Thursday, October 27, 2016

Thu Oct 27th Todays News

In less than two weeks the world will know if the polls are wrong about Donald Trump’s support among voters, as they were in 1980, or if corrupt and incompetent press can get the worst candidate elected. The press have not been professional, or even inept. They have been corrupt. It is a truth of journalism that open sourced databases are unreliable. Hence Wikipedia is never a quoted source. But even Snopes has been commandeered by left wing tribal supporters, and so called fact checking misrepresents the truth. For example, a terrorist is released in May from Guantanamo and Breitbart news claim “Obama released a terrorist related to ..” and Snopes fact checks the claim. The terrorist was released from GITMO on that date, but they say there is no evidence Obama did it. Such appalling rhetoric on a fact site diminishes the resource and the body that protects it. But the Hillary Tribe will sacrifice anything and anyone to achieve her aims.

But even if Trump has support and can get elected, there are serious doubts about the processes and so Trump might not be able to get the electoral college votes. The corruption of the press undermines democracy around the world. It is not a new thing. In UK, it was apparent in Horatio Nelson’s day (circa 1800) and there is no easy way of addressing it. It is cultural to the profession. Journalism professors will take sides and lie for their tribe. And if Trump gets elected, then the press will immediately begin work to limit the Presidency to one term or less. But if Trump loses it is worse. Hillary’s job is to be so awful that the Democrats can say, following her loss, that they have listened to the people and will change as a party. But the press? Who can save it? Fox is balanced, not a supporter of Trump. And when they hosted the third debate they scoffed at a Reagan type economic plan that promotes GDP and cuts business taxes. They supported Hillary’s impossible plan of increasing Education and health spending, while not increasing taxation and debt, like what Jimmy Carter promised in 1980. Trump is not Reagan, but that is not the issue. Blind hatred of anyone not left wing all the time motivates the world’s mainstream media and skews political support.

 Donald Trump's speech at Gettysburg is frightening media. They have supported and protected insider corruption for a long time. Trump will clean up the festering wound, and make America great again. 
=== from 2015 ===
Meeting at Gallipoli Club with Cambell Newman and his biographer Gavin King for the Sydney Institute. An elderly man fell off his chair, but was otherwise all right, and Newman continued. Then Newman faced questions. One shrill questioner asked about coal seam gas which Alan Jones had campaigned so vociferously. Newman pointed out each seat affected by the issue voted for his party. But Alan Jones was successful in trashing an excellent government. But at the time Turnbull had been undermining the Liberals. 

Gerard Henderson tried to intercept my unfairly broad question of Heiner and public service corruption, but Campbell answered it well .. he tried and looked to do something regarding the destruction of evidence. If he could have done something, he would have. For mine, it shows the benefits of ALP insurance. Had a conservative destroyed evidence of a gang rape of an indigenous girl in detention they would be persecuted more than they are now. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
Today is the anniversary of Democrat Governor Lilburn Boggs of Missouri, in 1838, signing the executive order 44 allowing the extermination of Mormons. The order was rescinded in 1976 by the 47th Governor of Missouri Christopher Bond, a GOP man. Boggs lived the rest of his years in fear of assassination. He had declared Mormons as fighting a war against Missouri. But Boggs order should be seen in modern terms as being disproportionate. In Boggs' defence, there was still slavery in the US and he would have felt urged to treat Mormons harshly. It isn't really a defence. 
The end is nigh!
Only 37 days to go before the end of the world according to CSIRO chief scientist Professor Penny Sackett. Yet the chief difference between a skeptic and a warmest seems to be years of research. A skeptic is more knowledgeable. And warmest scientists seem to be well remunerated for their crackpot theories. 
ABC and ALP Balance?
Well remunerated ABC former host complains about others doing what he does. Jonathon Holmes was a Media Watch host who would post questions late on a friday for a Monday broadcast. Quadrant had done similarly when it compiled its list of ABC stars remuneration packages. But Holmes was never appropriately balanced in his reporting, often being side tracked with having to hit and hurt Rupert Murdoch.

A new ABC chief would be better than the present one. All they need be is balanced.

Victoria's conservative government are in trouble according to polls. They have an effective leader and their policy is positive with a vision for the future, while the ALP have shown nothing worthwhile. But with media siding with ALP in almost all media, the choice for voters will be hard.

ALP know their policy was wrong and caused deaths, but they refuse to change, and obstruct legislation that saves lives and is more compassionate and fairer. ALP like to kill. For those living elsewhere, the issue is to do with migration by boat to Australia. Conservatives had ended the mass drownings and piratic exploitation of desperate economic migrants in 2002 with the Pacific Solution, allowing routine refugee checks on the migrants off shore of Australia. But the ALP claimed that was not compassionate. So the ALP took down the Pacific Solution in '08 and the result was many died and many tens of thousands were exploited by pirates, paying some $10k or $20k each to come to Australia. The abysmal policy of the ALP meant $billions were spent housing and caring for survivors whom were placed in camps for years at a time. The new conservative government has ended the expensive misery, but the ALP are desperately holding onto their murderous policy. 
Fighting savages
Rehana died fighting for her people against terrorists. She was Muslim. She was a Kurd and part of a female unit of fighters. ISIL are disturbed by the female fighters, because their 72 virgins in heaven myth is nullified by being killed by a woman. Rehana had a righteous spirit, and she has many friends.

Some really disgusting, obstructive and insane people are bigoted non Muslims. But they aren't the terrorists killing, raping and torturing people. 
MLB World Series Update
SF Giants have blown away KC Royals 5-0, with the Giants Pitcher Bumgarner, pitching a nine innings shut out. Giants are a win away from taking the series, while Royals are two wins away. 
From 2013
ALP having a crisis of honesty. The election is over, so ALP can say what they think and feel. Apparently Gillard, who didn't want Abbott to win, didn't want Rudd to win either. Rudd wanted to win, but didn't expect to, and wouldn't change policies to make the ALP more effective. Shorten can change leaders as easily as his mind, just can't see the point in changing *anything* because the voters expect the ALP to be incompetent and dangerous and that is what the voters voted for if they voted ALP. Some of the ALP's most effective ministers were in fact journalists paid to be independent. While they could always be relied on to spread the meme most favourable to the ALP, they are now confused by conservative policy and don't know how to evaluate the performance of the first fifty days, but believe the ALP were right to jump over a cliff for the NBN, AGW belief, mining tax and general murderous incompetence. The new ALP deputy believes she is a woman, when she once believed she was as good as any man. Penny Wong now believes that debt is bad for government. Conroy now believes that the NBN was badly conceived but the press should be restricted from reporting it. Nick Champion voted with Greens on every issue before the election, and would be still, but the ALP lost and he now says it was not such a good idea to be linked with Greens. Roxon agreed that Rudd was a bastard and should never have been leader, although he had had her full support as PM. 

