Sunday, September 29, 2013

Sun Sep 29th Todays News

Bob Hawke tells an off colour joke. It reminds people of ALP glory days. Only those days weren't very good, and today it is worse. In the glory days of Hawke/Keating, changes were made to the economy which benefited Australia which had bipartisan support. The preceding Liberal PM, Fraser, had been small 'L' liberal and had resisted necessary change. Kudos go to the ALP in floating the dollar and deregulating the financial system. To this day, Fraser still supports the ALP over conservative party policy. Hawke, addressing the UN, told a joke about Mother Teresa and India. His humour crosses boundaries. However, Hawke had no substance to his narrative. Speaking to the Chinese Premier in the wake of the slaughter of democracy protesting students at Tiananmen Square Hawke asked the Premier if he might allow some dissidents to leave China rather than punitively treating them. Whereupon the Premier asked "How many millions do you want?" Hawke later said he hadn't realised the problem was so bad. But the truth is socialist/communist governments degenerate into tyranny.
A recent example of how bad a leftist government can be to hang onto power, is the ALP's attempt to control the media. It was a laughable attempt, as the media are largely theirs anyway. But other sinister examples can be found in Italy and Thailand where billionaire conservative leaders have apparently been stitched up by corruption. That isn't to oppose the rule of law, Greek Fascists should be jailed for their crimes. Having an opinion does not endorse corruption or murder.
Fascism has a way of crossing boundaries. The way fascism has corrupted science under the guise of environmentalism is appalling. Similarly, Islam looks really ugly because of the supremacy of its' fascist elements. In Australia, minor parties like the Democrats and the Greens have been vaporised after they surrendered their independence to the ALP. But the far right parties like One Nation never achieve anything worthwhile.
BTW Hawthorn are 2013 AFL champions .. I made this last year ..

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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Wilson Chu , Diana Ong , Anniemal Nguyen  and An Hoai . Born on the same day, across the years, along with
106 BCE – Pompey, Roman general and politician (d. 48 BC)

1511 – Michael Servetus, Spanish theologian, physician, and cartographer (d. 1553)
1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (d. 1616)
1571 – Caravaggio, Italian painter (d. 1610)
1758 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, English admiral (d. 1805)
1842 – Louis J. Weichmann, American clerk, witness in the trial of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1902)
1899 – László Bíró, Hungarian inventor, invented the ballpoint pen (d. 1985)
1901 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
1907 – Gene Autry, American singer and actor (d. 1998)
1910 – Bill Boyd, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
1934 – Lance Gibbs, Guyanese cricketer
1936 – Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, 50th Prime Minister of Italy
1946 – Ian Wallace, English drummer (King Crimson and Crimson Jazz Trio) (d. 2007)
Matches
522 BCE – Darius I of Persia kills the Magian usurper Gaumâta, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire.
480 BCE – Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I.
61 BCE – Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.
1227 – Frederick IIHoly Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades.
1567 – At a dinner, the Duke of Alba arrests the Count of Egmont and the Count of Hoorn for treason.
1650 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters in Threadneedle StreetLondon.
1829 – The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded.
1885 – The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in BlackpoolEngland.
1923 – The British Mandate for Palestine takes effect, creating Mandatory Palestine.
1938 – Munich Agreement: Germany is given permission from France, Italy, and Great Britain to seize the territory of Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The meeting takes place in Munich, and leaders from neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia attend.
1941 – World War IIHolocaust in KievSoviet UnionGerman Einsatzgruppe C begins the Babi Yar massacre, according to the Einsatzgruppen operational situation report.
1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to set foot on Irish soil with his pastoral visit to the Republic of Ireland.
2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.
Despatches
855 – Lothair I, Roman emperor (b. 795)
1902 – William McGonagall, Scottish poet and actor (b. 1825)
1902 – Émile Zola, French writer (b. 1840)
1913 – Rudolf Diesel, German engineer, invented the Diesel Engine (b. 1858)
2006 – Walter Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1915)
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Hawke sets example- dumps political correctness

Piers Akerman – Sunday, September 29, 2013 (5:59am)

