Tue Oct 22nd Todays News

Amazingly, a US based AGW alarmist is able to pinpoint the cause of fires in Australia without visiting. She was wrong, however, as the proximate cause of many of them seems to be bored children. But maybe she was right, and the nearing end of the world is causing our bored children to act out. Or something.  Bolt makes the discovery one unexplored cure for bushfires would be for the ABC to give up half its' budget. Axing news and current affairs and replaying old episodes would not make much difference for the audience who would love to re-experience the joy of the dismissal.
Mike Carlton could put on some funny voices, but it is not certain if he can be normal or competent as a news reader. But it might be fun to hear Carton on the Incompetent Penis who inexplicably is not as popular as surveys suggest. More boat success as 240 people are retained in Indonesia, having given much to pirates to be detained in Indonesia.
Bush fires are serious, but the PM is condemned for fighting some, when a previous PM was lauded for watching DVDs. Where are Gillard's dragons? According to the ABC, the fires are unprecedented. Having watched the Princess Bride, I am reminded of the observation "I do not feel that word means what you think it does." Or maybe the ABC is wrong? Inconceivable!
Members of a certain faith have bombed a bus. Yet it is clowns which frighten an unknown Briton, causing a circus to be banned from touring her local town until they can produce advertising without clowns. But what if they do, and she goes to that circus .. and clowns are there? The local council had better shut down, just to be safe.
Palmer seems very lucky. Or corrupt.
Murdoch has been blamed for much recently, with the left calling for censorship of the press. But I've observed something different. Murdoch does not seem to have censored anything I'm aware of (Maybe he is that good?) but Today Tonight, and the two local papers Fairfield Advance and Fairfield Champion have contained the newsworthy stories I have brought to their attention. They have never given me a reason. However, I have heard from 2GB and from Bankstown paper journalists that I would be very surprised if I ever found out who was responsible (2GB) and that journalists talk to each other (Bankstown paper) wtf does that mean? Singleton? My hands are clean and I have approached the police and run for parliament twice .. even though the papers have never reported on my issue and have denied voters their constitutional right to be informed who they are voting for.
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns for those born on this day, across the years, along with
1071 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1126)
1734 – Daniel Boone, American explorer and hunter (d. 1820)
1749 – Cornelis van der Aa, Dutch bookseller (d. 1816)
1811 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1886)
1844 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (d. 1923)
1913 – Bao Dai, the final Vietnamese emperor (d. 1997)
1917 – Joan Fontaine, Japanese-American actress
1938 – Derek Jacobi, English actor
1942 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (d. 2013)
1946 – Deepak Chopra, Indian-American physician and author
1973 – Ichiro Suzuki, Japanese baseball player
1992 – Sofia Vassilieva, American actress
Matches
362 – The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
451 – The Council of Chalcedon adopts the Chalcedonian Creed regarding the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ.
1707 – Scilly naval disaster: four British Royal Navy ships run aground near the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. Admiral SirCloudesley Shovell and thousands of sailors drown.
1746 – The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: American defenders of Fort Mercer on the Delaware River repulse repeated Hessian attacks in the Battle of Red Bank.
1790 – Warriors of the Miami tribe under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-dayFort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.
1797 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump from one thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.
1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.
1844 – The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipate the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment.
1878 – The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.
1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
1924 – Toastmasters International is founded.
1926 – J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal, precipitating his death.
1927 – Nikola Tesla introduces six new inventions including a motor with onephase electricity
1934 – In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.
1941 – World War II: French resistance member Guy Môquet and 29 other hostages are executed by the Germans in retaliation for the death of a German officer.
1943 – World War II: in the Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless.
1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor.
1972 – Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.
1999 – Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
Despatches
741 – Charles Martel, Frankish military leader and politician (b. 686)
1565 – Jean Grolier de Servières, French book collector (b. 1479)
1906 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)
2009 – Don Lane, American-Australian actor, singer, and talk show host (b. 1933)
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TELL IT TO IXCHEL

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 22, 2013 (12:54pm)

Despite being in the US, United Nations climate lady Christiana Figueres is able to detect the cause of NSW’s bushfires: 

A senior United Nations climate change official says there is ‘’absolutely’’ a link between climate change and bushfires and has warned that the Coalition government will pay a high political and financial price for its decision to scrap carbon pricing.

In an interview with CNN’s Christine Amanpour on Monday, the head of the UN’s climate change negotiations, Christiana Figueres, said there was a clear link between climate change and bushfires such as those raging in New South Wales …

‘’What we need to do is put a price on carbon so that we don’t have to continue to pay the price of carbon,’’ she said. 

In fact, the current fires follow many others that have occurred in October or earlier. Perhaps Figueres could stop them with a prayer to the ancient Mayan goddess of weaving, similar to the one she offered at the opening of the UN’s 2010 climate conference in Cancun: 

Welcome to the land of the ancient Mayan goddess Ixchel! Next to being the goddess of the moon, Ixchel was also the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you – because today, you are gathered in Cancún to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools … Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads. I am convinced that 20 years from now we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of the goddess Ixchel. 

For those not up to speed on Mayan deities, Ixchel is the one who looks like a fat bloke using a snake as a comb-over.

UPDATE. Forget the carbon tax. What we need, as readers suggest, is either a child tax or a CTS (child trading scheme): 

Five children have now been arrested for fire-setting in New South Wales. 

Ixchel won’t be happy about this.

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LORD CARLTON

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 22, 2013 (5:36am)

Check Sydney boy Mike Carlton’s ultraposh British accent, beginning at the 11:28 mark of this 1993 London radio broadcast. In another fancy-talkin’ clip, Lord Carlton of North Sydney appears after nine minutes.

It’s just … wow. Imagine Mike using that accent (subsequently discarded) if he were reading aloud some of his recent emails. 

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WIKISICK

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 22, 2013 (5:33am)

Peter Costello reviews the wide and sympathetic coverage given to the Wikileaks party ahead of September’s elections: 

In May 2012 the Fairfax-owned Age newspaper reported: “WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has received encouragement for his senate bid from a poll in which a quarter of voters said they would be likely to vote for him.”

In December 2012 the Age newspaper ran an online poll that showed an incredible 55?per cent of an unusually large sample of people claimed they’d vote for Julian Assange.

By April 2013 the Fairfax-Nielsen Poll was estimating support for WikiLeaks in Victoria at around 15 per cent. 

The eventual vote for the Wikileaks party: just 1.24 per cent. And a movie about Wikileaks is crashing, too: 

The Fifth Estate, which cost an estimated $30 million to make, took an estimated $1.7 million from 1,769 cinemas around America – the worst opening weekend for any major film released in 2013. 

Never mind. Julian remains beloved by Walkley types.

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DETAINEES REPHRASED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 22, 2013 (5:23am)

Western Australian government lawyer Rabia Siddique takes a bold stand on asylum seekers: 

Minister Morrison has directed that all public servants refer to these individuals as illegal maritime arrivals and also refer to them as detainees rather than clients.

I am a public servant. I will not refer to them in such a manner. 

Here’s to freedom of speech! But what terms might Rabia find appropriate? The latest BlairPoll will decide:

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If the ABC wants to stop bushfires, it could cut the crap and donate half its budget

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (2:21pm)

The ABC has seized on the NSW bushfires to push its global warming alarmism - and never mind the facts. The cause-pushing is brazen and disgracefully misleading.

On Lateline last night, for instance, host Emma Alberici made the same false claim repeated this morning by Fran Kelly:

EMMA ALBERICI: Now, the former Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg says the fire in the Blue Mountains isn’t the worst we’ve seen, but it’s certainly the first time bushfires of this magnitude have happened in October. Why has the season started so early this year?

First time? ABC News Watch checks the files of the Sydney Morning Herald for news of earlier October fires around New South Wales. Here are just some examples:

OCTOBER 1951

From Sydney Morning Herald 24 October 1951, Page 1 headlines:

FIRES BLAZE IN BIG AREA Buildings Lost On N. Coast Firefighters battled yesterday with more than 100 bushfires near Sydney and in the country. Some fires were still burning fiercely last night.
STATE FORESTS Fires were burning in nine State forests yesterday.
P.2 HOMES SAVED FROM FIRES NEAR SYDNEY
Scores of firemen and civilians fought three bushfires in southern suburbs of Sydney nearly all day yesterday and prevented serious damage to many homes that were menaced. Firemen said last night the fires, fanned by a strong, gusty wind, were the worst since last summer. Some firemen collapsed from the effects of heat and smoke…

From Sydney Morning Herald 25 October 1951, Page 1 headlines:

Bushfires Devastate 64 State Forests
Sixty-four State forests on the North Coast were devastated yesterday by bushfires which firefighters described as ”the worst in history.” Thousands of acres of grassland in the north-east corner of the State was also burned out…

OCTOBER 1948

From Sydney Morning Herald 13 October 1948 Page 1

FIGHT FOR HOMES Bushfires At Mt Colah. More than 40 homes were threatened by bushfires in the Mt. Colah district yesterday. The outbreak started at Roff’s Park on Monday after-noon. Firemen and police had con-fined it to a rocky gully by dawn yesterday, but during the afternoon the wind freshened and fanned the blaze towards homes along Pacific Highway and Galston Gorge.

From Sydney Morning Herald 22 October 1948 Page 1

Bush Fire Threatens Farms Near Mona Vale Thirty firemen, police, and civilians fought throughout last night and early this morn-ing to prevent bushfires en-gulfing two Mona Vale farm properties.

From Sydney Morning Herald 28 October 1948, Page 1 headlines:

Many Bushfires as Heat Sets Four-year Record
Fierce bush and grass fires swept many parts of the State yesterday as the temperature again soared over 90 degrees to set a four-year record. Temperatures in Sydney early this morning fell suddenly after a south-westerly change. Most serious outbreak was on the South Coast, where the village of Termeil, 12 miles from Ulladulla, was practically destroyed.

OCTOBER 1928

From Sydney Morning Herald 8 October 1928, Page 11 headlines:

Fires and Storm The city was encircled by bushfires, and many buildings were Unroofed.
45 COTTAGES. DESTROYED BY FIRE NEAR WOY WOY.
Damage estimated at £20,000 was caused bya bush fire which swept through the bush country surrounding Ocean Beach, Ettalong, and Booker Bay to-day. Forty-five week-end cottages were completely destroyed. The flames were Irresistible, and in the terrible heat many of the fire-fighters dropped exhausted.
AN INFERNO ON NORTH COAST. BUSH FIRES RAGING. NEWCASTLE.
Sunday.
Bush fires have bean raging all day along the coast from the Hawkesbury River to Newcastle. Several houses along the shores of Lake Macquarie have been burnt down, and many more are in danger.

The ABC is also pushing hard the “carbon-tax-will-stop-bushfires” meme. For instance on ABC AM today:

TONY EASTLEY: The United Nations climate change agency is warning Australia against repealing the carbon tax.
The executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change says the New South Wales bushfires can’t be directly linked to climate change, but increasing heatwaves will continue to cause similar disasters.
Christiana Figueres says Australia could pay dearly for not keeping the carbon tax.

Bu the ABC makes not the slightest attempt to fact-check Figueres claims, even though the Gillarrd Government gave it extra money for just such a Fact Check unit.  For instance:

CHRISTINA FIGUERES: The science is telling us that there are increasing heatwaves in Asia, Europe and Australia, that these will continue, that they will continue in their intensity and in their frequency - an example of what we may be looking at unless we take actually vigorous action.

In fact, even the IPCC, in its latest report, has to admit it is not quite as sure as Figueres:

This combined with issues with defining events, leads to the assessment that there is medium confidence that globally the length and frequency of warm spells, including heat waves, has increased since the middle of the 20th century although it is likely that heatwave frequency has increased during this period in large parts of Europe, Asia and Australia.

