Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Tue Jun 23rd Todays News

Bolt report Instructions follow the publishing news. 
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The inspiring piece from "Love at First Sight" where tv and scientists combine to bring couples together, who have never met before, and see if the predictions that they are going to be good together, has been reached. Some have drifted apart, or run away. And one couple had a pregnancy which they kept secret because of the possibility of a miscarriage, and the child miscarried. It is about love. Sometimes love hurts, too. Couples survive miscarriage. And some don't. Grief has long been studied, but is not really a science. 

 The NSW budget is brilliant. Big spending, yet balanced with a surplus. The ALP debt legacy won't disappear for another four budgets at this rate, and that means for NSW sake the conservatives need to win 2019. Already the media is pursuing possible downsides. It is possible the surplus can't be sustained in future because of falling stamp duty from housing. Also falling federal receipts in Health and Education which the ALP never paid for as she promised them. 

 In the United States, the President has raised the issue of racism again. His use of the 'N' word in some ways will immunise him from press criticism. He needed to do that as his campaigning and style of administration exploits racism. The US will always have a history, but for the President, it should have remained history. Another issue Obama is exploiting is gun control. Obama won't want to put gun control to bed, Democrats exploit it to hit conservatives with. People are dying for Democrat votes. 
In 1180, First Battle of Uji, started the Genpei War in Japan. It included an early example of ritual suicide to accept facing defeat. 1280, the Battle of Moclín took place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitted the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadian victory. 1305, a peace treaty between the Flemish and the French was signed at Athis-sur-Orge. 1314, First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) began. 1532, Henry VIII and François I signed a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V. 1565, Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, died during the Siege of Malta.

In 1611, The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again. Hudson had apparently used the oars of his open boat to keep pace with the sailing vessel for some time, but the mutineers unfurled more sail and sped away. 1661, marriage contract between Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza. 1683, William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania. 1713, the French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada. 1757, Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey. 1758, Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld: British forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany. 1760, Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeated Prussia. 1780, American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township). 1794, Empress Catherine II of Russia granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company. 1812, War of 1812: Great Britain revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war. 1848, beginning of the June Days Uprising in Paris, France. 1860, the United States Congress established the Government Printing Office. 1865, American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate, Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last significant rebel army. 1868, Typewriter: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer." 1887, the Rocky Mountains Park Act became law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park. 1894, the International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

In 1913, Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeated the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran. 1914, Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa took Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta. 1917, in a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire. People forget Ruth started MLB as a pitcher. He was a great pitcher, but changed to batting after the ball changed. 1919, Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cesis. This day was celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia. 1926, the College Board administered the first SAT exam. 1931, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in a successful attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane. 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

In 1940, World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveyed newly defeated Paris in now occupied France. 1941, the Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union and formed the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasted only briefly as the Nazis would occupy Lithuania a few weeks later. 1942, World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz took place on a train full of Jews from Paris. Also 1942, World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, was captured intact when it mistakenly landed at RAF Pembrey in Wales. 1943, World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sank the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoed the cruiser HMS Newfoundland. 1946, the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake struck Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also 1946, the National Democratic Front won a landslide victory in the municipal elections in French India. 1947, the United States Senate followed the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act. Illustrating the truth that "First they laugh at you, then they ridicule you. Then they say you'll never do it. Then they wonder who ever doubted you." The legislation still works effectively. 1956, the French National Assembly took the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa. 1958, the Dutch Reformed Church accepted women ministers. 1959, convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumed a scientific career. He gave research to China too. He was a communist before being a scientist and a traitor to free peoples. Also 1959, a fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim (Norway) killed 34 people.

In 1960, the United States Food and Drug Administration declared Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world. 1961, Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent, came into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959. 1967, Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference. 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. 1969, IBM announced that effective January 1970 it would price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry. 1972, Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman were taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins. Time has passed and it is now known the FBI was engaged in an illegal personal vendetta against the President for which the FBI has never been prosecuted. Also 1972, Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds. 1973, a fire at a house in Hull, England which killed a six-year-old boy was passed off as an accident; it later emerged as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

In 1982, Chinese American Vincent Chin died in a coma after being beaten in Highland Park, Michigan on June 19, by two auto workers who had mistaken him for Japanese and who were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies. 1985, a terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brought the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard. 2012, Ashton Eaton broke the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials. 2013, Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope. 2014, the last of Syria's declared chemical weapons were shipped out for destruction.
2014
History changed as a result of one battle, in which 3000 British took out 50000 Bengal and French in 1757. It was before the Annus Mirables (miracle year) in which it would be said that the sun never set on Britain. That would be the year that Nelson was born, Britain secured India and took Quebec. The British position was well fortified and they prudently kept their gunpowder dry during the rain. Yet it is a remarkable victory on numbers alone. 

In 1794, Russian Empress Catherine gave permission for Jews to settle in Kiev. Today, not many are left. During the war of 1812, Britain gave in to US demands for free trade on this day. In 1942, while Nazis were introducing gas chambers, a german pilot mistakenly landed their brand new aircraft, a Focke-Wulf, on a British airbase. Study is good. In 1958, the Dutch reformed church began accepting female ministers. 1959, German spy Klaus Fuchs was released, having served 9 years for his giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. In 1982, idiot auto workers in Michigan lynch a Chinese American student because they thought he had been Japanese. It would not have been right or fair if he had been. The killers were sentenced to three years probation. Killing without a license is wrong, but with a license?  

Ceasarion was born on this day, 47 BC. A good boy, he was too reliant on his dad. The great Alan Turing and June Carter Cash were born on this day, as were Bryan Brown, Clarence Thomas and Joss Whedon. A great day for art. Goodbye to Jonas Salk and Maureen O'Sullivan. It is ok to die old, blessed and loved. 
Historical perspectives on this day
In 1180, First Battle of Uji, started the Genpei War in Japan. 1280, the Battle of Moclín took place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitted the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadian victory. 1305, a peace treaty between the Flemish and the French was signed at Athis-sur-Orge. 1314, First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) began. 1532, Henry VIII and François I signed a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V. 1565, Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, died during the Siege of Malta.

In 1611, The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again. 1661, marriage contract between Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza. 1683, William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania. 1713, the French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada. 1757, Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey. 1758, Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld: British forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany. 1760, Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeated Prussia. 1780, American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township). 1794, Empress Catherine II of Russia granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company. 1812, War of 1812: Great Britain revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war. 1848, beginning of the June Days Uprising in Paris, France. 1860, the United States Congress established the Government Printing Office. 1865, American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate, Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last significant rebel army. 1868, Typewriter: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer." 1887, the Rocky Mountains Park Act became law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park. 1894, the International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

In 1913, Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeated the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran. 1914, Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa took Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta. 1917, in a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire. 1919, Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cesis. This day was celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia. 1926, the College Board administered the first SAT exam. 1931, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane. 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

In 1940, World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveyed newly defeated Paris in now occupied France. 1941, the Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union and formed the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasted only briefly as the Nazis would occupy Lithuania a few weeks later. 1942, World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz took place on a train full of Jews from Paris. Also 1942, World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, was captured intact when it mistakenly landed at RAF Pembrey in Wales. 1943, World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sank the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoed the cruiser HMS Newfoundland. 1946, the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake struck Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also 1946, the National Democratic Front won a landslide victory in the municipal elections in French India. 1947, the United States Senate followed the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act. 1956, the French National Assembly took the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa. 1958, the Dutch Reformed Church accepted women ministers. 1959, convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumed a scientific career. Also 1959, a fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim (Norway) killed 34 people.

