Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Wed Jul 16th Todays News

On this day in 1782 Mozart produced Die Entführung aus dem Serail. It was a triumph. Mozart had left his dad and gone to Vienna and was desperate for work. Hampered by his personal behaviour, his talent was abundant and this was a shining success from a commission to produce German Opera for the court. Italian Opera was already popular. He was twenty five years old and had been producing music for twenty years. Nine years later, Mozart would be dead, and acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of all time. And yet, at the time of his death, his requiem was unfinished. Survived by his wife and two children, neither of his sons married or had children. 

 In 1910, a Victorian farmer, John Duigan, flew a biplane he had built himself. Inspired by a postcard of the Wright brothers, and using a locally made engine he heavily modified, he placed the wings on top of a tricycle undercarriage. He sat in the middle of the lower wing. On this day in 1910, he flew 7 metres. A year later he had achieved a km length with a height of 30m. That was before todays labor laws killed the Australian manufacturing industry. In 1927, a US armed force cooperating with Nicaraguans to apprehend a criminal were pinned down by the criminal's confederates, but broke free when the USAF dive bombed the enemy position, the first time that dive bombing had ever been employed. 

 In 1941, Joe Dimaggio hit for the 56th consecutive game, a record that still stands. In 1942, the French puppet government of the Nazis ordered over 13 thousand Jews rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. In 1945, the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser, took Little Boy elements to be assembled to bomb Japan. At the same time, the Manhattan project successfully detonated plutonium in New Mexico. In 1948, Israel liberated Nazareth. On the same day the plane Miss Macao experienced the first hijacking over China, killing all on board except the hijacker, who got a free pass because of international law issues. In 1950, North Korean troops slaughtered some prisoners of war. 1951, The Catcher in the Rye was published for the first time. 1969, Apollo 11 was launched. 1999, JFK jr killed himself, his sister and his wife with a pilot error. Born on this day was Shoeless Joe Jackson 1887, Stan McCabe 1910 and Jerry Doyle 1956. I still remember this day for the death of Harry Chapin. 

 Australia is the lucky country, and one reason for it is the migration of Vietnamese refugees, an estimated fifty percent having drowned fleeing to Australia. The Pacific Solution is good, because were it to have been implemented then, fewer would have drowned, but all those who fled would have been processed as refugees. Not slaughtered on the beaches of Malaysia, harassed by pirates and fleeced by the corrupt. And not returned to be killed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the new senate is forcing the federal Australian government to rethink the budget. If you want a responsible government, you can only vote LNP. 
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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 Sarah Wong, Jenny Levernier and Jacky Chung. Born on the same day, across the years. On your day in 1769, Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California region of New Spain. 1790, U.S. President George Washington signed the Residence Act, selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C. 1931, Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie signed the nation's first constitution, the first time in history that an absolute ruler voluntarily sought to share sovereignty with his subjects. 1965, South Vietnamese Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao—an undetected communist spy—was hunted down and killed after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyen Khanh. 2008, Sixteen infants in Gansu Province, China, were diagnosed with kidney stones due to tainted milk powder; overall 300,000 infants were affected.Great things were founded on your birthday. You have chosen the site for the celebration, and as absolute despotic rulers, you have wisely delegated the fun .. unique in these times where sharing seems to be something others do. You correct your mistakes and the milk you share is that of kindness. Cheers.
Matches
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Despatches
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Herman G. Felhoelter
The Chaplain–Medic massacre was a war crime that took place in the Korean War on July 16, 1950, on a mountain above the village of Tunam, South Korea. Operating at the Kum River during the Battle of Taejon, troops of the US Army's 19th Infantry Regiment were cut off from resupply by a roadblock established by North Korean troops of the NK 3rd Division. The roadblock proved difficult to break, and forced US troops to move through nearby mountains to evacuate their wounded. Thirty unarmed and critically wounded US troops were stranded at the top of a mountain along with a chaplain (Herman G. Felhoelter, pictured) and a medic. They were discovered by a North Korean patrol. Though the medic was able to escape, the North Koreans executed Felhoelter as he prayed over the wounded, then killed the rest of them. The massacre was one of several incidents that led US commanders to establish a commission in July to look into war crimes during the war. The same month, the North Korean commanders, concerned about the way their soldiers were treating prisoners of war, laid out stricter guidelines for handling enemy captives. (Full article...)
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The only danger in leafy Mosman is this crazed council

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 15, 2014 (8:58pm)

THERE’S hardly a more law-abiding place in the world than Mosman.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The only danger in leafy Mosman is this crazed council'
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Fat controller wants monopoly on power

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 15, 2014 (8:46pm)

CLIVE Palmer substituted a suit and tie for the tablecloth and put his ID on a leash this week when he arrived in parliament declaring his intention to repeal the carbon tax.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Fat controller wants monopoly on power'
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AXELLE ROSE. AND THEN …

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (5:58am)

Just two weeks ago, Axelle Despiegelaere was an unknown but extremely photogenic teenager cheering for her Belgian countrymen during a World Cup match against Russia. Images of Despiegelaere created an online sensation, quickly leading to the offer of a modelling contract from makeup giant L’Oreal. So far, so good for the 17-year-old.

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Then something terrible happened. Despiegelaere revealed she was a hunting enthusiast, posting a shot of herself alongside a gazelle she’d bagged in Africa a year or so ago.

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It wasn’t as though she’d butchered a polar bear or taken down a mountain gorilla. Gazelles are not exactly among the planet’s most endangered species. They’re basically a kind of African land-carp, swarming around the place to no great purpose except as targets for hungry carnivores. And Belgian teenagers.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'AXELLE ROSE. AND THEN …'
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RACING FOR SECOND

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (5:46am)

It is common in the early stages of a Formula One race for a temporarily well-placed driver to radio his team for information about the position of a rival much further back in the field. He does this because he knows that over the entire course of the race, all things being equal, he is likely to fall within that rival’s range.
Just a theory, but this could explain Bill Shorten’s otherwise-mystifying defence of the carbon tax.
Shorten currently leads Tony Abbott and the Coalition government in opinion polls, but it isn’t exactly a lead he would feel confident of maintaining over the next two years. It may be that the Labor leader knows he isn’t racing against the government. It may be he’s racing – at least in terms of the inner-city vote – against the Greens.
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MARILYN AND JEAN LOSE THEIR CONTRACTS

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (5:20am)

Prior to this week’s column, the great Iowahawk unearthed other examples of babes ‘n’ beasts:
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YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THE ISRAELI HUNGER FOR PIZZA!