FORMER Prime Minister Bob Hawke broke up the audience when he cracked a politically incorrect joke at a luncheon commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of Australia II’s historic America’s Cup win Thursday.
That, serendipitously, the crowd was gathered just hours after an American boat sailed by Australian skipper James Spithill, from Sydney’s Pittwater, and manned by predominantly by Australians, had defeated a Kiwi yacht in the latest America’s Cup series, doubtless added to the overall success of the Sydney event.
Hawke, wearing a replica of the eye-hammering Australia jacket he had worn at the Royal Perth Yacht Club’s celebrations in 1983 when he famously declared that “any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum” let her rip with a story that would have had the prudes in today’s ALP wincing with feigned offence.
A Frenchman an Englishman and an Australian were slogging their way across the Andes, he said. “It’s about 45 bloody degrees,” he began, after describing how the trio had traversed an scorched alpine desert, “they look down. There’s this most beautiful, pristine lagoon. They go scrambling down ... and dive in ... The natives come and grab ‘em. Take ‘em to the chief. The chief says (and here Hawke slipped into broken English): ‘You have broken the sacred law. This our most sacred site. For this you die. When we kill you we take off skin. Out of skin make canoe. Put canoe on lake. Permanent reminder to all peoples. Never infringe on our most sacred site.’”
Naturally, the chief offers them a last request, and Hawke assumed a Pepe Le Pew accent and an upper class English drawl in which the Frenchman and Englishman asked for knives with which they killed themselves rather than die slowly and painfully.
“Then they go to the Aussie,” Hawke continued. “He says, ‘I want a fork.’ He proceeds to stab himself all over.
“‘There goes your f . . king canoe!’”
Former PM Bob Hawke declares ‘any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum’ after Australia won the America’s Cup thirty years ago. Courtesy: Channel Nine
The former prime minister brought the house down but the various commissions appointed to defend the rights and protect Australians from offence, from the Press Council to the Anti-Discrimination bodies could no doubt list the tedious rules he had broken.
He had mocked Africans (though what an African chief was doing near an Andean lake is a mystery), he had ridiculed the French and the British and he had sworn in a public place.
Yet no-one present seemed to think he was a silly old bugger.
Hawke reminded the guests of the enormous boost in national pride the capture of the elusive America’s Cup had triggered, and the shared glow that he had basked in even though Labor had been returned just six months earlier with the greatest number of seats (75) since John Curtin’s 1943 election.
Nothing lifted the nation as much as wresting the Cup after 132 years of US domination, and as Hawke said, most Australians were keener on cricket and various codes of football than sailing.
Hawke’s anecdotes (not the one about the canoe) pointedly reminded the guests what Australia has lost to political correctness over the past thirty years.
The nightmarish web of regulation imposed by the recent Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor governments and the attempts to muzzle the media and silence critics with harsh recourse to the “thought” courts, let alone the threats of recrimination made to business figures stifled debate.
Attacking from the Left, the taxpayer-funded ABC, the largest media organisation in Australia, has largely stifled conservative voices and permitted fringe activist groups to assume grossly overblown profiles totally at odds with their minuscule memberships.
The Labor Party itself, which has been captured by extremist activists and branch-stacking factional bosses, is only now making a half-hearted attempt to undergo some long overdue reform and pay lip-service to its shrunken rank-and-file membership.
The robust figures of Hawke’s day, people like former shearer Mick Young for example, have been replaced by pallid backroom assassins who work the numbers like stilettos.
Had any figure from the other side of politics told the same joke as Hawke it would have made front page news and whoever told it would have been publicly castigated with furious demands for apology being made by various self-declared guardians of public morality as well as those who are now paid to protect Australians from themselves.
And that’s before anyone had mentioned his use of the F-word, or the “F” bomb, as some writers described it.
The larrikin spirit, embodied in Hawke and the inspiration for such Aussie classics as Crocodile Dundee, doesn’t burn as brightly today as it did thirty years ago.
To his credit, Hawke insisted his remarks were non-partisan, and they were.
But the killjoys in the modern Labor Party are very political, and I suspect Hawke knows it and is concerned about the effect their political correctness is having on the spirit of the land he loves.

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Who is this “we”, Mr Marr?

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (9:31am)

David Marr on Insiders:
We lost two Labor leaders.

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How much truth is there really to this “scandal”?

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (9:11am)

