Monday, October 07, 2013

Mon Oct 7th Todays News

The response of the press is slow to it, but the US is spending too much money on many things it doesn't need. The response of Obama is to raise spending and cut some things the US needs. Ridiculously, federal employees are impeding sightseers so as to prove how essential is the work they are not doing. But while they are not working, they know they will still be paid. Obama is being paid anyways. Some say the President gets paid too much. I disagree. A good President could be paid ten times more and still be worth more. A bad President could be paid nothing and still be an impost on the people.
The response of the press is slow to it, but NSW Opposition leader John Robertson owes the people of NSW, and the ICAC, an explanation of why he did not report a $3 million bribe by the assassinated McGurk. McGurk was apparently assassinated on the order of an ALP financier, and now that death looks, well, suspicious. One can imagine the conversation McGurk had with Robertson over the land Robertson did not own while McGurk was trying to spend $30 million. "Mate, I'll give you 10% to let the deal proceed. It is a good offer." "McGurk! I'm shocked! Obeid has got many more millions for saying no. Anyway, you don't pay me! You pay the slush fund .. get it? The slush fund!"
The press have been admirably quick in the wedding fee charged to taxpayers through expense accounts by members of parliament who were doing their parliamentary duty at said weddings. Unless those weddings were ALP junket trips .. those ones are fair game. As the ALP motto goes, "respect the slush fund"
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns David Huynh, Mysti Chi  and Simon Holland. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
13 BC – Drusus Julius Caesar, Roman son of Tiberius (d. AD 23)
1471 – Frederick I of Denmark (d. 1533)
1866 – Wlodimir Ledóchowski, Polish-Austrian religious leader, 26th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (d. 1942)
1885 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
1919 – Zelman Cowen, Australian politician and academic, 19th Governor-General of Australia (d. 2011)
1935 – Thomas Keneally, Australian author
1939 – Clive James, Australian television host and author
1943 – Oliver North, American military officer, author, and television host
1952 – Vladimir Putin, Russian politician, 4th President of Russia
2001 – Princess Senate Seeiso of Lesotho
Matches
3761 BC – The epoch reference date epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).
1477 – Uppsala University is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal andSpain.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans defeat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.
1800 – French corsair Robert Surcouf, commander of the 18-gun ship La Confiance, captures the British 38-gun Kent inspiring the traditional French song Le Trente-et-un du mois d'août.
1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.
1864 – American Civil War: Bahia Incident: USS Wachusett illegally captures the CSS Florida Confederate raider while in port in Bahia, Brazil in violation of Brazilian neutrality.
1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.
1940 – World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
1942 – World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Armyunits along the Matanikau River.
1944 – World War II: During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down the crematoria.
1985 – The Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestine Liberation Organization.
2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
2003 – A historic recall election takes place in the U.S. State of California in which the sitting Governor Gray Davis a Democrat is overwhelmingly voted out of office. Actor/bodybuilder and Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected to be the 38th Governor of California over fellow Republican Tom McClintock and Democrat Cruz Bustamante who at the time was the sitting Lt. Governor of California. This is the first recall election in the history of the State of California in which a sitting Governor has been successfully recalled from office.
Despatches
336 – Pope Mark
929 – Charles the Simple, French king (b. 879)
1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American author and poet (b. 1809)
1903 – Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (b. 1832)
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No dole for the under 30s?

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (6:33pm)

There’s no fairness in denying the dole if there is no work. But there is no reason for us to pay the dole when there is work to do, and I doubt we’re tough enough in insisting on this:
TONY Abbott has proposed banning the dole for people under 30 in a bid to entice the unemployed to head west and fill massive skill shortages in the booming resources sector.
The Opposition Leader made the controversial remarks during a two-hour meeting with about 15 senior resources industry leaders in Perth on Monday night.
Mr Abbott told the roundtable briefing he believed stopping dole payments to able-bodied young people would take pressure off the welfare system and reduce the need to bring in large numbers of skilled migrants to staff mining projects…
The spokeswoman said Mr Abbott had posed a question about the dole for the benefit of the argument and the debate at the meeting. 

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Not enough of the US government has been shut down

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (8:16am)

How petulant:

How far will the Obama Administration go to make sure the government shutdown is as unpleasant as possible? This far:


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Revolting against Big Government trying to prove it’s essential:

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(Via Instapundit.) 

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Conservatives rule OK

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (7:50am)

In tough times, you look to the adults:
Every major advanced Westminster democracy in the world - Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia - now has a conservative-led government. In 1999 all but two European Union governments were controlled by social democratic parties. Today only 10 out of 28 member states have a centre-left government.
Advertisement
Back in Australia, the latest opinion polls suggest Labor is heading for defeat in state elections in South Australia and Tasmania next year. If this occurs, then every state and the Commonwealth will have a conservative government. The last time that happened was 1970.

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No great scandal: the business of a politician’s “pleasure”

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (7:42am)

John Hewson is largely right:

Coalition MPs are endangering their reputations as economic managers by charging taxpayers for personal indulgences such as wedding travel, warns former leader John Hewson.
The examples:

On Sunday, Fairfax Media revealed that three Coalition MPs - Julie Bishop, Barnaby Joyce and Teresa Gambaro - had claimed more than $12,000 in travel expenses to return from a lavish wedding in India where they were guests of billionaire Gina Rinehart…
Mr Abbott also confirmed he repaid $1095 spent in travelling to the wedding of former colleague Sophie Mirabella seven years ago…
In the past week, Attorney-General George Brandis and Agriculture Minister Mr Joyce reimbursed taxpayers after Fairfax Media revealed they had used public funds to attend the wedding of their friend, broadcaster Michael Smith, in 2011.
But here is why I don’t consider this quite the scandal that the ABC and Fairfax suggest. With most of these weddings - if not all - the politicians would not have been invited and would not have accepted had they not been politicians. These “ personal indulgences” seemed pleasure but were in fact networking, in some cases with journalists. The wedding in India was also, in the way of high finance, a celebration of the tying of the corporate knot between Australia’s richest businesswomen and a very important Indian investor, father-of-the-bride G.V. Krishna Reddy, founder of GVK, one of India’s largest energy and infrastructure companies and a big investor in Australia.  Can anyone seriously argue that it was not to Australia’s advantage to have our now Foreign Minister there, socialising with India’s business elite?  Adding to the complication is that some politicians did other real business on the trips.
Likewise, Abbott’s attendance at Mirabella’s wedding may have been expected of a friend but was required of the party’s leader.
But here is the test. Once the travel was exposed the money in many cases was repaid. The politicians realised the look was bad. Which means, of course, it would have been much smarter, and more noble, not to claim the money in the first place.
Here is one expense not repaid:
Former prime minister Julia Gillard’s office has previously defended her use of a VIP jet to attend the wedding of her press secretary in Byron Bay last March, saying Ms Gillard had other commitments in the area.
UPDATE
Reader Davide wonders why ABC and Fairfax don’t also fuss about us having to pay for another politician’s travel to a wedding:

Then there was of course the attendance of the Royal wedding by Ms. Gillard and her partner, Tim Mathieson. Do not tell me that the venue and the rest of it was not all enjoyment for the couple. Tim certainly thought so and said so. How much did that all cost? How much did Gillard spend on her clothing and who paid for Tim Mathieson’s expenses? Did the PM and her partner have to go to that wedding as a political duty?

