Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thu Jun 26th Todays News

In 1935, the movie "The 39 Steps" was released by Alfred Hitchcock. It starred Robert Donat as Richard Hannay and featured a thrilling flight scene involving a helicopter. Only, it could not have been a helicopter. The first functioning helicopter was released on this day in 1936. And the reason for the scene is worthy of investigation. Hitchcock was keen to impress the US audience, and hired as leads two British stars who had worked in Hollywood. He made it thrilling and modern with action involving international intrigue. One wonderful scene has Donat finding a lonely housebound wife in a UK outskirt. It is touching to see her loneliness and isolation, while the modern viewer might think she could just hop in a car or train, that was not then the experience of rural UK. Hitchcock included a Scottish industrialist who commuted to work each day in an autogyro. And that scene made the movie as refreshingly modern then, as Enemy of the State was in 1998. 

 Also today in 1944, the Battle of Osuchy was lost by Polish Partisans fighting German invaders. The German forces numbered some 30,000 while the polish resistance numbered some 1,600. Outgunned and desperate, some managed to break out of their enclosure and continue the fight. Some surrendered and were executed outright, or sent to concentration camps. They risked much who fought tyranny. 

 In 1963, JFK stood in front of a Berlin audience and announced in German he was a donut. He had fine words. It was the anniversary of the 1948 Berlin airlift. The Soviet's had blockaded Berlin which was deep in East German territory. Without the ability to send in supply trucks, East Germans were threatened with the loss of everything. An expectation might have been that the starving people would push to be governed by the Soviets. Instead, for the first time in history, the entire population of West Berlin was entirely supported by goods flown in by Western governments. The blockade lasted until Easter 1949, when the humiliated Soviets backed down. When JFK stood in Berlin and said "Ich bin ein Berliner" he probably thought he was saying he was one of them. Only, in German, he would have said it differently. A Berliner was a popular cream donut in '63. Later that year, JFK's brain was stolen. Some say he still lives. 
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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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Happy birthday and many happy returns Binh Nguyen, Michelle Cheng, Linh Duong, Jessica Chong and Don Kramer. Born on the same day, across the years. Your day is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and it is fitting that the ALP have a leadership tussle to decide who is fit to lead the ALP. In 1886, French chemist Henri Moissan reported he was able to successfully isolate elemental fluorine, for which he later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1906, The 1906 French Grand Prix, the first Grand Prix motor racing competition, was held outside Le Mans. In 1907, Organised by Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, among others, Bolshevik revolutionaries in Tiflis, Georgia, robbed a bank stagecoach, getting away with 341,000 rubles. In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech (technically, it translates to be "I am a donut" the Berliner cream puff being popular), underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. In 2003, The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its decision in Lawrence v. Texas, striking down sodomy laws in the United States. What your day holds for you is not known to me, but this day illustrates your fierce competitiveness and drive, allowing you to break down all sorts of barriers for booty. And when you speak, you are devastatingly honest, isolating the element leaving drinking water clean. Enjoy it.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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The Clive and Al show rolls a divisive tax

Piers Akerman – Thursday, June 26, 2014 (7:23pm)

SELF-PROCLAIMED global leaders Clive Palmer and former US vice-president Al Gore gifted Prime Minister Tony Abbott a sweet victory in his campaign to repeal Julia Gillard’s carbon tax.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Clive and Al show rolls a divisive tax'
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PLEASE DON’T HURT ’EM

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 26, 2014 (4:56pm)

Monday’s column: 
Leftists turn all Presbyterian when even the slightest mockery is returned. 
And here’s the latest example. The standard leftist response to satire or criticism is to instantly become all prissy and middle-class, and to beg for the polite respect they decline others.
Just a theory, but it could be that the left’s decades of cultural dominance – during which conservative individuals and ideas were open targets – rendered the left vulnerable when the culture shifted, and fire was eventually returned. They are simply not nimble enough to cope. Think of the cultural left as a lumbering 40,000-ton Bismarck, trembling at the approach of a tiny, single-engined Fairey Swordfish …
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FEMALE ATTRACTED