This is a bad look - but is also a stitch-up of at least one of the two MPs:
Two of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s most high-profile ministers claimed thousands of dollars in taxpayer entitlements for attending the wedding of close friend and Sydney shock jock Michael Smith.
It was a little less than two years ago and Smith had just left 2UE after a falling out over his attempt to raise allegations about then prime minister Julia Gillard’s relationship with a former union official and the misappropriation of funds.
The shock jock did not have a best man. But two close friends spoke: George Brandis, then one of the Abbott opposition’s lead attack dogs and now Attorney-General, and deputy Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. Mr Joyce read a poem called Fair Dinkum Love. Senator Brandis made a bridal speech before dominating the dance floor.
According to travel expenses lodged with the Department of Finance, the duo collectively billed taxpayers nearly $3000 for flights, hire cars and incidental expenses incurred on the trip.
Senator Brandis claimed $1700, including more than $1000 on return flights, $143 on a hire car and the overnight ‘’official business’’ allowance designed to cover accommodation and incidentals.
He told Fairfax Media on Saturday that he regarded the wedding as a chance to ‘’foster collaboration’’ over Mr Smith’s work covering the then prime minister and the Craig Thomson scandal and it was therefore ‘’primarily a professional rather than a social engagement’’…
Mr Smith told Fairfax there were nearly 10 people working in the media at his wedding and the senators used it as a chance to network…
Senator Brandis later claimed $349 in ‘’official business’’ entitlements for overnight trips and designed to cover accommodation, meals and incidentals. Mr Joyce did not claim that entitlement.
Mr Joyce claimed a flight to Moree the next day and about $500 worth of charges for the use of a Commonwealth car on the day of the wedding.
It is a mitigating argument, although not flattering to Smith, that attending Smith’s wedding is sold as business, not pleasure - as is even suggested to some extent by Smith himself:
But those blokes were at my wedding in a representative role and they did not demur in any way from their paid elected role as prominent Federal Parliamentarians whose every action was being scrutinised and reported by the some of the large number of journalists who were present. 
To put it crudely, and at the risk of giving offence, I do suspect Brandis went for political reasons more than personal - although it will, of course, not seem that way to taxpayers. For that reason alone Brandis should probably not have claimed the expenses.
But Joyce is even more in the clear. As Michael Smith points out, he appeared that same day on my show - on my invitation - and that required him to fly to a Channel 10 studio, in this case in Sydney:
As Smith says:
On Sunday, 4 December last year Barnaby Joyce appeared to be questioned on The Bolt Report on Channel 10.  Channel 10 does not have a studio at St George in Queensland.  It’s hundreds of miles from any major centre.  What’s a Federal Parliamentarian supposed to do?  Refuse to appear?  Barnaby Joyce travelled to Sydney to appear on the program, working the weekend as usual and he put in other appointments as well - away from his family.  No extra pay for that by the way, but Fairfax would have him pay his travel costs out of his own pocket.
Indeed, as Smith says:
My wife and I paid for Senator Brandis and Senator Joyce’s car transfers to and from the wedding...
UPDATE
Bill Shorten was huffing on Insiders today about this. To jog his memory:
FRESH from being returned in a farcical leadership spill, Julia Gillard yesterday flew to northern NSW on a taxpayer funded VIP jet for a staffer’s wedding and several low key announcements.
Ms Gillard, along with Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Penny Wong, will today attend the Byron Bay wedding of her press secretary Laura Anderson and Mr Swan’s chief-of-staff Jim Chalmers.
Her office confirmed the PM flew to northern NSW on a RAAF VIP Challenger aircraft.
MPs are only entitled to use the RAAF special purpose flights for “commitments associated with their official responsibilities and other purposes including parliamentary business”.
UPDATE
Shouldn’t have been claimed, had to be repaid:
Attorney-General George Brandis has paid back almost $1700 claimed in parliamentary expenses to go to the wedding of a radio shock jock.
....in a subsequent letter to the Department of Finance he enclosed a cheque for $1683.06, saying while he considered that they were within parliamentary entitlements, he wanted to “resolve any uncertainty in favour of the taxpayer”.
“I considered that those costs were within parliamentary entitlements, since they were incurred in the course of attendance at a function primarily for work-related purposes. I remain of that view,” he wrote in the letter on Sunday.
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Bolt Report today - and it gets a bit heated

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (8:43am)

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On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm:

New senator David Leyonhjelm, Michael Kroger and Bruce Hawker, Kevin Rudd’s former campaign advisor.
We’ll be naming and shaming warming extremists and discussing the first boat-load of asylum seekers sent back to Indonesia.

The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
UPDATE
The transcript of my interview with the most impressive Senator-elect David Leyonhjelm:

