Sunday, January 22, 2017

Sun Jan 22nd Todays News

The choices we make reveal who we are better than the face we present. Obama left the US divided, and it is his 'children' who are rioting and damaging public and private buildings. Joined with Hamas supporters. So how does one respond to the choice of one who attended the inauguration of Trump to the Presidency to capture a moment where VP Mike Pence appears to decline to shake the hands of Obama, Hillary and Biden? I know Mike Pence well enough to know he does not behave undiplomatically or wantonly. So what is the video showing, and why does it exist? And why is it given airtime by people who seem to tacitly approve of riots in favour of a terrorist organisation? What precious snowflakes have the left become? When Obama was first President, senior conservative identities backed Obama, saying the democratic process needed to be followed and the office respected. The reason why the US voted as she did was because of the bad behaviour we see of the leadership of the left. If you don't wan't conservative you get Trudeau, Hollande, Chavez, Dutterte, Castro, Obama and Soros. 
=== from 2016 ===
Sometime this year there will be an election and it is worth considering the opposing treasurers. Scott Morrison (LIB) and Chris Bowen (ALP). IPA describe them as being level pegging, but that assumes neither has history. Morrison was effective in restoring border protection which has saved the lives of many and put compassion back into the now cheaper migration process. Then Morrison improved services for welfare. Then Morrison took on treasury and began a plan to restore the bleeding budget. By way of contrast Bowen has lost many tens of billions of dollars in his short time as treasurer. In 2009 I saw Bowen corruptly face a public high school prior to a state election (no Liberal invited) and speak to an entire school, lying about his up bringing so as to inspire the children, who instead got a lesson in name dropping Harry Kewell. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility 
=== from 2015 ===
On this day in 1879, two battles of the Anglo Zulu war took place in which a small British force faced off against a much larger Zulu one. At Isandlwana, a British force of 1800 well equipped but badly led troops were attacked by some 15000 Zulus with spears and shields. Lord Chelmsford had failed to provide a defensive position for his camp, but halved his force while searching for the Zulu. Even so, the Martini-henry rifles should have been sufficient defence. But come the day, the Zulu surprise attacked successfully. A small British scout unit had spotted them just before the engagement. Chelmsford's deployment in defence seems to have been too dispersed to be effective. Also, the supply of ammunition was intermittent. The regulars carried 70 bullets each, but clearly in the heavy fighting needed more. Some were reduced to using their bayonets. A few officers died taking the colours to safety. Chelmsford survived. Over 1500 British troops died. An estimated 2000 Zulu died. It was the first British loss to a technologically inferior force. 

At Rorke's Drift, the trading post was defended by 150 British against some 3000 Zulu. The British force created a defensive perimeter involving mealie bags, stone, wood fencing with holes for firing rifles. The fighting extended through the night, but come the dawn, the Zulu had moved on. Two battles fought on the same day with two different outcomes. 

Born in 1903, George Metesky would serve in the US Defence forces following WW1. He was trained as a specialist electrician and, after leaving the armed services worked for Consolidated Edison at Hell Gate generating plant. A boiler backfire in 1931, knocked Metesky down and fumes filled his lungs. The accident disabled him and he was given 26 weeks pay, then dismissed. After he became very sick with Pneumonia and then TB, he applied for worker's compensation and was turned down as timed out. He became bitter towards his former employers, and so began building bombs like the antagonist in Speed. After planting 33 bombs over two decades, killing 15, Metesky was traced and arrested on this day in 1957. He was declared insane, and did not go to trial. Committed to an institution, he was released in '73. Still bitter and angry, he died aged 90, free, in '94. 
From 2014
Today is the anniversary of US GOP politician R. Budd Dwyer committing suicide in front of media cameras. Many still exploit the footage, including Moore in his Bowling for Columbine. The likelihood Dwyer was set up on trumped up charges that left him facing 55 years jail has caused some public soul searching by the media. One media person present even claimed to suffer depression following. Imagine how the press would have pursued Dwyer had he been a Democrat. Some might have the hide to say it would have made no difference. But to those people, I point to reporting on Global Warming and Al Gore. Then look back at Dwyer and at the accusation made against Dwyer. The number of people dying worldwide from deprivation caused by Gore's campaign against reason is not known, but is undoubtedly large. A $trillion could make a large difference to the world's poorest. Maybe Gore isn't responsible for their deaths? Maybe Dwyer was innocent .. the difference is the reporting. 

The difference in reporting for "Charles Terror" Turney is apparent. ABC lauded him as a professor of climate change off to measure the effect prior to his failed voyage. But after, with his apparent failure, his journey has become a tourism issue. Should watchers of the ABC have been paying close attention, as Japanese soldiers isolated from their command did at the end of WW2, they would not know what the failure of Turney means to the belief in Global Warming. 

Shorten has been caught lying, and he has been convicted by the court of public opinion. He still has supporters in the press, but there is nothing he can do. There is no hope. I point to the example of Dwyer. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 613, eight-month-old Constantine was crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople. 1506, the first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrived at the Vatican. 1517, the Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeated the Mamluk Sultanate and captured present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya. 1521, emperor Charles V opened the Diet of Worms 1555, the Ava Kingdom fell to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now present-day Burma. 1689, the Convention Parliament convened to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones when he fled to France in 1688.

In 1824, the Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast. 1849, Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ended after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrendered. 1863, the January Uprising broke out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement was to regain Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia. 1877, Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman was taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices. 1879, Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Isandlwana – Zulu troops decisively defeated British troops. Also 1879, Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift – 139 British soldiers successfully defended their garrison against an onslaught by three to four thousand Zulu warriors. 1889, Columbia Phonograph was formed in Washington, D.C. 1890, he United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio. 1899, leaders of six Australian colonies met in Melbourne to discuss confederation.

In 1901, Edward VII was proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. 1905, Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution. 1906, SS Valenciaran aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130. 1915, over 600 people were killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunged off the tracks into a deep canyon. 1917, World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States called for "peace without victory" in Europe. 1919, Act Zluky was signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic. 1924, Ramsay MacDonaldbecame the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1927, Teddy Wakelam gave the first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

In 1941, World War II: British and Commonwealth troops captured Tobruk from Italian forcesduring Operation Compass. 1944, World War II: The Allies commenced Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio, Italy. 1946, in Iran, Qazi Muhammad declared the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chuwarchira Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He was the new president and Hadschi Baba Scheich was the prime minister. Also 1946, creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. 1947, KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, began operation in Hollywood, California.

