Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tue Apr 22nd Todays News

Forty eight hours before challenging Rudd for leadership, Gillard wrote to him an email. It doesn't matter how she couched the words, but the issues she raised are salient. She titled the email to do with Climate change. She acknowledge the government was seen as being incompetent and out of control. She highlighted asylum seeker policy, a proposed internet filter and climate change. Soon after, on campaign, she promised there would be no Carbon tax. However, in government with independents, Gillard's leadership ensured no one was in control of government policy. It is hard to credit that what she did was not what she wanted to do, but through finesse rather than direct assertion. So that Carbon tax was implemented with her support, but against her expressed wishes. So that an anti semitic bigot was placed in charge of foreign policy. She claims she supports Israel. Press freedoms a free nation takes for granted were under assault. None of her proposed solutions to the appalling deaths from drowning of asylum seekers worked. The truth is, she never had a plan or policy that was worthwhile. Medicare Gold was a dud. A promise that would never have delivered benefits but which was very expensive. What people still fail to realise is that the bad policy of the six years of ALP government was not solely Rudd's or Gillards but the collective leadership of the ALP. That furniture has been retained. The empty promises, just like the ones delivered by Gillard regarding the Pacific Solution in '01, remain. 

 Empty promises of the ALP still threaten good government when they are not in government. Pru Goward has made a good policy protecting the welfare of many children by allowing adoption to be cheaper and more possible. She is now being savagely attacked for that with the use of empty promises made by the ALP based on useless policy which they put forward to get support. Children die and are hurt by neglect, and good people do nothing. There is opposition to migration as a result of the injustice of the previous government policy. Again, empty promises have created a greater expectation than good policy delivers. The truth is that the Pacific Solution, including turning back boats, is the best policy that government has. 

 One policy which needs to be addressed involves freedom of speech. The ALP promise of no one being offended is impossible, but the reality of, speech being limited, is real. There is no middle ground. The friends of the ALP will fight it (free speech), and use bad words. We cannot blink in our support of free speech. 

 For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott 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 https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Andreas Herrmann, Leane Stitzinger, Melody Wu and Karina Sy. Born on the same day, across the years, when Pedro Cabral landed in Brazil and claimed the land for portugal. Commemorated with delicious chicken. 
Matches
Despatches
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Michael Smith’s site down after attack

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (11:40am)


Michael Smith’s website is down. I originally thought it was singled out for a hacker-attack as a tribute to his dogged investigation of union and Labor scandals.
But a reader says:


The attacks are not on Michael’s site in particular but on the Typepad service in general, which runs on thousands of websites around the world, including those of major media companies such as as ABC (USA), MSNBC, the CBC, the BBC, and Sky News. As the official announcement says, “Update 21-April-2014 9:45AM PT: We’re sorry to inform you that Typepad was attacked again overnight. Our team has been working around the clock to restore service. While most blogs are available and the application is up, some mapped domains are showing a message that the domain is “unknown”, but there is no problem with the domain itself.”
I have modified the original post as a consequence.
Smith is posting updates on his Facebook page. 
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The new tribalists attack even our Anzac tradition

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (11:30am)


Nick Cater discovers the Left has truly stormed the institutions when Anzac deniers are among the official custodians of our military history:


Anzac deniers [are] the belligerent band of revisionist historians who see the Anzac tradition as a jingoistic myth, and look to the centenary of World War 1 as a chance to put the record straight.
In his recent book Anzac’s Long Shadow, [former Captain] James Brown speaks of a “discordant, lengthy and exorbitant four-year festival for the dead” that he describes as “a military Halloween”.
Craig Stockings accuses his fellow Australians of falling for “zombie myths” about military history, “monsters of the mind” that must be exorcised with “the holy water (of) reasoned arguments”.
Stockings lectures (heaven help us) at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Anzac revisionism is the mainstream position in the military history academies in Canberra.
Peter Stanley, a former senior historian at the war memorial and now a research professor at the Australian National University, criticises what he calls “Anzackery” and questions the special commemoration of the war dead. “Arguably more Australians have been touched by the trauma of car accidents killing loves ones, friends or neighbours,” he writes.
To single out those who died in defence of their country is “peculiar at best and grotesque at worst”.
The Anzac tradition is an “essentially minority interest” that excludes “non Anglo-Saxon Australians”, he writes.
It does? I’m not an Anglo-Saxon and certainly don’t feel excluded. In fact, no citizen of this country should feel excluded from a ceremony to honor those who gave their lives in defence of this land, its friends and its values. We are not yet a nation of tribes - are we?
But even if we accept Stanley’s crude and fashionable identity politics - that modern Australians can only identify with those of their “race” - then he’s still wrong to claim non Anglo-Saxon Australians are excluded.
Here’s part of Melbourne’s Order of March for Friday:
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UPDATE
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Meet General Sir John Monash, perhaps our greatest Anzac. Not Anglo-Saxon, but a Jew of Prussian ancestry whose funeral brought out 250,000 mourners. 
UPDATE
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Meet Captain Reg Saunders, another soldier who wasn’t Anglo-Saxon.
Reader Gray:


