Monday, October 17, 2016

Mon Oct 17th Todays News


The Loss of Bob Day to Family First and Australia is large. After Steven Fielding did a dummy spit to help Kevin Rudd cover up the gang rape of an Aboriginal girl in detention, Family First had little credibility. To be fair, Fielding had been told by Family First not to vote that way. Subsequently, judges told Campbell Newman that Rudd was allowed to shred evidence of the rape, because it wasn't for personal gain and he was acting for government and such corruption has been accepted by the voter. Bob Day has promoted free speech and defended cultural assets. However, as a bankrupt related to a business interest collapsing, Day has to leave parliament. It didn't turn out that way for Craig Thomson when he lied to Australia about his activity as a senior unionist for Australia's poorest employees. 

 Who will defend free speech in Australia? Turnbull counselled Abbott against it, and Abbott had to put it on the back burner. Turnbull promised he would bring it forward, but hasn't. ALP does not want free speech, wanting to exploit their advantage of corruption. Bob Day was willing to sponsor a member's bill. An ALP, Greens and NXT dominated senate will prevent free speech. Turnbull promised he would communicate bills better than Abbott. However it is apparent that Turnbull is communicating that he does not value free speech. 

 The HRC is persecuting a cartoonist, following on from their persecution of university students denied access to a computer based on their race. There is nothing more important than free speech. We cannot discuss what we need to without it. It isn't that the law is bad, but also people in position of responsibility are not responsible. So that the HRC should be dismantled. 

 I suggest Red Gum ward vote for David Daniel Ball. And, after asking your local councillor about their views on Trump, Same Sex Marriage and Greyhounds, try and find out what it is they will do to make garbage collection cheaper and more efficient. Ask how they will make business more profitable. Ask what they will do to help address crime. Ask what they will do to improve public transport issues locally. 
=== from 2015 ===
Andrew Bolt wrote a column reporting accusations of international students cheating and free loading. The accusation is levelled at Chinese students. The situation is described as widespread purchasing of essays and exploiting white students to give presentations in group work. While it is possible that some individuals cheat, many that try are caught and the issue is not widespread, although protections need to be maintained to make sure it is prevented when it occurs. 

What many people are unaware of is that university students have never had a particularly high standard, but for serious academics. The teaching profession is an excellent example where the skills of the graduate is much less than the demands of the job. But, that is ok. Workers learn. The regimen teacher students undergo at university is not to make them an experienced teacher but to equip them to undergo professional development. In Australia, beginning school teachers used to have to buy a copy of Gladman's Control and Teaching before they fronted their first class. It included timetables and lesson plans. Universities want group work to be real and, while some may miss the learning opportunity and not do the work, those who don't learn don't progress overall, and it has nothing to do with one assignment or course. The system is more resilient than that. But it is a bad look. 

There are rich international students. I remember one from the mid eighties who was from Indonesia. He spent many years studying second year engineering before returning to Indonesia to run the family business. The Australian system worked. I know many poor international students who are outstanding, dedicated and hard working. Australia exploits them. But if one wants to see the standards and compare them to years gone by, they need to look at the top students now, and compare them with the top students of the past. Our international students are high achieving and return much to Australia. 

But, the people who are spreading the anecdotes of race envy? 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
 Culture wars
The doormat called Hillary gave a $225000 speech calling on cheaper education. A 'free' Leunig calendar has been cut from SMH and AGE and so an anti semite has a smaller voice. Shameful Flanagan feels shame at living in Australia. Flanagan is a fan of a jew hater who likes to shoot at dark skinned people, David Hicks. Betty Farelly bespeaks a powerful weapon against terrorism .. terror of artists, and young girls reading books. Marchers fight each other as the organisation March Australia dissociates from two whom have been unable to work with volunteers without fighting. Palmer's wife is a PUP candidate for a Queensland seat. A leftwing poet calls women 'whores' before degenerating further in emails. Mia Freedman apologises for calling gays and lesbians pedophiles. ABC appoints a panel of stoats to judge rabbits on the issue of science presentation in the ABC. An Idiot Australian journalist joins Pravda.

Great Moments in Science
Ebola is native to Africa, but funeral customs lend themselves to transmitting Ebola. Ebola is spread through body fluids, mucous, sweat, tears and so on. The body cleaning rituals and love touches are sufficiently intimate to spread Ebola through families attending a corpse, as has been seen. That has to change to control the epidemic. And it is going to upset a lot of people. Meanwhile, seven months ago Malaysian air flight MH370 disappeared, and a NASA trained scientist feels they can access historical satellite data and follow the vapour trail. Authorities haven't footed the bill yet. Neither have they located the craft. The data could be sensitive, crossing several nations with military issues.  
From 2013
ALP vs Labor is a bit like spy vs spy in Mad Magazine. The media tends to fold on the dotted lines to show what might seem reasonable to a poorly educated, highly ignorant person. But remove the media filter and a tragically hilarious image emerges with leading identities with hands in honey pots and pork barrels, highly critical members forgetting to wear clothing and not having the power of invisibility. Former members wanting to speak out when they were silent when they had power. Media examine Abbott's expenses but have ignored Williamson's corruption. But it isn't limited to Williamson. But by divorcing Williamson, his ex wife manufactures money .. or turns nurses upside down and shakes them so change falls out of their pockets. 

One tragedy called policy under the ALP was to drown desperate people who had been instructed to pay pirates if they wanted a good life in Australia. Former foreign minister Bob Carr doesn't even say sorry while suggesting he made a mistake. One blessing for the ALP is that they have an endless supply of fools. 

US has arrived at a budget deal. Press are lauding Obama for not blinking, but he does not come out well from this. Obama was the one who failed to walk to a negotiating table on any occasion. This will not be forgotten next year at election. 

ABC Fact checkers are making up detail on Carbon pricing around the world. And what is the fact surrounding Plibersek and sexism? 

Global warming, or a mistake as a new data point from Texas reads 71 degrees celsius? If it isn't weeded out, it will 'inform' the next IPCC report. Meaning more middle class people can call themselves victims. ABC will probably give themselves an award for inflating a mistake of their facts. 

It is a standard remedy of parliament that when a politician's platform is untenable they resign. The ALP don't. I did in '07, from teaching. I challenge anyone to say why I shouldn't now resume teaching again? Or be compensated. Mr O'Farrell, Mr Abbott, can you hear me? 
Historical perspective on this day
Not done
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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Thanks to Warren for this advice on watching Bolt
Warren Catton Get this for your PC or MAC https://www.foxtel.com.au/foxtelplay/how-it-works/pc-mac.html Once you have installed it start it up and press Live TV you don't need a login to watch Sky News!
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January. 

Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?

January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
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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 a free kindle version.

List of available items at Create Space
Happy birthday and many happy returns Frank Severino and Dot Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
1253 – Ivo of Kermartin, French priest and saint (d. 1303)
1725 – John Wilkes, English radical, journalist, and politician. (d. 1797)
1912 – Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)
1915 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
1918 – Rita Hayworth, American actress and dancer (d. 1987)
1920 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (d. 1966)
1938 – Evel Knievel, American motorcycle stuntman (d. 2007)
1942 – Gary Puckett, American singer-songwriter (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap)
1946 – Cameron Mackintosh, English theater producer
1972 – Eminem, American rapper, producer, and actor (D12, Outsidaz, and Bad Meets Evil)
1974 – Matthew Macfadyen, English actor
1992 – Nanami Sakuraba, Japanese gravure idol, actress and singer
Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra, Australia
The letter will be delivered. A bright star appears. We have a lake. The ground shakes in anticipation. There is tragedy as a journalist is killed while investigating, when he was supposed to have been killed after? Time to party. 
Deaths
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Tim Blair



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Andrew Bolt



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STABBING SEASON

Tim Blair – Saturday, October 17, 2015 (2:16pm)

To appreciate how horrific is the current stabbing frenzy in Israel, just scroll through Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld’s Twitter feed, direct from Jerusalem police headquarters. Many of the Islamic attackers are immediately shot by alert officers. Some survive – and are cared for in Israeli hospitals:



Further from Andrew Bolt, who asks: “Why do [Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud] Abbas and the even more anti-Semitic Hamas get such a free pass from the Western media?”
UPDATE. CNN reports: “Joseph’s Tomb site catches fire in spate of Palestinian-Israeli violence.”
(Via Jill.)
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CANCER CLAPPERS

