Luckily I left early in the morning and was an hour early for Bolt. But Costco would not let me in without paying a $60 membership fee. My weekly budget is $100. The book was another $18. Andrew was supposed to come at 2Pm, I was dead on my feet. But the crowd who gathered for him were also good people. After one faux sighting, Andrew was there, and apologetic. He signed my book by my direction for my landlord, who has been a terrific blessing to me. I'm sure that threw him. He also accepted my book I signed for him. Hopefully I won't be anonymous to him next time I am on the radio to him.
=== from 2015 ===
Will the broken body of a child on a beach convince the world that it isn't compassionate to drown people who have been fleeced by people smugglers? Probably not, as refugee advocates come out saying that more must be able to sample the bitter fruit. Apparently the child had lived for three years in neighbouring Turkey. The journey was not necessary to flee from Syria.
From 2014
When the ICAC asked to recess to gather evidence, smeared politicians from the Liberal Party asked to face the allegations immediately. They pointed out that they deserved natural justice to clear their names sooner rather than later. The ICAC decided to recess and now, many months after being named, former police minister Mike Gallacher was able to front the ICAC and face allegations. And he did, addressing them more plausibly than the prosecutor's supposition. The ICAC's case is in tatters, based on supposition but not evidence. Gallacher is optimistic of returning to the front bench, but it is also the case the ICAC is known to produce stings. In all likelihood, Gallacher was discussing legitimate fund raising and dropped Barry O'Farrell's nickname. Prosecutor Watson is adamant that the intercepted text message is referencing an illegal developer. It is like the case of the three wise monkeys, and contrasts strongly with the former corrupt Premier Neville Wran. Neville Wran was thought to be the "Little Mate" who could get a hit man freed from jail if bribery demands were met. But no one could prove that, and so the courts let it slide, even though no one else could have achieved the end result. But the judiciary ignore ALP corruption, and inflate accusations against Liberals on no evidence.
Why blow up a Rozelle convenience store? It is an upmarket part of Sydney, close to Sydney University. Two people are missing, and one is dead, but no one knows yet of the whereabouts of a mother, baby and a man from an adjacent complex. We don't even know why the explosion occurred; it could have been terrorist related, or it could have been a domestic accident. It is a tragedy. Hopefully the hospitalised shop owner will be able to shed light on what happened. One must remember Green Senator Whish-Wilson does not like the use of the word 'evil' or 'terrorist' preferring not to demonise people. However if the evil terrorist who beheaded a journalist recently isn't dealt with soon, then perhaps more tragedies similar to Rozelle's explosion could occur. One appreciates that Greens admire the work of sustainable population activists, but sometimes those activists are too gung ho.
Assuming they believe the lies that are spread against Israel, why are those who march against Israel not also marching against ISIS? ISIS brings Islam into disrepute. ISIS members are aggressive, but not devout. ISIS kills more Muslims than others. Islamo Fascists enjoyed swimming in a former US embassy's pool. The pool is in Libya, which incidentally is where two recently executed journalists had been abducted from more than a year ago. When it comes to issues that matter, we get silence. Silence in Rotherham where 1400 children are molested by multi cultural extravagance. Silence from academics who rename things to avoid being too easily seen to be shonky, as with AGW Hysteric Mann in his opposition to Steyn. Or with another academic claiming that drowning desperate, poor economic migrants is preferable to resettling refugees, as it strains ethical principles of public servants.
Abbott's first year restores respect to PM's office. A report card for federal conservatives shows that the parts exceed the sum. Living standards fall as Government is blocked in senate. It has been forgotten by spruikers that superannuation comes from pay packets. Red tape is cut, so cheaper, better imports of cars for Australians are becoming available. Lambie gives maiden speech as silly as Hanson's was.
From 2013
The ALP are low in the polls, but as former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett reminds, they were in 1999 too, but came back to win and hold Victoria for a long, dark time. In that time they held Victoria, they ruined Victoria's competitiveness, damaged the police, ruined fire protection, damaged education and spent big. The only way to protect Australia's future is to vote for the Liberal National Parties. Christian Democrats are directing their preferences to the ALP in some states. Other ridiculous parties do the same. On the issue of costings, the ALP have failed to show the electorate all of theirs. The Liberals will show the rest of the LNP costings on Thursday, having unveiled all their promises on Wednesday, today. There is much criticism of the LNP costings, but they have shown the bulk a long time ago, unlike the ALP who only released some today. On 7:30 pm Friday night, ABC will air an election special asking "Where did we go wrong?"
Ariel Castro has committed suicide in jail. We have lost the opportunity to ask important questions (like, "Does this hurt?"). Sadly Cuba is still enslaved. Syria is still in pain. Obama is firmly dithering. Egypt smoulders.
To all the relatives who are too many to mention both close and distant wishing you all a Happy spiritual Rosh Hashannah and well over the Fast.
Good Health, Prosperity and a very sweet 5774
To my numerous facebook friends thank you for sharing your time and thoughts over the last year. Let me also take this opportunity to wish you all luck and blessings whether you are a Jew or not.
The world's birthday is a very special time for all of us symbolising the end of all human sacrifices to false gods.
Let's hope the bad guys get their butts kicked into oblivion with our prayers and hopes bringing goodness and kindness back into our lives despite the new confrontations that face many of those who are not as fortunate.
Remember those who are no longer with us. So far those reading this are the lucky ones.
A good inscription and sealing in the Book of Life.
Shanah tovah
שנה טובה
Ketivah v’chatima tovah
כתיבה וחתימה טובה
Good Health, Prosperity and a very sweet 5774
To my numerous facebook friends thank you for sharing your time and thoughts over the last year. Let me also take this opportunity to wish you all luck and blessings whether you are a Jew or not.
The world's birthday is a very special time for all of us symbolising the end of all human sacrifices to false gods.
Let's hope the bad guys get their butts kicked into oblivion with our prayers and hopes bringing goodness and kindness back into our lives despite the new confrontations that face many of those who are not as fortunate.
Remember those who are no longer with us. So far those reading this are the lucky ones.
A good inscription and sealing in the Book of Life.
Shanah tovah
שנה טובה
Ketivah v’chatima tovah
כתיבה וחתימה טובה
Historical perspective on this day
Not done
=== 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 and many happy returns De Louis Hurwits, Tony Bonanno, Martin Waterhouse and Elisa Vienna. Born on the same day, across the years, along with Alexander III of Scotland (1241), François-René de Chateaubriand (1768), Dawn Fraser (1937), Merald "Bubba" Knight (1942), Beyoncé Knowles (1981) and Kali Majors (1999). On your day, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) begins at sunset (2013, 5774 AM)
1479 – The Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon signed the Treaty of Alcáçovas with Afonso V of Portugal and his son, John to end the War of the Castilian Succession.
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Andrew Bolt
A gaggle of lame ducks
Piers Akerman – Friday, September 04, 2015 (12:06am)
PROMPTED by Twitter twaddle and the indistinguishable and mendacious ramblings of The Sydney Morning Herald, a dishevelled group of protesters milled outside The Daily Telegraph office on Sunday.
Continue reading 'A gaggle of lame ducks'
===
PROMPTED by Twitter twaddle and the indistinguishable and mendacious ramblings of The Sydney Morning Herald, a dishevelled group of protesters milled outside The Daily Telegraph office on Sunday.
Continue reading 'A gaggle of lame ducks'The bitter fruit of failure on refugees
Piers Akerman – Friday, September 04, 2015 (12:05am)
THE body of a small boy lying dead on tideline of a Turkish beach has become the powerful new image of European failure. Failure to take a united stand against Islamist barbarism, failure to abandon a disastrous policy of multiculturalism and failure to reverse its liberal immigration policies.
Continue reading 'The bitter fruit of failure on refugees'
===
THE body of a small boy lying dead on tideline of a Turkish beach has become the powerful new image of European failure. Failure to take a united stand against Islamist barbarism, failure to abandon a disastrous policy of multiculturalism and failure to reverse its liberal immigration policies.
Continue reading 'The bitter fruit of failure on refugees'
On The Bolt Report on Sunday, September 6
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (5:13pm)
On Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 3pm
Editorial: Shorten vs China
My guest: Greens leader Richard di Natale, the first Greens MP to accept an invitation in the nearly five years of my show. All credit to him. On what he’s got that Labor hasn’t, and his plans for the Greens. Plus a polite discussion on global warming (of course), the European immigrant crisis and the royal commission, although how we’ll fit all that in I do not know.
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa.
NewsWatch: Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB host. On Fairfax jihadists and perhaps the most stupid and offensive ABC attack on Tony Abbott this year.
Plus Trump’s card.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===
Editorial: Shorten vs China
My guest: Greens leader Richard di Natale, the first Greens MP to accept an invitation in the nearly five years of my show. All credit to him. On what he’s got that Labor hasn’t, and his plans for the Greens. Plus a polite discussion on global warming (of course), the European immigrant crisis and the royal commission, although how we’ll fit all that in I do not know.
The panel: former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa.
NewsWatch: Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB host. On Fairfax jihadists and perhaps the most stupid and offensive ABC attack on Tony Abbott this year.
Plus Trump’s card.
The videos of the shows appear here.
The video that proves Abbott is right about the Nazis and his critics should apologise
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (4:58pm)
This is simply false:
Tony Abbott yesterday entered risky territory in bracketing Islamic State with the Nazis in a radio interview with Alan Jones.
Most experts on religious and political extremism responded that the regimes shared a strategic dependence on extreme violence, but the comparison the Prime Minister suggested could not so readily be sustained.
Mr Abbott said: “The Nazis did terrible evil, but they had sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it. These people (Islamic State) boast about their evil. This is the extraordinary thing: they act in a way that medieval barbarians acted."… Mark Durie, a Melbourne Anglican priest, expert on Islam and author of The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom, said: “The Nazis had no shame. It is nonsense to imply that they did. Hitler and his helpers were proud of their genocidal accomplishments.”
In fact, Abbott is right. The Islamic State boasts of its atrocities and films them. In contrast, the Nazis hid their extermination of the Jews. Even the vast majority of Jews shipped to Auschwitz did not know of the Holocaust, which shocked the world when it was uncovered in 1945.
As the US Holocaust Memorial Museum explains:
The Holocaust was a state secret in Nazi Germany. The Germans wrote down as little as possible. Most of the killing orders were verbal, particularly at the highest levels. Hitler’s order to kill Jews was issued only on a need-to-know basis. The Nazi leaders generally avoided detailed planning of killing operations, preferring to proceed in a systematic but often improvised manner. The Germans destroyed most documentation that did exist before the end of the war. The documents that survived and related directly to the killing program were virtually all classified and stamped “Geheime Reichssache” (Top Secret), requiring special handling and destruction to prevent capture by the enemy. Heinrich Himmler, Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police, said in a secret speech to SS generals in Posen in 1943 that the mass murder of the European Jews was a secret, never to be recorded.
In order to hide the killing operation as much as possible from the uninitiated, Hitler ordered that the killings not be spoken of directly in German documentation or in public statements.
Indeed, in 1944, near the end of the war, the Nazis even shot this propaganda film in the Theresienstadt concentration camp to fool the Red Cross and the rest of the world into thinking Jews were kept in relative comfort - well dressed, well-fed, playing sport and music, and going to school:
The video explained:
This Theresienstadt video is one the Islamic State would not dream of making. The Islamic State has not made a single video pretending that Jews, Yazidis and Christians live happy lives under its rule. It is explicit about its savagery.
What Abbott said is true and important, and it is astonishing to see him abused for saying it.
UPDATE
Chris Kenny takes aim at liars in the media - and people too stupid or malevolent to simply understand Abbott’s important point:
===
Tony Abbott yesterday entered risky territory in bracketing Islamic State with the Nazis in a radio interview with Alan Jones.In fact, Abbott is right. The Islamic State boasts of its atrocities and films them. In contrast, the Nazis hid their extermination of the Jews. Even the vast majority of Jews shipped to Auschwitz did not know of the Holocaust, which shocked the world when it was uncovered in 1945.
Most experts on religious and political extremism responded that the regimes shared a strategic dependence on extreme violence, but the comparison the Prime Minister suggested could not so readily be sustained.
Mr Abbott said: “The Nazis did terrible evil, but they had sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it. These people (Islamic State) boast about their evil. This is the extraordinary thing: they act in a way that medieval barbarians acted."… Mark Durie, a Melbourne Anglican priest, expert on Islam and author of The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom, said: “The Nazis had no shame. It is nonsense to imply that they did. Hitler and his helpers were proud of their genocidal accomplishments.”
As the US Holocaust Memorial Museum explains:
The Holocaust was a state secret in Nazi Germany. The Germans wrote down as little as possible. Most of the killing orders were verbal, particularly at the highest levels. Hitler’s order to kill Jews was issued only on a need-to-know basis. The Nazi leaders generally avoided detailed planning of killing operations, preferring to proceed in a systematic but often improvised manner. The Germans destroyed most documentation that did exist before the end of the war. The documents that survived and related directly to the killing program were virtually all classified and stamped “Geheime Reichssache” (Top Secret), requiring special handling and destruction to prevent capture by the enemy. Heinrich Himmler, Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police, said in a secret speech to SS generals in Posen in 1943 that the mass murder of the European Jews was a secret, never to be recorded.Indeed, in 1944, near the end of the war, the Nazis even shot this propaganda film in the Theresienstadt concentration camp to fool the Red Cross and the rest of the world into thinking Jews were kept in relative comfort - well dressed, well-fed, playing sport and music, and going to school:
In order to hide the killing operation as much as possible from the uninitiated, Hitler ordered that the killings not be spoken of directly in German documentation or in public statements.
The video explained:
This Theresienstadt video is one the Islamic State would not dream of making. The Islamic State has not made a single video pretending that Jews, Yazidis and Christians live happy lives under its rule. It is explicit about its savagery.
What Abbott said is true and important, and it is astonishing to see him abused for saying it.
UPDATE
Chris Kenny takes aim at liars in the media - and people too stupid or malevolent to simply understand Abbott’s important point:
How does news.com.au justify calling Abbott’s response “cold”?
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (4:54pm)
Yet again I wonder what is going on at news.com.au.
Is it the haven of the Abbott haters and Fairfax refuseniks of News Corp? Or is it so addicted to clickbait that it will twist any story about Tony Abbott into the Stupid-Abbott model that slacktivists love?
Today’s example:
In fact, the story itself shows nothing cold at all about Abbott’s response, but, instead, a reminder of what it took to stop the same tragedies here:
We saw yesterday on our screens a very sad and poignant of children tragically, tragically dead at sea in illegal migration. And thankfully, we’ve stopped that in Australia because we’ve stopped the illegal boats, we’ve said to the people smugglers, ‘your trade is closed down’.
Another example today:
When even News Corp plays this game of Hate Abbott, I wonder how he or any conservative can survive politically.
(Thanks to readers Steve and John.)
===
Is it the haven of the Abbott haters and Fairfax refuseniks of News Corp? Or is it so addicted to clickbait that it will twist any story about Tony Abbott into the Stupid-Abbott model that slacktivists love?