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School children bombed

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (7:37am)

Evil seems to have full licence in the Middle East:

A suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with explosives on the playground of an elementary school in northern Iraq on Sunday morning, killing 13 children and the headmaster, the police said.

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How many millions do we want from the Third World?

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (7:26am)

Boat people policy, Immigration
POPE Francis called it a “disgrace”. But the real disgrace is such reckless sanctimony when boat people drown.
A fortnight ago we got it from the Greens, who demanded an inquiry when scores of boat people - many from Lebanon - drowned just 50m off an Indonesian beach.
The guilt is ours because, the Greens complain, “there are no safe or ‘regular’ pathways available” for Third World people to migrate here even when we don’t want them.
The Pope, alas, is no less irresponsible.
Last Thursday some 300 Africans died while trying to smuggle themselves into Italy, and the Pope, hands seeming to shake with anger, railed: “The word disgrace comes to me.”
(Read full article here.) 

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Snatched off the Islamist streets

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (7:14am)


Finally, a little action - but with mixed results:

On Saturday, US troops assisted by FBI and CIA agents seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anas al-Liby, a suspected leader of al-Qaeda, on the streets of Tripoli, while a Navy SEAL team raided the seaside villa of a militant leader in a pre-dawn gun battle on the coast of Somalia.
Abu Anas was indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and had a $US5 million ($5.3 million) bounty on his head.
One trouble with the Somali raid:
Witnesses described a gunfight lasting more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support… A spokesman for al-Shabab said Saturday that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault. US officials initially reported that they had seized the Shabab leader, but later backed off that account.
UPDATE
The Somali raid seems to be have been a little tentative:

After coming under fire, the SEAL team made a “prudent decision” to pull back, a senior U.S. official said. They couldn’t confirm whether they killed their target, the official said.

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What’s the big deal about a $3 million bribe?

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (6:31am)

Of course you wouldn’t report an offer of a massive bribe to the police if you were a union boss or NSW Labor politician:
JOHN Robertson is facing a revolt from Labor MPs, who are plotting to replace him after revelations the Opposition Leader received a $3 million bribe offer when he was a union boss and failed to report it to police...
MPs said yesterday that Shadow Treasurer Michael Daley or former Premier Nathan Rees were likely to be drafted to challenge Mr Robertson with the latest revelations “the last straw” for the electorally unpopular leader.
The Attorney-General Greg Smith said yesterday he would write to the Independent Commission Against Corruption to draw its attention to The Daily Telegraph’s revelations on Saturday about the “alleged offer a bribe to the now Leader of the Opposition"…
Both Mr Daley and upper house Labor leader Luke Foley yesterday refused to back Mr Robertson over the way he handled the attempted $3 million bribe from murdered standover man Michael McGurk.
Mr McGurk allegedly offered a 10 per cent cut on his $30 million bid to buy the union site Currawong off Unions NSW to Mr Robertson in a one-on-one meeting prior to 2007.
Mr Robertson admitted the offer to The Daily Telegraph last week and said he saw no reason to take it to police at the time, saying he “shut it down” before it could go anywhere.  

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Time to challenge the anti-uranium Luddites

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (6:11am)

A rational country would have built this already - and upgraded it to a site for high-level waste from overseas as well:

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a nuclear waste dump are back on the agenda, with the Abbott government commissioning a business case that would allow federal cabinet to consider the project next year and potentially have a facility built by 2019.
Officials in the Department of Industry now have concept designs for a $150 million facility, prepared by experts from Spain’s radioactive waste management agency, to be built at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory pending the outcome of a Federal Court challenge.
If only we’d created a waste site years ago, when Pangea came knocking. We could now be sitting on many decades of fuel supply, given the development of technology to recycle nuclear waste:
Designed by Transatomic co-founders and former MIT researchers Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie, the Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR) updates the technology utilized in the original Oak Ridge experiment. However, the new system is fuel-agnostic and can run on either the uranium or thorium leftovers from light-water reactors. According to Transatomic’s website, their MSR is incredibly efficient—capable of utilizing as much as 98 percent of the remaining fuel’s energy (though even a rate of just 50 percent would be a huge improvement)—since fuel suspended in a liquid medium can remain in a reactor for far longer than as a rod, allowing more of the fuel to be used. What’s more, reusing this waste as a fuel source would reduce their radioactive lifetimes from hundreds of thousands of years to just hundreds.
Or take this Bill Gates-backed project:

By making more efficient use of depleted uranium as fuel, TerraPower’s design results in a lower cost of power.
Here is another exciting technological advance that we let green mystics talk us out of. 

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Warming disasters postponed. No need for Garnaut’s steel roof

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (5:59am)

Global warming - dud predictions
IN 2007 Professor Ross Garnaut was so terrified of global warming he ordered a steel roof for his Melbourne home.
“Australia will experience variable, but dramatic changes in climate with increasing storms,” he explained to the City of Yarra council.
“Severe and more frequent hailstorms will be a feature of this change.”
That’s why he had to be excused from the heritage overlay requiring slate roofs.
How could mere slate save him from the giant hailstones of man-made warming?
Remember, Garnaut was not some street-corner crank. He was the Rudd Government’s chief adviser on global warming policy, designing its carbon tax.
As the climate scare implodes we must hold to account the “experts” who created a panic so absurd that last week singer Bob Geldof was still babbling “there will be a mass extinction event” and “we may not get to 2030”.
In fact, even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body most responsible for this panic, now admits there’s now little evidence warming is bringing that wild weather that once freaked Garnaut.
(Read full article here.) 

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Stronger through immigration

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (5:51am)

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship:
According to the latest Scanlon Foundation social cohesion survey, almost two-thirds of Australians think migration from a diverse range of countries makes us stronger.
Well, immigration from some countries certainly makes bikie gangs stronger:
SUBURBAN Sydney has become the breeding ground for a new generation of bikies, as Gold Coast gangs target young Muslim and eastern European men.
Police sources said gangs such as the Bandidos were embracing multiculturalism, signing up Lebanese, Turkish and Balkan members from across Sydney as they seek to beef up their ranks.
UPDATE
More benefits of mass immigration from Muslim parts of the world:
SYRIA’S two-year-old civil war is spilling on to the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, with advocates on both sides claiming violence and persecution are commonplace.
Sonya El-Abbas, a Melbourne-based nurse who has twice visited Syria to assist in humanitarian relief efforts, said her husband’s car had been firebombed and the family home attacked…
Jamal Daoud, an opponent of the uprising, ... was assaulted on the street, with his attacker convicted.
“For the last one year we have seen a lot of attacks on the Shia,” he said…
In Australia, much of the sectarian division has been played out online, with Facebook pages and websites naming Shia businesses and urging boycotts…
Generally, though, police ... [say] much of the violence thought to have been triggered by the war has in fact been criminal or personal disputes overlaid with a sectarian veneer…
The head of the Australian Syrian Association, Mohammad Al-Hamwi, agreed the war had exacerbated tensions. He had received more than 23 threats on his mobile phone.
So this does not strike me as necessarily in Australia’s interests:
AUSTRALIA will take in 500 Syrian refugees in response to a global call to assist people fleeing the bloody conflict in the Middle Eastern country.
How happy will Syrians be with the other Syrians who forced them to flee to Australia? 

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Victoria’s glory

Andrew Bolt October 07 2013 (12:41am)

With my TV show off the air yesterday, I actually had a weekend - and spent it at one of the too-secret glories of Victoria, the National Rhododendron Garden.  It will be at its best between now and the Melbourne Cup.
I got home and destroyed dug out one huge bush and a big clump of salvia. You just can’t have enough rhododendrons and azaleas. 

