I am begging for the visit now, because I am losing things, extraordinary things, and there will never again be an opportunity to acknowledge the loss.
I have a copy of Gladman's "Control and Teaching." It has pencilled in the front the name JP Rogers, a Principal of Sydney Boys High for some decades in the early 20th century. The book was a textbook given to beginning teachers in the nineteenth century and used in the early to mid twentieth century. A class teacher was given the book, and a class and instructed to teach. It is likely this was Roger's copy.
I have a copy of Todhunter's "Trigonometry" from 1865. Trigonometry was what the British Empire used to survey India accurately before satellites. The book is probably an early Sydney University student's book.
I have an education textbook on Motivation, edited by my father, the late Professor Samuel Ball. My dad was foundational educational evaluator of Sesame Street, as well as Pro Vice Chancellor of Sydney University and CEO of the Victorian BOS under Kennett. He wrote the original questions for Sale of the Century (actually, I think my step mum did).
I have an early numbered copy of "Werewolves of Wynyard"a limited run print of short stories by friends on a theme of Sydney and a fantasy setting. I wrote Big Heart which incorporates elements of student life at a multi cultural suburban high school in the met south west of Sydney. Dealing with drugs and youth culture.
If I can't give these away, I will have to throw them out.
What has happened to me is wrong. It is something you will feel ashamed of if you fail to address it while you can. Please, find the time, or send a delegate .. Dai Le or Zaya Toma are local councillors.
related materials
About the boy who died
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Kevin Andrews, John Doan and Thuy Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
- 1389 – Isabella of Valois (d. 1409)
- 1801 – Gail Borden, American publisher and inventor, invented condensed milk (d. 1874)
- 1802 – Elijah Parish Lovejoy, American minister, journalist, and activist (d. 1837)
- 1880 – Giles Gilbert Scott, English architect, designed the red telephone box (d. 1960)
- 1914 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-American actress (d. 2000)
- 1922 – Imre Lakatos, Hungarian philosopher (d. 1974)
- 1937 – Roger McGough, English poet
- 1990 – Nosa Igiebor, Nigerian footballer
- 694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery.
- 1494 – The Family de' Medici are expelled from Florence.
- 1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- 1720 – The synagogue of Yehudah he-Hasid is burned down by Arab creditors, leading to the expulsion of the Ashkenazim from Jerusalem.
- 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming one of its three Consuls (Consulate Government).
- 1851 – Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, after George B. McClellan is removed.
- 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.
- 1937 – Japanese troops take control of Shanghai, China.
- 1960 – Robert McNamara is named president of Ford Motor Co., the first non-Ford to serve in that post. A month later, he resigned to join the administration of newly elected John F. Kennedy.
- 1985 – Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.
- 959 – Constantine VII, Byzantine emperor (b. 905)
- 1888 – Mary Jane Kelly, English victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1863)
- 1940 – Neville Chamberlain, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1869)
THE EGO OF DAVID SUZUKI
Tim Blair – Saturday, November 09, 2013 (3:42pm)
Self-importance comes with the territory when you’re a warmist. After all, you’re saving the planet. Who could be more important than you?
This elevated sense of self manifests itself in curious ways, such as Tim Flannery’s prediction of a universal belief system or his insistence that everybody is always writing about him, Will Steffen’s fear that a retired public servantwanted to shoot climate scientists and Michael Mann’s mistaken Nobel prize claim. But those three are mere junior narcissists compared to David Suzuki, who is now starring as a global climate martyr in a “powerful live theatre and public engagement project” about himself. Peter Foster reviews The Trial of David Suzuki:
The event was a cross between a mock trial and a bizzaro Soviet show trial. In show trials the victim had already been condemned. In the Suzuki version, the environmental celebrity’s innocence was never in doubt.The court’s stage set was a Kafkaesque vision in stark gun metal grey, complete with an oil barrel motif. Its most arresting feature was Mr. Suzuki’s dock, which was high above the judge’s bench, making clear who was in charge.
Check out the promo shot for Suzuki’s epic act of indulgence:
Of course, the notion that Suzuki or any other warmist will ever be tried is ridiculous. A craving for heroic victimhoodleads these people to strange places. Foster concludes:
Of course, the notion that Suzuki or any other warmist will ever be tried is ridiculous. A craving for heroic victimhoodleads these people to strange places. Foster concludes:
The real lesson of this mockery of a mock trial was what it said about the objectivity and openness of Suzuki nation. They reach consensus by having conversations in echo chambers. They try themselves, certain of acquittal. They claim persecution while suggesting their opponents should be silenced. If you want to know what’s wrong with the IPCC, and why there is still no real debate over climate, the trial of David Suzuki exposed it in microcosm.
(Via John)
AND MOE HOWARD AS NICOLA ROXON
Tim Blair – Saturday, November 09, 2013 (2:21pm)
George Clooney as Wayne Swan! Jennifer Aniston as Tanya Plibersek! Some enthusiastic casting suggestions at theGuardian for Julia: The Movie. Meanwhile, a number of high-profile candidates are available to play Labor weepersStephen Conroy and Anthony Albanese.
SCIENCE DISTORTED
Tim Blair – Saturday, November 09, 2013 (1:52pm)
Mark Steyn notes these lines from John Howard’s excellent London speech:
An overriding feature of the debate is the constant attempt to intimidate policy makers, in some cases successfully, with the mantras of “follow the science” and “the science is truly settled”. The purpose is to create the impression that there is really no room for argument; this is not really a public policy issue; it is one on which the experts have spoken, and we would all be quite daft to do other than follow the prescriptions, it is asserted, which flow automatically from the scientific findings.Writing recently in Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Dr Richard S. Lindzen, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of those with political agendas who found it useful to employ science, “This immediately involves a distortion of science at a very basic level: namely science becomes a source of authority rather than a mode of inquiry. The real utility of science stems from the latter; the political utility stems from the former.”
Quite so.
BATS ROTORED
Tim Blair – Saturday, November 09, 2013 (1:42pm)
“Bats contribute more than most people know to the world’s eco-systems and a healthy environment,” according tothis site. “Bats, in fact, are vital to the restoration and enrichment of our eco-systems, including rainforests and other key ecological habitats. Bats also contribute to human health and well-being by performing essential eco-services such as pollination, seed dispersal and insect control.”
Well, let’s put a stop to all that:
More than 600,000 bats were killed in the United States last year by wind turbines, according to a new estimate.The figure, based on a statistical analysis of rates of dead bats found close to 21 turbines, suggests that wind energy could be harmful to certain migratory species.
It’s also a culinary crisis.
(Via J.F. Beck)
BLOKE WHO MISSPOKE
Tim Blair – Saturday, November 09, 2013 (1:30pm)
Barack Obama, the bloke who misspoke, now apologises to Americans for his healthcare debacle. The New York Times conceals its embarrassment.
Just one disputed vote cost Palmer a Senator
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (2:54pm)
Hard to see a High Court not ordering an election now, if true:
===ABC election analyst Antony Green says the outcome of the Senate vote in Western Australia would have come down to a solitary vote…(Thanks to reader Peter.)
Green says if the missing votes were to be included in the recount, the Palmer United Party… and Labor would have won the final two Senate spots and not the Greens and the Australian Sports Party.
Electricity Bill gets stamped
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (2:47pm)
Peter van Onselen on the lack of convictions of the new Opposition leader:
He likes the “carbon copy” line so much that he uses it again at his press conference.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===(T)he interesting thing about (Bill Shorten’s) passionate claim that Labor won’t be “bullied” into changing its position on carbon pricing is that change was the new Opposition Leader’s initial preference, before the shadow cabinet settled on a stance of blocking the repeal.Meanwhile Tony Abbott piles on the pressure three days before Parliament sits again - and debates the carbon tax repeal. In a speech in Western Australia he not only repeats his deadly “Electricity Bill” jibe, but adds that if Shorten keeps siding with the Greens to defend the carbon tax he’ll just be a “carbon copy of Julia Gillard”.
Shorten’s office even encouraged news reports in the press ahead of the shadow cabinet meeting to decide what Labor would do, suggesting the opposition was set to roll over on the issue. Business leaders who had met with Shorten in the weeks leading up to the shadow cabinet meeting were told in their private conversations that Labor would likely get out of the way, allowing the Prime Minister to repeal the tax.
In the end, perhaps the shadow cabinet bullied Shorten into defending an approach he doesn’t agree with...