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 26, 2014 (6:21am)

Do enjoy Elizabeth Farrelly’s frightbat response. This is the Sydney Morning Herald‘s depiction of me as I’m gently placed in a nest by Elizabeth’s soothing hands:

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Thanks are due. My hair hasn’t been that dark, nor have I been that thin, since Bob Hawke was in office.
UPDATE. Andrew Bolt explains frightbat to Queen Elizabeth.
UPDATE II. Tom Lalor: 
Frightbat speaks out against Tim Blair whilst column above it defends honour killing talk. Keep it classy SMH. 
UPDATE III. This may be my new super-favourite Farrelly line: 
I’m not especially left-wing. Not communist. Not even socialist. I simply try to work from first principles – justice, truth, beauty. Is that emotional? Was Plato hysterical? Was Jesus? Mandela? 
Perfect.
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DISARRAY! CHAOS! HISTORY!

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 26, 2014 (5:29am)

The AFR’s Phil Coorey takes a stab at summarising yesterday’s freaky Palmer/Gore summit in Canberra: 
Clive Palmer has thrown the government’s carbon tax repeal plans into disarray by teaming up with former US vice-president Al Gore to demand Australia be part of a global emissions trading scheme which doesn’t exist. 
Not bad, but it isn’t clear how Palmer’s demand causes any governmental disarray. He’s backing a repeal of the carbon tax, which is government policy, and he’s proposing some kind of global ETS deal nobody anywhere will agree with. No problem! Here’s the SMH: 
Clive Palmer has thrown into chaos Tony Abbott’s plan to abolish the carbon tax, demanding the Prime Minister instead create an emissions trading scheme that would swing into action when Australia’s major trading partners adopt similar measures. 
Chaos? Er, sure, if by that you mean Palmer is supporting the tax’s repeal. ABC warmy Sara Phillips might be closer to the mark, writing that Gore’s presence at an announcement of the carbon tax’s doom was “baffling”: 
Mr Climate Change himself has joined with a man who seems to be stalling any action on climate change, announcing as an “extraordinary moment” in global climate change history the bid to stall Australia’s nascent climate change actions.
It’s undeniably a masterstroke of publicity for Mr Palmer. And perhaps that is the explanation for Mr Gore’s presence. The symbolism of a major announcement is important in pushing through action on climate change. For Australia to be seen to be doing something is key to motivating other laggard countries to shift into gear at home. 
Except, of course, that the “major announcement” merely amounts to supporting the government’s carbon tax position plus some dream talk about international emissions treaties or something. And now we move on.
UPDATE. The Australian‘s Stephanie Balogh: 
What on earth possessed climate change champion Al Gore to share a stage with mining baron and — at least until yesterday — climate change dinosaur Clive Palmer?
Does the former US vice-president realise that, with his 12 minutes on stage, he has helped dismantle the toughest climate change response on the planet, leaving Australia, in all likelihood, without any carbon abatement scheme?
Gore has either been duped into thinking Palmer is an environmentalist or he has been handsomely paid for his bizarre appearance. Or both. 
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RED LAND WHALE

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 26, 2014 (4:51am)

An absolutely charming episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and a 1976 Ford Country Squire.
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Al Jazeera betrayed Greste again, with anti-Semitic slur

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (1:16pm)

