Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Tue Aug 12th Todays News

A tragedy today as Robin Williams has killed himself at age 63 (yesterday according to local time). It is famous that he was bipolar depressive and had taken drugs as a young man. He had much to live for. The world grieves. But the loss is personal. Friends and family have been denied an opportunity to watch him age disgracefully. His legacy of being a great man, a fine comedian an observant and caring person is secure. No one could do what he did, or give what he gave. One beautiful piece is related to a performance he gave on Good Will Hunting to Matt Damon's character. "It's not your fault." 

 ADL are accused of taking the identity of a private citizen and posting terrorist and racist comments and attributed them to that private citizen. They have circulated the meme that resulted in spreading it widely through social media. The result is their victim has lost their job (temporarily, maybe) has received death threats and has had their private life exposed. It turns out that the victim is a non practising Muslim, and that incurs a death penalty in some Islamic nations, depending on the interpretation of what 'non practicing' means. And a few people claiming to be new to the unfolding issue ask questions like 'Who are the ADL?' and 'What have they done wrong?' Some have posted inflammatory and divisive posts. One recent poster made the erroneous claim that Islamic peoples were asked to contact call back radio and speak against terrorism. Many did, but the poster claimed none did and challenged others to express outrage. The thing is, the issue of terrorism is much bigger than Muslim baiting. I do not know if the private citizen did or did not make a post which the ADL claims. I do know it was wrong of the ADL to spread the meme and I hope that they are properly penalised for their transgression. I do not know what a virtuous Islamic state looks like in the modern world. I know Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, visualised such a state when he spoke of Pakistan championing freedom of religion, the rule of law, freedom of speech and so on. It takes a lot of money and good will to create a modern state with such fine principles. Iraq has been betrayed by an incompetent President Obama who has allowed Iran to corrupt her processes. Maybe Obama has hoped to profit from the failure, regardless of why, it is a tragedy. But for Islamofascism to fail, such a state must come into being. It cannot be Palestine, which has no right to exist as a state, but should be made part of Israel and dissenters placed in Jordan or dispersed as refugees. 
On this day in 30 BC, Cleopatra is said to have committed suicide by getting an asp snake to bite her breast. Or maybe she was killed by order of Octavian who had killed her son and pushed her lover, Antony, to suicide. A surprising fact is that although she was ethnically Macedonian, she was also ethnically Egyptian, as has been seen by examining her sister's tomb. So while some may feel that over generations, petty court jealousy would have prevented the mixing of race, it hadn't. She was the last Pharaoh. With her death, the nation of Egypt was extinguished and absorbed into Roman Empire. Over the years, her people would be converted to Christianity, and then Islam, they are essentially the same people, descended from those in that mighty empire. And yet today, they are nothing like their ancestors in wisdom and nobility. But they could be .. 

 In 1121, Georgian King David IV tricked an improbable victory over the Seljuk overlords. David asked to have a discussion. At the meeting, he slaughtered the delegates while his army in a pincer movement took on the flanks. He left a bolt hole. An estimated 55000 Georgian troops took out ten times their number, allowing David to seize what would later be the Georgian Capital. In 1480 at the Battle of Otranto, Ottoman troops beheaded 800 Christians who refused to convert to Islam. It has been suggested in modern times that it was not as what was written at the time, but the result of a fight. However, forensic analysis has shown some of the victims were women and children and it was likely the result of what was described by writers of the day in Italy, an atrocity. In 1624 the council advising Louis XIII were arrested leaving Cardinal Richelieu the principal minister. In 1676 King Phillip's War was finished when Wampanoag Chief Metacomet (aka Phillip) was shot dead by Praying Indian (vis a converted Christian) John Alderman. Alderman was allowed to keep and display the head and a hand, which he did, for cash. In 1687, in what is now Hungary, at the Second Battle of Mohács, Charles V of Lorraine had the Ottoman forces, about equal in number, on quiche. In 1851, Isaac Singer patented his sewing machine. In 1877, Asaph Hall discovered the Martian moon Deimos. In 1883 the last Quagga died in captivity in Holland. It was a bit like a Zebra and a horse, striped in front, but not in back. Hunted by Boers to extinction. In 1944 in Italy, Waffen SS troops killed 560 people in a village. The village was never rebuilt, but a museum stands for the atrocity. In 1950, North Koreans killed 75 US POWs. In 1952, the Soviet Union killed thirteen Jewish intellectuals in Moscow. In 1958, Art Kane commemorated a Great Day in Harlem by photographing in black and white 57 notable jazz musicians. In 1976, between 1000 and 3500 so called Palestinians were killed in Lebanon during the civil war. In 1981, Microsoft released their first personal computer. In 1982, Mexico sparked a debt crisis by announcing she couldn't pay her debt. In 1990, Sue, the most complete skeleton of a T-Rex was discovered. In 1992, Canada, US and Mexico complete the NAFTA free trade agreement. In 2000, The Kursk sank during a military exercise.
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

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

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

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Kevin Pham-Le. Born on the same day as Karl Faber (1773), Klara Hitler (1860), Edith Hamilton (1867), Cecil B. DeMille (1881), Harry Hopman (1906), Guy Gibson (1918), Norris & Ross McWhirter (1925), George Soros (1930), Mark Knopfler (1949) and Jesinta Campbell (1991). On your day, 1676 – Puritans and their Native American allies killed Wampanoag sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip"), essentially ending King Philip's War.
1883 – The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1952 – Thirteen Jewish poets in Moscow were executed for espionage based on false confessions.
1969 – Riots erupted in the Bogside area of Derry and spread across much of Northern Ireland.
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise. A hundred years before the war of independence, Americans killed King Philip. What was the quagga good for anyway? I would cheerfully lock up ever socialist to get back those thirteen poets. A party began in Ireland. Oscar is a lousy name for a submarine. Just sayin' ..
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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The Left are hiding from the horrors

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (7:37pm)

BEHOLD the brain explosions of cognitive dissonance as the apologist Left tries to ignore the images of Wiley Park native Khaled Sharrouf and his severed head-toting son. The convicted terrorist has taken his five children on a jihad tour of Syria to indoctrinate them into the savagery of the Islamic State.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Left are hiding from the horrors'
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Liberal Party caught in Labor’s old trap

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (7:35pm)

ICAC has spread the taint of corruption from Labor’s industrial strength venality to the Liberals’ pathetic slush fund envelopes. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Liberal Party caught in Labor’s old trap'
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Gammy a defective product, to be disposed of at will

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (7:34pm)

