Fri Sep 19th Todays News

The Scottish first Minister was wrong and lied. Scotland has a proud history and is not diminished for being part of a United Kingdom. Everything that people said they wanted for Scotland in isolation, she has in unity. But the UK Labor party has played a role in this, they want division and resentment. They profit from it. Was the win big enough to keep UK united? Time will tell. One pressure point is gong to be when Charles is king. It has to do with character. And it is misleading to refer to the kingdom as the royal house represents both. Greens misread campaign and made predictions that Mr Abbott would be humiliated. They got it wrong too. 

Large police raids in Sydney and Brisbane resulted in two charged with planning a terrorist hit on the community, capturing a person at random, beheading them and dragging their body through the streets wrapped in an ISIS flag. ABC immediately goes into damage protection mode, with journalists claiming the raids were over kill, and complaints were made of police brutality and abuse. One boy said his mother was with her husband in bed, naked, when the police broke in, alleging police did it for a cheap thrill. Actually, the boy alleged that police dogs did it which suggests the canine unit is very advanced and likes arab women. There is no specific allegation of crotch sniffing. But the ABC refers to tremendous 'sadness' regarding the raids. Nobody was killed in the raids, and apparently none was hurt, so the need for sadness is not apparent. Waleed Aly seems convinced that none of the terrorists were Islamic, and he would know, he says. Uthman Badar who defended honour killing speaks for terrorists at Lakemba. Catherine Deveny reckons a burka is less restrictive than the Western institution of marriage for women, so she clearly agrees with Uthman. The sad truth is that Jihadists are too few in number to win an election in Democracy. They are too weak to openly fight for what they believe, The terrorists hide and hurt the weakest because they are bullies and cowards. The Islamic leadership is similarly impotent and irrelevant, often supporting corruption and inspiring children in their community to underachieve. 

Michael Mann, self proclaimed genius author of the Hockey Stick graph and serial liar is a warmest idiot. He offered a hashtag askdrmann where he threatened to report anyone who might not agree with him. Exactly to whom they might be reported is not clear. British warmist moron Jarvis Cocker wrote in the Guardian that he sailed around Greenland in 2008 and saw firsthand global warming. Only now there is black ice in Greenland. Warmists are agonising over what it means. It means the ice is not melting in summer and so impurities remain. When warmists stop wringing their hands, they might realise it is good news for them .. Greenland is not warming and they have photographic evidence. 

The Occupy movement never amounted to much, and bickered among themselves. Now they are continuing to bicker in court. An outraged ACT senior public servant complains they need longer break times to source organic soy milk for their coffee. Two archbishops of Sydney have done nothing wrong, but victims of pedophiles want them to apologise. Europe is depressed at the moment, and Poland warns on deflation. 

from 2013

In France it is really chic to sport a beard, apparently. In Canada, it is not an essential skill to drive a train well? In the US it is outrageous to leave your gun before entering Starbucks. Apparently, gun restrictions aren't the preferred cup of tea for many. It is international speak like a Pirate day. 
Chief pirate Flannery has been dismasted. His acts of piracy answered by a reestablished rule of law. A rule which still hasn't reached the ABC. One act of piracy is pedophilia. It is outlawed, but some skirt those laws. 
The ALP is looking for a leader. Abbott is acting as a leader, but the ALP don't like Abbott. They are quite rude about him. It is funny that the ALP are attracting a large number of new members. It seems to happen during times the ALP are prone to branch stacking. It is een as a positive by those who approve of branch stacking. Howes wants to be involved by ditching the old Carr. North Korea is a bad place to be a free thinker. A bit like the ABC being a bad place to be a conservative, but worse. The sports drug issue is dying now that the impetus to get ALP reelected is gone. 
===
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.
===

Happy birthday and many happy returns Paul Sucharittanant and Elsie (Elisabeth's mum). Born on the same day, across the years, as Antoninus Pius (86), Hartley Coleridge (1796), Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche (1909), Adam West (1928), Brian Epstein (1934), Cass Elliot (1941), Jeremy Irons (1948), Twiggy (1949), Kristopher & Jason Simmons (2002). On your day, Sukkot begins at sunset (Judaism, 2013); Mid-Autumn Festival (Chinese calendar, 2013); International Talk Like a Pirate Day
634 – Byzantine-Arab Wars: Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid captured Damascus from the Byzantine Empire.
1863 – The Battle of Chickamauga began in northwestern Georgia and would end in the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival, the largest greenfield festival in the world, was held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, England.
1995 – The Manifesto of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski was published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, almost three months after it was submitted.
2006 – The Royal Thai Army overthrew the elected government of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was in New York City for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. It bein' international speak like a scurvy pirate day. Damascus be on th' road. Union won't win everythin'. Michael's farm be th' place. th' Manifesto was published. Thai Army made a royal mistake. Do well any ye gunna win a calculator .. fer th' sword fightin' academy.
Matches

