===
In 215 BC a temple was built on Capitoline hill in Rome, dedicated to Venus. Rome was terrified. They had lost a battle to Hannibal, and so sent out another army, and at Trasimene that second army was slaughtered. Hannibal with his mounted men, including elephants, and a mixture of Iberians, Gauls and Phoenicians. It was the successful part of the second punic war for Carthage. A year later Romans would again be slaughtered at Cannae, leaving Rome exposed to an attack Hannibal failed to make. Three years earlier in 218 BC, Roman troops were slaughtered at Trebbia River. At Trebbia, 42000 Romans faced Hannibal with 30000. Rome lost 32000 casualties. Scipio was supposed to e in charge, but Longus seems to have taken authority. Hannibal had placed himself in centre ground, preventing communication between Scipio and Longus. Longus fought through, and had 10000 men left after fighting through to the rear of Hannibal, having lost the rest.
But in 215, on this day, it was the second battle, Trasimene, where again Hannibal outplanned a superior force. This time, Hannibal with 55000 faced Flaminius with 30000. Flaminius had held a fortified position while Hannibal raided the countryside. Flaminius was exasperated and against all advice broke position to chase Hannibal. Hannibal led him to Trasimene Lake. There, Hannibal planned a surprise attack and is credited with having the largest force executing a surprise attack ever. Rome lost 15000 men and a desperate Rome turned to Venus to favour them. They elected a dictator, then realised that two consuls would be better. But that was to be their humiliation at Cannae.
In 1014, King Brian Boru was successful against Vikings, but was killed in battle at Clontarf. In 1348, King Edward III initiated the order of the garter. Their motto, Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense loosely translates as "Evil on the person who thinks evil." As knighthoods go, it should only be given to good people. Why would the king want his knights to gather around a garter? Note, it was St George's Day. In 1516, ingredients of Beer was defined. But they hadn't known about yeast. So they needed beer to make more beer. In 1951, a journalist was arrested by Czechoslovakian communists on charges of espionage. It was an outrageous threat to freedom of the press that the press accepted.
2014
Words have power, and a tremendous speech by the former US President Theodore Roosevelt delivered on this day in 1910 is compelling. It is not the critic, but the man in the arena who decides the course of the event. The speech goes for thirty five pages, and defines the success of GOP Presidency through the years. Nixon referred to it as he ascended to the Presidency, and as the door closed on it. Mandela gave it to his Rugby Captain before that match. There is no power without responsibility. When Rudd tried reckless spending as a policy, he failed. He had had the money to achieve much. He failed because it takes more than money. The man in the arena does not have to be perfect, but they have to have character, competence, intelligence and diligence to achieve the standard.
Five years later, and words lost a powerful friend with the passing of Rupert Brooke. He was a young poet who had achieved much in a very short time. He travelled with the fleet to Gallipolli, and died on the journey. He is buried in an olive field in Skyros, Greece. A year earlier he had written himself a deserving epitaph.
Five years later, and words lost a powerful friend with the passing of Rupert Brooke. He was a young poet who had achieved much in a very short time. He travelled with the fleet to Gallipolli, and died on the journey. He is buried in an olive field in Skyros, Greece. A year earlier he had written himself a deserving epitaph.
V. The Soldier
Rupert, on that final journey, was the man in the arena. His ghost has more wisdom, more life, grace compassion and understanding than President Obama's finest moment. Because, as Roosevelt observed, the man in the arena, not the critic, decides the course of the event.If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Historical perspectives on this day
In 1516, the Bayerische Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) was signed in Ingolstadt. 1521, Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeated the Comuneros. 1635, the first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, was founded in Boston. 1655, the Siege of Santo Domingo began during the Anglo-Spanish War, and failed seven days later. 1660, Treaty of Oliwa was established between Sweden and Poland. 1661, king Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland was crowned in Westminster Abbey. 1815, the Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupted shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.
In 1910, American President Theodore Roosevelt made his "The Man in the Arena" speech. 1914, first baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park in Chicago. 1918, World War I: The British Royal Navy made a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. 1920, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) was founded in Ankara, Turkey. It denounced the government of SultanMehmed VI and announced the preparation of a temporary constitution. 1927, Cardiff City defeated Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.
In 1932, the 153-year-old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, Netherlands burned down. It was rebuilt and reopened exactly 70 years later. 1935, the Polish Constitution of 1935 was adopted. 1940, the Rhythm Night Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, killed 198 people. 1941, World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuated Athens before the invading Wehrmacht. 1942, World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck. 1945, World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor Hermann Göring sent him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich, which caused Hitler to replace him with Joseph Goebbels and Karl Dönitz. 1946, Manuel Roxas was elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. 1949, Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy.
In 1951, American journalist William N. Oatis was arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. 1955, the Canadian Labour Congress was formed by the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour. 1961, Algiers putsch by French generals. 1967, Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1) a manned spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov was launched into orbit. 1968, Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City took over administration buildings and shut down the university. 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
In 1985, Coca-Cola changed its formula and released New Coke. The response was overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula was back on the market in less than three months. 1990, Namibia became the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 1993, Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum. Also 1993, Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali was assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province. 1997, Omaria massacre in Algeria: Forty-two villagers were killed. 2005, First YouTube video uploaded, titled "Me at the zoo". 2013, Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more.
===
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Jaimee Pham. Born on the same date Charles II was crowned king of England, Ireland and McLand in 1661. I don't believe in accidents.
- 1141 – Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165)
- 1484 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian physician and scholar (d. 1558)
- 1621 – William Penn, English admiral and politician (d. 1670)
- 1628 – Johannes Hudde, Dutch mathematician and politician (d. 1704)
- 1715 – Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer (d. 1797)
- 1858 – Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1953)
- 1894 – Cow Cow Davenport, American singer and pianist (d. 1955)
- 1899 – Minoru Shirota, Japanese scientist, inventor of Yakult (d. 1982)
- 1920 – Eric Yarrow, British businessman
- 1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Roy Orbison, American singer-songwriter (Traveling Wilburys) (d. 1988)
- 1942 – Sandra Dee, American model and actress (d. 2005)
- 1947 – Robert Burgess, British Vice–Chancellor of the University of Leicester
- 1947 – Glenn Cornick, English bass player (Jethro Tull and Paris)
- 1954 – Tony Atlas, American bodybuilder and wrestler
- 1958 – Gene Scheer, American songwriter
- 1997 – Alex Ferris, Canadian actor
Deaths
- 303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and martyr (b. 275)
- 871 – Æthelred of Wessex (b. 837)
- 1014 – Brian Boru, Irish king (b. 941)
- 1016 – Æthelred the Unready, English son of Edgar the Peaceful (b. 968)
- 1616 – William Shakespeare, English playwright and actor (b. 1564)
- 1850 – William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770)
- 1915 – Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
- 2005 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, New Zealand-Australian politician, 31st Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
April 23: St George's Day in various countries; Yom Ha'atzmaut in Israel (2015); Children's Day in Turkey
- 1348 – The first-ever appointments to the Order of the Garter, an order of chivalryfounded by King Edward III of England, were announced.
- 1661 – Charles II, King of England, Ireland, and Scotland was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
- 1918 – First World War: The British Royal Navy conducted a raid on the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge
- 1985 – The Coca-Cola Company introduced "New Coke" (pictured) to replace its flagship soft drink Coca-Cola, which generated so much negative response that the company put the previous formula back on the market less than three months later.
- 2009 – Gamma-ray burst GRB 090423 was detected, coming from the most distant known astronomical object of any kind at the time.
We have a garter. We have a crown. e conducted a raid. Our coke is new. Our enemies are distant objects. Let's party.
Matches
- 215 BC – A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.
- 599 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul attacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico, defeating queen Yohl Ik'nal and sacking the city.
- 711 – Dagobert III is crowned King of the Franks.
- 1014 – Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.
- 1016 – Edmund Ironside succeeds his father Æthelred the Unready as king of England.
- 1343 – St. George's Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia.
- 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St. George's Day.
- 1516 – The Bayerische Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) is signed in Ingolstadt.
- 1521 – Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
- 1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston.
- 1655 – The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later.
- 1660 – Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland.
- 1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
- 1815 – The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.
- 1910 – American President Theodore Roosevelt makes his "The Man in the Arena" speech.
- 1914 – First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park in Chicago.
- 1918 – World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.
- 1920 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) is founded in Ankara, Turkey. It denounces the government of SultanMehmed VI and announces the preparation of a temporary constitution.
- 1927 – Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.
- 1932 – The 153-year-old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, Netherlands burns down. It is rebuilt and reopens exactly 70 years later.
- 1935 – The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.
- 1940 – The Rhythm Night Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people.
- 1941 – World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.
- 1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
- 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor Hermann Göring sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich, which causes Hitler to replace him with Joseph Goebbels and Karl Dönitz.
- 1946 – Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
- 1949 – Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy.
- 1951 – American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.
- 1955 – The Canadian Labour Congress is formed by the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour.
- 1961 – Algiers putsch by French generals.
- 1967 – Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1) a manned spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov is launched into orbit.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
- 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
- 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
- 1990 – Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
- 1993 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
- 1993 – Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali is assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province.
- 1997 – Omaria massacre in Algeria: Forty-two villagers are killed.
- 2005 – First YouTube video uploaded, titled "Me at the zoo".
