Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Tue Dec 16th Todays News

Tribute to heroes 
It is easy to look at evil and project what isn't there. To see the motives and activity of a mad man and impute worse. It came to light following the siege that the bail laws which allowed the jihadist to pursue his end are scheduled to change. The change was opposed by the ALP and was treated with suspicion by independents. But a focus on the jihadist is not necessary right now. ISIL death cult have accepted his blood tribute, but the wider Islamic community has condemned it. Even Islamic Friendship Society leader Keysar Trad admitted that the display of the Shahada was blasphemous. But how does the face of love see the tragedy? How does one absorb the sacrifice, and move forward with the spirit that is humbled, but resolute? A mother of three young children went to a chocolate cafe and did not come home. Some will dismiss her as being a lawyer and high flyer. But after being denied the right of every mother to go home to to her family, she chose to defend and protect another woman who was pregnant. There is no doubt she would have wanted to go home. But because of her choice, that is forever denied. Her choice showed her character, and it is something that should make us .. what? Proud? Humble? Determined? She met evil by showing the face of love. And she was not alone. A manager, male had started the day leading his work force being positive in the face of customers who can be demanding and a little unfriendly. He had to be a positive force to get his employees to smile and be cheerful and professional. He had family too, a mother and father and brothers and sisters and a life partner. No one has a life partner without having a hope and ambition for their life. But at 2 am, when staff and other hostages went to escape a dozing jihadist, this manager chose to make sure that the jihadist didn't shoot and kill others. He went for the gun. And so the jihadist killed him and started that final raid. Responsibility is not an emotion, but actions are a choice. The manager did not choose to die. He chose to protect others. And as you stare into the eyes of the face of love, be humbled. It bleeds and suffers and sacrifices today as it did a hundred years before when men with that face marched to war. They had hopes for a future too. Don't despise the choice. Honour the names of the heroes and embrace those who have lost. And be thankful for that love that perseveres when the rational fails. Thank you Katrina Dawson, 38, and Tori Johnson, 34.
2013
Press Gallery are easily manipulated by those saying what they want to hear. But if someone tells the truth, and they don't like it, they can figuratively put their hands over their ears and call out "La la la la." Phillip Adams tweets how disturbed he is by NRMA. I feel that way some times. Makes me want to register with the NRA, buy a rifle and .. defend myself. Two fraudsters stood side by side as Mandela was remembered. Sadly, they did not recognise each other, and so missed an opportunity to talk shop. Now that the ALP has lost an election, maybe it is time to consider banning it. We have to be democratic about it, we could start by removing any ABC employee who had heard of the ALP and thought they were a responsible political party. My church is culturally diverse and welcoming. So we probably aren't wanted in East London.

Did the ALP spend enough when they were in government? Craig Thomson has some expense issues related to his time in office. Greens profit from AGW alarmism. Advocates of drowning profit from weak boat person policy.

IPA in support of free speech is the organisation championing Australian Democracy.
Historical perspective on this day
In 714, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, died at Jupille (modern Belgium). He was succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude held actual power in the Frankish Kingdom. In 755, An Lushan revolted against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellionduring the Tang Dynasty of China. In 1431, Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England was crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris. In 1497, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal. In 1575, An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 struck Valdivia, Chile. In 1598, Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang – The final battle of the Seven Year War was fought between the China and the Korean allied forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive allied forces victory. In 1653, English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1689, Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right was embodied in the Bill of Rights. In 1707, Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan. In 1761, Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev took the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg. In 1773, American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

In 1811, The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. In 1826, Benjamin W. Edwards rode into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declared himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia. In 1838, Great Trek: Battle of Blood River – Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In 1850, the Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand. In 1863, American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaced Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. In 1864, American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeated Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee. In 1903, Taj Mahal Palace Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to the guests. In 1907, the American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world. In 1912, First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeated the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.In 1914, World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombarded the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough. In 1918,  Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declared the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In 1920, the Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocked the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000. In 1922, President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz was assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw. In 1927, Donald Bradman made his debut in first-class cricket for New South Wales against South Australia. Batting at No. 7, he scored a century. In 1930, bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew were killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana. In 1937, Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither was ever seen again. In 1938, Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honor of the German Mother. In 1941, World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak. In 1942, The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler ordered that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz. In 1944, World War II: The Battle of the Bulge began with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest. In 1946, Thailand joins the United Nations. In 1947, William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain built the first practical point-contact transistor.

In 1950, Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declared a state of emergency, after Chinese troops entered the fight in support of communist North Korea. In 1957, Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaced Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan. In 1960, New York mid-air collision, the mid-air collision of a United Airlines flight with a TWA flight near Idlewild Airport that killed 133. In 1965, Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sent U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966. In 1968, Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain. In 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brought an end to both conflicts. This was commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India. Also, the United Kingdom recognized Bahrain's independence. This was commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day. In 1978, Cleveland, Ohio, became the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression. In 1979, Libya joined four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which had an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.

In 1985, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti were shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumed leadership of New York's Gambino crime family. In 1986, Gennady Kolbin replaced Dinmukhamed Konayev as First Secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party, prompting the Jeltoqsan protests which began the next day. In 1989, Romanian Revolution: Protests broke out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés. In 1989, U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr. In 1991, Kazakhstan gained its independence from the Soviet Union. In 1997, a Japanese airing of the "Dennō Senshi Porygon" episode of Pokémon induced seizures in 685 viewers. In 2012, a gang rape in Delhi sparked widespread demonstrations across India. In 2013, a bus fell from an elevated highway in Manila, Philippines, killing at least 18 people and injuring 20 others.
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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 Isaias Moreno and to those born on this day, across the years
Battle of the Bulge
You defeated the foe. You have rights. You weathered the final offensive. You dismissed the hindrance. You shared a ride on a bus. Now we can party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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The noxious and naive Left

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, December 16, 2014 (8:03pm)

THE giant mound of flowers in Martin Place said it all. The evil of the Lindt cafe siege gently ­expunged by the love of thousands of strangers who came on Tuesday to pay their respects to the dead and express sorrow for the survivors.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The noxious and naive Left'
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CALL THEM OUT

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 16, 2014 (4:45pm)