THE BOLT REPORT
29 SEPTEMBER 2013
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID LEYONHJELM
ANDREW BOLT, PRESENTER: For six years we’ve had the two main parties in the middle, with the Greens pulling us all to the left – partly because they had the balance of power in the Senate. Well, this election has changed that. The latest Senate count suggests the balance of power will now be held by about eight Independents and microparties, most conservatives or libertarians. And I think they’ll change the conversation. One of those eight new Senators will be David Leyonhjelm, of the Liberal Democratic Party. David, thanks for joining me. How do you think the national conversation will change, when this new Senate starts work next July?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: Well, potentially quite a lot. Labor and the Greens won’t have the majority. The Liberal-National Government will require six out of the eight of us crossbenchers – minor parties – to agree with them, and I think, given a bit of goodwill and common sense and reasonable negotiation, there’s a fair chance they might get that.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, one interesting thing has been most climate sceptics in the Labor and Liberal Parties have had to keep schtum, for political reasons. The new Senate will have you, and Family First Senator Bob Day, who most certainly won’t shut up. What’s your position on global warming and the carbon tax? I know Bob Day is against both. What’s yours?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: We’re against the carbon tax. We’re also against the direct action plan. We – as a party, we don’t take a position on the science. It’s a scientific question, not a political question. But we are dead against the –
ANDREW BOLT: But you’ve got a personal position, though? Have you got a personal position on the science?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: Yeah, pretty similar to yours. I’m fairly dubious about it. But we don’t think the Government’s going to – is able to spend money and make a difference. Even if all the assumptions about climate change are accurate, and there really was a compelling case to do something about it, then what the Government is planning is not going to make any difference. And in fact, there’s really nothing Australia can do, until Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the United States all get involved. There’s – you know, Australia is a small country, and we shouldn’t forget that.
ANDREW BOLT: Another issue that’s really worried me – the last three years in particular, there’ve been so many moves to restrict our free speech, and even appoint a media watchdog – I can’t believe that’s state-backed – does this move disturb you?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: Oh, it’s very disturbing. There seems to be, in our political culture, if you like, an assumption that the Government has got a right to intrude into things like free speech. We’re libertarians in the Liberal Democrats. Our view is that
the Government is not our friend, it’s a threat to our freedom. And free speech is about as fundamental as you can get, in the freedom range. So we want the Government to get right out of that area. You have a right to say what you think, and you also have a right, obviously, to think what you want, and to say what you think. It’s a fundamental one. And obviously you were in the centre of one illustration of that, with the case involving the Racial Discrimination Act.
ANDREW BOLT: One of the ways that I think conversation has been stifled, or at least dragged away from, perhaps, its natural courses, is this great growth of the ABC and other organs of state-sponsored media. The ABC has got various TV stations and radio stations, an online newspaper, bookshops and more. As someone who values freedom, what do you think about this massive state-funded media?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: Well, there are several aspects of it. First of all, there’s the cost. It’s about $1 billion a year. Now, that $1 billion is our taxes. Now when you think about how much you could use that $1 billion on other things, or how many other things you could spend it on – or perhaps leave it in the pockets of the people who contributed it – that’s a pretty important question. It’s also, I think, fundamentally wrong for the Government to do things that they don’t need to do. Now, why do they need to run a TV station, radio stations, shops and all those sort of things, when the private sector does them all perfectly well? There’s no good reason for that, especially when it’s costing us $1 billion to do it. The private sector would do it, and it would cost taxpayers not a cent at all. So we think the Government should get out of broadcasting entirely, get out of running shops, and go back to doing the things that only governments should do.
ANDREW BOLT: But this is an aspect, isn’t it, of the – you know, the intrusion of big government generally into our lives? And I think that’s – isn’t that one of the fundamental things that your party is devoted to winding back?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: Yes, it is. It’s sort of ‘Big Brother is your friend’, and ‘Big Brother is here to help you’. And our view is Big Brother is not your friend, and most of the time they make it worse, not better. I mean, a perfect example is intruding into personal choices and personal decisions, like wearing a bicycle helmet. It’s a classic example. You own your own head, you’re perfect entitled to put yourself in danger in all sorts of ways, and yet the Government says “You’re not allowed to put your head in danger when you go and ride a bicycle.” It’s an absurd intrusion into a personal decision. And it’s an example of big government, and it should stop.
ANDREW BOLT: And David, finally, there’s only eight of you acting independently, apart from three Palmer United people, of course – potentially three. How are you going to get together to talk about how you might stymie, for example, the direct action plans of the Government, or the paid parental leave scheme, which is a total, insane amount of money?
DAVID LEYONHJELM: Yes, it is. Well, I’m hoping that we can get a minor party caucus going. So we’ll get together, and discuss legislation as it comes up, and I’m hoping that the Government won’t be able to pick us off, one by one. I mean, Bob Day and I – Family First Senator and myself – we’re on the same page on many, many things. But I think we’ll be able to –
ANDREW BOLT: David, I think you and Bob are really going to change the climate a lot. I thank you so much for joining us.
DAVID LEYONHJELM: My pleasure.
ANDREW BOLT: And coming up – Tony Abbott has just done what Labor said it couldn’t – sent two groups of boat people back to Indonesia.

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Hanson-Young says Greens “marching to a slow death”

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (6:37am)

The Greens aren’t all peace, love and big hugs, as a third of its staff walk out on leader Christine Milne and Adam Bandt considers a run:

In her way out of the party-room meeting that returned Christine Milne as Greens leader on Monday morning, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young walked past a table of journalists at Aussies Cafe at Parliament House.
To their bewilderment, Senator Hanson-Young matter-of-factly announced that her party had just returned a leader that would see the party ‘’marching to a slow death’’.
How long does it take Hanson-Young to count to one?

Senator Hanson-Young, an outspoken and ambitious party room member, is often mentioned by her colleagues as one of the key destabilising forces. Four separate sources claim that she made a bid for the party’s leadership team at Monday’s party meeting, a charge she denies.

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Greek fascists arrested

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (5:52am)

A particularly nasty and dangerously successful neo-Nazi group may finally gave gone too far for Greek authorities:
GREEK police have arrested the leader and other top officials of the anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party on charges of forming a criminal organisation
The arrests come 11 days after the killing of anti-fascist activist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by an alleged Golden Dawn member.
Though the party has vehemently denied any role in the killing, the case has appeared to dent its appeal among Greeks and the government has worked to crack down on the party.

