Friday, July 11, 2014

Fri Jul 11th Todays News

Those following Vikings and the story of Ragnar Lodbrok would be interested to know that on this day in 911, his brother, Rollo, signed the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. It meant the creation of the duchy of Normandy and directly led to Rollo being the ancestor of today's Queen. Another signatory was the king of France, called Charles the Simple. The treaty meant Rollo would oppose other Viking assaults on French land. 

 China sent a fleet of ships on a journey of discovery on this day in 1405. They would discover America and achieve many great things. But China was very big then too, and viewed herself, correctly, as the centre of world power, and so exploration was not a long term agenda. Europe became great explorers as they tried to find new ways to get to China. 

 In 1796, The US took Detroit from Britain under treaty. In 1804, under a Democrat style President, Vice President Aaron Burr duelled with his political opponent Alexander Hamilton, killing him. But no one wanted to chase a Democrat over an illegal killing. In 1833, Aboriginal man Yagan, accused of killing settlers, was killed. His head was displayed in England as a curiosity. Finally it was returned to Australia and buried in ceremony in 2010. 1848, Waterloo Station opened. 1895, two brothers, August and Louis Lumiere demonstrate movie film to scientists. 1914, Babe Ruth debuts in Major League Baseball. 1921, former US President Taft was appointed as Chief justice to the US High Court, the only person ever to serve in both positions. 1930, Donald Bradman scored 309 runs in a day in a test match. The Exodus 1947 left from France to Palestine. 1960, Harper Lee, descended from General Lee, published To Kill a Mockingbird. 1962, Nasa announced project Apollo. 1972, Bobby Fisher squared off against Spassky for the world chess championship. 1995, Srebrenica massacre. Born on this day in 1274 is Robert the Bruce, 1653, Sarah Goode, 1767 John Quincy Adams, 1899 EB White, 1916 Gough Whitlam and in 1950, Bonnie Pointer. 
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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

Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may;
I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Brenda Devine, Berni Love, Brenda Saffara and SLW (nee B). Born on the same day, across the years. In 1833, Noongar warrior Yagan, wanted for leading attacks on white colonists in Western Australia, was killed, becoming a symbol of the unjust and sometimes brutal treatment of the indigenous peoples of Australia by colonial settlers. 1921, Former President of the United States William Howard Taft was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the only person to ever hold both positions. 1943, In a massive ethnic cleansing operation, units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army attacked various Polish villages in the Volhynia region of present-day Ukraine, killing the Polish civilians and burning those settlements to the ground. 1991, Shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International Airport, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire in mid-flight and crashed, killing all 261 occupants on board. 2011, An explosion at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base killed 12 people, including the head of the Cyprus Navy, making it the worst peacetime military accident in Cypriot history. People will die, but it is how we live that counts. Taft was unique. Nowadays, a President's statements would prevent them from being considered impartial. But then, the crucible of your lives have fashioned unique people equipped to rise and reign.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
=== Posts from Last Year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her


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Frank Ly
Love and be loved. Make the world a better place. It's as easy as smiling and saying hello. You've just fulfilled two criteria that'll fulfill you.
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Are Americans losing their religion? Check out this chart from TheBlaze Magazine to see how your fellow citizens feel about faith. (As always, inside every issue of TheBlaze Magazine you’ll find exclusive content you can’t get anywhere else. Subscribe today and get a FREE issue:http://tblz.us/mo879)
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In Japan, they have an indoor man-made beach.

more pics here:http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2012/07/worlds-largest-indoor-beach-in-japan.html
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Pastor Rick Warren
People become beautiful when you love them, and you become more beautiful when you love others.
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World Crisis Alert: Guantanamo Bay detainees don’t want to eat. Muslim rapper Yasiin “Mos Def” Bey is so worked up about their appetite plight that he videotaped himself being force-fed to build support for closing Gitmo. Cry me a river.
This latest round of hunger strikes isn’t an international human rights tragedy. It’s another manipulative act of Jihad Theater.
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nsa slide
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Hi everyone! Thay Đổi Cuộc Sống | Change Of Our Lives movie poster is out! from idea to screening in a matter of 4 months this comedy-drama Viet-Aus movie! To watch the movie on the 27 July, register here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Bagents 
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1959: Reds and Sympathizers Get Film Industry’s Green Light

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/reds-and-sympathizers-get-film-industrys-green-light/

“The responsibility lies entirely with the producers. All of them who did business with Reds and Fifth Amendment Reds are interested only in the dollar – not their country.” Ward Bond
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brain teasing optical illusion
Fix your eyes on the black dot in the middle of the infrared image until the animated gif switches to black and white. The castle will immediately show its true colors.

