Sunday, October 16, 2016

Sun Oct 16th Todays News


Athletes are usually finished by their forties. Blue collar workers look to management positions as they slow down in their fifties. White collar workers go to 67 or, in the case of judges, 75 or so. Writers don't tend to peak until they are in their thirties and they tend to keep their gift until the end. Barry Spurr still has much to offer. But Spurr's career, stellar, has been curtailed by an ancient curse. Not that he is conservative, but that he is seen as being one. And it highlights something that needs to be addressed. Australia is blessed with a tradition of free speech, but her institutions are being nobbled because the reality is Australia does not have free speech.

 As Spurr pointed out recently at the Sydney Institute (Oct 6th), with an introduction by Miranda Devine, the issue of the denunciations of him based on the criminal publishing of personal emails, and their misrepresentation by the extreme left wing publisher, are not a new phenomena. One example Spurr gave was T S Eliot's denunciation as being an anti semitic bigot based on a few words in the 1920's. But Eliot's life and work doesn't suggest that. Others who were better candidates for the slur escape the label apparently because they were of the left wing tribe. It is not the fierce contest of ideas that is being debated at the moment, but tribal warfare. Only conservatives are still trying to fight with ideas. Because that battle is the only place where the war can be 'won.' The great debate, or Western Dialectic is some 2500 years old, and not going away soon. But we are being side tracked by a corruption of leftist idealism which seems successful, but leaves a wasteland in its' wake. 

 Australia does not have free speech, or a justice system, equal rights or much else because those are illusory ideals. Laws don't create them, but can impede them. One major impediment to free speech is the racial vilification code, section 18c. It is a badly written piece of legislation that undermines free speech. Rachel Ball, VP of Human Rights Law Commission asked who was more free: Andrew Bolt after his trial over 18c; or children in detention? Rachel clearly feels that any injustice Bolt feels is vastly outweighed by detainees. But Rachel's argument was misplaced. In fact, the trial of Bolt was an injustice. And the truth is, the elimination of 18c won't restore free speech. The appalling treatment of Spurr was not an 18c issue. But the appalling, cowardly, reaction of Sydney University administration was a symptom of how 18c has eroded the cultural asset of free speech imbued by Australia's majestic progress. Spurr has retired from being Australia's only professor of poetry. But we are blessed he isn't finished. 

 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 ===
The recent supremacy of the left has left a poisoned chalice of free speech bound with rules. Where once the Left adored the violence of Che, Pol Pot, Mao or Stalin, now they quiver in fear of being offended or face to face with their victims in debate. The quivering, cowardly left have hidden strength. They tore down a good man as PM and installed a suit. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
No Bolt Report on Sunday because of racing. Disappointing, but the great man deserves the occasional day off.
The Ebola message does not match precautions in the US. Aid workers clocking off shifts in Africa and returning to the US along with tourists was always going to be a spread vector. The US was aware of the issue before a victim left Africa, and fell sick in Texas. He has died, and now two of his nurses have been infected. One hopes that both nurses survive unharmed. But, who else has been infected? How? There have been several protocol failures. Luckily, the disease relies on intimate contact through body fluid to be contracted, it is not airborne. Otherwise more would be infected. Imagine if jihadi could weaponise it?

Jihadi dreams
It is wonderful Obama has decided to fight ISIL and not merely aid them. But it isn't enough to drop bombs on civilians to win a war. There will need to be people on the ground. There needs to be commitment to win. Terrorists claim to be Islamic but do things that are not Koranic .. like cross dressing, killing Muslims, desecrating holy sites and bringing Islam into disrepute. Also, reprehensibly, assigning to Allah works of the devil. They aren't the only terrorists .. look at Ukraine .. North Korea .. China .. Cuba .. Venezuela .. Argentina .. Zimbabwe .. But they have an international fan club and patronage from the UN and press. It turns out Bush was right on WMD and the press have suppressed the fact to support Democrats. And now ISIL have access to the warheads that were made, in some cases, by US contractors. A pranked hospital patient, male, woke up to find he was wearing panties .. one thought that only happened to jihadi. Jihadi are known to wear women's clothes shortly before engaging in terrorist hits. 

ABC discovers a new left wing
ABC bias encompasses abusing the uniform of Australia's Defence force. Patriotism is racism? ABC defames pre election Victorian government over porn ring allegation. A disgruntled former adviser to Baillieu, who was dismissed when Napthine became Premier, has made his claims now, for the first time, shortly before an election. His claims seem unlikely, but that will still excite the ABC. 7:30 Report acknowledges criminal infiltration of CFMEU after Gillard weakened protections with Fair Work. The program details how bikie gangs have gotten involved. Slush funds would be excellent at laundering drug money. An ALP senator uses Pravda to abuse PM Mr Abbott, no reason why they would, but they have. 

Mixed issues
Australia's National Gallery changes direction by becoming competent, hiring a good person after their stolen Indian artefact debacle. The embarrassing Richard Flanagan has won a literary prize and made a statement that he was embarrassed to be Australian because the PM said coal was an efficient power source. If Richard Flanagan doesn't love it here, he can leave. Palmer drops defamation claim. New Deputy Premier for NSW is a member with only six months cabinet experience. He is a former policeman with some twenty two years of experience. He has a good team and should do a great job. Hostage siege in brothel in NSW had three men holding two other men and two women. Channel Nine obscured the face of one of the brothel workers, but the ABC did not. Pistorius might have got more time if he had shot an intruder, the amount of time he serves is not yet known, but someone got eight years for shooting an intruder in Melbourne, recently. 
From 2013
Intense ALP infighting continues. Roxon hits Rudd. She confesses that an imaginary unfair dismissal case could be made for him because he wasn't informed how he was incompetent. Says loads about ALP dismissal laws foisted on everyone else. ALP needs affirmative action, embracing non union officials. McKew hits Rudd. McKew criticises Rudd after an election she was silent on his faults. 

One former union official, Michael Williamson admits he stole millions from poor workers and will not pay it back. He was the ideal ALP President. A foil, while fellow stablemate Craig Thomson held back good government from being achieved. Some say Williamson has paid a high price already. But the betrayal of HSU members alone demands a custodial sentence. Who will hold union officials to account? Abbott has justifiable expenses, but ABC challenges Abbott when it had given a free pass to Williamson and gives free passes to Slipper. 

