Monday, June 01, 2015

Mon Jun 1st Todays News

Todays report stands on its own because this time in 2014, the Conservative Voice was looking for rental accommodation after being forced to sell their unit/home. Bolt report Instructions are after the publishing news. 

Yesterday, 2005 was the anniversary of the announcement that Mark Felt was Deep Throat. He died three years later and never answered for his crime in bringing down the Nixon Presidency on trumped up charges and sending men to jail he disliked for political reasons. Watergate is over analysed in a few ways, but under analysed in a few ways too. The second associate director of the FBI leaking (creating?) smears for the press (Bob Woodward and Car Bernstein) was a crime which never was prosecuted. The corruption implicit to the activity means that the investigation was skewed. Technically, all those charged and convicted in relation to Watergate are innocent as a result of Felt's corruption. There are many today who feel that Nixon got off lightly. The truth is that Nixon was impugned by Felt's corruption, and Felt got off lightly. 

Today, a senior unionist forgot if he shortchanged workers to pay the union. It isn't a good look for ALP leader Bill Shorten who ran the union before entering politics. Gay activists who promote gay marriage are being challenged to protect marriage from those who would trivialise it. The ill informed and unfair attacks on Cardinal Pell, must stop. 

In 193, the Roman Emperor Didius Julianus was assassinated. Julianus had bought the throne from those Praetorian Guard who had assassinated the predecessor. He devalued the currency and, after nine weeks, was also assassinated by Praetorian Guard. His last words were reported as "But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?". 1215, Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, was captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Zhongdu. 1252, Alfonso X was elected King of Castile and León. 1298, residents of Riga and Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Livonian Order in the Battle of Turaida. 1495, Friar John Cor recorded the first known batch of Scotch whisky. 1533, Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England. 1535, combined forces loyal to Charles V attacked and expelled the Ottomans from Tunis during the Conquest of Tunis.


In 1648, the Roundheads defeated the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War. 1649, start of the Sumuroy Revolt: Filipinos in Northern Samar led by Agustin Sumuroy revolted against Spanish colonial authorities. 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1670, in Dover, EnglandCharles II of Great Britain and Louis XIV of France signed the secret treaty of Dover, which would force England into the Third Anglo-Dutch War. 1679, the Scottish Covenanters defeated John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog. 1779, Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was court-martialed for malfeasance. Arnold was overspending, including his own money, and felt bitter at his treatment, so he planned to change sides, but was found out and narrowly escaped. 1792, Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the United States. 1794, the battle of the Glorious First of June was fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars. Each side claimed success. Britain for sinking seven ships, France for securing their merchant navy. 1796, Tennessee was admitted as the 16th state of the United States.


In 1812, War of 1812: The U.S. President James Madison asked the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom. 1813, James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gave his final order: "Don't give up the ship!" 1815, Napoleon promulgated a revised Constitution after it passed a plebiscite. 1831, James Clark Ross discovered the Magnetic North Pole. 1855, the American adventurer William Walker conquered Nicaragua. 1857, Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal was published. 1861, American Civil WarBattle of Fairfax Court House: The first land battle of the American Civil War after the Battle of Fort Sumter, produced the first Confederate combat casualty. 1862, American Civil War: Peninsula Campaign: The Battle of Seven Pines (or the Battle of Fair Oaks) ended inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory. 1868, the Treaty of Bosque Redondo was signed, allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico. 1879, Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War. 1890, the United States Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.


In 1910, Robert Falcon Scott's second South Pole expedition left Cardiff. 1913, the Greek–Serbian Treaty of Alliance was signed, paving the way for the Second Balkan War. Greece had long been enamoured with socialism and anarchy epitomised by the Black Hand Gang. 1916, Louis Brandeis became the first Jewish person appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed by Woodrow Wilson against the wishes of GOP and one Democrat. The GOP didn't trust a firebrand. The Dem may not have liked the race. He became a great advocate for free speech. He was raised in a secular household, but embraced Zionism. 1918, World War IWestern FrontBattle for Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engaged Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. 1921, Tulsa Race RiotCivil unrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1922, the Royal Ulster Constabulary was founded. 1929, the 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America was held in Buenos Aires. 1939, first flight of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bomber airplane.


In 1941, World War II: The Battle of Crete ended as Crete capitulated to Germany. Also 1941, the Farhud, a pogrom of Iraqi Jews, took place in Baghdad. 1943, British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing the actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that the shooting down was an attempt to kill the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In 1946, Ion Antonescu, "Conducator" (leader) of Romania during World War II, was executed. 1958, Charles de Gaulle came out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months. 1960, New Zealand's first official television broadcast commenced at 7.30 pm from Auckland. 1962, the Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting concluded, among other things, that the British public did not want commercial radio broadcasting. 1963, Kenya gained internal self-rule (Madaraka Day). 1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was released.


In 1974, Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant killed 28 people. Also 1974, the Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims was published in the journal Emergency Medicine. 1978, the first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty were filed. 1979, the first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years took power. 1980, Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting. 1990, George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production. 1993, Dobrinja mortar attack: Thirteen were killed and 133 wounded when Serb mortar shells were fired at a soccer game in Dobrinja, west of Sarajevo. 1999, American Airlines Flight 1420 slid and crashed while landing at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 people on a flight from Dallas to Little Rock.


In 2001, Nepalese royal massacre: Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shot and killed several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya. Also 2001, Dolphinarium massacre: A Hamas suicide bomber killed 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv. 2003, the People's Republic of China began filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam. 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew were killed. Also 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history. 2011, a rare tornado outbreak occurred in New England; a strong EF3 tornado struck SpringfieldMassachusetts, during the event, killing four people. 2014, a bombing at a football field in MubiNigeria, killed at least 40 people.

2014
None in 2014 because of Government and public service corruption related to the petitions
Historical perspectives on this day
In 193, the Roman Emperor Didius Julianus was assassinated. 1215, Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, was captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Zhongdu. 1252, Alfonso X was elected King of Castile and León. 1298, residents of Riga and Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Livonian Order in the Battle of Turaida. 1495, Friar John Cor recorded the first known batch of Scotch whisky. 1533, Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England. 1535, combined forces loyal to Charles V attacked and expelled the Ottomans from Tunis during the Conquest of Tunis.

In 1648, the Roundheads defeated the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War. 1649, start of the Sumuroy Revolt: Filipinos in Northern Samar led by Agustin Sumuroy revolted against Spanish colonial authorities. 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1670, in Dover, England, Charles II of Great Britain and Louis XIV of France signed the secret treaty of Dover, which would force England into the Third Anglo-Dutch War. 1679, the Scottish Covenanters defeated John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog. 1779, Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was court-martialed for malfeasance. 1792, Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the United States. 1794, the battle of the Glorious First of June was fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars. 1796, Tennessee was admitted as the 16th state of the United States.

In 1812, War of 1812: The U.S. President James Madison asked the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom. 1813, James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gave his final order: "Don't give up the ship!" 1815, Napoleon promulgated a revised Constitution after it passed a plebiscite. 1831, James Clark Ross discovered the Magnetic North Pole. 1855, the American adventurer William Walker conquered Nicaragua. 1857, Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal was published. 1861, American Civil War: Battle of Fairfax Court House: The first land battle of the American Civil War after the Battle of Fort Sumter, produced the first Confederate combat casualty. 1862, American Civil War: Peninsula Campaign: The Battle of Seven Pines (or the Battle of Fair Oaks) ended inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory. 1868, the Treaty of Bosque Redondo was signed, allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico. 1879, Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War. 1890, the United States Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.

In 1910, Robert Falcon Scott's second South Pole expedition left Cardiff. 1913, the Greek–Serbian Treaty of Alliance was signed, paving the way for the Second Balkan War. 1916, Louis Brandeis became the first Jewish person appointed to the United States Supreme Court. 1918, World War I: Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engaged Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. 1921, Tulsa Race Riot: Civil unrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1922, the Royal Ulster Constabulary was founded. 1929, the 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America was held in Buenos Aires. 1939, first flight of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bomber airplane.

In 1941, World War II: The Battle of Crete ended as Crete capitulated to Germany. Also 1941, the Farhud, a pogrom of Iraqi Jews, took place in Baghdad. 1943, British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing the actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that the shooting down was an attempt to kill the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In 1946, Ion Antonescu, "Conducator" (leader) of Romania during World War II, was executed. 1958, Charles de Gaulle came out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months. 1960, New Zealand's first official television broadcast commenced at 7.30 pm from Auckland. 1962, the Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting concluded, among other things, that the British public did not want commercial radio broadcasting. 1963, Kenya gained internal self-rule (Madaraka Day). 1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was released.

In 1974, Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant killed 28 people. Also 1974, the Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims was published in the journal Emergency Medicine. 1978, the first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty were filed. 1979, the first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years took power. 1980, Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting. 1990, George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production. 1993, Dobrinja mortar attack: Thirteen were killed and 133 wounded when Serb mortar shells were fired at a soccer game in Dobrinja, west of Sarajevo. 1999, American Airlines Flight 1420 slid and crashed while landing at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 people on a flight from Dallas to Little Rock.