So what is happening here to create the false color? You may have noticed that if you stare at a bright light and then look away, it will create a dark spot in your vision for a few seconds. Similarly, if you stare at a dark object on a bright white wall for several seconds and then close your eyes, you will see the reverse – the dark object will show up white. The image above is doing this same kind of thing with the color cells on your retina, oversaturating them with one color so you see the reverse once the color is gone. See How your eyes work for details
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Frank Severino
Even if you could buy common sense, the people who lack it would consider it a waste of money.
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Lava - Hawaii
How far have you gone to get that perfect shot?

Milky way scientists
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Another lighthouse pic from my trip across the US with Yahoo as their weather photographer last May.
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Whatever your 100% looks like give it. CheersTimothy Ly, Tony Nguyen
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Sydney has been revealed as the 12th most expensive in the world. Have you travelled overseas recently and come back to discover just how costly it is to live here? Or do you have an example of how something has quickly risen in cost? Read the story here: http://bit.ly/14KkHSF
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I was driving and generally freaking out about just how dark the skies above me were getting, and then remembered I had my sunglasses on. To my surprise however, the sky above remained a black cauldron after the removal of the shades. I found this little farmstead with it's pond and knew this was the foreground I wanted. The clouds proved pretty harmless. No hail or lightning and very little rain. A nice stop along the way on my trip across the US for Yahoo! as their weather photographer last May. — in Esselburn, OH.
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Infographic: Asset Test
How the United States Benefits from Its Alliance with Israel
Michael Eisenstadt and David Pollock
January 30, 2013
download at http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/inforgraphic-asset-test
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable… ~Phil. 4:8 NLT
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VIENNA — It was 1943 when Vienna's Nazi overlords gave the order to destroy the city's oldest Jewish cemetery, demanding it be leveled and the tombstones attesting to centuries of Jewish existence there be destroyed.
Desperate to save their heritage, the city's shrinking Jewish community decided to act. Defying the possibility of prison, deportation or execution, they buried the gravestones and kept them from Nazi hands.
Some 70 years later, Jewish leaders in the Austrian capital say the long-lost stones have been rediscovered. It is a find they say could transform a small obscure graveyard into one that rivals the significance of Prague's Jewish cemetery, the oldest known burial ground of its kind.
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=== Todays News and memes ===

At the mercy of fools and lightweights

Piers Akerman – Thursday, July 10, 2014 (10:57pm)

BLAME for the extension of the carbon tax must be laid at the feet of the arrogant and irresponsible Clive Palmer, the ringmaster of his eponymous circus.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'At the mercy of fools and lightweights'
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Wasn’t 1200 dead enough?

Miranda Devine – Friday, July 11, 2014 (1:38am)

NOW refugee advocates reportedly are “coaching” mothers to self-harm.
Someone in authority has to stop these so-called “well-meaning” advocates. They are hurting the very people they feign to protect.
As for the media that uncritically reported the story of ten women on Nauru supposedly attempting suicide ... You have to ask, what vested interests are so desperate for the Abbott government to fail on border protection?
A FORMER director of offshore processing in Australia’s immigration detention camps claims asylum-seekers are coached and encouraged to attempt self-harm by refugee advocates who then use the incidents as political capital.

Greg Lake made his strident ­attack on “certain refugee advocates” whose behaviour “is at odds with their mandate as advocates” as the Refugee Action Coalition backed down from claims in a press release on Monday that up to “10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island”.
Refugee coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told The Australian yesterday that women in the family camp wanted to get off Christmas Island for the mainland, though some said they would be happy to go to Nauru.
“I probably shouldn’t have said attempted suicide,” he said.
“People drinking concoctions of shampoo or detergent generally don’t die — was it a drastic cry for help? Yes, it was, and it remains that way.”
Extra guards continued to be stationed in the island’s family camp yesterday to keep watch on women who had either threatened, attempted or carried out self-harm during the past week.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rubbished claims published in Fairfax Media that up to 12 mothers had attempted suicide so their orphaned babies would be raised in Australia.
The government has described the self-harm as minor. While ­asylum-seekers are flown to mainland hospitals in the event of medical emergency, the only person to leave the Australian territory this week for medical reasons was a Christmas Island resident.
The asylum-seeker women on watch at the camp this week include a young Iranian who does not have children; she spent time in the camp’s medical centre after leaping from what guards have ­described as the flat roof of one-­storey transportable accommo-dation on Sunday. She had recently returned from medical treatment on the mainland.
Mr Rintoul said he had communicated with the women before they harmed themselves but ­denied encouraging them to do so or having prior knowledge that they would.
“Of course not,” he said.
“There may have been some indication of people heading this way — they were extremely worried about the presence of the Serco guards and the police (over the weekend).
“It’s clear to me now that Serco was expecting a situation.”
The tense atmosphere continued in Christmas Island’s family camp as authorities prepared to send more asylum-seekers to Nauru. Tonight a group of detainees is scheduled to leave the island for Nauru, and more frequent flights are expected as more accommodation comes online.
Mr Lake said in his time at what is now called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, he grew disgusted by the actions of some refugee advocates who were clearly urging asylum-seekers to self-harm as a form of protest so they could put out a press release about it.
He said the advocates communicated with the asylum-seekers by Facebook message, phone and email. While the department did not read asylum-seekers’ communications, he said what was going on was obvious and often emerged later in interviews with detainees who had hurt themselves on purpose.
He said he believed some advocates communicated with a ringleader, who then “stood over” other detainees to compel them to make a statement through self-harm.
“There are certain prominent advocates who will coach and encourage asylum-seekers to self-harm as a political protest and it makes me very upset and I believe it is at odds with their mandate as advocates,” Mr Lake said.
“The problem is, outside of the government or public service, people aren’t aware of their tactics.”
Mr Lake, who resigned as an immigration official in April last year, claimed that one of his last tasks on Nauru was to interview eight asylum-seekers who had joined a lip-sewing protest, but who had been bullied into it by a detainee who was in communication with a refugee advocate.
“These guys didn’t want anything to do with it,” he said.
“They only did it because they were pushed by the ringleader.”

