Thursday, December 18, 2014

Thu Dec 18th Todays News

Obama's decision to normalise relations with Cuba is consistent with his international approach. Obama funnelled large amounts of money and resources to sustain Hamas too. Cuba's tottering communist regime can be bolstered by this deal just as Hamas' leaders got a windfall. Obama has not been successful with his middle east policy. European Turkey has radicalised. The Arab Spring has quagmired into warring tribes supporting Al-Qaeda or Iran. The most promising being Egypt which has a leadership Obama opposed. Israel has done as well as could be expected with Obama's betrayals. If Obama wishes to make a meaningless gesture which won't harm anything, he'd free or pardon Jonathan Pollard. 

 The definition of terrorism demarcates how security forces behave. NSW handled the Martin Place siege as well as could be expected, but federal and international support was available in the event of a terrorist attack. It was a terrorist attack, with jihadist Monis threatening to kill for Islam. But it wasn't planned by international terrorist groups, like Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, AlQaeda, Taliban et al. A cartoon by Leunig circulated by Asylum Seeker Resource Centre ASRC is worth considering here. Titled "Todays recipe- cult pie" was produced on 3rd October 2014. "Take one death cult" pictured two darkened holding knife and rifles "blend with one insecurity cult" pictured two watching tv showing death cult image "Add one xenophobia cult" pictured two people gesture angrily at burka wearing mother and child "Stir in one compliant media cult" pictured two scheming in front of computer. "beat mixture with Prime Minister until it becomes frothy" pictured Tony Abbott figure bigger than ruined buildings mesmerising death cult figures and forlorn victims "Serve with smoke and mirrors then garnish with new laws and penalties" ASRC have titled it "Brilliant. Leunig on the fiction of the war on terror." The cartoon is clearly being used in a highly political way that reinforces myths. 

 Monis exploited myths favoured by terrorists even as he came to Australia as an asylum seeker. There is the myth that Israel is partly responsible for terrorism. But the obvious reality is that Israel has no part in it, and is merely wanting to survive and prosper as any free people should. Israel is culturally diverse and democratic and is the safest place in the world for an Islamic person, many of whom are killed by their Islamic brethren. Historically, Palestine is a Roman word for a Jewish state. Palestinians have no ancient connection with the land but are ethnically Jordanian. UN has manufactured the middle east crisis for over sixty years, uniquely labelling children of so called Palestinians as Palestinian and not Israeli, it being the custom elsewhere in the world to label children of refugees as being citizens in the state they were born. No one wants the Palestinians in the middle east. They fought a civil war in Jordan, and in Lebanon, leaving a wasteland wherever they went. Fatah pioneered terrorism in airplanes, on boats and even with Munich Olympics. Hamas is worse. Obama has given hundreds of millions of dollars to the richest people exploiting Palestinians in their fight against Israel. Monis' denouncements of Jews follow the myth that is rarely contradicted by a compliant media. But that is not a media favouring Israel, but a media watching terrorists using human shields and child soldiers and suicide bombers comprised of the profoundly dumb and lying about it, cf Greste. 

 Another myth is the one about the US exploiting terrorism through the CIA for oil. Obama met the Cuban Commissar at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Mandela despised the US who got him free but was close friends with Yassir Arafat and Fidel Castro. Mandela as head of South Africa claimed the US invasion of Iraq was for oil, and not WMD. The WMD were known to be in Iraq, and were eventually found to have migrated to Syria. When they were decommissioned, they were found to have come from US and European arms manufacturers. The press have been aware of the existence of WMD in Syria since 2005 but were quiet about it as Democrats campaigned on missing WMD. The invasion was for the reason President Bush gave. But there is a need for oil and it is important that supply be secured. But the left overstate that argument and diminish the arguments given for. 

 Another myth is the one of cowering Islamic peoples being set upon by Australian bigots. There are plenty of Australian bigots, but the examples of Australians picking on Islamic peoples are few. There were the hysterical responses to Cronulla where Muslims stabbed a surf lifesaver and then the Islamic community defended their youth and made claim it was justified. The ADL are suspected of outing an innocent Muslim SRA employee as a terrorist when actually they were just a hard working student. A jihadist's wife claimed she had had her clothing removed for ID purposes, prompting a law change. The accused policeman was innocent. There have been numerous attacks by jihadists on Jewish schools and peoples, totally unprovoked. Monis exploited the myth when he wrote to widows of soldiers who died after the ALP won federal government. Islamic boys had a rape campaign and their mothers justified their activity after they were jailed. But Australians have not mistreated Islamic peoples. We have welcomed them despite their activity. We have given them generous benefits, even Monis, who is said to have stolen $200k in Iran before coming to Australia was on welfare. 

 Leunig's Cult Pie is misleading and offensive and the ASRC in promoting it are making it worse. And if it is accepted that Monis' siege was a terrorist attack, then it should be noted that Leunig and the ASRC are worse, and more closely approximate the definition of terrorist. Many have died for the policy of migration they advocate. Many suffer. Families are split. Pirates profit. It isn't compassionate to drown desperate people. Neither is it compassionate to be a bigoted anti semite. And to champion the cause of jihadists over their victims? 

2013
Miranda Devine writes of self inflicted wounds. I agree with her criticism of the Abbott Government, but also point out that Miranda noted the popularity of Rudd in '07. She was right about that too. However, there is a difference between advocacy and propaganda. Rudd's popularity was unsupported by virtue, and it was wrong not to point that out in '07. Abbott's appointment of a left wing creature has limited merit, and it is wrong to ignore that. Stott Despoja has an Arafat choice of either being a statesman or staying a terrorist. Arafat chose poorly. Unlike the position of Bryce as GG, Stott Despoja can't mess up this appointment without embarrassing herself. Meanwhile, a conservative in that position would not have bipartisan support. It is an adult choice made by Abbott, not an easy one. 