Today’s example:
In fact, the story itself shows nothing cold at all about Abbott’s response, but, instead, a reminder of what it took to stop the same tragedies here:
We saw yesterday on our screens a very sad and poignant of children tragically, tragically dead at sea in illegal migration. And thankfully, we’ve stopped that in Australia because we’ve stopped the illegal boats, we’ve said to the people smugglers, ‘your trade is closed down’.Another example today:
When even News Corp plays this game of Hate Abbott, I wonder how he or any conservative can survive politically.
(Thanks to readers Steve and John.)
If you cry over the consequences, then change the causes
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (9:28am)
If you cried over this tragedy:
You should support this solution:
It works:
Note: the boy’s family was from Syria but had lived for the past three years in safety in Turkey.
===
You should support this solution:
It works:
Note: the boy’s family was from Syria but had lived for the past three years in safety in Turkey.
Not the principle but the (union) side
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (9:22am)
Apprehended bias in a judge is OK when that bias is towards unions and Labor:
Union and Labor claims of bias hurled at royal commissioner Dyson Heydon have been attacked as hypocritical, given the vast numbers of former unionists appointed to senior roles at the industrial relations umpire.
Australian Mines and Metals Association chief executive Steve Knott said yesterday the attacks were “not only unmerited, but extraordinarily hypocritical” because former union officials appointed to the Fair Work Commission — several by Bill Shorten — were expected to bring a fair mind to their role.
Among those recently appointed to Fair Work are former ACTU national secretary Jeff Lawrence, former ACTU deputy secretary Iain Ross and former Electrical Trades Union NSW secretary Bernie Riordan. There is no suggestion any former union appointees have been biased…Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus, who has called Mr Heydon “the hand-picked candidate of the Liberal Party”, did not respond to questions from The Australian on whether he believed Mr Heydon was biased.
===
Union and Labor claims of bias hurled at royal commissioner Dyson Heydon have been attacked as hypocritical, given the vast numbers of former unionists appointed to senior roles at the industrial relations umpire.
Australian Mines and Metals Association chief executive Steve Knott said yesterday the attacks were “not only unmerited, but extraordinarily hypocritical” because former union officials appointed to the Fair Work Commission — several by Bill Shorten — were expected to bring a fair mind to their role.
Among those recently appointed to Fair Work are former ACTU national secretary Jeff Lawrence, former ACTU deputy secretary Iain Ross and former Electrical Trades Union NSW secretary Bernie Riordan. There is no suggestion any former union appointees have been biased…Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus, who has called Mr Heydon “the hand-picked candidate of the Liberal Party”, did not respond to questions from The Australian on whether he believed Mr Heydon was biased.
Not refugees. Not a responsibility but a threat
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (8:41am)
Almost all the media commentary on the invasion of Europe so far overlooks a critical point.
The illegal immigrants in no way are “refugees”. Even those fleeing, say, Syria, were in relative safety once they’d crossed the border into Turkey, which, incidentally, is a country sharing the Muslim faith of most Syrians.
But since then, the immigrants have moved to Greece, then Macedonia and then Serbia to reach Hungary. Even then the vast majority want to move on - through Austria or the Czech Republic to their ultimate goal, Germany, the richest of all the countries on this trek.
I don’t blame them, of course, but nor do I blame Germany for saying it does not have a responsibility to accept these hundreds of thousands of people crossing its borders.
Nor should journalists here keep talking about some particular responsibility of the West to accept Syrians, given the West has done nothing to create the Syrian civil war, and has recently intervened (ineffectually) to stop the Islamic State terrorists causing many of the Syrians to flee.
There is no easy way for Europe to respond, but ultimately it must involve maintaining strong borders, stopping the boats to Greece and Italy, and sending armed forces to stop Third World war, and some advice and aid to end poverty. Oddly enough, this is exactly the policy of Tony Abbott. It is that, or Europe will admit new tribes of people who will inevitably clash with Europe’s own.
Hungary’s Prime Minister puts the matter with a bluntness shocking to the secular media, but in a way which I suspect will prove prophetic:
“Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims,” Mr. Orban wrote…
“This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity."…
At a separate news conference in which he faced reporters alone, he reiterated the theme of his article, that Europe was at risk of being “overrun” and had to shut its borders. The Hungarian prime minister argued that European countries had no obligation to accept most of the migrants, as “the overwhelming majority of people are not refugees because they are not coming from a war-stricken area."…
Mr. Orban went on to invoke Hungary’s historical experience as part of the Ottoman Empire, which ended more than three centuries ago, as an explanation for its current opposition to Muslim immigrants…
“I have to say that when it comes to living together with Muslim communities, we are the only ones who have experience because we had the possibility to go through that experience for 150 years… “We don’t want to criticize France, Belgium, any other country,” he said, but “we think all countries have a right to decide whether they want to have a large number of Muslims in their countries. If they want to live together with them, they can. We don’t want to and I think we have a right to decide that we do not want a large number of Muslim people in our country. We do not like the consequences of having a large number of Muslim communities that we see in other countries, and I do not see any reason for anyone else to force us to create ways of living together in Hungary that we do not want to see.”
It is not a pretty message. The consequences of ignoring it could be far uglier.
UPDATE
To the excitement of fellow Leftists in Fairfax, the sanctimonious New York Times, in its privileged safety of New York, warns the world not to adopt the policies of the one government that has the answer Europe desperately wants - policies that have stopped boats, stopped drownings and saved billions, while still admitting true refugees:
Some European officials may be tempted to adopt the hard-line approach Australia has used to stem a similar tide of migrants. That would be unconscionable.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has overseen a ruthlessly effective effort to stop boats packed with migrants, many of them refugees, from reaching Australia’s shores. His policies have been inhumane, of dubious legality and strikingly at odds with the country’s tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war.
Note the sneaky omission of inconvenient facts:
Military personnel force vessels carrying people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and other conflict-roiled nations toward Indonesia, where most of the journeys begin.
Actually, many of the passengers are from Iran and Sri Lanka, and some even from Pakistan - none of which are “conflict roiled”. Before they got on the boats to Australia they passed through multiple countries where they could have been safe, not least Indonesia itself.
Also missing from this one-sided tirade, which could have been penned by the Greens: the 1200 boat people who were lured to their deaths under the previous policy.
I note the crying over the poor three-year-old Syrian boy found drowned on the beach of Turkey. Why do not Fairfax journalists point out that scores of such children also drowned under Labor until Tony Abbott stopped the boats?
UPDATE
To the ABC, even trying to stop the slaughter that sends Syrians fleeing across the border actually becomes a guilt that must be expunged by taking more of the people you were actually helping:
LEIGH SALES: And what obligation should countries beyond Europe have, especially those involved in military campaigns in Iraq and Syria such as Australia and the US?
(Thanks to reader Baden.)
===
The illegal immigrants in no way are “refugees”. Even those fleeing, say, Syria, were in relative safety once they’d crossed the border into Turkey, which, incidentally, is a country sharing the Muslim faith of most Syrians.
But since then, the immigrants have moved to Greece, then Macedonia and then Serbia to reach Hungary. Even then the vast majority want to move on - through Austria or the Czech Republic to their ultimate goal, Germany, the richest of all the countries on this trek.
I don’t blame them, of course, but nor do I blame Germany for saying it does not have a responsibility to accept these hundreds of thousands of people crossing its borders.
Nor should journalists here keep talking about some particular responsibility of the West to accept Syrians, given the West has done nothing to create the Syrian civil war, and has recently intervened (ineffectually) to stop the Islamic State terrorists causing many of the Syrians to flee.
There is no easy way for Europe to respond, but ultimately it must involve maintaining strong borders, stopping the boats to Greece and Italy, and sending armed forces to stop Third World war, and some advice and aid to end poverty. Oddly enough, this is exactly the policy of Tony Abbott. It is that, or Europe will admit new tribes of people who will inevitably clash with Europe’s own.
Hungary’s Prime Minister puts the matter with a bluntness shocking to the secular media, but in a way which I suspect will prove prophetic:
“Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims,” Mr. Orban wrote…It is not a pretty message. The consequences of ignoring it could be far uglier.
“This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity."…
At a separate news conference in which he faced reporters alone, he reiterated the theme of his article, that Europe was at risk of being “overrun” and had to shut its borders. The Hungarian prime minister argued that European countries had no obligation to accept most of the migrants, as “the overwhelming majority of people are not refugees because they are not coming from a war-stricken area."…
Mr. Orban went on to invoke Hungary’s historical experience as part of the Ottoman Empire, which ended more than three centuries ago, as an explanation for its current opposition to Muslim immigrants…
“I have to say that when it comes to living together with Muslim communities, we are the only ones who have experience because we had the possibility to go through that experience for 150 years… “We don’t want to criticize France, Belgium, any other country,” he said, but “we think all countries have a right to decide whether they want to have a large number of Muslims in their countries. If they want to live together with them, they can. We don’t want to and I think we have a right to decide that we do not want a large number of Muslim people in our country. We do not like the consequences of having a large number of Muslim communities that we see in other countries, and I do not see any reason for anyone else to force us to create ways of living together in Hungary that we do not want to see.”
UPDATE
To the excitement of fellow Leftists in Fairfax, the sanctimonious New York Times, in its privileged safety of New York, warns the world not to adopt the policies of the one government that has the answer Europe desperately wants - policies that have stopped boats, stopped drownings and saved billions, while still admitting true refugees:
Some European officials may be tempted to adopt the hard-line approach Australia has used to stem a similar tide of migrants. That would be unconscionable.Note the sneaky omission of inconvenient facts:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has overseen a ruthlessly effective effort to stop boats packed with migrants, many of them refugees, from reaching Australia’s shores. His policies have been inhumane, of dubious legality and strikingly at odds with the country’s tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war.
Military personnel force vessels carrying people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and other conflict-roiled nations toward Indonesia, where most of the journeys begin.Actually, many of the passengers are from Iran and Sri Lanka, and some even from Pakistan - none of which are “conflict roiled”. Before they got on the boats to Australia they passed through multiple countries where they could have been safe, not least Indonesia itself.
Also missing from this one-sided tirade, which could have been penned by the Greens: the 1200 boat people who were lured to their deaths under the previous policy.
I note the crying over the poor three-year-old Syrian boy found drowned on the beach of Turkey. Why do not Fairfax journalists point out that scores of such children also drowned under Labor until Tony Abbott stopped the boats?
UPDATE
To the ABC, even trying to stop the slaughter that sends Syrians fleeing across the border actually becomes a guilt that must be expunged by taking more of the people you were actually helping:
LEIGH SALES: And what obligation should countries beyond Europe have, especially those involved in military campaigns in Iraq and Syria such as Australia and the US?(Thanks to reader Baden.)
Bill Shorten repeats the CFMEU’s anti-free trade slogan
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (8:38am)
UPDATE
The kind of (non union) jobs Shorten would destroy for his union mates:
The dairy industry, one of the biggest winners from the [China-Australia] FTA, warned it was set to lose at least $20 million in expected tariff cuts if the FTA was not implemented by Christmas.
Australian Dairy Farmers president Noel Campbell said the deal would create jobs, adding 600-700 to the dairy industry in its first year, as well as longer term growth… “China gives farmers access to a growing market – only one province would huge.”
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
===
The kind of (non union) jobs Shorten would destroy for his union mates:
The dairy industry, one of the biggest winners from the [China-Australia] FTA, warned it was set to lose at least $20 million in expected tariff cuts if the FTA was not implemented by Christmas.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Australian Dairy Farmers president Noel Campbell said the deal would create jobs, adding 600-700 to the dairy industry in its first year, as well as longer term growth… “China gives farmers access to a growing market – only one province would huge.”
Why did not one reporter call out Obama’s warming fraud?
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (12:46am)
How can the America media let their president tell such a ridiculous untruth?
If we do nothing, Alaskan temperatures are projected to rise between six and twelve degrees [3.3°C to 6.7°C] by the end of the century.
In fact, we have seen no significant warming of the atmosphere now for 18 years, according to satellite observations, and even the alarmist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates global temperatures under its controversial models to rise only between 0.3°C and 4.8°C by 2100.
The increase of global mean surface temperature by the end of the 21st century (2081–2100) relative to 1986–2005 is likely to be 0.3°C to 1.7°C under RCP2.6, 1.1°C to 2.6°C under RCP4.5, 1.4°C to 3.1°C under RCP6.0 and 2.6°C to 4.8°C under RCP8.59
Not only did the press corps fail to call him out on that bull, not one reporter asked the obvious follow up question: so if we did Obama’s “something” instead, how much of that warming would be avoided?
The answer is so pathetically small that the President would be exposed as not just a fantasist but a fraud. And I guess no journalist trailing him would want that. Not when he’s speaking about global warming, the topic that gives every green a licence to lie.
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If we do nothing, Alaskan temperatures are projected to rise between six and twelve degrees [3.3°C to 6.7°C] by the end of the century.In fact, we have seen no significant warming of the atmosphere now for 18 years, according to satellite observations, and even the alarmist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates global temperatures under its controversial models to rise only between 0.3°C and 4.8°C by 2100.
The increase of global mean surface temperature by the end of the 21st century (2081–2100) relative to 1986–2005 is likely to be 0.3°C to 1.7°C under RCP2.6, 1.1°C to 2.6°C under RCP4.5, 1.4°C to 3.1°C under RCP6.0 and 2.6°C to 4.8°C under RCP8.59Not only did the press corps fail to call him out on that bull, not one reporter asked the obvious follow up question: so if we did Obama’s “something” instead, how much of that warming would be avoided?
The answer is so pathetically small that the President would be exposed as not just a fantasist but a fraud. And I guess no journalist trailing him would want that. Not when he’s speaking about global warming, the topic that gives every green a licence to lie.
Fairfax approves only of Nazi analogies aimed at Abbott
Andrew Bolt September 04 2015 (12:32am)
Fairfax’s Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald have no trouble with likening the Abbott Government to Nazis, but they strangely draw a line at Tony Abbott likening the Islamic State to Nazis.
The SMH this week on John Oliver:
That’s not to say his 70-minute routine was without sharp and sometimes brutally honest observations of Australia – a nation he labelled the most comfortably racist in the world (to applause from the audience).... He opened his routine likening last weekend’s planned operation by the Australian Border Force to Nazi Germany…
The Age on the Abbott Government’s Australian Border Force:
The Australian Border Force (ABF) operation ... was to patrol Melbourne to target potential visa fraudsters and anti-social behaviour… Comparisons to Joseph Stalin, Nazi Germany and the Troubles in Northern Ireland were quickly replaced by images of a doddering Grandpa Simpson just hours after the strategy was announced on Friday morning.
The Age again last week (with a false claim, as well):
The Abbott Government’s bizarre decision to send in the country’s new paramilitary unit into the heart of Melbourne’s CBD on Friday was met with shock… For those who couldn’t be there, they took to social media to poke fun at what has been compared to Nazi Germany.
And Fairfax had no trouble at all likening the Abbott Government and its border force not only to the Nazis but to Stalin, the Stasi and terrorists:
[Former Independent MP Tony] Windsor said: “I’ve got no doubt that some of these people in Abbott’s government hope that something goes wrong domestically. That they can taunt a Muslim into doing something so that they can say that we’re the only ones that can protect you...”
