Meanwhile in Australia the ridiculous Clive Palmer is posturing and desperately courting the dopey. The senate is new, but still clogged with left wing advocates who do not listen to reason. The previous Opposition under Mr Abbott passed 80% of legislation by the previous minority government. The current opposition passes nothing. But cuts are needed to spending for prosperity for all. Chanel 9 evening news claim they are now confused. They claim there isn't a budget emergency related to sending. But they know what the argument is, they are merely trying to broaden the ratings of their left wing viewers. They know their conservative viewers are bereft of choice.
Agrippa Postumus was a grandchild of Octavian. Octavian was said to have doted on his family, but he made some strong decisions. Agrippa's father died before he was born. Octavian adopted his two brothers, and made Agrippa heir. He had not adopted him as he wanted the family name of Agrippa to continue. But when both brothers died Octavian adopted him anyway at the same time Octavian adopted his step son, Tiberius and made Agrippa the first in line. Agrippa was described as having no good qualities, Tacitus described him as "devoid of every good quality, he had been involved in no scandal." He was exiled shortly before Octavian died. Around the time Octavian died, on this day in 14, Agrippa was executed. Tiberius as Caeser was terrible for Rome.
With the crusades winding down by the fourteenth century the Knights Templar was threatened by Kings that wanted to dissolve them and collect their wealth. Jacques de Molay was head of the Knights and the French King Phillip IV had him tortured until he confessed in 1307. He later retracted his confession. So, in 1314, Phillip had him burned on a scaffold on an island in the River Seine. On this day in 1308, Pope Clement V pardoned Molay, absolving him of charges of heresy. In 1519, Philosopher and General Wang Yangming defeated Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning, who had tried to seize the emperors seat. The penalty for losing was to be slow slicing, a form of torture where small bits of flesh are cut from the victim until they die. He committed suicide first. Johan de Witt was a senior public servant and mathematician in Holland. On this day in 1672, his devotion was not well rewarded when he went to visit his brother, and was lynched by political opponents.
In 1858, Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution through natural selection. Many people feel it disproves Islam. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War was over. In 1882 Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture debuted in Moscow. In 1920, the world's first commercial radio station began in Detroit. In 1938, Lhou Gehrig hit his 23rd Grand Slam, which was to remain a record for 75 years until Alex Rodriguez. The craze of ice bathing is to address ALS which is Lou Gehrig's disease. The admission that the ASADA investigation into drugs in sports was a political witch-hunt echoes A-Rod's story, he has been banned from Major League Baseball for no evident reason. In 1940, Leon Trotsky was killed by a Soviet agent who was a Spanish communist. Trotsky was a communist who opposed Stalinist bureaucracy. The ice pick which claimed his life came from an ally and friend he would have given anything to protect. He gave his life and his family lost theirs for his belief too. In 1940, Churchill gave his famous speech including the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few." A great and humble man was sent by Nazis to Buchenwald on this day in 1944. A New Zealander. Phil Lamason was one of 168 captured airmen. Gestapo labelled them terror fliers, not armed combatants and sent them to a concentration camp, not a POW camp. Phil was senior officer and gave his men military bearing and discipline. He managed to get word to the Luftwaffe of the plight of his men and they were transferred to a POW camp the day they had been scheduled for execution. He retired to a farm in NZ after the war. In 1968, the Soviet Union crushed the Czech Spring. In 1988, the Iran Iraq war had a ceasefire after eight years. In 1991, a hundred thousand people rallied outside the Kremlin following the coup ejecting Gorbachev from power. In 1998, Clinton sent cruise missiles against camps in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
===
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
===917 – Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle of Achelous.
1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
1910 – Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, which burned about three million acres (12,140 km²), the largest fire in recorded U.S. history.
1940 – In the midst of the Battle of Britain, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech thanking the Royal Air Force, declaring, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."
1988 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding another 28. Try not to get upset with busses. Remember your debt to the RAF and honour it. Remember that wood burns (I learned that watching the fifth element). Leave the dregs to Spain. After a battle, everything that lives, aches.
Matches
- 14 – Agrippa Postumus, adopted son of the late Roman Emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances.
- 636 – Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
- 917 – Battle of Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army.
- 1000 – The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen, celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.
- 1083 – Canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen and his son Saint Emeric.
- 1308 – Pope Clement V pardons Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, absolving him of charges ofheresy.
- 1391 – Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.
- 1467 – The Second Battle of Olmedo takes places as part of a succession conflict between Henry IV of Castile and his half-brother Alfonso, Prince of Asturias.
- 1519 – Philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming Dynasty emperor Zhengde.
- 1672 – Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
- 1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
- 1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg defeats the Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay in the Battle of Saragossa.
- 1775 – The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
- 1794 – Battle of Fallen Timbers – American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomiwarriors into a disorganized retreat.
- 1858 – Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
- 1866 – President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
- 1882 – Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.
- 1910 – The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the "Big Blowup" or the "Big Burn") occurs in northeast Washington, northern Idaho (the panhandle), and western Montana, burning approximately 3 million acres (12,000 km2).
- 1914 – World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
- 1920 – The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1926 – Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
- 1938 – Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam – a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.
- 1940 – In Mexico City, Mexico exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.
- 1940 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".
- 1944 – World War II: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
- 1944 – World War II: the Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.
- 1950 – Korean War: United Nations repel an offensive by North Korean divisions attempting to cross the Naktong River and assault the city of Taegu.
- 1955 – In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
- 1960 – Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.
- 1962 – The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
- 1968 – Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring.
- 1975 – Viking Program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
- 1977 – Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
- 1986 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
- 1988 – "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
- 1988 – Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1988 – Iran–Iraq War: a ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war.
- 1988 – The Troubles: Eight British Army soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by a Provisional Irish Republican Army roadside bomb inNorthern Ireland, United Kingdom (see Ballygawley bus bombing).
- 1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. 51 people are killed.
