Monday, October 19, 2015

Mon Oct 19th Todays News

Clive James has belled the cat on the issue of the rude and illiterate commenting on FB posts. There are lots of excuses for it. Time is short, so spelling is optional and common courtesy isn't necessary. But people that hold those views are wrong, and they sell themselves short. If you agree with something, a profanity doesn't convey extra meaning. Gangsters talk a certain way because they don't want to associate with police or people who  respect the police. But good people treat police with respect and gangster types need to do more to convince others they aren't amoral rejects. If someone responds to my column with the four letters "tldr" I will ban them. I won't accept bullying. As my step mother practices, if you don't have anything good to say, say nothing. That has worked with us for decades. 

 For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2014 ===
Highly lauded for allowing women to have it all, the free offer to freeze eggs for female employees is not good policy. The trade off for the free policy is to give up hard won rights like flexible working hours, working from home and maternity leave. The cost to women is substantial with prime years for child bearing sacrificed for poor ones and no hope for raising a family without substantial medical intervention. Women who become used to work routines have to work very hard to family ones. Even so, it is unthinkable a union would oppose this bad policy, and sadly Christian Churches will also likely be too impressed with the progressive badge. 

Sad to report the Bolt Report Supporters Group is besieged by a cadre of ADL followers. The ADL and Australian Tea Party are brothers with the EDL in UK and ADL (American Defence League) in the US. They have fostered right wing terrorism around the world and are known for brawling, marching and threatening minorities. Often ADL members are former soldiers and police security types who join a club in transitioning to public life. A person is not bad for being a member, but the bigotry and bad behaviour should raise flags for reasonable people. The Bolt Report Supporters page was founded by the ADL with a view to attracting conservatives who supported journalist Andrew Bolt. Part of the activity that admins of this page will not accept was to produce numerous pointers and links to ADL and EDL pages which typically spread anti Muslim hate. In the past, they spread anti Jew hate too. They are directly linked to the British Nationalist Party and neo Nazis. They might argue they have grown, and no longer seek a final solution to Zionists but just want to preserve a nationalist identity, but a good person would not accept that. Many ADL types are tasked to cause trouble for any page that does not toe their line. So it will be the case that there will be many such people on and off this site will claim they feel hard done by by the administration carrying out their duties. They will claim they have been unfairly booted and they will claim they have been denied freedom of speech. They also claim not to know about ADL. One way to spot them is to note they hate a lot. They hate Muslims and cannot distinguish between a Muslim and a terrorist that is Islamo Fascist. They worry about women's clothing a lot. They oppose male circumcision because they link it to female genital mutilation. You might befriend such a person, but they will never be your friend. They might want to use your account on FB. 

Bolt Report was not on today or last year owing to sport. So Insiders was on. Insiders is an ABC program that is terribly biased to the left. Today, Nikki Savva provided a balanced viewpoint while Laura Tingle, David Marr and Barrie Cassidy openly promoted left wing propaganda. Tingle, on the issue of Australia sending health workers to Africa to combat Ebola, said she didn't understand the government policy and felt it was wrong. But she can't have it both ways. Either Tingle understands it and it is wrong, or Tingle does not understand it and so the policy might be very good. To be fair to Tingle, she understands the policy well, but doesn't want the ALP to look bad for opposing it. The government policy in Australia is clear, that Africa is not a near neighbour but gets sufficient aid from others better catered to it than Australia. Were Australia to send aid workers, she would not be able to guarantee that they could be returned in an emergency. That would be irresponsible. ALP are claiming that Australia should be irresponsible. The ALP also thought that drowning desperate people was compassionate. David Marr says it is bad that Australia has stopped drowning desperate people for compassion and that there are now people left stranded in Indonesia as a result, people that will not be drowned. Marr views that as illegal and immoral. Meanwhile Cassidy is still confused about shirt fronting between Mr Abbott and Mr Putin. Mr Abbott has promised to address the issue of MH17 with Mr Putin. Cassidy thinks that means Mr Abbott will tackle Mr Putin in an unscheduled game of AFL. 

Political Promises
Rob Oakeshott is wrong in his criticism of Australia's response to Ebola. He needs to apologise for being stupid. He claims that the world only cared after a man died in Texas. In fact, world leaders, including Mr Abbott, had spoken out weeks earlier. But such facts mean little to one who is stupid. Obama has promised much regarding Ebola and health care in the US. His promises are far less valuable than his borrowings from US children. The US is suffering from bad policy. Meanwhile in Australia a compassionate immigration policy seems to be exposing Australians to brutal violence far beyond the norm.  
From 2013
Australian comedienne and ALP supporter Harmer does not know where to go. Some Australians engage in Australian sport. A canine Banksy is found. Latham contradicts himself over an unimportant matter. Abbott illustrates direct action. Jonathan Green takes the law into his own hands. ABC promotes warmists in its campaign to promote AGW alarmism it hasn't a mandate for. Obama goes back to borrowing money on the behalf of US peoples. And Obama seems to have given chemical weapons to jihadists. 
No Bolt Report tomorrow :( Sport instead. 
=== 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
The Amazon Author Page for David Ball
===
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 Andy Tran and Linton Nguyen, born on the same day, across the years, as
1276 – Prince Hisaaki of Japan (d. 1328)
1562 – George Abbot, English archbishop (d. 1633)
1862 – Auguste Lumière, French director and producer (d. 1954)
1873 – Bart King, American cricketer (d. 1965)
1994 – Agne Sereikaite, Lithuanian speed skater
John Jay
We have justice. We are victorious. We are wipers on the field of battle. We caught the wrong four. We value our aid workers. Let's party. 
Deaths
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STOP THE SWAMP

Tim Blair – Monday, October 19, 2015 (1:44pm)

The great Clive James on online issues – and why details are important: 
Just as the basis of ethics lies in manners, the secret of eloquence lies in a care for detail. The alternative is the ever-spreading swamp of the blog-trolls, in which the opinions of a frothing dolt are so important that no paragraph can last longer than a sentence. Or else he raves on forever without a break: either way, he has no sense whatever of nuanced argument. Nor can he pause to put in the capital letters, the commas and the apostrophes, not to mention the good humour, the sense of proportion and the common courtesy. Cram all that negligence into the frame of Facebook and you have mental cyanide in pellet form. I hate to say it, but of all the countries in the Anglosphere, it seems to me that Australia is the most likely to be the first victim of a web-world and social media coalition that annihilates the hard-won virtues of English prose. If you dread a culture in which every twit’s tweet counts, here it comes. 
This site’s comments policy is an attempt to stall the arrival of that barren culture.
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THIS MOVIE NEEDS A NAME