In 2001, Nepalese royal massacre: Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shot and killed several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya. Also 2001, Dolphinarium massacre: A Hamas suicide bomber killed 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv. 2003, the People's Republic of China began filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam. 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew were killed. Also 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history. 2011, a rare tornado outbreak occurred in New England; a strong EF3 tornado struck Springfield, Massachusetts, during the event, killing four people. 2014, a bombing at a football field in Mubi, Nigeria, killed at least 40 people.
=== Publishing News ===
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.
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406September https://www.createspace.com/5106914October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more. 
===
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

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

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

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


I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.netwhich will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
=== Bolt Report Items ===
On Bolt Report an ongoing policy is that any Islam post can only be on the pinned leader. Normal rules apply in that if it is merely foul and abusive it will be deleted. Otherwise comments are welcome.  
===
Dear Members (YOU MUST READ THIS THREAD)
As of today, the rules of this forum are going to be enforced more rigorously. This includes the instant removal of members who personally abuse other members of this forum.
Whilst the use of bad language is often invoked as colourful descriptors of politicians, we ask that people refrain from the C word as there are many people on this forum who do not want to see that as part of every day language here.
Blatant racism, homophobia and religious slurs will be removed from the forum, along with the person who posted them.
Crass, vile & vitriolic hate posts will also be removed along with the person who posts those comments or threads.
Generally we will give people a 24 hour time out to cool off after they have been removed and those people will be welcome back to the forum once they have applied via an admin..... we will however, permanently remove repeat offenders with a rule of "3 strikes and you're out".
We are trying to encourage legitimate debate, conversation and discussion on this forum where people are able to have free thought and their own opinions without "mob" rule attacking them for thinking differently, however, in saying this, members who are here to deliberately cause trouble or "troll" will be removed without warning.
The standard of this forum needs to be better and people are responsible for their own behaviour.... bullying of others or bullying of admins will also result in that person being removed.
Legitimate criticism is appreciated, along with logical and rational commentary.
Admins decisions are final.... so make of this forum what you want of it and do not complain if you are removed for behaviour that is contrary to the posting protocols.
If you feel intimated or threatened by another person, contact an admin immediately so the situation can be monitored and mediated.
Regards
Admins
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Le Le, Victor Ta and Sefong Win. The first day of winter in Australia is the first day, in 1495 that Exchequer Rolls of Scotland list Scotch Whisky. In 1831, James Clark Ross led an expedition to reach the magnetic North Pole. 1943, Actor Leslie Howard was shot down by eight German Junker Ju 88s film critics. If you see James, offer him a whisky .. he will be cold. Thank you for letting us celebrate.
Deaths
Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte
It is a glorious day where everyone wins. The idiot died gloriously. Mini subs won't cut it. Ignore the chemical aftertaste. Go to Rio. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
===
2015
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SIGN UP FOR THE DARL

Tim Blair – Monday, June 01, 2015 (6:47am)

Clearly inspired by the Love Boat theme, Australia’s tax-funded cultural elite prefer their art to be “exciting and new”.
Newness is a good thing in and of itself, apparently, and also brings advantages when it comes to obtaining arts grants. Arts journalist Ben Eltham – himself a former Australia Council arts grants recipient – last week revealed how the newness bonus operates.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'SIGN UP FOR THE DARL'
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GEORGE OF THE BUNGLE

Tim Blair – Monday, June 01, 2015 (6:11am)

Following Friday night’s controversial AFL match between Carlton and the Sydney Swans, author George Megalogenis got to wondering why opposition fans booed the Swans’ Aboriginal star Adam Goodes.
After all, fans were much less hostile during the mid-90s towards another Aboriginal player, Essendon’s Michael Long.
Ignoring the fact that Long was far less inclined to stage for free kicks, Megalogenis quickly hit upon an explanation.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'GEORGE OF THE BUNGLE'
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THE EVIL NEVER ENDS

Tim Blair – Monday, June 01, 2015 (5:53am)

In 1986, baseballer Darryl Strawberry – a person of colour – was mocked by US sports fans. Six years later, he was mocked again by Bart and Lisa Simpson.
I blame Tony Abbott.
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ALLAN AKBAR

Tim Blair – Monday, June 01, 2015 (5:21am)

An Australia-raised jihad Joe seems confused by an alien dialect: 
Australian jihadi recruiter Neil Prakash has been mocked by Arabic speakers for misreading Islamic scripture ...
The 23-year-old Islamic State “poster boy” – accused of involvement in the planning of terror attacks in Australia – has been caught out misunderstanding Arabic translation.
“U clearly don’t know Arabic,” an Islamic radical tells him. 
Maybe Neil is a poorly-trained infidel spy. Just a theory.
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RHINO GETS HIS OPPO ON

Tim Blair – Monday, June 01, 2015 (4:43am)

A downhill off-camber corner exit requires a precise measure of oversteer. This baby rhino displays the proper technique:

image

Niki Lauda demonstrated exactly the same opposite-lock technique at Long Beach in 1979. It comes easily to the masters.
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MP denies shortchanging workers for payments to union

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (3:28pm)

Not a good look for the bloke who ran the Victorian branch of Bill Shorten’s union:
MEMORY has failed Cesar Melhem, with the Victorian MP saying 50 times that he did not recall the details of a deal that short-changed workers in exchange for payments to his former union.
Mr Melhem has said that the phrase “I don’t recall” repeatedly during the first session of questioning at a Royal Commission into Union Governance and Corruption in Sydney this morning.
The battle between Mr Melhem and the commission’s lawyer, Jeremy Stoljar, became heated when he was pushed about what he knew of the deal between the Australian Workers’ Union and Clean Event…
Mr Melhem responded angrily when Mr Stoljar implied that Mr Melhem had failed to get his members a good deal because of the $25,000 payments to the union.
“I just reject that again, that is an insult. I’m not going to entertain your insult,” Mr Melhem said.
Mr Melhem has told the commission that he did not act against his members interests.
He was accused by contractor Clean Event of signing a deal that reduced pay for cleaners by up to $27 an hour in exchange for payments to the union.
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To praise Goodes as a “challenger” is to smear other Aborigines as sell-outs

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (10:14am)

There is a new meme circulating about Adam Goodes, thanks to the likes of Waleed Aly, Patrick Smith, David Penberthy, Jake Niall and even, I am sad to say, the normally excellent Gerard Whateley.
It is that the booing of Goodes really is racist because he is an ”uppity black”. Because he is an Aborigine who “doesn’t know his place”. Because he is “calling out racism”. Because he is a ”challenger” and not a “bargainer”.
Here, then, is a fighter against racism just being punished for challenging white privilege.
What an offensive, false, crude and - dare I say - racist defence.
It is offensive to the many Aboriginal players who are not booed - because it casts them as Uncle Toms, bargainers and collaborators with white oppressors who do not call out racism.
It is false because there are indeed Aboriginal players who are not booed, but who have called out racism and been admired for it, not least Michael Long and Nicky Winmar.
It is false because it assumes the crowd wants Aborigines kept “in their place” - a lowly one - when in fact the vast majority of Australians have always celebrated Aboriginal success, including that of Cathy Freeman, Ernie Dingo, Evonne Goolagong, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Senator Neville Bonner. I suspect most Australians, even Labor voters, are as glad as I am that a man with Aboriginal ancestry can today be the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, and that a woman such as Bess Price from a quite tribal background can be elected an MP. 
It is crude because it assumes that what Goodes claims is our past is indeed our past, and what is racist is indeed so, and that to disagree with his extreme views is racist.
It is also arguably racist because Goodes is being defended for drawing hard racial lines between people with Aboriginal ancestors and those without - a line that many of critics insists is far too crude and sometimes arbitrary, let alone unhelpful.  In fact, most of his critics (yes, with some ugly exceptions) seem to me offended by Goodes dividing us into opposing “racial” camps.  It seems to me that Goodes’ defenders are the ones who see people as racial stereotypes, always at war, rather than as individuals, “race” irrelevant.

I can’t speak for everyone, obviously. But my own objection to some of what Goodes says and does is not because he does not know his place but does not know his good fortune, one beyond the dreams of most Australians. Not because he calls out racism but because he magnifies it, and turns even a 13-year-old girl into the ‘face” of racism in Australia. Not because he is a “challenger” but because he is a divider, as he’s proven yet again.
We should say no to racism. And we should also say no the racial division of our country. I refuse to see Goodes as anything other than a man just like me, although, true, a lot fitter.
UPDATE
image
Shaking an invisible spear at Carlton fans is fine by the AFL because it’s allegedly Aboriginal culture. But:
Kevin Sheedy ... was fined $7500 in 2000 for giving West Coast’s Mitchell White a throat slitting gesture at halftime.
Sheedy should have claimed it was Irish culture. Or threatened White with a spearing. 
===

Which side should you back?