The Australian has learned that refugee advocates and others working inside the Christmas Island compounds are linking this week’s self-harm incidents to a recent decision by Mr Morrison to allow three vulnerable ­Somali girls to leave the camp and live in Sydney’s west. 
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FLY, MY PRETTIES

Tim Blair – Friday, July 11, 2014 (5:00am)

Frightbats are now appearing in birthday cards:

image

Beats a frightbat appearing on your face, I guess. Or even taking over your face, in the first recorded case of frightbat possession.
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THERE IS SO MUCH SNOW

Tim Blair – Friday, July 11, 2014 (4:26am)

July, 2007: 
The man, dressed only in a pair of Speedos, approached the prime minister as he mingled with guests in the local RSL.
He shouted: “What are you doing about global warming? There is no snow, there is no snow”, before he was quickly bundled away by security staff into a nearby toilet. 
July, 2014: 
Fresh snowfall on the Snowy Mountains overnight has led meteorologists and excited resort managers at Thredbo and Perisher to declare this weekend the best for skiing in many years.
Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke said there was 20 to 30cm of snowfall in the Perisher and Thredbo villages on Wednesday night although there was as much as 40 to 50cm of snowfall. 
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LEFT PREFERS DEATH

Tim Blair – Friday, July 11, 2014 (4:07am)

Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison might be the first politicians in Australian history to be vilified for keeping an election promise and saving lives.
The Prime Minister and immigration minister face renewed hostility from left-wing activist groups after successfully ending the mass traffic in asylum seeker vessels reaching Australia – or sinking during their voyage.
Recent attempted arrivals by Tamil asylum seekers, who were turned back by Australian authorities, have sparked outrage from leftists who were noticeably quieter during Labor’s reign, which saw around 1200 asylum seeker deaths at sea.
Some of these leftists have been politically active since the Vietnam War, a conflict that resulted in the deaths of 500 Australian servicemen. Yet now they protest against a government that has stopped the people smuggling trade to Australia, which killed more than twice as many people within just six years.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'LEFT PREFERS DEATH'
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HANNAH QUEENSLANDER

Tim Blair – Friday, July 11, 2014 (4:02am)

Clive Palmer is the Miley Cyrus of the current parliament:

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UPDATE. Palmer walks:



UPDATE II. Tony Wright observes Palmer’s bizarre power circle: 
He drew around him his little band of senators, instructing them on their duty. Glenn Lazarus, Jacqui Lambie, Dio Wang. And his outrider, Ricky Muir.
He cocked an ear towards Ben Oquist, once a power within the Australian Greens and now a strategy director at the Australia Institute think tank and, seated at Clive’s left hand, an unlikely but well-informed well of advice on how to drive the Senate mad. 
When your intention is to destroy, link with the left.
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Christine Milne, dangerous hypocrite of free speech

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (10:57am)

Free speech

How dare the Greens leader pose as a defender of free speech, when she’s actually a defender of speech that suits?

