For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
The former chauffeur of Rene Rivkin, who had been convicted of the murder of his girlfriend, before having the finding overturned on a technicality, is suing the NSW Government for millions of dollars in compensation. One hopes he fails. The NSW people did not prosecute him with malice, but with due diligence. However, to be fair, he should not have today for his incarceration. Unless he got privileges. Meanwhile, in the US, a boy has gone on trial for the killing of an Australian Pro Baseball player. And it is worth comparing it to police shootings that have been highlighted. Police are trained and can make a mistake. They are licensed to use deadly force. Generally, it is dumb to resist arrest as one may be killed while police are doing their duty. By way of contrast, a young man has been gunned down while exercising on a street by joy riding youths who were armed and allegedly killed from boredom.On this remarkable day in history, 43BC, an inconclusive battle saw Mark Antony win against Pansa, but lose against Hirtius. It was soon after the assassination of Julius and Brutus was temporarily allied with Octavian for the Roman Republic. It didn't last. In 69, Vitellius defeated Emperor Otho, and the destabilisation in Rome following the suicide of Nero would result in the decisive action the next year. In 70, Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, surrounded and sieged Jerusalem. It would result in a change of history, dispersing Jews throughout Rome, destroying the Temple, the heroic tragedy of Masada, and the political issue facing the world today with a monstrous xenophobic regime being supported by the UN over the democracy of Israel. In 966, Pagan king of Polans married Dobrowa of Bohemia and the Christian girl got him to convert, creating the land now called Poland. In 1294, Temür, grandson of Kublai, was elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong. In 1699, Khalsa: The Sikh religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in Northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar. In 1775, the first abolition society in North America was established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was organised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
In 1860, the first Pony Express rider reached San Francisco. The pony riders carried additionally, along with the mail, a small personal bible. In 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth (died April 15th). Also 1865, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family were attacked in his home by Lewis Powell. The attack that killed Lincoln was coordinated by people familiar with political rhetoric spoken against Lincoln. Democrats have a lot to answer for with their rhetoric not being rooted in reality. Words have power, and had their words been temperate and aimed at political policy, Lincoln may well not have been assassinated. Lincoln wasn't the first, nor the last, to be killed by assassin. But he may have been the best. In 1881, the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight was fought in El Paso, Texas. Pity it wasn't video taped. In 1906, the Azusa Street Revival opened and would launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement. In 1909, Turkey committed an atrocity against Armenians in Cilicia. In 1912, Clive Palmer's favourite boat hit an iceberg at 23:40 in the North Atlantic. The Captain of the Titanic had tried to set a speed record. Had he competed with Mary Rose? In 1941, Rommel attacked Tobruk. In 1956, in Chicago, video tape was shown for the first time. In 1969, US Academy Awards failed to distinguish between the best actress, Hepburn, and a big nose. In 1986, Reagan ordered a bombing raid on Libya after they had bombed a West German Disco. The result was Libya would back flip and give up on direct terror attacks. In 2003, U.S. troops in Baghdad captured Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985. Also 2003, the genome project completed (99%) mapping human DNA. In 2007, over 200,000 campaigned against the candidacy of current Turkish PM, the bigot Erdogan.
I do not know them well, They are just north of Mombassa in Kenya, a little inland from the East coast. A poor (not wealthy) primary school in a community struggling against alcoholism and poverty. Yet still achieving. http://sunrisepedagogical.wix.com/spca
"If you find someone who can donate to us please here is our postal address," 68-40223 Kadongo Kenya cellphone 254710703891
From 2014
On this truly remarkable day in history, much stands out, but it is an obscure thing I wish to focus on. The hijacking of the "Achille Lauro" was a terrorist act. Leon Klinghoffer, 69, a disabled appliance manufacturer was on holiday with his wife of 36 years. It was an anniversary. Leon's wife, Maralyn, had terminal colon cancer. The ship was sailing from Egypt to Israel. While in Egypt, four PLO terrorists seized the ship and sailed to Syria. The Syrian government heard the demands that Israel release 50 killers and refused permission for the terrorists to dock the ship. In retaliation, the terrorists chose Leon, who was Jewish, and shot him in the head and in the gut, and threw his body overboard. They later blamed the death on Maralyn, saying she killed her husband for his insurance money. From Port Said (Egypt), the terrorists were granted safe passage to Tunisia, but Ronald Reagan ordered a US jet to force the terrorists to land in transit in Italy, where they were arrested. Italians let one, negotiator Abu Abbas, to flee to Yugoslavia. It is apparent now that Democrats would never have done it, and opposed the US doing it, but when the US invaded Iraq, they arrested fugitive Abu Abbas on this day in 2003. Maralyn had died 4 months after her husband. PLO took responsibility for the hijacking, and paid a small amount in reparation, much less than the aid they are still given. Abu died a year later, in custody from heart failure. His heart had never worked well. It is worth contrasting the demands of the PLO in '85 with the demands of Obama on Israel for peace. Not different, after adjusting for inflation.
Not much is known about Bussa. He was born in Africa in the 18th century, or early nineteenth century. He may have been Igbo or Akan in nationality. Loved by family, but stolen from them by slavers, he was transported to Barbados. Records show a slave named "Bussa" worked at Bayley's Plantation as a ranger at about the time of the rebellion. The freedom of movement would have been helpful. Along with Washington Franklyn and Nanny Grigg, Bussa waited for the British house of assembly to decide on a slavery bill. When they failed to favourably address the issue, in 1816, Bussa led a revolt of over 400. Bussa was killed during the uprising. Years later, Britain ended their part of the slave trade. It was finally made illegal to own slaves in UK in 2010.
Tonight is also the annual celebration of Passover. Celebrating the time that God's chosen people were freed from slavery. May all my Jewish friends and family live up to their promise.
Not much is known about Bussa. He was born in Africa in the 18th century, or early nineteenth century. He may have been Igbo or Akan in nationality. Loved by family, but stolen from them by slavers, he was transported to Barbados. Records show a slave named "Bussa" worked at Bayley's Plantation as a ranger at about the time of the rebellion. The freedom of movement would have been helpful. Along with Washington Franklyn and Nanny Grigg, Bussa waited for the British house of assembly to decide on a slavery bill. When they failed to favourably address the issue, in 1816, Bussa led a revolt of over 400. Bussa was killed during the uprising. Years later, Britain ended their part of the slave trade. It was finally made illegal to own slaves in UK in 2010.
Tonight is also the annual celebration of Passover. Celebrating the time that God's chosen people were freed from slavery. May all my Jewish friends and family live up to their promise.
Historical perspective on this day
In 43BC, Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieged Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeated the forces of the consul Pansa, but was then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Hirtius. 69, Vitellius, commander of the Rhinearmies, defeated Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seized the throne. 70, Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounded the Jewish capital, with four Roman legions. 193, Septimius Severus was proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans). 966, after his marriage to the Christian Dobrawa of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converted to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state. 1028, Henry III, son of Conrad, was elected king of the Germans.
In 1205, Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders. 1294, Temür, grandson of Kublai, was elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong. 1341, Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo. 1434, the foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France was laid. 1471, in England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne. 1639, Imperial forces were defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz. The Swedish victory prolonged the Thirty Years' War and allowed them to advance into Bohemia. 1699, Khalsa: The Sikh religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in Northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar. 1715, the Yamasee War began in South Carolina. 1775, the first abolition society in North America was established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was organised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
In 1816, Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, led a slave rebellion and was killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados. 1828, Noah Webstercopyrighted the first edition of his dictionary. 1846, the Donner Party of pioneersdeparted Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what would become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival. 1849, Hungary declared itself independent of Austriawith Lajos Kossuth as its leader. 1860, the first Pony Express rider reached San Francisco. The pony riders carried additionally, along with the mail, a small personal bible. 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth (died April 15th). Also 1865, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family were attacked in his home by Lewis Powell. 1881, the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight was fought in El Paso, Texas. 1890, the Pan-American Union was founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C. 1894, the first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.
In 1906, the Azusa Street Revival opened and would launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement. 1909, a massacre was organised by Ottoman Empire against Armenian population of Cilicia. 1912, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th). 1927, the first Volvo car premiered in Gothenburg, Sweden. 1928, the Bremen, a German Junkers W33 type aircraft, reached Greenly Island, Canada - the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west. 1931, the Spanish Cortes deposed King Alfonso XIII and proclaimed the Second Spanish Republic. Also 1931, first edition of the Highway Code published in Great Britain. 1935, "Black Sunday Storm", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl. 1939, The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck was first published by the Viking Press. 1940, World War II: Royal Marines landed in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later. 1941, World War II: German general Erwin Rommel attacked Tobruk. 1942, Malta received the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and was now an emblem on the Maltese national flag. 1944, Bombay Explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor killed 300 and caused economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds. 1945, Osijek, Croatia, was liberated from fascistoccupation.
In 1956, in Chicago, videotape was first demonstrated. 1958, the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 fell from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. 1967, Gnassingbé Eyadémaoverthrew President of Togo Nicolas Grunitzky and installed himself as the new president, a title he would hold for the next 38 years. 1969, at the U.S. Academy Awards there was a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand. 1978, 1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrated against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language. 1981, STS-1 – The first operational space shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) completed its first test flight. 1986, in retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan ordered major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people. Also 1986, the heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fell on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine in the Persian Gulfduring Operation Earnest Will. Also 1988, in a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signed an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
In 1991, the Republic of Georgia introduced the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. 1994, in a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot-downtwo United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people. 1999, NATO mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees – Yugoslav officials said 75 people were killed. Also 1999, a severe hailstorm struck Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history. 2002, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávezreturned to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military. 2003, the Human Genome Project was completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%. Also 2003, U.S. troops in Baghdad captured Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauroin 1985. 2005, the Oregon Supreme Court nullified marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County. 2007, At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey, protested against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 2010, Nearly 2,700 were killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai, China. 2014, Twin bomb blasts in Abuja, Nigeria, killed at least 75 people and injured 141 others.
=== 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.
===
Thanks to Warren for this advice on watching Bolt
Warren Catton Get this for your PC or MAC https://www.foxtel.com.au/foxtelplay/how-it-works/pc-mac.html Once tou have installed it start it up and press Live TV you don't need a login to watch Sky News!
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I have moved from Sydney to Melbourne and am desperate for funding. If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofundme.com/abeueaec
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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, 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 a free kindle version.
List of available items at Create Space
The Amazon Author Page for David Ball
UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWGFrench .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG
German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
Happy birthday and many happy returns Faten Dablan and Otto Kephliski. Born on the same day as Rachel B .. last year. The same day John Wilkes Booth fatally shot Abraham Lincoln. A tragedy, and yet, maybe some of that spirit .. Many congrats Peter and Suzie, loving parents of Rachel
April 14: Bengali New Year; Cambodian New Year, Tamil New Year, and other New Year festivals in Asia (2015); Day of the Georgian language in Georgia (1978)
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CHEESE TOASTIES ARE EXPENSIVE THESE DAYS
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 14, 2016 (3:03pm)
The Guardian pays columnist Vanessa Badham so little that she won’t survive another Coalition government:
I personally can’t afford to let the Tories when the next election. I’m not that rich or privileged.
Maybe some tax cuts would help. Come on, Malcolm. Help the girl.
MEATLESS HOTNESS
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 14, 2016 (4:09am)
One of the more important papers to emerge from the famous New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies:
Vegan Sexuality: Challenging Heteronormative Masculinity through Meat-free SexThe terms ‘vegansexuality’ and ‘vegansexuals’ entered popular discourse following substantial media interest in a New Zealand-based academic study on ethical consumption that noted that some vegans engaged in sexual relationships and intimate partnerships only with other vegans.At this time it was suggested that a spectrum existed in relation to cruelty-free consumption and sexual relationships: at one end of this spectrum, a form of sexual preference influenced by veganism entailed an increased likelihood of sexual attraction towards those who shared similar beliefs regarding the exploitation of non-human animals; at the other end of the spectrum such a propensity might manifest as a strong sexual aversion to the bodies of those who consume meat and other animal products.
So now you know. Via Powerline.
ONE BILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR AND THEY CAN’T AFFORD A MAP
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 14, 2016 (3:46am)
The ABC reports:
Tim Flannery leads expedition seeking rare animals in ‘the Galapagos’ of the Pacific
Cameron Horsburgh replies:
Isn’t the Galapagos of the Pacific the Galapagos Islands?
OWNING THE ME OF ME
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 14, 2016 (3:42am)
WHAT WE’VE GOT HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 14, 2016 (2:54am)
Former NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who once predicted areas of New York would by now be underwater, denies he’s a global warming alarmist:
“I don’t think that I have been alarmist – maybe alarming, but I don’t think I’m an alarmist,” James Hansen, who used to head up NASA’s climate arm, told Yale Environment 360 …
It’s like the difference between sexy and sexist. There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.
Hansen, dubbed the “godfather” of global warming, was interviewed about a study he co-authored last month, which claimed future global warming would be worse than predicted. The study found global warming would cause massive sea level rise, flooding of major cities such as New York and enormous super storms.But that’s not the first time Hansen made dire sea level rise predictions.In 1988, a Washington Post reporter asked Hansen what a warming Earth would look like in 20 or 40 years in the future. Hansen reportedly looked out a window and said New York City’s “West Side Highway [which runs along the Hudson River] will be under water.”“And there will be tape across the windows across the street because of high winds. And the same birds won’t be there. The trees in the median strip will change,” he said.
All of that sounds slightly … alarmist. And, as it turns out, wrong. So how does Hansen explain why all the mean people mock him so?
Hansen blamed the general public’s lack of science education for why he’s been criticized as an “alarmist,” saying “we have a society in which most people have become unable to understand or appreciate science, and partly that’s a communication problem which we need to try to alleviate.”
Here’s your communication instructor, Jimmy.
FUTURE CONCERNS
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 14, 2016 (2:18am)
Are your children safe with the Andrews Government?
Andrew BoltAPRIL142016(7:24pm)
Students as young as 12 will study sexualised personal ads and write their own advertisements seeking the “perfect partner’’ as part of a new school curriculum supposed to combat family violence.
The classroom material includes an example ad from a “lustful, sexually generous’’ person seeking “sexy freak out with similarly intentioned woman’’.Another ad — to be analysed by Year 8 students aged 12 and 13 — is from a “30-year-old blonde bombshell, wild and sexy, living in the fast lane’’.“Can you keep up?’’ it asks.A third example cites a “hot gay gal 19yo’’ who is seeking an “outgoing fem 18-25 into nature, sport and night-life for friendship and relationship’’.Children are instructed to “write your own personal ad for the perfect partner’’.
The Building Respectful Relationships material, which is meant to prevent family violence, is replacing religious education lessons during class time in Victorian state schools this year. The Andrews Labor government yesterday announced it would spend $21.8 million over the next two years to expand the program to kindergarten and primary schools as part of its $572m package to combat family violence. The funding will target 120 “lighthouse schools’’ and train thousands of teachers, and up to 4000 childcare workers, to teach the respectful relationships program.
Labor promises to throw your good money to prop up bad businesses
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (7:17pm)
Now it’s Bill Shorten’s turn to go too far. I mean, why not just go the whole hog and nationalise the steel industry instead of this playing footsie:
At least Shorten has got a reverse gear:
===Treasurer Scott Morrison has lashed Labor’s plan to regulate and subsidise Australia’s steel industry, likening the opposition’s industry spokesman to a 1950s-era communist dictator.Is there one heavily unionised and dying industry that Labor isn’t prepared to prop up by taking money for less unionised and healthy businesses?
Bill Shorten has unveiled a six-point plan to regulate and subsidise Australia’s metals industries, which the Opposition Leader says would be enacted within 100 days of taking office.
One week after steel producer Arrium called in administrators, the opposition today announced it would enact new procurement rules to ensure government-funded projects use steel that meets rigorous new standards for safety and quality.