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (5:14am)

Hamas recently hacked the Facebook page of Domino’s pizza chain in Israel. Hamas lost the subsequent online conflict. They brought tabbouleh to a pizza fight.
(Via Instapundit)
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WARMIST WHEEL

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (4:59am)

Are you worried about global warming? Then why not ride a unicycle across Canada! You know it makes sense:



Naturally, he ran into rain and snow.
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FLOAT INVESTIGATED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (4:26am)

This really happened: 
Department of Justice officials are in Norfolk to discuss a controversial parade float.
Last Saturday, a man put an outhouse on his parade float with a sign that read, “Obama Presidential Library.” 
Further on this from Mark Steyn and Dave Burge. 
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FACE EDITED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 16, 2014 (1:49am)

Quality image cropping from Fairfax’s Age:

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Liberty has another friend in parliament. Meet James McGarth

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (8:26pm)

Great stuff. David Leyonhjelm has a friend:
An incoming Liberal senator has set out a radical libertarian program in his maiden speech, calling for the GST rate to rise to 15 per cent, federal health and education departments to be abolished and for the immediate sell-off of youth radio station Triple J, with the rest of the ABC to also be privatised if it fails to address perceived left-wing bias.
Former Liberal party deputy director James McGrath also defended people’s right to make homophobic comments, as well as “hurtful and bigoted and stupid and dumb things”.
Mr McGrath also ... argued the GST should rise to 15 per cent and include items that are currently excluded, such as fresh food…
He vowed to argue for lower regulation and smaller government as he took aim at the federal health and education departments, both of whom had thousands of staff but had no patients, ran no schools and did not teach students…
“I want to support the ABC. I like the ABC.
“Yet while it continues to represent only inner-city leftist views, and funded by our taxes, it is in danger of losing its social licence to operate.”
“I’m calling for a review of the charter of the ABC and if they fail to make inroads to restore balance then the ABC should be sold and replaced by a regional and rural broadcasting service”.  
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What does the UN want? To flood us with boat people?  More corpses?

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (8:01pm)

What exactly is the lesson we’re supposed to learn from Italy? How to take in 64,000 illegal immigrants in just six months?
Volker Turk, the director of international protection for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said ... the UNHCR shared Australia’s concern about people smuggling and loss of life at sea, but pointed to the approach of Italy, which had rescued 64,000 asylum seekers in the Mediterranean since the start of the year.
Or is this the lesson we must learn from Italy?
Ten migrants drowned after the boat they were travelling in sank off the Libyan coast ...
Or do we learn this lesson?
Last year the risks facing those crossing the Mediterranean became all too apparent when 366 people drowned after their boat capsized one mile from the Italian island of Lampedusa…
The disaster led the Italian government to take a commendable stance… Italy began a search-and-rescue effort called Mare Nostrum – or “Our Sea” – which focuses on saving lives. So far this year the Italian navy has picked up more than 65,000 survivors, far higher than the previous peak in 2011 of 56,000.

Who are these UN people? 
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We didn’t deserve this imported danger

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (5:44pm)

How did we come to import such a danger?:
ASIO has warned that a number of Australians known to have recently been in Syria - and potentially fighting with terror linked jihadists - had already returned home and were now among the community.
The head of the country’s leading spy agency David Irvine made the alarming revelation today, warning of a heightened risk of domestic terrorism.
“We are working of in the basis that probably about 60 Australians in Syria fighting with one side or the other, predominantly on the anti-government side and an alarming number of those people , in fact the majority we are concerned about are gravitating toward the al Qaeda offshoots…(ISIL),” Mr Irvine said.
“We have some tens of people who have already returned.
“We probably have another 150 we are looking at here in Australia who have an inclination to support those two extremist group.”
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Not just a buffoon but a bully

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (12:37pm)

I suspect Clive Palmer has now crossed the line with the press corps - and maybe the public:
PUBLIC servant Maureen Weeks was seen shaking. Her hands trembled and the redness of her eyes gave away her obvious distress.
A witness, who had been increasingly concerned for her as she repeatedly went in and out of the Senate chamber, described to The Australian his disgust at what he subsequently discovered was occurring behind closed doors: a bellowing, bullying tirade by Clive Palmer, furious he was not getting his way....
Weeks ... had tried to ­explain to the founder of the Palmer United Party — that his last-minute, half-baked carbon-tax amend­ments effectively amounted to a new “tax”, and could not possibly fly in the Senate last week. Their efforts to reason with him fell on deaf ears; he yelled and talked about going to the High Court…
This is trademark behaviour — accounts of fierce shouting, bullying and threatening of his staff and others, in meetings including at his Sunshine Coast dinosaur park and golf resort, are commonplace. Managers have been blasted as “lazy, thieving, c…s"…
As the public and more journalists see his antics as a pox on democracy, an assault on the fair go, and an international embarrassment, his image is being remade to something closer to reality…
When PUP’s senators work out they can draw a taxpayer-funded pay cheque, be constructive in public life and vote in the Senate, without having to put up with Palmer pulling their strings and yelling it will be all over.
Simon Benson:
A FORMAL inquiry could be launched into Clive Palmer’s verbal attacks on female parliamentary staff after senators from all parties rallied behind them and called on the rogue MP to apologise.
The Daily Telegraph has learned several options were open to deal with Mr Palmer’s continued public harassment of the non-political staff, including an official inquiry into the incident initiated either by the Senate President or the clerk of the Senate.
Labor, independent and Greens senators have condemned Mr Palmer for calling on the Senate clerk Dr Rosemary Laing to resign after accusing her and another staff member of trying to sabotage his constitutionally flawed carbon tax amendments.
Independent Nick Xenophon called Mr Palmer a bully, and called on him to apologise, after The Daily Telegraph first revealed on Monday that the Queensland MP and mining baron had marched into the clerk’s office last Thursday and verballed staff for trying to fix his poorly written amendment to make it constitutional…
Mr Palmer has denied yelling at the clerks despite having earlier said “who knows?” He later admitted that he had threatened to take legal action against them after they explained to him that changes had to be made in order to ensure his amendment was constitutional. He likened the clerks to Stalinist Russia and said she should “get out of her job”.
Buffoon.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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One tax passed, but not a single saving. We have a crisis

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (12:28pm)

Peter Costello isn’t impressed by Senate negotiations that give us a 2 per cent tax hike on high incomes but not a single saving:
The increase in the top marginal tax rate has sailed through the Parliament with Labor support. It was the largest revenue measure over the forward estimates, but as a political measure it has not been successful. The idea was, so it was said, that if the Liberal Party compromised one of its core principles and supported higher income taxes, then the Labor Party would compromise one of its core principles and support lower spending. In fact no such thing has happened. The tax increase has gone through and the expenditure reductions are facing stiff opposition. Higher taxes have not brought any lower spending.
Running riot in the Senate are utterly reckless politicians who vote to save handouts even when they scrap the tax meant to pay for them:
THE government ... faces defeat in its bid to scrap the mining tax after the Palmer United Party held firm on a threat to oppose it unless $8.2 billion in linked spending measures were retained…
These included the low-­income superannuation contribution, which costs $2.6bn over four years, the income support bonus costing $1.1bn over four years and the Schoolkids Bonus costing $4.5bn over four years…

