Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tue 22nd Jan Todays News


Happy birthday and many happy returns Cigdem Korkmazer. And many thanks for that lovely gift from the Silly Sausage.
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January 22Reunion Day in Ukraine (1919)
Zulu King Cetshwayo

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Events

[edit]Births

[edit]Deaths

[edit]Holidays and observances


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ETERNALLY CRATEFUL

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (3:41pm)

Omar the Crate clams up: 
He has no trouble smashing police car windscreens with milk crates but it seems Muslim rioter Omar Halaby is not fit to work, receiving a $200-a-fortnight disability support pension …
When The Daily Telegraph visited his home yesterday, Halaby did not wish to talk about his reasons for claiming the pension. His father also refused to comment. 
He’s had long enough to think about it: 
In documents tendered to the Downing Centre Local Court, Legal Aid lawyer Sophie Edin said Halaby suffered from “certain disabilities” which had seen him claim the pension for the past three years. 
He’s received disability payments since he was 16.

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Car make Omar angry! Omar smash!

The poor kid must be barely able to function: 
“He has some physical problems in relation to some football accidents,” Ms Edin told the court. “He has literacy issues, a short attention span, things to that effect.” 
In other words, he’s been diagnosed as a teenager. There ain’t no cure! 
Muslim community leader Keysar Trad said he was not aware of the nature of Halaby’s disability but claimed it was often difficult for Muslims to find employment, even if they were able-bodied.
“If you have any name that is Middle Eastern or Islamic, you’ll often find you don’t get past the interview stage,” Mr Trad said. 
A few more riots ought to fix that.

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RUSSIA NEEDS BABES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (3:15pm)

A remarkable Russian snow gallery. Meanwhile, the respected Hollywood Center for New and Weird Weather Patterns reports
With new advances in technology, women especially are able to use clothing, makeup, and surgical techniques to change their appearance and become more visually pleasing. This causes a physiological reaction in men that raises their temperature, and more of that heat is radiated into the air, thus raising the ambient temperature. 
Peer-reviewed evidence is presented at the link.

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YOUR TO STUPID

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (3:12pm)

This week’s column is reviewed by Ron B.: 
You words are insulting,you are an ugly bespectacled fat man. the need to drop the poofter line twice shows your to stupid to come up with an other analagy to make your point. Fortunately things have changed since 1973. Being called a poofter has the same feeling as being black prick,or a stupid ugly fat bespectacled prick. 
That’s me told. Click around for previous column reviews.

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HOST SURVIVES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (3:08pm)

Prior to Monday’s David Koch breastfeeding frenzy
A Seven spokeswoman said the station had security measures in place and police on standby to deal with up to 800 women, many of whom plan to feed their babies, expected at its Sydney studio. 
They had police on standby to protect a morning TV host from breastfeeding women? Interestingpriorities we’ve got in Sydney. Luckily, a bloody siege was avoided: 
About 100 breastfeeding mums are in a “nurse-in” rally outside Channel 7 studios. 
Local Ellen Degeneres fans outnumber the fuming feeders 10 to one.

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PEACE PADDLERS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (1:53pm)

Perth folk are scared of shark attacks. They’re sharkist.  But Rob and Cam will turn those views around: 
In an attempt to allay their fears, a couple of local surfers called Rob Mayberry and Cam Avery have created a community event to be held on Sunday, February 10. They, along with anyone who wishes to join them will paddle from Cottesloe to Scarborough. The event is called thePeaceful Paddle (Against Shark Culling). 
Do hit that link, where a touching display of human-shark solidarity may be seen.

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THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED … SOMETHING

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (1:15pm)

The world’s greatest orator stumbles over a key word:



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THE MIRACLE OF FLIGHT

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 22, 2013 (12:53pm)

Leonardo DiCaprio aims to rescue the planet
In an interview with Germany’s mass circulation daily Bild, the 38-year-old American actor said: “I am a bit drained. I’m now going to take a long, long break. I’ve done three films in two years and I’m just worn out.’’
“I would like to improve the world a bit. I will fly around the world doing good for the environment,’’ added DiCaprio, in comments published in German. 
To the airports, fellow activists!