- 2013 – Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
Hatches
- 1141 – Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165)
- 1185 – Afonso II of Portugal (d. 1223)
- 1464 – Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (d. 1505)
- 1484 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian physician and scholar (d. 1558)
- 1500 – Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian (d. 1565)
- 1516 – Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian, and archaeologist (d. 1571)
- 1598 – Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral (d. 1653)
- 1621 – William Penn, English admiral and politician (d. 1670)
- 1628 – Johannes Hudde, Dutch mathematician and politician (d. 1704)
- 1715 – Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer (d. 1797)
- 1720 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi (d. 1797)
- 1744 – Princess Charlotte Amalie Wilhelmine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (d. 1770)
- 1746 – Félix Vicq-d'Azyr, French physician and anatomist (d. 1794)
- 1791 – James Buchanan, American politician, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868)
- 1792 – John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)
- 1794 – Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar (d. 1856)
- 1805 – Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, German philosopher (d. 1879)
- 1813 – Stephen A. Douglas, American politician (d. 1861)
- 1813 – Frédéric Ozanam, Italian-French historian and scholar (d. 1853)
- 1814 – Maria Brontë, eldest daughter of the Brontë family (d. 1825)
- 1823 – Abdülmecid I, Ottoman sultan (d. 1861)
- 1853 – Winthrop M. Crane, American businessman and politician, 40th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1920)
- 1857 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (d. 1919)
- 1858 – Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- 1858 – Ethel Smyth, English composer (d. 1944)
- 1860 – Justinian Oxenham, Australian public servant (d. 1932)
- 1861 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, English field marshal (d. 1936)
- 1861 – John Peltz, American baseball player (d. 1906)
- 1865 – Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Russian-Azerbaijani general (d. 1943)
- 1867 – Johannes Fibiger, Danish physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
- 1872 – Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, English pianist (d. 1951)
- 1876 – Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, German historian and author (d. 1925)
- 1880 – Michel Fokine, Russian dancer and choreographer (d. 1942)
- 1882 – Albert Coates, English composer and conductor (d. 1953)
- 1887 – Jenő Törzs, Hungarian actor (d. 1946)
- 1888 – Georges Vanier, Canadian general and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967)
- 1889 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942)
- 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1953)
- 1893 – Frank Borzage, American actor and director (d. 1952)
- 1894 – Cow Cow Davenport, American singer and pianist (d. 1955)
- 1895 – Johnny Hyde, Russian-American talent agent (d. 1950)
- 1895 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author and director (d. 1982)
- 1897 – Lucius D. Clay, American general (d. 1978)
- 1897 – Folke Jansson, Swedish triple jumper (d. 1965)
- 1897 – Lester B. Pearson, Canadian historian and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Canada, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- 1899 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-American author (d. 1977)
- 1899 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
- 1899 – Minoru Shirota, Japanese physician and microbiologist, invented Yakult (d. 1982)
- 1900 – Jim Bottomley, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1959)
- 1900 – Joseph Green, Polish-American actor and director (d. 1996)
- 1901 – E.B. Ford, English biologist and geneticist (d. 1988)
- 1902 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1903 – Guy Simonds, Canadian general (d. 1974)
- 1904 – Cliff Bricker, Canadian runner (d. 1980)
- 1904 – Louis Muhlstock, Canadian painter (d. 2001)
- 1904 – Duncan Renaldo, Romanian-American actor (d. 1985)
- 1907 – Lee Miller, American photographer and model (d. 1977)
- 1907 – Fritz Wotruba, Austrian sculptor, designed the Wotruba Church (d. 1975)
- 1908 – Myron Waldman, American animator and director (d. 2006)
- 1910 – Simone Simon, French actress (d. 2005)
- 1911 – Ronald Neame, English-American director, cinematographer, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1913 – Diosa Costello, Puerto Rican-American actress and singer (d. 2013)
- 1915 – Arnold Alexander Hall, English engineer, academic, and businessman (d. 2000)
- 1916 – Yiannis Moralis, Greek painter (d. 2009)
- 1917 – Dorian Leigh, American model (d. 2008)
- 1918 – Maurice Druon, French author (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Oleg Penkovsky, Russian colonel (d. 1963)
- 1920 – Eric Grant Yarrow, 3rd Baronet, English businessman
- 1921 – Cleto Bellucci, Italian archbishop (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Janet Blair, American actress (d. 2007)
- 1921 – Warren Spahn, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
- 1922 – Marjorie Cameron, American actress and occultist (d. 1995)
- 1922 – Jack May, English actor (d. 1997)
- 1923 – Dolph Briscoe, American politician, 41st Governor of Texas (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Avram Davidson, American author (d. 1993)
- 1923 – Antonino Rocca, Italian-American wrestler (d. 1977)
- 1924 – Chuck Harmon, American baseball player and scout
- 1924 – Bobby Rosengarden, American drummer and bandleader (d. 2007)
- 1926 – J.P. Donleavy, American-born Irish author and playwright
- 1926 – Rifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician (d. 1990)
- 1926 – Richard Laws, English mammalogist and academic (d. 2014)
- 1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat (d. 2014)
- 1929 – George Steiner, French-American philosopher, author, and critic
- 1930 – Michael Bowen, Gibraltarian-English archbishop
- 1930 – Alan Oppenheimer, American actor
- 1932 – Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
- 1932 – Jim Fixx, American runner and author (d. 1984)
- 1933 – Annie Easley, American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist (d. 2011)
- 1934 – George Canseco, Filipino composer (d. 2004)
- 1935 – Bunky Green, American saxophonist and educator
- 1936 – Roy Orbison, American singer-songwriter (Traveling Wilburys) (d. 1988)
- 1937 – Victoria Glendinning, English author and critic
- 1937 – David Mills, English cricketer (d. 2013)
- 1938 – S. Janaki, Indian singer
- 1939 – Jorge Fons, Mexican director and screenwriter
- 1939 – Bill Hagerty, English journalist
- 1939 – Lee Majors, American actor
- 1939 – Ray Peterson, American singer (d. 2005)
- 1940 – Michael Copps, American politician
- 1940 – Dale Houston, American singer (d. 2007)
- 1940 – Michael Kadosh, Israeli footballer and manager (d. 2014)
- 1941 – Jacqueline Boyer, French singer and actress
- 1941 – Paavo Lipponen, Finnish journalist and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Finland
- 1941 – Michael Lynne, American film producer, co-founded New Line Cinema
- 1941 – Ed Stewart, English radio and television host
- 1942 – Sandra Dee, American model and actress (d. 2005)
- 1943 – Gail Goodrich, American basketball player
- 1943 – Tony Esposito, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager
- 1943 – Frans Koppelaar, Dutch painter
- 1943 – Delano Meriwether, American runner and physician
- 1943 – Hervé Villechaize, French-American actor (d. 1993)
- 1944 – Jean-François Stévenin, French actor
- 1946 – Richard Mottram, English civil servant
- 1947 – Robert Burgess, English sociologist and academic
- 1947 – Glenn Cornick, English bass player (Jethro Tull and Paris) (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster constituency (1969-74), later Irish republican and socialist activist
- 1947 – Carlton Sherwood, American soldier and journalist (d. 2014)
- 1948 – Pascal Quignard, French author
- 1948 – Serge Thériault, Canadian actor
- 1949 – Paul Collier, English economist and academic
- 1949 – David Cross, English violinist (King Crimson)
- 1949 – Joyce DeWitt, American actress
- 1950 – Rowley Leigh, English chef and journalist
- 1952 – Narada Michael Walden, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer
- 1953 – James Russo, American actor
- 1954 – Tony Atlas, American bodybuilder and wrestler
- 1954 – Stephen Dalton, English air marshal
- 1954 – Lucinda Jenney, American actress
- 1954 – Michael Moore, American director, producer, and activist
- 1955 – Judy Davis, Australian actress
- 1955 – Fumi Hirano, Japanese voice actress
- 1955 – Tony Miles, English chess player (d. 2001)
- 1955 – Urmas Ott, Estonian journalist (d. 2008)
- 1955 – Mike Smith, English radio and television host (d. 2014)
- 1957 – Neville Brody, English graphic designer, typographer, and art director
- 1957 – Jan Hooks, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1957 – Kenji Kawai, Japanese composer
- 1958 – Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Icelandic composer and producer
- 1958 – Gene Scheer, American songwriter
- 1958 – Ryan Walter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 – Valerie Bertinelli, American actress
- 1960 – Steve Clark, English guitarist and songwriter (Def Leppard) (d. 1991)
- 1960 – Barry Douglas, Irish pianist and conductor
- 1960 – Léo Jaime, Brazilian musician, writer and actor (João Penca e Seus Miquinhos Amestrados)
- 1960 – Claude Julien, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1961 – Dirk Bach, German actor (d. 2012)
- 1961 – Terry Gordy, American wrestler (d. 2001)
- 1961 – George Lopez, American comedian, actor, and talk show host
- 1961 – Pierluigi Martini, Italian race car driver
- 1962 – John Hannah, Scottish actor and producer
- 1962 – Shaun Spiers, English businessman and politician
- 1963 – Paul Belmondo, French race car driver
- 1964 – Gianandrea Noseda, Italian conductor
- 1965 – Tommy DeCarlo, American singer-songwriter (Boston)
- 1966 – Matt Freeman, American bass player (Operation Ivy, Rancid, Social Distortion, Basic Radio, Downfall, and Devils Brigade)
- 1966 – Lembit Oll, Estonian chess player (d. 1999)
- 1966 – Jim Stynes, Irish-Australian footballer (d. 2012)
- 1967 – Rheal Cormier, Canadian baseball player
- 1967 – Kim Hee-ae, South Korean actress
- 1967 – Melina Kanakaredes, American actress
- 1968 – Princess Aisha bint Al Hussein of Jordan
- 1968 – Princess Zein bint Al Hussein of Jordan
- 1968 – Ken McRae, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1968 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist, carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing (executed 2001)
- 1969 – Martin López-Zubero, American-Spanish swimmer
- 1969 – Arthur Phillips, American author
- 1969 – Yelena Shushunova, Russian gymnast
- 1969 – Byron Thames, American actor
- 1969 – Richard Wolstencroft, Australian director and producer
- 1970 – Sadao Abe, Japanese actor and singer (Group Tamashii)
- 1970 – Scott Bairstow, Canadian actor
- 1970 – Dennis Culp, American singer-songwriter and trombonist (Five Iron Frenzy and Brave Saint Saturn)
- 1970 – Andrew Gee, Australian rugby player and manager
- 1970 – Hans Välimäki, Finnish chef
- 1971 – Uli Herzner, German-American fashion designer
- 1971 – Charmaine Sinclair, English porn actress and model
- 1972 – Pierre Labrie, Canadian poet
- 1972 – Patricia Manterola, Mexican singer, actress, and fashion designer
- 1972 – Sonya Smith, American-Venezuelan actress
- 1972 – Peter Dench, English photojournalist
- 1973 – Patrick Poulin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1974 – Carlos Dengler, American bass player (Interpol)
- 1974 – Michael Kerr, New Zealand-German rugby player
- 1974 – Barry Watson, American actor
- 1975 – Jónsi, Icelandic singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sigur Rós and Jónsi & Alex)
- 1975 – Bobby Shaw, American football player
- 1976 – Gabriel Damon, American actor
- 1976 – Aaron and Bryce Dessner, American musicians (The National)
- 1977 – John Cena, American wrestler, actor, and rapper
- 1977 – Andruw Jones, Curaçaoan baseball player
- 1977 – Willie Mitchell, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 – John Oliver, English-American comedian and actor
- 1977 – Kal Penn, American actor, producer, and civil servant
- 1977 – Lee Young-Pyo, South Korean footballer
- 1978 – Gezahegne Abera, Ethiopian runner
- 1979 – Wu Di, Chinese renju player
- 1979 – Barry Hawkins, English snooker player