Sydney Morning Herald fails to fact check its articles. ABC caught in a fact check fail. Bolt criticises Abbott for not being quick enough .. a bit like saying a prize student could achieve more. Julian Burnside shows the same balance lacking in the SMH. Geoff Shaw is assaulted by leftwing extremists. Arctic Ice recovers .. rapidly. Miranda Devine on 2GB radio 4pm daily. Obama and his fans are blaming the GOP for wanting to save money. 
All the details and links are in this article. However, my chief concern at the moment is to do with the issue of raw sewage which came through my unit starting the evening of Monday Oct 7th, a public holiday. I contacted strata straight away and they gave me a number for a plumber, who delayed until Tuesday morning from attending because Monday was a public holiday. I contacted strata at 8:43 in the evening. I explained the blockage, minor at the time, seemed connected to my upstair neighbours. I was assured that was not possible. I bucketed about 50 litres of sewage from my bathroom floor that evening. I went to bed at 12 pm and got up at 6am. By then, the sewage had filled the toilet, vanity, shower and bath tub, and was through the main hall and into the main living area and kitchen. I mopped and bucketed the increasing mess until 7am, called the plumber, and was told plumber would arrive soon. Plumber came at 7:30am. Plumber lifted toilet from mains and tried to use snake to get blockage. I showed plumber where strata pipes were, and he left for strata secretary to get keys. Plumber decides pipes are too rusty to access and tries to access block with snake through bathroom drain. He tells me the snake isn't sufficient at 9:30 and promises to return in 2 hours with the right equipment. I call him at 12:30 in the afternoon and he tells me a "boy drove of with his truck" so he was doing other work elsewhere until he could attend the block with the right equipment. He returns with a truck by 15:30 By this time, I have contacted home contents insurance and an assessor is on hand. The assessor declares my place uninhabitable. I explain I am staying. That is my right. Cleaners arrive and suction off sewage and spray anti biotic anti fungal protection. Then plumbers decide at 17:30 they can't get the blockage that night and will look again in the morning. Fecal matter had come through my unit with recognisable food stuffs processed from the guts of my celebrating neighbours while the plumber was gone in the morning .. cleaners took pity on me and sandbagged the bathroom and left a water vacuum behind overnight when they left at 9:30 pm. I filled the water vacuum by 10:30 pm. Sandbags were breached by 11:30 pm. I hid in my room. Plumber arrived morning two at 8:30 am without truck. They spent an hour outside with old pipes. By 10 am they claimed they had fixed the block without once entering my unit. The sandbags had prevented more fecal matter getting through the unit in its raw form, but the yellow water had flooded entire unit except laundry. Cleaning crew came again, cut up carpet sprayed anti biotic/fungal protection and organised a time to extract all affected furniture. This afternoon they completed their task, leaving my place a concrete, empty shell. But strata had not yet called Strata insurance. Strata insurance claim they won't be able to look at the empty shell until Thursday 24th October, seventeen days after my first call. sixteen days after my place was declared uninhabitable. 

People are willing to help me, but some aren't. If my place had burned down or if I had tripped in a supermarket, this might be national news .. but local news won't go near it. I am desperate. Days from being forced to sell my home .. and I have lost everything but internet access and tv. My tax papers are gone. Everything I've collected over 46 years .. gone. 
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.
===
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
===
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 to those born on this day, across the years, including
1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (d. 1450)
1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer and author (d. 1843)
1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1900)
1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
1890 – Michael Collins, Irish politician (d. 1922)
1922 – Max Bygraves, English actor and singer (d. 2012)
1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress and singer
1927 – Günter Grass, German author, poet, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate
1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter
2003 – Princess Kritika of Nepal
Walt Disney
Avitus is wasted and you are master. Fire has cleansed. You provide amusement. A walk of a thousand miles begins with a single 'hoy.' You have passed the Bill. Now, party. 
Deaths
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Piers Akerman



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Tim Blair



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Andrew Bolt



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The Kiwis kucked back over the dutch

Piers Akerman – Thursday, October 15, 2015 (11:40pm)

ABC approved Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will conduct his first foreign foray this weekend, visiting our Kiwi cousins across the Tasman.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Kiwis kucked back over the dutch'
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HOT POD ACTION

Tim Blair – Friday, October 16, 2015 (3:43pm)

Please tune in to this week’s Accidents Happen podcast, during which Joe Hildebrand and I continue our grotesque transformation into Sydney’s Crazy Ira and the Douche.
UPDATE. A note from tech guru Martin re iTunes availability: “We’re in the process of setting it up now and it’s likely we’ll be in iTunes next week.”
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GIVE THEM ADVICE

Tim Blair – Friday, October 16, 2015 (3:02am)

Readers are invited to join the ABC’s Advisory Council, with Velma and her ABC-lovin’ friends:



It isn’t a tough gig. The Advisory Council mainly exists just to tell the ABC how great the ABC is. If you’ve got what it takes, applications are open now.
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WELCOME TO MY INNER-SYDNEY WORLD

Tim Blair – Friday, October 16, 2015 (2:49am)

Inner-city residents of Sydney have today put forward a proposal to local council that enforce an official gluten-free zone in the main street of Surry Hills.
After months of petitions and meetings with barristers, local blogger Lynne Seede has officially met with Lord Mayor Clover Moore to discuss the plan, which has been gathering momentum for months.
“We aren’t asking for this. We are demanding it,” she said. 
There is video.
UPDATE. The word “satire”, used above, should have clued readers in. The story and video are satirical.
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PONYTAIL FACES PROSECUTION

Tim Blair – Friday, October 16, 2015 (2:25am)

Wearing the Guardian‘s sanctified smock of silence, a young fellow of no particular faith – Presbyterian, probably – is arrested and charged following Curtis Cheng’s murder: 
A Sydney teenager will appear in court today charged with giving a gun to schoolboy Farhad Jabar at Parramatta mosque before he killed unarmed police accountant Curtis Cheng on October 2.