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Global wail

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(5:33pm)

So a collective of journalists more sensitive than I, each a Leftist of the standard ABC/Fairfax paradigm, start an “independent" on-line newspaper that is actually funded by the biggest Greens donor - immediately putting in question their understanding of plain English.
The results are predictably boring, but as Leftists the team should at least be expected (by the naive, at least) to be caring, sharing and free of such ugly vices as nepotism.  Not like us knuckle-dragging conservatives and “shock jocks”.
PS: Will more Leftist journalists, of whom there are so very many, now finally understand at least part of the conservative argument against the vast expanse of the ABC, especially into on-line publication?
How can commercial news organsations - from Fairfax to the Global Mail - compete with the free product of a huge state enterprise which is in direct competition? At this rate the battle for readers and listeners will soon narrow to, essentially, News Ltd and Macquarie Radio against the state-backed ABC. Freedom against authority.
That strikes me as very, very unhealthy.

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Green spin costs Rio Tinto first, us next

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(4:54pm)

After it finalises its accounts for the 2012 year, Rio will have written off an astonishing $US30 billion ... of the $US42 billion it paid to buy aluminium group Alcan in those heady pre-GFC days of 2008…
But a critical, arguably the core, component of the choice of Alcan - and the price Rio was prepared to pay - was ‘the logic’ of power generation in a carbon-constrained world of the 21st century.
Aluminium is said to be a form of congealed electricity… Alcoa’s smelter at Portland consumes something like 20 per cent of all of Victoria’s power each year.
Well, the key appeal of Alcan to Rio was that much of the power for its North American smelters came from the Canadian Quebec hydro-electricity system…
This in the eyes of Rio would give Alcan’s smelters a powerful and irresistible competitive advantage. Especially over those getting their power from, gasp, coal-fired power stations.
Why? Because the price of power to all its competitors would rise ...  as the world, in those pervasively inane words, “put a price on carbon;” and further, relentlessly kept raising it.
In particular, China would see the light, and close all its inefficient small aluminium smelters fed from ... coal-fired power stations.
Wasn’t China leading the way on moving to renewable energy; closing coal-fired power station after power station? Didn’t Julia and Greg keep telling us so?
In fact China did not, and ... kept most of those inefficient aluminium smelters chugging along.
Which destroyed the point of the Rio investment. And exposed Julia Gillard’s mendacious spin:
Appearing on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Ms Gillard argued the rest of the world was moving on combating climate change. “There’s this image that somehow we’re the only ones - simply not true,” she said.
“You know, China [is] closing down a dirty coal-fired power generation facility at the rate of one every one or two weeks. Putting up a wind turbine at the rate of one every hour. They set their own targets by 2020 of reducing carbon pollution by 40 to 45 per cent per unit of GDP,” Ms Gillard said.
Meanwhile, more Labor warming spin unravels - this time in Europe:
Europe’s carbon market fell to new record lows on Monday as European Union emissions permits dropped below 5 euros [$6.33] before regaining some lost ground after a successful EU auction of 3.5 million permits.
Ouch. Remember how Labor set Australia’s price at $23 a tonne, insisting we weren’t ahead of the pack?
The mismatch in prices last year drove the Gillard Government to announce a link to the European scheme from 2015 - but if the price of our carbon dioxide permits is allowed to fall to these European prices, what earthly incentive will there be for business to switch to “cleaner” power and processes?
As environment scientist Dr. Roger Piekle Jr.  says: 
Except,of course, the Gillard Government is paying poorer households compensation for - and paid for by - a $23 a tonne tax, which may soon fall to a fraction of that, leaving a huge funding gap. And a budget blown even further.
But Labor keeps frantically spinning that all is well. Forget reality. Here is Climate Change Minister Greg Combet last August:
He was asked if the government would face a budget shortfall, in contrast to the $9.4 billion of revenue it had predicted the floating price would generate in the 2015/16 budget.
“It is three years away and the Treasury modelling is something that we stand by,” Mr Combet said.
“We stand by the budget as it was announced in May.”
Well, Labor hasn’t since stood by that Budget. In December, just before Christmas, it snuck out an admission that the long-promised surplus would not be delivered. And worse is to come. Combet’s forecasts for the future carbon price are as worthless as Labor’s promises were of a surplus this year.
Green spin. Red ink. An ocean of it. Enough to drown us, with Rio already gurgling for air.

