John Robertson is still unelectable. He has done nothing to deserve being elected. In government, he opposed progress and championed the corrupt process of the ALP and unions that sees business extorted just to run. The media are very supportive, constantly propping him up for balance when criticising good Liberal party policy. But while the old adage 'if you do nothing, you do nothing wrong,' applies, the Liberal Party have done too much which is right. It is good to see improvement in school, public transport, hospitals and law enforcement which previous ALP administrations had given up on, claiming it was no longer possible to run an efficient train network or ticket appropriately. Or increasing waiting lists for everybody needing medical care. Or budgeting appropriately. The Greiner Fahey government had set up an electricity sale which could have netted NSW $60 billion, or twice more. Carr opposed it, as does Robertson. It is unlikely NSW would get what was on offer for electricity twenty years ago. NSW people, still black and blue from Robertson style thuggery, don't want him.
Victoria's ALP seems to have an old problem with a Calabrian connection. Organised crime is something the ALP have long been connected with in NSW, from well before the killing of Donald Mackay. The ALP member allegedly had weapons charges too. Naturally the alleged controls an ALP branch and has factional power to control preselection. Te ALP need to be proud of their choices in the lead up to the Victorian state election. Otherwise they look like losers. Gosford Anglican church proudly displays a sign saying they are campaigning against Team Australia. The reasoning for the choice seems absent of God. Another who worships strange things, Greens Leader in Australia's federal government, remarks on victims of Middle East terrorism "Just let them die." That explains her party's support for the murderous people smugglers who charge tens of thousands of dollars to poor, desperate people. Meanwhile in the UK, in Rotherham, 1400 children have been sexually abused with state permission. It turns out they weren't the right race or religion for the community to care about. It is definitely an embarrassing moment for the UK. When Mr Abbott said Australia's defining moment was the first fleet sailing into Sydney Harbour, it was worse than him winking on radio. Maybe the UK can store their child protection files in the cloud. That is secure, and might not show their nakedness.
From last year
David Frost died today, and a lasting memory of his time on the stage he owned is his assault on Nixon. Frost claimed he had a gotcha .. but he hadn't. And so a great artist was limited by his left wing politics. He called himself balanced. But it would be more precise to say entrenched. His form of leftwing liberalism predates him and carries on to this day. It explains why George Bush and Ronald Reagan were so popular, yet so despised too. Because the entrenched criticism from a partisan media meant the media were ignored and the conservatives could cut through. But the ceaseless sniping and lies from the media eroded public trust. And so politics is cyclical, having discovered a two term office in latter days of US democracy. Carter, Clinton and Obama ran on a platform devoid of policy but supported by the press. Carter's administration was so bad that Reagan broke it off cycle. Twelve years of Republican Presidency ended when press lauded a 'come back kid.' Doormat Hilary, when questioned about his infidelity, said she believed him, and no one else should care. But that response doesn't cut it over Benghazi.
Australia has a similar political cycle. Unlike the US, where politicians need call supporters to vote, Australia has compulsory voting and so Australian parties try to encourage votes from the other party through the centre. The Liberal party, being conservative, have been very successful since the party's creation. The much older Australian Labor Party is leftist. The names swap over from foreign understanding but the parties are analogs to the US Republicans and Democrats. Currently we are in an ALP cycle, but they have been so bad that not even the press are supporting them as well as they can. The clumsy attempts to censor the press has only been supported by some media. The ALP still have some support, but not from the centre. Greens have eaten at the ALP left wing. And so the ALP are polling 47 to 53, but it will probably be much, much worse. Still, the Queensland experience, where Anna Bligh asked the electorate not to punish the ALP too much which saw a devastating loss has taught the ALP a lesson. They aren't admitting they are lost yet. They launched their campaign with six days to election. They haven't announced policy, but instead claimed the opposition hadn't.
How will the US respond to Syria? Obama says he will bomb something. Maybe. Many claim Rudd will go on a G20 junket in the last two days prior to election. An admission of loss if he does.
===
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed
Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.
I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.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.
===1529 – Sancti Spiritu, the first European settlement in Argentina, was destroyed by local natives.
1774 – Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, ordered soldiers to remove gunpowder from a magazine, causing Patriots to prepare for war.
1880 – The army of Mohammad Ayub Khan was routed by the British at the Battle of Kandahar, ending the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
1923 – The Great Kantō earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, struck the Kantō region of Japan, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama, and killing over an estimated 100,000 people.
1983 – Soviet jet interceptors shot down the civilian airliner Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (artist's rendition pictured) near Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew on board. The land is sanctified. The order is given. The enemy is routed. Tokyo is shaken. Try and fly straight and true, to avoid tragedy Live long, and prosper.
Matches
- 462 – Possible start of first Byzantine indiction cycle.
- 717 – Siege of Constantinople: The Muslim armada with 1,800 ships, is defeated by the Byzantine navy through the use of Greek fire.
- 1270 – King Stephen V of Hungary writes his walk to the antiquum castellum near Miholjanec, where the Sword of Attila was recently discovered.
- 1355 – King Tvrtko I of Bosnia writes In castro nostro Vizoka vocatum from the Old town of Visoki.
- 1449 – Tumu Crisis – Mongols capture the Emperor of China.
- 1529 – The Spanish fort of Sancti Spiritu, the first one built in modern Argentina, is destroyed by natives.
- 1532 – Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.
- 1604 – Adi Granth, now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs, was first installed at Harmandir Sahib.
- 1644 – Battle of Tippermuir: James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose defeats the Earl of Wemyss's Covenanters, reviving the Royalistcause.
- 1715 – King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years—the longest of any major European monarch.
- 1763 – Catherine II of Russia endorses Ivan Betskoy's plans for a Foundling Home in Moscow
- 1772 – The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa is founded in San Luis Obispo, California.
- 1774 – Massachusetts Bay colonists rise up in the bloodless Powder Alarm.
- 1804 – Juno, one of the four largest asteroids in the Main Belt, is discovered by the German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.
- 1831 – The high honor of Order of St. Gregory the Great is established by Pope Gregory XVI of the Vatican State to recognize high support for the Vatican or for the Pope, by a man or a woman, and not necessarily a Roman Catholic.
- 1836 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Chantilly – Confederate Army troops defeat a group of retreating Union Army troops in Chantilly, Virginia.
- 1864 – American Civil War: the Confederate Army General John Bell Hood orders the evacuation of Atlanta, ending a four-month siege by General William Tecumseh Sherman.
- 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Sedan is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
- 1873 – Cetshwayo ascends to the throne as king of the Zulu nation following the death of his father Mpande.
- 1878 – Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.
- 1880 – The army of Mohammad Ayub Khan is routed by the British at the Battle of Kandahar, ending the Second Anglo-Afghan War
- 1894 – Over 400 people die in the Great Hinckley Fire, a forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota.
- 1897 – The Tremont Street Subway in Boston opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
- 1902 – A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
- 1905 – Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Canadian confederation.
- 1906 – The International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys is established.
- 1911 – The armored cruiser Georgios Averof is commissioned into the Greek Navy. It now serves as a museum ship.
- 1914 – St. Petersburg, Russia, changes its name to Petrograd.
- 1914 – The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.
- 1920 – The Fountain of Time opens as a tribute to the 100 years of peace between the United States and Great Britain following the Treaty of Ghent.
- 1923 – The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing about 105,000 people.
- 1928 – Ahmet Zogu declares Albania to be a monarchy and proclaims himself king.
- 1934 – SMJK Sam Tet is founded by Father Fourgs from the St. Michael Church, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
- 1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II.
- 1939 – General George C. Marshall becomes Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
- 1939 – The Wound Badge for Wehrmacht, SS, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe soldiers is instituted. The final version of the Iron Cross is also instituted on this date.
- 1939 – Switzerland mobilizes its forces and the Swiss Parliament elects Henri Guisan to head the Swiss Army (an event that can happen only during war or mobilization).
- 1939 – Adolf Hitler signs an order to begin the systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and disabled people.
- 1951 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
- 1952 – The Old Man and the Sea, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Ernest Hemingway, is first published.
