It is Valentines Day and a time for reflection on matters of love. Everyone is a child of someone. It is a blessing and a privilege to have children, not undertaken as lightly or easily as they are produced. Children are resilient and can be raised right under extraordinary circumstances, but also falter and stumble over what seems like nothing. So the issue of child protection is important. It is all about choices, but those choices aren't always clear when present. A mother from a well to do family had a child with a wild guy. He was apparently a good father, but a lousy partner. He got involved with drugs. Her family got her a good house close to the dad so he could be present in raising the boy. But he became violent. He was violent to the mother, but she made the choice to keep his access to the boy so the boy would have a father in his life. This rings home for me as my father abandoned me several times in my life, partly because of my mother's choices. It is a cruel injustice the woman's faith and love were answered so badly by the father killing his son in a murder suicide. Not her fault, but his. It is Valentines Day, time to hold your loved ones tight.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Jonathan Chu. Born on the same day, across the years, as
- 1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (d. 1522)
- 1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor (d. 1530)
- 1545 – Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (d. 1561)
- 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
- 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German composer and organist (d. 1735)
- 1766 – Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and scholar (d. 1834)
- 1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American inventor, invented the typewriter (d. 1890)
- 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist (d. 1919)
- 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)
- 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
- 1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
- 1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress and singer
- 1948 – Teller, American magician and actor
- 1994 – Paul Butcher, American actor
Matches
- 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
- 1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remainder of their population is forcibly removed from the city ofStrasbourg.
- 1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
- 1778 – The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
- 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent – John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
- 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children (The National Children's Hospital in Dublin was founded over 30 years previously in 1821), is founded in London.
- 1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
- 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
- 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins.
- 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
- 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1944 – World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
- 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive.
- 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
- 1949 – The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time.
- 1956 – The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
- 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 1966 – Australian currency is decimalised.
- 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
- 2005 – Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri is killed, along with 21 others, when explosives, equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT, are detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut.
- 2005 – Youtube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
- 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising, a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of civil resistance, in the Persian Gulf country ofBahrain begins with a 'Day of Rage'.
Despatches
- 269 – Saint Valentine, Roman bishop and martyr
- 869 – Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, and linguist (b. 827)
- 1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
- 1779 – James Cook, English captain and explorer (b. 1728)
- 1884 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, American wife of Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1861)
- 1943 – David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
- 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English author and poet (b. 1881)
- 1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
Bill Shorten just a blast from Labor’s past
Piers Akerman – Friday, February 14, 2014 (12:11pm)
LABOR strategists trying to promote their current leader Bill Shorten should note that the public didn’t warm to the story of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby.
Continue reading 'Bill Shorten just a blast from Labor’s past'Free tickets offered to Flannery’s nightmare
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (4:36pm)
Seriously, here is how Text Media is flogging free tickets to Anne Summers’ latest love in, this time with climate catastrophist Tim Flannery:
===Is this the horrible death Flannery means?
Snow is on the ground in 49 out of the 50 [US] states — only the Sunshine State of Florida is completely snow-free, according to a map produced Thursday morning by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The home of the modern ratbag
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (4:20pm)
Members of the green group 350.org gather outside the home of an oil company executive to intimidate him:
===Gee, that looks familiar:
There goes the Left again, using our taxes for another soapbox
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (3:28pm)
Tony Thomas on The Conversation, a hugely-staffed website funded by taxpayers and run by the Left, with all the Left’s usual faults:
===The lavishly-funded leftist blog for academia, The Conversation, has hired a new manager specifically to make contributors converse more politely. Cory Zanoni, an RMIT psychology graduate and social media guru, got the job of Community Manager in January…As with the ABC, we must ask why governments - via our universities - are subsidising competition to private media outlets, and why the Conversation requires a truly astonishing number of staff:
On February 13, Zanoni wrote, “I was appointed following concerns by some readers (and shared by editors) that there was a lack of civility in many comment threads. My brief is to fix this… “…
Idly googling nice Mr Zanoni, I came across this twitter exchange, under Mr Zanoni’s new job title:
Let me confess. I’m not sure that I want to know what c—kspanking is. But it’s interesting that the newly-installed Community Manager of The Conversation, appointed to enforce higher standards on Conversation users, is tweeting things that – to put it mildly – don’t seem to raise the tone of online exchanges. And tweeting them, too, a bare 48 hours before publishing civility guidelines for The Conversation.
At a time when mainstream media are hacking staff numbers to vestiges, the scale of The Conversation is disconcerting. It has Andrew Jaspan, the warmist ex-editor of The-Age as Executive Director, a managing editor, a chief operating officer, 18 sundry editors, an external relations director, the community manager, four developers, three in finance, an admin officer, and an apparently unfilled slot for a multi-media manager. Chair is Bendigo Bank supremo Robert Johanson, heading a 12-person board, plus there is a six-person editorial board. I’d guess the salary bill at $4m or so.Wow. But for some reason, The Conversation isn’t telling us how much of our taxes it is spending:
Plus there’s another 16 staff in the new UK office.
Andrew Jaspan invites personal questions, so last December I wrote to him,And as with all such state-funded media, The Conversation has become a vehicle for the Left to push its latest creeds. Your taxes, the Left’s plaything:
“Hi Andrew, Does your organisation publish a public annual report and annual accounts? Have any of the 27 university members disclosed how much funding they are contributing to your group? If you are not legally obliged to make the accounts public, would it not be good to do so voluntarily?”I still await his reply.
Key sponsors of The Conversation are founders CSIRO, and the universities Melbourne, WA, Monash and UTS. Strategic partners include toffy law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth, CBA and the Victorian Department of Business (eh? I thought we had a Liberal-led government in Victoria?).
But on climate, The Conversation is an exclusive playground for left and green authors… [I] give you the following “environment” headers ads they appeared on February 13.
Is $15 a year really too much to pay for renewable energy? Sure, let’s debate nuclear power – just don’t call it ‘low emission’
Global warming stalled by strong winds driving heat into oceans
Climate change to hit snow industry
Coasting flooding could cost billions
Most Australians over-estimate how “green” they are
We know who’s profiting from emissions – let’s bill them
Scrapping sea level protection puts Australian homes at risk.
Which parts of this culture must we “recognise”?