• 335 – Flavius Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle, emperor Constantine I.
• 634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from theByzantine Empire.
• 1356 – Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures the French king, John II.
• 1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion.
• 1692 – Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem witch trials.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over theContinental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga.
• 1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.
• 1796 – George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.
• 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen.
• 1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Iuka – Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, the bloodiest two-day battle of the conflict, and the only significant Confederate victory in the war's Western Theater.
• 1868 – Spanish revolution: La Gloriosa.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Paris begins, which will result on January 28, 1871 in the surrender of Paris and a decisivePrussian victory.
• 1870 – Having invaded the Papal States a week earlier, the Italian Army lays siege to Rome, entering the city the next day, after which the Pope described himself as a Prisoner in the Vatican.
• 1879 – The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
• 1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting.
• 1893 – Women's suffrage: in New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.
• 1916 – During the East African Campaign of World War I, colonial armed forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of General Charles Tombeur captured the town of Tabora after heavy fighting.
• 1934 – Bruno Hauptmann is arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr..
• 1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged.
• 1940 – Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz in order to smuggle out information and start a resistance.
• 1944 – Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed. (End of the Continuation War).
• 1944 – Battle of Hürtgen Forest between United States and Nazi Germany begins.
• 1945 – Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) is sentenced to death in London.
• 1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.
• 1952 – The United States bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.
• 1957 – First American underground nuclear bomb test (part of Operation Plumbbob).
• 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland due to security concerns.
• 1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival is held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, United Kingdom.
• 1970 – Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of geology, sets himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against thedictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.
• 1971 – Montagnard troops of South Vietnam revolt against the rule of Nguyễn Khánh, killing 70 ethnic Vietnamese soldiers.
• 1972 – A parcel bomb sent to Israeli Embassy in London kills one diplomat.
• 1973 – King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has his investiture.
• 1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Osmaniye, Turkey, killing all 154 passengers and crew.
• 1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object when both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.
• 1978 – The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.
• 1981 – Simon & Garfunkel reunite for a free concert in New York's Central Park.
• 1982 – Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System.
• 1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
• 1985 – A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
• 1985 – Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.
• 1989 – A terrorist bomb explodes UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171.
• 1991 – Ötzi the Iceman is discovered by German tourists.
• 1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.
• 1997 – Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria; 53 killed.
• 2006 – The Thai military stages a coup in Bangkok. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.
• 2010 – The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed.
• 2011 – Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all time saves leader with 602.

Hatches

• 86 – Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor (d. 161)
• 866 – Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine emperor (d. 912)
• 1749 – Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1822)
• 1754 – John Ross Key, American lieutenant, lawyer, and judge (d. 1821)
• 1796 – Hartley Coleridge, English poet and author (d. 1849)
• 1811 – Orson Pratt, American religious leader (d. 1881)
• 1864 – Ragna Wettergreen, Norwegian actress (d. 1958)
• 1871 – Frederick Ruple, American painter (d. 1938)
• 1882 – Christopher Stone, English radio host (d. 1965)
• 1883 – Mabel Vernon, American activist (d. 1975)
• 1887 – Lovie Austin, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1972)
• 1887 – Lynne Overman, American actor and singer (d. 1943)
• 1888 – James Waddell Alexander II, American mathematician and topologist (d. 1971)
• 1889 – Sarah Louise Delany, American physician and author (d. 1999)
• 1894 – Rachel Field, American author and poet (d. 1942)
• 1900 – Ricardo Cortez, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1977)
• 1905 – Leon Jaworski, American lawyer, co-founded Fulbright & Jaworski (d. 1982)
• 1908 – Tatsuo Shimabuku, Japanese martial artist (d. 1975)
• 1909 – Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, Austrian automobile designer (d. 1998)
• 1910 – Jack Dunham, American animator and producer (d. 2009)
• 1910 – Margaret Lindsay, American actress and singer (d. 1981)
• 1911 – William Golding, English author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
• 1912 – Kurt Sanderling, Polish-German conductor (d. 2011)
• 1913 – Frances Farmer, American actress and singer (d. 1970)
• 1927 – Helen Carter, American singer (Carter Family and The Carter Sisters) (d. 1998)
• 1927 – Rosemary Harris, English actress
• 1927 – Nick Massi, American singer and bass player (The Four Seasons and Four Lovers) (d. 2000)
• 1928 – Adam West, American actor
• 1930 – Muhal Richard Abrams, American pianist, composer, and educator
• 1933 – David McCallum, Scottish actor and singer
• 1934 – Brian Epstein, English talent manager (d. 1967)
• 1936 – Martin Fay, Irish fiddler (The Chieftains) (d. 2012)
• 1940 – Bill Medley, American singer-songwriter (The Righteous Brothers)
• 1940 – Sylvia Tyson, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Quartette, Ian & Sylvia, and Great Speckled Bird)
• 1941 – Cass Elliot, American singer (The Mamas & the Papas, The Mugwumps, and The Big 3) (d. 1974)
• 1947 – Lol Creme, English singer, guitarist, and director (10cc, Godley & Creme, Art of Noise, Producers, Doctor Father, Hotlegs, andThe Magic Lanterns)
• 1947 – Tanith Lee, English author
• 1949 – Twiggy, English model, actress, and singer
• 1949 – Barry Scheck, American lawyer, co-founded the Innocence Project
• 1953 – Sarana VerLin, American singer-songwriter and violinist
• 1954 – Eleni Vitali, Greek singer-songwriter
• 1955 – Richard Burmer, American composer and engineer (d. 2006)
• 1958 – Lucky Ali, Indian singer-songwriter and actor
• 1958 – Lita Ford, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Runaways)
• 1965 – Sabine Paturel, French singer and actress
• 1965 – Alexandra Vandernoot, Belgian actress
• 1969 – Michael Symon, American Chef
• 1969 – Kostya Tszyu, Russian-Australian boxer
• 1969 – Cuong Vu, Vietnamese-American singer and trumpet player
• 1969 – Tapio Wilska, Finnish singer-songwriter (Sethian and Finntroll)
• 1970 – Takanori Nishikawa, Japanese singer, producer, and actor (Abingdon Boys School and Luis-Mary)
• 1974 – Jimmy Fallon, American actor, singer, and talk show host
• 1974 – Victoria Silvstedt, Swedish model, actress, and singer
• 1975 – Gina Trapani, American blogger, founded Lifehacker
• 1977 – Maria Rita, Brazilian singer
• 1977 – Emil Sutovsky, Israeli chess player
• 1979 – Dannielle Brent, English actress
• 1979 – Joel Houston, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (Hillsong United)
• 1979 – Noémie Lenoir, French model and actress
• 1980 – Amber Lancaster, American model and actress
• 1980 – Sara Quin, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Tegan and Sara)
• 1980 – Tegan Quin, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Tegan and Sara)
• 1982 – Jesse Blaze Snider, American singer-songwriter, author, and illustrator (Baptized By Fire)
• 1983 – Eamon, American singer-songwriter
• 1986 – Lauren Goodger, English model and singer
• 1986 – Ilya Salmanzadeh, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
• 1990 – Saki Fukuda, Japanese actress and singer
• 1991 – Demelza Reveley, Australian model
• 1994 – Alex Etel, English actor