But on Figueres rants:

CHRISTINA FIGUERES: What you have just seen on the screen [the NSW fires] is just one scenario and it is a scenario that we would walk toward unless we take, as I say, vigorous action. But there is another scenario, okay. What we have seen are just introductions to the doom and gloom that we could be facing.

This time the IPCC is very definitely cooler than Figueres about “doom and gloom”:

In summary, there is low confidence in observed trends in small-scale severe weather phenomena such as hail and thunderstorms… In summary, the current assessment concludes that there is not enough evidence at present to suggest more than low confidence in a global-scale observed trend in drought or dryness (lack of rainfall) since the middle of the 20th century… [There] is medium confidence that globally the length and frequency of warm spells, including heat waves, has increased since the middle of the 20th century… In summary, there continues to be a lack of evidence and thus low confidence regarding the sign of trend in the magnitude and/or frequency of floods on a global scale....  Over periods of a century or more, evidence suggests slight decreases in the frequency of tropical cyclones making landfall in the North Atlantic and the South Pacific...

The world’s atmosphere has actually failed warm for the past 15 years, but Figueres has no problem linking global warming to the disasters - like drought - that the IPCC has trouble finding:

CHRISTINA FIGUERES:  The fact is we are already, as you have just pointed out, we are really already paying the price of carbon. We are paying the price with wildfires, we are paying the price with drought, we are paying the price with so many other disturbances to the hydrological cycle. That is all the price that we are paying.

And this UN expert demands we invest in a technology that has so far failed to work on any scale, despite the investment of $25 billion already:

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Christiana Figueres also noted Australia’s reliance on resource exports. She singled out the coal industry, saying it will have to invest in carbon capture and storage.

It is a disgrace that the ABC allows a warming hysteric to pump such fact-free nonsense over the airwaves without challenging her once.

Reader Kingsley has a far more practical and sure-fire suggestion if the ABC really does want to stop bushfires:

Looks to me one air crane helicopter costs around $2m per year to lease and operate. If we spent “only” $500m on the ABC instead of a billion a year we could run 250 of these air cranes right now saving people’s homes and lives. I don’t think there is 250 in existence but I am sure the good people at Erickson would be more than happy to build them!
I wonder if the people who have lost their homes would rather we have taxpayers money being spent running Ironman cartoons on ABC 3 for kids in an era of apparent childhood obesity or life saving water bomber air cranes?

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Abbott criticised for fighting fires; Gillard praised for watching videos

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (1:55pm)

Prime Minister Tony Abbott going firefighting to save people’s homes is bad. Mark Kenny in the Sydney Morning Herald:

But there are legitimate doubts as to whether all of these activities when aggregated, are compatible with being prime minister – a job which, on a light day wants 14 hours of his time and which wants it seven days a week.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard sitting at home watching videos was good:

JULIA Gillard says she is an avid Game Of Thrones fan and thinks some pet dragons would come in handy.
In an interview with a UK publication, the Prime Minister said she became a fan of the hit HBO fantasy show over summer when she was given the past two series on DVD.

Not a single journalist, as far as I can recall, complained Gillard was wasting time best spent running the country:

“I was given the DVDs over the summer period when I did get a little bit of time to watch so I watched them one after the other,” she said.

In fact, some journalists loved it:

IT’S not every day the Prime Minister tweets you incessantly. But every time I glanced at my phone yesterday, I saw Julia Gillard had left a message for me.
Like myself, she had just one thing on her mind: the latest developments in Game of Thrones, the debaucherous HBO series everyone has been carrying on about…. She sits down on her couch at The Lodge every Monday to barrack for her favourite Iron Throne contender, Dragon Queen Daenerys Targaryen.

(Thanks to reader Peter.) 

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More boats stopped

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (8:54am)

More interesting cooperation from Indonesia:

Yesterday, Indonesian police in the province of Banten captured 240 would-be asylum-seekers, a reminder that the smuggling trade remains active, despite a marked drop in boat arrivals. 

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Britain: allergic to the wrong clowns

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (8:35am)

Nick Cater, back in London, reports that Britain is worse:

In an Ashes series for political correctness, the Poms would win hands down. Electronic cigarettes, a seemingly harmless tobacco substitute, have been banned in British pubs, Liddle tells us, on the grounds that they ‘disturb’ other patrons.

Nick is right about the British:

A council has removed posters advertising a circus following a complaint from a woman who is scared of clowns.
Leighton Buzzard Town Hall Council said it took down the adverts after one complaint - in a town of 28,000 people.
An unnamed female resident told the authority the posters were scaring her whenever she drove past them, explaining that she suffers from coulrophobia.
The council removed all of the posters and told the circus not to come back to the town unless it uses promotional material without clowns on it.

But shouldn’t the clowns on the council also leave town?
(Thanks to reader Andrew.) 

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The ABC’s “unprecedented” fires occured 11 times already

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (7:56am)

Global warming - propaganda

The ABC is furiously promoting the NSW fires as “unprecedented” and evidence of the global warming that actually paused 15 years ago.
This morning Fran Kelly, host of ABC Radio National Breakfast, claimed there had never been bushfires in October and implicated global warming.
In fact, of 48 major bushfires in NSW between 1926 and 2006, 11 occurred in October or earlier:

North-Western NSW: Bushfires – 01/09/84 deaths – 4
Western Sydney and Central Coast, NSW: 16/10/91 deaths – 2
Hunter Valley, NSW: 01/09/96
Central Coast/Hunter Valley/south coast. 15/08/96
NW NSW : Bush Fire 30/10/01
Sydney, NSW: Bushfires 09/10/02
Northern NSW: Bushfire 27/09/02
Central Coast, QLD/NSW: Bushfires 27/09/02
Cessnock, NSW: Bushfire 19/10/02 deaths – 1
NSW Bushfires 24/09/06
Bushfires: Sydney and South Coast, NSW 24/09/06

These fires are serious. But the scale of destruction is nothing like the very worst we have faced:
The ‘Black Thursday’ fires of 6 February 1851 in Victoria, burnt the largest area (approximately 5 million ha) in European-recorded history and killed more than one million sheep and thousands of cattle as well as taking the lives of 12 people (CFA 2003a; DSE 2003b). On ‘Red Tuesday’, 1 February 1898 in Victoria 260,000 ha were burnt, 12 people were killed and 2000 buildings were destroyed (DSE 2003b).

Between December 1938 to January 1939, 1.5-2.0 million ha were burnt, 71 people were killed and over 1000 homes destroyed in Victoria (DSE 2003b, 2003c). The most devastation occurred on ‘Black Friday’, 13 January 1939, when strong northerly winds intensified fires burning in almost every part of the state. Townships were destroyed and others badly damaged. So much ash and smoke was generated that ash fell as far away as New Zealand (DSE 2003c). Five years later in 1944, bushfires in Victoria burnt an estimated one million ha, killed between 15 and 20 people and destroyed more than 500 houses (DSE 2003b).
The ‘Ash Wednesday’ fires of 16 February 1983 caused severe damage in Victoria and South Australia. In Victoria, 210,000 ha were burnt, 2,080 houses destroyed, more than 27,000 stock lost and 47 people lost their lives (CFA 2003a; DSE 2003b, 2003d). Property-related damage was estimated at over $200m and more than 16,000 fire fighters, 1,000 police and 500 defence personnel fought the fires in Victoria. In South Australia, 208,000 ha were burnt, 383 houses were destroyed, 28 people were killed and property-related damage was estimated to be more than $200m (DSE 2003d).
Serious bushfires occurred in New South Wales in 1951-52, 1968-69, 1984-85 and 1993-94. In 1968-69 over one million ha were burnt and three people were killed (Linacre & Hobbs 1977; RFS 2003a). In 1984-85, 3.5 million ha were burnt, four lives were lost, 40,000 livestock were killed and $40m damage to property was caused (RFS 2003a). In 1993-94, bushfires burnt 800,000 ha, destroyed 287 residential properties and other premises and killed four people (Year Book Australia 1995 (1301.0)).

UPDATE
Reader Andrew of Randwick:

The ABC’s 7.30 goes in hard that the current NSW bushfires are directly caused by global warming.
One interviewee is a bushfire researcher with facts about bushfires. The others are the usual talking heads (with vested interests) that can be relied upon to blame any event on global warming. Don Henry (Australian Conservation Foundation), Andy Pitman (UNSW - Climate System Science), and John Connor (Climate Institute) were each given their turn to put the affirmative case.... Then finally, almost as an afterthought, David Packham (Bushfire Management Researcher) is given the chance to say the cause is something completely different - it is the lack of fuel reduction in the cooler months that has established the pre-conditions for severe firestorms.
Well, well, well – that certainly opens a whole new can of worms – local/state governments opposing burn-offs and tree removal, local/state governments allowing building in high risk areas without special requirements. I can see a whole program there – but not the ABC. David Packham was only given 69 words (out of ~900 words) to put forward his message. It is so depressing our National Broadcaster has become a mouthpiece for campaigners rather than a source of factual information.

UPDATE
Gerard Henderson:

According to Adam Bandt’s logic, the Greens are responsible for the devastating bushfires sweeping parts of NSW…
Bandt went on to suggest Abbott’s firefighting was a ‘’con’’ because he was ‘’helping start fires that put people’s lives in danger’’. In other words, the Prime Minister is not only a con artist but also an arsonist. Then, as if to prove when muck-racking the muck can go even lower, Bandt tweeted on Thursday, ‘’Tony Abbott’s plan means more bushfires for Australia’’.
Bandt’s attack overlooked two essential facts. First, the Coalition’s policy aim on the reduction of carbon emissions by 2020 is the same as that of the Labor Party (which the Greens were aligned to for most of the past three years).
Second, if the Greens had supported Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme in 2009 and 2010, Australia would already have a form of an emissions trading scheme in place. Bob Brown, Christine Milne and their Greens colleagues in the Senate opposed Rudd Labor’s reduction scheme and prevented it passing into legislation.
Of course, if Australia had introduced Rudd’s scheme it would have done nothing to stop the bushfires. Australia’s carbon emissions are but a tiny fraction of world output. Moreover, the relationship between climate change and extreme weather events remains uncertain.

(Thanks to reader Peter.) 

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Williamson claims he can repay only $40,000 of the $5 million he rorted

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (7:17am)

How could former Labor president Michael Williamson have just $40,000 left of the $5 million in frauds he oversaw?

Michael Jones, a veteran in the bankruptcy field with more than 30 years experience, ... said he was “staggered” Williamson declared he only has about $40,000 in assets after being responsible for rorts worth $5 million.
Williamson, 60, pleaded guilty last week to ripping off $1 million from union members and faces up to 10 years in jail. He also filed for bankruptcy after agreeing he is liable for $5 million rorted from the HSU under his watch.

So what was his apology to his union members really worth?

I wish to place on record my sincere apology to all of you… I have agreed to assist the union in recovery actions against others, and will honour that agreement.

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Bus bombed. That faith suspected

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (7:06am)

What is it about the faith that seems to licence such savagery?

A female suicide bomber has attacked a bus in southern Russia, killing at least six people in the deadliest such blast outside the volatile North Caucasus region in nearly three years.
The bombing in Volgograd was likely to raise fears of further attacks by Islamist militants as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympics in February in Sochi…
Citing a regional investigative source, the Interfax news agency said identity documents belonging to the suspected bomber were found near the site, and that she was believed to have been the wife of an Islamist militant.