Tim Blair – Saturday, October 17, 2015 (1:44pm)

These people don’t seem very smart: 
Christian evangelists are teaching students they should “die for their faith if necessary” and to “thank God for the gift of cancer”.
A workbook listed for religious education lessons in Year 9 in NSW government schools tells teenagers they have “sinned and deserve God’s punishment” and that the world is in “deep trouble” …
The student workbook includes a letter with the headline “Thank God for the gift of cancer!” written by Bronwyn Chin, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2013. “I would like to grow old with my husband and see my kids grow up. But God appears to have a better plan,” the letter says. 
Frank Zappa – a cancer victim himself – is always a helpful guide on theological issues.
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NOAH SINKS

Tim Blair – Saturday, October 17, 2015 (12:56pm)

A not-so-great start for Trevor Noah, the Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart replacement: 
Jon Stewart never had very good ratings … Noah’s glaring lack of talent, charm and intelligence has driven his debut ratings even lower.
Despite all the free hype from every corner of the left-wing national media, Noah bombed during his first week with an average of just 1.02 million viewers. That’s down a breathtaking -33% from this same time last year …
Among teens, the “Daily Show” ratings are down an incredible -59%, from 56k average viewers to just 23k. 
Noah is now accused of joke theft. Incidentally, one million viewers in the US is equivalent to just 77,000 viewers in Australia. Four years ago, the ABC cancelled the lamentable Art Nation after its numbers fell to that level.
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PLAY BALL

Tim Blair – Saturday, October 17, 2015 (11:59am)

During a previous era, organisers of the Mexican F1 Grand Prix took an unusual approach to crowd control. Basically, they didn’t have any. Fans simply took up positions next to the track, with nothing at all between them and 300km/h racing cars.
Times have changed. This year, for the first time in more than two decades, F1 returns to the impressively redesigned Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where proper crowd protection is now in place. There is still one unique aspect to the track, however. At one point it detours through the centre and left-fields of the Foro Sol baseball stadium. Presumably no game is scheduled for that weekend.
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BUY HIM A PIE

Tim Blair – Saturday, October 17, 2015 (11:29am)

No wonder Labor MPs tried so hard to shut down the royal commission: 
Labor leader Bill Shorten had his election campaign manager’s $40,000 salary paid by a company that went bust a year later owing taxpayers almost $740,000.
Yesterday the man who bankrolled Mr Shorten’s 2007 election staffer was quizzed at the royal commission into trade union corruption about telling police he had stumped up the cash “to help Bill out and get favours from him”.
Mr Shorten only declared the salary of campaign manager Lance Wilson as a political donation just hours before appearing before the commission in July. 
You’re in it up to your neck, Bill.
UPDATE. Brad Norington: 
Bill Shorten’s past is catching up with him at such a fast rate that it is overwhelming his political present and future ...
It now looks as if Dyson Heydon’s royal commission into union corruption will finish off Shorten – sooner rather than later. 
The dream scenario beckons.
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STIMPSON J. TURNBULL

Tim Blair – Saturday, October 17, 2015 (1:13am)

The only known creature with a greater head-to-body ratio than the Prime Minister is Stimpy the cat:



UPDATE. Turnbull departed yesterday for New Zealand: 
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has arrived in Auckland for his meeting with his New Zealand counterpart, John Key …
A small protest was held in Wellington today ahead of Mr Turnbull’s visit. 
“Small” is being generous. The protesters evidently arrived in the same car.
(Via Rod C., who emails: “Turnbull may fold under their wrath.")
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Israel under fire from jihadists

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (12:24pm)


It is getting even more dangerous in Israel:
Palestinians torched a site revered by Jews in the West Bank in an incident that threatened to further inflame two weeks of deadly unrest, as fresh protests erupted Friday. 
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, under pressure over recent comments that some have labelled incitement, quickly condemned the fire at Joseph’s Tomb, in the northern city of Nablus…
Israeli fire killed two Palestinians and wounded 98 others in clashes along the border in the Gaza Strip… 
Outside the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, a Palestinian disguised as a news photographer stabbed and wounded a soldier before being shot dead.
UPDATE
It is nine years since Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas last faced an election. Now, his legitimacy threatened also by Hamas and other terrorist groups, Abbas has given his rabble-rousing rhetoric an ominously jihadist flavor, such to whip up yet more violence:
His comments have repeatedly inflamed tensions over the Temple Mount holy site, where Palestinian have accused Israel of attempting to change the status quo despite repeated statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the status quo will remain. 
Regarding recent Palestinian riots, stabbings, firebomb attacks, and terrorist murders of Israeli Jews, Palestinian Media Watch reported that Abbas said Oct. 6 on the PA’s official television network, “The Palestinian side did not attack and did not do anything against the Israelis. If they [Israelis] think that the [Palestinian] people in Jerusalem are protecting themselves, that is our right. We have to protect our holy sites.”
Similarly, Abbas said Sept. 16, “[The] Al-Aqsa [mosque on the Temple Mount] is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They (Israelis) have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.”
“Each drop of blood that was spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood as long as it’s for the sake of Allah. Every shahid (martyr) will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will,” he added. Abbas’s incendiary rhetoric regarding the Temple Mount has been noticeably left out of some mainstream media coverage of the Palestinian leader. A recent New York Times article on the violence in Israel characterized Abbas as being “committed to nonviolence” during his tenure as PA president, a description that does not fall in line with his recent statements.
Why do Abbas and the even more anti-Semitic Hamas get such a free pass from the Western media?
UPDATE
Malcolm Turnbull skipped the memorial service for Curtis Cheng today to visit New Zealand.  Would it have been so hard to reschedule an essentially peripheral visit? 
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Another radical step towards the corporate state

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (11:16am)

It’s like the ABC of the union movement - too big, too radical and too strong for a pluralistic democracy:
The nation’s most militant unions have struck a far-reaching deal to wield more economic and political power, in an alliance that will challenge Malcolm Turnbull’s agenda while reshaping the way influence is traded within the Labor Party. 
Heightening fears of their ­aggressive tactics, the unions ­revealed their ambition to create a united force with more than 100,000 members and the ability to exercise industrial muscle across workplaces from forestry to the waterfront…
The CFMEU has been one of the hardest campaigners against the government’s trade deal with China and will be able to draw on the MUA’s substantial financial resources to escalate that campaign, turning the next election into a test of union power. Labor insiders said the amalgamation would present a challenge to Bill Shorten as well, by forming a united bloc within the party to influence policy, build the numbers for individual candidates at preselections and help — or hinder — the leader.
UPDATE
The Victorian Liberals are launching this ad against the CFMEU’s disgraceful attacks on the free trade deal with China:
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No, conservatives should not be “supporting the new regime”. Certainly not yet

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (9:14am)

Chris Kenny creates a straw man:
Some Abbott loyalists (let’s call them Turnbull denialists) are angry and bitter, decrying the change and denouncing the new prime minister. 
This vocal minority are lashing out on blogs and radio, blaming everyone for the downfall except Tony Abbott, who clearly played a major role in his own demise. 
Which “loyalist” commentator does not blame Abbott to some extent for his own fall? I can’t think of any.
Nor do I know any prominent conservatives who’d deny this:

For all his achievements and admirable loyalty, Abbott displayed an almost inconceivable stubbornness, obstinately sticking to his ways despite public and ­private urgings. 
And no matter what supporters now may say about the injustice or injudiciousness of the coup, it did not come out of nowhere.
The myriad warnings, up to and including a failed leadership spill, came not only from the antipathetic public broadcasters and press gallery but also from many who had his best interests at heart.
Simply put, Turnbull’s triumph could not have occurred without Abbott’s intransigence.
No, the issues are two.
First, many conservatives believe that Abbott would still have beaten Bill Shorten, and especially so had he been given the active help of Turnbull and his fellow plotters and supporters.
Why not be angry at the Turnbull treachery, and judge the new Prime Minister for it? Surely we must impose a transactional cost on bad behaviour, or there will only be more of it. There is a wider moral principle to defend here.
But more importantly, the criticisms I see of Turnbull from conservative commentators (me included) are designed to achieve precisely what Kenny suggests - with one crucial caveat:

But it is time to call last drinks on the wake — what’s done is done — and the future of the Abbott project is now in Turnbull’s hands… Those at the conservative end of Menzies’ broach church should see that Coalition and national success will be served best by ­supporting and shaping the new regime.  
Wait. Yes, conservatives are indeed trying to shape the Turnbull “regime” - by criticising some alarming lurches or concessions to the Left, and pointing out how little Turnbull has yet offered to the “Right”.
And this goes to my caveat - that, contra 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?
To support the Turnbull “regime” now is to simply write him a blank check.
UPDATE
A check list.
Can Kenny or anyone else 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?
If you can’t answer these questions, why are you already supporting Turnbull’s “regime”?
UPDATE
I’m puzzled. Again in The Australian, this time in the Cut & Paste section that’s a true barometer of the newspaper’s climate, I read another defence of Malcolm Turnbull, jibe at Tony Abbott and attack on a conservative.   
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Favour for Bill

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (8:08am)

It stinks:

A Victorian labour-hire company was on the verge of collapse and owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes when it agreed to a request from Bill Shorten to fund a campaign staffer in a secretive deal involving sham documentation. 
At the time of the agreement, instigated by the Opposition Leader in a previous role as Victorian secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, the struggling construction company Unibuilt — and its struggling, connected arm Unibilt — was in negotiations with the union over a key enterprise bargaining agreement....
When Mr Shorten appeared at the commission in July it was revealed he had hired Young Labor member Lance Wilson to work on his 2007 election campaign, but Unibuilt had funded this in what amounted to an undeclared political donation.
Yesterday, fronting public royal commission hearings for the first time, Unibuilt owner Ted Lockyer said he had met with Mr Shorten in late 2006 when he agreed to the arrangement.
“He (Mr Shorten) asked me whether I’d be interested in helping him with his election,” Mr Lockyer said yesterday.
Mr Wilson joined Mr Shorten’s office under the agreement in May 2007. At about that time, the deal was changed so that Mr Wilson moved from technically being a Unibuilt employee to become an AWU employee. Unibuilt paid the AWU, which then paid Mr Wilson…
At the time Mr Wilson began working with Mr Shorten, Mr Lockyer was negotiating with AWU Victoria over an EBA. Mr Lockyer said it was “coincidental” these two matters had occurred at about the same time....
The commission heard Mr Lockyer had operated two companies, one called Unibuilt and one called Unibilt… The commission heard both companies collapsed, with Unibuilt owing the tax office $734,706. 
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On The Bolt Report tomorrow, October 18

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (7:56am)

Editorial:  Turnbull’s first month. And what’s he delivered?
My guest: Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm - life, death and free speech, and dealing with Turnbull.
The panel: Former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Costa.

NewsWatch: Nick Cater, head of the Menzies Research Centre and columnist with The Australian. Does reaching out to Muslims (good) mean having to tell untruths about Islam (bad)? And should the ABC really describe the lies as just “moderate language”?
Plus Labor’s sick class war - and the same right back at them.
The videos of the shows appear here. 
Terribly sorry, but yet more time changes because of car races. It’s a miracle you’ve stuck with us:
MORNING SHOW
10am on Ten as usual, except in Brisbane and Perth, where we will be on at 10am on One
AFTERNOON SHOW
Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart - 3pm on One
Perth - 3pm on Ten
Brisbane - 4pm   
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Conservatives are vanished from Australia

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (7:26am)

Malcolm Turnbull is leader, and the jubilant ABC parties as if there were no law any more that says this taxpayer-funded outfit must be balanced and impartial.
Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog:
Q&A is back to its traditional format after a small deviation during the final years of the Abbott Clerical Fascist Dictatorship… 
Last Monday’s event was a 3 left-of-centre to a 1 right-of-centre balance plus one neutral plus leftist presenter Tony ... Jones. Namely, Muslim community leader Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, Greens MP Adam Bandt plus Labor Senator Lisa Singh. Turnbull government assistant minister Ken Wyatt was on the platform representing a right-of-centre perspective. And then there was the soprano Tania de Jong.
It’s a similar line-up next Monday. Just consider the “balance” if, as it is likely, the issue of Israel is raised. The panel consists of Israel-critic Bob Carr plus Israel-critic Alison Broinowski plus Israel-critic Elaine Pearson. The rest of the panel comprises 2015 Boyer lecturer Michael Fullilove and Saw Keat Tok – neither of whom have expressed strong positions on Israel. It would make sense to replace Bob Carr (a Labor critic of Israel) with Michael Danby (a Labor supporter of Israel) but don’t hold your breath....
Malcolm Farr on Insiders last Sunday ... discuss[ed] the 15-year old Farhad Jabar who murdered Police Department public servant Curtis Cheng in Parramatta on 2 October 2015 ... Farr joined a discussion about the National Security Hotline and whether parents feel confident in reporting the possible radicalisation of their children to authorities in advance of a crime being committed… 
Malcolm Farr: And do you really want him to become a 15-year old murderer who then essentially commits suicide? I don’t know what the circumstances are, of this – this poor youth’s family. But I mean it’s hard to believe that there wasn’t some instance when they thought – “See, I better talk to someone about this.”
Farhad Jabar shot a man in the back of his head at point-blank range. But, according to Malcolm Farr, Farhad Jabar is merely a “poor youth”.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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No deficit of words, though

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (7:04am)

Has anyone got the slightest idea what Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison intend to do with taxes or just about anything else, and by when?
From Morrison’s presser yesterday:
QUESTION: 
So, just to clarify, are state and territory Treasurers being asked to come to the next meeting with ideas, options for tax changes or reforms at their particular level?
TREASURER:
The discovery process is one that the Commonwealth Treasury will continue to lead and it will work with the state and territory Treasuries to just simply develop an itemised list of options that exist. There is nothing attached to any of those lists. It is simply to ensure that we are able to have the universe of options that are available to states and territories, because this isn’t just about what happens at a Commonwealth level, it’s about what happens at a state and territory level as well and we need to bring those two parts of the process together.
QUESTION:
So, when can we expect a formal response to the Harper Review? When can we see some action following on from this discovery phase?
TREASURER:
On the Murray Review I’d be looking to now move that forward over the next few weeks and with Cabinet meeting between now and Christmas, well, I will look to a timetable that would see that to be able to be presented hopefully before Christmas, but we have today only really, I think, enabled ourselves to reboot that process. On the Harper Review, it’s an outstanding report and in many ways it’s been overshadowed by just one recommendation regarding Section 46 which is a very important recommendation and I’ll continue to consult with the various groups and interests that relate to that particular proposal and where we land on that issue, well, I’m not going to be drawn on a timetable on it. The broader more fundamental reforms that are proposed in the Harper Review, I think, you can expect the Government to have a very enthusiastic response to and I was encouraged by the state and territory Treasurers today about their willingness to engage in that type of process.
QUESTION:
And the broader tax system?
TREASURER: This is a step-by-step process. There have been so many reviews in the past which have just ended nowhere and plenty of discussions which have just gone into dead ends and I have no intention of ending in a dead end on this issue. What I have an intention of is working collaboratively with the state and territories, but even more importantly together, talking to the Australian people about how this can work better for them. 
UPDATE
The young, fresh bits of Malcolm Turnbull’s new team are exactly the ones struggling to get traction at the moment. Dennis Shanahan:

[T]his week was Turnbull’s first appearance with a new team and Treasurer, and without the long experience of Abbott, Joe Hockey, Kevin Andrews, Ian Macfarlane and Bruce Billson as part of the parliamentary attack. While always a confidence player, Hockey on a good day was very good, as was Abbott. Andrews and Macfarlane were safe hands and Billson was an idiosyncratic minister who developed his own following and respect.
After a couple of stumbles on policy and politics outside parliament — people-smuggling and backroom deals in the Liberal Party — Turnbull was cautious this week… What was apparent was that Turnbull wanted to continue to praise Abbott, keep faith with his best policies and needed to rely on some of Abbott’s appointments such as Dutton, Pyne and Robb.
As the continuing Immigration Minister and friend and supporter of Abbott, Dutton demonstrated his loyalty to the Liberal leader, his continuing hardline approach, and a grasp of detail on border protection and offshore processing that clearly impressed Turnbull…
Robb as Trade Minister and Pyne as Industry Minister and Leader of the House also were important sheet anchors of experience. Robb clothed a potential government backdown on the China free-trade agreement as a Labor backdown because it had agreed not to change the central legislation…
Morrison’s first week was cautious. He was clearly afraid to make a mistake or declare a premature economic change… Pushing a three-word slogan of “work, save and invest” won’t catapult him into the ranks of great treasurers…
All treasurers tend have a slow parliamentary beginning and Morrison’s priority is to develop the vital Coalition economic message and prepare a reform mandate for the next election — but he can’t afford to be too timid for too long. Having being parachuted in as Assistant Treasurer, O’Dwyer has an even more daunting task in filling the vibrating space left by Billson as small business minister. O’Dwyer’s head prefect delivery at the dispatch box no doubt will loosen up with experience, but in the meantime she faces a chorus of “bring back Bruce”.
(Thanks to reader Gab.) 
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The Left’s Brand on display