In 1960, the United States Food and Drug Administration declared Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world. 1961, Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent, came into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959. 1967, Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference. 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. 1969, IBM announced that effective January 1970 it would price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry. 1972, Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman were taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins. Also 1972, Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds. 1973, a fire at a house in Hull, England which killed a six-year-old boy was passed off as an accident; it later emerged as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

In 1982, Chinese American Vincent Chin died in a coma after being beaten in Highland Park, Michigan on June 19, by two auto workers who had mistaken him for Japanese and who were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies. 1985, a terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brought the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard. 2012, Ashton Eaton broke the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials. 2013, Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope. 2014, the last of Syria's declared chemical weapons were shipped out for destruction.
=== 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.
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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, October 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. 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

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

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
=== 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.  
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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
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Bob Carroll, Joe Hildebrand, Brandon Nguyen, Michael Tuan Le and Lenny Dwoskin. Born on the same day, across the years. On your day, in 1280, Reconquista: Troops of the Emirate of Granada defeated those of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Leon in the Battle of Moclín. In 1780, American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army victory in the Battle of Springfield effectively put an end to British ambitions in New Jersey. In 1926, The College Board administered the first SAT, a major standardized test for university and college admissions in the United States. In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser became President of Egypt, a post he would hold until his death in 1970. In 1991, The video game Sonic the Hedgehog was first released, propelling the Sega Genesis 16-bit console into mass popularity. There are lessons from your day, Battles can be won which have no lasting effect, and it is sometimes best not to fight, although I think British ambitions still include New Jersey. One has to admire the ingenuity of a college board that could let students say they sat a test. And there have been no radio stars since Sonic. Embrace the day and try not get drunk on vapours.
Deaths
June 23: Victory Day in Estonia; Jāņi in Latvia; Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg
Pierre de Coubertin
The emirate is no more. The pope made a mistake. The games have begun. We don't discriminate. You da bomb. Let's party.  
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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SHALOMAR DRONED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 23, 2015 (12:04pm)

The results from an exclusive January BlairPoll:

image

It seems as though options three and four might have nailed it, although there’s a chance option two could score the win: 
Senior intelligence sources this morning confirmed that they were almost “certain” that Elomar, one of Australia’s most notorious terrorists, had been killed in Iraq.
However, they were less sure about reports that Sharrouf had been taken out alongside him in a drone strike near the town of Mosul.
A senior government intelligence source told The Daily Telegraph: “We are pretty certain about Elomar, but less so the other one.” 
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CLEMENTINE HEARD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 23, 2015 (4:04am)

I’m briefly back in charge of the Daily Telegraph‘s opinion pages, where I’ve demanded that all female columnists supply topless slogan photographs.
This follows Clementine Ford’s game-changing example. We all must listen to Clementine.
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COMMUNITY UNRAVELS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 23, 2015 (2:59am)

May 13: 
Australia’s arts industry is in shock after a dramatic intervention by Minister George Brandis … dismay and confusion spread throughout Australia’s tight-knit arts community. 
The Australia Council Budget cuts have carved a rift between major arts organisations and their smaller colleagues, who are protesting the majors’ compliance with the new regime. 
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PERFECT Q & A

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 23, 2015 (2:27am)

Panda-faced martyrdom advocate Zaky Mallah turned up last night in the Q & A audience: 
“The Liberals have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIL because of Ministers like him,” Mallah said referring to [Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Steve] Ciobo …
Host Tony Jones declared Mallah’s comment that the Liberal Government and its policies encourage Islamic youth to join ISIS as “totally out of order”. 
But not before he won a round of applause. Yes – the Q & A crowd actually applauded stupid, hopeless Zaky. Among the presumably bewildered panellists last night was British transgender chappette Antony Hegarty, who mumbled several strong opinions about, like, kind of, you know, climate change and stuff: 
“Where are you all going to be with all that money and nothing left to eat and nothing left to drink and nowhere to go,” said the Antony and The Johnsons band member ...
Earlier, Mr Hergarty said 50 per cent of the world’s species will be extinct in the next 70 years and that unless governments “changed track” we were “all doomed”. 
image
Thanks for your very well-informed advice, whoever the hell you are. Have another pie. 
“You’re doomed, I’m doomed and your children will be doomed,” he added. 
Unless John Pilger announces his live-to-air conversion to Islam, transition to female and identification as a Nyoongar Aborigine, this episode of Q & A can never be beaten. Never.
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Shorten caves in on the petrol tax he claimed he’d never support. And won’t guarantee Gonski funding

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (11:12am)

Bill Shorten backs down after more than a year and announces Labor will back the Abbott Government’s plan to raise petrol excise.
It is conditional on money raised going to road building.
But this is what Shorten said about this tax rise last year:

“Australians are already struggling to make ends meet with the cost of living — the last thing they need is to pay more tax every time they fill up the car.
“The regressive nature of the tax means low and middle income Australians will be hardest hit by the increasing petrol tax with a greater proportion of their income now going towards filling up the car.”
How he ranted against what he’s now backing:
Well, first of all, the fuel excise was a clear breach of Tony Abbott’s promise… Before the election, the night before on SBS he does this big TV interview, ‘I’m not going to increase taxes, no new taxes’, then he increases the tax on petrol. We were never going to vote for that. A crocodile wouldn’t swallow his nonsense… No-one in Australia wants his new petrol tax except Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey…
Tony Abbott has a fight on his hands. We didn’t ask him to do these crazy ideas, these unfair ideas....
Some people say, you know, you just have to accept it, it’s the budget, whatever. No way known, we are the Labor Party, we know whose side we’re on… That’s why we’re standing up against the petrol tax. Tony Abbott, we all know, has conflated a budget emergency, he’s absolutely wrecking the hospitals and school funding system in the future. We’re not going to vote for that and we will argue and argue and we will do okay.

Hypocrite. Opportunist.
The Government increased the levy by regulation, but needed the Senate to ratify it this year or the money would be returned to the oil companies. Shorten has now blinked.
There is no doubt what is driving this backflip. Shorten is under severe pressure over promising vast new spending without explaining where the money is coming from. Last week he was humiliated when he refused even to back the major saving in the Budget - removing the pension from millionaires - only to find even the Greens would vote with the Government to get it through the Senate. Now he’s heard the Greens could do a deal on the petrol excise, too, so has jumped in first.
Mind you, this is Labor backing yet another tax rise, to go with its promise of more taxes on super and on multinationals.
UPDATE
At the presser, Shorten is asked whether he will now also meet Abbott’s challenge yesterday - to promise to restore the $80 billion of education and health cuts he claims the Government “ripped” out of the Budget. Shorten talks and talks without ever saying “yes” - because he knows the money is not there and never was.
Shorten also refuses at the presser to promise, if elected, to scrap the Government’s latest pension change, removing the pension from couples with their own home plus $823,000 in further assets. 
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Ciobo wins on security laws. But why did Q&A give extremist Mallah a platform?

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (10:23am)

Fine work from parliamentary secretary Steve Ciobo, who was confronted on Q&A by an angry Zaky Mallah, who had pleaded guilty to threatening to kill ASIO officials but was found not guilty of preparing a suicide attack on a Commonwealth building:
“As the first man in Australia to be charged with terrorism under the harsh Liberal Howard government in 2003.... What would have happened if my case had been decided by the minister himself and not the courts?” [Mallah asked]
“From memory, I thought you were acquitted on a technicality rather than it being on the basis of a substantial finding of fact,” Mr Ciobo replied.
“My understanding of your case was that you were acquitted because at that point in time the laws weren’t retrospective.
“But I’m happy to look you straight in the eye and say that I’d be pleased to be part of the Government that would say that you were out of the country.
“I would sleep very soundly at night with that point of view.”
The response provoked murmurs from the studio audience and an angry reaction from Mr Mallah, who said it was Mr Ciobo who should leave the country for having such views.
“The difference is, I haven’t threatened to kill anybody,” Mr Ciobo said.
I don’t think Mallah is half as repentant as he claimed, given this:

”The Liberals have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIL because of Ministers like him,” Mallah said referring to [Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Steve] Ciobo …
And he later tweeted:
I would pay to see that Minister dumped on ISIS territory in Iraq.
A bonus point to Ciobo, then.
Note: part of the Q&A audience actually clapped Mallah. From where does the ABC get such people? From where did it get Mallah, and why give him a platform?
UPDATE

The ABC should not pretend to be shocked that Mallah said what he did when it invited him to speak. He’s said it all before.
From Mallah just two years ago, talking of his desire to die in Syria for the Free Syrian Army.
‘’I wouldn’t mind being granted martyrdom,’’ he said…
‘’Who’s to blame for Syria being a jihadi battleground? The international community has done nothing to prevent the atrocities against the Syrian people,’’ he said, adding that he returned from Syria [in 2012] feeling ‘’very pissed off at the whole world’’.
Mallah in February:
At a loss after countless job knock-backs, Zaky Mallah, who was acquitted of terrorism charges in 2005, emailed Fairfax Media explaining his desperate situation and saying “might as well bloody join ISIS lol. They have work! And good money!”.
The line was a joke, he later said, but it wasn’t for others in his situation…
“That is why many Muslims in the Islamic community are leaving Australia and heading to Syria… and turn to fighting. What is the point of living here?”
Mallah in March:
“Now, I am a big believer in the Muslim caliphate [being] established, after the Ottoman empire, however I don’t believe that the caliphate of ISIS is a legitimate one.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic political party, also supports the establishment of a caliphate ... [and] refused to condemn the actions of Islamic State.
But Mr Mallah says the Government, by seeking to designate Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist group, is shooting itself in the foot.
“A lot of these youth look up to Hizb ut-Tahrir as a way to say, ‘look, we don’t have to go overseas and join ISIS, we can call for the establishment of the caliphate from Australia’. Not that we want one here, but at least we can join a party that has those same views ... and call for a caliphate while living in peace in Australia.”
“But when we do that, the Government cracks down and says, ‘we want to ban this and label it a terrorist organisation’. That further subjugates, isolates, segregates many of us in the Muslim community.
“I believe Hizb ut-Tahrir is the last line of defence [to stop] many of these youths who want to travel overseas to join ISIS.”
Why did Q&A give this man a platform and applauding audience? Why did it endanger the safety of Australians by so encouraging jihadism?
UPDATE
The kind of person the ABC invites onto Q&A to argue his case:

image
UPDATE
As you can see from the above, Mallah said nothing on Q&A he hasn’t said before. So it should have come as no shock to the ABC that he would repeat himself on national television, this time with the added status of having had the ABC invite him.
So the ABC’s apology this morning should be treated with great scepticism:
ABC Television Director Richard Finlayson said in a statement today:
“In attempting to explore important issues about the rights of citizens and the role of the Government in fighting terrorism, the Q&A program made an error in judgment in allowing Zaky Mallah to join the audience and ask a question.
“Mr Mallah has been interviewed by the Australian media on a number of occasions. The environment of a live television broadcast, however, meant it would not be possible for editorial review of the comments he might make prior to broadcast, particularly if he engaged in debate beyond his prepared question…
“As has been the case in the past on Q&A, circumstances will happen that are not anticipated. The critical question is whether risks could have been managed and the right editorial judgments made in advance.
“The circumstances of Mr Mallah’s appearance will be reviewed by the ABC.”
How could the ABC claim that what Mallah said was “not anticipated” when he’s said it often before? And when similar sentiments led to his arrest - the very thing that had the ABC invite him to speak?
No, the ABC needs to be far more honest about what happened. Names must be named. 
UPDATE
How repentant is the ABC? Check out how it spins the confrontation - portraying Mallah as innocent when he’d in fact pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a Commonwealth official:
image
UPDATE
The ABC must be reformed, and last night proved it again:

Liberal backbencher Alex Hawke told Fairfax Media it was not the first time the ABC had provided a platform for extremist views on the program.
“It’s almost as if the ABC is engaged in some form of sedition,” he said.
“They have utterly no regard for what they are doing on this show and the people who will suffer the most is the moderate Islamic community in Australia,” he said.
“If you’re going to get someone to say the citizenship laws are questionable and invalid but why would you pick someone who has threatened to kill Commonwealth officials?”
Fellow Sydney MP Craig Kelly joined in the criticism and said the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster had allowed itself to become a “mouthpiece” for “terrorist recruitment”.
“He was obviously planted in the audience as a ‘gotcha’ moment,” he said.
“Q&A is a program that’s tilted to the left but when they push the envelope and tilt towards a terrorist recruitment advertisement - that’s just a bridge too far.”
ACT Senator Zed Seselja said: “We are used to Q&A being stacked with a left wing audience.
“I suppose they have taken it to a new level by giving a platform to a convicted criminal who is still preaching hatred and giving him applause on the way through.”
UPDATE
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull accuses the ABC of making a “very grave error of judgement” in having on Mallah and endangering public safety.
Says he’s spoken to host Tony Jones and ABC managing director Mark Scott, and communicated with chairman James Spigelman.
“There was clearly awareness on the party of Q&A who he was ... and what he might say.”
Said he was actually worried about the physical security of the audience, which strikes me as a bit extreme. My worry is more the message this sends: that extremists get status in the media.
UPDATE
The judge who sentenced Mallah to two years jail had words for the irresponsibility of media outlets just like Q&A:
10 - He acquired a Sterling .22 rifle and about 100 rounds of ammunition, on 27 September 2003.
11 - Police became aware of this purchase and naturally were concerned at this development. As a result, a search warrant was executed at his home on 28 September. The rifle and ammunition were found along with a number of documents, including a handwritten will, a printed document “How can I prepare myself for Jihad”.
13 - It is evident that he was beginning to enjoy, if not to crave the media attention, which was providing him with an interest or cause in an otherwise unfulfilling or empty life…
17 - The Prisoner made the threats to kill officers of ASIO or DFAT, in the course of a siege, which he said he had planned at the building of one or other of those agencies.
18 - The “plan” as recounted by him involved the surveillance of the building, after which he would make an entry armed with a weapon, hold its occupants hostage and shoot some of them…
33 - It does seem to me to have been regrettable that some sections of the media took up the Prisoner as a person of interest, and gave him an entirely underserved and unnecessary exposure…
37 Furthermore, placing a person such as the Prisoner into the public spotlight is not only likely to encourage him to embark on even more outrageous and extravagant behaviour but, perhaps more importantly, it risks unnecessarily heightening the existing public concerns about terrorist activity as well as encouraging or fanning divisive and discriminatory views among some members of the community. 
===

Gillard claims she did Rudd a favor by knifing him

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (10:08am)

More from the Labor Punch and Judy show, packaged by the ABC as The Killing Season, in which Gillard suggests she actually put Rudd out of his misery:
JULIA GILLARD: I still hoped that after the shock, the immediacy of the hurt, that over time he would actually feel some of the relief that would come with having the burdens of office off his shoulders.
SARAH FERGUSON: Did you feel relieved?
KEVIN RUDD: Not all, but I imagine that’s the sort of thing an assassin does say.
UPDATE
Brilliant! Kevin Rudd and Bill Shorten agreed to never again let faction heavies knock off a Labor leader - but only after they first knocked off Julia Gillard.