The Australian Army commissioned indigenous Australian soldier Reg Saunders MBE as an officer in WWII, with then Captain Saunders returning to serve as a Company commander in the 3rd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, in the Korean War.
It has never been clear to me why the story of a brave indigenous soldier like Reg Saunders is not better known, especially as he commanded an infantry company at Kapyong (and refused a decoration!), which is still 3RAR’s proudest battle honour.
I know the ABC types love to hate the armed forces but when did the ABC or Fairfax first employ an indigenous Australian as a prominent broadcaster, editor or corporate officer?  I suspect a long time after the Australian Army promoted Reg Saunders.
UPDATE
I’m surprised to read that quotation from Peter Stanley, and would like to see it in context. In previous interviews he’s seemed more respectful than that quote suggests.  UPDATE: Or maybe not.
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The difference between Gillard and a conservative? A couple of years and a leaked email

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (11:29am)


Troy Bramston’s new book says Julia Gillard was privately telling Kevin Rudd of failings that wicked conservatives were describing publicly:

TWO days before Julia Gillard challenged Kevin Rudd’s position as prime minister, she told him in writing that the Labor government was perceived as “incompetent and out of control” and was headed towards electoral ­oblivion.
An extraordinary email sent by Ms Gillard to Mr Rudd at 9.49am on Monday, June 21, 2010, reveals she was deeply troubled about the government’s performance, even panicked, and expressed “a great deal of anxiety” over asylum-seeker policies…
“To state the obvious — our primary is in the mid-30s; we can’t win an election with a primary like that and the issue of asylum-seekers is an enormous reason why our primary is at that low level,” Ms Gillard wrote in the email. “It is an issue working on every level — loss of control of the borders feeding into a narrative of a government that is incompetent and out of control. As you know I have been raising this with a great deal of anxiety and I remain desperately concerned about lack of progress."…
The never-before-published email, sent to Mr Rudd and his chief of staff, Alister Jordan, is ­included in a new book, Rudd, ­Gillard and Beyond, published next week…

She offers Mr Rudd advice on how to lead the government after a series of meetings was scheduled and cancelled, and work on “a draft narrative document” to be undertaken in the prime minister’s office was not completed ... on “our key negative areas”, which were identified as asylum-seeker policy, the proposed internet filter and climate change.
Again, the work was not ­completed. 
Note something specific that Gillard was saying privately but refusing to admit publicly - that under Rudd there had been a “loss of control of the borders”.
Even as Prime Minister Gillard pretended for a long time that the sharp rise in boat people under Labor was caused by not Labor’s weakening of our border laws but by “push factors” overseas:


CHRIS UHLMANN: ...you had a solution that did stop the boats - 288 boats over five years before you came to government; after you came to government - 288 people, I should say. After you came to government, 11,600. You had a solution; you dismantled it. Surely that’s where the problem started.
JULIA GILLARD: Well, Chris, that’s a gross oversimplification of all of the things that have happened. For example, you’ve forgotten the civil war in Sri Lanka, which got people on the move. So there are a broad range of circumstances here, global circumstances that cause people to move.
CHRIS UHLMANN: So it was all push factors?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, regional circumstances that cause people to move.
CHRIS UHLMANN: It had nothing to do with you?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, Chris, I don’t think you can pretend there wasn’t unrest in Sri Lanka that caused people to get on the move and caused us ...
CHRIS UHLMANN: But can you pretend that the changes that you made - can you pretend that the changes that you made had no effect?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, Chris, let’s be frank about this: there will always be global factors and regional factors that cause people to get on the move. We’ve seen one in our own region in the last few years in relation to Sri Lanka. We are still seeing people from Afghanistan turn up on our shores in boats. We’re seeing increasing numbers from Iran. So this is a problem that moves and changes depending on global circumstances and what’s happening in different parts of the world.
UPDATE
From Ray Hadley’s interview today with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison:
HADLEY: We are coming up to the end of the fourth month. We haven’t had a boat since the 19th of December, correct?
MINISTER MORRISON: That’s right, well that is more than four months since the 19th but obviously this year we are getting towards the end of April ...
HADLEY: How many had arrived at the same stage between mid-December and this period, so the end of April in 2013?
MINISTER MORRISON: Oh, over 100 boats and well over 6,000 people....  So this is, we’re well into the post monsoon phase now Ray I believe.  I mean people might want to debate the weather but I mean over March and April of last year there was over 2,000 in both of those months.
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A killer gets a fourth chance?