Meanwhile, the appointment of Tim Wilson to the Human Rights Commission is really good. Personally I despise the Human Rights Commission, which does not stand for human rights, but privileges of left wing orthodoxy. Tim can change that. I'd rather dismantle it. 
Historical perspectives on this day
In 218 BC Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal's Carthaginian forced defeat those of the Roman Republic. 1271, Kublai Khan renamed his empire "Yuan" (yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China. 1622, Portuguese forces scored a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola. 1655, the Whitehall Conference ended with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290. 1777, the United States celebrated its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over British General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October. 1787, New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. 1793, surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck. 1867, the Angola Horror train wreck occurred. 1878, John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires was executed in Pennsylvania. Also 1878, the Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar 1888, Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discovered the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. 1892, premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 1898, Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car

In 1900, the Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia was opened for traffic. 1912, the Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is announced by Charles Dawson. 1916, World War I: The Battle of Verdun ended when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn were defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties. 1917, the resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition was passed by the United States Congress. 1932, the Chicago Bears defeated the Portsmouth Spartans 9–0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game was moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long. 1935, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon. 1939, World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place. 1944, World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.

In 1956 Japan joins the United Nations. 1958 Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, was launched. 1966, Saturn's moon Epimetheus was discovered by Richard L. Walker. 1969, Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years. 1971, Capitol Reef National Park was established in Utah. 1972, Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th. 1973, Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, was launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union. Also 1973, the Islamic Development Bank was founded. 1978, Dominica joined the United Nations.

In 1987,  Larry Wall released the first version of the Perl programming language. 1989, the European Economic Community and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation. 1997, HTML 4.0 was published by the World Wide Web Consortium. 1999, NASA launched into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODISand MOPITT. 2002, 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announced that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier. 2005, the Chadian Civil War began when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launched an attack in Adré. 2006, the first of a series of floods struck Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced. 2006, United Arab Emirates held its first-ever elections. 2010, Anti-government protests began in Tunisia, heralding the Arab Spring.
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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
Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

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

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Janet Mobbs, Kenny Tran, Thanh Tia and Tian Yuan Fu. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
The first performance of The Nutcracker
Avoid the last coach. Nutcrackers aren't sweet. We have an air strategy. They don't sound like us. Our agreement is non binding. Let us party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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The good, the bad and the ugly of humanity

Piers Akerman – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (7:36pm)

THE white heat of immediate peril often brings out the best — and worst — in humanity. This week we saw the worst when Islamist fanatic Man Haron Monis executed an act of barbarism straight out of the terrorist textbook.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The good, the bad and the ugly of humanity'
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JENNA DOESN’T UNDERSTAND

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (3:36pm)

Journalism academic, Fairfax columnist and cardigan model Jenna Price analyses the Martin Place terrorist attack:
Once the false flag around the Sydney siege disintegrates, we will know two things. 
Well, we already know at least one thing, as Quadrant notes: 
Price doesn’t understand the meaning of  “false flag”, which the Sydney siege would have been if, say, a Methodist had gussied himself as a devotee of Allah in order to bring the religion of peace into disrepute. As it happens, there was no need for a Methodist to do this. 
Poor, bewildered Jenna. She’s probably still trying to figure out what DDT is.
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BRUTALITY DENOUNCED

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (3:25am)

An enraged fellow tells the Sydney Morning Herald: 
“Coming into Christmas, it is breathtaking in its brutality.” 
Is our breathless informant talking about this week’s deadly terrorist atrocity? No! He’s talking about his wife being made redundant at the ABC after more than two decades of tax feasting: 
He said she had been in floods of tears after being told she was on the list of people earmarked for redundancy …
“She feels like she has been treated with contempt.
“There was no recognition of all the work she has done or her achievements.” 
The terrible injustice continues: 
He said other reporters who had worked for more than 10 hours covering the Martin Place siege were also targeted for redundancy. 
More than 10 hours! What extraordinary dedication. Why, some of them may have even missed their afternoon yoga classes.
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STORY MISSED

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (1:40am)

On September 19, the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Anne Davies met Martin Place gunman Man Haron Monis at an Islamic rally in Lakemba: 
I approached him after the rally to ask him why he had attended. He was willing to talk and introduced himself as Sheik Haron.
“We just want to voice against injustice, and we want to express our feelings that this not a war against terrorism, it is a war against Muslims,” he told me …
My impression was he was a little unstable. He also seemed a little creepy. Ominously, he also told me he did not think giving speeches would be enough.
“I believe a speech is not enough. We have to do something,” he said in my interview with him. 
So why didn’t Davies run that quote in her subsequent story? 
I decided to drop his quotes from my story because I concluded he was a man on a campaign, who didn’t represent the broader sentiments of the Muslim community. 
Great reporting instincts there, scoop.
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YES, YES, YES, NO

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (1:08am)

CNN reports: 
Can you take non-Muslim women and children captive? Yes, says ISIS.
Can you have sex with them, even prepubescent girls? Yes, according to the Islamist extremist group.
Can you sell them or give them as gifts to others? The answer is yes, once again.
People in Mosul – the Iraqi city now under control of the group calling itself the Islamic State – got these and other messages loud and clear after sunset prayers Friday, when armed men handed out a color-printed pamphlet “Question and Answers on Female Slaves and their Freedom,” three residents told CNN. 
Will western feminists commence a Twitter outrage frenzy over this? No, they will not.
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RIDE THIS

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (12:46am)

Cuddlebunnies and hugwads worldwide have embraced the #illridewithyou self-congratulation movement. Iowahawk’s response:

image
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DROP THE DOG

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (12:35am)