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (11:25am)
The federal government explains:
UPDATE
The Australian is right, of course:
===The Government is committed to pursuing meaningful change in the Constitution – change that unites the nation and reflects the hopes and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians by:Is this part of the Aboriginal culture we should recognise or should change?
- Recognising the unique history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples...
MORE than 3000 under-aged teens are married or in de facto marriages across the nation, according to data which reveals that the practice is most widespread in indigenous communities.Would constitutional recognition of Aboriginal culture legally prevent governments from tackling under-age marriages in Aboriginal communities?
UPDATE
The Australian is right, of course:
The emphasis of the inner-city green Left - so often echoed in the editorials of The Sydney Morning Herald - has been too focused on increased funding, symbolism and political posturing by city-based activists. It is time to fully embrace a more practical agenda, driven by a new wave of indigenous thinking and, over time, embraced by community-based exemplars.But how does this editorial today square with the one The Australian published just two weeks ago?
The Australian believes Bolt is wrong now to oppose constitutional recognition for indigenous Australians… The Australian would argue symbolic gestures can help the practical reconciliation process.
Fairfax’s Gay Alcorn now admits what conservatives have long warned: the ABC is too big
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (10:59am)
Strange. Fairfax
columnist Gay Alcorn attacks “hysterical” News Corp writers for saying
the ABC is destroying private media competitors - an argument I made and which Alcorn then says is actually, er, right:
Once again I have to ask: what is the difference between conservatives and the Left? Answer: just time.
But let’s look on the bright side: even the Left is starting to realise the ABC is now dangerously big.
===Last year, prominent journalist Peter Fray tried something new. He set up PolitiFact Australia, a fact-checking website to test the accuracy of politicians’ claims.... Then two other fact-checking websites started, both funded by taxpayers. One was at the academic website The Conversation.... The other was at the ABC, thanks to a $10 million grant in February last year from the Labor government - $1.5 million a year of that was dedicated to fact-checking.It’s rather pathetic that a Fairfax writer can attack News Corp writers - like, you know, me - as “hysterical”, biased and self-interested for making exactly the criticisms she now makes today. Check my column of last week and ask how it differs in argument from Alcorn’s.
As enjoyable as the competition was, I felt some sympathy for Fray who was trying to start a business against rivals who didn’t need to make money. Now, only the ABC’s Fact Check remains....
You can admire the ABC’s innovations and its community spirit ... (yet) there is a risk that the national broadcaster will become too dominant.
It’s not that the commercial media, big and small, don’t need to innovate and stand on their own two feet, but the task shouldn’t be made harder by the distorting impact of public funding....
But it would be far from ideal if the serious end of journalism became the sole preserve of the ABC, always at risk of punishment and budget cuts depending on the political mood in Canberra....
Nobody would blame the ABC’s opinion site, The Drum, for the challenges facing commercial media, but it’s a symbol of an attitude that should be rethought. I looked at the site this week and many of its writers - Greg Jericho, Chris Berg, Mungo MacCallum, Greg Barns and others - appear elsewhere routinely.
There are opinion sites such as The Hoopla or Crikey trying to break even or even make a profit. They have challenges beyond ABC competition, of course, but why spend public money on something that is barely distinguishable from commercial and non-profit sites ...?
Once again I have to ask: what is the difference between conservatives and the Left? Answer: just time.
But let’s look on the bright side: even the Left is starting to realise the ABC is now dangerously big.
Six steps to save jobs
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (10:43am)
Professor Sinclair Davidson:
Hear our discussion here.
Your own tips for saving jobs?
UPDATE
John Roskam on how politics distorts our priorities:
===This evening I got a call asking if I could appear on the Price-Bolt 2GB show and talk about the five things to get the economy going – in 5 minutes times. Sure I said. So here is the list:In fact, I don’t think the list was so very radical. I think the Abbott Government will think it too radical - or at least too dangerous politically, given that Sinclair nominated among the spending cuts the sale of the ABC and cuts to welfare.
Cut taxes at both the federal and state levels. Cut spending – especially on industry policy, subsidies and duplication.Okay – that’s six and not five and it could be counted in as cutting taxes.
Cut regulation – both red tape and green tape (especially the MRET).
Liberalise the labour market.
Liberalise the housing market
Actually abolish the carbon and mining taxes.
Now I don’t think that list is as radical as Andrew and Steve thought.
Hear our discussion here.
Your own tips for saving jobs?
UPDATE
John Roskam on how politics distorts our priorities:
Since the federal election, Labor’s spokesman on industry, Kim Carr, has spent more than half his time talking about the car industry, at least as measured by the number of press releases he’s issued. Given that car workers comprise just 3 per cent of the number of people employed in manufacturing in Australia, that’s an awful lot of attention bestowed upon them by Carr. The federal Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane, has spent only slightly less time talking about cars than his opposition counterpart…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Car manufacturing is worth about $5.5 billion to the Australian economy. Hairdressing and beauty services are worth about $4 billion, but hairdressers and beauticians do not get their own minister.
The industry minister could be replaced in cabinet by something Australia has never had before – a “minister for consumers and taxpayers”. This minister could go into the media and explain that an end to automotive subsidies and the abolition of tariffs would reduce the cost of a new car by up to $2000.
Eight weeks, no boats
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (10:23am)
It is now eight weeks since the last boat of asylum seekers turned up.
Why couldn’t Labor achieve this? Why did so many journalists claim the Abbott Government couldn’t?
UPDATE
The ABC continues to fret that our navy sailed into Indonesian waters to safely return boat people:
Give it a rest.
===Why couldn’t Labor achieve this? Why did so many journalists claim the Abbott Government couldn’t?
UPDATE
The ABC continues to fret that our navy sailed into Indonesian waters to safely return boat people:
CHRIS UHLMANN: The head of Customs and Border Protection has joined the Defence Force and the Government in apologising unreservedly to Indonesia for repeatedly breaching its sovereignty.But I wonder which navy Indonesia is actually more worried about - ours or China’s?
Michael Pezzullo is currently considering a detailed report on incidents where Australian ships sailed into Indonesian waters during Operation Sovereign Borders.
He says mistakes were made but won’t reveal what’s in the document or say how much of it will be publicly released.
The RAAF monitored an unprecedented and unannounced exercise involving three Chinese warships in international waters to the north of Australia, it has emerged.Indonesia seems to have been caught totally unawares by Chinese warships sailing between their two most important islands in a show of muscle. Does the ABC seriously think Indonesia is losing sleep about our own navy instead?