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The Enchanted administration building of a municipal government.

The most wonderful City Hall in the world? Definitely looked a but like the land of the mouse here in San Francisco tonight. I'm certain the lighting of our grand palace was for a good reason, but the results were pretty Mickey Mouse... — at San Francisco City Hall.
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Sweet Painted Ladies

Been wanting to get this shot for some time. I had to take my daughter into the city on an errand, so in turn I also had to torture her a little by making her wait for twilight with me for about an hour. The sunset behind me was incredible, but I didn't shoot it. This is why I was here... waiting for people who stepped in front of my camera to remove themselves, one after another...

Why is the theme song from Full House playing in my head now? — at Alamo Square.
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About 78 Iraqis died and another 166 were wounded by radical Islamic terrorists in attacks spreadthroughout Iraq on Saturday, according to counterterrorism analyst George S. Timmons.
The attacks included a large-scale suicide bombing that targeted Shiite Muslims on a pilgrimage while they were in Baghdad, the police and Middle East news media reported.
That bombing left 51 people, including the bomber, dead and 107 others wounded on Saturday evening when the bomber detonated his bomb-laden vest near the Shiite pilgrims in Adhamiya district of Baghdad, noted Timmons.
The pilgrims were on their way to a mosque in the the northern section of Baghdad, he added.
Also on Saturday evening, 11 Iraqis died and another 35 were wounded when another car bomb explodednear a popular cafe in the town of Balad, about 50-miles north of Baghdad.

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Sutton Hoo ship burial helmet

Anglo-Saxon, early 7th century AD
From Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England

This extraordinary helmet is very rare. Only four helmets dating to the early medieval period have been found so far in England: at Sutton Hoo, Benty Grange, Wollaston and York.
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http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/professor-of-neuroeconomics-gregory-berns-reveals-dogs-are-people-too/story-fnjwkt0b-1226734174107
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Headline from Israel!
Only when the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state will there be peace.
Quote from Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister at the annual Bar Ilan Conference;
"Only when they recognize our right to exist in our sovereign state, our national home, only then will peace be possible."
In a half hour address he emphasized that the ongoing refusal to recognize the Jewish state has been the core of the conflict for the last ninety years.
THE LESSONS OF HISTORY.
In this address to the annual Bar Ilan Conference on October 6, 2013, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recommended to the invited guests that they read William J. Durant’s book “The lessons of History.” He said this 100 page book is a remarkable read for any leader wishing to understand the human condition. Here are two quotes I have researched from this book;
“In progressive societies the concentration[of wealth] may reach a point where the strength of number in the many poor rivals the strength of ability in the few rich; then the unstable equilibrium generates a critical situation, which history has diversely met by legislation redistributing wealth or by revolution distributing poverty.”
“The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. The character and contour of a terrain may offer opportunities for agriculture, mining, or trade, but only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform the possibilities into fact...Man, not the earth, makes civilization.” 
Not bad for an author who died over 30 years ago.
On January 4, 2013, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke via video link on a wide screen to the masses in Gaza, who gathered to celebrate the founding of Fatah,(Arabic word for conquest)  otherwise known as the Palestine Liberation Organization
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SatLink Communications..
06 October '13..

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Address at Bar-Ilan University on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies: "The State of Israel's Challenges", October 6, 2013.

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In his speech to the nation on Syria last week, the president twice emphasized that America is not the “world’s policeman.” According to polls, most Americans agree.
Unfortunately, however, relinquishing this role assures catastrophe, both for the world and for America.
This is easy to demonstrate. Imagine that because of the great financial and human price the mayors and city councils of some major American cities decide that they no longer want to police their cities. Individuals simply have to protect themselves.
We all know what would happen: The worst human beings would terrorize these cities, and the loss of life would be far greater than before. But chaos would not long reign. The strongest thugs and their organizations would take over the cities.
That is what will happen to the world if the United States decides — because of the financial expense and the loss of American troops — not to be the “world’s policeman.” (I put the term in quotes because America never policed the whole world, nor is it feasible to do so. But America’s strength and willingness to use it has been the greatest force in history for liberty and world stability.)

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Shimon Peres, John Kerry and Mahmoud Abbas at the World Economic Forum in Amman, 2013

Following the terror attack Saturday in which a terroristshot a nine-year-old girl in the neck at short range, an officialFacebook page run by Fatah praised the attacker, and predicted he would strike again.
The incitement has been reported by watchdog groupPalestinian Media Watch.
Fatah is the organization whose chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, is also Chairman of the PalestinianAuthority (PA), the body that rules over parts of Judea and Samaria since the early 1990s and with which Israel is conducting “peace talks.”
The administrator of the Facebook page makes a connection between the shooting Saturday, which occurred at Psagot, near El Bireh, and the killing of an IDF soldier by a sharpshooter in Hevron two weeks ago.
"The sharpshooter of Palestine has passed here,” the administrator writes. “He greeted Hevron and rested at El Bireh. Between these two parts of the homeland, he left a manly signature. He saluted and went on his way, and went on to a new place with a new signature, as he tells the tale of those who love the homeland.”
The Facebook page is named “Fatah – The Central Page.”
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu mentioned PA incitement when he spoke during the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday and shared his reaction to the terror attack the night before in which 9-year-old Noam Glick was shot at close range.
"The Israeli Government is treating the terrorist attack on the 9-year-old girl from Psagot very seriously. We are not at all pleased that our security and defense measures did not prevent this, during the calmest year in over a decade in terror attacks."
"We have identified an increase in terror attacks lately, and I must say, as long as their media incitement continues, the Palestinian Authority can not absolve themselves of responsibility for these events."
Netanyahu stressed that nothing will help the various inciters and murderers, because "we are here and we are here to stay."
However, he did not announce any ultimatum regarding the continued incitement, and did not say he would cease seeing the PA as a "peace partner."
"From the Government's office, I wish a complete and speedy recovery to little Noam, and extend my support to her family. We are all praying for peace and we support all of the residents of Psagot," Netanyahu summed up.

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1
Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the Istituto Culturale della Comunita Islamica Italiana (Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community) in Rome, who will speak on the sanctity of Jerusalem to the Jewish People.

The sources he intends to quote, from both the Bible and the Qur’an, indicate that, just as Mecca is sacred to Islam, so is Jerusalem sacred to Judaism. He sees no contradiction in the fact that Jerusalem, also sacred to the Muslims, should be under Jewish sovereignty.

As he tells us, he is no politician; he is merely giving us the benefit of his opinion as a theologian, a religious scholar: There is nothing wrong, he says, with Jerusalem being the undivided capital of the Jewish State, under Israeli sovereignty.

Here is ample illustration of my conviction that our ideas may be corroborated from various directions. 

And this is, I repeat, only one of the topics to be discussed here.

I am indebted to President Weizman for hosting the opening session of the seminar. Let me express the hope that our discussions will be interesting and fruitful.

Jerusalem: Three-Fold Religious Heritage for a Contemporary Single Administration

Any discussion of the problem of sovereignty over Jerusalem necessarily means involvement in a kind of investigation that has political, cultural, psychological and religious implications. For Jew or Muslim, religious or secular, thinking of Jerusalem means to feel reason and sentiment mingled together.
In this paper I do not want to enter into specific features directly connected with politics; but, as a Muslim scholar and man of religion, only to try and determine whether, from an Islamic point of view, there is some well-grounded theological reason that makes it impossible for Muslims to accept the idea of recognizing Jerusalem both as an Islamic holy place and as the capital of the State of Israel.


Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the Istituto Culturale della Comunita Islamica Italiana (Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community) in Rome, spoke on the sanctity of Jerusalem to the Jewish People.

The sources he quotes from, both the Bible and the Qur’an, indicate that, just as Mecca is sacred to Islam, so is Jerusalem sacred to Judaism. He sees no contradiction in the fact that Jerusalem, also sacred to the Muslims, should be under Jewish sovereignty.

There is nothing wrong, he says, with Jerusalem being the undivided capital of the Jewish State, under Israeli sovereignty.
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"Dignified Life Grant" for released prisoners awaits Abbas' approval
PM Hamdallah promises higher grants for prisoners


Official PA daily: 
"Money is not an immediate concern... the PA will pay at least 4,000 shekels a month to prisoners released after serving a long prison term, and considers them to be returning soldiers."
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9735
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Recently, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the Palestinian Authority plans to give 5,000 released security prisoners who served more than 5 years in Israeli prisons a "Dignified Life Grant." Most of these prisoners are convicted terrorists. PMW also reported that this announcement of the grant, which will cost the PA budget $15 million this year, appeared in the official PA daily on the same day that the US announced it was contributing $148 million to the PA's budget.

Recently, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah explained that these grants must be approved by PA Chairman Abbas before they can be paid:
"The Prime Minister noted that the 'Dignified Life Grant' for released prisoners requires a resolution issued by President Mahmoud Abbas in order to arrange its payment, as per the fifth article of the Palestinian Basic Law. He said that he has presented the subject of the grant to the President in preparation for legislation that will deal with the matter," reported the official PA daily.
The Prime Minister also stated that "an appropriate monetary payment will be made in the coming days to cover part of the prisoners' release grants."

In another statement Hamdallah emphasized the PA government's intention to raise the prisoners' grants:
"Hamdallah stressed that the government will make every possible effort to assist the prisoners, both by enlarging the grants they receive and by means of rehabilitation programs after their release."  
Hamdallah also vowed not to abandon "the brave prisoners":
"The government has not abandoned and will never abandon the brave prisoners who sacrificed years of their lives for the Palestinian cause and for our national goals..."
PMW has documented that the PA pays salaries to terrorists in prison.

Reporting on Israel's release of 26 prisoners in August as part of a goodwill gesture towards the PA, the official PA daily reported that these prisoners, who "received a hero's welcome... by senior [Palestinian] Authority officials and by their relatives" would receive grants:
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Is the west mug enough to fall for this? (Don’t all answer at once)

Posted by Melanie Phillips



It looks as if the strategy for Iran’s eventual victory over the west is now reaching its end game, and is playing out exactly as foretold in these columns.
Ever since it declared war upon the west in 1978, the Iranian regime has played the west for the suckers they are.
First, even though Iran repeatedly attacked it through terrorist atrocities against civilians or on the battlefield in Iraq, this supine western world turned the other cheek. Rather than respond appropriately to such acts, it pretended the ongoing Iranian war against the west, which was claiming the lives of US and British soldiers as well as hundreds of civilians, wasn’t happening at all.
Next, Iran was handed the supreme gift of President Obama who, by his vapid approach to a regime intent upon manufacturing a nuclear arsenal with which to achieve its murderous and genocidal ends, gave it the vital time it needed to spin its centrifuges as well as advance towards strategic domination of the Middle East.
Next, it finally got rid of its crude demagogue President Ahmadinejad, who had embarrassed the regime by revealing all too clearly its deep hatred towards the Jews and its psychopathic goal of wiping out Israel, and replaced him by the serpentine President Rohani, whose self-declared skill at playing the west for suckers was immediately demonstrated when western politicians purred with pleasure at his ‘moderation’.
This, of course, was the same ‘moderate’ Rohani who had helped Ayatollah Khomeini found the Iranian revolutionary terrorist regime in the first place; has expressed anti-Jewish views and lauded ‘the beautiful chant of “Death to America”’; defended Hezbollah as a ‘legitimate political group’ and called Israel a ‘terrorist nation’; and served as Chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council from 1989 until 2005, during which time the Council is reported to have helped mastermind the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (although it is said Rohani was not personally involved in planning such attacks).
And then another great gift fell into the lap of the Iranian regime when President Obama, through his Syria debacle, effectively outsourced the role of policing the free world to its enemy – and Iran’s protector and arms supplier – President Putin, who instantly became the pivotal player in the Middle East.

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Antisemitism02

Here is an editorial that should run in every paper in Europe and the Arab world. Ali Salim is a Muslim based in the Middle East.
"Hatred of Jews" by Ali Salim September 16, 2013
We Muslims make the mistake of thinking Europeans really care about is, especially the Palestinians. We are wrong. Europeans simply hate the Jews more than they hate and fear us. The bitter truth is that Europeans usually intervene in a crisis only if it gives them an opportunity for Jew-bashing. It does not even mention Syria, or the rapes of women and children, and the beheadings, to say nothing of exploitation, discrimination, slavery, and other crimes against humanity.
No matter how hard or how often we Muslims try, we are never able finally to end the connection our lives seem to have with the lives of the Jews. Watching Arab and Islamic television, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, brings the viewer to the inescapable conclusion that we have no real lives of our own, no unity and no value: our only motivation is having the Jews as a common enemy, with our lives dependent on them. We treat the Jews the way the rabid Christian anti-Semites treated them in the Middle Ages, blaming them for every illness, tragedy and misfortune. We blame them for the failures of Islam while only we are at fault for the catastrophes that befall us.
Almost no Ramadan evening goes by without tedious "historical" dramas on Al-Jazeera and the other Arab TV channels, whose objective is to brainwash viewers with anti-Semitic propaganda. They deal with the Jews' denial of the Prophet Muhammad's message, Jewish attempts to poison him and their betrayal of him at the Battle of the Trench in Al-Medina. Almost all the series' end on the same note: the message is always that the fate of the Jews in the Palestine they stole from the Arabs will be the same as that Muhammad wreaked on them at Khybar, they will be slaughtered and their women and children will be sold into slavery.

That kind of incitement lends the Jews a Satanic power, it makes us think they can manipulate events around the world and are historically responsible for planning and carrying out every evil that exists. In reality, however, all it does is glorify their capabilities and achievements to the extent of turning them into a self-important legend. Thus we ourselves construct the myth of the genius of the Jews, their intellectual might and creative talents, while personally I am not entirely sure they deserve the reputation: they are mere mortals like everyone else, and often less.
In my opinion, the situation has reached such proportions within the nation of Islam that it is now a national mental illness, a collective obsession for which I see no cure. We accuse the Jews of wanting to rule the world, but one of the causes of our illness is that we expect Islam to take over the world.
Regression and the lack of social and governmental flexibility, along with poverty and ignorance, perpetuate the impotence of the nation of Islam and make it impossible for us to change, develop and progress -- a frustrating, ugly situation. While we have dreams of ruling the world, we wallow in disease and poverty, and we are behind the times in all the modern fields of endeavor. Our various regimes enjoy religious and tribal backing, that is why they are anti-democratic and cannot be saved. We find comfort only in recklessly bringing untold masses of children into a world with nothing to offer them.
The countries of western Europe were all lucky enough, or wise enough, to cast off the political rule of fanaticism in the Middle Ages and to separate church and state. Today Christianity is a normative social value, a matter of personal conscience, and it dictates and practices enlightenment rather than violence and oppression. The separation of church and state made it possible for Europeans – and Americans – to progress, and it gave them a tremendous advantage over the rest of the world. We, on the other hand, are still living in the Dark Ages.
The Christians' enlightened, moderate attitude toward the Islamic communities in European cities, which is partially a function of fear, causes our extremist Muslim brothers to escalate their violence toward the communities hosting them, mistakenly assuming that Christian moderation is the result of the weakness of Western society. The result is that as time passes Islamophobia grows greater.

