Thursday, July 17, 2014

Thu Jul 17th Todays News

With the world first repeal of ridiculously bad Carbon Dioxide tax legislation, Australia can breathe freely. The tax had been implemented despite no government running on a platform to install it. Now that it is repealed, opposition leader Bill Shorten is promising to campaign for one next election. Some say we have lost the chance to lower world temperatures by an estimates 0.0038 degrees celcius over the next hundred years, and so we are all going to die. Others say it was a wasteful redistribution of money which penalised industry unfairly. 

Anti semitic bigots are saying Israel is not allowed to defend herself. They are wrong. Israel is entitled to protect her people from killers, or stone throwers, or vandals and thieves. However, the bigots need to be confronted, to justify why they have used a position of authority to harm civilians. What has happened is a war crime and is something that significant figures in the UN, European parliament and US Government have condoned, along with significant international media. It is unbelievable that such an inquiry into those figures will occur any time soon. But until it happens, the significant governments of the world have unclean hands. Significant points that many do not know are 

  1. There is no Palestine. Palestine is a Roman word to describe a secular administration of Jewish peoples in the Middle East, which is what Israel is now. 
  2. So called Palestinians are ethnically Jordanian. They lost a civil war in 1967 and called themselves Palestinian with the encouragement of arab governments keen to not have to host refugee civil warriors. 
  3. The land that Palestinians inhabit was designated as Israeli but was seized by Jordan before it was handed over in 1948. 
  4. Israel has been over cautious in her dealings with terrorists. She doesn't kill them, but imprisons them. And often has been made to free them for peace. 
  5. Terrorist activity against Israel is disproportionate. Killing people indiscriminately is not justified. 
  6. The largest killer of Islamic peoples in the Middle East is Islamic peoples. 
  7. Israel pays for aid to Palestine, and generously runs and funds hospitals and provides energy, business and supplies. 
  8. Palestinian authorities syphon aid dollars and buys weapons for terrorists. 
  9. Palestinian leaders have become rich as their peoples crumble in the indignity of poverty. 
  10. Palestinian authorities allow the lynching of their peoples on any pretext, often on untested assertions of spying. Further, they have kidnapped and killed Israelis. 
  11. Israel, as a secular administration, meets all the requirements of the Balfour Proclamation and so there is no need for a second state. 
On this day 180, we know Christians had been in North Africa because twelve were executed there. In 1203, a crusade got sidetracked and sacked Constantinople with the aim of uniting the Eastern and Western churches. In 1429, Joan of Arc successfully got a French King crowned. Sadly for her, her life was a trade off. In 1453, England lost the last battle of the hundred year war, and all of her European lands, exempt Calais, which would be lost when Mary I entrusted her husband to defend it a hundred years later. In 1717, gloriously, King George I of England sailed down the Thames with 50 musicians premiering George Frideric Handel's Water Music. In 1794, we had the reminder that secular authority is not the same as atheist administration, with the slaughter of sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, 10 days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. In 1918, Communists killed the Tsar and his family. 1945, Churchill was alone against Stalin at Potsdam while the idiot Truman condemned over a hundred million European peoples, unlucky enough to live in the East, to tyranny. In 1955, Disneyland opened. In 1976, Some African nations boycotted the Olympics because of New Zealand. 
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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