Bad ALP administration has resulted in corruption of academic progress in schooling. Not merely the calls to lie about global warming and bush fires from senior administration, but the very act of teaching and learning reading has been corrupted by a fad. Average and exceptional children with excellent home support may progress normally with whole word reading, but there is a substantial number of children who don't, and they need a technique for attacking words which current educational standards don't cater for, as evidenced by the substantial number of children graduating from high school illiterate .. unable to write a sentence, or a letter, or read an administrative form requiring their birthdate and signature. Of course, abysmal left wing preaching permeates the courses in all key learning areas. 
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 Maxine Stauffer, Sophie Mirabella, Helen Le and Duncan Rowland Born on the same day, across the years, along with
921 – Emperor Shizong of (Later) Zhou (d. 959)
1703 – Johann Gottlieb Graun, German violinist and composer (d. 1771)
1782 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1840)
1811 – Isaac Singer, American businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (d. 1875)
1858 – Theodore Roosevelt, American politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)
1932 – Sylvia Plath, American poet (d. 1963)
1939 – John Cleese, English actor, screenwriter, and producer
1952 – Roberto Benigni, Italian actor, screenwriter, and director
1953 – Peter Firth, English actor
1964 – Mark Taylor, Australian cricketer
1978 – Vanessa-Mae, Singaporean-English violinist
1986 – David Warner, Australian cricketer
1999 – Haruka Kudo, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
October 27: Labour Day in New Zealand (2014)
The Amstel flowing through Amsterdam
The count has named it. We inflicted a tactical defeat, but have no strategic advantage. We will be restored. Good is sometimes crushed. Bosox won something. Let's party. 
Deaths
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Tim Blair


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Andrew Bolt


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BIDDIES FOR BOATIES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 27, 2015 (6:32pm)

They’ve even got little cut-out reffos. Bless.
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THEY TRY, THEY FAIL, THEY CRY

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 27, 2015 (4:04pm)

Online leftists – mostly anonymous Twitter types, but also several mainstream media folk – last week attempted to destroy Chris Kenny’s career. Kenny, who isn’t inclined to cop this sort of thing, fought back. Subsequently, leftist site Independent Australia issued this apology:


This followed an earlier retraction from similarly-misguided Labor MP Graham Perrett. It could be, however, that Independent Australia‘s apology wasn’t particularly genuine. After it was posted, Independent Australia managing editor and forceps delivery Dave Donovan fumed that Kenny was a “peabrain”. His shame-rage still boiling, Donovan may also have published this defamatory piece by Bob Ellis, which the writer claims first appeared at Donovan’s site. If it did, it didn’t last long.
Now the Guardian‘s cowardly cartoonist has joined in with a masterpiece of dishonesty and slurs. That’s because dishonesty and slurs are all they have. As someone once said, the Left only win when they lie.
And then they lose.
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GREAT LEAP FORWARD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 27, 2015 (12:24am)

Chairman Maocolm’s popularity surge continues: 
The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, reveals the Coalition leads Labor by 52 per cent to 48 per cent in two-party terms, having regained its lead after the parties were deadlocked at 50-50 a fortnight ago.
Mr Turnbull’s massive lead as the preferred prime minister grew further, with his support leaping to 63 per cent while Mr Shorten fell to his worst result of 17 per cent …
Satisfaction with Mr Turnbull’s performance as Prime Minister rose eight points to 58 per cent while dissatisfaction with his performance fell two points to 23 per cent.
Both figures are the best for any prime minister since 2009. 
The Prime Minister in 2009 was, of course, Kevin Rudd. He faced an opposition leader named Malcolm Turnbull. Rudd got dumped one year later after a Newspoll showed his government leading by … 52 to 48.
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TOAD IN A WHOLE LOT OF TROUBLE

Tim Blair – Monday, October 26, 2015 (11:57pm)

Tragic images of Toady, the kidnapped rubber puffer fish, photographed by his wicked captors:


If you see him, please email me or call the official NSW police kidnapped rubber puffer fish hotline.
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Free speech dying at my university

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (5:04pm)

Leighton McDonald-Stuart is one of the editors of On Dit, the Adelaide University student union magazine. He’s become alarmed:
My experience as a student magazine editor for the past year has shown me that freedom of speech no longer has de facto acceptance on campus. Universities are no longer a place of inquiry or rigorous debate. Academic censorship is rife. 
Take Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish environmentalist who sought to establish a research centre at the University of Western Australia and Flinders University. At both institutions he has faced resistance from students who staged protests and leveraged their student bodies to prevent such a centre from being established.
Their rationale? They do not agree with his findings and they’re not prepared to engage in debate…
These same students also want to limit free expression by mandating the use of “trigger warnings”, as well as censoring books they find uncomfortable or challenging.
A “trigger warning” is a device that has emerged in the past two decades that seeks to warn a reader where a posttraumatic reaction may be induced based on the content.
This has gone from warning of a discussion about rape to now including things such as ‘‘how many calories are in a food item’’ and “drunk driving’’. The discussion of these things doesn’t actually harm anyone, it’s just that students now demand to live in a cotton-wrapped world…
Further, the attitudes of the ever-increasing number of “social justice warriors” towards those who they disagree with is creating an environment that is not conducive to the exercise of speech, of free thought and of debate.
You risk being labelled “fascist scum” if you happen to be of conservative ilk or simply opposed to communism or radical feminism. If you seek to express a view that doesn’t conform to that espoused by the revolutionary socialist groups on campus, then you are “racist”. Don’t support gay marriage? You’re “homophobic”. Not a fan of unisex toilets? “Transphobic”. Radical, self-obsessed students have initiated this massive smear campaign against any opponents and, in doing so they have significantly shifted the threshold, at least on campus, of these terms. Who cares about deregulation? The real issue at our universities is the erosion of freedom of speech. 
UPDATE
Cheer up, Leighton. Or do I mean cheer down? It only gets worse as you go up the media ladder. Check out the latest sliming of The Australian’s Chris Kenny by Leftists cross that he’s reported the truth.
Keep fighting back.
(Thanks to reader Angela.) 
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US challenges China grab

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (4:35pm)

Barack Obama finally asserts US power, challenging the right of China to insist it controls the seas around the man-made islands it’s created around critical sea lanes:
Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, had completed the first in a series of planned freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. The operation is the strongest assertion yet by the U.S. Navy that it rejects any maritime claims for Chinese features that were submerged at low-tide in their original, pre-land reclamation state… 
A U.S. defense official confirmed to the Wall Street Journal ... that the destroyer had “navigated through the waters around at least one of the land masses to which China lays claim within the Spratly chain of islands in the South China Sea.” ... [A] U.S. official had told Reuters that the only two possible features where the Lassen could have carried out an operation are Subi and Mischief Reefs–two features that are “low-tide elevations” under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Per UNCLOS, these features are entitled to no special consideration for a maritime exclusion zone outside of a 500 meter navigational safety zone....

China’s foreign minister has already commented on the FONOP. According to reports, Wang Yi noted that “If true, we advise the U.S. to think again and before acting, not act blindly or make trouble out of nothing.”
UPDATE
The reason:
White House spokesman Josh Earnest ... said the United States had made clear to China the importance of free flow of commerce in the South China Sea. 
“There are billions of dollars of commerce that float through that region of the world,” Earnest told a news briefing. “Ensuring that free flow of commerce ... is critical to the global economy,” he said. The patrols would be the first within 12 miles of the features since China began building the reefs up in 2014. The United States last went within 12 miles of Chinese-claimed territory in the Spratlys in 2012.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.) 
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How could killers of Pearce-Stevenson collect her welfare cash?

