Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Tue Sep 29th Todays News

Mr Abbott graciously endorses his party for the next election. He is bruised. But he doesn't want to see the corruption and loss which follows an ALP win. And there again, Abbott is different to Turnbull, who had no problems undermining the Liberals until he became leader. 

 Water suggests life exists on Mars. It was known that Mars had had water previously. Now we know Mars has water. Will there be intelligent life on Earth? Scientists can't say, and perhaps we will never know. Global warming belief suggests there isn't. 

 For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2014 ===
A children's program in the seventies featured a super hero called Shazam. The character was based on Captain Marvel and got a strong response from the audience in a boy demographic. Producers wanted to have a similar program for girls. They found an Egyptian Goddess that had no obvious drawbacks or bad associations, Isis. Today, an eight year old girl, Isis, is utterly heartbroken by the response her name inspires. It is all right, Isis, just keep your head, and don't take others. In the tv program, the character was summonsed by the lead turning around and calling out her name. Best not to do that outdoors these days. One person who is brave enough to attempt such is Cate Blanchet. But don't let Cate sign a sick certificate for your employer. On this slow news day we found out that Dracula was misunderstood, and his terrorist activity overstated. A good samaritan on a train who went to the aid of a woman being monster-ed by two 'men' got beaten up. Coroner criticises police investigation nineteen years ago and declares the missing man murdered. Police corner a man in Brisbane and shoot him dead as he raised a weapon. A Simpson's character has died, but no one remembered ever seeing him. 

In more serious news, Clive Palmer has claimed to have won 90% of court cases he fights. He has actually won 6% of court cases in the last eighteen months. He should fight more of them. Sophie Mirabella may have lost her seat to an electoral fraud. Australia records another big deficit, thanks to the ALP. Senator Wong had lost over one hundred billion dollars in preceding budgets, it may have reached over $140 billion unaccounted for. 

The ALP are involved with corruption and bad management, but they had supporters who helped, and they help terrorists too. ABC has claimed Australia's need for a strong defence force is a myth. 'Q and A' provides excuses from terrorist apologists delivered straight to media who want to tell terrorists. Some of the excuses put Australia in danger of being hit. It looks like an Afghan expat was killed for being Australian. Crikey expresses concern for those demonising others. Yet Crikey demonises conservatives as editorial policy. Steyn comments on a workplace accident involving an Islamic convert decapitating a colleague. Obama admits an intelligence failure regarding ISIS in Syria going back two years. Only those two years involved an election he was so desperate for that he lied about Benghazi. Tim Blair provides a guide to avoiding terrorists. They say justice is blind, but she appears to be racist. Going back in time in Afghanistan, one sees women living free lives. Once upon a time Islam celebrated wine and women in poetry and lifestyle. Amanda Vanstone drew on myth to denounce Christians so as to reconcile with Islam through Ataturk. Ataturk was successful in opposing radical clerics so that Turkish women today are unaccustomed to wearing 'traditional' robes.  But the pathetic truth is exposed with an Islamic conference where terrorists are welcome, but journalists are not.  
From 2013
Bob Hawke tells an off colour joke. It reminds people of ALP glory days. Only those days weren't very good, and today it is worse. In the glory days of Hawke/Keating, changes were made to the economy which benefited Australia which had bipartisan support. The preceding Liberal PM, Fraser, had been small 'L' liberal and had resisted necessary change. Kudos go to the ALP in floating the dollar and deregulating the financial system. To this day, Fraser still supports the ALP over conservative party policy. Hawke, addressing the UN, told a joke about Mother Teresa and India. His humour crosses boundaries. However, Hawke had no substance to his narrative. Speaking to the Chinese Premier in the wake of the slaughter of democracy protesting students at Tiananmen Square Hawke asked the Premier if he might allow some dissidents to leave China rather than punitively treating them. Whereupon the Premier asked "How many millions do you want?" Hawke later said he hadn't realised the problem was so bad. But the truth is socialist/communist governments degenerate into tyranny.

A recent example of how bad a leftist government can be to hang onto power, is the ALP's attempt to control the media. It was a laughable attempt, as the media are largely theirs anyway. But other sinister examples can be found in Italy and Thailand where billionaire conservative leaders have apparently been stitched up by corruption. That isn't to oppose the rule of law, Greek Fascists should be jailed for their crimes. Having an opinion does not endorse corruption or murder.

Fascism has a way of crossing boundaries. The way fascism has corrupted science under the guise of environmentalism is appalling. Similarly, Islam looks really ugly because of the supremacy of its' fascist elements. In Australia, minor parties like the Democrats and the Greens have been vaporised after they surrendered their independence to the ALP. But the far right parties like One Nation never achieve anything worthwhile.
BTW Hawthorn are 2013 AFL champions .. I made this last year ..

=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, 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. 

List of available items at Create Space
===
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.
Happy birthday and many happy returns Wilson Chu , Diana Ong , Anniemal Nguyen  and An Hoai . Born on the same day, across the years, along with
106 BCE – Pompey, Roman general and politician (d. 48 BC)
1511 – Michael Servetus, Spanish theologian, physician, and cartographer (d. 1553)
1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (d. 1616)
1571 – Caravaggio, Italian painter (d. 1610)
1758 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, English admiral (d. 1805)
1842 – Louis J. Weichmann, American clerk, witness in the trial of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1902)
1899 – László Bíró, Hungarian inventor, invented the ballpoint pen (d. 1985)
1901 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
1907 – Gene Autry, American singer and actor (d. 1998)
1910 – Bill Boyd, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
1934 – Lance Gibbs, Guyanese cricketer
1936 – Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, 50th Prime Minister of Italy
1946 – Ian Wallace, English drummer (King Crimson and Crimson Jazz Trio) (d. 2007)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You have overcome the sorrows. Your mandate has arrived. We do not joke about '41. Canada has entered the game. Pilot your jet with care. And enjoy the party. 
Deaths
===

HAVE YOU JOINED THE LIBERAL PARTY?

Tim Blair – Tuesday, September 29, 2015 (1:51pm)

We’ve already heard from all the Liberal members, volunteers and voters who have abandoned the party following Tony Abbott’s removal. It’s only fair that we now hear from the thousands of new Liberal supporters who have been caught up in the tsunami of enthusiasm for Malcolm Turnbull and pledged their time, money and devotion to the Liberal cause.
(Via Gregoryno6, who emails: “I look forward to the flood of responses that this invitation will draw.") 
===

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Tim Blair – Tuesday, September 29, 2015 (1:27pm)

Pat Condell on recent demographic shifts occurring abroad:

===

ARTWARMING

Tim Blair – Tuesday, September 29, 2015 (3:15am)

A press release from the Sydney College of the Arts announces an artistic and literary climate change celebration: 
Fans of JG Ballard’s cult sci-fi novel The Drowned World can experience its post-apocalyptic themes in visual form at a new exhibition, Mapping the Drowned World, opening at SCA Galleries next week.
Six Australian artists including Bulgari award-winning painter Jon Cattapan have joined forces to give vision to the dystopic opus, penned in 1962 against the backdrop of the Cold War’s end-of-the-world fears.
Set in the distant future, at a time when global warming has submerged London into a tropical wasteland overrun by carnivorous reptiles, The Drowned World reads as an eerily prescient warning of our current climate crisis, said exhibition coordinator Tracey Clement.
“Despite being published more than 50 years ago, in an uncanny way The Drowned World seems to have predicted climate change,” said Ms Clement ... 
No, it hasn’t. At most, it predicted the absurd predictions of climate change – cities underwater, tropical temperatures in the UK, chompy lizards everywhere and so on. But back to Ms Clement: 
“Thanks to the book, I’ve known my entire adult life that humanity may indeed self-destruct, but with patient omnipotence the rest of the natural world will somehow survive.” 
I wonder if Clement has ever seen Sea Patrol, the famous coastline documentary. 
Ms Clement’s own contribution to the show is a starkly beautiful sculptural installation, which allows to audiences walk through a surreal ruined city landscape of steep mountain peaks made from salt and rusted steel …
“By having the peaks at eye level, it stares you straight in the face. It reminds you that this catastrophe didn’t just happen by itself,” said Ms Clement. 
image
Tracey Clement (left) and global warming. 
“Many people are overwhelmed by climate change; we’re bombarded with these facts and figures and it all points to disaster. It’s a bit too much to take in.” 
Helpfully, Clement provides an artistic antidote: 
“What art can do – in the same way as novels – is bring you to those same conclusions but by a different method, in more engaging and accessible ways. Science fictions can be just as educational and inspirational as science facts.” 
(Via Quadrant‘s Roger Franklin.)
===

