Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Tue Aug 26th Todays News

One article is about remembering why soldiers died serving Australia, another is about Melbourne worrying about Sydney's iconic bridge. Thing is, Sydney people don't care about either. It doesn't matter that Sydney's iconic harbour ridge is or is not bigger than a less celebrated one in Sydney. But the deaths of soldiers anywhere should be moving. And the personal connection should not be ignored. It is foundational to what makes Australia today. But for their sacrifice then, much might be different. WW1 is sneeringly referred to as 'family feud' by many who point out that war is senseless and that war was big and senseless. There is no disputing that lives were wasted. But the casual uninformed dismissal of the war is wrong. There were many attempts to do things right. And the tragedy was how self interest and mistaken do gooders operated to harm those in harm's way. Had the UK been successful at Gallipolli in 1915, the war may well have been over within a year. Russia might not have collapsed to the communists. Tens of millions might never have died in that war. And that is only one such decisive plan. Germany under the Kaiser was belligerent and the world could not tolerate her success or criminal international activity. It is true that WW2 had seeds sewn from WW1, but that is more relevant to how the peace was managed. But as for the serving soldier who fell, honour them. It wasn't what they wanted in life. It isn't what was deserved. We need people willing to serve, willing to do what is right in extraordinary circumstances. Some say they didn't die for the right reasons: For the state, for God, for loved ones. Damned straight. The survivors get to say why they served. The dead have lost the voice they had. Yet, the voice they had, spoke loudly in the fact they served. 

The ABC is campaigning against Australia and cultural assets. The despicable Gosford Anglican got an enormous soap box on 7:30 report, which gushingly assured viewers that it was an ordinary Christian Church. It is a small church with an insular community that at any instance does not declare that it is dedicated to serving God. They worship fads that are strongly left wing political. For them , the issue is not border protection or saving lives from being drowned or dedicated to paying pirates, instead their issue is equity and they favour drowning poor people to achieve it. Or they favour taxation and wealth redistribution, if the ALP do it. Or they favour changing the Australian constitution to reflect privileges for race. The God I know and serve is not the same. I am not an authority, but the one I serve is different. The 7:30 report also gleefully declared a '$7 copayment for visiting a doctor,' dead. How about the copayments for public transport? University? School? Roads? Chanel 9 has entered the culture wars in defence of a dog, Hugo, slated for destruction after it's owner allowed it to walk the neighbourhood unleashed. It is a Pit Bull cross and quite ugly. If they really loved their dog, they would treat it better, not exploit it's life for media exposure. 
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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 Dennis Melo NorenCharles Anderson and Langelo Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years, as Ferdinand II of Naples (1469), Robert Walpole (1676), Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (1940), Antoine Lavoisier (1743), Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (1819), Mary Ann Nichols (1845), Arthur James Arnot (1865), Peggy Guggenheim (1898), Mother Teresa (1910) and Yang Yilin (1992). On your day, National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2013); Women's Equality Day in the United States
1789 – French Revolution: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, defining a set of individual and collective rights of the people, was approved by the National Constituent Assembly.
1883 – A massive eruption destroyed the volcanic island of Krakatoa, ejecting so much ash that average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 °C (2.2 °F) over the next year.
1928 – At a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, May Donoghue found the remains of a snail in her bottle of ginger beer, causing her to launch one of the landmark civil action cases in British common law, Donoghue v Stevenson.
1970 – Betty Friedan and the National Organization for Women organized the Women's Strike for Equality in New York City, in which 20,000 women protested the continuing lack of gender equality.
2008 – More than a week after a ceasefire was reached in the South Ossetia war, Russia unilaterally recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 
You have your rights. In the turmoil, there is opportunity. A snail in the glass is too slow. We want equality now. Your independence, hard fought, is assured. Party on.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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BACON HORROR

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 26, 2014 (4:19pm)

A brutally offensive sign is removed in Vermont:

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(Via Brendan R.) 
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ALL SIDES CONSIDERED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 26, 2014 (5:27am)

Enjoyed Q & A‘s balanced and thoughtful discussion about Islamic terrorism. Very much looking forward to next week’s balanced and thoughtful discussion about rape.
UPDATE. Perhaps any future rape discussion panellists on Q & A could borrow Waleed Aly’s words, slightly altered
We’re finally maturing in the way we handle rape. Gone is the triumphalist rhetoric of the “War on Rape”, with its ridiculous promises of a rape-free world and the ultimate victory of freedom over rape. In its place is a far more sober, pragmatic recognition that rape is a perpetual irritant, and that while it is tragic and emotionally lacerating, rape kills relatively few people and is not any kind of existential threat. 
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POMMIE BASHING

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 26, 2014 (5:16am)

Pommie Mbangwa is in Mitchell Johnson’s firing line … even though the gifted Zimbabwean fast bowler hasn’t played international cricket for 12 years:



Mark Waugh once did the same in the West Indies, in 1995. No video of that, but here Waugh assaults Perth’s perimeter. 
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MAN OF HIS WORD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 26, 2014 (4:38am)

The perfect New York Times headline:

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And he is, as Mark Steyn observes. Obama is staying resolutely on course at the Vineyard Golf Club
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ROASTED ALIVE

Tim Blair – Monday, August 25, 2014 (8:59pm)

I was promised a thrashing by the ABC’s Junior Opinion Police. Do enjoy (from 2:40).
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What’s the point of Palmer MP?