A remarkably prescient 2009 piece on Man Haron Monis/Sheik Haron by the ABC’s Rachael Kohn:
Sheik Haron, as he calls himself, can seem a bit too loony to take seriously, but this is a mistake. The self-styled mufti is no shrinking violet when it comes to promoting hatred of the West and justifying violence in the name of Allah. Nor is he lacking funds to produce his elaborate propaganda.
I have been one of his targets, along with other public figures, including the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Melbourne magistrate, Judge Peter Reardon, who presided over the case of five men charged with planning a terrorist attack against the Holsworthy Army base.
I have read the sheik’s faxes, letters on custom letterhead, and CDs in which he openly promoted the glorious calling of jihad against the West and celebrated the deaths of Australians in war and in the Victorian bushfires ...
In the many media conferences and interfaith meetings I’ve attended, Muslims have regularly complained that the media cast them in a poor light.
However valid that complaint may be, it loses all credibility when they don’t go after the radicals in their community.
If they don’t, the media will do it for them.
And in the case of Sheik Haron, he was really very hard to miss. 
Happily, NSW police discovered exactly the same thing earlier this morning.
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NATIONWIDE COFFEE CLUB

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 16, 2014 (4:41pm)

Reader Fred suggests a Twitter campaign to support Australians who fear being murdered by Islamic extremists: 
#i’llgetcoffeewithyou 
UPDATE. Mark Steyn on the “I’ll ride with you” narcissists: 
Usually the Muslims-fear-backlash crowd at least waits till the terrorist atrocity is over. In this case the desiccated multiculti saps launched the #I’llRideWithYou campaign even as the siege was still ongoing - while Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson were still alive. Muslims are not the victims here. Ms Dawson and Mr Johnson are the victims. And yet the urge to usher Muslims into the victim chair and massage their tender sensibilities is now so reflexive the narcissists on Twitter don’t even have the good taste to wait till the siege is over and the corpse count is known. 
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SYDNEY SIEGE: POLICE CHARGE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 16, 2014 (2:32am)

Police stormed the Lindt Café a short time ago following the escape of several more hostages. A massive amount of gunfire ensued. Paramedics are now recovering people from inside the café. At least one appears to be seriously injured.

UPDATE. Police confirm that the siege is over. Four people are understood to be injured, including one police officer.
UPDATE II. To no great surprise, the now-dead terrorist turns out to have been quite a piece of work: 
Self-described cleric, Man Maron Monis, 50, first came to attention of police when he penned poisonous letters to the family of dead Australian soldiers.
Last year he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife and mother of two. 
image 
And most recently, he was charged with more than 50 allegations of indecent and sexual assault relating to time allegedly spent as a self-proclaimed “spiritual healer” who dealt with black magic at a premises in western Sydney more than a decade ago. 
image 
Monis, who has also gone by the names of Sheikh Haron and Mohammad Hassan Manteghi, was born in Iran and most recently has been living at Bexley North in Sydney’s south. 
Further on that murder charge: 
Monis, who arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1996, has been charged with being an accessory before and after the fact to the murder of his ex-wife, allegedly stabbed and set alight in a stairwell of her Sydney apartment complex last year. 
Despite the gravity of the various charges he faced, Monis was free on bail.
UPDATE III. Perhaps annoyed by reports that his crappy cafe display flag wasn’t extreme enough – Waleed Aly referred to it on Ten as a “generic” flag that “anybody” could obtain – Monis yesterday demanded a more impressive Islamic State flag: 
Channel Ten said it had spoken to two of the hostages inside the cafe and the man holding them had made a series of demands.
“Our TenNews team have spoken directly to 2 hostages inside the cafe… They are confirming 2 demands from the perpetrator,” the network tweeted.
“He needs the ISIL flag to be directly delivered to the cafe; And his 2nd request is to speak to the Prime Minster.” 
Summary from Jim Geraghty: “After last night’s extensive debate about whether the hostage-taker had an ‘official’ lSIS flag, he asks for an ISIS flag.” The Sydney Morning Herald initially reported the flag demand, but then pulled the report because it broke a police-requested embargo. By then, other outlets had already picked up the story: 
The Lindt Chocolat Cafe hostage taker has requested for an IS flag, Sydney Morning Herald reported citing a Muslim community leader as saying.
“The man inside the cafe said that if police could get him an IS flag, then he would release some hostages,” said the leader.
Possession of the IS flag is illegal in Australia. “A contact I know from Counter Terrorism phoned me four or five times Monday asking if I could find them an IS flag, in a hurry. At one stage I had a team of people trying to find one,” the leader said.
After receiving the calls, the community leader rang everyone she knew.
“I must have called 50 people trying to find an IS flag. I found plenty of people who had one, but they didn’t want to give them up. They also believed that the police were trying set them up,” the leader said.
Interesting. Meanwhile, one hostage is reported to have been killed either before or during the police operation.
UPDATE IV. On Sky, ex-ABC presenter Jim Middleton is already talking down the Islamic elements of Monis’s siege. Jim Treacher satirises perfectly the media’s gutless whitewash impulse:

image 
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Is this really about not liking “white” Australia very much?

Andrew Bolt December 16 2014 (6:23pm)

The ABC promotes the compassion of Tessa Kum, who responds to a Muslim shooting non-Muslims by feeling compassion for Muslims:
Inspired by other acts of generosity that she’d read about on social media, Tessa Kum invited anyone wearing religious attire who was afraid for their safety to ride alongside her on public transport. In an emotional interview, she spoke with Ellen Fanning about the success of her hashtag, #illridewithyou.
What made you post the tweet?
‘It was very much a sort of breaking point for me. I sort of saw another tweet online indicating another woman’s act of kindness and I simply felt that there needed to be more of that in the world.
She’d done a very simple thing—she had seen a distressed Muslim woman on a train take off her hijab and had approached that woman at the train station and simply said, “Put it back on, I’ll walk with you”. That broke my heart a little bit.
It just seemed that a simple way of promoting that kindness would be to say if anybody catching public transport didn’t feel comfortable just because of what they were wearing, I would sit next to them, so they weren’t alone.
Tessa Kum showed more of her compassion last month - the kind of anti-racism that actually sounds to me exactly like the racism it condemns:
I’m learning about hate because I am coming to hate you, white person. You have all the control, all the power, all the privilege, and there is nothing holding you accountable. I hate the double standards and hypocrisy you display, the rank dishonesty of your conduct. I hate that you can harm us, when we cannot harm you. 
Some of those who respond to Muslim terrorism by demanding more sympathy for Muslims are well-meaning. Others remind me uncomfortably of the adage: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
UPDATE
Mark Steyn on the “I’ll ride with you” compassionistas:
Usually the Muslims-fear-backlash crowd at least waits till the terrorist atrocity is over. In this case the desiccated multiculti saps launched the #I’llRideWithYou campaign even as the siege was still ongoing - while Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson were still alive. Muslims are not the victims here. Ms Dawson and Mr Johnson are the victims. And yet the urge to usher Muslims into the victim chair and massage their tender sensibilities is now so reflexive the narcissists on Twitter don’t even have the good taste to wait till the siege is over and the corpse count is known.
(Thanks to readers King Coal of Newcastle and J.) 
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Why wasn’t Monis denounced before - when Rachel Kohn warned about him?