- 1958 – Iceland expands its fishing zone, putting it into conflict with the United Kingdom, beginning the Cod Wars.
- 1961 – The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate.
- 1967 – The Khmer–Chinese Friendship Association is banned in Cambodia
- 1969 – A coup in Libya brings Muammar Gaddafi to power.
- 1969 – Trần Thiện Khiêm becomes Prime Minister of South Vietnam under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.
- 1970 – Attempted assassination of King Hussein of Jordan by Palestinian guerrillas, who attack his motorcade.
- 1972 – In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky to become the world chess champion.
- 1974 – The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).
- 1979 – The American space probe Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi).
- 1980 – Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope ends near Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- 1980 – Major General Chun Doo-hwan becomes President of South Korea, following the resignation of Choi Kyu-hah.
- 1981 – A coup d'état in the Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko.
- 1982 – The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
- 1983 – Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, includingCongressman Lawrence McDonald.
- 1985 – A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
- 1991 – Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1997 – The death of Diana, Princess of Wales is announced by Buckingham Palace.
- 2004 – The Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia.
Hatches
- 1145 – Ibn Jubayr, Muslim geographer and poet (d. 1217)
- 1286 – Elizabeth Richeza of Poland (d. 1335)
- 1653 – Johann Pachelbel, German organist, composer, and educator (d. 1706)
- 1726 – Johann Becker, German organist, composer, and educator (d. 1803)
- 1795 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr., American publisher, founded the New York Herald (d. 1872)
- 1854 – Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (d. 1921)
- 1866 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (d. 1933)
- 1871 – J. Reuben Clark, American lawyer, civil servant, and religious leader (d. 1961)
- 1875 – Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (d. 1950)
- 1876 – Harriet Shaw Weaver, English journalist and activist (d. 1961)
- 1878 – J. F. C. Fuller, English general and historian (d. 1966)
- 1906 – Eleanor Hibbert English author (d. 1993)
- 1907 – Miriam Seegar, American actress (d. 2011)
- 1916 – Dorothy Cheney, American tennis player
- 1923 – Rocky Marciano, American boxer (d. 1969)
- 1931 – Boxcar Willie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
- 1933 – Marshall Lytle, American bass player and songwriter (Bill Haley & His Comets and The Jodimars) (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Conway Twitty, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1993)
- 1938 – Alan Dershowitz, American lawyer and author
- 1939 – Lily Tomlin, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1942 – C. J. Cherryh, American author and educator
- 1946 – Barry Gibb, Manx-English singer-songwriter and producer (Bee Gees and The Rattlesnakes)
- 1950 – Phil McGraw, American psychologist, author, and talk show host
- 1957 – Gloria Estefan, Cuban-American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1958 – Armi Aavikko, Finnish model and singer, Miss Finland 1977 (d. 2002)
- 1964 – Ray D'Arcy, Irish radio and television host
- 1970 – Hwang Jung-min, South Korean actor and singer
- 1970 – Padma Lakshmi, Indian-American actress and author
- 1971 – Yoshitaka Hirota, Japanese composer
- 1973 – J.D. Fortune, Canadian singer-songwriter (INXS)
- 1974 – Yutaka Yamamoto, Japanese director and producer, founded Ordet Animation Studio
- 1975 – Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (Rogue Traders)
- 1976 – Babydaddy, American singer-songwriter and producer (Scissor Sisters)
- 1977 – Shoshana Bean, American actress and singer
- 1980 – Nigar Jamal, Azerbaijani singer (Ell & Nikki)
- 1980 – Lara Pulver, English actress
- 1986 – Gaël Monfils, French tennis player
- 1986 – Stella Mwangi, Norwegian-Kenyan singer-songwriter
- 1989 – Bill Kaulitz, German singer-songwriter and voice actor (Tokio Hotel)
- 1989 – Tom Kaulitz, German guitarist (Tokio Hotel)
- 1994 – Anna Smolina, Russian tennis player
- 1996 – Zendaya, American actress, singer, and dancer
Despatches
- 1067 – Baldwin V, Count of Flanders (b. 1012)
- 1256 – Kujō Yoritsune, Japanese shogun (b. 1218)
- 1557 – Jacques Cartier, French navigator and explorer (b. 1491)
- 1600 – Tadeáš Hájek, Czech physician and astronomer (b. 1525)
- 1615 – Étienne Pasquier, French lawyer (b. 1529)
- 1648 – Marin Mersenne, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (b. 1588)
- 1678 – Jan Brueghel the Younger, Flemish painter (b. 1601)
- 1687 – Henry More, English philosopher (b. 1614)
- 1715 – François Girardon, French sculptor (b. 1628)
- 1715 – Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)
- 1967 – Ilse Koch, German wife of Karl-Otto Koch (b. 1906)
- 1967 – Siegfried Sassoon, English captain and poet (b. 1886)
- 1981 – Ann Harding, American actress and singer (b. 1901)
- 1981 – Albert Speer, German architect (b. 1905)
- 2009 – Jang Jin-young, South Korean actress (b. 1974)
- 2012 – Hal David, American songwriter and composer (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Rainbows For Life, Canadian race horse (b. 1988)
- 2012 – Arnaldo Putzu, Italian illustrator (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Zvonko Bušić, Croatian terrorist, hijacker of TWA Flight 355 (b. 1946)
- 2013 – Ken Wallis, English pilot and commander (b. 1916)
- Anniversary of the Start of the Armed Struggle (Eritrea)
- Beginning of Amerindian Heritage Month (Guyana)
- Christian feast day:
- Giles
- The beginning of the new liturgical year (Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Church)
- September 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Constitution Day (Slovakia)
- Disaster Prevention Day (Japan)
- Earliest day on which Father's Day can fall, while September 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in September. (Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea)
- Earliest day on which Labor Day can fall, while September 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in September. (United States, Canada, Palau)
- First day of school in many countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
- Flag Day (Honduras)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Uzbekistan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
- Journalist Day (Republic of China)
- Knowledge Day (Russia)
- Random Acts of Kindness Day (New Zealand)
- Teachers' Day (Singapore)
INACTION IN ACTION
Tim Blair – Monday, September 01, 2014 (6:14am)
A few years ago I became involved in a little online dispute with left-wing Brisbane feminist Kim Jameson. It all began when Kim criticised visiting Somalian author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation who subsequently abandoned her Muslim faith.
“Her view on Islam,” wrote Kim, “is too much coloured by her own experience.”
Well, yes. Having your genitals destroyed by some maniac with a knife might tend to have that effect. Jameson then considered the overall subject of Islamic girl cutting: “I believe that the best step that can be taken to work against it is to give support to those who are best placed to do so where it occurs, not to politicise the issue.”
The left politicises every other issue; why not this one? What’s the problem? Uncharacteristically, Jameson urged a cautious, quiet approach: “It would also be useful to know more about what sorts of methods those working against the practice in Australia are using. It would seem to me counterproductive to have loud denunciations of it – the key thing should be to convince people it is wrong.”
My response, back in the day: “You’d think if there was one issue on which a Western feminist might be moved to loud denunciation, it’d be the genital mutilation of little girls. But no; this instead turns out to be an issue (one of the few) about which the likes of Kim are inclined to shut the hell up. In the rock-scissors-paper hierarchy of the modern left, sensitivity to Islam trumps clitoral scissors every time.”
Horrific events in the UK now demonstrate the consequences of Western “sensitivity” towards Islam.
Continue reading 'INACTION IN ACTION'ASLI BIJLI FOR ALL
Tim Blair – Monday, September 01, 2014 (5:36am)
Denied energy for 33 years, the Indian village of Dharnai nevertheless rightfully rejects sub-standard electricity:
Greenpeace decided to use the village as an example to the world to showcase how communities can do just fine on renewable energy. Greenpeace India set up a “solar-powered micro-grid” to power the village and it was paraded before the media as a success.
