Monday, November 14, 2016

Mon Nov 14th Todays News

It turns out I was right from the time I embraced Trump's campaign after he took the GOP. I had backed Cruze. I felt Clinton was running dead and had no momentum. I felt Trump had plenty of momentum, despite the manufactured outrage at his saying rude things eleven years ago. I was uncertain the morning of the election. I had predicted a Reagan level landslide and all the press, including Sky and Fox were predicting a Clinton win. I knew the swing states Trump needed. Florida was doubtful early. Fox awarded Pennsylvania to Clinton early. I went for a long walk, and when I got back, there were talks that Pennsylvania may have been called too early. Clinton was on 202 and Trump in 220's but it looked like Hillary had not yet had California counted for her, or Washington or Hawaii. But they had been part of her count. My friend had bet on Trump and was thinking of a last minute hedge on Hillary. But why was she having $5.50 offered for her if she was gong to get California? Then $7.50. It dawned us, and I dared to hope. The swing states were going to Trump. Fox wouldn't call for Trump early. By the time the Clinton campaign manager announced nothing it was clear every media outlet had been wrong, and the partisan ones were embarrassed. Trump had had momentum, while Clinton stood on her inertia. Reagan had not achieved both houses to go with the White House. Obama has gifted him most of the GOP governors, most of the states with GOP legislature and remarkable Presidential powers never before given a GOP President.

IPA Review (Nov 2016) features a Morgan Begg article “The Repeal of Section 18c” about the section of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act. Begg is thorough and outlines the recent history, the QUT case, raises the issue of the process being punishment, talks of senators backing reform and the growing support for change. Only it won’t happen in the near future as ALP, Greens and NXT have a lock in the senate and oppose free speech. Also, the PM, Malcolm Turnbull, does not seem to value it at all. Too many people have backed the wrong horse for effective measures to be made. There is hope, but the hope is predicated on Turnbull not being PM, Bishop not being Deputy PM and ALP voting in public interest, not self interest. The hope is very faint.
=== from 2015 ===
Paris has been attacked. The French President was escorted away from an assault on the football stadium that had hosted France vs Germany. France had won the friendly 2-0. A concert was attacked and several cafes. Approximately 160 are dead, as well as some seven jihadists. In the early Sabath hours, Obama had declared ISIL was broken and beaten. And then the assault on Paris happened and Obama promised to stand with France. Already, some are excusing the depraved assaults as being to do with foreign policy. The terrorists don't like fighting. One notable terrorist responsible for filmed beheadings is thought to have been droned to death earlier in the day. But the suicide assaults would have required months of planning. Soon the jihadis bodies will be identified. Were they illegal refugees? Were they natural French radicalised by permissive schooling? Many will blame President Bush or even the prescient Tony Abbott. But part of the reason will actually be the abysmal President Hollande who marched with those supporting the killers of Charlie Hebdo on religious grounds. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
What costume is racism? 
Racism at a party is prevented by a single complaint by a disinterested party? Sydney University's Mexican themed Christmas party, which might safely have been thought a-religious has had the theme cancelled after an Australian born Argentinian ethnic complained. But it isn't as if everyone's voice is equal. The complainant was an office-bearer with the university’s Autonomous Collective Against Racism. It might have been better all around to not have invited them.

“I am Hispanic and I have some traditions from Mexican culture and the vice-chancellor’s invite said ‘bring your own sombreros and ponchos’, which reduces Mexican culture to just a costume,” Mr Caceda said.

“My family has a poncho and it is really important to us, and these people are treating it like a costume.” So, his family, which isn't Mexican, wears that costume sometimes. But never for fun.

What costume is Lambie? 
Lambie has said she won't lie to the Australian electorate. Which PUP is she claiming has lied to the electorate? What was the issue? She should come clean, or pass all the budget measures she is blocking. Lambie won't resign and Palmer won't sack her. His is the immovable ass. She is the irresistible farce.

A green costume
Greens applaud the empty statement of a lame duck. A weaker US at no cost to Beijing. It is very hard being Green at the moment. A sixteen year pause in global warming, excessive increases in plant food despite taxation, and the IPCC incapable of releasing an explanation for it. Tim Flannery squealed with delight when he heard the Lame Duck say it. Meanwhile a Green Senator desperate to capitalise on Ebola suffering asked for permission to go to West Africa and be chauffeured around by Australian embassy officials. Julie Bishop refused, but allowed him to get his own insurance and go against government advice. Interestingly, before the Lame Duck quacked, both Greens and ALP leaders said they would oppose America in institutions. Shorten would fight in the universities. Milne would reposition the armies. 

A faith costume
It is deeply concerning that Muslims around the world are seemingly unaware that Islamo fascism is not aligned with their faith. In Holland, a survey of 300 Turkish migrants has had a 80% response rate indicating that it is ok to engage in holy war against non believers. But then the education systems around the West seem to say that education does not mean critically evaluating issues. Australia has not done, as UK has done, and cancelled the passports of jihadis abroad. Possibly because the senate would block it? 

Cross dressers
Media Watch approves of bad skit criticised by Sales. 

Bob Car is an anti semitic bigot.

Queensland university has a course designed to ignore debate in climate science. 
From 2013
 The resignation of Kevin Rudd is not the end of the damage he has inflicted in office. It is a betrayal of trust those who voted for him, or the Greens, placed in him in early September. Famously, Rudd takes on the concerns of those that surround him, with no guarantee of follow through. Rudd claims he saved furniture. He leaves open wounds weeping and no end in sight. Will a gang raped girl ever receive justice after Rudd ordered the shredding of evidence of her case? Will Australia exceed the debt limit established by the ALP in government? In between, there is the betrayal of Aboriginal peoples diminished through divisive race debate when previously there had been bipartisan support. The death of soldiers used for political ends. The assassination and attempted abduction of Timorise leaders. I don't want Rudd's furniture. It is ill fitting, cheap and dangerous. 

