Thursday, September 26, 2013

Thu Sep 26th Todays News

The change in Australian politics has not yet been settled. The change of government has happened. The public service are addressing better policy. But exactly what everything means hasn't been discussed or thought through. Naturally the ABC are defending their core values .. environmental extremism and far left politics. But not everything is about that narrow view. So some bizarre things have been said which simply jar. An ABC columnist gives a sermon on the evils of work. Other ABC journalists defend the practice of fleecing refugees with pirates and drowning many of them, calling it compassionate. One of those advocates they summon is former Liberal Leader Malcolm Fraser. Current conservatives don't hold that view. Bolt raises the issue of a schism in the conservative ranks evidenced by Abbott insisting on discipline. Alternatively, I think Abbott is merely insisting on good praxis. But then Bolt likes to be balanced whereas I insist I'm a conservative. We agree that the more seats Palmer's party has the worse it is for Australia. Latham talks about ALP leadership, but I struggle to find any such animal or example. Suzuki looks uninformed when answering basic scientific questions. It becomes apparent one of the faceless grey men backing the previous ALP government and making back door decisions was an anti semitic bigot. Green party is imploding, while Julia is writing a book.
A siege in Kenya is over, now is time to mourn the victims of terror. A senior Kenyan Islamic cleric has denounced the terrorists as not being Islamic .. but they had dressed in women's clothes and killed innocent, helpless people, so it is understandable that it is hard for innocent bystanders to know. All that and more can be found with the following links.
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Catherine Nguyen, Caitlin Chao andAndrew Davis. Born on the same day, across the years, along with 
1329 – Anne of Bavaria (d. 1353)
1767 – Wenzel Müller, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1835)
1774 – Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist (d. 1845)
1843 – Joseph Furphy, Australian novelist (d. 1912)
1849 – Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
1887 – Barnes Wallis, English scientist and engineer, invented the Bouncing bomb (d. 1979)
1888 – T. S. Eliot, American-English publisher, playwright, and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
1898 – George Gershwin, American composer (d. 1937)
1907 – Anthony Blunt, English historian and spy (d. 1983)
1917 – Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher (d. 1993)
1922 – Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia
1943 – Ian Chappell, Australian cricketer
1945 – Bryan Ferry, English singer-songwriter (Roxy Music)
1948 – Olivia Newton-John, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress
1968 – James Caviezel, American actor
1981 – Serena Williams, American tennis player
1991 – Dan Preston, English footballer
Matches
46 BC – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.
1087 – William II is crowned King of England, and reigns until 1100.
1580 – Sir Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth.
1687 – The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosiniwho are besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.
1687 – The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.
1777 – British troops Philadelphia campaign occupy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.
1789 – Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the first United States Attorney General.
1907 – New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire.
1908 – Ed Reulbach becomes the first and only pitcher to throw two shutouts in one day against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1933 – As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrenders to the FBI, he shouts out, "Don’t shoot, G-Men!", which becomes a nickname for FBI agents.
1942 – The Holocaust: August Frank, a higher official of the SS concentration camp administration department, issues a memorandum containing a great deal of operational detail in how Jews should be "evacuated".
1959 – Typhoon Vera, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, makes landfall, killing 4,580 people and leaving nearly 1.6 million others homeless.
1960 – In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
1960 – Fidel Castro announces Cuba's support for the U.S.S.R.
1983 – Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.
Despatches
1417 – Francesco Zabarella, Italian cardinal (b. 1360)
1468 – Juan de Torquemada, Spanish cardinal (b. 1388)
1763 – John Byron, English poet (b. 1692)
1820 – Daniel Boone, American explorer (b. 1734)
1868 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
1902 – Levi Strauss, German-American businessman, founded Levi Strauss & Co. (b. 1829)
2008 – Paul Newman, American actor, director, and businessman, co-founded Newman's Own (b. 1925)
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An ABC sermon on the evils of work in this dirty society

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (8:33am)

image
Something about Daniel Stacey’s rant about Breaking Bad tells me he’s an arts graduate on a taxpayer-funded salary:
The show resonates because Walter White’s journey towards moral annihilation describes, albeit in hyperbolic form, the experience awaiting anyone joining the modern workplace.. Breaking Bad illustrates the devil’s bargain all young people face, entering a jobs market where most of the outcomes their work will create–pollution, inequality, misinformation, division–are at odds with their personal morality.
Hmm. In fact, Stacey is the ABC’s Radio National web editor, which helps to explain the bog-standard ABC global warming alarmism - and maybe the anti-capitalism as well:
...the way to get wealth and power isn’t to carry out humble teaching or police work, it’s to find employment in jobs that serve profit and ignore consequence. For White that job is cooking meth, for the rest of us it means working for companies that pollute the environment, feed people products that kill them, and shear off mountain tops to generate power for air-conditioning units in the suburban homes in which we raise our children.
Stacey in fact works in an air-conditioned office using machines powered by coal-fired electricity to produce a product that requires more coal-fired electricity to access, and is writing here for a Fairfax business that prints its news on the carcasses of murdered trees. You’d think he might at least go find a job more in line with the values he preaches.
More at the link, where Professor Bunyip goes to town.
(Thanks to reader Johnny.)  

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Why are we importing danger?

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (7:51am)

Islamism

THE jihadists who murdered at least 67 people at a Nairobi mall are a warning our immigration program is a menace.
These killers are from Al Shabaab, a Somali al-Qaida affiliate that has trained Australians and inspired three others to plan a terror attack on a Sydney army barracks.
Now, with Al Shabaab getting this priceless publicity, how many more sympathisers here might be inspired by this rising star of jihadism?
We wouldn’t need to ask if we hadn’t recklessly allowed in too many immigrants whose children are prone to such extremism.
(Read full article here.) 

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Abbott leads a team of equals, not an army

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (7:47am)

I’ve said Tony Abbott will face a challenge now that he finally has real power. For four years he has had to lead through example and persuasion. Will he now be seduced by the real power he has suddenly acquired as Prime Minister?
To order people, rather than persuade, saves a lot of time, after all. And to control seems safer and neater than to trust and let free. Power is also pleasing to the ego.
Of course, some control is necessary. But I wonder whether the new persona Abbott is growing into - purposeful, methodical, even grim - will make power seem a more natural tool than it should be when you are leading a team of the talented, each with ideas and ambitions of their own and a desire to realise them.
So this may be a sign of trouble:

Tony Abbott’s press office has moved to crack down on media appearances by his frontbench, issuing an edict that all media requests for interviews be approved by the Prime Minister’s staff…
The email, from Abbott press secretary James Boyce, says Ms Walshe will have overall responsibility for coordinating ministerial media.
“All media coordination and requests should go through Kate first. This covers all national media interviews on television, radio and print. This includes any ABC local radio or ABC television interviews, the Sunday programmes, Sky News, and metropolitan print media longer-format interviews, etc,’’ it says.
“With any regular appearances on shows such as Sky AM Agenda, they should first have been coordinated through Kate at least the day before; on the morning of the interview it is still best to speak with Russ Neal for the main daily issues and messages.”
The edict comes after the Coalition’s decision to limit information made available to the media and the public about its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, which is designed to stop the arrival of asylum seekers by boat.
Of course, early discipline is essential, as is coordination of messages. But I’d suggest Abbott be careful that he preside over a Renaissance, not a counter-Reformation. 