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Abbott turns back two boats, just like Labor wouldn’t

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (5:18am)

Boat people policy
Remember how Labor swore Tony Abbott would or should never use the navy to send boat people back to Indonesia?

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, January 2012:
This is a dangerous and reckless approach… Turning a boat around is not worth the risk of losing an Australian life.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, January 2012:

It’s not only impractical but highly dangerous… I don’t think treating people in a brutal way on the high seas and risking the lives of them and Australian personnel is the way to go.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, June 2013:

I am very concerned about whether if Mr Abbott became prime minister and continues that rhetoric and that posture and actually tries to translate it into reality I really wonder whether he is trying to risk some sort of conflict with Indonesia.... It’s not a good thing, it’s a really bad thing.
Remember how Labor would pick up boat people from as close as 43km from the Indonesian coast and ferry them to Christmas Island?
August, 2012:
PASSENGERS on an asylum seeker boat just 23 nautical miles off Indonesia telephoned in an SOS to Australia to organise a Navy transfer to Christmas Island… HMAS Melville was en route to Christmas Island with 80 suspected asylum seekers after they phoned Australian officials fearing they were lost off Indonesia and needed assistance....
July, 2012:

Eighty-one asylum seekers were transferred to HMAS Childers south-west of Java late yesterday and were on their way to Christmas Island… In the latest incident, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority received a call about 10am requesting help about 40 nautical miles from the Java coast.
July, 2013:
AMSA coordinated the response to a vessel requesting assistance approximately 42 nautical miles south of Java… HMAS Larrakia was also tasked to respond and arrived on scene at around 5pm. A total of 101 people were safely transferred onto HMAS Larrakia and are now en route to Christmas Island.
In fact, Abbott has done exactly what Labor wouldn’t and said he couldn’t:
A group of 44 asylum seekers have been taken to a port in Java after being rescued by an Australian navy vessel in the Sunda Strait.
The group, which included four children, were offloaded at Indah Kiat port at Banten in the western part of Java at about 8am local time on Friday.
A spokesman for the Indonesian search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, said the asylum seekers were picked up by HMAS Ballarat before being transferred to a coast guard vessel last night.
And a second:

Also on Friday, the Australian Customs Vessel Triton saved 34 asylum seekers off the coast of Rote Island and transferred them on Saturday morning to the Indonesian rescue agency Basarnas.

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Obama talks to Iran’s president

Andrew Bolt September 29 2013 (5:00am)

It could be promising, if Rowhani isn’t simply playing Obama like a trout:
BARACK Obama and Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani have spoken by phone in the historic, first direct contact between leaders of their estranged nations since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The stunning 15-minute call, starting at 2.30pm was the fruit of a diplomatic opening forged by Rowhani’s election in June on a mandate to ease confrontation with the West and lift nuclear sanctions which have pulverised the Iranian economy…
The impetus for the call came from Iranian officials, whom US officials said told them in New York yesterday that Rowhani wanted to speak to Obama before leaving the United Nations General Assembly.
Rowhani could have put his safety on the line:

Iranian protesters threw shoes, eggs and stones on Saturday at the car of President Hasan Rouhani, back from a five-day trip to New York to speak at the UN General Assembly.

The president got a mixed reception at the airport, as several dozen hardline Islamists chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as his motorcade drew away. Others attempted to obstruct the road by praying on the pavement, the New York Times reported. 

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#QandA until there is at least a 50:50 Right vs Left balance on the panel and audience, and only appearing on The Bolt Report. I can live with Monday nights being restful and quiet.>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-29/the-silent-treatment---tony-abbotts-new-media/4987566

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TODAY IN JEWISH HISTORY: September 29, 1941. The Nazis start massacre of Kiev Jews in the Baby Yar ravine during which 33,771 Jews were killed in a single two-day operation. Photo: Women waiting for execution.
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2012 New York (CNN) -- A federal magistrate judge has ruled that al Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran and Hezbollah should pay more than $6 billion in damages to the families of victims killed on September 11, 2001, for supporting the attacks. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/31/justice/new-york-judge-9-11

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UN High Commissioner for Refugees....is doing what, and...where?

“All of the international community is working against us. Are we all wild animals?” asked a middle-aged Syrian man.

More than 200 Syrians, most of them families with young children, live in a trash-infested lot across from the refugee camp. Their names cannot be disclosed because of fear of retribution against family members still in Syria.

Converted shipping containers, enough to hold up to 12,000 refugees, provide crammed living quarters.

The real number of refugees in the camp, which is run by the Turkish government and the UN high commissioner for refugees, is thought to be between 15,000 and 17,000." - Benjamin Weinthal

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"For in the past two decades, the hard Left has managed to convert what was up until the early 1990s a completely marginalized – indeed, borderline treasonous – political doctrine into a respectable, arguably majority mainstream position.