Police will allege that unemployed 18-year-old Raban Alou handed Jabar the revolver in the female section of the mosque as it was not covered by CCTV cameras before the 15-year-old committed his violent act of terror.
Alou was last night charged with aiding, abetting, procuring and counselling the commission of a terrorist act – an offence that carries a maximum life sentence – after being held in police custody for eight days. 
Fairfax reports: 
Mr Alou’s communication with Jabar is not believed to go back more than a few weeks and it is largely confined to Parramatta Mosque.
The mosque has been a regular meeting point for a group of young western Sydney extremists, who police allege are a major terror risk. 
This is an ongoing court case, so comments are closed.
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CHARACTERS DELETED

Tim Blair – Friday, October 16, 2015 (1:13am)

Tough times for the preferred platform of shouty Australian leftists: 
Twitter is making up to 336 employees, or about 8% of its global workforce, redundant …
The job losses come as Twitter is struggling to grow its user base and has suffered a series of management upheavals. With about 300 million users, Twitter is less popular than Instagram. Facebook has more than 1.4 billion users. 
Even following these cuts, Twitter still has around 4000 employees. What do they do? 
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THEY’RE GOING TO CRY

Tim Blair – Friday, October 16, 2015 (12:43am)

NSW Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet despairs of the modern left: 
Gone are the days of radical, fearless (often violent) student nonconformism, bucking social mores, sticking it to the man, overthrowing the hegemony, bringing on the revolution and all the rest. Today, the mantra is the opposite: conform, obey, toe the line, don’t ask why, just do it – and if you don’t, I’m going to cry and then you’ll be sorry (because I’m special and delicate and I don’t like it when the world I live in makes me feel uncomfortable).
Marx would be mortified. Trotsky, turning in his grave. Che would be blushing with shame. Today’s conformist lefties somehow manage to combine the very worst of the archetypally stodgy, mindless ‘stick in the mud’ conservatism, with the churlish, temperamental sensitivity of a tantrum-throwing three year old. 
It’s the worst of both worlds.
(Via Nigel F.)
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TAKE HER OUT OF PARLIAMENT

Tim Blair – Thursday, October 15, 2015 (10:02am)

Liberal MP Fiona Scott claims she was taken out of context when she said there had only been one little incident of terrorism over 100 years in Australia.
In a late-night address to parliament, the western Sydney MP said her comments on Sky News last week were not referring to the recent Parramatta shooting in which police worker Curtis Cheng was killed, but an incident in Broken Hill, NSW, over a century ago.
“Perhaps in 20/20 hindsight I could have chosen my words slightly better ... I am sorry if people have taken my words out of context,” she said on Wednesday. 
For context purposes, here, once again, is Scott’s entire interview.
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On The Bolt Report on Sunday, October 18

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (4:43pm)

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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What are universities doing to stop international students from cheating and free-loading?

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (8:37am)

A post-grad student at Melbourne University is given a group assignment with seven international students.
What follows is a story - alleged - about “crap English”, cut-and-pasting from Wikipedia and an Australian student forced to work like stink to avoid a fail.
This is just part of the incredible story, which, I repeat, is alleged:
A few days later I get an msg from the coordinator saying that my essay was copied and it was unacceptable and that he was going to fail us for cheating. I reopened the essay to find that one of them edited half the document with copied information from the net. I messaged them saying wtf? who changed it and why and they replied back saying that it was too shit so it needed some adjustments. At this point I was so mad I contacted my head supervisor, other coordinators for help and they emailed the subject coordinator the whole situation. He agreed that if i rewrite everything he will agree to give us a pass. So that night i rewrote everything (stayed up till 7am and resubmitted. last week i wrote on the facebook wall asking if they required any help with the speech. nobody replied even though it said seen by everyone so i assumed that they were fine. The presentation is tomorrow but they suddenly messaged me today that their english was too crap to do the presentation and that they want me to do it.
Is this a common problem?
Oh, and another question: so the seven fee-paying international students still get degrees?
UPDATE
Another student discovers the Chinese members of his group assignment discussing hiring a ghost writer for $430 without letting him know. Here is their Facebook discussion: 
The comments thread at the link explains more.
UPDATE
Reader Linda R:

This is situation normal at all our universities. My daughter finished her degree at Melbourne university in 2011 and group assignments were the bane of her life. They just caused a whole lot of extra work for her or she would have to accept a lowering of her GPA. My son experienced the same issues at RMIT and I hear the same stories from students at all our universities. 
Reader Lin:
This has been an issue for a long time. Ten years ago when one of mine was at uni he complained constantly, only to us as nobody else would listen, about being grouped with other students who hardly spoke English, and who often had no interest in the subject whatsoever, except in the qualification it delivered, which was always and unbelievably conferred. My son was marked on the group work when there was little or no input from the others, which he thought was grossly unfair. Neither could he understand how people who can hardly speak English can possibly pass exams. In business courses this isn’t critical, but I can imagine many other disciplines for which I would like some reassurance about the quality of the graduate. It is all about the money. 
Reader Garry:

I have been teaching international students for over 10 years, and I can tell you that the majority of them are crap. Many of them will cheat at the drop of a hat, they copy stuff from the internet all the time, and they would sooner die than come for help, because then they might have to do some work. Quite often they come on to study, but then discover they can make a lot more money here by working part time than they could by working full time at home, so they neglect their studies to work, send the money home, and then rack off once they have been flunked for the final time. 
Reader Paul:

I had a similar situation about 10 years ago completing my computer science degree. It was our final year computing security major group assignment, in groups of threes and I scored one international Chinese student. I didn’t think anything of it as its the 2nd half of the last year so everyone should be pretty competent at studying to get here. 
After weeks of checking in ... to see if each other’s sections were going OK I had only received back one query from the student pasting parts in an email using the example from the previous year the lecturer had given everyone. Figuring he was on his way after that I kept checking in with them but no issues from either. But something in me decided to collate it a little earlier when it came to the final week when it was due. Good thing I did as the other Australian student had at least tried but needed some help just finishing it but then I get the bit from the Chinese student and he has literally just copied and pasted pages of the previous years example report. I was horrified as I had 2 days to write a third of the assignment including researching everything I’m writing to make sure its correct.  
Reader name withheld:
I was a mature age student can back up what this student is saying. I did an Accounting Degree with roughly 80% foreign students… 
I was in a group with two foreign students and made myself responsible for collating and editing our report. The other group members’ parts consisted of paragraphs of terrible English that you would expect from a primary school student, plus very well written sections that were clearly copied from reference material. As all group members were given the same mark, I was up all night editing the assignment, improving the English and rewriting the plagiarised sections. The foreign students got a high mark due to all my hard work!
Another situation was where we had to do a presentation in our tutorial. The strange thing about this presentation was that half our mark came from the tutor and the other half by our peers. That is, the other students. All of whom were Chinese.
I paired with the only other Australian in my class. We did our presentation which was pretty good. I’m now a CA and my partner is doing her PhD. We received about 7/10 overall. While we were doing our presentation, our peers (the foreign students) spent the whole time on their phones, iPads and computers. They did not even listen or take any notice of our presentation, yet they were providing half our marks!
When the foreign students did their presentations they gave each other really high marks, despite terrible presentation skills and poor English.
I contacted the Lecturer to complain about our mark and how it was lower than some other people’s. In the beginning he told me ‘bad luck, that is how the assessment is marked’, but after some toing and froing he gave me an extra mark and said ‘I hope you’re happy now!’. I finished my degree in 2.5 years and got the hell out of there.  I could probably write a book on all the dodgy things I saw at my Uni.
(Thanks to reader Enough is Enough.) 
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No, we’re not multicultural - or shouldn’t be