I GUESS you can’t expect much from a convicted child sex offender. But David Farnell, the infamous biological father of surrogate baby Gammy, couldn’t have been more repulsive in his blubbering 60 Minutes interview Sunday night.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Gammy a defective product, to be disposed of at will'
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HE SEEMS UPSET FOR SOME REASON

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (7:31pm)

Denounced by Mike Carlton: 
A giggling, sniggering, undergraduate halfwit with no journalistic cred whatever. 
Pretty close, Mike, but I’m actually an employed, giggling, sniggering, undergraduate halfwit with no journalistic cred whatever.
Annoyingly, I’ll now have to write a book just so I can use Carlton’s cover endorsement.
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SHOCK ‘N’ ROLL

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (4:13pm)

A Sydney family is torn apart over the small matter of a severed head: 
Khaled Sharrouf’s brother believes Australia should simply “forget” about a photo of his young nephew holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier.
As the shocking image of Sharrouf’s son travelled around the world on Monday, Mostafa Sharrouf, a stonemason from Sydney’s western suburbs, said: “He’s gone, forget about it. He’s forgotten about youse. I’m sure you’ve seen much worse than that.” 
Well, of course. Almost every other day my nieces send me pictures of themselves carrying around human heads. It must be one of those online fads that so amuse the younger folk. The young boy’s grandfather, however, is rightly horrified: 
Peter Nettleton, the father of Sharrouf’s Anglo-Australian wife, Tara Nettleton, said he was“devastated” by the shocking image, which generated worldwide media attention and near-universal revulsion. 
Sharrouf’s pal Mohamed Elomar, his comrade in head-choppery, continues to rejoice: 
On a Twitter account believed to be that of fellow ex-Sydney Islamic State fighter Mohamed Elomar, the former boxer appeared giddy while celebrating his close friend’s growing notoriety over the disturbing images.
“What a flaming ripper ayyy beauty mate love it,” Elomar said in a reply to a link to media reporting on the photos. “Keep them heads rolling.” 
It’s all too much for the ABC’s Jonathan Green, who wishes the picture would just roll away.
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NEW MANAGEMENT

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (2:31pm)

It’s a frightbat takeover:

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Investors may wish to consider Margo’s previous management efforts before signing on. Still, she’d probably do better than the current mob. 
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ROBIN WILLIAMS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 12, 2014 (11:32am)

Farewell:



UPDATE. An editorial in tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph: 
Global audiences first encountered the whipsong comic genius of Robin Williams during his 1978 guest appearance on Happy Days. The cast were just as startled.  “Here I am playing this man of very few words and I’m watching brilliance explode like fireworks every 10 or 15 seconds,” Happy Days star Henry Winkler told The Hollywood Reporter yesterday.
Williams maintained that brilliance for decades, even as he battled depression and substance abuse problems. Those demons finally conquered Williams, but not before his creation of an astonishing and lasting artistic legacy. Susan Schneider, Williams’s wife, said in a media statement: “As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin’s death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.”
Those moments sprang from a uniquely calibrated comedic mind. Winkler yesterday recalled that the original scripts for Williams’s Mork & Mindy program were around 15 pages shorter than usual sitcom scripts, because there was no need to write any jokes. Instead, they repeatedly featured this simple notation: “Robin will do something here.” And he did, for 36 more years, on stage, television and the big screen. 
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Check the company Craig Laundy keeps. He’s a Liberal?

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (6:37pm)

Craig Laundy was one of the Liberal MPs loudest in opposing the restoration of our free speech, helping to defeat the reform of the Racial Discrimination Act.
No wonder: 10 per cent of the voters in his seat are Muslim, and Muslim leaders demanded we keep our gag.
But maybe Laundy will argue that, no, he was against free speech out of principle, not cheap self interest.
In that case I invite other Liberals to check out the ideological company Laundy now keeps and to ask him precisely which Liberal values he represents:
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Here is an example of Peter Slezak’s politics - and the anti-Israel bias of this advocate for sanctions against Israel.
Here is an example of Jake Lynch’s politics - and the anti-Israel bias of this agitator for sanctions against Israel.
Here is an example of the politics of Antony Loewenstein - and his anti-Israel activism.
Here is an example of Aftab Malik’s politics - and his anti-Israel polemics.
Here is an example of Peter Manning’s politics - and his astonishing anti-American bias:
I FOUND September 11 so shocking. But equally shocking was how quickly it became an iconic event ... But as I thought more deeply in the following weeks, I had some sympathy for boxer Anthony Mundine’s brutal response: “They brought the attacks on themselves.”
Exactly where are “Liberals” like Craig Laundy taking the Liberal party? 
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Costello: If we must be gagged before they help stop terrorism, we really are in danger

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (6:05pm)

Peter Costello puts it very well:
Last Tuesday the Government announced proposals that, it said, would help to charge and prosecute such people and stop them going overseas to engage in terrorism in the first place. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said we need to get everyone on “Team Australia” and support the measures. He said that dropping changes to Section 18C would help to do that.
I dont’ know about this “Team Australia” stuff. As far as I am concerned when it comes to stopping terrorism, it is not a matter of “getting on the team”. Stopping terrorism means protecting people — children, relatives, friends and neighbours and, yes, people of different ethnic backgrounds or different religions — from senseless random brutal killing. That’s a real human right: the right not to be murdered in the name of someone else’s political cause or twisted version of religion.
Some have argued that leaving Section 18C will make it easier for some people to join “Team Australia” in the fight against terrorism. Really? To suggest that somebody, anybody, would decline to co-operate in the fight against terrorism because they didn’t like the repeal of a section like this in the Racial Discrimination Act is truly frightening.
Does the Government believe there are community leaders whose commitment to their fellow citizens and the values of a civilised society is so weak they will not co-operate in preventing terror and murder if Section 18C is repealed? If that is the case we really do have a problem.
And even worse, I don’t really see this surrender of our rights working. 
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Foreign Press Association (finally) attacks Hamas for threatening journalists in Gaza

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (11:20am)