Despatches

• 643 – Goeric of Metz, Frankish bishop
• 690 – Theodore of Tarsus, English archbishop (b. 602)
• 1123 – Emperor Taizu of Jin (b. 1068)
• 1339 – Emperor Go-Daigo of Japan (b. 1288)
• 1881 – James A. Garfield, American general, lawyer, and politician, and the 20th President of the United States (b. 1831)
• 1905 – Thomas John Barnardo, Irish-English philanthropist (b. 1845)
• 1906 – Maria Georgina Grey, English educator, founded the Girls' Day School Trust (b. 1816)
• 1924 – Alick Bannerman, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
• 1942 – Condé Montrose Nast, American publisher, founded Condé Nast Publications (b. 1873)
• 1944 – Guy Gibson, Indian-English commander, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1918)
• 1972 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist and composer (b. 1899)
• 1973 – Gram Parsons, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (International Submarine Band, The Byrds, and The Flying Burrito Brothers) (b. 1946)
• 1995 – Orville Redenbacher, American businessman, founded the Orville Redenbacher's Company (b. 1907)
• 2003 – Slim Dusty, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1927)
• 2006 – Elizabeth Allen, American actress (b. 1929)
• 2006 – Danny Flores, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (The Champs) (b. 1929)
• 2009 – Milton Meltzer, American historian and author (b. 1915)
• 2012 – Chief Bearhart, Canadian race horse (b. 1993)
• 2012 – Itamar Singer, Romanian-Israeli historian and author (b. 1946)
• 2013 – William Ungar, Polish-American author and philanthropist, founded the National Envelope Corporation (b. 1913)
• 2013 – Hiroshi Yamauchi, Japanese businessman, former Nintendo president (b. 1927)

===
2014

• Armed Forces Day (Chile)
• Christian feast day:
  • Goeric of Metz
  • Januarius (Western Christianity)
  • Our Lady of La Salette
  • Theodore of Tarsus (Church of England)
  • Trophimus, Sabbatius, and Dorymedon
  • September 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Day of the First Public Appearance of the Slovak National Council (Slovakia)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Kitts and Nevis from the United Kingdom in 1983.
• International Talk Like a Pirate Day

===

History of a Six Weeks' Tour is a travel narrative by the British Romantic authors Mary Shelley (pictured)and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Published in 1817, it describes two trips taken by Mary, Percy, and Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont: one across Europe in 1814, and one to Lake Geneva in 1816. It consists of a journal, four letters, and Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc". Apart from the poem, the text was primarily written and organised by Mary Shelley. In 1840 she revised the journal and the letters, republishing them in a collection of Percy Shelley's writings. Part of the new genre of the Romantic travel narrative, History of a Six Weeks' Tour exudes spontaneity and enthusiasm; the authors demonstrate their desire to develop a sense of taste and distinguish themselves from those around them. The romantic elements of the work would have hinted at the text'sradical politics to 19th-century readers. The text's frank discussion of politics, including positive references to the French Revolution and praise of Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was unusual for a travel narrative at the time. History of a Six Weeks' Tour sold poorly but received favourable reviews. (Full article...)

===

SOY STORY

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (2:11pm)

The latest legal adventure involving Canberra’s always-entertaining public service: 

A Canberra public servant told her boss she needed longer breaks than her colleagues, saying she had to find a café that served organic coffee with soy milk.

When the Australian Taxation Office bureaucrat was warned about her absences from her desk and told she had to adhere to time management requirements, she took her case to the Commonwealth government’s workplace authority.

After the appeal was dismissed, the Executive Level 1 public servant went on stress leave and claimed workers compensation, arguing that her ATO supervisor’s approach left her with “adjustment disorder”. 

Click, click, click and click again for previous examples of bureaucratic Canberra madness. 

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DEVOTEES INFURIATED

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (5:40am)

Considering that around 70 people holding Australian passports have already joined Islamic State, this isn’t exactly surprising: 

The Daily Telegraph can reveal intelligence agencies had picked up “chatter” involving a potential random attack on Parliament House, with fears among national security and intelligence agencies that the Prime Minister and other senior government officials were prime targets.

Senior intelligence sources confirmed that “chatter” about Parliament House had been intercepted and they now held fears the building had already been “scoped out” … 

And further south: 

ASIO has seized the passports of several of the Melbourne relatives and associates of jailed terror cell leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika as it investigates cell members for recruiting local jihadists to fight in Syria and Iraq …

Prison authorities have also stepped up monitoring of Benbrika since the terrorist group Islamic State ramped up its activities in Iraq and Syria, limiting his access to religious books and phone, or computer contact with people outside jail.