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.netwhich 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 Isaac Watts (1674), John Wilbur (1774), James Cagney (1899), Fred Ball (1915) and Donald Sutherland (1935). Born on the same day, across the years. On your day, in 1453, The Battle of Castillon, the last conflict of the Hundred Years' War, ended with the English losing all landholdings in France, except Calais. 1771, Dene men, acting as a guide to Samuel Hearne on his exploration of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a group of about 20 Copper Inuit. 1936, Nationalist rebels attempted a coup d'état against the Second Spanish Republic, sparking the Spanish Civil War. 1973, Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last King of Afghanistan, was ousted in a coup by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery. 1981, A structural failure caused a walkway at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, US, to collapse killing 114 people and injuring 216 others. Your hymn raises hope, which when all else is lost, retains Calais. And if the structure about you fails, if you lose your crown, if your plan fails, you can resort to the defiant snarl "You dirty rat."
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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Marcus Trescothick
Somerset County Cricket Club's 2009 season saw the teamcompete in four English competitions: the first divisions of the County Championship and the NatWest Pro40 League, the Friends Provident Trophy, and the Twenty20 Cup. Somerset were in contention to win the County Championship until the last few weeks of the season, but the batting-friendly pitch at their home ground meant that they finished with too many draws to claim their first Championship title. Somerset were unbeaten in the group stage of the Friends Provident Trophy, but were eliminated in the first knock-out round, and finished runners-up by one point in the NatWest Pro40. In the Twenty20 Cup, Somerset finished as losing finalists, thus qualifying for the international Champions League Twenty20, where they were eliminated in the second group stage. Overall, Somerset had a successful season but fell short of winning any competitions, prompting their Director of Cricket Brian Rose to say "We've had enough of being cricket's nearly men." Marcus Trescothick (pictured)topped the national batting tables and was named by the Professional Cricketers' Association as Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the Year. (Full article...)
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Proud to have an Australian attitude to life

Piers Akerman – Thursday, July 17, 2014 (7:13pm)

HOW fitting that Rupert Murdoch should launch the world’s biggest-ever media takeover bid in the same week that his flagship national daily, The Australian, celebrates its 50th anniversary. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Proud to have an Australian attitude to life'
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IT IS DONE

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 17, 2014 (12:57pm)

The stupidest and most dishonest tax in Australian legislative history is finally gone
The carbon tax is dead.
After almost 60 hours of debate, the Senate finally passed Tony Abbott’s repeal bills this morning. 

With the support of the three Palmer United Party Senators and three key Independents the Government succeeded in wiping the $7 billion a year tax from the statute books and fulfilling its key election promise.
A small applause rang through the Senate when the final vote was read out at 11.15am. The bill was passed with 39 in the affirmative and 32 against. 
It’s like stepping into the Enlightenment.
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THE NOSTRADAMUS PENSIONER

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 17, 2014 (4:50am)

Another prediction from former Fairfax and ABC columnist, Labor speechwriter and future seer Bob Ellis: 
When the Carbon Tax ends this morning or this afternoon … 
That was posted by Bob on July 15. The carbon tax, regrettably, is still in place. As it happens, Ellis once made a film about his early life under the title The Nostradamus Kid.
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CHILD HAS STYLE

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 17, 2014 (4:49am)

His post-park walk might be even cooler than the park itself:



(Via Jalopnik)
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WEIRD AL KNOWS GRAMMAR

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 17, 2014 (4:47am)

Helpful advice for all of us occasional word criminals:

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Carbon tax goes, snow falls. Sceptics celebrate

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (4:37pm)

Carbon tax, Culture wars, Politics - federal

On the day the carbon tax is repealed, the bible of global warming cries in the unusual snow:
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UPDATE
Once - as the IPA points out - every political leader wanted a carbon tax of some sort, such was the warming hysteria:
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Which politician dared stand against the united press gallery?:
Laurie Oakes, the Daily Telegraph: ‘Unless [Malcolm] Turnbull can bring the climate change dissidents to heel, the Liberals will face humiliation at the polls.’
Paul Kelly, the ABC1’s Insiders: ‘I mean frankly if [the Liberals] oppose [Turnbull’s amendments to the ETS], that would be signing their own political death warrant.’
Michelle Grattan, the Age: ‘It is in the Liberal party’s interests to vote for the ETS and get the climate change issue as much off the election agenda as possible.’
Peter Hartcher, the Sydney Morning Herald: Opposition to the ETS ‘will give the Rudd government a potential trigger for a double dissolution election. This would be devastating for the Coalition… The party faces electoral oblivion.’
The Weekend Australian’s front page: (28 November): ‘The Coalition faces an electoral wipeout [of at least 20 of its metropolitan seats] at next year’s federal election if the rebels led by Tony Abbott and Nick Minchin succeed in blocking the government’s climate change legislation.’
In the end it was Tony Abbott who decided to risk everything on fighting any form of carbon tax. On that platform he won the Liberal leadership by a single vote and fought two election campaigns.
Today he can announce the end of this “useless, destructive tax”:
And now everyone but the Greens and Labor is against the tax:
Government and Palmer United Party senators were joined by the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Ricky Muir, Liberal Democratic Party’s David Leyonhjelm, Family First Party’s Bob Day and Democratic Labour Party’s John Madigan to vote in favour of the repeal.
Bizarrely, Labor is today promising to bring back a form of carbon tax:
Before the vote was taken, Labor leader Bill Shorten confirmed the issue of pricing carbon would not go away by stating categorically that Labor would go to the next election with an emissions trading scheme as policy.
The Government couldn’t be happier:
Christopher Pyne magnified the intention in his own inimitable way bellowing to Shorten across the dispatch box in Parliament ‘’we will hang this around your neck like a rotten stinking carcass ... you have given us a whole new lease of life’’.
UPDATE
Guess which Senator is having a tanty:
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Bill Shorten’s pet green project sinks