Finally a belated admission from the Foreign Press Association of the way Hamas terrorists manipulated a largely cowed foreign media
The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month.
The international media are not advocacy organisations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground.
In several cases, foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media.
We are also aware that Hamas is trying to put in place a “vetting” procedure that would, in effect, allow for the blacklisting of specific journalists. Such a procedure is vehemently opposed by the FPA.
Why have almost none of the journalists embedded in Hamas territory said this much in their reports?
It worked:
A foreign correspondent, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Yedioth Aharonoth’s Daniel Batini (August 7, 2014) that “First, Hamas said its spokesmen could only be interviewed in the courtyard of the Al-Shifa’a Hospital in Gaza City. That meant there were long lines of correspondents waiting for interviews, and as a result they watched the bleeding wounded arriving at the hospital for treatment. That [system] created exactly the impression Hamas wanted, of an immediate emergency situation and a human and humanitarian catastrophe.Second, Hamas never allowed foreign correspondents access to military sites attacked by Israel, whether they were bases, rocket launching sites or other targets. The organization’s dead and wounded operatives were not photographed and therefore, from a media point of view, they do not exist. All that serves Hamas’ objective of representing all the casualties as civilians. Third, it was obvious that Hamas was firing rockets from civilian areas, but Hamas operatives forbid camera teams from filming them, because they did not want to reveal the tactic or the locations of the launch sites.”
We deduced as much last Sunday:
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What terrorism risk, asks Scott Burchill on the ABC

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (10:51am)

Scott Burchill is senior lecturer in International Relations at Deakin University and claims Muslim terrorists are just an “excuse for increasing surveillance powers” for our security agencies.
“Excuse”?
Isn’t the right word “reason”?
Burchill also claims the link has not been established between Australian jihadists fighting overseas and their posing a risk on their return, because the jihadists’ agenda “is about events on the ground and issues in Syria and Iraq and not in fact in the West itself”:
I don’t the Government has clearly explained the connection between those going off to fight to create the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria and what they would do coming back to Australia.
Really?
Attorney-General Senator George Brandis yesterday warned the returned fighters posed a “significant threat"… Senator Brandis said lessons learned from Afghanistan revealed the true extent of the danger now.
He said about 30 Australians went to Afghanistan to fight, and of the 25 who returned 19 were “involved in the preparation of a mass casualty terrorist attack on Australian soil”, eight of whom were prosecuted and convicted.

Is Burchill, a man of the Left, describing the world as he’d wish it or the world as it is?
Note also that the ABC presenters barely challenge him. But what else would you expect from Virginia Trioli?
Three examples: 
Others say even worse was a response Trioli gave a week after the (September 11) bombing to a caller who asked: ``Could it be possible that some Right-wing group within the (US) military itself did this?’’
Replied Trioli: ``That’s true. I think it’s probably fair to say though, that no matter what you might think of the FBI and the other intelligence services in America, if they had any inkling of that I think something of that would have come out by now. I don’t rule it out. I think it’s quite a possibility.’’
And:

``It was an important point made by a really interesting Afghani American writer that I read the other day, which was that until America understands its own hegemony and understands to what extent it has absolutely controlled and oppressed and run the international agenda for so many years, no-one is going to really want to talk to them.’’
And:

``This is possibly a realistic example: Despite the fact that George W. Bush and everyone else have in their view identified Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect, which is what they call him, what if that involved bringing him somewhere, absolutely safely, sitting down with him, treating him like a human being and talking about it, and then Osama bin Laden going home again, not bombing the hell out of bin Laden?
``That’s the suggestion: Talk to him, understand their anger, listen to them.’’
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ABC, so dependent on taxes, campaigns against source of our wealth

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (10:42am)

An IPA study confirms the ABC is against the source of much of our wealth:
The analysis of 2359 reports broadcast on the ABC over six months before March 15 this year found 15.9 per cent of stories on coalmining and 12.1 per cent of those about coal-seam gas mining were favourable, while 53 per cent of those on renewable energy were favourable.
It also found 31.6 per cent of stories on coal mining and 43.6 per cent of stories on coal-seam gas were unfavourable, while only 10.8 per cent of stories on renewable energy were ­unfavourable.
Jo Nova cuts loose:
To put a perspective on it, coal is Australia’s largest exporter industry, producing 33% of our energy and a whopping 75% of our electricity. (Wind and solar produce all of 1%.) The coal industry provides the ABC with funds, via tax, while the wind and solar industries are a net drain on the public purse. The cheapest way to reduce CO2 (and by a whopping 15%) looks like being an upgrade for our coal fired plants so they are like the hot new Chinese plants. But how important is reducing CO2 to the ABC? Apparently it’s not quite as important as cheering on other big-government babies.
We can debate the environmental pluses and minuses of coal, but the economic case is a lay down misere. Renewables are anywhere from 200% to 500% more expensive.
(Thanks to readers Rocky and James.) 
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No, Bill Shorten. Not “every” Australian was shocked

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (10:09am)

Labor leader Bill Shorten on the picture of an Australian boy - son of a Sydney jihadist - holding the severed head of a Syrian man:
First of all, I think every Australian was shocked to their core at that dreadful image of the former Australian citizen Kahled Sharrouff and his son and that dreadful image on the front page of The Australian.
“Every"?
Khaled Sharrouf’s brother believes Australia should simply “forget” about a photo of his young nephew holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier.
As the shocking image of Sharrouf’s son travelled around the world on Monday, Mostafa Sharrouf, a stonemason from Sydney’s western suburbs, said: “He’s gone, forget about it. He’s forgotten about youse. I’m sure you’ve seen much worse than that.”
“Every"? From 27:00 of this interview with Wassim Haddad, a friend of Sharrouf who runs the al-Risalah Islamic Centre in Bankstown:
My first impression of it was just another attack or another way to sell some more papers, by using Islam in this way. Whether a lot of us agree with that or agree with the image itself, that’s two different things… Am I shocked? I’m shocked by all sorts of photos that happen around the world, not only this photo. You’ve got to understand that this is a war zone, so ob it’s a whole set of rules there, a whole different ball game. To be honest, with all the fighting against muslims in the past 10 years or so, we’ve sort of become immune to these sort of photos being, that we’re always seeing muslims in the same sort of predicament, for example we see muslim kids and Muslim women and men being tortured or we see photos of this, so we’ve become immune from both sides, from our own people, and from seeing images of other people.
Many Muslim leaders have indeed condemned this image.
But Labor should stop feeding us comforting lies.
“Every”?
(Thanks to reader Me2.) 
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Robin Williams dead

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (9:47am)

A genius, but I was always struck by how desperate Williams was to please:
Robin Williams has been found dead aged 63, of apparent suicide… He had died of asphyxia, according to the Marin Country Sheriff’s Department…
Williams’ agent Mara Buxbaum said in a statement: “Robin Williams passed away this morning. `He has been battling severe depression of late...’’
If you, or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. 
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How Media Watch tried to save Mike Carlton from those Jews

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (8:25am)