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (10:20am)

Does Clive Palmer take his job seriously?
CLIVE Palmer has one of the poorest attendance records in federal parliament and has not shown up for 17 of the 58 sitting days since he was elected.
How lazy is this man?
THE chairwoman of one of federal parliament’s most powerful committees has criticised Clive Palmer’s failure to attend all eight of the public hearings the committee has held.
And another member of the house economics committee said Mr Palmer “had added zero value”, despite insisting on being appointed to the committee, and his absence had become a running joke.
UPDATE
Having called the Chinese “bastards” and “mongrels” who “shoot their own people” and were trying to “take over” Australia, Palmer now grovels to the Chinese Ambassador, even quoting the mass-murdering Mao Zedong:
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I can only assume Palmer has some business interests in jeopardy. 
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Islam yet again taken out of context by its believers

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (9:41am)

So why do so many Muslims believe Islam condones - even demands - such cruelty? Yes, the majority may disagree with them, but what in the faith leaves itself so open to such barbarity?
The leader of Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram said his fighters were now ruling the captured northeastern town of Gwoza “by Islamic law”, in the first video to state a territorial claim in more than five years of violent insurrection. His message also contained taunts for Western governments and compared democracy to incest…
Abubakar Shekau’s forces have killed thousands since launching an uprising in 2009…
In an attack on Sunday in the remote northeastern town of Gamboru, the insurgents killed 15 people, survivors said on Monday. The gunmen came in armed pick up trucks, throwing explosives and spraying the town with bullets… (The video) ends with scenes of executing captives in pre-dug mass graves, some of them beaten to death with spades…
“Democracy is worse than homosexuality, worse than sleeping with your mother,” Shekau says. “You are all pagans and we will kill you, even if you do not attack us we will kill you ... Allah commands us to kill without pity.” 
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Liberals keep recovering. Now if they could end the Budget dramas…

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (8:25am)

The Abbott Government continues to recover:
AS it approaches the first anniversary of its election win, the Abbott government has achieved its best two-party-preferred poll result since before its troubled budget, but it still trails Labor as parliament resumes today after the winter break.
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, shows Labor ahead by 51 to 49 per cent.
Here is something for the Government to consider. Almost all its woes involve the stalled Budget savings and its attempts to sell them - the fuel excise rise, the Medicare co-payment, the poor not driving cars, the impression of deadlock, the uncertainty about whether we face a crisis or not.
But almost all the Government’s strengths involve non-Budget issues - the handling of the MH17 tragedy, the anti-terrorism push, stopping the boats, no-disasters governing, axing the carbon tax, signing free-trade deals, ending the corporate welfare push and dealing with union corruption allegations. Add to that the torrent of Labor books attacking Labor figures, and Palmer imploding.  I also wouldn’t mind betting that some of the recovery comes from voters realising some of the Budget nasties won’t actually happen anyway.
No, it’s not quite that simple, because the Budget problems are real and hammering them does expose Labor’s lack of answers to the disaster it created.
But isn’t the take-out message from this that the government should end the Budget dramas soon and focus on what it’s clearly best at - quiet, competent government? And why not open up important new fronts in public policy debate in which it’s more likely to speak the frank and popular truth in a hot contest: like immigration levels? 
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If NSW won’t look for its own gas, I’m not paying to import it

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (8:14am)

I hope Peter Reith is wrong about the Abbott Government’s intentions because he’s right about the folly of any such plan:
I now understand that the Abbott government is thinking seriously about proposing or part financing a whopping great big new gas pipe to bring gas from Western Australia to Sydney. Apparently the rationale is to supply gas to Sydney because it looks like there will be gas shortages that will affect business and maybe residential users.
I find it hard to understand why the Commonwealth would even be considering the matter when the prospect of gas shortages has been obvious for at least 18 months while NSW has done virtually nothing. Under former premier Barry O’Farrell, NSW had been largely paralysed by green campaigners who totally opposed any fossil fuels and had been given a platform by radio commentator Alan Jones. Nearly all their claims have been largely debunked by independent scientific advice from the likes of GeoScience Australia and others. Even if at the very last moment NSW finally wanted to do something about gas shortages, there is nothing to stop the NSW government fast tracking private sector gas production within NSW and running a pipe from northern NSW to Sydney. It would be cheaper than transporting gas from WA, much quicker to build and would utilise the coal seam gas now available in NSW…
I don’t understand why the Commonwealth should be even thinking to clean up the consequences caused by the failures of the NSW government to ensure gas supplies to Sydney.
Those who fall for green mysticism and unreason should pay the price themselves. Call it a tax on stupidity. 
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Truth is, emissions keep rising. Yet temperatures don’t

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (8:03am)

Spin:

The international goal of halting global warming at 2 degrees is now within reach because China has slowed the growth of its coal use, despite continuing to economically develop, climate policy expert Ross Garnaut says.