Freedom of speech everywhere! Christine Milne tweets, Wednesday:

I’M about to speak in the Senate for Peter Greste & for press freedom around the world.
Freedom of speech in Oz! Milne, Senate, Wednesday:

WE have to stand up for journalists wherever they work around the world ... Australia is a country that values and appreciates the importance of the free press and the need to protect the freedoms of journalists.
Except when you don’t like the media or the message? Milne, July 25, 2011:
THE Murdoch press has been running a very strong campaign against action on climate change. The bias is extreme, in The Australian in particular. You’ll see column inch after column inch of every climate sceptic in the country ... You’ll find day after day a real attempt at regime change … And one of the useful things about the hacking scandal in the UK is that it will lead to an inquiry into the media in Australia. We are at least going to see some real discussion ... around issues such as the level of ownership and dominance of the Murdoch press in several capital cities in Australia. We’ll also have a look at a range of other issues, including who are fit and proper people, into whether we need that test into people to be running media outlets. It’s time we had a good inquiry and certainly bias is certainly going to be one of the things that’s certainly to be looked at.
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If a refugee’s background makes him more dangerous, why is he here?

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (10:22am)

Yet again I have to ask that if a judge or magistrate rules that the background of asylum seekers make them understandably more dangerous, is it fair to our citizens to import more of them?
A TRAUMATISED former asylum-seeker was last week placed on a good behaviour bond after threatening Department of Human Services staff in Dandenong with a bottle of petrol and a cigarette lighter.
The defendant, 28, had threatened to “burn down the place” if he didn’t secure a public housing property “by the end of the day” ...
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said “the circumstances in which you came to Australia are highly relevant to the circumstances you’re in now”.
Before his arrival, the man had been under “constant threat” from an Iraqi militia and the “subject of severe abuse” in his homeland. The man fled Iraq after the same militia killed his brother.
While coming to Australia, he survived a “very tragic incident” at Christmas Island. Many of those who died were relatives and close friends of his.
Mr Vandersteen found those events led to the accused’s “multitude of mental health issues” and to his “unacceptable” threats to DHS staff.
Another example:
AN Afghan refugee who raped two women within a week in 2008 has won a reduced sentence because of his traumatic upbringing…
“Although (the sentencing judge) accepted that the appellant suffer[ed] from a post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result of [his] experiences in Afghanistan and consequent depression and anxiety, his Honour does not appear to have related this finding to the burden of imprisonment upon the appellant,’’ the Court of Appeal ruled. 
Or note this warning from a Department of Immigration report in 2007:
Australia has assisted in resettling some of the Sudanese who cannot be repatriated. While they are a diverse people with a wide range of experiences, many have spent a long period of time in refugee camps immediately before coming to Australia. The following section describes Kakuma camp in Kenya. Settlers who have spent time in other camps are likely to have experienced similar conditions…
Kakuma refugee camp was established in 1992 to receive a large group of Sudanese children known as the ‘lost boys’… There is frequent violence in the camp. Regular clashes occur among residents, many of them armed, and between camp residents and the local population with whom residents compete for scarce resources. Sexual assault is common.
Like other refugees, many Kakuma residents have spent years living in camps. They have had limited opportunity to grow crops, work, or otherwise provide for themselves. They have lived in fear of violence from other camp residents and from raiders preying upon them both inside and outside the camps. Children may have been born in the camps and be unfamiliar with any other lifestyle…
Settlement considerations
Sudanese entrants may face considerable challenges in adapting to life in Australia. They need time to adapt to a new location, language and cultural framework. Their everyday life skills may have been extensively eroded by their experiences in refugee camps…
Some children may be unfamiliar with formal schooling as a result of living in camps where there is little or no structure to day-to-day living. Moving into a highly structured environment such as a classroom may require assistance… Those who are literate may not be familiar with the Roman alphabet as Arabic has been increasingly used in schools. Most Sudanese entrants have limited English language skills and will require interpreting services and English instruction.
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An early election may be better than dealing with Palmer. UPDATE: Hmm, says Abbott

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (9:07am)

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I wouldn’t trust anything Clive Palmer said on anything - including the reason he gave for instructing his Senators yesterday to vote against scrapping the carbon tax:
The three PUP Senators voted against repealing the carbon tax because of what Clive Palmer called a double cross by the government over an amendment ... to ensure power companies pass on any savings from the repeal…
Palmer says the government didn’t include the amendment today despite saying it would do so.
“It was to be circulated by the time Parliament had come in and it hadn’t been circulated and our senators hadn’t been told and they were left in the dark,” he said.
“I think you’d call it double-crossing people.”