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (11:15am)


Once again I am stunned by the faith some judges have in the ability of evil men to repent - and give chances for which other Australians must pay:

For the past 17 years [Reginald Kenneth Arthurell] has been [in] a NSW prison cell but even behind bars he has been at the centre of another murder investigation.
Police named him as the major suspect in the murder of Catherine Mary Page, an 82-year-old woman bashed to death in her Coonamble home at the height of the 1971 floods ...
Ms Page may well have been Arthurell’s first victim…
In May, 1974, he was in Sydney visiting his mother when he bumped into his ex-stepfather Thomas Thornton. They ended up back at Thornton’s home in Guildford, where the stepfather was later found stabbed to death…
In November, 1981, the partly decomposed body of a young sailor, Ross Browning, 19, was found with massive head wounds off the Barkly Highway near Tennant Creek.
As the Northern Territory police hunted Arthurell, who they discovered had been given a lift by Browning, Queensland police announced they wanted to question him over the “Wolf Creek-style” shooting deaths of two men and a woman near Mt Isa in 1978…
In late November, 1981, Arthurell was arrested ... [and] pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Browning and a murder charge was dropped. In May, 1988, he was released from jail, having served six and a half years of a 12-year sentence.
NSW detectives immediately extradited him to Sydney where he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, this time on the grounds of provocation, for killing his stepfather.
In July, 1989, he was jailed for a minimum of four and a half years with a maximum period of 11 years as Justice Peter McInerney remarked on Arthurell’s “remarkable transformation” after he had been baptised in a Darwin jail.
As early as April, 1991, he was released on parole after he was befriended by a naive but loving Christian prison visitor, Venet Raylee Mulhall, 54… One of the conditions of his release was that he live with Mulhall and the couple were briefly engaged. In February, 1995, she was found bashed to death at her home in Coonabarabran. Arthurell killed her because she wouldn’t give him her car.
He was convicted of murder but still not jailed for life. Finding the killing was not in the “worst-case” category, Justice David Hunt jailed him for 24 years with a minimum of 18.
Arthurell can apply for parole in May next year. 
At least three people killed in three separate attacks and he still has the right to walk free? And if he’d been made to serve his first manslaughter charge in full, probably two lives would have been saved. 
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How the “reconciliation” industry is working

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (11:07am)


We should be free to discuss this absurd and dangerous retribalisation of Australia:
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It is a shame we have moves to legitimise these sentiments in our Constitution:
“You know the ones that were here first? The black fellas, the Kooris, which I am. This is our country mate.”
(No comments.) 
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Where’s Rudd’s war with Indonesia?

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (8:20am)


Remember Kevin Rudd’s utterly reckless warning - to both us and Indonesia - last June?