Andrew Bolt December 16 2014 (6:16pm)

The ABC’s Rachel Kohn wondered five years ago why our Muslim leaders had so little to say about Man Haron Monis aka Sheik Haron aka the Lindt shop killer:

Some Sydneysiders would remember Haron as the Iranian refugee Manteghi Boroujerdi, who chained himself to the front fence of the New South Wales Parliament in January 2001, insisting that the Federal Government bring his wife and children to Australia.
Then, as now, he is given to extreme attention seeking behaviour. The difference is that then he claimed to be a liberal and convinced Stephen Crittenden to describe him as such on ABC Radio National’s The Religion Report [January 31, 2001]…
He has recently been charged by the AFP for unlawfully using the postal service to “menace, harass or cause offence” to the families of deceased Australian soldiers…
Islam, they say, is not about the violent jihad which terrorists espouse, it is about peace. Yet in Australia, the Muslim community missed an opportunity to expose, denounce and shut down the antics of a religious extremist, who for at least the past two years has been using the internet, CDs and other means justifying violent jihad.
The trouble is that Sheik Haron, as he calls himself, can seem a bit too loony to take seriously, but this is a mistake. The self-styled mufti is no shrinking violet when it comes to promoting hatred of the West and justifying violence in the name of Allah…
I have been one of his targets, along with other public figures, including the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Melbourne magistrate, Judge Peter Reardon, who presided over the case of five men charged with planning a terrorist attack against the Holsworthy Army base [The Australian, Aug 26 2009].
I have read the sheik’s faxes, letters on custom letterhead, and CDs in which he openly promoted the glorious calling of jihad against the West and celebrated the deaths of Australians in war and in the Victorian bushfires…
During a week when everyone in the media pointed the finger at the Christian group, Catch the Fire Ministries, which interpreted the Victorian bushfires as God’s revenge on the Victorian government that had recently passed legislation legalising abortion, I announced in my February 15 edition of The Spirit of Things on ABC Radio National that the ‘renegade Sheik Haron’ had propagated an equally extreme view.
This promptly elicited a letter from his lawyer to the ABC, alleging defamation because I used the word “renegade”, which he believed impugned his religious credentials. My intention was more prosaic, to distinguish Haron from most Australian Muslims, who, I assumed, would not agree with his take on the 171 deaths in the Victorian bushfires as an act of Allah’s retribution.
Not that I had any reassurances from Muslims about it - I didn’t....
In the many media conferences and interfaith meetings I’ve attended, Muslims have regularly complained that the media cast them in a poor light.
However valid that complaint may be, it loses all credibility when they don’t go after the radicals in their community.
If they don’t, the media will do it for them.
And in the case of Sheik Haron, he was really very hard to miss. 
Note the silence of the Muslim community, the whitewashing of an extremist by an ABC presenter, the double standards when discussing Christianity and Islam, and the use of the law to stifle critical debates. All of it so familiar, so deadly.
Reader the evil right remembers another piece on the ABC frothing at calls to deport the hate-preacher:
Here we have an abc journo attacking AB for calling for this man to be deported

Recently, the same talkback hosts who have spent the past week frothing about Bolt’s rights were calling for the deportation or worse of Man Monis, the self-styled religious leader who was allegedly writing offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers.
UPDATE
On the ABC’s The Drum this morning, this prayer from Dr Kathleen McGuire, only too quick to show her superior compassion by attacking ... Tony Abbott:
My prayers not only for the hostage victims in Sydney but also for the family and loved ones of the gunman who died. I’m deeply appalled that the PM and opposition leader didn’t mention his family as they will be suffering horribly as well. #wecantchooseourfamily #sydneysiege #illridewithyou
Actually, Monis was charged over the removal of one of those relatives for whom McGuire is praying - his ex-wife, found murdered.
Others connected to Monis aren’t doing much crying:
The family of Noleen Hayson Pal, the slain ex-wife of the Sydney siege gunman, have expressed their anger that he was not behind bars.
Man Haron Monis, 50, who was shot dead by police in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was on bail after being charged with being an accessory before and after the fact to the 2013 murder of Pal.
Pal’s “god brother” Talat Khalik, who lives in California, posted a series of furious comments about Monis on Facebook.
“Thats systems tere f***d up but im still happy he.died [sic],” Mr Khalik, who refers to Pal as his sister, posted on his Facebook page.
“Fu**n lucky tey got u before we did now.rest in hell f****n asshole [sic].”
His mother, Momina Khalik, who also lives in California, said Monis should have been in custody.
“y the first place they let him free on the sydney streets they should have let him rot in the jail his a f****n sick animal [sic],” she posted.
(Thanks to reader Douglas, Ralph, Steve and more.) 
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Some faith of no name

Andrew Bolt December 16 2014 (10:17am)

Very impressive evasion by The Age, which in this entire report on the tragic Sydney hostage-taking does not mention “Islam” or “Muslim” once. Even when noting the gunman was a “cleric” does The Age say of which faith. But we can assume he was not a Catholic because The Age would have been sure to say so.
Not reporting, but its opposite.
UPDATE
This refers to the on-line version. The in-paper reports mention Islam.
(Thanks to reader David.) 
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Shorten should try matching spending to revenue, not vice versa

Andrew Bolt December 16 2014 (7:37am)