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (9:01am)

There was the usual fanfare about another green power scheme that needed millions of our dollars in subsidies:
Ocean Power Technologies (Australasia) Pty Ltd is seeking to develop a wave power station off the coast of Victoria near the city of Portland. The plant is expected to be built in three phases, with a total capacity of 19 megawatts. The Federal Government of Australia has awarded the project an AU $66.46 million grant under its REDP program to encourage new renewable energy technologies.
Labor leader Bill Shorten on Monday said this was the very kind of project the Australian Renewable Energy Agency had to fund with our dollars:
And [the Abbott Government] wants to get rid of ARENA too.
Right now, ARENA leads the way in supporting Australian environmental innovation and investing in Australian genius… ARENA grants are also supporting Australian researchers investigating new and more efficient energy sources: Tidal Energy in Portland.
Three days later, this news:
PLANS to build the world’s largest wave power project in Portland have been scrapped.
The $230 million bid to harness the ocean’s currents was dumped this week by Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) and it’s subsidiary Victorian Wave Partners…
Victorian Wave Partners and OPT Australasia director Gilbert George told The Standard yesterday the size of the project was simply too large and the parent company OPT Incorporated (OPTT), based in the United States, had decided to pull the plug following a review.
Four months ago another ARENA disaster:
A renewable energy company which received almost $5 million in federal grants has been put into administration… The target of most of the funding – the Oceanlinx 1MW Commercial Wave Energy Demonstrator, based in South Australia - sank last month and remains visible offshore at Carrickalinga…
In July 2012 Oceanlinx received just under $4 million dollars in funding from the Emerging Renewables Program (ERP). The program was administered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to support the development of renewable energy technologies.
Shorten is insisting we need more of this kind of taxpayer-subsidised thing to pretend to stop a warming that actually stopped 16 years ago. 
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Bill Shorten’s four big fibs about his new carbon tax

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (8:12am)

Global warming - propaganda

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THE hated carbon tax is finally being scrapped by Parliament, but what does the Opposition Leader now stupidly promise?
Incredible but true: there will be another carbon tax under a government Bill Shorten leads.
“The Parliament can vote for Labor’s emissions trading scheme today,” Shorten declared on Tuesday, piously adding this would ensure “there be no tears for humanity”.
No tears, that is, unless the sight of a grown politician telling porkies about the climate makes you cry.

Sure, Shorten is calling his tax an “emissions trading scheme”, with the price set by the market. But he could call it a ferret and it would still be tax — an extra charge on your power bills to “save” the planet.
Talk about a death wish. Global warming madness has already cost Labor two of its leaders (Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard) and the Liberals one (Malcolm Turnbull), yet Shorten seems determined to be the next.
How dumb is he? Or rather: how dumb is the public? Will voters really believe the untruths, half-truths and exaggerations Shorten trotted out on Tuesday to persuade them the planet is frying and that cutting emissions would save us from disaster?
Shorten’s claim: “We (Labor) were right to listen to the scientific world ... There is no doubt our Earth is warming.”
(Read full column here.)  
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Missiles from Israel bad, missiles to Israel good

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:54am)