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Abbott in strife if Palmer’s party wins in WA

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (7:27am)

Tony Abbott needs the Palmer United Party to lose the battle for the last WA Senate spot. A third Senate seat would give the party of the irrational Clive Palmer a critical edge in blocking legisation, even if all the other micro-parties and independents back the Coalition:

The win [in Tasmania] for the Palmer United Party’s Jacqui Lambie, by 244 votes, means Mr Palmer’s party now looks sure to have two Senate seats. Rugby League great Glenn Lazarus claimed a seat in Queensland for Mr Palmer.
The commission is yet to allocate Senate preferences in other states. ABC election analyst Antony Green’s Senate calculator predicts the Coalition will hold 33 seats in the 76-seat Senate, which will come into operation in June.
That would mean it needs six votes from the probable eight independents to muster the 39 votes required to pass legislation, including the abolition of the carbon and mining taxes, industrial relations changes, paid parental leave and changes to the national broadband network roll-out, if the current Senate blocks its legislation…
The last Senate seat in Western Australia is a three-way race between the PUP, Labor and the Sports Party.
If PUP or the Labor Party claims the seat, the Coalition would need support from Mr Palmer’s senators to get laws through Parliament. 

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Latham: what leadership contest? And no to Albanese

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (7:23am)

Mark Latham is right to attack the Labor leadership contest - which is actually such a non-contest of ideas that I wonder whether the candidates are deliberately running dead:
So far, the leadership contest between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese has resembled a Nimbin MardiGrass festival, spaced out on mutual love and unreality. Instead of seeking a mandate for major policy and organisational change, both have been paralysed by conservatism.
Last week, in launching his campaign in Sydney, Albanese gave one of the worst speeches in recent Labor history. It was a throwback to the 1960s, a narrow, insular pitch to the party’s ever-shrinking industrial base. He had nothing to say about fiscal policy or boat people drownings. Other than in his transport portfolio, it is clear Albanese has not thought in any depth about public policy. He’s an intellectual lightweight.
The problem with his candidacy is that, on every significant issue over the past decade, he has been wrong. He was wrong to support an open-door asylum seeker policy, he was wrong to endorse Doug Cameron’s push for protectionism, he was wrong to white-ant Labor leaders and, most damaging of all, as a sub-factional warlord, he was wrong to prop up the corrupt NSW minister Ian Macdonald. Then during the election campaign, he was wrong to associate with a union rorter like Craig Thomson.
In effect, Albanese’s political instincts are terrible.
UPDATE
On the other hand, not everyone in Labor is taken in by the Voice of the Voiceless:

THE fight for the Labor Party leadership has turned sour, with Bill Shorten being accused of trying to “out-Left” Anthony Albanese on a number of issues, from female quotas to refugees, in order to secure the rank-and-file vote—when in reality his record on these issues is “poor”.
An ALP source told The Australian while Mr Shorten was portraying himself as a champion of women’s rights and representation, as a member of the ALP national executive he was responsible for parachuting male candidates in to positions and making it difficult for women to enter the parliament via rank-and-file votes…
Former left-wing Labor MP Jennie George echoed the sentiment in a letter published in The Australian today, saying criticisms of the Abbott government’s failure to promote women were justified but were devalued “when espoused by those who have done so little to support women of merit in the Labor Party”.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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The unravelling of the ABC’s green guru

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (7:15am)

Media, The green movement
THERE is a chasm between how little green guru David Suzuki knows and how much the ABC thinks he does.
That chasm is a perfect measure of the global warming “group think” that former ABC chairman Maurice Newman says has gripped our national broadcaster.
I’ve long considered Suzuki a hypocrite. This Canadian fruit fly expert became a multi-millionaire celebrity by preaching an irrational anti-capitalism green gospel he seems not to actually live by.
This man who told a credulous Radio National host we should repent our “profligate ways” has at least two houses, including a very expensive one on three house blocks.
This man railing on the ABC against “population growth” has five children.
This man who last October told students “money isn’t what matters” charged their school $30,000 for the sermon.

Still, the green movement is full of frequent-flying hypocrites. What makes the ABC such a dupe is that Suzuki also seems to know little about some of the science he claims to “interpret”.
But give the ABC’s Q&A credit. Although it granted Suzuki the rare privilege of a solo appearance on its panel, it did salt its audience with experts to ask him awkward questions that worshipping presenters on other ABC shows did not.
Oh dear.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Ezra Levant in Canada has noticed Suzuki’s train wreck in Australia.
(Thanks to reader Brian.) 

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Israel has our backing again. Muslim leader explains Labor’s betrayal

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (6:39am)

Greg Sheridan says Tony Abbott will reverse Labor’s abandonment of Israel:

Some of the resolutions where Labor changed Australia’s traditional vote have innocuous sounding names but are intensely unfair to Israel and unhelpful to a settlement. Resolution 67/23 on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine unfairly blames Israel for everything while not mentioning any fault by any Palestinian group or authority. Notably it does not call for an end to terrorism, incitement, hatred and so on. In 2006, under Howard, Australia voted against this resolution; last year it abstained.
Resolution 67/24 on Jersualem condemns any Israeli presence in the Old City of Jerusalem at all, a grotesque position. In 2006, Australia abstained; last year, Australia voted in favour. Various resolutions call for the Geneva Convention to apply to Palestinian territories. These resolutions fail to acknowledge that Israel already voluntarily observes its humanitarian provisions, but also imply Israeli war crimes. In 2006, Australia abstained; last year it voted in favour of these resolutions.
Resolution 67/158 seems harmlessly to call for the right of Palestinians to self-determination, but it recognises no similar right for Israelis and is unbalanced on the question of settlements. In 2006 Australia abstained; last year Australia voted in favour.
There are a slew of other resolutions where Australia voted against under Howard and abstained under Labor, or abstained under Howard and voted in favour under Labor. We can expect that if these resolutions come back in their regular form this year, the Abbott government will reverse Labor’s voting record.
UPDATE
Labor’s abandonment of Israel is explained - as is the danger of Labor’s version of multiculturalism:

Australia’s senior Islamic cleric threatened to withdraw community support for federal Labor in Western Sydney if union leader Paul Howes replaced Bob Carr in the Senate, a leaked email reveals.
The email, written on behalf of the Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, by his chief political adviser, accused Mr Howes of a “blind bias for Israel” and said that if he was appointed to the Senate, community support for Labor that was mustered for the federal election would be withdrawn.
The email was sent to MPs and ­officials on September 9… Mr Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, withdrew from the contest last week. Senior Labor sources said the Mufti’s warning was not a significant factor in the internal campaign to convince Mr Howes to withdraw.
The email says that as saddened as the community is at news of Senator Carr’s retirement, “what is saddening and alarming us more is the rumour that Paul Howse [sic] will be replacing him”.
“Paul has had a repeated pattern of blind bias toward Israel. His appointment would not at all help the ­engagement effort between the ALP and the wider Muslim community,” it says.
Labor’s decision to betray Israel and give comfort to Muslim regimes is driven not by principle by craven and dangerous opportunism:
But here is Labor’s shame:

And, critically, there is the growing Muslim and Christian make-up of several key western Sydney Labor seats, which have exposed MPs to different points of view on the Middle East.
Some sections of the party suggest Victorian Labor is too close to the Israel lobby and does not fully understand the underlying changes in Sydney’s outer suburbs.
Would Australians in 1970 have backed a deal to take in many Middle Eastern refugees and migrants had they been told up front that this would require changing our foreign policy to throw Israel under a bus, move away from the US, and back a move in the UN that suited the long-term plans of the pro-terrorist Hamas?
If mass Muslim immigration requires us to sell out our values and friendships then let’s end it now. 

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Greens wither

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (6:30am)

The Greens start to implode:
AUSTRALIAN Greens leader Christine Milne is playing down the resignations of six of her senior staff members and has dismissed claims her leadership is on shaky ground.
Senator Milne ...  confirmed on Wednesday night that six staff members had tendered their resignations including chief of staff Ben Oquist, director of communications Georgie Klug and policy adviser Oliver Woldring, her climate change adviser, her economics adviser and campaign coordinator…
She denied the resignations were a vote of no confidence in her leadership…
“This is pretty normal for political offices.”
Mr Oquist issued a statement saying he was leaving with good will but cited “fundamental differences of opinion about strategy”.
Asked about his reason, Senator Milne said: “interesting that Ben would say that.” She said there had been differences of opinion on how the office would run, she favoured a flat administrative structure while he wanted a more hierarchical structure.
Yeah, right.
(Thanks to reader Andrew of Randwick.)  

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ABC on the fall of St Julia, and her resurrection

Andrew Bolt September 26 2013 (6:05am)

The ABC throws its weight behind the movement to deify Labor’s worst Prime Minister - to make a victim of the incompetent and deceitful:
Stalking Julia
Prime ministers inevitable attract media scrutiny and public criticism. But has Julia Gillard had it particularly tough—with some of the fiercest opposition coming from with her own party and the lowest public approval rating a leader has ever had? And what role did the media play in her downfall? ALP and media insiders look at the media coverage of Julia Gillard.
The guests are a true meeting of the Labor clan.
There is Jonathan Holmes, a Leftist, warmist and former Media Watch host who suggests Gillard may have been brought down in part by journalists writing on the instuction of evil Rupert Murdoch. (Simon Benson may wish to consider his legal options.).
There is Kerry-Anne Walsh, of course, a former Hawke Government press secretary and author of the fiercely partisan The Stalking of Julia Gillard, which used a fake quote to excuse Gillard’s most unforgivable broken promise and portrayed Gillard as a great leader brought down only by wicked journalists and that treacherous Kevin Rudd.
Then there’s James Button, son of the late Labor Minister John and himself a former Rudd Government speech writer. He, too, blames the nasty media.
And to moderate the discussion, Jeff Sparrow, editor of the leftist Overland, a former leader of the International Socialist Organisation and author of Communism: A Love Story.
Balance on the ABC is when for every two ex-Labor staffers you get one former Trot. The discussion reflects just that, with Holmes, of all people, coming closest to the voice of reason as Gillard is elevated to the pantheon. Note Walsh names as a factor in Gillard’s fall the “sense of attachment” to Rudd felt by many press gallery journalists.
A note of sense is struck by a listener who writes on the ABC web page:

Quote: “And what role did the media play in her downfall?”
The answer is obvious and can be answered with this question: “And what role did the message-runner from Marathon play in the downfall of the Persians?
(Thanks to reader Puzzled.  UPDATE: First link fixed.) 

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Jere VanLoan
One done with Arend Nijssen a while back. Just for your smile
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Joyce Meyer Ministries
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HERO POOCH: A dog in Turkey is being hailed as a hero this week after the quick-acting pup rushed to stop a baby from crawling into the sea near Kabak Bay in Turkey.

The dog was playing fetch at the time the infant wandered a bit to close the waves.

Watch footage in 9 News at 6pm.

#dogs #Turkey #9News
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Senator Cruz fought for us for more than 21 hours on the Senate floor. Now you can act. Make sure you call the Senate today and tell them to Defund Obamacare.

http://www.teapartypatriots.org/2013/09/6-days-stop-obamacare/
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  • yeah, no sense letting people below the poverty line have health insurance. Silly idea. If they can't afford to pay insurance costs they may as well do without. Besides, are we our brothers keepers ? We don't need to exercise our Christian values and show compassion to our fellow citizens. It costs too much to share the burden. And as a patriot I'd rather see more money spent on drones instead of wasting it on people. People who are denied access to health care due to pre-existing conditions or who work for minimum wages just don't deserve to have health care like people who can afford to pay the high costs do they.

  • David Daniel Ball Making a system that will be voted down, or will crumble under its own weight in a few years, is not giving poor people health care, it is denying poor people health care. You can never own what you can't pay for.

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Allyson Christy

NSA spy scandal may scuttle EU-US anti-terrorist agreement – EU commissioner - RT News 

"The European Union is threatening to suspend a data-sharing deal with the United States. It is supposed to track terrorist bank funding, but there aresuspicions the National Security Agency was stealing financial data from law-abiding Europeans.

Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU commissioner responsible for investigating the implications of the NSA and GCHQ spy scandal, said the Terror Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) of 2010, which supplies bank and credit card transaction information to the US treasury in an effort to trace funding to terrorist groups, may be in jeopardy if it is determined the Americans were abusing the agreement."
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Unbelievable facts
Black Wolf Hybrid
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The words of a man who drowned many before Ruddock got him to change his tune. - ed
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If you’re using a non-furry alarm clock to get out of bed in the morning, you’re stuck in the dark ages. Sure, cats don’t always pick exactly the right time to wake you up, but you can’t say they’re inconsistent.
11 Reasons Cats Make The Best Alarm Clocks
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Mr. Obama: you like to call ObamaCare the law of the land. But, it's not really a law; it is a set of edicts that one man --you!-- enforce or choose not to enforce at your pleasure.http://bit.ly/14BicDl Under our Constitution --to which We The People happily cling-- you have no authority to waive parts of laws passed by Congress. Yet, you grant waivers when you feel like it. You delay parts of it when doing so strikes your royal fancy. Now, you have waived a perfumed hand and let Congress off the hook of your monstrosity, just as you did for big business. Mr. Obama: you are not special, you are not a ruler and we are not supplicants. While you will never admit that, we know it to be true and are never going to stop fighting to right-size government power.
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Lol .. Drama resembles Obama .. ed
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Australia does a sensational job drowning a large number of desperate, poor people, after subjecting them to piracy. The Pacific Solution had stopped that .. but compassionate ALP preferred the piracy and murder (applauds) - ed===

Pastor Rick Warren
PLEASE pray for the Middle East!
I was in Amman, Jordan where King Abdullah II, a Muslim had asked me to convene and open a conference on the violence and persecution against Arab CHRISTIANS that's happening daily.
Over 60 churches have been burned in Egypt, and others in Syria, etc. About 80 Arab Christian leaders from 22 Arab nations - many Orthodox Patriarchs - met for 2 days. I was deeply honored to be given that nation's highest award by the King for the humanitarian efforts of the P.E.A.C.E. plan. But I'm glad to be back home!
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<Even more good news from the ACT. Even more joyous because it's a Liberal who deprived a Green of a Senate seat. Thank you animal lovers!>
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Thank you God, for the good things and the bad. Experiencing the bad helps us to appreciate the good.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2429940/Has-Julia-Gillard-split-hairdresser-boyfriend-Magazine-Australian-PMs-lover-living-caravan-bush.html
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Good. >

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/anthony-albanese-is-an-intellectual-lightweight-mark-latham-20130926-2uf9s.html
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THE militant group behind the takeover of a Nairobi mall claimed Wednesday that Kenyan government assault team carried out “a demolition’’ of the building, burying 137 hostages in rubble.
A government spokesman denied the claim and said Kenyan forces were clearing all rooms, firing as they moved and encountering no one.
Kenyan soldier

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/africa/alshabab-claim-kenya-troops-buried-137-hostages-in-nairobi-mall/story-fnh81gzi-1226727205060#ixzz2fzEmYG00
The female clothing wearing freedom fighters claim they were meticulous and scrupulous. In fact, they killed randomly, like terrorists. - ed
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Jon Stewart challenges famed atheist Richard Dawkins: "Isn't the job of a scientist, in some ways, to have faith that there’s something out there that we don’t understand yet?"
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Escalating conflict in northern Kachin State is forcing more civilians into IDP camps. Camp supplies are running low, with children in camps on the China-Burma border eating their rice with salt due to the dwindling food supply. Health conditions and malnutrition are becoming major concerns, as is human trafficking, as youth attempting to escape the conditions at IDP camps fall prey to traffickers. Meanwhile, the US government through USAID continues to refuse to fund community-based organizations providing aid to IDPs in Kachin areas.

Demand USAID take action here: http://bit.ly/16POFJ0
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At least 68 people were killed when Islamic militants from Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab group stormed into the Westgate Shopping Center in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday and opened fire. The stand off between the terrorists and the police and army has entered a third day. it is unclear how many gunmen and hostages are still inside the shopping center.
Update: We’ve added 10 photos of the rescue operation.
VERY GRAPHIC IMAGES.

The Westgate Shopping Center Shootings In Kenya


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If, God forbid, you are forced into an ObamaCare exchange, you will get ZERO employer contribution and will pay the high rates for an awful insurance plan. BUT, not Congress. His Majesty, Barack Obama, has given congress a gift ... of YOUR money so YOU will pay for their insurance. This isn't Republican vs. Democrat, this is the American people versus the elites.http://bit.ly/19EjE6q
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Warning: You may shed a tear after watching this Mariano Rivera tribute by MLB -http://atmlb.com/1b6fGXn #ExitSandman
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4 her
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<I got to go to work today. I got to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got to go to the gym and have a great workout and talk to my cousin. I got to spend time with my grandmother while she cut up fruit for me. I get to go fishing all day on a Thursday. The only thing stopping me from being happy is myself. Not notions of being happy when I finally get my unit or new car etc. I am happy now! I am rich now!>
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What a golden age these past few decades have been for learning about how human cognitionworks. And what a humbling age, as we discover the truth that satirist Ambrose Bierce perceived more than 100 years ago in The Devil’s Dictionary…that the brain is only the organ with which we think we think. With yet another shrewd experiment, Dan Kahan and colleagues have added more evidence to the now overwhelming case that humans are indeed quite smart and rational, but that ‘smart’ and ‘rational’ have less to do with making objective judgments and decisions that accurately align with the facts, and more to do with our ability to shape the facts into judgments and decisions that feel right and help us feel safe, even if those judgments and decisions fly in the face of the facts and they are bad for us…even if they are dangerous.
For this new study, Kahan, Ellen Peters, Erica Cantrell Dawson, and pioneer-in-the-study-of-risk- perception Paul Slovic, asked a group of people about the efficacy of a skin cream for dealing with a rash, based on this numerical display. Which is better, using the cream, or not using it?

That is exemplified by Suzuki, Flannery .. - ed
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Share this with your friends if you think it is utterly disgraceful that Harry Reid is slamming ObamaCare down upon the heads of working Americans while getting himself and his staff waivers that are, in all likelihood, illegal.http://bit.ly/14BicDl
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Crony Tay Za receives praise from Americans for funding a mountain expedition in #Kachin state while hundreds of ethnic Kachin people are being attacked and displaced nearby. Not coincidently, the fighting that recently erupted in the resource-rich Putao district is an area that Tay Za is currently in the process of acquiring for a gold mining project. Putao district is not far south of where the mountain expedition took place.

