Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Wed Jun 11th Todays News

Thinking of the future is not a luxury. It is an expectation of good government. People want their nation to prosper and that happens with careful planning. However, when Shorten invited someone to think of their future, he wasn't discussing prosperity, but threatening their welfare. That is not the behaviour of someone fit to be leader. 

Reading on the history of the day, I find a fascinating reference to Eratosthenes who created a sieve for finding prime numbers by exhaustion. He also calculated the exact day Troy was sacked and burned .. today, 1184 BC. Alexander the Great died today, 323 BC. A stoic leader fought in a rainstorm and achieved a remarkable victory today, 173 AD. Marcus Aurelius had been leader when a failed peace treaty meant he was surrounded, isolated and inferior in number. Besieged and without water, Aurelius considered surrender .. and then the storm came and the soldiers had all the water they needed. A bit like when we were promised Global Warming would end rain .. but it didn't. As comparisons go, it fails, but is to me, irresistible. 

In 631, the great Chinese Emperor Taizong of Tang sent an envoy with silk to an enemy and freed 80,000 Chinese peoples held prisoner. It wasn't charity. If the slavers had resisted he would have killed them all. In 1837, Boston remained at type, with rioting between Irish and Yankees. On this day in 1920, GOP discussed their leadership in a smoke filled room. The resulting presidencies would juggernaut a great period of prosperity. In '36, surrealists had an exhibition in London. In '37, on this day, Stalin executed eight of his generals. On this day in 1963, Democrat Governor Wallace stood in the door to prevent Black students from going to school. National guard would escort those students to school later that day. A buddhist monk burned himself to death in protest in Vietnam. JFK had a thought bubble about equal rights which Nixon implemented. I guess JFK was thinking of the future. 
===
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
===

Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Frank Zumbo. On your day, in 1594, Spain's King recognised the rights of local Philippine leaders to rule, so long as they converted to his religion. in 1776, a committee of five was made, including Adams, Jefferson and Franklyn, tasked to draft a declaration of independence. In 1955, 80 motor car enthusiasts were killed after a collision on the 23rd running of the 24 hour Le Mans. In 2008, Stephen Harper apologised to native american peoples who were forced to assimilate. You have the authority to lead, if you are the right religion, and if you are not, we are sorry. Enjoy your sport, safely. 
Matches
Despatches
===

THINK OF YOUR FUTURE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (4:42pm)

This is big
Labor leader Bill Shorten told a senior union official not to blow the whistle on dodgy dealings by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s union boss ex-boyfriend Bruce Wilson, a Royal Commission has heard.
Former AWU Victorian branch official Robert Kernohan told the Royal Commission into trade union governance that he was “bloody horrified” by what he had discovered.
The Commission heard Mr Kernohan was served with papers about a slush fund called the AWU Members Welfare Association that Mr Wilson is alleged to have used to pay for repairs to Ms Gillard’s house in Fitzroy.
“It laid bare the whole sorry saga of the fraud perpetrated by Wilson. I was just horrified and couldn’t believe it. When I realised the extent of what was going on I felt sick in the stomach,” he said. 
According to Kernohan, then-AWU boss Shorten told the former unionist to “move on”: 
“Shorten cut me off, not in a nasty way, and he said words like, “Bob think of your future. There’s been a pay out, we are just all moving on.” 
Bill’s call might turn out to be accurate, but not in the way he imagined.
UPDATE. As of 5pm, no mention of this at the ABC’s site. No mention at the top of ABC 24’s 5pm bulletin, either.
===

GREENS RIDE IN STYLE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (1:10pm)

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon and Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi arrive at a climate-saving anti-coal protest. In an SUV.
===

DADDY THINKS YOU’RE DOOMED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (12:42pm)

Fairfax’s Sam De Brito, father of a terrified child, reports
A couple of Sundays ago, I was watching TV with my four-year-old daughter and we caught a news story about climate change. I zoned out and got us some chocolate from the kitchen but when we started to snuggle again she asked me “Will we die if the world gets too hot, daddy?”
I said “of course not”, stuffed some chocolate in her mouth and changed the subject but her guileless concern stayed with me. Later I tweeted the conversation, asking my followers words to the effect “What do you say to a kid? ‘I won’t die. You might’?” …
When I picked up my daughter from her mum’s house later in the week, my ex told me Noush had beencrying, saying the world was going to get too hot and we’d all die. We both went to work on her, explaining it wasn’t a certainty this would happen, and that we all had to do our part to help the planet.
As I spoke the comforting white lies to her … 
This is an intriguing glimpse into the doom-minded. Apparently De Brito believes he was lying when he told his little girl that death by warming wasn’t a certainty. If he’s so convinced about the planet’s looming fate, why did he have a kid in the first place? Besides consigning her to a cauldron, was De Brito unaware that children are only making things worse?
===