UPDATE
Converts, more able to move without suspicion, are suspected:

The Investigative Committee has identified the woman who was the suicide bomber behind the blast: it’s allegedly Naida Asiyalova, from Dagestan.
The preliminary information indicates that “the female suicide bomber recently converted to Islam, and was the wife of a militant leader,” an Investigative Committee representative told the media…
According to information obtained by LifeNews from security sources, the suicide bomber, Asiyalova, earlier recruited a young Muscovite, Dmitry Sokolov, who became a skilled bomber respected by Islamist militants. The 22-year-old reportedly fell in love with the female recruiter while studying Arabic in a Moscow university. She then turned him to radical Islam and convinced him to leave home for Makhachkala… Sokolov, now known as Abdul Jabbar, is wanted in Dagestan for taking part in two terrorist explosions, in which at least 29 people were injured, the media added.

UPDATE
Recruiting more such jihadists in the UK:

The jihadist speaks with an unmistakable London accent, railing against “disbelievers who dominate our lives and our lands” in a glossy propaganda video for al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamic extremist group that claimed responsibility for last month’s attack on Kenya’s premier shopping mall…
The remarkable thing about these glossy infomercials for global jihad is that they are being directly aimed at potential recruits from the West…
Against a backdrop of sweeping shots of the London skyline, the narrator names ten militants – men with apparent links to Britain – who he says have been killed in armed struggle, becoming “martyrs."…
He introduces another fighter called Talha, saying he’s “a towering figure” from London’s East End.
Talha then… delivers a call to arms.
“I call on you today – all the Muslim men in Britain, especially the city of Tower Hamlets,” referring to an impoverished part of East London with a large Muslim population.

Recruiting in the US, too:

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Palmer deal questioned

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (7:01am)

Clive Palmer just got lucky, I guess:

Clive Palmer’s private company, ­Mineralogy, took control of a potentially lucrative mineral tenement in Western Australia six days after it was given up by a listed company led by one of his Senate candidates, Zhenya Wang.
The way the tenement was transferred raises questions over whether Mineralogy unfairly obtained an asset it had no right to, whether Mr Wang allowed that to happen and if there was a breach of the state’s Mining Act.
Mr Wang, who is awaiting a Senate recount to see if he has been elected, has denied doing anything wrong.
Australasian Resources, majority-owned by Mr Palmer, surrendered exploration rights to a potential iron ore tenement in 2011. Mineralogy claimed the rights days later.
The change in ownership meant that the rights to explore a tenement, located south-west of Karratha, that Australasian Resources had spent tens of thousands of dollars on, was dropped. No compensation was paid to minority shareholders.
The exploration rights were then claimed by Mineralogy, even though the Mining Act is designed to prohibit related parties doing so within three months.

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Would you buy a used Assange from an Age journalist?

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (6:46am)

Peter Costello notes the difference between a media favorite and a crowd favorite:

In May last year the Fairfax-owned Age newspaper reported: “WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has received encouragement for his Senate bid from a poll in which a quarter of voters said they would be likely to vote for him.”
In December the Age ran an online poll that showed an incredible 55 per cent of an unusually large sample of people claimed they would vote for Assange. By April the Fairfax-Nielsen Poll was estimating support for WikiLeaks in Victoria at about 15 per cent. WikiLeaks was always going to poll better in Victoria where Assange, its leader and spiritual inspiration, led the party’s list of candidates. The sympathetic media did its best, but in the event WikiLeaks polled a little over 1 per cent of the vote - actually 1.24 per cent - coming in behind the Sex Party and Family First.

It seems even Age readers wouldn’t vote for what Age journalists praised.
Academics are also trying their best to spruik the message of a man currently fleeing possible sex charges in Sweden:

Assange would find it comforting to know that on the other side of the world the University of Sydney is running seminars on WikiLeaks, “… from an international whistleblowing platform to a global political movement”. It would be nice to know faithful followers are using such events to extol the brilliant political success he has had in the recent elections.
But I fear the political problem is that there just aren’t enough academics to keep his party going.

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Shorten puts carbon tax up for review

Andrew Bolt October 22 2013 (6:27am)

Labor has got to drop the carbon tax. I guess it’s too much to ask that it also drop the two biggest spending promises as well:

BILL Shorten has put Labor’s carbon pricing policy up for review in a move that gives him maximum flexibility to manoeuvre ahead of the introduction of Tony Abbott’s carbon tax repeal bills next month.
The Opposition Leader called the review of most Labor policies as the government revealed it might not have to rely on the Senate to implement the centrepiece of its direct action plan: the $1.5 billion emissions reduction fund.
Mr Shorten, at the first meeting of shadow cabinet yesterday, put every Labor policy except the Better Schools and disability insurance up for review.

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Andrew O’Keefe misleads the Channel Seven audience about global warming and the fires

Andrew Bolt October 21 2013 (3:33pm)

Global warming - propaganda

Channel Seven host Andrew O’Keefe is a global warming alarmist who seems to think having the right attitude means not having to bother with things like research.
Three points about his interview with a warmist, Steve Sherwood.
First, I have never said temperatures have not risen in 25 years. I’ve said there’s been no statistically significant warming in 15 years. O’Keefe should quote me correctly before telling the world I’m wrong.
Second, O’Keefe’s mistake clearly comes from not being familiar with a key point in the debate - that the global atmosphere has indeed failed to increase by a statistically significant amount in 15 years. Even the IPCC’s latest report admits to a slowdown that was not predicted by almost any climate model. O’Keefe seems critically ill-informed.
Third, O’Keefe fails to notice that Sherwood gives him an answer that does not actually contradict my claim, noting that the latest decade was warmer than the one before. True enough, but that is entirely consistent mathematically with a period of warming that is followed by a 15-year hiatus.
So O’Keefe misquotes me, is ignorant about the 15-year pause and cannot spot a warmist’s rhetorical trick. And all that without even going to the substance of my argument - that the fires in NSW are not unusual, and not evidence of global warming and in fact are made fierce by good years of rain that warmist models once claimed were less likely.
Is Channel Seven happy for its viewers to be so wildly misled about something so important?
(Thanks to reader Russell.) 

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Post by MMA Brasil.

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Can you trust your jeweller and / or diamond vendor to sell you a decent diamond ?

Unfortunately there are to many brick and mortar jewellers who are glorified gift ware specialists purporting to be diamond experts using diamond grading reports as marketing tools giving them a false credibility that unsuspecting diamond buyers accept as gospel. They are NOT diamond specialists.

If you are told the diamond has to be brought in to show you then assume the diamond is not being sold by the owner. The seller is a middleman and you are not buying direct from a genuine wholesaler or diamond dealer.

Always check credentials of the diamond vendor especially those online diamond websites many of whom do not actually carry the diamonds they advertise in stock.

If diamond salesmen have not seen the diamond how then can they comment on it ?

If the diamond sellers do not have the confidence in stocking diamonds then how can you the buyer have the same confidence in buying their " invisible " diamonds ?

Would you buy a home or a car without looking at it first ?

Never pay in advance for a diamond for a diamond from overseas.

You are exposed to the debt and there is no consumer protection.

More information on the pitfalls of buying diamonds from charlatans to follow.

 — atDiamond Imports.
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Cartier - Dragon
4 her
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Surrounded by paedophiles: Deranged lifestyles of child stars

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/deranged-lives-of-child-stars-corey-feldman-and-corey-haim/story-e6frfmqi-1226744044371

THE day Corey Feldman met Corey Haim, when they were 14-years-old and preparing to work together on the film The Lost Boys, they bonded instantly.

Tragedy of the successful .. ed
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At Nonas Kitchens & Joinery Pty Ltd.

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While First Dog On The Moon is hesitant to politicise this politicising of the bushfires, he does have a message for the PM, which we've freed from behind the paywall:

http://ow.ly/q2My5

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/nice-try-being-relevant/story-fnhulhjj-1226744067051#
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Same-sex marriage has passed in the ACT
.. and the world hasn't ended .. Gillard, Rudd, Shorten .. you opposed it .. ed

• Jason J-Fo Hmm, I'm fine with the issue itself but my hunch is that it is a bad law that probably will be struck down for being unconstitutional. But who knows?

  
  
• 

  David Daniel Ball I'm sure it isn't as robust as NZ's law enacted by a conservative government. It is like the gun issue, a useful goto that the leftwing like to admire so as to get votes, but they wouldn't want to address it.

  
  
• 

  Jason J-Fo The NZ law was made by its federal govt. Here we have a territory trying to interfere with a federal Marriage Act which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. So it might be unconstitutional because the Constitution invalidates any such inconsistent laws in favour of the federal law. But it all depends on the wording really.

  
  
• 

  David Daniel Ball .. I understand the NZ law allows churches to act on conscience. I bet the ACT doesn't

  
  
• 

  Jason J-Fo That's a seperate law of sexual discrimination. Marriage law is only about registration of marriage on the register for legal purposes. I'm sure your wife can explain!;-)

  
  
• 

  Dean Hamstead how can middle class white people now claim to be vitcims?

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2 dead, 2 injured in shooting at Nevada middle school

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/21/police-respond-to-reports-shooting-at-nevada-middle-school/

Police are responding to reports of a shooting at Sparks Middle School in northern Nevada.

The victim was a former marine who has now paid for his service. A math teacher, husband and dad. So much to live for. Died protecting his students. Apparently, the kid who killed him didn't mean to, and killed himself afterwards. I haven't seen what the weapon was, but bet it was an assault rifle, although it might have been a pistol. Kids should know how to use them, but to have one unsupervised? ed
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Autumn along the Sonora Pass
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New Study Finds Human Beings Were Never Meant To Wake Up From Sleep

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-study-finds-human-beings-were-never-meant-to-w,34288/?ref=auto

BOSTON—According to a new study published in The New England Journal Of Medicine this week, human beings were never meant to wake up after falling asleep, but were rather supposed to remain in a deep, peaceful slumber until eventually expiring.

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Obamacare has the worthy goal of bringing healthcare for 10 million people who can't afford it .. by despicably hiring bureaucrats and not one more doctor. It is expensive, inefficient and ultimately unaffordable. Anything that is unaffordable can never be owned. GOP could wave it through, but it would founder eventually anyway, sucking up resources that poor people rely on to survive. - ed===

Frozen Entropy
Ahh...life in a dual star solar system.
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Larry Pickering
HIV ON INCREASE... AGAIN!

The Government-sponsored AIDS debate, along with ‘smoking causes gangrene and blindness’ and global warming hysteria, is the greatest lie ever perpetrated on a receptive public. 
AIDS is not and never has been a heterosexual problem. Ask any heterosexual.

The World lost a great man when Dr Fred Hollows died. He restored sight to thousands of people, mostly black and coloured tribes people, who had no money to pay him.

I feel honoured to have known him but I had never discussed the AIDS issue with him. I figured it was not in his area of expertise... but it was.

He told the truth about AIDS to a brainwashed world who did not want to listen.

He boldly said that AIDS was a “homosexual disease” and warned of the disastrous effect on indigenous people. Unfortunately it was a few weeks before his imminent death.

Common sense had told me the same thing and now, thanks to Fred, I was no longer a lone leper pointlessly trying to defend my thesis at dinner parties.

Fred of course was predictably widely vilified (by the homosexual community) over his statement but he didn’t care, he was going to die anyway.

Fred briefly wore the cost of the truth. They would have built statues of Fred had he not said that.

I watched TV each night and had noticed that AIDS sufferers with sunken black eyes and pale patched faces were invariably homosexual males. I read the lying statistics.

I watched those awful misleading TV ads. I wondered at the gullibility of the world, the misuse of public monies, the despicable genius of the intellectual, cashed up, gay male community.

I have no problem with my gays friends, but I do have a problem with irresponsibly promiscuous gay males.

When the AIDS hysteria hit, governments dug deep into our pockets to fund a misleading onslaught of calculated misinformation.

And who were the people who put up their hands to administer such massive budgets?
Those most affected, of course… the gay male juggernaut.
It was they who structured and ran those dishonest campaigns.