Judith Sloan on Bill Shorten’s astonishing reversal of the usual economic rule - that spending must match revenue:
A FEW weeks ago, Bill Shorten made an extraordinary statement: “Revenues have to match our spending.” No notion that we might need to cut our coat according to our cloth. Rather, Labor will figure out how much it wants to spend, then make some pathetic attempt to match revenues to these spending plans.
I use the term pathetic deliberately. During the years of Labor rule under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, spending rose by 35 per cent while revenue rose by only 19 per cent. There was the no ifs, no buts commitment to returning the budget to surplus by 2012-13, an objective the Labor government missed by a gap wider than the Grand Canyon. The deficit recorded for that year was $19 billion.
So how will we go using the Opposition Leader’s guiding principle that revenues need to match spending? Labor has ruled out raising the GST, opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen supports a reduction in company tax, and rates of excise are probably maxed out.
That leaves income tax, where the extent of current and future fiscal drag is truly alarming. We will soon have a situation where those on average weekly earnings will be paying the second highest marginal tax rate of 39 per cent and more than one million low and middle-income workers will be dragged into a higher tax bracket. Bill, that’s not a sustainable policy.
Nick Cater on Bill Shorten’s bizarre economic program:
IT took the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann three goes, but eventually he managed to squeeze an answer out of Bill Shorten.
Uhlmann: “Will you campaign to reinstate a carbon price at the next election?”
Shorten: “Labor believes that, in 2009, the parliament …”
Uhlmann: “So you’ll campaign for an emissions trading scheme at the next election?”
Shorten: “I’ll try to be as concise as I can, but it’s an important issue and I think all of Australia wants to see us move beyond 10-second sound bites …”
Uhlmann: “So, to be clear on that, you will campaign at the next election to introduce a carbon price by way of an emissions trading scheme?”
Shorten: “Yes,”
It is extraordinary call. Having lost last year’s election in no small measure because of the carbon tax, Labor now hopes to win the next election with the same losing argument…
Labor will ... tie the Australian ETS to the European carbon price. In May last year it fell to €3.73 or $4.86, a level that would have added a mere 2 per cent surcharge electricity.
The problem with a floating price, however, is it that it floats…
By the 2016 election it is not inconceivable that the European price could be $25 to $30 a tonne, adding between $150 and $250 to the annual electricity bill. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Gunman and two hostages killed

Andrew Bolt December 16 2014 (6:13am)

The gunman and two hostages are dead in the Sydney siege:
At 2.10am three gunshots rang out in rapid succession - followed by a volley of gun fire - bringing to an end the 16 hour siege which had terrified the nation and captured the attention of the world.
As building fire alarms rang out a team of about six heavily armed tactical response police officers began throwing what appeared to be stun hand-grenades into the building.
Just minutes before a hostage had come running out from the building with his hands raised in the air, before laying down on the ground where he was approached by police…
Police this morning confirmed three people had been killed, including gunman Haron Monis, 50, who was pronounced dead when he arrived at hospital.
Those dead included a man, 34, and a 38 year-old woman.
Four others were wounded including a policeman who suffered non-life threatening injuries and a woman with a shotgun wound to the shoulder....
‘NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said police entered the cafe following gunfire from within the building…

“They believed that if at that time (police) didn’t move then there would be many more lives lost.”
Mr Scipione said there had been 17 hostages in all, including the five who escaped yesterday.
He said no explosive devises had been found ...
To nobody’s surprise he’s a Muslim - and a nutter:
image
Self-described cleric, Man Maron Monis, 50, first came to attention of police when he penned poisonous letters to the family of dead Australian soldiers.
Last year he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife and mother of two.

And most recently, he was charged with more than 50 allegations of indecent and sexual assault relating to time allegedly spent as a self-proclaimed “spiritual healer” who dealt with black magic at a premises in western Sydney more than a decade ago.
Monis, who has also gone by the names of Sheikh Haron and Mohammad Hassan Manteghi, was born in Iran and most recently has been living at Bexley North in Sydney’s south.
With that record and those allegations, he was on bail?
Here’s why:
Magistrate Darryl Pearce said there were significant flaws in the Crown’s case against the pair.
“It is a weak case,’’ he said.
Each of the accused had an alibi, the witness statements varied significantly, they didn’t have anywhere else to go and they weren’t a threat to the public, the magistrate said.
UPDATE
He couldn’t have done more to declare he hated Australia:
He this week posted:
Islam is a religion of peace.
It’s time more journalists interrogated the definition of this “peace”.
UPDATE
It’s another triumph of our refugee program, which involves saving people from dangers which are then imposed on Australians:
Monis, who arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1996...
Who let him in? Why?
UPDATE
Who let him in? Why? In 2001 the ABC interviewed Monis (then still known as Manteghi Boroujerdi) and found he was calling himself an Ayatollah:

He is Ayatollah Manteghi Boroujerdi, a liberal cleric who fled Iran four years ago after being very critical of the Iranian regime. Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s wife and two daughters are now under house arrest in Iran, and he’s hoping the Howard government will put pressure on the regime there to let his family join him here in Australia.
David Rutledge spoke to him this week.
David Rutledge: Ayatollah, can you tell me how long have you been resident in Australia?
Manteghi Boroujerdi: I have been in Australia more than four years.
David Rutledge: And why did you leave Iran?
Manteghi Boroujerdi: Because my life was in danger, and if I would leave Iran maybe few weeks late, maybe I couldn’t leave Iran.
David Rutledge: What was your position in the government?
Manteghi Boroujerdi: In Iran, mostly I have been involved with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security.
UPDATE
Waleed Aly, Australia’s most prominent apologist for extremists, in my opinion, says the Islamic flag Monis forces his hostages to hold up against the shop window had no specific meaning:
Prominent Islamic media figure Waleed Aly, while accepting the flag displayed a Muslim message, told the Ten network it was ”a pretty generic sort of flag”, of a type that “anybody” could acquire.
Aware of this problem, Monis decided to be even clearer:

The Lindt Chocolat Cafe hostage taker has requested for an IS flag, Sydney Morning Herald reported citing a Muslim community leader as saying.
“The man inside the cafe said that if police could get him an IS flag, then he would release some hostages,” said the leader.
Possession of the IS flag is illegal in Australia. “A contact I know from Counter Terrorism phoned me four or five times Monday asking if I could find them an IS flag, in a hurry. At one stage I had a team of people trying to find one,” the leader said.
After receiving the calls, the community leader rang everyone she knew.
“I must have called 50 people trying to find an IS flag. I found plenty of people who had one, but they didn’t want to give them up. They also believed that the police were trying set them up,” the leader said.
“Plenty of people who had one”?
Lots more people:
Monis – who had more than 14,000 “likes” on social networking site Facebook - branded Australians who supported the United States and its foreign policy “racist and terrorist” on his Facebook page, which late on Monday night was taken down.
“Shame on Team Australia and shame on those racist and terrorist Australians who support the governments of America and its allies including Australia.”
Monis will be dismissed as just a crazy individual, not representative of Islam at all - as Paul Bongiorno and Ellen Fanning on ABC Radio National Breakfast did this morning. Fanning then interviewed a Muslim scholar so she could agree with someone else that this cleric’s deeds had nothing to do with Islam.  Yet even Fanning then asks to what extent Monis will now be seen as a hero by some young Muslims.
At the same time, governments and some Muslim community groups will try even harder to stop other crazy, unrepresentative individuals of this faith doing what verses of this faith suggest and what followers of this faith instruct.
Not quite so unrepresentative, after all.
UPDATE
The religion, or one interpretation of it, provided a script or a template:
Manny Conditsis, a lawyer who represented Monis at one point, has decribed his former client as an isolated figure…
”His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness,” Conditsis told ABC news.
Conditsis says Monis was a genuine cleric in Iran, and was granted asylum in 2001.  So can we stop using the phrase “self-styled cleric”? I suspect some deliberate distancing is being done.
UPDATE
Tony Abbott in his press conference this morning notes what the ABC spent much time trying to deny - that Monis indeed characterised his actions as “politically motivated violence” and had posted extreme Islamist propaganda on his Facebook site. 
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Post by Tony Abbott.

