Man Monis details are being revealed to the public, showing how a refugee came to take hostages after aiding the murder of his wife. He was a creep his entire time he was in Australia and nobody stopped him. But the ALP helped him. Questions are being asked as to why Shorten doesn't produce policy even though he is secure as leader of the ALP. Thing is he can still be rolled by enemies. But every time he changes a policy he makes enemies. So he does nothing. And soon he will be attacked by enemies who won't accept him doing nothing when he does it badly. He hasn't convictions. He only has missed opportunity. Just like Man Monis.
Innocents killed in Iraq where ISIL has over run Iraqi positions. Women and children beheaded. Not just war crimes, but crimes which bring Islam not disrepute. Impotent Islamic leaders are still backing jihadists. And the left back victim ideology.
Southern US floods have claimed lives. Record flooding in Austin, Texas.
AFL Carlton coach, Mick Malthouse sacked after an interview on radio where he said the board should back him or sack him. It ends his brilliant long career on a sour note that will be forgotten. As a player, he won a premiership for the Tigers in 1980. As a coach he has won three premierships. He has achieved everything a coach or player could want and should retire satisfied. But for the short term it will hurt.
In 47 BC, Julius Caesar visited Tarsus on his way to Pontus, where he met enthusiastic support, but where, according to Cicero, Cassius was planning to kill him at this point. 3 years later, Julius was backstabbed to death. 17, Germanicus returned to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrated a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other German tribes west of the Elbe. Two years later, Germanicus was dead under suspicious circumstances. Some said he was poisoned on order of Tiberius. Some said he was the Roman equivalent of Alexander the Great, dying young having achieved much. He was a bit like Kennedy, his alleged killer was killed before being questioned. 451, Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire took place. The Empire defeated the Armenians militarily but guaranteed them freedom to openly practice Christianity. 946, King Edmund I of England was murdered by a thief whom he personally attacked while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day. He had been feasting with nobles when he spotted the exiled thief Leofa. He personally fought Leofa and was killed, as was Leofa immediately after by others.
1135, Alfonso VII of León and Castile was crowned in León Cathedral as Imperator totius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain". 1293, an earthquake struck Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 30,000. 1328, William of Ockham, the Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly left Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII. They had right to fear the sentence because the Franciscans were caught in a power play between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. Ockham became famous for his Razor, and he chose the best, simplest solution by making the Emperor his patron. William was not accused of heresy, merely of using works deemed heretical. 1538, Geneva expelled John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lived in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years. 1573, the Battle of Haarlemmermeer, a naval engagement in the Dutch War of Independence. 1637, Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under the English Captain John Mason attacked a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans. 1644, Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claimed victory in the Battle of Montijo. 1647, Alse Young, hanged in Hartford, Connecticut, became the first person executed as a witch in the British American colonies. The records do not exist as to why she was thought to be a witch. But it is doubtful she performed magic. There is a suggestion that she had no son, and one daughter, and so stood to inherit on the event of her husband's death. But she died first. 1736, Battle of Ackia 1770, The Orlov Revolt, an attempt to revolt against the Ottoman Empire before the Greek War of Independence, ended in disaster for the Greeks. Russia had egged Greece on, but wiped her hands after the loss. Russia benefited from the confusion, Greeks were hurt by the reprisals. 1783, a Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrated an end of fighting in the American Revolution.
In 1805, Napoléon Bonaparte assumed the title of King of Italy and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral, the gothic cathedral in Milan. 1821, establishment of the Peloponnesian Senate by the Greek rebels. 1822, 116 people died in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway's history. 1828, Feral child Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg. He was clearly a mentally ill liar and may have stabbed himself to death a few years later. 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed by the U.S. Congress; it was signed into law by Democrat President Andrew Jackson two days later. 1857, Dred Scott was emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners. 1864 Montana was organised as a United States territory. 1865, American Civil War: the Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, was the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas. 1869, Boston University was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1879, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state. 1896, Nicholas II became the last Tsar of Imperial Russia. Also 1896, Charles Dow published the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 1897, Dracula, a novel by the Irish author Bram Stoker, was published.
In 1900, Thousand Days' War: The Colombian Conservative Party turned the tide of war in their favour with victory against the Colombian Liberal Party in the Battle of Palonegro. 1906, Vauxhall Bridge was opened in London. 1908, at Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made. The rights to the resource were quickly acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. 1917, Several powerful tornadoes ripped through Illinois, including the city of Mattoon, killing 101 people and injuring 689. 1918, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was established. 1923, 24 Hours of Le Mans, was first held, and has since been run annually in June.
In 1936, in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson began speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours. 1938, in the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its first session. Which fit in well with the anniversary of a witch hanging. 1940, World War II: Operation Dynamo – In northern France, Allied forces began a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France. Some medical men had been ordered to remain behind. 1940, World War II: The Siege of Calais ended with the surrender of the British and French garrison. 1942, World War II: The Battle of Gazala took place. 1948, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 80-557, which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force. 1966, British Guiana gained independence, becoming Guyana. 1969, Apollo program: Apollo 10 returned to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
In 1970,the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army slaughtered at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh. 1972, Willandra National Park was established in Australia. Also 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 1977, George Willig climbed the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Centre. 1981, Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resigned following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due). Left wing conspiracy nuts love to believe all sorts of corruption related to this lodge. Also 1981, an EA-6B Prowler crashed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others. 1983, a strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, triggering a tsunami that killed at least 104 people and injured thousands. Many people went missing and thousands of buildings were destroyed. 1986, the European Community adopts the European flag.
In 1991, Zviad Gamsakhurdia became the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. Also 1991, Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashed in an area of western Thailand after a thrust reverser malfunction. All 223 people aboard were killed. 1992, the blockade of Dubrovnik was broken. Following this, the siege of Dubrovnik ended in the next months. 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, was mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York. Was it an attempt to sidestep a conservative governor? 2002, the tugboat Robert Y. Love collided with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured. 2004, United States Army veteran Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. 2008, Severe flooding began in eastern and southern China that would ultimately cause 148 deaths and force the evacuation of 1.3 million.
2014
None in 2014 because of Government and public service corruption related to the petitions
Historical perspectives on this day
In 47 BC, Julius Caesar visited Tarsus on his way to Pontus, where he met enthusiastic support, but where, according to Cicero, Cassius was planning to kill him at this point. 17, Germanicus returned to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrated a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other German tribes west of the Elbe. 451, Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire took place. The Empire defeated the Armenians militarily but guaranteed them freedom to openly practice Christianity. 946, King Edmund I of England was murdered by a thief whom he personally attacked while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day.
1135, Alfonso VII of León and Castile was crowned in León Cathedral as Imperator totius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain". 1293, an earthquake struck Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 30,000. 1328, William of Ockham, the Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly left Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII. 1538, Geneva expelled John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lived in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years. 1573, the Battle of Haarlemmermeer, a naval engagement in the Dutch War of Independence. 1637, Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under the English Captain John Mason attacked a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans. 1644, Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claimed victory in the Battle of Montijo. 1647, Alse Young, hanged in Hartford, Connecticut, became the first person executed as a witch in the British American colonies. 1736, Battle of Ackia 1770, The Orlov Revolt, an attempt to revolt against the Ottoman Empire before the Greek War of Independence, ended in disaster for the Greeks. 1783, a Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrated an end of fighting in the American Revolution.
In 1805, Napoléon Bonaparte assumed the title of King of Italy and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral, the gothic cathedral in Milan. 1821, establishment of the Peloponnesian Senate by the Greek rebels. 1822, 116 people died in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway's history. 1828, Feral child Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg. 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed by the U.S. Congress; it was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later. 1857, Dred Scott was emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners. 1864 Montana was organised as a United States territory. 1865, American Civil War: the Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, was the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas. 1869, Boston University was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1879, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state. 1896, Nicholas II became the last Tsar of Imperial Russia. Also 1896, Charles Dow published the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 1897, Dracula, a novel by the Irish author Bram Stoker, was published.
In 1900, Thousand Days' War: The Colombian Conservative Party turned the tide of war in their favour with victory against the Colombian Liberal Party in the Battle of Palonegro. 1906, Vauxhall Bridge was opened in London. 1908, at Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made. The rights to the resource were quickly acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. 1917, Several powerful tornadoes ripped through Illinois, including the city of Mattoon, killing 101 people and injuring 689. 1918, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was established. 1923, 24 Hours of Le Mans, was first held, and has since been run annually in June.
In 1936, in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson began speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours. 1938, in the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its first session. 1940, World War II: Operation Dynamo – In northern France, Allied forces began a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France. 1940, World War II: The Siege of Calais ended with the surrender of the British and French garrison. 1942, World War II: The Battle of Gazala took place. 1948, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 80-557, which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force. 1966, British Guiana gained independence, becoming Guyana. 1969, Apollo program: Apollo 10 returned to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
In 1970,the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army slaughtered at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh. 1972, Willandra National Park was established in Australia. Also 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 1977, George Willig climbed the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Centre. 1981, Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resigned following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due). Also 1981, an EA-6B Prowler crashed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others. 1983, a strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, triggering a tsunami that killed at least 104 people and injured thousands. Many people went missing and thousands of buildings were destroyed. 1986, the European Community adopts the European flag.
In 1991, Zviad Gamsakhurdia became the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. Also 1991, Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashed in an area of western Thailand after a thrust reverser malfunction. All 223 people aboard were killed. 1992, the blockade of Dubrovnik was broken. Following this, the siege of Dubrovnik ended in the next months. 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, was mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York. 2002, the tugboat Robert Y. Love collided with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured. 2004, United States Army veteran Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. 2008, Severe flooding began in eastern and southern China that would ultimately cause 148 deaths and force the evacuation of 1.3 million.
1135, Alfonso VII of León and Castile was crowned in León Cathedral as Imperator totius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain". 1293, an earthquake struck Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 30,000. 1328, William of Ockham, the Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly left Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII. 1538, Geneva expelled John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lived in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years. 1573, the Battle of Haarlemmermeer, a naval engagement in the Dutch War of Independence. 1637, Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under the English Captain John Mason attacked a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans. 1644, Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claimed victory in the Battle of Montijo. 1647, Alse Young, hanged in Hartford, Connecticut, became the first person executed as a witch in the British American colonies. 1736, Battle of Ackia 1770, The Orlov Revolt, an attempt to revolt against the Ottoman Empire before the Greek War of Independence, ended in disaster for the Greeks. 1783, a Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrated an end of fighting in the American Revolution.
In 1805, Napoléon Bonaparte assumed the title of King of Italy and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral, the gothic cathedral in Milan. 1821, establishment of the Peloponnesian Senate by the Greek rebels. 1822, 116 people died in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway's history. 1828, Feral child Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg. 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed by the U.S. Congress; it was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later. 1857, Dred Scott was emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners. 1864 Montana was organised as a United States territory. 1865, American Civil War: the Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, was the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas. 1869, Boston University was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1879, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state. 1896, Nicholas II became the last Tsar of Imperial Russia. Also 1896, Charles Dow published the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 1897, Dracula, a novel by the Irish author Bram Stoker, was published.
In 1900, Thousand Days' War: The Colombian Conservative Party turned the tide of war in their favour with victory against the Colombian Liberal Party in the Battle of Palonegro. 1906, Vauxhall Bridge was opened in London. 1908, at Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made. The rights to the resource were quickly acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. 1917, Several powerful tornadoes ripped through Illinois, including the city of Mattoon, killing 101 people and injuring 689. 1918, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was established. 1923, 24 Hours of Le Mans, was first held, and has since been run annually in June.
In 1936, in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson began speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours. 1938, in the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its first session. 1940, World War II: Operation Dynamo – In northern France, Allied forces began a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France. 1940, World War II: The Siege of Calais ended with the surrender of the British and French garrison. 1942, World War II: The Battle of Gazala took place. 1948, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 80-557, which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force. 1966, British Guiana gained independence, becoming Guyana. 1969, Apollo program: Apollo 10 returned to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
In 1970,the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army slaughtered at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh. 1972, Willandra National Park was established in Australia. Also 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 1977, George Willig climbed the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Centre. 1981, Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resigned following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due). Also 1981, an EA-6B Prowler crashed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others. 1983, a strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, triggering a tsunami that killed at least 104 people and injured thousands. Many people went missing and thousands of buildings were destroyed. 1986, the European Community adopts the European flag.