But the villagers hate it, because their new power source is rubbish. India Today reports:
They now want asli bijli (real electricity) from the government.Slogan such as “Hamen nakli nahin, asli bijli chahiye (We do not want artificial energy, give us the real one,)” greeted former Chief minister Nitish Kumar, as he went to the village to see how the long forgotten region, devoid of electricity since 1981, looked after dusk.Nitish … was met by village youngsters carrying placards demanding “real source of energy”, and “not the fake solar powered” one.Though the former chief minister tried to put up a brave front, asserting how the inexhaustible solar power would become the main source of energy in the future, he eventually promised the villagers that “real electricity” would be provided to them shortly.
Further from No Tricks Zone:
The problem with the Greenpeace solar micro-grid is that you can’t power the lights at night. And what good is a fridge or freezer when it can be powered only 8 hours a day? Why should a developing country settled for part-time modernity when you can have it full time, and at a price that is less than half of the part-time “fake” energy? How can you run a factory or a hospital when the power is absent 14 hours a day?
You can’t, as the villagers are clearly aware. “Hamen nakli nahin, asli bijli chahiye,” is India’s version of “Sod off, Swampy!”
(Via handjive)
SYDNEY COUNCILS ARE STUPID
Tim Blair – Monday, September 01, 2014 (4:55am)
Leichhardt Council is committed to “valuing and supporting the arrival and safe settlement of refugees and humanitarian entrants”, according to recent council minutes.
But there’s a significant problem. It’s difficult to value and support people who aren’t there: “The number of refugees residing in Leichhardt is, however, very low due to the high housing costs of the area.”
The Council’s solution? Work experience for refugees! Or refugee, singular. Leichhardt’s rulers are now investigating “the feasibility of dedicating one skilled work experience position per year to assist the employment pathway of a person of refugee or humanitarian entrant background.”
Continue reading 'SYDNEY COUNCILS ARE STUPID'THEY GO WAY BACK
Tim Blair – Monday, September 01, 2014 (4:33am)
Organisers said 5000 people took part in Sunday’s rally but police said no more than 1200 participated in the Brisbane CBD protest.Brisbane organiser David White said numbers had more than halved compared with a similar rally in March.
Saturday’s rallies were even lamer.
GETTING AHEAD
Tim Blair – Monday, September 01, 2014 (4:12am)
An Australian corporate head-hunter fights his way to the top in an extremely competitive organisation:
An Iraqi news website is reporting that an Australian fighting with Islamic State, and who goes by the name Abu Yahya ash Shami, has been named the military commander for the town of Jalula in northern Iraq.Citing a local source, the Iraqi News site said the Australian had proved his allegiance to Islamic State after he beheaded four people who refused to swear a bayat, or oath of allegiance, to [chief Islamic State goon Abu Bakr al] Baghdadi.
Choppy conditions are rare that far inland.
ZIM WINS
Tim Blair – Monday, September 01, 2014 (3:44am)
Australia falls to Zimbabwe:
It’s just Zimbabwe’s second ever win against Australia in ODI cricket – the last time it happened was at the 1983 World Cup.
Australia’s attack in that earlier match was led by Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Rodney Hogg and Geoff Lawson. Not exactly pie chuckers.
HE HAS SCREEN CAPS
Tim Blair – Sunday, August 31, 2014 (7:36pm)
That would be John “F**K THEM IN THE NECK!!!” Birmingham, who had this to say last year about racists on public transport:
Perhaps violence is sometimes the answer.
John should take this up with our mutual friend Glenn Reynolds, who is both a fan of Birmingham and very definitelynot a fan of George Galloway.
(Via Martin L)
Palmer can’t get enough of the ABC’s flattery
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(12:26pm)
Clive Palmer’s decaying Coolum resort cannot show guests often enough the ABC puff pieces which did so much to propel Palmer into Parliament:
The Palmer Australian channel features Mr Palmer’s Australian Story and a “best of” from his Lateline interviews with Tony Jones, while Palmer TV1 and TV2 include his 60 Minutes interview with Ray Martin and plugs for his mining company.
NSW Labor still unelectable
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(8:56am)
I suspect NSW voters consider Premier Mike Baird a cleanskin, and believe Labor’s past industrial-strength corruption makes Liberal graft seem mere expenses-padding:
THE NSW coalition government maintains a comfortable lead over the Labor opposition despite losing nine Liberal MPs as a result of the ongoing Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation, an opinion poll suggests.
NEWSPOLL, published in The Australian on Monday, says the coalition leads Labor 54 per cent to 46 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.
I don’t think Opposition leader John Robertson will last. He just looks too rough to be Premier.
Another problem in Labor’s vote-harvesting campaign in ethnic communities
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(8:40am)
A Victorian Labor Party figure is facing weapon charges and had his local council election partly bankrolled by an alleged Calabrian Mafia boss in a major embarrassment for the ALP in the lead-up to the state election.
A Fairfax Media investigation can reveal that Moreland City councillor Michael Teti is facing three firearms charges and, according to court records, had a warrant issued for his arrest after failing to appear in court in May.
Donation records show Cr Teti, who controls a Labor Party branch and has used his factional power to influence the selection of state ALP candidates, received several thousand dollars in political donations from figures or firms closely connected to the Calabrian Mafia in 2012…Cr Teti is an influential figure in the Labor Party in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and was recently listed on party documents as a state ALP conference delegate.A former deputy mayor of Moreland who has been a councillor since 2008, ...Cr Teti controls [with others] the votes of a group of northern suburbs residents, including many with Italian heritage.
I don’t know the truth of these allegations published by The Age, but they are now in the public debate.
Does Christine Milne say “just let them die”?
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(7:59am)
I have a question for Greens leader Christine Milne about what she agrees is the “slaughter of innocent people” in Iraq and Syria.
So, Senator, what would you have us do?
I ask politely — no abuse, no anger — because what you said last week struck me as so horrible and heartless that there must be some mistake.
Senator, I must have misunderstood you.
You cannot possibly be so dead to what you say are the “images of barbaric behaviour” we’ve all seen from the Islamic State.
You cannot possibly mean what I understood you to say: Let them die.
Let the men be decapitated or crucified.
Let the women be raped and sold into slavery.
Let us not answer the screams for help from Christians, Yazidis, Shi’ites and Sunnis the jihadists deem not sufficiently devout.
Let our soldiers and airmen stay at home, watching on TV the astonishing cruelty they know they could stop if you would let them.
Am I right, Senator Milne? Is that what you really mean?
I ask because your words were not as clear and plain as mine.
So maybe I’m just slow to understand anything not simple. Or maybe — just maybe — you lacked the guts to tell us precisely what you’re urging.
So let me politely repeat what you actually told us last week, to see if I’ve been unfair.
Jihadism is a religion of death
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(7:58am)
David Martin Jones says jihadism is not “alienation” but celebration, and we should stop blaming ourselves:
Significantly, Tony Abbott and the director of ASIO, David Irvine, have both recently said the problem Australia faces is the misguided “extremism” of a minority, rather than a radical, well-funded and highly attractive Islamist ideology.
Somewhat bizarrely, Irvine made a rare media appearance on a Muslim radio station to declare his “outrage” as an Australian at the idea that “we might be fighting Islam"…
In Britain, MI5 has come to take seriously the power of the ideological appeal of a version of Islam that sacralises violence and legitimates terror against the Kuffar. By contrast, the Australian government, its security agencies, its media and academic analysts of terrorism have promoted the view that to take Islamic rhetoric seriously is to play into “the politics of fear” and overreact to a problem associated with an irrelevant, fringe minority…[But], before pouring money into the problem, the government might usefully ask why have publicly funded institutions failed to address the transnational power of what is essentially a death cult…As early as 2004, in the wake of the Madrid bombings, Islamists defined the divide between a pluralist secular world view and their brand of apocalyptic millenarianism with the formula: “You love life, we love death"…In essence, this aesthetising of death defines itself against a secular liberal belief in life....Jihadism ... means, as numerous slickly produced videos on the internet demonstrate, adoring and serving death, be it as the slayer or the slain. In fact, its beatification of terrorist violence, or the management of savagery… This putrid need of death is evident today across the Middle East. Jihadism ... is a form of political nihilism made possible by the sacralisation of violence…
[T]he elected representatives of a secular democracy ought to do far more to defend a political way of life and target the promulgation and appeal of this potent and ultimately fascist death cult.