Ahron Shapiro has more evidence of how al Jazeera betrayed jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste, exposing him to danger in Egypt:
Many Australians have been following the lamentable plight of Peter Greste, the Australian journalist working for al-Jazeera who has been jailed along with two other al-Jazeera colleagues in Egypt since December on charges of conspiring with the banned Muslim Brotherhood to harm Egypt’s reputation.
They should now be doubly worried about both their fate and about the judgment of al-Jazeera which published an inflammatory report this week alleging wrongdoing in Egypt’s energy trade with Israel that could only serve to fan the flames of Egyptian anger against the Qatari-owned news organisation.
Al-Jazeera’s biased and negative portrayal of Israel in its reports is well known… It’s also true that AIJAC has, over the years, documented how al-Jazeera as an organisation had a clear preferential editorial bias towards the Muslim Brotherhood - although that in no way implies that AIJAC believes that Greste is guilty of the offences that Egypt charged him with. We most certainly do not…
On June 9, al-Jazeera aired an hour-long “investigative report” titled “Egypt’s Lost Power”, which was described on its website as follows: 
Clayton Swisher from al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit explores the corrupt deals that plunged Egypt into an energy crisis and now leave it facing dependency on Israel
It was aired in tandem with a multimedia report which contended that Egypt’s previous gas deals with Israel following Israel’s 1981 withdrawal from the Sinai was damaging to Egypt’s economy and energy security while enriching Israeli businessmen and Egyptian officials.
The al-Jazeera report then went further, contending that the gas mismanagement precipitated the energy crisis which was essential to deposing former president (and Muslim Brotherhood functionary) Mohammed Morsi and allowed Egyptian leader and newly elected president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to enrich his cronies while making Egypt dependent on Israel’s new offshore gas fields…
Indeed, al-Jazeera’s report has begun to circulate throughout the Arab world, particularly by Muslim Brotherhood supporters and those who would seek to discredit Egypt’s current government…
Given the close bonds between Egypt’s judicial system and the Sisi government, it’s difficult to imagine that this negative publicity will improve Greste’s chances of acquittal or receiving a light sentence if convicted (the prosecutor has reportedly asked for 15 years)…
Overall, it appears that, despite the loud trumpeting of the undoubted injustice that its reporters, including Greste, are experiencing in Egypt, their fate appears less important to al-Jazeera management than the imperative to publish conspiratorial material which serves Qatari political interests.
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No laws needed to tackle bigots

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (9:28am)

Free speech

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson says two bigots have just proved we don’t need dangerous laws against hate-speech to counter them:
On the one hand we have racism, with special legal privileges to censor offensive comment.
On the other we have sexism and homophobia that do not enjoy the same protections.
Yet even without them the preparedness of Australians to tackle sexism and homophobia has been on full display.
Following the announcement of its 2014 program, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas decided to dump a speech by Uthman Badar titled “Honour killings are morally justified”.
Having read the publicised title and synopsis that Badar had agreed to, there was a significant public response to giving such views a platform.
But the action of the festival should not be confused with censorship.
Badar is still free to speak…
That leads to the second demonstration of tackling offensive ideas without the need for censorship.
Earlier in the week Opera Australia released Georgian opera singer Tamar Iveri from her contract for her upcoming commitments to perform in Otello ... following the exposure of deeply offensive and inflammatory remarks made about participants in Georgia’s gay pride march… Opera Australia has simply used its free association to distance the organisation from her…
Using the law to censor wrongheaded ideas doesn’t lead to the community promptly tackling prejudice head-on. Instead it defers responsibility to the law and lengthy legal processes.
Yet as recent examples show, Australians are quite capable of speedily responding to offensive prejudice.
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Why did Al Gore help Clive Palmer announce the end of the carbon tax?

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (9:12am)

Global warming - propaganda

Stephanie Balogh shares my suspicions about Al Gore’s appearance at Clive Palmer’s press conference - one called to actually announce the end of the carbon tax:
Gore has either been duped into thinking Palmer is an environmentalist or he has been handsomely paid for his bizarre appearance. Or both…
Does Gore know that Palmer claims to have a deal to export $60 billion worth of coal to China over the next 20 years from his big holding in Queensland’s Galilee Basin?
Does Gore know Palmer’s Waratah Coal was given approval late last year to build a thermal coal project near Alpha in central-west Queensland?
Does Gore know Palmer operates a polluting nickel refinery, Queensland Nickel?
Does Gore know Palmer incurred millions of dollars in penalties for refusing to pay his carbon tax bill on time?
Does Gore know that Palmer owns a fleet of cars and planes, and it is doubtful that he counts a Toyota Prius among his collection, and it is unclear whether he claims carbon offsets when he flies in his private 19-seat Bombardier jet?
We did speculate on 2GB last night about Gore’s motivations. 
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How Jackson spent her union’s money

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (9:07am)

When even the whistleblower has these questions to answer, you can be sure the union was in bad hands:

CONTROVERSIAL whistleblower Kathy Jackson spent thousands of dollars of union funds on personal expenses including children’s tutors, camping gear and laser therapy, bank documents show.