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (4:01pm)

The most ghastly kind of welfare fraud - and the money now offered by the welfare state is big enough to tempt the depraved:
Police suspect people involved in the murder of Karlie and Khandalyce Pearce-Stevenson hijacked the pair’s identities after killing them and raked in about $90,000 across multiple states and territories. 
In an extraordinary development on Tuesday, South Australian police revealed Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s phone was also used after she was killed to provide “proof of life” to her family and friends.
The young mother’s skeleton was found in the Belanglo State Forest in August 2010… Her daughter Khandalyce’s bones were found dumped in a suitcase on the side of a highway at Wynarka in South Australia in July this year. ..
A female also pretended to be Ms Pearce-Stevenson while communicating with family and friends.  On some of those occasions, she persuaded someone in Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s family to forward money into her account, which the offenders later withdrew…
Bank accounts, Centrelink and family payments were accessed and Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s mobile phone was used by her killers to drive the fraud, police believe…
In the same year a woman went into a Centrelink branch at Salisbury in South Australia and falsely represented that she was Ms Pearce-Stevenson.
“And produced identity documents for herself and Khandalyce,” Det Supt Bray said. 
The murders are the worst aspect of this. But once they are solved, I’d hope welfare officials explain what steps they take to monitor whether the big money they are paying is going to the right people, and for legitimate reasons.

UPDATE
Similar story with the Snowtown murders:
Between December 1995 and May 1999, John Justin Bunting — along with close friend Robert Joe Wagner — committed a selective killing spree in low socio-economic suburbs north of Adelaide… 
The eight victims found encased in the barrels in May 1999 had been de-fleshed and dismembered… In the days after the grisly bank find, detectives discovered two dismembered bodies buried in one of Bunting’s former backyards — at a house in Salisbury North.... It was determined the killers fleeced about $95,000 from their victims’ welfare benefits — “icing on the cake” as Bunting had described it… Bunting continued to claim Davies’ welfare payments.  Bunting assumed control of Lane’s vehicle and claimed his welfare payments… Bunting could gain from O’Dwyer’s welfare payments.
Related:
CHLOE Valentine wasn’t killed by just two ferals. Also guilty is the feral culture that millions of us helped create. 
So it’s not enough that we’ve jailed Chloe’s mother, Ashlee Polkinghorne, and her brutal partner, Benjamin McPartland…
Polkinghorne was often drugged and drunk — a prostitute who lived in filth and flitted from one violent boyfriend to another.... South Australia’s child protection service, Families SA, ... was given 20 separate warnings that Chloe was in danger yet — shockingly — did not save her. Coroner Mark Johns ... notes how our modern welfarism turns some children into possessions — even meal tickets. In this case, “Chloe represented nothing more to (her mother) than a means by which her income could be enhanced by obtaining support payments not available to a childless person”.
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Warmist chief scientist says nuclear. Turnbull and Shorten say no

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (3:22pm)

Our new chief scientist, Alan Finkel, is another global warmist who talks up a electrical cars - although his involvement as  Chief Technology Officer of electric car company Better Place Australia turned out badly, with the parent company badly underestimating the costs and hurdles:
When Shai Agassi, the founder of Israel-based electric car company Better Place, first told the world about his idea, he said it would be bigger than the lightbulb, the steam engine, the Apollo program, and the internet. In May 2013, just six years after Agassi first laid out his vision for a network of electric vehicles, Better Place was bankrupt. 
Finkel also thinks we could go entirely solar or wind-powered, although his “but” is again that fundamental hurdle - how can you make it cheap and reliable enough:
“My vision is for a country, a society, a world where we don’t use any coal, oil, or natural gas because we have zero-emissions electricity in huge abundance,” Dr Finkel said… 
”With enough storage we could do it in this country with solar and wind.”
But that storage is exactly the problem. It is still vastly expensive to store solar power for use at night and dark days, or wind power for when the wind doesn’t blow. And even once the technology is invented, there’s the cost of installing it to replace what’s already there and working.
So that leaves nuclear, if you really do believe that coal’s emissions are heating the world dangerously. And Finkel says we should indeed investigate nuclear:
If we want to increase by a factor of four or five, the total amount of electricity that we generate in order to replace oil for transport and gas for heating and coal in the first place, it’s a big challenge. 
I think that it’s not unreasonable to look at all viable alternatives.
Nuclear energy is a zero emissions energy. It comes with issues, including the fact that we don’t yet have the infrastructure, the training or the things that would enable it to be a viable industry. So it’s something that should be absolutely considered for a low emissions or a zero emissions future if that’s what we’re looking for.
Many of the problems Finkel suggests to soften his message are relatively easy to overcome. The technology is there, and a reactor could be bought virtually off the shelf. The real hurdles are regulatory and political - plus the cost, of course, which is nevertheless lower than that of solar and wind.
But remember how warmist politicians keep yelling at sceptics to listen to the science?None are listening to the new chief scientist:
“Nuclear energy has low emissions but is hugely expensive to construct and obviously has a number of very big environmental problems associated with it, or challenges associated with it,’’ Mr Turnbull said. 
Federal Leader Bill Shorten said at the weekend he did not believe nuclear energy was a viable option for Australia.
Too scared of a fight with greens and journalists, raised to falsely believe nuclear power is too dangerous.
And so here we are: panicked by the global warming scaremongers yet panicked by the nuclear scaremongers out of embracing the solution. Stupid either way. And definitely not heeding the science.
UPDATE
But credit to Turnbull for defending coal by adopting the “coal is good for humanity” line of Tony Abbott:
“Coal is a very important part, a very large part, the largest single part in fact, of the global energy mix,” Mr Turnbull said. 
“And likely to remain that way for a very long time.”
He said coal was continuing to play a big part in alleviating poverty in developing countries. “You’ve got to remember that energy poverty is one of the big limits on global development in terms of achieving all of the development goals.”
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Religion of pieces

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (2:51pm)

As I discussed with Michael Danby on Sunday, the ABC story is that the recent violent in Israel is largely Israel’s fault:
 Little or no mention is made of the incitement by Palestinian leaders and imams. The latest example:
 A Gaza preacher promised that the next terror attacks will include suicide missions that will “turn [Israelis] into lifeless corpses and scattered body parts.”

In a sermon on Friday posted by watchdog group MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), the cleric identified as Abu Hamza Ashur praises the current wave of stabbing attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces and calls on Palestinians living in the West Bank to “shed their blood, pounce on them, dismember them, paralyze them, make the earth quake under their feet, trample on their heads.”
Waving what appears to be a suicide vest during the sermon, Ashur claims that the “next martyrdom operations will be carried out with explosive belts.” “This is what awaits you. This is your nightmare,” he threatens. “We will use it to turn you into body parts, we will annihilate you with it, we will turn you into lifeless corpses and scattered body parts.”
UPDATE
One faith says martyrs are people who kill for their faith.  The other says martyrs are people who are killed for theirs.
Christian Aid Mission reports (and I cannot confirm the claims) on the murder and crucifixion of 11 Christian Syrians by the Islamic State:
On a visit to the surviving relatives in hiding, the ministry director learned of the cruel executions. The relatives said ISIS militants on Aug. 7 captured the Christian workers in a village whose name is withheld for security reasons. On Aug. 28, the militants asked if they had renounced Islam for Christianity. When the Christians said that they had, the rebels asked if they wanted to return to Islam. The Christians said they would never renounce Christ. 
The 41-year-old team leader, his young son and two ministry members in their 20s were questioned at one village site where ISIS militants had summoned a crowd. The team leader presided over nine house churches he had helped to establish. His son was two months away from his 13th birthday.
In front of the team leader and relatives in the crowd, the Islamic extremists cut off the fingertips of the boy and severely beat him, telling his father they would stop the torture only if he, the father, returned to Islam. When the team leader refused, relatives said, the ISIS militants also tortured and beat him and the two other ministry workers. The three men and the boy then met their deaths in crucifixion…
The martyrs died beside signs the ISIS militants had put up identifying them as “infidels.”
Eight other ministry team members, including two women, were taken to another site in the village that day (Aug. 28) and were asked the same questions before a crowd. The women, ages 29 and 33, tried to tell the ISIS militants they were only sharing the peace and love of Christ and asked what they had done wrong to deserve the abuse. The Islamic extremists then publicly raped the women, who continued to pray during the ordeal, leading the ISIS militants to beat them all the more furiously. As the two women and the six men knelt before they were beheaded, they were all praying… After they were beheaded, their bodies were hung on crosses, the ministry director said, his voice breaking.
UPDATE
Credit to the reporter for protesting, but the mother suggests something sick in the culture:
Umm Muhammad Shamasne, whose son Muhammad was killed while perpetrating a terror attack on a bus in Jerusalem on October 12, was recently interviewed in her home by the Lebanese Al-Quds TV channel. Offering the interviewer candy to celebrate her son’s martyrdom, Umm Muhammad Shamasne said that she hoped her other sons would follow in his footsteps, and pulled out a knife, threatening: “My deeds will speak louder than words.” The interview aired on October 22, 2015.
(Thanks to readers John, Andrew and VIR.) 
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Costello: real tax reform means cutting the tax rates