On Friday evening the Abbott government remained under pressure to explain why the police-led operation including the Australian Border Force involved stopping people for visa checks - a measure independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie compared to East Germany’s Stasi. Federal MP Clive Palmer offered his own assessment of the operation on Twitter, likening it to 1930’s Germany.
All that’s fine - even the bat-crazy claim that Government MPs wanted to taunt Muslims into killing Australians.
But hark the hysterical shrieking from Fairfax when Tony Abbott merely notes - correctly - that the Islamic States boasts about the kind of atrocities that even the Nazis preferrred to hide.
Mark Kenny, who has a history of damning in Abbott what he praises in Abbott-haters, even when it comes to their choice of footwear, does it again, with added sanctimony:
Invited by his favourite radio barracker Alan Jones to knock out of the park the suggestion of any electoral advantage from talking up the IS threat, he called it “nonsense”. “The latest atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive. I mean, the Nazis did terrible evil but they had a sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it,” he said.
There is no argument with his characterisation of the brutal IS, but the usual rule in debating is that mentioning Hitler and Nazis does not strengthen one’s argument. Besides, what was he saying? Yes, the Nazis were bad, but at least they felt bad about it? Their victims and many beyond will be understandably offended. This pointless foray suggests a Prime Minister more comfortable dividing than uniting.
Note also the rank misrepresentation by Fairfax reporter James Massola and Jewish activist Robert Goot, who should apologise:
Australia’s peak Jewish group has rounded on Prime Minister Tony Abbott for suggesting Islamic State terrorists are in some ways worse than the Nazis.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot said Mr Abbott’s comparison of the Islamic State and Nazi Germany was “injudicious and unfortunate”.
There is a madness to much of the media coverage of Abbott that is truly frightening. Am I allowed to draw an analogy with Goebbels, or is that, too, reserved for the Left?
===
The SMH this week on John Oliver:
That’s not to say his 70-minute routine was without sharp and sometimes brutally honest observations of Australia – a nation he labelled the most comfortably racist in the world (to applause from the audience).... He opened his routine likening last weekend’s planned operation by the Australian Border Force to Nazi Germany…The Age on the Abbott Government’s Australian Border Force:
The Australian Border Force (ABF) operation ... was to patrol Melbourne to target potential visa fraudsters and anti-social behaviour… Comparisons to Joseph Stalin, Nazi Germany and the Troubles in Northern Ireland were quickly replaced by images of a doddering Grandpa Simpson just hours after the strategy was announced on Friday morning.The Age again last week (with a false claim, as well):
The Abbott Government’s bizarre decision to send in the country’s new paramilitary unit into the heart of Melbourne’s CBD on Friday was met with shock… For those who couldn’t be there, they took to social media to poke fun at what has been compared to Nazi Germany.And Fairfax had no trouble at all likening the Abbott Government and its border force not only to the Nazis but to Stalin, the Stasi and terrorists:
[Former Independent MP Tony] Windsor said: “I’ve got no doubt that some of these people in Abbott’s government hope that something goes wrong domestically. That they can taunt a Muslim into doing something so that they can say that we’re the only ones that can protect you...”All that’s fine - even the bat-crazy claim that Government MPs wanted to taunt Muslims into killing Australians.
On Friday evening the Abbott government remained under pressure to explain why the police-led operation including the Australian Border Force involved stopping people for visa checks - a measure independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie compared to East Germany’s Stasi. Federal MP Clive Palmer offered his own assessment of the operation on Twitter, likening it to 1930’s Germany.
But hark the hysterical shrieking from Fairfax when Tony Abbott merely notes - correctly - that the Islamic States boasts about the kind of atrocities that even the Nazis preferrred to hide.
Mark Kenny, who has a history of damning in Abbott what he praises in Abbott-haters, even when it comes to their choice of footwear, does it again, with added sanctimony:
Invited by his favourite radio barracker Alan Jones to knock out of the park the suggestion of any electoral advantage from talking up the IS threat, he called it “nonsense”. “The latest atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive. I mean, the Nazis did terrible evil but they had a sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it,” he said.Note also the rank misrepresentation by Fairfax reporter James Massola and Jewish activist Robert Goot, who should apologise:
There is no argument with his characterisation of the brutal IS, but the usual rule in debating is that mentioning Hitler and Nazis does not strengthen one’s argument. Besides, what was he saying? Yes, the Nazis were bad, but at least they felt bad about it? Their victims and many beyond will be understandably offended. This pointless foray suggests a Prime Minister more comfortable dividing than uniting.
Australia’s peak Jewish group has rounded on Prime Minister Tony Abbott for suggesting Islamic State terrorists are in some ways worse than the Nazis.There is a madness to much of the media coverage of Abbott that is truly frightening. Am I allowed to draw an analogy with Goebbels, or is that, too, reserved for the Left?
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot said Mr Abbott’s comparison of the Islamic State and Nazi Germany was “injudicious and unfortunate”.
The barbaric cynicism of the ABC’s Jonathan Green
Andrew Bolt September 03 2015 (10:10pm)
ABC host Jonathan Green last night:
The other thing here on the point of shame and advertising your evil is that IS [Islamic State] depend on the likes of Tony Abbott to do that job for them - to exaggerate their evil, to continually talk about their death cultness, to parade this in front of us, this is doing their promotional work for them.
From the Islamic State on the weekend:
A question for Green: in what way does Tony Abbott “exaggerate their evil”?
Via Rita Panahi, who wisely observes:
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The other thing here on the point of shame and advertising your evil is that IS [Islamic State] depend on the likes of Tony Abbott to do that job for them - to exaggerate their evil, to continually talk about their death cultness, to parade this in front of us, this is doing their promotional work for them.From the Islamic State on the weekend:
A question for Green: in what way does Tony Abbott “exaggerate their evil”?
Via Rita Panahi, who wisely observes:
Wishing that Peter Whish-Wilson will soon shut up
Piers Akerman – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (6:39pm)
FORMER Greens leader Bob Brown could not have chosen a better replacement in the senate than Peter Whish-Wilson, another aberrant mainlander who found a safe haven for his bizarre views in the chill backblocks of Tasmania.
Continue reading 'Wishing that Peter Whish-Wilson will soon shut up'
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FORMER Greens leader Bob Brown could not have chosen a better replacement in the senate than Peter Whish-Wilson, another aberrant mainlander who found a safe haven for his bizarre views in the chill backblocks of Tasmania.
Continue reading 'Wishing that Peter Whish-Wilson will soon shut up'
MUTE AND INJURED
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (6:10am)
James Rhodes on Rotherham’s unique infamy:
Rotherham stands apart for many reasons: the sheer number of perpetrators; the sheer numbers involved (some survivors, some, sadly, inevitably victims) – 1,400 conservatively estimated – the contents of two state secondary schools or 127 school football teams. But there is a more devastating reason it stands alone: the resounding silence.
Just as shameful is the continuing silence, from exactly the same PC types whose silence provided cover for perpetrators during more than a decade of vicious sexual abuse:
As of this writing, Google can find no mention of Rotherham (except for one or two discussion comments) at any of the feminist websites I examined: Feministing, Feministe, Bitch Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Bust, Crunk Feminist Collective, Jezebel, Broadsheet, and The XX Factor. Progressive news sites including MSNBC, Daily Kos, Think Progress, and Truthout were also completely silent on this topic …
There are two facts that explains their silence. The perpetrators were Pakistani Muslims. And the victims were white.
Similarly, many Australian feminists are also oddly quiet about these 1400 sexual assaults. Perhaps they might be more upset if Yorkshire gangs used the word frightbat. They’re entirely silent, too, on the open sale in Sydney ofbooks that denounce women as evil and stupid. Our formerly ferocious frightbats have become mute and injured turtles.
Meanwhile, back in Rotherham, the town’s counselling service for women had a six-month waiting list even before news broke of the systematic sexual torture of young girls. And Rotherham is not the only British town so afflicted, as The Economist reports:
The horrors in Rotherham fit into a pattern. In other northern towns such as Oldham and Rochdale, as well as in southern cities such as Oxford, gangs of Asian men have been convicted of grooming and abusing young, mostly white girls.
Individual stories of Rotherham’s victims are horrifying. These girls were defenceless. They had no support. They still don’t.
UPDATE. Clementine Ford is “genuinely shocked”.
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James Rhodes on Rotherham’s unique infamy:
Rotherham stands apart for many reasons: the sheer number of perpetrators; the sheer numbers involved (some survivors, some, sadly, inevitably victims) – 1,400 conservatively estimated – the contents of two state secondary schools or 127 school football teams. But there is a more devastating reason it stands alone: the resounding silence.
Just as shameful is the continuing silence, from exactly the same PC types whose silence provided cover for perpetrators during more than a decade of vicious sexual abuse:
As of this writing, Google can find no mention of Rotherham (except for one or two discussion comments) at any of the feminist websites I examined: Feministing, Feministe, Bitch Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Bust, Crunk Feminist Collective, Jezebel, Broadsheet, and The XX Factor. Progressive news sites including MSNBC, Daily Kos, Think Progress, and Truthout were also completely silent on this topic …There are two facts that explains their silence. The perpetrators were Pakistani Muslims. And the victims were white.
Similarly, many Australian feminists are also oddly quiet about these 1400 sexual assaults. Perhaps they might be more upset if Yorkshire gangs used the word frightbat. They’re entirely silent, too, on the open sale in Sydney ofbooks that denounce women as evil and stupid. Our formerly ferocious frightbats have become mute and injured turtles.
Meanwhile, back in Rotherham, the town’s counselling service for women had a six-month waiting list even before news broke of the systematic sexual torture of young girls. And Rotherham is not the only British town so afflicted, as The Economist reports:
The horrors in Rotherham fit into a pattern. In other northern towns such as Oldham and Rochdale, as well as in southern cities such as Oxford, gangs of Asian men have been convicted of grooming and abusing young, mostly white girls.
Individual stories of Rotherham’s victims are horrifying. These girls were defenceless. They had no support. They still don’t.
UPDATE. Clementine Ford is “genuinely shocked”.
GREENSPEAK
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (6:05am)
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson thinks we shouldn’t refer to Islamic State terrorists as terrorists. Sadly, the former academic and winemaker hasn’t offered any alternatives. Let’s help him out:
Thank you for voting!
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Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson thinks we shouldn’t refer to Islamic State terrorists as terrorists. Sadly, the former academic and winemaker hasn’t offered any alternatives. Let’s help him out:
Thank you for voting!
STRAINING, NOT DROWNING
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (5:28am)
Academic Richard Mulgan considers the dreadful cost of the Abbott government’s asylum seeker policies:
Stopping the boats has been a clear success for the Abbott government. Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison said they would stop the boats and, give or take the odd exception, they have. But implementing the policy has not been without cost. In particular, it has strained the professional and ethical integrity of the public servants involved …
I think I’m going to cry.
UPDATE. Following last week’s respect and diversity workshop crisis, another Canberra public service emergency:
A public servant who claimed a telephone call from his boss left him psychologically unfit for work has lost his battle for workers’ compensation.
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Academic Richard Mulgan considers the dreadful cost of the Abbott government’s asylum seeker policies:
Stopping the boats has been a clear success for the Abbott government. Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison said they would stop the boats and, give or take the odd exception, they have. But implementing the policy has not been without cost. In particular, it has strained the professional and ethical integrity of the public servants involved …
I think I’m going to cry.
UPDATE. Following last week’s respect and diversity workshop crisis, another Canberra public service emergency:
A public servant who claimed a telephone call from his boss left him psychologically unfit for work has lost his battle for workers’ compensation.
WHISHED AWAY
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (5:25am)
Greens leader Christine Milne explains Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson’s plea to stop “demonising” terrorists bycalling them terrorists:
“Senator Whish-Wilson was describing a well-understood part of counter-insurgency strategy: that extremists sometimes use the military intervention of outside countries as a tool to radicalism (sic) people,” she said in a statement.
Milne is evidently able to speak a foreign language in English. Quite a skill.
UPDATE. This bloke just doesn’t know when to shut up:
Senator Whish-Wilson also raised concern about the government’s use of the word “evil”.
“In the last week, we have been hearing a lot about ‘evil’—’unspeakable evil’, ‘unfathomable evil’ and ‘pure evil’. What I and, I think, a lot of Australians would like to see is some truth, honesty and perspective around that word.”
Here’s some truth, honesty and perspective for you, Peter.
===
Greens leader Christine Milne explains Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson’s plea to stop “demonising” terrorists bycalling them terrorists:
“Senator Whish-Wilson was describing a well-understood part of counter-insurgency strategy: that extremists sometimes use the military intervention of outside countries as a tool to radicalism (sic) people,” she said in a statement.
Milne is evidently able to speak a foreign language in English. Quite a skill.
UPDATE. This bloke just doesn’t know when to shut up:
Senator Whish-Wilson also raised concern about the government’s use of the word “evil”.“In the last week, we have been hearing a lot about ‘evil’—’unspeakable evil’, ‘unfathomable evil’ and ‘pure evil’. What I and, I think, a lot of Australians would like to see is some truth, honesty and perspective around that word.”
Here’s some truth, honesty and perspective for you, Peter.
STICK IT TO THE MANN
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (4:40am)
“Mann started this thing,” writes Mark Steyn of his legal battle against Big Climate’s main idiot, “but I promise you I will finish it.” You can join the fight by visiting the Steyn Store and picking out a book or two.
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“Mann started this thing,” writes Mark Steyn of his legal battle against Big Climate’s main idiot, “but I promise you I will finish it.” You can join the fight by visiting the Steyn Store and picking out a book or two.
WHEELS OF CHANGE
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (3:34am)
This would be good:
The Coalition wants to allow Australians to import cars from overseas, under radical changes aimed at deregulating the automotive market for consumers.
In a move expected to provoke a strong backlash from traditional car dealerships, people would be free to purchase new cars online from overseas dealers, as long as vehicles complied with international standards …
Allowing consumers to import new cars would be coupled with the abolition of Australian-specific design rules for the sector, with the country instead shifting to UN standards in an attempt to reduce red tape and compliance costs.
That last point is especially important. While Australia has gradually reduced foreign car tariffs, our unique – often pointlessly so – design rules remain a barrier to importation, particularly for small-scale manufacturers who cannot afford to re-tool for the relatively small Australian market.
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This would be good:
The Coalition wants to allow Australians to import cars from overseas, under radical changes aimed at deregulating the automotive market for consumers.In a move expected to provoke a strong backlash from traditional car dealerships, people would be free to purchase new cars online from overseas dealers, as long as vehicles complied with international standards …Allowing consumers to import new cars would be coupled with the abolition of Australian-specific design rules for the sector, with the country instead shifting to UN standards in an attempt to reduce red tape and compliance costs.
That last point is especially important. While Australia has gradually reduced foreign car tariffs, our unique – often pointlessly so – design rules remain a barrier to importation, particularly for small-scale manufacturers who cannot afford to re-tool for the relatively small Australian market.