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Post by Tony Abbott.

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Post by Tony Abbott.

It's a very sad day.
All of Australia is with the victims and families of the deceased.
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Post by Matt Granz.

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Post by Dilan ilan \ Breaking News.

The closer to being King, the more he seems a twit.
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Post by Neta Engler.

He should not have done it .. it was related to Mark Antony's revenge on Rome for not supporting him .. Nero was his grandson .. When Nero fell to pieces Rome was dying from cuts and rebellions .. An uprising in Gaul had just been put down and Vespasian wanted to secure Jerusalem without needing a sustained presence of Military .. he made an example .. 
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Post by Diamond Imports.

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=== Posts from last year ===

ALTONA MOVES

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (4:44pm)

According to the ABC: 
Julia Gillard’s inner Melbourne home sells for $921,000 at auction 
Looks like a job for the fact checkers.
UPDATE. Further on Gillard and her Twitter-lovin’ media advisor: 
Thousands of emails leaked to the ABC show Julia Gillard’s chief media adviser John McTernan used a “Twitter army” to attack Coalition figures, promoting the Labor-generated attacks to journalists as evidence of broader public opinion …
The emails also show government staffers co-producing a meme about deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop to “push on Twitter”. 
Bishop increased her vote at the last election. It’s another triumph for McTernan, who evidently was part of a Labor fakery operation: 
In one email a Government staffer revealed it was in contact with and pushed messages through an account parodying the Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne called @FakePyne.
When Mr Abbott told his party room Ms Gillard would be a tough opponent because she “won’t lie down and die”, Mr McTernan asked staff “can the tweet army who hounded Grahame Morris [a right wing lobbyist] take this one on?” …
When Fairfax journalist Jonathan Swan published an article reporting the Coalition’s pledge to deliver “cheaper” broadband, Mr McTernan wrote to his press secretaries “Can someone: A. Speak to him B. Smash him C. Direct him to twitter mockery D. Smash him.” 
Swan still has his job.
===

FEAR THE NATIONAL ROADS AND MOTORISTS’ ASSOCIATION

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (5:26am)

Sure, their roadside assistance deals could be a little more flexible, but this still seems to be an overreaction:

image 

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BROTHERS IN FRAUD

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (5:17am)

A ridiculous and unqualified faker took to the stage last week during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. And next to Barack Obama was some guy who hasn’t quite mastered sign language.

image

Thamsanqa Jantjie’s erratic performance provoked international ridicule, but all he really did was turn the failed president’s words into a disappointing jumble of incomprehensible nonsense. As is now apparent, Obama is quite capable of achieving this by himself.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'BROTHERS IN FRAUD'
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EXCEPTIONAL FIGURES

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (3:40am)

Online polls are unreliable. Well, let’s put that more clearly: online polls are the least reliable things on earth besides North Korea’s state-run media.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'EXCEPTIONAL FIGURES'
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ABOVE AVERAGE JOE

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (3:36am)

I know too much about Joe Hildebrand, but there is still a great deal to surprise and delight even the experienced Hildebrand observer in his wonderful new book.
It isn’t entirely Joe in goofy mode, which would be fine in any case. Chapters on his younger brother Patrick are achingly well written and extremely moving. Joe hasn’t seen his sweet little brother since 1987. Tragically, nobody has.
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CARBON PROMISE

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (3:14am)

Queensland PhD student Jeremy Webb – who believes we’ve reached “the advent of peak car” – considers recent events: 
With the demise of Holden – and in all probability now of the whole Australian car industry – it’s timely to look now at the future of the car itself. 
Hey, why not? And while we’re at it, with the dismissal of Stuart Broad in the Third Test it’s timely to look now at the future of all ball sports. Holden sells around 120,000 cars in Australia every year, which is only 0.16 per cent of the global total. Jeremy continues: 
A final nail in the car’s coffin promises to be carbon emissions. 
Go tell it to China, friend, where automotive production has increased from two million cars in 2000 to nearly 20 million cars so far this year, with a whole lot of peak still to come. While we’re on the topic, take a look at Britain’s carbon tycoons.
(Via Waxing Gibberish)
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THEIR LOSS

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (3:06am)

Ex-Fairfax radio guy Jason Morrison is now writing excellent columns for the Daily Telegraph.
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MUSLIM PATROL

Tim Blair – Monday, December 16, 2013 (2:33am)

Happy hour in the UK: 
Dozens of Muslim protestors gathered to demand that businesses stop selling alcohol in a popular East London area yesterday.
The group, led by former Al-Muhajiroun leader Anjem Choudary, warned restaurants and shops in the Brick Lane area that they face 40 lashes if they continue to sell the product, which is banned under Sharia Law. 
They look like they could use a drink. 
Choudary … also defended three ‘fantastic’ men who were jailed last week for attacking drinkers while on a ‘Muslim patrol’.
He was referring to an incident in which Jordan Horner and another Islamic extremist told a couple they could not hold hands while walking down the street, because it was in a ‘Muslim area’. 
I’m guessing gay marriage isn’t high on the agenda.
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How to con the Canberra gallery the Labor way. Tell them a mate’s tweet is “public opinion”

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (5:00pm)