The former Health Services Union secretary also withdrew $156,000 from the National Health Development Fund Account, with no record of what the money was spent on.
The documents, released by the Royal Commission into union corruption, reveal in detail for the first time the questionable transactions from the “slush fund”.
The Commonwealth Bank statements were sent to Ms Jackson’s home address in Balwyn despite it being a union account.
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Stolen tape seals Napthine Government’s fate

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (8:59am)

Very curious, and of course the Liberals are the victim:
On Tuesday, a recording of a private conversation between former premier Ted Baillieu and Sunday Age reporter Farrah Tomazin, in which Mr Baillieu slammed a number of his parliamentary colleagues, was leaked to Liberal MPs and party members.
Yesterday, Ms Tomazin said on radio: “That conversation was basically taken from a Dictaphone that I own, which I noticed was missing around about mid-May, some time after the federal Budget.”

Premier Denis Napthine told 3AW: “...Questions need to be asked of The Age — such as, when did they call in the police to investigate this alleged theft?”
Dr Napthine’s words were echoed by former premier Jeff Kennett who said: “The Age owe us all an explanation.”
Mr Kennett seized on remarks by The Age’s news director, Mark Forbes, that “this is actually the second Dictaphone of an Age state political reporter to go missing in a short space of time”.
Mr Kennett demanded that The Age reveal “...Where was this function, and why won’t The Age tell us about it, and why is it only now they are telling us that supposedly two recorders were stolen...”
In the recording, revealed on Tuesday, Mr Baillieu can be heard saying “If you use any of the language I’ve been uttering at you, I’ll kill you.”
Tomazin replies: “No, no, no, no. And you have my complete and utter word and as you know …. Look, thank you and again, rest assured there won’t be any of this, in fact we didn’t even have this conversation.”
UPDATE
Meanwhile, doom stalks the Napthine Government, according to the latest Newspoll:
Labor [holds] a 54 per cent to 46 per cent lead over the Coalition on a two- party-preferred basis.
Primary-vote support for the Greens has jumped to 16 per cent while the Liberal Party dropped three points to 33 per cent and Labor was largely unmoved on 38 per cent. The Nationals’ ­primary vote was 4 per cent, nearly three points below the ­result at the 2010 election.
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Get the UN out of our forests

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (8:53am)

JUST whose country is this? It is ours, the voters of Australia, or are its masters some unelected commissars of the United Nations? 

I wish the Abbott Government would insist on the right answer.
Last year the Liberals went to the election promising to reverse the Gillard Government’s decision to get yet another 170,000 hectares of Tasmanian forests declared a World Heritage site by the UN.
(Read full article here.) 
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No honour to the killers of our culture

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (8:38am)

Culture wars, Islamism

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THE Sydney Opera House is Australia’s most iconic building. And on its stage in August was to be a taxpayer-funded talk: “Honour killings are morally justified.”

Be clear: the title is not a question but a statement.
Yes, in the heart of Australia we are now to rationalise the strangling, stoning, burning, beating or shooting of daughters and wives for supposedly shaming their men.

There hasn’t been such a startling symbol of our cultural elite’s loathing of our society and its weakening of our resistance to barbarity. Our civilisation is being betrayed.
In this case, Uthman Badar was invited by Sydney Opera House and the St James Ethics Centre for their Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and planned to attack critics of honour killings as the usual “secular (white) Westerner”, wickedly using these murders as a symbol of “everything that is allegedly wrong with the other culture”. Note: honour killings are only “allegedly wrong”.
Yes, to see Westerners criticise an “Oriental” woman-killer was to see “the powerful condemn the powerless”, according to the blurb approved by Badar. Pity those powerless murderers.
Note one further sinister thing. The festival gave Badar this platform even though he is spokesman for the Islamist extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir, at war with almost every important value and freedom we have.
(Read full article here.) 
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Worse than the phone-hacking was the witch-hunt