LITERATE, FUNDAMENTALIST SWANS
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 04, 2014 (2:50am)
The Spectator‘s Rod Liddle discovers the source of mysterious anti-Semitic attacks in Europe:
I was attacked by a swan the other day, as I walked along the bank of the River Stour in Kent. The creature climbed out of the water and lunged towards me, wings puffed up, making this guttural and hate-filled coughing noise. I kicked out at its stupid neck and told it to f**k off and the bird backed away towards the river, still making that demented hissing, like a badly maintained boiler.
At first I was mystified as to how I had gained its enmity. I wasn’t near its mate and still further distant from its sallow and bedraggled idiot children. Nor had I advanced towards it, or even given it a threatening glare. And then the horrible realisation dawned on me. The swan had attacked me because it believed — mistakenly — that I was Jewish. There was no other possible explanation. And as I stood, a little shaken, on that riverbank, it occurred too that all of these mysterious anti-Semitic attacks which we’ve been hearing about recently, the attacks in which the perpetrators remain a complete and utter mystery, are almost certainly the work of swans. Why had I not realised this before?
Given the evasions and omissions in British media – a few of which are subsequently listed – Liddle’s conclusion is understandable. In related developments: “There are few weapons as deadly as the Israeli house.”
UPDATE. Fundamentalist swans in suburban Melbourne.
===
The Spectator‘s Rod Liddle discovers the source of mysterious anti-Semitic attacks in Europe:
I was attacked by a swan the other day, as I walked along the bank of the River Stour in Kent. The creature climbed out of the water and lunged towards me, wings puffed up, making this guttural and hate-filled coughing noise. I kicked out at its stupid neck and told it to f**k off and the bird backed away towards the river, still making that demented hissing, like a badly maintained boiler.At first I was mystified as to how I had gained its enmity. I wasn’t near its mate and still further distant from its sallow and bedraggled idiot children. Nor had I advanced towards it, or even given it a threatening glare. And then the horrible realisation dawned on me. The swan had attacked me because it believed — mistakenly — that I was Jewish. There was no other possible explanation. And as I stood, a little shaken, on that riverbank, it occurred too that all of these mysterious anti-Semitic attacks which we’ve been hearing about recently, the attacks in which the perpetrators remain a complete and utter mystery, are almost certainly the work of swans. Why had I not realised this before?
Given the evasions and omissions in British media – a few of which are subsequently listed – Liddle’s conclusion is understandable. In related developments: “There are few weapons as deadly as the Israeli house.”
UPDATE. Fundamentalist swans in suburban Melbourne.
They marched against Israel. Why not against the Islamic State?
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (4:33pm)
It is about the only frank and sane paragraph in the entire piece, but comes like rain after a drought from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul McGeough:
A professor of journalism at the American University in Dubai, Bahrani wanted to know why - if Muslims in London, Paris and elsewhere were marching in protest at Israel’s war on Gaza - they were not protesting against the Islamic State massacres of Yazidis, Christians and their fellow Muslims in Iraq and Syria.
Of course, since McGeough is the author, excuses are made, the West criticised and Islam declared innocent of a charge barely spelled out. Yet that one paragraph stays as a reproach - and a warning.
===
A professor of journalism at the American University in Dubai, Bahrani wanted to know why - if Muslims in London, Paris and elsewhere were marching in protest at Israel’s war on Gaza - they were not protesting against the Islamic State massacres of Yazidis, Christians and their fellow Muslims in Iraq and Syria.Of course, since McGeough is the author, excuses are made, the West criticised and Islam declared innocent of a charge barely spelled out. Yet that one paragraph stays as a reproach - and a warning.
John Madigan quits DLP
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (9:37am)
John Madigan quits the DLP:
Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan has quit his party citing internal warfare, but says he will continue out the remainder of his term as an independent Senator…
He told the Senate he remains committed to the DLP’s principles but the “cancer of political intrigue” had infected the Victorian branch of his party.
“It has become apparent to me that the DLP’s own worst enemies are within its own ranks,” Senator Madigan told Parliament… He said the “attack” had moved into his office earlier this year, via an office manager his party officials had urged him to employ.
The DLP gets Madigan elected. He then quits it.
===
Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan has quit his party citing internal warfare, but says he will continue out the remainder of his term as an independent Senator…The DLP gets Madigan elected. He then quits it.
He told the Senate he remains committed to the DLP’s principles but the “cancer of political intrigue” had infected the Victorian branch of his party.
“It has become apparent to me that the DLP’s own worst enemies are within its own ranks,” Senator Madigan told Parliament… He said the “attack” had moved into his office earlier this year, via an office manager his party officials had urged him to employ.
Lambie says she has Aboriginal ancestry
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (9:28am)
Suddenly harder to criticise:
THE outspoken Jacqui Lambie has revealed her Aboriginality during a sometimes fiery first speech to parliament, and has pledged to work for Jesus Christ and all Tasmanians in her next six years as a senator.
The Palmer United Party crossbencher opened her address by paying her respects to Australia’s traditional owners, telling parliament she shared their blood, culture and history through her mother, Sue. “We trace our history over six generations to celebrated Aboriginal chieftain of the Tasmanian east coast, Manalargerna,” she said.
More trouble in the team:
Senator Lambie’s parents and two sons, Brenton and Dylan, were in the gallery, but PUP leader Clive Palmer was absent. Senator Lambie yesterday refused to excuse the behaviour of Mr Palmer on Tuesday night, after he stormed out of another TV appearance before a segment with the Ten Network’s The Project. Mr Palmer was meant to pour a bucket of icy water over Senator Lambie as part of the ice bucket challenge for ALS and motor neurone disease, but when he saw a second bucket of water, apparently assuming it was for him, he took off, outraged. “I don’t make excuses for Clive Palmer,” she said.
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THE outspoken Jacqui Lambie has revealed her Aboriginality during a sometimes fiery first speech to parliament, and has pledged to work for Jesus Christ and all Tasmanians in her next six years as a senator.More trouble in the team:
The Palmer United Party crossbencher opened her address by paying her respects to Australia’s traditional owners, telling parliament she shared their blood, culture and history through her mother, Sue. “We trace our history over six generations to celebrated Aboriginal chieftain of the Tasmanian east coast, Manalargerna,” she said.
Senator Lambie’s parents and two sons, Brenton and Dylan, were in the gallery, but PUP leader Clive Palmer was absent. Senator Lambie yesterday refused to excuse the behaviour of Mr Palmer on Tuesday night, after he stormed out of another TV appearance before a segment with the Ten Network’s The Project. Mr Palmer was meant to pour a bucket of icy water over Senator Lambie as part of the ice bucket challenge for ALS and motor neurone disease, but when he saw a second bucket of water, apparently assuming it was for him, he took off, outraged. “I don’t make excuses for Clive Palmer,” she said.
Tony Abbott becomes a real Prime Minister
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (8:42am)
THE best thing about Tony Abbott’s first year as Prime Minister has been — thank God — he isn’t Labor. But that’s no longer the main reason he’s looking hard to beat, after months of trailing in the polls.
Abbott has now become what long seemed impossible. A year after his election win he looks like a real Prime Minister and not just because he’s just got all his big promises through Parliament.
Sure, it may seem a backhander to praise Abbott most for at least not giving us another year of government like Labor’s previous six. But that’s not nothing. Could voters really have tolerated more mad Kevin Rudd-like spending on overpriced school halls and pink batts?
Could we really have endured more Julia Gillard-style cock-ups of the kind that had hundreds of boat people drowning and the live cattle trade wrecked overnight? Could the country really have afforded more mega-deficits, more class war rhetoric, more trouble with Indonesia and billions wasted on carbon taxes?
Abbott, on the other hand, has — so far — given us no bureaucratic disasters. He is not ramping up spending. He has actually fixed disasters of Labor’s own making, repairing the relationship with Indonesia, stopping the boats and cauterising the worst of the utterly grotesque waste of Labor’s National Broadband Network disaster.
He’d have fixed more if Labor wasn’t stopping him in the Senate, stupidly joining with the Greens and Clive Palmer’s senators to block some of his cuts and welfare reforms.
Not repeating the chaos and waste of Rudd and Gillard is not a coincidence. It is always the main virtue of conservative politicians that they not only have the accelerator that Labor pumps like madmen but have a brake as well.
(Read full article here.)
===
Abbott has now become what long seemed impossible. A year after his election win he looks like a real Prime Minister and not just because he’s just got all his big promises through Parliament.
Sure, it may seem a backhander to praise Abbott most for at least not giving us another year of government like Labor’s previous six. But that’s not nothing. Could voters really have tolerated more mad Kevin Rudd-like spending on overpriced school halls and pink batts?
Could we really have endured more Julia Gillard-style cock-ups of the kind that had hundreds of boat people drowning and the live cattle trade wrecked overnight? Could the country really have afforded more mega-deficits, more class war rhetoric, more trouble with Indonesia and billions wasted on carbon taxes?
Abbott, on the other hand, has — so far — given us no bureaucratic disasters. He is not ramping up spending. He has actually fixed disasters of Labor’s own making, repairing the relationship with Indonesia, stopping the boats and cauterising the worst of the utterly grotesque waste of Labor’s National Broadband Network disaster.
He’d have fixed more if Labor wasn’t stopping him in the Senate, stupidly joining with the Greens and Clive Palmer’s senators to block some of his cuts and welfare reforms.
Not repeating the chaos and waste of Rudd and Gillard is not a coincidence. It is always the main virtue of conservative politicians that they not only have the accelerator that Labor pumps like madmen but have a brake as well.
(Read full article here.)
Cuts must still be on our agenda as our living standards fall
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (8:33am)
We should be reforming like fury to save ourselves. Instead, Budget cuts are blocked even though Chris Richardson warns we’re getting poorer:
Wednesday’s national accounts showed that real net national disposable income per head – measure of the living standards of the average Australian, as measured by the Bureau of Statistics – is still going backwards..
Whereas our living standards per head grew at an average rate of 1.9 per cent a year for three decades, they’ve virtually stood still since the global financial crisis hit – and fell again in the last few months…
When the China boom was at its height, the tax windfall to Canberra was stupendous. However, whereas the impact of the China boom on the budget turned out to be temporary, the promises made off the back of it turned out to be permanent – leaving behind a budget repair task.
That’s why it is “do the deal” time in Canberra. The mining tax compromise has now happened, with the government managing not to give up too much as it negotiated a path between what was desirable and what was achievable… Yet the continued pressure on national income is a reminder why dramas over the federal budget just won’t go away, even if many in the Senate would like them to.
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Wednesday’s national accounts showed that real net national disposable income per head – measure of the living standards of the average Australian, as measured by the Bureau of Statistics – is still going backwards..
Whereas our living standards per head grew at an average rate of 1.9 per cent a year for three decades, they’ve virtually stood still since the global financial crisis hit – and fell again in the last few months…
When the China boom was at its height, the tax windfall to Canberra was stupendous. However, whereas the impact of the China boom on the budget turned out to be temporary, the promises made off the back of it turned out to be permanent – leaving behind a budget repair task.
That’s why it is “do the deal” time in Canberra. The mining tax compromise has now happened, with the government managing not to give up too much as it negotiated a path between what was desirable and what was achievable… Yet the continued pressure on national income is a reminder why dramas over the federal budget just won’t go away, even if many in the Senate would like them to.
A good team, needing only a better team plan
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (8:23am)
Niki Savva rates the Abbott team. Strangely, the total of the parts is greater than the sum - or at least the sum in most journalists’ mind:
Scott Morrison’s unflinching single-mindedness has stopped the boats, stopped the drownings, saved $2.5bn over the forward estimates and delivered an emphatic plus for the government.
Andrew Robb, tireless and unsung, has secured lucrative trade deals.
Mitch Fifield’s dedication to disability care has won respect as well as affection across a sector that had the potential to be extremely hostile.
Malcolm remains Malcolm: popular, competent, mischievous. Barnaby likewise. The few women who are there, Sussan Ley, Michaelia Cash and Marise Payne have performed well enough to merit promotion.
Mathias Cormann has been herculean, competent and relentless as he leads the economics team in 2½ jobs, his own as Finance Minister, Arthur Sinodinos’s of assistant treasurer and half of Hockey’s as Treasurer…
The shambolic prelude to the repeal of the carbon tax ensured Abbott and Environment Minister Greg Hunt did not get the credit for it they deserved. The mining tax repeal enabled the PM to tick off all his major pledges just days before the first anniversary. It cost $6bn, bent another promise, but it was better than the alternative and worth it for the morale boost it gave him and his beleaguered Treasurer.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Scott Morrison’s unflinching single-mindedness has stopped the boats, stopped the drownings, saved $2.5bn over the forward estimates and delivered an emphatic plus for the government.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Andrew Robb, tireless and unsung, has secured lucrative trade deals.
Mitch Fifield’s dedication to disability care has won respect as well as affection across a sector that had the potential to be extremely hostile.
Malcolm remains Malcolm: popular, competent, mischievous. Barnaby likewise. The few women who are there, Sussan Ley, Michaelia Cash and Marise Payne have performed well enough to merit promotion.
Mathias Cormann has been herculean, competent and relentless as he leads the economics team in 2½ jobs, his own as Finance Minister, Arthur Sinodinos’s of assistant treasurer and half of Hockey’s as Treasurer…
The shambolic prelude to the repeal of the carbon tax ensured Abbott and Environment Minister Greg Hunt did not get the credit for it they deserved. The mining tax repeal enabled the PM to tick off all his major pledges just days before the first anniversary. It cost $6bn, bent another promise, but it was better than the alternative and worth it for the morale boost it gave him and his beleaguered Treasurer.
A key question: why do Muslim terrorists behead people?
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (7:59am)
Douglas Murray asks a very important question very few people want to answer:
Why do they behead people? Why do Islamic extremists—like those who killed the American journalist James Foley—choose beheading as their savage tactic of choice? ...
It’s not just in the Middle East. Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam. Drummer Lee Rigby in South London…
But surely one part of the reason beheading is chosen – if not the major part – is the fact that the Qu’ran has verses telling believers, in certain circumstances, that this is the appropriate way to kill those who are not Muslim? Is this not an important point? What about the fact that the founder of Islam himself engaged in such acts? ...
I open one of my copies of the Qu’ran (Arberry translation, OUP) and read Chapter 8 (‘The Spoils [of war]’). Verse 12 has God saying:
‘I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them.’
...The extremists ... know [the verse] is there, often cite it and believe they are doing what Allah has instructed them to do when they perform such savageries.
It is the same when it comes to the example of Muhammad. Muslims are brought up to believe that the founder of their faith was the perfect human being – a man to be revered and indeed emulated. So what do they do when they read the early accounts of their prophet’s life and discover that among his exploits in war was the beheading of hundreds of Jewish men of the Banu Qurayza tribe? ... I think these facts, in Islam’s foundational texts, matter… After all, wouldn’t the history of Christianity have been different – and Christianity’s history been even bloodier than it has been – if instead of saying ‘Turn the other cheek’ Jesus had said even just once ‘Slay the idolaters wherever you find them’ [Quran, Arberry trans, Chapter IX, verse 5]. Imagine if Jesus had beheaded people. There would be a lot of work to do to make sure no Christian anywhere followed his example.
