LBJ declared a war on poverty in 1964, creating programs such as Head Start, Food Stamps, Work Study, Medicare and Medicaid. Today, in 2014 terms, the spending has reached $22 trillion, which is three times more than spent on military in all wars since the US Revolution. The goal is worthy, but the means is a failure. It has become a political whipping post. Both 'sides' or politics are wilfully blind that they are shovelling money into programs designed to keep people poor, and favouring one side of politics. Poor people have needs, and the complex bureaucracies which 'oversee the poor' are lousy at addressing those needs. The US is not serving her people by going bankrupt trying. Greater use needs to be made of charity and philanthropy in effective programs, and government is not good at doing that. One tragic example of feel good over reach involves the failure of the hashtag bringbackourgirls to bring back the victims of Boko Haram's kidnapping of two hundred school girls earmarked for sexual slavery and genital mutilation. Thank you Michelle for your good intentions. Maybe Barak will divert the soldiers designated to combat ebola to save those girls?
The labour union movement is facing broad charges of corruption. The CFMEU (construction, forestry, mining and energy union) has been alleged to have employed stand over tactics in building sites. This is related to former PM Gillard weakening laws which protected workers from rapacious exploitation by slush fund creating unions. The union has denied the allegations, but sadly, because Gillard weakened the laws, it is hard for them to prove they aren't corrupt. It is the misfortune of the unions that the ALP is too closely aligned with them to be of any help. The ALP leader, Shorten, has to answer questions of misappropriation of union funds and the creation and abuse of slush funds.
They say responsibility is heavy, and so leaders go grey in office. Obama shows craven cowards do too. Scotland is voting on an issue of independence, but it isn't a vote for freedom. There is nothing that Scotland as independent will get that it does not have now, within a UK democracy. If the Yes case wins, then the conservative leader Cameron is in trouble even though none of this is his fault. Grossly irresponsible people have promised many things if there is a yes vote, but not conservatives. Australia is being promised a similar poll on a non issue, with plans to institutionalise apartheid within the constitution. Having failed to protect the poorest of Australia, some bright sparks think that redefining race within the constitution will address the issue. It didn't work in South Africa either.
Nova Peris belongs to the ALP in many ways. She has no idea about appropriate behaviour. At a children's athletics meet Nova abused officials so as to seek an advantage for her son. Like other ALP plans, it didn't work. It highlights the failings of the leader Shorten to stamp any authority on those he leads. Shorten says he supports Mr Abbott's actions in the Middle East, but then back benchers stand up and say they don't. Shorten fails to implement policy. He addressed workers with a pathetic, protectionist speech which did nothing to provide Australia with the certainty she needed over submarines. A bugbear for Shorten is his support of a murderously bad policy on migration by people smugglers. But in his defence the ABC is confused too. They seem to say it is good to drown poor people if pirates prosper from it.
Clive Palmer loses another court battle he had claimed he won. He appears increasingly desperate but never competent. ABC continues flogging AGW hysteria, claiming that water rising around Australia will cost billions of dollars. ABC Board member Stanley appears blind to accusations of bias. A female who beat up a pensioner on a bus has failed to apologise but has been given a suspended sentence. An execution in Texas of a despicable woman who tortured a child to death.
From 2013
A man with a mental illness, who supported Obama, who had been trained in the military used an assault rifle, CNN called a shotgun, to kill 12 people in 30 minutes in Washington DC at a naval yard. For their safety, none of the sane employees were armed. Clearly this is going to inflame the gun issue. Democrats like Obama like that, as they are the goto people for gun control. But while kudos are often given to the Democrats for gun control, Democrat states seem to have the most difficulties. It is as if the Democrats like the issue to stay alive at the expense of victims.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the new PM, Tony Abbott has been sworn in. He has axed three department heads who were too close to the last government, and a fourth has walked away. Much has been said of the few number of females in the new cabinet (Deputy Liberal Leader Bishop). And while it is true that neither of the last two ALP PM's were women, nor will either of the next two ALP aspirants be women, still it seems as if the ALP have their finger on an issue which will only grow in time. One expects that in fifty or sixty years, the male dominated Abbott Government will collapse. But probably not before then if the ALP can't find another issue.
The pedophile inquiry continues. Clearly inadequate sentences have been given to abusers. There is no death penalty in Australia, but sometimes one wonders if jail is used enough.
The Dutch King calls for people to rely less on welfare and more on provision. The Liberal party state governments have clearly been wounded by hostile ALP federal masters recently, with WA losing a AAA rating the big spending feds had been able to retain. In Victoria, weak conservative government has only recently stiffened, and its numbers are on a knife edge with a corruption issue threatening to cause it to implode. Ironically, the issue of misuse of a government car seems prima facie similar to former PM Gillard's suppressed issue .. but the press hadn't been interested in that ..
===
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.
===
1809 – The second theatre of the Royal Opera House in London opened after a fire destroyed the original theatre one year earlier.
1873 – Panic of 1873: The American bank Jay Cooke & Company declared bankruptcy, setting off a chain reaction of bank failures.
1889 – Hull House, the United States' most influential settlement house, opened in Chicago.
1961 – En route to negotiate a ceasefire between Katanga troops and United Nations forces, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld crashed under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, killing him and 15 others on board.
1974 – Hurricane Fifi struck Honduras, destroying 182 towns and villages in the first 24 hours, and ultimately causing over 8,000 deaths. Opera is important .. it is culture. Don't panic. Migrate to the right side. Fly right, don't be a dag. Aim for the affectionate Fifi. Enjoy your day, with plenty of chow.
Matches
- 14 – Tiberius is confirmed as Roman Emperor by the Roman Senate following the natural death ofAugustus
- 96 – Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated.
- 324 – Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.
- 1180 – Philip Augustus becomes king of France.
- 1454 – In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.
- 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Honduras on his fourth, and final, voyage.
- 1635 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria declares war on France.
- 1679 – New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- 1714 – George I arrives in Great Britain for the first time since becoming king on August 1st.
- 1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
- 1759 – Seven Years' War: the British capture Quebec City.
- 1793 – The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington.
- 1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opens.
- 1810 – First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.
- 1812 – The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
- 1837 – Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium".
- 1838 – The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden.
- 1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
- 1851 – First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times.
- 1870 – Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition toYellowstone.
- 1872 – King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
- 1873 – Panic of 1873: The U.S. bank Jay Cooke & Company declares bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures.
- 1882 – The Pacific Stock Exchange opens.
- 1889 – Hull House, the United States' most influential settlement house, opens in Chicago.
- 1895 – Booker T. Washington delivers the "Atlanta Compromise" address.
- 1895 – Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
- 1898 – Fashoda Incident – Lord Kitchener's ships reach Fashoda, Sudan.
- 1906 – A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.
- 1910 – In Amsterdam, 25,000 demonstrate for general suffrage.
- 1911 – Russian Premier Peter Stolypin is shot at the Kiev Opera House.
- 1914 – The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.
- 1914 – World War I: South African troops land in German South West Africa.
- 1919 – The Netherlands gives women the right to vote.
- 1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African-American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.
- 1922 – Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations.
- 1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.
- 1928 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel.
- 1931 – The Mukden Incident gives Japan the pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.
- 1934 – The USSR is admitted to the League of Nations.
- 1939 – World War II: Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania.
- 1939 – The Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw begins transmitting.
- 1940 – The British liner SS City of Benares is sunk by German submarine U-48; those killed include 77 child refugees.
- 1943 – World War II: The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.
- 1943 – World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.
- 1944 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
- 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.
- 1947 – The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States armed forces.
- 1947 – The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency are established in the United States under the National Security Act.
- 1948 – Operation Polo is terminated after the Indian Army accepts the surrender of Nizam's Army.
- 1948 – Communist Madiun uprising in Dutch Indies.
- 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate without completing anothersenator's term, when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten.
- 1959 – Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.
- 1960 – Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.
- 1961 – U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katangaregion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 1962 – Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.
- 1964 – Constantine II of Greece marries Danish princess Anne-Marie.
- 1964 – North Vietnamese Army begins infiltration of South Vietnam.
- 1973 – The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.
- 1974 – Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people.
- 1975 – Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
- 1977 – Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.
- 1980 – Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (including 1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station.
- 1981 – Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.
- 1982 – Christian militia begin killing six-hundred Palestinians in Lebanon.
- 1984 – Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
- 1987 – Jerzy Kukuczka becomes the second mountaineer to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders.
- 1988 – End of pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Thousands, mostly monks and civilians (primarily students), are killed by the Tatmadaw.
- 1990 – Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.
- 1991 – Yugoslavia begins a naval blockade of 7 Adriatic port cities.
- 1992 – An explosion rocks Giant Mine at the height of a labor dispute, killing nine replacement workers.
- 1997 – United States media magnate Ted Turner donates USD 1 billion to the United Nations.
- 1998 – ICANN is formed.
- 2001 – First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
- 2007 – Pervez Musharraf announces that he will step down as army chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is re-elected president.
- 2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution.
- 2009 – The 72 year run of the soap opera The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast.
- 2014 – Scottish independence referendum
Hatches
- 53 – Trajan, Roman emperor (d. 117)
- 1587 – Francesca Caccini, Italian singer-songwriter and lute player (d. 1640)
- 1643 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish bishop, historian, and theologian (d. 1715)
- 1684 – Johann Gottfried Walther, German organist and composer (d. 1748)
- 1709 – Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer and author (d. 1784)
- 1711 – Ignaz Holzbauer, Austrian composer (d. 1783)
- 1750 – Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa, Spanish poet (d. 1791)
- 1752 – Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (d. 1833)
- 1786 – Justinus Kerner, German poet and author (d. 1862)
- 1819 – Léon Foucault, French physicist (d. 1868)
- 1838 – Anton Mauve, Dutch painter (d. 1888)
- 1848 – Francis Grierson, English-American pianist and composer (d. 1927)
- 1858 – Kate Booth, English Salvation Army officer (d. 1955)
- 1860 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian-American composer (d. 1942)
- 1870 – Clark Wissler, American anthropologist (d. 1947)
- 1872 – Carl Friedberg, German-Italian pianist and educator (d. 1955)
- 1883 – Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, English composer, author, and painter (d. 1950)
- 1885 – Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Azerbaijani composer, conductor, and playwright (d. 1948)
- 1888 – Grey Owl, English-Canadian environmentalist and author (d. 1938)
- 1889 – Leslie Morshead, Australian general, businessman, and educator (d. 1959)
- 1893 – Arthur Benjamin, Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1960)
- 1897 – Pablo Sorozábal, Spanish composer (d. 1988)
- 1900 – Willis Laurence James, American violinist and educator (d. 1966)
- 1905 – Greta Garbo, Swedish-American actress and singer (d. 1990)
- 1910 – Josef Tal, Israeli composer (d. 2008)
- 1911 – Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, Irish ufologist (d. 1995)
- 1912 – María de la Cruz, Chilean journalist and activist (d. 1995)
- 1914 – Jack Cardiff, English director, cinematographer, and photographer (d. 2009)
- 1916 – Frank Bell, English educator (d. 1989)
- 1916 – Rossano Brazzi, Italian actor, singer, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
- 1923 – Peter Smithson, English architect, co-designed Robin Hood Gardens (d. 2003)
- 1926 – Bud Greenspan, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Joe Kubert, American author and illustrator, founded The Kubert School (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Robert Blake, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1935 – Peter Clarke, English cartoonist (d. 2012)
- 1939 – Frankie Avalon, American actor and singer
- 1939 – Gerry Harvey, Australian businessman, co-founded Harvey Norman
- 1944 – Michael Franks, American singer-songwriter
- 1945 – John McAfee, Scottish-American computer programmer, founded McAfee
- 1946 – Benjamín Brea, Spanish-Venezuelan saxophonist, clarinet player, and conductor (Los Cañoneros) (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Russ Abbot, English comedian, actor, and singer
- 1951 – Dee Dee Ramone, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Ramones) (d. 2002)
- 1954 – Takao Doi, Japanese engineer and astronaut
- 1958 – Don Geronimo, American radio host
- 1961 – James Gandolfini, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1961 – Mark Olson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Jayhawks and Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers)
- 1962 – Joanne Catherall, English singer (The Human League)
- 1962 – John Mann, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Spirit of the West)
- 1962 – Aden Ridgeway, Australian politician
- 1967 – Ricky Bell, American singer (New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe)
- 1967 – Tara Fitzgerald, English actress
- 1971 – Lance Armstrong, American cyclist and activist, founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation
- 1971 – Michael Patrick Walker, American composer and conductor
- 1973 – James Marsden, American actor and singer
- 1973 – Ami Onuki, Japanese singer and voice actress (Puffy AmiYumi)
- 1975 – Guillermo Vargas, Costa Rican photographer and painter
- 1977 – Li Tie, Chinese footballer and manager
- 1978 – Pilar López de Ayala, Spanish actress
- 1980 – Avi Strool, Israeli footballer
- 1981 – JeA, South Korean singer-songwriter and producer (Brown Eyed Girls)
- 1981 – Nicole da Silva, Australian actress
- 1986 – Keeley Hazell, English model and actress
- 1988 – Asher Monroe, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor (V Factory)
- 1992 – Amber Liu, American-South Korean singer and dancer (f(x))
- 1993 – Patrick Schwarzenegger, American model and actor
Despatches
- 96 – Domitian, Roman emperor (b. 51)
- 411 – Constantine III, Roman general and emperor
- 887 – Pietro I Candiano, Italian 16th Doge of Venice (b. 842)
- 1598 – Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese daimyo (b. 1536)
- 1721 – Matthew Prior, English poet and diplomat (b. 1664)
- 1722 – André Dacier, French scholar (b. 1651)
- 1783 – Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and physicist (b. 1707)
- 1783 – Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and scholar (b. 1718)
- 1792 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German bishop and theologian (b. 1704)
- 1827 – Robert Pollok, Scottish-English poet (b. 1789)
- 1830 – William Hazlitt, English philosopher, painter, and critic (b. 1778)
- 1857 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer and conductor (b. 1785)
- 1860 – Joseph Locke, English engineer (b. 1805)
- 1890 – Dion Boucicault, Irish-American actor and playwright (b. 1820)
- 1896 – Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (b. 1819)
- 1924 – F. H. Bradley, English philosopher and author (b. 1846)
- 1931 – Geli Raubal, Austrian niece of Adolf Hitler (b. 1908)
- 1952 – Frances Alda, New Zealand-Australian soprano (b. 1879)
- 1959 – Benjamin Péret, French poet (b. 1899)
- 1962 – Therese Neumann, German mystic and stigmatic (b. 1898)
- 1964 – Clive Bell, English critic (b. 1881)
- 1964 – Seán O'Casey, Irish-English author and playwright (b. 1880)
- 1970 – Jimi Hendrix, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1942)
- 1977 – Paul Bernays, English-Swiss mathematician (b. 1888)
- 1980 – Katherine Anne Porter, American journalist and author (b. 1890)
- 1997 – Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (b. 1920)
- 1998 – Charlie Foxx, American singer and guitarist (Inez and Charlie Foxx) (b. 1939)
- 2003 – Emil Fackenheim, German rabbi and philosopher (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Norman Cantor, Canadian-American historian and educator (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Louis Simpson, Jamaican poet (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Deputed Testamony, American race horse (b. 1980)
- 2012 – Brian Woolnough, English journalist (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Dominique Loiseau, French-Swiss watchmaker (b. 1949)
- 2013 – Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-German critic (b. 1920)
2014
- Christian Feast Day:
- Day of National Music (Azerbaijan)
- Island Language Day (Okinawa Prefecture, Japan)
- National Day or Dieciocho, the date of the first Government Junta after the Chilean independence on February 12, 1818 (Chile)
- World Water Monitoring Day (International)
The real threat that dare not speak its name
Piers Akerman – Thursday, September 18, 2014 (6:26pm)
THE massive anti-terrorism raids conducted across Sydney and Brisbane were the latest wake-up call Australia has received to the very real threat within our border.
Continue reading 'The real threat that dare not speak its name'WORLD’S LAMEST TATTOO
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 18, 2014 (4:11pm)
PLOT FOILED
Tim Blair – Thursday, September 18, 2014 (12:27pm)
Massive anti-terrorism operations in NSW and Queensland:
7News reporter Robert Ovadia has received information about an alleged plot to kidnap a random person from the streets of Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD, execute them by beheading …AFP swooped in pre-dawn raids to disrupt plans to commit a violent attack on Australian soil.They executed 25 search warrants in Sydney, arresting 15 people, one of which has been charged with serious terror offences.
Click for video. Around 500 officers were involved in the raids:
Hundreds of ASIO and heavily armed police officers swooped in anti-terrorism raids to prevent a mass casualty shooting in Sydney and possible beheadings.Police backed up by armoured cars arrested dozens of people in a dozen separate pre-dawn operations across NSW and Brisbane.The combined effort amounted to the largest anti-terrorism operation in Australian history – and senior officers revealed the attack by a suspected terrorist cell was imminent.
Further to come following court appearances later today.
One of the men arrested in Thursday morning’s anti-terrorism raids in Sydney has appeared in court on a charge of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act ...Prosecutors allege he was part of a plan to commit an act to “shock, horrify and terrify” the community.
Mr Abbott was briefed on the police raid on Wednesday night, which included intelligence that public beheadings were planned. “The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country,” he told reporters.“So this is not just suspicion, this is intent and that’s why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have.”
The raids follow investigation of a Lakemba-based company over $9 million in possible Islamic State funding.
UPDATE III. A press release from Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesidiot Uthman Badar:
As late as last week both the Prime Minister and outgoing ASIO boss David Irvine confirmed that there was no intelligence of any plans to carry out attacks in Australia. A few days later and we wake up to heavy-handed raids and talk of a “terrorist network” planning attacks.The timing of these raids is suspect indeed. With the ‘anti-terror’ laws, which hit a wall in the community, to be tabled to Parliament next week and with ‘military intervention’ imminent in Iraq, these raids are very timely for the Government and its propaganda campaign for the same.
Radical Islamic preacher and self-styled Sheikh Mohammed Junaid Thorne has asked Allah to “destroy those who plot against us” and issued a message to supporters declaring this morning’s raids as an attack on “Islam and Muslims”.The 25-year-old preacher, who has been conducting spiritual healing sessions and gave the final sermon at the controversial Al-Risalah Islamic Centre, said the terror raids were “more than what a sane person can bare”.
Sane people would use the word “bear”. Tonight might see some action down Lakemba way:
A Facebook page has been launched today calling on Muslims to attend a “snap protest” at Lakemba station tonight.The page has invited 1500 people to attend to “stand as one tonight” to “denounce this demonisation and oppression of Muslims”.
Police brutality! The ABC angle on the terror raids
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (1:15pm)
Just the thing to feed the toxic “we’re picked on mentality” of our local extremists:
===Not that Hizb ut Tahrir needs the slightest encouragement to stoke a dangerous paranoia:
(Thanks to reader Richard.)
Huge anti-terrorism raids
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (1:03pm)
A tiny, unrepresentative minority seems to require an awful lot of policing:
ASIO and counter terrorism police have swooped on homes across north-western Sydney and other states this morning in what is believed to be the largest anti-terrorism bust in the nation’s history.Our immigration intake surely needs adjusting. This is not how we want to live.
Several arrests have been made in the secret pre-dawn raid, which is still in progress and one suspect has been taken into Australian Federal Police custody.
The AFP says a suspected terrorist cell was “close to an attack.”
The arrests follow the execution of a number of search warrants in Beecroft, Bellavista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park.
The Australian Federal Police can also confirm it is conducting search warrants in Brisbane…
This morning’s raids is believed to have been mounted following months of surveillance of people linked to the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
UPDATE
Bill Leak has had it with cant and sanctimony:
UPDATE
Immigration has been so badly handled that we’ve imported foreign conflicts:
A Christian school in Sydney’s west has reported death threats aimed at Christians this week.UPDATE
The principal of the Maronite College of the Holy Family in Harris Park told police that men made the threats from a car outside the school about 2pm on Tuesday.
Sister Margaret Ghosn said the threats were general and then directed towards a staff member of the school.
“They said, ‘We are going to kill all of you here,’ “ Sister Margaret said. “They were threatening to kill all Christians."…
Witnesses told police a small triangular flag was placed out the window with Arabic words similar to “there is only one god and Muhammad is the prophet”.
Remember this, just three weeks ago?
A Labor senator has accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of “scaremongering” over national security…UPDATE
Asked whether she was trying to politicise the national security debate, Senator [Sue] Lines said, “I’m not politicising security; the Abbott government is doing that by its constant scaremongering”.
Ms Lines said she believed the director-general of ASIO David Irvine had outlined only a “mild threat” ...
The alleged plot - to film an Australian being beheaded:
A SERIES of anti-terrorism raids were sparked by intelligence reports that Islamic State supporters were planning a public execution in Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says…UPDATE
“The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country,” the Prime Minister told reporters.
“So this is not just suspicion, this is intent and that’s why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have.”
NSW Police will allege that some of the Sydney men arrested in the operation had communicated with the Islamic State organisation while developing their alleged plan to seize a random member of the public and behead them live on camera.
The details:
ONE of the Sydney men accused of planning to seize a member of the public to behead live on camera was motivated by “an unusual level of fanaticism”, a Sydney court has heard.About Baryalai:
Court documents show Omarjan Azari, 22, is charged with conspiring with Mohammed Baryalei, understood to be the most senior Australian in the terrorist group Islamic State.
Mr Azari “did between 8 May and 18 September 2014 conspire with Mohammed Baryalei and others to do acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act (or acts),” the documents allege.
If convicted, Mr Azari could face a life sentence.
He was among 15 people arrested this morning during the largest anti-terrorism operation in Australia’s history, has appeared in court, where Commonwealth prosecutor Michael Allnutt said he should be refused bail.
“There is access to cash, there is a background of people of similar views being able to leave the country and ... there is perhaps an unusual level of fanaticism in this particular matter, which will make a person less likely to take notice of a court’s order,” Mr Allnutt said.
He was a close associate of one al-Qa’ida’s top operatives in Syria, former Sydney preacher Abu Sulyaman.
Mr Baryalei, who the ABC named last night as a former Kings Cross bouncer, travelled to Syria in 2013.
The Australian understands Mr Baryalei was initially aligned with Jabhat al Nusra, a terror group banned in Australia but officially recognised by al-Qa’ida as its affiliate in Syria.
And after all Australia did for him and for other Muslims now wanting to attack us:
Baryalei is from an aristocratic family from Afghanistan who came to Australia as refugees when he was a child.(Thanks to readers Alan RM Jones, wingnut, Ian and Wayne.)
Labor vs Liberal: the tale of the boats. UPDATE: Labor admits
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (11:49am)
How to measure competence:
For the first time I can recall, Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles publicly concedes:
===The success of [Operation Sovereign Borders], which began last December, has meant just one boat made it into Australian waters in the first eight months of this year, compared with the 268 boats to have arrived during the same period last year under the previous Labor government…UPDATE
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison ... confirmed 12 boats had attempted to enter Australian waters between December 19 last year and May this year. Only one had been successful…
Since the turnbacks began in December, ... no asylum seekers had died at sea, compared with more than 1100 who died at sea between 2008 and 2013.
For the first time I can recall, Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles publicly concedes:
The policy of turnbacks obviously has had an effect.
What Islamic State “genocide”, asks apologist Waleed Aly. What’s the problem? Why fight?
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (10:06am)
I have long considered Waleed Aly, the former spokesman of the Islamic Council of Victoria, to be our most prominent apologist for Muslim extremism. He does not openly support jihadism, of course, but does attack its critics and rationalise or wilfully overlook some of its excesses. He opposes Western attempts to fight back in the Middle East.
It disturbs me that the ABC has given him a platform to continue such advocacy, and that ABC presenters vilify those of us who attempt to hold him to account.
Yesterday, though, Aly went so far that even Labor’s Tanya Plibersek had to protest:
===It disturbs me that the ABC has given him a platform to continue such advocacy, and that ABC presenters vilify those of us who attempt to hold him to account.
Yesterday, though, Aly went so far that even Labor’s Tanya Plibersek had to protest:
WALEED ALY, PRESENTER: Joining us now is Tanya Plibersek, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs…
[L]et’s start with Iraq. I’ve spoken with you before about this concept of mission creep and I think last time we spoke it was a narrow mission that we were contemplating to prevent genocide. Now it seems to have evolved into something much more than that. Are these the limits or will this continue to evolve?
PLIBERSEK: Well I think Australia needs to be very clear that our objective is the humanitarian objective that includes helping the democratically elected Government of Iraq to fight off the threat that is IS… I don’t see a role for Australia beyond that immediate support for humanitarian intervention which prevents genocide.
ALY: But there is no genocide happening right now, we don’t need to prevent genocide by supporting the Iraqi military to re-establish control of Iraq do we?
PLIBERSEK: Well there are thousands of people who have lost their lives. There’s 1.8 million people who have been displaced in Iraq from their homes. I’m not really sure that you could down play the seriousness of what’s going on there.
ALY: But can we call it a genocide? 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. If that was our aim shouldn’t we have drawn a line under that?
PLIBERSEK: So now we’re only talking about mass atrocity crimes and we shouldn’t worry, is that the proposition you’re making?
ALY: No this is the question I suppose I’m asking about the strictness of the definition. If it’s about preventing genocide from happening that seems to have been achieved is it now about something more than that?
PLIBERSEK: Well I’m not sure you can fairly say that we have prevented the mass atrocity crimes that IS is determined to commit in Iraq as they have committed them in Syria. You’ve got thousands of people who have lost their lives, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has sent investigative forces to northern Iraq so they can collect information about these mass atrocity crimes in an effort to hold people to account in the future. IS is determined to kill people who are of a different religion or ethnicity to them. If they’ve been limited in their success by the Iraqi forces, including the Peshmerga forces we spoke of last time, fighting back successfully in part because of the assistance of Australia and other countries that’s a good thing but I’m not sure that that would lead us to be complacent and to say we are completely free of the threat of genocide now.
ALY: ...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.
PLIBERSEK: Well obviously I can’t talk in detail about the content of security briefings that we receive but you only need to open the newspapers to know that there are Australians fighting with IS and the risk, aside from the people they’re fighting in Iraq and Syria, is that when they come home they would use some of the particularly nasty skills that they’ve developed overseas against Australians on home soil....
ALY: Is it really a choice though between military involvement and turning our backs? Is that really a fair binary?
PLIBERSEK: Well I’m not sure whether you’re suggesting that people should have a good hard talking to IS and maybe they won’t kill people…
ALY: It’s a difficult question for us to think about but I think we have to given how military intervention has gone for us in the past and that is by doing this we are almost certainly going to be killing civilians, is there a point at which the loss of civilian lives that we inflict directly means that the mission is not worth it. So is there a number that you might be able to identify or ball park so that we can say ‘this is when it’s gone wrong’?
PLIBERSEK: ... We’re not talking about sending platoons of soldiers off to fight on the ground in Iraq so it is a different scenario again to 2003.
ALY: But we are contributing to airstrikes which will kill people including civilians.
PLIBERSEK: And it is very important that we get the targeting as right as possible and that’s why our soldiers, very specialised soldiers, are involved as they are. But civilians –
ALY: Do you think our history is great though?
PLIBERSEK: Well I think that civilian deaths are never acceptable but right now we have thousands of civilians being killed by IS because of their race or their religion or because they’re the same religion and they don’t agree with IS tactics. We’ve got women and children being sold into slavery, we’ve got forced conversions, we’ve got particularly brutal ways of killing people including aid workers who of course only ever enter conflict zones to help the people who are affected by these terrible conflicts. So yes civilian deaths have to be in the calculations of any military action and are a terrible burden in the decision making during a military action, I mean a moral and ethical burden to think through as you’ve identified. But we are right now preventing the loss of life.
Nova Peris might try her reconciliation skills on the people around her
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (9:07am)
I cannot stand people who play the “do you know who I am” game:
===SENATOR Nova Peris will be investigated for allegedly abusing volunteer officials at a School Sports NT event…Peris offers one of those fake “if I have offended anyone” apologies that I can’t stand, either:
A formal complaint has been filed with SSNT and the Department of Education over Ms Peris’ behaviour at the NT Athletics Carnival held in Marrara on September 7, alleging she broke parent codes of conduct.
It is alleged the former Olympian failed to register her son on time for a track event and proceeded to abuse volunteer officials who told her it was too late.
Then her son was put in a lane that did not agree with Ms Peris.
“That’s when things apparently got a bit out of control,” said a source with knowledge of the incident.
It is alleged Ms Peris told officials that she was an Olympian and knew “how athletic events work”. She and her husband Scott Appleton then allegedly complained openly and made disparaging comments to volunteer officials at the event.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said the incident had become “a very sensitive issue” because of Ms Peris’ political and athletic clout.
“Like any parent I want the best for my children when they compete, and of course, I’m a passionate mother,” she said.May I suggest Peris show her reconciliation credentials in her personal relations:
“I’m both shocked and surprised to hear that my comments may have caused offence. However, if any offence was caused, I apologise.”
She is a staunch campaigner for indigenous rights and reconciliation in Australia.(Thanks to reader CA.)
Say no to this racism. No to a race-based Parliament
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (8:22am)
Here’s how to guarantee the referendum will fail:
Seriously?
And there’s more:
I cannot understand how two bright men cannot see how preposterous it is to demand we scrap race-based clauses of the constitution, only to demand the very same thing be then inserted - and with even more emphasis:
Then explain to me how some of “them” - a Jacqui Lambie, perhaps, or an Adam Goodes - are so different to the rest of us that they must have different constitutional status as voters, with enhanced powers to influence the passing of the laws that bind us all.
Explain the practical good this will do. Explain how this division actually unites.
Say no to racism. Say no to racial division. Say no to these changes to the constitution.
===CAPE York leader Noel Pearson and conservative academic Greg Craven have presented Tony Abbott with a joint proposal for constitutional change that includes a new section to establish an indigenous body that would scrutinise legislation and advise parliament but would not have veto power…A permanent Aboriginal-only body to sit in judgment of Parliament? A permanent division by race?
It would be created by a new section of the Constitution, which Mr Pearson and Professor Craven argue would establish its importance as a part of the nation’s democracy… Details of how the membership would be made up are not set, but it is understood the body could be partly appointed and partly elected.
Seriously?
And there’s more:
Mr Pearson is understood to back a push for a debate on dedicated Senate seats for indigenous Australians or remote indigenous regions...This is based on the fallacy that Aborigines do not already have political institutions to represent them:
“I support indigenous Australians contributing to the democratic process through some constitutional procedure,” he said.Pearson seems not to understand or accept that Aborigines already have exactly the same constitutional right enjoyed by every Australian to contribute to our democracy. They can vote for their representatives in Parliament. So what Pearson wants is some further right for members of just one “race”.
I cannot understand how two bright men cannot see how preposterous it is to demand we scrap race-based clauses of the constitution, only to demand the very same thing be then inserted - and with even more emphasis:
The proposal also backs the removal of provisions such as section 25 of the Constitution, allowing the electoral disqualification of designated races, and section 51 (26), permitting laws to be made for members of a particular race.This is just a rhetorical sleight. To arbitrarily redefine Aborigines as not a race but “a constituent component of Australia’s fundamental culture” does not change a thing. Membership of this “constituent component” will still be determined fundamentally by ancestry rather than culture. Go back to that last sentence I quoted. Define “them”.
It says that the removal of the race power would necessitate its replacement by another authorising piece of legislation for indigenous people, but this would be worded to recognise them as a constituent component of Australia’s fundamental culture, not as a race.
Then explain to me how some of “them” - a Jacqui Lambie, perhaps, or an Adam Goodes - are so different to the rest of us that they must have different constitutional status as voters, with enhanced powers to influence the passing of the laws that bind us all.
Explain the practical good this will do. Explain how this division actually unites.
Say no to racism. Say no to racial division. Say no to these changes to the constitution.
It is time Bill Shorten led
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (7:58am)
LABOR leader Bill Shorten still looks healthy from the outside. Isn’t his party ahead in the polls?
But look closer and the rot is starting to peek through. In fact, Shorten seems the leader who cannot lead. He does not seem to know where to take his troops and now isn’t sure they’d follow him anyway.
Already four MPs, including two frontbenchers, are making him look weak by criticising what he’s actually backing — the Abbott Government’s war on the Islamic State.
Shorten swore this intervention would be beyond politics, but then Kim Carr, Alannah MacTiernan, Melissa Parke and Sue Lines made a liar of him, accusing the Government of playing at soldiers for the votes.
How could they do this to their leader? Thanks to them, Shorten on Tuesday had to bat away journalists’ questions about Labor disunity.
This dissension showed Shorten lacks authority — just when he must assert himself so voters can finally see what he stands for. Other than Bill.
See, all his life Shorten wanted to become prime minister, but never figured why Australians should want him to succeed. What would he do for us?
(Read full article here.)
ABC flogging the warming scare again and again
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (7:47am)
I DIDN’T even finish my
arts degree, but I still say that the Chief Scientist and two Nobel
prize winners should pull their heads in.
If you think arguments on global warming are best settled by credentials, then don’t read another word. I’m an idiot.
But if you believe arguments are settled with facts, then wonder what the ABC is up to.
On Monday its Q&A, hosted by warmist Tony Jones, presented five scientists who all believed in the warming scare too.
(Read full article here.)
===If you think arguments on global warming are best settled by credentials, then don’t read another word. I’m an idiot.
But if you believe arguments are settled with facts, then wonder what the ABC is up to.
On Monday its Q&A, hosted by warmist Tony Jones, presented five scientists who all believed in the warming scare too.
(Read full article here.)
The ABC must be slashed if Fiona Stanley insists it’s not biased
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (7:03am)
The truth hurts ABC board member Fiona Stanley:
As for bias, it is usually manifest by a predisposition to believe what suits rather than what is.
Here is an example from Stanley’s own article:
Even as I write, the ABC is promoting its latest Boyer Lecture - alarmist Professor Suzanne Cory, a molecular biologist and not climate scientist, declaring that global warming threatens us with mass species extinction and ”humankind is fouling the nest”.
Stanley is as wrong as she is smug. The ABC has not promoted good science but bad, and smothered debates it should have promoted.
This rank advocacy and peddling of dud predictions and scares would not matter quite so much if it wasn’t for another problem which I have criticised and which Stanley actually cites in self-praise. The fact is that the ABC is just far too big - easily the biggest media organisation in Australia.
Here’s Stanley herself:
There are two solutions to this problem. One is to address the ABC’s bias - manifest by the fact that not one of the presenters of its main current affairs shows is a conservative - and make it more pluralist. But Stanley, a board member, has demonstrated there is no chance of that.
The other solution is to slash the ABC to a healthier size. Stanley’s denialism shows the Government has no option.
===If you only read The Australian, or listen to the views of some politicians, you would think that the ABC is struggling to provide fair coverage of events, is biased in its politics and its science, and that it is wasting tax-payers’ dollars. Have you noticed that journalists critical of the ABC have started to call it “the taxpayer-funded ABC”?It isn’t taxpayer-funded?
As for bias, it is usually manifest by a predisposition to believe what suits rather than what is.
Here is an example from Stanley’s own article:
Critics allege the ABC is biased in relation to climate change. I give one recent example: on 11 August, The Australian reported that media analysis of the ABC’s coverage of coal and coal seam gas mining suggested that these industries had a negative environmental impact and that investing in renewables should be prioritised. The Australian’s response was to assume bias and demand, the ABC be privatised.The Australian corrects Stanley’s bias:
The August 11 article was based on an analysis of ABC reporting by the Institute of Public Affairs. On August 12, The Australian published an opinion by the institute communications director, James Paterson, calling for the ABC to be privatised.Stanley’s denial of the ABC’s global warming bias is risible and self-important:
The Australian also published an editorial that day criticising ABC coverage of coal and renewable energy issues. Neither the news story nor The Australian’s editorial contained reference to privatisation of the ABC.
Why is the ABC so important for Australian democracy? Society faces a number of what are called “wicked problems” - complex in their causation, having major impacts on people and nations, costly and difficult to manage, and demanding whole of government responses. These problems include climate change… What we need is the best science to guide us… The requirement for ‘balance’ does not mean that bad science should be reported with the same emphasis as good science.Surely, though, it is the ABC which is guilty of reporting “bad science” in promoting its warming alarmism. For instance, the ABC’s science presenters have falsely claimed we faced sea level rises this century of up to 100 metres and there has been no pause in atmospheric warming over the past 15 years. They have misrepresented statistics. Just this week the ABC reported that Kiribati was drowning when measurements in fact show it growing. Others have wildly exaggerated damage to the Great Barrier Reef, falsely claimed bushfires in October were “unprecedented” and evidence of warming, and accepted without question Tim Flannery’s 2007 prediction that ”even the rains that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems”. Its staff lobbied against showing the one sceptical documentary the ABC has run in the past decade, and bookended it with health warnings. It has excluded sceptical scientists from debates, as we saw yet against on Q&A just this week.
Even as I write, the ABC is promoting its latest Boyer Lecture - alarmist Professor Suzanne Cory, a molecular biologist and not climate scientist, declaring that global warming threatens us with mass species extinction and ”humankind is fouling the nest”.
Stanley is as wrong as she is smug. The ABC has not promoted good science but bad, and smothered debates it should have promoted.
This rank advocacy and peddling of dud predictions and scares would not matter quite so much if it wasn’t for another problem which I have criticised and which Stanley actually cites in self-praise. The fact is that the ABC is just far too big - easily the biggest media organisation in Australia.
Here’s Stanley herself:
Last financial year, with $825.7 million, the ABC had 4,679 staff with four major digital TV channels (ABC1, ABC2/ABC4Kids, ABC3 and ABC News 24) and an incredibly successful online catch-up service. The average audience reach varies from nearly 10 million for ABC1 to just over 3 million for ABC3, with an astonishing 20 million plays a month for iView. There are 60 local radio sites, nationwide RN, Triple J and Classic FM, plus ABC podcasts downloaded 71 million times. ABC online has 19.5 million visits per month and there are now over 25 smart phone and tablet apps.An organisation so huge, so biased, so vituperative to it critics and so dependent on state funding is dangerous in a democracy.
There are two solutions to this problem. One is to address the ABC’s bias - manifest by the fact that not one of the presenters of its main current affairs shows is a conservative - and make it more pluralist. But Stanley, a board member, has demonstrated there is no chance of that.
The other solution is to slash the ABC to a healthier size. Stanley’s denialism shows the Government has no option.
Clive Palmer loses again
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (12:53am)
Clive Palmer loses yet another of the court battles he once claimed he always won:
===A COURT has dismissed Clive Palmer’s challenge to a Queensland government decision to reject his company’s rail line proposal.Reader the Village Idiot (Reformed):
Mr Palmer’s Waratah Coal applied in the Supreme Court of Queensland for a review of an October 2013 decision to reject its bid to build a rail line from the Galilee Basin to the Abbot Point coal terminal near Bowen.
The project was awarded to a partnership between Indian mining giant GVK and Ms Rinehart’s Hancock Coal.
A trial took place in June 2014, where counsel for Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney and the Co-ordinator-General of the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning were called upon to defend the decision.
Justice Martin Daubney today dismissed the application and ordered the coal magnate turned MP and Palmer United Party boss pay the legal costs of Mr Seeney and the Co-ordinator-General.
By my reckoning, Palmer has lost 80% of his court cases in the last year.
Palmer sought judicial review over the Queensland government’s decision not to approve his rail line from the Galilee Basin to the port of Point Abbot, some 450 kilometres of track. One fact in the judgement that shocked me was that the Queensland government would be forced to resume and pay for the land affected by that resumption. Billionaire Clive Palmer would get the land for free.
The taxpayer would be subsidising his mining interest (Waratah Coal Pty Ltd) long before the government received a cent in mining royalties. This paragraph from the judgement sums up Clive’s actions:
[12] The rail line within the corridor proposed in Waratah’s application would traverse land held by some 46 individual landholders, comprising five freehold lots and 41 leasehold parcels, and would be more than 450 kilometres long. It is uncontentious that Waratah’s purpose in making the application was to enliven the power of the Co-ordinator General under s 125 of the Act to compulsorily acquire land to enable the rail line to be built.So Clive is willing to cut farmers’ properties in half so that he can sell his coal to the “mongrels”. What a man, what a caring representative of the people !!!!!
Pravda on the Yarra indeed
Andrew Bolt September 18 2014 (12:48am)
How pathetic.
The Age won’t publish material from wicked warming “deniers” but today published 16 pages of material from the Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta, partly subsidised by the Russian Government and its mates. What The Age fails to declare is that the paper is actually a government one, founded by an act of parliament.
The supplement, not surprisingly, reads as propaganda, with just a couple of articles mildly critical of President Putin for “balance”.
Here is a sample of the headlines, at a time when the Putin regime is invading Ukraine and posing as a corrective to US hegemony:
===The Age won’t publish material from wicked warming “deniers” but today published 16 pages of material from the Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta, partly subsidised by the Russian Government and its mates. What The Age fails to declare is that the paper is actually a government one, founded by an act of parliament.
The supplement, not surprisingly, reads as propaganda, with just a couple of articles mildly critical of President Putin for “balance”.
Here is a sample of the headlines, at a time when the Putin regime is invading Ukraine and posing as a corrective to US hegemony:
“We want peace in Ukraine”
Hundreds of temporary camps have been set up in Russia to provide accommodation for the large number of people who have fled Ukraine
“Everything changed when the bombs landed in our quarter”
Sanctions not the cause of economic slowdown
Countries affected by the embargo
When empires were allies. The forgotten stories of WW1’s “Russian Anzacs”
McDonald’s under scrutiny
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| Sunset by the Carrillion |
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G’day.
My offering for this week. Speaks for itself really. I will be sending you another tomorrow on a more parochial issue. Tomorrow is my birthday so I couldn’t think of anything better to do than be drawing another cartoon.
Godspeed
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist
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4 her, so she can see how I see her 
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Writings by Khaled Abu Toameh
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The sources said that the Qataris offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Jordan in return for allowing Hamas to open offices in the kingdom. By rejecting these requests, King Abdullah has shown that he has no intention to serve as a lifesaver for failed Islamists who are facing growing opposition from their own people in the Gaza Strip.
Jordan's King Abdullah has turned down a request from Hamas to re-open its offices in his country, according to informed sources in Amman.
The sources said that Qatar, one of the few Arab countries that continue to support Hamas, recently asked King Abdullah to allow Hamas to resume its activities in the kingdom.
The Jordanians banned Hamas in 1999 and stripped some of the Islamist movement's leaders, including Khaled Mashal, of their Jordanian citizenship.
Last year, however, relations between Jordan and Hamas seemed to be warming up as Mashal was permitted to visit Amman and hold talks with King Abdullah.
Hamas's hope that Mashal's visit would pave the way for the movement to return to Jordan have now been dashed as the monarch refused to allow the movement and its leaders to resume their activities there.
The sources said that the Qataris offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Jordan in return for allowing Hamas to open offices in the kingdom.
"King Abdullah turned down the Qatari offer," the sources said. "Jordan's policy toward Hamas remains unchanged."
The short-lived rapprochement between Hamas and Jordan was apparently linked to the king's fear of the Arab Spring, which saw the rise of Islamists in a number of Arab countries and emboldened the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.
By inviting Mashal and other Hamas leaders to Jordan last year, King Abdullah was seeking to appease the Muslim Brotherhood, whose supporters were behind a wave of protests demanding reform and an end to corruption in the kingdom.
The downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt and growing disillusionment with Islamists throughout the Arab world have given King Abdullah enough confidence to turn his back, once again, on Hamas and their allies in the kingdom.
The removal of President Mohamed Morsi from power has weakened and divided Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood. While some of the organization's leaders have called for reassessing their strategy in the wake of the failure of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, others have come out against King Abdullah for supporting the anti-Morsi "military coup."
The divisions inside Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood are seen as good news for King Abdullah and bad news for Hamas.
Muslim Brotherhood supporters are no longer staging weekly demonstrations throughout the kingdom to demand "reforms and democracy." The Arab Spring had triggered a series of rallies and marches that were organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, prompting many political analysts to predict that that the countdown for regime change in Amman had begun.
At one point, King Abdullah expressed his concern over the Islamists' intentions when, in an interview with theAtlantic magazine, he described the Muslim Brotherhood as "wolves in sheep's clothing" and a "Masonic cult always loyal to their leader."
Hamas, meanwhile, appears to have lost not only their patrons in Egypt, but also their political allies in Jordan. Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip say they are fully aware of the "problems" facing the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. "We can't rely on their support because they have been affected negatively by the Egyptian crisis," admitted a Hamas representative.
Hamas once had hopes that the Jordanian monarch would be foolish enough to allow the "wolves in sheep's clothing" to set foot in his country.
By rejecting requests to allow Hamas to return to Jordan, King Abdullah has shown that he has no intention to serve as lifesaver for failed Islamists who are facing growing opposition from their own people in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is in big trouble and there is no reason why the Jordanians should come to the rescue. The downfall of Hamas will in fact serve the interest of the king and many Jordanians, as it will undoubtedly further undermine the Muslim Brotherhood in the kingdom.
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Recently UN Secretary General admitted to a group of Israeli students that Israel faces bias and discrimination at the United Nations.
Read more: http://
LIKE and SHARE to spread the TRUTH about the UN.
(Note: media reports claimed that Moon retracted this comment, but UN official Robert Serry later denied this and reaffirmed the statement -http://news.yahoo.com/
The UN has sponsored terrorism as part of its advocacy for Palestine. UN chief's admission means nothing if he doesn't correct it. - ed
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“Killing these cancer stem cells is the holy grail of cancer treatments and therefore holds promise for complete eradication of cancer,” says Dr. Sarit Larisch of the University of Haifa.
These are not words pronounced lightly; instead, they follow more than a decade of research that could give hope to cancer patients worldwide. Along with her colleagues, Larisch has established the basis for developing a new, more effective treatment for cancer using a protein called ARTS.
ARTS is a protein, which along with a number of other proteins and enzymes, regulates what is known as apoptosis. Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death which occurs when a cell is damaged, mutated or no longer functional. ARTS acts as a trigger for cell death, its presence allowing for enzymes called caspases to destroy the non-functional cell.
But this process is missing in cancer cells.
Destroying cancer cells using the natural process of self-destruction
Larisch’s research shows that unlike normal cells, cancer cells have an absence of the ARTS protein. “Without the ARTS protein, cells can’t be triggered to self-destruct. As a result cancer cells can survive and develop into a tumor,” she tells NoCamels.
“We have found that ARTS is lost in many types of cancers. Therefore, determining levels of ARTS in blood could provide a marker to alert to the possibility of developing certain types of cancers.” Consequently, Dr. Larisch believes that small molecules that mimic ARTS could restore the ability of cancer cells to be killed selectively using the natural process of apoptosis.
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The unusually high incidence of school shootings and other mass murders across the United States has led to misguided speculation that what the psychiatrists label as mental illness has been a primary cause of this problem. However, a careful investigation of this matter reveals that paradoxically it has been the psychiatrists themselves, with their highly toxic arsenal of drugs, used in association with their myriad of subjective mythical diagnoses, which has been largely responsible for these tragic killings. Rebecca Terrell has reported on March 6, 2013, for The New American, Psychiatric Meds: Prescription for Murder?
In a frenzied call for gun-control, the media has come forward with details about the firearms Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six adults before turning a handgun on himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. However, information about Lanza’s medical history has been scarce, which has fed speculation that he may fit the profile of school shooters under the influence of psychotherapeutic medication. Lawrence Hunter, of the Social Security Institute, has said, “In virtually every mass school shooting during the past 15 years, the shooter has been on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs. Yet, federal and state governments continue to ignore the connection between psychiatric drugs and murderous violence, preferring instead to exploit these tragedies in an oppressive and unconstitutional power grab to snatch guns away from innocent, law-abiding people who are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution the right to own and bear arms to deter government tyranny and to use firearms in self defense against any miscreant who would do them harm.”
Furthermore, according to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHRI), in spite of such evidence and many scientific studies proving real dangers from the psychiatric drugs, “there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.” The CCHRI has said that government officials have been well aware of the connection. The CCHRI has stated, “Between 2004 and 2011, there have been over 11,000 reports to the U.S. FDA’s MedWatch system of psychiatric drug side effects related to violence, including 300 homicides. The FDA estimates this total is less than 10 percent of the actual number of incidents since most go unreported."
It has also been reported that the advent of these drugs has coincided disturbingly with a rise in the adolescent suicide rate.In fact, prior to the advent of antidepressants, there was little relation seen between depression and violent behavior. And yet, instead of investigating psychiatric drugs’ connection to acts of horrible mass violence, public policymakers and psychiatrists along with other healthcare professionals have actually been promoting the use of psychotropic drugs by children and adolescents.
This has all created a tragic set of circumstances in the United States with decent people who are actually often peace activists, when in control of their own minds, being ruined and turned into suicidal and homicidal maniacs by the very psychiatrists who claim they are experts in mental health care. Such an outcome is not serving the best interests of individuals or of society, as the psychiatrists nevertheless continue to grow wealthier and more powerful. And now we can anticipate more victims of the quackery of psychiatry as new legislation is likely to take guns out of the hands of decent citizens who may have no self-defense from murderers, as we watch distortions of the facts regarding mental illness begin to deprive them of their constitutional right to bear arms.
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The shooting in Connecticut that killed at least 27 people is among the worst school massacres in history, but the very worst one took place 85 years ago in a small Michigan town.
“This is so much like Bath,” said author Arnie Bernstein, who wrote the 2009 book “Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing” that chronicled the events of May 18, 1927.
A disgruntled farmer who blamed the school for his money troubles blew up the school in Bath, Mich., a small town northeast of the state capital of Lansing. That day, 38 children and six adults died.
“It’s inexplicable,” Bernstein said. “There’s no explanation. Something in the makeup of these people makes them do it.”
The farmer’s name was Andrew Kehoe, and he died, as well, when he blew up his own car.
In rural American in the 1920s, it was easy to come up with explosives. Small-town hardware stores sold dynamite and other explosives to farmers to remove stumps from fields.
It was a time when one-room school districts were consolidating into larger, town schools. The 55-year-old Kehoe was enraged about a tax the community levied on itself to build the new Bath Consolidated School. His farm had gone into foreclosure, and he blamed the school.
He had access to the school – he was a board member, the treasurer, in fact. He also was the school’s caretaker. Kehoe secretly placed hundreds of pounds of explosives under the school, apparently doing it over a period of months.
Historical sources say that on that Wednesday morning, Kehoe beat his wife to death and set his farm on fire. While firefighters were there, an explosion rocked the school.
Kehoe then appeared at the school. As people ran up to his car, he detonated explosives inside it, making it a 1920s version of a suicide car bomb. The shrapnel-filled car bomb killed the school superintendent and others. Continued...
“This is so much like Bath,” said author Arnie Bernstein, who wrote the 2009 book “Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing” that chronicled the events of May 18, 1927.
A disgruntled farmer who blamed the school for his money troubles blew up the school in Bath, Mich., a small town northeast of the state capital of Lansing. That day, 38 children and six adults died.
“It’s inexplicable,” Bernstein said. “There’s no explanation. Something in the makeup of these people makes them do it.”
The farmer’s name was Andrew Kehoe, and he died, as well, when he blew up his own car.
In rural American in the 1920s, it was easy to come up with explosives. Small-town hardware stores sold dynamite and other explosives to farmers to remove stumps from fields.
It was a time when one-room school districts were consolidating into larger, town schools. The 55-year-old Kehoe was enraged about a tax the community levied on itself to build the new Bath Consolidated School. His farm had gone into foreclosure, and he blamed the school.
He had access to the school – he was a board member, the treasurer, in fact. He also was the school’s caretaker. Kehoe secretly placed hundreds of pounds of explosives under the school, apparently doing it over a period of months.
Historical sources say that on that Wednesday morning, Kehoe beat his wife to death and set his farm on fire. While firefighters were there, an explosion rocked the school.
Kehoe then appeared at the school. As people ran up to his car, he detonated explosives inside it, making it a 1920s version of a suicide car bomb. The shrapnel-filled car bomb killed the school superintendent and others. Continued...
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Emma Watson
"As a person, I have a belief system which is that everything happens for a reason."
Think about that as I drink your beer - ed
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HISTORY IN THE HEADLINES: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s collection of folktales contains some of the best-known children’s characters in literary history. Yet the brothers originally filled their book, which became known as “Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” with gruesome scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in an R-rated movie. As the 150th anniversary of Jacob’s death approaches, check out some of the surprisingly dark themes that appear in the Grimms’ work.http://histv.co/16BI8iN
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Phillip Jensen.
Because of music’s powerful effect on self-awareness it can easily confuse a person into thinking that it is more than “organised noise”.
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Garry Kasparov, former World Chess Champion and Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, sat down Monday with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss President Barack Obama’s infamous “red line” remarks regarding the Syrian civil war.
Kasparov believes the president failed by not following through on his claim that the use of Chemical weapons in Syria would cross a “red line.” He believes the president’s use of the term required him to act after the supposed line was crossed.
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Time Magazine changes cover in the U.S. to avoid shining a spotlight on Obama's fumbling of Syria.
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A South Carolina high school, and possibly many others, are reportedly using a different history textbook that also contains a highly questionable interpretation of the Second Amendment.
Additionally, the publisher of a separate controversial advanced placement history textbook, which acts as a study guide for the advanced placement U.S. history exam and seems to diminish the Second Amendment, is directly linked to Common Core standards, TheBlaze has learned.
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Senator Sue Boyce found it "shocking'' and ''embarrassing''. Former Senator Judith Troeth said it was a"bad signal''. It was proof of the glass ceiling still exists said Ita Buttrose. They were all complaining that there was only one woman in the new Federal Cabinet. There were no complaints about the number of gay ministers, aboriginal ministers, transgender ministers - we hope that there will be no proposals for quotas for them.\
No doubt in the suburbs and towns in Australia, the real hope was that this would be a government which would function properly, be competent, not waste taxpayers money and keep out of the way in those matters which have nothing to do with the government. Surely appointments should be made on merit and not on the basis of some quota.
Tony Abbott had built up a team in of shadow ministers who proved their abilities in opposition. Clearly he was wise to form the cabinets and Ministry on this basis and having regard to those who retained their seats.
As Senator Vanstone suggested, the large number of women in the Rudd and Gillard governments could give you no confidence in a quota. Certainly Margaret Thatcher and Benjamin Disraeli did not need quotas to take the leadership of the British Conservative party
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Cory Bernardi
The new government becomes official today after the swearing in ceremony. They will then get straight down to the business of repealing the carbon tax, abolishing the clean energy finance corporation and protecting our borders.
It's a great day for Australia.
It's a great day for Australia.
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Click here to learn more: http://bit.ly/
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Perspective.
Credits : Laura Williams Photography
Twitter : www.twitter.com/
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Some San Diego State University students studying the Arabic language were dismayed when they were handed a map by their professor at the beginning of the semester which labeled the State of Israel as “Palestine.”
The pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs tells TheBlaze that the professor, Ghassan Zakaria, distributed the map on the second day his Arabic 101 class met. Students worried that if they complained about the map they could be labeled as “troublemakers” and that their grades could be impacted, StandWithUs said, adding students turned to the organization fo help. The group urged its members to contact the university to complain.
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Pastor Rick Warren
TONIGHT, if you watch Kay and me in our only interview since Matthew's suicide, please tweet the hashtag #WarrensOnCNN on Twitter with your comments. The interview will air on Piers Morgan Live. Thanks so much!
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If you have information about Kyron Horman, please call 503-261-2847. If you see Kyron, call 911. Missing Kyron Horman #DrPhil
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Lol, he is grumpy .. ed
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Ever fancied baking and eating your own Supreme Dalek, but were afraid of dental damage from the Dalekanium? Well fear not, The Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimber has whipped up this tasty Red Velvet Dalek cake recipe.
Head over to doctorwho.tv to find out how. Ready, steady, BAKE! http://bit.ly/1f14RIE
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Glenn Beck: "He’s taking guns away from the people while giving guns to Al-Qaeda. What else do you need for impeachment?"
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Sarah Palin
In honor of Constitution Day, I'm rereading the great document, and I encourage everyone to do the same and to visit the National Archives to view our founding documents as I did in this photo.
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Fred Nile - Official Christian Democratic Party'
MEDIA RELEASE: Other Christian parties’ preferences prevented a Christian Values senator for NSW
The Christian Democrats performed very well in last Saturday’s election, being the largest Christian values party in the state, and maintaining our vote despite the arrival of new political parties,
Palmer United Party and Katter Australia Party.
The Christian Democratic Party did not receive the expected preferences from the smaller Christian values parties, when their votes had expired.
If we had, Robyn Peebles, our senate candidate, would now be a Senator, and NSW would have a Christian leader representing them. It is disappointing that Christian parties fail to help one another and that Christians vote fragmented into unviable parties.
- The Democratic Labour Party’s votes went to One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.
- Family First’s votes went to Bullet Train For Australia party.
- Rise Up Australia’s votes went to One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.
“Unfortunately, neither One Nation nor the Bullet Train For Australia represent our values, and again the Christian vote was fragmented across many minor and major parties.”
It is an important lesson for all Christians wishing to vote for Christian values. The Christian Democratic Party is largest ‘Christian values’ party in NSW, and the only party that can be a voice for our values in Parliament.
‘If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand’.
#teamnile
If you don't vote for the Liberal party, you end up voting for ALP or Greens. Not all Liberal Party members are Christian .. the question is, "Do you support good government?" If you support good government, you wouldn't support Pauline Hanson, or the ALP or Greens. - ed
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Pastor Rick Warren'
DOING THE RIGHT THING TO SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS
If you want to reach people who never go to church with the love of Christ you MUST speak on their turf, in their language.
You can't expect them to come to worship services or watch Christian TV. It's why Paul quoted 2 pagan poets (!) in his Acts 17 when he preached at the pagan Aeropagus in Athens- the place where all the secular thinkers debated each other. Today the "aeropagus" is TV talk shows and online.
It's the same reason why Jesus hung out at so many secular parties that the Pharisees called him "a drunk and a glutton and the friend of the worse sinners!" (Matthew 11:19).
In both cases, it was the religious people who criticized Paul and Jesus for associating with non-believers. I want to be like Jesus: I want to be known as "the friend of sinners." It takes no character, faith, nor grace to be a friend of saints.
You cannot say you love Jesus if you are more concerned about your reputation that the people Jesus died on the Cross for. And you will never win your enemies to Christ.... you can only win your friends. Before skeptics trust Christ, they must trust you. If they don't trust you, you are a poor witness, and an embarrassment to Jesus.
The person who says "I love God, and disrepects/doesn't love his enemies" is a liar (1 John 4:20) is disobedient to Christ (Luke 6:27), and does not really know God (1 John 4:8)
If you want to reach people who never go to church with the love of Christ you MUST speak on their turf, in their language.
You can't expect them to come to worship services or watch Christian TV. It's why Paul quoted 2 pagan poets (!) in his Acts 17 when he preached at the pagan Aeropagus in Athens- the place where all the secular thinkers debated each other. Today the "aeropagus" is TV talk shows and online.
It's the same reason why Jesus hung out at so many secular parties that the Pharisees called him "a drunk and a glutton and the friend of the worse sinners!" (Matthew 11:19).
In both cases, it was the religious people who criticized Paul and Jesus for associating with non-believers. I want to be like Jesus: I want to be known as "the friend of sinners." It takes no character, faith, nor grace to be a friend of saints.
You cannot say you love Jesus if you are more concerned about your reputation that the people Jesus died on the Cross for. And you will never win your enemies to Christ.... you can only win your friends. Before skeptics trust Christ, they must trust you. If they don't trust you, you are a poor witness, and an embarrassment to Jesus.
The person who says "I love God, and disrepects/doesn't love his enemies" is a liar (1 John 4:20) is disobedient to Christ (Luke 6:27), and does not really know God (1 John 4:8)
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MORE than 50 schools are set to shut across Western Australia on Thursday as teachers go on strike to protest the state government's treatment of education funding.
Schools north and south of Perth's Swan River, as well as in the Wheatbelt, Pilbara, Goldfields, Midwest and South West regions will all shut their doors.
That is despite an education department directive for schools to attempt to stay open, and a government threat to dock teachers' pay.
The state's education department said 54 schools had been authorised to close, with more likely when the list is updated at 4pm (WST).
Premier Colin Barnett confirmed teachers who walked off the job for a mass rally on Thursday would lose half a day's pay.
And while Mr Barnett admitted his education reforms would bring pain, heartache and challenges to some schools, he insisted they would go ahead despite the industrial action.
"The decision has been made, and this rally will not affect decisions of this government," Mr Barnett told ABC radio.
"The teachers who participate will not get paid, and I think that is silly to sacrifice their salary over an issue that can be handled in a sensible, constructive way."
Leading employment lawyer Allan Drake-Brockman, managing partner of DLA Piper, said the WA government was entitled to dock the teachers' pay.
"If the Premier is saying that, he would have obtained State Solicitor's advice," Mr Drake-Brockman told AAP.
"It's not authorised industrial action. So the underlying principle is no work, no pay."
In an unprecedented alliance, three unions have called on 10,000 angry teachers, education assistants, library staff, lab technicians, cleaners and gardeners to attend a two-hour stop work meeting at the Gloucester Park race track from 9.30am (WST).
They are protesting the loss of 500 education jobs, a freeze on teacher numbers and reduced funding for some special programs to improve literacy, numeracy, attendance and behaviour.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/barnett-teacher-pay-comment-misses-point/story-e6frfku9-1226721768707#ixzz2fEw1mxt0
If you don't work, you don't get paid. - ed
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Tony Abbott
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While in Wisconsin, I found a multitude of lighthouses. This one stood out a bit... maybe it was the bright red color, and the way it contrasted the sky, and water. I like surprises. Wisconsin continually surprised me with different kinds of beauty. — in Milwaukee, WI, United States.
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Feel like a glitzy night out? Put this charity ball on October 11 in your calendar and help raise money to buy Fairfield Hospital a humidicrib.
http://bit.ly/1dn6xdI
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (September 11 – 16, 2013) This past week Israel’s south was quiet. Violent incidents continued in Judea and Samaria. Stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown at Israeli vehicles, security forces, and civilians. Recently there has been an increase in violent incidents in Judea and Samaria refugee camps against both Palestinian security services and Israeli security forces.http://
The UN should not endorse these atrocities - ed
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Current Gallery on all Photographs
Please click on below link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/307958525882739/photos/
...See more
Please click on below link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/307958525882739/photos/
...See more
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Another mass shooting has been perpetrated by another mentally ill man who, every shred of my 20 years of experience as a forensic psychiatrist, tells me was under-treated or improperly treated.
And, now, those who wish to waste our time on irrelevant arguments about gun control will argue we should focus on the weapon the man used, rather than the man himself.
Such people are dangerous because they distract us from the real issue at hand: Our broken mental health care system and the folly of military psychiatry that focuses on making soldiers “resilient,” rather than keeping them safe from psychosis and suicide and homicide.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/09/17/aaron-alexis-another-improperly-treated-mentally-ill-man-becomes-mass-killer/?intcmp=HPBucket#ixzz2fEaSRXuw
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Wikipedia has all but abandoned its efforts to combat the pornographic images littering its servers, after board members could not settle on one of the dozens of technical solutions that could have solved the problem.
FoxNews.com published a series of articles about thousands of questionable pictures, videos and other material hidden throughout the popular online encyclopedia in May 2010. The revelation caused a stir-up at the Wikimedia Foundation that runs the site, leading co-founder Jimmy Wales to purge hundreds of images and task members with finding a way to keep objectionable material out of children's eyes.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/09/17/wikipedia-abandons-efforts-to-purge-porn-from-online-encyclopedia/#ixzz2fEakWbIJ
An even harder problem is the left wing bias which skews everything .. including their AGW articles. - ed
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Whenever you don't understand what's happening, you just have to close your eyes take a deep breath and say "Lord I know it's your plan, just help me through it!!
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A nice piece, surprisingly from the Guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/coalition-swearing-in-tony-abbott?CMP=twt_gu
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An Ethiopian Welo Opal by Inna Gem
It looks like the Ocean is trapped in it!
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Rikki Kingston see that target wally is there top left hand side and odlaw is under a signpost close to middle top of picture
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J.John
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
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J.John
“The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:25
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J.John
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord. Psalm 89:15
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J.John
"All people matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe." G.K. Chesterton
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J.John
May you grow to be as beautiful as God meant you to be when He thought of you first. George MacDonald
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J.John
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J.John
My new booklet has just arrived 'Halloween - Harmless or Harmful?' Praying this will be a useful… http://t.co/GFFRVLG9gG
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Pastor Rick Warren
People are not interruptions to your ministry. They ARE your ministry,
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Pastor Rick Warren
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September 18: National Day in Chile
- 1851 – The New York Times, the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, was founded.
- 1889 – Hull House (pictured), the United States' most influential settlement house, opened in Chicago.
- 1939 – The Nazi propaganda radio programmeGermany Calling, with a host nicknamed "Lord Haw-Haw", began broadcasting to audiences in the United Kingdom and the United States.
- 1974 – Hurricane Fifi struck Honduras, destroying 182 towns and villages in the first 24 hours, and ultimately causing over 8,000 deaths.
- 1998 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit organization that manages the assignment of domain names and IP addresses in the Internet, was established.
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children” Ephesians 5:1 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Bring him unto me."
Mark 9:19
Mark 9:19
Despairingly the poor disappointed father turned away from the disciples to their Master. His son was in the worst possible condition, and all means had failed, but the miserable child was soon delivered from the evil one when the parent in faith obeyed the Lord Jesus' word, "Bring him unto me." Children are a precious gift from God, but much anxiety comes with them. They may be a great joy or a great bitterness to their parents; they may be filled with the Spirit of God, or possessed with the spirit of evil. In all cases, the Word of God gives us one receipt for the curing of all their ills, "Bring him unto me." O for more agonizing prayer on their behalf while they are yet babes! Sin is there, let our prayers begin to attack it. Our cries for our offspring should precede those cries which betoken their actual advent into a world of sin. In the days of their youth we shall see sad tokens of that dumb and deaf spirit which will neither pray aright, nor hear the voice of God in the soul, but Jesus still commands, "Bring them unto me." When they are grown up they may wallow in sin and foam with enmity against God; then when our hearts are breaking we should remember the great Physician's words, "Bring them unto me." Never must we cease to pray until they cease to breathe. No case is hopeless while Jesus lives.
The Lord sometimes suffers his people to be driven into a corner that they may experimentally know how necessary he is to them. Ungodly children, when they show us our own powerlessness against the depravity of their hearts, drive us to flee to the strong for strength, and this is a great blessing to us. Whatever our morning's need may be, let it like a strong current bear us to the ocean of divine love. Jesus can soon remove our sorrow, he delights to comfort us. Let us hasten to him while he waits to meet us.
Evening
"Encourage him."
Deuteronomy 1:38
Deuteronomy 1:38
God employs his people to encourage one another. He did not say to an angel, "Gabriel, my servant Joshua is about to lead my people into Canaan--go, encourage him." God never works needless miracles; if his purposes can be accomplished by ordinary means, he will not use miraculous agency. Gabriel would not have been half so well fitted for the work as Moses. A brother's sympathy is more precious than an angel's embassy. The angel, swift of wing, had better known the Master's bidding than the people's temper. An angel had never experienced the hardness of the road, nor seen the fiery serpents, nor had he led the stiff-necked multitude in the wilderness as Moses had done. We should be glad that God usually works for man by man. It forms a bond of brotherhood, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family. Brethren, take the text as God's message to you. Labour to help others, and especially strive to encourage them. Talk cheerily to the young and anxious enquirer, lovingly try to remove stumblingblocks out of his way. When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame. Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ. Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the desponding. Speak a word in season to him that is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness. God encourages you by his promises; Christ encourages you as he points to the heaven he has won for you, and the spirit encourages you as he works in you to will and to do of his own will and pleasure. Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others, according to the word of this evening.
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Today's reading: Proverbs 27-29, 2 Corinthians 10 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Proverbs 27-29
1 Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.
for you do not know what a day may bring.
2 Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth;
an outsider, and not your own lips.
an outsider, and not your own lips.
3 Stone is heavy and sand a burden,
but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
4 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy?
but who can stand before jealousy?
5 Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
than hidden love.
6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses....
but an enemy multiplies kisses....
Today's New Testament reading: 2 Corinthians 10
Paul’s Defense of His Ministry
1 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete....
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