In 1991, Zviad Gamsakhurdia became the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. Also 1991, Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashed in an area of western Thailand after a thrust reverser malfunction. All 223 people aboard were killed. 1992, the blockade of Dubrovnik was broken. Following this, the siege of Dubrovnik ended in the next months. 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, was mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York. 2002, the tugboat Robert Y. Love collided with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured. 2004, United States Army veteran Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. 2008, Severe flooding began in eastern and southern China that would ultimately cause 148 deaths and force the evacuation of 1.3 million.
=== Publishing News ===
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.
=== Bolt Report Items ===
On Bolt Report an ongoing policy is that any Islam post can only be on the pinned leader. Normal rules apply in that if it is merely foul and abusive it will be deleted. Otherwise comments are welcome.
===
===
Dear Members (YOU MUST READ THIS THREAD)
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Lapskin Lee and Jenny Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years. It is Mother's Day in France, Poland ans Sweden. Armenians were defeated by the Sassanid in 451, but this gave them religious freedom 33 years later. In 1938, the house un-American activities committee began, and Nixon would become famous .. A day of choices. Your day.
- 1264 – Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (d. 1326)
- 1478 – Pope Clement VII (d. 1534)
- 1566 – Mehmed III, Ottoman sultan (d. 1603)
- 1602 – Philippe de Champaigne, Dutch-French painter (d. 1674)
- 1623 – William Petty, English economist and philosopher (d. 1687)
- 1650 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (d. 1722)
- 1667 – Abraham de Moivre, French-English mathematician and theorist (d. 1754)
- 1883 – Mamie Smith, American singer, actress, dancer, and pianist (d. 1946)
- 1886 – Al Jolson, Lithuanian-American singer and actor (d. 1950)
- 1904 – George Formby, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1961)
- 1907 – John Wayne, American actor, singer, director, and producer (d. 1979)
- 1908 – Robert Morley, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1992)
- 1908 – Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, Vietnamese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam
- 1919 – Rubén González, Cuban pianist (Buena Vista Social Club and Estrellas de Areito) (d. 2003)
- 1920 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2002)
- 1926 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (Miles Davis Quintet) (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Jacques Bergerac, French actor (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Catherine Sauvage, French singer and actress (d. 1998)
- 1947 – Glenn Turner, New Zealand cricketer
- 1948 – Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter (Fleetwood Mac)
- 1951 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, founded Sally Ride Science (d. 2012)
- 1960 – Dean Lukin, Australian weightlifter
- 1964 – Lenny Kravitz, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and actor
- 1966 – Helena Bonham Carter, English actress and singer
- 1966 – Zola Budd, South African runner
- 1967 – Kevin Moore, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player (OSI, Dream Theater, and Chroma Key)
- 1976 – Justin Pierre, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Motion City Soundtrack)
- 1977 – Mark Hunter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Chimaira)
- 1977 – Misaki Ito, Japanese actress and model
- 1982 – Yoko Matsugane, Japanese model
- 1999 – Kerry Ingram, English actress and singer
Deaths
- 604 – Augustine of Canterbury, Benedictine monk and archbishop
- 735 – Bede, English monk, historian, and theologian (b. 672)
- 818 – Ali Al-Ridha, Saudi Arabian 8th of The Twelve Imams (b. 766)
- 946 – Edmund I of England (b. 921)
- 1647 – Alse Young, American woman executed for witchcraft (b. 1600)
- 1703 – Samuel Pepys, English politician (b. 1633)
- 1762 – Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (b. 1714)
- 1904 – Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French physician and neurologist (b. 1857)
- 1939 – Charles Horace Mayo, American physician, co-founded Mayo Clinic (b. 1865)
- 1943 – Alice Tegnér, Swedish organist, composer, and educator (b. 1864)
- 1976 – Martin Heidegger, German philosopher and academic (b. 1889)
- 1995 – Friz Freleng, American animator, cartoonist, director and producer (b. 1906)
- 2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
- 2010 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (b. 1912)
- 2013 – Jack Vance, American author (b. 1916)
- 2014 – Manuel Uribe, Mexican computer repairman, world's heaviest man (b. 1965)
- 1328 – William of Ockham, an English friar who originated the methodological principle Occam's razor, secretly left Avignon under threat from Pope John XXII.
- 1828 – Kaspar Hauser, a foundling with suspected ties to the Royal House of Baden, first appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany.
- 1865 – American Civil War: General Edmund Kirby Smith negotiated the surrender of his army, the only significant Confederate Army force remaining in the war.
- 1940 – Second World War: A flotilla of "little ships" began a mass evacuation (pictured) of British, French and Belgian troops cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk.
- 1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004 experienced an uncommanded thrust reverser deployment of an engine and broke apart in mid-air, killing all 223 people on board.
You chose wisely. He was mad. They are all gone. We evacuated many. Use thrust reversers wisely. Let's party.
Matches
- 47 BC – Julius Caesar visits Tarsus on his way to Pontus, where he meets enthusiastic support, but where, according to Cicero, Cassius is planning to kill him at this point.
- 17 – Germanicus returns to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other German tribes west of the Elbe.
- 451 – Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place. The Empire defeats the Armenians militarily but guarantees them freedom to openly practice Christianity.
- 946 – King Edmund I of England is murdered by a thief whom he personally attacks while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day.
- 1135 – Alfonso VII of León and Castile is crowned in León Cathedral as Imperator totius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain".
- 1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 30,000.
- 1328 – William of Ockham, the Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII.
- 1538 – Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourgfor the next three years.
- 1573 – The Battle of Haarlemmermeer, a naval engagement in the Dutch War of Independence.
- 1637 – Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under the English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.
- 1644 – Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claim victory in the Battle of Montijo.
- 1647 – Alse Young, hanged in Hartford, Connecticut, becomes the first person executed as a witch in the British American colonies.
- 1736 – Battle of Ackia
- 1770 – The Orlov Revolt, an attempt to revolt against the Ottoman Empire before the Greek War of Independence, ends in disaster for the Greeks.
- 1783 – A Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrated end of fighting in American Revolution.
- 1805 – Napoléon Bonaparte assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral, the gothic cathedral in Milan.
- 1821 – Establishment of the Peloponnesian Senate by the Greek rebels.
- 1822 – 116 people die in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway's history.
- 1828 – Feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
- 1830 – The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.
- 1857 – Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners.
- 1864 – Montana is organized as a United States territory.
- 1865 – American Civil War: the Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippidivision, is the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
- 1869 – Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- 1879 – Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
- 1896 – Nicholas II becomes the last Tsar of Imperial Russia.
- 1896 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- 1897 – Dracula, a novel by the Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
- 1900 – Thousand Days' War: The Colombian Conservative Party turns the tide of war in their favor with victory against the Colombian Liberal Party in the Battle of Palonegro.
- 1906 – Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London.
- 1908 – At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
- 1917 – Several powerful tornadoes rip through Illinois, including the city of Mattoon, killing 101 people and injuring 689.
- 1918 – The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
- 1923 – 24 Hours of Le Mans, was first held, and has since been run annually in June.
- 1936 – In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sits down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours.
- 1938 – In the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.
- 1940 – World War II: Operation Dynamo – In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
- 1940 – World War II: The Siege of Calais ends with the surrender of the British and French garrison.
- 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Gazala takes place.
- 1948 – The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 80-557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
- 1966 – British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.
- 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
- 1970 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
- 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army slaughters at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
- 1972 – Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
- 1972 – The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
- 1977 – George Willig climbs the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center.
- 1981 – Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due).
- 1981 – An EA-6B Prowler crashes on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others.
- 1983 – A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 104 people and injures thousands. Many people go missing and thousands of buildings are destroyed.
- 1986 – The European Community adopts the European flag.
- 1991 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era.
- 1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashes in an area of western Thailand after a thrust reverser malfunction. All 223 people aboard are killed.
- 1992 – The blockade of Dubrovnik is broken. Following this, the siege of Dubrovnik ends in the next months.
- 1998 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.
- 1998 – The first "National Sorry Day" was held in Australia, and reconciliation events were held nationally, and attended by over a million people.
- 2002 – The tugboat Robert Y. Love collides with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured.
- 2004 – United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
- 2008 – Severe flooding begins in eastern and southern China that will ultimately cause 148 deaths and force the evacuation of 1.3 million.
Hatches
- 1264 – Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (d. 1326)
- 1478 – Pope Clement VII (d. 1534)
- 1566 – Mehmed III, Ottoman sultan (d. 1603)
- 1602 – Philippe de Champaigne, Dutch-French painter (d. 1674)
- 1623 – William Petty, English economist and philosopher (d. 1687)
- 1650 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (d. 1722)
- 1667 – Abraham de Moivre, French-English mathematician and theorist (d. 1754)
- 1669 – Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist and mycologist (d. 1722)
- 1700 – Nicolaus Zinzendorf, German bishop (d. 1760)
- 1799 – August Kopisch, German poet and painter (d. 1853)
- 1822 – Edmond de Goncourt, French author and critic, founded the Académie Goncourt (d. 1896)
- 1863 – Bob Fitzsimmons, English-New Zealand boxer (d. 1917)
- 1865 – Robert W. Chambers, American author (d. 1933)
- 1867 – Mary of Teck (d. 1953)
- 1873 – Olaf Gulbransson, Norwegian painter and illustrator (d. 1958)
- 1880 – W. Otto Miessner, American composer and educator (d. 1967)
- 1883 – Mamie Smith, American singer, actress, dancer, and pianist (d. 1946)
- 1886 – Al Jolson, Lithuanian-American singer and actor (d. 1950)
- 1893 – Eugene Aynsley Goossens, English conductor and composer (d. 1962)
- 1893 – Norma Talmadge, American actress and producer (d. 1957)
- 1895 – Dorothea Lange, American photographer and journalist (d. 1965)
- 1895 – Paul Lukas, Hungarian-American actor (d. 1971)
- 1898 – Ernst Bacon, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990)
- 1898 – Christfried Burmeister, Estonian speed skater (d. 1965)
- 1899 – Antonio Barrette, Canadian politician, 18th Premier of Quebec (d. 1968)
- 1899 – Muriel McQueen Fergusson, Canadian politician (d. 1997)
- 1904 – George Formby, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1961)
- 1904 – Vlado Perlemuter, Lithuanian-French pianist and educator (d. 2002)
- 1907 – Jean Bernard, French physician and haematologist (d. 2006)
- 1907 – John Wayne, American actor, singer, director, and producer (d. 1979)
- 1908 – Robert Morley, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1992)
- 1908 – Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, Vietnamese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam
- 1909 – Matt Busby, Scottish-English footballer and manager (d. 1994)
- 1909 – Nikolay Guryanov, Russian priest and mystic (d. 2002)
- 1909 – Adolfo López Mateos, Mexican politician, 48th President of Mexico (d. 1969)
- 1910 – Imi Lichtenfeld, Hungarian-Israeli martial artist (d. 1998)
- 1911 – Ben Alexander, American actor (d. 1969)
- 1911 – Henry Ephron, American playwright, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1992)
- 1912 – János Kádár, Hungarian politician, Minister of the Interior of Hungary (d. 1989)
- 1912 – Jay Silverheels, Canadian-American actor (d. 1980)
- 1913 – Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)
- 1913 – Pierre Daninos, French author (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Josef Manger, German weightlifter (d. 1991)
- 1914 – Frankie Manning, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2009)
- 1915 – Vernon Alley, American bassist (d. 2004)
- 1915 – Sam Edwards, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1915 – Antonia Forest, English author (d. 2003)
- 1916 – Moondog, American drummer, composer, and poet (d. 1999)
- 1916 – Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
- 1917 – Éva Szörényi, Hungarian actress (d. 2009)
- 1918 – Anton Christoforidis, Turkish-Greek boxer (d. 1985)
- 1919 – Rubén González, Cuban pianist (Buena Vista Social Club and Estrellas de Areito) (d. 2003)
- 1920 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2002)
- 1921 – György Bárdy, Hungarian actor (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Walter Laqueur, American historian and academic
- 1921 – Ernst Märzendorfer, Austrian conductor (d. 2009)
- 1922 – Troy Smith, American businessman, founded Sonic Drive-In (d. 2009)
- 1923 – James Arness, American actor and producer (d. 2011)
- 1923 – Roy Dotrice, English actor
- 1925 – Alec McCowen, English actor
- 1926 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (Miles Davis Quintet) (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Jacques Bergerac, French actor (d. 2014)
- 1928 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist, author, and activist (d. 2011)
- 1929 – J. F. Ade Ajayi, Nigerian historian and academic
- 1929 – John Jackson, English lawyer and businessman
- 1929 – Catherine Sauvage, French singer and actress (d. 1998)
- 1930 – Karim Emami, Indian-Iranian lexicographer and critic (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Grigor Vachkov, Bulgarian actor (d. 1980)
