Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Wed Jun 18th Todays News

Two events, deeply symbolic happening on the same day. But one cannot compare them or contrast them as symbols, because the reason for them is quite different, and misleading if one is applied to the other. It was 1983, on this day. In Iran, ten people were sentenced to death and hung because of their Bahá'í faith. Meanwhile, Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Two tales with totally different meanings. Only the most shallow would say Sally Ride's achievement was a vindication for all women.  It was a personal achievement showing she was an exceptional person. However, it was inevitable. There are no gender blocks in the US and there are laws preventing them. Maybe there are isolated incidents, maybe terrible people make bad decisions, but overwhelmingly, Americans despise discrimination and celebrate achievement. But what of Iran? Are Iranian people so despicable, shallow and craven that they must kill those for their faith? The killing is not isolated and continues to this day. But Iran is not a democracy. Her people are not informed well enough to vote. Their media is not free. And those in charge are ugly, filthy animals beneath contempt. 

 On this day in 1873, Susan B Anthony was fined $100 for voting. In 1940, Churchill spoke of Britain's finest hour. William Joyce was charged with treason in 1945, some argue that that was not fair, as he wasn't English. He had supported the Nazis and instrumentally was involved in the deaths of many freedom fighters. In 1858, Charles Darwin got a paper that convinced him to publish his theory of evolution. In 1053, the then Pope lost a battle, although it might have been argued truth was still on his side. But, in 1429, English man John Falstaff lost a battle against forces led by Joan of Arc. Eventually, she was burned at the stake for her achievement. That, is deeply symbolic. 
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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 Vy Vy Huynh. On your day in 618, Li Yuan became Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty in China. In 1053, Humphrey of Hauteville led the armies of the Normans in the Battle of Civitate against the combined forces of Pope Leo IX and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1858, Charles Darwin received a manuscript by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace on natural selection, which prompted Darwin to publish his theory of evolution. In 1983, Aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. It says so much that on your day you can meet a challenge, fight the battle and establish a dynasty with everlasting truth. Sounds fancy, written that way.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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Shorten smeared me: whistleblower claim

Andrew Bolt June 18 2014 (2:10pm)

Bill Shorten accused again:
HEALTH Services Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson has accused Bill Shorten of being part of a Labor Party campaign to smear her with a “dirt file” in the media after she exposed corruption. 

Ms Jackson told the royal commission into union corruption today that deliberate “smears” by the now federal Labor leader and others started after she went to police with corruption allegations in late 2011 involving the now jailed former HSU boss Michael Williamson.
The union whistleblower, whose exposure of Williamson and fellow former HSU leader Craig Thomson led to their conviction for fraud, claimed the ALP and senior figures in the union movement engaged in a cover-up to make corruption allegations go away....
Asked by counsel assisting the commission Jeremy Stoljar SC about calls she started receiving from journalists after making claims on the ABC’s Lateline program and going to police, Ms Jackson said the calls had continued for three years to the present…
Ms Jackson alleged that journalists would tell her that they had a “dirt file” on her, and she would spend days defending herself. “Compliant journalists” would then write damaging articles about her she said.
“These articles were placed not only by Michael Williamson but Sussex Street (the ALP’s headquarters in Sydney). And when I talk Sussex Street, I mean the ALP. People like Bill Shorten etc.”
The Australian today sought comment from Mr Shorten’s office, and was awaiting a reply from his spokesman.
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Obama and Biden claimed victory in Iraq. But now it’s Bush’s fault

Andrew Bolt June 18 2014 (8:12am)

Barack Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, claimed Iraq as their victory.
Biden in 2010:

I am very optimistic about—about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.
Obama in December, 2011:
We’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war, not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making.
But now that it’s clear they pulled out too soon and lost the gains won, it is all George Bush’s fault, of course. 
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Ray Evans, pilgrim

Andrew Bolt June 18 2014 (6:29am)

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A very fine man has died.

Ray Evans was actually president of the Melbourne University ALP Club and a youthful Federated Fodder and Fuel Trades Union delegate but became one of the country’s leading conservative intellectuals. 
Ray trained as an engineer and taught electrical engineering at Deakin before joining Western Mining. He worked with Western Mining boss Hugh Morgan to advocate for the deregulatory policies which have been so critical to our economic growth.