Fact:
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The real story that Fairfax consistently dodges? Emissions keep soaring, but the temperature of the atmosphere has not risen for some 16 years and has even fallen over the past decade.
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Will the ABC now censor the Gaza pictures, too?

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (7:44am)

ABC Jonathan Green says showing pictures of James Foley about to be beheaded encourages terrorists:
Publishing the image in a way that could not be avoided - above the fold on the front page of a national daily - leaves that paper aiding the original intent of the people who took it: to shock, to engender fear. In publishing, the newspaper became complicit in that campaign of terror.
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.
The Village Idiot (Reformed):
According to Jonathan Green, Paul Barry, Waleed Aly and other members of the intelligensia at #theirABC (aka Jihad Central), the display of pictures or video of the death of James Foley causes our home grown Muslims to be radicalised.Surely if our Muslim teenagers and young adults can be radicalised by this, imagine the damage #theirABC is causing by constantly showing the death and destruction caused by Hamas in Gaza and Israel. I look forward to #theirABC ceasing the practice of showing pictures and video of the military actions over there. Mark Scott owes a duty to the Muslim community not to radicalise them by showing offensive material.
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ABC pays children to hate conservatives

Andrew Bolt August 26 2014 (7:10am)

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The ABC now pays children to attack conservatives by pointing out they are ... er, um…
The anger is clear. The arguments, though, are as absent as the laughs.  The only reason this is funded is to enforce the prevailing (ABC) orthodoxy.
The ABC really is out of control.
UPDATE
Meanwhile on the more adult - chronologically speaking - Media Watch, two more attacks on host Paul Barry’s favorite target - the Murdoch media. One of those attacks is no more than Barry saying he doesn’t agree with a decision to show readers the ghastly reality of Islamist terror.
Where is the ABC’s balance? Could its new diversity commissar address the lack of diversity in ABC opinion, instead of obsessing over the “race” of those who do opine? 
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her








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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Thank You Lord, for everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. Only You can make it happen. Amen.
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Dry Bones, cartoon, Egypt, Egyptians, Israel, Moslem, Muslims, moslem brotherhood, islamists, islamism,jihad, Islam, Islamism, democracy, morsi, president morsi, coop, jihad,
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Hi Everyone! I have some new news for you! As you know, I have been using this page as a general purpose place for sharing everything I do, which is mostly photography related, but also includes my musical side and the family stuff as well. Meanwhile, I have a photo fan page that has been ignored and not updated during the past year... or two. That all ends today. From this point on, I'll be taking my cues from my talented friendCaryn Hill who lets people know when she updates to her fan page through her main page. I think it's a great way to keep my friends and family and everyone else up to date on what I'm up to in a more organized way. That said, my page here will still get uploads, but they might be a little different. Take today's for example. I am starting a picture diary of my travels which I'll call the Highlander Diaries. Like this picture, the images will show places I've been traveling to, with my silver SUV somewhere in the frame. So, with that said, I will now start working and updating the other page, and hopfully you will all continue to follow my adventures and the imags that come from them.

Cheers!

~M@

https://www.facebook.com/mattgranzphotography

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Fatah:

Fatah's Facebook page
promotes armed violence for kids

Female suicide bombers
are "stars who sparkled in the sky"

by Itamar Marcus

Fatah's official Facebook page continues to promote and glorify violence and terror for children. In one post, young Palestinian boys are shown holding rifles with the text:
"The children of Palestine - this is how they celebrated their holiday."


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Adam Levick..
CiF Watch..
20 August '13..

The Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49 produced around 711,000 Palestinian Arab refugees, according to official records. (To provide some context to this figure, there were roughly 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries between 1948 and the early 1970s.)

The relevant UN General Assembly document from Oct. 23, 1950 states the following about the Palestinian refugee problem:

The estimate of the statistical expert, which the Committee believes to be as accurate as circumstances permit, indicates that the refugees from Israel-controlled territory amount to approximately 711,000.

While it is estimated that somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 Palestinian Arabs, out of this original refugee population, are still alive today, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) allows thechildren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (ad infinitum) of actual refugees to continue to inherit their ancestor’s status. So, based on this bizarre formula, there are officially 4.9 million Palestinians who are eligible for “refugee” benefits.