The unusual naval exercise late last week is considered to have been a deliberate and provocative move by the Chinese that will send a clear message to the region.
For the first time, the Chinese navy sent warships sailing through the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.
The ships travelled along the southern edge of Java, close to Christmas Island, and then through the Lombok Strait between Lombok and Bali.
Give it a rest.
Palmer accused
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (10:16am)
I cannot believe the Clive Palmer story will end well - for Palmer:
===CHINESE giant Citic Pacific has accused Clive Palmer’s private company of taking millions of dollars from a special fund without authority as it labelled the federal MP’s bid to shut down its Australian subsidiary as one of the most “flagrant abuses” of its type.
Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy has accused the Citic Pacific-owned Sino Iron of failing to contribute $13.4 million to an administrative fund set up several years ago, claiming its estranged business partner should be liquidated on the grounds of insolvency…
The counsel for Citic, Andrew Bell, told judge John Gilmour yesterday that Mineralogy had spent $2.5m from the project’s administrative fund on a vessel when “our understanding is that such a vessel was never acquired”.
Dr Bell also said Mineralogy took $2m from the fund for port security costs but those costs were not incurred because Mineralogy was not engaged in such a role at the time.
Lecturer makes Indonesians see red over Australia
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (9:51am)
Victoria University lecturer Max Lane, a Socialist Alternative member and recently on the executive council of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, tells the Jakarta Post our immigration minister is a pirate causing boat people to die:
(Thanks to reader Whatthe?.)
===The Australian government denies outright and refuses to investigate allegations by some of the refugees ... that they had their hands held up against hot engine pipes [by Australian navy personnel] resulting in extensive burns. Others claimed they were kicked.... It is also reported that two refugees returned in the first lifeboat later ... drowned trying to cross a river in the jungle…How did universities become such a refuge for Marxists and wanna-be revolutionaries, soiling our reputation abroad?
I am not an expert in international law or law of the sea but the forcible seizure of other people’s boats, the detention of their crew (Indonesian citizens) and passengers (citizens of various countries), the forcible transfer of such people to other boats, and the coerced towing them to a destination not of their choice would all seem to amount to piracy…
Morally, however, it is quite clear that these are immoral, inhumane acts. Personally, I would like to see Immigration and Border Protection Minister, Scott Morrison and the puppet General doing his work charged with piracy and criminal negligence causing death.
(Thanks to reader Whatthe?.)
On trying to correct Tim Flannery’s smear
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (8:33am)
The Sydney Morning Herald and I learned a bit about warming alarmist Tim Flannery this week.
It all started with this astonishing allegation in Mark Dapin’s flattering profile on the weekend of the former Chief Climate Commissioner:
Flannery says he does not like to talk much about his living arrangements, as the famously temperate broadcaster Ray Hadley revealed the location of Flannery’s house on the Hawkesbury River, and News Ltd’s mild-mannered columnist Andrew Bolt published details of his mortgage.I sent the newspaper this response:
Tim Flannery bizarrely claims in your flattering profile (February 8, 2014) that “News Ltd’s mild-mannered columnist Andrew Bolt published details of [Flannery’s] mortgage”.Over the next few days I was sent a series of emails from the Herald, not one of which presented evidence to justify Flannery’s claim. Instead I was asked to respond to increasingly absurd claims - all red herrings - in an apparent attempt to have me admit that if I hadn’t actually revealed details of Flannery’s mortgage, I had been a bastard to him in some other way.
That slur is completely false. I did no such thing and do not know of anyone who has.
Your reporter should have treated that claim as no more believable that Flannery’s past ones about global warming having stopped our dam-filling rains, Sydney running out of water, Perth becoming a ”ghost metropolis” and the Arctic ice cap melting away by this year. I suspect Flannery’s persecution complex lies in my having pointed out his record of such dud predictions – a record you should have mentioned.
I was asked if I’d really not republished a “close-up picture of the actual house” Flannery had bought by the banks of the estuarine Hawkesbury (despite warning us of sea level rises eight storeys high). I was told Flannery “further alleges that details of a house he purchased at Berowra Heights on behalf of his mother-in-law were in the story you posted… Did you ever repost or write anything about the Berowra Heights house?” Had not Flannery’s QC rung me to demand I take down the picture and any mention of Flannery’s home? The Herald, I was assured, would ring the QC to see if he’d indeed done all this, as Flannery now claimed.
I was even told some reporter on The Telegraph had once reported Flannery’s Coba Point home was mortgaged to ANZ bank, as if that was my fault.
Never was any evidence presented that I actually had indeed published a picture of Flannery’s home, discussed his mother-in-law’s home or been rung by his QC, whose name is entirely unfamiliar to me. And, of course, never was I told how all these new allegations were relevant to the correction I sought.
In the end, I wrote back to the Herald in some frustration:
The allegation: that I revealed Flannery’s mortgage details.Today my correction was finally published, minus the paragraph which put Flannery’s attack on me in the proper context - of my having repeatedly exposed as duds some of his wildest predictions of warming catastrophe:
Proof offered: none.
Flannery’s defence: yes, but maybe Bolt published a picture of Flannery’s house, or maybe a picture of his mother-in-law’s house, or was that just The Australian? And didn’t some Daily Telegraph reporter once mention Flannery owned a third of his mother-in-law’s house, and that he bought his “weekend getaway” in 2003?
And you and I are supposed to chase down every red herring? My request for a correction is being turned into an investigation into how many other ways I might have been mean to poor Tim.
Let me help: I have offended Flannery by repeatedly contrasting his warmist predictions to what actually occurred. Feel free to publish every instance of that rudeness.
A slur against me: BoltYou might well ask whether a man who cannot correctly report what was said of him by a critic - and cannot apologise for a clear error - can be relied upon to correctly report climate science and acknowledge mistaken predictions.
Tim Flannery bizarrely claims in your flattering profile that ‘’News Ltd’s mild-mannered columnist Andrew Bolt published details of [Flannery’s] mortgage’’ (’’Tim Flannery: a man for all climates’’, smh.com.au, February 8-9). That slur is completely false. I did no such thing.
