Friday, March 07, 2014

Fri Mar 7th Todays News

Administration works best when you aren't aware of it. I am not referring to the terrible feeling when you need to report something and no one is there. I mean that when people are aware of their roles and can make informed choices. Administration has to be obvious when making mechanical decisions. So, when someone posts profanity or dumb abuse and gets it deleted or is booted then Admin is obvious. But when debate or community flourishes admin is irrelevant. That being said, it is wonderful seeing some of the political ideology debates posted by Mandy. I deeply appreciate the contributions Stephanie, John and Phil make too. 

 Recently we have had to be more obvious in our admin duties, deleting posts and fielding complaints. I don't mind doing that, but some people are confused as to etiquette. Linking me to arbitrate someone you don't like is likely to get you booted. It doesn't matter to me if someone is so ugly their mother does not love them. But, if you see something that is wrong, and you link me to it, I will deal with it. Keep in mind I work an unpaid 12 hour day every day. It is ok to be friendly, but I'm not here to be friends. 

 Admins might make a mistake, but if you post profanity, or abuse, it was probably deleted because of that, and not by mistake. Posts don't disappear. If they weren't deleted, then you were probably blocked by people that don't like you. That is ok. It has nothing to do with administration. Please don't block admins, or they will boot you for it. 

 Some have been asking for specific rules, so they know where they stand. I don't have time for point scoring, or money for lawyers. The point of the group is to discuss political issues. Everyone is welcome. We aim for a family friendly atmosphere .. I am aware politics is boring to children. 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/nsw-premier-barry-o-farrell-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball?
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Ged MacMahonand Jerome Chapman. Born on the same day, across the years. Ged is a cousin making more cousins. Jerome is a talented artist and businessman. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live
Matches
Despatches
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Clipping wings of once great airline

Piers Akerman – Thursday, March 06, 2014 (11:46pm)

QANTAS is paying the price of being too smart by half. The Flying Kangaroo risks becoming road kill courtesy of the truly stupid commercially-restrictive policies of the ALP and the Greens, or, even more senselessly, at its own suicidal hand because of its ill-advised propensity to engage in party politics.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Clipping wings of once great airline'
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Gender shouldn’t define a career

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, March 04, 2014 (10:14pm)

THE hypocrisy of Labor dispatching its Emily’s List sweethearts Penny Wong and Catherine King to tear down one of the few women in the Abbott ministry made last week’s Senate Estimates hearings compulsory viewing.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Gender shouldn’t define a career'
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CHOP ACCOMPLISHED

Tim Blair – Thursday, March 06, 2014 (8:25pm)

The main reason for this latest US trip wasn’t just to maintain my impressively destructive carbon footprint. It was also to eat an authentic wop chop at Muzz and Stan’s Freeway Tavern in Butte, Montana:

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The wop chop is a surprisingly delicate fried pork chop sandwich, said to have been the favourite meal of Butte nativeEvel Knievel. Allow me to report that the wop chop is indeed fantastically tasty:

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Butte – pronounced beaut – has other places of great interest. There’s the local university’s excellent mineral museum, where fortunate visitors may be given a guided tour by resident geologist John. And there’s my place of lodging, the ethereal Eddy’s Motel:

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When on the road, I like to mix up the places I stay. Some five star, some … well, let’s just say that they may have the star level of a typical ABC Insiders panel, but they make up for it with charm and deserved pride (unlike a typicalInsiders panel). Eddy’s delivered. And next door is a bar called Joker’s, where one night I ran into Bob and his wife Tammy. Even experienced Montana hunters only manage to bring down an elk every decade or so. Bob is known for killing an elk every single year.
“Be here at 6pm tomorrow,” Bob announced. “I’m bringing elk steaks.” I turned up on time and Bob was true to his word. The steaks, seasoned with a dry rub of Bob’s own invention, were superb. Behind the bar, Cindy looked on with casual admiration. “He’s always bringing in things to cook,” she said, ordering up some accompanying fries.
The next morning, as I prepared to leave the snowy north, Bob drove by to deliver home-cured elk jerky. Again, delicious. Much thanks to Bob and Tammy. Thanks also to Iowahawk, Ken Layne, Adam Baldwin, Gale Banks, Coopand everyone else I caught up with from LA to Montana and back. Huge thanks as well to readers who have dropped by during this holiday diversion. Usual blogging will resume next Monday.
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WHEN THE LODGE WAS FABULOUS

Tim Blair – Thursday, March 06, 2014 (7:22pm)

For a boring and useless politician, Malcolm Fraser has featured in a surprising number of hilarious incidents (Whitlam’s dismissal, a certain trouser moment in Memphis, helping install Mugabe, becoming Australia’s most pointless man, etc.) And here he is being reminded of events following two Grand Finals in the early 1980s.
(Language warning. The speaker is former Carlton player Alex Marcou. Meanwhile, a modern Fraserite decries conservatism in the Guardian. It’s sad.) 
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Shorten: the voice of the AWU

Andrew Bolt March 07 2014 (10:24am)

Why is Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s web site still registered to the Australian Workers Union?
Domain Name billshorten.com.au
Last Modified 18-Jul-2012 00:48:28 UTC
Registrant AUSTRALIAN WORKERS UNION
Registrant ID ABN 28853022982
(Thanks to reader Andrew of Randwick.) 
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Will Ove Hoegh-Guldberg’s latest reef scare turn out better than his last?

Andrew Bolt March 07 2014 (10:08am)

Global warming - dud predictions

Warming alarmist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg tries again - predicting the death of the reef that refuses to die:
The Great Barrier Reef will suffer “irreversible” damage by 2030 unless radical action is taken to lower carbon emissions, a stark new report has warned…
Coral bleaching, which occurs when water becomes too warm and coral’s energy source is decimated, is now a “serious threat” to the reef, having not been documented in the region prior to 1979…
Co-author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, told Guardian Australia that current climate trends signal “game over” for the Great Barrier Reef.
But what of Hoegh-Guldberg’s previous scares?
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg in 2000:

The reef-building corals that make the Reef possible are likely to become very rare indeed if warming continues unabated… As much as I would love to be proven wrong, it is very hard to argue around it… We now have more evidence that corals cannot fully recover from bleaching episodes such as the major event in 1998. Although some small areas of coral can bounce back, the overall damage is irreparable.
Hoegh-Guldberg in 2006:

Even though we’re really in the early part of summer, most of the reefs we saw were 100 per cent bleached. .. No-one with any credibility in this field is doubting that we’re seeing the first signs of a major change to an ecosystem due to climate change.
Hoegh-Guldberg in 2006:

Between 30 and 40 per cent of coral on Queensland’s great Barrier Reef could die within a month...
Hoegh-Guldberg in 2009:

So what we know now is that, as we’ve been rising in CO2, the Great Barrier Reef has started to slow its calcification and earlier this year two groups of scientists, one in Australia and one in Thailand, have now shown that coral reefs are calcifying now 50 per cent slower than they did prior to 1990.
Hoegh-Guldberg in 2011:

We will see large-scale mortality of reef-building corals (30% or more) and many other organisms on reefs from Exmouth to Shark Bay along the West Australian coastline (300 km or more).  This will occur over the next 1-3 months. Reefs in this region will take more than 10 years to recover…
But now?
A GOVERNMENT-RUN research body has found in an extensive study of corals spanning more than 1000km of Australia’s coastline that the past 110 years of ocean warming has been good for their growth.
The findings undermine blanket predictions that global warming will devastate coral reefs, and add to a growing body of evidence showing corals are more resilient than previously thought, up to a certain point.
The study by the commonwealth-funded Australian Institute of Marine Science, peer-reviewed findings of which are published in the leading journal Science today, examined 27 samples from six locations from the West Australian coast off Geraldton to offshore from Darwin…
The researchers found that, contrary to their expectations, warmer waters had not negatively affected coral growth. Quite the opposite, in fact: for their southern samples, where ocean temperatures are the coolest but have warmed the most, coral growth increased most significantly over the past 110 years…
Maria Byrne, a professor of marine biology at Sydney University, said after reading the paper that its findings “made perfect sense”. “Temperature rules metabolism, so it’s a no-brainer that if you get more temperature you will get more metabolism.”
More good news as the reef recovers from damage caused largely by cyclones, which even the CSIRO admits have not been made worse or more numerous by warming::
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority scientists say baby corals are blooming on the Great Barrier Reef...
GBRMPA’s Climate Change and Ecosystems Manager Roger Beeden has been heading up the survey and says that the coral bloomings are a positive sign of recovery…
“It is showing that even though it has had multiple impacts in the last few years, it is able to bounce back...”
Mr Beeden says many parts of the reef looked like “moonscapes” when they surveyed after cyclone Yasi…

Mr Beeden says it is good news for fast growing coral, but there are slower growing coral that need more time.
“In the fast growing ones we can begin to see quite good recovery in 5-10 years, but in the really big ones, the kind of huge, great big trees if you like, actually can take decades to centuries to recover,” he said.
And still more:

An underwater survey has found thriving coral reefs at depths of 30 meters and below, on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia.
The Catlin Seaview Survey ...  noticed coral reefs flourishing underneath the damaged coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. 
The good news has come just few weeks after a survey by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the University of Wollongong, which revealed that the coral cover in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has declined by more than half in the last 27 years as a result of storm damage, bleaching and population explosion of crown of thorns starfish…
“Some of the shallow areas of the reefs we’ve been diving on have been completely devastated by cyclones, but as soon as we dive to depths of 40m and below, the areas are almost completely untouched,” Pim Bongaerts of the University of Queensland’s global change institute, who is leading the deep reef survey, told the Guardian.
But watch Hoegh-Guldberg get uncritical coverage of his latest scare. Journalists should instead ask him why this prediction flopped:
After all, in 1999 [Hoegh-Guldberg] published a paper claiming that global warming would so heat the oceans that the mass bleaching of the reef in 1998 (from which the reef in fact has recovered almost entirely) would occur every two years from 2010 - and every year from 2020.
In fact, the last mass bleaching occurred in 2006. Still waiting, Ove…
(Thanks to reader Gab.) 
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The Bolt Report on Sunday

Andrew Bolt March 07 2014 (9:04am)

The Bolt Report on Sunday - an hour long and still crowded.
Joining me - Labor’s Anthony Albanese, Michael Kroger and Cassandra Wilkinson.
And our new NewsWatch segment, this week with Rowan Dean.
I’ll talk about Abbott’s religious war, the Green’s religious fight-back, Qantas, the ABC’s cluelessness and how Obama was blind-sided by Putin. Plus lots more.
On Network 10 at 10 am and 4pm.

The videos of the show appear here.
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How are we going to pay for this $130 billion of handouts?

Andrew Bolt March 07 2014 (8:02am)

Saying Rinehart “criticised welfare recipients for dragging the country into debt” is caricaturing her real argument, which I think is actually important and deserves a fairer hearing:
MINING billionaire Gina Rinehart has criticised welfare recipients for dragging the country into debt and attacked the political left for spending the “bottomless pit” of revenue generated from mining taxes and royalties.
“We are living beyond our means,” Ms Rinehart, worth an estimated $19.89 billion, wrote in an opinion article. “This ‘Age of Entitlement’…
In her latest column for Australian Resources and Investment magazine, Ms Rinehart echoed Treasurer Joe Hockey’s call for an end to the age of entitlement — albeit with a sharper attack on the $130 billion spent annually on the five million citizens receiving income support.
”Australians have to work hard or actually harder and smarter to create the revenue to be able to pay that bill … something has to give, we can’t do it all."…
She heaped praise on the late Margaret Thatcher and quoted one of her favourite lines from the controversial former British prime minister: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
“Great quote. Let’s learn from it,” she wrote....
“The political left is torn and confused. One moment they hate [mining’s] very existence and even want us closed down — but in another, they don’t want to stop spending the revenue that they count on from us in taxes and royalties…
“We all have a role to play in mitigating the thinking that’s not helping our country’s future, including the entitlements mentality of individuals, companies — and our leaders...”
Rinehart will doubtless be attacked for her views in the most personal way because she is rich. So imagine she were as poor as your standard Leftist - say, a Morry Schwartz or Graeme Wood. Now tell me what is wrong with her argument.
(Declaration: Rinehart is on the board of Channel 10, which runs the show I make for News Corp. Oh, and she is also the major shareholder of Fairfax, the rival of my employers News Corp and Macquarie Radio Network, but I try not to hold that against her.)
UPDATE
Meanwhile:
TREASURY has warned Joe Hockey of an $18 billion spending burden that will destroy his plan for a “path to surplus” unless drastic action is taken in May to overhaul the federal budget…
[The] Treasurer warned of a “time bomb” from Labor spending that was not revealed last year because it flowed after the four years of the budget forecast period.
The outlays will be included in the budget for the first time in May because the forecast period now includes the 2017-18 financial year, intensifying pressure on the government to slash outlays…
The sharp rise is mostly the result of Labor’s decisions in government to increase spending on foreign aid, education, hospitals and the National Disability Insurance Scheme…
The NDIS starts becoming very expensive beyond 2017-18, with its cost doubling to $5bn in that year and doubling again over the next two years to reach just under $10bn.
The Gonski school funding reforms cost $1.2bn in 2016-17 and there is no further increase in the following year, but the cost rises sharply to $3.8bn by 2019-20.
Much more damaging to the budget are Labor’s health funding reforms, under which the commonwealth has promised to inject $16.5bn into state-run public hospitals over a five-year period, with the commonwealth’s share of hospital costs rising to 50 per cent by July 2017. 
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Brown: Trust the public to know the difference between debate and speech that needs silencing