- 1989 – The O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, the world's longest guided busway, opens.
- 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coupaiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.
- 1991 – Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of historical continuity of its pre-World War II statehood.
- 1993 – After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month.
- 1997 – Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped.
- 1998 – The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
- 1998 – U.S. embassy bombings: the United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
- 2002 – A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin, Germany for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.
- 2008 – Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. 146 people are killed in the crash, and 8 more die later. Only 18 people survive.
- 2012 – A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.
Hatches
- 1517 – Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French cardinal (d. 1586)
- 1561 – Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (d. 1633)
- 1625 – Thomas Corneille, French playwright (d. 1709)
- 1632 – Louis Bourdaloue, French preacher (d. 1704)
- 1710 – Thomas Simpson, English mathematician (d. 1761)
- 1719 – Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer and educator (d. 1783)
- 1720 – Bernard de Bury, French composer (d. 1785)
- 1779 – Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1848)
- 1799 – James Prinsep, English orientalist and scholar (d. 1840)
- 1845 – Albert Chmielowski, Polish saint, founded the Albertine Brothers (d. 1916)
- 1856 – Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, German poet and playwright (d. 1909)
- 1860 – Raymond Poincaré, French politician, 10th President of France (d. 1934)
- 1873 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect, co-designed the National Museum of Finland (d. 1950)
- 1885 – Dino Campana, Italian poet (d. 1932)
- 1886 – Paul Tillich, German-American philosopher and theologian (d. 1965)
- 1887 – Phan Khôi, Vietnamese journalist and scholar (d. 1959)
- 1890 – H. P. Lovecraft, American author and poet (d. 1937)
- 1901 – Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- 1905 – Jean Gebser, German linguist, poet, and philosopher (d. 1973)
- 1905 – Jack Teagarden, American singer-songwriter and trombonist (d. 1964)
- 1919 – Walter Bernstein, American screenwriter and producer
- 1923 – Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (d. 1964)
- 1934 – Armi Kuusela, Finnish model, Miss Universe 1952
- 1935 – Ron Paul, American physician, captain, and politician
- 1937 – Stelvio Cipriani, Italian composer
- 1937 – El Fary, Spanish singer and actor (d. 2007)
- 1941 – Dave Brock, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Hawkwind)
- 1942 – Isaac Hayes, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor (d. 2008)
- 1944 – Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)
- 1947 – James Pankow, American trombonist and songwriter (Chicago)
- 1948 – Robert Plant, English singer-songwriter (Led Zeppelin, Band of Joy, The Honeydrippers, and Page and Plant)
- 1949 – Phil Lynott, English-Irish singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (Thin Lizzy, Skid Row, and Grand Slam) (d. 1986)
- 1958 – David O. Russell, American director and screenwriter
- 1958 – Patricia Rozema, Canadian director and screenwriter
- 1968 – Yuri Shiratori, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1970 – John D. Carmack, American game programmer, co-founded Id Software
- 1974 – Amy Adams, American actress and singer
- 1977 – Mayra Verónica, Cuban-American model and singer
- 1979 – Haha, South Korean singer and actor
- 1979 – Jamie Cullum, English singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1982 – Meghan Ory, Canadian actress
- 1984 – Tsokye Tsomo Karchung, Bhutanese model and actress, Miss Bhutan 2008
- 1984 – Rachelle Leah, American model and actress
- 1987 – Cătălina Ponor, Romanian gymnast
- 1988 – Nikki SooHoo, American actress
- 1991 – Marko Djokovic, Serbian tennis player
- 1992 – Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1995 – Liana Liberato, American actress
- 2000 – Fátima Ptacek, American actress
Despatches
- 14 – Agrippa Postumus, Roman son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (b. 12 BC)
- 535 – Mochta, Irish disciple of Saint Patrick
- 1384 – Geert Groote, Dutch preacher, founded the Brethren of the Common Life (b. 1340)
- 1854 – Shiranui Dakuemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 8th Yokozuna (b. 1801)
- 1887 – Jules Laforgue, French poet (b. 1860)
- 1912 – William Booth, English preacher, co-founded The Salvation Army (b. 1829)
- 1930 – Charles Bannerman, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1851)
- 2001 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (b. 1915)
- 2012 – Phyllis Diller, American actress (b. 1917)
Setting the stage for young Islamic rage
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, August 19, 2014 (8:33pm)
THE Prime Minister warned this week about a potential “mass casualty event” from homegrown Islamist terrorists, and exhorted all Australian communities to join “team Australia”. The reaction from the sneering Left was scornful laughter.
Continue reading 'Setting the stage for young Islamic rage'Do-gooders blind to the dangers of illegal drugs
Miranda Devine – Tuesday, August 19, 2014 (8:32pm)
THE tragedy of Harriet Wran’s slide into drug addiction is a warning no one, no matter how rich or beautiful, is immune from the evil.
Continue reading 'Do-gooders blind to the dangers of illegal drugs'SILENT OB
Tim Blair – Wednesday, August 20, 2014 (8:15pm)
There is no point being history’s greatest speaker if you don’t actually speak:
President Obama returned to his vacation home at Martha’s Vineyard after briefly interrupting his vacation for two days of meetings in Washington, D.C.Obama met with his economic team Tuesday before leaving the White House at 4:22 pm to return to his vacation home.He did not react to the news that broke later that evening about an ISIS video that showed the beheading of American journalist James Wright Foley.
In other developments, here’s Ronald S. Lauder in the NYT:
Why is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? In Europe and in the United States, we have witnessed demonstrations over the tragic deaths of Palestinians who have been used as human shields by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The United Nations has held inquiries and focuses its anger on Israel for defending itself against that same terrorist organization. But the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met with relative indifference.
THE NERVE!
Tim Blair – Wednesday, August 20, 2014 (2:24pm)
“Look at the filth of the Kuffar and how they lie,” writes Bilaal Abdullah. “They have the nerve to say a bookstore is evil but a pub is good.”
