A few days prior to the election, I contacted a Liberal in an adjacent seat. I offered my service, mentioning that I had a plan that could improve numeracy in most high schools in Victoria. In reply I was told (verbatim) "I have a very keen interest in education policy. Im pleased to advise that over the next four years, a re-elected Turnbull Government will increase education spending in Victoria by 26 per cent. Although an increase in education spending does not always lead to better educational outcomes, it is my hope that this record funding will provide certainty for schools who help shape and educate our next generation. " My numeracy plan is free. It costs nothing. Turnbull has a plan to spend money. Not as much as the ALP, but entirely wasted.
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
Greece is still in the news. The Greek PM still seems to feel he can spend other peoples money. He is advocating a policy that will see Greece exit the EU. It is bad economic policy which got Greece into this condition. Surely it is obvious that austerity is better and there is no future for getting into further debt. It is true Greece voted for the government they have, but only after being egged on by the international press. Gay Marriage is in the news again after leaked plans to get the government to allow a vote of conscience. It is important that any legislation protects the rights of churches to act on conscience.
In 437, Emperor Valentinian III began his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ended her regency, but continued to exercise political influence at the court in Rome. 626, Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushed and killed his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident. 706, in China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an. 963, the imperial army proclaimed Nicephorus Phocas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea. 1298, the Battle of Göllheim was fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by Spain. 1504, Bogdan III the One-Eyed became Voivode of Moldavia. 1555, the Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacked the Italian city of Paola. 1561, Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, defeated a revolt in Emfraz. 1582, Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated Akechi Mitsuhide. 1613, the first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall took place. 1644, English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor. 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine. 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not approved until July 4. 1777, Vermont became the first American territory to abolish slavery.
In 1816, the French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting Raft of the Medusa. 1822, thirty-five slaves were hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organising a slave rebellion. 1823, Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia. 1839, twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué took over the slave ship Amistad. Also 1839, Abdülmecid I became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam. 1853, the Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War. 1871, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy entered Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States. 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually died from an infection on September 19. 1890, the U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. 1897, Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi obtained a patent for radio in London.
In 1900, the first Zeppelin flight took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany. Also 1900, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia received its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. 1917, the East St. Louis Riot ended. 1921, World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany. 1934, the Night of the Long Knives ended with the death of Ernst Röhm. 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
In 1940, Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose was arrested and detained in Calcutta. 1950, the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burned down. 1962, the first Wal-Mart store opened for business in Rogers, Arkansas. 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. 1966, the French military exploded a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific. 1976, fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declared their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In 1986, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. 2000, Vicente Fox Quesada was elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. 2001, the AbioCor self-contained artificial heart was first implanted. 2002, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. 2005, the Live 8 benefit concerts took place in the G8 states and in South Africa, More than 1,000 musicians performed and were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. 2013, the International Astronomical Union named Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
From 2014
Rolf Harris should be ashamed of himself. Having read some of his writings, I gather he is and has been. He is convicted of sexual exploitation of minors. The victims are gearing up for a lawsuit. There is no defence for what Harris has done, although he has claimed the sex contact was when the girls were legal and he has denied the pawing. Even accepting what he admits, he is compromised, but he admits no crime. Some have raised the issue of appreciating his art, but his art is not at issue, save his comedy .. and the comedy gets close to the bone. That is what comedy does. Comedians cross boundaries to be funny, and Rolf's stand up can be confronting. Does that mean it isn't funny? Were it exploitation of his victims on stage ala Saville then it is calculated evil. But I don't see it being like that. Harris denies being as Michael Jackson was accused and admitted. Were Harris to have had porn, child slumber parties and jesus juice he would have been slam dunked. Harris has not been accused of what Roman Polanski fled. Yet the ABC reporting his conviction denounced exactly that. The trial of Harris is not going to relax Julian Assange cringing in his ambassadorial suite.
One good match does not make a career. Nick Kyrgios played well against Nadal on grass, a surface which suited one over the other, but another grass encounter could go another way. Kudos to Kyrgios, and good luck for the next match. Defeating a world number one from a player ranked beneath the top 100 has not happened in a grand slam since the mid '70s. It highlights the high skill set of tennis today. Nick won a match well, but tennis is the winner.
Nostradamus died on this day in 1566 .. he didn't see it coming. England lost her Bobby in 1850, and the world lost James Stewart in '97. But nothing worthwhile, nothing loved is ever entirely lost. I thank Mr Peeler for the gift he gave us of civilisation. And Mr Stewart in his character in a Wonderful Life made it wonderful.
On this day in 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine. In 1839, a slave rebellion occurred on board Amistaad. 1897, Marconi patented the radio. It is a big day, and punctuated with a long knife taking Ernst Rohm's worthless life in 1934. Blood was pouring, and it would not stop for another eleven years.
One good match does not make a career. Nick Kyrgios played well against Nadal on grass, a surface which suited one over the other, but another grass encounter could go another way. Kudos to Kyrgios, and good luck for the next match. Defeating a world number one from a player ranked beneath the top 100 has not happened in a grand slam since the mid '70s. It highlights the high skill set of tennis today. Nick won a match well, but tennis is the winner.
Nostradamus died on this day in 1566 .. he didn't see it coming. England lost her Bobby in 1850, and the world lost James Stewart in '97. But nothing worthwhile, nothing loved is ever entirely lost. I thank Mr Peeler for the gift he gave us of civilisation. And Mr Stewart in his character in a Wonderful Life made it wonderful.
On this day in 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine. In 1839, a slave rebellion occurred on board Amistaad. 1897, Marconi patented the radio. It is a big day, and punctuated with a long knife taking Ernst Rohm's worthless life in 1934. Blood was pouring, and it would not stop for another eleven years.
Historical perspective on this day
In 437, Emperor Valentinian III began his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ended her regency, but continued to exercise political influence at the court in Rome. 626, Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushed and killed his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident. 706, in China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an. 963, the imperial army proclaimed Nicephorus PhocasEmperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea. 1298, the Battle of Göllheim was fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by Spain. 1504, Bogdan III the One-Eyedbecame Voivode of Moldavia. 1555, the Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacked the Italian city of Paola. 1561, Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, defeated a revolt in Emfraz. 1582, Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated Akechi Mitsuhide. 1613, the first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall took place. 1644, English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor. 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine. 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britainalthough the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not approved until July 4. 1777, Vermont became the first American territory to abolish slavery.
In 1816, the French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting Raft of the Medusa. 1822, thirty-five slaves were hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organising a slave rebellion. 1823, Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia. 1839, twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué took over the slave ship Amistad. Also 1839, Abdülmecid I became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam. 1853, the Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War. 1871, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy entered Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States. 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually died from an infection on September 19. 1890, the U.S. Congresspassed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. 1897, Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi obtained a patent for radio in London.
In 1900, the first Zeppelin flight took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany. Also 1900, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia received its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. 1917, the East St. Louis Riotended. 1921, World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany. 1934, the Night of the Long Knives ended with the death of Ernst Röhm. 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
In 1940, Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose was arrested and detained in Calcutta. 1950, the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burned down. 1962, the first Wal-Mart store opened for business in Rogers, Arkansas. 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. 1966, the French military exploded a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific. 1976, fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declared their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In 1986, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. 2000, Vicente Fox Quesada was elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. 2001, the AbioCor self-contained artificial heart was first implanted. 2002, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. 2005, the Live 8 benefit concerts took place in the G8 states and in South Africa, More than 1,000 musicians performed and were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. 2013, the International Astronomical Union named Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by Spain. 1504, Bogdan III the One-Eyedbecame Voivode of Moldavia. 1555, the Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacked the Italian city of Paola. 1561, Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, defeated a revolt in Emfraz. 1582, Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated Akechi Mitsuhide. 1613, the first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall took place. 1644, English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor. 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine. 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britainalthough the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not approved until July 4. 1777, Vermont became the first American territory to abolish slavery.
In 1816, the French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting Raft of the Medusa. 1822, thirty-five slaves were hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organising a slave rebellion. 1823, Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia. 1839, twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué took over the slave ship Amistad. Also 1839, Abdülmecid I became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam. 1853, the Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War. 1871, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy entered Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States. 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually died from an infection on September 19. 1890, the U.S. Congresspassed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. 1897, Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi obtained a patent for radio in London.
In 1900, the first Zeppelin flight took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany. Also 1900, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia received its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. 1917, the East St. Louis Riotended. 1921, World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany. 1934, the Night of the Long Knives ended with the death of Ernst Röhm. 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
In 1940, Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose was arrested and detained in Calcutta. 1950, the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burned down. 1962, the first Wal-Mart store opened for business in Rogers, Arkansas. 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. 1966, the French military exploded a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific. 1976, fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declared their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In 1986, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. 2000, Vicente Fox Quesada was elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. 2001, the AbioCor self-contained artificial heart was first implanted. 2002, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. 2005, the Live 8 benefit concerts took place in the G8 states and in South Africa, More than 1,000 musicians performed and were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. 2013, the International Astronomical Union named Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
=== 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 you have installed it start it up and press Live TV you don't need a login to watch Sky News!
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
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
Happy birthday Jacquie Paix, Thomas Cranmer (1489) and Vicente Fox (1942). Born on the same day, across the years. In 706, In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the final bodies in the Qianling Mausoleum, which remained unopened until the 1960s. In 1890, The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first United States government action to limit monopolies. In 1917, White residents of East St. Louis, Illinois, burned entire sections of the city and shot black inhabitants as they escaped the flames. In 1950, A mentally ill Buddhist monk set fire to the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji, destroying what is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Japan. In 1976, More than a year after the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam officially united under communist rule to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Your gift is buried in the present for the future. You don't seek to monopolise. Outraged at bigotry, you take action. You fix mistakes. And at the end, you unite. Thank you.
Deaths
Please walk through the gate, don't stand in it. Paint everything that gets wet. Call and we'll come for you. How do Walmart stores multiply? Asian Financial Crisis was tough. Let's party.
|
ELECTION 2016 – THE COUNTENING
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 02, 2016 (6:58pm)
Voting has stopped in the eastern states, with a Galaxy exit poll of 25 marginal seats showing the election is extremely close, with a slight edge for the Coalition:
The poll shows there’s a swing to Labor of 3.4 per cent, which would give them 68 seats – short of the 76 needed to form a majority government. Across the marginals, the Coalition is polling around 43 per cent, Labor 36 per cent, with the Greens on nine per cent.
The first numbers should begin appearing at the AEC’s site in about 20 minutes.
UPDATE II. Delcon power:
The swing against Liberal Peter Hendy in early counting in Eden Monaro has been linked to his plotting against Tony Abbott.“The Abbott forces have been on strike ever since,” Anthony Albanese told Channel 9.
UPDATE III. An early oscillation from PVO:
Right now i would rather be Bill Shorten than Malcolm Turnbull.
UPDATE IV. The Daily Telegraph‘s “Save Our Albo” campaign appears to have worked:
UPDATE V. Excellent news:
UPDATE V. Excellent news:
Things are looking ugly for Tony Windsor in New England, although we want to wait a little longer before calling the seat for Barnaby Joyce. Rob Oakeshott is second on primary votes in Cowper, but we don’t have a two-candidate-preferred count between him and Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker. At the moment Hartsuyker’s primary vote looks pretty healthy.
UPDATE VI. Seven’s tally has Labor winning 51 seats to the Coalition’s 48.
UPDATE VII. Make of this what you will, but former Julia Gillard advisor John McTernan believes Labor can win. Andrew Bolt’s call: “The Liberals are on the way to losing at least 10 seats. This is looking bad for Turnbull. He will win but with little authority.”
UPDATE VIII. Fight on the right! Certain tensions are becoming evident.
UPDATE IX. Labor now holds a narrow lead in the two-party count:
UPDATE X. Sky’s Kieran Gilbert quotes a veteran ALP staffer: “If it wasn’t for Daniel Andrews and his boneheaded CFA dispute Shorten may have won.”
UPDATE X. Sky’s Kieran Gilbert quotes a veteran ALP staffer: “If it wasn’t for Daniel Andrews and his boneheaded CFA dispute Shorten may have won.”
ELECTION 2016
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 02, 2016 (2:29am)
Welcome to election day 2016, when lucky Australians will choose between sending their children to Syria on exchange student programs or slopping out medical waste troughs behind the local dementia facility with their tongues. Foreign types observing this election are reminded that, according to strict constitutional regulations, our party names indicate reality’s precise opposite. Thus the Liberal Party is (allegedly) conservative, no senior Labor Party figures have ever worked as labourers, Greens voters live almost exclusively in dense inner-city areas and thesepeople represent the Sex Party.
We once had a rural-based Country Party, but the name had to be changed because it was accurate. Anyway, here’s the latest Sportsbet election prediction:
Coalition: 79
Labor: 66
Greens: 1 (Adam Bandt – Melbourne)
NXT: 1 (Rebekha Sharkie – Mayo)
Other: 3 (Bob Katter – Kennedy, Cathy McGowan – Indi, Andrew Wilkie – Denison)
Final polls predict a similar winning margin for the Liberal/National Coalition:
A Galaxy poll taken exclusively for the Herald Sun shows Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition leading Labor 51-49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. This represents a swing of 2.5 per cent towards Labor, short of the 4 per cent swing needed for Labor to take government.
(UPDATE. An election-eve Newspoll brings the margin closer: “The Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Weekend Australian, puts the Coalition ahead by 50.5 per cent to Labor’s 49.5 per cent in two-party terms.") The result might be closer still. Just a hunch. If Labor does lose, as most expect, this line may attract some attention during post-election Labor leadership considerations:
Another senior Right MP said there were “swings to Labor everywhere’’ and claimed “Albo’s people are doing their best to reduce the number of seats Bill can win”.
Interesting. Let the madness begin!
ETERNAL TAX-FUNDED STUPIDITY
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 02, 2016 (2:09am)
“Ignorant, fear-inflamed stupidity will always exist,” writes weekly ABC columnist Michael Bradley. It certainly will, mostly at the ABC:
The 52 per cent of Britons who cared enough to vote have expressed their desire to reverse their country’s course.
