Thursday, August 14, 2014

Thu Aug 14th Todays News

People are surprised the god daughter of a hedonist atheist who died after they stopped having pleasure in life, the daughter of one of the most corrupt Premiers NSW has had, was present at a stabbing murder while high off her face on Ice. The girl is privileged, went to elite private schools and is facing serious charges, but in all likelihood will be pitied rather than punished. Indulgent crack whores don't get better through pity. Meanwhile nine Liberal Party parliamentarians have stepped aside while being investigated. Combined, they fail to reach within three orders of magnitude of Eddie Obeid's half a billion dollar misappropriations. Had the donations come from union officials it would have been legal. It is important that money handling is transparent and above board. Miss Wran inherited a forty million dollar estate. Crime pays? She probably has a car somewhere. Hockey's theory is right, those who use cars most tend to be wealthy. Many are criticising Hockey for his statement of truth. They will probably be defending Wran. 

Under Obama the US is spending a lot of money and it isn't going to unity but racial division and police overkill. Noting two journalists were arrested recently for not leaving a McDonalds fast enough. A peaceful protest march is met by riot police with tear gas and truck mounted SMG. Gotta love freedom. How did a young woman come to fall from a high rise balcony? She was the daughter of a Christian pastor in NZ. She had flown to the Gold Coast. Loved animals. Met someone through a dating app, Tinder. He is a pervert who recorded his numerous sexual conquests using multiple cameras. It was 2am. If he were black, he could have been Obama's son. He has the right to remain silent. He has no right to his hobby. Another with no right to their hobby is Mike Carlton, who is being challenged over the anti racism provision 18c for a bigoted article on Israel. Maybe now the Left will want the legislation repealed. 

On this day in history, Octavian was enjoying his second of three days of triumph over Dalmatia in 29 BC. They would rebel again after Nero in 68 and probably inspire the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 because Caeser needed to make a statement, and some one in seven people across the empire were Jewish. In 1040 King Duncan lost his fight with Macbeth. Duncan was a young king, unlike his Shakesperian depiction. As for three witches, they no doubt are hiding in Birnum Wood. In 1183, the Japanese emperor who was a child took flight with the royal treasures. He would be murdered so that he wasn't killed by the wrong person. The Battle of Mauron was a success for Breton's over France in the early part of the hundred years war in 1352. Eventually, France conquered all. Portugal successfully resisted Castilian Spain in 1385 at the Battle of Aljubarrota. In 1415, Henry the Navigator, son of John I of Portugal had a quick victory over Morocco at the Battle of Ceuta. It wasn't a long lasting victory as the object was worthless without Tangier. In 1437 Portugal would attempt to take Tangier, fail and sue for peace. Henry the Navigator was a follower of a common legend of the day, Prester John. Prester John, according to popular legend, was a descendant of a Maggi from Jesus's birth who was king of a Christian Nation in the Orient, lost among Islamic and pagan tribes. The legend was strongest between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries and fuelled expansion eastward, along with the real promise of spice and goods. In 1592, Korea defeated Japan on water at the Battle of Hansan Island. In 1880, Cologne Cathedral was completed. In 1885, Japan patented the first rust proof paint. In 1888 an audio recording was played at a press conference showing Thomas Edison's phonograph. In 1893, France began registering cars.  In 1901 Gustave Whitehead claimed to have made the first powered flight. In 1914, France unsuccessfully tried to seize Lorraine from Germany. In 1915, BA Santamaria was born. He was staunchly Catholic and opposed Communism while supporting worker's rights. He also opposed unfettered capitalism. He was wrong about unfettered capitalism, fetters make it worse. In 1935, the US created Social Security as a government pension system for the retired. It was so successful it now supports generations of people from cradle to grave. In 1945, Japan accepted surrender unconditionally. Also in 1945, the Viet Minh launch the August Revolution plunging Vietnam into civil war which had people fleeing into the late 1980s. In 1969, UK deployed troops in Northern Ireland. In 1974, Turkey invades Cyprus creating almost 200000 refugees and killing over 6000. In 1975, the Rocky Horror Picture Show began. In 1980, Lech Walesa lead strikes at Gdansk. In 1987, Julian Assange's family was released after a police raid. In 1994, Carlos the Jackal was captured. In 1996, Turkish forces killed a Cypriot for climbing a flagpole in Cyprus, in a UN zone. In 2003, widespread blackouts affected North East America. In 2013 Egypt was in a state of emergency following the dumping of Morsi. 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

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

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

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.netwhich will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Joy Slam. Born on the same day as Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (1653), Hans Christian Ørsted (1777), Doc Holliday (1851), Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin (1866), Frank Oppenheimer (1912), B. A. Santamaria (1915), René Goscinny (1926), Steve Martin and Wim Wenders (1945), Gary Larson (1950), Peter Costello (1957), Sarah Brightman (1960), Emmanuelle Béart (1965) and Mila Kunis (1983). On your day, Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)
1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
1880 – Construction of the Cologne Cathedral—Germany's most visited landmark—was completed, 632 years after it had begun.
1941 – After a secret meeting aboard warships, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post-World War II world despite the fact that the United States had yet to enter the war.
1975 – The film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still in limited release today, making it the longest-running theatrical release in film history, premiered in Los Angeles.
2006 – The United Nations brokered a ceasefire in the Lebanon War between Lebanon and Israel. 
Run Tristan well. Use that cologne. Meet with the right people. Make the cease fire and enjoy the show.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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It’s time for Muslim leaders to speak up

Piers Akerman – Thursday, August 14, 2014 (7:27pm)

AUSTRALIA has been forced to rapidly recalibrate its response to the threat of Islamist terrorism over the past few months. International intelligence failed to predict the speed with which the extremist Islamic State has swept through parts of Syria and Iraq.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'It’s time for Muslim leaders to speak up'
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BRINGING CULTURED REASON TO A GUN FIGHT

Tim Blair – Thursday, August 14, 2014 (4:38pm)