“The American climbers involved in the expedition do not appear to be concerned by the fact their trip was financed by Tay Za, described by the U.S. Treasury department as ‘a notorious regime henchman and arms dealer’”

Earlier this month, the entire population of Nhka Ga village in Putao district fled attacks by the #Burma army, leaving two individuals killed and several tortured by the Burmese #military. At a time when ethnic Kachin victims need our help the most, we pull the wool over our eyes to #abuses, #conflictand #aid while praising a hiking expedition funded by a notorious #crony. [http://bit.ly/16C5lOI]
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ALLONS-Y! Our LIMITED EDITION TARDIS iPhone 4 & 4s covers are back in stock! Shop here:-http://bit.ly/16YqTIF
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The Doctor has had many faces and many lives – and it's not just the TARDIS and Clara who have been there to witness all of them… 

Discover more about the Doctor's past for yourself with this companion-in-writing, 'The Doctor: His Lives and Times'. Read an exclusive intro on doctorwho.tv: http://bit.ly/1h0yqZa
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I've asked the staff to look into this.
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Ged MacMahon'

Have you ever considered the irony of the term "department of defence" for the Military. I wonder if the term "department of offence" might be more appropriate sometimes? Reminds me of Geoge Orwell's 1984.
Orwell wrote '84 in '48 .. the UN came into being in '49 as a functioning concern, although it had been around since '45. The UN outlawed armies .. it was no longer allowed for a nation to be belligerent. They could only defend themselves against belligerence. Overnight, every army in the world became a 'defence force' .. Orwell was writing about that .. ed
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Stunning Sunset at Shark Fin Cove
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Dr. Phil

Do you know someone who claims to suffer from depression but you believe it’s an excuse? http://bit.ly/DepressionOrFaker
Are you the victim of domestic violence and don’t know where to turn?http://bit.ly/VictimofAbuse
Are you the parent of a teenage girl who proudly boasts about her girl fights? http://bit.ly/DisrespectfulTeen

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Pastor Rick Warren
Kay having a good time with Josh.

Three of my favorite people. Great to be home.
“Never retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God wants you to do.” 1 Peter 3:9
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“Those who refuse to admit mistakes will never be successful. But those who confess and forsake them get another chance.” Proverbs 28:13 Success comes, not to those who are perfect, but to those who admit their imperfection.
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an old circuit .. but Eric Kalemen is the personal trainer for you ..
ScarE-ric circuit Session

Date: Sunday 25th August 2013
Time: 8am
Where: Cabramatta 2166

inbox for more information

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It's all about the compromise.
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What happens when Uni gets boring...
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Thirty years ago the last checker flag was at Freeport Speedway.. 1931-1983 Today its coming alive in my basement.. lol

Kirk DuQuette

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The system does not work. It doesn't work in Australia either .. at the age of 40, never having been unemployed, I was unable to insure myself against income loss because of my weight .. now, not because of my weight, I am jobless and on public health care .. Affordable Care has gaping holes, although it fills a few cracks it won't be around for long, not because of political opposition which should kill it, but because it isn't sustainable in its present form. - ed
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Play for any audience available
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Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has passed the eight-hour mark in his marathon speech to defund#ObamaCare. Check out all of the highlights so far, including Sen. Cruz reading "Green Eggs and Ham" to his daughters (and relating it to ObamaCare): http://tinyurl.com/qcd9qbn
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his bark is worse than his bite
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Dr. Phil
You can’t break a bad habit until you replace it with a positive one. #DrPhil http://bit.ly/BreakingYourAddiction 
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Sarah Palin
Piper's getting ready for school & Ted's still going! Encourage kids to learn US history through this & endure to do what's right. #MakeDCListen