- 1933 – Edward Whittemore, American author (d. 1995)
- 1935 – Eero Loone, Estonian philosopher and academic
- 1935 – Sheila Steafel, South African–English actress
- 1936 – David Stevens, Baron Stevens of Ludgate, English politician
- 1938 – William Bolcom, American pianist and composer
- 1938 – Pauline Parker, New Zealand murderer
- 1938 – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian author and playwright
- 1938 – K. Bikram Singh, Indian director and producer (d. 2013)
- 1938 – Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
- 1939 – Merab Kostava, Georgian poet, activist, and educator (d. 1989)
- 1939 – Jaki Liebezeit German drummer (Can)
- 1939 – Brent Musburger, American sportscaster
- 1939 – Herb Trimpe, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
- 1940 – Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Canadian politician, Deputy Premier of Quebec
- 1940 – Levon Helm, American singer-songwriter, drummer, producer, and actor (d. 2012)
- 1941 – Aldrich Ames, American CIA officer
- 1941 – Reg Bundy, English drag queen performer, dancer, and actor (d. 2003)
- 1941 – Jim Dobbin, Scottish politician
- 1941 – Cliff Drysdale, South African tennis player and sportscaster
- 1942 – Ganapathi Sachchidananda, Indian guru
- 1943 – Erica Terpstra, Dutch swimmer, journalist, and politician
- 1944 – Phil Edmonston, American-Canadian journalist and politician
- 1944 – Jan Kinder, Norwegian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
- 1944 – Sam Posey, American race car driver and journalist
- 1945 – Vilasrao Deshmukh, Indian lawyer and politician, 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Alistair MacDuff, English judge
- 1945 – Garry Peterson, Canadian-American drummer (The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
- 1946 – Neshka Robeva, Bulgarian gymnast and coach
- 1946 – Mick Ronson, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (The Spiders from Mars and Mott the Hoople) (d. 1993)
- 1947 – Carol O'Connell, American author
- 1947 – Glenn Turner, New Zealand cricketer
- 1948 – Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter (Fleetwood Mac)
- 1949 – Jeremy Corbyn, English politician
- 1949 – Ward Cunningham, American computer programmer, developed the first wiki
- 1949 – Pam Grier, American actress
- 1949 – Anne McGuire, Scottish politician
- 1949 – Philip Michael Thomas, American actor and singer
- 1949 – Hank Williams, Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1951 – Ramón Calderón, Spanish lawyer and businessman
- 1951 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, founded Sally Ride Science (d. 2012)
- 1951 – Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Irish politician
- 1952 – David Meece, American singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1953 – Kay Hagan, American lawyer and politician
- 1953 – Michael Portillo, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Defence
- 1953 – Dan Roundfield, American basketball player (d. 2012)
- 1954 – Marian Gold, German singer-songwriter and guitarist (Alphaville)
- 1954 – Alan Hollinghurst, English author and poet
- 1954 – Denis Lebel, Canadian politician, 9th Canadian Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
- 1954 – Danny Rolling, American serial killer (d. 2006)
- 1955 – Masaharu Morimoto, Japanese-American chef
- 1955 – Paul Stoddart, Australian businessman
- 1955 – Wesley Walker, American football player and educator
- 1956 – Neil Parish, English politician
- 1956 – Fiona Shackleton, English lawyer
- 1957 – Diomedes Díaz, Colombian singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
- 1957 – François Legault, Canadian businessman and politician
- 1957 – Kristina Olsen, American singer-songwriter
- 1957 – Roberto Ravaglia, Italian race car driver
- 1957 – Pontso Sekatle, Lesotho academic and politician
- 1958 – Arto Bryggare, Finnish hurdler and politician
- 1958 – Margaret Colin, American actress
- 1958 – Howard Goodall, English composer
- 1959 – Ole Bornedal, Danish actor, director, and producer
- 1960 – Doug Hutchison, American actor
- 1960 – Dean Lukin, Australian weightlifter
- 1960 – Masahiro Matsunaga, Japanese race car driver
- 1960 – Rob Murphy, American baseball player
- 1960 – Romas Ubartas, Lithuanian discus thrower
- 1961 – Tarsem Singh, Indian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Black (né Colin Vearncombe), English singer-songwriter
- 1962 – Genie Francis, American actress
- 1962 – Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1963 – Simon Armitage, English author, poet, and playwright
- 1963 – Claude Legault, Canadian actor
- 1963 – Mary Nightingale, English journalist
- 1964 – Caitlín R. Kiernan, Irish-American paleontologist and author
- 1964 – Lenny Kravitz, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and actor
- 1964 – Argiris Pedoulakis, Greek basketball player and coach
- 1965 – Hazel Irvine, Scottish television host
- 1966 – Helena Bonham Carter, English actress and singer
- 1966 – Zola Budd, South African runner
- 1967 – Kevin Moore, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player (OSI, Dream Theater, and Chroma Key)
- 1967 – Philip Treacy, Irish milliner
- 1967 – Mika Yamamoto, Japanese journalist (d. 2012)
- 1968 – Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
- 1968 – Christopher Burge, scientist
- 1968 – Simon Diamond, American baseball player and wrestler
- 1968 – Fernando León de Aranoa, Spanish director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1968 – Steve Sedgley, English footballer and manager
- 1969 – John Baird, Canadian politician, 10th Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada
- 1969 – Dominic Mohan, English journalist
- 1969 – Musetta Vander, South African-American actress
- 1970 – Nobuhiro Watsuki, Japanese illustrator
- 1970 – Kylie Ireland, American porn actress, director, and producer
- 1971 – Zaher Andary, Lebanese footballer
- 1971 – Matt Stone, American actor, animator, screenwriter, producer, and composer
- 1972 – Shary Boyle, Canadian sculptor and painter
- 1972 – Patsy Palmer, English actress
- 1972 – Alan White, English drummer
- 1973 – Naomi Harris, Canadian-American photographer
- 1974 – Lars Frölander, Swedish swimmer
- 1975 – Nicki Aycox, American actress
- 1975 – Lauryn Hill, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1975 – Kwasi Kwarteng, English historian and politician
- 1975 – Travis Lee, American baseball player
- 1976 – Paul Collingwood, English cricketer
- 1976 – Kenny Florian, American mixed martial artist and sportscaster
- 1976 – Justin Pierre, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Motion City Soundtrack)
- 1977 – Nikos Hatzivrettas, Greek basketball player
- 1977 – Mark Hunter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Chimaira)
- 1977 – Misaki Ito, Japanese actress and model
- 1977 – Raina Telgemeier, American cartoonist
- 1977 – Luca Toni, Italian footballer
- 1978 – Phil Elvrum, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Microphones, Mount Eerie, and Old Time Relijun)
- 1978 – Fabio Firmani, Italian footballer
- 1979 – Amanda Bauer, American astronomer
- 1979 – Elisabeth Harnois, American actress
- 1979 – Ashley Massaro, American wrestler and manager
- 1979 – Natalya Nazarova, Russian sprinter
- 1979 – Mehmet Okur, Turkish basketball player
- 1981 – Robert Copeland, Australian footballer
- 1981 – Eda-Ines Etti, Estonian singer
- 1981 – Jason Manford, English comedian and actor
- 1981 – Irini Merkouri, Greek singer
- 1981 – Isaac Slade, American singer-songwriter and pianist (The Fray)
- 1981 – Ben Zobrist, American baseball player
- 1982 – Sten Lassmann, Estonian pianist
- 1982 – Yoko Matsugane, Japanese model
- 1982 – David Reed, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Demy de Zeeuw, Dutch footballer
- 1983 – Henry Holland, English fashion designer
- 1985 – Monika Christodoulou, Greek singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1985 – Ashley Vincent, English footballer
- 1986 – Michel Tornéus, Swedish long jumper
- 1987 – Olcay Şahan, Turkish footballer
- 1987 – Josh Thomas, Australian comedian and actor
- 1988 – Andrea Catellani, Italian footballer
- 1988 – Will Chambers, Australian rugby league player
- 1988 – Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, Colombian footballer
- 1988 – Dani Samuels, Australian discus thrower
- 1988 – Joel Selwood, Australian footballer
- 1988 – Damian Williams, American football player
- 1989 – Paula Findlay, Canadian triathlete
- 1999 – Kerry Ingram, English actress and singer
Despatches
- 604 – Augustine of Canterbury, Benedictine monk and archbishop
- 735 – Bede, English monk, historian, and theologian (b. 672)
- 818 – Ali Al-Ridha, Saudi Arabian 8th of The Twelve Imams (b. 766)
- 946 – Edmund I of England (b. 921)
- 1055 – Adalbert, Margrave of Austria (b. 985)
- 1421 – Mehmed I, Ottoman sultan (b. 1389)
- 1512 – Bayezid II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1447)
- 1536 – Francesco Berni, Italian poet (b. 1498)
- 1647 – Alse Young, American woman executed for witchcraft (b. 1600)
- 1648 – Vincent Voiture, French poet (b. 1597)
- 1651 – Jeane Gardiner, English woman executed for witchcraft
- 1653 – Robert Filmer, English theorist and author (b. 1588)
- 1679 – Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (b. 1636)
- 1685 – Charles II, Elector Palatine (b. 1651)
- 1703 – Samuel Pepys, English politician (b. 1633)
- 1742 – Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian diplomat (b. 1672)
- 1746 – Thomas Southerne, Irish playwright (b. 1660)
- 1762 – Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (b. 1714)
- 1799 – James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, Scottish linguist, biologist, and judge (b. 1714)
- 1818 – Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, Russian field marshal (b. 1761)
- 1818 – Manuel Rodríguez Erdoíza, Chilean lawyer and guerrilla leader (b. 1785)
- 1824 – Capel Lofft, English lawyer (b. 1751)
- 1840 – Sidney Smith, English admiral and politician (b. 1764)
- 1881 – Jakob Bernays, German philologist and academic (b. 1824)
- 1883 – Abdelkader El Djezairi, Algerian ruler (b. 1808)
- 1902 – Almon Brown Strowger, American inventor (b. 1839)
- 1904 – Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French physician and neurologist (b. 1857)
- 1907 – Ida Saxton McKinley, American wife of William McKinley, 25th First Lady of the United States (b. 1847)
- 1908 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader, founded the Ahmadiyya movement (b. 1835)
- 1914 – Jacob August Riis, Danish-American journalist, photographer, and reformer (b. 1849)
- 1924 – Victor Herbert, Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor, founded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (b. 1859)
- 1926 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (b. 1904)
- 1933 – Horatio Bottomley, English financier, journalist, and politician (b. 1860)
- 1933 – Jimmie Rodgers, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1897)
- 1939 – Charles Horace Mayo, American physician, co-founded Mayo Clinic (b. 1865)
- 1943 – Edsel Ford, American businessman (b. 1893)
- 1943 – Alice Tegnér, Swedish organist, composer, and educator (b. 1864)
- 1944 – Christian Wirth, German SS officer (b. 1885)
- 1948 – Torsten Bergström, Swedish actor and director (b. 1896)
- 1948 – Theodor Morell, German physician (b. 1886)
- 1951 – Lincoln Ellsworth, American explorer (b. 1880)
- 1954 – Lionel Conacher, Canadian football player and politician (b. 1900)
- 1955 – Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1918)
- 1956 – Al Simmons, American baseball player and coach (b. 1902)
- 1959 – Philip Kassel, American gymnast (b. 1876)
- 1966 – Elizabeth Dilling, American author and activist (b. 1894)
- 1968 – Little Willie John, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
- 1969 – Paul Hawkins, Australian race car driver (b. 1937)
- 1969 – Allan Haines Loughead, American engineer, co-founded the Lockheed Corporation (b. 1889)
- 1974 – Silvio Moser, Swiss race car driver (b. 1941)
- 1976 – Martin Heidegger, German philosopher and academic (b. 1889)
- 1978 – Cybele Andrianou, Greek actress (b. 1887)
- 1979 – George Brent, Irish-American actor (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Gunnar Björnstrand, Swedish actor (b. 1909)
- 1989 – Don Revie, English footballer and manager (b. 1927)
- 1994 – Sonny Sharrock, American guitarist (Last Exit) (b. 1940)
- 1995 – Friz Freleng, American animator, cartoonist, director and producer (b. 1906)
- 1997 – Ralph Horween, American football player and coach (b. 1896)
- 1999 – Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (b. 1906)
- 1999 – Waldo Semon, American chemist and engineer (b. 1898)
- 2001 – Vittorio Brambilla, Italian race car driver (b. 1937)
- 2001 – Anne Haney, American actress (b. 1934)
- 2001 – Moven Mahachi, Zimbabwean politician, Minister of Defence of Zimbabwe (b. 1952)
- 2001 – Dona Massin, Canadian actress and choreographer (b. 1917)
- 2002 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (b. 1932)
- 2003 – Kathleen Winsor, American author (b. 1919)
- 2004 – Nikolai Chernykh, Russian astronomer (b. 1931)
- 2005 – Eddie Albert, American actor and singer (b. 1906)
- 2005 – Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan baseball player and manager (b. 1928)
- 2005 – Ruth Laredo, American pianist (b. 1937)
- 2005 – Leslie Smith, English businessman, co-founded Lesney Products (b. 1918)
- 2006 – Édouard Michelin, French businessman (b. 1963)
- 2006 – Kevin O'Flanagan, Irish footballer and physician (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Jack Edward Oliver, English illustrator (b. 1942)
- 2007 – Howard Porter, American basketball player (b. 1948)
- 2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
- 2008 – Zita Urbonaitė, Lithuanian cyclist (b. 1973)
- 2009 – Stanley Chapman, English architect (b. 1925)
- 2009 – Mihalis Papagiannakis, Greek politician (b. 1941)
- 2009 – Peter Zezel, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1965)
- 2010 – Jean Constantin, Romanian actor (b. 1928)
- 2010 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (b. 1912)
- 2010 – Chris Moran, English air marshal and pilot (b. 1956)
- 2010 – Kieran Phelan, Irish politician (b. 1949)
- 2011 – Arisen Ahubudu, Sri Lankan scholar, author, and playwright (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Orhan Boran, Turkish actor (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Arthur Decabooter, Belgian cyclist (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Leo Dillon, American illustrator (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Rudy Eugene, American criminal and cannibal (b. 1981)
- 2012 – Stephen Healey, Welsh captain (b. 1982)
- 2012 – Hiroshi Miyazawa, Japanese politician (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Hans Schmidt, Canadian wrestler (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Ray Barnhart, American businessman and politician (b. 1928)
- 2013 – John Bierwirth, American lawyer and businessman (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Roberto Civita, Italian-Brazilian businessman (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Héctor Garza, Mexican wrestler (b. 1969)
- 2013 – Tom Lichtenberg, American football player and coach (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Otto Muehl, Austrian painter (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Jack Vance, American author (b. 1916)
- 2014 – Baselios Thoma Didymos I, Indian metropolitan (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Miodrag Radulovacki, Serbian-American neuropharmacologist and academic (b. 1933)
- 2014 – William R. Roy, American physician, journalist, and politician (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Hooshang Seyhoun, Iranian-Canadian architect, sculptor, and painter (b. 1920)
- 2014 – Manuel Uribe, Mexican computer repairman, world's heaviest man (b. 1965)
2015
- Christian feast day:
- Crown Prince's Birthday (Denmark)
- Independence Day, commemorates the day of the First Republic in 1918 (Georgia)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Guyana from the United Kingdom in 1966.