The turnout for the Brexit referendum was 72 per cent.
You will search history in vain for a precedent where a major nation-state decided to execute a 180 degree turn, to its ultimate betterment.
The US abandoned slavery. Japan rebuilt democracy. Germany quit that whole Nazi thing. Australia reversed its deadly asylum seeker policies. Readers are invited to contribute further examples of 180-degree national improvements.
(Via J.F. Beck.)
AKTOBERFEST
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 02, 2016 (1:40am)
Thanks to Germany’s recently-arrived Middle Eastern diversity bloc, Oktoberfest is suddenly a great deal more expensive:
After terror attacks in Paris, Brussels and most recently Istanbul, Munich could spend nearly €3 million more on security and other measures …… but terrorism isn’t the only concern: the biggest fear is overcrowding.
You know, a few of those newcomers might have a solution for that. Let’s hope they don’t.
NO OTHER SPACE WAS AVAILABLE
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 02, 2016 (1:32am)
The next time you hear the ABC crying poor, remember that the billion-dollar broadcaster built a brand new mega election studio just for tonight:
[The election coverage], anchored by 7.30 host Leigh Sales and Political Editor Chris Uhlmann, will be broadcast from an ‘Election Centre’ built in the cavernous foyer of the ABC’s Sydney headquarters …
“The idea behind the setting is to use the architecture of the building as much as possible, so that the ABC Election Centre (as it will be known on the night) will be seen by our audience as the epicentre of something grand – which all elections are.“Results graphics will hang off walls and balconies, float in mid-air and grow out of the floor. It’ll be a visual feast.”
Please. An election is just names, places and numbers. Any kid with an iPhone and a whiteboard could probably knock together some reasonably useful coverage, although we might miss a few results growing “out of the floor”. This is the worst waste of public funds by the ABC since it presented Ben and Sarah’s 200 kilograms of total agreement.
JAIL FOR JIHOPPIST
Tim Blair – Saturday, July 02, 2016 (12:06am)
Marsupial Mohammedan skips trial, goes straight to sentencing:
A Melbourne teenager accused of plotting to behead a police officer on Anzac Day faces life in prison after pleading guilty to planning a terrorist act.Sevdet Ramadan Besim, 19, entered the last-minute plea on Thursday before his trial, which had been due to start in the Victorian Supreme Court next month.
That’ll be one life sentence, please.
In a prosecution summary tendered to court, Besim and a “person overseas” are shown to have discussed packing a kangaroo with explosives and letting it loose on police.
POWERFUL MESSAGE
Tim Blair – Friday, July 01, 2016 (9:19pm)
Emma Powerful, the superbly-named director of media for independence group Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, hails Brexit as a sign from God:
“The Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastics that there is time for everything,” he said. “It was the time for Britons to decide that they are no longer interest in in the EU. The referendum is timely and it bears witness to the fact that people have the right to decide the entity they want belong to and that is the essence of our own agitation for freedom from the entity called Nigeria.”Powerful added that Biafrexit is overwhelmingly acceptable to the people and nobody can use force to stop it, adding that the earlier the referendum for Biafrans the better because it will bring the incessant clashes between the agitators and security forces to an end.
The spirit of Leave is catching on all over the place.
Malcolm Turnbull - you are finished
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (10:07pm)
Malcolm,
You assassinated a Liberal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, who’d won an election by a huge margin.
You promised to do even better than him.
You then treated the Liberal base like dirt, smashing it with a huge super tax, refusing to speak to conservative journalists, repeatedly humiliating Abbott.
You referred to the colonial settlement of Australia as an “invasion” and even held an end-of-Ramadan meal with known Muslim bigots.
You called an early double dissolution election on the excuse of needing new laws to tackle rogue unions with a building and construction commission, but with the true aim of getting rid of crossbench oppositionists in the Senate.
You went to the election with basically only one policy to sell - a pathetic 10-year promise to cut company tax.
And now look. Almost everything turned to ruin.
You have lost so many seats that you could even be forced into minority government, if pre-polling and Western Australia go against you.
You have, if anything, lost ground in the Senate, which will block most of your plans.
You will be unable to get the numbers to get your building and construction commission through in any joint sitting of parliament.
You have asked for no mandate for real reform, and will have almost no power to undertake any.
Your popularity, already plummeting, will fall further.
There is no way you can seriously claim that this result is better than anything Abbott could have achieved.
Abbott picked up seven seats at the 2010 election and another 15 in the 2013 election. You have lost between 10 and 15 seats and dumped key Liberal values in doing so.
You have been a disaster. You betrayed Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour.
Resign.
===You assassinated a Liberal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, who’d won an election by a huge margin.
You promised to do even better than him.
You then treated the Liberal base like dirt, smashing it with a huge super tax, refusing to speak to conservative journalists, repeatedly humiliating Abbott.
You referred to the colonial settlement of Australia as an “invasion” and even held an end-of-Ramadan meal with known Muslim bigots.
You called an early double dissolution election on the excuse of needing new laws to tackle rogue unions with a building and construction commission, but with the true aim of getting rid of crossbench oppositionists in the Senate.
You went to the election with basically only one policy to sell - a pathetic 10-year promise to cut company tax.
And now look. Almost everything turned to ruin.
You have lost so many seats that you could even be forced into minority government, if pre-polling and Western Australia go against you.
You have, if anything, lost ground in the Senate, which will block most of your plans.
You will be unable to get the numbers to get your building and construction commission through in any joint sitting of parliament.
You have asked for no mandate for real reform, and will have almost no power to undertake any.
Your popularity, already plummeting, will fall further.
There is no way you can seriously claim that this result is better than anything Abbott could have achieved.
Abbott picked up seven seats at the 2010 election and another 15 in the 2013 election. You have lost between 10 and 15 seats and dumped key Liberal values in doing so.
You have been a disaster. You betrayed Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour.
Resign.
Liberals will win - but not by enough. UPDATE: Hung parliament possible
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (8:29pm)
Tony Abbott holds Warringah with virtually no change in his vote.
Barnaby Joyce smashes Tony Windsor - 57.5% to 42.5% with 16 per cent counted.
Coup plotter Peter Hendy looks out.
Nick Xenophon’s party seems to have picked up Mayo, held by Jamie Briggs.
The Liberals have sandbagged their marginals pretty well. Labor won’t win a single extra seat in Victoria (think CFA), but is cleaning up in Tasmania. Not doing enough in Queensland.
The national swing to Labor is just over 2 per cent with 14% of the vote counted, which is not much more than half what it needed.
UPDATE
The Liberals’ vote falls, but Labor gets little of it. The move is towards none of the above - and not Clive Palmer either:
UPDATE
The Liberals are on the way to losing at least 10 seats. This is looking bad for Turnbull. He will win but with little authority.
UPDATE
The Coalition could be forced into minority government, depending on the WA results.
UPDATE
Hanson reckons she could win two Senate seats.
===Barnaby Joyce smashes Tony Windsor - 57.5% to 42.5% with 16 per cent counted.
Coup plotter Peter Hendy looks out.
Nick Xenophon’s party seems to have picked up Mayo, held by Jamie Briggs.
The Liberals have sandbagged their marginals pretty well. Labor won’t win a single extra seat in Victoria (think CFA), but is cleaning up in Tasmania. Not doing enough in Queensland.
The national swing to Labor is just over 2 per cent with 14% of the vote counted, which is not much more than half what it needed.
UPDATE
The Liberals’ vote falls, but Labor gets little of it. The move is towards none of the above - and not Clive Palmer either:
Note that the South Australian vote is very early, so the Xenophon vote will climb.
UPDATE
The Liberals are on the way to losing at least 10 seats. This is looking bad for Turnbull. He will win but with little authority.
UPDATE
The Coalition could be forced into minority government, depending on the WA results.
UPDATE
Hanson reckons she could win two Senate seats.
Galaxy - Labor very close to forcing the Liberals to rely on minor parties
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (7:39pm)
Ominous for the Liberals, once you add independents and Nick Xenophon’s candidates to the mix:
===A Galaxy Research exit poll of 25 marginals seats, conducted for the Nine Network, shows the election is too close to call.
The poll shows there’s a swing to Labor of 3.4 per cent, which would give them 68 seats - short of the 76 needed to form a majority government.
Across the marginals, the coalition is polling around 43 per cent, Labor 36 per cents, with the Greens on nine per cent.
Islamic State attacks restaurant in Bangladesh popular with foreigners
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (1:28pm)
Remember the deniers who kept telling us the Islamic State was weak, even after it slaughtered 130 people in Paris last year?:
And now:
===Since then there have been so many more mass murders by the Islamic State’s supporters, including the butchery at Brussels, Orlando and, this week, Istanbul.
And now:
Bangladesh security forces were preparing to free around 20 hostages, including several foreigners, from a restaurant in an upmarket area of the capital Dhaka early on Saturday, after gunmen stormed the building killing at least two policemen…UPDATE
Police said eight to nine gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan restaurant in the Gulshan district of Dhaka that is popular with expatriates…
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack and said 24 people had died. Bangladesh police denied that assertion, saying that two police officers had been killed and at least 15 people wounded.
Isil has posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault on the cafe.
The tests Malcolm Turnbull risks failing - and the promise he cannot keep
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (12:51pm)
The test for Malcolm Turnbull:
The first bit is easy, and supported by Labor - an immediate tax cut to small businesses with a turnover of $10 million a year.
After that it gets tricky, although still possible - a tax cut for bigger businesses with a $25 million turnover on July 1, 2017, and then for business with a $50 million turnover in 2018-19, in what will be the year before the next election.
That would leave the Liberals going to the next election campaigning not for tax cuts to smaller businesses, such those (presumably) will already have been delivered. No, they would instead be asking voters to back tax cuts - and the most expensive of the tax cuts - for big businesses. First, a tax cut for businesses turning over at least $100 million in 2019-20, and then a tax cut for for everyone else, including the giants such as BHP Billiton.
You really think the Liberals could win an election fought on tax cuts for big business alone? I predict those tax cuts will never happen as the Liberals have promised, and not least because the Budget would have blown out by then as well.
The business groups who went along with this fakery deserve what’s coming. A pity that the rest of us do not.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===- will he really have lost fewer seats than would have been lost by Tony Abbott, a better campaigner? You’d think a loss of 10 seats would be humiliating.Dennis Shanahan:
- will he have improved his hand in the Senate? If there’s again 18 Senators or thereabouts on the crossbenches, he’d have achieved nothing. Or can he stitch some kind of deal with Nick Xenophon, David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day, presuming they win?
- will he have a mandate for change? That bit, sadly, we know already.
In simple terms the Coalition can afford to lose about 14 seats and still retain government in its own right with 76 MPs while Labor has to win about 20 seats. However, the real argument is going to be about what number of Coalition losses is considered enough for Turnbull and Shorten to thrive and survive respectively…Paul Kelly:
(M)ost calculations suggest the Coalition will have a minimum of 32 senators, Labor about 27, the Greens nine or 10 and the remainder made up of Nick Xenophon Team senators and some re-elected independents such as Jacqui Lambie and Bob Day.
The simple mathematics that governs politics and legislation mean Turnbull, with 32 Coalition senators, must win at least 82 lower house seats to ensure passage of the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill through a joint sitting of 226 MPs.
So, if Turnbull has a net loss of eight seats or more he can retain government but not pass the legislation he called a double-dissolution election to implement. Such a result would not just be a Coalition retreat into a single-digit majority but also a humiliation for Turnbull because his strategy would have been for no gain.
This is especially the case if the Senate remains intractable because it has as many independents and Greens as the obstructionist Senate that sidelined the Coalition’s budget measures for so long.
Turnbull would suffer a loss of authority and there would be speculation about Liberal leadership once more.
There are two sorts of Turnbull victories on offer — a comfortable victory albeit losing a few seats that establishes Turnbull’s authority in his own right as Prime Minister — and a tight win that leaves him a weakened PM, encourages his opponents and re-ignites internal Liberal divisions…Also not yet much understood is the trap Turnbull has set for himself at the next election with his 10 year tax plan.
The great risk Turnbull faces in victory is that his double dissolution election tactic unravels with an expanded Senate crossbench including some misfits that treat his victory and mandate with contempt, rejecting his industrial bills and even obstructing the corporate tax cut platform that was the centrepiece of his election. Such aggression by the new Senate would guarantee political warfare at the start of the new parliament…
Any Turnbull failure post-election to carry his industrial bills either through the Senate or at a joint sitting would be an unprecedented humiliation for a Prime Minister. It means Turnbull’s new term would begin with the defeat, again, of his bills to secure peace in the construction industry…
The second early and vital test would be the fate of the government’s personal income tax and business tax cuts bills. Given they constitute the heart of Turnbull’s mandate any Senate tampering with this agenda would accentuate this conflict even though Turnbull and Morrison will not replicate the spending cuts sought by Tony Abbott in his first budget…
Another risk for Turnbull lies in the promised same-sex marriage plebiscite. The onus here, once again, will fall on Labor, the Greens and the Senate crossbenchers. The critical decision is whether they authorise the bill to hold the plebiscite…
If ... the Senate ... rejects the plebiscite bill then the politics of same-sex marriage will be inflamed. The Coalition conservatives have made their position clear: without a plebiscite there will be no parliamentary vote. Since Turnbull would have a mandate for the plebiscite and the Coalition party room would almost certainly affirm its existing position of “no parliamentary vote without a plebiscite” an entirely unnecessary and bitter deadlock might follow… However a re-elected Turnbull, caught in this trap, would be blamed and come under immense political attack from the same-sex lobby and much of the media with damaging consequences.
The first bit is easy, and supported by Labor - an immediate tax cut to small businesses with a turnover of $10 million a year.
After that it gets tricky, although still possible - a tax cut for bigger businesses with a $25 million turnover on July 1, 2017, and then for business with a $50 million turnover in 2018-19, in what will be the year before the next election.