Andrew Bolt Southbank
But how did Flannery came to make such an odd claim in the first place? It is perhaps worth recalling what Flannery said in 2010 about the wicked persecution he perceived:
The campaign [against the IPCC] was very much like the sort of media campaign that I’m used to when people try to discredit me. And the way that works is usually on a Friday they’ll run a front-page story saying what a ratbag I am. You know, front page, and that’s all right, interesting, someone’s been a bit, you know, corrupt or a bit rotten.
And then on the Saturday they’ll run a page three story, usually a much longer story, listing everything you’re supposed to have done, and all the reasons why you’re a ratbag.
And then on the Monday they’ll put a little stinger in. A little reminder, just to remind people what a rotten person you are.
Tim Blair then challenged him:
The comments section is all yours, Professor. Hit us with links, PDFs, scans, whatever. Just to be clear, we’re looking for multiple front-page stories that attempt to discredit you (as per your claim) followed by longer page three stories and subsequent Monday sting items. Sounds like there’s lots of them.No such evidence was ever produced, of course.
The ABC continues its much-admired coverage of our armed forces
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (8:22am)
The ABC in January:
===TIM PALMER: New footage appears to back asylum seekers’ claims of mistreatment by the Australian Navy. Passengers who were turned back ... claimed some passengers were punched and beaten and some also claimed to have been burnt from being forced to hold onto part of the boat’s engine.The ABC in February:
SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: More than 12 months out from the ANZAC centenary, Australia is gearing up for an enormous celebration to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. 8,000 Australians will flock to ANZAC Cove for the event and over $325 million is to be outlaid on First World War commemorations, more than double the amount Britain plans to spend. The ANZAC legend has generated an enormous industry and now one Army veteran is asking whether our ANZAC obsession has gone too far....
JAMES BROWN, FORMER CAPT. & AUTHOR, ANZAC’S LONG SHADOW: The injunction at most war memorials is, “Let silent contemplation be your offering”. But instead we’re about to embark on a four-year festival for the dead which in some cases looks like a military Halloween.
Time Abbott moved in to Kirribilli
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (7:53am)
Tony Abbott hates ostentation:
Assume the office, assume the symbols of it.
Mind you, it seems to me that in the past few weeks particularly Abbott has found not just his message but his tone.
UPDATE
Most readers agree. Move in, Tony.
Reader Magpie:
===Mr Abbott said he wanted to stay in his home in Forestville for as long as possible, rather than move into the Prime Minister’s official residence, Kirribilli House. When in Canberra he will continue to live at the Australian Federal Police College.I like a man not too full of himself, yet I think it’s high time Abbott moved into Kirribilli. That’s where a Prime Minister stays, and while Abbott refuses to live there he will seem to some as a man who does not yet feel Prime Ministerial or even look it.
Assume the office, assume the symbols of it.
Mind you, it seems to me that in the past few weeks particularly Abbott has found not just his message but his tone.
UPDATE
Most readers agree. Move in, Tony.
Reader Magpie:
100% agree - our PM should move to Kirribilli. In fact I thought he had moved in already. Time to go that extra step PM - we all want our Leader to not only sound like a PM but look like one.Reader Spin Baby, Spin:
I agree. Both with Abbott hitting the right note in the last week or so and the fact he needs to move into Kirribilli.Reader squash:
I suppose it is difficult to move away from the family home when a base is needed for young adult children. But I also think it is important to maintain the role of first minister of the land.Reader candy:
The Left/socialist media will demean him for moving into Kirribilli, as they don’t accept him as PM, that’s the problem. They don’t want him there. That’s got to make him feel uncomfortable.
Brandis won’t restore our free speech at all
Andrew Bolt February 14 2014 (7:07am)
Professor James Allan, writing in the always excellent Spectator, says Attorney-General George Brandis seems not to be delivering on his promise to restore our free speech:
The judgement in my case makes perfectly clear that removing just ‘insult’ and ‘offend’ from Section 18C would not have saved me. The judge declared I’d also humiliated or intimidated some fair-skinned Aboriginal people with “imputations” he’d found in what I’d written:
This is a disgraceful and dangerous state of affairs, and a government which claims to be outraged should actually fix it.
UPDATE
Quadrant wonders what it was that my lawyers warned was too dangerous for me to even report, let alone comment on. Catallaxy also wonders what it was.
How shameful that in a free society it is deemed too legally dangerous for me to say a particular DFAT publication offended me and why. What agenda is being protected here, and at what cost? By what right do we prevent citizens from debating freely matters of moral and political importance?
===Next is the government’s pre-election pledge to make changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, the Labor-enacted hate speech law that was used (illiberally) to go after Andrew Bolt… Recall that this section has four triggers that undercut free speech. Those triggers are the words ‘insult’, ‘offend’, ‘humiliate’ and ‘intimidate’....Allan is perfectly correct. My lawyers and employer have already concluded that the law makes it too dangerous for me to write about the choice people make to identify as members exclusively of one “race”. Indeed, a court has ruled that even to suggest certain people had such a choice was a factual error - one that contributed to putting two of my articles in breach of this law making it unlawful to ‘insult’, ‘offend’, ‘humiliate’ and ‘intimidate’ people on the grounds of their “race”.
But rather than get rid of all four, and repeal the entirety of 18C (which analogously did happen in Canada federally), the talk now is of how the government might keep the prohibitory words ‘humiliate’ and ‘intimidate’ and either repeal or replace ‘offend’ and ‘insult’. Let me be blunt. Such a craven compromise is in no way at all the choice of a government committed to free speech. It basically is window dressing, leaving the Labor inroads into free speech pretty much where they are.
Try this test Mr Attorney-General. Tell us precisely what the difference is between offending or insulting someone and humiliating someone. The fact is our AG cannot differentiate them… So if this government opts for this sort of half-hearted compromise, it cannot with a straight face also pretend such cosmetic changes somehow meet its free speech pledge. Same trial, same judge, same Andrew Bolt, and Bolt still loses if all that is changed is that the focus is on ‘humiliate’ rather than ‘offend’ or ‘insult’.
I won’t even bother here to do more than mention that the Attorney-General rather incredibly seems to be mooting adding, yes adding, some brand new speech restricting criminal law provision — the old one being for him too narrowly drawn or something. Why, you might wonder, are we hearing
these backtracking noises? Alas, I fear the government just can’t be bothered to take on the vested interests.