Andrew Bolt March 07 2014 (7:29am)

There is a ludicrous fear now of discussing important issues of Aboriginal identity and “racial” separatism. The costs of simply clearing articles for publication are so great that it is cheaper and easier simply to say nothing. It is a cost to my employer that I now have to bear in mind as well, and pieces I have written have actually had to be removed from the Internet.
As a result, there is only a very limited debate on issues that worry many Australians - with activists pushing positions without fully realising how resented they are, or will be, or how dangerous they are.
Our laws limiting free speech on such matter are illiberal, dangerous and patronising. They tend to protect not people but ideologies. This fear of words, even harsh words, is utterly absurd.
So while I remain utterly opposed to racism, I fully back the repeal of draconian parts of the Racial Discrimination Act. In fact, it is precisely because I want to oppose newly fashionable expressions of racism that I want the RDA reformed.
Neil Brown wants fewer changes than I think we need. But he makes some important points:
FORMER federal attorney-general Neil Brown QC has presented the Abbott government with a reform plan that would give community standards a central role in deciding what can lawfully be said in public on the issue of race…
In 2011, [Bolt’s] articles were found to have breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which imposes civil liability for speech on the subject of race that is found to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate.
Federal Court judge Mordecai Bromberg decided there was no role for community standards in determining whether Bolt’s articles were unlawful and instead applied a test that gave priority to the views of the group claiming to have been offended.
According to Mr Brown, who is also a former communications minister, the test used in section 18C is subjective and relies on the feelings of the complainant or the group of which the complainant is part… He writes that this is flawed and should be replaced by an objective test, applied by a jury, that depends on community standards…
In the Bolt case, Justice Bromberg decided against using a test for liability that relied on community standards because “to import general community standards into the test for the reasonable likelihood of offence runs a risk of reinforcing the prevailing level of prejudice”.
Mr Brown’s submission takes the opposite view…
“Australians tend to possess a fair amount of common sense and hold their right to speak freely in high regard. In practice jury members would most likely only find a person in breach of section 18C for unambiguously egregious displays of racial vilification,” Mr Brown writes.
“They wouldn’t take too kindly to plaintiffs using courts as a forum for identity politics or the silencing of opponents,” Mr Brown’s submission continues.
Brown’s approach, of course, lessens the risk of this law being used to impose the views of activists on the rest of the community. It shows a faith in Australians that proponents of the RDA clearly lack. 
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Not the DLP Abbott they expected

Andrew Bolt March 07 2014 (7:04am)

Remember the grim warnings from Labor that Tony Abbott would be a markets-meddling prime-minister, doling out subsidies to favorite industries?
Here’s Craig Emerson in 2010, when he was Julia Gillard’s Small Business Minister:
Make no mistake: Abbott’s Liberal Party is a party of government intervention in private markets. Philosophically, Abbott has aligned himself with the economic prescriptions of B.A. Santamaria, describing himself as a “lifelong admirer” ...
The very opposite is true:
While the dramatic late-night announcement by Abbott and Transport Minister Warren Truss of the plans to effectively split Qantas and change the Qantas Sale Act without providing an interim debt guarantee was the final sign that Hockey’s preparedness to remain open to debt help for Qantas was not prevailing, the real moment of fundamental change within the new Coalition government and Abbott’s economic leadership came at the cabinet meeting on January 30.
A similar pattern of kite-flying and public positioning on SPC Ardmona’s request for a taxpayer-funded $25 million bailout occurred before the decisive cabinet meeting with Abbott signalling a hard line on “corporate welfare” and demanding the management fix costly labour agreements…
As one cabinet minister told The Australian: “If John Howard had been in that meeting, SPC would have got the $25m.”
Labor has used this hard-line approach to describe Abbott as doctrinaire, hating workers, exporting jobs and being uncaring. Yet on the Holden decision not to offer further assistance using “borrowed money” for the automotive industry Abbott’s apparently doctrinaire philosophy is overwhelmingly endorsed by the public.
It may well be that with an increasingly economically literate electorate there is not just the impression of a doctrinaire economic directive coming from Abbott but also an appeal to a commonsense attitude where his apparent “simplicity” is actually a plus and Labor’s push for spending more of taxpayer funds for corporate bailouts is not resonating.
A gutsy call. The right call. And not for the first time, evidence that his foes and rivals have severely underestimated Abbott.
UPDATE
If I were the ABC, I would be paying very close attention to this tough-minded Tony Abbott that is now being revealed:
1, The Hamster Decides, September 11 last year: 
ANDREW Hansen: They’ve just got to cut ABC funding. I mean this, this is a network that broadcasts images of Chris Kenny strangling a dog while having sex with it…
Tony Abbott, radio 2GB yesterday:

PRESENTER Ben Fordham: What’s your take on the ABC spending our money on something like this?
Prime Minister: Defending the indefensible is not a very good way to spend government money and next time the ABC comes to the government looking for more money, this is the kind of thing that we would want to ask them questions about.
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Kenny wins round one against the ABC

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (6:27pm)


To think a prompt and public apology from the ABC for a truly grotesque attack could have made all this legal action go away:

A court has ruled that a defamation case lodged by a News Corp journalist against the ABC’s The Hamster Decides can go ahead.
Chris Kenny is trying to sue the ABC, presenter Andrew Hansen and production company Giant Dwarf over an episode of The Hamster Decides which aired in September…
How on earth could the ABC have thought this suitable to broadcast or not needing an apology afterwards?
During the segment, described at length by Justice Robert Beech-Jones in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, an image was broadcast of a man strangling and having sex with a dog. A picture of Mr Kenny’s face was then photoshopped onto the man’s body. Shortly after this the image was shown again, accompanied by the caption “Chris Dog F---er Kenny” (the word was spelt out in full).
The image was shown in the context of comments by presenter Andrew Hansen about Mr Kenny’s calls for a reduction in funding for the ABC in his columns and television appearances.
In a statement of claim filed with the court, Mr Kenny says the segment ... [suggested] he was a “low, contemptible and disgusting person”, and that his attacks on the ABC were “so disgusting that he deserved to be portrayed as a person who had sex with dogs"…
Justice Beech-Jones ...  found that the ...  two imputations were capable of being made out, albeit with minor amendments to their wording.
In relation to the second imputation, Justice Beech-Jones described the image in question as “a massive exercise in ridicule which is vastly out of proportion”.
The ABC is out of control, blinded by its bias. 
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Shorten blunder: suggests Virgin not as safe as Qantas