Part of the furniture Rudd leaves behind is accused of rape. We don't know who, but assume it is male and Victorian. It is an accusation, not a conviction. It is an unknown ALP 'soldier.' It is one of them, done to all of us .. it seems Keating's words can be useful. But they don't really belong to Keating. 

As Rudd leaves, there are whispers of the worst storm of all time. No one knows where that storm is, but a tragically powerful storm took on the Philippines recently as powerful as any in the last few years, doing a lot of damage and killing many people. Please help support them. Give generously. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 1770,  James Bruce discovered what he believed to be the source of the Nile. In 1862, American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approved General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg. In 1889, Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) began a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completed the trip in 72 days. In 1910, Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performed the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher. In 1916, World War I: The Battle of the Somme ended. In 1918, Czechoslovakia became a republic. In 1921, Foundation of the Communist Party of Spain. In 1922, the British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom. In 1940, World War II: In England, Coventry was heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral was almost completely destroyed. In 1941, World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sank due to torpedo damage from the German submarine U-81 sustained on November 13. Also, World War II: In Slonim, German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murder 9,000 Jews in a single day.

In 1952, the first regular UK Singles Chart published by the New Musical Express. In 1957, the Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York was raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures were arrested. In 1965, Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang began – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces. In 1967, the Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declared this day as "Day of the Colombian Woman". Also, American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser. In 1969, Apollo program: NASAlaunched Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon. In 1970, Soviet Union entered ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organisation. Also, Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall Universityfootball team. In 1971, enthronment of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria. Also, Mariner 9 entered orbit around Mars. In 1973, in the United Kingdom, Princess Annemarried Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. In 1975, Spain abandoned Western Sahara. In 1979, Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carterissued Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.

In 1982, Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, was released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border. In 1984, Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, was assassinated in his home city. In 1990, after German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland signed a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland. In 1991, American and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103. Also, Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile. Also, in Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee went on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide. In 1995, a budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forced the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs. In 2001, War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters took over the capital Kabul. In 2003, Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object. In 2008, the first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C. In 2010, Germany's Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing won Formula One's Drivers Championship to become the sport's youngest champion. In 2012,  Israel launched a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalated.
=== 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 Jessie Lam, Leyna Ngo and Johnny To. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
Eugene Burton Ely takes off from a warship
Our planes fly. We finished repairs. The football team should take a bus. The mayor was fired. We've won! Let us party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair

===
Andrew Bolt

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PARIS UNDER SIEGE

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 14, 2015 (12:21pm)

Less than one year after the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, Paris is again attacked by Islamic terrorists: 
At least 140 people are dead in Paris, according to French media, after multiple attacks across the city on Friday night.
Police launched an assault on the Bataclan concert hall where up to 100 hostages were being held, killing two men reportedly armed with Kalashnikovs.
French police say around 100 people were killed inside the concert hall, which suggests the majority of people inside were killed. 
CNN reported hostages were texting that they were being killed one by one and were begging for a police raid.
Another reporter said police described the scene inside the concert hall as “carnage”, explaining the attackers tossed explosives on hostages.
Five explosions were heard from outside the concert hall and shooting of automatic gunfire as police entered the building. 
Earlier witnesses told French media they heard 20 shots and saw two men inside the venue.
Police officials reported a shootout in a Paris restaurant and an explosion in a bar near a Paris, causing dozens to be killed. 
UPDATE. French President Francois Hollande: 
“We don’t know where they are coming from, or who is striking us,” said Mr Hollande. “In such difficult times, I have thoughts for the victims.” 
Anyone have any clues? Australian Sam Davies is a regular at Le Carillon, one of seven sites attacked: 
“This isn’t a tourist area, this is young, hipsters,” he said. “Le Carillon is the hipster ground zero of Paris.
“For me, it’s an incongruous attack. It’s a friendly, vibrant area of young people where all the cafes and bars are opening up.
“It’s the only place in Paris where you can get a good coffee. It’s like Fitzroy in Melbourne.” 
French borders are closed and Paris is under curfew: 
It is understood to be the first time a mandatory curfew had been enforced in the capital since 1944 when the Nazis occupied Paris. 
It seems that Barack Obama has a second job as a French stadium announcer: 
Hundreds of people spilled on to the field after the game. A stadium announcer made an announcement over the loudspeaker after the match, telling fans to avoid certain exits ”due to events outside,” without elaborating. 
Quadrant‘s Roger Franklin: 
The butchery in Paris – the latest episode – happened only a couple of hours ago, so there has not yet been time for the soma-peddlers of the professional media to regurgitate the stock line that it is Muslims who are the real victims of an attack that may well have claimed the lives of scores of non-Muslims. Coming soon, as sure as night follows day, there will be denunciations of “Islamophobia”, followed by the insight that food poisoning/sharks/road accidents/pick-your-peril kill many more people than terrorists, therefore it can only be bigots and xenophobes who think of Islam and Western civilization in terms of oil and water. 
The death toll now stands at 158. Due to “events outside”.
===

MORE HITS THAN ELVIS

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 14, 2015 (2:14am)

Not since Brett Lee punished pulpy Piers Morgan at the MCG in 2014 has the boring Brit received a better response:


I ran into Brett earlier this year and congratulated him on that Piers-bruising performance. The great fast bowler’s instant, emphatic answer: “My pleasure.”
===

THE RISE OF BABY FASCISM

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 14, 2015 (2:04am)

Just read this. And then get your kids out of their horrible university humanities courses.
===

HE CAN TILT BUT HE CAN’T HIDE

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 14, 2015 (12:57am)

Angled Allah enthusiast Jihadi John seems to have copped a long-deserved droning: 
An American drone targeted an Islamic State militant who has come to be known as “Jihadi John,” a British citizen suspected in the savage beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, among others …


“We are assessing the results for a final confirmation but initial indications are that Jihadi John is no longer on this planet,” a U.S. official said. 
Let this be a warning to the rest of you … tilters.
(Via A.R.M. Jones, who emails: “Somebody better call Prof Triggs. Obama’s just violated somebody’s rights.") 
===

On The Bolt Report tomorrow - Tony Abbott on the terror attacks

Andrew Bolt November 14 2015 (10:04am)

