Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Wed Aug 6th Todays News

The enormity of dropping a bomb on a civilian population was committed on this day in 1945. Conventional wisdom has it that it was done to shorten the war. President Truman later claimed he slept soundly over the decision. US Chiefs of staff of military claimed it wasn't Truman's decision. The truth is it was a war crime and will probably never be properly examined and it is impossible to compensate victims. Japan is not alone in experiencing the war crime of bomb dropping on civilian populations. Germany experienced it too .. and both dealt it as well. The background to firebombing German cities and nuking Japanese ones is political. Weak US leadership (Democrat Presidents) and the threat of a rapacious Soviet Union which was claiming territory from temporal delay  forced a desperate US leadership to cut corners. In the rush, US military shed personnel in assaults when prudence would have called for caution. But time was a luxury .. Germany had technical expertise which later led to the US Space program. Fifth columns within the allied nations campaigned to prevent territories from being liberated by US/UK troops when the Soviets could claim it. In Europe it resulted in an East West divide until 1990. In Asia it resulted in North Vietnam and North Korea. In Hiroshima it resulted in some 70,000 dead immediately and tens of thousands in the years that followed. Try as hard as he will, Obama might never be a worse President than Truman. 

 In current affairs Christopher Pyne has a sensible policy for higher education that allows the sector to expand and excel. There is no alternative vision given by the opposition. Unless Pyne's reforms are followed, the sector threatens to implode. The opposition are opposing the budget measures and worse, independents are flagging they will too. There is no alternative to affordable. Students need to eventually repay loans. Students need to shoulder a fair portion of the burden of costs. The sector needs to be able to sell itself overseas. Twin baby Gammy may be a part of a Thai surrogacy scam. The baby may be the child of a pedophile. However, the baby deserves to be raised in a loving, healthy family. Surrogacy and adoption laws in Australia mean prospective parents look overseas. The dad should never be a parent. Now it looks like the corrupt Thai government are seeking money and threatening the surrogate mother as a shakedown. NSW Government is looking sick in the ICAC hearings, but then the biased court is good at denouncing conservatives where it turns a blind eye on ALP. The involvement of Tripodi opens questions of the NSW Government's handling of my issue outlined in my petition. Have I been sold down the river to pay for ALP corruption the ICAC has accepted? 

 Also on this day in history, in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire dissolved after the last emperor abdicated, leaving large kingdoms like Austria, Hungary and what would later be Germany. Francis II would continue to oppose Napoleon. In 1912, the Bull Moose Party established by Theodore Roosevelt met in Chicago Coliseum. Theodore split the conservative vote and gave Democrat Wilson the Presidency. In 1926, the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore was released. It featured sound effects, but no talking. And the most kisses of any Hollywood movie. In 1930, the corrupt New York Government resulted in Judge Joseph Crater disappearing. Some say he was killed by police and relatives of police. In 1964, an old tree was identified and cut down for research. The research was unequivocal, that tree was old. Possibly five thousand years old. There is no evidence the scientist had read Tolkein's work. 
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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 John Drapski and Nhan Tran. Born on the same day, across the years, along with Louise de La Vallière (1644), Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809), Edith Roosevelt (1861), Alexander Fleming (1881), Lucille Ball (1911), Robert Mitchum (1917), Andy Warhol (1928), Piers Anthony (1934), Michelle Yeoh (1962), M. Night Shyamalan (1970), Geri Halliwell (1972) and JonBenét Ramsey (1990). On your day, Feast of the Transfiguration (Gregorian calendar); Independence Day in Jamaica (1962)
1506 – Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars in the Battle of Kletsk.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Oriskany, one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the war, was fought about six miles (10 km) east of Fort Stanwix, New York.
1806 – The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by its last emperor, Francis II, during the aftermath of the War of the Third Coalition.
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1966 – Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan became emir and ruler of Abu Dhabi, succeeding his brother, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was deposed in a bloodless coup d'état.
1988 – New York City Police officers charged a crowd protesting a curfew for the previously 24-hour Tompkins Square Park, sparking a riot that led to more than 100 complaints of police brutality. Your day is grand, overshadowed by the un-prosecuted war crime of Truman to the minor tragedy of the life of JonBenét Ramsey. Yet in endeavour, you are unbound, and the world is your oyster.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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CARLTON CALLING

Tim Blair – Wednesday, August 06, 2014 (3:22am)