What is required is not to establish an “alternative” discourse, but to take control of the existing mainstream one.

To do this it is essential to be able to “reach across the political divide” and acquire the attention of adversarial target audiences

It is imperative not only to realize – but accept – that the message to be conveyed is not intended primarily to find favor in their own constituencies.

Therefore, what is likely to be appealing to themselves – both in style and substance – and to be persuasive with like-minded publics – may well be totally ineffective with important – indeed, crucial – target audiences on the other side of the political divide." - Martin Sherman

As Dr. Sherman also referred to and included in the article, a 2010 published study:

"When Corrections Fail: The persistence of political misperceptions”

"Affirming people’s self-worth can buffer the threat to their self integrity posed by counter-attitudinal information and thereby make them more open-minded.” - Political Behavior - Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler

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Duckhole creek
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Aprille Love.



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CENTRE-RIGHT ministers have resigned from Italy's fragile coalition government, unleashing a fresh political crisis after what Prime Minister Enrico Letta called a "crazy act" of encouragement by their leader Silvio Berlusconi.
All five ministers of the People of Freedom (PDL) party took the decision on Saturday at Berlusconi's urging, said Angelino Alfano, Italy's deputy premier and PDL party secretary.
The flamboyant former prime minister had dismissed as "unacceptable" a demand by Letta on Friday for parliament to express support for the government next week, in a bid to end a crisis that has driven the bickering ruling coalition to the brink of collapse.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/berlusconi-ministers-say-they-will-resign/story-e6frfkui-1226729285739#ixzz2gH2LS4DR

Italy is divided as a corrupt left inflates allegations against the centre right leader - ed
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Labor leadership candidate Bill Shorten wants to introduce quotas to boost the number of gay and lesbian politicians in Parliament.
Mr Shorten is continuing his pitch to the party membership, sending out a manifesto that calls for the introduction of quotas for politicians representing minority groups.
He says the party should consider quotas for Indigenous Australians and the lesbian, gay, bixsexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.
Neil Fharaoh, the national convenor of Rainbow Labor, which represents the party's LGBTI members, says it is a step forward.
"The LGBTI community has been underrepresented, particularly in political seats, both at a state and federal level in Australia," he said.
"There's probably only 12 gay and lesbian identifying politicians across the country and probably not too much more in the history and its definitely underrepresentative.

He is a little man .. nominative determinism? The idea might go down as one of his legacy of major party reform .. but not for political party. - ed===


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Fighting for Us... #MakeDCListen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSAB4SlsP4

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Australian #DoctorWho fans… ABC iview is showing every Doctor from the classic series, each week from now until the 50th anniversary on Saturday 23 November. 

Vote on their Facebook page and you can choose the final story – which Doctor do you want to see on iview on the day of the anniversary? 
http://abciview.tv/15wLyQK
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"I am coming soon." -Jesus
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There is not a soul in Hell that ever truly sought Christ.

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men."
Psalm 33:13
Perhaps no figure of speech represents God in a more gracious light than when he is spoken of as stooping from his throne, and coming down from heaven to attend to the wants and to behold the woes of mankind. We love him, who, when Sodom and Gomorrah were full of iniquity, would not destroy those cities until he had made a personal visitation of them. We cannot help pouring out our heart in affection for our Lord who inclines his ear from the highest glory, and puts it to the lip of the dying sinner, whose failing heart longs after reconciliation. How can we but love him when we know that he numbers the very hairs of our heads, marks our path, and orders our ways? Specially is this great truth brought near to our heart, when we recollect how attentive he is, not merely to the temporal interests of his creatures, but to their spiritual concerns. Though leagues of distance lie between the finite creature and the infinite Creator, yet there are links uniting both. When a tear is wept by thee, think not that God doth not behold; for, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Thy sigh is able to move the heart of Jehovah; thy whisper can incline his ear unto thee; thy prayer can stay his hand; thy faith can move his arm. Think not that God sits on high taking no account of thee. Remember that however poor and needy thou art, yet the Lord thinketh upon thee. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.
Oh! then repeat the truth that never tires;
No God is like the God my soul desires;
He at whose voice heaven trembles, even he,
Great as he is, knows how to stoop to me.