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (6:54am)

Some common traits of the Left:
- personal abuse
- foul language
- hypocrisy
- preference for “the vibe” over logic
And so the rich Russell Brand abuses the rich Malcolm Turnbull on The Project:

“Why do you put really, really rich people in charge of your country for, who want to build a thing called a tax shield?” he said 
He then went on to criticise Turnbull and revelations - hammered by the Labor party this week - that the prime minister has some of his wealth located in the Cayman Islands. But he did it in a very Russell Brand sort of way, with one of the stranger metaphors ever used in Australian public life.
“[Turnbull] goes he’s got money in the Cayman Islands but there’s nothing wrong with it… Having your money in the Cayman Islands is like putting your dick into custard,” said Brand.
“We all want to do it, but there’s no rational reason to do it.”
“If your dick’s in a bowl of custard you’re doing it for a reason.”
Turnbull does not invest in a “tax shield”.  Brand’s abuse is childish, ill-informed, crude, spiteful and irrational. But to the Left it’s gold. 
===

Making mock of ASIO

Andrew Bolt October 17 2015 (5:46am)

George Orwell in grudging praise of Rudyard Kipling:
The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you DO?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions. Where it is a permanent and pensioned opposition, as in England, the quality of its thought deteriorates accordingly.
Rudyard Kipling on the same kind of “permanent and pensioned opposition”:

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep…
Fairfax journalist Peter Munro now demonstrates the type, making mock of Malcolm Turnbull and ASIO:
All hail our great liberal leader, who will soon set his sights on squashing the threat posed by terrorist toddlers. No sandpit is safe from Grand Mal’s counter-terrorism measures, foreshadowing the imposition of control orders and controlled crying on the under-fives. 
The government has already signed warrants for ASIO to spy on pimply pre-pubescents suspected of terrorist links. Now Malcolm Turnbull wants children as young as 14 to wear tracking devices and to face curfews, even absent criminal charges. Future counter-terrorism measures will presumably stoop lower still, targeting tweens and tykes with behavioural or bed-wetting issues.
One of those “pimply pre-pubescents”, to be likened to “tykes with ... bedwetting issues”, that ASIO will now “stoop” to target:
15-year-old [Farhad] Jabar ... walked up behind NSW Police accountant Curtis Cheng and shot him in the back of the head ...
More:
Islamic State supporters are seducing Australian youth in a process akin to pedophilic grooming, the head of the country’s security agency warns. 
ASIO Director-General of Security Duncan Lewis on Friday said there were about 120 young Australians currently fighting with the extremist group in Syria and Iraq, with others radicalised through “insidious” online manipulation.... It was “heart-breaking” that children as young as 14 were being targeted, he said.
More:
Sydney teenager Abdullah Elmir, otherwise known as the Ginger Jihadi, tried to recruit other teenagers in the Bankstown area to the Islamic State (IS) group, according to a former youth worker. 
Sarkis Achmar, who was assistant manager at the Bankstown Multicultural Youth Service (BMYS) for five years, ... said he intervened when Elmir started telling the boys, aged 13-16, that they would go to hell if they did not convert to Islam.
But, no, let’s just mock those trying to stop children from turning into killers. So much more the superior thing to do.
(Thanks to reader Ed.) 
===

WHIMSY HITS THE ROTORS

Tim Blair – Friday, October 17, 2014 (12:07pm)

If this doesn’t make you smile, then you have no soul.
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BICYCLES BESPEAK EDUCATION

Tim Blair – Friday, October 17, 2014 (12:01pm)

Barking Betty Farrelly, the bicycle lane blockwart, applauds Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore: 
Clover Moore’s Sydney sits in Abbott’s Australia like an oasis of spring growth in a slag-heap. 
The entire rest of Australia, outside of inner Sydney, is a “slag heap”? Nice. 
While Abbott snubs United Nations climate talks, scraps the carbon price and deliberately undermines renewables, the city has reduced its emissions by 21 per cent, retrofitted much of its building stock, installed LED streetlights throughout, pioneered trigeneration and, despite relentless derision, built bike-lanes.
Measured by achievement, Clover is hands down the best mayor this city has had. 
As it happens, “hands down” was the position achieved by Moore the last time she rode a bike to work. Farrelly is particularly infuriated by the Daily Telegraph‘s mockery of Moore’s enormous spin doctor team, which she compares to – wait for it – an Islamic State beheading: 
Seeing the image of Clover’s spiky head inside a tumble washer that was the Telegraph cover on the day Stephen Sotloff’s ghastly beheading was announced, suggests something still more primitive. 
Only to Farrelly, who continues: 
Cycle lanes, trigen, artworks all bespeak education. And as Malala Yousafzai muses, “extremists have shown what frightens them most: a girl with a book.” 
So let’s deploy artworks and a battalion of book-reading girls to Syria and Iraq. Those extremists won’t stand a chance.
===

MARCHERS AGAINST MARCHERS

Tim Blair – Friday, October 17, 2014 (11:07am)

The March Australia movement recently commenced its self-destruction: 
March Australia hereby announces its total disassociation from the individuals known as Matthew Donovan and Tim Jones, who have played no active role since April 2014, but are both currently claiming to be spokespersons for our movement. Both Mr. Donovan and Mr. Jones have been removed due to their inability to work cooperatively with other volunteers, a basic requirement for participation in a people’s movement. 
If leftists can’t even walk down the street without fighting amongst themselves, perhaps they should try something simpler, like sitting around in groups. No, wait; they’ve already tried that and it also ended in failure. Meanwhile, another bunch of Australian progressives are at war with their comrades.
===

RICHARD IS ASHAMED

Tim Blair – Friday, October 17, 2014 (11:04am)

Behold the Left’s moral perversion: 
Author Richard Flanagan has wasted no time since winning one of the world’s best literary prizes, slamming Prime Minister Tony Abbott for his environmental policies, saying he was “ashamed” to live in Australia. 
Flanagan thinks the current government “seems committed to destroying what we have that’s unique in the world”. Just as well he already spends so much of his time elsewhere: 
Flanagan collected $80,000 for winning the prize … Flanagan, who becomes the third Australian to win the Man Booker Prize, accepted the award from the Duchess of Cornwall at a ceremony in London. 
Maybe it will ease Flanagan’s shame if he pays back the grants. Or, even better, he could arrange for David Hicks to present the award in a second ceremony. Flanagan is ashamed of sensible environmental policies, but he’s a huge fanof a Jew-hater who shoots at brown-skinned people.
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UNAFFORDABLE HILLARY

Tim Blair – Friday, October 17, 2014 (10:52am)

An expensive speech demands cheap education: 
Hillary Clinton called for businesses to collaborate with universities to make higher education more affordable in a $225,000 speech Monday night at the annual University of Nevada Las Vegas Foundation dinner.
“Higher education shouldn’t be a privilege for those able to afford it,” Clinton told a crowd of approximately 900 people. 
(Via David T.)
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It’s Palmer’s party, OK

Andrew Bolt October 17 2014 (9:22am)

It’s really a family franchise:
CLIVE Palmer’s wife is planning to run for the Palmer United Party at the Queensland election next year.