PURE EVIL
Tim Blair – Wednesday, August 20, 2014 (11:42am)
Hundreds gathered in Sydney a few weeks ago to support jihad. Here is the latest atrocity committed by jihadist maniacs in the Middle East:
Jihadist group the Islamic State claims to have executed American journalist James Foley in revenge for US air strikes against its fighters in Iraq …The purported execution is carried out in an open desert area with no immediate signs as to whether it is in Iraq or Syria, by a black-clad masked militant who speaks in English with a British accent …
In a separate posting on Twitter, a picture showed a man identified as Steven Joel Sotloff dressed in the same orange clothing and kneeling in a desertlike setting. He was flanked by a masked, black-clad fighter holding him by his collar.“The life of Steven Joel Soltoff depends on Obama’s next move,” said a statement in Arabic at the bottom of the picture.Soltoff, who wrote for Time magazine and the National Interest, has been missing since mid-2013.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott: “It’s absolutely sickening, absolutely despicable and it’s a sign that there can be no compromise whatsoever with the murderous terrorists of the ISIL movement. This is evil, this is as near pure evil as we are ever likely to see.”
UPDATE. James Foley’s mother:
“We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” wrote Diane Foley on the Facebook site Free James Foley.“We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world,” she added.“We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person.”
SUBURB DEFENDED
Tim Blair – Wednesday, August 20, 2014 (11:30am)
SBS’s Lakemba response:
OFFENCE TAKEN
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 19, 2014 (6:51pm)
So very sensitive:
The Islamic Council of Victoria, which represents more than 150,000 Muslims, has said it is boycotting a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Melbourne after he urged the Muslim community to join “Team Australia”.Mr Abbott convened the meeting with Melbourne’s Muslim community to discuss proposed counter-terrorism laws after a similar meeting in Sydney on Monday.But ahead of Monday’s meeting, Mr Abbott told Macquarie Radio in Sydney that he would urge community leaders to speak out against radical Islam.“Everyone has got to put this country, its interests, its values and its people first, and you don’t migrate to this country unless you want to join our team.”Islamic council secretary Ghaith Krayem described Mr Abbott’s comments as ill-informed and inflammatory.
CAN’T STAND THE RAIN
Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 19, 2014 (2:03pm)
Sweet memories. Remember the good old days of climate panic?
Back on June 11, 2005, the ABC reported alarming news from a reliable alarmist: “Professor Tim Flannery has warned that Australia is now entering long-term climate change, which could cause longer and more frequent droughts. He also predicts that the ongoing drought could leave Sydney’s dams dry in just two years.”Two years on to the day, let’s see how Tim’s prediction worked out. Here’s an ABC report from June 11, 2007: “Sydney’s largest dam, Warragamba, received 43mm of rain since Thursday, while the region’s smaller dams got a better soaking, including the Upper Nepean which got 108mm. Sydney’s catchment is 36.9 per cent full.”
So let’s see where Sydney’s catchment levels are now, following seven more years of terrible climate change:
The weakest US president ever?
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (9:00pm)
A serious question: when the US last have a president this weak?
===President Obama returned to his vacation home at Martha’s Vineyard after briefly interrupting his vacation for two days of meetings in Washington, D.C.
Obama met with his economic team Tuesday before leaving the White House at 4:22 pm to return to his vacation home.
He did not react to the news that broke later that evening about an ISIS video that showed the beheading of American journalist James Wright Foley.
What is the ABC suggesting with James Foley’s death?
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (7:29pm)
The Islamic State beheads an American journalist, having already beheaded so many Iraqis and Syrians. Now see if you can work out the ABC journalist’s drift in this line of questioning today:
(Thanks to reader Brad.)
===TANYA NOLAN: The pentagon says US planes have carried out 68 airstrikes in Iraq since August the 8th, 35 of those targeting IS positions. Was it folly for the US to get involved in Iraq this time around?The guest, by the way, think the US should go in even harder because the cause is just. I think the Islamic State might prefer the ABC’s response.
TANYA NOLAN: So you don’t think America should get any more militarily involved? Because there is the view that airstrikes alone are not going to be successful without a competent and complimentary ground force.
TANYA NOLAN: The warning in this video is for America to stop intervening in Iraq or a second American journalist could suffer the same fate. Is it too late for that? Has America already overstepped its role, what should have been its role in Iraq this time around?
TANYA NOLAN: From IS’s perspective though, America is involved in a war with them for all intents and purposes and they see that those airstrikes are a declaration of war by America on them.
(Thanks to reader Brad.)
Journalist beheaded by Muslim with English accent
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (7:32am)
A message is sent:
ISIS has tried to send a warning to the U.S. in about the most horrifying manner imaginable: by broadcasting the execution of an American citizen captured in Syria over 600 days ago.No doubt ABC presenter Jonathan Green would prefer the tape to remain unreported, for fear that his innocence will be stolen. His innocence, or deliberately cultivated ignorance that against such barbarity we need only a happy smile to defend ourselves:
The video purports to show the execution of photojournalist James Foley.
The four-minute video opens with a clip of President Barack Obama authorizing U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. After this intro, a title screen appears with the words “a message to America,” followed by an American citizen they identify as James Foley saying that U.S. leaders are his “real killers.” Foley is executed moments later by a man in a black robe — an apparent native English speaker who talks with an English accent — holding a knife.
Could be any day now ... the sudden indiscriminate smack of a terrorist attack.Still confident in the fundamental goodness of others, Mr Green?
Our best defence is of course our cultured reason. Our tolerance. Our audacious confidence in the fundamental goodness of others.
UPDATE
More is threatened:
In the video, they show journalist Steven Joel Soltoff, a journalist who worked for TIME, The National Interest and Media Line. Soltoff seems to have been missing since the middle of last year. He last tweeted on August 3rd, 2013. His Twitter indicates he was in Libya at that time. ISIL claims the Sotloff’s life “depends on Obama’s next decision,” specifically if the United States continues attacking them.