Tim Blair – Monday, October 19, 2015 (3:32am)

A film about software programs, vehicle recalls and cars that don’t actually kill or injure anybody, and in fact are still being driven harmlessly every day? Sounds just great: 
Leonardo DiCaprio is to produce a film about the Volkswagen emissions scandal. 
Please offer possible titles in comments. I’m leaning towards Herbie the Hate Bug.
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PLAY THE POD

Tim Blair – Monday, October 19, 2015 (3:27am)

If you happened to miss last Friday’s podcast, here is your chance to catch up.
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COMMENCE THE CRANIAL IMPLANTS

Tim Blair – Monday, October 19, 2015 (3:23am)

Labor made a terrible mistake last week. The opposition criticised Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. To be specific, several senior Labor figures questioned the ethics of Turnbull’s overseas investments.
Bashing the rich is usually a fail-safe Labor tactic, guaranteed to rouse its left wing base and excite Labor-friendly journalists. In the current media climate of universal Mal-love, however, this simply won’t do at all.
Labor’s Sam Dastyari and Tony Burke, who led attacks on Turnbull’s foreign investments, really should have noted the media mood shift last month, when Fairfax’s Judith Ireland declared that wealth was suddenly cool …
Even the Greens disapprove of Labor’s unseemly Mal-slamming. “I don’t know that it was tactically a good idea to try and personify the issues in the form of Malcolm Turnbull,” Greens deputy leader Scott Ludlam said yesterday. “I don’t know that trying to pin that on Malcolm Turnbull or make him the kind of poster boy for that stuff has worked particularly well.”
Guardian photographer Mike Bowers and Fairfax photographer Andrew Meares joined in the fun on Sunday’s Insiders, holding their glasses in approved Turnbull fashion as they discussed the week’s political images. Their loving homage to Malcolm could be an indicator of future trends.
Kim Kardashian, whose fame is almost as puzzling as the media class’s Turnbull adoration, sparked a fashion for buttock implants among women eager to imitate her curves. Might we now see something similar among smitten ABC and Fairfax types? Hefty cranial implants, perhaps, to achieve Malcolm’s alarmingly top-heavy Thunderbirdsappearance?
(Please continue reading Cranial Implants, plus a piece on leading Liberal liability Fiona Scott.)
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REVERSING HISTORIC TREND, GERMANS NOW AGAINST INVASION

Tim Blair – Monday, October 19, 2015 (1:56am)

Just as occurred earlier in Greece, German tolerance of sudden mass immigration is rapidly fading: 
Germans at first greeted Mrs Merkel’s bold move by cheering in the streets and handing out sweets to refugees. But as the size of the immigration wave becomes apparent, the mood is shifting fast. The numbers are straining towns’ capacity to provide migrants with shelter and public services. Some 51% of Germans now say they are worried about the migrants, up from 38% a month ago. Mrs Merkel’s popularity has dropped to its lowest level since the start of the euro crisis in 2011. 
Growing opposition to Islamic immigration is one thing, but a maniac on Germany’s demented fringe has lately attempted to kill a pro-immigrant politician: 
Henriette Reker, a mayoral candidate known for her liberal views on immigration, was targeted on Saturday in the middle of an open air market in Cologne.
Her assailant is said to have told police he stabbed her in the neck because he was angry she supported asylum seekers coming to Germany. 
Meanwhile, in ethnically and religiously diverse Indonesia: 
Hardline Muslims in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Sunday demanded the local government close 10 Christian churches, just days after a mob burnt down a church, leaving one person dead and several injured.
Tensions are high among the ethnically and religiously diverse population of Aceh Singkil district, raising the risk of further religious violence in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation …
A mob of hundreds of people burnt down a small church in Aceh Singkil last week, citing a lack of building permits, and forced thousands of Christians to flee to neighbouring villages. 
Yep. It’s entirely about the building permits. Aceh residents are famously obsessive when it comes to their strict construction codes.
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MALMENTUM!

Tim Blair – Monday, October 19, 2015 (12:11am)

A surge for the Turnbull-led Coalition, according to Fairfax-Ipsos: 
Labor’s primary vote has plunged to just 30 per cent as voters flood back to a rejuvenated Coalition government under Malcolm Turnbull’s new leadership style one month after he replaced the unpopular Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.
In what appears to be a clear vindication of that bruising leadership switch, Mr Turnbull has more than tripled Bill Shorten’s popularity as preferred prime minister at 67 per cent to Mr Shorten’s 21 – a dive of 24 points for the Opposition Leader since August, when he was up against Mr Abbott.
The October Fairfax-Ipsos poll has found the Coalition has surged ahead of Labor at 53-47. 
But perhaps the Coalition shouldn’t become too excited: 
The Ipsos result should be treated with caution. It is a seven-point turnaround from the Fairfax-Ipsos poll two months ago, when Labor led the Coalition by 54 to 46.
This is like slow-motion replay of the similar bounce that Julia Gillard delivered for Labor in the week or so after replacing Kevin Rudd in June 2010. 
And that worked out well enough.
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ONE MINUTE’S SILENCE

Tim Blair – Sunday, October 18, 2015 (11:11pm)

Major breaking news from the ABC: 
Complete strangers have silently stared into each other’s eyes for at least one minute in the centre of Perth as part of a global experiment to bring human connection back to public spaces …
The experiment was inspired by the work of Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic, who shared a minute’s eye contact with people visiting her in a big blank gallery room as she sat on a chair. 
You’ve got to make your own fun in the outback.
(Via Teddy.)
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Michael Lawler: it’s “honourable” to take nine months of sick leave to defend partner

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (12:57pm)

Michael Lawler, vice-president of the Fair Work Commission, has taken n nine months of paid sick leave since May last year. His sense of entitlement seems monstrous to me, particularly now that we’ve finally heard his excuse:
MICHAEL LAWLER: Hello my name is Michael Lawler. You don’t normally hear from somebody like me. I hold a quasi-judicial office in an organisation called the Fair Work Commission… In 2008 I met and formed a relationship with Katherine Jackson, the National Secretary of the Health Services Union…
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Michael Lawler has been under intense scrutiny since 2012 because of his controversial romantic relationship with Kathy Jackson, the former secretary of the Health Services Union.  In August 2015, the Federal Court found Jackson has misused $1.4 million of union money to fuel a lavish lifestyle and pay for holidays, shopping and health expenses. Lawler has been fiercely criticised publically and in Parliament over his close involvement in Jackson’s legal defence. He’s now confirmed he has used his time off work to conduct complex legal work for her case but denies he has acted inappropriately.
MICHAEL LAWLER: There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking leave to help your partner defend herself against unjust attacks, in fact I would have thought most Australians would regard that as an honourable and decent thing to do.
Sure, but what is not honourable and decent is to take that time off as sick leave and charge it to taxpayers.
In your own time, buddy. 
===