He likes the “carbon copy” line so much that he uses it again at his press conference.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Indonesia flexes muscles in boats stand-off. UPDATE: Indonesia wins
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (11:07am)
Indonesia’s nationalists are punishing Australia
for claims we are spying on them by refusing to take responsibility for
boat people picked up from Indonesian boats in Indonesian
search-and-rescue territory:
UPDATE
Fairfax newspapers help create a crisis and then blame Tony Abbott:
Idiots.
On the Sydney Morning Herald goes:
You have to despair at this level of denial.
UPDATE
Indonesia refuses to compromise and Australia loses. Immigration Minsiter Scott Morrison has ordered the navy to bring the boat people to Christmas Island.
Morrison says the Indonesians were still considering his request to take back the boat people, but he claims he decided the boat people could not wait that long.
Now to see what damage this will do to the Government’s deterrence of boat people.
===After 24 hours of discussion over the fate of about 60 asylum-seekers taken last night from a fishing boat on to an Australian vessel, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa yesterday virtually rejected Canberra’s request to return them to Indonesia.Greg Sheridan says there’s not much Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop can do but shut up and let the storm pass:
An even more aggressive rejection came from Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Djoko Suyanto, who is responsible for top-level liaison with Canberra on people-smuggling issues.
“The Indonesian government never agreed to such wishes or policies of Australia,” General Djoko, a confidant of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told news outlets by text message.
“Australia already has its own ‘detention centres’ in Nauru and PNG,” he wrote. “That’s where the asylum-seekers should be sent, not to Indonesia."…
The ABC reported last night that a distress call had been made from the asylum-seeker boat on Thursday morning. About three hours later, HMAS Ballarat arrived, but left after assessing that the boat was in no immediate danger. Some time later, the Ocean Protector arrived and found the asylum-seeker boat without power and stayed with it during negotiations between Canberra and Jakarta.
The Weekend Australian was told by Australian officials yesterday that an Indonesian vessel also responded to the distress call, but after examination concluded the passengers and crew did not need to be rescued....
Dr Natalegawa ... has taken the hardest line against Australia’s alleged spying on Indonesia, in collaboration with the US, a problem that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in Bali and Tony Abbott at home tried yesterday to put to rest.
Responding to the most recent allegations last weekend, the Indonesian Foreign Minister warned that his government would have to reappraise its security information exchanges with Australia, citing counter-terrorism and people smuggling.
Yesterday he played down the political linkages between the electronic espionage controversy and boatpeople issues, though not decisively. “I think we shouldn’t be linking one to the other in such a direct manner,” Dr Natalegawa said. “But we’ll take each issue on its merits."…
The shift appears to have taken the new government by surprise because in two recent incidents confirmed by Jakarta - and at least two others known to The Weekend Australian - Indonesia agreed to take back asylum-seekers rescued by Australian vessels from boats in danger of sinking.
There is absolutely nothing helpful they can say or do about Australian intelligence activities of the past. Nor can they promise the Indonesians not to do it again. Basically, they must make soothing small talk and let the incident pass.The trouble is that letting the storm pass may mean giving more boat people hope that this government isn’t as tough as it seemed.
In some respects, this plays to Abbott’s strengths as a politician. Abbott stands against the tyranny of the constant news cycle, hyper-realised in the endless inanities and unanchored, roaming hatreds of social media....
The Indonesian reaction appears at least a little excessive… So much of the Indonesian reaction is understandable. But there is a challenge to Indonesia’s leadership not to overdo it, in its own interests more than in Australia’s. It is difficult to know whether the strength of the official reaction was driven by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who may want his administration to look respectably nationalist, or by the Foreign Minister, who would like to have a high-level future after the elections next year.
UPDATE
Fairfax newspapers help create a crisis and then blame Tony Abbott:
Once again the Abbott government has needlessly antagonised Indonesia. Attempting to return a vessel laden with asylum seekers to Indonesia at a time when the country is furious about Fairfax Media’s revelations of Australian spying activity across the archipelago was dumb.
Idiots.
On the Sydney Morning Herald goes:
Returning boats to Indonesia is hardly critical operationally to stemming the flow of asylum seekers to Australia. It is a purely political policy.It really thinks Abbott’s resolution on turning back boats makes no difference – when in fact boat arrivals have gone from Labor’s high of two or three a day to none for nearly three weeks.
You have to despair at this level of denial.
UPDATE
Indonesia refuses to compromise and Australia loses. Immigration Minsiter Scott Morrison has ordered the navy to bring the boat people to Christmas Island.
Morrison says the Indonesians were still considering his request to take back the boat people, but he claims he decided the boat people could not wait that long.
Now to see what damage this will do to the Government’s deterrence of boat people.
The Bolt Report tomorrow
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (10:37am)
On The Bolt Report tomorrow - Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm.
With Christopher Pyne, John Roskam and former Labor Senator John Black.
And the rudest tweet of the week.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
===With Christopher Pyne, John Roskam and former Labor Senator John Black.
And the rudest tweet of the week.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
No time to waste. Cut now
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (10:28am)
Action now, please:
===JOE Hockey admitted that Australia faces a “growth challenge” over the next two years as the Reserve Bank warned the downturn in mining investment would be more severe than expected.Why hasn’t the Productivity Commission already been asked to check the uselessness of the Renewable Energy Target that’s helping to drive up power prices?
Slowing economic growth will intensify pressure on the government to come up with additional budget savings, with the Treasurer saying rising health, education and social welfare costs will have to be contained.
The Reserve Bank does not expect any improvement in economic growth for at least a year and, in its latest quarterly review, has slashed its forecasts to June 2015 by 0.5 percentage points because of the combined impact of the mining downturn, budget spending cuts and the high value of the dollar.
Abbott ends Fairfax’s struggling travel rorts campaign
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (10:09am)
The Fairfax media claims it’s whipped up “massive public pressure” with its beat-ups about MP travel rorts.
Yeah, right.
True, as I’ve noted before, including in my interview with Tony Abbott, some of the expenses unveiled were highly dubious, and better disclosure was needed to shame MPs into behaving.
But it’s striking how few such claims - and how trivial - the Fairfax campaign uncovered in many weeks of digging, and how determined it was to focus on conservative MPs rather than Labor.
Now, with the well all but dry, Abbott now gives the papers an excuse to declare victory and go home:
===Yeah, right.
True, as I’ve noted before, including in my interview with Tony Abbott, some of the expenses unveiled were highly dubious, and better disclosure was needed to shame MPs into behaving.
But it’s striking how few such claims - and how trivial - the Fairfax campaign uncovered in many weeks of digging, and how determined it was to focus on conservative MPs rather than Labor.
Now, with the well all but dry, Abbott now gives the papers an excuse to declare victory and go home:
The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, will cave into massive public pressure today and set tough new rules on politicians’ travel expenses after a Fairfax Media campaign exposed politicians regularly claiming taxpayer money to attend weddings, football matches and check on their far-flung investment properties.
The strict new measures will clamp down on politicians claiming expenses on weekend stopovers at destinations en route to Canberra. They will also stop politicians employing relatives in parliamentary or electoral offices.
Politicians who have their travel claims rejected will be hit with a fine that is 25 per cent of the total amount, which will be paid back to the Department of Finance as well.
Obama quietly betrays Israel
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (9:44am)
Obama secretly backed off months ago from sanctions to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program:
===The Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president in June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva or the historic phone call between the two leaders in September.Israel’s prime minister is rightly alarmed, with the US now about to sign a deal with an unrepentant Iran:
While those negotiations now appear on the verge of a breakthrough the key condition for Iran—relief from crippling sanctions—began quietly and modestly five months ago.
A review of Treasury Department notices reveals that the U.S. government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rouhani, in June.
On Wednesday Obama said in an interview with NBC News the negotiations in Geneva “are not about easing sanctions.” “The negotiations taking place are about how Iran begins to meet its international obligations and provide assurances not just to us but to the entire world,” the president said.
“I met Secretary Kerry right before he leaves to Geneva,” said Netanyhau. “I reminded him that he said that no deal is better than a bad deal. That the deal that is being discussed in Geneva right now is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. Iran is not required to take apart even one centrifuge. But the international community is relieving sanctions on Iran for the first time after many years. Iran gets everything that it wanted at this stage and it pays nothing. And this is when Iran is under severe pressure. I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign, to wait, to reconsider, to get a good deal. But this is a bad deal--a very, very bad deal. It’s the deal of a century for Iran; it’s a very dangerous and bad deal for peace and the international community.”