Robert Tait is the Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent, and you’d therefore expect him to have some familiarity with such statistical and historical details.
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BDS vandals target Israeli-owned shop in Britain


Anti-Israel extremists recently began threatening and disrupting the activities of an Israeli-owned shop in Brighton. The UK-based store, EcoStream, is known to sell SodaStream recyclable bottles which are made in Mishor Adumim, an industrial zone located in post-1967 Israeli territory. According to the group "Palestine Solidarity Campaign," these business activities take part inside "occupied Palestinian territory" and therefore the shop, as well as SodaStream, should be boycotted. Last week, EcoStream employees found the lock on the front door of their shop to be filled with superglue. SodaSteam employs over 160 Palestinians in its main factory. According to media reports, the store's general manager has said that "it's not acceptable that these people can continue to do this. Something more needs to be done." Local anti-Israel operatives have promised to continue picketing the store in order to discourage local people from patronizing it.
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Dr. Waldman: “This creature of yours should be kept under guard. Mark my words. He will prove dangerous.”
Dr. Henry Frankenstein: Dangerous! Poor old Waldman. Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous?….
Dr. Waldman: You’re young, my friend. Your success has intoxicated you. Wake up and look facts in the face! Here we have a fiend whose brain…
Dr. Henry Frankenstein: “The brain must be given time to develop. It’s a perfectly good brain, doctor. You ought to know. It came from your own laboratory.”
Dr. Waldman (shocked): “You used the brain in my laboratory! But you’ve mistakenly implanted a criminal brain in this creature.” –”Frankenstein” (1931)

A .440 life-time batting average would make one a hall-of-fame player if one was playing major league baseball. But Obamacare "aint' baseball and meeting only 44% of your own deadlines is pretty poor when one considers this is the Obama's signature legislation.
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<This is the triumph of illusion, required because reality doesn't comport with the liberal, democratic Western standard in which every difference can be split. The reality is that Israeli fights every day against people dedicated it its destruction as a sovereign entity. Reality is ugly, so the West pretends we're only a minute or two, an Israeli concession or two, a settlement or two from Israeli-Palestinian "peace.">
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As a major focus of its Ramadan activities, the Palestinian Authority chose to honor and glorify terrorist murderers.
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how Israel has an 'impenetrable' security fence
that is 'protecting' us from terror attacks. You know, the one the world refers to as the 'wall.' And I've been telling you for years that it's all a lie, and that what protects us from terror attacks is God, and God helping the IDF to root out terrorists on the ground in Judea and Samaria.

Want proof? Here's a video showing 'Palestinians' jogging through a hole in the fence just off the Sansana-Metar road. The road is located northeast of Beer Sheva and southwest of Hevron. Arabs from the 'Palestinian Authority' usually cross the fence in order to work in Israel illegally, but there is nothing preventing terrorists from entering Israel in the same way. Motorists have been reporting the breach in the fence for months to no avail.>
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Jonathan Pollard red, white and blue

Friday’s powerful opinion piece by Jonathan Pollard in The Jerusalem Post (“Restoring Israel to greatness”) caused quite a sensation.
At great personal cost, Pollard penned the piece out of love for Israel and a genuine concern for its future. His words, whether you agree with them or not, were intended to sound a clarion call for an end to moral ambiguity and a restoration of sound values.

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both sides in Egypt
are blaming Israel for what's happening there. How convenient.... It's the only thing on which they can agree.>===
4614936283_Obama_Corruption_answer_2_xlarge

Scandal after scandal, coupled with an ongoing contempt for the law and the Constitution, demonstrated by high-level officials and the president himself, point to one deeply troubling conclusion: the Obama administration may be the most corrupt administration ever inflicted on the American public. And while the mainstream media have done a remarkable job deflecting much of that reality, even they cannot keep up with the avalanche of disturbing revelations that arise, seemingly on a daily basis.
We begin with yet another report about the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation, courtesy of Sharyl Attkisson, one of the few remaining reporters who follows a story wherever it goes. Last Wednesday, three more F&F weapons turned up at crime scenes in Mexico. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and as many as 300 Mexican nationals, including teens at a birthday party, were slaughtered by those weapons. Yet the ensuing investigation was first thwarted by Eric Holder’s refusal to turn over critical documents to congressional investigators, earning him a contempt of Congress citation. It was followed by President Obama invoking executive privilege to prevent the same. Other documents reveal that Eric Holder lied to Congress about when he first heard about the operation. The House Oversight Committee is currently suing for release of the material, but both Holder and Obama remain unscathed by this deadly debacle, even as the Terry family’s effort to find out what really happened to their son has been ignored.

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The conclusion is that The Forward believes that Israel is inherently evil. Those are the only facts that can fit its editorial policy. Anything that contradicts that narrative makes reporters not just feel conflicted, but angry. Because they already knew the truth before the story that makes Israelis look like decent people comes out. That is an unacceptable distraction from their own one-dimensional analysis of the situation.

Beyond that, we can see how bad a reporter Goldman is. In the earlier part of the article she describes how she feels "manipulated" when she covers a story that the Israeli government tips her (and other journalists) off about. So what is stopping her from digging deeper? Moreover, what is stopping her from looking to find out if there are similar "feel-good" human interest stories that are not pushed by the government?