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (7:06am)

Former Treasurer Peter Costello is worried by the Turnbull Government’s talk of tax “reform”:
What is the problem in our tax system? Here’s the main one — our top tax rates are too high and they cut in at income levels that are too low. In his farewell speech last week, Joe Hockey said the top tax rate should be 40 per cent. In the 2007 election campaign the Coalition laid out a plan to reduce it in stages to 40 per cent by 2012. Kevin Rudd adopted the plan, but said that rather than step down year by year he would do it in one hit in his second term (ending 2013). So the last three governments all agreed this was a problem to fix. 
What actually happened? The top tax rate didn’t come down, it went up to 49 per cent. For the last seven years average wage earners have not had their tax thresholds adjusted, so they are facing higher average tax year by year. The problem is worse now than it was when people started promising to fix it!
So let’s analyse the current proposals dressed up as reform to see if they would fix this problem. Would higher superannuation taxes do it? No. Would changes to property investment? No. There is no hope in hell they could fund income tax reform. In fact the proponents don’t even want to use the money to cut income taxes. They want the government to either spend the extra revenue or to narrow the budget deficit. Spending might go up, the deficit might come down, but one thing is certain — overall taxes would rise. That is why I call this movement the High Tax Cheer Squad. It’s an honest description. For marketing reasons they prefer to call their ideas tax ‘‘reform’’ rather than tax ‘‘increases’’. But that’s only debasing the meaning of reform. 
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So many guns. So many violent people. Melbourne has changed

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (6:11am)

I don’t recall this level of gun violence before in all the years I’ve lived in Melbourne.Something has changed:
Gunfire has narrowly missed a woman’s head in a terrifying road rage incident north-east of Melbourne. The 22-year-old woman and her passenger, a 17-year-old boy, was allegedly tailgated by a four-wheel-drive from Donvale to Healesville before its driver fired shots through her car’s back window.
Also on Sunday:
[Racing Victoria Chief Steward]Terry Bailey ... was relaxing with his wife and teenage daughters in the back yard when, at 9.20pm on Sunday, bullets from a semi-automatic gun tore into the front door. 
Police have been told that about a week earlier, a bikie wearing gang colours rode past the home of Racing Victoria head of integrity­ Dayle Brown.
And this morning:
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy has been injured and a man is fighting for his life after shots were fired at a house in Melbourne’s north. Shots were fired into the man’s home on Darebin Drive in Thomastown about 3.45am.
From a week ago:
In 2010-11 there were 6,922 [gun] offences compared to 2014/15 when there were 14,404 offences… 
In Lalor overnight a family escaped serious injury after as many as 20 shots were fired from what’s believed to be a machine gun in an early morning drive-by shooting…

On Wednesday night a senior bikie figure was gunned down near his Narre Warren home. A family was also targeted in a drive-by shooting in Broadmeadows in the early hours of Monday morning while a car was shot at nearby on Sunday night.
From June:
Police are discovering guns in cars every two days in Melbourne’s north-west, which has been dubbed the “red zone” by officers concerned about a growing gangster culture in the region.
The culture in question isn’t just a gangster one, as is clear from the list of shootings in this report:
February 3, 2015 M16 assault rifle and Thureon machine-gun seized in police raids on homes in Point Cook, Wyndham Vale, Tarneit and Werribee. Number of people arrested. Raids sparked after a $290,000 armed robbery of a cash transport van in Sunbury.  
April 19, 2am Khaled Abouhasna, 39, gunned down in his driveway in Altona Meadows. Under investigation.
March 3, 6.30pm Handguns, long arms and an automatic machine-gun found by police in an intercepted Holden Commodore in Elizabeth Drive, Sunbury. A 23-year-old woman has been charged.
May 21, 5.40pm A gym owner is shot at twice outside a house in Mockridge Avenue, Burnside, and survives. Under investigation.
May 31, 4.30pm Man shot in the leg in a road rage incident off the Western Highway near Bacchus Marsh. Two children in the car. Under investigation.
June 10, 5.30pm Ali Duyar, 34, shot in a Bloomfield Road house in Doncaster and dies in hospital the next day. Three men fled the scene. Under investigation.
UPDATE
This morning’s shooting in Thomastown is now a murder. A 3AW reporter says neighbours held shouting in foreign languages from the house. Many residents in the street have little English. 
===

This is teaching attitudes, not history

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (5:36am)

Why?
The Board of Studies has proposed a review of Indigenous Australian content as one of its top priorities for the new NSW HSC history curriculum… 
Indigenous history and its characters, such as Barangaroo, a powerful Cammeraygal woman, is still central to the NSW education curriculum. 
Sure, it’s feel-good politics for educationalists to push this. It’s also anti-racism activism disguised as history teaching. But while some knowledge of our indigenous past is indeed important, teaching about “Barangaroo, a powerful Cammeraygal woman” does not strike me as more important than teaching about a million other people more important in shaping the world we must deal with.
And that Barangaroo is named in this article is another warning that this is more about changing attitudes than history. Where is the evidence that Barangaroo, wife of Bennelong, really was a “powerful” figure? The documentation is extremely scanty, and only records her being overruled by her husband and beaten black and blue by him with “every other mark of brutality”.  Is this an attempt to recast traditional Aboriginal society, overwhelmingly male-ruled and violent, as refreshingly feminist? 
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Australian soldier now suspected jihadist traitor

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (5:28am)