Culture wars, Media

Congratulations to Media Watch. Great spin!
As my NewsWatch noted on Sunday, Media Watch last week failed to say a word about the Sydney Morning Herald’s scandalously anti-Semitic cartoon or the offensive Mick Carlton column it decorated.
But as I suspected, the ABC just needed the time to think of a way to spin the indefensible into an attack on its preferred villains. And - bingo: Media Watch last night indeed spun furiously, whispering its criticism of anti-Semitism but bellowing its fury with the Murdoch and Jewish forces which took out a mate.
First, it beat Mike Carlton with the fluffiest of feather dusters, making sure to praise him to the skies:
... one of the marquee columnists at Fairfax Media ... the veteran journalist ... one of Australia’s most popular—if polarising—left-wing columnists ... passionate ... one of its most popular columnists ... a brave and powerful voice ... whether you liked Carlton’s column or not—and most of the time I did ...
In fact, Barry made Carlton’s column seem flawed only by an excess of righteous anger, and said nothing of the anti-Jewish slur - “typical Jewish bigot” - Carlton used against angry readers:
… eloquent, angry and sometimes intemperate column—in which Carlton used the words fascism, and genocide—which in my view was wrong… he was absolutely wrong to abuse his readers. And he can hardly complain about his fate.
But there was also the Herald’s cartoon. This time Barry deflected by absurdly trying to equate these two cartoons - the anti-Semitic one run by the Herald and the anti-terrorist one run by the Murdoch Australian:
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Claims Barry:
But we couldn’t help noting that an equally contentious cartoon by Bill Leak in The Australian —which was so righteously ripping into its rival—did not create anything like such a fuss…
So was The Australian’s cartoon any less objectionable than that one in the Herald that caused so much grief? Especially since Le Lievre based his cartoon on photos of Israelis watching the bombing of Gaza and, reportedly, cheering.
What a deceitful analogy. One cartoon attacks all Jews as killers and bombers, the other attacks only terrorists. How on earth is there a moral equivalance?

But job seemingly done, Barry turned to the real villains of his piece - the wicked critics who brought down this mate. First, there’s Murdoch newspapers, which Barry likened to terrorists:
Soon afterwards, [Carlton] was telling the Guardian’s Amanda Meade , who worked for The Australian for many years, that it was not just the Jewish community that had caused the Herald to lose its nerve… And sure enough, over on The Australian’s website at about this time, the paper’s media editor Sharri Markson was indeed claiming the credit for Carlton’s scalp… Next day, neither The Australian nor the Daily Telegraph could hide its glee… And if you hadn’t already got the message that media wars in Australia can almost match the Middle East for ferocity, the Tele then threw a few bombs at Carlton’s employer as well… In the end, the weight of hate was far too much for Fairfax to bear.... The Telegraph had in fact defaced this image of a victim in the Boston Marathon bombing [adding Carlton’s face]… an unconvincing apology from the Telegraph’s editor…
Then there are those bullying Jews:

... taking sides against Israel in the Australian media—as [Carlton] did—can be a dangerous business.... In a long and considered statement, [far-Left Age cartoonist Michael] Leunig also argued: “ I think we need to be careful of getting rid of the truth speakers because that’s their job. It’s the cartoonists who have traditionally stood up for persecuted minorities whether they be Jews in the 1930s or Palestinians today.” ...  those more critical of Israel are more wary of doing so.... Ten years after he first ran into flak over Israel and Palestine, Michael Leunig flew into another firestorm in 2012 with this allegedly anti-Semitic cartoon: “First they came for the Palestinians and I did not speak out because I was not a Palestinian.” .... It would be terrible in this country if debate were to be shut down because cartoonists or columnists were bullied into silence. 
ABC boss Mark Scott suggested it did not matter that all Media Watch hosts in the show’s 25 years have been of the Left. ABC presenters did their job impartially.
But it matters all right. And I dare say almost every Jewish ABC viewer can now see the difference it makes, too. 
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Enemies of free speech won the battle, but are losing the war

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (8:11am)

Nick Cater:

IF Andrew Bolt’s show trial was supposed to teach him a lesson it plainly didn’t work, judging from the tone of his questions to Labor’s Richard Marles on Sunday morning.
The interview:
Cater notes Marles’ tut-tutting response to my question on Muslim terrorism in Australia and whether we need to limit immigration from the Middle East, but sees hope:
The survival of clause 18C will ultimately prove a hollow victory. The chances of its illiberal provisions being exploited again in a case like the one brought against Bolt are practically zero.
The toxic influence of the Bolt case on the climate of public debate is recognised as a price too high to pay by the wiser heads on both sides of the cultural divide.
The case started a backlash that destroyed the Gillard government’s restrictive anti-discrimination legislation and gave the Abbott government the ­motivation to reshape the Human Rights Commission.... Brandis, it should be noted, played a key part in both those achievements… [F]or the first time in decades the rights industry is fighting to hold its ground rather than planning its next grand adventure.
And Cater doubts that the groups who defended 18C truly represent mainstream Australia:
... most of the thousands of submissions the Attorney-General received favoured the status quo.. . Who can tell whether the views of, say, the West Australian Somali Cultural Awareness Association were broadly in line with those of the public? Ditto the views of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group, the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, the Australian Tamil Congress, the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (Inc), the Muslim Legal Network, the WA Muslim Lawyers Association and many, many more.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane ...  told readers of The Age that the objections had “not just come from multicultural and Aboriginal communities”.
“The legal profession, human rights experts, psychologists and public health professionals have all objected to weakening laws against racial vilification.”
Indeed, we had rather expected they would. The repeal of 18C was a disruption to the grievance industry’s business model that they could not countenance.
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Newspoll: Labor leads 52 to 48, but lead has halved

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (7:41am)

Tony Abbott halves Labor’s lead:
THE Coalition’s primary vote has jumped back to 40 per cent for the first time since April, ­regaining lost ground from its unpopular budget in the biggest single rise in support for the ­Abbott government in its 11 months in power.
And Tony Abbott’s focus on international affairs has boosted his stocks in the head-to-head comparison with Bill Shorten for the third consecutive poll, helping him take back the lead as preferred prime minister for the first time in four months…
Labor’s primary vote dropped ... to a three-month low of 34 per cent, virtually the same as its election-losing result of 33.3 per cent…
In two-party-preferred terms, Labor continues to be ahead, 52 per cent to 48 per cent, which is a 5.5 per cent swing to the ALP since the election. However, the eight-point lead it enjoyed a fortnight ago has been halved.
UPDATE
In Queensland, courage - and prudent spending cuts - are finally being rewarded:
QUEENSLAND voters are warming to the Liberal National Party government … In a ReachTel survey of almost 1900 voters, ... 52 per cent said they would vote for the LNP and 48 per cent chose Labor.
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Mass immigration and the Left have brought Jew-hatred back to the West