The move has infuriated his local devotees … 

Oh, the sadness!

===

GO THE NO

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (5:16am)

Follow Scotland’s independence vote here. A final count should be in by around 4pm Sydney time. 

===

WAFFLED ALY

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (5:05am)

Waleed Aly’s response to yesterday’s terrorism raids: 494 words that say absolutely nothing. 

===

AROUND THE BLOCK

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (5:03am)

A question-and-answer session with warmy warrior Michael Mann results in hilarious humiliation.

===

COWARDS AND LOSERS

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (4:54am)

Joe Hildebrand precisely defines those who, as Labor’s Tony Burke might say, engage in politics in different ways: 

They don’t have the courage to win in a battle and they don’t have the numbers to win in a democracy.

Instead they attack the most innocent and vulnerable: Kidnapping and raping women and girls on an industrial scale, beheading helpless captives for the camera and slaughtering en masse countless other normal everyday people.

This is both cruelty and cowardice at a level that is literally inhuman. The creatures who commit such acts, and those who support them, forsake all claims not just to membership of this or any other country but to humanity itself. 

Forget humanity. These types are on the same evolutionary arc as gravel.

===

OCCUPY COURT

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (4:35am)

At the beginning of Occupy, the movement split into various working groups and committees. After the end of Occupy, the movement is split into various groups taking each other to court. As a certain prophet predicted three years ago: “Imagine the feuds, tiffs, hissy fits and squealfights that’ll emerge from this lot.”

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VEINS OF AN IMBECILE

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (4:11am)

The Spectator‘s Rod Liddle reviews Russell Brand: 

I watched Russell’s latest address to the world, which he delivers regularly from his bedroom – complete with those by now familiar mangled, high-camp estuarial vowels, tortuously pretentious grammar and infantile, uninformed narcissistic political opinions …

It’s like a condensed version of a particularly bad edition of the Guardian, filtered through the veins of an imbecile. 

Speaking of British morons, here’s pop singer and global warming witness Jarvis Cocker – in the Guardian, of course:

Back in 2008, I sailed the coast of Greenland on a vessel chartered by the organization Cape Farewell and saw the effects of global warming firsthand. It exists. 

And then he went to the airport and caught a jet back to the UK.

(Via Brat)

===

BIGGER THAN BURKAS

Tim Blair – Friday, September 19, 2014 (4:08am)

Remember Catherine Deveny? No? Anyway, she’s being an idiot again: 

I regard heterosexual marriage as a much more important feminist issue and bigger oppressor of women than the burka. 

Coincidentally, a new range of burkas seem to have been designed with Deveny in mind.

(Via Martin C.)

===

MOHAMED ELOMAR WAS UNAVAILABLE

Tim Blair – Thursday, September 18, 2014 (7:27pm)

Look who is speaking at tonight’s Muslim rally in Lakemba:



Why, it’s none other than leading Islamic moderate Uthman Badar, spokesbacterium for Hiz ub-Tahrir and defender of the right to kill women.

UPDATE. An unscheduled speaker offers his opinion: 

“My house was raided by these police pigs,” a teen from within the crowd screamed.

He claimed his mother was assaulted by the police, who he kept referring to as “pigs” or “dogs”.

He alleged she was assaulted as she tried to cover herself with a bed sheet.

“They tried to take the blanket off my mother ... Pigs came and tried to take it off my mother as she was dressed like any woman would dress for her husband.” 

Kid’s got issues. 

===

On the Bolt Report on Sunday

Andrew Bolt September 19 2014 (4:59pm)

On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial:  Terror raids - have we woken up yet?
My guest:  Major General (ret.) Jim Molan, chief of the allied operations which a decade ago captured Mosul, now held by the Islamic State.
The panel: Australian columnist Niki Savva and Sean Kelly, press advisor to both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
NewsWatch:  Nick Cater, columnist and head of the Menzies Research Centre, on journalists playing down the Islamist threat.
And lots more, including has Tony Abbott gone too far on changing our constitution?

The videos of the shows appear here.

===

Scotland stays, UK survives

Andrew Bolt September 19 2014 (3:24pm)

The United Kingdom is saved. No to independence, 55 per cent.
People tended to lie to the pollsters, fearing not to seem patriotic. But in the privacy of the ballot box…
Well done to Tony Abbott for his small role:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared supporters of Scottish independence are not “friends of freedom” or “friends of justice” in an interview with a British newspaper.
Mr Abbott’s comments, which were published in The Times, are the strongest yet by a major foreign leader on the Scottish independence debate…
A spokesman for Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, who is leading the pro-independence campaign, said Mr Abbott had “put his foot in it"…
“Many Australians, including the great number with close Scottish connections, will look on in bafflement at these remarks - Australia is a country that has gained its independence from Westminster and has never looked back.”

The Green Left Weekly back then called it with all the judgment one expects from socialists:

Should Scotland’s people decide to separate from Britain in next month’s independence referendum, the English establishment may well be very unhappy with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose recent ham-fisted attack on Scottish nationalism appears to have given the Yes campaign a boost.

Academic Ben Wellings on the ABC:

Abbott’s Anglophilia is primarily just that: a passion for England and the English-speaking peoples and their economic and political cultures. This is the lens through which he views Scottish independence.
Ultimately his intervention in the debate may backfire: when Scots find out his politics are like those of Cameron’s Conservatives, only more so, the effect will likely drive Scots towards independence. The kind of conservative neo-liberalism that Abbott espouses has been out of favour in Scotland for almost 30 years.