The ABC’s Jonathan Green
Could be any day now ... the sudden indiscriminate smack of a terrorist attack.
Our best defence is of course our cultured reason. Our tolerance. Our audacious confidence in the fundamental goodness of others. 
Interesting theory. It deserves to be tested. By Jonathan. In northern Iraq. Meanwhile, members of the Australian Cultured Reason Force have delivered 10 pallets of supplies to Iraq’s Yazidi minority, who have fled to the mountains rather than submit to the Islamic State’s audacious confidence.
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DON’T WORRY, BE GAPPY

Tim Blair – Thursday, August 14, 2014 (2:07pm)

Fairfax is gap-obsessed
• The gap between the rich and poor in Australia is growing …
• The richest Australians saw their wealth rise at more than triple the pace of the poorest …
• The gap between rich and poor is widening …
• Outrage about the widening gap between rich and poor is gripping much of the developed world …
• A growing gap in income levels has opened up in the past three years …
• The gap between the haves and have-nots in Australia is widening …
• The gap between Australia’s wealthiest and poorest households is getting wider …
• The widening gap between rich and poor is threatening the very tenets of capitalism and democracy.
• An ever-growing gap between rich and poor is bad for growth.
• The gap between rich and poor widened markedly between 2004 and 2008 …
• What can we do to stop the gap between the rich and the poor getting wider? 
Fairfax’s solution – widen it even further
Fairfax executives have been immune from the cost-cutting underway at the media company, taking home generous salary increases of more than $2 million in total last year …
While Fairfax is stripping costs from the company and has made dozens of journalists and photographers redundant over the past year, Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood was protected from the cutbacks, taking home a salary of $2.8 million including shares — up almost $1 million on the year before. 
Lowly Fairfax staffers are holding a meeting this afternoon to beg for a pay increase of just two per cent.
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EL-MO

Tim Blair – Thursday, August 14, 2014 (12:55pm)

Mark Steyn on that picture
If you think the picture’s appalling, consider the Australian establishment’s reaction. Could you turn Khaled Sharrouf’s son into a functioning Australian citizen? Maybe. In theory. But, in practice, no – not if the limp-wristed hand-wringing of the deluded multicultists is any indication … first, the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Bill Shorten, who thinks it’s a parenting issue:
“As a parent, I have no idea how you could ever let your child be in that situation. I think that’s shocking,” the Opposition Leader said.
Perhaps we need some sort of federal parenting class, in which prospective parents have to pick the age-appropriate toy for their infant to play with:
a) severed head of Assad supporter; 
b) severed head of Mosul Christian; 
c) severed head of Kurdish Yazidi; 
d) bloody pulped remains of post-stoning Ramadi adulteress; 
e) Tickle-Me Elmo.
 

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WHO TO BELIEVE?

Tim Blair – Thursday, August 14, 2014 (12:21pm)

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
The Iraqi people, the government of Iraq, country of Iraq is now under threat from some of the most brutal, barbaric forces we’ve ever seen in the world today, and a force, ISIL, and others that is an ideology that’s connected to an army and it’s a force and a dimension that the world has never seen before like we have seen it now …
The world is exploding all over. 
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US President Golfy McBambipants
The world is less violent than it has ever been. It is healthier than it has ever been. It is more tolerant than it has ever been. 
(Via A.R.M. Jones)
UPDATE. Thirty days of tolerance. (Via Craig R.)
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PELOSI GALORE

Tim Blair – Thursday, August 14, 2014 (11:47am)

Dennis Miller on issues relating to the below post, and much else besides (caution: clip is CLR – Carlton Language Rated):



Via Mike Mc. Speaking of Carlton
The controversial 18C provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act will be used in a complaint against The Sydney Morning Herald over its anti-­Semitic cartoon and the accompanying article by former columnist, Mike Carlton. 
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Paper named

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (6:08pm)

Stackja describes perfectly the paper that published Mike Carlton’s anti-Israel rant and a cartoon of a hook-nosed Jew with his Star of David blowing up a city:
...the Sydney Morning Hamas.
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Green: little difference between a headhacker and Abbott

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (12:00pm)

Far-Left ABC presenter Jonathan Green believes there is little difference between a jihadist cutting off heads to a politician promising to stop him:
And then on Monday came the clincher, the front page photo from The Australian, an image plucked it seems from the Twitter feed of homegrown and probably certifiable jihadist Khaled Sharrouf: a grinning boy and a severed head.
It’s offered as proof of the incarnate evil that we confront, an image that transports the observer through shock, to revulsion, and then quite probably to fear…
To use that same fear to push a domestic agenda for increased national security protections that compromise cherished individual liberties is one thing. To promote anxiety to lever the improved popularity that comes from soothing paternalism seems not that far removed from the original tactic of the likes of the Islamic State:  using fear to overwhelm your enemies and cement the loyalty of your friends.
I’ve long said Green was a third-rate brain with a first-rate ego. I now concede that “third-rate” flatters him.
The ABC is out of control.
UPDATE
Note the used of the word “supposed”:
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Sharrouf, decapitating infidels and threatening Australia, is only a “supposed” enemy?
UPDATE
It is often the boast of genius to see what others can’t. Trouble is, it is often the characteristic of madmen, too.
UPDATE
Green is a caricature of the sanctimonious Leftist hypocrite.
First he retires hurt in protest at the “attack tweets” that have driven him to incoherent spluttering:
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But he cannot wait even half an hour before himself retweeting a spiteful attack tweet mocking a former ABC chairman:
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Is this seriously the standard of debate the ABC encourages - and finances with our taxes?
The ABC is out of control. 
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Let’s hear how Gillard Government hunted James Hird

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (9:06am)

Something really stinks when a government is pushing an allegedly independent authority to get it some scalps, apparently to save its ministers from looking like idiots:
AN independent inquiry will examine evidence of high-level political interference in the ­Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s investigation into ­Essendon
Government sources last night expressed concern at the persistent involvement of Kate Lundy, Labor’s sports minister at the time, along with her advisers and senior departmental figures in discussions between ASADA and the AFL about how the investigation would run and the outcomes it could deliver…
Sworn affidavits and detailed notes by former ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska and other anti-doping officials tendered to the court as part of the case have exposed political pressures placed on the anti-doping body to produce an outcome to suit the needs of the Gillard government and commercial considerations of the AFL…
The court was yesterday told that, in June last year, the Gillard government offered ASADA ­additional funding to meet an AFL deadline to take disciplinary ­action against Essendon and Hird before last year’s finals series.
Previously undisclosed notes of an ASADA “strategy meeting’’ also revealed a government plan to bolster the anti-doping authority’s legal team with lawyers provided by the AFL.
ASADA national manager of operations Trevor Burgess told the Federal Court he received a briefing on June 13 from Richard ­Eccles, a deputy secretary within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, about an AFL plan to take action against club staff and suspend Hird for at least six months… 
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West getting poorer