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (9:11am)

image
So which side should we back?:

Sunday’s protest [in Richmond] ended after officers created a safe passage for the [United Patriots Front] members to leave. About 50 people chanted “Aussie, Aussie, ­Aussie” and “I am Australian”.
The larger crowd from Campaign Against Racism and Fascism drowned out their chants with slogans such as: “F--- off Nazis” and “Muslims are welcome, racists are not”.
The correct answer is “neither”.
One side - the “patriots” - are people too angry and too infested by haters and Nazi admirers. We cannot let such extremists define which immigrants and creeds are permissible in this civil and tolerant country.
The other side - led by socialists - are people too angry and too infested by haters and enemies of free speech and free assembly. We cannot let such extremists define what freedoms are permissible in this civil and tolerant country.
But the clash is an early wake-up signal. We cannot assume that for every action there will not be an equal and opposite reaction when it comes to multicultural politics - an opposite reaction as ugly as the one that provokes it.
Islamic extremism and the failures of excessive and too-indiscriminate mass immigration risk triggering a nasty reaction from some of those already here.
In particular, those of the Left who attack the Abbott Government and police for allegedly overreacting to Islamic extremism should be more understanding. The danger isn’t just the lives that will be lost when, inevitably, some jihadist succeeds. Also dangerous is in the damage done by any blowback.
Reject the extremists, Right, Left, jihadists and “patriots”. But reject them with the values we seek to uphold, and that most certainly does not mean pushing and abusing police or physically trying to shut people down.  
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What do they mean, to “queer up” marriage?

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (9:04am)

LAST week, I said the battle for same-sex marriage was over and issued a challenge to the winners. The next day, I was panicking.
My challenge: let gays and lesbians now prove they will defend marriage as conservatives tried.
Marriage will soon be in their hands, too.
So let them now demand the habits that make marriage strong — faithfulness and loyalty through thick and thin.
Do it for the sake of the children, for whom marriage is actually meant to protect.
Oh, and no to polygamy.
Yet just one day later, we learned afresh that same-sex marriage could be a Trojan horse for vandals.
Simon Copland, a former ACT convener for the Greens and now columnist for the Star Observer, the leading gay online newspaper, told me to go whistle.
(Read full article here.
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Adam Goodes cries for battle against “you guys”

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (8:49am)

ADAM Goodes damned himself when he explained why he rushed at Carlton fans, slapping his arms and shaking an invisible spear.
Goodes told non-Aboriginal journalists his Aboriginal war dance at Friday’s AFL game was “a battle cry at you guys saying this is who I am ... a warrior and representing my people”.
Excuse me, Adam: who are “you guys”?
White guys, like those journalists? White guys like those Carlton fans?
You’re challenging them to a race war now, during the AFL’s Indigenous Round?

Seems so, because Goodes added that while the war dance was aimed at “the opposition”, he would not have done it against any of Carlton’s Aboriginal players — part of his actual opposition on the field.
“I’m not going to go up to (Carlton’s) Chris Yarran and do it because he’d actually be part of the war cry.”
Even if Goodes did not mean his war cry to be hostile, as he says, check out Twitter or the AFL page on Facebook. That’s how it seemed to many watching.
I cannot believe such inflammatory, race-loaded and symbolic violence is healthy for the AFL.
The Hawks once banned then-goal sneak Mark Williams from celebrating by firing imaginary shots at a ball going through the goals, so why is this symbolic threatening of fans with a spearing acceptable? Or is this the truth of “reconciliation” made visible — the division of Australia into “races”, each with its “warriors” waving imaginary weapons?
(Read full column here.) 
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Backbench doesn’t just rally behind Abbott against Turnbull and Bishop. It backs Morrison, too

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (8:49am)

Over at Insiders there was some predictable gloating that Tony Abbott faces another damaging split, after some mischief maker in Cabinet leaked details of a debate on whether to strip citizenship from terrorism suspects who had only Australian nationality, but could qualify for citizenship elsewhere.:
Karen Middleton and David Marr — Marr in particular — were still terribly excited about reports of fireworks in last Monday’s cabinet meeting and what they meant for Tony Abbott, despite the worthy efforts of poor old Gerard Henderson to remind them: “Cabinets leak. Always have, always will.” And over at The Bolt Report on Network Ten a talking head was playing down the significance of the story, saying: “I don’t think it was significant leadership trouble for Abbott ... I don’t think it’s a leadership issue.” The identity of the right-wing death beast? Sean Kelly, sometime senior press secretary to Julia Gillard.
As I said to Kelly on the show, I’m not so sure at all that this has no leadership dimension. And, indeed:
TONY Abbott’s backbench will today demand that rebel senior ministers including Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop drop their opposition to proposed new laws to strip terrorists of citizenship when cabinet meets again today.
The chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Dan Tehan will personally hand the Prime Minister a letter this morning signed by 37 MPs in support of a policy that includes actions not only against dual nationals involved in terrorism but sole nationals as well…

Several senior MPs yesterday said that Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop, both leadership aspirants, have now found themselves on the wrong side of the Coalition party room, which has largely thrown its support behind the PM for the stronger measures.
It’s interesting that the backbench has not just sided with Abbott against the position of Bishop and Turnbull. They have also sided with Scott Morrison against them. 
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To repeat a smear of George Pell is not to prove it

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (8:19am)

This attack on George Pell is wild, unfair, abusive, defamatory and ill-informed. Remember, to repeat an allegation is not to prove it:
Cardinal George Pell is “a dangerous individual” and “almost sociopathic” in his response to child sexual abuse victims, Pope Francis’ specially-appointed commissioner for the protection of children, Peter Saunders, says.
In an interview with Channel 9’s 60 Minutes, Mr Saunders said Cardinal Pell had a “moral responsibility” to front the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and address allegations that he knew of priests abusing children in Ballarat and elsewhere but did nothing to stop it...,
“I personally think that his position is untenable, because he has now a catalogue of denials,” Mr Saunders said in the interview which aired on Sunday night. “He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – almost sociopathic, I would go as far as to say – this lack of care."…
“I think anybody who is a serious obstacle to the work of the commission and to the work of the Pope in trying to clean up the church’s act over this matter, I think they need to be taken aside very, very quickly and removed from any kind of position of influence."…
Mr Saunders said Cardinal Pell was present at a meeting with Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns in 1982 in which they discussed the need to move Gerald Ridsdale to another parish, one of the ways the church frequently dealt with paedophile priests.
“I think it’s inconceivable that they would not have known [why Ridsdale was being moved],” he said.
“To me, it seems highly likely that George Pell knew, and if he knew, and if the bishop knew, then these are people who should actually be facing criminal charges now, not just sanctions at the hands of the Pope or the church or the attention of the media...”: 
Those comments are disgraceful.
- Pell insists he did not know why Ridsdale was moved. There is no proof that he did.
- Ridsdale himself has suggested that while Bishop Mulkearns knew he’d abused a child, Ridsdale had never discussed this with Pell, whom he barely knew and was just a priest at the time.
- “Sociopathic”? Seriously?
- Pell has a “catalogue of denigrating people”? Seriously? And if that alleged “denigrating” makes him unfit for office, what does this denigrating of Pell say about Saunders?
- For Pell to deny allegations against him is proof that he should go? What kind of mad logic is that? No one is innocent by that vicious metric.
- Saunder insists Pell is a “serious obstacle” to the royal commission and has a “moral responsibility” to front it. This implies something completely false - that Pell has refused to appear. Pell has in fact twice given evidence to the commission and has offered to appear a third time. The commission has never criticised him for being an “obstacle”.
It is Saunders, not Pell, who should be removed from his position.