- Mother's Day (Poland)
- National Day of Healing (Australia)
- National Paper Airplane Day (United States)
BLAIR EXPOSED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (5:44am)
Stand back, everybody! Ben Eltham has finally delivered his long-promised response to last week’s column, and it’s an absolute belter.
Continue reading 'BLAIR EXPOSED'THE MISSED SHEEP
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (4:46am)
Too many political lessons are learned through focus groups, demographic studies and online analysis. Instead, politicians – particularly Labor politicians – should be drowning sheep in poison.
Continue reading 'THE MISSED SHEEP'NEWS VALUES CHANGE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (4:37am)
HIGHER STANDARDS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (4:02am)
The Australian government awarded citizenship to Islamic terrorist Man Monis in 2004. The Rebels bikie gang is rather more selective:
Sydney siege gunman Man Monis once ditched his robes for bikie gear, bought a bike and tried to join a chapter of the Rebels gang, who ousted him for being ‘weird’ …In 2013 the club rejected his attempts to join and took his bike from him.
Monis did not subsequently challenge the Rebels. Instead, he terrorised unarmed cake consumers at a coffee shop.
HILLARY IS THE MESSAGE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (3:50am)
Having worked out that Islamic extremism might be sexist, Julia Gillard advocates a powerful response:
Why is a tampon tax a disgrace only when Liberals rule?
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (6:47pm)
A GST on tampons was an
issue when the Howard Government was in power and is an issue again now
that the Abbott Government is in power. Why is it virtually a non-issue
when Labor rules, but a disgrace under the Liberals?
If it’s such a big feminist issue, why didn’t Julia Gillard fix it?
UPDATE
Why is it an issue now, but not under Labor? Because Fairfax reporters get another chance to sneer at Tony Abbott:
UPDATE
Reader viviencja:
===If it’s such a big feminist issue, why didn’t Julia Gillard fix it?
UPDATE
Why is it an issue now, but not under Labor? Because Fairfax reporters get another chance to sneer at Tony Abbott:
When Tony Abbott was questioned on the tampon tax during a press conference Tuesday, he similarly grinned the grin of someone who would rather totally be somewhere else.Note: mocking Abbott for not saying the word that Shorten won’t mention either, for the sake of the sensibilities of older Australians.
“I understand that there has long been a push to take the GST off goods which are one way or another regarded as health products,” he began, before batting it away as a state issue.
Later, during question time, Labor’s first question to the Prime Minister was about the tampon tax (without actually mentioning the word directly).
“Will the Prime Minister support excluding women’s sanitary products from the GST in return for extending [it] to Netflix?” Bill Shorten ventured.
The Coalition benches erupted ("What planet are you on?!” “How desperate are you?!"), but Abbott kept looking straight ahead.
Again he stuck to the line that the states should agree on a position on a GST change and then (and only then), the federal government would listen.
And again he referred to “health products of this type”.
UPDATE
Reader viviencja:
Tasteless exhibitionism ( the giant tampon), shrieks of “ how dare you tax my period!” ( why not, Madam,? your bowel movements are taxed by the GST on toilet paper)
The truth about Peter Hartcher’s free solar power
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (1:03pm)
The gullible reader, as green as Peter Hartcher, may well conclude from Hartcher’s latest preaching that solar and wind farms can give you free electricity:
The answer, of course, is that solar and wind power are actually more expensive, on average.
So when Hartcher demands we follow Germany, he is actually demanding something that will produce exactly the opposite to what he suggests - higher power prices, not lower:
===Germany, the world leader in installing renewable energy, had a moment last month. It was producing so much electricity from solar, wind and biomass that more than half of the country’s electricity was flowing from these renewable sources.Of course, half a second of thought might make you ask why, if solar and wind is so incredibly cheap, companies don’t invest in the stuff right now and drive the coal barons broke. Why is it instead that the solar and wind industries insist instead on a renewable energy target that forces us to use their power.
There was so much, in fact, that the price of electricity actually fell to zero. And the price kept falling. It went negative. There were times on April 17 when wholesale electricity in Germany was selling for minus 14.91 euros for a megawatt hour. So it wasn’t free – it was cheaper than free.
Tony Abbott won an election promising to help families cut their power bills by getting rid of the carbon tax. He kept his promise. Electricity prices fell by an average of 9 per cent.
If Abbott wanted to, he could help Australians cut their power bills by much more than 9 per cent. The way to do it, as the German event demonstrated, is with more renewable energy.
The answer, of course, is that solar and wind power are actually more expensive, on average.
So when Hartcher demands we follow Germany, he is actually demanding something that will produce exactly the opposite to what he suggests - higher power prices, not lower:
Reader Alan RM Jones adds:
And while there may be some blustery sunny spring days when Germany’s North Sea wind turbines can produce extra power as Hartcher noted (conditions Australia doesn’t have near its major cities), base load must be maintained and Germany does it with brown coal, nuclear, gas and other traditional power generating fuels along with some hydro power and biomass. On other days, nuclear, coal, gas and other fuels do virtually all of the work. See charts below for 17 April and another example, when it shows that the installed alternative energy infrastructure provides virtually no power.
Gillard’s bizarre victim feminism: making Hillary President will make the Islamic State feel silly
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (10:59am)
Everything is gender to
professional victim Julia Gillard, leading to a truly bizarre argument
for the election of Hillary Clinton as US president:
For a start, is the core of Islam really the “subjugation of women”? If so, why did Gillard never say so when she was Prime Minister?
Or does Gillard mean that subjugation of women is the core of just the Islamic State’s version of that faith?
Either way, is that remotely true? For sure, Islam and especially the Islamic State’s version of it do indeed in my opinion give women a role subservient to that of men. But is this really the “core” of the faith? Is that really why the Islamic State is slaughtering Shiite civilians, Christians and Yazidis? Is that really why it has destroyed priceless antiquities it says offend Islam? Is that really why it is murdering gays, crucifying “spies”, beheading aid workers and stoning adulterers? Surely this demonisation of the other and this sanctioned lust for blood and power is far bigger than a desire to put women down.
Secondly, is the Islamic State really best defeated by simply making a woman the president of the United States? Does Gillard seriously believe the Islamic State will then shrivel in shame at having their sexism exposed? Or will it, in fact, have even more contempt for its foes, and a greater conviction that it will prevail?
Which brings us to the third point: what a president is said to symbolise is far less important than what they actually do. The Islamic State can only be defeated by soldiers, bombs, boycotts, diplomacy, advocacy and money. What in Clinton’s record as Secretary of State, during which Iraq was abandoned and the Islamic State grew strong, suggests she has the insight, will and ability to fight and win?
Hasn’t America learned the critical difference between a symbol and the reality of a chief executive? Barack Obama was elected as a symbol of racial healing and man of peace, who’d placate America’s allies in the Middle East. The reality has been the exactly opposite, thanks in part to Obama’s sheer lack of ability: America is more racially divided than in years, and the Middle East is in flames. Obama, who started his presidency by admitting US guilt to the Middle East, now has so little respect from former allies there that only two of six Gulf States – Qatar and Kuwait – bothered to send their heads of state to Obama’s Camp David summit a fortnight ago to discuss his Middle East strategy and (weak) attempts to restrain Iran.
In short, Gillard has given a fake reason to offer a fake solution to the Islamic State threat that involves electing a fake as president - on the sole grounds that this fake is a woman.
Gillard’s brand of victim feminism helped to kill her leadership in Australia. Pray that it won’t help to kill US leadership in the world.
===We, the US, Australia, so many other countries are involved in this struggle with ISIS, the Islamic State so-called, and when you unpack it, what is it about? Well, at the core of that ideology is really the subjugation of women. So in the face of that for the US to say that we are going the first woman as our leader I think will be a powerful message to the world.In how many ways is this ludicrous?
For a start, is the core of Islam really the “subjugation of women”? If so, why did Gillard never say so when she was Prime Minister?
Or does Gillard mean that subjugation of women is the core of just the Islamic State’s version of that faith?
Either way, is that remotely true? For sure, Islam and especially the Islamic State’s version of it do indeed in my opinion give women a role subservient to that of men. But is this really the “core” of the faith? Is that really why the Islamic State is slaughtering Shiite civilians, Christians and Yazidis? Is that really why it has destroyed priceless antiquities it says offend Islam? Is that really why it is murdering gays, crucifying “spies”, beheading aid workers and stoning adulterers? Surely this demonisation of the other and this sanctioned lust for blood and power is far bigger than a desire to put women down.
Secondly, is the Islamic State really best defeated by simply making a woman the president of the United States? Does Gillard seriously believe the Islamic State will then shrivel in shame at having their sexism exposed? Or will it, in fact, have even more contempt for its foes, and a greater conviction that it will prevail?
Which brings us to the third point: what a president is said to symbolise is far less important than what they actually do. The Islamic State can only be defeated by soldiers, bombs, boycotts, diplomacy, advocacy and money. What in Clinton’s record as Secretary of State, during which Iraq was abandoned and the Islamic State grew strong, suggests she has the insight, will and ability to fight and win?