Sydney Morning Herald editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir this week apologised for an anti-Jewish cartoon that accompanied a recent Mike Carlton column. Now he apologises for Carlton himself: 
I have become aware that Mike Carlton has corresponded with some Herald readers and letter writers using inappropriate and offensive language. 
There’s a shock. Goodsir continues: 
This behaviour is completely unacceptable.
I have asked Mike to apologise for these actions. Mike regrets his behaviour and will be contacting affected readers to apologise. 
“Air hellair! Arm terriblah sahry, ahnd do hope arm forgiven. Toodle-pip! Ho hum!” 
On behalf of the Herald, I too apologise for any offence caused.
In dealing with our readers, it is a basic principle that our staff, columnists and contributors should always behave with respect and courtesy. 
So will Carlton resign or be fired?
UPDATE. Carlton quits: 
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton quit the newspaper today after his editor-in-chief’s public rebuke of his “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” behavior …
The controversial columnist was last night asked to apologise. As more abusive emails to readers emerged he was to be suspended but resigned on the spot. 
Fairfax Media publisher Sean Aylmer: 
“Darren Goodsir said ‘you need top apologise’. As more of these emails emerged we spoke to him last night. He was going to be suspended but he resigned on the spot.
“As more emails emerged we figured we needed to suspend him. We want to put the reader first.
“No one has the right to treat people that way. From there he resigned.” 
Former SMH editor Alan Oakley: 
Six years ago (when editor of the SMH) we sacked Mike Carlton. Biggest mistake the Herald made was taking him back. 
UPDATE II. When the sun sets over Carlton, and the star begins to whine: 
Carlton said he was saddened that a once great paper had “buckled to the bullies”. “The immense pressure from News Limited has got to them, and that is the worst part of it.”
He said he believed he had been suspended because of the language he used with readers but also because of a vigorous campaign to undermine him by News Corp, who reported that some readers who wrote to complain about his views on the conflict in Gaza received emails telling them to “f--k off”.
Carlton has been on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse from people who are angered by his support for the Palestinian people.
“I was subjected to a fortnight of abuse from people calling me a Nazi sympathiser to a slimy Jew hater, some with threats of violence. I got hundreds of emails from as far away as the United States. They called me a Nazi douchebag and occasionally I blew my top. That’s what we do in Australia.” 
No, Mike. That’s what you do. All the time. Carlton’s conspiracy theory continues: 
Carlton says there’s no doubt there was a co-ordinated campaign to oust him by the Jewish lobby in Australia. “That was twinned by a campaign by News Corp - because they hate my guts, but also because it destroyed a rival columnist. And now, Fairfax has handed News Corp that present, gift-wrapped.”
“What cheers me up is that I’m getting tremendous support from Herald colleagues who I respect, and colleagues right throughout journalism.” 
I guess Mike’s Herald colleagues will all be going on strike, then. You know, in solidarity.
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TEN ON THE VERTICAL AXIS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 05, 2014 (5:52pm)

A funny little video makes Clementine Ford angry.
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A Hamas rocket launcher 100 metres from a UN building

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (9:16am)

How much more evidence do you want? A France 24 journalist shows a Hamas rocket launcher tucked between home and 100 metres from a UN building.
And a Finnish journalists says another was launched from just behind a hospital (not the “parking lot” as inaccurately translated):
India’s NDTV reports:
But this morning, NDTV witnessed one such rocket silo being created under a tent right next to the hotel where our team was staying.  Minutes later, we saw the rocket being fired, just before the 72-hour ceasefire came into effect…
This report is being aired on NDTV and published on ndtv.com after our team left the Gaza strip - Hamas has not taken very kindly to any reporting of its rockets being fired.
Helpful of NDTV to blur the faces of the terrorists:
Why don’t more journalists embedded in Hamas territory show such evidence?
Why does the UN not condemn what goes on right under its eyes - the use of civilian shields?
(Thanks to reader Kat.) 
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War delayed. El Nino hides.  90 per cent certainty cools

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (8:55am)

The Guardian’s resident alarmists trumpeted the alarm in June with 90 per cent certainty:
The global El Niño weather phenomenon, whose impacts cause global famines, floods – and even wars – now has a 90% chance of striking this year, according to the latest forecast released to the Guardian…
The latest El Niño prediction comes from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which is considered one the most reliable of the 15 or so prediction centres around the world.
Wars even! Ninety per cent sure of it!
Oops. August tells another story:
Last month, forecasters were predicting with 90 per cent certainty we’d see an El Niño by the end of the year, driving severe weather patterns worldwide.
But the atmosphere has ”largely failed to respond” to sea surface temperatures and scientists’ confidence in an El Nino developing in 2014 has eased a bit, says the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, whose climate models now put the chances of this happening at about 50 per cent.

How strange. How typical. It’s the atmosphere which “failed”, and not the warmists’ computer models.

And not for the first time.From an Age beat-up in Feburary 2009:
VICTORIA is likely to come under the influence of another El Nino within the next three years, exacerbating the drought and the likelihood of bushfires, a senior Bureau of Meteorology climate scientist says.
David Jones, the head of the bureau’s (BoM) National Climate Centre, said there was some risk of a worsening El Nino event this year, but it was more likely to arrive in 2010 or 2011.
“We are in the build-up to the next El Nino and already the drought is as bad as it has ever been — in terms of the drought, this may be as good as things get,” Dr Jones said.
Reader handjive:
A quick ‘Google’ for Australian floods in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 tell the truth.
The Bureau of Meteorology:
image
Isn’t there something wrong with the climate models? 
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Hartcher both later and duller. Some achievement

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (8:34am)

Usually when writers repeat a thought they at least embellish it. But no one ever accused Peter Hartcher of being a stylist, let alone an original thinker:
Rethink, reboot, reshuffle. Niki Savva, The Australian, Thursday: 
A NEW slogan for the PM: rethink, reboot, reshuffle. The Prime Minister ... need(s) to think seriously about what to do next ... The first thing he has to do is reboot the budget. The second is reshuffle his ministry.
Recycle, remake, regurgitate. Peter Hartcher, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday:

TONY Abbott ... needs to rethink, recast, regroup, and reinvigorate. 
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Kathy Jackson must explain this extra $58,000 to her husband

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (8:31am)

Very ugly:
WHISTLEBLOWER Kathy Jackson gave her ex-husband $58,000 of her union branch’s funds just days before officially shutting it down and moving to a national position in the Health Services Union.
The $58,000 payment made to Jeff Jackson directly from Ms Jackson’s HSU No 3 branch in April 2010 was in addition to $50,000 in union funds Ms Jackson gave to her former husband in March a year earlier — revealed last week at the royal commission into union corruption…
It is not clear what the $58,000 payment was for, and Ms Jackson did not respond to questions from The Australian yesterday seeking clarification.
It is believed Ms Jackson might have justified the payment at the time as her HSU No 3 branch offering to cover the ­alleged paid leave and other entitlements of Mr Jackson some time after he had left his position as HSU No 1 branch secretary because his former branch was short of funds.
What puzzles lawyers and union officials such as Mr McGreg­or, who has emerged as a new whistleblower in the HSU saga, is why Ms Jackson would have not sought to make the $58,000 payment to the No 1 branch rather than to Mr Jackson — if she was legitimately coming to the branch’s financial aid — so that the transaction could go through payroll and be recorded for tax and other purposes as an official payout of Mr Jackson’s entitlements.
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Er, isn’t it shocking when newspapers use private information that was hacked? Hello?