The Coalition campaigned on abolishing the mining tax and associated spending measures at the election, arguing that the tax did not raise enough to pay for them.
What a disgrace - and a frightening portent of our future:
THE Abbott government will head to a six-week winter break with all but one element of its $40 billion worth of budget reforms blocked by the Senate, and a $10.9 billion bill from Clive Palmer for his ­support in scrapping the mining tax…
Treasurer Joe Hockey told a meeting of the Coalition party room that the Budget faced a new crisis, namely the failure so far to get any of its reform measures passed.
The only budget reform measure to have been passed was a tax on the nation’s high- income earners.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Christine Milne calls me a criminal. I feel oddly proud

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (11:58am)

Global warming - propaganda

I’ve always shied from being a criminal, but Greens leader Christine Milne made it sound an honorable profession in the Senate last night:
In 25 years in politics I have never witnessed such a dismal failure of the business community in Australia and never will the business community be able to say to this parliament that politicians do not show leadership. The Greens have stood here showing leadership on management of society and the economy at a time of a global emergency and the Business Council and the Mineral Council of Australia have said, ‘Forget it. We want to stick with the greed and the money of the last century.’ 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 Hook and so you could go on, with Chris Mitchell, Gina Rinehart, Innes Willox, Ian Plimer, Rupert Murdoch, George Pell, Andrew Bolt, John Roscom, 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. 
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Memo to ABC: dead Palestinians is just what Hamas wants

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (11:54am)

When will the ABC fix its anti-Israel bias?
PERHAPS our friends at 7:30 could have a little look at what Hamas is up to just for a change. Israel’s fault? ABC, 7.30, Monday: 
SARAH Ferguson: You say you don’t target civilians, but the question is the amount of care that’s taken to avoid hurting civilians. There was a rocket attack on the home of the Gaza police chief. He has known sympathies to Hamas. At the same time, a number of children were killed in that attack. Do you take enough care to avoid those casualties, ‘cause it appears the answer is no?
Return to your property and be a human shield! Hamas’s Ministry of Interior spokesman Iyad al-Buzu, on Facebook, July 13:

ANSWERING the occupation’s (Israel’s) calls will merely aid it in carrying out its plans to weaken the (Palestinian) home front and to destroy property and homes as soon as you leave them. We call on all our people who have left their homes to return to them immediately.
Unchecked Israeli racism? ABC, 7.30, Monday:

SARAH Ferguson: … a number of leading Israeli writers, including Chemi Shalev, said (the murder of Mohammed Abu Khadair) wasn’t a response to the killing of the young settlers, for example, but something bigger in Israel, an unchecked racism. Does Netanyahu at the same time take responsibility for allowing that racism to continue unchecked?
Not a single question from Ferguson about unchecked Palestinian rac­ism? Op-ed by Yahya Rabah, member of the Fatah Leadership Committee in Gaza and columnist for official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 12:
WE have nothing with which to speak to these Israeli murderers ... whose God, Yahweh ... demands, according to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that they offer him sacrifices during Passover in the form of Matzah made from the blood of our children. We have nothing with which to open a dialogue but these rockets.
UPDATE
Strange: Egyptian TV hosts give up on Hamas and its murderous leaders when an ABC TV host will not.
(Thanks to reader rabbit.) 
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Australian turns 50: ABC sneers when it should report

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (11:35am)

Culture wars, Media

I was at the 50th birthday celebration last night of The Australian, a world-class newspaper founded by Rupert Murdoch. Also there were Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard and former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating.
A major speech was delivered by Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson. In short, this was a serious event to honour a serious publication with serious things said, not least about the paper’s advocacy of Aboriginal advancement and immigration.
Now let’s see how the state broadcaster reported this in AM, which is - I should remind you - ostensibly a news program.
Here’s how the reporter referred to the tribute Murdoch paid to his father in noting he, too, had dreamed of such a newspaper:
SIMON SANTOW:  He may be 83, but Rupert Murdoch still craves a bit of parental approval.
Here’s how the reporter referred to Murdoch’s comments in praise of immigration:

SIMON SANTOW:  His dinner was billed as a celebration, but the media mogul never misses an opportunity to give advice to the country of his birth.
Here’s how the reporter introduced a grab of Abbott’s speech:
SIMON SANTOW:  Tony Abbott enjoys the support of his host - and it showed.
TONY ABBOTT: Rupert Murdoch, a man who has changed our world. 
And then here’s how the reporter introduced the last third of the report, not by assessing the content of the night’s speeches or the influence The Australian has had on public dehate, but with a great slag - a rehashing for the umpteenth time of the old phone hacking scandal at Britain’s News of the World:

SIMON SANTOW:  While Tony Abbott appeared happy in the warm embrace of Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp empire is on the nose elsewhere.
NICK DAVIES: He is still very entangled in the phone hacking scandal… [I]t is still the case that the prime minister in the UK would not want to be seen with him or to be known to be meeting him..
SIMON SANTOW: Nick Davies says it’s only a matter of time before detectives from Scotland Yard interview Rupert Murdoch...
This is not reporting but sneering. not analysing but sniggering. Murdoch is dictatorial, Abbott a lapdog and no politician in Britain would be caught dead with the media giant.
ABC boss Mark Scott keeps claiming his organisation is balanced and his does not know the politics of his staff.  How many more examples must I give before he admits the ABC is in breach of its charter obligations not to be biased? 
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Fairfax creates diplomatic row with China. China calls it out

Andrew Bolt July 16 2014 (10:52am)

Fairfax newspapers beat up Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s comments to produce this:
Australia will stand up to China to defend peace, liberal values and the rule of law, says Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
Then Fairfax newspapers went big on the reaction they’d provoked:
Australia was once an outpost of “rascals and outlaws” but will soon adjust to the shifting realities of power, says a Chinese state-owned newspaper, which also has called Foreign Minister Julie Bishop a “complete fool"…
The newspaper, owned by The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s self-described “mouthpiece”, was responding to comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop published by Fairfax Media on Thursday.
Now, having had everything explained to them, Chinese officials accept Fairfax exaggerated what Bishop actually said - although that’s not exactly what Fairfax reports:
On Monday, China’s most popular tabloid, The Global Times, blasted Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop as a “complete fool” for telling Fairfax Media that she would stand up to China in defence of Australian values…
However, late on Tuesday night, on the eve of China’s highest-ranking general arriving to meet Australia’s top brass and Prime Minister Tony Abbott, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that Ms Bishop said any of those offending remarks at all.