Hamas fires more rockets to break yet another ceasefire
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (7:03am)
Hamas breaks yet another ceasefire - its sixth? - demonstrating it really, really prefers war:
Sixth?
===Talks being held in Cairo for a long-term Gaza cease-fire broke down Tuesday as Israel recalled its delegation hours after Palestinian militants broke an earlier truce by launching volleys of rockets.UPDATE
Sixth?
“Today’s rocket attack on Beersheba is a grave and direct violation of the cease-fire to which Hamas committed itself,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government. ”This is the 11th cease-fire that Hamas has either rejected or violated,” he said.
Talking to Keysar Trad
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (6:57am)
You may find my conversation with the Islamic Friendship Association’s Keysar Trad interesting. Listen here.
My main questions were: just how many people did Trad, a media favorite really represent? And with his past, why on earth is the Prime Minister consulting with him on anti-terrorism proposals?
You may find the later responses of three Muslim listeners extremely heartening.
===My main questions were: just how many people did Trad, a media favorite really represent? And with his past, why on earth is the Prime Minister consulting with him on anti-terrorism proposals?
You may find the later responses of three Muslim listeners extremely heartening.
Clive Palmer, hypocrite
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (6:44am)
Cut & Paste does an extended edition today just on Clive Palmer, and it’s still not long enough to capture all his idiocy and self-contradictions. But some highlights:
Palmer on ABC’s Q&A, Monday night:UPDATE
THESE Chinese mongrels — I’m saying that because they’re communist, they shoot their own people, they haven’t got a justice system and they want to take over this country.Wow, is that the real Clive speaking? We thought you liked the Chinese. That’s what you used to say. Palmer, September 29, 2009, railing against foreign investment rules that restrict Chinese investment in Australia:
IT’S one of the worst things that can happen to Australia to extend our racist policies into Asia. Capital is in China, it’s not in the US.Australians are just so xenophobic. Same speech:
SUDDENLY there’s a great cry in Australia about reds under the bed. We’ve got the opportunity to grab if our politicians could only be fair and treat the Chinese people and the Chinese government with the dignity they deserve…You’ve lost that loving feeling, Clive. Why? Hint. Hedley Thomas, The Australian, July 24:
CLIVE Palmer is embroiled in claims of “fraud” and “dishonesty” levelled by his estranged Chinese business partners, who have significantly raised the stakes in their legal row with a powerful document that holds him personally responsible for more than $12 million in missing funds. The document, filed yesterday in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane, discloses that Mr Palmer personally signed two cheques — for $10m and $2.167m — that drained the Chinese funds from a National Australia Bank account shortly before the federal election last September.You wouldn’t want that sort of slur hanging around, surely? Not when you’ve got so much on your plate, such as trying to stop the budget hurting poor people. Why don’t you just tell Tony Jones your side of the story. Back to Q&A on Monday:
YEAH, I’d like to answer that for you, Tony, but, of course, that’s gonna go up to the Supreme Court this week and it will all be ... what that’s all about is that we’re owed about $500m by the communist Chinese government that doesn’t want to pay it, that’s now reverting this sort of rubbish.You’ve missed Tony’s point, Clive:
JONES: Well, that’s not what that’s all about actually. I mean there’s two ...OK then. So before we go on, let’s get this straight. Those communist Chinese are a) “mongrels” b) “bastards” and c) and “they shoot their own people”. Right? Well, not exactly, you now say.
Palmer: Well, that’s — that’s ...
Jones: From that account there’s $2.17m ...
Palmer: No, no, that’s it’s about. That’s what it’s about. It’s ...
Jones: 2.17m of that account went to a company called Media Circus. How much of that ...
Palmer: Well, I’m just trying to explain to you.
Jones: May I just ask you how much of that was spent on your — your election campaign?
Palmer: No, you can’t, because that’s up — that will go before the Supreme Court. We’ll be knocking that case out because it’s a lie, it’s not true and we’ll deal with that matter. You have been reading too much of The Australian and what Rupert Murdoch’s telling you from New York. It’s just not true…
Tweet from Palmer, 9.31am yesterday:
‘BACK on track. Move on. Nothing to see here. The Palmer United Party is a mainstream party, not prone to illogical outbursts that may harm a two-way trade worth more than $150 billion a year. But did the message make it to Tassie?
Senator Jacqui Lambie, media statement, 12.35pm yesterday:
“I STRONGLY support the general point that Clive made about communist China’s military capacity and threat to Australia. If anybody thinks that we should have a national security and defence policy which ignore the threat of a Chinese communist invasion — you’re delusional and have got rocks in your head ... Both Labor and the Liberals/Nationals have failed to build an Australian military that is able to defend us — and stop our grandchildren from becoming slaves to an aggressive, anti-democratic, totalitarian foreign power.”Rocks? Heads? Slaves?
Man the barricades. But exactly what did your Dear Leader say about China’s military intentions? Well, nothing. He did say this, but, again, isn’t this about his own business interests. Back to Monday night’s Q&A:
IT won’t stop the fact that the Chinese government wants to bring workers here to destroy our wage system. It won’t stop the fact they want to take over our ports and get our resources for free. So far they’ve shipped 200 million dollars worth of iron ore out this country without paying for it and I don’t mind standing up against the Chinese bastards and stopping them from doing it and I’ll be doing that, mate. Don’t worry about that.
I would not trust a word Palmer says:
CLIVE Palmer boasts that he has notched up victories over “these Chinese mongrels” — his estranged business partner Citic Pacific — in separate legal battles he is waging in the West Australian Supreme Court, the Federal Court and in a private arbitration.Read on.
He also alleges that the Chinese government-owned Citic Pacific has somehow been able to dig up and ship $200 million worth of West Australian iron ore from the Pilbara without paying a cent to the state government for the privilege.