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (2:26pm)

Bill Shorten just walked straight into a door.
In Question Time he demanded Tony Abbott acknowledge Qantas had a brilliant safety record and that he credit its Australian maintenance staff for it:
Does the Prime Minister accept that the enviable safety record of Qantas is in no small part due to the professionalism, the hard work, the commitment and expertise of its Australian-based maintenance crews?”
Abbott very deftly drew out the obvious inference: Shorten was suggesting that Virgin’s safety wasn’t as good, given its own planes weren’t generally serviced here:
The Leader of the Opposition is trying to suggest that without the restrictions that exist under the Qantas Sale Act an airline can’t be safe.
This is a most irresponsible suggestion, a most reckless and irresponsible suggestion from the Leader of the Opposition…
Qantas is safe. I’m proud of Qantas, I’m proud of the workers.... Virgin is a safe airline as well.
From then on Shorten was bombarded with criticism of his implied denigration of Virgin, itself a national airline employed nearly 10,000 Australians.
A terrible blunder, and one made worse by Shorten’s obvious pandering to Qantas unions. 
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A coffee-led recovery

Miranda Devine – Thursday, March 07, 2013 (7:59am)

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IT’S galling enough that a Climate Change Authority exists in the first place, chewing up $1.6 billion as part of a vast green bureaucracy. But can’t they pay for their own cappuccinos?
We have learned through Senate Estimates Committees that the Department of Climate Change spent $45,500 on 13 new coffee machines this year, not to mention $1.7million on travel, including business class flights and Qantas Club memberships.
The Clean Energy Regulator spent $20,000 on eight new Nespresso Gemini CS200 Pro machines, which looks frugal compared to the Department of Industry’s $75,000 on five Melitta Bar II machines.
I don’t know about your office, but at the Daily Telegraph we have tins of Nescafe and teabags, and we have to bring our own cups.
Not to complain, but any journalist who deals with the taxpayer-funded ABC can also tell you how much more luxurious working conditions are compared to private enterprise. Cab charges flow like water, studios are decked out, hair and makeup is top notch
(while non-existent at Sky), and Green Room hospitality is lavish. There is no evidence of the belt tightening happening in commercial media.
The fact is, if it’s not your money, you don’t care.
So the big challenge for the next federal government will be to cut spending, which has blown out since Kevin Rudd came to office by 35 percent a year. Bloated bureaucracies soak up taxpayer dollars, just to create green and red tape, which stifles free enterprise.
In the economic debris of Europe we can see the consequences for Australia of continuing along the path of big government growth.
“We cannot allow a similar crisis to happen here,” says Greg Lindsay the executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies think tank.
To that end, the CIS has set its finest minds on policies aimed at reducing the size of government in Australia from approximately 35% of GDP to 30% or less over the next 10 years.
The TARGET 30 project is not an “austerity “ campaign, but a sensible end to wasteful government spending.
Buying your own cappuccinos is a good start. 
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Prime Minister Shorten?

Miranda Devine – Thursday, March 07, 2013 (5:20am)

According to Ken Phillips in The Australian, Bill Shorten is angling to take over as Prime Minister.
And the mess the Victorian Liberals have created with the shock resignation of Premier Ted Baillieu is ripe for exploitation by an invigorated federal ALP.
If the report pans out, it would pit Jesuit-trained Xavier boy Shorten against Jesuit-trained Riverview boy Tony Abbott.
“The leadership change to Shorten will happen because he is the only person who can limit Labor’s losses at this election,” writes Phillips.
“Labor cannot go to the election with Gillard. She’s a political dead person walking.

Kevin Rudd is not an option. He’d split the party. His current polling popularity would not overcome sabotage of him from within Labor and a devastating campaign against him by the Coalition. A Rudd election outcome could be similar to a Gillard outcome.
Shorten is the only option. He’s the cleanskin. The broken promises on the carbon tax, gambling reform, Sydney’s western suburbs transport upgrade, budget surplus and more belong to Gillard, not Shorten. Likewise, the Slipper affair, the Thomson-HSU scandal and AWU trust fund rorts belong to Gillard not Shorten. Under Shorten these would be swept aside as history not relevant to a future under a Shorten-led Labor.

Gillard is of the Left of Labor. At some stage, perhaps soon, her factional, ideological partners will tell her to resign for Shorten. She’ll do this with grace. Rudd will be neutered. Labor will unite. Labor’s polling popularity will soar.” 
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Fordham grills Gillard on AWU scandal

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(8:03pm)

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Here’s the most important exchange in Ben Fordham’s impressive questioning on 2GB today of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. (Audio here.) It deals with a power of attorney Gillard allegedly witnessed (see it here) to the advantage of her then client and boyfriend, conman Bruce Wilson, for whom she’d helped to create a slush fund:
BEN FORDHAM:

You… can see that money from the slush fund may have been used to buy a house in Melbourne. Now you attended the auction with your then boyfriend Bruce Wilson, but the property was purchased in the name of Ralph Blewitt even though he’d never seen the house. Now in order for this to be done legally, a power of attorney would need to be signed allowing ... Bruce to buy the property on Ralph’s behalf.... So, when this property was purchased on Ralph’s behalf, the law states that you would have to be present when Ralph Blewitt signed the documents. Ralph Blewitt claims that you were not present. He claims that Bruce Wilson flew to Perth to get him to sign the documents and that you signed it at a different time in a different place. Now you did not fly to Perth to witness those documents, did you?
JULIA GILLARD:
And I’ve consistently dealt with this too. I properly witness documents as a lawyer. So you can believe Mr Blewitt or you can believe me Ben. I’m not overly fussed what you conclude, but I witnessed documents properly as a lawyer.
BEN FORDHAM:
Ok, if you’ve always obeyed the law in carrying out your duties, you’d be able to make a statement to police confirming that you’ve never witnessed one of these documents without the relevant person being present.
JULIA GILLARD:
Ben, excuse me, that is incredibly offensive and I’m not going to let it go past. I have done nothing wrong in this matter. I have said that for 20 years. I will continue to say that, because it is the truth. Anybody who wants to know anything about this matter from my perspective has already got the benefits of it being canvassed publicly and in Parliament over the best part of 20 years. I’ve given full details and I never did anything wrong and please don’t use forms of words that imply the contrary.
BEN FORDHAM:
Prime Minister, you and Ralph Blewitt were there together and signed the documents together – that’s what you’re saying just to confirm?
JULIA GILLARD:
I’ve witnessed documents properly as a lawyer.
BEN FORDHAM:
Yeah, you and Ralph Blewitt were in the room together, you signed them together yes?
JULIA GILLARD:
Look Ben, these documents were of – as a lawyer I witness thousands of documents, so as a lawyer for eight years I witnessed thousands of them. I don’t remember each document, but I witnessed documents properly.
BEN FORDHAM:
And if you always witnessed them properly, then you and Ralph Blewitt were in the room together and signed at the same time.
JULIA GILLARD:
Well absolutely. I witness documents properly.
BEN FORDHAM:
And this one?
JULIA GILLARD:
What’s your point? I witness documents properly.
BEN FORDHAM:
Ok, it just sounds like one of those things Prime Minister where I’m asking about a specific moment whether or not…
JULIA GILLARD:
And over eight years, I can’t sit here on the phone with you and go through every document over eight years as a lawyer.
BEN FORDHAM:
Sure, but it would stand out though.
JULIA GILLARD:
…that this document was of no particular significance at the time that my practice as a lawyer was to witness documents properly.
BEN FORDHAM:
Yeah, it was of significance, because it was the only time that you were witnessing a document that involved the purchase of a property that your then boyfriend was involved in. That’s why it would stand out.
JULIA GILLARD:
But it’s like asking you, can you give me the opening words of an interview you did three years ago. The matter had no particular significance at the time. It has the significance now because of how politically used it’s been. It wasn’t significant then.
BEN FORDHAM:
Ok Prime Minister, my apologies if I’ve upset you on any of those details, but I do appreciate you coming on.
JULIA GILLARD:

Ben, it’s not a question of you upsetting me and I’m not going to have you create the impression with people that I’m somehow upset. I’m just being clear with you and firm with you, because I do not believe it’s appropriate for you to mislead people on this matter.
Note the bit on bold. The audio of it picks up a hesitation that makes the answer more ambiguous that the transcript suggests. Is Gillard really for the first time insisting she was in the room with Blewitt to witness his document, as required by law? Or is she saying, absolutely she witness documents properly - a more general assertion?
The full interview: 
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Beer drinkers of the world: unite against the Greens!

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(9:07am)

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(Thanks to reader Cam.)
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Please, please, please. Can we just have the truth?

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(9:01am)

Julia Gillard’s campaign to tackle criminal gangs is wobbling, with three state governments unhappy about her idea of national laws and a crime statistician saying she has exaggerated the gun problem in NSW…

On Sunday, she announced a $64 million ‘’national anti-gang taskforce’’. Ms Gillard said: ‘’When we look at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, we see that over the past 15 years, shootings in public places have soared.’

‘But the director of the bureau, Don Weatherburn, said Ms Gillard was wrong to claim that shootings had ‘’soared’’. According to Dr Weatherburn, the number of non-fatal shooting offences in NSW peaked in 2001 and then began to fall.
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
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Fact-checking Flannery’s “Angry Summer” propaganda

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(8:21am)

Sack the Climate Commission now. Boot its chief, Professor Tim Flannery, for flogging yet another disgraceful global warming scare.
That scare is the commission’s new report, dubbing the past three month’s Australia’s “Angry Summer”.
“Angry Summer”? Is that a scientific term?
This thin report, by climate commissioner, Will Steffen, claims “Australia’s Angry Summer shows that climate change is already adversely affecting Australians”.
It does? How could global warming suddenly give us an “Angry Summer” when even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admits there’s been no “statistically significant” warming over the past 15 years?
But the commission’s report doesn’t mention that.
Instead it picks out one heat wave in Australia it claimed helped give us “our hottest summer”, with “record breaking heat on 8-10 January”.
But how does one Australian heat wave prove anything about global temperatures?
In fact, our January wasn’t even typical of the world’s weather.
As Professor Ole Humlum, an Oslo University geoscientist, notes, “On average, global air temperatures [for January] were near the 1998-2006 average” and the “Southern Hemisphere was mainly at or below average”.
Australia’s higher temperatures were actually an “exception”. Even “the global oceanic heat content has been rather stable since 2003/2004”.
That isn’t mentioned by the commission either.
Nor was this: the whole of 2012 was actually only Australia’s 39th warmest year since 1910.
The commission just skips on. It says the heat then gave way to floods in eastern Australia, completing our “Angry Summer”.
“The heavy rainfall was the result of former tropical cyclone Oswald,” it observes. 
But not even the IPCC now believes such cyclones have been changed in intensity or frequency by global warming.
“Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency,” its latest draft report says. 
But here’s the commission’s worst omission.
It claims our rains were made heavier by global warming: “Observations by scientists worldwide affirm the basic physics demonstrating that heavy rainfall becomes more likely as the climate warms.”
But it doesn’t admit that just six years ago Flannery warned us to expect the very opposite – an almost “permanent” drought.
“Over the past 50 years southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming,” he claimed in 2007.
“Even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems.”
Summer wasn’t angry at all. But you should be.
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Gillard lets in boat people, demonises plane people

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(8:18am)

image
THE Government which last year let in 17,000 boat people, now says our border laws are “out of control”.
And Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has a plan “to stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue with Australian workers at the back”.
But wait.
Ms Gillard wasn’t referring this week to boat people who come here without passports or permission, and who tend to be on Centrelink benefits even after five years.
No, she was attacking skilled workers who come invited to Australia on temporary 457 visas to work on jobs locals can’t or won’t fill.
This is mad. Ms Gillard has embarked on a xenophobic fear campaign against exactly the foreign workers who pay their own way, earning an average of $90,000 a year.
She’s attacking workers like her own media director, John McTernan, brought from Britain on a 457 visa.
Yes, some may well criticise the Opposition for recent talk of wanting “behaviour protocols” for asylum seekers on bridging visas, a proposal that seems to exploit resentments.
But Ms Gillard is not just dividing but attacking a source of our growth.
She has chosen as her target for xenophobia not unemployed people who have sailed here uninvited at a cost to us of some $5 billion in just five years.
She has damned as job-stealers people her Government has accepted as workers doing needed jobs that can’t be filled by locals.
These are people who help this economy tick over and who after four years must leave. Engineers, surgeons, IT professionals, managers and miners.
Almost nothing this PM has said about these “foreigners” is true. 
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SBS confronts Gillard on dog whistling

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(8:13am)

Labor must realise it’s tripped a wire when even the SBS is asking a Labor Prime Minister if they are dog whistling to xenophobes, with even Pauline Hanson cheering.
It gets worse when Gillard is asked - on the SBS! - if she’s being a union puppet and a hypocrite for banging on about foreign workers while employing one as her own media director.
If you’re Labor and have lost the SBS, you really are running out of friends.
Good interview by Janice Petersen.
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Not the only foreigner in the Gillard Government

Andrew BoltMARCH072013(8:07am)

SBS News, May 26, 2012: 
LABOR senator Doug Cameron says he’s gobsmacked by the Labor government’s announcement that hundreds of foreign workers will be brought in for a WA mining project . . . “We’ve got workers being marched off the job in Kurri Kurri, marched off the job by Qantas in Melbourne and Chinese workers marching in Western Australia,” Senator Cameron told reporters.