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (8:27am)

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The Telegraph is right. This was a political witch-hunt against the Murdoch empire - one that the Gillard Government also joined - and the acquittal of Murdoch executive Rebekah Brooks has exposed it:
On Tuesday, more than two years since being told they were to be prosecuted, both [Brooks and her husband] walked free from the Old Bailey after being acquitted on all charges connected to the hacking of phones and a conspiracy to cover it all up. The biggest police investigation of recent times had failed to land a single blow on the central figure in the affair.
The Wicked Witch, as Private Eye lampooned her, was not so wicked after all. And while some former NI journalists - notably Andy Coulson, the former Downing Street communications chief - were convicted or pleaded guilty to intercepting communications, many of the most serious charges were thrown out by the jury.
It is impossible not to conclude that the response of the police, prosecutors and the government to what was undoubtedly an unedifying episode in the annals of British newspapers was completely out of proportion.
Yet another trial is pending and more than 30 journalists, many of whom were arrested in dawn raids on their homes, remain on bail awaiting a decision on whether or not they are to be charged. The old adage that justice delayed is justice denied appears to have been set aside.
Moreover, the cost and collateral damage has been enormous. Three major investigations were established by the police, who attached more than 100 officers to the case. A judicial inquiry into press ethics chaired by Lord Justice Leveson sat for more than a year, effectively placing the whole industry on trial. The News of the World, one of the country’s oldest papers, was closed specifically because of the allegation that messages left on the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been deleted by journalists, something that turned out not to be true.
On top of that, newspapers were threatened with the first state regulation for 300 years. All told, the bill in police time, damages, legal charges and the rest could reach £100 million ($180 million).
So what has it all been for? Undoubtedly there were dozens of people in public life who felt aggrieved and sullied by the knowledge that their phone messages had been hacked. Many have received substantial compensation from News International.
But was there another motive driving what Brooks called a witch-hunt hunt on the day she was arrested? If she could be brought down, then serious damage could be inflicted on Murdoch and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had foolishly (as he admitted on Tuesday) appointed Coulson to be his press chief.
This ludicrous and sinister campaign, whipped up by the Left, even threatened press freedom in both Britain and Australia. The phone-hacking was shameful, but far more dangerous and sinister was the witch-hunt that followed.   
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Explaining “frightbat” to Elizabeth Farrelly

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (7:54am)

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly, as we’ve often observed, does not have a way with words:
I discovered that ‘’frightbat’’ is Daily Telegraph blogger Tim Blair’s pejorative for smart, articulate female.
Well, no. Frightbat is a term to describe people who screech absurdly alarmist things like this:
Say there was civil war here. Say some West Australian mining despot took power and began censoring news, jailing journalists, disappearing opponents. Say you were dragged from your bed, interrogated at midnight, your kids threatened with rape and torture. It’s not so far fetched.
And this:
Fear makes us harsh, as in 1930s Germany and any populace that accommodates an inhumane regime.
And this:

We know this when even China can credibly critique our human rights record.
And this:
Burning coal is burning coal; it puts carbon in the air, and that may stop the Gulf Stream, dead, within the decade.
And this:
But personally, I’m mystified that any Aboriginal person harbours anything but the most violent of hatreds towards whites.
And this:
Whether non-democracies such as China will negotiate the rapids of the coming century more adroitly remains to be seen. Certainly, freed from any need to pander to the 80/80 rule, they have at least one freedom Western-style democracies do not have – the freedom to act decisively.
And this:

So now, as we stand victorious astride Gaia’s limp and bloodied form, feeling for a pulse, now is the moment to ask; is there another way?
And this:

You don’t have to look far to see what happens without logic’s civilising structures; it’s the cultural equivalent of those Indonesian abattoirs. Yet this is where shock jocks are coming from and where, if they had their way, they would take us, forcing me to wonder whether censorship mightn’t be reasonable after all.
And this:
What about climate change? ...  We can’t wait for governments to make this call. It’s time to act. A people’s revolution is required. Democracy is failing us.... Democratic governments are abject moral cowards.
But today, in her frightbat-redefining column, Farrelly goes on to misuse another word:
I’m not often called overemotional. Overintellectual, sure.
“Overintellectual”? No, that is exactly the wrong word to describe the usual criticism.  “Frightbat” really comes much closer.
And Farrelly in the same piece, describing her many mockers, uses yet another word which does not mean what she thinks it means:
So creatively challenged are the poor chaps that they must steal our copy, intertwining it with second-rate ridicule to reinforce their patently inadequate nests.
Not stealing, Elizabeth, just quoting. 
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Fairfax papers fooled by foolish Gore. Sceptics win

Andrew Bolt June 26 2014 (7:08am)

The Australian tells it straight:
AUSTRALIA will be left without a major scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions after Clive Palmer last night backed the repeal of the carbon tax without supporting any concrete alternative…
Mr Palmer said the PUP would propose an emissions trading scheme to put a price on carbon but said it would only start when other nations did the same, an unlikely prospect in the short term.
He also vowed to vote against Tony Abbott’s alternative policy, the $2.8 billion Direct Action spending program, in a move that appears to kill off the scheme given it is also opposed by Labor, the Greens and minor parties.
But Fairfax newspapers buy the spin added by the introduction of warmist guru Al Gore to Palmer’s ludicrous press conference:
Clive Palmer has thrown into chaos Tony Abbott’s plan to abolish the carbon tax, demanding the Prime Minister instead create an emissions trading scheme that would swing into action when Australia’s major trading partners adopt similar measures.

That spin - that Palmer is demanding the carbon tax be scrapped in favour of an emissions trading scheme - is exploded just a few paragraphs later in the very same story:
Mr Palmer made clear that repeal of the carbon tax ... would not be contingent on the other measures Mr Palmer proposed on Wednesday night, such as the proposed emissions trading legislation.
UPDATE
To be clear, the carbon tax is gone and that is not contingent on the government agreeing to any emissions trading scheme:
CLIVE PALMER: Repeal of the carbon tax is contingent upon the Government bringing into law a system where the energy producers will refund the benefit to their consumers…
TONY JONES: So - but you won’t make your repeal of the carbon tax contingent on any of these other things you want to see happen? That’s a critical question to answer tonight.
CLIVE PALMER: That’s right, yeah.
TONY JONES: So Tony Abbott, when he negotiates you with tomorrow, going on what Greg Hunt is saying today, will be able to offer you fairly easily the kind of agreement that you’ve asked for. Does that mean you’re now convinced you’ll vote the carbon tax out of existence?
CLIVE PALMER: If that’s the case, it is...
It is bad that Palmer will keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and (probably) the Climate Change Authority, and it’s alarming that he wants at least the framework created for an emissions trading scheme.
But it is very good that the emissions trading scheme won’t actually get off the ground under the conditions Palmer proposes.
And it is beautiful that Palmer is against Tony Abbott’s direct action policies as well, as are Labor and the Greens.
This means we could end up with a sceptics’ paradise: no carbon tax, no prospect of emissions trading and not even Abbott’s $2.5 billion direct action schemes. That is a huge win.
Thanks, Clive.
UPDATE
The Sydney Morning Herald is fooled:
At last welcome signs of a positive approach to climate change… The key proposals put on the table by Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer on Wednesday evening are based on a rationale the Herald has pushed since last October ...
Mr Palmer revealed the three incoming PUP senators who in effect hold the balance of power would vote to scrap the carbon tax, due to rise to $25.40 next week. Crucially, PUP will only do so if it is replaced with a dormant emissions trading scheme with the carbon price set at zero – as the Herald has suggested – until Australia’s trading partners implement a similar scheme.
False. The scrapping of the carbon tax is not conditional on replacing it with an emissions trading scheme.
UPDATE
Once again, the question: what the hell was Al Gore doing at Palmer’s press conference. Why did the great global warming guru help to sanctify a press conference called by a coal baron to announce the destruction of Australia’s climate change policies? 
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ABC presenter on the justification for honour killings

