Thursday, December 29, 2016

Thu Dec 29th Todays News

The December IPA Review is out and Evan Mulholland wrote “Uber Markets” about the Ray Fishman and Tim Sullivan book “The Inner Lives of Markets.” There is a marketing revolution happening online. It means a shift in purchasing behaviour that will change infrastructure needs and cost burdens. It means that nineteenth century hangovers, like unions, need to change to remain relevant. Unions tend to impede business profits and prevent members from prospering. Without unions in the unregulated landscape, people can profit. Including workers. With union membership shrinking Paul Keating gifted unions Superannuation control with industry superannuation. The result has been even non members of unions have all their details available to union leaderships, and their savings is controlled and managed by unions who have no oversight regarding operations. The existence of slush funds should send a chill through regulating authorities, but they don’t exist. And won’t until ALP get elected after Turnbull remains as Liberal Party leader. While unions make business trading costs higher than elsewhere in the modern world, the new businesses can outperform them. Markets exist because people use them. Markets will disappear if people don’t use them. And badly run cities like Sydney (not Melbourne) will struggle to prosper if they don’t change. Australia needs Work Choices, and the new markets are delivering.

The sadness of the death of Debbie Reynolds (84) a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher (60) is testimony to love. There is loss and sadness at the passing of each. Reynolds’ life was full and rich. The ending tragically sad. It isn’t natural for a parent to out survive their children. Not the way we are conditioned to be. A parent dying is a tragedy, but an ordinary tragedy. In the west, baby boomers may experience more of this grief as their children are sacrificed for the pleasure of their parent’s excesses. Carrie’s life was unfinished. Probably related to drugs, Carrie struggled with sobriety. But Carrie forged a career as brilliant and deserving of accolades. The industry tried to chew her up and spit her out, but she was more than that bikini. Carrie did not enjoy fan adoration. Carrie could be caustic with idiot interviewers who looked to take her for granted. Together, some sixty five golden years have come to an end when more could have been expected. I thank them for the joy they gave.
=== from 2015 ===
In the early nineteenth century the United states was held together in a fragile state. Northern states were industrially oriented and Southern states relied on slave labour for their farms. Only the North out populated the South and the only thing that kept the fractured and divided union from splitting was a senate division based on state numbers. Exactly the same number of non slave states entered the union as slave states. Turnbull's administration is similarly held together. It has been known for a long time Mal Brough would have to step aside. Brough likes Turnbull. Meanwhile an Abbott supporter, minister Jamie Briggs is stepping aside after a Hong Kong dinner which sounds like Rudd at Scores .. no one remembers what happened, but someone is apologising to their wife. Turnbull is losing the back bench. Soon there will be a compromise. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
In defence of Bill de Blasio. Some have said that de Blasio caused the deaths of two policemen murdered by a crazed gunman eager to give 'pigs wings' in response to a death de Blasio commented on. de Blasio had as much control over the crazed gunman as he had of his own tongue or surface thoughts. The crazed gunman may have seized on de Blasio's thought bubble that blamed NYC police for the death of a man resisting arrest. Of course the guy did not have to resist arrest. And after wrestling with many police, it is understandable that nobody tried to get close to him while he was unconscious  But many others have commented on the death too, and why would anyone care what the New York Mayor thought? He is only the first Democrat Mayor since 1993. Back then, NYC was a basket case that was generally accepted as unfixable. And it was, while ever a Democrat is mayor. 

CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo considers the possible fate of missing Air Asia flight QZ8501: 
“At this point, given it was extremely bad weather, the chances of this being some sort of terrorist activity are very small because most terrorist activities take place in good weather.” 
Australian terrorists fighting for ISIL remain stable in number, not character, as the number killed in fighting roughly matches the number of new arrivals. 

Missing plane automatic locator beacon failed. Maybe no one paid for the option on their tickets?
From 2013
The left answer good argument with abuse. Miranda Devine illustrates this with detail in her column. But there are examples that extend further and appear closer. When Gillard gave thanks to the Rudd government she killed, she listed achievements, but failed to mention Rudd's ones. I didn't feel that any of them were worthy of the description of 'achievement' but .. Gillard's behaviour was small and petty and intrinsically abusive. I was reminded of this when I was invited to list my business activity on a FB chat page, and the page's owner listed all the businesses but my mine in their thank you. Petty, and typically left wing. Also the anti semitic comments some post in answer to pro Israeli comments. I would be more open to them if they were substantive. But typically, the most substantive that abusers get is to refer to UN complaints on events that did not happen or misrepresent situations. I similarly don't like the anti Islamic sentiment. I appreciate the nature of the terrorism pervasive in terrorist culture and the assertions of Islamo fascists that they are Islamic, which Islamic authorities rarely deny. But, it is stupid to enlarge the enemy - that is what terrorists want. There are decent Islamic peoples .. I know a few (no need to name them). Argument through abuse won't be rewarded by me. 