KEVIN Rudd has claimed that electing Tony Abbott as prime minister could spark conflict with Indonesia that could escalate…
Prime Minister Mr Rudd said the opposition’s plan to turn back asylum-seeker boats risked “some sort of conflict with Indonesia"…
“What I am talking about is diplomatic conflict. But I am always wary about where diplomatic conflicts go,” he said, before referring to the 1962-66 Indonesia-Malaysia conflict.
“Konfrontasi with Indonesia evolved over a set of words, and turned into something else.’’
Pressed on the claim, Mr Rudd suggested the opposition’s boats policy could lead to a naval showdown.
In fact we’ve seen not such thing as Abbott fixes what Rudd wrecked with his open borders, rudeness and spying:
INDONESIAN Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa says there is now a “body of evidence” that Australia will honour under­takings not to engage in intelligence activity against his country’s interests.
Dr Natalegawa ... also acknowledged it was “absolutely” the case that the ­Abbott government’s clampdown on asylum-seekers arriving by boat had heavily reduced the traffic through Indonesia and the risk of deaths at sea…
After opening an international conference on the protection of asylum-seekers at sea, Dr Natalegawa said he wouldn’t ask for confirmation of military chief General Moeldoko’s claim that the Australians had undertaken to stop sending asylum-seekers back by life boats.
“No, I think sometimes there is constructive ambiguity (that) can be very, very useful as well,” he said with a smile. Indonesia was very keen to work closely with the Abbott government on the shared issue of irregular immigration movements by sea.
We should never forget that disgraceful scare-mongering. ABC1’s 7.30, June 28:
CHRIS Uhlmann: There is no doubt what [Rudd] was suggesting today. A vote for Tony Abbott risks war with Indonesia.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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No more pretending to “stop” global warming

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (8:08am)


Clive Palmer is absolutely right to want to block this waste - but I wish he’d just use the savings to retire debt:
CLIVE Palmer has warned he will scupper the government’s ­direct action climate change plan in the Senate, saying the money would be better spent on pensioners…
The Coalition said it would cost $3.2 billion by 2018.
Mr Palmer, the leader of the Palmer United Party, said the scheme was a waste of money. “Direct action is a token gesture to addressing carbon issues — it is not a game-changer one bit,” he said yesterday.
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Help make a film about a killer the media didn’t really want to mention

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (7:56am)


I’ve promoted this movie project before:

At record-breaking speed, public donations to fund a movie about the nation’s worst abortionist, Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell, have reached over $1 million, making the project one of the biggest “crowd sourced” movies in history.
In just three weeks, the producers of “Gosnell” have reached $1,092,000 of the $2.1 million they are seeking to make a TV movie about the man they’ve dubbed “the most prolific serial killer in American history.”
With the help of some Hollywood stars, the producers expect to raise the money by May 12, the deadline set by the online crowdsourcing fundraiser indiegogo.com.

Filmmaker Phelim McAleer ...  decided to seek donations from the public because Hollywood and the mainstream media have shown little interest in the story of Gosnell, convicted last year of murder. In court, he faced charges of handling several late-term abortions and mutilating babies born alive.
Donate here. If the film does not go ahead, the money is returned.
You will probably know the filmmakers from their FrackNation, Not Evil Just Wrong and Mine Your Own Business. 
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Sydney could build a cheap second airport at, er, Mascot

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (7:33am)


Terry McCrann says Sydney’s second airport will just waste more billions:


There are two ways to solve Sydney’s airport capacity challenge and neither of them is building a NSW version of Victoria’s Avalon mini-port.
The first is to make the existing airport at Mascot work properly. Last year Sydney processed 36 million passengers. Compare that with the similarly sized Singapore, which processed around 50 per cent more passengers, at 53 million, on the way comfortably to 60 million-plus.
Apart from the general working practice inefficiencies endemic across the Aus­tralian economy, achieving Singapore-level usage requires two things.

The first is to end the curfew. The second is to change the limitations on plane movements per hour. Do that, and spend some more dollars on infrastructure at Mascot, and we have built our second Sydney airport.
If such a step into the reality of the 21st century is considered still a step too far, the alternative is to do what Hong Kong did. Build a second airport, a real second airport, and close Mascot… If we did commit to a real airport at Badgerys Creek, much of the funding could come from the redevelopment and sale of the prime land at Mascot.
Why, I imagine we could realise at least billions from selling property there to Chinese buyers.
Mind you, says McCrann, for real waste check out the latest numbers on Labor’s NBN:
The amount spent so far, an impressive $8.4bn; total number of users, just 166,642.
And with increasing evidence that mobile and other competing technologies will kill the income forecasts. 
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A rich gift from a lobbyist is not one to forget - or accept

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (7:23am)


Laurie Oakes is forgiving - to a point:

I think O’Farrell is probably telling the truth when he blames “a massive memory fail” for his unequivocal denials that he received the expensive wine from Nick Di Girolamo, a Liberal fringe-dweller and fundraiser trying to get a billion dollar public-private partnership deal for his water infrastructure company.
What Liberals call O’Farrell’s “get-out-of-jail-free card” is the fact that his government rejected the deal Di Girolamo was after.
True, but Di Girolamo did get a board position on the Sydney Water Corporation. Oakes continues:


But ordinary punters, to whom $3000 is a great deal of money, will find it hard to understand how anyone could forget a gift of such value. They might also think it odd that a premier would accept gifts from people seeking government favours in the first place.
And they could be forgiven for wondering whether there is much difference between $3000 in a bottle and $3000 in a brown paper bag…
Had the “thank you” note that cost O’Farrell his job been for cash-in-hand, no-one would be complaining that ICAC exceeded its remit in pursuing the matter.
Spot on.
Andrew Clennell:

To give you an idea of how gifts are routinely handled, O’Farrell’s predecessor Kristina Keneally received a bottle of 2001 Grange at her office while disability services Minister in 2007.
She declared the wine, valued at $450, on the pecuniary interest register…
O’Farrell had been in parliament for 16 years at the time the parcel arrived at his doorstep. As if he didn’t know how to handle such a gift…
Alarm bells rang when O’Farrell, having pledged higher standards, initially kept Greg Pearce on after The Daily Telegraph proved he had used taxpayer money to attend a Photios function in Canberra, after the premier had given him a final warning.
Pearce had to pay back $200 for the difference between a public fare and the government fare.
After an inquiry, O’Farrell said: “You can steal $200 or $2 million and the courts will give you different penalties. What I’m saying is this is a minor breach, he’s repaying the funds and I think what he’s gone through over the past two weeks is punishment enough.”
What an attitude. It’s all right as long as you don’t rort millions. Food for thought as we reflect on Grangegate.
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Boy lost.  Parents blame police

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (6:19am)


A boy lost, and you wonder how he can ever be rescued:



A BOY, 14, with a rap sheet spanning three states, and who was once jailed for a horrific box-cutter attack on a young father and his pregnant wife, is in trouble again.
He had been out on parole for only about a week when he was arrested in the city for karate-kicking a stranger in the head in an unprovoked and alcohol-fuelled attack.
A 34-year-old father who had been out with friends was knocked unconscious for up to 15 seconds when attacked in Bourke St around 1.30am last Thursday…
Police sources say that in recent years the teen has spent more time in detention than at home with his family, and has been to a drug and rehabilitation centre at least three times.
With someone so young, we should look at cultural factors - especially how they were parented. Here’s the boy’s mother in January:



“We’re not bad people. He’s not a bad person. He’s just made bad decisions because he doesn’t understand what he is doing.”
The 13-year-old hasn’t attended school in two years.
His dad has not worked in a year to look after his son and take him to medical appointments.
Both parents claim their son is a victim of racist police officers and plan to make an official complaint.
A previous complaint in November is already being investigated.
It was revealed by the Herald Sun last Wednesday the 13-year-old had been granted bail seven times despite facing more than 60 outstanding charges including arson, armed robbery, robbery and aggravated burglary.
There are some clues already.
UPDATE
In Perth, a child better off without this “father”:

A POLICE officer plucked a three-year-old girl from a stolen car that was on fire after her ­father allegedly crashed the vehicle and left her in the front passenger seat with internal bleeding…
Police claim they found her dad hiding nearby a short time later…

The man, 25, ... has been charged with 10 offences including assault for ­allegedly hitting his niece with a baseball bat and dangerous driving causing harm.
Superintendent Byrne said ... [the girl] underwent emergency surgery to repair her bladder, torn on impact in the crash, and was yesterday in a ­spinal splint at Perth’s children’s hospital.
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Without the unions, what is Labor’s great cause?

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (6:05am)


This does remove a potentially distorting influence - but could also mean removing a brake on the Left:

LABOR leader Bill Shorten is to announce today a symbolic break with the trade union movement issuing a warning that his party must reform or it will die.
Admitting Labor could no longer be seen as the political wing of “anything” — in a direct reference to the industrial movement — he says it’s time to face up to some “hard truths”.
Starting with the scrapping of compulsory union tickets for ALP members and MPs, ... Mr Shorten will also announce further moves to dilute the influence of unions and factions.
US primary style preselections of candidates, which began in NSW, would be trialled in all currently non-held seats across the country, giving the local community a say in preselections.
A new rule would also give branch members a majority say — up to a 70/30 split over the party ­machine — in preselecting candidates at a state and federal level.
It’s actually Labors policies rather than its internal rules that cost it the last election.
And then there’s this consideration:  if Labor doesn’t believe in unions, what will it believe in? After all, the green thing is covered, isn’t it? 
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Matt Ridley: to get rich is glorious. And good for the planet