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Gillard dumps Labor Senator for not being black

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(3:03pm)

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PRIME Minister Julia Gillard faces a fight to get former Olympian Nova Peris into the Senate, with current NT Senator Trish Crossin speaking out against the decision to replace her.
Ms Peris will stand for Labor at the upcoming election, with Julia Gillard declaring the party needs an indigenous representative in the Federal Parliament…
The Prime Minister personally selected the Aboriginal athlete for preselection as a senate candidate in the NT in a decision that has upset Labor’s serving senator, Trish Crossin.
Ms Gillard said she had engaged “in a captain’s pick’’ in endorsing the Olympic hockey gold medallist over Senator Crossin…
“There has never been an indigenous Australian who has served as a federal Labor representative,’’ she said.
“I’m determined that at the 2013 election we change that.’’
Let’s be clear. Gillard has given no reason for replacing Crossin with Peris other than that Peris is Aboriginal - and Crossin is not.
Nothing has been said about Crossin being less talented, less hard-working, less loyal. The public explanation for the move is entirely about Nova being of one “race” - and Crossin not.
The Australian Human Rights Commission is normally red hot against this kind of discrimination, and says there is a law against it:
This Act makes it against the law to treat you unfairly, or to discriminate against you, on the grounds of race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, and immigration status…
The Act gives effect to Australia’s obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which Australia is committed.
It explains:
The Racial Discrimination Act covers situations where you feel that, because of your race, you have been:
refused employment
dismissed
(1) It is unlawful for an employer or a person acting or purporting to act on behalf of an employer:…
(c) to dismiss a second person from his or her employment;
by reason of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of that second person or of any relative or associate of that second person.
(2) It is unlawful for a person concerned with procuring employment for other persons or procuring employees for any employer to treat any person seeking employment less favourably than other persons in the same circumstances by reason of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the person so seeking employment or of any relative or associate of that person.
True, the act has a loophole to permit “good” racial discrimination, but it would be arguable that it should not apply in this case, given that Peris may not necessarily advance the cause of a “group”, and that as an individual she has not been given “equal” rights to Crossin but superior: 
4.  Special measures taken for the sole purpose of securing adequate advancement of certain racial or ethnic groups or individuals requiring such protection as may be necessary in order to ensure such groups or individuals equal enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms shall not be deemed racial discrimination, provided, however, that such measures do not, as a consequence, lead to the maintenance of separate rights for different racial groups and that they shall not be continued after the objectives for which they were taken have been achieved.
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And here is an odd thing. Gillard last year actually campaigned against picking a far more qualified Aborigine for a Senate spot - when there was actually a vacant spot that she could fill without actually having to dump someone for not being Aboriginal themselves:
Former ALP president and Bandjalung man, Warren Mundine is putting on a brave face after being denied the opportunity to become the first Aboriginal federal Labor politician.
Mr Mundine has congratulated former NSW premier Bob Carr on his nomination to the vacant Senate position - after Mark Arbib, who held the Indigenous Employment portfolio till taken over by Julie Collins in the previous ministerial reshuffle, dramatically resigned on the same day Prime Minister Julia Gillard out-balloted Kevin Rudd, 71-31 to hold on to the leadership of the ALP and the prime minister-ship.
When the Senate position became vacant Mr Mundine declared himself available to fill the position and it is understood he and his supporters lobbied strongly.
When the Senate position became vacant a parliamentary source told the National Indigenous Times that Prime Minister Gillard lobbied for Mr Carr to fill the Senate vacancy and lobbied for Mr Carr to be offered the ministerial portfolio of Foreign Minister. This was immediately refuted by the Office of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister who publicly said “this is not true”.
In fact Gillard lied. And the reason she put Carr in as Minister for Foreign Affairs was purely for self -survival - to fend off Kevin Rudd. 
UPDATE
In fact, Crossin was more qualified than Peris for the job by virtue of the fact that Peris is not even a member of the Labor Party:
Mundine, on the other hand, was a former national president of the Labor party.  But, then again, he was also a man. Was he the victim of sexual discrimination?

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Johnson dares doubt warmists

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(7:49am)

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Very, very few senior politicians dare to challenge the global warming “consensus” - even now, after 16 years of no warming. It seems political suicide to challenge the latest faith of the cultural elite. Ask Tony Abbott.
One exception has been Czech President Vaclav Klaus. But now comes another, London mayor Boris Johnston, seen as a future contender for leadership of Britain’s Conservative Party. What’s important is not so much the argument he puts, but that he dares to put it: 
I remember snow that used to come and settle for just long enough for a single decent snowball fight before turning to slush; I don’t remember winters like this. Two days ago I was cycling through Trafalgar Square and saw icicles on the traffic lights; and though I am sure plenty of readers will say I am just unobservant, I don’t think I have seen that before. I am all for theories about climate change, and would not for a moment dispute the wisdom or good intentions of the vast majority of scientists.
But I am also an empiricist; and I observe that something appears to be up with our winter weather, and to call it “warming” is obviously to strain the language....I wish I knew more about what is going on, and why. It is time to consult once again the learned astrophysicist, Piers Corbyn…