That's crazy talk! To Goldman and The Forward, Israeli cruelty is the only story, and everything else is a distraction, to be ignored or downplayed or belittled or cynically dismissed.

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Prime Minister BinyaminNetanyahu spoke Sunday about the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria as he addressed his ministers at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
“This situation cannot continue. The most dangerous regimes on earth must not have the most dangerous weapons on earth, and we expect this to end,” he declared.
“What happened in Syria is a crime and a terrible tragedy,” he continued. “Our hearts are with the women, children and babies who were so cruelly hurt by weapons of mass destruction.”
Netanyahu also spoke of Israel’s current position. Terrorist groups have targeted Israel with rocket fire on the Golan and on the northern Galilee, in an apparent attempt to drag the Jewish state into the conflict.
“Our hand is on the pulse. It will act responsibly – but if it becomes necessary, we also have a finger on the trigger,” he warned.
“We know how to protect our citizens and our country from those who seek to hurt us,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz predicted that the United States will have no choice but to intervene in Syria’s civil war following the chemical attack, which initial reports indicate was approved by sources high in the Assad regime.
Over the weekend the IDF reported that it is planning to station a new, more advanced warship on Israel’s naval border with Lebanon.

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When Michal Negrin opened a store in Manhattan's SoHo district recently, it showed just how spectacularly the BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement has failed in the United States. 
The first Michal Negrin shop in New York City, on one of Soho’s most trafficked blocks, is the latest of a panoply of Israeli companies that have opened up retail outlets here: Next door is Israeli soap and body-products purveyor Sabon, which has 11 stores in New York City and opened its first U.S. store a decade ago. The Michal Negrin boutique is also just down the block from Israeli-owned Café Bari, and a couple of blocks away from Aroma Espresso Bar, which has four cafes in Manhattan and six more in other heavily Jewish parts of the country. But this part of Soho — call it Nachalat Binyamin West — may have the densest concentration of Israeli retail outlets anywhere in the U.S.
Israeli products are increasingly found in the most prosaic American retail establishments. Sodastream seltzer makers are sold in Wal-Mart, Costco and Bed, Bath & Beyond, big-box stores ubiquitous along the sides of American highways. Ahava body creams and beauty products are also sold by Bed, Bath & Beyond, as well as Macy’s and Lord & Taylor department stores, along with the Ulta and Ricky’s beauty supply stores and many dozens of independent pharmacies, even in Arkansas and North Dakota.
Despite the efforts of BDS groups to generate boycotts of products manufactured beyond the Green Line, even Israeli companies that do some of their manufacturing there are finding retail success.
And the Israeliness of many of the products, like Sodastream, is not an overt part of their identity here.
Sodastream, which began selling its seltzer makers in the U.S. in 2002, has more penetration in consumer markets here than any other Israeli product, according to Joseph Altobello, a consumer and household products analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., a U.S.-based investment bank with an office in Tel Aviv.
“Sodastream is the only Israeli name that I would know of” among Israeli products sold in the U.S., Altobello said in an interview. The “Israeli label is neutral. The vast majority of people would view it neither good nor bad. Products succeed on their merits. There are some groups that have issues, but overall, I’ve never had anyone say I’m not buying a Sodastream because it’s an Israeli company. Ever. Where a product is made matters far less than ‘does it make sense for me in my life at this price point?’“
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Kim Marie Thompson's photo.
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"We're fighting jihad around the world and paying to indoctrinate kids in it - why are we doing that?" -Tucker Carlson
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lol implementation after 2020 .. sounds more like doing it without fibre .. ed===

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To understand the failure of public education in this country, one must first understand that the entire system is designed for the benefit of the adults who work in it. Union dues from people working in the system are funneled into lobbying and campaign contributions to the very legislators setting the rules of the system. As a result, the entire political system is biased against reform of public education. 

Sometimes, however, the need for reform is so manifest that even these local obstacles can be overcome. Under the Obama Administration, however, opponents of reform have the ultimate "trump card." The Feds. Late this week, the Department of Justice filed a federal suit against Louisiana's school choice law. Eric Holder's office argues that allowing kids in failing public schools to attend better-performing private schools would work against its "goal" of achieving the proper racial balance in schools. 
Your education may suck, in other words, but at least you are in a school with the "right" racial balance. 
Louisiana passed a modest school choice, or voucher, law, a couple years ago. If a child was low-income and attended a school that graded a C or less, the student could attend a private school, with a portion of the tuition covered by the taxpayer-funded education subsidy. The state's program isn't as expansive as those in place in Holland and Sweden, but it begins to establish that the public's commitment was to educating a child, not to a particular system. 
Last year, around 600 kids benefited from this program, although that number was likely to increase dramatically this year. 
Unions, of course, hate the idea of giving parents a choice in how they educate their children. While education is largely still a function of state and local government, Eric Holder managed to look into his bag of legal tricks and find a way to block Louisiana's reforms. 
A number of parishes (read counties) in Louisiana are under federal directive to make their public school systems more racially balanced. DOJ is concerned that giving low-income parents an opportunity to escape failing schools might alter the racial balance of the schools negatively. 
Maybe it will. But, the reform the DOJ is trying to block would also give some number of kids a better chance at opportunity. The left often argues for silly laws with the rhetorical trick that if we can save "one life" shouldn't we endorse it. Fine. Why not, however, save some few hundreds of kids from a failing education system? 
To fully appreciate the challenges we face, you must understand one thing. The left is only about power. Everything else they say is just rhetoric. 
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 sometimes food .. sometime, each day .. ed
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Do what's right, not what's easy.
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Steve Stockman