WARMY DEPRESSED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, September 29, 2015 (2:46am)

The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Tim Elliott, who believes global warming is  “going to wipe us out”, suffers sales sadness: 
How’s this for depressing. I was up in Crescent Head last week, and got talking to the local newsagent. She told me that The Sydney Morning Herald sells about 60 copies on a weekend, The Australian sells about 40 copies, and the Telegraph sells…. 120. Yep, 120 copies each weekend of that steaming pile of hateful dog vomit masquerading as journalism. The Telegraph is a nasty little rag that treats its readers like morons, that communicates exclusively in hyperventilating 40-point headlines, and never misses a chance to do some cheesy cartoon graphic, preferably based on Hogan’s Heroes or The Adams Family. How anyone could choose to spend their $2.50, or whatever it costs, on this paper is beyond me. The idea that there are actually that many Australians who prefer to be screamed at by the Tele is truly scary. 
The SMH is second, so they cry harder.
===

Bishop too matey at the UN

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (7:43pm)

image
Seriously?
Labor is accusing Julie Bishop of not taking her job as chief diplomat seriously enough, after her boyfriend was photographed sitting next to her in the official Australian section at the UN General Assembly in New York.
But the Foreign Minister defended her decision, saying it was within her discretion to allow her partner, David Panton, to attend the UN session alongside her. Ms Bishop also said, through a spokeswoman, that she regularly invites “friends” and constituents onto the floor of the United Nations.
Altogether too chummy at and with the UN. 
===

Abbott defends his legacy, but gives Turnbull and Morrison space

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (2:32pm)

Tony Abbott is gracious in his interview with Ray Hadley this morning. Here are some highlights.
On three-word slogans 
“I think they’re resonant phrases. We do have a spending problem, rather than a revenue problem. We do want lower simpler fairer taxes, we are building for the future.
“If you listen to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, they’re even using exactly the same phrases that Joe Hockey and I were using just a fortnight ago…
On Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop

“You’ve got to rely on the people close to you. You just have to.
“All I can say of both Julie and of Scott, they were extremely effective ministers in my government, very effective ministers in my government and I’d expect them to continue to be very effective ministers in the new government.
“In the end, I suppose all of us have got to answer to our god and our consciences, I’m just not going to get into who might have said what, who should have said what, to whom and when, I’m just not going to get into that.”
On whether Morrison warned him
“Certainly there was a conversation as I understand it between Scott and (my chief of staff) Peta Credlin. He’s obviously put one construction on the conversation, my office put a different construction on the conversation.
“It’s probably a bit counter-productive to revisit all of this now; the last thing I want, Ray, to come out of this interview is a headline ‘Abbott slams Morrison’ because I really would rather focus on the good work that Scott did...”
On the next election 
“I can appreciate that there are a lot of people out there who dismayed by what happened but, as I said, it would be even worse if we were to end up with a sixth prime minister in six years.
“It would be even worse if we were to end up with a CFMEU-dominated government, which we could well at the next election if people do not stay in and even if they have to do it through gritted teeth, support the Coalition.”
On Bill Shorten and Labor

“I have some respect – considerable respect – for Bill Shorten, who at least on national security issues has been a very steady collaborator, I’ve got to say, almost a partner when it comes to national security issues.
“The Labor Party, I’m afraid, it hasn’t changed, it can’t learn. If anything, the union influence is getting stronger, not weaker, the unions take a lowest common denominator approach to everything, not a highest common factor approach, and the last thing we want is to shackle our economy to the past.”
On Malcolm Turnbull as opposition leader
“Back in 2009 the Coalition was in diabolical difficulty – absolutely diabolical difficulty – because we were making weak compromises with a bad government and I said that the job of the then leader of the opposition … was to stand for things , was to establish some clear policy positions on which to run and fight an election.
“It’s always true in government or in opposition, you’ve got to stand for things, you’ve got to fight for things, you’ve got to be building a better Australia every day and that means knowing exactly what you want to change, why you want to change it, and then getting on with it.”
On Malcolm Turnbull’s hunger for power
“This is a real myth; the idea that people who were hungry for advancement would somehow be mollified if Joe (Hockey) went or if my chief of staff (Peta Credlin) went is just nonsense.
“When someone is absolutely focussed on a particular objective, they’re not going to be put off if they’re thrown a few human sacrifices as it were and, frankly, it’s wrong to feed this particular beast. It’s absolutely wrong.”
On Joe Hockey 
“Joe and I were absolute blood brothers when it comes to economic policy and the idea that I could have just casually sacrificed Joe to save myself is dead wrong.”
On Peta Credlin 
“No one worked longer and harder for our success in opposition and in government than she did and no one’s perfect – no one’s perfect - I suppose occasionally she may have spoken brusquely to one or two people who wanted more respect, but the job of the prime minister’s chief of staff is to be strong, to be tough, to be focused and she did an absolutely marvellous job.”
On the Canning by-election
“The Liberal Party’s internal polling the weekend before the Canning by-election was that we were going to end up with 57 per cent of the two-party preferred vote (and it ended up) roughly there.
“One of the reasons why the ballot had to be brought on the week it was brought on by the proponents of a ballot was because a strong result in Canning, which is what we were going to get, would have put paid to this notion that somehow I was unelectable because of the polls.”
On fire-fighting and budgie smugglers 
“I did get out and spend a day with the local brigade, my brigade, the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade on Sunday. It was great to be with the boys. I haven’t spent nearly enough time with them over the last six years.
“I suspect I might do surf patrol this coming long weekend. If the club swim is on, I’m afraid boardies are just a drag, mate. The idea of going in a surf race, a surf swim in board shorts is just silly.
“Sure, put the boardies on for sun protection purposes as well as for aesthetics once you’re back on the beach, but when you’re in the water it’s the Speedos.”

Malcolm Turnbull is very lucky in his choice of rivals - much luckier than Abbott was.
In contrast, here is Turnbull’s spray in 2009 after Abbott replaced him as Opposition Leader:
While a shadow minister, Tony Abbott, was never afraid of speaking bluntly in a manner that was at odds with Coalition policy. So as I am a humble backbencher I am sure he won’t complain if I tell a few home truths about the farce that the Coalition’s policy, of lack of policy, on climate change has descended into.
First, lets get this straight.  ....any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, “bullshit.” Moreover he knows it....
It is not possible to criticise the new Coalition policy on climate change because it does not exist. Mr Abbott apparently knows what he is against, but not what he is for… The Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is “crap” and you don’t need to do anything about it. Any policy that is announced will simply be a con…
[Abbott’s] only redeeming virtue in this remarkable lack of conviction is that every time he announced a new position to me he would preface it with “Mate, mate, I know I am a bit of a weather vane on this, but.....” ...