Australia has improved in the business outlook since Abbott was elected PM. I'm told by numerous merchants that business is .. busier. Part of that could be the weaker dollar. Mr Abbott has much work to do to change things. A $5 copayment for medicare is being discussed. Naturally, opposition to it is strong and vocal. It wouldn't be the only cost of having had six years of a federal ALP government. In NSW, it is the first time since '72 that we have had a conservative government federally and statewide. The last time that happened, the long delayed Opera House was built and Snowy Mountain scheme completed. I want them to be as ambitious. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently became a saint and martyr in the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church. 1427, army of Ming dynasty started withdrawing from Hanoi, putting an end to the domination of Đại Việt. 1508, Portuguese forces under the command of Francisco de Almeida attacked Khambhat at the Battle of Dabul. 1778, American Revolutionary War: 3,000 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant ColonelArchibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia. 1786, French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables was convened. 

In 1812, the USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle. 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States. 1845, in accordance with International Boundary delimitation, United States annexed the Republic of Texas, following the manifest destiny doctrine. The Republic of Texas, which had been independent since the Texas Revolution of 1836, was thereupon admitted as the 28th U.S. state. 1851, the first American YMCA opened in Boston, Massachusetts. 1860, the first British seagoing ironclad warship, HMS Warrior was launched. 1876, the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster occurred, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio. 1890, Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment.

In 1911,  Mongolia gained independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia. Also 1911, Sun Yat-sen became the provisional President of the Republic of China; he formally took office on January 1, 1912. 1914, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, was serialized in The Egoist. 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduced the two-nation theory and outlined a vision for the creation of Pakistan. 1934, Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930. 1937, the Irish Free State was replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution. 1939, first flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

1940, World War II: In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombed London, England, UK, killing almost 200 civilians. 1949, KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule. 1959, physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", which is regarded as the birth of nanotechnology. Also 1959, the Lisbon Metro began operation. 1972, an Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashed on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101. 1975, a bomb exploded at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 74.

In 1989, riots broke-out after Hong Kong decided to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees. 1992, Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tried to resign amidst corruption charges, but was then impeached. 1996, Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity signed a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war. 1997, Hong Kong began to kill all the nation's 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain. 1998, leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologised for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over one million lives. 2001, a fire at the Mesa Redonda shopping center in Lima, Peru, killed at least 291. 2003, the last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct. 2006, UK settled its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt. 2012, a Tupolev Tu-204 airliner crashed in a ditch between the airport fence and the M3 highway after overshooting a runway at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, killing five people and leaving three others critically injured. 2013, a suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd killed at least 18 people and wounded 40 others.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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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 to all those born on this day, across the years
Sun Yat-sen
We have a treaty. We have a Basketball. We are elect. We are Irish. We sidestep .. and we party. 
Deaths
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Tim Blair

THURSDAY NOTICEBOARD

Today’s noticeboard is brought to you by Bill Leak and his man in a red cap.
29 Dec  

GEAR HERE

“Photo or it didn't happen,” demanded reader Brendan after I reported Warren Mundine’s serendipitous invention of Australia’s new national costume.
29 Dec  

RED’S RECIPES

In 1974, Cleve “Red” Ketcham – then employed by the US Forest Service – produced an instructional guide on cocktail construction that subsequently found its way into the US National Archives.
29 Dec
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Miranda Devine

What’s the reward for saving lives? A pay cut

Lives were saved by our security forces after they averted a terrorist massacre in Melbourne, writes Miranda Devine. They should be rewarded, not punished.
RENDEZVIEW 28 Dec  131 comments

Pauline Hanson + Cory Bernardi = Perfect Storm

A combined Hanson-Bernardi movement would be the perfect storm, giving disaffected conservatives a home away from home, writes Miranda Devine.
RENDEZVIEW 27 Dec 
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YACHT RACISM

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 29, 2015 (3:04am)