When the solar acne diminishes, it seems that the Earth gets colder. No one contests that when the planet palpably cooled from 1645 to 1715 — the Maunder minimum, which saw the freezing of the Thames — there was a diminution of solar activity. The same point is made about the so-called Dalton minimum, from 1790 to 1830. And it is the view of Piers Corbyn that we are now seeing exactly the same phenomenon today…
“There is every indication that we are at the beginning of a mini ice age,” he says. “The general decline in solar activity is lower than Nasa’s lowest prediction of five years ago. That could be very bad news for our climate. We are in for a prolonged cold period. Indeed, we could have 30 years of general cooling."…
I am speaking only as a layman who observes that there is plenty of snow in our winters these days, and who wonders whether it might be time for government to start taking seriously the possibility — however remote — that Corbyn is right… I look at the snowy waste outside, and I have an open mind.
Again, the significance here lies not so much in the argument. After all, there is a lot of debate about solar activity and its effect on the climate. Nor is Corbyn the fount of all climate wisdom.
But what cannot be seriously disputed is that the world certainly isn’t warming as many alarmists predicted. Nor has snow stopped falling as Britain’s warmist Climatic Research Unit notoriously predicted in 2000.
Johnson is therefore right. It is now proper for senior politicians to keep an open mind on global warming, and especially when deciding whether to spend billions to “stop” it. 
(Thanks to reader John.)

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Gillard’s attack on free speech alarms even human rights commissars

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(7:12am)

If the Gillard Government’s attack on free speech goes too far even for Human Rights Commission.president Gillian Triggs it is obscene and dangerous indeed: 
Last year, there was strong public objection to a racial vilification case brought against the journalist Andrew Bolt under the present Racial Discrimination Act on the grounds that his article was “reasonably likely to offend, insult . . .” another person and could not be justified as fair comment. Many people considered a test of “offend or insult” too low a threshold.
The controversial aspect of the exposure bill is that it retains the present provision on racial vilification while adding a new provision that unlawful discrimination can include conduct that offends and insults on a number of other grounds, including industrial activity, pregnancy and sexual orientation. This new and enlarged provision is not subject to the objective test of reasonableness, fuelling fears that it will have a chilling effect on the fundamental right to freedom of speech.
Understandably, calls for the Senate committee to delete this provision are loud and, indeed, it might be wise to amend the bill, so far as it applies to acts that offend or insult, if only to preserve the valuable reforms that the rest of the bill will provide.
The Australian warns:
Now constitutional law experts suggest ... that by extending the application of the laws to “any area of public life”, we could see extensive interpretation across all aspects of everyday life, from workplace disagreements to sporting field arguments. This appears to be a lawyers’ banquet and another unwanted intrusion into areas that should be governed by common sense and community standards.
And where’s the evidence there is even a problem that needs fixing by this censorious government?

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Boat arrivals slow

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(6:59am)

Some evidence that Labor has slowed the boat arrivals it so recklessly invited by weakening our border laws in 2008:
SEVERE monsoons in waters north of Australia have blunted the influx of asylum-seeker boats, but the drop in arrivals has also raised hopes the offshore-processing regime and forced returns to Sri Lanka might be having an impact.
With 10 days left in January, 188 asylum-seekers have arrived on boats in Australian waters, compared with more than 300 last January. There were a record 17,202 arrivals by boat last year.
But some perspective:  the 188 people who have turned up in the past three weeks is already more than half the 288 people who arrived in the last six years of the Howard Government. And nothing will bring back the nearly 1000 people who were lured to their deaths under Labor.
And consider last year’s arrivals. They exceeded Australia’s entire refugee quota for the year.

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Obama prays to the voters

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(6:39am)

President Barack Obama attends church - as all US presidents seem almost obliged to do.
But is his mind truly on God?  Or on voters?
Yesterday, he and his family attended St. John’s, a church near the White House. And yesterday he also tweet this: 
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The president and his family arrived at St. John’s at 8:35 am EST.
The service ended at 9:39.
BO tweeted at 9:25.
UPDATE
As it turns out, the church service was actually a political rally, thanks to a pastor who identified Republicans as “enemies”: 
At Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Braxton reportedly crafted his speech around Obama’s personal political slogan: “Forward!”
Obama, said Braxton, was just like Moses facing the Red Sea: “forward is the only option … The people couldn’t turn around. The only thing that they could do was to go forward.” Obama, said Braxton, would have to overcome all obstacles – like opposition from Republicans, presumably, or the bounds of the Constitution. Braxton continued, “Mr. President, stand on the rock,” citing to Moses standing on Mount Horeb as his people camped outside the land of Israel.
But it wasn’t enough to compare Obama with the founder of Judaism and the prophet of the Bible. Braxton added that Obama’s opponents were like the Biblical enemies of Moses, and that Obama would have to enter the battle because “sometimes enemies insist on doing it the hard way.”
The service ended with the pastor leading the crowd in a chant of “Forward.” Really.