That would leave the Liberals going to the next election campaigning not for tax cuts to smaller businesses, such those (presumably) will already have been delivered. No, they would instead be asking voters to back tax cuts - and the most expensive of the tax cuts - for big businesses. First, a tax cut for businesses turning over at least $100 million in 2019-20, and then a tax cut for for everyone else, including the giants such as BHP Billiton.
You really think the Liberals could win an election fought on tax cuts for big business alone? I predict those tax cuts will never happen as the Liberals have promised, and not least because the Budget would have blown out by then as well.
The business groups who went along with this fakery deserve what’s coming. A pity that the rest of us do not.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Austria’s Freedom Party gets second chance after court overturns election
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (12:45pm)
Austria’s anti-immigration Freedom Party is granted a second election - and a second chance of winning the Presidency:
===The far-right Freedom Party narrowly lost the tight presidential race in May . But judges on Friday overturned the result and paved the way for a fresh poll which could see the party’s candidate Norbert Hofer triumph.(Thanks to reader PJ.)
If elected, he will become the first far-right head of state of an EU country…
Mr Hofer was defeated by the former leader of the Greens, Alexander Van der Bellen, by just 30,863 votes - less than one per cent…
In two weeks of hearings, lawyers for the Freedom Party argued that postal ballots were illegally handled in 94 out of 117 districts.
Thousands of votes were opened earlier than permitted under election rules and some were counted by people who were unauthorised, the legal team claimed. The party also said it had evidence that some under-16s and foreigners had been allowed to vote.
In its ruling, the court said election rules had been broken in a way which could have influenced the result.
Now a Brisbane launch, too - August 5
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (12:09pm)
We will now also have a Brisbane launch for my new book - August 5. The
IPA will announce further details soon, and I will post them here. All
attendees will get the Bolt Bulletin free upon application, and, of
course, there will be a book signing.
We are also considering requests for a Perth launch, also likely in August if I can coordinate it with other requests to go speak there.
I will soon send a second Bolt Bulletin - a post-election edition - to readers who bought my book online. It will include tips, a list of Coalition Ministers who were banned from my show, and some lovely reading pleasure from a long-serving Prime Minister whose reputation was so trashed that he’s almost (and unfairly) forgotten. I will also compare Leigh Sales’ hate mail to my own and ask what the hell she’s complaining about. Toughen up.
The IPA tells me the other launches it is organising will sell out. Book while there are still seats:
Book here for the Adelaide launch at Senator Cory Bernardi’s Conservative Leadership Foundation on July 29.We are also considering requests for a Perth launch, also likely in August if I can coordinate it with other requests to go speak there.
I will soon send a second Bolt Bulletin - a post-election edition - to readers who bought my book online. It will include tips, a list of Coalition Ministers who were banned from my show, and some lovely reading pleasure from a long-serving Prime Minister whose reputation was so trashed that he’s almost (and unfairly) forgotten. I will also compare Leigh Sales’ hate mail to my own and ask what the hell she’s complaining about. Toughen up.
The IPA tells me the other launches it is organising will sell out. Book while there are still seats:
Book here for the Sydney launch of my new book on July 15, with friends Rowan Dean, editor of the Spectator Australia, and IPA boss John Roskam chatting with me on stage.
Book here for the Melbourne launch on July 22, again with Rowan, John and me.
===
Were the Brexit panic merchants liars or fools?
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (10:10am)
Reader Fiona:
===The sky is falling in! The world is coming to a catastrophic end....!
Whoops, rewind the tape:
Brexit BOOM: FTSE 100 leaps to HIGHEST level since 2015 just a week after EU referendum
Richo returns
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (10:02am)
Bloody good news that he is back:
===POLITICAL heavyweight Graham “Richo” Richardson has revealed how his nearly lost his life in the aftermath of a marathon hospital operation.I will also resume our chats on Ben Fordham’s show on 2GB on Monday.
And “Mr Election” also told The Saturday Telegraph he planned to make a shock return to his TV political commentary role tonight on Sky News.
Richardson lost four organs in the operation three months ago, but said things really came to a head a month later in the Intensive Care Unit at Sydney’s RPA…
What kept him going was the dedicated presence of his wife Amanda, his son D’Arcy, 8, and a close-knit group of about 10 friends who took it in turns to give Amanda a break…
Now preparations are well underway for Richo to be a special guest on Sky’s blanket coverage of the federal election… Medics have cleared the media personality to do “an hour or two” of TV work in election coverage. Subject to RPA’s final approval, he will appear on Sky after 7.30pm.
Every which way
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (9:55am)
We commentators are paid danger money to predict election results.
Mark Kenny of the Sydney Morning Herald squibs it:
===Mark Kenny of the Sydney Morning Herald squibs it:
… a looming dead heat that has lifted the potential for Saturday’s election to deliver either a shock Labor win, a narrow Coalition victory, or a hung parliament with no side commanding a majority in the house.Victoria is not the reddest state of Australia for no reason:
Almost every metropolitan masthead has backed the Coalition to win the federal election on Saturday … Only Fairfax Media’s The Sunday Age and Guardian Australia did not endorse the Coalition. The Sunday Age endorsed Labor while Guardian Australia did not endorse a party.This survey overlooks the editorial stand of the ABC in Victoria. Which way do you think Jon Faine, Rafael Epstein and the rest vote?
The Turnbull factor saves him, but not us
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (9:16am)
Credit Malcolm Turnbull with one thing in this campaign - his projection
of optimism. I believe it has been critical in saving the election, and
I suspect he’s borrowed it in part from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the
Democrat, rather than Ronald Reagan, the Republican.
It’s also a quality he’s urged on others for many years:
Turnbull has spread optimism by pretending there is no problem in slapping another $84 billion on the national credit card over the next four years. He’s also pretended that the preaching of Sheik Shady Alsuleiman against gays, adulterers and Jews is just one lone man’s views rather than the authentic expression of the views of Australian Islam.
Roosevelt, on the other hand, never pretended Hitler wasn’t a threat that the US should confront. In fact, he went against the strongly popular view that the US not send troops, and even then some believe he did not do enough early enough to stop monstrous evil.
UPDATE
Turnbull will lose seats, perhaps lose even more power in the Senate and win with virtually no mandate for change. But win he will after Labor’s campaign ran out of petrol a week too soon:
Terry McCrann on the grim truth that all that smiling and waving will not wave away:
On the other hand:
Phillip Hudson:
===It’s also a quality he’s urged on others for many years:
At the Thursday party meeting [in 2007 to decide the Liberal leadership], Turnbull lost narrowly [to Brendan Nelson], by 42 to 45....Peter Hartcher, in the well-briefed Turnbull camp, announced the strategy last year:
Turnbull pledged his loyalty to Nelson but gave him absolutely none: he simply refused to accept the decision of the party room, and the undermining began immediately.
Just after Nelson gave his acceptance speech, he was in his office with federal director Brian Loughnane, Julie Bishop’s chief of staff Murray Hansen and a couple of his own staff, discussing the press conference they were about to have. Suddenly the door was flung open, with force, and in stormed Turnbull, yelling at Nelson and poking his finger at him, almost right into his chest.
One person who was there recalls Turnbull calling Nelson a wimp, telling him his address was funereal, he should man up, lead the party to win the next election and on and on.
If Tony Abbott’s prime ministership put a pall of unease and fear over Australia, Malcolm Turnbull has devoted his to blowing that pall away.True, selling optimism is indeed great, but not when it’s done by pretending serious problems do not exist, and by encouraging people to ignore what they should fix.
Turnbull’s optimism, exuberant and well-rehearsed, is a very deliberate antidote to Abbott’s fear-mongering and foreboding.
Much of Abbott’s political success grew from his skill in spreading and exploiting fear; fear of Labor’s carbon tax, fear of asylum seekers, fear of terrorism, fear of Muslims.
Useful for an opposition leader building a thunderhead against an incumbent, Abbott’s brand of fear became a constricting, shrivelling force for a prime minister.
Turnbull has spread optimism by pretending there is no problem in slapping another $84 billion on the national credit card over the next four years. He’s also pretended that the preaching of Sheik Shady Alsuleiman against gays, adulterers and Jews is just one lone man’s views rather than the authentic expression of the views of Australian Islam.
Roosevelt, on the other hand, never pretended Hitler wasn’t a threat that the US should confront. In fact, he went against the strongly popular view that the US not send troops, and even then some believe he did not do enough early enough to stop monstrous evil.
UPDATE
Turnbull will lose seats, perhaps lose even more power in the Senate and win with virtually no mandate for change. But win he will after Labor’s campaign ran out of petrol a week too soon:
A Galaxy poll taken exclusively for the Herald Sun shows Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition leading Labor 51-49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. This represents a swing of 2.5 per cent towards Labor, short of the 4 per cent swing needed for Labor to take government.But the Senate will be a nightmare:
Celebrity independents and a hostile crossbench are poised to stymie Malcolm Turnbull’s key election promises to cut company tax and restore the building industry watchdog if he wins today’s election, thwarting the Prime Minister’s intention of the double- dissolution election.... [B]etting markets and experts were predicting the new crossbench could have as many as 18 senators — the same as in the dissolved 44th parliament — which would include a new block of up to five candidates from the Nick Xenophon Team.UPDATE
Of the 13 independents who could secure a place on the Senate crossbench, just three told The Weekend Australian that they supported the Coalition’s 10-year corporate tax plan and re-establishment of the ABCC.
Contenders such as Derryn Hinch in Victoria and Pauline Hanson in Queensland are seen as probable new independent senators, likely to join a re-elected Jacqui Lambie and Senator Xenophon in parliament.
Terry McCrann on the grim truth that all that smiling and waving will not wave away:
The single biggest thing that the election — and especially its utterly inappropriate timing — has done is to deliver a bipartisan commitment to never-ending, large budget deficits.UPDATE
It’s not so much the case that it doesn’t matter who you vote for — a politician will win — but that the deficit will be bigger. The difference between the two sides on this subject is trivial, both at the headline and granular levels.
The federal government says there will be $85 billion of deficits over the next four years under it; the opposition says there will be $101bn under it.
Taking all their figures at face, for want of a better word, value, that’s a $4bn-a-year difference in a $500bn-a-year budget in a near $2 trillion-a-year economy.
As I say, trivial.
On the other hand:
Phillip Hudson:
Labor sources last night confirmed ALP tracking polling showed a late surge back to the opposition of about 4 per cent, giving some Labor sources hope that they might be able to produce a hung parliament.And:
Not only have a record number of people voted early, they’re also backing independents and minor parties to an extent not seen since 1934.If it proves true today that more than one in five voters reject the major parties, it is a repudiation of both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
The Prime Minister called the election, in part, to clean out the [Senate] crossbench...It cannot be said that voters do not know the consequences of their actions after the intense focus on the hodge-podge of senators in the last parliament ... But with the election-eve Newspoll showing that 23 per cent of voters plan to choose the Greens, independents or micro-parties such as the Nick Xenophon Team in the upper house, it reveals voters were not inspired by the major parties
May be OK. Or may be too much Turnbull and Merkel. UPDATE: The latter
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (8:47am)
Catallaxy’s Steve Kates
finds seeming consolation for the withdrawal of Boris Johnson from the
contest to replace David Cameron as Britain’s Prime Minister:
Moreover, I don’t quite share the contemporary disdain for the concept of “ideological” - a word usually applied dismissively of principled conservatives rather than Leftist ideologues and “social justice” warriors:
As the minister at the top of the Home Office, however — the ministry that oversees policing, immigration and national security — [May] has won praise from Euroskeptics for taking a hard line on immigration. She introduced onerous minimum salary thresholds for non-E.U. workers wanting to move to the U.K. around 2012, as well as a $25,000 minimum salary requirement for British citizens seeking to bring over a spouse or child to the U.K…
Oh dear. As I feared. “Non-ideological” means lacking the courage of conservative principles. Only too eager to go with the Leftist and statist flow:
(Thanks to reader Barry, Self Funded Retiree.)
===On the plus side, Theresa May seems a conservative in the attractive and traditional Disraeli sense. But is her use of the phrase “social justice” a warning?
Moreover, I don’t quite share the contemporary disdain for the concept of “ideological” - a word usually applied dismissively of principled conservatives rather than Leftist ideologues and “social justice” warriors:
As the minister at the top of the Home Office, however — the ministry that oversees policing, immigration and national security — [May] has won praise from Euroskeptics for taking a hard line on immigration. She introduced onerous minimum salary thresholds for non-E.U. workers wanting to move to the U.K. around 2012, as well as a $25,000 minimum salary requirement for British citizens seeking to bring over a spouse or child to the U.K…
Often compared to German Chancellor Angela Merkel— which the Financial Times attributes to both women being “non-ideological politician[s] with a ruthless streak who gets on with the job"— May is currently the most powerful woman in the Conservative Party…UPDATE
Like Merkel, May is a daughter of a Protestant clergyman known for her austere demeanour and enigmatic private life. Born Theresa Braiser in the seaside town of Eastbourne on the south coast of England, May went on to study geography at the University of Oxford…
After university, May took roles in the Bank of England and the Association for Payment Clearing Services before being elected as MP for Maidenhead in 1997. She went on to become the Conservatives’ first female chairperson in 2002 ...
That year she delivered a blistering speech warning the mainly right-wing audience that voters considered them as “the nasty party.” “Twice we went to the country unchanged, unrepentant, just plain unattractive…twice we got slaughtered,” she told the party at their annual conference. The speech marked her arrival on the national stage…
Her latest act was to table an investigatory powers bill, also known as the Snoopers’ Charter, that will give British security agencies new surveillance powers to track citizens’ use of the Internet— to the horror of human rights groups and the privacy chief of the United Nations.
The regular churchgoer is married without children and described as a liberal Conservative who is supportive of gender equality and backer of gay marriage (although she voted against gay adoption rights in 2002).
Oh dear. As I feared. “Non-ideological” means lacking the courage of conservative principles. Only too eager to go with the Leftist and statist flow:
BACKTRACKING Theresa May has already ditched her plans to take Britain out of the European Convention of Human Rights after announcing she is running to become the next Prime Minister.She’s more Turnbull than Thatcher, I’m afraid.