===

ABC asks: is all this terror talk just a political con? UPDATE: Mad Left joins with madder Islamists

Andrew Bolt September 19 2014 (7:54am)

Dear God, spare us:

RAFAEL EPSTEIN (ABC presenter): Do you accept in any way the criticism that you’d rather be talking about this than a difficult budget?
GEORGE BRANDIS (Attorney-General): Well I wouldn’t rather be talking about this. I would rather that this not be happening.

UPDATE
Then there is the predictable conspiracy-mongering by Greg Barns, lawyer, columnist and former wanna-be candidate for the Liberals, Democrats and Wikileaks party:

UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan on the astonishing denialism and paranoia which has joined the mad Left to the lunatic Islamic fringe:

YESTERDAY’S anti-terrorism raids and Labor’s solid, bipartisan support for the security services and Australia’s commitment to Iraq have failed to dampen claims the Abbott government is “hyping up” terrorism fears to distract the public from its budget difficulties…
Attorney-General George Brandis [was] confronted on ABC radio with a listener’s claim that the government was using the terrorist plan as a distraction. ABC presenter Rafael Epstein asked: “Do you accept in any way the criticism that you’d rather be talking about this than a difficult budget?"…
Fundamentalist Sunni political group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has made headlines for extremist views and is campaigning for a global Islamic caliphate, said the timing of the counter-terrorism raids were “suspect"…
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek was taken aback on Wednesday when it was put to her on the ABC that the threat of genocide had passed in Iraq and the evolving commitment wasn’t necessary. Radio National’s Waleed Aly queried whether genocide was happening and suggested “the genocidal threat seems to have abated"…
Crikey political editor Bernard Keane posted a series of tweets querying the need for more security powers and responded to one post with: “And you’re seriously suggesting the government hasn’t been hyping national security?
“Its enthusiasm for the Iraq war — to distract from its domestic problems — is the reason why we are now less safe from terrorism.”
Wendy Bacon, a professorial fellow with the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and contributor to Crikey, also said scepticism over the raids was “justified”. On Monday, Labor senators Kim Carr and Sue Lines accused the government of using terror fears to distract the public and on Tuesday West Australian Labor MP Melissa Parke expressed concern about so quickly escalating the involvement in Iraq.

(Thanks to readers AbcCharter and Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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Once again, Waleed Aly can’t say “Muslim”

Andrew Bolt September 19 2014 (6:57am)

Waleed Aly is, in my opinion, our most prominent apologist for Muslim extremism:

His rewards have been great. Once the spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria, he is now an ABC radio host, a Channel 10 co-presenter and an Age columnist.
He is even a politics lecturer at Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre, despite having no doctorate and having qualified in engineering and law.

When asked on Channel 10 to discuss Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist group which slaughters Christians and enslaved nearly 300 schoolgirls, Aly did not once use the words “Muslim” or “Islam”:

They are a really, really hard group to define because they are so splintered and so diverse… What we do know though is that the broader movement is a terrorist movement and they’ve been wanting to overthrow the Nigerian government and establish a government of their own. But beyond that, this particular group, who have done this particular thing, it’s hard to identify who they are and they might just be vigilantes.

When interviewing Labor’s Tanya Plibersek this week about fighting the Islamic State jihadists, Aly did not once use the words “Muslim” or “Islam”:

As I understand it there was the threat of genocide but then there were Iraqi airstrikes and there was the arming of particularly Kurdish forces and then there was that famous altercation where ISIS lost control of the dam and so on and so the genocidal threat seems to have abated… What seems to underlie all of this is that ISIS represents a serious threat to Australia. Can you give us an indication of precisely the scope of that threat and the mechanism, can you describe it precise terms? Because it’s not immediately clear when you consider this is a movement on the other side of the world that seems to be importing people rather than exporting them. 

When asked by The Age to comment on the Boston bombings last year (before the perpetrators were known), Aly did not once use the words “Muslim” or “Islam”, although he did make a single fleeting reference to “Islamist” as he deflected suspicion from the guilty:

But it’s possible, too, that this reticence is a product of the very real suspicion that the perpetrators here are self-styled American patriots. At this point, most analysts are leaning that way… Does the act become more heinous if it is Islamist?

An amazing trick, but he’s done it again. When asked by The Age to file nearly 500 words on the police raids on Australian jihadists, Aly again refuses to mention the words “Muslim” or “Islam”:

For us in Australia, it’s most dangerously a symbol: a brand a young man from Sydney can claim for himself; a flag in which he can wrap himself, and his proposed victim.

Should the ABC and Age use a man so clearly partisan to report and comment on Islam and Islamic terrorists without at the very least declaring his faith? Should they not also balance his contributions with people more prepared to give things their proper names?
UPDATE
Interesting. Aly’s presumably unmoderated copy on the Age website fails to mention Islam, as on this paragraph:

We tried to smash al-Qaeda. It fragmented, then morphed into a mass movement not truly under anyone’s direct control, with Osama bin Laden mostly a symbolic figurehead. Then it begat ISIL.

But in the newspaper itself, someone (a sub editor) has finally broken through Aly’s ban. The paragraph now reads:

We tried to smash al-Qaeda. It fragmented, then morphed into a mass movement not truly under anyone’s direct control, with bin Laden mostly a symbolic figurehead. Then it begat Islamic State.

Was Aly too evasive even for The Age? 

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Jihadists in our suburbs

Andrew Bolt September 19 2014 (6:26am)

The alleged plot:

[I]t began almost by accident in a NSW jail cell in December last year when 39-year-old Sydney man Hamdi Alqudsi was charged with having organised for at least six people to travel to Syria to fight.