The lonely president
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (9:36am)
Barack Obama’s slide continues:
===Barack Obama has had a difficult year since his reelection victory. His overall job rating stands at 41%, down 14 points since last December. A majority (53%) now disapproves of the way he is handling his job as president.A man too good for friends:
Obama’s resolute solitude—his isolation and alienation from the other players and power centers of Washington, be they rivals or friends—has emerged as the defining trait of his time in office. He may be the biggest presidential paradox since Thomas Jefferson, the slaveholder who wrote the Declaration of Independence: a community organizer who works alone.
In early 2011, when the president’s most trusted political adviser, David Axelrod, left the White House to return to Chicago to run his re-election campaign, Obama made a surprise appearance at Axelrod’s going-away party in a grand apartment off Dupont Circle on a wintry Saturday night. Clad casually in a black jacket, he spoke warmly, even emotionally, of the aide who had done so much to elect him. Then he made his way quickly around a living room full of Cabinet members, other aides, and off-duty reporters, grasping each proffered hand with a single, relentless, repeated greeting: “Gotta go."…
At a time when the abrasions of office leave any president most in need of friends, Obama is the capital’s Lonely Guy…
From a far earlier age and to a far greater degree than is generally understood, Obama has always been alone. He was abandoned not only by his black African father, whom he later met just once at age 10, but also by his white American mother, who left him as a teenager with her parents in Hawaii to pursue graduate fieldwork in anthropology in Indonesia. At an age when most adolescents are grappling with how to break away from their families, Obama’s had crumbled away from him…
Throughout his tenure, he has generally refused to adopt the practice of every president since at least Gerald Ford by posing for pictures with his guests at the more than a dozen White House holiday parties (except in the case of the receptions for Congress and the White House press corps, who could be counted on to make a real fuss)…
In late September, Obama attended a “dinner” fund-raiser for high donors to the Democratic National Committee at the super-luxe Jefferson Hotel a few blocks from the White House. Each of the two dozen-odd guests had contributed $32,400, the maximum allowed by law. The president’s motorcade left the White House for the hotel at 4:19 p.m. and was back at the White House by 5:25…
Warmists caned
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (9:23am)
What is academic Nigel Turvey discussing here on the warmist The Conservation:
===Well-trained scientists from prestigious institutions helped spread the [idea]… The catalyst was the consensus that restricted free enquiry. It led to oversimplification and misinformation. It prevented questioning…Turvey is talking about:
Information was to hand in the observations ... but it was ignored....
Some would argue that consensus among scientists is an unnatural state for minds programmed to question sacred orthodoxies. But one thing is certain: we should be opening the doors of consensus to scientific scrutiny and critical debate, no matter what the issue, if we are to learn anything from the well-intentioned devastation...
A: global warming(Thanks to reader Steve and others.)
B: cane toads
The beatification of St Julia of Gillard, the famous martyr
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (8:16am)
The Left gets to write the history, which means even the worst comes out the best. Example:
Rachel Griffiths will play former prime minister Julia Gillard in a television drama cataloguing her tumultuous three years in office… The project is based on journalist Kerry-Anne Walsh’s book The Stalking of Julia Gillard…How kindly will the film treat our worst PM?
The author of the book on which the film is based uses a fake quote to present Gillard as just a terrific leader just brought down by a wicked press and a scheming rival:
During the election campaign she had stated: ‘’There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead, but let me be clear: I will be putting a price on carbon and I will move to an emissions trading scheme.’’ This is what she announced, but not as far as those in the opposition and hysterical commentariat were concerned.The head of the film project thinks Gillard was a terrific leader just brought down by a wicked press:
The announcement was followed by a crash in the polls, fed by a growing cacophony of anti-Gillard media voices who labelled her an untrustworthy liar and a disgrace. Unsurprisingly, the anonymous malicious gripes of Rudd supporters mushroomed in the wake of Gillard’s ‘’betrayal’’ and rapidly became the media focus, diminishing the real story of a remarkably stable and productive minority parliament that was in large part due to her abilities as a negotiator and peacemaker.... That she made no headway rebutting attacks on her honesty and credibility says more about the campaign that was waged against her than her communication skills…
It will be the third in a series of dramas on Labor political leaders by WTFN’s director of drama and features Richard Keddie, who was behind the political biopic Hawke for Ten and Curtin for the ABC.The actor playing Gillard thinks the more we know of Gillard the more we’d love her:
He also directed the successful Your Rights at Work TV commercials for the union movement and directed some of Mr Rudd’s election commercials.
“She was extraordinarily successful in her performance as a prime minister but not in the media. The media didn’t like her. They went after her and killed her.”
I think Julia would be an amazing role to play. What I find so fascinating is the closer you get to her, the more people love her.And a special adviser to the film makers is someone they will love the more they get to know her:
Rachel Griffiths will play former prime minister Julia Gillard in a television drama ... with the former PM’s co-operation.No doubt it will played at schools to give children something to admire.
The cars that ate taxpayers
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (7:32am)
Paul Kelly says Tony Abbott has little option. Time to stop throwing good money after bad to prop up a dying car industry:
===The local industry’s market share has fallen below 15 per cent. Ford is departing; only Holden and Toyota are left. Total industry support is estimated at between $500 million and $1 billion yearly.
The message from the company to government is summarised by a senior minister: “They want a further $200m to $300m each year in perpetuity. That’s extortion.”
The price of keeping General Motors making cars in Australia is untenable…
Former Productivity Commission chairman Gary Banks recently said: “Every job ‘saved’ in the auto industry by assistance through the government costs Australian taxpayers around $300,000.” Think about that.
This week Banks told Inquirer: “The car industry has been the most successful rent-seeker in Australia’s history, and that’s saying something. The accumulated cost to the community and other local industries has been enormous. Commission inquiries in the past found little merit in arguments for support based on skilled jobs or special technological spillovers.”
Is there not a planet we should send these people to, er, prepare?
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (7:05am)
Douglas Adams in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe described a rocket filled with people who’d been told they had to go ahead and colonise a new planet:
(Via Tim Blair.)
UPDATE
Reader McScruff is one of many readers to note:
===... “I mean, I couldn’t help noticing,” said Ford, also taking a sip, “the bodies. In the hold.”The queue is now ready to send off another B ship. This time it’s the people behind the great yammering. So many spenders, so few earners - and global warming to give a spiritual dimension to their great meeting.
“Bodies?” said the Captain in surprise… “Oh they’re not dead,” he said, “Good Lord no, no they’re frozen. They’re going to be revived.”
Ford did something he very rarely did. He blinked.
Arthur seemed to come out of a trance.
“You mean you’ve got a hold full of frozen hairdressers?” he said.
“Oh yes,” said the Captain, “Millions of them. Hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, management consultants, you name them. We’re going to colonize another planet…
“Well what happened you see was,” said the Captain, “our planet, the world from which we have come, was, so to speak, doomed… Yes, ... the idea was that into the first ship, the ‘A’ ship, would go all the brilliant leaders, the scientists, the great artists, you know, all the achievers; and into the third, or ‘C’ ship, would go all the people who did the actual work, who made things and did things, and then into the `B’ ship - that’s us - would go everyone else, the middlemen you see… And we were sent off first,” he concluded, and hummed a little bathing tune…
“Er ...” said Arthur after a moment, “what exactly was it that was wrong with your planet then?”
“Oh, it was doomed, as I said,” said the Captain, “Apparently it was going to crash into the sun or something. Or maybe it was that the moon was going to crash into us. Something of the kind. Absolutely terrifying prospect whatever it was."…
“And they made sure they sent you lot off first did they?” inquired Arthur.
“Oh yes,” said the Captain, “well everyone said, very nicely I thought, that it was very important for morale to feel that they would be arriving on a planet where they could be sure of a good haircut and where the phones were clean.”
“Oh yes,” agreed Ford, “I can see that would be very important. And the other ships, er ... they followed on after you did they?”
For a moment the Captain did not answer. He twisted round in his bath and gazed backwards over the huge bulk of the ship towards the bright galactic centre. He squinted into the inconceivable distance.
“Ah. Well it’s funny you should say that,” he said and allowed himself a slight frown at Ford Prefect, “because curiously enough we haven’t heard a peep out of them since we left five years ago ... but they must be behind us somewhere.”
(Via Tim Blair.)
UPDATE
Reader McScruff is one of many readers to note:
But, if I recall properly, the A & C populations of that planet were wiped out by a ‘particularly nasty virus contracted from a dirty telephone’ because the telephone cleaners had all been sent off in the B ship.
National Geographic shows “100 metres” Williams exaggerated. But so did the magazine
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (6:40am)
ABC
science presenter Robyn Williams has never apologised for claiming in
2007 that global warming could make the seas rise 100 metres this
century:
But even that seems a wild exaggeration, even if we ignore the fact that the planet’s atmosphere hasn’t warmed for 15 years.
Samuel J does the maths involved in a melting of every bit of ice on the planet and concludes:
===Andrew Bolt: I’m telling you, there’s a lot of fear out there. So what I do is, when I see an outlandish claim being made...so Tim Flannery suggesting rising seas this next century eight stories high, Professor Mike Archer, dean of engineering at the University of NSW…Now National Geographic tries the same scare, but says a full melting would actually take at least 5000 years, not 93, and raise the seas, 70 metres, not 100:
Robyn Williams: Dean of science.
Andrew Bolt: Dean of science...suggesting rising seas this next century of up to 100 metres, or Al Gore six metres. When I see things like that I know these are false. You mentioned the IPCC report; that suggests, at worst on best scenarios, 59 centimetres.
Robyn Williams: Well, whether you take the surge or whether you take the actual average rise are different things.
Andrew Bolt: I ask you, Robyn, 100 metres in the next century...do you really think that?
Robyn Williams: It is possible, yes.
The interactive maps - released by National Geographic - demonstrate the catastrophic effect Earth’s ice could cause if it melted and flowed into the oceans and seas… Sea levels could rise by nearly 70 metres, devouring cities - such as New York - and even countries while drastically altering continents.,,
“There are more than five million cubic miles of ice on Earth, and some scientists say it would take more than 5000 years to melt it all,’’ National Geographic’s website says.
But even that seems a wild exaggeration, even if we ignore the fact that the planet’s atmosphere hasn’t warmed for 15 years.
Samuel J does the maths involved in a melting of every bit of ice on the planet and concludes:
That means that the surface area of the oceans increases from 361.8 million km2 to 367.98 million km2.
And the average depth increases from 3.68 to 3.75 km (ie 70 metres deeper).
The volume is therefore 3.75 * 367.98 = 1379.9 million km3.
Yet the total volume of water on the earth including ice is only 1366.2 million km3.
Therefore sea levels cannot increase by 70 metres.
If you use the same methodology, it can be shown that the maximum sea level increase is 50.3 metres.
And that assumes that all ice on earth has melted.
The probability of all of the ice on earth melting is many orders of magnitude less than a civilisation-destroying asteroid hitting the earth.
Sceptic John Howard gets warm review
Andrew Bolt November 09 2013 (12:37am)
Prominent climate scientist Judith Curry reviews John Howard’s speech on global warming, which he called a religion and exaggerated.
===It is difficult to argue against Howard’s 5 broad conclusions regarding climate policy; they seem eminently sensible…(Thanks to reader Steve.)
The nexus between religion and global warming is an interesting one. The dogma associated with global warming was discussed in a number of my previous posts...
First off, Tacloban City is devastated. The city is a horrid landscape of smashed buildings and completely defoliated trees, with widespread looting and unclaimed bodies decaying in the open air. The typhoon moved fast and didn't last long-- only a few hours-- but it struck the city with absolutely terrifying ferocity. At the height of the storm, as the wind rose to a scream, as windows exploded and as our solid-concrete downtown hotel trembled from the impact of flying debris, as pictures blew off the walls and as children became hysterical, a tremendous storm surge swept the entire downtown. Waterfront blocks were reduced to heaps of rubble. In our hotel, trapped first-floor guests smashed the windows of their rooms to keep from drowning and screamed for help, and we had to drop our cameras and pull them out on mattresses and physically carry the elderly and disabled to the second floor. Mark's leg was ripped open by a piece of debris and he'll require surgery. The city has no communication with the outside world. The hospitals are overflowing with the critically injured. The surrounding communities are mowed down. After a bleak night in a hot, pitch-black, trashed hotel, James, Mark, and I managed to get out of the city on a military chopper and get to Cebu via a C-130-- sitting next to corpses in body bags. Meteorologically, Super Typhoon HAIYAN was fascinating; from a human-interest standpoint, it was utterly ghastly. It's been difficult to process.
===
Initiation. — at Paul's Valley, OK
===
Another week has flown past.......and here is another completed handmade Diamond Engagement Ring.....featuring a triple excellent cut Round Brilliant Cut Diamond with a channel set band — at Diamond Imports.
===
===
===
===
Allyson Christy.
"According to a recent UN-commissioned report, 115,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions of others have been displaced in the past two years. Approximately 4.4 million Syrians are now living in extreme poverty, with half of the country unemployed.
Syria’s neighboring country, Israel, has been quietly aiding refugees, both sending supplies and providing Israeli hospital care and medical treatment to wounded Syrians – children and adults – caught in the crossfire.
The Israeli non-profit, IsraAid, has sent approximately $100,000 worth of supplies throughout the past year, and other Israeli groups comprised of private citizens, such as Hand in Hand, have also collected and sent clothing and supplies to Syrian refugees located in Jordan. IsraAid recently sent sacks of dry goods filled with lentils, powdered milk, pasta, and tea to Syrian refugees in Jordan.
The question remains whether the international community will take a loud and effective stand on the Syrian situation, or will allow Assad to continue to exert brutality and violence against his people." - Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency
Syria’s neighboring country, Israel, has been quietly aiding refugees, both sending supplies and providing Israeli hospital care and medical treatment to wounded Syrians – children and adults – caught in the crossfire.
The Israeli non-profit, IsraAid, has sent approximately $100,000 worth of supplies throughout the past year, and other Israeli groups comprised of private citizens, such as Hand in Hand, have also collected and sent clothing and supplies to Syrian refugees located in Jordan. IsraAid recently sent sacks of dry goods filled with lentils, powdered milk, pasta, and tea to Syrian refugees in Jordan.
The question remains whether the international community will take a loud and effective stand on the Syrian situation, or will allow Assad to continue to exert brutality and violence against his people." - Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency
The liver's ability to naturally regenerate could make it an ideal candidate for bioprinting -- the field of using 3D-printing technology to print living cells layer by layer with computer-guided precision.
How does it work? http://oak.ctx.ly/r/gw5n
===
===
Read more: http://bit.ly/
#DrPhil
===
===
"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son."
===
Dai Le
At Malthouse Theatre.
===
I met Secretary Kerry right before he leaves to Geneva. I reminded him that he said that no deal is better than a bad deal. And the deal that is being discussed in Geneva right now is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. Iran is not required to take apart even one centrifuge.
But the international community is relieving sanctions on Iran for the first time after many years. Iran gets everything that it wanted at this stage and pays nothing. And this is when Iran is under severe pressure. I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign, to wait, to reconsider, to get a good deal. But this is a bad deal, a very, very, bad deal.
It’s the deal of a century for Iran; it’s a very dangerous and bad deal for peace and the international community."
===
===
Dean Hamstead
Find a job or collect the dole. But there's a third option, create your own job and then create jobs for others.
===James Calore
New food group
===
50TH EPISODE NEWS! We can confirm that 'The Day of the Doctor' will air at 7.50pm GMT on 23 November. Mark the time in your diaries!#SaveTheDay http://bbc.in/HCQtKa
===
Here’s a sneak peek from ‘The Day of the Doctor’ – and the Doctor and Clara are shown something that doesn't seem possible...http://bbc.in/1hSQdET #SaveTheDay
===
Pastor Rick Warren
"We won't be judged on all the bad decisions we made but on whether we made the right decision to trust Jesus" @nateheitzig
=
===
being single is one - ed===
I am proud to announce that
Over 1550 people of all ages and faiths from 54 nations are joining together to show their support for Israel at our virtual (online) rally. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the people and leaders of Israel at this critical time.
Israel is on the front lines in our struggle to defeat terrorism and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Remember -- the opposite of love is not hate -- it is apathy.
Please join us ............
Thank You - G-d Bless You - G-d Bless Israel>
https://www.facebook.com/events/517558741659380/
===
The Storm Front
I shot this out of my window while doing 80+ mph along Hwy 44 between Chickasha and Newcastle, Oklahoma back on May 21st.
The day before this kicked my butt in Paul's Valley, and the news of Moore being obliterated dampened my excitement about storm chasing for the time being.
So I wasn't searching for a storm to chase on this day... I was actually heading to my favorite BBQ drive-in in Spencer before heading to DFW to catch my flight back home when I saw this black mass to my left.
It was a lovely little chase that saw some great structure and thankfully didn't produce a tornado over the metro areas... but that was yet to come a week later.
— at H.E. Bailey Turnpike/Interstate 44.I shot this out of my window while doing 80+ mph along Hwy 44 between Chickasha and Newcastle, Oklahoma back on May 21st.
The day before this kicked my butt in Paul's Valley, and the news of Moore being obliterated dampened my excitement about storm chasing for the time being.
So I wasn't searching for a storm to chase on this day... I was actually heading to my favorite BBQ drive-in in Spencer before heading to DFW to catch my flight back home when I saw this black mass to my left.
It was a lovely little chase that saw some great structure and thankfully didn't produce a tornado over the metro areas... but that was yet to come a week later.
===
===
We must share some tragic news regarding Iran. Today, Iran's deputy foreign minister said that the P5+1 world powers, including the United States, have "accepted the framework" of proposals made by Iran in the Geneva talks.
The agreement would "slow down" elements of Iran's nuclear activity in return for the easing of sanctions on Iran.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said the Geneva proposals "would ease the pressure on Iran" in return for empty concessions that would still "allow Iran to retain the capabilities to make nuclear weapons". He called this a "mistake of historic proportions" which must be completely rejected.
We agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu that only a complete elimination of Iran's nuclear program is acceptable. Now is the time to keep the pressure on Iran by increasing the sanctions.
We URGE you to sign the petition to President Obama and world leaders to keep the pressure on Iran. Once you sign, it is critical to send it to everyone you know via email, facebook, twitter and any other means.
Click below to sign the petition. This is urgent and Israel needs your help now!
Sign here --> http://www.stopiran.org/
If you have already signed, click below to SHARE:
http://www.stopiran.org/thankyou.php
You can also FORWARD this email right now to the contacts in your address book.
The international community must keep the pressure on Iran by imposing harsher sanctions and demanding that its nuclear program be completely dismantled. A nuclear Iran is a threat not only to Israel but to the entire free world.
We thank you for standing United with Israel at this critical time.
With Blessings of Peace,
The 'United with Israel' Family
PS - Here are some other important ways you can help:
CLICK BELOW TO DONATE:
https://donate.unitedwithisrael.org/
SEND A MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Call the White House at +1-202-456-1111
Send a letter to President Obama -->http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call
Send an Email --> http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
SIGN THE PETITION TO KEEP THE PRESSURE ON IRAN:
http://www.stopiran.org/
===
===
Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
Father,I thank You for Your faithfulness even when I am unfaithful. Thank You for drawing me close to You when I feel discouraged. Today, I choose to lift up my eyes to You for You are my source of strength and help. You are the Author and Finisher of my faith in Jesus’ name. Amen.=
Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.
(Genesis 30:22, NIV)
Our God is so loving, so merciful, so faithful. Even when we become too discouraged to believe, God does not forget what He promised. Maybe you feel discouraged today. Maybe your life hasn’t turned out the way you had hoped. Maybe you prayed, believed and worked hard, and it didn’t work out. Now you’re thinking, “Hey, I’m never going to be happy again. I’ll never be married. I’ll never accomplish my dreams.”
Remember today, not only does God remember you, He remembers the promise He placed within you. He knows what He’s destined you to do. You may have already said, “Forget it; it’s never going to happen.” The good news is that you don’t have the final say. God has the final say, and He says, “What I started in your life, I’m going to finish.” That dream you gave up on, God didn’t give up on. He remembers you, and He is with you, leading you and guiding you to the place of victory.God bless you.
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
Hours after Secretary of State Kerry went on TV and warned of a potential violent Palestinian 'third intifada', this.
An Israeli couple were lucky to escape with their lives after their car was firebombed. The car was burnt to a crisp; it's the 3rd attack on Israelis in under 24 hours.
Read More: http://
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who were targeted in these senseless, violent terror attacks.
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© Copyright 2013 United with Israel. All Rights Reserved |
|
|
November 9: Inventors' Day in Austria, Germany and Switzerland; Independence Day in Cambodia (1953);Muhammad Iqbal's Day in Pakistan
- 1799 – The coup of 18 Brumaire led byEmmanuel Joseph Sieyès and Napoleondeposed the French government, replacing the Directory with theConsulate.
- 1888 – Mary Jane Kelly was murdered inLondon, widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.
- 1913 – The "Big Blow" storm reached its maximum intensity in the Great Lakes Basin of North America, destroying 19 ships and 68,300 tons of cargo, and killing over 250 people.
- 1989 – East Germany announced the opening of theinner German border and the Berlin Wall, marking the symbolic end of the Cold War, impending collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and beginning of the end of Soviet communism.
- 1998 – With the passing of the Human Rights Act, the United Kingdom abolished capital punishment for all criminal offences.
Events[edit]
- 694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery.
- 1282 – Pope Martin IV excommunicates King Peter III of Aragon.
- 1313 – Louis the Bavarian defeats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gamelsdorf.
- 1330 – At the Battle of Posada, the Wallachian Voivode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army ofCharles I Robert.
- 1456 – Ulrich II of Celje (Slovene: Ulrik Celjski, German Ulrich von Cilli, Hungarian: Cillei Ulrik), lastprince of Celje principality, is assassinated in Belgrade.
- 1494 – The Family de' Medici are expelled from Florence.
- 1520 – More than 50 people are sentenced and executed in the Stockholm Bloodbath
- 1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- 1688 – Glorious Revolution: William of Orange captures Exeter.
- 1697 – Pope Innocent XII founds the city of Cervia.
- 1720 – The synagogue of Yehudah he-Hasid is burned down by Arab creditors, leading to the expulsion of the Ashkenazim from Jerusalem.
- 1729 – Spain, France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Seville.
- 1764 – Mary Campbell, a captive of the Lenape during the French and Indian War, is turned over to forces commanded by ColonelHenry Bouquet.
- 1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Fishdam Ford a force of British and Loyalist troops fail in a surprise attack against the South Carolina Patriot militia under Brigadier General Thomas Sumter.
- 1791 – Foundation of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen.
- 1793 – William Carey reaches the Hooghly River.
- 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming one of its three Consuls (Consulate Government).
- 1822 – The Action of 9 November 1822 between USS Alligator and a squadron of pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba.
- 1848 – Robert Blum, a German revolutionary, is executed in Vienna.
- 1851 – Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape.
- 1857 – The Atlantic is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1861 – The first documented football match in Canada is played at University College, University of Toronto.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, after George B. McClellan is removed.
- 1867 – Tokugawa Shogunate hands power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration.
- 1872 – The Great Boston Fire of 1872.
- 1880 – A large earthquake strikes Zagreb and causes many casualties. One of them is the Zagreb Cathedral.
- 1883 – The Royal Winnipeg Rifles of the Canadian Forces (known then as the "90th Winnipeg Battalion of Rifles") is founded.
- 1887 – The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
- 1888 – Mary Jane Kelly is murdered in London, widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killerJack the Ripper.
- 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.
- 1907 – The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.
- 1913 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people.
- 1914 – SMS Emden is sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cocos.
- 1917 – Joseph Stalin enters the provisional government of Bolshevik Russia.
- 1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic.
- 1921 – The Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF), National Fascist Party, comes into existence.
- 1923 – In Munich, Germany, police and government troops crush the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. The failed coup is the work of theNazis.
- 1935 – The Congress of Industrial Organizations is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by eight trade unions belonging to theAmerican Federation of Labor.
- 1937 – Japanese troops take control of Shanghai, China.
- 1938 – The Nazi German diplomat Ernst vom Rath dies from the fatal gunshot wounds of Jewish resistance fighter Herschel Grynszpan, an act which the Nazis used as an excuse to instigate the 1938 national pogrom, also known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night).
- 1940 – Warsaw is awarded the Virtuti Militari.
- 1953 – Cambodia gains independence from France.
- 1960 – Robert McNamara is named president of Ford Motor Co., the first non-Ford to serve in that post. A month later, he resigned to join the administration of newly elected John F. Kennedy.
- 1963 – At Miike coal mine, Miike, Japan, an explosion kills 458, and hospitalises 839 with carbon monoxide poisoning.
- 1965 – Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965.
- 1965 – The Catholic Worker Movement member Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.
- 1967 – Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft atop the first Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
- 1967 – The first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine is published.
- 1970 – Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6 to 3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.
- 1979 – Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Marylanddetected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
- 1985 – Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.
- 1989 – Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in eastern Europe including Russia.
- 1993 – Stari most, the "old bridge" in Bosnian Mostar built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing.
- 1994 – The chemical element Darmstadtium is discovered.
- 1998 – A US federal judge orders 37 US brokerage houses to pay 1.03 billion USD to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate forprice-fixing. This is the largest civil settlement in United States history.
- 1998 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences.
- 2005 – The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
- 2005 – Suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people.
- 2007 – The German Bundestag passes the controversial data retention bill mandating storage of citizens' telecommunications traffic data for six months without probable cause.
Births[edit]
- 1389 – Isabella of Valois (d. 1409)
- 1414 – Albrecht III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1486)
- 1522 – Martin Chemnitz, German theologian (d. 1586)
- 1606 – Hermann Conring, German philosopher (d. 1681)
- 1664 – Johann Speth, German organist and composer (d. 1719)
- 1664 – Henry Wharton, English librarian and author (d. 1695)
- 1697 – Claudio Casciolini, Italian composer (d. 1760)
- 1719 – Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani, Italian academic, priest, and theoretician (d. 1796)
- 1721 – Mark Akenside, English physician and poet (d. 1770)
- 1723 – Anna Amalia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (d. 1787)
- 1731 – Benjamin Banneker, American scientist and author (d. 1806)
- 1732 – Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse, French businesswoman (d. 1776)
- 1799 – Gustav, Prince of Vasa (d. 1877)
- 1801 – Gail Borden, American publisher and inventor, invented condensed milk (d. 1874)
- 1802 – Elijah Parish Lovejoy, American minister, journalist, and activist (d. 1837)
- 1810 – Bernhard von Langenbeck, German surgeon (d. 1887)
- 1818 – Ivan Turgenev, Russian author and playwright (d. 1883)
- 1825 – A. P. Hill, American general (d. 1865)
- 1829 – Peter Lumsden, English general (d. 1918)
- 1832 – Émile Gaboriau, French author and journalist (d. 1873)
- 1840 – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Premier of Quebec (d. 1898)
- 1841 – Edward VII of England (d. 1910)
- 1850 – Louis Lewin, German pharmacologist (d. 1929)
- 1853 – Stanford White, American architect, designed the Washington Square Arch (d. 1906)
- 1854 – Maud Howe Elliott, American writer (d. 1948)
- 1862 – Gigo Gabashvili, Georgian painter (d. 1936)
- 1869 – Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (d. 1934)
- 1872 – Bohdan Lepky, Ukrainian author and poet (d. 1941)
- 1873 – Otfrid Foerster, German neurologist (d. 1941)
- 1874 – Albert Francis Blakeslee, American botanist (d. 1954)
- 1877 – Enrico De Nicola, Italian politician, 1st President of the Italian Republic (d. 1959)
- 1877 – Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani philosopher, poet, and politician (d. 1938)
- 1878 – An Chang-ho, Korean activist (d. 1938)
- 1879 – Jenő Bory, Hungarian architect and sculptor (d. 1959)
- 1879 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian politician and author (d. 1931)
- 1880 – Giles Gilbert Scott, English architect, designed the red telephone box (d. 1960)
- 1883 – Edna May Oliver, American actress (d. 1942)
- 1885 – Theodor Kaluza, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1954)
- 1885 – Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1922)
- 1885 – Aureliano Pertile, Italian tenor (d. 1952)
- 1885 – Hermann Weyl, German mathematician (d. 1955)
- 1886 – S. O. Davies, Welsh politician (d. 1972)
- 1886 – Ed Wynn, American actor (d. 1966)
- 1888 – Jean Monnet, French economist and diplomat (d. 1979)
- 1890 – George Regas, Greek actor (d. 1940)
- 1892 – Mabel Normand, American silent film comedienne and actress (d. 1930)
- 1894 – Mae Marsh, film actress with a career spanning over 50 years (d. 1968)
- 1897 – Harvey Hendrick, American baseball player (d. 1941)
- 1897 – Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
- 1900 – Oskar Loorits, Estonian folklorist (d. 1961)
- 1902 – Anthony Asquith, English director (d. 1968)
- 1904 – Viktor Brack, German Nazi officer (d. 1948)
- 1904 – Heiti Talvik, Estonian poet (d. 1947)
- 1905 – Erika Mann, German actress and author (d. 1969)
- 1906 – Arthur Rudolph, German engineer (d. 1996)
- 1911 – Tabish Dehlvi, Pakistani poet (d. 2004)
- 1914 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-American actress (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Thomas Berry, American theologian and historian (d. 2009)
- 1915 – André François, Hungarian-French cartoonist (d. 2005)
- 1915 – Sargent Shriver, American politician, 21st United States Ambassador to France (d. 2011)
- 1918 – Spiro Agnew, American politician, 39th Vice President of the United States (d. 1996)
- 1918 – Thomas Ferebee, American bombardier (d. 2000)
- 1918 – Choi Hong Hi, South Korean general and martial artist, co-founder of taekwondo (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Byron De La Beckwith, American assassin of Medgar Evers (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Pierrette Alarie, Canadian soprano (d. 2011)
- 1921 – Viktor Chukarin, Soviet gymnast (d. 1984)
- 1922 – Dorothy Dandridge, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
- 1922 – Raymond Devos, Belgian-French comedian and clown (d. 2006)
- 1922 – Imre Lakatos, Hungarian philosopher (d. 1974)
- 1923 – Alice Coachman, American high jumper
- 1923 – Elizabeth Hawley, American journalist
- 1923 – James Schuyler, American poet (d. 1991)
- 1924 – Robert Frank, Swiss-American photographer and director
- 1925 – Alistair Horne, English-American historian
- 1926 – Luis Miguel Dominguín, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1996)
- 1928 – Anne Sexton, American poet (d. 1974)
- 1929 – Marc Favreau, Canadian actor and poet (d. 2005)
- 1929 – Imre Kertész, Hungarian author, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 – Whitey Herzog, American baseball player
- 1931 – George Witt, American baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Jim Perry, American-Canadian television host and singer
- 1934 – Ingvar Carlsson, Swedish politician, 29th Prime Minister of Sweden
- 1934 – Ronald Harwood, South African author and scriptwriter
- 1934 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer and author (d. 1996)
- 1935 – Bob Gibson, American baseball player
- 1936 – Bob Graham, American politician, 38th Governor of Florida
- 1936 – Teddy Infuhr, American actor (d. 2007)
- 1936 – Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player (d. 1992)
- 1936 – Mary Travers, American singer-songwriter (Peter, Paul and Mary) (d. 2009)
- 1937 – Cliff Bole, American television director
- 1937 – Roger McGough, English poet
- 1937 – Clyde Wells, Canadian politician, 5th Premier of Newfoundland
- 1938 – Ti-Grace Atkinson, American author
- 1939 – Paul Cameron, American psychologist
- 1941 – Tom Fogerty, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Creedence Clearwater Revival and Ruby) (d. 1990)
- 1942 – Tom Weiskopf, American golfer
- 1944 – Phil May, English singer-songwriter (The Pretty Things)
- 1945 – Richard Goldberg, American sex offender
- 1945 – Moeletsi Mbeki, South African economist
- 1946 – Benny Mardones, American singer-songwriter
- 1947 – Robert David Hall, American actor
- 1948 – Bille August, Danish director
- 1948 – Henrik S. Järrel, Swedish politician
- 1948 – Michel Pagliaro, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1948 – Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazilian footballer and manager
- 1948 – Joe Bouchard, American bassist (Blue Öyster Cult)
- 1950 – Parekura Horomia, New Zealand politician, 40th Minister of Māori Affairs (d. 2013)
- 1951 – Lou Ferrigno, American bodybuilder and actor
- 1951 – Bill Mantlo, American writer
- 1952 – Sherrod Brown, American politician
- 1952 – Jim Riggleman, American baseball manager
- 1953 – Gaétan Hart, Canadian boxer
- 1953 – Rhetta Hughes, American singer and actress
- 1954 – Sukekiyo Kameyama, Japanese voice actor (d. 2013)
- 1954 – Shankar Nag, Indian actor and director
- 1954 – Dennis Stratton, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Iron Maiden, Praying Mantis, and Lionheart)
- 1954 – Sue Upton, English actress and dancer
- 1955 – Karen Dotrice, English actress
- 1955 – Thomas F. Duffy, American actor
- 1955 – Fernando Meirelles, Brazilian director
- 1955 – Bob Nault, Canadian politician
- 1959 – Nick Hamilton, American wrestling referee
- 1959 – Sito Pons, Spanish motorcycle racer
- 1959 – Thomas Quasthoff, German opera singer
- 1959 – Tony Slattery, English actor
- 1960 – Andreas Brehme, German footballer
- 1960 – Joëlle Ursull, Caribbean singer
- 1961 – Jill Dando, English journalist (d. 1999)
- 1962 – Teryl Rothery, Canadian actress
- 1963 – Fulvio Fantoni, Italian bridge player
- 1964 – Robert Duncan McNeill, American actor
- 1965 – Andrei Lapushkin, Russian football player
- 1965 – Bryn Terfel, Welsh opera singer
- 1967 – Daphne Guinness, an artist of both British and Irish nationality
- 1967 – Ricky Otto, English footballer
- 1968 – Nazzareno Carusi, Italian pianist
- 1969 – Roxanne Shanté, American Hip hop pioneer
- 1969 – Allison Wolfe, American singer-songwriter (Bratmobile, Cold Cold Hearts, and Partyline)
- 1970 – Domino, American DJ and producer (Hieroglyphics)
- 1970 – Scarface, American rapper (Geto Boys)
- 1970 – Nelson Diebel, American swimmer
- 1970 – Guido Görtzen, Dutch volleyball player
- 1970 – Bill Guerin, American ice hockey player
- 1970 – Chris Jericho, American-Canadian wrestler, singer-songwriter, and actor (Fozzy)
- 1970 – Susan Tedeschi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Tedeschi Trucks Band)
- 1971 – David Duval, American golfer
- 1971 – Melinda Kinnaman, Swedish actress
- 1971 – Big Pun, American rapper (Terror Squad) (d. 2000)
- 1971 – Sabri Lamouchi, French footballer, coach and manager
- 1972 – Eric Dane, American actor
- 1972 – Doug Russell, American radio host
- 1972 – Naomi Shindō, Japanese voice actress
- 1972 – Corin Tucker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sleater-Kinney, Heavens to Betsy, and Cadallaca)
- 1973 – Alyson Court, Canadian actress
- 1973 – Nick Lachey, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (98 Degrees)
- 1973 – Gabrielle Miller, Canadian actress
- 1973 – Zisis Vryzas, Greek footballer
- 1974 – Joe C., American rapper (d. 2000)
- 1974 – Alessandro Del Piero, Italian footballer
- 1974 – Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Italian actress
- 1977 – Chris Morgan, English footballer
- 1977 – Omar Trujillo, Mexican footballer
- 1978 – Sisqó, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (Dru Hill)
- 1978 – Steven López, American martial artist
- 1979 – Adam Dunn, American baseball player
- 1979 – Martin Taylor, English footballer
- 1980 – James Harper, English footballer
- 1980 – Dominique Maltais, Canadian snowboarder
- 1980 – Vanessa Minnillo, Filipino-American television host and actress
- 1981 – Lyn, South Korean singer
- 1981 – Jobi McAnuff, Jamaican footballer
- 1981 – Scottie Thompson, American actress
- 1981 – Eyedea, American hip-hop artist
- 1982 – Boaz Myhill, Welsh footballer
- 1982 – Jana Pittman, Australian hurdler
- 1983 – Rob Elloway, German rugby player
- 1983 – Ted Potter, Jr., American golfer
- 1984 – Seven, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor
- 1984 – Delta Goodrem, Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress
- 1984 – Ku Hye-sun, South Korean actress
- 1984 – Joel Zumaya, American baseball player
- 1985 – Bakary Soumaré, Malian footballer
- 1986 – Carl Gunnarsson, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1987 – Raul Must, Estonian badminton player
- 1988 – Nikki Blonsky, American actress and singer
- 1988 – Analeigh Tipton, American model, actress and figure skater
- 1989 – Baptiste Giabiconi, French model and singer
- 1990 – Hodgy Beats, American rapper and producer (Odd Future and MellowHype)
- 1990 – Nosa Igiebor, Nigerian footballer
Deaths[edit]
- 959 – Constantine VII, Byzantine emperor (b. 905)
- 1187 – Emperor Gaozong of Song (b. 1107)
- 1208 – Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon (b. 1155)
- 1456 – Ulrich II, Count of Celje (b. 1406)
- 1581 – Bayinnaung, Myanmar king (b. 1516)
- 1623 – William Camden, English historian (b. 1551)
- 1641 – Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria (b. 1610)
- 1677 – Aert van der Neer, Dutch painter (b. 1603)
- 1699 – Hortense Mancini, English mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1646)
- 1766 – Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Dutch diplomat and composer (b. 1692)
- 1770 – John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1693)
- 1778 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian illustrator (b. 1720)
- 1801 – Carl Stamitz, German-Czech composer (b. 1745)
- 1809 – Paul Sandby, English cartographer (b. 1725)
- 1848 – Robert Blum, German politician (b. 1810)
- 1881 – Edwin Drake, American oil driller (b. 1819)
- 1888 – Mary Jane Kelly, English victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1863)
- 1911 – Howard Pyle, American illustrator and author (b. 1853)
- 1918 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (b. 1880)
- 1918 – Peter Lumsden, English general (b. 1829)
- 1919 – Eduard Müller, Swiss politician, President of Switzerland (b. 1848)
- 1924 – Henry Cabot Lodge, American politician (b. 1850)
- 1932 – Basil Spalding de Garmendia, American tennis player (b. 1860)
- 1937 – Ramsay MacDonald, Scottish politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1866)
- 1938 – Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b. 1889)
- 1940 – Stephen Alencastre, Portuguese bishop (b. 1876)
- 1940 – Neville Chamberlain, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1869)
- 1942 – Edna May Oliver, American actress (b. 1883)
- 1944 – Frank Marshall, American chess player (b. 1877)
- 1951 – Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-American composer (b. 1887)
- 1952 – Philip Murray, Scottish-American labor leader (b. 1886)
- 1952 – Chaim Weizmann, Israeli politician, 1st President of Israel (b. 1874)
- 1953 – Ibn Saud, Saudi Arabian king (b. 1880)
- 1953 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)
- 1955 – André Rischmann, French rugby player (b. 1882)
- 1956 – Aino Kallas, Finnish-Estonian author (b. 1878)
- 1957 – Peter O'Connor, Irish long jumper (b. 1872)
- 1962 – Dhondo Keshav Karve, Indian activist (b. 1858)
- 1968 – Jan Johansson, Swedish pianist (b. 1931)
- 1970 – Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician, President of France (b. 1890)
- 1971 – Maude Fealy, American actress (b. 1883)
- 1976 – Armas Taipale, Finnish discus thrower (b. 1890)
- 1977 – Fred Haney, American baseball player (b. 1898)
- 1980 – Victor Sen Yung, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1985 – Marie-Georges Pascal, French actress (b. 1946)
- 1988 – David Bauer, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1924)
- 1988 – John N. Mitchell, American politician, 67th United States Attorney General (b. 1913)
- 1988 – Rosemary Timperley, British author (b. 1920)
- 1991 – Yves Montand, French actor (b. 1921)
- 1992 – Charles Fraser-Smith, English missionary and author (b. 1904)
- 1992 – William Hillcourt, Danish author (b. 1900)
- 1992 – T. Sivasithamparam, Sri Lankan Tamil politician (b. 1926)
- 1993 – Ross Andru, American comics artist and editor (b. 1925)
- 1996 – Joe Ghiz, Canadian politician, 27th Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1945)
- 1997 – Helenio Herrera, French footballer and coach (b. 1910)
- 1998 – Ursula Reit, German actress (b. 1914)
- 2000 – Hugh Paddick, English actor (b. 1915)
- 2001 – Niels Jannasch, Canadian historian (b. 1924)
- 2001 – Giovanni Leone, Italian politician, 6th President of Italy (b. 1908)
- 2002 – Merlin Santana, American actor (b. 1976)
- 2002 – William Schutz, American psychologist (b. 1925)
- 2003 – Art Carney, American actor (b. 1918)
- 2003 – Gordon Onslow Ford, English painter (b. 1912)
- 2003 – Binod Bihari Verma, Indian doctor and author (b. 1937)
- 2004 – Iris Chang, Asian author (b. 1968)
- 2004 – Emlyn Hughes, English football player (b. 1947)
- 2004 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish journalist and author (b. 1954)
- 2005 – K. R. Narayanan, Indian politician, 10th President of India (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Ed Bradley, American journalist (b. 1941)
- 2006 – Ellen Willis, American journalist (b. 1941)
- 2006 – Markus Wolf, German intelligence director (b. 1923)
- 2008 – Huda bin Abdul Haq, Indonesian terrorist (b. 1960)
- 2008 – Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Indonesian terrorist (b. 1962)
- 2008 – Imam Samudra, Indonesian terrorist (b. 1970)
- 2012 – Leaford Bearskin, American tribal leader and air force officer (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Milan Čič, Slovak lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Slovak Socialist Republic (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Iurie Darie, Romanian actor (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Joseph D. Early, American politician (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Valerie Eliot, English editor (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Major Harris, American singer (The Delfonics) (b. 1947)
- 2012 – Helen Mussallem, Canadian nurse (b. 1914)
- 2012 – Sergey Nikolsky, Russian mathematician (b. 1905)
- 2012 – Billy O'Brien, American politician (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Jim Sinclair, Canadian politician (b. 1933)
- 2012 – James L. Stone, American army officer (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Bill Tarmey, English actor and singer (b. 1941)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Birthday of Muhammad Iqbal (Pakistan)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Dedication of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, Cathedral of the Pope (memorial feast day)
- Theodore of Amasea (Roman Catholic Church)
- Vitonus
- Benignus of Armagh
- Margery Kempe (Anglican)
- Martin Chemnitz (Lutheran)
- November 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Day of the Skulls or Dia de los ñatitas (Bolivia)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Cambodia from France in 1953.