On Sunday at 10am and 3pm.
Because of the Paris terror attacks we have a new line-up. (Apologies to the earlier guests, who have been rescheduled.).
My guest: former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in his first television interview. The topic: fighting the jihadist threat.
The panel: The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen and Dan Tehan, chairman of Parliament’s intelligence and security committee.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===

Paris attack: shootings. suicide bombing, 140 dead, 60 hostages reported

Andrew Bolt November 14 2015 (8:40am)

 Shootings in Paris:
Several people are reportedly dead in Paris after an attacker or attackers opened fire on multiple locations on Friday night, as part of what witnesses say is a wave of violence still unfolding across the city. 
French media say a shooter with a Kalashnikov rifle fired numerous times at patrons dining at a restaurant, Le Petit Cambodge, and then at a concert venue, Le Bataclan, and that he or she is still at large. Witnesses also reported hearing two explosions near the Stade de France, the country’s national stadium, which is hosting a soccer game between France and Germany. President François Hollande, who was at the stadium, was reportedly evacuated. The stadium is in lockdown.
UPDATE

The death toll mounts:
There are reports of two separate gun attacks and one explosion in Paris, France.  French media reports that police say 18 people have been killed.
One of the shootings occurred in a Cambodian restaurant located in the capital’s tenth arrondissement… The second shooting took place in a restaurant in the 11th arrondissement, near the historic Bataclan concert hall.
BFMTV reports that the shooters are still at large, and are holding hostages. 
UPDATE
The BBC is reporting that 60 people have been taken hostage at the Le Bataclan concert hall.
Reports that some of the blasts heard at a restaurant were suicide bombings.
UPDATE
A Paris police official said there were at least 100 hostages in a Paris theater following shooting and explosions at two cites in the city. 
Multiple officials, including one medical official, put the number of dead at between 35 to 40 people.
The stadium is in lockdown after a loud explosion, possibly of a suicde bomber, which you can hear on this video:

UPDATE
Not the slightest surprise:
Police in France officially confirmed there has been at least one explosion in a bar near a Paris stadium and shooting in a Paris restaurant, the latter of which appears to have claimed the lives of 11 people. 
A witness name Louis told France Info radio the men opened fire and shouted “Allah Akbar”. He only saw silhouettes.
UPDATE
Wrong conclusion, wrong message, wrong time from Sky News’ Laura Jayes (8:51am):
Again, it’s not the time to play politics, talk about politics and different style, but I think it was important we heard from [Liberal MP] Craig Laundy earlier this week and he said under the new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, the language really changed to what we’d seen under Tony Abbott. We saw Team Australia, we heard him say we wanted to see Muslim leaders say things and mean it and at the time I spoke to many community leaders and that was really divisive language that I don’t think helped the situation.
The worse the attacks get, the louder we’re supposed to sing Kumbayah.
UPDATE
Now unconfirmed reports of a shooting the Les Halles shopping mall as well. If true, that would be a fourth location. Reports of shootings at six locations.
French president Francois Hollande has declared a state of emergency. French borders are sealed.
UPDATE
Two suicide bombers had attacked the stadium. There was a bomb explosion at one of the entrances.
UPDATE
Five explosions have been heard at the Bataclan concert hall. A witness says the gunmen inside shot many hostages.
UPDATE
The death toll is now estimated at 140, with 100 people killed at the concert hall. Shootings reportedly at seven locations. A massive operation.
This is the worst terrorist attack in the West since the 2004 Madrid bombing that killed 191 people. France has imported a civil war into its streets.
UPDATE
No surprise. Charles Bremner:
With hundreds of French-born Islamists fighting in Syria and Iraq and networks operating underground around French cities, the security services are said to have thwarted half a dozen plots to inflict carnage in public places this year. A man was arrested last week in Toulon, on the south coast, and charged with planning an attack on the local naval base. 
Three people have been murdered in attacks attributed to Islamists in recent months and there have been several narrow escapes. In August US and British passengers stopped a gunman from shooting passengers aboard a Thalys Brussels to Paris express after he pulled out a Kalashnikov assault rifle. In April a would-be jihadist gunman was arrested while on the verge of firing inside a church on a Sunday in Villejuif, a southern suburb of Paris.
And more will surely come. From Frontex, the European Union’s border force:
Overall, the number of detections of illegal border crossings at the EU’s external borders between January and October stood at an unprecedented 1.2 million, four times the 282 000 recorded in all of last year.
That 1.2 million are overwhelmingly Muslim, and most young men.
UPDATE
The AFP agency is reporting eight militants have been killed, quoting an investigation source. 
Seven of the eight died after they detonated suicide belts, the source said. Four were killed in the Bataclan concert hall, three by activating their suicide vests and one shot by police. Three more died near the national stadium and a fourth was killed in a street in eastern Paris. 
UPDATE
Le Parisien has a list of the deaths and injuries at the various attack sites around Paris, which it sources to the French authorities. 
Bataclan: at least 100 dead, seven people in a critical condition, four others injured Rue Charonne: 19 dead, 13 people in a critical condition, 10 others injured 
Rue Bichat: 14 dead, 10 in a critical condition, 10 others injured 
Avenue de la Republique: Four dead, 11 in a critical condition, 10 others injured 
Stade de France: four dead, 11 in a critical condition, 39 others injured 
Rue Beaumarchais: three people in a critical condition, four others injuries
===

The fascism of the “safe space” movement

Andrew Bolt November 14 2015 (7:56am)