A Labor government would provide subsidies for local steel producers would receive grants [sic] to help cover their compliance costs, while foreign suppliers would be forced to meet the red tape burden on their own.
“This will ensure that safety and quality is never compromised on federally-funded projects, while maintaining Australia’s compliance with our international trade agreements,” according to the opposition’s policy document.
At least Shorten has got a reverse gear:
Mr Pyne criticised Mr Shorten for retreating from his call last Friday to mandate use of Australian steel in government projects – a position that would likely breach Australia’s trade agreements.
Before you read this: what race are you? What gender? Handicapped in any way?
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (5:02pm)
How crazy and intrusive has identity politics become?
It seems enough people are still sane enough to object:
===JOB applicants for Metro Trains Melbourne have been asked to provide explicit details of their sexual orientation — including whether they are “lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual, transgender or intersex”.Why not simply ask people if they can drive trams safely? This is just encouraging the grievance industry.
The public transport operator’s online application form for trainee train drivers also asked if they spoke a language other than English at home, whether they had a disability, and to: “Please select the cultural background you most closely identify with”.
It seems enough people are still sane enough to object:
Metro admits it has since removed the questions. Spokeswoman Sammie Black said the questions had been “misunderstood” and were used to ensure the company’s recruiting strategy reached diverse groups in the community.
Will 60 Minutes make Australia kowtow to Iran?
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (1:59pm)
If John Lyons is right, there is a real danger that the Turnbull Government will be under pressure to surrender some of our national interest to get a deal with Iran to free the 60 Minutes team in Beirut, in jail after an incredibly foolhardy attempt to kidnap two children in a custody dispute:
===Hezbollah may not become directly involved in the 60 Minutes case but one thing is certain: those five Australians will not leave the country unless Hezbollah agrees.But what would be the price? And would the rest of us be told?
Apart from having power of veto over all major government decisions — a veto entrenched in a 2008 agreement — Hezbollah controls Beirut International Airport through which those Australians will, eventually, leave…
One complication is that Australian officials trying to extract the Australians from this mess are seriously limited in the contact they can have with Hezbollah.. Since 2003, Australia has listed the external security organisation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation…
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has made serious efforts to lobby her Lebanese counterpart, Gebran Bassil. Ultimately, Mr Bassil is a small cog in a very large and cumbersome wheel.
Ironically, it may be Iran and its officials who deliver the release of the Australians… Iran funds Hezbollah; Iran gives instructions to Hezbollah; Iran is the ultimate master of Hezbollah. If Iran told Hezbollah the Australians should be released, it would probably happen very quickly.
Talking to Charlie
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (12:49pm)
I thought Charlie Pickering played fair. We had a good conversation on his show last night:
===See, you can have respectful discussion between people who disagree on so much, and would that the ABC hosted more of the same. Good on Pickering, but he better not check what Twitter haters made of it.
Unemployment down
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (12:43pm)
Relatively good news for Australia, and better for the Turnbull Government:
===Australia’s jobless rate unexpectedly fell in March as a lift in business confidence was reflected in the labor market, signaling the economy’s resilience to a resurgent currency.That drop in full-time jobs spoils the overall good news.
Unemployment dropped to 5.7% from 5.8%; economists predicted 5.9%
Employment rose 26,100 from February; economists forecast 17,000 gain
Full-time jobs fell by 8,800; part-time employment rose by 34,900
Participation rate, a measure of labor force as a share of the population, held at 64.9%; economists predicted 65%
Sinking, sinking into long-term debt
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (11:04am)
It’s easy to criticise, but the feral Senate and a public fed lies are refusing to accept the spending cuts we need. Insisting on more would be courageous and dangerous:
But Labor’s response is surely a recipe for mediocrity:
Let’s hope that Malcolm Turnbull’s latest big idea goes nowhere. Alan Mitchell:
Fair enough:
We really are on the highway to trouble, with no sign anywhere of a willingness to make the spending cuts we need:
===Australia is taking the lazy way out of repairing its budget balance, relying on tax increases driven by economic growth, including bracket creep, while the rest of the advanced world is finding savings on the spending side.I do wish, though, that Treasurer Scott Morrison had been backed more strongly by the rest of the government when insisting we have a spending problem. I now doubt the Budget will follow through on that:
The International Monetary Fund has warned that bold action is needed to improve the budgetary bottom line but countries including Australia face political difficulties.
Mr Morrison said additional spending commitments, such as on health and education, would be delivered “sustainably” and “in a way that taxpayers can afford”.
But Labor’s response is surely a recipe for mediocrity:
Mr Morrison said the tax burden would be less under the Coalition than it would under Labor, which has released policies to raise an additional $100 billion revenue over 10 years.UPDATE
Let’s hope that Malcolm Turnbull’s latest big idea goes nowhere. Alan Mitchell:
Has Malcolm Turnbull found his National Broadband Network?… The infrastructure industry, which has been pushing a high-speed rail link between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, will be working hard to promote the ongoing expansion of Turnbull’s “vision”.UPDATE
A thought bubble on rails, you could almost say.
And yet, even the most carefully crafted political gimmick can unexpectedly turn sour. First, there is the question of whether this investment in high-speed rail can be justified, given Australia’s low population density.
Then there are the questions surrounding the “value capture”. It is an excellent idea in tax reform theory but the increase in activity associated with the capital gains will impose costs on local and state governments. Will there be enough extra revenue to go around, or will there be “double taxation” and political resistance?…
The government will be steering resources potentially available for other projects into a massively expensive new rail system that is not viable without its support… The taxpayers almost certainly will be exposed to considerable risk, and the credit ratings agencies will be taking an interest…
More ominously, the consultant associated with Labor’s Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne high-speed rail proposal warned of the “lack of certainty about future demand and revenues, and the potential for cost over-runs during construction”. And while the consultant’s cost benefit analysis claimed a substantial net benefit to the community, ongoing taxpayer subsidies would be required to cover operating losses…
A new report by Institute of Economic Affairs says the cost of the high-speed rail could reach $150 billion, double the already escalated official estimate.
Fair enough:
A high-profile group of unionists, academics and former public servants who oppose a corporate tax cut in the budget has been dubbed “the fatuous 50’’ by a conservative think tank.UPDATE
Institute of Public Affairs chief John Roskam said many in the group had “spent so long on the public teat and no doubt have defined benefits superannuation schemes and won’t be affected by changes to superannuation’’.
“Their real world experience, for so many of these people is limited to the university common room. They have little idea about what it takes to run a business, employ people and create wealth,’’ he said.
We really are on the highway to trouble, with no sign anywhere of a willingness to make the spending cuts we need:
The Turnbull government’s preference for spending cuts over policies aimed at revenue raising will make balancing the budget difficult, according to global ratings agency Moody’s, which warned that government debt would continue to climb and put pressure on the nation’s AAA-rating.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The warning comes after NAB and JPMorgan both cautioned this week that Australia’s AAA credit rating could be in jeopardy unless the government maintains fiscal restraint in the upcoming federal budget.
China the latest threat to our nation of tribes
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (10:53am)
DIVIDING Australians into tribes was always dangerously stupid. Some Chinese Australians are just the latest to prove it.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is going to China today to tell its leaders what Australia wants. But he doesn’t need to go there to know what China wants.
In Sydney last weekend 60 Chinese “community leaders” told Turnbull to back off from joining the United States to confront China’s latest grab for territory in the South China Sea, where vital sea lanes run.
These leaders, brought together by the pro-Chinese Australian Action Committee for Peace and Justice, met under a banner reading “Firmly Safeguard the Sovereign Rights of China in the South China Sea”.
“Australia’s political elite should have a clear understanding,” he said in remarks reported by Fairfax newspapers. “(They) ought to talk and act carefully on the sensitive issue on the South China Sea.”
Australia should not help the “naked hegemonic behaviour” of the US, allegedly trying to keep China down. The official Chinese media approved of this meeting that the Chinese government or its embassy here apparently helped to organise.
(Read full article here.)
No, Tony. UPDATE: crowds vs reporters
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (9:49am)
I’ll defend Tony Abbott against most things, but if he dresses like this again it’s over:
There is a very interesting dichotomy in the reporting of Abbott’s Pollie Peddle for charity that explains so much.
The voters quoted are almost all supportive. Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald:
Yahoo7 News:
Prime ministerial attire? Mr Abbott rocked a collared wife-beater style singlet known as a ‘colsi’ as he partied down following the Pollie Pedal ride
Anthony Marx, Courier Mail:
UPDATE
If I were the four friends who developed the Colsi shirts I’d sue the Daily Mail smartarses.
Here’s what those blokes say about their product. No wonder it appealed to Abbott:
===UPDATE
There is a very interesting dichotomy in the reporting of Abbott’s Pollie Peddle for charity that explains so much.
The voters quoted are almost all supportive. Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald:
The former prime minister was mobbed by supporters, young and old, as he and other Pollie Pedallers downshifted gears into [Orange’s] Robertson Park on Thursday afternoon.Daily Mail:
Foremost among the cheer squad was Sharyn Aiken, a former constituent who left Sydney’s northern beaches for Orange five years ago. Hard-to-miss in her cobalt blue “Tony Abbott for Warringah” t-shirt, Ms Aiken wasn’t shy about seeking out an audience with her hero.
“He’s a strong man, he’s a man who doesn’t have an ego, he’s a man who cares,” she said…
Whether in a small town or large, the reception has been warm and welcoming - the former PM says that’s exactly what he’s used to out on the hustings…
Indeed, old friends were plentiful as the pelotons etched their way eastward from Forbes, including in the tiny town of Eugowra, where school principal Cathy Eppelstun welcomed the procession with open arms. Her late brother Ian Hoswell was Mr Abbott’s personal masseur, and later assisted the entire Pollie Pedal team, until his sudden death from cancer in 2014.
Mr Heather told Daily Mail Australia the former prime minister was in cheery spirits. But, he said, he was responsible enough to head to bed early.Sydney Morning Herald:
‘He didn’t drink much at all,’ Mr Heather said. ‘He was just in good spirits having a great night and in good fun.’
Residents of Caragabal say no prime minister - sitting or former - has ever passed through their sleepy town…But many of reporters quoting them and covering the Pollie Pedal are far more negative when adding their own two cents worth.
The school captains of Caragabal Public [were given] signed copy of Battlelines, Mr Abbott’s 2009 conservative manifesto on federation reform, the monarchy and climate change…
“It’s probably gonna be a popular book for a few weeks,” offered Polly.
“It’ll probably be boring,” argued Angus.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Polly countered. ..
Margo Oliver, a teachers’ aide who looks after the school’s two special needs students, was glad to speak with the ex-PM one-on-one… As for Mr Abbott, he was “awesome”....
From there, the pelotons headed north for Forbes, battling 70km/h headwinds and a lingering, stifling April heat. But those were difficulties Mr Abbott put into harsh perspective when he addressed the crowd that had gathered in that town’s Victoria Park to cheer his arrival.
Another town, another band of admirers - and another mini book launch. Mayor of Forbes Phyllis Miller got her copy of Battlelines - as did the kids of Forbes North Public School.... School co-captain Angus Turner ... was excited to see Mr Abbott
Yahoo7 News:
Mr Abbott’s love of karaoke is second only to his love of raw onions, it seems… VIDEO Top 10 Cringeworthy Tony Abbott Moments… VIDEO Credlin hits back at suggestions she had an affair with Tony Abbott… Tony Abbott slapped Peta Credlin on the bum, book claimsDaily Mail:
Watch Tony Abbott belt out karaoke in a wife-beater singletDaily Mail (again):
Prime ministerial attire? Mr Abbott rocked a collared wife-beater style singlet known as a ‘colsi’ as he partied down following the Pollie Pedal ride
Anthony Marx, Courier Mail:
MAD MONK VISITHuffington Post:
TONY Abbott is coming to town. Yep, the deposed former PM parachutes into Brisbane later this month for a charity fundraising lunch organised by ex-Liberal MP Michael Johnson ... for Johnson’s Camp Gallipoli project…
Johnson told City Beat this week he had always maintained a good relation-ship with Abbott, who will deliver a speech on the Anzac legacy in modern Australia…
Abbott, of course, has stayed busy white anting his successor ...
Little Kids Were Super Unimpressed By Tony Abbott Gave Them A Copy Of His Book… Check the faces. They don’t seem super stoked about this.Sydney Morning Herald:
An unkind observer might liken it to the famed convoy of no confidence - a band of middle aged men with various grievances against the government traversing the state’s roads bound for Canberra.The media class has hated Abbott and done its best to destroy his reputation. The public, though, seems fairer, and if Abbott must find a way to reach them that doesn’t involve having to cycle through every town and suburb.
UPDATE
If I were the four friends who developed the Colsi shirts I’d sue the Daily Mail smartarses.
Here’s what those blokes say about their product. No wonder it appealed to Abbott:
The colsi man
If you’re in a colsi, you’re a smart kinda guy. You’re probably really good looking too. No doubt you spend your free time rescuing orphaned woodland creatures and reading to blind cats. A colsi man needs to be ready at a moment’s notice and is always dressed for any occasion. Backyard cricket to five star cuisine with his astrophysicist girlfriend? Check. Helping build a wood-log cabin for your elderly neighbours? Check. The colsi man is all things to all people. What kind of man are you?
the colsi brand
100% Aussie owned and designed. This is the venture of four mates.
Visionary and ideas man, Stephen ‘with a PH’ Tully, had a lightbulb moment - How to spend a whole day in just one outfit? “Where is the little black dress for men?” he cried. Tully searched high and low for the perfect ensemble and can ya believe it, there was none! Thus, the colsi was born.
Australian Sheik calls for “armies of Jihad” to conquer West
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (8:40am)
Who let this Jordanian settle in Sydney, when he preaches such dangerous hate?
Sheik Ismail Al-Wahwah, the Australian head of Hizb ut Tahrir, now tells Islamists in Turkey ”to lead the armies of Jihad that will conquer Europe and America”:
Wahwah has preached this Jew-hatred in Australia, too:
And his spokesman has warned us not to blame Muslims if they bomb us in retaliation for our alleged oppression:
===Sheik Ismail Al-Wahwah, the Australian head of Hizb ut Tahrir, now tells Islamists in Turkey ”to lead the armies of Jihad that will conquer Europe and America”:
Do not trust the oppressors. Do not trust America, Europe or NATO. They are all enemies. Their hearts are black. They hate you, your religion, your Muhammad, and your Koran… Start dealing with them before they start dealing with you. Cut off their hands before they sow corruption upon the land.More of his familiar Jew-hatred, too, claiming Jews and Freemasons “killed our mother, abolished our Caliphate”.
Wahwah has preached this Jew-hatred in Australia, too:
THE top Australian cleric of extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir has ramped up his hate speech in a rant referring to Jews as who have “corrupted the world” and will “pay for blood with blood”.
In the latest tirade to surface, cleric Ismail al-Wahwah — representing an organisation whose stated aim is to take over the world — said recognising Jews constituted the “epitome of evil” because that would “strengthen the cancerous entity"…
In Mr al-Wahwah’s latest video speech, he says “refraining from fighting (Jews) constitutes widespread evil”.
“Jews are the most evil creature of Allah. Moral corruption is linked to the Jews, prostitution in the world began with the Israelites. Usury and gambling began with the Israelites, killing began with the Israelites.”
And his spokesman has warned us not to blame Muslims if they bomb us in retaliation for our alleged oppression:
Or as Hizb ut Tahrir Australia spokesman Wassim Doureihi told a crowd of Sydney Muslims last year: “Even if a thousand bombs went off in this country, all that it will prove is that the Muslims are angry and they have every reason to be angry.”(Thanks to reader Chunks.)