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Turns out Forest Boy loved civilized society only when it was handing him his welfare cheque.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/fake-forest-boy-sentenced-in-germany-20130926-2uh08.html
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In the words of Yehuda Bauer, a professor of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: “I come from a people who gave the Ten Commandments to the world. Time has come to strengthen them by three additional ones, which we ought to adopt and commit ourselves to: thou shall not be a perpetrator; thou shall not be a victim; and thou shall never, but never, be a bystander.”
As a people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis as the world looked on, the Jewish community cannot look on as the world suffers. Having risen from the depths of a dark past, Jews have a unique obligation to respond to the suffering of the world. This obligation is a guiding principle at the core of Israeli society. The Jewish State cannot be a bystander.
In their undertakings as “upstanders,” Israelis have provided humanitarian aid to people all over the globe, from Boston to Oklahoma, to Haiti, to Japan, to Gaza, to Syria, and many more, dealing with a wide array of dire situations, from natural disasters to medical emergencies, to refugee crises, to wars, to genocide.
However, despite this consistent global aid in times of crisis, a recent LA Times articlecited Israel as “[giving] the least as a percentage of gross national income among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” along with Mexico and Chile. According to an interview with Hillel Schmid, head of Hebrew University’s Center for the Study of Philanthropy in Israel, Israelis are lacking in generosity when it comes to making donations, both internationally and domestically.
While some may attribute this lack of financial charity to greed and self-absorption, in actuality, it simply points to a difference in methods and values. The definition of charity isn’t limited to giving money; it is defined as showing generosity toward those in need. Israel partakes in forms of giving that operate on a much deeper level than financial donations, affecting people’s lives in significantly more personal and impactful ways.
As a 65-year-old country that is still developing its economy and facing unpredictable threats of violence and terror, giving financially is not Israel’s strong suit. But that doesn’t mean Israelis are not generous to people in need. Israelis work to create organizations such as Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), IsraAID, and the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED) that operate to save the lives of those in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or nationality. Additionally, Israelis utilize various innovations in the areas of medicine, agriculture, and military technology that have been developed in Israel to benefit individuals on a global scale.
In the wake of natural disasters, Israel has come to the aid of victims in desperate need of food, shelter, and medical attention. In 2010, an earthquake shattered Haiti, leaving thousands homeless, starving, and injured. Within a day, more than 200 Israelis, including doctors, rescue, and relief workers led by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, departed for the devastated area. Upon their arrival, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) set up the first field hospital at the chaotic scene.
Then, in 2011, when a tsunami devastated Japan, Israel was one of the first to send a full-scale medical delegation in response to the disaster. Working with the Japanese authorities and Japanese National Disaster Center to determine what manner of aid would be the most valuable, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense provided 18 tons of aid, including thousands of blankets, coats, gloves, and portable toilets.
Additionally, Israel has come to the aid of its closest ally, the United States, on many an occasion. During the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the bombing at the Boston Marathon, and the recent Oklahoma City tornado, Israelis aided victims through the recovery process. Recently, a team from IsraAID, a humanitarian organization that primarily works with the victims of natural disasters, was stationed in Moore, Oklahoma, aiding victims in salvaging items from the wreckage of their homes, providing trauma counseling, and bulldozing and rebuilding damaged structures.
And it isn’t just countries that have peace agreements with Israel to which Israelis extend a helping hand. In March of 2012, Israel offered humanitarian aid to Syria in light of a rising death toll attributable to the ongoing civil war. “Even though Israel cannot intervene in events occurring in a country with which it does not have diplomatic relations, it is nevertheless our moral duty to extend humanitarian aid and inspire the world to put an end to the slaughter,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.
Save a Child’s Heart, a non-profit Israeli based humanitarian organization dedicated to providing pediatric care to children in developing countries who suffer from heart conditions, has saved more than 3,000 children since its creation in 1995. The IDF medical delegation in Haiti treated more than 1,110 patients, successfully performed 319 surgeries and delivered 16 babies. Since the beginning of the year, the transport of 662,239 tons of supplies has been facilitated by the IDF into Gaza. So shouldn’t figures of lives saved by Israel speak louder than figures of financial donations? Maybe the problem is that figures don’t speak at all.
Many people are aware of Israeli’s global aid; they have been exposed to information regarding the number of tons of supplies that Israel has provided and the approximate number of people they have saved. However, those facts are too wide in scope and too abstract to invoke an emotional response or effectively stimulate positive feelings towards Israel. People are unable to relate on a personal level to facts and figures. This explains why many dismiss the statistics and overlook the meaning behind them, some even going so far as to write off Israel’s social action endeavors as publicity stunts, solely intended to improve Israel’s reputation. So how do we make the connection?
On a trip to Poland in my senior year of high school, I stood in Auschwitz facing a glass enclosure containing thousands upon thousands of shoes. The number of victims who had perished in the camp was too big to grasp, the mass scale of the murder of the Jewish people too overwhelming to process. I was then advised to focus on a single shoe, think of the person who it had belonged to and reflect on what his or her life might have been like. This exercise was powerful and helped me put things in perspective.
Similarly, to truly understand the purpose and meaning behind Israel’s humanitarian aid, we need to dial back and narrow the focus. The personal experiences of those who have been touched by Israel’s helping hands are much more revealing as to the depth and impact of Israel’s giving than statistics. Just as each shoe in Auschwitz represents a real person who it once belonged to, each number in reference to the recipients of Israel’s humanitarian aid represents a real life, a real person.
Israeli entrepreneur Dr. Amit Goffer created a system called the ReWalk, a “quasi-robotic, wearable upright mobility system” that aids paraplegics previously confined to wheelchairs in completing everyday tasks such as standing, walking, climbing, and driving. I had heard about the ReWalk before, but the true implications of such an invention hadn’t hit me until I watched Dan Webb rise from his wheelchair and walk across the stage at the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference.  I watched him stand with feet pressed firmly to the ground and address thousands of people, watched as his family witnessed this miraculous moment with beaming smiles and teary eyes. Webb, a resident of Warminster, Pennsylvania, had been injured in a hunting accident, becoming paralyzed from the waist down. He was told that he may never walk again. With ReWalk, he was able to defeat the odds.
Twenty-four-year-old Gubilande Jean Michel and her family are residents of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When the 2010 earthquake struck, Michel was pregnant with her fourth child. With her husband missing since the earthquake and her three children at home with her parents, Michel went into labor and was brought to the IDF field hospital. With the aid of the Israeli doctors working there, Michel gave birth to a healthy baby boy, in a smooth delivery with no complications. Her newborn son was the first baby delivered in the hospital. In an expression of immense gratitude for the country that came to her aid in her time of need, Michel chose to name her son Israel.  Midwife Major Efrat Shrir said, “We departed on this mission with a sense of dedication and purpose, with a true will to help people. So for me, the fact that we were able to help this woman is a real contribution.”
When 3-year-old Noam Naor was killed in a tragic accident, Israeli parents Sarit and Avi Naor faced not only the heart-breaking loss of their son, but also a difficult decision that would change the life of a young Palestinian boy and his family. Yakoub Ibhisad’s condition was rapidly deteriorating, and he was in desperate need of a kidney transplant. The Health Ministry’s Transplant Center called upon the Naor family for help. The Naors answered that call and donated their son’s kidney to Yakoub. It didn’t matter that he was Palestinian and they Israeli; what mattered was that a young boy’s life was in danger and he needed their help. Their kind actions broke down barriers of prejudice and mistrust, rooted in a deep emotional connection between the two families based on mutual understanding of the depth of the love of one’s child.
A 4-year-old Syrian girl was recently brought to Israel for medical treatment, accompanied by her mother, who was nearly nine months pregnant at the time. They had been living in Jordan as refugees escaping the ongoing Syrian civil war. Though her real identity has been kept anonymous for protection, the Times of Israelhas dubbed the little girl “Nadrah.” When Nadrah was just 6-months-old, Syrian doctors discovered that she had a heart condition, but were unable to treat her due to lack of available medical care. Congenital heart disease plagued Nadrah all her life, preventing her blood from being properly oxygenated and restricting her from running and playing with other children. Upon her arrival in Israel, Nadrah was examined by the Save a Child’s Heart medical team. They then performed open-heart surgery on Nadrah at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. After ten days of recuperation in the center’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Nadrah has made a full recovery. Now, she has the chance to live, to grow, to be a big sister, to have a future.  The Israeli doctors that treated Nadrah were the first Jews that the mother daughter pair had ever seen. The kindness they received in the land of the “enemy” was eye-opening and uplifting.
Though those who make misguided statements about Israel’s lack of charity and selfish ways may have a louder voice, it is those who have benefited from Israel’s assistance that matter most – the American man injured in a hunting accident, rising from his wheelchair to walk across a stage to meet the Israeli inventor of the system that changed his life; the Palestinian family who thanks two grieving Israeli parents for saving the life of their son in the face of their own tragic loss; the Haitian mother who names her child after the country whose doctors delivered him into the world; the Syrian mother who holds her 4-year-old daughter in her arms after she is saved by open-heart surgery in a medical center in Israel. They are Dan Webb, Yakoub Ibhisad, Gubilande Jean Michel, and Nadrah. They are the ones who know Israel’s true nature, and it is their stories of survival and immeasurable gratitude that display the profound impact of Israel’s giving. In the words of the Talmud: “Whoever saves a life, it is as if he saves the entire world.”
Danielle Haberer is a CAMERA Fellow, and a junior at the University of South Florida majoring in mass communications with a concentration in magazine journalism. She spent the past summer in Washington, D.C., completing a fellowship in writing and media advocacy at The Israel Project. On campus, she serves as Vice President of USF Hillel.

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Lebanon calls for 'safe zones' to accommodate Syria refugees - Jpost 

"At the meeting, Obama announced a new $8.7 million aid package to Lebanon that would support its military, suffering from splintering with the growing influence of Hezbollah.