Complete bull. Some might even think it a lie. Phil Coorey explains:

The government and Mr Palmer had agreed to his amendments on Sunday night and the [carbon tax] repeal was supposed to pass Parliament this week. But on Wednesday night Mr Palmer said he wanted some changes and presented them to the government at 9.15am.
The government agreed but Mr Palmer was cranky that the revised amendment had not been distributed to all senators, even though that was his job, and he threatened to pull his support.
Then it was noted the new 250 per cent penalty constituted a tax and the Senate is not allowed to pass such a law without it first being passed by the House of Representatives.
Mr Palmer rejected an offer by the Senate Clerk to reword the amendment and have the package put through the Senate. Instead, he insisted on the whole lot starting again in the lower house on Monday.
Thee was no double-cross by anyone except Palmer himself.
Dennis Shanahan:
He killed the repeal yesterday by his own volition. There was no government “double-cross’’ nor any “conspiracy’’.
Tony Abbott and his Senate leader Eric Abetz have been embarrassed and pilloried as a result of Palmer’s directive, which ­appears to be little more than a tactic to allow Palmer himself to take centre stage in the House of Representatives next week.
Graham Richardson says dealing with Clive Palmer is impossible, and the Government may die trying:
Never in politics has there been a more unpredictable individual. His capacity to forcefully argue against something he proclaimed so solemnly a week ago is already in evidence. Last week the government’s direct action on climate change was a bunch of old cobblers. Yet this week that same policy gets a tick from Palmer.
There can be no trust or goodwill with a man like Palmer. He will remain enigmatic and erratic....
In the interim, the government can’t function without Palmer’s personal approval… It is not too big a stretch to suggest that the fate of the paid parental leave scheme, the Medicare and pharmaceutical co-payments, the Newstart cuts for the young, the change in indexation arrangements for pensions and the changes to Family Tax Benefit A and B all rest in Palmer’s hands…
The price the Abbott government will have to pay to keep Palmer on board for every budget measure may well prove to be way too high…
Niether [Leader of the Government in the Senate Eric] Abetz nor [Environment Minister Greg] Hunt ... could explain what was contained in the Palmer amendments to which they had agreed. Apparently our Clive was annoyed at the announcements by Qantas and Virgin that they would not pass on the full amount of savings produced by the repeal. Both direct and indirect effects are now covered by these amendments but these government ministers had no idea how far they ranged…
The ministers didn’t know and you can bet your bottom dollar Palmer doesn’t know either. He is interested only in the publicity. He has little or no interest in the policy.
The Abbott Government now risks being seen as repeating the worst mistakes of the Gillard Government. First, breaking promises. Second, being beholden to a mad fringe - with Labor, the Greens; with the Liberals, Palmer.
A double dissolution election may turn out to be the lesser of two terrible options.
UPDATE
Palmer is wrecking whatever he can:

CLIVE Palmer has become the wrecking ball of Australian politics, carving a further $10 billion hole out of the federal Budget this week with a series of stunts that senior Coalition­ members now claim are based on one motive only — to destroy the Abbott government ...  which now faces the possible blockage of an estimated $55 billion in Budget measures…
While the government was careful not to antagonise Mr Palmer, ministers concede privately they’re at a loss as to how to deal with him.
UPDATE
Want an example of Palmer’s word not being worth a cracker?
Here’s one reason he gave yesterday for presenting his last-minute amendment:
Announcing his bombshell amendments [to force companies to pass on savings from the carbon tax repeal] on Thursday morning, Palmer said: ”We read this morning that Virgin and Qantas have said they are not going to pass those savings on to consumers, they are just going to absorb them as extra profits. We don’t think that is a reasonable thing.”
But last night Palmer claimed his amendment wouldn’t affect Qantas and Virgin, after all:
CLIVE PALMER: Well I think it’s pretty clear what it covers. There’s a definition of an electricity producer and a natural gas producer and it covers anyone that generates or deals with that commodity. It doesn’t cover anyone else.
SARAH FERGUSON: So it doesn’t cover the airlines, it doesn’t cover the supermarkets or anybody else who has carbon tax-associated costs?
CLIVE PALMER: Well, in a reality when - if the cost structure comes down, market forces will bring their costs down by competition… I mean, if Qantas doesn’t want to bring down its savings and pass that on to its consumers, well, one of its competitors will and they’ll have to bring their prices down to compete.
SARAH FERGUSON: You’re not saying that your amendment actually includes those other companies within it?
CLIVE PALMER: No. I don’t think it does, actually.
But read his hastily written amendment could seem to cover airlines:
Clause 10 of the PUP amendment ... lists “entities” that are covered by the carbon repeal bill’s laws against “price exploitation”.
The list proposed by PUP includes “an individual, a body corporate, a body politics, a partnership, any other incorporated association or body of entities, a trust or any party or entity which can or does buy or sell electricity or gas”.
Palmer says things that are untrue. He causes chaos and then blames others for the mess. He seems to change his mind on a whim and without understanding the consequences of what he proposes.
He is a danger and a disgrace to our Parliament. I do not believe this Government can survive two years of dealing with this man.
UPDATE
Today:
Asked if his government would consider calling a double dissolution election, Mr Abbott said: ‘’If we had six to 12 months of difficulty maybe yes it would be time to start thinking along those lines.’’