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Algerian toll: 37 hostages dead, seven missing

Andrew BoltJANUARY222013(6:21am)

The latest body-count from the Algerian attack by Islamists with an odd way of demonstrating their faith:
THIRTY-SEVEN foreigners of eight different nationalities, as well as an Algerian, were killed by hostage-takers in a well-planned attack on a remote gas plant, some of them brutally executed.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal… did not specify the nationalities of the foreigners, but other official sources have confirmed one Frenchman, one American, two Romanians, three Britons, six Filipinos and seven Japanese died in the siege…
Five Norwegian nationals remain unaccounted for, while Malaysian authorities say they have had no news about two of their nationals.
Add the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, the Islamist takeover of big parts of Mali, the Muslim Brotherhood’s takeover of Egypt, the military-Islamist alliance controlling Sudan, the brutal Muslim-Christian conflict in Nigeria and more, and Northern Africa suddenly seems on the brink again of very serious trouble. Militant Islam is still a threat to the West.
UPDATE
The US disputes the figures:
THE United States has confirmed three of its citizens were among the foreign workers who died last week in an attack by Islamist hostage-takers on an Algerian gas plant.
A group of dissident Eritrean soldiers have laid siege to the information ministry and forced the state media to announce a call for the release of political prisoners, according to a senior Eritrean intelligence official…
The UN last year estimated that 5-10,000 political prisoners were being held in the secretive Horn of Africa country, which is accused by human rights groups of carrying out torture and summary executions…
The UN Security Council imposed an embargo on Eritrea in 2009 over concerns its government was funding and arming al-Shabaab rebels in neighbouring Somalia - charges Eritrea denied.
The UK prime minister said on Sunday that the growing threat of Islamist militants in the Sahel region of Africa required “a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months”.
More video
He compared the situation with that in Afghanistan, saying: “What we face is an extremist, Islamist, violent al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, just as we had to deal with in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
UPDATE
Speaking of interventions in Muslim lands, Gerard Henderson notes the conservative George Bush was vilified by the Left for sending troops to topple the Islamist regime in Afghanistan and the genocidal Saddam Hussein in Iraq, but the Socialist president of France is now a hero for sending troops to fight Islamists in Mali:
The fashionable left-wing view of former president George W. Bush is he invaded Muslim lands and instituted draconian national security legislation… According to the leftist line, all this was a manifestation of a world view labelled neo-conservatism…
A week ago, Francois Hollande, the Socialist president, committed military forces to Mali to assist the government there to resist an insurgency from rebels in the north…
Why? Well, France is concerned Mali could become a base for the organisation called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to launch attacks on Europe… In short, Hollande is worried Mali could become what Afghanistan was before the Allied invasion and the overthrow of the Taliban regime…
At the weekend, heavily armed members of the French army were patrolling the streets of Paris… Only last year, Mohamed Merah, who claimed to be an al-Qaeda operative, murdered three French paratroopers of Muslim north African background before attacking a Jewish school in Toulouse and murdering a teacher and three young children.
It may just be me, but the anti-war movement seems to have been a little slow off the mark when it comes to France’s latest bout of international adventurism. Seamus Milne has been strangely silent. A search of Google uncovers no condemnation from venerable anti-imperialist John Pilger. Even George Monbiot doesn’t yet appear to have found a pipeline with which to explain and expose Hollande’s true motives.
Those perfidious French. Just when you think you’ve got international military interventionism pinned down as the preserve of the reactionary Right, up pops the great white hope of European socialism ... to queer the pitch. Or, in this case, deploy 2,500 troops, tanks and fighter jets…
There are two ways of looking at all this. One is the cynical, “the anti-war Left are just a bunch of hypocrites” attitude. And believe me, it has its attractions. If it was George W Bush’s aircraft currently strafing what Hollande’s government is calling “Islamist extremists”, we all know what the response would be.
But perhaps we should address this from the other side. Perhaps, thanks to the firm action from progressives like Hollande, the tide is finally starting to turn against the kneejerk pacifists.