One night

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (12:34pm)

One legal figure commenting on the link says it’s a “sure winner for the fiction award”, and it sure does strain credulity. But if Elsa McGrath’s tale is even half true… good heavens. Wonder which prominent barrister she’s describing?
No guesses allowed. 
===

Too much crawling to Turnbull, who should not get this blank cheque

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (11:46am)

Professor Sinclair Davidson says something false and stupid:
The problem is that both Andrew [Bolt] and Steve [Kates] are so angry that they’ll never agree Turnbull has done good. This week, for example, there was an extraordinarily ugly smear against Turnbull and he belted the opposition into next week.
In fact, I praised Turnbull for exactly that response on radio, on television and on my blog.
Troy Bramston plays that same silly game of more-moderate-than-though of the Turnbull boosters, particularly on The Australian, noting sarcastically of the great Ipsos poll for Turnbull:
This vindicates everything Andrew Bolt has been saying - terrible result for the Coalition #Ipsos
Again, I noted on television on Sunday, before the poll:
Now, it’s true. Voters seem to like this new no-dramas vibe.
And I’ve written and said several times that Turnbull should win the next election - and fairly comfortably - as long as he does not deviate from the fundamental Abbott policies on boats, global warming and national security:
True. These are very early days, and Turnbull, at least, has the media’s loving support as he starts his sales job.
He looks prime ministerial and sounds positive. He has an air of authority in economics that Abbott lacks, and an ease in front of the cameras.
So I expect polls to favour him for a while, and I also expect him to win the next election, as I believe Abbott would have.
There seems to be some cheerleading going on here - a determination to write Malcolm Turnbull a blank cheque, and to savage any conservatives who dare question what he’s actually doing with the power he’s snatched. What seems more important to some people is that the Liberals win, rather than good policy triumph.
So I repeat my challenge:
[C]ontra [Chris] Kenny, conservatives should not be “supporting ... the new regime”. They should instead be supporting good policies.
When Turnbull produces them, I’ll cheer. But where are they?
A check list… Can Kenny or anyone else [Sinclair Davidson?] guarantee whether Turnbull will: 
- raise the tax take or cut it? - increase total spending or cut it?
- increase taxes on super or not?
- reform laws on free speech or not?
- reform workplace laws or not?
- cut the size and functions of the ABC or not?
- pressure Muslim imams to reform Islam or not?
- promote warming alarmism or do the minimum possible?
- increase immigration or cut it?
- restrict the refugee intake to culturally compatible groups such as Christians, or take in thousands more Muslims?
- step up the war on the Islamic State or not?
- restrain the national disability insurance scheme or let it blow?
- appoint black-letter lawyers to our courts or soft-Left ones?
- appoint a conservative reformer as the new head of the ABC, or a go-with-the-flow Leftist?
- keep cutting middle-class welfare or do no more than what’s already promised?
- squeeze the Human Rights Commission or let its hijack by the Left continue?
So which Turnbull deeds are you cheering, Sinclair?
PS:
I notice the item that tops the list Sinclair produces of unforgivable Abbott crimes:
If there was anyone who was treacherous it was Tony Abbott. Pyrmonter has the list:
- Left 18C unchanged, breaking promises to liberal and conservative voters
But where’s Sinclair’s consistency?
In May, Turnbull wooed libertarians such as Sinclair by backing changes to 18C. But last week, having toppled Abbott, he dumped his support for them, too, at least until after the next election. Yet where’s Sinclair’s anger?
And look at other items on Sinclair’s list of Abbott crimes. How many of them does he seriously believe Turnbull will reverse, rather than compound?
Abbott…
- Ditched a toothless carbon tax, while retaining the Renewable Energy Target (a worse, hidden carbon tax with teeth) and creating a Direct Action boondoggle - Did nothing meaningful to dismantle the “opposition within”, the professional activists of the Human Rights Commission…

- insulted liberal-minded coalition voters who were told the party could make a call on SSM
- made blank cheque promises to South Australia that amount to an abdication of defence procurement policy to the Manufacturing Workers Union
UPDATE
James Allan has a challenge for the conservatives and libertarians, like Sinclair, who prefer Turnbull to Abbott: pick a letter from A to E and explain yourselves. 
===

Nauru rape claim challenged. Abortion refused

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (11:41am)

Something in this asylum seeker’s story does not fit:
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says advocates for a 23-year old Somali refugee who came to Australia for an abortion but was deported after refusing treatment have let down the alleged rape victim.
Through her Sydney-based lawyer George Newhouse, ‘Abyan’ has for two weeks pleaded with the Australian government and public to be allowed to travel to Australia for an abortion. She says she fell pregnant after being raped by Nauruan men.
The government granted her request and on Sunday October 11 flew her to Australia for treatment.

But Abyan was deported back to Nauru five days later amid claims she did not want the termination once she arrived…
Mr Dutton said on Monday the government had always intended to provide the 23-year old with the medical care she needed in Australia and confirmed she received counselling in Nauru before her flight to the mainland.
“When the lady came to Australia she was seen by a number of nurses, including mental health nurses, a number of GPs and doctors and interpreters were used on many of those occasions in the discussions over a course of days,” he told reporters at Parliament House.
“The lady at the end of that was asked whether she wanted a termination and she said no, that she didn’t, and did she want an appointment that week, and she said no, she didn’t.”
Abyan on Sunday released a handwritten statement through her lawyers refuting the minister’s claims.
“I have been very sick. I have never said thate [sic] I did not want a termination,” she said in a statement which was photographed and sent to Mr Newhouse.
“I never saw a doctor. I saw a nurse at a clinic but there was no counselling...”
Mr Dutton said the government would not have gone to the expense of flying the woman to Australia if it had no intention of giving her the medical treatment she had requested… Mr Dutton accused the advocates on constantly shifting their story about Abyan’s case.
Then there are these claims:
A 26-year-old Somali woman who says she was raped in August may be charged with making a false complaint to police, the Nauruan government says.
The refugee’s case was raised last month on 7.30 after the program obtained a video recording of the emergency call she made after the alleged incident on August 21.
The woman, known as Najma, reported to police that two Nauruan men had dragged her into the bushes and raped her.
Earlier this week, the island nation’s government released a statement rejecting the woman’s claims.
“There was no lacerations or bruising around the vaginal region and a spermatozoa test on the victim after a vaginal swab proved negative,” the statement said....
Now Nauru’s justice minister, David Adeang, ... said the women concerned may face charges of making a false complaint…
“The police investigation has shown there was no rape… The person did not cooperate with police and refused to accompany police to what she alleged was the crime scene.”
UPDATE
Forced to choose between the stories, I’d choose Dutton’s:
Mr Dutton also dismissed reports that the woman did not receive medical treatment while in Australia.
Speaking in Question Time, he gave a breakdown of dates and meetings, saying:

She was transferred to Australia from Nauru on October 11, arriving in Brisbane She was then transferred to Villawood on October 12, and was reviewed by a mental health nurse and a primary care nurse. An interpreter was present.
She was reviewed by a primary health care nurse and a mental health nurse on October 13, as well as a GP. An interpreter was present.
She was reviewed by a nurse and doctor on October 14, followed by another review by a GP the following day.
The final October 15 meeting did not have an interpreter present, but Mr Dutton said it was then that Abyan “provided advice she didn’t wish to proceed with the termination"…
The woman’s lawyer, George Newhouse, said his client wanted more time to decide and released a statement from her that said she was denied counselling and an interpreter in Australia last week.
Immigration spokesman Neil Skill has rejected that, telling a Senate Estimates hearing that the woman was seen by both doctors and mental health nurses and made it clear she did not want to go ahead with the abortion.
“I’ve seen advice from two medical professionals indicating that she declined to undergo the procedure on the day and also declined the offer of a scheduled appointment in a week’s time,” Mr Skill said.
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Netanyahu to BBC’s Doucet: “Are we living on the same planet?”

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (9:57am)

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu deals with the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, the apologist who notoriously called on journalists to acknowledge the ”humanity of the Taliban” and now accuses Israel of not negotiating with Palestinians:
The BBC didn’t write much about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tell-it-like-it-is answer to its reporter’s question about why he doesn’t return to the negotiating table with the Palestinians.
The British network said Netanyahu “angrily questioned” Lyse Doucet, noting that he’s been “calling day in, day out, in every forum… I’ve called on President Abbas to resume unconditional negotiations immediately.”
But the exchange was even better than that.
“Are we living on the same planet?” Netanyahu incredulously snapped at her question, adding that he’s called on Abbas to resume talks at the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv. “I haven’t done so in Nepal, because I haven’t visited it.”
“I’ve called on President Abbas to resume unconditional negotiations immediately. Right now, as we speak, we can meet. I have no problem with that. I think we should stop immediately this wave of incitement against Israel and these attacks…I’m willing to meet him, he’s not willing to meet me,” he continued.
“And you ask me about the resumption of negotiations? Come on, get with the program. These people don’t want negotiations. They’re inciting for violence. Direct your questions to them.”
(Thanks to reader Gab.) 
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Are foreign students dragging down the locals?

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (6:57am)

THOUSANDS of Australian students feel cheated by universities seemingly corrupted by the dollars of foreign students.
What’s bringing this anger to a head is the mad insistence of universities on group assignments.
These are socialistic projects in which groups of students work collectively and share the same mark - which means conscientious ones carry the slackers and strugglers.
Yes, plenty of Australians are slackers, but the problem is now much worse because a fifth of our university students are from overseas, and many struggle with poor or substandard English.
Result: an Australian student in a group assignment can be dragged down or a foreign student with bad English gets dragged up to a good mark they don’t deserve.
How high is the resentment? One postgraduate student at Melbourne University posted a complaint on the University of Melbourne Confessions website that resonated so strongly that it got 9500 likes and 2500 comments, many from students adding their own horror stories.
The student, call him “A”, told of being given a group assignment with seven international students, all friends.
Only one turned up to meetings to discuss the project with “A”. She represented the others, but presented no ideas.
When “A” complained to his course co-ordinator, he was allegedly told this was a test of his leadership.
So “A” took on most of the work and “just started on an idea on my own”, regularly posting drafts of this “group” assignment to their joint Facebook page.
Eventually, one of the others wrote back to say the group’s English was terrible and could “A” rewrite and correct their own contributions.
“They wrote about 50 words in each,” “A” noted. And “ALL of them were copied from Wikipedia”.
So “A” made a deal.
(Read the full article here.) 
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Islam is the key, even if our politicians won’t say so

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (6:55am)

Tanveer Ahmed in The Spectator:

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in danger of helping to entrench the already rampant denial in Islamic communities with his gentle, conciliatory style....
A key danger is allowing the discussion to veer away from the fundamentals of religious discourse within Islam…
In an interview to the ABC Lateline program last week, terrorism expert Husain Khadim stated that religion did not have much to do with radicalisation, right before stating how beliefs such as re-establishing the Caliphate, the justified killing of non Muslims and the primacy of a supra-national Muslim identity, all ideas directly derived from Islam, were key factors in the beliefs underpinning terrorist acts. When pressed about this in a phone interview, he said he agreed Islamic ideas were a fundamental part of radicalisation but that when he and many other experts used the term religion they referred to institutions such as mosques or prayer groups having little to do with the process.
So when our leaders tiptoe around using the world Islam in reference to terrorist attacks, they are really using weasel words and perhaps even using the term religion in Western terms, given Islam by its nature sees itself as a complete system incorporating politics, theology and social life. The process of radicalisation does tend to occur through secular institutions, be it the internet, school halls or jails, but let’s not deny its fundamental basis has a strong overlap with ideas that come only from Islam.
...what about influential clerics such as Sheikh Al Qaradawi in Egypt, a voice that booms out to millions through his regular presence on Al Jazeera Arabic, who has called on Muslims of fighting age to travel to Syria. This can hardly be dismissed as a fringe thread of Islam only promoted through internet memes.
Likewise, we should be wary of other clerics who take the opportunity to curry favour with the public but behind closed doors preach views that have great parallels with what we term extremism. The chairman of the Parramatta mosque linked to the shooting, Neil El-Kadomi, told the Fairfax press that people should leave Australia if they didn’t like it. While he may have been lauded for such a pronunciation, they may have been less effusive if they knew that for decades Kadomi’s sermons have been filled with his own story of Palestinian victimhood, Jewish conspiracy theories and the chiding of other ethnic groups for not following Islam in an Arab purity. I know because I have attended the mosque on Islamic holidays....
A big problem within the Islamic community is a widespread view that as long as you are not promoting violence, the ideas you are espousing have nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorist acts can then repeatedly be dismissed as having nothing to do with the community or Islam.
The reality is that one can hold extremist views just short of advocating violence and swim comfortably in Muslim social life. 
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Kissinger: crush the Islamic State

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (6:51am)

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger says it is urgent to crush the Islamic State:
So long as Islamic State survives and remains in control of a geographically defined territory, it will compound all Middle East tensions. Threatening all sides and projecting its goals beyond the region, it freezes existing positions or tempts outside efforts to achieve imperial jihadist designs. The destruction of Islamic State is more urgent than the overthrow of Assad, who has already lost more than half the area he once controlled. Making sure this territory does not become a permanent terrorist haven must have precedence. The current inconclusive US military effort risks serving as a recruitment vehicle for Islamic State as having stood up to American might.
The US has already acquiesced in a Russian military role… In a choice among strategies, it is preferable for Islamic State-held territory to be reconquered either by moderate Sunni forces or outside powers than by Iranian jihadist or imperial forces.
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Abetz: why this media war on Christians?