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Several prominent Egyptian media sources are reporting that Malik Obama, half-brother to President Barack Obama is quickly becoming a person of interest in that country relative to his role with the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO) – based in bordering Sudan – and the larger Muslim Brotherhood umbrella group. Complaints have been filed with Egypt’s Prosecutor General that call for Malik to be put on Egypt’s terror watch list and brought in for questioning about his role in financing terrorism.
Egypt's Attorney General: Hisham Barakat
Egypt’s Attorney General: Hisham Barakat
The following is a direct translation from an article from Youm7:
“Dr. Ahmed Nabil Ganzory, in his capacity as lawyer and agent for Dr. Sadik Rauf Obeid, and resident in the United States of America, filed a complaint with Egypt’s Attorney General Hisham Barakat, against Malik Obama, accusing him of supporting terrorism in Egypt and for his involvement in managing the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO). The complaint also asks to include Chancellor Tahani Al-Jebali to substantiate claims against Obama…
Complaint No. 1761 for the year 2013 reported to the Attorney General asked the Egyptian High Court to consider the suspicious activity of a group called the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), which is owned and managed by Malik Obama. This group is now being investigated by international bodies and the attached evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that a close link exists between Malik Obama and some of the most notorious characters already wanted for their involvement in terrorism, as is consistent with the pictures and reports attached…
The complaint also asks the court to bring in Malik Obama – a resident of the United States – to be questioned in regards to the terrorist groups in Egypt, whether by inciting or participating with or in any form of support punishable by law. It seeks permission to declare Obama a defendant in his right outside Egypt diplomatically, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the case of non-appearance and compliance for the investigation, the complainant requests monitoring [Mr. Obama] by including his name on all Egyptian airports and ports, and take the necessary legal steps.” {emphasis ours}
Note that the complaint also calls for the inclusion of Tahani Al-Jebali, former Chancellor of the Constitutional Court of Egypt and current adviser. This is indeed significant because Jebali has already gone on public record with claims that Barack Obama’s brother is a major player with the Muslim Brotherhood. As we reported at the time, Jebali’s claims corroborated our claims, as does the aforementioned complaint.
Ganzory, the man who filed the complaint, is identified as an Egyptian constitutional law expert. He was recently interviewed by El-Balad TV and said the following during that interview:
“I have what it takes to convict Obama’s brother in financiering terrorism.”
He added…
“Malik Obama will be brought to face justice in Egypt if and when these charges are proven.”
Here is that interview (it is in Arabic but you can hear Ganzory say “Malik Obama” at the :17 mark):

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A volunteer with the Magen David Adom first aid service was forced on Sunday to remove his jacket with the organization’s emblem before he was allowed to enter the Temple Mount. The emblem of Magen David Adom is a red Star of David.
The volunteer, Yonatan Tal, recalled the incident in a conversation with Arutz Sheva.
"I went up to the Temple Mount as I usually do. The weather was cooler so I put on my jacket [with the Magen David Adom emblem],” said Tal, who pointed out that the compound had been packed with tourists. As his turn came to enter, recalled Tal, he was called aside by a police officer who ordered him to remove his jacket. When Tal asked why he had to remove his jacket in order to enter the Temple Mount, the officer argued that this was the procedure.
Tal, who refused to accept this answer, demanded to know if there is a prohibition to ascend the Temple Mount while wearing a jacket. "He (the officer) tried to avoid answering the question, but in the end he had to admit that he was ordering me to take off the jacket because of the red Star of David that is sewn on it.”
Tal noted that the order was puzzling, particularly because of the stepsthat had been taken by Magen David Adom to join the Red Cross and thereby receive international recognition. Furthermore, he noted, as a Magen David Adom volunteer who resides in the Judea and Samaria community of Beit Hagai, he often cooperates with the Red Crescent, yet is denied entry to the Temple Mount because he wears a jacket with Israel’s national symbol.
Following the conversation with the officer, Tal told Arutz Sheva, he wasforced to remove his jacket and only got it back when he left the compound. He called on Israelis to pressure the government to allow Jewish worship on the Temple Mount.
“If every one of us will devote one morning once a month and take the time to visit the Temple Mount, it will certainly change the situation and bring about a normal reality whereby Jews control the Temple Mount,” he said.
Tal’s experience on the Temple Mount is another example of Israeli police capitulating to the demands of the Waqf, which was left in charge of the Temple Mount after Israel liberated it during the 1967 Six Day War.
Police, in an attempt to appease the Waqf, limit the number of Jewish worshippers allowed on the Temple Mount at one time in order to prevent conflict with Muslim worshippers.

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That was the exclamation of my 1-year-old as my husband tried to help him put the clean spoons back in the drawer. At the time, we thought it was cute how he was able to articulate what he wanted and so adamantly stand up for himself. Little did we know how much the intensity of that moment would permeate nearly every interaction we would have together over the next several years. Our son is a strong-willed child. His tenacious spirit and persistent personality often challenge our efforts in parenting him. Even the most mundane tasks become a battle, and not a day goes by in which our decisions aren’t questioned or countered. Like us, so many other parents find themselves in a similar situation; their children’s strong-willed temperaments can be difficult to connect with, difficult to guide, difficult to endure.
For parents of kids who are spirited or strong-willed, guiding them through their development while maintaining a connected relationship can be challenging. How is it possible to parent lovingly and effectively? Here are three leading principles in parenting a strong-willed child that will keep your relationship secure and embrace your child’s strong spirit.

Turn into the skid
If you’ve ever hit a skid while driving, you know that suddenly heading a different direction while out of your control is scary. Your first instinct may be to think, “No! This isn’t right; this isn’t the direction I need to go.” Your instinct might be to jerk the wheel back to your intended path. However, when your car is skidding, what is actually the most effective way to get back on the road? By turning into the skid first. Then you’re able to slow the momentum and gain some traction.
Dr. Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D. and author of Hold on to Your Kids, says that strong-willed children have similar reactions to a hard turn away from a skid. “Counterwill is an instinctive, automatic resistance to any sense of being forced,” says Dr. Neufeld. “It is triggered whenever a person feels controlled or pressured to do someone else’s bidding.” This is actually a positive attribute, as it protects children from being influenced or pressured from anyone to whom they do not have an emotional connection. When you find yourself at odds with your strong-willed child’s energy, find a way to join her where she is—in other words, turn into the skid—in order to redirect that momentum. Connect with your child by acknowledging her feelings and understanding her perspective:
  • I can tell that you’re really upset.
  • You are having such a fun time playing this game!
  • You are sad to say goodbye.
  • You feel very strongly about this.
  • You need to be able to make your own decisions.
  • You are feeling so angry right now.
  • You must feel like you don’t have any control.
  • You really want to play with your friends right now.
  • You were hoping to have a biscuit.
  • You love that toy, and you’re upset that you can’t have it.
  • You wish you didn’t have to get dressed right now.
  • You’d prefer to stay home today and not go anywhere.
  • Yeah, I can understand that.