Last month she said: “The ECHR can bind the hands of Parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals, and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights.”
But during her speech yesterday, the MP abandoned her stance adding there was not parliamentary will for the move…
Flanked by cabinet colleagues Chris Grayling and Justine Greening, Mrs May said that she would ditch George Osborne’s austerity policies as well as revealing her human rights about-turn.
She said: “While it is absolutely vital that the Government continues with its intention to reduce public spending and cut the budget deficit we should no longer seek to reach a budget surplus by the end of the Parliament.”
(Thanks to reader Barry, Self Funded Retiree.)
Al Qaeda reaches out to the racists of the Left
Andrew Bolt July 02 2016 (8:41am)
Al Qaeda is also racist in the approved way of the Left:
===Lone wolf jihadists should target white Americans so no one mistakes their terror attacks for hate crimes unrelated to the cause of radical Islam, Al Qaeda writes in the latest edition of its online magazine …
Jihadists should target “areas where the Anglo-Saxon community is generally concentrated,” it states. “This class of the American community is the majority and it is the one that is in the American leadership.”
This Q of fools can kiss my A
Piers Akerman – Thursday, July 02, 2015 (7:25pm)
Two weeks ago, I accepted an invitation to appear on next Monday’s Q&A program.
Continue reading 'This Q of fools can kiss my A'ISIS INSERTED
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 02, 2015 (2:38pm)
Mark Steyn notes a mistaken moment of cultural connection:
This weekend, the gate-delay channel CNN had an “exclusive” revealing that the black flag of ISIS had been spotted at London’s Gay Pride parade, and so they quickly rustled up Peter Berger and other crack national-security analysts to provide insight on this unexpected convergence of the jihad and the gayhad.
Unfortunately for CNN, the black flag of ISIS turned out to be a black flag showing various sex aids.
Video here. Via Dan Lewis.
CHILD ABUSE
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 02, 2015 (2:27pm)
Gary Johns on the Greenist invasion of our schools:
“Climate Action for a Safe Environment” is a Greens-inspired campaign to infiltrate schools, indeed the minds of schoolchildren. The campaign website contains a note for teachers: “Students can craft a persuasive letter based solely on the information in Curtin’s CASE flyer” (emphasis added) …The letter to parents directs them to the campaign website where a standard letter is ready and waiting.“Dear Julie Bishop,“My name is … and I am an average … student ... please help this goal of mine (to stop global warming) become yours too because we can make a difference for Australia” …This is high-pressure propaganda and it is taking place in primary schools right now.
Johns is on a mission to stop the abuse:
The Greens are no doubt presenting this “lesson” at more than one school. Please, parents, if you have examples of this propaganda send them to me.
Help him if you can.
BOSSES BLAMED
Tim Blair – Thursday, July 02, 2015 (1:44pm)
His choice to drink, his decision to abuse his employers, somebody else’s fault:
The work Christmas party may become an alcohol-free zone after a Fair Work Commission decision in which a worker was unfairly sacked for sexual harassment and telling his bosses to “f--- off” after he was served unlimited drinks.Leading employer groups have warned businesses of the new risks they face in serving alcohol to employees at Christmas parties following a successful unfair dismissal case.
You know, I bet his employers didn’t force him to drink. Shouldn’t this defence also work for drunk drivers?
Why are no ABC errors in Abbott’s favour?
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (5:46pm)
Of course the ABC isn’t biased.
It’s pure coincidence that Emma Alberici’s two mistakes, made while tag-teaming against Gerard Henderson, made Tony Abbott look worse and Islamist Zaky Mallah look better:
===It’s pure coincidence that Emma Alberici’s two mistakes, made while tag-teaming against Gerard Henderson, made Tony Abbott look worse and Islamist Zaky Mallah look better:
Corrections and clarifications ...
On Thursday, June 25, During an interview with Gerard Henderson and Jonathon Holmes, presenter Emma Alberici stated that Tony Abbott referred to Zaky Mallah as a “convicted terrorist”. Mr Abbott’s exact words were that Mallah was a “convicted criminal and terrorist sympathiser”. The presenter later quoted Zaky Mallah saying on Q&A that Steve Ciobo’s comments would “encourage [Australian Muslims] to join Islamic State”. Mr Mallah said that Mr Ciobo had “justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIL”.
The ABC’s agenda
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (2:17pm)
Of course the ABC isn’t biased. Doesn’t it demand the same from both sides of politics - to support its pet causes and heroes?
Lateline’s agenda last night:
===Lateline’s agenda last night:
AM’s agenda this morning:
(Thanks to reader Tim.)
Greece betrayed by its no-yes-no leader
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (8:42am)
What kind of idiot is running Greece?
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called a referendum on the bailout conditions demanded by Europe and asked Greeks to say no:
===Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called a referendum on the bailout conditions demanded by Europe and asked Greeks to say no:
I’m calling on you to reinforce our negotiating effort. I’m calling on you to say no to bailout recipes that are destroying Europe.Yet with the referendum just days away Tsipras himself now blinks and is saying yes - with conditions:
The prime minister’s hardline speech, which some eurozone officials saw as a declaration of impending Grexit, came despite an apparent major climbdown just hours earlier. In a letter sent to Greece’s creditors he accepted most of the terms of the earlier bailout. Markets across Europe rose on the news.
Triggs shows how marginalised the Human Rights Commission is
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (8:24am)
How far Left does Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs have to travel now to find an audience for her anti-conservative preaching?
This far - to the launch of a book by far-Left Aboriginal activists attacking a policy supported even by Labor and which they describe as follows :
UPDATE
But any opponent of the Abbott Government is a friend of the ABC, which today promotes Triggs as the victim rather than the perpetrator of her own demise:
===This far - to the launch of a book by far-Left Aboriginal activists attacking a policy supported even by Labor and which they describe as follows :
June 21 will mark eight years since the introduction of one of Australia’s most racist government policies, – the Northern Territory National Emergency Response package – otherwise known as the NT Intervention.And in this crowd of advocates of a new form of race-based politics Triggs finally finds a home and a hearing:
It is wonderful for me to be with friends and people who at least listen to what I have to say.Triggs has completely marginalised the Human Rights Commission. The more the far-Left adopt her, the more she’s given everyone else reason to dismiss her.
UPDATE
But any opponent of the Abbott Government is a friend of the ABC, which today promotes Triggs as the victim rather than the perpetrator of her own demise:
Gillian Triggs unbowed by months of government rancour
Where’s the sorry for that great Reef scare?
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (8:15am)
In 2002, the ABC and warming alarmists told us the Great Barrier Reef was dying:
===KERRY O’BRIEN: ... the greenhouse effect could also spell disaster for coral reefs around the world, including our own natural wonder, the Great Barrier Reef. As Australia prepares for another hot summer, one man is on a mission to capture as many corals as possible on high-definition camera before even more stretches of once-spectacular reef are bleached bone-white.Now, 13 years later, the ABC reports:
Joanne Shoebridge reports.
JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE: ... There is agreement that a permanent rise in sea temperatures of two degrees will be fatal for most corals. Even the Marine Park Authority isn’t optimistic. The question is: how long do they have?
DR PAUL MARSHALL, BARRIER REEF MARINE PARK AUTHORITY: We’re seeing some reefs start to lose lots of their coral… So there’s no doubt that if global warming continues reefs are going to look way, way different in the near future… JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE:… In the worst-case scenario, David Hannan believes virtual reality cinemas might be as close as our children, or grandchildren ever come to experiencing coral reefs.
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The United Nations’ World Heritage Committee has voted not to place the Great Barrier Reef on the “in danger” list. Intense lobbying and hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal and Queensland Governments to protect the site have convinced the 21 nations that the reef is on the right track.
The ABC not sorry at all
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (7:42am)
THE ABC has changed its mind. It’s actually not sorry at all for giving a platform to a convicted Islamist criminal. So get stuffed.
Want proof that the ABC cannot be reformed?
Sure, last week an ABC manager kind of apologised after the Q&A program helped Islamist Zaky Mallah ambush the Abbott Government’s Steve Ciobo with a gotcha question on air.
Director of television Richard Finlayson said it was “an error in judgment” to let Mallah ask a question live, so comments could not be edited if he went nuts.
But that apology already missed the point. The ABC should never have invited Mallah to attack the Government’s anti-terrorism laws, given he’d been jailed for threatening to kill ASIO officials.
The slightest research would have revealed more reasons to give Mallah the boot — his support for terrorists linked to al-Qaeda and tweets recommending two female commentators be “gang-banged”.
But within days of the apology, ABC head Mark Scott backtracked, foolishly claiming the “free speech” defence.
(Read full article here.)
===Want proof that the ABC cannot be reformed?
Sure, last week an ABC manager kind of apologised after the Q&A program helped Islamist Zaky Mallah ambush the Abbott Government’s Steve Ciobo with a gotcha question on air.
Director of television Richard Finlayson said it was “an error in judgment” to let Mallah ask a question live, so comments could not be edited if he went nuts.
But that apology already missed the point. The ABC should never have invited Mallah to attack the Government’s anti-terrorism laws, given he’d been jailed for threatening to kill ASIO officials.
The slightest research would have revealed more reasons to give Mallah the boot — his support for terrorists linked to al-Qaeda and tweets recommending two female commentators be “gang-banged”.
But within days of the apology, ABC head Mark Scott backtracked, foolishly claiming the “free speech” defence.
(Read full article here.)
The truck that hit Greece is coming our way
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (7:35am)
GREEKS aren’t bludgers. That’s not what’s driven their economy over the same ageing cliff we’re heading for.
Forget that idea, because it blinds us to the urgent lesson from Greece defaulting on its massive debts.
Forget this sneering about lazy Greeks doing the Mediterranean manana on money borrowed from hardworking Germans, because OECD figures tell a different story.
In fact, Greek workers put in 42 hours in the average week, while Germans knock off after about 35.
True, those hours are often spent sitting in a shop till midnight, or in a government office counting paperclips or on a farm chasing goats while Germans are building Mercedes. We’re not talking productive here.
Then there’s that other whinge about Greek workers downing tools too young. Some truth in that, sure, given Greek men on average retire at 63, but that’s just one year earlier than Germans — hardly a telling difference.
They also retire on less money by our standards — about $300 a week — albeit only after Greece was forced by European lenders to slash pensions by a third.
No, the Greeks aren’t lazy. Just greedy — and in that envious way so typical of countries run too long by the Left.
(Read full article here.)
How disabled?
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (7:23am)
Welcome to Welfare-istan. No wonder the boats were so full:
===A PRISONER using a contraband phone from his cell co-ordinated a complex drug network and deliveries from the outside to keep a Sydney prison supplied with the horror drug ice, police allege. But Windsor correctional centre prisoner Hassan Chehab was allegedly having his phone tapped by a police squad…(No comments.)
One of his alleged accomplices on the outside, disability support pensioner Ali Haidar, 25, was in Sutherland Local Court this week to be sentenced for his part in supplying ice to John Moroney Correctional Complex in January last year. Haidar pleaded guilty to supplying and possessing, methylamphetamine…
The ABC is kidding us with this inquiry
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (7:11am)
The ABC board is kidding us, right? They pick these guys to check the ABC’s Q&A for bias?
UPDATE
Where is the wider inquiry into ABC bias? This morning again on ABC Radio National it was the same old story - Fran Kelly heckling same-sex marriage opponent Cory Bernardi before bringing on commentator Paul Bongiorno to praise the “light in the tunnel” - a private members bill for gay marriage - and kick the Prime Minister for side-tracking it.
Incredibly, Bongiorno then refused to criticise Labor’s Bill Shorten for falsely claiming he hadn’t been briefed on the creation of the new border force he’d actually voted for. Bongiorno instead insisted Shorten was right to say the whole thing was shrouded in “secrecy”.
It’s comic, until you remember you’re forced to pay for this.
(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
===The Board said the review will take into account the key editorial decisions that impact on the delivery of the program including audience selection, panel selection and make-up, subject selection and social media strategy, including on-air tweets.This is the Ray Martin who will check Q&A for bias?
The review will be undertaken by the former Managing Director of SBS, Mr Shaun Brown and the television journalist, Mr Ray Martin.
Conservative talkback hosts have the loudest voice on politics, Martin says.And this is the Shaun Brown who will help check for bias, too, after Q&A asked on a sympathiser of terrorists linked to al Qaeda? From 2006:
“While ever commercial television isn’t offering any balance to (politics), I think they’re dangerous. Those who are most successful tend to be conservative - and those who have a small-L liberal bent, they usually lose the ratings.
“Phillip Adams couldn’t be anywhere else than Radio National. Why don’t we have any moderates?”
Martin says compassion is diminished by the conservative opinions popular on talkback and commercial current affairs programs, on issues including boat people.
But in recent weeks, SBS’ ability to provide an impartial view of world events has been vigorously questioned. As the subject of a Senate Estimates Hearing Committee in Canberra last Monday, the broadcasting service was charged with gross imbalance of reporting and of systemic bias in favour of terrorist organisations.I suspect the ABC board has deliberately commissioned a whitewash. In no way can the Government accept this inquiry as serious.
Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson said George Negus had expressed “pro-Arab” sentiments on international current affairs program Dateline and Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said SBS had “sided” with Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks and exhibited “a rather equivocal view of terrorism”.
Ronaldson told Green Guide: “I want a robust, informative, even a controversial national broadcaster but there’s got to be complete balance and there’s got to be lack of bias and the SBS cannot continue to hide under the mantra of neutrality . . . Even when it was put to (Shaun Brown, managing director of SBS television), the question of Osama Bin Laden, (he said) that SBS would refuse to refer to (al-Qaeda) as a terrorist organisation, which is patently stupid… Speaking after the Senate hearing, Shaun Brown said he expected SBS to come under fire in the wake of government focus on the ABC’s editorial policies on balance and bias.
UPDATE
Where is the wider inquiry into ABC bias? This morning again on ABC Radio National it was the same old story - Fran Kelly heckling same-sex marriage opponent Cory Bernardi before bringing on commentator Paul Bongiorno to praise the “light in the tunnel” - a private members bill for gay marriage - and kick the Prime Minister for side-tracking it.