- 1979 – Jaime King, American actress
- 1979 – Joanna Krupa, Polish-American model and reality show participant
- 1979 – Samppa Lajunen, Finnish skier
- 1979 – Lauri Ylönen, Finnish singer-songwriter (The Rasmus)
- 1980 – Sally Bretton, English actress
- 1980 – Yana Gupta, Czech model and actress
- 1981 – Seka Aleksić, Serbian singer, actress, and fashion designer
- 1981 – Sean Henn, American baseball player
- 1981 – Chris Sharma, American rock climber
- 1981 – Lady Gabriella Windsor, English daughter of Prince Michael of Kent
- 1983 – Daniela Hantuchová, Slovakian tennis player
- 1983 – Aaron Hill, American actor
- 1983 – Miloš Karadaglić, Montenegrin classical guitar player
- 1984 – Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian chess player
- 1985 – Taio Cruz, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1985 – Angel Locsin, Filipino actress and producer
- 1986 – Sven Kramer, Dutch speed skater
- 1986 – Alysia Montaño, American runner
- 1986 – Jessica Stam, Canadian model
- 1987 – Michael Arroyo, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1987 – John Boye, Ghanaian footballer
- 1987 – Emily Fox, American basketball player and cup stacker
- 1987 – Bo'az Ma'uda, Israeli singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Victor Anichebe, Nigerian footballer
- 1988 – Prince Buaben, Ghanaian footballer
- 1988 – Molly Burnett, American actress and singer
- 1988 – Steph Houghton, English footballer
- 1988 – Erica Mer, American actress
- 1988 – Signe Ronka, Canadian figure skater and actress
- 1988 – Lenka Wienerová, Slovak tennis player
- 1989 – Nicole Vaidišová, Czech tennis player
- 1990 – Dev Patel, English actor
- 1990 – Matthew Underwood, American actor
- 1990 – Pikky Ya France, Namibian cricketer
- 1991 – Nathan Baker, English footballer
- 1991 – Caleb Johnson, American singer
- 1992 – Syd tha Kyd, American singer, DJ, and producer (Odd Future and The Internet)
- 1994 – Patrick Olsen, Danish footballer
- 1996 – Charlie Rowe, English actor
- 1997 – Alex Ferris, Canadian actor
Despatches
- 303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and martyr (b. 275)
- 711 – Childebert III, Frankish king (b. 670)
- 725 – Wihtred of Kent (b. 670)
- 871 – Æthelred of Wessex (b. 837)
- 997 – Adalbert of Prague, Czech bishop, missionary, and saint (b. 956)
- 1014 – Brian Boru, Irish king (b. 941)
- 1016 – Æthelred the Unready, English son of Edgar the Peaceful (b. 968)
- 1124 – Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078)
- 1151 – Adeliza of Louvain (b. 1103)
- 1217 – Inge II of Norway (b. 1185)
- 1307 – Joan of Acre, English daughter of Edward I of England (b. 1272)
- 1407 – Olivier de Clisson, French soldier (b. 1326)
- 1605 – Boris Godunov, Russian ruler (b. 1551)
- 1616 – Garcilaso de la Vega, Peruvian historian and author (b. 1539)
- 1616 – William Shakespeare, English playwright and actor (b. 1564)
- 1625 – Maurice, Prince of Orange (b. 1567)
- 1695 – Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet and author (b. 1621)
- 1702 – Margaret Fell, English religious leader, founded the Religious Society of Friends (b. 1614)
- 1781 – James Abercrombie, Scottish general (b. 1706)
- 1784 – Solomon I of Imereti (b. 1735)
- 1792 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and author (b. 1741)
- 1794 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French politician (b. 1721)
- 1827 – Georgios Karaiskakis, Greek general (b. 1780)
- 1839 – Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, French admiral (b. 1768)
- 1850 – William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770)
- 1889 – Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly, French author (b. 1808)
- 1895 – Carl Ludwig, German physician and physiologist (b. 1815)
- 1905 – Gédéon Ouimet, Canadian politician, 2nd Premier of Quebec (b. 1823)
- 1907 – Alferd Packer, American prospector (b. 1842)
- 1915 – Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
- 1936 – Teresa de la Parra, French-Venezuelan author (b. 1889)
- 1951 – Jules Berry, French actor (b. 1883)
- 1951 – Charles G. Dawes, American banker and politician, 30th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- 1965 – George Adamski, Polish-American ufologist and author (b. 1891)
- 1975 – William Hartnell, English actor (b. 1908)
- 1979 – Blair Peach, New Zealand-English educator and activist (b. 1946)
- 1981 – Josep Pla, Catalan journalist and author (b. 1897)
- 1983 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (b. 1908)
- 1984 – Red Garland, American pianist (Miles Davis Quintet) (b. 1923)
- 1985 – Sam Ervin, American lawyer and politician (b. 1896)
- 1986 – Harold Arlen, American composer (b. 1905)
- 1986 – Jim Laker, English cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1922)
- 1986 – Otto Preminger, Ukrainian-American actor, director, and producer (b. 1906)
- 1990 – Paulette Goddard, American actress and philanthropist (b. 1910)
- 1991 – Johnny Thunders, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers) (b. 1952)
- 1992 – Satyajit Ray, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 1992 – Tanka Prasad Acharya, Nepalese politician, 27th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1912)
- 1993 – Cesar Chavez, American activist, co-founded the United Farm Workers (b. 1927)
- 1995 – Douglas Lloyd Campbell, Canadian politician, 13th Premier of Manitoba (b. 1895)
- 1995 – Howard Cosell, American lawyer and journalist (b. 1918)
- 1995 – Riho Lahi, Estonian journalist (b. 1904)
- 1995 – John C. Stennis, American lawyer and politician (b. 1904)
- 1996 – Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (b. 1913)
- 1996 – P. L. Travers, Australian-English author and actress (b. 1899)
- 1997 – Denis Compton, English cricketer and footballer (b. 1918)
- 1998 – Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek politician, 172nd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1907)
- 1998 – James Earl Ray, American assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1928)
- 1998 – Thanassis Skordalos, Greek singer-songwriter and lyra player (b. 1920)
- 2003 – Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b. 1910)
- 2005 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, New Zealand-Australian politician, 31st Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
- 2005 – Robert Farnon, Canadian-English trumpet player, composer, and conductor (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Al Grassby, Australian journalist and politician (b. 1928)
- 2005 – John Mills, English actor (b. 1908)
- 2005 – Romano Scarpa, Italian illustrator (b. 1927)
- 2005 – Earl Wilson, American baseball player, coach, and educator (b. 1934)
- 2006 – Phil Walden, American record producer and manager, co-founded Capricorn Records (b. 1940)
- 2007 – Paul Erdman, Canadian-American economist and author (b. 1932)
- 2007 – David Halberstam, American journalist, historian, and author (b. 1934)
- 2007 – Peter Randall, English sergeant (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (b. 1931)
- 2011 – Tom King, American guitarist and songwriter (The Outsiders and The Starfires) (b. 1943)
- 2011 – Geoffrey Russell, 4th Baron Ampthill, English businessman (b. 1921)
- 2011 – John Sullivan, English screenwriter and producer (b. 1946)
- 2012 – Lillemor Arvidsson, Swedish politician, 34th Governor of Gotland (b. 1943)
- 2012 – Billy Bryans, Canadian drummer, songwriter, and producer (The Parachute Club and Downchild Blues Band) (b. 1947)
- 2012 – Chris Ethridge, American bass player and songwriter (The Flying Burrito Brothers and International Submarine Band) (b. 1947)
- 2012 – Tommy Marth, American saxophonist (b. 1978)
- 2012 – Raymond Thorsteinsson, Canadian geologist and paleontologist (b. 1921)
- 2012 – LeRoy T. Walker, American football player and coach (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Colonial Affair, American race horse (b. 1990)
- 2013 – Shamshad Begum, Indian singer (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Bob Brozman, American guitarist (R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders) (b. 1954)
- 2013 – Robert W. Edgar, American politician (b. 1943)
- 2013 – Tony Grealish, English footballer (b. 1956)
- 2013 – Norman Jones, English actor (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Antonio Maccanico, Italian politician (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Frank W. J. Olver, English-American mathematician and educator (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Kathryn Wasserman Davis, American philanthropist and scholar (b. 1907)
- 2014 – Benjamín Brea, Spanish-Venezuelan saxophonist, clarinet player, and conductor (Los Cañoneros) (b. 1946)
- 2014 – Michael Glawogger, Austrian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (b. 1959)
- 2014 – Connie Marrero, Cuban baseball player and coach (b. 1911)
- 2014 – F. Michael Rogers, American general (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (b. 1951)
- 2014 – Patric Standford, English composer and educator (b. 1939)
2015
- Christian Feast Day:
- Independence Day (Conch Republic, Key West, Florida)
- National Sovereignty and Children's Day (Turkey and Northern Cyprus)
- Saint George's Day (England) and its related observances:
- Canada Book Day (Canada)
- Latest day on which Good Friday can fall, while March 20 is the earliest; celebrated on Friday before Easter. (Christianity)
- World Book Day
- International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day
- Vinalia urbana (Roman Empire)
- UN English Language Day (United Nations)
WHY DO YOU NEVER GO?
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 23, 2015 (3:10pm)
Seriously – if you dudes actually care about women as much as you claim to, why do you never go to events that educate about women’s lives?
EVERYTHING MOSQUE GO
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 23, 2015 (2:07pm)
Furqan al! Melbourne’s Al-Furqan Islamic Centre shuts its doors:
A controversial Islamic centre attended by an Islamic State fighter and several suspected terrorists in Springvale South has closed down …“We believe that given the constant harassment, pressure and false accusations levelled against the centre — particularly by media and politicians — this is the best course of action,” the centre said in a statement.The statement said its members and the “broader Muslim community” was “often implicated in these insidious campaigns”.
You might say they were run out of town. Except that running, at least for girls, is haram.
FOURTEEN YEARS OF LAST CHANCES
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 23, 2015 (12:56pm)
2001:
A Global Warming Treaty’s Last Chance
2006:
Last chance to save the world
2006:
I sincerely hope I’m wrong, because this Government and the one that follows it may well be the last in Australian history to have the chance to avert a climate disaster.
2008:
Those talks are our last chance
2008:
The Future of Climate Change Policy: The U.S.’s Last Chance to Lead
2008:
NASA warming scientist: ‘This is the last chance‘
2009:
Nicholas Stern has warned that Copenhagen is the world’s last chance to stop catastrophic climate change
2009:
The Truth About The Climate Catastrophe And Our Last Chance To Save Humanity
2009:
World faces last chance to avoid fatal warming: EU
2011:
This week’s major UN conference has been described by many experts as humanity’s last chance to avert the disastrous effects of climate change.
2011:
The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be “lost for ever”
2012:
The earth’s last chance with climate change?
2014:
Last chance: Change needed for climate negotiations
2014:
Naomi Klein on climate change: ‘This is our last chance‘
2015:
The UN meeting in December is “the last chance” to avert dangerous climate change, according to the Earth League.
(Via J.F. Beck)
UPDATE. Via Dan F., a list of failed Earth Day predictions.
Bigger than Naomi Klein. Certainly with more sense
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (5:14pm)
A bit of a thrill. Mark Steyn reports the good news:
I’ve had a fun time out on the Earth Day airwaves talking about Climate Change: The Facts. That’s the new book featuring me and some of the world’s most eminent scientists on the state of the climate debate as we prepare to enter the third decade of the global-warming pause. And I’m thrilled to find that the book is currently Number One on the Climatology Hit Parade, ahead of Naomi Klein, Naomi Oreskes and any number of Naomis, and also Number One on the Environmental Policy Hot 100.To order your own copy, go here. It contains a handy list of dud predictions and some penetrating remarks about them. Or so I felt.