Andrew Bolt June 25 2014 (7:29pm)

Islamism, Media, The new morality

From 3:49, the ABC’s James Carleton explains the benefits of knowing the justification for honour killings. He opposes honour killings, of course, but now far better understands why they may seem necessary.
Incredibly, he then adds the difference between him giving this rationalisation and Uthman Badar is that he himself is non-Muslim, and the opposition to Badar must therefore be based on Islamophobia.
This overlooks a few points. For instance, Badar hasn’t actually explained what his argument is, and Carleton simply imagines it’s one he can accept. Second, Badar’s speech was actually titled “Honor killings are morally justified” - not a question but a statement. The blurb, also approved by Badar, said the speech would be an attack on whites who criticised honor killing. This further suggests Carleton is in full apologetics mode. Lastly, Badar’s record of excusing terrorists and the oppression of women do not entitle him to a privileged platform at such a Festival.
Oh, and I find Carleton’s rationalisation pretty creepy, actually.
Why is the ABC filled wall-to-wall with the Left?
(Thanks to reader Rex.)
UPDATE
Apologies to Carleton. I earlier wrote he had to apologise to Cardinal Pell. That was in fact Philip Clark.  
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her




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I wonder if Winston Churchill may have been talking about the Doctor when he said this?

I think we should see more of Winston Churchill in Doctor Who

#DoctorWho #Winstonchurchill #quotes

yes #Eminem also used this quote but Winston Churchill used it first.
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James Calore
Statistically speaking, 2% of killer whales were wrongly accused.
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Tiffani was once a honor roll student. Now, her parents say she is terrorizing the family – but why? #DrPhil http://bit.ly/DRP0625
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I thought that there would be a lot of easy access places to view the St. Louis skyline since it is so iconic… truth be told, I had to go to the dangerous urban area across the river, then trespass across a train yard and go over a fence to get this shot. Another photographer saw me and followed. Turned into a good hour of waiting for the sun to set and sharing life stories before shooting. While I was touring with Yahoo on their Project Weather, I was mostly by myself, so these moments of meeting other photographers were greatly enjoyed. — in Saint Louis, MO.
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GILLARD'S DARK SIDE MATERIALISES

Bernard Gaynor gives a remarkable insight into a Gillard piece of legislation we don't know about and Abbott was too frightened to object to. Now we know why she tried to goad him into the abortion debate.

www.pickeringpost.com
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Ayana Resort and Spa, Bali
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Pastor Rick Warren
Incompatibility in marriage is really immaturity and selfishness. Mature people value differences and grow, learning real love.
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Photo taken of me in all of my transparent splendor by Will Carlton while I was teaching the SF Marin Headlands Aperture Academy class how to "Ghostify" people in long exposures. He did a splendid job on me don'tcha think? — at Fort Point, San Francisco.
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Flying in to land at Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort

Photo - Ellenor Argyropoulos
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Massive Rogue Wave, Brazil
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Amazing shot of lenticular clouds over Lake Crowley, California.
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This is the oldest mask ever discovered, and it is estimated to be 9000 years old.
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Frosted Brownie Cookies

Ingredients:
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 C cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 + 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
5 T coconut oil
5 T butter melted
chocolate & white chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, mix together the first six ingredients.
In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, melted butter, and vanilla.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a thick, fudgy dough is formed and all of the flour is absorbed.
Place the dough in a plastic bag and mush it all together into one big ball using your hands. Freeze for 15 minutes.
Break apart the dough to create small cookie shaped pieces and place on a greased cookie sheet. (Note: Use a conservative amount of dough for each cookie. Their circumference will increase as they bake.)

For “Polka Dot” cookies, press chocolate and white chocolate chips into the tops of each cookie before baking. (For regular chip cookies you can simply fold the chips into the dough before freezing.)

*And for swirl-topped cookies, place 2-3 white & chocolate chocolate chips on top of each cookie after removing from the oven. Let sit for 2-3 minutes. When they have softened, take the tip of a small spoon and very gently press down while making a light swirling motion.