Steve Lewis on news.com.au, January 20:
DOUG Cameron has backed calls for a “hard-headed assessment” of the immigration scheme.
Judith Sloan, The Australian, yesterday:
THERE is a certain irony to a man with a very thick Scottish accent banging on about the evils of 457 visas, the arrangement that allows workers to come to Australia on a temporary basis.
Even before his porridge:
FROM: McTernan, John Sent: Wednesday, 6 March 2013 6:32 AM
To: Sloan, Judith, Subject: Excuse me
Can you tell me when I have “banged on about the evils of 457 visas”? I am not a public figure. I do not give press conferences, or make speeches, or appear on TV or radio. And seriously “a thick Scottish accent”?
Que? 
FROM: Sloan, Judith Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 11:23 AM
To: McTernan, John
Subject: Re: Excuse me
Actually I was not referring to you. But what the heck. Cheers Judith
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Sunset at Valley View… 

I took this shot a little later than the picture I previously posted. I had to post this as well because I like it even more than the first. It was a great evening.
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White Mountains Sunset 

Yes, it really was this intense. Late day glow on a very old Bristlecone Pine.
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Colonel David Crockett of Tennessee, played by John Wayne, explains to a young native Texian woman named Flaca why people should be willing to make sacrifices to crush evil, and how that validates the worthiness of a person's life. He characterizes doing right as being alive, and doing wrong as tantamount to a walking "dead man".
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It Was Inevitable #tcot #wcot #sgp #tlot #hhrs #ocra #teaparty #p2 #UN #Agenda21 #CO2 #ENEV

So guess what? Now your bicycle is bad too.

Riding a bicycle causes an increase in breathing and heart rate and by virtue of that, an increase in CO2 production. 

Eeeeevvvill CO2. (Without which, life would be impossible.)

I'm not sure exactly what point he's making here, but if this is a turnabout-is-fair-play strategy, to make eco-Marxist greenies feel some of the pain they routinely inflict on us, I bow humbly in admiration.

If this is just another political lemming trying to tax something, he deserves the same scorn as leftist lemmings doing the same thing.

Let's hope it's the former and not the latter and that he's just making a political statement.

"If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
~Ronald Reagan on government
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Nature’s designs are giving researchers ideas for new technologies that could help wounds heal, make injections less painful, and provide new materials for a variety of purposes.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2sfe

Geckos use nanoscale structures on their feet to accomplish gravity-defying feats.
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American Paintings: Fall of the Alamo by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk

March 6, 1836

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/american-paintings-fall-of-the-alamo-by-robert-jenkins-onderdonk/
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Capuchin monkeys are known for their ability to recognize when they're being treated fairly, but now research shows they can even spot unfairness in situations that don't involve themselves and will shun selfish others. http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2rsr
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MADU Odiokwu Pastorvin
PRAY.
Father,I thank You for giving me power to overcome fear. I choose to face fear head-on and drive it out of my life. Show me any areas of my life where fear is holding me back so that I can press forward into the life of victory You have for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.(2 Timothy 1:7)
Always remember that fear is not from God. God has given you power, and His power is greater than any other power in the universe. You have to make a decision to deal aggressively with fear. You can’t be passive and expect to live in victory. The only way to conquer fear is to confront it head-on with the Word of God. His Word is truth which sets you free.God bless you.
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Of All The centuries,The Message of Salvation Has Not Change.
In the first century,it was through Jesus Christ,in the present,it is Jesus Christ.In the next century,will still be Jesus Christ. The world only want to hear sweet message in order to remain in their SIN.That was the reason why the Scripture said that the message of the Cross is foolishness to those that are perishing 1 Corinthians 1;18.The Cross will remind you of all the sins you have committed.The heart is a rebel.We have all sin and come shot of His glory.Let me tell you,if God did not spare His only begotten son,He will not spare you.Think about that.God bless you.
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Coming up out of a Dead Situation!
Don’t give up on God.John 11:20-23 says,Then Matha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

This topic deals with a real issue, maintaining our faith. Not giving up on God. So many times in our life, we find that we lose hope, but I’m here to tell you today, Don’t give up on God. There is a reason why you’re going through what you’re going through. You may not even realize it, but God is allowing you to go through this for a strengthening season. Right now,God is saying,Don’t Give up on me.I know the situation you’re facing now seems unbearable, I know that no one knows what you’re going through, I know that you haven’t spoken a word of this to no one, but don’t give up,you may be the one but i tell you,He will never fail.God bless you.
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The Season of Grace Is Here.
For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.(Proverbs 1:32, NKJV)

God will never ask you to do something without giving you the ability to do it.Today, is there something you’ve been putting off? Something you know in your heart that you are supposed to do? Don’t let the season of grace pass. Don’t let complacency destroy you. Your destiny stands before you. God has something amazing in your future. Be bold; be strong. Step out in faith, be obedient and walk in the abundant rain of His blessing.God bless you.
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Father,I thank You for Your patience and grace toward me.I open my heart and mind to Your Word. Fill me with Your strength today. fill me with Your hope, and keep me close to You always as I put You first in everything I do.Search my heart. Lead me in Your ways. I choose to obey Your voice quickly and honor You in all that I do in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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HOW POWERFUL IS YOUR NAME?
The Scripture says,"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches."(Proverbs 22:1).A person's name is their identity. Protecting and defending a good name, or living up to one's name are still meaningful concepts in today's world. A person's name represents their reputation, their family, their business, their legacy. In some cultures, a name is the most valuable thing they own, and it is dishonorable when their name is tarnished.
For Christians, the name of Jesus Christ is the most wonderful and most powerful name in existence. The Name of Jesus Christ Carries Power, Authority and Distinction.
Jesus Christ has given Christians the right and authority to use his name. This means that Christians have been given the power of attorney. Legally, power of attorney is the authority to act in another person's behalf, at their request. It is authorization given by one person (Jesus) permitting another (Christians) to take action on his (Jesus Christ's) behalf. "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." (John 14:13,14)

"Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:23, 24) His name represents all of His finished work on the cross, fulfilling God's plan of redemption and salvation, victory over sin, death, and over the devil's entire realm. When the name of Jesus Christ is invoked, it carries all of the power and distinction God gave to it. I urge you today to use the Name that is above every other name,God bless you.
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Repentance: What Does the Bible Teach?
There is no doubt that all men from Adam on have had to repent in order to have a right relationship with God. The importance of repentance is demonstrated by the fact that men of every biblical age preached it.