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (5:45am)

Global warming - general

Matt Ridley says we’ll be so rich by 2100 that global warming probably won’t hurt - unless we suddenly start breeding like rabbits:


In the past 50 years, world per capita income roughly trebled in real terms, corrected for inflation…
In 2012, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asked the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to generate five projections for the economy of the world… The average per capita income of the world in 2100 is projected to be between three and 20 times what it is today in real terms.
The OECD’s “medium” scenario, known as SSP2, ...is a world in which, in the OECD’s words, “trends typical of recent decades continue” with “slowly decreasing fossil fuel dependency”, uneven development of poor countries, delayed achievement of Millennium Development Goals, disappointing investment in education and “only intermediate success in addressing air pollution or improving energy access for the poor”.
And yet this is a world in which by 2100 the global average income per head has increased 13-fold to $100,000 (in 2005 dollars) compared with $7,800 today… The average Indonesian, Brazilian or Chinese will be at least twice as rich as today’s American…
The IPCC has done its own projections to see what sort of greenhouse gas emissions these sorts of world would produce, and vice versa. The one that produces the lowest emissions is the one with the highest income per head in 2100 — a 16-fold increase in income but lower emissions than today: climate change averted. The one that produces the highest emissions is the one with the lowest GDP — a mere trebling of income per head. Economic growth and ecological improvement go together. And it is not mainly because environmental protection produces higher growth, but vice versa. More trade, more innovation and more wealth make possible greater investment in low-carbon energy and smarter adaptation to climate change.
Next time you hear some green, doom-mongering Jeremiah insisting that the only way to avoid Armageddon is to go back to eating home-grown organic lentils cooked over wood fires, ask him why it is that the IPCC assumes the very opposite.
In the IPCC’s nightmare high-emissions scenario, with almost no cuts to emissions by 2100, they reckon there might be north of 4 degrees of warming. However, even this depends on models that assume much higher “climate sensitivity” to carbon dioxide than the consensus of science now thinks is reasonable… And in this storyline, by 2100 the world population has reached 12 billion, almost double what it was in 2000. This is unlikely, according to the United Nations: 10.9 billion is reckoned more probable.... 
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If $6 is too much then you don’t need to go

Andrew Bolt April 22 2014 (5:38am)


A visit to the doctor has got to be worth $6 - and if it’s not, then don’t go:


A CO-PAYMENT of $6 for bulk-billed visits to GPs will be included in the Abbott government’s first budget with the aim of saving $750 million over the next four years.
The expenditure review committee has decided to go ahead with the co-payment, including a proposal to cap it at 12 visits, meaning a maximum extra cost of $72 a year for patients…
The annual Medicare bill has risen in the past 10 years from $8.1 billion to $17.8bn, and the ­frequency of GP visits has jumped from 4.3 a person in 2003-04 to 5.6 between April 2012 and March last year.
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James Grundy's photo.
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4 her, so she knows how I see her


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How many need die before ALP admit their mistake? - ed
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Behind every successful student is a parent who is involved in their children’s education on an everyday basis.
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BREAKING NEWS: Australian rock legend Chrissy Amphlett has died after 2 year battle with cancer. She was 53 years old.

Coverage through the afternoon, we look back at her life in 9 News at 6pm.
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Plymouth, CA
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Congratulations to the 100 graduates from the NSW Liberal campaign academy held in Smithfield on the weekend. Taking the fight to Labor in NSW.

Let’s get Australia back on track! – Join our campaign today!: http://www.nsw.liberal.org.au/get_involved — with Zaya Toma, Daniel Try,Samuel Lee, Mark Neeham, Kevin Baker, Liberal for Charlton, Venus Priest and Gwen Riley atSmithfield RSL.
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Larry Pickering - WHY GREENS TASTE TERRIBLE

Labor legislation to excise our borders, with Opposition support, has been languishing in the Senate for months. Now, why would that be? 

Aussies are paying interest on a ballooning $8 billion (that’s 8,000 millionaires) debt to support 34,000 illegal arrivals.

The excise legislation would assist to curb the current illegal invaders by denying them free access to our court system. That’s the intent of the proposed border sequestration.

At last count almost $9 million has flowed into Labor law firms’ coffers to overturn ASIO security risk assessments by referring them to the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT).

The RRT is comprised of human rights advocates and ASIO determinations of “security risks” are invariably overturned.