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (8:21am)

Remember when the Left was united in decrying a newspaper which relied on hackers for private information?
Birds now tweet:
A SYDNEY woman faces up to two years’ jail after being charged over computer hacking that led to student records about a $60,000 scholarship granted to Tony ­Abbott’s daughter being leaked to the online magazine New Matilda.
NSW police have charged Freya Newman, a 21-year-old communications student from the University of Technology, Sydney, with unauthorised access to restricted data held in a computer…
Police involvement follows a complaint by management of the Whitehouse Institute of Design that its computer system was hacked on May 20, a day before New Matilda published an article claiming it had documents contradicting assurances by the Prime Minister that one of his daughters received a scholarship based on merit…
It has been alleged Ms Newman gained unauthorised access to the files of Ms Abbott and more than 500 other students.
New Matilda editor Chris Graham lauded the “brave sources” who provided his publication with leaked information in a comment piece published on Monday.
As so often with the tribal Left, what counts is not the principle but the side. 
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Jewish leaders will be sorry about a change that has O’Farrell gloating

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (8:07am)

We had a very robust discussion last night about Tony Abbott’s decision to drop his free speech reforms - and about the fool Barry O’Farrell gloating. Exactly what kind of Liberal is Barry O’Farrell really?
Andrew Bolt has told Barry O’Farrell to “pour yourself another expensive red” after the former NSW premier mocked the conservative columnist’s fury over the collapse of changes to race hate laws…
Mr O’Farrell, who resigned in April after being caught giving false evidence about a bottle of Grange to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, clearly didn’t agree with Bolt and Price, tweeting during the show that the hosts were “so irrational they’re almost humorous”.
Bolt was alerted to the tweet and quickly directed a pointed barb at the fallen premier.
“Hello to Barry...pour yourself another expensive red, one you might have forgotten you actually had there,” he said, prompting laughter from Price.
But to my bigger point:

On the 2GB segment, Bolt ... claimed Australia is “being asked to assimilate to immigrant values” in response to Mr Abbott’s decision to drop the changes.
“He announced that he was dumping the free speech changes at a press conference actually called to announce fresh new measures, strong measures against terrorism, people who had been fighting for jihadist groups overseas and would be coming back radicalised and with superior killing knowledge and pose a danger to us,” Bolt said.
He referenced Mr Abbott’s comment that everyone needs to be part of “team Australia” when it comes to counter terrorism.
“What he is saying is the very people, the very ethnic groups that would take exception to 18C are the same ones that are, in part, some of them, affected or take offence to the anti-terrorism legislation. To make them feel not picked on he’ll retain laws against free speech,” Bolt said.
As for who those who might “feel picked on by terrorism measures”, Bolt identified “obviously muslims, jihadists, people from the Middle East.”
“Don’t we need a frank debate, more frank than it’s been so far into how the Islamic culture, muslim culture, how they integrate here? That is a very difficult and dangerous discussion.”
And the retention of these laws make such a debate legally dangerous. Noticed how so few journalists have raised it in the past? See the fruits of our cowardice now?
UPDATE
A very fine letter from IPA head John Roskam, who is not giving up this fight for our freedom to speak as we find. 
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Do you really want this debate shut down?

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (7:44am)

Free speech

TONY Abbott gave an alarming reason today for dumping his reforms to the Racial Discrimination Act and keeping our muzzle. 

The Prime Minister suggested the RDA’s existing bans on free speech were wanted by the ethnic groups who’d feel picked upon by the stepped-up anti-terrorism laws he also announced on Tuesday.
“I want to work with the communities of our country as ‘Team Australia’ here,” he said, and his free speech reforms would be a “complication” in trying to sell his crackdown on jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq.
But surely the ethnic communities which produced those jihadists and the 21 Muslims we’ve jailed on terrorism offences already need exactly the kind of critical scrutiny too easily shut down with cries of “racism”.
My tip: the dysfunction or possible incompatibility of some cultures within our own will become one of the most urgent topics of public policy over the next decade. But it will be the easiest for activists to shut down.
(Read full column here.) 
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Mike Carlton has a lot of Jews to ring to say sorry

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (7:12am)

On Monday Sydney Morning Herald editor in chief Darren Goodsir had to apologise for an anti-Semitic cartoon:

It was wrong to publish the cartoon in its original form. We apologise unreservedly for this lapse, and the anguish and distress that has been caused.
Today Goodsir apologises again, this time for columnist Mike Carlton’s abuse of readers, particularly Jews:

I have become aware that Mike Carlton has corresponded with some Herald readers and letter writers using inappropriate and offensive language.
This behaviour is completely unacceptable.
I have asked Mike to apologise for these actions. Mike regrets his behaviour and will be contacting affected readers to apologise.
On behalf of the Herald, I too apologise for any offence caused.
An example of Carlton responses to Jewish readers protesting at his demonisation of Israelis:
You’re the one full of hate and bile, sunshine. The classic example of the Jewish bigot.  Now f..k off.
To another Jew:
And I suggest you go f..k yourself.
To another Jew:

Looking forward to hearing from you after you have joined the IDF and gone off to kill some kids. Reluctantly, of course. Until then, f. k off.
To another Jew:
You are a vulgar and stupid bigot.
To another Jew:

Go f. k yourself. I gather you are some sort of jumped up hotel waiter. What a pathetic wanker you are. And A-grade liar. Anything from you in future goes straight to trash, unread.
The Australian, a Murdoch newspaper, reports on the furore:
FAIRFAX Media is under pressure to sack columnist Mike Carlton, who has been ordered to apologise for using anti-Semitic and abusive language towards readers, calling one a “Jewish bigot” and telling several others to “f..k off”.
As The Sydney Morning Herald’s editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir admitted to a former Fairfax director that he was not finding it easy to keep the newspaper “fair and balanced”, he has spent the past few days responding to readers incensed over Carlton’s columns and the paper’s coverage of the conflict in Israel…
In Goodsir’s reply to [one Jewish reader] email, [Goodsir] made a startling admission: “I remain very seriously committed to ensuring a fair and balanced SMH; a not ­altogether easy thing to do.”
A Fairfax source said there was dismay at management and newsroom level that Carlton had been permitted to get away with such behaviour.
Carlton can dish it out but whimpers about “bullying” when he’s held to account:
image
By the way, Goodsir should be congratulated for taking the tough and embarrassing steps to restore integrity and balance to his newspaper. Is the ABC watching - and learning?
UPDATE
This is probably the biggest newspaper story of the past two weeks. Did you see how the ABC’s Media Watch refused to cover it on Monday?
Never mind. NewsWatch was right onto it:
We will have more on this on Sunday’s show - Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm.
UPDATE
The wuss walks:
SYDNEY Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton quit the newspaper today after his editor-in-chief’s public rebuke of his “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” behaviour. 
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Now Muir’s adviser can go to all the festivals he likes

Andrew Bolt August 06 2014 (7:04am)

You can’t really blame novice Senator Ricky Muir. I’d have sacked this staffer, too:
Adviser Peter Breen, a former NSW MP, was kicked out tonight, six days after senior adviser Glenn Druery was also shown the door by security…
Senator Muir said while Mr Breen had called in sick last Friday, he had then travelled to a festival 700km away from his home.
Senator Muir declined to name the festival but the Herald Sun understands it was the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival…
Mr Breen said there were two reasons given for the termination of his employment. These included his decision to take the day off work last Friday following a surgical procedure at Westmead Skin Cancer Foundation, and his involvement in an incident report to the parliament following ongoing clashes between Mr Druery and Mr Littler. The incident report authored by Mr Breen was critical of Mr Littler, and found its way into the public domain…
Mr Breen confirmed he had attended the writers’ festival in the evening but that he had been unwell, with 12 stitches in his forehead, a black eye, a headache and a bandage on his head.
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her


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Temporise, don't hesitate - ed
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Spotting my pastor and my bro on their tv show debut! — with Uong Nguyen, Jessica King andTony Nguyen.
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#‎woolworths‬ ‪#‎streetfood‬ exclusive to woolys. Also check out the ‪#‎chork‬ a fork and chopstick in one! ‪#‎awesome‬ ‪#‎inventions‬
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5 AUG 2013 Where the mass media and International outrage , ??

Ballistic missiles used by the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad are killing many civilians, including children, an international rights group said on Monday.
These missiles "are hitting populated areas, causing large numbers of civilian deaths, including many children", said Human Rights Watch, which has investigated nine ballistic missile strikes that killed at least 215 people in six months.
Among those killed in nine attacks from February to July, 100 were children, said HRW, which has visited seven of the sites.
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Meet the thief Hafid - ed
Haffid
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Susan Bernobich I hope you change your mind and come to realise that you have abused good people whose kindness could benefit you. - ed

THE passenger who recorded footage of a woman racially abusing an Asian schoolboy on a Sydney bus earlier this year has scoffed at her "lenient" sentence.
Susan Bernobich, 46, from Sydney's inner west pleaded guilty to the offence but has escaped a conviction after appearing briefly in Burwood Local Court today.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of using offensive language in or near a public place or school.
The mother's racist rant aboard the M41 bus from Burwood to Campsie was captured by the passenger on his smartphone in May, causing the NSW Police to intervene with a court appearance notice in June without a formal complaint by the victims.
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Be blessed. Be a blessing. Believe the best for and in you and others! Respect opinions of others as you desire to be respected. -- Phil Munsey
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“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”-Jim Rohn 
UPtv I love UP TV!
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Roma Downey'
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." - Confucius
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I'm a little right of the LNP - ed
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Nasrallah's chief accomplishment seems to be having Islamic people killed. - ed

Ethnic tensions in Lebanon are resurfacing over what some say is Hezbollah’s destabilizing role in the region.
In a local television interview, Samir Geagea, a prominent Lebanese Christian, accused the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia on Sunday of “dragging the country into war against the wishes of its leaders,” Israel Radio reported.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Do not let your present day circumstances or hardships which are overwhelming let you ever forget that God has a purpose and plan for your life... And always believe and have trust that today's circumstances are all part of the plan, God will not harm you He will carry you to safety...
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The Republican Party's biggest problem is mental illness. The big elephant party is suffering from a severe case of split personality disorder. It's an old problem that has only gotten worse over the years. - See more at: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/a-schizophrenic-elephant.html#sthash.2Pfy8cqI.dpufLol, a tad over stated .. which is not to deny its legitimacy so much as to say it is too strident in its criticism. Consider, the political neophyte Hoover was responsible for the GOP losing the black vote .. not because he was a bigot, but because a politically savvy FDR was able to exploit the bigotry of his own members. What had happened was Hoover, a civil engineer, had fed Germany following WW2 and after a vicious hurricane damaged Louisiana was contracted to feed Louisiana. Hoover was so popular following he was the most popularly elected President to his day. But during the Louisiana crisis some Democrat bullies had held up black people and taken their emergency relief supplies. Hoover struck a deal with Black advocates to keep the issue quiet and the black community had felt a deal was struck, but GOP wanting white support in the south dumped black candidates for white ones to attract Democrat voters. FDR exploited that and so the Dems have had the black vote ever since .. never having done anything beyond exploiting them. Today, the GOP is flawed. It is still Reagan's big tent. It can still work. It has soft left members who promise too much in the hopes of attracting a left that will never come. It has hard right members. But it also has the US's largest reservoir of conservatives and generally follows their lead. The worst problem of the GOP is it wasn't their turn to have the Presidency .. and without a leadership role, the Elephant tends to wander. - ed
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The poverty of boycotting ISRAEL.