Flabby young New Hampshire pet shop burglars can’t escape the law: 
Paul Manning is the owner of a 715 Lake Ave. apartment building, where the puppies were recovered in a first floor apartment. He said he woke up after hearing a cop across Peter Guillmette Field at Stevens Park, home of the Manchester East Little League, yell, “Drop the dog!”
Then, he said, he saw a teen, his shoes untied and his pants hanging well below his waist, start to run.
The police officers, who he estimated were in their 30s and 40s, easily chased down three teens, who Manning described as “out of shape and who couldn’t run. They had a good five minutes on the cops and they couldn’t get away,” he said. 
Kids these days.
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TWO LETTERS, BEGINNING WITH N

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (12:12am)

Extra-sensitive US universities granted exam extension to students who were traumatised by court rulings in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. One professor, however, offered this perfect single-word answer to a postponement request.
(Via Mr Bingley) 
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PICKY PICKERS

Tim Blair – Thursday, December 18, 2014 (12:04am)

Just a cute cider ad:

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The Left’s self-censorship is actually dangerous

Andrew Bolt December 18 2014 (12:55pm)

Anne Davies of the Sydney Morning Herald recalls the night she refused to report on the threats of gunman Man Haron Monis. See, she is one of many reporters who have censored their reporting of Islam - promoting a wilful and deadly blindness in the name of community harmony:
It was the night of September 19 this year, in the aftermath of the dawn raids on a dozen houses around south-west Sydney by the anti-terrorism squad. I had been sent out to report on the mood in the Muslim community and to attend an evening rally in Lakemba organised by Muslim organisation Hizb ut Tahrir ...
Among the angry crowd was a man dressed in a long white robe and an embroidered white cap… He was willing to talk and introduced himself as Sheik Haron.
“We just want to voice against injustice, and we want to express our feelings that this not a war against terrorism, it is a war against Muslims,” he told me…

My impression was he was a little unstable. He also seemed a little creepy. Ominously, he also told me he did not think giving speeches would be enough.
“I believe a speech is not enough. We have to do something,” he said in my interview with him.
When I got back to the office, I googled Sheik Haron and discovered he was a self-styled figure whose real name was Man Haron Monis. 
I found out about his battle in the High Court over the letters to ADF families, that he was charged with being an accessory before and after the fact of his ex-wife’s murder, and that he was facing two charges for sexual assault.
I decided to drop his quotes from my story because I concluded he was a man on a campaign, who didn’t represent the broader sentiments of the Muslim community.
I do not think that was a wise decision.
Similar squeamishness and self-censorship has been evident in much reporting on mass immigration, crime rates in some ethnic communities and the widespread rorting of our refugee intake. Monis, a fake refugee but real cleric and extremist, was the beneficiary of this self-censorship up to the moment he killed two Australians - Australians I believe deserved better warning from our media.
UPDATE
More self-censorship - of the kind already undertaken by our governments and the NSW police:

But Intelligent Risks director Neil Fergus said ...  the jury was still out on whether to label the Martin Place atrocity a terrorist act, even though it was meant to terrorise and Monis had adopted IS claims.
He said labelling a heinous criminal act a terrorist attack could risk encouraging copycat attempts by others.
His message: don’t mention the war, because more Muslims might join in.
UPDATE
Anne Davies’ refusal to report an implied threat from Man Haron Monis - “I believe a speech is not enough. We have to do something” - looks even stranger when you check what she and a colleague did file for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Davies’ excuse for not including the threat “is that I concluded he was a man on a campaign, who didn’t represent the broader sentiments of the Muslim community”.
Yet she did report Wassim Doureihi, spokesman for radical Hizb ut-Tahrir, who is campaigning for a caliphate and whose own reaction sounds sinister to me. She reported the comments of Keysar Trad, whose Islamic Friendship Society comprises, he told me, all of a dozen members.  And she reported wild claims of police brutality and targeting of Muslims:
Allegations of brutal tactics by counter-terrorism authorities and anti-Islam attacks on social media have sparked a wave of apprehension among Australia’s Muslims.
About 400 people attended a rally organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir at Lakemba railway station on Thursday night. Wassim Doureihi told the crowd that the community was deeply upset by the raids.
“What would be your reaction if your home was raided and your women dishonoured?” he said. “Let me say clearly, even if a single bomb went off, even if a thousand bombs went off in this country, all it will prove is that Muslims are angry.”
A youth whose family was raided on Thursday also addressed the crowd, but did not give his name.
He described how police had broken down the door. “I woke up to my mother screaming. This pig, this man, he tried to take the blanket off my mother when she was dressed like any woman would dress for her husband."…
Maywand Osman, who was detained during the raids but not arrested, said he raised his hands when confronted in the early hours of the morning and “four officers then jumped at me and one punched me in the face"…
Fairfax Media has also been told a woman was allegedly ordered to emerge from under her bedding by police and told she could not put on the Muslim headscarf. She was then allegedly manhandled and “beaten to the face”, according to a posting by the al-Risalah Islamic Centre’s Wissam Haddad.
Keysar Trad, spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association, said the allegations of brutality had spread like wildfire. Mr Trad said he felt appalled by the alleged terrorist plot but despondent about the subsequent criticism of Islam.
“Something like this comes up and the rednecks come out of the woodwork and say bad things about us, sending hate mail to mosques, threatening our women and children.”
Now note the tone of the article. Davies and her colleague reported inflammatory claims by hotheads of police overreaction, but deliberately omitted a sinister comment by a cleric that would have helped to illustrate the genuine threat the police were acting against. 
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Don’t mention the war!