In a remarkable statement provided in Q&A form, the ministry’s spokesman, Hong Lei, suggested that it was Australian diplomats who had informed them that the interview was bogus...
Fairfax then runs the quotes from its interview with Bishop in a bid to establish that Bishop and the Chinese were wrong, and that it had faithfully reported the Foreign Minister vowing to “stand up to China”. Trouble is, the quotes Fairfax publishes do not show Bishop using such inflammatory language:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Fairfax creates diplomatic row with China. China calls it out'
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G’day,
So, what do reckon, will today finally be the day that the majority of Australia has been waiting for, a day when the Gillard lie is reversed and justice, logic and reason prevail? The day in years to come when we can say to each other,…”HAPPY CARBON TAX REPEAL DAY MATE”?  Who knows hopefully BUT when a populist loose canon called Clive Palmer has the balance of power in the Senate nothing is sure anymore.
I have no doubt that all the frustrations caused by Palmer to bloke the Coalitions mandate to repeal this stupid economically destructive waste of time, have all been about political posturing for the PUP. The truth is that Palmer wants the tax gone, after all he did campaign for its removal and it doesn’t serve his business interests either but that his last minute amendment stunt was just that, A STUNT!
 It had little to do with getting a better deal for consumers, although that’s what the average non engaged punter will think was done. No, it was all to do with making Palmer look like Superman to the rescue, that he was the one that called the tune in the end & was the true champion responsible for the end to the madness that was the CO2 Tax. The mainstream media, especially Fairfax, have also gone along for the ride by echoing the lie that Palmer is running the agenda.
Palmer is a clever political animal but he is never to be trusted because at the end of the day if he and his ship of fools don’t look good, then no one will, including the future of Australia……, in my humble opinion.
Godspeed
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist
0414293765
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her 



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Low inflation and low mortgage rates give families a chance to get ahead. www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/CPI_inflation/ConsumersPriceIndex_MRJun13qtr.aspx
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My hands are small I know
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Larry Pickering
WHY RUDD’S ETS IS A SUPER CON

This is a bit long-winded but after listening to that person Kevin Rudd today I am bloody angry so, if you hang in there, I will try to explain why and how we are being conned by a disingenuous jerk who claims he will fix Global warming with an ETS. 

Green gophers believe the world is coming to an end in a Noah type flood. They believe an international ETS will cool the globe and in the process justifiably wreck world economies, enrich speculators and satisfy a corrupt UN.

They believe green-house gases are causing earth-warming and that’s plain dumb because carbon dioxide is as integral to global cooling as it is to warming.

Of course the earth’s temperature is changing, but so what? It’s supposed to change. It always has changed but it has nought to do with our emissions, and you will see why.

Climate change (formerly Global warming until that con was discredited) is as cyclical and interconnected as ice-ages were, and will be again.

The clear fact is that the Earth’s average temperature since the year 2,000 has gone down, not up and there is not one unusual centimeter increase in tidal extremities anywhere.

Pacific islands, historically barely inches above high tide, are still there supporting happy native life.

Check data supplied on sea levels and you will find miniscule rubbery records in the order of 0.01cc per year variations with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.01cc. In other words these pundits don’t have a damn clue and have no hope of measuring or attributing anything to anything!

Venice is still there and so are the lowlands of Holland. Surprise, surprise!

Why has there been no inundation? For the simple reason we are talking miniscule figures. Earth warming has little to do with sea levels anyway but it has everything to do with sea temperatures.

When and if the Earth warms it will not be due to unusual carbon emissions because marginal cyclical increases in global temperatures began before 1920… well before the hysterical, “green-house” industrial age.

There has been no inundation so far and there never will be. Well, not that we will know about.

Take a plastic bottle of water and place it in the freezer over night. In the morning the ice will have expanded. Leave the bottle out of the freezer and the water returns to its natural state. In other words the volume (not the mass) of the ice decreased when it thawed.

Now, because almost all northern Pole ice is already below the water surface, what is the inevitable effect of any thaw? Maybe a diminution in volume? Oops, we didn’t think of that did we!

The UN Panel on Climate Control and those idiot researchers from the Adelaide University now claim Australia’s southern States will be inundated from alarming southern Pole ice-melt. “People in SA wetlands will need to relocate”, they wailed in dismay.

Exactly one year earlier those same clots were telling us that the South Pole was getting unusually colder. Why are we paying these people?

The southern icecap is almost twice the size of Australia (hard to comprehend eh?). The northern icecap is barely one third the size of Australia, and that is still huge.

Most of the northern cap is already well below sea level. Unlike the southern cap, it is a floating, moving mass of fractured ice.

The position of the North Pole is constantly changing in relation to the position of the ice. As a result, many who have claimed to have reached the North Pole were actually nowhere near it! Not until they had a GPS.

Not only is the North Pole constantly moving in relation to the ice, it is enveloped by developed countries. Its temperatures are more volatile due to local geographical, topographical and industrial influences.

But the southern icecap is embedded on land mass. The southern Pole cannot be traversed below by submarines as the northern Pole has been. It is fixed. Amundsen knew where he was.

It is also far more remote and isolated from other continental influences. It has its own unaffected, self-induced, weather patterns.

The World’s water, in its different forms, is a renewable resource. You cannot add to, or subtract from, the volume of the World’s water. It cannot be diminished. It can only be recycled and redistributed.

To be able to measure or predict a temporary increase in sea levels, you first need to know two things… exactly how much water is to be added from elsewhere and exactly how much water is already there.

The water to be added must not be the volume of under-sea ice because that displacement already exists and if it melts its volume will decrease.

We know nothing of that because to compute it requires knowledge of exact volumes or cubic measurements.

We know nothing of the volumes of under-sea ice and we know nothing of above-sea ice, what melt-water we are likely to get in future and nothing at all of 40% of the World Ocean floor and its depths.

How can we know the aggregate volume of the Earth’s oceans when we do not even know their unexplored depths?

The surface area of the World Ocean (and let’s not forget that all oceans except the Caspian Sea are interconnected) is 361 million square kilometers and more than 70% of the earth’s total surface area.

So we only know the World Ocean surface area is well in excess of two thirds of the World’s total surface area.

The uncharted 40% of the ocean floor therefore represents over 50% of the earth’s total area, an infinite knowledge of which is necessary to even guess at possible volumes. Yet a resident moron named Al Gore shows us New York graphics of seawater covering 118th of 42nd Street.

Wall Street has only ever been less than one metre above sea level as have hundreds of inhabited islands. No-one has got their feet wet yet and if we experienced the hottest summer in 60 years last year, does that not mean that it was hotter 60 years ago?