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (8:55am)

The West is getting poorer, having lost the discipline to create wealth rather than redistribute it.
In Australia:
Real wages (wages adjusted for annual inflation) fell in the June quarter to be 0.5 per cent lower over the year. By this measure, Australian living standards have declined over the past year.
In the US:
U.S. jobs pay an average 23% less today than they did before the 2008 recession, according to a new report released on Monday by the United States Conference of Mayors.
In Britain:
British workers have suffered an “unprecedented” decline in real wages over the past six years, with the average employee £2,000 worse off since the financial crisis hit, according to new research.
The average worker saw a 8pc decline in real wages between 2008 and 2013, said the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). 
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Media attacks Hockey for their untruths about him

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (8:25am)

What the Treasurer actually said:
The people that actually pay the most are higher income people, with an increase in fuel excise. ... The poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases.
What one Age reporter, Jacob Saulwick, falsely claims Hockey said:
Really poor people, Hockey claims, are too poor to drive.
What one News Corp reporter, Leftist Malcolm Farr, falsely claims Hockey said:

TREASURER Joe Hockey today argued his fuel tax increases weren’t unfair to low income earners because they couldn’t afford to own cars anyway.
What one Age headline falsely claims Hockey said:
Critics attack Joe Hockey’s claim poorest don’t drive cars as ‘completely fallacious’
What the Daily Mail falsely claims Hockey said:

‘Poor people don’t drive cars’: Joe Hockey’s extraordinary riposte to critics who say his budget targets low-income earners
What the ABC falsely claims Hockey said:
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has accused Treasurer Joe Hockey of being an “arrogant”, “cigar-chomping” politician over his remarks that poor people will not be affected by the increase to the fuel excise because they “don’t have cars”.
What the ABC falsely claims Hockey said:
‘Poorest people don’t have cars’: Joe Hockey shrugs off criticism over fuel excise comments
What Hockey said was in fact perfectly correct:
“The Australian Bureau of Statistics data states that the highest 20 per cent of household incomes pay three times more in fuel taxes than the lowest 20 per cent of household incomes, “ he told ABC NewsRadio from Perth.
“The Australian Bureau of Statistics data is not something that I’ve concocted, it is the reality. These are dealing with the facts.”
In essence, many journalists of the Left are attacking Hockey for their own jeering misrepresentations of what he accurately described.
Journalism today. Not even the truth will save you from the pack. 
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There is a culture shaping this jihadism

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (8:05am)

Tanveer Ahmed’s analysis suggests important lessons for our immigration and refugee programs:

AS a psychiatrist who visits jails, I see a lot of overlap between locals who are lured towards terror and many clients from Middle Eastern backgrounds I see in the legal ­system…
There remains a marked difference in the way males are raised within some Lebanese groups which predisposes them to greater acts of anti-social behaviour. It is a fairly specific segment of the Lebanese community and a result of the migration of poorer farmers and lower-class Lebanese Muslims after the civil war in 1975…
There is a rampant anti-social character to some youths from this segment which stems in part from unsuccessful child rearing. The horrific moves towards terror acts can be seen as an ideological extension of a propensity towards bad behaviour, combined with an unshakable victim mentality.
There are clear trends in the ­clients I see from Arab groups in jails. They come from large families. The fathers were often absent while they worked unskilled jobs trying to provide. The mothers lacked the extended family support they may have had in their ancestral lands… The men were placed on a pedestal with few behavioural limits. The relatively absent fathers, who might have disciplined the sons, compounded the problems.
I see further key psychological differences among these groups, particularly the Lebanese or the children of refugees from Iraqi or Afghan ... While expressions of anger and threats are a quick way to lose face in polite Western society, it is more acceptable within Arab groups. At its worst, calm, measured responses to conflict may be seen as weak.
This is outlined by Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennell’s groundbreaking work visiting Muslim criminals in jail, where he makes reference to the Arab notion of “holy anger”, which is completely foreign to English.
Another key difference is the psychological idea of “locus of control"… Western thinking teaches that we have some control of our destinies… Arab cultures have… a God that decides their life’s course. “Inshallah” follows every statement about future plans: if God wills it to occur…
In societies shaped under Islamic influences there is little emphasis on guilt and a greater likelihood to demand that society adapt to one’s own wishes…
Other Arab Australians from Egypt, Jordan or Iran do not have the same problems. If you meet them, they will be quick to point out that their community’s migration was from a more skilled base. They had smaller families, focused on their children’s education and integrated more easily.
UPDATE
What is it about the Islamic ideology that it is so easily seen as endorsing terrorism?
Dozens of pro-Isis leaflets were distributed in London’s Oxford Street on Tuesday, urging Muslims to pledge allegiance to the jihadi group and travel to Syria and Iraq…
The spread of such pro-Isis material across Europe has been a growing concern for intelligence chiefs, who believe the security threat posed by Isis-linked jihadis is one of the gravest facing the west.
More than 3,000 Europeans, including more than 500 Britons, have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight in radical Sunni extremist groups, including Isis. At least one successful terror attack in Europe – shootings at a Belgian Jewish museum in May – has been linked to the conflict.
UPDATE
I am glad the imams are doing this, but I am seriously alarmed that so many of their followers are so tempted by terrorism:
JASON OM: ASIO says there are 150 known Australian radicals, including 60 fighters. The Grand Mufti says the number could have been far greater without intervention from Australian imams, who he says have implored young Muslims not to go and fight.
IBRAHIM ABU MOHAMED (voiceover translation): If it wasn’t for our effort, there could have been 1,500, not 150.
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Carlton sued under 18C. Good