Incredibly, Bongiorno then refused to criticise Labor’s Bill Shorten for falsely claiming he hadn’t been briefed on the creation of the new border force he’d actually voted for. Bongiorno instead insisted Shorten was right to say the whole thing was shrouded in “secrecy”.
It’s comic, until you remember you’re forced to pay for this.
(Thanks to reader Peter H.)
The ABC’s bias cannot be fixed, warns former ABC chairman
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (7:05am)
Like me, former ABC chairman Maurice Newman is being forced to conclude that the ABC’s bias cannot be reformed and the only option is the axe - or privatisation:
===The question of public broadcasting has been thrown into the spotlight ... from a growing perception the ABC is refusing to live up to its statutory obligations. It is judged across many genres to be partisan and invariably to the left....
The ABC board and management reject these perceptions. Allegations of bias are met with Jesuit sophistry, moral equivalence or downright denial… That the ABC’s strongest defenders are of the Left and 40 per cent of its journalists, according to a credible 2013 survey, align with the Greens (four times the national vote) add substance to the critics’ claims.
Certainly the 1983 act unambiguously requires the board to “ensure that the gathering and presentation of news and information is accurate and impartial according to the standards of objective journalism"…
It is this clash between the requirements of the ABC’s statutory obligations and the deep impulse of contemporary journalists to change the world that makes coexistence virtually unworkable. We should forget balancing left and right. It’s too late for that. In the same way management can no longer separate journalism from advocacy. The genie is out of the bottle and, for all practical purposes, impossible to put back…
When the operating costs are north of $1 billion a year and growing, it is legitimate for any government to question whether taxpayers are getting value for money, particularly for output that is replicated broadly in the private market. It is a difficult case for the broadcaster to win…As [un]appealing as this may be for some staff, the inescapable reality is today’s public ownership model is an anachronism.
The Age of Abbott-hatred
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (6:35am)
The Age campaign against the Abbott Government is becoming hysterical:
===Bill Shorten caught without his briefs
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (12:47am)
Another PR blunder for Bill Shorten:
To make things worse for a man who last week had to express regret for lying:
===Bill Shorten says he has “not seen” proposals to merge Customs with the Immigration Department, despite the Labor Party voting the legislation through parliament less than two months ago…A free kick for Tony Abbott:
The Opposition Leader, when asked whether he believed Customs and Immigration should be merged, said today: “We haven’t seen the propositions around that. I will wait to see details before I start commenting...” The ABF was conceived under Labor justice minister Jason Clare. Legislation to establish the agency cleared the House of Representatives with Labor support on March 25, and passed the Senate on May 14.
“As for Border Force, the Labor Party voted for the legislation and I expect them to be familiar with it,” Mr Abbott said.UPDATE:
To make things worse for a man who last week had to express regret for lying:
LABOR’S claim to be in the dark over the government’s asylum seeker turn-back operations has been exposed, with revelations the Opposition has received eight top-secret briefings in the past year.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal shadow immigration minister Richard Marles has been briefed on highly sensitive material on at least eight occasions since November 2013 — and as recently as four weeks ago.
Labor leader Bill Shorten was also offered a standing invitation as early as February, 2014, to attend highly classified briefings by then-commander of Operation Sovereign Borders General Angus Campbell. However he declined to attend and instead offered to send a junior staff member, an offer which was rejected considering the classified material being presented.
Not a policy that was well-implemented
Andrew Bolt July 02 2015 (12:18am)
A big price to pay for a non-smoking policy:
===RIOTING prisoners destroyed up to $10 million worth of property at Victoria’s largest remand centre. The estimated damage bill eclipses those for all previous jail outbreaks and will blow a hole in the state budget.This does not seem to have been managed well.
What ABC bias?
Andrew Bolt July 01 2015 (9:21pm)
The ABC’s Lateline promotes the God of the Left, riding from heaven on a rainbow:
===Australian Federal Police officers have raided the office of NSW Labor MP Noreen Hay. #BSwNbPM #SameOldLabor #AusPolA...
Posted by Bill Shorten will NEVER be Prime Minister on Thursday, 2 July 2015
http://wakeup-world.com
Posted by Wake Up World on Wednesday, 1 July 2015
Happy Birthday George Orwell!
Posted by Weird Tales Magazine on Thursday, 25 June 2015
The new "Congressman" from Ruger http://bit.ly/1kVEkil
Posted by Drudge Report on Sunday, 8 June 2014
===
A look at some inspiring places that authors go to seek their muse. Where is your favorite place? http://bit.ly/1Bz4Lqj
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Tuesday, 30 June 2015
6 misconceptions about self-publishing. Do you agree? http://bit.ly/1LjNAv4
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+> Music Videos @ www.frogtoon.comSUPER !!!
Posted by Frogtoon Music on Sunday, 7 June 2015
===
TH*SE PEO*LE A*E INS*NE
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 02, 2014 (1:11pm)
Our friends at Sydney University, who recently presented a list of gender variations with more options than there are weeks in a year, subsequently returned to the subject:
When we teach our children gender, we teach them intolerance.
Children tend to notice different genders without being taught. That’s because, unlike university students, children aren’t completely stupid. Note, by the way, that intolerance is now caused by education.
At university, asking gender diverse students to tick a box marked ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ diminishes their identities and robs them of their personal experiences.
If this problem only exists “at university”, the solution seems obvious: leave. Imagine getting stuck behind one of these cissy-gendered whatevers in a customs queue when they demand to submit a 1500-word essay on their “personal experiences” instead of just ticking M or F. Sydney University is now taking steps to address this awful injustice:
On campus, the Queerkat collective has been established for people who identify both as queer and non-cis men, the Wom*ns Collective recently altered its title from ‘Women’ to ‘Wom*n’ in order to reflect a broader push for trans* inclusivity, and the Queer Collective is currently lobbying the university for students to be able to use their preferred names instead of their legal names on Blackboard. The USU recently passed amendments within its constitution in an attempt to remove every reference to gender where possible.
So much for diversity.
===
Our friends at Sydney University, who recently presented a list of gender variations with more options than there are weeks in a year, subsequently returned to the subject:
When we teach our children gender, we teach them intolerance.
Children tend to notice different genders without being taught. That’s because, unlike university students, children aren’t completely stupid. Note, by the way, that intolerance is now caused by education.
At university, asking gender diverse students to tick a box marked ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ diminishes their identities and robs them of their personal experiences.
If this problem only exists “at university”, the solution seems obvious: leave. Imagine getting stuck behind one of these cissy-gendered whatevers in a customs queue when they demand to submit a 1500-word essay on their “personal experiences” instead of just ticking M or F. Sydney University is now taking steps to address this awful injustice:
On campus, the Queerkat collective has been established for people who identify both as queer and non-cis men, the Wom*ns Collective recently altered its title from ‘Women’ to ‘Wom*n’ in order to reflect a broader push for trans* inclusivity, and the Queer Collective is currently lobbying the university for students to be able to use their preferred names instead of their legal names on Blackboard. The USU recently passed amendments within its constitution in an attempt to remove every reference to gender where possible.
So much for diversity.
CLOWNS AND SHARPIES
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 02, 2014 (11:38am)
Melbourne was beautiful in the 1970s:
Well, apart from the doom clowns, who even then were horribly abundant:
Well, apart from the doom clowns, who even then were horribly abundant:
NADAL NICKED
Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 02, 2014 (11:16am)
Until last night, the last Australian to win a set against Rafael Nadal was Alun Jones – seven years ago. Nick Kyrgiosnot only defeated Nadal, but he also became the first teen to defeat a top-ranked player in a major tournament since 2005. And there was this shot …
Ricky Muir’s new minder
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (9:05pm)
Ricky Muir has a strange choice of staffer - a man I saw today actually pushing his “boss” in the back to get him to the doors of Parliament:
===Peter Breen, ... a human rights and media defamation lawyer, entered the NSW upper house in 1999, representing the Reform the Legal System party before joining Labor from the crossbench in 2006.
Just 74 days later, then premier Morris Iemma dumped him from Labor after a media storm erupted over comments Mr Breen had made in a book he was writing about feeling a compassionate ‘’form of love’’ for one of the three killers convicted of the rape and murder of Cronulla bank teller Janine Balding.
Mr Breen has fought for years to overturn the life without parole sentences for the killers - one as young as 14 years old - who were locked up in 1990 and remain behind bars. During his time in Parliament, Mr Breen also protested the innocence of Phuong Ngo, the man convicted of murdering state MP John Newman.
Gravy for union official: $190,000 for six days work
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (4:59pm)
The union members must pay this nice little earner out of their super savings:
===A TRANSPORT Workers Union official was paid $190,000 by the union’s own super fund for a mere six days work.
John Berger, the assistant secretary of the TWU Victoria Branch confirmed to the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption today that his generous salary package was 50 per cent funded by his union’s member superannuation contributions to TWUSuper.
The commission heard Mr Berger was asked to jointly fulfill the role of Tasmanian Superannuation Liaison Officer for TWUSuper in 2009, requiring him to travel to the state and liaise with members on workplace and superannuation matters.But despite the evidence that Mr Berger only conducted five days of work in Tasmania in 2010-11, the TWU invoiced TWUSuper for $93,434 to pay 50 per cent of the official’s salary.
Waleed Aly does it again: giving the murder of three young Jews some “broader” context
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (3:58pm)
I’ve worried before about Waleed Aly, the most influential Islamic apologist in the country.
In this clash of civilisations, one side represents barbarism. Here is the mother of one of the men suspected of murdering the boys:
===Once the spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria, he is now an ABC radio host, a Channel 10 co-presenter and an Age columnist.Aly this week did it again, trying on the ABC to play down (or “contextualise”, as academics would say) the kidnapping and murder of three teenaged Israeli hitchhikers, apparently by Hamas gunmen. He’d asked on a Left-wing Israeli academic who, he discovered, would not play ball:
He is even a politics lecturer at Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre, despite having no doctorate and having qualified in engineering and law.
This week Aly showed the style that’s made him such a pet of the establishment Left but a worry to me.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram group last month kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls…
As so often when Muslim terrorists strike, Aly was brought on by Channel Ten’s The Project to explain away our fears as “an expert in terrorism”.
“So who is this group exactly?” he was asked.
Not once in his answer did “Muslim” or “Islamic” pass Aly’s lips… “… they might just be vigilantes.”
This was not an atypical approach from Aly.
When jihadists bombed the Boston marathon, he initially jumped to an improbable conclusion, informing Age readers of “the very real suspicion that the perpetrators here are self-styled American patriots” and “our own societies might just be implicated”.
Aly also assured 3AW the then Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilali, was not a worry even though he’d praised suicide bombers as “heroes” and called the September 11 attacks “God’s work against oppressors”.
Aly said he had no idea who had made Hilali mufti and he represented no one. In fact, Aly’s own Islamic Council of Victoria had voted with other members of the Federation of Islamic Councils of Australia for Hilali to represent their faith.
When Dutch writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, raised a Muslim, visited Australia to warn against Islamic radicals, Aly mocked her as just “a rock star” doing “actually very, very well out of” her message. In fact, Hirsi Ali had already had her collaborator, film director Theo van Gogh, slaughtered by a Muslim extremist and was herself forced to live under constant police protection.
Waleed Aly: So, joining us now is Professor Yossi Shain, who’s the chairman of the Political Science Department at Tel Aviv University. Yossi, thank you very much for speaking to us today. Hamas denies this. Do we actually have any evidence as to who was behind it?UPDATE
Yossi Shain: Well, of course. The Israeli security forces discovered, in fact, a day after the abduction the guys who committed the crime but they could not locate them…
Waleed Aly: But, is all we have to go on the words of the Israeli security forces?
Yossi Shain: In this business, they are the best words for us, and in fact the people disappeared from their homes. Their family doesn’t know where they are. They are Hamas activists, who were, prior to that, in Israeli jails for committing other crimes. They were released from jail and, so, there is - undoubtedly they disappeared just the day of the abduction…
Waleed Aly: Now, Israel’s a very diverse, sometimes fractured society. Is it fractured at all in its response over this?
Yossi Shain: Not fractured whatsoever. I think this is such a heinous crime. You pick up three kids hitchhiking to go home from schools. You take them to the field and you just, like, kill them. Point blank. Shooting them. And this is, it’s terrifying, unforgivable and any word that I would say has nothing to do with debates in Israel about security, debates about peace with the Palestinians, possibilities of accommodation, etcetera. This is across the board - left, right, centre, north, south. Everybody is mourning because just tell them how senseless killing occurs here, and we are in the Middle East. One should not underestimate the beastiality, the brutality here in this region. I know the people who make this talk. But if you look at Syria, when thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands are murdered and in the border with Lebanon and on the border with Iraq and Jordan, when you have the new jihadists, but they kill their own people. Like dogs, kneel them down and just shoot them. One should not be surprised in this business. And it doesn’t matter whether you are Left or Right…
Waleed Aly: So, it sounds really like what you’re trying to do is create a narrative here that Israel, a nation, the Jewish nation, is surrounded by a collection of Arab nations that are effectively populated by barbarians. Is that your argument?
Yossi Shain: This is not a narrative. I’m not talking about narratives, and I’m not talking about barbarians or not. It’s a reality. The Arabs can self-describe, and the moderates in the Arabs can self-describe. It’s a reality. It’s not a question of narrative. Narrative is a post-modern notion. We’re talking about reality!
Waleed Aly [talking over Shain] Well, what exactly is the reality that you’re describing?
Yossi Shain: We have 10 million - we have 10 million people displaced in Syria. Ten million. Hundreds of thousands of people being murdered. We have murders every day taking place in Iraq and the east of Iraq and in Syria and on the border. We have cases like that every day. There is shelling, constant shelling on the Israeli south. [Gets talked over again] It’s not a question of narrative.