Republican Texas Congressman issued a blistering statement on Friday, accusing President Obama of intentionally working to encourage voter fraud.
Congressman Steve Stockman made the comments following Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that he will take legal action to block a Texas law that requires voters to show a valid form of identification.
“This is a clear attempt by a lawless White House to aid and abet voter fraud,” said Stockman, in a statement.

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This is Jung Da Yeon. She's 46.
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Veteran crooner Andy Williams lambasts ‘Marxist’ Barack Obama

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/veteran-crooner-andy-williams-lambasts-marxist-barack-obama/

“Don’t like him at all. I think he wants to create a socialist country. The people he associates with are very left-wing. One is registered as a Communist. Obama is following Marxist theory. He’s taken over the banks and the car industry. He wants the country to fail.” Andy Williams
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You want to know what happened to the reforms that Kevin Rudd promised for the New South Wales Labor Party to get over the finding by ICAC that the powerbroker he depended on had planned to do defraud the taxpayers by the modest amount of $100 million – at least? 

The answer is that apart from trying to make sure he couldn't be sacked again no matter what he did as leader, absolutely nothing has changed.

Just look at the way the party bosses decided who will represent the people of New South Wales. They hand our seats in parliament as if they own them.
Remember when Mark Latham decided to parachute retired anti Labor rock star Peter Garrett into Kingsford Smith - to the great annoyance of the loyalists who worked for years in the local branches.
Well, now that Peter Garrett is on the way out, the New South Wales powerbrokers have decided to play a game of chess. Apparently when they sacked the last secretary of the Labor Party, Matt Thistlethwaite, they moved him to the Senate. Now for some reason or other hee is to resign from the Senate to represent the people of Kingsford Smith in the House.

But the polls are suggesting that the Liberal candidate, the highly respected surgeon Michael Feneley is more likely to be returned.
At the same time the powerbrokers have decided that the Iranian born 29-year-old secretary of the Labour Party should represent the people of NSW in the Senate. After he left Macquarie University, he worked for Labor Party spin doctors and then for the Labor Party. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend on 24 August 2013, Anne Summers quotes a close friend saying: "He's never worked outside of the ALP; he's never lost and he's never had bad media."

She says that others in the ALP referred to his hyperactivity, his trademark lack of attention, his notorious failure to return phone calls – even from members of Parliament – and his seeming inability to concentrate on just one thing at a time.
And the" reformed'' New South Wales Labor Party thinks that this man, without any life experience and in most people's view, never having had a real job, is the ideal representative of the people of New South Wales.
Read what Miranda Divine wrote in the Sunday Telegraph on 31 July 2013:
"It's no wonder NSW Labor general-secretary Sam Dastyari wants to join the conga line of Labor apparatchiks into a cushy Senate seat. Youthful and diminutive, he is the type who insinuates himself confidently into the middle of a press pack on Budget night in Canberra's Kennedy Room, exuding an unctuous familiarity with gallery stars, to whom he leaks assiduously.

" He behaves as if he is watching himself in the mirror playing a role in House of Cards or The West Wing. His young man-on the-make persona would be endearing if he weren't so powerful, and wasn't about to be parachuted into the Senate at the ripe old age of 29. He is exactly the sort of person Labor does not need in parliament."

@profdavidflint
Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/miranda-devine-eddie8217s-way-is-still-obeyed-in-federal-labor/story-fni0cwl5-1226690678033

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What is the only thing that can make a Jewish mother prouder than a son who is both a lawyer and an engineer?
When he joins the Israel Air Force.

Read more: http://www.idfblog.com/2013/08/25/a-tale-of-3-countries-2-degrees-and-1-air-force-officer/
 
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Maria Tran
Meeting the greats of the martial arts action genre; Benny The Jet & Cynthia Rothrock. Day #6 in US and loads of awesome connections!
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"The people crave a savior. A messiah." #TheBible
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White gold and gemstone Ninja belt buckle.
(Back plate is oxidized silver)

Design and fabrication by Casey Swanson,
SD Jewelry.
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Kevin Rudd has been caught out running a campaign built on fabrications and future glory, writes Fairfax commentator Paul Sheehan. He says Mr. Rudd has been caught lying, without compunction, on multiple occasions, which he lists.
One of the Rudd and Gillard government's fabrications is to reduce unemployment which according to one think tank is running at 6.2%, something which the OECD questions.