(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hills and others.) 
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Push back against the alarmists

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (8:50am)

Sure looking forward to this:
Donations are sought for the project:
Scorching temperatures.  Melting ice caps.  Killer hurricanes and tornadoes.  Disappearing polar bears.  The end of civilization as we know it!
Are emissions from our cars, factories, and farms causing catastrophic climate change?  Is there a genuine scientific consensus? Or is man-made “global warming” an overheated environmental con job being used to push for drastic government control and a radical “Green” energy agenda?
Climate Hustle will answer these questions, and many more. 
Reader mem, from material provided by Christopher Monckton:
Twelve Urban Myths of Climate Change
1."Global warming is happening.”

No: According to the RSS satellite record, there has been none for 17 years 10 months.
2."Warming is faster than we thought.”

No: In 1990 the climate models predicted that global warming would happen twice as fast as it has.
3."There’s a 97 percent consensus.”
No: Only 0.5 percent of the authors of 11,944 scientific papers on climate and related topics over the past 21 years said they agreed that most of the warming since 1950 was man-made.
4."Droughts are getting worse.”
No: A recent paper in the learned journals shows the fraction of the world’s land under drought has fallen for 30 years.
5."Floods are getting worse.”
No: The U.N.’s panel has said in two recent reports that there has been no particular change in the frequency or severity of floods worldwide.
6."Sea ice is melting.”
No: It has grown to a new record high in the Antarctic, though the Arctic icecap has been shrinking a little in summer.
7."Sea level is rising dangerously.”
No: Some satellites show it as rising a little, while others show it as falling.
8."Hurricanes are getting worse.”
No: Their combined frequency, severity and duration has been at or near the lowest in the 35-year satellite record.
9."Global warming caused recent extreme weather.”
No: There has been no warming recently, so it cannot have caused any extreme weather in recent years.
10."Global warming will reduce the number of redheads.”
No: This is one of many scare stories about imaginary effects of warmer weather.
11."The ocean is acidifying.”
No: The ocean remains decidedly alkaline, and there cannot be much change in its acid-base balance because it is buffered by the basalt rocks in which it lies.
12."It’s cheaper to act now, just in case.”
No: It is 10-100 times costlier to try to prevent global warming today than to let it happen and pay the cost of adapting to it the day after tomorrow.
Just about everything the mainstream news media say about global warming and its supposed dangers is the opposite of the truth. 
From the Heartland Conference, presentation by Lord Monckton. Note this is an excerpt I have edited into 12 points for presentation on this blog and also so that I can print it off for a presentation and poster I am making for a local community organization. Why not do the same?  Read the original here.  Read more here. 
(Thanks to reader streetcred.) 
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Trashing Sri Lanka to push the “asylum seeker” fraud

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (8:25am)

An astonishing smear from a former Liberal Prime Minister now a darling of the far Left:
image
Former Labor candidate and “refugee” lawyer George Newhouse, who helped persuade the High Court to issue a temporary injunction against the return of 153 Sri Lankans, made the same disgraceful analogy on ABC radio.
But Dinoo Kelleghan, a former member of the Refugee Review Tribunal and a Sri Lankan-born Australian with part-Tamil ancestry, says Sri Lanka is being defamed:
IT is a crying shame that a country that has dragged itself up by the bootstraps from twin ruthless Marxist and ethnic insurgencies that devastated its economy and killed almost 200,000 people during the past 45 years should become a pawn in the game to bash the Australian government over its anti people-smuggling strategy…
The country is by no means perfect… But it’s not Nazi Germany. And the Tamil minority has the same rights as anyone else…
There are Tamil television stations, and government documents mostly come in Sinhalese and Tamil. Tamil children study in Tamil...Mr Fraser won’t see death camps or a fascist state. He’ll see Tamils and Sinhalese rejoicing in being able to work together without being bombed or blown up.
Genocide? The population of the capital, Colombo, was 30 per cent Tamil in 2001 at the height of the civil war, and now Tamils and Muslims outnumber Sinhalese. Many of those Tamils fled the fighting in the north but choose to stay in the Sinhala-dominated south even though the war is over.
Of course, the jobs are in the south, but would that keep them there if they feared persecution?…
Presidential, parliamentary and provincial and local council elections have been held all over the country since the end of the civil war in 2009. Tamils have exercised their right to vote freely.
UPDATE
Nicely put by Sri Lanka’s Daily News:
There are the bad eggs and the incorrigible in any society, and a few hundred people getting on boats because they think the pavements Down Under are made of pure 24 carat, is no reflection on this progressive society any more than a few Australian journalists aiming for upward mobility in their professions by sensationalising hard luck stories is a reflection on the general integrity of the good and industrious Australian people. 
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WA Liberals punished as the easy money ends

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (8:09am)