In 1986, Ray co-founded and led the H R Nicholls Society (with Peter Costello), which was hugely effective in pushing for labor market reform. He was later a founder of the Lavoisier Group, one of the earliest centres of resistance anywhere to the global warming alarmism then rampant. Ray, a Christian and student of history and ideological fashions, had global warming pegged from the start as a new faith - and one that threatened not just our prosperity but our freedom and our reason.
He was tireless in advancing freedom and reason against all modern collectivist myths and New Age dreamings. He was one of the forces - with great mate John Stone - behind the Samuel Griffith Society as well as the Bennelong Society, which was critical in dragging political attention to the open wounds of domestic violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities, so long ignored or hushed up by the Left and the then Aboriginal political aristocracy.
I admired Ray for his wisdom, sound instincts, courage, indomitable cheerfulness and deep cultural and historical knowledge. Nothing in human affairs was new to him. It was all set in the long history of humankind - a history he well knew - which enabled Ray to instantly spot old frauds in new clothes.
Ray loved John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, and this year quoted it at me to get me out of a hole and back on the ramparts - which he’d never deserted.
I treasure what he wrote and treasure the man who wrote it:
Dear Andrew

‘Who would true valour see, Let him come hither; One here will constant be, Come wind, come weather’
There’s no discouragement; will make him once relent; His first avowed intent; to be a pilgrim.
Who so beset him round, with dismal stories; Do but themselves confound, His strength the more is.
No lion can him fright, he’ll with a giant fight; But he will have a right, to be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend, can daunt his spirit; He knows he at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away, he’ll fear not what men say; He’ll labour night and day, to be a pilgrim.

John Bunyan was a tinker and spent 12 years in jail for refusing to give up preaching without a licence. He wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress in prison. He is one of the great pioneers of freedom of speech and the freedom to dissent from religious authorities of whatever kind.  We are hugely indebted to him. I used him in my eulogy for Bert Kelly. 

Best wishes
Ray
And we are indebted in turn to Ray, a pilgrim for truth.
My deep sympathies to Jill.
UPDATE
Ray would never have missed an opportunity like this to argue. And so here is his pamphlet, Nine Facts About Climate Change, written in 2006:
UPDATE
From John Stone, who co-founded the HR Nicholls Society:

On 30 April, 1985 the Committee of Review of Australian Industrial Relations (the Hancock Committee) delivered its Report, and shortly thereafter Ray Evans, whom I had never previously met, got in touch with me. Along with Peter Costello and Barry Purvis, we formed the HR Nicholls Society.

The central proposal of the Hancock Report was to establish a new so-called Labour Court, to transfer to that trumped-up body all cases in the industrial relations jurisdiction, and to staff it with members of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission.

It was this monster that the Society, led by Ray, set out (successfully) to confront.

In 1989 Ray assumed the Presidency of the Society, and held that post for an extraordinary 21 years.

The Charles Copeman Medal, which was awarded to Ray at the end of that time, is awarded for distinguished service in the cause of industrial relations, but Ray’s service to the public good ranged much more widely than industrial relations. I mention only his major roles in The Samuel Griffith Society, The Galatians Group, The Lavoisier Group and The Bennelong Society to indicate the variety, and the institutional significance, of his interests and the remarkable contribution he made to public policy debate in Australia.

Ray was however much more than a public intellectual. He was first and foremost a man – possessed of all those manly virtues of which one of his heroes, Margaret Thatcher, spoke.

He was widely read, and his writings were steeped in the imagery of the King James Bible, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, The Pilgrims Progress, and other great parts of the literary canon. Always “valiant for the truth”, it was appropriate that when the Charles Copeman Medal was bestowed upon him, the citation inscribed thereon read as follows:

“RAY EVANS: In recognition of his unparalleled contribution to public policy discourse in Australia, including (but not confined to) his central part in the formation of the HR Nicholls Society and its role throughout the 25 years of its existence. A rock of constancy in a sea of corporate cowardice, he has always placed principle above personal advancement. A steadfast friend and an honourable opponent, he is epitomized in John Bunyan’s everlasting words: ‘Who would true valour see,/Let him come hither;/One here will constant be,/Come wind, come weather’”.