Mr Shorten secretly met Mr Rudd during parliament’s midwinter ball to plot Ms Gillard’s downfall.
“There’s no way in the world I was going to move unless Bill Shorten and his group were going to come with me,” Mr Rudd tells reporter Sarah Ferguson.
At the meeting, Mr Shorten ­offered his backing for Mr Rudd to unseat Ms Gillard. They also agreed there would be no more leadership coups instigated by caucus powerbrokers. “Prior to the election we (agreed to) change the rules of the party to prevent a leadership coup from ever happening again,” Mr Rudd says.
But how two-faced is Shorten? He agreed to new rules stopping caucus powerbrokers like him from mounting coups, but wanted those new rules brought in only after he’d knocked off Gillard and in time for him to benefit as the new Labor leader.
And now no faction heavy can do to Shorten what he did to both Rudd and Gillard. 
(Thanks to reader Paul.) 
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Trad sheds too many tears for the families of these terrorists

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (9:10am)

Keysar Trad, ominously described as Sydney Muslim community leader, is shedding far too many tears for the families of Islamic State murderers Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar, reportedly killed in Iraq:
”My deepest condolences to their family and let’s hope we can give some support to their wives and children,” said Mr Trad, who maintains young Australians are joining terror groups because their “blood is boiling” at domestic persecution.
But at least one of the relatives doesn’t need Trad’s sympathy:
THE grandfather of a young boy pictured in Syria holding up the severed head of an enemy soldier said he was “ecstatic” to hear of the possible death of his terrorist father Khaled Sharrouf. 

Peter Nettleton, whose daughter Tara was wooed by the Islamic State butcher more than a decade ago, said he was overjoyed to learn that the man who ruined his family was likely killed in the brutal civil war.
“It’s a good day isn’t it,” he told The Daily Telegraph this morning.
Nettleton’s reaction is the proper one. Trad’s is the kind that should have him excluded from civilised company, including our universities.
Note: Sharrouf’s wife actually chose to join him in the Islamic State. The Australian Government should feel not the slightest obligation to offer her support.
But let’s hold of partying just yet:
It is believed Elomar’s body has been recovered but Sharrouf’s remains are missing.
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100 per cent alarmism on the ABC, undiluted by a fact

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (8:37am)

Climate alarmist Peter Doherty is given another free ride on the ABC, this time by ABC Melbourne 774 fill-in host Steve Martin.
Doherty, a Nobel Laureate in medicine, warns global warming threatens “disruption of the food supply”.
Where is the evidence of that?
image
Where is the warming over these past 18 years? And why didn’t Doherty or the ABC mention the temperature record?
image
Doherty even blames the “trouble in the Middle East” on drought and therefore food shortages. Not mentioned is that in Egypt, for instance, the wheat crop has actually got bigger:
image
Global warming means no claim is too alarming to be challenged, and only doubters are damned.
Where is the ABC’s balance on this issue? The balance it is obliged by law to present? 
UPDATE
The climate alarmism promoted on the ABC is truly unhinged. There is no longer even the slightest obligation on alarmists to justify their extremism:
Among the presumably bewildered panellists [on the ABC’s Q&A] last night was British transgender chappette Antony Hegarty, who mumbled several strong opinions about, like, kind of, you know, climate change and stuff:

“Where are you all going to be with all that money and nothing left to eat and nothing left to drink and nowhere to go,” said the Antony and The Johnsons band member ...
Earlier, Mr Hergarty said 50 per cent of the world’s species will be extinct in the next 70 years and that unless governments “changed track” we were “all doomed"…
“You’re doomed, I’m doomed and your children will be doomed,” he added.
UPDATE
More fact-free alarmism on the ABC’s Lateline, again unquestioned:
Lateline, around 9:15
Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti is the UK Government’s former Climate Change and Energy Security Envoy:

Chris Barrie’s just been talking about the movement of people across the Mediterranean at the moment. A lot of that is people coming from the Sahel, where there’s already resource stresses which have been accentuated by climate change.
Really? In fact:
BONN, Germany: Rising greenhouse gases have boosted rainfall in the Sahel region of Africa, easing droughts that killed 100,000 people in the 1970s and 1980s, in a rare positive effect of climate change, a study said on Monday.
Not that I actually attribute man-made global warming to the rains coming or the rains going.
(Thanks to reader Mark M.) 
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Strippers for the bruvvers

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (8:27am)

Labor keeps claiming the royal commission into union corruption is a witchhunt. But what an astonishing number of witches it is exposing. The latest:
A builder who needed union approval to get lucrative jobs paid a senior figure at the militant construction [CFMEU] union $2000 cash to spend on strippers at a King St venue, according to evidence given to the royal commission into trade union corruption.
Victoria Police has also recovered text messages discussing the payments, designed to secure favour with the notorious construction union.
Authorities also have photographs of the CFMEU figure — who is not union boss John Setka — and the builder in a limousine, which was driven to the Melbourne CBD’s strip-club precinct.
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Warning to the Abbott Government: red line alert on global warming

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (8:08am)

Seriously? Abbott won the Liberal leadership by a single vote by promising to oppose global warming hysteria - specifically an emissions reduction scheme - and would now sell out those who got him there?
The Abbott government is weighing tougher emissions reduction targets for the post-2020 period than conservatives in cabinet had wanted in a move that would restore Australia to the international mainstream on climate change policy and challenge the Prime Minister’s reputation as a global warming denier.
I can’t believe Abbott would do something that would irreparably breach faith with his base - and betray not just our economic interests but his inner convictions.
Brandis gets it said:
Last week, Pope Francis issued a Papal Encyclical in which he described climate change as a problem that could not be solved without governments facing up to realities about consumption, energy policy, and the moral dimension of harm to the environment.
Asked about that in the Senate on Monday, Attorney-General George Brandis reacted angrily, telling Greens senator Larissa Waters that her suggestion of ignoring the Pope was offensive.
“The Prime Minister has failed to listen to the scientists, will he now listen to the leader of his own church and abandon his attacks on the clean energy target,” she asked.
Senator Brandis replied: “I’ll tell you what we will be doing, Senator Waters, we will be setting our priorities and making our policy decisions in accordance and good public policy, not in accordance with theology.” 
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Why hand your naked selfie to a fink?

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (7:09am)

Sarrah Le Marquand has no doubt where the blame lies when women find to their horror that naked pictures they’ve posed for are on the Internet:
The blame sits squarely with those who distribute private pictures of women against their will. It’s a vile act that should incur legal penalties.
True.
Le Marquand then risks her reputation by challenging martyr feminists who are outraged when women are given advice in the meantime on how to avoid giving such lowlife power to hurt them:
But — and this is where the cool girls of feminism and I part ways.... Is it really victim blaming to sit down with a teenage girl and remind her she should not feel obliged to share naked selfies with her partner? To gently point out that the Internet has a long memory and that the digital footprint of an intimate picture will almost certainly outlive the infatuation of young love?
These are not discussions we should shy away from for fear of being branded a Bad Feminist.
Just as the average person is capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time..., we can and should be able to rightfully condemn violation of a woman’s privacy while also having sensible and mature conversations about self-preservation. Not to mention self-respect.
Why is such a commonplace observation now deemed the height of victim-blaming by feminists? It’s mad.
After all, we install burglar alarms and deadlocks without excusing burglars. We avoid streets with rowdy pubs at 3am without excusing the knuckleartists. 
(Via Tim Blair.) 
===

The Robespierre of Shoreditch

Andrew Bolt June 23 2015 (6:51am)

It happens so often. The privileged create the revolutionary mob that then destroys them.
Professional idiot Russell Brand now finds that preaching to anti-capitalist ferals just stirs up foul-mouthed haters who hate his wealth, too - and his hypocrisy:
This is the moment an angry mob of left-wing protesters turned on self-styled revolutionary Russell Brand as he joined them on an anti-austerity march.
The millionaire comedian had to be held back in the VIP area on Parliament Square as a group screamed ‘f*** off back to Miliband’ - a reference to his backing of Labour at the general election.
The group also called him a ‘turncoat’ for telling fans to vote for Mr Miliband’s party while demanding an anti-capitalist revolution in Britain.
Brand, 40, was targeted as he prepared to speak to thousands of people who marched from central London on Saturday in opposition to Government cuts.
He later ran to his waiting car.
The biggest problem with Brand’s audience is that while it preaches “compassion” it actually feeds on hate, and Brand recklessly shovels them that hate by the stinking shovelful. From his speech to the mob:
ON DAVID CAMERON
‘I think if you’re a bit mean and tight, and always cutting benefits and being horrible, it’s because you don’t know how to f*** properly....  And you’re a filthy, dirty, posh w*****.’