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (8:05am)

Free speech

I fully support this suing of Mike Carlton. Why should the Racial Discrimination Act be used to silence only conservatives? Let the Left now realise the law menaces even their own and must be scrapped as a crime against free speech:
THE controversial 18C provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act will be used in a complaint against The Sydney Morning Herald over its anti-­Semitic cartoon and the accompanying article by former columnist, Mike Carlton.
A Sydney engineer, Wayne Karlen, 60, has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission ­arguing the publication of the cartoon and column caused offence to Australian Jews.
Mr Karlen also referenced the subsequent abuse of readers by Carlton, stating in the complaint that The Sydney Morning Herald has committed an unlawful act within the meaning of the Racial Discrimination Act…
Mr Karlen, who is not Jewish, said he decided to lodge the complaint on Tuesday after the ABC’s Media Watch defended the cartoon and Carlton the night before…
In addition to Mr Karlen, The Australian understands at least one member of the Jewish community has also lodged a complaint with the commission under section 18C, although Jewish ­organisations have stated they will not be taking similar action in light of the Herald’s apology.
Those “Jewish organisations” are two-faced. They know that using these laws against Carlton will discredit them. And so they do not use these wicked laws to defend their community, yet say nothing when those laws are used to muzzle their allies.
But Carlton has little to fear. He is an ideological mate of the Human Rights Commission, whose Race Discrimination Commissioner, a former Labor staffer, has already rushed to exonerate Carlton:

Commentators you would hope would be cantankerous or controversial… Obviously Fairfax decided to take some action against him. Look, I’m agnostic on this.
Mates rates? 
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End this blindness to evil

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (7:33am)

Culture wars, Islamism

image
THE danger isn’t just from jihadist terrorists. There’s also the intellectual cowardice of our political class. I’m talking about those — mainly on the Left — claiming Islamism is no real threat or that the real problem is not “them” but “us”.
Or those who just put their hands over their eyes and go “la la la la”, the people confusing blindness with kindness.
Example 1: Far-Left ABC presenter Jonathan Green. Green was furious that The Australian published a front-page picture of the seven-year-old son of Sydney jihadist Khaled Sharrouf holding a head cut off a Syrian soldier.
“To know something appalling has happened is enough. To be forced to see it is a theft of innocence,” he tweeted.
But I suspect Green was mourning the theft not of innocence but of his wilful ignorance.
After all, here — where it could no longer be ignored — was an image of such unambiguous evil that no Leftist apologist could credibly keep blaming Western oppression of a poor Muslim.
Example 2: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Shorten, holding a raft of marginal seats with strong Muslim votes, insisted “every Australian was shocked to their core at that dreadful image”.
In fact, some weren’t at all, which is exactly the problem.
(Read full column here.) 
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Cooling would be worse, and some scientists now warn…

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (7:24am)

Maurice Newman warns:

Russian scientists at the Pulkovo Observatory are convinced the world is in for a cooling period that will last for 200-250 years. Respected Norwegian solar physicist Pal Brekke warns temperatures may actually fall for the next 50 years. Leading British climate scientist Mike Lockwood, of Reading University, found 24 occasions in the past 10,000 years when the sun was declining as it is now, but could find none where the decline was as fast. He says a return of the Dalton Minimum (1790-1830), which included “the year without summer”, is “more likely than not”. In their book The Neglected Sun , Sebastian Luning and Fritz Varen­holt think that temperatures could be two-tenths of a degree Celsius cooler by 2030 because of a predicted anaemic sun. They say it would mean “warming getting postponed far into the future”.
If the world does indeed move into a cooling period, its citizens are ill-prepared… Cheap electricity in a colder climate will be critical, yet distorted price signals caused by renewable energy policies are driving out reliable baseload generators… It is interesting to contemplate how the West would handle the geopolitical and humanitarian challenges brought on by a colder climate’s shorter growing seasons and likely food shortages. Abundance is conducive to peace....
Yet the global warming pause is now nearly 18 years old and, as climate scientist Judith Curry says, “attention is moving away from the pause to the cooling since 2002”. 
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No wonder they despise our weakness

Andrew Bolt August 14 2014 (7:16am)

Too disabled to work, not too disabled to be a terrorist. We really have been played for fools:
WELFARE payments to more than a dozen suspected jihadists have been axed to stop Australian taxpayers’ money being used to finance terrorist outrages in Iraq and Syria… Wanted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, who was photographed executing Iraqi soldiers and whose young son was photographed holding a soldier’s severed head, received a $383-a-week disability support pension for several months. It lapsed after he left Australia on his brother’s passport.
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her




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How about training centres for the trainers retraining after their industry was ruined by ALP? ed
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Seven years ago, the United Nations, Lebanon and Israel unanimously agreed to pass Resolution 1701, which called for the evacuation of Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon and the terror group’s complete disarmament. Yet today Hezbollah is armed to the hilt and more entrenched than ever. Share this and show the world the truth.

Learn more: http://www.idfblog.com/hezbollah/2013/08/12/7-years-later-hezbollah-persists-in-brazen-violations-of-un-res-1701/
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Meet Billy Ray Harris, a homeless man who returned an engagement ring worth thousands after a woman accidentally dropped it into his change cup. The owner of the ring was Sarah Darling. Ms. Darling and her fiance set up a fundraising page to thank him. With the $180,000 raised from public donations, Mr. Harris has been able to buy a house and get a job.
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“SEX APPEAL” IS NOT PC... unless you have it

It was staggering to see Abbott’s off hand “sex appeal” comment make the lead story on Sky News and many newspapers this morning. 

[It must have been hard for pensioners who had difficulty keeping warm last night to understand what the media considered a page one story.]

Obviously I’m out of touch so I decided to be awfully offensive and did a quick ring around to see what politicians were considered to have (or not have) sex appeal.

It seems a woman’s concept of sex appeal is different to men, except for one politician who who got top “sexy” marks from both sides!