Originally posted by Daniel Katz in Caroline Glick ISRAEL Supporters Group.

The poverty of boycotting ISRAEL.

Those calling for an academic boycott of Israel not only show the depth to which anti-Israel bias is now entrenched in our ivory towers; they show their ignorance about the boycott's major victims: Israel's minorities, its Arab Muslims and Christians.
By Qanta Ahmed | 14:20 25.07.13 |

As a woman, a Muslim and as a physician of Pakistani descent, I can attest personally to the inordinate importance of academic freedom in Britain and the United States. This freedom was extended to me even during the time I was practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia, where - like all women – I was subject to gender apartheid. Because of this experience, I can only see the closing of the academic mind in the form of the ‘academic boycott’ of Israeli citizens and institutions as the act of invertebrate hypocrites. Boycotting Israel, whether academic or cultural is not an act of moral indignation, but an act of moral turpitude.

Academic freedom builds relationships, tolerance, and opportunity. When I moved to Riyadh 15 years ago, I had no doubts about maintaining my professional relationship with my own Jewish American mentor who had guided me throughout my then early career.

While I lived and worked in a country where as a Muslim I could worship but my mentor and his coreligionists could not, I was given every opportunity to develop in the American academic space because of his intellectual generosity. While I was subject to legislated male supremacy and relegated to being a legal minor, no Western academic suggested boycotting the medical academe hosting me in the Kingdom.

Academic freedom was in fact my only freedom at the time and I was determined to share it. I connected my Saudi colleagues - leading Saudi Muslim academics - with my mentor which led to the publication of jointly-authored papers on patient care in the Arab Gulf, benefiting primarily Muslim patients. This work sowed the seeds for subsequent conferences where both my Saudi Muslim and American Jewish colleagues met and developed their own relationships.

In contrast, boycotting Israeli entities penalizes apolitical individuals, their institutions, their innovations and ultimately, stymies a global market of ideas which benefits humanity. Perhaps it's possible to make a more generous assessment of why the various scholars, writers and entertainers who call for a boycott of 'apartheid Israel' claim to act in the interests of Palestinians: That it's based on simple ignorance. They would certainly be wiser if they had had the same opportunity that I recently enjoyed when I visited Israel to meet Israeli academia, and – critically – examined how such a boycott, whether overt or covert, particularly damages Israeli Arabs, or Palestinian citizens of Israel.

I spoke to Arab Muslim undergraduates at Haifa's Technion University during my visit in May this year. Arab undergraduates (most of whom are Muslim with a smaller Christian representation) lead a program to remove barriers to success of fellow Arab undergraduates there. Professor Daoud Bshouty, Dean of Undergraduate Studies (and both Israel’s and Technion's first Christian Arab faculty member) and Sara Katzir, former Israeli Airforce officer and head of the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students, explained the origin of the program, joined by Assistant Professor Youseff Jabareen, an Arab Israeli Muslim graduate, and the Muslim undergraduate Maysoun Hindawi, who related their own experiences as minorities.

When, eight years ago, the Technion examined their own data, they were dismayed to find a high drop-out rate amongst Arab undergraduates, even though they had met the rigorous entry criteria to a university consistently rated amongst the top three science institutes in the world. This was an untenable loss of intellectual talent for the university and in their mind, for Israel.

Since then, the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students has developed one-on-one peer mentorship by and for Israeli Arab undergraduates, with men mentoring men and women mentoring women in view of the cultural sensitivities. The program was funded by Jewish American philanthropists intent on serving all sectors of Technion’s students, majority and minority alike.

In the program, Technion students run after-class tutorials to help each other keep pace with the rapid absorption of knowledge required; sometimes, student mentors intervene in family dilemmas to advocate on behalf of a fellow student to his distressed family. They do so by mediating between student and parents struggling to resolve traditional cultural mores with the demands of advanced education. They render personal counseling on these and other adjustment difficulties, concentration and learning difficulties and the challenges of making vocational choices.

In less than a decade, the Weston Advancement Unit has improved the Technion’s Israeli Arab undergraduate retention rate by over 50 percent, with more gains likely. But The Technion’s support extends beyond their undergraduates. Many Israeli Arabs attend Arabic medium schools, so the move to the Hebrew-language university is a significant challenge. In response, candidates identified as Technion material are given intense year-long programs preparing them (and their Hebrew) – developed by the university itself.

Dumbfounded, I asked why an institution, supposedly pitiless when it comes to academic competition, would devote energies to empower the disadvantaged? Surely academia was the base evolutionary battle of our times: “survival of the fittest”? After all, Technion is affectionately known by its faculty and students as “The City with No Pity’ (referring to Technion’s purist, hardcore meritocracy).