Alqudsi, whose wife had once been sentenced to six months in jail for falsely accusing a policeman of forcibly trying to remove her burka, was a popular figure among Sydney’s hardline Islamists…

Police quickly identified a group of 17 young men who were, in Alqudsi’s absence, co-ordinating efforts to recruit wannabe Australian jihadists to take up the fight with the Islamic State…
Then, early last month, ... the group received a phone call from [former Kings Cross bouncer and now senior Islamic State commander, Mohammed] Baryalei in which he asked the group to carry out an attack in Australia.
Authorities listened in as some of the group discussed packing a vehicle with explosives and detonating it… The more they watched the group, the more suspicious links they found. One of those to visit the group in Sydney was Omar Succarieh, 31, brother of Australia’s first suicide bomber in Syria, Ahmed Succarieh…
Then on Tuesday this week authorities monitored a call between Baryalei and [39-year-old Sydney man Hamdi] Azari in which Baryalei allegedly demanded that Azari go out and kill a random non-Muslim as a demonstration of Islamic State’s intent.

Tony Abbott a target?

The Daily Telegraph can reveal intelligence agencies had picked up “chatter” involving a potential random attack on Parliament House, with fears among national security and intelligence agencies that the Prime Minister and other senior government officials were prime targets…
In response, senior security sources have identified the most vulnerable entry point to parliament was the entrance to the ministerial wing, which could be infiltrated by “taking out” two unarmed parliamentary security officers who represent the only sentry point to prevent instant access to the PM’s own courtyard…
It is understood several armed AFP officers have been redeployed to Parliament House.

This tiny, unrepresentative group of supporters are not just limited to Sydney and Brisbane:

No Victorians were implicated in the pre-dawn terror raids in NSW. However, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Tim Cartwright said counter-terrorism teams were aware of people in this state who were supporters of the Islamic State terror group.

More signs of trouble:

ASIO has seized the passports of several of the Melbourne relatives and associates of jailed terror cell leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika as it investigates cell members for recruiting local jihadists to fight in Syria and Iraq.

Three hostages already beheaded:

IN its first propaganda posting since yesterday’s terror-charge arrests in Australia, Islamic State released a video early today said to be of a British freelance photojournalist, in which he says he is being held captive.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten earlier this week:

When we talk about humanitarian assistance in Iraq and Syria, perhaps - and I’ll be having further discussions with my Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek and others - perhaps it’s time to discuss do we take more refugees from these countries.

UPDATE
Just a small, unrepresentative minority - yet excused and defended by hundreds more, some preaching a dangerous hate:

About 400 people attended a protest at Lakemba railway station on Thursday night organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir…


Wassim Doureihi, a prominent member of the group, told the crowd that the community was deeply upset by the raids.
“What would be your reaction if your home was raided and your women dishonoured?” he said.

”Let me say clearly even if a single bomb went off even if a thousand bombs went off in this country all it will prove is that Muslims are angry.”

Why is it that the true hate preachers aren’t touched by our laws against free speech?  

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G’day,

Well, it was a bit hard to avoid the extremists raids news today.

Still I keep my word,…… it is certainly parochial.

Godspeed

Zeg

Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist.

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I just got an email from an online (and hardcopy) non-profit magazine that wants to use my Mount Diablo images that went viral a week or so ago, but they do not want to pay. That puts me in a strange position. I originally shared them with the news service and all for free, but generally treat articles using my images different than my generally releasing things to the social media. They aren't even offering name cred or links to my various selling websites... thinking this one out...
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Made in 1854 for princess Matilde Bonaparte by Theodore Fester. Later property of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt
4 her
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Yellow and white diamond ring by Yael Designs
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Aprille Love
#tbt #throwback #morning #thursday
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Young hopscotch aficionados could become unwitting criminals under proposed new anti-graffiti laws in New South Wales.

The legislation, which has been introduced to the NSW Parliament, makes it an offence to intentionally mark any premises or other property without the permission of the owner.

Greens MP David Shoebridge says there is no requirement in the legislation for a mark to be permanent or difficult to remove.

He says that means it will technically outlaw things like chalk hopscotch squares or handball courts drawn on footpaths or bitumen.

"Unless the kids get the consent of the local council they're committing an offence," Mr Shoebridge said.

"This Government is going to be putting on the statute books laws that make it an offence not just for kids to chalk a hopscotch court on the footpath, but for Mr Stace to have chalked 'Eternity', or for a street artist to put a rainbow crossing on the road.

"This will now all become criminal activity. If children get caught by police they'll be facing a $440 fine. Now that's just nonsense."

Attorney-General Greg Smith has downplayed the impact of the new legislation while apparently acknowledging that drawing in chalk will technically be an offence.

He says police always have discretion about whether to lay charges and he considers it unlikely they would charge children for chalking up hopscotch squares.

It is a Green announcement .. as believable as the world ending yesterday. But, if they must, Greens can go quake in their boots. - ed
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A good discussion point. I dislike how Greenies have stolen moral high ground with lies. But I support the initiative to be responsible and connected to community. - ed
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Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell and the NSW Liberal National Government deliver on another key election promise to begin construction of a eleven and a half billion dollar super-motorway that will connect the M4 and M5 through Sydney.
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A historic conference in support of the Jewish settlemententerprise in Judea and Samaria took place Tuesday inside one of the bastions of opposition to the Jewish presence in the region – the European Parliament.

The conference was organized by the Deputy Chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Dr. Fiorello Provera of Italy, who became a supporter of the Jewish communities after touring Samaria (Shomron), and by senior MEP Bastiaan Belder of Holland, who has also become a friend of Samaria in recent years.