Hasn’t America learned the critical difference between a symbol and the reality of a chief executive? Barack Obama was elected as a symbol of racial healing and man of peace, who’d placate America’s allies in the Middle East. The reality has been the exactly opposite, thanks in part to Obama’s sheer lack of ability: America is more racially divided than in years, and the Middle East is in flames. Obama, who started his presidency by admitting US guilt to the Middle East, now has so little respect from former allies there that only two of six Gulf States – Qatar and Kuwait – bothered to send their heads of state to Obama’s Camp David summit a fortnight ago to discuss his Middle East strategy and (weak) attempts to restrain Iran.
In short, Gillard has given a fake reason to offer a fake solution to the Islamic State threat that involves electing a fake as president - on the sole grounds that this fake is a woman.
Gillard’s brand of victim feminism helped to kill her leadership in Australia. Pray that it won’t help to kill US leadership in the world.
Lambie is Lambie, but thank God Lazarus isn’t
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (10:34am)
I thought at first that
here we go again, another independent who backs only the spending
increases and tax cuts in the Budget and none of the spending cuts to
pay for them.
And, sure enough, there’s Jacqui Lambie, not being held to account on the ABC:
===And, sure enough, there’s Jacqui Lambie, not being held to account on the ABC:
HAYDEN COOPER: The new and relatively popular child care package from this year has been coupled with an unpopular saving measure from last year’s budget: the cuts to Family Tax Benefit Part B once a child turns six. The Government says both changes go together because one pays for the other....And the news seem equally grim this morning when the ABC interviewed Glenn Lazarus:
JACQUI LAMBIE: I won’t have the Family Tax Benefit B tied to the child care. That needs to be completely separated and I just feel like once again they’re doing what they did with deregulation of higher education and they’re trying to hold the crossbenchers to ransom and I will not play politics that way…
HAYDEN COOPER: She’s also concerned about pensioners and the Government’s plan to reduce some payments. To win her vote, an inquiry might be needed.
JACQUI LAMBIE: No, they don’t seem to be very keen on doing a review of that whole retirement income because they believe there’s been enough done. But what they haven’t done is a review on what they’re proposing, specifically on what they’re proposing and that’s what needs to be done now.
GLENN LAZARUS: It appears that there’s been some stimulus in the budget for the small business, obviously with the tax deductions up to $20,000 - which is good ... I think that within the childcare package we should be trying to come up with a solution to allow these people to be paid moreBut then hallelujah!
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: But do you think the funding should be tied to axing the family tax benefit b? And I note that the Government is apparently prepared to compromise on the cut-off age for children, which is currently six, to 10 or 12. Do you support those changes if that happened?Let Lazarus know this is just the kind of thing we’ve been hungry to hear.
GLENN LAZARUS: Look, I’m consulting with the community and I think that there should be some flexibility in it. I’m sort of heading down the path of maybe looking at reducing the age from 18 to something a bit lower. But I’d need to know what the implications are of that…
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The pension changes for instance, should the assets test be tightened, do you support that?
GLENN LAZARUS: Look, again, I think it’s something we should certainly look at. But I do want to speak to Scott Morrison and get a better understanding of that. It’s very complex, it’s very complex…
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: And the dole payments, the changes that now ask people under 25 to wait a month, that’s pared back from the initial six month wait, is that fair?
GLENN LAZARUS: I don’t support it at the moment, but I’m prepared to listen…
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: So it sounds like the Government’s got a fair amount of room for negotiation with you then?
GLENN LAZARUS: Yeah look, again, I don’t want to be seen as someone that holds things up and stops everything. I’m very open to negotiating and coming up with reasonable outcomes.
She’d rather join killers than raise her own children
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (10:25am)
A lousy mother, fed with our handouts:
===A SYDNEY mother has chosen life under the brutal dictatorship of Islamic State in Syria over her children.
Jasmina Milovanov, 26, abandoned her two children, aged five and seven, with a babysitter earlier this month before telling friends she was in “Sham” — Arabic slang for Syria…
She sent a text message to her Turkish-Australian ex-husband on May 3, while he was in Turkey, telling him she was in “sham”. She said their son and daughter were being looked after in Australia but he needed to return home…
Ms Milovanov did not have a full-time job but had recently started work in a call centre while receiving government benefits as a single mother.
Not read Dickens? What?
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (9:53am)
I am as shocked as James Jeffrey:
Here is just one very salient example, from Bleak House:
===It has been a long time since we’ve heard a mass intake of breath from an audience. Perhaps it was the time Irish comic Dylan Moran regaled the crowd with a an improbably intimate fantasy involving a Smurf. Happily, the drought was broken on Sunday at the Sydney Writers Festival when 7.30 host Leigh Sales, chatting books with Annabel Crabb, admitted that she would probably never read Charles Dickens. Had there been a barometer in the room at that point, it would have exploded. Amazingly, she was allowed to walk free at the end.The joys of Dickens are without number, but start with his glorious use of language and include his creation of magnificent caricatures that ring so true 150 years later. His types walk among us still, and even preside to this day in our courts.
Here is just one very salient example, from Bleak House:
“And Mr Jellyby, sir?” suggested Richard.
“Ah! Mr Jellyby,” said Mr Kenge, “is — a — I don’t know that I can describe him to you better than by saying that he is the husband of Mrs Jellyby.”
“A nonentity, sir?” said Richard with a droll look.
“I don’t say that,” returned Mr Kenge gravely. “I can’t say that, indeed, for I know nothing whatever of Mr Jellyby. I never, to my knowledge, had the pleasure of seeing Mr Jellyby. He may be a very superior man; but he is, so to speak, merged — merged — in the more shining qualities of his wife.” ....
There was a confused little crowd of people, principally children, gathered about the house at which we stopped, which had a tarnished brass plate on the door with the inscription JELLYBY.
“Don’t be frightened!” said Mr Guppy, looking in at the coach-window. “One of the young Jellybys been and got his head through the area railings!”
“O poor child,” said I; “let me out, if you please!”
“Pray be careful of yourself, miss. The young Jellybys are always up to something,” said Mr Guppy.
I made my way to the poor child, who was one of the dirtiest little unfortunates I ever saw, and found him very hot and frightened and crying loudly, fixed by the neck between two iron railings, while a milkman and a beadle, with the kindest intentions possible, were endeavouring to drag him back by the legs, under a general impression that his skull was compressible by those means…
At last he was happily got down without any accident, and then he began to beat Mr Guppy with a hoop-stick in quite a frantic manner.
Nobody had appeared belonging to the house, except a person in pattens, who had been poking at the child from below with a broom; I don’t know with what object, and I don’t think she did. I therefore supposed that Mrs Jellyby was not at home; and was quite surprised when the person appeared in the passage without the pattens, and going up to the back room on the first floor, before Ada and me, announced us as, “Them two young ladies, Missis Jellyby!” We passed several more children on the way up, whom it was difficult to avoid treading on in the dark; and as we came into Mrs Jellyby’s presence, one of the poor little things fell down-stairs — down a whole flight (as it sounded to me), with a great noise.
Mrs Jellyby, whose face reflected none of the uneasiness which we could not help showing in our own faces, as the dear child’s head recorded its passage with a bump on every stair — Richard afterwards said he counted seven, besides one for the landing — received us with perfect equanimity. She was a pretty, very diminutive, plump woman of from forty to fifty, with handsome eyes, though they had a curious habit of seeming to look a long way off. As if — I am quoting Richard again — they could see nothing nearer than Africa!…
Mrs Jellyby had very good hair, but was too much occupied with her African duties to brush it. The shawl in which she had been loosely muffled, dropped on to her chair when she advanced to us; and as she turned to resume her seat, we could not help noticing that her dress didn’t nearly meet up the back, and that the open space was railed across with a lattice-work of stay-lace — like a summer-house.
The room, which was strewn with papers and nearly filled by a great writing-table covered with similar litter, was, I must say, not only very untidy but very dirty....
“You find me, my dears,” said Mrs Jellyby, snuffing the two great office candles in tin candlesticks which made the room taste strongly of hot tallow (the fire had gone out, and there was nothing in the grate but ashes, a bundle of wood, and a poker), “you find me, my dears, as usual, very busy; but that you will excuse. The African project at present employs my whole time. It involves me in correspondence with public bodies, and with private individuals anxious for the welfare of their species all over the country. I am happy to say it is advancing. We hope by this time next year to have from a hundred and fifty to two hundred healthy families cultivating coffee and educating the natives of Borrioboola-Gha, on the left bank of the Niger.”
As Ada said nothing, but looked at me, I said it must be very gratifying.
“It is gratifying,” said Mrs Jellyby. “It involves the devotion of all my energies, such as they are; but that is nothing, so that it succeeds; and I am more confident of success every day. Do you know, Miss Summerson, I almost wonder that you never turned your thoughts to Africa.”
This application of the subject was really so unexpected to me that I was quite at a loss how to receive it. I hinted that the climate—
“The finest climate in the world!” said Mrs Jellyby.
“Indeed, ma’am?”
“Certainly. With precaution,” said Mrs Jellyby. “You may go into Holborn, without precaution, and be run over. You may go into Holborn, with precaution, and never be run over. Just so with Africa.”
I said, “No doubt.” — I meant as to Holborn.
“If you would like,” said Mrs Jellyby, putting a number of papers towards us, “to look over some remarks on that head, and on the general subject, which have been extensively circulated, while I finish a letter I am now dictating — to my eldest daughter, who is my amanuensis—”
The girl at the table left off biting her pen, and made a return to our recognition, which was half bashful and half sulky.
“I shall then have finished for the present,” proceeded Mrs Jellyby with a sweet smile, “though my work is never done. Where are you, Caddy?”
‘"Presents her compliments to Mr Swallow, and begs—”’ said Caddy.
“‘—And begs,’” said Mrs Jellyby, dictating, “‘to inform him, in reference to his letter of inquiry on the African project’ — No, Peepy! Not on my account!”
Peepy (so self-named) was the unfortunate child who had fallen downstairs, who now interrupted the correspondence by presenting himself, with a strip of plaster on his forehead, to exhibit his wounded knees, in which Ada and I did not know which to pity most — the bruises or the dirt. Mrs Jellyby merely added, with the serene composure with which she said everything, “Go along, you naughty Peepy!” and fixed her fine eyes on Africa again.
If Goodes was booed by racists, why was Rioli cheered?
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (9:50am)
Patrick Smith plays the racism card in a very strange column:
If that were so, why was the much-loved Cyril Rioli, also on the ground, not booed, too? Why not Lewis Jetta? Buddy Franklin?
Why no boos over in Adelaide for the great Eddie Betts?
If we were all the racists that Smith, himself so pure, imagines us to be, why no boos for those players? (Well, OK, Franklin got a bit from Hawks fans for quitting Hawthorn.)
The bizarre thing is that Smith in his very own column lists a number of perfectly obvious reasons why a crowd might boo Goodes, and each goes to not his “race” but his behaviour:
In fact, the Herald Sun explains:
Those are actions that would have had any player of any colour booed, too. That Goodes has Aboriginal ancestors should not excuse him from criticism, and especially not after being so critical himself.
I don’t like the booing of Goodes one little bit. But I also don’t like Smith inventing racists where none exist.
===Sydney champion Adam Goodes, one of the country’s greatest AFL players, runs around the MCG on Saturday night and is relentlessly and loudly booed by a large part of the Hawthorn crowd.... Because he is indigenous.Really?
If that were so, why was the much-loved Cyril Rioli, also on the ground, not booed, too? Why not Lewis Jetta? Buddy Franklin?
Why no boos over in Adelaide for the great Eddie Betts?
If we were all the racists that Smith, himself so pure, imagines us to be, why no boos for those players? (Well, OK, Franklin got a bit from Hawks fans for quitting Hawthorn.)
The bizarre thing is that Smith in his very own column lists a number of perfectly obvious reasons why a crowd might boo Goodes, and each goes to not his “race” but his behaviour:
The people who boo Goodes say they do it because he stages for free kicks and can be illegally tough. Typical is the tweet yesterday that said: “My take on Adam Goodes. Sliding into a player’s legs is dangerous. He was a serial offender …"…Moreover, missing from Smith’s column was any attempt to explain why the booing of Goodes was worst at a Hawthorn game. Are Hawthorn supporters, then, simply more racist than the rest of us?
Goodes may, at times, overplay his hand…
Goodes has been suspended, too. Twice in 2012 he received one-match bans for sliding feet first into opponents’ legs…
... in 2013 he called to account a 13-year-old girl in the crowd who called him an ape… Miranda Devine wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “Adam Goodes is a terrible choice as Australian of the Year. A respected sports celebrity, he is being rewarded for victimising a powerless 13-year-old girl from a disadvantaged background.”
Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun replied to a Goodes column in the Fairfax papers: “Adam Goodes has let us down as Australian of the Year, using his soapbox to vilify our past and preach division. The Swans captain this week denounced ‘our very dark past, a brutal history of dispossession, theft and slaughter … Europeans, and the governments that have run our country, have raped, killed and stolen’. “
In fact, the Herald Sun explains:
Some Hawthorn fans suggested on social media on Monday that the booing of Goodes related to an incident in 2013 when Goodes appeared to trip Hawk Josh Gibson with his foot, emphatically denying racism played any part.That tripping, and the staging for free kicks that got called out even by an umpire this year, already seem explanation enough. But there’s more. Goodes also chose to be divisive, and some people don’t like it. He abused the country as fundamentally racist, led at times by rapists, and some people feel offended at the unjustified slur. He humiliated a 13-year-old girl before the eyes of millions, and some people think that unfair and a bit mean.
Those are actions that would have had any player of any colour booed, too. That Goodes has Aboriginal ancestors should not excuse him from criticism, and especially not after being so critical himself.
I don’t like the booing of Goodes one little bit. But I also don’t like Smith inventing racists where none exist.
Much ado about nothing
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (9:43am)
Michael Costa: Bill Shorten is finished
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (7:58am)
Michael Costa is
right, of course. The recovery of Tony Abbott has been stunning, and
Bill Shorten’s performance has been worse than even I predicted:
Nick Cater:
===FORMER NSW treasurer and union boss Michael Costa has pulled his support for Bill Shorten, warning his leadership is “terminal” and that the opposition leader is Australia’s Ed Miliband…What puzzles me, though, is why Shorten doesn’t try harder to edge Labor to the centre, given the party’s new leadership laws make it almost impossible to sack him before the election. Why not go for it, rather than let the Left make him unelectable? If you’re going to lose, then lose with pride.
“The political madness that undermined the Prime Minister’s authority earlier in the year is over. Tony Abbott will lead the government into the next election."…
“One consequence of this politically clever Budget is that Bill Shorten’s political strategy and political leadership is on a terminal trajectory,” he said…
“Shorten, like recently departed UK Labour leader Ed Miliband, is a creature of an out of touch and unrepresentative union movement that not only dominates the political structures of Labor but more and more forces an ideological straitjacket on Labor’s economic policy formulation,” he said…
“Special-interest politics has pushed Labor further and further away from the political centre. The Labor left now firmly controls Labor’s policy agenda.”
Nick Cater:
It was clear long before the Treasurer’s second budget, however, that the Opposition Leader needed another tune. When he was invited to discuss his reply to the budget with the ABC’s Leigh Sales, it was surprising he was not better prepared…
Sales: “Less than two years ago, Australians voted to get rid of the Labor government that they didn’t like. Leaving aside leadership instability, what will be your point of difference to the Rudd-Gillard government?”
Shorten: “Well, first of all, what I’m interested in is my point of difference to Tony Abbott.’’
Sales: “But Australians need to know that when they vote for you they’re not voting for a return to the Rudd-Gillard era that they didn’t like.”
Shorten: “Well, we’re a far more united team."…
Nick Dyrenfurth, one of the more astute Labor thinkers, went to the heart of Shorten’s problem last week in an article in The Monthly.
“A motto of ‘Australia will be fairer’ cannot suffice,” Dyrenfurth writes. “Fairness cannot of itself fix the structural budget deficit, develop a consensual pro-worker, pro-business economy where people actually make things and hold down stable, well-paid jobs, or address issues as diverse as an ageing population, terrorism and climate change.
“It is not alarmist to think that Labor is sleepwalking to electoral disaster … Labor’s avoidance of debt-and-deficit politics is the highest of high-risk strategies."…
Dyrenfurth ... must be having kittens about the agenda for the party’s national conference in July: gay marriage, asylum-seekers, Palestine and party reform. “This is scarcely the message it should send swinging voters,” Dyrenfurth writes.
Hockey trumps ABC’s planned gotcha
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (7:47am)
Steve Kates on Joe Hockey’s performance on Q&A last night - and a shabby Labor-ABC conspiracy to try to sabotage him:
===Joe was Great! There was not a moment in the whole of Q&A tonight that I thought he was behind, and this is enemy territory. But most importantly, this was even when the one-eyed Tony Jones tried to sandbag the Treasurer with a NATSEM study that had not been released EXCEPT TO THE ABC!!! And without showing the level of disgust he no doubt felt at such obvious ALP-ABC gotcha attempts to undermine the Treasurer, he simply turned it aside. He embarrassed the ABC for its obvious duplicity.And this from Jones was just tacky and disrespectful - tabloid TV at its worst:
Can you imagine the uproar if Jones had introduced Julia Gillard with a gendered and sexual insult?
Is Abbott flip-flopping - or just listening?
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (6:29am)
There is one truth in
politics that commentators consistently undervalue: that voters want to
feel they control their politicians, and not the other way around.
This explains two things that can actually conflict: first, the fury over broken promises, arrogance and lies, and, second, the appreciation of a politician’s admission of error and reversal of policies hated by the public.
Right now Labor and some journalists are attacking the government over changing its mind on its (dreadful) paid parental leave scheme, Medicare co-payment and the like. They think they’re exposing the Government as flip-floppers, when in fact they are advertising a virtue: that the Government has listened to voters and bowed to their will. As long as Abbott still seems true to his ultimate objective of responsible financial management, the damage from the flip-flopping will be minimal. Indeed, the more that Labor attacks the changes of more, the more it tells voters that the Abbott Government is listening.
This is precisely what happened when the Howard Government in its first term also flip-flopped months before the 2001 election, and built its poll recovery on it.
Paul Kelly in March 2001 did not spot the full significance of Howard’s retreat at the time, and he wasn’t alone:
two more
another election after that, by seeming true to his beliefs, yet
respectful of the public’s wishes. He lost only after getting that
formula wrong, pushing too hard on WorkChoices, for which he had no
mandate.
Fast forward to today. Paul Kelly - and Labor - now make the same misjudgement of Abbott’s flip-flops that many made of Howard’s in 2001:
True, Abbott needs to do more to flesh out his own agenda and persona. But I wouldn’t be all apocalyptic about it. He knows this, too, and has a year and a half to work on it. It will come.
And for now, it seems the public is slowly being reconciled to two critical things: that Abbott, once the chronic self-deprecator, actually might be leadership material, after all; and maybe he really is listening to the voters, and not his God or his whim.
===This explains two things that can actually conflict: first, the fury over broken promises, arrogance and lies, and, second, the appreciation of a politician’s admission of error and reversal of policies hated by the public.
Right now Labor and some journalists are attacking the government over changing its mind on its (dreadful) paid parental leave scheme, Medicare co-payment and the like. They think they’re exposing the Government as flip-floppers, when in fact they are advertising a virtue: that the Government has listened to voters and bowed to their will. As long as Abbott still seems true to his ultimate objective of responsible financial management, the damage from the flip-flopping will be minimal. Indeed, the more that Labor attacks the changes of more, the more it tells voters that the Abbott Government is listening.
This is precisely what happened when the Howard Government in its first term also flip-flopped months before the 2001 election, and built its poll recovery on it.
Paul Kelly in March 2001 did not spot the full significance of Howard’s retreat at the time, and he wasn’t alone:
Kelly argues that the policy reversals of the Howard government during this week is “the purest victory so far for direct democracy.”In fact, Howard recovered and won the 2001 election (helped also by turning back the Tampa). He also won
Following the trouncing meted out to the coalition parties in the Western Australian and Queensland elections, the Federal government has cut petrol excise by 1.5 cents/litre and abolished the twice-yearly indexation of petrol excise.
Kelly claims that talkback commentators, such as Neil Mitchell on Melbourne’s 3AW, have been campaigning on petrol prices for some time now:
“Most of the jocks around Australia have whacked on about petrol for six months. The savagery of their language not only reflects the anger within the community – it magnifies and inflames that anger. They manipulate the outrage."…Kelly claims the radio jocks responded to Howard’s retreat by damning it with faint praise and twisting any truth to maintain the rage:
“Listen to Mitchell yesterday. ‘We’ve won,’ he declared. But the reversal meant that Howard and Costello have ‘lost their credibility. It has gone totally.’ Howard’s retreat, Mitchell declared, exposed the ‘absolute garbage they told us [before]’. They had peddled ‘scare nonsense’ about schools or hospitals or pensions being affected if they cut petrol tax....Kelly predicts that world oil prices will fall later this year “and the jocks will savage Howard as the economy falters and the budget weakens partly as a consequence of the decision they demanded.”
Fast forward to today. Paul Kelly - and Labor - now make the same misjudgement of Abbott’s flip-flops that many made of Howard’s in 2001:
Despite some relieving polls the flaw in the Abbott government’s reinvention project is obvious and will need to be confronted — it is the risk of confusion about the beliefs, consistency and principles that constitute Tony Abbott and his government…I’d suggest that the real Abbott is beginning to become obvious through time and challenge: steady, unflappable, prudent, pragmatic. He is minded to save, strong on security, dubious about wild climate schemes and keen on work. The three pillars of his attack on Labor at all in place - boats, carbon tax and spending.
This week, Labor’s economic spokesman Chris Bowen nailed Abbott’s problem: when he changes his mind, as political leaders must, he leaves too embarrassing a trail. “Despite Tony Abbott’s claim to be the political love-child of John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop, the fact is Tony Abbott is not qualified to be John Howard’s shadow,” Bowen said. “The same consistency of purpose cannot be applied to him or his government.”
Few governments have changed their minds or policies so swiftly as the Abbott government. The upshot is that even senior ministers, let alone the public, get confused....
Bowen began his National Press Club speech this week with a taunt. While Howard was a “dab hand at tweaking his approach”, Abbott lacked these skills and looked clumsy and diminished from his backflips. It is a convenient attack but has impact. Bowen quoted Howard’s famous mantra that “you might not agree with everything I believe in but at least you know where I stand"…
Is Abbott a leader of public opinion or now a follower? Is he a reformer or a populist? ...
He has revealed a degree of political skills few believed he possessed. Remember the majority press gallery view in February was that Abbott was a walking political corpse. Well, he proved the orthodoxy wrong yet again…
But the warning Bowen issued hangs in the political atmosphere — he says the “lack of core beliefs” is the malaise at the heart of the Abbott government and that, ultimately, it will be exposed as driven only by the survival instinct. Abbott needs to disprove this. Labor continues to mount a case around trust, credibility and consistency.
Abbott needs to toughen up policy-wise… Whether the issue is budget repair, spending, tax, PPL or industrial relations, the time is coming for Abbott to offer a firmer sense of what his government believes. Stopping boats and cracking down on terrorists isn’t enough. A PM never realises this test has been lost until it is too late.
True, Abbott needs to do more to flesh out his own agenda and persona. But I wouldn’t be all apocalyptic about it. He knows this, too, and has a year and a half to work on it. It will come.
And for now, it seems the public is slowly being reconciled to two critical things: that Abbott, once the chronic self-deprecator, actually might be leadership material, after all; and maybe he really is listening to the voters, and not his God or his whim.
Man-made disaster kills 12. Why was this overlooked?
Andrew Bolt May 26 2015 (12:17am)
Nick Cater:
Cater was also on 60 Minutes about this. Watch here.
===I became convinced towards the end of 2013 that the Queensland Flood Commission had botched its inquiry and that a terrible truth about the January 2011 Grantham flood had been hidden.Read more about this astonishing incuriosity about this man-made disaster here.
Now an independent hydrological engineering study, commissioned by The Australian, has supported that claim. It points to the collapse of a levee at Wagner’s Quarry as the likely source of the destructive series of waves that killed 3 children and 9 adults with a 500 metre radius in less than hour.
Why didn’t Catherine Holmes’ commission crawl over this incident piece by piece to work out what went on and who was responsible?
Cater was also on 60 Minutes about this. Watch here.
If you don't believe in yourself, who will?
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Monday, 25 May 2015
===
Worst. Flight. Ever.
Posted by Ray William Johnson on Friday, 26 December 2014
===
Tonight on SBS Dateline: Separated by genocide, reunited by reality TV. Meet the determined young TV producer finding answers the Cambodian government struggles to.