We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted… I will be voting for the ETS legislation when it returns in February and if my colleagues have any sense they will do so as well
When Turnbull boosters insist Abbott supporters get behind Turnbull, they should reflect on the hypocrisy. When they attack Abbott for his alleged lack of grace, they should compare and contrast.
A word of advice to the Turnbull camp. It will be critical that you treat Abbott with honor and give him his full due.
UPDATE
Senator Bob Day is right:
Family First senator Bob Day became friends with Mr Abbott ... [and] cautioned Coalition MPs against speaking badly of Mr Abbott.
“Honour Tony Abbott. Talk up his contribution. Put him up there with Robert Menzies and John Howard in the pantheon of great Liberal leaders,” Senator Day said.
“I think that would help them. The last thing they should do is criticise, they should really put him on a pedestal and that will go down well with the public.”
UPDATE
You can read for yourself what Abbott actually said on radio today. I’ve posted the most newsworthy above. You can see there is no sniping. You can see there is a call for people to rally around Turnbull, even if they don’t like what was done. There is praise for Morrison, rather than a getting even.
But the Fairfax media maintains its astonishing record of trashing and misrepresenting a man for whom it’s had an almost insane hatred.
Mark Kenny does it again:
The prime minister who in office spoke predominantly to docile media such as Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, and radio barrackers such as Ray Hadley and Alan Jones, has become the disgruntled reject - dumped by his own colleagues against whose collective judgments he now rails.
Still clueless as to what went wrong, Abbott now uses the above outlets exclusively to undertake the sniping and wrecking he initially forswore.
And this:
image
UPDATE
Sky News also misreports and misrepresents Abbott at its 2:45pm bulletin:
Through gritted teeth the former Prime Minister also called on Coalition supporters to back Malcolm Turnbull.
False. Here’s what Abbott actually said through non-gritted teeth:
It would be even worse if we were to end up with a CFMEU-dominated government, which we could well at the next election if people do not stay in and even if they have to do it through gritted teeth, support the Coalition.
It’s like it doesn’t matter at all what Abbott says or does, certain journalists will just write their own click-bait “facts”. 
===

Turnbull’s best poll yet - 52 per cent to 48

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (2:12pm)

Newspoll, Galaxy and ReachTEL have so far had Malcolm Turnbull lift the Liberals to just 50/50 or a bare 51/49 lead against Labor. Essential Research today says it’s actually 52 to 48. 
===

Is that really warming, or did you just adjust?

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (1:53pm)

Jennifer Marohasy cannot understand why it’s a scandal to want to check the figures of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology:
For the true believer, it is too awful to even consider that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology could be exaggerating global warming by adjusting figures. This doesn’t mean, though, that it’s not true. 

In fact, under prime minister Tony Abbott, a panel of eminent statisticians was formed to investigate these claims detailed in The Australian newspaper in August and September last year.
The panel did acknowledge in its first report that the bureau homogenised the temperature data: that it adjusted figures. The same report also concluded it was unclear whether these adjustments resulted in an overall increase or decrease in the warming trend.
No conclusions could be drawn because the panel did not work through a single example of homogenisation, not even for Rutherglen. Rutherglen, in north­eastern Victoria, is an agricultural research station with a continuous minimum temperature record unaffected by equipment changes or documented site moves but where the bureau nevertheless adjusted the temperatures.
This had the effect of turning a temperature time series without a statistically significant trend into global warming of almost 2C a century.
According to media reports last week, a thorough investigation of the bureau’s methodology was prevented because of intervention by Environment Minister Greg Hunt. He apparently argued in cabinet that the credibility of the institution was paramount ... Because most journalists and politicians desperately want to believe the bureau knows best, they turn away from the truth and ignore the facts.
News Corp Australia journalist Anthony Sharwood got it completely wrong in his weekend article defending the bureau’s homogenisation of the temperature record… Sharwood incorrectly wrote in his article: “Most weather stations have moved to cooler areas (ie, areas away from the urban heat island effect). ...”
In fact, many (not most) weather stations have moved from post offices to airports, which have hotter, not cooler, daytime temperatures. Furthermore, the urban heat island creeps into the official temperature record for Australia not because of site moves but because the record at places such as Cape Otway lighthouse is adjusted to make it similar to the record in built-up areas such as Melbourne, which clearly are affected by the urban heat island.
I know this sounds absurd. It is absurd, and it is also true. Indeed, a core problem with the methodology the bureau uses is its reliance on “comparative sites” to make adjustments to data at other places. I detail the Cape Otway lighthouse example in a recent paper published in the journal Atmospheric Research, volume 166.
It is so obvious that there is an urgent need for a proper, thorough and independent review of operations at the bureau.  
===

Putin mocks Obama’s Arab Spring dreams

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (1:05pm)

Russian president Vladimir Putin attacks Barack Obama’s disastrous record in the Middle East - and does it to Obama’s face:
And so the export of revolutions, this time of so-called democratic ones, continues. It was enough to look at the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, as was mentioned by a previous speaker. Certainly political and social problems in this region have been piling up for a long time and people there wish for changes, naturally.
But how did it actually turn out?
Rather than bringing about reforms and addressing foreign interference, it resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions and lifestyles.
Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social division.
And nobody cares about about human rights, including the rights to life.
To the people that have caused this commotion, do you realise what you have done?
On Syria, Putin so far holds most of the cards:
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply disagreed Monday over the chaos in Syria, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government.

After dueling speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, Obama and Putin also met privately for 90 minutes — their first face-to-face encounter in nearly a year.
At the heart of their dispute over Syria is the fate of embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad, a Russian ally. The U.S. has long called for Assad to leave power, while Russia has cast the Syrian government as the only viable option for confronting the Islamic State, a militant group that has taken advantage of the vacuum created by the civil war.
===

Morrison was right the first time about tax. So why now think of super taxes?

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (9:56am)

Scott Morrison last week:
We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
Scott Morrison this week:
The Federal Government has softened its stance on superannuation tax concessions, after previously ruling out any changes to the system.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has flagged a new approach to the issue, saying all taxes, including those on superannuation, should be reviewed.
“Anything that is going to help Australians work, save and invest is what I am interested in,” Mr Morrison told Radio 3AW in Melbourne.
Bad move. Pull up. The Abbott Government ruled out cuts to super tax concessions, not least to sharpen the difference with tax-tax-tax Labor.
Morrison is contradicting not just Tony Abbott, but himself. 
===

Turnbull has “bold” idea. Frydenberg blamed.

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (9:40am)