Andrew Bolt December 18 2014 (7:28am)

Chris Kenny on the media Left’s lethal denialism and instinct to censor:
Nothing underlined the denial and delusion of the political class more than the statement by the Australian Press Council chairman Julian Disney chastising media coverage of what he called the “Sydney hostage incident”.
He was reacting to complaints about News Corp Australia’s Daily Telegraph and its special Monday afternoon edition linking the attack to Islamic State under the headline “Death cult CBD attack”.
The perpetrator of this atrocity defined himself by Islamism; a self-styled Shia cleric [converted to Sunni Islam], he objected to military action against the ­Taliban and was prosecuted for sending sickening letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan....

Holding 17 people at gunpoint in Martin Place (a location recommended by Islamic State) and claiming to have bombs, he unfurled a jihadist banner, demanded an Islamic State flag, declared his attack was one by Islamic State against Australia and demanded to speak to the Prime Minister....
Yet via Twitter the ABC’s [Jonathan] Green said the “connection” to the death cult was all “made up”.
Disney claims there were some “deeply regrettable ­errors and exaggerations, spreading dangerous misinformation” in the media coverage. Perhaps he was referring to ABC profiles of the gunman that failed to mention Islam, Muslim or Islamic State and denied links to terrorism. But we fear not. Green, Disney and their ilk suggest the real threat comes from bigots in an anti-­Muslim backlash.
Despite one arrest over a threatening call to a mosque, the people of our suburbs fail to fall to these ugly expectations. While the Twitterati offers to ride with Muslims, we can be grateful that Muslim men and women feel able to travel to Martin Place and lay down flowers in a show of shared grief with their fellow Australians.
And it is worth noting that Jewish children whose schools are guarded by armed security, and who suffered violent abuse on a bus earlier this year, never triggered a hashtag.
How did a man with Disney’s instincts get to be head of the Press Council? Why is the ABC, our biggest media organisation, staffed with denialists such as Green?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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The dud predictions that tell you the global warming scientists goofed

Andrew Bolt December 18 2014 (12:23am)

Global warming - dud predictions

image
NOT once when boarding a jet have I thought of ducking into the cockpit to give the pilot tips on engine thrust or fuel loads. He’s the expert. Still, if I’d booked for Bali only to land in Karachi I would know this: whatever the pilot’s credentials, he’d goofed. 

I thought such a principle was so obvious that all laymen would consult it in every contact with any professional. Your extension falls down? Sue the builder.
But in one tiny yet catastrophically expensive field of human endeavour this law has been suspended. Yes, climate science.
This is the science where one plus one can equal three one day and six the next — yet never may we question the expert.
This must change and I believe, finally, that it is. The common sense of the layman is at last being restored.
Hey, didn’t you guys say it would never flood? Then what’s this stuff that’s washed my car down the Queensland street? Hmm, didn’t you also predict runaway warming? So why these 16 years of non-warming? Think I’ll get me new experts.
See, after more than a decade of scares, we are now getting the years of the busted predictions — that “Er, this isn’t Bali” moment at the top of the aeroplane stairs.
Here are just some of those moments that give us not just a reason to doubt the alarmists, but a duty.
(Read full article here.  This is an excerpt from the book pictured above. To order, go here.) 
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Remember how Abbott was mocked for warning of terrorist attacks here?

Andrew Bolt December 18 2014 (12:18am)

Let us not forget who claimed that police raids and warnings of terror attacks in Australia were just an Abbott Government conspiracy, or even mocked the very idea of a man launching a terrorist attack here in the name of the Islamic State:

August 27 - Labor Senator Sue Lines:
It’s [the Government] hyping it up, it’s invented the term Team Australia - you’re either in the team or you’re out of the team… And it’s looking for opportunities in the media and elsewhere to try and scare the Australian public and to distract everyone from the budget.
August 27 - Labor MP Melissa Parke:
Govt losing debate on unfair budget so it just talks about terrorism. #qt
August 27 - Labor frontbencher Kim Carr:

This government is seeking to get away from discussion about real budgetary problems.
September 12 - Greg Barns of the Australian Lawyers Alliance:
Today’s announcement by Prime Minister Abbott that he is raising Australia’s terror threat level from medium to high should be treated warily. Politicians have a habit of raising fears of terrorist attacks on Australian soil when the evidence suggests that this is a case of rhetoric and reality not meeting eye to eye… Simply because ASIO and police might have heard some talk about terrorism and terrorist attacks by individuals does not mean that those individuals have any means of carrying out an attack… If no attack is imminent and Abbott says it is not, then why bother to make the announcement? For political reasons that’s why. Nothing like panic and fear to trample liberties and freedoms… One of the consequences of Abbott’s scare politics will be increased harassment of Australians from the Middle East and of Muslims. The racism and prejudice of Australia is unfortunately tattooed across the underbelly of this land ...
September 17 - Waleed Aly, terrorism lecturer and apologist for Islamism, interviewing Labor’s Tanya Plibersek on the ABC:
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.
September 18 - Sydney-based Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir:
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.
September 19 - The Canberra Times:
More cynical minds ... will argue that vindication of the Federal Government decision last week to raise Australia’s terrorism alert from medium to high may well have been on the minds of those who planned the raids.
September 19 - Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and the Australian National Imams Council:

Australians that they have nothing to fear from their Muslim neighbours… We call upon politicians and the media to refrain from using the raids to inflame hatred of certain segments of the community.
September 19 - former ABC Media Watch host Richard Ackland:
If a little scepticism was applied, questions would be asked as to why we had this sudden splash of commando bombast when this particular group in Sydney had been under surveillance since May. Suddenly it is crystallised into the need for immediate action – no questions asked.
September 22 - ABC Media Watch host Paul Barry:
IF all these plots cited in the Tele were really credible one might ask why only one of the 16 people arrested in last week’s raids is still in custody. And also why we were given given assurances by ASIO and the PM just ten days ago that nothing specific was being planned
September 23 - Bernard Keane in Crikey:
As for “more restrictions on some so that there can be more protections for others”, there could be few more worrying threats by a political leader, especially when it is clear that the “some” will be drawn almost exclusively from one community. The Muslim men deemed to have been using their phones in some sort of suspicious manner at a footy match; the baseless detention of a senior Muslim cleric by Customs; the dozens of homes of Muslim Australians raided last week without any charges resulting;...?—?all reflect that this is about the harassment of a single minority. And that harassment, to borrow Abbott’s phrasing, isn’t because of anything Muslim Australians have done, but because of who they are.
September 24 - Fairfax columnist and former ABC Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes:
ISIL is brutal, and merciless… But, whatever it “seeks to be”, it is not and never will be an existential threat to Australia. Yet so far as I know, only Crikey’s Bernard Keane has called George Brandis out on his alarmism...It was one call ... that precipitated last week’s raids ... and ... one young man was charged with a terrorism offence. As the government made sure we knew in double quick time, he had been urged by an ISIL activist in Syria to cut off the head of an innocent Australian. One Australian. There’s an existential threat for you… More and more laws to stop terrorists; fewer and fewer measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
November 3 - Walid Sabone on the ABC’s Q&A:
The Muslim community is still perplexed on the police raid of 20 Muslim homes. There were allegations of unnecessary force by the police, allegations that some of the suspects did not know each other and the police went to all this trouble and only achieved one arrest and seized one plastic sword [false]. How did the police get it so wrong ...
November 3 - Bilal Rauf on the ABC’s Q&A:
... if there is this gung-ho approach [to policing] almost, my real concern, as a member of this community and this society is this that, to the extent that there are people there who are uncertain or feeling disenfranchised, conduct like that will drive them in a particular direction.... Well, in the sense that that sense of disenfranchisement and despair will only increase. That feeling of being targeted will only become more manifest.
November 3 - Mohamad Abdalla to Attorney-General George Brandis on the ABC’s Q&A:
... it is important to unequivocally state to the Australian people from people well respected like yourself and our Prime Minister, that this is not a Muslim problem. This is a human problem that requires intensive and complex analysis to try to find out what are the root causes
Note their names and affiliations. Do not forget.
UPDATE
Nor forget this, in August:
Muslim leaders across Australia have denounced as unjust, unjustified and hypocritical proposed new counter-terrorism laws and they have refused to “rubber-stamp” them for the government.
In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, more than 60 individuals and organisations, including 10 sheikhs, said that the threat from the ostensible target of the laws - about 150 “radicalised” Muslims returning from Iraq or Syria - had been “trumped up”.
“There is no solid evidence to substantiate this threat. Rather, racist caricatures of Muslims as backwards, prone to violence and inherently problematic are being exploited,” the statement reads…
Australian Muslim Women’s Association head Silma Ihram ...  is a signatory to the statement from Muslim leaders, which vows not to rubber-stamp the laws.
The same Silma Ihram this week:

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Who gave the Sydney siege killer $60,000 of Legal Aid money to defend his jihad?

Andrew Bolt December 18 2014 (12:01am)

Carolyn Bond, national spokeswoman for Community Law Australia, demanded the Abbott Government hand over more cash for legal aid:
An independent economic cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the National Association of Community Legal Centres ... showed that every dollar spent by government on community legal centres returned, on average, $18 in economic benefit to society…
The Attorney-General has said he expects community legal centres to focus solely on providing legal assistance to individuals, objecting to what he refers to as ‘’lobbying campaigns’’.
His approach ignores the efficiency and preventive benefits of law reform and policy advocacy…
If the Coalition truly supports access to justice, it should expand legal assistance services. 
Here’s one reason the money for legal aid isn’t enough - and it sure didn’t deliver “an economic benefit to Australia”:

THE Sydney siege killer cost taxpayers an estimated $120,000 to run his failed appeals against convictions for sending hateful letters to bereaved families of fallen Australian soldiers.

Deranged self-appointed cleric Man Haron Monis twice took his case to the High Court, seeking to overturn his conviction, which ordered he undertake 300 hours of community service for posting taunting letters and DVDs to grieving families of seven Diggers killed in Afghanistan and an Australian diplomat killed in a Jakarta terrorist bombing.
Arguing an inferred constitutional right to free political speech, Monis’s first High Court challenge was lost by default after a split decision and last week’s leave to appeal application was dismissed.
Both cases were funded by Legal Aid.
A senior legal counsel said that, including preparation, the cases would have cost taxpayers at least $60,000 for Monis’s side alone, and a similar amount for the Commonwealth.
To rub salt into the wounds, Man Haron Monis hated this country and took our dole for a decade. Having contributed nothing but fatherless children and a dead ex-wife, Legal Aid still steers some $60,000 of your money his way to help Monis get away with his jihad.
Seriously?
Are some judicial activists stark staring crazy? 
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How Australia has been enriched by mass immigration

Andrew Bolt December 18 2014 (12:00am)

Another update on the success of government programs for mass immigration from the Middle East:
FEDERAL and Victorian police say they have shut down a multi-million-dollar international drug ring after charging eight people following raids across Melbourne. 

The joint taskforce seized what is believed to be 15kg of heroin worth more than $4.5 million, and what is believed to be 8kg of ecstasy tablets with a street value in excess of $1.5 million…
Prosecutor Julian Ayres told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court many of thousands of phone calls intercepted by police would have to be translated from languages including Turkish, Pashto and Dari.
Ali Aydin, 40, Mohammad Osman, 49, Rami Margus, 23, Kazem Hamad, 30, and Mohammed Baset Wahab, 26, briefly faced court charged with trafficking a large commercial quantity of heroin…

Mr Wahab is a friend of Antonios Mokbel, the son of Tony Mokbel’s older brother, Horty Mokbel, who is himself a convicted drug trafficker.
Pashto and Dari are spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mokbel is a Lebanese name.
(No comments.) 
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Post by Dr. Ben Carson.