FAREWELL CLAUDIE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (12:06pm)

Dreadfully sad news from our New Jersey friend Mr Bingley. Claude was one wonderful dog.
===

DOT MANIA

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (12:00pm)

Last Friday’s Age, and an earlier column by me:

image image
===

7.30 picks an alarmist know-nothing to hector us on global warming

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (7:42pm)

The ABC is skewing its entire reporting of Tony Abbott’s trip to the US to conform to its global warming agenda. Its reports are all underpinned with unexamined (and false) assumptions: that global warming is critically important, that what Australia does is decisive, that global warming should be the focus of what essentially a business and trade trip, and that Barack Obama’s position in far superior to Abbott’s.
Tonight 7.30 interviews Democrat Henry Waxman who makes all the predictable and familiar alarmist points, even making the tired link between global warming “denialism” and denial of the link between smoking and cancer. That crassness alone should disqualify him as profoundly unserious.
But just to put Waxman’s credentials - or lack of them - in context, judge his grasp of science by this comment from an earlier interview:
“We’re seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point – they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn’t ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there’s a lot of tundra that’s being held down by that ice cap..”
This is the US politician whose views the ABC thought we just had to have. We could have had any number of US politicians who are sceptics, but we had to have Waxman. 
===

Claims in commission:  union boss paid for Gillard’s renovations

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (6:56pm)

The AWU scandal

Michael Smith has the royal commission covered with reports on the evidence given by Bob Kernohan, Wayne Hem and builder Athol James, who says AWU official Bruce Wilson paid for the renovations he did to Julia Gillard’s house.
The Australian reports:
A BUILDER who renovated Julia Gillard’s Melbourne home says she told him that her then boyfriend, former union official Bruce Wilson, was paying for the work.
Athol James also said during sworn evidence to a royal commission today that he saw Mr Wilson hand to Ms Gillard “wads of notes” that amounted to a “large amount of cash” on at least two occasions, and she said she would pay him by cheque as Mr Wilson brought the cash.
The evidence to the royal commission into union corruption from Mr James directly contradicts the former Labor prime minister’s claims over the years that she paid for the renovations in the early 1990s herself.
The commission is investigating corruption allegations including the claim that money to pay for Ms Gillard’s home renovations was given to her by her then boyfriend, Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson, and that he took it from a union slush fund he had set up with the assistance of legal advice from Ms Gillard…
Both Ms Gillard and Mr Wilson have denied that money for the renovations came from Mr Wilson or Mr Wilson’s slush fund, called the AWU Workplace Reform Association…
Mr James told the commission ...  early in his contact with Ms Gillard that she said Mr Wilson was paying for the work…

Wayne Hem, a former AWU official, told the commission today that he paid $5000 into Ms Gillard’s bank account on the orders of Mr Wilson in late 1995… Ms Gillard has said she had no recollection of this deposit.
Mr Hem said he was also accompanied an AWU official Bill “the Greek” Telikostoglou, a close associate of Mr Wilson, when they went to Ms Gillard’s house in mid-1995.
According to Mr Hem, he saw Mr Telikostoglou hand one of the painters an envelope that he assumed contained some money. He did not see the painter count the alleged money.
In early 1995, Mr Hem said he performed an errand for Mr Wilson by taking papers to Ms Gillard at Slater & Gordon that were allegedly related to the “AWU Welfare Fund”.
The welfare fund was another alleged slush fund, in addition to the AWU Workplace Reform Association, and Ms Gillard has had no alleged connection with it until now.
Ms Gillard has denied any wrong doing over her legal advice on the Workplace Reform Association, or any other matter related to Mr Wilson.
UPDATE
Then there was this:

Labor leader Bill Shorten told a senior union official not to blow the whistle on dodgy dealings by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s union boss ex-boyfriend Bruce Wilson, a Royal Commission has heard.
Former AWU Victorian branch official Robert Kernohan told the Royal Commission into trade union governance that he was “bloody horrified” by what he had discovered.
The Commission heard Mr Kernohan was served with papers about a slush fund called the AWU Members Welfare Association that Mr Wilson is alleged to have used to pay for repairs to Ms Gillard’s house in Fitzroy.
“It laid bare the whole sorry saga of the fraud perpetrated by Wilson. I was just horrified and couldn’t believe it. When I realised the extent of what was going on I felt sick in the stomach,” he said…

“Shorten cut me off, not in a nasty way, and he said words like, “Bob think of your future. There’s been a pay out, we are just all moving on.” 
===

Islamists seize Iraq’s second-biggest city

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (6:47pm)

Ultimately it is for Iraq to defend itself against this religious brand of fascism, but Barack Obama’s weakness in both Syria and Iraq has not helped:

Islamist insurgents seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city on Tuesday in a brazen military operation that underscored the weakness of the central government across vast swaths of the country…
Mosul was captured by rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS—a group that evolved from al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate. The takeover of a major industrial and oil center and the main city in northern Iraq marked a major coup for a group that only months ago was operating in the country’s vast desert hinterlands.
It was the latest evidence of the disorganization that has beset Iraqi security forces since the U.S. military withdrew from the country in December 2011. It also underlined the determination of ISIS to establish an Islamic emirate encompassing the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, to weaken the already fragile Iraqi state and to expand the theater of the three-year-old civil war in neighboring Syria…
Following nine years of U.S.-led war, at a cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, the attacks touched off Republican criticism of the Obama administration’s failure to negotiate a security agreement that would have allowed the U.S. to keep troops in the country beyond 2011…
U.S. counterterrorism officials said the attacks show the degree to which Islamist militants have established a revolving door between Iraq and Syria, with fighters flowing easily between the two countries and fueling conflict in both.
But even now:
Pentagon officials said they don’t view the attack as a dangerous turning point that requires urgent action.
“It is important, we are watching it,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department press secretary. “But our efforts to help them with counterterrorism is not something that we turn off-and-on like a light switch.”
===

What corruption inquiry? What allegations against Gillard?

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (6:35pm)

The AWU scandal

Complete uninterest from the ABC’s The World Today in the royal commission into union corruption and the allegations against Julia Gillard. News from Germany, Iraq, Manus and Britain is of far more importance, to judge from today’s menu:
Analysts warn Mosul takeover could lead to widespread regional destabilisation…

Iraq army was not prepared for ISIS, says former White House advisor…

International summit to end war rape…


Global growth forecast falls, but Australian dollar set to rise
Whistleblower warns of more violence if refugees settled on Manus Island
Pathologist gives autopsy testimony at Baden-Clay case
Suspending rogue MP will put intense pressure on speaker
Inequality report: Australians, including the PM, can no longer afford to ignore the problem
Rebel Nationals MPs argue PPL discriminates against rural women
German cave rescue plumbs new depths
===

ABC protects Gillard yet again

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (9:30am)

What a joke. The only reference to the AWU slush fund scandal on the ABC News home page is a report on whether there’s a conspiracy to get Julia Gillard:
image
As Hedley Thomas put it to me last night. the ABC seems to be running a protection racket for Gillard.
It is out of control.
(Thanks to reader old44.) 
===

Who do we trust on Abbott: Plibersek or Beazley?

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (9:04am)

Tony Abbott is “Nigel no-friends” overseas, claims Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman Tanya Plibersek, appealing to the Twitter creche.
Former Labor leader Kim Beazley begs to differ:

AUSTRALIA’S Ambassador to the US Kim Beazley has revealed that the Obama administration was “intrigued” by Tony Abbott’s accomplishments in Asia and would now be looking to him to become their man in the region…

“He has them somewhat intrigued,” Mr Beazley said in a rare interview on his assessment of the US/Australia relationship…
“And they are very interested in the Prime Minister’s visits to Asia…and what he has arranged in the region.
“They are intrigued by his relationship with the Japanese Prime Minister and the fact Australia is looking to do more and more with Japan and how he managed to balance that out with quite a reasonable dialogue with China.
“They think that was a little risk taking by the Australian Prime Minister….and he seemed to pull it off, so in their minds that is a plus… They see a bloke who has done pretty well in Asia in the last little while."…