Immigration turning the West into nations of tribes
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (8:22am)
90 per cent? Yves Goldstein, chief of staff for the minister-president of the Brussels Capital Region, on the radicalism of the Muslim enclave in Brussels, scene of the latest Islamic State massacre:
===“How is it that people who were born here in Brussels, in Paris, can call heroes the people who commit violence and terror?...”There is still denialism about the role of Islam, though, in creating hostile colonies in the heart of Europe. But there is no denialism now that immigration has become colonisation, creating a nation of competing tribes:
Friends who teach the equivalent of high school seniors in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek told him that ”90 percent of their students, 17, 18 years old, called them heroes,” he said.
The problem is not Islam, he insists, but the negligence of government officials like himself in allowing self-contained ethnic ghettos to grow unchallenged, breeding anger, crime and radicalism among youth — a soup of grievances that suits Islamist recruiters…The same realisation is dawning in Britain - that mass immigration from the Third World in this Internet age does not bring over immigrants who will integrate:
Brussels itself is about 25 percent Muslim — 70 percent are of Moroccan heritage and 20 percent Turkish, and the ethnic groups tend to stick to themselves, making them difficult for outsiders, like the police, to penetrate…
“We have neighborhoods where people only see the same people, go to school with the same people,” [Goldstein] said. “What connection do they have with the whole society, what connection do they have with real diversity? It’s the establishment of the ghetto,” he said…
The former head of Britain’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Trevor Phillips, has admitted he “got almost everything wrong” on Muslim immigration in a damning new report on integration, segregation, and how the followers of Islam are creating “nations within nations” in the West…And in Australia, we are not that far behind. Check the Muslim enclaves in Western Sydney - and not just them:
Writing in the Times on the issue, Phillips admits: “Liberal opinion in Britain has, for more than two decades, maintained that most Muslims are just like everyone else… For a long time, I too thought that Europe’s Muslims would become like previous waves of migrants, gradually abandoning their ancestral ways, wearing their religious and cultural baggage lightly, and gradually blending into Britain’s diverse identity landscape. I should have known better.”
In Sydney last weekend 60 Chinese “community leaders” told Turnbull to back off from joining the United States to confront China’s latest grab for territory in the South China Sea, where vital sea lanes run…(Thanks to reader fulchrum.)
Such divided loyalty has not been a big problem here — yet. But that could change. For a start, Chinese here are forming a critical mass, thanks to mass migration. The number of Chinese-born residents has more than doubled in a decade to nearly 500,000, with nearly twice that number of Australians now claiming Chinese ancestry.
Some suburbs now resemble colonies. In Sydney’s Hurstville, more than a third of residents were born in China. A quarter of residents of Melbourne’s Glen Waverley have Chinese background…
Multicultural policies encourage that colonisation. This year Yarra Trams even made bilingual announcements on Melbourne trams for the first time, using Vietnamese on routes through the Abbotsford and Richmond enclaves…
Labor, for instance, has long pandered to the Muslim community, overturning a decision to deport hate-preacher Sheik Taj El-Din El-Hilali and now attacking Israel to please big Muslim minorities in marginal seats in western Sydney.
Catholic church reminds campaigning business that Catholics are its customers, too
Andrew Bolt April 14 2016 (8:12am)
It isn’t often that conservatives use the tactics of the Left, and how effective it’s now proved for the Catholic church:
===Telstra has quietly retreated from a public campaign pushing for same-sex marriage after it kowtowed to the Catholic Church, which threatened a boycott of companies involved in supporting a change to the definition of traditional unions.(Thanks to reader Arch.)
Archdiocese of Sydney business manager Michael Digges wrote to corporations whose logos were featured with their permission on a full-page Australian Marriage Equality advertisement in May last year implying it would withdraw its custom.
“You may be aware that the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney is a significant user of goods and services from many corporations, both local and international,” Mr Digges wrote in the letter. “Undoubtedly, many of the Catholic population of Sydney would be your employees, customers, partners and suppliers. It is therefore with grave concern that I write to you about the Marriage Equality for Australians campaign.”
Telstra has the contracts for Catholic schools across the country and The Australian spoke with one person familiar with the company’s decision to back away from public support who said the telco “did not want to risk its commercial relationship with the church”....
Mr Digges wrote to business leaders asking whether their company should be “participating in such an important matter ... For corporations to speak on such issues on behalf of shareholders, employees, clients/customers, suppliers and other stakeholders is indeed overstepping their purpose and is to be strongly resisted,” he said.
SHE BUMPED INTO QUILLS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 14, 2015 (3:01am)
Journalism academic Wendy Bacon rejoices in Newtown’s Greens-voting diversity:
Bacon reports: “He told me that property prices do make it hard for people to live in Newtown but he likes to spend time in Newtown because everybody can feel that they are accepted whatever their identity.” In his case, as a standard-issue white middle-class hippie. Keep going, Wendy:
Bacon reports: “He told me that property prices do make it hard for people to live in Newtown but he likes to spend time in Newtown because everybody can feel that they are accepted whatever their identity.” In his case, as a standard-issue white middle-class hippie. Keep going, Wendy:
Newtown is the most densely populated electorate in NSW.
She sure got that right. Newtown is full of dense types, including long-time resident Bacon, a veteran journalism instructor whose piece includes these lines:
My intention is this blog post …
And:
To started my investigation by reading …
Most journalists begin their investigative careers by first learning how to construct basic sentences.
NEVER EVER EVER
Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 14, 2015 (2:16am)
“Bride to be?” asks eternally-upset former Fairfax columnist Catherine Deveny. “No man would EVER be described as a ‘groom to be’.”
Catherine really ought to run a Google news search from time to time.
(Via Mike M.)
Essential: Government recovers to 48 to 52
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (4:51pm)
Essential Media’s poll narrows back to 48 to 52, against the Coalition. That strikes me as closer to reality than Newspoll’s 49 to 51. The Abbott Government has recovered and is refocussed on the economy, but more needs to be done.
For a start, the Budget needs to be good and well sold, but the tax debate so far suggests the Government struggles to impose its preferred story. Abbott needs to develop a strong social policy narrative and a moral dimension. Some successes with the Senate need to be announced. And I am very concerned that Tony Nutt still has not been confirmed to join the Abbott office as the critical counterweight to Peta Credlin.
(Thanks to reader Michael.)
===For a start, the Budget needs to be good and well sold, but the tax debate so far suggests the Government struggles to impose its preferred story. Abbott needs to develop a strong social policy narrative and a moral dimension. Some successes with the Senate need to be announced. And I am very concerned that Tony Nutt still has not been confirmed to join the Abbott office as the critical counterweight to Peta Credlin.
(Thanks to reader Michael.)
ABC didn’t check the halal certification closely enough
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (4:00pm)
Interesting background from the ABC’s Fact Check about a halal certification process which should actually be done here by the Federal Government, as the Indonesian Government will now do in Indonesia:
And the ABC curiously failed to mention past controversies surrounding two of the charities named as receiving money collected through halal certification.
About Muslim Aid:
The charities may well be as completely innocent as they say, but the ABC should at least have mentioned the allegations and explained why it believed the denials.
(Thanks to reader Brett.)
===Fact check: Does halal certification fund terrorism?…I’m not sure many Australians think their purchase of food should include donations to mosques.
Few food manufacturers who sell halal-certified foods in Australia or for export, or the organisations that certify them, were willing to tell Fact Check how much they pay, or are paid, for certification…
The Byron Bay Cookie Company said its annual halal certification fee was around $1,500 a year…
Hasan Tanrikut, a halal supervisor from the Global Halal Trade Centre Pty Ltd told Fact Check that certifications of abattoirs for example, which are done four times a year, cost approximately $2,000 to $3,000 per audit. He said halal certification of meat was charged at 25 cents per carton exported…
Halal certification recognition is controlled in Indonesia by the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI - The Indonesian Council of Ulama)… Only six of the AGAHP organisations in Australia are approved by MUI to certify Australian exports going to Indonesia.
In late 2014, the Indonesian government introduced new legislation ... with the Government taking responsibility for administering the halal product guarantee via a new agency, which then submits its results to the MUI…
For Australian food exported to Saudi Arabia, the Muslim World League, based in Saudi Arabia, is responsible for deciding which companies are permitted to certify halal food for their market.
Amjad Mehboob from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc (AFIC), now known as Muslims Australia, one of six Australian organisations authorised to certify halal food for the Saudi Arabian market, said AFIC ... does not pay a fee to the Muslim World League for this recognition.
Saad Al-Shumaimry, director of the Muslim World League for Australia and New Zealand told Fact Check that his organisation did not charge local certification companies fees for endorsing their halal certification status.
Gaafar Mohammed, a senior auditor and meat inspector with the Islamic Co-ordinating Council of Victoria (ICCV) told Fact Check the company did not pay any fees to overseas organisations for their certification recognition…
According to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission register, the Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc (SICHMA) is a large charity with revenue over $1 million, but no financial reports are available on ... how much comes from halal certification.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc (AFIC) ... earned an income of $2.8 million in 2012, of which $647,722 came from halal certification fees, after expenses…
A spokesman for the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) - the government body that monitors money laundering and terrorism - told Fact Check that it had no information to indicate there are links to terrorism financing from halal certification fees…
Muhammad Khan, CEO of Halal Australia, said profits did not go towards supporting any terrorist activities… Dr Kahn said Halal Australia donates some of its profits to Islamic schools and mosques as part of its broader community engagement program, which includes donations to children’s hospitals and the Cancer Council Australia…
“We are mindful of responsibility to the poor and destitute in the community… here as well as in overseas countries [and we donate] through the proper channels, for example Muslim Aid, Islamic Relief...,” he said…
The Islamic Co-ordinating Council of Victoria (ICCV), a private company, claims to be “the major Islamic organisation responsible for the certification, monitoring, and supervision of Halal food exports from Australia”.
Gaafar Mohammed says ICCV is a community-based organisation that is partnered with 11 Australian mosques.
“We don’t fund the mosques, but we take care of their expenses, like electricity, water, things like that,” he said…
Muslims Australia (AFIC), the peak national body representing Islam and Muslims, ... [in] its financial report for 2012 shows it donated $150,000, part of which funded an imam’s salary, and financially supported five Islamic colleges around Australia… The verdict… While the proceeds of halal certification do fund Islamic organisations, Fact Check could find no evidence that this money has ever flowed to terrorist groups.
And the ABC curiously failed to mention past controversies surrounding two of the charities named as receiving money collected through halal certification.
About Muslim Aid:
2008: A SYDNEY charity that admitted channelling aid through an Islamic organisation banned in Australia for its alleged terror links was yesterday raided by the federal police...The police action was prompted by The Australian’s revelations this month about the charity’s connection to Interpal, a humanitarian network proscribed by Australia and the US.About Islamic Relief:
2014: Islamic Relief, a Birmingham-based charity that works in 44 countries, said an internal inquiry had not revealed any evidence to corroborate Israel’s claim that it should not be allowed to work in the West Bank because it had been collecting money for Hamas and its offices were run by terror operatives.Other allegations against Islamic Relief are made here.
The charities may well be as completely innocent as they say, but the ABC should at least have mentioned the allegations and explained why it believed the denials.
(Thanks to reader Brett.)
Gift to unions costs another Labor leader too much
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (2:48pm)
Another Labor leader brought down by Labor’s union links:
===Northern Territory Labor leader Delia Lawrie has the support of only two other members of caucus and will almost certainly face a leadership challenge tomorrow, the ABC understands…Kevin Rudd’s final gift to Labor works its poison:
Labor MLA Ken Vowles said this morning he was prepared to challenge for the party’s leadership… In early April, the NT Supreme Court found Ms Lawrie had deliberately undermined the conduct of the inquiry into the gifting of the $3 million Stella Maris site in Darwin to Unions NT by the former Labor government.
The ABC understands Delia Lawrie has the support of two members, deputy leader Gerry McCarthy and Natasha Fyles…
The ABC understands the challengers have been trying to woo Mr McCarthy so that Ms Laurie would be less likely able to use party membership support to stay on as leader.
Under rules advocated by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, the decision to elect a new leader rests with caucus and party members…
If a challenger holds five votes against Ms Lawrie’s three - herself included - the challenger would also need around 38 per cent of the party votes. If Ms Lawrie lost one more vote in caucus, the challenger would only need 25 per cent support from the party membership.
The legal side of the debate
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (1:55pm)
Melbourne-born journalist Rachael Hocking complains about me in a fascinating article. Legal advice, unfortunately, suggests it is too dangerous for me to respond, which is obscene and unhealthy. The discussion could have been very fruitful, given some things Hocking says.
UPDATE
Another story from the battle against the new racial division of Australia, this from Brian Roberts, who’s been Adjunct Professor at James Cook University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences:
(No comments. Thanks to readers A, Andrew and Matt.)
===UPDATE
Another story from the battle against the new racial division of Australia, this from Brian Roberts, who’s been Adjunct Professor at James Cook University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences:
I have been an academic in Australia for 40 years. I grew up in close association with the Xhosa tribe of South Africa, the land of my birth, and lectured for many years on sustainable tribal homelands. The simplistic Australian model of Guilty Whites/Innocent Blacks struck me decades ago as a real brake on mature debate about alternative futures for self-identifying Aboriginals…
In August, 2012, I ... was moved to air my concerns in ... the National Indigenous Times in August, 2012...:
It has been my privilege to guide and examine post-graduates from several universities here and overseas for nearly half a century. In recent years, the increasing numbers of Indigenous theses have been both important and heartening. Understandably, most of these have been on the history, identity, justice experience and well-being of Indigenous peoples… However, it is time for supervisors to encourage Indigenous post-grads to select thesis topics other than the ‘poor fellow me’ genre. Thus while it was important for the early PhDs to contribute to pride and identity in the face of injustice and discrimination, the cosy mutual back-scratching among a small group of supervisors and examiners is damaging intellectual rigour and academic respect.In its issue of September 5, 2012, the wrath of four Indigenous PhDs erupted: Gracelyn Smallwood (JCU), Noritta Morseu-Diop (UQ), Rosemary van den Berg (Curtin) and Chris Sarra (QUT). Their anger was aimed at me, and I was labelled a racist…
The most serious shortcomings are seen in those theses in which the supervisor has mistakenly accepted the ‘this is your life’-type hard luck story as appropriate intellectual content for doctoral examination. This autobiographical material may well be suitable for booksellers but it devalues intellectual standards of original thought, balanced literature review and objective deductive conclusions. While some disciplines, notably in the arts and humanities, have always accepted qualitative research, when this moves to acceptance of subjective analysis, autobiography and personal attack, the reputation of Indigenous intellectuals is devalued…
I was taken aback by this unexpected vilification… At the risk of over-analysing the original letter and its response, the following comments (below) from Smallwood ...is both informative and illustrative of the orchestrated oversensitivity to the letter that was, somehow, perceived as racist....
‘ This bloke needs to go back to South Africa instead of coming over here and running our people down … his bizarre comment on our brilliant scholars is setting back our reconciliation process by decades. Our university is known for its work on reconciliation … and now it will also be known for this bigot who calls himself a professor. He ought to be ashamed of himself. I’ll bring these racist remarks he’s made to the attention of the Vice Chancellor and ask that his tenure be reviewed… It’s not for a non-Indigenous academic to tell [me] or other Indigenous students in pursuit of academic excellence what to study. You really have to laugh at this old bigot who feels the need to engage in something he knows nothing about.In [Smallwood’s] response, my suggestions are interpreted as ‘running our people down’ – a strange twist to what was actually intended, which was to urge the raising of academic standards… In her view, not only should the author be ashamed of himself, but the Vice Chancellor should review his tenure (‘unispeak’ for sack)....
This puerile refusal to face the music of grown-up rationality not only damages the image of the intelligentsia but deprives the whole mob of productive open-mindedness.