(Thanks to reader Wozzup.)
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Why do they behead people? Why do Islamic extremists—like those who killed the American journalist James Foley—choose beheading as their savage tactic of choice? ...(Thanks to reader Wozzup.)
It’s not just in the Middle East. Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam. Drummer Lee Rigby in South London…
But surely one part of the reason beheading is chosen – if not the major part – is the fact that the Qu’ran has verses telling believers, in certain circumstances, that this is the appropriate way to kill those who are not Muslim? Is this not an important point? What about the fact that the founder of Islam himself engaged in such acts? ...
I open one of my copies of the Qu’ran (Arberry translation, OUP) and read Chapter 8 (‘The Spoils [of war]’). Verse 12 has God saying:
‘I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them.’...The extremists ... know [the verse] is there, often cite it and believe they are doing what Allah has instructed them to do when they perform such savageries.
It is the same when it comes to the example of Muhammad. Muslims are brought up to believe that the founder of their faith was the perfect human being – a man to be revered and indeed emulated. So what do they do when they read the early accounts of their prophet’s life and discover that among his exploits in war was the beheading of hundreds of Jewish men of the Banu Qurayza tribe? ... I think these facts, in Islam’s foundational texts, matter… After all, wouldn’t the history of Christianity have been different – and Christianity’s history been even bloodier than it has been – if instead of saying ‘Turn the other cheek’ Jesus had said even just once ‘Slay the idolaters wherever you find them’ [Quran, Arberry trans, Chapter IX, verse 5]. Imagine if Jesus had beheaded people. There would be a lot of work to do to make sure no Christian anywhere followed his example.
Super isn’t free. It comes from your pay
Andrew Bolt September 04 2014 (7:19am)
Adam Creighton says super tomorrow is lost wages today:
Until this is changed ... compulsory superannuation will remain a costly, unfair burden and lucrative subsidy to fund managers…
Myth ... : business pays for increases in the SG. “Although employers are required to make superannuation guarantee contributions, employees bear the cost of these contributions through lower wage growth,” [Ken Henry’s tax] review says, flatly contradicting Labor Senate Leader Penny Wong this week, who denied on ABC TV a link with take-home pay.
“The effect of this reduction in a person’s standard of living falls most heavily on low to middle-income earners who are unlikely to be in a position to offset the increase in the superannuation guarantee by reducing their other savings,” it goes on.... The Rudd government ignored the Henry review, announcing without justification in May 2010 the share of workers’ wages to be siphoned into remote, untouchable accounts destined to be ravaged by fees would rise to 12 per cent, come hell or high water.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill,)
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Here's an idle thought. If you were voting in Griffith knowing that Rudd will spit the dummy after the election and you would be forced to vote again in a By-election, would you still vote for Rudd?
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If this isn't real .. well some gangsta should go to jail .. ed
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From my cousin, Gym - ed
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Read to the end where the author will be disclosed. Very interesting.
" Who is Tony Abbott?
Overheard last week: "It's such a shame there isn't someone other than Tony Abbott as alternative Prime Minister. We think the Gillard government is bad for the country, but it would be better if we had another Opposition leader to vote for."
It caused me to ask why that view might exist given Abbott's background, and I wondered if it might be that people do not know his history. So, I have put together some information which might help get a better understanding of the man.
Abbott graduated from the University of Sydney with degrees in Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Bachelor of Economics (BEc). Then he became a Rhodes Scholar at Queens College Oxford UK in Politics and Philosophy. He also won a boxing blue at Oxford. He married Margaret in 1987 and has three daughters. He is a member of the congregation of the Catholic Church.
He was involved in student politics, but beyond that, biographer Michael Duffy, wrote that during his student days he saved a child who was swept out to sea. Another time, he helped save children from a burning house next to a pub where he was drinking. On each occasion he disappeared before he could be properly thanked
He is a member of Manly's Queenscliffe SLSC, and a member of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, both of which he joined before it was politically expedient to do so. He spent several weeks teaching in remote Aboriginal settlements in Cape York in an effort 'to familiarise himself with indigenous issues'
If you are wondering where some of the negativity attributed to Tony Abbott comes from, go on to the Net and have a look at the comments which followed, 2 years ago, when he was asked by the Women's Weekly
"What advice would you give your three daughters on sex before marriage?" He told the magazine: ‘’I would say to my daughters, if they were to ask me this question “it is the greatest gift you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don't give it up to someone lightly."
Yet, if you were to read many of the comments on the Internet and the print media at the time, you could be forgiven for thinking he was attempting to impose his will on all females in Australia, had ranted against women, had argued for Muslim like chastity, and so on.................. See for yourself - Google it! Gillard's response was to accuse Abbott of "lecturing women"???
I have also included a video of Abbott where he commented on, in what seems to me to be quite a balanced fashion, "climate change" yet the title of the video suggests he has been extreme in "denying climate change and advocating carbon tax". See what you think. Then have a look at the longer interview from which this original excerpt was taken.
Abbott has had a history of being told by 'ABC types' that he lacks compassion, does not understand homosexuality or homosexuals, avoids situations where he might need to face up to gay relationships, and so on. Again, because he was not prepared to reveal personal issues of others (ethics, principles), he did not speak about his own sister's lesbian relationship and the part he played in supporting her. It would have been an easy defence for him, but in line with his principles and values, he chose not to use it.
Granted, he is not a super smooth, off the cuff, speaker, and does not fit the orator mould. But when he is compared to the glib tongues and untrustworthiness of Gillard, Rudd, Swan, etc., it is not difficult to determine which attributes are more important for the leadership of Australia.
After Abbott completed his studies, he became a journalist for The Bulletin and also the Australian. For a time he was plant manager for Pioneer Concrete, then became press secretary for the then Opposition Leader, Dr John Hewson. He was elected to Parliament in 1994 at a bi-election. He has held various Ministerial posts and his actions in those roles are a matter of public record. His work ethic is unquestioned.
He was dismayed at the policies of former leader Malcolm Turnbull relating to ETS, and following widespread disaffection with Turnbull's stance among Liberal Party members, threw his hat into the ring, as did Joe Hockey, for leadership of the Liberal Party. Abbott was successful. At the time, the polls were running strongly against the Liberal Party (in the 40% approval range), while Kevin Rudd enjoyed figures around 60%
Within a short space of time, with Abbott as leader, those figures changed to such a degree that Rudd was replaced in the now infamous "faceless men" coup which installed Gillard. Since that time, Abbott has maintained constant focus on the ever widening circle of disasters associated with the Gillard government to the stage where support for that government now hovers around the 30% mark.
Abbott strikes me as a person of integrity, he has values in which I too believe, and ethics based on his Christian beliefs. I would much rather place my trust in someone who, in his actions, has shown he is what he says, rather than someone who will say anything to gain a prospective advantage for themselves.
BY Mark LATHAM, Former Leader of A.L.P."
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Middle East scholar Mordechai Kedar explains how Arab states can’t make lasting peace with Israel as a result of their internal squabbles…specifically Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinians.
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Some people say that Arabs are "native Palestinians", while Jews are
"invaders" and "settlers". But I read the biographies of Israeli and
Palestinian political leaders, and I was confused. Who of Israeli or
Palestinian leaders were born in Palestine?
ISRAELI LEADERS:
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Born 21 October 1949 in Tel Aviv.
EHUD BARAK, Born 12 February 1942 in Mishmar HaSharon, British Mandate of
Palestine
ARIEL SHARON, Born 26 February 1928 in Kfar Malal, British Mandate of
Palestine
EHUD OLMERT, Born 30 September 1945 in Binyamina-Giv'at Ada, British Mandate
of Palestine.
ITZHAK RABIN, Born 1 March 1922 in Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine.
ITZHAK NAVON, Israeli President in 1977-1982. Born 9 April 1921 in
Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine.
EZER WEIZMAN, Israeli President in 1993-2000. Born 15 June 1924 in Tel Aviv,
British Mandate of Palestine.
ARAB PALESTINIAN LEADERS:
YASSER ARAFAT, Born 24 August 1929 in Cairo, Egypt
SAEB ERAKAT, Born April 28, 1955, in Jordan. He has the Jordanian
citizenship.
FAISAL ABDEL QADER AL-HUSSEINI, Born in1948 in Bagdad, Iraq.
SARI NUSSEIBEH, Born in 1949 in Damascus, Syria.
MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR, Born in 1945, in Cairo, Egypt.
So, Israeli leaders, born in Palestine, are “settlers or invaders,” while
Palestinian Arab leaders who were born in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia are
“native Palestinians” ?
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By Truman Brody-Boyd
A 16 year-old returns from the Jewish State with a fresh perspective --- and a message to the administration
JewishWorldReview.com | We live in an age where Big Brother is, in fact, watching. I'm 16 and have grown up surrounded by super advanced technology. Smart phones can tell you what caused the beginning of the yellow fever outbreak in the United States during the 1800s in seconds. My laptop can show me a video someone in Sweden uploaded minutes ago. An IMessage group text can help me get with friends I want to hang with and meet them in a matter of minutes, using my phone's GPS to find the location of the nearest Pizza Hut (which has an app that gives me the address).
So, I don't mind the security when it doesn't hinder me physically. The phone call monitors or the security cameras don't slow me down, they don't make me change the way I live or the things I carry in my bag. Because I've grown up with all of this around me, I'm used to it and don't notice it. But the older generations certainly do, and the NSA scandal has shaken them up. Most above the age of 30 or 40 have been cautious about the oncoming of all this technology.
But when I traveled to Israel in July, American security measures were put into perspective.
Even flying to get to Israel requires more security than regular TSA checks, and Americans think those are awful. If you fly EL AL, the Israeli airline, before you even check in you get screened. A representative from the airline interviews you about your luggage. If they suspect it's been tampered with or suspect that you're lying, you must get your bag screened and -- occasionally -- unpacked. Then, as you board, carry-on luggage is randomly selected to be put with the checked bags.
American security seem reasonable yet?
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The leader of Yemen's embattled and dwindling Jewish community has spoken of his community's harrowing struggle to survive, in a rare interviewwith Yemen Today TV.
Rabbi Yahya Youssef Salem'sinterview, translated by theMiddle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), provides a rare glimpse into the tragic existence of the few remaining Jews in the Middle East's poorest country; trapped between Muslim extremists and unsympathetic government officials, and forced to completely submit their fate to state authorities just to survive.
At the start of the 20th century there were more than 60,000 Jews in Yemen. One of the most ancient Diaspora communities, according to Jewish traditions the first Jews moved to Yemen during the reign of the Biblical King Solomon, around 900 BCE.
But by 2009, following centuries of persecution - which reached fever pitch after 1948, as Jews throughout the Muslim world were targeted in "revenge" for Arab military defeats and the establishment of the State of Israel - the community had shrunk to just 400 or so. Most Yemeni Jews emigrated to Israel during the famous "Operation Magic Carpet" operation to evacuate them between 1949-1950.
By 2012, a resurgent campaign of anti-Semitic violence caused most of the few Jews who remained to either flee the country (mainly to Israel, but also to the US and Europe), or seek sanctuary in a government compound in the capital Sana'a, under the protection of the country's then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
That violence included the murder of Jewish schoolteacher Moshe Nahari in 2008, and of community leader Aaron Zindani in 2010. Both of their families subsequently fled to Israel.
Threats by Al Qaeda-linked groups on the one hand, and Shia Islamist "Houthi" rebels on the other, have forced many of the remaining Jews to flee their homes, seeking refuge in the Sana'a government compound.
And since the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012, things have taken a turn for the worse.
Today, there are only around 90 Jews remaining in Yemen, most of whom live in the Sana'a government compound. 45 Yemeni Jews have emigrated to Israel since the beginning of this year alone.
In an indication of just how closely the community is monitored by the Yemeni authorities, the interviewer notes that she was forced to seek special clearance from the Interior Ministry just to speak to Rabbi Salem, and accused the government of discriminating against its Jewish minority.
When asked why he "accepts" the situation, despite the fact that she has never needed official clearance to interview anyone before, a nervous-looking Rabbi Salem cautiously responds that "we are Yemenis, and we represent the country, so they [the Interior Ministry] need to give their approval," and insists that his community "take[s] care to preserve the good name of our country."
Rabbi Salem also explains how he was forced to cut off his peyot (sidecurls), traditionally grown long by Yemenite Jews, as a result of regular harassment by local Muslims.
Decrying attempts to evict them from their last remaining refuge by the country's Finance Minister - who claims his ministry can no longer fund the leasing of the building they are living in - the Rabbi recounts how the Jews of Sa'ada province, in the north of the country, were forced from their homes by Houthi rebels:
"They took our homes, our land, our cars - they even took my historical library!" he lamented to the openly sympathetic interviewer.
Human rights group Amnesty International has in the past called on the Yemeni government to protect its Jewish citizens, declaring that it is “deeply concerned for the safety of members of the Jewish community in northwestern Yemen following the killing of one member of the community and anonymous serious threats to others to leave Yemen or face death.”
But statements and sympathies aside, little hope remains for the Jewish community of Yemen.
Last month, the Jewish Agency coordinated a complex, secret operation to evacuate 17 more community members, reuniting them with familymembers who had been staying in a third country since escaping earlier in the year.
Those Jews who remain are either elderly or, like Rabbi Salem, community leaders who do not wish to leave their flock behind. But despite his valiant efforts Yemen appears destined to join the long list of Arab countries whose Jewish communities have been driven to extinction.
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There are no simple solutions to the horrors unfolding in Syria. Had the West responded sooner, there might have been a remote chance for moderates within the rebel camp to form a functional political authority. Today, that possibility is inconceivable.
Now the forces of darkness and evil dominate the behavior of the government and rebels alike. The depths of unimaginable barbarism to which both parties have descended exceed the worst horror films.
Merely a few kilometers from Israel’s border in Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad has been butchering and massacring his own people for two years. He has now added chemical weapons to his arsenal. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who, until recently considered Assad a “reformer,” has condemned Assad’s chemical weapons attack as defying “any code of morality” and representing a “moral obscenity.”
The Iranian terrorist regime and its Lebanese terrorist extension, Hezbollah, fully support Assad. Together, they have concocted the ultimate evil witch’s brew. It is shocking that for reasons of realpolitik Russia supports these terrorists in order to bolster its regional influence. It represents Moscow’s most shameful foreign policy initiative since the overthrow of the Evil Empire. The Syrian rebels are guilty of perpetrating similar if not even more grotesque atrocities. Dominated by fanatical jihadists, including Al Qaeda elements committed to global sharia and martyrdom, they have murdered innocent Sunni women and children. They revel in committing vile atrocities, some even descending to the depths of public displays of barbaric acts of cannibalism.
Victory by either side will have disastrous effects on the region. If Assad retains even partial power, Iranian’s state terrorists will consider it a victory. If the rebels succeed, Syria will be controlled by jihadist packs. Unspeakable brutality will inevitably follow. Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, succinctly summed up the situation: “Syria is…mired in carnage between the brutality of Assad and various affiliates of Al Qaeda”.