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (6:18am)

Eric Abetz is right, of course:
Liberal senator Eric Abetz has ­unleashed an attack on the Canberra press gallery, arguing it is hostile to conservative, Christian politicians while giving favourable treatment to left-leaning or Muslim MPs…
“Journalists will need to ­explain why they do this, but it is very clear that if somebody swears their oath on the Koran, this is a wonderful expression of diversity and to be encouraged, whereas if you swear your oath on the Bible then you’re an old fart and not to be taken seriously. Well, excuse me, what’s the difference?” he said…
Senator Abetz referenced a ­description of Mr Abbott as the “mad monk” that often appeared in the media. “Just imagine making fun of somebody else’s religion of a different nature, as in if you are a Muslim, Buddhist or a Hindu,” he said. “There is the double standard that you can basically vilify anyone from the Christian side of the tracks but don’t you dare touch anyone else."…
Members of the Canberra gallery gave more positive coverage to politicians and policies they agreed with, Senator Abetz said, arguing that journalists hardly ever referred to the far Left or the extreme Left when discussing the Greens or the Labor Party, but frequently referred to him, Cory Bernardi and other conservative politicians as being from the far, extreme or religious Right. “I’ve been referred to as from the ­religious Right a number of times in the media and when I’ve thrown out the challenge, when are you going to report on the godless Left? The answer is never,” he said.... 
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Wild poll swing to Turnbull

Andrew Bolt October 19 2015 (6:11am)

Last week Newspoll had Labor and the Liberals at 50/50.
But, believe it or not, a week later we’re told this:
The October Fairfax-Ipsos poll has found the Coalition has surged ahead of Labor at 53-47.
One of these polls is wrong. Or possibly both. 
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Hell should freeze over before women take up frozen egg deal

Miranda Devine – Sunday, October 19, 2014 (12:02am)

ON WHAT planet is an employer’s offer to freeze the eggs of female ­employees not an Orwellian horror?
Facebook and Apple are now bestowing this workplace “benefit” on perfectly healthy women so they can delay childbearing and devote their fertile years to work.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Hell should freeze over before women take up frozen egg deal'
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JOKESHOTT

Tim Blair – Sunday, October 19, 2014 (5:58pm)

Rob Oakeshott, whose two terms as the independent member for Lyne were so successful that he had no need to stand for re-election in 2013, writes a letter to Ebola victim Thomas Duncan: 
Dear Thomas
Thank you. For dying of Ebola. In America.
You have done what 3000 deaths in West Africa couldn’t do.
You have scared the ‘advanced’ world into lifting its head, and finally looking at the enormous tragedy unfolding.
You have now forced pressure onto first world Governments. Those same Governments wanting to look strong and in control through military might in Iraq and Syria, yet questionably weak when juxtaposed with Ebola.
Australia’s all-rhetoric, ‘shirt-fronting’ Prime Minister Tony Abbott had been silent on Ebola until your death. 
Oakeshott is wrong. Abbott spoke about the “scourge” of Ebola and Australia’s precautions in early September, some time prior to Duncan’s case becoming a public issue. The former independent continues: 
[Abbott’s] initial reaction is a typically insular one. He says Australia will not send health workers to West Africa due to their personal risk of infection. This plays as a typically coded message to his ‘Team Australia’, that infectious disease outbreaks are for the West Africans to deal with alone. Clean, white Aussies wash their hands and have toilets, after all. Not our problem. 
Wrong again. The government’s initial reaction, more than two months prior to Duncan’s death, was to contribute $1 million to the World Health Organisation’s efforts to control Ebola’s spread in West Africa, in addition to around $30 million already contributed to the WHO annually. Australia subsequently contributed a further $7 million to international Ebola-containing efforts. 
If only Ebola was worshipped as some kind of fundamentalist religion, or the disease outbreak occurred in the oilfields. I suspect either of these might draw a more determined response.
This is exactly why your death matters. You engaged the media. And by doing so, you engaged the first world. 
Rob Oakeshott remains completely clueless.
(Via A.R.M. Jones)
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Our compassion shouldn’t expose Australians to violence

Andrew Bolt October 19 2014 (5:59am)

If their past leaves them more prone to violence, why do we let them in?
A POLICE officer who was stabbed so forcefully that the knife tip had to be surgically removed after an unprovoked attack by three men will likely quit the force, a court had heard. 
Yohana Nyawenda, 21, Patrick Nyandwi, 22, both of Davoren Park and Paul Kabura, 26, of Parafield Gardens, have all pleaded guilty to multiple aggravated counts of causing harm with intent over the incident in September 2013.
The District Court today heard that Nyandwi was assaulting his partner, who had a newborn strapped to her back, when neighbours approached and tried to calm him down.
Prosecutor Kelly Smith said that instead of backing off, the men then assaulted a male neighbour by punching him several times in the face and twisting his testicles, causing him to be hospitalised, and then Nyandwi punched another female neighbour in the stomach.
She said that, when police officers Barry Purnell and Stephen Page arrived, Nyawenda got a knife from the house while the other men attacked… Lawyers for the men told the court their clients all suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from horrific childhoods in the African nation of Burundi.
That’s very sad, but several Australians have just paid a high price for our compassion.
(Thanks to reader Robert S.) 
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Remember Obama promising voters they could keep their health cover? And he would stop ebola?