First they give Malcolm Turnbull credit for what Tony Abbott actually did. Now they attack Josh Frydenberg for doing no more than repeat what Turnbull himself first suggested.
Fairfax’s Latika Bourke::
Treasurer Scott Morrison has poured cold water on the idea of the government trying to cut Sunday penalty rates
Josh Frydenberg [has said] the government should look at cutting Sunday top-ups because doing so could be good for the economy and jobs… [Morrison] appeared to take aim at Mr Frydenberg for floating such a politically sensitive topic that was not a cabinet policy.
“There’s a Productivity Commission review process on those issues, and under this government we’re not going to allow ...  decisions to tumble out of the sky,”
But, wait. Frydenberg had been responding to my question on The Bolt Report about Turnbull’s own comments, calling for a review of Sunday penalty rates. And Latika Bourke had herself noted in an earlier story - before the unions arced up - that this was indeed first raised by Turnbull, not Frydenberg:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the government will consider reducing Sunday penalty rates in a bold move”>Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the government will consider reducing Sunday penalty rates in a bold move…
Asked whether he would consider the “low-hanging fruit” of reducing Sunday penalty rates, which can be as high as $40 per hour for hospitality workers, Mr Turnbull said the issue would be considered.
“All of these matters are under consideration but it is very important that we proceed in an orderly way,” he said.
So was Morrison in fact slapping down Turnbull? Or Bourke protecting Turnbull from the consequences of his “bold move”?
UPDATE
Morrison is also ignoring the views of a number of colleagues, as expressed last year:
Tony Abbott is under pressure from his backbench to do something about ‘’job killing’’ weekend and holiday penalty rates, with 10 Coalition MPs telling Fairfax Media the controversial issue could not be ignored.
But the cabinet, which in private still talks bitterly about the damage caused by the Howard government’s WorkChoices policy, is determined to keep its pre-election promise not to touch penalty rates in its first term…
Several Liberal MPs, particularly those who represent electorates with large numbers of tourism and hospitality businesses, believe small businesses need to be ‘’liberated’’ from having to pay higher weekend and holiday rates, which can lead to businesses deciding not to open on certain days or to employ fewer staff.
Coalition MPs Warren Entsch, Dan Tehan, Russell Broadbent, Wyatt Roy, Sean Edwards, Craig Laundy, Alex Hawke, George Christensen, Dennis Jensen and Zed Seselja, all said on Friday that penalty rates needed to be reviewed.
UPDATE
Labor dusts off its tired and intellectually bankrupt class war rhetoric:
The federal opposition on Monday revived it’s class-war tactics by accusing Mr Turnbull of being out of touch because of his wealth.
“It’s been a long time since he’s had difficulties paying a bill,” Labor workplace spokesman Brendan O’Connor said.
“He should talk to people that are having difficulty making ends meet,” Mr O’Connor told reporters in Brisbane.
“What we’ve seen in the last week is Malcolm Turnbull, current Prime Minister, former merchant banker, friend of big business, unilaterally make a comment to cut penalty rates for retail and hospitality workers in this country,” he said.
“Isn’t it so typical of the Liberal Party to consider whacking millions of Australian workers, stealing money from those workers in order to find solutions to employment opportunities for people?”
Strange, how Labor believes that success disqualifies anyone from offering ideas on how others can thrive, too. Pathetic.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Obama’s war is a farce

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (9:18am)

Barack Obama’s war against the Islamic State and other jihadists is a sick joke.
U.S. defense officials have confirmed that military equipment issued by the United States to Syrian rebel fighters has been funneled to an al Qaeda offshoot, raising new questions about the ways in which the Obama administration is safeguarding U.S. arms in the war-torn Middle Eastern country.
A commander in the New Syrian Forces (NSF), a group being trained and equipped by the United States, was found to have distributed at least 25 percent of the force’s U.S.-provided hardware to the Nusra Front, a terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda.
And:
By any measure, President Obama’s effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure. The military acknowledged [two weeks ago] that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually fighting.
And:
Taliban insurgents seized control of key facilities across a major city in northern Afghanistan on Monday, driving back stunned security forces in a multi-pronged attack that also sent Afghan officials and U.N. personnel fleeing for safety.
The fall of Kunduz would be a huge blow to the Western-backed government in Kabul and give Taliban insurgents a critical base of operations beyond their traditional strongholds in Afghanistan’s south…
Col. Brian Tribus, a coalition spokesman, said the coalition has not conducted any recent airstrikes in Kunduz… Since the withdrawal U.S. and NATO combat troops by the end of 2014, the mission of American and other foreign forces in Afghanistan has changed to largely a training and advisory role.
UPDATE
Russian president Vladimir Putin mocks:
Putin says Damascus should be included in international efforts to fight (IS), a demand the United States rejects, and he criticized U.S. plans to train up to 5,400 Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State.
“It turns out that only 60 of these fighters have been properly trained, and as few as four or five people actually carry weapons,” he said. “The rest of them have deserted with the American weapons to join ISIS,” he said referring to Islamic State. 
===

Tips for Turnbull on public speaking

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (9:12am)

This is not criticism of Malcolm Turnbull but advice.
He is not what he has sold himself - a great communicator. He is in fact awkward, a waffler, and sometimes too eager to seem the smartest guy in the room. Yes, Turnbull initially commands interest because he is new and can show considerable charm. He can be fluent, suggesting intelligence and command of his brief.
Some tips. Reduce your message to the slogans you say you despise. You don’t have to repeat those slogans, but at least you’ll know the key point you want to make. (Learn from Scott Morrison.)
Use self deprecation and defer to the wisdom of others when you feel out of your depth.  You’re clearly smart, so people will credit your as modest rather than stupid, and more consultative.
Don’t give lectures but repeatable grabs. TV can’t use 15 minutes but loves 15 seconds. The human memory is much the same.
Don’t qualify each sentence as you speak. That leads to rambling and gives an impression of fogginess.
Some of this advice might have helped to avoid this embarrassment:

IN what would be his first address to the majority of the rugby league community, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull delivered a speech that managed to leave the crowd speechless, however not for the reasons he may have intended.
Following Jack Bird’s acceptance of the Dally M Rookie of the year, host Tony Squires got the ball rolling when he asked the PM what he thought of the Sydney Roosters’ semi-final loss to the Brisbane Broncos — by the looks of it, a question a number of the players were wishing he hadn’t asked.
“The Roosters had very bad luck,” Turnbull said.
“I thought that was a very good pass Shaun Kenny-Dowall’s pass, it just went to the wrong person.
“There’s a lot of luck in rugby league and there’s a lot of luck in politics. Shaun Kenny-Dowall’s pass was intercepted by Darius Boyd and then Ben Hunt did not (throw) quite so long a pass and of course set up a try. It’s the result of course that matters.”
Turnbull, an avid Roosters fan, may have been trying to express his sympathy for the Sydney playmaker for his role in the defeat, however his cringeworthy speech gave the impression he had been given a run-down of the match’s biggest blunders minutes before taking the stage.
The look on the faces of Rooster Mitchell Pearce and the Broncos’ Ben Hunt said it all.
Not sure the speech was quite as embarrassing as described, but there was indeed an element of trying to seem better informed than he really was, and in the process offending some people he actually wanted to please.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill, John, and RightWingNuclearArmedDeathRabbit.) 
===

Turnbull and the politics of holding a summit

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (9:04am)

Not sure what two hours of talks between so many people with fairly understood agendas will achieve:
The Prime Minister has invited business, union and community leaders for two hours of direct talks at Parliament House on Thursday.
Invitations have been extended to Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone and BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Dave ­Oliver............
Mr Turnbull is expected to be accompanied by....  Treasurer Scott Morrison, ­Fin­ance Minister Mathias Cormann, Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer and Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos.
....the Prime Minister said: “Australia is a prosperous country with high wages, a high standard of living and a generous social welfare ­safety net. To secure and enhance our prosperity we must be more productive, competitive and ­innovative.’’
Mr Turnbull said he was looking forward to meeting the summit’s leaders “to hear the shared reform priorities of business, ­unions and the wider community’’.
But as Labor leaders Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd demonstrated well, summits give the impression of being consultative - and help to marginalise critics. Journalists also find it much more convenient and flattering to have all the people who apparently count in one place at the one time, with the journalists themselves among their number.
They can also be theatrical events to show and justify a change of policy from a new “consultative” and less “confrontational” government, in a way that just holding a press conference can’t match. 
===

China warns this free trade deal could slip through our fingers

Andrew Bolt September 29 2015 (8:15am)

It is scandalous that Labor - coached by the unions - is still pretending this free trade deal is bad for workers:
China will tonight issue its strongest statement yet about the political impasse blocking Australia’s ratification of a free-trade agreement between the two nations, with ambassador Ma Zhaoxu warning the deal on offer “should not be allowed to slip through our fingers”.
Mr Ma will tell a meeting of business and political leaders in Melbourne that the free-trade agreement, which the Labor Party and unions oppose in its current form, represents a “hard-won and historic opportunity’’ and a high-water mark in political trust and practical co-operation between the two countries.
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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CENTURIONS