For strong-willed children, the need to be heard and understood is especially important, as their energy can be so powerful in the opposite way. Coming alongside children through empathy, validation, and acceptance allows them to feel connected enough to steer their energy in the desired direction.

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Miwok Beach Sunset

Shot this last night. Feeling peaceful after General Conference. — at Miwok Beach.
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Barak Obama Hussein II born in Kenya in 1961

This is the birth certificate of Barak Obama Hussein II, President of the United States of America, born in Kenya on August 4th, 1961. 

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"Just give me an hour and I will give you a whole new life." -Jesus
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin

PRAY ALONG.
Father in heaven,I thank You for making me a new creation. Thank You for empowering me to live as an overcomer. Thank You for Your Word which so beautifully directs my steps. Today I step forward in confidence knowing that You are with me. I shake off negative words from the past and choose to forgive those who have hurt me. Thank You for leading me into victory. I give this day to You and ask that You help me to fully understand the plan You have for me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
=
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
(2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

Everyone loves to get something new. But as a believer in Jesus, you’re not only getting something new, you are something new. You are a brand new creation. Your eternal being, your spirit, is re-created in Christ. The old is gone, the new has come. You may not necessarily feel new right away. That’s because the Bible tells us that we are to “work out” our salvation. That means you have to retrain your body and mind to act, think, speak and live according to God’s ways instead of the old habits you used to have. Don’t ever get stuck in the rut of thinking, “I’ll never change...that’s just the way I am.” No, the Bible says that the Spirit of God aids us in our weakness. He gives us strength to overcome. He empowers us to live as more than conquerors in this life.You are a new creation,God bless you.
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Heavenly Father, I know what you’ve put on the inside of me. By faith I see the dreams you’ve given me coming to pass, no matter what my circumstances are. I am full of Your power and I’m ready to become everything you created me to be. I choose to trust You with my whole heart. I know there is nothing too hard for You. Help me to stand strong in faith and keep me close to You all the days of my life, In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1, NKJV)

Are you expecting your dreams to come true? It’s important to look beyond present circumstances and believe for God’s best. Someone battling sickness may say, “I could never be healthy.” Or, “This report from the doctor says too many things are wrong with me.” What they don’t realize is their lack of faith is holding them back from receiving God’s best. They allow adversities to keep them from moving forward. And that’s just what the enemy wants, to keep your dreams from taking root and being fulfilled.

Our God-given dreams are like seeds planted deep within our hearts. For those dreams to grow, they must take root. Having faith for your dream means you believe it on the inside before it takes place on the outside. In other words, you’ve got to see those dreams coming to pass no matter what’s going on around you.

Get a vision on the inside of what God wants for you. He wants you to accomplish the plans He’s put in your heart. Look out through eyes of faith and see your dreams coming to pass. See yourself walking in abundance in every area of life.God bless you.
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Father, I invite You to dwell in my thoughts, heart and attitude. I choose to follow Your example and bring good to others. Help me to be a pure reflection of Your love in everything I do in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Pastor Rick Warren

Dear friends who connect with me on INSTAGRAM (pastorRickWarren) where I post personal photos - this is a fun jab for you who feel compelled to always show us everything you eat!!
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God doesn't give his GRACE to be debated. He gives it to be enjoyed and freely given to others.
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One proof the Bible is no ordinary book is that it has survived all critics, every misuse, and 2000 years of bad preaching, yet it is still the most-read, most-translated, and most-purchased book. Nothing else comes close.
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Thousands of you have written to Kay or me over the past 2 weeks about mental illness in your family or the suicide of someone you love. Kay and I pray for you even when we can't respond to every note. We are working on a plan to help. WE LOVE YOU.

If you want to be on our personal mailing list about this subject, email the words MENTAL ILLNESS or SUICIDE to PastorRick@saddleback.com. God is with you, and we are in this together.

"For God doesn't give us a spirit of fear; He give us a spirit of POWER, and a spirit of LOVE, and A SOUND MIND." 2 Timothy 1:7
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Demonizing Israel? Who, Us?

The Independent Denies Demonization

The Independent denies demonizing Israel despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Read more...

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Irish Times Hate

A hate-filled and one-sided screed from a Trotskyite radical claims that Israeli treatment of Palestinians "shows the hatred behind official Israeli ideology." Read more... 

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Hua Guofeng
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“Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.”Isaiah 26:4 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst."
John 4:14
He who is a believer in Jesus finds enough in his Lord to satisfy him now, and to content him for evermore. The believer is not the man whose days are weary for want of comfort, and whose nights are long from absence of heart-cheering thought, for he finds in religion such a spring of joy, such a fountain of consolation, that he is content and happy. Put him in a dungeon and he will find good company; place him in a barren wilderness, he will eat the bread of heaven; drive him away from friendship, he will meet the "friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Blast all his gourds, and he will find shadow beneath the Rock of Ages; sap the foundation of his earthly hopes, but his heart will still be fixed, trusting in the Lord. The heart is as insatiable as the grave till Jesus enters it, and then it is a cup full to overflowing. There is such a fulness in Christ that he alone is the believer's all. The true saint is so completely satisfied with the all-sufficiency of Jesus that he thirsts no more--except it be for deeper draughts of the living fountain. In that sweet manner, believer, shalt thou thirst; it shall not be a thirst of pain, but of loving desire; thou wilt find it a sweet thing to be panting after a fuller enjoyment of Jesus' love. One in days of yore said, "I have been sinking my bucket down into the well full often, but now my thirst after Jesus has become so insatiable, that I long to put the well itself to my lips, and drink right on." Is this the feeling of thine heart now, believer? Dost thou feel that all thy desires are satisfied in Jesus, and that thou hast no want now, but to know more of him, and to have closer fellowship with him? Then come continually to the fountain, and take of the water of life freely. Jesus will never think you take too much, but will ever welcome you, saying, "Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved."

Evening

"He had married an Ethiopian woman."
Numbers 12:1
Strange choice of Moses, but how much more strange the choice of him who is a prophet like unto Moses, and greater than he! Our Lord, who is fair as the lily, has entered into marriage union with one who confesses herself to be black, because the sun has looked upon her. It is the wonder of angels that the love of Jesus should be set upon poor, lost, guilty men. Each believer must, when filled with a sense of Jesus' love, be also overwhelmed with astonishment that such love should be lavished on an object so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we do our secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and black-heartedness, we are dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and sovereignty of grace. Jesus must have found the cause of his love in his own heart, he could not have found it in us, for it is not there. Even since our conversion we have been black, though grace has made us comely. Holy Rutherford said of himself what we must each subscribe to--"His relation to me is, that I am sick, and he is the Physician of whom I stand in need. Alas! how often I play fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I loose; he buildeth, I cast down; I quarrel with Christ, and he agreeth with me twenty times a day!" Most tender and faithful Husband of our souls, pursue thy gracious work of conforming us to thine image, till thou shalt present even us poor Ethiopians unto thyself, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Moses met with opposition because of his marriage, and both himself and his spouse were the subjects of an evil eye. Can we wonder if this vain world opposes Jesus and his spouse, and especially when great sinners are converted? for this is ever the Pharisee's ground of objection, "This man receiveth sinners." Still is the old cause of quarrel revived, "Because he had married an Ethiopian woman."
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Today's reading: Isaiah 26-27, Philippians 2 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 26-27

A Song of Praise
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.
5 He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
6 Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor....