Colin Barnett has been caught out by the early end of the mining investment boom, holding a fistful of IOUs:
On a two-party-preferred basis, the Barnett government is at an all-time low of 50 per cent, down more than seven percentage points since the state election in March last year ...
It has been a horror run for Premier Colin Barnett… Key promises, described during the election campaign as fully funded and fully costed, have now been canned or delayed.
The state has lost its AAA credit rating and — faced with a debt crisis — new Treasurer Mike Nahan has taken difficult decisions including slashing pensioners’ concessions and cruelling the multi-billion-dollar regional spending scheme that underpinned the Liberals’ alliance with the Nationals and allowed them to form government six years ago.
Mistakes aside, Barnett, like Campbell Newman and Tony Abbott, is another leader finding that telling the public there’s no free money is ungrateful work. 
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Clive Palmer shows he’s worried by those allegations

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (7:56am)

A rare tactical mistake from the master media manipulator. I suspect he’s just put burley in the water for journalists eager for a little sensation - and he’s shown there’s something in his business dealings that make him very agitated and shy of explaining:

Clive Palmer has stormed out of an interview on flagship ABC television current affairs program 7.30, bringing the segment to an abrupt end…
Asked to repeat comments from earlier in the week suggesting money from a port account paid in by his Chinese business partners had been used to pay for a political campaign run by the management firm Media Circus, he got angry.
“I never said that, what I said was that we paid Media Circus from money that was paid to us,” he said.
He said the money used to fund the political campaign which helped the Palmer United Party secure an amazing three senators and one lower house MP from the 2013 election, was owned by his company for services provided to the joint venture.
He said a deed cited by Ms Ferguson which stipulated that funds from the port account could only be used to invest in the port project was “just not true"…
“This is just a beat up by the Chinese that don’t want to pay for our iron ore…
“Don’t talk to me about allegations and bullshit, talk about judgments from the court ... I’m not discussing it with you any further madam, it’s subject to court proceedings where we’re suing them for $600 million ... I’m not answering any more for you so goodbye, we’ll see you later.”
UPDATE
Hedley Thomas:
[Palmer] has been inconsistent in his explanations this week, telling the National Press Club and journalists $2.167m of the missing money went to Media Circus Network, which booked advertising for his election, because it was his money to spend as he saw fit. He has said there were “no strings attached” to how he could spend the cash.
This doesn’t stack up. It contradicts the legal responses given by his company to a retired Supreme Court judge who is investigating the matters in confidential Brisbane arbitration proceedings, that the money went to pay for “port management services”; and it contradicts deeds signed personally by Mr Palmer, who pledged to spend China’s cash only on the iron ore port at Cape Preston in Western Australia.
Last night on 7.30, Ferguson went down the money trail and incurred Mr Palmer’s wrath.
“What I said was that we paid Media Circus from money that was paid to us for services that was provided by us, which is quite normal in a joint-venture situation,” he said.
UPDATE
Going green is the last refuge of the scoundrel, eager for kind treatment from the largely Leftist media:
[Ben] Oquist, the former chief of staff to Greens leaders Bob Brown and Christine Milne, helped engineer events yesterday that led Clive Palmer to keep the carbon tax ­despite a public vow to repeal it…
Government sources insist they agreed to all of Palmer’s requests to toughen the repeal bill to cut energy prices, only to be stunned by the millionaire politician’s backflip later…
The government suspects Oquist of trying to kill off the carbon tax repeal one step at a time. He has been advising Palmer in meetings, copied on emails and was in the background at yesterday’s press conference....
Oquist also helped encourage former US vice-­president Al Gore to meet Palmer in Canberra last month, another moment when the PUP leader made a dramatic shift in position. The surprises have salvaged some green schemes...
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How the refugee lobby is inciting “suicide attempts”

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (7:35am)

Boat people policy

The refugee lobby - and the Human Rights Commission - are inciting and rewarding boat people who self-harm, and then wildly exaggerating the results:
A FORMER director of offshore processing in Australia’s immigration detention camps claims asylum-seekers are coached and encouraged to attempt self-harm by refugee advocates who then use the incidents as political capital. 