ON ED BALLS
‘I shook his hand once. All clicky wristed, he was a snidey c***...’

ON GEORGE OSBORNE
‘I shook George Osborne’s hand once, by accident, it was like sliding my hand into a dilated cow.’
And he manures that hatred with mad ignorance:
ON 9/11 CONSPIRACIES
‘We have to remain open-minded to any kind of possibility. Do you trust the American government? Do you trust the British government? What I do think is very interesting is the relationship that the Bush family have had for a long time with the bin Laden family.’ 
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Sharrouf and Elomar reported dead

Andrew Bolt June 22 2015 (8:52pm)

Excellent:
Authorities believe two of Australia’s most wanted terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohammed Elomar have reportedly been killed in fighting in Mosul…
Sharrouf made headlines when he posed with the decapitated head of a slain Syrian soldier.
The reports are unverified, says the Foreign Minister. 
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Do you believe that your kitchen can also be a medicine cabinet?
Posted by Dr. Josh Axe on Monday, 27 January 2014

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Throw out these 5 grammar rules you were always taught to follow: http://bit.ly/1FkTAwp
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Monday, 22 June 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

COMPO CALIPHATE

Tim Blair – Monday, June 23, 2014 (5:14am)

Next year’s Anzac Day parades should be colourful affairs, what with the first appearance from our brave fighting boys in the 1st Disability Pension Infantry.
These welfare Wahhabis and their holy bludger brigades are currently sweeping through Iraq, laying waste to civilians and soldiers alike in a bid to create some kind of Islamic purity state.
Good luck with that. Let’s assume, for the sake of it, that ISIS (Impaired and Subsidised Islamic Soldiers) achieves its aim of overthrowing governments in Iraq and Syria. What happens next? Well, nothing. Nothing at all. These blokes can’t work, and they’ve got the official medical documents to prove it.
If post-war welfare systems in Iraq and Syria turn out to be anything like Australia’s, they’ll be flooded with compensation claims from every Tom, Dick and Hudhaifah Karim al-Rashid presently murdering their terrified co-religionists.
It says something about just how low the bar is set for disability payments in Australia that people qualify as unable to work even though they are capable of living – indeed, thriving – in war zones.
These must be the only combat veterans in history who arrived at the war on crutches and were able to walk afterwards. Or perhaps we’re witnessing authentic religious miracles; behold Habib, who defied medical science by rising from his sick bed (his fully sick bed) to slaughter other Muslims.
Unfortunately for the future economy of their great Islamic state, however, killing is about all these chaps can do. Thanks to Facebook, we’re already seeing signs of how things might be under the rule of the bludjahideen. Sure, they’re great at putting bullets in the back of captured Iraqi soldiers’ heads. But they clearly can’t find any laborers to bury the bodies.
Life in the compo caliphate won’t be much fun within a generation or two, once everybody is signed up for free government cash. Welfare only works when there are workers. It’ll be a little like Tasmania, except with a slightly less ridiculous electoral system.
===

POLEY BLAIR

Tim Blair – Monday, June 23, 2014 (4:56am)

As a Daily Telegraph columnist, it is crucial that I keep in touch with reader attitudes.
To that end, I frequently conduct rigorous and highly scientific polls at my Daily Telegraph website. These polls have become an invaluable aid to my awareness of community sentiment.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'POLEY BLAIR'
===

BIGGER, FASTER AND SLASHIER, PLEASE

Tim Blair – Monday, June 23, 2014 (4:08am)

Progress, but not enough: 
The Abbott government is planning to strip an additional $40 million-$50m from the ABC’s budget, following recommendations from an independent efficiency review of the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster.
Last month’s federal budget cut $43.5m from the budget of the ABC and SBS over four years through a 1 per cent annual efficiency dividend, representing what Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull described as a “down payment” on further savings to be identified by the Lewis efficiency review.
It is understood that having seen the review, which was conducted by former Seven West Media’s chief financial officer Peter Lewis, the government will now seek to implement a “second wave” of cuts that would amount to a 4 per cent hit to the broadcaster’s annual budget of $1.28 billion. 
Prepare for the delightful screaming.
===

DRIVE ON

Tim Blair – Monday, June 23, 2014 (3:53am)

Learner drivers in NSW no longer need be alert to bulbs and blossoms: 
A warning in the official NSW government handbook for learner drivers, stating that climate change could cause dangerous road conditions due to heatwaves, storms, flooding and bushfires, is set to be removed.
The NSW Road Users’ Handbook, produced by Roads and Maritime Services, tells motorists that changes to climate “due to greenhouse gas emissions” are expected to cause “unpredictable weather events” and driving should be avoided in extreme conditions.
But after The Daily Telegraph brought the climate change reference to the attention of the state government, roads minister Duncan Gay signalled that the “political” reference would be cut when the next edition of the handbook was printed. Mr Gay blamed the previous Labor government for the climate change warning being included in a chapter on road safety.
“(The handbook) was produced during the term of the previous government when making political statements was more important than actually addressing real issues affecting motorists,” Mr Gay said. 
Great line from Sydney dad Scott Ferguson, who happened upon the climate change warning while teaching16-year-old daughter Riley how to drive: “I haven’t been this annoyed since Riley’s old primary school made her sit in scripture class.”
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BUSH AHEAD OF OBAMA

Tim Blair – Monday, June 23, 2014 (3:30am)

The Big O is in decline: 
Good news for President Bush: a new Gallup poll shows that the former president has a 53 percent favorability rate. In fact, all living former presidents enjoy more than 50 percent popularity, while President Barack Obama has a 47 percent favorability rating. 
Obama’s rating is even lower with the Clintons.
(Via Instapundit)
===

Socialising the losses

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (3:58pm)

The answer, of course, should be no:
Former political staffer James Ashby is set to pursue the Commonwealth government for more than $1 million in legal costs from his aborted sexual harassment suit against former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper. 
In a Federal Court hearing on Monday, the bitter legal stoush - in which Mr Ashby accused his former boss of “unwelcome sexual advances” - was formally discontinued following Mr Ashby’s decision to withdraw from the case last week. However, Mr Ashby’s barrister, Tom Blackburn, SC, asked that his client be given the option of making an application for costs from the Commonwealth government.
When you go for the cash, you can’t pass the bill back to the Government when you get cold feet. 
===

Out of control:  ABC issues a third apology for vilifying conservatives

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (1:03pm)

Media

In the past couple of months the ABC has had to apologise on-air to:
- me, a conservative, for calling me a racist
- Chris Kenny, a conservative, for portraying him having sex with a dog
- Cardinal George Pell, a conservative, for making false claims about his alleged cover up of child abuse.
Notice a pattern here?
The ABC is dangerously out of control. It is using its vast state-funded power to intimidate and vilify conservatives.
And note: I do not recall the last time the ABC had to apologise for vilifying anyone of the Left.
That latest apology:
Local Radio, Canberra. On 10 June, 2014 666 ABC Canberra Breakfast presenter Philip Clark made comments in relation to Cardinal George Pell in an interview with Mr Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council. 
On 18th June, Philip Clark read the following apology on air: “On 10 June 2014 I made comments during this program which were critical of Cardinal George Pell and his role in the handling of child sexual abuse claims by the Catholic Church and also his subsequent appointment to a role in the Vatican. My comments about these matters were inaccurate and defamatory and I wish to retract them. The ABC and I apologise to Cardinal Pell for the harm caused to him.”
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Nielsen: Labor ahead 53 to 47. UPDATE: But Labor restless

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (8:53am)