The terrible price of multiculturalism and the fear of seeming racist
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(7:52am)
Rotherham has a population of just 250,000. You would think during those 16 years of systematic sexual abuse that someone might have noticed or that some of the victims and their families would have come forward. And, in fact, many did. But authorities, following the “no loud denunciation” rule, largely ignored them. Aside from the jailing of five men for sexual offences against girls in 2010, the attacks just continued.
Denis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham from 1994 to 2012, explained why: “There was a culture of not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat, if I may put it like that. Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and liberal Leftie, I suppose I didn’t want to raise that too hard.”
Nobody did. According to Professor Jay’s report: “Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so."…The timidity is ongoing, even in the report’s wake. UK writer James Delingpole noted that a BBC item on the Rotherham outrage ran for 20 paragraphs before mentioning the ethnic identity of the perpetrators. Not to be outdone, a piece on the ABC’s AM program last week took 23 paragraphs before this line appeared: “Most of the offenders in Rotherham were from the town’s Pakistani community.” And there was this classic line from the Guardian: “The scale of the sexual exploitation revealed in the Jay inquiry is shocking, but let’s avoid racial stereotyping.”
Do these people ever consider that there just might be one or two things even worse than the dreaded racial stereotyping? Such as the destruction of 1400 young lives, for example?
UPDATE
The Independent on Sunday can reveal that a House of Commons committee is to investigate what Tony Blair’s Home Office knew about the Rotherham scandal as far back as 2001 after more evidence emerged about his government’s efforts to pacify Muslim communities.
Meanwhile, a former minister claimed he was threatened with the sack by his then boss, the foreign secretary Jack Straw, for calling on Muslims in the UK to choose between the “British way or the way of the terrorists” after a 24-year-old from South Yorkshire tried to bomb Israelis in a bar in Tel Aviv in 2003. Former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said he was forced to agree to a “grovelling climb-down” over his remarks because he was warned it risked upsetting community relations.
In a bizarre twist, it also emerged that Mr MacShane was disciplined for his remarks following protests led by one of the Muslim politicians at the centre of the child-grooming scandal in Rotherham.”
(Thanks to reader Perplexed.)
Abbott is right, and in ways he won’t let us say
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(7:33am)
The arrival of the First Fleet was the defining moment in the history of this continent,? the Prime Minister declared while launching the Defining Moments Project.
“Let me repeat that: it was the defining moment in the history of this continent.”
“Let me repeat that: it was the defining moment in the history of this continent.”
I suspect Abbott hoped to goad critics into attacking his statement of the obvious to make him seem a fighter against unreason — and to placate conservatives he upset by dropping his free speech crusade.
But to properly defend Abbott’s comments means risking legal action under the very Racial Discrimination Act he now won’t change.
Abbott hatred cools
Andrew BoltSEPTEMBER012014(6:57am)
Not even hypeing their numbers can hide the failure of the Abbott haters.
Organisers said 5000 people took part in Sunday’s rally but police said no more than 1200 participated in the Brisbane CBD protest.
Brisbane organiser David White said numbers had more than halved compared with a similar rally in March.
Police estimated up to 5000 people had flocked to the State Library of Victoria at 1pm for “March Australia” ...
About 3,000 protesters marched through Sydney, voicing their concerns on a range of issues, from Australia’s asylum seeker policies, to education cuts and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
UPDATE
Are Anglicans in the theocracy of Gosford allowed to vote Liberal, or is the minister less the political ideologue he appears?
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her 
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A few years ago I was desperate. I was certain to lose my home I had no job and no prospects of getting one in the near future. I got myself baptised at Jesus Family Centre Cabramatta, and the very next day my money worries were gone. But that was three years ago. And I face a similar situation again. But I'm not asking for no money worries .. I will go where the Lord sends me. But I want to be younger so that I can start a family. I am 46 and have never dated in my life. Until now. And the Lord is answering my prayer .. I am losing weight and my blood is better than it has been in over 20 years (He operates on me, but I still gotta exercise and eat right). Please pray for me. ed
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God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His… http://t.co/tX8NqG1V7A
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The questions that ought to have been answered before any statements were made by the likes of Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have barely been raised in the public arena. The most important of those questions are: What US interests are at stake in Syria? How should the US go about advancing them? What does Syria’s use of chemical weapons means for the US’s position in the region? How would the planned US military action in Syria impact US deterrent strength, national interests and credibility regionally and worldwide? Syria is not an easy case. Thirty months into the war there, it is clear that the good guys, such as they are, are not in a position to win.
Syria is controlled by Iran and its war is being directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and by Hezbollah. And arrayed against them are rebel forces dominated by al-Qaida.
As US Sen. Ted Cruz explained this week, “Of nine rebel groups [fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad], seven of them may well have some significant ties to al-Qaida.”
With no good horse to bet on, the US and its allies have three core interests relating to the war. First, they have an interest in preventing Syria’s chemical, biological and ballistic missile arsenals from being used against them either directly by the regime, through its terror proxies or by a successor regime.
Second, the US and its allies have an interest in containing the war as much as possible to Syria itself.
Finally, the US and its allies share an interest in preventing Iran, Moscow or al-Qaida from winning the war or making any strategic gains from their involvement in the war.
For the past two-and-a-half years, Israel has been doing an exemplary job of securing the first interest. According to media reports, the IDF has conducted numerous strikes inside Syria to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry, including missiles from Syria to Hezbollah.
Rather than assist Israel in its efforts that are also vital to US strategic interests, the US has been endangering these Israeli operations. US officials have repeatedly leaked details of Israel’s operations to the media. These leaks have provoked several senior Israeli officials to express acute concern that in providing the media with information regarding these Israeli strikes, the Obama administration is behaving as if it is interested in provoking a war between Israel and Syria. The concerns are rooted in a profound distrust of US intentions, unprecedented in the 50-year history of US-Israeli strategic relations.
The second US interest threatened by the war in Syria is the prospect that the war will not be contained in Syria. Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan specifically are threatened by the carnage. To date, this threat has been checked in Jordan and Lebanon. In Jordan, US forces along the border have doubtlessly had a deterrent impact in preventing the infiltration of the kingdom by Syrian forces.
In Lebanon, given the huge potential for spillover, the consequences of the war in Syria have been much smaller than could have been reasonably expected. Hezbollah has taken a significant political hit for its involvement in the war in Syria. On the ground, the spillover violence has mainly involved Shi’ite and Shi’ite jihadists targeting one another.
Iraq is the main regional victim of the war in Syria. The war there reignited the war between Sunnis and Shi’ites in Iraq. Violence has reached levels unseen since the US force surge in 2007. The renewed internecine warfare in Iraq redounds directly to President Barack Obama’s decision not to leave a residual US force in the country. In the absence US forces, there is no actor on the ground capable of strengthening the Iraqi government’s ability to withstand Iranian penetration or the resurgence of al-Qaida.
The third interest of the US and its allies that is threatened by the war in Syria is to prevent Iran, Russia or al-Qaida from securing a victory or a tangible benefit from their involvement in the war.
It is important to note that despite the moral depravity of the regime’s use of chemical weapons, none of America’s vital interests is impacted by their use within Syria. Obama’s pledge last year to view the use of chemical weapons as a tripwire that would automatically cause the US to intervene militarily in the war in Syria was made without relation to any specific US interest.
But once Obama made his pledge, other US interests became inextricably linked to US retaliation for such a strike. The interests now on the line are America’s deterrent power and strategic credibility. If Obama responds in a credible way to Syria’s use of chemical weapons, those interests will be advanced. If he does not, US deterrent power will become a laughing stock and US credibility will be destroyed.
Unfortunately, the US doesn’t have many options for responding to Assad’s use of chemical weapons. If it targets the regime in a serious way, Assad could fall, and al-Qaida would then win the war. Conversely, if the US strike is sufficient to cause strategic harm to the regime’s survivability, Iran could order the Syrians or Hezbollah or Hamas, or all of them, to attack Israel. Such an attack would raise the prospect of regional war significantly.