Obviously they had the most to lose. This disease would likely be centred on them. Their dream of being an accepted minority was at risk. The possibility of them becoming outcasts and a risk to the community was real.

The dream of gay mardi gras earning them respectability could be shattered.

But, once in control of these massive campaign budgets, they were determined to convince the world that it was a general community problem.

They now had the ability to obfuscate the blame and defray the responsibility. And that is exactly what they did. What a lie we were told!

The three ways you can contract AIDS are dirty needle exchange, blood transfusion and anal sex. (Foetal contraction is caused by the transfer of blood already infected.)

All three necessitate the exchange of blood.

AIDS is a disease of the blood, a severe diminution in the effectiveness of white cells to combat disease. People don’t die from AIDS, they die from viruses and diseases that damaged white cells have no further ability to combat.

When public surveys were conducted among heterosexual couples and singles who had contracted AIDS there was a curious missing three percentage points. They were those heterosexual women who engaged in, and presumably enjoyed, anal sex.

But of course in a public survey not all heterosexual women could be expected to admit to regular anal sex... thus the missing percentage. Three per cent of women lied about it.

So, on the rare occasion a normal heterosexual woman contracted AIDS, the missing percentage was clear. And it was not, as promiscuous gay males insisted we believe, due to normal vaginal sex at all!

Why, Fred asked, is AIDS rampant among the world’s tribal communities? Not hard for Fred to answer, after all, he spent a great part of his life restoring sight to those people. He lived with them.

Indigenous people have been using anal sex as a form of contraceptive for thousands of years. They never had or understood condoms or the pill or any form of contraceptive other than anal sex. And maybe, just maybe, they liked it.

The AIDS virus does not distinguish between a male arse and a female arse, because there is no difference.

Every arse is full of tiny capillaries that continually burst even when you have a crap. So if you want to go rasping away in that un-lubricated black hole, wearing your donger off, there will certainly eventually be an exchange of blood in a bacterial bath.

That’s how gay males contract AIDS and, because of their well-known promiscuity, that’s how they spread it among their own kind.

Hasn’t anyone noticed the preponderance of AIDS sufferers are actually gay males? We don’t seem to ask why!

Hasn’t anyone noticed that San Francisco (the gay paradise of the U.S.) also has the highest incidence of AIDS in North America.

Now, how was this homosexual juggernaut going to convince us that it was a general disease that affected the whole community and not exclusively confined to them? Simple.

1. Spend hundreds of millions of our dollars lying to us that normal couples are at risk of their disease.

2. Get HIV positive victims to give blood at the blood banks and wait for normal people, including babies, to contract the virus. Oh yes, they did do that, before they were caught and stopped!

3. Convince us that AIDS can be contracted from normal vaginal sex. (It can’t.)

4. Coin the word “homophobia” and use it every chance you get… the word is a misnomer, as “homo” does not mean “man” it means “same” and “phobia” means fear. I may have a fear of cunning gay males but I do not fear anyone who is the “same” as me.

How was it possible for the community in general to believe such garbage? But they did and still do believe it!
Doctors, who should know better, believed it, and still do.

The gay males won their battle, the gay mardi gras now has a restrained modicum of validity, even among extreme conservatives.

If AIDS could be contracted through normal sex everyone in the world would contract it within a year because everyone has bonked someone who has bonked someone else at some time.

Seminal fluids do not carry blood any more than does saliva, sweat, tears or damned suncream for that matter.

The old strawberry dip expression; when you bonk a woman who has her period, is still not a dangerous thing to do unless one of you is HIV positive and the male has a donger, red raw and bleeding, from rasping a bloke a chook or a wombat.

AIDS is contracted through anal or homosexual sex. It cannot be contracted through normal vaginal sex. So why were we normal people all told to wear condoms in order to avoid AIDS when having normal sex?

Thank Christ they screen blood donors now and tattooed people can’t donate blood… I wonder why that is.

Whatever the method of contraction, it necessarily requires the exchange of blood. Yet we sustained years of grim reapers and bowling balls knocking over small children and syringes protruding from a thousand conjugal beds of normal couples.

The “It’s not on if it’s not on” condom campaign may have made Ansell a few more billions but did nothing to stem the spread of AIDS.

It did make us falsely believe that normal sex was dangerous.

Neither I nor my mates ever wore a condom during the crazy 60s and 70s and neither they nor I will ever contract AIDS.

The only way I will ever contract AIDS is if I interrupt a mosquito trying to bite me that was formerly interrupted trying to bite a promiscuous HIV positive gay male!

The AIDS campaign budget would have been far more beneficially spent on eradicating mosquitoes.

Why are we collectively so bloody stupid as to believe what we are told simply because it is carried to us by the perceived legitimacy of paid, reactive media?

Oh well, I guess we can be convinced of the most outrageous of nonsense like smoking causes your toes to drop off or man’s emissions causes global warming.

It’s all about the size of the budget.

Fred Hollows wasn’t stupid, Fred Hollows knew the truth and told it. Fred was a good and an honest man.

If there was a heaven, you would be there Fred.
===

Aspens — at June Lake Loop.
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Remember this next time you walk up to the ticket window of your local movie theater with $10 in your hand. 

The Media (Accidentally?) missed this one!!!! Please read this: The troops oversees would like you to send it to everybody you know. Subject: Denzel Washington, and Brooks Army Medical Center. Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center , in San Antonio , Texas, (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States , especially burn victims. There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the Hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time. While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his check book out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it. The question is - why do: Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise and other Hollywood fluff make front page news with their ridiculous antics and Denzel Washington's Patriotism doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio. A true American and friend to all in uniform!
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OPINION: Obama's Fingerprints All Over IRS Tea Party Scandal

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/20/obamas-fingerpints-all-over-irs-tea-party-scandal/

We detail a long-running assault on the Tea Party, beginning shortly after its emergence in 2009...

"What was sold to the American public as a low-level scandal perpetrated by a few rogue employees – a scandal stopped after senior officials became aware and asserted control – is now (to borrow a Watergate phrase) 'no longer operative.'" -Jay Sekulow>
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Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו
To all the people who wished me a happy birthday - You really moved me. Thank you very much!
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Andreas Herrmann

"Die Schriftsteller können nicht so schnell schreiben, wie die Regierungen Kriege machen; denn das Schreiben verlangt Denkarbeit." Bertold Brecht

" The writer can not write as fast as governments make wars , for the letter requires mental effort . " Bertold Brecht

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Johnny Depp, Robbie Williams und Dieter Bohlen kommen in den Himmel. Dort erwartet sie Petrus und sagt zu ihnen: "Es gibt hier im Himmel eine einzige Regel: Ihr dürft nicht auf die blauen Wolken treten!"
Doch schon bald tritt Johnny Depp auf eine blaue Wolke.
Petrus kommt mit der hässlichsten Frau, die er je gesehen hat, kettet sie aneinander und sagt: "Zur Strafe, dass du auf eine blaue Wolke getreten bist, wirst du den Rest der Ewigkeit an dieses hässliche Weib gekettet verbringen!"
Am nächsten Tag tritt Robbie ebenfalls auf eine blaue Wolke und Petrus kommt sofort mit einer anderen wahnsinnig hässlichen Frau. Er kettet auch sie aneinander.
Dieter Bohlen beobachtet alles und passt auf, daß er nicht auch auf eine blaue Wolke tritt. Eines Tages kommt Petrus zu ihm mit der attraktivsten Frau, die er je gesehen hat: eine große, gebräunte, kurvige sexy Brünette. Petrus kettet sie wortlos aneinander.
Dieter Bohlen meint nur: "Wüsste ja schon gern, womit ich es verdient habe, den Rest der Ewigkeit mit dir verbunden zu werden?"
Die Frau erwidert nur: "Naja, ich bin auf so 'ne scheiß blaue Wolke getreten!"

Johnny Depp , Robbie Williams and Dieter Bohlen go to heaven . There she expects Peter and says to them : "There is one rule here in heaven : You must not step on the blue clouds "
But soon Johnny Depp takes on a blue cloud .
Peter came with the ugliest woman he has ever seen , chains them together and says, " As a punishment that you stepped on a blue cloud , you 'll get the rest of eternity chained to this ugly woman to spend ! "
The next day, Robbie also occurs on a blue cloud and Peter comes immediately with another insanely ugly woman. He chained them together also .
Dieter Bohlen observes everything and take care that it does not occur on a blue cloud . One day Peter came to him with the most attractive woman he has ever seen : a big, tanned , curvy sexy brunette . Peter chains them together without saying a word .
Dieter Bohlen says only : " yes Knew already liked what I 've earned the right to be connected to the rest of eternity with you?"
The woman replied only : " Well, I stepped on so ' ne shit blue cloud! "
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Founding Fathers vs. Modern Democrats: Epic Quotes Battle (Click to View)

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/10/88610-head-head-founding-fathers-vs-modern-democrats/

This is actually quite startling.

Check out how different quotes from the Founding Fathers are compared to quotes of modern Democrats...>
===

Why Do Cats Knead?

http://www.livescience.com/40548-why-do-cats-knead.html

Kneading is a common behavior seen in domestic cats, in which the feline pushes in and out with its front paws, alternating between left and right. It's unclear exactly why cats knead, but a number of hypotheses exist.

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Michele Bachmann
No matter how President Obama spins the failed Obamacare rollout, here’s the bottom line:
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James Calore

• David Daniel Ball My fans!

  
  
• 

  James Calore That's the first thing I thought of, David! It must be DBall's fans!

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"Put God first and everything else will follow." -Jesus
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Aprille Love
Thanks KYRO! #agree #inspo #beastmode
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Facebook Is Broken For A Lot Of People Right Now

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/facebook-down_n_4135669.html

If you're unable to like, post or comment on Facebook this Monday morning, you aren't alone. Many are reporting on Twitter that Facebook is down for them.

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Love the Tenth Doctor? Check out our playlist of some of his top moments over on the #DoctorWhoYouTube channel: http://bit.ly/TenthDoctorPlaylist Allons-y!
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There is a difference between hunting pests and hunting endangered species. An elephant can be a pest. But effective management usually means killing them isn't useful. I still think the meme is OTT regarding BO'F. It is the ALP/Green alliance which has limited sensible hunting and fishing - ed
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin

Almighty God has two words for you today: further & faster.
Your life can change for the better in a single moment. You can be going along, doing your best, living a life that honors God, but feel like you’re getting nowhere. Or you may feel like no one’s noticing. You may be tempted to start giving up on your dreams because at this rate, there’s no way it could come true. 
I want you to understand that in one moment God can accelerate your life and change everything.In the Book of John 2, Jesus was at the wedding celebration of some friends when the party runs out of wine. Instead of wedding joy and bliss, this setback could have ruined the feast and damaged relationships. And as you know, you can’t make new wine fast. It takes time...a long time.

But in one moment Jesus accelerated this process and does in seconds what normally takes 30 years.This is not merely a story about what happened a long time ago. It’s a picture of God’s love for you and how He wants to accelerate your life today.You may be facing disappointment, pain and setbacks today, or even criticism from those you love, but don’t get discouraged. Adversity could be the very thing God uses to take you to new levels. I want you to know that I love you and am praying that God will accelerate your life today in Jesus name,Amen.