Evening

"Go again seven times."
1 Kings 18:43
Success is certain when the Lord has promised it. Although you may have pleaded month after month without evidence of answer, it is not possible that the Lord should be deaf when his people are earnest in a matter which concerns his glory. The prophet on the top of Carmel continued to wrestle with God, and never for a moment gave way to a fear that he should be non-suited in Jehovah's courts. Six times the servant returned, but on each occasion no word was spoken but "Go again." We must not dream of unbelief, but hold to our faith even to seventy times seven. Faith sends expectant hope to look from Carmel's brow, and if nothing is beheld, she sends again and again. So far from being crushed by repeated disappointment, faith is animated to plead more fervently with her God. She is humbled, but not abashed: her groans are deeper, and her sighings more vehement, but she never relaxes her hold or stays her hand. It would be more agreeable to flesh and blood to have a speedy answer, but believing souls have learned to be submissive, and to find it good to wait for as well as upon the Lord. Delayed answers often set the heart searching itself, and so lead to contrition and spiritual reformation: deadly blows are thus struck at our corruption, and the chambers of imagery are cleansed. The great danger is lest men should faint, and miss the blessing. Reader, do not fall into that sin, but continue in prayer and watching. At last the little cloud was seen, the sure forerunner of torrents of rain, and even so with you, the token for good shall surely be given, and you shall rise as a prevailing prince to enjoy the mercy you have sought. Elijah was a man of like passions with us: his power with God did not lie in his own merits. If his believing prayer availed so much, why not yours? Plead the precious blood with unceasing importunity, and it shall be with you according to your desire.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 5-6, Ephesians 1 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 5-6

The Song of the Vineyard
1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

Today's New Testament reading: Ephesians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
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Hilkiah

[Hĭlkī'ah] - portion of jehovah orjehovah is protection.
  1. The father of Eliakim who was over Hezekiah's household (2 Kings 18:18, 26, 37; Isa. 22:20; 36:3, 22).
  2. High priest in king Josiah's reign (2 Kings 22:4-14; 23:4, 24).
  3. A descendant of Merari, son of Levi (1 Chron. 6:45).
  4. A son of Hosah , descendant of Merari, and a gatekeeper at the Tabernacle (1 Chron. 26:11).
  5. A priest who stood with Ezra as he read the law to the people (Neh. 8:4; 11:11; 12:7, 21).
  6. A priest of Anathoth and father of the prophet Jeremiah and contemporary of Gemariah (Jer. 1:1).
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P31Header
Wendy Blight
September 28, 2011
Sanctifying Discipline
Wendy Blight
"No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it's painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." Hebrews 12:11 (NLT)
Discipline hurts. When on the receiving end of it, we hate it. We whine. We groan. We complain. Our sin nature rises up to defend, rebel and justify.
The author of Hebrews recognized this and says so in our key verse today: "No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it's painful."
Yes, it is. Don't you love how God validates our feelings? Discipline hurts!
But when we examine the second half of this verse, God also makes a promise. He promises that afterwards there will be "a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." God promises to bring forth fruit from discipline. This fruit is the outward effect of His divine discipline. Each time God disciplines us, He moves us closer and closer to holiness.
Oh, how it hurts, though. Recently, I watched and listened as my husband spoke what I believed to be harsh words to my son about his behavior. I did not feel my son's childish behavior warranted my husband's reaction. I made my opinion known right then and there...in front of my son. Looking back, I can see that I disrespected my husband. But, of course, I did not see it that way at the time. In my mind, I was protecting my son's heart, believing I knew the right way, a better way, to say what my husband said.
Later that night, my husband addressed this with me privately. It felt like he was correcting me. I reacted as expected...defending and justifying my words.
God being God had already arranged for me to have coffee the next day with a dear friend who is about ten years ahead of me in parenting. I casually asked how her youngest son was doing. It opened the door to a conversation that led to how a woman needs to respect her husband and trust him with the discipline of a son. She stressed the importance of wives not only respecting their husbands, but also trusting them and praying for them...for wisdom and strength as they father their children, especially sons.
Wow!! She knew nothing of my circumstances when she began sharing her wisdom. Tears fell from my eyes as I heard God speaking to me through her.
God softened my heart. Why? To be honest, it was probably because the words did not come from my husband.
I realized in that moment that I needed to change my heart. I learned through her words that my husband's admonishment about what I had done was God's discipline and sanctifying work. With this new perspective, I find myself more willing now to accept discipline and to work with God instead of against Him.
As we closed our time together, my friend prayed the most beautiful prayer that moved my heart to repentance. I could not wait for my husband to get home that night and share what God taught me.
God's promise does not end there. Hebrews 12:12-13says:
"Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed." (NIV)
Friend, God uses discipline to heal. Our God wants the very best for us. He loves us. He delights in us. He has a plan for us. It is only when we willingly allow God to sanctify our hearts and remove sin...whatever it may be (pride, bitterness, fear, mistrust, shame, guilt, anger)...that God can truly use us and accomplish His plans in and through us.
Heavenly Father, give me a heart of glad surrender, one that willingly receives Your discipline. Father, whatever it takes, make me more like You. Bring forth a harvest of righteousness and peace in my life. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Visit Wendy's blog to sign up for her latest on-line Bible Study on the book of Hebrews. It's going to be deep and rich...don't miss out.
30 Days to Taming Your Tongue and accompanyingWorkbook by Deborah Smith Pegues
When you purchase resources through Proverbs 31 Ministries, you touch eternity because your purchase supports the many areas of hope-giving ministry we provide at no cost. We wish we could, but we simply can't compete with prices offered by huge online warehouses. Therefore, we are extremely grateful for each and every purchase you make with us. Thank you!
Application Steps:
Read 1 Peter 5:5-6 and James 4:6. Who does God oppose in these verses? Who does God favor? What is His promise?
Reflections:
In what ways has God brought the strong hand of sanctifying discipline into my life?
How has God worked in and through that discipline?
Power Verses:
1 Peter 5:5b, "All of you, clothe yourselves with humility...because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (NIV 1984)
James 4:6b, "...God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (NIV 1984)
Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (NIV 1984)
Isaiah 66:2b, "...This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." (NIV 1984)
© 2011 by Wendy Blight. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 31 Ministries
616-G Matthews-Mint Hill Road
Matthews, NC 28105
www.Proverbs31.org
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September 28, 2011
I am a Citizen of Heaven
Today's Truth
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control; will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:20 NIV).
Friend to Friend
One spring, we had a ten-year-old boy from Russia stay with us and go to school with my son. His mastery of the English language was very limited and we depended on hand signals and facial expressions to get by. On one occasion, I was trying to get him to write his parents a letter. I pulled out the stationary, handed him a pen, pointed to a picture of his parents, and said, "Why don't we write your parents a letter?" He had no idea what I was talking about.
For twenty minutes, I drew pictures and tried to get him to understand me. Finally, with tears in his eyes, he looked up at me and said, "What do?"
I just hugged him and put the pen and paper away.
Sometimes, I feel just like our little Russian guest. I don't understand the cruelty I read in the papers and hear on the news. I am confused at the angry attitudes of drivers with road rage. I don't understand how an adult could harm a child. In confusion, I look to my heavenly Father and say, "What do?"
But then God reminds me that I will never feel at home here on earth, because I am an alien, a foreigner. My true citizenship is in heaven and I'm just a foreign exchange student here for a short while. I am not home yet.
The Bible tells us that we are citizens of heaven. Our lives may be grand here on earth, but there will always be a longing that goes unmet while our feet are on this ground. That is because we were made for heaven! There will come a day when we will be completely at home, at rest, and at peace. Until then, just remember, we are aliens and strangers in this world where we temporarily live.
Let's Pray
Dear God, I long for heaven. I love my life here on earth and I am so thankful for every day. But I know that my life is but a breath. Thank You that my true citizenship is in heaven with You!
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.
Now It's Your Turn
Have you ever had a day when everything was going great, and yet there was an unidentifiable longing in your heart? What do you think that longing was?
1 Peter 2:11 says that we are aliens and strangers in this world we temporarily live in. What do you think the Bible means when it calls us aliens in this world?
How is an alien in a foreign country very similar to our time here on earth?
What makes you long for heaven? Let's share atwww.facebook.com/sharonjaynes.
More from the Girlfriends
If you would like to learn more about your true identity, who you are in Christ, you'll want to read Sharon's book,Becoming Spiritually Beautiful: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You! Let's stop believing the lies of the enemy who says we are less than what God created us to be. You are chosen, holy, dearly loved, saved, forgiven, completely acceptable, totally loved, and that only the beginning!
Seeking God?
Click here to find out more about
how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Girlfriends in God
P.O. Box 725
Matthews, NC 28106
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Inflammatory Word: Jesus' listeners fail to hear