In 1957, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula. Also 1957, the New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, was arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and was charged with planting more than 30 bombs. 1959, Knox Mine disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine near Pittston, Pennsylvania in Port Griffith; 12 miners were killed. 1962, the Organization of American States suspended Cuba's membership. 1963, the Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and Germany was signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer. 1968, Apollo 5 lifted off carrying the first Lunar module into space. Also 1968, Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnambegan installation. 1969, a gunman attempted to assassinate Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

In 1970, the Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", entered commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport. 1971, the Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, was issued. 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered its decisions in Roe v. Wadeand Doe v. Bolton, legalising elective abortion in all fifty states. Also 1973, the crew of Apollo 17 addressed a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission. Also 1973, a chartered Boeing 707 exploded in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176. 1984, the Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularise the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial. 1987, Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shot and killed himself during a televised press conference, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism. 1987, Philippine security forces opened fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañan Palace, Manila, killing 13.

In 1990, Robert Tappan Morris was convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm. 1991, Gulf War: Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people died of heart attacks. 1992, rebel forces occupied Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation. Also 1992, Space Shuttle program: Dr. Roberta Bondar became the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space 1995, Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid massacre – In central Israel, near Netanya, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blew themselves up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis. 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India. 2002, Kmart became the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 2006, Evo Morales was inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president. 2007, at least 88 people were killed when two car bombs exploded in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq.
=== 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 Cigdem Korkmazer. Born on the same day, across the years, as
January 22: Reunion Day in Ukraine (1919)
SS Valencia
Your orders are followed. You decide how they flee. Valencia oranges are sweet. Kurds still look for a state. Who lost in Roe vs Wade? Let's party. 
Deaths
===
Piers Akerman

Donald’s lessons could make NSW great again

ABOUT two hours before dawn on the East Coast Australian time, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the US, sending a ­dramatic signal that the world has changed, Piers Akerman writes.
PIERS AKERMAN 21 Jan
===
Tim Blair



MELBOURNE BAIL FAIL

Martin Place murderer Man Monis was out on bail when he began his deadly Sydney siege. Alleged Melbourne murderer Dimitrious Gargasoulas was also out on bail.
22 Jan  91 comments

MASKED BELTER

Richard Spencer, not the most agreeable fellow, is nevertheless undeserving of extreme leftist debating tactics.
22 Jan  45 comments

AN INCONSEQUENTIAL SEQUEL

You don’t often see a sequel to an end of the world movie. By definition, such a sequel is kind of redundant.
22 Jan
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CLEAR SKY

Tim Blair – Friday, January 22, 2016 (4:23pm)

I’m back on Sky News tonight with Melbourne’s ravishing Rita Panahi, Sydney’s sensational Sharri Markson and … Adelaide man Chris Kenny. Tune in at 8pm for an hour of gentle conversation and occasional thoughtful pauses.
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LIST OF SHAME

Tim Blair – Friday, January 22, 2016 (2:23pm)

A regional government in Germany has released a list of shame revealing the full extent of crimes committed in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, from pickpocketing to gang rape: 
In the list, sexual offences are recorded 359 times, and 659 women are recorded as having been victims. 
But, as Jane Caro would remind us, hundreds more were not. 
In a statement to parliament today, NRW interior minister Ralf Jäger revealed although there were 1,049 victims, the police had only identified 30 suspects. All of the suspects are “North Africans”, 15 are officially asylum seekers — meaning they have not yet had their paperwork for indefinite leave to remain stamped by the German government — and two are under the age of 18.
So far, just two suspects are behind bars, 26 and 22 year old Algerians who were arrested and found to have stolen mobile phones from their victims ... 
They’re also accused of sexual offences. Click for the full list.
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NOBODY SAW THIS COMING

Tim Blair – Friday, January 22, 2016 (2:09pm)

You wouldn’t believe it, but apparently old-timey socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is full of himself, pious, self-righteous, utterly humourless, has no social skills, is quick to boil over, rude, occasionally downright hostile, unable to practice what he preaches and exudes a contempt for those he derides, including his staff.
And that’s according to his fellow leftoids. Meanwhile:

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LEFTISTS ATTACK ABC, ENDANGER THEMSELVES

Tim Blair – Friday, January 22, 2016 (12:07am)

Those investigative geniuses at New Matilda believe they’ve found a smoking gun in the saga of Nick Ross, a former ABC technology editor who left the broadcaster amid claims he’d been silenced over his coverage of the Coalition’s NBN plans.
And they have found a smoking gun – mainly because such a weapon is difficult to ignore when it’s pointed squarely at your own feet. In attempting to reveal ABC capitulation to the Coalition, New Matilda publisher and editor Chris Graham, contributing editor Wendy Bacon, journalist Thom Mitchell and columnist Ben Eltham have instead exposed Ross and their own publication to potentially massive legal danger.
Ignore, for the moment, the abysmal, cliché-clouded writing ("fierce debate”, “explosive revelations") in the four authors’ lamentable piece. Ignore, too, the piece’s fantastic structural problems, which merely begin with the fact that its first paragraph should be its last. Ignore the missing captions, poor line editing and inexplicable shifts in tense. And ignore as well the weakness of the piece’s central claim, which amounts to Ross being told that his anti-Coalition campaign might look a little less obsessive if he were to write a piece critical of Labor’s NBN policies.
Ignore all of that, and focus on these remarkable elements of New Matilda‘s piece: 
The explosive revelations are contained in a series of secretly-made recording of a meeting between Nick Ross, the ABC’s former Games and Technology Editor, and Bruce Belsham, the Head of ABC’s Current Affairs division.
On May 28, 2013, Ross recorded a meeting with Belsham in which the two discussed an unpublished article Ross had written about the Liberal Party’s NBN policy …
In the tape, obtained by New Matilda … 
By “obtained”, they mean “Nick Ross gave it to us.” 
New Matilda contacted Bruce Belsham this afternoon seeking comment for this story. Mr Belsham initially emphatically denied all of the imputations put to him by New Matilda based on the audio recordings, dismissing them as “fanciful”.
He warned that the allegations were “on thin ice”. When New Matilda informed Mr Belsham that the allegations being put to him had been recorded on tape, Mr Belsham replied: “I don’t believe you.” 
Belsham’s disbelief is understandable, given that he’d just heard New Matilda confess that they and Nick Ross had broken a law allowing for jail terms of up to five years. The Surveillance Devices Act (2007) makes very clear that  it is illegal in NSW to record a private conversation. The only possible out for Ross and New Matilda is a clause permitting recording if it is deemed “reasonably necessary for the protection of the lawful interests of that principal party”. Did Ross require that protection? Judging from New Matilda‘s report, he did not: 
Nick Ross was never disciplined by the ABC in the course of his employment, nor did he ever face accusations from ABC management that his reporting was biased. 
New Matilda claims to be currently “preparing the complete transcript of the Ross-Belsham meeting for publication … We’ll aim to publish the lengthy transcript before Sunday evening.” Aim away, guys. But be aware that you may be looking at a year or so at least of serious and expensive conversations with lawyers, and beyond that a possible period of contemplation in an establishment for the reckless.
UPDATE. An immediate guilty plea from New Matilda: 
its a clear breach of surveillance devices act. We decided public interest was more important. 
These people aren’t very bright.
===