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Pastor Rick Warren

Grieving isn't evidence of weakness;
it's evidence of love.
"Jesus wept" John 11:35
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For God to mend your broken heart you must give him ALL the pieces. You can't hold any back.
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From The Purpose Driven Life
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"Reignite your passion for God: Start asking God to give it to you, and keep on asking until you have it. Pray this throughout your day: 'Dear Jesus, more than anything else, I want to get to know you intimately.' God told the captives in Babylon, 'When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed.' (Jeremiah 29:13, MSG)"

From The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Learn more -http://bit.ly/1g9j7lH
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Today I'm teaching via video on "Purpose Driven Giving" for Pastor @Chris_Hodges at #ChurchOfTheHighlands in Birmingham, Alabama. Love you guys! I'm always thrilled to help other churches.
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Don't panic, pray!
Don't worry, worship!
Don't give up, grow up!
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Aprille Love
#noodlemarkets #lanterns #love #asian
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CamMie Du

Good luck to all the Year 12s doing their Maths HSC today! #band6

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Whoops! President Infomercial: You guys, just use the phone for Obamacare; Guess what happens ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/10/21/whoops-president-infomercial-you-guys-just-use-the-phone-for-obamacare-guess-what-happens/
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Philharmonischer Chor München
Rezension über Brittens War Requiem
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An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?''

'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"
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Philip Tran

"Mentalities cannot be changed by decree, because they are based on memories, which are almost impossible to kill. But it is possible to expand one's horizons, and when that happens, there is less chance that one will go on playing the same old tune for ever and repeating the same mistakes."

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Two Minutes That Could Have Cost Me Everything

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-meer/distracted-living_b_4059857.html?utm_hp_ref=parents&ir=Parents

We live in an age where we are constantly fed messages that we should try to do as much as we can as fast as we can; to live at maximum efficiency. Except when we shouldn't. Sometimes I feel like we are multi-tasking ourselves right past the point of it all anyway.

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Did you know that America leads the world in the highest number of lawnmower deaths? Or that Mexico is the most common place to be struck by lightning? This awesome map shows what each country leads the world in. http://bit.ly/1a1yntY
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Daily Videos Click here to watch: Obama’s Iranian Red Lines! After watching this, do you have any questions about US policy towards Iran??? Follow us on Facebook for top Israel videos www.facebook.com/12tribefilms Click here to watch: MUSIC VIDEO Virtue Makes You Beautiful! Wow, wow and wow! What a fabulous music video that brings the very important value of modesty to national exposure! These guys did a fabulous job!!! Follow us on Facebook for top Israel videos www.facebook.com/12tribefilms Click here to watch: Check out the Great Addition to a Park in Jerusalem! So cool! When are you coming to Jerusalem to come see this in person? Follow us on Facebook for top Israel videos www.facebook.com/12tribefilms Click here to watch: [History Channel] Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Here is a direct link between Nazism and the the hatred that the Palestinian Arabs have developed towards Jews and Israel. The father of Palestinian Arab nationalism, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was a willing ally to the Nazis in wanting to annihilate the Jewish people. Follow us on Facebook for top Israel videos www.facebook.com/12tribefilms Thank you for caring about Israel. Here is a new tool we have developed for people like you to stay up-to-date with important videos with the latest news in Israel. Sign Up Here! FEATURED VIDEOS Click here to watch: NEVER AGAIN! Must-Watch- This might be the most powerful clip you ever see. Click here to watch:Fascinating! The Legal Case for Israel International law is on Israel's side. Watch the video to understand why! This must be one of the best video presentations that clearly explains international law and the legal case for Israel and Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria. Definitely watch this to have a better understanding of international law so you can talk about Israel's situation intelligently with others. Support the Israeli Economy - Weekly Deal Don't miss this best seller!  Click here to purchase this special holiday gift. What a unique honey dish! People will want to ooh and aah over it whenever they see it! The pomegranate form (a classic Jewish decorative motif) has been decorated with 24K gold plating in places, as well as numerous highlights of iridescent enamel and Amber crystals. IsraelVideoNetwork.com, run by 12Tribe Films, is developing the next generation of Israel activists using online video and social networking. Join our mission - Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to help us grow our network to reach hundreds of thousands of people to make a difference for Israel. ©2013 12Tribe Films | Jerusalem, Israel

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Today's Top Stories • Suspicions dog Big Media's biggest source for Syrian casualty figures. • A rare look at Hezbollah's indoctrinating school system. • Israel on track to release more Palestinian prisoners next week. Read the full roundup here... Welcome to the Israel Daily News Stream The IDNS is a daily roundup of everything you need to know about how the media is covering Israel, all in one place for easy reference, delivered directly to your inbox every morning. Want to receive weekly Bias Alerts? Manage your subscriptions. Please tell your friends to learn more and sign up here. Tired of Seeing Israel Slammed in the Media? Join more than 150,000 people demanding fair media coverage. HonestReporting was formed in 2000 to respond to unfair coverage against Israel in the wake of the second Intifada. Since then, it's prompted hundreds of corrections and retractions. Stay informed on all media issues by signing up to HR's weekly bias alert emails.

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Whether you 'LIKE' us on Facebook, sign a petition, forward our newsletter or donate funds, you are making a real difference for Israel. 

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Please forward this to your friends. Spread the good news & get them involved!


With Blessings from Israel,

The 'United with Israel' Family

Visit us at www.unitedwithisrael.org

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Friend, As you may have heard, Patriot Voices is partnering with EchoLight Studios for the release of The Christmas Candle. I'm asking you to consider serving as a Theater Captain in your local community to make sure we have packed theaters all across this country on opening night, November 22nd.  This will send a statement to Hollywood that Americans want quality, family-friendly films and help keep this amazing Christmas movie in theaters all the way through Christmas.  If you've been looking for a way to help change the culture and make a difference in your local community, click here to learn more and then once you're ready to commit, sign up here. Our support team will provide you with everything you need to be successful; all you need is the passion and willingness to get involved.  Time is short so please sign up by tomorrow, October 22.  There will be a conference call for all Theater Captains on Tuesday night at 8 PM ET.  To RSVP for the call and get dial instructions, click here.  Sincerely, Rick Santorum  Strikeforce in Virginia We need your help! Patriot Voices PAC is recruiting members for a Strikeforce  to help get out the vote for Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia the weekend before Election Day.  Our Strikeforce will go door-to-door and hold sign waves during the weekend of November 1-3! We can help Ken become the next governor of Virginia!  Click here to sign up and someone will be in touch soon to answer your questions. Call to Action on Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act Patriot Voices is supporting passage of H.R. 3279, the Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act.  This bill is gaining support in the U.S. House, but it needs more co-sponsors.  Check the link here, scroll down to co-sponsors and if you don't see your Representative's name, call them at 202-224-3121 and ask them to sign onto this bill.  I encourage you to read an op-ed by the bill's sponsor, Congressman Chris Smith, to learn more about why this bill is so important.  Click here to read the article.  Defeat the United Nations Disabilities Treaty After months of waiting for the U.S. Senate to bring back for consideration the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), we are hearing that it will see some action in early November in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Our friends at the Home School Legal Defense Association have notified their members to be ready to mobilize, and Majority Leader Harry Reid believes that his best chance for passage of CRPD is in the next two months. This means we have to get ready too by burning up the phone lines of our senators, and telling them to vote NO when CRPD comes up for ratification before the full Senate. You all were integral in defeating CRPD when it came up for a vote last Congress.  Your calls and emails were the reason that CRPD was defeated last December, so please, let's do it again. You can quickly and easily email your Senators by  visiting our CRPD page, where you can generate an email that you can personalize and promptly send to your Senators.  After you do that, please call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected with your Senators.  Tell them to vote NO on CRPD.  Tune into Patriot Voices Radio Tuesday at Noon ET Tomorrow is Patriot Voices Radio day!  At noon ET, tune into www.patriotvoices.com/radio on your computer or dial (347) 857-3462 to listen on your phone.  Our radio show is a great way to hear what Patriot Voices is up to! I'll join tomorrow's show and we'll be updating you on CRPD, our Cuccinelli Strikeforce, and our Theater Captain efforts for The Christmas Candle.   Call our Shout-Out line at (512) 827-0033 and tell us how you feel about the public funding of abortion through ObamaCare. We might play your message on our next show!

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Today, the Coalition Government made two major announcements that are laying the foundations for the stronger economy that will benefit all Australians.
 
The Government has established a National Commission of Audit to ensure taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and in an efficient manner.
 
The Commission of Audit will assess the role and scope of Government.  It is an essential step in getting the Budget back under control.
 
The Commission of Audit will be headed by respected business leader, Mr Tony Shepherd AO.  He will be joined by Dr Peter Boxall AO, Mr Tony Cole AO, Mr Robert Fisher AM and the Hon Amanda Vanstone as fellow Commissioners.

This is a once in a generation Commission of Audit and it will provide an initial report to the Government by January 2014. Read more here.

We are advised that on current trends, peak debt will now exceed $400 billion.  Labor’s legacy of debt has made the task of repairing the nation’s finances more important than ever. Read more here.

Establishing a Commission of Audit, getting the Budget back under control and scrapping the Carbon Tax and Mining Tax are essential parts of the Coalition Government’s plan to strengthen and build the economy. 
 
The Government is delivering on its commitments so that all Australians can plan their futures with confidence.
 
Regards,
Joe Hockey
Treasurer

Authorised by Brian Loughnane, Cnr Blackall and Macquarie Streets, Barton  ACT 2604.

 

Copyright © Liberal Party of Australia.

===

Facing the Canon with Mike Carson on Wednesday 20th November... View this email in your browser

J.John & Philo Trust are hosting a live event with Mike Carson, at Christ Church, Chorleywood on Wednesday 20th November 2013 at 7:30pm. Following a 12 year career as an operations officer in the Royal Navy, Mike Carson has worked to develop and transform countless businesses as a leadership consultant. This autumn Mike released ‘The Manager – Inside the Minds of Football’s Leaders’.Critically acclaimed by the UK press, it tackles key leadership issues for managers in any walk of life and, in their own words, shows how the experts deal with the challenges they face in an abnormally high-pressure environment.   Talking to 30 top football managers about their careers was always going to unearth a trove of interesting material, and in that respect this book does not disappoint. By far its strongest point is those managers’ first-person recollections and observations. Independent   A book that aims to dig deeper, including “behind-the-scenes” interviews with more than 30 managers, must be welcomed ... Carson does well to avoid the kinds of clichés that blight so many other books on football. Financial Times   Mike Carson takes a different approach in his compelling examination of 30 managers, treating his subjects as savvy businessmen as much as sports gurus ... It’s impossible to interview such people and not come away with some peerless insights. Observer Tickets are now available. To book, please click here.

Copyright © 2013 Philo Trust, All rights reserved.  This email has been sent to you by Philo Trust, the ministry of J.John because you have provided us with your details.  Our mailing address is:  Philo Trust Witton House Lower Road Chorleywood, Rickmansworth, WD3 5LB United Kingdom

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Photo credit: Jensen Sutta Photography Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for October 21st. Enjoy! From the Blog David Axelrod spins the train wreck: ‘Isn’t it ironic’ Obamacare opponents are pointing out it’s failings? Here’s some spin for you, courtesy of David Axelrod... Please click here to read the rest Pelosi: Glitches in implementation of inevitable train wreck ‘unacceptable’ Nancy Pelosi was on “This Week” this morning and, deemed glitches in implementation of Obamacare “unacceptable”... Please click here to read the rest Kathleen Sebelius admits Obamacare system wasn’t tested The HealthCare.gov situation is getting dire, and if Kathleen Sebelius can’t find Professor Stephen Falken soon, WOPR is going to launch the missiles... Please click here to read the rest More From the Right Side of the Web Mark Steyn: Business 'as usual' resumes; that's the problem Charles C.W. Cooke: The maligned Tea Party Victor Davis Hanson: The Democratic disasters to come Twitchy: Hack-tastic beclowning redux! NBC’s Murray: What happens to GOP when O-care website fixed? Twitchy: Like a record, baby! Hey, media, time to stop spinning Obamacare disaster as a ‘glitch’? Michelle's Top Tweets And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day That's a new one.

