Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japanese comedian
- 1963 – Brad Silberling, American director
- 1964 – Michael Johns, American health care executive and Presidential speechwriter
- 1964 – Joachim Nielsen, Norwegian singer-songwriter guitarist, and poet (Jokke & Valentinerne) (d. 2000)
- 1964 – Raven, American wrestler
- 1965 – Darlene Zschech, Australian singer-songwriter, and pastor
- 1966 – Peter Furler, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Newsboys)
- 1966 – Carola Häggkvist, Swedish singer-songwriter
- 1967 – Eerik-Niiles Kross, Estonian politician and diplomat
- 1967 – James Packer, Australian businessman
- 1967 – Kimberly Peirce, American director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1968 – Wolfram Klein, German footballer
- 1968 – Ray Wilson, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Genesis and Stiltskin)
- 1969 – Lars Bohinen, Norwegian footballer
- 1969 – Oswaldo Ibarra, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1969 – Chris Powell, English footballer
- 1969 – Gary Speed, Welsh footballer (d. 2011)
- 1970 – Brad Cain, American wrestler
- 1970 – Neko Case, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The New Pornographers, The Corn Sisters, and Maow)
- 1970 – Paul DiPietro, Canadian-Swiss ice hockey player
- 1970 – Yuji Nishizawa, Japanese hijacker of All Nippon Airways Flight 61
- 1970 – Latrell Sprewell, American basketball player
- 1970 – Andy Ward, Irish rugby player
- 1971 – David Arquette, American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
- 1971 – Brooke Burke Charvet, American model and actress
- 1971 – Martin Freeman, English actor
- 1971 – Khalid Gonçalves, American actor
- 1971 – Lachlan Murdoch, Australian-American businessman
- 1971 – Dustin O'Halloran, American pianist and composer
- 1971 – Daniel Petrov, Bulgarian boxer
- 1971 – Pierre Sévigny, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1972 – Markus Babbel, German footballer
- 1972 – Os du Randt, South African rugby player
- 1972 – Giovanni Frezza, Italian actor
- 1972 – Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, American radio and television host
- 1972 – Phil Laak, Irish-American poker player
- 1972 – Tomokazu Seki, Japanese voice actor
- 1973 – Khamis Al-Dosari, Saudi Arabian footballer
- 1973 – Gabrial McNair, American musician and composer (Oslo)
- 1973 – Troy Sanders, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Mastodon)
- 1974 – Marios Agathokleous, Greek footballer
- 1974 – Tanaz Eshaghian, Iranian-American director and producer
- 1974 – Braulio Luna, Mexican footballer
- 1975 – Lee Eul-Yong, South Korean footballer and coach
- 1975 – Richard Hughes, English drummer (Keane)
- 1975 – Chris Latham, Australian rugby player
- 1975 – Elena Likhovtseva, Russian tennis player
- 1975 – Larenz Tate, American actor
- 1976 – Gerald Drummond, Costa Rican footballer
- 1976 – Jervis Drummond, Costa Rican footballer
- 1976 – Brendan Kelly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Lawrence Arms, The Broadways, and The Falcon)
- 1976 – Sarah Kucserka, American screenwriter
- 1976 – Sjeng Schalken, Dutch tennis player
- 1977 – Nate Corddry, American actor
- 1977 – Jay McKee, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Gerard Autet, Spanish footballer
- 1978 – Emanuele Ferraro, Italian footballer
- 1978 – Gil Meche, American baseball player
- 1978 – Angela Rawlings, Canadian-American author
- 1979 – Pink, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1980 – Teruyuki Moniwa, Japanese footballer
- 1980 – Slim Thug, American rapper (Boss Hogg Outlawz)
- 1981 – Selim Benachour, Tunisian footballer
- 1981 – Morten Gamst Pedersen, Norwegian footballer
- 1981 – Jonathan Taylor Thomas, American actor
- 1982 – Travis Daniels, American football player
- 1982 – Austin Russell, American reality show star (Pawn Stars)
- 1983 – Diego Benaglio, Swiss footballer
- 1983 – Will Blalock, American basketball player
- 1983 – Chris Judd, Australian footballer
- 1983 – Wali Lundy, American football player
- 1983 – Lewis Roberts-Thompson, Australian footballer
- 1984 – Bobby Parnell, American baseball player
