A dog in Western Michigan had been approved for unemployment benefits of $360 a week. But now that decision has been overturned. But who will give the dog work? It seems discriminatory to deny a dog entitlements that anyone else might get. It just seems like it is being taken for granted. When it dies, as inevitably the neglected do, I'm sure Hillary can still rely on its' vote.
An Oxford professor of Islamic studies has underlined the witness rule in raping two women. If he gets them to accuse him in Iran or Saudi Arabia, he can have them stoned to death.
Turns out the world is not drowning.
I am a decent man and don't care for the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.
The UN is misinformed on Assange. He is not in jail. He can walk free from the embassy he is hiding in at any time. Assange was charged in Sweden as being an incompetent penis. Had he faced their justice system it is likely he would be free now. However, according to Assange, his lies have caused many deaths internationally and the US should want to prosecute him. If he were to go to Sweden he could be extradited to the US, and possibly placed in Guantanamo where he belongs. Why does the ABC not know this, but present the story as a fugitive from injustice?
Donald Trump is politically charged, but why should he be banned? He hasn't brought his pets here without using quarantine. He hasn't embraced terrorists like Assange has. He runs a clean business for which he is a good corporate citizen. Maybe the ABC are canvassing for him to be banned because they don't like some of his opinions? Who bans people for that?
For some at the moment, the sex party has more credibility.
Shorten gloats over harming the Australian economy.
Eddie Obeid ordered to surrender his passport.
An earthquake in 62 AD near Pompey may have been the precursor to the Volcanic action 17 years later. In consulting with Dr Flannery we have discovered that it is possible that the the earthquake was man made, as a result of the carbon use of the day. Trees were cut down and thrown on fires so ordinary people could eat or bathe. People even draw with the stuff. Chimneys were full of carbon soot. And now, with more efficient technology, things are worse. Not even a dozen baked dinners for Al Gore erases the carbon footprint of one hour in his jet. The only way to safely denude a forest is to have a climate conference.
In 1597, a group of early Christians were killed in Japan. But they persisted through the ages, and when Christians were welcomed back to Japan, it was found some of the original converts, and their families, had persisted. Actually, after hundreds of years .. it wasn't the original converts. In 1818, French born Bernadotte became King of Norway and Sweden. Bernadotte was a capable soldier and officer and had been kind to Swedish troops that has surrendered to him in battle, and so the Swedish nobility had elected him heir in 1810, and when the previous king died, this capable French soldier became king. In 1869, The "Welcome Stranger," was found in Victoria, the largest alluvial nugget ever, at 71 kg net weight gold. In 1909. Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced he had created a synthetic plastic he called Bakelite.
On this day in 1917, The 64th Congress of the US overrode a veto by Woodrow Wilson to pass the Immigration act of 1917. The congress was made up of a majority of Democrat red necks who didn't want Asians from the South East of Asia to go to the US. They also excluded “homosexuals”, “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, "criminals", “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Since then, they have allowed some of those people to be President from the Democrat Party. In 1937, frustrated with not getting his own way, FDR attempted to enlarge the US Supreme Court. He failed, but one judge changed allegiances, called the 'stitch in time who saved nine.'
Nobody likes bureaucracy, but peace is a great excuse. In a gesture of peace in 1985, the Mayor of Rome and the Mayor of Carthage met in Tunis to sign a peace agreement, ending the third Punic War begun 2131 years before. The last few thousand years had not been really serious. In fact, the peace treaty might be said to be rubbing salt in the wound.
French .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG
German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Here is a video I made on the 2nd Intifada
An introduction to the second intifada. This is intended as the first of a series of documentaries. It starts with the recent seminary slayings, and glosses over events that will later be covered in depth.
This is documentary, asking questions, not providing a view point, although the documentary maker has an opinion which informs their direction.
GIGA Strike5 years ago
this video in abig lie IDF kill 7000 palestinian in the second intefada so this video in nothing
This is documentary, asking questions, not providing a view point, although the documentary maker has an opinion which informs their direction.
GIGA Strike5 years ago
this video in abig lie IDF kill 7000 palestinian in the second intefada so this video in nothing
David Ball6 years ago
@lightning06 You are aware the protocols of the elders of zion is a myth that was started by the Russian secret police? In fact, I support people of all religious persuasions, but I am a Christian and feel others should serve Christ. Some friends of mine, and some former students are Islamic, but none so stupid as to think calling me a zionist is an insult, or accurate. The truth about the second intifada is that it isn't islam vs jew, but terrorist vs international community
@lightning06 You are aware the protocols of the elders of zion is a myth that was started by the Russian secret police? In fact, I support people of all religious persuasions, but I am a Christian and feel others should serve Christ. Some friends of mine, and some former students are Islamic, but none so stupid as to think calling me a zionist is an insult, or accurate. The truth about the second intifada is that it isn't islam vs jew, but terrorist vs international community
David Ball6 years ago
@KingKong1ooo Everybody dies. The death of that Israeli was a tragedy. You make claims about deaths of thousands of Palestinians, but no one expects terrorists to tell the truth about their losses or their successes. There is no moral equivalence between a lynching for terror purposes and an accident.
@KingKong1ooo Everybody dies. The death of that Israeli was a tragedy. You make claims about deaths of thousands of Palestinians, but no one expects terrorists to tell the truth about their losses or their successes. There is no moral equivalence between a lynching for terror purposes and an accident.
David Ball6 years ago
Sorry, I got overtaken by events. I intended this to be a multi part series. I can't promise I'll do what I wanted to, but I'll try to get something soon.
Sorry, I got overtaken by events. I intended this to be a multi part series. I can't promise I'll do what I wanted to, but I'll try to get something soon.
=== from 2017 ===
Miranda Devine is very concerned PM Turnbull's failure over the phone to the US President will mean that others notice his failures everywhere else. Devine characterises the awful deal encouraging people smugglers to risk the lives of their clients for substantial money as a break from the past (vis, Abbott, whom she calls Rudd Gillard). There is no need for the policy. Abbott's one works fine. People aren't dying, making people smugglers rich thanks to Mr Abbott and the effective work of Scott Morrison. Instead, Australia is safer thanks to Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison. Turnbull just wants to collect on money he made Australia pay to Soros through the Clinton Foundation. Trump has belled the cat. Memo Devine, rewarding people smugglers with promoting access to the US is a big mistake. A yuge one.
=== from 2016 ===
Australia's ABC is used to giving their opinion and not broadcasting fact. Tonight they raised two issues which are similar and very different. "Should we ban Donald Trump from coming to Australia?" was one. The other was 'The UN has posted a report saying Assange should be freed.'The UN is misinformed on Assange. He is not in jail. He can walk free from the embassy he is hiding in at any time. Assange was charged in Sweden as being an incompetent penis. Had he faced their justice system it is likely he would be free now. However, according to Assange, his lies have caused many deaths internationally and the US should want to prosecute him. If he were to go to Sweden he could be extradited to the US, and possibly placed in Guantanamo where he belongs. Why does the ABC not know this, but present the story as a fugitive from injustice?
Donald Trump is politically charged, but why should he be banned? He hasn't brought his pets here without using quarantine. He hasn't embraced terrorists like Assange has. He runs a clean business for which he is a good corporate citizen. Maybe the ABC are canvassing for him to be banned because they don't like some of his opinions? Who bans people for that?
For some at the moment, the sex party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
Peter Greste thanks his family but not the Australian Government who fought to free him from an Egyptian jail. Peter does not want to give up his job as a propagandist.
Shorten gloats over harming the Australian economy.
Eddie Obeid ordered to surrender his passport.
An earthquake in 62 AD near Pompey may have been the precursor to the Volcanic action 17 years later. In consulting with Dr Flannery we have discovered that it is possible that the the earthquake was man made, as a result of the carbon use of the day. Trees were cut down and thrown on fires so ordinary people could eat or bathe. People even draw with the stuff. Chimneys were full of carbon soot. And now, with more efficient technology, things are worse. Not even a dozen baked dinners for Al Gore erases the carbon footprint of one hour in his jet. The only way to safely denude a forest is to have a climate conference.
In 1597, a group of early Christians were killed in Japan. But they persisted through the ages, and when Christians were welcomed back to Japan, it was found some of the original converts, and their families, had persisted. Actually, after hundreds of years .. it wasn't the original converts. In 1818, French born Bernadotte became King of Norway and Sweden. Bernadotte was a capable soldier and officer and had been kind to Swedish troops that has surrendered to him in battle, and so the Swedish nobility had elected him heir in 1810, and when the previous king died, this capable French soldier became king. In 1869, The "Welcome Stranger," was found in Victoria, the largest alluvial nugget ever, at 71 kg net weight gold. In 1909. Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced he had created a synthetic plastic he called Bakelite.
On this day in 1917, The 64th Congress of the US overrode a veto by Woodrow Wilson to pass the Immigration act of 1917. The congress was made up of a majority of Democrat red necks who didn't want Asians from the South East of Asia to go to the US. They also excluded “homosexuals”, “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, "criminals", “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Since then, they have allowed some of those people to be President from the Democrat Party. In 1937, frustrated with not getting his own way, FDR attempted to enlarge the US Supreme Court. He failed, but one judge changed allegiances, called the 'stitch in time who saved nine.'
Nobody likes bureaucracy, but peace is a great excuse. In a gesture of peace in 1985, the Mayor of Rome and the Mayor of Carthage met in Tunis to sign a peace agreement, ending the third Punic War begun 2131 years before. The last few thousand years had not been really serious. In fact, the peace treaty might be said to be rubbing salt in the wound.
From 2014
It is telling what is not said, as well as what is said. In defending the ABC from claims of bias, apologists refer to the fact Australia needs the ABC. As if the ABC could not survive if it was competent as a public broadcaster. As if the effort for some journalist not expressing their strong opinion of dislike for a conservative would be too much. It is possible for the ABC to be a superb organisation which as cornerstone of Australian culture could fearlessly hold politicians to account for their compliance to their agenda. Or, the ABC could remain inept and incapable of spotting corruption, incapable of producing compelling Australian cultural items, incapable of holding itself to a standard. Imagine if the ALP had produced a competent leader because poor ones were curtailed by precise criticism from the national broadcaster. It is easy, if you try.
It is telling what is not said in criticising Abbott to defend a multi million dollar claim for subsidy to a weak SPC Ardmona business. A profitable business is one that secures a future for its' workers. A subsidy won't do that. It is a responsible decision by Mr Abbott and necessary if Australia's budget is ever to be balanced. It is not a decision the ALP would have made. Neither is it a decision the ABC can applaud. Why does anyone care if the ABC applauds a decision? Naturally, unions are claiming that it is the end of industrial relations. Or the beginning. Or something.
It is telling what is not said in criticising the Australian government's border protection policy. Fewer boat people means fewer people drowning and being exploited by pirates. Also, fewer boat people means more refugees from refugee camps being offered a new life they could never have dreamed of from whatever impoverished war torn nation they fled. It is like effective aid. It might be cold and heartless to so completely and ruthlessly expose how bad ALP government had been. Or, how murderous were the ALP policies labelled compassionate. Where are the outspoken church people who promoted the previous devastation? Malcolm Fraser doesn't like it when people aren't drowning or being exploited by pirates, he seems to be upset by refugees being offered a new home and life.
It is telling and it is apparent, that if anyone told the ABC, they weren't listening.
It is telling what is not said in criticising Abbott to defend a multi million dollar claim for subsidy to a weak SPC Ardmona business. A profitable business is one that secures a future for its' workers. A subsidy won't do that. It is a responsible decision by Mr Abbott and necessary if Australia's budget is ever to be balanced. It is not a decision the ALP would have made. Neither is it a decision the ABC can applaud. Why does anyone care if the ABC applauds a decision? Naturally, unions are claiming that it is the end of industrial relations. Or the beginning. Or something.
It is telling what is not said in criticising the Australian government's border protection policy. Fewer boat people means fewer people drowning and being exploited by pirates. Also, fewer boat people means more refugees from refugee camps being offered a new life they could never have dreamed of from whatever impoverished war torn nation they fled. It is like effective aid. It might be cold and heartless to so completely and ruthlessly expose how bad ALP government had been. Or, how murderous were the ALP policies labelled compassionate. Where are the outspoken church people who promoted the previous devastation? Malcolm Fraser doesn't like it when people aren't drowning or being exploited by pirates, he seems to be upset by refugees being offered a new home and life.
It is telling and it is apparent, that if anyone told the ABC, they weren't listening.
Historical perspective on this day
In 62, Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.756, An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declared himself emperor and established the state of Yan. 1576, Henry of Navarreabjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion. 1597, a group of early Japanese Christians were killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society. 1631, Roger Williams emigrated to Boston.
In 1778, South Carolina became the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. 1782, Spanish defeated British forces and captured Minorca. 1783, in Calabria a sequence of strong earthquakes began. 1810, Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz began. 1818, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascended to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. 1849. University of Wisconsin-Madison's first class met at Madison Female Academy. 1852, the New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opened to the public. 1859, Wallachia and Moldavia were united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state. 1869, the largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", was found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo as a personal possession.