Mr Beazley dismissed suggestions that President Obama, who Mr Abbott once described as leading one of the most left wing US administrations in 50 years, would offer a cool reception for the Australian PM… Mr Beazley also played down speculation that the two leaders would clash over climate change and President Obama’s recent announcement of a global action plan to cut greenhouse emissions.
“I would be surprised if climate change weren’t discussed….but I wouldn’t expect it to be a clash,” he said.
The authentic voice of an adult.
UPDATE
More praise from abroad, rather more significant than the utterly meaningless “gaffes” that have been so wildly beaten up by the media, like an instantly corrected reference to “Canadia”:

The head of the world’s leading economic agency, Angel Gurria, has praised the Federal Government’s recent budget, calling it a ‘sustainable, durable solution’ to deficits.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s secretary-general says that the budget highlights a serious commitment to maintain Australia’s stable government finances.
“We have seen with very great interest, and I think really with great expectations, that they are dealing very directly and decisively with the budget deficit,” he told ABC television’s The Business program.
(Thanks to readers Ken, Jeff of FNQ, Mark S, Nathan, Josh, CA, Peter of Bellevue Hill, Ancient Marriner and others.) 
===

Obama dodges blame for Bergdahl

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (8:59am)

If the Bergdahl release was a triumph, Obama wouldn’t be ducking the responsibility:
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel – not President Obama – executed the administration’s final call to proceed with the prisoner exchange of five ranking Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, administration officials told Congress today in a classified briefing today.
“They indicated [it was] Secretary Hagel [who made the final call],” House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon, R-California, told reporters following the briefing Monday evening. “It was the president of the United States that came out [in the Rose Garden] with the Bergdahls and took all the credit and now that there’s been a little pushback he’s moving away from it and it’s Secretary Hagel?”
(Thanks to reader The Realist.) 
===

AWU scandal a crime, says commission’s counsel

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (7:42am)

The AWU scandal

The AWU slush fund scandal is formally exposed:
JULIA Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, former union official Bruce Wilson, should face criminal charges over the creation of sham invoices that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid into a secret slush fund, a royal commission has heard.
Counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar SC told the royal commission into union corruption yesterday that Mr Wilson, along with his then Australian Workers’ Union sidekick, the confessed bagman Ralph Blewitt, committed fraud and conspiracy offences that could bring up to 10 years in jail.
Mr Stoljar said it was Mr Wilson’s idea to create a slush fund called the Workplace Reform Association in 1992 for the purpose of issuing false invoices to the Thiess construction company.
Ms Gillard, the former Labor prime minister, was at the time Mr Wilson’s girlfriend and a salaried partner of legal firm Slater & Gordon. She had a role in helping Mr Wilson set up the Workplace Reform Association by providing legal advice, although she insists she did nothing wrong.
The association was meant to provide safety services to Thiess for its Dawesville Channel project near Perth, but Mr Stoljar said it did not engage in any genuine work…