And the Queensland magnate turned MP reckons he is owed about $500m in unpaid royalties from the Sino Iron project, which Citic has built on Mr Palmer’s mining tenements.
Yet there is simply no evidence to suggest that any of these claims, all made in an indignant outburst on ABC’s Q&A, are correct.
UPDATE
Not just a hypocrite but a wrecker:
AUDIENCE member Dean Shachar: Clive, as recently as probably mid-2012, you expressed such concern with the budget, you said it was in such dire straits, that you wanted to run against the then treasurer, the architect of the current crisis, for the Liberal Party, in his own seat of Lilley. How then can you say, 2½ years later, to the Australian people, how can you justify rejecting every single measure they’ve tried to take to put the budget back into surplus? Is this not just populist-driven hypocrisy?
Palmer: No, it’s not ... these budgets are totally unacceptable ...
Shachar: I’m just curious as to what’s changed since you were a Liberal Party member ... Why was it such a budget crisis then?
Palmer: Well, what’s changed is ...
Shachar: What’s changed? You’re in a position now with the balance of power to actually do something for the country.
Not just a story of bad white policeman shooting down innocent black man
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (5:53am)
The shooting by police
of an unarmed man is always serious. The exploitation of that shooting
by race-baiters and the professionally aggrieved says something even
more serious about racial divisions in the US. And the fact that dealing
with the violence then requires the replacement of a white police chief
by a black suggests the real grievance is not that there is racism but
that the wrong “race” rules.
The almost non-reported other side of the (alleged) story of the shooting in Ferguson of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson:
A claim:
===The almost non-reported other side of the (alleged) story of the shooting in Ferguson of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson:
The autopsy findings seem to contradict part of what Brown’s friends and eyewitnesses originally claimed:
A woman identifying herself as a friend of Darren Wilson ... says he initially flagged down Brown for walking in the middle of the street…
But then Wilson received a radio report that someone matching Brown’s description had robbed a convenience store. (It appears from video evidence that Brown did, indeed, rob a store and manhandle the clerk).
Wilson therefore pulled his car up to Brown and started to get out of it. Brown, who was enormous, pushed Wilson back into the car and punched him in the face, according to what Josie says is Wilson’s account....
Wilson had a gun. According to what Josie says Wilson told her, Brown reached for it and, in the struggle, the gun pressed against Wilson’s hip. Wilson was able to push the gun away.
Brown then fled with his friends. Wilson followed and told them to freeze. Instead, Brown turned and, from a distance of maybe 35 feet, began taunting Wilson and saying that he wouldn’t shoot. Then, according to this account, Brown charged Wilson. Wilson began firing, but Brown kept coming. Finally, a shot to the head stopped Brown just a few feet in front of Wilson.
This account is consistent with the autopsy finding that the bullets entered the front of Brown’s body, not the back.
Tiffany Mitchell ... (said) Brown broke away and started to run down the street away from the police car. Mitchell said the officer then got out of his vehicle and started to pursue Brown, all the while shooting at him. “Michael’s body jerked as if he were hit,” Mitchell said. “Then he turns around and put his hands up, and the officer continued to walk up on him and shoot him...”Another contradiction of the preferred narrative of a white policeman gunning down a black man running away or surrendering with his hands in the air:
Emmanuel Freeman… tweeted… “no reason! He was running!"…
A man, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity, told Fox2 News that he and Brown had seen each other right before Brown went to the convenience store. The man said Brown told him that he was “feeling some bad vibes” but that the “Lord Jesus Christ” would help him through it… Approximately 25 minutes later, the man heard gunfire and looked up and saw a man, who he didn’t know at the time was Brown, “staggering and running.” ... “[Wilson] just started shooting,” the man continued, estimating that the officer shot Brown six or seven times after he turned around to seemingly surrender.
Then there’s this alleged chronology, again contradicting the preferred narrative:
Man 1: ‘How’d he [Brown] get from there to there [on the ground, away from the police car]?’
Eyewitness: ‘Because he ran, the police was still in the truck – cause he was like over the truck’
Eyewitness: ‘But him and the police was both in the truck, then he ran – the police got out and ran after him’
Eyewitness: ‘Then the next thing I know he doubled back toward him cus - the police had his gun drawn already on him’
Man 1: ‘Oh, the police got his gun’
Eyewitness: ‘The police kept dumpin on him, and I’m thinking the police kept missing – he like – be like – but he kept coming toward him
(crosstalk)’
Eyewitness: ‘Police fired shots – the next thing I know – the police was missing’
Man 1: ‘The Police?’
Eyewitness: ‘The Police shot him’
The officer who shot Ferguson teen Michael Brown stopped Brown and another teen because they were walking in the street, not because of a robbery a few minutes earlier, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said Friday afternoon.John Hinderaker:
Jackson said the officer was aware cigars had been taken in the robbery of a store nearby, but did not know when he encountered Brown and Dorian Johnson that they might be suspects. He stopped them because they were walking in the street, Jackson said.
But Jackson told the Post-Dispatch that the officer, Darren Wilson, saw cigars in Brown’s hand and realized he might be the robber.
The results of the first of three planned autopsies on the body of Michael Brown were released today by Dr. Michael Baden. Dr. Baden found that Brown was shot six times, with all six bullets coming from the front. This appears to rule out the claim that Brown was shot while running away from police officer Darren Wilson....Jason Riley cuts through much of the bull from the race-baiters and preachers of a lethal victimhood:
If he was charging officer Wilson, Wilson would reasonably have perceived a risk of grave bodily harm and would have been entitled to use deadly force to defend himself, regardless of whether Brown was armed or not.
Likewise, the suggestion that six shots are somehow excessive is misguided. It usually takes several bullets to stop an attacker, and in this case, it appears that only the last shot, which hit Brown in the top of the head, would immediately have incapacitated him. The location of that bullet is consistent with the theory that Brown had his head down and was charging toward Wilson, but it could be consistent with other scenarios as well.