Today's New Testament reading: Philippians 2

Imitating Christ’s Humility
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
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Moses

[Mō'zez] - drawn forth, taken out of the water or a son. The youngest son of Amram and Jochebed, of the family of Kohath (Exod. 2:10-21; Acts 7:20-38; Heb. 11:24, 25).

The Man Who Was God's Friend

The great Hebrew leader and legislator was born at the time the king of Egypt had resolved on the destruction of every newly born male child among the Israelites. The story of his rescue from the water by Pharaoh's daughter, of her adoption of him as her own son and his royal upbringing has charmed our hearts from earliest years.
It would take a volume in itself to fully expound the virtues and vicissitudes of Moses the historian, orator, leader, statesman, legislator and patriot. His greatest honor, however, was the privilege of being known as "the friend of God." What holy intimacy existed between God and this prophet so supernaturally guided and aided in his life and labors! No wonder this mighty leader of Israel was David Livingstone's favorite Bible hero!
Moses lived for 120 years, a period divided into three sections of forty years each:
The first forty years - from his birth until the flight into Midian. As Pharaoh's son, Moses learned how to be somebody.
The second forty years - from the flight into Midian to the Exodus. In desert places he learned how to become anobody.
The third forty years - from the Exodus to his own exodus. As the leader of God's hosts he learned that god was everybody - the One he could speak to face to face as a man speaks to his friends.
The remarkable life of Moses can be viewed under three more aspects:
I. The moment when he turned fully to God.
II. The moment when he absolutely broke with the world. The refusal and choice of Hebrews 11:24, 25 must be carefully noted. It is not enough to refuse - we must choose. We must back up a negative with a positive.
III. The moment when between himself and God there was the sprinkled blood, the blood of atonement.
Further, Moses, the Law-giver in Israel, supplies us with a fitting type of Christ. Taken together we have these similarities which pastors can develop:
Both were preserved from the perils of infancy (Exod. 2:2-10with Matt. 2:14, 15).
Both were tempted but had mastery over evil ( Exod. 7:11 withMatt. 4:1).
Both knew what it was to fast for forty days (Exod. 34:28 withMatt. 4:2). Solitude was their strength.
Both had power to control the sea (Exod. 14:21 with Matt. 8:26).
Both fed a multitude ( Exod. 16:26 with Matt. 14:20, 21).
Both had a radiant face (Exod. 34:35 with Matt. 17:2).
Both endured murmurings (Exod. 15:24 with Mark 7:2).
Both were discredited at home (Num. 12:1 with John 7:5).
Both were mighty intercessors ( Exod. 32:32 with John 17).
Both spoke as the oracles of God (Deut. 18:18 with John 7:46).
Both had seventy helpers (Num. 11:16, 17 with Luke 10:1).
Both established memorials ( Exod. 12:14 with Luke 22:19).
Both reappeared after death (Matt. 17:3 with Acts 1:3).
Moses gave us the first five books of the Old Testament, known as The Pentateuch . When Jesus said, "Moses wrote of me," He set His seal to the Mosaic authorship of these books. Moses died in the plains of Moab. At the ripe age of 120 years, while yet "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated," God called His faithful servant to climb Nebo's lonely mountain, where, upon its summit he was kissed to sleep by the angels and God buried him - the only man in the Bible to have God as his undertaker (Deut. 34:6).
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October 6, 2011
I Have a Shepherd
Today's Truth
Know that the Lord is God. He made us, and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep he tends.
(Psalm 100:3, NCV)
Friend to Friend
Shepherding was one of the oldest callings in Israel, even before farming. Shepherds traveled from place to place, living in tents while driving their flocks from one pasture to another. The sheep and their shepherd lived together every minute of every day. In fact, they were so intimately bound together that individual sheep, even when mixed with other flocks, could recognize the voice of their own shepherd and would come immediately when called by name.
A shepherd owned and marked his sheep. In some cases, the sheep were even branded, although branding is no longer an accepted method of identification because of the damage it does to the wool. Today, the ears of sheep are pierced with identification tags, but for thousands of years, shepherds around the world marked their sheep by notching their ears with a sharp knife. Each shepherd had his own distinctive notch that indicated identity and ownership.
When we come to Jesus Christ in complete surrender and begin the journey of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ, we are redeemed by His forgiveness, made whole by His grace and marked with His love through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
You were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13, NIV).
For years, I desperately struggled to be a Christian with only head knowledge of who God was and wanted to be in my life. The result was a pitifully shallow existence with stress and frustration as my constant companions. To make things worse, I was up to my neck in ministry at the time.
I grew up in a Christian home, attending church just about every time the doors were open. I sang all of the right songs, spoke all of the right words and did all of the right things in front of all the right people. I fervently prayed that my works would validate my faith and desperately hoped that by following the rules, I would please the Ruler. It was not until middle school that the authentic life and spiritual integrity of a dynamic youth pastor made me hunger and thirst for something more. I wanted to know God - not only as my Lord and King - but as my Shepherd, the one who would lead me, provide for me and love me like no other.
During a special Saturday evening revival service at our small country church, I sat in my usual spot, desperately clutching the back of the pew in front of me while wrestling with God over the condition of my soul and my eternal security. After all, I was a very active church member, a soloist and pianist for our worship services, and even directed a children's choir. I never missed a service unless I was deathly ill. I was a leader in our youth group, rarely failed to attend a youth activity and often brought friends who were lost, unlike me, of course, and needed to know God. How embarrassing to walk down that aisle, admitting to everyone that I had been living a lie. I clung to that pew in sheer arrogance and argued that I was a Christian. I must be - right? Look at all of the good things I had done. I looked like a believer, talked like a believer and even acted like I was fully devoted to God.
Then a startling certainty hit me like a ton of bricks! I knew allabout God but I did not know Him. It wasn't enough for me or for God. I have come to realize that God's perfect love settles for nothing less than an intimate and loving relationship with His children. That night I met Jesus Christ as I surrendered all that I knew about myself to all that I knew about Him.
While the course of my life was changed forever, I quickly discovered I still had to deal with life on a daily basis and still had to face stressful situations. I also discovered who I really am - a sheep - and being a sheep is awesome! When I am afraid, Jesus Christ is there to bring peace. When my heart is broken, the Holy Spirit comforts and restores me. Even when I found myself in a deep, dark pit of clinical depression, Jesus Christ, my Shepherd, led me from the darkness into the light.
I began to understand the incredible truth that Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, has planned my very existence, prepared a plan in response to His love for me, and even made provision for the payment of my past, present and future sin. I am wanted, chosen and marked for God. I no longer have to live life on my own because I have a Shepherd. God's love precedes me, goes before me and surrounds me as I live each day. Knowing we are loved fosters peace in our hearts, and when our hearts are filled with peace, there is little room for stress.
Actually, when you think about it, sheep don't come across as stressed-out creatures. In fact, they seem almost oblivious to danger. Sheep don't seem to worry about where their next meal is coming from, if they will have a place to sleep each night, when the next enemy or thief will attack, or even what the next day holds. When sheep are sick or in need, they simply turn to their Shepherd, instinctively knowing He will take care of them and comfort them until healing comes.
We need to remember and often revisit the fact that we are all sheep and that Jesus Christ really is our Shepherd and nothing else really matters.
Let's Pray
Thank You, Lord, for being so faithful to me - even when my faith is small and my strength is gone. Help me learn how to trust You more and turn to You first when I am in trouble. I surrender my fears to You, Lord. I need Your love and guidance to get me through each day. I need Your protection from people and circumstances that are harmful. You are my Source and my Deliverer. Help me choose to trust You in such a way that brings You glory and honor.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Now It's Your Turn
Record the following promises in your journal. Beside each promise, write the words of Psalm 23 that substantiate that promise. I have listed a few to help you get started.
God promises to meet every need in my life. "I shall not want."
God gives me rest and peace. "He leads me beside quiet waters."
God gives my life purpose and direction._________________________________________
God comforts me when my heart is broken. ______________________________________
God promises that He will never leave me._______________________________________
God gives me victory over my enemies. _________________________________________
God promises me eternal life. _________________________________________________
More from the Girlfriends
Need help? Mary's book, Escaping the Stress Trap, is based on Psalm 23 and is a step-by-step plan for dealing with the stress in life and learning to truly trust God.
Come as You Are, Mary's NEW Online Bible Study, has just begun. Enroll before October 15 and have access to all 2011 lessons. Need a friend? Connect with Mary on Facebook or through email.
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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P31Header
Marybeth Whalen
October 6, 2011
Running Aground
Marybeth Whalen
"Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island."Acts 27:26 (NIV)
Have you ever been going along, intent in your calling, certain of your direction, sure of God's goodness, only to have something happen that throws you completely off course?
When my husband and I resolved to become financially sound, we were dismayed to quickly have an appliance break, shelling out the entire emergency fund we'd built up to repair it. Instead of moving forward we were going backwards.
We had two choices to make at that moment: thank God that we had the money to cover the repair or doubt God's sovereignty in allowing the appliance to break.
In the book of Acts, chapter twenty-seven, Paul tells the people he is traveling with that God has called them to their mission. Not only that, he is certain the Holy Spirit is on their side. And yet, for reasons he doesn't go into, we read in our key verse that he also tells them they must run aground, which means they'd be delayed on some island before their purpose would be accomplished.
This delay, it turns out, is part of the plan. This setback is actually sovereign. But of course at that moment they can't see that. All they can see is a looming shipwreck, a deserted island.
Perhaps you are on your own deserted island-a personal exile that has been painful and prolonged. You wonder if God sees where you are, if He cares. You remember the time you were moving along, the wind in your sails, full speed ahead. And you miss that time. You wish God would rescue you from the island, put you back on course. Perhaps you're beginning to doubt God really does have a plan for you.
I don't know what your deserted island looks like. It might be the desolation of a marriage, the barren land of motherhood, the wasteland of a career. It might be the emptiness of simply not knowing what your purpose-your passion-really is, even as you watch other women seem to steam forward.
When I start to feel this way, I think about this verse. I remember that even Paul ran aground, even Paul faced setbacks. But I also remember that the island wasn't the end of the story. Rescue was coming. Running aground doesn't mean you've run outside of God's will. It might just mean you are exactly where you're supposed to be. Use this time to increase your trust in God and to see Him work on your behalf, even when the palm trees obscure your view.
Dear Lord, I admit I've been feeling lost and forgotten on this island. I haven't realized that this setback might just be what You allowed. Help me to find You, even in this. Help me to press into You and to trust Your goodness and love. I can't wait to see what waits for me on the other side of this island. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Related Resources:
Do You Know Him?
She Makes It Look Easy by Marybeth Whalen.
Visit Marybeth's blog for more encouragement.
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:
Spend some time today reflecting on the desert islands you've run aground on in the past. Think about what waited on the other side of that setback.
Reflections:
Am I struggling with a setback today? How can this verse serve as a comfort to me as I wait and trust?
Power Verses:
Acts 27:25, "So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me." (NIV)
Psalm 23:6, "Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." (NIV 1984)
© 2011 by Marybeth Whalen. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 31 Ministries
616-G Matthews-Mint Hill Road
Matthews, NC 28105
www.Proverbs31.org
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Billy Graham TV Special
Watch this month’s Billy Graham TV Specialfeaturing our new Search for Jesus Internet evangelism project. Each day, countless people enter the largest arena in history—the World Wide Web—to seek answers to their deepest hurts and longings. Now we can point them to their only hope—Jesus Christ. More than 350,000 people have found Gospel presentations on our new site after searching the Internet with questions ranging from “God, where are you?” to “How do I end my life?”—and over 40,000 of them have made decisions for Christ. See how lives have been transformed through this powerful communications tool and how you can get involved.
Watch the all-new Billy Graham TV Special.
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Why Weren't Jesus' Legs Broken on the Cross?