Waleed Aly: Okay, I understand that. Let me ask you this question, then. Is there any understanding in any part of Israeli society that this, these killings, which you correctly described as heinous, are connected to a broader political picture? … For example…
Yossi Shain: Nothing. No. [Starts to answer although Aly keeps on talking over him]
Waleed Aly: Is there any discourse about this being …
Yossi Shain: On the contrary, on the contrary, even Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian…
Waleed Aly: [talking right over Shain] …part of a response to the occupationor is it just about this being… sorry, just let me finish the question - is it just all about this being just an unprovoked act of barbarism.
Yossi Shain: It’s an act of barbarism undoubtedly. There is no, there is no political gain whatsoever once can understand, you know, that you say to yourself, we negotiate on this… But you take three kids and just murder them, I don’t understand what is beyond questioning about a barbaric act. What kind of actions are those?
Waleed Aly: Well, say for example - sorry to interrupt. For example, is there any sense, because I understand these kids were in Hebron. Is that right?
Yossi Shain: No. They were not in Hebron. These kids were travelling from their school in a neighbourhood adjacent to Jerusalem and they were picked up in the neighbourhood and were just on their way from school and hijacking and so on. That’s it. Just like my kids will travel and God forbid will be kidnapped. We had that case before in many cases in Tel Aviv as well. We had, you know, suicide bombings of kids in Tel Aviv and so on. But this is just, you pick up three kids, hijacking from school home, and you just kill them. Now you, you can think that it’s not an act of barbarism or it’s narrative, but this is a reality here that no one can tolerate and no one will tolerate.
Waleed Aly: I’m not expecting you to tolerate it. And I’m not saying it’s anything other than an act of barbarism and I’m not hiding behind any concept of narrative. I’m simply asking questions about whether or not in Israel this is viewed as entirely isolated from the broader political environment. I mean, isn’t there, for example, any conversation in Israel about whether or not this is the killing of settlers as some kind of reprisal.
Yossi Shain: No, I don’t think so. I think no one knows if they’re settlers or not settlers. These are not questions - one kid in this side of the green line, the other on the other side. It doesn’t matter. These people were intending on finding, as their father said, there is a pride to be a jihadist and anyone who kills Jews should be a martyr. Now, when you have such a theology, and I don’t say this is a theology which is pervasive all around, but it’s a theology, you are not selecting them according to their place of residence. You select them just by the sheer fact that they are Jews living in the State of Israel whether they live here or there, whether they live in Tel Aviv, Holon, Haifa and all the other cities of Israel or whether they crossed the line, on the Green Line, hundred meters or two kilometres. It doesn’t matter. When you have such a theology, when you don’t recognise these people as human beings you will kill them just like that… and it’s a theology.
Waleed Aly: We have, of course, many, many Palestinians who were killed in the process. In fact, I think just during the period of the search, five Palestinians were killed. Four hundred were arrested.
Yossi Shain: Yes.
Waleed Aly: Is that part of the conversation in Israel at all?
Yossi Shain: Absolutely! Look, we are seeking to have peace with the Palestinians. And, in fact, Mahmoud Abbas himself, the leader of the Palestinians, the moderate forces saying he’s ready. And he understands that this is injuring his cause. Now, once you understand, the Palestinians are divided. There are Hamas and the PA are completely different stories. Many people in the PA understand that this is undercutting their development. If you go to Ramallah, you go to other places, people want to live good life. One should not make the claim that everyone is barbarians. No! There is a barbaric, there is a barbaric segment with such a theology. Many, or maybe most or the vast majority would like to live a good life alongside the Israelis and one should not also underestimate the fact that Israel, when Israel controlled some of the territories, people are suffering. These are two separate stories! And how to keep a political solution to this conflict is a long-standing issue.
Waleed Aly: Yeah, but is..
Yossi Shain: But beside of all of this issue, there is the question of the theology plus an action that you kidnap kids and you kill them, just like that. This is, this is something that is beyond, not only the pale, not something happening here, but it can happen - one cannot comprehend it as a human being. And indeed, this notion of a lack of humanity, the lack of humanity pervades the Middle East nowadays. When people are killed like dogs by their own brothers, and this is one should not underestimate - it’s a culture of killing. It’s sacred to many people. Waleed Aly: Okay. There are many things there I don’t have time to pick up now, Yossi, but maybe we’ll speak again sometime and have a broader and deeper conversation about it. But thank you very much for your insights this time around.
In this clash of civilisations, one side represents barbarism. Here is the mother of one of the men suspected of murdering the boys:
(Thanks to readers AS and Charles.)
Did Palmer win by spending missing Chinese cash?
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (9:20am)
An election bought with misappropriated Chinese money?:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===THE Palmer United Party spent up to $4.7 million on advertising during last year’s federal election campaign, with at least half funded by the Chinese government.Hedley Thomas:
Court papers this week revealed $2.167m from the Chinese state-owned company Citic Pacific was spent with Media Circus Network to purchase advertising for Mr Palmer’s election campaign…
Clive Palmer last night refused to detail how the remaining $2.5m of his ad spend was funded… Group M chairman and chief executive John Steedman said $2m would buy approximately 1000 ratings points across the five capital cities, which would equate to 125 advertising spots in prime time in each market, enough to sustain a four-week TV campaign in the mass market. Other media buyers and political campaigners agreed the political impact of a more than $2m campaign would be substantial when targeted in particular seats.
THE actions of a once-obscure Clive Palmer-controlled company called Cosmo Developments, which had received $10 million of Chinese funds allegedly wrongfully siphoned from a National Australia Bank account, are being forensically examined amid a quasi-judicial probe into the missing cash…Palmer’s use of defamation laws to attack his critics is sinister.
Records show that, after 14 years as a director, Mr Palmer resigned from Cosmo Developments in late May, a fortnight after it was first revealed in The Australian that Mineralogy had been accused in the Federal Court in Perth of wrongfully siphoning $10m in August last year and a further $2.167m just days before the September 7 federal election.
Australian Securities & Investments Commission records show Mr Palmer ended his role at Cosmo Developments on May 25, the same day his nephew, Clive Mensink, joined as sole director of the company, having been appointed the company secretary in May last year…
However, other documentary records show Mr Palmer’s resignation as a director of Cosmo Developments was not detected publicly because it was omitted from his May 27 update of a federal parliament “register of members’ interests”.
In this May 27 update, which bears a May 29 stamp from the parliamentary registry, Mr Palmer disclosed that he had resigned as a director of the four most prominent and significant companies in his business group ... There was no mention of Cosmo Developments.
Asked by The Australian yesterday if he had resigned from Cosmo Developments to distance himself from the $10m in Chinese funds that went into the company from the NAB cheque account, Mr Palmer did not respond. He did not reply to a question about why his May 27 update to parliament did not disclose his resignation from Cosmo Developments. However, Mr Palmer issued a tweet in which he said that The Australian was a “real threat to democracy”. “I’ll be commencing defamation action against Hedley Thomas over latest erroneous smear,’’ tweeted Mr Palmer.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
If the seas are so dangerous, why was this boat there?
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (9:13am)
The “refugee” lobby will howl at having their prize snatched from them:
That said, reports are conflicting about whether the transfer is happening or not. In fact, the boat and/or passengers really should be returned to India, if that is where they are really from.
===A BOATLOAD of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers found near Cocos Island at the weekend is being transported by Australian authorities to a treacherous mid-ocean transfer to a Sri Lankan naval vessel in the midst of the deadly south-west monsoon.“Treacherous”? “Deadly”? So why were the boat people sailing in such weather? I believe our navy can be trusted to handle the seas at least as well.
That said, reports are conflicting about whether the transfer is happening or not. In fact, the boat and/or passengers really should be returned to India, if that is where they are really from.
Burqa ban upheld
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (9:08am)
A decision you’d not have expected from this court a few years ago:
===The European Court of Human Rights has upheld France’s 2010 ban on full-face veils in public, dismissing a case brought by a French woman against the state for breach of religious freedom.It was close, though:
France has ... the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million…
It was the first European country to pass a law banning burqa and niqab garments that conceal the face in public. Belgium later followed suit…
Authorities passed the law under former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s administration, casting the full-faced veil as an affront to the country’s tenets of secularism as well as being degrading to women. It is also a security risk, preventing the accurate identification of individuals, officials have said.
The Strasbourg-based court ruled the general ban imposed by the government wasn’t justified on public-safety grounds, or to protect women’s rights. But it said France’s aim of improving social cohesion through the ban was legitimate.(Thanks to reader James.)
“The court was…able to accept that the barrier raised against others by a veil concealing the face was perceived by the respondent state as breaching the right of others to live in a space of socialization which made living together easier,” it said.
Greens want Aboriginal exhibits kept traditionally poor
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (9:00am)
The Greens like their Aborigines kept primitive and poor, exhibits in a museum of natural history. Warren Mundine:
===It was great to see Cape York traditional owners defeat Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation in the Federal Court last month.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
In 2009, the Bligh Labor government declared three major Cape York rivers as “wild rivers”. It was a politically motivated decision to secure Greens preferences in a close state election. It locked up major areas of Queensland’s far north making it impossible for traditional owners to pursue developments, including things like horticulture and tourism.
It made a mockery of the Labor party’s support for land rights. Aboriginal people in Cape York had their land but, unlike every other landowner in Australia, weren’t allowed to prosper from it. The Wilderness Society was the main agitator for the 2009 declaration…
Globally about two-thirds of poverty reduction comes from economic growth… But the Wilderness Society doesn’t want Aboriginal people who are living in poverty to get richer. This organisation was also instrumental in killing off the James Price Point gas hub… In April, I challenged the Greens to name one place in Australia where they’d support a new mine and one place in Australia where they’d support oil or gas exploration and processing. So far I’m yet to hear anything… Green groups should hang their heads in shame for wanting to keep indigenous Australians in poverty.
The Gore-Palmer mystery: don’t mention Al Gore’s business ties
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (8:37am)
Even Al Gore’s advisors were amazed that he endorsed Clive Palmer’s press conference to announce Palmer’s Senators would help scrap the carbon tax, and would block the government’s direct action schemes as well:
===Al Gore was urged by his US-based advisers to pull out of the Clive Palmer press conference when it became clear the Palmer United Party would not link its support for the abolition of the carbon tax to an immediate move to an emissions trading scheme.The story gives no clue to a possible motivation for Gore’s bizarre praise of Palmer. It somehow overlooks self-interest, and Gore’s business ties to the renewable energy industries Palmer had offered to help.
Key figures behind the year’s strangest political alliance have confirmed Mr Palmer was shown legal advice that Australia could easily move directly from a fixed price on carbon to an ETS. When Mr Palmer could not convince his three incoming senators to place conditions on their support to repeal the carbon tax, Mr Gore’s advisers told him to pull out of a public appearance with Mr Palmer.
Threat video to be shown at commission
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (8:31am)
I wouldn’t want to be a political leader beholden to this union:
===THE building industry is set to be rocked by an explosive video and claims of corruption, death threats and intimidation during royal commission hearings in Melbourne next week.It is understood the whistleblower in the video was warned his business may be threatened if he released it.
The Herald Sun understands witnesses will detail claims about senior figures in the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
At least one witness due to give evidence has received death threats from people linked to the union.
The Herald Sun understands footage of a senior Victorian CFMEU official intimidating a builder will be revealed at the hearings.
Links between the official, the union and an underworld figure will also be aired.
Palmer United Party joins Greens and Labor in threatening the media
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (8:11am)
When Murdoch newspapers questioned the global warming scare and the AWU slush fund scandal, Labor and the Greens set up a media inquiry to cow it. It was the most sinister threat to media freedoms from an Australian government in my life time:
===No, far more chilling - because it was so shamelessly explicit - was the promise made by Greens deputy leader Christine Milne on Monday to punish newspapers which publish articles sceptical of global warming and critical of the Gillard Government…Unfortunately, the Palmer United Party is likewise threatening Murdoch newspapers - this time for investigating claims Clive Palmer unlawfully took $12 million from a Chinese company to pay for his political activity:
“The Murdoch press has been running a very strong campaign against action on climate change.
“The bias is extreme, in The Australian in particular.
“You’ll see column inch after column inch of every climate sceptic in the country ... You’ll find day after day a real attempt at regime change…
“And one of the useful things about the hacking scandal in the UK is that it will lead to an inquiry into the media in Australia.
“We are at least going to see some real discussion ... around issues such as the level of ownership and dominance of the Murdoch press in several capital cities in Australia.
“We’ll also have a look at a range of other issues, including who are fit and proper people into whether we need that test into people to be running media outlets. It’s time we had a good inquiry and certainly bias is certainly going to be one of the things that’s certainly to be looked at."…
Know also that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has already agreed to consider this inquiry: “I anticipate we’ll have a discussion amongst parliamentarians about this, about the best review and the best way of dealing with all of this.”
The Australian’s Rosie Lewis follows up with a question in writing to [PUP Senator Jacqui] Lambie’s office yesterday:Whenever a politician demands a media inquiry, ask what scandal they’re trying to cover up.
HOW serious do you take these allegations that Mr Palmer spent $12 million of Chinese government money to help pay for his election campaign?Lambie issues a statement, “Reply to questions from The Australian regarding Twitter Comments”:
AT a time when the owner of the Australian News Paper (Rupert Murdoch) is being interviewed over serious criminal matters by England’s crack police investigators at Scotland Yard — and his former employees have been found guilty of serious crimes … It’s amazing and more than a little predictable that a business dispute and civil matter being fought out in the Australian courts regarding Clive Palmer — is receiving such attention in some sections of the media…More scrutiny! More Lambie:
BRING on a Senate inquiry into media ownership. If Australia must have a Billionaire who has influence of the destiny of our great country … at least let it be one of our own — an Australian Billionaire — not an overseas one.