- 1984 – Vitaly Petrov, Russian race car driver
- 1984 – Jürgen Säumel, Austrian footballer
- 1984 – Tiago Treichel, Brazilian footballer
- 1984 – Peter Whittingham, English footballer
- 1985 – Yendi Phillips, Jamaican model, Miss Jamaica World 2007
- 1985 – Ian Smith, English Rugby Player
- 1986 – Matt Grothe, American football player
- 1986 – João Moutinho, Portuguese footballer
- 1986 – Kirill Nababkin, Russian footballer
- 1987 – Alexandre Bilodeau, Canadian skier
- 1987 – Danielle Frenkel, Israeli high jumper
- 1987 – Wiz Khalifa, American rapper
- 1987 – Marcel Nguyen, German gymnast
- 1988 – Arrelious Benn, American football player
- 1988 – Caitlin Hill, Australian blogger
- 1988 – Chantal Jones, American model and actress
- 1989 – Avicii, Swedish DJ and producer
- 1989 – Gylfi Sigurdsson, Icelandic footballer
- 1990 – Matt Barkley, American football player
- 1994 – Marco Benassi, Italian footballer
- 1995 – James Gandhi, English actor
- 1995 – Elsabeth Black, Canadian gymnast
- 1996 – Krystal Reyes, Filipino actress
- 1997 – Kimberlea Berg, English actress
Deaths
- 394 – Arbogast, Frankish general
- 701 – Pope Sergius I (b. 650)
- 780 – Leo IV the Khazar, Byzantine emperor (b. 750)
- 1100 – Antipope Clement III (b. 1029)
- 1134 – Alfonso the Battler, Spanish king (b. 1073)
- 1397 – Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (b. 1355)
- 1425 – Charles III of Navarre (b. 1361)
- 1539 – John Stokesley, English bishop (b. 1475)
- 1560 – Amy Robsart, English wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (b. 1532)
- 1601 – John Shakespeare, English father of William Shakespeare (b. 1530)
- 1603 – George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, English politician (b. 1547)
- 1613 – Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer (b. 1566)
- 1637 – Robert Fludd, English physician (b. 1574)
- 1644 – John Coke, English politician (b. 1563)
- 1644 – Francis Quarles, English poet (b. 1592)
- 1645 – Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish politician and writer (b. 1580)
- 1656 – Joseph Hall, English bishop (b. 1574)
- 1675 – Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (b. 1602)
- 1682 – Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish philosopher and writer (b. 1606)
- 1721 – Michael Brokoff, Czech sculptor (b. 1686)
- 1755 – Ephraim Williams, American soldier and philanthropist (b. 1715)
- 1761 – Bernard Forest de Bélidor, French engineer (b. 1698)
- 1780 – Enoch Poor, American general (b. 1736)
- 1784 – Ann Lee, English-American religious leader (b. 1736)
- 1806 – Patrick Cotter O'Brien, Irish giant (b. 1760)
- 1811 – Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist and botanist (b. 1741)
- 1831 – John Aitken, Scottish-American publisher (b. 1745)
- 1853 – Frédéric Ozanam, French scholar, co-founder of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (b. 1813)
- 1882 – Joseph Liouville, French mathematician (b. 1809)
- 1888 – Annie Chapman, English victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1841)
- 1916 – Friedrich Baumfelder, German composer, conductor, and pianist (b. 1836)
- 1894 – Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (b. 1821)
- 1909 – Vere St. Leger Goold, Irish tennis player and murderer (b. 1853)
- 1933 – Faisal I of Iraq (b. 1883)
- 1935 – Carl Weiss, American physician, assassin of Huey Long (b. 1906)
- 1943 – Julius Fučík, Czech journalist (b. 1903)
- 1944 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (b. 1881)
- 1948 – Thomas Mofolo, Mosotho author (b. 1876)
- 1949 – Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)
- 1954 – André Derain, French painter and sculptor (b. 1880)
- 1958 – Émile Delchambre, French rower (b. 1875)
- 1965 – Dorothy Dandridge, American actress (b. 1922)
- 1965 – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
- 1969 – Bud Collyer, American actor and game show host (b. 1908)
- 1969 – Alexandra David-Néel, Belgian-French explorer and writer (b. 1868)
- 1970 – Percy Spencer, American engineer and inventor, inventor of the microwave oven, (b. 1894)
- 1974 – Wolfgang Windgassen, German tenor (b. 1914)