Smallwood’s advice that I ‘might learn to stay out of Indigenous affairs …’ reflects the gravity of attempts to bully outsiders out of the public square, particularly if they disagree with cherished beliefs. Why most other academics retreated from the Aboriginal futures debate was simply answered by Prof. Colin Tatz more than two decades ago: they fear being branded as racists. This refusal to debate contested values ... is perhaps the most damaging aspect of the contemporary non-debate. It will continue to derail the attempts to contest ideas, by those open-minded Indigenous spokespersons who recognise the futility of the on-going, opaque, closed-shop mentality…
(No comments. Thanks to readers A, Andrew and Matt.)
Art bought in a dream
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (11:29am)
===
Costello warns Abbott: cut taxes
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (11:14am)
Former federal Treasurer Peter Costello demands the Abbott Government get serious about cutting spending:
Treasurer Joe Hockey this morning says Costello is “wrong”:
In fact, last year’s Budget papers show that in the last full year Costello was Treasurer he had revenues of $272 billion. Hockey’s Budget counted on revenues of $401 billion.
The real problem? Spending in that time went up from $253 billion to a then expected $409 billion:
Professor Sinclair Davidson presents the case against Hockey in graphic terms, using MYEFO statistics on government revenue under the past three treasurers:
===WHEN the government released its discussion paper on tax it said “lower, simpler, fairer”. Ever since we have been flooded with demands for taxes that are higher, more complicated, and less economic.UPDATE
Treasurer Hockey has foreshadowed a new bank tax. Assistant Treasurer Frydenberg wants more tax from multinationals. Labor’s Senator Dastayari wants more tax from the miners. The Greens’ Senator Milne wants more tax from News Corporation. Labor wants higher tax on superannuation. Possibly, so too, does the Liberal Party…
None of the above proposals is for lower tax. None would make our tax system simpler… This is not a conversation about fairer tax. It is about more tax…
Higher taxes on a slower economy won’t do nearly as much as lower rates on a growing economy. We get a lot of envy talk about the need for new taxes but very little effort to think through the consequences for jobs and growth…
Remember the Abbott government has already increased the top marginal tax rate to its highest level in 25 years. That did nothing for the economy. It made no difference to the budget deficit. It didn’t persuade the big government advocates to support a reduction in spending. It didn’t appease the envy industry. All it did was sharpen their appetite for more tax rises…
The government does have a tax problem. It is that there has been no adjustment to the tax thresholds for five years. Inflation is taking every Australian into higher average tax rates… To get action, the government needs to restart the conversation about getting taxes down, not up.
Treasurer Joe Hockey this morning says Costello is “wrong”:
“I really wish that I had the tax revenue that Peter Costello had when we were last in government because if we had the same level of tax collections I’d be collecting an extra $25 billion today,” Mr Hockey told Sky NewsThe ABC’s Frank Kelly and commentator Paul Bongiorno agree.
In fact, last year’s Budget papers show that in the last full year Costello was Treasurer he had revenues of $272 billion. Hockey’s Budget counted on revenues of $401 billion.
The real problem? Spending in that time went up from $253 billion to a then expected $409 billion:
UPDATE
Professor Sinclair Davidson presents the case against Hockey in graphic terms, using MYEFO statistics on government revenue under the past three treasurers:
Australia does not have a revenue problem, Australian governments have a spending problem.
ABC misleads. No, it’s not more dangerous to be a woman
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (9:14am)
Murder is terrible no matter who the victim. And no matter what their gender.
But the ABC’s 7.30 last night implied murder was a big issue only when women were killed. It also misleadingly suggested most murder victims were women:
The truth is very different. From an Australian Institute of Criminology report released this year:
Domestic violence is terrible. The issue is now the cause du jour. But let’s keep some context here. It is still more dangerous to be a man.
===But the ABC’s 7.30 last night implied murder was a big issue only when women were killed. It also misleadingly suggested most murder victims were women:
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: This statistic is a source of profound shame for our nation: every week, two Australian women are killed by violence - that’s 31 so far this year…I accept that Rowan misspoke, meaning to refer only to victims of domestic violence rather than victims of all forms of violence. But his slip was not properly clarified, and in the context of the report served to suggest that women are the main victims of murder.
Now, around Australia, as more and more people become aware of the extent of violence against women in every suburb and town, there are growing calls for action…
TRACY BOWDEN: This one story of a life cut short is sad and shocking enough, but it’s one in a grim toll. Stephanie Scott was the 30th woman to be killed by violence in Australia this year. That’s two deaths a week. The toll reached 31 on the weekend as Queensland Police investigated the suspected murder of a woman in Townsville.
MICHAEL ROWAN, GRIFFITH LOCAL AREA COMMANDER: The vast majority of victims of violence are women. Domestic homicides are women. I’m not saying it doesn’t occur to men, but you can’t go against the statistics… TANYA PLIBERSEK: We have a responsibility to every Australian woman to, as a community, as a country, say that if she’s just going about her daily life, she deserves to be able to live free from fear and free from violence.
The truth is very different. From an Australian Institute of Criminology report released this year:
Males continue to be overrepresented as victims of homicide. Of the 511 homicide victims in 2010–11 and 2011–12, 328 were male (64%) and 182 were female (36%...).Another imbalance that the ABC never campaigns on:
Of the homicide victims in 2010–12, 85 were identified as Indigenous Australians—56 males and 28 females. The rate of Indigenous homicide victimisation was close to four times higherAs for domestic violence:
The proportion of domestic homicides has continued to fall, reaching a historic low in recent years.The hidden victims:
1 third of people killed in domestic violence are male.Children are also killed in domestic violence, nearly half by their mother.
Domestic violence is terrible. The issue is now the cause du jour. But let’s keep some context here. It is still more dangerous to be a man.
Hillary matches Obama for mad global warming stories
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (8:48am)
First we had President Barack Obama’s idiotic explanation for why he became a crusader against global warming:
Now Hillary Clinton, Obama’s putative successor, gives an equally idiotic explanation for becoming a warming alarmist:
(Thanks to reader Mark M.)
===President Obama said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that his push to address climate change has been partly influenced by a frightening moment when his daughter Malia had an asthma attack as a 4-year-old.In fact, warmer weather is better for asthma than cold. In fact, the world’s atmosphere has not actually warmed for 17 years. In fact, Obama’s smoking would make his daughter’s asthma worse.
“What I can relate to is the fear a parent has, when your 4-year-old daughter comes up to you and says, ‘Daddy, I’m having trouble breathing.’ The fright you feel is terrible,” the president said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “And if we can make sure that our responses to the environment are reducing those incidents, that’s something that I think every parent would wish for.”
Now Hillary Clinton, Obama’s putative successor, gives an equally idiotic explanation for becoming a warming alarmist:
In her book ‘Hard Choices’, published last year, Clinton ... [said] she became aware of the impacts of rising temperatures on US ecosystems after a visit to Alaska in 2005 she said, where she saw dying trees and forest fires.So what did last month’s Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska teach Clinton?:
“...I met lifelong participants in dogsled races who told me they no longer even needed to wear gloves.”
With overnight temperatures approaching 40 below in Huslia, veteran Willow musher Jonrowe said she suffered what looks to be the harshest frostbite of her career on her fingers while mushing toward the village checkpoint. Jonrowe said she has six frostbitten fingers.If world leaders offer such patently absurd reasons for believing the warming scare, can there really be any strong science behind it?
(Thanks to reader Mark M.)
The ABC is out of control: yesterday’s examples
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (8:30am)
The ABC, our biggest media organisation, is required by law to be balanced. It now openly flouting that law to campaign against conservatives generally and Tony Abbott specifically.
Professor James Allan:
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill offers another example:
Has the ABC yet apologised for screening a clip of a “comic” calling a Abbott a “dumb c...”? Has it disciplined the staff who screened this pre-recorded clip? Or is this now standard operating vilification from Mark Scott’s minions?
Where is the chairman to impose some standards? Where is the board? Is this the ABC’s contribution to our culture?
===Professor James Allan:
(T)his morning I’m driving to work and what does the ABC [NewsRadio] report? Yes, that’s right, today’s political polls.I heard Paul Bongiorno on the ABC’s Radio National Breakfast likewise base his daily anti-Abbott diatribe on the IPSOS poll rather than the findings of the more established Newspoll.
Now stop me if my memory is faulty here, but all through the horror years of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd fiascos, and on through the Abbott versus Shorten match-up since 2013, I do not recall a single instance of the following: Newspoll shows Labor doing well and some other poll shows Labor doing badly, so the ABC leads off by pointing to the other poll first and down-playing Newspoll. I can’t remember that ever happening. No, when Newspoll showed Labor doing well you could almost sense the excitement and barely constrained celebrations in the billion-dollar-a-year, taxpayer-subsidised sheltered workshop that is ‘our’ ABC.
But what about this morning, April 13? Well, wouldn’t you know that Newspoll is out today and shows Mr. Abbott and the Coalition closing the gap to 49-51, with Mr. Shorten’s favourability, to put it kindly, somewhat in decline. On the other hand, a Fairfax IPSOS poll shows Labor increasing its lead to 54-46. So let me ask you this: which poll do you guess the ABC’s rolling news radio station lead its bulletins with?…
The reporter led with the Fairfax poll, also making a few derogatory remarks about the government while noting that Treasurer Joe Hockey’s favourability has plunged in the Fairfax pollsters’ estimation. After reporting the good news for Labor, there was a cursory mention of the Newspoll result, but with this explicitly stated caveat (to calm down the lefty true believers) that ‘…this still leaves Labor in a winning position.’… By the way, how is that quest going to hire one, single, solitary person with a right-of-centre political background for any of the main ABC current affairs TV shows...?
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill offers another example:
7.30 last night devoted two segments - 5:32 and 4:07 - to a Democrat declaring their candidacy for the US presidency.UPDATE
7.30’s previous coverage of the two Republicans who have so far officially declared their candidacy? Zip. One of the two declared Republican candidates (Paul) did manage a few seconds of air time (4:43 to 4:47) during the first segment on Clinton.
Has the ABC yet apologised for screening a clip of a “comic” calling a Abbott a “dumb c...”? Has it disciplined the staff who screened this pre-recorded clip? Or is this now standard operating vilification from Mark Scott’s minions?
Where is the chairman to impose some standards? Where is the board? Is this the ABC’s contribution to our culture?
Warming at last to a debate
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (7:58am)
Media Watch host Paul Barry on Channel 7’s report on a cruise:
But Paul Barry’s commitment to telling both sides of a story oddly enough breaks down when it comes to the far more serious issue of global warming.
UPDATE
Christopher Monckton lists the enemies of free speech when in comes to global warming - the academics, activists and journalists who want sceptics silenced, arrested, jailed, banned or even executed. Australia’s Margo Kingston is among them.
(Thanks to reader smiff.)
===So should the network have put both sides of the story? Well, call us old fashioned but we think it should. Viewers deserve it.Great!
But Paul Barry’s commitment to telling both sides of a story oddly enough breaks down when it comes to the far more serious issue of global warming.
UPDATE
Christopher Monckton lists the enemies of free speech when in comes to global warming - the academics, activists and journalists who want sceptics silenced, arrested, jailed, banned or even executed. Australia’s Margo Kingston is among them.
(Thanks to reader smiff.)
Dreaming ourselves back to the caves
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (7:51am)
New Age beliefs make you sicker and poorer:
===STEINER schools in northern NSW are promoting the choice of parents to reject immunisation as the percentage of unvaccinated children in a town there almost eclipses war-torn South Sudan.
Three major north coast Steiner schools — including one in anti-vaccination hot spot Mullumbimby — support the Steiner movement’s controversial “anthroposophy” spiritual teachings…
The Rudolf Steiner book centre in Sydney also promotes books on immunisation, including The Vaccination Dilemma… “In their first five years of life, children are expected to undergo 37 doses of 11 different vaccines, yet relatively few parents are aware of the risks of chronic disease, injury or death that some vaccines can present,” the book says. There have been measles and whooping cough outbreaks at Steiner schools overseas, while the Orana Steiner School in the ACT had a measles outbreak in 2011.
Dan Andrews’ Victoria: international embarrassment
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (7:02am)
The Andrews Government has made Victoria an international embarrassment by ripping up a big contract - made worse by the fact that the contract is for a much-needed road and the compensation will cost plenty:
===The governments of France and Spain have confirmed they have made direct complaints to the Victorian government over its treatment of the tenderers — Bouygues and Acciona — for the state’s East West Link toll road project.Half a billion dollars spent simply to NOT build a needed road? Even Joan Kirner would not have done something so mad.
French ambassador Christophe Lecourtier and the Spanish embassy made a joint protest to the Andrews Labor government over the cancellation of the project…
The complaints come amid claims new Premier Daniel Andrews’s cancellation of the project — and the government’s subsequent threats to pass legislation to nullify any bid for compensation — have created a sovereign risk issue in Victoria that will deter future investment.
Federal Trade Minister Andrew Robb said last month that he had been approached by international investors at a forum in Hong Kong, and during his travels in other countries, concerned about sovereign risk in Australia after the contract cancellation… Drawn-out negotiations over the level of compensation payable to the consortium are rumoured to be moving closer to a settlement, with expectations of a $500 million-plus payout, despite pre-election comments from Mr Andrews that no compensation would be paid.
Wiping Madonna
Andrew Bolt April 14 2015 (12:13am)
Not a gentlemanly reaction from Drake, but there’s no call for a gentleman to show any sensitivity when he’s been sexually assaulted so shamelessly.
===You and your family arrive at your lake house for summer vacation, but something doesn't feel right. What happens after stepping inside?
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===
SORRY DAY
Tim Blair – Monday, April 14, 2014 (12:48pm)
ABC managing director Mark Scott apologises to Chris Kenny:
I wish to apologise to Mr Chris Kenny for the controversial ‘The Hamster Decides’ skit run by ABC-TV in September last year …I have come to the view with the Director of Television that the ABC should not have put the skit to air …As a consequence, I would like to apologise to Mr Kenny for the ABC having put the skit to air, his depiction in the skit and because it was triggered by his criticism of the ABC. I am sorry for the distress this incident has caused him and his family. I have also called Mr Kenny today to convey this apology and put it in writing to him.While I had been waiting for internal and ACMA review processes to be completed before issuing this statement, I now believe that was a mistake and I regret the delay in making this apology.
UPDATE. Chaser boy Julian Morrow isn’t happy.
POWER BEATS HOUR
Tim Blair – Monday, April 14, 2014 (12:39pm)
March 27-29: Climate change worrier Natalie Tran joins a celebrity chorus calling for people to observe Earth Hour’s message all year round:
Don’t forget to switch off your lights at 8.30pm tomorrow for #earthhour and this year it’s lights out for the reef!
April 7: Climate change worrier Natalie Tran announces she’s flying overseas to watch a car race:
Just booked tickets to my first f1 later this year. Very excited!
You’re killing the planet, Natalie.
PM SPEAKS PEOPLE
Tim Blair – Monday, April 14, 2014 (11:54am)
University of Canberra researcher Michael Jensen discovers why so many March in March protesters were upset with Tony Abbott:
“It wasn’t a specific policy issue, but something about his style, his way of interacting and presenting himself to the Australian public,” he said.
Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes saw another side to the Prime Minister during last week’s Asian trade tour – a side that wins comparisons with Abbott’s predecessor:
“We had a prime minister who spoke Mandarin and our relationship tanked in six months,” Mr Stokes said.“Now we have a PM who speaks people and we have a new relationship in six months.”
SMH SALSA CLUB
Tim Blair – Monday, April 14, 2014 (11:48am)
Let’s take another look at the Sydney Morning Herald‘s $10,000 dream holiday offer:
Discover the mind-bending contradictions of the old Cuba of the politically dominant Fidel Castro, revolutionary hero come global T-shirt icon Che Guevarra and literary giant Ernest Hemingway.Get up close and personal with the locals that make up the melange of Communism, the saucy Tropicana night-spot and the world-renowned sounds of the Buena Vista Salsa Club.