TRIBAL BATS

Tim Blair – Thursday, January 22, 2015 (1:26pm)

Fairfax frightbat Clementine Ford demonstrates her usual attention to detail: 
For those unfamiliar with The Sun, it’s a collection of coloured paper that’s stapled together … 
No, it isn’t. Elsewhere in Fairfax’s Lady Pages, racism vigilante Ruby Hamad – who previously argued that black is white – identifies “seven words you didn’t know were racist”: 
For as long as we’ve had language, it seems, we have used it solidify our connections to those within our own tribe and to perpetuate our contempt for those outside of it. 
Among Hamad’s phrases of racist shame is “sold down the river”: 
The origin of this common phrase, which today refers to being betrayed, is so literal it hurts. In pre-civil war United States, slaves from the northern states would be “sold down the (Mississippi or Ohio) river” to the Southern plantations where conditions were infinitely worse. 
By “northern states”, Hamad presumably means northernmost states within the south (there’s that famous frightbat attention to detail again). More importantly, how does “sold down the river” qualify as a term that perpetuates our contempt for those outside “our own tribe”? If anything, someone saying today that they have been sold down the river is identifying with those who were betrayed by slave traders in centuries past. The meaning may have moved from literal to metaphorical, but otherwise seems to have shifted very little; any negative connotations remain with the seller rather than the sold.
===

BRITISH ERASING GREENS

Tim Blair – Thursday, January 22, 2015 (10:43am)

British Greens are even crazier than Australian Greens: 
We will work to create a world of global inter-responsibility in which the concept of a ‘British national’ is irrelevant and outdated. 
That’s the least of it. Read on. Of course, both Australian and British Greens ultimately share the same vision.
(Via Simon G. and Ian) 
===

OUT FOR A GULL

Tim Blair – Thursday, January 22, 2015 (10:20am)

I warned people about the danger of modern cricket bats, but they didn’t listen. They just didn’t listen!
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BURNED BOATIES BELIEVED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (1:31pm)

Fairfax last week interviewed an asylum seeker who confirmed the practice of deliberately sinking boats as a ruse to obtain aid from the Australian Navy: 
“We were very happy because we thought when the boat went into the water, then they must receive us,” Qadir told Fairfax.
“All of the people on board already knew of other vessels which had been returned to Indonesia, so were determined to be rescued rather than escorted back. One passenger took a piece of wood and prised open the hole that was already in the hull. Others rocked the boat.” 
In that case, one of those on board was a 20-month-old baby. Now the ABC is promoting claims from other asylum seekers who say they were tortured by navy personnel: 
ABC News has obtained video footage of asylum seekers receiving medical assessments of burns that Indonesian police say were inflicted by the Australian Navy.
Indonesian police say they had to get treatment for 10 asylum seekers, seven of whom had severe burns on their hands after they were picked up in Indonesian waters on January 6 …
The video and the version of events given by the police seems to back up the claims of mistreatmentmade by the asylum seekers when they first spoke to the ABC a fortnight ago. 
Really? How, exactly? All we have here is some burned hands. There is no evidence at all as to the cause, apart from the word of Somali boat passenger Merke Abdullah Ahmed: 
“They physically harmed us. Some of the passengers onboard, they tried to complain and speak about just their problems. They just punched [them] ... and, you know, fall down on the ground,” he said. 
Yeah, right. And then they somehow found the time to grab seven asylum seekers and hold their hands on a hot engine for long enough to cause burns. The logistics of this alleged torture – how did navy personnel avoid being burned themselves? – seems problematic. The navy now responds to the ABC’s libel: 
Far from burning the hands of asylum seekers, Australian Navy sailors actually provided first aid to asylum seekers whose hands were burned as they attempted to sabotage their own boat.
Navy chief Vice-Admiral Griggs will take to Twitter later today to deny allegations by Indonesian police and asylum seekers that his sailors had tortured them by burning their hands and bashing them. 
The ABC is cynical about our navy and blindly trusting of asylum seekers. The ABC hasn’t been paying attention.
UPDATE. Note how Fairfax frames this story: 
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told 6PR radio on Wednesday that it was “a pretty poor effort” for the ABC to report the asylum seekers’ claims of receiving burns because of treatment by the Australian navy.
Despite video footage of the asylum seekers showing their burns, Mr Morrison said the claims were “unfounded, unsubstantiated, outrageous allegations against our navy and our customs and border protection service”. 
The “despite” implies that the footage is actual evidence of navy torture. It isn’t.
===

PLEASE DON’T LOOK AT MY FABULOUS DRESS

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:46am)

Carbon Cate Blanchett happily poses at Milan’s fashion week last September:



Fairfax’s ladypages now rejoice in Blanchett’s feminist defiance of male objectification: 
Walking the red carpet at the SAG awards, the actress was stopped by the E! camera crew in her floor-length Givenchy gown. And just as the cameraman does the usual slow and uncomfortable sweeping shot of Cate’s outfit from her feet up, that’s when the magic happened.
Instead of ignoring the objectifying gaze of the camera, Blanchett interupts the interview to ask the crew “Do you do that to guys?” 
Maybe they would, Cate, if the guys were wearing floor-length Givenchy gowns.
(Via CL)
UPDATE. Cate imitates the Onion.
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SEND THEM ALL TO DETROIT

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:44am)