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October 22

• 1740 – A two-week massacre of ethnic Chinese inBatavia, Dutch East Indies, came to an end with at least 10,000 people killed.
• 1797 – Dropping from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet (980 m) above Paris, André-Jacques Garnerincarried out the first descent using a framelessparachute (schematic pictured).
• 1877 – The Blantyre mining disaster, Scotland's worst mining accident, occurred when an explosion at a colliery in Blantyre killed 207 miners.
• 1907 – A bank run forced New York's Knickerbocker Trust Companyto suspend operations, which triggered the Panic of 1907.
• 1962 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that Soviet nuclear weapons had been discovered in Cuba and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

===

Events[edit]

• 362 – The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
• 451 – The Council of Chalcedon adopts the Chalcedonian Creed regarding the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ.
• 794 – Emperor Kanmu relocates the Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto).
• 1383 – The 1383-1385 Crisis in Portugal: King Fernando dies without a male heir to the Portuguese throne, sparking a period of civil warand disorder.
• 1575 – Foundation of Aguascalientes.
• 1633 – Battle of southern Fujian sea: The Ming dynasty defeats the Dutch East India Company.
• 1707 – Scilly naval disaster: four British Royal Navy ships run aground near the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. Admiral SirCloudesley Shovell and thousands of sailors drown.
• 1730 – Construction of the Ladoga Canal is completed.
• 1746 – The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American defenders of Fort Mercer on the Delaware River repulse repeated Hessian attacks in theBattle of Red Bank.
• 1784 – Russia founds a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska.
• 1790 – Warriors of the Miami tribe under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.
• 1797 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump from one thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.
• 1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.
• 1844 – The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipate the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment.
• 1859 – Spain declares war on Morocco.
• 1866 – A plebiscite ratifies the annexion of Veneto and Mantua to Italy, occurred three days before, on October 19.
• 1875 – First telegraphic connection in Argentina.
• 1877 – The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.
• 1878 – The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.
• 1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
• 1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust.
• 1895 – In Paris an express train derails after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing almost 30 metres (100 ft) of concourse before crashing through a wall and falling 10 metres (33 ft) to the road below.
• 1907 – Panic of 1907: A run on the stock of the Knickerbocker Trust Company sets events in motion that will lead to a depression.
• 1910 – Dr. Crippen is convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife and is subsequently hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.
• 1923 – The royalist Leonardopoulos–Gargalidis coup d'état attempt fails in Greece, discrediting the monarchy and paving the way for the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic.
• 1924 – Toastmasters International is founded.
• 1926 – J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal, precipitating his death.
• 1927 – Nikola Tesla introduces six new inventions including a motor with onephase electricity
• 1928 – Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.
• 1934 – In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.
• 1941 – World War II: French resistance member Guy Môquet and 29 other hostages are executed by the Germans in retaliation for the death of a German officer.
• 1943 – World War II: in the Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless.
• 1946 – Soviet Operation Osoaviakhim takes place.
• 1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.
• 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
• 1963 – A BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner crashes in UK with the loss of all on board.
• 1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor.
• 1964 – Canada: A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada.
• 1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).
• 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 12.
• 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.
• 1975 – The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus.
• 1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used inCanada.
• 1978 – Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II.
• 1981 – The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.
• 1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.
• 1999 – Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
• 2005 – Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.
• 2006 – A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama.
• 2007 – Raid on Anuradhapura Air Force Base is carried out by 21 Tamil Tiger commandos. All except one died in this attack. Eight Sri Lankan Air Force planes are destroyed and 10 damaged.
• 2008 – India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.

Births[edit]

• 1071 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1126)
• 1197 – Emperor Juntoku of Japan (d. 1242)
• 1511 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1553)
• 1558 – Jacques Sirmond, French scholar (d. 1651)
• 1592 – Gustav Horn, Count of Pori, Swedish soldier and politician (d. 1657)
• 1659 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German chemist and physician (d. 1734)
• 1689 – John V of Portugal (d. 1750)
• 1701 – Maria Amalia of Austria (d. 1756)
• 1729 – Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist (d. 1798)
• 1734 – Daniel Boone, American explorer and hunter (d. 1820)
• 1749 – Cornelis van der Aa, Dutch bookseller (d. 1816)
• 1809 – Volney Howard, American lawyer, politician, and jurist (d. 1889)
• 1811 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1886)
• 1818 – Leconte de Lisle, French poet (d. 1894)
• 1821 – Collis Potter Huntington, American businessman (d. 1900)
• 1844 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (d. 1923)
• 1844 – Louis Riel, Canadian politician (d. 1885)
• 1856 – Dominique Gardères, French horse rider
• 1858 – Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1921)
• 1865 – Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter (d. 1943)
• 1870 – Ivan Bunin, Russian author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
• 1870 – Alfred Douglas, English author, poet and translator (d. 1945)
• 1873 – Gustaf John Ramstedt, Finland-Swedish linguist and diplomat (d. 1950)
• 1873 – Rama Tirtha, Indian Saint,(d.1906)
• 1875 – David van Embden, Dutch politician (d. 1962)
• 1881 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
• 1881 – Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz, German geophysicist (d. 1908)
• 1882 – Géza Kiss, Hungarian swimmer (d. 1952)
• 1882 – Edmund Dulac, French illustrator (d. 1953)
• 1886 – Erik Bergman, Swedish minister (d. 1970)
• 1887 – John Reed, American journalist (d. 1920)
• 1891 – Parker Fennelly, American comedian and actor (d. 1988)
• 1894 – Mei Lanfang, Chinese opera singer (d. 1961)
• 1896 – Charles Glen King, American biochemist (d. 1988)
• 1900 – Ashfaqulla Khan, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1927)
• 1903 – George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
• 1903 – Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (d. 1952)
• 1904 – Constance Bennett, American actress (d. 1965)
• 1905 – Joseph Kosma, Hungarian-French composer (d. 1969)
• 1906 – Kees van Baaren, Dutch composer (d. 1970)
• 1907 – Jimmie Foxx, American baseball player (d. 1967)
• 1908 – John Gould, American columnist (d. 2003)
• 1912 – Frances Drake, American actress (d. 2000)
• 1912 – George N. Leighton, American judge
• 1913 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-American photographer (d. 1954)
• 1913 – Bao Dai, the final Vietnamese emperor (d. 1997)
• 1913 – Tamara Desni, German-English actress (d. 2008)
• 1913 – Hans-Peter Tschudi, Swiss politician, President of Switzerland (d. 2002)
• 1917 – Joan Fontaine, Japanese-American actress
• 1918 – Lou Klein, American baseball player (d. 1976)
• 1919 – Kathleen Ankers, American set designer (d. 2001)
• 1919 – Doris Lessing, Iranian-English author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1920 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Georges Brassens, French singer-songwriter and poet (d. 1981)
• 1921 – Alexander Kronrod, Russian mathematician (d. 1986)
• 1922 – Juan Carlos Lorenzo, Argentine footballer (d. 2001)
• 1923 – Bert Trautmann, German footballer (d. 2013)
• 1925 – Slater Martin, American basketball player and coach (d. 2012)
• 1925 – Robert Rauschenberg, American painter and illustrator (d. 2008)
• 1927 – Allan Hendrickse, South African politician (d. 2005)
• 1928 – Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Brazilian director
• 1929 – Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter (d. 2012)
• 1929 – Lev Yashin, Soviet footballer (d. 1990)
• 1933 – Helmut Senekowitsch, Austrian footballer (d. 2007)
• 1934 – Rita Sakellariou, Greek singer (d. 1999)
• 1935 – Ann Rule, American author
• 1936 – John Blashford-Snell, English army officer, explorer, and author
• 1936 – Bobby Seale, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party
• 1937 – Manos Loïzos, Greek composer (d. 1982)
• 1938 – K. Indrapala, Sri Lankan Tamil historian and academic
• 1938 – Derek Jacobi, English actor
• 1938 – Christopher Lloyd, American actor
• 1938 – Timos Perlegas, Greek actor (d. 1993)
• 1939 – Joaquim Chissano, Mozambican politician, 2nd President of Mozambique
• 1939 – George Cohen, English footballer
• 1939 – Jean-Pierre Desthuilliers, French author and poet
• 1939 – Susumu Kurobe, Japanese actor
• 1939 – Tony Roberts, American actor
• 1942 – Count Christian of Rosenborg (d. 2013)
• 1942 – Bobby Fuller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Bobby Fuller Four) (d. 1966)
• 1942 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (d. 2013)
• 1943 – Allen Coage, American wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1943 – Jan de Bont, Dutch director
• 1943 – Catherine Deneuve, French actress
• 1943 – Seif Sharif Hamad, Zanzibari politician
• 1943 – Robert Long, Dutch singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2006)
• 1945 – Yvan Ponton, Canadian actor
• 1945 – Buzz Potamkin, American television producer, founded Buzzco Associates (d. 2012)
• 1945 – Sheila Sherwood, English long jumper
• 1945 – Leslie West, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mountain, The Vagrants, and West, Bruce and Laing)
• 1946 – Eddie Brigati, American singer-songwriter (The Rascals)
• 1946 – Claude Charron, Canadian politician
• 1946 – Deepak Chopra, Indian-American physician and author
• 1946 – Kelvin MacKenzie, English journalist and businessman
• 1946 – Richard McGonagle, American actor
• 1947 – Raymond Bachand, Canadian politician
• 1947 – Haley Barbour, American politician, 63rd Governor of Mississippi
• 1947 – Apostolos Kontos, Greek basketball player
• 1948 – Lynette Fromme, American attempted assassin of Gerald Ford
• 1948 – Debbie Macomber, American author
• 1949 – Stiv Bators, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church) (d. 1990)
• 1949 – Vasilios Magginas, Greek politician
• 1949 – Arsène Wenger, French footballer and manager
• 1952 – Jeff Goldblum, American actor
• 1956 – Frank DiPino, American baseball player
• 1959 – Arto Salminen, Finnish author (d. 2005)
• 1959 – Marc Shaiman, American composer
• 1960 – Darryl Jenifer, American bass player (Bad Brains)
• 1960 – Cris Kirkwood, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Meat Puppets)
• 1961 – Robert Torti, American actor
• 1962 – Hüseyin Kenan Aydın, German politician
• 1962 – Bob Odenkirk, American actor and comedian
• 1963 – Brian Boitano, American figure skater
• 1964 – TobyMac, American singer-songwriter and producer
• 1964 – Dražen Petrović, Croatian basketball player (d. 1993)
• 1965 – John Wesley Harding, English singer-songwriter
• 1965 – Otis Smith, American football player
• 1965 – Piotr Wiwczarek, Polish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Vader)
• 1966 – Valeria Golino, Italian actress
• 1967 – Salvatore Di Vittorio, Italian composer and conductor
• 1967 – Rita Guerra, Portuguese singer
• 1967 – Ulrike Maier, Austrian skier (d. 1994)
• 1967 – Carlos Mencia, Honduran-American comedian and actor
• 1967 – Ron Tugnutt, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1968 – Shaggy, Jamaican singer-songwriter
• 1968 – Stephanie Cutter, American political consultant
• 1968 – Jay Johnston, American actor and comedian
• 1968 – Shelby Lynne, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1968 – Stéphane Quintal, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1969 – Héctor Carrasco, Dominican baseball player
• 1969 – Spike Jonze, American director and producer
• 1969 – Helmut Lotti, Belgian tenor
• 1970 – Winston Bogarde, Dutch footballer
• 1970 – Amy Redford, American actress, director, and producer
• 1971 – Kornel David, Hungarian basketball player
• 1972 – D'Lo Brown, American wrestler
• 1972 – Saffron Burrows, English Actress
• 1973 – Andrés Palop, Spanish footballer
• 1973 – Ichiro Suzuki, Japanese baseball player
• 1973 – Mark van der Zijden, Dutch swimmer
• 1974 – Tim Kinsella, American singer-songwriter (Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, Owls, Make Believe, and Everyoned)
• 1974 – Giorgos Koltzos, Greek footballer
• 1974 – Jeff McInnis, American basketball player
• 1974 – Miroslav Šatan, Slovak ice hockey player
• 1975 – Martín Cardetti, Argentine footballer
• 1975 – Jesse Tyler Ferguson, American actor
• 1975 – Míchel Salgado, Spanish footballer
• 1976 – Jon Foreman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Switchfoot and Fiction Family)
• 1976 – Helen Svedin, Swedish model
• 1978 – Dion Glover, American basketball player
• 1978 – Chaswe Nsofwa, Zambian footballer (d. 2007)
• 1978 – Owais Shah, English cricketer
• 1979 – Doni, Brazilian footballer
• 1980 – Luke O'Donnell, Australian rugby player
• 1981 – Michael Fishman, American actor
• 1981 – Olivier Pla, French race car driver
• 1982 – Robinson Canó, Dominican baseball player
• 1982 – Tim Erfen, German footballer
• 1982 – Heath Miller, American football player
• 1982 – Mark Renshaw, Australian cyclist
• 1983 – Plan B, English rapper, producer, and actor
• 1983 – Anton Müller, German footballer
• 1984 – Aleks Marić, Australian basketball player
• 1985 – Zac Hanson, American drummer (Hanson)
• 1986 – Kara Lang, Canadian footballer
• 1986 – Ștefan Radu, Romanian footballer
• 1988 – Matt Evans, Filipino actor
• 1990 – Jonathan Lipnicki, American actor
• 1992 – Sofia Vassilieva, American actress