Islam sure appeals to some misfits with murder on their mind:
A former Australian soldier who vanished in Afghanistan in 2001 is believed to be training commandos for terror group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, using his army experience and skills learned fighting US forces. 
An al-Qai’da-backed propaganda magazine yesterday featured an interview with a former Queensland man, named as Hamza al-Australi but whose story matches that of Mathew Stewart, a 39-year-old former Sunshine Coast soldier.
The magazine, Al Risalah, claims that “Hamza al-Australi” became a member of al-Qai’da’s central branch “a month or two before 9/11” after he “trained for a number of years with the Australian military”.
The magazine claimed the Australian had been sent by the terror group to Syria last year, and that he had been training Jabhat al-Nusra fighters and participating in battles ever since…
If the magazine’s claims are true, it is likely that “Hamza” is one of two Australians currently holding prominent positions within Jabhat al-Nusra with the support of al-Qa’ida’s leadership.
The other — Sydney cleric Sheik Abu Sulayman, born Mostafa Mahamad Farag — is a top Sharia official within the organisation and was once asked by al-Qa’ida’s leadership to try to broker a peace deal with Islamic State, a rival Sunni Muslim group.
Another Australian al-Qa’ida emissary who joined the Syrian conflict, Tyler Casey, also known as Yusuf Ali, was killed in Aleppo, Syria, in January 2014.
His wife, former Gold Coast woman Amira Karroum, was gunned down by his side.
The magazine also featured an article on another Australian man, Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who was killed fighting alongside Jabhat al-Nusra in March.
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Mark Kenny falls for the “drowning island” scare. And Fiona Stanley should step down

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (5:09am)

How often will this warmist furphy be trotted out by journalists with not the slightest interest in the facts? This time the author is Mark Kenny, hyping an anti-coal petition by 61 of the usual celebrity suspects:
The low-lying Pacific Island country of Kiribati is one of many micro-nations in danger of serious damage and even inundation from rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice and increasingly turbulent global weather.
Fact check: The truth is that most low-lying Pacific islands have been growing in size or stayed stable:
New Zealand coastal geomorphologist Paul Kench, of the University of Auckland’s School of Environment, and colleagues in Australia and Fiji, ...  found that reef islands change shape and move around in response to shifting sediments, and that many of them are growing in size, not shrinking, as sea level inches upward. The implication is that many islands—especially less developed ones with few permanent structures—may cope with rising seas well into the next century… 
Their analysis, which now extends to more than 600 coral reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, indicates that about 80 percent of the islands have remained stable or increased in size (roughly 40 percent in each category). Only 20 percent have shown the net reduction that’s widely assumed to be a typical island’s fate when sea level rises. Some islands grew by as much as 14 acres (5.6 hectares) in a single decade, and Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti—33 islands distributed around the rim of a large lagoon—has gained 75 acres (32 hectares) of land during the past 115 years. 
Kiribati’s main island has also grown, albeit mainly to human activity, and the big problem is not global warming but over-crowding and thoughtless development:
But 2,000 miles to the west in South Tarawa, Kiribati’s narrow, six-square-mile capital island crowded with 50,000 people, the picture is much darker. Over the past half-century, residents of the 15 other Gilbert Islands have flocked there in search of jobs and better schools for their children… To minimize flooding, they built poorly designed seawalls that regularly collapse. Meanwhile, the government increased South Tarawa’s area by 19 percent over 30 years by building causeways between islets and creating new land over the reef with lagoon sand poured behind seawalls. The widespread erosion and flooding that resulted “is primarily due to [local] human activities,” which unless stopped will “increase erosion and susceptibility of the reef islands to anticipated sea-level rise,” one study concluded. 
As for this “increasingly turbulent weather” that Kenny claims threatens Kiribati, even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the cathedral of the warming faith, has had to admit in its most recent report that there is no credible evidence yet of an increase of the most likely suspect. Rather, the opposite:
In summary, confidence in large scale changes in the intensity of extreme extratropical cyclones since 1900 is low… Over periods of a century or more, evidence suggests slight decreases in the frequency of tropical cyclones making landfall in the North Atlantic and the South Pacific, once uncertainties in observing methods have been considered. Little evidence exists of any longer-term trend in other ocean basins… Several studies suggest an increase in intensity, but data sampling issues hamper these assessments.  
Same seen in Australia:
So how could Kenny be so easily misled? And by whom? Back to his story, and note well those names - those people pushing a scare and demanding huge sacrifices in jobs and income that will make essentially no difference to temperatures anyway:
Sixty-one prominent Australians including Wallabies star David Pocock, a trio of former Australians of the year and eminent scientists and economists have pressed the newly turned 61-year-old Malcolm Turnbull to stop any new coal mines and to put an international moratorium on coal on the agenda of the forthcoming Paris climate talks… 
Backed by green and social action organisations, the 61 eminent persons have signed an open letter featured in full-page advertisements in Fairfax Media newspapers, calling on the host of the December talks, French President Francois Hollande, and Mr Turnbull to oppose new coal developments - including the Carmichael mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin…
The signatories, which include erstwhile Australians of the year Professors Fiona Stanley, Peter Doherty and Tim Flannery as well as one time Reserve Bank Governor Bernie Fraser, current Wallabies flanker Pocock and Anglican churchman Bishop George Browning, have called on Mr Turnbull and other world leaders to recognise that it is not just the fossil fuels a country burns for its own energy that matters, but those dug up for export to others. “We, the undersigned, urge you to put coal exports on the agenda at the 2015 Paris COP21 climate summit and to help the world’s governments negotiate a global moratorium on new coal mines and coal mine expansions, as called for by President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati, and Pacific Island nations,” the 61 say.
Fiona Stanley, I regret to add, is an ABC board member leading a review into the ABC’s coverage of global warming to see if it is as biased as critics claim.
After this petition she should step down. 
===

Liberals now lead: 52 to 48

Andrew Bolt October 27 2015 (4:58am)

Malcolm Turnbull has now taken the Liberals to a respectable lead in what’s a prolonged media honeymoon:
The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, reveals the Coalition leads Labor by 52 per cent to 48 per cent in two-party terms, having regained its lead after the parties were deadlocked at 50-50 a fortnight ago.
Bill Shorten is suffering just the way that Turnbull and Brendan Nelson did as Opposition leaders with Kevin Rudd - blotted out by a Prime Minister dominating the media and projecting an all-things-to-all-men image.
UPDATE
What media honeymoon?
This one:
Who’s the “hate media”? Tim Dunlop, The Drum website, yesterday: 
The country is still breathing a huge sigh of relief that Tony Abbott is gone. In fact, I think many are severely under­estimating just how deep that sigh of relief has needed to be. What we are going through is less a honeymoon for Mr Turnbull than the sort of psychic relief that comes from waking up alive in intensive care after a particularly horrific car crash. We are scarred and bruised and in need of ongoing care, but all our limbs are intact and our organs are functioning. We are still in recovery, sipping through a straw. This is why Labor’s attacks on the new Prime Minister have been so misjudged and have fallen so flat
From belittling to besotted. Ross Gittins, Fairfax Media, yesterday:
Everyone has high hopes that Malcolm Turnbull will be the successful, long-lasting prime minister so many of us have been seeking. Business people are hoping he’ll deliver the economic reform we need to rejuvenate and energise the economy … Turnbull is so intelligent, so articulate, so self-assured it’s become possible to believe he can do something that, until now, seemed impossible: reverse the continuing decline in standards of political behaviour.
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Read it

Andrew Bolt October 26 2015 (11:18pm)

Just finished reading the trilogy. Why wasn’t I told sooner of this compelling work? It attempts to be almost a War and Peace of Stalin’s time, with the ghastly history - meticulously researched - woven into the story of the children of a revolution that destroyed so many. The picture of Stalin is convincing and unforgettable. Critics have faulted the novelising, often more than I think fair, although the finale is indeed too Hollywood. But as a social chronicle and study of a tyranny the author lived through it is a must read.   
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Some singing is fine by Shia, so why not our anthem, too?