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I cannot remember ever a Liberal leader unilaterally dumping a colleague for someone who wasn't even in the Party. JG hates her own party. Joe Hockey  Hate is too strong a word. Gillard is nasty, manipulative and cunning. I am sure it isn't personal. - ed
Gee now rank and file members of ALP lose right to vote because of JGs knife just like Caucus with Kevin. ALP has no spine left. - Joe Hockey
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Credit to Nova for stupidly referring to the situations' enormity. The word enormity means "Monstrous wrong" .. not a direct reference to substantive size.
Most Territorians will have a wry and cynical grin on their faces at Gillard's latest "announcement" (some may see it as her latest stunt) that she is installing Nova Peris as Labor's Number 1 Senate candidate for this year's federal election. Of course Nova has some Aboriginal blood.And in today's crazy world where every drop of Aboriginal blood is like liquid gold, Nova is obviously seen in southern quarters as a good catch for the Labor Party. Of course, here in Darwin, where many people know Nova, or know of her, there is just the usual feeling of "just another token blackfella" being handed a job they would have never have got without their darker skin. Many in hockey circles claim she was a token blackfella in that gold-medal-winning Olympic side. And of course, most Territorians know that Nova is not very bright, and has never been known as a person with a strong political philosophy, or even someone who has a say about "matters political". Trish Crossin is of course from the left, like Gillard. But she is a Rudd backer. I guess that was more than enough for "Captain Gillard" to make a "Captain's Call". One wonders whether Senator Nova Peris will end up being an asset, or liability for the Gillard Labor Socialist Wreckers? Me thinks the latter.

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A DEMOCRATIC VOTE OF ONE - Larry Pickering

Julia Gillard is showing her totalitarian slip. And it’s not pretty. 

Nominating someone (Carr) unelected to a Senate vacancy is one thing, but killing a sitting Senate Member is not and Julia may well find she has a battle on her hands, even a serious risk of being rolled on this one. And this is why:

Constitutionally the Senate is there solely to represent the States and Territories.

Twelve Senators are elected from each State and two from each of our territories. All are elected for a six-year term with half the Senate going to the polls each three years, usually aligned with a general election.

The Constitution provided our Senate (States’ House) to protect us from the vulgar excesses of Federal centrists like Julia Gillard, who has expressed her dislike for State Premiers, particularly of late.

The Senate is a House of Review and, in the Westminster tradition, represents its House of Lords.

The unelected aristocracy (House of Lords) was there to oversee and, if deemed necessary, return Bills to the House of Representatives with amendments if the proposed legislation wasn’t in the interests of the people.

A sort of safety valve against the type of dangerous idiocy we sustained in 1975 when the Senate performed its intended role.

Of Course Gillard wants to recapture the Aboriginal vote lost at the latest NT elections, but she will only raise the ire of ALP Whites and Aborigines by rendering their democratic pre-selection process null and void.

Trish Crossin, sitting ALP Senator, was elected in 1998 and on all indications has done an excellent job in the hotbed of Northern Territory multicultural politics. She has lived there for over 30 years and she has represented the Territory with a genuine love for it and its people.

Although she may make an excellent Senator, the twice divorced Nova Peris has no knowledge of NT politics and is not a member of any party. Julia Gillard’s invitation to join the Labor party and take the number one position on the Senate ticket, is opportunism at its worst, an affront to the sitting Member and displays a vulgar disrespect for the NT Labor Party. But that’s Julia Gillard.

If she is looking to rebuild the ALP grass roots membership she had better rethink this inane form of reverse racism because it flies in the face of all that’s fair and all we stand for.

It is contrary to the very legislation she is now proposing.

Australians who were born here, treasure our democratic process.

Gillard craps on it!

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Peter Collier
combined with a minimum level of literacy and numeracy. Our fundamental role as a government is to provide the framework in our education system to ensure that all of our students are adequately prepared to meet the challenges of their post compulsory schooling. The reforms that I announced yesterday will definitely provide these foundations.>
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שאתי הבוקר בכותל תפילה לשלום המדינה וחיילי צבא ההגנה לישראל: 

''מִי שֶׁבֵּרַךְ אֲבותֵינוּ אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקב הוּא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת חַיָּלֵי צְבָא הֲגַנָּה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, הָעומְדִים עַל מִשְׁמַר אַרְצֵנוּ וְעָרֵי אֱלהֵינוּ מִגְּבוּל הַלְּבָנון וְעַד מִדְבַּר מִצְרַיִם וּמִן הַיָּם הַגָּדול עַד לְבוא הָעֲרָבָה בַּיַּבָּשָׁה בָּאֲוִיר וּבַיָּם. 