A literal example of rent seeking from Australia’s creative community.
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HEROINE TO ZEROINE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:32am)

Julia Gillard’s 2012 misogyny speech in parliament has recorded 2,527,886 hits at a rate of 5367 per day.
Julia Gillard’s 2014 “Ah, well, ah, it, you know, it’s, ah, not, not for me, ah, to, ah, you know, determine how, ah, countries and individuals determine these issues” speech in Dubai has recorded 2777 hits at a rate of just 462 per day, and you can bet that very few of those are from the sisterhood. They don’t want to know that Gillard is soft on sexism when she’s overseas – and that her 2012 speech is now confirmed as an act of political opportunism rather than sincere belief.
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GENERATIONAL CHANGE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:21am)

1979: More than six million Australians were working.
2014: More than five million Australians are on welfare.
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PEOPLE DECIDE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:11am)

“I want to work with youth, inspire youth. I want to work with my people. And who knows? I might even run for prime minister,” declares Anthony Mundine. “If I was prime minister, the way I would run it, any issue they want to talk about I would just do a poll. I’d just do a poll to the people and let the people decide. I mean that’s the rule: a leader [should] do what the people want.”
Very well, Anthony. Here’s a poll for you, then:

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RACIST FINGERNAILS

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:07am)

Shame at the Blair house, where a certain female resident exhibits terrible nail nationalism in preparation for Australia Day:



(Full disclosure: I’m an investor in the vodka brand displayed above. Drink reshponshibly.) 
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TWITTER JOB HARVEST CONTINUES

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (3:37am)

Add one more to Twitter’s list of doom.
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LIZZIE SLAPPED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (3:35am)

Even ABC oldtimer Mark Colvin is now mocking Elizabeth Farrelly: 
Rapidly losing the power of coherent thought in the heat. Declining fast. Soon expect to be eligible to write an SMH column. 
Back off, Colvin. This is my turf.
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SPIRIT OF 1948

Tim Blair – Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (3:30am)

This is hypnotic:

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Warmists cut Turney adrfit. And don’t mention he’s a professor of climate change, either

Andrew Bolt January 22 2014 (4:45pm)

Sydney Morning Herald reporter Nicky Phillips is a warmist whose past reports on the Ship of Fools, which got stuck in Antarctic ice, failed to mention those on board had actually claimed to be studying global warming.
Today she and co-reporter Colin Cosier play the same trick again.
They have written a long report essentially blaming expedition leader Chris Turney for the expensive disaster, but once again fail to note the people trapped in ice were warmists out to prove man was melting it.
Phillips and Cosier fail to even report Turney’s academic title – Professor of Climate Change – or that he is an adjunct at the University of New South Wales’ Climate Change Research Centre. What makes this omission even stranger is that the Climate Change Research Centre, home of prominent climate alarmists such as professors Andy Pitman, Matthew England and Steve Sherwood, is listed as an official supporter of the expedition.

Get the impression that warmists are trying to distance themselves from this propaganda disaster, that has had sceptics around the world laughing?

I’ve already noted that sceptic Steve McIntyre has identified December 23 as the day when the expedition’s biggest blunders were made.

Phillips and Cosier, who were on the Aurora Australis which picked up Turney’s team nearly three weeks ago, now add more damning detail on that day – detail that tends to make Turney the fall-guy. Their report is based largely on interviews with members of Turney’s team - “most of whom wished to remain anonymous” and on an official report filed by the voyage’s logistics leader, Greg Mortimer.

Chris Turney and co-leader Chris Fogwill “declined to comment on specific questions regarding events on December 23”. The last fortnight hugger-mugger on the Aurora Australis must have been tense.
But here is some of Phillips and Cosier’s report on the day Turney and his team decided to land them and some of their paying passengers on Antarctica, on Hodgeman Islands:
At about 10am, after the Captain had struggled to park the ship in the fast ice, three Argos were loaded into the water and towed to the ice edge with an inflatable boat, a Zodiac. But one Argo, with caterpillar tracks instead of wheels, was flooded during the tow. The group lost an hour and a half as staff retrieved the drowned vehicle, which was now useless. They were left with two quad bikes, which could ferry one driver and one passenger, and two Argos, which could carry five or six people.

Mortimer’s report said: “We discussed the impact of losing 1.5hrs in dealing with the 3 Argo and felt that we had a sufficient time window to complete the operation. 
“Decision taken that pax [passengers] would move quickly to Hodgeman Islands and either return immediately or return on next rotation of transport ie approximately 45 minutes later.” he wrote…
At 12.30pm the first rotation of passengers set off for the Hodgeman Islands…
Each driver and staff member had a VHF radio. Both Turney and Fogwill carried satellite phones.
At 2.30pm when Mortimer saw the fuzz on the horizon [showing an approaching storm] and the captain warned of sea ice moving in behind the ship, the voyage leader [Mortimer] used the ship’s VHF radio to tell those with handheld VHF radios to move people back to the ship.
People at the Islands would later report they did not hear the message on their handhelds, which have a range of about five nautical miles.
Calls to both the satellite phones, which have a global range, went unanswered. There were 15 people at the islands including six staff, either drivers or field leaders.
At 3pm an Argo carrying four people returned to the ice edge.
A passenger, who was standing near Turney when Mortimer called the leader from the ship’s VHF radio, recalled their conversation: “Chris, [captain] Igor has just said we need to expedite people back from the islands so we can get out of here,” said Mortimer.
Turney, standing on the ice edge, repeated the message to confirm he had heard right.
“Affirmative,” said Mortimer.
“If I take this lot out, how long can we stay?” Turney said.
Mortimer repeated that everybody needed to get back to the ship.
The passenger was stunned by the conversation, even more so when, a few minutes later, Turney loaded an Argo with six passengers and drove off towards the Islands…
[At 3.58pm] a quad bike and an Argo arrived with another load of people, who were transferred to the ship via Zodiac.
“The anger on Greg’s face when we arrived back was noticeable,” said one passenger.
An hour and a half later and the final four on the ice, which included Turney, pulled up in the second Argo. Footage on a passenger’s Go Pro digital camera read 5.35pm. 
UPDATE
And the cost of all this? 
ANTARCTIC expeditioners rescued by an Australian icebreaker have apologised for an operation that could cost taxpayers up to $2.4 million… 
Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) director Dr Tony Fleming said costs were still being determined but could range from $1.8 million to $2.4 million…
Costs associated with delays to scientific programs, including a major study of ocean acidification scheduled for next year, were harder to pin down, Dr Fleming said. “The government will be pursuing all avenues to recover costs and minimise the burden to the Australian taxpayer,” he said.
The AAD is now in discussions with the insurers of the ship and the expedition organisers, the University of NSW. 
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He’s back!