Brendan O’Neill suspects anti-Semitism:
WHY are Western liberals more offended by Israeli militarism than by any other kind of militarism? It’s extraordinary. France can invade Mali and there won’t be loud, rowdy protests by peaceniks in Paris. David Cameron can order air strikes on Libya and British leftists won’t give over their Twitterfeeds to publishing gruesome pics of the Libyan civilians killed. Barack Obama can resume his drone attacks in Pakistan, killing 13 people in one strike last month, and Washington won’t be besieged by angry anti-war folk demanding “Hands off Pakistan”.
But the minute Israel fires a rocket into Gaza, radicals in all these Western nations will take to the streets, wave hyperbolic placards, fulminate on Twitter, publish the names and ages of everyone “MURDERED BY ­ISRAEL”, and generally scream about Israeli “bloodletting”. (When we bomb another country, it’s “war”; when Israel does it, it’s “bloodletting”.)
Anyone possessed of a critical faculty must at some point have wondered why missiles fired by the Jewish state are apparently more worthy of condemnation than missiles fired by Washington, London, Paris, the Turks, Bashar al-Assad, or anyone else.
But Israel’s “sin” is also that it is a rich country opposed by poor ones, a “white” people opposed by “brown”, a capitalist standard bearer opposed by the “oppressed”. It ticks almost very box in the Left’s demonology.
UPDATE

How Israel’s “Iron Dome” works:
As soon as enemy rockets are launched, Iron Dome’s radar tracks their trajectory, calculates their impact point and launches a missile which within seconds locks onto the rocket and shoots it down. Each interception costs about $60,000, but its architects claim to have saved Israel billions in physical damage and economic impact, as well as loss of life.
Some wonder if Iron Dome’s main problem is in fact a political one. The system’s success means that Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has been able to use Iron Dome to maintain his policy of conflict management, with less fear of retaliation. “Iron Dome has altered the calculus of Israel’s political echelons in ways they have yet to understand,” says a former senior official. “It allows Israel to resist internal public and military pressure for a quick end to the conflict, and keep bombing Gaza.”
But what protection does Israel have from the anti-Semitism spread by mass-migration into the lands of its former allies:
A demonstration in Frankfurt against Operation Protective Edge erupted into violence, with protesters tossing stones at the police.
According to the Frankfurter Rundschau paper, about 2,500 protesters appeared in downtown Frankfurt, screaming “God is great,” and slogans such as “freedom for Palestine” and “children-murderer Israel."… One sign at the rally was titled, “You Jews are Beasts."…
According to the Rundschau, student organization Left-SDS, Islamists and some members of the Neo-Nazi group National Socialists Rhein-Main attended the anti-Israel protest. Flags from Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Hamas were on display at the protest. Banners compared Prime Minister Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler…
In a bizarre act of cooperation, German journalist and publicist Thomas von der Osten-Sacken reported on the website of the weekly Jungle World that Frankfurt’s police allowed the demonstrators to use a police vehicle and loudspeaker to blast anti-Israeli slogans. According to a police statement, the authorities allowed the use of their equipment in order to deescalate the situation. 
(Thanks to reader doc molloy.) 
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Why is Labor destroying Australia even in Opposition?

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:54am)

What the hell does Labor think it’s up to?:
CHRIS RICHARDSON, DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS: It looks as if we won’t get budget repair in Australia. Essentially, the Senate is not just blocking the budget for the next handful of years, but blocking the budget for the next decade. ... Across the next 10 years and once you add in the interest bill as well, you’re talking about $300 billion that the Senate is implying it will impose.
Yet some Liberals decide the Treasurer is a bigger target than Labor:
Joe Hockey’s threat to bypass the Senate by ordering spending cuts outside of parliamentary approval has touched off a new Labor scare campaign and sparked concerns within the government over the Treasurer’s judgment…
They revealed Mr Hockey’s move had not been part of the agreed government strategy for the day, which had been to press the opposition exclusively on the carbon tax repeal.
One senior figure asked why Mr Hockey had seen fit to open up another front. ‘’It was a gift to Labor … they did what you would do in that case and started picking us off, demanding that we say where the cuts will be. We would’ve done the same; it was an own goal,’’ the frontbencher said…

The complaints came after Mr Hockey used a series of interviews on Wednesday to toughen the budget rhetoric. ‘’If the Senate chooses to block savings initiatives, then we need to look at other savings initiatives that may not require legislation,’’ he said.
UPDATE