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (7:43am)

Dr Peter Phelps, Government Whip in the Legislative Council of NSW, says we lost the plot with multiculturalism:
We have been a successful immigrant nation ... because while we are multiethnic we are not multicultural, at least in our public culture. If one goes through the list of the six key determinants of culture—language, law, religion, food, clothing and entertainment—one finds that they are overwhelmingly British or, if one extends the cultural terms a little further, there is Anglo-American dominant culture in this nation. 
Waves of migrants have come in over time and those waves of migrants have fitted in with the established modus vivendi which allowed them to deal not only with the existing dominant Anglo culture but also with immigrants from other cultures. In the immediate post-war period when a German met a Pole he understood what it meant to be an Australian; when a Serb and a Croatian met in that immediate post-war period they understood what it meant to be an Australian… They may reject that, but they at least had some sort of understanding.
I feel sorry for post-1975 communities who arrived in Australia because as a political class we have sold them a dud. We have sold them multiculturalism as an absolute value when what we have really meant—and this was first read down by the Hawke Government—is that we will accept certain cultural practices that do not threaten or impinge upon the existing cultural traditions of the Anglo mainstream…
We would not accept the situation if a North Korean refugee were to arrive in Australia suggesting that he wished to establish an Australia with a Juche ideology. If it is true then for an ordinary immigrant, how much more true is it for refugees and asylum seekers who are fleeing the very cultures that put their lives, their prosperity and their families under threat? The key to our success has been that we have been welcoming but we expect that there be a level of conformity to the existing rules of this nation… This is what we should have said: “You are welcome to our country. We will greet you, but we expect certain conditions to be met in relation to cultural assimilation.”
The extreme of the multicultural mindset demonstrated here. 
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Few fighters for free speech in Parliament

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (7:33am)

Remember when they all claimed they were Charlie, in solidarity with the murdered French journalists? They lied, bar a gallant few:
The government is divided on a compromise bill aimed at protecting free speech, with a growing number of Liberal MPs backing a new push to overhaul section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. 
Liberal senators Zed Seselja, Ian Macdonald and Chris Back spoke in favour of a private member’s bill that would no longer make it unlawful to ­"offend" or “insult” someone based on their race, colour, ­nationality or ethnic origin…
The bill, proposed by Family First Senator Bob Day, is an ­attempt to strike a compromise after the government last year abandoned its changes to section 18C after widespread community backlash. The bill is co-sponsored by two other Liberal Senators, Cory Bernardi and Dean Smith, as well as Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, but it is unlikely to go to a vote until next year.
The Prime Minister is keen to avoid revisiting the issue while he seeks to reframe the debate on how best to counter violent ­extremism and enlist the support of the Islamic community. Mr Turnbull and Attorney-General George Brandis spoke separately with Senator Day during the week to determine if the bill would go to a vote, but were pleased when Senator Day said that he intended to wait until it had wider support.
Senator Bernardi expressed his disappointment that a vote on the bill had been delayed.
“Apparently, Bob Day rec­eived assurances that the matter will be dealt with in the new year,” he said. “It seems illogical to not want to deal with it now ... I’m very disappointed this wasn’t resolved in the Senate today."… Despite the growing support for the bill, the Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, yesterday said that the government did not intend to back the proposal.
Did any politician pushing mass immigration and refugee programs ever tell us that part of the deal was that we’d have to lose our freedom to have debates that some would complain was offensive?
UPDATE
 Senator Bob Day on his bill to restore free speech in debates on “race”:

A plague of political correctness seems to be sweeping this country, seeking to push out of the public arena those who the ruling elites don’t agree with. When in opposition, those who are now in government spoke powerfully about the need to halt the growing threats to free speech. However, in office they seem to have gone quiet. Yes, the Human Rights Commission is reviewing rights and responsibilities focussing on religious freedom. That begins next month. However, the central and specific commitment to reform 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act was abandoned until Senators Leyonhjelm, Smith, Bernardi and I picked it up again. I look forward to further debate on that tomorrow. 
Language is very powerful. The framing of these debates is powerful. Opponents of free speech like to talk about ‘hate speech’. They say that certain things should be censored because they might offend or insult someone. Simply calling words ‘hate speech’ is an affront to free speech.

(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Labor’s pathetic class war

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (7:07am)

Stephanie Balogh nails the envy politics that’s driving Labor’s dud attack on Malcolm Turnbull’s investments in the Cayman Islands:
The jibes from Labor’s ranks betrayed the class warfare attack for what it was — lowest common denominator politics. 
“The problem is you’ve got too much money,’’ Labor backbencher Lisa Chesters screeched towards the Prime Minister, her voice carrying across the chamber. 
Pathetic. What you’d expect from someone who’s been a union hack from her student days. 
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Richardson: Shorten must suspend the CFMEU

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (6:57am)

Graham Richardson says the polls aren’t that great for Malcolm Turnbull, other than his personal advantage over Bill Shorten.
So Turnbull needs to be taken down personally, but Shorten also needs to step up:
Shorten will need to be bold now Abbott is gone… To cut through there is one blatantly obvious course of action for him. With every passing day the evidence of just how crook too many officials in the CFMEU are grows and grows. Shorten will continue to ignore this at his peril. 
While I realise the CFMEU is part of the ruling group in the Victorian ALP and that Michael O’Connor and his brother Brendan are close friends of Shorten, defending the CFMEU’s continued affiliation with the ALP is indefensible. If the Opposition Leader wants to steal a march on the PM and improve his and his party’s standing in the polls, suspending the CFMEU from the party for two years would get massive attention. You can never go wrong opposing thuggery and officials lining their own pockets. You will always go wrong ignoring or defending the old rorts.
Similarly, the old rule of revealing your cuts only just before an election will not apply now. All I can glean from listening to Shorten and Chris Bowen is that they do have a plan to develop a plan — eventually. Time, though, is running out. If Turnbull decides that bringing down a May budget is too hard and opts for a May or April election, Labor could be caught short. If Shorten stands up and is counted, Australia will take notice.
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Goodbye to Egypt