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Post by George Takei.

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Post by Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC).

They get it .. they produce this to fight reason
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=== Posts from last year ===

Self-inflicted wounds an opening for enemies

Miranda Devine – Wednesday, December 18, 2013 (9:04am)

ON its 100th day in power the Abbott government shot itself in the foot.
Appointing avowed leftist Natasha Stott Despoja to a bogus job as Australia’s Global Ambassador for Women and Girls is a betrayal of conservatives on every level.
It’s stupid, cowardly and ultimately self-defeating.
Having faded into relative obscurity in Adelaide, Stott Despoja, 44, has already used her platform to highlight the gender imbalance in the Abbott government and her opposition to offshore processing.
Did anyone tell Scott Morrison? Nope.
The former Democrats leader is pleasant enough, but she holds all the orthodox leftist-feminist views that have proved so toxic for the nation.
This is a woman who invited convicted terrorist David Hicks to her Senate retirement party.
This is a woman who launched a book for Bob Ellis, whose previous book had been pulped because of scurrilous claims about Tony Abbott and Peter Costello’s wife.
This is a woman who branded John Howard “mean-spirited”, and his policies “callous and unacceptable”. She politicized the abortion debate, and attacked Abbott, when he was Health Minister, on everything from a pregnancy counseling hotline, to human cloning and a republic.
This is a woman who gave a standing ovation to Julia Gillard during an election campaign event in 2010, as part of an adoring crowd alongside Joan Kirner. That was a couple of months after she wrote a piece for Fairfax criticising Labor … for “joining” the Coalition in a “race to the bottom” on offshore processing.
This is a woman who wasted no time telling the ABC on Monday night that she would be giving the government “honest and upfront advice” about its treatment of asylum seekers. Oh, and she was just about to head to Nauru where she hoped to see “first hand” Australia’s offshore processing centre.
She also opined on the dearth of women in the Abbott cabinet.
“I think the irony is not lost”.
Stott Despoja’s appointment does not redress the gender imbalance in the government. It just puts it up in neon lights.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s choice of the woman she says is known simply as “Natasha” comes straight after Industry minister Ian Macfarlane’s inexplicable appointment of union warhorse Greg Combet to an IR panel.
Suddenly Abbott’s over-praising of Kevin Rudd the day he resigned from parliament, and needless sideswipe at Howard, look like attempts to curry favour with enemies.
Hello? Appeasing the left is not a winning strategy.
Government insiders claim they are striving to be bipartisan, following the “Rudd template”, if you can believe it.
They claim handing out a few low-level appointment to leftists will give them political cover for when they give serious jobs to partisan individuals from their own side.
But that doesn’t pass the sniff test. It is an attempt to justify a cowardly sop to the misogyny police.
After all, having Julie Bishop as the only female minister in Abbott’s inner sanctum gives her inordinate power - and denying her the “women and girls” ambassador role she describes as “pivotal to our foreign policy priorities “ must have seeemed more trouble than it was worth.
Even if the cover story were true, cheap political tricks wasting taxpayer money on useless jobs are no way for a serious government to behave.
In a flurry of activity yesterday, the government made two appointments belatedly to appease their own troops. Former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella gets a comparatively unglamorous role on the board of a shipbuilding firm.
Tim Wilson from the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs was also announced as the Human Rights Commissioner. But why have a Human Rights Commission at all? It’s just another $30 million haven for leftists, no matter who’s the boss.
Exactly how much the Australian taxpayer is paying for its Ambassador for Women and Girls has been difficult to ascertain.
After two days of inquiries from two reporters, a spokeswoman from the Department of Foreign Affairs divulged that Stott Despoja would be paid a daily rate “according to the Remuneration Tribunal Rates for a Category 3 Chairperson”. That appears to be $698 a day, with $493 a day accommodation and $170 a day for meals within Australia.
“Tier 1” travel benefits provide first class travel to all those lovely UN meetings in New York.
No wonder Stott Despoja describes it as her “dream job”.
Whatever the final total, the government is nuts to spend a cent on feminist posturing that will likely alienate our regional neighbours.
The Ambassador for Women and Girls is just a trick job that Julia Gillard dreamed up as part of her misogyny capers back in 2011.
And what about boys? They’re children too. On any number of measures they are more vulnerable - literacy, suicide, child mortality. Why exclude them?
In one fell swoop the Abbott government has made itself look weak and foolish.
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Staying firm on history of war

Miranda Devine – Wednesday, December 18, 2013 (6:01am)

WAR Memorial director Brendan Nelson fumbled badly when he tried to replace Kipling’s iconic quotation “Known unto God” on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with a Paul Keating quote.
He compounded the error by giving the divisive former PM free rein on Remembrance Day to patronise the World War I Digger whose remains are in that tomb - as witless “cannon fodder”.
But Nelson may have redeemed himself.
Fears were swirling that he would buckle to pressure from leftist historians such as Henry Reynolds to devote an exhibit at the War Memorial to the “Frontier Wars”, already well covered in the National Museum up the road.
As Quadrant editor Keith Windschuttle writes in the magazine’s upcoming January edition, Reynolds’ latest book Forgotten War is an attempt to “depose the history of the landing at Anzac Cove in 1915 as the symbolic founding event of the Australian nation."In its place, [Reynolds wants to] substitute the history of frontier conflict between British colonists and Aborigines.”
Reynolds sneers at “what he called ‘the ongoing carnival of military commemoration’ in the histories supported by… the Australian War Memorial in the lead-up to the centenary of Anzac in 2015”, says historian Windschuttle.
To his credit, Nelson has managed to stand firm.
“The Memorial’s official role is to develop a memorial for Australians who have died on, or as a result of, active service,” a spokeswoman said yesterday.
“The definition does not include internal conflicts between the Indigenous populations and the colonial powers of the day.”
If a Labor government were still in office, chances are Reynolds would have won the history war. 
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16 OF 26

Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 18, 2013 (3:25am)

James Anderson’s defensive prod against Mitchell Johnson in Perth delivers the Ashes to Australia:

image

This astonishing result follows fifteen earlier contests during which the England team were usually in control –until recently. Now, for the first time, Australia ties for wins in the great dual-hemisphere cricket contest and is ahead on overall runs. Current standings:
Australia: Six wins, 6364 runs
England: Six wins, 5698 runs
Three draws
One match abandoned
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The two Tims: why the Abbott Government cannot compromise with those now savaging Tim Wilson

Andrew Bolt December 17 2013 (5:37pm)


One Tim was a Liberal and a member of a conservative think tank. Here is how the ABC greeted his appointment today by a Coalition Government to the Human Rights Commission::
But first to Canberra where the Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has just appointed a director from one of Australia’s most conservative think tanks to be Australia’s next Human Rights Commissioner. 
The Institute of Public Affairs has previously called for the commission to be disbanded. But the new appointee, Tim Wilson, says he’ll now be focusing on the promotion of freedom of speech. Mr Brandis defended his decision saying that under the previous government, the Australian Human Rights Commission had become increasingly narrow and selective in its view of human rights, and the appointment of Mr Wilson will help to restore the balance.
The other Tim was a Labor member and staffer to Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr, and a member of a Leftist think tank. Here is how the ABC greeted his appointment by a Labor Government to the Human Rights Commission just five months ago:
Political commentator Tim Soutphommasane has been appointed as Australia’s new Race Discrimination Commissioner.
Dr Soutphommasane, a first-generation Australian of Chinese and Lao background, is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights at the University of Sydney…
He has written for newspapers and his book Don’t Go Back To Where You Came From won the 2013 NSW Premier’s Literary Award…
Australian Human Rights Commission president Professor Gillian Triggs welcomed the appointment. “Dr Soutphommasane is an influential thinker, writer and broadcaster who has substantially contributed to national discussions about diversity and national identity,” Professor Triggs said…

Dr Soutphommasane is also a board member of the National Australia Day Council, a member of the Australian Multicultural Council and a fellow of Per Capita and the St James Ethics Centre.
ABC chairman Jim Spigelman wants evidence of ABC bias? Here it is.
Anyone else wanting evidence of the Left’s sense of entitlement to control of all such bureaucracies, here it is - with savagery thrown in:

image
Remember that Wilson’s threat to the Left is that he wishes we had more freedom to speak. Now check again the tweets of some enemies of that freedom - commentators and journalists from the ABC and Fairfax in particular, along with a Greens senator.  Note the sheer hatred and hypocrisy - the refusal to countenance any Liberal appointment, even as the token libertarian. And bear in mind that Wilson is in many ways the kind of conservative even the ABC should tolerate - a gay man who is in favor of a form of same sex marriage and is more a libertarian than conservative.
The Abbott Government had better wake up. There is zero chance of it ever placating its intellectual enemies with any compromise to its agenda. It is in a cultural war, so it may as well be hated by its foes for following its principles than despised by its friends for offering compromises to those who will accept none.
Just go for it. The haters gotta hate anyway.
PS:
Imagine the screams if the ABC now hired a conservative as a TV current affairs host…
UPDATE
Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, surely the most sanctimonious Labor MP in federal politics, “questions” Wilson’s appointment:

By appointing Mr Wilson, Senator Brandis has sent a strong signal about exactly the kind of blatant political agenda he wishes to pursue as Attorney-General,” Mr Dreyfus said.
Dreyfus is either a fool or a hypocrite. You’d think from his statement that no Labor government had ever appointed an activist of the Left to the Human Right Commission: But let’s check who Wilson is joining as a commissioner
President

Professor Gillian Triggs – appointed by the Gillard Government. Backed Labor’s plans for further restrictions to our free speech.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner 
Mick Gooda – appointed by the Rudd Government. Advertised speaker on ”Building a Stronger Left” at the Australian Left Renewal Conference in April.
Age Discrimination Commissioner
Susan Ryan - former minister in the Hawke Labor Government, and appointed commissioner by the Gillard Government.
Children’s Commissioner
Megan Mitchell – former CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service, and appointed commissioner by the Gillard Government.
Disability Discrimination Commissioner

Graeme Innes – widely criticised for whipping up a social media to attack Myer for not introducing a 10 per cent quota of disabled workers, something not required under any law or HRC policy.  
Race Discrimination Commissioner

Tim Soutphommasane – former Labor member, staffer to Bob Carr and Kevin Rudd and member of Left-wing Per Capita think tank. A supporter of the apology, but not a giver of one.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner
Elizabeth Broderick – gender warrior who presented Prime Minister Julia Gillard as a victim of the media.
So what makes Wilson different? What makes him the target of so much media outrage?
Simple: he’s a conservative, appointed to a taxpayer-funded activist body the Left claims for its own.
Squeals from the golden trough. 
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ScreenHunter_271 Dec. 16 20.05
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Vu Ho loses battle to keep his pet | Freedomwatch
freedomwatch.ipa.org.au
Melbourne man Vu Ho was sentenced by the High Court last Friday to surrender property and pay legal fees estimated at around $200,000.
  • John Tran Baaaaa, go, the spirit of Vietnamese defiance.. Did I tell you that we have a thousand year history of just defying the powers that be, for no reason at all!

  • John Tran Maybe Castle2 will have Anh Do and his duck called "Dinner".