Admittedly it was not a comprehensive poll, I made only 15 or 20 calls and included my own assessment. So, here’s what might well be a dodgy, apolitical consensus:

Women went for Tony Abbott, Josh Frydenburg, Doug Cameron (must be his accent), Nick Xenophon (must be his bedroom eyes) and Julie Bishop.

Women said those who are bereft of sex appeal are Kevin Rudd, Christine Milne (she just needs ironing), David Bradbury, Sophie Mirrabella and Penny Wong (I won’t say anything).

Men nominated only women as having sex appeal and that’s interesting in itself: Julie Bishop (she really is funny hot), Kate Lundy, Tanya Plibersek, Sarah Hanson-Young (wot!!), Kate Ellis and that was about it.

Men suggested those who were without sex appeal were Christine Milne, Kevin Rudd, Adam Bandt, Jenny Macklin, Graham Perrett and Peter Slipper (no surprises there).

This politically incorrect poll probably has a margin of error of 80% but there was one slam dunk: Julie Bishop! She was considered by all to have the most sex appeal. (Hard to disagree.)

So, should Julie Bishop be offended? Of course not! And she wouldn’t be. The only complainants are those women without sex appeal, and there are plenty of those in Parliament.

They are the women who wear heavy-duty uplift bras, disguise their shaved short legs with high heels, sport a cleavage, plaster on red arousal lippy, wear colorful clobber and fly into a blind rage if someone mentions their appearance or, God forbid, sex appeal!

If a bloke can’t comment on a woman’s sex appeal, when she has gone to extreme lengths to show she has it, then PC has sunk to new depths.

Women who complain of being treated as a sex object should stop dressing like one or stand still and enjoy the plaudits.