Pell’s representative responds:
Many of the issues were addressed in the final report of the 2013 Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry where there are no adverse findings against Cardinal Pell. These old and repeated allegations have been addressed many times by the Cardinal since 2002.
As was pointed out in a recent statement by the Cardinal, he has never condoned or protected offenders, has never condoned or participated in moving known offenders and did not at any time attempt to bribe David Ridsdale, whose story has varied many times over the years.
It is not clear whether Mr Saunders is aware of the Cardinal’s statements or has reviewed the extensive material available from previous Inquiries and appearances at the Royal Commission.
It is also not clear if Mr Saunders is aware Cardinal Pell established within 100 days of being appointed as an Archbishop, an independent scheme to support victims. While there was and is always room for improvement, the Melbourne Response had the explicit support of the Victorian Police and other civil authorities and was at the time warmly welcomed by victim support groups.
The Cardinal has repeated many times his deepest sympathy for the victims of abuse and their families. He has made it clear on several occasions he supports the work of the Royal Commission, where he has already appeared twice, and remains willing to assist in its work.
Gerard Henderson:
Cardinal George Pell has become the victim of a modern-day witch hunt. As a social conservative, ... his main attackers are presenters and journalists employed by the ABC, Fairfax Media, The Guardian Australia and Sky News. Such outlets rarely, if ever, allow an alternative voice to be heard.
Yet, on all the available evidence, Pell was among the first Catholic bishops in the world to address the issue of child sexual abuse by clergy. He was appointed archbishop of Melbourne in July 1996 and announced the creation of the Melbourne Response (to deal with child sexual abuse) the following October…
The ABC’s coverage of Pell has been replete with ignorance and prejudice. On Radio National (May 22) presenter James Carleton described Pell as a former “bishop of Ballarat”. This shows a total misunderstanding of Pell’s role before he moved to Melbourne. Pell was never in control of priests in the Ballarat diocese…
Early last week, ABC News Breakfast opened its coverage of the royal commission hearings in Ballarat with the claim that “new evidence” had been discovered with respect to Pell. In fact, the claims by David Ridsdale (Gerald Ridsdale’s nephew) that Pell offered bribes in a bid to obtain his sil­ence were first made — and refuted by Pell — as long ago as 2002.
The allegation by Tim Green that he advised Pell of child abuse in Ballarat 40 years ago has been long denied by the cardinal.
So, too, the allegation that — as a member of the Ballarat bishop’s college of consultors between 1977 and 1984 — Pell was involved in moving pedophile priests from parish to parish…
Pell has already given evidence to the royal commission twice, once in person and once by video link. He also voluntarily appeared before the Victorian parliamentary inquiry…
Pell has admitted to mistakes in the handling of child sexual abuse cases. He concedes the issue of compensation could have been better handled. And Pell acknowledges that he should not have walked with Ridsdale to court in Melbourne in 1993, having previously declined to present character evidence on Ridsdale’s behalf…
It seems it was Mulkearns who made decisions about the movement of clergy in Ballarat without consulting Pell and other priests in the diocese.
... left-wing journalist and former priest Paul Bongiorno (born 1944),… also said he noticed nothing when he shared a presbytery with Ridsdale at the Warrnambool parish at around the same time. Bongiorno received an empathetic hearing from ABC RN Breakfast presenter Fran Kelly on May 21 when he said: “Ridsdale never came into the presbytery in Warrnambool and said ‘Guess how many boys I raped today?’ They hide it. It was certainly hidden from me.”
Pell is entitled to the same understanding of his time in Ballarat as that which has been given to Bongiorno. 
(Thanks to reader John.) 
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We were nice people until the AbbottAbbottAbbott was elected

Andrew Bolt June 01 2015 (7:37am)

Tim Blair says George Megalogenis is right about the insidious influence of the Abbott Government:
For example, a couple of years ago I ran into former Sydney Swans games record holder Michael O’Loughlin at a city bar. It turned out we had a few ideas in common about the AFL in general and Aboriginal advancement within the AFL in particular, so it was a positive encounter.
But I now realise our friendly conversation was only possible because Labor was then in power. In 2015, obviously, such a meeting is completely unthinkable. 
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Billings Montana Tonight
Posted by Matt Granz on Monday, 1 June 2015

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Caza = asesinato
Posted by Santuario Gaia on Thursday, 23 October 2014

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=== Posts from last year ===
The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor (Judges 6:12, NKJV)
My Question Is.What Can God Do Through You?

Many people feel inadequate to do anything for God. But God doesn’t see you as inadequate, He sees you as complete, lacking nothing in Him!
In the scripture, Gideon was hiding out from his enemies. He was afraid and didn’t feel equipped to do what God called him to do. Gideon was focused on his circumstances and his limitations, but God focused on what He could do through Gideon. Gideon felt weak, but God saw him as strong. Gideon felt unqualified, but God saw him as ready to do the job. Gideon felt insecure, but God saw him as full of boldness. Sure enough, when Gideon obeyed God, against all odds, he ended in victory.
It isn’t about how qualified you feel. It isn’t about how talented you are; it’s really about how yielded you are. When you obey God, when you trust Him beyond trusting your circumstances, that’s when His power becomes available to you. God bless you.


Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin

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Bolt Report tomorrow

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (8:24pm)

On Network 10 at 10am:
- When grown men vilify a 13-year-old girl as the “face of racism”, who are the real bullies? Defying the New Racism.
- Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison on the boat people fiasco
- former Labor president Warren Mundine and former Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger
- a fact check on the abusive Mr Windsor.
The twitter feed. 
The place the videos appear

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Fukushima reality check: no health effects

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (11:10am)

After all that reckless hype and hysteria: 

RADIATION leaked after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 is unlikely to cause any ill health effects in the future, says a UN scientific committee drawing up a major new report

“Radiation exposure following the nuclear accident at Fukushima-Daiichi… did not cause any immediate health effects,” the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) said. 

“It is unlikely to be able to attribute any health effects in the future among the general public and the vast majority of workers for which dose histories have been assessed.” 
When will we hear a sorry from the fear-mongers?
First, let’s ask Crikey writer Guy Rundle to show us his dead Fukushima pilots, stripped of flesh. 
Rundle is the alarmist who wrote: “As I write, the Japanese are conducting direct overflies to try and control the continuing damage most likely a suicide mission for the pilots and crew…
“The Japanese crews will slough their skin and muscles, and bleed out internally under the full glare of the world’s media.”
Then let’s have veteran nuclear hysteric Helen Caldicott, who warned on 3AW that the Fukushima reactor could blow (a scenario ruled out by nuclear experts).
This, she wailed, meant “hundreds of thousands of Japanese will be dying within two weeks of acute radiation illness”, with countless more later suffering an “epidemic” of cancers.
Explain yourself, Helen.
Next let’s have Dr Tilman Ruff, actually a Nossal Institute infectious diseases expert and long-time anti-nuclear activist, who wildly claimed “we might be looking at a Chernobyl-type disaster or worse” and hungrily described the many ways people could get sick from the fallout that never really came. 
Such alarmists and more were given a red carpet entree into the news rooms of almost every big news organisation in the land back when fear sold.
(Thanks to readers flameho, Rocky, Chrisso and Prankster.) 

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It’s how you teach that counts: the Innisfail example

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (10:59am)

Inspiring:

WHEN young primary school principal Nathaniel Train arrived at Innisfail East State School in far north Queensland two years ago, he had a tough message to deliver to teachers and parents: lift your game. 
As one of the nation’s most disadvantaged schools, where half the students are indigenous, it was not unusual for students at Innisfail East to refuse to take their feet off the desk… Attendance was low and academic results were worse.
Today, Innisfail East - like neighbouring Goondi State School - is one of a handful of Australia’s most disadvantaged schools whose students are scoring in the top half of the nation’s results in literacy and numeracy…
Rather, the secrets to their success are encouraging passionate teachers not to waste a moment of classroom time on needless “busy work”; regular and rigorous statistical analysis of results; spending the equivalent of two days a week as principal in the classroom; and, above all, a relentless drive for excellence…
For Mr Train, the disadvantage is meaningless. When he arrived at the school in 2011, he was dismayed to find poor academic results, but even more disappointed to find some teachers believed their students would never be more than average....
Mr Train replaced half the teachers… Mr Train appointed his Year 7 teacher as the school’s “coach”, responsible for overhauling the curriculum and training teachers in an explicit instruction teaching method. 
Rather than a hodge-podge of lessons, each teacher now has a tight, daily schedule to follow, with an overwhelming focus on literacy and numeracy. Each class begins with a “warm-up”, a recited chant used to commit crucial information from short- to long-term memory.
(Thanks to reader elinjaa.)
So .. the kids aren't doing 'meaningless busywork' they are being kept occupied with class activity. - ed

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Haven’t Labor MPs helped themselves to enough of our money?

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (10:53am)

Peter Hartcher describes the astonished reaction in Caucus of John Faulkner and Daryl Melham to Labor’s plans to make taxpayers hand over $60 million to the big parties for expenses:
They couldn’t believe that the party on trial in ICAC for corruption, the party of Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, the party whose former national president Michael Williamson has been charged with fraud, the party led by a prime minister whose biggest liability is public trust, could propose a bill that would help itself to tens of millions of public funds yet preserve many of the opacities and loopholes of funding system. Melham told the caucus: “You don’t need $10 million a year to do administration work, and the punters won’t wear it.” 
UPDATE
Laurie Oakes:

Gillard and her team have clearly abandoned all hope of surviving in office. They are preparing for defeat. The grubby cash-for-votes deal with the Coalition, which fell apart under the weight of public anger on Thursday, was evidence of that. 
Donations to Labor are drying up as its hold on power weakens, and things will get a lot tougher after the election. The dollar-per-vote proposal was about getting access to taxpayer funds to keep a desperate party afloat financially in opposition. Further indication the government has thrown in the towel is the behind-the-scenes talk about who will lead Labor after Gillard is dispatched by the voters. This entered the public domain on Thursday with reports that Bill Shorten as opposition leader would not allow a Tony Abbott government to abolish the carbon tax without a fight.
Does Shorten seriously want to take Labor to a double dissolution election defending the carbon tax? And risk losing possible Senate seats in defence of such a worthless and doomed cause?
Wow.
(Thanks to readers Jonathan and Peter.) 