Today the ABC “exposes” what every press gallery journalist should have known at the time - that John McTernan, Julia Gillard’s communications director, was using Twitter to con them:
Similarly, when the Coalition released its broadband policy in April earlier this year, Labor pointed to the hashtag #fraudband used by online critics to ridicule the watered down version of the National Broadband Network. 
Mr McTernan emailed his staff asking for regular samples of “Twitter coverage” of the Coalition’s policy, beginning with the left-leaning user @geeksrulz as it would be “good to point [the] gallery at?".”
The ABC fell for McTernan’s spin because too many Leftist journalists are only too eager to have their prejudices confirmed, and too many even now mistake the Left-leaning twitterverse for public opinion. The World Today fell for McTernan’s fraudband strategy:
And instead of the government’s plan to bring fibre optic cable into each and every home, they’d deliver it by using existing copper phone wires.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s the latter point that’s attracted the most attention, particularly on social media. Twitter users have created a special hashtag for the occasion, they’re calling it: “fraudband”.
Here are some of their thoughts. 
TWEET 1: Hey Tony and Malcolm, 1980 called and they want their modem back.
TWEET 2: I actually felt sorry for Malcolm Turnbull today, imagine having to spruik that with a straight face. TWEET 3: Coalition has lost my vote this election, their new internet plans are out of touch and so last century.
How often did this happen?
Remember how the media let McTernan talk them into hailing Julia Gillard’s infamous misogyny speech - deceitful, unfair, divisive and a diversion - into a brilliant success after he and his staff referred them to praise on the web? Take Laurie Oakes:
ON Wednesday night, the Prime Minister’s communications director, John McTernan, was with a group of Labor staffers in a Canberra bar. 
Realising who they were from their conversation, the 19-year-old barmaid commented that “Julia Gillard’s done well in Parliament this week”.
“Were you watching Question Time?” McTernan asked. “No,” the young woman said, “I’ve been reading jezebel.com.”
Jezebel is a popular American website for women that lauded Gillard as “one badass motherf ... er” after what it called her “epic speech on sexism”....
... it was clear within days the PM’s gender-based declaration of war had made quite an impact with many Australian women. The way it went viral via the internet was a significant factor in ensuring it registered as a powerful moment.
In fact, very senior journalists were even impressed by praise overseas for Gillard’s speech written by a McTernan mate he’d been talking to:
Women’s Weekly was convinced Julia Gillard’s furious speech last week “has the whole world talking”. It was particularly struck by praise from one source:. 
[It ] was even praised by conservative British magazine The Spectator.
“No matter what you think of her politics, there’s much to admire in the manner in which Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, sets about Tony Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition,” columnist Alex Massie wrote. 
How important those few paragraphs in a Spectator blog proved to be in persuading journalists that everyone from American feminists to British conservatives were cheering Gillard.
Michelle Grattan: 
On The Spectator blogs, Alex Massie directed readers to the video of Tuesday’s House of Representatives, writing: ‘’Anyone who admires the cut and thrust of parliamentary theatre and debate will enjoy these 15 minutes. Mr Abbott does not look best amused. But then he’s just been carved to pieces, so he wouldn’t would he?’’
Jacqueline Maley: 
Gillard’s thunder clap of lady-rage echoed east to west across the interwebs, from the tweedy corner of the conservative British magazine The Spectator, to the hip US femmo website Jezebel (who anointed Gillard a ‘’badass motherf---ker’’).
Same with Stephanie Gardiner at The Age, who went on to quote Massie at length: 
Under the headline ‘’More than just a man’s bitch’’, in reference to part of Ms Gillard’s speech, the website for the British conservative magazine The Spectator also lauded the Prime Minister.
Reality check. So how did Massie come to take interest in Gillard’s speech? Did someone alert him? Why was he disposed to like it and to write about it? Who then alerted journalists here to Massie’s praise?
Well, one clue may lie in the fact Massie is actually friends with fellow Scot John McTernan, Julia Gillard’s chief media adviser: 
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How did Labor dare do this to us? How greedy were voters not to cry “enough”?

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (7:14am)

Labor should be in the dock for recklessly spending us into such dangerous debt:
FEDERAL budget deficits for the next four years are set to double to more than $100 billion in a drastic revision to the nation’s outlook, as Tony Abbott vows to embark on a “repair job” to cut spending… 
Federal cabinet will meet in Sydney today to sign off on dire new forecasts that will show a deficit of about $50bn this financial year and $30bn the next, sharpening the political debate over the cuts needed to balance the budget.
Add the astonishing blowout in the NBN and it shames us that we for so long tolerated a government which spent so much on so little to such disadvantage.
UPDATE
Paul Sheehan: 
At 12.30 on Tuesday, Hockey, who has also been the stand-out thespian of the new federal parliament, will unveil the real horror, dysfunction and narcissism of Kevin Rudd’s contribution to Australian political history, disably assisted by Julia Gillard. Hockey will release the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, known in the trade as MYEFO, which will show a budget deficit much worse than Labor led us to believe, probably close to $50 billion, debt obligations much higher than Labor led us to believe, and unfunded liabilities that are so irresponsibly crushing the government will have to walk away from many of them. The most monumental folly is the National Broadband Network, whose economic rationale was worked out on a piece of paper by Rudd. The scheme subsequently created by former communications minister Stephen Conroy would cost more than $70 billion and never recover its cost of capital. The Abbott government will have to start again.
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Craig Thomson claims again. And again

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (5:15am)

Astonishing. Craig Thomson, already facing court over the alleged abuse of expenses, charged taxpayers almost $14,000 in expenses for him and his family around the time of a Bali family holiday, as well as for business class travel to Melbourne on the day of a court hearing.
His excuses lack a little something. 
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Green profits of doom

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (4:52am)

Britain’s Mail on Sunday on the great green gravy train:
A three-month investigation shows that some of the most outspoken campaigners who demand that consumers pay the colossal price of shifting to renewable energy are also getting rich from their efforts… 
Four of the nine-person Climate Change Committee, the official watchdog that dictates green energy policy, are, or were until very recently, being paid by firms that benefit from committee decisions. A new breed of lucrative green investment funds, which were set up to expand windfarm energy, are in practice a means of taking green levies paid by hard-pressed consumers and handing them to City investors and financiers.
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Cut in boat arrivals, Age says nothing. Cut in boat activists, Age says plenty

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (4:41am)

The Abbott Government cuts the number of boat people arriving last week to just three.
The Age does not report this.
The Abbott Government cuts the number of psychologists, psychiatrists and activists on one of its advisory committees on boat people to just one.
The Age is in a fury.
Note also in The Age report a blurring of the distinction between government advisers and people who actually treat those in detention. 
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Not immigration but colonisation

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (4:31am)

Some forms of immigration to the West now look like colonisation instead:
Dozens of Muslim protestors gathered to demand that businesses stop selling alcohol in a popular East London area yesterday. 
The group, led by former Al-Muhajiroun leader Anjem Choudary, warned restaurants and shops in the Brick Lane area that they face 40 lashes if they continue to sell the product, which is banned under Sharia Law…