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (6:23am)


Saudi-born singer Shams Bandar, also known as “Shams the Kuwaiti,” has declared she will renounce her Saudi and Kuwaiti nationalities and take up European citizenship instead.
She defended her decision in a September 22 interview with the Egyptian Dream TV channel, whose host peddles the usual hostile victimology. Excepts:
Host: Are you trying to sell the notion that foreign citizenship is the Paradise that will save you from the Hell of the Arab world?
Shams Bandar: Do you want me to be a hypocrite or not?
Host: I want the truth. Is it Paradise?
Shams Bandar: Of course. At this time…
Host: People will accuse you of treason, of collaboration, and the selling out of the Arab cause.
Shams Bandar: I have been accused of that for a long time now. It’s nothing new. Foreign citizenship… It’s not that I’m happy with the way things are, but let’s not deceive ourselves. Why tell ourselves lies? The Syrians are scattered in the world’s oceans, dying by the millions on a daily basis… Iraqis are dying by the millions… All the Arab countries have closed their borders to them.What can these wretched people do with their Arab citizenship? How does a suffering Syrian benefit from his Arab citizenship, when his children and family have been killed and his life has been destroyed? His own Arab brethren do not let him in. What if he were a British citizen? Wouldn’t the British embassy send a ship to get their citizens out? Why are we lying? Why aren’t we telling the truth? I’m not forcing people to get foreign citizenship.
Host: But it is these countries that caused the catastrophes of the [Arab] peoples. I wouldn’t portray these countries as life savers.
Shams Bandar: They are not life savers. But in Britain or America… Note that I am against the policies of their governments. I always say so. But show me where it says in their constitutions that you can chop people’s hands off, stone people, execute them in the streets, or do all the things done by ISIS and the Islamist movements, which are harmful to Islam.Do you see in the American constitution and law any of the things perpetrated by our Muslims? Can we say that they do these things in the West too? Why would they, when their constitutions are all about the respect for humanity? Let’s not get into what they do in secret, because I have no proof of that.
Host: What about their barbaric, bloody, aggressive conduct…
Shams Bandar: I see no evidence of that. All I see is laws, legislation, and constitution. Can anyone convince me that in America or Europe, they do what ISIS is doing to the Syrians, to the Yazidis, or to the Iraqis?Why do we pin all our problems on the West? For 1,400 years we have been slaughtering one another, just because one of us prays one way and another prays a different way. America wasn’t around 1,400 years ago. It wasn’t around even 300 years ago. We have been fighting and shedding blood for 1,400 years, and now we are blaming America and Britain?! 
UPDATE
Another version of the host’s victimology - dangerously prevalent in Muslim communities - is displayed on our own streets:

A teenage terror suspect accused of assisting with the killing of police accountant Curtis Cheng had previously spoken of his “anger” at a perceived war on Islam in Australia. 
Raban Alou, 18, spoke to Fairfax Media last year when his family’s Wentworthville home was raided and his older brother, Kawa, was detained as part of a terrorism operation.
“I dunno, I got a lot of anger,” he said at the time. “It’s a war on Islam just because we grow our beards. They want to label us as a terrorist, or supporters of IS [Islamic State], whatever, that’s up to you."…
Mr Alou was detained and charged on Thursday night with the Commonwealth offence of aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring the commission of a terrorist act. It is alleged he gave schoolboy Farhad Jabar a gun and spent two hours with him in Parramatta Mosque on October 2, before Jabar shot Mr Cheng outside Parramatta police headquarters…
Hours before the second raid on their home last week, older brother Kawa lashed out at Fairfax Media, saying the killing of Muslims around the world was more important than Mr Cheng’s death. “Why don’t you do something useful?” he said via Facebook. “And talk about real events occurring in Palestine. The killing of Muslims all ova the world [sic]. The oppressions in Burma, Palestine.”
Why did we let them in?
(Thanks to reader Steve.) 
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Je suis Charlie? French weatherman dumped for questioning the warming faith

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (6:10am)

No wonder so few scientists dare speak out against this cult:

Every night, France’s chief weatherman has told the nation how much wind, sun or rain they can expect the following day. 
Now Philippe Verdier, a household name for his nightly forecasts on France 2, has been taken off air after a more controversial announcement - criticising the world’s top climate change experts.
Mr Verdier claims in the book Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation) that leading climatologists and political leaders have “taken the world hostage” with misleading data.
In a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five million French people to talk to you about the wind, the clouds and the sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t been able to tell you, because it’s neither the time nor the place to do so.”
He added: “We are hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change – a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.”
His outspoken views led France 2 to take him off the air starting this Monday. “I received a letter telling me not to come. I’m in shock,” he told RTL radio…
The book has been released at a particularly sensitive moment as Paris is due to host a crucial UN climate change conference in December....

[Verdier] specifically challenges the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, saying they “blatantly erased” data that went against their overall conclusions, and casts doubt on the accuracy of their climate models.
The IPCC has said that temperatures could rise by up to 4.8°C if no action is taken to reduce carbon emissions.
Mr Verdier writes: “We are undoubtedly on a plateau in terms of warming and the cyclical variability of the climate doesn’t not allow us to envisage if the natural rhythm will tomorrow lead us towards a fall, a stagnation or a rise (in temperature).” 
It is hard to believe this is occurring in the country where tens of thousands of people, including politicians and celebrities, marched though the streets just nine months ago insisting “Je Suis Charlie”.  No, they would not be silenced!
[Verdier] said he decided to write the book in June 2014 when Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, summoned the country’s main weather presenters and urged them to mention “climate chaos” in their forecasts. 
“I was horrified by this discourse,” Mr Verdier told Les Inrockuptibles magazine. Eight days later, Mr Fabius appeared on the front cover of a magazine posing as a weatherman above the headline: “500 days to save the planet.” ... According to L’Express magazine, unions at France Television called for Mr Verdier to be fired, but that Delphine Ernotte, the broadcaster’s chief executive, initially said he should be allowed to stay “in the name of freedom of expression”. 
(Thanks to readers John and Dylan.) 
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War-cry of the modern Leftist revolutionary: stop or I’ll cry