Kyrgios beats Nadal
Andrew Bolt July 02 2014 (7:49am)
Amazing, every way you slice it:
===Nick Kyrgios has delivered the most outstanding performance of his fledgling career to shock world No 1 Rafael Nadal to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals…
His 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 triumph over 14-time grand slam champion Nadal is the first time a teenager has beaten a world No 1 at the majors since 2005…
By the end of the match, Nadal — grand slam tennis’s ultimate warrior — was broken and baffled on losing to world No 144 Kyrgios…
Few would be prepared to write of the youngster who over the past week created a huge impression. First-round victory over Frenchman Stephane Robert was followed by a herculean effort to save a Wimbledon record nine match points against Richard Gasquet before he edged past Czech Jiri Vesely… Contesting only his 14th match at senior level, Kyrgios blazed his way past a grand slam immortal — only two weeks after losing in the first round of a Nottingham Challenge.
Hating the America they use
Andrew Bolt July 01 2014 (7:50pm)
Victor Davis Hanson on America and its power being resented by the very people who most want it:
===Maliki failed to grasp that Obama had even less trust in the influence of America to do good things abroad than did Maliki himself. But the larger irony is that now Maliki is begging for a return of American hard power to save his government from those killers that his policies helped create. In extremis, he understands that no other country would depose an oil-rich tyrant, stay on to foster democracy, leave the oil to its owners, and then leave when asked — and finally consider coming back to the rescue of an abject ingrate.(Via Instapundit.)
The Latin America narrative in the age of Obama — often best characterized in Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, or Venezuela — is little empathy south of the border for the Yanqui paradigm of free-market democratic capitalism. The stale 1960s rhetoric of colonialist, imperialist, racist, etc. is back in vogue in much of Latin America, and Mexico as well, encouraged by an administration that itself is unlikely to defend present or past U.S. conduct.
Likewise the themes of most Chicano-Latino studies programs in the U.S. are American culpability, racism, and colonialism — the same old, same old whine of the myriad faults of the U.S. In my community, the time it takes a first-generation foreign national to cross the border illegally, and then to develop a sort of resentment toward the U.S. and a romance about the birthplace he abandoned, seems about five years.
Why then are tens of thousands of Latin Americans willingly flooding into a supposedly racist country where cutthroat capitalism ignores the poor and the oppressed such as themselves? In most past polls of Mexican citizens, two general themes often show up: the majority of Mexican nationals believe that the American Southwest still should belong to Mexico, and a sizable minority would like to leave Mexico for the U.S. You figure out the mentality.
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Caroline GlickMy friend, Latma's actress Ronit Avramov-Shapira and her family were stoned last night when they were driving through Samaria. She and her two year old daughter were injured -- lightly, thank G-d -- by broken glass. Her husband saw the rocks on the ground and had the presence of mind to warn her to protect their daughter just before Palestinian terrorists hurled a rock the size of a grapefruit through her window.
It was a murder attempt.
It wasn't reported.
After all, who cares about stone throwing?
If you don't feel like throwing up or breaking something upon reading this, there is something deeply wrong with you. If you don't feel like throwing up or breaking something upon reading this, then, welcome to the majority of the global elite. Pat yourself on the back. You are a true progressive.
Oh, and go to hell.
===
Larry Pickering
THERE’S A MUSLIM IN THE MINISTRY
Okay, so what! Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are... oops I’d better not be politically incorrect. Anyway there are enough of them (Muslims I mean, not terrorists) here now to warrant Parliamentary representation. No big deal.
Governor General, Quentin Bryce, welcomed Ed Husic to Office. “It is a great day for multiculturalism”, she proclaimed as he swore his Oath of Allegiance clutching the Koran.
Kevin Rudd brought to the GG’s residence today a Ministry overflowing with eleven females (obviously a counterweight to his recent slaying of Australia’s first female Prime Minister) led by Emily Lister and long-time faithful comrade of Julia, Jenny Macklin.
They go back a long way, as far back as the bonded sisterhood of the “Socialist Forum” where government payments for late-term abortions were promoted, (see Bernard Gaynor’s article today in www.pickeringpost.com ).
Jenny and Julia were a formidable item. They both drew up the manifesto that forbade Labor Party members membership to the Forum. Why would that be you say?
Well, the manifesto also called for the Forum’s radical Communist members to infiltrate the Labor Party to impose extreme Left policy. The Socialist Forum appears to have done well.
Anyway, poor ‘ol Jenny must have thought her Socialist Forum’s aims far outweighed her trusted comrade Julia’s friendship, because today she nestled lovingly into Rudd’s clutch of the sisterhood with barely a thought for Julia.
I guess all revolutions expect blood to be spilt by a few.
Anyway, Kev certainly covered a few bases today with a tilt at the women’s vote and the Islamic vote. He also made a sincere attempt at rapprochement with those in the ALP who hate him.
But back to this Koran thing. I’m agnostically atheistic and don’t care for any religion. I accept that some Aussies believe in the most incredulous stuff, but whether I like it or not, we are a Christian society.
After all, Parliament opens with prayers?
Yet, I wonder if the besieged Muslim Brotherhood Government of Egypt would allow the Koran to be replaced with the Bible in its swearing in ceremonies.
I guess I must be a racist because I find the Koran, used as it was today, to be a bit unsettling.
Well, in time we may need to accept cultural change. Could “ring the bells for four minutes” eventually become an echoing call to the House with “four minutes’ wailing”?
===
Roma Downey
"Don't confuse your path with your destination. Just because it's stormy now doesn't mean you aren't headed for some sunshine."
===Just heard that Chris Brown was accused of injuring two people while driving recklessly. He later issued a statement refuting the claims "these accusations are ridiculous......I don't hit people with a car".........
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Barry Shaw
"in a reasonable world, the Palestinians can live with blocks of Jewish townships already established. In a reasonable world, the Palestinians can live with prosperous Jewish industry that gives gainful employment to Palestinian workers and managers, and earns mutual respect between Jews and Arabs.
In a reasonable world, the Palestinians have much to benefit from Israeli ingenuity and cooperation.
Unfortunately Israel is not living in a reasonable world."
===
- 706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the final bodies in the Qianling Mausoleum, which remained unopened until the 1960s.
- 1644 – The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters and the English Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor, one of the decisive encounters of theEnglish Civil War, near York.
- 1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield was fatally shot at theBaltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.
- 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Actinto law (pictured), outlawing segregation in schools, at the workplace, and other facilities that served the general public.
- 2000 – In the Mexican general election, Vicente Fox was elected to be the first President of Mexico from an opposition party in 71 years.
- 437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidiaends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.
- 626 – Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.
- 706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an.
- 866 – Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army.
- 963 – The imperial army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
- 1298 – The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
- 1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain.
- 1504 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode of Moldavia.
- 1555 – The Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.
- 1561 – Menas, emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.
- 1582 – Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.
- 1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place.
- 1644 – English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.
- 1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.
- 1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not approved until July 4.
- 1816 – The French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.
- 1822 – Thirty-five slaves are hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion.
- 1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
- 1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad.
- 1839 – Abdülmecid I became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
- 1853 – The Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War.
- 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States.
- 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19.
- 1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act.
- 1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
- 1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
- 1900 – Jean Sibelius' Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus.
- 1917 – The East St. Louis riots end.
- 1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany.
- 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm.
- 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
- 1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.
- 1950 – The Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burns down.
- 1962 – The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
- 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
- 1966 – The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Moruroa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
- 1976 – Fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declares their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
- 1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
- 2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
- 2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted.
- 2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
- 2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.
- 2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people.
- 2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
- 2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.
- 2015 – A bridge collapses under a Pakistan Army train at Gujranwala, killing nineteen and injuring over 100
- 2015 – A ferry capsizes in Ormoc, Leyte, Philippines, killing 62 of 220 passengers.
- 419 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (d. 455)
- 1363 – Maria, Queen of Sicily (d. 1401)
- 1489 – Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop, theologian, and saint (d. 1556)
- 1492 – Elizabeth Tudor, English daughter of Henry VII of England (d. 1495)
- 1647 – Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1730)
- 1648 – Arp Schnitger, German organ builder (d. 1719)
- 1665 – Samuel Penhallow, English-American soldier and historian (d. 1726)
- 1667 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal and art collector (d. 1740)
- 1698 – Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena (d. 1780)
- 1714 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (d. 1787)
- 1724 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet and author (d. 1803)
- 1819 – Charles-Louis Hanon, French pianist and composer (d. 1900)
- 1820 – George Law Curry, American publisher and politician, 5th Governor of the Oregon Territory (d. 1878)
- 1821 – Charles Tupper, Canadian physician and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1915)
- 1834 – Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack, Dutch economist and historian (d. 1917)
- 1849 – Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (d. 1919)
- 1862 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)
- 1865 – Lily Braun, German author and publicist (d. 1916)
- 1869 – Liane de Pougy, French-Swiss dancer and author (d. 1950)
- 1876 – Harriet Brooks, Canadian physicist and academic (d. 1933)
- 1876 – Wilhelm Cuno, German businessman and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1933)
- 1877 – Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
- 1877 – Rinaldo Cuneo, American artist ("the painter of San Francisco") (d. 1939)
- 1881 – Royal Hurlburt Weller, American lawyer and politician (d. 1929)
- 1884 – Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist and author (d. 1931)
- 1893 – Ralph Hancock, Welsh gardener and author (d. 1950)
- 1900 – Tyrone Guthrie, English actor and director (d. 1971)
- 1902 – K. Kanapathypillai, Sri Lankan author and academic (d. 1968)
- 1902 – Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, Dutch-French pianist (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Alec Douglas-Home, English cricketer and politician, 66th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
- 1903 – Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)
- 1904 – René Lacoste, French tennis player and businessman, created the polo shirt (d. 1996)
- 1906 – Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- 1906 – Séra Martin, French runner (d. 1993)
- 1906 – Christos Tsaganeas, Romanian-Greek actor and cinematographer (d. 1976)
- 1908 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States (d. 1993)
- 1911 – Reg Parnell, English race car driver and manager (d. 1964)
- 1913 – Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, English historian and academic (d. 1999)
- 1914 – Frederick Fennell, American conductor and educator (d. 2004)
- 1914 – Ethelreda Leopold, American actress (d. 1988)
- 1914 – Mário Schenberg, Brazilian physicist and engineer (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Erich Topp, German admiral (d. 2005)
- 1915 – Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, British peer, politician and soldier (d. 2014)
- 1916 – Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (d. 1991)
- 1916 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German colonel and pilot (d. 1982)
- 1917 – Leonard J. Arrington, American author and academic, founded the Mormon History Association (d. 1999)
- 1919 – Jean Craighead George, American author (d. 2012)
- 1920 – John Kneubuhl, Samoan-American historian, screenwriter, and playwright (d. 1992)
- 1920 – Annette Kerr, Scottish-English actress (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer
- 1923 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American soldier and author (d. 1958)
- 1923 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (d. 1963)
- 1925 – Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (d. 1961)
- 1925 – Marvin Rainwater, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Octavian Paler, Romanian journalist and politician (d. 2007)
- 1927 – James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern, Scottish lawyer and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
- 1927 – Brock Peters, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1929 – Abraham Avigdorov, Israeli soldier (d. 2012)
- 1929 – Imelda Marcos, Filipino politician, 10th First Lady of the Philippines
- 1930 – Ahmad Jamal, American pianist, composer, and educator
- 1930 – Carlos Menem, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 50th President of Argentina
- 1932 – Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy's (d. 2002)
- 1933 – Peter Desbarats, Canadian journalist, author, and playwright
- 1933 – Kenny Wharram, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1934 – Tom Springfield, English singer-songwriter and producer (The Springfields)
- 1936 – Gilbert Kalish, American pianist and educator
- 1936 – Omar Suleiman, Egyptian general and politician, 16th Vice President of Egypt (d. 2012)
- 1937 – Polly Holliday, American actress
- 1937 – Richard Petty, American race car driver and sportscaster
- 1938 – David Owen, English physician and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
- 1939 – Ferdinand Mount, English journalist and author
- 1939 – Alexandros Panagoulis, Greek poet and politician (d. 1976)
- 1939 – John H. Sununu, American engineer and politician, 14th White House Chief of Staff
- 1939 – Paul Williams, American singer and choreographer (The Temptations) (d. 1973)
- 1940 – Kenneth Clarke, English politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
- 1941 – Wendell Mottley, Trinidadian sprinter, economist, and politician
- 1942 – John Eekelaar, South African-English lawyer and scholar
- 1942 – Vicente Fox, Mexican businessman and politician, 35th President of Mexico
- 1943 – Ivi Eenmaa, Estonian politician, 36th Mayor of Tallinn
- 1943 – Walter Godefroot, Belgian cyclist, coach, and manager
- 1943 – Larry Lake, American-Canadian trumpet player and composer (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Richard Axel, American neuroscientist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1946 – Ricky Bruch, Swedish discus thrower and actor (d. 2011)
- 1946 – Ron Silver, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2009)
- 1947 – Larry David, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
- 1947 – Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, English politician, Minister for International Security Strategy