 Students at Yale demand a “safe space”. To create it, they will intimidate and scream abuse at a Professor whose wife, associate master Erika Christakis, had respectfully suggested in an email that trying to ban Halloween costumes as ethnically insensitive could limit free expression and imagination, and could be altogether too authoritarian.
But being too authoritarian is no sin at all to these student stormtroopers of tolerance:
“In your position as master,” one student says, “it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students who live in Silliman. You have not done that. By sending out that email, that goes against your position as master. Do you understand that?!” 
“No,” he said, “I don’t agree with that.”
The student explodes, “Then why the # did you accept the position?! Who the # hired you?! You should step down! If that is what you think about being a master you should step down! It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that?” 
Here is Christakis’s email. For many students, her thoughtful expression of true tolerance and pluralism, not to mention intellectual inquiry, is an attack of “safe spaces” so outrageous that her husband had to be publicly menaced and vilified:
I don’t wish to trivialize genuine concerns about cultural and personal representation, and other challenges to our lived experience in a plural community. I know that many decent people have proposed guidelines on Halloween costumes from a spirit of avoiding hurt and offense. I laud those goals, in theory, as most of us do. But in practice, I wonder if we should reflect more transparently, as a community, on the consequences of an institutional (which is to say: bureaucratic and administrative) exercise of implied control over college students. 
It seems to me that we can have this discussion of costumes on many levels: we can talk about complex issues of identify, free speech, cultural appropriation, and virtue “signalling.” But I wanted to share my thoughts with you from a totally different angle, as an educator concerned with the developmental stages of childhood and young adulthood.
As a former preschool teacher, for example, it is hard for me to give credence to a claim that there is something objectionably “appropriative” about a blonde-haired child’s wanting to be Mulan for a day. Pretend play is the foundation of most cognitive tasks, and it seems to me that we want to be in the business of encouraging the exercise of imagination, not constraining it. I suppose we could agree that there is a difference between fantasizing about an individual character vs. appropriating a culture, wholesale, the latter of which could be seen as (tacky)(offensive)(jejeune)(hurtful), take your pick. But, then, I wonder what is the statute of limitations on dreaming of dressing as Tiana the Frog Princess if you aren’t a black girl from New Orleans? Is it okay if you are eight, but not 18? I don’t know the answer to these questions; they seem unanswerable. Or at the least, they put us on slippery terrain that I, for one, prefer not to cross.
Which is my point. I don’t, actually, trust myself to foist my Halloweenish standards and motives on others. I can’t defend them anymore than you could defend yours. Why do we dress up on Halloween, anyway? Should we start explaining that too? I’ve always been a good mimic and I enjoy accents. I love to travel, too, and have been to every continent but Antarctica. When I lived in Bangladesh, I bought a sari because it was beautiful, even though I looked stupid in it and never wore it once. Am I fetishizing and appropriating others’ cultural experiences? Probably. But I really, really like them too.
Even if we could agree on how to avoid offense – and I’ll note that no one around campus seems overly concerned about the offense taken by religiously conservative folks to skin-revealing costumes – I wonder, and I am not trying to be provocative: Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious… a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive? American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition. And the censure and prohibition come from above, not from yourselves! Are we all okay with this transfer of power? Have we lost faith in young people’s capacity – in your capacity – to exercise self-censure, through social norming, and also in your capacity to ignore or reject things that trouble you? We tend to view this shift from individual to institutional agency as a tradeoff between libertarian vs. liberal values ("liberal" in the American, not European sense of the word).
Nicholas says, if you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.
But – again, speaking as a child development specialist – I think there might be something missing in our discourse about the exercise of free speech (including how we dress ourselves) on campus, and it is this: What does this debate about Halloween costumes say about our view of young adults, of their strength and judgment?
In other words: Whose business is it to control the forms of costumes of young people? It’s not mine, I know that.
This insanity is coming here, you know.  Indeed, we already have Catholic bishops being sued for giving offence to a transgender Green by defending traditional marriage. Offence-taking has become a weapon in imposing new dogmas and shutting down the debates through which we arrive at true consensus - and even truth.

UPDATE
Nor is the new dean of Yale College, acceptably black, given any safe space of his own by protesters, who intimidate him with a mobbing.
Lord of the Flies stuff. The young are almost always the footsoldiers of tyrannies.

Mark Steyn:

I think we’re actually seeing the rise of a kind of incipient baby fascism, and I don’t use that term lightly… If you look at the scenes from the University of Missouri where the so-called, actually a journalism professor is calling for some muscle to kick out the journalists, or the scene from Yale where they’re standing around and intimidating the professor they disagree with, we have basically raised a generation now that prioritizes identity group politics over free speech. And that is going to be a tragedy for the world… 
[A]lmost anyone who mentions these evasive, ugly phrases like ‘safe space’ is in fact a totalitarian bully. I mean, the people who need the safe space are the journalists being harassed at the University of Missouri and the professors they’re trying to force out at Yale. These are the guys who would benefit from a safe space. And it’s the people saying ‘oh, we must have a little safe space’ who are the totalitarians here.
UPDATE
In Britain now, too. Even Germaine Greer is a victim of the “safe space” oppression.
(Via Tim Blair.) 
===

Another Labor kingpin accused

Andrew Bolt November 14 2015 (7:39am)

Another former Labor kingpin is in the gun of the royal commission into union corruption:
One of Queensland’s veteran Labor powerbrokers could face charges after yesterday being accused of corruption over the $150,000 fitout of his luxury Brisbane home in a deal with managers of a construction giant to keep industrial peace on a building site. 
In a submission to the royal commission into trade unions, the counsel assisting, Sarah McNaugh­ton, said David Hanna, the then boss of the now-defunct Queensland arm of the Builders Labourers Federation, may have received secret commissions through work carried out by subcontractors for construction giant Mirvac in 2013…
At the time, building sites had been rife with strikes and industrial action by the CFMEU, with which the BLF merged in 2014…
“David Hanna knew that the gift of free goods and services placed him in a position of temptation, and that [Mirvac contractor] Mathew McAllum was not simply acting out of the goodness of his heart, but was instead, and at the direction of [then Mirvac state director] Adam Moore, ‘greasing the wheels’ of the relationship between Mirvac and the BLF in the hope or expectation that it would run smoothly as a result of the giving of the free goods and services,’’ the submission said.
During the hearings, Mr Hanna quit the party after state ALP secretary Evan Moorhouse issued a show-cause notice on his continuing membership. Mr Hanna also resigned earlier this year as national president of the construction division of the CFMEU. In a statement, Mr Hanna said he would “strenuously defend my innocence’’ and the allegations had not been properly tested. 
But investigations into another union boss have been dropped:
In another development yesterday, the royal commission dropped its investigation into allegations against CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka made by a builder, Andrew Zaf. 
Mr Zaf claimed he gave free building materials to Mr Setka in exchange for industrial peace and was attacked after going public about the allegations. However, the royal commission heard evidence last month that Mr Zaf possibly had attacked himself. 
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The Left line up to run the ABC