We don’t have all the evidence and I’m hesitant to try and litigate this in the press, but there’s also this false narrative being pushed out there by folks like Michael Eric Dyson and [Al] Sharpton and the rest of the hustlers is that black men live in fear of being shot by cops in these neighborhoods. That too is nonsense. I know something about growing up black and male in the inner city and it’s not that hard to avoid getting shot by a cop. They pull you over, you answer their questions, you are on your way.Blacks shooting blacks seems a feature of protests against a white cop shooting a black man:
The real difficulty is not getting shot by other black people if you are a young black man in these neighborhoods and again that is something we need to talk more about. Cops are not the problem. Cops are not producing these black bodies in the morgues every weekend in Chicago, in New York and Detroit and so forth. That’s not cops. Those other black people shooting black people.
UPDATE
A massive show of force by riot police and newly arrived national guard units failed to quell agitators who fired gunshots and threw Molotov cocktails on Monday night and early on Tuesday morning…
At a 2.20am press conference, Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri state highway patrol said 31 people had been arrested, some who had come from as far afield as New York and California. He said two people were shot and displayed two handguns and a Molotov cocktail he said had been confiscated by police…
Adding that police had at one point come under gunfire, and that several officers had been injured by rocks and bottles, Johnson urged peaceful protesters from now on to limit their demonstrations to daytime and not give cover to criminals at night…
Initially police made limited interventions: snatch squads bolted forwards to grab and haul away certain individuals, a new tactic in Ferguson.
But more serious trouble flared 500 metres away at the site of a burned convenience store where dozens of youths, some with covered faces, ripped up street signs and taunted police. Unidentified gunmen opened fire, triggering volleys of police stun grenades and teargas.
A claim:
The Gateway Pundit can now confirm from two local St. Louis sources that police Officer Darren Wilson suffered facial fractures during his confrontation with deceased 18 year-old Michael Brown…
Local St. Louis sources said Wilson suffered an “orbital blowout fracture to the eye socket.” This comes from a source within the Prosecuting Attorney’s office and confirmed by the St. Louis County Police.
When Fairfax lives by its creed I’ll pay more attention
Andrew Bolt August 20 2014 (5:44am)
Fairfax bosses clean up big:
===Tensions at the publisher grew yesterday after it was revealed the company had posted a $224.4m net profit, with four top managers receiving $2.4m in additional performance shares at a time when the formal offer [to staff] was zero per cent.Fairfax socialist Ross Gittins protests - but against the Abbott666 Government:
And while we use our budget to widen the gap between rich and poor, people in other countries are realising the need to narrow it.
Wayne Swan, former Labor treasurer, noted in a speech on Monday that “centre-right political leaders across the globe are acknowledging the obvious truth that capitalism is facing an existential challenge . . . only last week ratings agency Standard and Poor’s emphasised yet again that high inequality is a drag on growth"…
Pope Francis put this in stark terms when he called increasing inequality “the root of social evil”.
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4 her, so she can see how I see her
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The War of Independence was a coordinated attack by several Arab countries and various Arab non-state actors against the fledgling State of Israel, with the states intent of genocide. Tens of thousands of Arabs fled their homes after being encouraged to do so by Arab leaders at the time, who promised them that they could return once a comprehensive massacre of the Jewish community had been conducted.
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The first sand has arrived at the Wet'n'Wild site in Sydney's west, as the park is on track for a December opening.
All new photos here: http://2day.fm/
Like if you're going this summer!
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As we get older, modern medicine will help more of us live with cancer rather than die from it. That’s the assumption behind a vaccine to treat cancer, being developed by a pharmaceutical company in Israel.
Vaxil BioTherapeutics’ main product, ImMucin, is now in advanced clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.
CEO Julian Levy tells ISRAEL21c that this therapeutic vaccine doesn’t prevent cancer from invading, but activates and enhances the body’s natural immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells already present in the body, such as those lingering after cancer surgery.
Malignant cells normally get out of control by tricking the immune system not to notice them, a strategy that works especially well in older people because immune systems get less efficient with age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhEwj6Ue13s
The vaccine is currently being tested against a blood cancer called multiple myeloma. However, Vaxil’s scientific breakthrough is based on a drug platform, VaxHit, which can be tailored to treat not only 90 percent of cancers, he says, but also diseases such as tuberculosis.
This disease is cropping up in developing nations as existing vaccines are proving less and less effective.
“Two billion are affected by the pathogen,” says Levy. “Ten percent will develop the active disease. And while TB can be treated by drugs, it takes several months and it can be brutal.”
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Great War 100
Belgian soldiers preparing to defend the city of Louvain from behind a makeshift barricade. Image was taken 99 years ago today, 20 August 1914.
From the collection of the Imperial War Museum (Q 53206).
Australia is blessed .. not having to do that .. ed
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Fine Red Spinels from Burma, one to two carats each.
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Larry Pickering
ARAB SPRING HAS BEEN SPRUNG
Democracy is as foreign to the Arab world as strong-man autocracy is to us. White-hot tribal hatred, bubbling just below the surface for thousands of years, needs tyrannical dictators to contain it. The West’s solution was to kill the tyrannical dictators.
Social media has laid bare deep, poisonous divisions and our naive interference has helped force the toothpaste from the tube... it will be hard to put back.
Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria and now Egypt are all the worse for the West’s interference.
All tyrants need a military but militaries grow quickly, and soon become a law unto themselves. They outlive the tyrant and often get to choose, or even become, the government as was the case in Pakistan.
Obama is now toying with supporting the Syrian opposition in a savage civil war, taking stupidity to a new height and taking on Putin who militarily supports the incumbent Assad Government.
Crumbs! Obama wants to assist the same blood-thirsty mobs that brought down New York’s Twin Towers and at the same time start a new cold war with Russia!