The one persecution that bores leaders of the Christian West
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (11:57am)
Kirsten Powers on the one form of persecution that leaders of the Christian West don’t want to notice:
===What do you call it when 12 men are drowned at sea for praying to Jesus. Answer: Religious persecution.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Yet, when a throng of Muslims threw a dozen Christians overboard a migrant ship traveling from Libya to Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi ...(s)tanding next to President Obama at their joint news conference Friday ... dismissed it as a one-off event and said, “The problem is not a problem of (a) clash of religions."…
Obama was mute on the killings. He failed to interject any sense of outrage or even tepid concern for the targeting of Christians for their faith. If a Christian mob on a ship bound for Italy threw 12 Muslims to their death for praying to Allah, does anyone think the president would have been so disinterested?
When three North Carolina Muslims were gunned down by a virulent atheist, Obama rightly spoke out against the horrifying killings. But he just can’t seem to find any passion for the mass persecution of Middle Eastern Christians…
Religious persecution of Christians is rampant worldwide, as Pew has noted, but nowhere is it more prevalent than in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where followers of Jesus are the targets of religious cleansing ... Western leaders — including Obama — will be remembered for their near silence as this human rights tragedy unfolded… And it will be hard to forget [Obama’s] lecturing of Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast about the centuries-old Crusades while Middle Eastern Christians were at that moment being harassed, driven from their homes, tortured and murdered for their faith.
A week and a half after Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast speech, 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded for being “people of the cross."… Monday, there was more horrifying news: ISIL terrorists released a video purporting to show more religiously motivated killing.
The Left gave us this Libyan nightmare
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (11:09am)
It was the war Greens leader Bob Brown backed. The Libyan war that would show that idiot George Bush how to fight clean and cheap.
Prime minister Julia Gillard supported it. Foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd helped inspire it. US President Barack Obama led it.
And at the height of their folly, in March 2011, Hillary Clinton, Obama’s secretary of state, crowed: “Many, many Libyans are safer today because the international community took action.”
How false that boast then. How sick now.
The disaster those fools wrought by toppling dictator Muammar Gaddafi, bombing his army from the air as his Islamist enemies advanced on the ground, finally exploded over news bulletins this past week.
The 30 or so Christians who were ritually beheaded or shot by Islamic State fighters based in Libya?
Tens of thousands have fled already, among the 250,000 illegal immigrants who have flooded Europe from Africa and the Middle East since January last year.
This isn’t just a humanitarian tragedy. For Europe, and us, it is a security nightmare in this age of jihad.
Europe needed to launch “targeted ant-terrorist strikes” in Libya, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni urged on the weekend.
“The double risk of the advance of the Islamic State group in Libya and the waves of migrants means we are in a race against the clock.”
So how did it come to this?
(Read full article here.)
===Prime minister Julia Gillard supported it. Foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd helped inspire it. US President Barack Obama led it.
And at the height of their folly, in March 2011, Hillary Clinton, Obama’s secretary of state, crowed: “Many, many Libyans are safer today because the international community took action.”
How false that boast then. How sick now.
The disaster those fools wrought by toppling dictator Muammar Gaddafi, bombing his army from the air as his Islamist enemies advanced on the ground, finally exploded over news bulletins this past week.
Those 800 Libyans who drowned trying to reach Italy and the 400 who drowned last week?
The 30 or so Christians who were ritually beheaded or shot by Islamic State fighters based in Libya?
That’s Obama’s Libyan catastrophe. And there’s more to come. Another 500,000 Libyans are reportedly ready to flee to Europe to escape the militias that defeated Gaddafi and then tore the country apart, leaving it with two rival governments, countless rival armies, growing terrorist enclaves and a collapsing economy.
Tens of thousands have fled already, among the 250,000 illegal immigrants who have flooded Europe from Africa and the Middle East since January last year.
This isn’t just a humanitarian tragedy. For Europe, and us, it is a security nightmare in this age of jihad.
Europe needed to launch “targeted ant-terrorist strikes” in Libya, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni urged on the weekend.
“The double risk of the advance of the Islamic State group in Libya and the waves of migrants means we are in a race against the clock.”
So how did it come to this?
(Read full article here.)
Tony Jones whitewashes Tim Flannery. Don’t trust a word the ABC says about warming
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (10:06am)
ABC presenter Tony Jones, who fails to declare that he’s earned money from global warming interests, last night disgraced himself.
He hypes the NSW floods and other disasters as evidence of a global warming that in fact halted 17 years ago. He makes links to extreme weather that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won’t. He fails to hold Tim Flannery to account for his false prediction that “even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems”. He lets Flannery mischaracterise his prediction in a deceptive way. He fails to hold Flannery to account for his scaremongering that Sydney was about to run out of water. He lets Flannery, a mammologist, attack the qualifications of political scientist and expert in environmental statistics Bjorn Lomborg for questioning the cost-benefit efficacy of policies to “stop” global warming.
In short, Jones runs protection for Flannery and lets him run his propaganda almost without challenge.
Continue reading 'Tony Jones whitewashes Tim Flannery. Don’t trust a word the ABC says about warming'
===He hypes the NSW floods and other disasters as evidence of a global warming that in fact halted 17 years ago. He makes links to extreme weather that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won’t. He fails to hold Tim Flannery to account for his false prediction that “even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems”. He lets Flannery mischaracterise his prediction in a deceptive way. He fails to hold Flannery to account for his scaremongering that Sydney was about to run out of water. He lets Flannery, a mammologist, attack the qualifications of political scientist and expert in environmental statistics Bjorn Lomborg for questioning the cost-benefit efficacy of policies to “stop” global warming.
In short, Jones runs protection for Flannery and lets him run his propaganda almost without challenge.
TONY JONES: Well it’s the biggest storm to hit Sydney and other parts of NSW in a decade. So are we likely to see more extreme weather events like this in the future, as many climate scientists have argued?Flannery and Jones suggest a link between this intense East Coast Low and global warming. In fact, other warmists from the Climate Change Research Centre suggest the very opposite is true - that global warming will bring fewer such lows:
This week’s storms will certainly feed the debate over how much climate change is already affecting Australia. Today the Government’s own Climate Change Authority weighed in with a report arguing that Australia is especially at risk and must ift its game by accelerating efforts to cut carbon emissions.
BERNIE FRASER, CLIMATE CHANGE AUTHORITY: And it matters because even at present levels, we’re having more heatwaves, more strokes from people suffering heatwaves, we’re having more bushfire weather conditions and all sorts of things of that kind....
Well Tim Flannery is a scientist and environmentalist who was the chief commissioner of the Climate Commission.. He’s now a member of the Climate Council… Now, when we get weird weather like this once-in-a-decade storm, inevitably, there’s a question over whether climate change has played a part in it. What do you say?
TIM FLANNERY: I say as far as that storm goes, it’s too early to say. But it’s important to look beyond that storm. I mean, people tend to forget that parts of NSW are still in record drought at the moment as we speak… Whether those storms themselves are an effect or being influenced by climate change or to what extent, it’s too early to say, but we need to look at that bigger picture.
TONY JONES: Yes. I mean, you know your own critics essentially make the argument that these huge kind of storms, these huge dumps of rain put the lie to the idea that it’s going to get drier in Australia.
TIM FLANNERY: Well that’s right. Every time it rains I seem to cop it from someone about this sort of thing. But the fact is it’s going to rain in the future. We’ll have intense storms in the future. But what I was talking about a decade ago and what continues to be absolutely true today is that south-eastern Australia overall is losing rainfall, it’s starting to dry out, there’s a drying trend which is strongly tied to the influence of greenhouse gases.... [W]e need to be aware that over the longer term, we’re going to face a situation where there’s less and less available water and demand of course will continue to increase as our population grows.
TONY JONES: Now, let’s turn to the report and the other things. It again warned, the Climate Authority’s report, that global warming of more than two per cent could trigger or risks triggering permanent changes to some physical systems. What physical systems are they talking about?
TIM FLANNERY: We’re talking about the way the whole Earth system works, basically… You’ll see large-scale changes in rainfall patterns, and again, we’re already seeing the beginnings of that now, with just one degree of warming. We’ll see climatic zones start to shift, agriculture start to be challenged, the water cycle changing, so you will get more intense rainfall events…
TONY JONES: OK, Tim, just stay with us for a minute. As you know, the Federal Government has agreed to provide $4 million to establish a branch of Dr Bjorn Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre in the University of Western Australia. ... Well what do you think of Bjorn Lomborg’s qualifications? I mean, it has to be said that he’s quite sceptical, for example, that extreme weather events will occur with climate change. That’s just one of the many arguments he makes.
TIM FLANNERY: I’ve never been able to get a straight answer out of him. Every sentence that we engage with, the ground seems to shift. But, look, he’s - my understanding is he’s - his basic degree is in politics. The one argument that he’s been consistent about over the last decade is that we shouldn’t do anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions directly, we shouldn’t putting a price on carbon or anything like that, just not gonna work. But what we’ve seen around the world is that in the last few years, it has worked; countries are reducing their emissions - the US by 12 per cent, for example. So, you know, if we took Lomborg’s advice, we’d be heading towards a world four degrees warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution and that’s a catastrophe. So, I think those messages are of deep concern, to see those now being supported by the Government. And we worry at the Climate Council that people will get misinformed…
TONY JONES: Now, do you actually believe - I mean, it’s not just sour grapes, is it? I mean, you’re not a climate scientist, nor is he, it has to be said, but do you think the Government has actually set up this centre to push the sceptical barrow?
TIM FLANNERY: Look, I’d like to hear the minister tell the Australian public why they put the $4 million into this.
This latest East Coast Low is a severe event, but not a record. In fact, Sydney experiences rainfall above 100 mm almost once a year on average, so this is a normal feature of our climate....To put Flannery’s wild claims in context, here are some facts and admissions worth noting from the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
[R]ecent research is suggesting that the frequency of East Coast Lows, particularly the major winter systems that cause large waves, may actually decrease over the coming century given current climate projections.
Continue reading 'Tony Jones whitewashes Tim Flannery. Don’t trust a word the ABC says about warming'Tim Flannery washed up
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (8:18am)
CLIMATE sceptics were sent two reminders this week — one from the sky and the other from warming guru Tim Flannery.
The one from Flannery, or actually from the Climate Council he leads, was a tweet alerting us to “powerful street art pieces that tell the uncomfortable truth”.
Well, they’re sure uncomfortable for sceptics, since they include a picture of a giant rabbit holding a sign: “The Earth isn’t dying. It’s being killed and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” The good news, though, is that this Bunny of Death may well have been washed away by the other reminder — the one from the sky. The rain that’s drowned parts of eastern NSW.
The mega downpour is a reminder of Flannery’s long record of dud predictions, a record so astonishing it’s no wonder this former Australian of the Year is down to quoting cartoon rabbits.
(Read full article here.)
===The one from Flannery, or actually from the Climate Council he leads, was a tweet alerting us to “powerful street art pieces that tell the uncomfortable truth”.
Well, they’re sure uncomfortable for sceptics, since they include a picture of a giant rabbit holding a sign: “The Earth isn’t dying. It’s being killed and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” The good news, though, is that this Bunny of Death may well have been washed away by the other reminder — the one from the sky. The rain that’s drowned parts of eastern NSW.