It’s a Twitter racism crisis on the high seas: 
The Sydney to Hobart yacht race organisers have removed a tweet about competitor Indian straying “off the reservation”, after a barrage of responses labelling it racist.
The official race twitter account posted a photo of the yacht on Twitter yesterday with the caption: “This is what happens when you stray off the reservation — Indian battling 35+ knots and sea-sickening waves.”
It prompted a backlash from followers criticising the comment as “bad taste” and “culturally insensitive”. 
Twitter’s racism outrage police are off their game. Why weren’t they furious about a yacht named “Indian” in the first place?
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AN ANGRY NEW YEAR

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 29, 2015 (3:34am)

My friend and spiritual advisor Angry Anderson is playing the Harbord Bowlo on New Year’s Eve. Gentlemen and ladies of refined taste are invited to attend.
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TWO MEN AND A SIGN

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 29, 2015 (3:49am)

The ABC will promote any lame protest so long as it supports an ABC-endorsed cause. This is the lamest yet:



Those arboreal activists were later joined by a family of three, which still left the total number of protesters literally able to be counted on one hand. The ABC receives more than $1 billion of your taxes every single year.  
(Via Daniel L.)
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THEY LIKE THE SUN

Tim Blair – Monday, December 29, 2014 (12:45pm)

CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo considers the possible fate of missing Air Asia flight QZ8501: 
“At this point, given it was extremely bad weather, the chances of this being some sort of terrorist activity are very small because most terrorist activities take place in good weather.” 
===

DEAD’S ARMY

Tim Blair – Monday, December 29, 2014 (4:23am)

To a certain extent, Australia’s jihadist contribution to the Islamic State cause in Syria and Iraq is a self-solving problem. Our brave soldiers of Allah are evidently such incompetent warriors that they are being killed at almost the same rate as they arrive.
“The overall number of Australians currently fighting with or supporting Islamic extremist groups in Syria and Iraq has remained consistent over recent months,” ASIO deputy director-general Kerri Hartland told a Senate hearing earlier this month.
“However, this does not reflect a reduction in the number of Australian travellers. Instead it reflects the relatively high casualty rate for Australians, with the numbers of new arrivals roughly keeping pace with the fatalities.”

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'DEAD’S ARMY'
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MR MANNERS

Tim Blair – Monday, December 29, 2014 (3:39am)

Step aside, June Dally-Watkins. While your excellent advice on manners is always valuable, there are a few modern circumstances you don’t quite cover.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'MR MANNERS'
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Senator Bob Day
Conservatives acknowledge the achievements of previous generations. They are realists. They see what works and doesn’t work @SenatorBobDay
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Abbott must upset Left’s gravy train

Piers Akerman – Sunday, December 29, 2013 (8:45am)

ENJOY the last days of 2013 as the new year will be tough.
The Abbott government must address harsh realities and introduce long overdue ­reforms to stabilise the economy and restore optimism and certainty in the future.
Over six years of Labor misgovernment, the economy has haemorrhaged. The surplus left by the Howard-Costello team evaporated. Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd panicked when the GFC struck and overspent on mickey mouse programs with no long-term benefit and set the pace for skyrocketing national debt.
Pitifully, they tried to claim the nation was in great shape by using some of the worst international basket cases as comparisons. Telling their followers that Australia was better off than Greece or Portugal when those countries were on their knees was insulting.
Australia also has a cultural problem that has its roots in the handout mentality beloved of Labor and the trade union movement. The car manufacturing industry and its supplicants are a case in point.
After billions of dollars in subsidies, Australia faces the reality its signature carmaker Holden has been making cars Australians did not want to buy and were too expensive for the foreign market.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten and South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill say taxpayers should throw more money at the problem. Absolute hogwash. Throwing more money at the problem would have been adding to Labor’s waste and pandering to the featherbedding trade unions.
The Leftist commentators at the national broadcaster, all enjoying their own taxpayer-funded incomes, lapped up the ludicrous criticism of the newish conservative federal government unquestioningly.
For many years, it has been obvious Australia should play to its natural strengths and harness its considerable natural advantages. These are the vast mineral and energy reserves that should cushion the nation through the worst of times and prepare future generations for the best of times. It was heartening to see one of the brightest Australians, Andrew Liveris, the Darwin-born international president, chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemicals, singing from the same song sheet in The Australian on Friday.
“We must play to our strengths,” he wrote. “Manufacturing industry debate is about fitness for competition. Focus is critical.”
Liveris said today’s options for countries like Australia are in high-value, high-technology manufacturing; yet we expend huge amounts of effort on ­debates that simply are not relevant. He pointed out we cannot, for example, compete on wages, but we can compete on skills and energy and we do well on the first of those.
To compete and win, Liveris says we must have what sports coaches call an “X-factor” player on the team, something the others don’t have and can’t get and Australia’s “X-factor” is energy. But as far as new ­investments go, our primary sources of natural gas and electricity are now or will soon ­become negatives in any comparative calculation.
“Average prices of electricity have doubled in most states in recent years and the unprecedented contraction in consumption as the Grattan Institute has pointed out threatens a ‘death spiral’ in which falling consumption pushes up prices even further, causing further falls in consumption. This is a nightmare for industries with high electricity dependency,” he said.
“Equally troubling is the scandalous mismanagement of natural gas. This is a feedstock beyond its energy value that sustains highly valuable technology applications fundamental to global needs.”
The potential to expand our energy supply is only comparable with the US yet domestic prices are soaring. New investments based on Australian gas have already gone elsewhere in at least one case Liveris is aware, to the US. Existing users face a huge competitive handicap and, in some cases, doubts about available supply.
In less than a decade, the US has reversed its near-terminal manufacturing decline as new energy resources are tapped. The X-factor in the US turnaround in Liveris’ opinion is low-cost gas.
Unfortunately, the Australian mining industry has failed to articulate the argument for the need for aggressive expansion of the energy industry and particularly the gas industry; and the huge potential of ­Australia’s nuclear industry ­remains virtually untapped.
Merely by providing a safe repository for spent uranium which was originally mined here another multi-billion-dollar industry could be created in extremely short order. The vast and nonproductive environmental industry needs to start working cooperatively with miners to create wealth for the future and the union movement needs to understand that the gravy train has been derailed if we are going to beat the competition
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The Goodes the bad and the ugly from 2013