There is no cost to the illegal immigrants who are given instructions how to manipulate the system prior to departing Indonesia.

Corrupt interpreters ensure they follow the procedure after arriving.

The Gillard Government is loathe to publicise that foreign interests are actually arranging for the overturning of ASIO’s “security risk” rulings.

The excise legislation, currently gathering cobwebs in the Senate, would put a stop to this but the Greens are bitterly opposed to it on human rights grounds and Labor seems happy to allow them to have their way.

In the meantime our security agency’s processing has become a pointless exercise.

The burdensome task of determining whether people without any form of identity are security risks or not is completely negated by an ensuing corrupted appeals process.

ASIO has become basically obsolete and, understandably, is handing their processing procedures to Labor lawyers and the human rights dominated, UN sanctioned, Refugee Review Tribunal.

This matter has become so serious even the Gillard Government has, with the Opposition’s support, rushed this remedial legislation through the Lower House.

On the one occasion that Gillard has realised her folly and taken measures to correct it, she runs slap bang into a coven of Green gophers in the Senate who are demanding the measures not be passed..

On the one occasion that Gillard has realised her folly and taken measures to correct it, she runs slap bang into a coven of Green gophers in the Senate who are demanding the measures not be passed.

Oh well, the Green nightmare can cause Abbott sleepless nights soon.
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I get the image .. but .. why does one need a smaller umbrella under a larger one? - ed
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Forgiveness is not acceptance. Forgiveness does not mean we forget or necessarily continue a relationship with those who hurt us. Forgiveness is intentionally choosing to move on with our lives rather than continuing to allow those people who hurt us to continue to do so by dragging the pain of anger and resentment that comes from being mistreated. We forgive to free ourselves!! - Holly
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American Paintings: Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/american-paintings-westward-the-course-of-empire-takes-its-way/

Emanuel Leutze’s mural celebrates the western expansion of the United States. A group of pioneers and their train of covered wagons are pictured at the continental divide, looking towards the sunset and the Pacific Ocean. The border depicts vignettes of exploration and frontier mythology. Beneath the central composition is a panoramic view of their destination “Golden Gate,” in San Francisco Bay. The mural’s title is a verse from the poem “On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America” by Bishop George Berkeley (1685–1753).
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When I look at these photos, I can't say I'm sad... I am however very VERY angry! What senseless destruction of human lives.

As far as I'm concerned, our current administration enabled, if not directly helped make this attack happen. We have nothing short of THE ENEMY currently occupying the WH. Rest assured there will be no justice served in this case. NONE. They actively HELPED one of the suspects get away back to Saudi Arabia. Something smells here, and you can be assured that just like with Benghazi, this is another CRIMINAL cover up.

~R, MS page admin
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London runners observe a moment of silence in honor of the Boston marathon bombing victims. What a beautiful image of unity.
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"The Old Gate",
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”” - John 10:28-30
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Gershom 
[Gûr'shŏm] - a stranger there.
1. The first-born son of Moses and Zipporah. He was born in Midian (Exod. 2:22; 18:3; 1 Chron. 23:15-16).
2. The eldest son of Levi, and referred to as Gershon (Gen. 46:11;Josh. 21:6).
3. One of the family of Phinehas, and one of the "heads of houses" who returned with Ezra from Babylon (Ezra 8:2).
4. Father of Jonathan, the Levite who became priest to the Danites who settled at Laish (Judg. 18:30). The Danite tribe was guilty of the evil of setting up a graven image.
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"I know that my Redeemer liveth."
Job 19:25
The marrow of Job's comfort lies in that little word "My"--"My Redeemer," and in the fact that the Redeemer lives. Oh! to get hold of a living Christ. We must get a property in him before we can enjoy him. What is gold in the mine to me? Men are beggars in Peru, and beg their bread in California. It is gold in my purse which will satisfy my necessities, by purchasing the bread I need. So a Redeemer who does not redeem me, an avenger who will never stand up for my blood, of what avail were such? Rest not content until by faith you can say "Yes, I cast myself upon my living Lord; and he is mine." It may be you hold him with a feeble hand; you half think it presumption to say, "He lives as my Redeemer;" yet, remember if you have but faith as a grain of mustard seed, that little faith entitles you to say it. But there is also another word here, expressive of Job's strong confidence, "I know." To say, "I hope so, I trust so" is comfortable; and there are thousands in the fold of Jesus who hardly ever get much further. But to reach the essence of consolation you must say, "I know." Ifs, buts, and perhapses, are sure murderers of peace and comfort. Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow. Like wasps they sting the soul! If I have any suspicion that Christ is not mine, then there is vinegar mingled with the gall of death; but if I know that Jesus lives for me, then darkness is not dark: even the night is light about me. Surely if Job, in those ages before the coming and advent of Christ, could say, "I know," we should not speak less positively. God forbid that our positiveness should be presumption. Let us see that our evidences are right, lest we build upon an ungrounded hope; and then let us not be satisfied with the mere foundation, for it is from the upper rooms that we get the widest prospect. A living Redeemer, truly mine, is joy unspeakable.