Greg Lake made his strident ­attack on “certain refugee advocates” whose behaviour “is at odds with their mandate as advocates” as the Refugee Action Coalition backed down from claims in a press release on Monday that up to “10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island"…
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rubbished claims published in Fairfax Media that up to 12 mothers had attempted suicide so their orphaned babies would be raised in Australia.
The government has described the self-harm as minor…
Mr Lake said ... he grew disgusted by the actions of some refugee advocates who were clearly urging asylum-seekers to self-harm as a form of protest so they could put out a press release about it…
“There are certain prominent advocates who will coach and encourage asylum-seekers to self-harm as a political protest ....”
Mr Lake, who resigned as an immigration official in April last year, claimed that one of his last tasks on Nauru was to interview eight asylum-seekers who had joined a lip-sewing protest, but who had been bullied into it by a detainee who was in communication with a refugee advocate.
The closest thing to a genuine suicide attempt among those alleged 12 mothers actually came from a woman without a child:
The asylum-seeker women on watch at the camp this week include a young Iranian who does not have children; she spent time in the camp’s medical centre after leaping from what guards have ­described as the flat roof of one-­storey transportable accommodation on Sunday.
When will the Human Rights Commission apologise for this false claim?:
We’ve had reports that have been confirmed during the day that 10 women have attempted suicide.
UPDATE
From my comment piece today:
ON Wednesday The Age ...  declared: “A wave of attempted suicides has swept Christmas Island as 12 mothers tried to kill themselves in the belief their then-orphaned children would have to be settled in Australia.”
The story stank from the start. Twelve women? And every attempt a failure?
And all 12 had no husbands? All thought their child was better an orphan in Australia than mothered in detention? Seriously?..,
On Thursday The Age changed its story without actually saying it had been wrong – and without apologising.
Now it claimed it had “obtained” Immigration Department “advice” that of “seven individuals who made threats of self-harm, four have actually self-harmed and one woman attempted suicide’’.
Twelve suicide attempts became one. And no mention now of doing it for the children.
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The Bolt Report on Sunday, July 13

Andrew Bolt July 11 2014 (5:49am)

On Sunday on Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial: Lying about boats
My guest:  Labor’s Anthony Albanese.
The panel:  campaign guru Mark Textor and former NSW Labor treasurer Michael Costa
NewsWatch:  The Australian’s media editor Sharri Markson. The secrets to Clive Palmer’s success. 
Plus spin of the week, where a couple of global warming alarmists get held to account.

The videos of the shows appear here.
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Woodblock print of Zheng He's ships
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“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"Fellow citizens with the saints."
Ephesians 2:19
What is meant by our being citizens in heaven? It means that we are under heaven's government. Christ the king of heaven reigns in our hearts; our daily prayer is, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The proclamations issued from the throne of glory are freely received by us: the decrees of the Great King we cheerfully obey. Then as citizens of the New Jerusalem, we share heaven's honours. The glory which belongs to beatified saints belongs to us, for we are already sons of God, already princes of the blood imperial; already we wear the spotless robe of Jesus' righteousness; already we have angels for our servitors, saints for our companions, Christ for our Brother, God for our Father, and a crown of immortality for our reward. We share the honours of citizenship, for we have come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven. As citizens, we have common rights to all the property of heaven. Ours are its gates of pearl and walls of chrysolite; ours the azure light of the city that needs no candle nor light of the sun; ours the river of the water of life, and the twelve manner of fruits which grow on the trees planted on the banks thereof; there is nought in heaven that belongeth not to us. "Things present, or things to come," all are ours. Also as citizens of heaven we enjoy its delights. Do they there rejoice over sinners that repent--prodigals that have returned? So do we. Do they chant the glories of triumphant grace? We do the same. Do they cast their crowns at Jesus' feet? Such honours as we have we cast there too. Are they charmed with his smile? It is not less sweet to us who dwell below. Do they look forward, waiting for his second advent? We also look and long for his appearing. If, then, we are thus citizens of heaven, let our walk and actions be consistent with our high dignity.

Evening

"And the evening and the morning were the first day."
Genesis 1:5
The evening was "darkness" and the morning was "light," and yet the two together are called by the name that is given to the light alone! This is somewhat remarkable, but it has an exact analogy in spiritual experience. In every believer there is darkness and light, and yet he is not to be named a sinner because there is sin in him, but he is to be named a saint because he possesses some degree of holiness. This will be a most comforting thought to those who are mourning their infirmities, and who ask, "Can I be a child of God while there is so much darkness in me?" Yes; for you, like the day, take not your name from the evening, but from the morning; and you are spoken of in the word of God as if you were even now perfectly holy as you will be soon. You are called the child of light, though there is darkness in you still. You are named after what is the predominating quality in the sight of God, which will one day be the only principle remaining. Observe that the evening comes first. Naturally we are darkness first in order of time, and the gloom is often first in our mournful apprehension, driving us to cry out in deep humiliation, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." The place of the morning is second, it dawns when grace overcomes nature. It is a blessed aphorism of John Bunyan, "That which is last, lasts forever." That which is first, yields in due season to the last; but nothing comes after the last. So that though you are naturally darkness, when once you become light in the Lord, there is no evening to follow; "thy sun shall no more go down." The first day in this life is an evening and a morning; but the second day, when we shall be with God, forever, shall be a day with no evening, but one, sacred, high, eternal noon.
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Today's reading: Job 41-42, Acts 16:22-40 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Job 41-42

1 "Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 16:22-40

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose....
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