Andrew Bolt August 12 2014 (7:01am)

Muslim protesters in Holland fly the flags of the Islamic State, chanting “Al Maut, Al Maut, Al Maut al Yahud” - “Kill, Kill, Kill the Jews.”
A demonstration at The Hague in the Netherlands on July 24 featured the Islamic State flag alongside chants of ”death to the Jews,” prompting 17,500 people to sign a petition calling on the mayor of The Hague to resign, as he had failed to clampdown on the use of the flag. 
In Italy, another cry to kill the Jews:

Aldelbar, an imam in the town of San Dona di Piave in northern Italy, appeared in the video to launch into a diatribe against the Jews, in which he said: “Oh Allah, bring upon them that which will make us happy. Count them one by one, and kill them one by one.”
In Germany, another call to kill the Jews:
In a sermon at Berlin’s Al-Nur Mosque on Friday, Sheikh Abu Bilal Ismail ... urged God “to destroy the Zionist Jews … to kill every last one of them and not have pity on any of them … Shake the ground under their feet, make them suffer.” He also said Jews “act like sole rulers of the entire world and disseminate corruption.”
In Qatar, a sermon urging Allah to kill the Jews, one by one:

A Qatari religious leader used his Friday sermon last week to pray to Allah to ”kill [the Jews] the very last one.”
Sheik Tareq Al-Hawwas’ sermon was aired on Qatar TV, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Brendan O’Neill on how the Left is whipping along the anti-Semitism unleashed by mass immigration from the Third World:
However, it seems pretty clear to me that much of the left in Europe and America is becoming more anti-Semitic, or at least risks falling into the trap of anti-Semitism, sometimes quite thoughtlessly. In the language it uses, in the ideas it promotes, in the way in which it talks about the modern world, including Israel, much of the Left has adopted a style of politics that has anti-Semitic undertones, and sometimes overtones....
Much of today’s anti-Israel protesting has a conspiracy-theory feel to it, with its talk about powerful lobby groups designing wars behind closed doors in order to isolate Israel’s enemies and boost Israel’s fortunes. And this is in keeping with Left-wing politics generally, today. The Left has increasingly embraced a conspiracy-theory view of the world. It is now very common to hear Leftists talk about the “cabals of neocons” who control world affairs, or the “cult of bankers” who wreak havoc on our economies, or the Murdoch Empire that “orchestrates public life from the shadows” (to quote Labour MP Tom Watson)…

It is not an accident that the three key planks of the Left-wing outlook today – the anti-Israel anti-war sentiment, the shallow anti-capitalism of Occupy, and the worship of those who leak info from within the citadels of power – should all have had issues with anti-Semitism. It is because the left, feeling isolated from the public and bereft of any serious means for understanding modern political and economic affairs, has bought into a super-simplistic, black-and-white, borderline David Icke view of the world as a place overrun and ruled by cabals and cults and sinister lobby groups.
And who has always, without fail, been the final cabal, the last cult, to find themselves shouldering the ultimate blame for the warped, hidden workings of politics, the economy and foreign turmoil? You got it – the Jews.
I’d suggest also this: which nation most clearly shows white in conflict with brown, Western civilisation in conflict with the Oriental; capitalism in conflict with the tribal; reason in conflict with the “romantic”, the strong in conflict with the weak? In every fault line, Israel is on the opposite side to a certain kind of tribal Leftist. Israel is once again the canary in the coal mine of civilisation.
UPDATE
And in our own universities...
Matthew Lesh from the Australasian Union of Jewish Students told Tom Elliott they’ve had a “phenomenal” experience on campus in the past two weeks.
“What’s happening on the other side of the world is directly impacting Jewish students in the most disgusting and despicable manner,” he said.
“We’ve seen across campuses, across Melbourne, even across Australia, what would be classed as anti-semitism in any understanding being carried out against Jewish students simply because Jewish students are associated with Israel.
“Some of the things that we’re hearing on campus at the moment are beyond reprehensible.
“You’ve got fundamental bullying of people just because of their views, their religious beliefs.”
(Thanks to reader John.) 
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Photo: I hope I don’t do what some do .. create a law to limit the rights of others and champion abusers... http://t.co/SRD4c87AV1
I hope I don’t do what some do .. create a law to limit the rights of others and champion abusers over victims. 
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her



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Tony Abbott
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Graphic Quotes: Douglas MacArthur

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/graphic-quotes-douglas-macarthur/

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any treat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.” Douglas MacArthur
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Engrish
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<Behind a façade of enlightened sympathy for the Arab side, the international community and our Left in essence treat Arabs as an immature, petulant aggregate of primitives who cannot be counted upon to behave sensibly but must be conciliated with endless gifts.>
SS men celebrating Judenfrei status
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Civilised people regard torture, along with terror, as wrong. The Left have forgotten that. - ed
Why do we inflict torture on each other so much? We have been doing it from the earliest of times. In Syria rival groups are inflicting the most indescribable and barbaric pain on each other (and let us not forget that Assad’s sub-humans started torturing and castrating children). If the reason for this cruelty were to try to get information that might lead to saving lives, this might arguably leave some room for mitigation. But all I see is primitive sadism and barbarism regardless of what the victims themselves may have inflicted on others. I am completely opposed to any torture. It says something very disturbing about those who inflict it.

Torture is not just the inflicting of pain. We can do that to ourselves in the gym. (more at link)
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Quit trashing Obama’s accomplishments. He has been the first in more areas than any other President before him.  Here is a list of his impressive accomplishments:
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on “shovel-ready” jobs when there was no such thing as “shovel-ready” jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. – including those with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 102 to date.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to go on multiple “global apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesdayevening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat the Holy Quran; tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”
Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
First President to side with a foreign nation over one of America’s 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).
How is this hope and change working out for you?
There are few in the world who would have attempted those. None of which seem wise - ed
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“More of our troops are coming home. We’ll be down to 34,000 this winter. By the end of next year, in just 17 months, the transition will be complete, Afghans will take full responsibility for their security, and our war in Afghanistan will be over,” the president said.
“…After our nation was attacked, you were some of the very first conventional forces in Afghanistan, racing in hundreds of miles by helicopter, toppling that regime and driving al-Qaeda from its camps.”
Before his address, Obama met with wounded warriors and Gold Star families, as well as local Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). It was his first visit to the base.
Because of the “9/11 generation,” Obama said, “we are accomplishing what we set out to do” — citing first the death of Osama bin Laden.
“Because of you, al-Qaeda’s top ranks have been hammered. The core of al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is on the way to defeat,” he said.
Obama Living the dream? - ed
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OBAMA DECRIES SETTLEMENT ACTIVITY, confirms Indyk headed to IsraelSpecial envoy to meet with diplomatic officials in Jerusalem before heading to Jericho for another round of discussions By Times Of Israel Staff and AP August 8, 2013, 
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-confirms-indyk-headed-to-israel-for-peace-talks/
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weather London
If, perchance, you decided to search for the weather forecast for London on the BBC Weather website you would also be offered the additional option of checking out the weather in the country in which that city is situated. 
AGW believers .. and politics .. ed
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Meanwhile, research on how precious opals were formed in Australia could provide astrobiologists with insight as to what may have happened on the surface of Mars, says Sydney University scientist Patrice Rey.

