Last year Obama was considering bombing Syria in favour of helping those who are now hitting Iraq. This is because chemical weapons of the type developed by Saddam Hussein were used on Syrian peoples by their government. Stupidly, desperate Christians keen to prevent bloodshed praised the murderous regime of Syria as 'not being that bad.' Yet again another reason why religion has no place in politics. Had Obama acted correctly last year, and used troops on the ground, the problems of this year could have been avoided. But, Russia said 'no.' Obama agreed to Russia having benefit if he was reelected, and he was. We don't yet know what that was, but it looks like Crimea. If Crimea was the price of a reelected Obama, then MH17 was the cost. America needs to muzzle her President.
Apologies for not fleshing out articles that need to address what happened on this day, significant events being:
- 392 – Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
- 476 – Odoacer is named Rex italiae by his troops.
- 564 – Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
- 851 – Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland.
- 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.
- 1559 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
- 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
- 1642 – Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War begins.
- 1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
- 1711 – Ships from British Admiral Hovenden Walker's Quebec Expedition founders on rocks at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.
- 1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, Queensland and claims the east coast of Australia as New South Wales in the name of King George III.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
- 1780 – James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage).
- 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
- 1798 – French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.
- 1831 – Nat Turner's slave rebellion commences just after midnight in Southampton County, Virginia, leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising.
- 1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.
- 1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America.
- 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
- 1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
- 1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded.
- 1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.
- 1910 – Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
- 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.
- 1932 – The BBC first experiments with television broadcasting. (See also Timeline of the BBC.)
- 1934 – Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.
- 1941 – World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
- 1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces
- 1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.
- 1961 – Ida Siekmann died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall.
- 1962 – An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
- 1963 – American Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reaches an altitude of 106 km (66 mi).
- 1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
- 1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
- 1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
- 1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.
- 1973 – The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands him to resign or else be unseated through force and new elections be called. The first demand is executed eighteen days later in a bloody coup d'etat, commencing 17 years of military rule.
- 1978 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupies national palace in Nicaragua.
- 1984 – PC Brian Bishop was a British police officer who was shot in the head by an armed robber in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. He died from his injuries five days later.
- 1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.
- 1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
- 1996 – Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy
- 2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
- 2004 – Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
- 2006 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.
- 2007 – The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.
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.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.
===1485 – Lancastrian forces under Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, defeated Yorkist forces under Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field, decisively ending the Wars of the Roses.
1711 – Queen Anne's War: A British attempt to attack Quebec failed when eight ships wrecked on the Saint Lawrence River.
1851 – The yacht America won the first America's Cup race near the Isle of Wight, England.
1910 – Japan annexed Korea with the signing of the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
1989 – Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers struck out the Oakland Athletics' Rickey Henderson, becoming the only pitcher in Major League Baseball to record 5,000 strikeouts. You have your roses. Quebec is free and safe. The cup is where the world can enjoy it. Korea belongs to Koreans .. some of them sensible. You don't have to be sensible on your day .. but you should have the sense to enjoy it.
Matches
- 392 – Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
- 476 – Odoacer is named Rex italiae by his troops.
- 564 – Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
- 851 – Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland.
- 1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England.
- 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.
- 1559 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
- 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
- 1642 – Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War begins.
- 1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
- 1711 – Ships from British Admiral Hovenden Walker's Quebec Expedition founders on rocks at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.
- 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
- 1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, Queensland and claims the east coast of Australia as New South Wales in the name of King George III.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
- 1780 – James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage).
- 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
- 1798 – French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.
- 1827 – José de la Mar becomes President of Peru.
- 1831 – Nat Turner's slave rebellion commences just after midnight in Southampton County, Virginia, leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising.
- 1846 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established.
- 1848 – The United States annexes New Mexico.
- 1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.
- 1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America.
- 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
- 1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
- 1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded.
- 1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.
- 1910 – Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
- 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.
- 1932 – The BBC first experiments with television broadcasting. (See also Timeline of the BBC.)
- 1934 – Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.
- 1941 – World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
- 1942 – World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
- 1944 – World War II: Romania is captured by the Soviet Union.
- 1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces
- 1949 – Queen Charlotte earthquake: Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake
- 1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.
- 1952 – The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.
- 1961 – Ida Siekmann died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall.
- 1962 – An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
- 1963 – American Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reaches an altitude of 106 km (66 mi).
- 1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
- 1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
- 1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
- 1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.
- 1973 – The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands him to resign or else be unseated through force and new elections be called. The first demand is executed eighteen days later in a bloody coup d'etat, commencing 17 years of military rule.
- 1978 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupies national palace in Nicaragua.
- 1984 – PC Brian Bishop was a British police officer who was shot in the head by an armed robber in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. He died from his injuries five days later.
- 1985 – Manchester Air Disaster sees 55 people killed when a fire breaks out on a commercial aircraft at Manchester Airport.
- 1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.
- 1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
- 1996 – Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy
- 2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
- 2004 – Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
- 2006 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.
- 2007 – The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.
- 2007 – The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day
- 2012 – Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya's Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths.
Hatches
- 1412 – Frederick II, Elector of Saxony (d. 1464)
- 1601 – Georges de Scudéry, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1667)
- 1624 – Jean Regnault de Segrais, French author and poet (d. 1701)
- 1647 – Denis Papin, French physicist and mathematician, developed pressure cooking (d. 1712)
- 1764 – Charles Percier, French architect (d. 1838)
- 1771 – Henry Maudslay, English inventor (d. 1831)
- 1773 – Aimé Bonpland, French botanist and explorer (d. 1858)
- 1800 – Samuel David Luzzatto, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1865)
- 1827 – Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1906)
- 1834 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1906)
- 1836 – Archibald Willard, American painter (d. 1918)
- 1848 – Melville Elijah Stone, American publisher, founded the Chicago Daily News (d. 1929)
- 1854 – Milan I of Serbia (d. 1901)
- 1860 – Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German inventor, created the Nipkow disk (d. 1940)
- 1860 – Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (d. 1940)
- 1862 – Claude Debussy, French composer (d. 1918)
- 1867 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (d. 1939)
- 1873 – Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher (d. 1928)
- 1874 – Max Scheler, German philosopher (d. 1928)
- 1880 – Gorch Fock, German author and poet (d. 1916)
- 1880 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (d. 1944)
- 1882 – Raymonde de Laroche, French aviatrix (d. 1919)
- 1891 – Jacques Lipchitz, Lithuanian-Italian sculptor (d. 1973)
- 1893 – Wilfred Kitching, English 7th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1977)
- 1893 – Dorothy Parker, American poet and author (d. 1967)
- 1895 – László Almásy, Hungarian pilot (d. 1951)
- 1902 – Leni Riefenstahl, German actress and director (d. 2003)
- 1903 – Jerry Iger, American cartoonist, co-founded Eisner & Iger (d. 1990)
- 1904 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (d. 1997)
- 1908 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer and painter (d. 2004)
- 1914 – Connie B. Gay, American businessman, co-founded the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (d. 1989)
- 1915 – David Dellinger, American activist (d. 2004)
- 1915 – James Hillier, Canadian-American scientist, co-designed the electron microscope (d. 2007)
- 1917 – John Lee Hooker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
- 1918 – Mary McGrory, American journalist (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Ray Bradbury, American author (d. 2012)
- 1934 – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., American general (d. 2012)
- 1935 – Annie Proulx, American journalist and author
- 1936 – Dale Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2010)
- 1936 – Werner Stengel, German roller coaster designer and engineer, designed the maverick roller coaster
- 1943 – Masatoshi Shima, Japanese computer scientist, co-designed the Intel 4004
- 1944 – Roger Cashmore, English particle physicist
- 1945 – Ron Dante, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Archies, The Cuff Links, and The Detergents)
- 1947 – Donna Jean Godchaux, American singer-songwriter (Grateful Dead, Heart of Gold Band, and Jerry Garcia Band, and Donna Jean Godchaux Band)
- 1948 – David Marks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Beach Boys)
- 1950 – Scooter Libby, American lawyer, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
- 1951 – Mary Allen, British broadcaster and arts administrator
- 1959 – Annie Tempest, British artist and cartoonist
- 1961 – Roland Orzabal, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Tears for Fears and Graduate)
- 1961 – Debbi Peterson, American singer and drummer (The Bangles and Kindred Spirit)
- 1963 – Tori Amos, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (Y Kant Tori Read)
- 1964 – Mats Wilander, Swedish tennis player
- 1965 – Chen Liping, Singaporean actress
- 1967 – Yukiko Okada, Japanese singer and actress (d. 1986)
- 1968 – Elisabeth Murdoch, Australian businesswoman
- 1977 – Keren Cytter, Visual artist and writer
- 1981 – Jang Hyun-Kyu, South Korean footballer (d. 2012)
- 1981 – Takumi Saito, Japanese actor and singer
- 1986 – Keiko Kitagawa, Japanese actress
- 1988 – Sarah Major, New Zealand actress
- 1989 – Chariz Solomon, Filipino actress
- 1996 – Shannon Flynn, English actress
- 1999 – Dakota Goyo, Canadian actor
Despatches
- 408 – Stilicho, Roman general (b. 359)
- 1155 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (b. 1139)
- 1485 – Richard III of England (b. 1452)
- 1553 – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, English admiral and politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1504)
- 1572 – Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, English leader of the Rising of the North (b. 1528)
- 1584 – Jan Kochanowski, Polish poet (b. 1530)
- 1891 – Jan Neruda, Czech journalist, author, and poet (b. 1834)
- 1922 – Michael Collins, Irish politician, 2nd Minister of Finance for Ireland (b. 1890)
Trade union preys on weak and guilt-ridden
Piers Akerman – Thursday, August 21, 2014 (7:29pm)
THERE was an outpouring of public sympathy for Down syndrome baby Gammy, abandoned in Thailand to be cared for by his surrogate mother, 21-year-old Pattaramon Chanbua.
Continue reading 'Trade union preys on weak and guilt-ridden'The big rush to rewrite history
Piers Akerman – Thursday, August 21, 2014 (6:44pm)
SINCE last year’s election, there has been an unholy rush by participants competing to get their versions of history into print. First out of the chute was Rob Oakeshott’s own explanation for the failure of the nation to find any beauty in the ugliness of Julia Gillard’s minority government he helped install.
Continue reading 'The big rush to rewrite history'SILMA, FORMERLY ANNE
Tim Blair – Friday, August 22, 2014 (4:55am)
This interview is calm, polite, genial, and utterly chilling.
UPDATE. Peaceful Muslim Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah Al-Ahmadzai goes to jail after threatening to slit throats and break necks:
Al-Ahmadzai had been under surveillance by ASIO for four years when he made threats over the phone to an ASIO officer and a police member of the Joint Counter Terrorism Team on May 2 and 10 last year.Al-Ahmadzai told the ASIO officer in a phone call, “I’m going to crack your neck.”“Come near my family again and I am going to slit your throat, you pig.”Eight days later he called a police member of JCTT saying: “I know who you are, I know where you live, and I know what you do.”He followed the phone call up with several threatening texts including, “just be careful”, and in another message described him as a “putrid dog and filthy pig”.
Al-Ahmadzai will be released from prison in ten years in five years in one year in six months on November 19.
LEFTIST LITERARY FEST
Tim Blair – Friday, August 22, 2014 (4:42am)
Piers Akerman witnesses history’s retelling.
HELP BOB
Tim Blair – Friday, August 22, 2014 (4:24am)
Labor idiot, ABC favourite and tax-funded leftist Bob Ellis considers the murder of James Foley:
Beheadings occur routinely in Game of Thrones. And no complaint has been laid. Why then all the fuss?
Commenters are invited to explain the difference between television programs and actual human beings. Use small words and simple language. Bob may be reading.
HANG ON
Tim Blair – Friday, August 22, 2014 (3:02am)
A Clown Shoe amount of power driving something that weighs only 220kg – just 15 per cent of a Clown Shoe:
That front tyre will last the life of the bike. It is barely ever in contact with the road.
That front tyre will last the life of the bike. It is barely ever in contact with the road.
UPDATE. In other velocity news, I have only 29 per cent of Jodhi Meares’s driving suspensions.
The Bolt Report on Sunday, August 24
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (5:40pm)
On Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial: Tony Abbott, kick that clown Palmer off the stage.
My guest: the literally indestructible Education Minister Chris Pyne.
The panel: Michael Kroger and former Labor Minister Gary Johns.
NewsWatch: Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman. Did the media protect Bill Shorten too much? Why the media ban on showing the beheading video? And a dial-a-quote discussed.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===Editorial: Tony Abbott, kick that clown Palmer off the stage.
My guest: the literally indestructible Education Minister Chris Pyne.
The panel: Michael Kroger and former Labor Minister Gary Johns.
NewsWatch: Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman. Did the media protect Bill Shorten too much? Why the media ban on showing the beheading video? And a dial-a-quote discussed.
The videos of the shows appear here.
How did the Liberals bring us to this?
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (9:25am)
The IPA rightly points out that our top tax rate is now far too high. Odd, that it took a Liberal Government to hike the top tax rate by another 2 per cent.
Save the children should not mean help the terrorists
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (9:03am)
By adding the words “end the blockade” - as in the blockade of weapons
- Save the Children confirms its new campaign actually supports the
war strategy of the Hamas terrorist group which controls Gaza and
openly says it wants Jews dead.
“End the blockade” is in fact the key demand Hamas makes in exchange for ending its rocket attacks on Israel - for now:
(Thanks to reader Daniel.)
===“End the blockade” is in fact the key demand Hamas makes in exchange for ending its rocket attacks on Israel - for now:
Hamas has said it will not relent until the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted. Both countries view Hamas as a security threat and are reluctant to make sweeping concessions without guarantees weapons will not enter Gaza.The blockade is primarily to stop Hamas from bringing in bigger weapons. So why has Save the Children sided with the terrorists?
(Thanks to reader Daniel.)
To repeat: sack the Press Council
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (8:52am)
Yet more evidence that the authoritarian Press Council
is a menace to free speech. It has become a weapon for activists
wanting to hound opponents into silence, knowing the council’s process
is the true punishment:
===AFTER seven months of passionate argument, formal hearings, quasi-litigation and wasted time, the Press Council is edging ever so slowly towards a final ruling on whether it will allow food writers to express an unqualified opinion in favour of eating kangaroos…
But it also raises the question of whether the complaint-handling processes of the Press Council are too easily captured by activists seeking to punish journalists who express opinions with which they disagree…
The Australian’s food writer, John Lethlean, has been living with the kangaroo case ever since he wrote about his passionate belief that “wild” food such as kangaroo meat should be more widely consumed in Australia…
Enter the Australian Society of Kangaroos. By February, this organisation — which was not mentioned in Lethlean’s article — had persuaded the Press Council to launch its complaint-handling procedures…
Was Lethlean wrong to express his opinion? Should he, as asserted by the ASK, have included contrary views from those such as ... the ASK?
Were that argument to succeed, it could transform the way newspapers handle opinion by requiring the inclusion of contrary views.
A typical “balanced” opinion could be: “I thought the play was great — but on the other hand it was terrible.”
End this wail about shale. We’re robbing ourselves
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (8:18am)
In the US:
Peter Reith, who conducted an inquiry for the Victorian Government:
This is madness, and a lack of political courage and principle is to blame.
(Thanks to reader John.)
===The “gale of shale” is hitting the US and the world with surplus energy. In 2000, shale was 2% of natural gas supply; in 2012, it was about 37%; and will be about 65% within the next two decades. The US is poised for shipping out shale gas in liquefied form as net exporter of energy. American motorists are consuming less gasoline, thereby limiting the blend of biofuels like ethanol.But in Victoria:
A moratorium on fracking has been in place in Victoria since August 2012 while more information is gathered on potential environmental risks posed by the industry. The parts of Victoria with the highest potential for unconventional gas are the Gippsland and Otway basins. Notably, tight gas has been located near Seaspray in Gippsland but is not yet being produced.In NSW:
NSW currently provides only 5 per cent of its own natural gas… NSW has some of the country’s toughest coal-seam gas rules, having banned wells within two kilometres of residential areas, and land containing vineyards and horse studs.
Peter Reith, who conducted an inquiry for the Victorian Government:
The lesson to learn from policy failures in NSW is that governments who abandon public debate soon find that scare campaigns and green activists fill the vacuum. And then the public debate is soon mired in false claims, partly because government has not ensured the public is fairly informed and because some activists have other political agendas. Sadly, instead of promoting increased supply of gas by constructively responding to genuine issues, decisions taken in Victoria with its moratoriums and NSW with various policies have encouraged and helped legitimise the green activists.This is not the first time Australian governments have strangled useful industries by pandering to baseless green scares. We have virtually banned nuclear power. We banned lucrative nuclear waste facilities to take in spent fuel rods from overseas. We’ve hampered the use of genetically modified crops. We imposed a useless carbon tax on coal-fired power generators and helped to drive smelters out of business.
Victorians should be under no illusions. Gas prices are already rising and will have a negative impact on Victoria’s manufacturing base… Victoria is not a rust bucket, not yet, but unless governments are prepared to fight for real reform to reduce costs then the prospects for Victoria are fading…
The political campaigns against the gas industry are principally all about scare mongering. The fracking debate is full of overblown nonsense. The greens have an ulterior motive. Green activists strongly oppose any fossil fuels even though gas has much lower emissions than brown coal… I have seen many scare campaigns in my time in politics but this particular campaign has been allowed to run for far too long and will have adverse repercussions for living standards and jobs…
There are very few countries in the world that ban fracking because there is no reason to do so. Fracking was invented in the late 1940s; it is a new technology and more and more firms are turning to green fracking which is another innovation from the gas industry.
This is madness, and a lack of political courage and principle is to blame.
(Thanks to reader John.)
The church failed, but its accusers show no mercy
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (8:06am)
I do not doubt some priests were evil and the Catholic church seemed at times complicit.
I do not doubt that people have a right to feel very angry at their betrayal.
But the royal commission at times seems to have a lynch mob mentality, with the church’s accusers feeling licensed to hurl the most savage abuse. This seems at odds with the professed desire for healing and compassion:
===I do not doubt that people have a right to feel very angry at their betrayal.
But the royal commission at times seems to have a lynch mob mentality, with the church’s accusers feeling licensed to hurl the most savage abuse. This seems at odds with the professed desire for healing and compassion:
Mr Foster said Cardinal Pell showed a ‘’sociopathic lack of empathy’’ when they met to discuss the case in the 1990s....More gleeful mockery in The Age:
Earlier on Thursday, church lawyer Richard Leder told the commission that Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart had ‘’strongly held views that every effort should be made to settle’’ the Fosters’ case....
His answer drew jeers from the public gallery.
The voice that has delivered a thousand sermons seemed unsuited to be that of a witness in the dock, even if it was a virtual dock. There seemed a defensiveness to it, and the jutting jaw left the viewer in a familiar, vain search for a gesture of humility…Would any government dare call such a royal commission into Islam in Australia, and the links between some imams and, say, jihadism, genital mutilation, polygamy and subjugation of women? Would they risk this daily vilification of a faith and of its leaders?
Here was a prince of the Church, good Lord, required to take a Bible in his hands and swear to tell nothing but the truth…
Forty five minutes in, the video link failed and the Cardinal was frozen on the screen, jaw jutting. “He’s pulled the plug,” a cynic cried.
Wayne Swan and the Marxism of resentful envy
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (7:53am)
Is Bill Shorten’s Labor smarter than Gillard-Swan’s? Has it learned from the mistakes of Wayne Swan’s politics of envious redistribution?
===Mr Swan failed to seize the mantle of economic reform from the Hawke-Keating years and invest it with new energy and purpose… He never understood that business is the engine of the economy. He failed to appreciate that the modern enterprise class was created by the economic reforms of the 1980s and 90s implemented by a Labor government. Mr Swan bristled at the legacy of competitive capital, product and labour markets. He believed in redistributing a shrinking share of the economy rather than growing it for the benefit of all.
In government, he lacked a program of economic reform. He shirked the big challenges. He blew the budget. When his big test came, the global financial crisis, the overall management of the government’s response was defective. The initial 2008 stimulus package and monetary measures were largely sound. But in 2009, during the second phase, too much money was spent and much of it was wasted. Business was an enemy, not a partner in reform. He wrote hollow screeds for The Monthly. He idolised multi-millionaire US rocker Bruce Springsteen. And he enthusiastically embraced a neo-Marxist mentality. We got it right when we labelled his policies as retrograde class warfare. The wiser heads in Labor such as Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Simon Crean, Bill Kelty and Mr Ferguson have disowned this nonsense. The challenge remains for the Labor leadership team of Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek to demonstrate they repudiate it too.
AMA makes the co-payment a fraud
Andrew Bolt August 22 2014 (7:43am)
The Government strategy
was to get a compromise deal with the AMA and use it to somehow
embarrass or convince Labor or crossbench senators to support the
Medicare co-payment, too.
It hasn’t worked. The AMA compromise does concede the idea of a price signal but in fact guts the government’s plan:
===It hasn’t worked. The AMA compromise does concede the idea of a price signal but in fact guts the government’s plan:
… the Australian Medical Association sharpened its objections yesterday by declaring patients should not pay fees to finance future research…This turns a disguised spending cut into just another tax.
In a key step in the debate, the AMA yesterday endorsed the concept of putting a price signal on visits to the doctor to make the health system more sustainable but warned that the fee should be cut and million of patients — including pensioners and children — should be exempt.
Health Minister Peter Dutton warned that the AMA proposal would wipe out 97 per cent of the $3.5bn to be collected in co-payments over the next four years while handing doctors a $580 million “windfall”.
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G’day,
Clive Palmer has suffered another defeat in his legal brawl with Chinese giant Citic Pacific after the Federal Court today threw out his application to become the security operator at a key iron ore port in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The ruling in Perth is a blow to Mr Palmer’s long-running efforts to wrest control of the port from Citic.
How’s that for a bit of INSTANT KARMA!
Godspeed
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist
0414293765
=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her
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Princeton is my home .. and Leonia .. - ed
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Take a close look at the photo of the person in the add asking the question “Why Mr. Abbott”.................
Does the Labor Party really think that this is the profile of the average Labor voter ?
Of all the precious gemstones, opal is perhaps the most alluring. A unique mixture of silica and varying amounts of water, opal’s brilliant play of color is the result of tiny silicon spheres measuring several hundred nanometers in diameter, the same width as the wavelength of visible light. What makes an opal precious and another nonprecious is how those spheres are organized:
“In precious opal the glasslike molecules are stacked like billiard balls set out in neat rows, creating regular triangular gaps between them on the surface; ordinary opal is more like a disorganized school equipment locker, full of basketballs, soccer balls, and golf balls thrown into it in no particular order. When the surface of opal is even and ordered and the molecules are a set distance apart, the white light bounces off in wavelengths that give the appearance of bright colors. And just as the sky looks red when there are big molecules in the atmosphere, the red in opal is caused by the presence of larger spheres in the silicon gel; while the more common blue color appears when the spheres are small. But whatever the size of the silicon, if the surface has no order to it the light just bounces off in all directions, giving no sense of separate colors at all. It means that paradoxically it is order that causes the irregular iridescent flashes of color in opal; while it is chaos that makes low-quality opal a uniform gray,” (Victoria Finlay, Jewels: A Secret History, p. 1,959).
Once considered the most prized precious stones by European royals, opals were traditionally given as favors in the 1800s. Even Napoleon adored the stone, giving his wife, Josephine, a vivid red opal weighing roughly 140 grams. The first opal to be named, “The Burning of Troy” was aptly labeled since Napoleon had said that he gave her this stone because she was his Helen. In spite of such royal favor, the opal is the only one thought to bring bad luck. This notion swept the opinions of nineteenth-century Europe after the great success of the ghost novel Anne of Geierstein by Sir Walter Scott, in which a drop of holy water turns a supernatural opal talisman into a common pebble and soon after which the heroine dies. So convinced of this superstition was Princess Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII, that when Queen Victoria died, the new queen removed the “unlucky opals” from the diamond and opal tiara her mother-in-law had commissioned and replaced them with rubies from Ceylon, which remain there today (Finlay, p. 2,194).
Quite possibly the most famous opal in history was owned by a Roman senator named Nonius in 35 BC. Originating from the mines of Czernowitza, the only source for opals at the time, the fabled stone was only the size of a hazelnut yet was valued at two million sesterces, or enough to buy a villa in a nice part of Rome. So obsessed with the stone was Mark Antony that the amount of pressure he applied to Nonius, who had no intentions to part with the stone, to sell it to him caused Nonius to self-imposed exile, leaving behind all his property and taking only his precious opal. Even Pliny, the famous Roman author, called opal a gemstone which combines the best possible characteristics of the most beautiful of gemstones: the fine sparkle of Almandine, the shining purple of Amethyst, the golden yellow of Topaz, and the deep blue of Sapphire, so that all colours shine and sparkle together in a beautiful combination (via).
Today, roughly 97% of opals come from Australia, and of all the opal produced in the world 60% is white opal, 30% is crystal opal, 8% black opal and 2% boulder opal. The town of Coober Pedy, which means “white man in a hole” in Aborigine, produces a major amount of opal, however, the mines in Mintabie and Lightning Ridge produce the rarer, more valuable black opal. The ‘white’ or ‘black’ of an opal refers to the stone’s body color on which the ‘flashes of light and color’ play, with the black offering the most brilliant play of color. Much detail has gone into valuing black opals, even so far as differentiating the seemingly endless types of patterns. The more vivacious and bright the play of color, the more valuable the opal.
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Trending on Armenia Online right now is "TONIGHT: ABC (Australia) to feature ANZAC eyewitness accounts of Armenian Genocide" ...
Make sure you tune in... read more athttp://www.armenia.com.au/news/Australia-News/English/25734/TONIGHT--ABC--Australia--to-feature-ANZAC-eyewitness-accounts-of-Armenian-Genocide
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NEW YORK -- Ichiro Suzuki said that he was "overwhelmed" to join a select group of professional hitters on Wednesday as the Yankees outfielder connected for his 4,000th hit between Japan's top professional league and the Major Leagues, a first-inning single off the Blue Jays' R.A. Dickey at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees spilled out of the first-base dugout to celebrate after the hit, a line drive that sailed past diving third baseman Brett Lawrie into left field. Curtis Granderson was the first to reach Ichiro, enveloping him in a hug, and Ichiro bowed to the crowd to acknowledge an extended standing ovation.
"The game was stopped for me and the players came out to first base," Ichiro said through an interpreter. "I kind of felt bad that the game was stopped for me. At first, I was trying to stop them from coming, but it was just because I was so happy and overjoyed with the way they supported me.
"Obviously having the 4,000th hit was important, but what is going to make it a more special moment was the fact that my teammates came out. When I look back on this, that's what is going to make this very special."
The total includes 1,278 hits that Ichiro collected over nine seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball as a member of the Orix Blue Wave from 1992-2000, as well as the 2,722 he has logged in the Majors with the Mariners and Yankees since 2001.
"It's an amazing feat," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It's a testament to how hard he's worked, how long he's been in the game, how he stays healthy, the way he goes about his business. He's a great player, and he's been a great player for a long time."
Ichiro joined Pete Rose (4,256) and Ty Cobb (4,191) as the only players to reach the 4,000-hit plateau when considering hits from the highest levels in the U.S. and Japan.
A great admirer of the game's history, Ichiro said he does not expect to see his hit total placed alongside those of Rose and Cobb.
"It is a record that is adding two leagues into one; those guys did it in one league," Ichiro said. "I don't think you have to put me in that same category as them."
The single off Dickey also moved Ichiro past Yankees legend Lou Gehrig (2,721) on the Majors' all-time list.
"Obviously I only know him by name, and I'm hoping to go to Cooperstown and learn more about him," Ichiro said. "I think that was a special moment, to be in this Yankees uniform and be able to pass such a great Yankee."
Dickey said that he would have preferred not to be involved in the milestone, but added, "That being said, what an incredible achievement, and the manner in which he has done it is equally as impressive.
"The longevity, the endurance, the durability, having played with him in Seattle -- it was a real treat to play with him, and it couldn't have happened to a more professional hitter."
The Yankees played a video tribute to Ichiro from Ken Griffey Jr. during Wednesday's game, and the Mariners released a statement which read: "On behalf of the entire Seattle Mariners organization and our fans across the Pacific Northwest, we offer our heartiest congratulations to Ichiro Suzuki for reaching 4,000 hits today.
"We are proud that Ichiro's remarkable career started in Seattle as American League MVP and Rookie of the Year in 2001, and that he collected 2,533 of those 4,000 hits while wearing a Mariners uniform for 11-and-a-half years.
"From Japan to the Mariners and continuing with the New York Yankees, Ichiro's historic milestone is testament to his position as one of the greatest hitters in the game of baseball."
As his career enters its latter stages, Ichiro still owns at least 150 hits in each of his first 12 seasons, a feat accomplished only by Paul Waner, Richie Ashburn and Albert Pujols in the live-ball era.
"After I got my first hit, if at that point I said to you guys, 'My goal is to have 4,000 hits,' I think everybody would have called me an idiot," Ichiro said. "Now, after years and years of just getting hits every day, I've come to this point. What is important is just going out there and doing what you can do every single day."
The argument has been made that if Ichiro's NPB stats are added to his Major League stats, then perhaps Minor League statistics should also be credited in tallying other players' hit totals. It's an intriguing point, and one that highlights Ichiro's accomplishments.
For the purposes of this exercise, only three additional players would then reach 4,000 professional hits: Hank Aaron (3,771 in Majors; 324 in Minors), Stan Musial (3,630 in Majors, 371 in Minors) and Arnold "Jigger" Statz, an outfielder who tallied 737 of his 4,093 pro hits with four big league teams from 1919-28.
"That's a lot of hits, man. It's pretty impressive," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said recently. "I don't care if it's 4,000 in Little League. It shows how consistent he's been throughout his career. It makes you look at how many hits he's got here [in the Majors] in a short amount of time. That's difficult to do, so Ichi has been as consistent as anyone."
Ichiro said that he does not have Rose's 4,256 on his radar, but now that 4,000 is crossed off the to-do list, Ichiro is free to focus on joining the 3,000-hit club in the Major Leagues.
"I get asked that a lot, but I can't have that as a goal," said Ichiro, who sits 278 hits shy of 3,000. "What happens today determines what happens tomorrow. I've got to perform every day in order to be in the lineup the next day. I don't make goals that are so far away; what I do is do what I can every single day and really build off that -- see where that takes me."
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Many thanks to the amazingly talented and very friendly Greg McCown for getting me up on this mountain during a monsoon shortfall on my first night till day in Arizona. We pretty much got out at 2 am and kept on exploring and photographing until well after sunrise. So much to see in Southern Arizona! Greg showed me that the North doesn't have a monopoly on incredible landscape features. — at Mount Lemmon.
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Warp-drive technology, a form of "faster
than light" travel popularized by TV's "Star Trek," could be bolstered by the physics of quantum thrusters — another science-fiction idea made plausible by modern science.
than light" travel popularized by TV's "Star Trek," could be bolstered by the physics of quantum thrusters — another science-fiction idea made plausible by modern science.
NASA scientists are performingexperiments that could help makewarp drive a possibility sometime in the future from a lab built for the Apollo program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
experiments that could help makewarp drive a possibility sometime in the future from a lab built for the Apollo program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
A warp-drive-enabled spacecraft would look like a football with two large rings fully encircling it. The rings would utilize an exotic form of matter to cause space-time to contract in front of and expand behind them. Harold "Sonny" White, a NASA physicist, is experimenting with these concepts on a smaller scale using a light-measuring device in the lab. [Warp Drives and Transporters: How 'Star Trek' Tech Works (Infographic)]
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The claim
Penny Wong's claims about Tony Abbott's cuts are rated mostly false
Entitled Abbott's Cuts to Come, the homepage features a menacing-looking shot of the opposition leader alongside the question: "What Will You Lose if He Wins?"
Launching the site on Wednesday Finance Minister Penny Wong said it was "a snapshot of the cuts we know Tony Abbott plans to make should he be elected".
"We are being generous and we are using their numbers," she said.
"Australians will pay for Tony Abbott's signature scheme and his other unfunded promises through cuts to jobs, to services, to health, to education."
Does it stack up?
Rolling a cursor over photos of families, nurses, schoolchildren and workers on the site brings up claims of cuts that are sketchier than Senator Wong suggests.
Under the heading ''Health'' it says when Mr Abbott was health minister "the Liberals ripped $1 billion dollars from our health system – enough to fund over 1000 beds".
PolitiFact has previously found the claim to be false. Health spending climbed in each year Mr Abbott was minister.
Also under the ''Health'' heading it says: "Joe Hockey says 'no guarantees' on spending cuts".
It neglects to mention Mr Hockey's most recent commitment on Monday that "health and medical research is incredibly important and we have guaranteed that". (It is unclear whether Mr Hockey was guaranteeing not to cut funding for health as well as medical research or merely guaranteeing not to cut funding for research into health and medicine.)
Under the heading 'School Kids' it says: "Cutting billions from schools means that on average schools will have $2000 less per child".
It acknowledges that Mr Abbott has promised to match Labor's school funding commitment for the next four years, but says he has "refused to commit" beyond that.
Under the heading 'Jobs' it says: "Abbott will cut 12,000 jobs. That means families will lose their livelihood and local businesses will be hit."
It does not acknowledge that the 12,000 figure refers to the number of public servants Tony Abbott plans to lose through natural attrition over two years. The families of public servants who leave their jobs voluntarily are unlikely to "lose their livelihood".
A video on the site shows lights being turned out on pictures of workers in hard hats and fluoro jackets as a voice says: "Twelve thousand people will lose their jobs".
Hard hats are not typical of the clothing worn by public servants, and the video does not make clear that the 12,000 people who would "lose their jobs" are all public servants, all of whom would leave through natural attrition.
Under the heading: 'Those Depending on Penalty Rates' it says Mr Abbott "supports cutting penalty rates and overtime".
The claim pre-dates a commitment by Mr Abbott in Wednesday night's leaders' debate to protect both penalty rates and overtime.
The website is on safe ground on just three claims. Abbott would defer superannuation increases, abandon the low-income superannuation contribution and end the Schoolkids Bonus. Each is Coalition policy.
Finding
Senator Wong said the website was "a snapshot of the cuts we know Tony Abbott plans to make should he be elected".
The website is not a snapshot of the cuts Labor and Senator Wong "know" Tony Abbott plans to make. Most of the claimed cuts are suppositions, some of them erroneous.
A PolitiFact rating of ''mostly false'' applies a statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
PolitiFact finds Senator Wong's claim "mostly false".
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The Psychiatrist and the Proctologist
Best friends graduating from medical school at the same time decided that
in spite of two different specialties, they would open a practice together
to share office space and personnel.
Dr. Smith was the psychiatrist and Dr. Jones was the proctologist; they
put up a sign reading: Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones: Hysterias and Posteriors. The
town council was livid and insisted they change it.
The docs changed it to read: Schizoids and Hemorrhoids. This was also
not acceptable so they again changed the sign to read Catatonics and High
Colonics - no go.
Next they tried Manic Depressives and Anal Retentives thumbs down again.
Then came Minds and Behinds - still no good.
Another attempt resulted in Lost Souls and Butt Holes - unacceptable again!
So they tried Nuts and Butts - no way. Freaks and Cheeks - still no good. Loons and Moons - forget it.
Almost at their wits' end, the docs finally came up with:
Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones - Specializing in Odds and Ends.
Everybody loved it!
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It’s not just our economic security that the Greens put at risk, but also the security we receive from long-standing defence partnerships.
If you’ve had enough of the dangerous Greens, help stop them http://ow.ly/nCMYg
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Katz Designer Textiles
Sometimes I forget all the art, sculptures and glass that I have bought, collected and accumulated over the years .... This Greek Orgy Plate is just one example..... We bought this in Greece below The Temple of Aphrodite #greek#orgy #ceramics
They don't have parties like that anymore .. I know the ALP try .. ed
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In this video introducing the Free at Last PAC, Louisiana state senator Elbert Guillory crushes liberal economics – in the most charming way possible.
He explains that the Republican party is more beneficial to black Americans than the Democratic party because the GOP supports capitalism over handouts.
“Only capitalism can provide the upward mobility for the meekest among us to break the shackles of poverty and rise into the middle class.”“[We must] reach into the black community and articulate those values that fuel the American dream. We will be silent no more.”
State Senator Guillory, who recently left the Democratic party and is considering a U.S. Senate run, is the honorary chairman for the Free at Last PAC. The group aims to present the Republican message in a way that attracts more black Americans to the party.
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For the first time, researchers have documented a behavior that had been thought unnatural, if not impossible: apes swimming.
The scientists captured on video two examples of apes that could swim quite naturally. The first was a young chimpanzee named Cooper, who not only figured out how to swim but could also dive underwater to retrieve items from the bottom of a swimming pool.
"We were extremely surprised when the chimp, Cooper, dived repeatedly into a swimming pool in Missouri and seemed to feel very comfortable," Renato Bender, a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, said in a statement. "It was very surprising behavior for an animal that is thought to be very afraid of water." [8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates]
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There are renewed calls for gun control by the Left after anAustralian student was senselessly killed in Oklahoma last Friday. Christopher Lane, 22, was shot and killed while out for a jog by three teens who allegedly told police after that they were "bored."
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It is one of the few places on earth where you can compare the rich blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean on one side of the road and the calm turquoise-green waters of the Exuma Sound (Caribbean Sea) on the other side.
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TRUE COLOURS ………
This is what make-up artist and hair stylist Lily Fontana said about working on both Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott for last nights televised debate…………..
"One of them was absolutely lovely, engaged in genuine conversation with me, acknowledged that I had a job to do and was very appreciative," she said on her page, which is public.
"The other did the exact opposite!”
"Oh boy, I HAVE NEVER HAD ANYONE TREAT ME SO BADLY WHILST TRYING TO DO MY JOB”
"Political opinions aside...from one human being to another...Mr Abbott, you win hands down."
http://
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Mark Kenny in the Fairfax press thinks the bounce from Kevin Rudd's return as PM ended with his disastrous and ill thought out FBT changes. There was also renaming the CO2 tax and outsourcing increases to Brussels, the Bank Deposits Tax, and the endless new money grants without a thought about the massive debt he had built and the $250 billion he had wasted.
But the clinch was his failure in the first debate to do what the media luvvies expected, that he would wipe the floor with Tony Abbott. On most accounts Tony Abbott was the winner of that first debate. Who wins and the debate itselfs is usually of no importance as the gallery almost always declares the left candidate the winner, and the "worm'' is rigged to fit. Similarly, The Brisbane debate was made useless by the string of mainly leftwing inner city whiny irrelevant questions.
The comment on Lily Fontana's FaceBook told us what anyone who knows either men is aware of:
" Just finished doing Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott's makeup for the People's Forum at the Broncos Leagues Club.'''
"One of them was absolutely lovely, engaged in genuine conversation with me, acknowledge that I had a job to do and was very appreciative. The other did the exact opposite! Oh boy, I have ever had anyone treat me so badly whilst trying to do my job. Political opinions aside...from one human being to another...Mr Abbott, you win hands down.
@profdavidflint
Read more: http://
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Ali Kadhim
"People think being alone makes you lonely, but I don't think that's true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world." Kim Culbertson.
There will always be people in life doing what they can to criticize you, compare you and corrupt you, your job is to simply ignore them. Pay no attention to the thoughts of critics and free yourself from the people who try to hold you back. But do so with respect and understand that the only one who can ever stop you from your aspirations, is the one with the most powerful voice, you.
Shot at a wedding over the weekend by the ever artistic Mary Tran!
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The Ramen Burger
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When ever I have unexpected friends over and nothing to serve I turn to this recipe. I usually have all the ingredients in my cupboard. Serve it as it is or with some vanilla ice cream on the side. Yummi!
I especially love all the nuts on top of the cake. I have a crush for pistachios – fantastic color - they’ll get everyone’s mouths water running.
- See more at: http://www.maikenskitchen.com/#sthash.h0wzZXQx.dpuf===
Zaya Toma
<Thank you Premier Barry O'Farrell for so strongly supporting the recognition of the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek Genocide by the Ottoman Empire in the NSW Parliament. These three communities fought side by side with the Australians and other allied nations for the shared values of freedom and democracy. Turkey is a great modern country and should not be afraid of the truth, what happened 100 years ago is relevant today, because those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Whether you find your self agreeing or disagreeing with the Premier, one thing is for sure, he is a politician with courage.>
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Would we be restricting their food supply of CO2? - ed
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I'm disappointed by the meme .. but it is funny. I despise the Democrats for using dead people to get votes when they do nothing worthwhile - ed
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THAT’S MY VAGINA ON HONI SOIT (NSFW)
I had my vagina photographed for the front cover of a student newspaper
By Lily Patchett on August 21 2013 - News
Last week, along with eighteen other young women from Sydney Uni, I had my vagina photographed to make a political statement on the front cover of Honi Soit, Australia’s oldest running weekly student newspaper.
We believe that the way the media represents women’s vaginas is neither realistic or fair, and causes women to feel uncomfortable about how they look. It also gives men a distorted idea of what a vagina actually looks like. Not enough people know what a real vagina looks like. Not a digitally-altered vagina, not a porn star’s vagina, a real one.
Soon after we had the photos taken, we were told that if our vaginas were published and released without censorship (the very thing we were supposed to be fighting), the SRC could be facing a legal battle it could not afford.
Honi Soit had no choice but to agree to censor the vaginas, in the process proving the importance of this project. Here were our vaginas in a completely non-sexual context, showing all of their beautiful diversity, and once again, no one was to see them.
The censored version of Honi Soit cover.
Until I saw the uncensored versions of the vaginas, I didn’t even realise myself how different they could be. The fact that as a woman with a vagina I didn’t know they could be so wonderfully varied from each other just goes to show the extent to which personal ignorance is forced upon us. It also demonstrates how accustomed we are to seeing only one type of vagina: neat, tidy and boring-looking.
But Australian law states that published vaginas must be healed down to a single crease, which means that almost every vagina you see in the media has been censored and/or airbrushed – you’ll never see any ‘bits’ hanging out. You can imagine that this leaves many women feeling like they are abnormal. As the uncensored cover of Honi Soit showed, no two vaginas are the same. But to avoid legal prosecution, Honi Soit censored every one of the 18 vaginas with a black rectangle.
However, when the magazine was released, a blunder was discovered. The black rectangles which had been added to cover the vaginas were far more transparent than was intended. The copies were quickly taken off the stands.
Honi Soit published a post on its Facebook page explaining the motivations that led to them pursuing the project:
We are tired of society giving us a myriad of things to feel about our own bodies. We are tired of having to attach anxiety to our vaginas. We are tired of vaginas being either artificially sexualised (see: porn) or stigmatised (see: censorship and airbrushing). We are tired of being pressured to be sexual, and then being shamed for being sexual.
The vaginas on the cover are not sexual. We are not always sexual. The vagina should and can be depicted in a non-sexual way – it’s just another body part. “Look at your hand, then look at your vagina,” said one participant in the project. “Can we really be so naïve to believe our vaginas the dirtiest, sexiest parts of our body?”
We want to feel normal; we don’t want to feel fearful when we have a first sexual counter with a partner who may judge us because of our vaginas.
Here they are, flaps and all. Don’t you dare tell me my body offends you.
It makes no sense to me that in this day and age, vaginas are still held to mythical standards of beauty – soft, hairless, and white. The reality of vaginas is that some of them are hairy, sometimes prickly, sometimes dark, sometimes pinkish. Some women’s labia poke out, some don’t. But mostly, vaginas are always treated as some great, big, shameful secret.
As young women, we already have enough to worry about when it comes to body image.
Young women are growing up in a society which is so concerned about the way we look. We are expected to be thin, well-dressed, and perfectly made-up. Add to this the pressure to have a picture-perfect (ha!) vagina that we already feel too ashamed to talk about, and it’s no wonder so many young women feel insecure.
Honi Soit has admitted it did not foresee how big a legal issue the cover would become. The images have been deemed in breach of s 578C of the NSW Crimes Act because they are “indecent”.
But I don’t think a natural, normal-looking vagina is indecent. Not in the slightest.
Birdee believes that this image should be published, and seen by everyone. Here is a link to the uncensored cover which was tweeted byHoni Soit Editor, Lucy Watson.
Lily studies philosophy and sociology at Sydney Uni. She identifies as a vegan and feminist, and will probably be very quiet if you ever meet her because she tends to observe rather than engage. However, if you’re ever alone together, you will probably be bombarded with an intense array of questions, which may make you feel uncomfortable. But never fear – she swears it’s only for curiosity’s sake. People are fascinating. You can read more of Lily’s writing on her blog.
That's what the Twitterverse is saying after reports the singer performed to just 40 people in a 90,000 capacity arena at the Mandela Sports and Culture Day in South Africa on Saturday.
The American R&B star was the surprise guest at the FNB stadium in Soweto - the only problem was that no-one knew she was playing.
Tens of thousands of people had therefore left the arena before she arrived on stage.
"Brandy [just] performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on," tweeted South African musician, Kabomo.