Andrew Bolt January 22 2014 (10:12am)

Three weeks after being rescued from a ship beset by ice, Chris Turney and his band of 51 warmists are finally dropped off on dry land. And still Turney is protesting it’s warm:
The ABC once promoted Turney’s Ship of Fools as a serious scientific expedition to investigate global warming and missing ice. When Turney’s ship got stuck in ice that’s actually at near-record levels, the ABC’s reports suddenly stopped mentioning “climate change” and “global warming”. So I with some eagerness wait for the ABC to make good this promise, made in November as Turney sailed off to Antarctica:
MARGOT O’NEILL: The expedition sails south tomorrow on a mission to revive the spirit of one of Australia’s greatest scientific explorations for a new generation grappling with climate change.   Lateline will broadcast an update early next year.
What’s your tip? Will Lateline ...
1. Forget the whole sorry embarrassment?
2. Report on the expedition but not explore the irony of warmist scientists being trapped by ice?
3. Report on the expedition but point out that sea ice around Antarctica is actually historically very high, warming has stalled for 16 years, and Turney’s team seemed ill-prepared, ill-advised and not terribly serious, leaving other Antarctic researchers spitting chips at the damage done to their own work by having to rescue them.
UPDATE
The ABC is already up to its usual tricks to protect the warmist cause from embarrassment.
Before Turney’s crew got stuck in ice they were climate scientists investigating climate change:
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: A modern-day scientist adventurer is about to undertake one of the largest Australian science expeditions to the Antarctic. Professor Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales and an 85-person team will spend two months trying to answer questions about how climate change in the frozen continent might already be shifting weather patterns in Australia… 
MARGOT O’NEILL [reporter]: The research stakes are high. Antarctica is one of the great engines driving the world’s oceans, winds and weather, especially in Australia. But there’s ominous signs of climate change…
CHRIS TURNEY, CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH CENTRE, UNSW: So we’ve got a really good team and hopefully they won’t go psycho on us. (laughs)… MARGOT O’NEILL: Professor Turney and his co-leader Dr Chris Fogwell are selecting PhD students for the expedition to help record thousands of measurements, assessing signs of climate change on the frozen continent… The expedition sails south tomorrow on a mission to revive the spirit of one of Australia’s greatest scientific explorations for a new generation grappling withclimate change. 
Today, though, the ABC insists they are just passengers and no mention at all is made of “climate change” or “global warming”: 
Passengers from a Russian research ship stuck in thick sea ice in Antarctica for more than a week have arrived in Hobart. 
Australia’s supply ship Aurora Australis has docked with 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy which became stuck on Christmas Eve. The passengers will spend the next few hours clearing quarantine.
Quite shameful. What else does the ABC hide? 
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The system is more crook than the workers

Andrew Bolt January 22 2014 (10:09am)

Peter Martin notes an astonishing obvious problem:
At last, the Coalition has acknowledged what Labor would not - that having Newstart and the disability pension indexed at different rates is unsustainable. 
Once similar, there is now a $250 per fortnight gap between the two rates. Newstart is worth a maximum of $501 per fortnight, the disability pension $751… Is it any wonder that unemployed Australians on Newstart getting $35.80 per day try to get themselves classified as disabled in order to bring home $53 per day?
And is it any wonder that we now have 821,000 Australians of working age officially deemed too sick, injured or incapacitated to ever hold a job? 
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Attention local warmists: it is called “global” warming

Andrew Bolt January 22 2014 (8:44am)

Global warming - propaganda

A heat wave in Australia was treated by the usual suspects as evidence of world-wide warming. Here is Time, hyping our “horrifying heatwave” last week:
Beyond the discomforts and inconveniences of Australia’s latest extreme weather event is the promise that vast swathes of bushland – and the homes, towns and farms of the people who live there – will go up in flames… Heatwaves are the most significant medical emergency in Australia’s southeast… 
All this hot air begs a question: is global warming at fault?… Things could heat up much more in Australia’s southeast unless significant reductions in the emissions of heat-trapping gases take place in the immediate future. “If the trend in global warming continues, we’re going to see average global temperatures increasing by 4°C to 5°C by the turn of the century,” says Dr Sarah Perkins, a research fellow at the University of New South Wales currently working with the Climate Council on a heatwave report.
But elsewhere on the planet the problem is extreme cold. Take Sweden last weekend:
Residents living in far northern Sweden woke up to a temperature of -41.2 C on Sunday as the harsh winter continues to bite across the rest of the country… The recorded temperature of -41.2 was a record for that region which is right on the Finnish border.
Take the US two weeks ago:
Frigid air clamped down on much of the U.S., giving Chicago a morning temperature lower than the South Pole and breaking records across the countryamid disruptions to road, rail and air transport. Chicago, which yesterday reached a new low for the date of minus 16 (minus 27 Celsius), hovered at 3 degrees at 4:51 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service. It was 9 degrees in New York, where temperatures earlier broke a record for Jan. 7 set in 1896, the agency said.
So how do warmists explain away the freezing cold on a planet they insist is warming? Well, here is Time’s effort - blaming global warming for making people colder:
But not only does the cold spell not disprove climate change, it may well be that global warming could be making the occasional bout of extreme cold weather in the U.S. even more likely. Right now much of the U.S. is in the grip of a polar vortex, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a whirlwind of extremely cold, extremely dense air that forms near the poles. Usually the fast winds in the vortex—which can top 100 mph (161 k/h)—keep that cold air locked up in the Arctic. But when the winds weaken, the vortex can begin to wobble like a drunk on his fourth martini, and the Arctic air can escape and spill southward, bringing Arctic weather with it… 
What does that have to do with climate change? Sea ice is vanishing from the Arctic thanks to climate change, which leaves behind dark open ocean water, which absorbs more of the heat from the sun than reflective ice. That in turn is helping to cause the Arctic to warm faster than the rest of the planet, almost twice the global average… Some scientists theorize that as that temperature difference narrows, it may weaken the jet stream, which in turns makes it more likely that cold Arctic air will escape the polar vortex and flow southward.
Several scientists have quickly dismissed the excuse:
“Polar vortices have been around forever. They have almost nothing to do with more CO2 in the atmosphere,” [Princeton University Physicist Dr. Will] Happer said ...
Funnier, though, is that Time used the same polar vortex excuse in 1974 to promote panic about global cooling.
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Essential Poll puts Abbott ahead, and his enemies promote his success