The mega downpour is a reminder of Flannery’s long record of dud predictions, a record so astonishing it’s no wonder this former Australian of the Year is down to quoting cartoon rabbits.
(Read full article here.)
What else are our Islamic students taught?
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (7:09am)
Victoria’s biggest
Islamic college gives more reason to worry - not just about what is
being taught but about the culture from which such teachings come:
===Girls at Al-Taqwa College have been banned from running at sporting events because the principal believes it may cause them to lose their virginity, former teachers claim.
The schools regulator, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, is investigating the allegations, which have been referred to the state and federal education ministers.
It follows revelations in The Age last month that the principal of the Islamic school, Omar Hallak, told students that Islamic State was a plot by Western countries.
Labor’s new tax policy: let’s be more like Greece
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (6:42am)
Is Labor dishonest or just out of its tree?
Look at the detail of Labor’s policy and you’ll find that these multi-millionaires that Labor wants to hit are in fact living off the average wage (before tax):
Three of those taxes actually threaten to be turkeys that raise less money than Labor is banking on, but a pattern is emerging - more taxes and no spending cuts. In fact, Labor is already planning a fifth new tax:
Judith Sloan:
Jennifer Westacott:
===Labor has declared the Age Pension is “sustainable” without policy changes, despite government projections showing the annual cost will more than triple in 40 years to $165 billion…And he’s right - but for the first time Labor is making explicit that Greece is now its yardstick for responsible spending (note: pensions data for Europe includes disability payments):
“Let me be very clear, when Joe Hockey says the Age Pension is not sustainable, he’s wrong — it is,’’ [Labor Treasury spokesman Chris] Bowen told the National Press Club yesterday. “We spend half the OECD average on old-age pensions.’’
Labor leader Bill Shorten says he’s going after rich superannuants instead with a new tax:
Labor does not support a system which returns tens of billions of dollars from taxpayers to support people who already have millions and millions of dollars in their superannuation, to support them to reach an even more comfortable retirement.
Look at the detail of Labor’s policy and you’ll find that these multi-millionaires that Labor wants to hit are in fact living off the average wage (before tax):
Labor will impose a 15 per cent tax on superannuation earnings above $75,000 when a person moves into retirement…Labor now has policies for four new taxes: a mining tax, a multinationals tax, a superannuation tax and a carbon tax.
Three of those taxes actually threaten to be turkeys that raise less money than Labor is banking on, but a pattern is emerging - more taxes and no spending cuts. In fact, Labor is already planning a fifth new tax:
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen on Wednesday made clear he would not rule out going to the next election with taxation changes, including, potentially, to negative gearing.UPDATE
Judith Sloan:
Labor is proposing ... to impose an effective tax of much more than 50 per cent on high income earners who are compelled to save through superannuation...And for those with incomes now above $250,000 per year, the model is even more punitive: 30 per cent on contributions, 15 per cent on earnings and now 15 per cent on incomes greater than $75,000, which is lower than Average Weekly Earnings by the way…UPDATE
Now anyone with a brain will be retreating from superannuation as quickly as possible and move their funds to more tax-effective vehicles with fewer regulatory risks, including overseas investment.
Moreover, when this was proposed earlier, it turned out to be essentially unworkable because of the complication of unrealised capital gains in most unitised products… The addition to revenue of the Labor measure of $1.4 billion average will in all likelihood be a gross overestimate and sane (the villified ‘rich’) move their funds elsewhere.
Jennifer Westacott:
The latest Intergenerational Report projects that on the current policy settings, federal government spending will reach 31 per cent of GDP by 2054-55 (compared with about 26 per cent this year)…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Imagining that we can tax our way out of our fiscal predicament by permanently increasing federal taxes from the 20-year average of just over 22 per cent of GDP to punitive levels of over 26 per cent excluding non-tax revenue (in terms of today’s economy, an additional $60 billion) is shockingly misguided. Projections for ongoing and increasing budget deficits and net debt of about 60 per cent of GDP by 2055 have already factored in tax revenues above their long-run share of GDP. Higher taxes would only discourage investment and participation, and depress urgently needed growth and job creation.
Even morons can kill
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (1:16am)
One reassuring fact is that Islamic State supporters as stupid as they are evil:
UPDATE
How did we so lose control of our immigration policies that this should now be Australia on Anzac Day?
And the source of this latest alleged danger?
Continue reading 'Even morons can kill'
===A man has been arrested in France over an alleged plot to attack churches, after he apparently shot himself by accident and called an ambulance.But even stupid people can kill, and we have plenty of them:
Electronics student Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a 24-year-old Algerian national, is also suspected of the murder of a 32-year-old woman…
When police arrived at the scene of his apparent accidental shooting, they followed a trail of blood to his car.
They found weapons and bullet-proof vests in the car and at his home, as well as printed material on Al Qaeda and the Islamic State…
Mr Molins said a search of Ghlam’s phones and laptops “revealed that he was in touch with another person, who could be in Syria, with whom he was discussing ways to carry out an attack and who had specifically asked him to target a church”.
Two policemen were nearly stabbed to death because we stopped Haider from leaving? Note that more than 100 Australian Muslims have had their passports taken away and some 200 have been taken off planes going overseas.
AUSTRALIA’S most senior Islamic State fighter has urged Muslim youths to launch attacks at home in an alarming new propaganda video.
Neil Prakash, also known as Abu Khaled Al Cambodi, may have been in contact with several teens arrested in last Saturday’s anti-terror raids which foiled a chilling Anzac Day terror plot.
“I send a message to my brothers, my beloved brothers in Islam in Australia,” Prakash says in the 12-minute video.
“Now is the time to rise, now is the time to wake up ... You must start attacking before they attack you."…
Prakash, from Melbourne, rose through Islamic State ranks after travelling to Syria to fight… He had attended the controversial Al-Furqan centre in Springvale South where some teens arrested on Saturday had also visited and prayed.
Prakash spoke of his “dear brother Numan”, believed to be Numan Haider, who was shot down while stabbing two police officers last year.
“I knew this brother personally,” Prakash said. “When he failed because the Government took his passport, it did not stop him. Look what he did brothers.”
UPDATE
How did we so lose control of our immigration policies that this should now be Australia on Anzac Day?
Harun Causevic and Sevdet Ramdan Besim, both 18, were charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act...Ahead of Anzac Day commemorations on Saturday, which had featured in the alleged terror plot, Acting Victoria Police Commissioner Tim Cartwright said his officers were aware they were prize targets for a terror attack.
He reiterated warnings for officers not to wear their police uniforms while commuting to and from work — a practice imposed since last year’s fatal shooting of 18-year-old Numan Haider, who stabbed two officers outside Endeavour Hills police station.
And the source of this latest alleged danger?
Several of the young men arrested in this week’s raids in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs have alleged associations with the al-Furqan bookshop and da’wah centre in Springvale South, and with the local Bosnian Islamic community.But once again, as we saw with our refugee intakes from wars in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Somalia, there may be more difficulty in assimilating those from conflict zones. This 2003 report for the UNHCR on Bosnian refugees in Australia already revealed the seeds of inevitable trouble - and is important reading today if we are to avoid making the same dangerous mistakes:
Bosnian Islamic Council of Australia chairman Jasmin Bekric said yesterday that al-Furqan had “kidnapped” and “brainwashed” his community’s youth. “Bosnians came to Australia after the [Balkan] war and found their future,” he said…
A significant proportion of al-Furqan’s members have Bosnian heritage. Several, including leader Harun Mehicevic, are disenfranchised former attendees of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Islamic Society of Noble Park.
Continue reading 'Even morons can kill'Wuthering Heights at last
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (12:50am)
I stayed up late last night to finish Wuthering Heights,
a book I have shamefully overlooked until now. I loved it, of course,
but what took my breath away was the final paragraph, so beautiful that I
had to read it nearly a dozen times over.
[Warning: spoiler alert.]
True, the novel does finish with a faint blush of the sentimentality that is so Victorian. The course of the narrative does not run absolutely true. Yet the tremendous elemental power of this novel transcends every objection, and leaves us actually welcoming the so-gentle rest we reach after all that tumult, even when we sense we’ve been handled too gently by this last paragraph, when Lockwood, walking home by moonlight, passes the graves of tormented Catherine, husband Edgar and Heathcliff.
===[Warning: spoiler alert.]
True, the novel does finish with a faint blush of the sentimentality that is so Victorian. The course of the narrative does not run absolutely true. Yet the tremendous elemental power of this novel transcends every objection, and leaves us actually welcoming the so-gentle rest we reach after all that tumult, even when we sense we’ve been handled too gently by this last paragraph, when Lockwood, walking home by moonlight, passes the graves of tormented Catherine, husband Edgar and Heathcliff.
“I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”
Is the West dissolving in mass immigration?
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (12:34am)
Mass immigration today -
in the age of cheap travel, satellite TV, hyper-communication and
multiculturalism - has become less of a renewal and more of a challenge.
I suspect even the US cannot sustain levels like this - levels that
threaten to turn it long-term into a nation of tribes:
===Legal and illegal immigrants will hit a record high of 51 million in just eight years and eventually account for an astounding 82 percent of all population growth in America, according to new U.S. Census figures.
A report from the Center for Immigration Studies that analyzed the statistics said that by 2023, one in seven U.S. residents will be an immigrant, rising to one in five by 2060 when the immigrant population totals 78 million.
Ignore Flannery: a warmer world is actually healthier
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (12:01am)
See what happens when Tim Flannery makes predictions?
===But for all Flannery’s booga-booga about a warmer world, a new, peer-reviewed paper in Environmental Research demonstrates yet again that a warmer world would actually be a healthier world, certainly for us in Australia. So bring on global warming:
Abstract(Thanks to readers Jason Morrison and Steve.)
Seasonal patterns in mortality have been recognised for decades, with a marked excess of deaths in winter…
We obtained daily temperature, humidity and mortality data from 1988 to 2009 for five major Australian cities with a range of climates…
We found that deaths rates in Australia were 20-30% higher in winter than summer… Winters that were colder or drier than a typical winter had significantly increased death risks in most cities. Conversely summers that were warmer or more humid than average showed no increase in death risks.
Irish university submits to Islamic threats
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (12:01am)
I warned at the time that the “Je suis Charlie” movement was pushed by frauds who didn’t mean what they said.
The latest sell-out:
===The latest sell-out:
An academic conference focusing on the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January and its legacy has been cancelled by the Vice Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, on the basis of concerns about security and the university’s “reputation”.(Thanks to reader Grendel.)
The event, titled ‘Understanding Charlie: New perspectives on contemporary citizenship’, was due to be held at Queen’s in June. However, in an email sent to delegates on April 20, organisers said that Queen’s VC Patrick Johnston “does not wish our symposium to go ahead”.
“He is concerned about the security risk for delegates and about the reputation of the university,” the email said.