Europe and North America have recently broken all cold weather records, even colder than the mid-nineties. Upper New York State has recently experienced the coldest weather in 30 years.

This cold weather is strangely a cyclical response to previous earth-warming.

An idiot government-funded agency came out recently with this: “Australian production down 5% by 2050, due to global warming.”

But the dramatic glacial ice flows shown breaking off into the Arctic Ocean have been dramatically breaking off for millions of years. And why do they break off? Because the ice is increasing at its source, relentlessly pushing the outer warming perimeter to the ocean.

The aging ice is forced into the sea by the expansion of the developing new ice… or do the Greens believe there is a walrus in a bloody bikini pushing it?

Our own orbiting satellites show no unusual change in temperatures. But our weather stations sited close to major cities do. I wonder why.

Legitimate ground-based measurements show that average global temperature is a mere 0.5° C higher than a century ago. In another century it may be the reverse. Who cares?

The Earth’s temperature fell from 1940 to 1980.
There is some scant evidence to suggest it has increased marginally since then, and has not changed at all since the year 2000.

The Earth’s median temperature is not regulated by green-house gases it is regulated by our Sun. It always has been… we evolved via this imperative.

The Earth’s green-house gases in its atmosphere are a mere 0.037% of its other abiding gases. Green-house gases have always been there and that miniscule amount hardly equates to the Sun’s influence.

Yet the zealots of Earth-warming completely neglect the Sun and they ignore the World Ocean and its conveyor! They concentrate on insignificant stuff they can see... forests and reefs and rivers.

Although, one would be forgiven for guessing that if all the World’s glaciers melted all at once it would barely register on the scale of total oceanic volumes and the inevitable increasing huge evaporative process over a greater surface area would need to be subtracted from that oceanic volume anyway.

That evaporative process would mean more rain distributed to, and absorbed by, dry areas. The World’s glaciers have melted before, without any industrial influence at all! We humans are still here.

If the melting icebergs of the northern cap (of which we only see the tips) are 95% under water, then the feared displacement factor already exists and some idiot last week claimed a 28 inch increase in high tides due to global warming. (But anyone can call themselves a scientist.)

At the end of the last Ice Age, the resultant flood of fresh water due to global warming caused temperatures in the North Atlantic region to fall by 5°C over a few decades.

It is important to remember that the Earth is an isolated ball. We live in a bubble encased in a thin film of replenishing, reparative atmosphere.

The Earth has a finite amount of water… be it solid, vapour or liquid. No-one, not even God, can add or subtract one teaspoonful of water or one shovel of land mass to or from the Earth.

It is simply a matter of continual redistribution, temporarily, to different places. Water redistribution can only be due to ice-melt induced rivers, tides, evaporation leading to convection and thus, rainfall.

Land mass redistribution can only be due to inner core convulsions. These continuous redistributions keep the Earth robust, healthy and productive. Without these continuous redistributions the
Earth would stagnate and die.

If there was a God he would be wetting his pants laughing at these alarmist idiots.

To affect tidal extremities one is talking the gravitational impact of the Moon and the Sun combined, not a few melting ice-blocks.

London’s Thames, along with Holland’s rivers, are rivers that suffer possible, seriously damaging tidal surges. They knew that this was so millennia ago and it has little to do with Earth warming!

London’s problem is that it is sinking. Some silly prick decided to build London on a silt plain. That’s why there are no tall buildings in London… it won’t support them. It’s founded in putrid mud. But the dishonest Greens cite London’s predicament as an example of global warming.

It is the oceans’ temperatures that dictate our World’s temperatures… the Ocean Conveyor evens out temperatures, making life livable and pleasurable.

Global temperature changes since the latest Ice Age, between a mere 13,000 and 17,000 years ago, have been comparatively mild.

This temperature mildness, which ended the Ice Age, was not a result of green-house gases at that time either.

There are two types of temperature change. The abrupt change and the long-term change. By far the most compelling, definitive reason for any abrupt Earth temperature change is volcanoes. They are immediate and have immediate effect.

The earth has always done, and continues to do, more “damage” to itself than man has ever done, or can ever do, to it. Except it’s not damage, it is healthy redistribution!

Was it man who killed the mammoths, the hundreds of species of dinosaur, the saber tooth tiger, the coelacanth, the thousands of bird species, the millions of extinct oceanic species, any one of the thousands of hitherto unknown petrified species, fossils, the unknown, ambered entomological species, not to mention botanical?

Of course not! We were not responsible for the demise of a single one! So why the hell do we think we are so important when 93% of everything that ever lived on Earth is now extinct?

Did the Exxon Valdese disaster wipe out anything? No, because it was a small-time, man-made, fully redeemable “catastrophe”, barely registering on the scale of what the Earth may decide to do to itself.

The “catastrophic” Chernobyl site is now a lush tourist Mecca! Only 53 people in the immediate vicinity died from the explosion, not the feared radiation.

The Earth has always recovered from what it does to itself! What possible permanent injury could mere man impart to it?

In twenty years Al Gore’s thesis will be no more relevant than it is now.

His statement that, “It’s hard to convince a man of a theory when his salary depends on another”, applies aptly to him more than anyone.

According to Gore, the snow flakes that trapped oxygen 150,000 years ago (yet again a blink in the space of time) at the North Pole are core-sampled and studiously measured to gauge increases in green-house gases.

That’s fine, but the trouble is it doesn’t snow at the North Pole. Anyway, what’s the point in core-sampling ice formed 150,000 years ago when these so-called excessive green-house gases are deemed the result of a mechanical age barely 70 years old?

Doesn’t anyone ask these questions of those pathetic pundits?

The truth is that core-sampled polar ice has only revealed that temperatures abruptly dropped immediately after the brown, layered, tell-tale signs of volcanic ash.

So, without volcanic ash, temperatures remained relatively stable. To try to drag industrial green-house gases into that little equation is more than dishonest.

Al Gore has got his hand on it. But you have to admire his multi-million dollar production, even if it is frogshit. The northern pole has only 1% of the airborne moisture that we do, so snow, hail or rain can’t develop or form, through lack of humidity.

The poles are not even the coldest places on earth. The water surrounding the floating North Pole keeps temperatures to 50 below zero. It’s much colder elsewhere.

There were no ice caps 2.7 million years ago. Then as far as we can tell, a mere 17,000 years ago, came the big ice age.

Life was prolific then and it has progressed to what it is now.

Then a slow Earth-warming and another Earth-cooling around the Tudor period. Now that the northern cap has once again begun to partly recede over the last crumby 50 years, these morons want us to believe it’s the end of the World?

Let’s look at some cold (or warm) hard facts:
The total mass of the hydrosphere (the oceans) is about 1.4 × 1021 kilograms, which is incredibly only a thin film representing 0.023% of the Earth's total mass.

So, if surface land mass is only one third of 0.023% (or 0.0073%) of the Earth’s total mass, then we land dwellers run a distant last in terms of influencing our World’s climate, behind the hydrosphere, the protective magnetosphere, planetary and stellar gravitation and the Sun’s and the Earth’s inner core mass.

The land’s regulating factor is the hydrosphere. If you need to be convinced of the size and influence of the hydrosphere, go to your computer and centre Papeete on Google Earth.

Without historic undersea volcanic eruptions and tectonic plate movements there would be no continents or mountain ranges.

Without volcanic eruptions and tectonic gyrations, there would be no islands. Volcanoes and earthquakes create islands of land, large and small… and we all live on those small islands, or big islands they call continents.

All land is joined and at some time was under the sea. We mostly use the current waterline as our countries' borders. Seashells and marine fossils are found in deserts and mountain ranges world-wide.

Volcanoes are the heartbeat of the World.

Volcanoes and tectonic plate movements produce mountains, mountains produce rains, rains produce the run-off of the rich, volcanic sediment… alluvial deposits. These deposits produce the fertile soil of the silt plains and deltas. These fertile soils feed the World.

Excerpt SMH:
“Dr. William Gray, one of the planet’s most respected meteorologists, informed media that Gore’s rant is “’ridiculous’” and a result of “’people who don’t understand how the atmosphere works.’ “’We’ll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realize how foolish it was,’ Dr Gray said,” …per Steve Lytte of The Sydney Morning Herald.

So, Al Gore has had his fifteen minutes of illegitimate fame.

The catastrophic eruption of the super-volcano beneath the Indonesian island of Sumatra, about 74,000 years ago, blew the shit out of what we now know as Asia and jettisoned some 800 cubic miles (yes miles) of the island into the World’s atmosphere, wiping out sunlight and photosynthesis for years. We humans are still here, thriving.

Poor old Al is concerned about a few melting ice blocks.
Al Gore’s idea of time and space is how long he sleeps in first class while flying the breadth of Europe spreading his well-practised fraud.

He charges $US200,000 per guest speaker fee.

We are not important in the expanse of time. We have no effect. We are too small, too ineffective. Because we live three score and ten years, we arrogantly think it’s important what happens in that small window of “our” time. It’s not!

We are merely temporary, insignificant tenants of this planet and we are lucky to be here for a short time!

The World couldn’t give a damn! It simply motors on.

It has far larger parameters to cope with and it always will, at least for the next four and a half billion years our Sun has left of life.

We won’t be here then but our mother Earth will and whatever remains will either have continued adapting to a changing environment quickly enough or it will have died and left vacancies for those in the wings.

It is not true that without the Sun there can be no life. Cultures smarter and older than ours already thrive on the deep black ocean floors without photosynthesis. They have learnt to rely on bacterial fuel.

The only thing we can wipe out is ourselves, and we probably won’t even do that effectively. There will always be a species of us left in some remote jungle in Peru.

Somewhere there will be a tribe least affected by a man-made Armageddon, or a galactic catastrophe, and that species will survive and continue in much the same way as insecticide kills bugs… but not all bugs and those it doesn’t kill, live to promote a genetic tolerance of that same insecticide, until a new insecticide is invented and the process starts again.

One day our Earth will appear as Mars does now. Mars is a light of other days and a victim of its own inner core and intergalactic temperature changes and gravitational forces over billions of years.

It may have had life because it had, and probably still has, water; the only possible basis for life… well, what we call “life”.

Darwin’s natural selection process, and even mobile genetics, was far too slow to prevent Mars’ annihilation of its own species, due to abrupt temperature change.

Earth’s millions of lost species have suffered the same fate, but our planet’s life survived with sufficiently-tolerant species to progress the evolutionary process.

Why should any intelligent person think we have a hands-on role in Earth’s role in planetary evolution?

Abrupt temperature change is the result of the land’s natural and irregular emissions.

The land’s natural emissions then reverse its temperature via the Earth’s oceans.

The word for it all is, “cyclical”. As cyclical as the oceans’ tides. But Gore doesn’t worry that an incoming tide will not ebb. And he hasn’t the intelligence to entertain the magical simplicity of it all.

We humans are nothing but mere reactive flotsam riding the currents to wherever they take us.

The exploding gases from volcanoes, one of which is sulphur dioxide, forms gels in the upper atmosphere, a sort of mirror-like sheet which reflects the sun's rays back into space, resulting in global cooling.

The coldest nights occur when you can see the stars, when there is no lower blanketing cloud cover. Why? Because the warmer, rising air is allowed to escape… there are no clouds to trap it and cause warm inversions.

The displacement of the rising Earth-affected warmer air ensures the sinking colder air reaches the land. Water reacts the same as air but due to its greater density it reacts more slowly.

The Earth’s land masses resemble a permanent hot water bottle. The mountains retain permanent heat in rock, year-round. They condense the warmer air to form cloud to contain the warmth and produce moisture.

Deserts are colder at night because there are no mountains to condense the air to form cloud-cover to retain residual heat. It rarely rains in deserts. That’s why they became deserts and remain as deserts.

No matter what we do to a desert or a rain forest, if left alone for a moment in time (say ten thousand years) they will both return to exactly what they always were... environmentally perfected deserts and rainforests. If they don’t, they should not and will not be there anyway.

Idiot green gophers who arrogantly believe they can have a god-like, hands-on influence are merely playing with their dongers.

Why are taller mountains colder and ice covered, even on the equator? Because air temperature decreases by an average two degrees every thousand feet of elevation.

A long-term temperature change can be triggered by a short-term change and can last thousands of years. But it is balanced!

Warming causes cooling, cooling causes warming and there is nothing we can do about it anyway.

When the ice caps increase in size (as the southern cap is now) the Earth will become warmer as the process inevitably reverses itself.

The Earth’s magical equilibrium has been in process since the big bang. It is way beyond the control of vain, aberrant men who arrived on this planet only this morning.

The atmosphere’s existing green-house gases make up less than 0.04% of all gases, most of that minimal amount is carbon dioxide produced by the Earth and its bush fires, its animals’ flatulence, its plant life and its oceans… not us!

The reasonably-minded will assume that all is cyclical and due to circumstances way beyond our control or influence.

We have even thought of a beaut new way to make money from all this warming frogshit… we trade carbon quotas! Much like we trade gold. It’s expensive.

Rich people get richer, poor people have to pay for their excesses. Gold stocks will never be used in ear-rings. We are simply content to shuffle paper around representing some bar of gold in some vault somewhere in the World.

Gold bullion has only a perceived value… as has carbon and water quotas. Neither has added to, nor subtracted from, anything!

If ever it was necessary to reduce carbon emissions, then the first thing we should do is ground the 10,000 airliners, permanently in the air dumping billions of tons of unrefined burnt fossil fuel (kerosene) into our atmosphere.

Do the green gophers advocate that we ground all airliners? No! They need them to fly around the World spreading their dishonesty while preventing logging of trees which produce (and cleanse us of) more carbon dioxide than the airliners.

If you think global warming, if it occurs, won’t be so bad, you are correct but think again, because it’s not the warming that will hurt us… it’s the resultant eventual cooling that will temporarily stunt crop growth, temporarily destroy rain forests and render arable land temporarily useless.

It is cooling that will create the temporary worthless tracts of desert causing temporary starvation. It is cooling that will send food costs temporarily beyond reach. It is cooling that will wreck, perhaps permanently, otherwise healthy economies.

Now, if the Greens were talking about global-cooling perhaps they might have a point! But they are not, are they?

Flannery and Garnaut expound silly theories without knowledge or qualification to do so. Those who wrote their dishonest scripts are gone, unchallenged.

They have been used by cashed-up environmental lobbies with a wonky wheelbarrow to push.

This mindless bullshit serves to excite and attract simpleton uni students and the tree-hugging greenies of the ratbag, doomsday brigade.

It excites vote-hoarding opportunistic prime ministers vaulted into action by media but, if someone actually dissected what the Greens are saying, none of it holds water.

So, what to do with the lying, misleading bastard who started all this nonsense?

Give Al Gore a Nobel Peace Prize, that sounds a pretty good thing to do! Hopefully now, with a Nobel Peace Prize on his mantle-piece people won’t look too closely at what he is actually saying.

Those in the know simply shake their heads in disbelief.
Next thing you know, the Nobel Committee will be giving a Nobel Peace Prize to a known terrorist!

Hang on… shit! I forgot! They have already done that! They gave one to Yasser Arrafat. Mmmmm… so much for the efficacy of that defamed little politicized prize.

Let’s face it, humans have no concept of space or time. The doomsday soothsayers talk in millions of years but have no idea what a million years is.

They only have the ability to conceptualise their own (unimportant, insignificant) life span. They have the arrogance to believe that what happens within their piddly 70 to 80 years of existence is actually important.

It is not! It is no more a blink in the space of time than a melting ice block is in the Atlantic.

That harebrained, absentee greenie, Bob Brown, declares a clear-felled forest is lost forever! Much like the idiot newsreader who declares a hundred acres were “destroyed” by bushfire.

What frogshit! Maybe a lot of houses were destroyed but the hundred acres were reinvogorated.

Aborigines have been lighting fires for 60,000 years to promote growth and attract game. A logged forests returns in a mere 60 years, as the Greens can see if they cared to look.

In 300 years it’s an even bigger, more robust, forest than it was before and it will be begging to be logged again!
But Greens’ brains don’t survive 300 years, thank God.

Forests only develop and thrive because conditions persist that suit forests. Fires and floods are our life-blood.

Seeds timelessly remain in the earth eagerly awaiting germination at the very first opportunity. Real temporary damage is that of erosion but even that serves to distribute water to other areas… even erosion has a role and is self-reparative.

Politicians can’t comprehend anything beyond the next election anyway.

Flooding forecasts due to so-called ice displacement, is utter nonsense. Any amount of ice melt-water is mixed with the saltwater and distributed around the World via the Conveyor.

The oceans’ surface salt water is more dense than fresh melt-water and is cooled further via evaporative winds and begins to sink, forcing the now warmer, ocean-bed water to the surface. This increases sea surface temperatures and convectional rainfall.

Now, stay with me here. The warmer surface saltwater is in turn cooled and again sinks to replace the comparatively warmer deeper water and the cyclical process starts all over again.

Not only that! The deeper, comparatively warmer, ocean bed water is rich in algal sediment (phytoplankton). When it is forced to the surface it serves to remove air-borne carbon dioxide in the same way as land-based vegetation does.

To complete the conveyor’s global cycle takes up to 20 years but it is a massive project and involves two thirds of the Earth’s surface in a rolling motion of cyclical temperature changes.

Kevin Rudd’s ETS con can now be seen for exactly what it is when the sheer scale of the ocean conveyor is understood.

Seriously, the ignorant offerings of global warmists are getting a bit tiresome so I hope you will excuse me getting this off my chest.
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Doctor Who’s Starry Night…
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Over 2,000 Likes ! A big thank you to everyone who has liked our page and our diamond engagement rings !
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When sensible people get to Canberra their confidence in the Australian citizen is often replaced by a firm faith in the 'wisdom' of government - read more in this week's bloghttp://www.corybernardi.com/2013/07/16/inhaling-the-canberra-kool-aid/
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Pastor Rick Warren
Where the grass is greener, the water bill is bigger. Envy is Stupid
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It's clear Kevin Rudd desperately wants Australians to forget his record of broken promises, mismanagement and policy failures. 

However, his record speaks for itself – have a look here: http://www.liberal.org.au/ruddfacts/
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An Amazing Read - The Trial and Death of Socrates: http://amzn.to/14KOetX 
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I was wondering where they'd gone. - ed
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Ged MacMahon
He knows. He is a doctor - ed
Update on my medical jetsetting studying. Alternate day low cal intake 600 cal and 1 min daily intense exercise along with more incidental exercise is very healthy in the fight against metabolic syndrome.
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Celebrity Saudi preacher 'raped' and tortured his five-year-old daughter to death
Lama al-Ghamdi's back was broken and she had been raped and burned
She died in October from her injuries after ten months in hospital 

Her father Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a prominent Islamist preacher, admitted beating her but was freed after agreeing to pay £31,000 compensation

Campaign to give women and children better protection gaining momentum

A Saudi preacher who tortured his five-year-old daughter to death has been released after agreeing to pay 'blood money', activists said.

Lama al-Ghamdi died in October having suffered multiple injuries including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, extensive bruising and burns.

The child had also been repeatedly raped and the burned.

Her father Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a prominent Islamist preacher who regularly appears on television in Saudi Arabia, served only a few months in jail despite admitting having used a cane and cables to inflict the injuries.

Activists from the group Women to Drive said the preacher had doubted Lama's virginity and had her checked up by a medic.

Randa al-Kaleeb, a social worker from the hospital where Lama was admitted, said the girl's back was broken and that she had been repeatedly raped.

Her injuries were then burned.

Rather than the death penalty or a long prison sentence, the judge in the case ruled the prosecution could only seek 'blood money', according to activists.

The money is compensation for the next of kin under Islamic law.

Activists said the judge ruled the few months al-Ghamdi spent in prison since his arrest in November was sufficient punishment.

He has reportedly agreed to pay £31,000 ($50,000), which is believed to have gone to Lama's mother.

The amount is half that would have been paid if Lama had been a boy.

Activists say under Islamic laws a father cannot be executed for murdering his children. Husbands can also not be executed for murdering their wives, the group say.

Three Saudi activists, including Manal al-Sharif, who started the women's right to drive campaign, have raised objections to the ruling.

A social media campaign is now gaining
momentum after the ruling was publicised.
Manal al-Sharif has launched a campaign on Twitter using the hashtag 'Ana Lama', which is translated as I am Lama, calling for better protection for children and women.

Local reports say public anger in Saudi Arabia is also growing and authorities have said they will create a 24-hour hotline to take calls about child abuse.

Women to Drive said in a post on their Facebook page
Secular law rules should apply here .. ed
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Azazoth Shubniggerith .. ornament of Cthulu as it is written.

Multi-coloured gemstone, and diamond ring by Roberto Bravo
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Rough Ruby Report

I never knew GIA did rough gemstone reports.

Never lose the opportunity to make a buck.

GIA is a " non profit " organisation that generates in excess of USD$120 Million per annum in gemstone grading reports.
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Lemons are so superior to cold medicine .. with honey, hot water and apple cider vinegar .. you'll wish you were healthy.
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Twilight at Tuolumne Meadows — with Darvin Atkeson at Yosemite National Park.
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War ein schönes Chor- und Orgelkonzert in St Markus heute Abend. 30 min vor dem Konzert noch sooo leer, dann aber sehr gut besucht. Erfreulich auch für die UA eines großartigen Ave Maria für Chor a cappella von Bernd Redmann.
Was a beautiful choral and organ concert at St. Mark tonight. 30 minutes before the concert sooo empty, but then very well attended. Gratifying for the UA a great Ave Maria for choir a cappella by Bernd Redmann.
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July 16: Feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Roman Catholic Church)
Millennium Park
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” James 1:21 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out."
Leviticus 6:13
Keep the altar of private prayer burning. This is the very life of all piety. The sanctuary and family altars borrow their fires here, therefore let this burn well. Secret devotion is the very essence, evidence, and barometer, of vital and experimental religion.
Burn here the fat of your sacrifices. Let your closet seasons be, if possible, regular, frequent, and undisturbed. Effectual prayer availeth much. Have you nothing to pray for? Let us suggest the Church, the ministry, your own soul, your children, your relations, your neighbours, your country, and the cause of God and truth throughout the world. Let us examine ourselves on this important matter. Do we engage with lukewarmness in private devotion? Is the fire of devotion burning dimly in our hearts? Do the chariot wheels drag heavily? If so, let us be alarmed at this sign of decay. Let us go with weeping, and ask for the Spirit of grace and of supplications. Let us set apart special seasons for extraordinary prayer. For if this fire should be smothered beneath the ashes of a worldly conformity, it will dim the fire on the family altar, and lessen our influence both in the Church and in the world.
The text will also apply to the altar of the heart. This is a golden altar indeed. God loves to see the hearts of his people glowing towards himself. Let us give to God our hearts, all blazing with love, and seek his grace, that the fire may never be quenched; for it will not burn if the Lord does not keep it burning. Many foes will attempt to extinguish it; but if the unseen hand behind the wall pour thereon the sacred oil, it will blaze higher and higher. Let us use texts of Scripture as fuel for our heart's fire, they are live coals; let us attend sermons, but above all, let us be much alone with Jesus.

Evening

"He appeared first to Mary Magdalene."
Mark 16:9
Jesus "appeared first to Mary Magdalene," probably not only on account of her great love and persevering seeking, but because, as the context intimates,she had been a special trophy of Christ's delivering power. Learn from this, that the greatness of our sin before conversion should not make us imagine that we may not be specially favoured with the very highest grade of fellowship. She was one who had left all to become a constant attendant on the Saviour. He was her first, her chief object. Many who were on Christ's side did not take up Christ's cross; she did. She spent her substance in relieving his wants. If we would see much of Christ, let us serve him. Tell me who they are that sit oftenest under the banner of his love, and drink deepest draughts from the cup of communion, and I am sure they will be those who give most, who serve best, and who abide closest to the bleeding heart of their dear Lord. But notice how Christ revealed himself to this sorrowing one--by a word, "Mary." It needed but one word in his voice, and at once she knew him, and her heart owned allegiance by another word, her heart was too full to say more. That one word would naturally be the most fitting for the occasion. It implies obedience. She said, "Master." There is no state of mind in which this confession of allegiance will be too cold. No, when your spirit glows most with the heavenly fire, then you will say, "I am thy servant, thou hast loosed my bonds." If you can say, "Master," if you feel that his will is your will, then you stand in a happy, holy place. He must have said, "Mary," or else you could not have said, "Rabboni." See, then, from all this, how Christ honours those who honour him, how love draws our Beloved, how it needs but one word of his to turn our weeping to rejoicing, how his presence makes the heart's sunshine.
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Today's reading: Psalm 13-15, Acts 19:21-41 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 13-15

For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 19:21-41

21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. "After I have been there," he said, "I must visit Rome also." 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
The Riot in Ephesus
23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: "You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty."
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Stephen

[Stē'phen] - wreath or crown. One of the seven primitive disciples chosen to serve tables. Stephen was the most prominent of these. Although called to supervise benevolences, he overleaped the limitations of his task and became a powerful preacher. He was also the first martyr of the Christian Church, being stoned to death by the Jews (Acts 6:5-9; 7:59; 11:19; 22:20).

The Man with an Angel Face

The remarkable defense of Stephen in which he summarized Old Testament teachings provoked the Jewish leaders so much that they cast him out of the city and brutally stoned him to death. God, however, can make the wrath of man to praise Him, thus the prominent fruit of Stephen's martyrdom was the conviction and conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who witnessed Stephen's illegal murder, unsanctioned by Roman law. Stephen's character is worthy of emulation. He was a man:
Full of Faith - no room for doubt or fear in his heart (Acts 6:5).
Full of Grace - a gift from God proving itself in graciousness (Acts 6:8 RV).
Full of Power - the ability of God to do things (Acts 6:8).
Full of Light - the Holy Spirit within gave him the face of an angel (Acts 6:15).
Full of Scripture - Stephen covered history from Abraham to Christ (Acts 7).
Full of Wisdom (Acts 6:3, 10), wisdom from above ( Jas. 1:5).
Full of Courage - the face and fear of man did not trouble Stephen (Acts 7:51-56).
Full of Love - the stones broke Stephen's head but not his heart. Grace was his to forgive his murderers (Acts 7:60).
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