Andrew Bolt January 22 2014 (8:26am)

Essential Poll: Coalition 51, Labor 49.
Interestingly, the poll suggests that after months of campaigning by the ABC and Fairfax media against the Abbott Government’s boat policies, most Labor voters still think those policies are actually too soft or just right.
This is a particularly good result for the Abbott Government because the more the ABC and Fairfax campaign against those policies - as the ABC’s AM did yet again this morning - the more Abbott’s virtues are broadcast even to those not inclined to vote for him.
Here is an example of my political maxim that you can count on your enemies to broadcast your virtues more than you can count on your friends.
UPDATE
More campaigning against Abbott plays in his favor: 
After the Abbott government announced on Friday that navy and customs vessels carrying out border protection operations had strayed into Indonesian territory, ... Indonesia vowed to boost naval patrols to its south, including with an extra frigate, and insisted on its ‘’right to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity’’.
But experts and Defence sources have said the close military-to-military ties mean any escalation - of the kind predicted by former prime minister Kevin Rudd last year under an Abbott government’s boat turn-back policy - is highly unlikely. A greater Indonesian navy presence in the seas south of Java would actually increase their responsibility for patrolling for asylum-seeker vessels heading off from their territory, a Defence source said.
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Shameless Shorten should stick to the facts

Andrew Bolt January 22 2014 (8:07am)

Shameless Shorten:
Bill Shorten, 2UE, after winning the ballot to be Opposition Leader: 
I HAVE said in a number of forums both during the leadership ballot, and indeed since, we won’t be a mindlessly negative opposition.
Bill Shorten, The Age online, yesterday: 
AGED pensioners spend their whole life working and paying tax. The pension is not a reward for growing old, it’s not a holiday in the sun and no one should be talking on either side of politics saying that the only answer we’ve got for Australia’s future is that somehow the aged pensioners have got to pay for Tony Abbott’s broken promises.
The Australian, yesterday: 
EVEN though the Age Pension accounted for much of the welfare rise, Mr Andrews ruled out any changes.
He’s got form. Bill Shorten, December 12, 2013: 
THE other mob have been in power for three months and have managed to create a set of circumstances that now, all of a sudden, we are looking at the demise of the car industry in Australia.
General Motors’ Asia-Pacific boss Stefan Jacoby, January 15: 
I INITIATED this decision (Holden pulling out of Australia), being the leader of those markets, and the decision was driven purely by business rationale . . . we’re business-driven. We have our own agenda and we are not pushed by anybody to make that decision.
And. of course, there is Shorten’s scaremongering on global warming: 
So the heatwave is under way, some people are in distress so I’m not going to make political points on a scorching hot day in parts of Australia, but what I do know is that the Abbott Government is full of climate change sceptics, they don’t want to do anything about climate change, and whilst they’re in Government we’re not going to see any improvements in policies on climate change.
In fact, as even the warmist Nature journal now concedes:
Average global temperatures hit a record high in 1998 — and then the warming stalled. For several years, scientists wrote off the stall as noise in the climate system: the natural variations in the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere that drive warm or cool spells around the globe. But the pause has persisted, sparking a minor crisis of confidence in the field. Although there have been jumps and dips, average atmospheric temperatures have risen little since 1998, in seeming defiance of projections of climate models and the ever-increasing emissions of greenhouse gases:
Shorten is raising scare after scare, in defiance of the facts and the science. It is shameless, but much of the media refuses to call him out on this. 
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Attacking the police for the problems imported by our politicians

Andrew Bolt January 21 2014 (7:21pm)