But according to the respected Roy Morgan Research, real unemployment is up slightly to 9.7% and under-employment jumps to 9.2%. Roy Morgan survey on Australia’s unemployment and ‘under-employed’* is based on weekly face-to-face interviews of 336,232 Australians aged 14 and over between January 2007 – June 2013 and includes 4,665 face-to-face interviews in June 2013.

More Australians believe Roy Morgan unemployment estimate is ‘closer to reality’ than the ABS statistics which are relied on by both parties. Under this a person is employed if n employment for a minimum of one hour per week, which is an international standard. It is obviously unrealistic. The answer is surely to follow Roya Morgan but also to publish statistics according to the one hour measure.
@profdavidflint

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smile-youre-on-candidate-camera-20130825-2sjrn.html#ixzz2d11ZaKM9

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Dominos Pizza Delivery Man Fatally Shoots Fredrick Lorenza Kelly Jr., Who Was Allegedly Trying to Rob Him

pizza delivery-man fatally shot a knife-wielding robber after dropping off a pizza to a motel room.
Domino’s employee Bryon Park, 54, had just returned to his vehicle after delivering a pizza to a room in a Days Inn motel in West Melbourne, Fla., about midnight Friday when Fredrick Lorenza Kelly Jr., 32, approached him with a large knife, the Brevard Times reports.
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Help me stop the watermelonshttp://ow.ly/nCMYg
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Bruce Wilson

A judge today ordered eight documents seized by Victoria Police during the fraud investigation to be returned to law firm Slater & Gordon.
The documents were seized after a search warrant was executed at the law firm’s Melbourne offices in May and have remained in a sealed envelope and held by the Supreme Court.
They now must be returned to Slater & Gordon within seven days.
The police probe into the alleged fraud examines Ms Gillard’s relationship with former AWU secretary Bruce Wilson.
The pair were in a relationship from 1992 to 1995 and Ms Gillard was, at the same time, also providing legal advice to the AWU, as a partner with Slater & Gordon.

Ridiculous verdict - ed
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CANdo - Australia's Voice.
Voter faith in the federal government has plummeted to levels not seen since the Howard era but Labor can still win the election, top poll firm Roy Morgan says.
Launching the firm's annual State of the Nation report on Tuesday, Gary Morgan said gaffes by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott posed the biggest risk to his bid for the top job.

"It's really up to Abbott to lose the election," he said.

The report found confidence in government had risen only slightly in the past week.

Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said 59.6 per cent of Australians surveyed said they did not trust the government, helping give the coalition a 51-49 two-party preferred lead over Labor.

"Trust, or distrust, in the government is back to the levels that we haven't seen since the Howard government at its most unpopular (before the 2004 election)," she said.

"But remember, the Howard LNP government was re-elected after that."

"This looks pretty dire but it can change."

Voters in the Labor-held bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, in NSW, had among the lowest confidence in open and honest government, the report found.

Meanwhile four marginal ALP seats were in the bottom 20 per cent of seats ranked by consumer confidence: Rankin and Blair in Queensland and Kingsford-Smith and Page in NSW.

"The wisdom is that if consumer confidence is really low the seat is vulnerable to a change away from the government," Ms Levine said.

Across the country the economy was tipped as the most important issue to voters.

"It's about the cost of living, the cost of electricity, the cost of petrol, the cost of everything - and that includes things like interest rates," Ms Levine said.

The danger seats for the ALP on economic management are Reid in western Sydney, Robertson on the NSW central coast and Corangamite in Victoria.

But two "sleeper" issues, asylum seekers and the environment, could become more prominent election deciders, Ms Levine said.

This article originally appeared on news.com.au. Read more:http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/election-is-abbotts-to-lose-morgan/story-e6frfku9-1226700581324#ixzz2d3QzDB9y

That level of balance should scare any Australian who cares about Australia's future. - ed===

The Smiths sum up the world's reaction to Miley Cyrus' #VMAs performance. http://bit.ly/17WP8Ff
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More taxpayers' money down the drain.
A good sign of a bad administrator is that he or she will immediately have their office redecorated, throwing out perfectly good furniture. When you see politicians changing the names of the departments, and especially changing the logo, you have to wonder what is going on.
Why on earth do we have to put up with a succession of changes to the names of transport authorities and their logos?
We've just seen this sort of waste in New South Wales. Just look at this logo.

The Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian has just spent over $1 million on this design of Sydney's new public transport ''brand'' - a hopping ball with a multi-coloured shadow which the Sydney morning Herald says might have been arrived at with a few strokes of a calligraphers's pen.'
The minister has just spent more than $1 million in consultancy and design fees, market research and testing. This was only revealed when the State opposition did a Freedom of information search to find this out.
Gladys. Berejiklian: you might as well flushed more grown $1 million down the lavatory. The appalling thing, Gladys, is that it is the taxpayer's money not yours. How many years with some taxpayers have to work to pay that amount in tax?