Precious opal is predominantly found in the red earth of the Great Artesian Basin in central Australia, within 50 meters of the surface.

Rey says it has long been a mystery why there was so much precious opal in the Great Artesian Basin, but almost nowhere else on Earth. He thinks it is because the Great Artesian Basin was once filled by the Eromanga Sea, which at its peak covered about 60 percent of the Australian continent.

Rey discovered that opal, was the result of a process in the drying out of the Eromanga Sea which began approximately 100 million years ago. This weathering is unusual on Earth, however it has been seen on Mars, which would suggest that it shares some other features with the Great Artesian Basin, including types of rocks, a similar history of flooding then drying out, mineralogy and color.

"It costs billions of dollars to send rovers and orbiters to Mars," Rey said in media comments. "Therefore, looking right here on Earth for ancient and modern analogs to Mars' environment is key to carrying on research in greater detail and explore the role biology has in weathering processes."

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Positive news story masks real issue .. recession in France pushes money into banks away from investment. - ed

Top French bank BNP Paribas turned in a 4.7 per cent drop in earnings to 1.76 billion euros ($A2.61 billion) for the April to June period, a much smaller fall than had been expected by the market.
Meanwhile, Credit Agricole reported that its second-quarter profits soared 60 per cent to 1.39 billion euros and Societe Generale also largely beat expectations at 955 million euros.
"They are good results in general for the three banks" even if the asset sales and write downs they undertook last year to react to the eurozone crisis made for difficult comparisons, said Gabriella Serres, an analyst at Aurel BGC brokerage.
The price of shares in BNP Paribas has risen by 3.4 per cent since the reporting season began two weeks ago, while Credit Agricole's shares rose by 12.4 per cent, and Societe Generale's shot up by 17.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, the overall CAC 40 index has risen by 2.7 per cent.
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Quote of the day-

''Sometimes I've had to use notes myself. The problem with the Prime Minister wasn't that he was reading from the notes. The problem was the notes weren't worth reading,'' - Tony Abbott.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Loving Father, help me to guard my inclinations. May I be able to appreciate that though I maybe restless from ambition, I also may be restless through discontent. Correct my life, that my desires may meet the true demands of my soul. Strengthen me with the power of calmness, that "I may go softly all my years", even though I walk through the bitterness of sorrow. Amen.
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The devil is laughing - ed

Even if some of the children might be fortunate enough to find loving homes, turning these children into gifts, treated as objects -- slaves -- is just as dehumanizing as the terrible alternatives from which they are supposedly being protected. It is not a problem that is being fixed.
In Pakistan, a country beset by problems of violence, poverty and illiteracy, a famous anchorman, Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a religious Muslim as well as a local sex symbol, hosts a "The Price is Right" type of show, call "Gift from God". During Ramadan, it is aired seven hours a day, and the grand prize is a newborn baby.
A special prize for special days. Win and take home a small child. Hussain explains that, in any event, they are "abandoned children that are condemned to grow up in the street, only to be enlisted by terrorists and to end their days as suicide bombers. We offer them an alternative. What is wrong with that?"
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The activists do not care about the Palestinians' suffering as much as they are interested in advancing their anti-Israel agenda. They rarely have anything good to offer the Palestinians.
Hamas has finally admitted that it is the Egyptians, and not Israel, who have turned the Gaza Strip into a "big prison."
Ghazi Hamad, a senior official with the Hamas-controlled foreign ministry, was quoted this week as saying that the Gaza Strip has been turned into a "big prison as a result of the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing by the Egyptian authorities since June 30."
Hamad said that since then, the number of Palestinian travelers at the Rafah terminal has dropped from 1,200 to 200 per day.
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E BOOK (Pdf File Full Download To Your Computer You Do NOT Read On Line) Asymmetrical Rocket Warfare and State sponsors of terrorism. Such states do not have to declare war upon their opponent, fight through a proxy and can strike where, when and how at their own choosing. In the age of Asymmetrical Rocket Warfare, the tiny state of Israel is in the center of this storm. This chapter facilitates a more thorough insight towards understanding the magnitude of the deadly threat of these weapons and CBRN. This is a primer for understanding SCUD missiles, Kassam Rockets, cruise missiles, UAVs, solid-fueled, liquid-fueled, hyper-sonic, subsonic, and stealth Capabilities

http://iranthreatassessmentcbrn.com/downloads/chapter-6-the-basics-for-understanding-qassams-scud-missiles-to-cruise-missiles-drones-to-uavs-cbrn-warfare/
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This is an atrocity. You and all these victims deserve love, and life. Instead there is injustice and terrorism. It is unacceptable that the UN, EU and US seem to endorse the terror. - ed

9-Aug-13: Twelve years after the Hamas attack on the Sbarro pizza restaurant, Jerusalem
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Somehow the Arab world doesn't seem to care about dying Palestinian Arabs if their deaths cannot be blamed on Jews.
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<More people died in the Battle of Okinawa on both sides than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 9 out of 10 buildings were destroyed. As much as a third of the island’s population committed suicide, fled into caves that were bombed, were used as human shields and were killed when American soldiers found themselves unable to distinguish between Japanese soldiers posing as civilians and actual civilians.

It does not take much to imagine what trying to capture Honshu would have looked like. Take the worst horrors of Vietnam and keep multiplying until you run out of imagination. If you run low, remember that at Okinawa the military was handing out grenades to civilians and its home defense plans involved encouraging the civilian population to commit suicide attacks.> For me, it still doesn't excuse the dropping of the bomb on civilians. But I feel it is excused because a Democrat did it. - ed
  • Phil Box What the, Oh come on, no one should ever apologise for dropping those bombs that in reality saved far far more lives on both sides of the conflict by ending the war.
  • David Daniel Ball That is not a shared sentiment

  • Phil Box No one will ever see eye to eye on everything.

  • John Tran It is hard to imagine an alternative, but so hard to think as human beings we can justify killing even one innocent.. for anything

  • Dan Roe · Friends with Phil Box
    Actually the guys who decided to drop those bombs (as well as fire bombing many other cities) actually thought hard about killings scores of civilians.

    "LeMay said, 'If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.'" - Robert S McNamara

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOCYcgOnWUM

    The fog of War - Lesson 5 HQ (日本語字幕)
    www.youtube.com
    Robert S. McNamara's 5th lesson in "The Fog of War"'s movie : "Proportionality s...See more

  • David Daniel Ball McNamara was an apologist for other Democrat failures .. more bombings and less use of troops is the Dem way. Truman both abrogated responsibility for the decisions .. saying it was a military call .. and claimed defiantly that he wouldn't lose sleep over it. The reason for the earlier firebombing of Dresden and wider Germany was more political than strategic, because the division of Europe was related to claimed territory during the war. So pacifying the population to allow faster troop access was the political imperative. Had a Republican done it they would have been carpeted long ago.

  • Dan Roe · Friends with Phil Box
    We armchair critics can think and analyze all we like, but the truth is that war is war and desperate people do desperate things... People die both military and civilian, ultimately there are no rules in war and history is told by the victorious.

  • David Daniel Ball I disagree Dan. There are rules in all things civilised .. including war. The shooting of civilians in Yugoslavia during the break up were war crimes. The action by Nato to hit a command tent was sanctioned. Those that break rules in war are subject to war crimes trials .. unless they are Democrat Presidents.

  • Dan Roe · Friends with Phil Box
    No, i'd have to disagree, you can't blame everything on another binary political party...

    Remember they gave Kissenger a Nobel Peace Prize for the secret bombings of Cambodia...

  • David Daniel Ball I've not forgotten that .. the difference is clear and related to emphasis .. remember, the Democrat initiated war was being prosecuted to their agenda. To exonerate war criminals because of balance is absurd. But then Israel was forced to release terrorists who'd committed murder recently .. for peace.
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<A great piece by Paul Sheehan about the political race and how both political leaders (yes, even Rudd, in my book) deserve some respect, not flippant comments about how boring and uninspiring politics is. If leaders are "boring" and "scripted", it's only because they are nit-picked over every statement they make for a "gotcha" gaffe.

Apathetic types should heed the wise words of Plato -

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
― Plato >
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We were driving home from a family gathering one evening this past May with my husband’s 95-year-old grandmother, Frieda, a Holocaust survivor from a small town outside Warsaw. I told her I’d been spending a lot of time on genealogy websites, immersed in tracing the trajectories of my immigrant relatives, most of whom—lured by the promise of America—had left Eastern Europe long before World War II. I had always thought Frieda’s family’s story was not as flush with immigrant tales; most of her relatives had stayed in Poland, which is precisely why Frieda had so few relatives. She and her late husband Chaim had survived the war by fleeing to Russia in November of 1939. They spent the next six years doing forced labor under increasingly dismal and treacherous conditions. They were the only members of their immediate families to have lived.
And so I asked Frieda what she had heard about America as a child. Did people talk about wanting to go there?
“I didn’t know very much. We didn’t talk about it,” she said. She shrugged dismissively.
And then, almost as an afterthought, she added: “My mother’s two older sisters went there. She was supposed to go, too, but the First World War broke out.”
My pulse quickened. In the 14 years I had known her, I had heard numerous stories about Frieda’s past recounted in vivid detail. But I couldn’t recall her ever once mentioning two aunts in America. And Frieda wasn’t someone who could afford to have two aunts unaccounted for.
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Beautiful and informative. I prefer the message of family to revolutionary salvation through works. Family is generational and regenerative. Transformation suggests cutting and removing. A difference of emphasis in service to God. - ed

Shortly before my twenty-fifth birthday my wife and I started a non-denominational church in the living room of our rented duplex just off the campus of Syracuse University. Eleven people attended our first service. 
Twenty-three years later we have the privilege of pastoring a church of over 3,300 members that enjoys the distinction of being one of the most racially diverse congregations in the America.
When our church first began, we wanted to be a part of a revolution. 
We wanted to reach the un-churched twenty-somethings of our generation. 
We wanted to build a church that would transcend the barriers of race, economics, and social status. 
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It's complicated - ed
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She was buried 9000 years ago in Bäckaskog in Kiaby, Skåne at the age of 45. The funeral took place in springtime, birch and hazel was in bloom.
The Bäckaskog woman is the oldest and most famous skeleton found in Sweden. In her grave a spear head was found. It was suitable for hunting and fishing, made of bone and sharp flint blades. Because of the grave goods archaeologists first thought she was a man.
The oldest woman in Sweden
She lived at a time when the climate was warm and humid with dense forests of oak, elm and ash trees. Fishing became more important as the sea level rose and new lagoons were created near her living territory.
She was found alone, no other graves were discovered nearby. In life she had given birth to several children so maybe they followed her to the final rest.
See more of my favourite photos in this set.
Text: Inga Ullén, photo by SHM
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MEDIA RELEASE - “These answers, by both potential Prime Ministers, are totally unsatisfactory. 

FRED NILE CONDEMNS MR RUDD’S 100 DAY PROMISE CONCERNING LEGAL SAME-SEX HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE

The Rev Fred Nile, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has strongly condemned Mr Rudd’s promise to introduce same-sex homosexual marriage legislation within 100 days should he be re-elected as Prime Minister.

“Sadly, Mr Abbott avoided giving a clear answer to the same-sex marriage question and said it would be up to the newly elected Party Room if he is elected as Prime Minister” said Rev Nile.

“These answers, by both potential Prime Ministers, are totally unsatisfactory.

“This means the Australian voters, who oppose legal same-sex homosexual marriage, have no option but to vote one for the Christian Democratic Party Federal Candidates and then the party of their choice. We can make this Federal Election a referendum on same-sex-homosexual marriage by voting 1 CDP” stated Rev Nile.

The Christian Democratic political party is firmly opposed to same-sex-homosexual marriage as it fully supports Australia’s historic, traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

“Mr Rudd’s performance in this first TV debate was well below his usual standard, especially his change of position in support of same-sex homosexual marriage which he previously strongly opposed” said Rev Fred Nile MLC.