The judgement in my case makes perfectly clear that removing just ‘insult’ and ‘offend’ from Section 18C would not have saved me. The judge declared I’d also humiliated or intimidated some fair-skinned Aboriginal people with “imputations” he’d found in what I’d written:
I am satisfied that fair-skinned Aboriginal people (or some of them) were reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to have been offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated by the imputations conveyed by the newspaper articles.Brandis’s mooted “reforms” - if the rumors are right - are essentially useless. They amount to a mere sop, and, worse, Brandis is now suggesting that in exchange for giving us something useless he will toughen other laws against “vilification”. We’ll have gained nothing, but lost even more, and those of us who wish to argue against the new racism will continue to be stopped by law from expressing all our arguments.
This is a disgraceful and dangerous state of affairs, and a government which claims to be outraged should actually fix it.
UPDATE
Quadrant wonders what it was that my lawyers warned was too dangerous for me to even report, let alone comment on. Catallaxy also wonders what it was.
How shameful that in a free society it is deemed too legally dangerous for me to say a particular DFAT publication offended me and why. What agenda is being protected here, and at what cost? By what right do we prevent citizens from debating freely matters of moral and political importance?
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
Tru ruv
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
===
- 1876 – Inventor Alexander Graham Bell and electrical engineer Elisha Gray each filed a patent for the telephone, starting a controversy about who invented it first.
- 1924 – The Computing Tabulating Recording Companyrenamed itself to International Business Machines, one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
- 1961 – Lawrencium, the metallic radioactive synthetic element withatomic number 103, was first made at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratoryon the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
- 1989 – A fatwa was issued for the execution of Salman Rushdie(pictured) for authoring The Satanic Verses, a novel Islamic fundamentalists considered blasphemous.
- 2005 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated when explosives were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel in Beirut, sparking the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon.
Events[edit]
- 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
- 1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remainder of their population is forcibly removed from the city ofStrasbourg.
- 1400 – Richard II dies, most likely from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
- 1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
- 1778 – The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: the Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
- 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent – John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
- 1804 – Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
- 1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
- 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children (The National Children's Hospital in Dublin was founded over 30 years previously in 1821), is founded in London.
- 1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
- 1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
- 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
- 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
- 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
- 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
- 1912 – In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
- 1918 – The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).
- 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins.
- 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
- 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
- 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
- 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign – General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
- 1944 – World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
- 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive.
- 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
- 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
- 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.
- 1949 – The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time.
- 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
- 1950 – Chinese Civil War: The National Revolutionary Army instigates the unsuccessful Battle of Tianquan against the People's Liberation Army.
- 1956 – The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
- 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 1962 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
- 1966 – Australian currency is decimalised.
- 1979 – In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
- 1981 – Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
- 1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
- 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
- 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
- 1990 – 92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.
- 1998 – An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which kills 120.
- 2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 2002 – The Budapest Open Access Initiative, one of the cornerstones of the Open access movement, was released to the public.
- 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
- 2005 – Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri is killed, along with 21 others, when explosives, equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT, are detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut.
- 2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
- 2005 – Youtube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
- 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising, a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of civil resistance, in the Persian Gulf country ofBahrain begins with a 'Day of Rage'.
Births[edit]
- 1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (d. 1522)
- 1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor (d. 1530)
- 1545 – Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (d. 1561)
- 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
- 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German composer and organist (d. 1735)
- 1680 – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English politician (d. 1737)
- 1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French playwright (d. 1754)
- 1701 – Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian (d. 1773)
- 1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
- 1766 – Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and scholar (d. 1834)
- 1793 – Karl Christian Ulmann, Baltic German theologian (d. 1871)
- 1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter (d. 1842)
- 1800 – Emory Washburn, American lawyer, historian, and politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1877)
- 1812 – Alfred Thomas Agate, American painter (d. 1846)
- 1818 – Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (d. 1895)
- 1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American inventor, invented the typewriter (d. 1890)
- 1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American general (d. 1886)
- 1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (d. 1885)
- 1835 – Piet Paaltjens, Dutch minister and poet (d. 1894)
- 1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (d. 1914)
- 1846 – Julian Scott, American soldier and painter, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1901)
- 1847 – Maria Pia of Savoy (d. 1911)
- 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist (d. 1919)
- 1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (d. 1934)
- 1856 – Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
- 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)
- 1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (d. 1954)
- 1869 – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- 1871 – Gerda Lundequist, Swedish actress (d. 1959)