- Inventors' Day (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
- Schicksalstag (Germany)
- World Freedom Day (United States)
“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.””Joshua 24:15 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord."
Colossians 2:6
Colossians 2:6
The life of faith is represented as receiving--an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours his salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us--a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that his life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him. All this is to receive Christ--to take him as God's free gift; to realize him in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine.
Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received him, and appropriated him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him!
Evening
"The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?"
Mark 14:14
Mark 14:14
Jerusalem at the time of the passover was one great inn; each householder had invited his own friends, but no one had invited the Saviour, and he had no dwelling of his own. It was by his own supernatural power that he found himself an upper room in which to keep the feast. It is so even to this day--Jesus is not received among the sons of men save only where by his supernatural power and grace he makes the heart anew. All doors are open enough to the prince of darkness, but Jesus must clear a way for himself or lodge in the streets. It was through the mysterious power exerted by our Lord that the householder raised no question, but at once cheerfully and joyfully opened his guestchamber. Who he was, and what he was, we do not know, but he readily accepted the honour which the Redeemer proposed to confer upon him. In like manner it is still discovered who are the Lord's chosen, and who are not; for when the gospel comes to some, they fight against it, and will not have it, but where men receive it, welcoming it, this is a sure indication that there is a secret work going on in the soul, and that God has chosen them unto eternal life. Are you willing, dear reader, to receive Christ? then there is no difficulty in the way; Christ will be your guest; his own power is working with you, making you willing. What an honour to entertain the Son of God! The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and yet he condescends to find a house within our hearts! We are not worthy that he should come under our roof, but what an unutterable privilege when he condescends to enter! for then he makes a feast, and causes us to feast with him upon royal dainties, we sit at a banquet where the viands are immortal, and give immortality to those who feed thereon. Blessed among the sons of Adam is he who entertains the angels' Lord.
===
Today's reading: Jeremiah 43-45, Hebrews 5 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 43-45
1 When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them— 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ 3 But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”
4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah. 5 Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. 6They also led away all those whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan—the men, the women, the children and the king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah along with them. 7 So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the LORD and went as far as Tahpanhes.
8 In Tahpanhes the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 9“While the Jews are watching, take some large stones with you and bury them in clay in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes.10 Then say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them. 11 He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword. 12 He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn their temples and take their gods captive. As a shepherd picks his garment clean of lice, so he will pick Egypt clean and depart. 13 There in the temple of the sun in Egypt he will demolish the sacred pillars and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt....’”
Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 5
1 Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.4 And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”
today I have become your Father.”
6 And he says in another place,
“You are a priest forever,in the order of Melchizedek....”
===
Gideon, Gedeon
[Gĭd'eon, Gĕd'e on] - a cutting down, he that bruises or great warrior. A son of Joash of the family of Abiezer, a Manassite, who lived in Ophrah and delivered Israel from Midian. He is also called Jerubbaal, and judged Israel forty years as the fifth judge (Judg. 6; 7; 8).
[Gĭd'eon, Gĕd'e on] - a cutting down, he that bruises or great warrior. A son of Joash of the family of Abiezer, a Manassite, who lived in Ophrah and delivered Israel from Midian. He is also called Jerubbaal, and judged Israel forty years as the fifth judge (Judg. 6; 7; 8).
The Man of Might and Valor
Without doubt Gideon is among the brightest luminaries of Old Testament history. His character and call are presented in a series of tableaux. We see:
I. Gideon at the flail. The tall, powerful young man was threshing wheat for his farmer-father when the call came to him to rise and become the deliverer of his nation. History teaches that obscurity of birth is no obstacle to noble service. It was no dishonor for Gideon to say, "My family is poor."
II. Gideon at the altar. Although humble and industrious, Gideon was God-fearing. His own father had become an idolator but idols had to go, and Gideon vowed to remove them. No wonder they called him Jerubbaal, meaning "Discomfiter of Baal."
III. Gideon and the fleece. Facing the great mission of his life, he had to have an assuring token that God was with him. The method he adopted was peculiar, but found favor with heaven, God condescending to grant Gideon the double sign. With the complete revelation before us in the Bible, we are not to seek supernatural signs, but take God at his Word.
IV. Gideon at the well. How fascinating is the incident of the reduction of Gideon's army from thirty-two thousand to ten thousand, then to only three hundred. Three hundred men against the countless swarms of Midian! Yes, but the few choice, brave, active men and God were in the majority. God is not always on the side of big battalions.
V. Gideon with the whip. Rough times often need and warrant rough measures. The men of Succoth and Penuel made themselves obnoxious, but with a whip fashioned out of the thorny branches off the trees, Gideon meted out to them the punishment they deserved.
VI. Gideon in the gallery of worthies. It was no small honor to have a niche, as Gideon has, in the illustrious roll named in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where every name is an inspiration, and every character a miracle of grace.
Preachers desiring to continue the character-study of Gideon still further might note his humility (Judg. 6:15); caution (Judg. 6:17); spirituality (Judg. 6:24); obedience (Judg. 6:27); divine inspiration ( Judg. 6:34); divine fellowship (Judg. 6:36; 7:4, 7-9); strategy (Judg. 7:16-18); tact (Judg. 8:1-3); loyalty to God (Judg. 8:23); the fact that he was weakened by his very prosperity (Judg. 8:24-31).
===
|
===
|
===
|
===
GOD’S ATTRIBUTES- HE KNOWS
Because God is personal, he is a knowing being. His mind perceives truth and defines truth. He embraces us with a knowledge that is not just stored information in a Super-Divine File, but is an extension of love. His knowledge holds us.
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain" (Psalm 139:1-5).
Psalm 147:5 says God's "understanding has no limit." "Nothing is hidden from God's sight" (Hebrews 4:13). When you pray, you can be assured that "the Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8). He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows you better than you know yourself. God's omniscience is our comfort.
Because God's all-knowing character is an extension of his personality, the Bible is not a mystery book of hidden secrets, and ministers of the gospel of Christ are not soothsayers or crystal-ball gazers. This knowledge is about the way things have been, about the way things are, and about the way things will be-as they must-depending on how we respond to God's direction.
Christianity is not a horoscope with saints names attached. It is a way of life and a view of the world as it was, is, and will be. Many things that God knows remain secrets or mysteries to us. But many other things are uncovered, especially the consequences of the weighty spiritual and moral decisions we make every day.
God knows everything. Only God knows everything. And only God knows everything about us. That should give us healthy fear (respect), and great assurance.
Excerpt from Putting the Pieces Back Together: How Real Life and Real Faith Connect. Click for more.
| |
ADVERTISEMENT
| Resources
|
===
No comments:
Post a Comment