Alan Munton, honorary research fellow in the department of English at the University of Exeter, who was due to speak at the event, told Times Higher Education that the conference’s cancellation was a “disgrace”.
“It shows an appalling lack of solidarity with the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ movement, in which people said the open and free discussion of controversial ideas should never be closed down,” he said.
How did Labor choose Gordon?
Andrew Bolt April 23 2015 (12:00am)
It is just a claim, and denied. But this is an issue that will not go away soon and raises yet more questions about Labor’s vetting procedures:
===DISGRACED former Labor MP Billy Gordon is a “monster” to his ex partner, who claims she was held “like a hostage” and subjected to “so much violence” during their relationship.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
In a confronting interview on A Current Affair tonight, Kristy Pekham details the abuse she suffered at the MP’s hands and reveals she has evidence."I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere and there was so much violence,’’ Ms Peckham says.
“To me he is like a monster”.
Mr Gordon ... has previously denied the allegations and promised to fully co-operate with a police investigation…
The letter Ms Peckham sent to MPs alleges Mr Gordon would alternate between being aggressive and showering her with gifts and promising her a better life. It claims he would fly into a rage, and hit her on multiple occasions during their 15-year relationship…
“He would wake up in the middle of the night and beat me.’’
Played around with the new Lightroom HDR tool... not too bad, but I think I prefer hand blending more. This is a three photo stitch with 2 stops difference between each exposure.
Posted by Matt Granz on Thursday, 23 April 2015
===
Personal pronouns are often the most common errors in writing. Are you making any of these 5 mistakes? http://bit.ly/1K4E8tb
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Wednesday, 22 April 2015
===
Happy Earth Day
Posted by Matt Granz on Wednesday, 22 April 2015
===
Photo: Just saw this .. http://t.co/ODQf6NhyPC
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
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Doormat is corrupt? Could this derail Hillary 2016? http://t.co/3yVLtYMdu8 via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
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French terror plot foiled after ambulance http://t.co/fZoj7J7Est via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Twins http://t.co/9Kwsh2N3Ud
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
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Robert Downey Jr. walks out of awkward Avengers interview http://t.co/z5QzaNM50C via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Woman’s $15,000 Uber ride from hell http://t.co/tqsmd8OkZJ via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
We all start somewhere... and these are the jobs celebrities had before they found fame and fortu... http://t.co/dol4h2Gbzi via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Islamic State could conduct a cyber attack on businesses, power grid http://t.co/cetbtwADsO via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Banned from running ‘to protect virginity’ http://t.co/jmXaykFkMD via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Boston bombing trial: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ‘flips the bird’ to courthouse camera http://t.co/oGY7TV64Of via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Mexican girl sent to US in custody mix-up http://t.co/zMpGjcpZxq via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Photoshopped pictures of the Sydney storm have confused social media users http://t.co/2VOnn4fWOE via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
‘Take this money and shut up’ http://t.co/7dKpmx5ofI via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
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Deadly toll of #SydneyStorm revealed, with eight people dead and destruction across the state http://t.co/zlD9usrKGg via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
Belle Gibson cancer confession sparks fury http://t.co/MU850tooRi via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
===
What’s the real secret to weight loss? http://t.co/xhZ51bG9AT via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
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John Hawkins - 12 Ways To Use Saul Alinsky's Rules For Radicals Against Liberals http://t.co/eX2tqweX05
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 23, 2015
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Follow Australia and ignore 'Mrs Lovejoys' on asylum seeker boats http://t.co/s8nQLQ8h2d via @theage
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 22, 2015
===
Israel’s Exelon inventor sees an end to Alzheimer’s http://t.co/Grgj2AzLPs via @timesofisrael
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 22, 2015
===
Remember the Armenian Genocide in Turkey http://t.co/s4RM4KYZjZ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 22, 2015
===
Photo: Great weather for ducks in #LittleVenice Sydney http://t.co/7El6WmFdrV
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 22, 2015
===
China’s insane new megacities http://t.co/nv5N7hW4NX via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) April 22, 2015
=== Posts from last year ===
The world will never be ready for Rudd to run the UN
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, April 22, 2014 (8:40pm)
STRANGE to tell, but Kevin Rudd’s campaign to become the next UN Secretary-General is gathering steam, at least in his own head. First it was Bob Carr’s endorsement.
Continue reading 'The world will never be ready for Rudd to run the UN'Aggressive dedication to doomsday
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, April 22, 2014 (8:39pm)
Here was Neil Ormerod, Professor of Theology at the Australian Catholic University no less, writing in the Fairfax letters pages: “Free speech for racist bigots, free speech for climate denialists. Where will it end? There is a value in free speech to promote reasoned discussion and deliberation. And then there is obdurate and at times wilful ignorance ...
Continue reading 'Aggressive dedication to doomsday'Loons and ratbags to run Labor
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, April 22, 2014 (8:37pm)
BILL Shorten was right about one thing yesterday. It wasn’t Tony Abbott who threw the Labor Party into opposition, it was the Australian people.
Continue reading 'Loons and ratbags to run Labor'PANEL VAN
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (5:20pm)
Australian playwright and Guardian columnist Vanessa Badham joins the panel next week on the ABC’s Q & Aprogram. Let’s see what this young lady gets up to on Twitter …
Continue reading 'PANEL VAN'REACHING OUT TO MODERN YOUTH
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (3:44pm)
An email chat yesterday with the editors of Sydney University’s student paper:
Tim: Hi, editors.I’m writing a story for the Daily Telegraph about Honi Soit’s current online survey. Please call me on 0466 --- ---.Thank you,Tim BlairEditors: Hi, Tim.Thanks for your message. If you could email us through any questions we’ll be sure to get back to you ASAP.Kind regards,Honi Eds.Tim: Hi, eds. Thanks for getting back to me.I understand that the list of 50 or so gender choices in the survey is from Facebook in the US. A few questions:What sort of feedback have you received so far from survey respondents and other students? Are they supportive of the list?Was there any debate about using the list? How/when was it first proposed?Was there any concern that students might think the list wasn’t serious?For that matter, was running the list an entirely serious idea?Cheers,TimEditors: Hi Tim,We decided to provide non-binary gender options to make our survey as inclusive as possible for our readers. Most of our respondents have not commented, albeit for a small minority who did not immediately understand terms like “cis”. Several respondents have also privately expressed their appreciation for not prescribing gender-binary options.We hope your slow news day picks up soon. We’ve heard the royals are in town and would imagine you’d be quite a fan.Regards,Honi Eds.Tim: Much obliged, ladies and gentlemen.
As it happens, the royals left Sydney yesterday for the Northern Territory. If only these youngsters paid as much attention to other events as they do to spotting whatever the minute difference is between trans men, trans* males, trans males and trans* men.
ENDLESS RESOURCE
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (2:06pm)
“All you ever do,” a friend once told me, “is find idiotic things leftists say and then make fun of them. It’s so lazy.”
He was right, obviously, but I felt the terminology could stand some refinement. “It’s called a business model,” I replied. “I’ve found a way to turn stupid into money.” Which was why I was so delighted with the March in March, and am delighted again with the forthcoming …
March in May. This is it Adelaide! We are doing it again!
This time the valiant marchers have helpfully listed their grievances in advance. At the top of their list:
All of the above
That’s at the top. Which means there is nothing above. Great start, marchies! The list continues:
Social justice and human rights in relation to a number of key issues
Good luck turning that into a chant.
Transparency in Government actions and decisions
Have these people ever tried to report on a Greens conference? Where the media is typically banned?
The end of corporate interference in politics.
I agree. Ban Graeme Wood!
Respect the diversity of Australian families
Seriously? Family diversity is marchworthy now?
The exit of Rupert Murdoch
To where? The UK? The US? Already done, babies.
A NO CONFIDENCE VOTE in our current P.M. & Government
Had your chance last September.
The abolition of capitalism and the state
Hmm. If we’re talking about the state of South Australia, I’m up for further discussion.
(Via Gregoryno6)
SYMPATHY FOR KEVNI
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (3:26am)
Some of Kevin Rudd’s hissy fits were understandable. Imagine, for example, receiving a snippy email complaining about asylum seeker policies – from the very person who was the substantive author of those very policies:
An extraordinary email sent by Ms Gillard to Mr Rudd at 9.49am on Monday, June 21, 2010, reveals she was deeply troubled about the government’s performance, even panicked, and expressed “a great deal of anxiety” over asylum-seeker policies. There had been a “loss of control of the borders” resulting in an influx of asylum-seekers that was driving voter support for the government to a new low, she warned the prime minister …“To state the obvious – our primary is in the mid-30s; we can’t win an election with a primary like that and the issue of asylum-seekers is an enormous reason why our primary is at that low level,” Ms Gillard wrote in the email.“It is an issue working on every level – loss of control of the borders feeding into a narrative of a government that is incompetent and out of control. As you know I have been raising this with a great deal of anxiety and I remain desperately concerned about lack of progress.”
Two days later Gillard ended Rudd’s first term as Prime Minister. It would not have helped Rudd’s temper that in subsequent years PM Gillard oversaw even greater increases in asylum seeker arrivals and deaths. Why, it’s almost enough to make you pity the fellow.
UPDATE. Angry Kevni.
A STEYN RETROSPECTIVE
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (2:01am)
Happy Earth Day, everybody!
RAINBOW CONNECTION
Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (1:54am)
As Miranda Devine observes, Labor’s real challenge isn’t severing ties with the unions. It’s severing ties with the Greens.
Ian Plimer eats greens
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (4:08pm)
Ian Plimer’s latest:
Greens may have started as genuine environmentalists. Much of the green movement has now morphed into an unelected extremist political pressure group accountable to no one. Greens create problems, many of which are concocted, and provide no solutions because of a lack of basic knowledge. This book examines green policies in the light of established knowledge and shows that they are unrealistic.Pre-order here.
Policies by greens adopted by supine governments have resulted in rising costs, increased taxes, political instability, energy poverty, decreased longevity and environmental degradation and they don’t achieve their ideological aims. Wind, solar and biomass energy emit more carbon dioxide than they save and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions does nothing to change climate and only empties the pocket. No stainless steel teaspoon could be made using green “alternative energy”. This book argues that unless the greens live sustainably in caves in the forest and use no trappings of the modern world, then they should be regarded as hypocrites and treated with the disdain they deserve.
Academic claims: soldiers fired up by “invoking their shared ability to sexually degrade women”
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (9:39am)
Dr Lindy Edwards teaches at the Australian Defence Force Academy and claims:
===There is a long tradition of firing up fighting men by invoking their shared ability to sexually degrade women. They tap into an ideal of male sexual power to create a cocktail of ego, aggression and sexual energy that they channel into battle.Dr Edwards receives a letter:
I served with the RAAF in Vietnam while my father served with the RAAF in the Pacific in WWII. Neither of us encountered the phenomenon you referenced. ??Since leaving the RAAF I have further developed my interest in military history but, I cannot find any reference to your claim. Consequently, I would be grateful if you would provide me with examples where commanders have fired up their men using the technique you described.Read on. Not surprisingly, Mr Thomas is not given examples of what Dr Edwards has claimed to observe.