The Age notes an attempt to remove what we’re invited to believe is institutional racism against African youths among our police:
The colleagues of police charged with producing a racist stubby holder are among the first officers being given updated cultural training designed to stamp out racial profiling. 
The community encounters program, which has been mandatory for police recruits since 2009, is now being expanded to train existing officers as part of Victoria Police’s push to weed racism from the force…
During one of the first sessions, held at the Visy Cares Hub in Sunshine last week, some police officers came face to face with members of the African community they had previously spoken to while on the job, including some charged with criminal offences....
Two sergeants, including one from Sunshine, who had both been in the force for at least 20 years, said they were not interested in race because they ‘’only locked up the bad guys’’. Another officer said she ‘’completely disagreed’’ that Brimbank police had a problem with racism.
If you are wondering why some police on the course have arced up, note one of the African youths presented to them as a victim and guide:
James Makur, during his session with the sergeants, said he wanted to be spoken to respectfully when he passed police in the street. Mr Makur, a Sudanese-born 23-year-old who spent eight years in a refugee camp before arriving in Melbourne as a teenager, has been in trouble with police. He pleaded guilty to a vicious assault in 2011 and admitted during the training to having had problems with alcohol, but now wants to study to become a youth worker.
Makur’s assault was indeed vicious:
Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that three men attacked two others in Braybrook in the early morning of April 26. 
The court was told that one man was armed with a machete and a teenager was armed with a metal pole while James Makur carried a beer bottle…
Mr Livitsanos said the victims were followed by the trio and about seven other unknown African males who were armed with weapons that included golf clubs, machetes and baseball bats.
Makur assaulted one man by punching him and then smashed the beer bottle over his head, while a co accused struck another victim with a machete. Makur also hit a car with a baseball bat.
The Age report suggests Makur had since turned a new leaf. Well, that may be so, but has he yet earned the right to lecture police about their “racism”?
There is actually a very good reason for police to be suspicious of African youths, and not just because crime rates among African immigrants is much higher than the community average.
Indeed, Victoria’s Supreme Court put it well last week in discussing applications from four offenders, one another Sudanese refugee:
120 Mr Mawn is aged 21 years and 7 months. He has been on remand at the Melbourne Assessment Prison since 4 December 2013… The applicant left his home in South Sudan in 2002. He spent time in a refugee camp in Egypt before coming to Australia as a refugee in 2005. He lives with his mother, two brothers and five sisters in the family home. The applicant also has the support of his father, although he does not live with the rest of the family. The applicant has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and struggles with alcohol abuse. He also has limited formal education and speaks barely-functional English.
Already you may well wonder. Did our politicians and immigration officials wonder how a then teenager with those disabilities might struggle to fit in here?
Sure enough, he didn’t:
123 The applicant has been charged with one count of robbery, two counts of intentionally causing injury, two counts of recklessly causing injury, three counts of assault, one count of assault with intent to rob and one count of stealing…
124 The charges arise out of two separate incidents occurring in Sunshine on 4 December 2013. The applicant was severely affected by alcohol during both incidents. The first occurred during the late afternoon outside the Brimbank Library in Sunshine. The applicant and a co-accused approached the victim and allegedly demanded cigarettes from him. The victim insisted that he did not smoke. While the victim was not looking, the applicant punched him in the head. The victim fell to the ground where the applicant stomped on his head. The victim tried to get up but the applicant kicked him in the head a further three times, knocking him unconscious… Whilst the victim was on the ground, the applicant rummaged through his pockets and removed a wallet and a mobile phone. The applicant and co-accused then left the scene.... 125 A short time after the first incident police were patrolling the area looking for the applicant. They observed the applicant and two co-accused punching a man to the head outside 240 Hampshire Road, Sunshine. They had allegedly asked the victim for cigarettes and money. The applicant then ‘patted’ the victim’s rear trouser pocket, looking for the victim’s wallet. When the victim pushed the applicant’s hands away, the applicant punched him in the head and kicked him in the stomach. 
Those were not his first assaults:
127 At the time of his alleged offending the applicant was, and still is, subject to a 18-month community corrections order. That order was imposed by a magistrate in May 2013 after the applicant was found guilty of charges similar to those he is facing now.
Here is the relevant part of the judge’s findings - advanced in this instance to explain why he’s being lenient in granting bail:
The applicant’s offending is related to his refugee background, social circumstances and alcohol dependence. As a young refugee with very limited education and English language skills, he is highly vulnerable. On the evidence, he is confronting the challenges of his past and immigration to Australia. 
But let’s turn this around. If a Sudanese refugee’s background is “related” to his offending and he is “highly vulnerable” to crime because of his “very limited education and English language skills”, why was he allowed in? Didn’t bringing him into Australia make him an unacceptable risk to Australian citizens, several of whom have now paid for that decision by being bashed and terrorised?
Is our refugee program fair to Australians? And is it fair to police to hector them about racism when they have to deal with the consequences?
(Thanks to reader Ed.) 
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The real drought the ABC should address is of balance in reporting another warming scare

Andrew Bolt January 21 2014 (5:23pm)

The ABC naturally teamed with local warmists to exploit the recent heat and fires. And, again naturally, not a single sceptic was involved in the making of this report:
Global warming could double the frequency of catastrophic events linked to extreme El Niños, say scientists. 
The findings mean not just a rise in the number of devastating droughts and fires in Australia and Indonesia… Under the El Niño weather pattern, the ocean in the eastern Pacific heats up more than normal, bringing more rain to that area and less rain to the western Pacific…
To investigate how extreme El Niños would respond to a warming planet in the future, [Dr Wenju Cai, of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research] and colleagues aggregated 20 different climate models…
The researchers then compared the historical period 1891-1990 with the period 1991-2090 and found an increase in extreme El Niño events. “The model is simulating an extreme El Niño event 1 per 20 years from 1891-1990 on average,” says Cai. “But from 1991 to 2090 the model simulates a doubling of the frequency of extreme El Niño events.”
Note first of all that the past frequency of El Ninos is compared with predicted frequencies to give the scientists their claim that we will get twice as many of them. But there is one rather substantial problem with this approach. So far there has been no increase at all in the number of El Nino events over the past century, despite all that supposed man-made warming.
As Bob Tisdale notes:
However, Ray & Giese (2012) Historical changes in El Niño and La Niña characteristics in an ocean reanalysis found that El Niño events had not become stronger, or lasted longer, or occurred more often (among other things) since 1871. And manmade greenhouse gases are said to have caused global warming during that time period. The Ray & Giese (2012) abstract ends: 
Overall, there is no evidence that there are changes in the strength, frequency, duration, location or direction of propagation of El Niño and La Niña anomalies caused by global warming during the period from 1871 to 2008.
So one wonders how climate models could simulate a future change in ENSO when there have been no changes in almost 140 years.
Reader Steve adds:
Much is made in the ABC, New Scientist and Uni of NSW propaganda about the 1982 and 1998 El Ninos as being super El Ninos, and that the frequency of these have been increasing. 
“Finally, synthesizing existing ENSO reconstructions to arrive at a better estimate of past ENSO variance changes, we find robust evidence that the ENSO variance for any 30 yr period during the interval 1590–1880 was considerably lower than that observed during 1979–2009.”
As usual, when you look deeper, you find reality is a little different.
The following graph of the Southern Oscillation Index from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) show that clearly more severe El Ninos (on or below -3) occurred before 1950:  in 1882, 1888, 1900, 1905, and 1925, at a rate of one every nine years (not the 20 the CSIRO paper suggests).
There was a 50 year pause in super El Nino frequency (on or below -3) until 1982, the next one occurring in 2003 and they have returned at a slightly slower rate of every 10 years.
Note that even the so called super El Nino of 1998 went below -3.  According to the Index, the 1941 El Nino was similar to 1998. 
Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) – 1882 to Present
Note: negative values represent El Nino, and positive values represent La Nina.
I don’t know about you, Andrew, but I don’t see any increasing severity in El Ninos over the historical record.
Alarm bells went off as soon as I read the following: 
“But despite ENSO’s massive influence, until recently there was no consensus on whether climate change would affect it. The problem is that climate models disagree on whether Pacific temperatures will fluctuate more in the future. 
To resolve this problem, Wenju Cai of the CSIRO in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues took a different tack. They defined extreme El Niños according to their impacts on weather, rather than the changes in sea surface temperature. 
Defining an extreme El Niño as one with a massive reorganisation of rainfall, where the usually dry regions in South America experience a tenfold increase in rain, they found that climate models do agree after all. The models suggest that extreme El Niños should now be happening twice as often: about once every decade since 1990 and continuing until 2090. In the previous 100 years it was once every 20 years.”
In other words; the models weren’t showing the result they wanted, so they changed the definitions until they did.
They went on to say:
“At any rate ENSO seems to be changing. Last year researchers reconstructed how ENSO altered since 1590, and found the cycle was more intense between 1979 and 2009 than at any earlier time (Climate of the Past, doi.org/q28).
Cherry picking again … they point to an increase in El Nino activity since 1979, but ignore the more active period 1880 to 1950 when temperatures and CO2 concentrations were lower. 
Even noted warmist Kevin Trenberth isn’t impressed by the Cai paper promoted by the ABC:
The core of Cai’s results, that more super El Ninos are likely, was disputed by Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National [Center] for Atmospheric Research.
He said some of the models used in the study overestimate the past number of El Nino events by a wide margin and do a poor job of representing them and their impacts.
“This seriously undermines the confidence that the models do an adequate job in ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) simulations and so why should we trust their future projections?” he said in an email. Trenberth also said that some long-range climate models also fail to adequately simulate other natural climate patterns that influence El Nino let alone how they might also shift in a warming world.
Why didn’t the ABC also present some of the arguments against the Cai paper? Why did it run only with the most alarmist take?
This happens so often and so consistently that it is beyond mere error and leaves the ABC’s audience seriously misled. 
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When we think of control, we often think of someone limiting another's freedom, but that is only one way of control. Control is also displayed when someone tells you how to think or what to think. This is often subtle and sometimes not obvious without discernment and experience. Flattery diverts our attention and often focuses it on other things, thus directing one in other ways. Anger and disapproval have similar effects when someone responds from them after something happens or is shared, and they might not have done so in calm and peaceful situations. Respectful engagement between people will find less need to control them and more reason to enjoy them.
I gained control of myself, when I submitted to God. - ed
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“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” - Galatians 6:7-8
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