The last Nielsen poll struck me as a rogue one, so the Liberal recovery is smaller than suggested on the numbers:
On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor maintained a strong lead of 53-47 over the Coalition but has lost some ground since the May survey, when it peaked at 56-44 in Labor’s favour.
I think the Government can grind this out, but it will require more discipline and better communications than we’ve seen.
UPDATE

The polls flatter Labor, and it seems some in Labor agree: 

DEFEATED Labor leadership candidate Anthony Albanese has been accused by senior Labor figures of undermining Bill Shorten with frequent criticism of his performance.
Several Labor frontbenchers, union and party figures have told The Australian Mr Albanese was bitterly disappointed he failed to be elected leader last October and is often privately critical of the ­Opposition Leader’s handling of strategy, policy, communications and internal party reform… Labor figures have implic­ated Mr Albanese in the leaking of material to undermine Mr Shorten, including the claim that he warned about preselecting union leader Joe Bullock for the rerun West Australian Senate election.  
Well, there is actually plenty for Albanese to be critical about. Don’t complain, but change, is my advice.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Islamic immigration exposes us to danger

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (8:45am)

 WHO let these jihadists into our country? Must we run this danger, just to boast our immigration system isn’t racist?
“We will always have, a non-discriminatory immigration policy,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott declared three years ago.
Admirable in principle. But how wise in this Age of Terror?
Consider. More than 150 Australians, many of Lebanese descent, have joined jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria, and will pose a danger to us on their return.
One, Khaled Sharrouf, lived on a disability pension in Sydney but was last week pictured apparently in Iraq, waving the flag of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, whose Sunni jihadists are shooting and beheading countless unarmed Shia Iraqis.
In another Facebook photo, believed posted by fellow Australian jihadist Mohamed Elomar, Sharrouf poses with a gun next to slaughtered Iraqi civilians.
(Read full article here.) 
===

How the IPCC hid the good news

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (8:40am)

Global warming - propaganda

Climate scientist Nic Lewis and science writer Marcel Crok, both expert reviewers on the latest IPCC report, have written A SENSITIVE MATTER How the IPCC buried evidence showing good news about global warming, a paper endorsed by Professor Judith Curry.
Some highlights:
The scientific part (WGI) of the fifth IPCC assessment report (AR5), published
in final form in January 2014, contains some really encouraging information. 
The best observational evidence indicates our climate is considerably less sen-
sitive to greenhouse gases than climate scientists had previously thought. The
clues and the relevant scientific papers are all mentioned in the full IPCC re-
port. However, this important conclusion is not drawn in the full report – it
is only mentioned as a possibility – and is ignored in the Summary for Policy-
makers (SPM).
Until AR5, for 30 years the scientific establishment’s best estimate and their
uncertainty range for climate sensitivity had hardly changed. The best esti-
mate for equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) started and ended at 3C and
the uncertainty range generally had a lower bound of 1.5C and an upper bound of 4.5C.
However, several recent studies give best estimates of be-
tween 1.5C and 2C, substantially lower than most earlier studies indicated…

Since the last IPCC report was prepared greenhouse gas concentrations
have continued to increase, yet global temperatures have not risen; more im-
portantly, estimates of the cooling efficacy of aerosol pollution have been cut.
This combination of factors is indicative of the climate system being less sen-
sitive to greenhouse gases than previously appeared to be the case. But the
new evidence about aerosol cooling is not reflected in the computer climate
models.

In our view, the IPCC WGI scientists were saddled with a dilemma. How
should they deal with the discrepancy between climate sensitivity estimates
based on models and sound observational estimates that are consistent with
the new evidence about aerosol cooling? In conjunction with governments –
who have the last say on the wording of the SPM – they appear to have decided
to resolve this dilemma in the following way. First, they changed the ‘likely’
range for climate sensitivity slightly. It was 2–4.5C in AR4 in 2007. They have
now reduced the lower bound to 1.5C, making the range 1.5–4.5C. ..
They also decided not to give a best estimate for climate sensitivity… In this report we suggest that the new observationally-based ‘likely’ range
could be1.25–3.0C,with a best estimate of 1.75C.

If the IPCC had made that
change – which would have been in line with the best quality scientific evi-
dence available – it would have been picked up by all the major news outlets
in the world as one of the major, if not the major, outcomes of the report. And
rightly so. 
Is that why the IPCC refused to be frank? Because the media coverage would rightly focus on a near halving of the predictions of a temperature rise?
Because the coverage would have then noted that the climate models used to predict a hot future couldn’t even correctly model the past?
So models overestimate the warming of the real climate in the last 35 years
by 50%.  
UPDATE
Maurice Newman says there are many signs the global warming alarmism was built on dodgy evidence, now being exposed:
...the world is wearying of catastrophism and is noticing the mounting contrary evidence. Not least, it has observed there has been no global warming since September 1996… 
Slowly, but surely, the truth comes out. The Stern review of the economics of climate change, promoted globally in 2006 to boost action on climate change, has been found to have grossly under­estimated the cost of reducing greenhouse gases.
We learn from a voluntary independent auditor, Ken Stewart, that after analysing 84 out of 104 Bureau of Meteorology sites, the effect of adjustments made to create the official Australian temper­ature record is an increase in the warming trend for minima of 66.6 per cent and 13 per cent for maxima. This revelation is consistent with the leaked Climategate programmer’s log, which read: “Getting seriously fed-up with the state of the Australian data, so many false references, so many changes … bewildering."…
The same bias is found in the computer models that are the bedrock of climate change. Roy Spencer, a climatologist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, updated comparisons of 90 computer models and found 95 per cent of them had over-forecast the warming trend since 1979. 
(Thanks to reader James.) 
===

Polls put Tim Blair ahead

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (8:15am)


Tim Blair receives valuable reader feedback from his polls which make him more in-touch than most:
For example, a poll at my site recently asked: “Which bulldozer should be used to clear Leard State Forest?” Obviously, I was almost certain that readers would choose the Komatsu D575A. But no. Overwhelmingly, they selected the Caterpillar D11! I know, right? It just goes to show that we in the media aren’t always the experts. 
In another shock result, NSW Labor actually received nearly 2.7 per cent of the vote when readers were asked to choose between the party and Satanism. So there’s at least something for John Robertson to work with ahead of next year’s election. Last Tuesday readers were polled on another vital question. Noting a surge in perpetually hysterical female commentators online and in the media, I asked this simple question: “Who is Australia’s craziest left-wing frightbat?” 
There, of course, the results were less surprising - although more forcefully expressed. 
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Did Kernohan change his story? Meanwhile, the commission digs away

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (7:33am)

Leave aside Mark Latham’s abuse, conspiracy theories and selective blindness, and you still have this apparent problem with the evidence of Bob Kernohan, the former AWU state president who told the royal commission into union corruption he was told by Bill Shorten not to probe the AWU slush fund scandal:

A big part of Kernohan’s public persona has been to portray himself as a whistleblower, the only honest man in the Victorian AWU 20 years ago.
At the height of attempts to silence him, he claims to have been bashed by union thugs in July 1999. In his sworn statement to the royal commission, Kernohan said that three men had set upon him in the outer Melbourne town of Melton, telling him to keep his “mouth shut” and to “stop talking to the press, you grub”. Counsel assisting the commission Jeremy Stoljar seemed sympathetic to Kernohan’s plight, complaining of how he had been “marginalised and victimised” as part of “the mistreatment of whistleblowers”. There’s just one problem with this account. In an addendum to his witness statement, Kernohan attached his sworn statement to the Victorian Police tendered the day after the Melton bashing. In this version, two men attacked him, screaming out “give us your wallet, you prick” and “where is your money?” According to Kernohan, “they yelled this out several times”. There was no mention of union intimidation. The incident was purely a robbery. The statement was signed off as “true and correct”, acknowledging that any falsehood was “liable to the penalties of perjury”.
So far, so reasonable.
But Mark Latham once again cannot help himself. He implies the royal commission was blind to this contradiction, and even hushed it up:
[Royal commissioner counsel Jeremy] Stoljar and the royal commissioner, John Dyson Heydon, had an advance copy of his witness statement, from which it was clear he was about to give seriously flawed evidence. Anyone of average IQ would have seen the contradiction between Kernohan’s 1999 police statement and his 2014 affidavit. 
I believe an element of exploitation was involved. In their determination to fulfil their charter of uncovering problems in the Labor movement, Heydon and Stoljar appear to be willing to hear from anyone brandishing anti-Labor allegations, no matter how disreputable or unstable they might be.  
In fact, here is Kernohan being questioned in the royal commission on that contradictionand giving his reason for it - sheer fear:
3 Q.  So your statement has been done not 24 hours after the
4 incident, and you don’t say anywhere in your statement
5 anything about people saying to you something about not
6 talking to the media or anything like that, do you?
7 A.  No, I don’t.  No.
8
9 Q.  And you just said to me that you knew that it was
10 connected with the victimisation that you perceived to be
11 occurring at the union because of things that they said.
12 Surely the statement you gave to the police not 24 hours
13 after the incident represents your best recollection of
14 what happened on that incident?
15 A.  Yes.  I’m acutely aware of the differences.  There’s
16 been quite a number of different versions of that bashing.
17
18 Q.  Wouldn’t this represent your best memory of what
19 occurred, the statement given --
20 A.  Oh, no.  No.  I had not seen a doctor at that stage.
21 I was badly bruised.  When I finally made my way to the
22 police station, I had not seen a doctor.  When I finally
23 saw a doctor, they rushed me - well, I had to go straight
24 to hospital.  They thought I had a cracked skull.  I was
25 heavily concussed and as I was about to say earlier, to
26 this day I still cannot get clear in my mind precisely what
27 happened.  But in terms of the Melton Police Station
28 statement, the one immediately after the bashing, I was
29 also acutely aware, notwithstanding the fact that my mind
30 was not functioning, I knew I had to report it to police
31 but - the bashing at least.
32
33 I was acutely aware that if I attracted more attention
34 to myself at that time - I had no support back then, I was
35 on my own - I was only going to attract more attention;
36 for what?  An invitation for more of that kind of
37 treatment, so I was conscious of that.  I was not conscious
38 of deliberately making something up because that didn’t
39 happen.
40
41 What I told the Melton Police was exactly what
42 I thought had happened, other than - the only thing that
43 was in the back of my mind was opening myself up for
44 further treatment if this was to make the newspapers or
45 what have you.
46
47 Q.  You indicated that you had thought there was
1 a connection between the events of the AWU and the attack
2 on 30 July 1999 in Melton.  Were you influenced, in part,
3 by the evidence or the matters that you’ve described in
4 paragraphs 161 and 162?
5 A.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Bullets in the mail, two bullets on one
6 occasion, a cartridge on a second occasion, all designed in
7 my opinion - I’ve got no idea where they came from, I can’t
8 prove it’s related to the AWU, but I know of nobody else
9 that may have had any reason at all to intimidate me like
10 that.  I also received hate mail, not handwritten hate mail
11 or typed hate mail, the old glue and paste cuttings out of
12 magazines, I received some of that, and abusive phone
13 calls.
I never trust Mark Latham to fairly report anything to do with the AWU slush fund scandal or Julia Gillard. Nor do I trust what he says about me. Today I’m “the Prime Minister’s lickspittle”. Two years ago Latham had a very different assessment.  Whatever it takes, I guess....
UPDATE
The royal commission will this week examine the TWU’s alleged use of slush funds. Michael Smith has this fascinating preview of TWU money politics. 
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More cuts to come for the ABC

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (7:10am)

I think Malcolm Turnbull and I could be better friends, after all:

The Abbott government is planning to strip an additional $40 million-$50m from the ABC’s budget, following recommendations from an independent efficiency review of the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster. 
Last month’s federal budget cut $43.5m from the budget of the ABC and SBS over four years through a 1 per cent annual efficiency dividend, representing what Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull described as a “down payment” on further savings to be identified by the Lewis efficiency review. It is understood that having seen the review, which was conducted by former Seven West Media’s chief financial officer Peter Lewis, the government will now seek to implement a “second wave” of cuts that would amount to a 4 per cent hit to the broadcaster’s annual budget of $1.28 billion. 
That said, efficiency is just one of the three big challenges for the ABC, and the least - although I accept I have not yet seen how the review defines “efficiency”.
The other two challenges are:
- the dangerous size of the ABC, which must addressed by cutting its functions.
- the overwhelming bias of the ABC, which must be addressed by forcing it to observe its charter duty to be balanced. 
But note: Tony Abbott did promise the night before the election there would be “no cuts to the ABC”. These cuts then seem to represent a broken promise, even if Treasurer Joe Hockey before the election also gave a caveat - there would be efficiency savings:
Labor and the ABC insist Tony Abbott before the election made this unambiguous promise:
No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS…
But wait....  The full quote is this: 
I trust everyone actually listened to what Joe Hockey has said last week and again this week. No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. 
A small difference, you might argue. But Abbott referenced the guarantee Joe Hockey gave, and Hockey three weeks earlier made plain on the ABC’s Q&A that the guarantee did not apply to trimming waste - say, through the usual efficiency dividend: 
TONY JONES: Well, while you are on the subject - while you are on the subject, is the ABC immune from cuts? Because the Howard government, when they first came in, cut the ABC 10 and then 2% in two years?… 
JOE HOCKEY: I’d just say to you is there any waste in the ABC at all, Tony? 
TONY JONES: Say that again? 
JOE HOCKEY: Is there any waste? ... 
TONY JONES:  We’ll just get a quick response from Chris Bowen on this before we move on. 
CHRIS BOWEN: Look, I accept that Joe is not going to privatise the ABC. I accept that that’s his position and he will honour that. I do think the ABC, though, has a fair bit to worry about when it comes to funding. As you said, it is what they cut in the Howard Government. We have not cut ABC funding, contrary to your assertion. I think the ABC and the SBS are both very important national institutions and they shouldn’t have their funding cut and you won’t promise not to. 
TONY JONES: Well, a quick response to that, Joe Hockey? 
JOE HOCKEY: Well, if there is waste, we will cut it. 
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Labor’s product was the problem, not its sales pitch

Andrew Bolt June 23 2014 (12:01am)

LABOR’S official review of last year’s election campaign proves how right the party was to dump Julia Gillard for Kevin Rudd.
But Labor still won’t admit why Gillard had to go — and what lessons new Labor leader Bill Shorten must learn.
The 25-page report, presented last week to Labor’s national executive, admits Prime Minister Gillard looked like winning just 40 of the 150 House of Representative seats. Switching to Rudd saved 15 more seats.
So Rudd’s return was a success, even if Labor did not win the election — and even if, as the report notes, his micro-managing crippled the campaign.
The report also savages Rudd indirectly by criticising the “debilitating leadership instability” in the Gillard-Rudd years, and concludes “Labor’s defeat in 2013 ... was self-inflicted”.
But claiming instability and poor campaigning wrecked Labor misses the point entirely.
(Read full article here.) 
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Obama: “Michelle would make a great presidential candidate, too”

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (9:06pm)