The wrecking continues:

THE $200 billion offshore oil and gas industry has been thrown into limbo after the Greens and Labor won support in the Senate to strike down ­several categories of ­foreign-worker visas.
The Australian Mines and Metals Association blasted the move as a “bloody-minded and irresponsible political stunt’’ that “directly endangered the jobs of thousands of Australians working in our critical offshore oil and gas sector by rendering essential work done by non-Australian nationals unlawful’’. The government was last night taking advice on how to work around the disallowance motion, which will affect workers in the offshore gas projects of northwestern Australia and Queensland…
Labor backed a Greens disallowance motion and it was carried with the support of the three Palmer United Party senators, the Democratic Labour Party’s John Madigan and the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Ricky Muir…
AMMA executive director Scott Barklamb said ... “The disallowance impacts every offshore resources project in Australia — projects worth $200bn to our economy (that) employ upwards of 70,000 Australia people ... It doesn’t only invalidate those workers on short-term maritime crew visas — the intended target of the maritime unions’ misleading scare campaign — but all non-Australian residents on offshore resources activities including those working here for years on long-standing visa arrangements.”
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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We’ve seen before how our jihadists turn their attention to Australia

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:41am)

Now why would ASIO want more surveillance powers?
The nation’s top spy has expressed concern about ‘‘tens’’ of former Australian jihadists who have already returned from fighting in the Middle East and who may now pose a terrorism threat at home.
ASIO director-general David Irvine also stepped up his call for controversial new laws forcing phone and internet companies to keep records of customers’ communications for up to two years, describing it as ‘‘absolutely crucial’’ to the spy agency’s future work…
The spy boss ... [said] that on top of the roughly 60 people fighting in the Middle East, there were ‘‘some tens of people who’ve already returned’’…
He also revealed there were ‘‘another 150 that we’re looking at here in Australia who have inclinations to support those ... extremist groups’’ – referring to the al-Qaeda offshoots the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Jabhat al-Nusra.
Read the warning from the 30 Australians who went off to fight in Afghanistan:
About 30 Australians went to fight in Afghanistan, of whom 19 were suspected of involvement in terrorism when they returned home and eight were convicted.
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Christine Milne denies the warming science

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:31am)

Global warming - propaganda

Why does Greens leader Christine Milne deny the science of global warming?
Christine Milne, Senate, Tuesday: 
I THINK at some point we will have a website of climate criminals and I would have a few people to put on that list. It would include Dick Warburton, Brian Fisher, David Murray, Maurice Newman, Mitch Hooke and so you could go on, with Chris Mitchell, Gina Rinehart, Innes Willox, Ian Plimer, Rupert Murdoch, George Pell, Andrew Bolt, John Roskam, Martin Ferguson and so on and so forth. In years to come, those people will try to pretend that they did not tear down the climate bills, when they have and the record will clearly show it. ... To all those people partying around the corridors, enjoy it because it is your last stand. The fact is you have misjudged the temperature ... When we look at the temperature of the planet rising, let us look at the climate science. The fact of the matter is we are on track for four to six degrees of warming. That means people will not survive. Part of the world will be uninhabitable. There will be one million deaths per week for the next 90 years if it gets to 4 degrees.
What the 5th IPCC Assessment report actually says:

THE global mean surface temperature change for the period 2016-2035 relative to 1986-2005 will likely be in the range of 0.3C to 0.7C ... Global surface temperature change for the end of the 21st century is likely to exceed 1.5C relative to 1850 to 1900 for all ... scenarios except (one) ... and more likely than not to exceed 2C for (one other scenario) ...
IPCC AR5 notes the lack of warming since 1998:

THE rate of warming over the past 15 years (1998-2012) (is) 0.05 (-0.05 to +0.15)C per decade) which is smaller than the rate calculated since 1951 (1951-2012) (of) 0.12 (0.08 to 0.14)C per decade.
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Clive Palmer is destroying Abbott and Shorten

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:21am)