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The worst minister of the Gillard Government

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (10:45am)

Professor Judith Sloan on Communications Minister Stephen Conroy: 

The senator’s performance removes any doubt about Conroy being a witless, unintelligent, immature and boorish grub who is completely unfit to be a Minister of the Crown. 
And to think he is overseeing the largest government funded boondoggle without a cost-benefit analysis.  And to think that this is the man who came within a whisker of clamping down on freedom of speech.
Sloan is referring to Conroy’s astonishing performance in defending the ABC from Coalition charges that it leans to the Labor side of politics.
Talk about own goal.
Sloan is so fired up that she reviews the contenders for worst Labor minister:
- The Treasurer (Swan), for his failure to achieve a budget surplus plus other assorted misdemeanors; 
- Workplace Relations Minister(Shorten), for pushing a brazenly pro-union piece of legislation to greater heights and overseeing some egregious appointments for mates;
- Immigration Minister (O’Connor), for completely failing to deal with the uncontrolled arrival of boats and the implications;
- Foreign Minister (Carr), for pouncing around the world with his wife concentrating on the unimportant issues;
- Climate change minister (Combet), for keeping faith when everyone else is retreating, wasting billions in green schemes and to agreeing to the most ridiculous predictions on carbon prices in the forward estimates;
- Former AG (Roxy), arguably the worse AG we have ever had until the new one was appointed;
- Childcare Minister (Ellis), for overseeing a disaster in the childcare space with ridiculously burdensome regulations and skyrocketing fees;
- School education minister (Garrett), for promoting something he doesn’t understand and spending money we cannot afford which is actually just a sop to the Australian Education Union. 
Sloan has deliberately excluded the worst. 

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NBN looking like the home insulation disaster, with added billions

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (10:37am)

The NBN may become another Labor pink batts disaster:

THE government has escalated its intervention into the safety threats dogging its National Broadband Network, calling a crisis meeting for Monday that has sparked fresh calls for a compensation fund and standardised training for all workers dealing with asbestos. 
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten revealed the government has convened a high-level meeting on Monday between Telstra, the NBN Co, the federal workplace regulator, the national Office of Asbestos Safety, unions and victims groups to manage concerns around the exposure of contractors and the community to asbestos hazards during the fibre network’s rollout.
Add it to the bill:
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union’s national NBN construction and project officer David Mier, who will be at the meeting, has raised concerns contractors in Tasmania were working on sites with potential asbestos exposure, after completing only online training courses… 
Further highlighting the potential for cost blow-outs, National Electrical and Communications Association chief executive James Tinslay said he was concerned that “bigger contractors just can’t do it [clean up the asbestos], their labour rates are so high, they couldn’t possibly undertake the work”.
He said that asbestos “has the potential to blow out a job"… 
Referring to photographs of clean-up work on Telstra pits in Penrith in western Sydney, Mr Tinslay said that kind of thing would be “dreadfully expensive”.

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When peer review becomes mates’ rates

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (10:13am)

We’ve already been warned by an inquiry into the infamous hockey-stick of warmist Michael Mann that peer-review in climate science was controlled by a tight cabal:
In addition to debunking the hockey stick, Mr. Wegman goes a step further in his report, attempting to answer why Mr. Mann’s mistakes were not exposed by his fellow climatologists. Instead, it fell to two outsiders, Messrs. McIntyre and McKitrick, to uncover the errors. 
Mr. Wegman brings to bear a technique called social-network analysis to examine the community of climate researchers. His conclusion is that the coterie of most frequently published climatologists is so insular and close-knit that no effective independent review of the work of Mr. Mann is likely. “As analyzed in our social network,” Mr. Wegman writes, “there is a tightly knit group of individuals who passionately believe in their thesis.” He continues: “However, our perception is that this group has a self-reinforcing feedback mechanism and, moreover, the work has been sufficiently politicized that they can hardly reassess their public positions without losing credibility.”
As Professor Edward Wegman, who led the Wegman Report into the discredited “hockey stick”, explained:
One of the interesting questions associated with the ‚"hockey stick controversy’ are the relationships among the authors and consequently how confident one can be in the peer review process. In particular, if there is a tight relationship among the authors and there are not a large number of individuals engaged in a particular topic area, then one may suspect that the peer review process does not fully vet papers before they are published… 
However, it is immediately clear that the Mann, Rutherford, Jones, Osborn, Briffa, Bradley and Hughes form a clique, each interacting with all of the others. A clique is a fully connected subgraph, meaning everyone in the clique interacts with every one else in the clique.
The report added:
One of the interesting questions associated with the ‘hockey stick controversy’ are the relationships among the authors and consequently how confident one can be in the peer review process. In particular, if there is a tight relationship among the authors and there are not a large number of individuals engaged in a particular topic area, then one may suspect that the peer review process does not fully vet papers before they are published. Indeed, a common practice among associate editors for scholarly journals is to look in the list of references for a submitted paper to see who else is writing in a given area and thus who might legitimately be called on to provide knowledgeable peer review. Of course, if a given discipline area is small and the authors in the area are tightly coupled, then this process is likely to turn up very sympathetic referees. These referees may have coauthored other papers with a given author. They may believe they know that author’s other writings well enough that errors can continue to propagate and indeed be reinforced.
In the case of the “hockey stick”, Wegman and his team found the “clique” of gatekeepers to be no more than just 43 warmist scientists.
Now comes more evidence that peer-review can be just mates’-rates, with an inner circle favouring the familiar.  A new study strongly suggests peer reviewers are much more likely to reject papers of people they don’t know, even when the same material was waved through when the authors sounded familiar:
As test materials we selected 12 already published research articles by investigators from prestigious and highly productive American psychology departments, one article from each of 12 highly regarded and widely read American psychology journals with high rejection rates (80%) and nonblind refereeing practices. 
With fictitious names and institutions substituted for the original ones (e.g., Tri-Valley Center for Human Potential), the altered manuscripts were formally resubmitted to the journals that had originally refereed and published them 18 to 32 months earlier. Of the sample of 38 editors and reviewers, only three (8%) detected the resubmissions. This result allowed nine of the 12 articles to continue through the review process to receive an actual evaluation: eight of the nine were rejected. Sixteen of the 18 referees (89%) recommended against publication and the editors concurred. The grounds for rejection were in many cases described as “serious methodological flaws.” 
Our own Climate Commission has already demonstrated how quickly even an “expert” will believe a fallacy if it fits their pet theory.
(Thanks to reader Bob.) 

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Global warming gives us a greener planet

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (10:07am)

Global warming - general
The Greens should be pleased with global warming. By pumping out more plant food, we’ve given the planet more shrubs and trees:
Scientists have long suspected that a flourishing of green foliage around the globe, observed since the early 1980s in satellite data, springs at least in part from the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere. Now, a study of arid regions around the globe finds that a carbon dioxide “fertilization effect” has, indeed, caused a gradual greening from 1982 to 2010. 
Focusing on the southwestern corner of North America, Australia’s outback, the Middle East, and some parts of Africa, Randall Donohue of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia and his colleagues developed and applied a mathematical model to predict the extent of the carbon-dioxide (CO2) fertilization effect… The team’s model predicted that foliage would increase by some 5 to 10 percent given the 14 percent increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration during the study period. The satellite data agreed, showing an 11 percent increase in foliage after adjusting the data for precipitation, yielding “strong support for our hypothesis,” the team reports.
(Thanks to readers Timdot and Aard Knox.) 