Choudary … also defended three ‘fantastic’ men who were jailed last week for attacking drinkers while on a ‘Muslim patrol’.
He was referring to an incident in which Jordan Horner and another Islamic extremist told a couple they could not hold hands while walking down the street, because it was in a ‘Muslim area’. 
Protesting against such colonisation, however, is still the height of bad manners, as Clarrisa Dickson Wright found last year:
The television chef has caused outrage by saying that her visit to a Muslim area of Leicester was “the most frightening experience of my life”, and claiming that it left her feeling like a “pariah” in her own country. 
Dickson Wright, 65, who reached fame as one half of the Two Fat Ladies, said visiting the city made her feel like a “complete outcast” and she described the area as a “ghetto”. 
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Yudhoyono wants an even stronger bond

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (4:22am)

Some high quality massaging from the Abbott Government must have gone on:
INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is determined to restore his country’s relationship with Australia, telling The Australian he hopes it will be better than ever by the time he leaves office next year. 
Dr Yudhoyono’s comments are the most positive statement he has made about the relationship since it emerged last month that in 2009 Australian agencies spied on Indonesian targets, including the President, his wife and senior advisers…
On Saturday, The Weekend Australian revealed that DSD, which has since been renamed the Australian Signals Directorate, targeted her because she had become the President’s most important adviser, was assuming an important role in government decisions and was playing a broader role in Indonesian politics…

Dr Yudhoyono instructed [Indonesian ambassador to the US Dino] Djalal to ring me to convey the President’s personal reaction to the stories… Dr Yudhoyono also pointed out that ...  the dispute over the spying story had hurt him personally. The President said he was determined to repair the relationship and would work towards a solution. This needs to happen through the steps the two nations had agreed on. It also needed to happen in a way that satisfied his domestic needs.
Labor spied. Abbott repaired.
Let’s see Labor’s media mates spin that. 
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ABC poll-axed

Andrew Bolt December 16 2013 (4:02am)

ABC host Barrie Cassidy draws comfort from an on-line poll by a Leftist publication:
A recent online poll on ABC funding in the Fairfax media drew 21,145 respondents. Of that, 72 per cent agreed the ABC was an excellent and essential service that deserved more money.
Tim Blair draws a lesson from an on-line poll by a News Corp publication:
To test Cassidy’s call, over the weekend I ran a poll at my own Daily Telegraph site, simply asking what should be done to the ABC. It quickly drew more than 22,000 responses. Of those, only 3.1 per cent agreed that the ABC deserved a funding increase. 
Another 96.9 per cent preferred these options: Slash funding; privatise it; mass fraud trials for ABC management and staff; compulsory salary repayments from all ABC staff; sell all ABC properties, equipment and presenters on eBay; Bataan-style ABC march from Melbourne to Darwin; relocate ABC headquarters in Pyongyang; and nationalise private assets of ABC staff. 
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Video shows how a deadly virus can contaminate the globe in a few weeks
www.news.com.au
SCIENTISTS have calculated how a deadly virus can spread quicker across the globe than it can in its own country of origin and have created a video that'll have you running for the nearest plastic bubble.
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Lawrence of Arabia star Peter O'Toole dies aged 81
www.news.com.au
PETER O'Toole, the charismatic actor who achieved instant stardom as Lawrence of Arabia and was nominated eight times for an Academy Award, has died, his agent said. He was 81.
In Lawrence of Arabia, he hold his hand in a flame, as a child watches. "How do you do it?" asks the child, "How do you not feel the pain?" He replies "The trick isn't to not feel the pain. The trick is to not care" - ed
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Israel Defense Forces
Today we grieve with the family of Master Sgt. Shlomi Cohen, 31 years old, from Afula. Master Sgt. Cohen was killed last night when a Lebanese Armed Forces sniper shot at him as he was travelling in his vehicle near an IDF post on the Lebanese border. May his memory be blessed.
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Family Guy's Brian is alive
www.news.com.au
SPOILER ALERT: IN some sort of Christmas miracle, a television tragedy has been averted and one of Family Guy's most loved characters has been given a second shot at life.
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Emails reveal McTernan used Twitter army to attack Coalition
www.abc.net.au
Julia Gillard's media adviser John McTernan used a Twitter army to attack Coalition figures, leaked emails show.
Will exercise a potty mouth for food .. ed
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Until we meet again, Billy Jack.
kiaikick.com
Kiai-Kick is sad to report on the death of Tom Laughlin a few days ago. Star of the Billy Jack films, Tom always did things his own way, even when it came to making a Hapkido martial arts fi...
I loved the film on its merit. That scene where he approaches a police officer covering up a rape, and says to him "I am going to kick you in the face with this foot, and here is nothing you can do about it" and does precisely that. I disliked the film for its' politics .. it inflates something that never happened .. serving a purpose before an election .. ed
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Bikie raids net blank birth certificates
www.news.com.au
QUEENSLAND police have vowed to arrest outlaw bikie gang members if they get together for Christmas.
Born to be wild - ed
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I want to thank you for putting your life on the line for all of us every day. I know that being a rapper is tough work. I have tried to rap, and it is very difficult to keep up with the pulse of the rhyme flow … although when Ice Ice Baby comes on the radio, I can usually keep up with ol' Vanilla. Anywho, your job is just some very dangerous work. Most people don't consider ... if you rap really fast, without a chance to inhale, you could pass out and hit your head.
That last paragraph was covered in sarcasm. I'm letting you know, just so you do not think I agree with your very ignorant assessment of your career (or any other performer) as it relates to a person in the military or a police officer's service. You sir, are as misguided as they come. I do have a suggestion for you. Since you are accustomed to danger, from your life as an international rapper, I am strongly encouraging you immediately abandon you career as a super star and join the military. After joining, I would like you to volunteer to be deployed in Afghanistan or one of the numerous other forward locations where our men an women are currently serving. When the Taliban starts shooting at you, perhaps you could stand up and let the words flow. It could be something like "I'm Kanye West, wearing a flak vest." I'm sure they would just drop weapons and surrender. You could quite possibly end all wars, just from the enemy being starstruck.
Your line of thinking is part of the problem in the world today …. which include entertainers thinking they are something more than just entertainers. I know it is supply and demand and the demand for your services is high. I get economics. What I do not get is you EVER comparing what you do for a living to our heroic military members, who are always in harm's way … and my brother and sister police officers who have to go to work carrying weapons and wearing a bulletproof vest to protect themselves.
Check yourself, before you wreck yourself …. Chief Oliver.>