John the Baptist preached it in Mark 1:15 when he said, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Paul preached it in Acts 20:21, "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
The Apostle John proclaimed its necessity in Revelation 2:5 when he exhorted the church at Ephesus, "Repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself emphasized its importance when He said in Luke 13:3, "Except ye repent, ye shall all like-wise perish." What are we waiting for? The message has not change.....God bless you.
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Our Problem Is Separation From God.
God created us in His own image so we can know Him personally and have a joy-filled life. He did not make us as robots to automatically love and obey Him, but gave us a will and a freedom of choice. Since the beginning of time, we have chosen to disobey God and go our own willful way. We still make this choice today. This results in separation ends in misery. You can never be fully happy when you go your own way.

The Bible says.All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's holiness (Romans 3:23).
The result of unforgiven sin is death. But God's gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).The Bible says that disobeying God results in being separated from Him.Our attempts can never unite us with God. Through the ages, people have tried many ways to bridge this gap and reach God -- without success. The Bible says:
Adam sinned, and that sin brought death into the world. Now everyone has sinned, and so everyone must die (Romans 5:12). You may think you are on the right road and still end up dead (Proverbs 14:12).There is only one way to reach God.Jesus Christ is the only answer to this problem. He is the only One who can bring us back to God. He died on the Cross and rose from the grave, paying the penalty for our sin and bridging the gap between God and people.Flesh should not keep away from Him.We must trust Jesus Christ to forgive our sins and determine to obey Him for the rest of our lives. That way we can know God and find peace again.The message has not changed,repent.God bless you.
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Heavenly Father, I come to You with an open and humble heart. I thank You for the victory that You have in store for me even when I can’t see it. I choose to trust You and Your goodness knowing that You are faithful in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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BE MORE CAREFUL.
One of the things that disturbs me here is that the devil is too quiet. I hope he'll get stirred up somewhere. Because when he is quiet I know he is getting ready to kick us from behind somewhere, while we are not looking.Look,the forces of evil do not like the searchlight pointed in their direction, because "men loved darkness ,because their deeds [are] evil" [John 3:19]. It is my prayer that you will not be a victim of his attack.Be more careful.God bless you.
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Pastor Rick Warren
I call on every purpose-driven pastor our in 160 nation network to join our Ukrainian pastors in praying for peace! PLEASE READ THIS ABOUT THE CRITICAL CONDITION THERE:http://bit.ly/1kRjTlW
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Since we're all flawed and broken, I've chosen to err in giving people too much grace rather than too little.
"For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you--and even more." Jesus, Mark 4:24
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CORRECTING ANOTHER MEDIA ERROR & RUMOR
“Only fools believe everything they hear!” Proverbs 14:15

Last week, the nation of Uganda passed a bad law, which I have publicly opposed for nearly 5 years. I still oppose it, but rumors persist because lies and errors are never removed from the internet. False information on the internet is global, searchable, and permanent.

One rumor started 4 years ago,(2009) when Rachel Maddow of MSNBC falsely accused me of supporting the law – without ever bothering to check with me if it was true. At that time, I publicly explained that her reports were in error and all the ensuing Internet rumors on blogs were false. But last week, when the bad law passed, the rumors popped up again, so I am republishing (below) the letter and video I sent to all pastors of Uganda which reiterates the reasons for my opposition to that law. Here it is:


A PUBLIC LETTER I SENT TO THE PASTORS OF UGANDA
SENT AT CHRISTMAS 2009 (4 years ago)
From Pastor Rick Warren

Dear fellow pastors in Uganda,

I greet you in the name and love of Jesus Christ as I send this encyclical video (click this link to YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jmGu9o4fDE ) to the pastors of the churches of Uganda with greetings from your fellow pastors around the world. May grace and peace be with you this Christmas season.

We are all familiar with Edmund Burke’s insight that, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” That is why I’m sharing my heart with you today. As an American pastor, it is not my role to interfere with the politics of other nations, but it IS my role to speak out on moral issues. It is my role to shepherd other pastors who look to me for guidance, and it is my role to correct lies, errors, and false reports when others associate my name with a law that I had nothing to do with, completely oppose, and vigorously condemn. I am referring to the pending law under consideration by the Ugandan Parliament, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

As a pastor, I’ve found the most effective way to build consensus for social change is usually through direct quiet diplomacy and behind the scenes dialogue, rather than through media. But because I didn’t rush to make a public statement, some erroneously concluded that I supported this terrible bill, and some even claimed I was a sponsor of the bill. You in Uganda know that is untrue.

I am releasing this video to you and your congregations to correct these untruths and to urge you to make a positive difference at this critical point in your nation.

While we can never deny or water down what God’s Word clearly teaches about sexuality, at the same time the church must stand to protect the dignity of all individuals -- as Jesus did and commanded all of us to do.

Let me be clear that God’s Word states that all sex outside of marriage is not what God intends. Jesus reaffirmed what Moses wrote that marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman committed to each other for life. Jesus also taught us that the greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Since God created all, and Jesus suffered and died for all, then we are to treat all with respect. The Great Commandment has been the centerpiece of my life and ministry for over 35 years.

Of course, there are thousands of evil laws enacted around the world and I cannot speak to pastors about every one of them, but I am taking the extraordinary step of speaking to you -- the pastors of Uganda and spiritual leaders of your nation -- for five reasons:

First, the potential law is unjust, extreme and un-Christian toward homosexuals, requiring the death penalty in some cases. If I am reading the proposed bill correctly, this law would also imprison anyone convicted of homosexual practice.

Second, the law would force pastors to report their pastoral conversations with homosexuals to authorities.

Third, it would have a chilling affect on your ministry to the hurting. As you know, in Africa, it is the churches that are bearing the primary burden of providing care for people infected with HIV/AIDS. If this bill passed, homosexuals who are HIV positive will be reluctant to seek or receive care, comfort and compassion from our churches out of fear of being reported. You and I know that the churches of Uganda are the truly caring communities where people receive hope and help, not condemnation.