Anna Palmer hopes to hopes to take on Alex Douglas, who quit as Queensland leader of the Palmer United Party in August, claiming it was plagued by a jobs for the boys culture.
The context:
(T)he Palmer United Party ... constitution makes it plain that this is a political party with a unique base. Its rules — and the identities of the family appointees who run its committees — highlight the PUP as an entity owned and ruled by the patriarch with the support of relatives… 
The foundation members are ... Clive Frederick Palmer, Clive Theodore Mensink (nephew), Blair Brewster (nephew), Martin Brewster (nephew), Michael Palmer (son) and Anna Palmer (wife). It takes a majority of the foundation members to expel a member; four could do it over a family dinner.
Power within PUP can be traced to the party’s “Interim Executive Committee’’, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly in a family business, made up of the same six relatives who are the foundation members. The chairman is Palmer, the national treasurer is his wife Anna; his son Michael makes do with the title of president. 
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Racist abuse isn’t “whimsical”

Andrew Bolt October 17 2014 (9:17am)

I don’t think this ”whimsical linguistic game” is at all whimsical, although it might well be a game:
A SYDNEY university professor is embroiled in a “sickening” racist and sexist row after allegedly branding Aboriginals “human rubbish tips” and describing women as “whores”. 
Poetry professor Barry Spurr, who recently contributed to a government review of the national curriculum, refers to Prime Minister Tony Abbott as an “Abo lover” — and says one day the world will be taken over by “Mussies and Chinky-Poos"…
The emails, allegedly sent ­between September 2012 and this year to senior academics and University of Sydney colleagues, were published yesterday on the New Matilda website, prompting widespread condemnation.
Prof Spurr’s attack wasn’t just confined to the multiculturalism in Australia. He allegedly called one of the world’s greatest leaders, Nelson Mandela, a “darkie”, Desmond Tutu a “witch doctor” and referred to contemporary Brits as the “scum of the earth”.
In January this year, according to New Matilda, he wrote that “Abo Lover Abbott and [Australian of the Year] Adam Goodes” were Siamese twins that would have to be surgically separated.
He also used the terms “fatsoes” and “bogans” in his emails.
The professor was part of a review into the national curriculum that argued indigenous literature was too prominent. He was one of 15 subject experts commissioned by the independent review…
Prof Spurr defended his email exchanges, telling New Matilda they were intended to mock the “very extreme language” used. “The comments you refer to are largely to one recipient with whom I have had a whimsical linguistic game for many years of trying to outdo one another in ­extreme statements,” he said. 
I believe even a professor should be entitled in private emails - even in public ones - to express himself pungently, and even to go to town on “fatsoes” and especially “bogans”. He’s also entitled to question the sanctimonious symbolism of our new race industry. Indeed, he should be entitled to say what he damn well likes in private emails to friends.
But those emails are now public, like it or not, and the racist abuse is deeply unpleasant. I do think this badly damages Spurr’s credibility when pontificating on how the curriculum deals with Indigenous issues, and could damage the credibility of his teaching at university, too, depending on the subjects taught and, indeed, the ethnic and religious background of his students.
Mind you, I’d say the same of the abusive Leftists preaching politics at, say, journalism students, but it seems those academics are still deemed capable of teaching impartially to students who do not share their strident views.
Is it too much to ask for consistency here?
UPDATE
More news from the Offence Wars:
Commentator Mia Freedman has apologised for comparing gay and lesbian people to paedophiles on Network Ten’s The Project. 
Freedman, who founded the website Mamamia, was criticised on social media for the comments she made while supporting the idea of a national paedophile register.
‘We accept that gay people can’t change who they love and who they’re sexually attracted to, so why do we think that people who are sexually attracted to children can be rehabilitated?” she said. 
I don’t believe for a moment Freedman believes pedophiles are all gays. I do believe some people get off on denouncing others for what they must suspect was an innocent mis-speak, if a rather startling one.  
===

Another ABC panel guaranteed to say there’s no bias

Andrew Bolt October 17 2014 (8:38am)

Global warming - propaganda

I didn’t think ABC chairman Jim Spigelman was sincere when he promised last year to review possible bias in the ABC’s coverage of “science” - a euphemism for global warming:
THE ABC will establish an external panel to oversee science coverage as the pilot for oversight of journalists in a range of specialist fields. 
According to ABC board chair James Spigelman, the panel will establish indicators “against which the ABC can evaluate science content delivered across its platforms”.... The panel will ”have regard to the corporation’s duty to ensure news and information is accurate and impartial, according to the recognised standards of objective journalism”.
Tony Thomas confirms my suspicions:
On the biggest scientific issue of all, the trillion-dollar catastrophic global warming conjecture, the ABC’s top science staffer Robyn Williams in 2007 suggested we are in for 100m sea level rises this century. Last August, the Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science thought it an excellent idea to give catastropharian fabulist Naomi Oreskes the run of his microphone. A fearmonger almost without equal, she seized the taxpayer-funded moment to warn that our puppies and kittens would be killed by global warming by 2023.
Well, all this ABC science tosh is going to be a thing of the past, at least according to the ABC. To that end it has set up a slightly independent “ABC Science Reference Panel”, which has been meeting this year in fulfilment of a promise made by ABC Chair Jim Spigelman back in mid-2013…
Chair:  The ABC’s Board Member, No 1 ABC fan and bumbling climate-change eco-warrior Professor Fiona Stanley AC. For more about Stanley, see below.
… and the members (drum-roll, please!):
Jonathan Holmes, the former Czar of Smug on ABC’s Media Watch (2008-13), who wrote in The Age last July that it was nonsense for former ABC Chair Maurice Newman to insist there has been no global warming since the mid-Nineties. That halt, the one Holmes declines to acknowledge, has now extended to 18 years, but charts and graphs and satellite readings, not to mention the IPCC’s po-faced admission that warming hasn’t lived up to its dire expectations, cuts no mustard with Holmes. No, as he wrote, “the climate scientists I know tell me it is drivel”, and for Holmes no more evidence is needed.
Adam Spencer, maths geek, ex-ABC Triple J comedian, ex-host ABC Quantum, FAQ, Sleek Geeks, and Breakfast on ABC Sydney Radio 702 (until last December). Affronted by climate sceptic Lord Monckton’s views during a July, 2011, interview, Spencer hung up on him.
Dr Jim Peacock AC, Federal Government Chief Scientist 2006-2008, and ex-chair of the Academy of Science. His appointment must be some sort of ABC mistake, as Peacock has been favours nuclear power and genetically modified foods.
Julie Weber, Science Teacher of the Year 2013, Australian Science Teachers Association. She looks OK.
Linden Ashcroft, program manager at Earthwatch Australia. She believes in the IPCC climate models, 111 out of 114 of which run too hot.
Matthew Bird, PhD candidate, paediatrics, University of Melbourne. Seems OK.
Professor Peter Høj, Vice-Chancellor University of Queensland and CSIRO boardmember with a background in biochemistry/genetics.  Høj this month heaped lavish praise of UQ colleague and much-quoted catastropharian Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg for defending the Great Barrier Reef against climate change. On the plus side, Høj was awarded a medal for services to the wine industry, so can’t be all bad. Peter Yates AM, Chair RiAus (Royal Institution of Australia, a science promotion not-for-profit) and Australian Science Media Centre. A corporate heavyweight (PBL, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, Crown, Foxtel, Nine, you-name-it).  Fireworks possible if Stanley, Spencer and Holmes try to patronise him, although an intimate familiarity with Robyn Williams may have inured him to supercilious smirking. Williams serves as Yates’ deputy chair at RiAus. 
So on the panel are noted global warming catastrophists, including the chairwoman, but not a single known sceptic.
The fix is in. 
===

Why is the ABC still promoting crazy Bancroft-Hinchey?