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Richard Hinds and the “virtue” of those who secretly hate

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (8:49am)

The new morality
I completely agree with this sentence from Sydney Morning Herald sportswriter Richard Hinds, referring to the 13-year-old girl publicly identified and branded “the face of racism”:
The hatemongers pounced like seagulls on a chip, mischievously martyring the young girl.
He is right. Fashionable hatemongers, not least in Fairfax newspapers, have indeed martyred this poor girl to promote their own superior virtue. By publicly crucifying someone they themselves admit may be innocent they have demonstrated the truth of Bertrand Russell’s maxim:
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
Hinds cites some of the hate-words used by the persecutors of a very young girl who was, yes, very rude but nowhere near as rude as the adults burning her at the stake and chanting their hatred of anyone who sought to protect her:

vile ... ignorant ...  bigots ...  trolls ... ... sad, self-loathing agenda… 

In an earlier column, Hinds mentioned even worse abuse of those who simply thought a 13-year-old should not be so vilified and publicly humiliated:
...lunatic fringe ... putrid agenda ...  prism of hate and insecurity ... sinister ... vicious ... smug intolerance ... historical contortions ... bitter ... self-loathing ... bigotry… 
Wow. Such hatred.
Hinds may also be right about what “they” have unleashed - if by “they” he indeed means these punishers, unable to see that their Great White Racist is in fact just an apologetic 13-year-old girl who was possibly misunderstood, given that the bearded Goodes is hirsute and the girl said she did not know “ape” can have a racist connotation:

They unleashed their battalion of bigots and trolls who can’t - or refuse to - understand the difference between racist vilification and mere schoolyard taunts.
(In fact, I think a schoolyard taunt can still be racist. The real issue is, of course, the age of the girl in determining culpability and punishment - which in this case was a national naming and shaming.)
But, yes, the persecutors of this 13-year-old  have whipped up hatred of her and anyone who sought to save her from the mob. Here, for instance, are just some of the comments of bigots and trolls unleashed by one columnist:
...nutters ... fear mongering ... buffoon… fruitloops on the edge of decency ... seriously intellectually challenged… closet racist ... redneck bogans ...bigotry of her family ... beneath my contempt ... lunatic racist fringe ... loser fringe ...  resented low place in the pecking order ... a nobody ...
Hinds has convincingly demonstrated that anti-racism, in principle a noble cause, has been twisted into an intoxicating excuse for unleashing hatred and punishing the powerless. Worse, it has become a weapon by fashionable New Racists, demanding we see each other as ”spokesmen” for our race rather than individuals with a common race, a common humanity.
I am thankful Hinds has helped to shine a light on this deeply troubling development, so like the hysteria of Salem, with the “good” feeling licensed to be cruel to the weak in order to better advertise their own pitiless virtue.
But warning. Unless you click the links above, you might really believe Hinds has written sense, rather demonstrate a dangerous lack of it. He has in fact confused victim with villains.
Sadly, another man without a mirror or any sense of proportion. 

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Mark Dreyfus, an Attorney-General without a mirror

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (8:19am)

Mark Dreyfus has struck me for some time as dangerously sanctimonious - a caricature modern Leftist prone to preach standards he does not meet himself, since rules are only for the wicked. He is also prone to preach collectivist myths without a regard for evidence proper in a QC.  The man simply does not own a mirror:
Just another appointment. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, May 16:

IT is with great pleasure that I announce the appointment of Mr Nicholas Manousaridis and Ms Suzanne Jones as judges of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia ... An advisory panel selected Mr Manousaridis and Ms Jones from a strong field of over 100 candidates, finding them highly suitable. 
Hang on. That name rings a bell. Chris Merritt, The Weekend Australian, May 18-19:
THE federal government has appointed the wife of ACTU secretary Dave Oliver to a $314,000 job as a judge of the Federal Circuit Court. Suzanne Jones, who is a former ACTU advocate, is joining the judiciary just 19 months after the government made her a commissioner of the Fair Work Commission. Her appointment was announced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who denied it could be seen as preferential treatment because of her union background and marriage to Mr Oliver.
The opposition legal affairs spokesman questions Louise Glanville, first assistant secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, during this week’s Senate estimates hearings:

GEORGE Brandis: Was Ms Suzanne Jones on the initial short list? 
Glanville: She was on the second short list.
Brandis: She was not on the first short list?
Glanville: No…
Brandis: If it is similar to the process that Mr Fredericks described, then the Attorney-General’s office would have been made aware of who was on the short list. Did that happen?
Glanville: Yes.
Brandis: And presumably they were also made aware of who was on the second short list?
Glanville: I will need to check that because in the intervening period there was a change of attorney-general. 
Brandis: I do not doubt that Ms Jones was an experienced industrial law specialist ... What strikes me as surprising about this appointment is that I know from conversations I have had with many senior figures in the court is that the court was looking in this particular case for a family law specialist to handle the family law list, which comprises 80 per cent of its work, and instead, from the large number of applicants for the position received, it ended up with an industrial law specialist with no background in family law matters at all. 
Previous examples: 
THE country’s top lawmaker has been forced into an embarrassing apology after his refusal to abide by aviation rules and turn off his mobile phone during a flight resulted in police being called to meet him when the plane touched down. 
And:

Here is the sunny picture he painted of [his electorate, taking in much of Dandenong] two months ago: “Our community is a wonderful example to others of a modern, diverse and harmonious society.” 
Mind you, it is easy to rhapsodise about mass immigration, especially from poor and Muslim lands, when you live not in your fabulously diverse electorate but 20km away, in the very affluent and very white suburb of Malvern.
That may explain why this “harmonious society” of “150 different nationalities” turns out to be not quite the “wonderful example” Dreyfus claims. 
Last month, The Age reported: “Around Dandenong, young men stalk parks in gangs and rob anyone who walks through...” 
And:

Christopher Pyne
This government is starting to resemble a scene from Downfall. … This government appears to be unravelling on a daily basis. If this is what it’s like after three days of election campaign, what would another three years of a Labor government do?
Mark Dreyfus on Pyne’s comments above
These immature and offensive comments have no place in Australian political debate. There is no place in Australian political debate for a comparison of any Australian government with Hitler’s Third Reich. These comments are deeply hurtful to holocaust survivors, they are deeply hurtful to any right thinking Australian…
Mark Dreyfus in his SMH opinion piece on 11 March 2011 titled Shades of Goebbels in ‘truth campaign’:

Abbott’s wildest claim is that he is running a “truth campaign”. Leaving aside the Goebbellian cynicism of labelling a scare campaign a “truth campaign”, I think it shows Abbott’s contempt for the Australian electorate.
When asked about his own comments comparing Tony Abbott’s campaign to Goebbels, Dreyfus says
That’s a quite different thing, it’s a very, very specific and targeted comment about the propaganda techniques.
A man so sanctimonious, so aloof and so tribal cannot be trusted with power to stifle the speech of others:

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has called on Tony Abbott to back away from a pledge to repeal a section of the Racial Discrimination Act that journalist Andrew Bolt was found guilty of breaching.

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Clive Palmer, political menace

Andrew Bolt June 01 2013 (8:08am)

Clive Palmer is not just a buffoon, but a lazy buffoon:
ASPIRING prime minister Clive Palmer is ripping off part of a Liberal Party policy platform word for word and presenting a near-identical manifesto for his Palmer United Party. 

The billionaire’s new political party has lifted about 17 of the 22 pages of text in its new “National Policy’’ from a Liberal federal platform document publicly championed for more than a decade… 

“It’s not copy and pasting,” Professor Palmer said. “… I probably wrote it originally. For forty years, I have helped establish the policy of the Liberal National Party...”
He is also a lazy buffoon making nasty appeals to xenophobia, with these cracks at Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott:
“You wonder how two people, both born outside Australia, in foreign countries, cannot relate to the people that live in this country,” he said. 
“They don’t think about what it means to live in this country, to live and to die, and to stand for what it means to be Australian.”
Mr Palmer then rattled off a list of his relatives who fought and died in war for Australia. 
Ms Gillard was born in Wales and came to Australia aged five while Mr Abbott was born in London to expatriate parents who returned home when he was three. 
I’m surprised so few in the ABC have called out Palmer, whose bid for political power is a sinister blend of vanity, money, bluster and populism. Andrew Landeryou: 
The other notable Palmer policy, that he’d confiscate privatised Queensland state government assets without compensating the buyer of them, is also ill-considered, would not survive legal challenge and is utterly inconsistent with the conservative values Palmer purports to have and probably does have when he’s not trying to get attention as the nation’s class clown. 
These thought-bubbles are like the loud, certain policy pronouncements you can hear in most pubs if you hang around long enough. They are not credible and make Palmer look foolish.
They don’t merely make Palmer look foolish. They reveal him as foolish.  

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Labor agrees with ABC that Liberals are wrong about ABC bias

Andrew Bolt May 31 2013 (8:15pm)