Within this context, why should the West get involved? Why not let a plague descend on both houses?
Because it is unacceptable for the civilized world to abrogate morality and stand aside as innocent civilians are massacred. If we remain spectators to the mass murder and gassings of innocent civilians, we will be providing a green light to other cruel regimes to act similarly. We will lose our humanity. It will revive memories of the world which stood by as Jews were being exterminated in the Nazi Holocaust.
Intervention is a risky business. Time and again efforts to apply external pressure – especially on authoritarian Arab regimes – have proven to be counterproductive. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and even Egypt, crude attempts at imposing democracy have resulted in the ascendency of fundamentalist Islamic regimes with human rights records far worse than their predecessors.
Nonetheless, the West, led by the US, must act decisively. Despite division within Congress and American opposition to another military intervention, President Obama must deliver on his repeated threats of military action should Assad cross the red line of chemical weapons usage.
Initially Obama tried to fudge the issue, claiming that the US requires approval from the United Nations before embarking on a military initiative, but he faces pressures to act from Britain, France, Turkey and Arab countries. If Obama fails to respond now, Iran, North Korea and other rogue states will have little to fear as they continue in their defiant marches toward nuclear capability.
The risks associated with targeted strikes at chemical weapons arsenals are high. Massive casualties amongst innocent civilians and fallouts are possible. Additionally, there is doubt as to whether US intelligence can accurately identify and ensure the destruction of underground arsenals.
Overall, the current US response has been appalling. It has formally assured Assad that it will restrict its punitive military response to “limited strikes” over a number of days, and stressed that it is not seeking to bring about regime change.
This mere rap over the knuckles is hardly likely to act as a deterrent and the killing business will proceed as in the past. In fact, Assad is likely to boast that he defeated the US and the Western alliance. It will not reassure those concerned about the failure of the US to stand by its commitments and allies. It will certainly not allay Israel’s concerns about the US standing by its undertakings concerning the Iranian nuclear threat.
Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal has urged that the US concentrate on military strikes designed to kill Assad and his principal henchmen. Stephens correctly notes that if President Obama could boast about how he finished Osama bin Laden “with a bullet to the head and another to the heart,” he should have no inhibitions about doing likewise to a mass murderer like Bashar Assad.
Targeted assassinations would avoid becoming enmeshed in a ground war like the US faced in Iraq and Afghanistan. They would serve as a deterrent to other tyrants who would fear for their own lives if they behaved similarly and they would send a signal to the Iranians that the US is not the toothless tiger it often appears to be.
This would neither empower Al Qaeda and the Jihadists nor necessarily lead to an immediate regime change, but it might accelerate division of the country which, from a humanitarian viewpoint, represents the best possible outcome and would limit the civilian massacre which would inevitably result if either party achieves total supremacy.
The writer’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.
He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com
- See more at: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4784#sthash.YHCcwcH4.ucjt1VxB.dpuf
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The staunch Land of Israel advocates in Likud's ranks are worried by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's attempts to reach an interim agreement with the Palestinian Authority, in which a Palestinian state will be established within temporary borders.
Channel 2 reported Monday evening that in a closed meeting of Likud members that included Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon sharply attacked the idea of an interim state, and warned the prime minister against bringing it to the government's approval.
"What will happen if, G-d forbid, the negotiations lead to an agreement, and the prime minister will bring the agreement to the government? They are talking about an interim agreement,” he said. “If an accord like that is presented, the Likud movement must tell whoever is advancing such an arrangement: 'you do not belong in Likud.'”
"These days, the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords is being marked and, rather than admitting failure, the Oslo gang is trying to lead to an interim arrangement in which the State of Israel will give away the majority of its assets and will not receive anything in return,” added Danon.
“Such an arrangement contrary to the DNA of the Likud and the national camp and anyone who supports it - his place will not be in the Likud,” he said.
Last week, Danon said that he is "very disturbed” by the diplomatic efforts:
“I look at the diplomatic negotiations team and I ask myself, who represents the interests of the state of Israel in the negotiations? Who represents the national camp? I respect Livni but she does not represent the national camp. She does not represent the settlers and their numerous supporters. I am very concerned by the fact that the team of Martin Indyk, Tzipi Livni and [PA negotiator Saeb] Erekat is leading us to the days of [Ehud] Olmert and the dividing of Jerusalem, to an agreement that speaks of a retreat from most of the territory in Judea and Samaria.”
"There is no doubt that if negotiations ripen to an agreement by Minister Tzipi Livni and the Israeli government to surrender, the Likud movement will be put to the test, and Likud ministers will have to take a stand and decide if they are loyal to the Likud's path or if they choose to be led by Tzipi Livni, and – in this case – the prime minister. It is my understanding that we are not there and my hope that we will not be there.”
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Local treasure hunters are counting their latest discovery after they found hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold off the Florida coast.
Read more: http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/sanford-family-finds-350k-worth-of-gold-off-fla-coast/-/11788162/21754672/-/jybutoz/-/index.html#ixzz2dv6Qrp2U
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Even as her country burns around her, it seems that image is still everything Asma al-Assad.
The wife of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has apparently embarked on yet another pricey shopping spree, buying luxury products from furniture to health products, according to the Daily Express.
Asma al-Assad, a health fanatic obsessed with her weight and her public image, has reportedly embarked upon what some might term as "retail therapy" since the eruption of the vicious Syrian civil war in 2011, which has killed more than 100,000 people and still poses a serious challenge to the rule - and perhaps the life - of her husband and his inner circle.
Last year, leaked emails showed she ordered luxury furniture worth £270,000 from London’s fashionable King’s Road. A more recent purchase included a set of Bohemian-style crystal chandeliers from Prague.
Mrs Assad is said to be hiding out in a bomb-proof bunker, as the US mulls a possible strike in relation for the regime's use of chemical weapons to kill more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, in what now appears to have been a desperate attempt to push back against rebel advances in the country's capital Damascus.
She is reportedly banned from watching western media outlets in case their reporting of the civil war "depresses" her.
In response to the recent revelations, Ayman Abdel Nour, a former Assad adviser, derided Syria's first lady as heartless.
"She is obsessed by how chic and beautiful she looks. She continues to lead a life of utter luxury," he said "That’s all that matters to her."
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In the latest attempt at property porn, a real estate agent has produced a controversial video in a bid to sell a house in Thornlands, south-east of Brisbane.
In the footage, posted to YouTube August 29, agent Mark Mason takes viewers on a tour of the house, but with a few added extras - including sexual innuendo galore thanks to a gaggle of girls scantily dressed in bikinis.
Mark Mason's real estate ad includes a walk through of the entire house. Source: YouTube
Along with the women utilising the property's bath tub, pool, and bedrooms, Mason produces place cards advertising the benefits and features of the house, cleverly intertwining them with what's happening in the background.
Mr Mason defended the clip, telling news.com.au he flagged the idea with the current owners - a family - who were initially “a bit scared” but approved the footage once they saw the final cut.
“I couldn’t sleep for two days. It was a risk, I thought it would be a problem, but everyone has loved it, from all ages,” he said.
“I didn’t want to come across as sexist. If Coca-Cola, Calvin Klein and all the other big brands can do it, why can’t a real estate do it? Times are changing, real estate can be boring, but when I do something fun and funny, I have people coming through my homes laughing and relaxed.
“They believe we are human and we are doing something different.”
"Ezquisitely crafted": Mark Mason's imaginative way of selling houses. Source: YouTube
And at a whopping $20,000 price tag for the entire production, here’s hoping it’s worth it.
Mr Mason, from Mason Properties, said he was 100 per cent positive the property will sell.
"That was the risk, because my reputation is very important. I’m a very well trusted real estate agent."
The property will go under the hammer on September 28, with Mr Mason confirming the girls will also be in attendance to spur on sales.
Continue the conversation via Twitter @masonproperties |@the_mattyoung
Mark Mason's has used scantily clad women in a real estate ad. Source: YouTube
.. the girls will be in attendance for the auction .. quite right too .. and they were paid for it, so the PM approves ... ed
===
Until this is changed ... compulsory superannuation will remain a costly, unfair burden and lucrative subsidy to fund managers…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill,)
Myth ... : business pays for increases in the SG. “Although employers are required to make superannuation guarantee contributions, employees bear the cost of these contributions through lower wage growth,” [Ken Henry’s tax] review says, flatly contradicting Labor Senate Leader Penny Wong this week, who denied on ABC TV a link with take-home pay.
“The effect of this reduction in a person’s standard of living falls most heavily on low to middle-income earners who are unlikely to be in a position to offset the increase in the superannuation guarantee by reducing their other savings,” it goes on.... The Rudd government ignored the Henry review, announcing without justification in May 2010 the share of workers’ wages to be siphoned into remote, untouchable accounts destined to be ravaged by fees would rise to 12 per cent, come hell or high water.
JewishWorldReview.com | We live in an age where Big Brother is, in fact, watching. I'm 16 and have grown up surrounded by super advanced technology. Smart phones can tell you what caused the beginning of the yellow fever outbreak in the United States during the 1800s in seconds. My laptop can show me a video someone in Sweden uploaded minutes ago. An IMessage group text can help me get with friends I want to hang with and meet them in a matter of minutes, using my phone's GPS to find the location of the nearest Pizza Hut (which has an app that gives me the address).
Mark Mason's real estate ad includes a walk through of the entire house. Source: YouTube
"Ezquisitely crafted": Mark Mason's imaginative way of selling houses. Source: YouTube
Mark Mason's has used scantily clad women in a real estate ad. Source: YouTube
Dean Hamstead'
Making new "rights" pretty much always means siezing private property. Moralise all you like, you are just justifying theft.
===
THE first 3D scan of a female foot in high heels has highlighted the painful price fashion- conscious women may pay for tottering around in towering Christian Louboutins or Jimmy Choos.
Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Andy Goldberg says all the body weight gets forced on to the front of the feet, eventually causing unsightly clawed toes that can become arthritic.
Wearing stilettos pushes and twists bones out of line, resulting in knobbly bunions and other painful conditions.
The picture above was taken with a new $340,000 scanner at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in North London. The PedCAT machine, the first of its kind in the UK, does a 360-degree scan of the patient's feet in just 60 seconds.
Doctors can then view the resultant 3D image from every angle, spinning it around to view the foot from above, below and the side. It also takes 600 2D views of the foot.
Mr Goldberg, a foot and ankle specialist, said the technology was a major advance over traditional 2D X-rays, which could lead to misdiagnoses.
"The scanner gives us much more information"' he said.
'It shows the deformity caused by wearing high heels is much more complicated than we previously thought.
"With high heels, the toes are squashed inside the shoe. The more stiletto-shaped they are, the worse it is. The toes not only get squashed, but they become clawed too." The base of the big toe becomes 'deviated outwards', forming a bunion, while the scanner also shows how these bones can become 'rotated and dropped'.
Pea-shaped bones under the base of the big toe - called sesamoids - get dislodged by the immense pressures put on them.
"There's nothing wrong with being in this high heel position temporarily - it forms a part of your normal stride. And if you wear heels for an hour or two at an evening party, it's not a problem" Mr Goldberg said.
"But if you wear them for eight hours a day for years on end, you will develop problems."
Before the high heel pedCAT scan. Picture: Screengrab, YouTube
It wasn't just middle-aged women who suffered, he said. "It's not uncommon for me to see teenage girls in my clinic. They are usually accompanied by their mothers, who tell them, 'Look, the doctor says you should be wearing sensible shoes!' But I try not to get involved with family politics too much.
"If you have got a family history of high heel wearers and you wear them a lot, you are pretty much guaranteed to develop bunions," he said.
"If you are not genetically predisposed, wearing high heels may accelerate bunions.
"Foot and ankle problems affect your walking and take over your life. There's a saying that if you want to take someone's mind off a problem, put them in tight shoes."
A survey of patients at the hospital's foot and ankle clinic found that 57 per cent had experienced severe pain as a result of wearing uncomfortable shoes such as high heels.
And 86 per cent claimed they found it difficult finding comfortable shoes. In truth, the internet is now awash with firms which offer sensible footwear in fashionable shades.
"People don't like doctors like me saying, 'Your shoes are a problem.' If I suggest they buy themselves some comfy shoes, I'm liable to get punched in the face." Mr Goldberg added. He also claimed some patients exaggerated the pain their bunions caused to get them surgically removed - so they could then continue to squeeze their feet into fashionable shoes.
Mr Goldberg said the damage caused by high heels was nothing new: "We have always been slaves to fashions that have led to deformity.
"But what we should be doing is fitting people's shoes around their feet, rather than the other way around.
"If a fashion icon such as Victoria Beckham designed a range of shoes that really fitted our feet, then that would be a real game-changer."
===
===
THE first 3D scan of a female foot in high heels has highlighted the painful price fashion- conscious women may pay for tottering around in towering Christian Louboutins or Jimmy Choos.
Before the high heel pedCAT scan. Picture: Screengrab, YouTube
Cory Bernardi
The fact is that the Greens are putting our nation at risk.
SHARE this message with your friends and make sure they know all the facts before polling dayhttp://ow.ly/ov8cn
===
The column, “Sex Between Students and Teachers Should Not Be a Crime,” has stirred up controversy since appearing in The Washington Post over the weekend. Former attorney Betsy Karasik wrote the opinion piece in reaction to Montana Judge Todd Baugh sentencing a teacher to 30 days in jail for raping 14-year-old who subsequently committed suicide. That sentence has been overturned.
Read more: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/09/03/washington-post-opinion-piece-argues-student-teacher-sex-should-be-decriminalized-0#ixzz2dv3Qngkh
Bill O'Reilly is correct, it is outrageous .. ed
===
Haunted, Old, Beautiful Mansions, Castles and Spooky Deserted Asylums
Elias Lowenstein was a leader in the Memphis Jewish community.
He served as president of Temple Isreal for 15 years. He contributed liberally to rebuilding the city after the disastrous 1870's yellow fever epidemics. In 1891 Elias Lowenstein built a mansion which was Memphis' most important Victorian Romanesque residence and one of the finest of its styles in the South.
After his death in 1919, his family donated it to the Nineteenth Century Club for use as a residence for young working women who did not have family in the city and, therefore, under social customs of the day were expected to live in a protected environment. A porch with cupola was removed in 1929 for construction of an annex.
Elias Lowenstein House - 1891: Elias Lowenstein, born in Germany, emigrated to Memphis in 1854. In Memphis he headed, B. Lowenstein and Bros. a Department Store, which was prominent in the city for 125 years. Lowenstein was a leader in the Jewish community and served as president of Temple Isreal for 15 years. He also contributed liberally to rebuilding the city after the disastrous 1870's yellow fever epidemics. In 1891 he built this mansion which is the cities most important Victorian Romanesque residence and one of the finest of its styles in the South. After his death in 1919, his family donated it to the Nineteenth Century Club for use as a residence for young working women who didn't have family in the city and, under social customs of the day, were expected to live in a protected environment.
• Follow me Amanda on my other great page ASAP http://www.facebook.com/
===
David Bowles
A quick, rough translation of Petrarch's Sonnet 104, because I'm me and that's just what I do at 11 pm.