As we mourn a dear friend and great companion, our hearts go out to Jill and his children.

John Stone
From Adam Bisits, president of the HR Nicholls Society:
Through the HR Nicholls Society Ray Evans was the champion of freedom of employment. Ray was the well read academic, the engineer, the mining company executive, the man of faith. He was a most considerate and kind president of the society. For a quarter century and using these talents Ray directed Australia to freer and thus more prosperous and fulfilling employment relations. With all members of the society I offer Jill and his children our sincere condolences.
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Fish killed by cold water the CSIRO said would be warm

Andrew Bolt June 18 2014 (6:06am)

Global warming - dud predictions

2012 - warm seas will affect fish:

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) says climate change is having a big impact on the country’s oceans, with tropical fish turning up as far south as Tasmania.
2014 - cold seas kill fish:

Cold Antarctic water probable cause of dead fish washed up on Ninety Mile Beach, EPA says ... [with] beachgoers identifying mainly the leather jacket species and also trevally. The fish prefer warmer waters.
Large numbers of dead fish have also washed up on Tasmania’s east coast.
Both reports from the ABC, which fails to note CSIRO’s dud prediction.
(Thanks to reader handjive.) 
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All that Labor and the Greens will pass are tax rises

Andrew Bolt June 18 2014 (5:48am)

Is this opposing or sabotaging?:

The Abbott government’s strategy to convince the states to lead a nation-building infrastructure splurge faces defeat or substantial change in the Senate.
The Australian Greens and the Palmer United Party are set to oppose the legislation on the basis they are against privatisation, while Labor will insist on changes that will give either house of federal Parliament a veto on the types of assets the states can sell.
The positions throw into doubt the measure which the government hopes will encourage the states to privatise up to $40 billion in assets and spend the money on productivity-building infrastructure to help stimulate the economy as the mining boom tapers off.
It threatens to torpedo the NSW budget published on Tuesday, which forecasts earning $13 billion from privatising its electricity distribution networks and $1.9 billion from the federal government’s infrastructure scheme.
The development provides a fresh headache for the Abbott government, which is unable to implement more than half of the $37 billion in cuts and revenue increases in the May budget… These include a $2.6 billion freeze on the indexation of family tax benefits, lifting interests payments and the repayment threshold for higher education fees, worth $3.2 billion, and denying people under 30 the dole for six months, worth $2.1 billion.
Labor blew the Budget and is now blowing up the repairs.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Big Nanny smoked out

Andrew Bolt June 18 2014 (5:33am)

Henry Ergas says Big Nanny just left us with big costs:
NOT every nanny encourages her charges to take up alcohol and tobacco. But then again, not every health minister is like Nicola Roxon…
Plain packaging, she boasted, would “reduce the consumption of ­tobacco by about 6 per cent and reduce the number of smokers by 2 to 3 per cent”.
In fact, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows tobacco consumption increased by 2.5 per cent in volume terms in the year immediately after the introduction of plain packaging.
True, there was a large fall in this year’s March quarter; but even putting aside the notorious unreliability of quarterly data, tobacco taxes rose 12.5 per cent in December 2013, reducing consumption in the short run, much as tax hikes have in the past.
Of course, some of the growth in expenditure on tobacco leading up to the tax rise may have been due to wholesalers stocking up before prices increased. But while consumption rose in December, the rise was not unusually marked, as would normally happen with stockpiling. The stockpiling explanation is therefore unconvincing…
And before plain packaging there was the alcopops tax. It did reduce consumption: but at the expense of an offsetting switch to beer and spirits. To make matters worse, the tax may have led young people to cut back on small scale alcopops purchases, instead saving up for more harmful binges.