That’s unless we have all become genderless, homogeneous homosexuals!
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The character is supposed to be hoping it isn't a killer but a mate who jus dropped by out of the blue .. climbed through a window .. grabbed a kitchen knife .. left a threatening message .. as a joke - ed
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Leave the impossible to us
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Chris Poole No don't eat it. Eat 16% of their ice cream and redistribute 14% of it to people who did nothing to deserve it and who also hate your children. THAT's how tax works.
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A DIAMOND AND ONYX BROOCH, BY CARTIER
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Almagor, an organization that represents victims of Arab terrorism, responded with sorrow to the High Court decision to reject its motion against the release of 26 terrorist murderers, as a “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Almagor chairman Meir Indor said, "We regret very much that the court, like the prime minister, did not even listen to the serious arguments regarding the government'scrossing of red lines, including the fact that some of the terrorists being released committed their crimes after the Oslo accords were signed.
"The Supreme Court locked its gates today before the bereaved families and the Jewish terror victims – something it does not do when it comes to any Palestinians,” Indor added – noting, among other past decisions by the High Court, its willingness to force the state to change the route of the security fence, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, because of complaints by Arabs.
"The High Court has, in effect, erased the status of the victims and has given its protection to the men of terror, who will be able to demand the release of murderers from now on,” he went on. “This is a very sad day for the bereaved families and Israeli society, and a day of victory for the terror organizations and their supporters.”
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In what is being described as yet another example of Palestinian Authority (PA) denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the very legitimacy of the State of Israel, the Presidential Guard of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has claimed the Western Wall as an Arab and Islamic site.
Palestinian Media Watch(PMW), an NGO which monitors incitement, anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda on Palestinian Arab TV, has revealed that last week, a picture of the Western Wall was posted onto the PA Presidential Guard's official Facebook page with a PA flag superimposed on it, along with the words "The Al Buraq Wall - Public Relations and Information - The Presidential Guard - Palestinian youth know their rights."
The Western Wall is a relic of the retaining wall of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed by Imperial Roman in 70CE. For nearly 2,000 years Jews were prevented from worshipping on the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, and instead prayed at the wall, which has since become a holy site in its own right, at which millions of Jews congregate to pray each year. Ongoing restrictions on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount mean that the Wall is still the primary place of Jewish worship in Jerusalem.
"Al Buraq" is the name given to the Western Wall by Arab rejectionists, who deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
They claim that the wall has nothing to do with the Jewish Temples, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary; instead, they assert that it is the place where Muhammed tethered his mythical winged horse Buraq hundreds of years later, when according to some Islamic legends it transported him from Mecca to Jerusalem and back - despite the fact that Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Quran. 
PMW noted that this is only the latest example of PA rejectionism and denial of the Jewish people's claim to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, as a way of rejecting the State of Israel's very legitimacy and right to exist.
Despite the start of much-lauded "peace talks" between Israel and the PA, Arutz Sheva has reported on the continued campaign of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda and incitement to violence by the PA through its official organs.
For example, last week the PA's official TV station broadcast a crudely anti-Semitic program which legitimized violence against Jews in Judea and Samaria, who were stereotyped as violent thieves. The end of the program glorified the humiliation of a religious Jew by cutting off his peyot side-curls, in a scene chillingly reminiscent of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda.
Other Ramadan broadcasts include a re-run of a music video encouraging violence against Israelis, and the glorification of the murderer of 61 Israeli civilians on the official Facebook page of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
Recently, an anchor on the PA's official news station declared that a future "Palestinian state" would extend from Rosh Hanikra in northern Israel to Eilat in the south - effectively wiping Israel off the map.
These incidents and others led to Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahucomplaining directly to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been pushing the Israeli government to enter into talks with the PA.
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Guess who graduated first in this year's medical school class at the Technion, Israel's version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It's a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel's Galilee.
Ali-Selah's academic excellence not only marks her own personal achievement but also proves that contrary to propaganda spouted by proponents of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement -- whose latest convert is Stephen Hawking -- an academic boycott of Israel is the wrong approach to solving the Israel-Arab conflict. Moreover, it ultimately hurts the very people it claims to help. Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives."
After Ali-Selah's first class at the Technion, in Haifa, northern Israel, she was ready to call it quits. Ali-Selah had studied Hebrew from elementary school through high school but in the predominantly Arab area around Nazareth, she rarely used Hebrew and her vocabulary was limited. During Ali-Selah's first Chemistry lecture, she couldn't understand why her professor kept talking about malls. What did shopping malls have to do with Chemistry? She then realized the professor was speaking about moles, a standard scientific unit for measuring quantities of minute entities.
It did not take long for her to break through her limited language skills and rise to the top of her class. In fact, in 2011, she was one of eight students from around Israel who were presented with academic awards of excellence at the Knesset, Israel's Senate.
Ali-Selah claims that her academic drive is "part genes and part family background." After raising four children, Ali-Selah's mother, Fahima, went back to school to complete her college education and is now studying for a PhD in education. (Ali-Selah's father, Rohi, would have liked to continue his education but his father died when he was a high school senior and he was forced to go to work to support his younger siblings.) Ali-Selah said that the atmosphere in the village, Jaffa-Nazareth, is liberal and many of its residents encourage young women to further their education.
Ali-Selah is currently doing an Obstetrics/Gynecology residency at Carmel Hospital in Haifa. She said that in her village, Jaffa-Nazareth, she knew of only one female Arab doctor. She decided to take on the field, despite its demanding hours, because she knew that many Arab women are more comfortable going to a female doctor rather than a male. She says that in addition to her personal goals, she wants to make a contribution to Israeli-Arab society.
Aware that she is seen as a role model to other young Arab women, Ali-Selah also knows that she is breaking common misperceptions and stereotypes. "The media emphasizes negative things about Muslims and does not emphasize the positive," Ali-Selah said. She also feels, however, that extremists are co-opting Islam and radicalizing it. Extremists within Islam are influencing people's perceptions about Islam and women's roles. "There is nowhere in the Koran that that states women should not study," Ali-Selah explained. In fact, she said that the Koran emphasizes that women must learn because they are the ones to educate the children. The same is true of women's dress. Women are supposed to dress modestly, but there are no Islamic laws stating that women need to wear long robes or cover their faces.
"If people's socio-economic situation improves, they become more educated and enlightened," Ali-Selah said. "Take away people's food, and they become religious." Her husband, Nidal Mawasi, agrees with her. Mawasi, who comes from Baqa al-Gharbiya, an Arab city in central Israel, graduated from Technion's Medical School in 2008. They met because he was teaching her dissection course, and they are now expecting their first child.
On trips to Europe, Ali-Selah said that people she met were surprised to learn that Israeli Arabs studied engineering and medicine in Israel, and that they lived among Jews. This lack of awareness helps the BDS Movement win misguided supporters. Boycotters like Roger Waters repeat a falsehood -- that Israel is an apartheid state -- and deny a fundamental truth: Arabs, in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country. Yes, they do.
Rather than an academic boycott -- which targets researchers who want to disseminate knowledge rather than restrict it -- Ali-Selah suggests a more active stance: encouraging academic life within the Palestinian Authority and strengthening academic ties with Palestinian universities, planning joint research projects with Palestinian scientists, and admitting more Palestinian scholars to European and American universities for academic programs.
Ali-Selah said that because she did medical research, the boycott did not negatively impact her work, but sooner or later, she said that it will impinge upon academic researchers she knows, both Jews and Arabs. That's why Stephen Hawking and others interested in advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East should focus their energies on supporting more of Israel's success stories like Mais Ali-Selah's, and pressuring Arab countries to emulate Israel's academic freedoms and democracy.
Some might argue that Ali-Selah is an exception to the rule about the Arab minority in Israel. But we only have to look at President Barack Obama to remember how unusual -- and important -- exceptions are.
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Australia’s Online Hate Prevention Institute denounced a Facebook account Tuesday for spreading “Holocaust inversion and also significant new antisemitism related to Israel.”
In a statement, Dr. Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Instituteflagged “The Untold History” Facebook account, which is “liked” by 843 people, and features 428 comments, though many of them were made to ridicule the account and its creators.
“Social media is a powerful tool and that power should not be used to take content like this viral.  Social media companies, that have such a major impact on our daily lives, need to behave in a socially responsible manner and to be held accountable when they fail to live up to the standards society expect,” Oboler said.
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My good friend, Matt Granz, came in to town. So I hauled him up to the hoodoos on Mount Lemmon at 2am this morning.
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Matt likes to rock.
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<Does anyone honestly believe that American intervention has solved the Iraq crisis? Or the Afghanistan crisis? Or that it ever will?> I feel it is unarguable that Iraq is much better without Hussein and Afghanistan without the Taliban .. the world is safer. I feel those two nations have more hope now than they had before. But none of the good things that has happened in either nation were a result of Obama policy. That being said, Syria has no good side worth supporting. - ed
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GRAFF Gemini Yellows - Mesmerising yellow emerald cut earrings exceeding over 50cts each (20 diamonds, 113.94cts)
They look awesome .. but .. I wouldn't know where to put them. Hey! My wife just clipped my ear! - ed
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Trusting in God will not make the mountain smaller, but it will make the climbing easier. Do not ask Him for a lighter load, ask for a stronger back instead.
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It is never good to try to appease evil
It is a different order of magnitude, but a similar policy to Holder's release of drug dealers .. same philosophy .. it is appalling that any world leader might think it was something worth cheering - ed

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Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr lived a busy life: When he wasn’t re-imagining atomic structure and quantum mechanics, he was saving over 7,000 Danish Jews from Nazi persecution.
In 1943, after learning that Nazi occupiers sought to prevent him from working on the Allied Manhattan Project, Bohr evacuated to Sweden, whose government was under strict Allied orders to fly him to the United States immediately.
But upon learning of the plight of his compatriots, Bohr, whose maternal grandfather was Jewish, refused to leave until Sweden announced that it would be open to receiving Danish Jews. He took his request all the way to the top: in September 1943, King Gustaf of Sweden made public his country’s intention to provide asylum.
But that’s not all: After founding the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen (now the Niels Bohr Institute), Bohr provided temporary work and financial support to refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Some who sought asylum, like Felix Bloch and James Franck, went on to win Nobel Prizes and were instrumental in changing modern science.
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<“Al-Habbash explained that, like Hamas, many of Mohammed's companions burned with anger that their leader was negotiating with the Quraish tribe rather than attacking Mecca. But Mohammed knew that only a more measured approach would lead to ultimate victory.

“Two years after signing the treaty, Mohammed's forces had gained enough strength and he launched the brutal conquest of Mecca.