יִתֵּן ה' אֶת אויְבֵינוּ הַקָּמִים עָלֵינוּ נִגָּפִים לִפְנֵיהֶם. הַקָּדושׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא יִשְׁמר וְיַצִּיל אֶת חַיָלֵינוּ מִכָּל צָרָה וְצוּקָה וּמִכָּל נֶגַע וּמַחְלָה וְיִשְׁלַח בְּרָכָה וְהַצְלָחָה בְּכָל מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵיהֶם. יַדְבֵּר שׂונְאֵינוּ תַּחְתֵּיהֶם וִיעַטְרֵם בְּכֶתֶר יְשׁוּעָה וּבְעֲטֶרֶת נִצָּחון.

וִיקֻיַּם בָּהֶם הַכָּתוּב: כִּי ה' אֱלהֵיכֶם הַהלֵךְ עִמָּכֶם לְהִלָּחֵם לָכֶם עִם איבֵיכֶם לְהושִׁיעַ אֶתְכֶם: וְנאמַר אָמֵן''

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This burnt car doesnt belong here at Orpha School Creek does it? - Zaya Toma
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יקרתי הבוקר בכותל המערבי בירושלים בירת ישראל המאוחדת לנצח. 

אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני!

Jerusalem, the united capital of Israel
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Thanks to Brisbane City Childcare Centre for hosting Teresa Gambaro and myself this morning - our plans will help families get ahead.
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The "Dumbbell nebula," which was discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier, pumps out infrared light in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. http://oak.ctx.ly/r/1ytf
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James Francis Hurley was born at Glebe, Sydney, in 1885 and became interested in photography as a young man. He began his career with a Sydney postcard company at the age of 20 in 1905.

Hurley grew to regard photography as a medium that could be manipulated to achieve a desired effect and he began to follow the well-established practice of making composite prints by combining two or more negatives to make an image. He was also a proponent of colour photography. An inveterate traveller, Hurley was on one of his six trips to the Antarctic; the famous Shackleton expedition of 1914-16, when the First World War began. In 1917, he became one of the AIF's official photographers with the honorary rank of captain.

Some of Hurley's most famous images of the war were taken during the Passchendaele campaign in the second half of 1917. He ran considerable risks to get his shots, earning the name 'the mad photographer' from the troops. War affected Hurley deeply but he also found the battlefield fascinating.

A self-described "showman", Hurley had spent years producing popular attractions using the latest photographic and film techniques, and he was confident that he knew which images would engage the public's imagination. His methods, particularly his use of composites, led to arguments with the influential Charles Bean and, at one stage, Hurley threatened to resign rather than give up the practice. A compromise was reached, but in late 1917, Hurley was sent to Palestine.

He took many well-known images of the Australian Light Horse and the Australian Flying Corps, finding the relative peace there in stark contrast to what he called 'the hell of France'. He stayed just six weeks, then went to Cairo where he met Antoinette Leighton. They married on 11 April 1918 and Hurley returned to London to work on an exhibition of Australian war photography.

After the war, Hurley made further trips to the Antarctic, and to the Torres Strait and New Guinea. He flew with Ross Smith, returned to Europe on several occasions and visited the United States. Many of his photographic and film projects received both critical acclaim and commercial success. For much of the 1930s he worked in Sydney for Cinesound, but in 1940 Hurley resumed war photography with the AIF in the Middle East. His work was, however, overshadowed by that of younger men like Damien Parer and George Silk, who found Hurley's methods outdated. He remained in the Middle East until 1946.

For the rest of his life, Hurley continued travelling and taking photographs, publishing several books of his work. Always a loner, Hurley nevertheless influenced later generations of photographers, and his work - taken all over the world over almost six decades - remains very much in the public eye. He died in Sydney in 1962.

Image: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01184.019

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Flow effortlessly and super-naturally in the gifts of the Holy Spirit! Join Joseph Prince in part one of this exciting message preached at a servers' camp for New Creation Church, Singapore. Uncover what the nine gifts are and be encouraged to know that every believer can operate in these grace gifts. Whether it is your family, ministry or work, this message will stir your faith and help you to minister and operate in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Get the full message at:
JosephPrince.com - http://bit.ly/R62D0V
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For TMN
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HOW RICHO & RIVKIN WERE SPRUNG - Larry Pickering

ASIC knew the proceeds from the Alpine Offset insurance scam were in Swiss Bank accounts but they couldn’t prove it. Numbered accounts were impenetrable to access. Richo, Rivkin and, Trevor Kennedy were safe. Until an incredible train of events occurred and, as usual, Rivkin handled it woefully. 

There were two Swiss banks, Leumi and EBC that held 38.5% of the $53 million insurance payout on the Offset Alpine fire. Richo had regularly withdrawn large sums, distributing that money to odd banks around the world. But something unusual was about to occur that would shatter the boys’ plans.