Mr Nobel Peace Prize knows how to hate - and is hated right back by the Clintons:
IN HIS new book, “Blood Feud,” journalist Edward Klein gets inside the dysfunctional, jealous relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama — and how it could explode in 2016… 
“I hate that man Obama more than any man I’ve ever met, more than any man who ever lived,” Bill Clinton said to friends on one occasion, adding he would never forgive Obama for suggesting he was a racist during the 2008 campaign.
The feeling is mutual…
On most evenings, Michelle Obama and her trusted adviser, Valerie Jarrett, met in a quiet corner of the White House residence. They’d usually open a bottle of Chardonnay, catch up on news about Sasha and Malia, and gossip about people who gave them heartburn.
Their favourite bête noire was Hillary Clinton, whom they nicknamed “Hildebeest,” after the menacing and shaggy-maned gnu that roams the Serengeti…
“I really can’t stand the way Obama ­always seems to be hectoring when he talks to me,” Clinton added, according to someone who was present at the gathering and spoke on the condition of anonymity....
During the golf game, Clinton didn’t waste any time reminding Obama that as president he had presided over eight years of prosperity, while Obama had been unable to dig the country out of the longest financial ­doldrums since the Great Depression.
“Bill got into it right away,” said a Clinton family friend. “He told Obama, ‘Hillary and I are gearing up for a run in 2016.’ He said Hillary would be ‘the most qualified, most experienced candidate, perhaps in history.’ His reference to Hillary’s experience made Obama wince, since it was clearly a shot at his lack of experience when he ran for president. “And so Bill continued to talk about Hillary’s qualifications ... and the coming campaign in 2016. But Barack didn’t bite. He changed the subject several times. Then suddenly, Barack said something that took Bill by complete surprise. He said, ‘You know, Michelle would make a great presidential candidate, too.’..”
She would? She has even less experience than did her husband when he became president, and look how that’s showed.
Scenes from the dinner party from hell:
As Bill Clinton went on about his managerial experience, Obama began playing with his BlackBerry under the table, making it plain that he wasn’t paying attention to anything Clinton had to say. He was intentionally snubbing Clinton. Others around the table noticed Obama thumbing his BlackBerry, and the atmosphere turned even colder than before. 
Hillary changed the subject again.
“Are you glad you won’t have to campaign again?” she asked Obama. “You don’t seem to ­enjoy it.”
“For a guy who doesn’t like it,” Obama replied tartly, “I’ve done pretty well."… After the dinner, and once the Clintons had been ushered out of the family quarters, Obama shook his head and said, “That’s why I never invite that guy over.”
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Whatever you're chasing, if it isn't Jesus, when you catch it you still won't be satisfied...
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Eric Kalemen
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PM me for more information
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US STARTS BUILDING FIRST NUCLEAR REACTORS IN YEARS.

The USA is building 4 new nuclear reactors to add to the current 104 operating in the USA, which provide about 18% of their electricity. In USA, Coal provides 43%, natural gas 25% and Hydro 7% of their electricity generation.

In addition China is currently building another 28 nuclear reactors.

Of course, these nuclear reactors generate electricity WITHOUT emitting carbon dioxide.

So those that seek to demonise coal, and run around screaming “dangerous global warming” and that the world “must take action” perhaps need a rethink ...........

Is this the outcome they want - a mass role out of nuclear power stations around the world to “moving away from fossil fuels in order to address climate change” ?
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Larry Pickering
GILLARD CAN CHOOSE HER OWN POISON

First she needs to accept her salad days of socialism are over, terminally banished to supersede Whitlam in shameful pages of school history books.

Julia could readily choose a number of humane methods for her demise:

First, she could simply stand down and save Australia the pain of another three months of empty unfunded hoaxes and divisive gender invective.

She could choose to sit tight, unaware of when the blade might strike, or from whom. Julia thrives on that sort of excitement.

Maybe she could again slay the potential assassins before their weapons can be unsheathed. The trouble is other potential assassins are now regrouping.

Perhaps she could choose to present herself to the people and suffer ignominious death by ballot. Most of her subjects prefer this option.

Then again she could hand herself into the Victorian Fraud Squad and plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the AWU of millions in members funds, money laundering and deceiving the Commissioner of Corporate Affairs. Hmmm, 20 years is a pretty uncomfortable death.

It’s possible she could choose death by flagellation where 50 ALP members, now bereft of their seats, are locked in a room with her.
Nasty!

She could of course opt to die of shame. Yes, she could stay in bed strenuously denying her evil deeds until a priest eventually arrives and she grudgingly embraces God, confesses her sins, and peruses a last-meal menu.

None of the above if I know Julia.

When death looks her in the eye she will do a deal with the devil. A little bloke with a wandering appendage will offer her a way out... she will accept Bill Shorten’s offer and live happily thereafter.

A grand portrait of her will hang in Parliament House (with a full-time attendant to wipe the marks from it), grateful taxpayers will supplement her CBA bank account with six thousand bucks every week, she’ll have a car, a driver and secretarial staff.

She will be able to look down with pride on all those she said she would help and no longer will she need to turn up at functions with an embarrassing idiot.

My guess is she will hook up with Bruce Wilson and Ralph Blewitt, get smashed on a dry Riesling, and plot another political escapade with John McTernan.

Oh Gawd, the Welsh have much to answer for.
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“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” 
― Confucius, Confucius: The Analects
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June 23: Victory Day in Estonia; Jāņi in Latvia; Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg; 100th anniversary of the death of Bhaktivinoda Thakur (pictured)
Bhaktivinoda Thakur
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“The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Psalm 121:7-8 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory."
Zechariah 6:13
Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon's temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. There are the "Cedars of Lebanon," but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the Lord's house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ's own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ's own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.
As in the building of Solomon's temple, "there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house," because all was brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy--so is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the making ready is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet here--all that Christ will do beforehand; and when he has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.
"Beneath his eye and care,
The edifice shall rise,
Majestic, strong, and fair,
And shine above the skies."

Evening

"That those things which cannot be shaken may remain."
Hebrews 12:27
We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken," and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is my Father still. In my Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled." You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate nature--nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.
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Malachi

[Măl'achī] - messenger of jehovah ormy messenger.
1. The last of the Old Testament prophets, and author of the last book of The Minor Prophets.

The Man Who Believed in God's Electing Love

Nothing is known of Malachi save what his prophecy tells us. Ancient writers looked upon him as an angel incarnate, while a great number of Jews believed him to be Ezra the Scribe. It would seem as if he was connected with Nehemiah's work. Perhaps he prepared the way for it, helped in it and followed it up. Compare Malachi 1:8 withNehemiah 5:15, 18, where it seems clear that he prophesied either during Nehemiah's absence in Persia (Neh. 13:6) or after Nehemiah assumed governorship. As the last of the prophets, he was the seal of all the goodly fellowship of prophets.
While Malachi's prominent message was the rebuke of the remnant and the announcement of future purging and blessing, the keynote of his book appears to be the unchangeableness of God, and His unceasing love ( Mal. 1:2; 3:6). The tone of his message is expostulation blended with judgment. Yet gracious promises and assurances are interspersed like pearls gleaming against a dark background.
Features to note are the whereins repeated by Malachi's hearers. Against such the prophet amplifies and enforces his original charge (Mal. 1:2, 6, 7; 2:17; 3:7-9). We have:
I. The charge made against God involving an utter disregard of Him (Mal. 1:1, 2).
II. The rejection of the worship of God ( Mal. 1:6-14).
III. The intense oration of His law (Mal. 2:1-9).
IV. Social wrongs and disorder in the home (Mal. 2:10, 16).
V. The blatant perversion of judgment (Mal. 2:17).
VI. Gross immorality and degradation (Mal. 3:5).
VII. Robbery in the service of the Temple ( Mal. 3:7-9).
Other features to develop are:
Priestly qualifications - holiness, communion with God, usefulness and knowledge (Mal. 2:6, 7).
Ritual may be valuable. Only our capacity limits God's gifts (Mal. 3:10). Give and get (Mal. 3:12).
An ideal picture of the true gospel ministry (Mal. 2:5, 6).
The Lord's care for and interest in His people (Mal. 3:16, 18).
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Today's reading: Esther 6-8, Acts 6 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Esther 6-8

Mordecai Honored
1 That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. 2 It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
3 "What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?" the king asked.
"Nothing has been done for him," his attendants answered.
4 The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 6

The Choosing of the Seven
1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."
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