Andrew Bolt November 13 2015 (11:15pm)

Only three of the candidates - at most - come even close to offering the hope that the new managing director will restore some balance to an ABC that is in flagrant breach of the law requiring it to be impartial. And none at all are known conservatives.
Here is a challenge for the ABC board - and the new Turnbull Government. 
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Better to hand the money directly to someone deserving

Andrew Bolt November 13 2015 (11:11pm)

Shane Warne should be congratulated for raising money for charity. But the Shane Warne Foundation’s expenses are a worry, taking two-thirds of dollars donated:
Records show that in 2014, almost $134,000 was distributed to beneficiaries from $452,711 in revenue and $360,000 went on expenses. 
The previous year, $111,363 was recorded as having been distributed from $876,223 in revenue with expenses of $216,000. In 2012, $115,472 was distributed from revenue of $405,212 and expenses amounted to $385,000.
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Turnbull to tell Germany of the joys of taking in 800,000 illegal immigrants in one year

Andrew Bolt November 13 2015 (10:58pm)

Seriously? Turnbull will tell Germany sweet myths about the joys of settling 800,000 illegal immigrants. most Muslim, in a single year?
Malcolm Turnbull will break with Tony Abbott’s message on the flood of refugees into Europe after landing in Germany for talks on defence, trade and border protection. 
The Prime Minister is expected to focus on the challenges of refugee resettlement when he meets German chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, days before they both attend a G20 summit that will also consider the humanitarian crisis.
But there will be no “lecture” to Ms Merkel about the lessons from Australia’s policy of turning back asylum seeker boats, weeks after Mr Abbott used a speech in London to declare that Europe needed to adopt the same approach. The Australian understands the Prime Minister will emphasise Australia’s success at resettling thousands of refugees every year and note the ethnic diversity that has come from each wave of new migrants.
Rather Tony Abbott’s bracing truths than Turnbull’s cloying fantasies.
And I will repeat. Only Abbott as prime minister could stop the boats. Turnbull would not have.
UPDATE
History tells us a Churchill succeeds a Chamberlain. Likewise, a Grant succeeds a McClellan, a Reagan a Carter.
With Australia it’s the reverse:
Mr Turnbull expressly declined to “advise” European governments on their management of the refugee challenge, a refusal seen as a pointed repudiation of the recent speech of Tony Abbott in London where he warned that good intentions were leading the European continent into “catastrophic error”.

And, [Turnbull and Merkel] agreed that bombing achieves only so much and that the west must focus more attention on reaching a negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict, opening the prospect of dialogue with the murderous extremists of Islamic State – and or the conditional backing of the criminal despot of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
Yet for all the anti-Abbott, this concession:
But Mrs Merkel did share one area of concern with Mr Abbott, calling for more to be done to wrest back control of the narrow sea lanes between Greece and Turkey, which she said were currently under the control of people smugglers and traffickers.
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Obama a Peking lame-duck president

Piers Akerman – Friday, November 14, 2014 (12:52am)

IT doesn’t take much to fool the hopey-wishy media, as the announcement of a ­non-binding agreement between the US and China on global ­warming has so clearly demonstrated.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Obama a Peking lame-duck president'
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HIS FAMILY HAS A PONCHO

Tim Blair – Friday, November 14, 2014 (4:10am)

Multicultural tension at Sydney University: 
It was to be a Mexican fiesta, complete with sombreros and ponchos. But Sydney University’s annual staff Christmas party will be without a theme this year after students and academics complained it was racist.
The university’s vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, has been forced to email all staff and tell them to ignore the suggested theme and dress code on the invite, which was sent to hundreds of staff. 
Opposition to the Mexican party was led by student activist Eden Caceda: 
Eden Caceda, an office-bearer with the university’s Autonomous Collective Against Racism, told Fairfax Media that students were deeply offended by the invitation …
“We felt the vice-chancellor was perpetrating insidious stereotypes about Mexican people and its culture.”
Mr Caceda, a second year arts student, said some people had suggested that the collective’s stance was taking political correctness too far.
“I would say that is not the case. If you have any Mexican heritage in you, you would see this party as offensive and uninformed.
“I am Hispanic and I have some traditions from Mexican culture and the vice-chancellor’s invite said ‘bring your own sombreros and ponchos’, which reduces Mexican culture to just a costume,” Mr Caceda said.
“My family has a poncho and it is really important to us, and these people are treating it like a costume.” 
Caceda’s family arrived in Australia 40 years ago. From Argentina.
(Via Steve Price)
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SELECTIVE SELFIST

Tim Blair – Friday, November 14, 2014 (3:28am)

The Daily Telegraph‘s Samantha Townsend encounters Geoffrey Rush at Sydney airport: 
This was my chance. It was now or never.
“Hi Mr Rush, I’m Sam Townsend – I would kick myself if I didn’t ask this, but could I get a selfie?”
I couldn’t believe I had just asked an award-winning actor for a selfie. Not an autograph, like everyone else, but a selfie for goodness sake. His reply was that he doesn’t do selfies.
Don’t get me wrong, he delivered the line with all the grace of The King’s Speech, but I was still gutted. 
Sam will be even more gutted when she discovers that Rush does do selfies, but apparently only at movie premieres. Even then he doesn’t seem very happy about it.
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GAME CHANGED!