Groups of Swiss accounts are held by a nominee director who remains responsible for the funds. Unless other arrangements are made, this director’s permission is required to withdraw funds. The Offset Alpine funds were appointed a Mr Ernst Imfeld who decided, without permission, to invest the money on Forex, make a profit and return the principal, keeping the excess for himself.

Ernst Imfeld was a pudgy, overweight crook, he had already been sacked from Credit Suisse Group for embezzlement of $300 million and was once more in charge of millions of others’ money.

That would have been fine except that crooks invariably make crook investments and Rivkin was astonished to see the amount in his account varying wildly. (In one week there was a curious extra million Euros in his account.)

It was obvious someone was shifting funds between accounts, temporarily, to cover losses.

Rivkin phoned the bank and the bank asked Imfeld for an explanation. His explanation to the bank was that he was acting under Rivkin’s instructions.

Rivkin of course knew nothing about any trading on his account and immediately phoned Imfeld himself. Imfeld pleaded with him to say that he had his (Rivkin’s) authority to trade.
“Why would I do that?” asked Rivkin. “Because”, said Imfeld, “If you don’t, I will go down and I will fucking take you with me.”

Rivkin simply laughed, hung up the phone and caught a plane to Zurich.

Rivkin was seated when executives of the bank hauled Imfeld into the boardroom.

Rivkin then categorically denied he gave any authority to trade his money.

Ernst Imfeld was sacked.

But he had all the bank documents and had been carefully following Rivkin's denials to the Australian authorities that he, Richardson and Kennedy were the owners of the secret accounts

With measured retaliation, Imfeld quickly searched the names of finance journals in Australia. He settled on the “Australian Financial Review”.

A week later at 2am the AFR fax machine started spitting out private Swiss bank account details... emails, instructions, account numbers, names and addresses, everything!

Hundreds of documents had tumbled from the fax to the floor by the time staff arrived.

It was all in German but they immediately recognised the name Rene Rivkin and a bank.

Before the translation was complete they knew they were on to something big.

A senior AFR journalist, Andrew Main, (now with The Australian) began to unpick the Offset Alpine insurance scam in all its gory glory. From memory he received a Walkely Award for the story.

Kennedy and Richo were furious with Rivkin for not playing ball with Imfeld. This was not the first time Rivkin had stuffed up. It was the end of a long friendship between him and Kennedy, and Richo wasn’t happy at all... he now had to settle with the ATO for almost a million dollars.

ASIC’s eight long years of trying to penetrate those Swiss accounts were over. They had all the evidence they needed right there within the pages of the Australian Financial Review. And that evidence discounted everything that Rivkin had told the courts.

Among those said to have benefited from the Offset Alpine alleged arson were Channel Nine’s Sam Chisolm, Ray Martin and his wife and Governor-General Bill Hayden. There were many others in the know who didn’t take the perilous Swiss option.

No definite cause of the fire has ever been established, mainly because Adler’s FAI Insurance Company was in charge of its own investigation into insurance fraud. Adler had purchased 9% of the Company’s shares two days before the fire.

Inquiries to the ‘Fire Investigation Unit’ of the NSW Fire Service reveal they are under instructions not to release any documents concerning the case to the public.

It appears someone important is at risk and that same “someone” is important enough to be able to suppress what should be on the public record.

Rivkin, who had already been convicted of insider trading, had now clearly perjured himself. He never regained his Midas touch.

The rest is ugly history.

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Photo: Fun, fun & little fun

See More on www.littlefun.org

Little Fun <--- Also like this page
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Civility: Paul Ryan booed at President Obama’s inaugural celebration ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/01/21/civility-paul-ryan-booed-at-president-obamas-inaugural-celebration/
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We are more than conquerors, not through our love for God, but through Christ who loves us (Rom 8:37)! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/UBDzfo
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for January 21st. Enjoy!

From the Blog

MLK’s unfinished legacy and the fight for school choice

In so many ways, the dream is still far from reality...

Hello Kitty bubble gunfight at the PC Corral

On the heels of a recent spate of school “finger gun” suspensions, a five year old girl was suspended from kindergarten for something slightly different...

Obama and Biden sworn in for 2nd term; now officially inheriting problems from themselves

The glass is half full way to look at it is that starting tomorrow the Obama presidency will be more than half over...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Featured Video

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Take a look at this short, not-so-sweet video from ReasonTV: President Obama evidently wasn't listening to himself when he spoke at his last inauguration.

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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This pig has his own internet radio show. If that tweet is any indication, the show's exceedingly popular with the ladies. Gross.

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