Sincerely, H R Thomas
The church of global warming
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (9:16am)
I detect that Germans have had enough of paying insane power prices to pretend to do something about global warming. From Oliver Welke’s Heute Show on ZDF national TV.
(Thanks to reader handjive.)
===(Thanks to reader handjive.)
Rudd says Gillard welshed on deal
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (9:03am)
A nest of vipers. Not new, but told by Rudd himself for the first time:
===KEVIN Rudd says he offered to stand aside for Julia Gillard to become prime minister at the end of 2010 if the government was facing election defeat — but Ms Gillard welshed on the agreement just minutes after it was made…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill,)
Mr Rudd has spoken on the record about the pivotal meeting with Ms Gillard in the prime minister’s Parliament House office on the evening of June 23, 2010, witnessed by Labor elder John Faulkner.
Mr Rudd said the conditional offer of a leadership transition — without a vote of the Labor caucus — came after a long discussion about the performance of the government and its electoral prospects…
“We had a discussion about her concerns about the government’s direction — a large part of which was news to me,” Mr Rudd said. “I put to her the simple proposition that if by the time the election was due at the end of the year the government was not in a winning position then of course I would not wish to remain as leader.”
Ms Gillard “agreed with that approach” but then took a phone call outside Mr Rudd’s office and returned to say that she had now decided to challenge his position as Labor leader and prime minister… “I said: ‘So you have just reneged on an agreement with me in front of a witness given only 10 minutes ago?’ To which she said, ‘Yes’...”
Abbott moves on Liberal carpetbaggers
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (8:51am)
Good:
===LIBERAL Party officials who try to privately influence government MPs as “strategic consultants’’ or “legal consultants” without identifying themselves as lobbyists face tough new regulations to limit influence-peddling…
Party officials will be forced to declare they are lobbyists and will have to choose between party positions and trying to exert influence.
The principle of declaration and self-regulation that currently applies to professional lobbyists will be replaced by a decision from the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, who will decide who is a lobbyist and enforce registration and regulation.
The definition of a lobbyist will be expanded to include those who have escaped so far by describing themselves as consultants. There is also likely to be an audit of all the business interests of Liberal Party officials to prevent informal lobbying... Tony Abbott, who since coming to power in September has already imposed a ban on paid and unpaid party officials acting as lobbyists, remains deeply concerned about the continuing practice of Liberal officials and former MPs trying to covertly influence government decisions without the public declaration or regulations that apply to lobbyists. There is unease about the number of so-called “strategic consultants” or former MPs working for law firms or companies who do not declare they are lobbyists but still seek to raise business interests and affect decisions.
Shorten fights unions when he should fight the greens
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (8:47am)
Bill Shorten wants to rid Labor of the unions when he should be ridding it of greens. Miranda Devine:
Troy Bramston is scathing of Shorten’s speech:
===Delivering what was billed as a historic, reforming speech in Melbourne yesterday the Labor leader declared he was going to rid the party of union domination and open it up to the “grassroots"…UPDATE
That sounds all noble and democratic but what it means in practice is handing the party over to the lunatic Green Left.
For all his talk about a new moral purpose, Shorten was just drawing from the old well of politically correct poison which has brought his party to its knees....
Shorten raised “the rancour over the recent Western Australian process (which) shows that in the future we need a method that provides a local voice.”
That “rancour” between Labor running mates Joe Bullock and Louise Pratt in Western Australia over Labor’s abysmal results in the latest re-run Senate election encapsulates Labor’s dilemma.
Bullock, who won Labor’s only Senate seat in WA, is a socially conservative member of the powerful shoppies union, which is headed by the outgoing right-wing faction leader and social conservative Joe De Bruyn.
Pratt, No. 2 on Labor’s Senate ticket, is an openly lesbian gay rights activist and Labor staffer, backed by the left-aligned United Voice union, who has been involved in Labor politics since her student days. The pair are typical of the Labor Party’s increasingly schizophrenic nature.
Troy Bramston is scathing of Shorten’s speech:
The Opposition Leader called for a new platform chapter outlining Labor’s “values”, but the spectacularly outdated commitment to “socialism” will remain in the party’s constitution. Nor was there any mention of Labor’s need for new policies or to jettison those from the Rudd-Gillard years, such as the carbon and mining taxes…
It was suggested Shorten’s speech would offer “sweeping”, “significant” and “radical” reform not seen since Gough Whitlam’s time. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The biggest transformative reform Labor can make to empower its members and ditch the powerbroker ethos is to reduce the 50 per cent control unions have over the party’s state conferences. Unions use their bloc votes to dominate policymaking, appoint party personnel and select candidates. That power remains undiminished.
The rise of the new authoritarians
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (8:35am)
Neil Ormerod, Professor of Theology at the Australian Catholic University, demands an end to free speech:
Professor, do you understand how many people would deny your own right to speak under the standards you set for others?
(Via Miranda Devine.)
UPDATE
My bet is that the writer didn’t for a second consider the Aboriginal ancestry of the surfer he was actually praising, but such are the inflamed sensitivities today:
===Free speech for racist bigots, free speech for climate denialists. Where will it end?… There is a value in free speech to promote reasoned discussion and deliberation. And then there is obdurate and at times wilful ignorance ...Fine, Professor. Then let’s also end the free speech of those who peddle obdurate and wilfully ignorant claims that the first woman was created from the rib of the first man.
Professor, do you understand how many people would deny your own right to speak under the standards you set for others?
(Via Miranda Devine.)
UPDATE
My bet is that the writer didn’t for a second consider the Aboriginal ancestry of the surfer he was actually praising, but such are the inflamed sensitivities today:
AN indigenous surfer is suing a Gold Coast magazine for $200,000 after it wrote an article saying he had an “apeish face”.(Thanks to reader Jimp51.)
Coffs Harbour boardrider Otis Carey has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Burleigh publication Surfing Life for an article in its March edition.
“With his apeish face and cowering hair-curtains, I expect little more than Cro-Magnon grunts from his mouth,” surf writer Nathan Myers wrote. “I am caught off guard by the clarity and eloquence of his speech.”
Who is the ABC’s Alberici of the right?
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (7:14am)
We all have our biases. The ABC simply refuses to admit its current affairs presenters have them, too, and those biases are uniformly to the Left.
Today’s example: Lateline presenter Emma Alberici. Here are questions from just one interview last night - of Maurice Newman, the prime minister’s chief business advisor:
Alberici is misleading when she suggests we consider the past 800,000 years. The IPCC has in fact claimed to detect a strong human signal in global warming only from the 1970s, and 17 years is indeed “an enormous amount of time” in the context of establishing the truth or falsity of global warming theory. Six years ago, NOAA in the State of the Climate 2008 report said the climate models would be falsified at a confidence level of 95% if the warming hiatus lasted 15 years - which it now has:
===Today’s example: Lateline presenter Emma Alberici. Here are questions from just one interview last night - of Maurice Newman, the prime minister’s chief business advisor:
EMMA ALBERICI: It’s no secret that you don’t agree that man-made CO2 is causing global warming. Given there is now consensus among 97 per cent or so of climate scientists across the world that the view - around the view that human activity is responsible for climate change, what would it take to convince you?Bias check: The survey is nonsense, including among the 97 per cent even scientists who protest they are sceptics. Besides, science is never settled by a show of hands.
EMMA ALBERICI: I just want to take you up on that because it would appear that there is strong consensus, at least among - certainly when it comes to the IPCC, that is a group that has brought together under the auspices of the United Nations, the science around the world, it doesn’t actually do science itself, it just collates all the science and puts it forward. Now 195 countries contribute to that. Nineteen academies of science across the world, including I have to say the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the CSIRO, NASA, the American Academy of Sciences, the British equivalent, the Canadian equivalent, some really reputable bodies around the world are now agreeing that it’s human activity that’s causing climate change. So I’m wondering, who is it that’s influencing you so that is so convincing you otherwise?Bias check: Again, the argument by authority. Note also that Alberici says these bodies are “agreeing that it’s human activity that’s causing climate change”. That misstates the real argument. Many sceptics believe human activity is indeed likely to have a warming effect, but dispute the size of it, the danger of it, and the utility of efforts to “stop” it. And against Alberici’s appeal to count hands is the science, which shows no rise in surface temperatures for some 16 years, contrary to the predictions of the scientists she demands we believe.
EMMA ALBERICI (on Roy Spencer’s evidence that 95 per cent of climate models predicted more warming than we actually got): He was at NASA. His colleagues at NASA disagree with him.Bias check: They do? In fact, even the IPCC Alberici treats as the font of all wisdom last year admitted most climate models had indeed failed to predict the warming pause of at least the past 15 years:
There are, however, differences between simulated and observed trends over periods as short as 10 to 15 years… There may also be a contribution from forcing inadequacies and, in some models, an overestimate of the response to increasing greenhouse gas and other anthropogenic forcing (dominated by the effects of aerosols) ...This pause - or halt - in warming was not predicted. Why even bother to try to deny it?
EMMA ALBERICI: But I’m just going on people with great reputations around the world, including our own Chief Scientist, Greg Hunt, the Environment Minister, Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister. I mean, around the world, there seems to be consensus that it is a man-made phenomena.Bias check: Alberici, never a fan of Abbott, now elevates him to one of the “people with great reputations around the world” who argues that global warming “is a man-made phenomenon”. This is her most desperate use yet of argument by authority. And if Abbott actually privately believes man’s influence on global temperatures has been wildly overstated, will Alberici modify her own warming beliefs?
EMMA ALBERICI: That it’s a pause. I guess that’s what scientists say. It’s a pause. They look back 800,000 years as I understand it, so 17 years in the scheme of things isn’t an enormous amount of time.Bias check: Is this the first time Alberici has conceded the sceptics are right, that there has in fact been no warming for perhaps 17 years? Then why is she so adamant that we listen to the “97 per cent of climate scientists” who a decade or more ago said we’d get warming instead?
Alberici is misleading when she suggests we consider the past 800,000 years. The IPCC has in fact claimed to detect a strong human signal in global warming only from the 1970s, and 17 years is indeed “an enormous amount of time” in the context of establishing the truth or falsity of global warming theory. Six years ago, NOAA in the State of the Climate 2008 report said the climate models would be falsified at a confidence level of 95% if the warming hiatus lasted 15 years - which it now has:
Near-zero and even negative trends are common for intervals of a decade or less in the simulations, due to the model’s internal climate variability. The simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends for intervals of 15 yr or more, suggesting that an observed absence of warming of this duration is needed to create a discrepancy with the expected present-day warming rate.The question really should be on Alberici: how many more years of non-warming would it take for you to admit the alarmists were wrong?
EMMA ALBERICI: I’ll only ask you one more questions on this because I do want to talk about other things, but both Marius Kloppers and his successor at BHP Billiton Andrew McKenzie agree that climate change is human induced. So what if those 97 per cent of climate scientists and all business people across the world, like the likes of Bill Gates and Richard Branson and the miners here in Australia, what if they’re right and you and the scientists you quote are not right.Bias alert: Kloppers, McKenzie and Branson are now climate scientists? Why doesn’t Alberici then cite me as well? And has she considered why coal miners and users of aviation fuel have an interest in these witchhunting times to actually pose as global warming campaigners? For further insights, read The Emperor’s New Clothes.