- 1977 – Zero Mostel, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1980 – Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1981 – Nisargadatta Maharaj, Indian Advaita Vedanta spiritual teacher (b. 1897)
- 1981 – Roy Wilkins, American activist (b. 1901)
- 1981 – Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- 1983 – Antonin Magne, French cyclist (b. 1904)
- 1985 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1990 – Denys Watkins-Pitchford British naturalist and children's author (b. 1905)
- 1991 – Brad Davis, American actor (b. 1949)
- 1991 – Alex North, American composer (b. 1910)
- 1995 – Erich Kunz, Austrian opera singer (b. 1909)
- 1999 – Moondog, American singer, composer, musician, and poet (b. 1916)
- 2001 – Bill Ricker, Canadian scientist (b. 1908)
- 2002 – Rulon Jeffs, American religious leader (b. 1909)
- 2002 – Laurie Williams, Jamaican cricketer (b. 1968)
- 2003 – Jaclyn Linetsky, Canadian voice actress (b. 1986)
- 2003 – Leni Riefenstahl, German director (b. 1902)
- 2004 – Frank Thomas, American animator (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Noel Cantwell, Irish cricketer and footballer (b. 1932)
- 2005 – Donald Horne, Australian journalist and critic (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Hilda Bernstein, English-South African author, artist, and activist (b. 1915)
- 2006 – Peter Brock, Australian race car driver (b. 1945)
- 2006 – Frank Middlemass, English actor (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Erk Russell, American football player and coach (b. 1926)
- 2007 – Ramón Cardemil, Chilean horse rider (b. 1917)
- 2007 – Vincent Serventy, Australian ornithologist, conservationist, and author (b. 1916)
- 2008 – Ahn Jae-hwan, South Korean actor (b. 1972)
- 2008 – Ralph Plaisted, American explorer (b. 1927)
- 2008 – Evan Tanner, American mixed martial arts (b. 1971)
- 2009 – Ray Barrett, Australian actor (b. 1927)
- 2009 – Aage Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
- 2009 – Mike Bongiorno, American-Italian television host (b. 1924)
- 2010 – Murali, Indian actor (b. 1964)
- 2012 – Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif, Yemeni criminal (b. 1975)
- 2012 – Adolf Bechtold, German footballer (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Leigh Hamilton, New Zealand-American actress (b. 1949)
- 2012 – Ronald Hamowy, Canadian historian (b. 1937)
- 2012 – Peter Hussing, German boxer (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Bill Moggridge, English-American designer, author, and educator, co-founded IDEO (b. 1943)
- 2012 – Mārtiņš Roze, Latvian politician (b. 1964)
- 2012 – Allyre Sirois, Canadian judge (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Mario Armond Zamparelli, American artist and designer (b. 1931)
Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Earliest day on which Auditor's Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Church of Scientology)
- Earliest day on which Day of the Workers in the Oil, Gas, Power, and Geological Industry can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Saturday in September. (Turkmenistan)
- Earliest day on which Grandparents Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Estonia)
- Earliest day on which National Grandparents Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day. (United States)
- Earliest day on which National Grandparents Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Canada)
- Earliest day on which Turkmen Bakhshi Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Turkmenistan)
- Feast of 'Izzat (Might) – First day of the tenth month of the Bahá'í calendar. (Bahá'í Faith)
- Independence day, celebrates the independence of Macedonia from Yugoslavia in 1991.
- International Literacy Day (International)
- National day, also the feast of Our Lady of Meritxell. (Andorra)
- The first day of Fiestas de Santa Fe, marked by the burning of the Zozobra (New Mexico)
- Victory Day (Pakistan)
- Victory Day, also the feast of Our Lady of Victories or il-Vittorja (Malta)
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“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.”Colossians 1:28 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay."