@profdavidflint

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bouncing-ball-branding-cost-transport-1mplus-20130819-2s7bc.html#ixzz2cqVvgIVK

I support this use of money .. I point out that a responsible government which posts surpluses is not sinful with waste. I note Howard was criticised by Rudd for what Rudd called profligate spending. It is true Howard spent big on some things .. but within government means. This logo looks good and is necessary because the tired old transport .. jaded under ALP .. needs renewal. - ed
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August 26Heroes' Day/Herero Day in Namibia; Women's Equality Dayin the United States
An illustration of the Battle of Crécy
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“Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” Psalm 119:165 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"His fruit was sweet to my taste."
Song of Solomon 2:3
Faith, in the Scripture, is spoken of under the emblem of all the senses. It is sight: "Look unto me and be ye saved." It is hearing: "Hear, and your soul shall live." Faith is smelling: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia"; "thy name is as ointment poured forth." Faith is spiritual touch. By this faith the woman came behind and touched the hem of Christ's garment, and by this we handle the things of the good word of life. Faith is equally the spirit's taste. "How sweet are thy words to my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my lips." "Except a man eat my flesh," saith Christ, "and drink my blood, there is no life in him."
This "taste" is faith in one of its highest operations. One of the first performances of faith is hearing. We hear the voice of God, not with the outward ear alone, but with the inward ear; we hear it as God's Word, and we believe it to be so; that is the "hearing" of faith. Then our mind looketh upon the truth as it is presented to us; that is to say, we understand it, we perceive its meaning; that is the "seeing" of faith. Next we discover its preciousness; we begin to admire it, and find how fragrant it is; that is faith in its "smell." Then we appropriate the mercies which are prepared for us in Christ; that is faith in its "touch." Hence follow the enjoyments, peace, delight, communion; which are faith in its "taste." Any one of these acts of faith is saving. To hear Christ's voice as the sure voice of God in the soul will save us; but that which gives true enjoyment is the aspect of faith wherein Christ, by holy taste, is received into us, and made, by inward and spiritual apprehension of his sweetness and preciousness, to be the food of our souls. It is then we sit "under his shadow with great delight," and find his fruit sweet to our taste.

Evening

"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."
Acts 8:37
These words may answer your scruples, devout reader, concerning the ordinances. Perhaps you say, "I should be afraid to be baptized; it is such a solemn thing to avow myself to be dead with Christ, and buried with him. I should not feel at liberty to come to the Master's table; I should be afraid of eating and drinking damnation unto myself, not discerning the Lord's body." Ah! poor trembler, Jesus has given you liberty, be not afraid. If a stranger came to your house, he would stand at the door, or wait in the hall; he would not dream of intruding unbidden into your parlour--he is not at home: but your child makes himself very free about the house; and so is it with the child of God. A stranger may not intrude where a child may venture. When the Holy Ghost has given you to feel the spirit of adoption, you may come to Christian ordinances without fear. The same rule holds good of the Christian's inward privileges. You think, poor seeker, that you are not allowed to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; if you are permitted to get inside Christ's door, or sit at the bottom of his table, you will be well content. Ah! but you shall not have less privileges than the very greatest. God makes no difference in his love to his children. A child is a child to him; he will not make him a hired servant; but he shall feast upon the fatted calf, and shall have the music and the dancing as much as if he had never gone astray. When Jesus comes into the heart, he issues a general licence to be glad in the Lord. No chains are worn in the court of King Jesus. Our admission into full privileges may be gradual, but it is sure. Perhaps our reader is saying, "I wish I could enjoy the promises, and walk at liberty in my Lord's commands." "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Loose the chains of thy neck, O captive daughter, for Jesus makes thee free.
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Today's reading: Psalm 119:1-88, 1 Corinthians 7:20-40 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 119:1-88

Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart-
3 they do no wrong
but follow his ways.
4 You have laid down precepts
that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast
in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame
when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart
as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees;
do not utterly forsake me....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 7:20-40

20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you-although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ's slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. 24 Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
Concerning the Unmarried
25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this....
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Alexander

[Ălĕx ăn'dûr] - defender, helper of men or one who turns away evil.
  1. The son of Simon the Cyrenian who was compelled to carry the cross of Christ (Mark 15:21).
  2. A leading man in Jerusalemwhen Peter and John were tried there (Acts 4:6).
  3. A convert of Paul's who was present at the Ephesian tumult. Perhaps the same as No. 1 ( Acts 19:33).
  4. A convert to Christianity who became an apostate (1 Tim. 1:20). Perhaps the same as No. 6.
  5. Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, who followed his father Philip and who also brought the Jews into contact with Greek literature and life. He is described though not named in Daniel 2:39 and 6:6.
  6. The coppersmith who opposed Paul ( 2 Tim. 4:14 ). This Ephesian Jew was likely the same as the one who corrupted the faith, not from ignorance but deliberately in opposition to his judgment. Dr. Alexander Whyte deals with No. 4 and No. 6 as the same person.
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