Andrew Bolt October 19 2014 (5:22am)

Andy McCarthy tours the astonishing mendacity and incompetence of Barack Obama:
Of course you can keep your health coverage, and your doctor. And we’ll cover everyone while your premiums plummet. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda is “decimated” and these Islamic State guys are just the jayvee team. In fact (fact?), they’re not even Islamic — although they may not be quite as “secular” as the Muslim Brotherhood. Just extremists. (Extreme about what? Don’t ask.) Jihad is just a “purification of the self” . . . or, at most, “workplace violence.” Benghazi? A spontaneous “protest” incited by a video. The president was not told it was a terrorist attack . . . except by the secretary of defense right after it started — long before he responded by . . . going to Vegas, where he promptly announced al-Qaeda was “on the path to defeat.” Still, rest assured that the State Department’s top priority is the safety of American personnel . . . although we did reduce security in Benghazi after our facility was bombed. And rest assured that the Justice Department would never ever let guns walk . . . except for the thousands its Fast and Furious program transferred to violent gangs — who’ve used them in who knows how many crimes, including the murder of a Border Patrol agent. Still, at least there’s “not a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS, where citizens are harassed, evidence keeps disappearing, and the official at the center of it all takes the Fifth to avoid giving incriminating testimony. No matter. Just take heart that Ebola is not coming to the United States . . . um, well, if it does come there will be no outbreak . . . but, er, if there is an outbreak, we have careful protocols and health-care professionals fully trained to deal with it . . . and even if the protocols don’t work and the professionals don’t have adequate training, we’ll have a rigorous monitoring program for anyone who is exposed . . . or maybe a self-monitoring program for people who will isolate themselves . . . unless, of course, we tell them to go ahead and hop on a plane. Well, look, at least we can promise there won’t be a “serious” outbreak.
Peggy Noonan on Obama’s faffing over the ebola crisis:

This week the president canceled a fundraiser and returned to the White House to deal with the crisis. He made a statement and came across as about three days behind the story—"rapid response teams” and so forth. It reminded some people of the statement in July, during another crisis, of the president’s communications director, who said that when a president rushes back to Washington, it “can have the unintended consequence of unduly alarming the American people.” Yes, we’re such sissies. Actually, when Mr. Obama eschews a fundraiser to go to his office to deal with a public problem we are not scared, only surprised.
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TWO US scout leaders say they have received death threats after a video of them toppling an age-old rock formation in the western state of Utah went viral online.
Nearly two million people have watched the video of Glenn Taylor pushing a massive 170 million-year-old red rock over in Goblin Valley State Park, filmed by his fellow scout leader Dave Hall.
The pair, who celebrated by doing high fives after the rock fell, insist they pushed it because it was loose and they feared it could topple onto a visitor to the park.
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diagram          


A LARGE asteroid has been discovered zipping past Earth that astronomers say is dangerous and will return on August 26, 2032.
"A 400-metre asteroid is threatening to blow up the Earth," Russian vice-premier Dmitry Rogozin, in charge of his nation's space research, wrote on his Twitter account.
"Here is a super target for the national cosmonautics."
The asteroid was discovered by astronomers in the Ukraine on Saturday who promptly named it 2013 TV135.

.. no .. it won't - ed
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Bar Refaeli          


BAR Refaeli may be the loneliest supermodel in the world and can't understand why she can't find a man to date.
"I don't understand it," she told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "I’m okay. I look great. I’m cool. I like going out. I like being at home, I like movies, I like eating. So what’s wrong with me? Why am I alone?"
Refaeli says she was devastated when her six-year relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio ended. She confesses to breaking down in tears when she saw photos of her ex dating his former girlfriend Blake Lively.

*shakes head* desperate is never a good look - ed
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Holly Sarah Nguyen'
If you don't believe in God, Earth is the only Heaven you will know.. If you do believe in God, Earth is the only hell you will ever know.. Simple is!! as simple as!!...
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God may not have blessed me with wealth or fame, but I have more blessings than I can name!
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I'm using my bible for a road map. The 10 commandments tell me what to do. The 12 disciples are my road signs. And Jesus will lead me safely though.

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Rock formations at Goblin Valley State Park are said to be about 170 million years old. AP Photo/Utah State Parks

TWO US scout leaders say they have received death threats after a video of them toppling an age-old rock formation in the western state of Utah went viral online.
Nearly two million people have watched the video of Glenn Taylor pushing a massive 170 million-year-old red rock over in Goblin Valley State Park, filmed by his fellow scout leader Dave Hall.
The pair, who celebrated by doing high fives after the rock fell, insist they pushed it because it was loose and they feared it could topple onto a visitor to the park.
But facing possible felony charges, they admit they probably should have found a park ranger before taking action themselves, whether filmed or not.

Those two rock - ed
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A report examining crime in Britain since "restrictive firearm laws virtually banned handguns" in 1997 shows that crime stats have been "massaged" to convince British subjects the gun ban worked, when in fact it may have backfired.

Authored by Dr. Paul Gallant, Dr. Joanne D. Eisen, Alan J. Chwick, and Sherry Gallant, and published at AmmoLand, the report shows that as recently as 2008 "one in three [Brits] had been a victim of crime, or knew someone who had been." Also in 2008, "nearly half [of survey respondents] knew of someone in their community who had been a victim in the last year."
How is such crime possible if banning guns produced the utopia CNN's Piers Morgan repeatedly describes?
The report claims the numbers Morgan and others quote are drawn from figures that have been distorted to one extent or another in order to make the gun ban look successful.

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Sixth-grade students at Eastern Wayne Middle School in North Carolina unknowingly took part in a horrifying “enrichment” lesson involving a fake masked gunman last Friday.
North Carolina Students Horrified With Enrichment Lesson Involving Masked Gunman
As students sat in class, someone in a mask reportedly rushed into the room and pretended to rob them with a fake pistol. The students were not aware of the exercise ahead of time.
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Stephanie Ann
"Wars are the second greatest evil that human societies can perpetrate. (The first is dictatorship, the enslavement of their own citizens, which is the cause of wars.)" | Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
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http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/neil-mitchell-blog/adam-bandts-indecent-insensitive-bushfires-tweet/20131018-2vqgk.html
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http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/labors-carbon-tax-bind-surrender-or-die-fighting-20131018-2vs3h.html
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Labor's claims of budget black holes
and other nonsense.>
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Sarah Palin
Jesus Banned From Gravestones?

Outrageous development...*sigh*… c'mon, Colorado, you deserve much better! A public cemetery there refused to allow a grieving family to engrave on their mother's grave the name "Jesus" and the Jesus fish symbol. Bureaucrats said it would offend people!

Reports like this should shock us all. Heading towards Thanksgiving, I'm trying to imagine what the Pilgrims would think of this if they had known that a few centuries after they landed at Plymouth some of their descendants would prevent people from engraving the name of Jesus on a headstone! Much less, what our freedom-loving Founding Fathers would think.

Trying to take our Lord out of American life, much like trying to take Christ out of Christmas, is, to say the least, not a winning proposition. Rise up, America! Stand strong on our great nation's foundation and keep the faith to protect America's heritage and heart!