In a 1995 formal interview with Slater & Gordon’s head partner, Peter Gordon, Ms Gillard admitted that she thought the association was a union “slush fund” for election purposes, but said she had no knowledge of its operations and did not play any role in the fund after providing legal advice to help set it up…
Ms Gillard did not tell fellow legal partners in 1992 about her role in providing legal advice for Mr Wilson. Nor did she create a file note — the usual practice — when she worked for the AWU as a Slater & Gordon solicitor at the same time. Ms Gillard left Slater & Gordon after her formal interview with Mr Gordon on the matter…
Evidence had been established that “does not seem controversial”, Mr Stoljar said, that money from the slush fund was used to partly fund the purchase of a house in the Melbourne suburb Fitzroy in Mr Blewitt’s name. Mr Wilson lived in the house…
Ms Gillard ... attended the auction with Mr Wilson and was involved in the drafting of a power of attorney document at Slater & Gordon giving him the authority to bid for it. She also arranged the conveyancing work by Slater & Gordon.
Mr Stoljar said evidence further established that money from the Wilson slush fund was also used to pay for renovations on another Melbourne house in Abbotsford owned by Ms Gillard — but he added “there is factual controversy about this”.
As prime minister in 2012, Ms Gillard insisted that she paid for the renovations herself…
At one point the slush fund ­"association" held $156,849 in one bank account and $383,332.60 in a cheque account. 
Witnesses are expected to differ on who paid for Gillard’s renovations:
Melbourne builder Konstantinos Spyridis will provide evidence about building work he did at the offices of the Australian Workers Union in Carlton and at Ms Gillard’s property in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford. He says Ms Gillard paid for all the work he did at her home in 1994, according to Jeremy Stoljar, counsel assisting the royal commission ...
Another builder, Athol James, who helped with renovations at the house, will allege that he saw Ms Gillard’s then boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, hand cash to Ms Gillard to pay him for his work. Wayne Hem, a former employee of the AWU, will claim he deposited $5000 in cash into Ms Gillard’s bank account at the request of Mr Wilson.
...former AWU official and self-confessed bagman Ralph Blewitt ... told the royal commission last month he used $7000 from a union “slush fund” to pay for renovations to Ms Gillard’s house.
Mr Blewitt, who has confessed to fraud, alleged he attended Ms Gillard’s home in 1994 and handed $7000 to a builder. He said Ms Gillard was home on the day but was not in the room when he handed over the cash.
Hedley Thomas is astonished by ABC presenter Jon Faine’s attempt to discredit the royal commission:
While the ABC and many in the Canberra press gallery chose to run a protection racket of the former PM when these matters were in plain view, Stoljar takes evidence from credible witnesses — former union officials like Ian Cambridge, a serving Fair Work Commissioner; Bob Kernohan, a former AWU president in Victoria; and the tradesmen who received cash while renovating Gillard’s house in the 1990s…

Faine thinks it is professional journalism to ignore reams of corroborated evidence since 2012, then latch on to one self-serving witness statement — Wilson’s — and expend taxpayers’ resources in an on-air bid to imbue it with credibility.
Faine’s previous bias on the AWU scandal, which he calls a “house of cards”, was such that even the ABC found him guilty, following a separate and earlier admonishment from the ABC’s Media Watch. He now seems to believe Wilson’s statement to the royal commission, leaked to him and read on his radio show yesterday, is the real story.
Faine told listeners that in this statement, Wilson claims he was offered $200,000 to tell his story in 2012 to Harry Nowicki, a former union lawyer, and to make stuff up to the detriment of the serving PM. A vast right-wing conspiracy, anyone?
Nowicki, who was introduced to me in 2012 by a senior Labor figure, has been a seeker of truth. The idea that he would corruptly pay a corrupt union official to lie about corruption is ludicrous… Nobody would need to lie that there was a fraud; the evidence of the fraud is everywhere.
But Nowicki turned over rocks, talked to witnesses, tracked down documents, lodged Freedom of Information applications and told the likes of Wilson they would be better off coming clean and telling the truth. In other words, a retired lawyer who once worked for the BLF has done what Jon Faine and the ABC have conspicuously failed to do.
Former union lawyer Harry Nowicki on why he’s worked so hard on investigating the case:
HARRY NOWICKI: I think it’s important for the facts of this story to come out, because it is a link in the chain of Ms Gillard becoming Prime Minister.
How is it possible that someone involved in… in, in questionable behaviour becomes Prime Minister? Now that’s a political story, that’s not my story.
But this is not true, and I expect it is a memory slip:
SARAH FERGUSON: Have you at any time discussed this case with members of the parliamentary Labor Party?
HARRY NOWICKI: No.
SARAH FERGUSON: No-one?
HARRY NOWICKI: No-one, no.
SARAH FERGUSON: Past or present?
HARRY NOWICKI: No, no.
Nowicki has in fact discussed this with a former Minister of the Gillard Government who was deeply concerned by the scandal. 
===


===


===


===


===


===


===


===


===


===

===


===


===


===


=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her




===

===

via ANdroid ARena
Portable Home Space
Visit our Page -?ANdroid ARena?- For more photos
===

via MAgnificent STuffs

Amazing Sketch.
Visit our Page MAgnificent STuffs For more photos
===

===

" Ergo sum ego Facebook " 

I Facebook therefore I am
===

===

===

===

===
Pastor Rick Warren
God wants you to THINK wisely. You are to be "transformed by the renewal (not removal!) of you mind." Rom 12:2
===

"Mr. Matt's Wild Ride"

I took a quick moment while students were trading places for different vantage points at this weekend's Aperture Academy workshop, and got a nice little pic of my own looking up the famous street instead of down. The students are in this image but because of the effects of a long exposure, they were all rendered invisible.
 — atLombard Street.
===

The headline is digital, but if you click on it it changes
===
Anyone could benefit Eric has the skill and experience to teach you.
Don't want to join the gym?
Bored of doing the same old gym routine?
Sick and tired of mundane gym machines?
Intimated to train by yourself?
Don't know what to do to reach your goals?

