Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Wed Aug 30th Todays News

Headline reads Kazakhstan beats Australia in Science and Math. ZT writes “This is what happens when you focus on which bathroom children should use in schools rather than teaching maths and science.” One is happy for Kazakhstan’s achievement. 3AW’s Neil Mitchell brought up the issue of school discipline and asked for people to call in. 3AW would not answer my calls, so I am writing here my views on these connected issues. Firstly, I’m happy for Kazakhstan to beat Australia in something other than wrestling. I am confident they will do it again, and again. Safe Schools is a threat to children’s welfare, but is not connected with their achievement in Maths or Science, although it is a distraction too. Lack of discipline in schools is not the issue related to Math and Science achievement, although dysfunctional schools exist and harm their students.

I have a workable plan that can improve achievement in Math and science in the vast majority of Australian Schools. It costs next to nothing and would improve discipline too, while allowing larger class sizes. It is based on the premise that kids want to achieve and are competitive and collegial in schooling. It assumes there are ongoing programs for high achieving students and low ability students. The plan involves targeting the lower end of the middle third of students. Those tend to be students who have gaps in their knowledge of basic skills in numeracy and literacy for Math and Science. I target individuals with a battery of basic skills tests. I identify gaps and address them. The students tend to be improved as a result and tend to share their new skills with their friends. The result is disengaged students can participate with the mainstream, and they tend to improve the lower end. It is an old technique called ‘schooling.’ It improves discipline and boosts school morale. Maybe Kazakhstan employs it?
=== from 2015 ===
In the mid 90's, for yesterdays article, I referred to the Howard Costello deal that Howard later reneged on. Howard believed that the leadership had to be seized for there to be respect. He brought on Turnbull into government and made that a test for Costello. Turnbull immediately began undermining the party and by 2007, it was apparent the party was divided. Following the election loss, Costello was faced with claiming the leadership but being undermined by Turnbull in a way he could not defend. Costello left politics then. Turnbull undermined Dr Nelson until he got the leadership. But Turnbull surrendered the leadership over the Carbon Dioxide tax. Mr Abbott had not caused that spill, but won it. But as Costello had seen, Turnbull undermined the Libs so that State Governments were lost to the ALP and the popular federal government became unpopular. By staging a coup for Turnbull, Costello has stopped the undermining. But the problem is, Malcolm Turnbull is not a good leader. If Turnbull had been gracious with his win, things might be different. But Turnbull is still hitting Abbott. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
Victoria loses election
Victoria loses election, but it was part of the culture war where the LNP failed to engage. The LNP had balanced, but a left wing bias. The idea being a softly softly approach would not foment unrest. It was predicated on the belief that a centrist government could still be economically responsible. And the former LNP government did leave Victoria better off economically. Criticism of the government was overstated and orchestrated. But it is not the case that the ALP won (because the LNP lost), as the ALP are unreformed and still corrupt, with ties to the CFMEU which do not pass any simple scratch and sniff test. One positive is that the myth has been debunked that Kennett lost the election to Bracks because his ideas were too conservative and radical. Partisan press support for the ALP mean that all other things being equal, the ALP will win. Which means that for the LNP to win elections, it must be better than the ALP .. the LNP has to have ideas and drive and energy. The ALP can get by with running an economy well. They could hold government for a long time if they do that, but no ALP government has been responsible since the Hawke Keating years. And that only happened because the LNP used the senate to force responsibility. 

It is a positive vision, not a fear of unpopularity which will keep the LNP elected. A case in point is the Queensland LNP government of Campbell Newman which, because they made hard calls, is now polling well. Newman's seat had been threatened, but even that now seems secure. A failure of vision is exemplified by PUP. With Lambie gone, and the song playing "Who let the dogs out?" the party is imploding and failed to get a 2% result for Victoria's senate. Another blessing is the possibility of a forward movement on higher education reforms. Some sacrifices have to be made to the full reform to get the measures passed. 

PUP's irrational attack on Newman and their policy of matching ALP's voting record has constipated the budget reform initiatives. But now they are in play again. One important measure is the co-payment on medicare of $7. It is not a terrible measure to the poor. It is a responsible measure. But the senate battles leads one to wistfully consider the parliaments of NZ and Queensland. Only to consider them, because ALP style governments have been rapaciously bad for them in the recent past. If the LNP can hold on federally, compromise now on what it must, the benefit in the future will be an ALP shut out of the senate the following term. The ALP have broken every single one of their undertakings to the public in their opposition to every government budgetary reform. Mr Abbott, as opposition leader had passed many ALP bills. 
Culture wars
Union greed means Australia can't afford to build our own submarines. It is too expensive. Every dollar extra to build a submarine here is less submarine for the defence force. It is simply not responsible to try because the unions have pushed the price to over fifty percent of what can be achieved off shore. Meanwhile, the ABC is the kind of elitist organisation it derides, being expensive, contributing nothing but partisan politics which means that corruption is fostered by it, and communities hurt by it. The ABC will cut off a limb before trimming a nail for 5% cuts. Meanwhile, those angry feminists who derided a scientist for his t-shirt a few weeks ago have successfully made the t-shirt a hit sale item. Meanwhile Julie Bishop promotes a nuclear solution to energy concerns which addresses carbon dioxide issues. It would have to get past the anti nuclear scare campaign. Or fail because of the realisation that Carbon Dioxide is plant food. 
From 2013
When they murdered Lee Rigby, two Islamo Fascists raised their bloody hands to cameras and one said in a UK accent that such things were seen by women and children in his nation every day. He also spoke of an eye for an eye. The UK does not have a death penalty, but it is inconceivable that the two killers will ever be free. Regardless of their defence of the atrocity. People would not feel safe if it was generally believed that fantasists could run people over and butcher them while they were immobile. So it is very disturbing when the press do not report on why a group of thugs pushed through a front door of a house in Sydney and cut to pieces a young man in front of his mother and family. It scares the public to think such an attack is random. They want to know if it was drug inspired, or Islamo Fascist, or Bikie Gang. Without the cohesion of a story explaining to the public why everyone is safe, people feel threatened.

People feel threatened and they are, daily, by mainstream press partisanly pursuing conservatives while promoting left wing values. Media lies and their cover stories are discordant with reality. Desperate to engineer a policy back flip, Pyne's words are dissected, misrepresented and re-packaged. The truth is the ALP promoted bad policy, called Gonski, which would take money from tax payers and school kids and give it to ALP mates. This is called reform by the mass media who speak for the ALP while they are incapable. The truth is the federal government have no need to give money to public schools, because the states do. The federal government responsibly gives some money to private schools, because it would cost Australia too much if private schools were not viable. Private schools in Australia are either systemic or independent. Systemic school parents are generally not wealthy and their contributions are important to the wellbeing of education in Australia. Private students do not get more than public students from the public purse, and never have. What has happened is that the ALP took money away from their Gonski reform, but are demanding the conservatives return it to the budget. Parents are confused. One hairdresser I met recently is the breadwinner for her family. Her husband lost his job to ALP policy and she has one school age son and one pre school daughter. The hair dresser is highly educated, with a degree in computer science from a Vietnamese university and work experience in the computer industry. She is told by her son's public high school principal that the changes mean the school will have to cut classes and won't be able to buy computers. Also, she has been told private schools will not lose funding. The lies apparently spread by Chester Hill HS' Principal are not isolated. Parents are meant to be angry. But the cuts, were Pyne to cut Gonski entirely, would not cut a single program at any school. The only change will be that teachers will do what they are paid to do. If one truly believed the talk about teacher standards, that would mean everything was good. But the press would have you believe that Australian Teachers cannot function if some left wing extremists aren't paid a lot more.
Historical perspective on this day
In 3340 BC, Earliest believed record of an eclipse. In 1707, the second Siege of Pensacolacame to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida. In 1718, King Charles XII of Sweden died during a siege of the fortress of Fredriksten in Norway. In 1782, American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris – In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain signed preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris). In 1786, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Pietro Leopoldo I, became the first modern state to abolish the death penalty (later commemorated as Cities for Life Day). 