Andrew Bolt October 17 2014 (7:43am)

Pravda is now a Russian nationalist on-line newspaper of zero credibililty and small readership, peddling mad claims that AIDS is a hoax, skulls have been found on Mars, war-criminal Slobodan Milosovic was the victim of the ”The World’s Greatest Travesty of Justice”, ”Poland Wants Germany to Attack Russia Again” and MH17 was possibly shot down in a bungled NATO plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey is just the kind of idiot who’d type for the cash of such an outfit. He makes preposterous claims to have once been a successful song-writer behind three Eurovision entries - claims he now says were just written by a drunk mate. He also thinks the US hanged a fake Saddam Hussein, a dictator Bancroft-Hinchey claims was just “trying to govern [Iraq], his task made impossible just because he refused to allow the Americans access to control his economy”.
There is not the slightest reason to take Pravda seriously, let alone the obscure, delusional and conspiracy-minded Bancroft-Hinchey. Yet many media outlets turned him instantly into the voice of the Kremlin and a noted political commentator when he said this:
SO, Australian Prime Minister wants to shirt-front Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, does he? It is difficult to find a more blatant example of childishness, incompetence for the position, criminal intent, downright nastiness and an indication of a disturbed mind crying out for therapy. Don’t the Australian people deserve better?… 
Stop fidgeting, stop playing with Willy and answer the Goddam question. Where is your evidence that Russia downed the aircraft [MH17]? 
Does the fact that some journalists perhaps enjoyed having Abbott vilified explain why Bancroft-Hinchey, the fake Eurovision hero from Britain, is now elevated into the Russian oracle?
Astonishingly, the ABC this morning is still elevating Bancroft-Hinchey, giving the donkey an audience on Radio National Breakfast.
Haters gotta hate. By why must we taxpayers subsidise them?
UPDATE
Yes, the ABC challenged Bancroft-Hinchey on his opinions on Abbott, but it did not challenge his implied standing as a serious commentator. He is a nobody. A zero. A crank. His only claim to fame is that he hates Abbott.
UPDATE
In a not-unrelated phenomenon, Bruce Haig used to be a diplomat, paid to represent Australia to the world.
Now it seems to me, at least, that he’s representing authoritarians to Australia:
ABC’s The Drum, Tuesday: 
BRUCE Haig: Putin’s going to come to Australia, if he comes to Australia, he’ll come fully prepared to dress down Abbott. Putin’s the leader of a very powerful country, Abbott is not. And Abbott in fact has made a fool of himself and he hasn’t got any moral ground to say this. This is a country that has got children incarcerated behind razor wire. Russia doesn’t have that.
Er, Russia doesn’t have asylum-seekers in detention because they are fleeing from the country, not to it. Carl Schreck, Radio Free Europe, Wednesday: 
US asylum applications from Russian nationals have jumped 15 per cent for the second straight year, a rise that asylum-seekers and attorneys attribute to Russians fleeing their homeland due to fears of persecution and anti-gay violence ... While anti-gay sentiment and legislation in Russia has been a key driver in the rise of Russian asylum-seekers in the United States, Russians are also leaving the country due to fears of political persecution ...
A few other problems with Russia? Amnesty International Russia Report, last year: 
NEW laws restricting the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association were introduced. Human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers continued to face harassment, while investigations into violent attacks were ineffective. Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread and were seldom effectively prosecuted. Trials did not meet international standards of fairness ... security operations launched in (North Caucasus) were marred by systematic human rights violations with near-total impunity for the perpetrators.
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How ebola took off

Andrew Bolt October 17 2014 (7:15am)

Ebola is a virus transmitted through bodily secretions. Someone with ebola bleeds from every orifice, suffers extreme diarrheoa and projectile vomits.
Local West African funeral customs just made things worse:
Some West Africans believe that the day you die is one of the most important days of your life. The final farewell can be a hands-on, affectionate ritual in which the body is washed and dressed, and in some villages carried through the community, where friends and relatives will share a favorite beverage by putting the cup to the lips of the deceased before taking a drink.
More:
A brief study indicated that once a person died, his or her paternal aunt (father’s sister) was called to wash and prepare the body for burial. If the father did not have a sister, an older woman in the victim’s patriline was asked to prepare the body. Generally, the woman removed the clothes from the body, washed the body, and dressed the deceased in a favorite outfit. At the funeral, all family members ritually washed their hands in a common bowl, and during open casket all were welcome to come up to deceased person and give a final touch on the face or elsewhere (called a love touch). 
And how slow was the United Nations - again:
The WHO, an arm of the United Nations, is responsible for coordinating international action in a crisis like this, but it has suffered budget cuts, has lost many of its brightest minds and was slow to sound a global alarm on Ebola. Not until Aug. 8, 4 1/2 months into the epidemic, did the organization declare a global emergency. 
UPDATE
President Barack Obama is giving misleading assurances - while failing to ensure hospitals have fail-safe procedures for treating victims:
The president stressed that Ebola is not spread as the flu is, by way of sneezes or coughs. The virus is only spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who was infected and is exhibiting symptoms of the virus, which include a fever and vomiting.
In fact:
LEIGH SALES: So if I were to get on a plane and I was sitting next to somebody or say even just on that plane were somebody who had Ebola, what would be my chance of getting it? Lets say I’ve gotten up and I’ve gone to the bathroom, they’ve maybe also gone to the bathroom, we’ve both touched the overhead bins or whatever - what are my chances of getting it? 
GRANT HILL-CAWTHORNE [Sydney Institute of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity]: So, they’re still relatively small. We have no real way of quantifying it in an exact percentage. But from everything that we know, if a person is at the stage when they’re actually producing lots of fluid, so if they’ve got vomiting or diarrhoea, there is obviously the risk that the bathroom could be contaminated or that the local area could be contaminated. In the case of a plane, if you had someone who was producing lots of of bodily fluids, you would want to investigate the people in the same row as them, who used the same bathroom and things like that. So it really depends on what the actual symptoms of that patient are. 
UPDATE
Labor’s crazy politicking on ebola is politically driven and reckless. It seems Labor wants the Government to send over medical teams without being able to guarantee life-saving treatment is available should any become inflected, and without being sure we can protect Australians completely on their return.
Dennis Shanahan:
TANYA Plibersek is using fear of Ebola coming to Australia, compassion about thousands of deaths in west Africa and growing global alarm to differentiate Bill Shorten’s Labor from Tony Abbott on national security… 
Plibersek is also appeasing large parts of the party, MPs and members, who feel that since the Islamic State threat emerged the Opposition Leader, and his left-wing deputy, have been too close to the Prime Minister on military action in Iraq… Ebola provides Labor with a chance to criticise the government for not doing enough to help west Africans and to accuse Abbott of not being prepared to handle an emergency in Australia. 
And trust the foul Greens, as ever, to play the race card:

TOM IGGULDEN: The Greens are accusing the Government of a cruel political calculation. 
RICHARD DI NATALE, GREENS SENATOR: Because there are no votes in poor, black Africans dying.
UPDATE
Tanya Plibersek is exposed in a debate with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on the Today show. Watch here. It is outrageous for Labor to peddle these deceptions. 
===
Congratulations to Tony Hadchiti on being returned as President of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) comfortably defeating Labor's Candidate, Fairfield Councillor George Barcha. ZT
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The Turkish-Israeli relationship became so poisonous early last year that the Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to have disclosed to Iranian intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers.

Knowledgeable sources describe the Turkish action as a “significant” loss of intelligence and “an effort to slap the Israelis.” The incident, disclosed here for the first time, illustrates the bitter, multi-dimensional spy wars that lie behind the current negotiations between Iran and Western nations over a deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program. A Turkish Embassy spokesman had no comment.===

Chemical–Biological-Radiological – Nuclear. Military Threat Assessment
http://iranthreatassessmentcbrn.com/news/chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear-military-threat-assessment/
There is a bewildering paradox, the International Community along with their vast Intelligence agencies acknowledged, confronted, the rise of Communism, and its goal of global domination. They comprehended communism darkness which endeavored to reshape ...

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Almost a quarter of respondents in a major survey of Jews from nine European countries said they avoid visiting places and wearing symbols that identify them as Jews for fear of anti-Semitism.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/fearful-of-anti-semitism-22-of-european-jews-hide-identity/
 That is not how I want my world to be. My auntie is quite elderly now, she studied psychology as a mature age student and recalls that there are three inherited characteristics of personality .. emotionality, activity and perseverance .. and she reckons Jewish people score highly in all three so Jewish culture promotes discipline within family because the children .. and adults are very active, persistent and strongly emotional .. just a theory .. but she has to explain how her mum had three children who shook the world in their fields .. and whose grand children do the same .. - ed
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The EU knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is.

GIANT Turkish flag is seen displayed on the side of a mountain near Nicosia in Turk-occupied Cyprus Photo: reuters
A delegation of European Union officials arrived in Israel this week to discuss the European Commission’s proposed regulations for discretionary funding to Israeli entities.
Under guidelines prepared earlier this summer, euros would not be allowed to go to Israeli entities located cross the Green Line – or to those that have any operations there. All Israeli entities applying for funding would have to submit a declaration that they do not have such operations.

Europe claims that such a move – unparalleled in its dealings with any other country – is mandated by international law. The EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories, and thus has an obligation to keep its money from going there. Those who celebrated the move said that Israel is finally paying the international price for its occupation.
Yet it turns out that despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU’s official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus.