“"This is the example and this is the model" that the Palestinian leadership is following, Al-Habbash acknowledged.

“Amazingly, all of the doe-eyed Israeli commentators who believe that this round of negotiations is for some reason going to be different from all the previous fail to take the simple step of listening to what the Palestinians themselves are saying.

“"Abbas is a real peace partner," they shout, while willfully ignoring what Abbas' own ministers are telling the public, in his name and in his presence, without any refutation by the "president.">

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A Halo Design Diamond Ring about to be set.....can you see the halo in this picture?
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THE DIARIES OF PETER BEATTIE'S MISTRESS
[Accuracy of the following report cannot be assured beyond doubt. Material that could not be corroborated has been deleted. Information in these diaries is more an indictment on Kevin Rudd’s judgment than the ethics of Peter Beattie. Rudd, as an ALP and Premier Wayne Goss confidant, would have been privy to the following information.]
On June 15, 2006 Andrew Bolt reported: “EX-PREMIER Peter Beattie is embroiled in a war of words with a Nationals MP after claims he had an affair with a cabinet minister were referred to the CMC.
“A furious Mr Beattie yesterday hit out at Burnett MP Rob Messenger, who has referred a complaint that disgraced former Tourism Minister Merri Rose forced her electorate staff to falsify and shred documents to cover up an alleged relationship with Mr Beattie.”
This may be true but Pickering Post has been reliably informed (and it is widely held to be true among ALP insiders) that Peter’s transgressions extended to Merri Rose’s daughter who became pregnant to, and bore a daughter to, Beattie.
It is believed that it was this matter that Merri Rose attempted to blackmail Beattie over in order to obtain political favours.
Merri Rose was found guilty and spent jail time.
But Peter Beattie was embroiled in another affair with Pat Gillespie, a political journalist for The Sunday Mail and The Australian newspapers from the early 1990’s until 1996.
Gillespie became an embarrassment to the Government so she was shifted to The Children’s Commissioners Office where she became their problem.
Gillespie was concerned that the Criminal Justice Commission would raid her house so she gave the diaries (in disk or tape format) to a friend, Lorelle Saunders, a former police officer, for safe keeping.
 Saunders didn’t want to keep the diaries, so she gave them to a solicitor friend, Mr Gordon Harris, for safe keeping.  It was Gordon who had the data transcribed. The diary notes were legitimately obtained.
 There are a number of people named in the diaries.
 Danny is Peter Beattie.
 Darth Vader is Heather Beattie.
 Ken Crooke is the Former State Secretary of the National Party.
 Drew Hutton is the former Convenor of The Greens in Qld.
 DJ is Doug Slack the former National Party Minister for Environment in the Borbidge government. 
 There are other names that can be Googled.
 Just prior to the June, 1998 Queensland State election, Beattie had booked the Presidential Suite at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Brisbane.
There was also a function at the same hotel for the party heavyweights.  The cost of the function and room was bankrolled by now convicted paedophile Bill D’Arcy, the ALP’s money man.
While Beattie was staying at the Stamford Plaza, Gillespie attempted to set herself up as the new Mrs Beattie.  Beattie had her physically thrown out of the hotel and barred from re-entry.
In 2000/1 Gillespie had her husband charged with rape. He was a doctor and is now in the Hervey Bay area. 
Gillespie judged that the DPP was too slow to act in progressing with the charges.  She attempted to use her connection, with Premier Beattie, to force the DPP to proceed more quickly with the prosecution.  There are several letters from the DPP, Leanne Clare, confirming this. 
This is one letter and appears to give legitimacy to the claims:  
In fact one of the letters confirms that six of the DDP’s staff had to seek counselling, as a result of Gillespie’s harassment and bullying. 
The DPP cast doubt on many of Gillespie’s claims and she eventually received a paltry settlement of $8,000.
Leanne Clare is now a District Court judge, so no comment was available.
Gillespie became a  severe embarrassment to Beattie and the ALP financed the purchase of a property for her in Tasmania. 
A job was also arranged with the RSPCA. This deal caused some disquiet among the ALP party management because party funds were used to pay off Beattie’s mistress.
Tasmania is an interesting place and appears to be a dumping ground for former ALP leaders’ mistresses.
When Wayne Goss was State ALP Opposition leader in 1989, he had a potential image problem with a mistress, who also happened to be a journalist.  Her name was Marion Smith. 
The Qld, ALP arranged for a job for Marion with the Field ALP Government there. When the Field Government fell within a short time, Marion returned to Queensland and obtained a position as Media Liaison Officer with the new Criminal Justice Commission. 
Wayne Goss pressured CJC Chairman, Sir Max Bingham, to sack Marion but he refused to do so.
Kevin Rudd, who worked closely with Goss, would have known of the ins and outs of the affairs but has seen fit to resurrect a bitter enemy in Beattie as an ALP candidate for Forde. This appears to throw doubt on Rudd’s judgment.
For Peter Beattie to become involved with someone apparently as unhinged as Pat Gillespie in the first place, provides some insight into the REAL Peter Beattie and more importantly, Rudd’s judgment
The diaries can be downloaded here:-
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Perché solo in Australia vai tranquillamente dentro al supermercato in bici..
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Perché solo in Australia ti fanno fare le lezioni di guida con la Skyline..:):) 
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Update: Last night, terrorists from Gaza fired rockets into ‪#‎Israel‬. In response, the ‪#‎IDF‬successfully targeted concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip. We will continue to operate in order to safeguard Israel's civilians. 