EMMA ALBERICI: I’m sure there will be scientists lining up to give you that information but we’ll move on.Bias alert: There are also scientists lining up to give Alberici information to counter her own beliefs. It is false to suggest the scientists line up on just one side of this argument.
EMMA ALBERICI: What do you see as the role for the Australia Network and is it, as Tony Abbott suggested previously, supposed to be a kind of cheer squad for the Australian Government?Bias alert: Tony Abbott has never claimed the ABC’s Australia Network is “supposed to be a kind of cheer squad for the Australian Government”. That is a gross misrepresentation of his claim that the ABC generally seemed to have an instinctive hostility to Australian traditions and institutions, lacking a “basic affection for our home team”. Alberici also overlooks the fact that the Australia Network is actually funded by government in a contract overseen by the Department of Foreign Affairs to project a positive image of Australia in Asia. As DFAT notes:
Australia’s federally-funded television service, the Australia Network television service, is an important platform for projecting a positive and accurate image of Australia. While the Australia Network maintains editorial independence, we welcome involvement and interaction by posts on content and possible story ideas. The current Australia Network contract with the ABC is managed by DFAT (PDB).Alberici is entitled to her biases. But the ABC has a duty under its charter to balance them. Who is the ABC’s conservative Alberici?
Joe Hockey: this Budget will hurt. It’s that or it’s Greece
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (6:41pm)
From Treasurer Joe Hockey’s tough and frank speech today at the Spectator briefing - a speech in which he suggests a surplus five years from now:
First, the scale of the problem:
One important cause:
Continue reading 'Joe Hockey: this Budget will hurt. It’s that or it’s Greece'
===First, the scale of the problem:
For as long as deficits continue [without a change of policy], government debt will continue to rise, reaching $667 billion within a decade. It is an extraordinary number that will have a profound impact on the living standards of all Australians…
This year alone we will pay $12 billion in interest charges on our Government debt, about the same as we will spend on higher education.
By 2024, without action, our interest payments are projected to reach around $34 billion. This is larger than the projected spending on Aged Care of $26 billion.
One important cause:
The $40 billion we spend on income support through the Age Pension is much more than we spend on defence, or hospitals, or schools each year. It is our single biggest spending programme. Spending on the Age Pension already takes up 10 per cent of all Commonwealth spending…The case for change:
On top of this, aged care is now the eighth largest category of spending. We spend more on aged care than we do on higher education or child care. And the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is the tenth largest category of spending. Nearly 80 per cent of the Scheme’s expenditure is attributable to concessional recipients…
And demand for the Age Pension will continue to increase as the population ages. In Australia, between 2010 and 2050 the number of people aged 65 to 84 is expected to double, and the number of people 85 and older is expected to quadruple.... Between 2010 and 2050 the percentage of people of working age supporting those over the age of 65 in Australia will almost halve…
Despite spending billions of dollars in taxation benefits for superannuation, by 2050 the ratio of Australians receiving a full or part pension will still be around four out of five.
Budget repair will give us the option to support growth in the event of economic or financial turbulence abroad. The Global Financial Crisis may be over but we can be sure it will not be the last shock that Australia will need to negotiate.Or else ... think Greece:
Budget repair is also about ensuring that future generations do not pay for a standard of living for today’s generation that they themselves will never enjoy. Continued deficit and debt is borrowing from tomorrow to fund our lifestyle today. We owe it to our children not to leave them with a mortgage that paid for our lifestyle. So if Australians ask themselves of the Budget in May, “what’s in it for me?” my response will be a better future.
This intergenerational aspect to the budget repair challenge has an inescapable moral dimension.The speech:
This is seen most clearly in Southern Europe where the most significant victims of the deep recessions have been young people, with youth unemployment in Greece and Spain close to 60 per cent. It is a hard truth that in many developed countries past and current generations have squandered their childrens’ future. We cannot allow our nation to fall into this trap.
Continue reading 'Joe Hockey: this Budget will hurt. It’s that or it’s Greece'And thus does the ABC legitimise the slide into barbarianism
Andrew Bolt April 23 2014 (5:51pm)
It seems Q&A once again goes out of its way to reward the potty mouth of a Greens-voting communist anarchist. (Yes, I know there’s a contradiction in terms there - several terms, in fact - but if this woman were rational she wouldn’t be any of the above.)
What is it with the Left and abuse?
===What is it with the Left and abuse?
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- 1014 – Irish forces led by Brian Boru clashed with theVikings in the Battle of Clontarf.
- 1661 – Charles II, King of England, Ireland, and Scotlandwas crowned at Westminster Abbey.
- 1954 – Batting against Vic Raschi of the St. Louis Cardinals, Hank Aaron (pictured) of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his record-setting 755 home runs in Major League Baseball.
- 1968 – Students protesting the Vietnam War at Columbia University inNew York City took over administration buildings and shut down the university.
- 1979 – Activist Blair Peach suffered fatal head injuries when he was knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration inSouthall, London, against a National Front election meeting in the town hall.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” - Romans 1:20
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Him hath God exalted."
Acts 5:31
Acts 5:31
Jesus, our Lord, once crucified, dead and buried, now sits upon the throne of glory. The highest place that heaven affords is his by undisputed right. It is sweet to remember that the exaltation of Christ in heaven is a representative exaltation. He is exalted at the Father's right hand, and though as Jehovah he had eminent glories, in which finite creatures cannot share, yet as the Mediator, the honours which Jesus wears in heaven are the heritage of all the saints. It is delightful to reflect how close is Christ's union with his people. We are actually one with him; we are members of his body; and his exaltation is our exaltation. He will give us to sit upon his throne, even as he has overcome, and is set down with his Father on his throne; he has a crown, and he gives us crowns too; he has a throne, but he is not content with having a throne to himself, on his right hand there must be his queen, arrayed in "gold of Ophir." He cannot be glorified without his bride. Look up, believer, to Jesus now; let the eye of your faith behold him with many crowns upon his head; and remember that you will one day be like him, when you shall see him as he is; you shall not be so great as he is, you shall not be so divine, but still you shall, in a measure, share the same honours, and enjoy the same happiness and the same dignity which he possesses. Be content to live unknown for a little while, and to walk your weary way through the fields of poverty, or up the hills of affliction; for by-and-by you shall reign with Christ, for he has "made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign forever and ever." Oh!, wonderful thought for the children of God! We have Christ for our glorious representative in heaven's courts now, and soon he will come and receive us to himself, to be with him there, to behold his glory, and to share his joy.
Evening
"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night."
Psalm 91:5
Psalm 91:5
What is this terror? It may be the cry of fire, or the noise of thieves, or fancied appearances, or the shriek of sudden sickness or death. We live in the world of death and sorrow, we may therefore look for ills as well in the night-watches as beneath the glare of the broiling sun. Nor should this alarm us, for be the terror what it may, the promise is that the believer shall not be afraid. Why should he? Let us put it more closely, why should we? God our Father is here, and will be here all through the lonely hours; he is an almighty Watcher, a sleepless Guardian, a faithful Friend. Nothing can happen without his direction, for even hell itself is under his control. Darkness is not dark to him. He has promised to be a wall of fire around his people--and who can break through such a barrier? Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them; but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy. If we give way to foolish fear we shall dishonour our profession, and lead others to doubt the reality of godliness. We ought to be afraid of being afraid, lest we should vex the Holy Spirit by foolish distrust. Down, then, ye dismal forebodings and groundless apprehensions, God has not forgotten to be gracious, nor shut up his tender mercies; it may be night in the soul, but there need be no terror, for the God of love changes not. Children of light may walk in darkness, but they are not therefore cast away, nay, they are now enabled to prove their adoption by trusting in their heavenly Father as hypocrites cannot do.
"Though the night be dark and dreary,
Darkness cannot hide from thee;
Thou art he, who, never weary,
Watchest where thy people be."
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Tertullus
[Tûrtŭl'lus] - derived from Tertius, and meaning, liar or impostor.
A Roman advocate employed by the Jewish authorities to prosecute Paul before Felix, the Roman Governor or Procurator (Acts 24:1, 2; 25:8).
The style of his rhetorical address or brief was common to Roman advocates. With his power of glib eloquence as well as knowledge of Roman laws, the orator Tertullus sought to impress the mind of the judge. With the trick of his class, he began with flattery of the judge. All of the flattering epithets of the hired orator, however, stand out in striking contrast with "the righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," Paul later spoke about to the same ruler.
From flattery of the judge, Tertullus passed to invective against the defendant, charging him with crimes he never committed. Paul in his defense presented a marked difference between his own frank manliness and the advocate's servile flattery. Tertullus could not rouse the conscience of Felix as Paul did. "Felix trembled," as Paul pressed home the truth of the Gospel and sent for him "the oftener," we read. What a tragedy it was that Felix did not follow his Spirit-impressed conscience!
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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 14-15, Luke 17:1-19 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 14-15
Absalom Returns to Jerusalem
1 Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king's heart longed for Absalom. 2 So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. He said to her, "Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don't use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. 3 Then go to the king and speak these words to him." And Joab put the words in her mouth.
4 When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, "Help me, Your Majesty!"
Today's New Testament reading: Luke 17:1-19
Sin, Faith, Duty
1 Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 So watch yourselves.
"If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them."
5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you....
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THE CRUCIFIXION
They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. (Matthew 27:33-37)
Now came time for the clash between good and evil, heaven and hell. The crucifixion of Jesus is both the most horrific moment in human history and humanity’s only hope. That’s why we call the Friday before Easter Good Friday.
Jesus’ followers were still too weak to understand and so they scattered. The religious elite played out their plot; the political leaders passed the buck and in the end discarded Jesus for the sake of convenience. The crowds gawked. Two thieves hung on either side of a man whose crime was hard to comprehend. The placard above his head announcing with biting sarcasm “King of the Jews,” must have attracted some attention.
We know of seven things Jesus said from that cross including a pronouncement of forgiveness for soldiers, provision for the care of his mother, a plea for something to wet his parched mouth. But the last words on that last day of his natural human life were the most important: “It is finished!”
That was not a cry of resignation, not capitulation or surrender. It was the shout of victory that all that God-Father, Son, and Spirit-had planned for the restoration of sinful human beings was accomplished. Now there could be justification! Redemption! Reconciliation! All that needed to be done for the debt and scar of sin had been done. Now forgiveness was free. All that remained was for Jesus to step out from the shadow of death, which he would easily do after a couple of days. But first, disciples had time to search their hearts for how something good could be seen in something so bad, while the enemies of God disappeared into the darkness of their own duplicity.
Ponder This: How does the crucifixion of Jesus most powerfully impact you?
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Today's Lent reading: John 21 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayJesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish
1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"
"No," they answered.
6 He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish....
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