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Italy remembers 1943 roundup of Jews amid turmoil over Nazi's funeral
http://www.telegram.com/article/20131016/NEWS/310169824/0#.Ul8yLIf1QjU.facebook
ROME — Italy on Wednesday marked the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of Jews from Rome's ghetto amid deep anger over the late Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke and his Holocaust-denying final statement.

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Has anyone else noted the similarity in today's top two Middle East news headlines – the telephone call between the Iranian and American presidents and the passage of U.N. Security Council Resoluton 2118 that calls for the "expeditious destruction" of Syrian chemical weapons? In both cases:
  • A long-ruling tyrant (Ali Khamene'i, Bashar al-Assad,) is reaching out to the West.
  • Those tyrants are furiously signaling an apparent reform (a smiling Hassan Rouhani, Assad acknowledging his chemical weapons and agreeing to turn them over).
  • "Who us, WMD?" they ask. "No interest at all in them."

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The government of Israel and its legal advisers - Who is the real ruler?
http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.co.il/2013/09/the-government-of-israel-and-its-legal.html
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Visualizing Occupation: Freedom of movement | +972 Magazine
http://972mag.com/visualizing-oc...http://972mag.com/visualizing-occupation-freedom-of-movement/45605/
Whereas West Bank settlers can travel freely between Israel and the West Bank, Palestinian movement is governed by the Israeli security establishment. This illustration is the fourth in a series of graphics on the effect of…

<Total bullshit ! So why are Israeli beaches full of Arabs ? 

This is just left wing Anti Semitic propaganda and anyone believing this left-wing apartheid-swinging garbage knows nothing about Israel or the people in it.

This is being promoted by the Australian Libertarian Society on their facebook page.>===

MDA Cancels Service in Judea, Samaria
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172866
MDA blames funding cut for decision to shut down 13 emergency response posts, but residents say Red Cross is behind the move.

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Hareidi Woman Set to Make History in Elad
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172873
Hareidi ‘Mothers’ Party’ may become make history with female representatives in hareidi city.

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Report: Livni and Erekat Weighing Land Transfer Proposal
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172886
Transfer of land around Shechem is reportedly tabled in return for Israel's annexation of areas in Judea and Samaria.

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The Islamist Trojan Horse :: Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4018/islamist-trojan-horse
With every Middle East country at each other's throat, the Arab-Muslim world is uncertain of its fate. Some of its totalitarian regimes were toppled in the so-called Arab Spring but they have yet to be replaced by stable governments; the battle for the

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Our World: The bothersome, annoying truth
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Our-World-The-bothersome-annoying-truth-328715
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.

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MARIA Kang started a fitness blog almost a decade ago but you probably didn't hear about her until this week.
And when her name did make it on to your radar, it was probably accompanied by words like "judgmental", "fat-shamer" and "bully".
Without meaning to, the LA-based mother-of-three sparked a war on Facebook when she posted a photo of herself dressed in fitness gear, showing off her super-toned abs, surrounded by her three little boys.
Harmless enough under normal circumstances, but at the top of the photograph, Kang asks What's your excuse?


I have none. - ed
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‘Praise be to God!’: Congressional stenographer reportedly kicked off House floor [audio, video, Vine] ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/10/16/praise-be-to-god-congressional-stenographer-kicked-off-house-floor/
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Larry Pickering
A 'SPARROW' FALLS PREY TO PRETENSE

Intelligent crooks are rarely caught, it is the dumb ones who invariably fall victim to their own stupidity. A small story I found in the New York Times told of notorious Somalian pirate, kingpin Mohamed Abdi Hassan (nicknamed Bigmouth) who was demanding Western millions for the return of ships and oil tankers the size of aircraft carriers and their crews.

Belgian authorities, who had suffered piracy at the hands of Bigmouth, had had enough of this bloke and came up with a novel approach to capture him.

They did some investigating to find out exactly what made Bigmouth tick. They discovered it was vanity. He saw himself as a Somalian hero, a Capt. Jack Sparrow, a revered swashbuckling pirate who bravely plied the Gulf of Aden in the pursuit of notoriety and riches.

What happened next was almost predictable.

The authorities offered him the leading role in a blockbuster Hollywood movie bearing his name: “Captain Hassan, Pirate King”.

Bigmouth must have come in his kaftan because he and his crew members, who were also offered parts, rushed to Brussells to sign contracts.

Of course they were arrested on arrival.

Belgian ingenuity has meant that the incidence of piracy off the Somali coastal has dropped by 75% and the UN reports that not one successful attempt has been made in the past year.

Perhaps craftiness is mightier than the cutlass.
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Michele Bachmann'
President Obama’s position of no negotiation took us to the brink of government default to advance his political agenda over the best interests of the American people. Republicans were the adults in the room, offering compromise after compromise and urging the President to come to the table and do what’s right for our country.

President Obama may have won an immediate political battle for his radical agenda but it comes at a great cost to the economy, to our health care system, and to the American people. It means we will continue on the same trajectory towards economic decline, skyrocketing national debt, and greater government intrusion in our health care.

After an embarrassing two weeks of Obamacare failures, I hope President Obama will soon realize that forcing every American to purchase a health insurance policy that they don’t want at a price they can’t afford from a website that doesn’t work is not a sustainable course of action.

I could not vote for this bill as it does nothing to give relief to the countless Americans hurting under Obamacare, nor does it address our out of control spending and $17 trillion national debt.
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Sarah Palin
Todd and I were proud to stand with Mark Levin and other bold, patriotic warriors in support of Steve Lonegan in the New Jersey Senate race! Mayor Lonegan fought the good fight, and he and his supporters have not “finished the race,” they’ve just begun! The press has now called the race for Barack Obama’s celebrity stand-in, Cory Booker, but rest assured that Steve fought gallantly for every vote that would have led to American solvency and exceptionalism. Steve is a lucky guy to have a strong New Jersey wife and two great daughters who supported him through this campaign. We so enjoyed getting to know them, as their passion and love for this country inspired us. Looking at Steve’s life story should remind all of us to never be afraid to climb a mountain, no matter how high. Steve energized commonsense conservatives all across the country. And though it’s sad, it’s not surprising to see the far left lapdog media finally cover this race tonight (once their chosen one was deemed the victor, but not previously when voters deserved to hear of Lonegan’s successful small-government record and intentions to defend our republic).

Tonight’s press coverage of the status quo antics in Washington, D.C. energize us further. Tonight’s New Jersey race was a win for Barack Obama, and the Senate deal in D.C. was a loss for the American people replete with more back-room deals, billion dollar corrupt earmark kickbacks, and weak leadership unwilling to stand up for the people who sent them to Washington. What happened in D.C. tonight reminds us of how hard we must fight in 2014 to return to a government of the people, by the people, for the people. These politicians work for us, and yet a new poll accurately reflects that just 13% of us feel as though this country that we love is on the right track. The way forward is to elect leaders who will listen to us; and if they don’t, we must hold them accountable on election day – no matter what party. Let’s commit to continue to be in the trenches fighting for those who stand on principle over politics, despite the odds.

Friends, do not be discouraged by the shenanigans of D.C.’s permanent political class today. Be energized. We’re going to shake things up in 2014. Rest well tonight, for soon we must focus on important House and Senate races. Let’s start with Kentucky – which happens to be awfully close to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi – from sea to shining sea we will not give up. We’ve only just begun to fight.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/16/todd-starnes-american-taxpayers-betrayed-by-chicken-hearted-rinos/

- Sarah Palin

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Zaya Toma'
My thoughs and prayers are with my friends and their families as well as everyone else that lives in the Wollondilly and Camden shires who are affected by the bush fires. There are gale force winds and really high tempratures. God bless the fire fighters putting their lives at risk to save others.
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The Theme: It's Halloween and you're in a horror movie. Choosing the first 9 people in your chat box.

HERE'S THE RESULTS!> Matt Granz

Cries like a baby: Ty Tyrell
The one who trips while running in the woods: Don Kramer
First to go missing: William Tan
Murdered saving you: Timothy Ly
Survives by faking death: Wilson Tanman
Has a solid survival plan nobody listens to: Eric Kalemen
Spends all the time looking for Twinkies: Zaya Toma
Gets turned into a zombie: John Tran
Is really the killer: Aprille Love
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Labor MPs have lashed former colleague Nicola Roxon for “reheating” the divisions that riddled the party under the Rudd and Gillard governments.