- 1874 – Louis Handley, Italian-American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1956)
- 1882 – John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
- 1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor and director (d. 1947)
- 1884 – Joe Jagersberger, Austrian race car driver (d. 1952)
- 1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet (d. 1974)
- 1885 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Indian-Pakistani philosopher (d. 1949)
- 1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh painter (d. 1956)
- 1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (d. 1948)
- 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Wilhelm Burgdorf, German general (d. 1945)
- 1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- 1898 – Bill Tilman, English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1977)
- 1898 – Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1903 – Bernhard Leene, Dutch cyclist (d. 1988)
- 1904 – Hertta Kuusinen, Finnish politician (d. 1974)
- 1904 – Charles Oatley, English physicist and engineer (d. 1996)
- 1905 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
- 1907 – Johnny Longden, English jockey (d. 2003)
- 1912 – Tibor Sekelj, Hungarian explorer and author (d. 1988)
- 1913 – Mel Allen, American journalist (d. 1996)
- 1913 – Woody Hayes, American football player and coach (d. 1987)
- 1913 – Jimmy Hoffa, American union leader (d. 1975)
- 1913 – James Pike, American bishop (d. 1969)
- 1914 – Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer (d. 2007)
- 1916 – Marcel Bigeard, French general (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Sally Gray, English actress (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director and producer (d. 1996)
- 1916 – Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Judith Holzmeister, Austrian actress (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Hugh Downs, American television host and producer
- 1921 – Hazel McCallion, Canadian politician, 3rd Mayor of Mississauga
- 1921 – Robert Vaidlo, Estonian journalist and children's writer (d. 2004)
- 1922 – Murray the K, American radio host (d. 1982)
- 1923 – Juan Acuña, Spanish footballer (d. 2001)
- 1924 – Patricia Knatchbull, English member of the aristocracy
- 1927 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Jerry Wolman, American businessman (d. 2013)
- 1928 – William Allain, American soldier and politician, 58th Governor of Mississippi (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Benjamin Purcell, American colonel and politician (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Brian Kelly, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1931 – Phyllis McGuire, American singer (The McGuire Sisters)
- 1932 – Alexander Kluge, German actor and director
- 1932 – Jocelyn Stevens, English former publisher and newspaper executive
- 1933 – Madhubala, Indian actress (d. 1969)
- 1933 – Tom Borland, American baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
- 1934 – Neil Davis, Australian cameraman (d. 1985)
- 1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress and singer
- 1935 – Christel Adelaar, Indonesian-Dutch actress (d. 2013)
- 1935 – David Wilson, British former administrator and diplomat
- 1936 – Fanne Foxe, Argentinian-American stripper
- 1936 – György Kézdy, Hungarian actor (d. 2013)
- 1936 – Andrew Prine, American actor
- 1937 – John MacGregor, English former politician
- 1937 – Magic Sam, American singer and guitarist (d. 1969)
- 1939 – Eugene Fama, American economist
- 1939 – Michael Rudman, American theatre director
- 1940 – James Maynard, American businessman, co-founded Golden Corral
- 1941 – Donna Shalala, American academic, 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
- 1941 – Big Jim Sullivan, English guitarist (d. 2012)
- 1941 – Paul Tsongas, American politician (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Michael Bloomberg, American businessman and politician, 108th Mayor of New York City
- 1942 – Andrew Robinson, American actor
- 1942 – Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican race car driver (d. 1962)
- 1942 – Piotr Szczepanik, Polish singer and actor
- 1943 – Eric Andersen, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Maceo Parker, American saxophonist (Parliament-Funkadelic, The J.B.'s, and The Horny Horns)
- 1943 – Aaron Russo, American director and producer (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist
- 1944 – Alan Parker, English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Ronnie Peterson, Swedish race car driver (d. 1978)
- 1945 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
- 1945 – Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Uruguayan footballer (d. 2013)
- 1945 – Martin Sorrell, English businessman
- 1946 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauru politician, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
- 1946 – Gregory Hines, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
- 1946 – Tina Aumont, American actress (d. 2006)
- 1947 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
- 1947 – Judd Gregg, American politician, 76th Governor of New Hampshire
- 1948 – Teller, American magician and actor
- 1948 – Pat O'Brien, American sportscaster
- 1949 – Christopher Lillicrap, English children's television presenter and writer
- 1950 – Roger Fisher, American guitarist (Heart and Alias)
- 1951 – Terry Gross, American radio host and producer
- 1951 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer
- 1951 – JoJo Starbuck, American ice skater
- 1952 – Nancy Keenan, American activist
- 1952 – Sushma Swaraj, Indian politician serving as Leader of Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha.
- 1953 – Odds Bodkin, American author
- 1954 – Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Ronald Desruelles, Belgian long jumper
- 1955 – James Eckhouse, American actor
- 1955 – Carol Kalish, American publisher (d. 1991)
- 1956 – Dave Dravecky, American baseball player
- 1956 – Tõnu Laigu, Estonian architect
- 1957 – Alan Hunter, American television host and actor
- 1957 – Pat Glass, English politician
- 1957 – Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano
- 1957 – Alan Smith, British cleric Bishop of St Albans
- 1958 – Francisco Javier López Peña, Spanish military leader (d. 2013)
- 1958 – Enrique Mansilla, Argentinian race car driver
- 1958 – Grant Thomas, Australian footballer
- 1959 – Renée Fleming, American soprano
- 1960 – Philip Jones, English senior Royal Navy officer
- 1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player
- 1960 – Anita Klein, Australian-born British artist
- 1960 – Meg Tilly, American actress
- 1961 – Phillip Hamilton, American author
- 1961 – Alison Saunders, British barrister and Director of Public Prosecutions
- 1962 – Kevyn Aucoin, American make up artist and photographer (d. 2002)
- 1962 – Michael Higgs, English actor
- 1962 – Sakina Jaffrey, American-Indian actress
- 1962 – Philippe Sella, French rugby player
- 1962 – Porsche Lynn, American exotic dancer, dominatrix, and pornographic actress
- 1963 – Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor
- 1963 – John Marzano, American baseball player (d. 2008)
- 1964 – Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist
- 1964 – Zach Galligan, American actor
- 1966 – Petr Svoboda, Czech ice hockey player
- 1967 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Greek-English businessman, founded easyJet
- 1967 – Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
- 1967 – Mark Rutte, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1968 – Latifa, Tunisian singer and actress
- 1968 – Jules Asner, American model
- 1968 – Scott McClellan, American civil servant and author, 25th White House Press Secretary
- 1968 – Chris Lewis, Guyanese-born English cricketer
- 1969 – Adriana Behar, Brazilian volleyball player
- 1969 – Harry Colon, American football player
- 1969 – Meg Hillier, English politician
- 1970 – Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
- 1970 – Sean Hill, American ice hockey player
- 1970 – Simon Pegg, English actor, producer, and director
- 1970 – Heinrich Schmieder, German actor (d. 2010)
- 1971 – Kris Aquino, Filipino actress
- 1971 – Tommy Dreamer, American wrestler
- 1971 – Gheorghe Mureșan, Romanian basketball player
- 1971 – Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer and actress