Andrew Bolt October 26 2015 (6:47pm)

Asked to choose between an Australian custom and a Muslim one, a school makes the obvious choice of these times:
A VICTORIAN primary school has been criticised for allowing Muslim children to walk out of assembly while the national anthem was sung... 
Lorraine McCurdy, who has two grandchildren at the [Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School in Broadmeadows], told 3AW she was furious when school officials invited students to leave during Advance Australia Fair.
“Two children got up and said `welcome to our assembly’ with that a teacher came forward and said all those who feel it’s against their culture may leave the room,” Ms McCurdy said.
“With that about 30 or 40 children got up and left the room...”
Principal Cheryl Irving said during the month of Muharram Shi’a Muslims do not take part in joyous events, such as listening to music or singing, as it was a period of mourning.
“Muharram is a Shi’a cultural observation marking the death of Imam Hussein,” Ms Irving said. “This year it falls between Tuesday October 13 and Thursday November 12...”
There are 30 to 40 observant Shi Muslims at the one state school?
But why is the national anthem defined as a disrespectfully “joyous” event? Why can’t it be a solemn one, entirely fitting at a solemn time?
After all, some singing in this month of Muharram is perfectly fine for even the most devout Shia worshippers, like these two days ago in a ceremony to honour Imam Hussein 
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ONLY 37 DAYS TO GO

Tim Blair – Monday, October 27, 2014 (2:40pm)

Doomsday draws near: 
The planet has just five years to avoid disastrous global warming, says the Federal Government’s chief scientist.
Prof Penny Sackett yesterday urged all Australians to reduce their carbon footprint. 
Sackett – now the former chief scientist – issued her five-year warning four years, 10 months and 24 days ago. Meanwhile, previous claims that global warming would cause hotter European winters may now be disregarded, because global warming has decided to make things colder instead:
The risk of severe winters in Europe and northern Asia has been doubled by global warming, according to new research. 
The science is unsettled, as usual.
===

JONATHAN’S JUSTIFICATIONS

Tim Blair – Monday, October 27, 2014 (2:33pm)

An entertaining exchange between ABC supporter Jonathan Holmes and Quadrant‘s Roger Franklin.
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ANGELOS FOR THE ABC

Tim Blair – Monday, October 27, 2014 (2:31pm)

He’d be an excellent choice: 
Sky News boss Angelos Frangopoulos is being touted as the leading contender to replace Mark Scott as managing director of the ABC. 
Angelos would be an even better managing director of a privatised ABC.
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REHANA

Tim Blair – Monday, October 27, 2014 (1:58pm)

Anti-terrorist warrior Rehana, credited with more than 100 Islamic State kills, has reportedly been captured and murdered by jihadists:
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Third Bush even better

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (8:24pm)

An even better Bush than the past two, some say:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is “moving forward” on a potential 2016 White House run and it appears more likely he will enter the Republican field, according to his son, who’s running for office in Texas.
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The difference between a warmist and a sceptic? A few years and some research

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (9:12am)

I do wish the warmists on the ABC at least tried to catch up with the science. It took years before Mungo MacCallum, in this case, caught up with the news that the atmosphere hadn’t actually been warming, but he’s still not caught up with the news that his excuse has been trashed, too:
But the problem with the so-called global warming pause, spruiked by the sceptics beloved of The Australian, is that it doesn’t make sense; the heat has to go somewhere. The extra heat is not going away; the question is just how and where in the land, sea or air it is being stored - possibly in the deep oceans, possibly through some other method we have not yet discerned. The pause may be no more than a statistical blip, to come back and burn us when we have been lulled into the security desperately hoped for by the miners and Abbott.
But NASA questioned the ocean excuse weeks ago:
Scientists have noticed that while greenhouse gases have continued to mount in the first part of the 21st century, global average surface air temperatures have stopped rising along with them, said Nasa. 
Some studies have suggested that heat is being absorbed temporarily by the deep seas, and that this so-called global warming hiatus is a temporary trend.But latest data from satellite and direct ocean temperature measurements from 2005 to 2013 “found the ocean abyss below 1 995m has not warmed measurably,” Nasa said in a statement.
Why do so many warmist commentators feel not the slightest need to acquaint themselves with the latest facts? Why does the ABC feel not the slightest need to fact check them?
(Thanks to reader handjive.) 
===

A year 12 lesson: a failed exam can’t stop you

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (8:54am)

AT this time of year, we dads are meant to say if you study hard, the results will come.
But they don’t always. Some students who’ve been knocking their brains out over their year 12 exams are going to flop.
And that’s when we dads switch gears and say forget exams and the uni course you were counting on. There are plenty of other ways to get ahead and get happy.
We don’t like to admit that before the exams in case you slack off, but it’s something we notice more the longer we live.
It’s funny how long it takes for things to click with some of us. I quit journalism twice, thinking I’d never get the hang of it.
True, plenty of people would say I still don’t amount to much. So let me give you a far better example to tell you to never give up.
(Read full article here.)   
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Labor admits turning back boats works but still won’t promise to do it

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (8:43am)

Labor admits what it used to deny -  turning back the boats works. But it still wants to give Indonesia the right to veto the policy that saves lives and stops illegal immigration:
The opposition immigration spokesman [Richard Marles] gave his strongest indi­cation yet that if Labor was ­returned to office it might not ­jettison the centrepiece of the ­Coalition’s border protection. 
Labor would need to be convinced the policy was safe and not erode the relationship with Indonesia, Mr Marles said…
”We have no doubt at all about the impact of the turnback policy,’’ Mr Marles said…
The two tests that needed to be met included ensuring safety at sea and guaranteeing “this ­arrangement does not erode our relationship with Indonesia’’. “If there was a situation where Indonesia was co-operating with this policy, I think that is a complete game-changer,’’ he said. 
Is there any sign that our relationship with Indonesia is today damaged in a practical way by the Abbott Government’s boat policies? So why won’t Labor promise to keep doing what works?
Is it because the Left just hates to admit it was utterly and lethally wrong?
Labor’s Bill Shorten and Richard Marles in the Guardian in November 2013: 
The Coalition government’s boat turn-back policy has failed and its foreign policy is in disarray, Labor says… Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles says it’s now plain that turn-backs are not happening… “It was inevitably going to fail. And that’s what we saw yesterday… The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said the government’s boat policy was in serious trouble. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Coalition’s boat person policy is absolutely not working,” he told ABC television.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard in October 2012: 
Mr Abbott is peddling a myth to the Australian people. He knows Indonesia will not agree to facilitate tow backs, and he’s trying not to be exposed as telling the Australian people something that can’t and won’t work.
Law lecturer Azadeh Dastya, an associate of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, in July 2013: 
A bad copy of a ‘’tow back’’ policy that has not worked and is unlawful in the US context, is not going to be the silver bullet the Coalition is looking for.
Former ABC host Monica Attard in The Hoopla in October 2013: 
“Turn back the boats” may just disappear in the fog… It will be because there comes a time when every new new prime minister sees the vast and dangerous gulf between sloganeering in opposition and the responsibilities that come with high office. 
Former ambassador Tony Kevin in Crikey in June, 2013. 
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s pledge to turn back asylum seeker boats to Indonesia is unworkable and dangerous… Surely, it is time now for Tony Abbott to cross navy towback off his list of asylum seeker deterrence policies.
Ben Eltham in New Matilda in July 2013:
So what exactly is “towing back the boats”? Can it be done, and will it work? The answer depends on who you ask, but most informed opinion seems to support the Government’s view that the policy is dangerous and potentially illegal...
Melissa Phillips, honorary fellow at Melbourne University, in The Conversation in April, 2013: 
People fleeing violence and persecution in Syria, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, are quite obviously leaving because of insecurity in their countries. Rhetoric from politicians about deterrents and “stopping the boats” is targeted at the Australian voting public and not prospective asylum-seekers. We know that in the asylum policy, deterrents simply do not work. 
Arja Keski-Nummi in the Sydney Morning Herald in June 2013:
The flood of asylum-seeker boats travelling to Australia will continue under a Coalition government, according to a former senior official in the Immigration Department who says Tony Abbott’s plan to turn back boats and reintroduce temporary protection visas will not stop the dangerous journeys. 
Arja Keski-Nummi, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Development and former head of the refugee division in the Immigration Department, said ... ‘’If they’re in government, they’re going to own the issue and they’ve made a lot of promises, that I frankly can’t see that they can fulfil. And the main one is stopping the boats,’’ she said.
Professor Damien Kingsbury in the ABC’s The Drum in October 2012:
In short, the ‘tow back’ proposal was and, in so far as it continues to be defended by Opposition speakers, remains a policy disaster… The ‘tow back’ policy, then, can now be expected to be quietly sidelined.  
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Bigoted non-Muslims aren’t the real problem

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (8:34am)

Islamism

LAST Saturday was National Mosque Open Day, with mosques showing visitors there was nothing scary about them.
It was a nice gesture, and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison helped by visiting Sydney’s Lakemba mosque.
In Melbourne, the ABC broadcast from a mosque to show how nice Muslims were.
But why has the ABC never tried this hard to demystify Mormon or Sikh temples?
Truth is, this effort was driven by fear — and the National Mosque Open Day, well-meaning though it was, missed the point.
It implicitly suggested if Australians reached out to Muslims we’d have less trouble. True, but is Australian ignorance of Islam the key problem?
(Read full story here - at end of first column..) 
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Napthine in strife

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (8:25am)

Victorian Labor leads:
LABOR is holding an election- winning lead over the ­Coalition with just 33 days until voters head to the ballot boxes — 52-48 ahead.  
But the Liberals believe they have more votes in the seats that count. 
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Remembering Whitlam

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (7:33am)

Former Howard Government minister Amanda Vanstone:
Whitlam did some great things, but at the end of his term the economy was a wreck and thousands of workers had lost their jobs. Australians wanted reform but not coupled with chaos. The impact on the lives of Australians was deep, painful and lasting. 
So why is it that this man, flawed like the rest of us, has etched a place in our hearts? He spoke to us. Remember that speech that commenced: “Men and women of Australia”? He spoke to the aspirations of many Australians who wanted their country to be more than a former colony of the United Kingdom. He spoke to those of us who wanted Australia not so much to discard its past but to grasp its own identity and future. He challenged the status quo and forced us all to think. And many in my generation loved him for that. 
The ABC and Labor today have more affection for Gough Whitlam than his own ministers had. Errol Simper:
Back in July-August 1992 ... [there] was to be a reunion of the 27 members of Whitlam’s second ministry and they were to dine at the Randwick AJC function centre in Sydney. Gough’s frenetic first ministry had, of course, consisted of himself and his deputy, Lance Barnard… 
It transpired that 10 had declined the Randwick invitation. Some declined fairly bluntly; they simply didn’t want to be there. Others more diplomatically pleaded prior commitments. Five — Lionel Murphy, Rex Connor, Jim Cavanagh, Gordon Bryant and Frank Stewart — had died in the intervening 20 years.
So, just 12 of the 27 showed up. You’d see what we mean about polarisation....
The late Lionel Bowen, for example, named as Whitlam’s postmaster-general (and destined to be deputy Labor leader under Bob Hawke), told us: “I’ve said I won’t go (to the reunion). As far as I’m concerned we were rightly applauded for getting elected. But we should also be castigated for buggering it up."…
Rex Patterson, Gough’s minister for northern development ... recalled things this way: “He (Whitlam) was the best leader of the opposition I’d ever seen… But I wouldn’t have any comment to make about his prime ministership."… Moss Cass (environment) snubbed the reunion. He said: “There has always been a tendency for the media to portray Whitlam as a god and I wonder if he finally came to believe he had to behave as a god. The fact is Gough didn’t have the answers any more than anyone else did.”
Terry McCrann:
While I would describe Costello as Australia’s best treasurer, Keating remains in my judgment our greatest treasurer. 
The distinction plays into the assessments of Gough Whitlam…
It goes to the issues of greatness and governance; to why one can reasonably, indeed necessarily, and I would suggest unavoidably, describe him as one of our greatest Australians, a great prime minister, but also our worst.
That is, until Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard came along to jostle for the title… The measure of greatness to me is of great things done; that of good, better, best, of good governance achieved.
As I wrote about Keating, he was our greatest treasurer in the same way Napoleon was the greatest Frenchman…
Whitlam came to power at a time of ferment as the postwar social and economic consensus that had driven a quarter century of ever-rising prosperity and evolutionary social change was collapsing…
Most of the great — or damaging — initiatives of his government were coming irresistibly. Many of them, as Gerard Henderson, who is old enough to remember the reality and not just the myth, has pointed out, had already been “coming” under the previous coalition governments, going back even to the early days of Menzies.
And, yes, Whitlam and even more his genuinely well-meaning but hapless treasurer Frank (father of Simon) Crean was ambushed by the OPEC breakout that saw the price of oil quintupled in a single stroke, and the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. It ... is entirely fair to say his government — rather, the out-of-control individual ministers — acted with catastrophically irresponsible promiscuity… The question is one of what do you want out of a treasurer, a leader: greatness or governance?
Gesture or practicality? Symbolism or reality? Intention or achievement? Left or conservative? 
===

Opposite Day: warmists now say global warming causes colder winters

Andrew Bolt October 27 2014 (7:04am)

Global warming - dud predictions

Global warmists say these colder winters were caused by global warming:
The decline in Arctic sea ice has doubled the chance of severe winters in Europe and Asia in the past decade, according to researchers in Japan. 
Sea-ice melt in the Arctic, Barents and Kara seas since 2004 has made more than twice as likely atmospheric circulations that suck cold Arctic air to Europe and Asia, a group of Japanese researchers led by the University of Tokyo’s Masato Mori said in a study published today in Nature Geoscience.
How strange. Not so long ago the warmists insisted the opposite was true - global warming meant warmer winters.
Paul Homewood:
As recently as 2011, Julia Slingo and her [UK Met Office] team published an extremely thorough paper, “Climate: Observations, projections and impacts"… It made the following points:- 
- Analysis of mean temperatures in the UK showed a warming trend during the winter months of 0.23C/decade.... 
... Analyses with both models suggest that human influences on the climate have shifted the distributions to higher temperatures… 
So, to summarise, the Met Office believed that winters have been getting warmer, and that the [cold] winter of 2010/11 was caused by a natural event, the Arctic Oscillation, and, but for “human influences”, would actually have been a fairly average winter…
In 2009, Dr Myles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics group at Department of Physics, University of Oxford told the Daily Telegraph, during another spell of bad snow “...If it wasn’t for global warming this cold snap would happen much more regularly… “

Meanwhile Dave Britton, a meteorologist and climate scientist at the Met Office, said: “Even with global warming you cannot rule out we will have a cold winter every so often. It sometimes rains in the Sahara but it is still a desert.”
Even Bob Ward, PR man for the warmist Grantham Foundation, keen to stop people thinking that cold winters did not mean global warming had stopped, said “Just as the wet summer of 2007 or recent heat waves cannot be attributed to global warming nor can this cold snap”
Over in the US, they were just as keen to keep on message. An article in Phys.Org, “Experts: Cold snap doesn’t disprove global warming”, which was published in January 2010, had this to say:- 
...experts say the cold snap doesn’t disprove global warming at all – it’s just a blip in the long-term heating trend. “It’s part of natural variability,” said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. With global warming, he said, “we’ll still have record cold temperatures. We’ll just have fewer of them.” ...
It seems to me that these these theories, that global warming will lead to colder winters, need to pass three tests before they can even cross the starting line:-
1) Explain how winters were as colder, or colder, and as snowy or snowier, in earlier periods such as the 1960’s and 70’s, when the NH was cooling, and Arctic ice expanding.
2) Explain how winters grew milder in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, at a time when the earth was warming, and Arctic ice was declining. 3) Prove what was wrong with earlier models that predicted milder winters. 
===

"The mind is the attribute of man. When man is born, he comes into existence with only one weapon with him- The reasoning mind." | The Fountainhead
.. the brain grows on you - ed
===
Pastor Rick Warren
Attraction is easy. Love is hard. Love is hard because it’s the opposite of our natural selfishness. It’s putting others’ needs before my own. (Great Photo by James Stilley)
=
In less than 2 hours (at 4 pm Pacific Time) I will share an INSIDE LOOK at the secrets of Saddleback's health and growth. The message will be called "REMEMBERING TO BE THANKFUL"

The average church stops growing after 15 years. Yet Saddleback, at 33 years old grew another 3000+ in attendance this year, WHILE planting new churches and sending thousands of members overseas on the PEACE Plan.

I encourage any pastor or church leader to watch this weekend's message when I give a insider's report to our congregation on the first 3 years of our Decade of Destiny. You might pass this on to your church leaders who might be interested. God bless you! Pastor Rick YOU CAN WATCH HERE; http://bit.ly/HnE6ib
===
TEST YOUR CRITICAL THINKING
There is a very, very tall coconut tree and there are 4 animals, a Lion, a Chimpanzee, a Giraffe, and a Squirrel, who pass by.

They decide to compete to see who is the fastest to get a banana off the tree.

Who do you guess will win?

Your answer will reflect your personality.
So think carefully…
Try and answer within 30 seconds !!!
Got your answer?
Now scroll down to see the analysis...
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^

If your answer is:

Lion = you’re dull.

Chimpanzee = you’re a moron.

Giraffe = you’re a complete idiot.

Squirrel = you’re just hopelessly stupid.

*Note

A COCONUT TREE DOESN’T HAVE BANANAS.
Obviously you’re stressed and overworked.
You should take some time off and relax!
Try again next year.!

Author unknown
I chose lion .. reasoning that the others would surrender any banana to survive .. dull, but effective - ed
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To The Tired Mom
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-m-martin/to-the-tired-mom_b_4104515.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009&fb_source=message
Motherhood is a brave journey. It's always been this brave thing to raise another independent, pushing the limits, melt your heart at night, love them forever even when they drive you crazy, human. That's what you're doing. Even on those tired days.
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“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house."
Haggai 1:9

Churlish souls stint their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good economy; little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a method in providence by which he can succeed our endeavours beyond our expectation, or can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay; by a turn of his hand he can steer our vessel in a profitable channel, or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the liberal and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding tendeth to poverty. In a very wide sphere of observation, I have noticed that the most generous Christians of my acquaintance have been always the most happy, and almost invariably the most prosperous. I have seen the liberal giver rise to wealth of which he never dreamed; and I have as often seen the mean, ungenerous churl descend to poverty by the very parsimony by which he thought to rise. Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord; he gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels. Where wealth is not bestowed the Lord makes the little much by the contentment which the sanctified heart feels in a portion of which the tithe has been dedicated to the Lord. Selfishness looks first at home, but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, yet in the long run selfishness is loss, and godliness is great gain. It needs faith to act towards our God with an open hand, but surely he deserves it of us; and all that we can do is a very poor acknowledgment of our amazing indebtedness to his goodness.

Evening

"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again."
Ecclesiastes 1:7

Everything sublunary is on the move, time knows nothing of rest. The solid earth is a rolling ball, and the great sun himself a star obediently fulfilling its course around some greater luminary. Tides move the sea, winds stir the airy ocean, friction wears the rock: change and death rule everywhere. The sea is not a miser's storehouse for a wealth of waters, for as by one force the waters flow into it, by another they are lifted from it. Men are born but to die: everything is hurry, worry, and vexation of spirit. Friend of the unchanging Jesus, what a joy it is to reflect upon thy changeless heritage; thy sea of bliss which will be forever full, since God himself shall pour eternal rivers of pleasure into it. We seek an abiding city beyond the skies, and we shall not be disappointed. The passage before us may well teach us gratitude. Father Ocean is a great receiver, but he is a generous distributor. What the rivers bring him he returns to the earth in the form of clouds and rain. That man is out of joint with the universe who takes all but makes no return. To give to others is but sowing seed for ourselves. He who is so good a steward as to be willing to use his substance for his Lord, shall be entrusted with more. Friend of Jesus, art thou rendering to him according to the benefit received? Much has been given thee, what is thy fruit? Hast thou done all? Canst thou not do more? To be selfish is to be wicked. Suppose the ocean gave up none of its watery treasure, it would bring ruin upon our race. God forbid that any of us should follow the ungenerous and destructive policy of living unto ourselves. Jesus pleased not himself. All fulness dwells in him, but of his fulness have all we received. O for Jesus' spirit, that henceforth we may live not unto ourselves!
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Today's reading: Jeremiah 9-11, 1 Timothy 6 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 9-11



1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people.
2 Oh, that I had in the desert
a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a crowd of unfaithful people.
3 “They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.
4 “Beware of your friends;
do not trust anyone in your clan.
For every one of them is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.
5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.
6 You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD....


Today's New Testament reading: 1 Timothy 6


1 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves.

False Teachers and the Love of Money

These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs....
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Iddo

[Ĭd'dō] - affectionate, festal, favoriteor his power.

  1. Father of Ahinadab, and one of Solomon's purveyors at Mahanaim (1 Kings 4:14).
  2. A descendant of Gershom, son of Levi (1 Chron. 6:21). Called Adaiah, and ancestor of Asaph the seer (1 Chron. 6:41).
  3. A son of Zechariah and a chief in David's time of the half tribe of Manasseh east of Jordan (1 Chron. 27:21).
  4. A seer who denounced the wrath of God against Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and who wrote a book of visions (2 Chron. 9:29; 12:15; 13:22).
  5. Grandfather of the prophet Zechariah (Ezra 5:1; 6:14; Zech 1:1).
  6. A priest who returned from Babylon (Neh. 12:4, 16).
  7. The chief at Casiphia through whom Ezra obtained help. He was a Nethinim (Ezra 8:17).
  8. A man who put away his foreign wife (Ezra 10:43). Jadau is a corruption of Iddo.
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