Tim Blair – Friday, November 14, 2014 (3:24am)

Former tax-funded climate alarmist Tim Flannery squeals with delight over non-binding waffle words from China and the US: 
Wednesday’s historic decision between China and the United States to limit greenhouse gas emissions is a game changer.
These two nations are the world’s biggest carbon emitters and together they are sending a message that now is the time to step up and tackle the greatest challenge of our time: climate change. 
Climate change types are easily pleased. As commenter john of gaunt previously observed: 
So to appease the climate change lobby all Mr Abbott has to do is agree to discuss something or other about emissions by 2030?  Really? Is that what all the arguments for the last 20 years have been about?
Apparently so.
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LET HIM GO

Tim Blair – Friday, November 14, 2014 (2:47am)

Following the example of leader Christine Milne, subordinate Greens are becoming even more stupid: 
A Greens senator who requested consular assistance so he could go on a madcap one-man mission to West Africa and sort out the ebola epidemic has had the plan scuttled by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop …
Dr Richard Di Natale wanted Ms Bishop to order the Australian High Commission in Ghana to chauffeur him around Africa and organise meetings with the World Health Organisation.
Instead he was advised it was too dangerous to go and told to get health insurance if he chose to go against government advice. 
He should visit West Africa anyway. What could possibly go wrong?
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SWEDISH LOBSTER SAFARI

Tim Blair – Friday, November 14, 2014 (2:42am)

Planning is underway.
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SHARMA POWER

Tim Blair – Friday, November 14, 2014 (2:40am)

264 was once a substantial team total in a 50-over match. Now it’s an  individual record: 
India batsman Rohit Sharma has become the first man to hit 250 in a one-day international.
His 264 in the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka beat the previous world record of 219 made by fellow Indian Virender Sehwag against West Indies in 2011. 
Nice line from South Africa’s Gary Lemke: 
If Rohit Sharma was a country he’d have won the 1983, 1987, 1992, 1996 and 1999 World Cup finals. 
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Dutch Muslims back jihad. UPDATE: Britain cancels passports of jihadists abroad

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (12:28pm)

A slight worry in Holland, which is living with the consequences of mass immigration and the multicultural experiment:
MPs from across the political spectrum have called for more research into the attitudes of young Dutch Turks to the Islamic State, after a poll of 300 showed 80% saw nothing wrong in jihad, or holy war, against non-believers… 
The survey found 90% of young Turks think those fighting against Syrian president Assad’s troops are ‘heroes’ and half thought it would be a good thing if Dutch Muslims went to join the fight. 
UPDATE
 The clash of civilisations draws closer:
A group of nationalist Turkish youths on Wednesday attacked three visiting US sailors in Istanbul, trying to force sacks on their heads in an assault angrily condemned by the US government.
UPDATE
Many Australians wonder why we don’t just cancel the passports of jihadists abroad. The British Government has wondered that, too:
British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to announce exclusion orders aimed at barring citizens from re-entering the U.K. if they are suspected of being jihadi fighters from war-torn Iraq and Syria, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. 
Under the orders, suspects would be banned entry into the country unless they agreed to be escorted by police before facing prosecution or close supervision under monitoring powers, the BBC said. (http://bbc.in/1tNOuCZ)
Simultaneously, suspects’ passports would be cancelled and their names added to the “no-fly list”, the BBC reported. The exclusion orders, which may last up to two years, are central to a Counter-Terrorism Bill that Cameron announced in September...
(Thanks to readers Mary, Steve and others.) 
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On The Bolt Report on Sunday, November 16

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (9:48am)


On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm.
Editorial: The great hoax: the five inconvenient truths about Barack Obama’s climate deal with China.
My guest:  Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Putin and our presidency this month of the Security Council.
The panel: Cassandra Wilkinson and Michael Kroger.
NewsWatch:  Gerard Henderson on one of the most pathetic and outrageous ABC smears yet.
So much to discuss, including the latest warming hysteria, the Palmer circus, the looming Budget disaster, the media siding with our enemies and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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Media Watch rounds up the ideological stragglers

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (8:08am)

Note that ABC thought police are upset with Leigh Sales for protesting at the trashing of her program by a skit mocking Tony Abbott for trying to hold Russia to account over the murder of 38 Australians:
THE ABC board has questioned managing director Mark Scott’s strategy to target younger audiences as divisions emerge within the top editorial ranks over the Chaser-style skit on the ­public broadcaster’s flagship 7.30 ­program. 
As the Abbott government planned to lodge a complaint with the ABC over the skit — which critics claimed was insensitive to families of the victims of flight MH17 — 7.30 host Leigh Sales distanced herself from it yesterday, saying she had argued against it in editorial meetings....
Media Watch host Paul Barry criticised Sales yesterday for her decision to distance herself from the skit. Barry tweeted, “Agreed.”, alongside a tweet from media strategist Anthony McClellan which said: “Not a good move 4 @leighsales to publicly dump on her own editors re admittedly unfunny Putin skit.”
Looks like a job for NewsWatch instead - in The Bolt Report on Sunday on Network 10. Gerard Henderson is just the man to say what needs saying. 
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Why does it offend Bob Carr only when Jews do it?

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (7:22am)