Obama said the US “strongly supports the role of the Lebanese armed forces in maintaining Lebanon’s stability, and today we’re announcing an additional $8.7 million that would provide needed equipment in support of the Lebanese armed forces in internal stability and border security missions.” - Michael Wilner

http://paper.li/allysonchristy/1338794440
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Number of Gaza terror groups possess Strela 2 MANPADS
By DAVID BARNETTSeptember 25, 2013

In March 2005, then Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told senior US officials that some Strela antiaircraft missiles had made their way into the Gaza Strip. Six months later, senior Israeli official Amos Gilad told US officials that "thousands of rifles, rockets, rocket propelled grenades, and maybe even Strela missiles" had been smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
Read more:http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/09/number_of_gaza_terro.php#ixzz2fwJVYe00

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(JNS.org) A Jewish couple and its four-year-old son barely escaped being killed by an Arab lynch mob that had attacked the family's vehicle near Jerusalem's A-Tur neighborhood.
A-tur.jpg
The UN supports this terror - ed
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farrakhanrouhani.jpg

The Iranian delegation may be pariahs inside the UN building, but they've found at least one friend during their visit to New York - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan and his entourage attended a dinner party hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday night. Rouhani’s dinner party was held on the second floor of the One UN Hotel, where the Iranian delegation is staying, and at the same time as President Obama’s party at the Waldorf Astoria just blocks away.
The private dinner party was held just hours after Rouhani’s speech to the general assembly.
Farrakhan and his massive entourage and private security detail were seen departing the hotel around 10 p.m. Tuesday. Pedestrian traffic was stopped while the minister and his group piled into various cars with lights and sirens and New Jersey license plates.

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Islamist Lobbies’ Washington War on Arab and Muslim Liberals


" The most dramatic oppression of the region’s civil societies and the Arab Spring is not by means of weapons, or in the Middle East. It is not led by Gaddafi, Mubarak, Bin Ali, Saleh, or Assad. It is led by the powerful Islamist lobbies in Washington DC. "

The most dramatic oppression of the region’s civil societies and the Arab Spring is not by means of weapons, or in the Middle East. It is not led by Gaddafi, Mubarak, Bin Ali, Saleh, or Assad. It is led by the powerful Islamist lobbies in Washington DC. People may find my words curious if not provocative. But my arguments are sharp and well understood by many Arab and middle eastern liberals and freedom fighters. Indeed, we in the region, who are struggling for real democracy, not for the one time election type of democracy have been asking ourselves since January 2011 as the winds of Arab spring started blowing, why isn’t the West in general and the United States Administration in particular clearly and forcefully supporting our civil societies and particularly the secular democrats of the region? Why were the bureaucracies in Washington and in Brussels partnering with Islamists in the region and not with their natural allies the democracy promoting political forces?

Months into the Arab Spring, we realized that the Western powers, and the Obama Administration have put their support behind the new authoritarians, those who are claiming they will be brought to power via the votes of the people. Well, it is not quite so.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Nahda of Tunisia, the Justice Party of Morocco and the Islamist militias in Libya’s Transitional National Council have been systematically supported by Washington at the expense of real liberal and secular forces. We saw day by day how the White House guided carefully the statements and the actions of the US and the State Department followed through to give all the chances to the Islamists and almost no chances to the secular and revolutionary youth. We will come back to detail these diplomatic and financial maneuvers which are giving victory to the fundamentalists while the seculars and progressives are going to be smashed by the forthcoming regimes.

In the US, there are interests that determine foreign policy. And there are lobbies that put pressure to get their objectives met in foreign policy. One of the most powerful lobbies in America under the Obama Administration is the Muslim Brotherhood greater lobby, which has been in action for many years. This lobby has secured many operatives inside the Administration and has been successful in directing US policy towards the Arab world. Among leading advisors sympathetic to the Ikhwan is Daliah Mogahed (Mujahid) and her associate, Georgetown Professor John Esposito. Just as shocking, there is also a pro-Iranian lobby that has been influencing US policy towards Iran and Hezbollah in the region.

One of the most important activities of the Islamist lobby in the US is the waging of political and media wars on the liberal Arabs and Middle Eastern figures and groups in America. This battlefield is among the most important in influencing Washington’s policies in the Arab world. If you strike at the liberal and democratic Middle Eastern groups in Washington who are trying to gain support for civil societies in the region, you actually win a major battle. You will be able to influence the resources of the US Government to support the Islamists in the Middle East and not the weak democrats. This huge war waged by the Islamist lobbies in America started at the end of the Cold war and continued all the way till the Arab spring. The two main forces of this lobby are the Muslim Brotherhood fronts and the Iranian fronts. According to research available in the US, the Ikhwan fronts such as CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), led by Hamas supporter Nihad Awad, as well as the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Islamic Society of North America, and others waged their political war to block the representatives of Arab liberals and Muslim moderates from making their case to the American public. The Iranian lobby, exemplified by the National Iranian American Committee (NIAC), led by Trita Parsi, has been hitting at Iranian exiles.

Since the 1990s CAIR and its allies have attacked Copts, Southern Sudanese, Lebanese, Syrian reformers, Assyrians and Chaldeans, and Muslim dissidents in the United States. The Ikhwan of America demonized any publication, book, article, or interview in the national media or local press raising the issue of secular freedoms in the Middle East. The Islamists wanted to eliminate the liberal cause in the Arab world and replace it with the cause of the Islamists. What is also shocking is that CAIR and its allies stood by the oppressive regimes and visited them, claiming they speak on behalf of the peoples. CAIR and the Brotherhood fronts in America destroyed systematically every project that would have defended the seculars and liberals originating from the Middle East. The notorious and well-funded Islamists of the US allowed no book, documentary, or show on the liberals in Arab civil societies to see the light.

Thanks to this powerful lobbying campaign, the American public was not given a chance to learn about the deep feelings on the youth in the region. Americans were led to believe that all Muslims, all Arabs and all Middle Easterners were a strange species of humans who cannot appreciate freedom. Instead, the American Islamists, helped by apologists on the petrodollars payrolls, convinced the mainstream media that the Arab world has authoritarians and Islamists only.

Dr Shawki Karas, president of the American Coptic Association, told me in the late 1990s how he was harassed by Islamist activists for speaking up against the Mubarak regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in America. He was threatened with losing his job at the college where he taught. Reverend Keith Roderick, who has assembled a coalition of more than 50 group rights from the Muslim world, was severely attacked by the Islamists and was threatened to be removed from his church position. Muslim American leaders who are conservative and secular, such as Dr Zuhdi Jasser, were crucified by CAIR and the Brotherhood for daring to challenge the Party line of the Isl.amists in America and claiming that the Jihadists are the problem in the region. Muslim liberal dissidents such as Somali Ayan Hirsi Ali, Saudi Ali al Yammi, Syrian Farid Ghadri, Iranian Manda Ervin, and many others were trashed by the Islamist lobbies to block them from defending the causes of secular liberty in the US. Egyptian liberals as well as seculars and democracy activists from Iraq, Sudan, Syria, and other countries have been attacked by CAIR and allies. The pro-Iranian lobby targeted most Iranian-American groups and tried to discredit them, particularly with the rise of the Green Revolution in Iran. By smearing the Muslim liberal exiles, the Islamists were trying to destroy their causes in the mother countries. In the 1990s and the years that followed 9/11 the region’s dictators supported the efforts by Islamist lobbies to crush the liberal exiles. The Mubarak, Bashir, Gaddafi, Assad, and Khomeinist regimes fully supported the so-called Islamophobia campaign waged by CAIR and its Iranian counterpart NIAC against dissidents for calling for secular democracy in the region. The dissidents were accused of being pro-Western by both the Islamists and the dictators.