Obama “liberated” Libyan rebels from the Gaddafi dictator. The rebels then promptly sodomised and murdered the US ambassador and three others!
Now that’s the sort of judgment we attribute to Gillard and Rudd!
Since 1945, on each occasion it has involved itself in a foreign war, the US has walked away with a blood nose and the warring nation has simply found another strongman to contain a new lot of tribal enemies.
Hatred of the West intensifies each time we interfere. Al Queda and oddball terrorist groups are attracted to Arab altercations and they recruit well for the future.
Egypt sucks up billions in US aid while feigning friendship but it too has reverted to type with its own civil war subsequent to the demise of Mubarak and a “democratic” election.
The democratically elected, and once banned, Muslim Brotherhood was booted out by the military after trying to impose Sharia law.
Democratic elections are great, but only when the right side wins, eh!
Now an all out war has erupted between sacked Morsi government supporters and the military with 12 million Coptic Christians caught in between.
The perfect excuse has been found for radical Muslims to burn down every Christian church in sight.
Democratisation of the disjointed Arab world is a naive dream. The West should be careful what it wishes for.
These crazy war-mongering bastards now have Iphones and they don’t use social media to make friends like we do.
ALP supporters like Pickering blame Democracy .. - ed
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ALP watch
Correcting Labor’s False and Misleading Claims
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Pastor Rick Warren
"When you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind." James 1:6
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A true friend compliments you publicly and corrects you privately.Who can count on you to do this?
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Roger Waters writes in support of those ethnic cleansers who hate Israel. - ed
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That stark view of a crisis that has killed hundreds in the past week shows why the world's top oil exporter will continue to back Egypt's crackdown on the Brotherhood even while its Western allies try to convince the generals to back down.
When the "Arab Spring" revolts blew across the Middle East in 2011 - toppling one authoritarian president after another - the kings and emirs of the rich Gulf monarchies held on to power but were shaken as never before.
One of King Abdullah's nephews, Mecca Governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal, decried the uprisings in a poem as a "dust storm sweeping Arab lands" in which traditional rulers had been defamed as "backward, reactionary and barbaric".
Two years later, those same rulers now see a chance to restore the stable order that had held for generations in the region, and are determined to spend their oil billions to bring back trusted friends.
Nowhere is that more true than Egypt, long Saudi Arabia's most powerful regional ally and whose army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has close connections to the ruling family after serving as defense attaché in Riyadh.
The gulf rulers' are alarmed by popular Islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which benefited most from the downfall of entrenched dictators after 2011 and which the princes see as threatening the principle of hereditary monarchy.
"Saudi strategists might see groups influenced by the Brotherhood as the only ones that could emerge to challenge their rule," said a Saudi journalist speaking on condition he not be identified.
The Saudi stance is shared with the United Arab Emirates, which this year put on trial Islamists it suspects of plotting to overthrow the state, and on Friday praised Egypt's army for responding to protests with "maximum self restraint".
Only days after Egypt's army ousted the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi from the presidency on July 3, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi pledged aid of $8 billion. A third Gulf monarchy, Kuwait, added another $4 billion, which should cover Egypt's deficit for months.
Unflinching support
Saudi princes regard the Brotherhood as an ideological competitor with an aggressively activist political doctrine that disdains Riyadh's ties with the West and aims to introduce democracy. Riyadh accuses the Brotherhood of betraying its trust after it gave members shelter from persecution in Egypt in the 1960s, only to see them agitate for change in Saudi Arabia.
"There's a lot of concern throughout the Gulf that the Brotherhood is attempting to infiltrate and to destabilize governments," said Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Riyadh and now based in Dubai.
Last month Saudi security forces summoned for questioning two prominent clerics who had signed a letter condemning the Egyptian army's seizure of power, Saudi media reported.
On Saturday, billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, another nephew of the Saudi king, sacked a Kuwaiti preacher from his top job at a religious television station he owns because of the cleric's brotherhood ties.
The tough Saudi line is shared with the Emirates, which has no quarter for the Brotherhood.
"I don't think the UAE will step back from giving help to Egypt according to how many are dying. They are convinced that the government is doing the right thing and defending the country from a terrorist group," said Ibtisam al-Qitbi, a political analyst in Dubai.
Kuwait, the other Gulf kingdom to promise billions, is also wary of the Brotherhood and expelled nine Egyptian members of the group on Sunday for protesting, but its position is somewhat more nuanced than that of either Riyadh or Abu Dhabi.
Brotherhood politicians serve as opposition members of Kuwait's parliament and have long been part of the establishment. A Foreign Ministry statement on Friday regretted the "large number of Egyptian fatalities".
"There is a dilemma in Kuwait. The Muslim Brothers are well entrenched in the political scene and also in the government apparatus," said Ghanem al-Najjar, professor of political science at Kuwait University.
The one rich Gulf country that did not share the Saudi-led consensus was Qatar, which backed Egypt with $7 billion during Mursi's year in power.
Qatar condemned both Mursi's removal and last week's violence, calling on the generals to "refrain from the security option" in tackling protests.
Nevertheless, Qatar has a new ruler after its emir stepped down this year in favor of his son, and many in the Gulf believe it is stepping back from an ambitious foreign policy that saw it lavish funds on Arab Spring revolutionaries.
"The king doesn't like blood"
In addition to cash, which Cairo urgently needs to buy food and fuel, Gulf friends provide it with diplomatic cover. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, another nephew of the king, used a visit to France on Sunday to warn Western countries not to pile pressure on Cairo, saying "we will not achieve anything through threats".
The West also viewed the Brotherhood's rise with alarm. But Western countries were clearly hoping that democracy would force the Islamists either to adapt to popular demands for better government or be voted out of office. The absolute monarchies of the Gulf never shared that faith in popular rule.