http://www.idfblog.com/2013/08/14/update-in-response-to-rocket-fire-iaf-targets-terror-sites/
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The campaign to get rid of the Greens is picking up momentum. Find out how you can helphttp://ow.ly/nCMYg
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Is this what inspired Weiner? - ed
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Kim Kardashian’s mother Kris Jenner defended her daughter while criticizing Obama for his comments putting down successful celebrities.
The comments were received with great applause on her new show Kris. Obama had blamed celebrities for the negative affect they have on children during an interview with Amazon:
“Kids weren’t monitoring every day what Kim Kardashian was wearing or where Kanye West was going on vacation,” Obama explained, “and thinking that somehow that was the mark of success.”
Kris Jenner hit hard when she pointed out that many of these celebrities worked very hard to get where they are, but she was especially spot on when criticizing the anti-success attitude behind Obama’s comments:
“I wasn’t aware that you could only set the bar so high and that we could only dream so big.
I was taught ‘dream big, work hard, and you could have whatever you want.’
And I thought, ‘wow I bet the president has some friends with 10,000 square foot houses and you probably wouldnt mind going over there, mister president, while you were asking them to have a party for you when you were campaigning for dollars to run for president.
I was thinking about her 10,000-square-foot house, and I thought, ‘Wow, her job affords her to live in a 10,000-square-foot house’. And I think, if I’m not mistaken, Mr President’s job affords him to live in a 55,000-square-foot house.
I find it so odd that he’s picking on Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Kanye West, first of all, doesn’t go on vacation, ever. And Kim Kardashian is the hardest-working young lady in the world. She never sleeps, she never stops, she never slows down and works so hard for what she’s got.
You poke at someone and criticize someone for living a lifestyle – I’m sure when he was growing up his dream was, ‘One day, I want to become President of the United States, and have this wonderful fabulous life and that was his dream.’
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A few hours earlier....

"Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza “thanked” Israel for releasing 26 terrorist murderers by firing two rockets at the southern part of the country on Tuesday night.

One rocket exploded in an open area near the city of Sderot. There were no physical injuries or damages.

Kol Yisrael radio reported that a second rocket exploded within Gaza.

On Monday night, terrorists from the Sinai Peninsula fired a rocket towards the Israeli resort city of Eilat."

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Israel’s hopes that freeing 26 terrorists in the middle of the night would tone down the celebrations in the Palestinian Authority were quickly dashed on Tuesday night.
As the 11 terrorists who were freed to Ramallah arrived at their destination, they were welcomed by thousands ofcheering PA Arabs and were escorted to the Muqataa compound, where they were greeted by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself.
"This is the first group," Abbas told the crowd at the official welcoming ceremony, according to AFP.
"We shall continue until we free all the prisoners from Israeli jails," he added.
“Allah willing, all will return to us soon. We say to all prisoners in the jails: We will not rest until you are all with us," Abbas declared.
At the same time, 15 other terrorists returned to their homes in Gaza. Kol Yisrael radio reported that the celebrations in Gaza will be toned down, if any take place at all, as the Hamas terrorist group which controls the region objects to the peace talks between the PA and Israel.
Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Monday that the talks with Israel are “futile” and are “purely a means for the occupation (Israel) to look good to the international community.”
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August 14Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)
Lech Wałęsa
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted."
Psalm 104:16
Lebanon's cedars are emblematic of the Christian, in that they owe their planting entirely to the Lord. This is quite true of every child of God. He is not man-planted, nor self-planted, but God-planted. The mysterious hand of the divine Spirit dropped the living seed into a heart which he had himself prepared for its reception. Every true heir of heaven owns the great Husbandman as his planter. Moreover, the cedars of Lebanon are not dependent upon man for their watering; they stand on the lofty rock, unmoistened by human irrigation; and yet our heavenly Father supplieth them. Thus it is with the Christian who has learned to live by faith. He is independent of man, even in temporal things; for his continued maintenance he looks to the Lord his God, and to him alone. The dew of heaven is his portion, and the God of heaven is his fountain. Again, the cedars of Lebanon are not protected by any mortal power. They owe nothing to man for their preservation from stormy wind and tempest. They are God's trees, kept and preserved by him, and by him alone. It is precisely the same with the Christian. He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from temptation; he stands in the most exposed position; he has no shelter, no protection, except this, that the broad wings of the eternal God always cover the cedars which he himself has planted. Like cedars, believers are full of sap, having vitality enough to be ever green, even amid winter's snows. Lastly, the flourishing and majestic condition of the cedar is to the praise of God only. The Lord, even the Lord alone hath been everything unto the cedars, and, therefore David very sweetly puts it in one of the psalms, "Praise ye the Lord, fruitful trees and all cedars." In the believer there is nothing that can magnify man; he is planted, nourished, and protected by the Lord's own hand, and to him let all the glory be ascribed.

Evening

"And I will remember my covenant."
Genesis 9:15
Mark the form of the promise. God does not say, "And when ye shall look upon the bow, and ye shall remember my covenant, then I will not destroy the earth," but it is gloriously put, not upon our memory, which is fickle and frail, but upon God's memory, which is infinite and immutable. "The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant." Oh! it is not my remembering God, it is God's remembering me which is the ground of my safety; it is not my laying hold of his covenant, but his covenant's laying hold on me. Glory be to God! the whole of the bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power, and even the minor towers, which we may imagine might have been left to man, are guarded by almighty strength. Even the remembrance of the covenant is not left to our memories, for we might forget, but our Lord cannot forget the saints whom he has graven on the palms of his hands. It is with us as with Israel in Egypt; the blood was upon the lintel and the two side-posts, but the Lord did not say, "When you see the blood I will pass over you," but "When I see the blood I will pass over you." My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God's looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all his elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already punished in him. No, it is not left with us even to be saved by remembering the covenant. There is no linsey-wolsey here--not a single thread of the creature mars the fabric. It is not of man, neither by man, but of the Lord alone. We should remember the covenant, and we shall do it, through divine grace; but the hinge of our safety does not hang there--it is God's remembering us, not our remembering him; and hence the covenant is an everlasting covenant.
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Today's reading: Psalm 87-88, Romans 13 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 87-88

Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. A song.
1 He has founded his city on the holy mountain.
2 The LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are said of you,
city of God:
4 "I will record Rahab and Babylon
among those who acknowledge me-
Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush-
and will say, 'This one was born in Zion.'"
5 Indeed, of Zion it will be said,
"This one and that one were born in her,
and the Most High himself will establish her."
6 The LORD will write in the register of the peoples:
"This one was born in Zion."
7 As they make music they will sing,
"All my fountains are in you."

Today's New Testament reading: Romans 13

Submission to Governing Authorities
1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience....

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