 Former foreign minister Bob Carr’s attacks on Israel seem to me to be driven by a crude and dangerous calculation of political advantage - a realisation that big Muslim minorities in Labor marginal seats have more votes than do Jews.
Indeed, he put that kind of argument to then Prime Minister Julia Gillard in trying to get her to cut Israel loose.
(Let’s leave aside the suspicion that Carr is so vain that meeting so many Jewish leaders more worldly and smart must also be an irritant.)
I’d like to think there was something more noble in Carr’s potentially lethal encouragement of anti-Israeli sentiment and jihadism, but Carr’s hypocrisy damns him:
I pivoted to Palestine because I’m sickened by Israeli fanatics! Bob Carr, The Weekend Australian, ­November 8: 
ISRAEL has gone from secular to religious ... centrist (politicians elsewhere) have been sickened by (Israeli) religious fan­atics standing on seized Palestinian land declaring that God gave them Judea and Samaria ...
Sickened by Palestinian fanatics? Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser on Islamic affairs and sharia judge, Mahmoud al-Habbash, Al-Hayat al-Jadida, October 22: 
THE entire land of Palestine is waqf (an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law) and is blessed land.
Committed to two states! Carr, The Weekend Australian, November 8: 
NOW for 25 years Palestinians have been committed to a neg­otiated solution, most recently to a demilitarised state ... on the West Bank and East ­Jerusalem.
Committed to liberating Palestine from Jordan River to the sea! Habbash, Official Palestinian Authority TV, September 26:
WHAT are we (Fatah and Hamas) divided about? Do we disagree about Jerusalem? (Do we) disagree about liberating Palestine from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea? ...
Sickened by Israeli violence! Carr, The Weekend Australian, Nov­ember 8:
(I’M) sickened by the routine violence of the settlers ...
Sickened by Palestinian violence? Israel Today, Monday:
TWO terrorist stabbing attacks on Monday claimed the lives of two young Israelis and left three others wounded ... In other violence, Palestinian Arabs stoned public buses and Jerusalem’s light rail ... A day earlier, an Israeli man narrowly escaped being lynched ... his car was torched.
Another example of Carr’s hypocrisy:
Carr last week outraged Jews by attacking Melbourne’s “Israel lobby” for its “very unhealthy” influence on prime minister Julia Gillard… 
[But Labor] notoriously reversed a decision to deport extremist preacher Sheik Taj El-Din Hilali.
Just last September, the Mufti of Australia wrote to Labor members to warn union boss Paul Howe had a “bias” towards Israel, and if he was not blocked from becoming a senator, Labor would lose the Muslim votes that helped “successfully retain the majority of ALP seats in Western Sydney”. Did Carr denounce that “unhealthy” influence? No. 
UPDATE
Labor MP Meilssa Parke agrees there are two sides in this deadly dispute, but she wants to collectively punish only one - the democracy and not the terrorist-led statelet:
Like most of the world, I want to see Israel and Palestine exist side-by-side in peace and security, and I want to see an end to the infringement of basic human rights. If boycotts, divestments and sanctions, as non-violent forms of protest against Israeli government policy (and, for the record, I don’t condone pig’s heads in supermarkets), can apply pressure to advance a process that has been stranded since Oslo, I would sincerely like to see the cogent argument against it. 
Jihadists everywhere would cheer. How useful them are ideologues such as Parke, who magnifies Israel’s very fault but is blind to the genocidal hatreds of Hamas, which teaches the children of Gaza to become killers of Jews:

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Obama gives China a great climate deal: a weaker US at no cost to Beijing

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (7:11am)

The global warming deal is a con. Bjorn Lomborg says Barack Obama has promised to hurt America in exchange for China promising to do nothing extra at all:
The US-China statement hedges itself, making no new obligations: “The United States intends to achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below its 2005 level in 2025… China intends to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions around 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20 per cent by 2030...” 
China essentially promised what it was already going to do. In the International Energy Agency’s baseline scenario, China’s CO2 emissions peak in 2030 at about 10 gigatonnes, or 25 per cent higher than today. And China already emits more than a quarter of the world’s CO2 emissions.
Many, including CNN, read that China would get 20 per cent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030, but China promised only 20 per cent would come from non-fossil fuels — and guess what? In the baseline scenario of the IEA, China already plans to get 18 per cent of its energy from non-fossil fuels and solar and wind will make up only about 3 per cent. The rest come from nuclear (5.5 per cent), hydro (3 per cent) and wood (6 per cent) which in 2030 will still power the stoves of more than 240 million Chinese, contributing to devastating indoor air pollution and killing more than a half-million people each year.
All this resembles the lead-up to the Copenhagen negotiations in 2009 when the Chinese promised they would emit 40 per cent to 45 per cent less CO2 per dollar of gross domestic product by 2020. It was hailed as a big breakthrough but was just business as usual as projected by the IEA. The target Barack Obama is offering is, on the other hand, is a real and significant reduction. Without any new climate policies, the shale gas revolution will see US emissions reduced by 11 per cent in 2025, so getting an extra 16 percentage points requires a lot of new, stringent climate policies. But clearly Obama lacks any legislative basis for making such a promise.
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AntiScience:  Queensland University warmists teach students to close minds to doubt

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (6:38am)

The Left doesn’t even pretend any more. The ABC openly campaigns for Leftist causes, for instance, and the University of Queensland now offers a course on global warming that is pure propaganda, founded on a “97 per cent” proposition that isdeeply misleading and meaningless.
Here is the course description, essentially teaching uninformed students not to open their minds but to close them:
In public discussions, climate change is a highly controversial topic. However, in the scientific community, there is little controversy with 97% of climate scientists concluding humans are causing global warming.
Why the gap between the public and scientists? 
What are the psychological and social drivers of the rejection of the scientific consensus? 

How has climate denial influenced public perceptions and attitudes towards climate change?
This course examines the science of climate science denial.
We will look at the most common climate myths from “global warming stopped in 1998” to “global warming is caused by the sun” to “climate impacts are nothing to worry about.”
We’ll find out what lessons are to be learnt from past climate change as well as better understand how climate models predict future climate impacts. You’ll learn both the science of climate change and the techniques used to distort the science. With every myth we debunk, you’ll learn the critical thinking needed to identify the fallacies associated with the myth. Finally, armed with all this knowledge, you’ll learn the psychology of misinformation. This will equip you to effectively respond to climate misinformation and debunk myths.
It is a mark of the decline of our universities that the UQ should offer such a course with such an explicit objective. This kind of trash is theology, not science - and the most primitive theology at that.
UPDATE
Labor leader Bill Shorten is also a worshipper at the Green Church:
We want national parks to be sacred sanctuaries for rare and endangered species ...
(Thanks to reader Romario V.) 
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Victorian Liberals finally find direction - downwards

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (6:34am)

The Victorian Liberals trail badly two weeks out from the election:
In two-party preferred terms Labor continues to lead the Coalition 56 per cent to 44 per cent, when preferences are allocated by respondents.
Yes, I’ve been disappointed by this government’s lack of direction. Even so, I suspect what’s coming will not be healthy. 
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Team Lambie: membership of one