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (12:43pm)

The ABC’s Peter Lloyd offers a bizarre defence of the billion-dollar broadcaster: 
The mythmakers and self servers tell us that a strong defence force keeps us safe. 
An interesting opening gambit; insult our armed forces. Then again, this is something of an ABC tradition. Lloyd continues: 
A strong ABC is the centurion that guards this country too. 
Yes. Mainly from Australians who don’t vote for Labor or the Greens. 
I’ve spent too many years living in, working in and reporting on broken and rorted countries not to learn this: the common denominator is a weak media sector. 
Which is caused in Australia by the ABC’s obscene public funding advantage. 
All of us keep the bastards honest, and beware the politician. Every one of them benefits when we lose a second on air, or a soldier in the trench. 
So a dead Australian soldier equals one second of ABC airtime. According to Lloyd, then, our total losses in Vietnam are equal to less than a single episode of Media Watch. World War II works out at three-and-a-half episodes of Q & A, and the 60,000 killed in World War I are still eight hours short of a full day’s ABC programming. 
This is not (a) career. It is a vocation; and it’s time the army spoke out. 
You want the army’s support? Wow. Good luck with that. 
This prospective diminishment in our ranks is a surrender of terrain. It’s an attack on the places where craft skill is honed, and the ethics and values are put to the first test, and applied. But most of all, it’s just f---ing dumb. And Australia can’t afford that, anymore than it can a less educated population. Or a smaller army. 
A moment ago Lloyd claimed that only “mythmakers and self servers” believed in a strong military. Now he says a strong military is essential. This bloke displays all the logical application of a rooting pig. 
ABC NSW newsreader Juanita Phillips replied: “Thank you Peter for your passionate defence of the ABC. It brought tears to my eyes.” 
Looking forward to tonight’s ABC news broadcast, Juanita, which as usual will be 1800 dead soldiers long.
(Via Monsterdome)
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YOUR E-Z GUIDE TO TERRORISM AVOIDANCE

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (4:24am)

Everybody always talks about how terrorism is so dreadfully complicated. The causes of terrorism are complicated. The solution to terrorism is complicated. Our responses to terrorism locally and abroad are complicated.
All of this is true, but at the same time there are a range of very simple steps you can take that will help you avoid becoming involved with terrorism in the first place.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'YOUR E-Z GUIDE TO TERRORISM AVOIDANCE'
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COMMUNITY CALM

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (4:22am)

Crikey is concerned: 
There’s a growing risk that the constant attention, harassment and demonisation of a single community will alienate, isolate and enrage people. 
Don’t worry, Crikey. We harassed and demonised conservatives won’t hurt anybody.
===

CUT THE MENTIONS

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (4:19am)

Mark Steyn considers the latest Islamic  decapitation in the US: 
Colleen Hufford was born in 1960. Life is full of grim twists and cruel vicissitudes, but in mid-20th century America it would not have occurred to anyone that one needed to worry about going to work and being beheaded by a colleague. Yet that’s what happened to Ms Hufford on Thursday: She turned up for her job at at the Vaughan Foods food processing plant in Moore, and Alton Alexander Nolen decapitated her …
Many commenters at KOCO-TV seem more outraged by the mentioning of Mr Nolen’s religion than by the beheading:
• Truth is, Islam has nothing to do with it. And Christians are far from innocent.
• What does his religion have to do with this tragedy???
• What does his religious faith have to do with this story?
• Why would you even through in anything about terrorism in this story? The writer of this story is a true DUMBASS!
• I can cite plenty of instances where religion was used to justify the bombing of abortion clinics and the murder of abortion doctors.
• I’ve read plenty of Christians calling for the indiscriminate murder of Muslims.
• Inquisition anyone?
• If he was converting to Christianity would you say that?? 
Steyn’s very reasonable conclusion: “It seems many western heads have too little up there to be worth chopping off.” 
===

THE POWER OF ARTS

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (3:51am)

I abandoned my arts degree after just one year when I realised it could result in a career serving food. Or, worse, in Labor politics. Or, worse still, as an academic.
This was a mistake, according to actress and anti-carbon dioxide activist Cate Blanchett, who last week revealed the almost mystical power of an arts degree.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'THE POWER OF ARTS'
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NO WINE, NO WOMEN

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (2:33am)

Roger Scruton on Islamic rage: 
The Middle East is, as we are discovering, not one thing: on the contrary, it is a patchwork of communities whose peaceful coexistence depended on conditions that no longer exist. And many of those communities are in the habit of producing the two greatest scourges of the human race: young men without women, and puritanical rage …
Thanks to Ataturk polygamy was abolished in Turkey and women were encouraged to enter public life. Their status as the unspeakable ‘secret’ was removed, their faces were revealed, their soothing presence was everywhere perceivable. Thanks also to Ataturk the other great solvent of social tension – alcohol – was permitted and, while drunkenness is rightly viewed with anger all across the Middle East, the example of Turkey has helped many of those ancient communities to let their hair down and relax together over a bottle.
Remove wine and women, however, and the tension quickly escalates. 
It sure does: 
Mohammad Ali Baryalei is believed to be the most senior Australian member of the terrorist group Islamic State, having travelled to Syria in April last year …
Former Street Dawah friend Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who is now in Syria undertaking humanitarian work, said Mr Baryalei was someone he looked to as a leader.
“He was outspoken and wouldn’t shy from speaking the truth regardless,” he told Fairfax Media. “He wasn’t pleased with living in Australian society and wanted to live in an Islamic society away from open alcoholism, homosexuality, fornication, drugs and capitalism.” 
Instead, he wanted no alcohol, same-sex barriers, no sex at all outside of marriage, no drugs and yay for communism. Sounds just dandy. Plus beheadings.
===

WHEN WOMEN WERE ALLOWED TO READ

Tim Blair – Monday, September 29, 2014 (1:57am)

Afghanistan before the Taliban:

image
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Amanda Vanstone cites Ataturk to argue Islam is fine. Big mistake

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (2:25pm)