Dan Lewis writes: “You’d think that even if ‘one of Australia’s most enduring and respected journalistic figures, George Negus’ couldn’t, at least one of the commies at the SMH would know how to spell ‘Che Guevara’.”
And reader WCWC observes that Cuba’s celebrated Buena Vista Social Club has become the Buena Vista Salsa Club. Perhaps the SMH’s ten-grand dupes aren’t destined for Cuba at all. Instead, they’re headed for some sort of mock Cuba set up outside Yass. Here’s another fascinating SMH reader deal: a $100,000 atlas.
PANELS OF DOOM
Tim Blair – Monday, April 14, 2014 (2:57am)
For those keeping count, the death toll related to solar power in Bangladesh’s Sirajganj district exceeds the death toll related to nuclear power in Fukushima.
(Via Gavin A.)
HUGHIE TO PAULA TO PEACHES
Tim Blair – Monday, April 14, 2014 (2:46am)
Mark Steyn charts a generational decline.
Mark Scott apologises to Chris Kenny. Admits it’s too late
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (3:59pm)
The timing of this apology suggests panic - or an intervention from the ABC board:
And now that Scott has apologised he’s essentially signaled the ABC has no real defence to the defamation case Kenny indeed launched. At the very minimum the ABC is up for Kenny’s legal costs as well as its own in a case it should never have defended.
So why the sudden cave-in?
I do not know, but I can guess. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the ABC’s best friend in Cabinet, has recently warned board members to do their duty and maintain ABC standards and fix its bias.
In today’s Australian former ABC chairman Maurice Newman is highly critical of the ABC’s refusal to apologise to Kenny, and he too urged the board to assert control.
And there are the Budget cuts to come…
The ABC’s statement:
From a private media organisation that position would be correct. But from a state media organisation - and the biggest in the country - those fighting words amount to Scott endorsing an abuse of state power.
UPDATE
A few things about ABC host Julian Morrow’s childish - and misleading - response to his boss’s decision. First, I note he merely tweeted this doctored picture of Scott, and didn’t actually get the ABC to broadcast it into hundreds of thousands of homes, as was done to Kenny. Second, he used a picture of a cartoonishly outsized hamster to soften the insult, as opposed to a picture of a very real dog, as was done to Kenny. Third, he did not call Scott a “dog-f...er”, as was done to Kenny. Fourth, he says he “respectfully” disagrees with Scott, to further soften the insult - when the insult to Kenny, in contrast, lacked any semblance of respect, with the doctored picture of him dropped in a pool to the mocking laughter of the studio audience. I’ll consider Morrow’s response serious if he actually makes it as hostile, vicious, demeaning and public as Chaser’s attack on Kenny.
UPDATE
I am also struck by this part of Scott’s apology:
In October the ABC had already officially considered and dismissed nearly 200 viewer complaints, announcing:
How long does a simple review of a grotesque insult take? It took me no more than an instant to know the ABC had crossed a line. How come it took Scott six months and “internal ... review processes”?
One thing is already clear: the ABC’s Audience and Consumer Affairs doesn’t know s..t from sawdust and should be sacked. How many other dodgy decisions has it made to protect the ABC?
===THE ABC’s managing director Mark Scott has apologised to journalist Chris Kenny for a sketch broadcast on the ABC depicting Kenny having sex with a dog.The timing is important. Scott should have apologised the instant the ABC ran that foul image of Kenny. It says something about about the slide in the culture of the ABC and the rise of its rank political partisanship that Scott not only failed to see the ABC had crossed the line but ignored advice that an apology would avert a defamation action.
In a statement issued on the ABC’s website, Mr Scott stated his previous reticence to apologise on behalf of the public broadcaster while waiting for “internal and ACMA review processes to be completed” was a “mistake"…
Mr Scott also said he had called Kenny today and put the apology in writing to him.
Mr Scott reiterated his previous statement that the sketch broadcast on ‘The Hamster Decides’ from The Chaser team was “tasteless and undergraduate"…
The NSW Supreme Court last month allowed Kenny to sue the public broadcaster, ruling a segment that labelled him a “Dog F..ker” was capable of defaming him by implying he was a contemptible and disgusting person. The case can proceed to a full jury trial.
Kenny’s appeal is against the court ruling that no reasonable viewer would have thought Kenny actually had sex with a dog because the image — a photoshopped image of the ABC critic with a caption “Chris Dog F..ker Kenny” was “clearly concocted"… The Chaser team was unwilling to comment although its executive producer Julian Morrow (@julesmorrow) tweeted a similar photoshopped image on the social media platform Twitter depicting Mr Scott doing the same to a hamster, a reference to The Chaser’s program ‘The Hamster Decides’.
And now that Scott has apologised he’s essentially signaled the ABC has no real defence to the defamation case Kenny indeed launched. At the very minimum the ABC is up for Kenny’s legal costs as well as its own in a case it should never have defended.
So why the sudden cave-in?
I do not know, but I can guess. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the ABC’s best friend in Cabinet, has recently warned board members to do their duty and maintain ABC standards and fix its bias.
In today’s Australian former ABC chairman Maurice Newman is highly critical of the ABC’s refusal to apologise to Kenny, and he too urged the board to assert control.
And there are the Budget cuts to come…
The ABC’s statement:
I wish to apologise to Mr Chris Kenny for the controversial ‘The Hamster Decides’ skit run by ABC-TV in September last year.My one quibble with the statement as it stands is that Scott suggests the ABC, a huge state-funded monolith with a statutory duty to be balanced, actually has a right to use that massive state power to personally attack its critics. As Scott says: “Mr Kenny is a strong and persistent critic of the ABC, and can expect to be a subject of satire ...”
At the time of broadcast, I described the skit as tasteless and undergraduate, but noted that it raised questions about the nature of satire and the boundaries of free speech afforded to satirists, comedians and cartoonists.
The audience of The Chaser expect fierce, robust and irreverent satire. Final decision-making on what goes to air, however, rests with the ABC.
There are different matters at stake here: whether the ABC should have made the editorial decision to broadcast the skit and, separately, whether broadcasting such a skit was within the ABC’s editorial guidelines for satire and offence. Mr Kenny’s decision to take legal action on the grounds of defamation is also a separate matter.
Notwithstanding any ACMA finding however, I have come to the view with the Director of Television that the ABC should not have put the skit to air.
Having reviewed the issue, in my opinion it falls short of the quality demanded by our audience and normally delivered by our programming. While Mr Kenny is a strong and persistent critic of the ABC, and can expect to be a subject of satire, the depiction of him was very strong in the context of the satirical point attempted.
As a consequence, I would like to apologise to Mr Kenny for the ABC having put the skit to air, his depiction in the skit and because it was triggered by his criticism of the ABC. I am sorry for the distress this incident has caused him and his family. I have also called Mr Kenny today to convey this apology and put it in writing to him.
While I had been waiting for internal and ACMA review processes to be completed before issuing this statement, I now believe that was a mistake and I regret the delay in making this apology. — Mark Scott, Managing Director
From a private media organisation that position would be correct. But from a state media organisation - and the biggest in the country - those fighting words amount to Scott endorsing an abuse of state power.
UPDATE
A few things about ABC host Julian Morrow’s childish - and misleading - response to his boss’s decision. First, I note he merely tweeted this doctored picture of Scott, and didn’t actually get the ABC to broadcast it into hundreds of thousands of homes, as was done to Kenny. Second, he used a picture of a cartoonishly outsized hamster to soften the insult, as opposed to a picture of a very real dog, as was done to Kenny. Third, he did not call Scott a “dog-f...er”, as was done to Kenny. Fourth, he says he “respectfully” disagrees with Scott, to further soften the insult - when the insult to Kenny, in contrast, lacked any semblance of respect, with the doctored picture of him dropped in a pool to the mocking laughter of the studio audience. I’ll consider Morrow’s response serious if he actually makes it as hostile, vicious, demeaning and public as Chaser’s attack on Kenny.
UPDATE
I am also struck by this part of Scott’s apology:
While I had been waiting for internal and ACMA review processes to be completed before issuing this statement, I now believe that was a mistake and I regret the delay in making this apology.The ABC’s attack on Kenny occurred last September.
In October the ABC had already officially considered and dismissed nearly 200 viewer complaints, announcing:
Audience and Consumer Affairs are satisfied the broadcast was in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for harm and offence...So only now, more than six months after the broadcast and five months after the ABC’s Audience and Consumer Affairs brushed off complainants, does Scott apologise, saying he’s been “waiting for internal and ACMA review processes to be completed before issuing this statement”.
How long does a simple review of a grotesque insult take? It took me no more than an instant to know the ABC had crossed a line. How come it took Scott six months and “internal ... review processes”?
One thing is already clear: the ABC’s Audience and Consumer Affairs doesn’t know s..t from sawdust and should be sacked. How many other dodgy decisions has it made to protect the ABC?
Abbott shows he’s the diplomat that scoffing Labor leaders never were
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (3:35pm)
Terry McCrann:
Tony Abbott took 600 business leaders with him on his tour of Japan, South Korea and China. It was a political masterstroke, to judge from the reviews.
Channel 7 boss Kerry Stokes:
===TONY Abbott’s sweep through Asia has been an extraordinary triumph on an impressive number of levels — the personal, the policy substance and, most critically, the diplomatic.UPDATE
It’s arguably a triumph unequalled by any previous Australian prime minister. In barely a fortnight, he’s sealed major trade deals with two of our three biggest customers, and almost certainly locked in a deal with the third — the biggest, China…
The more important point was the success the Prime Minister achieved in broadening and deepening our relationships with all three countries. He did so with an extremely sophisticated and effective mix of rugged assertion of our values, softened by smooth diplomacy and basic realism.
He did so, again, in stunning, embarrassing, contrast to his two predecessors…
The one thing that absolutely cannot be denied is the way Abbott’s success has destroyed utterly the meme Labor attempted to pin him with as some blundering ideological hick.
That by characterising Japan — openly, honestly, and not only correctly but appropriately — as our best friend in Asia, he had blundered into upsetting our biggest customer, China.
But not only did Abbott have a seamlessly positive visit to Japan — coming straight after we had rubbed their noses in the whaling loss of face in the International Court of Justice — but he was able to move just as seamlessly on to China....
We should also not forget the country that Abbott passed over on his way north. Indonesia.
Remember how turn back the boats was Abbott’s first great “blunder”? ... Funny how the boats have been successively turned back, and “new ones” also sent back for some months now with nary a peep of complaint out of Indonesia.
Despite no doubt the frenzied best efforts of Fairfax and the ABC to find someone, anyone, over there to complain. Again, it would suggest the policy clarity and firmness of the Abbott government is reaping rewards. We have a Prime Minister who really is winning — openly recognising — friends and influencing (important) people in Asia.
Tony Abbott took 600 business leaders with him on his tour of Japan, South Korea and China. It was a political masterstroke, to judge from the reviews.
Channel 7 boss Kerry Stokes:
We had a prime minister who spoke Mandarin and our relationship tanked in six months… Now we have a PM who speaks people and we have a new relationship in six months.Crown Resorts chairman James Packer:
From the perspective of trade and business investment, the trip was extremely beneficial for Australia. The Prime Minister and trade minister Andrew Robb have done an outstanding job. They have set a benchmark for future governments.CSL CEO Peter Perreault:
He was genuine and engaging with the foreign leaders and has established a great new start for Australia in north Asia.Tad Watroba, executive director of Hancock Prospecting:
Tony handled himself very well and came across as a genuine bloke. There was a visible difference from the previous leadership.Packer again:
I think the truth is Australia’s relationships with China, Japan, India and Indonesia all went backwards over the last five years… When you go round and lecture people — I think you’d know who I’m talking about — some people don’t take it that well.
On 2GB tonight - ABC says sorry too late. Carr has a tanty. Palmer’s magic explained
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (3:15pm)
On with Steve Price from 8pm. Listen live here. Talkback: 131 873.
Listen to all past shows here.
Here is where you can hear past Big Guns chats with Graham Richardson that I have on Ben Fordham’s 2GB show every Monday after 4.30pm.
===Listen to all past shows here.
Here is where you can hear past Big Guns chats with Graham Richardson that I have on Ben Fordham’s 2GB show every Monday after 4.30pm.
Negus goes to Cuba: hasta la salsa, Che Who-vara!
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (3:05pm)
George Negus, ageing Leftist, is taking readers to the countries of his collapsed dreams. The stress must explain certain errors in his pitch.
===Neil and O’Neill. UPDATE: And Michaels, too
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (8:52am)
A coup for The Spectator - and a good sign that the Coalition is actively encouraging non-ABC and non-Left media voices:
GET READY FOR THE COALITION’S FIRST BUDGETTo book, go here.
Joe Hockey, with Spectator publisher Andrew Neil
The ‘world’s greatest treasurer’ Wayne Swan bequeathed a whopping national debt and federal deficit. How will his successor tackle these challenges in his first budget on May 13?
Join the federal Treasurer Joe Hockey and Andrew Neil, publisher of The Spectator and BBC politics host, on Wednesday 23 April at the Doltone House Hyde Park (formerly Tattersalls club), Level 3, 181 Elizabeth Street, Sydney
UPDATE
Another event worth noting - with Brendan O’Neill:
Nannies, Nudgers & Naggers: The New Enemies of FreedomBook at the link. Don’t wait too long about it: Brendan’s Sydney event is sold out.
MELBOURNE TUESDAY 29 APRIL 6:00PM - 8:00PM
Where: Society Restaurant
23 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Is it a top-down Orwellian “boot on the human face” that is squashing our once cherished civil liberties, or is the greater problem today the public’s fear of being free? Is our freedom being taken from us by the authorities, or is it being undermined through our own failure to exercise it? An open debate on how we can boost human freedom. Brendan O’Neill is the editor of spiked, the magazine that wants to make history as well as report it, and is a columnist for he Big Issue in London and The Australian. He also blogs for the Daily Telegraph and has written for a variety of publications in both Europe and America. He is the author of Can I Recycle My Granny And 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas, and he is currently researching a book on snobbery.
UPDATE
And for sceptics and the no-longer-quite-so-sure, Dr Patrick Michaels is giving talks for the IPA in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from April 29:
The IPA is delighted to be welcoming internationally renowned scientist Dr Patrick Michaels for a tour of Australia in April and May. Patrick is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C., and formerly a professor at the University of Virginia. He’s the author of many important books on climate change, including Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media and Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know which he co-authored. Patrick’s visit to Australia will come at a vital time in the debate about climate change, as the parliament prepares to repeal the carbon tax, reviews the Renewable Energy Target and considers other expensive measures to supposedly tackle global warming, like direct action.Michaels’ intinerary:
Perth - Tuesday 29 AprilFor more information - and to book - go here.
Melbourne - Thursday 1 May
Sydney - Monday 5 May
Brisbane - Tuesday 6 May
How selfish Carr made Abbott look a leader
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (8:47am)
BOB Carr last week did Tony Abbott a huge favour. Labor’s former foreign minister finally made the Prime Minister seem a real leader.
Carr’s new book, Diary of a Foreign Minister, didn’t just make Abbott look good by confirming modern Labor’s essential triviality and selfishness.
Carr also released it just as Abbott staged a triumphant tour of Asia that showed him to be everything that Carr and his two Lilliputian prime ministers, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, were not.
Carr helped make Abbott’s tour a turning point — the moment when Abbott fixed his last big weakness, his inability to seem prime ministerial.
Consider. Carr as foreign minister achieved virtually nothing of practical good to the taxpayers who sent him and wife Helena around the globe in business class. Yet in his book, he whinges that we didn’t fly him first class. He whinges about the airline food. He whinges that he didn’t get free pyjamas. He whinges that his opera video wasn’t subtitled.
Diplomatic cables reveal yet more whinges — Carr’s demand that diplomats “avoid early morning or late evening meetings” when arranging his visits, and schedule instead “visits to important cultural or historic sites”.
How the poor man suffered for Australia. And what did the noble Carr bring back for us, boasting that “I soar above the mundane and serve my country”?
(Read full column here.)
Time for a thousand cuts
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (8:29am)
We have a problem:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===THE budget faces continuing deficits of about $30 billion a year from 2016-17 onwards in the absence of spending cuts, as tax revenue is likely to remain weak.But here’s a (small) saving:
An analysis by consulting firm Macroeconomics shows that the ... this year’s deficit is likely to be $41bn, considerably better than the $47bn deficit foreshadowed in the government’s mid-year budget update issued just before Christmas. For the next two years, Macroeconomics forecasts deficits of $32bn and $26bn, broadly in line with Treasury’s estimates, however the softness of revenue will push the deficit back out to $30bn in the following year and the firm sees no further improvement to 2027-28.... By 2017-18, the budget will start feeling the impact of spending commitments made under the previous Labor government, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the reforms to school funding… [Macroeconomics director Dr Stephen] Anthony said Joe Hockey should seek initial savings of about 1 per cent of GDP or $16bn to put the budget back onto a sustainable trajectory.
TAXPAYERS’ funds that were allocated for developing workforce skills and boosting productivity have been used to train unionists in union organising and membership recruitment techniques. A certificate course in “Unionism and Industrial Relations” has been delivered under government-funded training schemes offering education in less contentious areas such as worker health and safety, as well as claims and rehabilitation management…There must be a thousand similar savings to make in all that Labor pork.
The course was developed in 2009 by Innovation and Business Skills Australia, one of 11 federal government-funded “industry skills councils”.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
1984 Newspeak: My articles banned, the Sheik’s lecture not
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (8:15am)
I’ve argued that people of various ethnic ancestries had a choice to identify with one, all or none of those ancestries themselves, and we should actually treat each other as individuals, race irrelevant.
Two of those articles were banned under our race hate laws, with the judge ruling I’d made factual error in saying the fair-complexioned Aborigines I mentioned had such a choice.
I thought I was arguing against racism. And, stupid me, I thought these race hate laws were meant to stop real racists. But:
===Two of those articles were banned under our race hate laws, with the judge ruling I’d made factual error in saying the fair-complexioned Aborigines I mentioned had such a choice.
I thought I was arguing against racism. And, stupid me, I thought these race hate laws were meant to stop real racists. But:
POLICE say they will not act against a radical preacher who publicly prayed for the slaughter of Hindus and Buddhists, leaving him free to spread his messages of hatred.(Thanks to readers Barry and Chriss.)
A sermon videotaped in South Australia last year also showed Sheikh Sharif Hussein accusing Australian troops, whom he called “crusader pigs”, of helping to rape tens of thousands of women in Iraq, but SA police say he has broken no laws…
According to a translation of the Arabic video, published by the US-based Middle East Media Research Institute, the sheikh publicly prayed: “Oh Allah, count the Buddhists and the Hindus one by one. Oh Allah, count them and kill them to the very last one”.
A police investigation was launched after The Advertiser last year revealed details of one lecture recording, believed to have been delivered, in part, at the Islamic Da’wah Centre of SA, in Torrensville…
A South Australia Police spokesman said the matter had been investigated and that “in this instance, no criminal offending occurred and no charges (were) laid. No further comment will be made on this matter."… It is not known if Sheik Hussein has preached in SA since the video went public last year. His friends have claimed the video was heavily edited and misrepresented him, while he has declined to comment.
Ukraine sends troops to remove Russian pawns
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (8:03am)
Something like this worked for Hitler in Czechoslovakia:
===The Ukrainian government on Sunday for the first time sent in its security services to confront armed pro-Russian militants in the country’s east, defying warnings from Russia as commandos engaged in gunfights with men who had set up roadblocks and stormed a Ukrainian police station in Slovyansk, Ukrainian officials said.
At least one officer was killed in the operation, and several were injured, as were four locals, the officials said. ...the central government in Kiev has turned to force to try to restore its authority in the east, a course of action that the Russian government has repeatedly warned against. With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border near Donetsk, Western leaders have worried that Moscow might use unrest in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking areas as a pretext for an invasion — even though the violence had been solely caused by the pro-Russian side.
There is a Jewish lobby, but that’s not the one that drove Carr
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (7:57am)
FORMER foreign minister Bob Carr is not wrong: there is a Jewish lobby. But it’s not the lobby that worries me.
Carr last week outraged Jews by attacking Melbourne’s “Israel lobby” for its “very unhealthy” influence on prime minister Julia Gillard.
Carr accused it of trying “to block the Foreign Minister of Australia through their influence with the Prime Minister’s office from even making the most routine criticism of Israeli settlement policy”.
True, there is a Jewish lobby, just as there are other ethnic and religious lobbies. True also, it’s more organised than most, and richer.
But also true is that many supporters of Israel — like Gillard, like me — reach their opinions on the arguments, not as quo for Jewish quids.
We see a democracy threatened by terrorism, an open society challenged by closed ones.
Carr also leaves out a critical fact, making the Jewish lobby seem unique and even sinister.
See, he actually defeated the “Israel lobby” in 2012 by warning Labor MPs of a more powerful lobby — the Muslim one.
(Read full article here.)
===Carr last week outraged Jews by attacking Melbourne’s “Israel lobby” for its “very unhealthy” influence on prime minister Julia Gillard.
Carr accused it of trying “to block the Foreign Minister of Australia through their influence with the Prime Minister’s office from even making the most routine criticism of Israeli settlement policy”.
True, there is a Jewish lobby, just as there are other ethnic and religious lobbies. True also, it’s more organised than most, and richer.
But also true is that many supporters of Israel — like Gillard, like me — reach their opinions on the arguments, not as quo for Jewish quids.
We see a democracy threatened by terrorism, an open society challenged by closed ones.
Carr also leaves out a critical fact, making the Jewish lobby seem unique and even sinister.
See, he actually defeated the “Israel lobby” in 2012 by warning Labor MPs of a more powerful lobby — the Muslim one.
(Read full article here.)
Carr’s gossip is great. But the breach of principle not
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (7:31am)
Former Labor speechwriter Troy Bramston said conservatives should welcome Bob Carr’s Diaries of a Foreign Minister:
It is actually Bramston who misses the point. The reason some conservatives have actually criticised Carr for betraying his colleagues is that we actually value concepts such as duty, confidentiality and good governance. We put them above mere partisan advantage.
Former minister Amanda Vanstone explains the point:
===Carr savages Gillard’s “blunders” and “disasters”. He documents how his confidence in her was slowly “destroyed”. He urged Gillard to resign the prime ministership, given that she was so unpopular, and thought her “selfish” for not doing so.Bramston’s belief that conservatives worrying about the betrayal of confidences are merely “clutching their Liberal talking points” and missing the real opportunity the book gives to attack Labor actually demonstrates one of the problems with modern Labor.
Then there’s Rudd — “the least bad alternative” — breezily walking into Carr’s office one day “with the air of a conspiring cardinal … purse-lipped, choirboy hair, speaking in that sinister monotone”.
He lashes policies on asylum-seekers, education, carbon pricing, budget management and the “stupid” media regulations. He bemoans the inability to sell a message as a “huckster” would, rails against “poor” processes and laments the absence of political “canniness"… The Liberals misjudged their response. Rather than condemn the book for “betraying confidences” — many people gave Carr approval to divulge talks — they should have praised it because Carr affirms their criticisms of Labor. Some conservative commentators, clutching their Liberal talking points, echoed these attacks.
It is actually Bramston who misses the point. The reason some conservatives have actually criticised Carr for betraying his colleagues is that we actually value concepts such as duty, confidentiality and good governance. We put them above mere partisan advantage.
Former minister Amanda Vanstone explains the point:
...what is fundamentally in the public interest is that government runs cohesively and efficiently. That simply cannot happen if members of the team cannot exchange confidences. With the risk that a confidence will be broken, less information is exchanged and the decision-making process is damaged.This not a “Liberal talking point”, Troy. It is a principle.
You and I want ministerial colleagues to put it all on the table and, in our interest, come to a decision. A tell-tale in the room messes that up… How would you feel if you told an MP something in confidence and then read the perhaps lurid details in the paper shortly thereafter? To share insights into another person may be critical to getting that person on board with a new and fundamentally important policy change. No one will do that if they think their shared insight is just fodder for a book.
Costing more to stop what isn’t happening
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (7:17am)
Graham Lloyd says the IPCC’s once simple message - repent for the end of the world is nigh - is now hopelessly muddled by falling confidence and rising costs:
===Release of the fifth assessment report in December was muddled by confusion over why global average surface temperatures had not risen for more than a decade despite strong growth in carbon dioxide emissions. After years of denial, the IPCC report finally acknowledged the “hiatus” and put forward a number of possible explanations, including natural climate variability and increased ocean heat.
Further debate followed the release last month of the working group two report into climate change “impact and adaptation”, which estimated global annual economic losses for additional temperature increases of 2C at between 0.2 and 2.0 per cent of income. This was much lower than many had expected, given the 5 to 20 per cent estimated by Lord Stern in his advice to the British government. Today’s IPCC report shows the cost of acting to reduce carbon emissions to keep warming below 2C could be as high as 11 per cent of global consumption by the end of the century. The political reality is that Australia has taken climate change off the G20 agenda, Europe is scrapping its subsidies for renewables and Germany is turning back to coal.
Palmer gains from the voters’ demand for the authentic
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (7:10am)
Henry Ergas says Clive Palmer isn’t going away unless his money goes first:
===Even if “Palmer United” can stand together until the next election, minor parties are skilled at ultimately hanging apart. But unlike Pauline Hanson, Palmer is both well-resourced and an experienced political operative. Unless his business fails, he could be there for the long term.
It would therefore be a mistake for Tony Abbott to count on the PUP’s demise. Instead, the best way to marginalise Palmer’s sound and fury is to restore the trust Labor did so much to tarnish. If voters choose a buffoon, it is because they prefer the ridiculous to the hypocritical, the frankly absurd to the smugly dishonest. Only responsible government, that delivers what it promises, and promises no more than governments can deliver, will reverse that loss of faith.
And Jews still think the Left will help?
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (7:05am)
===Does the ABC board watch the ABC?
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (6:47am)
Is the ABC board doing its duty - not least to ensure the taxpayer-funded broadcaster is fair and balanced?
===FORMER ABC chairman Maurice Newman has questioned what action the ABC board took over several recent controversies, including The Hamster Decides’ skit depicting The Australian’s Chris Kenny as a “dog f. ker”, saying its broadcast was “astonishing” and warranted an apology…So don’t expect tears over what’s coming:
“I think, quite seriously, there are things at the margin you might what to defend, but why you would want to defend that I have no idea,’’ he said yesterday.
“Maybe because you don’t like Chris Kenny’s politics I suppose, but it’s just wrong..."…
The former chairman ... [said] the “board must have satisfied themselves that there’s nothing to see here”. “When we had the Snowden affair, the broadcast of The Guardian allegations of phone-tapping of the Indonesian Presidents’ wife, the board seemed to acquiesce on that [as well],’’ he said.
FORMER ABC chairmen Maurice Newman and Donald McDonald say that the public broadcaster should accept there are going to be cuts in the federal budget…
Mr McDonald, ABC chairman from 1996 to 2006, said there was no “sacred level” of public broadcasting…
“I believe the government is well disposed to the services the ABC provides but, like everybody else, the ABC will have to live within its means,” he said.
Mr Newman, who followed him as chairman from 2006 to 2012, agreed, saying “there’s no doubt the budget is in disrepair” and “we’re all going to have to share in the heavy lifting"… The federal government decided on an “efficiency review” despite Tony Abbott’s election-eve promise that the broadcaster would be left untouched.
Nielsen poll: Labor way ahead
Andrew Bolt April 14 2014 (6:37am)
Exactly not what I expected, and the very high Greens vote suggests the poll isn’t accurate - or repeatable:
===The latest Australian Financial Review/Nielsen poll shows Labor leading the Coalition by 52 per cent to 48 per cent…(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Michael.)
While Tony Abbott was perceived to have had a good last week in Asia talking free trade, the poll shows almost all the Coalition’s fall in support came in rural and regional Australia....
Nielsen poll director John Stirton said it could be indicative of anxiety over increased foreign investment and reduced protectionism…
The Coalition’s primary vote fell 4 points to 40 per cent, Labor’s primary vote fell 1 point to 34 per cent, while the Greens’ vote shot up 5 points to 17 per cent, driven in part by a large boost in support in Western Australia… The Coalition’s two-party-preferred vote fell 10 points outside the capitals.
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This guy reading the newspaper on the subway is Keanu Reeves.He is from a problematic family. His father was arrested when he was 12 for drug dealing and his mother was a stripper. His family moved to Canada and there he had several step dads.
He watched his girlfriend die. They were about to get married, and she died in a car accident. And also before that she had lost her baby. Since then Keanu avoids serious relationships and having kids.
He's one of the only Hollywood stars without a Mansion. He said: 'I live in a flat, I have everything that I need at anytime, why choose an empty house?'
One of his best friends died by overdose, he was River Phoenix (Joaquin Phoenix's brother). Almost in the same year Keanu's father was arrested again.
His younger sister had leukemia. Today she is cured, and he donated 70% of his gains from the movie Matrix to Hospitals that treat leukemia.
In one of his birthdays, he got to a little candy shop and bought him a cake, and started eating alone. If a fan walked by he would talk to them and offer some of the cake.
He doesn't have bodyguards, and he doesn't wear fancy clothes.
When they asked him about 'Sad Keanu', he replied: 'You need to be happy to live, I don't.'"
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Plato
===
A sad attempt at analysis, giving a bureaucrat's view that cheapens life, dismisses injustice and promotes corruption .. naturally it endorses ALP 'compassion'
How many have to die from bad policy before it becomes a problem? How many will pay family savings to pirate people smugglers to sidestep a cheaper legal alternative before it can be admitted opening the borders was a mistake? I could be wrong, but I don't feel the issue is about number but the enormity of the unfolding tragedy since the Pacific Solution was lifted. The situation was entirely predictable and was predicted by many that have since been ignored. Equity isn't supposed to be a life and death issue. Personally, I want Australia to be a big nation. I like migrants and want more. I welcome refugees. But this tragedy seems to be entirely political for some, and very personal to others. And the disconnect is entirely with the current federal Australian government.
===
HOPELESSLY DIVIDED and COMPLETELY DYSFUNCTIONAL
If ever there was more evidence that the Labor Party are completely unfit to govern, just take the recent comments of Simon Crean.
Crean said of Gillard;
"SHE’S GONE THE CLASS WARFARE………….. AND WE NEVER WENT THIS LOW”
He complete trashed Gillard’s method of governing;
"BECAUSE SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY SHE GETS THE WORD THAT HERE’S THE ANGLE ON HOW TO GET TOMORROW’S HEADLINE”
And Crean is right. Gillard and Labor are NOT governing in the best interests of the nation - for them, it’s all about tomorrow’s headline.
And on Rudd, Crean said Rudd was; “JUST AS ARROGANT”
And remember, these are not statements made by a Liberal supporter, or even a journalist – they are made by a CURRENT LABOR MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, someone that has been a senior member of both Rudd's and Gillard’s Cabinets.
Labor are a complete rabble, hopelessly divided and completely dysfunctional - Can anyone argue for another 3 years of this with a straight face, for a house divided cannot stand.
This divided & dysfunctional deadwood; Gillard, Rudd, Crean, Swan, Emerson, Bowen, Combet, Bob Carr, Conroy, etc, etc, etc - all need to be the cleaned out at the election which can't come soon enough. Labor need a long, long time in opposition to sort themselves out.
'shares' and 'likes' always appreciated.
===
I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peep.
I could see that you were crying, You found it hard to sleep.
I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear,
"It's me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here."
I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea,
You were thinking of the many times, your hands reached down to me.
I was with you at the shops today, Your arms were getting sore.
I longed to take your parcels, I wish I could do more.
I was with you at my grave today, You tend it with such care.
I want to re-assure you, that I'm not lying there.
I walked with you towards the house, as you fumbled for your key.
I gently put my paw on you, I smiled and said " it's me."
You looked so very tired, and sank into a chair.
I tried so hard to let you know, that I was standing there.
It's possible for me, to be so near you everyday.
To say to you with certainty, "I never went away."
You sat there very quietly, then smiled, I think you knew...
In the stillness of that evening, I was very close to you.
The day is over... I smile and watch you yawning
and say "good-night, God bless, I'll see you in the morning."
And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide,
I'll rush across to greet you and we'll stand, side by side.
I have so many things to show you, there is so much for you to see.
Be patient, live your journey out...then come home to be with me.
===
April 14: Fast of the Firstborn begins at dawn and Passover begins at sunset (Judaism, 2014); Cambodian New Year, Tamil New Year, andother New Year festivals in Asia (2014); Day of the Georgian languagein Georgia (1978)
- 966 – After his marriage to the Christian Dobrawa of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I,converted to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
- 1471 – Wars of the Roses: The Yorkists under Edward IVdefeated the Lancastrians near the town of Barnet, killing Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick.
- 1944 – The freighter SS Fort Stikine carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold, and ammunition exploded in the harbour in Bombay, India, sinking surrounding ships and killing about 800 people.
- 1967 – After leading a military coup three months earlier,Gnassingbé Eyadéma (pictured) installed himself as President of Togo, a post which he held until 2005.
- 1994 – In a friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two US Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot down twoUS Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
- 43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Aulus Hirtius.
- 69 – Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.
- 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions.
- 193 – Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
- 966 – After his marriage to the Christian Doubravka of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converts to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
- 1028 – Henry III, son of Conrad, is elected King of Germany.
- 1205 – Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.
- 1294 – Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.
- 1341 – Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V, Marquess of Saluzzo.
- 1434 – The foundation stone of Nantes Cathedral, France is laid.
- 1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
- 1561 – Celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg
- 1639 – Imperial forces are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz. The Swedish victory prolongs the Thirty Years' Warand allows them to advance into Bohemia.
- 1699 – Khalsa: The Sikh religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
- 1715 – The Yamasee War begins in South Carolina.
- 1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
- 1816 – Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion and is killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.
- 1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
- 1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.
- 1849 – Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.
- 1860 – The first Pony Express rider reaches San Francisco.
- 1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth (died April 15th).
- 1865 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
- 1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.
- 1890 – The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.
- 1894 – The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.
- 1906 – The Azusa Street Revival opens and will launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
- 1909 – A massacre is organized by Ottoman Empire against Armenian population of Cilicia.
- 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).
- 1927 – The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.
- 1928 – The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, reaches Greenly Island, Canada - the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.
- 1931 – The Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.
- 1931 – First edition of The Highway Code published in Great Britain.
- 1935 – "Black Sunday Storm", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.
- 1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.
- 1940 – World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
- 1941 – World War II: German general Erwin Rommel attacks Tobruk.
- 1942 – Malta receives the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and is now an emblem on the Maltese national flag.
- 1944 – Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
- 1956 – In Chicago, videotape is first demonstrated.
- 1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. The female dog likely lived only a few hours.
- 1967 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma overthrows President of Togo Nicolas Grunitzky and installs himself as the new president, a title he would hold for the next 38 years.
- 1968 – At the U.S. Academy Awards there is a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.
- 1978 – Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
- 1981 – STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight.
- 1986 – In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.
- 1986 – The heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.
- 1988 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
- 1988 – In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
- 1991 – The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1994 – In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
- 1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.
- 1999 – A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.
- 2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.
- 2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
- 2003 – U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
- 2005 – The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
- 2007 – At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey, protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
- 2010 – Nearly 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai, China.
- 2014 – Twin bomb blasts in Abuja, Nigeria, kill at least 75 people and injures 141 others.
- 2014 – Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Northeastern Nigeria.
- 1126 – Averroes, Spanish physician and philosopher (d. 1198)
- 1527 – Abraham Ortelius, Flemish cartographer and geographer (d. 1598)
- 1572 – Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician, philosopher, and academic (d. 1632)
- 1578 – Philip III of Spain (d. 1621)
- 1629 – Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (d. 1695)
- 1668 – Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish general and politician (d. 1741)
- 1678 – Abraham Darby I, English iron master (d. 1717)
- 1709 – Charles Collé, French playwright and songwriter (d. 1783)
- 1714 – Adam Gib, Scottish minister and author (d. 1788)
- 1738 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1809)
- 1741 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)
- 1773 – Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, French politician, 6th Prime Minister of France (d. 1854)
- 1788 – David G. Burnet, American politician, 2nd Vice-President of Texas (d. 1870)
- 1800 – John Appold, English engineer (d. 1865)
- 1814 – Dimitri Kipiani, Georgian publicist and author (d. 1887)
- 1818 – Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (d. 1909)
- 1827 – Augustus Pitt Rivers, English general, ethnologist, and archaeologist (d. 1900)
- 1854 – Martin Lipp, Estonian pastor and poet (d. 1923)
- 1857 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (d. 1944)
- 1865 – Alfred Hoare Powell, English architect, and designer and painter of pottery (d. 1960)
- 1866 – Anne Sullivan, American educator (d. 1936)
- 1868 – Peter Behrens, German architect, designed the AEG turbine factory (d. 1940)
- 1870 – Victor Borisov-Musatov, Russian painter and educator (d. 1905)
- 1870 – Syd Gregory, Australian cricketer and coach (d. 1929)
- 1872 – Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-English scholar and translator (d. 1953)
- 1881 – Husain Salaahuddin, Maldivian poet and scholar (d. 1948)
- 1882 – Moritz Schlick, German-Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1936)
- 1886 – Ernst Robert Curtius, German philologist and scholar (d. 1956)
- 1886 – Árpád Tóth, Hungarian poet and translator (d. 1928)
- 1889 – Arnold J. Toynbee, English historian and academic (d. 1975)
- 1891 – B. R. Ambedkar, Indian economist, jurist, and politician, 1st Indian Minister of Law and Justice (d. 1956)
- 1891 – Otto Lasanen, Finnish wrestler (d. 1958)
- 1892 – Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1962)
- 1892 – V. Gordon Childe, Australian archaeologist and philologist (d. 1957)
- 1897 – Claire Windsor, American actress (d. 1972)
- 1902 – Sylvio Mantha, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and referee (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Henry Corbin, French philosopher and academic (d. 1978)
- 1903 – Ruth Svedberg, Swedish discus thrower and triathlete (d. 2002)
- 1904 – John Gielgud, English actor, director, and producer (d. 2000)
- 1905 – Elizabeth Huckaby, American author and educator (d. 1999)
- 1905 – Georg Lammers, German sprinter (d. 1987)
- 1905 – Jean Pierre-Bloch, French author and activist (d. 1999)
- 1907 – François Duvalier, Haitian physician and politician, 40th President of Haiti (d. 1971)
- 1912 – Robert Doisneau, French photographer and journalist (d. 1994)
- 1912 – Georg Siimenson, Estonian footballer (d. 1978)
- 1913 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (d. 2008)
- 1916 – Don Willesee, Australian telegraphist and politician, 29th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 2003)
- 1917 – Valerie Hobson, Irish-born English actress (d. 1998)
- 1917 – Marvin Miller, American businessman (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Mary Healy, American actress and singer (d. 2015)
- 1919 – Shamshad Begum, Pakistani-Indian singer (d. 2013)
- 1919 – K. Saraswathi Amma, Indian author and playwright (d. 1975)
- 1920 – Ivor Forbes Guest, English lawyer, historian, and author
- 1921 – Thomas Schelling, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1922 – Audrey Long, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Roberto De Vicenzo, Argentinian golfer
- 1924 – Shorty Rogers, American trumpet player and composer (d. 1994)
- 1924 – Joseph Ruskin, American actor and producer (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, English philosopher, and academic
- 1925 – Gene Ammons, American saxophonist (d. 1974)
- 1925 – Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean minister and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Rod Steiger, American soldier and actor (d. 2002)
- 1926 – Barbara Anderson, New Zealand author (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Frank Daniel, Czech director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1996)
- 1926 – Gloria Jean, American actress and singer
- 1926 – Liz Renay, American actress and author (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Dany Robin, French actress and singer (d. 1995)
- 1929 – Gerry Anderson, English director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1929 – Inez Andrews, American singer-songwriter (The Caravans) (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Martin Adolf Bormann, German priest and theologian (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Arnold Burns, American lawyer and politician, 21st United States Deputy Attorney General (d. 2013)
- 1930 – René Desmaison, French mountaineer (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Bradford Dillman, American actor and author
- 1930 – Jay Robinson, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Geoffrey Dalton, English admiral
- 1931 – Paul Masnick, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1932 – Atef Ebeid, Egyptian academic and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Egypt (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Bob Grant, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2003)
- 1932 – Loretta Lynn, American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1932 – Cameron Parker, Scottish businessman and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire
- 1933 – Paddy Hopkirk, Northern Irish race car driver
- 1933 – Boris Strugatsky, Russian author (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Shani Wallis, English-American actress and singer
- 1934 – Fredric Jameson, American philosopher and theorist
- 1935 – Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Baroness Masham of Ilton, English table tennis player, swimmer, and politician
- 1935 – John Oliver, English bishop
- 1935 – Erich von Däniken, Swiss historian and author
- 1936 – Arlene Martel, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Bobby Nichols, American golfer
- 1936 – Frank Serpico, American-Italian soldier, police officer and lecturer
- 1937 – Efi Arazi, Israeli businessman, founded the Scailex Corporation (d. 2013)
- 1937 – Sepp Mayerl, Austrian mountaineer (d. 2012)
- 1938 – Mahmud Esad Coşan, Turkish author and academic (d. 2001)
- 1940 – David Hope, Baron Hope of Thornes English archbishop and academic
- 1940 – Julie Christie, English actress
- 1940 – Richard Thompson English physician and academic
- 1941 – Pete Rose, American baseball player and manager
- 1942 – Valeriy Brumel, Russian high jumper (d. 2003)
- 1942 – Valentin Lebedev, Russian engineer and astronaut
- 1942 – Björn Rosengren, Swedish politician, Swedish Minister of Enterprise and Innovation
- 1942 – Ni Zhiqin, Chinese high jumper
- 1943 – Fouad Siniora, Lebanese businessman and politician, 65th Prime Minister of Lebanon
- 1944 – John Sergeant, English journalist
- 1945 – Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist and songwriter (The Outlaws, Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Blackmore's Night)
- 1945 – Roger Frappier, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1945 – Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, Samoan economist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Samoa
- 1946 – Mireille Guiliano, French-American author
- 1946 – Michael Sarris, Cypriot economist and politician, Cypriot Minister of Finance
- 1946 – Knut Kristiansen, Norwegian pianist and orchestra leader
- 1947 – Dominique Baudis, French journalist and politician (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Bob Massie, Australian cricketer
- 1948 – Berry Berenson, American model, actress, and photographer (d. 2001)
- 1948 – Anastasios Papaligouras, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Justice
- 1949 – Dave Gibbons, English author and illustrator
- 1949 – DeAnne Julius, American-British economist and academic
- 1949 – Chris Langham, English actor and screenwriter
- 1949 – Chas Mortimer, English racing motorcyclist
- 1949 – John Shea, American actor and director
- 1950 – Francis Collins, American physician and geneticist
- 1950 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian author
- 1951 – José Eduardo González Navas, Spanish politician
- 1951 – Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist, conductor, and educator
- 1951 – Elizabeth Symons, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, English politician
- 1952 – Mickey O'Sullivan, Irish footballer and manager
- 1952 – David Urquhart, Scottish bishop
- 1953 – David Buss, American psychologist and academic
- 1954 – Sue Hill, English pathologist and civil servant
- 1954 – Katsuhiro Otomo, Japanese director, screenwriter, and illustrator
- 1954 – Bruce Sterling, American author and blogger
- 1956 – Barbara Bonney, American soprano and educator
- 1956 – Boris Šprem, Croatian lawyer and politician, 8th President of Croatian Parliament (d. 2012)
- 1957 – Lothaire Bluteau, Canadian actor
- 1957 – Richard Jeni, American comedian and actor (d. 2007)
- 1957 – Mikhail Pletnev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1958 – Peter Capaldi, Scottish actor
- 1960 – Brad Garrett, American actor and comedian
- 1960 – Myoma Myint Kywe, Burmese historian and journalist
- 1960 – Osamu Sato, Japanese graphic artist, programmer, and composer
- 1960 – Tina Rosenberg, American journalist and author
- 1960 – Pat Symcox, South African cricketer
- 1961 – Robert Carlyle, Scottish actor and director
- 1961 – Daniel Clowes, American cartoonist and screenwriter
- 1962 – Scott Boman, American politician
- 1962 – Guillaume LeBlanc, Canadian race walker
- 1963 – Kalle Vellevoog, Estonian architect
- 1964 – Jeff Andretti, American race car driver
- 1964 – Greg Battle, American-Canadian football player
- 1964 – Gina McKee, English actress
- 1965 – Tom Dey, American director and producer
- 1965 – Alexandre Jardin, French author
- 1965 – Craig McDermott, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1965 – Kirk Windstein, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Crowbar, Down, and Kingdom of Sorrow)
- 1965 – Ümit Ünal, Turkish film director, screenwriter and author
- 1966 – André Boisclair, Canadian lawyer and politician
- 1966 – David Justice, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1966 – Greg Maddux, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1967 – Nicola Berti, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Steve Chiasson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1999)
- 1967 – Alain Côté, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1967 – Barrett Martin, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Mad Season, Screaming Trees, Skin Yard, and Tuatara)
- 1967 – Julia Zemiro, French-Australian actress, comedian, singer and writer
- 1968 – Anthony Michael Hall, American actor
- 1969 – Brad Ausmus, American baseball player and manager
- 1969 – Martyn LeNoble, Dutch-American bass player (Porno for Pyros, Jane's Addiction, and Thelonious Monster)
- 1969 – Vebjørn Selbekk, Norwegian journalist
- 1969 – Pieter Zandvliet, Dutch mixed media artist and illustrator
- 1970 – Emre Altuğ, Turkish singer-songwriter and actor
- 1970 – Steve Avery, American baseball player
- 1970 – Shizuka Kudō, Japanese singer and actress (Onyanko Club)
- 1971 – Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer and manager (d. 2012)
- 1971 – Carlos Pérez, Dominican-American baseball player
- 1971 – Gregg Zaun, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1972 – Paul Devlin, English-Scottish footballer and manager
- 1972 – Roberto Mejía, Dominican baseball player
- 1972 – Dean Potter, American rock climber and BASE jumper (d. 2015)
- 1973 – Roberto Ayala, Argentinian footballer