Today's reading: John 19:28-37
Breaking the legs of victims on the cross was a common practice by the Romans to speed up death. Soldiers would use the steel shaft of a short Roman spear to shatter the person's lower leg bones. This would prevent the individual from pushing up with his legs so he could breathe, and death by asphyxiation would result in a matter of minutes.
When the soldiers approached Jesus, they determined that he was already dead, and one used his spear to pierce Jesus' side to confirm it (see John 19:34). This fulfilled another Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah: his bones would remain unbroken (see Psalm 34:19-20).
Adapted from interview with Dr. Alexander Metherell.
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Today's reading is from theThe Case for Christ Study Bible
by Zondervan

Investigate the Bible's most compelling claims: the existence of a compassionate God and the promise of eternal life through His Son, Jesus.


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Job's Performance Review

This week's reading: Job 22:1-30
Former hockey goalie Jacques Plante once quipped, "How would you like a job where, if you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and eighteen thousand people boo?"
Job didn't face eighteen thousand booing people. Just a few so-called friends who made false accusations about his performance as a righteous man. Eliphaz started his attack on Job by criticizing his supposed lack of holiness. He accused Job of withholding water from the thirsty, keeping food from the hungry and turning away widows. Eliphaz claimed that Job's problems stemmed from his wicked heart.
However, Eliphaz's criticism was unfounded. God wouldn't have made Job the poster child of righteousness if he'd really committed such horrible acts.
We all deal with criticism. But how we respond to it often determines how we feel about ourselves. Most of us respond in one of three ways: (1) We deny the accusation; (2) we become defensive and feel victimized; or (3) we look for what might be true about the criticism and weed out what's not true.
Quite often critics just want to help solve problems-they're not out to get the person they're evaluating. If someone's criticism carries a seed of truth, we need to acknowledge our mistakes and make corrections in that area of life. By doing this, we honor the critic's judgment. And we show a willingness to take responsibility without feeling victimized.
However, some critics use words to degrade and control others. We don't have to let them make our lives miserable. Job allowed Eliphaz to vent, but Job didn't let the criticism define him. He was secure in the integrity of his actions, and that allowed him to deflect unfounded criticism.
Poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring." False criticism never needs to define your self-worth. If someone throws an unjust accusation your way, don't let it get under your skin. Look past it and move on. But if a critic's words ring true, use them to make yourself a better person.

To Take Away

  • How do you handle criticism?
  • How does pride affect the way you respond to criticism?
  • Would you describe your words of criticism toward others as cutting and destructive or as guiding, instructive and inspiring?
Recommended Reading: Numbers 16:3; Proverbs 6:16-19; 2 Corinthians 8:20-21
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New Men's Devotional BibleToday's reading is from theNew Men's Devotional Bible
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The New Men's Devotional Biblehelps apply God's Word to a new generation of Christian men. It includes a full year of all-new devotions by well-known and not-so-well-known men of God.


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