January 21: Morning
"And so all Israel shall be saved." - Romans 11:26
Then Moses sang at the Red Sea, it was his joy to know that all Israel were safe. Not a drop of spray fell from that solid wall until the last of God's Israel had safely planted his foot on the other side the flood. That done, immediately the floods dissolved into their proper place again, but not till then. Part of that song was, "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed." In the last time, when the elect shall sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb, it shall be the boast of Jesus, "Of all whom thou hast given me, I have lost none." In heaven there shall not be a vacant throne.

"For all the chosen race
Shall meet around the throne,
Shall bless the conduct of his grace,
And make his glories known."

As many as God hath chosen, as many as Christ hath redeemed, as many as the Spirit hath called, as many as believe in Jesus, shall safely cross the dividing sea. We are not all safely landed yet:

"Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now."

The vanguard of the army has already reached the shore. We are marching through the depths; we are at this day following hard after our Leader into the heart of the sea. Let us be of good cheer: the rear-guard shall soon be where the vanguard already is; the last of the chosen ones shall soon have crossed the sea, and then shall be heard the song of triumph, when all are secure. But oh! if one were absent--oh! if one of his chosen family should be cast away--it would make an everlasting discord in the song of the redeemed, and cut the strings of the harps of paradise, so that music could never be extorted from them.
Evening
"He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst?" - Judges 15:18
Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to be delivered from a thousand Philistines! but when the thirst was upon him, Samson felt that little present difficulty more weighty than the great past difficulty out of which he had so specially been delivered. It is very usual for God's people, when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines, and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water! Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel, and overcomes Omnipotence itself, and then goes "halting on his thigh!" Strange that there must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds. Samson boasted right loudly when he said, "I have slain a thousand men." His boastful throat soon grew hoarse with thirst, and he betook himself to prayer. God has many ways of humbling his people. Dear child of God, if after great mercy you are laid very low, your case is not an unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of Israel, he said, "I am this day weak, though anointed king." You must expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest triumph. If God has wrought for you great deliverances in the past, your present difficulty is only like Samson's thirst, and the Lord will not let you faint, nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to triumph over you. The road of sorrow is the road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing water all along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with Samson's words, and rest assured that God will deliver you ere long.
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Ehud
[Ē'hŭd] - strong or union.
1. The son of Bilhan, great-grandson of Benjamin (1 Chron. 7:10; 1 Chron. 8:6).
2. The son of Gera, the second judge of Israel (Judg. 3:15-26; Judg. 4:1).
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Greetings from Bible Gateway! We hope your year is off to a good start. We've got two exciting new items to announce, so without further ado, let's get to the news.

Girlfriends in God: everyday insight for women

Looking for some Biblical inspiration and insight to brighten your day? We're thrilled to announce a new email devotional at Bible Gateway:Girlfriends in God ! Girlfriends in God is a weekday devotional that aims to build up women in their everyday Christian walk. You can sign up at our Newsletters page, or by clicking "Manage Subscriptions" at the very bottom of this email and selecting the Girlfriends in God checkbox.

The Girlfriends in God devotional ministry is built on their belief that just as God sent Ruth to Naomi and Mary to Elizabeth, God continues to use women to encourage and equip other women in their spiritual journey. Each devotional contains a Scripture passage, a short reflection and prayer, and several thought-provoking questions that encourage you to apply the teachings of Scripture to your own unique circumstances. We're very excited to add it to our library of email newsletters and devotionals.

The devotional begins on Monday, January 24, so sign up now!

NLT Verse of the Day now available

Our Verse of the Day email is now available in the New Living Translation (NLT)!

As with the Girlfriends in God devotional, you can sign up for the NLT Verse of the Day at our Newsletters page or by clicking "Manage Subscriptions" below. If you currently subscribe to one of our other Verse of the Day emails and want to switch to the NLT version, just select or unselect the appropriate checkboxes.

Since we launched our Verse of the Day email last year, we've received many requests to make it available in different Bible versions. It's currently available in the NIV, KJV, and the Spanish Nueva Versión Internacional; and the new NLT Verse of the Day email newsletter adds another popular and highly readable Bible version to the mix.

That's all the news for today! We hope you'll enjoy these two new resources--don't hesitate to let us know what you think, or to tell us what other email resources you'd like to see in the future.

Sincerely,

The Bible Gateway team
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Today's reading: Exodus 1-3, Matthew 14:1-21 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Exodus 1-3


The Israelites Oppressed

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country...."

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 14:1-21

John the Baptist Beheaded
1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2 and he said to his attendants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him."
3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful for you to have her." 5Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.
6 On Herod's birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist." 9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted 10 and had John beheaded in the prison. 11His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus....

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