“We have a moral obligation to develop everyone who enters the Technion, because we must nurture scientific ability. It is our responsibility," Katzir told me. The advancement program has been so effective at closing disparity gaps that it has now been rolled out across the institute and offered to every Technion undergrad who needs it, minority or not. After winning national awards, this program is being emulated at other Israeli institutions at government request.

There are also life experience and leadership gaps that need to be overcome for minority students. At the Technion, Maysoun explained, Arab Muslim students are often the first in their families -sometimes in generations - to enter higher education, and, in the case of women, may be breaking stereotypical gender roles in conservative families who may not approve of a female student living on campus. Arab Muslim students must also overcome a leadership gap created by the military service that their Jewish peers have gone through. The program develops the leadership skills of its Israeli Arab Muslim undergraduates who direct many activities themselves, based on merit, not ‘quota’.

My Technion experience clarified for me how calls for academic boycott would particularly imperil the future of these Arab Israeli students and the progressive opportunities they are offered. The shockingly ignorant acquiescence to the widespread braying for boycott, now a socially acceptable sport eclipsing the spirit of academe, whether led by Stephen Hawking or others, reveals the depth to which anti-Israel bias is now entrenched in our ivory towers.

The reality is simple: Calling for an Israeli boycott invites no reprisals. It is more than socially acceptable; it is a badge of honor brandished by those claiming to defend ‘minorities’. Yet ironically, while the costs of boycott will be shouldered by every Israeli, the major costs will be born by Israel’s own minority population, including Israeli Muslims of Palestinian heritage. This is a population which is for the first time becoming highly educated, advancing in the workplace, collaborating with their fellow Israeli Jewish citizens and eager to enter the global marketplace of ideas. These Israeli Muslim Arabs are the keystones to lasting peace in the region. No one else is better positioned to bridge conflicts and cultures and yet no one else will be more penalized by boycott.

Academic freedom means the freedom to collaborate, the freedom to cooperate, the freedom to communicate, the freedom to investigate, and the freedom to know the other. Isolating Israelis imposes upon all of us outside of Israel the worst kind of self-isolation, one which denies our engagement not only with the richly intellectual and extraordinarily productive Israeli academic community but access to those minorities facing the greatest challenges in Israel. The boycott flattens the painstakingly earned, inch-by-inch progress towards coexistence within and outside Israel; and coexistence is surely the primary step towards regional peace. At this discouraging time of increasing academic and cultural siege, every thoughtful academic should join me in lending their name and their reputation to fighting the boycott.

Qanta Ahmed MD is the author of In the Land of Invisible Women (2008), a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion and Associate Professor of Medicine, State University of New York. Follow her on Twitter @MissDiagnosis. 
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Warren Mundine, the ex national president of the Australian Labor Party who resigned in 2012 in total disgust, on The Bolt Report yesterday Sunday 4th August 2013 : 

" If you like Kevin Rudd, you’ve never met him; If you dislike Tony Abbott, you’ve never met him "

GOLD ! GOLD ! GOLD ! 

and 

" Abbott, strikes me as a person of integrity, he has values in which I too believe, and ethics based on his Christian beliefs. I would much rather place my trust in someone who, in his actions, has shown he is what he says, rather than someone who will say anything to gain a prospective advantage for themselves. "

BY Mark LATHAM, Former Leader of A.L.P.

Both ex Labor men and both conveniently ignored.>
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There are a silent majority of good Islamic peoples who are appalled by terrorism and the exploitation of Islam by a privileged few .. No good person approves of Rudd's compassionate drowning of desperate people. - ed

TONY Abbott has made a direct pitch to Western Sydney voters in a rousing speech to the Muslim community in which he declared himself the "sworn enemy" of those who sought to divide Australia over issues of race or faith.
Speaking to a function of more than 500 Muslims gathered in Lidcome to mark the end of Ramadan, Mr Abbott said Western Sydney would underpin a strong Australian economy and building infrastructure here was vital.
He said multicultural Australia was a "beacon of hope to a troubled and divided world" and we had much to be proud of.
But he said there were still those who sought to tear apart a united Australia and he would fight against them.
"I am the sworn enemy for anyone who seeks to divide Australian over Australian on issues of class, gender, birth place, race and particularly over faith," Mr Abbott said.
"I believe that all religious faiths seek to come to grips with the complexity of human condition.
"We have to respect the specialness of that faith to every person."

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Highlights that Obama could learn from foreign policy analysis .. he apparently learned something from Turkey circa 1912. - ed
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Obama Frees Taliban from Gitmo, Neglects to Exchange Them for Captured US Soldier===
Appeasement didn't work against 1930's fascism either. - ed