Niki Savva is in despair:
WHEN Clive Palmer crashes and burns, as he inevitably will, he will walk away from the wreckage blaming the giant conspiracy orch­estrated by the government and News Corp Australia, laughing out the side of his mouth at the two small figures scratching through the rubble: Tony Abbott looking for bits of vertebrae and Bill Shorten for an inner compass.
Palmer will take no responsibility for his own demise, or for his soiling of parliament and the inexcusable trashing of the reputations of people bound to impartially serve it and protect it from threats to its integrity from people like him.
The Prime Minister, perversely Zen-like, genuinely believes despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that all is well, or soon will be. The Opposition Leader at least appreciates the uniqueness of the situation but bristles at suggestions he should lift a finger to fix it, or that he bears any responsibility for the damage to the body politic, preferring to pose as an innocent bystander with little power to intervene.
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ABC barracks against Israel

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:15am)

WHY is the ABC barracking for Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza and is firing rockets at Israel?
Of course, the ABC would deny it explicitly supports Hamas but it has sided with it against its enemy.
For instance, it portrays Israel as the aggressor as it bombs sites in Gaza used for launching rockets at civilian targets as far away as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
(Read full article here.) 
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Murdoch’s biggest deal yet

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (7:10am)

Rupert Murdoch is astonishing:
RUPERT Murdoch’s film and entertainment group 21st Century Fox is negotiating one of the world’s biggest media mergers, making an offer for Time Warner, owner of CNN, that would create a $US160 billion ($170 billion) media entertainment and sports juggernaut
Time Warner — which also owns movie and TV production giant HBO which creates globally successful series like Game of Thrones — is said to have rebuffed a $US80 billion ($85 billion) takeover bid, but that is likely to be just the opening stanza in what could create the largest media company in the world.
This deal would represent the biggest the 83-year-old Australian-born media titan has concluded after five decades of deals — from inheriting the Adelaide News to operations that span the globe.
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Cameron Government dumps warming zealot

Andrew Bolt July 17 2014 (12:28am)

Cheery news from Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron has shuffled a warmist extremist out of his government:

The reshuffle has also seen energy and climate change minister, Greg Barker, resign. Barker was one of a few true Tory greens, who saw the danger of global warming and the opportunity of the fast-growing green economy. The replacements for Paterson, Barker, Fallon and Hague may yet surprise us, but as it stands the Conservative Party are set to go into the next election with a very different position on the environment than the “vote blue, go green” of 2010. They have got rid of the “green crap”.
The Financial Review’s Jim Pickard gets the message:
Greg Barker, the Tory climate minister – who posed with David Cameron in the Arctic eight years ago – is stepping down from the government in a vivid symbol of the Conservative party’s changing priorities. His position had become increasingly precarious as the Tory leadership is shifting away from its one-time pro-green rhetoric.

The new environment minister seems more rational:
The new set of Conservative environment and energy ministers announced on Tuesday bring a track record of opposing renewable energy, having fought against wind and solar farms, enthusiastically backed fracking and argued that green subsidies damage the economy. New energy minister, Matthew Hancock, signed a letter to David Cameron in 2012 demanding that subsidies for onshore wind farms were slashed. New environment secretary and former Shell employee, Liz Truss, dismissed clean renewable energy as “extremely expensive” and said it was damaging the economy. 
(Thanks to reader George. Via the Global Warming Policy Foundation.) 
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her




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Dear God as I come before you tonight I thank you for another day of life. Thank you for your strength, love, favor and protection all throughout this day. Lord now I lift up every broken vessel, hurting heart, tired body or stressed soul right now. Turn around their day and grant them nothing but sweet peace. Renew, restore, refresh and uplift. Let your glory full their space. I ask these things in your precious name. Amen.
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Warwick Poulsen
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great man must, I think, have great sadness on earth..."
- Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"...
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Sunset over Mount St. Helena. I have been struggling with this image since taking it last night. The trouble that I'm having is that it looks fake, even straight out of the camera, even though the manipulation has been minimal. I blame the clear sky along with the orange glow.