In a wide-ranging speech on Wednesday night, the former attorney general labelled Kevin Rudd a "bastard" and a destabilising influence, urging the former prime minister to leave parliament for the good of the party.

Ms Roxon, who was one of Julia Gillard’s closest political allies and who also served as health minister, said Mr Rudd had a vicious tongue and temper and had treated brilliant people terribly.She would have said exactly the same better before the election .. but she has contempt for voters. - ed
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<How to lose your freedom, become unemployable, and lose your right to vote...in one easy lesson. Do some not *get* Homeland Security is real, and TSA hasn't been taking shit for a dozen years now? Can't bring 3 ounces of shampoo on board, let alone a dry ice b*mb. We take off shoes, get full-body x-rayed--can't mention a word that starts and ends with a "b" in an airport without being tackled (I don't even risk it and say, "Bob")--but this guy sets off a dry ice prank at an airport! Is there a factory producing these people? (No shortage.) Guy--if you know you're going to prison after a prank--at least get video for YouTube! Well, he's probably already got a neck tattoo...he'll fit right in.>
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<How Labor will write its own suicide note if it tries to block Abbott's carbon tax repeal.>
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When life gives you lemons, at this point make margaritas. Caving on debt could drive one to drink.

This photo of my son and nephew ran in our local newspaper about 15 years ago. I’m betting dollars to doughnuts our president skipped this universal childhood lesson in Economics 101, and perhaps that explains his problem understanding the tragedy to befall us as America drowns in debt. Running a lemonade stand teaches you to progress by the sweat of your brow and live within your means. It taught these boys that it was unacceptable and self-defeating to keep coming back to mama for more money for ingredients needed to concoct a product to sell to the public. Obviously more debt means less progress and opportunity to expand. Anyone who has run a business knows more debt equals less profit, and less profit means less ability to grow operations, employ more people, and even hold your head high above shortsighted economic decisions that history proves lead to failure.

All these lessons about the kids’ lemonade stand and economic freedom apply to our families’ budgets, our businesses, and most certainly our government. We cannot borrow our way to prosperity. We’re in a deep hole; quit digging. We cannot ignore the economic realities of bankruptcy.

President Obama is giddily enthused now about growing more debt, but just a few years prior when he was still a senator, he scolded America, proclaiming: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.…Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.” And on July 3, 2008, he declared, “driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars to $9 trillion is irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” If it was irresponsible and unpatriotic at $5 trillion, what is it at $17 trillion?

Was he lying then or now?

Mr. President, boys and girls all across our great nation would no doubt share their lessons learned about the danger of debt. It’s our posterity you've made insecure when you doubled our national debt since taking office, which violates the preamble of our Constitution which speaks of securing “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” How can we secure our liberty when we’re hopelessly in debt to foreign nations? You said today that the cool thing about being President is you can “pick up the phone and call anyone in the world and they’ll answer.” Call Track and Payton. I’m sure your NSA and IRS have their numbers.

For more on the wisdom of children and their lemonade stands, see this video: http://youtu.be/7tu2ejcFWtg
Sarah Palin
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
Who do you share your deepest secrets with? Most people only share their inner thoughts with those who are closest to them. People they trust. People they’ve gone through experiences with. Do you know who God share’s His secrets with? This passage goes on to say, “Who can know a man’s thoughts except his own spirit?” In other words, God’s Spirit knows His thoughts. As believers, His Spirit lives inside of us, revealing to us the heart and thoughts of God Himself.
“That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’ But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.”
(1 Corinthians 2:9–10)

God wants you to know what He thinks about you. He wants you to know about the plans He has for you. He wants to show you things you’ve never seen, heard about or even imagined. As a believer in Jesus, you are His child, but you are also His friend. He wants you as His closest companion. He wants to walk with you, talk with and share with you. What a wonderful, amazing thought — we can know God’s thoughts because we are one with Him. Open your heart and allow Him to share His deep secrets with you today.God bless you.
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What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?(Romans 8:31)
Think about that for a moment. The same God who created the heavens and earth, the one who spoke the universe into existence and knows everything about you, He is on your side and wants the best for you. I love today’s verse because it is a great reminder that when God is for you, no one can win against you. Not the pain of your past. Not any mistake you’ve made. Not the forces of hell, your worst enemy, a bad economy, a difficult housing market or anything else on this earth.

Scripture tells us that God is gracious, patient and loving, that He is forgiving and doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. Scripture tells us that God is for us, and if God is for us, who can be against us? With God on your side, you are headed for victory,God bless you.
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ALL ALONG THE DRY LINE

Sick at home with the traditional Fall Season cold bug, feeling uckeee... decided to bide my time working through some old storm chase images with some new post processing techniques.

Here's the story:

May 31, 2010. Just a little South East of Boise City in the panhandle of Oklahoma. To my left, outside of this picture frame, a Mothership was spinning and getting ready to drop another tornado. The air was hot and thick and electrically charged. The chances to see anything happen on this day were slim, but the warm humid air colliding with the dry cold air had something else in mind. — atOklahoma!
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“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine."
John 21:12
In these words the believer is invited to a holy nearness to Jesus. "Come and dine," implies the same table, the same meat; aye, and sometimes it means to sit side by side, and lean our head upon the Saviour's bosom. It is being brought into the banqueting-house, where waves the banner of redeeming love. "Come and dine," gives us a vision of union with Jesus, because the only food that we can feast upon when we dine with Jesus is himself. Oh, what union is this! It is a depth which reason cannot fathom, that we thus feed upon Jesus. "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." It is also an invitation to enjoy fellowship with the saints. Christians may differ on a variety of points, but they have all one spiritual appetite; and if we cannot all feel alike, we can all feed alike on the bread of life sent down from heaven. At the table of fellowship with Jesus we are one bread and one cup. As the loving cup goes round we pledge one another heartily therein. Get nearer to Jesus, and you will find yourself linked more and more in spirit to all who are like yourself, supported by the same heavenly manna. If we were more near to Jesus we should be more near to one another. We likewise see in these words the source of strength for every Christian. To look at Christ is to live, but for strength to serve him you must "come and dine." We labour under much unnecessary weakness on account of neglecting this precept of the Master. We none of us need to put ourselves on low diet; on the contrary, we should fatten on the marrow and fatness of the gospel that we may accumulate strength therein, and urge every power to its full tension in the Master's service. Thus, then, if you would realize nearness to Jesus, union with Jesus, love to his people and strength from Jesus, "come and dine" with him by faith.

Evening


"With thee is the fountain of life."
Psalm 36:9

There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without him, and he therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that he may drive us to himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin- bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael, to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but "Thou God seest me." We are like the prodigal, we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father's house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion; they are blessed things, but we may put them in God's place, and then they are of no value. Anything becomes an idol when it keeps us away from God: even the brazen serpent is to be despised as "Nehushtan," if we worship it instead of God. The prodigal was never safer than when he was driven to his father's bosom, because he could find sustenance nowhere else. Our Lord favours us with a famine in the land that it may make us seek after himself the more. The best position for a Christian is living wholly and directly on God's grace--still abiding where he stood at first--"Having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Let us never for a moment think that our standing is in our sanctification, our mortification, our graces, or our feelings, but know that because Christ offered a full atonement, therefore we are saved; for we are complete in him. Having nothing of our own to trust to, but resting upon the merits of Jesus--his passion and holy life furnish us with the only sure ground of confidence. Beloved, when we are brought to a thirsting condition, we are sure to turn to the fountain of life with eagerness.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 47-49, 1 Thessalonians 4 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 47-49


1 “Go down, sit in the dust,
Virgin Daughter Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
queen city of the Babylonians.
No more will you be called
tender or delicate.
2 Take millstones and grind flour;
take off your veil.
Lift up your skirts, bare your legs,
and wade through the streams.
3 Your nakedness will be exposed
and your shame uncovered.
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.”

4 Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name—
is the Holy One of Israel.

5 “Sit in silence, go into darkness,
queen city of the Babylonians;
no more will you be called
queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people
and desecrated my inheritance;
I gave them into your hand,
and you showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged
you laid a very heavy yoke.
7 You said, ‘I am forever—
the eternal queen!’
But you did not consider these things
or reflect on what might happen.


Today's New Testament reading: 1 Thessalonians 4

Living to Please God
1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody....
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