I find no peace, yet I've no will to make war,
And I fear, and hope, and burn, and become ice:
I soar above heaven, then lay upon earth;
Nothing do I hold though I everything embrace.
So I'm kept in a cell he neither opens nor shuts,
He won't claim me as his or release the reins,
Though Love doesn't kill me, he won't break the chains;
He doesn't want me living, but he won't set me free.
I see without eyes; have no tongue, yet I scream;
I yearn to die though I cry out for aid;
And I hate myself so I can love someone else:
I feed on my pain; crying, I laugh;
Life and death bring me equal grief.
What a state you've put me in, my dear.
===
''שמע ישראל ה' אלוהינו ה' אחד''
"Listen Israel, the Lord is our G-d... and He is the only One." Deuteronomy 6:4
https://www.yadezra.net/
In honor of Rosh Hashana ( The Jewish New Year) ,tomorrow, we at Yad Ezra V'Shulamit are giving out 12,000 food baskets to needy families, here in Israel.
Hundreds of volunteers have already been amazing at helping to support, package anddeliver baskets of food and we are always looking for partners to help in this tremendous act of kindness for others.
A small donation goes a long way, of time or money.
If you are in Israel and would like to volunteer, or not in Israel and would like to help, we are accepting donations to assist in the cost and effectiveness of feeding these families. $80 makes a big difference.
https://www.yadezra.net/
===
For four years he helped his parents take care of her and saw firsthand the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on her. But Wallack also noticed that when she and other Alzheimer’s patients would do simple jigsaw puzzles, their mood would lighten.
===
- 1260 – Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: SienaGhibellines defeated the Florence Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti thanks to an act of treachery, which was immortalised in Dante's Divine Comedy.
- 1774 – British explorer James Cook became the first European to sight the island of New Caledonia.
- 1888 – American inventor George Eastman (pictured) registered the trademark "Kodak" after receiving a patent for his roll film camera.
- 1964 – The Forth Road Bridge crossing the Firth of Forth in Scotland opened to traffic.
- 1984 – The Progressive Conservative Party led by Brian Mulroney won the largest majority government by total number of seats in Canadian history during the federal election.
===
- 476 – Romulus Augustulus, last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself "King of Italy", thus ending the Western Roman Empire.
- 626 – Li Shimin, posthumously known as Emperor Taizong of Tang, assumes the throne over the Tang dynasty of China.
- 1260 – The Sienese Ghibellines, supported by the forces of Manfred, King of Sicily, defeat the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti.
- 1479 – The Treaty of Alcáçovas is signed by the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon on one side and Afonso V and his son, Prince John of Portugal.
- 1666 – In London, England, the most destructive damage from the Great Fire occurs.
- 1774 – New Caledonia is first sighted by Europeans, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.
- 1781 – Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers.
- 1797 – Coup of 18 Fructidor in France.
- 1800 – The French garrison in Valletta surrenders to British troops who had been called at the invitation of the Maltese. The islands of Malta and Gozo become the Malta Protectorate.
- 1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Harrison begins when the fort is set on fire.
- 1862 – American Civil War Maryland Campaign: General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North.
- 1870 – Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared.
- 1882 – Thomas Edison flips the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in history, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan. This is considered by many as the day that began the electrical age.
- 1886 – American Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.
- 1888 – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.
- 1912 – Albanian rebels succeed in their revolt when the Ottoman Empire agrees to fulfill their demands
- 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, gathers a congress in Sivas to make decisions as to the future of Anatolia and Thrace.
- 1923 – Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship, the USS Shenandoah.
- 1939 – World War II: A Bristol Blenheim is the first British aircraft to cross the German coast following the declaration of war and German ships are bombed.
- 1941 – World War II: A German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship, the USS Greer.
- 1944 – World War II: The British 11th Armoured Division liberates the Belgian city of Antwerp.
- 1944 – World War II: Finland exits from the war with Soviet Union.
- 1948 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
- 1949 – The Peekskill riots erupt after a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York.
- 1950 – Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race.
- 1951 – The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.
- 1957 – American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Central High School.
- 1957 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
- 1963 – Swissair Flight 306 crashes near Dürrenäsch, Switzerland, killing all 80 people on board.
- 1964 – Scotland's Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh officially opens.
- 1967 – Vietnam War: Operation Swift begins when U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley.
- 1970 – Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile.
- 1971 – Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashes near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board.
- 1972 – Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.
- 1975 – The Sinai Interim Agreement relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict is signed.
- 1977 – The Golden Dragon massacre takes place in San Francisco.
- 1985 – The discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, the first fullerene molecule of carbon.
- 1989 – In Leipzig, East Germany, the first of weekly demonstration for the legalisation of opposition groups and democraticreforms takes place.
- 1996 – War on Drugs: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attack a military base in Guaviare, starting three weeks of guerrilla warfare in which at least 130 Colombians are killed.
- 1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
- 2001 – Tokyo DisneySea opens to the public as part of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.
- 2007 – Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations.
- 2010 – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes the South Island of New Zealand causing widespread damage and several power outages.
Births[edit]
- 1241 – Alexander III of Scotland (d. 1286)
- 1383 – Antipope Felix V (d. 1451)
- 1454 – Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English politician, Lord High Constable of England (d. 1483)
- 1557 – Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow (d. 1631)
- 1563 – Wanli Emperor of China (d. 1620)
- 1596 – Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet and composer (d. 1687)
- 1681 – Carl Heinrich Biber, Austrian violinist and composer (d. 1749)
- 1717 – Job Orton, English minister and author (d. 1783)
- 1745 – Shneur Zalman, Russian rabbi, author and founder of Chabad (d. 1812)
- 1755 – Axel von Fersen the Younger, Swedish general and politician (d. 1810)
- 1768 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French historian and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for France (d. 1848)
- 1776 – Stephen Whitney, American businessman (d. 1860)
- 1798 – Raynold Kaufgetz, Swiss soldier, economist, and politician (d. 1869)
- 1809 – Manuel Montt, Chilean scholar and politician, 6th President of Chile (d. 1880)
- 1809 – Juliusz Słowacki, Polish poet and playwright (d. 1849)
- 1824 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1896)
- 1825 – Dadabhai Naoroji, Indian academic and politician, President of the Indian National Congress (d. 1917)
- 1826 – Martin Wiberg, Swedish philosopher and engineer (d. 1905)
- 1832 – Antonio Agliardi, Italian cardinal (d. 1915)
- 1846 – Daniel Burnham, American architect, designed the World's Columbian Exposition (d. 1912)
- 1848 – Lewis Howard Latimer, American inventor (d. 1928)
- 1848 – Jennie Lee, American actress (d. 1925)
- 1850 – Luigi Cadorna, Italian field marshal (d. 1928)
- 1851 – John Dillon, Irish poet and politician (d. 1927)
- 1885 – Antonio Bacci, Italian cardinal (d. 1971)
- 1886 – Albert Orsborn, English 6th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1967)
- 1887 – Roy William Neill, Irish-English director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1946)
- 1890 – Gunnar Sommerfeldt, Danish actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1947)
- 1891 – Fritz Todt, German engineer and politician (d. 1942)
- 1892 – Darius Milhaud, French composer and educator (d. 1974)
- 1896 – Antonin Artaud, French actor, director, and playwright (d. 1948)
- 1901 – William Lyons, English businessman, co-founded Jaguar Cars (d. 1985)
- 1902 – Thomas Mitchell, English cricketer (d. 1996)
- 1905 – Mary Renault, English-South African author (d. 1983)
- 1905 – Walter Zapp, Latvian-Estonian inventor, invented the Minox (d. 2003)
- 1906 – Max Delbrück, German-American biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
- 1907 – Reggie Nalder, Austrian-American actor (d. 1991)
- 1908 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American director and producer (d. 1999)
- 1908 – Richard Wright, American author and poet (d. 1960)
- 1909 – Eduard Wirths, German physician (d. 1945)
- 1910 – Denis Tomlinson, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (d. 1993)
- 1912 – Syd Hoff, American author and illustrator (d. 2004)
- 1912 – Alexander Liberman, Russian-American publisher, painter, photographer, and sculptor (d. 1999)
- 1913 – Mickey Cohen, American mob boss (d. 1976)
- 1913 – Victor Kiernan, English historian and academic (d. 2009)
- 1913 – Stanford Moore, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
- 1913 – Kenzō Tange, Japanese architect, designed the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Shmuel Wosner, Austrian-Israeli rabbi and author (d. 2015)
- 1914 – Rudolf Leiding, German businessman (d. 2003)
- 1917 – Henry Ford II, American businessman (d. 1987)
- 1918 – Paul Harvey, American radio host (d. 2009)
- 1918 – Gerald Wilson, American trumpet player and composer (d. 2014)
- 1919 – Howard Morris, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2005)
- 1920 – Clemar Bucci, Argentinian race car driver (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Craig Claiborne, American journalist, author, and critic (d. 2000)
- 1922 – Per Olof Sundman, Swedish author and politician (d. 1992)
- 1923 – Ram Kishore Shukla, Indian lawyer and politician (d. 2003)
- 1924 – Joan Aiken, English author (d. 2004)
- 1924 – Justinas Lagunavičius, Lithuanian basketball player (d. 1997)
- 1925 – Asa Earl Carter, American Ku Klux Klan leader and author (d. 1979)
- 1926 – Ivan Illich, Austrian priest and philosopher (d. 2002)
- 1926 – Bert Olmstead, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1927 – John McCarthy, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2011)
- 1927 – Ferenc Sánta, Hungarian author and screenwriter (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Thomas Eagleton, American lawyer and politician, 38th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Robert V. Keeley, Lebanese-American soldier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Greece (d. 2015)
- 1930 – Robert Arneson, American sculptor and academic (d. 1992)
- 1930 – William Maxson, American general (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Jack Boucher, American photographer (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Mitzi Gaynor, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1931 – Antonios Trakatellis, Greek biochemist and politician
- 1932 – Carlos Romero Barceló, Puerto Rican lawyer and politician, 5th Governor of Puerto Rico
- 1934 – Clive Granger, Welsh-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
- 1934 – Antoine Redin, French footballer and manager (d. 2012)
- 1935 – Charles A. Hines, American general and academic (d. 2013)
- 1935 – Dallas Willard, American philosopher and academic (d. 2013)
- 1936 – Wayne Cody, American sportscaster (d. 2002)
- 1937 – Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer and politician
- 1937 – Gene Ludwig, American organist and composer (d. 2010)
- 1937 – Virgil A. Richard, American general (d. 2013)
- 1937 – Les Allen, English footballer and manager
- 1939 – Denis Lindsay, South African cricketer and referee (d. 2005)
- 1941 – Marilena de Souza Chaui, Brazilian philosopher and academic
- 1941 – Ken Harrelson, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1941 – Ramesh Sethi, Kenyan cricketer and coach
- 1941 – Sushilkumar Shinde, Indian lawyer and politician, 19th Governor of Andhra Pradesh
- 1942 – Raymond Floyd, American golfer
- 1942 – Jerry Jarrett, American wrestler and promoter, co-founded Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
- 1942 – Merald "Bubba" Knight, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1944 – Tony Atkinson, English economist and academic
- 1944 – Dave Bassett, English footballer and manager
- 1944 – Vladimír Guma Kulhánek, Czech bass player
- 1944 – Gene Parsons, American singer-songwriter, drummer, guitarist, and banjo player (The Byrds)
- 1944 – Ron Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1945 – Danny Gatton, American guitarist (d. 1994)
- 1945 – Bill Kenwright, English actor, singer, and producer
- 1946 – Gary Duncan, American guitarist
- 1946 – Dave Liebman, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer
- 1946 – Bryan Mauricette, Saint Lucian-Canadian cricketer
- 1947 – Bob Jenkins, American sportscaster
- 1949 – Darryl Cotton, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2012)
- 1949 – Dean Pees, American football player and coach
- 1949 – Tom Watson, American golfer and sportscaster
- 1950 – Doyle Alexander, American baseball player
- 1951 – Martin Chambers, English drummer and singer
- 1951 – Judith Ivey, American actress
- 1951 – Kaoru Kobayashi, Japanese actor
- 1951 – Marita Ulvskog, Swedish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
- 1952 – Stephen Easley, American businessman and politician (d. 2013)
- 1953 – Janet Biehl, American philosopher and author
- 1953 – Michael Stean, English chess player and author
- 1953 – Fatih Terim, Turkish footballer and manager
- 1955 – David Broza, Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1955 – Garth Le Roux, South African cricketer
- 1955 – Brian Schweitzer, American politician, 23rd Governor of Montana
- 1956 – Blackie Lawless, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1957 – Khandi Alexander, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
- 1958 – Jacqueline Hewitt, American astrophysicist and astronomer
- 1958 – George Hurley, American drummer
- 1958 – Marzio Innocenti, Italian rugby player and coach
- 1958 – Drew Pinsky, American radio and television host
- 1959 – Kevin Harrington, Australian actor and screenwriter
- 1959 – Armin Kogler, Austrian ski jumper
- 1960 – Kim Thayil, American guitarist and songwriter (Soundgarden)
- 1960 – Shailesh Vara, Ugandan-English lawyer and politician
- 1960 – Damon Wayans, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1961 – Nick Blinko, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1961 – Lars Jönsson, Swedish film producer
- 1961 – Rizwan-uz-Zaman, Pakistani cricketer
- 1962 – Kiran More, Indian cricketer
- 1962 – Ulla Tørnæs, Danish politician, Danish Minister of Education
- 1962 – Shinya Yamanaka, Japanese physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1963 – Bobby Jarzombek, American drummer
- 1963 – John Vanbiesbrouck, American ice hockey player, coach, and manager
- 1963 – Sami Yaffa, Finnish singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1964 – Guy Boros, American golfer
- 1964 – Aadesh Shrivastava, Indian singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
- 1965 – Sergio Momesso, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1966 – Yanka Dyagileva, Russian singer-songwriter (d. 1991)
- 1966 – Jeff Tremaine, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – Darrin Murray, New Zealand cricketer and accountant
- 1967 – Dezső Szabó, Hungarian decathlete
- 1968 – John DiMaggio, American voice actor
- 1968 – Mike Piazza, American baseball player
- 1969 – Sasha, Welsh DJ and producer
- 1969 – Ramon Dekkers, Dutch kick-boxer and mixed martial artist (d. 2013)
- 1969 – Giorgi Margvelashvili, Georgian academic and politician, 4th President of Georgia
- 1969 – Noah Taylor, English-Australian actor and singer
- 1969 – Inga Tuigamala, Samoan-New Zealand rugby player
- 1970 – Igor Cavalera, Brazilian drummer
- 1970 – Sven Meyer, German footballer
- 1971 – Lance Klusener, South African cricketer and coach
- 1971 – Ione Skye, English-American actress
- 1971 – Maik Taylor, German-Irish footballer and coach
- 1972 – Françoise Yip, Canadian actress
- 1973 – Jason David Frank, American actor and mixed martial artist
- 1973 – Aaron Fultz, American baseball player and coach
- 1974 – Carmit Bachar, American singer, dancer, and actress
- 1974 – Mati Pari, Estonian footballer and coach
- 1974 – Lincoln Roberts, Tobagonian cricketer
- 1974 – Sirly Tiik, Estonian javelin thrower and shot putter
- 1975 – Sergio Ballesteros, Spanish footballer
- 1975 – Mark Ronson, English DJ, producer, and songwriter, co-founded Allido Records
- 1975 – Dave Salmoni, Canadian zoologist, television host, and producer
- 1975 – Yoani Sánchez, Cuban philologist and blogger
- 1976 – Katreeya English, English-Thai singer, actress, and model
- 1976 – Denilson Martins Nascimento, Brazilian footballer
- 1976 – Mario-Ernesto Rodríguez, Uruguayan-Italian footballer
- 1977 – Sun-woo Kim, South Korean baseball player
- 1977 – Lucie Silvas, English singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1977 – Kia Stevens, American wrestler
- 1978 – Wes Bentley, American actor and producer
- 1978 – Frederik Veuchelen, Belgian cyclist
- 1978 – Christian Walz, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