The facts: not one of the ABC’s main current affairs shows is hosted by a conservative. Every host of Media Watch in its 24 years has been of the Left. A survey by the University of the Sunshine Coast calculated that more than 40 per cent of ABC journalists vote Greens. And it all shows, as former ABC chairman Maurice Newman says.
Now the ABC has hired as the head of its new fact checking (of non-ABC journalists) the Leftist Russell Skelton, husband of far-Left ABC TV host Virginia Trioli.
ABC managing diector Mark Scott tried to defend this astonishing ideological monoculture - this rigging of public debate through the hijacking of a taxpayer- funded broadcaster - to a Senate committee this week. He specifically defended the hiring of Skelton.
But observe from the transcript. In defending the ABC from Coalitilion charges of bias, Scott has the enthusiastic support of Labor’s Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister. Here is Labor joining with the ABC to claim only a conservative could say the ABC is biased. My case closed:
…..Senator ABETZ: Mr Scott, we could be here all night. I have here more than a dozen examples of Mr Skelton’s tweets denigrating Liberals such as Senator Brandis, Scott Morrison, Joe Hockey and other current and former Liberal leaders. 
Senator Conroy: He knows his facts, doesn’t he!
Senator ABETZ: So how can you credibly maintain that Mr Skelton is impartial and a suitable choice to be the ABC’s fact-checker? I will give you a few examples: ‘Gordon nails Brandis’; ‘Morrison, the LP’s one-trick pony’ —
Senator Conroy: Absolutely factually accurate at all points! What is your problem?
Senator ABETZ: ‘The Liberal bird -brained backbencher slams Gestapo data retention’ —
Senator Conroy: There are many different definitions!
Senator ABETZ: that was about Mr Ciobo. ‘Joe’s not the sharpest pencil in the box when it comes to numbers’; ‘Rudd wept and Julia triumphant’; ‘The honeymoon will be too long for the monk’ — all these from Mr Skelton.
Are you still saying you will not comment on individual tweets? There are dozens and dozens of them showing a partiality against the coalition.
Senator Conroy: In your biased view.
Senator ABETZ: Mr Scott, do you understand that we in the Coalition do not accept that this man will go about his task with impartiality given his past track record of complete and utter partiality, including some quite offensive tweets?
What I would invite you to do is take all of these tweets on notice and come back to the committee and explain how this builds confidence in the community’s mind that Mr Skelton will go about his task with impartiality. I will table those for the committee.
Mr Scott: I will take that on notice. Let me simply say in response to the broad thrust of that that Mr Skelton is a very experienced and award-winning journalist. We thought, on the criteria that were spelt out, on his ability to provide and lead a team that is testing statements, coming to conclusions and providing the evidence behind that, that Mr Skelton is an appropriate person to lead that division…
Senator ABETZ: Now let me compare all those opinions about coalition members by your independent, impartial fact-finder with his views on the Prime Minister. What would you say about this tweet: ‘Extraordinary times. JG at last behaving like a PM. ALP vote up, not down. Beware the pundits’? Isn’t this shameless barracking, pure and simple?
Senator Conroy: You just have a biased view on it, Senator Abetz.
Mr Scott: Senator Abetz, I really think there is little point in going through a whole series of tweets —
Senator ABETZ: What about this tweet: ‘Another take on Julia Gillard PM: grace under pressure’?
Senator Conroy: A factually accurate statement!…
Senator ABETZ: Do you have any concern about bias at the ABC?
Mr Scott: I would draw your attention to a much bigger survey commissioned by The Australian in February this year.
Senator ABETZ: I am asking about you. Do you have any concerns?
Senator Conroy: Malcolm Turnbull gets on far too often, doesn’t he, Senator Abetz? You would agree with that!
Senator ABETZ: Do you mind, Minister! Mr Scott, do you have any sense that the recent survey which found that 41 per cent of ABC journalists said they would vote for the Greens, 32 per cent for Labor and 15 per cent for the coalition generally reflects ABC journalists’ political leanings?
Senator Conroy: He could not possibly know.
Mr Scott: No. There are about 1,000 journalists who work across the ABC in news, radio, rural divisions and others. ...
Senator ABETZ: Can we believe that Mr Skelton will be impartial when checking the public statements of politicians when just last July he tweeted ‘Abbott’s extremism on display’? Are we to assume this is a display of impartiality by Mr Skelton?
Senator Conroy: It could have been factually accurate!
Mr Scott: I am happy to talk about the fact-checking unit if you would like to talk about that.
Senator ABETZ: No, I am asking you about a specific tweet.
Senator Conroy: It could have been very factually accurate, Senator Abetz!....
Senator ABETZ: Thank you. Can I ask about this tweet from your fact-checker, which is also about Mr Abbott: ‘No statesman, with no style’. Is this also indicative of an objective mindset?
Senator Conroy: No, an accurate one. A factually accurate one. That would check against the facts!
Senator ABETZ: The way the minister says it I think tells the whole story for us. What about last August, when Mr Skelton tweeted ‘Mr Abbott was revealed to be the shameless opportunist that he is and he was red faced. Windsor nailed him to the floor’? Is that another clear exhibition of the absence of bias by Mr Skelton?
Senator Conroy: I am confident that that was a factually accurate statement!  

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Quote of the Century.

"The budget should be balanced, 
the Treasury should be refilled, 
public debt should be reduced, 
the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, 
and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed,
lest Rome becomes bankrupt. 
People must again learn to work 
instead of living on public assistance." 

Cicero , 55 BC 

Evidently we've learnt bugger all over the past 2,068 years.
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God is so awesome that He will restore the time that's been wasted and stolen from you. Start believing that the Lord is multiplying back everything that you've lost. The greater the loss, the greater the restoration.... Holly
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He runs with it .. (warning rude language) - ed
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Overnight I discovered my left ankle soreness was actually gout. I didn't know what had caused this gout .. it isn't usually my left ankle. It is usually alcohol which causes it, but I've not drunk any .. then I realised that I'd been ketone-ing for months .. and ketone is related to alcohol .. a remarkable personal discovery. - ed
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Another industry the ALP scupper - ed
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Heavenly Father,I thank You for the seed of the Word that will not return void in my life. I choose to open my heart to You and say, “Have Your way in me.” I choose love, I choose forgiveness, and I choose to surrender every part of my life to You in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin

===
Come here, My child,
I have much now to tell
For your love to deepen,
Your fears to quell:

More than you know
Is how much I love you,
Higher than the heavens,
Yes, this is true.

More than you imagine
Is what is in store
For you in eternity
Behind Heaven’s door.

More than you long for
Is the joy I will give
When My Will you love,
When for Me you live.

More than you desire
Are the riches I share,
Eternal, beautiful,
All beyond compare.

More than you hope
Is the beauty of the song
I place in your heart
All the day long.

More than you reason
Is My pain on Calvary,
Torment beyond words
That you may know eternity.

So stay here, My child,
Listen to all I say;
More than you wish
Is what you find on My way.

For if I did not flinch
In pouring My all for you,
What else will I not give?
What else will I not do?

Yes, more than you know
I love you, child of Mine;
So stay here in My arms,
In My Presence divine.

  
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THE BILLY GRAHAM OF THE 19TH CENTURY Phillip Jensen
Dwight L. Moody was to the 19th century what Billy Graham was to the 20thcentury.  Both spent the better part of their life as itinerant evangelists, travelling the world preaching Christ and calling upon people to repent and put their trust in him.  There were differences between the two men and differences between the two centuries in which they preached, but it is unlikely that anybody preached Christ to more people in the last two centuries than these two men.
This week the Men’s Collegiate Choir of the Moody Bible Institute is visiting us.  The Moody Bible Institute was one of the many spin offs of Mr Moody’s evangelistic ministries.
Dwight Lyman Moody, 1837-1899 was raised in poverty.  He was one of nine children.  His father died when Dwight was 4.  He left school at 13 with only a fifth grade education.  At 17 he left home to work in his uncle’s shoe shop in Boston.  His uncle insisted he attend Sunday school classes.  His Sunday School teacher testified: “I have seen fewer persons whose minds were spiritually darker than when he came into my Sunday school class.”  At the age of 18, he became a Christian through the ministry of this Sunday School teacher, challenging him with the gospel in his uncle’s shoe store.
Shortly after he moved from Boston to Chicago to start his own shoe business, aiming to make his fortune. However, God had other plans for Moody’s enormous energies, drive and passions.  Within three years of living in Chicago, he was moved from pursuing his own wealth to helping the poor.  He started a Sunday School in a slum, which grew into a church.  By 1861 he had given up the shoe business to concentrate on his social and evangelistic work.
One of the key parts of Moody’s life was the Young Men’s Christian Association.  In those days the ‘C’ in the name was still prominent and its aims were evangelistic.  He had joined it when he first went to Boston and continued in its membership in Chicago, even becoming its Chairman for four years.  This non-denominational ministry was one of the bases of all Moody’s work, for he preached evangelistically in fellowship with people of any and no denominational background.
Two key turning points in his life were the Civil War and the Chicago fire.  He spent the war working with the YMCA, evangelising the troops of the Northern army.  While the war years may have shaped the urgency and compassion of his ministry it was the fire that changed the direction of his life.  D.L. Moody was preaching in Chicago the night of the great fire in 1871.  He and his family were protected but he lost everything.  The great fire destroyed his church and home as well as the YMCA.  He did not rebuild in Chicago but back in his home in Northfield, Massachusetts, for in the aftermath of the fire his ministry moved from Chicago to the world and more significantly from social work and evangelism to simply evangelism.
Evangelism is never ‘simply’; and Moody’s evangelism was no exception.  It involved music and travel, fund raising and organisation, and spawned a whole range of other activities.  Moody’s own experience of poverty and working with the poor, remained part of his great appeal to the masses as well as his concern for the lost in every class of people.  His entrepreneurial energies invented new ways of presenting the gospel, that today we would take for granted.
He teamed up with a singer, composer and organist Ira Sankey.  Together they published famous hymn books, but more importantly they travelled on evangelistic tours: Sankey singing solos, and leading the crowds in singing their hymns and D.L. Moody preaching.  It seemed a winning combination as people flocked to hear them and were, by God’s grace, won to the Kingdom.  Travelling frequently through North America and across the Atlantic, it is estimated that over 100 million people heard this gifted evangelist call them to the Saviour.
Coming out of all this evangelistic activity, he created several institutions.  He founded schools in his home state of Massachusetts.  Sadly, they have become prestigious and even famous but have not continued in his Christian ideals.  He started a ministry of distributing gospel books and pamphlets, which in turn became the publishing house named Moody Press.
His ministry had a great effect on students.  From a famous mission in Cambridge University a group of 7 students travelled around Britain arousing great interest in Overseas Missions.  He ran Summer Bible conferences near his home – at one such conference the Student Volunteer Movement was founded, with its, soon to be adopted, motto of “the evangelization of the world in this generation”.  Again sadly, following generations within this movement did not hold to his clear gospel presentation, but from it have come many other movements such as the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
In 1886 D.L. Moody established the Chicago Evangelization Society.  The aim was clearly stated as the “education and training of Christian workers, including teachers, ministers, missionaries, and musicians who may completely and effectively proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.”  The aim was to train people to do city mission work, reaching people with the gospel.  Shortly after his death the institute changed its name to “The Moody Bible Institute”.
Which brings us to our visitors in Sydney this week.  For these students of Moody’s Bible Institute come “striving for musical excellence with the goal of encouraging believers and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.”  In that goal they are continuing Moody’s great aim of saving the lost and we pray that God blesses their endeavours.
Great piece. Speaking of Moody, I'm reminded of something that puzzled me for a long time. The Battle of Copenhagen had Nelson defying orders to shell the city defences. Copenhagen surrendered in a close battle. Nelson was greeted with fanfare. I couldn't work out why, but decided it was because the blockade of protestant Britain by Orthodox Russia and Catholic France was unpopular among protestant Danes. Reminded of this by Sweden's embrace of Moody. - ed
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Photo credit: www.jensensutta.com
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for May 31st. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Who’s tracking your children?