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (6:26am)

Clive Palmer does not dare to sack Jacqui Lambie and she does not dare to resign. Their self-interest is even greater than their mutual loathing:
CONTROVERSIAL senator Jacqui Lambie has all but quit the Palmer United Party after a sensational public spat with her boss Clive Palmer, which finished with the loud-mouth politician sending out a media release headlined “Team Lambie”. 
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No ponchos for paleface

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (6:15am)

Arts students Eden Caceda intimidates Sydney University into dropping its Mexican fiesta by claiming it is racist.
He is offended that Australians planned to wear ponchos at this party:
My family has a poncho and it is really important to us, and these people are treating it like a costume. 
Tim Blair has the punchline:
Caceda’s family arrived in Australia 40 years ago. From Argentina. 
Yet the joke is on us. The university caved. 
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Saving the world isn’t cheap when it involves Tim Flannery

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (12:52am)

Climate alarmist Tim Flannery should declare all his vested interests whenever he makes yet another of his infamous predictions about catastrophic global warming:
(Thanks to reader Tony.) 
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Hypocrite alert

Andrew Bolt November 14 2014 (12:07am)

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten warns against following the Americans, October 28:
We will fight the Americanisation of our universities.
Greens leader Christine Milne warns against following the Americans, October 1:
Leigh, the question here is whether Australia should follow the US blindly into another open-ended war in Iraq.
But then America makes a stupid and unenforceable deal with China to slash its own gases while letting China emit what it likes for another 16 years.
Bill Shorten demands we follow America’s lead:
While the United States and China show global leadership, Tony Abbott is sticking his head in the sand.
Christine Milne demands we follow America’s lead:
The Australian Greens are congratulating the US and China on their agreement to act on global warming and say it’s not too late for Australia to get on board. 
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Social media moralists are all thumbs and no legs

Andrew Bolt November 13 2014 (11:04pm)

The new morality


WHAT a surprise to see Abubakar Shekau bob up to boast about the hundreds of girls he’d stolen and had raped.

I mean, hadn’t he read his tweets? Didn’t he know he’d been de-friended?
Sheesh, what else does it take to make some people realise they’ve been bad and must stop?
In this case the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram was given the full treatment by millions of slacktivists, including even actor Angelina Jolie and Michelle Obama, wife of the US President.
Shekau had already tested their indulgence by bombing, shooting and beheading thousands of Christians, but in June he crossed the line by kidnapping nearly 300 schoolgirls, forcing them to convert to Islam before giving them to his soldiers.
This time the moralists on social media could not be restrained.
(Read full article here.) 
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Notorious murder-spree woman Caril Ann Clair, aka Caril Fugate, in crash
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/notorious-murder-spree-woman-caril-ann-clair-aka-caril-fugate-in-crash/story-fni0xs61-1226693146554
A WOMAN who was one of two teenage participants in a killing spree that left 11 people dead 55 years ago has been critically injured in a crash.

She served a life term .. did she reform? - ed
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Eating chocolate lowers fat, says study
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/eating-chocolate-lowers-fat-says-study/story-fneuzkvr-1226759252500
EATING chocolate could lower levels of total and abdominal fat, according to a new study.

I must take my medicine! - ed
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“For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” 1 Peter 2:15-16 NIV
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Morning

"The branch cannot bear fruit of itself."
John 15:4

How did you begin to bear fruit? It was when you came to Jesus and cast yourselves on his great atonement, and rested on his finished righteousness. Ah! what fruit you had then! Do you remember those early days? Then indeed the vine flourished, the tender grape appeared, the pomegranates budded forth, and the beds of spices gave forth their smell. Have you declined since then? If you have, we charge you to remember that time of love, and repent, and do thy first works. Be most in those engagements which you have experimentally proved to draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from him that all your fruits proceed. Any holy exercise which will bring you to him will help you to bear fruit. The sun is, no doubt, a great worker in fruit-creating among the trees of the orchard: and Jesus is still more so among the trees of his garden of grace. When have you been the most fruitless? Has not it been when you have lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ, when you have slackened in prayer, when you have departed from the simplicity of your faith, when your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said, "My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved"; and have forgotten where your strength dwells--has not it been then that your fruit has ceased? Some of us have been taught that we have nothing out of Christ, by terrible abasements of heart before the Lord; and when we have seen the utter barrenness and death of all creature power, we have cried in anguish, "From him all my fruit must be found, for no fruit can ever come from me." We are taught, by past experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace of God in Christ, and wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh! to trust Jesus for fruit as well as for life.

Evening

"Men ought always to pray."
Luke 18:1
If men ought always to pray and not to faint, much more Christian men. Jesus has sent his church into the world on the same errand upon which he himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the church is the world's priest? Creation is dumb, but the church is to find a mouth for it. It is the church's high privilege to pray with acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed. The veil was rent for her, the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her, God constantly invites her to ask what she wills. Will she refuse the privilege which angels might envy her? Is she not the bride of Christ? May she not go in unto her King at every hour? Shall she allow the precious privilege to be unused? The church always has need for prayer. There are always some in her midst who are declining, or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that they may be carried in Christ's bosom? the strong, lest they grow presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings four-and-twenty hours in the day, all the days in the year, we might never be without a special subject for supplication. Are we ever without the sick and the poor, the afflicted and the wavering? Are we ever without those who seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of back-sliders, or the salvation of the depraved? Nay, with congregations constantly gathering, with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in trespasses and sins; in a country over which the darkness of Romanism is certainly descending; in a world full of idols, cruelties, devilries, if the church doth not pray, how shall she excuse her base neglect of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the church be constant in supplication, let every private believer cast his mite of prayer into the treasury.
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Today's reading: Lamentations 1-2, Hebrews 10:1-18 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Lamentations 1-2



1 How deserted lies the city,
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 After affliction and harsh labor,
Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.
5 Her foes have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease.
The LORD has brought her grief
because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
captive before the foe.

Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 10:1-18

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all....
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