Click here for the article:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/18/family-fights-to-include-jesus-on-grave-marker-at-city-owned-cemetery/

And see my new book covering issues exactly like this. It will be released on November 12, but you can pre-order it here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/good-tidings-and-great-joy-palin-sarah/1116988729?ean=9780062315656

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Tidings-Great-Joy-Protecting/dp/0062292889/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1381255547&sr=1-3
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C. H. Spurgeon
The conclusion from our past experience is that He who has been with us through six troubles will not forsake us in the seventh.
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Poor church leadership .. the left wing Christians seem to believe drowning desperate people is compassionate. Subjecting desperate peoples to piracy is compassionate. They clearly don't serve God as well as their master. - ed
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Video evidence shows Obama awarded the wrong man .. the one who hadn't questioned Obama's stupid policy. - ed
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Adam Bandt

GREENS deputy leader Adam Bandt kept prying eyes from his PhD thesis exploring the theories of Karl Marx by slapping a three-year suppression order on the tome.
The former teenage Marxist, who confesses he once described the Greens as "bourgeois", has revealed the stunning conclusion to his 300-page epic is that Marxism did not offer "a proper explanation for what was happening in 21st century society".
He completed the thesis four years ago in 2008, but requested university officials impose a three-year ban on anyone reading it.
Now that the Bandt ban has expired, the Sunday Herald Sun was able to obtain a copy of his thesis from Monash University.
Titled Work to Rule: Rethinking Marx, Pashukanis and Law, it includes chapters on The Fuhrer of the Factory: exploring labour law in the Third Reich and examining theories of "the divine violence of the general strike".
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Fans might get chills when they hear Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson describe how he became a Christian.
In “The Making of a Champion,” a new video encouraging viewers to embrace the Bible, the NFL player says his pinnacle moment came when he was 14 years old and Jesus Christ appeared to him in a dream and told him to learn more about the faith.
“I had a dream one night I was at … football camp … my parents were supposed to pick me up on Sunday to go to church,” he said. “I had a dream that my dad passed away and that Jesus came into the room and he was just knocking on my door saying, ‘Hey you need to find out more about me.’”
While Wilson’s parents regularly took him to church, it was this dream that truly moved him to change his ways.
The next day, Wilson said, he went to church with his parents and was “saved” — the popular terminology for when an individual formally accepts the Christian faith.
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UPDATE: NBC New York reports the girl claims she had a miscarriage yesterday. It is unclear why she was carrying it around in a bag.
“The baby did not have signs of trauma, sources said. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death,” the report adds.
View image on Twitter
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Dean Hamstead
"Sustainability" is a fun word.
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You think all politicians are liars... so you voted for Obama when he said healthcare would get cheaper.
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
GOD WANT'S YOU Speak AS HIS ORACLE.
If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.(1 Peter 4:11, NKJV)
He speaks through His people. He uses our voice to bring life, healing and hope to others. When you reach out to someone, when you’re kind and speak encouragement, God’s voice is blended with your voice. Your words become His words. The natural takes on a supernatural. That’s why you can say something ordinary, something simple like “You look beautiful” or “You can make it,” and it’s life changing to the other person. To you it’s nothing, but when God takes your natural and puts His super with it, it can impact that person’s destiny.

When you speak to others, declare what God would say about them. Let your words be used to bring life, hope and blessing. Speak as the oracles of God and be His mouthpiece everywhere you go.God bless you.
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You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.(Haggai 1:6, NIV)
God spoke to the people about rebuilding the temple. In Haggai it says, “The people said, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house,’ even though Cyrus had ordered it eighteen years earlier.”Notice that through Cyrus, God had told them to rebuild eighteen years before, but they were still saying, “It’s not the right time. Let’s do it later.” I can imagine that in the first year they thought, “Let’s not do it now. We’re busy.” Second year, “It’s not convenient. Let’s do it some other time.” Eighteen years later, they were still putting it off.

What happens when we don’t do what God is asking us to do? Verse six says, “You have sown much but reaped little. You’ve earned your wages, but you’re putting them in a bag with holes in it.” Verse seven says, “Consider your ways.” don’t try to fill a bag that has holes in it. You won’t be able to get ahead. You won’t be effective. What’s the answer? Consider your ways. Be quick to obey. Don’t wait to pursue that dream. Don’t wait to forgive. Don’t wait to get serious about your relationship with God. Do it today and partake of all the blessings He has in store for you.God bless you.
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Father, today I lift my heart to You to receive the tidal wave of goodness You have prepared for me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to You, my King in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Pastor Rick Warren
Those who like to beat up people with the Bible aren't wise. "The wisdom that comes from heaven is peace-loving,#considerate, full of mercy" James 3:17
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#SaddlebackBuenosAires launches this Sunday! I am so amazed by our launch team there.
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I'm at #SaddlebackHuntingtonBeach this Sunday. Join me there! iT'S GOING TO BE AMAZING!
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"You will be well rewarded for saying something kind, but all some people think about is how to be cruel and mean" Prov.13:2
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The New Holocaust Discoveries
http://virtualjerusalem.com/judaism.php?Itemid=11031
With more than 42,000 ghettos, 30,000 slave labor camps; 1,150 Jewish ghettos; 980 concentration camps; 1000 prisoner of war camps; 500 brothels filled with sex slaves, almost everyone had to know what was happening.

 " The unspeakable crime of the 20th century, more than the triumph of evil, was the sin of the "innocent" bystander."

When I posted tragic photographs of Syrian children raped and murdered I am told by the do-gooders how offended they are that I am exploiting these shocking pictures for pushing the point how Obama is guilty of assisting the anti- Assad Syrians.