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (6:06am)

Another cracker of an article by NSW Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet, this timelashing the whingeing Left:
Gone are the days of radical, fearless (often violent) student nonconformism, bucking social mores, sticking it to the man, overthrowing the hegemony, bringing on the revolution and all the rest. Today, the mantra is the opposite: conform, obey, toe the line, don’t ask why, just do it – and if you don’t, I’m going to cry and then you’ll be sorry (because I’m special and delicate and I don’t like it when the world I live in makes me feel uncomfortable). 
Marx would be mortified. Trotsky, turning in his grave. Che would be blushing with shame. Today’s conformist lefties somehow manage to combine the very worst of the archetypally stodgy, mindless ‘stick in the mud’ conservatism, with the churlish, temperamental sensitivity of a tantrum-throwing three year old. 
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Muslims burn church in Aceh

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (6:00am)

Christians persecuted in Indonesia:

Thousands of people, mostly Christians, have left Aceh Singkil regency, Aceh, for neighboring regencies in North Sumatra after an Islamic group attacked a village and set fire to a church. 
The attackers, grouped under the Aceh Singkil Islamic Care Youth Students Association (PPI), arrived in Suka Makmur village, Gunung Meriah district, Aceh Singkil, in several trucks on Tuesday afternoon and set alight the Huria Kristen Indonesia (HKI) Church, which they considered to be unlicensed.
Hundreds of police and military officers who had earlier been deployed to the village failed to prevent the attack as they were outnumbered…
The church was one of 10 in the regency that was protested by the Islamic group. At a recent meeting at the regency office between the protesters, the churches’ board members and local officials, it was reportedly agreed that the churches would be demolished on Oct. 19…
Many parties have denounced the attack in Aceh, the only province in the country to implement sharia… The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) also denounced the attack and discouraged Muslims in Aceh from taking part in any activities that could incite a larger conflict between Islamic and Christian communities in the region.
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Obama keeps troops in Afghanistan

Andrew Bolt October 16 2015 (5:50am)

Barack Obama pulled US troops from Iraq far too soon, and the Islamic State rushed to filled the vacuum with devastating results.
Obama refused to seriously engage in Syria, again creating a vacuum filled by the Islamic State - and now Russia.
At least he refuses to make the same mistake a third time:
President Barack Obama announced Thursday that U.S. forces will remain in Afghanistan at their current levels throughout much of 2016, yet another delay in their scheduled withdrawal and an acknowledgment that America’s longest war won’t be concluded on his watch. 
Obama campaigned as the president who would end two wars, and Thursday’s decision was a major political reversal that jeopardizes a cornerstone of his legacy. Taliban gains in Afghanistan and appeals from Kabul for ongoing U.S. assistance contributed to postponing the troop withdrawal and underscored Obama’s continuing difficulty in fulfilling his intention to remove all American forces by the time he leaves office… The plan announced Thursday keeps 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan before an anticipated drawdown to around 5,500 by the time Obama leaves office. The troop’s mission will remain the same, Obama emphasized—to train and support Afghan security forces and carry out counterterrorism operations.
The war in Syria, a country of 23 million, has unleashed 4 million refugees and helped to flood Europe with illegal immigrants. Afghanistan has 32 million people. True, they are less mobile than the Syrians, but the consequences of collapse would be grave.
UPDATE
David Rothkopf puts it in a nutshell:

To leave entirely would be to invite chaos, render America’s enormous investment a write-off, and likely leave the country a home to a new generation of violent extremists even more dangerous than the al Qaeda thugs that America entered Afghanistan to eradicate.
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The ebola message doesn’t match these precautions

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (9:53am)

I don’t trust the authorities’ claims that it is virtually impossible to contract ebola through casual contact when we see the houses of patients in the West being sprayed and nurses contracting the disease even after taking elaborate precautions.
And this doesn’t help at all:
Dr. Tom Frieden, director for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said during a telephone press briefing Wednesday that you cannot get Ebola by sitting next to someone on a bus, but that infected or exposed persons should not ride public transportation because they could transmit the disease to someone else.
Given that, this strikes me as irresponsible grandstanding by the Greens and Labor:
Labor will increase pressure on the Abbott government to do more to help fight the Ebola outbreak in west Africa by publicly calling for the government to deploy medical assistance teams. 
Labor’s deputy leader and foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, and health spokeswoman Catherine King will write to Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Health Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday to request they immediately make arrangements to deploy Australian personnel to the region…
Mr Abbott told reporters on Sunday his government would not send doctors and nurses to west Africa until it could be “absolutely confident that all of the risks are being properly managed”, adding it would be “irresponsible” for the government to send personnel to the region at this time. Ms Bishop has previously cited the government’s inability to safely evacuate any Australian personnel who might be infected with the virus in west Africa. 
And when those aid workers come home? Pray that our own precautions are far more professional that those taken so far by the Obama Administration:
US authorities are in a desperate race to track down 131 passengers of a domestic flight after it emerged that a Texas nurse with the Ebola virus flew across the Midwest a day before she was diagnosed… 
Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was actively engaged in caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in the days before his death on October 8. Records show she inserted catheters, drew blood, and dealt with Mr Duncan’s body fluids. Kent State University in Ohio, where three of Ms Vinson’s relatives work, confirmed she was the latest patient on Wednesday… The news came as the largest nurses’ union said nurses treating Mr Duncan worked for days without proper protective gear… Nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for Mr Duncan, who had diarrhoea and projectile vomiting, said Deborah Burger of National Nurses United.
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ABC - making mock of uniforms that guard them while Scott sleeps

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (9:47am)

 The ABC isn’t biased at all. Of course not! ABC boss Mark Scott insists it isn’t biased, and are you going to believe him or your lying ears and eyes?

The Chaser “boys” last night decided to mock the war on the Islamist terrorists who have slaughtered thousands of people, beheaded journalists and aid workers, enslaved and raped women, wiped out non-Muslim Iraqis and taken over huge parts of Syria and Iraq.
So do they mock the Islamic State’s leaders - or Tony Abbott?
Do they mock Muslims - or Catholics, Jews and Buddhists?
Gutless wonders. 
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Patriotism is the new racism of the scoundrels

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:53am)


PATRIOTISM has been declared racist. Just when we must insist Australia is worth defending, we’re told only scum would say so.