- 1972 – Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
- 1972 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player
- 1972 – Nelson Frazier, Jr., American wrestler and actor
- 1972 – Najwa Nimri, Spanish actress and singer
- 1972 – Jaan Tallinn, Estonian computer programmer
- 1972 – Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter (Matchbox Twenty and Tabitha's Secret)
- 1973 – Tyus Edney, American basketball player
- 1973 – Steve McNair, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1973 – Yuka Sato, Japanese figure skater
- 1974 – Filippa Giordano, Italian singer
- 1974 – Philippe Léonard, Belgian footballer
- 1975 – Xie Hui, Chinese footballer
- 1975 – Yul Kwon, American lawyer and television host
- 1975 – Scott Owen, Australian bassist (The Living End)
- 1975 – Malik Zidi, French actor
- 1976 – Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer-songwriter (Leaves' Eyes and Theatre of Tragedy)
- 1976 – Erica Leerhsen, American actress
- 1977 – Darren Bennett, English dancer
- 1977 – Donna Cruz, Filipino actress and singer
- 1977 – Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
- 1977 – Darren Purse, English footballer
- 1977 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
- 1977 – Jim Jefferies, Australian comedian and actor
- 1978 – Dwele, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1978 – Dean Gaffney, English actor
- 1978 – Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
- 1978 – Darius Songaila, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1979 – Paolo Ginestra, Italian footballer
- 1979 – Pablo Pallante, Uruguayan footballer
- 1980 – Fátima Leyva, Mexican footballer
- 1980 – Josh Senter, American screenwriter
- 1980 – Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress
- 1981 – Matteo Brighi, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Randy de Puniet, French motorcycle racer
- 1981 – Ayako Hamada, Mexican-Japanese wrestler
- 1981 – Erin Torpey, American actress and singer
- 1982 – Marián Gáborík, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1982 – John Halls, English footballer
- 1982 – Andrei Jämsä, Estonian rower
- 1982 – Lenka Tvarošková, Slovak tennis player
- 1983 – Rhydian, Welsh singer and actor
- 1983 – Callix Crabbe, Virgin Islander baseball player
- 1983 – Rocky Elsom, Australian rugby player
- 1983 – Vincent Labrie, Canadian speed skater
- 1983 – Bacary Sagna, French footballer
- 1984 – Hamed Namouchi, Tunisian footballer
- 1985 – Karima Adebibe, English actress and model
- 1985 – Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
- 1985 – Heart Evangelista, Filipino singer and actress
- 1985 – John Prats, Filipino actor and dancer
- 1985 – Natsume Sano, Japanese model
- 1985 – Philippe Senderos, Swiss footballer
- 1985 – Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress (Cookies)
- 1986 – Michael Ammermüller, German race car driver
- 1986 – Roxanne Guinoo, Filipino actress
- 1986 – Markus Karl, German footballer
- 1986 – Oliver Lee, English actor
- 1986 – Gao Lin, Chinese footballer
- 1986 – Kang Min-Soo, South Korean footballer
- 1986 – Tiffany Thornton, American actress and singer
- 1986 – Aschwin Wildeboer, Spanish swimmer
- 1987 – Edinson Cavani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Joe Pichler, American actor
- 1987 – Tom Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Yulia Savicheva, Russian singer
- 1987 – Fabian Schönheim, German footballer
- 1987 – David Wheater, English footballer
- 1988 – Katie Boland, Canadian actress
- 1988 – Siim Liivik, Estonian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Ángel di María, Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Quentin Mosimann, Swiss singer
- 1988 – Asia Nitollano, American singer and dancer (The Pussycat Dolls)
- 1989 – Néstor Calderón, Mexican footballer
- 1989 – Christopher Handke, German footballer
- 1989 – Adam Matuszczyk, Polish footballer
- 1989 – Emma Miskew, Canadian curler
- 1989 – Denisa Smolenová, Slovak swimmer
- 1989 – Sten-Timmu Sokk, Estonian basketball player
- 1989 – Brandon Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Kristian Thomas, English gymnast
- 1990 – Sefa Yılmaz, German footballer
- 1991 – Chris Rowney, English footballer
- 1991 – Rilwan Waheed, Maldivian footballer
- 1992 – Christian Eriksen, Danish footballer
- 1992 – Freddie Highmore, English actor
- 1993 – Shane Harper, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1994 – Paul Butcher, American actor
Deaths[edit]
- 269 – Saint Valentine, Roman bishop and martyr
- 869 – Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, and linguist (b. 827)
- 1229 – Ragnvald Godredsson, Manx king
- 1317 – Margaret of France, Queen of England (b. 1282)
- 1400 – Richard II of England (b. 1367)
- 1571 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal (b. 1517)
- 1676 – Abraham Bosse, French illustrator (b. 1602)
- 1714 – Maria Luisa of Savoy (b. 1688)
- 1737 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot, English lawyer and politician Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
- 1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
- 1779 – James Cook, English captain and explorer (b. 1728)
- 1780 – William Blackstone, English jurist and politician (b. 1723)
- 1782 – Singu Min, Burmese king (b. 1756)
- 1808 – John Dickinson, American lawyer and politician 5th Governor of Delaware (b. 1732)
- 1831 – Vicente Guerrero, Mexican general and politician, 2nd President of Mexico (b. 1782)
- 1831 – Henry Maudslay, English engineer (b. 1771)
- 1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American general (b. 1815)
- 1881 – Fernando Wood, American politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City (b. 1812)
- 1884 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, American wife of Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1861)
- 1885 – Jules Vallès, French journalist and author (b. 1832)
- 1891 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American general (b. 1820)
- 1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian-French mathematician (b. 1814)
- 1910 – Giovanni Passannante, Italian anarchist (b. 1849)
- 1919 – Pál Luthár, Slovene-Lutheran organist, author, and educator (b. 1839)
- 1922 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish politician (b. 1880)
- 1929 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter (b. 1875)
- 1929 – Frank Gusenberg, American gangster (b. 1892)
- 1929 – Peter Gusenberg, American gangster (b. 1889)
- 1937 – Franz Böckli, Swiss target shooter (b. 1858)
- 1942 – Adnan bin Saidi, Malayan lieutenant (b. 1915)
- 1943 – Dora Gerson, German actress and singer (b. 1899)
- 1943 – David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
- 1948 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player (b. 1876)
- 1949 – Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi politician (b. 1901)
- 1950 – Karl Guthe Jansky, American physicist and engineer (b. 1905)
- 1952 – Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist (b. 1896)
- 1954 – Henri Laurent, French fencer (b. 1881)
- 1958 – Abdur Rab Nishtar, Pakistani politician, 2nd Governor of Punjab (b. 1899)
- 1959 – Baby Dodds, American drummer (b. 1898)
- 1967 – Sig Ruman, German-American actor (b. 1884)
- 1969 – Vito Genovese, Italian-American mobster (b. 1897)
- 1970 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (b. 1880)
- 1974 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1903)
- 1975 – Julian Huxley, English biologist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1887)
- 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English author and poet (b. 1881)
- 1978 – Paul Governali, American football player (b. 1921)
- 1979 – Adolph Dubs, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Afghanistan (b. 1920)
- 1980 – Rudra Baruah, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1926)
- 1983 – Lina Radke, German runner (b. 1903)
- 1986 – Edmund Rubbra, English composer (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Dmitry Kabalevsky, Russian composer (b. 1904)
- 1987 – Karolos Koun, Greek director (b. 1908)
- 1988 – Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (b. 1901)
- 1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
- 1989 – Vincent Crane, English pianist, for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster (b. 1943)
- 1990 – Tony Holiday, German singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