I decided to take the long way home from Santa Rosa last night and was greeted with a wonderful sunset over the Sonoma County vineyards. I spent much of my life in these parts and miss them, being that I don't get out that way as often as I would like.
 — in Calistoga, CA.
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Vines. — in Calistoga, CA.
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" The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. " - Sigmund Freud
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like Hermione .. ed
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Are you a teacher? With the release and implementation of the Australian Curriculum, the Memorial is planning a series of educational web activities, teaching tools and stimulus materials that will allow us to help you. Most importantly we want to know what you need from us. Please read and comment on our blog and let us know where you are finding resource gaps and we will do our best to try and fill them.

http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2013/07/17/education-australian-war-memorial/
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How does this explain the NSW Rugby League record vs Queensland?
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Pastor Rick Warren
I trust God completely, 
not because he always does what I want 
but because he always does what's right.
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Pastor Rick Warren
The more you fight a feeling, the more it controls you. Don't resist it, replace it.
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Pastor Rick Warren
Every time you make a bad choice, it becomes harder to make a good one.
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July 17Feast day of the Scillitan Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church);Constitution Day in South Korea (1948)
Nicholas II of Russia
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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.”Colossians 2:9-10 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"They gathered manna every morning."
Exodus 16:21
Labour to maintain a sense of thine entire dependence upon the Lord's good will and pleasure for the continuance of thy richest enjoyments. Never try to live on the old manna, nor seek to find help in Egypt. All must come from Jesus, or thou art undone forever. Old anointings will not suffice to impart unction to thy spirit; thine head must have fresh oil poured upon it from the golden horn of the sanctuary, or it will cease from its glory. To-day thou mayest be upon the summit of the mount of God, but he who has put thee there must keep thee there, or thou wilt sink far more speedily than thou dreamest. Thy mountain only stands firm when he settles it in its place; if he hide his face, thou wilt soon be troubled. If the Saviour should see fit, there is not a window through which thou seest the light of heaven which he could not darken in an instant. Joshua bade the sun stand still, but Jesus can shroud it in total darkness. He can withdraw the joy of thine heart, the light of thine eyes, and the strength of thy life; in his hand thy comforts lie, and at his will they can depart from thee. This hourly dependence our Lord is determined that we shall feel and recognize, for he only permits us to pray for "daily bread," and only promises that "as our days our strength shall be." Is it not best for us that it should be so, that we may often repair to his throne, and constantly be reminded of his love? Oh! how rich the grace which supplies us so continually, and doth not refrain itself because of our ingratitude! The golden shower never ceases, the cloud of blessing tarries evermore above our habitation. O Lord Jesus, we would bow at thy feet, conscious of our utter inability to do anything without thee, and in every favour which we are privileged to receive, we would adore thy blessed name and acknowledge thine unexhausted love.

Evening

"Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof."
Psalm 102:13-14
A selfish man in trouble is exceedingly hard to comfort, because the springs of his comfort lie entirely within himself, and when he is sad all his springs are dry. But a large-hearted man full of Christian philanthropy, has other springs from which to supply himself with comfort beside those which lie within. He can go to his God first of all, and there find abundant help; and he can discover arguments for consolation in things relating to the world at large, to his country, and, above all, to the church. David in this Psalm was exceedingly sorrowful; he wrote, "I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top." The only way in which he could comfort himself, was in the reflection that God would arise, and have mercy upon Zion: though he was sad, yet Zion should prosper; however low his own estate, yet Zion should arise. Christian man! learn to comfort thyself in God's gracious dealing towards the church. That which is so dear to thy Master, should it not be dear above all else to thee? What though thy way be dark, canst thou not gladden thine heart with the triumphs of his cross and the spread of his truth? Our own personal troubles are forgotten while we look, not only upon what God has done, and is doing for Zion, but on the glorious things he will yet do for his church. Try this receipt, O believer, whenever thou art sad of heart and in heaviness of spirit: forget thyself and thy little concerns, and seek the welfare and prosperity of Zion. When thou bendest thy knee in prayer to God, limit not thy petition to the narrow circle of thine own life, tried though it be, but send out thy longing prayers for the church's prosperity, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," and thine own soul shall be refreshed.
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Today's reading: Psalm 16-17, Acts 20:1-16 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 16-17

miktam of David.
1 Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."
3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
"They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight."
4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.
5 LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 20:1-16

Through Macedonia and Greece
1 When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. 2 He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, 3 where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. 4He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. 5 These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. 6 But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days....

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