In 1803, in New Orleans, Spanish representatives officially transferred the Louisiana Territoryto a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transferred the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase. In 1804, the Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate began an impeachment trial of Federalist Supreme Court JusticeSamuel Chase. In 1824, ground was broken at Allanburg, Ontario, for the building of the first Welland Canal. In 1829, First Welland Canal opened for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the ground breaking. In 1853, Crimean War: Battle of Sinop – The Imperial Russian Navyunder Pavel Nakhimov destroyed the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey. In 1864, American Civil War: Battle of Franklin – The Confederate Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounted a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee, with Hood losing six generals and almost a third of his troops. In 1868, a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden was inaugurated in Stockholm's Kungsträdgården. In 1872, the first-ever international football match took place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England. In 1886, the Folies Bergère staged its first revue. 

In 1902, American Old West: Kid Curry Logan, second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor. In 1908, a mine explosion in Marianna, Pennsylvania, killed 154. In 1916, Costa Rica signed the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty. In 1934, the LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsmanbecame the first steam locomotive to be authenticated as reaching 100 mph. In 1936, in London, the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire. In 1939, Winter War: Soviet forces crossed the Finnish border in several places and bombed Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the war. In 1940, Lucille Ball married Desi Arnaz in Greenwich, Connecticut. In 1942, World War II: Battle of Tassafaronga; A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizō Tanaka defeated a U.S. cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright. In 1947,  1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine began, leading up to the creation of the state of Israel. 

In 1953, Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda was deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda. In 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashed through a roof and hit a woman taking an afternoon nap in the only documented case of a human being hit by a rock from space. In 1966, Barbadosbecame independent from the United Kingdom. In 1967, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen became independent from the United Kingdom. Also, the Pakistan Peoples Party was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who became its first chairman. In 1971, Iran seized the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates. In 1972, Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler told the press that there would be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels were then down to 27,000. In 1981, Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union began to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe. (The meetings end inconclusively on December 17.) In 1982, Michael Jackson's second solo album, Thriller was released worldwide. It would become the best-selling record album in history. In 1989, Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen was killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb. 

In 1993, American National Football League awarded 30th franchise to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Also, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act(the Brady Bill) into law. In 1994, MS Achille Lauro caught fire off the coast of Somalia. In 1995, Official end of Operation Desert Storm. Also, U.S. President Bill Clintonvisited Northern Ireland and spoke in favour of the "Northern Ireland peace process" to a huge rally at Belfast City Hall. He called terrorists "yesterday's men". In 1998, Exxon and Mobil signed a US$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating ExxonMobil, the world's largest company. In 1999, in Seattle, United States, demonstrations against a World Trade Organization meeting by anti-globalization protesters caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies. Also, British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merged to form BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world. In 2001, in Renton, Washington, United States, Gary Ridgway (aka The Green River Killer) was arrested. In 2004, longtime Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, finally lost, leaving him with US$2,520,700, television's biggest game show winnings. Also, Lion Air Flight 538 crash landed in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 26. In 2005,  John Sentamu became the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York. In 2012, an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane belonging to Aéro-Service, crashed into houses near Maya-Maya Airport during a thunderstorm, killing at least 32 people.
=== 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.
===
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 Simon Robert Lane and Jean Omari. Born on the same day across the years, along with
Finnish machine gun group
We got the football. We are steaming for success. We are not finished yet. Exiled to London is not very bad. One left hand is as good as another. Let us party. 
Deaths
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Tim Blair


===
Andrew Bolt


===

MALCOLM MANIPULATES MOLECULES

Tim Blair – Monday, November 30, 2015 (1:45pm)

A bizarre love letter from Elizabeth Farrelly: 
As a child I had a corner bedroom with a big bay window opening onto dark trees. When, as kids do, I worried about a bogeyman coming in to get me, I’d send up a silent prayer: “Just let him be smart”. An intelligent bogeyman, I figured, was one you could reason with. It was the stupid, emotion-crazed bogeyman, inaccessible to logic, you had to fear.
I feel the same now about Malcolm. 
She thinks he’s a stupid, emotion-crazed bogeyman? Interesting call. Home invasions notwithstanding, Elizabeth’s Malcolm-love is so powerful she believes he can physically alter the very air we breathe: 
Already, after only a few weeks, the country feels different. The air itself has a new edge. And that edge has a name. Intelligence. 
This edgy new SmartAir will be a boon for Elizabeth and her fellow Fairfax airheads. Quickly, to the cranial refilling stations! 
Of course, in the intelligence department, Keating was the standout. PJK, as we knew him, had three extraordinary intellectual skills. He could soak up information like a sponge. He had an intense strategic imagination. 
And he won just a single election before losing to John Howard by almost one million votes. 
So yes, Keating used his intelligence, as both weapon and wand – but not as bridge. Never, in my experience, has an Australian prime minister used intelligence to connect with the country. Never has the PM conversed with us as if we were functioning adults. 
Just as well we’re no longer breathing that old stupid air or we wouldn’t be clever enough to understand him. 
Malcolm is different. His intelligence has light in it … Malcolm speaks to us not as a rabble of blithering chimps wanting their buttons pushed but as grownups, capable of considered argument, reasoned reflection and conscientious decision. For Australia, this is huge.
So here’s my prediction. Malcolm – who like Beyonce is known universally by his first name – will be the longest-serving prime minister since Menzies. Possibly ever. 
He’s still to win his first election. Incidentally, where was all this Malcolm love when Turnbull was opposition leader just a few years ago? Back then he couldn’t even keep up with Kevin Rudd. Now he’s on course to be Prime Minister until 2033. 
This is more than a prediction. It’s a judgment. Malcolm’s political longevity will be a Very Good Thing. Not because he’ll necessarily manage to repurpose the crazier cowboy fringes of the Coalition. But because – far more importantly – the explicitness of Malcolm’s intelligence makes it OK for us to be intelligent too. 
Feel free to begin at any time, Elizabeth. 
Not just OK. Intelligence is almost expected. And expectation, as we know, is the best single predictor of performance. 
Really? Well, in that case I expect to win next year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.. 
To have an intelligence of this kind leading Australia is a shift of immense significance. Deriving from something that, at risk of sounding naive, you may almost call goodness, it gives Malcolm the potential to be not just a practical leader, in the usual way, but a moral one; a leader of minds.
Pick any of Malcolm’s speeches, interviews, even media releases. 
OK. I pick this one: 
Let’s wind it up, Lizzie: 
Throughout, you sense the cool and true moral intelligence at the helm.
Relief is what I feel, like the southerly buster after a 40-degree day. It says my inner child was right. The weak and stupid are the ones to fear. 
They’ll be fine once we get ‘em all gassed up on SmartAir. Farrelly’s column is the most absurd since mummy blogging cult leader Mia Freedman rejoiced in Turnbull’s ascent: 
“I can’t decide whether I want Malcolm Turnbull to adopt me or ravish me”.
A woman I know actually said this the other day. We were among a group of women of diverse ages and political persuasions, talking about politics as women often do and there was much nodding and laughing at the sentiment. I’ve heard similar opinions expressed by many women for years now but since he became Prime Minister, it’s reached a crescendo. 
It’s amazing what a few hundred million dollars will do for the image of someone who looks like he was sold in a box. Freedman continues: 
I see a leader of this country who is a champion for marriage equality and gender equality and climate change and an Australian republic. I see a leader who believes domestic violence is a cultural stain that needs to be identified and removed. I see a leader who made this issue a priority in his first days as Prime Minister.
Contrast that with a PM who thought his greatest achievement in almost two years as Minister For Women was repealing the carbon tax. 
It’s reals versus feels, and – as usual with rich leftists – feels wins. Freedman seems unaware that repealing the carbon tax put a lot of money in handbags. 
Coalition policies may remain the same but the attitude, the values and the leadership style of Malcolm Turnbull is patently different to his Liberal party predecessors.  There are many women who would never before have considered voting for the Coalition under leaders like John Howard and Tony Abbott, resolute social conservatives who seemed like they belonged to a far less modern era. No republic. No marriage equality. No understanding of technology. No care factor when it came to gender equality. 
No “care factor”. Heavens. 
But with the socially progressive Malcolm Turnbull in charge, the game has changed and for many women, so has their vote … Women are hugely influential politically for one simple reason: women love to communicate. In person and on social media. All the time. About everything. While men are silent lurkers on Facebook, women are incessantly commenting, sharing, liking, posting …
Gillard – and Rudd – understood that women online (ie: all women) are actually called “voters”. And they are massively influential. 
Obviously. Just look at where Gillard and Rudd are now. 
So why are women responding so favourably to Turnbull? In the weeks since taking office, the new Prime Minister has doubled the number of women in cabinet and appointed Australia’s first female Defence Minister. His has also announced $100m in funding to go towards combatting domestic violence and spoken of our societal need to change attitudes towards women. 
That was an Abbott policy. 
You can say these are mere optics. But even if you believe that, optics are undeniably important. The optics of an almost exclusively male cabinet under Tony Abbott? Terrible. The optics of a man who thought wheeling out his pretty daughters would cancel out any perception that he didn’t value women? Absurd. The optics of spending International Women’s Day with his all-male rural firefighting mates? Ridiculous. 
Freedman is wrong. Like Farrelly, she’s blinded by love.
===

STILL OVERPAID

Tim Blair – Monday, November 30, 2015 (12:23pm)

According to Peter Carey, Richard Flanagan and Tom Keneally, Australian writers make just $13,000 per year: 
A paperback today is the same price as it was in the mid-1990s. In the same period a federal MP’s base salary has almost tripled, from $76,000 in 1994, to $195,000 today – the equivalent of 15 years work for a writer. 
If you’re pulling in only $250 per week after 15 years, you might just be in the wrong line of work. And most Australian writers are.
===

LUCY CLUELESS

Tim Blair – Monday, November 30, 2015 (12:30am)

Actress, temperature activist, millionairess and former Big Oil propagandist Lucy Lawless nominates her “fave climate protest sign ever”:


Lucy is a little slow. Iowahawk had that gag nailed down nearly ten years ago.
===

DEACTIVATED

Tim Blair – Sunday, November 29, 2015 (8:00pm)

It’s a climate conference without any climate activists: 
French climate change activists have been placed under house arrest ahead of the opening of the UN climate change conference in Paris …
Green groups have described the move as “an abuse of power” but the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the activists were suspected of planning violent protests.
“These 24 people have been placed under house arrest because they have been violent during demonstrations in the past and because they have said they would not respect the state of emergency,” he said.
They must remain in their home towns, report to the local police three times a day and abide by a nightly curfew until December 12, when the climate change conference winds up. 
We could do with the same security measures in Australia. Although, to be fair, if you’re wearing a big giant puppet costume you’re already in a form of prison.
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How will Germany stop this brawling when these “refugees” leave their shelters?

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (8:01pm)

Welcome to Germany’s new arrivals, so grateful to their new home:

Clashes broke out Sunday between hundreds of asylum seekers at a shelter in Berlin, in the second mass brawl to erupt over the weekend in Germany’s crowded migrant accommodations. 
Several people were arrested at the fight that started in the food distribution queues at the former airport of Tempelhof, which has been turned into a temporary accommodation for 1,200 refugees, an AFP photographer witnessed.
The brawl came just hours after another mass fight at a refugee shelter in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, where migrants went at each other with fire extinguishers, a police spokesman said.
Windows were smashed, sofas were thrown, and fire extinguishers emptied, said police, adding that several residents of the shelter were wounded…
Separately, two other fights broke out in other shelters… Germany expects to take in a million asylum seekers this year alone… Germany’s police union had called for refugees to be separated by religion and by country of origin to minimise the potential for conflict.
How will police later separate these “refugees” from German Christians under this peace-keeping strategy of separating by religion and country of origin? 
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Say it ain’t so: surely Turnbull won’t back Rudd as UN boss

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (7:48pm)

Leigh Sales cannot get former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tonight to criticise Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
More reason to heed the whispers: that Turnbull could actually back this failed leader’s bid to be UN Secretary General.
Say it ain’t so, Malcolm. 
===

Scott Morrison defends Mufti and Islam from his colleagues’ call for reform

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (2:18pm)

Scott Morrison is disingenuous in claiming Islam is just having the same problems becoming “indigenised” in Australia that Christianity and Judaism had in the past:
Treasurer Scott Morrison ... told colleagues attacking Australian Muslims and the Grand Mufti they “fail to get it, frankly”. 
The Treasurer, a former Immigration Minister, spoke after Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and a growing band of Liberal back bench MPs criticised Grand Mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed for his response to the terrorist atrocities in Paris.
Newly elected Liberal Andrew Hastie was reported today as saying: “There is a problem with Islam.”
Mr Morrison did not refer directly to his colleagues but told reporters unnamed critics had not understood the structure of Islamic communities.
“It is not the sort of representational structure that you see in other organised religions in Australia. It’s quite different,” he said....
“The Grand Mufti is not like the senior cardinal or whoever. It is a very different structure. So they (Muslims) are working through those issues. They are matters for them.”
Mr Morrison said religions including Christianity adapted over time and expressed themselves in ways reflecting Australian values and culture.
“I think all religions go through phases in this country. My own (Christianity) and many others,” he said. “Over a period of time religions become more indigenised in this country… And that is true of Christianity as it is of Christianity, as it is true of the Jewish faith as it is of the Muslim faith.”
Five questions for Morrison.
Question one:  When exactly did Christians sign up for plots to kill fellow Australian citizens for their faith? When did Jews plot to bomb, stab and shoot non-Jews in Australia?
Question two: what is it in Islam that needs “indigenising”? Does that not indeed suggest a problem with Islam?
Question three: where is the evidence of this “indigenising” of Islam here, 14 years after the September 11 attacks?
Question 4: if the Grand Mufti is not the most senior Muslim cleric, why does the National Imans Council say that he is?
Question 5: why is Morrison defending the Mufti’s outrageous statement against the sober criticism of his colleagues?
I fear that Morrison under Turnbull is speaking and acting with less clarity and sense of purpose than he did under Abbott.   
===

Turnbull soars, Australia slides

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (9:49am)

Rowan Dean warns that Malcolm Turnbull is not using his popularity to do what’s needed:
This week, despite making vague mutterings about spending, Turnbull grandly announced there would be “no slashing and burning” of our federal budget. Rather than using his authority and popularity to sell an austerity message, he has done the opposite. The message is clear: our high debt, profligacy and government waste are here to stay. With his astronomical poll ratings, Turnbull could have done anything he wanted on gaining power – if only he’d used his popularity to offer economic leadership… Indeed, he justified his coup on the spurious grounds of talking up our economic performance, or some such twaddle. Yet, in the past 11 weeks we’ve had an awful lot of talk, but as the Financial Review reported on the weekend, new research shows “voters marking down the government’s performance in every policy issue of concern since Tony Abbott was replaced.”
And our slide continues, despite all the talk about “agility” and “optimism”:
A top budget expert warns Australia is inexorably drifting towards bigger government because the federal government appears unwilling to curb spending despite tax shortfalls that will contribute to $120 billion of budget deficits over the next four years… 
In the mid-year update in a fortnight, Treasurer Scott Morrison will most likely unveil an underlying cash deficit in 2015-16 of $40.3 billion – some $5.2 billion more than foreshadowed in the budget and a significant deterioration from last year’s deficit of $37.9 billion, [Deloitte Access Economics partner Chris] Richardson estimates.
An election in 2016 means the Coalition government is unlikely to make tough and unpopular spending cuts in next year’s budget, meaning the deficit will remain at $34.2 billion in 2016-17, he said, followed by shortfalls of $25.8 billion and $19.6 billion across the following two years…
Mr Richardson argues there is an urgent need for a national debate about the sustainability of the budget, as well as what changes to the tax system would mean for prosperity, plus the big social choices facing voters on issues such as the national disability insurance, education and old age pensions. In the absence of a proper debate, Mr Richardson warns, the tendency of the Senate to support spending and tax increases – without ever supporting expenditure cuts – means “we’re drifting towards bigger government without consciously making that decision.” 
Turnbull is putting his popularity above the national interest. But our tragedy is that Labor under Bill Shorten would undoubtedly be far worse, promising even more spending and fewer cuts.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.). 
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Why isn’t the Paris conference discussing the complete failure of the warming models?

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (9:44am)


Jo Nova and others have placed a half-page ad in The Australian today in a bid to counter the extraordinary propaganda in other outlets, particularly the ABC. An excerpt:
For greenhouse gases there has been a “selective scrutiny of evidence” to support Climate Change alarm. There is no evidence CO2 has determined climate in the past or that it could do so in the future. Just as there was needless alarm over the 37 year cooling from 1940 when CO2 was rising there is now unwarranted public alarm over a threat of dangerous global warming. 
Australia should save the $3 billion plus spent annually supporting renewable energy programs. The heavy burden of these costs falls on taxpayers, business and households. No Australian post-2020 emissions reduction target could be justified unless emission-free energy can be produced at a cost competitive with traditional energy suppliers.  
(Thanks to reader Low Profile.) 
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A naval captain should not support a Mufti who blames our foreign policy for terrorism

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (8:45am)

Mona Shindy could and should be an inspirational symbol of Muslim integration and achievement in a tolerant Australia:
As Director Littoral Warfare and Maritime Support, Captain Shindy advises the Government on the best way to spend billions of dollars on replacement tankers, ships, patrol boats — almost everything except submarines. 
She was previously charged with turning around the Fast Frigate System Program Office, from an inefficient organisation with adversarial stakeholder relationships, to a collaborative culture with performance-based contracts. And she shaved 30 per cent in costs from a $130 million budget.
But she has been made the ”Official Royal Australian Navy Islamic Advisor”, and in that role seems to have become the voice for Muslim grievance and victimology. I wonder what other senior member of the Australian Defence Force would be allowed to back a Mufti who blames our foreign policies and “Islamophobia” for Islamist terrorism, to praise a radical Anglican preacher known for  calling former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison an international criminal for turning back boats, and to endorse a radical American activist also attacking “Islamophobia”?:
Just to remind you of the message of the Mufti that Shindy backs:
Australia’s Grand Mufti, our top Muslim cleric, responded to the Paris massacre not by blaming Muslims or Islam, but by blaming the West. Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed said five “causative factors” had to be tackled to stop more terrorism, and all involved Australia’s alleged sins against Muslims — “racism, Islamophobia, curtailing freedoms through securitisation, duplicitous foreign policies and military intervention”. 
The apparent message: submit or risk death.
May I suggest Captain Shindy stick to trying to be the best captain in our navy? Her deeds will say so much more that is constructive than do her words.
Again I ask: what other ADF officer is allowed to blame our foreign policies for Islamist terrorist, and tweet or retweet endorsements of political leaders? And note that Shindy declares Islam perfect. Nowhere can I see tweets criticism of any named Muslim cleric or even named terrorist organisation, and nowhere any call for reform of Islam itself:
Remember: this is the “Official Royal Australian Navy Islamic Advisor” at work. 
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How could Bill Shorten say such mad things about global warming?

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (8:40am)

 THE first shock is that Labor leader Bill Shorten’s new global warming policy on Friday was such a naked and preposterous fraud.
Shorten actually announced a non-promise to do something useless at a cost he won’t give for a result he doesn’t know on evidence he made up.
The second shock is that journalists refused to expose this deception.
But that’s the global warming cult today — so powerful that journalists consider it a sin to fact-check even the craziest scaremongers.
SBS, for instance, fell completely for Shorten’s spin, reporting: “Labor’s pledged to cut carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 should they win.”
Less surprisingly, Greenpeace endorsed the con, announcing: “Greenpeace has welcomed Labor leader Bill Shorten’s promise to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.”

And not a single journalist went through Shorten’s claims to expose his bull in boasting of all the perils from which he’d save us by cutting the carbon dioxide emissions he claims cause dangerous global warming.
Modern journalism, right? Any fib is fine if it promotes the warming faith. But check what Shorten actually announced.
(Read the full article here.) 
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On Julie Bishop’s “loyalty” - a matter of character

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (8:00am)

Julie Bishop claimed she was a loyal deputy to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
February:
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop felt “insulted” and “offended” at having to prove her loyalty to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a cabinet colleague has revealed.
Yet Bishop was part of talks to topple Abbott for at least seven months before he fell:
Malcolm Turnbull offered Scott Morrison the position of treasurer in a Turnbull government in February, seven months before Tony Abbott was removed as prime minister. 
It was the day before the first and unsuccessful spill motion against Mr Abbott, in a phone call with Julie Bishop as a silent participant, according to multiple informed sources… Mr Morrison was open to the idea… Ms Bishop was present during the call, in the same room as Mr Turnbull, but didn’t speak, the sources said.
Yet she said nothing to Abbott when the plotters appealed to her in the week before the coup:
(T)wo of the plotters, Mitch Fifield and Scott Ryan, both junior members of the Abbott executive, decided to appeal for Julie Bishop’s help. Together with a third junior, Michaelia Cash, they met Bishop last Thursday in Parliament House to see if she could be enlisted to help bring down Abbott. She would not agree to back any move against Abbott or to stand in her own right… “The numbers are coming to me, I’ve got the numbers,” [Turnbull] announced to Bishop on Friday by phone… 
Yet Bishop did not even return Abbott’s phone call about coup rumors, even after Malcolm Turnbull told her it was on:
[O]n Channel 10’s The Project this week, she admitted she had heard of the planned challenge to Abbott — announced on Monday — “in the days beforehand”, although she later claimed “I had no idea of the timing until the day before”. 
But Bishop did not warn Abbott of Turnbull’s plot until Monday.... To add to the suspicion, when Abbott rang Bishop’s mobile last Saturday to discuss rumours of this challenge, Bishop did not answer and took a full day to ring back. No wonder, perhaps. Bishop had spent that Saturday at a Sydney charity event where she’d met Turnbull.
Yet Bishop had her chief of staff at the final meeting of the coup plotters:

Julie Bishop’s chief of staff, Murray Hansen, attended a crucial meeting of Liberal MPs plotting against Tony Abbott in September where it was decided Malcolm Turnbull would mount a challenge…
Then there was that astonishing pattern of leaks seemingly designed to hurt Abbott:
TONY Abbott’s claim that “not a single person’’ had ever raised with him the idea of removing Joe Hockey as Treasurer has been torpedoed by confirmation that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop discussed the option with him before Christmas… During those talks, the Foreign Minister canvassed the government’s problems told the Prime Minister that some colleagues were suggesting Mr Hockey was struggling in the job.
Before that, this (inaccurate) leak to a Bishop supporter about an official in Bishop’s department:

According to multiple sources, the ambassador [to France], Stephen Brady, was on the airport tarmac with his partner of 32 years, Peter Stephens, waiting to meet the incoming plane around 7pm Paris time. The prime minister’s traveling party sent an instruction that Mr Stephens should not take part in the greeting but should wait in the car.
Before that:
Elements within the parliamentary Liberal Party are trying to claim Bishop leaked the story about her disagreements with Abbott over the Indonesian education cuts of $500m to pay for the Coalition’s alternative to the flood levy. Some are suggesting she also leaked her defence in shadow cabinet of existing African aid.
Then there was this:
Julie Bishop has denied being the source of a damaging leak about the federal government’s new citizenship rules after Tony Abbott sought to assert his authority by warning ministers of the “personal consequences” from breaching cabinet rules.
And this:

Today’s political news agenda has been dominated by the revelation that Mr Abbott had reportedly demanded from Ms Bishop a guarantee she would not challenge him for the leadership. But the REAL question gripping Australian politics - not just Canberra insiders - is this: Who leaked the story?
Another one:
The Financial Review ran a story about a confrontation between Tony Abbott and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. The paper claimed the minister had “gone bananas” at a meeting with Abbott over reports she was to be “chaperoned” at a climate change conference in Peru by Trade Minister Andrew Robb. 
Bishop was offended, according to the paper, because it was said the Prime Minister’s Office wanted the more sceptical Robb keeping an eye on her to ensure she did not overcommit Australia on climate change policy.
I was struck by this comment after the leak about Ambassador Brady, where the leaker falsely suggested Abbott had snubbed his gay partner:

Ms Bishop, who was absent from Monday night’s Cabinet meeting where Tony Abbott told ministers the leak had been bad and warned there would be “personal consequences” for the leaker, said she had not discussed it with the Prime Minister. “The Prime Minister hasn’t spoken to me about the Cabinet meeting. He knows I didn’t leak the original story so we haven’t had a discussion about what he meant by that,” she said.
Actually, Abbott did try to ring Bishop and speak to her about this damaging and false leak from her department. Once again, at a critical time she failed to return his call? 
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Malcolm Turnbull suggests he’ll turn the Liberals into climate activists

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (7:32am)

If Malcolm Turnbull wins the next election, the Liberals will become a party of climate alarmists. The hijack will be complete:
Malcolm Turnbull will hold open the prospect of increasing Aus­tralia’s carbon target as he joins other world leaders at today’s clim­ate change conference in Paris to ­generate momentum to limit ­global warming to 2C. 
The Prime Minister’s message at the UN summit will be that the government is prepared to consider more ambitious targets to ­reduce greenhouse gas emissions in rolling five-year reviews, if there is a comprehensive global agreement. While Mr Turnbull has made it clear that Australia’s 26-28 per cent reduction target by 2030 will not be changed at the conference, he will tell world ­leaders there is scope for change when the goal is first reviewed in two years.
As I blog, I can see outside my window a nest of three helpless wattlebird fledgings, native to Australia. Each time their mother feeds them and leaves, an imported blackbird hops onto the nest to snatch the food from the mouths of the babies. I keep trying to shoo it away, but it isn’t working. 
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“Controversial” Liberals speak truth about terrorism. Uncontroversial ones don’t

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (7:23am)

We are in real trouble when it’s “controversial” to tell the truth about Islamist terrorism:
Liberal MPs have backed senior colleague Josh Frydenberg’s ­declaration that a “problem within Islam” is to blame for recent terror attacks, as they urged ­moderate Islamic leaders to speak with one voice against extremism. 
The Resources Minister warned yesterday that the nation was “not winning the battle of hearts and minds” within the Muslim community, at a time when the defeat of Islamic State was the “greatest challenge of our generation”.
He also launched a stinging ­rebuke of the Grand Mufti, Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, over his “graphic” leadership failure after the violence in Paris.Warning there should not be any mixed messages about the role religion played in radicalisation, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and government backbenchers Andrew Nikolic, Andrew Hastie and Michael Sukkar yesterday supported Mr Frydenberg’s controversial comments. 
Add also Angus Taylor:

Fellow Liberal MP Angus Taylor said: “There is a version of Islam which is absolutely unacceptable.”
Yet still no leadership:

The Australian approached numerous Islamic community groups yesterday at the second annual Sydney Muslim Conference and over the phone but they declined to respond to Mr Frydenberg’s remarks.
It’s now 14 years since the September 11 attacks. If this failure of Muslim leaders to lead a reform of Islam goes on much longer, I suspect most Australians will conclude that the task is simply not possible.
UPDATE
Politicians you can trust to tell the truth:
Andrew Hastie, Liberal, Canning, WA:
“Modern Islam needs to cohere with the Australian way of life, our values and institutions. In so far as it doesn’t, it needs reform.”
Josh Frydenberg, Liberal, Kooyong, Vic

“We need to acknowledge the significance of this threat, to acknowledge that religion is part of this problem.”
Michael Sukkar, Liberal, Deakin, Vic
“It’s clear that Islam hasn’t had the same reformation that occurred in Christianity which means some of these mediaeval teachings and practices have not been stamped out.”
George Christensen, LNP, Dawson, Qld

“It’s got everything to do with Islam. The terrorists say as they are doing it that it is in the name of Allah.”
Alan Tudge, Liberal, Aston, Vic
“People don’t commit mass murder because they don’t have a job or because of our foreign policy. They do so because of their warped ideology — an ideology that must be challenged.”
Craig Kelly, Liberal, Hughes, NSW:

“I know this is a difficult and sensitive debate but we need to have it.’’
UPDATE
ABC host Jon Faine today tries to discredit these calls, noting that Frydenberg is Jewish and Hastie an evangelical Christian. So they would say that, wouldn’t they? But I’m an agnostic and I’m not sure of the the faith of the other MPs.
Address the argument, Jon, don’t try that post-modernist attack on motives.  Would you welcome the same hostile speculation about your own motives?
UPDATE
It’s no longer credible to push the “alienated” and “marginalised” excuse:
A group of dual citizens from Sydney’s west has given up university and luxury cars to join Islamic State in recent months, and one has celebrated the Paris attacks from the conflict zone.
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Think globally, arrest locally

Andrew Bolt November 30 2015 (7:15am)

France puts global warming alarmists under house arrest, having worked out that they’re actually a menace. Just 24 so far, but it’s a start:
French climate change activists have been placed under house arrest ahead of the opening of the UN climate change conference in Paris … 
Green groups have described the move as “an abuse of power” but the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the activists were suspected of planning violent protests.
“These 24 people have been placed under house arrest because they have been violent during demonstrations in the past and because they have said they would not respect the state of emergency,” he said. They must remain in their home towns, report to the local police three times a day and abide by a nightly curfew until December 12, when the climate change conference winds up. 
UPDATE
Global warming protesters in Paris show their commitment to a better word by trying to smash police with rocks:
(Via Tim Blair.) 
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How union greed torpedoed our subs

Piers Akerman – Saturday, November 29, 2014 (11:21pm)

The much-needed and long-overdue debate about replacing the nation’s ageing submarine fleet is too important to be jettisoned because of a single misguided comment.

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Lessons from Queensland’s political courage

Miranda Devine – Saturday, November 29, 2014 (5:22pm)

Campbell Newman is one leader who has challenged the entitlement class - and won.
Queensland’s lastest financial report for 2013-14, tabled last week, shows the Newman government has halved its budget deficit and reversed the massive growth rate of spending for the first time since the 1990s.
Newman slashed spending by $198 million, by cutting 14,000 jobs from the bloated public service bureaucracy, and eliminating “nice to have” programs.
He boasts of ramping up frontline services while also implementing controversial new laws on bikies and drug dealers, which have helped drive down the crime rate by 10-30 percent.
Newman suffered politically for those tough decisions, with opinion polls slumping so low earlier this year that pundits tipped he would lose his seat at next year’s state election.
But polls in recent months shows Newman’s personal popularity soaring, and the LNP’s vote improving.
The political lesson is that short term pain early in the electoral cycle is preferable to slow death by a thousand cuts. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths;? The valiant never taste of death but once.” 
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Perks and featherbeds: Time to reload on the ABC

Miranda Devine – Saturday, November 29, 2014 (11:23pm)

THIS is a tale of two Australias. In one Australia you have the increasingly derided wealth creators. In the other, you have the burgeoning new entitlement class – “leaners” who rely on big government to protect them from the disciplines of the market.
On the one hand, you have 7000 workers beavering away on Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara, which will throw off an annual 55 million tonnes of premium iron ore, worth $5 billion, once it’s completed next September.
The $12 billion investment in the mine, including building a heavy rail line 344km to Port Hedland, was borne entirely by Rinehart and her 30 per cent Asian equity partners, until she achieved debt ­financing of $8 billion this year, in the largest new mining project ­finance deal in history.
On the other hand, you have the ABC, the taxpayer-funded media leviathan which costs $1.1 billion a year and is squealing over a 5 per cent haircut.
The government’s problem is that it will not challenge the entitlement class. 
And none is more entitled than the ABC, with its fat employment contracts, generous superannuation, curious business plan, and even more curious ­approach to wealth creation.
For instance, you will never hear about the Roy Hill triumph on ‘Our ABC’ — apart from criticism from that bastion of integrity, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and ­Energy Union.
Two examples illustrate the ABC’s surreal approach to other people’s money. 
Example one: the ABC enterprise agreement, 2013-16, which covers an 8 per cent annual growth of wages and perks, including superannuation contributions of 17-20 per cent, more than double the rate of the private sector. 
The employment contract guarantees minimum 2.5-2.6 per cent pay rises every year. If you work Saturdays, you are paid time-and-a-half, Sundays is double time and public holidays double time-and-a-half. 
Then there are various allowances, for meals or television clothing, or if you live in an “isolated locality” — like Darwin. If you work in Kununurra you get an extra seven days annual leave. Maternity leave is 14 weeks, adoption leave is six weeks and supporting partners’ leave is two weeks. You get paid leave to move house or for “special religious ceremonial or cultural obligations”.
There is study leave of up to five hours a week. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees get a day’s paid leave each year to participate in NAIDOC Week.
All this and salaries which now outstrip their equivalents in the private sector.
Example two: in 2006, when Mark Scott was hired as ABC managing director, the 2005-06 annual report shows the salary to be about $430,000, including perks, ­although a rival contender for the job remembers the base salary ­offered at the time was more like $300,000.
Early in Scott’s reign, rumours were printed that he was in line for the BBC’s top job. Afraid of losing him, the board, then chaired by banker Maurice Newman, decided to give him a lavish pay rise of more than $200,000. They did this by ­reclassifying his position, making it one of the highest paid public service jobs in the country. The 2013-14 annual report shows Scott’s salary now to be $805,392.
Whether there was any truth in the BBC rumour is unknown, but what is known is that Scott’s benefactor at his previous employer Fairfax Media, CEO Fred Hilmer, was on his way out of the ailing company. Scott had little journalism experience when he was elevated to be Fairfax editorial director, but Hilmer, a management theory academic, was impressed by his Masters in Public Administration from Harvard.
In other words, the ABC board’s largesse may not have been merited. But it is telling that a board appointed by John Howard chose and then richly rewarded a managing director who went on to fortify and expand the very worst ABC tendencies. 
Halfway through a second five-year term, Scott has created a ­Sydney-centric empire which has entrenched the ABC’s leftist bias while shirking the regional responsibilities of its charter and ­expanding digital strategy deliberately to annihilate commercial competitors.
The only real instrument of control over the ABC available to any government is funding, and the feral reaction to the modest 5 per cent cut over five years proposed by Malcolm Turnbull shows the political dangers. Scott’s response has been to damage the government at its electoral base, by slashing at ­regional and rural services, disproportionately disadvantaging Coalition voters while beefing up digital spending.
This is tantamount to a declaration of war. The only answer for the government is to return fire, with a really significant funding cut to the ABC’s $1.1 billion budget. The furore could hardly be more than it is for the piddling cut ­already planned. 
And part of the savings could be used to create a new regional-only independent public broadcaster, with a charter to provide the service Australians love and expect from ‘Our ABC’. Call it the Regional Australian Broadcasting Corporation, R - ABC. 
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SISTERHOOD SAVES THE DAY

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 29, 2014 (11:42pm)

Thanks to an enormous publicity effort by feminists around the world, a hard-working female clothes designer in Oregon is now so overwhelmed with orders that she can barely keep up:



That’s around $28,000 worth of business, right there. Order your own shirt here.
(Via Mat)
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The Bolt Report today, November 30

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (5:56am)

On The Bolt Report at 10am and 4pm.
Editorial: Why do we pay the $27 million Human Rights Commission after its incredible bias?
Guests:  Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, former Labor advisor Cassandra Wilkinson, IPA boss John Roskam and Rowan Dean, Australian Spectator editor, Financial Review columnist and Sky News commentator.
We’ll discuss the Victorian election result, the message to Tony Abbott and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Scott Morrison defies Bill Shorten to try gloating in NSW or Queensland:
ANDREW BOLT: 
... the Labor Party ran Tony Abbott’s pictures on all the advertising outside every polling booth in Victoria yesterday. You don’t think there’s a message that you should be getting?
SCOTT MORRISON: Well, I think in every election, whether it’s State or Federal, every Government is going to look at what the issues were there, and what the messages are. And no sensible government would not do that. But at the same time, when you look around the country - I mean, in NSW, here, the Baird Government is 10 points ahead. The Newman Government’s eight points ahead. What I saw last night was a very cockish Bill Shorten, frankly overreaching last night, as he sought to make himself the centre of attention, which is Bill Shorten’s stock-in-trade. He always thinks it’s always about him. What the Victorian election was about yesterday was what was happening in Victoria, and to the extent that there are issues that the Federal Government has to look at in the context of that, then of course we will.
The transcript of my full interview with Morrison:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today, November 30'
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Another costly barnacle being removed

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (5:50am)

Another barnacle being scraped, but at still more cost to the Budget:
STAY-AT-HOME mums and dads will secure a five-year freeze on their university loans under a breakthrough deal to deliver higher education reforms. 
In an attempt to kill Labor’s ‘$100,000 degrees’ campaign, the Abbott Government will also dump plans to hike university loan interest rates.
Crucially, the reforms would however still allow universities to set their own fees and deregulate the system.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has reached agreement to deliver the concessions in a last-ditch attempt to secure Senate support for university reform before Christmas…
The proposal will cost the government $7 million in cash over the next four years. However, in accrual terms the impact will be $270 million. This is because HECS debts are banked in the budget as an asset...<
The HECS pause for mums and dads is a measure designed to woo Victorian cross bencher Senator John Madigan… Mr Pyne now has three of the six Senate votes he required to introduce higher education reforms because Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm and SA Senator Bob Day are open to the idea of university reform.
The Abbott Government also has a better prospect of securing Clive Palmer's support for the reforms now that Jacqui Lambie has left the party because WA Senator Dio Wang is sympathetic to university reform.  Senators believe that Mr Palmer will be keen to cut a deal on university reforms to reinforce his continued relevance despite Senator Lambie's decision to quit the party. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
But still a vote short. 
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Billions of reasons for Joe Hockey to defy Abbott on the co-payment

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (5:41am)

No wonder Hockey is hanging on to his dead tax:
JOE Hockey is insisting that the $7 GP fee is not dead simply to ensure he can keep the billion dollar measure on his budget bottom line according to senior Liberals… 
Mr Abbott’s supporters have again insisted that the policy “is dead’’ in the Senate but they do not want to formally scrap the measure.
The reason is that the Treasurer wants to keep the $3.6 billion raised through the GP tax on the budget books ahead of the Mid Year Economic Fiscal Outlook, according to senior Liberals.
If the government was to formally abandon the policy, the Treasurer would blowout the growing budget deficit by another $3.6 billion ahead of MYEFO which will be released before Christmas…
Mr Abbott’s supporters have hit back at the Treasurer accusing him of being lazy and “bellowing’’ over the GP mess. One senior Liberal claimed Mr Hockey “went off his t**s’’ about the Prime Minister’s office briefing journalists that the policy was to be dumped. In an extraordinary personal attack, one minister said Mr Hockey was a sook. Another senior Liberal said he was “erratic’’ because he’s either “full bottle or on holidays and there’s nothing in between.’’
Starting to sound terminal, this knifing.
Sam Maiden:
(T)he mystery of what Tony Abbott is going to do about the $7 GP tax has finally been solved… 
It’s dead’’ according to senior Liberals. It simply has no prospect of getting through the Senate. The only problem is that if you tell the truth and actually announce that, you blow a $1 billion hole in Treasurer Joe Hockey’s costings for the end-of-year budget update. It’s already on the budget books.
This is why the Treasurer chucked a wobbly over the Prime Minister’s office stating the obvious to journalists — legislation to adopt the measure will not be introduced in the final fortnight of sittings…
The Treasurer was also entirely nonplussed by what he regarded as the Prime Minister’s office sloppily briefing this to journalists.
The Prime Minister’s Office was nonplussed with the Treasurer… (T)here are signs that the Prime Minister is preparing to move on some other barnacles. >Early next week, the Abbott Government will write to the Defence Remuneration Tribunal seeking to overturn a decision to scrap entitlements for soldiers under a new 1.5 per cent pay deal. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Clive Palmer crashes in Victoria

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (5:21am)

Clive Palmer had a disastrous result in Victoria - just 1.8 per cent of the Upper House votes.
And if voters had seen his juvenile clowning on the Channel 7 panel last night it would have been worse.
Victoria is not a natural hunting ground for Palmer, but this is pathetic after all his ads. 
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What good is the Senate again?

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (5:03am)

Australia’s Tony Abbott has a Senate, and it’s stopping him from making the spending cuts almost every economist agrees are critical to saving the economy.
New Zealand’s John Key does not have a Senate, and is free to make the spending cuts that have rescued New Zealand.
Result: 
NEW Zealand wants to lure thousands of West Australians across the Tasman to fill a nationwide skills shortage. A delegation of 30 government officials and major employers will hold walk-in interviews and potentially make thousands of on-the-spot offers to suitable candidates at a two-day jobs expo in Perth… 
They’re tasked with finding people to fill 2000 immediate vacancies and persuading thousands more to emigrate with the promise of better job prospects in a booming economy, a lower cost of living and shorter commutes to work.
More:
A recent World Economic Forum survey on global competitiveness showed New Zealand outranking Australia for the first time, while Australia fell from the top-20 due to tight labour laws, government red tape and high tax rates. 
Notoriously rigid labour laws put Australia near bottom of the 148-country list for wage flexibility and hiring and firing, while New Zealand ranked 10th for wage flexibility.
This may prompt more firms to consider New Zealand, where unions relations are warmer and a right-of-centre government since 2008 has fostered a business-friendly environment.
“Australian companies complained of hiring and firing practices along with a highly regulated labour market and the cost of employing people, whereas in New Zealand that wasn’t an issue,” said Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the New Zealand Initiative think-tank, which contributed to the survey.
“As long as Australia doesn’t tackle these problems, New Zealand has a chance to outcompete,” he said.
(Thanks to reader Dave from WA.) 
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Blaming Abbott for losing Victoria ignores the facts

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (4:50am)

Fairfax’s Mark Kenny would like it to be so:
There will be no shortage of theories about what caused the Victorian result but you can safely bet federal Labor will target the toxic standing of the Abbott government as the key driver. 
Normally such claims are transparently self-serving. Voters understand the delineation between state and federal governments and are loath to waste one trip to the ballot box pointlessly ventilating grievances about the other. But this election has been different. Noticeably so. Without inspiring leaders, contrasting programs, or the presentation of a transformative vision, the local pre-election period has been vulnerable to national hijack.
Abbott was a factor, except for these points suggesting he wasn’t much at all:
- the Victorian Liberals were down in the polls even in 2012, which is one reason Premier Ted Baillieu quit.
- the Liberals were down all this year in the polls, even before Abbott’s unpopular Budget
- as Kenny admits, voters understand the difference between state and federal governments.
- senior Victorian Labor frontbencher Martin Pakula last night rejected the Abbott factor, saying the issues had been health, transport and education - the usual things.
- Daniel Andrews in his election speech pointedly failed to mention Abbott once, even though introduced by federal Labor leader Bill Shorten and giving him a shout-out.
- the failings of the Victorian Liberal Government are sufficient to explain its loss.
Yes, Abbott is unpopular. Yes, he must change. Yes, there are lessons to learn from the Liberals’ stupid loss of Victoria.
But most of the lessons are the opposite of what many commentators and Abbott haters would like. Above all, the Victorian Liberals lost not because they were too radical or too Right wing, but because they were too timid and too bland.
Then there was the drama, of course. 
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Julie Bishop: nuclear “obvious” if we want to slash emissions

Andrew Bolt November 30 2014 (4:43am)

She is absolutely right, of course, always a virtue when opening a controversial debate:
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says nuclear energy remains an option for Australia, describing it as an “obvious direction” as it considers how to cut carbon dioxide emissions after 2020. 
Ms Bishop called for a an open discussion about the feasibility of nuclear power, given Australia’s abundance of uranium, but accused Labor of resorting to a scare campaign when the issue was raised during the Howard government years.“It’s an obvious conclusion that if you want to bring down your greenhouse gas emissions dramatically you have to embrace a form of low or zero-emissions energy and that’s nuclear, the only known 24/7 baseload power supply with zero emissions,” she told Fairfax Media when asked about Australia’s options for reaching future carbon-reduction targets.
A debate that’s good for Australia, good for Bishop. 
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"The “Knockout Game” is played by predominantly black teens who punch unsuspecting victims, rendering them unconscious, severely injured, or in some cases dead.">
Manhattan Chef Latest Victim of Knockout Game?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/29/Manhattan-Chef-Latest-Victim-of-Knockout-Game
Philadelphia police believe the “Knockout Game” is responsible for the vicious beating of a Manhattan chef visiting Old Town Philly on Tuesday.
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There Is An Optical Illusion That Can Detect Schizophrenia
http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2013/06/there-is-optical-illusion-that-can.html
Schizophrenic patients beat the optical illusion of the hollow mask and are able to identify the concave face unlike healthy people.
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Two German students have vandalised part of the Pyramid of Khufu to help 'prove' their Lost...
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/two-german-students-have-vandalised-part-of-the-pyramid-of-khufu-to-help-prove-their-lost-civilisation-theory/story-e6frfqc0-1226771863820
VALID research or vandalism? Egyptian authorities are in uproar after two German students scraped away some ancient writing to "prove" the Great Pyramids are 20,000 years old.

Idiots bring to mind the second side of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. "Here we have an 18th century masterpiece, and if we scrape a little bit of it off (scraping noises) a 15th century under piece. Made entirely of egg shell. This Lurid work (stumbles a lot) has caused controversy in the area of embroidery." - ed
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AshbyGate - James Ashby and the Giant LNP Conspiracy
http://www.ashbygate.com
The following presentation is a compilation of news events, as found on youtube.com. Grab some popcorn, it's a long, but interesting story!
ALP smears go to substantial depths. Ashby has done nothing wrong. LNP made adult decisions.- ed
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Palestinians burn Angola's flag in a protest amid reports that the country has banned Islam and destroyed mosques..... yep... Palestinians
Angola accused of 'banning' Islam as mosques closed
www.theguardian.com
Human rights activists condemn crackdown though officials in largely Catholic nation insist reports of ban are exaggerated
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/28/angola-accused-banning-islam-mosques
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Why haven't we started impeachment proceedings for this miserable excuse for a president no less a human being.
Obama’s New Imperial Decree | FrontPage Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/obamas-new-imperial-decree/
The president waves his magic wand and -- poof -- delays another part of Obamacare for a year.

He is worse than Clinton was. And Clinton was impeached. In ten years time, his successor of Democrat President .. will they be worse too? - ed
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Hello Iran, Goodbye America - Op-Eds - Israel National News
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14100#.Upj4oTKulzl.facebook
We can repeal Obamacare, but not a nuclear Iran once it is created. If Jewish leadership and American citizens do not stand up now there will be nothing left in America worth fighting for. It is not only Israel at stake. Stanley Zir, Never Again is Now
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Obama: Iran Has A Right To Nuclear Power
http://www.therightperspective.org/2009/06/02/obama-iran-has-a-right-to-nuclear-power/#sthash.uxm3lJhO.dpbs
In an interview with the BBC, Barack Obama has stated that Iran has a right to nuclear power - provided the Islamic regime's uses are peaceful.
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Into the fray: Will the West withstand the Obama presidency? - JPost

“Obama has no interest in weakening our adversaries while he does seem to have an interest in weakening our allies”, warned Dinesh D’Souza, adding: “If you were trying to find a consistent way to predict what Obama is doing in the ME it is very simple. He has been undermining our allies and allowed our adversaries to remain in power.” - Martin Sherman 

Continue to the link, reading this and more articles at ...….http://paper.li/allysonchristy/1338794440
Allyson’s Geo-Political Inspections
paper.li
Allyson’s Geo-Political Inspections, by Allyson Christy: Israel, The West and Political Islam
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First Sinai-based Al Qaeda cell to infiltrate the West Bank eliminated in Hebron hills
http://www.debka.com/article/23480/First-Sinai-based-Al-Qaeda-cell-to-infiltrate-the-West-Bank-eliminated-in-Hebron-hills
?s counterterrorism sources disclose that the trio represented the first al Qaeda cell to infiltrate the West Bank from Sinai, either through Jordan to the east or the Gaza Strip to the south.
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Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim: 'We Will Continue to Invest in Israel' | Jewish & Israel News...
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/11/29/mexican-billionaire-carlos-slim-we-will-continue-to-invest-in-israel/
The world’s second-wealthiest man, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said he plans to continue to invest in Israel, particularly in the healthcare and telecoms industry, after investing in Israeli photo and video-sharing platform Mobli earlier this month, Israel’s Globes business daily reported late…
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"The Lid": The REAL Chanukah Story-It Was About a "Civil" War And Assimilation
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/the-real-chanukah-story-it-was-about.html

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#IDFWithoutBorders: Map of IDF Aid Delegations Around the World
http://www.idfblog.com/2013/11/27/idfwithoutborders-map-idf-aid-delegations-around-world/
Over the years, the IDF's humanitarian aid has served as a source of relief for people all over the world, lending a helping hand to those in need.
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Popes vs. Jews | FrontPage Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/bruce-bawer/popes-vs-jews/
Citing historian Daniel Goldhagen?s statement that the Catholic Church, after the Shoah, had the moral obligation to defend Israel and Jews, Meotti flatly sums up his thesis: ?This book shows that the Vatican tragically failed, and has forsaken the Jews again.? Meotti?s jeremiad, then, is mostly abo…
do Palestinians compare to Jesus? I have no doubt some Catholics have said that. But that is not balanced. - ed
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Manufacturing Intolerance | FrontPage Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/manufacturing-intolerance/
Why fake racism accusations aren’t going away.
Maybe it is my face .. but most women I meet tell me they are Lesbian. They must see something trustworthy. - ed

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A Modern Day Yehudit (Judith)
http://unitedwithisrael.org/a-modern-day-judith/
As Jews around the world celebrate Hanukkah, Jews also remember the story of Judith, the brave Jewish woman who contributed significantly to leading the Israelites to victory by killing off Holofernes of Assyria around the second century BCE. However, thousands of years later, around Hanukkah, Jews…
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Rocks that Hit Jewish Children Do Not Echo in the World - Op-Eds - Israel National News
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14171#.Upi3r5uA1Vc
The stoning of Jewish children occurs in a vacuum. The sound doesn't travel. Giulio Meotti
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Rocks are just as lethal as knives and guns. It's time to treat them the same way we treat other criminals.
PM Vows to Catch 'Criminals' Who Injured Baby
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174606
Jerusalem Mayor Barkat: a rock is a weapon like any other, punishment needs to be increased.

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Obama Told Netanyahu: Don't be So Vocal About Iran Deal
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174614
Obama reportedly asked PM Netanyahu to "take a breather" from his criticism of the Iran deal, reports The Washington Post.

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Shaath: 'We Will Stay in Negotiations Just to Release Prisoners'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174632
Despite reports that peace talks have failed, PA official declares that they will remain - if only to release more terrorists.

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Ben-Dahan: Attacks Thanks to Kerry
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174629
Following rock attack on 2 year old in Jerusalem, Deputy Min. of Religious Affairs accuses Kerry of encouraging 'third intifada.'

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Britain and Germany Block PA Olive Council Bid
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174634
Unilateral action to join International Olive Council blocked over arguments the act jeopardizes peace talks and violates conditions.
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“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.”Psalm 136:1,26 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people ... Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him."
Leviticus 19:16-17

Tale-bearing emits a threefold poison; for it injures the teller, the hearer, and the person concerning whom the tale is told. Whether the report be true or false, we are by this precept of God's Word forbidden to spread it. The reputations of the Lord's people should be very precious in our sight, and we should count it shame to help the devil to dishonour the Church and the name of the Lord. Some tongues need a bridle rather than a spur. Many glory in pulling down their brethren, as if thereby they raised themselves. Noah's wise sons cast a mantle over their father, and he who exposed him earned a fearful curse. We may ourselves one of these dark days need forbearance and silence from our brethren, let us render it cheerfully to those who require it now. Be this our family rule, and our personal bond--Speak evil of no man.

The Holy Spirit, however, permits us to censure sin, and prescribes the way in which we are to do it. It must be done by rebuking our brother to his face, not by railing behind his back. This course is manly, brotherly, Christlike, and under God's blessing will be useful. Does the flesh shrink from it? Then we must lay the greater stress upon our conscience, and keep ourselves to the work, lest by suffering sin upon our friend we become ourselves partakers of it. Hundreds have been saved from gross sins by the timely, wise, affectionate warnings of faithful ministers and brethren. Our Lord Jesus has set us a gracious example of how to deal with erring friends in his warning given to Peter, the prayer with which he preceded it, and the gentle way in which he bore with Peter's boastful denial that he needed such a caution.

Evening

"Spices for anointing oil."
Exodus 35:8
Much use was made of this anointing oil under the law, and that which it represents is of primary importance under the gospel. The Holy Spirit, who anoints us for all holy service, is indispensable to us if we would serve the Lord acceptably. Without his aid our religious services are but a vain oblation, and our inward experience is a dead thing. Whenever our ministry is without unction, what miserable stuff it becomes! nor are the prayers, praises, meditations, and efforts of private Christians one jot superior. A holy anointing is the soul and life of piety, its absence the most grievous of all calamities. To go before the Lord without anointing is as though some common Levite had thrust himself into the priest's office--his ministrations would rather have been sins than services. May we never venture upon hallowed exercises without sacred anointings. They drop upon us from our glorious Head; from his anointing we who are as the skirts of his garments partake of a plenteous unction. Choice spices were compounded with rarest art of the apothecary to form the anointing oil, to show forth to us how rich are all the influences of the Holy Spirit. All good things are found in the divine Comforter. Matchless consolation, infallible instruction, immortal quickening, spiritual energy, and divine sanctification all lie compounded with other excellencies in that sacred eye-salve, the heavenly anointing oil of the Holy Spirit. It imparts a delightful fragrance to the character and person of the man upon whom it is poured. Nothing like it can be found in all the treasuries of the rich, or the secrets of the wise. It is not to be imitated. It comes alone from God, and it is freely given, through Jesus Christ, to every waiting soul. Let us seek it, for we may have it, may have it this very evening. O Lord, anoint thy servants.
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Today's reading: Ezekiel 35-36, 2 Peter 1 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 35-36



A Prophecy Against Edom

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste. 4 I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
5 “‘Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax, 6 therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 7 I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and cut off from it all who come and go. 8 I will fill your mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines.9 I will make you desolate forever; your towns will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD....

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Peter 1

1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirming One’s Calling and Election
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires....
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Micaiah, Michaiah [Mīcā'iah,Mī chā'iah]—who is like jehovah. Here is a name occurring many times in the Old Testament and used of women as well as men. It is spelled in different ways. See MICA andMICAH.
  1. A prophet, son of Imlah, who foretold the fall of Ahab at Ramoth-gilead ( 1 Kings 22:8,9; 2 Chron. 18:8). There are no truer hearts to God than his. Carefully compare the three great prophets of 1 Kings—Ahijah, Elijah and Micaiah.
  2. The father of Achbor, a chief officer of King Josiah ( 2 Kings 22:12, 14).
  3. A prince of Judah ordered by Jehoshaphat to teach the people (2 Chron. 17:7).
  4. A priest of the family of Asaph who blew a trumpet at the dedication of the wall ( Neh. 12:35, 41).
  5. The son of Gemariah, a prince of Judah in Jehoiakim’s time (Jer. 36:11, 13).

Also the name of the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. (See 1 Kings 15:2; 2 Chron. 11:20; 13:2).
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