Well... ScarE-ric is now offering 1 on 1 personalised outdoor sessions

PM me for more information
===

Larry Pickering
SHORTEN A CHAMELEON FOR ALL SEASONS

A confidential US cable, discloses a secret meeting Bill Shorten had with the US Consul General in Melbourne on the 11th June 2009. The meeting, solely to present his Prime Ministerial credentials, was within the time-frame of the unions' decision to replace Rudd with either him or Gillard. 

A desperate attempt to gain the nod over Gillard failed as his profile was not equal to her's of Deputy PM.

In the end, Bill Ludwig and the NSW Right opted for Gillard, at the same time giving Shorten an assurance he could consider himself heir apparent.

Seeking to pad a somewhat dull union CV, Shorten had discussed his political leanings and ambitions with the Consulate. His description of himself varied wildly from reality.

A US diplomat in attendance wrote, “Shorten was highly critical of current Australian union leadership. He was at pains to show he was business friendly. He said he had an MBA from Melbourne University and he kept talking about how close he was to the late cardboard king billionaire, Richard Pratt.

“He continually criticised union leaders saying he, unlike them, was willing to listen to business concerns.”

Shorten also told the diplomat that the Federal Government “already has plenty of duties” and that he, “did not want to see additional powers delegated to Canberra.”

In his written report back to Washington the Consul General wrote: “Shorten makes no bones about his ambitions. Despite his lukewarm relationship with Prime Minister Rudd, he struck us as highly ambitious but willing to wait (at least for a while) for his moment in the sun.”

Mmmm, it appears when appearing to be rational to the Yanks, Shorten’s Marxist views are nowhere to be seen.

This cable was buried in thousands of a Wikileaks bulk release.

===
Retaliation?

Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, who was told not to read books by conservative authors while in uniform, now faces charges -- which cropped up shortly after he went public with his complaints.

Sommers' attorney and retired Navy Commander John Bennett Wells said, "It's suspicious. No matter what's happening, it looks like a graduated attempt to build a case against him on some really ridiculous charges."

Read more from Todd Starneshttp://tinyurl.com/k2t22er
===

===

===

===

===

See one of these this morning? Click the 'Like' button and head to http://startthechange.com.au/ for find more.
===
Quote of the day from Barry Shaw, The View from Israel.

"Israel is the one country in the Middle East that is not going up in flames , going down the drain, or going back to the Middle Ages, so leave us alone and stop telling us how terrible we are."
===

===

Due to popular demand - we've brought this classic recipe idea back. Spinach Cob Dip:http://bit.ly/11DGEST
===
"Everything changes. Only God's love is permanent." -- Pastor Rick Warren
===

Have you read Ps Brian Houston's blog on worship? It's a great resource for church worship teams. Read it & share with your teams:http://hil.so/8b6o
===

Afterwards, Lassie also makes a good meal and a warm coat - ed
===
Allyson Christy via Barry Shaw
"What a strange perverted world we live in. At a time when Bahrain calls Hezbollah a terrorist organization, and a Jordanian leader calls for jihad against them, it is cultured Europe that refuses to define Hezbollah as synonymous with terror." - Barry Shaw
===

===

===
Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”
Love fulfills the law - ed
===

What the Hail??? — in Newcastle, OK.
===

The ETU demonstrates how low the Left will go

Andrew Bolt June 11 2013 (1:59pm)

image
The Electrical Trades Union digs deep into the sewer to run this full-page ad in the Courier Mail. If they really believe this stuff, they are mad. If they don’t, they are bad.
===
Alexander I of Greece
===

Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

===
“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”Colossians 3:13 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"We live unto the Lord."
Romans 14:8
If God had willed it, each of us might have entered heaven at the moment of conversion. It was not absolutely necessary for our preparation for immortality that we should tarry here. It is possible for a man to be taken to heaven, and to be found meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, though he has but just believed in Jesus. It is true that our sanctification is a long and continued process, and we shall not be perfected till we lay aside our bodies and enter within the veil; but nevertheless, had the Lord so willed it, he might have changed us from imperfection to perfection, and have taken us to heaven at once. Why then are we here? Would God keep his children out of paradise a single moment longer than was necessary? Why is the army of the living God still on the battle-field when one charge might give them the victory? Why are his children still wandering hither and thither through a maze, when a solitary word from his lips would bring them into the centre of their hopes in heaven? The answer is--they are here that they may "live unto the Lord," and may bring others to know his love. We remain on earth as sowers to scatter good seed; as ploughmen to break up the fallow ground; as heralds publishing salvation. We are here as the "salt of the earth," to be a blessing to the world. We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life. We are here as workers for him, and as "workers together with him." Let us see that our life answereth its end. Let us live earnest, useful, holy lives, to "the praise of the glory of his grace." Meanwhile we long to be with him, and daily sing--
"My heart is with him on his throne,
And ill can brook delay;
Each moment listening for the voice,
Rise up, and come away.'"

Evening

"They are they which testify of me."
John 5:39
Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of him. At the creation we at once discern him as one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of him in the promise of the woman's seed; we see him typified in the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah's day; we dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed. Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one way--they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to look within, and to read the mystery of God's great propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament we find our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is bejewelled with the Redeemer's name. We should always read Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see his face reflected as in a glass--darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing him as we shall see him face to face. This volume contains Jesus Christ's letters to us, perfumed by his love. These pages are the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.
===
Joram

[Jō'ram] - jehovah is high.
  1. A son of Toi, king of Zobah (2 Sam. 8:10). Called Hadoram, meaning "Hadah is exalted" (1 Chron. 18:10).
  2. A son of Jehoshaphat, who reigned for eight years (2 Kings 8:16-19; 11:2; 1 Chron. 3:11; Matt. 1:8). Called also Jehoram.
  3. A son of Ahab, king of Israel, who reigned for eleven years. With him the dynasty of Omri ceased ( 2 Kings 8:16-29). Called also Jehoram.
  4. A Levite, descendant of Eliezer the son of Moses (1 Chron. 26:25).
  5. One of the priests sent by Jehoshaphat to instruct the people (2 Chron. 17:8).
===

Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 34-36, John 19:1-22 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Chronicles 34-36

Josiah's Reforms
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols....