Miranda Devine – Saturday, December 28, 2013 (11:05pm)

This year ended as it began, with furious readers flaming my email inbox. “As usual your column turns my stomach,” wrote Marie about a column criticising Tony Abbott for appointing Natasha Stott Despoja as Ambassador for Women and Girls. “Natasha is worth 100 of you.”
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Antarctic ice blocks ice breaker sent to rescue climate researchers trapped in... ice
www.cfact.org
Will the dramatic spectacle of climate researchers trapped in Antarctic ice (which has expanded massively during 2013) help free the media of the false global warming ice narrative?
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
When I was a child I felt so alone, when I was a teenager I felt out of place, I rebelled and I still do to a certain extent, but now my rebellion is against things that are wrong and unjust, and towards people that try and bring me down to, who pretend they're superior..as I grew I felt I never quite fit in, always watching and observing..through my life I've experienced many things, both really good and really bad..its brought me to this point that I've not figured things out, but understand my experiences have brought me to a level I never thought existed..I'm thankful for the good experiences and even more grateful for the bad ones, for they've both brought me great knowledge and wisdom...and i know there's so much more to learn, and much more to experience, so even on the days that are challenging , I can find peace knowing its shaping me and giving me more so that I can give back in return..
You are a child of God. I thank you, when I was desperate, you offered me a home. I didn't need it, but I richly appreciated the offer. - ed
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Teen in Beirut bombing 'selfie' dies
www.news.com.au
A LEBANESE teenager seen posing for a group "selfie" in front of a bomb-laden car moments before it exploded in the capital Beirut has died of his injuries.

Syria may be self destructing, but She can still perform terrorist acts - ed
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A Prison that WORKS!

For those not familiar with Joe Arpio, he is the County Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. He keeps getting re-elected over and over again.

These are some of the reasons why:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the "tent city jail" to save Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex. Inmates sleep in tents!

He has jail meals down to 20 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but "G" movies. He says: "They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave."


He started chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city projects and save taxpayer's money. Men work in Pink "Clean and Sober" Shirts. Their underwear is also Pink!


Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only allows the Disney channel and the weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel, he replied: "So these morons will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."

He cut off coffee because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He also bought the Newt Gingrich lecture series on US history that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series that actually tells the truth for a change would be welcome and that it might even explain why 95% of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record for June 2nd 2009), the Associated Press reported: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed wire surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.


On the Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing pink boxer shorts were overheard chatting in the tents, where temperatures reached 128 degrees. “This is hell. It feels like we live in a furnace," said Ernesto Gonzales, an inmate for 2 years with 10 more to go. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, who makes his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. "Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves."