"The Saudis are not wildly enthusiastic about the argument that the best way of getting the Egypt we all want is by having the Muslim Brotherhood lose an election," said a diplomat in the Gulf, arguing that Riyadh supported the crackdown.
Nevertheless, the violence of the past week could bring precisely the sort of instability Riyadh was seeking to avert: "The king," the diplomat added, "doesn't like blood being spilled."
The Gulf princes may have written a blank cheque for Sisi, but in return for their cash, they will be expecting the Egyptian military commander to deliver the promised stability.
"Restoring order and making sure to avoid any complications, getting security back, is the most important thing now. Then any political discussion can take place," said Abdulaziz al-Sager, head of the private Gulf Research Centre thinktank in Jeddah.
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But their policy would achieve the objectives .. while the ALP policy won't. But it shows that the objectives of reducing Carbon Dioxide (vis plant food) isn't the issue .. wealth redistribution is. - ed
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Jailed for sleeping with a 12 yo .. - ed
Gay cheerleader thrown in jail: Was it because of her relationship -- or underage sex?http://bit.ly/14Xmsj5
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- 1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by theMarquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg.
- 1882 – The 1812 Overture (audio featured) by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed at theCathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
- 1944 – World War II: The Gestapo transported 168 Allied airmen, who had been classified as spies and criminals so as not to warrant prisoner of war treatment, to Buchenwald concentration camp.
- 1962 – NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, underwent her maiden voyage.
- 1989 – After a collision with a dredger on the River Thames in London, the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in just thirty seconds, killing 51 people.
“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord."
Micah 5:4
Micah 5:4
Christ's reign in his Church is that of a shepherd-king. He has supremacy, but it is the superiority of a wise and tender shepherd over his needy and loving flock; he commands and receives obedience, but it is the willing obedience of the well-cared-for sheep, rendered joyfully to their beloved Shepherd, whose voice they know so well. He rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness.
His reign is practical in its character. It is said, "He shall stand and feed." The great Head of the Church is actively engaged in providing for his people. He does not sit down upon the throne in empty state, or hold a sceptre without wielding it in government. No, he stands and feeds. The expression "feed," in the original, is like an analogous one in the Greek, which means to shepherdize, to do everything expected of a shepherd: to guide, to watch, to preserve, to restore, to tend, as well as to feed.
His reign is continual in its duration. It is said, "He shall stand and feed;" not "He shall feed now and then, and leave his position;" not, "He shall one day grant a revival, and then next day leave his Church to barrenness." His eyes never slumber, and his hands never rest; his heart never ceases to beat with love, and his shoulders are never weary of carrying his people's burdens.
His reign is effectually powerful in its action; "He shall feed in the strength of Jehovah." Wherever Christ is, there is God; and whatever Christ does is the act of the Most High. Oh! it is a joyful truth to consider that he who stands today representing the interests of his people is very God of very God, to whom every knee shall bow. Happy are we who belong to such a shepherd, whose humanity communes with us, and whose divinity protects us. Let us worship and bow down before him as the people of his pasture.
Evening
"Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength."
Psalm 31:4
Psalm 31:4
Our spiritual foes are of the serpent's brood, and seek to ensnare us by subtlety. The prayer before us supposes the possibility of the believer being caught like a bird. So deftly does the fowler do his work, that simple ones are soon surrounded by the net. The text asks that even out of Satan's meshes the captive one may be delivered; this is a proper petition, and one which can be granted: from between the jaws of the lion, and out of the belly of hell, can eternal love rescue the saint. It may need a sharp pull to save a soul from the net of temptations, and a mighty pull to extricate a man from the snares of malicious cunning, but the Lord is equal to every emergency, and the most skilfully placed nets of the hunter shall never be able to hold his chosen ones. Woe unto those who are so clever at net laying; they who tempt others shall be destroyed themselves.
"For thou art my strength." What an inexpressible sweetness is to be found in these few words! How joyfully may we encounter toils, and how cheerfully may we endure sufferings, when we can lay hold upon celestial strength. Divine power will rend asunder all the toils of our enemies, confound their politics, and frustrate their knavish tricks; he is a happy man who has such matchless might engaged upon his side. Our own strength would be of little service when embarrassed in the nets of base cunning, but the Lord's strength is ever available; we have but to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by faith we are depending alone upon the strength of the mighty God of Israel, we may use our holy reliance as a plea in supplication.
"Lord, evermore thy face we seek:
Tempted we are, and poor, and weak;
Keep us with lowly hearts, and meek.
Let us not fall. Let us not fall."
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Today's reading: Psalm 103-104, 1 Corinthians 2 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 103-104
1 Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,and justice for all the oppressed.
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love....
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 2
1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
God's Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory....
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Haman
[Hā'man] - well disposed. The son of Hammedatha, the chief minister of king Ahasuerus, who is called the Agagite because of his Amalekitish descent (Esther 3:1-5).
[Hā'man] - well disposed. The son of Hammedatha, the chief minister of king Ahasuerus, who is called the Agagite because of his Amalekitish descent (Esther 3:1-5).
The Man Who Hated Jews
Haman, an oriental despot's favorite, had an innate passion for elevation. He never considered principle when seeking the king's honor. But Mordecai pricked Haman's bubble and would not bow to him. How could he honor an Amalekite whom God had cursed (Exod. 17:14-16)! All of Haman's tragedy is condensed in the arrestive designation - he was the Jews'enemy. As the first great anti-semite, he came to prove that they who curse the Jews are cursed of God.
Haman, the vain and fussy courtier, the vulgar and unwise upstart, the cruel enemy of the Jews, the villain of the plot, is a name still hated by the Jews. Long ago at The Feast of Purim , it was customary to hang an effigy of Haman; but as the gibbet was sometimes made in the form of a cross, riots between Jews and Christians were the result, and a warning against insults to the Christian faith was issued by the Emporer Theodosius II. The Jews, however, in The Feast of Purim still celebrate their victory from annihilation by Haman.
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