Both the Israeli release of more than a hundred Palestinian killers and the American release of five Taliban killers  from Guantanamo are U.S. policy decisions, so it’s fair to treat them as part of a single mindset.  There are many possible reasons for releasing prisoners, but most of the time, and especially in recent years, such actions are part of a bigger issue, as are these two examples. The prisoners are typically pawns on a geopolitical chess board.  Both Israel and the United States have been involved in this game for decades.  It all started as barter, but it has now become an embarrassing form of appeasement.
The Israelis have frequently released Palestinian prisoners, as a component in efforts to reach a stable agreement between the two enemies, but the practice began in 1971 as a simple one-on-one swap, when a terrorist from al Fatah was released in exchange for an Israeli night watchman who had been abducted by the Palestinians.
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I'll share this but I'm worried it is beyond the ken of most of my contacts. The US government is too big, as evidenced by its expenditure to income. Too secret to be free. It's once hopeful future is clouded by bad decision making by its' executive and constituents. But it always looks bad when a President is weak and incompetent. The greatness of Bush was that the fractures so apparent now, weren't so deleterious to the world. The arab spring which the Bush administration allowed through its' policy of engagement with terror and fostering democracy became a lost opportunity under Obama. And now Obama threatens mid East peace with ham fisted action as Clinton did before him. - ed
For almost two centuries American government, though always imperfect, was also a model for the world of limited government, having evolved a system of restraints on executive power through its constitutional arrangement of checks and balances. Since 9/11 however, constitutional practices have been overshadowed by a series of emergency measures to fight terrorism. The latter have mushroomed in size, reach and budget, while traditional government has shrunk. As a result we have today what the journalist Dana Priest has called two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, operated more or less in the open: the other a parallel top secret government whose parts had mushroomed in less than a decade into a gigantic, sprawling universe of its own, visible to only a carefully vetted cadre – and its entirety…visible only to God.1 More and more, it is becoming common to say that America, like Turkey before it, now has what Marc Ambinder and John Tirman have called a deep state behind the public one.2 And this parallel government is guided in surveillance matters by its own Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, which according to the New York Times, “has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court.”3 Thanks largely to Edward Snowden, it is now clear that the FISA Court has permitted this deep state to expand surveillance beyond the tiny number of known and suspected Islamic terrorists, to any incipient protest movement that might challenge the policies of the American war machine. Americans have by and large not questioned this parallel government, accepting that sacrifices of traditional rights and traditional transparency are necessary to keep us safe from al-Qaeda attacks. However secret power is unchecked power, and experience of the last century has only reinforced the truth of Lord Acton’s famous dictum that unchecked power always corrupts. It is time to consider the extent to which American secret agencies have developed a symbiotic relationship with the forces they are supposed to be fighting – and have even on occasion intervened to let al-Qaeda terrorists proceed with their plots. “Intervened to let al-Qaeda terrorists proceed with their plots”? These words as I write them make me wonder yet again, as I so often do, if I am not losing my marbles, and proving myself to be no more than a zany “conspiracy theorist.” Yet I have to remind myself that my claim is not one coming from theory, but rests on certain undisputed facts about incidents that are true even though they have been systematically suppressed or under-reported in the American mainstream media. More telling, I am describing a phenomenon that occurred not just once, but consistently, almost predictably. We shall see that, among the al-Qaeda terrorists who were first protected and then continued their activities were - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3971#sthash.zoHmdSej.dpuf
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He can say that in Toronto or even Israel because they are free lands. He couldn't say the reverse about Israelis shooting Jordanians in the so called Palestinian areas because they kill people there who look different to them. - ed
TORONTO (JTA) — A Palestinian community leader in Toronto said Israelis should be given a two-minute warning before being shot.
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... So let me get this straight now.


Rudd loses all our money DURING THE MINING BOOM WE HAD TO HAVE by driving the country into debt to the tune of $300 BILLION PLUS but then has the chutzpah to ask the Australian public to donate at least $10 each to his advertising fund ( estimated $65 million ) while he and his frumpy ungroomed wife have accumulated in excess of $150 million in a personal fortune thanks to the previous employment policies of the Howard government because he is a Labor man, one of the true believers and normally is giving away our money to others for no beneficial return BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT ALL GOOD SOCIALISTS DO !

Running a country is like operating a corporation one would have thought.

If the CEO does not perform is it normal to re-instate a person based on such an abysmal track record AND A FAILED PERFORMANCE ?

Is it me or am I missing something here ?

I still keep my school boy marbles hidden away so I know I haven't lost them yet when the time comes to rob me. Kevin likes going to schools I noticed. He is such a touch feely sensitive sort of caring guy and is very pleasant when not upset.

Please help. I will take only $5 instead of $10 if that is all you cheap bastards can spare.

It's my wife's 50th birthday coming up and I'd like to leave on the 7th September for a Rhine River tour of central Europe. I promise to wave the flag at half mast if our Kevy scores a goal and pretend, as Kevy often does, to enjoy a tinny of XXXX.

Thank you and please don't keep me waiting.

I simply could not abide any further disppointment.
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Costello writes compellingly. But I can disagree with aspects of things he writes. Rudd's talent is not to be different depending on situation, but to claim to be different. Rudd is like Zelig. A Woody Allen joke. He will try to impress the strongest person in his immediate vicinity. It is a mental illness and very sad for him. - ed
... A Costello Classic. 

The ex conservative LNP Treasurer who left us with a AUD$20 Billion surplus writes :

" KEVIN RUDD THE KARMA CHAMELEON

PETER COSTELLO THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 06, 2013 12:00AM

Up until now Kevin Rudd has done well by posing as an Opposition Leader. Are you shocked by the Country's failure to police its borders? Well so is he.

And he is going to be the toughest cop in town with the toughest policy to control it. Are you against the Carbon Tax? Well so is he and he is going to abolish it next year. Are you wondering why the Government can't balance a Budget in the middle of a mining boom? Well so is he and he'll do the tough stuff - like tax smokers to kingdom-come to fix it.

Until now Rudd has been posing as the outsider burying the mistakes of the last Government. He wants to be seen as some kind of "Terminator" coming in to clean things up. He even has the guts to clean up the corruption of Eddie Obeid and Co. in the New South Wales Labor Party!

Now none of this is real, of course. Rudd was the guy who softened border control which invited the people smugglers to resume their deadly trade in the first place. He has a plan to increase the tax on carbon under a floating price scheme. Far from being offended by Eddie Obeid, he actively worked with the machine that nurtured and nourished Eddie to get the Leadership of the Labor Party. And a key part of that machine during all of Eddie's little peccadillos was Bruce Hawker who now serves as Rudd's political strategist.

Here we have the true measure of Rudd's genius. He has an unusual talent to appear what he is not.