- 1979 – Maxim Afinogenov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1979 – Pedro Macedo Camacho, Portuguese pianist, composer, and producer
- 1979 – Kosuke Matsuura, Japanese race car driver
- 1979 – MC Mong, South Korean rapper, producer, and actor
- 1980 – Max Greenfield, American actor
- 1980 – Pat Neshek, American baseball player
- 1981 – Beyoncé, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actress
- 1981 – Richard Garcia, Australian footballer
- 1981 – Lacey Sturm, American singer-songwriter
- 1982 – Whitney Cummings, American comedian, actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1982 – Mark Lewis-Francis, English sprinter
- 1982 – Sarah Solemani, English actress and playwright
- 1983 – Yuichi Nakamaru, Japanese singer-songwriter, actor, and radio host
- 1983 – Margit Rüütel, Estonian tennis player
- 1983 – Armands Šķēle, Latvian basketball player
- 1984 – Jonathan Adam, Scottish race car driver
- 1984 – Camila Bordonaba, Argentinian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1984 – Hamish McIntosh, Australian footballer
- 1984 – Kyle Mooney, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1985 – Raúl Albiol, Spanish footballer
- 1985 – Ri Kwang-chon, North Korean footballer
- 1985 – Walid Mesloub, Algerian footballer
- 1986 – OMI, Jamaican singer
- 1986 – Ayumi Kaihori, Japanese footballer
- 1986 – James Younghusband, Filipino footballer
- 1988 – John Tyler Hammons, American politician
- 1989 – Elliott Whitehead, English rugby league player
- 1990 – James Bay, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1990 – Stefanía Fernández, Venezuelan model, Miss Universe 2009
- 1990 – Jonny Lomax, English rugby player
- 1990 – Danny Worsnop, English singer-songwriter
- 1993 – Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Belgian footballer
- 1993 – Jody Fannin, English race car driver
- 1993 – Chantal Škamlová, Slovak tennis player
- 1994 – Kenny McEvoy, Irish footballer
- 1994 – Sabina Sharipova, Uzbekistan tennis player
Deaths[edit]
- 422 – Pope Boniface I
- 799 – Musa al-Kadhim, Arabic imam (b. 745)
- 1037 – Bermudo III of León (b. 1010)
- 1063 – Tughril, Turkish ruler (b. 990)
- 1199 – Joan of England, Queen of Sicily (b. 1165)
- 1323 – Gegeen Khan, Emperor Yingzong of Yuan (b. 1303)
- 1537 – Johann Dietenberger, German theologian and translator (b. 1475)
- 1588 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English academic and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk (b. 1532)
- 1767 – Charles Townshend, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1725)
- 1780 – John Fielding, English lawyer and judge (b. 1721)
- 1784 – César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer and cartographer (b. 1714)
- 1794 – John Hely-Hutchinson, Irish lawyer and politician (b. 1724)
- 1804 – Richard Somers, American lieutenant (b. 1778)
- 1820 – Timothy Brown, English banker and merchant (b. 1743/4)
- 1821 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean general and politician (b. 1785)
- 1849 – Friedrich Laun, German author (b. 1770)
- 1852 – William MacGillivray, Scottish biologist and ornithologist (b. 1796)
- 1864 – John Hunt Morgan, American general (b. 1825)
- 1907 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian pianist and composer (b. 1843)
- 1909 – Clyde Fitch, American playwright and songwriter (b. 1865)
- 1914 – Charles Péguy, French poet and philosopher (b. 1873)
- 1940 – George William de Carteret, French-English journalist and author (b. 1869)
- 1944 – Erich Fellgiebel, German general (b. 1886)
- 1949 – Olof Ås, Swedish actor and production manager (b. 1892)
- 1963 – Robert Schuman, Luxembourgian-French politician, 130th Prime Minister of France (b. 1886)
- 1965 – Albert Schweitzer, French-Gabonese physician, theologian, and missionary, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
- 1974 – Creighton Abrams, American general (b. 1914)
- 1974 – Marcel Achard, French playwright and screenwriter (b. 1899)
- 1974 – Charles Arnison, English airman (b. 1893)
- 1974 – Lewi Pethrus, Swedish minister and hymn-writer (b. 1884)
- 1977 – Stelios Perpiniadis, Greek singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1899)
- 1977 – Jean Rostand, French biologist and philosopher (b. 1894)
- 1977 – E. F. Schumacher, German-English economist and statistician (b. 1911)
- 1982 – Jack Tworkov, Polish-American painter (b. 1900)
- 1985 – George O'Brien, American actor and singer (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Otto Glória, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1917)
- 1986 – Hank Greenberg, American baseball player and manager (b. 1911)
- 1987 – Bill Bowes, English cricketer and coach (b. 1908)
- 1989 – Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author (b. 1903)
- 1989 – Ronald Syme, New Zealand historian and author (b. 1903)
- 1990 – Lawrence A. Cremin, American historian and author (b. 1925)
- 1990 – Irene Dunne American actress and singer (b. 1898)
- 1990 – Turan Dursun, Turkish scholar and author (b. 1934)
- 1991 – Charlie Barnet, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1913)
- 1991 – Tom Tryon, American actor and author (b. 1926)
- 1991 – Dottie West, American singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1932)
- 1993 – Hervé Villechaize, French-American actor (b. 1943)
- 1995 – Chuck Greenberg, American saxophonist, composer, and producer (b. 1950)
- 1995 – William Kunstler, American lawyer and activist (b. 1919)
- 1996 – Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist (b. 1917)
- 1997 – Dharamvir Bharati, Indian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1926)
- 1997 – Aldo Rossi, Italian architect, designed the Bonnefanten Museum and Teatro Carlo Felice (b. 1931)
- 1998 – Ernst Jaakson, Estonian diplomat (b. 1905)
- 1998 – Elizabeth Kata, Australian author and screenwriter (b. 1912)
- 1999 – Georg Gawliczek, German footballer and manager (b. 1919)
- 2001 – Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, American radio host and actor (b. 1962)
- 2002 – Vlado Perlemuter, Lithuanian-French pianist and educator (b. 1904)
- 2003 – Lola Bobesco, Romanian-Belgian violinist and educator (b. 1921)
- 2003 – Tibor Varga, Hungarian violinist and conductor (b. 1921)
- 2004 – Alphonso Ford, American basketball player (b. 1971)
- 2004 – Moe Norman, Canadian golfer (b. 1929)
- 2004 – James O. Page, American paramedic and firefighter (b. 1936)
- 2006 – Giacinto Facchetti, Italian footballer and manager (b. 1942)
- 2006 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (b. 1962)
- 2006 – Colin Thiele, Australian author, poet, and educator (b. 1920)
- 2006 – Astrid Varnay, Swedish-American soprano (b. 1918)
- 2007 – John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Roxburghshire (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Lee Roy Selmon, American football player (b. 1954)
- 2012 – Abraham Avigdorov, Israeli soldier (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Albert Marre, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1924)
- 2012 – George Savitsky, American football player (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Syed Mustafa Siraj, Indian author (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Hakam Sufi, Indian singer-songwriter (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Michel Pagé, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1949)
- 2013 – Dick Raaymakers, Dutch composer and theorist (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Daniele Seccarecci, Italian bodybuilder (b. 1980)
- 2013 – Stanislav Stepashkin, Russian boxer (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Casey Viator, American bodybuilder and journalist (b. 1951)
- 2014 – Ron Mulock, Australian lawyer and politician, 10th Deputy Premier of New South Wales (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Wolfhart Pannenberg, Polish-German theologian and academic (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Joan Rivers, American comedian, television host, and author (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Graham Brazier, New Zealand singer-songwriter (b. 1952)
- 2015 – Chandra Bahadur Dangi, Nepalese dwarf (b. 1939)
- 2015 – Jean Darling, American actress (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Wilfred de Souza, Indian surgeon and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Goa (b. 1927)
- 2015 – Warren Murphy, American author and screenwriter (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Rico Rodriguez, Cuban-English trombonist (b. 1934)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Immigrant's Day (Argentina)
- Newspaper Carrier Day (United States)
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“This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”Isaiah 48:17 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
It is well to be able, without any "if" or "but," to say of the Lord Jesus--"Thou whom my soul loveth." Many can only say of Jesus that they hope they love him; they trust they love him; but only a poor and shallow experience will be content to stay here. No one ought to give any rest to his spirit till he feels quite sure about a matter of such vital importance. We ought not to be satisfied with a superficial hope that Jesus loves us, and with a bare trust that we love him. The old saints did not generally speak with "buts," and "ifs," and "hopes," and "trusts," but they spoke positively and plainly. "I know whom I have believed," saith Paul. "I know that my Redeemer liveth," saith Job. Get positive knowledge of your love of Jesus, and be not satisfied till you can speak of your interest in him as a reality, which you have made sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit, and his seal upon your soul by faith.
True love to Christ is in every case the Holy Spirit's work, and must be wrought in the heart by him. He is the efficient cause of it; but the logical reason why we love Jesus lies in himself. Why do we love Jesus? Because he first loved us. Why do we love Jesus? Because he "gave himself for us." We have life through his death; we have peace through his blood. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. Why do we love Jesus? Because of the excellency of his person. We are filled with a sense of his beauty! an admiration of his charms! a consciousness of his infinite perfection! His greatness, goodness, and loveliness, in one resplendent ray, combine to enchant the soul till it is so ravished that it exclaims, "Yea, he is altogether lovely." Blessed love this--a love which binds the heart with chains more soft than silk, and yet more firm than adamant!
It is well to be able, without any "if" or "but," to say of the Lord Jesus--"Thou whom my soul loveth." Many can only say of Jesus that they hope they love him; they trust they love him; but only a poor and shallow experience will be content to stay here. No one ought to give any rest to his spirit till he feels quite sure about a matter of such vital importance. We ought not to be satisfied with a superficial hope that Jesus loves us, and with a bare trust that we love him. The old saints did not generally speak with "buts," and "ifs," and "hopes," and "trusts," but they spoke positively and plainly. "I know whom I have believed," saith Paul. "I know that my Redeemer liveth," saith Job. Get positive knowledge of your love of Jesus, and be not satisfied till you can speak of your interest in him as a reality, which you have made sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit, and his seal upon your soul by faith.
True love to Christ is in every case the Holy Spirit's work, and must be wrought in the heart by him. He is the efficient cause of it; but the logical reason why we love Jesus lies in himself. Why do we love Jesus? Because he first loved us. Why do we love Jesus? Because he "gave himself for us." We have life through his death; we have peace through his blood. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. Why do we love Jesus? Because of the excellency of his person. We are filled with a sense of his beauty! an admiration of his charms! a consciousness of his infinite perfection! His greatness, goodness, and loveliness, in one resplendent ray, combine to enchant the soul till it is so ravished that it exclaims, "Yea, he is altogether lovely." Blessed love this--a love which binds the heart with chains more soft than silk, and yet more firm than adamant!
Evening
All events are under the control of Providence; consequently all the trials of our outward life are traceable at once to the great First Cause. Out of the golden gate of God's ordinance the armies of trial march forth in array, clad in their iron armour, and armed with weapons of war. All providences are doors to trial. Even our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptations: trials lurk on all roads. Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and surrounded with dangers. Yet no shower falls unpermitted from the threatening cloud; every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth. The trials which come from God are sent to prove and strengthen our graces, and so at once to illustrate the power of divine grace, to test the genuineness of our virtues, and to add to their energy. Our Lord in his infinite wisdom and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon his people's faith that he will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened. You would never have possessed the precious faith which now supports you if the trial of your faith had not been like unto fire. You are a tree that never would have rooted so well if the wind had not rocked you to and fro, and made you take firm hold upon the precious truths of the covenant grace. Worldly ease is a great foe to faith; it loosens the joints of holy valour, and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut; affliction doth this sharp service for believing souls. While the wheat sleeps comfortably in the husk it is useless to man, it must be threshed out of its resting place before its value can be known. Thus it is well that Jehovah trieth the righteous, for it causeth them to grow rich towards God.
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All events are under the control of Providence; consequently all the trials of our outward life are traceable at once to the great First Cause. Out of the golden gate of God's ordinance the armies of trial march forth in array, clad in their iron armour, and armed with weapons of war. All providences are doors to trial. Even our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptations: trials lurk on all roads. Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and surrounded with dangers. Yet no shower falls unpermitted from the threatening cloud; every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth. The trials which come from God are sent to prove and strengthen our graces, and so at once to illustrate the power of divine grace, to test the genuineness of our virtues, and to add to their energy. Our Lord in his infinite wisdom and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon his people's faith that he will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened. You would never have possessed the precious faith which now supports you if the trial of your faith had not been like unto fire. You are a tree that never would have rooted so well if the wind had not rocked you to and fro, and made you take firm hold upon the precious truths of the covenant grace. Worldly ease is a great foe to faith; it loosens the joints of holy valour, and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut; affliction doth this sharp service for believing souls. While the wheat sleeps comfortably in the husk it is useless to man, it must be threshed out of its resting place before its value can be known. Thus it is well that Jehovah trieth the righteous, for it causeth them to grow rich towards God.
Today's reading: Psalm 140-142, 1 Corinthians 14:1-20 (NIV)
Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 140-142
1 Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers;
protect me from the violent,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts
and stir up war every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's;
the poison of vipers is on their lips.
4 Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
protect me from the violent,
who devise ways to trip my feet.
5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net
and have set traps for me along my path....
1 Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers;
protect me from the violent,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts
and stir up war every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's;
the poison of vipers is on their lips.
protect me from the violent,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts
and stir up war every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's;
the poison of vipers is on their lips.
4 Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
protect me from the violent,
who devise ways to trip my feet.
5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net
and have set traps for me along my path....
protect me from the violent,
who devise ways to trip my feet.
5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net
and have set traps for me along my path....
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 14:1-20
Intelligibility in Worship
1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.
6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? 7Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? 8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? 9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.10 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. 11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. 12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church....
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1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.
6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? 7Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? 8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? 9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.10 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. 11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. 12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church....
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