  • John Tran "For this story is an example of two things: a) the petty authoritarianism of government and b) the brilliant bloody-mindedness of some of its victims. Vu, by the way, is used to fighting tyrants. When the council chose to make an example of him it probably didn’t realise it was taking on one of Vietnam’s toughest dissidents. In the 1970s, Vu tried to start his own democratic revolution in communist Vietnam, by printing forged documents for the resistance out of a secret headquarters that he set up opposite Saigon police quarters. His cojones only got bigger over time. Vu built himself a gun that looked like a pen and taught himself how to make explosives. The commies caught him and threw him in prison where he was sentenced to four years in Hell. He convinced the guards to put him in charge of security (how?!) and slipped away into the jungle on New Year’s Eve. Vu ran through the jungle for two hours with a broken foot, took a truck to Saigon, laid low, fashioned a boat, carried the vessel along the coast to avoid the police and then sailed to Thailand. From there he gained refugee status in Australia, where he’s lived since 1981 as a quiet, unassuming mechanic with broken English. In short, Vu Ho is a freaking legend."
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<Watching staff working at maccers is like watching busy black ants. They are all scurrying around doing something. You just aren't sure exactly what they are doing & they probably have no clue either, except you're still waiting on your frozen come 5 mins later!>
That exciting new service McDonalds is providing .. is it Australia wide or only the ACT? Would they ration it in the NT? Is it in the main queue, or is there a select queue? Is it part of the breakfast menu? - ed
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<*Chuckles*. No inconsistency whatsoever with joining an organisation you once criticised.Don't these shrieking leftie dills understand precisely that an organisation changes when its leadership changes? For instance, the ABC under the present leadership warrants criticism and calls for dismantling. The ABC under Jason Fong, on the other hand would deserve effusive praise and an increase in funding. >
Tim Wilson appointment to Human Rights Commission stirs controversy
www.canberratimes.com.au
The Abbott government has sent shockwaves through the anti-discrimination and political establishments by appointing one of the nation's most vociferous critics to the Human Rights Commission.
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Image taken from page 284 of 'Monsieur At Home. (From notes made ... in France.)'
www.flickr.com
Image taken from: Title: "Monsieur At Home. (From notes made ... in France.)" Author: RHODES, Albert. Shelfmark: "British Library HMNTS 10168.bbb.27." Page: 284 Place of Publishing: London Date of Publishing: 1885 Publisher: Field & Tuer Issuance: monographic Identifier: 003085791 Note: The colours,...
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Bush's values different to .. (from boy on a bike) 

1. Country
2. Ideology/values
3. Party

He there describes himself as an American first, a conservative second and a Republican third. The good of the country is more important than the good of the party. He is happy to beat the crap out of the Republicans if they stray from the true path. And he does. Daily.

The left view it this way:

1. Party
2. Ideology/values
3. Country

Labor values, and the good of the country, take second and third places to the party gaining power.

Ideologues like Gillard use:

1. Ideology/values
2. Party
3. Country

She trashed the Labor Party by being true to her socialist values.

Rudd is:

1. Rudd
2. Rudd
3. Rudd

This is why the left and right will never see eye to eye. Their frameworks are completely different.>
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The Abbott Government had better wake up
catallaxyfiles.com
Andrew Bolt has added one more post after his Christmas farewell and just in case you might miss it, let me link to it. Titled, The two Tims: why the Abbott Government cannot compromise with those ...
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Freedom on the offensive - George Brandis prepares a human rights trap
www.theaustralian.com.au
GEORGE Brandis is setting a diabolical trap for Labor and the Greens. He intends to force them to declare. Do they believe in human rights, or simply in pandering to complaining constituencies in exchange for political support?
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“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.””Matthew 1:20-21 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"I remember thee."
Jeremiah 2:2
Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church, and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love; we desire always to have our precious things in our sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity "His delights were with the sons of men;" his thoughts rolled onward to the time when his elect should be born into the world; he viewed them in the mirror of his foreknowledge. "In thy book," he says, "all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:16). When the world was set upon its pillars, he was there, and he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. Many a time before his incarnation, he descended to this lower earth in the similitude of a man; on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho (Jos. 5:13), and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the Son of Man visited his people. Because his soul delighted in them, he could not rest away from them, for his heart longed after them. Never were they absent from his heart, for he had written their names upon his hands, and graven them upon his side. As the breastplate containing the names of the tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the high priest, so the names of Christ's elect were his most precious jewels, and glittered on his heart. We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but he never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past forgetfulness, and pray for grace ever to bear him in fondest remembrance. Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image of thy Son.

Evening

"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
John 10:9
Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of access to God himself. He gives to the man who comes to God by him four choice privileges.
1. He shall be saved. The fugitive manslayer passed the gate of the city of refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door of the ark, and was secure. None can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls. Entrance through Jesus into peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same door into heaven. Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door; and blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory upon the crucified Redeemer.
2. He shall go in. He shall be privileged to go in among the divine family, sharing the children's bread, and participating in all their honours and enjoyments. He shall go in to the chambers of communion, to the banquets of love, to the treasures of the covenant, to the storehouses of the promises. He shall go in unto the King of kings in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the secret of the Lord shall be with him.
3. He shall go out. This blessing is much forgotten. We go out into the world to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to go in the name and power of Jesus! We are called to bear witness to the truth, to cheer the disconsolate, to warn the careless, to win souls, and to glorify God; and as the angel said to Gideon, "Go in this thy might," even thus the Lord would have us proceed as his messengers in his name and strength.
4. He shall find pasture. He who knows Jesus shall never want. Going in and out shall be alike helpful to him: in fellowship with God he shall grow, and in watering others he shall be watered. Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well of water whose waters fail not.

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Today's reading: Amos 7-9, Revelation 8 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Amos 7-9

Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line
1 This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
3 So the LORD relented.
“This will not happen,” the LORD said.
4 This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
6 So the LORD relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign LORD said.
7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer...."

Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 8

The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer
1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake....
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