You have to admire that. And the strategy, in this second incarnation, has been to portray himself not as leading a Party that has been in Office for six years, not as someone with a record that can be judged, but as the Leader of the Opposition who will save us from all those disasters of the past. In his Press Conference on Sunday he was at it again:- Mr Abbott is the favourite, he's got all the advantages of incumbency and what Kevin needs is for volunteers from all over the country to come over to his side and bring their humble donations of $10 to blast out his powerful opponent. Rudd portrays himself as Australia's Morgan Tsvangirai come to deliver the country from the evil Tony Mugabe with all his entrenched power and stooges pillaging the resources of the country from the poor and innocent folk.

One thing that never got a mention in Rudd's Speech calling the election was the Party he wants people to vote for. Technically speaking, it's the Labor Party. But in fact Rudd wants people to think they are voting for the Rudd Party. If he wins he wants to change the rules so that he can never be sacked again. He wants the Labor machine to disappear, to be airbrushed out of history just like a lot of his record. In the beginning there was Kevin.

In contrast, Tony Abbott did mention the Political Parties contesting the election and he appealed to people to vote for the Coalition. He made frequent mention of his "team" and peppered his speech with reference to "we". Abbott thinks his best asset is his team. Rudd thinks his best asset is himself.

Abbott has a strong group of people around him who have managed to capture public attention over the last few years. Most of Labor's public faces are leaving - Gillard, Crean, Combet, Smith, Emerson etc. The collective memory of Labor is departing. If Rudd wins this election they will be consigned to the dustbin of history. But if he loses you should expect to hear a lot more from them. Just as we were told what Kevin was really like after they dumped him the first time.

There was only one reference to the "bad" Kevin in Sunday's Speech. The Australian people, he said, had seen him "warts and all". Well they haven't, of course. They haven't seen up close and personal the tantrums, the language, the rudeness, the behaviour that caused his colleagues to say he had contempt for them and ultimately contempt for the Australian public (Stephen Conroy's words). But obviously he had been advised to take the issue head-on. After acknowledging there had been some failures he said:- "I would be honoured to serve you". It was a strangely jarring note. It was Kevin Rudd doing humility.

And then I saw the television footage. As the VIP Plane landed on the tarmac in Canberra and Mr and Mrs Rudd came down the stairs to get into their car, I saw him turn back and shake the hand of a Flight Attendant. He was showing how considerate he could be. This was not the type of man who reduced Flight Attendants to tears. It was proof of the new Kevin. It was well done. He instinctively saw the television opportunity and he took it.

What makes Rudd formidable is his unusual ability to be just what he needs to be at any particular moment. At present he is running from his record. The question is whether it will catch him by September 7.
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From a fan. To err is human, to moo bovine.
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Matt Granz'
While heading home from teaching an ApCad class at the SF Zoo, I saw something that looked like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. The whole coastline was in a frenzy. Thousands of sea birds diving into the waters to take advantage of what was probably a smelt run. Thousands upon thousands of birds converging... like an aviary Apocalypse.
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My job is to make sure we move the country forward, and I think we can best do that if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House once again,” President Obama said at a San Francisco fundraiser in April.
That means President Obama endorsed the best-known and most disliked member of Congress, who is from one of the most radical districts in the country, to be the next Speaker. Let’s tick off 8 of the most outrageous things Pelosi’s said. You have to click through this slideshow to see what’s in it.
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Edu-Kingdom Bankstown
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The list is flawed. The professional aspects of those degrees are low compared to professional opportunities among engineering science degrees, but more often a fine artist or commercial artist or writer start their own business .. which if prosperous is many magnitudes better than a profession for remuneration. - ed
Nobody wants to hear that their college degree is worth less than the paper on which it is printed but, unfortunately, that may be the case for some recent college graduates. With opportunities as scarce as they are, many people are learning that their undergraduate degree in early Phoenician literature does not guarantee them a job
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Dean Hamstead
Lets say you got into a relationship with someone. You'd worked hard, paid off all your debts and saved quite a bit. Your new flame borrows your card and spends all your savings, then takes your credit card and maxes it out. They then up the limit and max it again, then again, and again. Meanwhile you get a pay cut and your bills go through the roof to pay for their ridiculous Internet connection and environmentalist gestures. This is 50% of Australia.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
You can take away my house, my car, my money, and my rights, but you can NEVER take away my God!
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Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God."
Romans 8:28
Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely, that he brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to any of thy children."
"Say not my soul, From whence can God relieve my care?'
Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime, his heart profoundly kind,
God never is before his time, and never is behind."

Evening

"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"
Numbers 32:6
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks. Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and if we fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more the duty of all because it is cheerfully and abundantly rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question for this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease from blowing because our bark is on the deep? Why and wherefore should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first resigned to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and, like Samson, to find honey in the lion.
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Today's reading: Psalm 68-69, Romans 8:1-21 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 68-69

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. A song.
1 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
2 May you blow them away like smoke-
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
3 But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
4 Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him-his name is the LORD.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land....

Today's New Testament reading: Romans 8:1-21

Life Through the Spirit
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit....
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Manoah

[Mānō'ah] - rest or quiet. A Danitebelonging to Zorah, and father of Samson (Judg. 13; 16:31). Manoah was a godly, hospitable man and was against any alliance with the Philistines. A divine messenger brought him word of Samson's birth. We have four glimpses of this devout worshiper of Jehovah:
His remonstrance with Samson over his Philistine marriage (Judg. 14:2, 3).
His visit with Samson to Timnah ( Judg. 14:5, 6).
His presence at his son's marriage (Judg. 14:9, 10).
His death before Samson's tragic death (Judg. 16:31).
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