"People didn't know there was a concert after the games. No one knew Brandy was around. Maybe a 40 people audience ... She sulked after two songs and walked off.
"There are more people there on a random Tuesday... Depressing."
Added @My2_Melo: "I gave up the min I saw the empty stadium. Brandy performing for the chairs!"
While @dawn_ngwenya said: "Brandy is going to perform for herself and Mbaks only," referring to South Africa's minister of sport, Fikile Mbalula.
The singer reportedly walked off in embarrassment after just two songs.
The country's national TV channel SABC reportedly also ended their broadcast of the concert before Brandy could even emerge on stage.
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An archaeological dig in the City of David, an ancient site in Jerusalem, uncovered shards of pottery, clay lamps, figurines and a ceramic bowl with a 2,700-year-old inscription in ancient Hebrew, according to new research.
A layer of artifacts was found during a recent excavation of an area known as Gihon Spring, which was the main source of water for the City of David
. The ceramic bowl, with its partially preserved inscription on the rim, likely dates back to about 600 B.C. to 700 B.C., said lead researcher Joe Uziel, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
. The ceramic bowl, with its partially preserved inscription on the rim, likely dates back to about 600 B.C. to 700 B.C., said lead researcher Joe Uziel, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The inscription is likely the latter part of the name of an individual from the seventh century B.C., the researchers said. While Uziel and his colleagues are investigating the significance of the ancient inscription including possible links to the Bible the researchers say the meaning of the engraving is unknown so far. [In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World]
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"Since we only have part of the name, any direct connection to a biblical figure is speculative." Uziel told LiveScience in an email. "That said, if we reconstruct the first two letters as Z and K, we would have the name Zechariah Ben (the son of) Benaiah."
Zechariah the son of Benaiah appears in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20:14 of the Hebrew Bible, which states that Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, and member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi, prophesized before King Jehoshaphat before the nation went to war with the ancient kingdoms of Ammon and Moab.
Yet, there are still unanswered questions about this potential biblical link, Uziel added.
"Zechariah Ben Benaiah is mentioned in 2 Chronicles as a levite during the ninth century, although our bowl dates back to the seventh century B.C.," he said.
By closely studying the bowl, the researchers determined that the inscription was made before the clay was fired, which is a process in which clay is brought up to high temperatures and is transformed into ceramic.
Still, the researchers are unsure why the ceramic bowl was inscribed, but some archaeologists have suggested the bowl may have been used to hold an offering.
was inscribed, but some archaeologists have suggested the bowl may have been used to hold an offering.
"It is difficult to say with certainty what the specific use of the bowl was," Uziel said. "Usually bowls are very typical and common vessels found, used similarly to plates today, as serving dishes to eat from. However, the name inscribed on the bowl prior to its firing (the final process of making the bowl) signifies that it may have been made for a specific intention, such as the presentation of a gift or offering to someone, where the name would reflect either the recipient or more likely the presenter."
The discovery of the bowl with the 2,700-year-old inscription will be presented at Megalim's Annual Archaeological Conference, which will take place on Aug. 29 in the City of David.
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Praying Hands, Navajo County, Arizona
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August 22: Feast day of the Queenship of Mary (Roman Catholic Church); Paryushana begins (Svetambar Jains, 2014); Madras Day in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- 1642 – King Charles I of England raised the royal standard at Nottingham, marking the beginning of the First English Civil War.
- 1864 – The Red Cross movement led by Henry Dunant (pictured) officially began when twelve European nations signed the First Geneva Convention, establishing the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- 1922 – Irish Civil War: Irish National Army commander-in-chiefMichael Collins was assassinated in an ambush while en route through County Cork at the village of Béal na mBláth.
- 1944 – World War II: Wehrmacht infantry carried out an assault operation against the civilian residents of nine villages located in the Amari Valley on the Greek island of Crete.
- 2012 – A series of ethnic clashes between the Orma andPokomo tribes of Kenya's Tana River District resulted in the deaths of at least 52 people.
“By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:8 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"He that watereth shall be watered also himself."
Proverbs 11:25
Proverbs 11:25
We are here taught the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves watered. How? Our efforts to be useful, bring out our powers for usefulness. We have latent talents and dormant faculties, which are brought to light by exercise. Our strength for labour is hidden even from ourselves, until we venture forth to fight the Lord's battles, or to climb the mountains of difficulty. We do not know what tender sympathies we possess until we try to dry the widow's tears, and soothe the orphan's grief. We often find in attempting to teach others, that we gain instruction for ourselves. Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures, we came away blushing that we knew so little of them. In our converse with poor saints, we are taught the way of God more perfectly for ourselves and get a deeper insight into divine truth. So that watering others makes us humble. We discover how much grace there is where we had not looked for it; and how much the poor saint may outstrip us in knowledge. Our own comfort is also increased by our working for others. We endeavour to cheer them, and the consolation gladdens our own heart. Like the two men in the snow; one chafed the other's limbs to keep him from dying, and in so doing kept his own blood in circulation, and saved his own life. The poor widow of Sarepta gave from her scanty store a supply for the prophet's wants, and from that day she never again knew what want was. Give then, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and running over.
Evening
"I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain."
Isaiah 45:19
Isaiah 45:19
We may gain much solace by considering what God has not said. What he has said is inexpressibly full of comfort and delight; what he has not said is scarcely less rich in consolation. It was one of these "said nots" which preserved the kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, for "the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven." 2 Kings 14:27. In our text we have an assurance that God will answer prayer, because he hath "not said unto the seed of Israel, Seek ye me in vain." You who write bitter things against yourselves should remember that, let your doubts and fears say what they will, if God has not cut you off from mercy, there is no room for despair: even the voice of conscience is of little weight if it be not seconded by the voice of God. What God has said, tremble at! But suffer not your vain imaginings to overwhelm you with despondency and sinful despair. Many timid persons have been vexed by the suspicion that there may be something in God's decree which shuts them out from hope, but here is a complete refutation to that troublesome fear, for no true seeker can be decreed to wrath. "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I have not said," even in the secret of my unsearchable decree, "Seek ye me in vain." God has clearly revealed that he will hear the prayer of those who call upon him, and that declaration cannot be contravened. He has so firmly, so truthfully, so righteously spoken, that there can be no room for doubt. He does not reveal his mind in unintelligible words, but he speaks plainly and positively, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Believe, O trembler, this sure truth--that prayer must and shall be heard, and that never, even in the secrets of eternity, has the Lord said unto any living soul, "Seek ye me in vain."
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Today's reading: Psalm 107-109, 1 Corinthians 4 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 107-109
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story-
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things....
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things....
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 4
The Nature of True Apostleship
1 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
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