Former Howard Government Minister Amanda Vanstone is very keen to makes Islam seem as benign - or as threatening - as Christianity in her column for The Age. Trouble is, to do so she must torture history in a way that is astonishing - and sad:
The Muslim and Christian religions have much in common. 
The reason is for that is simple, of course, even if Vanstone’s conclusion is misleading: Mohammed cobbled bits from Christianity to create his new faith but then, as a warrior himself, added the war-like twist that makes the two faiths profoundly different.
Islam holds no monopoly on the production of radical fanatics. Hitler is a good example.
Pardon? Is Vanstone suggesting here that Christianity produced Hitler? In fact, Hitler was at war with Christianity, as he himself explained: “National Socialism and religion cannot exist together.... The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew… Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure.”
Muslim troops fought with the Allies in World War II, and Muslims in many capacities heroically stepped in and saved the lives of thousands of Jewish people. 
Vanstone falis to add that the Mufti of Palestine was an ally of Hitler who recruited thousands of volunteers for the SS, that many Muslim terrorist groups such as Hamas today still say  Jews are evil and their land must be destroyed.
All of this is worth reflecting on now because of the heightened tension surrounding the so-called Islamic State and its recruitment of young Australians to fight its so-called holy war. Perhaps we need to be reminded of Ataturk’s common sense and goodwill. 
Er, does Vanstone, our former Ambassador to Rome, understand why Ataturk - a hero of mine - is actually loathed by many Islamic leaders today?
What Ataturk did for Turkey would today be denounced as Islamophobic by the Left if attempted even in, say, Australia. As Ian Buruma explains:
Ataturk said in 1917 that he would change Turkish social life in one blow. And that, in 1923, is what he proceeded to do. Women were stripped of their veils, Islamic schools were closed and dervish brotherhoods were banned. Even wearing the Turkish fez was forbidden in the new society ruled by ‘’science, knowledge and civilization.’’
You see, Ataturk knew what Vanstone pretends not to- that Islam as was practised was the enemy of a liberal society:
image 
[Under Ataturk] the 1924 education monopoly law allowed only the state employees to teach, preach and interpret Islam… Atatürk ordered that the call to prayer, ezan, had to be called in Turkish instead of Arabic. Imams were ordered to preach in Turkish. The Qur’an was translated into Turkish and printed in the Latin alphabet… Atatürk needed a nationalized religion, an altered Turkish Islam, to protect secularism… He asked Rûseni Barkur, a deputy from Samsun, to write a book on nationalization of Islam. Barkur titled his book, Din Yok Millet Var, There is No Religion but Nation.,, Article 163 of the Turkish penal code was the backbone of state control over religion. According to Article 163, any movement or person that aimed to change social, economical and political and judicial system of the state even partially based on religious principles and beliefs would be imprisoned up to fifteen years. Appealing to religion, religious books and sentiments for personal power would be punishable as well.32 Until it was abandoned in 1991, Article 163 was used to make sure no Islamic movement outside the state apparatus emerged to challenge the secular state. No civil Islamic group was legally allowed to provide religious education. The Turkish state did not want anyone other than state employees to teach, preach and even interpret Islam.
Memo to all readers of Vanstone’s column: no, Ataturk isn’t a reminder that Islam isn’t really a problem. He’s a reminder that it is, and brave steps must be taken to make it more compatible with a progressive, intellectually curious and diverse society.
That’s why I have an Ataturk poster in my study. A great Turk. A great man. 
===

I’d believe it if the ABC showed any sign of wanting to fight for Australia

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (2:14pm)

ABC reporter Peter Lloyd’s defence of the ABC tells us so much about the country’s biggest media empire:
The mythmakers and self servers tell us that a strong defence force keeps us safe.
Is that why the ABC seems determined to weaken our defence force? 
===

Radicals welcome, journalists not

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (8:52am)

Bottom line: they won’t ban radical hate-preachers but will ban journalists:
ORGANISERS of an Islamic conference attended by radical preachers Junaid Thorne and Musa Cerantonio have accused the Abbott government of using Numan Haider’s attack on police to instil an anti-Muslim “culture of fear and division"… 
“It’s an ugly, criminal incident that occurred for whatever ­reason, but to use it to instil fear in the hearts and minds of people — why is the leadership of this country, why is our leader Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party doing this to divide our community?” said Mr Abu Yusuf, spokesman for the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamah conference held at an Islamic centre in Melbourne’s northern suburbs yesterday…
Scores of people, including women, teenage boys and young children, attended the annual conference yesterday to hear lectures, including one from British journalist Yvonne Ridley, an outspoken anti-­Israeli activist since she was captured by the Taliban and converted to Islam.
Mr Thorne — who reacted to Haider’s death by accusing law-enforcement officials of being “the only source of danger to our community” — told his Facebook followers he had been invited to the conference, although Mr Abu Yusuf said that Mr Thorne was not a recognised speaker and had not been ­officially invited.
Mr Abu Yusuf said Mr Cerantonio — who has called for Muslims to join Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq — was similarly welcome to attend and listen to the Islamic scholars. “We’re not ashamed and afraid of who comes to our events,” he said…
The Australian was refused permission to attend the lectures or interview any of the speakers. Mr Abu Yusuf said Islamic State’s acts were “abhorrent, but it’s no more abhorrent than any other of the horrible things that have been committed in the name of whatever”. 
Merv Bendle is right:
Any proposal to shower attention on potential or actual jihadists in deradicalisation programs should be rejected for the expensive, cumbersome and ineffective academic and social welfare con-job that it is. A campaign to ridicule and anathematise jihadists as gutless wannabes will be far cheaper and much more effective.
===

Er, another near-record deficit. Hello? Anyone home?

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (8:37am)

WE are frogs in billions of dollars of hot water. How could last week’s massive deficit figure — our second biggest ever — create so little fuss?
The story lasted barely a day. The deficit Labor last year predicted would be $18 billion blew out to $48.5 billion.
This should have shocked us out of this growing complacency about our debt, a complacency increasingly in the interests of both major parties.
True, some of the blowout was caused by the Abbott Government restoring honesty to the figures, giving $8.8 billion to the Reserve Bank for its reserves.
Some was due to government spending decisions, but most came from falls in government revenue.
As Treasurer Joe Hockey said: “Labor continually over-estimated the amount of tax they’d collect.”
But what went wrong? And here’s where we should worry.
(Read full article here.) 
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ABC shock jocks put us in danger

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (8:15am)

Culture wars, Islamism, Media

I DO a daily show with Steve Price on Sydney’s 2GB, which ABC presenters sneer is a “shock jock” station demonising Muslims.
But which outlet truly demonises — 2GB or the ABC?
Which most menaces our safety — not least of Muslim Australians?
Let me contrast. Almost every night for the past couple of weeks I have been rung on air by Muslim listeners.
With only one or two exceptions they have backed my complaints about Muslim “leaders” who refuse to fight extremism or speak with forked tongues.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Courts clobber Clive

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (8:10am)

The Village Idiot (Reformed) fact checks Clive Palmer’s claims to be a lion in court:
Clive Palmer constantly states that he wins 90% of his court cases. With nothing better to do, I thought I’d check out his claim, given that #theirABC and FauxFacts Meeja fact checkers certainly won’t. Here’s a list of the judgements of various courts in the last year and a half, with the results:

Federal Court of Australia:
[2014] FCA 879 – August 20, 2014 – LOST

Supreme Court of Western Australia:
[2014] WASC 358 – September 26, 2014 – LOST
Unreported – September 26, 2014 – LOST
[2014] WASC 282 – August 5, 2014 - LOST
[2013] WASC 434 (S) – February 12, 2014 - LOST
[2013] WASC 434 – December 4, 2013 - LOST
[2013] WASC 375 – October 14, 2013 - LOST
[2013] WASC 285 – August 2, 2013 - LOST
[2013] WASC 194 (S) – June 25, 2013 – DRAW
[2013] WASC 194 – May 21, 2013 – MOSTLY WIN

Supreme Court of Queensland:
[2014] QSC 226 – September 17, 2014 – LOST
[2014] QSC 174 – August 5, 2014 – MOSTLY LOST
[2014] QSC 036 – March 13, 2014 - LOST
[2014] QSC 024 – February 20, 2014 - LOST
[2013] QSC 352 – December 20, 2013 - LOST
[2013] QSC 209 – August 19, 2013 - LOST
[2013] QCA 160 – June 21, 2013 - LOST

Supreme Court of New South Wales:
[2013] NSWSC 546 - 14 May 2013 – LOST
[2013] NSWSC 466 - 30 April 2013 - LOST 
So to summarise – constant litigant Secretary-General Palmer – has at most, a success rate of approximately 1.3 decided cases out of 19 which have been decided in the last 18 months – or a win rate of 6.8%. 
===

Add wine and women and the Middle East may become safer

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (7:55am)