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt was outraged this week that two Woolworths outlets sold singlets printed with the Australian flag and “If you don’t love it leave”.
Bandt reposted a tweet blasting these “racist singlets”, fanning the fury of the Twitter Left.
Woolworths took instant fright, declaring the patriotic slogan “totally unacceptable” and promising to never again sell such a wicked thing.
But exactly how is the singlet racist? Which “race” does it attack? Which “race” does Bandt think hates Australia so much that they are the obvious target?
No, the haters of the singlet are not trying to protect some Australia-hating “race” they cannot even identify and would insult if they tried.
(Read full article here.) 
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Vaughan to the NGA

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:33am)

Excellent, although “safe” is a bit of a put-down:
A SAFE, scholarly museum veteran will take on the task of restoring the reputation of the National Gallery of Australia, in the wake of the Dancing Shiva looted antiquities scandal.

More than six weeks after he was recommended by the selection panel, art historian and former National Gallery of Victoria director Gerard Vaughan will this morning be announced as the fifth director of the nation’s temple of high art, succeeding Ron Radford who departed two weeks ago after 12 years in charge.
This was a major achievement of Vaughan’s time in Melbourne, leaving the city with a brilliant asset:
From his appointment as Director in 1999, Gerard provided dynamic leadership in the face of extraordinary challenges. The first was overseeing the redevelopment of the NGV on two separate sites (The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square and NGV International on St Kida Road) and raising the significant funds needed for this through a corporate and donors program. This was achieved through launching the Gallery Campaign in 2000, which not only exceeded its target but also identified a new group of important Gallery supporters. This campaign was the most successful of its kind in the history of Australian visual arts.
And theJoseph Brown wing of the Ian Potter Centre particularly is terrific:
He was particularly proud to have raised $120 million during the financial crisis, as well as negotiating the gift of Joseph Brown’s remarkable collection in 2004 and buying a $5.2m Correggio with Andrew Sisson’s money.
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MP porn ring? Seriously? In the age of the Internet? UPDATE: Faine frames Guy

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:22am)

I find it highly improbable that MPs traipse over to a ministerial adviser to borrow his porn - allegedly including even animal porn - and put their future in his hands:
A SACKED senior state government adviser is set to tell a court he ran a pornographic ring that lent sleazy movies to Coalition MPs and advisers from inside his office at 1 Treasury Place.  

An adviser to former premier Ted Baillieu, Don Coulson, who was sacked in March last year, days after Premier Denis Napthine took over, is suing for wrongful dismissal. 
He is going to the County Court seeking $67,000 and costs in redundancy payments he claims that the Government owes him.
In response, the Government has countersued, claiming that Mr Coulson must return $30,000 in severance pay because he had pornography in his office while working for Mr Baillieu…
It says it can be inferred that he accessed pornography there because in 2001 Mr Coulson “was subject to disciplinary action for downloading a large amount of pornography during work hours and using the resources of his public service employer’’.
But Mr Coulson has told the Herald Sun ... the only material he would have had in his office were memory sticks made available for collection by MPs and advisers to view on their private computers without breaking government IT rules… “But I believe at least one minister, and MPs, were ­accessing this material....”

A government source has told the Herald Sun material found in Mr Coulson’s office included animal pornography.
This response suggests a more likely theory:
Government spokesman said in response in a statement last night: “This is the first time such allegations have been made, despite a number of meetings between the disgruntled former employee, his legal representatives and the legal representatives of the state. Serious questions have to be asked as to the timing of the allegations made by the individual concerned.”
UPDATE
Naturally, ABC presenter Jon Faine treats the allegations as fact, insisting to Minister Matthew Guy that there was in fact a porn ring, and the Liberals should have contacted the police over a crime that in fact he cannot identify when challenged.
Faine later reads out a text message from a listener claiming Guy thought there was nothing wrong with a Premier’s staffer distributing porn in a government office. Faine says hundreds more texts make the same point, which Faine implies he supports, even though Guy in fact made no such claim at all and the Government is actually counter-suing Colson for exactly that breach of his role. What Faine suggests is actually false.
The ABC’s bias is unrelenting, brazen and in breach of the ABC’s charter, making ABC boss Mark Scott’s denials seem much worse than a case of blindness. It should worry the Liberals that they go to a state election with the ABC’s morning program effectively siding with Labor and the Greens.
Why is this bias not addressed by the ABC board and the government? 
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But I’m ashamed Richard Flanagan is Australian

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:15am)

Global warming - dud predictions

 FOR once I agree with Richard Flanagan, the novelist muttering eco-pieties in his Tasmanian holdout.

Flanagan won the Man Booker Prize this week and was asked — apparently being an expert — what he thought of Tony Abbott’s claim that “coal is good for humanity”. Groaned the guru: “To be frank, I’m ashamed to be Australian.”
Me, too. I am ashamed the PM needed to insist on something so obvious — that this cheap and reliable source of power literally brings light to the poor, plus jobs and freedom from backbreaking toil.
I’m ashamed we have so many “experts” who mock that truth.

And I’m also ashamed — well, maybe just ticked off — that Abbott didn’t dare complete his case by pointing out the global warming bandwagon just blew yet another tyre.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Flanagan has a history of feeling ashamed - but not over the bizarre politics he’s shamefully peddled. 
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The first war aim in Iraq must be: fight to win

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (7:40am)

One way or another the coalition, led by the weakest US president in a century, is going to have to step up this war and send in ground forces, even if those soldiers are called something else:
ISLAMIC State jihadists have made important advances in Iraq despite US-led air strikes, Washington’s envoy to the US-led coalition fighting the group warns.

It was clear the IS group “has made substantial gains in Iraq” and it will take time to build up local forces that could defeat them in Syria and Iraq, John Allen, a retired four-star US general, told reporters. 
The Iraqi government and Kurdish forces have halted or pushed back IS militants in some places, including around Mosul dam, but the group has “tactical momentum” in other areas, Mr Allen said. 
UPDATE
Even more reason to smash and humiliate the Islamic State, and destroy this inspiration for louts in our own streets:
POLICE have launched an ­investigation into a graffiti ­attack at a Sydney school where vandals scrawled “ISIS R coming” and “ISIS beheads”.