Posted by SBS News on Monday, 25 May 2015
===
Shouldn't we oppose lethal whales? Aust to oppose Japan lethal whaling plan http://t.co/lKC1IBQalx via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
Nominations called for election recount http://t.co/wbCTjfphBg via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
Anzac Day plotter wrote martyr note http://t.co/7Ecm5LTiYO via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
Aussie ‘Kim Kardashian’ accused of rorting welfare payments http://t.co/aNCoa2JqxQ via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
Abbott bundles fight against IS extremists with battle against terrorists at home http://t.co/0yrTuA1b0b via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
Mick Malthouse sacked: Carlton terminates veteran coach’s contract after explosive radio interview http://t.co/OPsQV4vQWL via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
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Australia reacts to Mick Malthouse’s sacking http://t.co/YVPaoJLXuR via @newscomauHQ
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
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ISIS slaughters 400 mostly women and children in Palmyra, Syria http://t.co/VeHS2jstRm
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
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So his enemies expose him as a failed leader instead. And they stand ready to embrace the failed policy as reform. http://t.co/M8f9rPnlmB
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
I LOVE kirstenk's Scarf Design for @PrintedVillage: http://t.co/Sbi8rZINGI
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
Photo: The bartender says, “We don’t serve time travelers in here.” A time traveler walks into a bar. ..... http://t.co/5WRuGxhAjv
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
EXCLUSIVE: Cabinet revolt over Abbott/Dutton plan to strip Australians of citizenship http://t.co/16kXfyVFNO via @theage
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
===
But .. but .. he is conservative! http://t.co/7Zsiccydhj
— David Daniel Ball (@DaOddBall67) May 26, 2015
=== Posts from last year ===
Hazel Hawke held her dignity to the end
Miranda Devine – Sunday, May 26, 2013 (10:33am)
THE most poignant revelation of Hazel Hawke’s last days was her whispered “I love you” to ex-husband Bob, the love of her life.
The former prime minister had visited Hazel two weeks ago, after she suffered a stroke in the care facility where she lived for the past four years.
As grandson David, Rosslyn’s son, tells The Australian, Bob may not even have heard her speak.
“He said his goodbyes, he got to the doorway, and Hazel said softly, ‘I love you’. Mum’s heart dropped. We haven’t heard Hazel say those words for a long time.”
But we knew Hazel would love Bob to the end, despite his boozing and womanising during their 39-year marriage. She wrote of their great “love story” and her dream of growing old together in their house on a hill where grandchildren would play.
It’s not clear he really understood what an asset Hazel was to his prime ministership. She was beautiful, accomplished, dux of her primary school. But she was also humble and self-effacing, a woman of her time. Her ambition was to be a mother and support her brilliant husband. How would his political career have fared if he hadn’t married so well?
When she died, aged 83, on Thursday, Bob rated barely a mention in that night’s news broadcasts. Hazel had transcended him. What diminished him had enhanced her.
Her dignity, after being cast aside for his glamorous mistress Blanche d’Alpuget almost 20 years ago, only cemented the respect and affection Australians had for Hazel.
She never tried to harm Bob’s legacy. She and their three loyal children never stooped to tawdry revenge, even when d’Alpuget wrote a biography of Bob which airbrushed Hazel out of the picture, described her as a “doormat” and the marriage as loveless; even after d’Alpuget slapped his daughter Sue Pieters-Hawke’s face in the Qantas lounge one day.
No one should begrudge the grand passion Bob shares with d’Alpuget. Good luck to them.
All I know is that people would think more of him if he’d stuck with Hazel. That’s the price he paid.
===
Beware the enemy within
Miranda Devine – Sunday, May 26, 2013 (10:32am)
THE handsome black man with bloodied hands holding a knife and meat cleaver after butchering a soldier on the streets of London last week was just your average, run-of-the-mill, home-grown Islamist hothead.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, has been in the sights of British intelligence agencies for eight years but apparently was not regarded as a terrorist threat. Born in Britain, of Nigerian Christian parents, he converted to Islam at about age 16, and began attending a mosque where extremist clerics preached jihad.
He is pictured wearing white, flowing robes and standing behind a notorious hate preacher at a protest outside the terror-related trial of a fellow Islamist. At another protest he is seen scuffling with police.
Adebolajo reportedly was arrested after trying to travel to Somalia to join an al Qaeda-linked group.
We’ve seen it all before. There are plenty of young men who would fit his description in the UK, the US - and in Australia. We’ve jailed 23 Islamists who seemed much worse, convicted of plotting to attack the Holsworthy army base or to blow up the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
But on the streets of London and Boston, where Muslim fanatics last month detonated a bomb that killed three people, we see a new and more difficult threat, which ASIO chief David Irvine has said keeps him awake at night: the “home-grown lone wolf” extremist operating under the security radar.
So far we have relied on superb police work to foil plots on home soil, a tribute to ASIO and our counter-terrorism forces. But NSW authorities are concerned about the holes in our border security apparatus, comprising state police forces working with the Australian Federal Police and Customs and Border Protection.
Customs is beset by corruption allegations, and is perceived by senior police as a dysfunctional Canberra-centric bureaucracy top heavy with overpaid public servants. Between the AFP and state police there have been turf wars and computer mismatches.
In addition, the capitulation of the Rudd-Gillard governments to criminal people smugglers has had two critical impacts on Australia’s national security.
Firstly, it has diverted attention away from the detection of terrorists, drugs and guns. Secondly, asylum seeker arrivals have overwhelmed an already under-resourced ASIO’s ability to perform adequate security assessments.
Opposition Customs spokesman Michael Keenan fears a nightmare legacy if the Coalition takes office in September. There was the Egyptian terrorist on Interpol’s most wanted list who arrived by boat through Christmas Island and ended up at minimum security Inverbrackie in the Adelaide Hills. In the past month the man and his wife and children have been moved to Villawood detention centre in Sydney.
Keenan cites other troubling boat arrivals, including an Iranian drug smuggler currently housed in a mental health hospital; and a Sri Lankan alleged murderer released into community detention.
“These incidents have serious implications for Australia’s national security,” he says.
We know at least 54 asylum seekers in detention have adverse ASIO security assessments. Under our UN treaty obligations they cannot be deported to their country of origin if they face the death penalty, as many would. No third country will take them. Yet we cannot risk releasing them into the community.
To make matters worse, some of these men have children with them in detention. In one case a baby was born in detention.
It is a devil of a problem for an incoming government, but it is only one element of an enormous mess waiting in border security.
As the weakest link, Customs is being targeted by organised crime.
Former detective Tim Priest has pointed out one case in which 53 freight containers of drugs valued at $150 million managed to slip past Customs officials at Port Botany and had to be tracked down by NSW police. Similarly, Customs missed 200 Glock semi-automatic pistols smuggled into Australia via Sylvania Waters post office in Sydney.
The importation was only discovered when the NSW police taskforce investigating gun crime tracked one Glock to Germany.
Forced by Customs failures to act outside his usual jurisdiction, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione contacted a counterpart in Germany and sent detectives to investigate the source of the guns, with the result they smashed the smuggling ring. Just two weeks ago, Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn linked another of the imported Glocks to the shooting of a woman in Auburn in March, and to the hold-up of an armoured vehicle in Broadway.
But despite fine detective work, only a fraction of the Glocks allowed into the country have been discovered.
The consequences of all this can be seen in the LA-style gun crime on the streets of southwestern Sydney.
Tim Priest has long warned of the nexus between organised crime and the terrorism it funds, and has been urging the Opposition to create an overarching department of homeland security.
The full extent of the mess will probably not be apparent until after the September election, but there is no time to waste.
We cannot afford dysfunctional border security in a time of terrorism.
===
SQUARE BRACKETS SAVE THE PLANET
Tim Blair – Sunday, May 26, 2013 (6:02pm)
Professor Myles Allen tells the Daily Mail of classic lefty blathertalk:
If you suppose that the annual UN climate talks will save us, forget it. I met a delegate at the last talks in Doha in December who told me he had just watched a two-hour debate that culminated in placing square brackets around a semi-colon.
Read on for the Mail‘s myth-busting eco-quiz.
===
LEAF SENTENCE - DAY FIVE
Tim Blair – Sunday, May 26, 2013 (10:05am)
===
RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (11:03pm)
“When did the public start insisting that all art be ‘beautiful‘?” Robyn Archer wondered the other day. Good question:
Difficult territory is a cornerstone of the visual arts – so artist Mikala Dwyer knew it would be confronting last night when she invited Balletlab dancers to empty their bowels as part of a performance at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.The two-hour act saw the six dancers, masked but naked beneath sheer garments, move around a room in the gallery before sitting on transparent stools and performing – only if they were moved to do so – what is usually one of our most private and rarely discussed daily acts.
Let’s hope Skywhale doesn’t get any ideas.
While it all might set tongues wagging, Dwyer, a highly respected artist with an impressive CV who is a painting lecturer at the University of Sydney, hopes we will do so with seriousness, maturity and sensitivity.
And if we decline, what are you going to do about it? Wait – don’t answer that.
As she said, this is humanity’s most democratic act: from royalty and supermodels to politicians or the tiniest newborn baby, we all participate in this necessary biological function. ‘’Shit has a great truth to it,’’ she said.
(Via J.F. Beck)
===
SINGING IN THE RAIN
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (10:26pm)
Sydney’s dams are currently more than 90 per cent full. So what we obviously need is more water:
Talk about bad timing. Just as an already-waterlogged Sydney prepares for several more weeks of wet and cold weather, a local music training organisation is encouraging children to sing for even more rain.VIP Music, providers of instrument lessons to several schools throughout Sydney, has re-worked the children’s classic Rain, Rain, Go Away to reflect what it believes to be contemporary attitudes towards the environment. In the new version, the lyrics are changed to: “Rain, rain, come again, we need more rain every day.”Aside from the snub to several centuries of singing tradition, this reworked version doesn’t make a great deal of sense, even as an environmental hymn.More rain every single day wouldn’t be better for Sydney.Not in the least. In fact, it would eventually leave the city as an uninhabitable marshland fit only for amphibians and scavenging waterfowl.
Even then, we’d still be doing better than future London:
Summer heatwaves could turn London into an ‘island of death’ this century, experts are warning.
Maybe London should become a sister city with Perth, the “21st century’s first ghost metropolis.”
(Via sdog)
===
LIFELINE ON HOLD
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (9:33pm)
With the help of friends, Mike Carlton is slowly recovering from the shocking trauma of being edited by the ABC:
Once again, thanks for the tweets and emails about my column this morning. Overwhelmed by the support. It means a lot. Truly.
You’ll get through this, mate. Hang in there.
===
FIRST FOLEY
Tim Blair – Saturday, May 25, 2013 (4:14pm)
The Prime Minister’s boyfriend is living in a van down by the river:
UPDATE. A caravan might be exactly the place to avoid mood swings:
UPDATE. A caravan might be exactly the place to avoid mood swings:
When Julia Gillard was moved to tears last week as she introduced the increase in the Medicare levy to raise funds for the DisabilityCare scheme, some of her colleagues warmly embraced her and kissed her cheek.Other Labor MPs were cynical, because the Prime Minister had fought the idea of a levy to pay for disability insurance “every inch of the way” for political reasons over the previous 18 months.
===
Global warming: the quiz
Andrew Bolt May 26 2013 (6:46pm)
===
The Bolt Report today
Andrew Bolt May 26 2013 (8:17am)
===
Barbarians abroad
Andrew Bolt May 26 2013 (5:52am)
What a wonderful impression we must make:
Four Australian travellers a day are arrested for crimes around the world and statistics show a jump of almost 50 per cent from previous years… The categories of crime attracting the highest number of arrests were drugs, assault, visa and fraud.
===
Crapping on art
Andrew Bolt May 26 2013 (5:39am)
Absolutely true. Modern art is crap:
The kind of artist propped up by grants rather than private sales:
Difficult territory is a cornerstone of the visual arts - so artist Mikala Dwyer knew it would be confronting last night when she invited Balletlab dancers to empty their bowels as part of a performance at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.So easy to offend, so hard to inspire. Even a vandal can defecate over what only a Michelangelo can create.
The two-hour act saw the six dancers, masked but naked beneath sheer garments, move around a room in the gallery before sitting on transparent stools and performing - only if they were moved to do so - what is usually one of our most private and rarely discussed daily acts.
The kind of artist propped up by grants rather than private sales:
Awards & GrantsThere’s a recent history of artists dabbling with their own poo:
2011-2009 Australia Council for the Arts: Fellowship
2000 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work Grant
1990 Australia Council: New Work
(Thanks to several astonished readers, and via Tim Blair.)