- 1948 – Mutula Kilonzo, Kenyan lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
- 1948 – Gene McFadden, American singer-songwriter and producer (McFadden & Whitehead) (d. 2006)
- 1949 – Roy Bittan, American keyboard player and songwriter (E Street Band)
- 1949 – Greg Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1949 – Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, French actor (d. 2010)
- 1949 – Robert Paquette, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1949 – Nancy Stephens, American actress and producer
- 1950 – Lynne Brindley, English librarian and academic
- 1950 – Jon Trickett, English politician
- 1951 – Sylvia Rivera, American LGBT activist (d. 2002)
- 1951 – Michele Santoro, Italian journalist
- 1952 – Johnny Colla, American guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter (Huey Lewis and the News)
- 1952 – Anatoliy Solomin, Ukrainian race walker and coach
- 1953 – Jean-Claude Borelly, French trumpet player and composer
- 1953 – Mark Hart, American guitarist and keyboard player (Crowded House and Supertramp)
- 1954 – Pete Briquette, Irish bass player, songwriter, and producer (The Boomtown Rats)
- 1954 – Chris Huhne, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
- 1955 – Kim Carr, Australian educator and politician, 31st Australian Minister for Human Services
- 1956 – Jerry Hall, American model and actress
- 1957 – Jüri Raidla, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Justice
- 1957 – Purvis Short, American basketball player
- 1958 – Đặng Thái Sơn, Vietnamese-Canadian pianist
- 1960 – Terry Rossio, American screenwriter and producer
- 1960 – Maria Lourdes Sereno, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 24th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
- 1961 – Clark Kellogg, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1962 – Neil Williams, English cricketer (d. 2006)
- 1963 – Mark Kermode, English bassist and critic (The Dodge Brothers)
- 1964 – Doug Benson, American comedian, actor, and producer
- 1964 – Stéphan Bureau, Canadian journalist and producer
- 1964 – Jose Canseco, Cuban-American baseball player and mixed martial artist
- 1964 – Ozzie Canseco, Cuban-American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1964 – Joe Magrane, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1964 – Alan Tait, English-Scottish rugby player and coach
- 1965 – Norbert Röttgen, German lawyer and politician
- 1966 – Jean-François Richet, French director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1969 – Tim Rodber, English rugby player
- 1970 – Derrick Adkins, American hurdler
- 1970 – Colin Edwin, Australian bass player (Porcupine Tree and Henry Fool)
- 1970 – Steve Morrow, Northern Irish footballer and manager
- 1971 – Troy Brown, American football player and actor
- 1971 – Evelyn Lau, Canadian poet and author
- 1971 – Bryan Redpath, Scottish rugby player and coach
- 1972 – Darren Shan, English author
- 1973 – Peter Kay, English comedian, actor, director, and producer
- 1974 – Sean Casey, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1975 – Éric Dazé, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Kristen Michal, Estonian lawyer and politician
- 1975 – Erik Ohlsson, Swedish singer and guitarist (Millencolin)
- 1975 – Stefan Terblanche, South African rugby player
- 1976 – Kon Arimura, Japanese radio personality and critic
- 1976 – Krisztián Lisztes, Hungarian footballer
- 1976 – Tomáš Vokoun, Czech-American ice hockey player
- 1977 – Deniz Barış, Turkish footballer
- 1978 – Diana Gurtskaya, Georgian-Russian singer-songwriter
- 1978 – Jüri Ratas, Estonian politician, 42nd Mayor of Tallinn
- 1978 – Owain Yeoman, Welsh actor
- 1979 – Walter Davis, American triple jumper
- 1979 – Sam Hornish, Jr., American race car driver
- 1979 – Lucy Holmes, Australian Radio Celebrity
- 1979 – Joe Thornton, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Nicole Briscoe, American model and journalist, Miss Illinois Teen USA 1998
- 1980 – Nyjer Morgan, American baseball player
- 1981 – Nathan Ellington, English footballer
- 1981 – Alex Koroknay-Palicz, American activist
- 1981 – Angel Pagán, Puerto Rican baseball player
- 1981 – Carlos Rogers, American football player
- 1981 – Aaron Voros, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Michelle Branch, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress (The Wreckers)
- 1983 – Sammy J, Australian comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1984 – Vanessa Lee Chester, American actress
- 1984 – Thomas Kortegaard, Danish footballer
- 1984 – Johnny Weir, American figure skater
- 1985 – Rhett Bomar, American football player
- 1985 – Chad Henne, American football player
- 1985 – Jürgen Roelandts, Belgian cyclist
- 1985 – Ashley Tisdale, American actress and singer
- 1986 – Brett Cecil, American baseball player
- 1986 – Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer
- 1987 – Esteban Granero, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Ruslana Korshunova, Kazakh model (d. 2008)
- 1988 – Porta, Spanish rapper
- 1988 – Ronnie Ash, American hurdler
- 1988 – Lee Chung-yong, South Korean footballer
- 1989 – Dev, American singer-songwriter
- 1989 – Nadezhda Grishaeva, Russian basketball player
- 1989 – Alex Morgan, American soccer player
- 1990 – Roman Lob, German singer-songwriter
- 1990 – Margot Robbie, Australian actress
- 1990 – Danny Rose, English footballer
- 1992 – Madison Chock, American ice dancer
- 1996 – Julia Grabher, Austrian tennis player
Births[edit]
Deaths[edit]
- 626 – Li Jiancheng, Chinese prince (b. 589)
- 626 – Li Yuanji, Chinese prince (b. 603)
- 649 – Li Jing, Chinese general (b. 571)
- 862 – Swithun, English bishop and saint (b. 789)
- 866 – Robert the Strong, Frankish son of Robert III of Worms (b. 820)
- 943 – Henry the Fowler, German king (b. 876)
- 1298 – Adolf, King of Germany (b. 1220)
- 1504 – Stephen III of Moldavia (b. 1434)
- 1566 – Nostradamus, French astrologer and author (b. 1503)
- 1591 – Vincenzo Galilei, Italian lute player and composer (b. 1520)
- 1621 – Thomas Harriot, English astronomer, mathematician, and ethnographer (b. 1560)
- 1656 – François-Marie, comte de Broglie, Italian-French general (b. 1611)
- 1674 – Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1614)
- 1743 – Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1673)
- 1746 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian and author (b. 1656)
- 1778 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and composer (b. 1712)
- 1833 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 1st Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (b. 1757)
- 1843 – Samuel Hahnemann, German physician and academic (b. 1755)
- 1850 – Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1788)
- 1857 – Carlo Pisacane, Italian soldier and philosopher (b. 1818)
- 1903 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player (b. 1867)
- 1912 – Tom Richardson, English cricketer (b. 1870)
- 1914 – Joseph Chamberlain, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (b. 1836)
- 1915 – Porfirio Díaz, Mexican general and politician, 29th President of Mexico (b. 1830)
- 1920 – William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (b. 1846)
- 1926 – Émile Coué, French psychologist and pharmacist (b. 1857)
- 1929 – Gladys Brockwell, American actress (b. 1893)
- 1932 – Manuel II of Portugal (b. 1889)
- 1934 – Ernst Röhm, German commander (b. 1887)
- 1950 – Thomas William Burgess, English swimmer and water polo player (b. 1872)
- 1955 – Edward Lawson, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1873)
- 1961 – Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- 1963 – Alicia Patterson, American publisher, co-founded Newsday (b. 1906)
- 1964 – Fireball Roberts, American race car driver (b. 1929)
- 1966 – Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet and author (b. 1900)
- 1969 – Michael DiBiase, American wrestler (b. 1923)
- 1972 – Joseph Fielding Smith, American religious leader, 10th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
- 1973 – Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1916)
- 1973 – Chick Hafey, American baseball player (b. 1903)
- 1973 – George McBride, American baseball player and manager (b. 1880)
- 1973 – Ferdinand Schörner, German field marshal (b. 1892)
- 1975 – James Robertson Justice, English actor (b. 1907)
- 1977 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born novelist and critic (b. 1899)
- 1978 – Aris Alexandrou, Greek author and poet (b. 1922)
- 1986 – Peanuts Lowrey, American baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
- 1988 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1894)
- 1989 – Andrei Gromyko, Belarusian-Russian economist and politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1909)
- 1990 – Snooky Lanson, American singer (b. 1914)
- 1989 – Franklin J. Schaffner, Japanese-American director and producer (b. 1920)
- 1991 – Lee Remick, American actress (b. 1935)
- 1992 – Camarón de la Isla, Spanish singer and guitarist (b. 1950)
- 1993 – Fred Gwynne, American actor (b. 1926)
- 1993 – Hasret Gültekin, Turkish singer and poet (b. 1971)
- 1994 – Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (b. 1967)
- 1995 – Lloyd MacPhail, Canadian businessman and politician, 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island (b. 1920)
- 1999 – Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer (b. 1952)
- 2002 – Ray Brown, American bassist and composer (b. 1926)
- 2003 – Briggs Cunningham, American race car driver and businessman (b. 1907)
- 2004 – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Portuguese poet and author (b. 1919)
- 2004 – Mochtar Lubis, Indonesian journalist and author (b. 1922)
- 2005 – Ernest Lehman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1915)
- 2005 – Norm Prescott, American actor, composer, and producer, co-founded Filmation Studios (b. 1927)
- 2006 – Jan Murray, American comedian, actor, and game show host (b. 1916)
- 2007 – Beverly Sills, American operatic soprano and television personality (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Natasha Shneider, Russian-American singer, keyboard player, and actress (Eleven) (b. 1956)
- 2008 – Elizabeth Spriggs, English actress and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 2010 – Beryl Bainbridge, English screenwriter and author (b. 1932)
- 2011 – Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (b. 1930)
- 2011 – Chaturanan Mishra, Indian union leader and politician (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Maurice Chevit, French actor and screenwriter (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Ben Davidson, American football player and actor (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Julian Goodman, American journalist (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Angelo Mangiarotti, Italian architect and academic (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Betty Meggers, American archaeologist and academic (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Ed Stroud, American baseball player (b. 1939)
- 2013 – Anthony G. Bosco, American bishop (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Fawzia Fuad of Egypt (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Armand Gaudreault, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Anthony Llewellyn, Welsh-American chemist, academic, and astronaut (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Emilio Álvarez Montalván, Nicaraguan ophthalmologist and politician (b. 1919)
- 2014 – Chad Brown, American poker player and actor (b. 1961)
- 2014 – Manuel Cardona, Spanish physicist and academic (b. 1934)
- 2014 – Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe (b. 1915)
- 2014 – Harold W. Kuhn, American mathematician and academic (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Louis Zamperini, American runner and captain (b. 1917)
- 2015 – Slavko Avsenik, Slovenian singer-songwriter and accordion player (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Ronald Davison, New Zealand lawyer and judge, 10th Chief Justice of New Zealand (b. 1920)
- 2015 – Charlie Sanders, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1946)
- 2015 – Jim Weaver, American football player and coach (b. 1945)
- 2015 – Jacobo Zabludovsky, Mexican journalist (b. 1928)
- Christian feast day:
- Flag Day (Curaçao) (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Independence Day (Bahia Brazil)
- Palio di Provenzano (Siena)
- Police Day (Azerbaijan)
- World UFO Day
Holidays and observances[edit]
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”Romans 12:3 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
The streams of living water which flow from Jerusalem are not dried up by the parching heats of sultry midsummer any more than they were frozen by the cold winds of blustering winter. Rejoice, O my soul, that thou art spared to testify of the faithfulness of the Lord. The seasons change and thou changest, but thy Lord abides evermore the same, and the streams of his love are as deep, as broad and as full as ever. The heats of business cares and scorching trials make me need the cooling influences of the river of His grace; I may go at once and drink to the full from the inexhaustible fountain, for in summer and in winter it pours forth its flood. The upper springs are never scanty, and blessed be the name of the Lord, the nether springs cannot fail either. Elijah found Cherith dry up, but Jehovah was still the same God of providence. Job said his brethren were like deceitful brooks, but he found his God an overflowing river of consolation. The Nile is the great confidence of Egypt, but its floods are variable; our Lord is evermore the same. By turning the course of the Euphrates, Cyrus took the city of Babylon, but no power, human or infernal, can divert the current of divine grace. The tracks of ancient rivers have been found all dry and desolate, but the streams which take their rise on the mountains of divine sovereignty and infinite love shall ever be full to the brim. Generations melt away, but the course of grace is unaltered. The river of God may sing with greater truth than the brook in the poem--
"Men may come, and men may go,
But I go on forever."
How happy art thou, my soul, to be led beside such still waters! never wander to other streams, lest thou hear the Lord's rebuke, "What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink of the muddy river?"
Evening
My soul, now that the cool of the day has come, retire awhile and hearken to the voice of thy God. He is always ready to speak with thee when thou art prepared to hear. If there be any slowness to commune it is not on his part, but altogether on thine own, for he stands at the door and knocks, and if his people will but open he rejoices to enter. But in what state is my heart, which is my Lord's garden? May I venture to hope that it is well trimmed and watered, and is bringing forth fruit fit for him? If not, he will have much to reprove, but still I pray him to come unto me, for nothing can so certainly bring my heart into a right condition as the presence of the Sun of Righteousness, who brings healing in his wings. Come, therefore, O Lord, my God, my soul invites thee earnestly, and waits for thee eagerly. Come to me, O Jesus, my well-beloved, and plant fresh flowers in my garden, such as I see blooming in such perfection in thy matchless character! Come, O my Father, who art the Husbandman, and deal with me in thy tenderness and prudence! Come, O Holy Spirit, and bedew my whole nature, as the herbs are now moistened with the evening dews. O that God would speak to me. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth! O that he would walk with me; I am ready to give up my whole heart and mind to him, and every other thought is hushed. I am only asking what he delights to give. I am sure that he will condescend to have fellowship with me, for he has given me his Holy Spirit to abide with me forever. Sweet is the cool twilight, when every star seems like the eye of heaven, and the cool wind is as the breath of celestial love. My Father, my elder Brother, my sweet Comforter, speak now in lovingkindness, for thou hast opened mine ear and I am not rebellious.
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Mattaniah
[Mătta nī'ah] - gift of jehovah.
[Mătta nī'ah] - gift of jehovah.
- A brother of Jehoiakim, made king instead of his nephew, Jehoiakim, also called Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:17).
- A Levite, descendant of Asaph and founder of a tribal family (1 Chron. 9:15; 2 Chron. 20:14; Neh. 11:17, 22; 12:8, 25, 35).
- A son of Heman the singer in David's time (1 Chron. 25:4, 16).
- A descendant of Asaph who assisted Hezekiah in the cleansing of the Temple (2 Chron. 29:13).
- A descendant of Elam who had married a foreign wife (Ezra 10:26).
- A son of Zattu who had done the same (Ezra 10:27).
- One of the family of Pahath-moab who had done the same (Ezra 10:30).
- A son of Bani guilty of the same act (Ezra 10:37).
- A Levite whose descendant, Hanan, was one of Nehemiah's treasurers (Neh. 13:13).
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Today's reading: Job 20-21, Acts 10:24-48 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Job 20-21
Zophar
1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 "My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
because I am greatly disturbed.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4 "Surely you know how it has been from of old,because I am greatly disturbed.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.
ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
Today's New Testament reading: Acts 10:24-48
24 The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. 26 But Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself."
27 While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28 He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"
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