The same day he told all the inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: "It's between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents there too, and they have to walk all day in that sun, wearing full battle gear and getting shot at, and THEY have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

Sheriff Joe was just re-elected for the fourteenth time as Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona.
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Trouble flares on Israel-Lebanon border after rocket attack | Ya Libnan | World News Live from...
www.yalibnan.com
Ya Libnan features frequently updated breaking news, world news, op-eds and features, live from Beirut, Lebanon
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Shiloh Musings: Obama-Kerry Bully Tactics Against Israel
shilohmusings.blogspot.com
My musings, reflections on life here in Shiloh, Israel. Original, personal, spiritual and political. Peace, security and Israeli sovereignty. While not a "group blog," Shiloh Musings includes the voices of other Jews in The Land of Israel. **Copyright(C)BatyaMedad ** For permission to use these in p...
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Shavit's Distorted Vision vs. Jabotinsky's Clarity
calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.se
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What the Palestinians and Arabs Think of Kerry's New Ideas :: Gatestone Institute
www.gatestoneinstitute.org
The Palestinian Authority does not like U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's latest ideas for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians especially do not like Kerry's proposal that Israel maintain a military presence in the Jordan
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Non-settlement Israeli fruit exporter faces boycott pressure in Europe
www.timesofisrael.com
BDS activists protest at stores carrying fruit grown inside the Green Line, hold demonstrations at Mehadrin’s offices
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Chinese look to follow Israel’s example of quick success
israel21c.org
Growing partnerships abound in manufacturing, telecom, agriculture, biotech, alternative energy and even in academia and the arts.
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““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God."
Galatians 2:20

When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first of all said, "Live;" and this he did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its firstfruit. It is the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head.

"Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
In the economy of gospel types,
And symbols apposite--the Church's neck;
Identifying her in will and work
With him ascended?"
Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace, that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.

Evening

"I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword."
Matthew 10:34
The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of his objects to make none; but if to do the right, and to believe the true, should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he will count it but a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven will be yet more friendly, and reveal himself to him more graciously than ever. O ye who have taken up his cross, know ye not what your Master said? "I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Christ is the great Peacemaker; but before peace, he brings war. Where the light cometh, the darkness must retire. Where truth is, the lie must flee; or, if it abideth, there must be a stern conflict, for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the lie must be trodden under foot. If you follow Christ, you shall have all the dogs of the world yelping at your heels. If you would live so as to stand the test of the last tribunal, depend upon it the world will not speak well of you. He who has the friendship of the world is an enemy to God; but if you are true and faithful to the Most High, men will resent your unflinching fidelity, since it is a testimony against their iniquities. Fearless of all consequences, you must do the right. You will need the courage of a lion unhesitatingly to pursue a course which shall turn your best friend into your fiercest foe; but for the love of Jesus you must thus be courageous. For the truth's sake to hazard reputation and affection, is such a deed that to do it constantly you will need a degree of moral principle which only the Spirit of God can work in you; yet turn not your back like a coward, but play the man. Follow right manfully in your Master's steps, for he has traversed this rough way before you. Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment.
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Today's reading: Zechariah 5-8, Revelation 19 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Zechariah 5-8

The Flying Scroll
1 I looked again, and there before me was a flying scroll.
2 He asked me, “What do you see?”
I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”
3 And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. 4The LORD Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely, both its timbers and its stones.’”
The Woman in a Basket
5 Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.”
6 I asked, “What is it?”
He replied, “It is a basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land....”

Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 19

Threefold Hallelujah Over Babylon’s Fall
1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 And again they shouted:
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever....”
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Elimelech [Ĕlĭm'elĕch]—god is king.The husband of Naomi and father of Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem-judah (Ruth 1:2, 3; 2:1, 3;4:3-9; 1 Sam. 17:12).

The Man Whose Ways Contradicted His Name


It is one thing to have a good name, but a different matter altogether to have a life corresponding to that name. Elimelech’s name implies that God is King, an expressive name given him by godly parents when the nation followed the Lord. But Elimelech belied the name he bore, for had he truly believed that God was King, he would have stayed in Bethlehem in spite of the prevailing famine.

But one might argue that it was a wise thing to do to leave a famine-stricken land for another land where there was plenty of food for his family. Surely that was a journey any father would undertake to save his dear ones from starvation. But Elimelech was a Jew and as such had the promise, “In the days of famine ye shall be satisfied.” Had he firmly believed in the sovereignty of God, Elimelech would have remained in Bethlehem, knowing that need can never throttle God. Had he not declared that bread and water for His own would be sure? Alas, however, Elimelech did not live up to his wonderful name! In going down to Moab, he stepped out of the will of God, who had forbidden His people to have any association with the Moabites. In Moab, Elimelech and his two sons found graves. Yet such a wrong move was overruled by God, for as the result of it, Ruth the Moabitess returned to Bethlehem with Naomi, who was to become the ancestress of our blessed Lord.
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