The school year may be over for most American students, but parents must remain as vigilant as ever when it comes to protecting their children’s privacy...

Meet one of the people Joe Biden says lives ‘in fear and in the shadows’

The other day in Trinidad, Joe Biden claimed that illegals in the U.S. are “required to constantly live in fear and live in the shadows”...

Fmr. IRS commish went to more White House Easter Egg Rolls than previously thought

For those of you keeping score at home, the number of White House Easter Egg Rolls attended by former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman has grown from a paltry 118 to an impressive 157 — and that number could go higher...

More From the Right Side of the Web

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Yesterday morning on "FOX & Friends," Michelle talked Eric Holder, the growing IRS scandal, DHS monitoring Tea Party protests, and more.

Michelle's Top Tweets

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Nice. Very nice.

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Old Smuggler brand Scotch whisky
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“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” -1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron."
2 Samuel 15:23
David passed that gloomy brook when flying with his mourning company from his traitor son. The man after God's own heart was not exempt from trouble, nay, his life was full of it. He was both the Lord's Anointed, and the Lord's Afflicted. Why then should we expect to escape? At sorrow's gates the noblest of our race have waited with ashes on their heads; wherefore then should we complain as though some strange thing had happened unto us?
The King of kings himself was not favoured with a more cheerful or royal road. He passed over the filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem flowed. God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod. It is a great joy to believe that Jesus has been tempted in all points like as we are. What is our Kidron this morning? Is it a faithless friend, a sad bereavement, a slanderous reproach, a dark foreboding? The King has passed over all these. Is it bodily pain, poverty, persecution, or contempt? Over each of these Kidrons the King has gone before us. "In all our afflictions he was afflicted." The idea of strangeness in our trials must be banished at once and forever, for he who is the Head of all saints, knows by experience the grief which we think so peculiar. All the citizens of Zion must be free of the Honourable Company of Mourners, of which the Prince Immanuel is Head and Captain.
Notwithstanding the abasement of David, he yet returned in triumph to his city, and David's Lord arose victorious from the grave; let us then be of good courage, for we also shall win the day. We shall yet with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation, though now for a season we have to pass by the noxious streams of sin and sorrow. Courage, soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed after going over Kidron, and so shall you.

Evening

"Who healeth all thy diseases."
Psalm 103:3
Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain, that we are all more or less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of him awhile tonight. His cures are very speedy--there is life in a look at him; his cures are radical--he strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, his cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that his patients should be merely patched up for a season, he makes new men of them: a new heart also does he give them, and a right spirit does he put within them. He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some speciality. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did he meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but he has known exactly with one glance of his eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor; and the medicine he gives is the only true catholicon, healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. "His blood cleanseth from all sin." We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of his touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in his hands. We trust him, and sin dies; we love him, and grace lives; we wait for him and grace is strengthened; we see him as he is, and grace is perfected forever.
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Shimei, Shimi, Shimhi

[Shĭm'eī, Shī'mī, Shĭm'hī] - jehovah is fame or famous.
Shimei, we are told, was a popular name among the Hebrews, being especially common in Levitical circles. But of the majority of men bearing it, little is known apart from the name.
1. The Benjamite of the clan of Saul, son of Gera who cursed David when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam. 16:5, 7, 13; 19:16, 18, 21, 23 ). Although we have little knowledge of this most prominent Shimei, what we do know proves him to be, as Dr. Alexander Whyte expresses it, "A reptile of the royal house of Saul." This Shimei can be described as:

The Man Who Hated the Truth He Knew

This man who lived to curse knew only too well that David had never shed a single drop of Saul's blood, but it was not in his interest to admit the truth he knew. Because of his tribal and family connections it was natural for Shimei to be David's bitter enemy, and to heap his curses and insults upon the fugitive monarch.
When, however, David triumphantly returned after Absalom's tragic death, Shimei met the king with a hypocritical repentance. David accepted his apology and gave an oath that he would not put him to death. When further resistance was useless, Shimei feigned obedience to David, but in his heart was still bitterly opposed to him.
On his deathbed David's last words to Solomon about Shimei's blood being spilt, cause one to wonder whether David's long-suppressed revenge upon his enemy found utterance. Solomon would not allow Shimei to go beyond the walls of Jerusalem. All the time he remained in his city of refuge he was safe. If he passed without it, he would die. Shimei kept this arrangement for three years, then broke it on some trifling occasion and justly forfeited his life. At the command of Solomon he was executed by Benaiah. This was the last of those acts of justice on offenders against David which Solomon performed.
How do we act when men say all manner of evil against us falsely? Do we see the Lord in it all, and that He will work out our salvation in spite of adverse and sore criticisms and circumstances? Do we rest in the fact that the Lord will look upon our affliction and will requite us good for all evil, if only we wisely and silently and adoringly submit ourselves to it?
2. A Courtier, Shimei by name, an officer of David, remained true to the king when Adonijah sought to usurp the throne (1 Kings 1:8).
3. A son of Elah, one of the twelve purveyors of Solomon, in Benjamin ( 1 Kings 4:18). This Shimei has been identified as the one above in 1 Kings 1:8.
4. A son of Gershon, son of Levi, who founded a subdivision of the tribal family of Gershon (Exod. 6:17).
5. A grandson of Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim king of Judah. A prince of the royal house (1 Chron. 3:19).
6. A son of Zacchur, the Benjamite with sixteen sons and six daughters ( 1 Chron. 4:26, 27).
7. A Reubenite, son of Gog (1 Chron. 5:4).
8. A Merarite, son of Libni (1 Chron. 6:29).
9. Father of a chief family in Judah (1 Chron. 8:21).
10. A Levite of the family of Laadan - grandson of Levi (1 Chron. 23:9).
11. A Levite to whom the tenth lot fell in the singing service of the Tabernacle during David's time. A son of Jeduthun (1 Chron. 25:3, 17).
12. A Ramathite who was overseer in David's vineyards (1 Chron. 27:27).
13. A descendant of Heman, who took part in the cleansing of the Temple in Hezekiah's time (2 Chron. 29:14).
14. A Levite and brother of Conaniah, who had charge of the tithes (2 Chron. 31:12, 13).
15. A Levite who had taken a strange wife (Ezra 10:23).
16. One of the family of Hashum who put away his wife (Ezra 10:33).
17. A son of Bani, who also put away his strange wife (Ezra 10:38).
18. A Benjamite, son of Kish and grandfather of Mordecai (Esther 2:5).
19. A representative, perhaps of the Gershonites who participated in mourning for national guilt ( Zech. 12:13).
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Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 13-14, John 12:1-26 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Chronicles 13-14

Abijah King of Judah
In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah, 2 and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Maakah, a daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.
There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah went into battle with an army of four hundred thousand able fighting men, and Jeroboam drew up a battle line against him with eight hundred thousand able troops....

Today's New Testament reading: John 12:1-26

Jesus Anointed at Bethany
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume....
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