Roger Scruton:
The Middle East is, as we are discovering, not one thing: on the contrary, it is a patchwork of communities whose peaceful coexistence depended on conditions that no longer exist. And many of those communities are in the habit of producing the two greatest scourges of the human race: young men without women, and puritanical rage … 
Thanks to Ataturk polygamy was abolished in Turkey and women were encouraged to enter public life. Their status as the unspeakable ‘secret’ was removed, their faces were revealed, their soothing presence was everywhere perceivable. Thanks also to Ataturk the other great solvent of social tension – alcohol – was permitted and, while drunkenness is rightly viewed with anger all across the Middle East, the example of Turkey has helped many of those ancient communities to let their hair down and relax together over a bottle. Remove wine and women, however, and the tension quickly escalates. 
Tim Blair has further observations on this theme.
All this helps to explain why arguably the most reassuring and attractive example of Muslim literature has been the poetry of Omar Khayyam:
I
Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight :
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultán’s Turret in a Noose of Light. 
2
Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
“Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.”
3
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted - “Open then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more.”
4
Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.
5
Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose
And Jamshýd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows;
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.
6
And David’s Lips are lock’t; but in divine
High piping Pehleví, with “Wine! Wine! Wine!
Red Wine!” - the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That yellow Cheek of hers to incarnadine.
7
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling :
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly - and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
Iran’s clerical leaders have done their best to suppress the humanity:
The name of this south-central Iranian city is known around the world for a red grape that gave the name to a fruity, dark wine - Shiraz. 
But since the Islamic revolution in 1979, wine and all other alcholic drinks have been banned in Iran, and that ban has extended to references to wine in the works of some of Iran’s most famous poets - though tellingly the poems of Shamseddine Mohammad Hafez and Omar Khayyam themselves have not been banned altogether. Rather, these specific poems have been officially reinterpreted

The 10th-century poet and scientist Khayyam’s tomb and gardens in Neishabur, west of Mashhad in eastern Iran, equally attracts thousands of admirers every year.
Ultimately, Hafez and Khayyam are too popular and too entrenched historically and in modern times, to face the full force of the censor’s pen - despite some of their religiously satirical material.
In both poets’ work, Hafez and Khayyam extol the virtues of wine, often in a way meant to mock the orthodox clergy…
Khayyam writes in his “Rubaiyat” ("Quatrains"): “My life-long practice is to praise the Vine, And round me have the instruments of wine; Zealot! If Reason guide thee here, be glad, Thy master is a pupil apt of mine!"… Aside from the poets’ popularity ensuring their continued availability, the official line appears to be that Khayyam and Hafez did not actually drink alcoholic wine… and in the case of Khayyam, focusing on his nonpoetic work. 
===

Reckless Q&A gives microphone to some Muslim woman who - surprise! - welcomes the Islamic State

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (7:09am)

I was surprised that Q&A last week not only stacked its panel with two Muslim firebrands, but had more dotted throughout the audience, including radical Rebecca Kay, presented as just some Muslim woman:
The ABC’s Q&A on Monday threw petrol onto the fire by getting together Muslim firebrands and others to portray Australia as a country run by war criminals and xenophobes, helping to kill Muslims abroad and persecute them at home with politically motivated police raids. 
One of the most savage indictments of Australia and its institutions came from an unnamed woman in the audience. Note how the Greens and Labor MPs tended to believe and endorse her incendiary claims, and host Tony Jones even assumed the woman was being persecuted by ASIO: 
image
AUDIENCE MEMBER: [The Australian Defence League] make threats to myself and my family, telling them that they want to behead me. So everything you’re saying right now is very insulting.
MICHAEL KEENAN [Justice Minister]: Well, if that is the case, then you need to alert the authorities.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have reported it to police numerous times, thank you.
MICHAEL KEENAN: Well, let me assure you, we don’t police in a way in this country that targets one group over another.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, you do.
MICHAEL KEENAN: I can assure you that that is the case.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, you do.
MICHAEL KEENAN: Well…
SCOTT LUDLAM [Greens Senator]: I’m not sure the message is getting through, whether you sense the reaction of the room when you said that for the first time. I’m not sure, if that is the strategy, that it’s getting through to people…
MICHAEL KEENAN: Well, I mean, I can assure you that threats of that nature would be followed up.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I am trolled 24 hours a day on Facebook and social media because of these right-wing Nazis, okay. My life is not pleasant right now living in this country and no-one seems to care because I am Muslim and they’re not. It’s all right for the non-Muslims to give me a hard time… TONY JONES: I’m just confirming you’re not saying that was security officials… I thought you said ASIO. Okay, no, I thank you...
Miranda Devine: 
Just an average Q&A guest pic.twitter.com/YkyP89xtpJ
image
Will Media Watch tonight tackle Q&A’s dangerous promotion of radical Muslims - and apologise for its own uninformed conspiracy mongering?
The NewsWatch take is here.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

China faces pro-democracy uprising in Hong Kong

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (7:00am)

 China could never really be trusted to protect even the limited democracy in Hong Kong, and this confrontation with protesters could become serious:
HONG KONG’S leader has appealed for calm and sought to quell fears that the army would be brought in to quash the pro-democracy protests that have brought chaos to the city. 
As tens of thousands of demonstrators were blasted with tear gas in an ultimately vain effort to disperse them, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying went on television in the early hours of today to urge the crowds to go home…
When China took control of the former British colony in 1997 it agreed to a policy of “one country, two systems” that allowed the city a high degree of control over its own affairs and keep civil liberties unseen on the mainland. It also promised the city’s leader would eventually be chosen through “universal suffrage.”
Beijing now says that time has not yet come. China’s insistence on using a committee to screen candidates on the basis of their patriotism to China — similar to the one that currently hand-picks Hong Kong’s leaders — has stoked fears among pro-democracy groups that Hong Kong will never get genuine democracy… University and college students say they will continue to boycott classes until officials meet their demands, which include reform of Hong Kong’s legislature and withdrawing the proposal to screen the election candidates.
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“Go, Sophie!”

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (6:59am)

Some supporters of Independent MP Cathy McGowan seems unusually nervous:
VOTERS at the centre of a probe into enrolment fraud have deleted potentially incriminating tweets and other details from social-media profiles since weekend revelations of alleged wrongdoing in a close federal election contest. 
Staunch supporters of Cathy McGowan, the independent who won the seat of Indi a year ago, have erased material showing they were living and working in Melbourne and elsewhere at the time they were voting in Indi…
Heavy editing at the weekend of social-media profiles and deletions of numerous tweets will not affect the Australian Electoral Commission’s probe, as screen shots were taken prior to the deletions… Deletions include tweets by several of Ms McGowan’s closest supporters, who admitted to friends on social media that they lived in Melbourne, despite enrolment records obtained by The Australian showing they had switched to Indi.
Grace Collier shows one series of tweets - since deleted - which seem to receive a curious endorsement:
image
No doubt there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, and I’d sure like to hear it from all involved.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)   
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Justice must not be racist

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (6:46am)

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Kieran Loveridge attacked five men in one night, killing one, Thomas Kelly, with a punch to the head. He was sentenced to five years and now appeals:
Loveridge’s lawyers have now filed an application for special leave to appeal in the High Court on a number of grounds, including the appeal court’s failure to properly take into account that he was an Aboriginal offender from a deprived background.
He may be from a disadvantaged background, although I am not sure why that should entitle him to a lesser sentence. But of what possible relevance is his Aboriginality in a non-racist justice system?
What an insult to Aborigines who choose instead to be, say, police officers or prison guards.

(Thanks to reader Geoff.) 
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Police rule out “hate crime” in Brisbane shootings at Muslim homes

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (6:30am)

What blessings mass immigration from the Middle East have visited upon us:
POLICE have ruled out a hate-crime motive for drive-by shootings on the homes of a former Iraqi army general and a nearby Lebanese Palestinian family who attend the same Brisbane mosque.
Sky News:
Local Islamic leaders fear they may have been targeted for taking a stand against extremists.
But let’s get that victim narrative another whirl:
Brisbane Islamic community leader Ali Kadri said the events were culturally motivated. 
‘For all we know it could be a hate crime, but we would like to wait until the police complete their investigation,’ he told The Courier Mail.
(Thanks to reader RacerX). 
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Obama admits to another US intelligence failure

Andrew Bolt September 29 2014 (5:48am)

I suspect they were blind to what the president didn’t want to see, either:
President Barack Obama said US intelligence officials failed to appreciate the gains made by Islamic State extremists in Syria during the last few years of that country’s civil war. 
“I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” Mr Obama said in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes program.
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Post by Andy Trieu.