Kanye West gets owned in open letter by Chief David Oliver from the Brimfield Police station
www.news.com.au
KANYE West proudly calls himself a genius, but many consider an Ohio police chief to be the real genius after he penned a brilliantly sarcastic open letter to the Yeezus rapper and posted it on Facebook.
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Cars (with Frank Severino)
soundcloud.com
Heres my take on the classic 80s new wave anthem...enjoy
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Avatar films to be made in NZ
www.news.com.au
THE next three Avatar movies, which will cost about $NZ1 billion ($A932.27 million) to produce, will be made in New Zealand.
My friends tell me that NZ even employs people to remove rubbish from camp sites .. in Australia it becomes part of nature .. ed
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Oscar-winner Joan Fontaine, 96, dies
www.news.com.au
OSCAR-WINNING actress Joan Fontaine has died at the age of 96.
from a golden age of silver screen - ed
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Boston bombers 'driven by failures, inner demons'
www.news.com.au
THE Boston bombers may have been motivated less by Islamist ideology and more by their own personal failings and inner demons - making the attack more like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook than an al-Qaeda terrorist plot.
Not Islamic, but Islamic terrorism .. - ed
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4-year-old boy with Einstein's IQ starts school two years early
www.news.com.au
HE may not share the same shock of wild white hair or have the clutch of prizes and published papers to his name but surprisingly this four-year-old boy has something else in common with the Nobel prize-winning scientist Albert Einstein.
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Smackdown after thief steals from ex-cage fighter Tom Anderton
www.news.com.au
A SHOPLIFTER has learned the lesson of a lifetime after attempting to steal from a former cage fighter's record shop.
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Tensions continue to bubble beneath the surface in the South and East China Seas
www.news.com.au
US and Chinese warships have engaged in a dangerous game of "chicken" as tensions continue to run hot over exactly who owns the East and South China seas.
A weak US President is a threat to world peace. Even if the fool likes to bomb people. - ed
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Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup and the report which will never be made public
www.news.com.au
AFTER the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al-Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.
It is unwise for Islamic authorities not to separate themselves from terrorism. It is bad for Islamic peoples who are innocent. - ed
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Post by Diamond Imports.

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“But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”” Luke 1:30-33 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her."
Ruth 1:14
Both of them had an affection for Naomi, and therefore set out with her upon her return to the land of Judah. But the hour of test came; Naomi most unselfishly set before each of them the trials which awaited them, and bade them if they cared for ease and comfort to return to their Moabitish friends. At first both of them declared that they would cast in their lot with the Lord's people; but upon still further consideration Orpah with much grief and a respectful kiss left her mother in law, and her people, and her God, and went back to her idolatrous friends, while Ruth with all her heart gave herself up to the God of her mother in law. It is one thing to love the ways of the Lord when all is fair, and quite another to cleave to them under all discouragements and difficulties. The kiss of outward profession is very cheap and easy, but the practical cleaving to the Lord, which must show itself in holy decision for truth and holiness, is not so small a matter. How stands the case with us, is our heart fixed upon Jesus, is the sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the altar? Have we counted the cost, and are we solemnly ready to suffer all worldly loss for the Master's sake? The after gain will be an abundant recompense, for Egypt's treasures are not to be compared with the glory to be revealed. Orpah is heard of no more; in glorious ease and idolatrous pleasure her life melts into the gloom of death; but Ruth lives in history and in heaven, for grace has placed her in the noble line whence sprung the King of kings. Blessed among women shall those be who for Christ's sake can renounce all; but forgotten and worse than forgotten shall those be who in the hour of temptation do violence to conscience and turn back unto the world. O that this morning we may not be content with the form of devotion, which may be no better than Orpah's kiss, but may the Holy Spirit work in us a cleaving of our whole heart to our Lord Jesus.

Evening

"And lay thy foundations with sapphires."
Isaiah 54:11
Not only that which is seen of the church of God, but that which is unseen, is fair and precious. Foundations are out of sight, and so long as they are firm it is not expected that they should be valuable; but in Jehovah's work everything is of a piece, nothing slurred, nothing mean. The deep foundations of the work of grace are as sapphires for preciousness, no human mind is able to measure their glory. We build upon the covenant of grace, which is firmer than adamant, and as enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain. Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides throughout the lifetime of the Almighty. Another foundation is the person of the Lord Jesus, which is clear and spotless, everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire; blending in one the deep blue of earth's ever rolling ocean and the azure of its all embracing sky. Once might our Lord have been likened to the ruby as he stood covered with his own blood, but now we see him radiant with the soft blue of love, love abounding, deep, eternal. Our eternal hopes are built upon the justice and the faithfulness of God, which are clear and cloudless as the sapphire. We are not saved by a compromise, by mercy defeating justice, or law suspending its operations; no, we defy the eagle's eye to detect a flaw in the groundwork of our confidence--our foundation is of sapphire, and will endure the fire.
The Lord himself has laid the foundation of his people's hopes. It is matter for grave enquiry whether our hopes are built upon such a basis. Good works and ceremonies are not a foundation of sapphires, but of wood, hay, and stubble; neither are they laid by God, but by our own conceit. Foundations will all be tried ere long: woe unto him whose lofty tower shall come down with a crash, because based on a quicksand. He who is built on sapphires may await storm or fire with equanimity, for he shall abide the test.
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Today's reading: Amos 1-3, Revelation 6 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Amos 1-3

1 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
2 He said:
“The LORD roars from Zion
and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up,
and the top of Carmel withers.”
Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors
3 This is what the LORD says:
“For three sins of Damascus,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because she threshed Gilead
with sledges having iron teeth,
4 I will send fire on the house of Hazael
that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.
5 I will break down the gate of Damascus;
I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven
and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden.
The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,” says the LORD....

Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 6

The Seals
1 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
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Uzziel [Ŭz'zĭel]—god is strong. There are six Bible men bearing this suggestive name.
  1. A son of Kohath, son of Levi, kinsman of Aaron on his father’s side (Exod. 6:18, 22;Lev. 10:4; Num. 3:19, 30; 1 Chron. 6:2; 15:10; 23:12, 20;24:24).
  2. A Simeonite who, in Hezekiah’s reign, led a successful expedition against the Amalekites (1 Chron. 4:42).
  3. A son of Bela, son of Benjamin (1 Chron. 7:7).
  4. A son of Heman, an instrumentalist, set by David over the service of song (1 Chron. 25:4 ).
  5. A Levite, son of Jeduthun, who assisted Hezekiah in his work of reformation (2 Chron. 29:14).
  6. The son of Harhaiah, a goldsmith, who repaired a part of the wall of Jerusalem (Neh. 3:8).
Members of the tribal family of Uzziel are spoken of as Uzzielites ( Num. 3:27; 1 Chron. 26:23).
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