Deaths[edit]

• 741 – Charles Martel, Frankish military leader and politician (b. 686)
• 1383 – Ferdinand I of Portugal (b. 1345)
• 1565 – Jean Grolier de Servières, French book collector (b. 1479)
• 1625 – Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese daimyo (b. 1561)
• 1674 – Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter (b. 1621)
• 1707 – Cloudesley Shovell, English navy admiral (b.1650)
• 1708 – Hermann Witsius, Dutch theologian (b. 1636)
• 1751 – William IV, Prince of Orange (b. 1711)
• 1755 – Elisha Williams, American minister and jurist (b. 1694)
• 1792 – Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (b. 1725)
• 1847 – Sahle Selassie, Ethiopian son of Wossen Seged (b. 1795)
• 1853 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, 19th Century Uruguayan military and political figure (b. 1784)
• 1859 – Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (b. 1784)
• 1883 – Thomas Mayne Reid, Irish-American author (b. 1818)
• 1891 – Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, Austrian physiologist (b. 1846)
• 1906 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)
• 1914 – Konishiki Yasokichi I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 17th Yokozuna (b. 1866)
• 1917 – Bob Fitzsimmons, English boxer (b. 1863)
• 1918 – Myrtle Gonzalez, American actress (b. 1891)
• 1927 – Borisav Stanković, Serbian author (b. 1876)
• 1928 – Andrew Fisher, Australian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)
• 1934 – Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (b. 1904)
• 1935 – Edward Carson, Baron Carson, Irish politician (b. 1854)
• 1935 – Komitas Vardapet, Armenian composer (b. 1869)
• 1941 – Guy Môquet, French militant (b. 1924)
• 1952 – Ernst Rüdin, Swiss nazi physician (b. 1874)
• 1954 – Jibanananda Das, Bengali poet (b. 1899)
• 1956 – Hannah Mitchell, English activist (b. 1872)
• 1969 – Tommy Edwards, American singer-songwriter (b. 1922)
• 1973 – Pau Casals, Catalan cellist and conductor (b. 1876)
• 1978 – John Riley, English poet (b. 1937)
• 1979 – Nadia Boulanger, French composer and educator (b. 1887)
• 1985 – Viorica Ursuleac, Romanian soprano (b. 1894)
• 1986 – Jane Dornacker, American actress and singer (b. 1947)
• 1986 – Ye Jianying, Chinese general and politician (b. 1897)
• 1986 – Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
• 1987 – Lino Ventura, Italian-French actor (b. 1919)
• 1988 – Cynthia Freeman, American novelist (b. 1915)
• 1989 – Ewan MacColl, English singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and playwright (b. 1915)
• 1992 – Red Barber, American sportscaster (b. 1908)
• 1992 – Cleavon Little, American actor (b. 1939)
• 1993 – Innes Ireland, Scottish race car driver (b. 1930)
• 1995 – Kingsley Amis, English author and poet (b. 1922)
• 1997 – Leonid Amalrik, Russian animator (b. 1905)
• 1998 – Eric Ambler, English author (b. 1909)
• 2001 – Helmut Krackowizer, Austrian motorcycle racer and journalist (b. 1922)
• 2002 – Géraldine Apponyi de Nagyappony, Austrian wife of Zog of Albania (b. 1915)
• 2002 – Richard Helms, American intelligence agent and diplomat (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Arman, French-American painter (b. 1928)
• 2005 – Tony Adams, Irish film producer (b. 1953)
• 2005 – Franky Gee, Cuban-American singer (Captain Jack) (b. 1962)
• 2006 – Arthur Hill, Canadian actor (b. 1922)
• 2007 – Ève Curie, French journalist and pianist (b. 1904)
• 2009 – Don Lane, American-Australian actor, singer, and talk show host (b. 1933)
• 2009 – Soupy Sales, American comedian and actor (b. 1926)
• 2011 – Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabian prince (b. 1930)
• 2012 – Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Russell Means, American actor and activist (b. 1939)
• 2012 – Salvatore Merlino, American mobster (b. 1939)
• 2012 – Shubha Phutela, Indian model and actress (b. 1991)
• 2012 – Wilson Whineray, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1935)

Holidays and observances[edit]

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church)
  • Abercius of Hieropolis
  • Bertharius
  • Color Day
  • Donatus of Fiesole
  • John Paul II
  • Mary Salome
  • Nunilo and Alodia
  • October 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Earliest day on which Labour Day can fall, while October 28 is the latest; celebrated on the fourth Monday in October (New Zealand)
• Earliest day on which Make a Difference Day can fall, while October 28 is the latest; celebrated on the fourth Saturday in October (United States)
• Fechner Day, celebrated by Psychophysicists
• International Stuttering Awareness Day (International)
• Jidai Matsuri (Kyoto)

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“I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.”” Psalm 40:8 NIV

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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The love of Christ constraineth us."
2 Corinthians 5:14

How much owest thou unto my Lord? Has he ever done anything for thee? Has he forgiven thy sins? Has he covered thee with a robe of righteousness? Has he set thy feet upon a rock? Has he established thy goings? Has he prepared heaven for thee? Has he prepared thee for heaven? Has he written thy name in his book of life? Has he given thee countless blessings? Has he laid up for thee a store of mercies, which eye hath not seen nor ear heard? Then do something for Jesus worthy of his love. Give not a mere wordy offering to a dying Redeemer. How will you feel when your Master comes, if you have to confess that you did nothing for him, but kept your love shut up, like a stagnant pool, neither flowing forth to his poor or to his work. Out on such love as that! What do men think of a love which never shows itself in action? Why, they say, "Open rebuke is better than secret love." Who will accept a love so weak that it does not actuate you to a single deed of self-denial, of generosity, of heroism, or zeal! Think how he has loved you, and given himself for you! Do you know the power of that love? Then let it be like a rushing mighty wind to your soul to sweep out the clouds of your worldliness, and clear away the mists of sin. "For Christ's sake" be this the tongue of fire that shall sit upon you: "for Christ's sake" be this the divine rapture, the heavenly afflatus to bear you aloft from earth, the divine spirit that shall make you bold as lions and swift as eagles in your Lord's service. Love should give wings to the feet of service, and strength to the arms of labour. Fixed on God with a constancy that is not to be shaken, resolute to honour him with a determination that is not to be turned aside, and pressing on with an ardour never to be wearied, let us manifest the constraints of love to Jesus. May the divine loadstone draw us heavenward towards itself.

Evening

"Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?"
Luke 24:38

"Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" The Lord cares for all things, and the meanest creatures share in his universal providence, but his particular providence is over his saints. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him." "Precious shall their blood be in his sight." "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose." Let the fact that, while he is the Saviour of all men, he is specially the Saviour of them that believe, cheer and comfort you. You are his peculiar care; his regal treasure which he guards as the apple of his eye; his vineyard over which he watches day and night. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." Let the thought of his special love to you be a spiritual pain-killer, a dear quietus to your woe: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." God says that as much to you as to any saint of old. "Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." We lose much consolation by the habit of reading his promises for the whole church, instead of taking them directly home to ourselves. Believer, grasp the divine word with a personal, appropriating faith. Think that you hear Jesus say, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Think you see him walking on the waters of thy trouble, for he is there, and he is saying, "Fear not, it is I; be not afraid." Oh, those sweet words of Christ! May the Holy Ghost make you feel them as spoken to you; forget others for awhile--accept the voice of Jesus as addressed to you, and say, "Jesus whispers consolation; I cannot refuse it; I will sit under his shadow with great delight."

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Today's reading: Isaiah 62-64, 1 Timothy 1 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 62-64

Zion’s New Name

¹ For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
² The nations will see your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
³ You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
⁴ No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
and your land Beulah;
for the LORD will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
⁵ As a young man marries a young woman,
so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.

⁶ I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the LORD,
give yourselves no rest,
⁷ and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth....

...read the rest on Bible Gateway

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Timothy 1

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

² To Timothy my true son in the faith:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Timothy Charged to Oppose False Teachers

³ As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer ⁴ or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. ⁵ The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ⁶ Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.⁷ They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

⁸ We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. ⁹ We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine ¹¹ that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me....

...read the rest on Bible Gateway

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Cyrus

[Cy'rus] - as miserable or an heir.Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, conquered Babylon and was anointed by God to free the Jews from captivity. The prophets frequently foretold the coming of Cyrus. Isaiah, for example, mentioned him by name two hundred years before he was born (2 Chron. 36:22, 23; Ezra 1:1-8; 3:7; 4:3-5; 5:13-17; 6:3-14; Isa. 44:28; 45; Dan. 1:21; 6:28; 10:1 ). Classical writers adorn the life and labors of Cyrus with a variety of legendary incidents for which no confirmation can be produced.