Bake at 325F for 13-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for an additional 10 minutes before removing from pan.
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What is the Golden ratio? Often symbolized using phi, the Golden ratio is a special number found by dividing a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer part. Learn more about the Golden ratio:http://oak.ctx.ly/r/6qx9

Historically, the number can be seen in the architecture of many ancient creations, like the Great Pyramids and the Parthenon.
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"I’m dyslexic and until recently I’d never got through a book. But I read Catching Fire. I loved disappearing into a story." - Jamie Oliver, Daily Mail.

What was the first #novel you remember#reading?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2348049/Jamie-Oliver-finishes-reading-book-time-age-38-despite-dyslexia--wasnt-cookery.html
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Remember the story on the woman who racially attacked a young boy on a bus a few weeks back? Well, with the co-operation of police, witnesses and some great sleuthing skills, the alleged perpetrator has been found and charged. #gotchaMore: http://bit.ly/137B0f8
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Over 20,000 tourists have been turned away from the Eiffel Tower after staff at the iconic landmark called a strike.

In typical French fashion, 300 workers walked off the job over a pay dispute and the rising number of thieves harassing tourists.

Would pickpocketing scare you off from visiting somewhere like Paris?
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Actress Stacey Dash attacked after tweeting that only God can judge Paula Deen ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/06/26/actress-stacey-dash-attacked-after-tweeting-that-only-god-can-judge-paula-deen/
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Conservative government works - ed
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David Daniel Ball Wonder Woman on public transport?
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David Daniel Ball Just say no to Crack Cocaine?
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My friends disagree with me, but I'm for GM food. Not because it pisses off my friends, but because I believe the possibility of cheaper, better food shouldn't be passed up .. people that are needy shouldn't miss out because of a western equity dispute. - ed
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I felt that way when a ship hauling arms to Syria from the US government sank. - ed
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Just a final exams over OMG freedom games games games play play play dessert snack
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Henri Moissan
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“Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 23:24NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Get thee up into the high mountain."
Isaiah 40:9
Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, "I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation." Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb the more we discover of his beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, "I know whom I have believed," for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of him to whom he had committed his soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.

Evening

"The dove found no rest for the sole of her foot."
Genesis 8:9
Reader, can you find rest apart from the ark, Christ Jesus? Then be assured that your religion is vain. Are you satisfied with anything short of a conscious knowledge of your union and interest in Christ? Then woe unto you. If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false. If your soul can stretch herself at rest, and find the bed long enough, and the coverlet broad enough to cover her in the chambers of sin, then you are a hypocrite, and far enough from any right thoughts of Christ or perception of his preciousness. But if, on the other hand, you feel that if you could indulge in sin without punishment, yet it would be a punishment of itself; and that if you could have the whole world, and abide in it forever, it would be quite enough misery not to be parted from it; for your God--your God--is what your soul craves after; then be of good courage, thou art a child of God. With all thy sins and imperfections, take this to thy comfort: if thy soul has no rest in sin, thou are not as the sinner is! If thou art still crying after and craving after something better, Christ has not forgotten thee, for thou hast not quite forgotten him. The believer cannot do without his Lord; words are inadequate to express his thoughts of him. We cannot live on the sands of the wilderness, we want the manna which drops from on high; our skin bottles of creature confidence cannot yield us a drop of moisture, but we drink of the rock which follows us, and that rock is Christ. When you feed on him your soul can sing, "He hath satisfied my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's," but if you have him not, your bursting wine vat and well-filled barn can give you no sort of satisfaction: rather lament over them in the words of wisdom, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"
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Today's reading: Job 3-4, Acts 7:44-60 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Job 3-4

Job Speaks
1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:
3 "May the day of my birth perish,
and the night that said, 'A boy is conceived!'
4 That day--may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
may a cloud settle over it;
may blackness overwhelm it.
6 That night--may thick darkness seize it;
may it not be included among the days of the year
nor be entered in any of the months.

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 7:44-60

Acts 7

44 "Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

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