- 1992 – Helen Vela, Filipino journalist and actress (b. 1946)
- 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Ukrainian-Russian serial killer (b. 1936)
- 1994 – Christopher Lasch, American historian and critic (b. 1932)
- 1994 – Rodney Orr, American race car driver (b. 1962)
- 1995 – Michael V. Gazzo, American actor and playwright (b. 1923)
- 1995 – U Nu, Burmese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
- 1999 – John Ehrlichman, American lawyer, 12th White House Counsel (b. 1925)
- 1999 – Buddy Knox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1933)
- 2002 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
- 2002 – Mick Tucker, English drummer (Sweet) (b. 1947)
- 2003 – Dolly, Scottish cloned sheep (b. 1996)
- 2003 – Johnny Longden, English jockey (b. 1907)
- 2004 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
- 2005 – Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex, Greek author and journalist (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Rafic Hariri, Lebanese businessman and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1944)
- 2005 – Najai Turpin, American boxer (b. 1981)
- 2005 – Ronnie Burgess, Welsh footballer (b. 1917)
- 2006 – Darry Cowl, French actor and singer (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Shoshana Damari, Yemeni-Israeli singer and actress (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Lynden David Hall, English singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1974)
- 2007 – Ryan Larkin, Canadian animator and director (b. 1943)
- 2007 – Gareth Morris, English flute player (b. 1920)
- 2009 – Bernard Ashley, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Laura Ashley plc (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Louie Bellson, American drummer and composer (b. 1924)
- 2009 – John McGlinn, American conductor (b. 1953)
- 2010 – Doug Fieger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Knack and Sky) (b. 1952)
- 2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Linnart Mäll, Estonian historian, orientalist, and translator (b. 1938)
- 2011 – Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, Bahraini protester (b. 1989)
- 2011 – George Shearing, English-American pianist (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Glenn Boyer, American historian and author (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Richard J. Collins, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Luis Cruzado, Peruvian footballer (b. 1941)
- 2013 – Frank DiPaolo, American politician (b. 1906)
- 2013 – Tim Dog, American rapper (Ultramagnetic MCs) (b. 1967)
- 2013 – Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and scholar (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Walt Easley, American football player (b. 1957)
- 2013 – Aleksander Gudzowaty, Polish economist (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Goldie Harvey, Nigerian singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
- 2013 – Mark Kamins, American radio host and producer (b. 1955)
- 2013 – Montague Levine, English physician (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Fernando Lyra, Brazilian politician (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Shadow Morton, American songwriter and producer (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Kenneth Nance, American politician (b. 1941)
- 2013 – T. L. Osborn, American evangelist and author (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Reeva Steenkamp, South African model (b. 1983)
- 2013 – Kazuo Tsunoda, Japanese pilot (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Zdeněk Zikán, Czech footballer (b. 1937)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe (Roman Catholic Church)
- Valentine
- February 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Communist Martyrs Day (Iraqi Communist Party)
- Statehood Day (Arizona)
- Statehood Day (Oregon)
- The second day of Lupercalia (Ancient Rome)
- Valentine's Day (International)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” - John 3:16
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 13: Morning
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God." - 1 John 3:1-2
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us." Consider who we were, and what we feel ourselves to be even now when corruption is powerful in us, and you will wonder at our adoption. Yet we are called "the sons of God." What a high relationship is that of a son, and what privileges it brings! What care and tenderness the son expects from his father, and what love the father feels towards the son! But all that, and more than that, we now have through Christ. As for the temporary drawback of suffering with the elder brother, this we accept as an honour: "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." We are content to be unknown with him in his humiliation, for we are to be exalted with him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." That is easy to read, but it is not so easy to feel. How is it with your heart this morning? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow? Does corruption rise within your spirit, and grace seem like a poor spark trampled under foot? Does your faith almost fail you? Fear not, it is neither your graces nor feelings on which you are to live: you must live simply by faith on Christ. With all these things against us, now--in the very depths of our sorrow, wherever we may be--now, as much in the valley as on the mountain, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." "Ah, but," you say, "see how I am arrayed! my graces are not bright; my righteousness does not shine with apparent glory." But read the next: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him." The Holy Spirit shall purify our minds, and divine power shall refine our bodies; then shall we see him as he is.
Evening
"There is therefore now no condemnation." - Romans 8:1
Come, my soul, think thou of this. Believing in Jesus, thou art actually and effectually cleared from guilt; thou art led out of thy prison. Thou art no more in fetters as a bond-slave; thou art delivered now from the bondage of the law; thou art freed from sin, and canst walk at large as a freeman; thy Saviour's blood has procured thy full discharge. Thou hast a right now to approach thy Father's throne. No flames of vengeance are there to scare thee now; no fiery sword; justice cannot smite the innocent. Thy disabilities are taken away: thou wast once unable to see thy Father's face: thou canst see it now. Thou couldst not speak with him: but now thou hast access with boldness. Once there was a fear of hell upon thee; but thou hast no fear of it now, for how can there be punishment for the guiltless? He who believeth is not condemned, and cannot be punished. And more than all, the privileges thou mightst have enjoyed, if thou hadst never sinned, are thine now that thou art justified. All the blessings which thou wouldst have had if thou hadst kept the law, and more, are thine, because Christ has kept it for thee. All the love and the acceptance which perfect obedience could have obtained of God, belong to thee, because Christ was perfectly obedient on thy behalf, and hath imputed all his merits to thy account, that thou mightst be exceeding rich through him, who for thy sake became exceeding poor. Oh! how great the debt of love and gratitude thou owest to thy Saviour!
"A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear with thy righteousness on,
My person and offerings to bring:
The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view."
"A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear with thy righteousness on,
My person and offerings to bring:
The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view."
===
Today's reading: Leviticus 14, Matthew 26:51-75 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 14
Cleansing From Defiling Skin Diseases
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "These are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing, when they are brought to the priest: 3 The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, 4the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed....Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 26:51-75
51 With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
52 "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
No comments:
Post a Comment