The Israeli delegation included Samaria (Shomron) Regional Council Head Gershon Mesika, Acting Council Head Yossi Dagan, and the Director of Shomron Foreign Department, Shay Atias. MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) was also a part of the delegation.

David Walzer, Israel's Ambassador to the EU, delivered an address at theconference – the first time he has done so alongside the Samaria representatives.

In the two days that preceded the conference, members of the Israeli delegation met with influential MEPs including Germany's Elmar Brok, Chairman of the EU's Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Alejo Vidal Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament.

About 20 MEPs took part in the historic conference, in the Foreign Affairs Committee hall, and many media representatives attended it as well.

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<As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators pursue their latest round of talks, hate speech remains one of many daunting obstacles to long-term peace. It is one thing for a government to tolerate private hate speech, but quite a different and more serious matter for it to actually produce, disseminate, or subsidize such speech. Put another way, it is illogical and ill-advised for the United States to proclaim its absolute opposition to terrorism while looking the other way when Palestinian officials and institutions elevate terrorists as heroes and role models>
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A Belgian Education Ministry website compared Israel and Nazi Germany, a Jewish newspaper reported.

The comparisons were made on the KlasCement.be website, a major teaching resource offered by the Education Ministry of the Flemish Region, one of three entities that make up the federal Belgian state, the Jewish monthly Joods Actueelreported Monday.

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Twenty years ago today, Israel’s so-called peace process with the PLO was officially ushered in at the White House Rose Garden.

A year or so later, when the death toll of Israeli victims of the massive terror offensive that the PLO organized shortly afterwards reached what then seemed unbearable heights, a popular call went out to “Put the Oslo Criminals on Trial.”

Needless to say, with Shimon Peres, the architect and godfather of the so-called peace process now serving as the president of Israel, nothing ever came of the call.

The demand for an accounting was not unprecedented. There was no reason, on the face of things, for those who made it to be perceived as anything other than reasonably enraged, and as responsible citizens insisting that those responsible for the largest, most destructive strategic error Israel has ever made pay a personal price for their actions.

Twenty years before that ceremony at the White House, Israel suffered the worst military defeat in its history.

Israel did win the Yom Kippur War, in the end.

It was a sloppy, painful, tragic and costly win.
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Listening to the awesome Malín Alegría.
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Breaking News: Abducted 14-year-old Georgia girl found alive, police say. Two suspects are in custody and investigators are "looking at" other suspects as well. http://tinyurl.com/q8lqybr
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The South Carolina school district currently utilizing a U.S. history textbook with a disputed interpretation of the Second and Third Amendments responded to TheBlaze’s exclusive report in great detail on Wednesday.

In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Greenville County Schools confirmed that Hillcrest High School in Simpsonville, S.C., has received “several emails and phone calls” expressing concern over how the textbook, “The Americans,” defines the Second Amendment.

Oby G. Lyles, Sr., the director of communications at Greenville County Schools, told TheBlaze that the district has “looked into the matter and found that page 149 of the state-adopted textbook does not accurately present the Second Amendment.”

“It states that citizens have the right to bear arms as members of a militia of citizen-soldiers,” he added. “This is not accurate.  We will inform our high school social studies teachers that they should refer to page 166 of the textbook which accurately presents the Amendment (as originally ratified).”

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'The Day of the Doctor' is well on the way, with surprises emerging all of the time.

Plus: classic Doctors team up for an historic cover shoot.

Check out Anglophenia’s weekly #DoctorWhoroundup: http://bit.ly/1dmfmo6
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The end of the day approaches and the sky turns wickedly unstable down by Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. The day was one of trying not to be eaten alive by the violence of the storms passing overhead. Woodward had been demolished earlier in the day and the size and scope of everything was enormous to say the least. My job on this day turned from trying to chase wicked storms, to that of trying to keep out of severe hail cores and unpredictable turbulence. — at Paul's Valley, OK.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
doTERRA EO is 100% pure, organic, safe to use as it has no added chemicals or anything artificial or synthetic that may cause any side effects it comes from the life blood of the plants and so it has a number of medicinal benefits which can be used over a period of time and as it is a natural remedy, it is obviously harmless to the body so i highly recommend it to everyone why not give it a try.
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“You’re wondering why she is connecting with strangers on the Internet? She’s doing this because she’s got a need that’s being filled by those people.” http://bit.ly/DRP091813 #DrPhil
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He has. You may. Hallelujah! ed
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A spring day in Sydney - ed
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Government funded climate scientist report glossary:
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New data from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual survey released this week reveal that the gap between the wages paid to women and men in this country has not improved in the last 11 years. This is a bitter pill for the nation's women and families, and a painful reminder that lawmakers' failure to act is causing grave harm to women, their families and our economy.

The wage gap must not continue to go unchecked. There is much more that Congress, the Obama administration and employers can and should be doing to help.

According to the new survey data, women with full-time, year-round jobs are paid just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men who hold full-time, year-round jobs. The gap amounts to more than $11,500 in lost income annually, which affects the short- and long-term financial security of women, their families and our economy. With women serving as essentialbreadwinners for their families, losing income that could go toward basic necessities can have devastating consequences.

For women of color, the wage gap is even more appalling and made worse by racial discrimination. African American women are paid 69 cents for every dollar paid to all men, and 64 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. Latinas are paid just 58 cents for every dollar paid to all men, and a mere 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. The effects of losses of this magnitude are appalling.

Token politics doesn't deal effectively with the issue. I'm glad a woman was PM. I just wish she had been competent. I'm glad a woman is foreign minister .. Julie Bishop is very good. It was an interesting exercise to parallel Gillard with Thatcher. But it is unfair .. Thatcher was great. - ed
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Looking towards Kirribilli House at the Australian Prime Minister's official Sydney residence overlooking Sydney Harbour towards the Sydney Opera House. — with Kirsten Katz and Luke Lukasz at Bennelong Point Sydney New South Wales.
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"Readers now have more choices than ever, and talented authors are no longer falling through the cracks."

Author Andrew Kaufman describes his indie journey → http://amzn.to/19bzg2n
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Over the last few years Fairfield City Council has invested a lot of money into improving cycling infrastructure within the municipality. This ranges from connected off-road cycle paths, signage, and bicycle parking facilities nearby train stations. But the growth in numbers of cyclists in the south-western suburbs isn't as great as it could be, particularly considering the extensive off-road infrastructure available.

There is where Fairfield Bike Shorts (FBS) comes in. FBS is a series of film making workshops which will culminate in the premier screening of films in Fairfield in October 2013. There may be opportunities for the films to then be showcased in the 2013 Sydney Rides Festival (TBC) and the films will be submitted to the 2014 Bicycle Film Festival for worldwide screening consideration. With these films we hope to engage the local community to get them thinking about and reconnecting with the act of cycling.

At the conclusion of the workshops we aim to have FIVE short films in post-production. These include a fictional narrative, an animation, a music video, a documentary and a behind-the-scenes documentary of the project.
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Oops - mandatory calorie counts in fast food restaurant have the exact opposite effect than intended! http://t.co/GqqaoBNCje
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September 19: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

• 1676 – During Bacon's Rebellion, Virginiasettlers led by Nathaniel Bacon burned the colonial capital of Jamestown to the ground.
• 1846 – Two French shepherd children,Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, reported experiencing a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known asOur Lady of La Salette (statue pictured).
• 1893 – New Zealand became the first country to introduce universal suffrage, following the women's suffrage movement led by Kate Sheppard.
• 1944 – Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice to end the Continuation War.
• 1970 – Greek student Kostas Georgakis set himself on fire in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against the Greek military junta of Georgios Papadopoulos.

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“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:3-4 NIV

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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
Galatians 5:25

The two most important things in our holy religion are the life of faith and the walk of faith. He who shall rightly understand these is not far from being a master in experimental theology, for they are vital points to a Christian. You will never find true faith unattended by true godliness; on the other hand, you will never discover a truly holy life which has not for its root a living faith upon the righteousness of Christ. Woe unto those who seek after the one without the other! There are some who cultivate faith and forget holiness; these may be very high in orthodoxy, but they shall be very deep in condemnation, for they hold the truth in unrighteousness; and there are others who have strained after holiness of life, but have denied the faith, like the Pharisees of old, of whom the Master said, they were "whitewashed sepulchres." We must have faith, for this is the foundation; we must have holiness of life, for this is the superstructure. Of what service is the mere foundation of a building to a man in the day of tempest? Can he hide himself therein? He wants a house to cover him, as well as a foundation for that house. Even so we need the superstructure of spiritual life if we would have comfort in the day of doubt. But seek not a holy life without faith, for that would be to erect a house which can afford no permanent shelter, because it has no foundation on a rock. Let faith and life be put together, and, like the two abutments of an arch, they will make our piety enduring. Like light and heat streaming from the same sun, they are alike full of blessing. Like the two pillars of the temple, they are for glory and for beauty. They are two streams from the fountain of grace; two lamps lit with holy fire; two olive trees watered by heavenly care. O Lord, give us this day life within, and it will reveal itself without to thy glory.

Evening

"And they follow me."
John 10:27

We should follow our Lord as unhesitatingly as sheep follow their shepherd, for he has a right to lead us wherever he pleases. We are not our own, we are bought with a price--let us recognize the rights of the redeeming blood. The soldier follows his captain, the servant obeys his master, much more must we follow our Redeemer, to whom we are a purchased possession. We are not true to our profession of being Christians, if we question the bidding of our Leader and Commander. Submission is our duty, cavilling is our folly. Often might our Lord say to us as to Peter, "What is that to thee? Follow thou me." Wherever Jesus may lead us, he goes before us. If we know not where we go, we know with whom we go. With such a companion, who will dread the perils of the road? The journey may be long, but his everlasting arms will carry us to the end. The presence of Jesus is the assurance of eternal salvation, because he lives, we shall live also. We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith, because the paths in which he leads us all end in glory and immortality. It is true they may not be smooth paths--they may be covered with sharp flinty trials, but they lead to the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant." Let us put full trust in our Leader, since we know that, come prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, his purpose shall be worked out, and that purpose shall be pure, unmingled good to every heir of mercy. We shall find it sweet to go up the bleak side of the hill with Christ; and when rain and snow blow into our faces, his dear love will make us far more blest than those who sit at home and warm their hands at the world's fire. To the top of Amana, to the dens of lions, or to the hills of leopards, we will follow our Beloved. Precious Jesus, draw us, and we will run after thee.

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Today's reading: Proverbs 30-31, 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Proverbs 30-31

Sayings of Agur

¹ The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an inspired utterance.

This man’s utterance to Ithiel:

“I am weary, God,
but I can prevail.
² Surely I am only a brute, not a man;
I do not have human understanding.
³ I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy One.
⁴ Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Whose hands have gathered up the wind?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is the name of his son?
Surely you know!

...read the rest on Bible Gateway

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Corinthians 11:1-15

Paul and the False Apostles

¹ I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! ² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. ³ But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough....

...read the rest on Bible Gateway

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