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C. H. Spurgeon
There is not a soul in Hell that ever truly sought Christ.
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Post by Max Brenner Australia.
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Sarah Palin
Fighting for Us... #MakeDCListen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSAB4SlsP4

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#QandA until there is at least a 50:50 Right vs Left balance on the panel and audience, and only appearing on The Bolt Report. I can live with Monday nights being restful and quiet.>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-29/the-silent-treatment---tony-abbotts-new-media/4987566
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UN High Commissioner for Refugees....is doing what, and...where?

“All of the international community is working against us. Are we all wild animals?” asked a middle-aged Syrian man.

More than 200 Syrians, most of them families with young children, live in a trash-infested lot across from the refugee camp. Their names cannot be disclosed because of fear of retribution against family members still in Syria.

Converted shipping containers, enough to hold up to 12,000 refugees, provide crammed living quarters.

The real number of refugees in the camp, which is run by the Turkish government and the UN high commissioner for refugees, is thought to be between 15,000 and 17,000." - Benjamin Weinthal
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"For in the past two decades, the hard Left has managed to convert what was up until the early 1990s a completely marginalized – indeed, borderline treasonous – political doctrine into a respectable, arguably majority mainstream position.

What is required is not to establish an “alternative” discourse, but to take control of the existing mainstream one.

To do this it is essential to be able to “reach across the political divide” and acquire the attention of adversarial target audiences

It is imperative not only to realize – but accept – that the message to be conveyed is not intended primarily to find favor in their own constituencies.

Therefore, what is likely to be appealing to themselves – both in style and substance – and to be persuasive with like-minded publics – may well be totally ineffective with important – indeed, crucial – target audiences on the other side of the political divide." - Martin Sherman

As Dr. Sherman also referred to and included in the article, a 2010 published study:

"When Corrections Fail: The persistence of political misperceptions”

"Affirming people’s self-worth can buffer the threat to their self integrity posed by counter-attitudinal information and thereby make them more open-minded.” - Political Behavior - Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler
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Aprille Love.



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CENTRE-RIGHT ministers have resigned from Italy's fragile coalition government, unleashing a fresh political crisis after what Prime Minister Enrico Letta called a "crazy act" of encouragement by their leader Silvio Berlusconi.
All five ministers of the People of Freedom (PDL) party took the decision on Saturday at Berlusconi's urging, said Angelino Alfano, Italy's deputy premier and PDL party secretary.
The flamboyant former prime minister had dismissed as "unacceptable" a demand by Letta on Friday for parliament to express support for the government next week, in a bid to end a crisis that has driven the bickering ruling coalition to the brink of collapse.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/berlusconi-ministers-say-they-will-resign/story-e6frfkui-1226729285739#ixzz2gH2LS4DR
Italy is divided as a corrupt left inflates allegations against the centre right leader - ed
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Labor leadership candidate Bill Shorten wants to introduce quotas to boost the number of gay and lesbian politicians in Parliament.
Mr Shorten is continuing his pitch to the party membership, sending out a manifesto that calls for the introduction of quotas for politicians representing minority groups.
He says the party should consider quotas for Indigenous Australians and the lesbian, gay, bixsexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.
Neil Fharaoh, the national convenor of Rainbow Labor, which represents the party's LGBTI members, says it is a step forward.
"The LGBTI community has been underrepresented, particularly in political seats, both at a state and federal level in Australia," he said.
"There's probably only 12 gay and lesbian identifying politicians across the country and probably not too much more in the history and its definitely underrepresentative.

He is a little man .. nominative determinism? The idea might go down as one of his legacy of major party reform .. but not for political party. - ed
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“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men."
Psalm 33:13
Perhaps no figure of speech represents God in a more gracious light than when he is spoken of as stooping from his throne, and coming down from heaven to attend to the wants and to behold the woes of mankind. We love him, who, when Sodom and Gomorrah were full of iniquity, would not destroy those cities until he had made a personal visitation of them. We cannot help pouring out our heart in affection for our Lord who inclines his ear from the highest glory, and puts it to the lip of the dying sinner, whose failing heart longs after reconciliation. How can we but love him when we know that he numbers the very hairs of our heads, marks our path, and orders our ways? Specially is this great truth brought near to our heart, when we recollect how attentive he is, not merely to the temporal interests of his creatures, but to their spiritual concerns. Though leagues of distance lie between the finite creature and the infinite Creator, yet there are links uniting both. When a tear is wept by thee, think not that God doth not behold; for, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Thy sigh is able to move the heart of Jehovah; thy whisper can incline his ear unto thee; thy prayer can stay his hand; thy faith can move his arm. Think not that God sits on high taking no account of thee. Remember that however poor and needy thou art, yet the Lord thinketh upon thee. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.
Oh! then repeat the truth that never tires;
No God is like the God my soul desires;
He at whose voice heaven trembles, even he,
Great as he is, knows how to stoop to me.

Evening

"Go again seven times."
1 Kings 18:43
Success is certain when the Lord has promised it. Although you may have pleaded month after month without evidence of answer, it is not possible that the Lord should be deaf when his people are earnest in a matter which concerns his glory. The prophet on the top of Carmel continued to wrestle with God, and never for a moment gave way to a fear that he should be non-suited in Jehovah's courts. Six times the servant returned, but on each occasion no word was spoken but "Go again." We must not dream of unbelief, but hold to our faith even to seventy times seven. Faith sends expectant hope to look from Carmel's brow, and if nothing is beheld, she sends again and again. So far from being crushed by repeated disappointment, faith is animated to plead more fervently with her God. She is humbled, but not abashed: her groans are deeper, and her sighings more vehement, but she never relaxes her hold or stays her hand. It would be more agreeable to flesh and blood to have a speedy answer, but believing souls have learned to be submissive, and to find it good to wait for as well as upon the Lord. Delayed answers often set the heart searching itself, and so lead to contrition and spiritual reformation: deadly blows are thus struck at our corruption, and the chambers of imagery are cleansed. The great danger is lest men should faint, and miss the blessing. Reader, do not fall into that sin, but continue in prayer and watching. At last the little cloud was seen, the sure forerunner of torrents of rain, and even so with you, the token for good shall surely be given, and you shall rise as a prevailing prince to enjoy the mercy you have sought. Elijah was a man of like passions with us: his power with God did not lie in his own merits. If his believing prayer availed so much, why not yours? Plead the precious blood with unceasing importunity, and it shall be with you according to your desire.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 5-6, Ephesians 1 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 5-6

The Song of the Vineyard
1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

Today's New Testament reading: Ephesians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
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Hilkiah

 [Hĭlkī'ah] - portion of jehovah orjehovah is protection.
  1. The father of Eliakim who was over Hezekiah's household (2 Kings 18:18, 26, 37; Isa. 22:20; 36:3, 22).
  2. High priest in king Josiah's reign (2 Kings 22:4-14; 23:4, 24).
  3. A descendant of Merari, son of Levi (1 Chron. 6:45).
  4. A son of Hosah , descendant of Merari, and a gatekeeper at the Tabernacle (1 Chron. 26:11).
  5. A priest who stood with Ezra as he read the law to the people (Neh. 8:4; 11:11; 12:7, 21).
  6. A priest of Anathoth and father of the prophet Jeremiah and contemporary of Gemariah (Jer. 1:1).
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