Mark 2:4
Mark 2:4
Faith is full of inventions. The house was full, a crowd blocked up the door, but faith found a way of getting at the Lord and placing the palsied man before him. If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary methods we must use extraordinary ones. It seems, according to Luke 5:19, that a tiling had to be removed, which would make dust and cause a measure of danger to those below, but where the case is very urgent we must not mind running some risks and shocking some proprieties. Jesus was there to heal, and therefore fall what might, faith ventured all so that her poor paralysed charge might have his sins forgiven. O that we had more daring faith among us! Cannot we, dear reader, seek it this morning for ourselves and for our fellow-workers, and will we not try today to perform some gallant act for the love of souls and the glory of the Lord.
The world is constantly inventing; genius serves all the purposes of human desire: cannot faith invent too, and reach by some new means the outcasts who lie perishing around us? It was the presence of Jesus which excited victorious courage in the four bearers of the palsied man: is not the Lord among us now? Have we seen his face for ourselves this morning? Have we felt his healing power in our own souls? If so, then through door, through window, or through roof, let us, breaking through all impediments, labour to bring poor souls to Jesus. All means are good and decorous when faith and love are truly set on winning souls. If hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely hunger for souls is not to be hindered in its efforts. O Lord, make us quick to suggest methods of reaching thy poor sin-sick ones, and bold to carry them out at all hazards.
Evening
"There is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet."
Jeremiah 49:23
Jeremiah 49:23
Little know we what sorrow may be upon the sea at this moment. We are safe in our quiet chamber, but far away on the salt sea the hurricane may be cruelly seeking for the lives of men. Hear how the death fiends howl among the cordage; how every timber starts as the waves beat like battering rams upon the vessel! God help you, poor drenched and wearied ones! My prayer goes up to the great Lord of sea and land, that he will make the storm a calm, and bring you to your desired haven! Nor ought I to offer prayer alone, I should try to benefit those hardy men who risk their lives so constantly. Have I ever done anything for them? What can I do? How often does the boisterous sea swallow up the mariner! Thousands of corpses lie where pearls lie deep. There is death-sorrow on the sea, which is echoed in the long wail of widows and orphans. The salt of the sea is in many eyes of mothers and wives. Remorseless billows, ye have devoured the love of women, and the stay of households. What a resurrection shall there be from the caverns of the deep when the sea gives up her dead! Till then there will be sorrow on the sea. As if in sympathy with the woes of earth, the sea is forever fretting along a thousand shores, wailing with a sorrowful cry like her own birds, booming with a hollow crash of unrest, raving with uproarious discontent, chafing with hoarse wrath, or jangling with the voices of ten thousand murmuring pebbles. The roar of the sea may be joyous to a rejoicing spirit, but to the son of sorrow the wide, wide ocean is even more forlorn than the wide, wide world. This is not our rest, and the restless billows tell us so. There is a land where there is no more sea--our faces are steadfastly set towards it; we are going to the place of which the Lord hath spoken. Till then, we cast our sorrows on the Lord who trod the sea of old, and who maketh a way for his people through the depths thereof.
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Today's reading: Proverbs 1-2, 1 Corinthians 16 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Proverbs 1-2
Purpose and Theme
1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for gaining wisdom and instruction;for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young-
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance-
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 16
The Collection for the Lord's People
1 Now about the collection for the Lord's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.
Personal Requests
5 After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you-for I will be going through Macedonia. 6 Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me....
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Phinehas
[Phĭn'ĕhăs] - face of trust or mouth of a serpent.
[Phĭn'ĕhăs] - face of trust or mouth of a serpent.
- A son of Eleazar, one of Aaron's sons, who slew Zimri and Cozbi. He manifested great zeal, was the third high priest of the Jews and discharged his office most faithfully for nineteen years (Exod. 6:25; Num. 25:14, 15).
- The younger son of Eli, the priest and judge of Israel. Phinehas, with his brother Hophni, disgraced the sacred office of priesthood and both were slain ( 1 Sam. 1:3; 2:34; 4:4-19; 14:3).
- The father of Eleazar, a priest who returned with Ezra (Ezra 8:33).
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