- 1973 – Adrien Brody, American actor
- 1973 – David Miller, American tenor and actor (Il Divo)
- 1974 – Da Brat, American rapper and actress
- 1975 – Lita, American wrestler and singer (The Luchagors)
- 1975 – Luciano Almeida, Brazilian footballer
- 1975 – Avner Dorman, Israeli-American composer and academic
- 1975 – Konstantinos Nebegleras, Greek footballer
- 1975 – Anderson Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist and boxer
- 1976 – Christian Älvestam, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Scar Symmetry, Miseration, and Solution .45)
- 1976 – Georgina Chapman, English model, actress, and fashion designer, co-founded Marchesa
- 1976 – Anna DeForge, American basketball player
- 1976 – Kyle Farnsworth, American baseball player
- 1976 – Françoise Mbango Etone, Cameroonian-French triple jumper
- 1976 – Jason Wiemer, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 – Nate Fox, American basketball player (d. 2014)
- 1977 – Martin Kaalma, Estonian footballer
- 1977 – Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress and producer
- 1977 – Rob McElhenney, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1977 – JD McPherson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1978 – Roland Lessing, Estonian biathlete
- 1979 – Iain Balshaw, English rugby player
- 1979 – Rebecca DiPietro, American wrestler and model
- 1979 – Marios Elia, Cypriot footballer
- 1979 – Ross Filipo, New Zealand rugby player
- 1979 – Noé Pamarot, French footballer
- 1979 – Patrick Somerville, American novelist and short story writer
- 1979 – Kerem Tunçeri, Turkish basketball player
- 1980 – Win Butler, American-Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Arcade Fire)
- 1980 – Jeremy Smith, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1981 – Mustafa Güngör, German rugby player
- 1981 – Amy Leach, English director and producer
- 1982 – Uğur Boral, Turkish footballer
- 1982 – Larissa França, Brazilian volleyball player
- 1983 – Simona La Mantia, Italian triple jumper
- 1983 – James McFadden, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – William Obeng, Ghanaian-American football player
- 1983 – Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Georgian basketball player
- 1984 – Blake Costanzo, American football player
- 1984 – Charles Hamelin, Canadian speed skater
- 1984 – Harumafuji Kōhei, Mongolian sumo wrestler, the 70th Yokozuna
- 1984 – Adán Sánchez, American-Mexican musician (d. 2004)
- 1984 – Tyler Thigpen, American football player
- 1985 – Grant Clitsome, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Matt Derbyshire, English footballer
- 1986 – Goran Gogić, Serbian footballer (d. 2015)
- 1986 – Anne Watanabe, Japanese model, actress, and singer
- 1987 – Michael Baze, American jockey (d. 2011)
- 1987 – Erwin Hoffer, Austrian footballer
- 1987 – Wilson Kiprop, Kenyan runner
- 1987 – Korina Perkovic, German tennis player
- 1988 – Roberto Bautista Agut, Spanish tennis player
- 1988 – Eliška Klučinová, Czech heptathlete
- 1988 – Vasileios Pliatsikas, Greek footballer
- 1988 – Brad Sinopoli, Canadian football player
- 1989 – Aleksei Olegovich Alekseyev, Russian footballer
- 1989 – Joe Haden, American football player
- 1990 – Markus Smarzoch, German footballer
- 1992 – Frederik Sørensen, Danish footballer
- 1993 – Graham Phillips, American actor and singer
- 1994 – Skyler Samuels, American actress
- 1996 – Abigail Breslin, American actress
Births[edit]
- 1132 – Mstislav I of Kiev (b. 1076)
- 1279 – Bolesław the Pious, Polish husband of Yolanda of Poland (b. 1224)
- 1322 – Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere, English soldier and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1275)
- 1345 – Richard de Bury, English bishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of The United Kingdom (b. 1287)
- 1471 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English commander and politician (b. 1428)
- 1574 – Louis of Nassau (b. 1538)
- 1578 – James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, English husband of Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1534)
- 1599 – Henry Wallop, English politician (b. 1540)
- 1662 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English politician (b. 1582)
- 1682 – Avvakum, Russian priest and saint (b. 1620)
- 1721 – Michel Chamillart, French politician, Controller-General of Finances (b. 1652)
- 1759 – George Frideric Handel, German-English organist and composer (b. 1685)
- 1785 – William Whitehead, English poet and playwright (b. 1715)
- 1792 – Maximilian Hell, Slovak-Hungarian astronomer and priest (b. 1720)
- 1843 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian violinist and composer (b. 1801)
- 1864 – Charles Lot Church, American-Canadian politician (b. 1777)
- 1910 – Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter and sculptor (b. 1856)
- 1911 – Addie Joss, American baseball player and journalist (b. 1880)
- 1911 – Henri Elzéar Taschereau, Canadian lawyer and jurist, 4th Chief Justice of Canada (b. 1836)
- 1912 – Henri Brisson, French politician, 50th Prime Minister of France (b. 1835)
- 1914 – Hubert Bland, English activist, co-founded the Fabian Society (b. 1855)
- 1917 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish physician and linguist, created Esperanto (b. 1859)
- 1925 – John Singer Sargent, Italian-American painter (b. 1856)
- 1930 – Vladimir Mayakovsky, Georgian-Russian actor, playwright, and poet (b. 1893)
- 1931 – Richard Armstedt, German philologist, historian, and educator (b. 1851)
- 1935 – Emmy Noether, German-American mathematician and academic (b. 1882)
- 1938 – Gillis Grafström, Swedish figure skater and architect (b. 1893)
- 1941 – Guillermo Kahlo, German-Mexican photographer (b. 1871)
- 1943 – Yakov Dzhugashvili, Georgian-Russian lieutenant (b. 1907)
- 1950 – Ramana Maharshi, Indian guru and philosopher (b. 1879)
- 1951 – Al Christie, Canadian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1881)
- 1962 – M. Visvesvaraya, Indian engineer and scholar (b. 1860)
- 1963 – Rahul Sankrityayan, Indian monk and historian (b. 1893)
- 1964 – Tatyana Afanasyeva, Russian-Dutch mathematician and theorist (b. 1876)
- 1964 – Rachel Carson, American biologist and author (b. 1907)
- 1965 – Richard Hickock, American murderer (b. 1933)
- 1965 – Perry Smith, American murderer (b. 1928)
- 1968 – Al Benton, American baseball player (b. 1911)
- 1969 – Matilde Muñoz Sampedro, Spanish actress (b. 1900)
- 1975 – Günter Dyhrenfurth, German-Swiss mountaineer, geologist, and explorer (b. 1886)
- 1975 – Fredric March, American actor (b. 1897)
- 1976 – José Revueltas, Mexican author and activist (b. 1914)
- 1978 – Joe Gordon, American baseball player and manager (b. 1915)
- 1978 – F. R. Leavis, English educator and critic (b. 1895)
- 1983 – Pete Farndon, English bass player (The Pretenders) (b. 1952)
- 1983 – Gianni Rodari, Italian journalist and author (b. 1920)
- 1985 – Noele Gordon, English actress (b. 1919)
- 1986 – Simone de Beauvoir, French novelist and philosopher (b. 1908)
- 1990 – Thurston Harris, American singer (b. 1931)
- 1990 – Olabisi Onabanjo, Nigerian politician, 3rd Governor of Ogun State (b. 1927)
- 1994 – Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani chemist and scholar (b. 1897)
- 1995 – Burl Ives, American actor, writer and folksinger (b. 1909)
- 1997 – Gerda Christian, German secretary (b. 1913)
- 1999 – Ellen Corby, American actress and screenwriter (b. 1911)
- 1999 – Anthony Newley, English-American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1931)
- 1999 – Bill Wendell, American television announcer (b. 1924)
- 2000 – Phil Katz, American computer programmer, co-created the zip file format (b. 1962)
- 2000 – Wilf Mannion, English footballer (b. 1918)
- 2001 – Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer (b. 1939)
- 2001 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1927)
- 2003 – Jyrki Otila, Finnish politician (b. 1941)
- 2004 – Micheline Charest, English-Canadian television producer, co-founded the Cookie Jar Group (b. 1953)
- 2005 – John Fred, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
- 2006 – Mahmut Bakalli, Kosovo politician (b. 1936)
- 2007 – June Callwood, Canadian journalist, author, and activist (b. 1924)
- 2007 – Don Ho, American singer and ukulele player (b. 1930)
- 2007 – René Rémond, French historian and economist (b. 1918)
- 2008 – Miguel Galván, Mexican actor (b. 1957)
- 2008 – Tommy Holmes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1918)
- 2008 – Ollie Johnston, American animator and voice actor (b. 1912)
- 2009 – Maurice Druon, French author (b. 1918)
- 2010 – Israr Ahmed, Pakistani theologian and scholar (b. 1932)
- 2010 – Alice Miller, Polish-French psychologist and author (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Peter Steele, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Type O Negative, Carnivore, and Fallout) (b. 1962)
- 2011 – Trevor Bannister, English actor (b. 1934)
- 2011 – Walter Breuning, American super-centenarian (b. 1896)
- 2012 – Émile Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Jonathan Frid, Canadian actor (b. 1924)
- 2012 – William Finley, American actor (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Piermario Morosini, Italian footballer (b. 1986)
- 2012 – Martin Poll, American film producer (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Efi Arazi, Israeli businessman, founded the Scailex Corporation (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Colin Davis, English conductor and educator (b. 1927)
- 2013 – R. P. Goenka, Indian businessman, founded RPG Group (b. 1930)
- 2013 – George Jackson, American singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
- 2013 – Rentarō Mikuni, Japanese actor and director (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Armando Villanueva, Peruvian politician, 121st Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1915)
- 2013 – Charlie Wilson, American politician (b. 1943)
- 2014 – Nina Cassian, Romanian poet and critic (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Karl-Heinz Euling, German SS officer (b. 1919)
- 2014 – Crad Kilodney, American-Canadian author (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Wally Olins, English businessman and academic (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Armando Peraza, Cuban-American drummer (Santana) (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Mick Staton, American soldier and politician (b. 1940)
- 2015 – Klaus Bednarz, German journalist and author (b. 1942)
- 2015 – Mark Reeds, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (b. 1960)
- 2015 – Kevin Rosier, American mixed martial artist and boxer (b. 1962)
- 2015 – Percy Sledge, American singer (b. 1940)
- 2015 – Roberto Tucci, Italian cardinal and theologian (b. 1921)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Abushibarei (Ryukyuan religion)
- Ambedkar Jayanti (India)
- Black Day (South Korea)
- Commemoration of Anfal Genocide Against the Kurds (Iraqi Kurdistan)
- Dhivehi Language Day (Maldives)
- Day of Mologa (Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia)
- Day of the Georgian language (Georgia)
- N'Ko Alphabet Day (Mande speakers)
- New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures, celebrated on the sidereal vernal equinox:
- Bohag Bihu (India's Assam Valley) (non-Gregorian, can be either the 13th or 14th)
- Cambodian New Year (Choul Chnam Thmey) (Non-Gregorian, can be either on the 13th or 14th)
- Songkran (Lao) (Laos) (Non-Gregorian, can begin on either on the 13th or 14th and end on either the 15th or 16th)
- Maithili New Year (Jude Sheetal) (Mithila region) (Non-Gregorian, generally on April 14)
- Vishu (India's Kerala state) (non-Gregorian, can be on the 13th or 14th)
- Sinhalese New Year (Aluth Avurudhu) (Sri Lanka) (generally the 14th, date may vary)
- Pohela Boishakh (Bangladesh, date is on the 15th in West Bengal, India)
- Pana Sankranti (India's Odisha state)
- Puthandu (Tamils)
- Songkran (Thailand), celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Thailand)
- Bisu (India's Karnataka state)
- Pan American Day (several countries in the Americas)
- The first day of Takayama Spring Festival (Takayama, Gifu, Japan)
- Youth Day (Angola)
Holidays and observances[edit]
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” - Romans 3:23-24
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
Myrrh may well be chosen as the type of Jesus on account of its preciousness, its perfume, its pleasantness, its healing, preserving, disinfecting qualities, and its connection with sacrifice. But why is he compared to "a bundle of myrrh"? First, for plenty. He is not a drop of it, he is a casket full. He is not a sprig or flower of it, but a whole bundle. There is enough in Christ for all my necessities; let me not be slow to avail myself of him. Our well-beloved is compared to a "bundle" again, for variety: for there is in Christ not only the one thing needful, but in "him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" everything needful is in him. Take Jesus in his different characters, and you will see a marvellous variety--Prophet, Priest, King, Husband, Friend, Shepherd. Consider him in his life, death, resurrection, ascension, second advent; view him in his virtue, gentleness, courage, self-denial, love, faithfulness, truth, righteousness--everywhere he is a bundle of preciousness. He is a "bundle of myrrh" for preservation--not loose myrrh to be dropped on the floor or trodden on, but myrrh tied up, myrrh to be stored in a casket. We must value him as our best treasure; we must prize his words and his ordinances; and we must keep our thoughts of him and knowledge of him as under lock and key, lest the devil should steal anything from us. Moreover, Jesus is a "bundle of myrrh" for speciality; the emblem suggests the idea of distinguishing, discriminating grace. From before the foundation of the world, he was set apart for his people; and he gives forth his perfume only to those who understand how to enter into communion with him, to have close dealings with him. Oh! blessed people whom the Lord hath admitted into his secrets, and for whom he sets himself apart. Oh! choice and happy who are thus made to say, "A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me."
Evening
"And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him."
Leviticus 1:4
Leviticus 1:4
Our Lord's being made "sin for us" is set forth here by the very significant transfer of sin to the bullock, which was made by the elders of the people. The laying of the hand was not a mere touch of contact, for in some other places of Scripture the original word has the meaning of leaning heavily, as in the expression, "thy wrath lieth hard upon me" (Psalm 88:7). Surely this is the very essence and nature of faith, which doth not only bring us into contact with the great Substitute, but teaches us to lean upon him with all the burden of our guilt. Jehovah made to meet upon the head of the Substitute all the offences of his covenant people, but each one of the chosen is brought personally to ratify this solemn covenant act, when by grace he is enabled by faith to lay his hand upon the head of the "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." Believer, do you remember that rapturous day when you first realized pardon through Jesus the sin-bearer? Can you not make glad confession, and join with the writer in saying, "My soul recalls her day of deliverance with delight. Laden with guilt and full of fears, I saw my Saviour as my Substitute, and I laid my hand upon him; oh! how timidly at first, but courage grew and confidence was confirmed until I leaned my soul entirely upon him; and now it is my unceasing joy to know that my sins are no longer imputed to me, but laid on him, and like the debts of the wounded traveller, Jesus, like the good Samaritan, has said of all my future sinfulness, Set that to my account.'" Blessed discovery! Eternal solace of a grateful heart!
"My numerous sins transferr'd to him,
Shall never more be found,
Lost in his blood's atoning stream,
Where every crime is drown'd!"
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Asa
[Ä€'să] - physician.
1. The third king of Judah who succeeded Abijah. He was the great-grandson of Solomon (1 Kings 15; 2 Chron. 14-16). He was an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:7, 8).
The Man Who Was Good and Right
Asa is a marvel. In spite of the fact that his father was a sinful man and his mother a heathen woman, he yet shines forth as one of Judah's most godly kings. He is praised for his religious zeal which led him to reform the worship of the people. Because of his devotion to God he deposed his idolatrous mother - an astonishing act for an oriental.
Asa's heart toward God was like David's and such was the secret of his godliness in a foul environment. He is spoken of as doing "that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord, his God." Some people are presumptuous enough to settle what is good and right in their own eyes. Asa, however, did not invent a goodness or righteousness he could adapt to his own convenience and ambition. He only wanted what was good and right in God's sight.
I. Asa prayed before battle. He did not shrink from war with the Ethiopians. Before meeting the foe he met God. "Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help."
II. Asa began upon a good foundation. It took courage and Asa "took courage, and put away the abominable idols." Our idols of fortune, fashion, popularity, self-indulgence, must be severely dealt with if we desire God's best. We can only be right with God and with one another when we are right about our little gods, and man-made idols.
III. Asa was victorious. Being right with God, Asa was honored of Him. His foes surrendered for they saw that his God was with him.
IV. Asa was impartial. The grandeur of this good king is seen in that he would not even allow his mother to keep an idol. So he ruthlessly destroyed the little royal shrine. What was wrong for the subject was also wrong for the queen. Thus horrible abominations had to be abolished. No wonder when Asa died, his people sorely missed and mourned him!
2. A Levite, son of Elkanah and head of a family of Netophathites (1 Chron. 9:16).
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Today's reading: 1 Samuel 22-24, Luke 12:1-31 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 22-24
David at Adullam and Mizpah
1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.
3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, "Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?" 4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold....
Today's New Testament reading: Luke 12:1-31
Warnings and Encouragements
1 Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
4 "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows....
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Today's Lent reading: John 5-6 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayThe Healing at the Pool
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked....
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