===
Three boats in a day
Andrew Bolt May 26 2013 (5:25am)
In John Howard’s last six years, boat arrivals were kept to an average of just three a year. On Friday three arrived in just one day:
Reader Jane counts the boat people before these latest three boat arrivals:
I thought you may be interested in the following. The SIEV/’Asylum Seeker’ topic seems to have disappeared off the media radar.
What is being done to stop it?
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
THREE boats carrying a total of 208 suspected asylum seekers have been intercepted in a 24-hour period near Christmas Island, including one close enough to be spotted by police on the island.UPDATE
Reader Jane counts the boat people before these latest three boat arrivals:
I thought you may be interested in the following. The SIEV/’Asylum Seeker’ topic seems to have disappeared off the media radar.
1-May 101In the past two months we’ve seen around 100 boat people arrive every single day. This is astonishing. It is also very expensive. And it is a security risk.
1-May 87
1-May 51
3-May 153
3-May 184
3-May 184
4-May 106
6-May 79
6-May 51
6-May 106
7-May 91
7-May 61
7-May 5
7-May 33
8-May 77
8-May 24
9-May 66
10-May 79
16-May 48
16-May 82
17-May 1
18-May 132
19-May 42
19-May 83
20-May 77
20-May 33
21-May 73
23-May 65
23-May 82
24-May 95
25-May 99 34 boats 2450 “clients”
What is being done to stop it?
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
===
Stockholm torched by immigrants
Andrew Bolt May 26 2013 (5:20am)
Imported trouble:
A copycat?
Reader Alan RM Jones compares and contrasts:
Sweden’s Jews are nervous:
===STOCKHOLM has experienced a sixth straight night of riots, with cars torched in several immigrant-dominated suburbs.Glenn Reynolds:
Nearly a week of unrest, which spread briefly last night to the medium-sized city of Oerebro 160 kilometres west of Stockholm, have put Sweden’s reputation as an oasis of peace and harmony at risk.
The unrest has also sparked a debate among Swedes over the integration of immigrants, many of whom arrived under the country’s generous asylum policies, and who now make up about 15 per cent of the population.
As Jim Bennett says, democracy, open immigration, multiculturalism: Pick any two.UPDATE
A copycat?
A French soldier patrolling a business neighbourhood west of Paris has been stabbed in the neck by a man who quickly fled the scene and is being sought by police, President Francois Hollande said… French daily Le Parisien cited a police source as saying the suspected attacker was a bearded man of North African origin about 30 years old, and was wearing an Arab-style garment under his jacket.UPDATE
Reader Alan RM Jones compares and contrasts:
The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that Michael Adebolajo was held by police close to the Somali border with a band of “radicalised” Muslim youths who wanted to join the notorious al-Shabaab group.And here:
He was deported to Britain after he appeared in court in Mombasa in November 2010.
Two months previously the head of MI5 had warned that Britons were training in Somalia and it was “only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabaab”.... The case raises questions about why Adebolajo was not put under greater surveillance or even prosecuted after his deportation from Kenya. Under the Terrorism Act 2006, it is an offence to travel or intend to travel overseas to commit acts of terrorism or take part in terrorist training.
THE number of Australians believed to be fighting in Syria has doubled in less than six months to about 200, and ASIO is concerned that at least 100 are fighting for radical al-Qa’ida offshoot, the al-Nusra Front....UPDATE
The spike in the number of Australians fighting with al-Nusra will be of great concern to security agencies. Agencies such as ASIO fear that Australians drawn to the fighting will become increasingly radicalised. They also worry fighters will return equipped with skills, training and combat experience, as well as a potential network of contacts. Monitoring these returned fighters will be a drain on ASIO resources at a time when the agency’s budget has been cut.
Sweden’s Jews are nervous:
In 2009, a chapel serving [Malmo’s] 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused on their way home from prayer, and “Hitler” was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.(Thanks to reader Steve.)
“I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway,” [Judith] Popinski told The Sunday Telegraph.
“This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now.” Malmo’s Jews, however, do not just point the finger at bigoted Muslims and their fellow racists in the country’s Neo-Nazi fringe. They also accuse Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor who has been in power for 15 years, of failing to protect them.
The World’s First Heartless Man
Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute have successfully replaced a patient’s heart with a device that keeps the blood flowing, thereby allowing him to live without a detectable heartbeat or even a pulse.
The turbine-like device, whirling rotors developed by the doctors, does not beat like a heart, rather provides a ‘continuous flow’ like a garden hose. Craig Lewis was a 55-year-old, dying from amyloidosis, which causes a build-up of abnormal proteins. The proteins clog the organs so much that they stop working, according to NPR. But after the operation, with the ‘machine’ as his heart’s replacement, Lewis’ blood continued to spin and move through his body.
However, when doctors put a stethoscope to his chest, no heartbeat or pulse can be heard (only a ‘humming’ sound)—which “by all criteria that we conventionally use to analyze patients”, Doctor Cohn said, he is dead.
This is proof that “human physiology can be supported without a pulse”. With all the talk of replacing human organs with those of an animal and electronic hearts, it’s surprising that medical researchers overlooked taking a trip to the plumbing section of the hardware store for replacement parts.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/xbU22i
More stories at Universlings for Science and Reason
The turbine-like device, whirling rotors developed by the doctors, does not beat like a heart, rather provides a ‘continuous flow’ like a garden hose. Craig Lewis was a 55-year-old, dying from amyloidosis, which causes a build-up of abnormal proteins. The proteins clog the organs so much that they stop working, according to NPR. But after the operation, with the ‘machine’ as his heart’s replacement, Lewis’ blood continued to spin and move through his body.
However, when doctors put a stethoscope to his chest, no heartbeat or pulse can be heard (only a ‘humming’ sound)—which “by all criteria that we conventionally use to analyze patients”, Doctor Cohn said, he is dead.
This is proof that “human physiology can be supported without a pulse”. With all the talk of replacing human organs with those of an animal and electronic hearts, it’s surprising that medical researchers overlooked taking a trip to the plumbing section of the hardware store for replacement parts.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/xbU22i
More stories at Universlings for Science and Reason
===
The enemy will use every trick possible to keep you focusing on your problems instead of the Promises of God. As soon as you realize that you have been tricked or distracted, Snap out of it! You serve a God that makes the Impossible, Possible! -Holly
===
May 26: Mother's Day in Algeria, France, Morocco, Poland and Sweden (2013); Independence Day in Georgia (1918)
- 451 – Armenian rebels were defeated by forces of the Sassanid Empire on theAvarayr Plain in Vaspurakan, but the loss played a major factor in their being granted religious freedom 33 years later.
- 1644 – Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claimed victory in the Battle of Montijo.
- 1906 – Vauxhall Bridge (pictured) in London opened, crossing the River Thames between Vauxhall and Westminster.
- 1938 – The House Un-American Activities Committee was established to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities by people or organizations suspected of havingcommunist or fascist ties.
- 1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004 experienced an uncommandedthrust reverser deployment of an engine and broke apart in mid-air, killing all 223 people on board.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” - James 1:19
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Forsake me not, O Lord."
Psalm 38:21
Psalm 38:21
Frequently we pray that God would not forsake us in the hour of trial and temptation, but we too much forget that we have need to use this prayer at all times. There is no moment of our life, however holy, in which we can do without his constant upholding. Whether in light or in darkness, in communion or in temptation, we alike need the prayer, "Forsake me not, O Lord." "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." A little child, while learning to walk, always needs the nurse's aid. The ship left by the pilot drifts at once from her course. We cannot do without continued aid from above; let it then be your prayer today, "Forsake me not. Father, forsake not thy child, lest he fall by the hand of the enemy. Shepherd, forsake not thy lamb, lest he wander from the safety of the fold. Great Husbandman, forsake not thy plant, lest it wither and die. Forsake me not, O Lord,' now; and forsake me not at any moment of my life. Forsake me not in my joys, lest they absorb my heart. Forsake me not in my sorrows, lest I murmur against thee. Forsake me not in the day of my repentance, lest I lose the hope of pardon, and fall into despair; and forsake me not in the day of my strongest faith, lest faith degenerate into presumption. Forsake me not, for without thee I am weak, but with thee I am strong. Forsake me not, for my path is dangerous, and full of snares, and I cannot do without thy guidance. The hen forsakes not her brood; do thou then evermore cover me with thy feathers, and permit me under thy wings to find my refuge. Be not far from me, O Lord, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.' Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation!'"
"O ever in our cleansed breast,
Bid thine Eternal Spirit rest;
And make our secret soul to be
A temple pure and worthy thee."
Evening
"And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem ... and they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them."
Luke 24:33-35
Luke 24:33-35
When the two disciples had reached Emmaus, and were refreshing themselves at the evening meal, the mysterious stranger who had so enchanted them upon the road, took bread and brake it, made himself known to them, and then vanished out of their sight. They had constrained him to abide with them, because the day was far spent; but now, although it was much later, their love was a lamp to their feet, yea, wings also; they forgot the darkness, their weariness was all gone, and forthwith they journeyed back the threescore furlongs to tell the gladsome news of a risen Lord, who had appeared to them by the way. They reached the Christians in Jerusalem, and were received by a burst of joyful news before they could tell their own tale. These early Christians were all on fire to speak of Christ's resurrection, and to proclaim what they knew of the Lord; they made common property of their experiences. This evening let their example impress us deeply. We too must bear our witness concerning Jesus. John's account of the sepulchre needed to be supplemented by Peter; and Mary could speak of something further still; combined, we have a full testimony from which nothing can be spared. We have each of us peculiar gifts and special manifestations; but the one object God has in view is the perfecting of the whole body of Christ. We must, therefore, bring our spiritual possessions and lay them at the apostle's feet, and make distribution unto all of what God has given to us. Keep back no part of the precious truth, but speak what you know, and testify what you have seen. Let not the toil or darkness, or possible unbelief of your friends, weigh one moment in the scale. Up, and be marching to the place of duty, and there tell what great things God has shown to your soul.
===
Habakkuk
[Hābăk'kuk] - love's embrace or he that embraces. The eighth of the Minor Prophets whose parentage, birthplace and era are unrecorded (Hab. 1:1; 3:1).
[Hābăk'kuk] - love's embrace or he that embraces. The eighth of the Minor Prophets whose parentage, birthplace and era are unrecorded (Hab. 1:1; 3:1).
The Man Who Caressed the People
Although he is not much more than a mere name to us, we know that Habakkuk was a prophet of Judah and of the tribe of Levi and of the temple singers (Hab. 3:19 ). He is also referred to as a prophet and the last prophet before the destruction of Jerusalem (Hab. 3:11). Rabbinical tradition makes him the son of the Shunammite woman whom Elisha restored to life (2 Kings 4:16). Habakkuk prophesied the coming of the Babylonians upon Judah. This invasion took place in 606 b.c.and also in 597 b.c. and 586 b.c. "In your days" (Hab. 1:5 ), would indicate that he prophesied scarcely a generation before the first invasion.
In his prophecy Habakkuk was true to his name, which means "strong embrace of God," for he caressed and comforted the people as one would embrace a weeping child until its tears are dried. A modern writer suggests that his name may have contributed somewhat to the unpopularity of the prophet. "His name is against him; its coarse gutterals, falling upon the modern ears with a forbidden ring, and creating a prejudice from the beginning."
From the book Habakkuk wrote, we gather that he was the questioning prophet. He wants to know "Why?" and "How?" Answers were granted him. Why does God permit the destruction of His own people by a hand so cruel and unclean? The prophet waited patiently for an answer, and it came. The ungodly shall pass; the just shall live by faith.
Then we have a chant of derision against the Chaldeans raised by their victims - a fivefold woe:
I. Their insatiable greed.
II. Their overreaching ambition.
III. Their cruel tyranny.
IV. Their shameful treatment of conquered people.
V. Their brutal idolatry.
Then there is Habakkuk's great message of faith which gave Paul a hint of the most precious truth of the Gospel (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38) and aided the Reformation under Martin Luther, the charter of evangelical liberty.
===Today's reading: 1 Chronicles 25-27, John 9:1-23 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Chronicles 25-27
The Musicians
1 David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. Here is the list of the men who performed this service:
2 From the sons of Asaph:
Zakkur, Joseph, Nethaniah and Asarelah. The sons of Asaph were under the supervision of Asaph, who prophesied under the king's supervision....
Today's New Testament reading: John 9:1-23
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world...."
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