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October 21, 2011 I'm Right Here Gwen Smith Today's Truth Fear not ... I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you... (Isaiah 43:1-2) Friend to Friend While walking into the opening session of a marriage conference that we had been looking forward to, his cellphone rang. He answered the call and we took our seats. As the emcee kicked off the weekend with gracious greetings, my husband, Brad, leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Preston fell on a rock at camp and is on his way to urgent care to get stitches in his chin." He took my hand and whispered again, knowing from my expression that I was alarmed, "It's just a few stitches. He'll be okay, honey." My stomach flip-flopped. We locked eyes and shared pain - both wounded in the heart for our firstborn son. This wasnotthe way we had imagined that our weekend away would begin. As the session began, my momma-bear instincts kicked in and my mind reeled. Though he was a hundred miles away and though he's a man-cub teenager, I ached to be by Preston's side while the doctor stitched up his chin. I am always by his side when he gets hurt. Yet, there was comfort in knowing that this was "just a few stitches." As that first session came to a close in prayer, Brad's cell phone invaded the quiet. He leapt up and left the room swiftly to get an update on Preston. Right behind him, I asked repeatedly, "What are they saying? Is everything okay?" "He said that Preston broke his jaw," Brad said with a tone of disbelief. Again he said, "The x-rays showed that he broke his jaw. I can't believe this. They need us to come get him and take him to Charlotte. He might need surgery." Gripped by his words, I struggled to think clearly, "A broken jaw? Surgery? It was just supposed to be a few stitches! Well - it's probably just a small fracture. I really hate that I'm not with him right now..." Bags were packed quickly and by the time darkness fell on North Carolina, Charlotte was on the horizon. The next several hours were a blur of doctors, x-rays, CAT scans and surgery plans. Bad went to worse as we learned that Preston didn't just break his jaw... he broke his jaw in three places, and, as the doctor phrased it, "he pretty much broke his jaw as bad as you can break a jaw." Nice. Surgery began and the wait was on... and on... and on. The heart-distance between the operating room and the waiting room was a thousand miles. It killed me to not hold his hand and stroke his hair while his jaw was reconstructed for seven and a half hours. In the wee hours of the morning, surgery was complete and Preston was wheeled to his room. Brad and I rushed to his side as they brought him to his room and though he was heavily sedated, I reached for his hand and assured him, "Preston! I'm right here! I'm right by your side. I will stay here beside you. I know you're in pain, buddy, but you're going to heal well now. I'm right here and I love you." His eyes flickered open for a split second to let Brad and I know that he heard our love then he drifted back to post-surgical sleep. Several times an hour the nurses came in to check his vitals. I hadn't slept in nearly a day and was thoroughly exhausted, but each time a nurse entered the room I leapt to his side and whispered to my wounded child, "I'm right here, Preston! I'm right here. You're not alone." After the third or fourth time of reassuring Preston of my presence, I lay back down and whispered to God, "Lord, please heal my son! Please heal him." And in the still of the night, in the quietness of my bleeding momma-heart, my soul sensed Him whispering right back to me, "I'm right here, Gwen! I'm right here. For him. For you. You're not alone." Peace. I heard the voice of Peace speak His presence and tenderness into my pain. He heard me. He knew of my plight. He knew I needed a word of encouragement. Not an audible word - just a heart whisper. He was right by my side. I knew it as I remembered His Word, "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). Peace. There are times when your heavy heart-burdens cry so loudly that you struggle to hear the voice of Peace. Times when your prayers seem to go unanswered and your broken situations seem unfixable ... and painful. Oh, so painful! We all know ache. We can't get through this life without knowing ache. The Bible says that not a tear falls from your eye that isn't known to God. (Psalm 56:8) He knows all about your heart-burdens. He knows that you need a word of encouragement today. Hear His whisper now, friend. Whispers from His Word ... from His heart, "I will never leave you or forsake you. I know your name and have engraved it on the palm of my hand. I hold your tears in a bottle and ache with you. My grace is sufficient and I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. I'm right here." (Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 139, Psalm 56:8, 2Corinthians 12:9, John 16:33) Let's Pray Dear Lord, Thank You for reminding me that You are always with me, that You see me, and that You hear my prayers. Please help me to know deeper levels of peace today. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Now It's Your Turn Read Isaiah 43:1-3,5a . "But now, this is what the LORD says- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... Do not be afraid, for I am with you." How does this speak to your circumstances today? To your heart? Pray about it and journal if you're the journaling type... then let's meet on my Facebook page to talk about it and pray through it together.www.Facebook.com/GwenSmithMusic. More from the Girlfriends If this devotion resonated with you and if you would like to learn more about how your brokenness can be reworked into a picture of God's beauty, don't miss Gwen's book Broken into Beautiful. Every step of transformation begins with the heart of God. Broken into Beautiful will take you there. To order the book, go to Amazon or, for a signed copy, visit Gwen's website: www.gwensmith.net. LOVE MUSIC? Check out Gwen's new CD, Uncluttered. Now available on iTunes! The songs of Uncluttered are purposed to sweep you away from life-noise and to focus your heart and mind on the one thing that matters: your relationship with Jesus Christ. 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 info@girlfriendsingod.com www.girlfriendsingod.com

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October 21, 2011 Testing Fences Marybeth Whalen "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." Psalm 16:6(NIV) Each morning when I let my dog out he does a lap around the perimeter of our yard and then comes back to ram his body against the gate, just to see if he can get out of the confinement we've put him in. He looks over at me as he does it, as if to say, "Just checking." The other morning I was laughing about what a silly dog he is. Then it occurred to me that I am not that different from him when it comes to the fences in my life. Like my dog, I have a Master who has constructed boundaries to keep me safe. But I don't always like those boundaries. I don't understand why they have to be there. Why can't I just be free to roam where I please, call my own shots, make my own decisions? Why must there be fences to hem me in? Like my dog, I am quick to forget that those fences are there for my protection. And so I go around kicking them, testing them, pushing against them instead of accepting them. Instead of trusting, I just feel trapped. As I look back over my life, I can see many fences I've tested. When God made me a mother, I questioned the position I'd landed in. Perhaps I'd be better off somewhere else, doing something else. When God directed us to do whatever it took to get our finances under control, I longed for the days when I could run free with my credit card. When marriage got really, really hard, I wondered if I was meant to be bound to this one man forever. When God called me to homeschooling, I resisted being tied to my home and children, slow to realize that God placed me there to teach me things I could've never learned otherwise. As I've surveyed the path of my purpose, I've found myself wondering if another path would be better-if I am truly where I am supposed to be. It seems I have struggled with every boundary, pushing against every fence God has ever erected in my life. Instead of seeing the place He puts me as a reason for my safety, I dwell on how it inhibits me. I can see how those boundaries kept me in a place where He could reach me. And when the time came, I saw the benefits of those boundaries. Through motherhood, I learned to be a servant. Through marriage I learned to forgive and accept forgiveness. Through paying off debt, I learned the blessings of financial freedom. Through homeschooling I learned to lay down my agenda for His. I am a better person-and I know God better-through the boundaries in my life. Have you struggled with some boundaries of your own? Maybe today you're looking at the fences in your life and wanting to throw yourself against them instead of seeing them as pleasant places and trusting that within those confines waits your delightful inheritance. Maybe you've forgotten that your Master erected those perimeters for your good. This morning a neighbor knocked at our door. My dog had pushed against the fence and this time it had given way. He had escaped and gone for a romp through our neighborhood, happy and free, oblivious to the cars that could have hit him, the dog catcher who would be only too happy to put him in the pound. The neighbor brought him back to me and I put him in the fence, this time making sure the gate was securely latched. He still didn't understand the need for his fence. But I, his master, do. He just has to trust that I have erected the fence for his safety, and dwell in his pleasant place. Just like me. Dear Lord, help me to stop pushing against the boundaries You've erected in my life. Help me to instead see those perimeters as existing for my protection and my good. Let me see where You have me as a pleasant place, no matter where that might be. I want to stop testing the fences and dwell in Your safe pasture, trusting and content. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Related Resources: Do You Know Him? Visit Marybeth's blog Becoming a Woman of Influence (CD) by Marybeth Whalen From Financially Frantic to Financially Free (CD) by Marybeth Whalen She Makes It Look Easy by Marybeth Whalen is a novel for every woman who has looked at another woman's life and said, "I want what she has," She Makes It Look Easyreminds us of the danger of pedestals and the beauty of authentic friendship, and to rejoice in the fences God sets up for us. 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: As you are going about your day today, notice the fences you pass. When you pass them, thank God for the boundaries He has placed in your life. Reflections: What is a boundary in my life that I need to see as a pleasant place? Power Verses: Psalm 147:14, "He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat." (NIV) Psalm 139:5, "You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me." (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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Origen of Alexandria: Theologian and Allegorical Exegete Verse: Matthew 19:12 The blistering persecution set in motion by Emperor Septimus Severus in 202 tore apart the family of the young Origenes Adamatius (185 – 254), who would become one of the leading systematic theologians of the early church. Born into a Christian home in Alexandria, he was the oldest of seven children. As a youth he memorized lengthy passages of the Bible and often perplexed his father, a teacher of the Bible and Greek literature, with difficult theological questions. The happy home life was suddenly disrupted in 202, however, when Origen's father was imprisoned. The sixteen-year-old boy might have been utterly distraught, but instead the ordeal served to strengthen his faith. Fearing his father might forsake his faith out of devotion to the family, he pleaded: "Do not change your mind because of us." Shortly afterward, Origen's father was beheaded and his property confiscated, leaving his widow and young children in dire straits. Through the generosity of a benefactor, Origen continued his studies for a year and then became a teacher and later the head of an Alexandrian catechetical school in order to support his mother and siblings. For Origen, theology was intricately tied to spiritual formation. He practiced strict asceticism, denying himself normal pleasures in order to suffer with Christ, even castrating himself to avert sexual desires. With his asceticism came humanitarian outreach, primarily aiding those suffering under persecution. Some of his students were sentenced to death, and he himself hid in homes of both pagans and Christians in order to escape execution. Under Origen's teaching and administration, the Alexandrian school grew. His scholarship captured the attention of church leaders, who invited him to preach and teach elsewhere, much to the chagrin of his bishop, Demetrius, who demanded that he return home. How dare he tour as a celebrity speaker! "It has never been heard of and it never happens now," the bishop seethes, "that laymen preach homilies in the presence of bishops." Origen, for his part, was not easily muzzled. Traveling through the Mediterranean world, he spent time in Caesarea, where he was ordained by the bishop, who believes such acknowledgment of his ministerial gifts is appropriate. When Demetrius learned of this "breach of jurisdiction," he was livid, accusing Origen of teaching heresy and exposing the secret of his youthful self-castration. In the ensuing conflict, Origen was banned from Alexandria and his ordination was rendered null and void. Other bishops, however, ignored the retraction of his ordination and invited him to serve as a priest and teacher under their jurisdictions. He eventually made his home in Caesarea, where he combined his work of teaching, preaching, and writing in wide-ranging fields of biblical studies, theology, philosophy, natural science, and ethics. His intention, however, was not to establish a liberal arts program. Rather, his focus was mission outreach — bringing pagans into the faith through his appealing educational offerings. During the later years of his life, Origen traveled as a theological consultant, frequently called upon to judge the orthodoxy of a particular churchman or teacher whose beliefs are in question. With the help of a wealthy benefactor, he was able to devote his time to research and writing. During the persecution under Emperor Decius, Origen was arrested and imprisoned. Although nearing seventy, he was afforded no mercy. According to Eusebius, his torture was severe. Among other agonies, his legs were "pulled four paces apart in the torturer's stocks." Released from prison, he died soon afterward. Unlike many of the leading Christians of the early church, Origen will never be given the title of saint. In the sixth century he was deemed a heretic for several of his controversial views, including his belief in a Trinitarian hierarchy. But he held views even more abhorrent, what a critic called "the fabulous preexistence of souls" and "the monstrous restoration which follows from it." This restoration was a form of universalism in which God's love in the end prevails over his wrath. If you enjoyed the above article, please take a minute to read about the book that it was adapted from: Parade of Faith: A Biographical History of the Christian Church by Ruth A. Tucker Buy the book! The story of Christianity centers on people whose lives have been transformed by the resurrected Lord. Tucker puts this front and center in a lively overview peppered with sidebars; historical "what if?" questions; sections on everyday life; drawings and illustrations; bibliographies for further reading.

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He Is - Creator Today's reading: Genesis 1:1 Meet God, the Creator of everything. He who decided that things should be and they were. He who set the hands of time in motion. The One whose imagination created the heavens and the earth and all they contain: stars, plants, seasons, trees ... penguins. When he reviewed his creation, God saw that "it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). God, who created everything, created everyone-including you. You may look in the mirror and see flaws. But God designed every freckle, every wrinkle, every crinkle and even numbered the hairs on your head (see Luke 12:7). When he created you, he considered it "very good." Do you? ADVERTISEMENT True Identity: The Bible for Women by Zondervan The Bible that helps you see yourself as God sees you! Find your true identity in Christ through your relationship with him.

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	Discipline From 4-12 is practical advice and encouragement for parents who are training children ages 4-12. It's yours FREE, just click below.

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