Fourth, ALL life, no matter how humble or broken, whether unborn or dying, is precious to God. My wife Kay and I have devoted our lives and our ministry to saving the lives of people, including homosexuals, who are HIV positive. It would be inconsistent to save some lives and wish death on others. We’re not just pro-life. We are whole life.

Finally, the freedom to make moral choices and our right to free expression are gifts endowed by God. Uganda is a democratic country with a remarkable and wise people, and in a democracy everyone has a right to speak up. For these reasons, I urge you, the pastors of Uganda, to speak out against the proposed law.

My role, and the role of the PEACE Plan, whether in Uganda or any other country, is always pastoral, not political. I vigorously oppose anything that hinders the goals of the PEACE Plan: Promoting reconciliation, Equipping ethical leaders, Assisting the poor, Caring for the sick, and Educating the next generation, which includes the protection of children.

Please know that you and the people of Uganda are in my constant prayers. This Christmas season I pray you will experience the three purposes of Christmas as announced by the angel at the birth of Christ. First, the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy.” Christmas is a time of celebration -- Jesus is the Good News for the whole world. God came to earth to be with us! Next, the angel said, “For unto us is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” Christmas is a time for salvation. If we didn’t need a Savior, God would not have sent one. Finally, the angel said, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” Christmas is a time for reconciliation. The message of Christmas is good cheer, good news, and good will for the whole world.

It is my prayer that the churches and people of Uganda will experience all three of these this season. May God bless you; and may God bless the nation of Uganda.

Key Facts About This Issue

1. Are you a friend of the President of Uganda?
I’ve never met him. In fact, I’ve never had ANY communication with him. Also, I’ve never met with any member of the Ugandan Parliament either. We’ve been busy in the neighboring country of Rwanda. Americans sometimes confuse Uganda and Rwanda.

2. What did you do when you heard about the proposed Ugandan law?
I wrote to the most influential leader I knew in that country, the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, and shared my opposition and concern. He wrote me back, saying that he, too, was opposed to the death penalty for homosexuals. There are thousands of evil laws enacted around the world that kill people (For instance, last year, 146,000 Christians around the world were killed because of their faith). In this case, I knew the Archbishop in Uganda, so I did what I could, but my influence in that nation has been greatly exaggerated by the media.

3. Is Ugandan Pastor Martin Ssempa someone who represents you?
Not at all. In fact, Pastor Ssempa has publicly criticized me for disagreeing with him. 9 years ago (2005), he was one of over 200 invited speakers at our Global Summit on HIV/AIDS (on World AIDS Day). We invited speakers from a wide spectrum of religions, beliefs, political views, and health care expertise. We’ve had believers and atheists, liberals and conservatives, gays and straights. At each Summit we make it clear that no speaker represents us, and that we don’t control, endorse, or agree with all that is said. Our desire is to encourage everyone to work together in ending AIDS and caring for those infected and affected. In 2007, when we learned that Ssempa’s beliefs and actions were vastly different than ours, we publicly disassociated ourselves from him. I had no contact with him since.


4. Do you support the death penalty or life imprisonment for homosexuals?
Of course not. I oppose the criminalization of homosexuality. The freedom to make moral choices is endowed by God. Since God gives us that freedom, we must protect it for all, even when we disagree with their choices. ALL life, no matter how humble or broken, whether unborn or dying, is precious to God. My wife, Kay, and I have devoted our lives and our ministry to saving the lives of people, including homosexuals, who are HIV positive. It would be inconsistent to save some lives and wish death on others. We’re not just pro-life. We are whole life. 
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José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco
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“LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” - Isaiah 25:1
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

March 6: Morning
"Ye must be born again." - John 3:7
Regeneration is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation, and we should be very diligent to take heed that we really are "born again," for there are many who fancy they are, who are not. Be assured that the name of a Christian is not the nature of a Christian; and that being born in a Christian land, and being recognized as professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless there be something more added to it--the being "born again," is a matter so mysterious, that human words cannot describe it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Nevertheless, it is a change which is known and felt: known by works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural. It is not an operation which a man performs for himself: a new principle is infused, which works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects the entire man. It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature, so that I am not the man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can do the other. If you have then, been "born again," your acknowledgment will be, "O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, thou art my spiritual Parent; unless thy Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life, I had been to this day dead in trespasses and sins.' My heavenly life is wholly derived from thee, to thee I ascribe it. My life is hid with Christ in God.' It is no longer I who live, but Christ who liveth in me." May the Lord enable us to be well assured on this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be unsaved, unpardoned, without God, and without hope.
Evening
"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty." - Proverbs 18:12
It is an old and common saying, that "coming events cast their shadows before them;" the wise man teaches us that a haughty heart is the prophetic prelude of evil. Pride is as safely the sign of destruction as the change of mercury in the weather-glass is the sign of rain; and far more infallibly so than that. When men have ridden the high horse, destruction has always overtaken them. Let David's aching heart show that there is an eclipse of a man's glory when he dotes upon his own greatness. 2 Sam. 24:10. See Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty builder of Babylon, creeping on the earth, devouring grass like oxen, until his nails had grown like bird's claws, and his hair like eagle's feathers. Dan. 4:33. Pride made the boaster a beast, as once before it made an angel a devil. God hates high looks, and never fails to bring them down. All the arrows of God are aimed at proud hearts. O Christian, is thine heart haughty this evening? For pride can get into the Christian's heart as well as into the sinner's; it can delude him into dreaming that he is "rich and increased in goods, and hath need of nothing." Art thou glorying in thy graces or thy talents? Art thou proud of thyself, that thou hast had holy frames and sweet experiences? Mark thee, reader, there is a destruction coming to thee also. Thy flaunting poppies of self-conceit will be pulled up by the roots, thy mushroom graces will wither in the burning heat, and thy self-sufficiency shall become as straw for the dunghill. If we forget to live at the foot of the cross in deepest lowliness of spirit, God will not forget to make us smart under his rod. A destruction will come to thee, O unduly exalted believer, the destruction of thy joys and of thy comforts, though there can be no destruction of thy soul. Wherefore, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
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Today's reading: Numbers 35-36, Mark 10:1-31 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Numbers 35-36

Towns for the Levites
1 On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, the LORD said to Moses, 2 "Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. And give them pasturelands around the towns. 3 Then they will have towns to live in and pasturelands for the cattle they own and all their other animals....

Today's New Testament reading: Mark 10:1-31

Divorce
1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3 "What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4 They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away...."

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