Chris Merritt on the ABC’s attempts to discredit an earlier report on Roxon’s failure:

THE ABC’s Media Watch has ­declined to explain why it sought to defend the effectiveness of the Gillard government’s plain-packaging laws for tobacco by ­relying on analysis by two of the Gillard government’s advisers.
Based on the views of those ­advisers, Media Watch concluded on Monday that The Australian was wrong when it reported plain-packaging laws had led to an ­increase in cigarette consumption.
The political involvement of one of these advisers, Mike Daube, was disclosed by Media Watch while the other, Stephen Kouk­oulas, was described only as a well-known economist.
Professor Daube had chaired a government panel that favoured plain-packaging laws while Mr Koukoulas had been Julia Gillard’s senior economics adviser.
Media Watch executive producer Tim Latham declined to say whether he knew Mr Koukoulas had been on Ms Gillard’s staff and instead issued a statement describing him as a well-respected economist whose conclusions were supported by figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Mr Latham declined to explain why Media Watch had selectively quoted from a tobacco industry statement in a way that excluded material that supports The Australian’s report cigarette sales were rising despite the plain-packaging laws…
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her





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Holly Sarah Nguyen
"Little things we give away surely come back to us some other day, because GOD never forgets to give rewards for those who share their unselfish hearts.
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Their safety vests don't make me feel safe. - ed
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WHAT THE MEDIA DON'T TELL YOU...LIVE FROM ISTANBUL: Today, after the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's extremely sectarian, separatist, and fictitious speech in Ankara, around 9 PM, the Turkish police began to attack thousands of people who were at the Gezi Park and Taksim square, having dinner. There are children under 4-5 years old, mothers, and old people, among those who were under gas and pressurized water attack. According to reports, police doesn't allow journalists to report or to take pictures from Gezi Park. They are also attacking with pressurized water businesses such as famous Divan Hotel... that opened its doors to protesters, running away from brutality. People are saying, there are thousands of wounded inside of the hotel. People formed a human chain in front of the hotel to prevent police to attack. Another report says that people cannot leave the hotel because police are arresting whoever leaves. There are also unconfirmed reports that police shut down the metro and boats between Asia and Europe to stop people coming and joining the rest. Another report says that there is a jammer in the area to prevent TV stations' broadcast. There are hundreds of wounded. There are a lot of missing children, or children who are separated from their families. Protesters are fighting with police.
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Holly Giesbrecht is loving her new fuzzy hoody! Keeping the Manitoban warm in chilly Melbourne. Pencil, fingerpaint, fluro maker and correction fluid.
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Why would they do such a thing? To read left wing newspapers? - ed
“We are raising a generation of young Americans who are historically illiterate.” Historian David McCullough
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This soldier used CPR learned in an #IDF first-aid course and saved her young neighbor’s life - just another way the IDF saves lives. Read the full story here: http://goo.gl/ley60
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I shot this image from outside my driver's side window while driving a little fast in order to try and get ahead of this large shelf cloud system while traveling from Chickasha to Newcastle Oklahoma on May 21st in the pre noon hours.
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Bigots .. never give them a chance .. they can beg to 'prove themselves' but once they show themselves .. they don't change. - ed
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Zaya Toma
I know it. The budget is responsible. For 16 years we missed those. No money being tossed on bad policy, this builds NSW and allows growth. I applaud it. - ed
Today in question time, the NSW Oppositon did not ask any questions about the budget. I guess they know the Libs did a good job
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The hunt for coffee is over. #FoxStudios #buggy#kitchenwhiz #cruisin
Your coffee has been confiscated by bother Fox .. (Looks at the side of screen). I can imagine some official staring at their hand saying "Where did my coffee go" and that is a silent, electric motor .. right? - ed
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I get the emotion, but the negativity of it is odd. One way Daddy can protect his daughter from predators is to raise them well. - ed
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If you're ever in Cornwall in the UK make sure you visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan where you can find some amazing structures in the beautiful gardens..
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Spring in Manhattan