‪#‎teamnile‬
I'm really disappointed by this. It makes Christians look politically naive or stupid. It isn't a political issue right now so Abbotts stance is the same but smarter. However, to actually address the issue .. Take away the states right to define marriage. States can't do it well. They don't know how. Let churches make the call. The only thing the state should do is civil union. - ed
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Old old old. The last twenty generations of my female ancestors got a man by saying they had a bun in the oven. - ed
Jennifer Wright

Audrey Shulman seems to think so, anyway. In an attempt to snag a boyfriend, the LA-based blogger has been bringing cakes into bars - the assumption being that men will flock over at the promise of baked goods. She calls the process "cakebarring" - and it seems to be working pretty well.
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Live quagga mare in London Zoo, 1870
The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra that lived in South Africa. Its name is derived from its call, which sounded like "kwa-ha-ha". The quagga is believed to have been around 257 cm (8 ft 5 in) long and 125–135 cm (4 ft 1 in–4 ft 5 in) tall at the shoulder. It could be distinguished from other zebras by its limited patterning of primarily brown and white stripes, mainly on the front part of the body. Little is known about its behaviour but it may have gathered in herds of 30–50 individuals. They were once found in great numbers in the Karoo of Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State in South Africa. After Dutch settlement of South Africa began, the quagga was heavily hunted, and it competed with domesticated animals for forage. Some specimens were taken to European zoos (one pictured in London Zoo, 1870), but breeding programmes were not successful. It was extinct in the wild by 1878, and the last quagga died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. The quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analysed, and the Quagga Project is trying to recreate its pelage characteristics by selectively breeding Burchell's zebras. (Full article...)
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The IBM Personal Computer
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” Psalm 119:14 NIV
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Morning

"Oh that I were as in months past."
Job 29:2
Numbers of Christians can view the past with pleasure, but regard the present with dissatisfaction; they look back upon the days which they have passed in communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have ever known, but as to the present, it is clad in a sable garb of gloom and dreariness. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they have wandered from him, and they say, "O that I were as in months past!" They complain that they have lost their evidences, or that they have not present peace of mind, or that they have no enjoyment in the means of grace, or that conscience is not so tender, or that they have not so much zeal for God's glory. The causes of this mournful state of things are manifold. It may arise through a comparative neglect of prayer, for a neglected closet is the beginning of all spiritual decline. Or it may be the result of idolatry. The heart has been occupied with something else, more than with God; the affections have been set on the things of earth, instead of the things of heaven. A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; he must be loved first and best. He will withdraw the sunshine of his presence from a cold, wandering heart. Or the cause may be found in self-confidence and self-righteousness. Pride is busy in the heart, and self is exalted instead of lying low at the foot of the cross. Christian, if you are not now as you "were in months past," do not rest satisfied with wishing for a return of former happiness, but go at once to seek your Master, and tell him your sad state. Ask his grace and strength to help you to walk more closely with him; humble yourself before him, and he will lift you up, and give you yet again to enjoy the light of his countenance. Do not sit down to sigh and lament; while the beloved Physician lives there is hope, nay there is a certainty of recovery for the worst cases.

Evening

"Everlasting consolation."
2 Thessalonians 2:16
"Consolation." There is music in the word: like David's harp, it charms away the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a distinguished honour to Barnabas to be called "the son of consolation"; nay, it is one of the illustrious names of a greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is "the consolation of Israel." "Everlasting consolation"--here is the cream of all, for the eternity of comfort is the crown and glory of it. What is this "everlasting consolation"? It includes a sense of pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the witness of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a cloud, and his transgressions like a thick cloud. If sin be pardoned, is not that an everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord gives his people an abiding sense of acceptance in Christ. The Christian knows that God looks upon him as standing in union with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting. Let sickness prostrate us, have we not seen hundreds of believers as happy in the weakness of disease as they would have been in the strength of hale and blooming health? Let death's arrows pierce us to the heart, our comfort dies not, for have not our ears full often heard the songs of saints as they have rejoiced because the living love of God was shed abroad in their hearts in dying moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in the Beloved is an everlasting consolation. Moreover, the Christian has a conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who trust in Christ: the Christian does trust in Christ, and he believes that God will be as good as his word, and will save him. He feels that he is safe by virtue of his being bound up with the person and work of Jesus.
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Today's reading: Psalm 81-83, Romans 11:19-36 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 81-82

For the director of music. According to gittith. Of Asaph.
1 Sing for joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
play the melodious harp and lyre.
3 Sound the ram's horn at the New Moon,
and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
4 this is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 When God went out against Egypt,
he established it as a statute for Joseph....

Today's New Testament reading: Romans 11:19-36

19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
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Levi

[Lē'vī] - joined or adhesion.
  1. Another name for Matthew, the one-time Roman tax-gatherer (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27, 29). See MATTHEW.
  2. An ancestor of Jesus Christ(Luke 3:24).
  3. Another ancestor of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:29).
  4. The third son of Jacob by Leah. Levi had three sons, and died in Egypt at the age of 137 (Gen. 29:34; 46:11; Exod. 6:16). His descendants, the Levites, had care of the sanctuary. The Book of Leviticus describes their ministry.

The Man of Isolation

Isolation is a feature in the history of Levi, quite as much as it characterizes Simeon, with whom he is paired. The capacity to stand alone made Simeon and Levi conspicuous among their brethren in their attack upon the Shechemites, and proved a valuable instrument for the work of the Lord. The tribe of Levi was fitted by the discipline of trial to discharge a most important duty in Israel - a duty which made Levi second in importance to none but Judah, whose forerunner and counterpart he was formed to be. Levi stands before Judah in the prophecies of Jacob - Judah before Levi in the blessings of Moses, the man of God.
"The true Levites," says Dr. C. H. Waller, "are the men who have been made lonely among their brethren that they may live alone with Jehovah, and so dwell as the families of others that they may unite them to the family of God."
Levi came under the ban of Jacob, who, in his prophecy set Simeon and Levi under a "curse." To the patriarch they were bad brothers.
Dr. Dinsdale Young has a telling chapter on Simeon and Levi in which he elaborates on these features:
I. They constituted an unholy brotherhood - they had a common disposition (Gen. 49:5).
II. They had unhallowed belongings ( Gen. 49:5) - sinful homes and perverted instruments.
III. They drew from their father a heart-felt prayer (Gen. 49:6). Reviewing their sinful courses, the dying father prays for them.
IV. Their father uttered a righteous imprecation upon their sin. Jacob did not curse them, but their sin (Gen. 49:7).
V. A just judgment was pronounced upon them, "I will divide them" (Gen. 49:7 ). Though divided and scattered, they were not cut off from the promised land. Theirs was not the abundant entrance of others, yet they were privileged to enter.
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