Evening

"Who is even at the right hand of God."
Romans 8:34
He who was once despised and rejected of men, now occupies the honourable position of a beloved and honoured Son. The right hand of God is the place of majesty and favour. Our Lord Jesus is his people's representative. When he died for them, they had rest; he rose again for them, they had liberty; when he sat down at his Father's right hand, they had favour, and honour, and dignity. The raising and elevation of Christ is the elevation, the acceptance, and enshrinement, the glorifying of all his people, for he is their head and representative. This sitting at the right hand of God, then, is to be viewed as the acceptance of the person of the Surety, the reception of the Representative, and therefore, the acceptance of our souls. O saint, see in this thy sure freedom from condemnation. "Who is he that condemneth?" Who shall condemn the men who are in Jesus at the right hand of God?
The right hand is the place of power. Christ at the right hand of God hath all power in heaven and in earth. Who shall fight against the people who have such power vested in their Captain? O my soul, what can destroy thee if Omnipotence be thy helper? If the aegis of the Almighty cover thee, what sword can smite thee? Rest thou secure. If Jesus is thine all-prevailing King, and hath trodden thine enemies beneath his feet; if sin, death, and hell are all vanquished by him, and thou art represented in him, by no possibility canst thou be destroyed.
"Jesu's tremendous name
Puts all our foes to flight:
Jesus, the meek, the angry Lamb,
A Lion is in fight.
"By all hell's host withstood;
We all hell's host o'erthrow;
And conquering them, through Jesu's blood
We still to conquer go."
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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 12-13, Luke 16 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 12-13

Nathan Rebukes David
1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity...."

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 16

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
1 Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
3 "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg-- 4 I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5 "So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6 "'Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty....'
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Knowing Him - An Easter Devotional

MAUNDY THURSDAY

Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(John 13:31-35)
The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for commandment (mandatum), which Jesus talked about when he told his disciples that he was leaving them “a new commandment,” that they “love one another.” There were probably so many things going on in the disciples’ minds in that upper room where they had their last supper together, including fear and bewilderment from Jesus telling them that someone in that very room would betray him.
Jesus handed the betrayer a piece of bread, just as he had been feeding all his disciples all along. Always giving, always gracing. Jesus fed thousands of people with fish and loaves, and every word that came out of his mouth was spiritual food for those who listened and understood. But on this night he fed them differently. Passing the bread, and then the wine, he spoke ominous, comforting words: “this is my body… this is my blood.” This was not an ordinary supper, not even an ordinary Passover. His words connected with what he had said on the shores of far-away Galilee “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…. whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:35,54).
Jesus told them to repeat this unique meal in the future, and then it was time to go out into the chilly night. In a quiet garden among olive trees, quiet but for the deep night sounds of distant dogs barking, Jesus prayed. In agony he prayed. The specter of shameful execution and of bearing the curse of sin tore into the human consciousness of Jesus. And in the end it was sheer obedience to the divine plan that carried Jesus into the hands of the conspirators waiting for him. Did the disciples remember “the new command”?
Ponder This: What would have been going on in your mind had you been one of the disciples at the last supper or in the garden of Gethsemane?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Resources
About The Author - Mel Lawrenz serves as minister at large for Elmbrook Church and leads The Brook Network. Having been in pastoral ministry for thirty years, the last decade as senior pastor of Elmbrook, Mel seeks to help Christian leaders engage with each other. Mel is the author of eleven books, the most recent for church leaders, Whole Church: Leading from Fragmentation to Engagement.
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Lent=Devotions-Header
Today's Old Testament Reading: Exodus 12:1-14
The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire--with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance.
New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
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Today's Lent reading: John 19-20 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"


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