Teachers at East Hills Boys High School discovered the graffiti on four buildings and a fence yesterday morning and reported it to police. 
It comes just weeks after the Australian Federal Police visited the school amid reports a student had travelled to Lebanon and was en route to join IS militants in Syria before he was stopped by his father…
Police attended the school yesterday to investigate the graffiti attack, which is ­believed to have included threats of “beheadings"… A teacher from the school, who did not want to be identified, told 2GB radio yesterday afternoon he was concerned about the number of students at the school who were speaking openly about IS and voicing their support for the terrorist death cult. 
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Labor Senator Sue Lines joins Putin in mocking Abbott for demanding answers on dead Australians

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (7:32am)

First Labor Senator Sue Lines made a liar of her leader by playing politics with national security, claiming the Abbott Government was just hyping up the Islamist scare to avoid talking about the Budget:
“It’s [the Government] hyping it up, it’s invented the term Team Australia - you’re either in the team or you’re out of the team,” she said. 
“And it’s looking for opportunities in the media and elsewhere to try and scare the Australian public and to distract everyone from the budget.”
Now Lines - utterly without class or gravitas - sides with the Russian president who supplied the missile his rebels used to murder 38 Australians on MH17, mocking the Prime Minister trying to hold him to account:
The new Labor truly is the party of hate. Your security in their hands?
UPDATE
I suggest Lines look very carefully when Abbott meets Putin and learn a lesson about how to defy bullies, not side with them. 
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Palmer the bully drops defamation claim. His claims not to be tested in court

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (7:01am)

Clive Palmer doesn’t seem to much confidence in his court actions these days, which is no surprise, given his recent record:
SELF-proclaimed billionaire and politician Clive Palmer has dropped his $1 million defamation claim against The Australian newspaper. 
Mr Palmer, leader of the Palmer United Party, took the action over five articles that appeared in the newspaper last year by Brisbane-based journalist Hedley Thomas. The articles covered Mr Palmer’s business activities in the mining and tourism sectors, as well as his dealings with the Chinese government-owned mining giant Citic Pacific.
Mr Palmer told the ABC’s Lateline program that The Australian’s reporting about the matter was “an invention”.  But in August, Supreme Court judge David Boddice significantly narrowed the scope of Mr Palmer’s defamation action when he ruled that three of the five articles carried no imputations against Mr Palmer. Nine of the 10 imputations alleged by Mr Palmer were struck out by the court…
Mr Palmer confirmed he had dropped the action, saying a trial would have taken “too long”.
“Action against @australian dismissed by mutual consent. No order of costs. Trial would take too long. Rather spend time with Fairfax voters,” he tweeted.
(Thanks to readers WaG311, Peter of Bellevue Hill and The Village Idiot (Reformed).) 
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Post by May Wa Leng.
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Post by The Sydney Morning Herald - smh.com.au.
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Post by Matt Granz.
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Post by Joe Linus Music.
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/tony-abbott-loses-a-mentor-and-a-friend-with-the-death-of-father-emmet-costello/story-e6frg6nf-1226741045448
I'm a proud Christian, but agree with JFo .. conservatism is broad. Leftwing ideology very narrow. - ed
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Sarah Palin'
New Jersey, the eyes of America are on you tomorrow! 

Know anyone in NJ? Call them tonight and remind them to vote for conservative Steve Lonegan tomorrow. 

Don’t know anyone in NJ but still want to make calls? Click here to help out:
https://www.loneganforsenate.com/phonefromhome/

Live in NJ? Remember to vote tomorrow! If we turn out, we win! The stakes are too high to stay at home. Click here for polling hours and locations:
https://voter.njsvrs.com/PublicAccess/jsp/PollPlace/PollPlaceSearch.jsp

And for more reasons to support Steve Lonegan, please see this testifying video from Cory Booker's "neighbors": http://youtu.be/nycXW90H5zU

Let’s make history. Let’s elect Steve Lonegan to the U.S. Senate tomorrow!

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Holly Sarah Nguyen
If you try to please everybody, life will be miserable. If it doesn't match what God has put in your heart, let it go in one ear and out the other.

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Can it be more obvious? Thirteen Syrian rebel groups–including the most important in Aleppo and Damascus–demand an Islamist state in Syria and say they don’t care what the official rebel, U.S.-backed politicians say.
By the way, only one of these groups is an al-Qaida group, Jabhat al-Nusra. There is also the large Salafi Islamist group,Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiya. The others include the powerful Liwa al-Tawhid (Aleppo) and Liwa al-Islam. Both groups operated as part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) umbrella.

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With the Syrian thriller and its spin-off machinations keeping us at the edge of our seats, who had time to at all notice much less care about the volubility of Ramallah’s honchos?
Too much distracting din made it difficult to pay much mind to Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cronies. But this didn’t keep them from babbling and what they revealed deserved our attention – even if the utterances in question weren’t the sort that the more politically correct in our midst prefer we dwell on.
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““How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.” 2 Samuel 7:22 NIV
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Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening

Morning


"But who may abide the day of his coming?"
Malachi 3:2

His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing might. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their professions by rejecting him when he came. His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few enough could abide the process. But what will his second advent be? What sinner can endure to think of it? "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." When in his humiliation he did but say to the soldiers, "I am he," they fell backward; what will be the terror of his enemies when he shall more fully reveal himself as the "I am?" His death shook earth and darkened heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendour of that day in which as the living Saviour, he shall summon the quick and dead before him? O that the terrors of the Lord would persuade men to forsake their sins and kiss the Son lest he be angry! Though a lamb, he is yet the lion of the tribe of Judah, rending the prey in pieces; and though he breaks not the bruised reed, yet will he break his enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. None of his foes shall bear up before the tempest of his wrath, or hide themselves from the sweeping hail of his indignation; but his beloved blood washed people look for his appearing with joy, and hope to abide it without fear: to them he sits as a refiner even now, and when he has tried them they shall come forth as gold. Let us search ourselves this morning and make our calling and election sure, so that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark forebodings in our mind. O for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be found of him sincere and without rebuke in the day of his appearing.

Evening


"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck."
Exodus 34:20
Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's, but since the ass was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits of no exceptions. The ass is his due, but he will not accept it; he will not abate the claim, but yet he cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but redemption--the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for thee. That unclean animal is thyself; thou art justly the property of the Lord who made thee and preserves thee, but thou art so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in thy stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know of thy gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee, and so redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the ass or the lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare? Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass is spared. My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom had been mine had not plenteous redemption been found! The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty, but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 45-46, 1 Thessalonians 3 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 45-46


1 “This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Thessalonians 3

1 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
Timothy’s Encouraging Report
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith....
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