Today's reading: Matthew 5
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
One emotionally charged word, kingdom, makes images dance in the minds of Jesus' audience: bright banners, glittering armies, the gold and ivory of Solomon's day, the nation of Israel restored to glory. Yet Jesus often uses this word that quickens the Jewish pulse, starting with his very first message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 4:17).
Winds of change are blowing through Israel as Jesus speaks. Guerrilla fighters called Zealots hang on the edges of the crowds, awaiting the signal. Armed and well organized, they are spoiling for a fight against oppressive Rome. The signal for revolt, however, never comes. To their dismay, it gradually becomes clear that Jesus is not talking about a political or military kingdom.
The expectations raised by Jesus' statements lead to confusion and, ultimately, to angry rejection. Initial excitement over Jesus' miracles sours into disappointment when he fails to restore the long-awaited kingdom. As it turns out, the word kingdom means one thing to the crowd and quite another to Jesus.
Two Kinds of History
Jesus indicates that two kinds of history are going on simultaneously. We live in a visible world of families and people and cities and nations-"the kingdom of this world." But Jesus calls for people to commit their lives to an invisible kingdom, the "kingdom of heaven," a kingdom more important and more valuable than anything in the visible world. It is like the finest pearl in the world, he says-worth selling everything you have to invest in it.
Success in the kingdom of heaven involves a complete reversal of values, as seen in this major address, the Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus says, and also those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and the persecuted-"for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Status in this world does not guarantee status in the kingdom of heaven.

Life Question

  • Are you focused on achieving success in the kingdom of this world or in the kingdom of heaven?
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