The Islamist lobbies also severely attacked members of the US Congress such as Democrats Tom Lantos, who has since passed away, Eliot Engel, Howard Berman, Gary Ackerman, and Joe Lieberman as well as Republicans Frank Wolfe, Chris Smith, Trent Franks, John McCain, Rick Santorum, and Sam Brownback for their efforts in passing legislative acts in support for democracy and liberty in the Middle East. CAIR and NIAC heavily savaged President Bush’s speeches on Freedom Forward in the Middle East, deploying all the resources they had to block US support to liberal democrats in the region. Islamist lobbies in Washington are directly responsible for killing any initiative in the US Government to support Darfur, southern Sudan, Lebanon, the Kurds, liberal women in the Muslim world, and true democrats in the Arab world and Muslim Africa.

In the think tank world, CAIR and its allies aggressively attacked scholars who raised the issue of persecution against seculars or minorities in the Arab world and Iran. Among those attacked were Nina Shea and Paul Marshal from the Hudson Institute and the founder of an anti-slavery group, Dr Charles Jacobs, who was exposing the Sudan regime for its atrocities. Last but not least is the Islamists’ relentless campaign to stirke at top scholars who advise Government and appear in the media to push for democratic liberation in the region. The vast and vicious attacks leveled against Professor Walid Phares—initially by CAIR’s Nihad Awad and then widened by pro-Hezbollah and Muslim Brotherhood operatives online—has revealed to Arab and Middle Eastern liberal and seculars how ferocious is the battle for the Middle East in the US. Phares’s books, particularly the latest one, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (2010), hit the Islamist agenda hard by predicting the civil society revolts in the Middle East and then predicting how the Islamists would try to control them. Phares was attacked by an army of Jihadist militia online like no author since Samuel Huntington in the 1990s. As a freedom activist from the Middle East, Mustafa Geha, wrote, Phares is a hero to Muslim liberals. Along with dissidents, lawmakers, experts, and human rights activists, Phares is a force driving for a strategic change in US foreign policy towards supporting secular democracies in the region. This explains why the Islamists of America are fighting the battle for the forthcoming regimes with all the means they have.

Dr. Essam Abdallah is an Egyptian liberal intellectual who teaches at Ain Shams University and writes for the leading Arab liberal publication Elaph.

http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=53331&pageid=44&pagename=Slices
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Chocopologie by Knipschildt

Cost: $2,600 per 450g

Where: Norwalk, Conn.
Web site: www.knipschildt.com

Knipschildt Chocolatier was founded in 1999 by Fritz Knipschildt, who got his culinary education as a chef in Denmark. The most-expensive chocolate he sells–a $250 dark chocolate truffle with a French black truffle inside–is available on a preorder-only basis. It’s made of 70% Valrhona cacao, which is blended into a creamy ganache with truffle oil. The truffle is then hand-rolled with a dark truffle on the inside and dusted with cocoa powder.
.. a dog came by, shortly before the photo was taken, ate the treat, and left behind this .. ed===

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My simple dinner... can't go wrong...
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"Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class."
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Sen. Ted Cruz is still going this morning, speaking for 16+ hours on the Senate floor in his battle to defund #ObamaCare.

Watch live: http://tinyurl.com/n2scoeh

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Rick Warren
Sharing other's pain is the first step in helping them.
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People always need empathy before advice.
#Leadership

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4 her
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William II of England

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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]


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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for September 25th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Obama lied, my health plan died

Like an estimated 22 million other Americans, I am a self-employed small-business owner who buys health insurance for my family directly on the individual market...

Lois Lerner’s ‘punishment’: Retirement with full pension

Remember the State Department scapegoats who were “fired” over Benghazi but later re-hired by John Kerry while subsequently nobody else was held accountable with the possible exception of a guy who made a YouTube video?

And now a word from constitutional scholar Nancy Pelosi

This latest lesson about the founding documents offered by the Dem leader who brought the world “we avow your First Amendment right to own a gun” comes to us courtesy of The Weekly Standard...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Grumpy McGrumperson.

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“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” 1 John 2:1 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Just, and the justifier of him which believeth."
Romans 3:26
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvellous that this very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace! If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is punished for me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished. God must change his nature before one soul, for whom Jesus was a substitute, can ever by any possibility suffer the lash of the law. Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of the believer--having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all that his people ought to have suffered as the result of sin, the believer can shout with glorious triumph, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ, for he hath died, "yea rather hath risen again." My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen.

Evening

"Who of God is made unto us wisdom."
1 Corinthians 1:30
Man's intellect seeks after rest, and by nature seeks it apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Men of education are apt, even when converted, to look upon the simplicities of the cross of Christ with an eye too little reverent and loving. They are snared in the old net in which the Grecians were taken, and have a hankering to mix philosophy with revelation. The temptation with a man of refined thought and high education is to depart from the simple truth of Christ crucified, and to invent, as the term is, a more intellectual doctrine. This led the early Christian churches into Gnosticism, and bewitched them with all sorts of heresies. This is the root of Neology, and the other fine things which in days gone by were so fashionable in Germany, and are now so ensnaring to certain classes of divines. Whoever you are, good reader, and whatever your education may be, if you be the Lord's, be assured you will find no rest in philosophizing divinity. You may receive this dogma of one great thinker, or that dream of another profound reasoner, but what the chaff is to the wheat, that will these be to the pure word of God. All that reason, when best guided, can find out is but the A B C of truth, and even that lacks certainty, while in Christ Jesus there is treasured up all the fulness of wisdom and knowledge. All attempts on the part of Christians to be content with systems such as Unitarian and Broad-church thinkers would approve of, must fail; true heirs of heaven must come back to the grandly simple reality which makes the ploughboy's eye flash with joy, and gladens the pious pauper's heart--"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." Jesus satisfies the most elevated intellect when he is believingly received, but apart from him the mind of the regenerate discovers no rest. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments."
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Today's reading: Song of Solomon 6-8, Galatians 4 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Song of Solomon 6-8

Friends
1 Where has your beloved gone,
most beautiful of women?
Which way did your beloved turn,
that we may look for him with you?
She
2 My beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to browse in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
he browses among the lilies.
He
4 You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,
as lovely as Jerusalem,
as majestic as troops with banners.
5 Turn your eyes from me;
they overwhelm me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
descending from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin,
not one of them is missing....

Today's New Testament reading: Galatians 4

1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you....
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