Today's New Testament reading: John 19:1-22

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!"
===
P31Header
T. Suzanne Eller
June 10, 2011
Slow It Down
T. Suzanne Eller
"God called the light 'day' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning..."Genesis 1:5(NIV)
I was reading my Bible one day and noticed a huge "mistake" in scripture. Everyone knows that morning comes first, and then evening follows. Right? But there it was in black and white. Genesis 1:5 read "and there was evening, and there was morning."
Of course, it was no mistake. God started with evening - a time of rest - and a day's productivity resulted.
We live in a culture where rest is often viewed in a negative light. When we work, we work hard. When we play, we play hard. We know how to fill our time with e-mail, activities, carpool, cleaning, aerobics, and our list of tasks. But do we know how to rest?
Nineteen years ago at the ripe age of 32 I was diagnosed with cancer. When I found out, I blurted, "I don't have time for cancer!" But cancer didn't consult my schedule. My life changed as I put aside a lot of things I once thought were absolutely vital as I went through chemo, surgery, and radiation.
One beautiful result that emerged from that difficult time was a new list of priorities. I learned how to climb between the sheets and put aside my worries. To rest my body and my mind. To slow down when life became crazy and to weigh what was important, and what was not. Before long I began to see evening as the first part of my day. From rest, sprang morning; I had earned a good day's work.
It's a concept that changed my life. Not just physically, but also spiritually. Recently I had two speaking events sandwiched together. As the date approached, my time with my Heavenly Father became "evening." I prepared, but spiritually rested as I communed with God. Once I arrived in the city where I was to speak, I closed the door of my hotel room and listened to the heart of my Father instead of going over my notes. Out of rest, sprang true ministry. I was refreshed and filled by His presence, instead of my efforts.
How often do we run out of steam because we are out of balance? I wish I could say I was forever cured. But I'm not. There are times that I have to slow it down and reconsider my priorities all over again. And if physical rest or spiritual rest has been pushed to last place, I have to put it all on the table and let The Boss help me sort through it so I can put "evening" back where it belongs.
Dear Lord, when I push You to last place, I miss out on hearing Your voice. When I keep going until I drop, I get all tangled up in my to-do list. I know that life is busy, but help me to discern between what is important, and what is not. Reorganize my life, and reveal true rest that only comes from You. In Jesus' Name,, Amen.
Related Resources:
Do You Know Him?
Visit Suzie's blog where she shares a quiz to help you decide if you are too busy and enter to win her great give-away!
If today's topic struck a chord, you'll want to read the chapter "Turn the Beat Around" in Rachel Olsen's bookIt's No Secret: Revealing Divine Truths Every Woman Should Know.
The Woman I Am Becoming by T. Suzanne Eller
When you purchase resources through Proverbs 31 Ministries, you touch eternity because your purchase supports the many areas of hope-giving ministry we provide at no cost. We wish we could, but we simply can't compete with prices offered by huge online warehouses. Therefore, we are extremely grateful for each and every purchase you make with us. Thank you!
Application Steps:
Write down all the to-do's that consume your time.
Are there any that aren't absolutely necessary?
Do you need to say "no" to one or two so that you can say "yes" to a more restful family and a more rested you?
Reflections:
As women, we often take care of the needs of our children, our community, our church, our spouses, our jobs, our homes, but we leave ourselves out of the nurturing process. Am I willing to nurture myself in one way today spiritually or physically?
Power Verses:
Mark 6:30-31, "Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, 'Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.' For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat." (NKJ)
© 2011 by T. Suzanne Eller. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 31 Ministries
616-G Matthews-Mint Hill Road
Matthews, NC 28105
www.Proverbs31.org
===
Everything New - A Weeekly Devotional

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

Whenever I hear a public figure defend himself with the oft-repeated words “I know I’m not a perfect person,” I wince. It seems the height of pride. I feel like saying, “No, the thought never crossed anybody’s mind that you are perfect, so why state the obvious?” When I hear a husband or wife in an estranged relationship say, “I know I’m not perfect,” I want to say (but don’t), “Okay, now that we’ve established the fact that you are not God, where do we go from here in figuring out what went wrong?”
It was a gorgeous summer evening and somehow I managed to get my five-year-old son to go out with me for a walk around the neighborhood. The air was balmy, the wind was pushing the trees back and forth with a great swooshing noise, and the stars looked like they had been sprinkled there just for us to delight in. I pointed upward. “Just look at all those stars, Christopher.”
“I know what the stars are, Dad.” He paused, then pronounced, “They are all of our sins that have gone away.”
Sensing a teachable moment, I asked: “What is sin, Chris?”
He snapped back, “Well, YOU ought to know, Dad.”
I said nothing, preferring to believe that he knew I had a degree in theology, rather than that I was a particularly expert sinner.
Wishful thinking, perhaps.
The truth is, I know I am a good sinner; it comes naturally for me. Nobody drags me kicking and screaming into envy. I don’t need any particular inspiration to be impatient. I didn’t need to take a seminar in covetousness to want things that don’t belong to me. I say things that are careless and unkind, and I think things that are in direct contrast to the mind of God.
All that would drive me to despair, except that this truth about me, and everybody else I know, fits right in the faith that I hold to. The whole scheme of Christian truth includes this sad but true piece: the reality of the ever-active sinfulness of the human race. And if you accept that premise, it’s a lot easier to understand the nature of the world we live in. The good news is that Christian faith doesn’t leave us there. God’s work through his Spirit brings about purification from sin, a retraining of human nature based upon the free forgiveness of God made possible by the voluntary death of Christ. Amazing! Incredible!
At its core, the meaning of sin is a break in our relationship with God. Sin is “anything in the creature which does not express, or which is contrary to, the holy character of the Creator” (Oliver Buswell); “the refusal to find our anchoring… in the holy love of God” (Hendrikus Berkhof); “lack of conformity to the moral law of God” (Louis Berkhof). Or, as my son put it, “YOU ought to know, Dad.” And, of course, we do. We all do when we’re honest (and we must be honest on this score, otherwise we will never rise above our sin). [More on this, next time.]

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.

No comments: