Monday, October 20, 2014

Mon Oct 20th Todays News

Workers pay for union bosses
The ABC and Fairfax press have self censored over the issue, but it is widespread and substantial. The much maligned Work choices had checks in place to prevent union corruption, but Gillard removed those when she put Fair Work in place of Work Choices. Even so, historical corruption regarding slush funds was clearly prevalent in union culture. Slush funds are not harmless. They involve unionists losing money for union chiefs to spend as they will. They also involve unions standing over businesses and extorting money, which is illegal. Some will say it is wrong to do that, and it should be illegal. But the fact is it is illegal to do that according to the statute books, and only legal if the courts choose to ignore the law, which they have no right to do. The very structure of the ALP is called into question over this. Maybe the ALP needs to reform by adopting a Liberal Party structure? 

Ukraine has to answer questions over MH17
Findings of the inquiry into MH17 have suggested the bomb used to take down the aircraft was Ukrainian made, while the device used to fire it was Russian made. It looks like the Russian separatists fired the bomb at the aircraft, but only after Ukraine had presented the aircraft as enemy hostile. Precisely how has not been examined yet and the salient questions have not been asked of Ukraine. It would be good for Mr Abbott or Miss Bishop to discuss this matter with Ukraine. It might excite ABC interest if Mr Abbott says he will shirtfront the Ukrainian leader. 

Green alarmism costs money
Australia under ALP shed some six hundred billion dollars with nothing to show for it. Left behind are costly and inefficient green projects, like desalination camps which aren't used because they aren't needed, house insulation poorly installed, wind farms and solar installations which don't reduce base load as well as crumbling coal power stations needing to be modernised. But had the money been spent wisely, flagship infrastructure which allows substantial growth could have been put in place. At about 1% of the cost of the waste, the Bradfield Scheme could have been realised. A wireless NBN could have been implemented. An NDIS could have been implemented and change sufficient to power innovation in industry would have been left over with surplus budgets. Instead, people have drowned for compassion, no animal has been saved and no forest is safe from environmental dangers. In fact forest fires have reputedly been caused by a failure to prudently back burn. 

Plibersek plays lethal game re Ebola
Shorten has no policy on any thing. Plibersek is filling the vacuum by being stupid and risking the lives of Australian Health workers tasked to go to Africa to fight Ebola by an Australian government without infrastructure to evacuate if that is needed. Thing is there is sufficient aid from those who have the infrastructure and regional responsibility to deliver it. Plibersek's position is partisan and foolish. She is hostile to the action of the defence force tasked to face ISIL and has said so. If Plibersek were compassionate for the suffering of others, she would not try to drown desperate people wanting to come to Australia. 

Poet short changed
Going by headlines this column condemned the poet Barry Spurr and it was wrong. The poet has had comments of his that were personal released out of context. Were they public utterances, they would and should be condemned. However, what has happened is an injustice which seems to have been wilfully perpetrated by a bad journal called New Matilda. New Matilda has form in illegally obtaining data and abusing it for sensational purposes. They appear to have done so here, and one hopes they are sued out of existence if they in fact have. Chillingly Sydney University have acted quickly to stand down the poet without apparent due process. Had the poet been left wing and given his thoughts in a writer's festival, publicly, one feels this entire issue may never have risen. Take as an example the graphic novelist Phillippe Squarzoni who has published an imagined, virtuous, assault with an assault rifle on a shopping mall. 

from 2013
ALP divided, will never be united. Blame games keep dreams alive. Latham can say *anything* at *anytime* which may contradict *something* at *sometime* but will be published regardless without fact checking. Plibersek to make play for leadership? ALP win NSW by-election, but still need reform.
Green policy ignites flames.
Illegal immigrants are not clients. Europeans move to stop murderous folly. 
Crying children need parents.
Australian child brides.
Wikileaks movie bombs despite top actors. 
Education reform needs good educators. 
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This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball


Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR

Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.netwhich will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Kirsten Katz and Peter Trinh. Born on the same day, across the years as
1463 – Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (d. 1512)
1632 – Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St Paul's Cathedral (d. 1723)
1780 – Pauline Bonaparte, French sister of Napoleon (d. 1825)
1882 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (d. 1956)
1931 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
1950 – Tom Petty, American singer-songwriter and musician (Tom Petty and the HeartbreakersMudcrutch, and Traveling Wilburys)
1970 – Michelle Malkin, American blogger and author
1995 – Zhenwei Wang, Chinese actor and martial artist
October 20: Birth of the Báb, a holy day in the Bahá'í Faith
Douglas MacArthur and staff arrive at Leyte
The eighty year war, where neither would turn on the kettle, is over. The throne has been assumed. You have returned. I can still remember when the music used to make me smile. The evil is gone. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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SHOOTING SANTA

Tim Blair – Monday, October 20, 2014 (1:28pm)

Tony Thomas reviews the latest example of warmy bloodlust: 
If you have ever doubted that warmism endorses a preening, totalitarian disdain for the lives and rights of others, take up a copy of “Climate Change” by graphic novelist Philippe Squarzoni, who imagines how virtuous it would be to go berserk with an assault rifle in a shopping mall. And yes, he’s not joking. 
It’s all part of a continuing theme.
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Dickhead insult

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (5:46pm)

Brendan O’Connor’s pretence at being offended by a gendered insult is exposed by his own gendered insult, and a far more offensive one:
Labor frontbenchers have attacked Finance Minister Mathias Cormann over his use of the insult “economic girly man” against Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, with one accusing him of ”sounding like a dickhead”.
Opposition employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said the joke was on Senator Cormann, who had been left looking like a “bit of a dill” in his attempt to get a headline.
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Clive Palmer to go to court over missing $10 billion

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (5:14pm)

Clive Palmer’s run of legal reverses continues - and this is one of the most serious:
CLIVE Palmer has lost his bid to have Chinese-owned Sino Iron’s $10m fraud lawsuit against him tossed out of court.
Queensland Supreme Court judge David Jackson this morning announced he was dismissing the Palmer United Party’s leader’s strike-out application, meaning the high-profile matter will go to trial.
Disgruntled business partner Sino is suing Mr Palmer over the alleged dishonest payment of more than $10m in Chinese funds to Media Circus, an advertising company, and Cosmo Developments, a company associated with Mr Palmer.
The resources businessman has denied all wrongdoing.
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Thanks to The Book Searchers

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (9:19am)

I want to give The Book Searchers, an on-line bookseller in Sydney, a big rap.
I ordered two books on artist John Peter Russell through Abebooks, and The Book Searchers popped them in the mail. They never arrived.
I offered to pay half the cost of finding replacements, since I didn’t want to rip off a small business. Instead, The Book Searchers tracked down two other copies and mailed them out without charge or complaint Thanks very much indeed.
And the books? Great reads on a truly remarkable Australian, a friend of Van Gogh and many other great artists. 
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Claim: MH17 shot down by pro-Russian militias with Ukrainian missile

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (7:13am)

Russia supplied the military support but did it actually supply the missile?
Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency has concluded that pro-Russian rebels are to blame for the downing of Malaysia Airline MH17 in Ukraine in July, Der Spiegel weekly reported on Sunday, the first European agency to say so…

Gerhard Schindler, president of the BND, told a secret parliamentary committee on security affairs earlier this month that separatists had used a Russian Buk missile defense system from a Ukrainian base to fire a rocket that exploded directly next to the Malyasia Air plane, Der Spiegel reported.

“It was pro-Russian separatists,” the magazine quoted him as saying.
The BND concluded the rebels were to blame after a detailed analysis based on satellite and other photos, Der Spiegel said.  
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The high price of green alarmism

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (6:12am)

HEAR that rain on the roof last week? That’s nature telling us our politicians have been idiots. I’m talking about the politicians who let themselves be fooled into thinking it never would rain like this again.
I’m talking about politicians who listened to the likes of Tim Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year and then head of the Climate Commission.
From 2005 to 2008, Flannery, the global warming guru, made a string of outlandish claims like these:
“So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems ...
“In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months ...
“There is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis.”
Flannery wasn’t alone, of course.
(Read full article here.) 
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Plibersek plays lethal politics with ebola

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (6:04am)

EBOLA is ghastly enough. But must we also suffer the moral posturing of politicians such as Tanya Plibersek?
Plibersek, Labor’s deputy leader, has fallen sick to the disease of the modern Left, wanting to seem good by demanding fine-sounding things that, oops, won’t actually work.
Or in this case could kill.
Plibersek is berating the Abbott Government for not doing even more to help fight the latest Ebola outbreak and contain it to the three African countries — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — where most of the 4500 deaths have occurred.
“Australia must significantly increase its efforts, immediately,” she insisted.
If Plibersek just meant increasing the $18 million offered so far by the Government, she’d probably be right.
But she wants doctors, nurses and paramedics sent, too.
“We’ve got skilled Australians, who’ve trained for many years to provide exactly the kind of assistance that West Africa is crying out for and our government is saying they won’t assist them to go there.”
In fact, 20 to 30 Australian volunteers are already in Africa, courageously fighting Ebola, and non-government organisations would welcome more.
But there’s a risk. Doctors Without Borders, for instance, say nine of its staff are already dead from Ebola. More than 230 health workers, in all, have died.
(Read full article here.) 
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The workers, united, will pay for their bosses

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (6:03am)

More from the union whose members just paid and paid for perks:
WHISTLEBLOWER Kathy Jackson made a secret deal with the now jailed fraudster Michael Williamson to pay $240,000 over two years to one of her union allies — with a requirement that the recipient of the money do no work.
Under the confidential arrangement, Jackson ally and friend Jamie Martorana agreed to resign from his position as assistant divisional secretary of the Health Services Union in October 2010.
For the next two years, however, he remained on the union’s payroll, with pay-as-you-go tax deducted from his gross weekly “wages” of $2307.69 as though he was still a regular full-time employee turning up for work.
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Whose private thoughts wouldn’t be a scandal? The real disgrace in the Barry Spurr affair

Andrew Bolt October 20 2014 (6:03am)

Henry Ergas on a gross invasion of privacy that exposes some hypocrites:
THE Barry Spurr affair is terrifying in the shoddy treatment of Spurr; in what it says about our universities; and in the lack of outrage that either has evoked.
What is certain is that there was a gross invasion of Spurr’s privacy. To that must be added the likelihood that his emails were obtained illegally and used when it was known, or should have been known, that that is how they had been obtained.
Moreover, that use was by a publication, New Matilda, that had only recently committed the same offence; and whose journalists hypocritically denounced the wrongdoing at the News of the World and, since then, have attacked the government’s metadata proposals, with all their checks and balances, as an assault on privacy.
Of course, one expects nothing better from Wendy Bacon, who demands a moral right to invade the private emails of others without providing public access to her own. But it is disappointing that Bill Shorten, who repeatedly invoked the presumption of innocence to shield Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper, failed to show the same concern for Spurr.
And it is a scandal that the University of Sydney has suspended Spurr despite there being no claim, much less evidence, that his teaching, supervision and research have been anything but exemplary.
To make matters worse, the university has set aside Spurr’s explanation that the emails were parodies without according Spurr the prior opportunity to have that explanation tested. 
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4 her, so she can see how I see her
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TO ALL OUR INDIAN FRIENDS EVERYWHERE ...
Wishing you all a very happy DIWALI.
May the light of wisdom and and charity shine upon your families and friends wishing you all a very happy sweet new year filled with good health and prosperity.
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Simple solution without points or fine .. kick them until they are legal.
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Warning labels are often ridiculous because of litigation. I'm reminded of the Iranian revolution when university students took the US embassy hostage. Iran claimed it wasn't behind it but protected the student's right to seize the embassy. After the movie Argo showed how a fake film set was set up to extract some hostages, Iran sued for lost profits ..
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=== Posts from last year ===
Cotton Candy Sunrise

After pulling an all nighter along the Marin Headlands, I was rewarded with this fantastic foggy sunrise over San Francisco and it's bridges. I was also rewarded by seeing so many of the awesome local photographers I have grown to know so well and who I delight in seeing and talking to. There was far too little time to socialize however with this pastel scene unfolding before us. It was good seeing you; John Louie, and his brother Andrew, Steve-Maxx LanderosToby HarrimanDavid YuWilson Lam, Amy Heiden, and so many others! I look forward to seeing what you came away with on this beautiful morning.

Cheers!

~M@
 — at Hawk Hill.
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http://www.theage.com.au/national/defence-all-at-sea-on-new-submarines-20131018-2vsd6.html
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Indeed a musical high water mark .. in the same genre of Rebecca Black's Friday .. ed
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The Moment

I was up on Hawk Hill with my friend Miguel, and when he went to go home, I decided to see if the fog had lowered enough at Battery Spencer to get a shot. When I arrived, I was completely alone and the bridge was not visible through the thick mists. This thought came to me that if I stayed a little while there would be a clearing, and indeed five minutes later this presented itself. Then the sky closed up again... Magic.
 — at Battery Spencer.
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Resettlement and Recompense Little notice has been paid to the fate of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Arab states, about 550,000 of whom were resettled in Israel. Similarly, the resettlement of most of the Palestinian refugees in the host Arab countries, creating a de facto population exchange, has been overlooked.

http://www.meforum.org/3643/palestinian-refugee-problem

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http://www.israpundit.com/archives/57990

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http://humansarefree.com/2013/10...

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Is Antisemitism Back in Europe? The rise of Muslim antisemitism in Europe is well documented—and widely ignored. 
John Allen Gay | October 18, 2013
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The search, now 30 years old, for Iranian “moderates” goes on. Amid the enthusiasm of the latest sighting, it’s worth remembering that the highlight of the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages debacle was thesecret trip to Tehran taken by Robert McFarlane, President Reagan’s former national security adviser. He brought a key-shaped cake symbolizing the new relations he was opening with the “moderates.”

We know how that ended.
Three decades later, the mirage reappears in the form of Hassan Rouhani. Strange résumé for a moderate: 35 years of unswervingly loyal service to the Islamic Republic as a close aide to Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei. Moreover, Rouhani was one of only six presidential candidates, another 678 having been disqualified by the regime as ideologically unsound. That puts him in the 99th centile for fealty.
Rouhani is Khamenei’s agent but, with a smile and style, he’s now hailed as the face of Iranian moderation. Why? Because Rouhani wants better relations with the West.
Well, what leader would not want relief from Western sanctions that have sunk Iran’s economy, devalued its currency and caused widespread hardship? The test of moderation is not what you want but what you’re willing to give. After all, sanctions were not slapped on Iran for amusement. It was to enforce multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding a halt to uranium enrichment.

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By James Thurber, first published in The New Yorker on August 26, 1939:

Within the memory of the youngest child there was a family of rabbits who lived near a pack of wolves. The wolves announced that they did not like the way the rabbits were living. (The wolves were crazy about the way they themselves were living, because it was the only way to live.) One night several wolves were killed in an earthquake and this was blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that rabbits pound on the ground with their hind legs and cause earthquakes. On another night one of the wolves was killed by a bolt of lightning and this was also blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that lettuce-eaters cause lightning. The wolves threatened to civilize the rabbits if they didn't behave, and the rabbits decided to run away to a desert island. But the other animals, who lived at a great distance, shamed them saying, "You must stay where you are and be brave. This is no world for escapists. If the wolves attack you, we will come to your aid in all probability." So the rabbits continued to live near the wolves and one day there was a terrible flood which drowned a great many wolves. This was blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that carrot-nibblers with long ears cause floods. The wolves descended on the rabbits, for their own good, and imprisoned them in a dark cave, for their own protection.

When nothing was heard about the rabbits for some weeks, the other animals demanded to know what had happened to them. The wolves replied that the rabbits had been eaten and since they had been eaten the affair was a purely internal matter. But the other animals warned that they might possibly unite against the wolves unless some reason was given for the destruction of the rabbits. So the wolves gave them one. "They were trying to escape," said the wolves, "and, as you know, this is no world for escapists."

Moral: Run, don't walk, to the nearest desert island.

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I oppose a Palestinian state that is not open to all peoples everywhere to live with standards of justice that are high and compassionate - ed===


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Israpundit
SEPTEMBER 29, 2013, , By Charles Abelsohn, TOI The following article was sent to the spokesman for Baroness Catherine Ashton. It was not acknowledged. BARONESS ASHTON: PLEASE ENLIGHTEN WHY, WHEN ISRAEL IS INVOLVED, THE EU CHANGES THE LEGAL TO ILLEGAL AND THE ILLEGAL TO LEGAL. Sometimes one wonders exactly what the European Union [EU] wants from and expects of …

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http://virtualjerusalem.com/judaism.php?Itemid=11031

<People have double standards.
holocaust statistics and real numbers
" The unspeakable crime of the 20th century, more than the triumph of evil, was the sin of the "innocent" bystander."

When I posted tragic photographs of Syrian children raped and murdered I am told by the do-gooders how offended they are that I am exploiting these shocking pictures for pushing the point how Obama is guilty of assisting the anti- Assad Syrians.

So please explain why I should not be offended by these Holocaust pictures or is it because we have become so accustomed to them that we are now desensitised ?>===

<We escaped slavery when leaving Egypt and accepting Torah. Those pagans who refuse to accept it then and now, remain in bondage and exile. Adding or subtracting from Hashem's word has not been the cure. Civilisations come and go but those who follow Torah despite the calamities live on.>
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This father and newborn daughter's set of 'selfies' just went viral! See the rest here:http://tblz.us/pYuD4

(Image Source: Reddit)
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Pastor Rick Warren
The more I focus on me,
the more unhappy I'll be.
See Philippians 2:4
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EVERY HOUR ONLINE I'm teaching "Happiness Can Be Learned" Phil.2:19-30. JOIN ME NOW. Notes and study app are online too: http://bit.ly/ZvjGI9

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I'll start off with last night's Fog Bow... I would have never known about these if not for Mike Hollingshead... this was the first time I ever saw one in person. Pretty nifty! — at Hawk Hill.
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Whoops! Last month's discovery of a 2,600-year-old Etruscan warrior prince's tomb in Italy held one more surprise for researchers. (Cue the Disney music...) 

The prince was, in fact, a princess. 

Read more: http://oak.ctx.ly/r/f5p7

See the ancient tomb: http://oak.ctx.ly/r/f5pb
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Happy birthday, Michael Gambon! Thank you for taking a character so dear to our hearts and bringing him to life flawlessly.
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A couple had their wedding rings engraved with a waveform of their own voices saying “I do.”
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This is a wildlife bridge in the Netherlands. They are designed to help animals cross busy highways in safety. They don't just protect wildlife from being hit by cars - they also connect fragmented habitats and help populations intermingle and breed.
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Hold a baby .. great skill! - ed
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I am stupid .. I used to be really arrogant and critical of others .. but as I got older .. I began to realise, slowly because I'm quite dumb, that others have reason for their actions, but I had none for my contempt.
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*bored (sp) .. I like to think that the shooters aren't Islamic .. but they claim to be, and those who know seem to agree.
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< Disappointment as Richmond brothel fails to arouse winning bid

When this Melbourne brothel opened on Saturday it was the first time in its long and colourful history that nobody came.

Well - some people came. To the auction. But not many. There was only one bid of a tickle over $1.4 million, but it was not nearly enough to sell the property, which until July was trading as Ladies For Gentlemen.>

http://theage.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/disappointment-as-richmond-brothel-fails-to-arouse-winning-bid-20131019-2vtxs.html

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Morning Breaks over the Gate

Please bear with me for a while... you will be seeing a few more images of the Golden Gate bridge from yours truly.

I arrived at Hawk hill a day ago as the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Then the fog moved in. I wound up staying all night long in the area and even wound up finding a place to car camp with the fog bound bridge in sight and let the fog horns lull me to sleep for a three hour nap.

This was my third location for shooting the morning sunrise. I went straight home after taking this shot.

...more images to come!
  — at Battery Spencer.
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The Pastel Pallet

I warned you... here is yet another pic I took of the Golden Gate bridge this morning...
 — at Hawk Hill.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
TRUTH for the day: Life is too short for dead in jobs, people, places and things. If there is no peace, fulfillment, appreciation, love, happiness, uplifting, laughter or passion then it needs to change or go. Have a fabulous day!
Harsh wisdom .. it is wise .. patience can sometimes be taken advantage of. But it is good not to give up on *everything* .. prioritise ;) ed

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<.. I just wish Carr would fcuk off and drop dead. He makes me more sick than all of the ALP put together. A do-nothing premier and still being paid for doing even less.>
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Awesome Anzac bikkies and three great books on problem solving Maths .. thanks to Teresa Limbu, and William Tan. And kudos to Tiny on his restraint .. I get it now how disciplined he is!
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Bushfires in Victoria 1851  Black Thursday

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<The old saying is that in every village, there is a village idiot, in the case of the village of Melbourne, they voted their idiot into the Lower House!>
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Karl the Fog — at Fort Baker.
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Eric Kalemen
Training time!! — at Scare-Ric Circuit Session
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“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”Psalm 37:4NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Babes in Christ."
1 Corinthians 3:1
Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life: because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with blood as he is. You are as much an adopted child of God as any other believer. An infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the full-grown man. You are as completely justified, for your justification is not a thing of degrees: your little faith has made you clean every whit. You have as much right to the precious things of the covenant as the most advanced believers, for your right to covenant mercies lies not in your growth, but in the covenant itself; and your faith in Jesus is not the measure, but the token of your inheritance in him. You are as rich as the richest, if not in enjoyment, yet in real possession. The smallest star that gleams is set in heaven; the faintest ray of light has affinity with the great orb of day. In the family register of glory the small and the great are written with the same pen. You are as dear to your Father's heart as the greatest in the family. Jesus is very tender over you. You are like the smoking flax; a rougher spirit would say, "put out that smoking flax, it fills the room with an offensive odour!" but the smoking flax he will not quench. You are like a bruised reed; and any less tender hand than that of the Chief Musician would tread upon you or throw you away, but he will never break the bruised reed. Instead of being downcast by reason of what you are, you should triumph in Christ. Am I but little in Israel? Yet in Christ I am made to sit in heavenly places. Am I poor in faith? Still in Jesus I am heir of all things. Though "less than nothing I can boast, and vanity confess." Yet, if the root of the matter be in me I will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the God of my salvation.

Evening

"God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night."
Job 35:10
Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow--the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by--who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 56-58, 2 Thessalonians 2 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 56-58

Salvation for Others
1 This is what the LORD says:
"Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2 Blessed is the one who does this-
the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
and keeps their hands from doing any evil."
3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say,
"The LORD will surely exclude me from his people."
And let no eunuch complain,
"I am only a dry tree."
4 For this is what the LORD says:
"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant-
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever....

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Thessalonians 2

The Man of Lawlessness
1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us-whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter-asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness....
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Potiphar

[Pŏt'ĭphar] - who is of the sun or a fat bullThe captain of Pharaoh's guardto whom Joseph was sold by the Midianites. It was his wife who tried to seduce Joseph (Gen. 37:36; 39:1).
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