So please explain why I should not be offended by these Holocaust pictures or is it because we have become so accustomed to them that we are now desensitised ?>
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Palestinian Corruption -- Again :: Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4022/palestinian-corruption
If the Palestinian movement believes it lives outside the laws of politics, nature and economics, it may be right. The PA and Hamas occupy a split territory with two feuding governments -- both dictatorships with all the arbitrariness and lack of
<If the Palestinian movement believes it lives outside the laws of politics, nature and economics, it may be right>
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PLO: Battle for Succession Has Begun :: Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4023/plo-succession
Over the past few months, a succession battle has been quietly raging in the Palestinian Authority [PA]. This behind-the-scenes battle is continuing even as the PA leadership conducts secret peace talks with Israel. In fact, the U.S.-sponsored peace
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JERUSALEM will be playing in imax, giant screen and digital cinemas in museums, science centers, and other cultural institutions worldwide starting in September, 2013. Click on a theater link below to get showtimes and ticketing information. This list changes often, so sign up here for updates or check back on this site and onFacebook.
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14/10/2013 Our World: The bothersome, annoying truth
By CAROLINE B. GLICK
Israel’s rights and justness are grounded in truth. But today truth isn’t worth as much as it used to be. Those who fight for it find themselves routinely maligned as close-minded extremists.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Our-World-The-bothersome-annoying-truth-328715
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http://www.allrightmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/DreamsFromMySecondTermObama.jpg
http://www.allrightmagazine.com/...
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A Spiritual Genocide
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-spiritual-genocide/
A new major report from the Pew Research Center sheds renewed light on a virulent disease that has been......
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PLO: Battle for Succession Has Begun :: Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4023/plo-succession
Over the past few months, a succession battle has been quietly raging in the Palestinian Authority [PA]. This behind-the-scenes battle is continuing even as the PA leadership conducts secret peace talks with Israel. In fact, the U.S.-sponsored peace
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Video: Why Israel Can't Trust UN for Protection
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172943
Think tank's hard hitting video shows why maintaining an IDF presence along the Jordan is so crucial.
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Family of Girl Hurt by Terrorist Gives Thanks
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172964
MKs at celebration for 9-year-old who survived terror attack: ‘This is our home.’
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Housing Minister: No Building In Jerusalem, Blame My Boss
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172967
Uri Ariel says it is outrageous that there has been no building in the capital authorized for years.
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Column one: Israel and the new Munich
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Column-one-Israel-and-the-new-Munich-329046
The Iranians have given no indication that they would be willing to suspend all uranium enrichment.
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Into the fray: A hijacked ‘heritage’
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-fray-A-hijacked-heritage-329071
So in the final analysis, Oslo owes its entire existence to a drug-smuggling fraudster, who betrayed his voters – and brought disgrace to his country.
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“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Thy paths drop fatness."
Psalm 65:11
Many are "the paths of the Lord" which "drop fatness," but an especial one is the path of prayer. No believer, who is much in the closet, will have need to cry, "My leanness, my leanness; woe unto me." Starving souls live at a distance from the mercy- seat, and become like the parched fields in times of drought. Prevalence with God in wrestling prayer is sure to make the believer strong--if not happy. The nearest place to the gate of heaven is the throne of the heavenly grace. Much alone, and you will have much assurance; little alone with Jesus, your religion will be shallow, polluted with many doubts and fears, and not sparkling with the joy of the Lord. Since the soul-enriching path of prayer is open to the very weakest saint; since no high attainments are required; since you are not bidden to come because you are an advanced saint, but freely invited if you be a saint at all; see to it, dear reader, that you are often in the way of private devotion. Be much on your knees, for so Elijah drew the rain upon famished Israel's fields.
There is another especial path dropping with fatness to those who walk therein, it is the secret walk of communion. Oh! the delights of fellowship with Jesus! Earth hath no words which can set forth the holy calm of a soul leaning on Jesus' bosom. Few Christians understand it, they live in the lowlands and seldom climb to the top of Nebo: they live in the outer court, they enter not the holy place, they take not up the privilege of priesthood. At a distance they see the sacrifice, but they sit not down with the priest to eat thereof, and to enjoy the fat of the burnt offering. But, reader, sit thou ever under the shadow of Jesus; come up to that palm tree, and take hold of the branches thereof; let thy beloved be unto thee as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, and thou shalt be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. O Jesus, visit us with thy salvation!

Evening

"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice."
1 Samuel 15:22
Saul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king, and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Saviour's command is better than any outward form of religion; and to hearken to his precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon his altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands to his disciples, I pray you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to your Master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. "To obey," even in the slightest and smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice," however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of his child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into their secret.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 53-55, 2 Thessalonians 1 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 53-55

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all....

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Thessalonians 1

1 Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you....
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Hosea, Oshea, Osee, Hoshea

 [Hōzē'ă, Ō shē'ă, Hō shē'ă] - jehovah is help or salvation.
1. The son of Beeri and first of the so-called Minor Prophets (Hosea 1:1).

The Man with a Sorrowful Heart

Little is known of Hosea's history beyond what we find in his writings. He has been called the first prophet of Grace and Israel's earliest evangelist. He was a native of the Northern Kingdom, the iniquities and idolatries of which weighed heavily on his heart. He bore the same name as that of the last king of Israel (2 Kings 15:30). In Jewish tradition, he is identified with Beerah of Reuben (1 Chron. 5:6). Christian tradition, however, relates him to the Hosea of the tribe of Isaachar.
The home tragedy overtaking him earned him the title of "The Prophet of a Sorrowful Heart." Through the wrongs he suffered he came to realize the sins committed by Israel against God, and the long history of unfaithfulness to Him. The accounts of Hosea's marriage, the birth of his children and his wife's unfaithfulness and restoration make sad reading. Hosea was called to express God's message and to manifest His character.
Gomer, his wife, was immoral; hence the word of the Lord came to him amid much personal anguish; his home life was destroyed. Society was corrupt and God's law spurned, and Hosea came to see in his own suffering a reflection of what the sorrow of God must be, when Israel proved utterly unfaithful.
Three children were born to Hosea and Gomer:
I. Jezreel, recalling the deed of blood (2 Kings 10), and by it a knell was rung in the ears of Jeroboam. The name of this child was an omen of coming judgment.
II. Lo-ruhamah, meaning, "one who never knew a father's love." This expressive name pointed to a time when, no more pitied by Jehovah, Israel would be given over to her enemies.
III. Lo-ammi, signifying "one not belonging to me." Israel had turned from a father's love and deserved not to belong to God. Thus this third child's name prophesied the driving out of the children of Israel from their land to exile.
Gomer, the erring wife, is received back (Hos. 3:1, 2 ), the price of her redemption being paid by Hosea. So the prophet was not only God's messenger of grace - he reflected God's character and foreshadowed ultimate redemption through the Messiah and Israel's reestablishment as a nation.
The four lessons we learn from the broken heart and the Book of Hosea have been fully expounded by Dr. Stuart Holden:
Anguish quickens apprehension.
Iniquity inspires moral indignation.
Suffering begets sympathy.
The divine character sanctifies human conduct.
2. Joshua's earlier name - changed by Moses (Num. 13:8, 16).Deuteronomy 32:44 gives Hoshea.
3. The son of Azaziah and prince of Ephraim in David's reign (1 Chron. 27:20).
4. A son of Elah, the last king of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 15:30).
5. A chief under Nehemiah who with others signed the covenant (Neh. 10:23).
Hosea is called Osee in the New Testament copy from the LXX.
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