A reasonable response would be for the US to target Syria’s ballistic missile sites. And that could happen. Although the US doesn’t have to get involved in order to produce such an outcome. Israel could destroy Syria’s ballistic missiles without any US involvement while minimizing the risk of a regional conflagration.
There are regime centers and military command and control bases and other strategic sites that it might make sense for the US to target.
Unfortunately, the number of regime and military targets the US has available for targeting has been significantly reduced in recent days. Administration leaks of the US target bank gave the Syrians ample time to move their personnel and equipment.
This brings us to the purpose the Obama administration has assigned to a potential retaliatory strike against the Syrian regime following its use of chemical weapons.
Obama told PBS on Wednesday that US strikes on Syria would be “a shot across the bow.”
But as Charles Krauthammer noted, such a warning is worthless. In the same interview Obama also promised that the attack would be a nonrecurring event. When there are no consequences to ignoring a warning, then the warning will be ignored.
This is a very big problem. Obama’s obvious reluctance to follow through on his pledge to retaliate if Syria used chemical weapons may stem from a belated recognition that he has tethered the US’s strategic credibility to the quality of its response to an action that in itself has little significance to US interests in Syria.
And this brings us to the third vital US interest threatened by the war in Syria – preventing Iran, al-Qaida or Russia from scoring a victory.
Whereas the war going on in Syria pits jihadists against jihadists, the war that concerns the US and its allies is the war the jihadists wage against everyone else. And Iran is the epicenter of that war.
Like US deterrent power and strategic credibility, the US’s interest in preventing Iran from scoring a victory in Damascus is harmed by the obvious unseriousness of the “signal” Obama said he wishes to send Assad through US air strikes.
Speaking on Sunday of the chemical strike in Syria, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned, “Syria has become Iran’s testing ground…. Iran is watching and it wants to see what would be the reaction on the use of chemical weapons.”
The tepid, symbolic response that the US is poised to adopt in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons represents a clear signal to Iran. Both the planned strikes and the growing possibility that the US will scrap even a symbolic military strike in Syria tell Iran it has nothing to fear from Obama.
Iran achieved a strategic achievement by exposing the US as a paper tiger in Syria. With this accomplishment in hand, the Iranians will feel free to call Obama’s bluff on their nuclear weapons project. Obama’s “shot across the bow” response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons in a mass casualty attack signaled the Iranians that the US will not stop them from developing and deploying a nuclear arsenal.
Policy-makers and commentators who have insisted that we can trust Obama to keep his pledge to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons have based their view on an argument that now lies in tatters. They insisted that by pledging to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, Obama staked his reputation on acting competently to prevent Iran from getting the bomb. To avoid losing face, they said, Obama will keep his pledge.
Obama’s behavior on Syria has rendered this position indefensible. Obama is perfectly content with shooting a couple of pot shots at empty government installations. As far as he is concerned, the conduct of air strikes in Syria is not about Syria, or Iran. They are not the target audience of the strikes. The target audience for US air strikes in Syria is the disengaged, uninformed American public.
Obama believes he can prove his moral and strategic bonafides to the public by declaring his outrage at Syrian barbarism and then launching a few cruise missiles from an aircraft carrier. The computer graphics on the television news will complete the task for him.
The New York Times claimed on Thursday that the administration’s case for striking Syria would not be the “political theater” that characterized the Bush administration’s case for waging war in Iraq. But at least the Bush administration’s political theater ended with the invasion. In Obama’s case, the case for war and the war itself are all political theater.
While for a few days the bread and circuses of the planned strategically useless raid will increase newspaper circulation and raise viewer ratings of network news, it will cause grievous harm to US national interests. As far as US enemies are concerned, the US is an empty suit.
And as far as America’s allies are concerned, the only way to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power is to operate without the knowledge of the United States.
Caroline Glick
Caroline Glick is an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. She is also the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post and Director of the Israel Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. She serves as adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., and is the author of Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad (2008). She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, served as Assistant Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997-98, and regularly briefs senior administration officials and members of Congress on issues of joint Israeli-American concern. She lives in Jerusalem. A former officer in the Israel Defense Forces, she was a core member of Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians and later served as an assistant policy advisor to the prime minister. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the widely-published Glick was an embedded journalist with the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division. She was awarded a distinguished civilian service award from the U.S. Secretary of the Army for her battlefield reporting.
===Last week, I debated with a friend of mine who claims that Judea and Samaria are occupied territories. I disagreed, of course. Then, I enlisted my expert friend, Roger Froikin
. This is the answer he gave me. I am satisfied with it!
"Bat Zion, easy. International Law is layered. One always looks back to the newest treaties or agreements between parties for guidance as to what Law is. The governing documents are the League of nations Mandate, Parliamentary law in England as to how to handle the mandate, and the 1949 Armistice Agreements. (The UN Partition of 1947 is not a legal biding agreement because there were not two parties signing on as the Arabs refused). So, Under the provisions of the Mandate and Parliamentary Law, Palestine was to be divided along the Jordan River, with a Jewish homeland to the West, an Arab homeland to the East, and exchanges of population. When Britain illegally broke off Eastern Palestine to form Trans-Jordan as a gift to the Al-Husseini tribe, that violated the Mandate and British law (but then King Hussein ibn Talal al-Husseini declared that Jordan was Palestine when he became King). In 1949, after 1 1/2 years of war, the British commanded Jordanian legion and Irai troops controlled parts of Jewish Palestine. An Armistice was signed between all parties which stated that the status of those lands not controlled by Israel, but West of the Jordan, would be negotiated as to final disposition. Jordan would be caretaker of the areas occupied until that point. Jordan, a Foreign nation (at that point) occupied territory, and proceeded to violate the Geneva Conventions (I-V) and the provisions of the Armistice, by expropriating all jewish property, destroying Jewish property, desecrating Jewish sites, and banning Jews, even from jewish holy places, and by periodically firing on Jews in Western jerusalem (including me in 1963). In 1967, Jordan joined a war in which the Arab states threatened in repeated broadcasts was to kill or exclude all the Jews. Israel won. That ended the Armistice Agreement of 1949 because now the only legal sovereign nation in palestine - Israel, controlled all lands that were originally to be part of the "Jewish Homeland" per the Mandate provisions. hereford, Israeli control of Judea and Samaria and all of jerusalem is legal, and repatriating all Jewish property expropriated illegally by Jordan is perfectly legal." >
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By Jonathan Tobin
 Kula | ||
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Rant by CLAL's Irwin Kula ranks somewhere between the musings of a Marxist high school sophomore and the product of an Occupy Wall Street tent city seminar conducted in a haze of marijuana smoke
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Absent the ability to make moral distinctions, ethics is a meaningless concept. Indeed, if you can't tell the difference between, say, a despotic theocracy and a genuine if flawed democracy, you are in a poor position to claim any moral authority, let alone speak for a great religious tradition grounded in the Torah and the work of countless generations of Jewish scholars.
Yet that is the position that CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership finds itself in today. Founded in 1974 by Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, CLAL's main initial focus was to forge a sense of Jewish unity in an American community divided by bickering denominations and a vast array of political and religious disputes.
If today, 16 years after Greenberg retired and was replaced by Rabbi Irwin Kula, many of its efforts often might be mistaken for a faint shadow of whatever liberal conventional wisdom recently came down the pike, its slogan "The Hebrew word for inclusive" still highlights a brand that is rooted in the idea of bringing together a diverse Jewish community.
Kula has never been mistaken for Greenberg, whose centrism was not just a pose but also a genuine conviction (he was fond of saying that no matter which denomination you belonged to, you had something to be ashamed of).
Rather than tell each segment of American Jewry hard truths, Kula has specialized in telling liberal Jewish audiences what they want to hear. But while there has never been much doubt that he is a figure of the left, something he posted on his official Facebook page on Tuesday that claimed Iran's faux elections are little different from America's democratic system calls into questions not only his judgment, but his moral compass.
The post (hat tip to Alan Luxenberg of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute) read as follows:
Of course there is a difference and yet there is something strangely parallel how in Iran you have to be vetted by the guardian council of clerics to run for president while in the United States, while you don't have to be vetted by clerics, you have to be vetted by concentrations of private capital. With very rare exceptions unless you pass their filter, you don't enter the political system. I guess one way or another it is always clerics…the only question being just what religion they are peddling, using, distorting? to preserve and expand their power…yes yes yes i would rather live here than in Iran…
While we're glad that Kula prefers to dwell in the American theocracy of "private capital" to the pleasures of life in an Islamist state where Jews are demonized, that is about the only thought here that makes any sense. Suffice it to say that there is nothing remotely analogous about the process by which American politicians seek to raise money from citizens and groups and a system that rules as ineligible for inclusion on a ballot anyone who diverges even a smidge from the ideology of Ayatollah Khomeini.
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"Our security and our values demand that we cannot turn away from the massacre of countless civilians with chemical weapons. And our democracy is stronger when the President and the peoples’ representatives stand together. I am ready to act in the face of this outrage.
Today, I am asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation." —President Obama in a statement today on Syria.
Watch —> http://youtu.be/
Hard to reconcile with his actions over Benghazi - ed
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It’s raw sewage!
This is the Kidron “river”, that starts in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and flows through the Judean desert all the way to the Dead Sea.
The Dutch government has told a private firm not to take part in building a sewage treatment facility, because it is “over the green line” (or as Haaretz call it, the 67 border).
The Dutch government has asked the country’s largest engineering company to rethink its participation in a project with the Jerusalem municipality because the project is based on the Palestinian side of the 1967 border. Foreign Ministry officials fear that this will be a trend in Europe, not an isolated incident.The project by Royal HaskoningDHV involves Israeli company Mati, a subsidiary of Hagihon, the municipality’s water and sewage company.In the project, a sewage treatment plant would be built to battle the pollution in the Kidron stream, which runs from the Mount of Olives and the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem toward the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim and the Dead Sea. The plant is to be built in Area C, under full Israeli military and civilian control.According to a senior official in the Foreign Ministry, the municipality told the ministry two weeks ago about problems linked to the project. Royal HaskoningDHV officials told the municipality that the Dutch Foreign Ministry had warned about the possible consequences of carrying out projects for Israeli companies in East Jerusalem or the West Bank.Dutch Foreign Ministry officials told Royal HaskoningDHV that such a project would violate international law, leading the company to consider pulling out of the project to avoid financial, legal and image problems.
The Dutch, as the EU, would rather Palestinians will drink their own shit than tarnish it’s image by having a private Dutch company help the environment and the Palestinians.
Edit: this entry wrongly claimed it was the EU was the one to press the Dutch firm Royal HaskoningDHV. It was the Dutch government. J.D.
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HOUSTON (KTRK) — Houston police have released surveillance photos of the three suspects involved in a deadly robbery at a west Houston Denny’s restaurant. The suspects killed in cold blood a man who was just trying to protect a child, and now that victim’s son is speaking out.
The photos, which were released late Wednesday, show the chaos that unfolded inside the restaurant late Monday night.
A day after Greig Placette was shot and killed during a restaurant robbery, his son Drue is still struggling with the reality of it.
A hate crime? ed
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The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)
Obama and Assad's Blood Stained Line
A line in the sand is a metaphor with two similar meanings:
- The first meaning is of a point (physical, decisional, etc.) beyond which one will proceed no further.
- The second meaning is that of a point beyond which, once the decision to go beyond it is made, the decision and its resulting consequences are permanently decided and irreversible.
It is generally believed that if someone should “cross the line” than their behavior is wrong and not socially acceptable. The recent use by President Assad of chemical weapons, whose use was banned in warfare by a 1925 international treaty, does indeed cross a line, into a sort of brutality so extreme that the civilized world cannot afford to tolerate it.
President Obama left his proverbial “fly open” by making multiple “Line in the sand” threats to end the civil war in Syria. His lack of immediate response not only embarrassed himself but his has made a mockery of his administration as well. This bloody civil war has been raging for more than two years and has claimed 100,000 casualties, many of them in atrocities that shock the conscience. President Obama’s failure to enact his threats to stop this bloodshed has stained all brave Americans. It is hoped by many American's that after tonight's speech that President Obama has come to the conclusion to never make a threat if you can't carry it out. As President he needs to know that; "When placed in command — take charge." And that "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, do without the strategy."
Like some spoiled grade school kid to the school bully he threatened President Bashar Assad, of "Red Lines" and than he stepped back. The people of the world and the Middle East now know that the US which was once feared by evil leaders as the "most powerful Democracy" is in reality a weak kneed "Paper Lion".
From my own personal experience in life I agree with the words of late Four Star General and Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command of the Coalition Forces in the Gulf War of 1991 H. NormanSchwarzkopf, Jr. that; “Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar.” And that;
"A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can’t do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war.”
As an Israeli I will reiterate that I personally do not want the US to get involved in Syria because most Americans do not have the faintest idea of what makes up the Middle East .
I stand firmly behind the fact that Americans should not have to sacrifice their kids for either side in the quagmire that the Syrian Civil War has become. What with it’s two warring fractions that I term "Bad" or "Even Worst".
It is my fervent wish; I hope it is yours too, for them to murder each other in droves. The “Pro Assad” "Secular" Baath regime is being backed by the fanatically religious Shi'ite regime of Iran and their Lebanese lackeys the Hezbollah. The rebels are a confused mixture with a new and odious vicious group The Chechnian Al Qaeda.
This particularly vicious radical and fanatical Sunni Moslem religious group is involved in the fighting and they are getting stronger. For the moment they are fighting against the forces of Assad and the Hezbollah. And for once I actually agree withRussian President Vladimir Putkin and with the Ruskies that as long as the Al Qaeda’s Chechen, Caucasian fighters are getting killed and the Hezbollah are being killed we should be immensely thankful! As my Christian Lebanese friend says; “Inshallah may they continue!”
As an American, President Obama is right on the count that he needs to know that at least the US Congress will back him up. When the US Congress reconvenes I think that it is about time that all US voters/taxpayers wipe the smirk smiles off those Arab faces. Use this “Golden Opportunity” to take immediate action to bombard your representatives, congressmen and Senators to wake up and cut off ALL foreign aid to ALL Arab countries, the UN and especially UNWRA!!!
IF the Arabs are “Laughing” at the USA than Let them “foot” the bill LITERALLY. After all the billions if not trillions in US Tax dollars spent on saving the wrong guy in Arab countries over the years. It is time for the Arabs primarily Saudi Arabia -your "US Gas Dollars at work" to police the area. AND the USA should demand repayment! Why should you Americas spend your hard owned tax dollars to protect the lavish lifestyles of the Saudi Princes? And what do YOU the US Taxpayer's have to say to this? Did I hear any of you writing your congressman about cutting US Aid to the Arabs?
I mean wouldn’t it be nice to get back the TRILLIONS wasted on protecting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf State Emirates to pay for America schools, Health Care and aging infrastructure?
American naiveté of the Middle East can be further witnessed in an interview to Al Arabiya, few days after his inauguration, Obama declared: "my job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. President Obama in his infamous "A New Beginning" speech in Cairo in June of 2009 embarrassed himself and the American people by trying to "make up" with Islam. At that time that Egypt was chosen because as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated; "it is a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world.
President Obama and his adviser's fiasco of not comprehending the Middle East is further exasperated in his lauding of the "Election" of the Moslem Brotherhood leadership in President Morsi. In the aftermath of what the imbeciles of the BBC and CNN termed the "Arab Spring" protests in Tahrir Square of the moderate secular middle class youth. And though the Army had supported Mubarak through his decades-long rule, it became increasingly clear that the Moslem Brotherhood had the best political operation and would likely win the popular vote in the elections of 2012 Ever-pragmatic businessmen, the military officers realized that they had to negotiate with their erstwhile enemies, to protect their own institutions, perks, and bank accounts, they would have to step in on the side of the protesters against Mubarak. When Morsi turned autocratic and the Brotherhood subverted the popular will, Egypt received little in support from the U.S. it seemed a clear message from the White House.
The extremely fanatical Islamic fundamentalist group which had been outlawed by the Egyptians, who knew what they were all about, were released from their “Pandora box”. Suddenly they took over as the Nazis did through “Democratic” elections because the Moderate and seculars “thought they had the elections in the bag” did not realize that the Moslem Brotherhood out numbered them. These Sixth Century backward uneducated Islamic religious fanatics began to reverse Egypt , like Iran in 1979.
“Luckily” the secular Egyptian military leadership reversed all this is their coup. And for once it was a military Juanta that took control to bring sanity back to what was once a close ally to the US . But President Obama and his advisors once again have shown their ignorance by siding with the “Democratically Elected” Mohamed Morsi and by ostracizing the Egyptian Military leader General AbdelFattah al-Sisi. As he bluntly told The Washington Post in a rare recent interview: “You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won’t forget that.” Since the overthrow of the Moslem Brotherhood and Morsi’s, the Sunni royals of the Gulf states have secured billions of dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates , who have their own agenda in Egypt . Because of this slap in the face by President Obama the Egyptian Minister of Defense ordered that “No (US) warship has the right to pass through the Suez Canal to attack Syria ”
I seriously doubt that Americans are aware that Al-Sisi was selected to attend the U.S. Army War College in 2006 during a severely traumatic period in the Middle East —for Americans as well as for Arabs. It was while at the War College Middle East .” In his paper he pointed out the influence of Christianity and its culture on American government, especially in its early days, drawing a parallel with the role of Islam now in the establishment of nascent Middle Eastern democracies. Al-Sisi wrote that whereas Americans believe in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Islamic cultures cling to principles of “fairness, justice, equality, unity, and charity,” he argued. Americans look to their republic’s Founding Fathers for guidance; Muslims cherish the memory of the ancient caliphate. It is ironic that in this paper he states that “this does not mean a theocracy will be established,” wrote al-Sisi, “rather it means a democracy will be established based on Islamic beliefs.”
And another fact to note is that since the Camp David peace accords 1978 more than $1.4 billion a year from the United States pours into the coffers of the Egyptian military. In order to keep its officers and soldiers loyal the Egyptian military pays out rich dividends to them. The military draws on recruits from throughout Egyptian society, a state habitually plagued by nepotism and corruption. As officers move up the ranks, they move ever-more deeply into a world intentionally isolated from the rest of the country. They have their own apartments, their own clubs, their own schools and stores. The Army has its own manufacturing empire and a vast construction business that frequently shuts out the private sector in bids for contracts with little or no public accountability.
As to the embarrassing fall of our once staunch ally in the United Kingdom . The vote in the English House of Commons shows not only the war weariness of the English people but it is a warning bell to the people of England and Europe of the spread and rise in population of their Moslem constituents and their growing political power from within.
The quagmire we live in today vis a vis the Arab world is a direct outcome of those who still cannot comprehend the hidden agenda and rise of post 9/11 radical Islam.
Since taking office, Obama stated his support for the creation of a "Falestinian" state and announced that he would engage in negotiations with Iran . He also declared he opposed Israeli settlements and wanted to revive "Falestinian" peace talks. Binyamin Netanyahu’s six-year old policy, which was oriented on engendering understanding with Barack Obama, is in ruins as Bibi now has to wipe egg off his face.
And of course yet again we in Israel have been left holding the proverbial bag and have been put in a tight spot on three counts:
1. The hostile Iran-Syrian-Hezbollah bloc comes out strengthened;
2. Tehran can feel free to develop a nuclear bomb without fear of resolute US interference;
3. Hezbollah can celebrate its backing for the winning horse in Damascus .
In the meantime “Wile E. Coyote” aka Bashar Assad and his Iranian partners now have all the time in the world to line up their counter moves. And we will continue to hear the laughter from the whole Arab world of what a total fool and weak leader the US has.
“P. J. O'Rourke famously said that if you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free,” said Avik Roy, of the Manhattan Institute. “Once you lard on all these additional things, all these extras that insurers must provide, you have to pay for that."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/31/free-benefits-in-obamacare-come-with-hidden-costs/#ixzz2dcTsr4Og
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DUNKIN' Donuts, an American doughnut company, has apologised for the "insensitivity" of an advertising campaign in Thailand featuring a woman in blackface makeup.
The Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand came under criticism on Friday after Human Rights Watch called the advertisements "bizarre and racist."
The company's chief executive in Thailand initially defended the campaign but the US headquarters quickly followed up with an apology.
"We are working with our Thailand franchisee to immediately pull the ad. DD recognises the insensitivity of this spot" Dunkin' Donuts said in a tweet posted on its official US website after complaints erupted on Twitter, in a variety of blogs and in mainstream American media.
The local franchise launched the advertisement earlier this month to promote its new "Charcoal Donut."
In posters, TV commercials and on Facebook, the campaign shows a smiling woman with blackface makeup, bright pink lipstick and a jet black 1950s-style beehive hairdo holding up a bit black doughnut. The slogan in Thai reads: "Break every rule of deliciousness."
Critics say the image is reminiscent of 19th and early 20th century American stereotypes for black people that are now considered offensive symbols of a racist era.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw "howls of outrage" if released in the United States.
The campaign hasn't ruffled many in Thailand, where it's common for advertisements to use racial stereotypes.
Hours before the apology was issued by Dunkin' Donuts headquarters, the company's chief executive in Thailand dismissed the criticism as "paranoid American thinking."
"It's absolutely ridiculous," the CEO Nadim Salhani said in a telephone interview.
"We're not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don't get it. What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?"
- AP
Racist or harmless? Have your say on Twitter: @newscomauHQ
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/dunkin8217-donuts-faces-backlash-for-8216bizarre-and-racist8217-advertisement-in-thailand/story-e6frfm1i-1226708466277#ixzz2de20vUkf
It isn't racist .. it isn't even in poor taste .. some people are hyper sensitive .. ed
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Wish you a very happy life
Welcome to this world
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Enter here http://bddy.me/1450sgw for your chance to WIN Gold Class movie vouchers for you & 3 friends! Evenings can't come fast enough! Congrats to Nicole, our winner of Round 3, we hope you enjoy your Wagamama feast!
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http://t.co/rvZjbY0JdB
My new book on the 10 Commandments has just arrived. This is the distillation of 14 years of teaching… http://t.co/rvZjbY0JdB
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Praying with my son Josh as we helicopter to our 5th day of teaching seminars to pastors each morning, advising provincial leaders each afternoon, and leading national thanksgiving rallies each evening in RWANDA's 5 provinces
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Allen West
In response to President Obama's empty speech, Sir, you turned your back on Americans in Benghazi, so do not pretend to lecture us about obligation. He is afraid to make a decision so is now setting up Congress for the blame. We should not commit our Military because Obama said something stupid and especially since he does not have a strategic or operational objective. Perhaps if he had not decided to "end the Iraq War" and left a residual force on the Iraq-Syrian border we would not have this situation. I guess this is not so time sensitive, but it is a confirmation of Obama's weakness. NO authorization for military action in Syria.
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During a press briefing at the White House Friday morning regarding a possible attack on Syria, Barack Obama referred to the U.S. military as “my military.”
“As I have already said, I have had MY MILITARY and our team look at a wide range of options.”
Of course, Obama sympathizers were quick to defend Dear Leader on social media sites Friday night, many suggesting it was simply a slip of the presidential tongue. Sure it was. The Narcissist-in-Chief has referred to “my government” earlier in his presidency.
“My military” is sure to be a great hit with our proud men and women in uniform. Although – now O’s “I Killed Osama Bin Laden” Victory Tour makes a little more sense, doesn’t it?
Funny how Mr. Obama owns everything. Except his failures. Those always belong to someone else.
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Dr. Phil
You teach people how to treat you.
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Dr. Phil
http://bit.ly/WeightSurvey
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Don’t forget – there's still time to put your Dads of #DoctorWho knowledge to the test with our Father's Day quiz: http://ngx.me/hgv67ayq
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Verily, the TARDIS doth appear to have travelled back to medieval times in this brilliant pic from Who fan Cindi!
Download your own mini-TARDIS and send us photos of it on your very own adventures here. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite photos in our gallery too: http://ngx.me/hhxib358
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Happy Father's Day to Who fans down under!
Celebrate with us with our top 5 Dad's of#DoctorWho: http://bit.ly/17ot1Yn
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Dr. Phil'
Hey All, please go vote to keep Jordan's band Stars In Stereo on the air for Flint, MI's Banana 101.5 Cockfight! It's Stars In Stereo vs. Black Label Society this round. http://banana1015.com/
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C'mon Queenslanders. Don't let me down on Sept 7..nothing worse than letting the "Mexicans" down south beat you at kicking out Labor.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/not-so-sunny-20130831-2sxgz.html
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Matt Granz Photography
Twilight at the Bridge, or dusk, or blue hour... whatever you want to call it, is a favorite time of day... er, or night... to shoot this legendary icon. Tonight was no exception.
If you like this pic, please feel free to share it. It is also available as a print at: http://mattgranz.zenfolio.com/p777575390/h6cbbc7e7#h6cbbc7e7
Because of compression issues here at Facebook, it also looks much better at the provided link above. Check it out!
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Munchausen syndrome patients tell falsehoods about themselves, but in scenarios of Munchausen by proxy, a caregiver invents medical conditions for his or her children, often inducing symptoms in them to better illustrate the lie. Because the condition extends to unknowing minors, Munchausen by proxy is typically considered a severe form of child abuse.
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God’s people may suffer may even be martyred but they are sealed as his. Revelation 6:1-8:5
Phillip Jensen.
===Apparently, officials in Jerusalem were said to be unsurprised by Obama’s decision.
Were YOU surprised?
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IRANIAN CHIEF OF STAFF: "The US imagination about limited military intervention in Syria is merely an illusion, as reactions will be coming from beyond Syria’s borders."
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“It’s not going to be easy to reverse the forces that have conspired for decades against working Americans.”
Click for details on Obama's holiday weekend address...
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#OnThisDay in 1968: Malcolm Nash to Garry Sobers: 6 6 6 6 6 6 http://es.pn/148wDk9
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BREAKING: Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital.
The 95-year-old anti-apartheid icon will now continue his recovery at his Johannesberg home. Read the statement from The Presidency here:http://bit.ly/15pWbuf
#Madiba #9News
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It's confirmed.
The Sydney Swans will face Hawthorn in a qualifying final at the MCG on Friday night from 7.50pm.
For ticket buying details and FAQs, visit our 2013 finals hub - http://
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And the search is on! #whereswally?
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After the administration spent days laying out the case for a strike against Syria, President Obama decides to wait for congressional authorization.
Tomorrow, Secretary of State John Kerry joins Fox News Sunday to discuss the president's decision. Check your local listings or tune in to Fox News Channel at 2p and 6p ET.
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"The last time the government was knocked off course by Parliament like this was in the 1780s when Parliament accepted that we’d lost the war of American independence and gave up America, so this is a pretty important event."
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A brilliant piece. On why Labor blaming Murdoch for his news coverage is an insult to your intelligence. You don't need to agree with me, you just need to THINK for yourself and exercise your free choice.
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Asking to prove who you are is racist?
That's ridiculous,
http://www.ijreview.com/2013/08/76210-racist-claims-about-voter-id-laws-are-outrageous-here-is-why/
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Vladimir Putin (Владимир Путин): "Claims that the proof exists, but is classified and cannot be presented to anybody are below criticism. This is plain disrespect for their partners."
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VETERAN broadcaster Sir David Frost has died from a heart attack aged 74, his family says.
Sir David died on Saturday night on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, where he was due to give a speech.
Known for incisive interviews with the leading figures of his time, and perhaps most famously disgraced US president Richard Nixon, Sir David spent more than 50 years as a television star.
British Prime Minister David Cameron was quick to send his condolences and tweeted: "My heart goes out to David Frost's family. He could be - and certainly was with me - both a friend and a fearsome interviewer".
In a statement to BBC News, Sir David's family said: "His family are devastated and ask for privacy at this difficult time. A family funeral will be held in the near future and details of a memorial service will be announced in due course."
His Sunday morning interview program Breakfast with Frost ran on the BBC from January 1993 until May 2005.
In recent years he worked for al-Jazeera English and had recently interviewed F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/television/broadcast-legend-david-frost-dead-at-74/story-e6frfmyi-1226708618465#ixzz2ddqj2Nq4
RIP, I didn't like his attempted assault on Nixon, but appreciated his style. - ed
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September 1: Start of the Liturgical year (Eastern Orthodox Church);Labour Day in Canada and Labor Day in the United States (2014);Constitution Day in Slovakia
- 1604 – Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the religious text of Sikhism, was installed at Harmandir Sahib.
- 1804 – German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding discovered one of the largest main belt asteroids, naming it Juno afterthe Roman goddess.
- 1914 – The passenger pigeon, which once had a population of at least 3 billion birds, became extinct, when the last individual(pictured) died in captivity.
- 1928 – Ahmet Zogu, President of the Albanian Republic, declared the country was now a constitutional monarchy and himself king with theregnal name Zog I.
- 1972 – American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer became the 11thWorld Chess Champion when he defeated Russian Boris Spassky in a match that was widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation.
“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,” Psalm 95:6-7 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"On mine arm shall they trust."
Isaiah 51:5
Isaiah 51:5
In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify himself in thy weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month.
Evening
"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light."
1 John 1:7
1 John 1:7
As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we call "Our Father," of whom it is written, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?" Certainly, this is the model which is set before us, for the Saviour himself said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;" and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, "We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality." We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.
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Today's reading: Psalm 132-134, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 (NIV)
Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 132-134
1 LORD, remember David
and all his self-denial.
and all his self-denial.
2 He swore an oath to the LORD,
he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 "I will not enter my house
or go to my bed,
4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,
5 till I find a place for the LORD,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."
he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 "I will not enter my house
or go to my bed,
4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,
5 till I find a place for the LORD,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Correcting an Abuse of the Lord's Supper
17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
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Methuselah, Mathusala
[Mētho̅o̅'se lah] - a man of the javelinor it shall be sent (deluge). The son of Enoch, and grand-father of Noah, who lived longer than any other man recorded in history (Gen. 5:21-27).
[Mētho̅o̅'se lah] - a man of the javelinor it shall be sent (deluge). The son of Enoch, and grand-father of Noah, who lived longer than any other man recorded in history (Gen. 5:21-27).
The Man Who Lived the Longest
The Bible represents human life as vastly prolonged before the Flood. Afterwards it grew rapidly briefer. The longevity of the antediluvian races proves that the constitution of man was different from what it is today. With the Flood a change took place so that now the duration of human life is rarely over one hundred years. No strength of constitution, temperance or vegetable diet can add years to such a limit. The instructive register of Genesis five shows that the man who lived for the shortest period lived for 365 years, and the one who lived for the longest period lived for 969 years.
The remarkable longevity served a useful purpose in that it made possible the reception and preservation of ancient traditions. Perhaps Adam lived for about 113 years after the birth of Methuselah, and Methuselah could not have been more than 369 years old when his grandson Noah was born. Thus, Noah conversed with one who had conversed with Adam and Enoch had the privilege of conversing with Adam. God knows how to preserve His truth for the guidance and sanctification of succeeding generations.
Although Methuselah, whose name was fitting for a time when the earth was full of violence, lived for almost a millennium, nothing whatever is recorded of his long life save the birth of his children. What an immense influence he could have exerted through the years if only, like his father Enoch, he had walked with God! It is not the length of a life that counts, but thequality of it.
Why did Methuselah die thirty-one years short of a millennium? Has God reserved the privilege of living for one thousand years for the millennial saints? During our Lord's millennial reign, life is to be prolonged again, so that one hundred years shall be the duration of childhood, and a grown man's ordinary age shall be in the age of a tree (Isa. 65:20, 22).
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