An image from the start of my tour while on assignment with Yahoo! back in May. — withDeepak Taneja at Central Park Upper East Side
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duplication is ok. It happens throughout school and after. For example Algebra in Australia is introduced in year 7 and broadened through year 12 .. but it is still Algebra. I have tutored people at university and note that individual courses introduce Algebra again .. from about a year 9 level. The university has, at a department level, ascertained that that addresses their student needs in the curricula. Nothing sinister in that. It is more efficient than blocking students from progressing on pre-requisites. - ed
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the LORD. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” Psalm 68:4-5 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Help, Lord."
Psalm 12:1
The prayer itself is remarkable, for it is short, but seasonable, sententious, and suggestive. David mourned the fewness of faithful men, and therefore lifted up his heart in supplication--when the creature failed, he flew to the Creator. He evidently felt his own weakness, or he would not have cried for help; but at the same time he intended honestly to exert himself for the cause of truth, for the word "help" is inapplicable where we ourselves do nothing. There is much of directness, clearness of perception, and distinctness of utterance in this petition of two words; much more, indeed, than in the long rambling outpourings of certain professors. The Psalmist runs straight-forward to his God, with a well-considered prayer; he knows what he is seeking, and where to seek it. Lord, teach us to pray in the same blessed manner.
The occasions for the use of this prayer are frequent. In providential afflictions how suitable it is for tried believers who find all helpers failing them. Students, in doctrinal difficulties, may often obtain aid by lifting up this cry of "Help, Lord," to the Holy Spirit, the great Teacher. Spiritual warriors in inward conflicts may send to the throne for reinforcements, and this will be a model for their request. Workers in heavenly labour may thus obtain grace in time of need. Seeking sinners, in doubts and alarms, may offer up the same weighty supplication; in fact, in all these cases, times, and places, this will serve the turn of needy souls. "Help, Lord," will suit us living and dying, suffering or labouring, rejoicing or sorrowing. In him our help is found, let us not be slack to cry to him.
The answer to the prayer is certain, if it be sincerely offered through Jesus. The Lord's character assures us that he will not leave his people; his relationship as Father and Husband guarantee us his aid; his gift of Jesus is a pledge of every good thing; and his sure promise stands, "Fear not, I will help thee."

Evening

"Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it."
Numbers 21:17
Famous was the well of Beer in the wilderness, because it was the subject of a promise: "That is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water." The people needed water, and it was promised by their gracious God. We need fresh supplies of heavenly grace, and in the covenant the Lord has pledged himself to give all we require. The well next became the cause of a song. Before the water gushed forth, cheerful faith prompted the people to sing; and as they saw the crystal fount bubbling up, the music grew yet more joyous. In like manner, we who believe the promise of God should rejoice in the prospect of divine revivals in our souls, and as we experience them our holy joy should overflow. Are we thirsting? Let us not murmur, but sing. Spiritual thirst is bitter to bear, but we need not bear it--the promise indicates a well; let us be of good heart, and look for it. Moreover, the well was the centre of prayer. "Spring up, O well." What God has engaged to give, we must enquire after, or we manifest that we have neither desire nor faith. This evening let us ask that the Scripture we have read, and our devotional exercises, may not be an empty formality, but a channel of grace to our souls. O that God the Holy Spirit would work in us with all his mighty power, filling us with all the fulness of God. Lastly, the well was the object of effort. "The nobles of the people digged it with their staves." The Lord would have us active in obtaining grace. Our staves are ill adapted for digging in the sand, but we must use them to the utmost of our ability. Prayer must not be neglected; the assembling of ourselves together must not be forsaken; ordinances must not be slighted. The Lord will give us his peace most plenteously, but not in a way of idleness. Let us, then, bestir ourselves to seek him in whom are all our fresh springs.
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Jehonathan

[Jēhŏn'a than] jehovah hath given. In the R. V. the English form of this name is given twice as Jonathan.
  1. Son of Uzziah and an official appointed by David to have charge over royal treasures (1 Chron. 27:25).
  2. A Levite sent by Jehoshaphat to teach the people (2 Chron. 17:8).
  3. A priest and head of his father's house of Shemaiah in the days of the high priest Joiakim ( Neh. 12:18). Called Jonathan in Nehemiah 12:35.
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Today's reading: Nehemiah 8-9, Acts 3 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Nehemiah 8-9

1 ...all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel.
2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 3

Peter Heals a Lame Beggar
1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer-at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them....
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