In 1900, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a treaty for the Panama Canal. 1909, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic. 1913,
1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane. 1917, the current constitution of Mexico was adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Also 1917, the Congress of the United Statespassed the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia. 1918, Stephen W. Thompson shot down a German airplane. It was the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. Also 1918, SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk. 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane. 1917, the current constitution of Mexico was adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Also 1917, the Congress of the United Statespassed the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia. 1918, Stephen W. Thompson shot down a German airplane. It was the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. Also 1918, SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk. 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
In 1924, the Royal Greenwich Observatory began broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips". 1937, President Franklin D. Rooseveltproposed a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States. 1939. Generalísimo Francisco Franco became the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain. 1941, World War II: Allied forces began the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea. 1945, World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returned to Manila. 1946, the Chondoist Chongu Party was founded in North Korea. 1958, Gamel Abdel Nasser was nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic. Also 1958, a hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle called for Algeria to be granted independence. 1963, the European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen established the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law. 1971, astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission. 1972, Bob Douglas became the first African Americanelected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. 1975, riots broke in Lima, Peru after the police forces went on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) was bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship. 1976, the 1976 swine flu outbreak began at Fort Dix, NJ.
In 1985, Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthagemet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years. 1988, Manuel Noriega was indicted on drug smuggling and money launderingcharges. 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Also 1994, Markale massacres, more than 60 people were killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo. 1997, the so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announced the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. 2000, Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya. 2004, Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. 2008, a major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States killed 57.
=== 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.
===
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
- 1505 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (d. 1572)
- 1534 – Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian soldier, composer, and critic (d. 1612)
- 1589 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (d. 1669)
- 1748 – Elias Stein, Dutch chess player (d. 1812)
- 1784 – Nancy Lincoln, American mother of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1818)
- 1788 – Robert Peel, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
- 1837 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher, founded Moody Publishers (d. 1899)
- 1840 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (d. 1921)
- 1840 – Hiram Stevens Maxim, American-English inventor, invented the Maxim gun (d. 1916)
- 1878 – André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded Citroën (d. 1935)
- 1908 – Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twins (d. 1969)
- 1920 – Frank Muir, English comedian and actor (d. 1998)
- 1934 – Hank Aaron. American baseball player
- 1948 – Barbara Hershey, American actress
- 1954 – Cliff Martinez, American drummer and songwriter (Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dickies, and The Weirdos)
- 1956 – Betty Ong, American flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 (d. 2001)
- 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
- 1783 – The first of five strong earthquakes hit the region of Calabriaon the Italian Peninsula killing more than 32,000 people over a period of nearly two months.
- 1869 – Prospectors in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, discovered the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found, known as the "Welcome Stranger" (pictured).
- 1958 – A Mark 15 nuclear bomb disappeared off the shores of Tybee Island, Georgia, after it was jettisoned during a practice exercise when the bomber carrying it collided in midair with a fighter plane.
- 1994 – The Army of Republika Srpska carried out the first of two bombardments against civilians in the marketplace in Sarajevo, which were the stated reason for NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb forces.
- 2008 – Eighty-seven tornadoes occurred over the course of the Super Tuesday tornado outbreakacross multiple U.S. states, causing 56 deaths and over $1 billion in damage.
Deaths
- 523 – Avitus of Vienne, Latin archbishop and saint (b. 470)
- 1520 – Sten Sture the Younger, Swedish politician (b. 1493)
- 1578 – Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter (b. 1520)
- 1705 – Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (b. 1635)
- 1751 – Henri François d'Aguesseau, French politician, Chancellor of France (b. 1668)
- 1754 – Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch astronomer and cartographer (b. 1678)
- 1766 – Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- 1775 – Eusebius Amort, German theologian (b. 1692)
- 1790 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)
- 1941 – Banjo Paterson, Australian poet (b. 1864)
- 1941 – Otto Strandman, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1875)
- 1977 – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (b. 1894)
- 2007 – Fred Ball, American actor (b. 1915)
- 2014 – Juthika Roy, Indian singer (b. 1920)
Tim Blair 2018
LAW OF AVERAGES
Sooner or later every social justice warrior trips up on his/her/xems own absurd identity politics pieties.
GERMANY INVADED, WOMEN FIGHT BACK
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s “willkommen everybody” immigration policy has placed her citizens at risk. The most vulnerable of those citizens are now challenging their national leader with a justifiably furious online campaign.
FAKE BIGOTRY CONDEMNED IN THE ’80s, REAL BIGOTRY FINE IN 2018
During the mid-1980s, an Adelaide current affairs program sent a reporter and camera crew to interview a property owner who appeared to have placed a racist "for sale" ad in the local paper.
Andrew Bolt 2018
THE TURNBULL COMEBACK: TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK
From The Bolt Report: curb the excitement about Malcolm Turnbull's "comeback".
NO LADIES BY LAW
Identity politics is so tricky, even for warriors of the ABC Left. Benjamin Law comes a cropper: "Late to it, but so bloody pleased about this year's Victorian premier’s literary awards winners. All women – amongst them, many women of colour and queer writers." A non-binary apology swiftly follows.
TURNBULL'S "COMEBACK" SO FAR SPELLS A TERRIBLE DEFEAT
The headlines after the latest Newspoll: "Malcolm Turnbull's popularity surges in polls as pressure increases on Bill Shorten", "Encouragement for Turnbull in Newspoll as Parliamentary year starts", "Newspoll: PM surges as pressure increases on Shorten". The actual result: the Government is 48-52 behind. Essential Poll: 46-54.
I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE OUT OF THEIR TREE
COLUMN Sorry I’m late back from my holidays, but I re-learned a painful lesson no conservative should need. So there I was on the very top of an extension ladder when I leaned back too much. So when I can break five bones in a simple plan to prune a tree, the Aboriginal activists with a plan to destroy Australia might consider some consequences, too.
WE'RE DROWNING IN BLOOD
COLUMN On my holidays, I watched dozens of men being murdered: beheaded, strangled, stabbed, shot, speared, clubbed or their throats cut. I also watched women butchered. I saw blood pump from the slashed throat of one and from the belly of another. A screaming girl was burned alive. So glad our politicians paid $50 billion to help bring this to us.
Piers Akerman
Miranda Devine
Tim Blair
Andrew Bolt
===
Continue reading 'READER ROOS'
Continue reading 'We can learn from a man who has class'
===
===
You want a disaster, then look at Obama
===Miranda Devine
Don’t let your career make you a bad mother
Beware Trump (and ‘Trumbull’) Derangement Syndrome
Tim Blair
QUEEN ELIZABETH OPINES ON … GOD ONLY KNOWS
IT’S HARD TO BE AN ECO-WARRIOR
UNDER 18C, EVEN WINNERS ARE LOSERS
ONE OF THE BEST MEETINGS
Andrew Bolt
WORSE THAN RUDD AND GILLARD COMBINED
Tim Blair – Friday, February 05, 2016 (3:09pm)
Labor’s idiotic border policies led to more than 50,000 refugee arrivals across six years. Now consider the latest numbers from Germany:
Germany registered close to 92,000 migrants in January … Among last month’s total, some 35,822 people came from Syria, while 18,563 came from Iraq and 18,099 from Afghanistan.
That’s on top of 1.1 million last year, including more than 200,000 in November alone. January’s 92,000 – nearly double Australia’s entire arrivals total from 2007 to 2013 – actually represents a massive decline. Little wonder even academics are beginning to notice something might be wrong:
Willkommenskultur, or “culture of acceptance”, has been a major part of the German political discourse since summer 2015. It evokes a spirit of solidarity towards the large number of migrants who have sought asylum in the European Union over the past year …But the Germany of 2016 has a Willkommenskultur hangover. The country is in shock after the events of New Year’s Eve in Cologne, a city that has long been a symbol of German multiculturalism. And now, as Cologne prepares for its annual carnival festivities, the city has doubled its police presence and increased video surveillance. A local girls’ school will close on the opening day of the carnival to protect its students.
They could always try the Russian method.
(Via Tadpole)
===
FOUR YEARS OF ILLINOISE
Tim Blair – Friday, February 05, 2016 (2:56pm)
A Bernie Sanders speech induces sleep. No danger of that when Hillary is talking:
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is losing numbers.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is losing numbers.
===
CUTS BEFORE TAXES
Tim Blair – Friday, February 05, 2016 (2:42pm)
Ex-Treasurer Paul Keating continues making sense:
It should be possible to strip $90 billion out of the federal budget – a cut of 20 per cent – Paul Keating claims ...The former prime minister said yesterday that the burning issue should not be taxes but rather how to adjust the budget to the reality that the income the world was paying us had fallen, and this was cutting both personal and company taxes.“All these things are pushing down on commonwealth revenue and, when it has been so affected, the penny ought to drop that we ought to be cutting spending,” he said, noting that Scott Morrison was correct to highlight this.
Bill Shorten is missing an opportunity here. The chance exists to attack the government from the right, because Malcolm Turnbull is terrified of reducing spending. Go for it, Bill.
===
STRUCTURATED IRRITANTS
Tim Blair – Friday, February 05, 2016 (1:25pm)
Waleed Aly’s 2012 doctoral thesis:
Sadly, Aly appears not to have completed that ambitious work. Sadder still, others were completed, including Colin McNaughton’s compelling The living of the real: Hegelian Marxism and the re-inventing of the emancipatory imagination.
Sadly, Aly appears not to have completed that ambitious work. Sadder still, others were completed, including Colin McNaughton’s compelling The living of the real: Hegelian Marxism and the re-inventing of the emancipatory imagination.
(Via Ganesh.)
UPDATE. A suggestion from Ten’s Hugh Riminton:
Waleed Aly on Nauru.
Great idea.
===
READER ROOS
Tim Blair – Friday, February 05, 2016 (3:06am)
Readers were recently invited to depict a jihadi kangaroo fit for combat alongside its culturally, intellectually and hygienically inferior human Islamic State comrades.
Continue reading 'READER ROOS'
===
Leaky Malcolm
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (1:34pm)
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Broken promise: Liberals restless over Turnbull’s failure to lead. UPDATE: Turnbull in reverse
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (11:28am)
Remember five months ago, when Turnbull promised to give us “economic leadership” and to explain a “course of action”?
David Crowe:
It seems Malcolm Turnbull is in reverse, much too late. Wonder how Treasurer Scott Morrison will feel to be thrown under the bus?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
A little while ago I met with the Prime Minister [Tony Abbott] and advised him that I would be challenging him for the leadership of the Liberal Party… Ultimately, the Prime Minister has not been capable in providing the economic leadership our nation needs....Five months later, Turnbull has failed to deliver a word of what he promised.
We need a style of leadership that explains those challenges and opportunities, that explains the challenges and how to seize the opportunities. A style of leadership that respects the peoples’ intelligence, that explains these complex issues and sets out the course of action we believe we should take and makes a case for it.We need advocacy, not slogans.
David Crowe:
Turnbull clearly needs to lavish attention on his own side of politics when MPs are being kept in the dark on his thoughts on whether to increase the GST from 10 to 15 per cent.Simon Benson:
For all the government’s talk about a new agenda ... Turnbull has nothing new to say and there is no sign of a compelling purpose that will prove to voters that the (relatively) new Prime Minister is worth their support later this year…
There are probably only 10 weeks of parliament before the election, assuming the nation goes to the polls sometime from August to October, and Turnbull has just lost one of them with nothing to show for it…
While the Prime Minister’s team spent much of January preparing a basic battle plan for the election, there is no centrepiece for the campaign. Tax reform must be that missing element, given the way expectations have been raised. There is no backing out now: to abandon the goal would be to ask voters to support a do-nothing government. Yet the government has returned to parliament with nothing to offer but an information vacuum… Angry MPs do not know what they are opposing; government leaders are not sure what they are advocating… The indecision on this central question was on display in parliament this week. Everyone can see the government going in circles
The internal turf war within the Liberal Party’s NSW division, between conservatives and moderates on the state executive ... has reignited and spilt into the federal party room, with increasing levels of anger about the lack of will from national powerbrokers to step in and settle it.UPDATE
With only two weeks before nominations close, the preselections of conservative MPs Craig Kelly in Hughes and Angus Taylor in Hume are still in doubt.
The left-controlled state executive appears unwilling or unable to pull moderate powerbroker Jai Rowell into line. Rowell is behind a push to hijack Taylor’s safe seat and install neighbouring MP Russell Matheson, who is at risk of losing Macarthur due to a redistribution…
It may require federal intervention, with conservatives demanding that Turnbull pull his moderate colleagues into line and back sitting MPs…
Turnbull’s second challenge also lies in how he manages his party room ... over the GST and the shape of the tax reform package the Coalition will take to the election…
The contest of bringing the party room on the tax reform journey cannot be left to Treasurer Scott Morrison alone… Morrison does not command the same authority among his colleagues as Treasurer as he did when he was Immigration and Social Services Minister. He will have to overcome anger still simmering within the conservative ranks over the dumping of Tony Abbott, as he tries to sign his colleagues up to what marginal seat MPs fear will be a suicide mission… This is an enterprise that the PM will have to lead....
A belief Turnbull would be better than Abbott at managing the crossbench has so far been proven wrong. They remain as wilfully inflexible.... Analysis released this week showed the total of savings measures that remain unlegislated has blown out by another $6 billion since last September to reach $36 billion over the next 10 years. As a result, the Coalition’s promise of budget repair remains unfulfilled...
It seems Malcolm Turnbull is in reverse, much too late. Wonder how Treasurer Scott Morrison will feel to be thrown under the bus?
Malcolm Turnbull has expressed concern about the potential “trouble and expense” of increasing the GST, as he confronts backbench unrest over discussions around the government’s tax plans.So, five months into Turnbull’s term, what’s plan B?
The Prime Minister, who is yet to be convinced of the merits of raising the GST from 10 per cent to 15 per cent has not ruled the option, provided the change would boost national productivity…
“The argument has been made for example that you could raise the GST and devote the money raised to reducing income tax — well there’s no doubt you could do that,” he told Adelaide’s FIVEaa radio.
“The problem with that though is that in order to make that fair, you would have to naturally increase pensions — they would be increased by CPI — you’ve also got to address the position of people who do not pay a lot of tax, either because they’re living off savings or they’re living off tax-free income from super, or they’re on low levels of income that are not hit by much tax if any at all.
“There’s obviously got to be a lot of compensation whether it’s through tax cuts, welfare increases and other benefits. You’ve then got to say, after we’ve done all that, are we getting a productivity benefit, a growth dividend, that justifies the trouble and expense, complications of making the change. That’s why it’s a detailed matter that’s got to be looked at very carefully.
“We are not going to raise more tax overall, number one…
“The states have got themselves into a way of thinking that every time they need more money they just go to the ATM of the federal government,” he said.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Memo to UN: Assange could arbitrarily leave that embassy any time he wants
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (11:07am)
How idiotic is this UN body to claim Julian Assange has been “arbitrarily detained” in an embassy that he freely entered and which he refuses to leave?
BRITISH police have insisted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be arrested if he steps outside the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been holed up for more than three years.
A United Nations panel stated that Mr Assange has been “arbitrarily detained” in the embassy, which he entered in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.
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Trudeau marks Holocaust Day by not mentioning Jews
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (10:04am)
Jews are the new non-persons of the Left. Take the astonishing Holocaust Remembrance Day speech of the new hero of the left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.)
On this day, we pay tribute to the memory of the millions of victims murdered during the Holocaust. We honour those who survived atrocities at the hands of the Nazi regime, and welcome their courageous stories of hope and perseverance.Aaron Goldstein:
The Holocaust is a stark reminder of the dangers and risks of allowing hate, prejudice, and discrimination to spread unchallenged. It also reminds us that silence must never be an option when humanity is threatened.
As we pause to educate ourselves and our families on the bitter lessons of the Holocaust, we also strengthen our resolve to work with domestic and international partners to continue defending human rights and condemning intolerance.
Do you notice what doesn’t appear in the statement? There is no reference to Jews despite the fact that they were the primary target of Hitler’s final solution which would ultimately claim six million in all.And in Australia:
The Prime Minister’s office indicated that the statement “was an incorrect draft issued in error.” However, Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun (no relation) is skeptical of the explanation.
Goldstein wrote, “I find it difficult to understand how anyone in the PMO with even a rudimentary grasp of history could issue a statement marking the Holocaust without mentioning the six million Jews who died in it.” Trudeau’s omission is part of a disturbing pattern by him and his Liberal government where it concerns Jews and the State of Israel.
A branch of Australia’s Labor Party is seeking to ban its members from participating in Jewish-sponsored trips to Israel, stirring criticism from a former national president and Jewish groups.And explanation for NSW Labor’s astonishing vilification of Israel - a list of the top 10 federal seats, ranked by the size of their Muslim minorities as of 2011:
The motion will be raised at the New South Wales Labor conference in Sydney on Feb. 13-14. The conference will hear 39 resolutions focusing on the Israel-Palestine situation, compared with 17 dealing with other international matters.
Warren Mundine, Labor’s former national president, told The Australian newspaper this week that banning Labor politicians from visiting Israel “is illogical, verging on an anti-Semitic approach.” He said Israel is the only country that is the subject of proposed banned visits. “What is the difference with this country?” Mundine, now the chairman of the prime minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, asked in The Australian. “The only difference is that they are Jewish, and I just find that sickening.”
Note that the Liberals hold only two of those seats - Reid and Barton, both in NSW. Labor holds the other eight, seven of them in NSW.
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.)
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We could help six times more refugees if we didn’t bring them here
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (8:04am)
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop explains the massive cost of helping Syrian refugees brought to Australia:
But let’s crunch the numbers. Bringing refugees here, on the government’s figures, involves spending around $70,000 on every man, woman and child for the first four years alone, or more than $17,000 per refugee per year.
But what does it cost to help refugees in camps near the border of Syria?:
And how much is Australia contributing to that $10.7 billion? “Just” $25 million.
It strikes me that we have got the proportions exactly wrong. We are spending ten times more each year on Syrian refugees brought here than on Syrian refugees in camps.
That money we are spending on refugees brought here would actually help at least six times more refugees if spent on people in the camps around Syria - not 12,000 people but 75,000. Redirecting that aid to refugees in camps would also lower our security threat and leave refugees where they are more likely to return home when safe.
Moreover, more funding might stop the invasion of Europe by refugees - an invasion that threatens European nations with massive unrest and a dangerous reaction from the far Right.
The maths says: help refugees where they are, not here.
Australia had also pledged to permanently settle 12,000 Syrian refugees at an estimated cost of $A830 million over four years, the minister said.Then there’s the security risk of potential jihadists, and costs associated with them.
But let’s crunch the numbers. Bringing refugees here, on the government’s figures, involves spending around $70,000 on every man, woman and child for the first four years alone, or more than $17,000 per refugee per year.
But what does it cost to help refugees in camps near the border of Syria?:
According to the U.N., there are 2.1 million Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, and another 1.9 million in Turkey… The U.N. has said $7.7 billion (AU $10.7 billion) is needed for 2016 for Syrian refugees… A drop off in that funding last year was one of the main triggers for the wave of refugees fleeing to Europe.That $10.7 billion works out to just $2700 per refugee per year.
And how much is Australia contributing to that $10.7 billion? “Just” $25 million.
It strikes me that we have got the proportions exactly wrong. We are spending ten times more each year on Syrian refugees brought here than on Syrian refugees in camps.
That money we are spending on refugees brought here would actually help at least six times more refugees if spent on people in the camps around Syria - not 12,000 people but 75,000. Redirecting that aid to refugees in camps would also lower our security threat and leave refugees where they are more likely to return home when safe.
Moreover, more funding might stop the invasion of Europe by refugees - an invasion that threatens European nations with massive unrest and a dangerous reaction from the far Right.
The maths says: help refugees where they are, not here.
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Finnish folly: pushing the rapist - and reality - aside
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (7:38am)
More Finnish women are being raped, and a quarter of the victims have been attacked by foreigners and asylum seekers:
UPDATE
Meanwhile:
UPDATE
Winter weather has not done much to stop the massive inflow of illegal immigrants to Europe via Greece, Europe’s Frontex border agency reports:
But at least some frauds claiming to be Syrian are being weeded out:
The total number of rapes reported in 2015 reached just over 1,000, police said in a press conference Friday. Of that number, foreign nationals were suspects in 217 cases and asylum seekers in 25…Via Tim Blair, an insight by a Finnish police chief in Helsinki on the increase in sexual assaults, following the arrest of three Iraqi asylum seekers:
Police revealed that that there has been a rise of just under 3 percent in crimes committed by foreign nationals in 2015 compared to 2014…
Asylum seekers were suspects in 25 cases of rape and aggravated rape altogether. Additionally, they were involved in 22 cases of sexual harassment and two instances of forced sexual acts…Last year more than 32,000 asylum seekers entered the country.
“This phenomenon is new in Finnish sexual crime history,” Ilkka Koskimaki, the deputy chief of police in Helsinki, told the Telegraph. “We have never before had this kind of sexual harassment happening at New Year’s Eve …”In response to the alarm, police in Oulu have issued this preposterous video instructing women how to fight off a rapist. Mace is banned, but police put tremendous faith in the power of a push:
Mr Koskimaki said that sexual assaults in parks and on the streets had been unknown in Finland before a record 32,000 asylum seekers arrived in 2015, making the 14 cases last year “big news in the city”. “We had unfortunately some very brutal cases in autumn,” he said. “I don’t know so well other cultures, but I have recognised that the thinking of some of them is very different. Some of them maybe think that it is allowed to be aggressive and touch ladies on the street.”
Sam I Am makes a few changes to the video to make the dream more real:
UPDATE
Meanwhile:
New arrivals under Australia’s humanitarian program would face much greater scrutiny and be denied direct access to permanent residency under a swathe of radical measures being canvassed by the Turnbull government, according to a sensitive draft cabinet document obtained by Fairfax Media.... The document warns that some refugees from the Syrian conflict “will bring with them issues, beliefs or associations that lead them to advocate or engage in politically motivated or communal violence”.But we’re bringing in an extra 12,000?
UPDATE
Winter weather has not done much to stop the massive inflow of illegal immigrants to Europe via Greece, Europe’s Frontex border agency reports:
Total number of migrants arriving in Greece by sea in November 2015 was 151,000, or an average of 4,560 a day… In December arrivals dropped to some 109,000 due mainly to bad weather, the EU agency report said.If more immigrants come with better weather, Europe is set to get more than double the million illegal immigrants who came last year.
But at least some frauds claiming to be Syrian are being weeded out:
For 2015 as a whole as many as 59% of the total number of migrants said they were Syrian but in December it was 39%…(Thanks to many readers, including John.)
“With increased Frontex and Greek personnel presence there was an improvement in screening migrants,” said Frontex executive director Fabrice Leggeri, “this means that the numer of people who could declare a false nationality has fallen”.
The percentage of Iraqis has increased in the last three months reaching as much as 25% of the total in December, more than double the 11% in October and 12% in November. Afghans were between a quarter and a third of the total number of migrants identified at Greek frontiers.
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Do you really trust government not to waste another $35 billion?
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (7:28am)
Paul Keating explains neatly why the Turnbull Government’s plan to raise the GST cannot be trusted:
If you give a dog a bone, they’ll bury it. If you give the political system $35bn, they’ll spend it.
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Maybe that’s not compassion in Turnbull’s eyes, Jacqui, but pity
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (7:19am)
You can ask why Malcolm Turnbull sees eye to eye with Jacqui Lambie. (A frightening thought.) Or you take pity on a Prime Minister who does not dare say boo to this goose.
Here is Lambie on ABC radio praising a man she seriously thinks agrees with her:
Here is Lambie on ABC radio praising a man she seriously thinks agrees with her:
I can see the compassion in his eyes when he looks at me. He doesn’t sit there and he doesn’t try and debate me and he knows there’s no point in doing that because I’m in the right and I appreciate that respect he shows me. He has to deal with his party, he’s like meat in the middle of a sandwich and my feelings go out to him on that but I’m going to give him time. And I think over time you’ll see him really develop that backbone because he has to take on his own unfortunately. I think he’s a pretty smart and clever bloke and you’ll over time be able to see that.Still, it might just worry Liberals when even Lambie, in love with their Prime Minister, still notes a lack of backbone and that only “over time” will people see he’s smart.
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The high price of dividing us by race - and silencing dissent
Andrew Bolt February 05 2016 (6:52am)
This law must go, especially when people sure of their innocence cannot afford to defend themselves against the damaging complaints it encourages:
UPDATE
How race-based division becomes a weapon against free speech and for group-think:
A woman seeking $247,470 in a racial vilification row against academics, jobless students and a top Queensland university offered to drop students from the case in return for $5000 payments.This case also raises serious questions about the increasing efforts by government and its institutions to formally divide us by race. What would Rosa Parks have said about this race-based entitlement to use public facilities provided by taxpayers?
The Australian can reveal that at least two students, who were accused by indigenous woman Cindy Prior of racial vilification over their posts on a QUT Facebook page in May 2013, accepted confidential settlement offers and were removed from the legal case in the Federal Circuit Court.
The Brisbane students — including one who wrote that racial segregation at the university’s Oodgeroo Unit, a computer lab for indigenous students, encouraged division and was “more retarded than a women’s collective” — emphatically reject allegations of racism.
They settled, as they could not afford the legal costs to defend themselves in the case, which is relying on the controversial section 18C of federal race discrimination laws. The students did not want to be unfairly linked to racism, which would damage their reputations and job prospects, according to senior sources.
QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake said yesterday the Oodgeroo Unit provided dedicated support and services to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, adding that these were “not in any way a form of segregation or discrimination”.Repeal this unjust and oppressive law, urges Simon Breheny of the IPA:
Professor Coaldrake said they were not inconsistent with discrimination laws. Asked if the unit was officially off-limits to non-indigenous students, he said: “The … spaces are generally reserved for indigenous students.”
Cindy Prior, a Queensland University of Technology academic, has made a complaint against students and other staff at the university. Her complaint is based on several comments made by the staff and students following her decision to eject students from an indigenous-only computer lab in 2013.We have arrived at George Orwell’s 1984 when anti-racism is the new racism.
Prior has complained that the comments have caused her to suffer “offence, embarrassment, humiliation and psychiatric injury”, and has made a claim for just under $250,000.
The case is a sad indictment on the state of free and open debate in Australia. In my opinion, the comments in question would offend only a hypersensitive individual, and none of them are directed at Prior’s particular “race, colour, or national or ethnic origin” — the basis of offence required by the Racial Discrimination Act. Prior isn’t named, and the comments don’t seem to exhibit any form of bigotry or racial intolerance.
So ridiculous is the application of Australian racial vilification laws that they can now be used to punish anti-racist sentiment. The comments above are an endorsement of the idea that students at the university should all be treated equally — no matter their race. But 18C is now used as a gag to any debate about race and ethnicity.
UPDATE
How race-based division becomes a weapon against free speech and for group-think:
The QUT case is indicative of a broader cultural problem in universities across the Western world. Virtual segregation has re-emerged on campus as students and staff from state-designated minority groups claim the need for “safe space.” In such spaces, safety is commonly taken to mean the physical exclusion and mass criticism of people who do not belong to the correct culture, race, religion, sex or sexuality. Even members of designated minority groups can be vulnerable to exclusion if they express views deemed incorrect.Much more of this will come, of course, if Australia votes for the proposed referendum to divide us formally by race.
In 2013, Griffith University cancelled a speech from indigenous Australian activist and politician, Bess Price. The acting head of the indigenous Student Support Unit, Shane Barnes, cited the welfare of staff and students as the reason.
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MUKRAKER
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (2:19pm)
Reader Mike sends an email to “Ruperts Mukraker”, who I guess would be me:
Typical Tory attitude even a poor loser with an insight into a governments performance, before it’s even formed, still can’t congratulate the winner and condemn the school kid premier who lost the unloseable election. We trot out Kroger a dickhead whose been involved in more Tory electoral disasters than any man known.
We should just give this country up to the Tory’s for you to be satiated, lets not forget those Icons of leaders Fraser, McMahon, Gorton, Ofarrell Kennett and the laziest behind the wheel of all Menzies. Special mention to the greatest liar of all Howard.
Continue reading 'MUKRAKER'
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YELLOW BELLY TO PINK SLUGS
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (12:18pm)
Sydney’s rain-loaded summer is now approaching a dampness level previously only achieved in Andrew Marlton’s underpants. Meanwhile, in frozen Boston global warming alarmist John Kerry was recently fined for failing to remove snow from outside his mansion:
The city’s latest blizzard sidewalk scoflaw is none other than U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry.Boston’s Citizen’s Connect website confirms Kerry’s Beacon Hill property did not have the sidewalk cleared and he was issued a ticket. The city said tonight he was hit with a $50 fine …A State Department spokesperson said Kerry was “overseas” and not around to do the digging ... and apparently the help weren’t either.
They were probably eaten by pink sea slugs, global warming’s latest deadly contribution to our planet’s misery.
(Via Roger B.)
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PUNCTUATE OR PERISH
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (4:08am)
The Spectator‘s Ysenda Maxtone Graham joins my crusade against full-stop avoidance:
The dot-dot-dot ending of paragraphs is another full-stop-avoiding technique: the fade-out rather than the sudden ending. ‘And Emily’s friends aren’t always reliable…!’ The dot-dot-dot implies, ‘There’s much more that could qualify what I’ve just said, so don’t challenge me on the absoluteness of the bare remark I’ve just made.’ Like the weak comma, the dot-dot-dot seems (to the unpunctuated) to be a softer and safer landing: a landing on cotton wool. It, too, drives me mad.
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TOONS AT TEN PACES
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (1:10am)
Iran is holding its second Holocaust-themed cartoon contest. (The first, which ran several years ago, featured a controversial Australian entry.)
In response, here’s the International Ayatollah Khamenei Cartoon and Poster Contest.
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SHEEP HALALED
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (12:31am)
Much of Australia’s beef export industry was shut down in 2011 following this ABC broadcast. Given that British halal slaughterhouses seem a little on the grisly side, perhaps the ABC might now investigate local halal practices.
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No, Abbott’s fault wasn’t that he listened to conservatives. It’s that he didn’t
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (6:13pm)
One of the great dangers - not least for the Liberals - is that Malcolm Turnbull’s increasingly possible win over Tony Abbott would be be hailed as proof that conservative politics is electoral poison. That the Liberals must move to the Left.
Part of that narrative - already being run - is to make Abbott seem like someone that conservative commentators cheered every step of the way, until the wicked Rupert Murdoch last week told them to attack.
Abbott’s fault is that he listened to conservative commentators, will be the argument. Silly Abbott. Silly commentators.
I’ve been told that Phillip Coorey and Eddie McGuire have already made such an argument about me, for instance, gloating that Abbott’s fall will prove me wrong.
Needless to say, this self-serving revisionism is pushing an untruth that could cripple the Liberals in the long term if it panics the party into forgetting its values.
The truth is that Abbott has found himself left without a loyal base of conservatives. He offended conservative MPs not just by his mistakes and the rudeness of his chief of staff, but by tacking too far to the Left. Few conservative MPs or even commentators feel obliged to defend him with any passion - or at all. That is hurting him badly in this showdown with Turnbull.
In my case, I now back Abbott largely because I am not sure at all that the alternatives are better. I like Abbott enormously and admire his courage, sense of duty and honesty about the challenges we face, but I am frustrated by the mistakes he has made.
This is not a last-week epiphany, as critics suggest.
Here are just some of the criticisms I made of Abbott over the past year or so - all contrary to the impression now gleefully pushed by some commentators of the Left - which sum up many of Abbott’s worst mis-steps. Had he only listened:
November, 2014:
Continue reading 'No, Abbott’s fault wasn’t that he listened to conservatives. It’s that he didn’t'
Part of that narrative - already being run - is to make Abbott seem like someone that conservative commentators cheered every step of the way, until the wicked Rupert Murdoch last week told them to attack.
Abbott’s fault is that he listened to conservative commentators, will be the argument. Silly Abbott. Silly commentators.
I’ve been told that Phillip Coorey and Eddie McGuire have already made such an argument about me, for instance, gloating that Abbott’s fall will prove me wrong.
Needless to say, this self-serving revisionism is pushing an untruth that could cripple the Liberals in the long term if it panics the party into forgetting its values.
The truth is that Abbott has found himself left without a loyal base of conservatives. He offended conservative MPs not just by his mistakes and the rudeness of his chief of staff, but by tacking too far to the Left. Few conservative MPs or even commentators feel obliged to defend him with any passion - or at all. That is hurting him badly in this showdown with Turnbull.
In my case, I now back Abbott largely because I am not sure at all that the alternatives are better. I like Abbott enormously and admire his courage, sense of duty and honesty about the challenges we face, but I am frustrated by the mistakes he has made.
This is not a last-week epiphany, as critics suggest.
Here are just some of the criticisms I made of Abbott over the past year or so - all contrary to the impression now gleefully pushed by some commentators of the Left - which sum up many of Abbott’s worst mis-steps. Had he only listened:
November, 2014:
THE Abbott Government must change or die…
Continue reading 'No, Abbott’s fault wasn’t that he listened to conservatives. It’s that he didn’t'
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Legal journal falls to the Left
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (2:43pm)
Reader Sam Ingui on the Left’s march through the institutions:
I am a lawyer – in my 30th year of practice. Each month I receive the NSW Law Society Journal as a privilege of membership. Over the years its gone from being a technical publication to one that is has morphed into a political mouthpiece for the left. It has the feel and style of a left-green/ABC/Fairfax rag.And, of course, the Left captured the ABC long ago.
I sat down to read this month’s edition at lunch time today.
I initially noticed a letter to the editor on page 9 that bemoans John Howard being on the November cover because he’s apparently a “conservative spear holder” (insultingly the letter writer calls him a “gargoyle"). Why was this published ? It gives no legal insight – only the writers prejudice. John Howard was a practicing lawyer in NSW. Why the insulting remarks?
Then feature articles follow from Justice Kirby (page 12), Tim Soutphommasane (Race Commissioner) on why section 18C should remain (page 20) and Julian Burnside QC on page 22 on refugee injustice.
As well there is a lengthy article written by 10 writers on laws that should be changed (laws including those apparently not favouring asylum seekers, victims’ rights, indigenous recognition - written by Larissa Behrendt - and one favouring marijuana legalisation).
Nothing is presented ... as to whether say section 18C of the Race Discrimination Act should be turfed – given Tim Soutphommasane’s article on page 20 you only get one view.
In the rest it’s just lifestyle and reviews of areas with little relevance.
Lawyers are a conservative lot usually. But this is now a political journal. The technical and practice aspects have taken a secondary place. It feels like you’re reading Fairfax or some ABC publication.
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Can Malcolm Turnbull really do better? Remember his record
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (11:46am)
Labor starts its attack on Malcolm Turnbull:
But Turnbull cannot bring himself to even speak to several conservative commentators, me included. That doesn’t strike me as the actions of a man who will unite his party and “govern from the centre”.
If he does not have the support of the few conservatives in the media and is attacked by the Left, I fear the Liberals will see from Turnbull the poll results it got from him last time:
This will become more obvious should Turnbull lead the Liberals to its near-inevitable defeat. He is likely to leave the party in a shambles, having repudiated some values it should have upheld. This is the message from John Howard’s last desperate year in power, when he jumped on the global warming and “reconciliation” bandwagons in a last frantic bid for votes. That cost the party in Opposition.
That said, this explains one of Tony Abbott’s great miscalculations - to have himself turned his back on conservatives to court the Left. Abbott’s dropping of free speech reforms and workplace reform, along with his fierce advocacy of a constitutional change that will divide us by race, has alienated the constituency he needs to survive.
UPDATE
A demented leadership plot may make Malcolm Turnbull Prime Minister next week. From last year:
And what fun it will have with this Turnbull quote from 2009:
I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.Turnbull may well have changed his ways, of course. His backers say he’ll be more consultative and will temper his warmist opinions. He will “govern from the centre”.
But Turnbull cannot bring himself to even speak to several conservative commentators, me included. That doesn’t strike me as the actions of a man who will unite his party and “govern from the centre”.
If he does not have the support of the few conservatives in the media and is attacked by the Left, I fear the Liberals will see from Turnbull the poll results it got from him last time:
Reader Steve:
Turnbull never won a single Newspoll under his leadership (16 September 2008 – 1 December 2009) and the average over his term was a disastrous 44-56, 2 points worse than how the Coalition is currently polling. The polls only started to improve for the Coalition when they dumped Turnbull and the ETS.If Turnbull wins, conservatives will be marginalised in public debate. Turnbull will define the extreme of civilised discourse as far as the ABC is concerned. It strikes me that for conservative politics to advance, it would be better to have Labor in power against a Liberal party that re-discovers its core convictions, rather than a contest between a Labor-lite Government and a Labor-heavy Opposition that’s almost bound to win the next election.
This will become more obvious should Turnbull lead the Liberals to its near-inevitable defeat. He is likely to leave the party in a shambles, having repudiated some values it should have upheld. This is the message from John Howard’s last desperate year in power, when he jumped on the global warming and “reconciliation” bandwagons in a last frantic bid for votes. That cost the party in Opposition.
That said, this explains one of Tony Abbott’s great miscalculations - to have himself turned his back on conservatives to court the Left. Abbott’s dropping of free speech reforms and workplace reform, along with his fierce advocacy of a constitutional change that will divide us by race, has alienated the constituency he needs to survive.
UPDATE
A demented leadership plot may make Malcolm Turnbull Prime Minister next week. From last year:
News Corp commentator Andrew Bolt’s leadership speculation “borders on the demented” and is ‘’quite unhinged”, says Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull....
“It borders on the demented to string together a dinner with Clive Palmer and my attending, as the Communications Minister, the launch by a cross-party group of friends of the ABC and say that that amounts to some kind of threat or challenge to the Prime Minister,” Mr Turnbull told reporters on Monday.
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Has Bishop been outmanoevered by Turnbull?
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (9:40am)
A question for Julie Bishop to consider after her reported (and denied) meeting with Malcolm Turnbull at his home this morning.
Will you really keep your job if Turnbull takes over?
This must be a worry for you, now that Turnbull indicates he won’t make room for you in any challenge.
If there is a ballot, can you really hope to stay on as deputy leader against a challenge from, say, Scott Morrison? Is it actually credible to be the loyal deputy to your third leader?
I suspect Bishop may be getting cold feet.
UPDATE
I may have spoken too crossly. Bishop may well get a guarantee from Turnbull in exchange for her votes. It depends on what Morrison wants from Turnbull. If he’s happy with Treasurer, that’s that and the showdown next week will be very difficult for Abbott to survive.
Will you really keep your job if Turnbull takes over?
This must be a worry for you, now that Turnbull indicates he won’t make room for you in any challenge.
If there is a ballot, can you really hope to stay on as deputy leader against a challenge from, say, Scott Morrison? Is it actually credible to be the loyal deputy to your third leader?
UPDATE
I may have spoken too crossly. Bishop may well get a guarantee from Turnbull in exchange for her votes. It depends on what Morrison wants from Turnbull. If he’s happy with Treasurer, that’s that and the showdown next week will be very difficult for Abbott to survive.
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Abbott is gone … or maybe not. UPDATE: ABC pushes and pushes
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (9:14am)
Tony Abbott was loyal to Arthur Sinodinos to a fault, keeping him on as assistant treasurer for far longer than was wise as Sinodinos battled to clear his name at the Independant Commission Against Corruption. In return, this blow:
ABC spin on 7.30:
The ABC spin and glee throughout this challenge - the active pushing for the Liberals to be less conservative - is unmistakable and an abuse of the ABC’s huge power.
Reform of the ABC is not just critical to tame state power, protect media diversity and promote debate. For the Liberals it is also a fight for survival.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
“I’ve always supported Tony Abbott,’’ Senator Sinodinos said.Niki Savva says Abbott is gone - but maybe not now:
“But that support, ongoing, is not unconditional,” he said.
“It’s based upon being able to grapple with the issues we face at the moment,’’ the senator said. Asked on Sky News if Mr Abbott would still be in the top job next week, Senator Sinodinos replied: “Comrade, come and ask me next week.’’
TONY Abbott’s rule is over… If it’s not formally killed off by backbenchers next week, or soon after, ... then the voters will do the job for them at the election.Greg Sheridan is less sure:
No government today, given the fickleness and impatience of voters, can survive a civil war of the kind we have seen during the past few weeks unless it is brilliant and, despite a few notable exceptions, with some important achievements, the Abbott government falls well short of that.
Numbers are being counted. Malcolm Turnbull is said to be close. Supporters are refining their pitch, and to succeed Turnbull will have to make sure he lives up to it: there will be no emissions trading scheme unless the rest of the world moves; he will be more consultative; there will be no revenge ... and he will govern from the centre. The last is important because of the antipathy from the Nationals and the Right to Turnbull.
Julie Bishop is fighting to remain deputy — a sensible position on her part — and Scott Morrison will almost certainly become treasurer…
No serious leader publicly calls his MPs sexist because they dared criticise his chief of staff whom they reckoned was trying to bully, intimidate or ostracise them and their staff; no serious leader repeatedly ignores their existence while indulging in policy frolics that he then has to reverse; no serious leader humiliates them by awarding a knighthood to a prince; no serious leader outsources his job or cedes his power to an unelected staff member, then spits in the eye of those who try to tell him it is wrong and will be his undoing; no serious leader would tolerate senior staff briefing against colleagues, as happened with Arthur Sinodinos and others. Finally, no serious leader tells his MPs they have no right to remove him because that right belongs to the people...
IT is still close to an even-money bet Tony Abbott will be successfully challenged for the leadership of the Liberal Party, though the prospect is fading a little…UPDATE
If we change prime ministers again now we will ... have had six prime ministers in eight years: Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd again, Abbott and Abbott’s successor.... This sounds like Italian politics in the decades after World War II....
Hard as recovery looks for the Liberal government under Abbott’s leadership, it will almost certainly be harder under a new and inexperienced team, presiding over a party torn to pieces by internal struggle.
Abbott needs renewed commitment from his colleagues, but he also needs to make a bigger statement of change on his own part. So many successful politicians have done this. Bill Clinton, recall, had an absolutely disastrous first two years in office… He changed his approach fundamentally, he told the American people he was changed, he lived up to his word… I think Abbott still needs to go further along the Clinton line of repentance and acceptance of responsibility for the mess his government has found itself in.
However, we must acknowledge and debate more broadly the elements of our system that now conspire profoundly against good government. First is the rise of 24/7 social media… Our Senate system has become bizarre… The interaction of compulsory voting, exhaustive preferential voting and above-the-line voting means the Senate elections yield undemocratic results that favour splinter parties going for tiny protest votes… Conflictual modern politics rewards the “power of nope”.
ABC spin on 7.30:
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: ... The ABC can identify 10 Liberal MPs who want a ballot on the leadership and another 18 who say they might support one…Ten - at most 28 - of 102 Liberals MPs want a leadership spill against Abbott, yet the ABC says there’s a “perception that’s he’s increasingly on his own”? And runs carefully selected footage of Abbott sitting as if alone?
SABRA LANE, REPORTER: ... (T)he Prime Minister is resisting a backbench revolt and the perception that he’s increasingly on his own.
The ABC spin and glee throughout this challenge - the active pushing for the Liberals to be less conservative - is unmistakable and an abuse of the ABC’s huge power.
Reform of the ABC is not just critical to tame state power, protect media diversity and promote debate. For the Liberals it is also a fight for survival.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Abbott’s critics cross the line with sabotage
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (8:37am)
THE MPs plotting against Tony Abbott have crossed a line. This is now sheer bastardry and many Liberal members won’t wear it.
The Prime Minister on Monday admitted to mistakes, junked dud policies, promised to consult more and gave a fighting speech pointing out his government’s many successes.
On Tuesday his Ministers worked the whole day thrashing out how the Government got into such strife and planning a new direction.
But it seems as if some Liberal MPs — many of them malcontents overlooked for promotion — simply didn’t want Abbott’s reset to work.
Dennis Jensen, Warren Entsch, Mal Brough, Ian Macdonald and Andrew Laming didn’t give Abbott even 24 hours to sell his reset, talking all over it and giving an Abbott-hating media even more sticks to belt the Prime Minister.
Jensen, furious at not being made Science Minister, called for a leadership spill. Brough, a former minister on the backbench, gave Abbott only “qualified” support and attacked his health policies.
Macdonald, dumped from the frontbench, gave Abbott only a few weeks to prove himself. Laming threatened a private member’s bill to scrap Abbott’s knighthoods and Entsch kept trash talking.
This is unforgivable.
It is reasonable for MPs to be privately critical of Abbott’s past performance. It is also understandable that many doubt Abbott can change his ways or turn around his terrible poll figures.
But what we’ve seen this week is something different. It’s a handful of MPs seeming to do their best to sabotage any comeback under Abbott.
They are actually like a platoon of Kevin Rudds, more committed to their own interests than to their party’s or the country’s.
With an election more than 18 months away, there was no reason these plotters couldn’t give Abbott a few weeks of peace to show he’s learned and will do better. But they didn’t give him even a day.
(Read full article here.)
The Prime Minister on Monday admitted to mistakes, junked dud policies, promised to consult more and gave a fighting speech pointing out his government’s many successes.
On Tuesday his Ministers worked the whole day thrashing out how the Government got into such strife and planning a new direction.
But it seems as if some Liberal MPs — many of them malcontents overlooked for promotion — simply didn’t want Abbott’s reset to work.
Dennis Jensen, Warren Entsch, Mal Brough, Ian Macdonald and Andrew Laming didn’t give Abbott even 24 hours to sell his reset, talking all over it and giving an Abbott-hating media even more sticks to belt the Prime Minister.
Jensen, furious at not being made Science Minister, called for a leadership spill. Brough, a former minister on the backbench, gave Abbott only “qualified” support and attacked his health policies.
Macdonald, dumped from the frontbench, gave Abbott only a few weeks to prove himself. Laming threatened a private member’s bill to scrap Abbott’s knighthoods and Entsch kept trash talking.
This is unforgivable.
It is reasonable for MPs to be privately critical of Abbott’s past performance. It is also understandable that many doubt Abbott can change his ways or turn around his terrible poll figures.
But what we’ve seen this week is something different. It’s a handful of MPs seeming to do their best to sabotage any comeback under Abbott.
They are actually like a platoon of Kevin Rudds, more committed to their own interests than to their party’s or the country’s.
With an election more than 18 months away, there was no reason these plotters couldn’t give Abbott a few weeks of peace to show he’s learned and will do better. But they didn’t give him even a day.
(Read full article here.)
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A word from a man inside the ABC’s mad conspiracy theory
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (8:26am)
The giant ABC is pushing a crazy conspiracy theory to damage a smaller competitor.
Leftist ABC presenters such as Media Watch’s Paul Barry, Q&A’s Tony Jones and Melbourne 774’s Jon Faine are suggesting Rupert Murdoch has sooled his tame journalists onto Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Normally the ABC would love help in whacking Abbott. But it’s spun this into a story of evil Murdoch columnists writing to order and abandoning the man they’d supported.
Their evidence? Last week Murdoch, whose News Corp owns this paper, tweeted that Abbott’s decision to make Prince Philip a knight was “a joke and embarrassment”.
He also said Abbott should sack chief of staff Peta Credlin, apparently for failing to save Abbott from himself.
But as it happened, Murdoch columnists Chris Kenny, Janet Albrechtsen and Greg Sheridan had already attacked Abbott’s decision before Murdoch’s tweet, and another, Miranda Devine, had demanded Credlin’s sacking.
Is that surprising? Does anyone seriously think these columnists would defend this knighthood?
So Murdoch followed, not led, his columnists. Yet Media Watch reversed the order in claiming “Murdoch tweets and Australia repeats”, and host Barry wondered “whether this critical chorus was orchestrated by Murdoch”.
Tony Jones likewise suggested Murdoch’s tweets came before his columnists’ attacks: “The Murdoch idea gets parroted by News Limited journalists right across the country...”
But wait. There is one Murdoch columnist who didn’t attack Abbott until the day Murdoch tweeted.
(Read full article here - scroll down past the top story.)
Continue reading 'Column - A word from a man inside the ABC’s mad conspiracy theory'
Leftist ABC presenters such as Media Watch’s Paul Barry, Q&A’s Tony Jones and Melbourne 774’s Jon Faine are suggesting Rupert Murdoch has sooled his tame journalists onto Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Normally the ABC would love help in whacking Abbott. But it’s spun this into a story of evil Murdoch columnists writing to order and abandoning the man they’d supported.
Their evidence? Last week Murdoch, whose News Corp owns this paper, tweeted that Abbott’s decision to make Prince Philip a knight was “a joke and embarrassment”.
He also said Abbott should sack chief of staff Peta Credlin, apparently for failing to save Abbott from himself.
But as it happened, Murdoch columnists Chris Kenny, Janet Albrechtsen and Greg Sheridan had already attacked Abbott’s decision before Murdoch’s tweet, and another, Miranda Devine, had demanded Credlin’s sacking.
Is that surprising? Does anyone seriously think these columnists would defend this knighthood?
So Murdoch followed, not led, his columnists. Yet Media Watch reversed the order in claiming “Murdoch tweets and Australia repeats”, and host Barry wondered “whether this critical chorus was orchestrated by Murdoch”.
Tony Jones likewise suggested Murdoch’s tweets came before his columnists’ attacks: “The Murdoch idea gets parroted by News Limited journalists right across the country...”
But wait. There is one Murdoch columnist who didn’t attack Abbott until the day Murdoch tweeted.
(Read full article here - scroll down past the top story.)
Continue reading 'Column - A word from a man inside the ABC’s mad conspiracy theory'
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Economy slips again, as Labor profits from destroying the rescue
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (8:21am)
Whoever leads the Liberals, the grim challenge remains - and grows:
And so the rescue of Australia founders, to the cheers of Labor, the Greens, Palmer United, Jacqui Lambie, the unions and much of the media.
Remember this turning point…
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
THE federal budget faces further massive writedowns, with some estimates suggesting that up to $40 billion will be added to the deficit over four years as commodity prices fall and the economy slows. The softening economy in the lead up to the May budget will add pressure on Joe Hockey to find new savings at a politically fraught time for the Abbott government.A new Liberal leader will get no mercy from the Labor and the Greens, cock-a-hoop at toppling Abbott. I fear that the new leader will even feel pressure to back off on the challenge, for fear that what was done to Abbott will be done to them.
The government is coming under increasing pressure to ditch the 1.5 per cent levy on big business intended to pay for the now-abandoned paid parental leave scheme. The Treasurer revealed yesterday that Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens had flown to Canberra after Tuesday’s surprise rate cut to brief cabinet on the bank’s increasingly gloomy view about the economic outlook…
The RBA will tomorrow release new economic forecasts showing growth is unlikely to reach 3 per cent either this year or in 2015-16. Treasury’s pre-Christmas budget update assumed growth would reach 3 per cent in both years....
Stephen Anthony, a former Finance Department official and principal of the consultancy Macroeconomics, estimated that a half-percentage-point cut in growth would add $2.5bn this year and $4bn next year to the deficit… Treasury included what were considered excessively conservative estimates for the iron ore price when it was preparing the budget update in December, tipping it would fall from $70 at that time to average $60 over the year ahead, but the spot price in China is down to $63...
And so the rescue of Australia founders, to the cheers of Labor, the Greens, Palmer United, Jacqui Lambie, the unions and much of the media.
Remember this turning point…
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Press Council activists reach for a bigger muzzle
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (7:43am)
As I’ve often warned, the Australian Press Council has been captured by activists - and they are now keen to impose their own values and restrictions.
Here’s Press Council chairman Julian Disney at the National Press Club yesterday:
Here’s Press Council chairman Julian Disney at the National Press Club yesterday:
These problems partially explain why an eminent editor, David Bowman, reflected on the first ten years of the Council that its record shows(This post has been modified. The Australian item I pasted put Bowman’s words in Disney’s mouth. Apologies.)
“a good many peccadilloes [have] become the subject of public complaint against the press while nearly all the big crimes go unremarked. This confirms that the council may well try to make more use of its right to lay complaints itself. One would hope that a series of exemplary cases would result. ”The Council decided a few years before I became Chair that it would investigate some possible breaches of its Standards even if it had not yet received a formal complaint. The Council now needs to implement that decision more effectiveIy. It should also be willing to consider matters where there has been no complaint…
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Understood and forgiven
Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (5:14am)
Andrew Rule on the crazy green laws that force even a judge to be a lawbreaker:
DON’T try this at home. It’s against the law. We know this because a judge said so…
His Honour sneaks outside, possibly in monogrammed dressing gown over silk boxer shorts and a pair of soft-soled tennis shoes. He works his way around the garden in the dark to where his possum trap is.
If there’s a possum in it, the great man ... removes the condemned to the place of execution, from which no possum returns.
That would be in his garage, next to the BMW. It’s a wheelie bin, full of water…
This is the secret world of possum culling. No one admits it publicly but a lot of people do it, or talk about doing it… Call it a vigilante movement or call it vermin control, it will flourish underground until a politician realises there’s a landslide win in a policy platform of possum control… t’s inevitable that suffering homeowners fight back against a system heavily slanted towards possum power… His Honour, an expert at adversarial argument, blames it on well-meaning people who pushed to ban removal of possums any further than a few metres from where they’re caught.
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Amnesty should never have supported terrorists - ed
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We can learn from a man who has class
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, February 04, 2014 (8:34pm)
THE vicious attacks on the expert chosen by Christopher Pyne to review the national education curriculum show just how much is at stake for the cultural revolutionaries dumbing down our schools.
Continue reading 'We can learn from a man who has class'
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ABC’S STRANGE WORLD OF PRIDE AND SHAME
Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 05, 2014 (4:14am)
February 3. ABC head of editorial policy Alan Sunderland defends the billion-dollar broadcaster’s navy torturer smears:
If we relied only on information from official channels then little or nothing would have been reported and the Australian public would have been left in the dark about the dramatic events unfolding on the high seas.From the moment the first claims emerged in this messy affair, it was clear there was a significant story. Thanks to the work of good journalists who did not stop chasing, the public now knows that.When the ABC starts chasing uncomfortable stories, we expect criticism. But it is indeed a strange world when some of those who should be chasing the story seem to think the story is us.
February 4. ABC bosses Mark Scott and Kate Torney regret the billion-dollar broadcaster’s navy torturer smears:
Video obtained exclusively by the ABC, showing asylum seekers with burns, along with reports that Indonesian police were investigating the matter, raised further important questions …The ABC’s initial reports on the video said that the vision appeared to support the asylum seekers’ claims. That’s because it was the first concrete evidence that the injuries had occurred. What the video did not do was establish how those injuries occurred.The wording around the ABC’s initial reporting needed to be more precise on that point. We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims.
So it’s the audience’s fault. Further on the ABC’s half-arsed regret here.
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CLIMATE CHANGE KILLS A TREE
Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 05, 2014 (3:55am)
Take that, deniers! Here’s absolute proof of deadly climate change:
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FOURTH-HAND DESTROYS ALL WHO SEE IT
Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 05, 2014 (3:40am)
Second-hand smoke is such a yesterday issue. The cool new concern is third-hand smoke.
(Via must-read PWAF)
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Hey, Putin, where’s the roof? The floor? The lift?
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (3:21pm)
Athletes and reporters are checking into their Olympic Games accommodation at Sochi. Russia was never famous for its service culture or efficiency, and the tweets from its Games guests are not flattering:
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Sharman Stone should say sorry
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (1:42pm)
Judith Sloan on SPC Ardmona:
So who is telling lies? Shadow Industry Minister, Kim Carr, and local Liberal MP Sharmon Stone are a tag-team when it comes to accusing the Prime Minister of uttering porkies about the excessive workers’ conditions and restrictive practices. The trouble is that the evidence is there for everyone to read.Why have the many reporters who simply repeated Stone’s claim of Abbott lying not checked for themselves who is actually telling the untruths?
The SPC Ardmona EBA does provide for wages which are 40 per cent above the award; does contain superannuation contributions of 11.5 per cent (above the norm of 9.25 per cent); does allow for some cashing out of sick leave; does provide excessive redundancy payouts for the majority of workers; does provide for a day of leave to attend the Food Preservers’ Picnic and numerous RDOs; and the list goes on. And if the various allowances are so trivial, they should have been cashed out and eliminated years ago.
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The ABC’s priorities
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (1:25pm)
The ABC, which refused to report Climategate or a police raid on Julia Gillard’s former law offices under a warrant naming her, finds a story far more suited to its taste.
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Teaching children to worship at the shrine of race
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (12:50pm)
A Canberra reader found the Florey Primary School displaying this declaration, presenting it as the considered thoughts of its students rather than the grim instruction of their teachers:
There were agreements - like that struck in what became Melbourne - between original owners and settlers to hand over some land. Why are they not mentioned?
Is this retreat into tribalism, with students of “many cultures” demanding “respect” for “Aboriginal peoples culture and customary law”, to be matched with laws defining us by our “race” and “ethnic origin”? Or is our better future to be found in treating each other as individuals, regardless of “race”, under a common citizenship?
Why is the missing apostrophe in “peoples culture”? Are spelling and grammar taught with the same care as this kind of racial politics? I ask, because apostrophes at this school go missing where you least expect them to:
Are these students demanding “respect” for aspects of Aboriginal law such as polygamy, male dominance, bride-promising, collectivism and payback?
Why do the children use “spiritual totem poles”? If all cultures are to be recognised, why can’t these children swear by a crucifix? Are they appropriating Aboriginal spirituality, or merely being converted?
Could the school get back to teaching, rather than preaching?
UPDATE
Miranda Devine:
Why did the teachers put these words in the mouths of the children, rather than openly admit the sentiments were their own?
There were agreements - like that struck in what became Melbourne - between original owners and settlers to hand over some land. Why are they not mentioned?
Is this retreat into tribalism, with students of “many cultures” demanding “respect” for “Aboriginal peoples culture and customary law”, to be matched with laws defining us by our “race” and “ethnic origin”? Or is our better future to be found in treating each other as individuals, regardless of “race”, under a common citizenship?
Why is the missing apostrophe in “peoples culture”? Are spelling and grammar taught with the same care as this kind of racial politics? I ask, because apostrophes at this school go missing where you least expect them to:
Given 30 per cent of the students speak English only as a second language, are they more or less likely to integrate into a country they are taught to regard as stolen land belonging to another “race”?
Are these students demanding “respect” for aspects of Aboriginal law such as polygamy, male dominance, bride-promising, collectivism and payback?
Why do the children use “spiritual totem poles”? If all cultures are to be recognised, why can’t these children swear by a crucifix? Are they appropriating Aboriginal spirituality, or merely being converted?
Could the school get back to teaching, rather than preaching?
UPDATE
Miranda Devine:
THE vicious attacks on the expert chosen by Christopher Pyne to review the national education curriculum show just how much is at stake for the cultural revolutionaries dumbing down our schools.If the Left is truly interested in reconciliation, why not start with reconciling itself with conservatives?
Dr Kevin Donnelly ... has been falsely branded a paedophile, Islamophobe, homophobe, misogynist and Christian.
In the sewers of Twitter, people have wished him dead and asked him for his opinion on vibrators…
Among his and Queensland academic Ken Wiltshire’s tasks is to decide whether the three priorities of the new curriculum - sustainability, indigenous history and culture and Asian engagement - make any sense. Absurdly, even in maths the curriculum claims “sustainability provides rich, engaging and authentic contexts for developing students’ abilities in number and algebra”.
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Global warming gives us bigger waves. Or smaller
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (9:04am)
In 2011 we were told global warming would give us smaller waves:
(Thanks to reader Steve.)
CSIRO research commissioned by the federal government ... predicted small but significant falls in likely wave heights as temperatures rose.In 2014 we are told global warming is giving us bigger waves:
Their June 2010 research said wave heights could fall by a “relatively robust” 5mm-10mm along the NSW coast by the end of the century. “Projected changes are larger and significant on the northern coast,” it said.
Big waves are energetically costly for fish, and there are more big waves than ever…Bigger, smaller, whatever. It’s global warming.
“There has been a lot of recent work in oceanography documenting the fact that waves are becoming more frequent and more intense due to climate change,” says Mr Dominique Roche, PhD candidate from the Research School of Biology.
(Thanks to reader Steve.)
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Labor suddenly has the sweats in Griffith
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (8:37am)
Labor should not have trouble retaining Kevin Rudd’s seat in the Griffith by-election this weekend:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
If history is a guide, the Labor Party should retain Griffith. The only time a government has gained a seat from an opposition was at the 1920 Kalgoorlie by-election.But Labor suddenly seems strangely nervous:
Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten will make last-ditch appeals to the voters of Griffith on Thursday as Labor frets over new internal polling showing Liberal candidate Bill Glasson to be highly popular among locals.Excuses are prepared:
Though history favours Labor’s Terri Butler to hold the Brisbane seat left vacant by the retirement of Kevin Rudd, ALP polling shows Mr Glasson to be far and above the most popular lead character in the battle… Dr Glasson – an opthalmologist who ran against Mr Rudd at the September 7, 2013 election – has a “net positive” of 35 per cent, according to the polling obtained by the Australian Financial Review. Ms Butler has a net positive of 18.
LABOR is worried Griffith voters are suffering extreme electoral fatigue and may stay at home instead of voting in Saturday’s by-election to replace former prime minister Kevin Rudd…But with the Essential poll showing the Coalition 50-50 with Labor nationally, Griffith shouldnot defy history.
Eleven candidates are contesting the election and preferences will be extremely important, with neither of the major parties likely to win a majority in its own right .The Greens, the Secular Party and the Pirate Party are all preferencing the ALP, while Family First will be the only party directly giving its preferences to the LNP .Five parties—Katters Australian, Bullet Train for Australia, and Stable Population parties—as well as independents Travis Windsor and Karel Boele, will all have split tickets, meaning their preferences could go anywhere.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Academic: only conservatives would say ABC is biased
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (8:00am)
A startling non sequitur from Age columnist Sally Young, a Melbourne University associate professor of political science:
Surely Young should conclude that if conservatives use universities and engage with the ABC, they probably know what they are talking about when they note the bias of both.
But what is even stranger about Young is that she actually uses in all seriousness a defence of the ABC which I’ve often suggested as a parody - that the ABC is not biased and only bloody conservatives would say so. I thought even an idiot would get the joke and realise such a defence would actually confirm the bias it denies.
But not Young:
UPDATE
Sinclair Davidson wonders why we have a state-funded ABC:
The ABC and universities are two consistent targets for conservative criticism in Australia. But this is puzzling because conservatives are big users of both.Young’s argument is that conservatives, by going to university and subjecting themselves to interviews on the ABC, must therefore be fine with the bias they say they detect. May I ask Young what the alternative is for conservatives? To deny themselves a tertiary education and boycott all interviews with the ABC?
Surely Young should conclude that if conservatives use universities and engage with the ABC, they probably know what they are talking about when they note the bias of both.
But what is even stranger about Young is that she actually uses in all seriousness a defence of the ABC which I’ve often suggested as a parody - that the ABC is not biased and only bloody conservatives would say so. I thought even an idiot would get the joke and realise such a defence would actually confirm the bias it denies.
But not Young:
Although numerous internal and external studies of ABC content have found there is no systematic bias, conservative critics won’t be convinced because they perceive bias in a more intangible way - as something that underlies the whole approach used at the ABC, rather than what is measurable (such as equal time or a right of reply)… How ironic though that conservatives are far more radical than ‘’the people’’ in their views towards the ABC and universities.Young wants conservatives critics of the biased ABC to be less “radical” and more in line with the polled opinion of “the people”. But last year she wanted “the people” and the biased media to be more in line with the Left:
Academic Sally Young is mystified why Australians do not connect with a Prime Minister who has cheated them, lied to them, patronised them, set them at each other’s throat, squandered billions of their taxes and now reaches for their super:We all have our biases, but It’s remarkable how unwilling ABC hosts and their defenders are to admit their own, even to themselves.
But how much of the Prime Minister’s much-maligned failure to ‘’connect’’ with the Australian public has to do with how she is represented in the media?… Those media play a powerful role in shaping opinions about her and in recent debates about misogyny in Australian politics, one question that has been raised is just how much the reporting of the Prime Minister and her government has to do with gender.
UPDATE
Sinclair Davidson wonders why we have a state-funded ABC:
...public broadcasters facilitate the diversion of public resources to political elites and narrow interest groups or distort and manipulate information to benefit and entrench those elites.(Thanks to reader Peter.)
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How about a sorry to our navy?
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (7:38am)
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has a point about the ABC’s non-apology to the navy:
The national broadcaster has come under fire over reporting asylum seeker claims they burnt their hands when forced by navy personnel to hold hot engine parts on an asylum seeker vessel.Janet Albrechtsen:
“We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims,” a joint statement by the news organisation’s managing director, Mark Scott, and director of news Kate Torney.
Ms Bishop said the statement didn’t go far enough. “...I thought the ABC would do the right thing and having acknowledged that their reporting was substandard at best that they would apologise,” she told ABC radio.
FOLLOWING the 1996 election, Prime Minister John Howard said of the ABC: “I think one of the weaknesses of the ABC is that it doesn’t have a right-wing Phillip Adams.” It was a gentle yet serious reminder that our taxpayer-funded national broadcaster is charged with reflecting the diversity of the Australian community under section 6 of its Charter.
Almost 18 years on, the ABC has grown in size but has still refused to address the lack of balance in its vast line-up of journalists - unless you count one hour per week of Counterpoint as balance. Instead, as Margaret Simons wrote in her 2005 essay, the then director of radio, Sue Howard, had a cartoon on her office wall. Featuring a cage, broken apart, with two people standing nearby, one says “Oh Lord. The Right-Wing Phillip Adams has escaped.” Presumably, in humorous ABC circles, a person with right-wing views must be locked up.
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Seinfeld: “ No interest in gender or race”
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (6:56am)
Michael Idato in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is actually a brilliant show, and even though its guest list has thus far been noticeably male-heavy (Sarah Silverman was a welcome respite in the second season, as was Tina Fey in the third) it is still original and revealing.Jerry Seinfeld:
I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that. But everyone else is kind of, with their little calculating – is this the exact right mix? To me it’s anti-comedy. It’s more about PC-nonsense than ‘are you making us laugh or not?’Idato is right about the Costanza promo, though. Nothing like the show’s best.
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Steyn appeal
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (6:46am)
What could be more fun than helping to defend a man who mocked a leading alarmist, and is now being sued for his presumption?
Mark Steyn writes:
Mark Steyn writes:
Don’t forget, we’re moving into the discovery phase of fake Nobel Laureate Michael Mann’s defamation lawsuit against me for mocking his global warm-mongering “hockey stick”, so if you’ve any suggestions as to what we should be asking for - third tree-ring on the left, etc - do pass them along to me via email at steyn@marksteyn.com.Steyn says he stands by all he wrote about Mann’s “hockey stick”.
I believe I’m also the first ne’er-do-well to attempt to fund his legal defense entirely by sales of his Christmas album. But, if there’s only so much “Marshmallow World” you can take, you can also support the cause via our SteynOnline gift certificates, starting at $25. It looks like the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st century (as The New York Times billed it) is going ahead, and I promise you full value for money.
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ABC gets advice from Murdoch man
Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (6:34am)
Interesting appointment. It suggests to me the ABC is perhaps feeling the heat:
The ABC’s admission came as it was revealed the broadcaster had poached The Australian’s media editor Nick Leys to handle its media relations.
The move shocked many observers given the hostile relationship over recent years between the ABC and The Australian, published by News Corp Australia.
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Paul Barry’s cunning cover
Andrew Bolt February 04 2014 (8:31pm)
Nifty bit of tactical voting by the host of the ABC’s Media Watch, under attack for his Leftist bias:
But then things become clear about Barry the closet conservative in an election at the end of the disastrous Rudd-Gillard reign:
[Paul] Barry responded to a description of the ABC as a “Greens-Left activist complex”.I’d believe him.
“OK, it’s a fair cop. I admit the crime,” Barry said. ”I only voted Liberal at the last election as a cover.”
But then things become clear about Barry the closet conservative in an election at the end of the disastrous Rudd-Gillard reign:
Better evidence of your non-Leftism needed, Paul. That fools no one.
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An ABC apology as unbelievable as the “torture”
Andrew Bolt February 04 2014 (8:01pm)
It’s the kind of modern apology - the worthless kind - that is conditioned by the word “if”:
And what so many ABC apologists refuse to acknowledge is that such “mistakes” are more likely to be made by people with a predisposition to believe the worst of this government and its policies.
The [ABC’s] admission the ABC’s reporting should have been ‘‘more precise’’ comes five days after Prime Minister Tony Abbott leapt upon the ABC’s reports as evidence the public broadcaster “instinctively takes everyone’s side but Australia’s"…Not good enough. The ABC gave highly improbable, hotly denied and very damaging allegations a prominence and a weight they did not deserve, and when contradictory information emerged it played it down and make another absurd allegation instead.
The ABC has been criticised for claiming in news reports aired on January 22 that new footage of asylum seekers’ burnt hands ‘‘appears to back up’’ the allegations of mistreatment…
In a statement posted online on Tuesday afternoon, ABC managing director Mark Scott and head of news Kate Torney said: ‘‘The ABC’s initial reports on the video said that the vision appeared to support the asylum seekers’ claims. That’s because it was the first concrete evidence that the injuries had occurred. What the video did not do was establish how those injuries occurred.
‘‘The wording around the ABC’s initial reporting needed to be more precise on that point. We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims. The ABC has always presented the allegations as just that – claims worthy of further investigation.’’
Scott and Torney insisted that the ABC was right to broadcast the video and air the asylum seekers’ claims. ‘‘Claims of mistreatment by the Australian military are very serious and a responsible media, acting in the public interest, will need to seek an official response and pursue the truth of the claims,’’ they said in their statement.
And what so many ABC apologists refuse to acknowledge is that such “mistakes” are more likely to be made by people with a predisposition to believe the worst of this government and its policies.
===
If Toyota workers won’t save themselves, why should taxpayers help?
Andrew Bolt February 04 2014 (7:52pm)
If workers won’t make the sacrifices to save their own jobs, why should other workers make the sacrifices to bail them out with subsidies?
TOYOTA workers have launched new legal action to safeguard themselves from any further attempts by the motor giant to remove some of their entitlements.
Amid increased uncertainty about the carmaker’s future in Australia, the industrial dispute playing out in the Federal Court has taken another turn with shop stewards launching a cross appeal against the decision which last year blocked Toyota’s move to cut some of their enterprise agreement’s conditions.
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- AD 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
- 756 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan.
- 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
- 1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
- 1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- 1782 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Menorca.
- 1783 – In Calabria, a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.
- 1807 – HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Java disappear off the coast of Rodrigues.
- 1810 – Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.
- 1818 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.
- 1849 – University of Wisconsin–Madison's first class meets at Madison Female Academy.
- 1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.
- 1859 – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.
- 1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
- 1885 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
- 1905 – In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties.
- 1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
- 1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
- 1917 – The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
- 1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
- 1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
- 1918 – SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
- 1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
- 1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.
- 1933 – Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.
- 1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain.
- 1941 – World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.
- 1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
- 1958 – Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
- 1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
- 1962 – French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
- 1963 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.
- 1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.
- 1975 – Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship.
- 1985 – Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthagemeet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
- 1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
- 1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
- 1994 – Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
- 1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
- 2000 – Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.
- 2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
- 2008 – A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57.
- 976 – Sanjō, emperor of Japan (d. 1017)
- 1321 – John II, marquess of Montferrat (d. 1372)
- 1438 – Philip II, duke of Savoy (d. 1497)
- 1505 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss statesman and historian (d. 1572)
- 1519 – René of Châlon, prince of Orange (d. 1544)
- 1525 – Juraj Drašković, Croatian Catholic cardinal (d. 1587)
- 1533 – Andreas Dudith, Croatian-Hungarian nobleman and diplomat (d. 1589)
- 1534 – Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian soldier, composer, and critic (d. 1612)
- 1589 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet and educator (d. 1669)
- 1594 – Biagio Marini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1663)
- 1608 – Gaspar Schott, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1666)
- 1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (d. 1696)
- 1650 – Anne Jules de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)
- 1703 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-American minister (d. 1764)
- 1723 – John Witherspoon, Scottish-American minister and academic (d. 1794)
- 1725 – James Otis, Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1783)
- 1748 – Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer and conductor (d. 1798)
- 1788 – Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
- 1795 – Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (d. 1871)
- 1804 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet and hymn-writer (d. 1877)
- 1808 – Carl Spitzweg, German painter and poet (d. 1885)
- 1827 – Peter Lalor, Irish-Australian activist and politician (d. 1889)
- 1810 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (d. 1880)
- 1837 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher, founded Moody Church, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers (d. 1899)
- 1840 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (d. 1921)
- 1840 – Hiram Maxim, American engineer, invented the Maxim gun (d. 1916)
- 1847 – Eduard Magnus Jakobson, Estonian missionary and engraver (d. 1903)
- 1848 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author and critic (d. 1907)
- 1848 – Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean lieutenant (d. 1882)
- 1852 – Terauchi Masatake, Japanese field marshal and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Japan(d. 1919)
- 1866 – Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician, 3rd and last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (d. 1963)
- 1870 – Charles Edmund Brock, British painter and book illustrator (d. 1938)
- 1876 – Ernie McLea, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1931)
- 1878 – André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded Citroën (d. 1935)
- 1880 – Gabriel Voisin, French pilot and engineer (d. 1973)
- 1889 – Patsy Hendren, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1962)
- 1889 – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1962)
- 1889 – Recep Peker, Turkish officer and politician (d. 1950)
- 1891 – Renato Petronio, Italian rower (d. 1976)
- 1892 – Elizabeth Ryan, American tennis player (d. 1979)
- 1897 – Dirk Stikker, Dutch businessman and politician, 3rd Secretary General of NATO (d. 1979)
- 1900 – Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier, politician, and diplomat, 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 1965)
- 1903 – Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (d. 1975)
- 1906 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
- 1907 – Birgit Dalland, Norwegian politician (d. 2007)
- 1907 – Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2000)
- 1908 – Marie Baron, Dutch swimmer and diver (d. 1948)
- 1908 – Peg Entwistle, Welsh-American actress (d. 1932)
- 1908 – Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twins (d. 1969)
- 1908 – Eugen Weidmann, German criminal (d. 1939)
- 1909 – Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish violinist and composer (d. 1969)
- 1910 – Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (d. 2007)
- 1910 – Francisco Varallo, Argentinian footballer (d. 2010)
- 1911 – Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
- 1914 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist, biophysicist, and academic, Nobel Prizelaureate (d. 1998)
- 1915 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- 1917 – Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress (d. 2012)
- 1919 – Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1919 – Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973)
- 1919 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
- 1921 – Ken Adam, German-born English production designer and art director (d. 2016)
- 1923 – Claude King, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
- 1923 – James E. Bowman, American physician and academic (d. 2011)
- 1924 – Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, Indian cardinal (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Robert Allen, American pianist and composer (d. 2000)
- 1927 – Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch captain and pilot (d. 1977)
- 1928 – Tage Danielsson, Swedish author, actor, and director (d. 1985)
- 1928 – Andrew Greeley, American priest, sociologist, and author (d. 2013)
- 1928 – P. J. Vatikiotis, Israeli-American historian and political scientist (d. 1997)
- 1929 – Hal Blaine, American session drummer
- 1929 – Luc Ferrari, French pianist and composer (d. 2005)
- 1929 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician, 19th Chancellor of Austria (d. 2008)
- 1932 – Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (d. 2016)
- 1933 – Jörn Donner, Finnish director and screenwriter
- 1933 – B.S. Johnson, English author, poet, and critic (d. 1973)
- 1934 – Hank Aaron. American baseball player
- 1934 – Don Cherry, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1935 – Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982)
- 1936 – K. S. Nissar Ahmed, Indian poet and academic
- 1937 – Stuart Damon, American actor and singer
- 1937 – Larry Hillman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1937 – Gaston Roelants, Belgian runner
- 1937 – Alar Toomre, Estonian-American astronomer and mathematician
- 1937 – Wang Xuan, Chinese computer scientist and academic (d. 2006)
- 1938 – Rafael Nieto Navia, Colombian lawyer, jurist, and diplomat
- 1939 – Brian Luckhurst, English cricketer (d. 2005)
- 1940 – H. R. Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (d. 2014)
- 1940 – Luke Graham, American wrestler (d. 2006)
- 1941 – Stephen J. Cannell, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1941 – Henson Cargill, American country music singer (d. 2007)
- 1941 – David Selby, American actor and playwright
- 1941 – Barrett Strong, American soul singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1941 – Kaspar Villiger, Swiss engineer and politician, 85th President of the Swiss Confederation
- 1941 – Cory Wells, American pop-rock singer (Three Dog Night) (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Roger Staubach, American football player, sportscaster, and businessman
- 1943 – Nolan Bushnell, American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc.
- 1943 – Michael Mann, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1943 – Craig Morton, American football player and sportscaster
- 1943 – Dušan Uhrin, Czech and Slovak footballer and manager
- 1944 – J. R. Cobb, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1944 – Henfil, Brazilian journalist, author, and illustrator (d. 1988)
- 1944 – Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1944 – Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 51st Yokozuna (d. 1971)
- 1945 – Douglas Hogg, English lawyer and politician, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
- 1946 – Amnon Dankner, Israeli journalist and author (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Charlotte Rampling, English actress
- 1947 – Mary L. Cleave, American engineer and astronaut
- 1947 – Clemente Mastella, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Justice
- 1947 – Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver and sportscaster
- 1948 – Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish footballer and manager
- 1948 – Christopher Guest, American actor and director
- 1948 – Barbara Hershey, American actress
- 1948 – Errol Morris, American director and producer
- 1948 – Tom Wilkinson, English actor
- 1949 – Kurt Beck, German politician
- 1949 – Yvon Vallières, Canadian educator and politician
- 1950 – Jonathan Freeman, American actor and singer
- 1950 – Rafael Puente, Mexican footballer
- 1951 – Nikolay Merkushkin, Mordovian engineer and politician, 1st Head of the Republic of Mordovia
- 1952 – Daniel Balavoine, French singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1986)
- 1952 – Vladimir Moskovkin, Ukrainian-Russian geographer, economist, and academic
- 1953 – Freddie Aguilar, Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1953 – John Beilein, American basketball player and coach
- 1953 – Gustavo Benítez, Paraguayan footballer and manager
- 1954 – Cliff Martinez, American drummer and songwriter
- 1954 – Frank Walker, Australian journalist and author
- 1955 – Mike Heath, American baseball player and manager
- 1956 – Vinnie Colaiuta, American drummer
- 1956 – Héctor Rebaque, Mexican race car driver
- 1956 – David Wiesner, American author and illustrator
- 1956 – Mao Daichi, Japanese actress
- 1957 – Jüri Tamm, Estonian hammer thrower and politician
- 1959 – Jennifer Granholm, Canadian-American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Michigan
- 1960 – Aris Christofellis, Greek soprano and musicologist
- 1960 – Bonnie Crombie, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 6th Mayor of Mississauga
- 1961 – Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager
- 1961 – Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter
- 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, screenwriter, producer and director
- 1963 – Steven Shainberg, American film director and producer
- 1964 – Laura Linney, American actress
- 1964 – Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
- 1965 – Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach
- 1965 – Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager
- 1965 – Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter
- 1965 – Quique Sánchez Flores, Spanish footballer and manager
- 1966 – José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer
- 1966 – Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993)
- 1967 – Chris Parnell, American actor and comedian
- 1968 – Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
- 1968 – Marcus Grönholm, Finnish race car driver
- 1969 – Bobby Brown, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
- 1969 – Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director
- 1969 – Derek Stephen Prince, American voice actor
- 1970 – Jean-Marc Jaumin, Belgian basketball player and coach
- 1970 – Darren Lehmann, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1971 – Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (d. 1996)
- 1971 – Sara Evans, American country singer
- 1972 – Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
- 1972 – Brad Fittler, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1973 – Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1973 – Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer-songwriter
- 1973 – Luke Ricketson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
- 1974 – Michael Maguire, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1975 – Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1976 – John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager
- 1976 – Abishek Bachchan, son of Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor.
- 1977 – Ben Ainslie, English sailor
- 1977 – Adam Dykes, Australian rugby league player
- 1977 – Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach
- 1978 – Brian Russell, American football player
- 1978 – Samuel Sánchez, Spanish cyclist
- 1979 – Nate Holzapfel, American entrepreneur and television personality
- 1980 – Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal
- 1980 – Jo Swinson, English politician
- 1981 – Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter
- 1981 – Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer
- 1982 – Laura del Rio, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Kevin Everett, American football player
- 1982 – Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1982 – Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer
- 1983 – Anja Hammerseng-Edin, Norwegian handball player
- 1984 – Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer
- 1985 – Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player
- 1985 – Laurence Maroney, American football player
- 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
- 1986 – Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer
- 1986 – Sekope Kepu, Australian rugby player
- 1986 – Billy Sharp, English footballer
- 1986 – Reed Sorenson, American race car driver
- 1986 – Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer
- 1987 – Darren Criss, American actor, singer, and entrepreneur
- 1987 – Curtis Jerrells, American basketball player
- 1987 – Alex Kuznetsov, Ukrainian-American tennis player
- 1987 – Linus Omark, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1987 – Donald Sanford, American-Israeli sprinter
- 1988 – Karin Ontiveros, Mexican model
- 1989 – Marina Melnikova, Russian tennis player
- 1990 – Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player
- 1990 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer
- 1990 – Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer
- 1991 – Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer
- 1991 – Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer
- 1992 – Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer
- 1992 – Neymar, Brazilian footballer
- 1993 – Leilani Latu, Australian rugby league player
- 1993 – Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1995 – Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer
- 1996 – Stina Blackstenius, Swedish footballer
- 1997 – Patrick Roberts, English footballer
- 2016 – Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Bhutanese prince
- 523 – Avitus of Vienne, Latin archbishop and saint (b. 470)
- 806 – Emperor Kanmu, Japanese emperor (b. 737)
- 995 – William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
- 1015 – Adelaide, Abbess of Vilich, German abbess and saint (b. c. 970)
- 1036 – Alfred Aetheling, Anglo-Saxon prince (approximate date)
- 1146 – Zafadola, last ruler of the Hudid dynasty
- 1578 – Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter (b. 1520)
- 1661 – Shunzhi Emperor of China (b. 1638)
- 1705 – Philipp Spener, German theologian and author (b. 1635)
- 1751 – Henri François d'Aguesseau, French jurist and politician, Chancellor of France (b. 1668)
- 1754 – Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch astronomer and cartographer (b. 1678)
- 1766 – Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- 1775 – Eusebius Amort, German theologian and academic (b. 1692)
- 1790 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)
- 1807 – Pasquale Paoli, Corsican commander and politician (b. 1725)
- 1818 – Charles XIII of Sweden (b. 1748)
- 1881 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and academic (b. 1795)
- 1882 – Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Spanish orientalist and diplomat (b. 1841)
- 1892 – Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish author (b. 1807)
- 1915 – Ross Barnes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1850)
- 1917 – Jaber II Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (b. 1860)
- 1922 – Christiaan de Wet, South African general and politician, State President of the Orange Free State (b. 1854)
- 1922 – Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian engineer, invented the mechanical pencil (b. 1871)
- 1927 – Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator (b. 1882)
- 1931 – Athanasios Eftaxias, Greek politician, 118th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1849)
- 1933 – Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician (b. 1863)
- 1937 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (b. 1861)
- 1938 – Hans Litten, German lawyer and jurist (b. 1903)
- 1941 – Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (b. 1864)
- 1941 – Otto Strandman, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1875)
- 1946 – George Arliss, English actor and playwright (b. 1868)
- 1948 – Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (b. 1883)
- 1952 – Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (b. 1877)
- 1954 – Hossein Sami'i, Iranian politician, diplomat, writer and poet (b. 1876)
- 1955 – Victor Houteff, Bulgarian religious reformer and author (b. 1885)
- 1957 – Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Lebanese surgeon and author (b. 1890)
- 1962 – Jacques Ibert, French-Swiss composer (b. 1890)
- 1967 – Leon Leonwood Bean, American businessman, founded L.L.Bean (b. 1872)
- 1969 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1970 – Rudy York, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1913)
- 1972 – Marianne Moore, American poet, author, critic, and translator (b. 1887)
- 1976 – Rudy Pompilli, American saxophonist (Bill Haley & His Comets) (b. 1926)
- 1977 – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist and academic (b. 1894)
- 1981 – Ella T. Grasso, American politician, 83rd Governor of Connecticut (b. 1919)
- 1982 – Neil Aggett, Kenyan-South African physician and union leader (b. 1953)
- 1983 – Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American chemist and academic (b. 1925)
- 1987 – William Collier, Jr., American actor and producer (b. 1902)
- 1989 – Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (b. 1937)
- 1991 – Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903)
- 1992 – Miguel Rolando Covian, Argentinian-Brazilian physiologist and academic (b. 1913)
- 1993 – Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (b. 1922)
- 1993 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909)
- 1993 – William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (b. 1916)
- 1995 – Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935)
- 1997 – Pamela Harriman, English-American diplomat, 58th United States Ambassador to France (b. 1920)
- 1997 – René Huyghe, French historian and author (b. 1906)
- 1998 – Tim Kelly, American guitarist (b. 1963)
- 1999 – Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 2000 – Claude Autant-Lara, French director and screenwriter (b. 1901)
- 2004 – John Hench, American animator (b. 1908)
- 2005 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Togolese general and politician, President of Togo (b. 1937)
- 2005 – Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Norma Candal, Puerto Rican-American actress (b. 1927)
- 2007 – Leo T. McCarthy, New Zealand-American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 43rd Lieutenant Governor of California (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Alfred Worm, Austrian journalist, author, and academic (b. 1945)
- 2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, founded Transcendental Meditation (b. 1918)
- 2010 – Brendan Burke, Canadian ice hockey player and activist (b. 1988)
- 2010 – Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 13th South Africa Ambassador to United States (b. 1924)
- 2011 – Brian Jacques, English author and radio host (b. 1939)
- 2011 – Peggy Rea, American actress and casting director (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Sam Coppola, American actor (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Al De Lory, American keyboard player, conductor, and producer (b. 1930)
- 2012 – John Turner Sargent, Sr., American publisher (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Jo Zwaan, Dutch sprinter (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Reinaldo Gargano, Uruguayan journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uruguay (b. 1934)
- 2013 – Egil Hovland, Norwegian composer and conductor (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Tom McGuigan, New Zealand soldier and politician, 23rd New Zealand Minister of Health (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist and academic (b. 1915)
- 2015 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Marisa Del Frate, Italian actress and singer (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Val Logsdon Fitch, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
- 2015 – Herman Rosenblat, Polish-American author (b. 1929)
- 2016 – Ciriaco Cañete, Filipino martial artist (b. 1919)
Deaths[edit]
- Christian feast day:
- Constitution Day (Mexico)
- Crown Princess Mary's birthday (Denmark)
- Kashmir Solidarity Day (Pakistan)
- Liberation Day (San Marino)
- National Weatherperson's Day (United States)
- Runeberg's Birthday (Finland)
- Unity Day (Burundi)
Holidays and observances[edit]
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“For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” - Psalm 18:1-2
King David is finally seeing the fruit of God’s promise to him. David had been blessed. He was a capable soldier and leader. He could sing and entertain. He stood up in faith when others were defeated. Yet David was besieged. His King, Saul, was jealous and wanted to kill him rather than serve God.
Saul had been installed as King because the people wanted to have a King. Saul was anointed, but he failed. Saul wanted what Saul wanted, which wasn’t the same as what God wanted for his people. And so David, who was the best servant Saul had had, was a threat to Saul.
The relationship between David and Saul is not isolated to them. In everyone’s life there is conflict. At school, at work and at home too. It is unlikely the rival is trying to kill you. But David’s response is not to fight, but to turn to God. And David encourages Saul to do the same. And the Lord gave as He promised.
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Morning and evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 4: Morning
"The love of the Lord." - Hosea 3:1
Believer, look back through all thine experience, and think of the way whereby the Lord thy God has led thee in the wilderness, and how he hath fed and clothed thee every day--how he hath borne with thine ill manners--how he hath put up with all thy murmurings, and all thy longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt--how he has opened the rock to supply thee, and fed thee with manna that came down from heaven. Think of how his grace has been sufficient for thee in all thy troubles--how his blood has been a pardon to thee in all thy sins--how his rod and his staff have comforted thee. When thou hast thus looked back upon the love of the Lord, then let faith survey his love in the future, for remember that Christ's covenant and blood have something more in them than the past. He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and he shall be Omega also: he is first, and he shall be last. Therefore, bethink thee, when thou shalt pass through the valley of the shadow of death, thou needest fear no evil, for he is with thee. When thou shalt stand in the cold floods of Jordan, thou needest not fear, for death cannot separate thee from his love; and when thou shalt come into the mysteries of eternity thou needest not tremble, "For I am persuaded, that neither death; nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now, soul, is not thy love refreshed? Does not this make thee love Jesus? Doth not a flight through illimitable plains of the ether of love inflame thy heart and compel thee to delight thyself in the Lord thy God? Surely as we meditate on "the love of the Lord," our hearts burn within us, and we long to love him more.
Evening
"Your refuge from the avenger of blood." - Joshua 20:3
It is said that in the land of Canaan, cities of refuge were so arranged, that any man might reach one of them within half a day at the utmost. Even so the word of our salvation is near to us; Jesus is a present Saviour, and the way to him is short; it is but a simple renunciation of our own merit, and a laying hold of Jesus, to be our all in all. With regard to the roads to the city of refuge, we are told that they were strictly preserved, every river was bridged, and every obstruction removed, so that the man who fled might find an easy passage to the city. Once a year the elders went along the roads and saw to their order, so that nothing might impede the flight of any one, and cause him, through delay, to be overtaken and slain. How graciously do the promises of the gospel remove stumbling blocks from the way! Wherever there were by-roads and turnings, there were fixed up hand-posts, with the inscription upon them--"To the city of refuge!" This is a picture of the road to Christ Jesus. It is no roundabout road of the law; it is no obeying this, that, and the other; it is a straight road: "Believe, and live." It is a road so hard, that no self-righteous man can ever tread it, but so easy, that every sinner, who knows himself to be a sinner may by it find his way to heaven. No sooner did the man-slayer reach the outworks of the city than he was safe; it was not necessary for him to pass far within the walls, but the suburbs themselves were sufficient protection. Learn hence, that if you do but touch the hem of Christ's garment, you shall be made whole; if you do but lay hold upon him with "faith as a grain of mustard seed," you are safe.
"A little genuine grace ensures
The death of all our sins."
Only waste no time, loiter not by the way, for the avenger of blood is swift of foot; and it may be he is at your heels at this still hour of eventide.
"A little genuine grace ensures
The death of all our sins."
Only waste no time, loiter not by the way, for the avenger of blood is swift of foot; and it may be he is at your heels at this still hour of eventide.
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Nahum
[Nā'hum] - compassionate, comforter or full of comfort.
1. The prophet who was born at Elkosh in Galilee, and who prophesied against Nineveh (Nah. 1:1).
The Man Who Preached Doom
Nothing is known of this Minor Prophet outside of what we find in the opening of his small yet strong book. He was born at Elkosh, a village of Palestine. But although Nahum is among the notable unknown of the Bible, he was a student of the history of his time and was raised up to comfort God's people. He prophesied against Nineveh about 150 years after Jonah's revival there. At that time the city was still at the height of its glory (Nah. 3:16-17 ). The empire was extremely cruel. The people gloated that "space failed for corpses of their enemies." They made "pyramids of human heads." Pillars were covered with the flayed skins of their rivals.
Nahum's mission was to declare the terrible doom of Nineveh and one hundred years later it fell. So great was the destruction of the city of the most ferocious, sensual, diabolically atrocious race of men that ever lived, that Alexander the Great marched by and did not know that a great city was under his feet. Lucian wrote, "Nineveh is perished and there is no trace left where once it was." Nahum, convinced that God was slow to anger but would yet take vengeance on His adversaries, "focusses the light of God's moral government upon wicked Nineveh and chants the death and dirge of the world's greatest oppressor."
The leading lessons to be gleaned from the Book of Nahum are encouraging to faith:
I. The goodness and unchangeableness of Jehovah.
II. The limits of divine forbearance.
III. Right prevails in the end.
IV. Darkness comes before the dawn.
V. The universality of God's government, its gracious purpose: its retributive character.
VI. Man's extremity is faith's hour and God's opportunity.
2. Another Nahum. In the A. V. Naum is mentioned as an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:25).
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Today's reading: Exodus 34-35, Matthew 22:23-46 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Exodus 34-35
The New Stone Tablets
1 The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands....
Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 22:23-46
Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God...."
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